A/N: Thanks for all those fab reviews, folks. Now, yes, I do know Logan went to Rory's dorm post-China Palace in the episode, but things are running just a little differently in this AU, as you will see as we re-join Rory (and later, Jess) on the morning after the night before!

(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)

Chapter 8

When Rory called her mom, she had a good reason. Not that Lorelai seemed to realise that. Apparently, she had a whole humorous rant about mail planned. Since she hadn't exactly been in the best mood of late, thanks to the big Luke break-up, Rory let her have her joke. Of course, that didn't mean she wasn't very relieved when her mother was done, so she could get to the point of her call.

"I did something that was maybe stupid," she blurted out, the moment there was some semblance of silence on the other end of the line.

"Okay, on the stupid scale, are we talking stupid like actively disagreeing with Paris or stupid like taking a bunch of illegal drugs?"

Rory frowned. "Um, I'm not really sure that's a scale."

"Point taken," Lorelai hummed to herself. "Well then, just tell me what the stupid thing is."

"I said maybe stupid."

"Then tell me the maybe stupid thing is, because knowing you, it's probably not even stupid at all, babe," said Lorelai kindly. "You do this thing where you over-worry sometimes."

Taking a deep breath, Rory closed her eyes and made her confession.

"I kissed Jess last night, and when I say kissed, this was no peck on the cheek. Since you're so fond of scales today, this was much less Jane Austen novel, more... more..."

"Vertical From Here to Eternity?" Lorelai suggested.

Rory opened her mouth to protest and then realised she probably couldn't get away with it. Sure, she and Jess had just kissed, no more than that, but it could've been more. A part of her had wanted to suggest it. If she had known him a little longer, or maybe just been a little braver, she would have.

"Mom, what is wrong with me?" she asked with a groan. "I mean, I'm seeing Logan."

"Are you? Really? You know, you've barely mentioned him lately."

"He was away, he just got back last night."

"And yet, it wasn't him you ended up kissing, it was Jess."

"I need to tell you the whole story."

"Seems that way, hon."

So, that was exactly what Rory did. She told Lorelai the whole story, and oddly enough, it really didn't take as long as she thought it would. Not surprising when Rory considered how little time she had really known Jess. Two weeks ago, she could've walked by him on the street and not had a clue who he was. That same two weeks ago, she had thought she was falling pretty hard for Logan, but maybe she was wrong about that.

"Do you think I'm crazy?" she asked her mom when she was finally done.

"Oh, honey, of course not," Lorelai promised her. "You think you're the first girl to be caught between two guys you like? It's like you never saw a romantic comedy or a sitcom in your life, and I know that's not true."

Rory sighed. "It's a lot easier when it's on TV than when it's happening to me," she admitted. "I mean, I like Logan a lot. Obviously, he's not exactly facially challenged, he makes me laugh, he challenges me, we have more in common than you'd think... but then, there's Jess."

"Who, it seems, has all the same positive attributes," said Lorelai knowingly. "Good looking, fun, smart, all into the good books and the good movies and stuff."

"Exactly!" said Rory with another sigh. "And I thought, well, when me and Logan... you know, when you stumbled upon us?"

"At The Gilmore Elders Wedding 2: Electric Boogaloo? Yes, I remember some lack of clothes," she said in a tone that made Rory squirm.

"Well, we didn't... I mean, it wasn't all that much further than kissing."

"I didn't ask."

"I know that you didn't, but I'm telling you anyway," Rory confessed bravely. "Logan and me, it's never gone that far, and he's not... He's casual guy, you know? And I thought being a casual girl would be fine for me. I don't know, maybe it is. I mean, I have made out with two different guys in the past few weeks."

"Made out?" Lorelai echoed. "We just leapt from kissing to made out?"

"You were the one that mentioned From Here To Eternity!"

There was a brief silence before Lorelai spoke again, clearing her throat before she did so.

"Okay, Mommy's trying to be cool here, and can I just say, I am super-happy to hear that making out is all that's been happening," she said fast, "and yes, I know, grown woman, not so virginal anymore, you have every right to do whatever you wanna do, but still, I can be glad that you're not leaping from bed to bed, can't I?"

"Yes, you absolutely can," Rosy assured her. "For the record, I won't be doing that. I just have to make a choice, that's all."

"Sounds like a plan, kid," said Lorelai, even though she had been saying just moments before what an adult Rory was these days. "Any ideas which way it's going to go? Because I have to admit, from what you've said to me, I could make a good guess."

She thought about asking for that guess, but frankly, Rory wasn't sure she needed to know. In her head, maybe even in her heart, and certainly in other places she wasn't about to bring up in a conversation with her mother, she knew who she wanted, knew who she preferred of the two guys. It wasn't that Logan had done anything wrong, it was just that Jess was different somehow.

"So, what's it gonna, babe?" asked Lorelai then. "The Prince or The Pauper?"

Rory rolled her eyes. "I really don't think either Logan or Jess would be flattered by the reference. Also, they're far from identical-looking."

"True," Lorelai mused. "But still, what's the verdict?"

A further sigh escaped Rory and her hand went to her forehead as she considered her answer carefully.

"You remember that song from Easter Parade?"

"Okay, curve-ball," said Lorelai, sounding startled. "Um, Steppin' Out With My Baby?"

"No, not that one, the one Fred Astaire sings to the girl who doesn't wanna dance with him anymore... and then I think Judy Garland also sings it later."

"Ah, It Only Happens When I Dance with You," she said with a smile Rory could just hear. "A little cheesy, but kinda nice."

"No arguments here," Rory agreed, "but my point is, I think I suddenly get that song. Not that I've been dancing with Jess or with Logan, but just spending time with them. It's like things with Logan are great, but things with Jess are... something else."

"It only happens when you're with him," said Lorelai pointedly.

Rory nodded her agreement, even though she knew her mom couldn't see, because she was absolutely right. The unknown quantity, that feeling that just couldn't be defined, that only came along when something was really special between two people. It was what she felt when she was with Jess. Even when they were just talking or sat in comfortable silence, but oh boy, did it increase a hundred-fold when he kissed her.

"I guess I made my choice," she said, more to herself than to her mother, though Lorelai did answer anyway.

"Only you know for sure, babe, but it's sounding pretty clear from here," she admitted. "Just be really sure before you do anything undoable," she advised, "and remember, if and when you have to make a break, let the unlucky one down easy. It's tough for all those guys that fall hard for us Gilmore girls."

Rory smiled at that. "Thanks, Mom," she said, though her expression soon grew sad, thinking of the last guy to fall for Lorelai.

She almost asked if things were any better, if there had been any change between her mother and Luke, but Rory soon decided against. If there was news to share then Mom would've told her. That meant things were no different, so, it was probably better not to talk about it at all.

After Saturday night had gone very much not according to the plan, Jess decided to spend Sunday quietly at the Huntzberger house, staying out of everybody's way as best he could. He figured he was safe enough slipping off to the library and switching out the book he had been reading for another he could disappear into for a while. Unfortunately, he found the one room in the house he wanted to hide in was already very much occupied.

"Hey, Mariano!" said Colin from his spot facing the door, calling Jess to the attention of the gathered group of four.

"Jess, my boy!" Finn chimed in, standing up with his arms out wide like he wanted a hug or something.

"Didn't know you guys were here," said Jess, nodding a greeting at them all as he moved towards the bookshelf. "Sorry about the interruption, I was just-"

"C'mon, man, no apologies necessary," Logan assured him as he got up too. "You live here too, right?"

"For now."

"Well, I hope you plan on hanging around for the next couple of weeks, my friend," said Finn with a flourish. "Because I am having the party to end all parties," he explained, practically toasting his own speech with a glass.

Given the state of him, Jess figured it was less hair of the dog and more that he just hadn't stopped from the night before. How Finn's kidneys just didn't give out on him, Jess had no idea. He might ask him about it sometime, if he thought the guy was ever sober enough to know for sure.

"I'm not exactly a party guy, Finn," Jess reminded him.

"Yeah, but you're not gonna want to miss this one," said Robert with a smile. "Tarantino extravaganza, man."

"Right, come as any character you want," Colin threw in.

"Ah, except Vincent Vega," said Finn definitely. "Nobody upstages the birthday boy."

"That is a given, Finn," said Logan with a smile before walking towards Jess by the book shelves and giving him his full attention. "So, everything okay after you left us last night?" he asked, staring just a little too hard in Jess' opinion.

"Sure. Got a cab back to Yale, picked up my car, came back here." Jess shrugged, switching the book he just read for the sequel to the same. "Is there a problem?"

"No, no problem." Logan smiled, though Jess wasn't dumb enough to think it was real. "You know, it's weird, but I called Rory three times already this morning and no answer. Any idea why that would be?"

"I'm not her keeper, man." Jess shook his head and tried hard to keep his smirk in check. "She's probably busy with studying, or she headed home to visit with her mom, I don't know. Like I said, it's not my job to keep track."

If he didn't know better, Jess would swear that somehow Logan knew what happened last night, after the China Palace. He couldn't know, it was an impossibility, since the only people who knew were Jess and Rory themselves. If Logan couldn't get a hold of her, and Jess certainly wasn't volunteering any information himself, then all Logan could do was be paranoid and suspect things. Jess was pretty sure that was exactly what he was doing too.

"Hey, Logan, we're out of scotch!" Finn called from his seat, waving the empty bottle high in the air.

"We're never out of scotch in this house," Logan insisted, eyes still on Jess for a beat or two more. "You gonna join us, Jess?" he checked, though he must have already known the answer.

Jess wasn't much of a drinker, not because he couldn't handle it, but more than he just didn't care about doing it most of the time. Drinking to drink rarely appealed. Drinking around Logan and risking what he might say that he shouldn't, that just added a whole other list of reasons for declining his not-quite-kind offer.

"Thanks, but no thanks," he said, shaking his head. "I've got things to do, you know how it is."

He left it as vague as that, mostly because it was a lie anyway. Sure, he was looking into jobs and apartments, various potential opportunities, but given it was Sunday, there was only so much he could do today. He had mostly planned on getting lost in a book, but now, as he headed out of the library and back towards the room he was bunking in next to his ex-step-father's own, he knew what he really needed was someone to talk to.

Dumping off the book he would probably get to later, Jess stood outside of Joe's door for a full minute before finally taking a deep breath and knocking.

"Hey, J. Come on in. You know you don't need to knock on my door," he told him, ushering Jess inside with a fatherly hand on his shoulder. "I didn't expect to see much of you today. Figured you'd be in the library or something."

"I was, briefly" Jess sighed, taking a seat on the nearest chair and running both hands over his face. "Logan and his buddies are hanging out in there."

Joe frowned. "Well, I can't imagine you're not welcome to join them. You boys have always gotten along."

"Yeah, we have," Jess agreed, with a sardonic kind of a smile, as Joe sat down opposite him on the edge of his bed. "But I only wanted to hear so much about Finn's upcoming birthday bash. Apparently, I'm invited, but it's a costume party. The iconic characters of Tarantino," he said with a look.

Joe studied him closely for a moment, then shook his head, considering something.

"You know, I always thought you had a look of Travolta, but probably a little more Zuko or Manero than Vega"

Jess smirked but said nothing more about that. He had bigger problems than how much of an idiot he might want to make of himself for a party he barely wanted to attend. Joe was just about the only person in the world he would trust with the information he was about to impart, but one person to trust was better than none.

"You remember that girl I told you about, the one I met at Logan's dorm a couple of weeks ago?"

"Sure," Joe nodded. "Tori, right?"

"Rory," Jess corrected with a smirk. "It's actually short for Lorelai."

"Ah, like the siren that tempted good men to their doom."

"That sounds right."

Jess knew he didn't say much more than that to pique Joe's interest. He was pretty smart for a guy that Liz married. Sometimes, Jess wondered how the hell they even got together, and when he got up the nerve to ask Joe once, he only smiled and shook his head, coining an old adage that really didn't explain anything; 'The heart wants what the heart wants.' Of course, now Jess was starting to realise maybe that was the only way to explain what happened between two people sometimes.

"Anyway," he said then, clearing his throat. "Rory is kind of seeing Logan, and I say kind of, because you know how he is."

"Yes, I know exactly." Joe rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, so, since their relationship is strictly casual, I guess I shouldn't feel all that bad about the fact that... well, Rory and me..."

"Oh."

There it was. Joe suddenly seemed to have almost all the information he needed without Jess saying another word, which was a very good thing, because honestly, he could use not elaborating and coming off as even bigger jerk than he already felt. He could've at least done the decent thing and told Logan he was interested too, but no. Jess just laughed off any inquiries about his possible interest in Rory and expected his old friend to buy it.

"I'm such a jerk."

"Hey, no, you're not," said Joe definitely, his hand patting Jess on the knee. "You're a good guy, you always were, and Logan's not exactly all bad, but... well, he has a rep with the ladies that I wouldn't exactly want any son of mine being proud of," he said with a look.

Jess smiled. 'Any son of mine.' Joe said that kind of thing a lot. It was enough for Jess to know that, of all his step-fathers and so-called uncles, this was the one that gave a damn. The only one, ever, truth be told.

"I know you have a biased opinion on this, but come on. If you were Logan, would you be thrilled to know a guy who's supposed to be your friend made out with your girlfriend last night?"

"I think we both know that 'girlfriend' is probably pushing it," said Joe with a look. "Besides, this Rory is a young woman who knows her own mind, isn't she?"

"She really is." Jess smiled, unable to help it.

"Then anything you two did is on her as much as it is on you," his ex-step-father said easily, shrugging his shoulders. "Do I think you should be honest with Logan? Yes, I do, and I know that you will, when the time is right. In the meantime, maybe you wanna figure out exactly what it is you're confessing to," he advised sagely. "I mean, if you two were just messing around, a one-time drunken mistake... but I can already see that wasn't what this was, right?" he said, watching Jess closely.

"Not even close," he confessed. "I don't even know what it is about her. I just... when I'm around her, everything is different. I'm different."

"Oh, J." Joe sighed and shook his head. "You got it bad."

There was no way to deny that he was right. Long before anybody else vocalised it, Jess already knew he was in so very deep. A part of him thought now would be a good time to run, anywhere at all, just so long as he got far away from Connecticut and the girl with the hypnotic blue eyes, beautiful smile, and rapier wit. Another part, the larger part in fact, just wanted to run toward her, screw the consequences.

Not fifteen minutes after leaving Joe's room, Jess was sat on his own bed, staring at the phone and wondering if he were a bigger idiot if he called Rory or if he didn't. He had said he would call and she seemed happy that he had. After the kissing and all, it seemed like the thing to do, and honestly, he wanted to, he really did. She wasn't taking Logan's calls, that might mean something, though whether she was screening Huntzberger or just hiding from everyone, Jess couldn't know until he made his own attempt.

"Screw it," he muttered to himself, reaching for his wallet and hooking out the piece of paper he had carefully filed in there.

Dialling Rory's number, Jess brought the receiver to his ear and waited. One ring, two, a third, and then, finally, her voice.

"Hello?"

"Hey, it's me. It's Jess," he said, face-palming with his free hand, since he was already sure he had made a complete fool of himself.

"Oh, hey," Rory replied. "You actually called."

"I said I was going to, right?" Jess checked, suddenly doubting himself in new and interesting ways.

"No, I mean, yes, you did say that, but... well, you know, guys and calling," said Rory, giggling as if she were as nervous as he was, which actually helped a little bit. "Um, I'm glad you called," she admitted then.

Jess felt his heart swell two sizes, like it was about to burst out of his chest.

"Oh, yeah?"

"Yes, obviously. For starters, you can remind me why I ever agreed to give the painful Ernest Hemingway another chance."

Jess laughed because he couldn't help it. "Come on, just commit to it one more time. You'll get to love him, I promise. Besides, Ernest only has lovely things to say about you."

"Really? What lovely things?" Rory asked.

Though he was sure she was at least half-joking and unlikely to really be fishing for compliments, Jess had a million for her and was happy to list a few, picturing her smiling face as he did so.

Settling down comfortably on his bed, he let the conversation wander wherever it wanted. Rightly or wrongly, for the next hour at least, Jess didn't give Logan, or anybody else, a single thought.

To Be Continued...