It didn't take Jess long to collect his thoughts. He wasn't even sure why he needed to. There was a strange feeling inside of him as he remembered how he felt when he overheard Lorelai telling Luke about Rory and Logan.

It was stupid, he told himself. Because it's not like it was even Logan who was there. It was a friend of Logan's. That shouldn't be a threat, even if there needed to be one. He guessed it was just a reminder that while he had his head in his ass, Rory had tried to move on with another guy.

He had no right to be upset about that. After all, he had tried the same thing with Shane. But Shane was far out of the picture and the whole thing was a reminder that while she was his girlfriend now and the other guy was the past, she still went to school with him.

Jess knew he needed to catch a grip. He took a few breathes, prayed silently for a pack of cigarettes to appear. When they didn't, because how could they? He joked to himself, he opened the doors back up and walked inside.

His eyes searched where he left her. It'd be stupid to think Rory didn't move from her seat. He had wished she hadn't though just so he could find her. Of course she wasn't there but it didn't take long to spot her anyway.

Rory stood in a corner of the room, almost masked by other party goers. She seemed in depth in conversation with Lane. Zach was nowhere in sight which led him to believe the conversation they were having was about him. That and Rory looked upset. He mentally cursed himself for the jackass he was and decided to make it right.

His walk was slow, deliberate. There was a determination in him to get to her. Crowds of people were between them but Jess didn't care. When he finally reached her, he motioned for Lane not to tell Rory and wrapped his arms around her waist.

She instantly knew it was him and leaned her head into him. Lane smiled and excused herself, saying she needed to find Zach. Rory laid her arms over Jess' and looked down at their hands.

"I'm a jackass," he said to her shoulder.

"Mmm," she murmured, not telling him if he was right or wrong.

"And I'm sorry," he continued.

That time Rory answered but first she moved herself out of his arms and faced her boyfriend. "I'm sorry, too."

"You have no reason to be sorry," he told her. "I overreacted. He's a friend. I don't even have a right to be upset about Logan let alone his friends."

"You were jealous," she stated.

Jess nodded. "I don't want to be."

"You don't have to be," Rory put both hands on either side of his face. "I'm with you, okay? It doesn't matter if they're here or wherever. I love you and I want to be with you."

"I know," he held his hands around her back. "I'm gonna work on being better at this, I promise. I'm not good at relationships, Rory."

"You're doing pretty good to me," she smiled.

"Not tonight," he said. "But I wanna make it up to you."

"How?" She asked.

"Dance with me," he replied.

Jess' face looked unsure. He worried she'd say no after his walkout. But instead, she smiled softly at him and took his hand. "Of course."

The song wasn't particularly a slow song. Jess wasn't even sure what song it was even. It was a pop song, that much he knew. For once, he didn't care about questioning the music choices. Not as he held Rory close to him in his arms.

She leaned her head on his shoulder for a moment before she realized she couldn't not say something. Rory's head lifted and she stared into his brown eyes, brushed his hair away from his face and smiled. "I have something to tell you."

"What is it?" He asked curiously. He had no idea.

"I'm not sure how you'll take it," she said in a shakier voice, already losing the little confidence she gained seconds ago. "It might make things worse."

His thumb came under her chin and lifted it upwards. "Make what worse?"

"Before," she sighed as they continued to dance. "With Finn. Why you walked out."

"Is there something I'm missing about it?" He joked but his smile faded when he noticed her distraught expression. "Ror? Tell me what's going on."

"I do see Logan," she confessed. "At school. More than I expected to."

"Oh," his mind whirled. What was his pep talks to himself outside? What had he said? "And by see, you mean -?"

"Occasionally we bump into each other," she told him.

"Okay," Jess nodded. "I mean, I don't expect you to not see him. You go to the same school, he works on the newspaper."

Rory shook her head. "This one time we talked, he asked me if I still had a boyfriend."

"Which you said yes to," he added.

"Which I said yes to," she agreed. "There's more."

"What more?" He asked, almost regretting wanting to know.

"Logan...He told me he has feelings for me," she sighed. "He asked me if we could try to be together for real."

Emotions flashed over his face all at once. Rory couldn't catch any of them they flew by so quickly. His hands dropped from her body but hers didn't leave him. "Is he here still? I'm gonna find him."

"Jess," she finally moved her hands to either side of his face. His eyes looked directly into hers which was exactly what she had wanted. "Hey. Don't do it."

"The guy had you, casually might I add, while he had other girls," he said. "Then you get a boyfriend and he suddenly wants a relationship?"

"I don't think he really wants one," she said. "It's crazy, right? He's probably just trying to get under my skin."

"And is he?" He asked.

"Yes," she admitted. "Because I'm with you and he keeps trying to make me doubt that. What he doesn't know is nothing will make me doubt that."

His expression softened at her words and his hands moved to hold her at the waist. "You mean that?"

"Of course," Rory answered honestly. "You think I don't?"

"No," he shook his head. "No. I just - I guess I needed to hear it."

Her hands still held both sides of Jess' face. "Hey. I love you and that's a fact. I do not have feelings for Logan or anyone else that isn't you."

Jess smiled down at her. "I love you, too."

She smiled back in return as they both leaned forward. The kiss was supposed to be quick but it turned deeper than expected pretty quickly. "I have an idea."

"Yeah?"

"Let's push aside Logan for the night," she said. "Not even just the night. Let's be us and enjoy us. What do you think?"

"I think that sounds like the best idea I've ever heard," he told her. One thing was on his mind that he had to ask before it was pushed away, though. "I just have one question, though."

"Okay," she waited with hesitancy. "What is it?"

Jess breathed out once before he began. "Did you know he would be here tonight?"

"No," Rory told him the truth. "Paris suggested he might be but I didn't think he would. I thought this wouldn't be his kind of party so the idea of running into him didn't really cross my mind until Paris."

"So when you saw Finn…" he added.

"I was surprised," she admitted.

"Right," he nodded. "If you knew, though…"

"I'm not sure," she confessed. "I wanted to come and I wanted to bring you to a party that wasn't held by Stars Hollow. It would have taken a lot more though, insight from you. I'm so sorry."

"Why are you sorry?" He looked puzzled.

"Because I brought you here," Rory put her hands on his shoulders then down his arms only to rest them around him. "I should have considered Logan could be here and I'm sorry I didn't."

"What's done is done," he told her. "The only thing we can do now is have a great rest of the night, start 2005 the right way."

"I agree," she smiled as she snuggled herself into his arms.

…..

The rest of the night moved smoothly. Jess pushed away his earlier thoughts. He knew there was nothing to worry about and as long as he didn't screw it up, she would stay. It left him a content feeling to know she was in this just as much as he was.

Rory had excused herself to answer her phone at one point. He could hear her animatedly talking to her mother, though not sure of the exact words. Jess smiled to himself. Her energy kind of amazed him. He turned to one side and that was when he noticed he wasn't the only one watching Rory.

The guy had blonde hair and was dressed up much too nicely for just a college party. There was a look of fascination on his face as he watched her. It wasn't the same Jess' face held. This was different. He was in the middle of an internal debate if he should go over there or not when he heard someone beside him.

"My mom wants every detail of tonight apparently," Rory laughed as she reached him. "It's crazy. She had me explaining the entire decorations."

"Yeah?" He turned to her, giving his full focus on his girlfriend. "Did you tell her there was blood splattered on the walls, a bonfire, sacrifices to be made?"

"In some words," she smiled and put her arms around him.

"As long as some words don't include what a dumbass I am," he smirked.

"Was," she corrected. "And no. I love my mom but I don't need her over thinking little things."

Jess nodded but was quiet. His eyes caught that same blonde guy again, this time looked between both of them. "Rory? Do you know that guy?"

"What guy?" He nodded his head in the direction of the blonde and the answer to his question was obvious as soon as Rory looked. "Yeah."

"Who is it?" He asked when she didn't say more. "Is it really that bad? It can't be worse than how he's been staring at you for the last five minutes at least. He's actually still staring now. Come on, Ror."

"It's Logan," she sighed. "The guy standing over there staring at us is Logan."

"Oh," he whispered.

"Yeah," she agreed. "Oh."

"So that's why you didn't want to tell me," Jess stated. "Because of before."

Rory nodded. "I didn't want you be upset."

He put his arms around her waist. "Do I look upset?"

She frowned, confused. "No?"

"Rory, when I went outside before, I thought a lot," he explained. "Mostly, I did some mental self ass-kicking but I thought, too."

"Yeah?" She smiled slightly.

"You have a past," he went on. "Partly my fault because I was stupid but you do. I can't get upset about that. I have a past, too. We can either be dredge up who-slept-with-who or we can be here together in the present. I choose the present."

"Me, too," she agreed with a bigger smile then kissed him lightly.

When they pulled away, Rory risked a glance back to where Logan had stood. He was now gone and she breathed out in relief. Jess noticed and looked where she had, his own relief too.

"You really thought all that in the few minutes you were gone?" She wondered out loud.

Jess tugged her closer. "I thought it was pretty smart. You don't like it?"

"No, no," she shook her head, beaming. "I'm just a little surprised."

"I can be smart," he told her.

"I know," she replied seriously as someone caught her eye. "Hey, I see Lane. I'll be right back."

"All right," Jess said as he untangled them from each other and let Rory walk away. He watched her head towards Lane while Zach was nowhere in sight.

….

"What's going on?" Rory asked when she reached Lane. "Where's Zach?"

"He is the bathroom throwing up," Lane explained.

"Oh, no," she gasped. "What happened?"

"Let's just say the food did not agree with him or the amount of beers he had," she said. "I think we're gonna catch a cab. Go home."

"No," she protested. "It's not even midnight yet."

Lane seemed sad. "I'm not sure he's gonna last until midnight. Plus, kissing might be the furthest thing on our minds right now."

Rory frowned. "Well, okay. But take the car. We'll take a cab back."

"Really?" Lane asked.

"Really," she answered. "Go take care of Zach. We'll be fine."

"Okay," she caved and hugged her best friend. "Only if you're a hundred percent positive."

"I am," she let go of the hug. "Now go."

They said their goodbyes quickly. Lane rushed back to the bathroom Rory assumes Zach had been in. Jess watched curiously as his girlfriend walked back over to him.

"So?"

"Zach's sick," she told him when she got back. "I told her take the car back. Me and you will get a cab or something back. I'd rather her get him home."

He nodded. "That was a good idea."

"Yeah?" She wondered.

"Yeah," he agreed. "Besides, I have plans."

She beamed brighter. "Yeah?"

"I just have one question to ask," Jess said. "How attached are you to staying at this party?"

….

"I think I like this much better," Rory sighed as her boyfriend opened the door in front of her.

"Yeah?" He asked while he shut it behind him. "You mean, you didn't want to stay with all your fellow students?"

"I saw who I came to see," she turned to him. "Besides, you're my date. I'm not gonna say no to time with you, now am I?"

He smirked in return. "I hope not."

Rory let out a giggle as she wrapped her arms around Jess. His arms snaked around her waist and he was more sure than even an hour ago that getting a hotel room was a good idea. "It's almost midnight."

"You'd think with all the drama tonight, it'd be midnight tomorrow," Jess joked.

"You know I'm sorry right?" She apologized. "For Finn, being blindsided, for Logan watching…"

"Hey," he interrupted. "Don't worry about that."

Rory frowned. "You're really okay with it? Before?"

"Yes," he breathed. "I meant what I said, all right? I don't care about the past. This - this is what I care about. The present."

"Me, too," she agreed with a short kiss.

His eyes closed and opened for the kiss. "I wouldn't mind being the future, too, you know?"

"We'll see," she teased as she kissed him again.

The kiss got deeper, he tugged her body closer to his. Neither was sure where they ended and the other began. Jess' hands came up to her face as he cupped her cheeks. Rory made a noise he had heard few times before, he called it "the special noise" because it was for when she was in the mood the most of all.

"Jess?"

"Hmm?"

His mouth had pulled away from hers, his hands on her arms. Lips caressed over her cheek now leading to her neck. Rory's head tilted for him to gain better access and she almost forgot her question. "This was your plan, wasn't it? When you said you had plans -"

"I have no idea what you're talking about," he smirked against her collarbone.

"Admit it," she told him.

Jess pulled himself away to look in her eyes. "Maybe I had a plan."

"I knew it," she laughed once. "You think you're cute, don't you? Being sneaky?"

"I think you think I'm cute which works for me," he played along.

Rory shook her head. "God. And you're lucky you're cute, too."

She pulled him closer this time, holding onto his face. The kiss ignited sparks that had been on fire all night. If either of them were gonna be cheesy, they'd say the real fireworks were here.

Rory tugged off his jacket and in return he tugged off hers. Her hands traced over his arms, feeling the small muscle beneath. Their lips never left each other's until she finally backed away much to Jess' protests.

"Wait," she said as she moved to unzip her dress. When it fell to her feet, she got a smug feeling at seeing the look on her boyfriend's face. "Now come here."

"Yes, ma'am," he agreed as his lips once again crashed to hers.

…

Sometime later, when the two of them finally noticed the time, Jess nudged Rory. "Hmm?"

"Happy new year," he whispered to her.

"Happy new year," she smiled back.

Jess planted a short kiss on her lips. "I guess we got more than a midnight kiss, huh?"

"Hush," she blushed. "And yeah...We did."

"You know," he wrapped his arms around her tighter, the blankets not letting him be close enough. "They say how you start the new year is the way you'll spend the year."

"Hmm," Rory murmured contently. "I like that."

"Me, too," he kissed her hair. "I wouldn't mind spending a whole year just like this."

"Me, either," she agreed. "Jess?"

"Yeah?"

"I love you."

"I love you, too."

Rory snuggled herself into his arms, moving aside the blankets that dared come between them. Jess smiled to himself, thoughts of how happy he finally felt overcame his mind. It was definitely looking to be a good year.

A/N: So sorry I didn't get this up sooner! Being sick really takes a lot out of you lol