Life: 2.0

Chapter 2: Something To Do

Author: knowhere

Rating: Heavy Pg-13: language.

Disclaimer: Nothing.

AN: I've noticed that readership and reviewing isn't the same as it was a few years ago.

I can say with all honesty, that it really means a lot to me to receive a review. It sends me a signal that not only are you enjoying it (or not), but that you're taking the extra effort to let me know. A review is such a great way to give and receive feedback.

In the world of fan fiction where nothing is exchanged or received for the effort of planning and writing a story, a review means everything.

So please, if you read, review.

Summary: Literati. Life doesn't always turn out like you expect. Jess and Rory meet as adults when their lives are at a transition period. Life, love, and everything else: Version 2.0. AU.

Rory peeked out from behind her curtains and squealed in excitement to see a sleek Porsche ease up into her driveway. She flung open the door and almost collided with the emerging driver before she threw herself into his arms. "I've missed you!"

"Me too, honey. Me too." He held on tight, hugging and swinging her around until she felt like she was going to throw up.

Rory tapped his shoulder. "Okay, let me off this ride or I'll puke."

Bram grinned and slid his fancy aviator sunglasses off his patrician nose. "You look great! Single suits you."

"You too! Wow, is that Armani?" She leaned forward to lovingly stroke the fabric of Bram's expensive dress shirt.

"You're just copping a feel of my bicep." He grinned.

She squatted him. "You wish I was coming on to you!"

"Everyday." He leaned down and planted a quick smooch to her upturned mouth. His quirky grin was in place when he slid his hands playfully to cup her butt, giving it a quick squeeze. "Putting on a few pounds, Miss Gilmore?"

"Shut it." Rory smiled, genuinely happy to see her friend. Since moving away from Boston after her disasterous engagement, her only disappointment had been being so far away from Bram.

"I've got to tell you about this woman who was hitting on me at the gas station. She was giving me this look and wearing this hideous striped tent dress and—oh! Hello." Bram let her go and Rory saw that his attention was over her shoulder.

She turned to see Wesley in the arms of her neighbor's younger brother. "Hey Gabe."

"Hi." He spoke softly, his voice cracking as a sign of his young age. "Your dog was in our yard. Jess won't be too happy when he finds out that this little guy just pissed all over the new sod in the back."

Rory grimaced. "Oops. I better go and clean it up."

Gabe approached them and handed a wriggling Wesley over. "Here. I gave him a bite of my bagel. Hope you don't mind."

"Nope. Wesley eats just about anything."

"Just like his owner." Bram piped up. "I'm Bram York."

Gabe nodded. "Hey."

"This is Gabe. He's my new neighbor's brother." Rory juggled Wesley in her arms, feeling him lick her chin. "Are you visiting Jess for the weekend or something?"

She saw Gabe flush and she furrowed her brows in confusion. If she wasn't mistaken, Gabe looked embarrassed and slightly upset at the same time. "No, I live with Jess."

"Oh."

"Yeah, so, I'll leave the gate open for you to clean up the dog poop." Without another word, Gabe turned and left.

"Nice kid." Bram scratched Wesley behind his ears and earned a doggie moan.

"I must've said something wrong." Rory was confused. "Can you take Wesley back into the house? I'll be there right after I clean up their yard."

Jess straightened, feeling the sweat roll down his back as he examined his handiwork. Who would've thought that Jess Mariano would spend a Sunday morning laying sod? Speaking of which, who would have believed that he would own his own backyard? He could barely wrap his brain around the idea of making monthly mortgage payments instead of rent.

The front door slammed and Jess looked up. "Gabe?"

A moment went by before there was a muffled answer. "What?"

"Just checking." Jess opened the back door and entered the kitchen. He searched in the fridge and withdrew a cold bottle of beer. He tipped his head back and gulped down half before coming up for breath. "Hungry?"

"Yeah."

Jess went back to the fridge and rummaged for a package of raw drumsticks. "I can grill some chicken for us. How about you wash up some potatoes and wrap them in foil. I'll fire up the barbeque."

"Okay." Gabe started to go into the garage to get the potatoes when he stopped at the sound of Jess's voice.

"Why is the neighbor in our backyard?" Jess's eyes just about bugged out at the sight of Rory's lush backside taut on display. He had been having some pretty heated fantasies after having caught a glimpse of the same bottom yesterday. And it was currently bent over a few feet away.

"Don't freak out, but her dog shit on the grass. So I brought him back to her and told her about the mess."

Jess frowned. "Don't say shit."

"You do."

"And when you're in your thirties, you can too."

Gabe rolled his eyes. "You're so lame. Anyway, she's cleaning up the poop. I caught her making out with some guy on her driveway."

Jess's brain skipped around while trying to follow Gabe's fragmented thought pattern. "What?"

"What?"

"What guy?"

Gabe shrugged. "Don't know. Some good-looking guy. Fancy car. Why? You interested in her?"

Jess shook his head. "Nah, don't have the time for that."

"Whatever." Gabe disappeared, probably for the potatoes, and Jess continued to watch Rory's bent over form.

Without thinking too much into it, he left the kitchen and went back into the sunshine. "Custodian duty, huh?"

She stood up, her hand halfway into a plastic baggie holding a little brown turd. "Yeah, sorry about that. Wesley must like this new grass or something."

"Thank the mutt for the gesture but I think I'll stick to store bought fertilizer instead."

She giggled and Jess couldn't help but smile back at her. "He's not a mutt. He's a Westie." She tied up the bag and held it with her thumb and forefinger. "Got a trashcan around here?"

"Yeah, around the corner."

"Great." She went and disposed of it, coming back to stand with her hands awkwardly at her side. "Anyways, sorry about that. I'll keep an eye on Wesley."

"Let's call it even." Jess smirked. "Your dog crapped on my new lawn, I woke you up early. Deal?"

She smiled. "Deal." They shook on it and once again Jess had the blissful feeling of her soft hand in his. He opened his mouth to speak when he caught sight of a guy pressed against Rory's upstairs window.

"Hey Ror?"

Ror? Jess mentally rolled his eyes as he scrutinized him from below. He looked to be about his own age, maybe a year younger or so. Like Gabe mentioned, Jess noticed that the guy was handsome. In a rich, I-come-from-old-money, preppy kind of way. The guy looked like the type to wine and dine his women at fancy French restaurants and afterwards tooled around in his sports car.

"Oh Bram, this is my neighbor, Jess. Jess, Bramwell York."

Jess could barely contain his laughter at the name. Old money indeed. "Hey."

"Hello." Mr. Fancy nodded with a smile. "Rory, I made reservations for lunch in half an hour. We'd better get going."

"Okay." Rory waved him away and they watched as Bram's figure retreated away from the window. "Sorry again about the poop." She smiled. "I'll see you around."

Jess nodded, feeling the unexplainable urge to try to get her to stay and talk some more but couldn't find the words. "Sure."

"Hello neighbor." Bram narrowed his eyes and licked his lips as he surveyed a bare-chested Jess once more.

"Bram, get away from there!" Rory hissed and tried helplessly to drag him away from the open window. "Stop spying on him."

"He's hot."

Rory bit her lip but conceded to the irrefutable fact. Her new neighbor was hot. Hot in a rough, bad boy sort of way. Like he wouldn't be afraid of getting dirt under his nails or finishing a fistfight should he be needed. "Stop ogling him."

"Someone should. Speaking of which, what's his deal? Single?"

Rory shrugged. "I don't know." She edged her way next to Bram and peered down at Jess working in his back yard. From her spare bedroom window she had an uninterrupted view of Jess Mariano.

"Didn't you ask?"

"That didn't really come up."

"Why not?"

"Bram." Rory huffed. "He's probably not interested anyways."

Bram turned around in shock. "Why wouldn't he be interested in you? You're beautiful, smart, and have plenty to offer any man."

Rory's cheek heated when she heard the vehemence in Bram's voice. "Yeah, yeah."

She started to go but couldn't leave when Bram grabbed her shoulders and turned her to face him fully. "Don't brush it off, Rory. You should think about dating again."

"No," she shook her head, "I don't think I'm ready yet."

"Do you think you still have feelings for Logan?" Bram's voice lowered.

"I—I don't know." Rory faltered, her heart skipping a beat at hearing just his name. He always had that power over her. In the beginning when she met Logan, he was everything she wasn't. Impulsive, popular, and privileged, he represented qualities that she found fascinating simply because she didn't posses them. And when he had set his sights on her, it had been wildly exciting to be wanted by such a man.

The most thrilling part had been the chase. They met in a coffee shop one day when the barista had mixed up their orders. Rory had received Logan's pumpkin spice latte and he took her black coffee. By the time they found out the mistake, he had already begun to charm her. He had smiled and flirted and tenderly brushed a lock of hair out of her eyes. When she announced that she had to leave, he asked her out for dinner. She wanted to decline, citing that she didn't know him at all, but for some reason, she heard herself accepting instead.

But when the chase was over, and Logan had caught Rory, they settled quickly into a routine of sorts. When her landlord had upped the rent on her apartment without too much notice, Rory had moved into Logan's penthouse. It ashamed to admit, retrospectively, that she loved the luxury. She enjoyed the fancy dinners and the lavish gifts he gave her. And though their chemistry was sizzling at first, it fizzled out slowly. But she had deep feelings for him. When he told her that he loved her, she said it back and meant it. And six months later when he proposed, she accepted with happy tears in her eyes.

And then he broke her heart.

"Oh damn, we're going to be late." Bram's voice jarred her away from her daydream as his feet retreated out of the bedroom and down the stairs. "They have this lobster salad that's to die for. Hurry up! I'll buy you dessert too. Double chocolate fudge brownie. Death by chocolate."

Jess stood at the stove, armed with a spatula and a bowlful of pancake batter. The first batch hadn't turned out right and then he realized that he had forgotten the baking powder. The second one seemed to be doing better, rising like it should and all that.

He flipped them over, one at a time. The third one landed halfway on top of the second and he tried to scoot it over, leaving a streaky mess of batter instead. He winced. Glancing at the clock that read seven fifteen, he yelled in the general direction of the stairs, "Gabe! Get up and get dressed! Hurry up."

"I'm coming, I'm coming." Gabe rushed down the stairs.

"Sit. How many do you want?"

Gabe shook his head. "No, I don't think I can eat anything."

Jess turned and caught a glimpse of his brother's white face. "What's wrong, you sick?"

"No."

"Nervous about school?"

Gabe scowled. "Shut up."

"Hey." Jess put the spatula down on the table, unnoticing of the mess and gripped the back of Gabe's neck in a comforting hold. "It'll be okay."

"You don't know that." Gabe fiddled with the spatula and got up to flip the pancakes himself. "Besides, Mom and Dad told me you hated high school. What if it's genetic?"

Jess tried to keep from smiling, but he couldn't. He chuckled. "I don't think that kind of thing is genetic. That stupid cowlick we both have in the front of our head is. And our weird ears, but this, nah, I don't think you can inherit a hatred for high school. And besides, you're smart. You got that from me." Jess smirked and bumped Gabe's shoulder in jest.

Gabe finally smiled. "Dad always said I got your brains without the attitude."

"Yeah well he wouldn't say that if he saw you now." Jess winced at his words. He hadn't meant to remind Gabe that their parents wouldn't be there to see the first day of high school. "Sorry. Didn't mean to bring that up."

Gabe shrugged. "No big. It's true. They're not here."

"Well," Jess was feeling decidedly nervous. He knew the first day of high school was some sort of milestone for his brother and he wanted to make the most of it. "Sit down and eat. We have half an hour before I drop you off."

"I can walk."

"No, I'll drive you." Bringing over two plates of pancakes loaded with butter, syrup, and powdered sugar, Jess gestured with his chin for Gabe to eat. "But you're going to have to walk home. I won't be home until five thirty."

"Fine."

"Maybe you can think about doing a sport after school."

Gabe raised a sardonic brow that reminded Jess so much of their dad. And himself. "A Mariano playing on an organized team?"

"Stranger things have happened." Jess smirked.

"I don't think so. I suck at throwing any kind of ball."

"Then you can run and do track. Or swim." A light bulb went off in his head. "Hey, you love the water. You and Dad used to surf all the time. Maybe you can do water polo or something."

Gabe shook his head. "I don't know."

"Think about it, okay?" Jess asked softly.

He wanted Gabe to be engaged in something. There were times when they were home and Jess would peek into Gabe's room to see his brother sprawled on his bed, wearing a pair of headphones with a book in his hands. It was eerie; seeing Gabe sometimes was like a window into his own past. But now that he was older, Jess knew that it wasn't healthy for Gabe to retreat so much from the world. The therapist had gently suggested to Jess that he get Gabe involved in something that didn't revolve around the two of them. Dr. Kelley had said that getting Gabe passionate about other things would help him from dwelling.

"I packed you a lunch. It's in the fridge."

Gabe got up and retrieved it, pulling out a brown paper bag. He pawed through the contents, pulling out a package of celery. "Where's the dip?"

"Isn't it included with the celery?"

"No."

"Oh." Jess looked helpless for a moment. "Sorry."

"Aw man." Gabe dragged out the word in disgust. "I don't want it."

Jess rolled his eyes at the teenage dramatics. "Here, grab a zip lock baggie. Okay, open it." He pulled out a container of ranch salad dressing and squeezed a healthy dollop right into the bag. "There. Dip."

Gabe squished the liquid around. "That is so fucking gross."

"Hey! Watch your mouth."

"Like you do." Gabe rolled his eyes.

"Mom would've washed your mouth out with soap if she heard you. And I didn't cuss until I was out of the house and in college. And even then Mom would smack me if I did it when I was home. You were always following me around repeating everything I said."

Gabe chose not to answer. "Are you ready to go?"

Jess grabbed his travel mug and slung his beaten up leather bag over his shoulder. "Yep. Got your crap? Your backpack? And all that stuff we bought the other day? Good."

Rory watched as her last period freshman class began to file out. She smiled. Some things will never change. The kids might decide that it was cool one year to have baggy pants and tight, squeeze-me-until-I-suffocate jeans the next year, but they could never get out of class fast enough when that last bell rang.

She caught sight of Gabe when he walked past her desk, his eyes darting away as if afraid to make eye contact. "Hey, Gabe?"

He stopped and let the student behind him pass. "Miss Gilmore."

Rory smiled. Gabe looked a lot like Jess. He wasn't tall, not yet, but Gabe looked like he would hit a growth spurt very soon. He had Jess's facial structure and that same dark mahogany hair that gleamed black in certain lighting, but Gabe's eyes were hazel to Jess's espresso colored irises.

"Since we're neighbors and all, I think it'd be okay if you called me Rory when we're not in class." She looked around. "Or at least, not in front of the other students."

Gabe smiled shyly. "Okay. Thanks."

"How was your first day?"

He shrugged. "Fine."

Rory nodded, expecting that typical answer. Everything was always 'fine' with teenagers. Even when they were on top of the world or feeling the lowest of lows, they always muttered, fine. "Where did you and Jess live before moving here?"

Rory watched Gabe fidget with his backpack strap for a moment, his long fingers nervously plucking at invisible strings. "New York. Jess lived in New York. But I lived in California. That's where we're from."

"Oh yeah? I hear it's beautiful. I always wanted to go there and go see all those Hollywood mansions. See a celebrity or two. Where in California did you live?"

"Venice. Close to the beach." Gabe's eyes had glazed over for a moment, betraying a hint of longing.

"But you moved to New York?"

Gabe looked away. "My parents died."

Rory was momentarily stunned. Well, that solves the mystery. "I'm so sorry."

"Yeah."

They were quiet for a few heartbeats; Rory at a loss for words and Gabe appeared to be deep in thought. "Hey, do you like dogs?"

Gabe nodded.

"How would you like to make a little cash? I need someone to walk Wesley."

He looked suspicious. "Why?"

"He really should be getting two walks a day. So I was thinking maybe you could walk him before school."

Gabe scratched his arm. "I dunno. That's awfully early."

Rory laughed. Apparently only one Mariano man was an early riser. "How about right after school then?"

"Aren't you going home?"

She shook her head. "No, I have papers to grade and lessons to plan. School might be boring to some but it's work for me." She ended with a conspiratorial grin.

"I like school."

She smiled. "Good to hear. So what do you think? Walk Wesley after school? Monday through Friday. They don't have to be long walks, just twenty minutes or so. Up to the park and back. I'll give you thirty five dollars a week."

His eyes lit up. "Sure."

"Great. You can start tomorrow. I'll hide a key under a ceramic turtle I have and you can go around back through the kitchen. His leash hangs on a hook by the door. And there are plastic baggies in a container next to the leash."

"Okay."

"See you tomorrow then."

He nodded and adjusted his backpack. He was almost to the door when he paused. "Thanks Rory."

She smiled but he couldn't see her. Gabe hadn't turned to face her and he slipped out before she could reply.

Jess knocked on the front door, hands in pockets, rocking back on his heels.

The door opened. "Hey."

He smiled at the sight of her. She looked comfy in lounge pants and a loose t-shirt with a low v-neck. Hell, she looked ready for bed. "Hi."

She cocked a hip. "You here to borrow a cup of sugar?"

"Why Mrs. Clever, how nice of you to offer."

She giggled and he let the sound of it wash over his senses. "Want to come in?"

Yes! "No, I better not. Gabe is waiting on me for dinner. I just wanted to say thank you."

"For what?"

"For Gabe and giving him something to do." Jess shuffled his feet, wondering exactly how much to tell her. Women didn't exactly fall over themselves to be with him once they found out he was responsible for a teenager. More than one had complained in the past when Jess couldn't spend the night because he had to rush home to relieve the babysitter. Jess was responsible for another human being these days and as much as he loathed admitting it, he was Gabe's brother, mother, and father all rolled into one.

"I don't know how much Gabe has told you…" He trailed off, now knowing how to continue.

She bit her lip. "He mentioned that your parents died." She lowered her voice. "I'm sorry."

"Thanks." Jess cleared his throat. "Anyways, he had trouble in the City with me so we moved here to get away from that. But I can't get him involved in anything. So thanks for at least giving him something to do. Get him out of the house."

"I should be thanking him. Wesley will enjoy the extra walk."

Jess's gaze softened. There was something special and compassionate about this woman. "Anyways, that's all I came to say. I don't want to keep you." He tried to peek around her shoulder. Maybe she was relaxing with her boyfriend.

"It's fine. I'm just watching TV and grading papers."

"No boyfriend tonight?" Damn, what the hell was that? It's none of my business.

She looked confused for a moment. "Boyfriend? Oh! You mean Bram?"

"Yeah." He rubbed the back of his neck in embarrassment.

She smiled; a funny little Cheshire cat smile that made her innocent features look decidedly naughty. Her silky brown hair fell in a tangle around her face; her side-swept bangs obscuring one bright blue eye. Jesus, no one should have eyes that blue. It should be illegal. Her bow-shaped lips were bare of makeup, as the rest of her face. He could see a generous dusting of freckles across her upturned nose, across her cheeks, and into her hairline.

"What made you think he was my boyfriend?"

"Uh, Gabe mentioned kissing."

She laughed. "I don't want to freak you out, but I think Bram would rather kiss you than me, if you catch my drift."

Jess furrowed his brow for a moment and then he got it. "Oh." He shifted his weight. "Oh."

"Yeah." She tilted her head to the side, her hair falling in a cascade to the other shoulder, spilling halfway onto her breasts. Her braless breasts if he judged correctly. "No boyfriend."

"Right." Jess backed down the steps of her front porch, lest he be tempted to follow her into the house and upstairs, right into her bed. "I've got to get back. Dinner. Gabe."

"Okay." She smiled.

"See you around."

"Night." She closed the door behind him and he could hear the click of her deadbolt.

AN: Read and review! Please. And…thanks.