Hey everybody! I'm so excited that I've gotten 16 reviews for this story, that's awesome. And you all seem to really like it. I especially appreciate those of you that took the time to write a lengthy description of your likes and dislikes. Those are really helpful in determining your reactions. I appreciate any form of criticism! I hope you like this chapter and PLEASE let me know in a review.

That being said, someone commented that they felt Rory and Jess might be moving too fast. I can understand where you're coming from, considering nothing actually happened on the show until like, five episodes later. But I wanted to explain my reasoning for the pace, since it is deliberate. First off, I didn't want them to kiss. I knew that from the start. That's why I ended with only the touch, not even mentioning the thought of kissing in either one. However, I wanted some kind of physical contact because I think that by this time in the series, Rory had some type of attraction towards Jess. Whether she was aware of it or not is debatable but it was there. I think Jess on the other hand did know it, which is why he liked to push her buttons so much. Also in the episode, Rory asks Paris to stay, showing that she was obviously uncomfortable at the prospect of being alone with Jess, leading me to wonder what she was afraid of happening if they were alone together. Also, Rory's thoughts when she's alone I felt were appropriate, because she is 16 (17 maybe?) after all, and honestly us ladies do have thoughts like that (at least me haha) and I didn't think she would be excluded. And lastly, the most obvious is for plot development. If they didn't touch, it would kind of slow the story down, so it just picks up the process. Anyway, thank you for listening to this enormous rant, and I very much appreciate the criticism!

I hope you enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own anything affiliated with Gilmore Girls.

Chapter 2:


"Fuck." Jess mutters as he quickly steps back. He runs a hand through his hair, continuously mumbling obscenities.

Rory looks at him, her eyes wide and mouth still slightly parted. There was another knock and her eyes got even wider.

"Someone's at the door." She quietly exclaims.

"Yeah, no shit Sherlock." He whispers, giving her an exasperated look.

"You shouldn't be here!"

"I think it's a little late for that, don't you?" He glares at her, his face forming into a harsh frown.

"Go, you have to go! Now!" She gestures wildly, pointing in all directions.

"Great plan. Hold on a sec. while I shimmy down the drainpipe." He rolls his eyes. "Where the hell do you expect me to go?"

"I don't care, wherever, just as long as no one can see you." She looks around with a worried expression. Suddenly she turns to him, clapping her hands. "My room! Yes, go to my room and shut the door. Don't come out until I say so."

"Fine." He huffs, but quickly walks around her couch and into her bedroom, quietly shutting the door.

Rory sighs, happy she had drawn the blinds during the movies, making it impossible for whoever was on the porch to see inside the house.

She looks around at all the mess and bites her bottom lip. That would be hard to explain. Maybe she can keep whoever it is outside.

One name is repeatedly popping into her mind and she's borderline panicking. Please, let it not be him…

When there are three more rapid knocks she quickly walks to the door, bracing for what's on the other side.

When she opens it she can almost hear the hallelujah choir as she breathes a sigh of relief. She lets her shoulders slacken as she says, "Hey Luke."

"Good, Rory, your home. I wasn't sure. I saw some lights on through the windows…" He trails off, awkwardly pointing to the side of the house with his thumb.

"Uh, yeah I'm home." She smiles a little, trying to relieve the tension. He stares at her, nodding for a moment, scratching the back of his head. "Did you…need something Luke?"

"Oh right, I was uh, just wondering if you'd seen Jess, by any chance?" He asks uncomfortably.

"J-Jess?" She stutters out, her palms feeling clammy against the doorframe.

"Yeah, he took off a couple of hours ago. He was supposed to help close up the diner tonight, little punk…" He mumbles discontentedly to himself.

Rory has to stop herself from grinning.

"I know you guys are…friends, or something. I've been all over town and I mean…I guess he likes you, so I figured I'd at least try here. I don't really know…if you guys…hang out much." He scratches his head again, looking uncomfortably at his shoes.

"Um…" She wasn't sure how to answer. Did Jess want him to know where he was? Obviously not, if he hadn't informed him beforehand. Or maybe he just didn't care either way. "Y…no. No, not for a while at least." She'd been tempted to say yes, but then thinking of this town and the way things circulated, she'd thought better of it. A little fib wouldn't hurt. "He stopped by earlier, to give me the care package, but he left soon after. So, not for a few hours." She stared past him, never very comfortable with lying.

"Care package? What are you talking about?" He asks confusedly.

"The one from the diner." She says slowly. "Since my mom was out of town?" She says in an almost question, watching as he becomes more and more confused.

"I have no idea what you're talking about. Could you just send him back if you do see him?"

She nods absentmindedly, her head now occupied with other thoughts. He thanks her with a wave and heads down the steps.

She turns slowly to face away from the door, a smile covering her face. Oh, things just got very interesting.

Walking to the kitchen she calls out, "So wanna know who that was? It was Luke, and let me just say Lucy, you got some splainin' to do." Her smile is overpowering, thinking of ways to make him squirm for the next three weeks.

"I'm pretty sure Luke didn't know anything about that food." When she opens her bedroom door the smile slips off her face as she looks around and sees an empty room. But she'd seen him go in here. She walks in, looking around her bed, as if she'd find him huddled on the floor for some bizarre reason. "Jess?" She looks behind her door, thinking that maybe he'd snuck behind it. Staring at nothing but her bathrobes she begins to get a little worried. "Come on, this isn't funny."

She sulks as she stands in front of her closet with her arms crossed over her chest. Where the hell could he be? Maybe he'd snuck out the window. But that's impossible, considering Luke would have seen him.

In her silent reverie, she doesn't notice the closet quietly creeping open. Suddenly a hand shoots out, pulling her off balance and causing her to tumble backwards. She lets out a screech but is quickly silenced by something rough and warm covering her mouth.

Now tangled in a pile of her own clothing, she looks up fearfully only to meet with a familiar pair of eyes, shining with amusement. Her blood boils as she rips his hand from her mouth.

"You are such a jerk!" She slaps a hand solidly against his chest, enunciating each word with a dig of her nails. As her near-heart attack panic subsides she notices for the first time their position. In his attempt to pull her in, Jess had fallen off his own feet, ending up sitting in the corner of the closet, his legs stretched out before him. Rory had tumbled backwards, falling onto his lap where she was currently sitting.

Her hand on his chest is bouncing with each shake of his laughter.

"You should have seen your face." He manages to breathe out as his laughter dies down to a quiet chuckling.

"I can't believe one person can be this annoying." She huffs out, attempting to smack him on the arm with her other hand, but he easily catches it, softly holding her wrist between his fingers.

"Call it a gift." He smirks at her, resting the back of his hand on top of her thigh, still holding her wrist. He leans his head back on the corner of the wall, shutting his eyes.

Looking down, she takes her hand from his chest and begins to pull pieces of clothing off them both. Once she'd pushed everything to the opposite corner, she slowly looks around. It was dark, the light from the lamp on her nightstand softly streaming into the doors. She looked over at him, watching his chest rise and fall. She smiled to think that he looked purely happy for once.

"God, I don't think I've ever had you laugh like that."

He snorts. "I don't think anyone has ever heard me laugh like that."

She turns her head away from him, shyly smiling into the opposite corner. She sighs softly while she leans her head back against the wall.

"What are you doing in here anyway?" She peeks at him from the corner of her eye.

"Closet monster in training." He deadpans. He can't help but smirk when he can practically feel her eyes narrowing in his direction. "I wasn't sure if whoever was on the porch would be coming into the house. Somehow I don't think I would have blended too well amongst Colonel Clucker and Raggedy Anne." He opens his eyes and gestures to the stuffed dolls at the foot of her bed.

"You leave the Colonel out of this." She grins.

As they both grow quiet she looks down and softly pulls her wrist out of his grasp, folding her hands in her lap. He pulls his hand off of her thigh and uses it to push against the floor of the closet, shifting his legs.

"Oh, I'm sorry." Rory says. She realizes she'd probably been sitting on his lap for about fifteen minutes, most likely making his legs fall asleep. She struggles to push herself off him in the cramped space but successfully manages to sprawl across the floor of her room.

She can hear his breath huff in one small chuckle and a moment later he's standing over her.

"Very graceful." He looks down at her in amusement.

"No fair. How did you manage to get out of there so quickly?"

"Years of practice." He states vaguely before offering her his hand.

She chooses not to think about his statement, which would probably lead her to some uncomfortable conclusions. She lets him easily pull her off the floor, thanking him when she's steadily on her own feet.

He nods his head in a sign of welcome before shoving his hands in his pockets. She's standing about two feet away, awkwardly scratching one arm.

"Right, so…" She trails off, a little uncomfortable just standing in her bedroom. She walks out into the kitchen, and she can hear his footsteps behind her.

Seeing the Luke's food on the table, she remembers her former mood and suddenly turns on him, her eyes dancing mischievously.

"What?" Jess asks, seeing her devilish expression.

"So Luke was at the door." She bites her lip with a smug grin.

"So I heard." He watches her, growing more cautious with each look she gives him.

"Yeah, we chatted a little." She bobs her head, her pleasure growing as she sees him fidget subtly, watching as he taps against the back of a chair.

"Well, we both know how much of a gossip hound Luke can be." He blinks, his face impassive.

"Exactly. So while we were gossiping, you know Whitney's failing career, Homeland Security, the utter suck-age that is Linkin Park, that sort of thing, I stumbled across some very interesting information."

He's vaguely reminded of the Cheshire cat as he watches a smile spread across her face. "I should really be getting back. I was supposed to close up tonight anyway." He turns from her and walks into the living room to grab his jacket, but she's hot on his heels.

"I mentioned this little care package, and funny things is, he seemed to have no idea what I was talking about." She stands in front of him when he reaches the front door, placing her hands on her hips. His irritated expression only adds to her satisfaction.

"I need to get back to work."

"You're squirming, I've never seen you squirm. It's entertaining." She shoots him a triumphant look.

"Oh yeah?" He asks sarcastically.

"Yeah." She states, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Glad you're enjoying it." He rolls his eyes.

"I am." She stares at him expectantly but he just returns her look blankly. She begins to laugh quietly. "Gosh, you're such a Debby Downer."

"I prefer Negative Nancy."

"Right, 'cause Nancy gets all the boys." She shrugs her shoulder in feigned understanding.

"Well, can't be dateless for winter formal." He sighs. "Is this going somewhere?"

"You're so uptight! I'm just joking, jeez." She pushes his shoulder playfully. "You know you could have just called or something if you wanted to hang out."

He scoffs. "Really?" He gives her an incredulous look. "I bet Andre would have a field day with that."

"Be nice." She shoots him an annoyed look. "Besides, it's not like he controls who I can and can't hang out with."

"Seemed pretty worried about getting me into your bedroom." After he says it, he can't help but smirk at the double meaning.

"That's nice." She says sarcastically, also recognizing the innuendo. "And that's only because-"

"Because you didn't want him to find me here." He cuts her off pointedly.

"I told him I was going to be alone tonight. Anyone being over, including you, is going against what I said." She huffs. "I didn't specifically say, 'Yeah, I'll make sure I'm not hanging out with Jess.'"

"So it doesn't matter that I'm here?" He arches an eyebrow at her.

"Of course it matters! I just told you that no one was supposed to be here." She throws up her hands with an exasperated sigh.

"What if I had been Lane? Somehow, I don't think you'd be quite this worked up." He looks at her knowingly.

"Yes I would." She says quietly, avoiding his eyes.

"That's bull Rory and we both know it." His voice rises a little. "If he had found Lane here, you would have just explained that she showed up unexpectedly and all would be right in Pleasantville."

"What do you want me to say Jess? Yes, okay! Yes, if he had found you here we probably would have fought or something, is that what you want to hear?" She clenches her fists.

"What makes me so different? We're just friends right?" He asks with a sneer, a taunting edge to his question.

"Of course." She looks up at him and watches his jaw clench. She's suddenly reminded of the way he'd touched her earlier, and the guilt comes in waves.

"Well if we're just friends," he spits the word like poison, "what does he have to worry about?"

She's quiet as she tries to form a response. She doesn't know what's going on. In all the commotion, she'd hardly had any time to reflect on what had been occurring before Luke showed up, and now that she does it's like drinking a scalding beverage. Building with anticipation as you can smell the aroma and lift it to your lips, but when the liquid reaches your mouth it shocks you back to reality, and all you can feel is the searing pain of the burn on your tongue.

"Why are you being so difficult?" She goes on the defensive, trying to force him to back down. "You know he doesn't like you Jess, and I'm pretty sure you're not too fond of him either."

"You didn't answer my question."

"You didn't answer mine." Her chin is lifted in indignation. She finally sighs in defeat, unable to break his hard exterior. "He doesn't have anything to worry about. We're friends, as we've both said. And we can hang out," she says firmly, "just because he doesn't like you doesn't mean I'm not going to be friends with you. But under these circumstances, the fact that I was supposed to be alone and you guys hate each other, it resulted in me panicking a little." She sighs while looking up, waiting for him to say something.

"And that's it?" He looks at her expectantly.

"Yes." She attempts to say it concretely, but it sounds unsure to her own ears. "About earlier…" she trails off, a blush rising in her cheeks as she fumbles with her hands.

He looks at the wall behind her and clears his throat. He knew this was coming.

"I'd appreciate it if you didn't mention that to anyone." The words sound silly, but she's struggling with what she really wants to say. Who the hell would he tell anyway?

He almost wants to laugh, but there's nothing humorous about this situation. "Okay." He tells her quietly with a nod of his head.

"We shouldn't have…" Again she's at a loss, still unaware of what actually happened. Replaying the moment in her head, her stomach clenches and for some god-awful reason she feels like crying. It's irrational and she feels disgusted with herself. Technically, they actually hadn't done anything, but for some reason she feels like it was everything. It's at least something she's not willing to tell anyone, especially not her mother. She sees Dean in her mind and it just makes her feel sicker.

"Rory, I get it." He tells her with a sigh. He's a little irked at the way she brushes it off so easily, but if she wants to forget then so can he. "Shit happens, right?" He tries to say casually, running a hand through his hair.

"Magic is as magic does." She mumbles into her chest. He grins momentarily.

"Don't you mean stupid is as stupid does?"

"Me and mom watched 'Aladdin' the other night." She explains with a shrug.

"Naturally." He nods. She smiles at him for a moment and they both visibly relax, glad some of the tension is dissipating.

Standing in the hallway, she glances at the clock and notices it's almost eight. "It's kind of late." She says, turning back to him.

"It's only eight Miss Daisy." He replies with a smirk.

She rolls her eyes playfully. "I told Luke I'd send you back if I found you."

"Found me?" He questions.

"I may have fibbed and said I hadn't seen you for a few hours." She grins.

"Look at you Clinton, in a few weeks we could have you up to Nixon." He chuckles when she attempts to scowl at him, but her smile gets in the way. "So did you find me?" He asks softly.

"I think I'm gonna let Clinton answer that one." He nods like he expected that answer.

"So what now?" He asks, once again removing his jacket and walking into the living room.

Rory smiles to herself as she watches him. "Apples to Apples?"

"Doesn't that need four people?" He asks raising his eyebrows at her when she walks after him.

"Really? Me and mom have really been playing it wrong then." She furrows her brow and sits on the couch.

"Movie?" He asks, sitting next to her.

"No, I'm kind of movie-d out. Blasphemy, I know. I just feel like something else though." She sighs and continues to think with a pensive expression on her face. "And I'm too tired to read. I would probably fall asleep if we tried." Suddenly her face brightens and she turns to him. "Hide and seek!"

"So you're too tired to read but not too tired to exert yourself by running around and trying to fit into cramped spaces?" He looks at her with a smirk.

"It's a different kind of tired. Like, emotionally tired. And concentrating on words right now is way too strenuous for my mind, but physically I've got all the strength in the world. Sign me up for the StrongMan Competition, that's the kind of strength we're talking here."

"You're a regular Arnold." He grins at her antics. "Who starts?"

"You hide, I'll seek." She excitedly gets up and runs to a corner of the room to start counting back from ten.

Half an hour later, Jess walks as quietly as possible through the house. He's removed his shoes and socks since they were making it too hard for him to stealthily sneak around without Rory hearing.

His head whips around when he hears a creak upstairs and he quickly ascends them, two at a time. He creeps down the hallway and hears a door softly shutting behind him. He turns back around and walks to the end of the hall where he pulls open the closet door to find Rory squished back against the towels and blankets. "Gotcha."

"Damn it Jess, could you at least pretend like you can't find me just once? How are you so good at this anyway?" When he's about to speak she cuts him off. "Years of practice right?" She glares at him.

"No, actually. You're loud as shit." He laughs when she chucks a towel at him, which he easily dodges.

"Go hide you jerk." She grumbles as she picks up the towel and throws it back into the closet.

So far they'd played ten rounds, Jess successfully finding Rory all five times after the first minute, her taking almost five minutes each round and sometimes giving up just so he would come out.

She turns around in the hall and begins to count loudly as she hears him descend the stairs. "Ten…nine…eight…" She can hear shuffling downstairs so she hurriedly mumbles, "seven, six, five, four, three, two, one." She'd never had much patience when it came to the whole counting part. "Ready or not hear I come!" She shouts down the hall. She hears a door open and close and grins before dashing down the steps as quickly as possible without tripping. As she rounds a corner she excitedly shouts, "I so have you this time!"

Her chase comes to an abrupt halt as she stares wide-eyed at the person standing in front of the entryway. "Hey…" She says breathlessly.


Thank you so much for reading! PLEASE REVIEW! And I'd really appreciate if you could tell me what you thought of my references and their interaction. I'm trying really hard to make them seem as natural and realistic as they were in the show. Any OOC-ness, please tell me!