Jess walked into the bar, not really knowing what to expect and not particularly at ease with the whole concept of seeing Rory, a.k.a. object of his affection, who he had completely alienated with his hit and run love confession and inability to carry on a conversation that did not revolve entirely around books, music, or Dean's height. With these self-deprecating thoughts taking up residence in his head, he was not prepared for the butterflies (or, hell, mutant grasshoppers) in his stomach at seeing Rory. Again. Her hair was, well...a little longer. She looked bored. And, oddly enough, not as out of place as he would imagine her looking in a bar. He thought it might be because of the "kiss-my-ass" look on her face, undoubtedly a result from her friends' abandonment and the idea of seeing him once again. Cautiously, he approached her table. She looked up. We've got contact, sirs. Please send backup immediately. And coffee.

"Hi."

"Hi."

Wait for it....

"Hi."

Although replaying their first awkward conversation in their relationship wasn't entirely unappealing to Rory (or, perhaps it was), she stood and fiddled nervously with her purse strap.

"So we should probably-"

"We should go, or-"

"Yeah."

"My car's just-"Jess jabbed his thumb in the general direction of the exit, scratching the back of his neck with his other hand and allowing his eyes to uneasily jump from the table, to the top of Rory's head, to a bowl of questionable peanuts on the counter, carefully avoiding her eyes and any uncomfortable "moments" that might result.

"Yeah, so we should..."

"Yeah."

Gathering her coat, Rory stepped around the table and stopped near him. She smelled like alcohol and coffee. He wondered vaguely if Lorelai had prompted her to mix the two.

Walking side by side, Jess took a deep breath and wondered if there was a chapter in Luke's book that covered giving your ex-girlfriend slash love-of- your-life a ride home from a bar, and if so, did it provide any tips on having a relatively normal conversation without dragging up their history? Or even mentioning the present, that too would be nice to avoid.

He opened the car door for her; she thought it was nice. Charming. Part of the new-and-improved Jess Mariano, complete with emo-hair and sewn-on leather jacket. Conversational skills not included.

They drove in silence for a good five minutes, Jess mentally cursing the radio for refusing to work. Finally, he spoke-who knew he couldn't stand silence?

"Why were you at a bar again?"

She shot him a look, and cleared her throat daintily. "I was with friends."

His incredulous raise of an eyebrow annoyed her for some reason, as did his response. "You have friends that hang out at bars like that?"

"Oddly enough, all my friends are not Paris clones with text books in their purses. I have varied taste."

Jess snorted. "Varied taste? The only friends you had when I was here were Lane and Paris. I must have missed the keg parties."

"Well, it's a good thing, cause the one you did go to blew up in my face." Rory snapped, and crossed her arms, regretting the words are they fell clumsily out of her mouth.

"Jeez. You had to bring that up." He tightened his hold on the steering wheel, concentrated only on driving. Hands at 9 and 3 o'clock positions, eyes on the road- but dammit, she had no right to bring up past mistakes when he was giving her a ride home!

"Well, something stupid you did was bound to come up. I just thought I'd hurry up the process."

"Did you want to walk home? Cause I can drop you off right here and you can ask someone for directions to the nearest fucking ATM." She fell silent. And...oh crap. Oh no. Oh shit.

"Rory, don't...don't cry, Ror, I didn't mean-"He tentatively reached out a hand, but she slapped it away and huddled in the corner of her seat, looking sullenly out the window. The urge to hurl himself into oncoming traffic was steadily increasing.

Another uncomfortable silence followed as they passed drove, Rory paying attention no longer to her wounded emotions, but instead to her growling stomach. She was afraid if she didn't get something unhealthy in her system soon she just might faint in his car, and that's just what she needed, to depend on him for one more thing.

A minute or so later, Jess sighed and glanced at her out of the corner of his eye, taking note of her dried tears and temporarily gloomy disposition. He rubbed the bridge of his nose for a second, then looked at her again.

"I didn't mean to yell at you."

She nodded and swiped a hand across her eyes. "I know."

"It's just...you know."

"Yeah." She sighed. "I didn't mean to bring up...you know."

"Yeah."

She gave him a hint of a smile, and brushed an offending hair from her line of vision. "Our conversations are becoming repetitive."

"And redundant."

"Yeah."

"Yeah." He smirked, and nostalgia washed over him. Their banter. Their justifiably flirtatious conversations before they dated and before everything went to shit; Jess and Rory, the early years. He stole another look at her, and imagined her being just as mentally sappy as he was. But she didn't appear wistful; more like deflated.

"Are you alright?"

"Huh? Oh, yes. I am. It's just..." She sighed shakily, and looked the opposite of alright. "I've had this terrible, terrible day. I went to the bar because my grandmother set me up on a date with this Graham guy and I went and he was with all these friends and they were all drunk and I kept thinking about how I'd never get to finish "Still Life with Woodpecker" if I died in some horrible bloody accident with these idiots, and I haven't eaten all day and I had a horrible final and it's so hard seeing you again after everything and just...ugh!" She dropped her head into her hands and waited for Jess to say something.

"Do you want to get something to eat?"

She raised her head. "Excuse me?"

"You said you didn't eat. You want to get something?"

Too confused with the direction the entire evening was taking, she just nodded.

"Something...would be nice."

"Great." He grinned crookedly. "I know a place."

- - - - - - - - - - - -

He had told her to wait in the car. Since neither Rory nor Jess had any money on them, Rory had agreed to his very Jess-like idea and waited in the car while her grabbed some leftovers from the wedding spread. He had mentioned turkey legs, and that was about it. Rory wasn't entirely sure they'd served much else.

Jess snuck in as surreptitiously as he could, carefully avoiding all of the following: T.J., Liz, Luke, Lorelai, and man-who-thinks-prison-is-a- Godsend. He was surprised that people were still there; even more surprised that no one had overthrown Kirk as D.J., who was currently mystifying the audience with his own rendition of Dancing in the Moonlight. He quickly grabbed a plate and looked around for something that was either edible or close enough to it that Rory would eat it, which left a lot of options. He was in the midst of grabbing one of everything when he bumped shoulders with someone. Saying a quick prayer that it wasn't prison-guy, he looked to his right and locked eyes with none other than Miss Lorelai Gilmore.

She immediately adopted her fake smile ala Emily around Digger.

"Jess."

He nodded. "Lorelai."

The thought that this was about ten times more awkward than seeing Rory again ran through his head before Lorelai spoke.

"So, heh, think you got enough? Or did your uh, new friend send you up here for thirds?"

New friend? Oh yes. Prison guy.

"Nope. Just...hungry." As uncomfortable as listening to Lorelai try to make polite conversation was, he knew it was about to get a good bit more unsettling as he watched Liz hurry over to him.

"Look! It's my guy. You did great, hon, walking me down the aisle!" She quickly hugged him, making him almost spill his plate of cold turkey legs and as-yet-unidentified crudités.

"And Lorelai! Thank you so much, the dress didn't fall apart! It looked great. And didn't T.J. look nice in his tights? I'm lucky. I really am." She smiled again and patted Jess's shoulder affectionately.

"I gotta go." He was praying for a quick exit.

"Right, right. That's my guy, gotta get back to work! Well, I have your cell phone number. Luke's gonna have a cow when I tell him you have one. "

"Bearing livestock's always been something of a hobby for him. I gotta run." He leaned down and allowed Liz to kiss him on the cheek before nodding once more to Lorelai.

"Bye."

He turned and walked off, leaving Liz with a contented smile on her face and Lorelai wondering why he'd even bothered being polite to her.

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Rory popped another grape in her mouth and chewed methodically.

"He really mentioned tights in his wedding vows?"

"I kid you not. And on the way down the aisle."

"I can't believe I missed it." She sighed and picked at her turkey leg. "Stupid Saturday final."

The two were on the ground, propped up on the side of Jess's car, the plate of cold food between them. He had parked across from the diner, where she'd first seen him the last time he rode into town.

"It wasn't that great. I had to walk her down the aisle."

Rory looked up, amused and a little charmed. "You walked your mom down the aisle?"

'Yep." He shrugged. "She didn't really have anyone else."

She nodded. "It's sweet."

"Not sweet."

"Very sweet. Luke made these turkey legs, right? Not a wandering minstrel/chef or something?"

"Nope. He made them in the diner, right before Liz's stripper showed up."

Rory almost choked on her turkey. "You were there? With your mom's stripper?"

He chuckled lightly, and settled back against the car. "God, no. I left Luke with them."

"Poor Luke." She looked at him as he nodded in agreement and gnawed contemplatively on a roll. She was annoyed with herself at that moment, annoyed that she didn't hate him like her mother probably thought she did.

"So." Jess started, gazing at the pavement, wondering what the hell was wrong with him that he would start a conversation like the one he was about to, especially when there had thus far been no bloodshed. "I'm surprised you haven't attempted to decapitate me yet. I figured you'd hate me."

Confused as to why the king of avoidance chose to bring that up, she looked at him looking at the pavement. He was cute when he was nervous. He was also cute when he was being a complete pain in the ass, which just made things all the more difficult for her. .

"I don't hate you. I'm mad at you. Really mad." She sighed, and settled back against the cool metal of the car. "I was sad. It's hard hearing from your mom that your boyfriend just ditched you without a 'goodbye'. I was mad because I was third on the list of people who knew you were gone. As far as I know, that is. Miss Patty probably knew when you were just considering it. But that's how it works, right?" Rory brushed her hands on her pant legs and stood up, Jess following her every move (well, every move of her feet that is. The eye-contact-avoidance plan still seemed like a pretty good idea). "Luke tells my mom, my mom tells me, Stars Hollow knows within a matter of minutes. It's great," she said sarcastically, "just great."

"Rory-"

"I'm going to go." She shoved her hands in her pockets and took one last look at him. "Thanks for dinner."

He nodded. "I'm nothing if not happy to be your meal ticket." Jess chanced a look at her face now, and was surprised to see her shaking her head in amusement (or was it blind hatred? He really wasn't sure anymore when it came to her.) But she looked up, and there was a small smile on her face.

"Sometimes I wish you'd just do me a favor and be a jerk. It'd make being mad at you a lot easier."

She absorbed the look on his face (it reminded her of when she'd kissed him at the wedding, oh so long ago), then turned again, throwing a "Night, Jess" over her shoulder.

Bewildered, Jess stayed seated on the ground.

He thought maybe he'd go back to New York the next week instead.

----

A/N- Alright then, sorry that took so long to get up; my computer's decided to be evil as of late, and even though I had this finished a day after I posted the prologue, I had to wait until now. Anyhoo, hope you weren't awfully disappointed by this chapter, I didn't like it all that much but at least they aren't depressing and angsty and refusing to leave with the greatest man EVER (I'm not entirely sure I'll ever get over that...sigh). Thank you for all the reviews, they make me feel oh-so warm and fuzzy. Review again, and who knows? Perhaps another chapter will appear! (...ok, it probably will whether you review or not. But it'll make me feel better). Carry on.