A/N: Chapter Fourteen! Oh my God! Would you look at that? I posted a day early. Consider this an early Christmas and/or Winter Solstice, or late Hannukah, present. I don't know how often I'll be giving you chapters every single day. Probably only as long as I'll be able to keep up. But I'll stick to the original agreement, so that I'll always have chapters in on the days I'm supposed to. I'll even make myself a calendar. :)
And, just in case any of you were wondering, I have the fifteenth chapter written. It's a little shorter than I've been making them lately, but it's got everything it needs to in it, so I'm not going to try and lengthen it or something. And I'm working on the sixteenth chapter right now, which is going to be good, dramatically. I'm planning on a Rory/Tricia conversation. Hopefully we'll learn more about her daughter's character.
Oh, and thanks again for the great response. You guys are great! Thanks are at the end of this chapter…
P.S.: I found quite a few mistakes, like, Tristan is the father of Tristan, Rory is already married to Tristan (as in, I called him her husband instead of her fiancé), "Rory was getting marrying" … I have no idea what's wrong with me. Repost as of 7:05 PM.
P.P.S.: dodgerluv mentioned something so I added it. It's while Rory's doing her little thinking thing. She hadn't thought at all about what Dean said about Jess. So I added it. As of 8:00 AM, December 20, 2002.
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: R/T, R/J
Disclaimer: I do not own "Gilmore Girls." That is owned by Amy Sherman-Palladino and the WB. I do, however, own most of this storyline (some was taken from previous episodes), so steal that and I will haunt you for the rest of your life.
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"Gimme coffee."
"No."
"Why not?" she whined.
"It'll kill you."
Rory let out a frustrated sigh. "Jessie, come on. I want coffee."
"No," he paused. "And don't call me Jessie."
"Jess…" she trailed off warningly.
"Fine." He poured her a cup.
Rory grinned triumphantly.
"Shouldn't you be at work?"
"No one's there."
"And how would you know?"
"Because all I have to do is look out the window like this …" she glanced out the window of the diner. "And I know that no one is there."
Jess rolled his eyes. She'd rented out the building next to the diner, where Taylor used to have his snow-cone shop before it ran out of business. It was for the Stars Hollow Gazette, which was pretty successful, considering it only catered to the very small town of Stars Hollow, and was a weekly paper. It's most successful bit was the gossip page, written by Miss Patty, sometimes co-written with Babette. Rory wrote most of the stories, and she did a pretty good job, considering what she had to work with. She'd once mentioned something about an article about pavement that explored something about how eventually everything is obsolete, but he'd never gotten the full story on that. He wasn't sure he wanted to know.
But she spent quite a bit of her office hours at the diner, bugging Jess. It was, she'd told him often enough, a very exciting past-time.
"Okay, then, shouldn't you be getting ready for your wedding? It is tomorrow, after all."
Rory wrinkled her nose. "I tried. They kicked me out. Of my own house, nonetheless!"
"Well, it's actually your mom's and Luke's." Jess smirked at her.
Rory rolled her eyes at him. "Whatever. So, next week's Gazette is done, I can't work on my wedding, and, well, this is Stars Hollow. So the only interesting thing to do," she concluded, "Is bug you."
"Why don't you go read something?"
Rory shrugged, grinning. "This is more fun."
Jess just smirked, and grabbed the coffeepot to make the rounds. The door opened, and he glanced up. What he saw made him stop in his tracks.
It was Dean Forrester.
***
"This is more fun," Rory grinned. Jess smirked back at her, then picked up the coffeepot, probably intending to make the rounds. He walked off, and Rory was left staring at her mug. After a few seconds, she heard the door open, but didn't bother turning around. Silence fell over the diner. Rory got a sense of foreboding, and slowly spun around on her chair.
It was Dean. Perfect Dean. First boyfriend Dean. First love. First kiss. First break-up.
"Rory." He looked at her. She just stared back, completely shocked. Finally she stood up and strode past him out the door. She felt him follow her.
When she reached the newspaper office door, she turned around and glared at him. "What are you doing here?"
"I heard you were getting married," his eyes searched her face longingly. "Jess is a lucky man."
Rory laughed. "I'm not getting married to Jess. Remember Tristan?"
"Oh."
"Yeah," she paused. "How did you find out?"
"My sister." Rory nodded. She and Clara had bonded after an interesting altercation with a first boyfriend. Apparently the guy had gotten the idea that Clara was easy, but she'd quickly saved him from that disillusion. Rory had been the first one Clara had run into, and, after recognizing Rory as her brother's very nice former girlfriend, had proceeded to spill.
To make a long story short, she'd invited Clara to the wedding.
After a few minutes of silence, Rory finally asked Dean the question foremost on her mind. "What are you doing here?"
Dean didn't answer for a minute. He just looked at her. Finally, he said, "I had to see that you were happy. I had to know. And I had to tell you …"
"What?"
"I still love you."
***
Rory lay in bed, thinking back over the day. After Dean's shocking pronouncement, Rory had gone home. She'd turned on Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and watched it till her mom had come home from the Inn. They'd talked, but Rory hadn't mentioned what Dean had said, only that he was in town.
Dean still loved her. It was shocking, to say the least. Especially since she was getting married the next day. But it also made her think. Especially about her mother and Christopher. Chris had claimed to love her mother, and he'd constantly come back, but usually only when he and Sherry were on the rocks. Otherwise, he was pretty much perfectly happy. And her mom and cut him loose. Seven years earlier. And he'd come back anyway. Rory had cut Dean loose fourteen years earlier, and he'd come back as soon as he'd heard she was getting married.
Maybe he did still love her. But she didn't love him. And she'd told him that. She explained that she loved Tristan and was marrying him because of that.
She thought about her fiancé. That was why, right? She loved him. She knew that. She would always love Tristan. But she'd always love Dean as well. So why didn't she marry him? Because she loved the memory – and memories – she had of Dean, the first boyfriend, first kiss, first love…
Tristan. He was the one she was marrying. That said something, didn't it? She was marrying Tristan because she loved him.
Okay, fine. She'd also made a pro and con list. Pros: she loved him; he'd be a wonderful father to Tricia; he was Tristan's natural father, anyway; he had a good job. Cons: she'd have to move away from Stars Hollow. See? Fours pros, and only one con.
But then there was that other thing Dean had said. Why had he thought she was marrying Jess? He knew that she'd gone out with Tristan practically since they'd broken up, and that they'd still been going out when Dean left Stars Hollow for college. So what had made him think that she was marrying Jess, of all people?
That was a stumper. And it made her upset more than anything, because she hated not knowing. Plus, of course, the fact that it was Jess. Well, they'd been best friends for years. Since when would they have 'more-than-friends' feelings for one another? But… Tristan had noticed something. She'd passed it off as simple jealousy, but what if he'd been right? What had he called it? 'The Jess Factor'? Rory laughed. Yeah, right.
***
Jess lay in bed, wide awake. Rory was getting married. In less than twenty-four hours. In less than twenty-four hours, he would lose her forever.
He rolled over, trying to fall asleep. There was a sound. Frowning, he tried to listen harder. There it was again. It sounded like someone was pounding on the door of the diner.
He jumped up, pulling some jeans over his boxers, and ran downstairs. No one ever came this late. Except…
"Rory." He just stared at her. She smiled at him and walked through the door he was holding open.
"Hey, Jess." She said, sitting at the counter. He was instantly reminded of the many times this had happened in the past, when she couldn't sleep. But she hadn't been over in … how long had it been? At least before Tristan had returned. He shook himself out of his thoughts.
"What…What are you doing here?" He cursed himself for stumbling over his words and closed the door. Desperately needing something to do with his hands, he walked behind the counter and started making coffee.
"What?" She smiled. "I need a reason to visit my best friend?"
Jess cocked an eyebrow. "At two in the morning, you'd better have a damn good reason."
"It's only one," she dismissed with a wave of her hand. He just looked at her. "Fine." She paused before continuing. "I'm having doubts," she finished, slumping in her seat.
Jess' heart leapt painfully within his chest. Quickly he calmed himself and reminded himself that he needed to be level-headed. He couldn't let his emotions get in the way. So he buried them, like he had only too many times before. "Everyone has doubts, Ror," he said finally.
"Yeah," but she didn't sound as if she believed it.
As much as he feared the answer, he had to ask. "Do you love him?"
"Of course!" She exclaimed.
There it went again. He'd have a heart attack at this rate. He glanced at the coffee. It was done, so he poured a cup and handed it to Rory. She smiled gratefully and gulped it down.
"I so needed that," she sighed blissfully. Grinning at him, she said, "Thanks, coffee-boy."
"Hey, what happened to best friend?" Jess smirked playfully.
Rory shrugged and gulped down the rest of her drink. Becoming serious again, she said quietly, "It's just that, ever since Dean came…."
"What? Did he say something?" If he had, Jess swore—
"No! Well, yeah, but not what you mean. He said … he said he still loves me," she finished, tears coming to her eyes. Jess stared at her disbelievingly. "And so I started thinking. I mean, I'll always love Dean. He was my first boyfriend, first love, first kiss … So then I started thinking, 'What if I only love the memory of Tristan?' I mean, it's the same thing that it is with Dean. I'll always love Tristan, no matter what. I know that. I mean, Dean had a lot of firsts, but Tristan was my first…" she trailed off, shifting on her seat uncomfortably. She cleared her throat. "He's the father of my daughter."
Jess stood quietly for a few seconds before answering. "Rory, I don't know what to say. This sounds like something you should be talking to Lorelai about, not me."
Rory sighed, putting her head in her hands. "I know, but I don't think I could. Besides, she's not much of a 'middle of the night chat' person. Plus I didn't want to disturb them if they were… Well, let's just say I've walked in on too many make-out sessions."
Jess laughed. "Well…" he trailed off, uncertain of what to say. "Are you looking forward to it?"
"Yeah."
"Is Tricia?"
Rory smiled. "Definitely."
"Are you nervous?"
"Well, yeah."
"Are you deathly afraid?"
Rory furrowed her brow, then laughed. "Noo…" she drew out the word. He almost thought it sounded uncertain, but then dismissed it.
"Well, that's all I've got."
Rory shook her head, smiling, then walked around the counter to give Jess a hug. He put his arms around her and kissed the top of her head, even though he was dying to lean down and kiss her on the lips. She pulled away and smiled at him. His heart began beating erractically. She sighed. "I just … I want to know how to be sure that I'm doing the right thing. I don't want to make the wrong decision." She searched his eyes a few seconds before saying, "I love you, Jess. Thanks for being such a great friend." Then she finished, her eyes twinkling, "Even if you weren't much help."
Jess forced a laugh. "I love you, too, Rory," he said, watching her walk out the door, knowing she didn't understand the full meaning of his words.
"More than you will ever know…" he whispered, the sound echoing ominously in the empty diner.
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A/N: For anyone who's wondering, I felt sorrier for Dean than I did for Christopher, which is why his plea to Rory wasn't as pathetic as Christopher's was to Lorelai. He, at least, accepted that Rory was lost to him forever. He just wanted her to know…
Thanks for reviewing chapter 13: coffeeaddict4life, destiny, dodgerluv, Dontia, Genevah, gohuskers8064, jessluver, mandie, MaryATroryFan, Melissa Larkin, miss.pebbles, Mysticgrl, Sarah V., Shay, starbelly, the one anonymous reviewer
Thanks to the people who reviewed chapter 12 after I posted chapter 13: Alexis, Genevah, starbelly, and the one anonymous reviewer