A/N: Wow, look at all those reviews! You reader peops are so kind and supportive - it really means a lot to me, so thank you very much :) Where 'Forget Me Not' has become the angsty fic, I mostly want this story to be the happy fic. Not that it can be all plain sailing, of course, because it's Rory & Jess, but yeah, mostly, it'll be upbeat, I think :)
(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)
Chapter 2
It was dark out long before they left New Haven but Rory couldn't even think about being tired. As Jess' car flew down the highway, she was oblivious to time or place, she only knew the strange mix of feelings inside her, of freedom and anticipation and overwhelming happiness. She wasn't sure she had ever truly appreciated the full meaning of 'so wrong, it's right' before, but that was what she thought this adventure with Jess just might be.
Maybe this wasn't the smartest thing to do, running off into the night with a guy that had already broken her heart once, but she so wanted to do it. Rory wanted this second chance with Jess so much that it hurt. She just knew that even if they didn't work out, she couldn't regret at least trying, letting them have this opportunity, away from all the outside factors that had encroached on their relationship before.
"You doing okay?" Jess asked, glancing across at her.
"Sure, I'm good," she promised, smiling at him. "I was just... thinking."
"That's what bothers me," he muttered, eyes firmly back on the road.
Rory frowned a little and shifted more sideways in her seat to properly look at him.
"Okay, that requires an explanation," she said definitely. "Of all the guys I have met in my life, you are not one of those that ever disliked a woman for using her brain."
Jess sighed heavily. "It's what you're probably thinking that makes me nervous," he told her. "The fact you ever agreed to come with me like this is kind of amazing. I guess I'm just waiting for you to realise that you made a big mistake and... well, if you wanna go back-"
"I don't," Rory told him firmly. "Jess, if I didn't want to do this, I would've said no. I know it's been a while and a lot can happen in a year, but I didn't suddenly become this idiot that just agrees to anything a guy suggests. You know that's not me."
Jess nodded because he absolutely did know that. Though Rory was one of those people who typically wanted to do anything at all to make other people happy, she wasn't dumb, she wouldn't compromise on what she thought was right for her just to please someone else. It wasn't just with him either. He knew she was capable of standing up to her grandparents, her friends, even her mom when she had to. If Rory didn't want to be in his car right now, Jess knew she wouldn't be there.
"I guess I'm a little bowled over that... that I got this lucky," he admitted then. "I mean, you can take as much responsibility as you want for the downfall of us, but we both know I screwed up a lot more than you ever did."
"Let's not keep score, Jess." Rory sighed. "It doesn't help. Trust me, take it from a person who has gone over and over and over every part of our time together. We can make it your fault or my fault, we can shift some of the blame onto Dean or my mom or Luke or whoever you want, but what good does it do any of us? We broke up, it happened. Maybe it's time we just put all of that to one side and started over. I mean, isn't that the whole point of this trip anyway?"
She watched him as he drove on a little further, seeming to contemplate all she had said very seriously. He was a real thinker, Rory knew, and a brooder given half the chance, but he was smart enough to know when he was beat too. She was right in what she said, Rory just knew she was, and would like to think that Jess was on the same page with her. This was never going to work if he wasn't.
"You make me wish I wasn't driving this car right now," he said suddenly.
Rory frowned, unsure exactly what he meant by that. He regretted bringing her along on this trip already? She couldn't think why, then she saw the look in his eyes as he glanced her way and all those worries evaporated, a blush rising in her cheeks instead.
"Oh. Right," she said, shifting awkwardly back to completely forwards in her seat. "Well, we should be looking for somewhere to sleep tonight anyway, right?" she said, replaying those words in her head a moment later and reconsidering them. "Not that I... Um, I'm not sure how you saw this going exactly, especially after what happened back at Yale, but I didn't exactly-"
"Rory," Jess cut in fast. "Whatever place we find, we'll get two rooms," he assured her. "Or at least two beds, it depends on the prices and availability, but I wasn't... I never expected that."
Rory sighed with something like relief, though there was a strange pang of disappointment too. She certainly was not ready to be jumping into bed with Jess right now, though there was a part of her that wanted to, that almost thought she wouldn't mind at all. When he kissed her, well, it had been too long, both in general, and specifically with Jess. They had been so close to that point when he left last year. He probably didn't realise quite how close, because she never really told him. Thinking about it now made Rory heat up in more places than her cheeks and she forced herself to think about anything else.
"Is the radio broken?" she asked, shaking her head to clear out a fog she wished she hadn't stumbled into.
"It works," Jess assured her. "Put it on, if you want."
Rory leaned down to do just that, moving the dial around until she found something she liked. She knew enough of Jess' taste in music to think he wouldn't object to a little Bowie, that soon gave way to Foreigner, then Billy Idol, as they headed onto wherever they were going to end up tonight.
Unfortunately, when the next song started, and Roy Orbison warbled about how he 'Drove All Night', it all hit a little too close to home. Rory's mind went down that dangerous path again at the sound of lyrics that talked of driving all night to reach home and make love to someone. It must've been affecting Jess the same way as they both reached for the radio at the same time, hands touching and making them both pull back sharply, as if burned.
Jess put his hand back on the wheel, cleared his throat, and concentrated on the road. He meant what he said to Rory about not expecting too much tonight. Honestly, he was amazed that when he kissed her, she actually responded with something other than a slap to his face.
When he asked her to come away with him and she agreed, he had been thrilled, if not shocked, but he certainly hadn't gotten his hopes up so far as to think sex was on the cards. Of course, she had to bring it up, and then damn Orbison had to start crooning about it on the radio. Jess never had liked that guy anyway.
Thankfully, the song soon ended and the car echoed to the strains of Boston's 'More Than A Feeling' which was marginally better. Jess saw the sign for a motel up ahead and was glad to get to it. Not that he saw a night in an adjoining room from Rory, or even in the same one, would be any easier to deal with. He really hadn't thought this through.
"I know this is kind of a dive place," he said, pulling the car into the parking lot, "but if you want-"
"You know, I'm starting to think you don't want me here," Rory told him sharply, getting Jess' full attention in an instant. "Jess, you asked me to come with you, you were really very insistent about it, so I say yes, and ever since we left New Haven you just seem to be coming up with reasons why I should go home. Did you change your mind that fast?"
"Are you serious?" he asked, eyes widening as he stared at her.
"Right now? Yes, I'm serious," said Rory definitely.
Jess just stared at her for a second, then unclipped his seatbelt and shifted across the space between them, pulling her close and kissing her soundly. Before she even managed to prise her eyes open again, he spoke softly to her.
"I have never changed my mind about you, Rory," he promised her. "I just... I guess I'm realising how un-Rory this trip is probably going to be. I don't exactly have a lot of cash right now and..."
"And?" she prompted when he stopped talking. "Jess, did you think I was expecting five-star hotels and concierge service?" she asked him, mildly amused by the very idea. "We're two nineteen-year olds running away together in a car that was probably built before either of us was born," she reminded him. "I wasn't exactly expecting The Ritz Carlton."
Jess smirked at that, it was tough not to. "I still think you're crazy for agreeing to do this. Everybody says how smart Rory Gilmore is, but the truth is, you're cracked," he told her fondly.
"Yeah, well, choosing the smart option every time is so over-rated," she said, leaning over the gearshift to kiss his lips. "I want to do this, Jess. I want to go somewhere and do something and I want to do all that with you. Maybe it is crazy, maybe we're both having some kind of joint breakdown right now, but honestly? I don't care. Do you?"
When she was looking at him like that, the perfect combination of serious and crazy as she smiled in the half-light of the motel's neon sign and the moon beyond, Jess knew more than ever that Rory was all he ever really wanted.
"No, I don't care," he confirmed, reaching out to tuck her hair behind her ear. "Come on, we should probably get a couple of rooms before all the crack heads and prostitutes take them."
"Meh, they never stay all night anyway," said Rory easily as they both moved to get out of the car.
Jess went around to the trunk and peered into it. Between most of his worldly possessions, none of which he had been willing to leave in the crappy New York apartment he used to call home, and Rory's stuff too, there was a lot. He wasn't entirely certain that any of it should be left in the car overnight, not in a place like this.
"It all has to come in with us, right?" said Rory as she appeared beside him.
"I don't know." Jess sighed. "Pretty sure even the people in this place aren't desperate enough to try to steal this car."
"You said it, not me." Rory chuckled. "When we know what rooms we have, you can move it to a space close to the window. One of us is going to wake up if anything happens, right?"
"Sounds like a plan," Jess agreed, pulling out just his overnight bag as Rory did the same, then slamming the trunk closed. "I'm starting to wonder if you did this before."
"I'm no stranger to dive motels and questionable neighbours," Rory reminded him. "Backpacking trip across Europe the summer after high school, remember?" she said pointedly, wincing when she saw the look on Jess' face.
"Yeah, I heard something about that," he said, leading the way into the motel.
"Jess, I wasn't..." she called after him, but he moved too fast.
By the time she caught up to him, he was at the desk, asking for two rooms, preferably next to each other. Rory didn't hear exactly what the response was but the way Jess coughed and asked how much for a double room instead proved the price on two rooms was prohibitive. The double seemed much more acceptable and the strange looking man at the desk was soon handing Jess a key in exchange for the right number of bills.
"One room, two beds," Jess said as he turned to face her. "You said that was cool, right?"
"Sure, it's cool," Rory agreed, following him again as they headed for the room in question. "But are we cool?" she asked his back as they went.
"Why wouldn't we be?" he asked, without glancing back, locating their room quickly and unlocking the door, before ushering Rory inside.
She went in, trying not to wrinkle her nose at the state of the place, and Jess followed her inside, dumping his bag on the far bed. He was crossing back to the door within a second and Rory had to put herself between him and it, her hand on his chest, to stop him escaping again.
"What?" he asked. "I need to move the car closer, like we said."
"First, tell me the truth, Jess. Are we okay?" she pressed him. "You know when I mentioned that summer, I wasn't..."
"I know," Jess promised her, meeting her eyes. "I know we agreed we were both to blame for the break up and everything, but leaving the way I did... God, I couldn't have been a bigger coward, could I?"
"Jess, please," Rory urged him. "It wasn't all your fault, and even if it had been, you said you're sorry and I believe you. If we're going to start over, if this is going to work on any level, you can't just... we can't let all this tension happen every time one us mentions last year. So, from now on, we're cool with it, okay? Both of us. No weird vibes."
"Vibes?" Jess echoed, smirking a little. "That's cool with me, man," he teased her.
"Ah, but is it 'Frank at the Sands' cool?" she teased right back.
Jess tried his best not to smile but failed, turning his face away even though it was clear Rory already saw him break.
"I need to move the car," he reminded her then and she duly stepped aside, her hand slipping away from his chest.
He took one step forward to go around her then changed his mind, moving back and pulling her closer, kissing her softly on the lips.
His eyes met hers and the most delicious shiver ran through Rory, then suddenly he was gone. Letting out a breath she hardly knew she was holding, Rory turned to survey the room again. Two beds, that was fine, but it was still the same room, the one where both she and Jess would be sleeping tonight.
"Well, this is going to be interesting."
To Be Continued...