A/N: Thanks for those reviews, folks. You know I always appreciate the feedback, so please keep it coming! :) Now, who's ready for Jess & Rory's first official date? :)

(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)

Chapter 22

Jess hadn't really planned a date before. He had dated, gone out to see a movie or something, or just stayed in with a girl who was willing to do that, but he had never put any serious effort into arranging something special.

He supposed it was only natural, now he was dating Rory, someone who genuinely deserved special, someone who wasn't just a casual date but his actual girlfriend. The idea still messed with his head, that he had a girlfriend and everything, but so far, Jess couldn't see he had anything to complain about. It was all going strangely well. Maybe that was how he should've known that something was about to go wrong.

"Oh, you have got to be kidding me," he muttered when he realised who he was about to run into, half-way across town square.

There was just no way to evade and suddenly, there Jess was, face to face with his girlfriend's ex.

"Well, look who it is. The great Jess Mariano," said Dean too loudly.

Jess moved to step around him, but Forester got right in his path again.

"Do we have a problem here?" he asked crossly. "Because as far as I'm concerned, we don't."

"You would say that, wouldn't you? Now that you took my girlfriend from me."

"Hey, I didn't take anybody," Jess snapped, meeting Dean's angry gaze. "Rory is a person, not a chocolate bar. She made her own decision, which was to dump your ass and be with me. Don't try and make it my fault that you weren't good enough for her."

It was the wrong thing to say, Jess was well-aware. Poking the bear was never a smart choice, but sometimes, with guys like Forester, it was hard not to want to give it a try. Besides, he started this whole thing, getting in Jess' face, blaming him for something that he actually had very little control over. Hell, if he had that kind of power, Rory would've been with him a whole lot sooner!

"It's not gonna work, you know?" said Dean then, straight from angry to some weird Joker-esque smile. "She's going to see right through the act, Jess. She'll see the real you, the punk that even a mother didn't love enough to keep home, and then she'll dump you too."

Jess' hands balled into fists the minute his mother was mentioned, even if it wasn't a diss on Liz as much as himself. This idiot was going too far, and if it wasn't for the fact that he heard his name called in a familiar voice at that exact moment, he absolutely would've floored Dean for what he just said.

"Hey, what's going on?" asked Lane as she literally ran over to the scene. "Dean? Jess?" she tried, looking between them.

Jess never let his gaze waver for a second, waiting for Dean to break first. In the end, he did.

"Think about what I said," was Forester's parting shot as he finally moved to walk away, bumping his rival's shoulder as he went.

Jess turned around, eyes full of fury, but before he could try anything, Lane was in his way again.

"Don't, please," she urged him. "Think about Rory. If she were standing here right now, would you hit Dean?"

Closing his eyes for a second, Jess forced a breath through his lungs and tried to find some calm. Lane was absolutely right. Rory would hate anybody fighting over her. She would be mad as hell if Jess allowed himself to be goaded into giving Dean a smack in the mouth too, even if it was well-deserved.

"Good job you showed up when you did," he told Lane then, opening his eyes to look right at her. "You should've heard what he was saying."

"I think I'm glad I didn't, or maybe I'd be tempted to punch him too," she said with a sigh, watching Dean's back for a few moments as he continued to stride away, then out of sight around the corner. "He's just not the same guy lately. He was getting clingy and weird before you ever arrived, but he only got worse when he realised he had competition. Since Rory dumped him, he's barely the same person. He's so angry all the time."

"Some guys don't take rejection well." Jess shrugged, shoving his hands into his pockets.

"Neither do some girls," Lane noted, checking back behind her as if she expected to be followed. "I managed to give Mama the slip for a while, told her I was going to an extra bible study class in Hartford."

"You going over to Henry's place?" Jess guessed.

"That's the plan," said Lane, nodding her head. "I have to know if he really is just busy or if he's genuinely avoiding me. I just... I have to know."

"Well, good luck, okay?" said Jess, feeling just a little weird about it.

He wasn't all that great at the whole friend thing, especially when the friend in question was a girl. He never really had that before, but he was trying his best to adjust.

"Thanks." Lane smiled, making the effort all worth it. "And good luck to you, you know, with the whole special date thing. Rory was so excited when I talked to her about it yesterday, I thought she was going to explode into a shower of glitter or something."

Jess made a face at the imagery.

"Sorry, we back-to-backed Labyrinth and The Slipper and the Rose the other day," she said, shaking her head.

"Well, that is a lot of glitter," Jess considered, just as the bus pulled up to the stop a few feet away.

"Okay, here goes" said Lane, taking a deep breath and waving goodbye as she went to get into the bus.

Jess raised one hand to wave back and then put it back in his pocket, continuing walking to Rory's place. After all, they had that whole big date thing to be getting on with. He just had to hope she liked what he had planned as much as he thought she would.

Luke had just finished dealing with the dinner rush when the phone started ringing on the wall. Reaching behind himself without really looking, he grabbed up the receiver and pushed it to his ear, still trying to wipe the counter down with his other hand.

"Hello, Luke's Diner."

"Hey, Luke. It's Lorelai. Um, so, I was just wondering, if you could spare me some time? I could really use your help over here."

Luke frowned at that. "Is something wrong?" he checked, putting his full attention on his girlfriend's call now. "You sound... weird," he admitted.

"Oh, no, nothing's wrong, exactly," Lorelai told him, still sounding just as strange as she had before, though he couldn't quite put his finger on what was wrong, especially since she just told him nothing actually was. "I was just hoping you could come over, maybe? I have something I need you to help me out with."

"Something... what, like repairs? You need me to bring Bert?" he checked, already looking around for where he might've left his toolbox - he was sure he had it downstairs for something and never took it back up.

"No, no, we won't need Bert. Just bring yourself, okay? Soonish?"

"Okay." Luke nodded, even though Lorelai obviously couldn't see that.

A moment later, the call was over and he was yelling through to the kitchen to tell Caesar he was going out for a while. Since things were highly unlikely to pick up between now and closing, he wasn't worried. He had a couple of servers working tonight, since Jess was out with Rory, and Caeser never failed him in the kitchen. Everything would be fine and Luke knew he had bigger priorities.

Lorelai really did sound so strange on the phone. He was thinking about it as he drove a little too quickly over to her place and pulled the truck up onto the driveway. She wasn't upset, as far as he could tell, not crying, not even angry, just... strange. Luke had never heard that oddly breathy, nervous quality in her voice before. It was almost as if...

"Oh," he said to himself, a thought occurring to him, moments after he rang the doorbell.

Lorelai very suddenly opened the door, confirming his thoughts exactly, in a dress that showed off everything she had to best effect.

"Hi," she said, practically posing in the doorway. "So, uh, Rory is out, with Jess, leaving me all home alone, and you without any responsibilities either," she noted. "So, I was just thinking, if you had the time, maybe you could come inside and help me with this 'thing', you know, in my bedroom."

Luke was having trouble forming the words to answer her, though he knew exactly what they ought to be. It wasn't as if they hadn't talked about this before. Not in-depth, but it had certainly been very much implied that they were both in a place where they were ready to get that far in their relationship. It was just a logistical nightmare, with the both of them having a teenager around their respective homes all of the time. Except for right now, obviously.

"Luke?" Lorelai prompted, suddenly looking a little less come-hither and a little more embarrassed. "Is this not...? I mean, I never really did this before. I mean, not this, obviously, I have done it, I just never-"

"Lorelai," he cut in, stepping in through the door and practically pinning her to the wall. "You said something about a bedroom thing?" he checked, smiling slightly as he pulled her to him.

Pushing the door closed, she flung her arms up around his neck and kissed him.

"Right this way," she said then, leading the way to the stairs.

Luke went with her, more than willingly.

"This is just... I still can't believe you did all this," said Rory, giggling as if she were drunk, in spite of the fact she and Jess had been drinking nothing but soda. "I mean this in the nicest way, but when you said you were planning a date, I wasn't expecting much."

"Wow, thanks for that." Jess deadpanned, sitting down on the edge of the bridge and waiting for her to join him, which she did.

"Hey, you know what I mean," she insisted, scooching close into his side and smiling when his arm went automatically around her shoulders. "You're not exactly Mr. Romantic Gesture guy, and I'm okay with that, but this was so special, Jess."

He smirked a little, feeling more proud of himself than he was willing to admit. When it came to arranging this date, he started with the normal things. A movie, dinner in a fancy place, all the traditional ideas. It didn't take long to realise that, not only would he not enjoy those kinds of things all that much, probably neither would Rory.

Sure, she did the normal stuff with her ex, from what he could tell, but there was nothing overly traditional about Rory in general, not her upbringing, not the way she talked or behaved or anything. Besides, their relationship hadn't exactly come about in a straight-up, normal way either, so why plan a normal, boring kind of a date?

The bridge seemed like such an obvious choice when Jess gave it some thought. First place he tried to kiss Rory, which had resulted in her pushing him right in the lake. Plus, it was the same spot where they had finally gotten together, so it had significance, on at least two levels.

Of course, it needed some help to look like it was as special as it ought to be. Jess wasn't exactly a flowers and ribbons guy, but for Rory, he was prepared to make the effort, and Lane had lent him a hand too. Setting up dinner was pretty simple, since he had a few kitchen skills anyway and Luke was ready to jump in and help with anything Jess couldn't handle himself. Throw in a gift in the form of a book he knew Rory really, really wanted and Jess figured he had planned the perfect date. The look on his girlfriend's face right now seemed to prove he was right.

"This has been so amazing," she said, in case he hadn't got it yet that she was impressed. "Jess, thank you for all of this."

"You're welcome," he told her easily. "Can't say I've exactly had a crappy time myself," he teased her, leaning in to kiss her lips.

Rory didn't object at all, the two of them soon lost in a very nice moment, until suddenly she shivered terribly against him. Unfortunately, Jess wasn't convinced it was purely his make-out abilities that were giving her the shakes.

"You're cold," he said, pulling away to look at her.

"Just a little," she admitted awkwardly. "The whole outdoor date was beautiful, but now the sun is gone and it is a little chilly."

"I guess it's kind of late anyway," Jess considered, sure that Lorelai would worry if Rory wasn't home soon, not to mention Luke would start getting antsy too.

As much as he liked Rory and had respect enough for her mother and his own uncle, Jess couldn't help but be a little pissed that they were all turning him to such a goody-goody since he moved here. New York Jess would not have cared if he stayed out all night and got into trouble for it in the morning. Of course, nobody in New York gave a damn about him either, not even Liz.

The thought of his mother had his mind hurtling back to the run-in with Dean earlier on. Jess hadn't mentioned it to Rory at all, not to keep secrets so much as he just didn't feel like screwing up a perfectly good and well-planned date, which he was sure any mention of Forester would achieve.

Packing up the stuff they could comfortably carry back, Jess and Rory set off walking, him assuring her he would come back for the rest after he got her home safe.

"It's Stars Hollow, Jess," she told him, rolling her eyes. "There's no such thing here as not getting home safe."

"Yeah, well," he said, his arm around her shoulders as they strolled along, "I don't usually do the gentleman thing, so don't complain, okay?"

"I won't, kind sir," Rory told him, fluttering her eyelashes in an overly girly way and kissing his cheek.

It made him chuckle, but the laughter died in his throat when he suddenly saw a forlorn figure that he knew too well stepping off the late bus and trudging slowly in the direction of Kim's Antiques.

"Oh, no," said Rory, clearly seeing the same person and thinking the very same thing as Jess.

Before he could blink, Rory was out from under his arm and rushing to Lane's side. By the time he caught up to them, the girls were hugging each other and Lane was crying into Rory's shoulder.

"It's over," she said between sobs. "He dumped me. Henry actually dumped me, and now I'll be all alone, forever!"

To Be Continued...