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Ding-Dong Dodger"What time is Dean getting here?" Lorelai calls from the couch.
"Quarter of." Rory replies from her bedroom where she's putting in her earrings in front of the mirror.
"It's 5:30 now." Chris says coming down the stairs. "And I think he decided to come early."
"Early? No." Lorelai gasps from her spot, getting up when someone knocks at the door. "Rory I thought you'd trained him by now."
"Stop making Dean sound like a dog Mom." Rory says, speeding up her preparations.
"Dean, your timing is off today you really should have…" Lorelai begins to ramble as she opens the front door.
"Is it Dean?" Rory says looking down while hopping into the entryway trying to put on her shoes. "Because really, all I need is five minutes and I'm set to go."
"Uh, Ror. It's not Dean." Lorelai says when she regains her composure and stops staring at the person in her doorway.
"Oh, then I can go find another book, I finished this one this morning but my purse won't hold just anything."
"Rory, look who's here." Lorelai says, moving away from the door, allowing Jess to enter. He just stays where he is.
"Jess." Rory says softly. After a second she fully puts her shoe on and walks towards the door. "Jess, hey. It's been a while. How's New York been."
"Oh, you know."
"Ah, okay. I would invite you in, but I kind of have someplace to be soon."
"Right, tomorrow then?"
"Yeah, tomorrow." Rory says as Jess turns to leave.
Chris comes over to see what's going on by then. "Okay, that was weird. Who is that?"
"Definitely weird." Rory states, staring off at the door. Suddenly she turns around and heads towards her room. "I need to go get that book."
"Ex-boyfriend?"
"He wishes. Plus, you know better Chris, it only been Rory and Dean. That was Jess, Luke's nephew."
"The one that broke her wrist?"
"Yes him, but I don't think Rory'd appreciate you hurting him for that now. I don't know what happened here though, I thought he was still back with his mom in New York."
"Huh."
"Oh no. Now you're sounding like him."
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Fifteen minutes later
Dean knocks on the door and lets himself in. "Hello. Anyone home? Rory, you ready?"
"Oh, Dean, you sure clean up nice. Now come on in, I want pictures." Lorelai says as she walks out from Rory's room, Rory in tow.
"Hey Dean." Rory goes up to Dean, giving him a kiss.
"Aww, you two, so adorable. Now smile." Lorelai says as Chris stands next to her and the teens put on smiles and roll their eyes. "Okay, that's good. Have fun."
"Be home by eleven."
"Chris! They're eighteen. Twelve."
"But what about the…" Chris starts in a serious tone.
"Okay, one. Have fun babe." Lorelai calls as Dean closes the door, laughing at her antics.
"What's so funny?" Rory asks as they start on their way.
"Your mother."
"Still? I thought you would have become immune to her by now."
"Never, you Gilmores are always surprising."
"Aw, thanks." Rory says uncertainly.
"It's a good thing, I promise. It's one of the reasons that I love you."
"Really? Only one of them? What are the others?" Rory questions as she turns her face up for another kiss.
"Oh, you know."
"No, I don't think I do." Rory says with a little smirk.
"Well you're smart." Kiss. "And sweet." Kiss. "And encourage me to read complicated foreign novels with long names that all sound the same." Kiss. "And you look so cute when you lose yourself in anyplace with more than one book." Kiss.
"Don't forget that you don't have to slouch when I'm in heels." Rory says with a big smile on her face.
Dean returns the smile. "Yeah, that too."
"So what are the plans for tonight?"
"Nothing big. We'll go in for bit, have some food, maybe dance a little, then walk around the town a bit until you have to get back."
"Sounds good. Now let's go." Rory says as they make their way up Miss Patty's steps.
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As soon as they entered the door Lane ran up to Rory, almost running her over. "Rory! You're here, finally. Youneedtogivethistokirkhehashorribletasteinmusicbutmamacantseemegonearthemusic."
Rory just stares at her friend and guides her to an empty table, Dean in tow. "Lane, breathe. Okay, what were you saying?"
Lane takes a big breath. "Right. Mama is here chaperoning, seeing as that's the only way I could come. This means that I can't dance or have any music-slash-sin related involvement all night, I may not be allowed to socialize with you once you and Dean start eat each other's faces."
"Point Lane? You mentioned something to do with Kirk." Rory questions with a patient yet confused look on her face.
"Well, Kirk is DJ, and he just isn't playing the right mixes. Seriously, it's a complete massacre to the classics. Anyway, in anticipation of such a disaster I mixed a few CDs to slip in when he wasn't looking. But since Mama will never let me out of the house again if I add this onto the Dave thing, I want you to give it to him. Discretely. And it can't look like I had any part in it. Please Ror?"
"Yeah, sure Lane. Now speaking of Dave, where is he? I thought he was your approved escort."
"If only I knew. Mama said something about him not being able to come with me. So this means she found out about the band, the fact that he isn't a devout churchgoer, or decided she can't risk me being seen with a non-Korean escort. Or he is sick and just couldn't get in touch with me. Whichever way, I'm dateless with Mama looking over my shoulder."
"Hey, at least you're at prom. And I'm here, and Dean's here, so you won't be completely alone."
"Until you two get lost in each other's eyes, forgetting about anything else."
"Oh, you're exaggerating, we're not that bad."
"Sure you aren't." Lane replies rolling her eyes.
Rory looks up at Dean, "Dean, I'm a little thirsty, can you get me a drink?"
"Sure, Lane?" Dean says, getting up.
"No, I'm good."
Once Dean is out of earshot Rory leans in towards Lane and urgently whispers. "Jess is back."
"Jess?" Lane whispers, playing along.
"Yeah, he just showed up at my house a half hour ago."
"What does this mean?"
"I don't know, it's just weird."
"Definitely weird. What did he say?"
"Oh, I don't know. Nothing really, but he agreed to talk tomorrow."
"So are you going to?"
"Going to?"
"Talk. I mean, it's been what, a year since you last saw him?"
"Yeah a year. Why is he back?"
"I can't tell you, I thought he hated it here."
"He did. But, oh I don't know."
"What?"
"I've missed him. I've gone to see him in New York, you know? Not a lot, just a couple times. There's this great record store we go to, we get hot dogs, nothing major. But now he's back."
Lane's eyes go wide as she looks past Rory towards the back door. "Yes, he's back."
Rory moves to look behind her and continues to whisper, "You mean he's here?"
Lane just nods as Dean returns with his and Rory's drinks. "Okay, I didn't know what you wanted so I grabbed the fruit punch, if you don't like it I can go up and get you another, I think there was some pop."
Rory snaps out of the semi-reverie she was in with the appearance of Jess. "You're in Connecticut now Dean, it's soda here."
"It's habit, what can I say?" Dean says with a sappy smile on his face.
Lane sees Jess starting to approach the table. "I'm just going to go over there." And she gets up to stop him.
Curiously Rory looks to where Lane went and sees Jess, thinking of the volatile nature of him and Dean getting close she grabs Dean's arm so he can't look over his shoulder, where Jess is. "Uh, Dean, why don't we go dance?"
"Dance? Okay Rory, whatever you want."
A couple of minutes of slight swaying and keeping Jess out of Dean's eyesight was interrupted when Jess suddenly stepped up to the couple.
"Miss me?" Jess says with a smirk, mostly to irritate Dean.
"What is that punk doing here Rory?" Dean says tensely as he slightly tightens his grip on Rory.
"I don't know and don't be rude Dean, Jess is standing right here." Rory says calmly to Dean. "Now Jess, is there a reason you interrupted us?"
"Well I thought you may want a break from stretching your neck to look at the jolly green giant."
"Jess." Dean seethes, looking as if he wants kill him right there.
"Dean, calm down. What do you really want Jess?"
"To talk to you."
"So talk."
"Without Bagboy standing over us."
Rory glances up to look at Dean pleadingly then returns you stare at Jess. "Okay, one minute."
"Rory, don't go with him. He's trouble." Dean says as Rory releases herself from his grip.
"We'll be right over there. Now go keep Lane company or something." Rory says a little irritated. As soon as she and Jess are out of Dean's hearing she stops and turns to Jess. "What do you want."
"Hi, nice to see you too."
"Cut it Jess, what do you want, I'm kind of with Dean right now. I thought we were talking tomorrow."
"Ah, yes. But I decided to come here and you were here and I figured we could talk now."
"Jess…"
"Fine. I'm back in town for the summer to help Luke out in the diner and I just thought you might want to know that I'm going to college nearby."
"Jess, that's great. But I still don't understand why you had to drag me away from Dean to say that."
"Please, like you needed to be dragged away from him. You looked like you needed saving."
"I did not! I love him." Rory says with a hint of anger.
"Then why have you been looking at me all night?"
"I have not!" Rory says furiously.
"Whatever you want to think."
With that Jess walks out, leaving a confused Rory behind.
Seeing the Jess has finally left Dean goes over to Rory and wraps his arms around her from behind. "He gone?"
"Yeah." Rory says dazed.
"Come on, there's some food at the table and Lane is almost ready to kill herself if Kirk doesn't change the music soon." Dean says as he leads her back to the table.
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A/N: That's it for this one, I'm just tired of writing in Dean. I hope you like it. I had wanted Dean to fight Jess, but I couldn't get it in to my satisfaction. Now who do you want to see next?
Shout-outs:
LoVe23
Pockygirl-2002
Thank you so much. I love reading the reviews. Now press that little button.