A/N I cried when I wrote this chapter, my family laughed at me, I hope the rest of you are moved by this like I was. Sorry it's late, I got sick. The next chapter will be late too. But hopefully these are worth the wait.

I own nothing

Jess was in the middle of organizing the shelves in the store when he felt hid phone vibrate in his pocket, again. This was the fourth time it had rung in the last couple of hours. He was hung over, in a bad mood and had work that needed to be done; the last thing he wanted was to talk to anyone. Unless it was Rory, he needed to talk to Rory. He should have looked at the display on the phone before answering, he realized as he was met by the angry voice of his uncle.

"What the Hell is wrong with you?" Luke yelled. Jess, having no idea what he was talking about, didn't respond before Luke continued. "You really think Rory needs to deal with all your crap right now?" Jess squeezed the bridge of his nose to stave off the headache that had been building since he got out of bed. Luke continued to read him the riot act as Jess quietly listened and made his way to the office for a bottle of water, and something for his head. "Huh, Jess, do you have an explanation as to why you would do something to make that girl call her other in tears this afternoon?"

"I didn't mean for it to happen," was all Jess could say, he had just called to talk and things had gotten completely out of control, very quickly, he explained to his irate uncle, who he knew cared for that girl like she was his daughter, and also had to deal with the brunt of her mother's anger as well. "I tried calling her last night. I almost left a voicemail, but didn't know what to say. I figured she might call me back today when she wasn't busy." Jess shrugged nonchalantly, he knew that Rory needed time to cool off and re-gather her pride after a fight.

"And if she doesn't call? Jess what were you thinking? Lorelai and I are getting married in three weeks and things would run better if the Maid of Honor and Best Man didn't hate each other."

"I'll call her." Jess submitted to his uncle's anger.

"Fix it, Jess," Luke growled, before ending the call. Jess resigned himself to knowing he was going to have to make the first step to mending what had happened between him and Rory. He decided that verbal communication was never his strong point so he went to her publications website and looked up her e-mail address. He could always say things better when he wrote them.

Rory,

I know things went badly last night. I didn't mean to get that angry. I know it's not an excuse but I am in the process of quitting smoking, and it's not going amazingly well. So needless to say I've been on edge lately, and probably was a little quick to get angry. I don't just want to apologize for last night though. I have so much to apologize for. I'm really kind of a crappy person and never deserved someone like you. But once I had you it was kind of hard to let go (which is kind of ironic considering why things ended in the first place).

I've grown up a lot in the last few years; I don't know why I thought you wouldn't, except that you seem like you were born grown up. I need to let you grow up too, even if that means I don't love the person you become. I can't expect you to be the girl I fell in love with when I was 17 anymore, because I'm not the same person you fell in love with, for better or for worse.

That being said we have to be able to co-exist, our family may not be one that is going to be super cuddly and close, but we are going to be important parts in a wedding for two people we both care deeply about. I want this wedding to be great for Luke and I know you want the same for Lorelai. Being able to be in that same room without screaming at each other would probably is a great first step.

All the best,

Jess

He pressed the send button before he had a chance to rethink anything he had just written. Holding on to Rory, even just in his memories had been hard, but letting go had been harder than he could have ever imagined. He felt like a giant hole had taken up residence in his chest, and it was making it hard to breathe.

She finished her article and submitted it to Hugo with a smile. She had gone a different direction this time, more of an opinion piece than she had been writing, but he had told her that what she was writing was stale. She felt like some of the weight that had been crushing her had been lifted. The rest of it; the loneliness and missing her mother and friends, and the issue with Jess still hung there, but they didn't seem as daunting. She couldn't do much about the first thing, but she knew how to deal with the second and made her way over to her bed to make the phone call that needed to be made. "Rory?" She heard Jess ask astonished on the other end of the line.

"Hey, I just needed to say that I'm sorry for last night. I don't know why I got so upset. Can you forgive me?"

"I'm guessing you didn't get my e-mail," Jess said.

Rory scrambled back over to the small table with her laptop on it, "no why" she asked trying to buy herself some time to read it. She opened it and got to the part about him not deserving her before she heard him say,

"You're reading it now, aren't you?"

"Hmm?' She said with a small lump in her throat. "Wasn't I supposed to?" She asked, regaining her voice.

"Not while I was listening on the phone," he heard her sniffle, "Rory, are you crying?"

"Oh, Jess, you're not a crappy person."

"Ror," he whispered, it pulled at her heartstrings. He parents were the only other people to ever call her that. It was like a special sentiment for people that were deeply embedded in her heart and she couldn't deny that Jess was one of them. "Please say something."

"I never…I just…are you really giving up on me?" She stuttered.

"What," he asked not quite sure what she meant.

"You said we have to be able to co-exist. Is that all you want is for us to be able to be in the same room and be able to perform the most basic polite exchanges?" She asked trying to hold it together. It seemed all she did was cry lately.

"No, but, uhh," he grunted frustrated, "I just don't want it to hurt anymore."

Rory sobbed loudly upon hearing that and tried to wipe away the few tears that were racing down her cheeks, not that Jess could see her. He asked her what she wanted. "I don't know," she responded definitely, but defeated. She wanted things to be easy again, like when she was 15 and all that mattered was school. She was an adult now and couldn't always be easy, and truthfully though things with Jess had never been easy, they had been some of the happiest in her life.

So I work in a school and write while I am at work, which is why the language and such is pretty mild. I tried to get enough written before break to keep up my schedule of Friday posting, but if I get behind that is why. Thanks for reading.