She grabbed her purse and opened the door. "I'll go check in."

I nodded and she left. I looked after her, watching as she skipped up the building and opened the glass door. How did I get so lucky?

I parked the car and went to look for her in the lobby. We were somewhere in Pennsylvania, near the Ohio border. It was a small town, probably a little bigger than Stars Hallow. The hotel was slightly more commercial than the Dragonfly, but, I have to say, nothing van quite compare to Lorelei's inn. Yes, Rory's mother hated my guts, but, I had to have respect for her. The way everything worked out with Rory's dad, and they way everything happened to her, it must have been hard, that's all I'm saying.

As I opened the door I heard snippets on conversation, the one most interesting, though, was happening between Rory and the clerk behind the counter.

"No, you don't understand! I need two beds, not one, two!"

"I'm terribly sorry ma'am, but we are almost full. The only rooms we have left have one bed. It's terribly late, you know."

I was reminded of how late is was, or early, around 4, and I started to feel sorry for the man. I walked up to Rory.

"Look, Michel, I need two beds! And don't call me ma'am! I'm nineteen, not fifty. You call people like my grandmother ma'am. Not me! I'm not- "

I grabbed Rory's arm. "Excuse me sir," I set pointedly to the clerk, "Would you mind if I borrowed her for just a little minute?"

The man nodded gratefully and I walked her away. "Ow…Jess, ouch. What are you doing. Can't you see I'm negotiating over there? Did you hear how many beds they want to give us?" She stared at me expectantly. I started to smirk.

"Wow, Rory, while that reference to Michel was pretty funny, it is pretty late." She just glared at me. "Look, Rory, it's four in the morning. Be reasonable, okay? We'll just have to get a room with one bed, but I'll handle it okay? Don't freak out." I turned and walked back to the desk. I could feel her gaze burning my back. I knew what she was thinking. When did I get to be so responsible? The thing is, I knew what she was freaking out about, but I just didn't think there was anything to worry about.

When we got to the room, Rory laid down on the bed, staring at me expectantly, as if to say, Way to handle it. I sighed and, grabbing a pillow from the bed, stretched out on the floor. A second later, Rory was leaning off the bed, so that her top half was hanging a foot or so over my face.

"Jess?"

"Yes Rory?"

"What are you doing?"

I stared at her for a minute, as if to say, what else would I be doing? "Um, I'm handling it."

She looked into my eyes, and se saw something there. I was trying to protect her, and she knew it. I didn't want her to feel insecure about this, uncertain, and she knew it. I didn't want to make her uncomfortable around me, and she knew it. Something changed inside her.

"Oh. You really don't have to do that. No, really, I mean it Jess, it's okay. You don't have to worry about me. I'm a big girl. I know that you don't have cooties or anything."

"Naw, it's not so bad down here. Don't worry about it."

"No," she said firmly, "I'm worrying about it. I started worrying about it, and, when I get to worrying about it, there's just no telling what lengths I'll go to to stop worrying about it. Jess, I mean it. You've been driving all night, and I've been sleeping. Now, you either come up here and stop being so stubborn or I'm going down there."

I rolled my eyes and sighed overdramatically. She laughed. I laid down on the bed, making sure to leave a good distance in between us. She put her head next to mine on the pillow.

"Good night Jess."

I kissed her hair. "Night Rory."

I woke up the next morning late, around 10:30. Rory's head had ended up on my shoulder, with my face in her hair. I had my arm carelessly draped over her shoulders. I sighed, inhaling her scent, and closed my eyes. My plan was to lay there, just like that, just a little longer.

Soon, the form in my arms started to writher and twist, stretching out her body from the long night. "Jess?" The sound was smothered into my skin, and her head rolled around to look at me, expectantly, with her doe eyes.

"Hey." I said, rolling out of bed and stumbling into the bathroom.

"Hi," she answered, following me with her eyes.

"So," I called from the bathroom, "I was thinking, you know we could get ready to go, you know shower, change, all that, then we could go find some decent coffee and breakfast, and we could get going. You know, if we leave by 1 we could probably make it past Chicago today, so we should get going. Don't you think?"

"Jess, how long have you been up?"

I cam out the bathroom, dressed and ready to go. "Why?"

"Oh, just because when I wake up, I'm not as organized and thoughtful as you were now."

"Oh, well, in that case, about twenty minutes, not to long." She started as me as if she wanted to say something. "Say it."

"What?"

"Say whatever it is you want to say. I know you want to say something."

"What were you doing? I mean, you woke up twenty minutes ago, but you just got up." She looked into my eyes, as if looking for a reason. I knew I couldn't lie to her. Yes, it would make me look like a sissy, and, yes, it would mean showing her my emotions, but, I told her I would try. I did, now I had to show her, to show her that I could do this, that I had changed. I looked away from her gaze, shifting my weight so stare at a stain on the carpet not too far away. "Jess?"

"I…I… don't laugh okay?" She smiled and nodded, and I sighed and went on. "I was just laying there, laying with you. You were all tangled up in me and I was just laying there with you, watching you sleep…" I paused, looking at her face, but I couldn't tell what she was thinking. "I… know it sounds stupid and it is, it's just that, well-" I came to a loss of words, but it didn't matter anyway, because she was climbing off of the bed and coming towards me.

She walked across the room until she was inches from my face. She draped her arms over my shoulders and kissed my lips. "Thanks." That was all she said. I didn't know what she was thanking me for. The way I saw it, I should be thanking her. I just stared after her. She looked around for her purse, and, finding it, she pulled out her cell phone and waved it at me.

"I'm going to go make a call okay?" She walked towards the door, pausing on the way to kiss me on the cheek. I'll be right back, then we can check out." She opened the door and left.

I felt like a hormonal teenage girl. Just a half an hour ago, I was laying in bed with Rory, watching her sleep, smelling her hair, being as happy as I ever was, because she had given me a second chance, a flicker of hope; and it was my job the fuel the flicker, make it into a blaze. Ten minutes ago, I was standing in the middle of the room, ashamed to tell her. Why was I ashamed to tell her? I knew she wouldn't have thought anything of it. I knew it was all in my head, all the nervousness. Five minutes ago, I couldn't have been more confused. She was thanking me. That really didn't make any sense. And now, here I was, alone in a hotel room, scared silly. My girlfriend, the same girl who I ran away from in senior year, the same girl who's mom I verbally assaulted the first time I met her, was going outside to call her mom to tell her that she was running away with me. I just knew in my head, Lorelei is not going to take this news happily. Oh no, no good could come from this call.