An unusually warm day found the residents of Stars Hollow gathered in the square, enjoying the rays. Some lay on blankets with a blanket protecting them from the dewy grass, some brought down their barbeques to supply food to their neighbours, others were chatting contently in the shade as they watched the interaction.

Jess was among them. He lay back on his elbows, his head tilted to the sky and his eyes closed as he listened to Lane rant about the most recent band fallout. Luke was close by with Lorelai, slipping in and out of the diner to keep everyone happy with snacks and coffee.

He still had the bitter taste of the anti-depressants in his mouth.

"He just refused to play the riff and we everyone agreed it was kickass but it was like he was jealous he hadn't come up with it himself, you know? So now no one in the house is talking – which makes the divvying up of stale crackers and cheese that much more awkward."

"Struggling with money then?" Jess asked, his eyes still closed, but still listening.

"Luke's helping where he can – I think he purposely messes up orders when we're all at the diner so that we're 'doing him a favour' by eating them."

Jess nodded solemnly, "I once had wiener water soup to get by." He admitted.

"What's that?"

"You save the water from boiling hot dogs and add some crackers. Not as disgusting as it sounds."

"Jesus, Jess." Lane's voice was suddenly low, and as Jess opened his eyes, he noted her head bent and her eyes wide. "I didn't realise how bad it must have been –"

"Nah," Jess said, "That was when I was with Liz."

He once again was struck by the heavy silence.

"I've not taken the easy route in life." He admitted.

Lane nodded, lifted her can of soda in a 'cheers' and gulped it down.

"Do you want me to change the subject?"

He took her cringe into the can as a 'yes'.

"What's going on with Rory and Dean?"

Lane choked on her soda and Jess couldn't help but laugh at her discomfort. He waited patiently for her to finish coughing.

"Are you serious?" She eventually asked, her voice strained.

Jess simply raised an eyebrow.

"You're serious."

He shrugged.

"Why are you asking?" She pressed.

He hesitated before answering, dropping his voice to a decibel that he knew would discourage any curious ears. "I didn't like how possessive he used to be – I just kind of want to make sure she's okay."

"You noticed that too?"

"It's kind of hard to miss."

Lane sighed.

"You don't have to tell me-" Jess reassured.

"-This stays between us?" She quickly interrupted.

"Do I look like a gossip?"

She rolled her eyes. "I honestly don't know. I think they're staying together because otherwise they did it for no reason, you know?"

"Not really."

"I think you're aware that they had an affair – Dean got married after you left."

"Yeah, I know that much. When did this all start?"

"I think things started becoming secretive after your mum's wedding."

Lane continued to explain without noticing Jess' expression drop. He replayed it all – seeing Dean at her dorm and storming straight past him. Begging Rory to run away with him. He suddenly felt incredibly stupid, and suddenly very nauseous.

"Well, Lindsay found a note from Rory which basically revealed everything and Lindsay kicked Dean out."

Jess swallowed back the bile and responded, "Jeez, that's heavy."

"I think they feel that have to stay together because a marriage was broken because of it."

"You don't think they want to be together?" He asked slowly and hesitantly.

"It's incredibly awkward." She admitted. "And it was almost like Rory justified it to herself because he was her boyfriend first. I didn't really like how she acted about the whole thing."

"She's…" Jess hesitated, shaking his head, "different? I'm not really sure how to describe it. It's like she's a bit lost."

Lane nodded. "I get that feeling too. We don't speak as much as I'd like too."

"Life gets busy sometimes."

It was a peaceful comradery between the two after that. Without a care in the world they lay back and ignored the town around them, so much so that they missed a familiar car going past the main square and straight to the comfortingly names crapshack.

It was much later that she showed herself. Jess had been called back to work at the diner and was busy fulfilling the orders that Luke wrote in his incomprehensible scrawl. He wasn't surprised by her appearance in the diner. Her reaction was predictable. What wasn't was her sitting patiently and quietly in the corner of the establishment, a laptop open and a notebook next to her. She'd catch his eye, hold contact, and then carry on with her work. He was fully expecting an explosive reaction – instead he got small smiles and muted glances.

"I thought she'd gone back to campus." Luke queried.

"It's not like it's far, Luke."

"This wouldn't have anything to do with you would it?"

"I don't know what you could mean," He continued to wipe down the tables and avoid Luke's eye.

"Be careful, Jess."

This wasn't a chastising warning away from Rory. Luke was no longer trying to protect her – he saw the fallout of the last time. He witnessed Jess' confusion, his change, his downright obsession with the girl. Luke knew more than most how that could affect someone's emotions – especially since she was back with the man that, from the sounds of it, made their relationship hell.

It was a word of caution.

"I know what I'm doing Luke." Jess attempted to reassure.

"I sure hope that's true."

It wasn't until the lunchtime rush was over that Jess got the opportunity to join her at the table. She didn't speak immediately, so he sat opposite her, his arms folded and his eyes closed as he enjoyed the ambient noise surrounding them, his mind racing with images and vivid colours of a possible – well, he didn't really know what to call it other than a possible fantasy.

"I never found out what you wanted to be." Rory said simply. Eventually. It wasn't one of their private moments – the ones where they could have been the only people in the world, looking up at the night, listening to the water run underneath their bridge. Yes. Their bridge. No – it wasn't one of those moments, but it didn't stop it feeling any less personal.

For once it felt like the busybodies in the diner weren't listening to every word he said. It was almost like he'd gained their respect enough to warrant some form of privacy without the eavesdroppers listening in on every word. Maybe just the odd few.

Their cups of coffee sat between them. Jess' notebook open on a page that Rory could just about read upside down to realise it was another fictional tale and it thrilled her to a shake in her voice.

"What I wanted to be?"

"Picture this –" Rory said, sitting back on her chair and waving her hands in front of her as she set the scene, "You're driving my car. I've just berated you about not going to college and you turn to me and say 'What about you?'" She grinned, lowering her voice in some comical impression of the boy opposite her.

"Crystianna Amanpour," Jess recalled.

Rory smile, dropping her hands and her impression. "What should have happened," Rory continued, "Is that I would then turn to you and ask – what did you want to be?"

"I've never really thought about it." He shrugged, pulling a sip from his lukewarm coffee and shielding himself from her gaze.

"Come on Jess. In your perfect world – what would you be doing every day?"

Jess could immediately picture his perfect world. It was on his mind a lot recently and it just flashed in front of his vision for a moment. He knew he couldn't tell her all of it – but he had sudden aspirations that he felt wouldn't reveal too much.

"Writing." He answered simply.

"Is that what you're doing now?" She nodded to the notebook.

He simply grinned, slowly closing the cover.

"What are you doing now?" He turned it back to her, as he often did.

She readjusted herself in her seat and spoke quietly in order to hide the giant smile that kept threatening to fall over her fact. "I got the Features."

She would have thought he wasn't interested if she wasn't already used to his miniscule reactions, his eyes widening by the slightest amount as he drank from his mug. "What's the topic?"

"I was thinking something about the ease of Piracy nowadays with music and movies and things –"

"Could be interesting…" Jess commented.

"Could?"

He shrugged and let her stew on it. "It's your story, Rory. Write about whatever you think the world needs to hear."

"Rory?"

The diner went silent and suddenly the peaceful moment between them was broken. The busybodies were looking from the door, to the table, and back again.

Jess knocked on the table, picked up his notebook, and muttered a "See you later, Rory." Before leaving the table. He gave a small salute to Dean standing at the entrance as the ring of the bell above the door echoed through the room.

"I thought you were too busy to see anyone?" His voice shook, with anger or emotion, no one was sure yet, but the townspeople were certainly interested.

"Uh," Rory stumbled, looking around at the gossips, "Shall we take this outside?"

He grumbled, but followed Rory close behind as she pushed herself out of the door. The door shut behind them and everyone followed their path around the diner.

"Free coffee to anyone who minds their own business." Luke announced to the room, and like that, the gossips' heads were turned.

"So you don't have time for me, but can somehow travel back here and have a cosy conversation with Jess?"

As soon as they were around the corner, Dean's anger emerged and Rory cringed away from his comments.

"It's not like that, Dean."

"It sure feels that way. I'm having de-ja-vu here." He waved his hand between Rory and the diner, leaning forward in his anger and becoming more and more intimidating.

"I was just trying to find a quiet place to write." She insisted. "Jess works here, there's nothing more than that."

He hesitated before coming to a different conclusion, "He recommended that I give you that book – was that like a secret code or something?"

"Don't be ridiculous."

"Then what Rory?"

She stopped and really took in his anger. His jealous, aggressive attitude. Controlling and untrustworthy. And like that –

"Why the hell do you care?"

He pulled back.

"Hm? Dean? Why do you care? I don't go around second guessing every time you and Lindsay need to meet up to 'chat'. I don't question any of your actions. You think I should be this perfect, rule abiding girl who follows you for the rest of my life. Well no. I am independent. I am ambitious. And, frankly, I don't need you watching my every mood."

"Are you breaking up with me?"

"I guess I am."

With her arms crossed, she stared at his stuttering, gestating figure and with his words "Fine. I guess we are." The man stormed off back in the direction of his home.

And she felt like she could float.

There was a sudden weight off of her shoulders that she hadn't realised had been holding her down. She felt giddy.

She made her way back into the diner with a grin and a bounce in her step. Without saying a word to anyone, she grabbed her laptop and notes from the coffee table and stuffed them in her bag.

"Going so soon?" Jess asked as he slid towards her, swinging the tablecloth so it looked, at least, like he had a purpose for being there.

She grinned, nodded, and said "Thanks for everything, Jess," before skipping out of there.

"Er, no problem?" He said after her, watching as the girl got into her car and head off seemingly back in the direction of her campus.

"What did you do?" Luke asked mockingly as the patrons of the diner also followed her movements.

Jess didn't have an answer to that one.

Lorelai had invited Jess and Luke for dinner. What that translated as Luke was cooking in Lorelai's kitchen while she danced around him making jokes and sipping wine. It was entertaining for the first 10 minutes but Jess soon excused himself to the peace of the front porch.

He liked it there. Sat with a book, religiously filling it with notes, and feeling more and more comfortable in the place where he would have been chased away from not a year ago. The Gilmore Girls had made it comfortable. With their cushions and lights which made listening to the chirping of night-time birds, and rattling of crickets' sound ever more soothing.

The stars he looked to so often shone down in this place so clear that he felt he could reach out and touch each and every one of them. He enjoyed watching them flicker, comparing his meaningless little body to their gigantic essence. It was a weird sense of solitude and sadness that could humble a man.

The peace, however, could never last long in the Gilmore household. So when Lorelai danced out of the front door to join him, her hands behind her back and a grin on her face, he immediately knew she was up to something.

"What are you doing?" he said slowly, trying to lean forward to eye behind her.

"Do you not trust me?" She gasped, but the action was somewhat lacking with her hands still stuck behind her. She tried to stay quiet for longer, extending the tension, but soon broke and just threw her hands out in front of her.

"I seem to recall you searching for a red notebook?"

In her hands was the book he'd been searching for. The one with his original ideas and ramblings which he had desperately tried to emulate. He grabbed at it desperately and flicked through the paged to make sure it was real.

It was the one he had lost from all those weeks ago.

"Where did you find it?"

"You'll never believe it – but it was lodged between the couch cushions. I noticed it just before you both arrived."

He knew to be suspicious – he did. And maybe he was quite. But he made a decision to stick a pin in that feeling and relish in the fact he had his ideas and raw words back.

"Thank you, Lorelai." He said sincerely.

Grinning, she said "Anytime," and collapsed down next to him on the chair. "That's what mother's do –" She cut herself off quickly, realising her mistake.

"You're right." He agreed. "And what a damn good one you are."