AN: As always, thanks for the reviews! I have been a little knocked out by pain meds, but the story ideas continue even then. Hope you enjoy this next installment!

Rory sat at a table in Luke's Diner, the remains of both her and her mother's breakfasts still on the table, her only companion at this point. It was strange, being back in this town, as it seemed to go on the same while she was away. It went on without her, as if she'd never come or gone. Everything was the exact same, but looked completely different to her.

Perhaps the largest difference, that was more than noticeable to her, but went on without even a bat of an eyelash from any of the townspeople, was the obvious closeness that had formed between her mother and Luke. They'd been dating for months, most of it out of the sight of Rory. She'd been with Dean when it began, and not told for some time, then she had been in Europe and back to Yale. All the while her mother had seamlessly adapted to having this man in her life. In their house. All her life, there'd been no man. Lorelai had failed to show her the proper way to act around a man, and now she was struggling her own way through it only to come home to see this display of love. Her mother was most definitely in love, and anyone in this small hamlet could have told you that Luke was in love with her years ago. But now, seeing shared moments behind the counter and the way he watched her walk off—it was Rory's wake-up call.

Lorelai sat back down, bringing the coffee pot back with her. She sat next to Rory, whose gaze was somewhere far off.

"Hey, I got us some coffee," she said, breaking Rory's attention on things far away.

"The whole pot?" Rory raised an eyebrow.

"Well, there are perks to dating the diner man," Lorelai sat up a little straighter.

"Does it include seeing flannel shirts in the dryer?"

"What happened to 'I'm glad you two got together?'"

"I am happy, I'm just not used to seeing manly things around the house."

"Like flannel shirts?"

"And men," Rory added.

"Man. One man. Luke. We like Luke."

"Yes, we like Luke. I'm sorry, I'm just transitioning here."

"Well, you've been off getting that fancy education. But I have you for Christmas break soon, so you'll get used to it a little more, hopefully?" Lorelai asked, not realizing it would be weird for Rory to have Luke around all the time.

"Right. I can't believe it's almost time for finals again. I have so much studying to do."

"I thought you'd been studying a lot lately. You haven't been home for weeks," Lorelai reminded her.

"Well, I have, this semester is just really busy. Especially with paper stuff. Lots more responsibility now," Rory half-lied, leaving out the excursions she'd been taking with Logan. Her mother would just worry and tell her how evil society life was, and how her grandparents were somehow behind this to 'rope her in'.

"Alright. Oh, man," she said, cringing.

"What?"

"Do me a favor?"

"What?" she looked at her mom questioningly.

"I left something upstairs, and I need you to go get it."

"Why?"

"I'm not allowed upstairs without Luke. Something about him not trusting me not to snoop for my Christmas present."

"Mom, why can't he get it?"

"Well, one, he's obviously busy," she pointed out as he refilled coffee cups.

"And two?"

"It's girly."

"Girly?"

"Tampons," she whispered

"You left tampons in Luke's apartment?" Rory whispered back.

"It's not that weird."

"It's kinda weird," she informed her.

"I'd just gone to Doose's and came here, and I wasn't going to leave them on the table while we ate, was I?"

"I suppose not," Rory scowled.

"Just go get them. I'll pay, and go rent videos, and meet you at home."

"Luke is just going to think I'm snooping for you," Rory pointed out.

"No, he knows you're much too honest and do-goody for that," Lorelai shook her head.

"Do-goody?"

"Go!"

"Fine. But you owe me!"

"Add it to the list," she said, kissing her daughter's cheek and heading up to pay for their meals.

Rory sighed, grabbing her coat and looking over to Luke before disappearing up the stairs. A wave of nostalgia swept over her. She remembered checking for Luke's attention to be elsewhere before sneaking up the stairs to arrange for some uninterrupted time with Jess during her senior year of high school. When he knew of their time together, Luke would always try to make sure to barge in periodically. Shaking the thought from her head, she made it to the door, and put her hand on the knob. She knew it was silly to think of him, and it was only because she'd seen him in New York. Opening the door, she was hoping her mother would have left the bag with her purchases in an obvious spot, and not have to go sorting through Luke's things.

She headed to the kitchen, looking for a Doose's bag when the bathroom door opened. She jumped back a little, not quite sure what to expect. Her eyes fixed on him, towel wrapped around his waist and hair still dripping wet.

"Rory?"

"Yeah?"

"What are you--?"

"Mom, uh, my mom left something here," she explained, unable to turn her attention away from Jess's form. She'd seen him in a towel before, and many times without a shirt. She tried to push all memories of him shirtless out of her head quickly, to make room for new thought. Thoughts that would enable her to have an actual conversation and get the hell out of there.

"Okay. Are you okay?" he asked, concerned for her as he watched her fumble for words.

"Yeah. It's a Doose's bag."

"What is?"

"What Mom left. Have you seen it?"

"No."

"What are you doing here?"

"Uh, I came to help Luke work on Liz's house."

"Right. Mom told me they bought a house here."

"Yeah. TJ's not much of a handyman."

"Right."

Silence fell over them. Neither had moved, looked for the bag, or twitched for that matter. Jess came to realize that he was still standing there in the towel, and wondered if that were the reason for her lack of yelling or inability to blink.

"I'm going to go get dressed. I'll help you look for the bag," he promised, and she nodded. He disappeared into the bathroom, and she turned around, desperate to find what she'd come for. She moved from the kitchen over to what was obviously Luke's bed. It'd been slept in last night, she was guessing by Jess, but she didn't know. Luke has spent the night at their house last night, looking very comfortable about it all, despite the weirdness factor she'd felt.

"I'm sorry about New York," he said, reemerging from the bathroom. She turned quickly, her search coming to a halt.

"Why?" she sighed, not wanting to go into this.

"Because, we can't seem to have a normal conversation, you and I," he explained.

"What did you expect, really?"

"We were friends before."

"No, I was your friend. You were trying to get me to date you. There's a difference."

"Like what's going on with you and Logan," he nodded.

"That's a completely different situation."

"He likes you, Rory."

"He does not," she glared at him, tired of people telling her as such. First Marty, causing a weird strain in their friendship, and now Jess, who didn't even know what he was talking about.

"I know him, I've seen how he looks at you."

"How do you know him, anyway?"

"He didn't tell you?" Jess looked surprised.

"No. After you left, he started too, but," she bit her lip.

"But what?"

"But I didn't want to talk about you, okay?"

The look in her eye was enough for him. He could see the hurt. Hell, he could feel the pain there. He nodded.

"Okay. Do you want me to tell you?"

She nodded. Her curiosity had been peaked, after all. Of all the men in her past to happen to know one another, this was the last combination she would have put together.

"Logan's aunt married Jimmy's brother," he began.

"Jimmy?"

"My, uh, dad," he furrowed his eyebrows.

"Oh."

"Yeah. Anyway, she was probably excommunicated for slumming it, but at any rate, Logan'd come to New York last year, right after I got back, to make plans for the Coney Island trip. Jimmy had told me if I needed someone to stay with that wasn't my mom in the city, to look my uncle up. I had gone over there one night, and Logan was there as well. We started talking, and he was telling me that they needed people with certain mechanical skills to do some defaming of Coney Island," he smiled, as if he really enjoyed the work.

"So, anyhow, we arranged for me and some friends to go and dismantle the lap bars and make it a bit more 'historic' shall we say."

"So, you were one of his minions?"

"I'm not a minion."

"He hired you?"

"They do pay well, those society types. Especially when it's illegal," he put his head to one side.

She nodded, looking away from him. It made sense, and in all honesty, she should have figured as much. It was strange to hear him talk about family in any way. He'd always sounded like an orphan as much as he'd mentioned anything about himself in the past.

"Why are you telling me all this now?"

"You wanted to know."

"You don't owe me anything," she reminded him.

"Yeah, I do."

More silence. She sat down on the bed, forgetting her quest for the moment. She looked up at him, and noticed that he seemed to be studying her.

"I think you should be careful with him," he spoke again.

"Jess," she sighed, rolling her eyes.

"I mean it. He has his eye on you, and these people can get you into a lot of trouble. Not the stupid kind of stuff that I did, real trouble," he urged.

"You don't even know Logan."

"I do. He's invited me along to parties when they're in New York, seeing as we're sort of family, and I keep my mouth shut about their activities. You don't want to get messed up in some of this shit, Rory, trust me."

"I should go," she stood, not wanting to hear anymore.

"Rory," Jess stood, trying to catch her before she got to the door.

She turned and looked at him, her eyes pleading with him to let her leave. He stood in front of her, looking into her eyes, knowing she wouldn't leave until he wanted her to.

"Take this," he said, scribbling something down on a piece of paper. "Just, promise me you'll use it if you need to," he urged.

She looked down and saw what she assumed was his cell number. She folded it neatly, and looked at him once more. She nodded and then turned, rushing down the stairs and out the exit, past a perplexed Luke, towards home.