A/N: This is it: the end of The Middle. The end of an era…. I think I might cry…or not. Yes, believe it or not, I am joking! Stay tuned for The End!
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Co-Pilot
A month later, Rory was hanging out with Lane, listening to some new CDs she'd bought.
"This band is so cool! Even their name is cool. Letters To Cleo. Isn't that just cool?" Lane told Rory, putting a bright orange CD into the player. "They've even been in a major motion picture! They're really good, but their lyrics are sometimes really weird. Just listen to this first song." Rory listened, and agreed that some of the lyrics sounded like some of the magnetic word poetry; just kind of random. But the mood of the song stayed the same.
She sat back on Lane's bed, and listened to both the music and her friend bragging that she could now drum along with the songs. Rory smiled, and fell into a haze of camaraderie and music, one of her favorite places to be.
She woke up when she heard the chorus beginning on a song, and grinned once she registered the tone of the lyrics.
"Lane, do you realize what this song is?"
"What?" Lane reached over and paused it. "What's wrong? You look weird."
Rory quickly explained about her dream—and Lane laughed as hard as Lorelai at the image of Dean in a stewardess outfit—then said, "Don't you get it? This song is me and Jess! It's our song!"
"You two have a song?"
"Thanks to you we do!" Rory hugged her friend. "Oh, this is so great! Can I borrow this?"
Lane hesitated. "How about I burn you a copy?"
"Paranoid."
"Lorelai."
"Warranted," Rory acknowledged.
"But you have to hear the rest of it first. You and Jess have got a date tonight, right?"
"I don't think we ever plan our dates, but yes, I guess we probably do."
"Are you going to play it for him tonight?"
"Yeah."
"Cool."
**********
That night Jess and Rory met at the diner. Jess and Caesar were running it while Luke and Lorelai went and did something in Hartford. Jess had brought his grades up to A's in two of his classes so far. "Come on! You said if I got 'A's' then you'd read Hemingway books!"
"No, I said at the end of the semester."
"No, you said 'by' the end of the semester. 'By' signifies that if it happens between the two designated times, then the statement and/or promise is still valid. So, read them."
Rory opened her mouth to argue, and then couldn't think of anything. Instead she ordered more coffee. "You know, you should really cut down a little," Jess said. "It's a wonder to me how you even get to sleep at night."
"With dreams of you," Rory said, quietly enough that only Jess heard her. She smiled in satisfied revenge when Jess blushed brightly.
"Hmm," he said, trying to recover from his surprise. Rory took a drink of her coffee. "Is that so?"
"Sometimes," Rory admitted. It was her turn to blush a little.
"Ah," Jess said, leaning his elbows on the counter. "So you weren't just teasing."
"I guess not," Rory said.
Jess gave her a donut. "What's this for?"
"Sweets for the sweet," he said, making her laugh.
"Wow. I think that's the first pick-up line I've ever heard you use. Nice delivery, though."
"Happy to amuse."
They continued chatting until the diner closed, at which time Jess and Rory went up to the apartment like they always did. This time Rory had the newly-burned CD in her bag. "Hey, can I choose the music tonight?" she asked, pulling the CD out.
"Sure, no problem," he said. He fell down on the bed, waiting for her to come and snuggle beside him. "Lane go on a shopping rampage again?"
"Just a little," Rory said wanly. "This is one CD I really liked though."
She waited for the right track to come on, and stopped him in mid sentence when she heard the opening bars.
"I want you to listen to this song," Rory told him, turning so she could see his face as he listened.
His expression went from mild amusement to surprise to tenderness as he listened. "Wow," he said after it was done and Rory turned the music back down. "That's a good song."
"It's exactly how I feel about you, you know," Rory blurted.
"Really?"
"Yeah." Again, she explained about her dream. "Then I heard this song and I thought, 'Oh my god, that's us!' So, I thought it could be, you know, our song." She smiled hesitantly at him. "What do you think?"
"I think this," Jess said, and pulled her down for a gentle kiss. "I think you're an incredible person, Rory. I think that I'm lucky to have you in my life, and even luckier that I'm your boyfriend, and you're my girlfriend."
"The part I like best was the second verse, 'I don't pay attention because number 1, I'm good with you, and the way you look at me is number 2.'" Rory smiled at Jess. "How can I fault the logic? How can I pay attention to everyone else when we're so good together, and when you look at me like you do?"
"Rory," Jess began.
"I love you, Jess," Rory said before he could say anything. His eyes widened in astonishment.
"What?" he demanded.
"I love you."
"Why?"
"I believe I just said them." Rory felt nerves beginning to form in her stomach. "And because I can argue with you about everything, and…you're you. And I love you."
"I love you, too, Rory," Jess said. "But, gosh…I don't know. You're so…innocent. Not naïve, so don't even say that. You're not…experienced about anything."
"What on earth are you talking about?"
"When have you ever experienced unpleasantness?" Jess thought about the shootings he'd heard while in New York, the murders he'd heard about on the news the next day. The poverty he'd seen just walking to school. The hopelessness of dead-end jobs that barely pay the rent. He'd lived through all of this, and had only escaped it because his mother had reached the end of her rope and sent him here: Oblivion USA. He said all this to Rory, and she frowned at him.
"You think everything is idyllic here, don't you? I've told you about the early years here, but you don't seem to grasp what it means. My mother came here when she was sixteen, with a baby, broke, and with no job skills. We lived in a potting shed behind the Inn." She held up a hand when he was going to protest. "Yes, we were lucky. We had someplace to go. But there were a few times we had nothing to eat. Money got away from us pretty regularly, and we survived by eating the cheapest thing we could: junk food, and not a lot of it. There were times my mother made her own clothes to afford to get me new ones. More than often, I wore her old clothes, sewn by her own two hands to fit me. There were times that were unpleasant, Jess. You're not the only one in Star's Hollow that's ever faced disillusionment. I always had my mother, and she always made whatever we were going through seem like an adventure. And so I got through it. But I know now what that was like."
"I didn't mean…" Jess sighed and raked a hand through his hair. "Rory, I've seen a lot of things in my life. It hasn't been long, but I've seen a lot of bad stuff happen."
"No one goes through life unaffected by everything," Rory said. "Even the boy in the bubble knew that." She took his hand. "Do you think that because of what you've seen, I won't love you? That's ridiculous. That's like expecting you to not love me because my mother had me when she was sixteen. I'm not holding something that happened before you knew me against you."
"And despite all that, you still believe in the innate goodness in people."
"And I always will. But I also know that evil exists. I think the whole terrorist thing proves that. But that's part of what you like about me."
"Yeah, it is. Rory, I love you, too. You've got to believe that."
"Why wouldn't I?"
"I've lied before."
"As have I, and you'll lie again. As will I. And we'll witness more unpleasantness before the end of our time. But we'll be there for each other." She pulled him to her and kissed him. "We'll be co-pilots."
"Wanna help me fly?" Jess murmured.
"Always."
**********
A/N2: Well, that's it. The end of the Middle. It might have gotten a little sappy there at the end, but…I am, at heart, a romantic sap. I'll have the beginning of the End here for you soon. Warning that the rating might get higher for The End.