Disclaimer: If I owned anything, I'd be swimming in a pool of money like Scrooge McDuck does.

A/N: Thanks so much to all of you read and like this story so much. Your reviews make my day. I hope you'll all continue to read and review. Enjoy this chapter. (P.S. I hope the last scene makes you smile as much as it made me smile while I was writing it)

Chapter 10

Jess walked into the diner just as the last customer walked out. He turned the sign to 'Closed' and locked the door. He then sat down on a chair silently and stared miserably at the wall behind the counter. He was amazed the Luke still had those postcards hanging up.

Luke came out of the kitchen. "Jess, what are you doing here?"

"Sitting." Jess said simply, still looking at the postcards.

"I can see that." Luke said, pulling out the chair next to Jess and sitting down. "Something wrong?"

Jess shrugged. "Rory and me, we're done. It's over."

"Oh." Luke said, shocked. "You're sure?"

Jess nodded. "Yeah, I'm sure." He rubbed the back of his head awkwardly. "She doesn't want anything to do with me anymore."

"Wow." Luke mumbled, still shocked. He'd really believed that things were going to work out between the two this time. "Sorry."

"Me too." Jess said, shaking his head. "I really thought that leaving was the best thing. I guess I was wrong."

"Don't say that." Luke insisted. "Look at yourself. You're doing so much better than you were. You and I have had several real conversations, you're slightly more pleasant, and you're definitely more mature. If you hadn't left, you would've completely fallen apart."

"Great." Jess said sarcastically. "So instead everything I had with Rory fell apart. Fucking sucky trade if you ask me."

"Yeah." Luke agreed. "Doesn't seem fair."

"Well, life isn't fair, as has been proven many times over for both of us." Jess said.

"Yeah." Luke responded simply.

"I never wanted to hurt her." Jess said, lowering his head.

Luke sighed and put a tentative hand on Jess's back in an attempt to comfort him. "Yeah. I know, kid. I know."

The two sat in a comfortable silence for along time, Jess watching his hands while Luke watched the wall.

"What are you going to do now?" Luke asked after an indeterminable amount of time.

Jess turned to look at him, as though he'd forgotten that he was there. "What do you mean?"

"Rory's the only thing that was keeping you here. Are you going to leave or what?" Luke asked, trying to make the question as casual as he possibly could.

Jess almost smirked at his uncle's attempt to be subtle, but he couldn't bring himself to do anything resemble smiling.

"Rory's not the only thing keeping me here." Jess replied.

"Oh?"

"Yeah." Jess said. "The fact that I have no place else to go is keeping me here too."

Luke let out a short laugh, knowing that his nephew was playing with him now.

"Besides," Jess continued with a shrug, "This is home. And I'm done running."

Jess and Luke shared a brief but meaningful look before they both let smiles crack their serious countenances.

"Good." Luke said with a nod. "I'd hate to have to hire someone else to work for me."

"Yeah." Jess said. "That'd suck."

"Yeah." Luke agreed. "It would."

A loud, persistent ringing slowly dragged Lorelai out of a deep sleep. She turned over groggily and hit her alarm clock forcefully. The ringing didn't stop, causing Lorelai to pick up her clock and throw it against the floor. She heard it smash, but the ringing still didn't stop. She sat up in bed, and her cloudy mind soon registered that it was the phone that was ringing.

Lorelai reached for the cordless phone and answered it. "You owe me a new alarm clock." She grumbled sleepily.

"Lorelai? It's Paris." Paris said.

"Paris?" Lorelai asked, coming out of her haze.

"Paris Gellar." Paris said, sounding miffed that she had to identify herself twice.

"I know who you are, Paris. What's wrong?" Lorelai assumed from Paris's annoyed tone that nothing was actually wrong.

"I'll tell you what's wrong." Paris said, annoyed. "It's 5:30 in the morning."

"That certainly is a tragedy. Why don't we solve it by the both of us going back to sleep?" Lorelai asked.

"Well, that'd be nice." Paris snapped. "But the problem here is that Rory, your daughter, has now woken up five times in the course of the past eight hours. Each time she's woken up, she immediately burst into tears. You'd think she'd be too dehydrated to cry anymore, but she's like a cactus. She apparently has tear ducts hidden in places I don't dare imagine."

Lorelai was now almost completely awake. "Why is she crying, Paris? Is it because of Jess?"

"I don't know." Paris said, "And quite frankly I don't care either. I have a test at 8 o'clock and thanks to Rory's hysterics, I've gotten far less than the seven and a half hours of sleep I require before an exam. Oh, she's at it again. You're almost 19-years-old! Suck it up!" Paris screamed, frustrated.

"Paris, I'm sorry about your sleep depravation. Almost as sorry as I am about mine. Please put my daughter on the phone." Lorelai said with a sigh.

Lorelai heard the sound of the phone changing hands before Rory's sad voice said, "Hello?"

"You were never this emotional before." Lorelai said immediately.

"I've never felt this horrible before." Rory responded, sniffing. "Jess came to see me yesterday."

"Oh." Lorelai said. "And what happened?"

"Well, he walked in while I was kissing Nate."

Lorelai's eyes widened. "You were kissing Nate?"

"Yeah." Rory said, "And Jess walked in and he got really mad and then he called me his girlfriend and I got really mad because I haven't been his girlfriend…ever, in a sense. And I started yelling and I told him we're done and that we've been done since he left."

"So you lied to him. Sweetie, you were waiting for him to come back." Lorelai said. "Why would you pretend that you don't want him in your life anymore? You know that you do."

"Don't be logical right now, mom." Rory said miserably. "I just don't want him to break my heart anymore. It hurts, mom. That's why I kissed Nate to try to forget. But he left because he said he couldn't be with a girl who loved someone else. I don't want it to hurt anymore, mom."

Lorelai sighed. "I know that, kiddo, but you're going about this all wrong. All you're doing is hurting yourself before he gets a chance to and, honestly, is that any less painful?"

"I don't know." Rory said. "I'm just-."

"Scared, I know." Lorelai said, finishing Rory's sentence. "That's all I hear from you anymore. "

"Well I'm so sorry that my problems are getting to redundant for you." Rory snapped.

"Rory that isn't what I'm saying." Lorelai said with a sigh. "What I'm saying is that you're letting fear take over every other emotion in your body, except sadness. There are so many better feelings out there. There's love and happiness and excitement. Did you or did you not feel all those things when you were dating Jess?"

"I did." Rory said quietly.

"I know you did. And they made the fear less important, didn't they?" Lorelai asked, knowing the answer to this question as well.

"Yeah." Rory said. "They did."

"Do you see my point now, kid?" Lorelai asked.

"Yeah, mom. I do. But I think I screwed it up too badly."

"Well, there's only one way to find out." Lorelai said gently.

"Yeah." Rory whispered. "Thanks, mom."

"You're welcome, babe. Try and get some sleep."

"I will. Love you." Rory said.

"Love ya too." Lorelai responded, tossing the phone on the nightstand and burrowing her head into her pillow to go back to sleep.

Luke looked up as the diner door opened. "Lorelai." He said, surprised. "It's 6 AM. Why are you awake?"

Lorelai sighed as she slipped into a seat at the counter. "Coffee please." She mumbled.

Luke set a large coffee mug in front of her and filled it as much as he could. "What on Earth dragged you out of bed before 6 AM?"

"My daughter's love life, or lack of one as she seems to have ruined any chance she had at having one last night." Lorelai said, speaking quickly and softly.

"What?" Luke asked, not hearing her very well.

Lorelai took a long, lingering sip of her coffee and closed her eyes as she savored it. She put the cup down and looked at Luke. "Rory needed some comfort and advice, I guess. I don't really remember what I said to her."

Luke nodded. "Because of last night?"

"Yeah." Lorelai said. "You know about last night?"

Luke nodded. "Jess told me. They're really over."

"Yup, for now." Lorelai said.

"For good." Jess said, coming out from the kitchen, wiping his hands on a dishtowel. "She was pretty adamant about that, and that's fine by me this time. I'm done."

"Jess…" Luke started.

"No." Jess cut him off. "She made her point. It's fine. Morning, Lorelai."

Lorelai nodded. "Morning, Jess."

Jess walked off to take an order.

Lorelai leaned forward and motioned for Luke to do the same. Their foreheads were touching when Lorelai said, "When do I tell him that Rory's gonna try to make things better between them?"

Luke smiled. "My advice is that you don't. Leave them to their own devices. More fun that way."

Luke and Lorelai continued to smile at each other, when Lorelai finally realized how close they were to each other. She awkwardly pulled away, still smiling. Luke pulled away to and said, "I've gotta go take some orders."

"Yeah, OK." Lorelai said, confused as to what just happened. She thoughtfully finished her coffee as Jess came back behind the counter.

"Jess…" Lorelai started.

Jess looked up at Lorelai, expecting words of sage advice that he didn't really want to come out of her mouth.

Lorelai hesitated, deciding against her original instinct to tell Jess what she thought he should do. It had never been appreciated in the past and she doubted it would be now either.

"You look good. I've been meaning to tell you that since you got back. You look good."

"Oh." Jess said, shocked by the statement. "Thanks, Lorelai."

Lorelai smiled a small smile. "You're welcome."

Rory walked into the diner and looked around tentatively. She saw no sign of Jess. She almost lost all of her courage right then. She turned around and was about to leave when she heard Luke's voice behind her.

"Rory?" He asked, confused.

Rory turned back around. "Hi, Luke." She said quietly. "Is Jess working?"

Luke shook his head as he poured coffee for some people at the counter.

"Oh." Rory said. "Well, is he upstairs because I kinda want to talk to him?"

Luke shook his head again. "Jess isn't there. He doesn't live here anymore."

"I knew it." Rory said triumphantly. "He ran, didn't he? He left again? God, that is so-."

"Rory," Luke said, cutting her off. "Jess hasn't gone anywhere. He doesn't live with me anymore. He's living in the motel over on Pine." He resisted the urge to be annoyed with Rory's assumption. He'd never been annoyed with Rory and didn't want that to change now.

"Oh." Rory said, both relieved and disappointed at the same time. "Thanks, Luke." She called as she walked out of the diner and down the road towards Pine Street. Rory was nervous. For one of the first times in her life, she didn't have a plan. She had absolutely no idea what she was going to say or do when she saw Jess. She didn't know if she was going to scream, if she was going to cry, if she was going to run, or if she was going to ravage him the moment he opened the door. She wouldn't know until she saw him.

Rory turned down Pine Street, nervously toying with her crystal heart that Jess had given her. Realizing what she was doing, she hastily tucked the necklace under her shirt. She wasn't sure she wanted him to know she was wearing it.

Rory looked at the motel with a sigh. What was Jess doing living here? Hell, what was she doing here? She looked at the doors to the rooms, not knowing which door led to Jess's room. She made her way to the manager's office when she heard a door open behind her. Rory turned slowly, knowing before she could see that it was him.

Jess stood there, staring at Rory. He was wearing old sweatpants and a white T-shirt with holes in it. Slung over his shoulder was his duffel bag, apparently full from the way it was causing him to hunch over just a little.

Rory laughed humorlessly and crossed her arms over her chest. "I should've known. Of course you're running. It's what you do best."

Jess narrowed his eyes at her. "Is that right?" He asked.

"Yeah. That's right." Rory said.

"Well you know what you do best?" Jess demanded harshly.

"What?" Rory asked with a roll of her eyes.

"Jump to conclusions." Jess bit out. "I'm out of clean clothes. I was headed to the laundry room."

"Oh." Rory said, frowning. Why was she so convinced that he was going to leave? Why did she want him to be leaving so badly? She knew the answer before she even thought about the question. She wanted to be right. She wanted him to hurt her again so she'd be right in all the things she'd said and in all the things that she wanted to feel. She wanted to hate him, because it was easier than loving him.

"Can we talk?" Rory asked tentatively.

Jess looked at Rory skeptically. "What do we have to talk about?"

Rory didn't have an answer at that moment, or at least not one she wanted to share. "Please, Jess?" She pleaded, looking at him with big eyes.

Jess sighed. Until the day he died, he'd never be able to resist Rory's pleading eyes. "Fine. Come on. We'll talk while I launder."

Rory uncomfortably followed him to the motel's tiny, dirty laundry room. He threw his duffel bag onto the table and removed both a bag of quarters and a bottle of laundry detergent.

"So," Jess said as casually as possible. "What did you want to talk about?" He hoped that keeping his hands busy with his laundry would keep them from shaking.

"Jess…" Rory said.

Jess tossed some T-shirts into a washing machine before he turned around. He was smirking as he said, "If you think I'm going to make this easy then you really don't know me at all. Hurry up. Some of these clothes have stains on them and I don't want them to get a chance to set anymore. It's hard enough getting out grease."

Rory sighed and her mouth settled into a smile. "I came to apologize." She said.

Jess's hands started shaking so badly that he dropped the shirt he was holding. He picked it up and put it in the machine. "You don't owe me anything." He said coolly. "We're done. It's as much my fault as it is yours, probably more. You don't have to apologize for that. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to separate my whites from my darks. I can never decide if they grays should go with the darks or the lights."

Rory sighed, feeling defeated. She considered leaving right then. In fact, she took a step towards the door. Then, she stopped. She was struck by a realization. She was running from this because it was difficult, and she didn't want to do that. She wanted to be with him. She didn't want to lose him again.

Rory turned around and walked right up to Jess, who was pouring detergent into the machine. She took his shoulders and forced him to turn around, making him drop the laundry detergent into the machine.

Jess looked back at the washing machine and then at Rory with a frown. "You made me use too much detergent. That stuff's expensive. I use the kind with bleach alternative and it costs an extra dollar."

"Will you stop talking about laundry?" Rory asked, frustrated.

"Why?" Jess asked, trying to be as difficult as possible.

"Because I'm in love with you!" Rory said, shaking Jess a little as she gripped his shoulder.

Jess smirked. "Yeah? How's that working out for you?"

"Jess!" Rory exclaimed, frustrated.

"What Rory?" Jess asked, removing her hands from his shoulders and taking a few steps away from her. "What do you want me to say? You threw me out of your dorm for some guy you barely know. You told me that we were done. You made it clear that you don't want to be with me. Most importantly though, you threw everything I wrote back in my face to hurt me. And it worked. God, Rory, it almost killed me. I was trying so hard to open with you for the first time, and you used it against me."

"I didn't mean to throw your words back at you. My heart broke for you when I read about everything you've been through. I was hurt. Can't you understand how much it hurt me to watch you leave, to hear you say that you didn't love me?" Rory asked, tears welling up. "And I was scared. I was scared that nothing had changed and that you'd never be ready to be with me."

"But I told you that I was!" Jess said, frustrated.

Rory sighed and shook her head. "No," she whispered. "You didn't."

"What?" Jess asked, confused. "I told you everything!"

"No." Rory said, crossing the space so she was as far from him as possible. "You let me read it all, Jess. You let me read all the things you felt and were thinking, but you never told me."

"Oh." Jess said thoughtfully. "Huh." He hadn't realized that she considered reading his letters as something less personal than if he'd sat down and told her everything. He thought it was just as good.

"There are some things I just can't say out loud." Jess said uncomfortably, trying to use it as an explanation.

"I know that, and I know that it was hard for you to even give your notebook to me. But there are some things you should be able to say to me." Rory said quietly, a tear sliding down her cheek.

"That's not who I am, Rory." Jess said with a shrug. "You know that's not who I am."

Rory was silent as she hugged her arms around herself. Jess sighed and said, "I'm trying. Why isn't that enough?"

"Because it isn't!" Rory exclaimed. "Because you don't say anything! And what you do say, you don't actually mean."

Realization dawned upon Jess at Rory's words. Of course. No wonder she was so upset. He'd never told her he loved her and actually meant it. He'd written it, but he'd never been able to say it. How could he have been so dumb?

Jess slowly crossed to Rory and took her hands. She looked up at him with teary eyes. Jess's eyes fell to Rory's chest, where the necklace he'd given her had escaped from beneath her shirt. Jess took the pendant between his fingers, pleased that she was wearing it.

"Rory?" He whispered, looking up from the pendant into Rory's blue eyes. Those eyes had followed him throughout his entire journey, even into his dreams.

"Yeah?" She asked, backing away a little, but still letting him hold her one hand.

Jess closed the distance again, pinning Rory against a washing machine. He smiled apprehensively at Rory and pressed his forehead against hers. He could smell mints and coffee on her breath as he whispered, "I love you."

Tears poured out of Rory's eyes and she caught them with the corners of her mouth as it turned up into a smile. "Really?" She asked.

Jess's smile widened. "Yeah. Really. I love you. I'm sorry it took me so long to mean it."

Jess leaned in to kiss her, but Rory pulled her head away. "You know, saying you love me doesn't fix everything."

Jess's smile molded into a smirk as he recalled the words as his own. It was exactly what he'd said to her after Kyle's party. "I'm not trying to fix everything. I'm trying to tell you that I love you."

Rory wrapped her arms around Jess's neck. "I love you too."

Jess had never smiled as widely as he did at that moment. He put his hands on Rory's waist and lifted her onto the washing machine. He sat her down on it and positioned himself between her legs. He crushed his mouth to hers and leaned as far into her as he could. She immediately parted her lips and their tongues met with a passion that had been building up since the day they met. Rory tangled her hands in Jess' unruly hair and wrapped her legs around his waist.

When they finally pulled apart, they were both breathing heavily. Between pants Jess said, "I've been waiting to do that since I left."

Rory sighed as she inhaled Jess's scent. He smelt like hair gel, soap, and aftershave. It was a scent that made her weak in the knees and pleasantly ill to her stomach. It had since the first time he'd been close enough for her to catch it. Even the dank, unsavory smell of the laundry room paled in comparison. His breathing slowly returned to a rhythmic, uninterrupted pattern that dulled all other sounds. Everything around them seemed to fade away as Rory found herself lost in the sight, sound, and scent of Jess.

"I didn't realize how much I missed you until right now." She mumbled as their lips met furiously again.

Jess pulled out of the kiss and wrapped his arms tightly around Rory. He rested his head on her shoulder and they remained there, embracing each other for a long moment. "I could stay here forever." Jess said, kissing her neck.

Rory smiled and said huskily, "Or, we could go to your room."

Jess pulled away and raised his eyebrows. "Rory…" He started hesitantly.

Rory brought a hand to his face and stroked his cheek gently. "I'm ready, Jess. I've been waiting for you for so long."

Jess smiled gently at her. "Rory, whatever's going to happen between us, whenever it's going to happen, it isn't going to happen in a motel room. You're better than that."

Rory couldn't have asked for a better answer. She pressed her lips gently to Jess's, then pulled away and said, "No. We're better than that."

Jess toyed with the ends of Rory's hair. "I miss your long hair."

"I do too." Rory agreed. "I'll let it grow. You, on the other hand…"

Jess grinned. "I'll get it cut next week."

Rory looked down, and then back up at Jess with hesitant eyes. "So, we're back together?"

Jess nodded. "Yeah, we are. Aren't we?"

Rory smiled. "Yeah, we are. And you're not going to run away on me again?"

Jess shook his head. "Never again." He said without hesitation.

Rory extended her pinky. "Promise?"

Jess looked down at her hand skeptically, but reluctantly hooked his pinky finger with hers. "Promise."

Rory brought their interlocked fingers up and kissed her thumb, using her eyes to command Jess to do the same. He rolled his eyes, but did what Rory wanted. Rory released Jess's hand with a wide smile. "The pinky promise is sacred, you know."

Jess stepped back and helped Rory hop down from the washing machine. He wrapped his arms around her again and said, "Well, it's a good thing that I don't intend on going back on my word."

"Do you want me to help you with your laundry? My roommate taught me a good trick for getting out stains." Rory offered, lacing her fingers with Jess's.

"Sure." Jess said with a shrug. "Let's get my whites their whitest."

They both began sorting through his dirty clothes and Jess had to smile at the sight they made. If anyone had ever told him that he and the girl he loved would be spending a Saturday afternoon doing laundry, he would've laughed at them. Here he was though, tossing his jeans into a washing machine another while Rory separated his colored shirts from his white ones. The funniest part was that he'd never been happier.

A/N the 2nd: Don't worry, it ain't over yet!