Ch. 9

The next morning when Rory woke up, she very slowly opened her eyes. Her breath caught in her throat when she saw that she was staring right at someone's bare chest. Jess' bare chest. She wondered how she got like that for a second, but then remembered the night before. Her and Jess must both have fallen asleep. Somehow during the night, though, she had turned over and was facing the opposite direction and Jess' shirt had come off. She glanced up and saw that he was still sleeping. Reluctantly, very, very reluctantly, she quietly slipped out from underneath his arm and got up off the couch. Jess didn't wake up.

Rory walked over to the bathroom. She stood and looked into the mirror. The look in her eyes was... happier than before. As she got into the shower, tons of thoughts flashed through her mind. The most prominent thought was how good it felt waking up in Jess' arms. I can't do this much longer, she thought. I think it's been about enough time. Besides, I want him so bad.

Meanwhile, Jess woke up and saw that Rory wasn't there. Damn it, she woke up before me. Then he heard the shower. Hmmm.... maybe... no, she'd kill me. Instead, Jess just laid there and thought about things. He had woken up once in the middle of the night and realized he'd fallen asleep there on the couch with Rory. The thought of getting up and going home hadn't even crossed his mind. Lying there had just been too comfortable, too right, too perfect. he wanted to always be that close to her. He'd taken off his shirt so that he could feel the skin of her cheek against his chest. He'd then put his arm around her and gone back to sleep, being the most comfortable he'd ever been in his life.

Jess heard the bathroom door open. He closed his eyes back, not wanting Rory to know he was already awake yet.

She walked out of the bathroom in her robe. She decided to go check on Jess and see if he was up yet. She saw him lying there on the couch. He looked so peaceful and... innocent. She laughed in her head. No one had ever used the word innocent to describe Jess. She sat down on the floor in front of the couch and picked a magazine up off of the table. She flipped through it, not really reading it. She was thinking about Jess, as always. He seemed different and yet the same as before. Being friends with him was hard, but maybe, she thought, if they did get back together, their relationship would be even stronger. Rory went back to her magazine.

Jess had been watching her ever since she sat down. It was killing him, her sitting there in just a robe. He wished HE was that robe. Jess, he told himself, It's never going to happen, man. You screwed it all up for yourself.

Rory turned around and saw Jess lying there, watching her. "Hey."

"Hello."

"How long have you been awake?"

"Just woke up," he lied. "I guess we both kind of fell asleep during the movie last night, huh?"

"Yeah, I was exhausted."

"Yeah. Plus it didn't help that the movie was a total snoozer."

She smacked his arm. "You are such a guy."

"And that's a bad thing because?"

"You know what I meant."

"Yeah, whatever." Jess slowly sat up. He grabbed his shirt and put it back on, to Rory's displeasure. "Well, I guess I better get going. I'm sure you have work."

"Actually, I don't. I have the day off. Do you want to hang out or something today or are you busy?"

Jess tried to hold back a smile. "No, I'm totally free today. I'd love to hand out. Just let me go home and shower and change really quick. I'll be back in like, 20 minutes or less, ok?"

"Alright, see you soon then." Rory walked Jess over to the door. Then she went to finish getting ready. Normally it wouldn't have taken her that long, but today she wanted to make sure she looked good. And she know why she wanted to look good. For Jess. And surprisingly, she wasn't at all ashamed to admit it.

About a half an hour later, Rory emerged from her room. She was going to wait for Jess, but Jess was already there, waiting for her.

"Oh, Jess, hey. You were fast."

"Yep. I told you I would hurry. You were the one that seemed to take a while." He smirked at her, making her stomach do about 100 flips in a row.

"Sorry. So, what do you want to do today?"

"I don't know. If you just want to hang out and talk or read or something, that's fine with me." Jess was hoping that today would be the day that he'd work up the courage to tell her he couldn't live without her for another day. Or possibly something less sappy.

"That's cool with me. I kind of feel like just having a day to just do absolutely nothing."

"Well then, we can do absolutely nothing together then." Jess was hoping that they would just hang out and talk all day and that they would fall asleep together again.

"Cool. Well, I don't know about you but I need some food."

"And by food you mean coffee."

"Well, yeah, that, too.' Rory and Jess went into the kitchen to find some food and make some coffee.

About an hour later, they had already finished up eating and were just talking about random things. Jess decided that it was time. He was going to tell her.

"Hey Rory, I need to talk to you about something."

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing, it's just--," Jess didn't get to finish, though, because there was a knock on Rory's door. Rory groaned and went to get up but Jess stopped her and told her to sit back down.

"Don't worry about it. I'll get." Jess walked over to the door, totally ready to kill whoever it was that interrupted him when he was getting ready to bare his soul to Rory.

When he jerked open the door, he could not believe what he saw.

"Oh, hell no." Jess was really pissed now.

Standing there at the door was none other than Dean.

A/N: Hey guys... thanks so much to those of you who reviewed! I really appreciate it. Thank you also to those who read my story. I don't know how long until the next chapter but hopefully soon. I have part of it written already. Please please pleassseeee review. Thank you.