(A/N) Hey my homies! I loved episode 6.08 of Gilmore Girls! I am so glad she finished with her grandmother. Did you catch that when Emily said the thing about her father when she meant her grandfather? I so can't wait for next week's episode! I am so happy that Rory and Lorelai finally made up and that finally Luke and Lorelai will set the date. I know that most of you that go to already know what the secret of Luke's past is and I so can't believe it's true. It's going to ruin everything! Anyway, I am writing this story because this is the way that I wanted the dinner with Jess to go. I hope you guys like it. It will take me a while to update because of my other stories taking up all my free time, but I will try my hardest to update frequently. This is a plot less fic so things will just happen. I will only put songs in the chapters that I find it absolutely necessary. This chapter will have a song because it is the title of the story. Anyways, on with the story.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything or anyone that has to do with Gilmore Girls and am in no way associated with AS-P. I don't own the lyrics to the song at the end. I don't own most of the dialogue in this chapter.
Spoilers: Yes! The whole rest of season six. It starts out with Let Me Hear Your Balalaikas Ringing Out.
Title: A Photo
Chapter One
Why does he always have to get drunk? Why can't he just stay sober for one night? Rory thought to herself as she drove to the Gilmore home from dropping Finn, Colin, and Logan off at their dorm.
She slammed the brakes at a red light and watched her purse fall to the floor, littering it with its contents. Rory bent down and picked up her wallet and some other things that fell to the floor. She hadn't emptied her wallet in years and was curious what she would find. She found an expired box of Altoids, and her old Chilton ID. She had dropped her purse so many times but she still never bothered to empty it. She thought it was good to have old memory joggers.
Then she saw it. Probably one of the reasons she never emptied her purse. Him. A picture of him. And her. A picture of him and her together. Probably one of the few candid pictures she had ever taken with him.
It was a photo of her and Jess. They had been walking through the snow kissing. She was grateful for having her mother and her mother's Polaroid, even though they weren't on good terms.
Why did he have to leave? Why did he have to tell me he loved me? Why did he ask me to go away with him? Why did I say no? Tears threatened her eyes and a series of repetitive honks brought her out of her thoughts. She looked up at the stoplight and pressed her foot on the gas.
Oh God, how I miss him. I will always love him, won't I? I'll never get over him. I'll never forget him. Why didn't I go with him when I had the chance? I might still be going to school, maybe not Yale, but some other school. I should have gone with him.
Before she knew it she was back at the Gilmore manor. Rory wiped the tears from her eyes, cut off the engine, and unbuckled her seatbelt before stepping out of the car. She was about to turn to the house, when something moving at the gate caught her eye. Her heart skipped a beat at the sight of him.
" Jess." He opened the gate and entered the driveway.
" Hey." He said nervously.
" Hey. I…. Sorry, that wasn't a sentence." She stuttered.
" I got the gist." He said walking up to her.
" What are you doing here?"
" I got a job—professional driveway stalker."
" Pays good?"
" Yeah, but the hours suck." She smiled at him.
" Jess…."
" I'm in town on a little business. All nice and aboveboard." God, I love it when she smiles at me.
" How'd you know where to find me?"
" Luke. I shook it out of him. He wasn't sure if it was okay."
" It's okay. You look good. The years don't seem to have hardened you." She smiled and he smiled back. You look really good. Hot even. No Gilmore! You have a boyfriend! Remember Logan? He's your boyfriend! Not Jess.
" Yeah, you look good too. I know this is kind of weird, but there's something I wanted to tell you—show you actually. I can come back another time."
" No, it's just, uh, we're kind of exposed here. My—her window's like right there." She pointed to a window on the second floor.
" Whose?"
" My grandma's. You want to come in?"
" You sure?"
" Yeah, just be careful. She's a very light sleeper." She led him up the stairs and into her room.
" So, here we are."
" Casa Rory." He chuckled softly. Rory walks over to her bed, grabs a pillow and places it on the floor in front of the door crack.
" So our voices don't carry." She explained.
" Very prudent." He says about the room.
" This is not my taste."
" Yeah, not unless you've aged about 90 years."
" I haven't."
" Is that for Halloween?" He pointed to a red orange dress hanging on the door.
" No, no. This is for a function I have to go to."
" Function?"
" This is a job—the D.A.R.—Daughters of the American Revolution. It's not a career or anything."
" I hope not."
" No. See, don't get the wrong idea. I'm here temporarily. My mom and I—"
" Luke alluded to something."
" It's a long story. I was crashing in the pool house, and that was just temporary, but the pool house became storage, so then I had to move into the main house. All temporary."
" Isn't school in session?" Jess asked changing the subject, curious and confused.
" Mm-hmm."
" Why aren't you living on campus?"
" Because I'm not going."
" You graduated already, Doogie?"
" No, I'm just taking a little time off."
" Time off." Jess said slowly, as if trying it on.
" So where are you living Jess?" She asked moving to sit on the bed and he sat across from her on a chair.
" I want to know about you—Mystery Man."
" I'm in Philly."
" Really?"
" Don't laugh."
" No, I'm not. Philadelphia's gotten cool."
" And New York's gotten expensive. Anyways, it's a pretty cool scene in Philly now—lots of young people there. Pretty big art scene."
" I know, I read that in the New York Times. They had a picture of a bunch of young people standing on a roof, kind of eclectic and all. It looked fun. I mean, it was clearly one of those pictures that weren't candid. It was looking a little stiff, but they looked happy."
" Are you nervous?"
" A little. It's been a long time."
" I'm a little nervous too." Wow, new open Jess. I like this Jess.
" Good. I'm not alone."
" So, I didn't just come here to chat. I wanted to show you something." He grabbed his bag off the floor and looked for something in it.
" Right, you said that."
" I didn't think you'd believe it if I didn't show it to you in person."
" Well, color me curious." He handed her a small book.
" A book. The Subsect….written by Jess Mariano." She looked up at him, happy and confused.
" It's no misprint."
" You wrote a book?" She asked still in shock.
" A short novel."
" You wrote a book!"
" Through a fluke. Got it to these guys that have a small press. They read it, I don't know if they were high or something, but they decided to publish it."
" You wrote a book."
" There's no money in it. They only published like 500 of them. Believe me, I'm not quitting my day job." She flipped through the book, smiled, and then stood up.
" But you wrote it. You wrote a book."
" Yeah, I know. It's hard to believe."
" You sat down and wrote a novel."
" Author-distributed too. That's what I'm doing here. I'm going around begging independent bookstores to put it in stock. Got it in a few."
" Cool, where?" Rory asked excitedly.
" Around."
" I want to see it in the store."
" I'll give you the addresses."
" You know what I'm going to do when I see it in the store?"
" What?"
" You know the section towards the front—the staff recommendations? I'm going to grab a copy of your book and put it in that section. And then I'm going to write my own little recommendation and attach it, so people will buy it."
" Read it first. That way you can discourage people from buying it."
" No way! I know it's good. Jess you've got such a great brain. I knew that if you would just sit down and stop shaking it around, you could do something like this. I knew it, I knew it." She sat down and looked at him sincerely.
" I know you did. I work in that press now. Five smelly guys in a cramped room on Locust Street putting out about three books a month—but it's fun."
" What about a sequel? Are you going to write a sequel?"
" You should read it before you get too jazzed about it."
" Shh!" Rory looks over to the door then sighs. " Sorry. I thought I heard footsteps. I think we're okay."
" It's kind of late. I should go."
" It is kind of late." They both got up and stared at each other. I wish I could just kiss him…NO! You have a damn boyfriend! Stop thinking about kissing Jess!
" So, I just basically wanted to show you that. Tell you—tell you that I couldn't have done it without you." Rory's heart skipped a beat and she smiled at him.
" Thanks." She said quietly.
" I'm going to be around for a couple of days. Can we talk again? Preferably above a whisper." She smiled again.
" Yeah. How about tomorrow night?"
" 8:00 okay?"
" Yep."
" I'll sneak out on my own."
" Cool." He walked over to the door picked up the pillow and handed it to Rory, who hugged it.
" Oh hey—the book."
" Oh, that's yours." He whispered, then shut the door behind him. Rory smiled and went to lie down on the bed and started to read. Wow! He wrote a book! My Jess wrote a book! I wonder if he still loves me. Whoa! Where did that come from? Oh well, I still hope he does.
A photo can say a thousand thingsBut it can't say the million things I want to say
A photo can capture the way we were
But it can't capture the way we are
Cause you're far away
What it's like to know you
What it's like to touch you
When you told me that you loved me
were those just words
You can't tell me that you need me and I know that hurts
Cause I'm looking at your picture
Cause it's all I've got
Maybe one day you and me will have one more shot
Timing lost minutes and moments
And I might be lonely girl
But I'm not afraid
In a second
It all comes right back to me
Nothing's forgotten now
Yeah everything's saved
What it's like to touch you
What it's like to know you
When you told me that you loved me
were those just words
You can't tell me that you need me and I know that hurts
Cause I'm looking at your picture
Cause it's all I've got
Maybe one day you and me will have one more shot
You were my life
You were my faith
You gave me hope everyday
When you told me that you loved me
were those just words
You can't tell me that you need me and I know that hurts
Cause I'm looking at your picture
Cause it's all I've got
Maybe one day you and me will have one more shot
'A Photo' by Ryan Cabrera
(A/N) I know that a lot of people have already written how they would have liked this episode to go but I haven't so I decided to do it. I hope you liked it. Please, please, please review. If you do, I'll write a new chapter and post it. Reviewslove+more chapters.
