Chapter Two – Bam Thwok

"What do you mean we're stuck here?" Luke said with a grimace, his hands dripping and covered in suds after two hours of washing dishes.

"Well, the snow is up to my shoulders, so if you dig a tunnel out, you'll have to pretty much dig it to wherever you want to go." Lorelai put away the last of the bowls and looked around the Inn's kitchen with a look of satisfaction.

"Have you seen the snow?" Rory burst into the kitchen in excitement.

"Yeah, Hun, it's awesome!"

"How can you be happy about this?" Luke asked in amazement. "We're stuck here. Stuck."

"Relax, Luke," Lorelai said happily. "We have coffee, enough food to feed the Swedish Army for four months, and it's not like you have anything important to do."

"I have a business to run," He said. "That's what I'd call pretty damn important."

"Luke, if you can't get into your own store, how many customers do you think will be able to?"

"Eskimos?" Rory suggested. "Or people with snow shoes. Or cross-country skiers."

"You're so not helping."

"But she's right!" said Luke.

"You seriously think that Eskimos are going to want to come into your diner and purchase a date square today?"

Luke glared at her. "Not Eskimos, but the snow shoe-ers are a definite possibility, as are the cross-country skiers. Some people I know would go to those lengths for a decent cup of coffee."

"Well, Luke," said Lorelai, patting him on the back, "Rory and I are here, so you've got that covered. Relax."

Luke sighed. "I guess there's nothing much I can do, anyways. Where's Jess?"

Rory cleared her throat. "I think he's still upstairs changing sheets."

"Why don't you go tell him that we're not going anywhere for awhile."

"Sure," Rory said hesitantly. She left her mother and Luke in the kitchen and headed slowly up the stairs.


It was the last room. He knew it was her room, so he had gone and done all the other rooms and left it until the end. Lorelai had sent him upstairs to change the sheets on all of the beds. He paused in front of the door of the room he knew she had slept in last night. Nobody else was on that floor, and the silence in the halls confirmed it, but he couldn't help but look around guiltily before carefully entering the room.

As soon as he got inside and shut the door behind him, he let out a breath. He walked to the side of the bed that had Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged on the night table and immediately knew it was her side of the bed. There was also a bracelet on the night table, and he picked it up and twirled it around with his fingers a couple times before tucking it into his pocket. The bed was made, but the pillow still had the impression of a head in it. He wondered if it smelled like her. He leaned down and took in a deep breath, inhaling the aroma of her shampoo.

He heard the door open behind him.


She reached the top to the staircase and stopped, partially afraid to confront Jess alone. She decided that she had to do it eventually, and continued down the deserted hall. She stopped again in front of her room when she saw the basket of dirty sheets on the floor in front of her door. She briefly wondered why the door was shut. Figuring Jess was inside; she opened it and went in. He was leaning down by her bed, and as soon as she came in, his head jerked towards her.

"What are you doing?" She asked timidly.

"Changing the sheets. What does it look like?" He began to strip the sheets off hastily.

"You can leave those ones on," Rory said. "It looks like we'll be staying another night."

Jess looked at her blankly.

"I take it you haven't looked out the window lately."

He dropped the sheets and walked over to the window. "Holy shit. When did it start snowing?"

"Uh, I think it started when everyone was leaving. And it doesn't look like any of us will be going anywhere."

Jess turned around and looked at her. "Who's here?"

"Just you, Luke, my mom and me," Rory said nervously. "Mom let the staff go because Sookie was going to come back, but I don't think she's going to be able to."

"Just me, Luke, Lorelai and you," Jess repeated. "Huh."

"Anyways, we've got loads of food, books and coffee, so I think we'll be fine,"

"It seems so. Give me a hand?" He gestured to the bed.

Rory blushed, thinking of an alternate interpretation. "Sure." She walked to the other side and picked up the corner of the sheet, wrapping it around the top corner of the bed as Jess did his side. She helped him re-make the bed and smiled when he thanked her.

Maybe this won't be so bad, she thought.


They sat in the Parlour, reading, all day. Lorelai and Luke where elsewhere, and Jess couldn't care less. He couldn't stop looking at Rory, who was absorbed in her novel. Jess had grabbed a book at random from among the shelves, and sat in an armchair pretending to read but actually only sneaking glances at Rory from over the top of the book. He turned a page every couple of minutes, completely oblivious to the words on the paper.

When time for supper came, and Lorelai and Rory bantered about nothing in particular, Jess found himself entranced by her every word, meaningless as they were. He gazed at the wall across from him, thinking about punching Dean and how good it felt.

"Jess! For the last time, pass the damn potatoes!"

He snapped back to reality and saw that everyone was looking at him. He quickly slid the potatoes to his uncle, and the conversation resumed.

"Thank God for microwaves," Lorelai was saying. Jess looked at Rory and saw that she was still looking at him. She blushed and turned away. Jess grinned to himself.


"Well, there's good news, and there's bad news." Lorelai announced to a room of three shivering people.

Jess, Luke and Rory looked up at her expectantly.

"The furnace is broken, but it can be fixed! Hooray! Luke, we just need your tools because we have none here."

"I didn't bring my toolbox," he said, irritated.

"Oh. Well, I guess there's no good news then. Thanks, Luke."

"So we're going to freeze?" Rory said miserably through chattering teeth. "Thanks a lot, Luke."

"How is it my fault that your Inn is not stocked with sufficient tools?"

"Because you should have foreseen this and brought your own toolbox?" Lorelai said.

Luke grumbled something that distinctly had the word "idiots" in it.

"But, we have lots of blankets! So we're not going to die!"

"Great," Jess mumbled from the corner. His body was violently shaking.

Lorelai brought some blankets down from unused rooms and the four sat huddled in the Parlour, too cold to talk.


Later that night, Rory was still freezing in her bed under six blankets.

"Where are you going?" She said, her voice muffled, as Lorelai got out of bed and was about to leave the room.

"Oh, I thought you were asleep. I'll be right back."

"Okay…" It didn't seem like she had much of a choice. She lay there for half an hour, completely immobile under the oppressing blankets, and finally decided to get up. When she got out of the bed and stood up, she had to steady herself with the table. She was shaking so hard that she could barely see straight, let alone think. She stumbled, shaking madly, out of her room and knocked on the door of the room beside her. Jess answered immediately.

"Whoa, Rory, you don't look too good."

"Is my mom there?" She tried to say, but her teeth were chattering so viciously that she knew Jess couldn't understand.

"Your lips are blue," he sounded worried. "Come here."

He drew her in towards him and rubbed her arms with his hands, resting her chin on his shoulder.


He was freaked out. Rory had come into his room, and Luke and Lorelai were nowhere to be seen. She had come into his room frozen solid, and he didn't know what to do. When he rubbed her arms and her back, she seemed to calm down a bit, and he led her over to his single bed. The sheets were already pulled back, and he laid her down and covered her with the two blankets. He was so concerned about her that he barely noticed the cold himself.

"Jess," she murmured with her eyes closed as he stood up straight. "Don't go."

He sat down beside her on the tiny bed. He took her hand in his and brought it up to his mouth, wrapping his warm lips around her frigid fingers. As soon as his lips touched her flesh, she relaxed and stopped shaking. He took his lips away and she immediately began shaking again. He kissed her fingers and she stopped.

He slid under the sheets and wrapped his arms around her, drawing her against his body. She stopped shaking completely and sighed, falling asleep.

Then the realization hit him. She was sleeping, pressed up against his body. He struggled to think of other things, anything that would stop the southward flow of his blood. He was doing fine until she moved her leg and shifted her weight. He squeezed her tighter and controlled himself with great effort.

She rolled over and was facing him. Her eyes were closed but she looked restless. He stared at her lips, pale pink and no longer blue, and he longed to take them in his own.

Before he knew it, he was leaning in and kissing her. He was tasting her mouth as he had dreamed about before on many occasions, only it was better. He was wrapping his arms tighter around her. She was opening her eyes, she was awake, and she was kissing him back. It was all moving so fast.

She reached up and ran her hands through his hair, pausing when they reached his neck. She gave it a squeeze, which caused him to emit a deep moan, and she sat up quickly. She was shivering again. She looked around wildly and saw Jess, really saw him, lying there on the bed, looking up at her expectantly.

When he saw that she was once again shivering, he sat up too, concerned.

"Shit, Rory, I'm sorry, you were sleeping, I shouldn't have…"

"I was awake," she was saying, the chattering of her teeth resumed. "And I was fully aware… Jess, I have a boyfriend."

"A fact that you have made very clear."

"Jess, I'm serious, I don't want to hurt him."

His eyes shone and he tore his gaze away from her. "Do whatever you think is best then."

She clutched her arms, desperately trying to regain the body that was quickly slipping away.

"Jess? Can I stay here tonight?" Her teeth rattled in her mouth.

"Rory, I don't know if that's the best idea… you have a boyfriend, as you said. What would Dean say if he knew?"

"I don't want to be with him anymore."

"What?" Jess looked up sharply. "I thought you didn't want to hurt him."

"I don't. I don't want to be with him anymore, but I still don't want to hurt him."

"Why don't you want to be with him anymore?" Jess asked, barely able to keep the note of eagerness out of his voice.

"I…" She paused and looked at him. She was startled by a violent spasm of shivers. "I'm so tired. And cold."

"Here, lie back down." He tucked her in again, got up and turned off the light. He walked back to the bed through the dark and crawled in beside her, wrapping his arms around her again and holding her close until the shaking subsided and she fell into a calm sleep. He remained awake for a long time after that.