Title: Interviews, Memories, and Everything Else

Author: Alysinomo (alysinomo@hotmail.com)

Rating: PG-13

Archived: 9/25/2002

Spoilers: None.

Disclaimer: I forgot this is the first chapter, sorry!  I'm not trying to steal anything.  Gilmore Girls and the characters belong to Amy Sherman-Palladino and the lovely people at the WB.

Summary: Rory has grown up and is now a successful, 28-year-old journalist for the New York Times. She gets the surprise of her life (and one of her biggest career hurdles!) when she is assigned to interview a brilliant new author, Jess Mariano. What will come of Rory and Jess? Will old memories and feelings resurface?

* * *

Rory Gilmore opened her eyes sleepily as sunshine streamed in the open window.  It was a hot Sunday morning.

It took her a moment to realize where she was, but then it was like a siren going off in her head.  She was naked.  Lying in Jess' arms.  In his bed.  Her eyes scanned over the room; their clothes flung all over the place, sheets tangled and untucked.  She looked to her right at his sleeping figure.  Jess' dark brown hair was messy and his face was calm, he looked so peaceful and beautiful.  After looking at Jess, Rory decided that it was far too early to get up and snuggled back down into the sheets and his arms.

* * *

She awoke again to some tracing a finger along her collarbone.  She rolled over and gazed into his eyes,

"Didn't mean to wake you," his voice thick.

"No.  You didn't really, I was awake before."

With that, she kissed him slowly and climbed out of bed, pulling on his oversized shirt.

"Who gave you permission to wear my clothes?" he asked, grinning lopsidedly.

"I did!  Now get up and make me some breakfast!"

Jess smirked.  "Yes, m'am!"  He climbed out of bed and pulled on a pair of boxers.  Rory was pretty sure she'd turned about 20 shades of red between him getting out of bed and him putting on the boxers.

Jess wandered into the kitchen and Rory followed suit, pulling up a seat at the breakfast bar.

"So, what'll it be?"

"Wow.  I get a choice?  It feels like Luke's diner again! Do I have to pay?"

He laughed uncomfortably. "No.  You don't have to pay me, you already did."

Rory gasped.  She continued along with her charade, pretending not notice his brief but sudden change in demeanor.  "That could be considered a very degrading comment you know."

"But it's not."

"Still, it could be construed as a comment implying a certain person who-"

"Are you going to eat or not?"

"Ok. I'll have pancakes.  Wait – eggs.  No…"

Jess waited patiently, indecisiveness regarding food was a classic Gilmore trait.

"Ok.  I'll have the pancakes."

"Coffee?"

"Must you ask?"

He smirked. "What if I told you I had no coffee?"

"Then I'd drag you out to Starbucks to buy my venti, but I know you have coffee so why don't you just make it?  Besides, you'd save money rather than taking me out."

"I don't have coffee."

"What?!"

"Sorry."

"Dear god, are you feeling alright?  Fever?  Headache?  Alzheimer's?"

"Alzheimer's?"

"My mom believes that a large portion of the world's evils are due to it."

"That's mean."

Rory shrugged, "That's Lorelei."

* * *

Several minutes later Jess set a huge plate of pancakes in front of Rory, sitting down next to her with his own breakfast, they began to eat in a comfortable silence.

"So what do you want to do today?"

"Not sick of me yet?"

"Nope." Jess grinned, stabbing his pancake with his fork.

"Umm…well, since I'm the guest, what do you normally do on a Sunday?"

"Stay in." he replied, wagging his eyebrows suggestively.

Rory laughed. "Not again!"

"I don't know, nothing in particular, go to Washington Square Park."

Rory smiled, "I seem to remember visiting there once, and it was a long time ago.  Was it with you?"

"Ha.  So what do you do on your Sundays?"

"I don't know - normal villager stuff.  Cafes, little eclectic stores, watch the street performers.  That's the bizarre thing; we've both lived in the same neighbourhood for years and never run into each other…"

"Yeah…" said Jess, acting a little uncomfortable.

"How come you never talk to Luke anymore?"

"What?!"

"Come on.  I talk to my mother all the time; I know that Luke doesn't hear from you anymore, I've known for awhile."

"Do they still talk about me?"

"No.  It's almost like you're a ghost that people were sure they saw, but once they logically evaluate the situation, they wonder if you ever existed.  No one ever mentions you leaving, it's just something that they accept and silently question."

"Whatever.  It's better that way anyway.  No more messing up Little Town, America."

"Jess, don't whatever me.  I know that Luke misses you, he feels like it's all his fault, like he constantly chose my mom over you-"

"He did."

"I know that.  But it's all in the past; I told my mom about our interview, she was actually really excited for me.  People change.  I've changed, Luke changed, my Mom changed, and even Kirk changed!  He moved out of his mother's house!"

Jess smiled a little, "That's good to hear."

"Yeah.  Apparently the town threw a raucous Taylor-supervised party."

"So Taylor didn't change."

Rory grinned, "Ok, so some people are set in their ways.  My point is Jess, that you're missed more than you realize.  Even though you were the wild child of the town, you made everyone's lives so much more interesting, I think they even liked you deep down inside, they began to see that you had a good heart.  As for Luke, he needed someone like you, someone to live with, to help him with the diner, a companion.  You changed him.  You made him take into consideration other people's feelings besides those of my mother-"

"And yours."

"And mine.  But…as for me, the day you came into my life, as bizarre as it was, was probably one of the best things that ever happened to me."

Jess smiled his famous crooked grin, "Thanks."

"No problem."

* * *

Approximately an hour later, Rory bounced along the street, just a step ahead of an amused Jess.

"So this is the effects of a venti coffee?"

"Yup!"

"God.  Have you ever considered a 12 step program?"

"They have rehab for coffee addicts?"

"I'm considering founding one."

Rory whipped around, "Is that some sort of double-meaning comment that is cruel and unusual and points out the flaws of those of us who rely very much on a certain dark, caffeiney beverage?"

Jess rolled his eyes, "You can be really scary sometimes.  Come on, let's go to the Met.  Let's see if you've figured out how to ride a subway yet."

"I do so!  I pride myself on my in-depth knowledge on how to navigate the city, I'm the one who took you into that little book store on Bleecker Street, not many tourists and out-of-towners would be able to find that!"

"True.  True."

Rory smiled at him and slide her hand into Jess' long fingers and they walked hand in hand about 4 blocks to the nearest subway station.  True to her word, Rory was able to figure out where they were going, buy the tickets and actually find a seat – New York City subways are always crowded, even on Sundays.

Several stops later and a short walk, Rory and Jess climbed the stone steps of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  After purchasing their tickets, they stood over the map, trying to figure out which exhibits were actually worth their time.

"Oh!  The Richard Avedon special, we have to go see that.  I heard it's amazing.  It's this exhibit of all these black and white portraits of people, except they're almost candid.  None of them are smiling, but they all have such interesting facial expressions.  Apparently.  And there's one of Marilyn Monroe!  I have to see it."

Jess laughed at her enthusiasm, "Ok.  We'll see it.  What else?  The American Wing?"

"Yeah.  There's Leutze's painting of 'Washington Crossing the Delaware,' we should see that."

"I've seen it.  It's pretty impressive but we can see it again if you want." He replied.

"Ok.  Anything else?"

"Probably European paintings, just to get a sense of all the different time periods."

"Ok.  Wow.  I feel like I'm going on a field trip now!"

"Did you even go on field trips as a child?  I'd guess that you thought they were a waste of time."

"And money.  I didn't go that often, Liz didn't exactly have the money for it."

"Oh.  I'm sorry."

"Don't worry about it."

"Speaking of Liz, how is she?"

"Umm…" he said, looking guilty, "I don't know."

"Why not?"

"Because I haven't talked to her since high school either."

"Jess!  She's your mother!"

"And she's also an alcoholic!"

"But she's family, you have to learn how to forgive and forget."

"Well, sometimes it's a bit harder when your mother never paid attention to you and then shipped you off when you were 17 to your estranged uncle."

"Well, now everyone in your family is estranged, aren't they?"

"Leave it alone."

Rory sighed, she was sad for Jess.  He had changed, but his demons hadn't.

* * *

A/N:  Sorry it took me so long to update!  Like 20 days!  Ahh.  I need time to refuel my "creative juices," I didn't want to rush this story and then have it suck.  I hope you guys don't find Jess' problems with Luke so sudden that they're unbelievable, I have had that plot line planned out since the beginning, and I brought it up so suddenly on purpose, to add drama to the situation – to make it so serious that it's an avoided topic on both sides.  Also, I hope that Rory and Jess both living in Greenwich Village yet not seeing each other is not too unbelievable.  I've now officially been to New York City (I went last weekend) so I now know what the village is like, and it's not that small!  So, in personal opinion, I think it's quite plausible.  Anyway, please rate and review!  Thanks!