So, I'm back to writing after a veery long hiatus and I'm working on updating and finishing all my stories. Hope there's anyone still interested in reading them :)

Jess stepped out from the bathroom and into the kitchen, he leaned against a counter and looked at Rory, sitting with her knees pulled up against her chest on one of the kitchen chairs. He furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. "A minute ago you were too tired to keep your eyes open"

"I got hungry" Rory said and held the ice-cream container up, as if that explained everything.

Jess looked amused. "Ah, of course"

"You want some?" She asked and held the spoon out towards him.

He shook his head and laughed. "Nice shirt you got on" He gestured towards his Metallica t-shirt, which she threw on as she remembered there was a box of ice-cream sitting in the freezer, waiting for her.

"Yeah, you think?" She grinned at him.

"Very nice. In fact, I was thinking I should pick one up myself."

She shook her head at him and smiled.

Rory flipped onto her side as she was lying in bed, trying to go back to sleep. Ever since she'd woken up about an hour ago after silently crying herself to sleep, happy memories of her and Jess' life together had been parading through her mind and she couldn't get them to stop.

"I'm not tired anymore" Rory stated as she lay with her head rested on Jess' chest and his arms tightly placed around her, holding her close.

"Really? With all the sugar you just filled your body with?" He smirked. "I'm shocked."

"Why didn't you stop me?" She pouted.

"Get between a Gilmore and her ice-cream? You think I have a death-wish?"

"Read some of your Hemingway to me." She pleaded. "That should probably help"

"No way I'm letting you degenerate Hemingway into that" He protested, trying to sound offended.

"But I have work tomorrow, I really need to sleep"

"Then eating all that ice-cream probably wasn't the smartest move" He smirked and softly kissed her forehead.

"Hey" She slapped his chest. "It's your fault, you know, for draining all my energy earlier"

"Really" He lifted his eyebrows. "I didn't hear you complaining."

"I wasn't." She assured him. "I was just stating facts, and facts are: it's your fault I can't sleep"

"Huh" He couldn't hold back a smile. "How did you manage to turn all this into being my fault?"

"You know, the energy draining, making the energy refill necessary"

"I see" He smirked and slowly started flipping them around, placing him on top of her. "So you're saying you need help to get rid of all that sugar-induced energy?"

"Well, I'd say it's only fair, seeing how this is all your fault to begin with"

With a frustrated grunt, Rory gave up on trying to fall back asleep. She needed to do something. She needed to occupy her mind with something that would shut those memories out. She glanced over at Logan, who was still sound asleep, and with a deep sigh she got out of bed determined to find something to occupy her mind with.

When Logan woke up later that morning, he found the apartment in disarray and Rory, all sped up on caffeine, sitting at the table and rapidly moving papers around, placing them in different stacks.

"Good morning." He called for her attention as he made his way towards her, trying to figure out what was going on.

"Good morning." Rory answered in a chipper voice and gave him a quick smile before she returned her focus to the papers in front of her.

Logan looked at the mess and at his fiancée and wondered how long she'd been up. "Remember Hugo Gray?" She suddenly asked while briefly looking up from the stack of papers.

"Sure." Logan answered with a confused look on his face. "The online magazine guy you've been writing for."

"Yes." Rory nodded energetically. "I called him to see…"

"You called him?" Logan looked at his watch. "Now? Rory, it 6.30 in the morning."

"He was up." Rory assured him, still nodding and taking a sip out of the huge cup of coffee she had placed next to the papers on the table. Logan gave her a disbelieving look and she continued: "Anyway, I thought it would be a good idea to meet with him and see if he has any contacts in California, maybe he could set me up with someone in California or maybe…"

"Slow down." Logan pleaded and looked at the mess around him. "What are you doing here, Ace?"

"Organizing." She explained and took another mouthful of coffee.

"At 6.30 in the morning?" He raised his eyebrows.

"Things needed to be organized."

Logan took a deep breath and reached for her hand. "Come." He said and dragged her up from the chair and away from the stack of papers she was organizing.

"But the papers…" Rory argued, reaching her hand out towards them as Logan dragged her with him in direction of the couch.

"Sit." He ordered as he sat himself down, patting on the space next to him on the couch and with a sigh she did. "Explain." He continued with a smile.

"Well, the papers…" She started with a gesture towards the table she'd been sat at when Logan found her.

"…needed organizing." Logan interrupted. "I got that."

"Yes." Rory nodded enthusiastically. "Because if you just throw them in a box, unorganized, then you'd have to organize them when you unpack and that's just an unnecessary waste of time, because there will be hundreds of other boxes that needs to be unpacked and organized as well and…"

"Rory." He cut her off, tilting his head slightly to the side, with a pleading look on his face. "What's really going on here?"

Rory took a deep breath and stared at her feet. This was it. She had to tell him. The only way to get the thoughts of Jess out of her mind was to tell Logan about them so that they could move forward together. She took another deep breath. "Well…there is something I've been meaning to talk to you about." She could hear how tired and defeated her voice sounded and obviously so could Logan, judging from the worried look on his face.

"Okay. " He spoke slowly and took one of her hands in his, squeezing it softly.

"I…" She started but then quickly lost her nerve. How did you go about telling your fiancé that you were already married to someone else? "I…" She started again and without even looking she could feel Logan's eyes on her, growing more and more worried with each second. "I can't marry you." She spluttered the words out without thinking and instinctively she put her hand over her mouth in shock or maybe to stop any more words from spluttering out.

"What?" Logan practically screamed looking hurt, confused and just a tad bit angry all in one.

"I mean, technically, I can't marry you." She tried to explain, making him look even more confused.

"What?" He repeated, a little bit calmer this time.

She took a deep breath and started talking rapidly. "I know I should have told you this when you proposed. No." She shook her head. "I should have told you this when we started dating. Before we started dating even. I should have told you, but I didn't and now everything's all messed up."

"Told me what?"

His voice revealed that he was on the verge of his patience and so Rory took another deep breath and turned to face him. "That I'm already married."

Logan's eyes practically doubled in size as he stared at her. "You're kidding, right? You've got to be kidding."

"I'm afraid not." Rory sighed. "But we haven't talked for three years; we just kind of…forgot…to get divorced when we broke up." She quickly added, hoping that it would make Logan feel at least a little bit better. She never meant to hurt him.

"Forgot?" Logan echoed, sounding very skeptical. "But how did…" He shook his head and started again: "When did…?" He rubbed his face with his hands and took a deep breath. "Care to explain?"

Not knowing quite where to start, Rory spluttered out the words "High-school boyfriend" and "Vegas" and to her great surprise, Logan took a few seconds to process the information and then started laughing.

"Logan?" Rory asked, worried that he might have lost his mind.

"I'm sorry." He said and then leaned forward to place a kiss on her lips, with laughter still lingering on his lips. "It's just…" He smiled wide. "…when you said you were already married I thought there was this great love story behind it and I'm…I'm just relieved I guess."

"Huh." She simply uttered, not knowing what else to say. She had pictured this scenario in her head a thousand times over the last couple of days and not in a single one of those scenarios had Logan started laughing or told her he was relieved.

"How very Britney of you." Logan was still smiling. "So you're getting divorced, I assume?"

"He didn't contest." She answered absent-mindedly.

"Good." He kissed her again.

"Yeah." Rory nodded and looked at Logan, still smiling on the couch next to her. She wondered why she wasn't feeling more relieved at how well he had handled the news of her still being married to her ex-boyfriend. "Good." She echoed with much less enthusiasm.

"We need to work marketing into the budget somehow." Chris stated as he flipped some papers around on the desk before him.

"Couldn't we do most of the marketing ourselves?" Jess suggested. "Mouth-to-mouth, spreading the word kind of thing?"

Matt zoomed out as his colleagues started discussing various marketing options. He was unfocused and he knew he wouldn't be able to contribute to the marketing discussion right now. All his thoughts were occupied with the letter he'd sent to Rory. She must have gotten it by now.

So why hadn't they heard from her? Why wasn't she already here, throwing herself in Jess' arms and declaring her love for him?

He knew he was right about this. There was no way she loved that other guy the same way she loved Jess.

And he…Matt repressed a sigh. He'd been throwing himself at any opportunity to work; he had practically been living at the bookstore since she left this second time. He could claim he didn't care all he wanted, but Matt knew that he was hurt and heart-broken.

They belonged together – why was that so hard for them to see and acknowledge that?

Rory had no idea how she had ended up here, walking the streets of New York. After her meeting with Hugo Gray she had needed to clear her head and instead of getting into her car and driving back to New Haven, she had started walking.

Logan had called two times, but she hadn't picked up. He was probably calling to ask how the meeting had gone and she couldn't quite explain why she couldn't bring herself to answer his calls. The meeting had gone well – great, even.

She should be answering his calls. She should be telling him to bring out the champagne, because they had celebrating to do when she got back. But she did neither of those things; instead she just kept on walking

It wasn't until she finally stopped right across the street from 'Truncheon books and coffee' that she realized that this was where she'd been heading ever since she'd left Hugo's office. The store was closed, but there was still a dim light inside and she could see someone moving around behind the counter.

Noah built a house 'cause he thought that would make Allie come back. Jess built a bookstore.

The words from Matt's letter echoed through her mind as she slowly started making her way across the street towards Truncheon.

All the dreams and hopes that the two of you shared – he made them come true, hoping that one day you'd come back.

She hadn't come back. The divorce papers where probably at her lawyer's office by now and she was engaged to another man. An unexplainable lump started growing in her throat.

…it's all still there, waiting for you to come back home.

Home. She took a deep breath when she stopped outside the window, watching as Jess cleaned out the coffee pots behind the counter. Where was home, really? At Logan's? San Francisco? Stars Hollow? Here?

As if he felt someone watching him, Jess lifted his head and looked out the window and they both stood frozen to the ground when their eyes met through the window. For a long time, they stood like that, watching into each other's eyes without moving. It was as if though time was standing still and moving backwards all at the same time.

She had no idea how long they'd been standing like that, just watching each other when Jess suddenly broke eye contact, went to turn the lights off and disappeared into the back office.

Feeling completely drained of all the energy that had compelled her to walk all this way for reasons she neither couldn't nor didn't want to understand, Rory took a deep breath and closed her eyes. When she opened them a few seconds later, the store was still dark and empty and she turned around and started walking in the other direction – back towards her car.