A/N: Hey, you folks don't hate me for the Rory/Logan thing! lol Everybody please rest assured, we're headed for a full-on Literati ending, but for those that appreciate a little Jess/Paris, read on, kids ;)

(for disclaimer, etc. - see prologue)

Chapter 9

Saturday 21st June 2008 22:31

"I'm not saying it wasn't a book worthy of publication, I'm just saying you got very lucky that the right person discovered it at exactly the right time to launch your career the way they did," said Paris, the way only she could.

Jess couldn't help but smirk. She really was the most straight-up person he ever met in his life, which could be annoying but was also kind of refreshing too. After an afternoon spent with the 'fans' fawning all over him, and then in Stars Hollow with most people either actively avoiding him or being the fake kind of nice that made him cringe, Paris was a welcome change, and actually she hadn't really been that nasty on the car journey home. Jess wasn't dumb enough to think it was gratitude making her any nicer. That wasn't Paris at all, he remembered that much from years ago. Maybe she was relieved to be away from the Hollow though. Her headache sure seemed to clear up fast once they broke the town limits.

"Also, you didn't have to walk me to the door," she continued on as they reached the Gilmore house proper. "It is the twenty first century you know, and I'm not Rory."

It had all been kind of amusing until Paris mentioned her friend, the bride. Jess had been doing a pretty good job of almost completely putting Rory and the kiss they shared right out of his head, but in that moment it came back full force. Five years since the last time, it still felt the same somehow, like nothing else had ever felt in the meantime. His eyes must've glazed over just thinking back because Paris noticed she'd lost his attention.

"It could've been you, y'know? If you'd stayed," she said, making Jess look up fast. "Rory was so in love with you, I'd never seen a person so into anybody in my life. I still haven't."

"Yeah, well," he shifted awkwardly in place, his shoes suddenly very interesting.

Talking about feelings was never Jess' strong suit, and though he had explained himself in part to Rory by letter at least, he wasn't really hoping for the verbal version with Paris Gellar of all people.

"That's it? The great author that is Jess Mariano, and the best you can do when it comes to the woman you love is 'yeah, well'," she said, echoing his tone but sounding nothing like him really.

"Paris," he sighed. "I left her, five years ago, and now she's marrying some other guy. What do you want me to do?"

"I want you to be a man!" she told him crossly. "Geez, you think I don't know what happened with the two of you? First I had to sit through the tears and the wailing because you were gone. Then some time later, the drunken confessional portion of Rory's grief when she told me that the break up wasn't all your fault - like I didn't know that already," she rolled her eyes. "Even after she got with Dean, your name came up a lot. She must've asked me at least a hundred times if she should call you or write to you, especially after that apologetic letter you sent a couple of years back."

"She showed you that?" asked Jess, eyes wide.

Paris shook her head.

"Credit her with some sense, beatnik," she huffed. "She told me the gist of what you said, then any time you two inexplicably ended up on the phone to each other, we had to go through the whole thing of what you said, what she said, what it might mean. She never once stopped caring what was going on with you. I had that Subsect of yours shoved in my face so many times, I eventually read it just so she would stop bringing it up, and still you were topic number one more times than I care to count."

Jess didn't know what to make of any of this. Rory had been on his mind every day since he left. For five years, through all he had done, all his achievements, every place he went, he thought of her. He wondered what she was doing, if she was happy, what she would think of a book he was reading, or one he was writing. All the time she was there in his head, more so in his heart, but he just assumed she was better off without him. Maybe she was, and yet, if that were true, he couldn't imagine why Paris, who never even liked him all that much in the first place, would be telling him all this.

"You look like you're going to vomit," she said, staring at his odd expression.

"I'm fine," he shook his head. "Mostly anyway. Paris, has Rory ever actually told you that... that she still..."

"That she still loves you?" she filled in, knowing how much trouble he had with the verbal sometimes. "No, not out loud, but I'd be amazed if it weren't true. Don't get me wrong, she cares about Dean, she probably does love him in some way or other, but it's not the same. He was safety guy, the total opposite of you, which is what she thought was best for her."

"Maybe it is," Jess shrugged.

"Maybe," Paris agreed. "But safe isn't always what makes a person happy. For God's sake, I met Doyle through speed dating! He could've been an axe murderer, a pervert, but do I regret it? No. He's not perfect, but for some reason I love the stupid little dwarf," she sighed heavy. "I guess there's no accounting for taste."

She almost smiled when she said it, and it was clear as anything that she wasn't really talking about herself and Doyle anyway. She may not fully understand Rory's attraction to Jess, and up until tonight he would have sworn he had no clue what anybody would ever find attractive about Paris, but she had her moments.

"You're one of a kind, Gellar," he told her easily.

"So I'm told," she replied, taking no offence whether it was meant that way or not, and she doubted it right now.

When Jess leant in to kiss her cheek, Paris didn't flinch. For once, she didn't speak either, just blinked with surprise and then headed inside without another word. Jess let out a long breath, leaned his back against the wall a moment. Maybe Rory did still love him, he already knew he loved her, but asking her to run out on her wedding for him, that was a whole other thing entirely. Jess was strarting to wonder if Paris hadn't somehow passed on her headache to him by osmosis as he rubbed his forehead and pushed off the wall. He needed to get back to Stars Hollow, get some sleep so he could head out on the first bus tomorrow. It would be better for everyone if he didn't hang around for the wedding.

The sound of singing stopped Jess in his tracks half way along the driveway. There was no way in hell it was Paris, and nobody else was supposed to be here. He had left Emily and Richard at the party, and it was unlikely any member of their staff would be wandering around singing at almost midnight. Turning back, Jess listened harder. Two voices, one male complimenting the female on her singing which was by no means in tune.

"Rory?" he said more to himself than anyone else.

"You've seen Rory?" asked a much closer voice, and Jess visibly jumped.

"Geez, what the hell are you doing?" he asked Dean, finding him at his shoulder.

"I'm looking for my fiancé, as if you didn't know. What are you doing?"

His eyes narrowed suspisciously as he looked down on Jess like Frankenstein's monster, at least that was how Jess saw him. A ridiculous twelve foot tall giant, just glowering down. It would be so sweet to play on the guy's insecurities, make him think that Rory was just packing her bag to run away with him, leaving Dean behind. In the end, Jess couldn't do it, for Rory's sake more than anything. He heard her muffled laughter in the distance, mixed with that male voice again. It had to be Logan, it was the only thing that made sense. If Dean saw whatever was going on, the consequences wouldn't be pretty. Jess cared too much for Rory still to have her life messed up because she made some drunk mistake. She loved Dean, she wanted to marry him. If that was what would really make her happy, Jess wasn't about to let it go down in flames.

"I brought Paris home," he told Dean with a shrug. "When we left the party, I'm pretty sure Rory was still in the Hollow. I can help you look for her, if you want?" he offered too reasonably.

Unfortunately, not only was Forester not buying Jess' false platitudes, he had heard the giggling as it came closer too. He knew it was Rory, just the same as Jess did, and there was absolutely no denying it when suddenly Logan appeared, carrying Rory in his arms, ironically in bride-style. She had started singing again, something that sounded vaguely like Guns of Brixton. Jess bit back a smirk.

"This isn't Shakespeare"

"It's not?"

"It's the words to a Clash song!"

"Ah, but which Clash song?"

"Hey, I'm not the one being tested right now."

"Ten seconds."

"Jess!"

"Nine, eight, seven..."

"Stop it!"

"Six, five, four..."

"You know you're really starting to..."

"Three..."

"Ooh, ooh, Guns of Brixton!"

"A plus."

Jess completely missed Dean's eyes flashing with anger and brow furrowing all the more at the sight of his beloved bride-to-be in the arms of another man. Logan was staggering terribly, though Jess knew for a fact Rory didn't weigh much at all. It had to be the booze that had him listing all over the place, though what took his attention more than the ungainly walk then was the fact both Logan and Rory were wearing robes.

"So, you guys been having fun?" he asked easily, as if it were all no big deal.

"What the hell did you do to her?!" Dean yelled before Jess' question could be answered.

Rory opened her eyes then, picked her head up of Logan's shoulder and realised they had company. She grinned all over her face.

"Dean! And Jess! she giggled happily. "It's a party!"

"Sprain your ankle, Ror?" Jess asked her, stepping towards the drunken non-couple, very deliberately getting in Dean's path.

"No, not wounded, just dead!" she said dramatically, throwing herself against Logan all over again.

He staggered a bit with the sudden shift in weight, but that only served to make them both laugh.

"Ace isn't so used to the champagne, and when she hit the water the bubbles hit her," Logan chuckled. "You know which way her room is?" he asked Jess who shook his head.

"Dean?" he checked.

"I can take her," he said, holding out his arms for Rory.

Logan looked uncertain. Jess cut in.

"She's comfortable where she is, man, just let him take her," he advised.

"This has nothing to do with you!" Dean told him crossly.

Rory groaned; "Why is everybody yelling?"

Her hands came up to cover her ears. Jess shot Dean a look and he relented. No use upsetting Rory if they didn't have to.

"Top of the stairs, first on the right," he ground out.

"You put her down you come straight back here, okay?" Jess advised Logan as he opened the patio door for him and Rory to slip inside. "You're more than five minutes, and you're all his," he warned, tipping his head towards Dean who looked ready to turn green and bust out of his shirt.

"Five minutes," Logan nodded vaguely, staggering off into the house.

There was a brief pause and then suddenly Dean was on the move.

"I'm not giving him five minutes..." he muttered, but Jess got in his path again, put a hand to his chest to stop him. "Get out of my way, Jess!"

"Sorry, can't," he shook his head. "You go in there busting heads, you wake up the maid and the cook and God knows who else Emily and Richard keep in there. They tell the lady of the manor, and Rory is in for the mother of all lectures as a minimum. You know this."

Dean did know it. He hated it, but he knew it was true, and that meant he couldn't argue with Jess or punch out Logan. He really, really wanted to just take down the both of them right now, but it seemed he wasn't going to be allowed. There was just no arguing with what was best for Rory.

"I can't believe this," he said, releasing his frustration by punching his fist into his other hand and pacing the patio. "We're supposed to be getting married tomorrow. What the hell was she thinking?" he asked, words he would love to yell to the Heavens, Jess was sure, but was forced to keep his voice down by the circumstances they were caught in.

"I'm guessing she was thinking 'last night of freedom, let's get drunk'," Jess suggested. "Rory has this happy habit of being all straight-laced and perfect right up until the point where she just decides to be crazy."

"I don't wanna hear your theories on what Rory is like," Dean told him with a severe look. "You don't know her anymore."

"Is that so?" Jess countered. "I'm sure you'd like to think that's true, but I've known her a lot longer than you. I knew her first. In every way you can think of, I knew her first."

Dean hadn't known that. Jess said it not really expecting it to be a surprise and yet Dean's eyes were wide as saucers and his mouth dropped open like a cartoon. He really genuinely hadn't known that Rory had been with Jess that way. Before the great oaf even had a chance to process the fact, Logan came staggering back to the scene.

"Look, I don't know what you guys think happened..." he began to explain, but Dean was already seeing every possible shade of red.

Jess knew he hadn't helped with that, and that the guy was about to knock seven bells out of the reporter given half the chance, venting not just his anger at catching Logan and Rory in an almost-comprimising position but hearing the truth of how intimate Jess and Rory had been too. It all happened in a split second as Jess spun around, clocking Logan straight across the jaw - he went down like a felled tree.

"What the hell?!" Dean exploded.

"Hey, you're not married to Rory yet, Lurch," said Jess definitely. "And he pissed me off first."

Dean looked fit to explode, and yet he knew that once again he couldn't argue with the point made. Now Logan was unconscious, Rory was asleep in bed, and there was nothing he could do to improve the situation. With a growl of pure frustration, he left the scene. Jess made sure he was out of ear-shot before he moved to crouch down by Logan's head. The guy wasn't out cold, just very drunk and properly stunned.

"Hey, Huntzberger!" he called, lightly slapping his face. "You still alive in there, man?"

Slowly, painfully, Logan managed to get himself up onto one elbow. His other hand came up to his chin, shifting his jaw back and forth.

"I thought you and me got along," he said, looking bleary-eyed at Jess who only smirked.

"Trust me, if Forester took a swing you'd be lucky if you got away with an ambulance tonight, might've been a hearse instead," he told him seriously.

"Lesser of two evils, huh?" Logan sighed, closing his eyes as the world spun horribly.

"Something like that," Jess agreed. "So, what did happen with you and Rory tonight?"

He wasn't sure what answer he expected, if any at all, or how he would feel when he did hear the truth. Chances were Logan and Rory weren't likely to have done much more than kissed, not if she was still the woman he used to know, at least on some level. Jess trusted his gut on that one, even if Dean didn't.

"I, er... I mean, we..." Logan made vague gestures with one hand, his eyes rolling around his head, until finally he laughed and forced out a whole sentence. "We had a great time," he declared, before passing out completely on the floor.

Jess watched him collapse and blew out a long breath.

"Yeah, because that explains everything."

To Be Continued...