A/N: Yeah, so, maybe this episode is going to take four chapters, because I'm still not done! lol I'd say that I'm sorry but more chapters is better, right? Nobody seems to mind too much that this fic is taking its time. I really appreciate all those lovely reviews - thanks, peops! :)

(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)

Chapter 3

"And you're sure you don't mind?" Rory asked, possibly for the fifth time, but she really wanted to be certain.

"You want me to get a sky writer to go up and make it official? Because I'm running out of ways to say, 'No, I don't mind'," Jess told her with a look.

Rory literally face-palmed. "I'm sorry. It's just that this seems so crazy. Asking a stranger to go into a store and buy a bunch of supplies for my heart-broken mother, just because I'm worried about making the town gossips go into an even bigger over-drive than they're already in over this break-up."

"Hey, I know more about crazy than you think," he said definitely, "and I guarantee, I have been in worse situations thanks to my own mother than I could ever be in because of yours. This is not a problem," he repeated one more time, before disappearing out of the car and into Doose's, armed with the shopping list she had prepared for him.

In spite of the circumstances, Rory couldn't help but smile. To think that she only met Jess last night, maybe twelve or so hours ago, and now he was running errands for her. They weren't entirely strangers, but she could hardly count him as more than a friend of a friend.

She couldn't even make sense of what he said about craziness and mothers, but she hoped to find out at some point. She hoped to know a lot more about Jess Mariano, if he didn't mind telling her, and that had nothing to do with her journalistic tendancies, despite the jokes he made about that earlier.

After a minute or so, sat alone in the back of the car, Rory had a thought. Biting her lip, she considered for a moment, before tapping on the screen that separated her from the driver. It was duly lowered and Frank looked back at her with a smile.

"Yes, Miss?"

"Frank, if you don't mind me asking, are you a regular driver for Logan Huntzberger?"

"I have known the young sir for a quite a while, yes," he admitted, smiling all the wider.

"Uh-huh, okay, and how about Jess? You know him too?"

"We have met on a few occasions." Frank nodded. "But I'm afraid I'm not the right person to question on either person," he told her with a look. "I like my job, Miss, I would hate to jeopardise it by divulging things I shouldn't."

"Oh, right. Understood." Rory nodded, turning back around, feeling embarrassed and foolish. "Sorry!" she called, just as the screen slid back up into place.

It was a little short-sighted to think a member of staff was going to give her any details on a guy whose family employed him or that guy's old friend. She really should just ask Jess how it was that he and Logan were connected. Surely, if he was willing to run errands for her and everything, he could answer that one simple question. Well, quite honestly, she had more than one question she would like to ask, but much of that would have to wait, she supposed. Priority one was her mom, something she was reminded of in a very big one way when Jess returned to the limo, laden down with the results of his shopping trip.

"That list was longer than it looked," he said, heaving the many large and overflowing bags onto the seats.

"Oh, did I give you enough cash?" Rory asked worriedly, even as she inspected the contents of those bags.

"More or less." Jess shrugged. "I am not going to go back and forth over a couple of bucks, so please don't make a big deal," he insisted when she looked ready to try. "Hey, Frank!" he called then, tapping on the divide. "Ham and cheese," he said, passing a paper bag through to the driver.

"Thank you, sir," said Frank, nodding once before raising the divide one more time.

"Wow. You're very good at this stuff," said Rory with a smile.

"Common decency?" Jess checked.

"Being thoughtful and helpful," she said instead. "Kindness to strangers, I guess."

"Well, it's what some girls rely upon, so I'm told," he told her with a grin. "So, if we get all this stuff back to your mom, you think it will help?"

Rory sighed. "All the ice-cream, cookie dough, and candy in the world won't actually fix a broken heart, I don't think," she said sadly, "but it can't hurt. You didn't have any trouble in there right?" she checked then, hiking her thumb back towards the store.

"Not really," said Jess, shaking his head. "Although, there's this guy in there, a real whack job. He's handing out these ribbons, saying something about being surprised about Elm being more pink than blue, and some guy named Max who 'she' should've married?"

"Oh my God!" Rory exclaimed loudly, suddenly throwing herself out of the limo.

Jess moved to give chase, before thinking better of it. All at once, she was storming into the store, presumably to give someone hell, that someone probably being the guy with the ribbons, though he couldn't guess why.

It started to click into place when he gave it a little thought. Maybe the she being mentioned was Rory's mom, which would make some sense, he supposed. If she and her boyfriend just broke up, maybe the town was showing its support by taking sides. Pink ribbons for the woman, blue for the man?

"And that is taken care of," said Rory triumphantly as she returned to the car with the cardboard box full of ribbons in her hands. "Can you believe he was getting the whole town to pick a side? I mean, the fact that he said Mom was winning is totally irrelevant. It's sick!"

"Agreed." Jess nodded, taking the box from Rory and tossing it aside. "I'm guessing you won't be telling her about that?"

"Really not," she admitted. "Ugh, this is such a horrible mess!"

Jess tapped on the divide and asked Frank to take them back to Rory's place.

"Hey, it'll be cool," he told her then, reaching out to put his hand on top of her own. "We have every unhealthy break-up food a person could ever need, and I'm willing to bet just having you around for a few hours will help perk your mom right up. I mean, you two are best friends too, right?"

"We really are," she said with a smile, presumably touched by his concern and maybe even by the fact he remembered she had said that.

Jess was well aware that not all guys (naming no names, but Logan) really listened when women talked. With the kind of girls Huntzberger 'dated' it wasn't always necessary to be that great at conversation or paying attention to what was being said either. It made Jess wonder more and more how and why Rory had got suckered into wanting to be around Logan so much.

"So, I have a question."

Jess was a little startled to realise it was Rory who said that and not himself, since the idea had been right there in his head. Nevertheless, he gave her his full attention and waited for whatever her enquiry was.

"You said you're living at the Huntzberger place, and that you and Logan go way back, but you're not related and you haven't seen much of him the past few years."

"None of that was a question."

"I think the question was pretty well implied."

"Not really."

"Wow, you are officially evasive."

"And you are going to make an excellent investigative journalist someday," Jess countered with a smirk, glad to see Rory smiling back at him. "And in answer to your implied question," he continued then, settling back in his seat with his foot propped on the opposite knee, "I first met Logan when we were maybe eight years old. One of my step-dads was then - and still is now - Mitchum's personal valet. So, no, I am not one of Logan's rich friends, I'm just sort of related to the help."

Rory was surprised by what he said and also by the way he said it. Most people might be a little awkward about admitting they were in with the in crowd via a poor relation, so to speak. Not that Rory saw Jess' connection to Logan as anything to be ashamed of, but some people were that shallow. He told her about his step-dad the same way he told her he liked Hemingway or disliked most poetry. It was just a fact, no more, no less.

"Hold on a second," she said, just now noticing something else odd about what Jess had told her. "One of your step-dads? You did say Mitchum's valet was one of your step-dads, right?" she checked.

"I did say that." Jess nodded.

"So, how many step-dads have you had?"

"Officially, at last count, four."

Rory felt her eyes go wide and fought to control it. She really did not want to judge Jess or moreover his mother. She supposed it was something these days that a serial monogamist chose to go as far as marriage on at least four occasions, though she suspected the 'officially' part of Jess' answer meant he had other unofficial step-fathers in between too. It seemed that Mama Mariano (or whatever last name she was up to by now) was a very busy woman!

"Excuse me, Miss?" Frank called to her then.

Whipping her head around, Rory realised why he wanted her attention. The limo had stopped and they were now back on the driveway of the Crap Shack.

"Oh, right, thanks," she said absently to Frank as she moved to pick up all the Doose's bags.

Jess grabbed one that she didn't have enough hands for and another that had slid down onto the floor, almost unnoticed. When he looked up, he saw Rory staring at him with the weirdest expression on her face. He waited a beat to see if she was actually going to say anything and, thankfully, she did.

"Uh, you won't be offended if I ask you stay in the car again, right?" she checked.

"And you're going to carry the last two bags, how?" he asked, shaking his head. "Look, I don't want to embarrass your mom or make you uncomfortable either, but I can carry the bags at least as far as the front door, right?"

Rory shook her head in what looked like a negative way, only to then accept his offer.

"I'm so sorry, Jess" she told him as they piled out of the car. "I'm being so ungrateful."

"You're just worried about your mom. It's fine," he assured her, walking with her up the path to the house.

At the front door, Rory let herself in and Jess hovered behind. It only took a moment before he was extended an invitation to come inside. He was led to the kitchen where Rory dumped her share of the bags on the table, began scouring the cabinets, pulling out bowls and dishes of all kinds. Jess was soon lending a hand in pouring snacks out. He continued to do so, even when Rory started running back and forth, up and down the stairs with trays filled to bursting with popcorn, cookie dough, and full-fat soda, not to mention a large stack of magazines, and then a truly crazy mix of cereal.

"What?" she asked when she returned from what had to be her tenth trip.

"I was with you until the cereal thing. What was that?" he checked.

"Oh, it's a recipe from a friend of mine," Rory explained. "Five different kinds, three sweetened, with a mix of non-fat milk and half-and-half."

Before Jess could react to that, Rory was on the move again.

"Oh, the TV!" she declared as she went rushing into the living room.

Jess decided he may as well follow and found Rory with the top half of her body wedged behind the set, presumably trying to disconnect it. If she actually tried to carry the damn thing up the stairs, Jess was certain she would do herself an injury. He was all for sisters doing it for themselves as a rule, but heavy lifting and slim-built females did not often go together well.

"Hey, you need help with that too?" he checked, pushing up his sleeves as he came over to inspect the TV himself.

"It's wired to the VCR and to the wall... I never had to do this before," Rory admitted sheepishly.

"Move over," Jess advised, getting in there to do the job himself.

A minute later, the TV was unhooked and nestled comfortably in his arms.

"Upstairs?" he checked.

"Um, yeah, thanks." Rory nodded, rushing by him to presumably lead the way.

"You know, I can close my eyes when we hit your mom's room, if you think she's going to be weird about a stranger seeing her in bed or whatever," he offered just as they reached the landing.

"It's fine. You're not exactly a stranger now," said Rory with a smile. "Well, not to me anyway."

Jess couldn't explain the way his heart skipped a beat when she said that and looked at him that way. He didn't have time to think about it much as the door was opened and Rory was warning her mom a guy was about to walk into her room.

"Oh, the TV!"

"You won't come downstairs, I'm bringing downstairs up to you," Rory told her mother, who Jess only saw by way of a sideways glance as he concentrated on the TV in his arms yet. "On the table, please, Jess."

"No problem," he assured her, taking it over and setting it up.

"And the handsome young man toting the TV is...?" he heard Rory's mom say in a low voice, the description making him smile.

"Oh, that's Jess. He knows Logan."

"Uh-huh. Hello, Jess who knows Logan."

"Hey, Lorelai, mother of Rory," he replied in kind as he turned and raised one hand in a brief wave. "TV's all set," he told Rory then, before glancing at her mom one more time. "Pleasure to meet you. Sorry about the circumstances."

Lorelai only nodded and Jess made a swift exit. He managed to hear one more little piece of conversion as he lingered a moment at the almost-closed door.

"He's not hard to look at."

"Like I didn't notice that already!"

Rightly or wrongly, Jess was smiling all the way back to the car.

To Be Continued...