A/N: On with the show!

Disclaimer: The ideas presented are of my own sick and twisted mind. It just happens that they are with already made characters.

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They left the classroom in a mutual silence. These were an everyday occurrence for Rory, but the experience was new to Jess. He hadn't been to a class since he dropped out of high school. Not that he wanted to talk about that, but it's the only thing that came to mind.

"I can't believe they learn you things like that," Jess said, feeling slightly stupid.

"Learn you? You need to go back to school mister!" Rory laughed at his obvious error. The mediaeval lit class must have overwhelmed him a bit. "I knew you'd enjoy that."

"Enjoy? I never felt like I could be out-read, but I guess I was wrong," Jess shook his head and suddenly stopped walking.

Rory was startled and turned to see him standing a few feet behind her. "What's wrong? Did you really not like it?"

"No..it's just…" Jess was at a loss for words, something that didn't typically happen around Rory. They at least repeated the same word over and over, now he couldn't even get one out.

"Jess?" Rory sounded genuinely worried. "Come on, lets go back to my room and talk."

Jess nodded and they walked in silence back to her dorm. "There's too much to talk about," he said when they arrived in her room.

"I know…" Rory understood that at least. "But we'll have to sometime. We're going to Stars Hollow for dinner since you missed out last night. Mom said we should talk in the car, when neither of us could run away."

"Why do you two always have to be logical and right?" Jess wasn't as fed up as he sounded, he was just annoyed because he didn't think of that first. "Remind me to apologize for not showing up, I completely forgot about it while I was passed out."

"I think she understands…"

"Well…at least we're talking now. Although it's not what we need to be talking about."

"No, it's not, is it?" They sat down on the couch and faced each other. "Wait, is Paris here?" Rory didn't want a repeat of the morning.

"The note on the door just said 'Doyles'," Jess commented. "I guess that's a no?"

"Yeah..Doyle is her man."

"She snagged someone?"

"See, these are the things we need to talk about," Rory reasoned.

Jess shook his head, "As interesting as Paris is, I think we've just covered everything important about her. What we need to talk about is us."

"Well let's just be serious, huh."

"You know what I mean…" Jess paused, breathing in deeply. "I don't have any clue what's going on here. I don't know what's happening with us, I'm not even sure there is an 'us' for something to happen to. I know I want you Rory. I know I've wanted you since the first time I saw you sitting there in your room, since the first time you gave me a chance. I fell harder when we were together and I've never recovered. I don't want to recover. I want you and I want it to be like it was, but better."

"Whoa there buddy," Rory said, trying to lighten the mood. "Breathe."

"I want to know what's happened to you since I've been gone. I want you to know what's happened to me. I want to know what's going to happen with US. I am determined for there to be an us, a future for the two of us together. We can't do that if we don't know what happened to each other since I've been gone. I don't care if you've been an ax murderer, just tell me where the bodies are and I'll be sure to keep your secret. I will listen to you and take care of you and I just want to be WITH you."

Rory slouched back into the couch. "Jess…"

"Rory."

"There's so much. An hour's ride to Stars Hollow won't be enough time to even cover the week since you asked me to go away with you."

"So we'll start on the drive there," Jess said, standing up. "We can talk on the ride home and we can talk before we go to sleep and we can talk when we wake up...between classes, during meals. I don't care when we do, we have to say everything. I want to know every single thing, I don't care how bad you think it may be."

"Don't you have somewhere to go back to eventually? New York? California?" Rory sounded standoffish.

I'm scaring her. I am bearing my soul and it's scaring her. "You want me to go? I don't have anywhere to go. I left everything behind, not that there was much to leave behind. I left New York, there was nothing keeping me there. Do you know how many times I came to New Haven before I finally got up the nerve to leave my number? I didn't know how you'd react."

"Jess, you know me. You knew how I would react, that's why you left your number. In the back of your mind, you knew that I would call and that something like this would happen."

"I wasn't planning a beatdown, that's for sure," Jess said and touched his bruised face. "But you're right." He paused. "See! You are always right."

"I haven't always been that way; it's one of those things that happened in the years since you left."

"Rory?"

"Yeah?"

"Let's go home," Jess said, not realizing his choice of words.

"Home?" Rory raised her eyebrow, questioningly.

"Stars Hollow," Jess clarified.

Rory managed a little smile. "That's home?"

"It is now."

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Ok.. I know this was a short chapter. I felt that the closeness of the posts between chapters 7 and 8 would make up for this one being so short. I really didn't want to put anything else in with this chapter. I felt this conversation held so much information that it needed to be by itself. There are also a few hints in there on what's going to happen in the future. Some are very, very, very blatantly obvious, but I think one was a little trickier. Isn't that fun?

Review please! Reviews make the (fanfic) world go round!