A/N: And the votes are in! Sorry for taking so long to put this up, 2010 somehow began with a bang and there was a lot to do to prepare for both my job and my academic career *hrrmf*, but now it seems things are calming down. So, a majority of you wanted to see Rory choose to know why Jess looked at her. Your wish, my command and so forth, and so forth… Anyone sporting a sad-face over this decision, don't fret! I may at some point, when I don't have three other fics to update, write a complementary chapter where Rory chooses to learn why she can't enter the Headmaster's office. For that reason, I will not tell the great secret behind the door.

Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I, the author of this story, do not own any of the characters from Gilmore Girls. That honor belongs to the ever-so-lovely Amy Sherman-Palladino.

Part 2

"Wait, what do you mean I have to choose?" I asked, looking blankly at God.

"Exactly that. You have to choose. Jess not behaving as he should in your memory, or why you can't enter the Headmaster's office."

"Can't I have both? This is my heaven, after all. Shouldn't there be no limits to what I can do here?"

"Rory, these two things go beyond your corner of Heaven. This is a cosmic case of either-or, and as they say on earth: You can't have the cake and eat it too," God said, smiling at me.

"Well, that's just crap!" I pouted, crossing my arms. "How am I supposed to choose? I don't even know what will happen when I've picked one or the other. Why is it I can't have both? 'Cosmic either-or' doesn't say much."

I stared intently at God, who only gazed back at me ever so calmly. Of course. She couldn't tell me. Well, that, or she wouldn't tell me just to piss me off… This sucks.

"It's not like that, Rory," God protested, putting her hands on my shoulders, and I felt that tingling spark again. "My hands are tied, it's the result of me giving you free will. I can't give you any details about either option, because of the possibility that I could favor one option and thus influence you with certain pieces of information that would lead you to that option."

"You'd do that?" I asked God, sort of surprised.

"Well, no, not technically, but those are the rules. I should know, I wrote them."

"So, basically, I could go on speculating about all of this for eons, and you would neither confirm, nor deny my speculations?"

"Precisely."

I groaned loudly, and started pacing the corridor, back and forth. How was this even possible? Heaven should be fluffly clouds, and cute, crummy cherubs playing harps, and God should not look like Francie-freaking-Jarvis!

"I'm really sorry you were put in this situation, trust me, it's very rare that these things happen, but nevertheless they do. It's agonizing for me not to be able to say anything to make it easier…"

"Oh, you're sorry? I'm the one who have to pick! I have no idea what I'm chosing, and I have no idea what I will be missing out on by rejecting one of the options! I assume I can't call do-over if I regret my decision, so I will be stuck with whatever I pick… Wait…"

God cocked her eyebrows.

"That's sadly not an option," she answered me before I even got to say what I had in mind.

"Why not? Another cosmic hitch?"

"So to speak. You can't not choose, you need to confront either the memory or the office, or you will eventually get lost here."

"Get lost? Like… I'll turn a corner and not know where I am?" I said dubiously, doubting that I could ever get lost at Chilton. I had that map etched in my mind, even in death.

"You still think that everything is literal," God smirked. "No doubt will you find your way around this place, but you'll lose yourself. Your soul will slowly deteriorate until there's only a ghost, less than a ghost, left of you. Your well-being and very existence hangs on you picking either the memory or the office."

Great. So I'm basically dead if I don't make a decision. Damned if I do, damned if I don't. Lovely place, heaven, really, you should all try it. Wait, you will. Okay, don't be as messed up as I am.

"Right, so let's face facts here," I mumbled to myself, rubbing my temples.

The sooner I got this over with, the better. At least I hoped so.

"The office. Headmaster Charleston, new school, lots of new things, mom in cowboy boots, Bitty under the desk. Wow, no help at all. Jess. Lots of memories of Jess. Jess at the bridge after the bid-on-the-basket-auction. Jess and me in the sledge, talking about the snow woman. Jess at the Welcome to Stars Hollow-dinner. Jess nicking Howl."

Jess. Troublesome, bookish, badboy, magician Jess, who pulled a coin from my ear, where was he now? According to God, mom hadn't killed him yet, so that was good. I didn't even bother thinking about what it could mean that he had responded to my call in my memory of him. If there was even a remote chance that I would get to know that he was okay, I'd take it. One closed door was not the end of the world, and really, what would I do in the Headmaster's office anyway? I had already rang the bell, what more was there to that office?

God was apparantly up to speed on my train of thought, since she was smiling warmly at me and especially at my memory of my debacle with the Puffs.

"Hey, way to have my back there," I said accusingly.

"It happened as it was supposed to happen." God shrugged her shoulders, and in that moment, she really reminded me of Francie.

"Why did he look at me?" I instead asked, biting my lip.

The smile vanished from God's face immediately, and turned serious.

"Are you sure about this, Rory? Remember, no do-overs."

"I'm sure. What's…"

"…one closed door, I understand."

God turned around, and started walking away from me.

"You remember how I said your mom hadn't killed Jess for the accident?"

"Uh-huh…"

"Well, that's because she never got her hands on him," God replied, still moving away from me.

"What, he skipped out on the accident?" I asked. That wouldn't be like Jess. He may be a labeled badboy, but he wouldn't leave a car crash.

"No, he wouldn't."

No, he wouldn't… But there was a chance that he had left, just not in the way I was used to people leaving. The suspicion grew inside me, filling me up like a horrible illness.

"But he's okay, right?"

"Define okay."

Then I knew my suspicion was true. Jess had left Stars Hollow. Same destination as me.

"He's dead." It wasn't a question.

"The living would say you didn't have luck on your side that night, but it was meant to be this way."

"Where is he?" I demanded, fighting tears I didn't know I had.

"Oh, he's here. Like you said, you two had the same destination, from day one," God told me comfortingly, though she was still standing with her back to me.

Jess was dead. Gone. I wanted so badly to say it was my fault, but I couldn't. I had tried to get him to stay with me in the diner to study. On the other hand, I couldn't blame him either. I don't even remember what happened, and come on, it was Stars Hollow, what could possibly have happened?

"Fate happened."

Fate be damned. Jess and I were dead. Mom and Luke had lost us, and I could do nothing about it. Anger suddenly welled up in me, and I kicked the wall closest to me, stifling sobs as I kicked away all my sorrow.

"So that's why he looked at me? In the memory?"

"It's part of the reason. For you to be able to see him respond to your call, he had to be dead, but the true reason he looked att you when you called his name is that he was visiting the same memory at the same time you were. That one, I could not foresee. Heavenly kismet at its best, I guess."

"So, we sort of met while in between heaven and… what did you call it? Limbo?"

"Yes." God finally turned around to face me, her face once again smiling.

What was so funny or joyfully about this situation that she could smile? I just found out that the boy I… felt some sort of deeper kinship with had died with me.

"Why don't you turn around and look for yourself?" God suggested mysteriously, nodding towards something behind me.

I turned around, and in the seconds it took to turn around, I could feel Heaven shift, so when I finally faced the other way, I was not in Chilton anymore. At first I thought I by some miracle had survived and simply had suffered from terrible amnesia as a result, because I was back in Stars Hollow. But then I noticed the differences. First of all, it was broad daylight and not a single human being in sight. The streets should be bustling with people and noise at this time of day. Then there were the more subtle differences. The light was different, it was… otherwordly, softer and spiked with some strange sense of it being a dream.

"Rory?"

Someone called my name, and I instantly recognized the voice. Jess! I swiftly turned, and spotted him standing in the gazebo, sporting that damn leather jacket.

"Rory, is that you?" he called again, now sounding hesitant.

"Jess!" I called in answer, defying the most fundamental Gilmore rule: don't run.

I sped towards the gazebo, I needed to be close, to see he was okay (okay, so he was in Heaven, he couldn't be doing too bad…). This was how it should have played out when we were alive. Me getting off the bus from Hartford, spotting Jess in the gazebo. Me running over to him, and him welcoming me home with a crooked grin and a book in hand. Nevermind Dean and his futile attempt at reading my favorites, chaste pecks on the cheek, and floppy haired, smalltown perfection.

"Rory, what are you doing here?" Jess asked, when I slammed into him, hugging him as if there was no tomorrow (which, technically, there wasn't).

"God…" I huffed, holding him tight, grinning wildly when I felt Jess wrap his arms around me.

"God sent you? Wow, first time he did something good…" Jess muttered under his breath.

"He?"

Jess' God was a he?

"Yeah, he. It's so ridiculous… Have you been here too? Have we just wandered around town missing each other?"

"No, I… My heaven looks like Chilton, and God looks like one of the girls I went to school with. Oh, and so far, I've managed to almost kill myself, which prompted an intervention from three arch angels, who looked like three of the girls in my class who used to hate me."

"You almost killed yourself?" Jess asked, sounding amused. "You managed to almost die in Heaven?"

"Write your God and ask for details," I teased. "Wow, this is so unfair, I wanted Stars Hollow for my heaven…"

"Yeah, and I wanted Washington Park in New York."

"Hey, you never said what God looks like to you."

"Not like anything I'd ever voluntarily pick, that's for sure."

"Come on, it can't be that bad. Francie, that's the girl God looks like to me, tried to get me to join Chilton's only secret student society, so they dragged me out of bed in the middle of the night, herded us all to Chilton and made us ring a bell in the Headmaster's office. Yeah, we got busted for it, and I never heard another word about having to socialize more in school."

"Yeah, well… I punched God the first time I saw him," Jess admitted, squirming a bit.

"You what?! You punched God?"

"And I may have insulted him. Very, very badly."

"Jeez, who's your God? Taylor?"

"No."

"Kirk?"

"Nope."

"Then who?"

Jess was quiet for a second, and I was just about ready to jump him and force the answer out of him, when he again spoke:

"Dean."

Dean. God in Jess' heaven looked like Dean. That's just… so wrong.

"Dean?" I asked, not really believing him.

"What other person in this nutty place would I want to suckerpunch and have no problem insulting?" Jess retorted.

"Point taken…"

We smiled awkwardly, and began walking. Neither one of us knew what to say, so we walked around the townsquare, staring at our shoes and each other, though we tried not to get caught looking.

"So…" we both said, upon having circled the townsquare for the fifth time.

"You heard me," I simply stated.

"I thought I was dreaming, but you were there, like a copy of the Rory standing in front of me, but different."

"Death becomes me," I tried to joke.

"You looked so frail and just… dead," Jess continued.

"Yeah, that was the incident where I was unintentionally killing myself," I explained and blushed. Really, I had almost killed myself, in heaven. I deserved a freaking award for that fluke.

"Are you mad at me?"

"Mad?" I replied, shocked that he would make the assumption. "Why would I be mad?"

We sat down at the bench beside the bus stop, and Jess slumped down, hiding his face in his hands.

"Hey, I am not mad, Jess. Whatever reason you think I'd have to be mad at you, I'm not."

"I killed us!" he exclaimed, sounding angry and hurt. "Come on, Rory, we're dead, and I killed us!"

"You…" I began, but was immediately interrupted.

"I drove the car, Rory, you were my responsibility, and I messed up."

"I was not your responsibility, Jess!"

He only grunted in reply.

"Fine, if you wanna play that game, then I killed us, too."

"Bullshit," he spat, turning away from me.

"I was supposed to keep you at the diner, studying, and I came with you, voluntarily, so don't even try to play the guilt trip-card with me."

"But we're dead, Rory. You can't deny that. We're not going back."

"Don't you think I know that, genius? The point is, we died. Died! No one killed us. Not you, not me, no one else. What happened… happened."

I put my arms around him, and just held him. He felt so bad for this, for something that wasn't even his fault. He leaned into me, and for the longest moment, we just sat here, in an empty Heaven-version of Stars Hollow, and this time it was not awkward. There was nothing more to say. He knew I didn't hate him, I knew he was okay, in am 'I'm dead'-sort of way.

"So…" Jess said, after an eternity of silence. "What are the odds that you'd get to stay here?"

"Slim to none," I said honestly. "I don't belong here, it's not where I'm supposed to spend eternity and whatnot. School apparantly lasts a lifetime and beyond."

He smirked at this, and I smiled. He needed to ditch the sadface and just… be.

"Well, at least we got this," he commented.

I knew he meant this moment, and I nodded in answer. It was definitely worth passing up the mystery of the Headmaster's office, even though I still didn't know why I couldn't enter. Being "home", or as close to home as I could ever get, with Jess was what I needed. It was closure on my earthly life, and I could move on.

"It was all I could ever have wanted," I whispered to him.

"Rory?"

A lot can be said about God, but she doesn't have timing. Both me and Jess flinched at the sound of her voice… well, his, in Jess' case. We looked up, and I saw God, looking very out of place with the school uniform, waiting for me.

"It's time to go back," she simply said.

Jess glared at her. That must sting for him, having Dean take me from him, like so many times when we still were alive. I turned my gaze from God to Jess, and cupped his chin in my hand.

"Something to remember me by…" I whispered, before I gently kissed him.

It was hard to describe the kiss. It had the same spark as God's touch, only amplified, and more electric. It was sizzling and soothing, filled with emotion and promise, and I wanted to freeze the moment, but knew I couldn't.

We broke the kiss, and gave each other a long look. I rose from the bench, and began walking over to God. God held out her hand to me, but I didn't take it. Jess seeing me and Dean walking off into oblivion hand in hand was not something I wanted him to torment himself with. Instead I turned around. Jess was still sitting on the bench, looking down at the pavement, hands tucked into the pockets of the leather jacket.

"Jess?" I called out.

He looked up, and he was the Jess I remembered him as from our time on Earth. Cocky rebel, always with a semi-indifferent look on his face. I couldn't help but smile.

"What?" he asked.

"Thanks for the memories."

We both snickered, 'cause it was such a corny line to say on the eve of our final separation, but it said everything. I still had him, in my memories. God took the opportunity to step out infront of me, and again I felt Heaven shift, and I knew that when I'd turn around, I'd be back at Chilton. I allowed myself one last look at the town that had been my home, at the boy who had been… I suppose I could call him my soulmate. Someone I could've… no, should've loved with all my heart. I turned around, and the marble halls of Chilton greeted me.

"What happens now?" I asked God, as she came up alongside me.

"You go on," she replied calmly.

"What if Jess and me visit the same memory again at the same time?"

"Not possible. The gateway is closed, you closed it together. I'm sorry."

"No, it's okay," I said, and funnily enough, I meant it.

"Really?" God asked, now she was the one to sound surprised. "Other people who have faced the same problem almost cried their hearts out."

"He's okay. That's all I need to know."

"Okay…" God smiled now, widely and she looked satisfied. "You know where to find me if you need anything."

I waved her off, and then looked around me, at my place of eternity. I was dead, Chilton was heaven, and God had a weird sense of humour. Who would've thought?

A/N: Good? Bad? Tell me, please! It's 2.30 am overhere, so I'm going off to bed (which is a subtle way of saying "Excuse any typos you might find"). Remember, nothing says "This day will kick ass!" like a review in the morning. *wink*