Author's Note: By the way, for the purposes of this story the episdoe Keg! Max! never happened, or if you prefer just Rory went to the party. Jess didn't go, he was missing again.
Part 5Luke looked at Jess and Emma amazed by how different Jess was with her around. After entering the diner a few moments ago they had sat at the counter while Luke got them something to drink before he started asking questions.
"Where did you get married?" he asked.
"City Hall. In New York," Jess answered.
"Liz said you were in California."
"I was. For a while," Jess replied.
Luke shook his head and sighed. He was exhausted. "Why did you two feel the need to get married? You're only 19," he said calmly.
"We wanted to get married when we were 16. We waited three years, Luke. Did you really think we were going to wait any longer than necessary?" Jess looked at Emma and took her hand. "Especially after last spring," he finished quietly.
Luke stood there quietly while his thoughts were racing. In some ways he envied them, they had always known what they wanted. They had always wanted each other. He also knew how hard it had been for them to be together. Luke guessed it must have been slightly disturbing to be 15 years old and know that they wanted to spend the rest of their lives together.
"I guess I had hoped you would wait until you were older. Or that I would at least be invited to the wedding."
"You were still on your cruise," Jess answered smiling.
"You could've called and told me." Then Luke surprised them by joking, "Or sent me a postcard. 'Hey, Luke. I'm fine. By the way, I got married. Jess,'" Luke finished smiling. "Are you... How're you doing?"
Jess smiled. "We're broke. We live in a crappy apartment with Emma's brother. And...we've never been happier," Jess finished, looking at Emma who was smiling, too.
"Okay."
Jess was shocked. Luke was surprisingly calm. Too calm. Jess and Emma shared a confused look.
"Okay," Jess started. "Why are you so calm? Why aren't you...I don't know...yelling or something?"
"Because now that I've had time to think about it, I'm not really surprised."
Now Jess was even more confused. "You're not?" He looked at Emma who looked just as confused.
"No, I'm not. I know how you two are. Besides, you're already married; I can't really do anything about it now. Honestly, I don't know why Liz was so surprised."
"So, you're okay with this?" Jess waved his hand between Emma and himself.
Luke leaned on the counter behind him and crossed his arms. "Well, I wish you had waited until you were older, but...you were right. Liz and I have no right to criticize your marriage, not with our marriage record." Luke looked around at the empty diner. "I'm going to go upstairs and try to convince your mother that this is okay. Watch the diner?" Jess nodded and Luke turned around and went upstairs.
"So..." Emma started as she looked at Jess.
"So..." Jess still looked incredibly confused. "That went well. Too well. Something must be horribly wrong."
Emma stood and wrapped her arms around Jess' shoulders from behind. "Stop being so pessimistic."
"I'm not being pessimistic." He turned around so he was facing her and pulled her onto his lap. "I'm being realistic." Jess rested his chin on her shoulder and sighed as he saw Miss Patty and Taylor approach the diner. They stopped when they saw Jess and started pointing and talking before walking away. "I hate this town."
"Then why did we come back here? We can't afford the car."
"I know, but...it's mine, and Luke had no right to take it."
"I agree with you, Jess, but..." Emma paused and sighed. "What are we going to do with it? We can't afford the insurance, so we can't keep it. And you said it yourself; it's a piece of junk. No one in their right mind would buy it."
"What about Mark? Would he help?"
Emma snorted and laughed. "Yeah, like Mark has any money."
Jess sighed. "I'll figure something out." He looked out the window to see Rory standing there watching them. "Great."
Emma looked at him confused and he gestured towards the window with his head. Emma looked over and saw a girl watching them. "Let me guess...Rory?" Jess nodded and rested his head on her shoulder. "Go talk to her."
"Huh?" Jess looked up at Emma.
"Go talk to her. It's time to tell her the truth, Jess." Emma stood up and pulled Jess off the stool.
"You sure?"
"Go." She pushed him towards the door. He looked back at her and smiled before leaving the diner, and facing Rory.
"Hey."
Rory looked up, surprised to see him. She hadn't seen him leave the diner, she had been too busy looking at...his wife. How did this happen?
"Hey," she finally replied.
"Can we down and talk?" Jess asked breaking the awkward silence. Rory nodded and they walked over to the gazebo and sat down.
"So, that's your wife?" Rory asked quietly.
"Yeah, Emma. How did you know?"
"Luke told my mom."
"Oh." Jess was quiet for another minute. "I never meant to hurt you," Jess said quietly. Rory snorted and Jess shook his head. "I didn't. I did love you. I do love you, but...I'm in love with her."
"You lied to me."
"I know," Jess whispered. "I'm sorry."
"Why, Jess? I don't understand why you didn't tell me about her. She was obviously a big part of your life."
Jess sighed as he tried to figure out how to explain it to her. "You were...what, 15, 16 when you met Dean?"
"Yeah," Rory answered, confused. "So?"
"What was the first thing you thought the first time you saw him?"
Rory was confused by the question but thought about it for a moment. "I don't know. I can't remember."
Jess nodded, not really surprised by her answer. "The first time I saw Em, we were 15. My best friend, Mark, is her brother, and for some reason or other we had never met. One afternoon we went to Mark's place to watch a movie, and there she was sitting on the couch sketching. She looked up at me, and I was gone. My first thought was 'I'm gonna marry this girl. I'm gonna spend the rest of my life with her.' Do you know how...disconcerting that is? Especially when you're 15? The most amazing thing was that she felt the same way."
Rory had been watching Jess the whole time and was pretty amazed herself. He was lost in the memory and looked happier than she had ever seen him. This didn't look or sound anything like the Jess she knew.
"When Em got pregnant," Jess continued, "we were actually kind of happy, but after the miscarriage...everything fell apart. We were afraid to touch each other. We were afraid it would happen again, but we weren't really afraid of getting pregnant again, we were afraid of another miscarriage. Then Liz sent me here." Jess stopped, and looked down at his hands while he twisted his wedding ring around his finger. "Did your mom tell you about the car accident?" he asked quietly.
"She said that Emma was in a car accident last spring, and that that's where you were," she answered just as quietly.
Jess sighed and wiped a tear away from his eye. "Emma and Mark and their parents were in the car and a drunk driver ran a red light. Emma and Mark were the only survivors. Their father was killed instantly, their mom died a couple of days later. The drunk driver died about a week later. Mark had a broken arm, lots of cuts and bruises. Em..." Jess stopped for a moment. This was a lot harder than he thought it would be. "Em's left leg was broken in so many places that the doctor said shattered would not be an inappropriate term. She'll walk with a limp for the rest of her life. She had some broken ribs, and she hit her head. She was unconscious for a week, and they weren't really sure she would ever wake up." By the time Jess finished talking he was crying, surprising Rory who also had tears in her eyes. "I almost lost her. She almost died in that car accident. I couldn't lose her. I can't lose her."
"So you just decided to leave?" Rory asked still trying to make sense of everything.
"Emma was the deciding factor, but not the only reason. I wasn't going to graduate, and I didn't want to repeat the year. Luke said that if I wasn't in school, then I couldn't stay with him. And...I guess...I didn't want to disappoint you. After the car accident...the decision was made for me," Jess tried to explain.
Rory watched Jess playing with his wedding ring for a few minutes while she collected her thoughts. She couldn't believe what she was hearing. This didn't sound anything like the Jess she had known. Although it was becoming clear to her that she had never really known Jess. Not the real Jess anyway.
"Why didn't you tell me about her in the beginning? You were here for two years, Jess, and you never said a word about her. I mean, I never even heard her name before today," Rory finally asked.
For the first time since they had started talking Jess looked over at her. "In the beginning it was too hard, it still hurt too much. Then when we started dating I tried to tell you a hundred times, but I couldn't. I didn't know how to talk about it. Suddenly, the person I wanted more than anything told me that she thought some time apart might be good for us. What was I supposed to...I couldn't...she didn't want..."
"Is that what you thought?"
Jess stood up and turned around when he heard Emma's voice, while Rory stayed still and watched them.
"I thought you were gonna stay in the diner?" Jess asked, confused.
"Gypsy called," Emma replied, dismissing his question. "Is that what you thought? That I didn't want you?"
Jess shifted from one foot to the other and shoved his hands in his pockets. "Of course that's not what I...well, what else was I supposed to think? One day we were fine, and then you're telling me we should spend some time apart."
Emma looked at him with tears in her eyes. "All I ever wanted was you."
Suddenly Jess reached out, grabbed her, and kissed her completely forgetting that Rory was sitting there watching them. When the kiss ended Jess reached down and laced their fingers together. "Let's go home."
"Yeah." Emma nodded and wiped her eyes.
They started walking away when Jess suddenly stopped and turned around. "Oh, my God! Rory!" he exclaimed. "I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to forget about you."
Rory stood up and smiled for the first time since she found out Jess was back in town. "It's okay," she said as she walked over to them. Then she realized that this was actually the first time she was meeting Emma.
At the same time Jess realized the same thing. "Rory Gilmore, I'd like you to meet Emma Mariano." Jess looked at Emma and smiled. "My wife."
Emma looked at Rory and smiled. "It's nice to finally meet you, Rory. I've heard a lot about you."
Rory smiled and laughed. "I wish I could say the same."
"What did Gypsy want?" Jess asked remembering why Emma came over in the first place.
"Oh," Emma looked at him and smiled innocently. "The car we can't afford won't be ready until tomorrow."
Jess looked at her and shook his head. "Don't start."