Tiny A/N: 5 reviews later, here you go! The Declaration of Independence is at the end of this chapter, this is just a slap on the back for those 5 reviewers.

Disclaimer: Characters and other such stuff is not mine, the situation is.

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Jess got out of the car and went around to open Rory's door. She followed him up to Lorelai's house. They stood on the porch and Jess caught Rory staring at him. "Rory?"

"Oh, yeah," she said and tentatively opened the door. "Mom? We're here." She walked in and he followed her inside, closing the door behind them.

"Hi sweetie!" Lorelai said, poking her head around the corner from the kitchen. "Dinner's not…ready…yet."

Jess tried to hide his laugh, but he couldn't contain it. "We'll come back," he said, grabbing Rory's arm and pushing her to the door.

"Jess, what?" Rory said, oblivious to the situation.

He just shook his head and opened the door, getting her out on the porch. "Lorelai said dinner wasn't ready, let's go," Jess grabbed her hand and lead her away from the house. "Follow me."

"I'm not going anywhere until you tell me what's going on. Something funky happened in there," she put her free hand on her hip, standing her ground.

"Come on Ror," Jess laughed at the absurdity of this. Typically Rory would have figured it out by now. "I'll tell you when we get there."

Rory just glared at him but followed voluntarily. "Where are we going?" Jess didn't say anything, but just walked through the town still holding her hand. "Oh," she said when he suddenly stopped walking.

Jess took her to the bridge. It was the place where they had spent so much time together, the one place in Stars Hollow that he had always liked. "Come on," he grasped her hand tighter and walked out to the middle of the bridge. "No underwater dining," they laughed together.

"Let's sit," she took the initiative and pulled him down. Jess sat across from her, staring into her eyes. "You make me nervous when you do that…"

"Okay," he said and dropped his eyes around a foot. "You're right, that's better!"

"Jess!" She pulled his hand, and he looked back up to her face. "We have to be serious now."

Rory looked sad, like she really didn't want to tell him more. "Rory, please don't be sad. Hey, why don't I tell you why we had to leave Lorelai's? I promised I would when we got here."

She tilted her head, "Yeah… What happened back there? Since when are you in cahoots with my mom?"

"I'm not in cahoots with her, it just so happens I noticed she was naked."

"Naked?" Rory's eyes bugged out of her head. Jess laughed when she tried to shake away the image. "How…why…what?"

"Wow, you must really be anxious about what you're going to tell me if you didn't realize your mom was totally not cooking dinner with Luke. She put her head around the corner, she didn't come out to greet you like she usually would. There was also no shirt showing, no bra or anything…" He laughed again at Rory's reaction to the 'cooking dinner' comment.

"Ewwww…and I have to EAT in that kitchen! Oh no, what if they were doing it in my room?" Her face scrunched up at the mental image.

"I'm sure they weren't," Jess said and stroked her palm. "Feel better now?"

Rory sighed and leaned towards him. "Well not really."

Jess leaned forwards and gave her a hug. She turned around and looked up to the stars. "I'm here, you're fine…" Jess moved her head to his lap and played with her hair.

They sat like that for a few minutes in silence. Rory closed her eyes and Jess continued playing with her hair. "I slept with him," she said quickly.

Jess's hand faltered but then kept going. He could see the tears starting to roll down her cheeks. She rolled on to her side, which didn't look very comfortable. She grasped his leg and pulled herself into a fetal position. "Jess," she whispered while sobbing. "I'm so sorry, I.." She stopped talking, overcome by her tears.

"Ror," Jess didn't understand exactly what she said. "I'm trying to listen, but you.. I love you, you know?"

Rory nodded and continued crying. "I slept with Dean. Right after you left. He was married. I was so stupid."

"You could never be stupid," he tried to comfort her. He leaned down and tried to kiss her but she was too far away. "Rory," he whispered to her. "Rory, sit up." He wasn't stern or angry, he just wanted to be able to actually hold her. Jess grabbed under her arms gently and pulled her up to a sitting position. He wrapped his arms around her body as she collapsed into him.

Jess rocked her back and forth until her body stopped shaking. He pulled her away a bit so he could look into her eyes. "Rory, what else happened? Tell me as much as you can before dinner. We can talk later, but right now we need to get as much as we can out in the open."

"Oh Jess… Right after you came to Yale, Mom and Sookie opened the Dragonfly. They had everyone over for dinner and a test run of the inn. Dean was working there because he works for Tom and…"

"Just breathe. You know I'm here for you."

"He told me his marriage was failing. That he and Lindsay were having problems, and that they probably weren't going to be together much longer. I..we.. We went back to Mom's and had love-less sex. I became the other woman, like you were the other man…but only a million times worse. I don't know if I loved him. I know he didn't love me."

"I'm sure he did. How could someone not love you?" Jess said as he tilted her face up so he could look in her eyes.

"He was married!" Rory cried and started sobbing again.

Jess held her close and patted her back. "You were with him when you found me," he said. Maybe he was just getting back at her for that? He couldn't help that thought, but he wasn't going to tell Rory. "Anything else?" he asked when she slowed her crying.

"You know I could talk forever…"

"Well your last name is Gilmore."

Rory backed away from him and playfully hit him on the shoulder. "And as a Gilmore, I take offense to that. And..I'm starving!"

"Let's just hope Luke and Lorelai have finished 'cooking'," Jess said and laughed when he saw her face scrunch up in disgust for the second time.

She punched him in the shoulder again but a little harder than the first time. "I bare my soul to you, dehydrate myself by crying, and embarrass myself to no end…and then you just have to remind me that I caught my mom having sex? You are sick and twisted, mister. You're lucky I don't pull a Luke and push you off this bridge."

"Go ahead. If I go, you're going down with me," Jess said and wrapped his arm around her waist as they stood and walked back to Lorelai's.

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Whee! I have been so kindly reminded by my best friend that I really am a review whore. You guys were so diligent in giving me the five! Can I ask for ten? Pretty please? Don't worry about it too much though, cos I'll probably just post again tomorrow. I have to work out the next chapter (I was lucky I already started writing this before the reviews poured in). I foresee this story as going on for quite a while (many many chapters are left). I have so many ideas. I want this to happen and that to happen and I don't see some of the things happening anytime soon! That's good news for you though! ACK! Declaration of Independence style AN, sorry. Now, in your reviews, please do me a favor: I'm thinking of writing Jess's book (I already have the prologue posted, go read it if you haven't!), and I don't know if I should start it yet. It would be longer to update because it would require more actual research…but I want to know if anyone would like to read it. Thanks!
I really don't mean to have such long ANs but I love talking to my readers! I had another question for you all...do you like chapters like this (and the last few) that only had one scene...or do you like chapters that have more than one scene (Chapter 4 for example):D I just want to make you happy!

Thanks peoples! You don't understand how much I appreciate the hit count rising and the review alerts in my email. You're boosting my confidence to unknown levels!