Soli Deo gloria

DISCLAIMER: I do NOT own Gilmore Girls.

Rory stood at Luke's Diner's counter, visibly shaken. It'd been a weird, really weird, tiring day. She and her mom somehow had had the will and ability to force their tired legs to Luke's Diner that morning. Cue the monosyllabic tennis match between her and Jess, her mom and Luke. She'd rushed out with the excuse of school.

All her thoughts centered on Jess on the bus ride to Chilton. She felt like a girl in a music video. She leaned against the bus's probably unhygienic window and thought about a cute boy as the bus passed through the highway towards the upper-crust part of Hartford.

She'd recovered a lot since yesterday. Maybe she hadn't been as hurt by Dean as she'd been humiliated. Her heart proved her right when it flickered over to Jess immediately, her heartbreak surely, not really slowly, on the mend.

Maybe, in her heart, she knew that she and Dean wouldn't be end-game. That Jess's invasion wouldn't be occasional, would leave a mark. Wasn't harmless.

Was it awful, this relief she felt, once she could think things through? As the pain subsided, her heart felt lighter and eager. When she'd last broken down over her break-up with Dean, she'd gone long and hard into it. Now, here, the morning after, she looked out the window and didn't feel pain, but saw Jess in her mind's eye. He was no longer unattainable. He wasn't a toy in a store window: there to stare at, to dream about, but not hers to touch.

It was just awkward. That was all.

She was distracted through her entire school day. Paris got into the habit of snapping her fingers in front of Rory, in an effort to stop her from staring blankly ahead. Paris also contracted a headache from rolling her eyes into the back of her head too many times.

Rory stepped off the bus and wandered into the diner. Then she panicked and ordered a cheeseburger and had another monosyllabic conversation with Jess, and went upstairs under the pretense of a book. His book? Who knew. He made it up on the spot and she caught along to his story. They were getting somewhere through this awkward stage until Luke burst into the room and put a three-foot distance between them. Rory rushed downstairs and was almost out the door when Caesar called her name. She stopped short and looked at him reluctantly. He hung out of the kitchen doorway, saying, "Rory, your burger's only gonna be another minute. Stay there until I wrap it up."

Rory wanted nothing more than to put as much space between her and Luke Danes as fast as she could, but she couldn't duck out on Caesar after he'd already fried the burger. Now she stood nervously at the counter, ready to duck or flee at the small provocation.

Luke appeared first. He exchanged a quick look with Rory; it wasn't what she'd call a 'warning' look, but, maybe a wary one? His look said 'I know what you two were planning on doing up there and while I don't trust Jess 'cause he's a hormonal teenage boy, I do trust you, and while I know you're a teenage girl, at least you're one with a good head on her shoulders who's sensible. So I'm not saying that I'm warning you, but I'm also not saying that I'm not warning you. Capiche?'

Rory wordlessly nodded. Luke nodded, as if pleased, and went to take someone else's order. Rory gave Caesar the appropriate cash and waited anxiously for her change. She let the burger packed tightly in aluminum foil burn in one hand and let her other palm tremble as Caesar took his sweet, sweet time carefully counting out her change. She heard footsteps overhead and looked up for the third time that day alone to see Jess Mariano behind the counter, all stopped short and staring at her.

"Hey," he said.

"Hey," she said.

Luke looked up from one of the customer's tables and rolled his eyes. "If you two can't keep up something other than a conversation comprised entirely of small, common, quick little words, then I don't want to hear it. Matter of fact, no one wants to hear it. Get out of here if you're going to do it." As if to make sure that they didn't get any ideas into their heads of heading back up into the solitude of the upstairs apartment again, Luke jerked a finger at the Diner's front door.

Jess said, "We can take a message, old man." He looked at Rory, and his face slightly softened. "You know, there really is a book I want to show you."

"Really? Like, a real book this time?" Luke said as he slipped behind the counter into the kitchen.

Jess rolled his eyes, really resembling his uncle for a second. "Yes, a real book. Or really, just a rough draft. It's my NaNoWriMo thing; you know I'm doing that!"

"Really?" Jess's attention quickly passed from the open kitchen doorway to Rory's eager face. "You're doing NaNoWriMo too? How's it coming along?" Then Rory blanched. "Wait, I haven't done NaNoWriMo for the past three days. I'm five thousand words behind. If I get home now, I'll have just enough time to get it done before dinner. Wait, homework! And—and Paris wanted me to write a rough draft about an article that we're doing about the recent influx of cavities after Halloween and if it's ethical to keep the candy tradition around at the risk of the health of America's youth, and my argument was going to be Yes, it's fine as long as you can control yourself, and I know that's weird, coming from me, and I was supposed to have it ready by tomorrow to be approved by the newspaper committee—"

Jess leaned across the counter and put his finger against her lips. She fell silent instantly, her eyes staring into his.

"You're gonna recover from your lack of writing. Just write some extra each day besides your usual thousand-six-hundred-sixty-seven words and you'll be caught up within the week. That's what I did to tie with you. You were a week ahead of me," Jess reminded her.

"Yeah, but you're probably ahead of me by now," Rory pointed out around his finger. He promptly removed his touch on her lips and let his fingers ghost around her jaw. Rory lost all thought of other people being in the diner, including Luke and staring customers; she was too lost in his eyes, so peculiarly aware of his warm fingers against her soft skin.

"So, you'll pick up the pace until we're on the same page. Then we'll work on our novels together." His hand slipped away, but his eyes didn't. "We won't have to race or anything. Isn't that the point of NaNoWriMo, anyway? There aren't any other competitors except yourself, like there's no prize for first place. The only person you can compete against is yourself. When you're lazy or tired and don't feel like writing, but keep writing anyway, just so you can defeat that voice in your head."

"Okay," Rory said.

"Okay?"

"Okay!" Luke roared from the kitchen.

Rory grinned, which coaxed a smile out onto Jess's face. He pressed her hand and jogged up the stairs. He retrieved his old clunky laptop and she grabbed his arm as he led her outside.

The town square was pretty, all decorated with hay bales, scarecrows, and innumerable pumpkins. They found a spot on one of the park benches. Rory unwrapped her burger and tucked into it as Jess brought up the document on his computer. The old laptop paused and blanked and balked and Jess slapped a hand onto it.

"Don't hurt it," Rory told him.

"I wouldn't have to if it would just work."

Finally the document loaded, and Jess almost handed off the laptop to Rory. Finding both of her hands occupied in holding the big burger, he kept it in his own hands, but shifted it so she could read his written words more easily.

She leaned against his shoulder as she munched. He would've enjoyed this little PDA, but the reality was too painful to bear. He said, "Okay, I can't stand it much longer. Hearing your chewing in my ear makes me want to be deaf."

"But the burger's still hot. If I don't eat it now, it'll turn cold and the cheese will solidify, and then that just makes me think of all the fat and grease currently clogging up my arteries," Rory protested.

Jess stared at her. "You sound like you've actually retained one of Luke's lectures. Besides, whatever happened to you liking burgers that've sat around for a while? Let's them, what, age?"

Rory smacked his arm and he grinned. "You know I just said that because I was being awkward, right?"

"I know, I know," he said, waving her off. "Here's what we'll do," he said, "I'll read it to you aloud while you eat to your heart's content."

"Sounds like an effectual plan," Rory agreed.

"Good. Now if I can just speak loud enough so you can hear me over your chewing. . ."

Rory swatted him again and when Jess could finally control himself, he began to read aloud. His slow low voice brought to life the words he'd already put to paper. Rory listened, sometimes staring at the laptop, sometimes at him, entirely enthralled. The burger in her hands grew cold from the November air as she forgot about it. She drank in Jess's prose as food and water, let it become all she could focus on as he read aloud page after page, laying emphasis on some words and changing tone from character to character.

She couldn't believe he'd written this. She should've known that the well-read could very well write well.

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