Rory was walking in the direction of Luke's diner to meet Jess. Her and Lorelai had discussed her moving back home and she was going to ask Jess to help her box up her things in Hartford and bring them back. As she rounded the corner, she saw Jess sitting on the ground leaning against the wall of the diner. She watched him for afar, unable to whipe the smile from her face. "Hey." she said, sitting down next to him.

He looked in her direction and returned her smile with a half-hearted smirk. He took her hand in his and laced their fingers together. Jess lifted his arm and put it around her shoulder, bringing her in closer to him. He gently kissed her forehead and rested his chin on her shoulder, pressing his lips to her cheek. This sent shivers up Rory's spine and she knew that she needed to get up. She turned her head to him, "Okay, let's go," she announced, quickly getting up and trying to walk toward the car, but Jess wouldn't release her hand.

"Where are we going?"

"In the car." The look on Rory's face immediately sent a message to Jess. She wanted to be alone with him, where the citizens of Stars Hollow couldn't see them. He followed her and rushed into the passanger seat of Rory's car. He slammed the door shut and leaned into her, kissing her again. Rory pulled away and started the car up. "I need you to help me with something."

"What?"

"I talked to my mom," she said as she watched Jess's hand glide toward her thigh, gently caressing it, "And we decided that I'm going to move back in with her."

"Good."

"Yeah. But what that means is that I'm going to need to get my stuff from my grandparents' house all packed and back in by tonight."

Jess's giddy expression immediately disappeared. "Oh, no. You know that your grandmother hates me, Rory! I can't go there."

"I'll sneak you in through the back. I'll go right in and tell my grandma what's going on. Give me five minutes and come through the backyard, I'll stand outside of the pool house and let you in."

"Okay, but if she catches me, I cannot be held responsible for what I say."

Rory smiled at this. She liked this. She liked this a lot.

hr /hr

The car silently pulled up to the Gilmore house and Rory stopped it and got out. She leaned in before closing the door reminding Jess of their plan. "Five minutes, go around there, I'll be waiting," she instructed him, pointing to the open iron gate. She closed the car door and walked up to the tall house, ringing the door bell. Her palms were sweaty.

The maid answered the door. "Good afternoon Miss Gilmore. Your grandmother is in the living room."

"Thank you." Rory walked toward the living room and saw Emily sitting on the couch, martini in hand, looking at some kind of list. "Grandma?" she said softly.

"Hello, Rory." Emily said, not turning around or moving at all. "Can I help you with something."

"Me and mom talked, I'm going back to Yale."

"Well, that's very nice," she said, still not doing anything to make Rory feel more comfortable. But why would she? Rory knew that she'd made her grandmother fell defeated, so she shouldn't be all fuzzy and sweet.

"Well, I'm moving back home. So I'll just box up my stuff and get out of your way."

"Whatever you say."

Rory started to walk toward the door into the backyard when she heard the door bell ring. "Could you get that?" Emily said to her, "Inga's in the kitchen making dinner and I'm busy. Just tell whoever it is to come in here, please."

Rory walked to the front door, obviously annoyed by her grandmother's passive-aggresive attitude. She reached the tall, dark door and opened it carelessly.

"Hey there Ace," Logan said, standing at the door with a huge smile on his face. He leaned into her and kissed her gently on the mouth.

"Logan, what are you doing here?" Rory started to panic. Damn her grandmother for making her open the door.

"Well, I thought that since you weren't answering any of my calls, there must be something wrong with your phone." Rory nodded her head, not really listening, but strategizing. "So I thought that I would surprise you, maybe take you out to lunch."

"Uhmm.." Rory hesitated, "Isn't it a little late for lunch?"

Logan stepped inside and put his hands around her waist, pushing the door closed behind them. "Okay, so I'll take you out for dinner."

"A little early for dinner."

"Okay, well then," he laughed, somewhat confused, "What do you feel like doing?"

Emily appeared and immediately shifted into hostess mode. "Logan! How nice to see you."

"Nice to see you too, Emily." his smile was sincere.

"Well, come on inside. Rory was just packing some things up in the pool house."

"Packing things up? How come?" He looked down at Rory, trying to put together the pieces of the puzzle.

"Rory's moving back with her mother, she decided to go back to Yale afterall." Emily answered for her granddaughter.

"Really? That's great, Ace. Why didn't you tell me?"

"Well I was uhm, wrapped up in all of the excitement I guess."

"Okay, I'll help you out with packing."

"No, I've got it. You should go out and have fun." Rory couldn't think of a reasonable excuse to deject Logan's offer, but she knew that she couldn't have him and Jess in the same room. She hadn't told Jess about Logan, and of course she hadn't told Logan about Jess.

"Nonsence!" Logan began to lead Rory out to the backyard.

They turned toward the pool house and Jess came out from behind the bushes. Logan's back was turned to him and Rory was motioning for Jess to go back to the car. But he wasn't looking at Rory. He was focused on Logan's arm resting on Rory's waist. He walked straight past the bushes and up to the two of them. "What the hell is this?" he said, finally looking at Rory.

Logan was startled at the sound of Jess's voice and turned around, completely confused. "Ace, who's this?"

"Uhm," Rory started, not sure what to say.

"Who the hell is Ace?" Jess said, looking up at Logan with jealousy in his eyes.

Rory broke free of Logan's embrace and pushed Jess aside. "I'm going to handle this. Please go back to the car and I'll meet you there."

"No way, Rory! Who is this guy?"

"I'm her boyfriend!" Logan said in his own defense, moving toward Jess, his chest puffing outward.

"What?" Jess looked at Rory, completely dumbfounded. "You have a boyfriend?"

"No!" Rory said, trying to get the situation under control.

"No?" Logan shot back at Rory, "What are you talking about?"

"I mean, yes. I don't know." Rory said, pushing Jess back once again. It was no longer a fight over her, they were now fighting with her. She realized how stupid she had been for lying to both of them. "Listen, Jess, I really need to talk to Logan right now."

"Logan?" Jess said, mockingly.

"Please?" Jess stood still for a moment, shooting glances between the two of them. Finally he walked off, obviously furious.

A frustrated breath of air escaped from Rory's lips as she walked toward Logan.

"Okay," he said, "You need to tell me what the hell is going on here."

"Can we sit, please?" Rory said, on the verge of tears. She lead Logan over to the small garden bench a few feet from the pool house. Rory watched him as he sat down, a look of curiosity mixed with anger, still on his face. "Okay." she started, feeling confident that she had a reason to be with Jess. But as she tried to pull her thoughts together in a way that Logan would be able to understand without fury taking over, she realized that she didn't. She didn't have a reason at all. At least not one that would make Logan see. She was doing exactly what she had done to Dean all those years ago. Jess made her fall in love with him all over again, and now he was making her hurt people all over again. No, this wasn't Jess's fault. It was hers. Rory never told Jess about Logan, so he wasn't making her do anything.

"Rory?" Logan said.

Rory snapped out of it at the sound of her name. Logan never called her anything aside from Ace unless she was upset, or he was. "Jess is my old boyfriend."

"Are you sure he's an i old /i boyfriend?"

"Logan! Let me talk, okay?"

"Go right ahead."

"Jess and I dated for a little less than a year during my senior year of high school. He ended up leaving me for California to find his father who abandoned him when he was born."

"This is all very interesting, but what I want to know is what he's doing here with you now."

Rory shot Logan an aggravated look. He put up his hands in defense and gestured for her to continue. She let out a long breath, "I went back to Stars Hollow last night and saw him walking around. The first thing lead to the next and here we are again."

"Again?" Logan said with worry in his voice. He moved his head closer to Rory's, trying to pressure her into telling him the truth.

"I still love him, Logan. I always have. I didn't mean for any of this to happen."

Logan got up from the bench in the middle of Rory's confession and started walking back and forth, trying to figure out what his girlfriend was telling him. "So, you mean to tell me that this guy that left you alone two years ago just randomly shows up in town and you're back in love with him?" His tone was loud and aggravated.

"It's more complicated than that." Rory said, feeling absolutely terrible, but somewhat relieved that she had finally told him the truth.

"So, that's where you were this morning? With him?"

"Yes."

"Why did you lie to me, Rory? Why? I can't seem to find a good reason on your part for that."

"I know, I just, I didn't want to hurt you."

"You didn't want to hurt me?" Rory winced at the volume of Logan's voice, she was trying to hold back her tears but was failing. "People always say that. They're always saying that they lied to protect their loved ones. Well I hope that you've learned from this very experience that lying only makes things worse."

"Logan, you have to believe me,"

"No! I don't have to believe anything that you say. You're the one that screwed up here, not me. We had a good thing going here. I love you. I do, and you know that. And I thought that you loved me too, but I guess I was wrong."

"You weren't wrong! I did love you, just.."

"Not like you love him, right?"

Rory looked down at her hands. She twiddled her thumbs trying to think of something to say that could make everything better. She said the first thing she could think of. "I'm so sorry."

"So am I." Logan turned around and walked out of the backyard. Rory rested her head in her hands and cried.