Author's Note: Here's Chapter three! Read and review for chapter 4, please. Enjoy!

The words swam before her eyes as she tried to process what she was reading. He was- leaving? Jess was leaving? And why didn't he think he was good enough for her? That was ridiculous. Her hands were shaking as she kept an iron hold on the scrap of paper. She must have been sitting there for atleast four hours before suddenly realizing what was going on. Jess was actually leaving. She had to do something.

He realized he was probably being melodramatic. Taking off at the first sign of trouble was something he wasn't proud of. But he had made an honest effort, and four weeks was an awfully long time to wait. If Rory wouldn't even talk to him or respond to his letters, how was anything going to change? He had called Liz directly after getting back from delivering the letter. He was packing his bags and he was leaving Star's Hollow. He shuddered at the thought. To leave this town would be to leave the only place in the world he could ever call home. Home was with Luke. Home was where quirky townsfolk such as Taylor and Kirk, Miss Patty and Babette, Lulu and Morey and the others lived. Home was with Rory. He choked back a sob as he thought of his former- he winced at the word- best friend. To leave her forever would be the hardest thing he would ever have to do. But without her, he didn't see the point in staying here.

Three days after Rory discovered Jess and Shane kissing on the bridge, Shane had showed up at the diner to talk to Jess. The conversation had been cold and unfeeling. She had stated that there was no way she was going to be with someone who was pining after some other girl, and he said that it was a stupid idea to ask her out in the first place. There was a great deal of yelling involved, as well.

He sighed, took a deep breath, and zipped up the last of his bags. Surprisingly, even after living in the tiny little apartment for ten years, his stuff wasn't that spread out or messy. He couldn't sleep that night, and Luke was off on an over-night fishing trip, so he woke no one as he silently packed every single one of his belongings away. It was a difficult task. Everything reminded him of Rory. Rory bought me this book. I was wearing this shirt on Rory's birthday. This shirt is the color of her eyes... He mentally slapped himselft. Stop thinking about her! He scolded himself. But it was a hopeless task. This is Rory's favorite CD. Rory was with me when I bought that book, she teased me about buying that hair gel... He walked down in to the diner, which was empty, considering it was 2 o'clock in the morning.

What he saw shocked him. Rory was standing in the middle of the diner, clutching his letter tightly in her hands. Tears were streaming freely down her face, and Jess couldn't seem to form a sentence. The next thing he knew, he had crossed the room in three long strides and wrapped her in his arms, trying to consol her, whispering comforting nothings into her ear. She only managed to choke out two words before she buried her face into his neck and broke down.

"Don't go."

He could breath again. How dramatic was it that he claimed to not be able to breath without her? But it was true. He buried his face in her hair and took deep gulping breaths, feeling calm and relaxed for the first time in roughly 5 weeks, since he had asked Shane out.

They had yet to have the inevitable conversation, but both seemed content to wait. Rory had calmed down after a few minutes, but not until, Jess noticed, he promised her that he wasn't going to leave her.

After about an hour of simple holding one another, Jess pulled back slightly- and regretfully- and spoke.

"I am so, so, sorry, Ror. You have no idea," he whispered, keeping his arms tight around her.

"What happened to the blonde?" Rory asked cautiously. She didn't know what she would do if he told her he was still with her.

"Who, Shane?" he asked. "Nah, she's long gone. Out of the picture. Adios."

"I'm sorry," Rory said, although what she wanted to do was do a cartwheel and scream with joy.

"Really? Because I'm not," Jess said, smiling and kissing her forehead before tucking her head back under his and breathing deeply in contentment. "Can you forgive me?"

"Clearly, I've forgiven you, Jess," she said, rolling her eyes and simultaneously wiping away tears.

"Well, just because you don't want me to move doesn't mean you can move past what I did to you," he said, his voice remaining deadly serious.

"I understand why you did it, Jess. And I forgive you," she said.

Jess's attitude changed suddenly and he pushed her away, crossing his arms. "Well, you shouldn't."

"What?" Rory asked, confused and a little hurt.

"You shouldn't forgive me. What I did was so hurtful, so terrible. I can't even forgive myself for it."

"Jess, listen. Admittedly if I had a boyfriend I would have probably handled it a bit better, but hey, I know it wouldn't be easy, telling you about it," she said, putting her hand on the side of his face.

Jess closed his eyes against her touch. She shouldn't be comforting him. It was supposed to be the other way around.

"C'mere," he said, opening his arms and pulling her in to his warm embrace. "It'll never happen again, I promise."

"You scared me," Rory suddenly admitted.

"I scared you?"

"With the letter. I couldn't even breath thinking about what my life would be like without you. Just four weeks without seeing you was killing me. If you had moved..." she trailed off, her gaze unfocused as if she was imagining a different future without Jess in it. Her expression showed clearly that it wasn't a preferable one.

He shuddered at the thought of what his life would have been like had he gone through with the move to New York.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry..." he whispered, pulling her closer.

Somehow, they ended up on the floor behind the counter. Her head was securly tucked into his neck and his arms were tight around her. Their rude awakening came at 4:00am, when Luke came back from his fishing trip and found them.

Lorelai had often observed that what Rory and Jess shared could defintely not be considered normal. Their dependancy was astonishing- she had never heard of anyone who was as close as the two of them, including couples in freakishly sappy love stories. They seemed to have a sixth sense pertaining only to them. Once, when the two were only nine years old, Rory had fallen down in the drive way of their house and skinned her knee up. Lorelai was at Doose's picking up some food for a movie marathon, and Rory had really hurt herself. Jess had been their five minutes later, breathing heavily, having run all the way from Luke's. He helped her get inside and cleaned and bandaged her wound. When Lorelai had thanked him and mentioned how lucky it was that he had come over to see her, he shook his head and said, "I wasn't on my way over, I just had a feeling she needed me."

They felt each other's pain, and to watch the other get hurt would have been the ultimate torture to them. Lorelai shook her head as another memory came to her...

"Mom, I can't sleep," a ten year old Rory said.

"It's after eleven, and you have school tomorrow," Lorelai said, her brow wrinkling in worry. "Are you sick?" Feeling her daughter's forehead and ascertaining that they were was no fever, she said "Well, hun, just go try to sleep again, I guess."

Rory shook her head and said, "I need Jess."

Not thirty seconds later, a knock came at the door. Lorelai opened it.

"Hey, Ror. Couldn't sleep," he said, brushing past Lorelai and into the living room, not at all surprised that Rory was still up.

Lorelai's eyebrows raised in amusement as the two walked into Rory's room like it was the most natural thing in the world.

Poking her head in the door five minutes later, she chuckled lightly at the sight of Rory and Jess curled up on her bed, fast asleep.

And now? What was going on with Rory and Jess was not normal. They had never faught before, and the first time they did, Rory avoided him and locked herself in her room, and Jess didn't sleep (according to Luke) and stayed up all night writing letters to her. Of course, her primary concern was her daugter, but she was worried for Jess, too. If only Rory could tell her what was...

Her musings were interrupted as Rory burst in the door, bright and early on this Sunday morning, and threw her arms around her mother. Lorelai was beyond shocked, of course, considering that it was only 6am, and she had believed her daughter to be asleep in her own room this whole time.

"Everythings, better, Mom. Everything's ok!" she screeched, kissing her mom on the cheek, grabbing a jacket, and running back out the door.

Her mouth hung wide open for a full thirty seconds until she forced it closed.

Rory approached the scene of the crime cautiously. This was to be her first return to the bridge since the day that she had found Jess and Shane kissing. He was already there, his legs dangled over the edge. A book lay on his lap, unopened.

She was nervous. Not about being with Jess, but about being here with Jess. What if it was different? What if she couldn't come here to be at peace with the world anymore? What if it couldn't be their place, now that it was contaminated with the memory of the start of their very first fight?

Her fears were quickly put to rest. Jess looked up as she walked toward him and opened his arms for her. She eagerly sat down and buried his face into Jess's chest.

Rory was happy again. But something in her wanted more. She had the urge to reach up and kiss her best friend at this moment, but she knew that he couldn't feel the same way.

Jess wanted to kiss her right here, right now. He had known her for ten years, and known for maybe five of those years- since he was eleven- that he was hopelessly in love with her. But she didn't feel the same way.

"Love you, Ror," he said, kissing her on the top of the head. Even though she didn't know exactly what he meant when he said it, he loved being able to tell her that.

"Love you too, Jess."

Author's Note: AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW... anyways... please give me a quote that you like from this chapter in your review! (I need ten of those lovely little reviews before I'm going to give you another chapter!)