"I don't understand Rory. Why didn't you tell me?" Lorelai asked gently.

It'd been two days since Logan left Hannah with Lorelai after getting a call from Jess. Rory had barely said anything about it since. This was the first time mother and daughter were alone, with enough of a wide berth for Lorelai to bring it up.

Rory shrugged and swallowed the painful lump in her throat. "It's not like you could've done anything. What difference does it make?"

"No, kid. Don't give me that crap. I could've been there with you when you talked to them! Do you think I –do you think Lane appreciated finding out from Logan that he was Hannah's father instead of hearing it directly from you?"

"Well, forgive me for not thinking about Lane in all of this. She'll live."

"I could've helped you, Hun."

"Mom, I'm sorry I didn't tell you first, okay? I am –but no –no, you couldn't have helped," Rory whispered tearfully.

Lorelai sighed sadly –her daughter was right. "Are you okay?"

"I don't know."

"With who the father is, I mean…"

"I don't know."

"But Rory, you and Jess –that was a one-time thing. You –you're in love with Logan. I mean, aren't you?"

"Yeah, I am."

"And he's in love with you. You told me he broke up with Odette."

"He did. He is."

"Well then why do you sound sadder than Kirk did when he was on his juicing diet?"

"Because," Rory sighed. "Logan's –I love him. I'm in love with him. I know he loves me. I know he loves Hannah. But this is the same guy who slept with a bevy of bridesmaids in less time than it takes me to decide between regular fries, cheese fries or chilli fries."

"Well, who can blame you? They're all such yummy options!"

"I got pregnant with Logan's daughter while we were both cheating on people."

"But Rory, he broke up with Odette –unless you don't believe that he actually did…"

"No, I believe him."

"Well then what's the problem?" Lorelai asked. "Don't tell me you miss Pete."

Rory rolled her eyes. "His name was Paul. The problem is, this happened when he was cheating on someone. How do I know he won't do the same thing to me that he did to Odette?"

Lorelai couldn't help but wonder where this stellar logic of Rory's was hiding a year ago. "He wouldn't do that to you, you're –"

"Because I'm me? That's not a reason. Logan loves me. And he's grown up a lot, but he still has the tendency to have a worse attention span than a Chihuahua, if he's in the wrong head space."

"As funny and disturbing as that mental image is –what I was going to say is that you're the mother of his child, Rory. You think he'd abandon you and Hannah just because things might get hard?"

"You mean the way Dad was always a stellar source of support for you? Because he never begged off whenever he felt like it…"

"It's not exactly the same thing," Lorelai said. "Me and your dad were kids ourselves. We didn't know what we were doing."

"You figured it out."

"Luckily, you were a child that was easy to fool. I also kept your dad at arm's length. He didn't fight me to get any closer and that's on him, but it wasn't all his fault, Rory."

"Stop it!" Rory said angrily. "Stop making excuses for him! Is that what you want me doing for Hannah if Logan blows in and out with the direction of the wind? Do you want me making excuses for him the way you're doing for Dad?"

"No. Of course not! But you and Logan aren't sixteen, Rory. Forgive me for deciding to air on the side of having a little faith in the kid I raised. I have to believe that you inherited your fashion sense and your pop culture encyclopedia from me and that you learned from my mistakes. I don't think you'll be able to avoid them all, because if history wasn't going to repeat itself a little, you never would've gotten my eyes. But I have to believe you learned what not to do from me, as much as you learned what to do. I have to believe the best in you, Rory. I'm your mother –that's my job," Lorelai shot back.

"Jess is the one I can count on."

"What?"

"You want to know how I can be in love with Logan and yet, I can't just be happy that the man I love is my daughter's father? Jess is the guy who I can count on –doesn't matter if I deserve it, or what being there for me does to him… he's –I can count on him."

"Who'd have thought, huh? God he was such a punk…"

"He's not anymore. He's… it doesn't matter that there's no 'us'. If Hannah was –I'd have nothing to worry about. But is the steady guy the guy that I love? No. Is the steady guy Hannah's father? No. I –Mom…" Rory cried.

"I know. It's terrifying. But funny thing –Luke's not your dad. Was he ever not there for you?"

"Luke was never almost my biological father. You just told me that me and Logan aren't the same as you and Dad –well, me and Jess aren't the same as you and Luke."

"That is true," Lorelai nodded. "But like mother, like daughter… like uncle, like nephew."

"You don't know that," Rory said bitterly.

"Maybe not –but you don't not know that, Rory. Everything seems like the end of the world right now, but –just, don't crowd him. Give him time, give him space. Jess will come around. I can't pretend to know what it'll look like when he does, but I know he will."

"I'm sorry –come again there, mate?" Finn said, his mouth hanging open in shock. "Rory had a baby? Rory Gilmore had a baby…. and that baby's father… is you?"

"Yup, that's what I said," Logan muttered into his beer glass.

"Crikey, are you sure? Was Rory rooting anyone else?"

"Rooting…?"

"Fucking. Was she fucking anyone else, Logan?"

"See, why can't you just say 'fucking'?"

"Because in Australia, rooting is fucking…"

"That's a strange land you come from, Finn," Logan laughed.

"Focus, dipshit," Finn sighed, smacking Logan's head.

"Ah, there's a word I understand. Yeah, she was. Why do you think I didn't say anything? I didn't know if she was mine."

"She…"

Logan felt him smile. "Hannah."

"Oh God, you're too drunk. You're imagining things."

"I'm not drunk. And I'm not imagining things. I'm happy. Not drunk –happy. Genuinely happy."

"How do you know Rory hasn't got you by your bulgy purse string balls?"

"She doesn't. We had a paternity test done after she was born. Hannah's my daughter, Finn."

"Well, you're talking to the wrong bloke," Finn said, downing his shot and ordering another. "You should be talking to Robert. He was the one who wanted to have a football team's worth of illegitimates."

"Key word being 'illegitimate.' I'm not doing that. Did you hear me? Hannah's my daughter. I intend to be her father. Not the absent kind."

"That's what they all say, in the beginning."

"Here, you want proof, you bastard?" Logan asked, pulling out his wallet to unearth a picture of himself, Hannah and Rory.

"That this 'Hannah' is yours? Not particularly. Far be it for me to shatter your imaginary –whatever you've got going on there."

"Why would I shit you about this, Finn?"

"Why would someone invent such a torturous device as a Rubik's cube?"

"What? What the hell does that have to do with anything?"

"Nothing, really. I just want to know what twisted prick thought that up," Finn shrugged. "Look, are you sure that Rory's not yanking you around on this?"

"Positive."

"Okay. Well then forgive the inebriated Aussie's obvious question –but what about your fiancé?"

"She's not my fiancé anymore."

"You told her about –?"

"Of course not!"

"What did you say to her?"

"Apart from 'I can't marry you,' and her being heartbroken, but letting me go without pulling a Carrie at the prom, does it really matter?"

"Suppose not."

"Good. Drop it."

"Good fucking lord… you're serious," Finn whispered, stunned.

"Oh yeah, what was your first clue?" Logan asked bitterly. "Look, tell the rest of the guys if you want. Save me from having this conversation twice more. But you leave Rory alone, understand? She can't deal with any of you yanking her around right now. You think I'm anything less than dead serious, just try me. And if you breathe word of this to Mitchum, Shira or my sister or Odette, I'll kill all three of you with my bare hands."

"Does Rory know you were planning to tell me about this today?"

"We fought for half an hour. For some reason, she doesn't think my friends can handle sensitive information. We'll probably fight about it some more when I get back to her tonight. Do yourself a favour –prove her wrong. For my sake –I need a port in this storm that I actually like…"

"What?"

"Nothing."

"Logan, I –"

"Finn, I don't want to talk about this with you anymore until you get your head out of your ass."

"But I am Finn –my head lives in my ass. It's quite a nice ass, actually. Not a bad place to live. Oh, wait –that had a homoerotic subtext I'd like to take back, can I –"

"Whatever. Tell Colin and Robert or don't tell them. But if you tell them, make sure they know exactly how many ways I'll kill them if they do anything I just told you not to do."

"You'll have to tell your family eventually. Evil overlords though they may be, you can't hide it forever, Logan."

"I know. But I don't have to tell them quite yet. Mitchum knows I broke up with Odette and I'm planning to stay in Stamford indefinitely, revamping the Gazette…"

"Shit –you're actually doing that?"

"Yes, I'm actually doing that. And Mitchum's not happy about it, but I don't really care. I have a bit of time before I have to add to my problems and drag Rory and our perfectly innocent baby into my father's crosshairs. Don't damage my precarious calm, Finn, or I'll kill you right now. I gotta go. Tonight's on me," Logan said. "Make sure you call yourself a cab."

It had been four days. Four days since Jess had to utter the painful words that Rory couldn't bring herself to say. Four days since he'd had to break his own heart, and then comfort her. When had he become that guy? She was vaguely aware of it through the haze of her grief the morning they'd slept together, but now –after everything- the answer seemed akin to some kind of Holy Grail. She hated herself; Rory hated that Jess had to fall on his own sword –again.

Logan was already telling his Life and Death Brigade the happy news. Logan was starting to spread the word before Jess broke his cone of silence. Rory knew that one thing had nothing to do with the other, and as much as Logan's friends were better at partying than they were at being adults, she knew he had to tell them sometime. Logan spreading the word, while Jess had yet to say a word were two completely separate issues, she knew; but still, taken together, the opposing ends of this pendulum made Rory uneasy.

Logically, Rory knew why she hadn't heard from Jess. He was grieving –grieving for the chance at fatherhood that slipped through his fingers, grieving the fact that the baby he loved like his own was in fact not his own. But Rory was frantic; the longer the silence stretched, the more convinced she became that there was no way back from this –this was the thing that would cause her to lose Jess forever.

Rory's unexpected pregnancy drew them closer than they'd been in a long time; closer than they'd been in years. Jess had become a better man than even she thought possible. He was living a quiet, stable life that she knew nothing about until the fates forced them together again. His life was fine until she came along and complicated everything.

Rory felt responsible for his pain, because she was. Jess could've refused to have anything to do with what was going on, but he didn't –he stepped up. He put everything on the line and turned his life upside down to be there for her, while processing the possibility of being a father at the same time and he did it all without wavering. And then Rory had to yank the rug out from under him and break him. It was her fault. If she'd gotten that amniocentesis, all of this could've been avoided.

"My God," Rory whispered, rocking Hannah in her arms, "what if he never forgives me? He didn't deserve –but I can't, I can't lose him, Hannah baby. You don't know Jess very well yet, but believe me, he didn't deserve this and I can't stand that I did it to him. Even for all the ways he hurt me, and all the years we weren't even –he's a part of my life, a part of me. I know he's always there. But I –I don't know what I'd do if he wasn't –I don't know how to have a life that he's not part of. What if he can't get over it –not being your dad? Oh Hannah," she cried, "what if he never comes back? What if you never get to know him?"

Rory tried to calm down –she wished someone was here to calm her. It was three o'clock. Lorelai was at the Dragonfly, Luke was prepping for Thursday dinner rush at the diner and Logan was stuck at a meeting in Stamford; he wouldn't be with them until tomorrow. No one would be home for a few hours. She tried to distract herself –she checked on how her book was selling on Truncheon's website and she proofed layouts she was working on for The Stars Hollow Gazette and Woodbury's paper, but her mind was still running in dizzying circles. Hannah had been unusually quiet all day, allowing Rory's thoughts plenty of opportunity to drive her crazy and worry her sick.

In a flash, she remembered, verbatim –almost as if she were watching it on a movie screen- a day that she'd all but forgotten about, when she dropped everything because she was struck with an overwhelming need to see Jess. Eerily enough, he'd been in New York then, too. When she remembered her explanation to him for why she'd come, it sent a chill down her spine.

"Why did you come here?" Jess had asked.

Rory could barely hear him, his words muddled by the closed window on the bus. She could see his lips moving, but the sound he made was almost unintelligible. She opened the window. "What?" she'd asked.

"I said, why did you come here?" Jess repeated.

"Well –"

"I mean, you ditched school and everything. That's so not you. Why'd you do it?"

"Because you didn't say goodbye," Rory admitted simply, a hint of sadness in her voice.

"Oh," Jess said quietly. After a pause, he took a breath. "Bye, Rory."

"Bye, Jess."

Rory sighed sadly. She went to New York for Jess once –she could do it again. "Come on, Hannah," she whispered, gathering her diaper bag, "we're going on a road trip."

Rory got to Truncheon just after five.

Greg saw her as he was tidying up the sales floor and just about to turn out the lights. "Rory?" he said in surprise as he ran to open the door for her. "What are you doing here? We weren't supposed to meet today, were we?"

"No," Rory shook her head. "I was just –"

"This is Hannah, huh? She's beautiful, Rory."

"Yeah, she is. Thanks, Greg."

"Kristen –my wife- she can't wait to start a family."

"Are you –?"

"Oh, no. We've barely been married a year. But – eventually," Greg said with a smile as Hannah tried to reach out and grab his golden blond beard. "Anyway, what are you doing all the way out here unexpectedly?"

"Oh, I –um, I need to talk to Jess about…" Rory faltered. She drove all the way to Brooklyn, never once thinking about what her reason for going might be –it never occurred to her that she'd have to explain her presence to anyone. "Hannah and I were visiting my friend Paris at her clinic in Manhattan today and before we head back to Connecticut, I –Jess was keeping me in the loop about how things were going with my book, through the contacts he has personally and I –since I was in the neighbourhood, or, close enough, I thought I'd stop in to get an update –if there was one, I mean," she stopped rambling to catch a much needed breath.

Her cover was shaky at best –there wasn't much to do with her book that Greg didn't have direct access to himself. But after a painstaking pause, he nodded as though he bought her story without question.

"Is he here?"

"No –sorry. He hasn't been feeling well. He hasn't actually been in all week. The guy's never sick, but whatever this is –it knocked him right out."

Rory's heart sank into her stomach. She knew exactly why Jess wasn't feeling well –it wasn't the flu he was out with.

"I'm not sure he's up for much, but I don't think he'd mind if you stopped in quickly. Just make sure you make it short and sweet –you won't want this little one catching any bad Jess germs. He's not at home though."

"What do you mean, not at home? If he's so sick, where else would he be?"

"I think he's staying with Ella. She works from home and she has a spare bedroom. That way, if things get really hairy, he has someone with him."

"But she's –"

"Disabled?" Greg smirked sarcastically. "How can she possibly take care of him if he's so sick, when she needs help herself?"

"I didn't mean –I just…"

"It's not like Jess needs to be spoon fed. And Ella's way more independent than you might think she is. Jess is sick enough that being alone and toughing it out by himself isn't the safest bet. They're best friends. She's keeping an eye on him. That's all. Men are babies when they're sick; Jess is no exception."

Rory smiled, embarrassed. "I really didn't mean…"

"Do you want her address? Jess has been out since Tuesday, I'm sure he's on the mend and can handle a quick visit."

"Sure, yeah. Thanks. I –"

"Rory, don't worry about it," Greg smiled, scribbling Ella's address down on a piece of paper. "She's just four blocks west of here. It shouldn't be hard to find. Give me a call next week, we can start talking about your press junket. It'll be here before you know it."

"Thanks. I will. Good to see you, Greg."

"What do you want for dinner?" Ella asked.

"Doesn't matter," Jess sighed.

"We have to eat."

"Whatever you want is fine, El."

"Pizza?"

"Sure."

"Pick something to watch. I'll be right back." Ella grabbed the delivery menu from a drawer in the kitchen and disappeared to make the call from her bedroom, so that she could collect her thoughts.

She sighed heavily; to say that she was worried about Jess would be an understatement. He'd clammed up after the crash landing he made when he first arrived at her apartment. When he woke up the next morning, Ella made him go home and pack a bag, insisting that he stay with her until the worst was over. Jess hadn't said another word about Hannah or Rory in the last three days, but how he felt was written all over his face. Ella was scared that Jess might never find his way completely out of this rabbit hole; she was worried that even once it got better, it would cast a shadow on him forever.

Pushing her apprehension out of her mind, she ordered the food and went back to her living room.

Jess' phone started to ring. He looked at it and rolled his eyes with a sigh, before turning it off. He threw it on Ella's coffee table and it landed with an angry thud.

"Who's that? Your mother?" Ella asked sarcastically.

"Greg. The only reason he's calling is about work and I don't want to talk about it. He thinks I have the plague anyway. Last I checked, people afflicted with the plague aren't exactly chatty. Whatever it's about, he can figure it out without me. I won't leave him in the lurch for so long he chokes, but he can still manage without me yet."

About ten minutes later, Ella's phone went off. She looked at it and saw it was the number from her lobby, which people used to be buzzed in.

"The pizza's here already?" Jess asked. "It's barely been fifteen minutes."

"I don't know. I guess so," she answered, connecting the call. "Hello?" There was no one on the other end. Ella heard what sounded like voices and a door shutting –whoever it was must've snuck in when a resident came in. Whoever it was, it definitely wasn't the pizza –food delivery men always identify themselves. "Weird."

"Who was it?"

"It was… no one. Hey, I'll be right back."

"Everything okay?"

"Yeah, I'm just gonna make sure whoever that was wasn't for me. I'll be back." Ella went to sit in her hallway, her senses on high alert. When she saw who stepped off the elevator, she couldn't help but laugh bitterly and get ready to throw the gloves off. She wheeled herself forward, away from her door to prevent her voice from carrying inside. "Rory. What are you doing here? And why did you bring Hannah with you? What do you think you're doing?"

"Hi Ella. I –is Jess here?" Rory asked softly, smiling nervously.

"You know he is, or you wouldn't be here. Which leads me to my next question… how do you know where here is? What did you say to Greg that led him to very pleasantly tell you where Jess is… convalescing?"

"Ella please, I need to see him. I –he hasn't –I miss him. Hannah misses him."

"You need to see him? You think you do, but sorry –you don't actually need to see him. And Hannah's a six-week-old baby. She knows 'sad'. She knows 'cry'. I don't doubt she's bonded to Jess, but she doesn't have the mental capacity to know who she misses or doesn't miss. Try again."

"I'm worried about him."

"So am I."

"I just want to make sure he's okay."

"Oh, well in that case… let me leave you three alone. I have pizza on the way –tell me, would you like me to light some candles and put on some Kenny G for you before I leave? Condoms are in the box under my bed –make sure he wears one this time."

Rory blinked and felt tears roll down her cheeks. "You don't have to be so –I'm not here to play games."

"What is it that you think you are here to do?"

"I –"

"Let me spell it out for you, Rory. Four days ago, you told Jess he isn't the father of that sweet little girl in your arms. It's been four days and you're upset that he isn't over it yet and spending every other day at your house like nothing happened. You feel bad and as long as he feels bad, you feel worse. You want him to be over it so you can feel better about yourself. Did you intentionally make him not Hannah's dad? No, of course not. You didn't mean for any of this to happen. But you made choices. Jess supported those choices –he supported you, regardless of what it put him through. You made choices that assured that someone would get hurt. You didn't do it maliciously, but the fact remains the same, doesn't it? Jess is the one who got hurt and you feel ashamed, you feel responsible. You care about him, so it matters to you that he's hurting –I get it."

Rory smiled.

"I'm not done," Ella warned. "You might want to rethink that sigh of relief you're about to exhale. Look, I know you mean no harm –I promise, I do. But Rory, you drove here from Stars Hollow –with Hannah- to what? Show up and cry and apologize and have Jess take a deep breath, shake it off and forgive you and read a bedtime story to Hannah? You're not even –you went to Truncheon and Jess wasn't there, right? Greg was, and being that he has no idea what's going on, he told you where to find him and thought nothing of it, so here you are. You probably don't even think there's anything wrong with you being here.

"You're not at Jess' door unannounced with Jess' bouncing not-daughter in your arms. You're at my door. A woman you barely know. A woman who, as far as you know has no last name to speak of. A woman who's the only thing sitting between you and whatever twisted idea of redemption you have in your head. You barely know me! You managed to get my address out of Greg; at no point during his forthcoming kindness did you bother to stop him, right? Do you really think it's okay to show up at my home, with your child, to plead some sob story to a broken man? A broken man who you know would never turn you away? You haven't just crossed one line –you've crossed half a dozen. Care to explain to me how you actually think this isn't manipulative as hell?"

Rory felt her throat close up. "Ella, I didn't mean to –I swear I didn't even –I'm so sorry."

"Whether I think you meant to or not doesn't change the fact that you did. You have no business being here. Jess needs time –not however much time you decide to give him, but however much time he himself needs. If he sees you right now, choking on sobs and cradling the child that's not his, it helps you –you get to feel better, he gets to feel infinitely worse. You know he won't turn you away –hell, you're banking on it."

"Ella –"

"Jess looked out for you for months, Rory. For months, he put you first and himself last. You have no idea what he went through for you –both of you. He'll keep putting you first even if it kills him, that's the kind of man he is –he's not about to revert to the kid he was when you guys dated all those years ago. Throughout this whole thing, Jess looked out for you and your baby. He took the body shots; he swallowed the bitter pills. He had a harder time behind the curtain than I'll ever believe Logan had in front of it. Jess protected you.

"You know what my job is, Rory? It's my job to protect Jess. That's my job. I like you. I don't think you're a bad person. But I'm more loyal than you could possibly imagine and at the end of the day, Jess always comes first. I'll easily prioritize him over you and Hannah and I'll sleep just fine tonight.

"You. Can't. Be here. I promise you, Jess still loves you and he loves Hannah even more. Why do you think this is so hard for him? He will come around. You have not lost him. If you were gonna lose him, he never would've shown his face at the hospital that day.

"But you can't manipulate his emotions, Rory –you can't dictate how he deals with this, how it feels for him, or how long the darkness lasts. You know as well as I do that Jess shuts off when he has hard stuff to process."

"Yeah," Rory sighed. "I know."

"And has crowding him ever accomplished anything? Has all the begging or eye-batting in the world ever made him open up about things if he didn't want to? Pressuring him does nothing but push him away. You know that. I'm sorry, Rory –but you don't have a right to expect to be anywhere close to on the inside of this; you don't even have the right to ask."

"But I –"

"No. I'm sorry you drove all this way for nothing."

"Ella –"

"Rory. You have no right to be here. You're trying to barge into my home and I'll throw myself down a flight of stairs before I let you in. You shouldn't have come. I know you feel bad. I know you're worried. You have my word that I will see him through this. When he's ready, he'll reach out. But you can't make him be ready. It's not up to you. I know this is hard for you too –you didn't plan for any of this. But you have a mom, you have Luke, you have your entire town behind you. You have Hannah. You have Logan. He didn't disappear, did he?"

Rory shook her head.

"Go home. Put your baby to bed and talk to her father about all this. I'm sure he'll listen. You have so many people to support you! You know who Jess has? He has Luke and he has me. That's it. Luke is married to your mom, so he's gotta be a double agent. Jess has one full-time life raft –me.

"You and Jess have survived a lot. You'll just have to have a little faith that your relationship can survive this too. If you push him, if you force your way in, you'll only ensure that he never comes back. If you were him –if the shoe were on the other foot, how would you be? It's been four days. Would you be over it? Would you be able to just carry on like nothing is wrong and whistle while you work?"

"No," Rory admitted.

"Exactly. Don't make me tell you how hypocritical it is for you to expect what you came here expecting. I know you're smarter than that."

"I'm sorry."

"Go home," Ella sighed angrily. Just then, her phone rang. This time, it was the pizza. "Pizza? Yeah, come on up. Look, Rory –that's our dinner. If you don't leave, I'll call Greg and sit with you in the hall until he gets here and makes you leave."

"Thank you," Rory whispered, after a few beats if silence.

"What for?"

"Protecting him –doing it fiercely."

"I don't want to hate you. But if you ever pull this shit again or anything of the kind, if you manipulate him in any way –I'll hate you just as fiercely as I'm protecting him and I promise you, I'll give zero fucks about it."

"Understood. Enjoy the pizza."

Ella watched Rory get on the elevator and then she watched the numbers count down. She let out a pained breath and blinked hard, forcing her angry tears to retreat. Rory had some nerve. Shaking her head, she spun around and opened her door. "Hey Grumpy! Pizza's here. I need your working arms to take the box."

"What the hell have you been doing out there for the last almost ten minutes?" Jess grumbled, getting off the couch to wait with Ella by the door. "Who were you talking to?"

"You heard me?"

"I heard you talking, but not well enough to know what you said."

"Oh," she sighed. "My dad called. I cut him off to let the pizza guy in."

"How's Papa Bear?" Jess asked, managing a small smirk as Ella paid and he took the pizza box.

"He hates it when you call him that, for one thing…"

"I know. He knows I know. He also knows that's why I do it."

"He's good," Ella smiled.

"Hey, El, I know I haven't been –if, if I'm in your way, I can go home," he said quietly a few minutes later, picking at his pizza.

"Jess, look at me. As long as you need to be here, you can be here. You're not in my way. However, my attendants are getting skeptical that you're my best friend with no benefits," she laughed.

"There's plenty of benefits."

"They mean of the X-rated variety."

"You have some very nosey women working for you. If they can't mind their own business or if their lives are so boring that they need to live vicariously through you, you should fire them."

"Jess, seriously. You being here is no problem. Stay as long as you want –as long as you need. It's fine."

"But I –"

"You'd do the same for me and you know it. Now shut up and eat."

"Okay. Thank you, El," Jess grinned crookedly, reaching out to squeeze her hand before turning his attention to his pizza.

Ella winked at him as she turned on the TV and started eating her own dinner. He talked. It was normal for one whole minute. He even attempted a smirk and a grin. Twice! Separately! He even joked about Dad, she thought to herself. It's a start.