A/N: Thanks for all your responses. :) It's confusing, I know. I'm hoping to clear that up.
Once the initial shock had passed and after several moments of mutual staring, Rory sighed heavily got up from the bench, turned and walked steadily away in the opposite direction. She thought she had made herself entirely clear the last time they had talked. She was glad she had put her feelings out there, but she had also made it very clear that she had no intention of going back. She had her life, he had his, and that had worked perfectly well for her for the last few years. She'd moved on. The fact that she'd admitted to loving him in the past, absolutely did not mean she still felt that way, nor that she wanted anything other than to get the confession off her chest. Rory kept repeating this to herself over, and over in her head, that meant it had to be true.
She stopped, turned, yelled "you did it to me," accusingly, and carried right on walking. She mentally cursed her slow responses. Why couldn't she have said that when he'd just asked the question? Rather than five minutes later making herself sound like an idiot.
When it became obvious that she had absolutely no intention of stopping, Jess marched off after her. "Rory, will you at least talk to me?"
She ignored him completely and continued walking, the fact that she wasn't really sure where she intended to go had crossed her mind, but she figured something would jump out at her eventually. If nothing else, she could call Paris and tell her a threatening looking man was following her. She was pretty sure Paris wouldn't remember Jess, and she was quite possibly threatening enough that she'd scare him away.
"Rory!" She glanced over her shoulder at him momentarily. He still had the same irrepressible swagger, all the same traits that had undeniably attracted her to him before. It had been less than a month since she had seen him last and even then she was struck by just how little he had changed.
Jess jogged to catch up with her. She was surprisingly speedy considering her hatred of most forms of exercise. "Ignoring me isn't going to make me go away," he was by her side by this point, matching her speed pace for pace.
"Yeah, well… doesn't mean I'm not going to try," Rory muttered. Calling Paris was only a last resort, after all.
Rory subtly took sideways glances into car wing mirrors and any reflective windows as she walked. She turned back to him again as they reached the courtyard, "you do realise that what you're doing constitutes as stalking in all fifty states?"
"I'm not stalking, I'm visiting." He shrugged, cocking his head to the side as he looked at her "nice campus. Hasn't changed a bit."
Rory huffed in frustration. "When the visitor is uninvited and refuses to leave, it's called stalking." She reached the coffee stand, ordered a small mocha from the bewildered-looking server, and pointedly ignored her new Jess-shadow.
"You change your mind," He leaned in close over her shoulder, slipping a piece of paper into the back pocket of her jeans. "I'll be around."
Lorelai jogged up the steps of the inn, post in hand, rifling through to see if there was anything of interest. That was, anything that didn't seem Bill-shaped, her mind went off on a brief tangent over whether Peter or Shane-shaped envelopes would be any more interesting, but dragged herself back quickly when she opened the door.
She blinked, shook her head, and blinked some more.
"Michel?" She eyed up the figure that was semi-prostate across the inn's hall floor, semi, because he seemed to be trying to avoid having his suit touch the floor, while getting his ear as near to the ground as he could. It simply ended up looking like he was sticking his butt in the air on purpose. Yoga without the any of the grace normally associated with the activity.
When he didn't respond she took another step over the threshold, "Michel?"
"Yis."
"Uh, if it's not a silly question," she made her way a little closer bending down to be nearer his level. She lowered her voice slightly, in that way you do when you think you might be talking to a crazy-person and don't want to hurt their feelings, just in case they decide to turn their attention to you. "What are you doing Michel?"
"Leesening to the floor." He responded, as if this should answer any and all queries.
She nodded slowly in apparent understanding. "Does it have psychological issues? Abandoned by uncaring parents, always the last picked in high school sports? I bet it's been just waiting for you to be there to introduce it to the concept of Freud." Lorelai was having a problem suppressing her grin by this point.
Michel did not look impressed. "No. Do not be stupeed. It was making noizes."
"Did it maybe, creak? Because unfortunately that's just a floor thing we can't counsel it for th-", she stopped abruptly. "Oh, my god, what was that?" She dropped to her hands and knees, placing her ear to the floor.
"I tink we 'ave rodents," Michel shuddered a little at the very thought, "deesgusting creatures. Eating everyteeng in sight, and leaving leetle droppings left, reight and center." He pulled a horrified face at the very idea. Mice apparently did not make for a happy germ-phobic Frenchman. She hadn't expected that he would, but she also hadn't seen the neuroses firsthand before.
Lorelai groaned, "this is just what I do not need right now."
Michel looked up at Lorelai grumpily. "I do not want zis either. I tink Sookie should not be allowed her food. It attracts pests."
"Michel, we need Sookie, and her food, to actually run this place. Different strategy, please." She moved her ear a little to the left, as close to the ground as she could realistically manage.
"I weel call someone later to come look," He responded glibly.
"Good answer," Lorelai shifted in an attempt to make her posture more bearably comfortable and still be able to hear the noise.
A couple of guests chose that moment to walk around the corner from the dining room, jaws falling a little slack at the sight of the two people apparently choosing to practise 'Twister' without the mat, in the middle of the lobby floor that morning.
Lorelai jumped up looking somewhat awkward, "just checking the polish." She grinned at the small group. "I hope you had a wonderful breakfast, enjoy the rest of your stay at the Dragonfly!"
She smiled as they made their way back up the stairs. The grin soon fell, replaced with a perturbed look as she turned to walk to the front desk, leaving Michel to track the movement of whatever was living under their floorboards. The appearance of visitors didn't seem to have fazed him in the slightest. There was something about the French man and germy things. The possibility of their presence in close proximity to him made Michel far more inclined to do ridiculous things, things that may even involve getting a smudge of dust on his jacket. Perish the thought.
She ran a finger over the calendar scanning it briefly, she was sure there was something she was missing. She shrugged it off and made a note on a post-it to call someone about checking under the floors. She certainly wasn't intending to do the searching herself. It was dirty and creepy down there at the best of times, having an infestation of something alive beneath their feet made it increasingly less attractive.
"Hey, there was a chicken delivery this morning, right? It was supposed to arrive this morning. I wanted to serve it for lunch. I really need it to be here." Sookie peered over Lorelai's shoulder at the diary. "Is it down there?"
"Sookie, morning!" Lorelai purposely ignored her friends frantic flailing, and continued to scan her eyes over the computer screen.
"Morning, order?" She persisted.
"I don't see it here, sorry Honey." Lorelai paused, "are we missing something. I feel like we're missing something." She moved on from the computer to the diary sitting on the desk.
"Yeah, chicken! That's what we're missing," Sookie chose that moment to catch sight of Michel's public display of flexibility, "and sanity. We're lacking in sanity."
Still distracted, Lorelai looked at her panicked friend, "Right, right," and with that she pushed the diary away across the desk, in an attempt to stop herself from obsessing. "I'll get someone to do a run over to Doose's and pick up chicken, okay?"
Sookie nodded, "just make sure they get the best Taylor has… and they have to transport it in a cool bag. It gets to over 7 degrees, it's useless." She started to turn away, "and, have them get it free range, drug free, and none of those weird bastings on it," she added.
"Sure," Lorelai replied distractedly, tipping her head to the side as if a change in position would help take out her mental block.
"—and, not frozen, either," Sookie added. "Do you want to write that all down, make sure whoever you send will get it right?"
Lorelai finally dragged her head fully out of the clouds. "I'll go get it, Sookie. My brain is very sponge-like, I promise…" She then continued to elaborate, "except not in that sponges-are-fish capacity. I can normally think for longer than three seconds. In the sponge-sponge kinda way, I soak up information."
"I got that." Sookie sighed, apparently relieved, "that would be great, thanks." She smiled broadly, patting Lorelai's shoulder before making her way back to the kitchen.
Lorelai stood still, watching her leave for a moment. She gave a final fleeting look at the diary, pulled her keys from her purse again and headed off on a chicken search. She was sure she'd remember whatever it was soon enough.
"I am not making man-eggs for you!" By this stage, Luke could pretty much pin-point the exact phrase that would act as a response. He knew it almost from the moment the words came out of his mouth.
"Dirty," Lorelai grinned, leaning back against his chest.
Yep, there it was. He bit back a smile, "still not doing it." Luke shifted on the couch arms tightening around her body.
She gasped, turning her head up towards him, "not even for me?"
"Much as I love you, no. What is this?" He asked jerking his head at the TV. His attempt at a distraction technique failed miserably. He hadn't really expected it to work, but anything was worth a try. Egg decorating for a town event, was quite possibly his idea of hell.
"What if I bat my eyelashes real nice?" She ran a hand down his thigh, with a seductive smile.
"Nope," he grunted. "Are you ever going to drop this?"
Lorelai rolled over, draping an arm across his chest. "You can even put them in a baseball cap and flannel shirts if you want?"
"That doesn't attract me to the idea any more than the glitter and feathers did. When's Rory getting back?"
Lorelai sighed, dropping her head back down onto his shoulder and appearing to give up. "She said, this afternoon. I'm beginning to think she was lying, because it's now coming up to 5pm, and she is somewhere that isn't here." She wasn't to know that Rory was currently camped out in her apartment, with Jess sat in his car across the street. "I'll call her if she isn't here in an hour, make sure she--"
The brash rings of the phone cut off her words. Lorelai groaned, burying her face into Luke's chest. "Do I have to get that," she mumbled.
Luke grunted, "I can get it, but either way, you're gonna have to move."
"Right, ungh," she pushed herself up and padded over to the phone cradle, "You better be thinking about your rolling technique!" she called over her shoulder, picking it up and balancing it between her shoulder and her ear as she collected up a couple of mugs from the side table.
Rory had decided not to mention Jess' presence before, hoping that she would be able to figure out something else before telling anyone became an issue. Unfortunately, he wasn't as flaky as she had been banking on.
He'd turned up just before she was about to leave for Stars Hollow, and hadn't left yet. She wasn't exactly sure what he was doing, but she knew that if she went out there now, he'd want to talk again. She might have also been using the opportunity to keep an eye on him. It wasn't exactly the nicest area, and while she was sure Jess was perfectly capable of looking after himself, she still peeked out the window every ten minutes or so. Just in case. Not that she cared, of course.
It came round to four-thirty and Rory gave up. She'd been sat here for two hours with a packed bag listening to Paris rant on about someone in one of her lectures who had been holding the entire class up by asking so many questions. The girl really was in need of a good anger management class. Mentioning this to Paris would probably result in getting herself kicked out of the apartment, again. So she kept the thought firmly in her head.
She quickly dialled the home number pressing her cell phone to her ear, it rang several times before finally being answered, "hey, Mom."
Lorelai perked up immediately, placing the mugs on the side by the sink and heading back into the sitting room. "Rory, hey. I was about to call, find out why you stood me up."
"It wasn't a standing up, so much as a postponement," Rory peered out of the window. "I have a visitor."
"Anyone I know?" Lorelai questioned, leaning against the staircase as she spoke.
"Uh, yeah, Jess." Rory bit her lip, waiting for the response. She walked away from the window and sat down on the sofa.
Lorelai's mouth fell open, "Jess, Jess?" Luke looked up suddenly from the magazine he had been scanning at her words.
Rory frowned at the stupidity of the question, waving a hand at the window in frustration. "Yes, Jess, Jess. How many Jess's do I know?"
"I don't know." Lorelai was all but pouting, "you could be holding out on me." There was a long pause, "sooo?" she prompted, pushing herself away from the banister with her free hand.
"Can I meet you at Friday night dinner instead?" Rory asked. Obviously she wasn't quite up for debating the subject of Jess and his motivations quite yet. She was still trying to come up with of a way to get out of the apartment without him realising, so she didn't have to deal with talking to him. Right now, she was all for avoidance of her issues.
Lorelai pulled a face, not particularly impressed about being so out of the loop. "Will I get more explanation later?"
"Uh, sure," Rory started making her way over to the window again, before mentally stopping herself and walking back to the couch.
"Okay then. I'll see you in a few hours." Lorelai put down the phone with a sigh. That had been one of the oddest conversations they'd had in a long while. She shook her head, suddenly noticing the calendar on the table by the phone cradle, she took a closer look. It was only then she realised what it was she was missing.
