AN: It's been forevars.

Disclaimer: I wish it was mine.

The time ticked down on the clock and the three couples found themselves standing all in a group, staring. The band had taken a break and they weren't scheduled to come back until the last hour. That was another hour away too; most of them couldn't believe that they had already made it through 22 hours of dancing.

After the midway coffee break, they had stuck together, keeping the large dance moves to a minimum. The tables had turned on the deadweight though; the men were now the ones a little tired. Jess hadn't stayed up all night seen he was cramming for his finals at SUNY. Luke always went to bed at a normal time and would be getting up around now, considering it was four in the morning. Dave and Lane, on the other hand, regularly stayed up all night…it just happened to be that caffeine had a much larger effect on Lane than it did Dave.

"Remind me again why we're awake at four?" Rory said, arms wrapped around a sleepy Jess. "This is going to throw off my whole schedule."

"Doesn't this fit right in to your schedule? Remember finals week?" Lorelai reminded her. "Lets just not try to move Luke's again, I think my brain pulled something last time."

"That's assuming there was a something in your brain to pull!" Rory laughed and squeezed Jess in the process, extracting a loud groan.

Jess started to stand on his own and took her arms off from around him, still holding on to her hands. "Coffee," he grunted.

"See what this is doing to us?" Rory joked with Lorelai as she and Jess walked over to the coffee stand. "So…"

"24 hours seems a lot shorter when you're sitting down,"

"And when the music is good,"

"That's true, what happened to the band?" Jess asked, looking over to the empty stage. A drunken Taylor and a very happy Miss Patty were the only people left. "What did I miss?"

"You've only been out of it for an hour or so…" Rory smiled and lead them back to the group. Jess wrapped his arm around her waist and playfully bumped up against her.

Tilting his head over to her ear, he whispered, "When we get home…"

"Oh yeah?" Rory said, before he could finish.

"You owe me for this," he said and leaned his head back up, winking at her. "Just wait."

"Wait for what?" Lane asked, overhearing the last part of their conversation. Rory shook her head, 'no,' and smiled. "Oh."

"That's my girl," Lorelai added, knowing exactly what they were talking about. "Are you going to close down the diner so nobody can hear?" Luke perked up at the word 'diner' but leaned his head back on Lorelai's shoulder.

Jess, having time to get the caffeine in his system, replied, "Everybody in this crazy town is here. When we get to go home, they get to go home. We're all going to bed. The diner's closed."

"That was a lot of words, did it hurt?"

Jess just rolled his eyes at Lorelai, "Plus, we're not that loud."

A blush immediately rose to Rory's cheeks and Lorelai giggled. "I beg to differ!" she said loudly and burst out laughing. "It's going to be great when you're in your own apartment, isn't it?"

"It's going to be fantastic," Rory said with a large smile on her face. "Too bad we have to wait another month to move in!"

"And then we don't get much time before school starts," Jess added.

"You know all of Stars Hollow is proud of you for that, right?" Lorelai asked.

The tables had turned and it was now Jess who was blushing. "He knows," Rory said with a nod, "Now let's make them proud for something else." She led them away from the group, out to the middle of the dance floor. "Let's win this."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

When Rory and Jess went off by themselves, they left Lorelai trying to wake up Luke. Lane and Dave were staring at each other, contemplating how much they really wanted to win this, compared to going home and staying in bed for the next twenty four hours. The contemplation didn't last long, and they both said goodbye to Luke, Lorelai, Rory and Jess.

Another hour went by and there were only four couples left when the band began again for the final hour. There was Luke and Lorelai, Rory and Jess, Kirk and some random woman, and a couple that nobody had really seen before. It was kind of like Danny Zuko and the dark-haired woman in Grease. They were stealing the show and everybody was looking on in jealousy.

Lorelai wanted the trophy very badly, but Luke couldn't even stand on his own anymore. All of the other couples were still managing to dance a bit, and Lorelai saw the title slipping through her fingers. "Come here," she called to her daughter.

Rory and Jess boogied over to Lorelai, "What's up?" Jess asked.

"I'm going to lose!" Lorelai whispered. "I know it. Dinerman over here is about to topple over. I can't last another hour."

"More coffee?" Rory suggested, eliciting a head-shake out of Lorelai. "Oh… But you have to win this. You have to!"

Jess took Rory's hand and leaned in to whisper something in her ear. Lorelai looked on, worried. "What are you saying?"

Rory smiled at something Jess said and she turned to her mom. "Don't worry about winning, Mom. You'll get your trophy."

Lorelai brightened up a bit but was still obviously disappointed that she had to quit. She wasn't a quitter. "I trust you." She said and shook Luke to wake him up just a bit. "Let's go sit down."

Luke grumbled something that wasn't even English, but she quickly shushed him. "Let's go."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

With Luke and Lorelai on the sidelines, Jess knew what this really meant now. He and Rory had to win and it would be a victory for both couples. The Grease couple had started to slow down, which was good because there was only around a half hour left. Kirk and his mystery woman were still dancing around, like they hadn't been doing the same thing for the last twenty-three and a half hours. "They need to stop showing off," he said to Rory, swinging her back and forth slowly. They weren't going to break contact at any costs, so their hips stayed attached and they were hugging quite like Rory had done with Lorelai at the first dance marathon he witnessed.

Jess turned his head to the side and kissed her forehead, thinking back to that night…day…whatever.

"She's not my girlfriend anymore," Dean spat at him before leaving Rory alone on the dance floor, stunned. Those words, despite how much they obviously hurt Rory, were the best ones he had heard in a long time. Until then he kept hearing how he couldn't have her…the one thing he wanted in Stars Hollow.

The little rant Dean went on was entirely true, and he was kind of surprised that the towering imbecile had actually paid attention to what was going on between them. Seeing Rory alone on the dance floor, he just wanted to scoop her up and take her for his own. Too bad she left before he could. When she left like that, Jess knew he had to find her, because Dean was right, they needed to be together. Thank god for that bridge…

"We got together because of the last marathon," he said, smiling. "Do you remember?"

"How could I forget?"

"I always wondered why we didn't get together before then," he stated. Rory looked up into his eyes, which were in the process of narrowing into slits. "I was just asking!"

"But you do know why!" she said, agitated.

"Yeah, but do you remember Dean's speech? 'You've been into him since he got into town,' he said. 'Everyone can see,' he said. You knew I liked you, I knew you liked me. I could tell. Why didn't we get together sooner?"

"Good things come in time," was all she said.

"Well I don't want to end up like your mom and Luke. I can't help but think if I had tried harder to get you that we wouldn't have had that long time apart."

Rory shook her head, "I remember everything that he said. I remember everything that has to do with you. But…Look at us. We're not them. We're together. I'm not worrying, and you shouldn't either. Maybe the time apart made us into the kind of people who will actually be able to stay together. We were so young then."

"I wasn't the kind of person who would stay," he said sadly.

"But now you are," Rory said softly and kissed him on the neck. "I love you – the you now and the you then."

"Look!" Jess said, excited. He raised one hand off her waist and pointed to the mystery couple. They were in the middle of some stupid swing-dancing move and the guy had tripped. "One couple down!"

Rory looked over her shoulder at the fallen couple and turned back to stare at Jess. "I'll take that as an 'I love you too'..."

Jess rolled his eyes and wrapped both arms around her again. "I love you too, Ror," he said sweetly into her ear and gave her a small kiss. "You know that."

She nodded a bit and rested her head back on his chest.

"I was just thinking…" he said, causing Rory to giggle. "Hey! I was thinking…what happens if there's two couples left at hour 24?"

Rory's mouth opened to answer and there was a loud crash over by the stage. "What was that?" she asked instead of answering. The couple's attention shifted to the commotion and both of their heartbeats quickened. Kirk's dancing partner was standing next to a pile of people connected to instruments, none of her body touching a nowhere-to-be-seen Kirk. "We…"

"We won?" Jess finished, surprised.

"We WON!" Rory screeched and grabbed Jess's hand to run over to the stage. She completely ignored the fallen band members and started yelling at Miss Patty, who was slumped over in her chair. "WE WON, COME ON! WE WON!"

While Miss Patty startled awake, Jess twirled Rory around and proceeded to squeeze her and kiss her. They came up for air just as Taylor blew his blow-horn and woke up the entire gymnasium. "We have our winners!" he announced, pointing to the making-out couple. "Ah-hem," he cleared his throat into the microphone. "A victory lap?"

The grin on Rory's face widened and she reached up for the trophy and dragged Jess over to where Luke and Lorelai were standing. The excitement on Lorelai's face was palpable; she stood and hugged Rory, all the while touching the trophy.

"Go on your victory lap," he said to the mother-daughter pair. "I'm just glad it's over." He faked the bad attitude and plopped down next to the sleeping Luke. Jess looked on as the two made their way around the gymnasium with their trophy, applause erupting from the remaining spectators.

By the time they returned to him on the sidelines, Jess was thoroughly ready to go home. "Remember what you promised earlier?" he asked, embracing Rory.

Rory blushed and went on her toes to kiss him. Jess wrapped his arm around her waist again and they gave the trophy to Lorelai before leaving the gym to their temporary apartment. Promises were made to keep.

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It's finals week! I stopped here so I could read my speech book. Yay for finally updating, right? Yay for Rory and Jess winning. Look forward to some sexiness as the beginning of the next chapter. Also, I had an awesome drama-inducing stuff for the next few chapters and kinda forgot it because it's been so long. So you know what that means! I want IDEAS people! Gimme! Tell me what you want to see and you will SEE IT. I don't know if I should skip some more time or what, just let me know.

Also, I thought about stopping this story when they move in together and starting a new one with their life when school starts. Would you like that or just continue on this one? I also have another idea coming up in my head that I'm doing for a challenge so… yeah. Tell me what you want.

And, Review por favor. I love reviews and I would LOVE suggestions in the reviews. Thanks!