Chapter Ten

Disclaimer: I do not own the marvellous TV show Gilmore Girls.

Enjoy!

Previously:

"So you'll be his girlfriend and not mine?" Rory stared at him in anger and stood up slowly.

"Yes, because he's committed and doesn't have a list of girls available to sleep with on his phone! Yes, because he has aims and dreams bigger than getting drunk every night! Yes, because he is the one I can talk to about anything!"

Rory walked to the door and opened it to see the girl from earlier still standing there, with a slightly shocked expression on her face. "He's all yours," she said, pushing past her, tears falling down her face.

I ruined it. I screwed it all up.

Jess sat at his computer and typed. He had gotten a huge surge in inspiration since being with Rory and he wanted to write as much as he could. He'd been home for a few hours and Matt and Chris were busy working but he knew at any moment they would come and bother him.

He looked around the room and smirked. He was glad to be back but he wished it was closer to Rory's. Philadelphia was too far away. He took a sip of his coffee and continued to type, pounding out about 130 words per minute as his fingers tried to keep up with his brain.

"Jess! Did you finish the coffee?"

"Yep." He heard Matt mutter something unintelligible and he grinned to himself. Matt walked through the office Jess was working in and glared at him.

"We have no coffee," he said, very simply.

"What do you expect me to do about it? Open another bag." He turned back to his computer when Matt turned his chair around forcefully.

"There are no more bags!" Matt said frantically. Jess scoffed and he was reminded of the Gilmore Girls who always got very antsy when there was no coffee.

"What do you want me to do?" asked Jess, rolling his eyes. It wasn't like he had a coffee pot in his hand like he did at Luke's diner.

"I want you to go out and buy some more coffee."

"Right, cause that's gonna happen."

Jess turned to his computer and saved his documents. He closed the laptop and looked at Matt again. "Do you need anything else your highness?"

"Wait, you're seriously going to go buy me coffee?" asked Matt in shock.

"No, I'm getting out of the apartment for a little while and I might venture into a supermarket and pick us all up some coffee." Matt rolled his eyes at Jess's comment and watched as he grabbed a jacket and his keys.

"Bye Jess!"

"I'll get you decaf," muttered Jess, causing Matt to smile.

Rory sat in her dorm room and stared out the window. She was in the lounge room and desperately hoped that Paris would be staying at Doyle's.

Jess. Jess. Jess. Jess.

His name ran in her head and she put her head in her hands, trying to hold back the tears that had just stopped running down her face.

She hated the fact that Logan had kissed her. She had never felt this bad about kissing someone ever. When she was with Dean she had kissed Tristan and Jess and she was not eaten up with remorse. When she was with Logan she had kissed Jess and started a relationship with him.

When she was with Jess she never wanted to kiss anyone else and now that she had she had no idea how to cope. She wanted to call Jess up and talk to him and explain and also just hear his voice but she couldn't because she had this paralysing fear that he would end things with her and she would rather have a few hours where they were still together before it all went to hell and fell apart.

The shriek of her mobile surprised her and she picked it up to look at the caller id.

It was Jess.

Knowing it was cowardly Rory let it ring, not wanting to bring forth the confession, accusation and breakup.

As it hit voicemail Rory regretted it. She put her head in her hands and cried.

Jess listened to Rory's voicemail smiling. "Hey, it's Rory. I'm probably off saving the world one article at a time or I'm screening so leave a message when you hear the beep."

"Hey Rory, it's Jess. Just wanted you to know I got here alright and am now buying coffee for Matt. His coffee habit rivals yours." Jess hesitated for a moment and then said "I miss you. Talk to you soon."

Being all romantic and cheesy was not something Jess was used to. He wasn't even used to people wanting to know he was alright but he did miss Rory and want her to know he was alright. He lined up at the supermarket counter and paid for the coffee he bought. The girl at the register smiled suggestively at him and he rolled his eyes as he walked away. He used to like the attention girls paid him but now he just found it insulting. Did they think he was still single?

To Jess he felt (as cheesy as this sounds) complete. He was doing a job he loved, in a place he loved and he now had a girl who he was crazy about. He didn't want to lose any of that, particularly Rory.

Jess left the supermarket and walked back up the road to Truncheon. As he opened the door he heard a yell of "Coffee!" and a bounding as Matt emerged down the stairs. Jess pulled the coffee out of the plastic bag and chucked it at his head. He caught it in the air before it hit his head and Matt said "Thankyou!" before running back up the stairs.

Chris emerged from the back of the publishing house, holding a letter in his hands.

"Hey Jess," he said absently, not paying much attention.

"Hey. What's that?" Jess asked, picking up a book off the floor.

"A letter from my grandma," he said. Jess grinned and was about to make a comment when Chris said "Don't. Please don't."

"What? It's cute. You're grandma sends you letters. What's wrong with that?" Jess couldn't hold back his grin and Chris hit him across the back of the head with his letter. It didn't hurt but Jess let out an 'ow!' just for the sake of it. They walked up the stairs together, Jess picking up books as he went along. Matt tended to drop his books when he got distracted.

"You in tonight?" asked Chris with a laugh. Jess nodded and said "What takeout?"

"Let's go to a bar!" called Matt, who was busy making a coffee in the small kitchen.

"We were at a bar two nights ago, Matt," said Chris, exasperated.

"Yeah, but I didn't have my wingman. You're no help picking up girls," said Matt, re-entering the room where the guys were.

"Oh and Jess is?"

"Jess doesn't have a girlfriend so he can pick them up with me. You just sit in the bar and drink and text Kirsten. Jess helps because he has that mysterious writer thing going on. He's more likely to get laid tonight than I am." At this comment Jess coughed and didn't meet Matt's eyes. He didn't quite know how to tell his two best mates that he now had a girlfriend.

"What was that cough for?" asked Chris.

"It's cause he knows he's gonna get laid and thinks there is no doubt about it." Matt said this and rolled his eyes and Jess just ignored him.

"Let's not do the bar tonight," said Jess, picking up a book and starting to read it. He hoped to effectively end this conversation but he should have known that was not true.

"Uh, why not?" asked Matt.

"Because I don't want to alright? Can we just let it go?" Jess knew that the two guys were looking at each other and Jess tried desperately to figure out how to tell them about Rory.

Matt pulled the book out of Jess's hands and said "What is up with you Mr Mariano?"

"Nothing."

"Oh, it's not nothing," said Chris, folding his arms across his chest. "Today you were actually smiling and now you don't want to go to the bar for drinks and girls. What is up?"

"Yeah, where did you go for the week?" added Matt.

Jess didn't answer for a minute and then he muttered something under his breath, hoping that they wouldn't hear.

"What was that?"

"Speak up buttercup."

Running his hand through his hair Jess said "I went to Stars Hollow." He braced himself for a barrage of questions and then was shocked when both Matt and Chris said nothing. He looked at them and saw Matt looking confused and Chris looking deep in thought.

"Why'd you go to Stars Hollow?" asked Matt. Jess was still focussing on Chris because he assumed Chris was more likely to figure it out first.

"I wanted to show my uncle the book and then I got side tracked."

"You hate that town though, why a week?" Jess didn't answer Matt because he assumed Chris was very close to understanding. When Chris went "Oh!" Jess leant back into the couch and smirked, trying to mask the worry about his friend's judgement.

"'Oh' what?" said Matt, confused.

"Seriously Matt?"

"What?"

"He went to Stars Hollow. Told us he was going for a couple of days but stayed for a week. He comes home now and doesn't want to go to the bar and pick up girls. In fact," said Chris, looking at Jess again, "as soon as you mentioned hooking up with some girls, he avoided your eyes. Hmmm . . . Wonder what that's about . . ."

Matt looked confused for a second and Jess inwardly sighed. He and Chris waited until a look of understanding hit Matt.

"You've got a girlfriend?" Matt finally asked, incredulously.

"And he's figured it out," announced Jess. Both Matt and Chris looked shocked and sat back lightly.

"Who?" Chris asked. This was the part that Jess did not want Matt and Chris to freak out about. He had had a few drunken nights where he had mentioned Rory and from what Jess could remember it was not good stuff he had said about her. He really didn't want them to hate her before they even met her.

"Rory." Jess said this quietly and Matt and Chris both sighed.

"Typical."

"Yep, classic Jess move."

"What?" he asked.

"There's only one girl for you is there?" asked Chris, with a smile.

"So did you ask her or did she ask you?" asked Matt. Jess leant back and grinned at his friends, ready to be made fun of and to tell them about the person he couldn't get off his mind.

Rory was still sitting there with her head in her hands when Paris came into the apartment. Seeing Rory sitting there had Paris feel remorse about the comment she made this morning. She looked carefully at Rory, who had not even looked up when Paris entered the apartment.

"Rory? Are you alright?" Rory looked up from her hands and Paris noticed the tear stains on her cheeks.

"Oh, Paris, hi." She brushed her cheeks and smiled at her but Paris wasn't fooled. She came over and sat next to Rory on the couch and asked "What's the matter?"

"I did something stupid."

"What?"

"Well, I didn't do it. Someone else did. But I was directly involved and it affects me and I don't know what to do and I need to tell him but I don't know what he'll do and I don't want him to be angry and all I can think about is calling him but I don't want to breakup and – "

Paris interrupted Rory at this point because she was getting into a full blown Gilmore Rant and even though Paris was used to them by now, she really wanted the whole story.

"Slow down. Tell me what has happened with the true hard facts." Taking a deep breath, Rory began to explain to Paris everything that happened with Logan and how she had reacted to the kiss.

At the end of it all Paris didn't understand why Rory was freaking out so much. "You need to calm down and take a chill pill. Do some craft – it might help you."

"What do you mean?" asked Rory, wiping away the fresh tears that had come while she told Paris the whole story.

"Rory, he kissed you. He kissed you. You did nothing wrong. You didn't go over there to cheat on him, did you?"

"Well no," admitted Rory.

"You stopped him when you realised what was happening, right?" asked Paris.

"Right."

"And you yelled at him when he was finished?"

"Damn right I did," said Rory with a smile.

Paris leant back in the couch and relaxed. "Then you have nothing to worry about. You just got caught in the selfish life of Huntzberger who doesn't understand the word 'no'. Jess is reasonable right?"

"Yeah."

"I remember you telling me in highschool that he didn't freak out with jealousy that often. Much better than bagboy anyway. Just call him and don't ramble," Paris advised. "He'll probably surprise you, you know?" Paris got up to walk away when she saw Rory pick up the phone and dial a number. She was just picking up her bag of craft things when she heard "Hey Jess, it's Rory."

Jess had just finished telling Matt and Chris about his week when his phone rang. Pulling it out of his pocket he smiled as he saw the caller id. Standing up, Matt and Chris made a face and then started cat calling as he answered the phone.

"Hello?" he asked, hitting Matt on the back of the head as he called out "Put your pants back on Jess!"

"Hey Jess, it's Rory." The slight hesitation of her on the phone made him smile and he walked into his room to have the conversation.

"How are you?" he asked and then rolled his eyes at the classic way he went into boyfriend mode.

"Oh I'm good. Sorry I missed your call before," she said and Jess laughed. "Hey you're at Yale. I can't be interrupting all those classes of yours." Rory laughed, a little breathlessly and Jess smiled.

There was silence on the phone that was mostly due to Rory not talking one hundred words a minute as she usually did. "Rory? Everything, alright?" Jess began to get a little nervous because he couldn't see her face and she wasn't talking and everything just seemed to be a little wrong.

"I have something to tell you Jess."

"That sounds morbid," Jess remarked, trying to make light of the situation. "What's up?"

"Ok." He could tell on the other end of the line that she was trying very hard not to ramble. "Do you remember how I was seeing someone before you?"

Jess said "Yeah, that Logan guy. I heard Luke and your Mum talking about him."

"Really? Anyway. That weekend we re-met and then got together I decided that it was over between us. I hadn't heard from him in a week and I was tired of just being another girl he knew and slept with." Unknown to Rory, Jess winced at this and then focussed on what Rory was saying.

"The thing is . . . I hadn't told Logan yet. So today I went over to his place to tell him we were done."

"How'd he take it?" asked Jess, without emotion.

"Not well," admitted Rory. "He got all angry and thought that I was trying to make him commit to me as my boyfriend and wouldn't stop talking."

"Huh. That's usually your thing," commented Jess.

"Shut up. I thought you'd be angry," said Rory.

"You haven't told me anything to be angry about Rory." Jess hoped that that was the end of the story but he knew it wasn't or else she wouldn't have been speaking frantically.

"Oh, right. Well. He kissed me." Rory didn't say anything for a moment and Jess took a deep breath. There it was. The thing which could screw them up.

"And then?" said Jess, unsure he wanted to know the rest.

"Jess, I pushed him away. I pushed him away and then screamed at him. I slapped him and told him about you and screamed at him. Did I mention that? Please don't be angry. I am so sorry."

Jess smiled at how much Rory wanted him to know she was sorry. "Hey Rory?"

"Yeah?"

"Relax. I'm not mad."

"You're not?"

"No. You did nothing wrong. He kissed you, not you kissed him. I'm not going to break up with you because of some idiot player." Rory sighed on the other end of the line and Jess could almost hear the smile in her voice.

"Thankyou."

"I don't blame him for going crazy," said Jess.

"You don't?"

"Naa. He had a Gilmore girl and now he's lost her. That would suck."

"Yeah?" asked Rory.

"Yeah," answered Jess. "I'd be pretty upset too."

"I thought you'd be mad or jealous," she admitted.

"I trust you. Do you trust me?" Jess asked, hoping that she would say yes.

"Yeah, I do." He was surprised at how happy that made him. They were silent for a moment until he heard Rory ask "Hey Jess?"

"Yeah?"

"Who was calling out before?"

Jess laughed. "That would be Matt."

"I really hope you have your pants on," teased Rory.

"Oh, do you?" Jess smirked and heard Rory's laughter over the phone. He lay back on his bed, ready to talk about anything and everything with her. "You'll never guess what I had to do for Matt today . . ."

Please review! I had trouble writing this chapter but that could just be the changes in perspective. I hope you enjoyed it and thought the fix up of their drama was alright. There was no reason for them to break up in my mind.

Read and Review!

RF.