It took her hours to get to Jess' apartment. Jess' very ugly apartment. "11, 12, 13, 14, ah 15!" She arrived at unit 15 to find the door open. Inside were about 8 dodgy mattresses, and the one in the corner was covered in books so rory could only assume it was Jess'. Before she could look around any further, the almost stepped on a guy. He was lying on the floor in a ball, not moving. Rory almost ignored him, thinking it was one of Jess' roommates, but then she realised that it was him. She hesitated, then crouched down and touched his shoulder. "Jess?" He only groaned in response, and Rory wasn't sure if he even recognised her. "Jess," she whispered. He didn't acknowledge her this time. He just whimpered. Like he was about to start crying. She lifted him up and put him on the couch in the corner of the room, then sat next to him with her hand on his knee. He finally opened his eyes, and looked suprised to see her. "R-Rory...?" He asked, rubbing his eyes.

"Jess, are you okay? You were totally out of it when I found you."

"How-"

"Luke," she said. "Jess, what's wrong with you?"

"Nothing," he said. He started to get up, but Rory held him down.

"If you don't want to tell me what caused it then fine, but at least let me stay here," Rory tightened her grip on Jess' leg.

He looked to the ground, afraid that he would cry again. "Why would you even want to come?"

Rory wasn't surprised that he asked her this. After all, she didn't exactly reply to him at the firelight festival. "I couldn't sleep," she started, then when she saw Jess' face ligh up a little - maybe in hope - she continued, "Every time I tried to fall asleep I thought of... memories of us."

Before she knew it, Jess had his arms tightly wrapped around her, his head resting on the shoulder. Rory was quick to respond, her hand releasing from his leg and wrapping around him, putting her chin on his head.

All he wanted to do was be alone. He knew that when a roommate came in he would have to move, but he just wanted to be alone. When the door opened and a woman came in, he assumed it was Steve's new girlfriend, so he ignored her. When she lifted him up, he just wanted her to let go. She wasn't very good at lifting, he had to partly walk anyway. When she sat down next to him and asked what was wrong, he realised it wasn't this woman's voice. It was Rory's. She had come back for him. He had to seriously restrain himself from pulling her into a kiss instead of a hug. She didn't love him, she had made that clear. She probably just wanted to apologise, and ask to be friends. So instead he hugged her as tightly as he could.

"I have to go..." Rory said, but her arms were still around Jess. "I just wanted to come see you... I don't know why."

"Oh," Jess said, his face falling a little. He didn't want her to leave. He was expecting her to pull away, but she stayed in this embrace. He pulled her closer, and she fell into him without argument. After about 15 minutes of sitting together, Rory started to doze off.

"I'd be careful out on the streets if I were you," Jess joked. "I hear there's a pretty high crime rate."

"Funny," Rory scowled.

"Feeling succint today?" Jess asked.

"Yep, pretty much," Rory countered. "Why did you do it, Jess? You got Luke attacked by the entire town! He does everything for you, and this is how you repay him?"

"What do you mean?" Jess raised an eyebrow.

"Nothing. I meant nothing. Hey, Dean."

"Boyfriend?" Jess gestured to Dean.

"Of course!" Rory put an arm around him.

"Great. How you doing?" He spoke slowly because Dean looked kind of stupid.

"I'm great. Rory, let's go."

"Okay. See you later, Jess!"

"Seems to turn out that way, doesn't it?" He smirked and walked away.

Rory woke up to a loud snore from Jess. "Oh, god! I fell asleep!" She disantangled herself from Jess' grasp and grabbed her handbag, hoping to sneak out the door. She was just about to put her hand on the knob when she heard footsteps coming from behind her.

"Thought you could leave without saying goodbye, huh?" Jess smirked. "Well, you can't."

"Oh. Well..." Rory looked into his eyes. "Goodbye Jess."

"Bye, Rory." He watched her leave, before blurting out the question that came to his mind. "Rory?"

She whipped around. "Yeah? What's up?"

"I - uh... was this - did you... we're friends, right?" He figured Rory's appearing at his door to look after him was purely friendly.

Rory smiled. No! "Yeah. Friends." She walked out the door, before stopping and turning around. "Do you have some paper and a pen? I'll give you my dorm number at Yale so you can see me if you like. Also my new cell number, if you want."

Jess almost fell over himself trying to get to his small supply of stationary quickly. "Yeah, sure." He handed her a gun wrapper and a pencil. "That's all I got," he smiled sheepishly.

"It's okay. It's perfect." She scribbled something down on the paper and handed it back to him. "See you." She walked out the door and got in her car. Jess walked inside to read her address.

You can get my number from Luke, tell him I said it's okay. My address is just Yale, find me.

Helpful.

"Why did you come here?" He asked through the window.

"What?" Rory obviously couldn't hear him, so she opened the latch.

"I said," he repeated, "why did you come here?"

"Because... you didn't say goodbye."

"Oh..." he instantly felt horrible about leaving without being able to tell her. "Goodbye, Rory."

She smiled sadly. "Bye, Jess."

He watched her sit down in a seat, then turned his head away. He couldn't possibly deal without that girl in his life, but he knew that Rory would only visit New York that one time. She had a boyfriend, for gods sake. She could live without him, she would forget about him. He would just be a speck in the gigantic array of people who had fallen for the blue-eyed-beauty, also known as Rory Gilmore.

He sat on the couch. I have to go back to Stars Hollow, he realised, getting up and walking to the door. Wait. Not yet. She just left, you'll look too desperate. Play it cool. He decided he would leave it for a few days before going back for the girl of his dreams.

When Rory arrived at Yale again, it was early morning and some people had already gotten into the cafeteria (probably to get cocoa puffs). She walked into her dorm and started to edit her paper which was due that day. I wish he would come back for me, she thought. She gave up on editing and tried to sleep, she would get about 3 hours before her first class.

After class, she called Lorelai. "Hey, kid!"

"Hi Mom!"

"You coming home later today?"

"Duh, it's the grand opening of the inn! Of course!"

"Great, hon. But just so you know, Dean..."

"Will be there," Rory finished. "I don't have a problem with that! I've gotta go, bye!" She clicked the 'end' button.

"Paris!" She yelled into her dorm. "Paris?" That was when she realised that everyone was gone. That it was just her. She exited the campus, having just finished finals, and sped off to Stars Hollow, her thoughts drifting to when Jess had first been there.

"Little tip?" Rory asked.

"Sure," Jess raised an eyebrow.

"If you ever want to speak to me again, don't pull that out of my ear."

Jess smirked. "So I guess the nose is off limits too?"

"Any place you wouldn't naturally find a coin."

Jess walked a little closer to her. "I'll leave you with this last trick," he pulled out a copy of 'Howl' from his back pocket.

"You bought a copy?" Rory enquired. "I told you I'd lend you mine!"

"It's yours."

"You stole my book?!"

"Borrowed it."

Rory laughed, snatching the book. "That's not a trick, that's a felony!" She shoved it under her arm.

"Just thought I'd write some stuff in the margins for you," he smirked, watching Rory pull out the book again and flick through with wide eyes.

"You've read this before?" She was incredibly taken aback.

"About... 40 times," he shrugged.

"I thought you didn't read much," she smiled, raising her eyebrows.

"Well," he replied, "what is much? Goodnight, Rory."

"Goodnight, dodger," she turned and walked away, before hearing his voice again.

"Dodger?"

"Figure it out."

He hesitated, her smile infectious. "Oliver Twist," he seemed pretty proud of himself. She smiled even broader and nodded, walking away again.

Rory!!!!!!" Her mom came running at her and lunged, both of them falling onto the carpet. "Do you like it?" She pointed around the room, where builders were putting doors on hinges and whatnot. "Welcome to the Dragonfly Inn!"

"It's beautiful! It's magical! It's- Dean?"

He rounded the corner before freezing. "Uh, Rory! H-hi..."

Lorelai gave them a weird side glance, before speaking. "I've got to check on Sookie, she's having a meltdown in the kitchen." She walked off to leave the 2 nineteen year olds in privacy. Dean ducked behind a curtain, gesturing for Rory to follow.

"So I heard what happened with you and Jess," he started. Rory's throat started to close up with nerves. What part of Rory and Jess' crazy relationship did he know about.

"What happened with me and Jess?" She asked.

Dean sighed. "He told you he loved you and then ran away?" He raised an evebrow. "At least, that's what Babette and Miss Patty are telling everyone who will listen."

Rory laughed, but it was a sad laugh. "Yeah, he just took off after Kyle's party. He said he would call me, but he didn't for about 3 weeks. Then at my graduation he called my cell but didn't say anything, so I broke up with him." She let out a sob, so Dean put an arm around her and urged her to keep talking. "Then he just appeared, randomly, in Stars Hollow. We started bumping into each other, at Weston's, at the library... I just wanted to talk, but each time he saw me he just ran. Then, the next night, was the firelight festival. Here comes the fun part..." she let out another sob, and Dean tightened his grip on her and they sat down. "I was getting a burger, and then there he is, just standing next to the line, staring. So then I run away, yelling at him as I go, but then this stupid tree root gets in my way and I fall on my ass. Then Jess catches up, and he makes me talk to him. I start screaming in his face, telling him about how he left and then a year later he's just... here. He asks if we can sit down, because he has to talk to me..."

"Keep going..."

"Then he told me he loved me."

"Oh... he can't just do that and walk away!"

"I know."

"I don't want you with him," Dean looked her in the eye. "I'm happy you didn't get back with him..."

"Why?" Rory asked, puzzled. She really hoped it wasn't the reason she though was coming. Dean was married!

"Because..."

"Because you're my friend," Rory finished. "And he doesn't treat me right?"

"Yeah... that's it."

He leaned in, and all of a sudden their lips were touching and before they knew it, they were making out. They had at least 30 seconds before they were interrupted. "Dean?" Tom had walked through the door, only to step back again. "Oh... I'm sorry... I didn't mean to-"

"It's okay, Tom," Rory interrupted. "I was just leaving." She ran out the door, leaving Dean and Tom both confused.