Author's note: Yes, we will have Dean get mean. But the path to redemption is paved with ugliness, is it not? Enjoy. Oh, and if you feel like it, rent Truffaut's Baisers Volés (Stolen Kisses). Oh, by the way, I love the description of this as Fluffy Angst… Thanks to sarahliz1624 for my new genre… and thanks to all of you that came out and read this. Anyhow, without further ado…

Chapter 7 – Antoine Doinel, Antoine Doinel, Christine Darbon, Christine Darbon

The apartment was dark when they went in.

"Anyone naked in here?" called Jess. Rory punched him in the arm. "Ow."

He flipped the light switch and let go of Annie's hand. Annie ran to the couch and grabbed her books, hugging them to her. "Can I read until bedtime?" she asked, looking up at Jess hopefully.

"Sure. Just… go put these away in the cubbyholes Uncle Luke gave you," Jess replied, handing her the shopping bags.

"Can I sleep in the ballerina clothes?" she asked.

"Just for tonight," Jess answered.

Annie ran off with her bags and books.

"She's not going to put those clothes away, you know that, right?" Rory asked Jess, plopping down on the couch.

Jess shrugged. "She's also going to sleep in that tutu until it disintegrates."

"How do you know? You had a tutu when you were little?" Rory inquired, raising her eyebrows.

"Cowboy hat, one of Liz's boyfriends had left it around," Jess replied, his voice tinged with bitterness.

Rory decided to change the subject. "So, about your writing."

"I said I'd think about it," Jess cut her off.

"Touchy. So we can't talk about my work, your writing, Ayn Rand, the beat generation and the Nouvelle Vague… Anything we can talk about?" she asked, pretending to be hopeless.

"Hey, I'll talk about Truffaut any day of the week…"

Rory's eyes lit up. "You know what? I'd love to watch Baisers Volés again."

"It's probably censored behind the Rory Curtain at the video store," Jess quipped.

"Ugh, don't remind me," she replied, rolling her eyes. "It's gone now."

Jess smiled. "If you watch Annie for a while, I'll go rent it."

"No, that's ok, we can watch something on TV," Rory said, dismissing it.

"No, really, I'll go. I need to watch something light and French."

"Sounds like an ad for perfume," Rory pointed out.

"Or French Fries," Jess countered.

"Oh, now I'm hungry."

"No surprise there."

Jess grabbed his coat. Rory smiled. "Did you know French fries were originally invented by Belgians?"

"More on the original Serbian Waffle in a few minutes," Jess quipped. "If you go in there, ask the kid to read to you. She's a prodigy."

Rory nodded. "Will do."

- - - - -

Jess walked briskly to the video store. He looked behind himself, at the light upstairs from the diner.

This was possible. This… making good on his promises to himself.

The video store had changed its display on Disney cartoons to Pixar cartoons, a clear shift in ideology, thought Jess, shaking his head.

"You're not gonna last long, you know that, right?" he heard a voice behind him, speech slightly slurred.

Jess cringed, recognizing the voice's owner. He felt the hairs on the nape of his neck stand on end. "What's it to you, Dean?"

Dean stepped out of the shadows just as Jess turned to face him.

"You're the same punk you were last time," Dean contributed. "And you didn't last long before."

"Then I'll run my course and go away. Kind of like the flu," Jess quipped, grabbing the door handles to the video store, attempting to enter.

Dean grabbed Jess' shoulder. "How many you planning on infecting before you go?"

Jess shrugged Dean's hand off. "Leave me alone."

"Great comeback," Dean countered.

"What do you want, Dean? Come on. This isn't high school anymore. You figure you'll bug me until I punch you, then run me out of town on horseback, Rory cheering you on?" Jess pointed a finger at Dean, took a breath, then lowered his hand. "I've got my priorities straight now." He tried to enter the video store again.

"I had her first," Dean yelled into the store, making everyone inside turn to see him. He lowered his voice. "I had all of her, something you didn't have."

Jess balled his hands into fists, and turned to face him one last time. People in the store had stopped what they were doing. Everyone waited for the punches to fly. Jess whispered loudly, this wasn't for the entire town to hear. "Do you hear yourself? Geez, you were always such a gentleman... Go, Dean. Go back to your wife and kids." Jess turned back around to the store and started to look for the movie.

"Fuck you, Jess," Dean said. Then, looking around the store, he backed away from the door, leaving a fuming but unscathed Jess going through the movie boxes.

- - - - - -

When he got up the stairs to the diner, he could tell Luke hadn't returned yet. He found Rory and Annie asleep in the small cot. Rory seemed to have fallen asleep in the most uncomfortable position, her feet still on the ground, her head propped against the wall.

He covered Annie, tutu and all, with the light comforter, and sat staring at Rory. How asleep was she?

He took a deep breath and took off her sneakers.

He took a moment to admire Rory's new style of dress. She'd always been sober, but she seemed to have become even more practical. Sneakers, military green cargo pants, a T-Shirt that said "Kiss the Reporter" with a still from His Girl Friday. Probably a gift from Lorelai.

He tried to move her legs up on the bed and succeeded. He took a small pillow from the foot of the bed.

He slowly placed his hand behind her neck and lifted it just a bit.

Her face was so close to his.

If she could sleep through this, she could sleep through pretty much anything.

He placed the pillow between her head and the wall. That should help.

Jess stood up, admiring his work. This girl, no, this woman, who could eat like a truck driver, who could sleep through a train wreck, this woman…

He tried to push as far away from his mind what Dean had said. Did it matter?

Instinctively he leaned in to kiss her goodnight.

He hesitated, took a deep breath. He ran his fingers through her very short hair, and brushed his lips against her forehead lightly.

He took the phone and dialed the number of the Gilmore house. Straight to voicemail. "Hey, this is… Jess… So Rory fell asleep reading to Annie. If you want me to wake her, pick up…" A pause. He counted to five in his head. "I'll take that as a no. G'night Lorelai. Night, Luke."

He smirked as he hung up.

With the nagging idea that Rory was but a few feet away from him, he tried to fall asleep but failed.

He spent and hour watching her readjust her position until she found a more comfortable one.

When he saw her settle into a more peaceful sleep, he headed back to the couch and closed his eyes.

- - - - - -

"Did you hear that?" Lorelai asked Luke, who was asleep on the couch beneath her.

"Hear what?" Luke asked, sleepily.

The phone rang again.

"Let the machine pick it up," Luke suggested.

Lorelai, just awakened, looked around for a watch. "What time is it? It seems late."

Beep. "Hey, this is… Jess…"

Lorelai spoke at the machine. "Rory's not here…"

The machine continued. "So Rory fell asleep reading to Annie. If you want me to

wake her, pick up…"

Lorelai tried to reach for the phone, but her feet tangled in the blanket, and she tumbled to the floor. "Ouch."

"I'll take that as a no," Jess' voice continued.

"Noooo," Lorelai exclaimed, trying to pull herself up using Luke's arm for leverage. "Stop him," she added.

"G'night Lorelai," the machine said on.

"Let it go," Luke said, helping her up.

"Night,Luke," the voice finished, a smirk evident.

"Hey!" Luke replied. "How did he…"

Lorelai, still on the floor, narrowed her eyes at the machine. "I always knew that kid had a deal with the devil."

"So what now?" Luke asked.

- - - - -

Lorelai shrugged. "It'll be like a cold: it'll either run it's course or turn into pneumonia."

"I know you mean well with your metaphors, but…"

"Yeah, I know. Gotta find some other disease to describe that."

- - - - - -

Rory woke up startled, somewhere around three am. Confused, she looked around trying to remember where she was.

Annie was a clear indication. She got out of bed quietly, a pillow she didn't remember dropping to the floor. She picked up the shoes she didn't remember taking off, and tiptoed barefoot out to the tv area.

The television was on, really low, and the movie Jess had picked up earlier played. Jess's head was propped up by his hand, and he kept nodding off. On the screen, Jean-Pierre Leaud repeated his character's name and that of the women in his life, over and over. Really quietly, Rory approached Jess and whispered into his ear "Antoine Doinel, Antoine Doinel, Antoine Doinel," mimicking the film.

Jess sat up with a start. "Geez, you scared me."

"Sorry." Rory sat down beside him. She stratched and yawned. "Having trouble sleeping?"

"Yeah, all week," Jess admitted.

Rory looked at her watch. "I should go home."

"I left a message on your machine for Lorelai and Luke, for when they come up for air." Jess rubbed his eyelids, trying to scare the redness away. He paused the video. "Plus, it's late. You can't walk home all alone at this hour."

"Stars Hollow is such a dangerous place," Rory conceded, mockingly.

"If I let you go home now that will probably warrant me being run out of town," Jess reasoned.

"Ah, yes, the angry mob," Rory agreed.

Jess yawned. "But you should go back to sleep. The kid's small, there's space." He gave it a thought. "Or you can sleep here, if you like. Or Luke's bed."

"Oh, no, please don't make me!" Rory exclaimed.

Jess laughed, placing a hand on her mouth. "Sh… you'll wake her up."

Rory stuck out her tongue onto Jess' hand. Jess, surprised, pulled it away.

"You licked me," he whispered, astonished.

"You wish," Rory replied.

Jess, unable to help himself, took the bait. "I do."

Rory rolled her eyes. "Oh, shut up, Antoine, and watch the movie."

"Sure thing, Christine," he retorted, pressing play again.

- - - - -

How they ended up sleeping so close together, how her head ended up leaning on his shoulder, how their feet ended up on the coffee table, touching, how his arm wrapped around her shoulders, these were all mysteries of REM sleep.

But when Luke walked in, it seemed as if everything had been conscious decision. The TV screen, blue and bright, shone on their faces, while they took the shallow, long breaths of deep sleep.

Nearly six am, he didn't dare wake them. He quietly stepped into the shower and changed to go open the diner.

And the kids? They went right on sleeping.

TBC…

- - - - -

Author's note Number 2: I want to take this opportunity to thank the readers… and feedbackers… and lurkers… Thank you for reading this insanity. And yes, to those of you that feared the cliché, I fear it right along with you. Will keep on trying to make this original. If you have any suggestions, keep 'em coming!