Chapter 6- That'll Do, Dean

Jess wrapped an arm over Rory's shoulder, leaning in and kissing her on the cheek. She smiled up at him, and slung her own arm around his neck. She kissed him, bringing her other hand to his back. Smirking, he returned her kiss readily, and proceeded to make his way down her neck.

Basically, they were attempting to walk down the street and productively make-out at the same time. Was it working? Debatable.

"You know what just occurred to me?" she asked in-between kisses, "That we are very fortunate to have good teeth."

"Yes, very fortunate," he replied absently, continuing his ministrations.

"Can you imagine if braces were involved in this interaction?" she smiled.

"It'd be a bloodbath."

She broke away for a second, breathing labored, "I can't catch my breath."

He smirked, "You're not supposed to."

Shooting him a playful look, she continued, "Hey, listen, Thursday night is the Stars Hollow High Winter Carnival."

She looked at him expectantly.

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah, I thought we could go, meet Lane there."

He sighed, but otherwise didn't consider her suggestion, "Nope."

"But it'd be really fun. They'll have really bad games and really bad food and the marching band will play and –"

He cut her off, "Rory, I'm doing some of my best work here and you're just talking right through it."

She raised her eyebrows, "Come on. Just for a little while. You didn't come to the Christmas Party at the Inn last month; this'll make up for it."

He paused for a second, contemplating. "I don't do these town things. I don't fit in."

"A few hours tops. We can mock all the bad music and watch the kids humiliating themselves. Afterwards, we can do whatever you want to do."

"Anything?" he asked suggestively, smirking.

She cocked her head to the side and smiled coyly, "Well, I guess you'll just have to find out. Are you coming to the carnival or not?"

Rolling his eyes, he reluctantly agreed, "Fine. We'll go, mock, and be back. No dawdling. Deal?"

She grinned and kissed him. Pulling back, she nodded, "Deal."

-

-

-

The couple was walking into the diner, arms wrapped around each other.

Rory was laughing at something Jess said, presumably about some ridiculous movie they'd recently seen.

"So, you want some help with your homework?" he offered.

She gave him a 'You're kidding me' look, "You're going to help me? "

"Yup." He nodded.

"Don't take this the wrong way, but how?"

"Come upstairs and I'll show you," he said, pointing to the staircase.

She smiled, "Upstairs?"

"Yeah."

She bit her lip, "Well, you know how important my education is to me…"

He gave her a small grin, "Yes, I do."

Just as she was about to follow him up the stairs, Lorelai came barging in the diner, hands full of shopping bags. "Rory, hey. Thank God, I need help. Where're you going?"

Rory gave Jess an apologetic smile and detached herself from him. She turned to her mom, "Nowhere."

Jess headed towards the counter with a quick, "See ya," while Rory plopped herself down next to Lorelai at a table.

"Were you guys gonna go upstairs and kiss?" Lorelai taunted, grinning deviously.

Rory tried to change the subject, "Wow, look at all the bags."

It worked.

"Yes, I went shopping for my father's birthday present today, which was great for about fifteen minutes, until it all came back to me."

"What?"

"The fact that I totally suck at buying my father presents," Lorelai stated simply.

"He'll like whatever you get him," Rory assured her, redirecting her eyes to Jess who was filling up someone's coffee mug. She noticed he had a book in his back pocket, but couldn't quite make out the title.

"Rory? You in there?" Lorelai waved her hand in front of her daughter's face.

Shaking her head, she brought her gaze back to Lorelai, "Yeah. Sorry. What was it you were showing me?"

"Option number one – a state of the art, high tech, titanium bathroom scale."

Rory gave her an incredulous look.

"What? He has weight," Lorelai pointed out.

"Yes, but I'm not sure that his birthday is the time to remind him of it."

Lorelai sighed and dug in her bag for the second choice. While she was doing this, Rory looked back at Jess' pocket, curious at what book he was reading. She leaned back in her chair, until…

Crash!

Rory scrambled off of the floor, a deep crimson blush rising in her cheeks. All eyes turned to her, including her boyfriends' who had a smug smirk to go with it.

She quickly got back into her chair, keeping her head ducked and avoiding everyone's gaze.

Lorelai intervened. "Hey, people- nothing to look at. Wouldn't want your delicious food deprived of the attention it deserves."

A few people gave Lorelai strange looks, but she ignored it and faced her daughter. Leaning in, she said, "What was that about?"

Rory fought down a groan, "Nothing. I wanted to see what book he was reading and I just lost my balance."

"It kinda looked to me as if you were staring at his a…"

Rory cut her off, "Nope."

"I mean, it would be okay if you were- he is your boyfriend," she said.

"Again, nope. It was all very innocent. PG…G, really," Rory assured.

Lorelai sighed and went back to her bags, "Okay, if that's what you say."

"It is." Rory snuck a look at Jess who was standing at the counter, ringing up some man's order. He gave her a suggestive smirk, and she had to fight to suppress her blush.

She averted her attention back to Lorelai's purchases, "What else did you get?"

"Oh, well…" Lorelai continued to suggest different ideas, all ridiculous, each one more so than the last, so in the end, Rory offered to do the gift-shopping for her.

Lorelai agreed happily, "Ugh, my God, I love you. You are my angel."

"I'll forever be known as that. Don't forget."

-

-

-

"Hey, Mom?"

"Yeah?"

"Where did all these things come from?" Lorelai walked into her daughter's room and saw that she was pointing to all the stuff Dean brought by earlier.

"Oh, um…Dean dropped it off a few hours ago. I guess it's really over between you two."

Rory shrugged, "It has been for awhile. I'm with Jess, now."

"Yeah, but…I dunno, I just kept thinking that you and Dean might become you and Dean again." A beat, "You have before."

"No, definitely not. Dean is one hundred percent over. It was nice while it lasted, but I'm not going down that road again," Rory said.

Lorelai sat down on Rory's bed, "Okay. But, isn't this a little strange for you?"

"What?" Rory asked, wrinkling her brow.

She motioned between the box and Rory, "Just this. Dean bringing the stuff back, the whole end of relationship give-back thing."

"Not really." Rory opened the box and peeked inside. Seeing something, she bent down and picked it up.

"Hey! My Bjork CD! I was looking for that!" she exclaimed.

Lorelai got up and went over to where Rory was kneeling down with the stuff. "You know, it really is okay to be a little weirded out."

"Mom, I'm perfectly okay. I made the right decision regarding Dean and Jess, and I'm happier now with Jess than I ever was with Dean. Especially seeing how cruel he was to Jess." She mumbled the last part angrily.

Lorelai frowned, "What do you mean?"

"Did I never tell you?" At Lorelai's shake of the head, she continued. "Way back at thanksgiving, I heard Dean totally almost threaten Jess saying stuff like, 'I don't have to be nice to you anymore' and 'This is my town, not yours, and I'm not hiding.' Jess didn't do anything; he was just taking out the trash!"

"Dean said that? That doesn't sound like him."

"I know, but I saw it with my own eyes. I realized that he has a side I don't want to get to know, and that it was good I broke it off then," Rory said sadly.

"Wow. It's just…I didn't expect it."

Rory set the CD on her bed and sighed, "Me neither. But I should have. I never really believed that all those disagreements and fights he and Jess had were always Jess' fault. Maybe if I realized it sooner…"

"Yeah." Lorelai leaned against the bed and sighed, as well. "Maybe I didn't give Jess enough credit and Dean too much."

Rory looked at her mom, surprised, "Does this mean that you'll be nicer to Jess, now?"

Lorelai took a look at her daughter's eager face and couldn't say no, "I'll try. No promises, but I'll do my best to see what you see in him. Okay?"

"Thanks."

"No problem," Lorelai responded sincerely. They smiled at each other and all was okay. For now, anyway.

-

-

-

Luke looked up from wiping the counters when he heard the bell above the door chime. Seeing it was Rory, he waved the rag in the general direction of the stairs and told her to go one up. She flashed him a quick smile before bouncing up the stairs. As he was about to knock, the door swung open, revealing a surprised Jess.

"Well, hello," she said, backing up towards the wall so he could get past.

He gave her a half-smile and pecked her gently on the mouth. "Ready to go?"

"Yup. Just coming to get you."

He nodded and she followed, taking his hand. Rory waved a small goodbye to Luke and trialed behind Jess out the door.

She ran into him as she stepped outside. "Why'd you stop?" she asked.

He merely pointed to the carnival outside. "You've got to be kidding me? There's a bottle toss. And a snow cone machine. And oh, no- it's just a fortune teller."

She frowned, "I think it's cute."

"It's like I'm Dorothy and that…place out there is Oz. I think I even see the tin man out there," he complained sarcastically.

She squinted her eyes to get a better look, "No, that's just Kirk. The psychic must have told him that aliens are gonna invade Stars Hollow again."

"Of course."

"Look, you said you'd come to this thing. If you don't wanna be here, leave," she defended.

Jess sighed, "No. I may not want to be at this festival, thing, but you do, so I'm going to try to be…semi-pleasant."

She shot him a hopeful look, "Promise?"

He kissed her softly on the mouth. "I'll even pinky swear."

"Nah, I believe you." She stretched up to let her lips meet his again. He smirked before closing the gap between their faces and responded to her kiss. Just as it was starting to get a little deeper, they heard loud stomping footsteps. Breaking apart, they looked towards the direction of the noise.

The source of their interruption was none other than a little blonde girl with the name of Clara.

Rory gave him an apologetic smile and turned towards Dean's sister. "Hey."

"Hi, Rory!" She looked at Jess questioningly, "Who's he?"

Rory stepped in, "That's Jess." She faced Jess, "This is Clara, Dean's-"

She was disrupted by said brother. "Sorry, she got away from me."

"Buy a stronger leash," Jess smirked.

Dean rolled his eyes and ignored Jess. He turned to Rory. "Hey."

She glanced worriedly between Jess and Dean. "Hi," she said awkwardly.

Dean tried to strike up a conversation, "Uh, did you see they got the crazy psychic from Woodbury again?"

"Yeah, Jess and I were just talking about her." She noticed that Jess looked like he was growing annoyed, so she decided to end their little attempt at casualness.

"Hey, Dean?"

He gave her a expectant look. "Yeah?"

"Jess and I were just heading to the fair, so we really should get going. Maybe I'll see you sometime." She bent down to Clara's level, "Bye, Clara." As she rose back up, she nodded to Dean, "Bye, Dean."

He frowned, "Bye Rory."

Clara tilted her head to the side, "See ya, Rory. Bye, Jess," she said brightly.

Jess nodded tightly at her.

She scrunched up her nose, "Can he talk?"

Rory stifled a laugh, "Yeah. See you guys."

"But he's much better at doing other things with his mouth," he mumbled suggestively as he and Rory walked away from the Forrester duo.

She slapped him playfully on the arm, "Jerk!"

"That's what they all say."

"Well, you're my jerk, and I wouldn't have you any other way."

He smiled at her before brushing her lips with his own. He pulled back before anything started ands she pouted teasingly. "I take what I said back."

He rolled his eyes and followed her retreating back towards the festival. He grabbed her arm and she had to fight back a grin. "Sorry," he said ruefully.

"Maybe I'll forgive you." She looked down towards the ground, but her eyes lit up when she saw the cotton candy, "Oooh, let's go get some!" she cried, all past annoyances forgotten and ignored.

He sighed bit went after her, trying to figure out why in the world he was with her. They were as different as two people could be. Black and white. Peanut butter and jelly. Sugar and cinnamon. But like all those things, they were always better together.

A/N: Eeh, sorry for the wait. And that it's reallt short. Finals and AP Exams and make-up work and friends and drama and all that other high-school crap. Can't wait to get out. Anyway, please review and tell me what you like best, what you didn't lie. Any suggestions, ideas, tips...anything, basically. I love your feedback- I know I've said it a billion times, but it's what I look foward to every morning before I get up. Sad, huh? See, you wouldn't ant me to never get up...then I can't write and then this story will end here- and I have so many more plans for it. Many, many more. Gah, long author's note, but I had stuff to say...Thanks and REVIEW!

P.S...I don't own anything.