Disclaimer-I own nothing but the story. I especially do not own the part from 'Here Comes the son'

Jess sat in his seat in the 5th row of the plane heading for California. His deep, brown eyes were closed, and in his hand was his portable CD player. He was listening to Metallica's 'Fade to Black'.

The seat next to him was empty. He had bought two plane tickets, stupidly thinking he could get Rory to come with him. But he could never uproot her. She hadn't graduated yet, and she loved StarsHollow too much to leave it.

Jess's eyes shot open. He looked out the window. The ground, far, far below looked like strangely decorated tiles. Yellow with large, green cirlcesand vice versa. How long had he even been in this plane?

He checked his watch. Four hours. He was halfway to California (a/n yeah, i've never been to Cali, so I don't know how long it takes) He was already chickening out. Jess continued staring out the oval-shaped, plastic window. As far as he could see, it was all strange looking land and clouds. Lots of whispy, white clouds.

No Conneticut in sight.
No stupid, cheerfulStars Hollow,pushing him down

He sighed and slumped down in his seat. He didn't feel right going to California, and he felt as if part of him wasn't there with him.

Why am I going to California to see someone who obviously doesn't want me-never did? Why am I going to waste my time with someone who never even gave me a chance?

A chance...

That was when it hit him. His finger automatically pressed the stop button.

Jess pulled his carry-on bag onto his lap and opened it. Inside where tons of books. At the top there was a copy of 'The Fountainhead'. Carefully, he lifted it up out of his bag.

'Try reading it again! I think you'll enjoy it!
with Love, Rory'

It read on the inside cover in Rory's neat scrawl.Jess carefully turned the page, ready to give the book another chance, and something fell out of it. Curious, he picked it up.

It was a picture of Rory and her mother, that Jess had found on her living room floor one day, and picked up. Rory was wearing a plastic crown that read 'Happy Birthday'on it in big glittery letters. About a million feather boas were wrapped around her neck. The one that stuck out most was a pink one. She was smiling.

He flipped it over. 'Me and Mom-my 16th birthday' it read. He smirked, but then it quickly fell, and he was frowing. I need to go back was all he could think the remaining 4 hours.

>>>

As soon as Jess got off the plane, he went to the place where tickets were bought. There was close-to-no people on line, but he stood waiting impatiently, as if ants were in his pants.

He finally reached the desk ."Hi. How may I help you?" the woman asked almost robotically. Her white teeth looked strange against her tan face.

"When's the next flight to Hartford Connecticut?" he asked as nonchalatnly as he could.

She looked at a list. "Tomorrow at 11:00 a.m." She smiled again, and Jess nodded. "Can I but a ticket?"

He spent the next 10 minutes at the desk.

Then he walked to baggage claim, his eyebrows knitted together in an annoyed fashion.

Jess took a bus to the town his father, Jim, lived in. It took him a while to get there, and with each passing second he was growing more annoyed.

The beach was filled with people. He stood there, looking around, watching as people ran around, doing cartwheels, swimming, surfing, or whatever. It reminded him remotely of Stars Hollow.

When he finally reached his father's house, he was greeted by the barking of about 10 dogs, who immediately ran up to the gate. "Are you selling something?" asked a woman, standing on the roof. She wore a tropical looking bandana around her head.

"No. I'm here to see Jim. Jim Mariano," Jess shouted over the loud barking of the dogs.

"He's not here right now. Who are you?"

"Jess. Jess Mariano..."

"What? I can't hear you! Shut up Frodo!" she shouted. "You're hear to see Jim?"

"Yeah."

"Have you ever seen the Wizard of Oz?" she seemingly changed the subject. "Yeah..." Jess replied."You know when they ask to see the Wizard and the man with the beard says no. But then they tell him they have the ruby slippers, and he says 'well that's a horse of a different color!' and let's them in?"

Jess gave a small nod. "Well I'm the man with the beard, and I'm saying no unless you can give me the ruby slippers."

"I'm his-" he began quietly, then shook his head. "I'm his son!" he shouted over the dogs. The woman cocked her head to the side. "His son?"

"Jess!"

"Oh um...I'll be right down."

A moment later she was down by the gate. "I'm Sasha. Come on in." And she began walking into the house. "Do they bite?" Jess asked. Sasha turned around. "Just those two," and she pointed at all iof the dogs.

"Which two? Which two!" he asked louder, but she didn't hear. "Great," he whispered sarcastically to himself. "Just so you know, I'll bite back..." And he followed Sasha into her house.

Sashahad dyed white hair, in boy styled hair cut. There was a mole near her eye. She seemed kind of cool. Jess shrugged. Didn't matter. He was never going to live with her. He was going back to Stars Hollow in the morning...

>>>

Sasha led Jess to Jimmy's work, occasionally talking to people. She explained things to him a bit. The stopped at a hot-dog stand called 'Inferno'.

Sasha left the two, letting son-and-father catch up a bit. "Okay. Sites..." Jim said, looking around. "Ocean," he said, pointing.

"I was wondering what that was," Jess said somewhat sarcastically. "Sand." Jess nodded. "What keeps the ocean in place."

"Um...sky."

"We have one of the those back on the east." Jess nodded again. Jim also nodded, letting his son absorb it all. "Oh! And this is the boardwalk!"

Jess looked around.The boardwalk was filled with shops, cotton candy stands, and a million other things. "This is the boardwalk," he repeated. They were silent. Jess's hands were thrust in his pockets. "Hey Jim?" he eventually began, talking slowly, thinking about what to say for once.

"Yeah?" Jim asked, quickly lookign up from the ground and looking up at his 18-year-old son. "Can I crash at your place tonight?" Even though Jess hadn't wanted to, he was talking to his father. He had planned for this over-night trip he would be avoiding his father. He had wanted to just avoid the man who had avoided him for 18 years but...

"I don't have any money to get a room at a hotel."

"Umm..." Jim thought about it. He knew that he could never be a real father to him. "Look, I just need a place to crash for one night!" Jess exclaimed, suddenly becoming angry at his father. After all this time, the least he could do was let his son crash at his place for a night.

"What, are you magically going to have money tomorrow!" He sounded angry too.

"What are getting angry about?" Jess asked, raising an eyebrow. His lip curled up Elvis Presley style.

"How are you going to pay for a hotel room after tonight?"

"Whatar eyou talking about! I'm leaving after tonight. There's someone I need to get back to in Stars Hollow, believe it or not! Yes, I am going back to that crazy town!" he shouted, and ran his hand nervously through his dark mess of hair.

"Oh..." Jim went quiet.

"What are you disappointed for! You obviously didn't want me, or else you would have staye dwith my wack-job mother!" Jess's jaw was clenched angrily as he stared at his father through his dark eyes. Jim looked back at him, shaking his head disbelievingly. "You couldn't be more wrong..." he said quietly

"Oh yeah! Then why did you leave!"

"I left because I knew Icouldn't take care of you! I left because I wasn't even grown up, how could I possibly raise a kid? I left because I hadn't figured myself out yet! I couldn't posisbly take care of you, your mother, and myself yet!" Jim shouted. It was Jess's turn to be silent and shake his head. "Well you probably could have done a better job than Mom."

"No I couldn't have! I was a screw-up! I still am!"

"Well the apple doens't fall far from the tree, now does it?" Jess asked sarcastically. Jim grabbed his son by the forearm and shook him. "Don't say that! You're young! You can do anything! Go to college, get a job! Just don't become like me!"

"Jim, I'm gonna be like that hat selle rover there if I don't pick up my life! I just took a plane out here to California to see a man who never took any interest in me, leaving the girl I love to do so! I can't go back to Luke and live with him, Liz can't go two seconds without losing something, she's such a messed-up wack-job! I can't graduate from highschool because I took too many days off to go to my stupid WalMart job, just to pay for my crappy car that was, oddly enough, stolen!" He attempted listing it all on his fingers, but lost track.

Jim had nothing to say. "Exactly. Now will you please just let my spend the night with you so I can go back to Connecticut in the morning?" For once, Jess looked pleading. Jim looked from side to side, weighing his options. "Okay. I just need to check with Sasha."

"Thank you!" Jess said, letting excess air out of his mouth.

>>>

It was 10:00 in the morning. Jess had slept in the Living room on the extra matress. He had grabbed a piece of toast before stepping out of the door with his luggage. He walked around, looking for the bus stop for a while. When he finally found it, he sat waiting for 10 minutes, holding some money in his hands.

The bus drove up, and Jess stood. He boarded it and headed for the back after paying the driver. It took a few minutes for them to arrive, and as soon as they did, he pushed ast people and ran into the airport. It struck 10:15. He rushed to the check-in desk or whatever.

After gettign through everything, it was 10:58. Luckily, not many people were on the plane to Hartford. He ran onto the plane, accidentally running straight into the fligh attendant. "Sorry," he mumbled, duckig his head down. And he walked down the aisle like that, holding is carry-on bag out in front of him, look for his seat.

a/n just in case you haven't already noticed, this fic takes place in the third season. :D Hope you enjoyed the first chapter of my 4th gilmore girls fic