A/N: Look at all the excitement for this story! Wow, thanks, everyone who left those fab reviews :) Now, apparently, it's going to take me at least 3 chapters just to rewrite everything that I want to in this one episode, so, yeah, goodness only knows where we're going, but I'm sure I'll figure it out eventually :P

(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)

Chapter 2

There was a strange ringing sound, like bells maybe, or possibly music. Rory wasn't sure what it was, but it was certainly annoying and forced her to open her eyes to look around and see if she could find the source of the aggravating noise. She was surprised to find she wasn't in her room, either at Yale or at home. Instead, she was half-sitting, half-lying on a couch, and she was far from alone.

"Morning, Sleeping Beauty," said a voice. "I think it's your cell."

"What?" Rory asked, sitting up too fast and coming to rather more quickly than she would like also.

It took her a few moments to clearly recall the night before. Logan's dorm, the poker game, epic boredom, except for...

"Jess?" she checked, staring at him. "Did I...?"

"Yes, you fell asleep on me. No, I didn't mind," he assured her, "but seriously, Rory, answer your phone," he advised, gesturing to her bag that was ringing still.

Blinking hard a couple more times, Rory was glad when her brain caught up to the rest of her and she was able to co-ordinate herself enough to follow good advice. Plunging her hand into her purse, she quickly came up with her cell phone, answering the caller with a frown on her face.

"Mom? Oh, Sookie? Are you at the house?"

From the next seat over, Jess watched Rory around the edge of his book. Truth be told, he had fallen asleep for a while too, but he had also read through Howl at least three times, almost boring of one of his favourites, just so he didn't have to think too much about the fact there was a very attractive woman pressed up against his side.

Now, she was just slightly less angelic than she had been in sleep, but only because her face was contorted by what appeared to be worry and possibly panic. Something was clearly wrong, bad news coming in on the other end of the line. The second Rory was done with her call, Jess opened his mouth to ask what was happening, but was beaten to the punch as Logan declared himself out of the poker game and appeared at Rory's elbow.

"Hey, Ace. You okay?"

"I have to go. I have to get home"

She was up and moving before anyone could blink, though both Jess and Logan made fast moves to stop her.

"To your dorm?" Logan checked.

"Stars Hollow," Rory explained, hand reaching for the doorknob already. "Oh, no, I don't have my car. I took it in for its six-month service. It's at the dealer."

Of course, Logan was going to be a smart ass and tell Rory that taking her car to the dealer was a bad idea because you always get ripped off. It was true, after all, but now so wasn't the time. Jess might have cut in and said so, if he thought it'd do any good, but Rory was Logan's 'friend' first. Besides, she seemed like she could probably hold her own, even when she was panicking about something.

"Take my car," Logan insisted then, going on to explain it was a car that came with a driver and was on account and everything.

Jess resisted the urge to roll his eyes. Good old Logan sending good old Frank into the breach. No wonder girls just fell all over Huntzberger, even the ones that were smarter than his usual type.

"I'll give Frank a call, tell him to meet you out front," he told Rory firmly, even as she tried to say no. "He'll take good care of you. It's a done deal."

She hesitated even then and Jess took the opportunity to get to his feet and jump in with both of them, consequences be damned.

"I'll go with her," he told Logan, even as he reached for his jacket and pulled it on.

"You sure, man?" his friend checked, an expression that showed equal parts surprise and badly-veiled discomfort. "I'm sure Frank can handle it."

"I gotta go home sometime anyway," he said, shrugging his shoulders. "When we're done helping Rory, Frank can take me back to the house before he comes here to you, right?"

Logan continued to look less than comfortable and Jess knew very well why. It made him smirk a little, feel almost flattered that he was making his buddy jealous with such a simple thing as this. Logan had a way with women, usually the type that Jess would have little to no interest in himself, but still. Rory was different. For her, he'd go out on a limb and risk pissing off Logan just a little bit into the bargain.

"Okay then." Logan nodded eventually. "You cool with a little company, Ace?" he checked with Rory.

"Sure, thanks," she said, looking absently from one guy to the other and back, then rushing out the door without another second to spare.

"I'll compensate you later," Logan told Jess, clapping him on the shoulder as he moved past him.

He nodded in acknowledgement that he heard, before giving chase after Rory, not bothering to tell anyone that this was one errand he was absolutely willing to run for free.

Rory almost forgot she had company in the limo until they were at least halfway to Stars Hollow. It was weird enough being in a chauffeured car on somebody else's dime, but her mind was just racing with thoughts of her mom, what kind of state Lorelai was going to be in when she finally got home. After all, it had to be pretty bad if she was bailing on inn stuff and Sookie was freaked out enough to call the way that she had.

It was only when she heard Jess ask her if he was allowed to know what the emergency was that she realised she hadn't actually told him. That seemed a little unfair when he had come along to offer assistance.

"Um, it's my mom," she explained, shaking herself out of too-deep thought. "She, uh... well, her boyfriend broke up with her, which I know probably doesn't sound like an emergency exactly, but they were... It's been a long time coming with those two, a really long time. They were pretty much the best of friends before, and when they finally got together a few months ago, they were so happy. Last week, there was an incident, at my grandparents wedding..."

"Your grandparents' wedding?" Jess echoed, looking appropriately confused.

"It was a do-over, a vow renewal. They just got back together after a separation," she explained. "Anyway, my dad showed up there and he tried to get in-between my mom and Luke, and it just all went so wrong and now Luke can't get over it and he's broken up with her and... God, Mom must be heart-broken."

She looked like she was about to burst into tears. Jess so wished he never asked what was wrong, but at the same time, he felt like he ought to know what he was walking into.

Rory was right in what she said, a break-up didn't exactly sound like an emergency, but people reacted to different things in different ways. Besides, from what he gleaned from his long conversation with Rory last night, she and her mother were super close, best friends as well as mother and daughter. Of course, she was worried about her. She had every right to be.

"Ice-cream, right?" he said after a while.

Rory looked at him with a confused expression.

"When women go through break-ups, don't they eat ice-cream?" he tried again. "I'm guessing the cliche is based in fact. Not that my mother was big on binging in frozen dairy when her relationships failed, but a lot of girls do, right?"

"I guess." Rory nodded. "Somehow, I don't think ice-cream alone is going to fix anything today," she said with a heavy sigh, glancing out the window, presumably to see how far they still had to travel before she looked over at Jess again. "Thank you, for offering to come along. You didn't have to, I mean, you hardly know me, but I do appreciate it."

"First of all, you're welcome, and second, I know enough about you to know that you're a decent person, which I'll admit is a rarity amongst the women Logan associates with most of the time, but that just makes you all the more interesting," he admitted, watching her closely as she stammered a little and blushed a pretty pink.

"He associates with a lot of women, right?" she asked, glancing away, tucking her hair behind her ear in what seemed like a nervous or uncomfortable gesture of some kind.

"Define a lot?" Jess shrugged. "He's never really been lacking in female company when he wants it. At least, not from what I've seen," he considered. "To be fair to Logan, I haven't seen him as much in the last few years."

"You said you guys go way back." Rory nodded.

Jess could practically see the hundred-and-one questions piling up behind her eyes and yet she wasn't asking a single one. He wasn't exactly sure why that was, but he really wanted to know. If she wasn't going to be curious, he certainly was.

"Don't tell me you're going to be one of those rare breed journalists," he said, smirking hard. "You know, the kind with morals and ethics?"

Rory shook her head, seemingly not understanding what he was getting at. From what he knew of her so far, Jess believed that was true, something he probably never would've considered with anybody else.

"You could be pumping me for information right now," he pointed out, leaning across to her seat a little more, as if what he said needed to be spoken quietly where no-one else would hear. "About me, about Logan, and yet, not one question?" he said, shaking his head. "What would Christianne Amanpour do?"

She didn't seem to have an answer to that one, but the whole bit did make her laugh, which was all Jess had really been trying for. She was upset, really worried about her mom and everything, and honestly, he just really wanted to get a real, genuine smile back on her face. When it happened, it was absolutely worth the minor effort, just as he knew it would be.

"Hey, if you want me to pump you for information-" she began, only to be cut off by Frank from the driver's seat.

"I'm sorry to interrupt, Miss, but we're heading into the centre of Stars Hollow. I'm going to need further directions to your home."

"Oh, right, of course," said Rory, turning to give him her address and directions to the same.

Jess sighed and sat back in his seat. He was kind of intrigued to see the place Rory called home, both the town and the house. Even the mother, maybe, if she was fit to have guests come by.

Rory Gilmore really was like no other woman he ever met, and certainly not like any other woman he had known Logan to give the time of day to. Besides, it wasn't as if he was stepping on any toes by showing an interest in Rory. None of Logan's conquests (or soon-to-be conquests) were ever serious, which Jess usually understood, but Rory was different.

He actually wished he knew how she and Logan ever got close. Maybe he would ask her sometime, when she wasn't so stressed out and anxious. All he knew so far was that they met via the Yale Daily News and her article on the Life and Death Brigade, but there had to be more to it than that. With Logan, there always was.

"Thank you, again, for coming with me," said Rory, alerting Jess to the fact he had her attention back. "I actually think... Well, this is going to sound bad, but I think I'm probably better off with you here than with Logan."

"Huh."

Jess had to give that one some thought. He was actually strangely relieved when Rory went on to explain without him having ask or venture any guesses as to what exactly she meant.

"It's not that he isn't great, he is. I mean, you know, you two are friends or whatever, and he's very... He's a good guy," she said eventually. "I like him a lot, and it was so generous of him to loan me this car and a driver, but I just feel like, in this situation, with my mom and everything... Well, she's not exactly a huge fan of me and Logan seeing each other, that's basically it."

There were a whole bunch of reasons why a mother might not want their daughter seeing a guy like Logan Huntzberger. Honestly, there were a whole different set of reasons why that same mother might object to that same daughter seeing Jess Mariano, but that wasn't something that needed consideration right now. In fact, Jess would rather not examine either list too closely right now.

"I think we're here," he said instead, glancing out through the window. "That your house?"

"Oh, yes, it is," Rory agreed, diving for the door. "I'll go see how Mom's doing. Um, you don't mind waiting here, right?" she checked, turning back to glance at Jess. "I just don't know what kind of state she's going to be in."

"Just go, Rory," he urged her without pause. "Frank and me, we'll be right here waiting if you need us, okay?"

Another smile that could light up a room, or a limo, as it turned out, and then she was gone. Jess let out a breath he hardly knew he had been holding, his hand going to his chest as his heart seemed to beat double-time.

"Seems like a real nice girl," said Frank from the driver's seat.

"Yeah, she does," Jess agreed, but that was all he was saying for now.

It just seemed safer that way.

To Be Continued...