AN: Yay, another chapter :)


Rory stood hesitantly on the doorstep in front of a quaint, white, ranch style home. She knocked softly on the door. After a few moments it swung open to reveal Jess standing there carrying a sleeping baby in his arms. A small smile spread across Rory's face; Jess didn't see his brother often but when he did he was always so good with him. He'd make a great father someday. She was sure Logan would be great with kids too, heck he was great with Finn and that was almost the same thing. As long as Logan was there he would be a great father and she was finally convinced that Logan would do everything in his power to make sure he was there for his children when the time came. He would do everything in his power to be there for her as well.

"What are you doing here?" Jess's voice broke her out of her reverie.

"We need to talk Jess," she told him.

"I thought we already had that discussion," he replied bitterly.

"Jess, I know this is awkward but we have to get used to it. We're never going to be completely out of each other's lives. We need to deal with this, starting with Luke."

"What about Luke?"

"We have to break the news to him. He should here it from us...both of us."

"I don't know Rory..." Jess began. It was bad enough knowing he was going to have to sit around the same table as her tonight, looking at what he had lost; he didn't know if he could spend even more time with her.

"Do you have a better idea? Maybe we could just tell Miss Patty and wait it out. I'm sure he'd appreciate that," the sarcastic tone of her voice was clearly evident.

"What do you expect Rory? You want to be friends? That's great, I can hang out with you and Logan, get all buddy buddy with the guy who stole my fiance away from me," he said, his voice growing louder, causing Tommy to wake up and start crying. "Great, look what you made me do," he accused, patting Tommy gently on the back to try and get him to stop crying. "If we're going to have this out at least let me bring him back to his dad."

Jess walked away leaving Rory standing in the doorway. She wasn't sure if she should follow so she just stood there. He was angrier than he had been at first. Last night he had yelled a bit but mostly he just seemed defeated. She didn't expect things between them to be easy but she had hoped he would be somewhat amiable. She could understand why but that didn't mean she liked it. Jess came back a minute later and stepped out of the house, closing the door behind him.

"Listen, Jess," she began again. "I don't expect us to be friends, it'd be nice, but I don't expect it. And I certainly don't expect you to be friends with Logan. But we've got family in common and the least we can do is try to cooperate for their sakes."

"It isn't that easy Rory. It hasn't even been 24 hours. I can accept that I'm not the one you love anymore, what other choice do I have? But that doesn't mean that I'm just going to be OK with it. It hurts standing here in front of you and knowing I can't just kiss you like I always do. It hurts knowing that you were with him all last night...knowing that you..." he choked on the next words. "It just hurts," he continued. "It's going to take time."

"I know, and after today I'll give you all the time you need but we have to get through these next few hours together. We have to start by talking to Luke. I'm not going to let him find out from someone else, he deserves better."

He looked at her for a moment before nodding his head at her in agreement. "Fine, for Luke's sake. Let's get this done." He stepped off the porch and Rory followed.

They walked for a few minutes in silence before Jess spoke up. "He's not here, is he?" He quickly glanced at Rory.

"What?"

Jess rolled his eyes in frustration. "Logan, did you bring him with you?"

"You really think I would do that to you?"

"I don't know, I didn't think you'd go around kissing other guys when you were engaged to me and I was wrong about that."

"That's not fair Jess," she stopped and turned to face him.

"Oh I'm not being fair."

"You make it sound like I was off sucking face with anyone who would have me in complete disregard to your feelings. You have no idea how hard this decision was for me, I never wanted to hurt you."

"Well maybe you should have thought of that before," he bit back.

"Would it have made a difference? Would anything I would have done made a difference short of staying with you?" Jess was silent. "And do you really want me to be with you when I'm in love with someone else? Would that be fair to either of us." More silence. "Alright than, let's go." She turned and continued walking towards Luke's. Jess remained motionless for a moment before running to catch up.

"You're right, I'm sorry. I'm just upset."

"I understand," she replied without looking back at him.


Luke was in the kitchen checking on his pumpkin pie when he heard the bell above the door to the dinner ring out. "We're closed," he yelled to the intruders before making his way out to see to it that whoever it was left.

"Surely you can make an exception for us," Rory responded with a small smile.

"Well if it isn't my favorite couple," Luke beamed as he walked around the counter to give Jess a manly hug and then pulled Rory in for a slightly more emotional greeting. Rory involuntarily winced at his words but Luke didn't notice. "You just couldn't wait until dinner to see me?" he joked.

"Hey Luke!" Jess grunted.

"It's great to see you Luke," Rory added then paused before continuing one. "Actually, there's something we wanted to tell you. Could you maybe sit down for a minute." She motioned to one of the tables.

Luke looked at them curiously but then proceeded to the table, taking the chairs down for them to sit in. The gathered around in the seats and there was silence for a few moments before Luke finally spoke up. "Is something wrong?" he asked, taking in their tense postures and reluctance to speak.

Jess narrowed his eyes and looked at Rory, clearly expecting her to begin. He was there physically but it was becoming obvious he didn't have much to say. "Well," Rory began. "I guess that depends on your perspective."

There was another pause and suddenly Luke's eyes went wide with shock. "Are you," he directed at Rory, "I mean, you're not...You're not pregnant are you." He turned his gaze to Jess. "You couldn't wait till after the wedding? Jeez, Jess."

Jess's eyes glazed over with a hint of anger and Rory quickly intervened. "No, Luke," she assured him. "I'm not pregnant. I'm definitely not pregnant." She certainly hadn't been expecting Luke to jump to that conclusion. She'd have to be a bit more careful about how she went about this. She had been beginning to think that everyone in the word had seen this turn of events occuring a long time ago but apparently Luke was still clueless. Of course as far as she knew Luke had never really been told why Jess had temporarily moved out back around her birthday and he had no clue that Logan had reappeared in her life.

"Well then what is this all about?" He asked looking from Rory to Jess and back again.

Rory sucked in a large breath. "The engagement is off, Luke. We broke up."

Luke's eyes went wide before turning an angry stare Jess's way. "What did you do?" he accused.

"What did I do?" he replied incredulously? "What the hell makes you think this is my fault."

"Passed precedence," Luke retorted.

"Hey I'm not the only one here who can screw up a relationship," he replied angrily.

"Hey, hey stop it. Both of you," Rory held her hands up to each of them. She looked Luke straight in the eye. "This isn't Jess's fault."

"Well then what the hell happened that you two can't work out?"

"There...there's someone else, Luke," she replied hesitantly.

"You cheated on her?" Luke asked with venom in his voice. He began to stand up from his seat and Rory quickly realized she had to stop him before he did something he would regret.

"Sit down, Luke," she said forcefully. "Didn't you hear what I just said? This isn't his fault. It's mine. I'm the one with the someone else."

Luke looked at Rory with shock. It couldn't be? When he looked at her he still saw the girl with the fairy wings who wanted throw a funeral for a caterpillar, he still saw the pock marked girl who would eat nothing but mashed potatoes. She was pure and innocent; far to good to do something like cheat on Jess. Sure there was the thing with Dean but Luke had always blamed that on him.

"You had an affair?" he asked incredulously. "How could you do that?" His voice was soft and Rory shuddered at the obvious disappointment. She hated disappointing people, especially people she really cared about like Luke. She didn't deserve it though, she had not been with Logan while she was still with Jess, she wouldn't do that to people she cared about.

"I didn't," she insisted.

"OK, now my head hurts. You didn't cheat and he didn't cheat and but there's someone else?" he expressed his conffusion.

Rory swallowed the lump in her throat before speaking up again. "It's Logan," she said, almost a whisper.

"Logan?"

"Yes, he bought my paper and seeing him everyday, I just realized that I still loved him. But I didn't cheat on Jess."

"Isn't he that punk that tried to undress you at your grandparent's vow renewal?"

"He did what" Jess asked, whipping his head around to stare at Rory.

"That was my idea, you know."

"He made you steal a yacht! You have a criminal record because of that guy."

"Ugh, how many times have I told you that he didn't make me steal that yacht, I made him steal the yacht?"

Jess spoke up again. "You stole a yacht? How come I never knew you stole a yacht? What would make you steal a yacht?"

Rory rolled her eyes. "This from the guy who created a fake murder scene in front of Doses, stole my copy of Howl and my bracelet from Dean and who broke into Stars Hollow video and rearranged the movies behind the Rory curtain?"

Jess just shrugged and Luke spoke up again. "I can't believe this Rory. How could you go back to that guy after everything he did? He turned your life upside down. His father tried to ruin you. He broke your heart."

"First of all," Rory said. She hated hearing Logan attacked but she tied to stay calm. "He didn't turn my life upside down, I was going through a lot but it wasn't his fault. He wanted me to go back to Yale, but he was also the only one who supported my decision even if he didn't agree with it. And I don't care about his father. Did you ever stop loving Mom just because grandma and grandpa didn't approve? Of course not. And lastly, he's not the only guy who's ever broken my heart." She tried not send a pointed look Jess's way. "He's truly sorry for the way he left the first time and he won't make the same mistakes twice."

"I can't listen to this," Jess mumbled angrily. He shoved his chair away from the table, stood up and stormed out of the diner.

"See what you did? How can you talk about someone else like that in front of him?" Luke raved. "You haven't hurt him enough."

"You didn't give me much of a choice, you were attacking Logan. I know that you're upset about this and that you were really excited about Jess and I getting married but I can't just keep pretending that my feelings for Logan are insignificant just because I'm afraid of hurting people. I'm in love with him Luke."

"You're making a mistake Rory. He'll break you're heart again. Are you really that naive?"

"He's not going to break my heart again. He's a really good guy Luke. I just hope someday you'll be willing to get to know him and you'll find that out." Rory stood up and walked out of the diner without waiting for a response.


A couple of hours later they all sat around the tables at the Drangonfly Inn surround by a complete Thanksgiving feast. Rory had mixed feelings about being there at that moment. Most people at the table had been very supportive of her decision though many of them were disappointed that she couldn't work things out with Jess. Her mother had been amazing about the whole thing and for that she was eternally grateful. She was still upset over the way things went down with Luke. She hadn't a spoken to him since she left the diner and she wasn't sure if he had calmed down at all. Lorelai had promised to try and talk some sense into him after dinner and she hoped that would help. Lorelai did have way of making Luke come around to her way of thinking even though he always tried to deny that he agreed with her.

"I'm thankful that my super busy, successful, favorite daughter had time to squeeze her lonesome momma into her hectic schedule," Lorelai said as it was her turn to partake in the holiday tradition. Rory smiled at her brightly.

"I'm thankful for the good crop season this year and because my razquats are selling like hotcakes." Jackson's confession elicited a small laugh from the crowd. "What? I'm serious," he whined.

"When Luke's turn arose there was silence for a moment. "I'm thankful that despite all the curve balls life has thrown at us, we're all here today...together." Wow, a deep moment from Luke, was that good or bad? Rory didn't know, it didn't happen often enough.

The custom continued around the table until it was finally Rory's turn. She turned to look at her mother. "I'm thankful for the people who will always be there to support me and the decisions I make." She turned to glance quickly at Luke and she noticed him curve his lips up in a small smile and then he nodded his head at her. She smiled back. Apparently Deep Luke was a good sign after all.


AN: I know wasn't too long but there isn't any Rogan interaction in it so I dind't feel too bad about it being short. Sorry, I wanted to write Rogan-y stuff as much as you wanted to read it but I had to tie up these loose ends first. I promise you there will be LOTS of fluffy Rogan goodness in the next chapter and if I'm feeling particularly generous, maybe even some smut ;) ;)