Half-empty food containers and bags covered the coffee table. Jess sprawled out on the Gilmore's couch, with Rory using his chest as a pillow. Her body was curled between his legs, and he stroked her hair absentmindedly. If anyone had walked in, they would have thought they were disturbing something. For the two people on the couch, nothing worth mentioning was going on. It was just natural now that they be that close.

The movie ended, and neither got up to press buttons. When the credits were finally done running, and the menu had come back to the screen, Jess nudged Rory lightly as he tried to sit up.

"Are you sleeping?"

"No."

"Where's the remote?"

"On top of the TV."

"Why is it there instead of, I don't know, within reaching distance?" She shrugged.

"I'm not getting up."

"Well you're on top of me, so you kinda have to."

"I could go to sleep right now. I think I might."

"But then Lorelai would come home, find us here, and assume something dirty had occurred on the couch even though she specifically forbade it. Luke would then proceed to tear me limb from limb while lecturing me about how you deserve more, and you'd have to explain to Max why he was short one actor." She lifted her eyes.

"Shut up. I'm resting." Jess surrendered as Rory curled up against him again and closed her eyes. He let himself slip back into the not-so-casual position they'd been in earlier, and soon had joined Rory in slumber.

Lorelai walked upstairs from Luke's apartment, slightly disheveled. She turned the key in the lock and walked in on her darkened living room, the light from the TV illuminating the two figures on the couch. She raised an eyebrow at their intertwined position as she turned the TV off, and then took a blanket from a nearby armchair. She unfolded it and draped it over the pair before kissing Rory's forehead and going to her own room.

The next thing all three became aware of was pounding on the apartment door, coupled with frequent ringing of the doorbell. Rory and Jess were jerked awake on the couch, and struggled to remember where they were as the sun shone through the apartment's windows.

Rory's heart thudded painfully at the unpleasant rousing, and she looked down at Jess's messy hair and sleep-clouded eyes accusingly.

"What is that?" he grumbled, referring to the noise, and she relaxed. He obviously didn't know anything about it.

"Don't know." She realized that his arm was wrapped around her waist, and spotted a tiny bit of drool on his t-shirt close to where her mouth had been all night. Suddenly, she was shy. "Good morning, Jess," she whispered. He grinned back. This wasn't such a bad way to wake up after all.

"Good morning, Rory." He sat up farther until their foreheads were touching, and innocently Rory licked his lip.

"For crying out loud, did I not say nothing dirty on the couch?" Lorelai stormed past in her pajamas, looking grouchy. She yanked the door open intending to hit whomever on the other side had woken her up, but stopped.

"Chris."

Rory jumped off Jess's lap and rushed toward her mother's side.

"Dad?" She walked into the hallway to hug him as Jess rubbed his eyes. He didn't want to be in the middle of a big, happy family reunion. Especially not this early.

The man at the door, however, had different ideas. He stormed inside past Lorelai and spotted Jess on the couch.

"You!"

"Me?" Jess even pointed to himself for confirmation that Rory's dad was yelling at him, but Chris forged ahead.

"You think you can get away with that?"

"Dude, what are you talking about?"

"She's my daughter, okay? I may not have been around much, but she still deserves not to be treated like some OBJECT, Kid."

"Lorelai, Rory, what is he talking about?"

"I don't know. Stop yelling Chris!"

"Dad, what's wrong?" Rory tried to calm the situation down. Jess ripped the blanket Lorelai had covered them with off his legs and stood up to face Chris.

"I saw on the news, this little jackass grab my daughter and fling her in the car. I don't know what your mother taught you, Buddy, but that is not how you treat a woman!"

"Oh, I assume you're talking about the night we were ATTACKED by reporters, and Rory wasn't moving, so I had to get her out of there as fast as I could? That night?"

"I don't care WHY you did it, I'm not going to let you treat Rory like that!"

"Lorelai, get your ex away from me before I punch him."

"Chris, what exactly are you accusing Jess of doing?"

"Are you not listening to me, Lor? He grabbed her arm, and threw our daughter in his car!"

"Yea, I've heard about that. And from what our daughter told me, it's why she's still here."

"So you allow this? You allow Rory to be with this punk?"

"Interesting story there, Chris, involving Rory not really being with that punk. But if it happened, sure, I'd support it. He's never done anything but take care of her. Well, except for that whole bitchy period, but even then he wasn't this abuser you seem to think he is."

"What do you mean she's not with him?"

"Ask them yourself! I need coffee!" Lorelai stormed towards the kitchen as Chris turned on Rory.

"Explain this, young lady." She shrugged, desperately wanting to join Lorelai and ingest some caffeine as well.

"All these tabloids thought we were a couple, so we're pretending. We're going to officially break up soon." Jess came to stand beside her, scowling at her father. Chris was looking a bit confused at that moment.

"Wait, you're not dating my daughter?"

"Does it matter? She's a grown woman- she can drive, vote, drink, get a sex change and be drafted. She's out of your jurisdiction, man."

"Rory, when is this ending?" He refused to respond to Jess.

"Don't know."

"You don't know?"

"We didn't plan this out methodically, Dad. Whenever."

"Now. End this now."

"Piss off," Jess scowled.

"That's not the plan, Dad. People, cameras, press need to be around."

"Rory, are you actually that stupid?" Both Rory and Jess looked offended. "If you're not in a real relationship, and you don't have a definite plan, you're just letting him play with your mind. 'Oh, we'll break up whenever.' Well, from what I can see, you know this isn't real but you're still letting him talk you into doing some very real things!" Rory looked at the couch, the impression of their bodies clearly pronounced.

"I don't have to explain myself to you, Dad!" He rounded on Jess.

"I'm guessing this is all you. My daughter has never raised her voice at me, EVER, in twenty-one years of her life."

"This isn't me, this is Rory telling you that you have no control over what she does with her life. If it makes you feel any better, we haven't done anything serious enough to justify this treatment, and I don't actually care about your daughter anyway, so I don't deserve the Shotgun Father spiel!" Rory stepped back from the two, hurt.

"Dad, leave."

"I won't be spoken to like that, Rory."

"Dad, leave." Her eyes were dry, but her voice threatened crying.

"Christopher, you have never understood that keeping your distance puts boundaries on your influence in this family. Get out." Lorelai stood in the kitchen doorway, a cup of coffee in one hand, and a knife in the other. Chris stormed out as Rory stormed to her room.

"I'm a little afraid of you now," Jess confessed in their absence.

"Why did you do that?"

"Do what? Defend Rory?"

"Say you didn't care about her."

"To get him off my back."

"Did you mean it?" He struggled for words.

"I don't know."

"And for the second time this morning, I'm throwing someone out of my apartment. Leave, Jess. And next time you see her, you'd better know." Wisely, he left.

Lorelai put down the knife she'd picked up to help state her point, and hurried down the hall to Rory's room.

"Bunny? Don't be sad."

"You were good back there, with Dad."

"I've always kinda wanted to say that. But about Jess-"

"I'm fine, Mom."

"Obviously not. You look like you're about to cry."

"Fine, I'm not fine. But I'm not discussing it."

"He might not have meant it."

"I said I wasn't discussing it."

"I think he was bluffing. I heard him standing up for you back there."

"Mom, please." Lorelai surrendered and closed the door behind her as Rory plunged under the covers. She stayed that way until she was sure Jess was home, and grabbed the phone by her bed.

"Hello?" He sounded tired. She tried to recall the happy waking-up feeling, but couldn't.

"We're filming tomorrow, correct?"

"Rory. Yea."

"Day after, we hit the Arte Café and break up. I'll see you tomorrow." He tried to say something, but she cut him off as she slammed the phone down.

She bolted out of bed to her closet. Feeling around wildly, she searched for the sweater she knew was on the top shelf.

She found it. It was a little dusty from months of being forgotten, but she violently shook it off. Leaning against and sliding down the wall, she landed on her shoes and hugged the white sweater as she let the tears fall down her face. She remembered when Lorelai had taken it all those months ago, when Jess was nothing more than a nuisance. 'Ridiculously stupid or ridiculously sexy.' That had been the only thing on her mind back then. They hadn't hated each other, they hadn't been pretend dating, they hadn't been falling asleep together on her couch and waking up in each other's arms. It had just been awkward with him. That was it. None of the feelings that were currently swirling around in her head and her heart had existed then.

She was hurt. But more importantly, she'd let herself be hurt. Jess was never her boyfriend, no matter how many times she'd accidentally-on-purpose slipped, and let herself pretend. He didn't like her as anything other than a coworker. He'd squired her around and put up with her just because he didn't want to be romantically linked to her in the magazines. She'd built up this elaborate scenario in her head to where she actually entertained the possibility of him liking her back. Yea, like that would happen. Only in, as Lorelai said, Backwards World.

She rubbed the soft material against her face. It didn't still smell like him, but she'd spent the night curled against him- the clothes she'd meticulously picked out yesterday carried his scent. A hint of cigarette-y smell, but mainly soap. Some guys smelled like cologne, or axe, but Jess just smelled like strong, clean, masculine soap. She closed her eyes and let the tears tickle her neck as she drowned in the feel of the sweater and his lingering scent.

Once again, she was a silly little girl. Once again, she was crying over a guy who'd been on a completely different page than she. Once again, well, here she was.