A/N-See, this is me updating in a reasonable time frame. And they said it couldn't be done! Read, review, enjoy! -Ash-

Disclaimer: If I owned Gilmore Girls I'd be writing episodes not fanfiction.

-Chapter 5-

Jess sat on the couch tapping his foot on the floor. His arms were crossed over his chest and he stared off into space, not even blinking when Luke entered the room. A hand waving in front of his face finally snapped him back to reality. "What? Yeah?" He focused his eyes on his uncle.

"You looked a little lost there."

"What are you doing up here?"

Luke paused on his way to the refrigerator. "Uh, I live here." He reminded Jess.

"The diner's closed? What time is it?" He looked at his watch and his eyes widened in surprise. "Wow, I guess I really zoned out. I'm going out." He stood up and prepared to leave.

"Out where?" The arguement was something that was getting old. It felt like they went through this everynight. Or at least everynight Jess was actually home when Luke got done at the diner.

"Out."

"No, we're not doing this again. Either you tell me where you're going or you're not going."

Jess paused, his book halfway to his back pocket. There was no way he wanted to discuss with Luke what was on his mind, but he needed to get out of the apartment. He needed to see her, or at least be able to get lost in his thoughts of her. Besides, Luke wouldn't be able to help him. He was clueless when it came to relatopships. In fact, Luke had never been on a date since Jess had moved in, not to mention the sad pining over Lorelei. "Well?" Luke prodded. Jess groaned and sat back down, the book now nowhere near his pocket but still held in his right hand. All the lies that formulated in his mind never would have satisfied Luke. He couldn't say he was going to see Rory because she was staying at Yale for the weekend to work on paper due Monday, he had no friends in the microscopic, small-minded town that despised him, Luke would view a walk as pointless, and the list went on and on.

"I just need to think. I need to get some air and clear my head."

"You can think in here. Open a window."

"Not the same."

"Close enough."

"You hate me, don't you?"

Luke nodded, sitting on his bed and taking off his shoes. "Yeah, I hate you. That's why I let you live here, rent free and pay for everything from food to clothes. All because of this deep desire to see you miserable and tortured."

"Thanks for finally admitting your true motives."

"Anything you want to talk about?" Luke ventured near the line the two fairly ever crossed. Personal lives stayed personal and bonding was kept to the barest minimun possible. The only time that line was ever crossed was when Luke thought Rory could be hurt or a swan was involved.

"Nope."

"Are you sure? Are things ok between you and Rory?"

"Peachy." He rolled his eyes and stood up, once again. This time he headed towards his side of the room.

"That sounds sarcastic, are you sure everything..."

"Everything is fine. I'm fine, Rory's fine, Rory and I are fine. Now, if you'll excuse me Hemingway is calling for my attention." Flipping on the light beside is bed, he curled onto his side, squirming for a few moments to get comfortable. Once that had been acomplished, he opened the book to the page that had been marked, pulled the pencil from behind his ear, and began to read, stopping after a short while to jot something down on the top of the page. Luke watched him briefly before finishing his bedtime routine and shutting his own lamp off, turning to face the wall to avoid the yellow light flooding from the other side of the room.

-----

"What's wrong?" Rory asked, tightening her grip on Jess' hand to pull his attention away from the water and towards her.

"Huh?" He looked into her blue eyes and brought his hand up to tuck a loose strand of hair away from her concerned face.

Rory's eyes fluttered shut at the touch. It sometimes amazed her how he made her feel, like she was fifteen again and the cutest boy in school gave her butterflies. That thought made her remember the guilt she had often felt that the boy who gave her butterflies wasn't her boyfriend of the time, Dean. "I asked what was wrong. You're more brooding than normal. What gives?" She looked at him imploringly.

"Nothing's wrong. Why does everyone keep asking me that?"

"And by everyone you mean?"

"Well, just you and Luke."

"Awww, I feel special. Like I mean the world to you...or at least half the world."

"And who are you sharing this world with?"

"Luke."

"I rank you above Luke."

"Ok, then Ernest Hemingway."

"That's better."

Rory laughed. "At least I share your world with a well-respected author, however boring he may be."

"Watch it, insult the man in my life and we'll have problems."

"Should it worry me that you're so protective of a guy?"

Jess shook his head, "Nah, he doesn't kiss as well as you do."

"I should hope not. He's dead." What prompted the onslaught of Jess' affair with Hemingway reappeared into Rory's mind. Over the past week Jess had been distracted, often not even replying with his trademark 'huh.' Their phone conversations were ackward and now Rory discovered that Luke was worried about him too. "But, back to the subject at hand?"

"We had a subject?" Jess asked, trying to avoid the question he'd been dodging all week. He only had to be successful one more day. When Rory suggested going to the bridge that afternoon, he'd thought about saying no, but that was something he'd never been very good at. Giving into her, like he found himself doing often, he agreed. After treating her to lunch at Luke's, they'd walked hand-in-hand to their spot. The next half hour was spent with their hands joined, Rory leaning against the piling watching Jess as she talked animatedly about anything and everything. Jess sat with his feet dangling over the water as he studied its depths and ripples intently and rubbed the pad of his thumb in small circles on the back of her hand.

"Are you really ok? I'm worried about you."

He smiled at the gentle way she cocked her head and gazed at him. He knew in that moment that he didn't deserve her. He'd realized it before, but was always able to brush it aside, pretend it wasn't true. But hearing the sincerity in her voice and seeing it reflected in her eyes, he was unable to deny it. She was good and sweet and pure, he was someone who could corrupt her with the things he'd seen and done. "I'm fine, I promise." He assured her, leaning in to close the gap between them. His lips brushed against hers in a whiser of a kiss. "Come over tomorrow night?"

----

Rory entered through the door into the small apartment that Luke and Jess shared. Normally the room looked exactly the same as it did the time before, the only slight difference was the pile of discarded clothes in the corner had changed, but today however there was a lot of new and intriguing things and her eyes took the time to slowly take everything in. The lights were dimmed with candles burning, giving the room a soft, romantic hue. A clean, white tablecloth covered the wood. On top of that was two more candles, long and white. A single rose lay in the middle. Her hand pressed lightly to her stomach as she turned her head to look at Jess. He looked slightly out of place in the romantic scene he had set up. Owning no suit, he settled for the dressiest outfit he could find. Khakis and blue knit sweater, sneakers sticking out from under his pants. "Jess?" Her voice was soft, not wanting to speak to loudly in fear of shattering the atmosphere. "What is all this?"

Walking towards her, he reached and gently tugged on her hand, leading her towards the table. As he pulled out her chair for, he explained. "I've never done anything for you Rory. At least nothing special. Very rarely do we even go out on real dates. There's the occassional concert and town celebration, but other than that, nothing really."

"We don't need to go anywhere, as long as..."

He raised his hand to cut her off. "I know, but instead of protesting can you let me do this one little thing for you? I'm trying to be romantic here and that's already hard enough for me.'

She smiled and looked down at her lap. "Ok. I'm sorry."

"Thank-you." He gave a slight nod and turned around, taking two plates from the counter. One was placed in front of Rory, the other in front of Jess as he sat down across from her.

"You cooked? For me?" She asked, eyeing the steak, baked potatoes, and green beans.

"You think there's another person in this world I would cook for?"

Rory bit her bottom lip. "I didn't know you knew how."

"Let's keep it that way. If Luke finds out he may try to stick me in the kitchen."

"It'll be our little secret."

"Ok, enough talk. Try the food."

With a giggle, Rory cut off a piece of the steak and put it into her mouth. Her eyes closed as she nodded in approval. "Delicious. Even better than Adrianna's."

"Who's Adrianna?"

"Grandma and Grandpa's new maid. She's an amazing cook, but this...this is better."

"Glad you like it." He smiled at her, as she continued to eat. Trying the potatoe, the beans, and more of the steak. After a few more bites, she stopped eating and studied him. "What?" He asked, putting his fork down after only bringing it to his mouth once.

"Can I ask you something?"

"Sure, as long as it's not the key ingrediant to my secret marinade."

"What brought this on? It's not that I'm ungrateful or that I don't love the fact that you would do something so incredibly sweet and thoughtful for me, but why now? Why this?"

Jess had been prepared for the question, but had yet to figure out the answer. He knew what he was thinking and feeling when he'd arranged for Luke to be out all or at least most of the night, but putting it into coherent thoughts to share with her, was something he hadn't done. "I don't know...I just...I never once questioned our relationship until you told me about what happened with Tristan on Friday night."

Rory suddenly felt ashamed and guilty. "Jess, I..."

"No, don't apologize. I'm not mad and I know that nothing happened. I trust you, completely. It just made me realize something. I take our relationship for granted sometimes. It never occured to me that you might want more than sitting on the couch reading or making out. I need to call more and take you places and be a better boyfriend." He rambled, slightly aware that he was starting to sound like her.

"I couldn't ask for a better boyfriend."

"Yes, Rory, you could. I don't want you to go looking for one, but I know you could do better than me. Tristan showed me that." Rory bit back a laugh, Tristan was not boyfriend material. "Tonight, I wanted to show you that I can...I...I wanted to show you that...I love you." The words were out now. Even if he had wanted to take them back, he couldn't. Rory had heard all three of them and the only thing left for him to do was wait. Seconds ticked by and he wondered how many years he aged while she contemplated and thought and weighed his words and her feelings in her mind.

The wait was over. Rory wasn't sure what caused the pause. She assumed it was the surprise at his words. They were out of the blue and out of character. The knowledge that Jess cared about her was nothing new, it was him articulating it that had taken her aback. Looking across the table into his chocolate eyes she didn't feel the urge to run like she had that night in the junk yard when Dean had confessed his love to her. A radiant, beaming smile stretched arcoss her face as she bounced slightly in her seat due to excitement. "I love you too, Jess."