Rory just stood there for a while, arms crossed in front of her chest and tears threatening to pour out of her eyes. Internally she laughed at the melodrama. Then again, most things with Jess had been dramatic.

But what the hell just happened? Jess saying he was a coward? Saying how he actually felt? Ladies and gentlemen, we have entered the Twilight Zone...cue the music. Rory shook her head and exhaled a breath she hadn't realized she was holding. She seemed to hold her breath whenever she didn't want to cry, and today wasn't another day she would cry over Jess. Eventually her nerves calmed and she went to take a nap. It had taken a lot of energy not to cry.

"So you guys fought?" Lane asked from her bed as Rory paced incessantly in front of her a few hours later.

"Yeah, well, no, not really. There was yelling for like ten seconds, and then he just looked so...defeated. And then he said this stuff about being happy with me and being a coward," Rory rambled on before collapsing on the bed next to Lane.

"Introspection," Lane mused.

"What?"

"Well, Jess admitted his weakness, well, at least one of them. I mean, the kid's got a lot..." Lane said.

"Lane? Point?"

"Right. I'm trying to say that he's growing up, observing himself. It's impressive, people don't like to do it because they aren't sure that what they will see they will like," Lane explained.

"How do you know that?"

"Psych class I took. I'm thinking that I might be a psych major, or at least get a minor if Mama Kim wants me to major in religious studies," Lane replied.

Rory laughed. "One day, Lane, you're going to have to tell your mother how you feel about your religion."

"Ah, yes, but today is not the day. Besides, I'm still up in the air about religion. Jesus is cool but I also like Led Zeppelin. I'll have to do the dreaded introspection before I talk to Mama Kim, because when I talk to her I tend to ramble and if I ramble, my point will be lost and I'll forget what I'm trying to say, which will dilute anything I'm saying..."

"Lane, you're rambling," Rory noted.

"Huh? Oh, right, you see? This is what introspection gets you."

Rory just smiled.

Jess castigated himself all the way back to Luke's. Why did he have to blurt out all those things? Why did he have to show weakness? It seemed good at the time, but as he replayed the events in his head, he just sounded stupider and stupider each time.

Opening the door of Luke's so that the jingle of the door was loud and irregular got him a lot of curious looks from the customers who were enjoying their New Year's Eve's late lunch.

Jess sighed before taking off his jacket and heading behind the counter to get a coffee pot for refills.

Luke did the wise thing and did not ask Jess what was bug crawled up his you-know-what to get his nephew into such a funk. Then again, it wasn't hard to figure out what had gotten Jess so upset. Girl, 5'7", smart, sweet, bookish, coffee-addict, attends Yale, has a crazy, charismatic, and ridiculously sexy mother...yeah, it didn't take much for Luke to figure it out.

The two men, well, the man and the boy-struggling-to-become-a-man, worked in silence for the remainder of the afternoon. Dinnertime rolled around eventually and that meant the possibility of seeing Lorelai and Rory for their burgers, fries, and coffees. But to Luke's surprise and Jess' relief (and a bit of disappointment), only Lorelai came to eat dinner.

"Where's Rory?" Luke asked as he placed Lorelai's food in front of her on the counter. He liked it when Lorelai ate at the counter; she kept him company and he didn't have to traverse to some table to talk to her.

"With Lane. They ordered Indian and I wasn't in the mood," Lorelai explained.

"Ah, don't blame you," Luke replied. "So what'll it be?"

"Um, the usual," Lorelai replied.

"Now, which 'usual' would that be? The coffee usual, the coffee and Danish usual, the coffee and blueberry muffin usual, the coffee and burger usual, the coffee and burger and fries usual, or the coffee and burger, hold the tomatoes, extra grilled onions, and extra crispy fries usual?" Luke asked.

Lorelai smiled at him. "You just made a joke," she said.

"It doesn't happen too often, so savor it while you can," Luke replied.

"Oh, yes, savoring," Lorelai said, still smiling. "And it'll be the coffee and burger, hold the tomatoes, extra grilled onions, and extra crispy fries usual."

"Coming right up," Luke said.

When her food had arrived, Lorelai asked Luke, "So, how are you bringing in the New Year?"

"Same way I always do. In bed, asleep," he replied.

"Aw, that's no fun. You should come to the bonfire," Lorelai replied.

"The town has a bonfire for everything. Valentines, town anniversary, New Years...I'm surprised the town hasn't burned down," Luke said.

"True, but during this bonfire there's champagne and we can all watch Taylor get smashed."

"Oh, joy, what I live for," Luke deadpanned.

"You should come," Lorelai insisted.

"I'll think about it," he replied.

The bonfire was pretty big, and it was quite warm, but Rory's mind was distracted. She was so distracted that Taylor singing show tunes after one too many glasses of champagne didn't even entertain her. She was, undoubtedly, thinking about Jess. She wanted to talk to him. She wanted to tell him off - to give him a piece of her mind that she had been keeping inside ever since his return. He comes back, without even a good excuse, and manages once again to slip under her defenses. Then they become friends again, or something that resembles friends. Then she asked him to talk to her about what happened, and he refuses. Well, damn it, she was tired of being the patient one. She was tired of being the one waiting around for Jess to be ready to open up. She was ready to open up now - open up and let out all her frustrations. Introspection be damned, she didn't care how much soul searching Jess had done if it didn't mean he would share it with her.

It was getting close to the New Year, but Rory didn't really care. She saw Jess leave the front of the diner with a large bag of trash and headed towards him. She didn't even notice when Luke emerged from the diner and said hello to her before heading over to the bonfire. She watched Jess fling the bag of trash into the dumpster and intercepted him on his way back inside the diner.

"Rory," Jess said, clearly surprised to see her. Wasn't she supposed to be avoiding him?

"I want answers," she said sternly.

"Rory..."

"I deserve answers," she said, cutting him off. "It's totally unfair of you to just waltz back in here and become my friend again and not give me answers."

Jess looked discreetly at his watch. "Rory..."

"I've waited six months for answers and I'm sick of waiting. I'm glad that you seemed to have gotten a lot of yourself together. You know, the GED and paying Luke back for the mess at Kyle's, and working at the diner and introspection, and whatever but that doesn't change the fact that you still haven't told me what happened, why you left, what I did to make you leave, why you never called or wrote or e-mailed. Why you just disappeared, and now you come back and I'm supposed to feel angry and bitter and hateful towards you because you did all those things, but I'm more upset at myself for feeling happy that you're back. And I'm upset at myself because I still like talking to you and I want to talk to you for as long as you're here. But how long will that be? And then you'll leave and I'll hurt again, and the cycle will continue," Rory ranted.

She breathed in deeply, not realizing how oxygen-consuming ranting could be. Then suddenly she felt Jess' lips on hers. They were soft and hot and wet and...wonderful. She kissed him back; she had wanted to kiss him since she saw him outside her house. But then she suddenly pulled away, angry that Jess had used such an antic.

"I can't believe you just did that. Do you think kissing me makes this all go away? Makes this all better? I know in movies the guy kisses the angry girl and she melts into a puddle of giggly goop and that's supposed to be romantic or sexy or something, but I'm not that kind of girl. I'm still upset and I still want answers and I want you to talk now," she demanded.

Jess sighed as he tried to process all that she had said. He didn't think she was the confrontational type, but things change. "Happy New Year, Rory," he said quietly as his gaze went to the bonfire where couples were still kissing and bringing in the New Year.

Rory's eyes followed Jess, and she saw Sookie and Jackson kissing. And she saw Luke and her mother in a rather tight embrace. She would have to remember to talk to her mom about that later.

"I didn't mean to curb your anger. But I didn't want the moment to go to waste either," Jess explained.

Rory nodded. "Understandable," she replied as stoically as possible. She tucked some invisible hair behind her ear and crossed her arms, wondering if she appeared composed. She certainly didn't feel it. "Answers, Jess," she reminded him.

Author's Note: I know! It's been a year! I'm a horrible horrible irresponsible writer for not updating sooner, but I had lost all inspiration to continue this story. I have become disillussioned with the current storyline on GG and I just didn't like writing it. Everything I wrote sounded wrong, so I waited until something felt right. I've been watching Season 2 episodes on ABC Family channel and that's made me regain some of my passion for GG. So, hopefully I will be updating more frequently. Thanks to all who review, please let me know what you think.