See? I told you I would update a lot quicker this time. I really hit my groove this time around. Thanks for feeding into it. As I mention in the last chapter notes, I started a twitter for writing updates. If you click on the homepage link in my profile, it will bring you right to the page. You can ask me questions and I'll update on my story progressions. Always nice to have something to keep me motivated.

Thanks for all the reviews on chapter thirty-three: Mebabs, Amigo, lorlukealways, Maygen Lauren, mizskitles220, live4ska, smartbookworm, Curley-Q, frequentlydazzeledbylit, Jeremy Shane, Mallikad, Vera Cobb, kylielink, Hpluvr7, ShaolinQueen, and Tookie Clothespin.

Disclaimer: I still don't own a thing.

Her phone was sitting on her desk and she was waiting for it to ring. Again. It had been three days since she had heard from Jess. Three long, agonizing days. Her blood boiled from his remark that she had overheard.

"If you stare at that any longer, it's going to levitate."

"Hmm?" Rory turned around to face her roommate.

"I said: if you stare at that any longer, it's going to levitate."

"The phone?" Rory asked, pressing a button to make sure it hadn't turned off.

"Rory, he's a boy. And from what I understand, he's stubborn as all hell." Cecile plunked down across from Rory on her bed.

"Yeah, I guess so." She shuffled some papers on her desk. She knew that if Jess realized what he had done was wrong, he was going to act stubborn and guilty and avoid confrontation. Instead of agonizing over a phone call, she could be getting some work done before the holiday. As she tapped her ballpoint pen against her notebook, the phone starting ringing.

The only problem was that Jess wasn't the caller.

"Luke?" she answered questioningly.

"Rory, I've been trying to call Jess for the last three days."

"Oh. Okay," she said.

"All I want to know is that he's alive," he requested. It wasn't that he really wanted to talk to Jess. Having a conversation with him lately made him believe driving rusty nails into eyes would be more engaging.

"I haven't talked to him," Rory admitted, aware that wasn't the answer for which Luke was hoping.

"Then we'll have to deal with this the hard way," Luke said, hanging up the phone.

Rory raised her eyebrow as the call ended.

"KZSU 90.1 FM. I'm Jess and you're on the air."

"Jess Mariano!" the voice bellowed. The color drained from his face as he exchanged a glance with Patrick.

"Ride the Lightning," Jess countered quickly, taking his uncle off as a live call and quickly starting the song.

"Thanks for being discrete," Jess complained as the track starting playing through the speakers.

"Thanks for calling this past week," Luke retorted.

"I've been busy," Jess retaliated.

"Your phone is off."

"I know."

"Why's your phone off?" Luke demanded.

" 'Cause it is," Jess snapped.

Luke clenched his teeth. "We had a deal," he started. "You're across the fucking country and I don't hear from you in a week, Rory doesn't hear from you in a week, and when I get my hands on you, I swear to God, Jess."

Jess rolled his eyes as Patrick shot him another questioning look.

"Are you even listening to me?"

"Christ, yes! I'm always listening to you, and that's the problem!" Jess protested. "Stop smothering me! Stop talking down to me!"

"I'll talk to you however I damn well please," Luke shot back quickly. "You have a roof over your head and a college education because I look after you."

"If you're going to start on Thanksgiving now, can it," Jess requested crudely.

"I don't care about Thanksgiving!" Luke bellowed, scaring the crap out of Jess. It was Luke's way of snapping him back into shape.

He wasn't actually sure how to respond, causing silence on the line. Luke yelled. Luke yelled a lot, actually. But there were different ways he yelled and different ways Jess knew how to perceive them.

"Okay," he said finally, earning a frustrated sigh from his uncle.

"Is this seriously your biggest concern?" Luke asked, his voice much lower than when he started yelling.

"Yes!" Jess said, exasperated with the topic already.

"It was already dropped," Luke said.

"Okay!" Jess turned to the computer on his desk and double-clicked on the track list he was supposed to be following for that night.

"Then I don't see why it's still an issue."

"Well, it's obviously going to be an issue if I feel you and Rory are still badgering me about it. Christ, I'm not going to feel guilty about this."

You don't have to feel guilty about it," Luke reminded him, trying to remember why they were getting angry at each other in the first place. "And you should call Rory, if you haven't already."

The ending chords of "Ride the Lightening" faded out and Jess dropped the phone. It clunked to the floor as he switched songs on his playlist quickly without going live.

"Dropped the phone," mumbled. He did need to call Rory. He hadn't talked to her in a week either, mostly out of sheer embarrassment.

"Did you hear what I said?"

"Yes, Uncle Luke."

"And did you get your plane ticket yet?" Luke grilled.

"Yes, Uncle Luke," Jess said, rolling his eyes toward Patrick.

"Okay."

"Listen, I'm a little busy. Can we cut this short?" Jess asked, leaning forward in his chair. He was starting to antsy, and he also wanted to finish off the show so that he could get back to the rest of his to-do list.

"Call Rory."

"Bye, Luke."

"Call me," Luke reminded him.

Jess sighed and rolled his eyes again. "Goodbye, Luke." Jess clunked the receiver of the radio station phone back into the cradle and groaned audibly.

"Hot damn. What was that?" Patrick asked.

"Dysfunctional uncle."

"And because of that, I'm sorry," Jess ended apologetically. He waited for a response from Rory and paused. Maybe she had hung up on him halfway through his heartfelt apology. It wasn't often that he apologized, so he would have been surprised if she hadn't bothered to listen. "Are you still there?" he asked tentatively.

"Yeah, I'm still here," she finally said. His words were still gently settling in her mind. Jess was rash and quick to act on impulses that he shouldn't. He also had a guilty persona, as long as there was knowledge that he had deeply hurt someone.

"Well?" he asked, hoping for something more than a couple of words. That was all either of them had been exchanging lately, and that was rare when it came to Rory. She could usually get him to start talking, but it was hard for her to stifle what she was feeling.

"You're a petulant child sometimes, you know that?" she finally said.

Oomph. Not exactly the response he was expecting. "What?"

"You jump to conclusions far too quickly," she elaborated. "I wasn't even calling to coerce you to come home for Thanksgiving and neither was Luke. By that last conversation, I had accepted your reasons for staying put. If you had just answered the phone instead of making wild assumptions, this could have been cleared up much quicker."

"Yeah, I know," Jess mumbled. He had been rash and jumped to an unstable conclusion. "I'm sorry," he repeated, hoping it would stick this time. He was accustomed to being an asshole, and being apart from Rory had made him a little rougher around the edges and worse for wear.

"I know," she said swiftly. "But I miss you. If you had just been patient with me, I would have gotten the point."

"Yeah."

"Are we okay?" Rory asked tentatively.

"We're okay," Jess answered. "You know what this has made me realize?"

"What?"

"I hate long distance relationships."

Rory paused. This wasn't exactly the type of conversation she was excited to have. "Me too."

"So what does this mean?" he pressed, knowing full well neither of them was pleased with the topic at hand.

"It means we try harder," Rory said, an audible crack in her voice showing rearing its ugly head between words. "It's not the same as slamming the door and coming back later to sit on my doorstep at one in the morning."

Jess had almost forgotten about that incident. "Also means you can't camp out in the diner after storming downstairs," he reminded her.

"I'll see you in a couple of weeks," she mused. "That's something to look forward to."

"Crossing the days off my calendar," he admitted.

"Good." She opened her planner and scrawled a note in the box on the date he was arriving home. "I bought your Christmas present the other day," she mentioned offhand.

"You did?" he asked. Christmas had been filed to the back of his mind. Not only was there no time to shop around California, but it would be impossible to take a bunch of presents on a plane or check them in his luggage. The packing list of items to take home for the break was becoming so long it appeared he would probably need to remove some things to make space for necessities. "I haven't done anything."

"You would need a lot of suitcases," she said. Just go shopping when you get home. There's plenty of time."

"I was thinking of doing that," he said.

"It was great being able to talk to you tonight," Rory said. "I actually have a big paper that's due before Thanksgiving break, so I need to finish it soon."

"Okay, yeah. That's a good idea." Jess replied. "I'll talk to you later. Your turn to call me."

"I won't forget," she promised. "Hey, Jess?"

"Yeah?"

"I love you."

"Love you too, Rory."

She hoped Jess had remembered that they were meeting at baggage claim. Luke had drilled the day's plan into his nephew's head, but he was so thrilled to be back on the east coast that it kept going out the other ear. "I thought his plane already landed," Rory said, looking around in different directions.

"They're letting them off the plane now," Luke said. He turned back to the screen announcing aircraft arrivals and baggage assignments.

"How much stuff does he have?" Rory asked. She was sure his trusty duffel bag was filled to the brim with books and other necessities for the next month. Luke had stopped paying attention to her after they arrived at the airport. His mind seemed to be on other things and she just couldn't stop talking.

In the distance, she spotted an unruly young man with tanned skin and attractive dark hair. Exactly like in the movies, Rory broke into a dash and Jess dropped the carry on bag he had been holding. Catching her into a hug, Jess swung her gently and let her wrap her legs around him before finally setting her down. Luke had caught up with them by then and Jess allowed his uncle to pull him into a fatherly embrace.

"You're so tan!" Rory exclaimed, running her hand down his dark arm.

Jess shrugged. His olive skin had darkened considerably since being in the sun all the time in California. "It happens. There's a lot of sun in California." He turned to Luke briefly. "Thanks for coming to get me and bringing Rory."

"You're welcome," Luke said, fishing in his pocket for the parking ticket. He needed to pay for his spot and wanted to make sure he could locate the stub.

"You looked dressed for the weather," Rory commented, looking Jess over. He was wearing the trademark dark jeans with a blue button down, top two buttons undone, and his leather jacket. It had grown colder lately, with a thin blanket of snow covering the entire town. Rory was adjusted to the snow, ice, and coldness, but had yet to get used to Cambridge and Boston's snow becoming dirtier than the snow in Star's Hollow.

"Read the weather report," Jess mentioned with a smirk. "I also left Los Angeles at a nice 75 degrees this morning." Rory laughed, looking him over again. His smirk grew wider. "I changed on the plane."

"Smart," Rory remarked, grabbing his arm excitedly. "Come on, let's get home."