Rory had shifted in her sleep, as she now found her nose pressed into his left shoulder blade upon awaking. It'd been his even breath on her neck that had lulled her to sleep earlier that night. It was still early, with plenty of time to drift back to sleep, the only light coming from the moon that was casting down through the uncovered window—the blinds having been forgotten to be pulled closed in the pure emotion of it all. She knew the blinds weren't the only thing she'd forgotten. Her own rational thought had been absent as well, but at this moment—her arm draped around his lean waist, her fingers woven through his as he held them to his chest—nothing else mattered. Closing her eyes, she pressed her whole face into the bare skin of his shoulder, allowing her lips contact with his body. She'd never shared a bed with someone in such an intimate way in her life.

The thought that she could get used to this was almost enough to make her cry, as she couldn't count on both of them letting their guards down to allow it to happen again in the future. She focused again on the rise and fall of his ribcage with his breath and fell back into a deep sleep.

There came a knock at the bedroom door. Sitting up a bit, she announced the okay to enter, in a voice untainted by sleep.

"You're already awake?"

"Yeah, sort of."

"You just sneak back in or something?" Lorelai asked, wiggling her eyebrows at her daughter.

"No. I got home around one. But nice try, pretending you didn't wait up and come down to check on me after I turned my light out," Rory looked at her mother knowingly.

"Busted! So, it was a good date?"

"Really good date," Rory nodded, smiling. "We had a lot of fun."

"Aw, good, and I want details, but I have to run. Lunch at the Inn?"

"Sure, it's a date."

Lorelai nodded and left the house. Rory, clad in Logan's loaned t-shirt, stood and wandered out into the kitchen. She stared at the kitchen table blankly for a few moments, and then turned to look back into her bedroom. These were the actions of someone truly home alone. She snapped out of her haze, and walked determinedly into her room, pulling on jeans and a zip-up sweatshirt over her t-shirt. She grabbed her coat and keys, and headed out the front door.

-

Once in town, Rory bee-lined for the diner. Swinging the door open, she glanced around the room, her eyes on a specific search.

"Hey, Rory!"

"Lane, hey."

"To what do I owe the pleasure? You need coffee?"

"Oh, uh, no—do you know where Luke is?"

"No, this is his morning off, why? Something wrong with Lorelai?"

"No, no, why?"

"You're acting all funny," Lane leaned in, informing her friend as if she were telling her she had something in her teeth, as all good best friends do.

"Sorry," she took a moment and truly smiled at her friend. She could always count on Lane. "I just wanted to ask him something."

"Why don't you sit, and have some coffee? On the house."

"How can I resist that?" she asked, moving to sit at the counter to await her free coffee. It was nice to see Lane in the diner—a little odd still, but nice. Lane was finally following her own path, and she was truly happy for her friend.

She forgot about Lane as she became hyper-aware that the person to her right was staring at her. Not wholly uncommon in this town, but she usually knew the person leering at her. She glanced at the woman, smiled, and looked away. She looked vaguely familiar, but she couldn't rightly place her.

"You need Luke?"

Rory looked at the mystery woman again, a bit startled, and nodded.

"Well, I'm not him, but I am his sister, can I help you?"

His sister, that meant—Jess' mom.

"Oh, well," she considered the possibility, but decided against it. "I don't think so."

"You look familiar—are you Lorelai's daughter?"

"Yeah," she found herself smiling politely.

"Oh, I've heard so much about you! It's so good to finally meet you! I've wanted to thank you, Luke told me how great you were to Jess—I'm Jess' mom, Liz," she gushed.

Rory looked at her, rather bewildered at Liz's gushing of information.

"You did date Jess, didn't you?" Liz asked, Rory's silence and freaked out look making her second-guess her assumptions.

"Yeah, I did. I'm sorry, I hate to bother you, but do you know where I can find Jess?"

Liz smiled. "You still care about him."

"What?"

"Now, I know he has his issues, but there's something about him, isn't there? He's going to be such a good man, just like my dad, whom I guess you never knew, but you know Luke. I mean, Jess is young and figuring it all out, you know?"

Rory's head was starting to hurt. Jess' love of quiet and not feeling a need to share his feelings were becoming rather blatant as she listened to his mother ramble on to her, a perfect stranger.

Suddenly, there was a break in the rambling words, as Liz's attention shifted behind Rory.

"There he is!"

Rory turned to see Luke, followed by a very disgruntled looking Jess. Both men stopped immediately on seeing the two women conversing. The four were immobilized for a moment, each taking in the scene.

It was Jess that moved first, muttering under his breath about how he was never listening to Luke again as he made his way up to the apartment.

Rory was the next to move, following Jess before she lost her nerve. Luke attempted to tell her to wait, but if she heard him, she paid no heed. Liz put her hand on her brother's shoulder.

"Leave 'em."

Luke looked up the stairs, and shook his head.

-

"Jess."

Her voice was much calmer than her stomach. She felt she might go crazy if he didn't say something. He was just standing there, his back to her. Her eyes ran along the line of his shoulder blade, a warm memory washing over her momentarily.

"Why won't you talk to me?"

He turned to face her, and she took a step back under his intense gaze.

"What do you want me to say?"

"It's been a week, I just thought," she trailed off, wanting him to make this easier.

"That I'd call you?"

She nodded.

"Why didn't you just call me? Too busy going out with your boyfriend, right?"

"He's not my boyfriend," she began, the defensive tone building. "Not that it's your business. How do you even know about that anyway?"

"It doesn't matter. Obviously, none of this," he gestured between them, the air palpable though he tried to push that fact aside, "Matters to you."

"I can't keep doing this!" she erupted.

"Doing what?"

"That night meant nothing to you?" she demanded.

He couldn't look at her, if he were going to keep the wall between them up. It crumbled easily enough. It always did.

"You can't do this, Jess! It's not fair—you come in, you make me believe . . . and maybe it's easy for you . . . but then you leave and I hear nothing for weeks or months, even. I can't, I just can't."

"You think this is easy for me? Easy, Rory? Fine. You can go on thinking that I'm the biggest asshole in the world, but first know this. No matter how many times I've screwed up, screwed us up, I was doing it for the right reasons. For you."

Tears threatened as the familiar tug of her heart on its way out to get fractured yet again caught her attention.

"You want me to be over you?" she asked quietly.

There was no meeting her eyes. No time to decide if it were better for her to believe that or not.

"Fine," she said, as she moved past him, and through the door. Out of his life again.

Upon seeing Rory exit the diner as if on fire, Liz ignored Luke and headed up to check on her son. Jess was still standing in the same spot as when Rory left moments earlier.

"You okay?"

"Tell Luke I'm sorry, I can't stay," he said quietly.

"Jess, please," she started, stepping towards him.

He shook his head, his jaw set. "It was a mistake to come back here now."

"What happened, Jess? Why can't you just let her love you?"

His eyes snapped up, staring at his mother. He wanted to ask her when the hell she became such an expert on him, Rory, or love for that matter. He wanted to tell her that she had no idea of the situation he'd gotten himself into, or how badly beyond repair it seemed at times.

Most of all he wondered if it really were just that simple.

"I'll call you," he said, letting his mother hug him before leaving the diner, past a defeated Luke, headed for the bus stop.

-

Lorelai was exhausted. The inn was filled with guests in town for the holidays, which was wonderful, but taxing. She wondered where Rory had gotten hung up at earlier, as she hadn't come for lunch, and hadn't been answering her cell. She kicked off her shoes as she entered the house, ready to change into something more comfy and relax.

"Rory?" she called.

"In here!"

Lorelai made a turn to head into the kitchen. Rory sat at the table, going over some paperwork.

"Hey, so you're punishing Mommy?"

"What?" Rory looked up at her.

"No lunch," she reminded.

"Ohmygod! I'm sorry, I completely forgot!"

"Hey, it's okay," she assured her.

"No, I completely spaced!"

"Where were you?"

"I took a walk," she said, looking back to her papers.

"You okay?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Luke called me."

"Oh."

"Jess left."

"I figured."

"You wanna talk about it?"

"Not really."

Lorelai nodded. "Okay, but if you do, I'm Richard Marx."

Rory looked at her mother, brow furrowed.

"Right Here Waiting?"

Rory rolled her eyes, as her mother walked upstairs, singing all the way. Rory turned her attention back to her work. She focused on the article she was researching, losing herself in her concentration until she heard her mother let Luke into the house. Putting her pencil down, she listened to the hushed tones coming from the hall.

"She okay?"

"She says she is."

"She didn't say what happened?"

"No. Any word from Jess?"

She couldn't take it anymore. She needed to think happier thoughts and put this behind her, once and for all. She pulled out her cell from under a pile of papers and took it to her room as she dialed.

"This is Logan," his voice was full of cheer. Just what she wanted right now.

"Hey, it's me. Rory," she added for safety.

"Hey, Ace, what can I do for you?"

"I was just wondering if you were up to some company."

"Hang on a sec," he instructed her. He must have held the phone out, as she heard quite a bit of background noise, then his voice again. "Boys, who's in favor of the fair Ms. Gilmore joining the party?" She then heard cheers, and Finn asking for the phone. Logan must have dodged his attempts, as his voice came back on the line for her again.

"I think you better get over here, Ace, before the natives get too restless."

"Where are you?"

"No worries, there will be a car to get you in a half hour. Sound good?"

"Perfect."

AN: Ah, getting close to the end. Some major stuff going on in the next chapter. Major, major. Hope you all enjoyed this installment. The big reveal will be soon, I promise. I thank all of you who have stuck by it, with all the not knowing, and for reviewing.