Before Jess and Dean left for the elder Gilmore house, Luke had given Jess some book called "You Deserve Love". Since he knew about the "I love you," confession that seemingly partially led to Rory leaving home, it was apparent that Luke wanted them to patch things up. Jess had ensured his uncle that all the money that was spent would be paid back, before getting out of the diner and heading to his car. Him and Dean made an agreement not to drive together, because if one of them (Jess of course, Dean was married... right?) ended up having to take Rory home, they shouldn't all be in the same car.

They arrived at the same time in Hartford, hearing a piano play some classical music. "God," Dean gaped at the massive house after getting out of his car. "I forgot how massive this place was. How are we gonna find Rory in here?"

Jess shrugged, before hearing laughter from a guy, and a girl. He turned the corner to the pool house, looking through the glass window. Inside he saw Rory holding a bottle, surrounded by a bunch of guys in expensive looking suits. "Rory... Rory's drunk?" Jess asked, and Dean just shrugged. Jess watched Rory and a blonde get closer and closer... It was only Dean mumbling, "she looks good," that took his undivided attention away from what he was seeing. "Yeah," he replied. "She looks... more than good." Dean took a step towards the house, but Jess grabbed his shirt. "I don't think I want to go in," he admitted, causing Dean's face to melt into one of utter confusion.

"You were the one who wanted to come here anyway. Are you seriously telling me you're having second thoughts? About Rory? Our Rory?"

Jess balled his fists when Dean said 'our'. He had no place being in Rory's life, he was married. "No way. I just... look at those guys. Now look at us. We're just a pair of losers. We don't belong here." He started stalking back to the car, but Dean grabbed his arm and pointed it at his aquaintances face. "Don't lose it on me now, Jess. Don't you dare walk away. We came to get Rory, and whether you like it or not, we're picking her up even if you don't get a lover out of it. This is about her, not us. Okay?"

"Okay..." Jess tentatively responded, inching towards the door. He could only see Rory pointing at the blonde, and him moving in for a kiss, when Dean burst through the door, followed by Jess. Rory pulled away, her hand moving up to her lips in shock. "Jess?" She asked, trying to get up but falling back down instantly. "Dean?!" She seemed shocked to see them both, but this time when she lifted her butt off the couch she managed to stumble a few steps, before removing her stilettos and walking, slowly, towards the guys. "Let's talk outside?" She asked, gingerly moving forward. She stumbled just before the got to them, but, in a perfect movie moment, Jess caught her. He angled his head, moving in... but she faced the other direction. "Let's go." She leant on him as they walked outside. As soon as the cold air hit them, Rory awkwardly let go of Jess and leant on a retaining wall.

"Look, Rory-" Jess and Dean both started, but Jess gave Dean a glare. "I'll wait at my car," he muttered, leaving the late couple alone. "Wait, Jess-" Dean turned back around, whispering something in Jess' ear. Luke's nephew turned bright red in anger, and he scowled, but didn't hit Dean. He just turned away and started walking back to his car.

"Jess!" Rory yelled. "Jess, come back! What happened?"

"God, Rory!" Jess matched her volume. "I came back to Stars Hollow, a place I promised myself I would never go back to! I told you I loved you! Do you know the last time I said that? Never!"

"Jess, what's going on? What did Dean say?"

"Oh, nothing much," Jess bit back. "Just that about two weeks after my little confession, you two decided to have a fling!"

"Are you kidding me?" Rory screamed. "I didn't have a fling with him! It was one kiss! One kiss!"

"He's married, Rory!" Jess countered, and Rory could see the hurt in his eyes. Hurt, not anger. Hurt. "You..." his tone calmed down. "You must really hate if you would rather date a married man." He turned away again, this time making it to his car and turning on the ignition, before Rory ran after him again.

"This is why I can't be with you!" She started yelling again. "You always left! You ran from your problems! I almost started to think that maybe in your year away you had changed. But that's obviously not the case."

"I have changed, Rory! I'm not running from my problems this time! Talking to you - it hurts! It really hurts! I'm running from you, Rory! Because if I can't have you then being friends will be too painful to handle." The hot tears streamed down Rory's face as she watched Jess walk to his car again. She slowly walked over and put her fingers to the window. He rolled it down and stared at her. "Jess..." she said, and he switched his gaze to the steering wheel. "No, it's not anything bad. I just... I'm sorry. I'm sorry that I didn't reply when you told me you loved me..."

"It's okay, Rory," he mumbled. "You didn't feel the same. Whatever." He was acting so nonchalant about it that Rory almost believed that he didn't care, but the look in his eyes was just enough to realise that he did. That was when she noticed two books sitting on the passenger seat of the car. She walked around to the door and opened it. One of the books was called 'You Deserve Love'. She touched the cover of the book with her index finger, then looked up to meet Jess' eyes, but he was staring intently out the window. "Jess..." she reached over and turned his head to face her. "You do. You do deserve love."

He turned his head away again, gripping the steering wheel so hard his knuckles turned white. "Yeah, well. I don't seem be able to find it, huh?" He put a hand to his face. "I've got a special talent for driving people away," he sighed. "What the hell am I doing..."

"Do you... do you want to get some coffee?"

"What – coffee?" Jess questioned. "Uh... sure. Hop in." She lifted up the books and sat on the seat.

"What's this?" She pulled out a plastic sleeve from under the first book she saw. "'The Subsect?' Jess, you're – you're – you're writing a book?! Oh my god!"

"Jeez," Jess put on a slight scowl but a smile broke through. "I'm writing a book..." he was about to turn the key in the ignition when Rory's arms were around him.

"I'm so proud of you," she said into his shoulder, before pulling away instantly, with a huge smile on her face. "Okay, drive."

One they were at the coffee shop, sitting at a table, drinking their daily caffeine fix, Jess finally spoke. "So the coffee seems to have sobered you up."

Rory giggled. "I think it was the whole 'Jess is writing a book' thing."

Conversation dried up again as they both stared at their cups. "I'm sorry," he blurted out, not knowing exactly what for, but there were definitely a lot of things which could be encompassed in that apopgy. Rory didn't say anything, but Jess noticed tears well up in her eyes as she played with the handle on her cup. "I'm sorry for – for not treating you right, I'm sorry about Kyle's party. I'm sorry that I was the reason you and Dean broke up, I'm sorry for the amount of shit I got you stuck in every time we saw him, every time Dean and I had a fight. I'm sorry for making you feel like I didn't care, for leaving without telling you."

"Jess..." Rory started, but Jess was on a roll.

"For... for not talking to you when you ran into me at the book store, Weston's, anywhere else. I'm sorry for telling you I love you in the wrong place at the wrong time, but it had to be done. That day I called you, at graduation... I wanted to so badly. But I don't know, I just couldn't. I couldn't face hearing you end things right after I told you. And that's what would have happened. I'm sorry for making you think I was better than Dean, I guess. I wasn't. I'm sorry."

"God," Rory let out a bittersweet laugh. "That's a lot of sorry's."

"I think it was in order, don't you?"

"Maybe," she admitted. "I'm – I'm sorry too, for what it's worth."

This time it was Jess' turn to laugh. "You didn't do anything."

"Maybe not directly, but I played a part in what happened too. You can't solely blame yourself."

"Whatever," he replied.

"Don't act so nonchalant. Act like you care. That's the Jess I know."

"You don't know me," he grumbled back, and Rory got up from the table.

"Apparently not," she whispered, letting a single tear fall. "I want to go home," she said, her voice sounding strangled so that she wouldn't let the tears fall. "Can you take me home?"Jess nodded, getting up from the table and following Rory out."Well, here we are," she said after a few minutes of walking. Their car was parked on a steep hill, but Jess assured Rory that it would be safe enough, even with his dodgy car. He unlocked the doors and they got in their respective sides of the car. "Jess, I want to talk to you," Rory said, but Jess' lips were on hers as soon as she finished her sentence. He pulled away quickly, seeing Rory's confused expression. "What was..."

"One more time and maybe I'll have an explanation," he replied. He tried to kiss her again, but Rory knew they had to talk first.

"Jess, stop." She put a hand to his mouth and pushed him away, ignoring his sigh. "We can't just go along like nothing matters. Like we don't have to discuss this before we jump in the deep end. I mean, no offence, but I'm not even sure if I want to jump."

"I don't want to discuss it. Because if we discuss it, we'll know it can't work. I can't hear that. I don't want to realise that."

Rory felt for the guy. She felt exactly the same, yet she put on a stronger front. Funny, it was always him who put forward a stronger persona. "We have to talk. We need to sort this out... please, Jess."

"Look, Rory. I'm angry. And it's not even the whole, 'I'm just an angry guy' thing. I tried so hard, and..."

"And what?" Rory asked.

Jess knew it was wrong to try to hurt people. But he wanted Rory to feel the pain he felt, when she just watched him leave after the firelight festival, when she tried to leave him in New York without saying goodbye. "And..." he continued, "I thought I loved you." He did love her - he also knew it was pathetic to have been apologising and basically saying that he loved her less than five minutes before, but all he wanted was for her to feel pain. He didn't even realise, in the moment, that it was wrong.

Rory went numb when he said that. She thought she couldn't open her mouth, make any noise, but; "You... you don't?"

"I'm sorry," he sighed, turning on the ignition and driving rory back to Stars Hollow.

She walked up to the house, just as Jess drove away, presumably back to his grotty New York apartment. She slammed the door as she went in, thinking her mother was alone. Little did she know, she would find an unxpected couple... coupling. "Mom?" she called, and she heard whispering. She walked into the living room, and thinking it was Jason or something, wasn't expecting what she saw.

"Luke!?"

"Honey," Lorelai looked at her daughter with pleading eyes. "Some things happened after you left the Dragonfly. So, before I get really mad about how you left, how about we tell you what happened?"