The poem used in this chapter was written and used with permission from my darling, sweet, wonderful, amazing beta KEMLEM81. She is the wind beneath my wings.

"All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence you know." - ~Ernest Hemingway

Jess didn't pick up the phone when Matt tried calling him on Saturday or Sunday. On Monday Jess went into work but went straight to his office and didn't talk to anyone.

Around noon, Amber stopped in. "He isn't talking to anyone, let alone you," Matthew said."Something must have happened between him and Rory because he's listening to Coldplay."

"I am sure I'm the last person he wants to see but all I'm doing is returning a book," Amber said and walked upstairs. She put her ear up to the door and only heard music. "Jess," she said knocking on the door. "Jess I want to talk to you."

"I have nothing to say to you," he said.

"Well I have something to say to you," he didn't respond so Amber continued, leaning her back up against the door. "Okay you aren't going to talk and your going to make me do the talking. That's fine it might be easier to just say this not looking at you... I'm sorry for my part Friday night. I was totally out of line. I know you are with her...we just...I was shocked to hear you'd planned to propose…I think we need to put some distance between us," she wiped a few tears from her eyes. " I really like Rory. She's not anything like I thought she would be. I always imagined her as this horrible person who didn't deserve you. But it doesn't take a lot to see you two are crazy about each other. I…I came to give you a book I borrowed from you. It's Persuasion by Jane Austen. You always said this was your favorite Austen. I think you need to re-read it again. I think she is your Anne and I hope you make sure she doesn't get away again. When I saw Rory at the coffee shop, I told her the same thing. That's all I have to say for now. Goodbye," Amber left the book at her feet, wiped the tears from her eyes and walked away from the door.

When Jess came down from his office to leave for the day Matt and Chris cornered him.

Jess had clearly not been sleeping and he had his left hand was swollen.

"I shouldn't have told them about the proposal," Matt said when they got Jess to sit down.

"I'm not mad at you Matt," Jess finally said. "You're right, you shouldn't have told either of them. They both should have heard it from me."

"You sure you're not mad…I was gunna let you take a pop at me if you wanted it."

"Right now I just need you to leave me alone so I can clean up the mess," Jess sighed.

"That bad?

"She won't return my call."

Jess's mood worsened as the days ticked by and Christmas got closer.

He was less then pleasant to those around him, channeling the Jess of old. He had a meeting with an author who was going to be published in the spring. The guys needed him to make some additional edits. Instead, Jess yelled at the guy.

Chris got a call from the guy at the printers telling them that Jess had been non-committal on when he would send over a manuscript that needed to be ready in February. Luckily, Chris was able to sweet talk Oliver into not cancelling their account all together.

The final straw was three days before Christmas when Jess told a sensitive young poet a little harshly that his poem would not be featured at their January poetry reading.

He ran out the office and up a tree in the December cold and refused to come down until his "inner peace returned" to him. It took Chris and Amanda to talk the guy down, promising him a second look at his work.

"We have to do something. He's miserable," Chris said when he was inside from helping the poet out of the tree.

"Someone needs to fix this. Or I'm gunna strangle him," Matt added.

"We could send Rory flowers from Jess?"

"We can lock them in a room until they kill each other or under the sheets."

"Call Luke," Mandy said.

"Luke?"

"Uncle Luke, Flannel, backward baseball cap, just as stubborn as Jess. He will talk sense into him. Probably drag him by the nostrils to Rory's house so he can do they can have a "Say Anything" moment," Mandy said.

"Are we there yet? I thought we agreed to only pull the "Luke Card" if we really needed it"

"I just helped a guy out of a tree!"

"Luke's," came a female voice.

"Uh may I speak with Luke Danes please," Matt said into the phone.

"Luke isn't here. I can take a message."

"Oh do you know when he will be back?"

"I…who is this?"

"This is Matthew from Truncheon Books."

"Truncheon Books?"

"Who is this?"

"This is Lane Van Gerbig," Lane said finding a private spot she could talk.

"Do you know Jess Mariano?"

"Reformed town hoodlum, Nephew of Luke," Lane answered.

"And you know Rory as well?"

"She's my best friend since kindergarten. I have customers, so if you don't get to the point you can call Luke back this afternoon,"

"Jess and Rory had an argument, a big one, and Jess turned into Scrooge. He's taken to yelling at writers and scaring poets up trees."

"And what exactly do you want from Luke?"

"We need someone he listens to and can the voice of reason. He isn't talking to anyone right now, and she isn't returning his calls, which is only making him worse."

" I have never met two people who simultaneously run to each other one day and then turn around and run from each other the next," Lane said.

"So you know what we're dealing with here then?"

"The first time Luke and Lorelai broke up, Luke forgot how to cook. They were dark days. Bad tips," Lane explained.

"Well we are about to have some dark days here if Jess pisses off the printing company again."

"Listen I have people waiting, so I will call Rory and have Luke call you guys."

After Matt gave her his number, they hung up and waited.

"They are both idiots," Lane said into the phone. "I'm on my way to smack Jess with some reason."

Lane told Zack she would be back later that night. As she drove out of Stars Hollow, she was livid with Jess…and Rory…but mostly Jess. It was years of pent up frustration of watching her best friend get her heart broken by Jess Mariano. She calmed down as she reached the Jersey turnpike and drove into Pennsylvania.

"Well don't you look like crap Mariano," Lane said when he walked downstairs from his office to go home. "

What are you doing here?" he asked.

"I'm taking you to dinner so we can talk."

"I'm not hungry."

"Then you can watch me eat."

Jess stared at her blankly.

"I hear you dropped another 'I love you' bomb on Rory, but this time in an argument about your ex-girlfriend," Lane spit out.

"You came all the way from Stars Hollow to tell me that bit of gossip."

"No I came all the way from Stars Hollow to tell you you're an idiot."

"Oh well Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you too. I'm going now. You should get back before your husband and kids miss you."

"I'm on your side," Lane said grabbing Jess' hand.

"Thanks, just what I needed."

"Jess, go to Baltimore."

"No."

"You have to talk to her."

"No, If she can't trust me, then it doesn't matter how much I love her."

"You can not do this to her again Jess. You know that don't you? You can't run away anymore. You need to man up and win her trust. "

"I didn't run from her."

"You didn't stop her from running away either," Lane shot at Jess.

"What if I don't know how?"

"Well I can see how sitting around here feeling sorry for yourself is helping you on that particular journey of discovery."

"I've been..."

"I don't care what you have been doing, I care about my best friend who is right now broken-hearted and confused. She fought for you Jess. She went out on a limb and came to Philadelphia to tell you how she feels once. It's your turn to do the same. Give Rory no doubt that you are all in and that you laid all your cards on the table for her. You need to go to her and apologize and use some of those big words you know to convince her she can trust you this time."

"But how will I know what to say? "

"Do you love her?"

He couldn't look her in the eye anymore.

"Well, answer the question," Lane demands

"Yes, I do,"

"She loves you to Jess. Get in your car and drive and see what words come out when you get there."

. _

"Put all your cards on the table for her."

Lanes' voice echoed in his head as he drove to Baltimore to talk to Rory and a plan slowly started to take form as he gets closer to her. He hoped she wasn't home when he arrived. When she didn't answer, he went to the local market and got her some flowers and food for dinner. Jess was by no means Luke in the kitchen, but he could hold his own. He waited for her at the front door with the flowers and the grocery bag and sat down with a note pad to scribble down some words. Rory arrived home to see Jess fallen asleep at her door with a bag of groceries, some flowers and a note pad.

"Jess wake up," she said shaking him."What are you doing here?"

"You said no running and you said that the only way this would work out is if we talked even about the hard stuff. So this is me not running and talking about the hard stuff," he said not knowing where the words were coming from.

"You brought dinner?"

"I'm going to cook you dinner. I hope you will hear me out and then you can decide if you want to throw me out after eat," Jess said when they went inside.

Rory sighed and went to change out of her work clothes. The last few days had been hard on her. She had not been happy with how the evening went. Even in her anger she couldn't be happy that he was here for her and cooking and brining her flowers.

"You wanted me to hear you out. So talk," she said after they ate.

Jess was temporarily taken aback by her words and he was taken aback at the memory of the first time she said them..

"I'm not very good at this," he said. "But I want you to know that I do love you and nothing that happened on Friday night or Saturday night is the reason I said it."

"You wanted to marry her Jess."

"At one time in our three year relationship I did, yes. And you should have heard that from me," Jess admitted.

"Why didn't you tell me? I mean you know about Dean and Logan and Ian. I thought we had everything out in the open and then I find out you've been keeping this massive secret the entire time."

"I know how it must look Rory but honestly, I didn't not tell you on purpose, it just ceased to matter once you were back in my life and I forgot about it until Matt opened his big mouth. And while I'm being completely honest, please believe me when say I only had put some money down on a ring that was completely refundable. The only reason Matt knew about it was because he caught me looking at the catalog. My heart was never truly in it though which is why I could never bring myself to ask her.

"What about the poem?"

"That poem was nothing Rory, just a bunch of stolen song lyrics pieced together. Do you remember my last line?"

"From Landslide?"

"Yes, you were the landslide that brought us down. You were always there, even when I was drunk and rambling."

"So it did mean something then?"

"No, I mean yes, I mean...please Rory, don't twist my words. Not now when I'm trying so hard to make this clear between us. I've only ever written two poems in my life. That first one had no meaning behind it. This second one I wrote this afternoon while I waited for you and it does mean something."

Jess took his notebook from his back pocket and passed it a crossed the table to Rory. He watched her, suddenly embarrassed, as she read his words aloud.

'It's a slippery slope

Towards hate

Some days it seems

As if Columbus never existed

The world is flat

There is no rise

At the end of the slope

Only further to fall

Into nothingness

Into red

Fading to black

It's a slippery slope

Towards love

Silk socks

On polished floors

Temptation urges you

To let yourself

Glide and slide and fall

If I find you there

I will never look

For a way up and out

Only a way deeper in'

When she finished she wiped tears from her eyes and sat back in her seat, looking across the table at him, her eyes searching his face for any sign of insincerity but she found none there.

"What do you want me to say to that?"

"Say whatever you feel. We can figure the rest out from there. Rory, I know what I want and it starts and ends with you. This…us…we have to work at this. We have to resolve our issues too. It means that we never stop trying and it means that if this…if we fail…it won't be because we didn't give it every thing we had."

"Jess stop…I love you too and I want us to keep…"

Before she could finish her sentence Jess pushed back his chair and walked around the table to pull Rory out of her chair and into his arms. He whispered 'thank you' into her hair then left a trail of kisses across her face as he made his way to her lips to seal their fate once more.