A/N: Hi guys! Thought you were getting rid of us? Not a chance, Cedar Park is still alive and kicking. That said, we're sorry for the hiatus we pulled on you. Both of us have been busy, both with writing our stories on our personal accounts and with our private lives. But the gang has not let us forget about them, they've been nagging us about finishing the chapter. We really didn't have much choice. Enjoy the chapter!

Disclaimer: We do not own any of the Gilmore Girls characters. Cammie and Jessie are ours, though.

"Hi, may I..." a familiar voice began, but then immediately stopped. Something nagged at Jess's consciousness. That voice. This place. So familiar.

No.

No, no, no, no, no.

No.

He snapped his head up and squared in on Jessie. She looked at him with a guilty kind of smile on her face. She had not just done this. Then Jess slowly turned his head, and looked the owner of the familiar voice right in the face.

"Jess. Hi," said Matt, nervously fidgeting with his McDonald's-cap.

"No." It was all Jess could say, he was too shocked to move.

Jessie concernedly looked up at Jess before turning her attention back to Matt. "We're going to need a minute to decide," she said before pulling Jess away from the counter.

"What the hell?" Jess turned his focus to Jessie. "What are we doing here?" He didn't know how to feel; angry or betrayed. He knew he wasn't ready to face them, not yet, not without a diploma, not without proof that he was worth it, proof that he'd make a good business partner.

"Don't shoot the messenger," Jessie held her hands up in front of her. "Cammie's stalker is starting to step it up a notch, she needs you to fix this."

"I can fix that problem, it doesn't have to be this way, not when it's not on my terms."

"Jess, you're irrational, you're sticking to what you said in the beginning, which is great, but things can change, plans can change. Just talk to him."

"No," Jess said firmly before leaving McDonald's and Jessie behind.

"Jess? Where are you going?" Jessie yelled out from the doorway.

"To Stampede," Jess called back. "I'm going to fix this problem. No stalker, no need to talk to Matt and Chris."

He found himself almost running through Cedar Park trying to get to Stampede, to Cammie, to fix all this. He finally made it and he burst through the door. All eyes were on him including Cammie and her stalker who was sitting in the corner. He didn't waste any time. He strode behind the counter, wrapped one arm around Cammie and tangled the other one in her hair before giving her a kiss that left her lightheaded. He said no more, just left her standing there wondering what the hell had just happened, and walked out the door. He had always been good at leaving.

"Hey," someone gruffed out behind Jess.

"What?" Jess spun around, he still wasn't in the best of moods, and coming face to face with Cammie's stalker wasn't going to help anything. "Just stay out of this," Jess warned him before turning back around.

"No," the guy said as he placed a hand on Jess' shoulder.

Jess didn't hesitate. He spun around quickly and hit the guy right in the side of his face. Then the anger overtook. He could feel it surging through him, wanting nothing more than to pound away, taking out all of his worries and anger out on this guy, on Cammie's stalker. He grabbed the guy by the shirt and pulled him into the nearby alley. He pushed him down to the ground and raised his fist. Violence, it never solved anything but it always made him feel better. That was what he was remembering right now. The times he swung at Dean, how he wanted to hurt him so badly. Hurt him just because he had Rory. He wanted Rory so badly that he was willing to swing at Dean just because it felt good. But what now? This guy had done nothing to him and Jess realized that. Cammie's stalker was not the reason he was angry. No, it was all him and his inability to let others in. He knew the real reason he hadn't told Matt and Chris yet, and this guy had nothing to do with it, nothing at all. He lowered his fist.

"Get out of here," Jess hissed at the guy and he hightailed it out of there, never looking back.

Jess backed against the wall behind him before sliding down. He hit the ground with a soft thud and his head came to rest between his knees.

"What did I do?" Jess whispered to himself.

He had been all ready to beat this guy up for no reason at all. So eager to resort to his old ways, and for what? Because he was afraid. Afraid that when he told his grand plan to Matt and Chris they would shoot him down, tell him they wouldn't be on board, that they didn't believe in him. And he couldn't have that, he wouldn't, no. He could still feel his anger coursing through him, it wasn't letting up. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. He scrolled through the list of contacts before nervously hovering over the send button. He took a deep breath and hit send.

"Luke's Diner, please hold," came Luke's familiar voice. Jess could hear that the diner was busy, as usual.

"Luke, you can't just leave someone on hold like that," Jess could hear Lorelai say before a rustling came across the phone.

"Can I help you?" Lorelai sounded off. She wasn't herself Jess noted.

"Ah, yeah," he cleared his throat and lowered his voice. "Just need to talk to Luke."

"Who's calling?" Lorelai probed. Something was definitely wrong, Lorelai hadn't cracked one joke yet.

"Jack Dawkins," Jess answered smoothly, even though Lorelai was throwing him off.

"He won't be a moment."

Seriously, what was going on there? Jess reached into his pocket and pulled out a cigarette. He hadn't smoked in a long time, but he felt as though he needed one right now. He took the first drag as he listened to Lorelai's breathing on the other end, something definitely was wrong, she was silent. Jess took another drag, this phone call wasn't helping him out like planned. He thought Luke's voice would calm him down, show him reason, but it seemed as though Luke already had a lot to deal with. He was about to hang up when he heard her voice.

"Who's on the phone?"

He didn't know why but as soon as her words floated over him he began to calm down. Her voice was always so soft, so cautious. She always thought twice before saying anything.

"Umm, Jack Dawkins," Lorelai answered.

"Jack Dawkins?" He could hear Rory's breath catch, she knew who it was, how could she not. There was a pause. "Give me the phone."

"What?" Lorelai was confused.

Jess could hang up, he knew that there was still time, but he found that he didn't want to. He needed to hear her voice, just needed to hear her, she'd calm him down.

"Hello?" Jess' chest rose up but was somewhat deflated when he recognized Luke's gruff tone.

"Luke, it's Jess," came Jess' shaky reply. He looked down at his cigarette and noted that he had subconsciously stubbed it out when talking to Rory, well, hearing Rory's voice actually.

"Jess?" Luke questioned followed by Lorelai saying the exact same thing.

The last time he had talked to Lorelai on the phone it had been good, but he didn't need good right now.

"Luke," his voice came out even more shaky.

"Jess, what's wrong? Are you okay? What did you do?" Came Luke's frantic yet accusatory questions.

"I didn't do anything. I nearly beat up a guy for no reason, but I didn't. I came so close though."

"Why, Jess? I thought you were doing good." Luke was concerned.

"I was, I am. It just all got too much. People were pulling me in all different directions. I was questioning myself. I just snapped, but I held back. I don't know."

"Tell me what you need, Jess, you know I'm here for you," Luke's desperate voice washed over Jess. The familiarity calming him down even further.

"I don't know, just keep talking, please," Jess struggled with resisting lighting up another cigarette.

"Hold on I'm going to grab the other phone. Lorelai?"

"Don't worry, Luke, Rory and I will look after the diner."

"Lorelai," Luke hissed. Everyone still thought that the names Rory and Jess should be never mentioned in front of the other in fear that everything would turn for the worse.

Jess frowned at them. He was at a stage now where he could hear Rory's name, even hear her talk, and he'd be fine. He hardly even thought of her anymore and when she did sneak into his subconscious it was always good thoughts, no longing, no despair, nothing.

Luke finally picked up the upstairs phone and spoke. "How are you now?" He asked cautiously.

"Better," Jess breathed out, he had calmed down a lot now. He didn't want to punch anything anymore, he didn't want a cigarette either. He tossed it away. "What's going on there?"

"Ah," Luke faltered. "Just stuff."

"Luke, you're talking to me, king of subterfuge. What's going on?"

"Nothing."

Incredible. Luke had a good 20 years on him, and he still couldn't lie convincingly. Except that one time, with his car.

"Come on, what gives?"

For a moment, there was complete silence on the other end, and Jess almost thought he'd cracked his uncle. Then:

"Al came in wearing his assless chaps again."

Jess groaned. Really? Luke had to drag that up? He remembered all too well the marathon dance and the crazy outfits, one of them being Al and his chaps. If there ever was a good reason for having his mouth plastered to Shane's, besides the obvious one, it was to be sucked away from the sight of a grown man wearing assless chaps.

"Aw, jeez, now I'm gonna need bleach..."

"You think? I actually had to throw him out," Luke said with a chuckle.

"Disturbing the peace?"

"Disturbing Patty more like it."

"She ganging up for husband number five?"

"God, I hope not..."

Silence took over once again. For what seemed like a long time they just listened to each other, and it felt... okay. Knowing Luke was there, on the other end, however far away. Jess sighed, and ran his free hand through his hair.

"Sorry for calling out of the blue and going all postal on you," he finally said.

"No biggie. You know you can always call, Jess. No matter what. You're a great kid."

"You've said that on occasion. It's just... I'm trying to do the right thing here, I really am. I want this to turn out good, and I want to do it my way, but it's just so... so..."

"Hard," Luke filled in knowingly.

Hard, yeah. As if anything in Jess Mariano's life would be easy, he thought.

"Exactly." Pause. "Well... I guess I gotta go sort out this mess. No one else will, though it's not for lack of trying."

"You go get 'em."

"Talk to you later, Luke."

"Bye Jess."

"Oh, and Luke?" Jess interjected just before Luke was about to hang up.

"It's okay, you know."

"What?"

"To say her name. It's okay to bring up Rory."

"Oh. Okay. So... Yeah. Bye, Jess."

They hung up, and Jess put his phone back in his pocket. He realized he hadn't found out what Luke was trying to hide. He'd definitely have to call Liz sometime soon and find out what was up. If anyone was able to get dirt on Luke it was Liz. But for now he had his own dirt to sort out. He headed out of the alley, towards home. He'd eat, and then try to figure out what to do.

He was almost back at the apartment when his phone began ringing. Cammie, of course.

"What the hell, Jess?" she hissed at him as soon as he answered the call.

"Cam-"

"No. No, mister, you listen, I talk. What the hell got into you back there? God, you don't just walk up to your boss and plant a kiss on them like that. Do you know how embarrassing that was once you walked out? People looked at me like I was insane! And what did you do to my stalker? Did you... You didn't kill him, did you, Jess?"

"You done now?"

"Yes. But I'm still mad at you. Doesn't matter that you kiss like God's glory."

"Jessie took me to see Matt," Jess let out, turning on to Cedar Avenue.

"She did? What happened? Did you kill someone?"

"Okay, what's up with you thinking I'm a homicidal loon?"

"Sorry, go on."

"Jessie thought she'd, I don't know, speed things ahead, so she took me to see Matt in hopes that we'd make up so you could get rid of your creepy stalker guy. I kind of flipped. I wanted to do this my way, and then she just... hijacked my plan and I'm done with that. I didn't want any help. I told her I'd fix your problem and stormed out. Enter Jess going postal at Stampede. And for the record, I didn't kill the guy, but I'm pretty sure he won't bother you anymore."

"And for the record, I advised Jessie against butting into your business the day she started," Cammie deadpanned. "No offense."

"None, taken. Could you maybe refresh her memory on that point when you see her next time?"

"I'll make a note of it."

"Okay. I'll see you tomorrow?" Jess said, stopping outside the door to the apartment, trying to find his keys without dropping the phone.

"May the Force be with you and make it so," Cammie replied and hung up on him.

Jess put away the phone and jimmied with the key to open the door. He snuck in, navigating up the stairs and into the living room. Turning on the light, he tossed his bag on the couch and headed for the kitchen. His stomach growled when he opened the fridge. No wonder he'd been surly, he hadn't eaten all day, seeing as he'd stormed out of McDonald's. He fixed himself a sandwich and a cup of coffee, picking up one of the books he'd borrowed for his final GED-exam. Social Studies. Only math had been more frightening. Social Studies encompassed so much, so many different areas, so much knowledge to commit to memory.

He was halfway through American history, trying to keep all the important battles of the civil war from getting mixed up when he heard a distinct thud from downstairs. Jess put down the book, and glanced at the clock on the wall to his left. 5 pm. Did door salesmen come around at that time? He decided to ignore the heavy knocking, but to no avail. Whoever was on the other side of the door kept banging. Finally, Jess couldn't stand it. He quickly made his way downstairs, opening the door as he irritably said:

"I don't care. I don't want your vacuum filters, magazines or girl scout cookies..."

He froze when he saw who it was. Matt and Chris stood staring at him like they'd seen a ghost. Neither of the three guys said a word for what felt like minutes, but in the real world it was probably more like three seconds.

"Too bad, I was just about to recommend the Tagalongs," Chris then quipped, and looked expectantly at Jess.

"Who told you I lived here?" Jess asked, ignoring the quip. He was about ready to call up Cammie or Jesse and tan their asses.

"Gee, like it's that hard to stalk you," Matt snorted. "I had Chris stake out Stampede in case you showed. You are really predictable, Jess, you know that? After that it was a simple matter to shadow you."

"Clearly, both of you need more work hours, if you have time to stalk people."

"Come on, can you blame us? You leave, Cammie refuses to tell us where you live, and we hardly see you anymore," Chris protested, trying to make the situation seem less desperate.

"Gee, maybe you should've thought about that when you kicked me out," Jess rebutted sourly.

"Hey hey, we're here, right? Isn't that worth something in your cynical eyes?" Matt stepped forwards, pointing at him. "You think we put this much effort into finding you because we wanted to trash you? Despite what you may think, we actually like you."

"Reg and Jake were a bit...rash, we can acknowledge as much. But we had a deal, man."

Jess sighed. They were right. They'd had a deal. As long as he didn't make trouble, he'd been welcome to stay with the guys. Too bad trouble ran in his DNA.

"Fine. You're here."

"And you're here. What is this place?" Chris asked inquisitively, trying to peek behind Jess.

"It's mine," Jess replied. "I bought it."

"You... What? This is yours?" Matt's eyes bulged, and he looked at the building.

"Not the building, genius. The street level business space and the upstairs apartment."

"Can we see it?"

There was no way he would be able to dissuade them, Jess knew that. So, he shrugged his shoulders and stepped out of the way, letting his former co-habitants step inside. They walked around the business space for a good fifteen minutes, muttering to themselves about the prime location and the amazing possibilities. Interestingly enough, Jess noted, they never once asked him why he had bought an office space instead of a regular apartment. When Chris and Matt were done ogling, he ushered them upstairs, letting them see the upstairs apartment.

"Interesting choice of reading," Chris noted, nodding to the still open book about the civil war.

Jess hesitated. This was not the way he wanted to tell them. But then again, he'd have to tell them at some point. And since this meeting was already happening, what reason was there to keep this from them?

"Yeah, I... I'm studying. For my Social Studies-exam."

"Oh..." Matt said, nodding, then stiffened. "Wait, what?"

"Social Studies. I'm getting my GED."

Matt looked like he might explode, and Jess thought that the smile that spread on Matt's face was possibly more creepy than that of the Cheshire cat.

"I knew it!" Matt then exclaimed, turning to high-five Chris. "I freaking knew it! Jake so owes me money for this!"

"I'm sorry, what?" Jess furrowed his brow, looking from Matt to Chris.

"Matt bet Jake that you would get your act together, that we'd been wrong to kick you out just like that," Chris clarified, then turned to Matt, who was dancing around them, jabbing his fists in the air. "Dude, did you even bet money?"

"Who cares, I will still demand money!"

Matt's crazy dancing went on for another few minutes, after which they all sat down, tentatively asking each other questions about what had been going on. As it turned out, Reg and Jake had pitted themselves against Matt and Chris on the Jess-matter, adamantly refusing any suggestion to take him back. In addition, Jake spent less and less time working with the publishing company. He more or less lived at the record shop, taking on more and more responsibility.

"Reg is slipping. He's completely caught up trying to score a chick at that college bookstore. He's been all bitter and desperate since he broke things off with Jessie. Add to that he has to regularly bring more copies of your book," Matt told him with a smirk. "He's still loyal to Locust Publishing, so he can't refuse to bring more copies. But it's becoming clear that he's getting to that point where he will follow in Jake's footsteps and fade out of the picture."

"Sorry to hear that," Jess said, and he actually felt sorry for Matt and Chris. They had put so much work into Locust Publishing, and hearing how two of the founders were basically turning their backs on it was not good news.

"Yeah... Still, we're doing okay. The Zine is still up and running. Jake at least gives us heads up on interesting releases and underground gigs, and we've had bookstores from out-of-state call and ask to stock your book. We've also sent them a few of our other published works for consideration, so..."

"The Subsect is selling? Really?" Jess cocked an eyebrow. During all that time since he left the guys he hadn't really thought about how his book was doing.

"Yeah, we've had to reprint, like, three times," Chris said, his eyes lit up with excitement. "Mostly we restock for Reg's workplace, but as Matt said, we've had some independent bookstores from in and around Trenton and Hartford calling us and asking for new shipments. You apparently did a good job selling yourself on that trip home."

Jess let out a laugh. "Please, I practically begged them to accept it. Maybe they like desperation."

Silence fell. It seemed all topics were exhausted.

"Well... I should get back to the civil war," Jess uttered, cringing at how awkward the situation was.

"Um, yeah... Good luck with that. We... we have an anthology to prepare for printing. But... Yeah. Take care, Jess."

"Maybe we'll see you at Stampede?" Matt suggested hopefully.

"Probably."

"Okay. We'll... we'll find our way out. Good seeing you, and all that," Chris said, giving him and awkward wave.

The guys left, and when Jess heard the front door downstairs slam shut, he leaned back into the chair he was sitting in and let out a gust of air. Wow.

That wasn't so bad.

A/N: There is still hope for Truncheon, ya'll! Jess, Matt and Chris in a room without yelling, fighting or accusing. Did you like it? Leave us some review love!