A/N: Rewriting Finn's party was so much fun - glad y'all enjoyed it and thanks for the feedback. Now, the morning after the night before, featuring a little more Paris, since I know some folks are a fan of the way I write her - I'm looking at you, jordana60! ;)

(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)

Chapter 12

When Jess woke up, it took him a minute to remember where he was and why. Unfortunately, he put his hand up to run over his face before he got a complete picture of the night before in his mind. Damn, that hurt. He would say one thing for Logan, he really knew how to throw a punch, even when he was wasted.

"Oh, you're awake."

The voice was like nails on a chalkboard, and though with the headache he had, Jess was pretty sure most voices would be, hers in particular was quite unwelcome. Of course, it was too much to hope that Rory would've woken up first and had a chance to explain to her room-mate why there was a guy sleeping on the couch. Seemed like Jess was on his own.

"Good morning, Paris," he said, sitting himself up and letting the blanket fall away from his bare chest. "Enjoying the view?" he checked, smirking just a little when he realised she was staring.

"You wish, James Dean." She rolled her eyes... and then seemed to go right back to staring. "So, are you going to explain why you're here, or do I need to go bang on Rory's door?"

"Don't worry, Rory's up," said Miss Gilmore herself from her own bedroom doorway.

"What is he doing here?" Paris asked loudly. "I mean, I really don't care if you want male company over. I have Doyle here, it's no big deal, but can't you keep your pets in your own room? I don't remember you making use of the ex and then kicking him out to the couch when you slept. What makes this one different?"

"Paris!" Rory snapped crossly.

Jess' head pounded a little harder and he realised this situation was only going to get worse if he didn't remove himself from it. Putting his feet down onto the floor, he reached for his pants and started pulling them on under the blanket, as Rory and Paris went back and forth some more. He had his T-shirt on and was debating the button down when suddenly Paris stalked back into her own room and slammed the door.

"Seriously?" he asked, one hand going to his forehead. "Geez, does nobody know how to be quiet in the mornings here?"

"I'm so sorry about Paris," Rory apologised, sinking down onto the couch beside Jess. "I should really have a sign painted - 'Sorry about Paris'," she said, smiling some. "It'd save a lot of time."

"I believe it." Jess smiled back at her, finding her face much closer to his own that he had realised before. "Hi."

"Hi," she replied in kind, looking so incredible that Jess just couldn't help but want to kiss her.

He only regretted it just a little bit when his sore lip hurt like hell and then started bleeding again too.

"Oh, that's not good," said Rory, looking as if she felt bad about it, even though it was absolutely not her fault. "I'll get you some tissue."

"And a paracetemol, if you have one?" he said, wincing yet. "My head is just..."

"Sure. I'll just..." Rory nodded, gesturing to her room and then rushing towards it.

Jess knew better than to follow her. Last night, she had been great, telling him he could absolutely crash at her dorm for the night, but it became clear very fast that she was offering him the communal couch, not a place in her bed.

Honestly, the way things had gone down, he probably wouldn't really have wanted to have last night be the night when he and Rory actually slept together for the first time. Jess wasn't sure when he had become such a romantic, but he had a feeling it had much more to do with Rory than himself.

"Here," she said as she returned to him, proffering a wad of tissue in one hand and a bottle of Tylenol in the other. "Oh, water," she added, rushing away in the opposite direction to a fridge in the far corner, from which she retrieved a bottle and brought it back to Jess.

"Thanks," he muttered, wiping the blood from his lip and trying not to wince, then putting a couple of pills into his hand and gulping them down with too cold water that made his head ring a little louder. "This is officially a disaster," he said, more to himself than to Rory, though obviously, being right next to him, she heard every word.

"You really shouldn't pay any mind to Paris," Rory insisted. "Most people don't."

Jess shot her a half-smile. "I wasn't talking about Paris," he assured her. "I was thinking about Logan... and Joe," he said, the words starting to come out like a pained groan. "Geez, I really messed all this up, big time."

"Jess, no," said Rory then, her hand landing on his knee and getting his full attention on her own sad expression. "Please, don't blame yourself for this. If anyone is to blame it's me... and also Logan," she added, frowning as her gaze drifted to Jess' fat lip. "He never should've hit you like that."

"Honestly? In his position, I probably would've done the same."

That particular confession seemed to surprise Rory, though Jess wasn't sure why.

"Come on, Rory, you know Logan really likes you. You guys were seeing each other before you even met me, right?"

"Well, yes," she admitted, "but it wasn't serious, and that was as much his idea as it was mine. More so, actually. I never really did casual before Logan. In high school, I had a boyfriend. I had another in Freshman year, for a little while. Other than that, a couple of random dates, but I never... I was just never casual girl, not until Logan, and I guess you."

She looked away when she said that last part. Jess was almost glad about that. He almost hoped it meant she didn't want what the two of them had to be so casual. Of course, Jess was a fool if he wanted it to be serious, but God help him, he actually did.

Heaving a sigh, he ran a hand back through his hair, no doubt leaving it sticking up even worse than it already had been after a night on the couch.

"I should just go."

"Oh," said Rory. "Well, if you want to, but I was actually going to offer to buy you breakfast if-"

"I don't mean leave your dorm, Rory," he told her fast, carefully shaking his head before finally meeting her eyes. "I mean I should leave here. New Haven, Hartford... Connecticut in general."

It almost killed him to see the pain that crossed her face then. He didn't want to hurt her, not for anything, but Jess knew this situation could only get worse. Surely it was better, both for him and for Rory, to make a clean break before things got even messier. Before something they could fool themselves was casual right now became so serious that there was just no escape.

"So, I was right," she said, visibly swallowing hard. "You and me, it... it is just casual."

There was a beat or two of silence, and then she was up on her feet, looking ready to run. Jess just couldn't bear it. In spite of what he said, in spite of the fact that it would make more sense just to let her go, then leave himself and never look back, he couldn't do it. There was just no way.

"Rory."

He got up too fast and felt nauseous from the effects, but Jess stayed upright, determined as he was to stop her from running. His hand gripped her arm and turned her back to him.

"I'm sorry," he told her. "Come on, you know how I feel about you. You have to know, because you feel it too. Well, don't you?" he prompted when she didn't answer right away.

"Yes, I do!" she said suddenly and much too loudly. "I didn't mean to. It was never a plan. I mean, I was seeing Logan. Sure, yes, casually, but still, I thought... I didn't think I was going to meet somebody else I liked better. Then there you were," she said, shrugging her shoulders helplessly. "And it's awful and messy and bad, because you and Logan have history, and I never, ever wanted to hurt him."

"Neither did I," Jess assured her. "It just... happened."

"Tell me about it." Rory sighed. "And now, you wanna leave?"

Jess reached out to put stray strands of hair back behind her ear, his hand lingering at her cheek.

"No, I don't wanna leave," he assured her, "but Logan has made it pretty clear that I am not welcome at the Huntzberger place anymore. I'll be lucky if I even get my stuff back without him burning it all, not to mention his threats about Joe."

"You don't really think Mitchum Huntzberger would fire him, do you?"

"I doubt it." Jess shook his head. "But with that family, who the hell really knows?"

It was a concern. Jess wanted to believe that Logan would either never follow through with his threat once he was sober, or that Mitchum just wouldn't listen to him. Logan had been known to have flights of fancy in the past, and Mommy and Daddy rarely paid much mind to any of his antics, so long as he was on the right side of the law. Would Mitchum and Shira really care too much that a girl Logan wasn't even all that serious about chose Jess over him? Could they really be so petty and foolish as to fire a guy with the number of years' service that Joe had because of it?

"Jess?"

He hadn't realised he had zoned out until Rory said his name. She looked upset still and he really hated that. All he wanted to do was to make her feel better, but he didn't have the words. He certainly didn't have any idea how he was going to make this situation better. He couldn't even kiss his way out an awkward conversation, because frankly, between his lip and his head, he didn't trust himself not to bleed all over the place or just pass out.

"I really screwed things up for you since I came here," he told Rory sadly. "I never meant to."

"I know that," she said definitely, "and I already told you, it's not all your fault. Sometimes, people just feel things for each other. There's nothing you can do about it, it just... happens, and all you can do is let it take you over."

Jess smirked at that. "So, what? We're Romeo and Juliet? Heathcliff and Cathy? Jack and Rose?"

"Maybe something a little less tragic than those examples." Rory shrugged. "At least, I'd like to think so," she said, putting her arms up around his neck. "You're not really going to leave the state, are you?" she checked, moving in closer.

"Like I said, I don't want to," he assured her, his hands coming to rest on her waist, "but if I can't stay at the Huntzberger place, I don't know where I'm supposed to go. I mean, your couch was fine last night, but I don't think Paris or Yale are going to want me to make it a permanent arrangement."

"A hotel for a while?" Rory suggested.

"That takes money, and that's not something I exactly have an abundance of right now."

"Well, in New Haven or Hartford, I guess it'd be pretty expensive, but what about a smaller place?"

"Like where?"

The smile on Rory's face was weirdly infectious, though so far Jess had no idea what she was getting at.

"Stars Hollow," she said suddenly. "My home town, it's not far from here, but it's not an expensive place, and if I talked to my mom, she could probably give you a room at the inn at a really fair price."

Jess meant to tell her no, not least because even the cheapest room was going to deplete his resources pretty fast. His recent Walmart job paid fairly well, just because of the awkward nature of the timings, but even so, Jess barely had enough cash to make a new start back in New York or maybe Philadelphia, like he planned. Okay, so, staying in Rory's mom's inn in a small town might be a whole lot cheaper, but how long would it last? How long did he really want to hang around for anyway?

"Okay," he found himself saying anyway, because when Rory was giving him the big blue eyes, he couldn't bear to say anything else. "I'll stay a while, if your mom has the room."

"That's great!" Rory said happily, kissing his cheek. "Oh, Jess, you won't regret it, and you will absolutely love Stars Hollow. It's the best place. Obviously, it's not big and flashy like New York, or even as busy and bustling as New Haven or Hartford, but we have a great bookstore, and the diner, and it's just such a great town."

"Given you're from there, I don't really doubt it," Jess assured her with a smile. "You sure your mom will be cool with this? I mean, I'm just the guy who moved her TV once, right?"

"Oh, well, she knows a little more about you than that," Rory assured him. "I told you how close we are, so, yeah, she knows you and I are..." she trailed off, seemingly unable or unwilling to label what they had.

There was no way for Jess to come up with a suitable relationship status either. He could say they were dating, but in fairness, they only had the one date, which was last night, and that had ended fairly abruptly, not long after it began. Seeing each other worked too, but sounded a little vague, and could be seen as the dreaded 'casual' word that he certainly wanted to avoid with Rory. There really was nothing casual about what he felt for her, but throwing around words like love right now seemed crazy and stupid.

"Any chance I can borrow your cell to call Joe?" he asked instead. "I need to check things are cool with him. Also, see if he can get my stuff together for me and maybe drop it off here?"

"That'll work." Rory nodded. "Then when you have your things, I can drive us to the Hollow and we'll figure out a room for you. I mean, I would say you could stay here, but like you said, Paris and Yale"

"It's fine, I get it," Jess agreed. "And thanks, you know, for everything."

"You are more than welcome," said Rory with a smile.

To Be Continued...