TITLE: Familiar Feeling

AUTHOR: Annabel

PAIRING: R/J

SPOILERS: Shouldn't be any

DISCLAIMERS: I own nothing (except the characters I've made up for this story)

RATING: PG-13 for now.

A/N: Okay, I'm so SORRY! I've been away for ages and I have no excuse, except my lack of inspiration and my laziness. But, if anyone is still interested in this story, I FINALLY have a new chapter for you guys. Anyway, thanks so much for the reviews and emails I've had with requests of updates. I really couldn't be more sorry guys!

Familiar Feeling

Chapter Seven

Rory lifted her hand slightly, took a deep breath and prepared to knock. Silently she let her knuckles touch the wooden door, but quickly she pulled her hand back before any sound managed to evolve.

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"Next weekend, Jess. Make sure you won't forget it" Mike's voice was stern when he looked at the young man who was standing by the stove.

"Yeah" Jess replied while stirring the tomato sauce that he was heating up.

"I'm counting on you to do this"

"Yeah"

"Jess"

A few seconds later Jess turned and saw Mike's questioning face looking at him. He nodded.

"I'll come to New Haven with you. I promise"

"Good" Mike said with an approving nod. "Well, I guess I'll leave you to the cooking then"

"Okay" Jess said and turned his back on him again.

He heard Mike going to the door and then stopping before he opened it.

"It's Saturday night and you're home. Is everything okay, Jess?"

"Everything's fine, Mike. Go home, Kathy's waiting for you" he said, trying his best to sound patient.

Mike opened the door and Jess heard him let out a surprised gasp. He took a step toward the door, only to see Mike grinning at someone.

"What is it?" Jess asked and when Mike took a step back, Jess almost felt his jaw dropping to the floor.

"A friend of yours, I presume" Mike simply stated and looked at the girl who was still standing I the corridor. "Do come in, please. I was just about to leave"

Jess saw the hesitation in her face and after taking a deep breath, he nodded almost unnoticeably. She took a step forward, smiled at Mike and reached out her hand.

"Hi, I'm Rory"

"I'm Mike, Jess's boss"

"And a pain in the ass" Jess mumbled under his breath, making Mike chuckle.

"Well, I'm gonna head home then. It was nice to meet you Rory"

"You, too"

The door closed after Mike and Jess found himself standing in the middle of his studio, feeling rather uneasy. This was a situation, which was extremely unfamiliar to him. He felt like the underdog, like she had some kind of power over him. And it appeared that she did, after all, the fact tat she had not answered his calls had made him irritated, maybe even angry at her. Luckily he'd only tried calling her cellphone twice, he knew to stop there, otherwise it would have seemed pathetic.

"Hey" she said quietly, and Jess observed that she had some trouble looking straight at him and instead her eyes seemed glued to the floor.

"Hi" he replied, completely unaware of how he should proceed.

He looked at her, how nervous she seemed and how she kept tucking her hair behind her ears.

"What brings you here?" he finally asked, determined not to let her know how badly she had gotten to him.

"I… I wanted to apologize" she said and brought her eyes to his. "You were a tremendous help and I just… sort of… freaked out about everything…"

"It's okay. It was a big thing to decide" he said as if the fact that she hadn't taken his calls had been the most natural thing in the world.

"Yeah. I'm just really bad under pressure. I'm sorry"

He shrugged and saw her relax slightly. She tucked her hair behind her ears again, a gesture that made him want to smile and now her eyes scanned the apartment. He looked at her although her attention seemed to be directed elsewhere, but when she seemed to notice his attentive eyes on her, she blushed and seemed to go back to being embarrassed.

"I hope you don't think that I'm really screwed up"

"Nah, not really. Just a bit" he smirked at her and made her laugh. "Are you hungry? I was just about to eat"

Jess couldn't believe himself. Was he actually asking her to stay for dinner after he'd just spent two days cursing her? Well, apparently he was doing just that.

"Oh, I didn't mean to interrupt…"

He lifted his eyebrow and after a short silence, she nodded, totally clueless of the fact that he wanted to start beaming.

"Well, if you don't mind"

"I don't" he said and went to the table. "I'll just get you a plate and… You drink beer?"

"Yeah, I do" she replied when she took her coat off.

"It's just spaghetti and tomato sauce, but I hope it's eatable"

"It smells delicious" she said as she came to the table and watched him fill their plates with food.

"I guess wine would have been better with this, but…" he said when they sat down.

Jess hated bright lights and hence the room was only dimly lit. He stuck his fork in the pasta and then glanced up at her, feeling suddenly completely out of his element. He was pretty sure he had never done this before. He had never had any girl sitting on the other side of the table, eating food that he had cooked. But hey, he'd asked her to stay, although he had no idea why. And she'd accepted his offer, which was actually even more confusing.

"Umm, this is good" she mumbled with her mouth full of food and he chuckled.

"I'm glad you like it" Jess replied and within minutes they found themselves occupied in a relaxed conversation about very safe and neutral subjects such as food.

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Rory sat on the couch, holding a bottle of beer and occasionally glancing at Jess who was cleaning up after dinner. She felt a million times more relaxed than an hour ago, but still a bit tense. She wasn't sure what he was thinking, she wasn't sure what he thought about her. She had been such an idiot, not answering his calls on Thursday and then not having the guts to call him back. But, like she'd told him, she'd simply freaked. And she'd needed these few days to think things over and sort everything out with herself. And then she'd been too embarrassed to call him.

"So, how did know where I live?" he eventually asked her when he came to sit on the other end of the couch.

"Well" she started a bit hesitantly. "I got Lane to stop by at Tom's and kind of ask him about it"

"Ah" he nodded and she hoped he didn't think she was a complete maniac or a stalker of some sort.

"I know I must have given you a terrible impression of myself. Calling you in the middle of the night, then this whole thing with not answering the phone… I just… I really just…"

"It's fine, don't worry about it" he replied and smiled at her warmly.

"But I do. I'm not usually this unstable, I mean I think you could say I'm one of the most stable people around, at least compared to… well, my mother. I don't do things like these, I really don't" she was slightly out of breath after she finished and she watched him as he nodded at her slowly.

He seemed okay with her, not at all offended like she'd feared he would be. That's why she'd come to his place in the first place. She couldn't bare think that he might think her to be a complete nutcase.

"So… Would it be okay for me to ask what decision you finally came to?"

His question kind of caught her off guard. Naturally, she'd known that the subject of France and her decision would come up once she went to see him, but having spent the whole day worrying about what he must think of her had somehow managed to subside her actual problem to the background. It was weird how the mind worked.

"I… Ummm… I declined the offer" she said with a voice that was barely above a whisper.

He raised his eyebrows slightly, not as though he was surprised, but merely as if he wanted to hear more of the matter.

"I'm still young, there'll be other programs and other chances" Rory started talking, but now she fixed her eyes on the beer bottle. "I just… I need to figure out what I want. I need to take some time to think"

He remained quiet, just looking at her as she spoke. His face wasn't one that was easy to read, so when she looked at him, she couldn't really tell what he was thinking.

"I think it's overrated" he voice seemed low as he started to speak. "Knowing what you want, I mean. There's nothing bad about be kind of adrift. It can be good for you, if you just don't stress about it"

Rory thought he had the deepest voice when he was talking about something… insightful.

"You yourself said that you've always had your life all planned out. Maybe its time for you to just let it go"

"I guess I've just always considered an unplanned life a wasted one" she admitted a bit bashfully. "I know it sounds stupid…"

"It doesn't. It's safe. Of course it is. There aren't many things scarier than not knowing what's gonna happen tomorrow. But there's also nothing more exciting" she noticed a sort of glow in his eyes as he spoke. "Life is always unpredictable, no matter how badly you plan it out or try to control it. You just have to accept that things happen whether or not you want them to happen. Sometimes life just takes you where it wants and not the other way around"

Oh, he was wise.

"Then again, what do I know?" he smirked and winked at her.

A bubbling laugh escaped her mouth and she didn't mind letting her grin stay on her face for a while longer.

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A mixture of perfect innocence and soulful wisdom, he thought. Although that sounded just bit too poetic to his ears so he decided he'd just consider her interesting. She listened to him quietly, as if she was desperate to hear and understand every word he said. He was rather sure no on had ever listened to him that attentively. The bridge of her nose wrinkled when she was confused and her eyes sparkles whenever she laughed aloud.

"I still have to find a good time to tell my mother about this. She'd gonna kill me" she sighed heavily.

"Just as long as you don't allow her to make you question your decision. What's done is done and you had good reasons for doing what you did"

"Yeah" she nodded but he thought she didn't sound too sure of the matter.

On this particular moment he was kind of happy of the fact that his mother had never cared about what he did with his life. At least he knew he was living it for himself, and not for anyone else.

"It's your life" he said and touched her chin encouragingly. "You do whatever you want with it"

She smiled, looking a bit more relaxed again and he knew that she was really troubled with the knowledge that she would be letting her family down. He wanted to give her advice, to encourage her to tell her family of the matter as soon as possible, but he didn't really want to meddle. They didn't really know each other after all.

She put her bottle down on the coffee table beside the couch and then turned so that her body was facing him. With a slightly tilted head, she observed him until he started to feel slightly uncomfortable. Only after he fidgeted slightly, she smiled.

"I'm kind of happy that you walked into my kitchen that morning"

Her words surprised him and he didn't quite know what to say. Trying to come up with something, he realised she was leaning towards him and suddenly her arms were wrapped around him and she was squeezing him unexpectedly firmly.

"Thank you" she whispered after he finally managed to hug her back.

Her body felt small against his and he breathed in the scent of her hair. He didn't say anything, just held her until he felt it was time to let go.

"You're welcome" he croaked out in the end and she nodded in acceptance.

They sat in silence for a while more, until she glanced at her watch and announced that it was time for her to go. He followed her to the door and the next thing he knew he was asking her if she'd like to meet up with him next week.

"Maybe for a movie or something? Tom is useless company now that he's with Angie and Chris is working every night so…"

"So, I'm your backup company?" she asked with a raised eyebrow but her voice clearly amused.

"Kind of yeah" he smirked.

"Sure, I'd like that. How about I give you a call and we can come up with something?"

He was grinning inside when he heard the words.

"Sounds good"

"Good"

A few smiles were exchanged and after wishing Rory goodnight, he closed the door after her. He turned toward the couch and looked at her beer bottle sitting alone on the coffee table. She wasn't going to France, she was going to the movies with him.

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"Not going?" Al looked at her in surprise. "Really? Not going?"

Rory held onto her coffee mug and nodded once more. This was probably the tenth time this morning that Al was asking the same question. And she had only told her she was going to France a half an hour ago. Oh, what a way to start a Sunday.

"I'm not going, Al. Like I said, the time just didn't feel right"

"Didn't feel right" She repeated her words again. "Oh well…"

"Yeah. Look, this isn't really such a big deal. I mean I just didn't want to go away for a year right now"

Al sat quietly, and still seemed to be in a bit of a shock. They both knew that the program would have been ideal for Rory.

"And" Rory continued somewhat timidly. "I'd appreciate it if you didn't mention this to anyone, not even Lane"

"Not even Lane" she raised her eyebrows again.

"I know she'd react exactly the same way as you're doing, and I really don't want to explain this thing to her when I know she won't understand"

Alicia nodded and Rory thanked her with a smile before going to her bedroom to get dressed. She didn't feel like spending the whole day inside the apartment, so she changed into something nice. She wanted to go sit somewhere, have coffee and watch people. And she wanted to think.

She was just about ready to leave her room when Al's head appeared in the doorway and she looked at her apologetically.

"I'm sure your decision was right for you, love" she said and smiled a bit. "Don't mind me and my gawking"

Rory chuckled a bit, and was glad that her friend had taken the supportive approach.

"Thanks, Al"

AN: There it was. I cannot say when exactly I'll have another chapter for you, but I can promise it won't take me another six months. I hope this part was okay although it was rather uneventful, but there's more action coming up soon. Please do review if you actually took the time to read this!