Note: Sorry this one seems a little forced and butchered… I kind of have writer's blocked… I need to watch more Gilmore Girls and I can't wait until Wednesday! Anyway, let me know what you think, suggestions on where to go with this are appreciated… thanks to everyone who reviewed too! Let me know what you think!
Rory froze, Lane shrieked and Dean jumped.
Dean stood in the doorway. "Sorry, I knocked but no one answered so I just came in… old habit, I guess…" he trailed off. "Sorry," he said again.
They stood in an awkward silence until Lane piped up in a high, tense voice,
"Well, I have to get home. My mom needs me for… something…" She inched past Dean, mouthing, 'I'm sorry,' to Rory behind his back.
Rory shot her a look then focused back on Dean. "Hi. I thought you were working…"
"I got off early so I came over…"
She looked down at her feet. "So, I guess you heard that conversation, huh?"
He nodded, also very interested in his shoes. "Yeah, some…"
She glanced quickly at him then away. "The pros and cons list?"
"Yeah."
"The white picket fence theory?"
"Yeah."
"So, pretty much the whole thing?"
He locked eyes with her. "Yeah, pretty much…"
They both laughed and the awkwardness subsided a little.
"You want to sit?" Rory offered, dropping onto the couch.
"Sure."
She could feel the tension in the room but didn't know what to do to dissipate it. "So…"
He looked over at her. "So…"
"So, um… yeah…" She stopped, not really knowing where to go with it…
"So, you want to finish your conversation from this morning?"
She stared at him, afraid of where this would go. "Well, uh…I don't know where to start…"
"How about the part where you almost kissed me?"
She cleared her throat. "Right to the point… okay…good… well, I, uh, was upset about Jess and you were such a good boyfriend."
"Great… I'm a good boyfriend…"
She stopped. "Well, don't be so mad. It's just… I just… I don't know… I do like you Dean. I can't deal with you and then Jess and he was just easier to deal with at the moment."
"Well, at least I have some depth."
"Look," she grabbed his hand. "It's not you, it's me and I know that sounds cheesy but I was mixed up and you were all jealous and crazy and I couldn't deal with it but now it's all bad because Jess doesn't have any emotions at all and I think I would rather have the whole emotions versus no emotions but I just feel bad about Jess because he has the whole abandonment complex that's not good and it's edgy and crazy but I just don't want to get too attached to him or have him get too attached to me which isn't a real problem I don't think… but I don't want to lead him on… but I don't know what to do!" She turned away.
Dean looked at her back, confused. "So what are you trying to say?"
"I don't know. I'm confused. I wish that I could just take back so many things…redo so many things…"
She looked so distraught that he took her arm. "I'm sorry Rory."
She turned back. "What? See, you're good! You're so good! Why are you so good?!"
He blinked, his hands dropping uselessly to his side. "What?"
She sighed. "You have nothing to be sorry for. I'm the one who messed up. I cheated on you, remember? I'm the one who dumped you for Jess. I'm the horrible one!"
He raised his hands to comfort her but had no idea how so they floated between the two before dropping back into his lap. "Rory… it's okay." She gave him a look. "No, really. This might just be me but you're not happy with Jess. So, the reasonable answer to that is to break up with him. Which is definitely fine with me…" He saw the look on her face and hurried on, "No, seriously… If I can't be there for you as a boyfriend, at least let me be there for you as a friend."
₤ ₤ ₤
Loralei walked into the inn's construction area, waving at Tom and almost running into Sookie.
Sookie's face lit up. "So, I hear Dean and Rory are getting back together…"
Loralei nodded, distracted as she flipped through some mail then stopped and looked suspiciously up. "Where did you hear that?"
Sookie smiled her good-natured, innocent smile. "I have my sources. So, spill..."
Loralei dropped the mail onto a table and pulled Sookie over to the window. "So, Rory comes out of her room this morning, her eyes teary-filled and sniffing and I knew there was something wrong because well, I'm her best friend/mother, y'know? I know these things…and I knew that it wasn't over with Dean…"
"Yeah," Sookie replied excitedly.
"So, yeah, she starts in on this whole spiel on Dean and how Jess is so horrible except she doesn't actually say that Jess is horrible because it's Rory we're talking about and she is waaaay too nice for her own good…"
"She's an angel…" Sookie added.
"So, anyway, she says that she wants to break up with Jess and go out with Dean, at which point I want to do the happy dance, actually I want the whole town to do the happy dance because Dean is a million times better than Jess… except she gets all weirded out and thinks that Dean's moved on, which he totally hasn't and gets all insecure about Jess… to the point where I wanted to pound some sense into her… but that's not the point… the point is that she's going to talk to Dean tonight and hasn't been in contact with Jess since she ran out of his place and he's too block-headed to realize that he's losing her and won't call her…" She stopped, taking a deep breath. "Whoo… hard thing, keeping up with my daughter's busy romantic life…"
Sookie giggled. "I always liked Dean better too…"
"Yeah, me too… so now I have to putter around here for a few hours while they reconcile and get back together and get married… wait… nevermind."
"Well, I'm glad that they're talking again…"
"Me too…"
₤ ₤ ₤
"So, friends then."
Dean looked sideways at Rory. "For now. I won't give up on you, Loralei Gilmore."
A feeling inside her flared up, one that didn't happen when she was around Jess. Dean just made her feel like she was special, something that Jess lacked… kind of like a knight in shining armour complex or something. "Okay."
They shook on it then he leaned over and kissed her lightly on the cheek.