A/N: Okay, now the delay due to uncommonly hot weather in my country is over, back to your regularly scheduled Literati-filled updates. Thank you for your patience :)

(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)

Chapter 9

It was a risk to call the house, or maybe it would've been, if Rory wasn't pretty sure that Logan wouldn't be there. She really had meant to talk to him about the fact she wasn't so sure they should continue seeing each other, but frankly, she had been so busy with classes and assignments, there hadn't been all that many opportunities. He called her a couple of times, left messages on her voicemail, and Rory genuinely had meant to get back to him. She just... hadn't.

In fairness, she hadn't really had all that many chances to talk to Jess either. Only one time, which was supposed to be a short conversation, but had somehow turned into hours, much like their previous talk last weekend when he called her. They never mentioned the kissing or anything about what their relationship exactly entailed. Rory wondered if tonight would be any different, but she doubted it.

"Hi, may I please speak with Jess Mariano?" she asked the polite voice that answered her call to the Huntzberger mansion.

"Who shall I say is calling?"

"Uh, it's Rory... Gilmore," she added as an afterthought, wishing not for the first time that Jess would just get a cell phone already.

"Ah, the famous Rory."

Those words made her eyes go a little wide and her nerves jitter. "Famous?" she squeaked.

A friendly chuckle followed. "Please, don't worry about it. I promise I've only heard good things about you, Rory. This is Joe, by the way."

Rory sighed with relief. "Oh, okay. Thank you."

She frowned on realising that maybe she didn't need to be thanking Joe for anything in particular, but speaking to anyone at the Huntzberger house that knew her when she didn't know them was a little odd. After the night she had been having, it just threw her for another loop.

"Hold on just a minute, Rory," said Joe then. "I'll go and grab J."

There was silence for a few moments before Jess finally came on the line.

"Rory?"

"Hey. Um, are you busy?" she checked.

"Not exactly," he told her. "Are you okay? You sound weird."

She would like to make some smart alecky comment about him calling her weird, just make a joke out of it or whatever, but Rory didn't have it in her. Not tonight. Frankly, she wasn't at all surprised if she sounded weird, or pissed, or just generally unlike herself, especially to Jess.

"Not exactly," she admitted, borrowing his own words. "I'm actually a little way down the street from the house. Can you...?"

"I'll be right out."

Rory smiled slightly as she hung up from their call, Jess already gone and clearly on his way to her. She hadn't even had to finish the question. It was this strange thing between them, this connection that made no sense, but that she loved all the same. They weren't compatible in every sense, didn't agree on a whole bunch of things, actually, but half the fun sometimes was the disagreeing, she supposed. Still, when she was trying to explain something and struggling to make it clear, Jess just seemed to get it. Tonight, more than ever, that was going to come in really useful.

Footsteps coming down the street made her look, and there he was, jacket zipped up halfway and hands in his pockets as he approached the car. Rory popped open the driver's door and stepped out, smiling as he reached her.

"Hey."

"Hey."

"So, what's going on?" he asked, looking genuinely concerned.

He was probably thinking all kinds of terrible things, imagining Rory had been attacked or someone had died or something. It made her feel kind of foolish for doing any of this, but she had really needed someone to talk to after what happened at her grandparents' house. No, strike that, not just someone, she needed to talk to him. Nobody else would do.

"It's stupid," she said, pushing her hair back from her face and heaving a sigh as she moved to pull herself up onto the hood of the car. "I just got in this stupid fight with my grandparents. Well, it wasn't stupid exactly. I mean, I had really good reasons for being mad at them, mostly Grandma..."

She went on to explain, probably too fast for most people to keep up, but Jess ought to be used to her by now. Sure, it had been just a few short weeks since they first met, but they had talked a lot, shared so much.

On the other side of the hood where he had propped himself beside her, Jess watched Rory closely as she went through a dozen emotions, and more words than the best rapper could spit in the space of a few minutes. It took concentration to keep up with her sometimes, but he always got the gist. Besides, he knew a little of what had happened at her grandparents' vow renewal already, so that helped. Sounded like this Emily Gilmore was a real piece of work, not that Jess thought that would be the right thing to say, even with Rory this mad at her grandma.

"It just drives me crazy that she can't even see what she did wrong," said Rory then, clearly as sad as she was angry about this whole thing.

"Some people are just that way, I guess." Jess shook his head, not knowing what else he was supposed to say. "I'm sorry, Rory, I'm not great at the whole in-family fight thing. I guess I never had enough family around to really get into that kind of drama."

"It's okay," she said with a sigh, shifting closer. "You don't really have to say anything. I just needed to vent, somebody to be on my side, you know?"

Jess nodded in understanding. "Well, for what it's worth, I'm completely Team Rory," he told her, smirking slightly at his own lame joke, as he pushed her hair back over her shoulder.

It was nice to see her smile, better yet when she got closer, clearly looking for a hug which he was happy to provide. Of course, when she pulled back a little and looked at him then, Jess wasn't entirely sure what came next, until suddenly she was on him, kissing him like her life depended on it. Honestly, how they both didn't go tumbling right off the hood of the car, Jess had no idea, but he wasn't complaining any as he became a more than willing participant in the whole kissing idea.

The next shock came when Rory was out of his arms as fast as she had arrived in them. The light wasn't good enough for him to know for sure what her expression was about, especially when she was trying to hide her face in her hands anyway.

"Oh, God," she said, shaking her head and turning away. "Jess, I am so sorry."

"For what?" he asked, only glad to have the breath to do so after all of that. "Rory?" he prompted when she didn't answer, sliding off the hood and moving around to try and see her face.

It was an unpleasant surprise to see tears on her cheeks, to hear the pain in her voice when she finally spoke again.

"I feel like... like such an awful person. I just keep on messing you around, you and Logan both. It's not right. It's really not okay that I came here when I was upset and just... It's not right," she insisted, over and over, waving her hands in gestures that didn't seem to mean anything, except prove how frustrated she was with her own behaviour.

Jess wanted to tell it was fine, mostly just to stop her from being so upset, but honestly, it wouldn't exactly be a lie in any case. After all, what was to complain about when a beautiful woman showed up outside your house on a Friday night, wanting to make out?

Of course, there were certain parts of this situation that were less than cool. The fact they were seeing each other while Rory was also seeing Logan, someone Jess had considered a friend for a lot of years and whose family home he was living in right now. It didn't exactly smack of honour or whatever. That and the fact Rory might actually have been using him tonight, just to make herself feel better. None of it exactly reflected well on either of them, not least because Jess wasn't sure he cared even if that was all Rory was really doing here.

"I guess I shouldn't beat myself up too much, right?" she said then, swiping under both eyes with her hands as she dropped down onto her feet in front of him. "I mean, nobody's cheating on anyone or anything. It's all just casual, right?"

"Right," Jess answered immediately, biting his tongue so hard in the next moment, it almost bled.

Rory and Logan were certainly supposed to be seeing each other casually, but Rory and Jess, their relationship had never been defined. They called themselves friends once, but that was before the kissing had started and seemed to be becoming a habit. Of course, if Rory really was just looking for casual with him too, Jess wasn't sure he could argue. He learned a long time ago that, sometimes, even if it wasn't exactly what you wanted, you had to take what you could get in life.

"Okay, so, I should go." Rory shook her head, as if trying to bring herself back to reality from a daze.

"Right now?" Jess checked.

"I think so, yeah," said Rory, moving as if to get back in the car before turning back around to face him.

Her hands landed on Jess' shoulders and she leaned in fast to kiss his cheek. The next moment, she was getting back into her vehicle and Jess was forced to move as she revved the engine and then pulled away. Rory raised one hand in a brief goodbye and then she was gone.

Jess stood and watched her car disappear from sight, pushed a hand back through his hair and heaved a sigh. Turning around, he trudged his way back up to the house, the driveway feeling ten times longer than usual as he went over the last half-hour in his head at least three times.

It made sense, in a way, except for the part where he agreed way too easily to keeping what he had with Rory casual. That just gave her and Logan permission to carry on doing whatever they wanted. The very thought of his so-called friend touching Rory that way made Jess' blood boil in his veins, but what right did he have to say anything about it? What right did he have to even feel jealous? If playground rules applied, Logan saw her first.

"Everything okay, J?"

Jess looked up fast to see Joe standing in the doorway to his room, concern evident on his face. It would be easier to tell him everything was fine, but lying to Joe, it never sat well with Jess.

"I don't know," he said honestly instead, shaking his head. "I think maybe I screwed up, and I don't just mean tonight," he admitted.

"Come on, tell me all about it. Let's see if we can't figure something out."

Sat together in Joe's room, Jess explained what had happened tonight with Rory, and more than that, what he felt about it. He really was not the type to get all that touchy-feely, but if anyone was going to get him to open up, Jess found it was usually Joe. He was just easy to talk to, and he really never judged, even when Jess knew he might be tempted.

"I know she and Logan aren't serious, and God knows, I've never been serious about a girl either, not... not like this," he admitted. "I don't even know what it is about her, she's just..."

"I get it." Joe nodded in understanding. "Like I said before, you got it bad, J. Happens to us all eventually. Sometimes, more than once."

"I don't think I could handle this twice." Jess shook his head. "Hell, I'm not sure if I can handle it once. You know, maybe it'd be better for everybody, Rory included, if I just got the hell out of town already."

"Oh, come on, J." Joe rolled his eyes. "We both know you're not that guy."

Jess sighed. "Maybe not, but I could be," he said, meeting his ex-step-father's gaze. "Seriously, you know about my parents. I've got runaway DNA in here, twice over," he said, tapping his wrist where the veins showed. "It's in the blood."

"You know as well as I do, not everything about a person is nature," said Joe with a look. "The Jess I have known all these years, he's way more than the less-good parts of his biology."

Jess smiled at that, he couldn't help it, and not just because he was being paid a compliment. Even after everything, Joe couldn't bring himself to rail on Liz for the way she was. She was 'less-good', not bad. Jess would swear that, even now, Joe was at least a little bit in love with his whack-job mother. God help him.

"When I came here, it was not supposed to get this complicated," said Jess, running his hands over his face. "I mean, meeting Rory at all, it was such a fluke thing, you know?"

"Sometimes, fate has a plan," said Joe sagely. "Most of the time, nobody goes looking for these things. They just happen. Lightning strikes and that's it. Cupid's arrow will not be denied."

"Seriously?" said Jess with a look. "Cupid's arrow?"

"You gonna tell me that's not what this is?"

There was a challenge in Joe's eyes and though Jess met his gaze, he couldn't meet that challenge. He had no counter to what he was suggesting, because he really never did like to lie to the guy who had more of a hand in raising him to be a decent human being than anybody else.

"I really did screw up coming here," he said, leaning his elbows on his knees and his face in his hands, "because this has disaster written all over it, for everybody."

To Be Continued...