Defending Bjork
Chapter 2: Thumpety, Thump, Thump
A/N: Thanks to all of you who reviewed the first chapter! Fourteen reviews for my first GG fanfic isn't too shabby! ;) I appreciate it. I hope you all like this chapter. No direct show quotes in this one… 'Tis all me! Oh, the pressure – the… overwhelming… pressure… *grin*
Enjoy! ~Becka
At last, the numbers on the bedside clock turned to 2:00. Until that moment, Rory was beginning to doubt that it would ever actually happen. She was fully expecting time to effortlessly leap from 1:59 to 3:00 with absolutely no in-between. But now that 2:00 had officially arrived, worry was setting in. For the past three hours or so, she had been contemplating what she was going to do when the clock turned to that fated time, and now that it had, her decision wasn't any clearer. She knew – she kept telling herself – that going was a bad idea, but she was beginning to understand that the regret of not going could be much worse. After debating with herself for a couple more minutes, Rory finally made up her mind. Now all she had to do was go through with it and not get caught. That would take some skills she was pretty sure she lacked.
Gingerly, she eased her body out from between the covers and lowered her feet until they came in contact with the carpeted floor. Glancing over her shoulder at her mother's sleeping form, she rose and crept to retrieve her jeans and sweater. She was growing more confident and was just about to pull on her boots when she heard Lorelai stir. Freezing in place with one foot raised and poised to enter the shoe, she watched her mother closely for any sign that she was awake. Rory couldn't imagine that any sound she'd made could have woken her mother since Lorelai slept like the dead, but she couldn't take any chances. After a short while had passed with no further movement, Rory exhaled and finished getting ready. Then, her eyes darting constantly to the bed, she soundlessly opened the door and walked out into the hallway. Surprised but grateful that it had been so easy, Rory paused and gave a relieved sigh. Then, she moved more quickly down the stairs, retrieved her coat, scarf, mittens, and hat, and headed out the door.
As Rory approached the center of town, she couldn't help the feelings of freedom and exhilaration that were charging through every inch of her body. Her heart was pounding, her breath was shallow, and the butterflies in her stomach must have lost all sense of direction because they were twirling and whirling aimlessly. She was just beginning to calm a little when she turned a corner and caught a glimpse of Jess. He was standing among the snow-people, rubbing his gloved hands together in an effort to generate some warmth. Excited all over again, Rory increased her pace and was able to walk a few more feet before Jess looked up and saw her. As soon as his eyes made contact with hers, a smile spread across his face. In response, Rory's heart skipped a beat, and she felt her mouth curve into an answering grin.
"You came," he stated once she'd reached his side.
"Well, I couldn't exactly let Bjork down now, could I?" Rory answered. "We empowered women have to stick together."
"Ah," Jess replied, half-nodding his head by way of agreement. "Is everything okay with your grandparents?"
Rory was momentarily taken aback by his considerate question and then instantly regretted that she was surprised. She prayed it hadn't shown on her face. "I'm not sure," she replied quietly. "I think so. After their fight, my grandma was going to stay with us in our room, but she went for a walk and didn't come back. I think that's a good sign."
"Seems so," Jess answered, thankfully giving no indication that he'd noticed anything unusual in Rory's response.
"I'm glad they worked things out," she continued. "I wasn't sure how I was going to get out of the room without waking up my grandma."
"Huh. So you must've really wanted to come then," Jess teased.
"Well, no. I mean, I didn't say that," Rory stammered. "It's just – I didn't want there to be any impediments if I should happen to decide to come. I wasn't planning on coming. Actually, it was an impulsive, last-minute decision."
"Rory Gilmore, Miss Impulsive?" Jess asked incredulously. "Why I never thought I'd see the day!"
"Quiet!" Rory ordered, trying unsuccessfully to hide her amusement beneath a veil of anger. "You don't know anything about me."
"I have some ideas," Jess replied.
"Oh, really? And what would those ideas be?"
Jess glanced down at his feet and then back up at Rory but didn't say anything.
"C'mon, Jess. I'm curious. What do you think you know about me?"
"A gentleman never reveals a lady's secrets," Jess retorted with a mocking tone of chivalry.
"Actually, a gentleman doesn't claim to know a lady's secrets to begin with, especially when he doesn't," Rory responded bitingly, feeling irritated all of a sudden. "So, are we gonna do this or not?" she asked, changing the subject. "I'm getting cold."
"Sure," Jess replied nonchalantly, ignoring Rory's tone. "Go ahead."
"What? What do you mean?" A look of panic distorted Rory's features.
"I mean," Jess drawled. "Go ahead and destroy the competition."
"I'm not – I can't – But you said – Are you just gonna stand there and watch?"
"Thought it might be a good show. You didn't think I was gonna help, did you?"
"Wh – " Rory began to protest, but Jess quickly interrupted, using the most innocent, small-town, "Gee whiz" voice he could muster. "Now, Rory, I would never do something like that. It would be wrong. Somebody worked long and hard to create this here masterpiece," he explained, resting one hand on the snow sculpture's hunched shoulder. "I'd never think of destroying it, and, you know, actually, I'm surprised you would. It's so unlike you." Jess shook his head disapprovingly and clicked his tongue like one would to a misbehaving child.
Rory's mouth fell open in astonishment.
"What's your defense?" Jess inquired. "Explain to me why you would have the audacity to so boldly critique this fine work of art."
"I – I –" Rory choked out, a strained, contemplative expression forming on her face. "But this was – you said –" She was still struggling to get a complete thought out when she noticed the pleased smirk on Jess's face.
"You jerk!"
"Had you goin', didn't I? That whole innocent thing you do really isn't an act, is it?"
"Oh, you're so gonna get it!" she promised as she snatched up a handful of snow and molded it into a ball.
She was just taking aim when Jess darted behind the "ringer" snowman. On a mission and therefore not thinking particularly clearly, Rory instantaneously re-aimed and hurled the ball his direction. It immediately smashed into the snowman's cane, breaking it in half.
"Oh my God!" Rory exclaimed, her hands flying to her mouth. Jess peeked around the snowman and saw what she'd done. Then, he looked up and saw the guilty expression on her face.
"Nice aim, Ryne Duren."
"I did not mean to do that!" she said sincerely.
"You sure?" Jess teased. "'Cuz it seemed to me like you did it on purpose."
"I did not!" Rory argued. "Do you think you can fix it?"
"Fix it?" Jess asked sarcastically. "Do I look like a snow doctor?" Glancing down at himself and then returning his gaze to Rory, he continued, "I'm not wearing a white coat, and I definitely don't have a stethoscope on me. But then again, snowmen don't really need medical instruments, do they? Maybe we should just hold a flame to him and put him out of his misery. I think I have a lighter here somewhere," he finished, shoving his hands in his coat pockets and feeling around for a lighter.
"Stop! This is not funny!" Rory complained, trying really hard to smother the smile that was tugging on her lips. "What if it was that man's dream to win this contest?"
"Then he's pathetic," Jess declared.
"He probably spent his whole life honing his craft!" she continued.
"His craft?" Jess repeated. "Did I mention that he might be pathetic? 'Cuz I think you're helping my case."
"I'm right," Rory continued, ignoring Jess. "He was honing his craft until the day he could come here and finally make his lifelong dreams come true. I bet this was to be his magnum opus. And now look at it. It's ruined."
"You think you ruined some poor John Boy's magnum opus?" Jess asked incredulously.
"Okay," Rory conceded. "When you put it like that, maybe it sounds a little—"
"Insane?" Jess inserted.
"I was going to say silly."
"Silly? No, it's insane. Rory, you feel guilty because you accidentally broke the cane of a ridiculous, pretentious snow sculpture."
"Stop reminding me. I know! I'm a horrible person!" she bemoaned.
"So the snowman will hobble a little when he walks, it's not the end of the world!"
At Jess's comment, Rory couldn't suppress her smile anymore. "You're awful!"
"Me?" Jess asked, feigning insult. "I didn't turn Frosty into a gimp! Now he really is gonna be thumpety-thump-thumping around town!" Rory was now laughing, but Jess kept going. "How does it feel, Ms. Gilmore, to know that you have viciously robbed America's beloved Christmas idol of his jolly, happy soul?"
"Isn't Santa Claus America's beloved Christmas idol?" she questioned.
"Oh, sure, take away Frosty's title too! You're heartless!"
"I know. You're right," Rory despairingly agreed. "I am so insensitive. I'm belittling Frosty. I'm laughing at his misfortune. And what's even worse is that, when I broke his cane, I actually kind of enjoyed it," she admitted.
"Yeah?" Jess asked, raising a skeptical eyebrow at her unexpected revelation. When Rory sheepishly nodded, he said with a wide, adorably crooked grin, "I always suspected you had a little bad girl in you."
Rory smiled shyly.
"Well, you know," Jess added. "Since you admit that you enjoyed it and since, according to you, Frosty here is already ruined, why stop now?"
Walking towards her, he handed her another snowball. "Go at it."
"You have to help," Rory ordered, flashing a naughty smile.
"But I don't have a cause like you do."
"You could just pretend it's Chuck Presby," she suggested.
Jess briefly considered the idea and then shrugged. "Good enough for me."
With that, they both started pummeling the snowman with snowball after snowball, breaking off a piece of hat brim, a chunk of shoulder, a finger or two.
After awhile, Rory grew frustrated. "This isn't working. It actually almost looks better than before we started, if that's even possible. It has a rugged charm now."
"Hmm," Jess contemplated. "You're right. Well, there's only one way to solve that." And before Rory knew what was happening, he'd effortlessly picked her up in his arms, carried her to the snow sculpture, and dropped her on top of it. In mere seconds, Rory was sitting on the broken remains of the former contest shoo-in, stunned but laughing until her side hurt.
"I can't believe you just did that! Now it really is ruined!" she said between gasping breaths.
"Huh, 'cuz that wasn't my intention," he said sarcastically, enjoying her riotous giggles.
She managed to adopt a straight face as she stood and brushed the snow off herself. "Hey, I could've been hurt!"
"Death by snow pile? I think the only way that could happen is if you'd been under it instead of on top of it," he joked. But a part of him was feeling sorry for his impromptu action, and he found himself asking, "You're okay, right?"
"Aside from just participating in a brutal attack on poor, defenseless Frosty? Yeah, I'm fine."
"I guess Bjork will have her day," Jess stated.
"Yes, she will," Rory agreed with a satisfied smile.
There was a brief silence as they both looked at each other – faces flushed from the cold, plumes of frosted air appearing with each breath they released. Finally, Jess broke eye contact and said with a grin, "Well, now that that's taken care of –." Kneeling down, he grabbed another handful of snow and started an all-out war with Rory. They darted back and forth among the snow-people, being careful not to hurt any of the other contenders, striking blow after blow until both of them were covered in snow.
After delivering a particularly on-target blow against Jess's left arm, Rory scurried to hide and bent down to re-arm herself. As she rose and moved to throw her new snowball, she was surprised to find him bent over just feet away from her, preparing his own weapon. Maniacally grinning in a way that would have made her mother proud, Rory stealthily approached and was just about to drop the snowball down the back of Jess's jacket when he realized she was close and jerked around to stop her attack. His action threw her off-balance, nearly sending her flailing to the ground. At the last second, however, he was able to grab her arms and prevent her from falling. They were both laughing as she planted her feet firmly on the ground and stopped to catch her breath.
Smiling, she looked up at him. Without even thinking, she said the first thing that came to mind. "You just interrupted what could have been a perfect romantic comedy moment, you know." She wanted to smack herself as soon as she said it.
Too late. Jess stopped brushing the snowball residue off his coat and glanced up at her. He was about to comment when he saw the uneasy expression on her face. Instead, he smirked. "Would've been a little cliché, huh?"
Relieved Jess hadn't read into her comment, Rory smiled and started brushing the snow off her own coat. Noticing her scarf on the ground where it had apparently fallen off during her stumble, she moved to retrieve it. As soon as she shifted position, her foot hit a hidden patch of ice, and she started to fall, instinctively reaching for the nearest object to hang on to. Unfortunately, she caught Jess by surprise. Instead of preventing her fall, he landed with a thud on top of her.
The wind knocked out of both of them, all they could do was gasp for breath. Then, as they started to focus on the situation, they found themselves motionless, surprised at how close they were. Simultaneously, they realized their position and scrambled to their feet without a word. Jess was the first one up, and he offered his hand to assist Rory. Taking it, she stood and, much to her chagrin, found herself face-to-face with him again. After a moment, Jess reached out to brush some snow from her hair, but Rory came to her senses and dodged his move.
Not missing a beat, he said casually, "Apparently, the romantic comedy gods don't appreciate being mocked."
"Yeah, mocking is never really good, you know, especially if you're a god," Rory rambled.
"Next time, we better say twenty Hail Sandras as penance."
"Probably a good idea," Rory agreed, giving him a small smile.
"So..." Rory said, trying to fill the awkward silence that was quickly taking over.
"So."
"I bet it's really late," she said, knowing she should go but wanting to stay.
"Or early, depending on how you look at it," Jess replied, looking at his watch.
"What time is it?"
"3:30."
"Oh my God, we've been out here an hour and a half?! Shouldn't we have hypothermia or frostbite or something? What if my mom woke up and noticed I was gone? I better go."
"Okay," Jess answered softly.
"You won't tell anyone about this, will you? I mean, about the whole destruction of property thing."
"It'll be our secret, I promise," he said with uncharacteristic seriousness.
Rory smiled. "I'm glad Bjork will receive her rightful honor."
"It's only fair," Jess agreed.
"Okay, I should go," Rory repeated, stalling.
"You should go."
"Wait, what about you? Aren't you coming?"
"Well, you know Taylor. Once he finds out that someone tampered with the competition, he'll probably go crazy and launch a formal investigation. I'm gonna stay and cover up our tracks, get rid of the evidence."
"Spoken like a true delinquent," Rory teased.
"Night, Rory."
"Night, Jess. I'll see you tomorrow."
"Yes, you will."
With one last smile, Rory turned and headed back towards the Inn. As she walked, she decided that peaceful, solitary sleigh rides were definitely overrated.
