Chapter 2

A/N: I'm back! Thanks for the reviews guys! You're all so wonderful! I'm very happy with the feedback I've got one this one, so I'm still writing it! Now, it's a little hard to get your head around, the time sequences are disjointed, so it goes back and forwards quite a lot. You will need to concentrate!

ProFfeSseR: thanks for the review!

ALIASobsessed89: tis continuing!

That70slover: there's not really much L/L stuff in this chapter, but the next one has some!

muse-of-the-fairies: excellent (rubs hands together a la mr burns)

Natalia DeLuca: ooh! Hi! You're the girl that writes the really good Emily fics! Hehehe thanks for the review!

Bella: glad to know you're reading!

controversy-queen: more coming your way…

freecityy: thanks! I love the names too! Especially Hew… it's so bizarre! :p

ocdwithlhg: more coming soon!

Kimmers: Different is my speciality ;) oh! DIRTY!

cookiecutter: your review has inspired me to take on the take that I am taking on now! (wow, I think I'm beating Luke's 'how many times you can say 'fax' in a sentence' with 'take'!!)

x.kromediva.x: lol I know what you mean!

Emma-Lizzy-Black: thanks!

Well, thanks for the shouts guys! Now, this chapter begins where we last left of…

3 months after the birthday

Lorelai sat in the kitchen late that night, sipping on a cup of coffee and reading the Stars Hollow Gazette. She wasn't really reading it, just flicking through. She heard the front door open and smiled to herself. That must be Luke and Jay. But they weren't the ones who appeared in the kitchen doorway. Instead, it was Dan.

"Oh, hey," Lorelai said, turning her head to smile at him. Dan walked over to the table and put his keys on it, before sitting down.

"Where is everyone?" he asked.

"Hew is in bed, Amie is at Kate's and Jay is still out. Coffee?" Lorelai asked, holding the coffee pot up.

"Is dad home?" Dan asked.

"Not yet."

"Sure, why not," Dan replied, and Lorelai grabbed another coffee mug and poured him some. He took a sip and sighed. Lorelai thought that Dan couldn't possibly be anymore like his father, but when he drank coffee she knew that he was her son too. They had often compared photos of Dan and Luke at the same age and been hard pressed to find a difference.

"So where is dad?" Dan asked, taking another, slightly larger sip and cradling the mug in his hands.

"He's out with Jay, trying to talk to her," Lorelai sighed. "Things just seem to be getting worse between her and Amie. I wish I knew what was happening." She looked down into her coffee.

"I can try and find out," Dan offered. Lorelai smiled at his suggestion.

"Thanks, but you've already tried that."

"Yeah, I know," he replied. They sat quietly for a minute, both just sipping their coffee.

"Pizza should be here soon," Lorelai commented, easing the coffee cup up to her lips.

"Mom," Dan said disapprovingly, "Pizza? At this time of night?"

"It's got pepperoni," Lorelai offered with a small grin.

"Oh," Dan replied, "well that's a different story." Dan took one last sip of his coffee and went to the sink to rinse it out. Just as he put it in the dishwasher, they heard the front door open. Both Lorelai and Dan turned to see Luke come inside.

"Where's Jay?" Lorelai asked, concerned. Luke sighed and sat down at the table where Dan had been sitting.

"She's staying with Rory and Marty tonight," he replied solemnly. Lorelai frowned.

"Did you get a chance to talk to her?" Lorelai asked.

"A little," he replied, taking off his baseball cap and running his hands through his hair.

"And?" Lorelai prompted. Luke shifted in his chair, and Dan, noticing the slight awkwardness, excused himself.

"Ah… I'm gonna go to bed. Been a busy day – and I gotta open tomorrow," he said, referring to the diner.

"Mkay, night hun," Lorelai said as Dan gave her a quick kiss on the cheek.

"Night. Night dad," he said, placing his hand firmly on his dad's shoulder before moving on upstairs. Lorelai let out a breath.

"So?" she prompted.

"She didn't really tell me anything I didn't already know. She didn't say much at all really. But you know, that's Jay," he replied.

"Hmm," Lorelai pondered.

"She just told me that things had been strained since… you know, and that she didn't really want to talk about it. She asked Rory if she could stay with her, Rory said yes as she always does, and that was that," Luke said, fiddling with his baseball cap.

"I just wish one of them would talk to us," Lorelai replied.

"I know."

"It's just not that easy."

"I know."

3 weeks before the birthday

Jay ran, her feet pounding against the asphalt on a cool March morning. She loved it when the weather was bitey and no one was up yet. It was just her, the road, and the rising sun. The only sounds coming from the occasional bird, making its early morning call. She rounded the corner and jogged passed the library, making a mental note to go there that afternoon after school and borrow that book Rory had recommended to her. She didn't usually like to jog around the centre of town, she just stuck with the housed streets – they were quieter, and something about them made her feel more comfortable. But today she had an excuse to run through town.

3 months before the birthday

"You up for movie night tonight?" Amie asked her sister as they walked to the bus stop after breakfast at Luke's.

"Yeah sure. Do you have anything in mind?" Jay replied, scrunching up her nose as she felt it starting to freeze off.

"Casablanca?" Amie offered. Jay rolled her eyes.

"Not AGAIN, we've had THREE classics movie nights in a row!" she protested.

"But we know mom loves it, so we can't go wrong like we did last time," Amie replied.

"Yeah, we know not to get Breakfast at Tiffany's anymore."

"I don't understand WHY she doesn't like it," Amie said, sitting down and putting her bag next to the bench.

"Because it makes her cry too much and she hates crying in movies in front of Hew," Jay replied, also sitting and putting her bag down next to the bench.

"Another 'why'," Amie added.

"Why are you directing these questions at me?" Jay asked, confused.

"I dunno, you answered the last one," Amie said nonchalantly, tucking her long, this morning slightly tangly, light brown curly hair behind her ears and looking around. Her gaze stopped on a boy sitting on a bench not too far from them, who looked to be about her age, maybe a year or two older, with shaggy brown hair, hunched over a book. The book was worn and ragged – someone had done a lot of reading with this one.

"Hey look, it's that guy again," Amie said, gesturing in the direction of the boy who she had seen from a distance a few times before.

"Oh… ah… yeah," Jay replied, glancing at him quickly before looking down at her gloved hands, suddenly finding them extremely fascinating.

"We should go over to him," Amie suggested cheekily, still looking at him but directing her words to Jay.

"What!" Jay protested, "Are you crazy?!"

"What's so crazy about that?" Amie questioned, finally turning her gaze to Jay.

"You don't even know him!" she hissed.

"So? I think he's fascinating…" Amie cooed, turning back to look at him.

Jay looked back down to her lap and fiddled with the hem of her skirt. "He's just a boy."

4 months before the birthday

It was a cold night, but the room was hot. Heat emitted by dozens of sweaty moving bodies, all compacted into one small space. He was finding it hard to breathe; all he got when he opened his mouth was a breathful of hot, second-hand air from some person he had never met before. His eyes wandered around the room, searching for someone that he recognised, but no-one seemed to register in his memory. His eyes glanced past a girl in jeans and a tight black tank top, obviously well adjusted to the heat of the room but unaffected by the outside cold, with long curly brown hair falling messily down below her shoulders. She was surrounded by a group of guys, all of whom were obviously mesmerised by her. She was gorgeous, he had to admit it. They all watched her, as though if they looked away they'd die. She was obviously flirting with one of the taller guys in the group, the giddy smile on his face a dead give away. His eyes continued gazing over the crowd until they landed on a girl sitting alone in the corner, her head buried in a book. She was sitting on a small couch-chair, her knees hugged up to her chest, biting her thumbnail in deep concentration. Someone bumped her arm as they moved passed, and she looked up. He had to do a double-take. He looked back at the previous girl he had seen, and then back at her. He was right – they looked exactly the same. Except this girl wasn't in clothes inappropriate to the outside weather, and her hair was pulled back in a low loose ponytail, only a few traces of make-up on her face. Her eyes briefly followed the person that bumped into her before she readjusted her legs and little and went back to her book. Something about her made him just watch her. She was escaping, like he wanted to. He didn't know anyone at this party, and all he wanted to do was go into his own little world.

After a moment of hesitation, he cut his losses and pushed through the crowds of people and over to her. She didn't see him when he stood right in front of her.

"What'cha reading?" he asked, his hands shoved into his pockets. She jumped a mile high in her seat, obviously surprised by his sudden appearance.

"Oh, ah, nothing," she said with a shy smile on her face, closing her copy of Sophocles' Antigone and putting it on the chair. The book's title didn't go unnoticed.

"You into ancient Greek stuff?" he asked, gesturing towards the book.

"What? Ah, no, not really, it's for school," she replied, her voice still as shy as before.

"Oh," he replied. They were quiet for a moment, just a bit of gaze avoiding. He nervously ran his hand through the right side of his wavy brown hair that desperately needed the attention of a hairdresser.

"I'm Tom," he said, breaking the silence. Well, the silence between them. In reality, the room was far from it.

"I'm Jay," she replied, a small, genuine smile growing on her face.

A/N: Hope you enjoyed! I'm tending to focus a lot on Jay at the moment… don't know why… I just like her I spose! Let me know if you like her too, review please!