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Agitated, Jess paced around Lorelai's bedroom, waiting for her to return his page. They should have foreseen this. They should have prepared for this. On that crazy list Lorelai had made of things he needed to know to pass of as her – she should have included this. He was willing to put up with a lot of things not to raise any suspicions which could very well lead to the both of them being committed somewhere with padded walls, but there was no way he was putting up with this!

When the phone finally started ringing, Jess leapt towards it and answered within seconds. "Hello?"

"I got your page." He heard his own voice on the other end and let out a sigh of relief.

"Yeah, can you talk?"

"Luke's downstairs dealing with the dinner rush and apparently I have Saturday afternoons off, so yeah – I can talk." Jess sat down on the bed and pinched his eyes shut for a few seconds. Since her talk with Sasha a few hours ago, there had been a distinct change in the way Lorelai acted towards him. She had dropped most of her attitude and it felt like she was constantly forcing herself to be nice. He hated that, but right now there were more urgent issues that needed to be dealt with.

"Dean's coming over tonight." Jess announced and waited for Lorelai's reaction.

There was none. "Yeah, so?"

Jess sighed. "They're watching a movie." He enunciated the last part of his sentence to make sure the words were getting through to Lorelai. She was Rory's mother – she should be concerned about this. Jess had been on enough 'dates' disguised as movie-watching to know what that sort of date usually entailed – very little attention actually paid towards the screen and a lot of attention paid towards the other person.

"They usually do that." Lorelai answered, apparently failing to see the obvious.

"And you allow that?" Jess was stunned. He had been aware of the fact that Lorelai liked Dean, but come on… It was still Lorelai and she was still Rory's mother.

"Yeah…" Lorelai sounded confused and Jess let out a grunt.

"Under your roof?"

"Well, watching a movie outdoors might prove to be a little bit difficult…" Lorelai started. "…there this whole need for electricity thing and you never know about the weather."

Jess snorted. "I can see how you got pregnant at 16." It was a cheap shot and he knew it, but her constant attempts at being nice and her careless attitude towards Rory's date had provoked him.

"Listen you little punk…" The nice attitude was nowhere to be seen and in a way Jess appreciated that. He didn't need nor want her pity. "…I know what you probably think. But Dean's a nice guy and Rory's a responsible girl and when they say they're watching a movie together – that's actually what they're doing."

"Huh." Jess didn't know what else to say – the thought that they were actually going to watch a movie hadn't crossed his mind. He did know that Rory was a responsible girl, but Dean was still a guy and even though he had tried to avoid it – he'd seen them kissing numerous times around town and he had just figured there was even more of that going on when they were indoors.

"Just try to be nice to him." Lorelai pleaded after a few moments of silence. "Remember I actually like him and so do Rory and therefore the Gilmore household have a history of treating him with kindness."

"I'll stay out of his way." Jess muttered, not quite able to hide the bitterness that sprung from Lorelai's devoted trust in Dean's character.

"Well actually…" Her voice was tentative. "…I usually don't stay out of his way. I usually make some chit-chat, ask about his job or school, or just general small-talk and more often than not they invite me to watch the movie with them."

"I'm not doing that." Jess firmly stated.

Lorelai sighed. "Ok. I get that, but don't hide out in my bedroom the entire time or one of them is bound to get suspicious. Dean will think I'm mad at him or something and after the whole debacle yesterday they don't need that."

What Jess wouldn't have given to have seen Dean's face yesterday when he found who he thought was Jess walking out of the Gilmore's house on Rory's night alone. "I'll make an appearance." He promised.

"Good." He heard Lorelai draw a breath as if to say something more and therefore he quickly said his goodbyes and hung up the phone. If they didn't get back into their own bodies soon he'd have to answer the questions she undoubtedly had about Sasha, but it was his firm intent to try and avoid that for as long as possible. He didn't need Lorelai Gilmore – self-appointed mother of the year – to pity him or thinking she understood him in any way.

Later that night, Lorelai stared at her plate as she pushed a couple of French fries around on it. She couldn't get the image of Sasha's bruised face out of her head. Was that what Jess' life looked like in New York? Was that why he had been sent to live with Luke?

Did Luke know? Was Jess' I-don't-give-a-fuck-about-the-world attitude a sort of defense he put up because he felt the world didn't give a fuck about him? But why take it out on Luke and on Stars Hollow? Here, he was given the chance to start anew – to turn his life around. To see that the world actually gave a fuck – or at least Luke did.

"You're not eating." Lorelai was ripped from her thoughts when Luke looked up from his meal and pointed towards her plate.

"I'm not very hungry." She mumbled and Luke gave her a worried look, but then nodded and turned his focus back to his own plate.

Lorelai bit her lip, hesitating for a few seconds. "Hey, Luke?"

"Yeah?" He looked up from his plate again.

She sighed. What was she gonna say? Hey, Luke – why was I really sent to live with you? Or Hey Luke – what's my mother like? She couldn't ask him those things, not as long as she was in Jess' body. "Nah, never mind." She shrugged and started eating.

Luke gave her a confused look for a couple of seconds before he started eating again.

Jess heard the doorbell ring and took a deep breath to steady himself. Exchanging pleasantries with Dean wasn't exactly his idea of a nice Saturday evening, but since Lorelai's idea of a nice Saturday evening included said activity – he didn't have much of a choice.

So far though, before Dean's arrival shattered the image, the evening had really been nice. It had been kind of like playing house with Rory – except of course the mother and daughter roles weren't the kind of roles Jess would have wished for them to have. But it had been nice just having her around. Just knowing that she was sitting on her bed reading while he was out in the kitchen trying to look busy gave him a homey sense of calm he wasn't very much used to.

Rory came hurrying out of her room to open the door and Jess frowned. What's with the rush? She'd spent the entire day with him already. She couldn't possibly have missed him in the short amount of time they'd been apart.

Jess grabbed a magazine from a stack on one of the kitchen counters and sat himself down at the table. He would, as per Lorelai's instructions, keep up a friendly act around Dean but he would not be running out to greet him in the hallway and be a witness to what was sure to be a warm welcoming on Rory's side, judging from the rush.

It didn't take long though, before they both came into the kitchen. "Hey Dean." Jess greeted, looking up from his magazine and trying to sound as if though he was actually glad to see him.

"Hey Lorelai." Dean greeted back with a smile. Suck-up.

He was still smiling like an idiot when Rory left his side and started taking stuff out of one of the cupboards. "We've got red vines, nutter butters and mallomars…" She turned to face Dean. "Did you bring ice cream?"

Chuckling a little, he held up a Doose's bag in the air. "Wouldn't dare enter without it."

"Good." Rory started pouring the candy into colorful bowls. "And mom ordered pizza, so that should be here soon."

Jess wondered if he should say something and if that was the case – what he was supposed to say. So far, no one seemed to be bothered by his silence so he decided he could continue to pretend to be completely engulfed in the magazine for a little while longer.

Rory handed Dean a couple of plates and spoons and he headed towards the living room with them while Rory picked the bowls up. "Are you coming?" She turned to Jess and he looked up from his magazine.

"What?"

"Aren't you watching the movie with us?" She looked confused.

So Lorelai hadn't been kidding. Dean and Rory actually invited Rory's mother to accompany them on their dates. "Well I…" He started and then hesitated. How could he weasel his way out of this one without anyone thinking Lorelai was holding a grudge or anything?

"…I think it's better you and Dean get some alone-time tonight." Jess could have patted himself on the back for coming up with that. "After everything that has happened lately."

Rory's face broke up in a smile as she leaned forward and gave Jess a quick kiss on the cheek before she followed Dean into the living room.

It was a good thing she disappeared, because Jess couldn't hold back on the happy smile that formed itself on his lips. Her lips felt so soft…

Yawning, Lorelai crept under the covers in Jess' bed, amazed at how quickly she'd gotten used to going to bed early and getting up at an ungodly hour.

Luke had just gone into the bathroom and so Lorelai picked up the empty notebook the psychic had given to her and Jess. She sighed as she flipped through the empty pages. Was she ever going to be herself again? Right now the situation felt hopeless.

Thinking she might as well give it a chance, Lorelai grabbed a pen and scribbled 'you know what it's like' on the page – the words Jess' bruised and battered friend had said when Lorelai mentioned her bruises. She closed her eyes for a few seconds. It didn't matter that Jess was unruly and disrespectful and didn't seem to care the least whether he was hurting the few people that actually cared about him – no one deserved that.

Contemplating for a while, Lorelai put pen to paper again and wrote 'thanks for always looking out for me' on the next line. Sasha's parting words to Jess. It didn't sound like anything she'd ever imagined someone saying to Jess – at least not without sarcasm – so she figured that probably counted as an insight of some sort.

She heard Luke turn the faucet off in the bathroom and hurried to hide the notebook under her pillow. Not that she thought Luke would ask what she was doing if he saw her writing, but she felt kind of ridiculous doing it.

Remembering all too well how she hadn't been able to stop staring at Luke the night before, Lorelai turned to her side and closed her eyes, pretending to already be fast asleep as Luke left the bathroom.

Jess flipped another page in the magazine in front of him. He would much rather have been flipping through the pages of a book, but had figured a magazine would be more Lorelai-like. She subscribed to a dozen different magazines and the only bookshelves he'd seen in the house were placed in Rory's room so as long as anyone was watching his reading preferences had been demoted from books to magazines.

He wasn't sure if anyone was indeed watching though. Rory was still supposedly having a date with Dean in the living room and he doubted that either of them where paying very much attention to the woman pretending to read a magazine in the kitchen. Jess laughed quietly to himself.

Eating candy and junk food and watching movies, all with adult supervision? That was more akin to a play-date than an actual date. Not that Jess was complaining though, since he had to be in their vicinity tonight, he preferred that over having to witness intense make-out sessions on the couch.

So far the closest the couple had come to any kind of date-like behavior, was Dean holding his arm around Rory. It was even more chaste than anything he'd seen them doing outdoors. No wonder Lorelai liked the guy.

Still, he couldn't help but wish he was the one sitting on that couch with his arm around Rory. Just a few hours ago, he'd been content and filled with warm, fuzzy feelings only because she was in the next room reading. He wondered what it would feel like sitting on that couch with her, holding her close.

He heard them moving around in the living room and glancing over his magazine, he saw them getting up from the couch. The movie was probably over. Thank God.

Even though he had told Lorelai he would only make an appearance, Jess had been sat in the kitchen throughout the entire movie. Partly because he hoped it annoyed Dean having to keep up his nice guy act around Rory's mother and not even daring to give her a kiss not to shatter his chaste image, and partly because he didn't know what else to do besides sitting there, pretending to read magazines.

Rory and Dean moved into the hallway and he wondered if Dean would dare to give Rory a goodnight kiss or if he would refrain from it not to risk Lorelai walking into the hallway and seeing them actually acting like a couple. He half wanted to go out there just to see Dean's face when being caught kissing his girlfriend, but he also really didn't want to see Dean kissing his girlfriend so he decided to stay put.

"Good night Lorelai." Dean called from the hallway after a little while and Jess rolled his eyes. Polite, chaste and respectful – the Boy Scout sure had it all. He repressed a scoff.

"Good night Dean." He called back.

Jess heard Dean and Rory talk for a while out in the hallway before he heard the door closing and Rory came into the kitchen. There was a smile wide enough to break his heart plastered on her face.

"Good movie?" He forced himself to ignore the pains in his chest and ask.

Rory nodded. "Yeah. And after today, I think Dean is finally over the whole Jess-thing."

Are you? He wanted to ask, but refrained. It wouldn't be very likely for Lorelai to ask such a thing and to be completely honest, he wasn't sure he wanted to hear her answer.

"Good." He nodded as well. "That's great."

"Yeah." Rory smiled and nodded again and maybe it was because he so desperately wanted to see it, but Jess thought there was a little something in her eyes saying that maybe Dean was over the whole Jess-thing, but she was still thinking about him…

Rory went to retrieve the bowls and plates from the living room and Jess followed her, thinking that Lorelai would probably help her daughter clean up. "So Dean believed the story about Paris and Jess?" He asked as they were cleaning up. He couldn't help himself, he just wanted to see at least a hint of that spark she'd had in her eyes earlier that day when she'd thought he had a crush on Paris.

"I guess so." Rory shrugged and Jess did his best to hide his disappointment.

"Good." Jess nodded as they both went back to the kitchen with the empty bowls and plates.

"Yeah." Rory looked pensive for a second before she continued: "I don't like having to lie to him though…" She made a face. "…but I guess it's for the best."

"Well…" Jess tried again. "…if you're right about Jess liking Paris, maybe it won't be a lie very much longer."

Rory turned on her heel to face him and the glare she shot him almost made him want to do a happy dance. She was definitely not over the Jess thing. "It can't happen." She declared and Jess actually felt butterflies in his stomach.

"Why not?" He asked, keeping up the act of the clueless mother.

"Well…" Rory threw her hands out. "…I go to school with Paris and we're finally on kind of good terms." Her word speed increased with each word she uttered. "If she and Jess starts dating and he leaves her – she will blame me for introducing them and then she'll go back to hating me and trying to make my life at Chilton miserable. It'll be the Tristan date fiasco all over again!"

Who was Tristan? Jess was pretty sure he'd never heard the name before. Lorelai probably knew all about the Tristan date fiasco, so he couldn't very well ask, instead he simply nodded in acknowledgement.

"It's very tiring having Paris as an enemy." Rory explained and Jess was uncertain as to whether it was him or herself she tried to convince.

Jess aimlessly walked around Lorelai's bedroom, looking at the memorabilia and picture frames that Lorelai had filled her bedroom with, but his mind was elsewhere. Rory had rambled on for almost half an hour about what an impossible match Jess and Paris was. It was obvious she was torn between Dean and himself and even though he reveled at the thought of being one of the guys she was torn between he hated seeing her so tortured.

If only he could get back into his own body he could make an effort and show her how much better suited they were together. He could make her see what he already knew – that they belonged together.

He sighed as he picked up a picture portraying Lorelai and Rory laughing together on a roller coaster and smiled. She looked so happy. They both did.

He had never before met a girl – or anyone for that matter – that had such a close knit relation with her mother. Most of the people he knew from back home went out of their ways to stay away from their parents. The closest he'd ever came to inviting Liz to hang out when he was on a date was that one time when she was passed out on the couch while he was making out with Amy Matthews in the corner of the living room that served as his room.

He put the frame back in its place and sighed. Rory was different from anyone he'd ever met. Her mere presence made him feel things he didn't know he was even capable of feeling. But as long as Lorelai despised him – could he and Rory ever be happy together? Or rather – could Rory be happy?

He picked up another picture, this one portraying a young Lorelai, with a very young Rory on her hip. Lorelai smiled towards the photographer, but her smile looked strained. Jess sighed again. The only thing Amy Matthews' parents had really cared about, or Sasha's father, or practically the parents of any girl he'd ever known – no matter how lousy, how drunk or high or just generally out of it – was that their daughters didn't come home pregnant. The kind of parents he knew didn't care about curfews or school and only a few of them possessed enough double-standards to moralize about drugs and alcohol – but practically all of them preached the importance of not getting yourself pregnant before you had a husband that could provide for you and the baby.

That was probably the only thing Lorelai had in common with the parents he'd known – the fear of her teenage daughter coming home pregnant. Lorelai knew first-hand about the fears and hard-ships that was reflected in the eyes of the younger version of her that was portrayed in the picture Jess still held in his hand.

He had spent almost two days in Lorelai's body and he had no doubt that Rory had some sort of feelings for him. Surely, Lorelai must have come to the same conclusions some time during the time Jess had spent in Stars Hollow. Jess put the picture frame back in its place and headed towards bed. He felt tired, defeated and almost depressed when he realized that Lorelai would never accept the concept of him dating her daughter.

The realization wasn't really that much of a surprise to him. He'd always known that Lorelai wasn't his biggest fan, and probably never would be. But it wasn't until now that he realized the full extent of that information; if Lorelai wasn't happy – Rory wouldn't be either. Not truly.

Seeing how Lorelai had fallen for the temptations and gotten herself pregnant at 16, he could, in a way, understand why she didn't want her daughter to move onto a boy that she actually liked. He could understand why a mother desperately wanted her daughter to keep dating the guy to whom a movie-watching date actually was about watching a movie. With his outburst over the phone to Lorelai when hearing about Rory's date with Dean, he'd effectively proven to her that he was not that kind of guy. He had proven that he was exactly the type of guy she didn't want to date her teenage daughter – the type of guy that no one wanted to date their teenage daughter.

He felt awkwardly empty when he got into bed and pulled the covers over his head to try and shut everything out.