Disclaimer: I don't own the series Gilmore Girls or the original characters. All I own is my imagination and the plot.

A/N: Hey :-) I know that it took me longer than usual to update, but I have three stories to work on now and the last couple of weeks of school are pretty stressful. I just hope this chapter isn't that bad and I wanna thank Alexia for letting me bother her with my questions and all. :-)

Bye, smile :-)

The silence in the car came as a relief to Rory, for she and Joey hardly ever exchanged a word when they would be in a car, giving her the illusion that things between them were fine once again. The wrinkles in their relationship had been straightened out this morning and Rory had decided to put it as far behind her as she could; she wanted things between her and Joey to work. She loved him and now that she and Jess had both agreed on being friends, he wasn't a threat to her anymore and neither was she to him. She had no reason to feel guilty for stepping back into Jess's life because he didn't seem to have a girlfriend, something that made things both easier and complicated for her because if he would have had a girlfriend than she would have never even thought about kissing him back when he had pressed his lips onto hers. She would have felt too guilty afterwards if she had known that he had a girlfriend.

She had a husband and yet she didn't even hesitate to kiss Jess back or dream about him, albeit she couldn't control her dreams and she blamed her actions on impulsivity, which wasn't an excuse, but she felt better knowing that she hadn't been thinking when she had kissed Jess. She couldn't have been thinking; she had been upset and in need of comfort.

Rory stared out of the window while biting her lower lip, knowing that it couldn't be blamed on impulse or her mind which left her to put the blame on her heart, something she had refused to do a couple of days ago. She admitted to still having feelings for Jess, but she also had feelings for Joey, stronger ones, or so she wanted to believe. She wouldn't have married Joey if she hadn't loved him, but she also wouldn't have kissed Jess if she did love him as much as she thought she did. Rory sighed, angry at herself and at love, because it consisted of so many definitions, emotions, and complications.

Joey threw a look in her direction when he heard her sigh. ''Are you okay?''

Rory nodded. ''I just wish we could have stayed longer,'' she confessed, camouflaging her own concerns - concerns that were probably spooking through his head, too.

''I know,'' Joey replied while reaching for her hand with his free one. ''As soon as I can get a week off work, we'll go and visit them again. And until then, they can visit us, especially your mom. I know you miss her.'' He gently ran his thumb over her knuckles as he said this.

''Yeah, I know. We're just too busy though; I practically live at the news office and you and your pharmacy share a bond even I can't come between. My mom would be alone most of the day anyway and she would have to entertain herself, something she hates and sucks at.''

A smile briefly passed across Joey's face, a smile that reached up to his eyes. ''Yeah, and we don't want her snooping around the house. What is she finds out all our little dirty secrets?''

''Like.....?'' Rory asked, while turning her head to look at him.

''The porn collection we have stashed underneath our bed or the cuffs at the bottom of our closet and.....''

Rory pulled her hand free and gave him a gentle push. ''I can't believe I married you.'' Her tone was playful as she said this, but both realized that her words had the danger of truth flickering in them, so she bit her tongue and remained quiet for the seconds that followed, hoping that he would do the same. Joey, however, decided to see how deep he could dig and what he would be able to discover in the process - a process which he had tried to complete several times before with no success.

''So, did you get the chance to say goodbye to Jess?'' was his subtle start.

Rory nodded, the smile on her face fading like the light of a setting sun. ''Yeah, I said goodbye.''

''Good,'' Joey responded, while placing his right hand back onto the steering wheel, gripping it just a little tighter that he normally did. ''not that you two didn't have the time to properly say goodbye; you two were up there a little too long just to say goodbye. I bet you two got the chance to talk, too.''

Rory turned her head towards the window on her right, responding with a slight nod to let him know that he was indeed right.

''What did you two talk about?'' Joey continued, following the fascinating road of his curiosity.

Rory sighed. ''Joey, please, I don't wanna get into this again. We talked, nothing more.''

''I'm not trying to get into anything. As your husband I was just wondering and showing interest.''

''You're not showing interest; you're prying, prying into nothing, because Jess and I are friends.''

''But there must still be some unresolved issues between the two of you, some unresolved tension,'' Joey said, taking their conversation down a road Rory never had an intention of following, but now she was forced to - to explain herself, something she ought to do, but had never planned on actually doing. She had just planned on keeping the kiss between her and Jess behind lock and key, never bring it up ever again and never letting something like that happen ever again.

''Why are you pushing this?!'' Rory asked, while looking at her husband again, aggravated by his persistence. ''Why won't you believe me when I say that we're just friends?!''

''Because I don't know if I should.....''

Rory looked at the side of his face for a couple of seconds before licking her lips and turning her head in the direction of the window again, crossing her arms in the process. ''God, you almost sound jealous.....''

''Well, maybe I am, Rory,'' Joey softly admitted. ''He is your ex-boyfriend and you two seem so close....''

''We were close,'' she corrected, cutting him off.

''Are,'' he responded childishly.

Rory glanced at him from the corner of her eye. ''We're not turning this into a stupid yes or no argument, especially when we have nothing to argue about.''

''In your opinion.''

''What?'' Rory asked.

''You don't see the way you look at him.....''

''Luckily not, because that would just be weird,'' Rory interrupted, hoping to lighten the mood between them.

''See, that's how I know that you're lying about you and him only being friends.'' Joey paused long enough to make a clicking noise with his tongue before going on. ''You try to avoid the subject and make it seem like no big deal, which it is, no matter how you're trying to make me look at it.''

''You're not making any sense.''

Joey shook his head. ''Figures.''

The rest of the car ride they sat in an awkward silence, each afraid to move or shift in their seats. And the discomfort was just taken to another level when they reached their apartment. They each got their own bags from the trunk and walked up to their apartment building in a still reigning silence and it wasn't until they had entered their apartment that Rory finally felt a little more at ease. She tightened the hold on her bag before looking up long enough to catch Joey's gaze on her.

''I'm going to unpack.''

Joey didn't say or do anything, but just watched her as she disappeared into their room. Once in there, Rory threw the bag on the bed and started to unzip it, slipping into another memory as she did this - a memory of a fight, that unlike her and Joey's had, had a happy ending.

-x-Flashback-x-

A faint knock on the door made Jess look up, distracted from the TV he had been watching. He knew that it was her; he had been expecting her. After all, Rory wasn't the kind of person that would walk away from a fight - a fight that had started with a small argument - an argument he had been the cause of simply because up until now, he had chosen not to confess to her the reason behind it. With one last quick look at the screen, he headed over to the door and opened it.

His speculation had been correct. It was indeed Rory. Her eyes were on the same level as his because of the heels she was wearing - heels that matched her ebony colored dress. Jess swiftly took in her delicate face with its graceful features that were accentuated by the make-up she was wearing - her eye shadow was precisely the same color as her hair which he noticed was messily curled and pinned back, away from her face instead of loose and straight, the way she usually wore it.

''Hey,'' Rory said, when he had his eyes focused on hers again.

Jess nodded at her before turning around and heading back to the TV, deciding not to be the one who would start this argument.

Rory closed the door en leaned against it as she watched him fix his gaze intensely on the screen; although, she knew that it was just an act. His eyes might have been looking at the screen, but she knew that he was just waiting for everything to start so they could get this over with and that was the reason she kept coming back to this particular subject, forcing him to lose patience and sometimes his temper. He could brush off anything with ease, something Rory found frustrating because he never told her why they had to avoid certain subjects and it was this incomprehension that set the playing field for their feuds.

''I still don't get why you didn't want to come with us,'' Rory carefully began, while looking over at Jess who was trying so hard to seem careless and unaffected by her words, but she knew better from the way his shoulders had tensed up and from the way his face had become blank, his eyes expressionless. ''I was looking forward to introducing you to my grandparents, especially my grandpa. He likes the same authors as you.''

''We wouldn't hit it off anyway,'' he responded, still not looking up from the TV.

''How do you know when you haven't even met them?''

''Rory,'' he warned her, while throwing a glance in her direction.

''I'm trying to understand,'' she continued, while locking eyes with him. ''To understand why you didn't want to join us tonight, but without a reason, I.....''

''You want a reason?'' Jess asked, while he turned off the TV and turned to face her. ''It's because of that.'' He gestured towards her.

''I don't.....''

But he cut her off once more as he walked over to her, coming to a halt directly in front of her. ''The dress, the hair, the make-up.'' His eyes followed the same road as his words, taking in her elegant appearance more closely than he had before.

''So I look different. It's just to please my grandparents.''

''It's not you,'' Jess stated firmly, his dark eyes peering directly into hers.

''It's just an appearance,'' she tried to explain, while pulling the pins out of her hair so the curls could cascade over her shoulders and lay against her cheeks.

''Exactly. It's just an appearance, so why go all this trouble to change it for one night?''

Rory bit her lip before replying. ''I know that I usually don't dress like this and that I usually wear jeans, but.....''

''They suit you better,'' came his sharp response, one that cut deeper than he had intended by the way Rory pressed her lips together and averted her eyes.

''Ror, that's not what I meant. You look beautiful in anything, but I just prefer you in your usual clothes.''

''My usual clothes,'' she repeated, not caring that he was trying to make her forget about his earlier remark by polishing it with a compliment. She had heard the edge in his voice when he had said it, which insinuated that the words held a deeper meaning - one she was trying to pry out of him with guilt, if she had to. Normally, she had no problem to respect his self-isolation, but she was sick of him making up excuses every time she wanted him to come to dinner with her so he could finally meet her grandparents.

''Jess, you've been blowing these dinners off ever since I mentioned to you that they wanted to meet you. I'm fed up with making up excuses and I'm sick of fighting over this with you. If you really hate the idea of coming to dinner so much, then I won't make you. You just have to give me a reason, please? Because you pointing out that I look different than usual isn't getting me anywhere and it isn't making me feel any better about all of this.''

Her eyes found his again. ''Please?'' And that was the moment he took down his walls, when he saw the pleading look flicker behind the blue of her eyes. He realized that he could keep quiet about everything else, but that he had to talk to her about this one and reassure her that it wasn't her or anything about her.

Jess reached for her hand and entwined his fingers with hers, taking his time to do so. Rory traced his gentle movements with her eyes silently. His delicate touch was letting her know that she had gotten through and that just for this one time, he would open up and let her take a brief look inside.

''You know I didn't mean to make you feel worse.''

Jess brought her hand up and kissed it while holding her gaze long enough to catch the smile that was quickly forming on her face. ''I know. You're just so secretive. I wish that you would tell me more, but at the same time..... I like you like this. You're so mysterious.....''

Jess smirked, causing his lips to form a crooked line, one she traced with her free hand before bringing it up to his hair and entangling her fingers in his black curls. ''And I didn't mean to make you feel obliged to go. I just wanted you to meet my grandparents because they are a big part of my life.''

''I know that,'' he responded. ''And I don't wanna ruin that for you.''

''What do you mean?'' Rory softly asked, curious for his answer.

''Look, Rory, your grandparents are rich and have a fancy life style and I'm from New York. They will dislike me.''

''They won't. You haven't even met them, so how can you say something ridiculous like that? They would love you, especially my grandfather. You two are so alike and have so much in common,'' she said, trying to make him feel better, something which she was succeeding at.

''You are aware that you're comparing me to someone who's probably four times my ages, aren't you?'' he asked with a smile.

''Yes, but I'm also comparing you to a person I adore,'' Rory said, while she played with the curls at the nape of his neck, a small but caring gesture, one that sent shivers down his spine.

''Adore, huh?'' Jess asked, while he leaned in a little more just to be able to look even deeper into her eyes which were sparkling with the only emotion she had never verbally expressed to him.

Rory nodded, her heart skipping more than one beat underneath the weight of his eyes that he had fixed on her in a way she had never seen or experienced before.

''If it means that much to you, I'll chaperone you to the next dinner,'' he said.

Rory brought her face closer to his until her lips were almost touching his and her lashes were almost brushing against his face. The proximity was killing Jess because he knew that he would have to wait for her to finish this conversation before he could make the next move. Rory was aware of his inner struggle by the way his hands had found her waist a few seconds ago and by how they were now resting upon her hips.

''I would like that..... but I won't force you.''

''I want to.....'' Jess said, while he lowered his eyes down to her lips.

''You want to what?'' Rory asked, her breath ragged with desire.

Jess licked his lips while he pulled her hips against his. ''I want to.....'' He paused for a few seconds so he could place his lips directly on top of hers, although he wasn't putting any pressure on them. ''.....go to dinner with you.....''

The rest of his sentence remained unsaid because of Rory fiercely pressing her lips against his.

-x-End of Flashback-x-

Rory folded her last piece of clean clothing and put it on top of the small stack on her bed. With a sigh, she picked it up and placed it on an empty shelf in her closet. After doing that, she made her way into the living room with a couple of strides. She had expected to run into Joey sitting on the couch or hearing the sound of rustling pages as he flipped through one of his magazines, but instead, she heard nothing but the ticking of the clock and the beating of her own heartbeat, one that got more rapid when she spotted a sheet of writing paper lying on top of the coffee table. She dropped herself on the couch before leaning over to read his neat and precise handwriting.

-x-x-x-

Rory,

I went over to Bobbie's place for the night so you don't have to bother with unpacking my stuff. His number is in my address book if you need to reach me. I just needed some time to think and figured that we couldn't do that while being so close. I'll see you again in the morning.

Joey

-x-x-x-

Rory leaned back against the couch, her eyes falling on the phone that was lying next to Joey's note. She took a deep breath before reaching for it and quickly dialing a number. She crossed her fingers and hoped that the right person would answer.

''Luke's diner where the bacon is really from some poor, slaughtered pig and the...... sorry, uncle Luke! Jeez.....''

''Jess,'' Rory said. ''We were in another fight.''

She waited for Jess to say something, but the only answer she got was the dial tone because Jess had hung up on her, leaving her to feel even more miserable than she did. Both Jess and Joey seemed sick of dealing with her.....

REVIEW! Please? :-) Thanks again for putting up with another one of my chapters and thank you, to the people, who have reviewed the previous chapter or any for that matter. I appreciate it. Don't know how long it'll take for me to update again, but it'll be asap. :-)