Author'sNote:So the night continues. This chapter will, once again be fairly similar. I think a night with the two of them alone is hard to change. Only small bits of what they say would change because of the situation, so please don't feel like I've cheated you in some way. I think the changes make sense and what was kept the same makes sense, so I went with it.
Disclaimer: I do not own Gilmore Girls, their characters, or their dialogue. I only thought of the plot.
As he was driving them back he licked his ice cream cone. The drive there had gone by smoothly. They had good conversation, like always, and he had impressed her with his good driving. She told him about the time she got hit by a deer and how horribly her mother could drive if she was in a hurry. He paid for the cones and told her to get as many scoops as she wanted.
"Admit it, it's always better in a cone." Jess said smiling at her.
"It's always better in a cone."
"Putting ice cream in a dish, eating it with a spoon?"
"What is wrong with people?" Rory joked.
Jess went to lick his ice cream cone again but as he did he could feel a drip fall onto his wrist. The sticky drip slid down his arm slowly, twisting around as his arm moved while driving. He huffed, trying to hold the wheel with the cone in his hand. The motion jerked the car around so he let go of the wheel slowly.
"Hold the wheel."
"What?" Rory said, turning her eyes on him.
"I'm dripping here, hold the wheel."
"I can't hold the wheel, you're driving. The person who's driving has to hold the wheel. That's the first thing they teach you in driver's ed."
Jess was barely touching the wheel with his elbows. Rory looked panicked, knowing that at any moment he really would let go whether or not she was holding the wheel for him.
"Huh, I gotta take that class one of those days. Take the wheel."
"Jess." She barked at him.
"I'm letting go."
Rory reached out for the wheel instinctively as Jess lifted his elbows up as well.
"Stop! Take it back." But Jess seemed in no hurry to take the wheel back from her. "Okay, you are taking this wheel back and when you do, I'm going to kill you. I'm just letting you know that."
"I appreciate the warning." He laughed.
"Jess!"
"Okay, I got it." He said taking the wheel. "Geez, you look pale. Are you okay?"
"Death, and it's going to be painful." She said, fixing him a harsh glare.
"You're not gonna kill me. Think how dull your life would be without me."
Rory laughed quietly, knowing the statement was true. Besides the short period of time when Tristan had been a pain in her ass everything in her life seemed very mundane. She lived in Stars Hallow where nothing of consequence ever happened. Then Jess had shown up and suddenly there were missing gnomes and fake murders.
She just watched the road as Jess drove a little further. She started thinking about the night as a whole, it was far from a date but it had still been fun and she would probably even be able to tell her mother about the ice cream run without a meltdown. Maybe she'd even get her mom in a good enough mood to talk about the break up. But just the fact that Luke had come to her to help Jess troubled her.
"Serious question?" she asked letting her eyes slowly turn to find his.
"Okay." He said, a reluctant tone behind his voice.
"I know you're smarter than most everybody at your school. We've been hanging out for way too long, if you were stupid I'd know it by now. I suggest a book and you finish it in five minutes. You read everything, you remember everything, you could ace those classes easily. Stars Hallow High isn't a difficult school, most of the idiots there graduate with a 3.2 not let the school see the smart version of yourself that you've shown me?"
"Don't worry about it." He said casually as if she hadn't posed a serious question.
"You can do anything you wanted, you can be anything you wanted."
"Rory." His tone told her he wanted the conversation to be over.
"I. . .is it like a cool thing?" she asked, truly curious about the answer.
"I could care less about being cool."
"Well, inform me, please."
Jess sat in silence for a second. But he could still feel her big brown eyes on him as he looked at the road. It was like she wasn't going to give up on the conversation. He wasn't sure if he could tell her the truth. He didn't want to continue school, so he could honestly give less than two shits about high school, especially one as small town as Stars Hallow High.
"I'm not going to college, okay?"
"Of course you are."
"Please." Jess almost wanted to laugh at her naiveté.
"What? Please what – why is it so crazy?"
Rory felt hurt. Jess knew she couldn't wrap her brain around the idea of a capable person not wanting to continue with school. But he didn't need her to tell him that he was perfectly able to finish school, and even get into the Ivys if he put some work in.
He could get all his grades up to an A without any real effort. He could use his life experience to write a killer essay, he had no money so he'd get plenty of scholarships… But he just had no desire to continue on. And as certain as he was with that decision he wasn't sure if he could explain it to Rory.
"Ask my mother, she could give you a couple reasons. Oh, and I'm sure Principal Mertin can chime in with a few good ones. In fact, ask your mother. She doesn't know me all that well but I'm sure she could improvise a few things."
"Do not give me that whole 'I'm so misunderstood, Kurt Cobainy' thing. You are way stronger than that and I don't even wanna hear it. You have to go to college."
"No, you have to go to college .Otherwise bragging about my smart girlfriend to random guys in bars will be a lie. Me, I'll get by. Live wherever, do whatever I need to make money." Jess said seriously.
"I don't want to date a prostitute." Rory joked but her laughter fell short into a silence that overtook the felt pretty certain that she knew better than to continue the conversation at this point. He had made it clear in the last month that when he didn't want to talk about things she wouldn't be able to change his mind. And this topic was a big no-no on his list of conversation starters.
But the silence felt awkward to him. He didn't like that they had gone from having a perfectly good evening to feeling awkward around each other.
"So, Courtney, what about you?" he asked trying to lighten the mood.
"What about me?"
"You still all about Harvard and Christiane Amapour?"
"Yes, I am." She said with a huge smile on her face.
Jess almost wanted to laugh. The idea seemed even sillier now than when she had first mentioned it. He could still remember sitting on the bridge and wanting to laugh at loud at the idea of her crawling in trenches and having bombs go off around her. It wasn't the version of her that he knew.
Rory could see his thoughts printed across his face. It didn't take a genius to see what he was thinking. The disbeliefs was all there, right in plain sight.
"What?"
"Just sounds a little too-"
"A little what?" Rory cut him off.
"Just sounds a little too rough for you. I mean you jumped like hell when that frog came near you at the bridge, and you ran from the swan faster than I've ever seen you move. You're not really an outdoors type of girl."
He tried being honest. But the look on her face told him he shouldn't have. They had been talking for months and he knew all about her big plans. He had never verbalized any issues with them in the past. Her face had fallen, she looked broken, almost like someone had kicked a puppy in front of her.
"Hey, I didn't mean to freak you out. I'm sorry…" and he truthfully was.
"No it's fine. It's just that no one's ever questioned me about it before. No one ever put it all out there. I mean I've always said that's what I wanted to do and no one ever questioned it. I never really thought about anything else. I know it'll be dirty and loud, and hard too but it's what I always said I wanted. And I mean if I said it there has to be a reason, right? Right?... Oh my god, what do I think I'm going to do? I don't even like dirt let alone trenches. And loud noises freak me out, how would I handle bombs? I don't want to remember all of those foreign languages, that is a waste of brain space."
"Hey, it's gonna be fine. You'll be fine.
"Yeah…" Rory trailed off.
"So I guess we should be getting back. I did promise to study if you went on this ice cream run with me." He said to break the awkward pause.
"Yes, you did." Her mind pulling away from the sudden break in her future plan.
"Okay, so I just go straight and we'll be back at Luke's."
"Good sense of direction." She laughed.
"Of course, I could turn right and then we'd just be driving around in circles for awhile."
Rory looked at him cautiously. She knew he would go straight back to the diner if she asked. He would take her back and study just like he promised. Maybe she could even convince him to care about graduating high school enough to put a little effort in. But she wasn't sure if that was what she wanted.
The idea of turning right, just circling the town with him sounded great. They could talk about books and music for another thirty minutes before doing any real work. She would still be home at a decent time if they waited another thirty minutes. Besides if worst came to worse she could call her mother and say she wouldn't be home till late. Luke wouldn't mind if she hung around…
"Turn right."
"As you wish."
The phrasing wasn't lost on her as he turned her car to the right rather than heading back to the diner. 'As you wish' no that particular phrase was a popular one within the Gilmore household. She couldn't help but smile as he kept on driving.
Everything had been calm enough. They were laughing and listening to the radio when she got a bad feeling. It was a strange sense, as if she needed to make herself sit right. She tugged just slightly at her seat belt wondering if she had forgotten it and that was what was tugging at her mind. But the belt was firm around her. She let her legs swoop down, no longer sitting on her feet, instead she was sitting in a much more proper stance. She could swear she saw Jess turn and laugh at her slightly for her sudden concern for proper driving stance. But the moment his eyes went back to the road everything changed.
"It was a dog… or a possum. I don't know." She told the man in the ambulance only minutes later.
Whatever had run in front of them had been small. She hadn't gotten a good look at it. But as Jess swerved to avoid the animal all she could see was Taylor's new bench sign right in their driving path. She could see all of the angry responses already forming before they had even crashed. She could see the unfortunate future of her poor car. But most importantly she could see her mother's anger.
Jess had called the hospital and the police right away. She just sat in the car not wanting to move. But he grabbed her cell and took care of everything. He talked to the police while the ambulance men looked her over. When they said they'd have to take her to the hospital she knew Jess wouldn't want to come. He would want to stay as far away from her mother as possible. Or that was what she assumed.
"I'll ride with you." He said.
"What?" Rory wasn't sure if she had heard right.
"I'll come and wait for your mom, I'll call her if I have to. Damn it, Rory I'm so sorry."
He spoke quietly and out of ear shot of any other the working men around them, as if he didn't want them to hear him being sentimental.
"No, Jess really. You go home. Get some studying done for real this time. It's better that I take care of my mother. Go on, you did promise me you'd study after all."
"Rory…"
"If you come with me, I'll just have to explain a lot more to my mom. I can handle her, but only over one thing at a time. Dropping a car accident, a breakup, and a boyfriend in her lap all in one night is too much. Just go."
"Rory, I don't think that's the right move here."
"Right or not it's the smart one. Just let me handle it."
She wasn't sure what might happen. Jess looked halfway defeated as she turned him away. She had thought he would understand that he mother would be a danger to his health. She didn't want to disturb his whole night if there wasn't a need. She was hardly dying and didn't need an escort to the hospital.
He turned and walked away, she took note that it wasn't in the direction of the diner but didn't yell out to him. Whatever would happen would happen whether or not he returned home. Her mother would still hunt him down at some point, and Luke would surely be upset.
But something felt wrong about how they left things. There hadn't been a goodbye, or any talk about seeing each other later. Instead he just walked away and she had let him, pushed him to some might say. It was like a shift had occurred between them, a crash that hadn't only affected her car.
A.N: So what will happen now? Will Rory explain the whole situation to her mother now that she was in the accident? Will Jess still leave town? Keep reading to find out!
