A/N: Thanks for all of the AMAZING reviews, you guys are actually the best.

moon,gates,slaying: the hands-down BEST reviewer. Seriously, I love you. That was the single most enthusiastic piece of feedback I've ever received. Thank you. BTW-I update about once a week, usually on Saturdays.

Bittersweetbloodbaby: I bow down, I LOVE Pennames and Lights, Camera, Action! Thanks for taking the time to read my simple story.

Lizzy11120: I know the feeling, that's what I felt like when I finished that chapter. I promised myself I'd have it up by midnight and spent most of the day tailgating and/or playing solitaire. lol.

Spinaround, kylie1403, JanelleRae, schnitzel21: thanks for the reviews. They mean a lot, all of them.

Hallon: Lovin' the review. Very sweet of you! There will be intermittent chapters with stuff from 'today' definitely. I wouldn't leave Chapter 1 all alone like that!

Jessobsessed09: you'll be rewarded soon….

Soph: Yeah, the honor roll and some stuff to come are how Jess got into Yale. It occurred to me after I wrote that chapter that I had to torque around his academic life a little bit to get some realism in there. Honor roll was a long shot, but the scene was cute enough if I do say so myself J. BTW-Taylor didn't know either because 1) he was recovering from the hangover that actually might kill you, or 2) he locked himself in his basement singing songs from Pirates of the Caribbean while drinking a barrel of rum. That, my friend, is why the rum is gone.

Oh, and the disclaimer meanies may come to lynch me in my sleep, so I don't own Gilmore Girls or anyone in it, though I would like to know where Milo Ventimiglia works out so I can hop on getting a membership.

Here's the fic (finally!)—

She wasn't sure why the feeling of her heart being dissected had seemed so accurate when she thought it. It was impulsive, very not-Rory. She loved it anyway though. The same way that Jess loved her and her hope for him.

He looked into her eyes for a moment as his thumb landed in her palm, finally resting. Never breaking eye contact, he took her hand with his, keeping his thumb in her palm, and gently ran the fingers across his lips. She felt a storm of desire sweep through her from the floor up and barrage her with goose bumps.

'Lord why does she have to look like this?' Jess asked himself as he continued to gently run her hand across his lips, gently kissing each fingertip. 'Why does she have to look so lost at every other moment than this one? Why does she have to look so, uprooted?' He finally had her palm before his mouth. He placed inside of it, a soft, insufferably gentle kiss.

'One kiss can hold more secrets than a politician, more water than an ocean, and more complications than the inter workings of ones brain,' Rory thought, not quoting anyone in particular, 'yet they're dispensed at will, with love. Because love is stronger than water, politics, and reason.'

And then, as never-fail as she could ever hope to be, Lorelai waltzed into the diner, and then just as the door closed, froze.

"Blind!" she screamed as she fell partially against the door, disturbing the Venetian blinds and covering her eyes as if someone had flung vinegar into them. "So blind!"

"God," Rory said as she snapped her arm reluctantly from Jess's grasp and rested her hands in her lap, folded as neatly as she could manage. Jess immediately placed another mug of coffee next to Rory, allowing Lorelai the benefit of knowing where to sit. However, Lorelai was still trying to navigate her way through the diner with her eyes covered when Rory scoffed.

"Mom, you can quit being blind now."

"Wrong. This blindness is coffee-curable only. No more canoodling in public, 'kay?" she asked as she sat down finally at the stool and brought the mug to her lips. Rory rolled her eyes as she watched her mother for a moment over the rim of her mug. Though he was across the room, Rory could hear Jess smirk when Lorelai said 'canoodling.'

"I was not 'canoodling'," Rory said, using air quotes. Lorelai made some disgusting kissy sounds against the back of her hand and Rory took away her coffee and set it far away on her side of the counter.

"WAY mean!" Lorelai said, reaching across her in hopes of retrieving the mug. Rory moved it further away while still shaking her head.

"Forget it. Be blind. Then I can canoodle," Rory said, casually sipping her coffee and smiling brightly at Jess in hopes of a refill. He rolled his eyes and topped off her mug. She mouthed thanks and Lorelai watched the interaction.

"Eye canoodling! I knew there was such a thing! Luke! Lukey! Come hither!" Lorelai said, bouncing in her seat. Immediately, Rory and Jess's looks turned into ones of mock humiliation and incredulity. Luke stepped out of the kitchen.

"No pancakes," he said, then spotted Jess standing obediently before Rory. He rolled his eyes casually and refocused his attention to a still-giddy Lorelai.

"They were eye canoodling! I swear on my pancakes! And before they were hand canoodling!" she said, pointing at the pair.

"Tattle tale!" Rory said indignantly as she handed Lorelai back her cup of coffee. Luke looked repulsed.

"There are people trying to eat in here," he said, looking at all three of them. He redirected his glare to Jess. "You don't seem like the 'canoodling' type. What with the scowl and the paperback, and the gelled hair. It all seems very anti-canoodling," Luke said, observantly.

"You know you've said a word too much when it doesn't sound like a word anymore," Jess said as he walked away from behind the counter, eliciting timid giggles from Rory and Lorelai.

xxx

Dean eyed the group angrily from outside the diner, his jaw working overtime in compensation of grinding his teeth. It made him angry to no ends. Rory was going to get herself hurt, and he was sure of it. When he saw Jess kiss her hand, he could hear his blood boil. He could see Rory melt into the stool and manage to resume an inquisitive demeanor. She was too amazing for him. What was he, some diner boy?

Then Lorelai walked in and it was like Jess was apart of their lives. That was what set him off. Seeing them interact, even if it was out of sheer politeness. Dean had a feeling in the pit of his stomach that he was actually out of the picture, and he drowned it by stalking back to Doose's and resuming work.

xxx

"You were canoodling at Luke's?" Lane asked enthusiastically as she and Rory walked back to Rory's house. Rory had spent the remainder of her day listening to Lane's band practice. They had taken an experimental day of loud playing, greatly downsizing the amount of chit-chat available.

"Geez," Rory said as she adjusted her shirt and looked around, hoping that nobody had heard Lane.

"With Jess? Better hope you were in an alternate universe where nobody could see you," Lane scoffed.

"I definitely wasn't. My mom walked in and went hysterically blind."

"Is she cured?"

"Jess gave her coffee. Probably it wasn't in his best interest to deny her."

"I can't imagine. I've known Lorelai to threaten Luke with dismemberment when he denied her of her coffee fix."

Rory smiled brightly. "I love my mommy."

Lane sighed enviously. "I, on the other hand, do not."

"She can't stay like this forever. Dave's nice."

"Oh no, she loves Dave. It's me that she doesn't like."

"That's not true," Rory stated in sympathy.

"Oh yes it is. The guilt trips, I'm afraid, aren't ever seeming to reach their high point. They just get worse and worse and worse."

"What is she guilt-ing you about now?"

"That's what I want to know."

"Mostly my mom yells because I study when she's out of town and I could very easily be as destructive as I wanted."

"I envy you so bad."

xxx

"Home, then gone!" Rory called as she jogged into the door and went straight into her room. She heard Lorelai mumble something very Rodney Dangerfield as she fixed her hair and changed into a light blue tank-top. Reapplying her lipgloss, she walked out into the kitchen to find her mother scrutinizing her.

"The shirt's too small," Lorelai said, her eyebrows raised at the sight of apparently inappropriate amounts of bared skin.

"What are you talking about?" Rory said, turning awkwardly to see herself better. "You've borrowed this from me like, nine times."

"Yeah, and I also am not seventeen years old."

Rory caught on. "Mom, I'm only wearing this shirt to cut down on the amount of time he needs to spend getting me undressed." She was motivated further by the look on her mother's face. "Surely you know that that's all we do together," Rory continued, trying painfully hard to stifle her smile.

"That's it, I'm sending you to Catholic school."

"Catholic school girl uniform. Dirty," Rory teased.

"Or to Switzerland."

"Bonjour, I am Swiss, speak French, and like to drink wine and take off my shirt."

"Change the shirt."

"You can't be serious," Rory said, halting the teasing.

"What do you plan on doing that includes this much…skin?" Lorelai asked, reluctant as soon as the words left her lips.

"We're going to a movie."

"Movie theaters are cold."

"Only in the summer."

"No, they always air condition movie theaters."

"You're making that up."

"Will it get you to change the shirt?"

"No."

xxx

Jess walked through the town to get to the Gilmore house. He had his hands stuffed in his pocket and his insides were knotted somewhere just below his Adam's Apple. Lorelai Gilmore was nice at first site but piss-yourself-terrifying when it came to Rory. He had known from brief experience. He was the kid with a bad attitude to everyone but Rory and on occasion, Luke. But no one in town (except perhaps Taylor Doose and Dean Forester) wanted Jess on a bus back to New York more than Lorelai.

So his epiphany came about halfway through his walk. He cared enough about Rory to brave the town, her bitter ex-boyfriend, and her at times psychotic mother to be with her.

Wait a minute, he cared about somebody?

'Stop it,' Jess ordered himself, and stopped for a moment. 'Last time you cared, even remotely about someone, you got shipped off to the StorybookTown.' But it wasn't right, the action he took felt icky and heavy. It felt like a weight on his shoulder.

'On the other hand,' his conscience said, finally kicking into action, 'maybe this is finally right. You can't uphold his 'I am Jess, hear me scowl' demeanor forever. Take charge, stop being a wuss.'

Jess kept walking. The weight was gone.

xxx

"You'll be back by 11," Lorelai stated as she hovered behind Rory.

"Probably," Rory said back, taking it as a question.

"No, you WILL be back by 11 o'clock or I'll snap him like a chicken."

"How?" Rory asked turning and giving her mother a disbelieving look. Lorelai opened her mouth to describe the gory details when the doorbell sounded.

"There is a God," Rory breathed as she rushed to answer the door. She swung open the door to find Jess, standing, casual as always, with his hands in his pockets.

"Hey," she said, smiling and dragging him into the entrance hall. He was wearing a pair of worn-in jeans, held on his narrow hips by a brown belt. His black button-down shirt had the first two buttons open, and his hair was done to look flippant but gelled into submission.

He watched her as she scrutinized/checked him out. He wanted to laugh, she was so methodical yet quick, anxious about Lorelai's entrance into the room. If she found her checking out him, Lorelai's head may have spun off.

Jess blinked as he took in what Rory was wearing. He had seen the shirt countless numbers of times before, and he remembered wondering what it'd be like to belong to what wore it. But he never noticed the racy way she wore it.

"Alright, seriously, I'm gonna chuck biscuits, get outside, be back at 11," Lorelai said, shoving them out the door and throwing a jacket and her purse to Rory. When they looked back as she closed the door, Lorelai had her eyes narrowed and looked to be mumbling.

"Your mom…?"

"She has her Rodney Dangerfield days."

Jess took Rory's hand and they started walking. "No respect, no respect," he said mockingly as they walked standing close. She laughed and looked up slightly at him, he was grinning, almost fully smiling.

"So about this movie."

"It's a surprise."

"If it's a Kirk movie, forget it."

"Not quite a Kirk movie."

"If it's Honey, Gigli, or Uptown Girls, I will seriously question your sexual orientation and/or your intentions with me." Jess just grinned.