A/N: Thanks again for all the reviews! Your reviews keep me so motivated to write :D This is a longer chapter, hope you enjoy!

Chapter 7

Jess stared at her. He wanted to remember her like this. Excited eyes, red lips slightly smiling, panting from speed-talking. She was… perfect. His heart was racing. He took a breath and said, 'Listen, Rory, we need to talk.'

'We can talk later. There's something else I wanna do now.' Rory reached up again and kissed him slowly. Her lips were warm and soft and it made him shiver, as he pulled her waist closer to his. She caressed his neck in a way that made him sigh, almost moan, softly as they kissed. When she tried to draw back to catch her breath, Jess's lips followed hers, capturing them again and nibbling at her lower lips gently. Tightening his grip around her waist, he kissed her again and again, each time more insistently, savoring it as much as he could. He wanted nothing more than to keep kissing her until his head spun and cleared of all thoughts of what he was supposed to tell her tonight. When she finally pulled away, she was smiling, trying to read his eyes. As much as he tried, and he really tried, he couldn't help but return her smile.

'So I was thinking, we could grab some food and eat at the bridge. I just hope it doesn't rain. How does pizza sound?' She asked, her voice gentle against his lips.

He nodded and watched as she ranted about pizza toppings and garlic breadsticks. When it came to food, he'd learned early on that he didn't need to provide much input. When Rory wanted food, she bought the whole menu, nothing stopped her. As she talked animatedly, he couldn't help feeling like he was watching this moment from the outside, like he was more of an observer. When he finally tells her, will she remember this moment and think he was playing her? Leading her on? Will she be able to get excited about pizzas and warm spring weather again?

And what about him? Jess remembered the days after he crashed her car. When he returned to his mother's house and tried to settle back into his old life, his mind had started to reel. He'd look at anything mundane, a cup of coffee or a bookstore or a blue sweater, and feel a pain in his chest so awful, so severe, that he could hardly catch his breath. He'd thought he was going insane, seeing her everywhere and hearing her voice in his head. With every movie or song or book he started, her voice was there raving, mocking, or teasing him. That was before they were even together, so he'd tried to ignore her insistence in his head, assumed it to be guilt or a silly crush. But now, after this, he didn't know what sort of madness would befall him once he left her for good.

He still had that observer feeling, even as they sat eating pizza at their spot on the bridge, with their shoes off, feet dangling over the edge of the bridge. He smiled on cue, nodded along to keep the conversation going, but he still felt as though she could hear his heart hammering. When they were done eating almost their body weight in pizza, he set the boxes aside and realized he'd spaced out while looking at her bright eyes and watching her talk. '—even Paris could tell how distracted I was today. At the paper, I tried to tell her I didn't get enough sleep, worrying about exams and all. But she just stared at me like she could see right through it. Do I look that different? Is it that obvious?' She touched her cheeks anxiously, her face turning bright red.

'Oh, yeah, I do see it. It's a glow.' He said softly, only half-teasing.

'Oh god, that's real?' Her face was turning redder, smoothing the edge of her plaid skirt.

He reached up to touch her cheek. He wanted to tell her how beautiful she looked, but his mouth wouldn't really formulate the words.

'It's a good thing, right?' Rory cocked her head.

'What do you mean?'

'It's just, you haven't said anything. I've been rambling about stuff and you seem a bit… detached.'

'I just had too much pizza.' He said unconvincingly.

'Jess.' Her clear eyes bore into his.

'I did. Not all of us have a bottomless pit of a stomach, you know.'

Rory paused. She stared at the lake, chewing on her lower lip, then said. 'Was I bad at it?'

'What?'

'Yesterday. Was I bad at it? 'Cause I thought you looked… I mean, you looked like you…' Her face was turning red again.

He had to chuckle at that, as he edged closer to her. 'Oh, no. Trust me, you were way too good at it.'

'Way too good?'

'I was going crazy all day here.'

She rolled her eyes.

'Believe me, it was embarrassing.'

Rory gave him a look.

Jess sighed, 'It's the first time I ever… slept with someone and wanted to stick around after. Even with your crazy mom and all.' He paused, his voice dropping a notch, 'And you were... amazing, really.'

Her eyes softened, and then she poked his chest playfully. 'And you turned out to be a cuddler, who would've guessed?'

He hung his head and pretended to groan at that. 'I am not!'

'It was adorable.'

'You were hallucinating. I'm denying it ever happened.'

Rory leaned her head against his shoulder. 'I won't. I liked that you did, it was nice.'

Jess hung his head again, but knew better than to argue. He settled his arm around her shoulders instead.

Rory's voice turned softer, as she nuzzled her head into his shoulder. 'So then… what's wrong?'

'Nothing's wrong.' The smell of her hair was really intoxicating. He could barely do more than mumble.

'So I guess we're avoiding it then, huh?'

He sighed. 'Right now, yes.'

They settled into a long silence. The pressure of her head on his shoulder was doing a lot to relax him, as he busied himself drawing circles on her back with his fingers. After a long time, which, to Jess, still seemed like too soon, Rory began to fidget.

'You don't have to leave, you know? Jess?'

'Rory, I wish I didn't.'

Rory pulled away, looking at him. Her eyes were reading his and it was scary how she seemed to almost see inside him, as though she were reading his thoughts. She pursed her lips, her eyes getting watery. 'So… California, you decided?'

His voice cracked. 'I have to.'

'You don't though. You don't have to. Not right away, not at all, even.' Rory's voice was pleading.

'There's nothing for me here. I don't have anywhere else to go.'

'We can figure that out. We could talk to Luke, together. Or my mom, or even your mom. '

'This town hates me, Rory. They all already kicked me out.' Jess leaned back and stood up, running a hand through his hair.

Rory rose to meet his eyes. 'Not if you make an effort. They'll give you a chance.'

'I don't deserve it.'

She shook her head. 'How long will you stay in California then?'

'I don't know.'

'But after that, you'll come back here, right?'

'I don't think so.'

'So, New York? Or New Haven? You could find a place there and a job close to Yale.' Rory said hopefully.

'I can't promise you anything, Rory. There's no plan and there's nothing I can offer you.' Jess heard himself say, feeling like he was speaking underwater.

'But you said you'd call, that you'd get a cell phone.' She reminded him quietly.

He was silent.

'How is this supposed to work then? Telepathy?' Rory scoffed at him.

He sighed, shaking his head. 'The way your life is going, Yale and all your plans… How would this have worked anyway?'

Rory stepped back, her anger flashing, 'How is my life messing with anything? Yale doesn't change anything between us!'

'I'd be stringing you along.'

'I want this. With you. You're not stringing me –' Rory squeezed her eyes shut. 'Mom said that to you?'

'That has nothing to do with it. No.'

'What did she say to you? Where is this coming from?'

'Look, it doesn't matter.'

'Doesn't matter? I want you here. The way things went last night… I know you want this too. I'm not letting you leave again without a fight.'

Jess gave her a pained look, 'Rory… The deal was I stay one night till I figure out a plan, and now I have… So this was always going to happen.'

'Well, the plan you figured out is stupid!' Rory cried, her eyes taking on a stormy blue edge.

'Rory.' Jess tried to reason.

'Going cross country and cutting all contact? That's the plan you want?'

He tried to explain again, looking at his feet. 'I can't let you wait around for me. Not when I can't promise anything. I'm not gonna do that.'

'So you'd rather make us both miserable?'

Jess had nothing to say to that.

'No, you're staying.' Rory said stubbornly. 'You're not leaving like this. Not again.'

'Where am I supposed to stay then? Here?' He waved around incredulously.

'At least until graduation.'

'That's weeks away!'

'That's what you were gonna do anyway, before the fight with Luke. You were gonna stay in Stars Hollow till graduation, then start your life after that. So let's follow that plan then!'

'That's not gonna work anymore, Rory. I've got no place here and no place in your life. My best bet is going to my dad's and I can't risk screwing you up while I'm there!'

Rory stared at him for a few beats. Then she set her jaw and started searching for shoes. 'I can't believe she did this!'

Jess was blocking her way to her shoes. 'Rory, what are you doing?'

She gave him a tense look and turned to leave. Then, she called out, not turning around. 'I'm taking care of this.'

Jess followed her, surprised when she squirmed away from his hands. 'Rory, stop. You're not going back to your mom's place.'

'Well, tough. 'Cause that's where we're going.' Her voice was ice.

Rory broke into a run before Jess could open his mouth to retort. Jess could barely follow what was happening, as he tried to grab at her, but instead, tripped over the pizza boxes on the floor. 'Seriously, we just gonna leave our shoes here?'

She ignored him and continued to run. He groaned, as he chased her over the bridge and into the surrounding park. He recognized the shortcut route to her house. 'Rory, stop. How're you gonna get over the creek?'

As it turned out, Rory jumped over the creek, and Jess followed, stumbling into it. She managed to evade him by turning away as she ran, her tiny frame weaving through the trees nimbly. Nothing stopped her till they got to the house. Jess felt like an idiot, his pants were wet to the knees and they were both still barefoot.

He finally caught up to her right by the house, grabbing her shoulder. 'Rory, calm down. Let's just talk, ok?'

'Mom!' She called out, panting heavily.

'What are you doing?'

'Mom!' She called at the house again, louder.

'Are you crazy? I'm not talking to her!' Jess tried to whisper.

Lorelai unlocked the door in confusion. 'What's going on? Rory?'

Jess dropped his hand and turned to leave, but Rory was faster. She pulled his arm and held on the sleeve tightly. 'You two are stubborn as hell.' She looked between Jess and her mother, both of whom shared an identical look of exasperation. 'But you have some talking to do.'

Lorelai was staring at them like they lost their minds. 'Where are your shoes?'

'We don't need shoes. You and Jess are gonna talk.' Rory said pointedly to her mother.

'Jess, did you fall into the lake?' Lorelai stared at Jess instead.

'Where'd you learn to run like that?' Jess demanded at Rory.

Rory could see Babette's head peeking out of the downstairs window. She resolved her face and scrunched her eyebrows. 'Inside. Both of you. Now.'

Rory had known it wouldn't be easy to get them talking, their silent glares were proving that. Their combined levels of stubbornness made this conversation seem like an insurmountable task, but Rory wasn't going to give up.

'Rory, what is Jess doing here?' Lorelai waved at Jess, her eyes furious.

'I wanna know what happened today.' Her eyes darted between Jess and her mom.

'Hey, do you remember the conversation we had before you left the house this morning?' Lorelai addressed Rory sharply.

'I remember telling you to give him a chance. I remember telling you he was good to me.' Rory bit back. And that I loved him, she added mentally.

'I promised I'd be civil to Jess and I was. As civil as I could be anyway, given the circumstances.' Her mother scowled.

Rory drew in a breath and announced. 'I want Jess to stay here till graduation.'

Jess and Lorelai, who never agreed on anything, both replied in unison, 'NO!'

'It's the only good outcome. His plan sucks!' Rory exclaimed.

Lorelai's head shook in vehement disapproval. 'Rory, that's NOT going to happen.'

'Yeah, I told you. I'm not staying in this town.' Jess agreed.

'This is ridiculous!' Rory turned to her mom, 'You of all people should know what it's like to run away and drop out of school. I can't believe you'd kick him out like this.'

'I didn't kick him out!'

'You even told him not to call me!'

Lorelai turned to Jess in disbelief. 'You told her I said that?'

'No!' Jess exclaimed.

'He didn't have to!' Rory flung her arms up, 'And him walking away and cutting all contact? How is that any good for him?'

Jess opened his mouth to speak, but Lorelai was faster. 'My only responsibility is to you, Rory. I have to do what's best for you here.'

'Your responsibility is to be a good person, not treat Jess the way grandma treated you.'

'You are way out of line. I did not give him the Emily-treatment.'

'You think Mia would've done this?'

Jess felt more and more awkward to be part of this conversation. He closed his eyes in frustration. Between Rory and Lorelai's lightning-fast comebacks, it was nearly impossible to interject. It was incredibly humiliating to watch them debate his life like this and he considered walking away from the conversation… but he'd never seen Rory so angry, ever. Rory, his soft-spoken, bookish girlfriend, was fighting for him to stay. Could that really happen?

'All that stuff you always said about how hard things were for you when I was a kid, how hard it was to start a life from scratch, all alone. Why won't you help? Why would you go and make things worse?'

'Rory, I don't need –' Jess started.

Lorelai cut him off again. 'I didn't do anything wrong here. I told him to go figure out his life then come back when he's ready.'

'He can figure out his life here, with us. You got your GED here, then your degree and you have connections. You know you can help!'

'He doesn't want my help!' Lorelai defended in frustration.

'How would you know that? You can do so much to help, and you didn't even offer!'

Jess was getting dizzy listening to them argue. God, they were fast, speaking all over each other. It was like they shared the same mind. He remembered the last talk he had with his mom when he'd announced he was going back to live with Luke. There'd barely been any resistance, it'd been a quick dismissal followed by her throwing his stuff at him. If he remembered correctly, her last words to him were 'Fine, go be Luke's problem now, I don't wanna see your sorry face back here again anyway.' This, here with the Gilmores, was possibly the longest debate anyone's had about his welfare.

Jess's mind snapped back to the conversation, just as Rory was saying, '– Because Luke is our family, which makes Jess family too. You're the one who said that, remember?'

'Wait, what?' Jess's eyes widened taking in Rory's words.

Lorelai was momentarily silent. When she spoke again, her voice was quieter, 'I said the thing about Luke being like family because he was like a dad to you as a kid… Rory, we can't possibly…' She glanced briefly at Jess, and sighed, 'It's completely inappropriate, Rory!'

'So you would let Luke stay here, like back when his apartment got flooded, but not Jess?'

'That was forever ago and it was completely different.'

'Luke's apartment took weeks to fix!'

Jess was surprised to hear this. Had Luke stayed in Lorelai's house before? How had he not known about that? No wonder the old man knew his way around Lorelai's house so well.

'Luke is a grown man, who knows how to be respectful and trustworthy. Jess is a teenager, who got you to sleep with him on the one night he spent here!'

'I trust Jess and you trust me, don't you?'

'That has nothing to do with it. We still can't let him stay here, Rory!'

'So when you say you love Luke and that he's family, then he gets to stay. But when I say that about Jess, somehow it doesn't count?'

'Rory…' Jess was taken aback, blinking at Rory with wide eyes. Had Rory just said what he thought she said? Lorelai was also struck into silence, staring at Rory in curious disbelief. Rory was avoiding both of their gazes.

The silence dragged on for a few seconds, before Lorelai broke it. 'Well, we can't have him here unless something changes. It's not gonna be a repeat of what happened last night, or what happened with Luke.' She turned to Jess. 'You get that, Jess?'

Jess nodded carefully, barely believing what he was hearing.

'We're gonna have clear terms and if you break them, you have to move out. No arguments, you understand?' He was getting the business side of Lorelai now.

Rory pushed her hair out of her face intently and took a deep breath. 'Mom, Jess, can we make a truce?'

Lorelai ran her hands over her face. 'No.'

Jess tried to keep a blank face, though his heart still plummeted. Of course, Lorelai reserved the right to change her mind. Rory had put up a good fight, but the output was as expected.

Lorelai took a breath and continued, 'we need to get Luke here first. I'm not doing this behind his back.'

Jess exhaled loudly, feeling himself getting lightheaded with a surprising sense of relief. Rory nodded contentedly and grabbed the phone.

Jess observed that there was a very distinct switch that flipped between Rory and Lorelai. One second they were arguing about major life decisions, like taking him into their house. The next second, Lorelai announced she was starving and they somehow managed to switch to a debate on their Chinese food options, seemingly back into their usual routine.

'Al's Pancake World, definitely.' Rory asserted.

'But the chicken chow-mein was too dry last time. Plus, they have the 'Salute to Paraguay' again this week.' Lorelai argued.

'What about Ching's Chow? Or Mama Mia's?' Rory suggested.

'Soggy food and slow delivery. Mia's took two hours last time.' Lorelai complained.

'That's 'cause it was snowing.'

'Still, the food was cold.'

'We could heat it up.'

'How about we ask Jess? Jess, what do you wanna eat?' Lorelai asked, glancing up at him. There was no hint of the resentment from before.

'Uh, we had already had pizza. Rory and me.' Jess said, still feeling lightheaded.

'You had pizza?' Lorelai asked Rory.

'Doesn't mean we don't have room for Chinese.' Rory defended, 'Or something else. Jess, what do you like?'

Jess felt both pairs of blue eyes bore into him as he was a beat too slow, 'Burger?'

Lorelai nodded, then turned to Rory. 'Then call Luke again and tell him to bring some burgers. Extra fries.'

When Luke came over, Jess felt a sweeping sense of warmth at seeing his uncle. It was a feeling he wasn't used to and thus, tried not to show. However, he also sensed that his uncle wasn't as angry as he'd been last time, instead, he was giving him a sad look, almost regretful.

'Lorelai, you don't have to do this.' Luke sighed in exasperation, 'Jess isn't a kid anymore… And you got enough going on with Rory.'

Lorelai glanced at Rory and spoke carefully. 'We both think it's a good idea to give Jess one more chance.' Rory nodded encouragingly while nibbling on her fries. 'As long as he sticks to some terms and shows that he's changing his attitude and making good on his promises.'

In the end, there was a bit of back and forth between Luke and Lorelai, but with Luke's soft spot for Lorelai, it didn't take long for him to get on board with the plan, which Lorelai so affectionately called, 'Jessie's Rescue Plan'.

Jess had to admit, the terms were fair, generous even. He would be allowed to sleep on the living room sofa until they fixed up the garage, then he'd move there. In the meantime, he could work at Walmart's if he wanted, but no more than 20 hours per week and Lorelai would call his Walmart manager to check his hours weren't exceeded. Luke would return his car, which he reluctantly admitted to taking after Lorelai's insistent glares, but Jess still had to pay for repairs. Jess also had to make a payment plan to Luke, to pay for the damages at Kyle's party. If he didn't get his GED by the end of the summer, the deal was off and he'd have to move out. Jess and Rory had a curfew, at 10 pm every night, after which they needed to be in their own beds. Any signs of breaking the curfew, he'd have to move out. No arguments and no exceptions.

Jess looked up at Rory, who was beaming triumphantly. It was a strange feeling, having someone fight for you to stay, as Jess had only ever seen the opposite. Lorelai quietly handed him a plate of fries. His heart was still pumping, but there was a sense of relief there now. He didn't just have Rory by his side, he had a family.

A/N: Soo Jess is officially a member of the Gilmore house now :D I wanna hear your thoughts! Please, please leave a review and give me some feedback.