"Hey," Jess smiled at her as she approached the bridge.

"Hi," Rory said, smiling slightly.

"How was your weekend?" Jess shoved his hands in his pockets.

"All right, good to be home."

"Yeah," he agreed. "I couldn't wait to get out of here last year, but now that I'm back, it's not too bad."

Rory sat down next to him.

"When're you going back?" Jess asked her.

"The bus comes at 8."

"Mine too. Gotta ride back to Boston and then catch a bus there back to school," Jess replied.

"That's good," Rory replied distractedly, thinking about Tristan.

There was an uncomfortable silence between them.

"So, you're probably wondering why I came to Boston..," Jess admitted.

"A little.. I take that it wasn't just the tourist attractions," Rory said.

"Nah, actually...," Jess started. They both looked up at the sound of footsteps.

"Dean...," Rory said. "Hi."

Dean had a glazed look on his face. "Hey, haven't seen you in a while..."

Rory smiled sadly. "Yeah, well." She thought back to the night of their breakup; it had been almost a year now.

"See you," Dean said quietly and passed them by. 'She's back with Jess.'

Rory watched as Dean walked away. "So, you were saying?"

Jess swallowed nervously. 'Does she still have feelings for Dean?' He shook the thought out of his head and decided to give it a go. "I've been thinking about us a lot lately," he blurted.

Rory looked at him. "Us?"

"Yeah.. I mean, I know we're far away from each other, but I think.. I think I love you." Jess picked a piece of lint off his pants.

Rory closed her eyes. "I'm sorry, Jess...," She said quietly. "But.. there's this other guy.." 'I do like Tristan.'

Jess nodded. 'Of course, she'll meet someone. She's pretty and smart.. guys like me don't get girls like her.' "Hey, it's fine.. I.. uh.. gotta get back to the diner before the dinner rush." He quickly got up from the bridge and started to jog away.

"Jess!" Rory struggled to stand up. "Jess, wait!"

Jess waved a hand goodbye at her, then started to run. 'You're an idiot, Mariano.'

Rory watched him go. Then she stood by herself on the bridge, as dusk began to fall.

************************************

"Rory, the bus is here," Lorelai said sadly.

Rory was standing at the bus stop with Lorelai, but her mind was definitely somewhere else. 'How am I going to face Tristan?' She thought.

"Rory?" Lorelai tapped her daughter on the shoulder.

"What? Oh, look, the bus is here," Rory pointed out.

"How much am I paying for tuition at Harvard?" Lorelai asked. "Maybe I should have invested in a hearing aid instead."

"Huh," Rory looked confused. She hugged Lorelai. "I'll come visit again soon."

"I'll miss you, babe. Talk to you later?" Lorelai tried to sound peaceful.

Rory nodded and waved goodbye as she got on the bus.

************************************

Rory sat down next to the window. The driver got on the bus and started the engine.

As the bus started to pull away from the curb, she looked around the bus. Jess wasn't on the bus. Sighing, Rory slumped back in her seat.

************************************

Lorelai put her head down on the counter. "Coffee."

Luke saw that she was in a bad mood and poured her a cup silently.

"Through an IV."

Luke smirked, then smiled sympathetically. "Something wrong?"

"Everything. I had the worst weekend with Rory," Lorelai cried. "She changed! She's different. She doesn't want to do wild and crazy things. She doesn't like flamingoes. She doesn't mock. She's distracted, like she's thinking about something else..."

"Well, at least one of you is normal now. That balances everything out."

Lorelai groaned loudly. "I'm being serious here."

"Sorry," Luke said shamefully. "She went off to college.. and now she's not the way she was... she's like someone else. Someone I don't know who finds people like me weird," Lorelai felt the tears fall down her face, and kept her head down so that Luke wouldn't see her cry. "It's like she's not my daughter anymore."

"Hey, you're not weird and Rory loves you," Luke put his hand on her head. "It'll be okay, maybe she's just stressed about finals.."

Lorelai lifted her tear streaked face to him. "School just started," She wailed.

"Hey," Luke lifted her chin up with his hand. "She's just stressed." He walked around the counter and wrapped her in his arms. 'I've waited years to do this..,' he thought. 'Since the first day she walked in..'

Lorelai put her chin on his shoulder and let him hug her. "Thanks, Luke," She whispered.

"No problem." He held her tightly.

"And.. I was serious about the IV, too."