A/N: Okey, so the final chapter is here, the big ending, call it what you want! Thank you for all reviews on chapter 3, it's been so fun to get all the feedback, keep it coming! I've got another story planned and in writing, so you haven't heard the last from me. Okey, so enjoy the chapter and review please!

Disclaimer: I, the author of this story do not own any of the characters or anything associated with Gilmore Girls. That honor belongs to the wonderful Amy Sherman-Palladino

Chapter 4: Catharsis

"Jess!"

Someone was screaming, and he heard hurried footsteps. He was still half asleep, and couldn't make himself answer, or care for that matter.

"Jess!"

Again that shrill, screaming voice. It sounded familiar, but still, he tried to ignore it. It was… what day was it? He didn't know for sure, but since his alarm clock hadn't gone off, it meant that he was in no way obliged to get out of bed yet.

But when someone started hitting him, rapid hits on his head, his arms, his legs, then he reacted. He was a grumpy morning person (he maintained he got it from Luke, grumpy seemed to be his perpetual state), and waking up to screams and hits didn't make it anything better.

"What?!" he roared and sat upstraight.

He didn't see anyone. Chris' coffeetable was right infront of him, laden with empty and half-empty bowls of candy. Then he saw her. Rory was zooming past him, she looked like she was seconds away from a breakdown.

"Finally!" she shrieked, looking rather violently at him. "Why didn't you wake me? I'm so late, God how could you do this?"

"What?" Jess asked grumpily.

"It's 11.12, and I was supposed to meet with the other journalists over an hour ago!"

"And that's my fault how exactly?"

"Why did you let me sleep in?" she asked, sounding hysterical.

"Hey, you didn't say anything about wake up service, Rory." he commented sourly.

"Jess, come on!"

"No!" he screamed, feeling the grumpiness turn into anger inside him. "You can not blame this on me. You came here voluntarily, so don't put this on me, but on the other hand, that's your M.O."

"What?"

Rory stopped, and turned to look at him.

"You kissed me at Sookies wedding and then proceeded to pout when you came back from Washington, and saw that I had hooked up with Shane over the summer. You didn't contact me while you were in Washington, you were with Dean at the time, and you made me feel like it was my fault. You came here, to Philly, alone, and you told me everything was fixed! We kissed, Rory, and then you tell me it's not fixed, and I felt like crap! Is that somehow my fault as well?"

"I told you then I was sorry!" she said. "I told you I was totally wrong coming here!"

The noise had woken up both Chris and Matthew, and both now peered out through the door to their room.

"Everything okey there?" Matt asked.

Jess was so worked up, he could feel it exploding now.

"Butt out Matt, I'm warning you!"

Chris looked surprised, never during the two odd years he had known Jess, had he ever shown a temper like this. The two boys closed their door, emerging seconds later, fully dressed, Matt having all his writing stuff with him. Him and Chris disappeared out the door and down the stairs without looking at them or saying anything.

"You happy now?" Rory asked tauntingly. "You scared your pals away."

"Why did you even come Rory? Or is that my fault, too?" he screamed, hearing the words come out of his mouth, wanting it to stop, but not being able to. "Couldn't you say no to me? Am I so awful, so hated that you feel you need to fix it? God, you can be so like Luke, why do you have to fix everything?"

She didn't answer, and Jess wanted to kick himself somewhere for saying all those things. She looked so fragile now, he could see she was on the verge of tears.

"I hate you…" she finally whispered.

It felt like she had hit him in the face. He had blown it, the nice resolved feeling he had wallowed in for a year had just flown out the window. He wanted to protest, he wanted to say that he didn't mean any of it, he didn't hate her, he wasn't really angry with her. He wanted to explain, to say that he was a lot like Luke, grumpy and hermit-like, but would she listen? Would she care? She made a move to leave, hastily getting her things.

Jess caught her as she moved past him.

"Jess, let me go." she said, voice quivering.

Jess was about to let her go, but he then realized that if he let her leave now, he would most likely never see her again. They would part on terms he wouldn't wish for anyone, save perhaps the rich dipstick. He had to do something. Of all the people he loved, Rory was the one he couldn't stand to be in a fight with. He did the only thing he could think of that would make Rory understand he didn't hate her. He kissed her, trying to convey all the feelings he had for her; the passion, the disappointment, the admiration, the forgiveness and the neverending love he felt for her. He could feel her responding to the kiss, he could feel victory coming closer and closer.

Then she pulled away. Jess pressed his eyes tightly together, not really wanting to open them and see what would come out of his attempt. He could already guess it, it was like a curse between them. Anytime either of them tried to move forward, show love, one of them left. He had left her at graduation. They had both left each other when she turned him down at Yale. She had left him at the Truncheon open house, and she would most likely leave him now.

Slowly opening his eyes, he saw that she was still there. Tears were running down her face, and she stared at him, looking scared and so small. Then she turned on her heel, but to Jess' great surrpise she didn't storm out the door. She stormed right into his bedroom, and banged the door shut. He couldn't make himself follow, so he sat down on the sofa, feeling nearly as idiotic as when he was the struggling hoodlum in his youth.

He wasn't sure how long he just sat there on that stupid sofa, looking at the stupid coffee table, thinking the same stupid thoughts over and over again:

"It could've been worse… I'm such a moron… She'll come out, eventually, or I'll break in… It could've been worse…"

He could feel the symptomatic head ache approach, the one he got from being in a fight, especially one that wasn't resolved. Add that to the harsh waking and no morning coffee, and Jess felt like his head was about to split open. He weighed his head in his hands, furiously massaging his temples to calm the head ache. He could hear something click, and he wished to God it was his head, the last piece of the puzzle falling into place. When he heard the same, quiet clicking sound again he realized it wasn't his head. It was his door. He turned around.

Rory stood just outside his door, looking pale, with tears still running down her sweet face. Jess noted she had her cellphone out. She must have called Lorelai, who else would she call? Or maybe she called Luke, if Lorelai didn't answer. God, what if she had called dipstick to say she had reconsidered? More and more options swirled through Jess' mind, and each possiblitity was as unlikely as the next.

"I called my boss." Rory said quietly, voice cracking from crying.

"Your boss?" Jess asked stupidly.

She nodded, and walked quietly over to him, sitting down by his side.

"I called my boss… And I told him I had visited a friend, we had ordered food and that we woke up today with food poisoning."

"Food… poisoning." Jess repeated, not really following her point.

"He told me to rest and call him when I was better and he would send me a plane ticket so I could catch up with them, they leave Philadelphia tonight."

"But… Why? I thought you had called Lorelai, and that you by now had a plan to kill me, or that you had asked her to come get you. I thought you would want to leave."

Rory took out a crumpled tissue from her jeanspocket, wiping away her tears.

"So did I, but…" she began, and again, tears began to flow from her blue eyes.

"But what?" Jess asked softly, wiping some of her tears away with his thumb.

He didn't get an answer. In stead, Rory flung her arms around him, pulling him closer to her, and then burst into tears against his chest.

He held her tight, letting his hands run through her hair. He didn't say anything, he didn't know what to say, or even if there was anything to say. Her tears drowned in his damp t-shirt, along with her sobs. She tried to speak, but whatever she said drowned in her crying and his embrace. Rory hiccoughed wildly, her breathing moving from strained to almost hyperventilating.

"Sch…" he hushed. "Rory, calm down, you need to breathe."

She whined, a heartbreaking noise that made Jess' heart bleed.

"I… can't…" she hiccoughed between her violent sobs.

"Yes, you can, Rory, come on."

He instinctively knew what to do. He turned her, her back now resting against his chest. He put one of his hands on her chest, pressed a little and began breathing deep, calm breaths.

"Come on, Rory. Breathe with me. You need to calm down… Deep breaths."

It took her fifteen minutes to get back to breathing normally. All the time she lay against him, her eyes tired and red after crying. She stared out a window, not blinking until her eyes watered. Jess could tell she was exhausted.

"Are you okey? Back with the living?" he asked her.

She nodded silently, still staring.

"Are you hungry? Thirsty?"

New nod. He carefully got out of the sofa, letting her rest on it. When he was about to go to the kitchen, she took hold of his hand, looking pleadingly at him.

"Rory," he said calmly. "I'm going to the kitchen, you can see me from here, all the way. I'll get you something to eat."

She reluctantly let go, and Jess walked slowly into the kitchen, making coffee, a sandwish and pouring her a glass of juice to drink while waiting for the coffee.

She drank the juice in three, four big gulps, shuddering at its coldness. The sandwish was left almost as it was, he couldn't make her eat more than two miniscule bites. He went to get her coffee, pouring in milk and sugar even though he knew she preferred it black. She took the cup of coffee gratefully, not mentioning the milk and sugar. Any other time she would have forced him to pour her a new cup, he knew that. She drank the coffee slower, not gulping it down like the juice, but slowly sipping it. She seemed calmer, but also much quieter.

"What happened Rory?" Jess asked her, eyeing at her with a concerened look.

At first, she just peered at him, searching for the words and wondering how to put it all.

"I…" she began, sounding weak and hoarse. "I was so afraid."

"Afraid of what?"

"Of… Losing you."

He gave her a little smile, caressing her hair and her face.

"So was I." he confessed.

"But of course I was the one to have a crack-up worthy of Britney." she joked and smiled a weak smile.

Jess sat down next to her, pulling her close again. Rory closed her eyes, and Jess savoured the moment he knew they had both been waiting for.

"So, what do we do now?" he asked a couple of minutes later.

"Well," Rory began, suppressing a yawn. "We have food poisoning, so I can't see how we can do much at all."

"But of course. We're so weak it's pathetic, really."

"Right. So we'll just hang back and do what sick people like ourselves are supposed to do."

"Work." Jess concluded.

"Watch you work." Rory added.

"Write."

"Read."

"Dig it, man."

"Peace out, Humphrey."

"What?" Jess asked, confused.

"Nothing. I think for a moment I was back at a Friday night dinner." Rory answered dreamily.

"You're crazy."

They were both quiet for what seemed like an eternity, until Rory spoke:

"I think I may have loved you all this time, even when I said I didn't."

That made Jess stop whatever thought he had going. She had said it, the word he had waited to hear from her for a year. Again, the line from the day of her graduation, when he was in Venice Beach, came back. She had loved him then, she loved him now.

"I think now would be a good time to respond, Jess."

"Huh?"

"You seemed to lose yourself there."

"I was just savouring the moment. You have no idea how long I've waited for that."

"So, I should take that as an 'I love you, too' kind of response?" she asked, piercing him to the soul with her baby blues.

"Yes, I love you too, Rory. With all of my heart."

Her smiled widened.

"Good." she smiled, sounding suspiciously peachy. "As soon as I'm done with the campaign trail, I'll look for something more stable around here, and you can prepare yourself for the confrontation with my mother and the occasional dinners with the grandparents."

"Rory!" he groaned. "Your mother I can take, but your grandparents? I think they'd agree with me when I say that I under no circumstances should approach their house again."

"Too bad, Mariano. You knew you would get my mother once you got me, you really thought the grandparents were a different matter?"

Jess pouted for a moment, with Rory trying to cheer him up with kisses and anecdotes. When the front door cautiously creaked open, and Chris peeked in to check the status of the two fighters, and he was much surprised to find his secretive co-owner fondling his ex.

"How the hell did this happen?" Chris asked, sounding as if he had never heard the word 'reconciliation' before.

Jess shot him a look, which was enough for Chris to say:

"Fine, butting out as we speak."

Matt, surprisingly, took it a little better. He kept on telling the story about how the quiet, pacifistic Jess Mariano had had a shouting contest with his ex and that Chris and himself had heard "furniture crack and punches fly" from the bookstore below. He had left to go to the Obama Campaign just when the punching sounds had reached the bottom floor. Everytime he told the story, he embellished it a little more, until he was convinced that actual boxing punches had been exchanged between Jess and Rory, and he always told it like he had been there all the time. Both Jess and Rory laughed about it, occasionally recreating the scenario according to Matt's latest version of the history. No matter how the fight started, and how it unfolded, they both agreed the ending was best, when Jess would swoop up Rory, do a full on tango move and passionately kiss her, proclaiming his undying love to her in an Italian accent.

One night, about a week after the Great Fight and the Final Make Up, they were lying in Jess' creaking bed, watching out his window unto a darkening Philadelphia.

"So, how long do you think we can keep this food poisoning going?" Jess asked, gently kissing Rory.

"I think it's time to call my boss," Rory replied, dodging his kisses, and turning to look sternly at him. "And I think it's time we called my mom."

"Can't it be a surprise?" Jess tried to coax.

"Jess, I think it's kind of a surprise already. Come on, you know my mom, she'll be over it in no time, and if not we'll send Luke over. It'll be virtually painless."

"And I'm Frank at the Sands…" Jess muttered sulkily. "Fine, you call."

Rory took out her Sidekick, hit 1 and pressed the green button. Jess could hear the dialing tone, and then Lorelai's voice saying "Loin here, what's up fruit?."

"Mom… I'm in Philadelphia…"

"Oh, aren't we sounding serious. Should I change clothes? I don't know if my 'Juicy' trousers can take serious talk." Lorelai babbled.

"Mom, I'm in Philadelphia…" Rory tried again.

"So you said!"

"And I'm with Jess…"

He could almost see how Lorelai stopped what she was doing, and then came the fast talking, he didn't catch half of what she was saying.

"…and what do you mean you're with Jess?" Lorelai finally asked, a bit calmer

"Well, if we put it this way, Mom… I think Grandma will terrorize you less from now on."

Jess smiled. He definitely had to learn to handle the Gilmores. But on the bright side, he had already tamed on of them.