Disclaimer: I do not own anything associated with Gilmore Girls.

Rating: will become M

Summary: Literati, set during Season 2, right after 'There's the Rub.' Dean can see that Rory is pulling away from him, but he isn't willing to let her go so easily. Rating for language, violence, and adult situations.

Author's note: This story will be very anti-Dean, so if this bothers you, please stop reading before I offend you.

Thanks for the reviews everyone!

Daily Review, as my first reviewer, this chapter is dedicated to you.

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Lorelai sprawled on the sofa, flipping through a magazine and sipping a mug of coffee. She glanced at Rory's door and frowned, concerned. She'd been in there talking to Dean for nearly an hour now. Hopefully they're just in the middle of one of those 'you hang up first' 'no, you' discussions and not another fight, she thought to herself.

Just then, Rory's door opened and she came out, still on the phone. She was rubbing her forehead with her free hand and wincing.

"Yes, Dean. Okay. Tomorrow. Bye." Rory hung up the phone and sighed loudly.

"Everything okay, babe?" Lorelai asked, setting aside her magazine.

"No. Yeah. I don't know," Rory mumbled. "Do we have any Advil? My head is killing me."

"There should be a bottle upstairs," Lorelai answered, getting to her feet. "Let me run up and grab it, you sit down for awhile."

"Thanks, mom," Rory gratefully sank onto the sofa as Lorelai ran up the stairs.

Dean didn't act like he knew I'd lied on Friday, Rory thought to herself as she waited. He just said he'd had a bad day and wanted me to make him feel better. But I really didn't feel like talking to him…nothing I said cheered him up, it was like he was determined to be in a bad mood.

Lorelai came back downstairs with the bottle of Advil held up in the air triumphantly.

"Found it!" She exclaimed as she headed into the kitchen and filled a glass with water for her daughter.

She came back into the living room and handed the glass to Rory. "Here you go, sweetie," she said as she opened the bottle and shook out two pills.

Rory took the medicine and sipped her water, grimacing as she swallowed the capsules. "Thanks."

Lorelai sat on the couch next to Rory and pulled her legs up beneath her, sitting Indian-style. "So, Dean…" she began, looking at her daughter.

Rory sighed again. "I don't know. He didn't mention Jess once, just said he'd had a bad day and wanted me to cheer him up. But I felt like he wasn't even listening to anything I said, so eventually we made plans to hang out tomorrow night."

"And you were so excited about the prospect that you gave yourself a splitting headache?" Lorelai asked, an eyebrow raised.

"It's just so hard to talk to him lately," Rory said. "I feel like I have to always be careful of what I say so I don't upset him. All we do anymore is fight."

"And this is all because you're friends with Jess now?"

Rory shook her head. "I don't think so. I mean, that upsets him, definitely, but it's like if I want to do anything besides hang out with him, he gets so unhappy."

"Well, he loves you," Lorelai reasoned. "He's worried about Jess, so he wants to spend as much time with you as possible so you remember what a great guy he is."

Rory rolled her eyes. "I'd think he was a lot greater if he just gave me some space and stopped getting mad at me all the time."

She got up and headed for her room. "I'm going to go lie down for awhile."

Lorelai watched her go, concerned. "Feel better!" she called out as Rory's door closed.

X X X

Luke made the last tally mark on his inventory sheet and hung the clipboard up on a hook hanging from a shelf. Dusting his hands off on his jeans, he headed back out to the diner and studied the window. The rain was still pouring down. He looked around his deserted diner and sighed.

Might as well close up, nobody's going to come in while this is going on, he thought to himself as he walked over to the door and flipped the 'open' sign over. Just then Jess appeared at the other side of the glass.

"Augh!" Luke cried, startled by his nephew's sudden appearance. He stepped back and allowed the drenched teenager to enter the diner.

"Where the hell have you been?" Luke demanded.

Jess gave his patented scowl. "Out."

"You look like a drowned rat!"

Jess nodded. "Thanks, you don't look so bad yourself," he said sarcastically.

He headed for the stairs.

"And here I thought maybe you had enough sense to come in out of the rain!" Luke called after him.

Jess ignored him and walked up to the apartment, dripping all the way. He headed straight for the bathroom, pausing only to grab a dry pair of boxers from the dresser.

He froze as soon as he entered the small room. Hanging over the shower door was a light blue blouse, long navy stockings, and a plaid skirt. Rory's Chilton uniform.

What the hell? Jess wondered, and stuck his head out the door, scanning the apartment. Well, she's gone now.

More than a little disappointed, he stripped off his wet clothes and stepped into the shower, closing his eyes and just letting the hot water beat down on his frozen body. After a few minutes, he picked up the bar of soap and began to wash himself.

He noticed a washcloth sitting on the ledge, mostly dried. Rory's, he realized. Jess picked it up and scrubbed his entire body with the small piece of cloth.

He turned the water off and stepped out of the shower, grabbing a towel. Too bad we couldn't have been in there at the same time, he thought to himself as he dried his body and pulled on the clean boxers.

Walking back into the apartment, Jess pulled open a dresser drawer and looked for his grey sweats. The clothes were in a slightly different arrangement than he'd left them. The sweats were missing. Jess frowned, then smiled slowly, realizing whose slender body they must be currently gracing.

He pulled on a pair of jeans and a t-shirt and picked up the phone.

X X X X

Lorelai knocked lightly on Rory's door, then opened it a crack and peeked inside. Rory was lying on her bed, reading a novel.

"Phone, honey."

Rory looked up and frowned. "Not Dean again…"

Lorelai shook her head. "It's Jess."

Instantly Rory smiled and held out her hand for the receiver.

Lorelai handed it to her and headed back out to the living room, a little concerned about how happy the prospect of talking to Jess made Rory, especially compared to her reaction when she thought it was Dean.

X X X

"So, someone seems to have stolen my grey sweatpants," Jess told Rory, settling back onto his bed with the phone.

"What a terrible thing to do," Rory teased. "Who do you think could've done such a thing?"

"Well, the culprit seems to have left behind some clues," Jess commented. "A couple articles of clothing, actually."

"Hmm…" Rory said. "Maybe you can get some DNA evidence off of them?"

"That sounds feasible…but I wonder if it's necessary?" Jess asked. "See, they look awfully familiar to me."

Rory gasped in mock surprise. "Are you saying that you have a possible suspect in mind?"

"That's exactly what I'm saying," Jess told her, smirking. "And actually Rory, I hate to tell you this, but the suspect is you."

"I'm outraged," Rory cried. "How dare you accuse me of such a heinous act?"

Jess glanced towards the bathroom. "Because your Chilton uniform is hanging over the door of my shower, and unless you ran out of here in just your underwear, you must have taken something else to wear."

Rory laughed out loud at that idea. Jess grinned at the sound and made himself more comfortable, settling in for a long conversation.

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Author's Note: I'm not happy with how I ended this, but I just got stuck and didn't have the energy to work on it anymore. If it really seems incomplete and an odd ending, let me know and I may update it later, but otherwise I'm just going to move on to the next scene.