A/N: Thank you guys for the reviews I've been getting – I love them and I love you! And I would love you even more if you wanted to review this chapter as well. *wink, wink*

And of course the movie from which I got the inspiration was Sweet Home Alabama.

Hope you'll like this chapter!

Recap:

"Rory!" The man exclaimed, with a surprised look on his face.

He stared at her for several seconds before he laughed and wrapped her in a hug. She was too surprised by the welcome to protest when he lifted her up and swirled her around.

She couldn't help but laugh as well.

"I'd never thought I'd see you again." The man said with a wide smile on his lips as he set her down inside the apartment.

She couldn't help but smile as well. "Well, here I am."

"Does Jess know you're back?" He asked, still smiling and shaking his head slightly as if he quite couldn't believe what he was seeing.

Rory shook her head. "No, and I'm not really ba–"

The man, who she instantly had recognized as Matt, interrupted her. "Then we have to go surprise him!" He gave her another quick hug and laughed. "God." He shook his head yet again as in disbelief. "I told him it was simply a matter of time before you'd come back."

"Matt, I–"

He cast a quick glance at his wrist watch and interrupted her again. "His shift just started. Come on!" He stepped out the door and gestured for her to follow.

With slow steps she followed him out the door, her mind all wrapped up around the misunderstanding that seemed to have taken place between her and Matt. "Listen, I–"

Matt smiled and interrupted her for the third time as he started walking down the stairs. "I can't wait for you to see what we've done with the place. You're gonna love it." He stopped and looked up at Rory, who hadn't moved a feet since stepping out the door. "Are you coming?" He asked impatience shining through his voice.

"I need to–" She started, but this time it was she that interrupted herself when she realized what he said. "What you've done to the place?" She asked, her mouth dropping open. "Are you saying?"

"Yep" A proud smile appeared on Matt's lips as he picked up his walk down the stairs, this time followed by a dazed Rory. "We finally made a move and bought the place."

"That's amazing!" She exclaimed, the reasons for her visit conveniently surpassed to the back of her mind. "Wow. I mean…congratulations." She turned towards him as they reached the end of the stairs and stopped him with a hand on his arm. "When? How?"

Matt smiled widely as he held the door open for them and ushered her out the door. "Well, almost two years ago, Mrs. Johnson started talking about retiring, but as neither of her children wanted to take over the coffee shop she felt a bit reluctant, she didn't want to sell it to someone that wouldn't appreciate the soul of the place"

Rory smiled almost as wide as he did as she could very well picture the aged Mrs. Johnson uttering those words. "So what happened?" Almost jumping up and down from excitement Rory turned around to face Matt, who was now walking behind her. "She gave you the place?"

Matt chuckled while grabbing her arm and steered her away from backing into a lamp post. "No, of course not. But we went to the bank and begged and pleaded and cried and out of pity they agreed to give us a loan."

"Out of pity?" Rory laughed as she fell into step with Matt, this time next to him, facing forward. "What bank are you with?"

"Well…" Matt rolled his eyes. "…there might have been something about a payment plan and estimated figures of some sort, but that's all Chris' headache, I merely contributed with the please-take-pity-on-us face"

She laughed and pointed at him with an accusing finger. "I know that face!" She nodded to herself, remembering all too well the times he used it whenever he wanted to trade shifts with her at the coffee shop. "It's a mighty good one"

"Please" Matt took a steady hold on Rory's arm and sank to his knees in front of her. "Please, I'll make it up to you in every way possible. I'll do the dishes for a week – no a month! Just please cover for me tonight"

Rory rolled her eyes at his over-dramatic gestures. "What's her name?" She smiled as she pulled Matt up from the floor with the arm he was still grabbing onto.

Matt returned her smile. "Lauren, and I think she could really be the one, you know?"

"You always say that" Rory watched as Matt brushed the floor-dust of his pants.

Matt shrugged his shoulder and met her eyes. "That's because I'm always looking for the one" His smile was replaced with a more serious look as he continued. "I want what you guys have and someday I hope I'll find my Rory"

Rory looked at him with a silly smile on her face, not knowing how to respond.

"By the way…" Matt added as he started to walk away, out of the staff-room. "…that really scary chick – Paris, is it? Or some other town, London maybe? – anyway, she called last night…again. You should maybe consider talking to her, she sounds like she could do some real damage if not obeyed" Matt stopped at the door and turned around. "Is she single, by any chance?"

"Here it is!" Matt announced and gestured towards the coffee-shop where he and Rory used to work together before she left that life behind and went back to college and started her new life; or picked up her old, depending on how you chose to look at things.

Rory stopped on the street and took it all in. The first thing she noticed was the sign. The old plate sign with the words "Mrs. Johnson's Coffee" was gone and replaced with a wooden sign revealing that behind these doors was "Truncheon Books and Coffee".

She turned to Matt. "Books and coffee?" Matt smiled and nodded proudly. "Books and coffee?" Rory asked again and clapped her hands together. "My two favorite things in the world – and you made a business out of them? I love it!"

"Well, I wish I could take all the credit – but to be honest, Jess and Chris had a little something to do with it as well" Matt said as he placed his hand on the small of her back and softly pushed her towards the entrance.

When Rory stepped through the doors at Truncheon, she felt as if though she'd died and gone to heaven. It wasn't big, but what they'd done to the space since she left amazed her. She was lost for words.

Two whole walls were covered from floor to ceiling with books. A few coffee tables that she recognized from Mrs. Johnson's time stood by a glass window facing the street outside. She looked over at the counter were a young girl with brown hair, pulled back into a loose ponytail, were pouring coffee for waiting customers.

She smiled towards an old man in the front of the line and Rory could feel the distinct smell of new-brewed coffee when she filled the man's cup with the black liquid from the pot in her hand. Books and coffee – the smell of both lingering in the air. If there was such a thing as heaven, this must be what it looked like.

"Over there's the reading corner" Matt ripped her from her thoughts as he pointed towards a secluded area in the corner of the store.

Rory turned in the direction at which he pointed and saw two small couches and three armchairs in a half circle around a small coffee table littered with books. She gasped for air, wanting to say something to praise him; to praise them for what they did, but she couldn't find the words.

Back when she left all of this had felt like a far too distant dream. Something they had talked about late at night when they had had one too many beers. She had never thought that it was something that would actually ever be.

She had thought the guys had all felt content merely working in the coffee shop. She swirled around and took it all in again. If only she had known…

"Don't you have any ambitions Jess? No hopes and dreams for the future? You're happy pouring other people coffee all day?"Rory threw her hands around gesturing while she spoke in a more and more agitated voice. She didn't know where the anger had come from, but suddenly it was there and their disagreement had turned into a full-blown fight.

"Not this again." Jess sighed, trying to walk away into the next room.

Now wanting to give up on the argument, which she really, despite the anger, did feel was to important to let go, Rory followed him. "That's your big dream? Pouring coffee and serving meals? You're better than that Jess, and you know it!"

"Rory, drop it."He said with a low, harsh voice.

"I just don't get why you won't sign up for the GED test." Didn't he understand that his future was at stake? He could do such great things and he didn't even know it, or maybe he knew it and simply didn't care. She sighed deeply as the anger left her as suddenly as it had showed up.

Jess turned around and faced her. "Because we don't have the money." He talked slowly and enunciated every word distinctly, as if trying to explain something to a child. "I don't have time to study for the test. If we want a roof above our heads I need to work."

"But it's your future we're talking about! If you don't get your GED you'll be stuck working in a place with minimum wage for the rest of your life. You have great potential, don't throw your future away like that!"Rory argued as if her life depended on him understanding the importance of it.

Jess' face turned hard and cold and his voice was calm. "Like you threw your future away when you decided to come with me?"

She sighed and threw her head back in exacerbation. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath before opening them again. "No. That's not what I'm saying."

"But you're thinking it, aren't you?" He asked and locked eyes with her. Rory pursed her lips together and shook her head as tears started to burn behind her eyelids.

She couldn't tell him that that thought had never crossed her mind. But he wouldn't understand if she told him how she feared that she would never go back, that she would never pursue her dream of becoming a journalist.

She couldn't tell him that even though she loved him more than she had ever thought it was possible to love another person, that wasn't enough: she still wanted her dream, a dream that seemed to become more and more distant with every passing day.

"I have to leave for work, otherwise I'll be late" Rory said and broke eye-contact with him as she turned around and stepped out of the room. He didn't follow.

"Sophie!" Matt called to get the attention of the young woman behind the counter. "Where's Jess?" He asked when the woman looked up from the coffee pot and met his eyes.

"In the back" She answered and pointed towards a door a little further down the room.

"Maybe I should–" Rory started, but the sentence was left unfinished as Matt took a hold on Rory's wrist and dragged her with him through the door.

"Jess!" He shouted as he pushed the door open. "There's someone here to see you" Matt's smile grew wider as he pushed Rory in front of him.

She looked down at her feet as she stumbled forward and she regained her balance and looked back up her eyes fell on Jess, sitting behind a desk in what used to be Mrs. Johnson's office.

Her next breath hitched in her throat when she saw him. It had been so long – three years to be exact. He still looked the same. Maybe a bit older, but mainly the same. God, why did it suddenly feel so hard to breathe?

For what felt like forever she simply stood there, looking into his eyes. It had always felt so good to get lost in his eyes. They were truly amazing eyes.

"What are you doing here?" Jess put his pen down and broke the eye-contact.

His voice. She had almost forgotten the sound if it. "I–" She started but was once again cut off by Matt.

"Come on." He said with a pleading look in his eyes. "I know there's a lot of unsolved businesses and hurt feelings going on here, but can't you please put that off until tomorrow? Rory's back and I want to celebrate!"

Rory looked down at her feet, feeling very uneasy. "Well…umm…" She started, not quite knowing how to continue. She felt both Matt and Jess staring at her, waiting for her to continue, so she cleared her throat and made an attempt at it, still with her gaze set on her feet. "Actually…I'm not really back"

Matt continued to stare at her with the look of a small child being let down by his parents. Jess scoffed and leaned back in his chair, looking rather amused by her uneasiness. "Well then…why don't you tell us what brings you to our neck of the woods? Got lost?"

Looking up at him in what she attempted to be a pleading look she saw the newspaper on his desk: yesterday's New York Time. The paper her grandmother had insisted on placing an engagement announcement in. Rory had no idea how she had managed to get it in so fast, maybe she had reserved a spot, hoping that Logan would propose.

However it had happened didn't matter. What mattered was that the paper was here, on Jess' desk, folded with the page containing the announcement up. If she squinted her eyes she could see herself looking out from the photo where she was standing next to Logan.

She took a deep breath. She had failed on all levels. Not only had she not told her fiancé she was already married, but the paper had beat her to telling her husband that she was engaged. Yeah, failing was the appropriate word here.

"I think you know why I'm here" She said quietly, feeling embarrassed at how she had handled, or rather not handled, the situation.

"No, I don't" Jess said and shook his head, his eyes not leaving hers for a second. "Tell me, I'm intrigued" The smug smile on his lips told her that he knew very well why she was here, he simply wanted to force her to say the words out loud.

"I– " She took a deep breath to calm her nerves, her face was stern when she met his eyes. "I want a divorce"

Jess simply nodded. "Okay"

She smiled nervously, surprised at how easy it all had went. No yelling, no screaming, no accusations and pointed fingers. "I have the papers right here" She said and pulled them out of her bag as she started walking towards his desk, relieved at getting an actual task to focus her hands on.

Matt still stared at the both of them, frozen to the ground as in shock. Rory shot him a quick, nervous smile before turning towards Jess again and placing the papers on the desk in front of him. "You just need to sign here" She pointed at the front paper and then flipped to the last paper. "And here" She pointed again.

Jess nodded again and then shoved the papers aside and focused on what he'd been working on when they stepped in. "I'll send them to you as soon as I get a chance to look through them"

She bit her lip and looked around the room before her eyes landed on Jess' face again. "Is there a problem?" He asked with a smirk on his face.

"I–I was hoping you could sign the papers right away so I could hand them to my lawyer on Monday"

"What's the rush? You're not knocked-up, are you? This isn't a shotgun wedding, is it?"

She pinched her eyes shut. "Jess, please…" She pleaded.

"You do understand I have to read these through before signing them?" He looked up from his work for a few seconds before he continued. "I need to make sure you're not trying to rip me off here."

She sighed. "Jess, I don't want anything from you, other than your signature on those papers"

"Yeah" He snorted, laying down his work and leaning back in his chair again. "You've made that very clear these last couple of years"

She frowned, an irritated feeling growing inside her. "What's that supposed to mean?"

He shrugged his shoulders. "Three years and no phone calls, no letters…" He sighed and placed his right hand on his chest in mock hurt. "…not even a card on our anniversary"

"Jess please, don't make this any harder than it has to be" She pleaded again.

"Who's saying it's hard?" Jess answered and locked eyes with her, his face motionless.

"Jess…"She said again, on the verge of breaking into tears. Of course it was hard, wasn't it for him?

He sighed. "Leave the papers, I promise I'll look through them later" Now his voice sounded calm and reasonable. "I just need to get these numbers down…" He gestured towards the computer screen in front of him. "..and then I'll look at the papers"

Rory nodded. "Thank you"

"Glad to be of service" Jess muttered as he went back to looking through the papers on his desk and dotting on the computer.

Rory nodded again, to herself this time and turned around looking for Matt, only to discover he wasn't there anymore. She sighed and headed for the door.

.

An hour later, Rory was sitting in one of the couches in the reading corner, trying to focus on the paperback in her hands, but it was an impossible task.

She felt embarrassed at how badly she had handled this whole situation with Jess. She should have come clean with her mother about the marriage the second she stepped through her door in Stars Hollow. She should have started working on the divorce right away. Hell, she shouldn't have gotten married in the first place. How could she have been so naïve as to think that getting married would solve all their problems?

"Are you sure about this?" Jess whispered as they stood waiting outside the wedding chapel they'd chosen.

Rory nodded. "I'm sure" She squeezed his hand that was holding hers as a confirmation of her words.

Jess smiled. "Good"

Rory smiled back, hoping he wouldn't pick up on the nervousness behind her smile. They were doing the right thing. They loved each other, they wanted to be together and maybe getting married would stop Jess from thinking she regretted having followed him to New York. At least then, one of their problems would be history.

Rory shook her thoughts away. There had been a lot of them lately; thoughts about their life together. That didn't mean anything though, she told herself. She was revisiting that life, it wasn't odd for those thoughts to pop into her head – it was natural if anything.

She looked around the store, searching for Jess. He hadn't left the office since their talk and she didn't want to stress him and make him change his mind about co-operating with the divorce.

Seeing Chris standing behind the counter she smiled and got up from the couch. She hadn't noticed him entering, he must have sneaked in while she was trying to focus on her novel. She walked up to the counter and sat down at one of the barstools on the side of it.

"Hey" She smiled towards him, trying to get his attention.

"Can I get you anything?" He asked as he walked past her, attending another customer and hardly even looking in her direction.

"Yeah…I…" Rory drifted off. Didn't he recognize her?

"I just wanted to say hey" She tried again, looking down at the counter.

"Hey" He said without smiling. "If that was all, I would appreciate if you gave up your seat in favor for an actual paying customer" He turned away and smiled towards a woman with two children standing in line at the other end of the counter.

Rory sighed. Of course. She hadn't expected them to welcome her back with arms open after how she left everything, but this. She and Chris had been so close. In a world were Lane, Paris and her mother weren't there, Chris and Matt had become her best friends and now Chris pretended as if he didn't even know her and Matt…Matt had disappeared without a word.

For the second time that day she felt like she wanted to burst into tears.