Aki- A reviewer inquired as to how much longer this fic will be. I would estimate that it is half way if not a little more than half way done. Anyway, here is a quickly updated, yet long chapter for you to enjoy. There is Jess/Rory interaction (but not in that dirty way that some of you might think!), some long awaited Rory/Amber interaction, along with some Jess/Amber and Lorelai/Rory interaction as well.

Chapter 14

"You are that forgiving."

"What?" asked Jess at Rory spontaneous outburst. They were sitting at opposite ends of the apartment, picking at leftover Chinese food, not talking, not making eye contact.

"Earlier," Rory clarified, "When you read Amber's note you said that you weren't that forgiving, but I've been thinking about it, and yes you are, …or you were."

"How'd you figure?"

"You went after your father who left you at birth when you were eighteen. That sounds pretty forgiving too me."

Jess shrugged it off, still staring at his food, "I was desperate. Everything was going wrong. I just needed to get away."

"Is that the only reason?" asked Rory, staring intently at Jess though he refused to look up at her.

"Yeah, it was," answered Jess after a silence.

"Oh," said Rory, he tone disappointed, looking down away from Jess.

Jess looked up at Rory after he was sure her gaze was no longer on him. She looked dejected and he knew why. She was hoping that if all people, Jess could forgive the father that abandoned him at birth, maybe, someday, Amber could forgive her.

"I guess we should go to bed," said Jess after another long moment of silence.

"Yeah," agreed Rory, setting her half eaten carton down on the coffee table. Neither had that much of an appetite.

Rory began rifling through her bag as Jess cleaned up the meal in the kitchen. That was when he heard her swear.

"Shit!"

Jess leaned past the kitchen wall to see what was the matter, "You okay?"

"I don't have any pajamas. Thanks for the thorough packing job, Mom!"

"That's your big emergency?" asked Jess skeptically.

"I have enough clothes to hike to Antarctica, but not any to sleep in," continued Rory ranting, ignoring Jess.

Jess was tempted to roll his eyes if he was one to do such things, but rather walked out of the kitchen across the living room, past Rory, and went straight into his bedroom and closed the door.

"Ass," Rory said to herself, staring at the shut door.

"Heard that," commented Jess as he came out of the room a few seconds later and tossed something to Rory, "Here."

Rory caught it, surprisingly, brow wrinkled with curiosity as she identified the object.

"I can't wear your clothes," said Rory suddenly when she did.

"Well rumor is you don't have pj's," said Jess sarcastically.

"I still can't wear your clothes," said Rory indignantly, wrinkling her nose.

"Wear them, don't wear, I don't care. Means nothing to me. Just don't say I didn't try to help." Jess walked back to his room, but paused in the doorway.

He turned around to Rory once again, "I didn't just go to see Jimmy in California because I was desperate. That was part of it, but after he showed up in the diner that one night, I had to know."

"Know what?"

"More," answered Jess simply, "Night Rory."

"Goodnight."

The Next Morning…

'Bang, bang, bang.' It was like a hammer, not a small hammer though, not even a regular hammer, but the world's biggest sledgehammer in the history of mankind.

'Bang, bang, bang.' Rory was pulled unmercifully from her sleep. It was way too early. She clasped her hands over her ears and whimpered, "No, no, no."

What was that noise though. No, it was not a sledgehammer nor gunshots, but rather someone knocking.

"The door!" Rory called out as she mustered the strength and will to do so.

"I'm busy here," replied Jess, shouting room somewhere. Rory did not yet have the consciousness to figure out where from.

"But there's someone at the door," Rory whined back.

"Then you get it."

"But it's not my house!"

"I'm busy!"

Rory finally mustered the strength to get off the couch in determination to discover what Jess could possibly so busy at that he could not answer the annoying person annoyingly knocking on the annoying door at too annoying early in the annoying morning.

She discovered him in the open bathroom, in the midst of shaving, half of his face covered in shaving cream, the other half not. Rory couldn't help but smile at it.

'Bang, bang, bang.' Rory flinched at the unanticipated noise, "Are you going to get that?" she asked coldly.

Jess didn't turn around to answer or even look at her, but rather saw her bust reflection in the mirror.

"Well, I'm kind of incapacitated at the moment and as your up…" Rory scowled, Jess smirked.

"Fine," said Rory in a not so fine way and went to the front apartment door and opened it just a little too late after she remembered she was wearing just Jess's t-shirt and her undergarments.

Outside was a slightly elderly woman dressed in a long dark skirt, a blouse, with sweater over it.

"Sorry," said the woman a little bashfully at the sight of Rory dressed such, "I didn't mean to interrupt anything," Rory reddened slightly, "But is Jess available."

"Uhmm, yeah…," said Rory before calling into the apartment, almost flinching at her own voice, "Jess, it's for you."

"Hi, Mrs. Johnson," greeted Jess awkwardly when he came to the open doorway.

The women blushed slightly at the sight of him. Jess glanced at Rory's apparel and then down at his own, just a t-shirt and boxers, and quickly stuttered out,

"It's not what it looks like."

"I'm not judging anyone," said the women, "I just wanted to wish you and Amber, who I assume is not here, happy holidays because you've been out of town."

"I'll pass it on to Amber," said Jess perfunctorily.

"Well, I have to get going. Have errands to run."

"Mrs. Johnson, please don't take this," Jess made a hand motion between him and Rory, "The wrong way."

"Jess," said the woman, pulling Jess away from Rory with a firm hand on his shoulder, whispered to him, "For years now I've watched you raise that girl of yours by yourself and you've done a fine job. You deserve to have a nice woman by your side. Ta." And with that Mr. Johnson left to go to the supermarket. Jess watched her back as she walked away mouth slightly agape, that had not gone too well.

Jess shut the door and turned around to find Rory leaning against the apartment wall, beet red.

Jess put his face in a hand and shook his head before looking up at her, "Well-"

He was cut off by Rory, who was glaring at him, "That's what you get for asking me to open your door!" And she turned on heal and stormed off in the opposite direction.

"That's what you get for wearing only a t-shirt!" Jess yelled after her.

A few hours later…

Amber pulled out the key for the apartment complex's main door and unlocked the door, waving to her friend's mother's car to assure them she was safely going inside.

She was just about to close the door behind her when she saw her neighbor, Mrs. Johnson, walking up from the parking lot with her arms full of grocery bags.

"Need a hand with anything?" she called out to her.

"Just the door," the woman replied as Amber held open for her to enter, "Thank you, dear."

"No problem," smiled Amber.

They walked together to the elevator, "Up, I assume," questioned the older lady as she pressed the button for the designated floor."

"That's were I live," commented Amber, in quick wit, but neither in a sarcastic nor condescending way.

Mrs. Johnson wondered something out loud to herself, catching Amber's attention after a moment of silence.

"Excuse me?" asked Amber, the comment confusing her.

"Oh, never mind," fumbled the old lady.

"You said something like, 'I wonder if she left,'" pondered Amber, eyebrow raised.

"It- it's nothing," said Mrs. Johnson, fidgeting uncomfortably.

"Are you – hiding something from me, Mrs. Johnson?"

"I swore I wouldn't tell, but I guess you have the right to know," the woman rationalized to herself.

"Continue," prodded Amber.

"Well, see, this morning I discovered your father had a- a lady friend over."

"A lady friend," questioned Amber skeptically, knowing her father too well to know that he wasn't the lady friend having type, especially secretly.

"Yes," Mrs. Johnson defended, "I saw her with my own two eyes. She had a little longer than shoulder length straight, brown hair and really blue eyes…"

Amber stopped listening after that. She knew who was their, at her and her dad's apartment. But it couldn't be, well, actually yes, it could.

The doors of the elevator were barely open before she darted through them and dashed to her apartment door. She was moving so fast she didn't even remember unlocking it. The next thing she knew the door was open, she was in her home.

Rory, now fully dressed, stood suddenly from sitting on the couch as Amber entered the room. Rory had been waiting for Amber's arrival home for awhile now, wondering how long it would take for their first real encounter as mother and daughter to come, but now that out was here, it seemed to come too soon.

"Hey," said Amber slightly breathless and still a little shocked. No, correction, a lot shocked.

"Hey," replied Rory. The tension in that room was so thick you could have cut it with a knife.

"I- I got your letter," said Rory, trying to spark a conversation.

"Oh," acknowledged Amber, almost emotionlessly. Not coldly or meanly, but empty, shy, guarded.

"I guess you should shut the door," Rory commented, feeling stupid that that was the only thing that she could think to say at a time like this.

"Yeah," agreed Amber as she turned to shut and lock the apartment door she previously left open in the rush of the moment. She came back into the main part of the living room. "Sit," Amber offered, gesturing with a hand to the couch.

Rory nodded in response and sat down where she had been previously. Amber sat down on the opposite side. It was one of those couches with three cushions. Rory was sitting at one side while Amber sat at the other, a large gap between them. Awkward. Awkward. Awkward.

Honestly, Amber wasn't expecting this, at least not so soon. There was even a piece of Amber, deep down inside, a pessimistic, the glass is half empty piece of her that thought Rory wouldn't ever even show. But it shouldn't have happened like this. Amber should have been here when Rory arrived, making Rory feel awkward in the apartment, but it was switched and now Amber wasn't even comfortable in her own home.

Rory didn't know what to say as she sat on the couch drumming her fingers on her denim covered knees. But she knew that Amber must be having it a thousands times harder with coming up with something to say. It was Rory's responsibility to say something first.

"Amber, I-"

"Is dad here?" Amber cut Rory off swiftly.

"Um, yeah," stuttered Rory, taken back somewhat, "In his room."

"I should tell him I'm home." And with that Amber was out of the room and into Jess' before you could say supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.

"Am, are you okay?" asked Jess, looking up from his desk as his daughter slammed the door.

"Rory's out there," stated Amber, ignoring her father's question.

"I know," said Jess.

"My mom's out there," said Amber, her voice shaking the slightest bit.

"I know," repeated Jess.

Amber closed her eyes and rested her chin on her chest in thought, before sighing slowly and saying, "I can't do this."

"What?"

"I can't do this. Her and me. I just…" Amber shook her head.

"Why?" asked Jess gently, "Why can't you do this?"

Amber looked at the ceiling, holding back tears. "I don't know what to say. I don't know what to do. God, I don't know how to feel even," Amber ranted, a little hysterical, "Should I be mad. Should I be happy? Should I be sad? Should I talk? Should I listen? What do I do!"

Amber sat down on her father's bed cross-legged. After a moment Jess kneel in front of her to get eye level and asked,

"So what are you going to do?"

"I was thinking of just staying in here."
Jess raised a quizzical eyebrow, "So every time the world throws you anything you don't like you are going to hide in your daddy's bedroom."

Amber pouted at him and answered sincerely, "Works for me."

"Wouldn't you like to hide in your own room better."

"But going to my room means going through the living room."

"And you can't because… it was destroyed by a volcano?" pondered Jess.

"Rory's in there!" answered Amber indignantly.

"Right," muttered Jess under his breath standing up. "Give me a second," he said to Amber, exiting the room.

Rory stood when he entered, "Is she okay?"

"Yeah, she's just scared of you."

"Oh," pause, "Did you tell her I didn't bight?"

"I tried to convince her," answered Jess without missing a beat, "But you just look so menacing."

Rory smiled inwardly. It was strangely nice it be making quips with Jess again.

"Anyway, can you make a conveniently placed trip to the bathroom so Amber can sneak into her room?"

"You know what? I'll just grab a jacket, a book, and my cell phone and go out on the balcony. I need to make a call anyway."

Rory swiftly grabbed her jacket off the rack were it hung by the door, her purse, which had her cell phone, and then dug into her bag to find the books she had packed the day previous. She hadn't looked at them then, but when she saw the titles now she smiled, Oliver Twist and Howl. Fate had a funny way of working sometimes.

Rory pulled her cell phone out of her purse when he successful closed the balcony's sliding glass door. She dialed a number so familiar to her that she didn't even need think about it as she dialed.

"Hey, Ror," Lorelai answered on the first ring, giving Rory the temptation to believe that Lorelai had been anticipating this call for a while now.

"Hey Mom," greeted Rory.

The was undistinguishable voice on the other side of the line before Lorelai whined, "Luke, it's Rory."

"What was that?" Rory asked.

But all Lorelai answered with a star-struck sounding, "Wow!"

"Wow what?" questioned Rory, scrunching her brow.

"Luke's letting me talk on my cell phone in the diner," answered Lorelai, amazed.

"You've done it before," Rory pointed out.

"Yes, but he has never condoned it before."

"Good point."

The conversation lagged.

"So…?" pondered Lorelai aloud.

"So," retorted Rory grimly.

"How's it going up there?"

"Bad."

"Sorry. How bad?"

"Well first Amber's wasn't even here when I arrived yesterday," Rory began to rant, pacing up and down the balcony,"She was over a friend's house. So she didn't get here until about twenty minutes go. And when she arrived we had like a three word conversation that consisted of, 'Hey. Hey. Close the door. Sit down. Where's dad'!"

"Okay, you are confusing Mommy here a little."

"Then after Amber runs off Jess comes and tells me she is afraid of me even though I don't bight-."
"Confusing Mommy a lot."

Rory sighed roughly as she ran her fingers through her hair, "This is so hard."

"It's not meant to me easy, Rory."

"I know. It's just that…should I try to explain my actions to her, but- but I don't want to make excuses, you know. Should I talk about other stuff. I don't to say. I don't know what to tell her!"

Their was a pause on the other side of the line before Lorelai voice came though with the only advice she could give,

"Tell her the truth."

And it was the best advice anyone could've given…