A/N: Thanks for the reviews, folks. Yes, I know, drama, drama, drama! Don't worry though, it'll all be good. You know me, can't have Rory & Jess at odds for long! :)

(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)

Chapter 17

"Hey, babe. How's life on the road?" asked Lorelai with a smile that Rory could just hear.

"It's been better," she admitted, immediately wishing she hadn't made this call but knowing there was no going back now.

Her mom was going to judge. She was going to take Rory's side and be as anti-Jess as she had ever been, undoing all the progress that seemed to have been made so far this summer. Rory didn't want that, she really didn't, but after her fight with Jess and him walking out, she really needed someone to talk to. As much as Lane might have tried to help, she actually had very little experience of dating. Rory's best bet was her mom and she knew it, it was just unfortunate that this was bound to screw things up even worse in other ways.

"Rory, what happened?" Lorelai checked, worry creeping into her voice all too quickly. "Honey, please, tell Mommy what's wrong before she has a heart attack."

"It's nothing you need to panic over, I promise," Rory said fast. "God, I'm sorry, I didn't mean for you to think anything terrible happened. No car wrecks, no muggings, nothing horrific in that way, I swear."

"Okay," said her mother with a large and very audible sigh. "Well, that's good, but if it's not horrific in that way it must be horrific in another," she noted. "Rory, sweetie, did you and Jess have some kind of fight?"

Maybe she was just super-perceptive, and where Rory herself was concerned, it could easily by true, but Rory also knew that Lorelai had just gone for the most obvious thing here. This close to the end of the summer, even she ought to have known there was going to be a fight sooner or later. Certainly, Lorelai would have seen it coming.

"He asked me to go with him to his father's wedding," she said sadly.

"Okay... and that's bad because... you're suddenly allergic to white taffeta and layer cake?"

Rory might've laughed at her mom's joke if she wasn't so upset over Jess. She was clearly trying to lighten the mood in some small way and was probably also deeply confused as to why a wedding invitation should cause a fight. Out of context, Rory supposed it did sound pretty strange.

"I would love to go to the wedding, and I would love to meet Jimmy and Sasha and Lily. That's Jess' dad and his girlfriend and her daughter," she quickly explained, "but the wedding is in two days. Two days, Mom! Even if we did accept Sasha's offer of free flights from here to LA, even if she also paid for us to get back here after, we still have to drive from San Antonio to New Haven and we would have barely a week to do it. If anything went wrong, anything at all, if we were delayed even a day or something, I'd be late back. I cannot screw up with Yale, Mom, you know I can't."

Only when Rory was done speaking did she realise quite how much she had said without really taking a breath. Even a Gilmore girl could find herself oxygen-deprived occasionally when she rambled a rant too far!

"Okay," said Lorelai eventually, clearly needing a second to process. "So, the wedding is Saturday and classes start up again a week from Monday, right?"

"Right." Rory nodded into her agreement, even though she couldn't be seen. "And that means that by the time we have been to LA and got back here and started the drive back, we would have less than a week to make it home, leaving no time for anything to go wrong. Things do go wrong on car journeys!"

"Granted, yes, they do," Lorelai was quick to say, presumably because she could hear Rory starting to spiral, "and believe me, I think it's incredibly adult and sensible of you to be thinking about that but, Rory, honey, is that really the only problem here?"

"I don't understand."

"Oh, babe, I think that you do," Lorelai insisted. "How much was this fight about you guys not leaving a good buffer of time for you to get home for school to start again, and how much was you and Jess knowing that the end of the road might just be... well, the end of the road?"

Though she opened her mouth to give a response to that question, Rory found the words just wouldn't come. She meant to tell her mom she was wrong, but that would be a lie. She wanted to say that things would be fine with her and Jess, even when their road trip was over, but she didn't entirely believe that. They really hadn't talked about it, both seemingly playing avoidance tactics until time began to run out on them and there was no choice but to face reality. Of course, when that moment finally came, so did the fight.

"Rory?" Lorelai prompted for a response. "You okay?"

"I am," she said eventually. "I guess I'm just thinking how right you are. Honestly, Mom, I have no idea what happens when this trip is over. We never talked about it. I think I was afraid to, and maybe Jess was too, but we have to talk. We have to make a decision about where we go from here."

"I think you're right," her mother agreed, "but babe, let me simple one thing up for you, okay? Just for a second, forget timings and complications and Yale. Would you like to go with Jess to California for this wedding?"

"Well, yes, I would," Rory admitted without pause.

"Okay then. So, how about, if the happy couple are paying for you to get to LA, I pay for you to come home?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, I will buy you a plane ticket. You, Rory Gilmore, will ride in style, all the way from LAX to Hartford, with plenty of time to spare before Yale starts up again. I'd say I'd buy a ticket for Jess too, but I'm guessing abandoning his car deep in the heart of Texas wouldn't really appeal?"

"Uh, probably not," Rory admitted. "But Mom, you can't just buy me a plane ticket."

"Hey, I am your mother and I can do whatever I darn well please!" Lorelai insisted. "Rory, come on. You want to go to the wedding, you wanna see California and meet Jess' folks, and I'll bet he would love to have you with him for something like that, wouldn't he?"

"Maybe." Rory sighed. "I mean, yes, I guess so. I don't think he would've asked me to go if he didn't want me to."

"Exactly," Lorelai agreed. "So, you guys go, do the wedding thing, hang out on the beach or whatever, and then, I'll get you a flight home, yes?"

It did make sense, Rory knew that much, and her mom was being so understanding and so generous, it was tough to say no. The more she thought about it, the more she realised she would actually be a fool if she refused, when in fact it made all the sense in the world to accept.

"Okay," she said eventually. "If you're absolutely sure you can afford to do this?"

"I am absolutely sure," her mom promised.

"Then, yes, thank you, Mom. That would help so much," she told her with a smile that Lorelai could most likely hear, it was so big.

Of course, even with that figured out, Rory knew everything was not entirely fixed. She still had to talk to Jess and hope that he agreed to this new plan. After all, it would deny them the chance of the long drive back from Texas to Connecticut, but they could have extra time together in California if they wanted to, so there was that.

Before any of this could be considered, Jess had to come back to the hotel, and Rory couldn't even call him because he had left his cell behind. When her talk with Lorelai was over, she put her own phone on the nightstand and laid down on the bed, staring at the ceiling, alone.

"And now, we wait," she said to herself, hoping Jess wouldn't be gone too long.

Jess wasn't exactly proud of himself for the way he reacted when Rory got mad about the whole California trip. As he walked through the streets alone, he replayed the fight over and over, coming to realise that he was equally as much to blame for all this as Rory ever was.

He made her a promise when they left New Haven, that if she wanted to be back in time for school to start again in September, he would get her there. Jess still fully intended to keep that promise and he would like to think Rory had enough faith in him to believe it. Of course, he wasn't taking into account her insane need to over-organise.

Maybe it wasn't insane exactly, he considered, heading back to the hotel. After all, if the car broke down or one of them got sick or anything at all went wrong between here and home, they might not make it on time. She was right when she said there was no room for error and Jess knew it, he just didn't want it to be true.

When he had gotten so greedy, Jess wasn't sure. He figured maybe somewhere along the line on this wacky cross-country road trip, he had started getting used to everything going his way. He had Rory and the open road and a whole summer that revolved around famous literary spots, beautiful views, and making love with the woman he loved. It didn't get much better and the idea that it was about to be over made him feel physically nauseous. Jess wasn't handling it well, he wasn't handling anything well today, including his last conversation with Rory that had turned into such a stupid fight. Now, somehow, he had to try to fix it.

"Yeah, because you're so good at that," he muttered to himself, rolling his eyes as he stepped into the elevator and travelled up.

Stepping out on the correct floor, he walked up to the door of their room and hesitated a moment. Before he had a chance to reconsider what he was about to do, that door opened, and there was Rory.

"You're back," she gasped. "Thank God!"

The next moment, she had her arms tight around him and Jess hugged her back on instinct. When she started pulling him into the room, he went with her, mostly from momentum, only getting his bearings when they were finally alone with the door closed and she was staring at him with tears in her eyes.

"I'm so sorry, Jess," she said, swallowing hard. "I really didn't mean-"

"It wasn't all your fault," he told her fast. "Seriously, Ror, it's on me too. I know you have plans and I know you need to get back for Yale. I think I should know you well enough by now to realise you wouldn't want to just fly off to LA-"

"But I do!" she told him, seemingly desperate to make him understand. "Jess, I never said I didn't want to go to the wedding or meet your family. I wouldn't say that because I do want to go with you, it was just the timing, that's all, but it's figured out now."

"It is?" Jess checked, frowning in confusion. "What? You called Yale and asked them to move up their Fall semester so you can make it back on time, guaranteed?"

Rory rolled her eyes at that. "No, Mr Sarcasmo, but my mom called and we got to talking about things and, well, she said that if I want to go to the wedding with you and hang out in LA for a few days, it'd be okay, because she's happy to pay for a plane ticket to get me home."

Jess took a moment to let that sink in. "Huh," he said eventually.

"And I know it's not ideal in some ways," Rory quickly told him. "I know it would've been better if we could have the trip back in the car together, but look on the brightside, we get more time with your dad and his family, or if you don't want to, we don't have to stay longer, I'm just saying we have a choice now, and anyway, it's not-"

Before she could ramble any further, Jess slipped his hand behind her head, pulling her in a little closer and covering her lips with his own. Rory fell into the kiss with him for a while and then, disappointingly, pulled away.

"I shouldn't let you get away with that all the time," she said, trying to be stern but failing miserably as a smile broke through.

Jess smirked back at her. "You're just sore that I proved there was a better way of depriving your brain of oxygen than talking too fast."

Rory laughed, clearly unable to deny it, as she put her arms around him and hugged him one more time.

"So, we're okay, right?" she checked. "I mean, we'll go to the wedding, I'll fly home after, you'll drive the car back, and it'll be cool... right?

As Jess looked at her then, he just wanted to say yes, that the plan was solid and everything would in fact be cool, but something stopped him. Could it really be that simple? If he agreed to this, was he saying he would build a life with Rory in Connecticut? Could he even stand to be back in that place, cemented into the ground for at least as long as she was in school?

"Jess?" she checked. "We are okay, right?" Rory asked again.

She looked so desperate for everything to be good between them and the last thing Jess wanted tonight was another fight. Everything he loved about this trip was still in play. They were still going to see the sights and have fun and be together for a few more days, so why waste it in anger and tears?

"We're okay," he promised her, pushing her hair back from her face. "More than okay," he said, leaning in to kiss her lips.

When he walked her back towards the bed, she didn't protest at all, in fact, her hands were pushing his jacket from his shoulders, then pulling him by his shirt to keep him with her as they sat down on the bed together.

Passion would overtake them, their fight long forgotten, future worries just a blur in the distance that they both chose to ignore for a little while longer. Maybe that was stupid. For tonight, at least, Jess couldn't find it in himself to care.

To Be Continued...