"So, still not a fan of Hemmingway?" Jess asked, startling Rory as he sat down next to her on the bridge. It was a bit wet from the melted snow of the previous night.

Rory smiled, not missing a beat with her response, "Nope. And I see that Fountainhead still drove you as crazy as it did before."

"Yeah, but at least I got through it and that ridiculously long monologue," Jess replied.

"Third try's the charm, right?"

"I suppose so."

Silence. Jess didn't know how to proceed from the initial familiar book discussion to more…personal things. Like Rory once told him, segue wasn't his thing. He swung his legs idly over the side of the bridge and remained silent as Rory fidgeted.

The awkward silence was broken by Rory saying, "Jess?"

"Yeah?"

"What now?"

Jess marveled briefly about how a two-word question could send him into a stupor. "I…I'm not sure. Ask me a question, I guess, and I'll answer it. We'll take it from there."

"Okay, um, did you like California?" she asked. Start off light, yeah, that was a good way to start.

Jess shrugged. "It was alright. It's was so damn hot there though, and I was never one for shorts, but I sure as hell started wearing shorts once I got there."

Rory snorted lightly. "I can't imagine you in shorts," she replied.

"Yeah, well, comfort took precedent over my coolness in that respect," Jess joked.

She smiled.

More silence. Jess decided to make the effort to keep the silences down to a minimum. He continued talking about California.

"The people were cool. Real laid back, which was nice after having Taylor on my back when I was here."

"Did you make any friends?" she asked.

"Sorta. Like there were these kids who hung out around the pier and skated and I chilled with them sometimes."

"You chilled? Someone picked up the local slang," she teased lightly.

Jess blushed slightly with embarrassment. He was never one to follow the crowd. "Sorta unavoidable when you're drowning in all of it. But I'm really proud of myself for never saying dude. You will not believe how many times I heard the word dude throughout the day. 'Dude, can you tell me where I can find the dude who sells the hemp hats?' 'Like, dude, that dude was so hot!'" Jess impersonated.

Rory laughed wholeheartedly.

"I'm serious, I'm so sick of the word dude."

"There was a guy who sold hemp hats?" Rory asked.

"Huh? Oh, yeah, Jimmy apparently bought one and liked it a lot, I avoided the guy as much as I could."

"Why?"

Jess remembered that first rant he made to Jimmy the first day he was in Venice. He had been lost, confused, upset, and most importantly, scared shitless. Yeah, Jess was at least man enough to admit (to himself at least) that he was actually scared about the future. He didn't want to be the hemp-hat-seller in a few years. There was more to life than that, he knew it. He shrugged again at Rory's innocent question that seemed to unravel more of his insecurities than he was willing to talk about just then.

"The guy gave me the creeps." It was true, though the reason was not because of the merchandise like he figured Rory thought.

"Oh. So…did you work when you stayed there?" Rory asked. She was trying to keep the questions simple yet direct. She craved to know what happened to him when he was gone. Wait…craved? She blushed with embarrassment momentarily at the thought of her craving to know the events of the past six months, but it was true.

"I worked at a bookstore," Jess replied, not noticing her blush out of nowhere.

"How perfect."

"Yeah."

Even more silence. Jess was getting really sick of these spurts of conversation that ended in awkward silences. He shifted on the cold wooden bridge and asked, "So, how was your first semester at Yale?"

"Oh, um, it was…okay," Rory replied.

"But?"

"But, I guess I expected a bit more," Rory said.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, the intro classes I took were so big and I barely had any interaction with professors. Classes were really hard. I was put into a triple with Paris…"

"No way," Jess cut her off, looking at her incredulously.

"I'm serious. And my other roommate is a sixteen-year-old genius," she added.

"Wow," he replied quietly.

"Yeah, and I mean, the people were nice enough. Minus those girls my grandma wanted me to socialize with who would become the next generation in Hartford high-society. But I guess…things were just lacking."

"What was lacking?" he asked.

You, she thought miserably. No, she wouldn't delve into that area right now. She reminded herself to stay light with the topics.

"I don't know," she lied. "It was just overwhelming and I didn't seem to have anyone to talk to about anything. Sure there were the other students there, but they were all into their own thing. And my mom would always listen, but she never went to college and she's been so busy with trying to get the Dragonfly opened. And I was lucky to catch Lane between prayer sessions or Bible study or phone calls to Dave. And Paris would only say 'Accept it, Rory' because that's become her new mantra. And you…" She couldn't complete the sentence because she was so frustrated retelling her first semester at college.

"Weren't here," he finished her sentence quietly.

She nodded her head slightly and it was silent again. Jess felt horrible that he wasn't there for her when she needed to open up to someone. He honestly thought that she would be fine in college, she was, after all, Rory Gilmore. But perhaps the pressures of being Rory Gilmore were overwhelming her. She was human.

"I…I'm sorry your semester wasn't too great. You above anyone else deserve a great college experience," Jess said.

"It'll get better, it was just really hard to adjust," Rory replied softly.

Jess nodded and gave her a small encouraging smile.

This time the silence was a little less awkward, a little more reflective.

"Rory?"

"Hmm?"

"For what it's worth, I'm here now. And I…I'm not running again," Jess said uncomfortably, averting his eyes from hers.

Rory looked at him surprised and then smiled warmly. "Thanks, Jess."

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Author's Note: Gah, sorry it took so long to write this chapter, but it took me a while to figure out how I wanted to proceed. Consider this 'phase two' in reconciling the past between Jess and Rory and it was hard to write this chapter without things going super deep into the anger Rory feels and stuff like that. Anyway, let me know what you think. The stuff about Yale I read off of Gilmoregirls.org, a wonderful fan site, and intergrated it into my story. Till next time!