Jess talks to a little girl
Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction based on characters from the Warner Bros. television show 'Gilmore Girls'. I don't own any of it.
Author's Note: If you usually read these author's notes you'll notice that this was not scheduled to be the last chapter. If you don't usually read these author's notes then you should just ignore this one and maybe you won't notice that this story ends in a rush.
Chapter 11 – All Good Things Come To An End
Thanksgiving day dawns like any other late November day. In Stars Hollow, the Thanksgiving festival draws the townsfolk out of their beds early and into the town square where a traditional reenactment takes place just after breakfast.
Rory is out in the audience with her mother and Luke. The kids have run off somewhere, but it is Stars Hollow, so how much trouble can they get into? Luke's overprotective side kicks in soon enough, though, and he excuses himself to go and find them.
When the performance is over, Rory and Dani, Luke, Lorelai, Liam and Ana, Liz, TJ, Jacqui and Brian, Sookie, Jackson and their kids, gather at Luke's for the traditional feast. There is raucousness, and general frivolity as old friends catch up on months of gossip. The topic of Rory's divorce is steered around carefully, and Rory is thankful. She doesn't know what she would do without these people.
After lunch, Rory slips outside to the bridge to gather her thoughts. She misses Jess. And she isn't sure why he isn't speaking to her. As she trails her fingers through the water, she ponders her life and her love. Is she still in love with Jess? She thinks about Paul and the divorce. It's less tiresome for her now. They argue over things less. And Rory thinks that maybe she should have known that they wouldn't be together forever. Things that have value to her seem to mean nothing to him. How is that possible?
The thing that really worries her these days is the custody case. She doesn't think Paul could possibly deny her the right to visit with her daughter... but what if he does? What if Paul is so different from how she always thought he was? Rory hadn't given up yet, but at the rate things were falling apart around her, she didn't know how much longer she could hold on. Of course she'd lose Dani. Of course she'd lose Jess. After all, who had really stuck around? Her mother, of course. But they hadn't been nearly as close as they once were since she got married, and more especially, since she'd had Ana and Liam. And despite what anyone might think, she wasn't nearly as close to Luke or Sookie as she might have been. She needed friends her own age. Lane and Paris were living their own lives now.
Sighing as her musings leave her with no resolution, Rory stands and heads back to the diner.
A surprise awaits Rory at the diner in the form of Jess, and the man that Jess would become in twenty years' time: his father.
"Wow," Rory says upon entering. She hadn't thought that Jess would take her up on her offer to bring his father with him.
Jess and Luke are sitting at the counter, talking. Jimmy stands behind them, a little awkward, but participating in the conversation all the same. They must have just arrived because Liz is only now coming up to them and hugging her son, followed closely by her husband.
At Rory's statement, the diner full of people looks at her and she smiles sheepishly before heading toward Jess and his father.
Jimmy looks at her appraisingly. "You must be Rory."
Rory isn't sure whether or not that's a good thing, so she only nods.
He grins. "I can't believe I'm finally meeting you."
Rory smiles. "Well, it's nice to meet you too."
Meanwhile, Jess manages to disengage himself from his mother's embrace. "Liz, I'm fine, really."
She gives him an accusing stare. "I don't think you are."
Luke cuts in. "If he says he's fine, he's fine."
Liz strokes a hand down Jess' arm. "I don't believe you."
Jess shrugs.
Jimmy turns to his ex-wife. "Liz. Lovely to see you."
"It has been a while, hasn't it, Jimmy?" She takes her husband's arm and introduces him. "Jimmy this is TJ. TJ, Jimmy."
They stare each other down as they shake hands.
Dani comes running down from upstairs where the kids had been playing, closely followed by her aunt and uncle, and their cousins.
"Uncle Jess!" she cries as soon as she sees him, flinging her arms around his legs in a fierce hug.
Jimmy looks at Jess with a smirk. "Uncle Jess?"
Jess scowls at his father. "It wasn't my idea."
"I can see that," Jimmy grins.
Jess' brother and sister are next to hug him.
"Jess! Jess!" they shriek.
Jess smiles at them, getting down off his stool and taking the kids outside. It occurs to Rory that all these small children (barring Dani) that are part of her family are all actually blood related to Jess.
It's amazing that she and Jess hadn't run into each other before. But he'd been avoiding her. She knew it now. And if it wasn't for Dani, they might never have been... whatever it was they were, again. Actually, that was right, wasn't it? Her relationship with Jess, except for when they were dating, had never been definable. She'd always known that he was madly in love with her. And now... now she wasn't sure. She wasn't sure about anything.
Rory watches them through the window. Jess isn't doing anything un-Jess-like. He merely stands there and they fawn over him in the way that little kids do. They run around and play and occasionally look up at him for his approval. It's amazing how much it means to them that he is there. Rory leans her face on her hand and sighs.
"You're in love with him, aren't you?" Jimmy's voice startles Rory's mind back into the diner.
"What?" she turns around and looks at Jimmy.
"You're in love with my son." It's no longer a question.
Rory looks at Jimmy, cataloguing the differences between his wizened lines and Jess's barely creased face. "Am I?"
"I've seen it before," he states. "They fall in love with him. They think they can change him. That he'll look at them the same way they look at him. But he doesn't change. And he never looks at them like that."
A cold feeling sinks into Rory's gut. It hurts her to think that she's not the first one of Jess' girlfriends to have met Jimmy Mariano. But she wasn't even Jess' girlfriend. She was his ex-girlfriend, his sort-of cousin, and maybe friend. Nothing clean-cut.
"I don't think Jess needs changing," Rory states. "Except that he does seem kind of depressed these days."
"That he does," Jimmy says, sitting. "I forgot you've known him a long time."
Rory shrugs. "And I still don't know him."
Jimmy smiles ruefully. "I know what that feels like."
They sit in peaceful silence. Rory had never given Jess' father a second thought until that day. She could like him, she knew. Just as much as she liked his son. Who would have thought?
8 8
The divorce negotiations finally end midway through December. Rory is relieved, but wishes she knew what was going to happen with Dani.
A week later, and it's Christmas. Rory smiles as she sits down to Christmas dinner at Liz and TJ's house. She does have at least one reason to celebrate this time. Rory peers over at Jess, conveniently sitting across the table from her. She wishes she had a better reason to celebrate than the end of a marriage.
Jess had arrived late to Christmas lunch. But Liz had been expecting it, since he'd mentioned that he was going to a church service in his own church. She knew they always went longer on holidays, when the once or twice a year Christians joined the once a week Christians. He'd come in all cool and collected, and Rory had wanted to reach out and hug him.
Since Thanksgiving she'd tried to talk to him. After all, she thought that coming to Thanksgiving dinner was his way of reaching out the olive branch. Even after the kids had tired him out, he still hadn't said more than two words to her. And Rory really wished she knew why. So she dwelt on it.
After dinner, Rory sneaks out of the house and steps out onto the balcony. She stares off into the snow drifts and wishes Dani were with her. Paul insisted that since she had Dani on Thanksgiving, he would have her on Christmas. Rory could see the rest of her life being this way, so she let him have his way. It was better to get used to the idea sooner. After all, she'd been the one to ask for a divorce.
A moment later, the door behind her slides open, and a thick blanket finds its way across Rory's shoulders. She turns to face Jess.
"It's cold out here," he states in explanation. He stands next to her, leaning on the railing and the sight of him makes her breath catch. He's only wearing his coat. No gloves, no scarf. Apparently he thinks only she is capable of feeling the cold.
Rory steps closer to him and wraps the blanket around them both. "You'll be cold, too."
They stand in silence for a moment.
But finally, Rory speaks. She can't let the moment get away without at least trying to talk to Jess. Surely that's why he's here. In Stars Hollow. Outside his mother's house. With her.
"Jess," she whispers, knowing that he can hear her quite clearly in the silence of the night. "We are friends, aren't we?"
He looks at her, and she's not sure whether he's feigning curiosity or something else. She hates being so unsure. Rory Gilmore always has everything under control. She thought she was getting some of that back.
"Well, we are spending a holiday together, aren't we?"
She gives him a look. "It's family that does that. And... in a roundabout way, we are family, Jess."
"I know," he states, continuing to stare off into the distance. "You're my cousin."
She shudders. "Never say that."
"Why not? Your mother is married to my uncle. Usually, that's how it works out."
"We used to go out," she says.
"Once upon a time," he agrees.
This conversation isn't going the way she'd hoped. "A while ago... before you and I met again this year..." She turns to look at him. "Did you ever think about me?"
He looks at her. "Sometimes."
"Because," she states quietly. "I used to think about you."
"Bet your husband loved that."
"Ex-husband," Rory cuts in.
Jess rolls his eyes.
She smiles. "I just like saying it."
"I wish you didn't."
She's taken aback. "What?"
"I wish you'd loved your husband so much that you'd never split."
"Why?"
"Wouldn't you have been happier?"
She ponders the question. "I guess so. But not if he didn't love me just as much." She takes a breath. "But then we wouldn't be hanging out like this."
Jess nods. "You're right. But would that really be better?"
Rory doesn't even have to think about it. "Yes."
Jess freezes. Carefully, he lifts the blanket off his shoulders and settles it back around hers. "It's getting late. I think I'll head back now." He turns to walk away, but before he can reach the door, Rory stops him.
"Don't run away from this."
He smirks at her, and it breaks her heart. "But that's what you always do, isn't it Rory?"
For a moment she's startled, and can't move. By the time she does, his car has started and he's off. Back to New York where she can't hurt him.
8 8
The next day, Rory makes up her mind. She's not just going to wait around for Jess to come to his senses. She's going to force him to tell her exactly what's wrong. She's going to make him explain everything.
Some days she's grateful that Paul has Dani. Today is one of them. After breakfast at Luke's (something which would always outrank Breakfast at Tiffany's in Rory's opinion), Rory bids her mother farewell, sticks her keys into the ignition of her car and drives off.
8 8
Jess sits at the counter in his kitchen moodily. There is a visible streak across the otherwise pristine surface. He will not touch it. He will drink his... coffee? Jess stares at the beverage curiously. That is not his usual breakfast drink. Coffee makes him think of Rory. Of course it would. Jess bets that coffee makes Paul think of Rory. And that Logan Huntzberger, too. And who could forget Dean Forester, the jolly green giant Jess had rescued Rory from?
The drink is wrong. The stain is wrong. It's all wrong. So Jess leaves it behind. He steps out in his pyjamas (Why isn't he dressed at this hour?), doesn't lock the door behind him, and just leaves. He's barefoot, and it's winter and it's cold and none of it matters. He thinks he's going insane, actually, and doesn't do a thing to stop it.
Eventually, as he stands on his icy lawn, the cold does sink in.
"Hey Mr Mariano!" someone calls.
It's a teenage boy standing across the street, walking a dog. He's barely recognisable, but must have been one of the students from the school.
Jess inclines his head in an acknowledging nod.
"Nice PJs!" he shouts. As he continues on his way, he pull out a phone and being sending a message to someone. When Jess is sane again he'll probably be thankful that the boy didn't think to take a picture.
A car speeds down the street, but slows as it reaches Jess' driveway. Jess recognises it as Rory's just as she parks in his driveway. Perhaps that's why he's out here. He's waiting for her.
Rory steps out of her car, good and angry. Ready to tell Jess exactly what's on her mind. She slams her door in anticipation. She opens her mouth-
But whatever it is that she was going to say slips her mind completely. Jess Mariano is standing in his pyjamas, barefoot, in his front yard, on the grass, in December.
"Jess?" she asks, worried. Quickly, she sheds her jacket, placing it around his shoulders and steering him back toward his house.
"Everything's wrong," he states.
"Come on," she says. "Let's go inside. Get you warmed up."
He walks slowly, not seeming to realise that she's there for all that she's helping him back into his house.
Rory takes him in, and sets him down on the couch, using the decorative blanket settled on the back of it to cover him up. She kneels down and starts a fire in the fireplace.
"Let's have something to drink, okay?" she says absently, looking at the shell of a man she encountered for a moment before leaving.
Rory heads straight for the kitchen. She notices the mug of coffee on the counter. It's cold, so she tips it down the sink, leaving the mug itself there. Quickly, she takes milk out of the fridge and rummages in Jess' cupboards until she finds hot cocoa mix. She fills two glasses with milk, then microwaves them. She can't bear to go back into the room with Jess yet, so while she waits she cleans the counter.
The microwave beeps, and Rory stirs spoonfuls of the cocoa mix into each mug. Finally, she gathers her courage and walks back into the lounge room.
Thankfully when she gets back in, Jess is looking more alert. He's leaning on his knees and staring at the fire as though wondering where it came from.
"Here," Rory says, handing him a mug which he thankfully takes.
She sits beside him and sips, waiting for him to speak first.
Halfway through his mug of cocoa, Jess speaks. "What are you doing here?"
"What am I doing here?" Rory asks. Doesn't he care at all that she found him outside in the snow?
"Yes." He takes a long sip.
"I came to talk to you. You're lucky I did. You were well on your way to frostbite."
"Can we just pretend that never happened?" he asks.
"I don't know," Rory says. "Has it ever happened before?"
He shakes his head. "No."
Rory isn't sure if she believes him. "Are you okay?"
"Yes."
The answer is too quick for her liking. "I mean, emotionally. Mentally. Spiritually?"
"I have friends, I don't turn the kids I teach into mental cases, and I go to church every Sunday."
"But Jess," she pleads. "That's not what I meant."
"I don't know what you're talking about."
Frustrated, Rory gives up and wonders if it has anything to do with the reason why she came to visit him in the first place. "Does it have anything to do with us?"
"Us, Rory? There is no us."
It pains her a little to hear it, but she charges through. "I know. But… well… you've kind of been avoiding me."
"Avoiding you? It's not like we were ever particularly close."
"We were once. And there's a difference between not talking much and avoiding people."
"Is there?" he feigns ignorance.
"The last time we really talked… The last time I was here… I thought we were connecting."
"I can't always be what you want me to be."
"I'm not asking you to be anything. I just want to know."
"Know what?"
"We kissed, Jess. And I don't know about you, but that meant something to me. And now that I'm properly divorced I thought that we could be something."
"You don't want to be with me, Rory," Jess states quietly.
She reaches over and puts a hand over his. "I do, Jess."
"No!" he shouts, standing. "You don't want to be with me. You want to be with seventeen-year-old Jess, back in Stars Hollow. You don't know anything about me."
She flinches as though he'd physically struck her.
She watches as he replaces the blanket back where she'd found it, and suddenly her reporter brain kicks in.
"What happened to you, Jess?" she asks. "Who broke your heart?"
He freezes, and turns on her. For a split second she believes that he's going to hit her. Or at least yell and scream. He does neither. He simply walks out of the room.
Rory stands and follows him. She let him get away last night, but today she wants to know. Today she is going to find out. She wasn't a reporter for nothing. Lois Lane can eat her heart out.
Jess is in the kitchen, tipping the remains of his cocoa down the sink. Rory watches as he washes that mug, and that morning's coffee mug. She watches as he dries them, then places them on the dish drainer. Finally, he turns and faces her.
He hasn't been crying, but Rory knows that if she was in his place (whatever place that happened to be), she would have already. Her heart ached to know that he was in pain and that she couldn't do anything about it.
Turning his head away from her, he speaks. "Her name was Marilyn."
Rory gasps quietly. She hadn't really thought that there was anyone. She wasn't sure. But there it was.
"Today's the day she told me she was pregnant," he continues.
"What?" Rory asks. Jess has a girlfriend? Jess' girlfriend is pregnant?
"The anniversary of it, anyway. Five years ago."
Jess' girlfriend was pregnant was five years ago. But Jess didn't have a kid, did he?
"What happened?" Rory asks.
"What do you think happened? I asked her to marry me. She said yes. We bought this house. We moved in together. The room you slept in last time you were here? That was our bedroom. The one next to it was for our daughter."
"And then?" Rory prompts.
"She miscarried. It was late in the pregnancy, past the point where it should have been safe. Our baby girl was dead. The doctors still don't know what happened. One day we were happy, and the next she was gone. They were both gone."
Rory doesn't know what to say. "I'm sorry." She doesn't even want to know what it would have been like to have lost Dani before she'd even known her. It would have killed her. It looks like it's killed Jess.
He lost his daughter and his fiancée in one fell swoop.
"I don't need your pity," Jess states.
"It's not pity," Rory protests. "Did she ever talk to you about it?"
"Marilyn?"
Rory nods.
Jess shakes his head. "No. She didn't want to while she was still in the hospital. Then the day that they were going to release her, I went to pick her up and she was gone. She left a note that said she couldn't handle it and told me not to go looking for her."
"It seems like that's the sort of thing you should have dealt with together."
"I wasn't in love with her, Rory. At best, we were friends. She told me she was pregnant, so I proposed."
"That doesn't seem like the sort of thing you would do."
He shoots a glare at her. "I told you that you don't know me."
Rory frowns. "Maybe not. But you've met my mother. You know that you could have done it without being married."
"And how often do you see your father?" He sighs. "I don't know why I'm doing this," he mutters to himself. "We might not have been in love, but I know the value of family. I know what it's like to grow up without a father. Hell, I even know what it's like to grow up without a mother. I know what would have happened to Marilyn and our daughter if I hadn't helped."
"Does Luke know about this?" Rory asks, after a pause.
Jess nods. "Of course. I was going to have a baby; I was going to get married. Of course I told him."
"Did my mother know about this?"
"Probably," Jess shrugs. "They were married. I couldn't have cared less if she knew at the time."
"Are you sure you're okay?" Rory asks, finally.
Jess nods. "Sorry to burden you with my life story."
Rory steps forward, taking his hands in hers. "Jess, it's not a burden. It's what I've been trying to tell you since I got here. I want to be a part of your life. I want to be more than just a part of it. I want to share it with you."
He pulls his hands out of her grasp. For one brief, painful moment, Rory thinks that he is going to push her away again. He doesn't, though, merely linking his hands behind her waist and drawing her closer.
"I don't deserve you," he states.
Rory looks at him curiously. "Why not? I'm not perfect myself. And I haven't seen you to be anything other than a good person."
"Because I'm not a whole person," he states. "I'm worse than a husk."
"I've felt like that too," Rory states. "Like I was breathing and walking and talking, but not living."
"And then what happened?"
"I got divorced," Rory laughs.
The throaty sound of her laughter fills Jess in a way he wasn't sure he could be filled.
They kiss, then. Neither is sure who instigated it. They kiss and fireworks go off, brass instruments burst into a noisy fanfare, souls unite again in remembrance, and still the kiss continues.
Hands sneak up and down backs as tongues between dance to some half-forgotten rhythm. Fingers tangle in cloth, in hair, tickling their way up and down bare flesh. Gasps and moans fill the air when there's time to grasp for breath.
Then the grandfather clock in the sitting room chimes the hour.
Rory steps back, catching her breath before speaking. "I have to" – pant – "get Dani."
Jess nods as he inhales deeply. "Okay."
"Do you want to come?" asks Rory.
"And meet your ex? No thanks," Jess replies.
Rory laughs breathlessly. "We'll come back here," she states.
Jess nods. "Can't wait."
They both lean in to kiss, then, already knowing and anticipating the action. It's a quick goodbye kiss then Rory has floated out the door.
Jess smirks as he contemplates Paul's reaction to his ex-wife's thoroughly kissed appearance.
8 8
She draws the marker across the surface of her colouring book. The book slips, and the marker trails along the glass table. She smiles as she notices the way the light comes through the ink, changing it different colours when she tilts her head. Now what about a different colour?
She selects a red marker from the packet, uncapping it then drawing a rough circle beside the first blue line. Better. But it could be even better than that.
She pulls each of her eight markers out of the packet, and draws on the table's glass surface. Laughingly, she realises that it's possible to smudge the colours on the table. But they just combine into an ugly green-brown.
She ignores that patch and starts afresh. The table is a bigger canvas than she'd realised before.
"What on earth are you doing?" an angry voice yells at her.
She recognises it as her father, immediately capping the marker she is holding and stepping back.
"Drawing," she replies innocently.
"On the table!" he adds sharply.
"It's pretty."
"It's pretty," he mutters to himself in a cruel imitation of her voice, then raises it again. "Danielle Bancroft that is going to take me hours to clean."
"I'm sorry daddy," she responds, stepping back.
"I can't believe you did this!" he roars, stepping toward her. "Look at it! Look at this mess!" He points at it, then pushes her head slightly to the side when she doesn't turn it fast enough.
It hurts her. She cries.
He's immediately apologetic. "I'm sorry sweetheart. It's just that I've got a lot of work to catch up on and I have to be here to meet your mother."
She catches the last word. "Mommy! Where's mommy?"
"She's coming, sweetie. She'll be here soon."
She stands, running away from her father. "I want my mommy! Where's my mommy?"
"She's not here yet," her father explains, exasperated.
She heads for the front door. She'll wait for her mommy outside. It's locked, and the keys are nowhere in sight.
"Daddy it's locked!" she whines.
Her father follows and decides that it's okay to let her out. He does so, and follows her outside, down the front steps.
Then she does something unexpected.
She takes off, running to the edge of the lawn screaming, "Mommy! Mommy!"
Embarrassed, Paul steps forward. "Dani, come back inside to wait."
"Mommy!"
He reaches out to grab her but she darts away, speeding down the sidewalk quickly.
It happens in slow motion, just like it does in every film, and every single T.V. show.
Dani rushes away from her father.
The car backs out of the driveway. It alone does not seem to be affected by the slow-motion cloud that Paul is seeing through.
Dani steps into the driveway just in time for the car to hit her, sending her sprawling beneath the car's tyres.
"Stop!" Paul yells as loudly as he can, tearing toward the neighbour's driveway. Even as he calls out the word he knows it's too late. The car drives straight over her little body and Paul can't believe it. "Dani!"
He's yelling and screaming and has no idea what he's saying. His neighbour stops the car as soon as he sees the man grieving beside his car. Paul looks underneath the car at his daughter. The neighbour begins calling for emergency services.
It's too late. He knows it is. Her little body is mangled, there's blood all over the place. She isn't even crying. There's not the tiniest movement from her body.
"Paul?" calls his ex-wife. There are footsteps behind him and he knows that she can see. "No! No! No!"
Paul stands between Rory and the car, putting his arms around her and shielding her from the sight as sirens sound in the distance.
8 8
From then on, it's all a blur. The police are there. Then there's the hospital. And the police. And the police must be following them because they're everywhere. And Lorelai is there. And Luke is there, and that's how long it's been, because Stars Hollow is so far away. Paul's parents are there too.
Rory can barely keep track of whose arms are around her. It doesn't matter whose arms are around her. They aren't small and smooth and pale. They aren't attached to Dani. They don't belong to her daughter. She'll never feel her daughter's embrace ever again. Never.
And it's all Paul's fault. The cold truth slips through her sharply, maddeningly, and quickly.
She feels evil as she thinks it. She knows it can't be his fault. Not really. No more than hers for not being there. She should have been there. There shouldn't have been a divorce. There shouldn't have been any custody hearings. She would have been there, and Paul would have been at work like he wanted to be, and he wouldn't have had to look after Dani. And it's wrong. All wrong.
He didn't want to look after Dani, and that's why it's his fault. He wouldn't let her take Dani over Christmas.
And she's screaming now. The arms are trying to restrain her but she breaks free. She doesn't know where she's going, but she leaves anyway.
"Rory," a voice calls.
That's her name. And a familiar voice using it. But not one of the ones she's heard since she got here. She looks up and locks eyes with her favourite coffee-coloured pair.
"Jess," she splutters before latching onto him, spilling tears over his shirt, her first since her daughter's death.
He strokes a hand down her back, looking to anyone for help. He doesn't know how to comfort people. He doesn't know how to deal with people in general, let alone a woman whose child has just died.
"How do you do it, Jess?" she asks. "How do you live when your child has died?"
Jess doesn't have the answer to that. Has he ever lived?
"How do you think I manage?" he asks her instead, stroking her hair.
She looks up at him, blue tear-filled pools locking with his own. "I think you love again," she states.
Jess doesn't know exactly what that means, but she's stopped crying and is instead kissing him. He's not sure if he should let her. If some psychologist would tell him that she was just projecting, or distracting herself from the truth. It felt like acceptance, though, so he let her kiss him.
8 8
Rory has lapses. She's still grieving. They all are. But while Rory only grieves for her daughter, her family grieves for Rory, too. She goes back to Stars Hollow with Luke and Lorelai, living in their house. She still doesn't have one to call her own. She was waiting until the results of the custody battle. But that doesn't matter anymore. Nothing matters anymore.
Stars Hollow is full of memories. Every turn reminds her of her daughter. And now, after the funeral, the graveyard is the worst.
She can't go to Luke's or Doose's. The gazebo is out, and Babette's house, and the Inn. Even the bridge. Her bridge. Spoilt. Forever marred by her child's lost soul.
They talk about her, Rory knows. Her mother and Luke. And then they talk with Jess. She knows that too. He can't be with her all the time. During the week he still has work. He comes down on the weekends, and she spends time with him. And he shares with her all his secrets. He tells her about the names he wanted for his daughter, about the books he'd bought, about the life they'd planned.
She tells him about what she did with Dani. Why that particular spot was painful to look at. Why she burst into tears at the thought of ice cream. Why everything.
8 8
One day, Rory wakes up, and she knows it's over. She has a column to write. She has new insights on loss and grief that she knows her readers must be dying to hear about. She can eat breakfast at Luke's without choking.
She picks up the phone and she calls Jess.
"Rory?" he asks, worried.
"I'm fine," she responds to the unasked question.
"You do sound fine," he states in wonder.
"I was thinking," she says. "About us."
"What about us?" Jess asks.
"That it's about time we moved in together."
"It is?" Jess is puzzled.
"It's perfect. I don't have a house that's close to work and all that. And you have spare rooms galore."
"Thanks for reminding me," Jess states.
"I'm better now," Rory affirms. "And I think it's time you got better too."
THE END
8 8
A/N: And that's the end of it. I wish I'd been able to finish it properly, but I haven't the patience for it. I'm sorry, but I figured it was better for you guys to know how it actually ends, rather than waiting until the end of time for one chapter that wouldn't tell you anything.
I suppose I should also probably apologise for the kind of sad ending. How many of you were expecting Dani to die, I wonder?
Anyway, if there's any question that needs answering that I've forgotten to answer, just ask and I'll get on it. This story is for you guys after all.
And lastly, I just want to say thanks to everyone who ever read or reviewed this story. Whether you liked it the story or not, you're the only reason why this story has an ending at all.