Summary: Jess never went to Stars Hollow, continuing down a bad path living in New York, eventually getting punished with community service, where he happens to bump into a certain Gilmore fresh from her yacht-stealing escapades. Lit. Set around 6x03 and onwards.

A/N: Hello! Thanks for all the reviews for the previous chapter, they were all awesome and, as a result: here I am! Doing that updating regularly thing! Anyway, hope you enjoy the chapter, it's kind of a quiet one to counter-balance the extremely eventful previous one.

"What?"

Rory eyed her mother nervously as she stood in the kitchen doorframe the morning after her party, grinning in a way that would've made the Cheshire Cat want to stop to take notes.

"Oh, nothing, just everything is right in the world again," Lorelai replied, advancing into the kitchen, grin still very much intact.

"Care to expand on that?"

"Well, yesterday, you were breaking bread with the ladies of the DAR and having drinks named after you and consorting with Il Duce-"

"Grandpa?" Rory asked, with a slight confused frown.

"Grandma, duh," Lorelai replied, as she moved to put some pop tarts into the toaster.

"Ah, I'd forgotten that your Grandma insults transcend gender."

Lorelai waved a casual hand, "Well that's what happens when you leave home to stay at The Overlook Hotel." At Rory's confused expression, she elaborated, "Oh my God, The Overlook Hotel, as in the hotel from The Shining; God, you really have been away from home too long."

"I forgot the hotel name, sue me," Rory said, grabbing a pop tart and taking a bite.

"Anyway, as I was saying before you revealed your woeful ignorance, it's been all too long since I've come downstairs and seen you sitting there neurotically poring over your notebooks, highlighters in hand."

"Well, I have a lot of work to do: there's a ridiculous amount of phone calls involved in the whole re-enrolling to Yale thing, I'm thinking of just giving it up and taking on this community service gig full time."

Lorelai shrugged, "Beats DAR."

Rory nodded, "Plus I've developed what I like to think of as an excellent rapport with Ed, the supervisor."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yup, he actually knows my name now. And it would mean I'd never have to be separated from Don."

"Don?"

"I named my garbage picker."

"Well, naturally."

"Finally, someone who understands!"

"Ah, but I think I can isolate a snag in your new-found life ambition."

Rory feigned a gasp, "But it's been my dream for a whole thirty seconds!"

"But are you really willing to wear that outfit for the rest of your working life?"

Rory sighed, "You have a point. Oh well, I guess Yale it is."

"Bummer," Lorelai agreed, sitting down at the table. Slightly nervously, she asked, "So, you meant everything you said? About Yale? Because I understand that you were upset, and I don't want you to be doing all this just to make amends when you don't really-"

"I'm sure," Rory cut her off. "I've been in the process of changing my mind ever since I went down that unbelievably stupid road in my life, but- I dunno, I guess it was just easier to repress it than to admit to myself that I was miserable, but in light of recent events that's been getting harder and harder to do, and that whole break-up debacle was pretty much the final straw. But I really want this: Yale, moving back here, not having to learn off the name of new maids that are fired before the day is out, all of it."

"Speaking of the break-up, how are you doing with that? Do I need to arrange a time to vanquish Luke from the house for some serious wallowing?"

A slight crease formed between Rory's eyebrows, "I don't actually think any Luke-vanquishing is necessary, I'm feeling oddly...okay about the whole thing." She paused for a moment, trying to pin down exactly what it was she was feeling, before shrugging, "I don't know, maybe it'll hit me later, I probably just haven't taken it in yet."

Lorelai nodded, in that measured way she had that meant she was about to offer a different opinion. "Sure, it could be that," she said. "Or..."

Rory raised her eyebrows, "Or?"

"Maybe, honey, you really are okay with it. I mean, I only saw a snippet of The Rory/Logan Saga at the party, but it was definitely channelling more Sid/Nancy than Nick/Nora."

"Well, things haven't exactly been perfect with us lately, but I dunno, I feel like I should feel something..." Rory shrugged it off, "It's probably just taking time to process."

"Right," Lorelai said, sounding doubtful, mindful of the dark-haired guy (shortened from guy-from-outside-who-likes-The-Clash, as she'd called him in her head before his re-emergence at the party) who she'd seen her daughter talking to so animatedly the night before.

"So, do you mind filling in the blanks from last night?"

"Was it that much of a traumatic experience that you blotted it out?"

"No: I remember emerging from my room, blowing out the candles while Grandma glared at me from the corner of the room, finding Luke, who'd miraculously managed to get his hands on a beer, then coming back here with you guys. What I don't know is how I got from having fallen asleep in the car to waking up in my bed."

"Ah, that would be the part where Luke carried you. You see, that's what a fiancé's for: part love and intimacy and all that crap, but mainly slave labour."

"Huh, I'll bear that in mind."

"Speaking of Luke, he seemed to have his own interesting party experience."

"God, that thing was eventful. What happened to him? He didn't get corralled by one of the Grandparents, did he?"

"No, thank God."

"So, what happened?"

"Apparently you now work for Families: Reunited."

"He met Jess?" Rory asked, surprised, having forgotten about her plan for the evening.

"Yup. They met, they talked, they drank beer; I think that's pretty much the equivalent of swearing eternal brotherhood for Luke Danes, so I think you can mark off your plan as a success."

"Huh," Rory said, smiling slightly, before something occurred to her. "So, did that mean you met...?"

"The prodigal nephew? Errr...yes and no."

Rory furrowed her brow, "And what does that mean?"

"That he took off before I found Luke, so I didn't see him then per se, but..."

"Yes?"

"There may have been an encounter prior to the evening in the question."

"Explain, please."

Lorelai winced slightly, "Do you promise not to laugh at my patheticness?"

"Not that you've ever extended that courtesy to me, but okay."

"Well, during that nasty separation of ours, I kind of went back to the Gilmore house on some Friday nights, when we would have been having dinner there, and just sat out there for a while. Okay, that sounded even more pathetic than I thought it would; feel free to laugh if you want."

Rory was about as far from laughter as humanly possible; touched, she said, with a smile, "That doesn't sound too pathetic to me."

"Well, anyway, on one of those nights, I saw some guy in a Metallica t-shirt emerging from the Gilmore house," Lorelai paused for a second, noticing the way the corners of her daughter's lips twitched up slightly at this, before continuing, "and it was too weird of a sight not to comment on. And from there followed a somewhat awkward conversation before I fled the scene."

"Huh," Rory said again, grinning slightly at the fact that she seemed to have picked up that habit off the guy in question. "So...what did you think?"

"What did I think?"

"Of Jess."

"Oh, of Jess," Lorelai parroted in a tone that made Rory feel slightly suspicious.

"Are you going to repeat everything I say?"

"Are you going to repeat everything I say?" At her daughter's murderous glare, Lorelai gave up. "Why does it matter what I think?" she challenged.

Rory paused, taken aback, "It doesn't. I'm just curious is all."

"Really?" Lorelai said, raising her eyebrows.

"Yes," Rory said, firmly. "Seeing as he's my friend, or at least some variation on the word, and you're my mom, I was just wondering what you thought, but if you don't want to volunteer that information for some reason best known to yourself, that's fine."

Lorelai scrutinised her daughter, "Do you like this guy?"

"Uh, yeah, as implied by the use of the word friend," Rory explained slowly, as if to a five year old.

"No, I mean, do you like him?" Lorelai asked, drawing out the word.

"I'm sorry, when did we regress back to fifth grade?"

"Is that avoidance of the question?"

"No, it's just pointing out that the question is ridiculous."

"Right," Lorelai said, though maintaining a frustratingly knowing expression while doing so.

"Stop looking at me like that!" Rory exclaimed, frustrated. "Besides, even if I did like him, community service ends in two weeks, and I have no idea what he's planning to do after that."

Lorelai narrowed her eyes, "So are you saying that you do like him?"

"No!"

"Then you're saying that you don't?"

"Look, I just broke up with Logan; don't you think it's a little too soon to be talking about other guys?"

Lorelai shrugged, "Depends how long the guy's been in the picture pre-break-up."

Rory carried on, ignoring her mother's input, "Besides, even if there were some very, very small feelings involved, I'm guessing it's probably just displaced break-up feelings from last night that I've superimposed onto Jess because he's been such a good friend and, let's face it, he's an attractive guy- well, more than attractive, he's- but, yeah, beside the point. In fact, this is all beside the point, because, you know what? He's just a friend, a friend I have no feelings for whatsoever," she finished off her rant, somewhat lamely.

"Right," Lorelai repeated, eyeing her sceptically. "But-"

"Why is there always a 'but'?"

"But," Lorelai persisted, "what if he is sticking around after community service is done?"

Rory paused, before letting out a deep sigh, "Look, can we please just drop this now? After this whole Logan thing I don't really know what I'm feeling, and anything that I may or may not be feeling at the moment is bound to be pretty skewed in light of that."

"Okay, it's dropped," Lorelai said, raising her hands in a submissive gesture. "Though if it's worth anything, from the five minutes I spent in the guy's company, it seems painfully obvious that he's into you," she said. At her daughter's expression, she said, "Okay, okay, dropped for good this time, I promise."

"Good," Rory said, before something out the window caught her eye. "Uh, mom, why is Kirk doing what looks like some strangled form of Tai Chi on our front lawn?"

Lorelai sighed, "Long story."

It was beginning to get quite calming that whatever was happening in her life, back Rory came to community service with a comforting regularity. A comforting regularity that would only last two more weeks, that is. It was weird that after all those hours of trying to get it over with as soon as possible, she now found herself wanting to drag it out, without quite knowing why. She guessed she was just prone to nostalgia.

"Hey."

She was interrupted from her reverie by Jess' appearance at her side. She snapped out of her train of thought immediately, smiling, "Hey yourself. I see you made it out of the Gilmore house unscathed."

"You could say that," he replied. "Of course, you could also say that I made it out of there with eight dirty looks, four under-the-breath scathing comments, and one deliberate stepping on my foot, but who's counting?"

"Well either way, you left before I got a chance to..." she trailed off, wondering how to best phrase her gratitude without sounding too awkward.

"To what? Try to force one of those toxic-looking cocktails on me?"

"Actually, I kind of wanted to thank you."

He raised his eyebrows, "Oh really?"

"Yes," she said. "But if you're going to make a return to your sarcastic asshole ways of old, I may change my mind," she continued, jokingly.

"Hey, I'm the picture of solemnity," he said, raising his hands to show his innocence. "So, where were we? I think you were expressing your eternal gratitude to me."

Rory rolled her eyes, "Can we be serious for just a minute? Please?" At his nod of consent, she continued. "As I was saying, I just wanted to thank you; last night, I actually managed to patch things up with my mother, and decided to move out of my grandparents' place and go back to Yale."

"And this is something I should be thanked for...how?"

"Because, you were one of the few people in my life that saw that I wasn't happy, and actually called me on it, and without that I don't know if last night would have turned out the way it did."

"Rory, I didn't do anything: Yale, your mom, moving out – that was all you, your decisions. All I did was made some judgements that I had no right to make."

"Judgements that resulted in my decision," Rory pressed on, stubbornly.

"You would have always gone back eventually; all I did, if anything, was help speed up the process."

"Look, will you just let me thank you, okay?" Rory asked, exasperated.

"Fine, misdirected gratitude accepted," Jess replied, drily. "Now can we drop this whole earnest thing and get back to the good-hearted banter? Because, to be honest, that's what we do best."

Rory grinned, "If you insist." She paused for a second, spearing some garbage, thoughtfully, "So, were you ever planning on telling me about your little meeting with my mother?"

Jess' expression showed surprise at her having found out, but he recovered quickly, "Well, we both agreed that it would be easiest if we kept our relationship secret for a while."

Rory wrinkled her nose, in a way that Jess couldn't help but notice was ridiculously cute, "Okay, there are certain things too disturbing to joke about."

"Well, there's not a lot to tell: I think we exchanged some brief comments about music, and then she asked me about you and left. Riveting stuff."

"Well, I think you got her mark of approval."

"Huh, I feel honoured."

"Luke's too, from the sound of things," she observed. "Sounds like you just made the rounds, winning over my various relatives."

"Speaking of which, your Grandfather tried to force his entire Kafka collection on me."

Rory's eyes widened, "You met my Grandpa? And he actually liked you?"

"Your incredulity is very flattering."

"I'm just saying, my Grandpa's a hard guy to win over."

"Please, he just caught sight of my book and refused to let me leave without an in-depth discussion and insistence that I borrow half of his collection."

"And did you?"

"Your Grandmother came in half-way through negotiations."

Rory winced, "How bad?"

"Let's just say I think she's one family member that I definitely didn't make a good impression on."

"Eh, three out of four, that's pretty good going. Hell, getting one would have been quite an achievement what with the surliness and the permanent scowl."

"Don't forget the criminal record," he reminded her.

"That one's soon to be cleared, so it's pretty immaterial."

Jess nodded, "Two more weeks of rehabilitational bliss."

"Yup," Rory agreed, staring down at her work as she pondered asking the question whose answer she'd been dreading. "And, uh, after that two weeks, you would be...?"

"Getting the hell out of Hartford, back to a place where people don't get judged for the height of their hedgerow."

"Namely?" Rory asked, the life already slightly leaving her voice.

"New York," Jess replied, surprised to find the inherent enthusiasm at returning that had been with him since the beginning of this self-imposed exile had been replaced by a kind of disconcerting hollowness. His brow furrowed slightly, he averted his eyes to stare at the ground.

Trying to disguise the feeling that her stomach had just dropped out, Rory frowned at the ground, muttering, "Right. Right, of course."

She was both surprised and slightly humiliated at the fact that she felt a small tear pricking at the side of her eye. Huh, maybe her break-up feelings were resurfacing at last.

A/N: Thanks for reading! Please review, I'd love to hear what you think, and it helps remind me to keep updating this thing regularly! Next time: the end of the community service sentence.