Author's Note: YAY, more reviews! Thank you for all the support and corrections on my story. I must have had a brain fart when I put Beatnik Generation instead of Lost Generation, please forgive the misinformation. Thank you for your generous time in reading and reviewing, but I'm afraid this short story comes to a close now. I hope you like the ending, I tried to find something appropriate for our heroes while trying to keep them in character. Hope you enjoyed reading this story, and thank you all again for the reviews.

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Rory looked at him and turned a shade whiter. "How can you think that?" she asked quietly. He couldn't believe that, could he?

"Forget it, that was stupid," Jess said, walking away.

She stood there for a second, trying to think of how he could ever think that he didn't deserve her. Then it all clicked. Damn!, she thought. She ran over to him, grabbing his arm and turning him around to face her, which he did reluctantly.

She struggled to find something to say to convince him that she never thought he wasn't good enough for her.

"What, Rory?" Jess asked flatly.

"I screwed up badly, I know that. And I really am sorry because I didn't want to hurt either you or Dean, but I did. I'm a fickle, selfish, uncaring..."

"Rory..." Jess said, cutting her off. Sure she made mistakes, but he didn't think she was any of those things she listed.

Rory continued. "The thing is that I was in denial, I thought that I couldn't have feelings for you because I had a boyfriend and girlfriends aren't supposed to feel attracted to anyone but their boyfriends, right? But I was fooling myself because I knew I wanted you all along. I'm sorry that what I did made you think that you didn't deserve me, cause that wasn't it at all. It was more of a 'cause I was so crappy to Dean, I needed to make it up to him and I didn't deserve to be happy by being with you' thing. And my desires didn't even matter since you had Shane, well, actually, you're still with Shane," she ended her speech quietly.

Shane, she was never so jealous of a girl before, not because she wanted that kind of superficial relationship with Jess, but because she desperately wanted to be on the receiving end of his kisses.

Jess was in shock. Rory was basically saying that she didn't deserve him. The town princess not deserving the town rebel? Okay, weird, very weird.

"Jess? Please say something," Rory begged.

Jess snapped out of his thoughts and looked at her. "I have to go do something, I'll be back in ten minutes, please don't go anywhere," Jess said, walking away.

"What? Jess?" Rory called out, but Jess didn't answer as he walked back to the diner.

Rory couldn't believe that she told him everything and he just walked out on her. What could be so important that he'd just walk away without saying anything? Stealing another gnome? This was a mistake, she should just go home and forget about Jess. Well, six weeks in D.C. didn't make her forget about Jess, going home wouldn't either. What would happen now? She was scared, scared of being rejected by the one person who she really wanted. Would he forgive her, would he let her in? She hoped so.

She sat back down on the bridge, waiting for Jess to come back.

As promised, about ten minutes later, Jess walked back and sat next to her.

"What was so important that you had to walk away from me right after I spilled my guts to you?" Rory asked, not bothering to conceal her hurt and anger.

"I broke up with Shane," Jess replied, ignoring her tone of voice.

Rory looked shocked. "Oh," she said quietly. It all made sense now. "So, what now?" Rory asked.

Jess shrugged in reply. "But I want you to know that I forgive you, for all of it, I mean, it's stupid not to," Jess said. He felt so much freer without Shane now, but he was scared out of his mind about the unknown future he had with Rory. But, hey, he at least had a future with Rory.

He thought about Luke, strangely enough, and what he said earlier. Yeah, Jess had been fooling himself, Luke wasn't stupid after all. Jess secret hoped that Luke would get some action with Lorelai eventually, but he wasn't about to be matchmaker. He had his own stuff to deal with, and it was sitting next to him right now. He smiled.

"Thanks," Rory replied, smiling as well.

"We all deserve some happiness, eh?" Jess stated rather than questioned.

Rory smiled wider, understanding what he meant.

She looked priceless, and Jess couldn't resist any longer. He leaned in and kissed her. Passion that was pent up for months was finally released in that solitary kiss. Breathless, they parted, only to continue kissing once they took in more oxygen. Jess would never know exactly how long they kissed for, but he would remember that it soothed him completely. Jess sighed with relief - Rory didn't run away this time.

He laid down on the bridge and Rory laid down beside him, resting her head on his shoulder and wrapping her arm around his waist. She was content. She started to fall asleep next to him, and all Jess could do was grin madly. Yeah, this would definitely work, he thought. This was exactly what he wanted, what he needed. He closed his eyes, listened to Rory's shallow breaths beside him, and drifted off to sleep as well. He was finally at peace.

THE END.

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I hope I did justice to Rory and Jess. I wrote this before the "Oasis" episode, so please keep that in mind. To all my reviewers: I'm in the process of reading your work, you guys have fabulous ideas and keep it up. Thanks again for the support, it's wonderful to know people are reading my work. I don't know when I'll be writing again, probably when the inspiration hits me. Best of luck to you all!