A/N: Just to let you know, this chapter takes place about 2 days after the last one. So I guess that makes it, like Tuesday. Oh, and just in case you forgot, they're out on Christmas break, so that's why nobody's in school. : ) Enjoy!
Chapter 10
"Need more oxygen . . . can't breathe," Lorelai panted.
Rory looked back at her mother in obvious exasperation. "Mom! We've only ran a block! How can you be tired already?" she asked, although she had to admit, she was a little out of breath too. Still, her Mother looked like she had just finished a marathon. Her head was hanging between her knees, and little pieces of hair had fallen out of her ponytail and plastered themselves to her forehead.
"A whole block? Wow, I'm doing better than I thought."
"Mom," Rory groaned.
"I'm sorry sweetie, but I think this is the first time I've actually exercised in, like my entire life."
"You're exaggerating."
"Since when have I ever exaggerated?"
"That comment is not worthy of a response," Rory said while rolling her eyes, "C'mon, lets get going again."
"My feet have temporarily stopped working," Lorelai said dramatically.
"What?" Rory said, pretending to be annoyed.
"No, I'm serious! My brain is frantically sending little signals to my feet saying 'Run, you can do it!' but my feet are saying 'No, we can't!' and there's this whole argument going on in my body, and let me just say, the feet are winning."
"Mom, look, you're exaggerating right now."
"Oh really? So this is what exaggeration means."
"Mom c'mon, I need to exercise. It was your idea that we eat all that ice cream anyway."
"Yeah, but Rory come on! You can't watch a movie without ice cream."
"I completely agree, BUT because I gave into my desire to stuff my face with sweets, I now must exercise."
"Ugh, I know. This diabetes thing is the pits."
"I know . . . I don't know which is worse. The low on the sweets part, or the high on the exercise part."
"Well a few hours ago it was the sweets, but right now my vote is on the exercise."
"Yeah, but still I need to do it. But Mom, if you want to go back, it's okay. I completely understand."
"What, no, no sweetie. It's okay. This is my fault after all. I'll stop complaining . . . for at least another block, anyway."
"No, Mom, really it's fine, honestly. I don't mind running alone. Besides, I know you have that date with Luke tonight and all -"
"Date? I'm sorry when did it become a date?"
"Uh, Mom, You and Luke, 7:00, dinner at a nice restaurant. It's a date."
"Good point. Still, it's just weird. I mean, it's Luke . . . don't you think it's weird?"
"Nope, I don't think it's weird at all, I think it's great. Now gone on, go home!"
"Are you sure you don't mind sweetie?"
"Yep."
"Positive?"
"Uh-huh."
"One hundred percent sure?"
"Mom!"
"Okay, okay I'm going!"
*****
About half an hour later, Rory was sitting alone on the bridge, staring off at the water, and breathing hard. Her cheeks were brightly flushed and her heart was hammering. She felt terrible, but she was pretty sure it was from the running, and not her blood sugar. She had made it about a mile before she had decided to stop. She knew that meant she was in pretty bad shape, but she still couldn't have run another step. 'Man,' she thought, 'All those people who run or jog for fun are completely out of their minds!'
Rory heard someone come up behind her. She briefly hoped that it wasn't an ax murderer or kidnapper, because if it was, she was doomed. There was no way she had the energy to escape.
"Hey."
Rory looked up and saw Jess lowering himself down to sit beside her. "Hey," she returned with a smile.
"What the hell happened to you? You look awful," Jess said with a frown.
"Well don't you know just what to say to make the ladies swoon."
Jess smirked, "You know that's not what I meant."
Rory laughed, "I know, I was just kidding. But anyway, my Mom talked me into eating sweets, and because of my stupid diabetes, I now have to do extra exercise whenever I eat junk. My Mom started to run with me, buy apparently her feet went on strike, so she had to go home."
Jess laughed, "You know, I could run with you sometimes if you want."
Rory looked at him, touched by his offer. Then she giggled, "I'm not sure I'd want you to run with me. You'd probably just make fun of me huffing and puffing."
"I wouldn't," he said innocently, "How far did you make it this time?"
"About a mile," she said with a sigh, "Not too good, huh?"
"You'll get better," he said, a slight grimace on his face.
"Hey! It's not my fault. As you can see," she said, gesturing to her disheveled and sweaty state, "I was just not made for exercise." She grinned at him and laid back on the bridge.
"I see what you mean. Maybe you should just give up sweets altogether," he suggested, amusement laced in his deep voice.
"You're joking right?," she said from her horizontal position, not bothering to sit back up and speak to his face.
"Oh, no," he said, smirking now, "I think it's a good idea. I could help."
"Oh really? And just how would you help?"
"Well," he began, suddenly leaning over and pinning Rory down between his two arms. He bent down until his face was looming just over hers. They were quiet a second, both listening to the rapid beat of each others hearts, before he continued. "Well," he began again, "For every time I caught you eating sweets, I wouldn't do this for a week." His voice was barely a whisper as he leaned down and gave Rory a soft, sweet kiss on her lips.
"Evil," she whispered, grinning.
"But," he said smirking, "for every day you go without eating sweets, I'd do this." He paused a second, staring into her blue eyes, now bright with anticipation. Then he closed the small gap between them and kissed her deeply. She quickly opened her mouth for him, and he wasted no time taking advantage. She moved beneath him, and he let himself fall on top of her, trapping her underneath his weight. She wrapped her arms around his neck to pull him closer still, as his hands suddenly moved to her sides. She moaned a little, quickly feeling heat spread throughout her limbs. She felt like she was in heaven.
But suddenly, Jess pulled back, a troubled look on his face.
"Jess?" she whispered, confused, "What's the matter?"
"What, oh, nothing," he muttered, stumbling on his own words. She had no idea how hard it had been for him to pull back, how much he had just wanted to stay there with her, forever. But he couldn't. Not when he still had so many questions. They really needed to talk about what had happened at the restaurant, before Rory had fainted, but now just wasn't the time. "It's just that I remembered that Luke wanted me back in the diner. I'm already probably a little late," he said lamely, although it wasn't a lie. He really should have been back at the diner 15 minutes ago.
"Oh okay, I guess I'll see you later?" she said, disappointed.
"Sure," he answered.
Rory closed her eyes, expecting a goodbye kiss, but after several seconds of waiting, she sat up to see that Jess was already gone.
*****
Rory blinked, staring down at the page in front of her. She had already read it 10 times, but she still didn't have a clue as to what it said. She sighed, closing the book. There was no use in trying to read, she was far to preoccupied. All she could think about was Jess. He had acted so weird that afternoon at the bridge. At first he had seemed fine, but then he had just gotten up and left so suddenly. What had gotten into him? Had she done something wrong? Rory was confused, and worried, to say the least. She wished she could go talk to her Mother and get some advice, but unfortunately she had left on her date with Luke half and hour ago.
Rory stood up with a determined expression on her face and left her room, headed for the front door. There was only one thing to do, and she was going to do it. Taking a deep breath she quickly opened the door, only to find Jess standing there, with his hand raised, apparently about to knock.
"Jess!"
"Rory!" they both said at the same time.
"What are you doing?" they both said.
"I wanted to see you," again, at the same time.
They both laughed. "I couldn't concentrate on my book so I decided to come find you," Rory explained, not mentioning that he was the reason she couldn't concentrate.
"Ah, I see, I'm your second choice for the evening."
"This from the guy who just about knocked on my face."
Jess smirked, "It's not my fault you have bad timing."
"Maybe you're the one with bad timing," she said with a playful grin.
"Maybe," he said, suddenly falling silent.
"So, uh, did you want to come in?" she asked.
"I was sort of hoping we could go for a walk. There's something I wanted to talk about."
"Oh, okay, sure," slightly worried about what he could possibly want to talk about. She closed the door and followed him down the steps.
The two walked for several minutes in silence before Rory finally said, "So what did you want to talk about?" Her heart was hammering in her chest.
"Well we haven't exactly had a chance to talk about what happened at dinner last Saturday. With Dean and Mandi and all that." His voice sounded strained.
"Yeah, you're right," she whispered. Jess really did deserve an explanation as to what exactly had been her problem. She hadn't acted like herself that night, plus, she had acted totally jealous of Mandi. There was no telling what he must think. After all, she hadn't told him about her conversation with Dean at the hospital.
"Listen, Rory," he began, running his hand through his hair, "I need to know if you still have feelings for Dean. If maybe your having second thoughts about breaking up with him. If you -" he broke off frowning, but shortly continued, "If you want to go back to him, I'll understand."
The raw pain that Rory saw in Jess's eyes as he said this to her, tore at her heart. She knew Jess loved her, and the sacrifice that he was making, by offering to let her go, was almost more than she could handle. She fought to keep the tears out of her eyes.
"Jess," she whispered, taking his hands into hers, "I don't want to go back to Dean. Not now, not ever. I know I acted incredibly jealous last week, but I, well, I think I was dealing with issues that were completely different. But I'm pretty sure I've got everything worked out now. You're the only person I want to be with."
"What about Dean? It looks like he's not quite ready to give up on you yet," Jess quietly pointed out.
"I don't think Dean will be bothering us anymore. We, uh, talked at the hospital on Sunday, before I checked out. I pretty much told him that it was over for good, and he needed to move on. I think he finally understands that there's no hope of a future for us. He'll move on in time, I think. He says he still loves me, but honestly, I think he just wants to be in love with somebody, anybody. Eventually he'll realize that he doesn't love me anymore. In the mean time, I don't he'll give us any more problems."
Jess smiled and kissed her softly. When he pulled back he looked into her eyes, suddenly serious again, "You're sure about this Rory?"
"Very sure."
Jess finally started breathing again. He had worried and sulked all afternoon, but he had eventually come to the conclusion that he had to give Rory the opportunity to go back to Dean, if that's what she really wanted. It would have destroyed him, but he loved her, and he wanted her to be happy.
Suddenly his eyes locked onto hers and everything seemed to snap into place. He felt all the walls around his heart, that he had spent so may years building up, come crashing down in that very instant. Everything made sense, and he felt like he was the luckiest man in the world.
"I love you, Rory," he said suddenly, surprising himself. The words had just slipped out, and he was amazed at how natural and right they had felt. He wasn't sure if he had ever even said them before. He suddenly felt free, like his declaration had liberated him.
Rory stared at Jess in shock. Had he just said what she thought he said? Rory felt a flood of happiness rush through her as she finally comprehended the gift he had just given her. Her eyes filled with tears and she leaned her forehead against his.
"I love you too, Jess."
"Really?" he asked, suddenly grinning like a kid in a candy story.
"Really," she returned with a teary smile.
The two met in an earth shattering kiss. Rory wrapped her arms around his neck and he pulled her as close to him as he could. The kiss went on and on, filled with passion and heat, but most of all love. The kiss was filled with all of the love that the two of them had been storing inside for so long.
After a while, a long while, Jess broke the kiss, and pulled back just a mere centimeter from Rory's face, "Say it again," he whispered huskily, a little out of breath.
She smiled, knowing exactly what he meant, "I love you, Jess Mariano."
"And I love you, Rory Gilmore."
The two smiled at each other, both more happy and content than they had ever thought possible.
*Grins* Well what did you guys think? The Epilogue will be up soon, hopefully very soon. Please Review!