A/N: How do I wish Season 3 had ended? Just exactly like this! :)

(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)

Part 4

When Rory's cell rang again, she hurried to answer it, even though she was pretty sure silence would greet her 'hello'. She said it three times, and with each repeat Lorelai looked at her a little more like she was crazy. Rory couldn't say what she needed to in front of her mother, and so she moved by her, hiding herself away.

"Jess?" she tried, since Rory was sure that's who it was. "I think it's you. I'm pretty sure it's been you for days, calling but not talking," she told him. "You know what? That's fine. Don't talk. I'll talk."

Rory took a deep breath and tried to get her thoughts straight. Even though she had been planning this for days, it was still a jumble in her head when the time came to speak up. The first silent call, she just figured it was a wrong number, but it really had been days now, and a lot of calls. It started when Jess left, it just had to be him and his stupid inability to talk about what he was feeling. Rory would feel sorry for him if she wasn't so mad and hurt by his leaving without a goodbye for the second time.

"Jess, you should've talked to me!" she all but yelled then. "I know it took a lot for you to tell me about school and your dad and everything, and I get that, I do, but then you still ran out on me. You missed taking me to my Prom, and now I've graduated and... and you're still not here," she said, tears creeping into her eyes and her voice.

Rory hated that he could get to her like this. She didn't want to care about Jess after how he left her. Surely that proved he didn't care for her, and yet he kept calling. He wasn't a monster, not even a bad guy really. He just got messed up, confused, embarrassed, and running was his natural instinct when it came to what he was feeling, just as fighting was his instinct when he was cornered. Rory only wished that this time he had kept on sharing things with her, instead of blocking her out and bolting.

"I don't understand why you wouldn't let me in," she cried, unable to help it anymore as she sat down on the bench. "It took so long for us to get to that point where we were together and it was good, and... and I love you, Jess. Even now after you left without saying goodbye again, it hurt, but it just proved to me that I did, I do love you."

"I love you too."

Rory would've sworn that she heard those words in his voice, and yet she could hardly believe it. What was more, it hadn't seemed as if Jess spoke through the phone. It was as if he was standing right behind her. Sure she was crazy, Rory couldn't help but turn around on her seat, and there he was.

"Jess," she breathed, the both of them still pointlessly holding their cell phones to their ears. "I... You're here."

"Apparently," he shrugged, that familiar smile coming to his lips as he closed his cell with a click and waited as she did the same. "Rory, I'm sorry," he told her honestly then, the clever look sliding off his face in a second.

Rory knew he meant it. She couldn't explain how. Honestly she ought to slap his face for what he had done. If she was even more her mother's daughter than she seemed, she knew for sure she would've hit him, but that wasn't Rory. Of course, as pleased as she was to see Jess, it didn't stop her being mad at him still.

"You should be sorry," she said crossly, folding her arms across her chest. "You should be very, very sorry for leaving, for not saying goodbye, for shutting me out..."

She had pulled her arms apart again so she could count her very relevant points out on her fingers. Jess got bored before she ever reached three, grabbing her wrist to pull her in close and lay his lips on hers. Rory meant to pull away, to be mad and not give in so easily, but it felt too good. She meant what she said on the phone about missing Jess, about loving him too. When he kissed her, it was so easy to forget everything else. Of course, such magic only lasted for so long and eventually when they broke for air, Rory came to her senses. This time she did slap him, so much so that her hand stung and Jess' face whipped to the side.

Rory wasn't proud of herself. Immediately she realised what had happened, her hand went to her mouth in shock. The kiss and the slap; out of the two, Rory couldn't've said which bothered her more, or which was making her feel worse. For a long moment she didn't know what to say and was just mildly surprised that Jess didn't react either. Eventually, his hand came up to rub his stinging cheek.

"Guess I deserved that," he muttered.

"Maybe," Rory agreed half-heartedly, hugging herself, not really sure what to do or say next. "It's not that I'm not glad you're here, Jess," she admitted then. "All I wanted was for you to come back. Actually what I wanted was for you to have not left in the first place..."

"I'm sorry," he repeated. "You of all people know how hard that is for me to say, but it's true, Rory," he promised her. "Okay, I ran out on you, and yeah, that was dumb. I get that I screwed up, but honestly? I thought I was making it easier."

"How was you shutting me out and leaving without a word easier for anyone?!" asked Rory, a little too loudly, though she barely even noticed people staring as they walked by.

"I didn't want you to be disappointed in me!" Jess yelled right back, one hand smacking into the other in some gesture of frustration. "Don't you understand that? I didn't want you to look at me that way," he shook his head, as Rory just stared.

Jess felt so stupid. Rory was one of the few people who had the ability to make him feel this way, though he knew for sure she would never do it on purpose. He was such an idiot, but trying to explain the way he'd come to realise it just made him feel even more dumb than before.

"I followed Jimmy to California," he explained then, his volume and tone a lot more reasonable suddenly as his eyes focused more on the ground than on Rory. "I thought if I just left, I could start over and you could move on, forget about me. It was maybe the dumbest thing I ever did, okay?" he admitted.

"Yes, I agree," said Rory, completely straight-faced even if it had seemed as if it should've been a joke somehow.

"I'm sittin' there on the boardwalk in Venice Beach, thinking how sick I feel knowing how I'm never gonna see you again," explained Jess. "Then I realise that you're not gonna see me either, and my walking out the way I did, that was the thing that was gonna to hurt you most."

Rory didn't know what to say. She was the girl that had an answer for everything, always with something smart to say, just like her mom. This was different. With Jess it had always been different. They ran circles around each other with their book knowledge and smart answers for so long. When they started dating, it was just different. Things got serious, and now she wondered if it was too late to make it okay again. She hoped not.

"You're a dope," she said eventually, making Jess look up and meet her eyes.

"I'm a what?" he checked, looking genuinely confused.

"You're a dope, and a dummy, and an idiot," Rory told him seriously and more than a little bit crossly. "Did you miss the part where I said I love you?"

"Did you miss the part where I said it back?" he countered immediately, startling her into silence. "Maybe we're both not as smart as we thought."

There was no denying that, Rory knew. She hadn't necessarily handled things with Jess as well as she should have. He was still in the wrong for leaving the way he did, but he had apologised, and she figured striking him in the face was probably enough punishment considering.

"You're sorry for leaving, I'm sorry I hit you," she recapped succinctly, letting her arms unwind. "You're back, and I'm leaving for Europe for tomorrow, so we don't really have a whole lot of time to figure anything out," she continued, reaching for his hands.

It was a scene that had played out once before, way back in the beginning when they first got together and were finding their way as a couple. His fingers started to entwine with her own, and they both moved a little closer.

"Plenty of time when you get back, right?" he asked hopefully, with a smile he couldn't help.

"If you plan on staying this time," she replied, returning the look.

He didn't actually answer her, but the way he kissed her then confirmed everything for Rory. It wasn't fair to keep on punishing Jess, it would just waste time they didn't have. He knew what he did wrong and he was sorry. She didn't want to be mad at him, and Rory was pretty sure she could never hate the guy. She loved him, and apparently he loved her too. They had both learnt a few lessons in this relationship so far, and there were probably many more to learn, but that was okay.

"I missed you," she whispered as they parted from their kiss, his hands at her waist and her arms up around his neck now.

"Yeah? Well, I missed you too," he admitted. "Started to think about all the things I was going to miss and then suddenly I'm on a bus headed back to good old Stars Hollow," he smirked. "You looked great up there, giving your speech and everything."

"You've been here the whole time?" asked Rory with wide eyes, about to accuse him for not coming forward sooner, but she never or got the chance.

"I got here when you were already on the stage," he explained quickly. "Then you were with your family and... and I didn't even know if you were gonna be happy I was back."

"And you're back to being a dope," she confirmed with a smirk of her own as she made him look at her properly. "Jess, you hurt me, I can't deny that, but of course I'm glad you're back. As previously stated, I love you," she told him, with every ounce of feeling she had in her.

She needed him to believe it, to trust in her and in what she felt for him, more so than he ever had before. Rory couldn't risk Jess feeling like he wanted to run again. All her fears of that melted away when he looked back at her in much the same way, full of love and adoration for her alone.

"Y'know you're the first girl I ever said that to," he smiled, pushing her hair back behind her ear. "I seriously never thought I'd meet anybody that would make me want to, but then there's only one Rory Gilmore in the world," he smiled, whispering his own confession of love again into the next kiss they shared.

Rory couldn't help thinking that this is how happy endings ought to be. Not that it was an end as such, it was just a beginning, a new one, for both her and Jess. She had no idea how it would all work out from here, but she did trust that it would work, no matter what.

The End