A/N: I know I said I'd get this up by Friday but I got distracted--I've been getting distracted a lot lately, hmmm--anyways thanks for being so patient! Thanks again for all of your wonderful reviews! Enjoy.
Disclaimer: I don't own.
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"So, let me get this straight." Lorelai says into the phone. "You, made out with Jess?"
"We didn't make out." Rory protests, walking on the bridge. She had went jogging about an hour ago, until her cell phone went off. Lorelai had laughed and mockingly asked if she thought she was June Cleaver. Rory pointed out that she wasn't married and asked how it was relevant during which Lor had abruptly changed topics.
"You said it lasted for fifteen seconds." She counters. "Sounds like ya made out to me."
Rory sighs. "Just tell me what to do."
Lorelai laughs. "You're asking me," She stresses. "what to do about you," Again she stresses the word. "Not me, kissing a guy?"
"Mom." Rory repeats. "Come on."
"I'm drawing a blank here, kid." Lor shrugs it off.
"Fine." She gives in. "But the next time you want advice about something do not expect it from me."
"So that's how its gonna be?" She asks disbelievingly.
"Yep, that's how it's gonna be." Rory counters wickedly.
"Fine." Lorelai huffs. "Two can play that game—"
Rory gets distracted when she hears someone seeking. She looks behind her and sees Jess in a red sports car pulling up on the side of her. "Jess." She begins unconsciously.
"'Jess'?" Lorelai says into the phone, trying to process.
"Hi." He starts.
"What are you doing here?" Rory ignores Lor's question.
"Jess is there?" She asks again.
"Yes." Rory says exasperated. Jess looks confused. "Not you." She tells him.
"So, he isn't there?" Lorelai misunderstands.
"I figured we should talk." He tells her.
"I'm not talking to you." Rory says to Lorelai, not hearing Jess' statement.
"Look, Rory. Just here me out." Jess responds.
"What?" Rory asks confused. She sighs. "Mom, I'll talk to you later." She tells her.
"What? No!" Tell me what Jess is doing—" Rory closes the phone and faces Jess. Horns are blowing on the highway.
"You can't just stop in the middle of the highway." She tells him incredulously.
"You jog?" He asks distractedly, looking her over.
"Ah…sometimes." Pause. "Ah…you're blocking the road." She says matter-of-factly.
"Then get in the car." He signals to the passenger seat.
"What? No." She's surprised.
"Rory, come on. We need to talk."
She looks at the line behind him. "Not like this."
"Rory." A car blows again and he signals to them to go around. "Just get in the car." He faces her again. Rory sighs and continues walking over the bridge. He drives at her pace. "Rory." Rory ignores him. He stops and gets out of the car and walks on the side walk next to her.
She looks startled. "What are you doing?"
"It's called 'walking'." He says simply.
"But…" She stutters. "Your car. You can't just…leave it there."
"Somebody'll find it."
"How can you just—" She's at a lost for words. "Throw away a completely new car. It's—ridiculous."
He looks at her seriously. "It's easy enough when you didn't ask for it." He reads her expression. "Maybe if we're lucky, somebody in need'll find it."
She glares. "That's not funny."
"It wasn't supposed to be." He continues walking.
"Why would you do that?" She tries to process. "Leave your car, with the keys in it," She adds. "In the middle of the highway." He goes to say something but she cuts him off. "Every chance get you're giving away something. You're either really, really generous or you're a wastrel and you don't care. Do you want to prove something? Is that what this is about?"
He cuts her off. "I'm not trying to prove anything." He sighs. "Have you ever felt like you got something you didn't deserve?"
Rory looks startled. "Uh…w-what does that have to do with anything?"
He sighs again and leans against the railing overlooking the dock. "My father is James Crouch." He states simply.
Rory looks skeptically. "The James Crouch? As in Jimmy Crouch?" Pause. "But he owns the entirety of New York."
He shrugs. "I'm sure it's not the entire city."
"Yea, it is." She says confidently.
"Okay, maybe it is." He gives in.
"So…I don't see the problem" She admits.
"Do you know what it's like to have everything handed down to you? Even if you didn't want it?" Jess asks her bitterly. "From the day I was born he assumed that I wanted to take over the company." Rory nods comprehending. "I didn't even have a choice. I was seventeen and making more money than most people in New York." He faces her. "People didn't even see me anymore, ya know?" It's rhetorical. "I was just 'Jimmy's son'; people treated me like I was superior and after awhile I started believing it." He shakes his head. "Then I just got sick of it. Most people will work for the rest of their lives and not have what I have and me…I could stop working today and I'm not even thirty." He clenches his jaw. "Jimmy didn't help the situation. He treated people like they were inferior, like dirt. I started doing things—anything just to separate myself from him. I didn't even care about the money; it got easier and easier for me to throw it away. He didn't even notice. Only one person he actually treated as his equal: Mitchum." Rory recognizes the name on spot. "That's how I met Logan." He puts his hands in his pockets and they start walking again.
"Why didn't you just donate it or…?"
"I did." He shrugs. "'Eligible Bachelors' that was a charity function; I wouldn't do it otherwise."
Rory looks surprised but quickly recovers. "My grandparents were basically the same way with my mom. She couldn't do anything; they wouldn't even let her go to public school like she wanted to." She smiles. "She says it was like being a ventriloquist or…a puppet where she couldn't say or do what she wanted because somebody else was controlling your every move."
He smirks. "What'd she do?"
Rory shrugs. "She had me." This time it's his turn to look surprised. "She moved us to another town; she says she didn't want me to go through what she did."
He stops. "That's too bad."
"Not really, I don't think I would've like being a debutante very much."
He continues anyway. "Maybe we would've met sooner."
Rory flushes and looks down and quickly changes the subject back to him. "What is it that you really wanted to do?"
He hesitates and starts walking again. "Write." He says simply.
For the umpteenth time that day Rory is stunned by what he says. "Really?"
"Don't laugh."
"I'm not." She responds quickly. "I just can't see you as a writer. It's kind of…conservative." He nods. "It's just surprising."
"More so for Jimmy than you." He assures her.
"He knows?"
He sighs and nods. "I told him last year." She goes to ask Jimmy's reaction but he cuts her off as if expecting the question. "He didn't take it well. He told me to 'get over it' because it wasn't gonna happen."
Rory doesn't know what to say, so she says the first thing that comes to mind. "Uh…I'm sorry."
He chuckles. "Don't worry about it." Beat. "I'm workin' on it." Rory goes to ask him what he means but his phone goes off. He mentions something about being there soon and hangs up. She looks around trying to figure out when they had started walking back in the direction they started. He sighs. "The one and only." Rory understands that it was Jimmy and nods. They both stop when they notice Jess' car still there. "Guess the name Jess Mariano means something after all." He tells her heading back to the driver seat. "Where are you headed?" He asks her by way of offering a ride.
"Ah…home, but I wanna finish my jog." He nods and starts the car before driving off. Rory watches after him before breaking into a run.
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A/N: Review guys!! Remember they complete me. :D
