The White Stripes own the lyrics…I know they never indicated that Jess or Rory were Stripes fans on the show, but peoples' music tastes do change over time, at least a little. And it's my story, so therefore I get to subliminally order you all to listen to White Blood Cells.

I'm so happy – they're showing episodes with Jess on ABC! I just watched his debut, and I realized something for the first time; everyone says that Amy Sherman-Palladino changed the storyline, because she first said that Jess's dad left two years ago, and then she changed it to the Jimmy storyline. BUT she never said the guy who left two years ago was Jess's dad, it just seemed like it was implied. What she DID make Luke say was Liz "Married the hotdog king, had a kid, he left…" in the same episode- that's Jimmy! Look for it!

ladyjane: Hoorah for cake!

OnLoveInSadness: Don't I know the feeling…

Lorelai rang the doorbell to her parents' house, and Emily practically ran into the hall to open the door. For four weeks now, Rory hadn't shown up for Friday night dinner. She was in California with THAT BOY. Emily put her hand on the doorknob and lifted her head. 'Don't make it five weeks,' she silently prayed, and then put on a fake smile and opened the door. Lorelai stood alone on the front step, shifting nervously. She hated coming here without Rory.

"Lorelai, how lovely to see you. Alone." She swung the door open all the way and walked away from it, gritting her teeth.

"She sends her love, Mom," Lorelai said as she took her coat off.

"That's very nice. Tell her thank you for me." Emily marched into the parlor, heading straight for the drink cart.

"Emily? Is Rory here?" Richard entered the room sounding hopeful.

"She's still gone, Richard." Emily poured a generous amount of alcohol into her glass, before offering her husband and daughter any.

"She'll be home soon mom, I swear."

"You say that every week. I want to know exactly when soon is."

"I don't really know, I think she's just playing it by ear."

"Well if you don't talk to her, she's going to end up staying there forever. Lorelai, you're losing your daughter and you don't even see it!"

"Emily, now, Rory's not a child anymore," Richard tried to pacify, but his wife wouldn't listen.

"She's going to throw her life away to be with this boy, and we'll never see her again."

"Mom, don't tell me what to do with Rory, because I'm just as lost as you. Fact is, she can do whatever she wants, and if my opinion doesn't matter to her, then yours sure as hell isn't going to." Lorelai threw her head back and drank her entire glass of wine, feeling a headache coming on. The Gilmores were silent until the maid announced dinner.

Meanwhile, Rory carefully brushed her hair. Jess had something planned for tonight, but refused to tell her what. All he'd said was that it required formal wear. She'd let Lily help her pick out a short brown dress that tied in back of her neck, leaving her entire upper back exposed. Rory loved the soft material, and she'd had a great time hanging out with Lily. She was spending more time with Jess's family now, at least Lily and Sasha. Jimmy wasn't really up for shopping days or chick flicks, but she still got along with him.

She brushed her eyelids with pale eye shadow, and stepped back to look at herself in the bathroom mirror. A knock at the door made her smile and step into her shoes.

"Come in," she called, taking one last look in the mirror. She looked pretty good, for her.

Jess opened the door and found her sitting on the counter, buckling the little clasp on her heels. She looked beautiful tonight. He'd made the effort and donned straight pants, a collared shirt, and a jacket. He'd known the jacket he wore to the author's convention would come in handy. Jimmy had advised him to wear a tie with the ensemble, but Jess settled against it.

"You look nice," was his only greeting as he leaned against the doorframe, taking her appearance in. She nodded towards her shoes, where she was struggling with the clasp, and he moved towards the counter. Taking her foot in his hand, he easily did the clasp with surprisingly deft fingers. They locked eyes as he finished, and bent over to kiss the curve of her foot left naked by her strappy shoe.

"So stop being so secretive, what have you been plotting?" He put his hands in his pockets and shrugged, smirking. She sighed and stood up, taking the arm he offered. They walked through the house, Jess's heart beating far faster than it was supposed to. Tonight HAD to be perfect, or he'd never forgive himself. He'd come up with the idea about a week ago, and had spent every waking moment since then planning it.

He covered her eyes with his hands and led her outside to the patio, before planting a small kiss on the nape of her neck, and letting go. She looked at the scene in front of her, a huge grin coming to her face. The small, two-person table that normally sat in Jess's kitchen had been moved outside, and a burning candle sat on it next to a single rose in a skinny vase. A CD player sat nearby, 'Hard to Explain' by The Strokes playing lightly.

"What's this?" Rory asked, crossing her arms and fighting to keep from smiling.

"Prom." He stated simply, guiding her towards the table.

"Aww, you're so cute. You didn't have to do this."

"I'm trying to make up for everything. You never got to go to prom, therefore I bring it to you." He pulled Rory's chair out and she sat down, still beaming. He sat across from her and took her hand.

"I wish things had happened differently. I wish this was Star's Hollow, and Lane and Dave were here, and I was going to school."

"Shhh. Things turned out okay in the end. We're together, aren't we?" He smiled back at her, and reached under his chair, taking out a small plastic box. He opened it and slipped a pink corsage onto Rory's wrist.

"There. A little late, but there you go." She stared at the flower on her wrist, melting. He had no idea how adorable he was being.

"I'd lean over the table and kiss you if the candle wasn't here." Jess stood up and walked over to her, bending over so he was right in front of her. She leaned in and kissed him tenderly, lingering.

Once he sat down again, he reached down and took a piece of paper out from under his chair. Rory wondered what else he had stashed under there, but he handed the paper to her, and all was forgotten. It was a menu, written in Jess's fluid, small handwriting, with a very small selection on it.

"Hmm, I'll have the Angel hair pasta, and the red wine, and the lemon cake." He grinned as he stood up again and took the 'menu'. "When did you have time to make this?"

"When you were out with Lily today."

"So all that serious writing you had to do was…"

"A complete and total lie." He stepped inside to get their food while Rory sat and grinned like a maniac. Tonight was going on the list of best nights in Rory's life. Jess had obviously gone to great lengths to make this perfect, and he was pulling it off. He stepped outside, balancing two plates and closing the door with his foot.

"I'm having diner boy flashbacks," she teased as he set her food in front of her. He'd spent the afternoon cooking the simple, scrumptious meal, and waited for her sign of approval before eating his own.

"Oh, yummy!" He smiled to himself, and dug in.

Lorelai ate her desert, some sort of peachy thing, in silence. No one was speaking at the Gilmore house. Everyone chewed and preoccupied themselves with their own thoughts. Each thought about Rory.

"We'll hopefully see both of you next week," Emily stated as Lorelai left fifteen minutes later.

"Bye Mom," she returned, but the door was already closed. Sighing, Lorelai climbed in her beloved Jeep, and drove to Luke's.

She sat at the stool she'd claimed as her own long ago, and gave Luke her best puppy face. Shaking his head, he took a mug down from the shelf behind him, and filled it with coffee.

"How'd they take it?" Luke asked, handing her the cup.

"Like they always do. I've come to the conclusion that they hate me, and the only reason they were semi-nice to me all those years was because they liked Rory."

"She'll be home soon, and then they can go back to being semi-nice to you."

"I keep telling myself that, but she doesn't show any signs of getting ready to come home at all."

"Well, she can't stay there forever, right?"

"I don't know. I keep thinking this is Rory, there's nothing to worry about, she'll do whatever makes the most people happy. And then I put myself in her place, and I think, what if you moved to the far corners of the earth?"

"California isn't exactly the far corners of the earth, Lor."

"…And I wonder, would I just forget all my responsibilities and obligations, and follow you like a puppy? And I mean, Rory can write wherever. The only thing that's really holding her in Star's Hollow is us. You, me, Lane, and everyone she grew up with. Not all kids live at home forever, and though it'd kick ass if Rory was one of the exceptions, I want her to be happy. What if it's time for her to move on?" Luke didn't say anything, just handed Lorelai a tissue from the box under the counter as she started to cry.

As they finished eating, Jess cleared the table and glared at Rory, as if daring her to make the 'diner boy' comment again. She smiled smugly and kept it to herself, but he knew she was thinking it. When he came outside again he went over to the small stereo he'd brought outside, and sifted through the stack of CD's next to it.

"Rancid, or White Stripes?" he asked, holding up two cases.

"Quite the range to choose from there," she commented, joining him by the CD's.

"Yea, well I've had to expand my tastes in music. They refused to forward my Punk Planet magazines here," he explained.

"White Blood Cells," she decided, naming a Gilmore treasure. He put the CD in, and 'Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground' began to play softly. He took her hand and pulled her towards the center of the patio, where he pressed her against him. Wrapping her arms around his neck, Rory swayed to the music, dancing with her Jess.

"I never want to leave here," she confessed quietly, into his shoulder.

"I never want you to leave," he responded guiltily, wondering if he should be persuading her to go back to her mother.

"What are we gonna do, Jess? I can't just stay with you forever and pretend I have full intentions of going home."

"Then you should go," he said sadly. He wanted her to be happy, even if it wasn't with him.

"I don't want to go."

"Rory…you go home to Lorelai, or you stay here. It's what it all boils down to."

"You'd let me stay here? Like, live here?"

"Of course. But you have to do what's best, and I don't know if moving to California falls under that category."

"You did it."

"Because I had nothing in Star's Hollow. You have everything there, that's your life Rory."

"But you're my life too now. Are you actually telling me to leave?"

"I want you to make the right choice. I don't want you to feel like you have to stay here just because you love me."

"I-I don't know what to do."

"I don't expect you to make up your mind right now."

"How much time do I have?" The song ended, and 'Hotel Yorba' began. It was a difficult song to dance to, but they were just holding each other and rocking back and forth anyway.

"I'm not going to give you a deadline to choose, but you need to do it. You can't just avoid making a decision and tell yourself this is just temporary."

"I want to stay," she admitted, biting her lip.

"Lorelai," he said with a sigh.

"She doesn't need me."

"But she's your mom and your best friend."

"I could call her all the time. And visit. And E-mail. Maybe even snail mail, we've always wanted to try that."

"Okay, that's scenario number one. Scenario number two, you go home."

"I'd miss you too much."

"We're hypothetically speaking here, Rory. What would happen to us if you went back to Star's Hollow?"

"Nothing," she said sadly. "Nothing would happen, because even in long distance relationships, there's the implication that if things work out, they'll get married, or at least live together someday." She danced in silence, before saying what was on her mind. "And I know you won't go back to Connecticut." He sighed in her ear, not wanting her to ask him that.

"Rory, I'd go back if you honestly wanted me to, but I don't think it would work. As long as you live there, you care about what everyone thinks. We go there, we're always going to have issues. We're always going to have something to argue about. What if that kills us?" She nodded against him, realizing he was right.

"Jess…as hard as it is to imagine a life without Lane and Miss Patty and Kirk and Mom, I can picture it. I can't picture a life without you anymore. I don't know how I did it, college, and work, and life itself, without you for so long. I can't go back to being the person who doesn't have you in her life."

"Then stay," he whispered, no longer trying to convince her to think rationally. He'd heard her reasoning, and he no longer had the willpower to keep from begging her not to leave him. What would he do if she went back? The house would be empty; hell, his life would be empty.

"I love you," was all she said, but it was very clear what her choice was going to be. She'd make a Pro/Con list, she'd consult her mother, and she'd spend several mornings alone on the beach pondering it. But in the end, they both knew what choice she'd make.

As she mused about a life with Jess, she thought down the road. She'd never tried to picture herself grown up, with kids and a husband, because it had seemed so far away. But her latest words rang in her ears, as the words of the song reached her.

It might seem silly
for me to think childish thoughts like these
but I'm so tired of acting tough
and I'm gonna to what I please
lets get married
in a big cathedral by a priest
cause if I'm the man that you love the most
you could say I Do at least

He heard the words as well, smiling as he lost himself in a conventional day dream.

Gah, no flamers!…If this is already the plot of someone's story, I never read it, and I decided to do something different. Well, actually, if you want to send me a flamer review, I'm not stopping you. I'm just saying I prefer being showered with praise for my original ideas.