A/N: So sorry for the delay! I realized everything I'd written for this chapter beforehand didn't make sense and had to do it over. There's less R&J here, but the conversations are essential to the rest of the story :) Let me know what you think!

A/N2: If you're reading, please leave me leave me a review! I'm starting to worry that no one's reading this anymore so please let me know that you're still interested. It would mean a lot to me *insert puppy-eyes*.

Chapter 11

Rory waited at the door, shifting from foot to foot as the doorbells chimed at Kim's antique store. She grinned as her best friend opened the door.

'Rory! I'm so glad you came!' Lane greeted her with a hug.

'Lane, hi!' Rory squealed.

Lane's eyes widened as she turned to scan the room behind her. 'Shhh. Keep it down. Mom's taking a nap.'

'Since when does Mama Kim nap?'

'She doesn't. But she's had a headache all day, so this is her second nap today. She even canceled bible study. Anyway, I figured this is the only chance I'm gonna get to see you with the mother of all groundings that's going on here.' Lane explained.

'Good call. I hope she's a heavy sleeper.'

'We're okay for now,' Lane led Rory upstairs. 'But if she wakes up, you'll have to hide. Don't worry though, I made enough space in the closet.'

Upstairs in her room, the two girls sat on Lane's bed and Rory could finally ask. 'So how's it been? How long are you grounded for?'

'Two months, one week, and two days.'

'Oh, man. You're grounded until after graduation!'

'Yeah, but actually, it hasn't been all that bad. Remember how my mom agreed to let Dave take me to prom?'

'And she's letting him call for 10 minutes every other day.' Rory recounted, remembering their previous conversation.

'Yes, she even extended it to 15 minutes now.' Lane continued dreamily. 'Dave's been sending me stuff every day since then. Like, the other day, he left a note for me under the chair on the porch. It was a song he wrote. He wrote me a song!'

'Oh, Lane, that's so sweet!'

'And then yesterday, Kirk came over, pretending to ask for work at the store and he snuck me a box of chocolates that Dave sent over. From Hartford, from that place that makes the little chocolates shaped like music notes.' Lane reached under the bed and opened the box of chocolates carefully, offering Rory one.

'Ooh, there are drum-shaped ones too.'

'I know! He said they're custom-made! Isn't he perfect?'

Rory agreed wholeheartedly, biting into her chocolate. 'Really good chocolate.'

'He's amazing. I really think I love him. Is that crazy? Is it a side effect of spending too much time staring at the walls in my room?'

'I'm so happy for you. You're gonna have an amazing time at prom.'

Lane gave a wide grin and held Rory's hands excitedly. But then, her smile faltered a bit when she remembered Rory's situation. 'I'm so gonna miss you there. I'm so sorry, Rory.'

'It's okay. Really, I'll meet you after.' Rory reassured her as cheerfully as she can. 'We can still wear the matching dresses and take the geeky photos and everything. And you're still coming over to my place before, right? We can do our makeup together and eat junk food and play that playlist we've been talking about since middle school. It's gonna be amazing.'

Lane smiled, nodding cheerfully. 'I'm making some playlist improvements. I'll run the final version by you next week.'

'Don't you dare cut out the duck song!' Rory warned.

Lane promised in her most serious voice. 'Our kindergarten theme song? I would never dare.' Then, she pondered. 'I was however thinking of cutting out one of The Clash songs and adding something more jazzy.'

'As long as it's still two songs from every year we've known each other, then yeah, you have complete artistic liberty.'

'Great! More chocolate?' Lane offered, taking another one from the box.

Rory took a breath and said. 'Actually, I have some stuff to tell you… It's about Jess.'

'Oh, yeah. I haven't seen him around much. I mean, I've only been going to school and back, but I can see into Luke's from my window and I haven't seen him in there. Is he sick?'

'No. He's not sick.' Rory paused in anticipation. She got up from Lane's bed, rocked on her heels nervously, and then announced. 'Jess is staying with us. At home.'

'He's WHAT?' Lane nearly screamed. She clapped her hands over her mouth quickly and paused to listen for her mother's footsteps. When she was sure there was nothing, she motioned for Rory to go on.

'And we did it. It.'

Lane's eyes bulged behind her glasses. 'Oh my God. Rory…'

'Twice.'

'Woah.' Lane was shocked, but couldn't hide her excited smile.

'I slept with him. Twice.' Rory whispered, as she began pacing up and down the room, her feet carving out figure-eight shapes on the rug.

'Oh my God. You… and Jess?' Lane gasped in awe.

'Yeah. I know. I mean… I can't believe it either.'

'Wait, wait, start at the beginning. I thought Lorelai hated Jess.'

Rory paced back and forth around the room, whispering to Lane about the events of the past four days. Confronting Jess on the bus to Hartford, convincing Lorelai to take Jess into the garage, then the deal they made for him to stay at their house. When she was done, Rory exhaled and plopped down on the bed next to Lane while her friend processed the big news.

'And how are you taking all this?' Lane blinked, still shaking her head.

'I don't know.' Rory admitted. 'I mean, I'm always worried him and mom will get into a fight. Or him and Luke. And I still don't know what he's thinking, like if he wants to take off again, or… if this is what he wants. But I think, I mean I hope, it's gonna work out this time. He signed up for his GEDs today. He's back working at Walmart. He made up with Luke, or at least, they're somewhat civil for now…'

Lane cut her best friend off. She pushed her glasses back with her fingers and said. 'Rory. I'm not asking how he's doing. I'm asking how you're doing.'

Rory paused, chewing on her lip and looking at her fingers. She tried to sort through her feelings and then sighed. 'Since he moved in with us, I feel like I wanna be around him all the time. Not just for the kissing, although that's pretty spectacular, but even just hanging out is somehow more… interesting, more special with him.'

Lane smiled warmly. 'Keep going.'

Rory pushed her hair behind her ears and continued pacing. 'It's so exciting… the kissing, the touching when no one's looking, the sneaking around at night... It feels really illicit, you know. I don't think I ever felt so alive just waking up or coming home. I feel like I'm always waiting to see him, just always thinking about it. And this morning, after we did it last night… when mom walked into my room –'

'Lorelai caught you and Jess together?' Lane asked in shock.

'No, I mean, we were done. And he snuck back to the sofa some time at night. He's smart with that sort of stuff.' Rory remembered with a small smile, before shaking her head in embarrassment. 'But I was still wearing his shirt when she walked in…'

Lane smiled, tilting her head. 'Awww.'

'No, trust me. It was humiliating.' Rory groaned. 'Mom went into a painful rendition of gimme a man after midnight. It went on all morning. It's still stuck in my head. She followed Jess around yelling it in his ear. He looked so freaked out.' Rory shook her head in sympathy.

'I can see Lorelai totally enjoying that.' Lane said in amusement.

'When she walked in, I was really panicked 'cause I thought Jess was still there. In bed. And we'd get caught and God, we'd never live that down. But when I realized he wasn't there, I was still panicked 'cause I thought he probably took off and left me.'

'And… you wanted him to be there when you woke up.' Lane gave her a knowing look.

'I don't know.' Rory blushed. 'I think I did. But maybe that's normal. Maybe that's how everyone feels after they, you know, did it…'

Lane nodded sympathetically, giving Rory space to go on.

Rory continued. 'And anyway, it's crazy, because I definitely don't want to give mom any more reason to kill Jess. So I shouldn't want him to stay in bed until morning, right? After that first time at the garage, I thought mom was gonna kill him. She took one look at the two of us and just knew we did it. I don't even know how. She nearly punched him right there in the kitchen.'

'Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God.' Lane looked like she was in serious agony.

Rory leaned over to Lane. 'What?'

'Oh, I'm just picturing these things in my mind. That sounds so awkward. And oh my GOD. You really did it twice?'

'Well, I mean… Once you get the hang of it, it's pretty easy to duplicate.' Rory said awkwardly.

Lane grabbed Rory's arms. 'Okay, I just have to ask you.' Lane leaned into Rory's ear and whispered. 'How was it?'

'Lane, I don't think Mrs. Kim can hear us right now. You don't have to whisper.'

'I'd rather not take my chances. I think even if she's asleep, she can still hear this conversation.' Lane's eyes glanced timidly at the door.

Rory smiled and rolled her eyes, but leaned into Lane's ear anyway. 'It was a little intense… a bit scary. But he was so… wonderful.'

'He was good to you?'

'He was so sweet and really… attentive. He cuddled afterwards.'

'Oh, that is so adorable.' Lane awed.

Rory's eyes widened seriously. 'Don't tell anyone. Especially not him.'

'I solemnly swear.'

'So are you gonna do it again?'

Rory smiled and leaned back into Lane's bed, getting comfortable as she gave Lane more details.

Lorelai's day at the inn started out badly. Though she was usually fond of living in a small town, where everybody saw her as a part of their extended family, she wasn't too hot about it that afternoon. Apparently, news about Jess had made it through town.

She'd kept her calm, at first. She'd clutched her coffee cup tighter as Taylor spoke, enunciating his words extra loudly. 'Really Lorelai, I said this to Rory and I'm saying it again to you. That boy is a walking natural disaster. They should name a tornado after him.'

'I hear you, Taylor.'

'I know that there is no way that Rory would be influenced by his behavior, but one has to wonder if it isn't wiser to keep these two at a fair distance from each other. I'm talking several streets apart at least.' Taylor had gestured, explaining the concept of distance with his hands.

'Taylor, they're teenagers. Unless there's a large body of water between them, they'll just walk towards each other. A few blocks won't make much of a difference.'

'I'm completely impartial, of course, but we did have a town meeting about this, Lorelai. The town thinks he's an irresponsible troublemaker who shouldn't be trusted around Rory.'

'Please, Taylor. This is an inn. Where I work. So I can't be discussing this here. We can have this talk later, okay?' Lorelai gave her best smile and scurried away as fast as possible.

Not five minutes later, Andrew had caught up to her at the doorway as she welcomed the renovation crew, who were there to assess repairs for the inn. Lorelai had wanted nothing more than to follow John's crew around, to check the status of the inn repairs, but Andrew wouldn't stop talking.

He'd said in a tone of concern. 'Look, I know you and Luke are very reasonable adults and you are a very charitable lady. But that kid needs proper disciplining, not a charity shelter. It's obvious that he's using this chance to lure Rory into running away with him.'

'Andrew, you run the bookstore. Has Jess ever done anything to damage your bookstore?' Lorelai said as patiently as she could.

'Well… not directly…' Andrew had been flustered.

'Did Taylor send you here?'

He'd defended. 'Lorelai… No, but… the town is concerned. And I frankly think –'

'Well, I appreciate that you're concerned. But Rory's not gonna run away. You can tell that to Taylor when you see him.' Lorelai had walked away towards the reception desk, leaving Andrew behind. She'd spotted the renovation crew still examining the staircase, hadn't they already looked at that? She resolved not to read much into it.

Over the course of the afternoon, Michel had made several jabs as well. When he'd stopped complaining about the one inn guest they had, he'd made sure to voice his opinion on the Jess situation. 'Of course, I'm on your side. I always knew you were a champion for young love and unplanned teenage pregnancies. Who wouldn't want that for Rory?'

Later, when Lorelai backed away into the kitchen, Sookie hadn't offered the support she'd hoped for either. 'I mean, are you sure you want him there? At first, when I heard it from Jackson, I didn't even think it was true. Jess? At your house?'

Lorelai had felt the need to explain, once again reminding herself to stay calm. 'I know the town doesn't like him. I don't like him, but he's still just a kid, Sookie. And the way Taylor was talking, it was like Jess had set half the town on fire or something. He talked about shipping him off to military camp, for God's sake.'

The cook had looked at Lorelai questioningly. 'But are you really surprised? He's such an angry kid. He made a lot of enemies. And you gotta admit, military camp sounds like it would straighten him out.'

'I know he's not very pleasant, but does that mean he shouldn't even get a chance to finish high school? Who deserves that?'

'Jackson said Luke kicked him out. If Luke gave up on him, maybe he's… well, a hopeless case?' Sookie had suggested gently.

Lorelai had sighed. 'Luke was trying to give him some tough love, but maybe that's not what he needs. And it doesn't help that the town is ganging up on him like that, you know?'

'Sounds like you're warming up to him, huh?'

'Me? No, no. I still wanna throw a pie at his head like 80% of the time.' Lorelai had snorted.

'Only 80% now?' Sookie had raised an eyebrow.

'The other 20%, I wanna punch him right in the face.'

'Right. But you haven't. Instead you let him to stay over at your house.'

'Rory nagged me into it. It's a temporary thing.' Lorelai had insisted.

'I thought you said graduation wasn't for another three weeks.'

'Sookie, three weeks is temporary.'

'Still, you could've said no to Rory. But you didn't.'

'I did that so Rory wouldn't get hurt. I don't want her to be heartbroken, or to become all bitter and resentful. I'd rather not have her be bitter and resentful until she's at least 30.'

'Aha.'

'Sookie, I'm not warming up to him.'

'Yeah, you are.' Sookie said with a knowing smile.

Lorelai had shaken her head and just started to contradict her friend, when Michel had walked in.

He'd announced, with a roll of his eyes. 'John wants to see you.'

And just like that, the day went from just bad to being one of the shittiest days of her life.

'Nothing's final yet, but we're leaning towards selling.' John was saying.

It felt like cold ice washing over Lorelai. Her palms were getting sweaty. 'Yeah, nothing's final… It's just… Rory grew up here. I grew up here.'

John shrugged and offered a sympathetic nod. Lorelai gulped back tears. The Independence inn was closing.

After almost turning back on the way to the inn, Jess eyed the front door, still contemplating walking out. Rocking on his heels and shoving his hands deeper into his pockets, he stood at the door of the independence Inn. He had to talk to Lorelai. He'd gone through it in his head more times than any sane person would and there was really no other way. He just hoped he wouldn't royally muck it up the way he normally did. Rarely did conversations with adults ever turn out in his favor, he had his whole life to prove that. But for once, he needed this one to go his way.

He was still talking himself into going in, when Lorelai appeared at the door, looking somewhat pale. 'Jess, what are you doing here?'

'Hi.' Jess started awkwardly.

'Rory's not here. Did you think she was here?' She crossed her arms, not aggressively, but not exactly warmly either.

'No, uh, I know. She's with Lane, I guess.'

She nodded slowly. 'Luke's not here either.'

He took a breath. 'I came to talk to you actually.'

Lorelai seemed surprised for a moment, but looked away, 'Look, now's not a good time.'

'It'll take a minute.'

'Does it have to do with Taylor?'

'No, I –'

At that moment, a group of men carrying toolboxes stepped out of the inn, interrupting Jess. Lorelai waved them off and Jess thought he saw a look of pain pass over her face.

Lorelai pushed a hair strand behind her ears, in a way that was very similar to her daughter. She raised an eyebrow at him. 'So, you were saying?'

'Well, I came to –'

Lorelai changed her mind. 'Actually, I need to walk. Come on, walk with me.'

'I could come back later.' Jess offered awkwardly.

'No. Come on. I'm fine, it'll just take a minute.' Lorelai motioned and something in Lorelai's desperate eyes made him follow.

She walked fast through the grass, with Jess at her heel, as they made their way through the grounds behind the inn.

She wasn't giving him a chance to talk. Instead, she spoke wistfully as she walked. 'I always wanted horses here. We had a lot of weddings in this place and it would've been nice to have horses. I think I said that to Mia the first year I worked here. And she said… She said, the upkeep would close the place down, that's what she said. And now, 18 years later, I'm still wanting these horses. I always thought we'd get them at some point. Weddings should have horses, right?' She paused to take off her heels, so she could walk barefoot on the grass.

Jess's eyes searched for the spot where Rory had first kissed him, by the lake. It felt like a lifetime ago since he'd been there, but the image of Rory wearing that blue dress was permanently etched in his memory. He needed this conversation to go well, for Rory, so the best way for that to happen was probably to let Lorelai finish her ranting. He didn't know what was going on with her, but something told him this wasn't her usual coffee-induced frenzy. He hoped he'd be able to just say what he came to say and leave her to figure out whatever this was.

Lorelai continued her disjointed soliloquy. 'Of course, the horses might've gotten hurt in the fire. So maybe it's for the best we never had them after all. But there's other stuff I wanted to do. I wanted to have water lilies planted in the lake and I wanted the bushes trimmed in cute animal shapes. I wanted to have a giant chessboard over there by the restaurant window. People would eat and they'd see the chessboard while eating and then they'd be inspired to go out and walk around and…' She sighed, running a hand over her face.

'Hey, do you want me to call Rory or something? 'Cause you seem to be… having a moment.' Jess said uncomfortably. They were walking away from the inn building and towards the lake, where Jess spotted a shed in the distance.

When she gave no reply, he continued. 'Ok, so the thing is, I came here to ask you –'

Lorelai abruptly interrupted again, staring at the shed intently. 'They'll probably tear this place down. It'll be one of the first things to go. Giant hotel conglomerates don't keep anything the way it is. I guess I never thought this would happen… that this place would just disappear before we did.' She walked up and opened the door, motioning for Jess to step inside.

'I could also call Luke. Should I call him?' Jess said uncertainly. He was starting to sense something seriously wrong with Lorelai today. He wondered how he could leave without dealing with the crying mess that was going to ensue, but Lorelai's next words made Jess take a reluctant step forward.

'I made those curtains myself. I wanted Rory to have a home here.' Lorelai spoke softly, as she pointed at the curtains in the back of the room.

Rory hadn't told him much about where she'd lived before, but she did mention that they'd moved into their house when she was eleven. Still, the shed came as a surprise to him. It was small and more than a little shabby, it reminded him of the Gilmore's garage in a way. He tried to imagine a teenage Lorelai with a baby Rory living in that mess, but couldn't quite picture it. Looking around, he took in the bathtub and the pink curtains, the rocking chair in the corner and the throwaway furniture. Though it looked like old junk, Jess could hear Lorelai sniffing loudly.

'So this is where you and Rory…' Jess started carefully. Better to keep her talking than have her start bawling on him.

'Until she was six.' Lorelai confirmed, sounding watery. 'God, I can't believe the inn is closing.' She put her head in her hands.

Jess braced himself for the meltdown. He remembered vividly when Liz broke down. Usually it was over a guy, one of her husbands, another guy she thought was 'the one'. When Liz broke down, the crying was usually accompanied by booze, which made her talkative and irritable late into the next day. During her meltdowns, she had a habit of remembering everything that ever happened to get her to that miserable point in her life. It was never about the man who broke her heart by cheating or running a scam, it was about Jess's deadbeat father and the rent she couldn't pay two months ago and the guy who dumped her last year and the job she was fired from back when she'd been pregnant. Her life's problems were time and again compressed into one clear big-bang event: her getting pregnant with Jess. If he hadn't been around, she wouldn't be working this job. She wouldn't be going from man to man into her late thirties. She wouldn't be making minimum wage. She wouldn't be out of money. Bottom line was, it was all Jess's fault. After a while, he'd learned to recognize the signs and head out whenever he saw them.

With Lorelai, he didn't know the signs. He cursed himself for being there at that moment, as his mind raced. With the inn closing down, Lorelai would surely lose her job, which meant money problems, which definitely meant she'd be kicking him out. If money was tight, it'd be Rory and her before anyone else. That was probably why she'd asked him to follow her out here in the first place. Rory might have gotten him a place on the couch, but money issues changed everything. He'll probably have to pay them back for the days he spent, hopefully his savings would cover that. He'll still need to get his car back from the shop before leaving and then there's Rory to think about...

He shook his head. He wasn't going to wait to hear Lorelai say it and pity was something he hated more than anything. It's best to make this quick and simple. 'I'll just pack up then.'

Lorelai turned to look at him, her face unreadable. 'What?'

'I'll be out of your hair in a day or two, maximum. Just give me time to pack.'

'Is that what you came here to tell me?' Lorelai's eyes flashed.

'Look, I get it and it's easier this –'

Lorelai was livid. 'Jess, I've had to defend your ass all day in front of half a dozen people who came to tell me you're the devil reincarnated. I had to put up with a whole hour of Taylor giving me parenting advice. And Luke's been calling about you 10 times a day, did you know that? That's on top of everything else at the inn. And after all that, you just wanna leave? What on earth is wrong with you?' Her blue eyes, which exactly matched the color of Rory's, were colder than he'd ever seen them.

'You just said you lost your job.' Jess said steely.

'I just said I lost my first home. I just had the ground pulled out from underneath me. I was reminiscing about this place I grew up in. About the home I'm about to lose. How is any of that giving you an excuse to walk out on Rory?' She snapped at him.

Jess snapped back. 'And you brought me along for this great emotional journey, why, exactly?'

Lorelai ignored him. 'That inn was my life. I didn't just work here. I lived here. With Rory. This is where she took her first steps and said her first words and had her first meal. It's where we celebrated her first day at kindergarten. It's where I got my first driver's license and had my first drink. Don't you get that?'

Jess was silent. How had this conversation gone so badly wrong? Did he have a supernatural ability to make people hate him, grownups especially?

Lorelai ran her hands through her hair. 'The fact that you would use anything, literally any situation, to run away and screw with Rory's life… It makes me think I was right about you the first time around. You're just screwing with her. Sleeping with her and using her and the minute things get –'

'I'm not using her.' Jess retorted in frustration, his voice breaking. 'I never have and I never will. How many times do I have to say that?'

'The minute things get hard, or God forbid, anyone shows a sliver of emotion around you, you just hand in the damn towel? Is that how little you care about Rory?'

Jess's eyes were hard. 'Believe whatever you want.'

She closed her eyes, forcing her voice into a forcible calmness. 'I thought you were making progress here. With the GED and the job… What happened?'

Jess clenched and unclenched his hands. He forced himself to calm down too. 'Nothing. I misread the situation.'

'Misread the situation? I tell you about shed I used to live in, and you decide to bolt?'

'Whatever. Forget it.' Jess backed away.

'I wanna know why.'

He paused. 'Why what?'

Lorelai glared sharply. 'Don't be a smartass. Is this a game to you?'

'A game?' Jess scoffed.

'Answer the question, Jess.'

'No, it's not a game. I'm not messing around, that's not what this is.'

'What did you come here to tell me then?'

Jess looked away. It shouldn't have turned out like this. He shouldn't tell her like this.

'You came here, to the inn, for something, Jess. What did you want?'

Jess took a breath and hesitated briefly. He'd prepared something to say, but he couldn't remember a thing now, so all he could manage was. 'I wanna take Rory to prom.'

A/N: The next chapter is coming up very soon! But please leave me a review! Is it going too slow? Is there something you'd like to see?