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Jess drives slowly to Stars Hollow. He can't think of anywhere he'd least rather be going, but he needs papers for his car. There's a problem with the carburetor - Jess finally found a mechanic which didn't cost something crazy, as he refused to entertain the thought of going to Gypsy's and being in Stars Hollow. The fact that he has to go back there for the papers seems sickly ironic. Jess hasn't called Luke. He doesn't want to deal with the yelling he knows will come from Rory's decision and aisde from that, Jess is still mad at him for calling Liz and telling her his news.

The drive doesn't take long. Before Jess can stand it he's driving through what could be confused with Candyland. Miss Patty has another one of her parades on display; and Jess carefully skirts children dressed as lollipops and candycanes. Parking the car, Jess is positive that staying here would have sent him out of sanity. The summer where they ran out of snowcones came pretty close, especially as he didn't have Rory to laugh at it with.

Jess's thoughts are interrupted as he looks up at the diner. Madly, he considers just running in, grabbing the papers and heading back without Luke seeing - after all, he managed to get up to the apartment unnoticed when Sookie got married - but that thought is scuppered as Jess pushes open the door and Luke looks up from the table he's clearing. They stare at each other for a moment and then Luke simply says, "Upstairs."

Jess doesn't argue. Silently, he follows his uncle to the apartment and when they get inside Luke explodes, "What the hell are you doing?"

"I needed some stuff for my car."

"I don't mean that," Luke says, which Jess already knew. "What about Rory?"

"What about her?"

"Lorelai says she's dropping out of Yale! What did you say to her?"

"I didn't say anything to her!" Jess says angrily. "She decided it, not me!"

"And I'm sure she'd have decided it if you hadn't asked her to move in with you!"

"I didn't make her do anything!" Jess shouts. "And I'm getting a little tired of everyone in this town making me out to be the bad guy!"

"You shouldn't have asked her!"

"We're not kids! It's her life!"

Luke exhales, closing his eyes for a moment and then says, "So what do you think of this grand plan, Jess? Do you think she should leave school?"

No, Jess says silently. Of course he doesn't. Rory belongs in Yale, he's sure of it. She shouldn't drop out. But as she keeps saying, it's her life too. He loves her. What is Jess supposed to do - make her go back? Everyone pushes that idea of perfection on her. Jess isn't going to that.

Luke is still staring at him and Jess shrugs, making him lose his temper again.

"Do you want to know what I think?"

"Not really."

"You're being selfish," Luke goes on anyway. "You're letting her throw away her education to be with you. You're both smarter than this - I thought you were."

"Why is this my job?" Jess demands, losing his temper too. "Rory decided this, not me. But that's right, I forgot, I'm the jerk who was going to mess up everything for her. You want to take a pitchfork? I bet they're selling them at Doose's."

"Stop that," Luke says, sounding slightly hurt. "I stuck up for you. I was the one always helping you out, wanting you to do better."

"But I didn't, right?" Jess says, staring his uncle in the eye. "It matters if Rory drops out of Yale but - forget it," he mumbles and Luke says, "Jess, come on."

Jess looks away but as his uncle starts to say his name again Jess asks, "You think she should be with someone better, right?"

"I never said that."

"How come you kept telling me not to do something to her last year? How I should sit at an opposite side of the room?"

"You know what I meant!"

"Do you think I'm messing up her life?"

"I don't think you're helping her," Luke says quietly. Jess takes a sharp breath and says bitterly, "Screw you."

"Get what you want and go," Luke says tightly. "I've got customers."

"That's all I wanted."

Luke turns away quickly, almost running back down the stairs, and Jess grabs the papers from the shelf he stored them on. He angrily rubs away the tears that have run and, to his annoyance, a fresh batch spring up. Why is he getting emotional over this? It's not like Luke's opinion is of any surprise.

Stuffing the papers in his pocket, Jess slams back out of the diner and onto the street. Head down, he walks as fast as he can back to the car before almost colliding with someone. Jess looks up to see Dean. Sighing, he keeps on but Dean turns and follows him, his stroll becoming a stride.

"Hey!"

"Me?" Jess asks and Dean snarls, "Yeah, you. You practically ran me over."

"What, you want to sue for damages?"

Ignoring that, Dean demands, "What are you doing?"

"Talking to you, unfortunately."

"Don't play dumb. You know I mean with Rory."

"What about her?"

"She shouldn't be with you," Dean says angrily. "You're not right for her."

"Oh, and you are?"

"I'm better for her than you."

"Is that right?" Jess laughs. "Because the last time I checked, you got married. How's that turning out, by the way?"

A muscle works in Dean's jaw and Jess adds, "Don't understand why got married at nineteen anyway. Were you that desperate to have sex?"

"Shut up. No one asked for your advice."

"Not giving advice, offering an opinion."

"Didn't ask for that either."

"But you got married, right?" Jess presses. "Which means you should be over Rory."

"You don't know what was going on."

That catches Jess of-guard and, against his better judgement, he asks, "What?"

"Never mind," Dean says smugly and Jess takes a step closer to him.

"Were you with her or something?"

"Not with her...but I was the one she called to come pick her up, that night at the bar. You saw us."

He didn't see anything, Jess wants to retort, but the memory is alive in his mind. Rory was talking to Dean, standing close and a kind of intimate look between them. Jess knew it was there and a sick feeling starts to turn in his stomach.

"You were cheating with her?"

"No," Dean admits and Jess relaxes a little until Dean adds, "Not exactly."

"What the hell does that mean?"

"It means my marriage was over. If you hadn't shown up -"

"What?" Jess asks furiously. "You'd have slept with her, is that what you're getting at?"

"Hey, you like reading stories. You imagine what could have happened."

"I don't need to imagine," Jess says angrily. "She's not with you, she's with me. And you're still married, or pretending you are, whatever. Get over it, man. Move on. Rory has, I have."

"So then why is this getting to you so much?"

"Whatever," Jess says, shaking his head. Dean gives a kind of laugh and walks back down the street, sticking his hands in his pockets. Jess watches him for a moment before shaking himself, getting into the car and almost speeding out of Stars Hollow. The only thing Jess is grateful for is not running into Lorelai, whom he's positive is out for his blood. He'd imagined that being the worst outcome but Jess wonders if that would have been easier than the conversations he'd had.

Rory is reading a magazine when Jess gets back. She is lying on the bed and sits up, her skirt rumpled and ridden up. Usually that would be a turn-on but Jess is so mad from before he barely looks at her. He throws the keys on the counter and Rory asks, "Did you get what you needed?"

"Yep."

"How was the drive?"

"Fine," Jess says sarcastically. "The whole thing was fantastic."

"What happened?" Rory asks, getting up from the bed. She walks over and says, "Jess, tell me."

"Were you with him?" Jess demands. "Were you with Dean?"

"What are you talking about?"

"That night when I came and asked you to go with me, he was there, he was with you. Were you together?"

"No!" Rory exclaims but there's a kind of guilty look in her eyes and Jess demands, "Were you sleeping with him?"

"You know I wasn't sleeping with him!" Rory says furiously, taking a step back. "How can you ask me that? My first time was with you!"

Jess does know that. He nods, ashamed, but can't shake what he's thinking and when Rory asks, "Where's this coming from?" Jess tells her, "I ran into Dean. He said something was going on."

"Then he's lying!" Rory exclaims. "Nothing happened!"

"It looked like I interrupted something."

"You didn't," Rory insists but she looks away. "I was lonely, that's all. I'd had a bad night."

"He's married."

"You left!" Rory shouts, making him jump. "Remember, Jess? You left without a word a whole year ago and then you just told me you loved me, and left, again, and I had to deal with it and it was hard and Yale was hard and the whole year was hard! So you don't get to judge me!"

"And I bet precious Dean never makes mistakes, right? Apart from getting married too young!"

"What does this have to do with anything?" Rory yells. Tears are starting in her eyes and she says, "You left me. You left me but I forgave you. I'm here with you. Nothing happened with him."

She doesn't sound sure on the last part but Jess is starting to feel like an ass. She's right, he left. They wouldn't even be having this fight if he'd stayed for her. Jess takes a deep breath and says, "I know. I'm sorry."

Rory sniffles, turning away and Jess says, "I am - I'm a jerk."

"No," she says, softening. "But why are you letting him get to you? Like you keep saying, he's married. And besides, I'm with you. I love you."

"I love you too."

Jess puts his arms around Rory and kisses her hard. She kisses him back, hesitantly and then enthusiastically and they move clumsily over to the bed, where they impatiently tug off their clothes. The sex is mostly silent yet charged with something and, although Jess holds her hand afterwards, Rory is staring in the opposite direction, her mind lost on some hidden thing.