More Author's Notes:

1. Re: Dead, Dead, Dean: Wow, that came off really biased in the last chapter, didn't it? Whoops. Seriously though, I think that's how Jess would react. Because those boys HATE each other. They will take any excuse to fight. They are the Spike and Angel of the Gilmoreverse. The Sex Pistols vs. Barry Manilow all the way. Cavemen vs. Astronauts, they'd totally duke it out. And if Dean ever got turned into a puppet, you can just bet Jess would be there to laugh his ass off and say "You're a wee little puppet man!"... okay, maybe he would just laugh, because I can't picture Jess saying that. *AHEM!* Sorry. Tangent.

2. I really, really appreciate all the feedback. Seriously. And there will be more Rory/Jess stuff... but if people keep trying to tell me what to write, I'm gonna get a little upset. I appreciate the suggestions, but, (and in the words of John Crichton) I have a plan, so please, please don't tell me what I "should" be doing, because it's slightly off-putting.

Rory had never helped open up the diner before, but she found it fairly easy. Luke had shown up late the night before, but she and Jess were fast asleep on the couch. She had been so disoriented, nothing could have woken her. She was feeling much better, though. More like herself than yesterday.

It was still raining, and when they opened up the diner, various customers rushed in out of the storm. The first of which was Lorelei.

"Rory!"

"Mom!" Rory rushed out from behind the counter, and hugged her mother who hugged back, and that the same time, they said "I had the worst dream!"

Jess looked to Luke. "If I had a bad dream would you hug me?"

"No."

Jess nodded. "Good."

"Not unless you wanted me to."

"Touch me, and die."

Luke gave a short nod and went about pouring Lorelei her coffee. "Where's Chris?"

"Georgia's being fussy," Lorelei replied. She picked up her mug and chugged it. "I almost forgot how hard it was to have a baby in the house... then again, Rory was never that fussy. She was usually a very happy baby."

Rory smiled at her mom.

"Jess used to cry when someone tried to pick him up," Luke said.

"Huh," Jess said thoughtfully. "I guess that was the infant version of touch me, and die."

Luke shook his head. "I think it had to do with the fact that Jimmy almost dropped you the first time he picked you up... well, the only time he picked me up."

"Like that's at all surprising," Jess rolled his eyes as he went to take an order.

"I wanna hear baby Jess stories," Rory said.

Luke smirked and glanced at his nephew. "He was usually a pretty quiet kid. His first word was couch."

"Couch?"

"Liz was passed out on it at the time," Luke grimaced.

Rory frowned a little.

Luke tried not to laugh. "When he was eight, he started looking up ridiculously long words in the dictionary, so that when he argued with his mother, he could confuse her and win."

Lorelei blinked. "Evil child."

Jess walked over. "What are you talking about?"

"You," all three of them replied.

Jess glared and went about making the order.

"I wanna hear more," Rory smiled.

Luke sighed. "There aren't that many fun Jess stories. Things were not good for him for a long while. Why do you think he was sent here?"

Rory frowned at this, and watched Jess as he walked past them with a few plates in his hands.

*****

"So, what was your dream about?" Luke asked Lorelei after Rory had gone off the meet Lane, and Jess was upstairs on his first break of the day.

Lorelei sighed. "I dreamed that Chris shot Rory."

Luke gave her kind of a worried and confused look. "And... what did Rory dream?"

"That Chris shot me. And that Jess died."

Luke sighed. "Man."

She nodded and took a sip of coffee. "I think she just had a hard day yesterday."

"And you?"

Lorelei shrugged. "I guess I was just worried about her."

Luke nodded.

"I'm going to tell Chris that this can't work."

"Are you sure?" Luke asked. "I mean...you guys really had something, right?"

"Had," Lorelei emphasized. "I don't think we can ever have what we had again. Not after all the let-downs. On both our parts."

"So, you're not just doing this because Rory's upset with him," Luke confirmed.

"I have my reasons," Lorelei told him. "Waking up with him in the house these past few days... a couple of years ago, it would have made me happy. Now, it's just... awkward. We've both changed so much."

Neither noticed that Chris was sitting at the table by the window, watching them. He got up and walked out.

******

Rory met Lane at Al's for lunch. They were serving Cantonese.

"So, what did you and Jess do last night?" Lane asked.

"Talked. Read. Slept."

"Kissed?"

Rory turned a little red. "Some."

Lane leaned forward. "More than kissed?"

"Nope," Rory replied. She cleared her throat a little. "There was, however a thing with a wet towel and shaving cream this morning."

Lane's eyes widened. "What?"

"He let me put shaving cream on him for his shave, because he was looking kind of like a hobo," Rory explained, kind of embarrassed. "And he was in a towel, because he was just out of the shower, so I finished up his face, and then I put a shaving cream smiley face on his stomach."

Lane laughed. "Wow, Rory."

"I thought it was funny!" Rory cried. "So, then we start getting into this whole shaving cream fight, and..."

"And?"

"And..."

Lane bounced in her seat a little. "And?"

She looked down and muttered. "His towel fell off."

Lane cracked up into laughter.

"It's not funny! It was really embarrassing!"

"You saw naked Jess!"

"Lane!" Rory cried. "Not so loud!"

Lane tried to stifle her laughter. "Sorry."

Rory sighed.

"What's wrong?" Lane asked. "It's not that embarrassing. You were bound to see him naked at some point."

"It's not that," Rory replied. "It's just... I don't know that much about Jess. I was talking to Luke this morning, and it reminded me that Jess hasn't always lived here. In fact, all things considered he's barely lived here at all. He had this whole other life before I met him. And he was in California for a long while, and he never talks about what it was like." She sat back. "And on top of all that, I still have my father to deal. And I told you about how I treated Dean. I still have to deal with that."

Lane nodded. "Dean needs to just mind his own business."

"He cares," Rory defended. "It's just that... he hates Jess so much, and it kind of scares me."

"Jess hates him, too, remember," Lane pointed out. "It's a mutual thing."

Rory nodded. "It's just... not as off-putting with Jess."

"Because Jess doesn't obsess?" Lane asked.

"Dean doesn't obsess."

"He does, Rory," Lane replied. "And it's kind of off-putting. Which is a nice way of saying creepy. So just..." She trailed off.

Rory nodded. "I will."

******

"You meant what you said in there?"

Lorelei yelped as Chris walked into her bedroom that afternoon. She whirled around and sighed. "You scared me."

Chris just stood there.

"Did I mean what I said in where?"

"The diner," Chris replied. "You said to Luke..."

Lorelei blinked. "You were there?"

"Yup."

"And you were listening?!"

Chris nodded. "Yup."

Lorelei sighed. "Time to really talk, huh?"

Chris nodded again. "Yup."

*****

What does one get their significant other on their one-month anniversary? What does one do? Or say? Or feel?

Jess Mariano had never made for a particularly good boyfriend. He'd never celebrated an anniversary with a girl before. Things never lasted long enough for that to happen, and so he found himself dumbfounded.

He was also dumbfounded at how Rory had acted the night before. He'd never seen her so unnerved, or scared, and that had been off-putting. He was there when she needed him, but he wasn't really sure what to do besides let her hold onto him, and hold back. She'd refused to tell him about the specifics of her dream. All he could really gather was that it had been bad, and that it had scared her. He'd heard her whispering to her mother, but couldn't make anything out.

If she didn't want to tell him, she wasn't going to. Whatever.

But what to do about the whole anniversary thing...?

*****

Rory walked in, just as Chris was leaving. After her dream the night before, it unnerved her a little to see him, but she did her best not to let it show.

He faced her after loading Georgia into the car and sighed. "Well..."

Rory nodded.

"Things didn't work out the way I planned," Chris said quietly. He gave a glance to Lorelei, who was sitting on the front stoop.

Rory nodded again.

He hugged her lightly and she tried not to tense up. She hugged back just as lightly.

"Bye, Honey."

She looked down. "I'm really sorry, Dad," she said quietly.

He nodded. "I know. Me, too." He let go of her and offered her a smile. He got in the car and gently picked up Georgia's tiny hand and made her wave to Rory.

Rory waved back with a small smile and a couple of seconds later, he was driving out of sight.

She walked up to the porch and sat down next to Lorelei. "Wow."

Lorelei nodded.

"You let him go."

Lorelei nodded again. "I'm so sorry, Babe."

"Don't be," Rory replied, staring at where the car had been. "It always has to end this way."

*****

"So he just kind of left?"

Rory nodded as they walked through the park that evening. "It was so... quick. Nothing was resolved. I told him I was sorry."

He raised an eyebrow. "He's the one who should be sorry. Not you."

She sighed. "I said all those things, Jess."

He stopped her and took her hands in his, facing her. He looked as if he wanted to say something, but didn't.

"What, Jess?"

He shook his head and just stood there, still holding her hands.

"Hey, Jess?"

"Yeah?"

"What... what kind of stuff did you do when you lived in New York?"

He shrugged. "Stuff."

"Oh."

"I read a lot."

"You always read a lot."

He nodded. "Yeah. I went to concerts. Couple of local bands that played a lot."

"Cool," she nodded back. "What else?"

"I became a gigolo," he told her seriously.

"Oh-" she stopped, and gave him an odd stare.

He smirked. "That was easy."

She laughed and pushed him playfully.