Even Angels Fall

A/N: Thanks for the feedback!

Disclaimer: Thanks Amy!

"You found hope, you found faith.
Found how fast she could take it away.
Found true love, but lost your heart.
Now you don't know who you are. She made it easy, made it free.
Made you hurt 'til you couldn't see.
Sometimes it stops, sometimes it flows.
But baby, that is how love goes. You will fly and you will crawl.
God knows even angels fall.
No such thing as you've lost it all.
God knows even angels fall………"

"And that was Jessica Riddle with 'Even Angels Fall.' That was from a young lady who preferred to be known as LLG, to the guy who's not listening right now. If you're out there buddy, I'm sorry man, she sounds a little heart broken. I'm Mark Ferguson keeping you company all the way home on Drive time at Five, on New York's WHCR, 90.3 FM. If you'd li…" Jess switched off the radio. Poor guy, thought to himself. That had to be humiliating, having your girl play you a "breaking up" song on national radio. At least she was kind enough not to name him on air. LLG! Lorelai Leigh Gilmore! Ah jeez! Now he'd have to ring in and play a song back to her and it would be this whole damn thing! As if going back to Stars Hollow wasn't enough!

Rory reached for the off switch to the radio, tears streaming down her face. She'd gone all the way to New York for what? She knew this is how the story would end. She knew she'd drive all the way back to Stars Hollow and get married to Ben tomorrow and live happily ever after, in a nice house, in a nice town, with nice children and nice neighbours. The entire rest of her life would be nice. Nice. Such a mediocre word compared with the last eight hours of her life. It had been filled with uncertainty, unpredictability and as happy as Ben made her, he was just like Dean had been all those years ago. Safe. Loving. Caring. Nice. And she knew they should be qualities she wanted in a guy, but since Jess, every guy she'd considered dating had been measured up to him. And 'safe' wasn't a word she'd use when describing Jess. Yeah, he loved her and yeah, he cared about her, or used to. But there was something more. Something she couldn't put into words. Whenever she used to see him, her heart would jump into her throat. He made her want to be adventurous. To take risks. And if it weren't for the sane side of her brain, she wouldn't be driving back to Stars Hollow right now. She'd probably be working for peanuts in an editors office, getting all the big wigs coffee. But it wouldn't matter, because she'd be going home at the end of the day to a man she loved. And they would moan about how tired they were and they'd go to bed, the same bed and fall asleep knowing that they had each other and that was all they needed.

Rory snapped herself out of her day dream in time to catch her turn off to Hartford. "Nearly there," she thought to herself. It was getting near on eight 'o' clock. She laughed out loud to herself. So much for a hen's night.

Even taking every short cut he knew of, Jess was still at least two hours behind Rory. There was no way, he'd catch her before ten and by then she'd either be asleep, or out partying up large, drowning her sorrows and celebrating her marriage the following day. Damn fool! Why did he insist on making things so complicated? If he'd said what he meant in the first place, he wouldn't be here. He'd be in a nice hotel somewhere, anywhere. With the girl he loved, holding on to her for dear life, for fear that things between them might fall apart again. But they wouldn't. Because he loved her and she loved him and that's all that mattered.

A sharp jerking and decrease in speed, shook Jess out of his day (late-afternoon) dream. What? No way was this happening to him right now. Not when he had things to do, places to be, fiancé's to steal. He stole a quick glance a the fuel gauge. The little orange pointer thing was about half a centimetre below the 'E.' "Oh c'mon!" He yelled in exasperation. He managed to manoeuvre his car off the road before it putted to a complete stop. Getting out, he slammed the door behind him. Someone was really testing him this time. Going through his list of options, he realised, he didn't really have many. With about seventy dollars to his name, he decided to hitch as far as the public of Connecticut were willing to take him. He hastily grabbed his jacket off the passenger seat and locked the doors. Out of the jacket pocket fell a small box. Landing right at Jess's feet he picked it up. Opening it her realised what it was. When he'd proposed to Jemima, it was completely unplanned so he'd never bought her a ring. And on as low a budget as they were he couldn't really afford it. So after months of saving, he'd bought it for her yesterday, planning on giving it to her today. And then Rory showed up. He stuffed it back into his pocket and continued down the empty highway on foot.

After, maybe half an hour, a middle aged woman with two kids asleep in the back pulled over beside him.

"Where're you headin' to, darlin'?" She drawled in an almost fake southern accent.

"Uh, Stars Hollow." He replied.

"Get in. I can take ya as far as Hartford." With that Jess got into the car and prayed for time to pass quicker. There was nothing worse than having to make small talk with a stranger, when you were in their car and you had a long journey ahead.

"So, why Stars Hollow? I bet it's girl. It's a girl right?" Not really wanting to answer, Jess hesitated. "I don't mean to be nosy, but a good lookin' kid like yourself, not travelling with a girl, has to be travelling to get to a girl."

"Ah jeez. You've been watching too many movies." Jess told her rudely.

"So it's not a girl?" She asked again. Jess figured the only way to get this woman to shut up, was to tell her exactly what she wanted to hear.

"Yeah, it's a girl."

"I knew it!" She squealed excitedly. "So all those movies paid off! What's her name?"

"Rory." He told her flatly.

"Rory. Now that is a pretty name. I bet's she's pretty as hell too right?" She asked, still craving more details of the young stranger's love-life.

"Uh, you know, I'm tired. Could you wake me when we get to Hartford?"

"Oh sure. Silly me! Of course you're tired and here I am yammering on like there's no tomorrow…" Jess interjected. "Uh.." "Sorry. Being quiet now." Jess turned slightly and leaned his head against the window and pretended to be asleep.

"Honey?" The woman said, shaking Jess slightly to wake him up. He'd actually fallen asleep, surprising, considering the day he had ahead of him.

"Oh, uh… What's the time?" He asked her.

"It's about ten after midnight." The later it got, the worse her accent seemed to be. "We're in Hartford now, so this is your stop."

"Oh right. Okay, well thanks. Seeya round." Jess said and got out of the car. As he started to walk away, he woman called out to him. "Son? Here," she said handing him a twenty dollar bill.

"Oh no I couldn't…" Jess tried to give it back to her.

"Really, you'd be doin' me a favour. One day, when I die. The good looking guy at the gates to Heaven is gonna look back on this moment and see that I did do one good thang for somebody. It's not much, but it'll get ya a cheap motel room for the night."

"Uh… Okay, well thanks." As he stood watching the woman drive away, he wondered how someone could be so nice to a stranger. But in saying that, not everyone was like him.