Disclaimer: How I wish I owned Jess, or Gilmore Girls, sadly I own neither. But I own Alan and Gary. How special am I?

A/N: I suppose this story is a bit of an AU, isn't it? Well at least Logan's character is different if nothing else. You'll see why soon enough. Also I'm aware that I said imagine owning Joe Strummer in my last disclaimer, and after I had put that chapter up I was like, "Oi! Joe's dead." Anyways, I didn't mean Joe's dead body, but maybe like his jacket, like Lorelai has. Oh, I was so jealous when she got Joe Strummer's jacket...

"Hey Jess. It's been a while."

In the back of my mind I was aware I had just broken Logan's sixth rule. Oh, well I already broke two so far, it doesn't matter about the rest now does it?

Jess looked a bit surprised. Like he couldn't imagine why I was there. Then again, I had no clue why he was there either.

"Rory, hey." He ran his hand threw his hair and tried to look nonchalant.

"So Jess, what are you doing here?"

"I suppose I could ask you same thing, couldn't I?" He replied, not unkindly. It was so weird to see him again. Last time I saw him, I thought it would be the last time, except for maybe Mom and Luke's wedding, if I was even invited.

"Oh, yeah, well, my boyfriend is kind of in charge of the whole thing." I blushed slightly as I tripped over the word boyfriend.

"You're dating Mitchum Huntzberger's son?"

"Yeah, his name is Logan. We met at Yale."

Jess nodded, and thought a second before speaking again. "Is he as big of a jerk as his father?" He paused, looking at my questioning reaction, before speaking again. "I'm sorry, that was out of line. It's just that... I met Mitchum for about 2 seconds and he managed to piss me off about 5 times."

"Mitchum's not the friendliest guy," I agreed, "but you still haven't told me why you're here."

"About that. Actually I -" Jess started but he was cut off by an angry Logan that had appeared beside me.

"Rory, there you are. I thought I lost you. What did I say about leaving? What were you thinking?" He kept scolding me, talking to me like I was a two years old. After about 3 minutes he realized Jess was there. He straightened up and smiled at Jess. "Sorry, I didn't see you there. Hi," He held to his hand, which Jess ignored, "I'm Logan Huntzberger, what's your name?"

"Jess."

"You're Jess Mariano? Well I'm glad to meet you, and I see you've already met my girlfriend Rory Gilmore. Rory, Jess is one of the authors we're honoring tonight. Personally I think his book was the best one out of all the ones we're promoting tonight."

"You wrote a book!" My eyes lit up and I beamed at Jess, shaking off the feelings of anger I had built up at Logan for talking to me in that condescending tone of his, especially in front of Jess.

"Actually Logan," Jess spit out his name, "Rory and I go way back. We've known each other since we were 17."

"He's Luke's nephew." I smiled, thinking of Luke's coffee and how much I missed it. "We used to date."

When I added that I saw Logan stiffen and his smile faded a bit. "Well, isn't that nice." He said, and I could tell he was angry. I tried to hold his hand, but he turned, and started to leave, "It's time to eat. Nice meeting you Jess. Let's go Rory."

I faced Jess and gave him a sorry-but-what-can-I-do? look and went to catch up with Logan. As I was leaving Jess I could've sworn I heard him mumble something that sounded like, "He's an even bigger ass than his dad."

---

It turned out Jess was sitting at our table. Directly on the other side of me to be exact. There was also two other authors, two men who looked like they'd never bathed in their lives and spent all their time playing video games.

Logan didn't seem to be too thrilled with the people we had to sit with, but it would've been rude not to try and make some conversation with them.

"So Alan," Logan said, addressing one of the geeky guys, "you and Gary wrote a science fiction book?"

"Why yes we did," Alan pushed his glasses up on his nose and sat up straighter. "It's about..." Alan kept talking but I tuned him out. I had never been a huge fan of science fiction novels, no offense to Alan and Gary, because it's still amazing that they wrote a book.

"How surprising." Jess mumbled under his breath sarcastically, earning a death glare from Logan. I covered my mouth and pretended to cough to keep from laughing.

I turned to Jess. "I really want to read your book. Is there anywhere I can get it?" He nodded and wrote down the address of a bookstore just a few blocks down the street from the hotel Logan and I were going to stay in tonight. While Logan continued to chatter with the two guys, Jess and I caught up a little bit. We had just started to compare and contrast Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory when I felt a sharp elbow in my side.

There goes rule 5.

Drinks had appeared at the table and I noticed I was the only person there that didn't have an alcoholic drink. Logan noticed it too and decided to try and joke about it.

"Rory's not old enough to drink yet. Maybe she should go sit at the kids table." Alan and Gary politely laughed and Jess looked like he was in pain.

"Oh, that's right Rory. Your birthday is in a couple of days isn't it?" I could tell he was just talking to me like that to get on Logan's nerves. He was using the same tone he used to use around Dean. It worked though. Logan's grip on his drink tightened so much that his knuckles were white. Jess continued talking though. "You and your mom have big plans for your 21st birthday, don't you? How is Lorelai these days?"

I feel silent and Jess realized that something what wrong. "What? Are you and Lorelai not talking?"

I took a big sip of my drink.

"Rory, why aren't you and your mom talking?" Jess questioned.

"That's enough." Logan said, obviously not wanting to talk about it either. I could tell right then though, that this night was going to get much worse. I had a sudden urge to sprint out of the room and far away, but I knew I couldn't.

"Well, if you can't tell me about Lorelai, at least tell me about Yale." He looked at me and I still didn't answer him. "You are still going to Yale, right?" There was a pause. "This is unbelievable."

"Rory, just ignore him." Logan instructed me.

"Calm down Geppetto, if you pull those puppet strings much harder they'll break."

"Are you calling me a puppet, Jess?" I turned to him, my voice turning cold. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Gary nudge Alan and whisper something to him while looking at me and Jess. Jess shrugged and said quietly, "If the shoe fits..."

I was livid then. How dare Jess talk to me like that? It's not like he ever treated me that well either. "That's so easy for you to saw isn't it, Holden? Just run away when things aren't to your liking, that's your philosophy. Only, the thing is you were gone for more than a few days."

"Oh yeah Rory, because that's so original. Please. I left because there was nothing there for me. I had nowhere to go. Luke kicked me out, you know that."

"There was nothing there for you, huh? What about me?" I threw down my napkin and the next thing I knew I was leaning against the door of the girl's washroom, and Jess was there hugging me and apologizing. I wiped my eyes on Jess's shirt and he laughed. I looked at him and our eyes connect. There was a moment, when I think we were about to kiss but then Logan came.

"Listen Jess, I think I'd be best if you left now." Logan said, using this authoritative as Jess jumped away from me and we both tried to look innocent, although truly nothing happened.

Jess nodded and leaned over so that his mouth was right next to my ear and he whispered, "You know, I really didn't try out it was 22.8 miles just because I was bored."

I smiled as Jess walked away. Maybe this was the closure from him I needed.

---

The rest of the night passed by quickly enough, as it was very uneventful.

When Logan and I got back to the hotel he was drunk. He was more intoxicated than I had ever seen him before. And trust me; I had seen him highly intoxicated a few times before.

The second we walked into the room he pushed me away from him and I banged me side into a table. He started yelling at me. Telling me that I broke every single rule he gave me. Screaming that I made a fool of myself, of him. That I almost ruined the whole night. He asked me if I was having an affair with Jess and I told him no but he didn't believe me and he kept yelling, going on and on about how stupid I was and how ashamed of me. He sounded much like my grandmother does when she's yelling at my mom.

I kept apologizing and trying to calm him down. As I went to give him a kiss he did the unthinkable. He hit me.