The Question of Inevitability
Author: Knowhere
Interlude
Rating: Pg-13
Disclaimer:
AN: Okay, this is to serve as a big apology to the delay in the coming of the last chapter. This I hope can wet your appetite for at least a week or so until I can finish up this story. Believe me; I want to see an ending to this as badly as you do. Again, I am so sorry and I hope you will look out for the new chapter—the last installment of this story.
Summary: Rory left in search of an answer to the question that she didn't know how to ask. Now five years later she comes back to the city where she abruptly ended her life with Jess. Does he have the ability to forgive her? Literati/Au/Future Fic
"Hey man." Jess softly closed the door behind him with the gentle click of the deadbolt.
"God Jess, where the hell have you been for two weeks?!" Ben was caught off guard with his friend reappearing in the middle of the night. For two weeks, he hadn't heard from Jess. There hadn't been a phone call, an email, or any kind of word to let him know that his friend was still alive. Ben had came home one night to find the apartment empty; at first, he was happy because it had meant that Jess was out and actually doing something, but after the next day and he still hadn't returned, he had gotten worried.
"I had to write a story." He was exhausted from his trip; not only was he jet-lagged, but he had been unable to sleep ever since he left. His whole body ached with pain and he wanted nothing but to be able to close his eyes and forget about everything around him.
"You had to write a story? Do you have any damn clue how worried I've been about you? You just left without a word…you just disappeared!" Ben was getting increasingly irritated at how detached Jess seemed at the whole situation.
"Not now, Ben. Now is not the time for a lecture." Jess practically growled at his roommate. His voice was dangerously low and it betrayed all the anger and frustration he was feeling inside.
"Like hell it is. I've been calling around. I talked to Rob and he said that your assignment only lasted for the weekend, and then I just became this psycho who continually called your cell phone but it's been turned off."
"Fuck you Ben. You have no idea what I've been through." With that harsh and stinging statement, Jess retreated back into his room.
Ben just stood speechless in the middle of their living room. He stared at Jess's bedroom door as if he expected him to come back out and tell him what was wrong. But Ben knew better than that—he knew not to expect such childish endeavors. Ben still continued to watch in silence as Oliver padded up to Jess's door and scratched on the surface to let him know that he wanted in. And as Jess cracked open the door to let him in, he suddenly realized what had happened. Ben shot Jess a concerned glance at their eyes met briefly, but Jess shut the door once again as soon as Oliver entered.
Knowing that there's was nothing further he could do, Ben retreated back to his own room and shut the door just as quietly as Jess had done a few moments ago.
----------------------------------------------
"So, I made the mistake of forgetting that my skin and glue doesn't mix well, and I think I might have super glued my palms together…" Lorelai pushed the bedroom door awkwardly with her elbows and found her daughter furiously typing at her laptop. "Anyways, so do you think they'll still crown my Miss Universe even if I can't do the beauty queen wave?" After a moment's pause, Lorelai tried again, "Rory?" Still no response. "Rory, Sugar, Baby?"
"Huh?" Rory didn't look up instead she seemed to have increased the speed of her fingers. Her hair fell and covered her face but she didn't take the extra time to take her hands off the keyboard to tuck it behind her ears.
Lorelai came up from behind and nudged her with her elbows, "Hey Honey…I know I fed you a lot of coffee this morning, but you're scaring Mommy."
"Do you know that I have less than two weeks to finish this big assignment? I mean, two weeks! Do you know how many days that is?" Lorelai began to open her mouth to reply but Rory cut her off by the string of words that tumbled out. "Fourteen days! In exactly three hundred and thirty six hours, I'm going have to email this report in. And do you know how much I have written? One page! That's it. And that's one page doubled spaced; at the rate I'm going, I'll have to work constantly with no time left for sleep. How come we don't live in a world where a day is at least thirty five hours?! I need those extra hours!"
"Rory! Rory! Snap out of it!" Lorelai bumped into her with her forearms and tried to stop the typing. "You can finish the article in less than six hours which means that you have three hundred and thirty left to admire how beautiful I am and probably still have time to go shopping for some new shoes."
Rory ignored her and continued to type away. "Mom, just go out or something. Quit bugging me."
"Okay that's it. You stop right now! As your Mother, I am telling you that you have to stop typing." Rory paused and tipped her head up to look at her mom. "Seriously Rory, what's up with you? I haven't seen a melt down like this since the time you overslept on final day in college."
"I'm not having a melt down I just don't think I have enough time to complete my work, and my work is very important to me…very!" She pounded her fist like a five year old against the desk and looked defiantly up at Lorelai.
"Rory, not that I don't enjoy your constant presence for the last week but is something wrong?"
"Nothing's wrong, why would you think that something's wrong?"
"Rory, come on…under all this pretty face, I'm actually pretty intuitive; I'm your mother, I know when something's wrong."
"Mom…please just leave me alone." Rory was pleading in her tone, she sounded like she was young again and it broke Lorelai's heart to just hear her daughter so regressed.
"Did something happen, babe?"
"Mom, I can't do this all over again…I just can't do this again to him." Rory lifted herself out of her chair and climbed over to the bed next to Lorelai where she laid her head in her lap. Then, Lorelai did what she knew how to…she just let her daughter cry, and she was there to listen to the sporadic burst of words that poured out of Rory's mouth—words of regret and of the pain that was coming.
AN: Don't forget to look out for the last chapter!