"Melissa's father totally cut her off, and no one's supposed to no, except eeeeeveryone knows. So anyhow, she wound up buying this knock-off Le Mer face cream and she had this crazy weird reaction and now her face looks like someone stuck it in a beehive and she can't …"

"Hey Rory." Rory turned from Stephanie's gossip to see who had called her name, only to find Paris' boyfriend—who, incidentally was not the same man her roommate had been seen snogging outside their dorm room right after winter break.

"Oh, Jamie, hi," Rory replied nervously.

"Sorry to pounce on you like that."

"That's okay, you're not pouncing. Wanna sit?" She placed her tray down on the table in front of her and gestured to the table.

"Thanks." He took a seat across from Rory and Steph. "Listen, do you…?" he hesitated uncomfortably.

"Do I what?" Rory asked sympathetically. She knew Paris had been giving him the brush off for weeks now. And he'd come all the way from Princeton to see her. Paris was her friend, but what she was doing to Jamie wasn't right.

"Look, I need to find out what's up with Paris, and I don't know who else to ask."

"Paris?" Steph broke in.

"Oh yeah. Stephanie, this is Jaime, Paris' boyfriend. And Jaime this is…"

"Boyfriend?" Steph replied incredulously. "Paris has a boyfriend?"

"Yes," Jamie relied defensively.

"But…why? I mean, you seem so normal. Is it some kind of weird kink thing, like you get off on…ooof," Rory elbowed her roughly in the side.

"Stephanie!"

"Sorry," she replied, not seeming sorry at all.

"Well, well, what do we have here? A clandestine rendezvous with a mystery man?" Colin's voice broke into the conversation as he took the seat next to his girlfriend. Finn pulled up a chair next to Jamie, turning it around to straddle. "Because I won't fight for you—my face is too pretty to get punched."

Steph rolled her eyes. "Good to know where your priorities lie."

"Maybe this is a bad time," Jamie suggested.

"No, it's fine, really," Rory assured him. He was here at Yale all alone. She didn't want him to feel unwelcome—at least not any more than Paris already had. "Don't mind my idiot friends, they're just—my idiot friends. But they're harmless. We can go somewhere to talk if you want…" She hoped he wouldn't take her up on it. She hated lying to him, but she couldn't rat Paris out.

"No, it's fine, it's just…I had to rearrange a million things to come here, and I could only manage two days and she won't see me."

"Who won't see you?" Colin asked.

"Paris." Rory clarified.

"Lucky man," Finn piped in. "That is a sheila best avoided at all costs."

"Jamie is Paris' boyfriend," Rory told the Aussie with a glare.

"But why?" Colin asked.

"Is it some sort of kink thing?"

"That's what I said," Stephanie giggled and gave Finn a high five.

"Have I apologized for them yet?" Rory asked, burying her face in her hands in embarrassment.

Jamie gave a wry chuckle. "No, I get it. Paris is, well…not everyone can handle her Paris-ness. But I love her." He shrugged.

Finn goggled at him in amazement. "What's wrong with him?" he asked, turning to Rory.

"Nothing is wrong with him," Rory replied in frustration. She turned to Jamie. "You're going to see her tomorrow, aren't you?"

"If she doesn't cancel," he replied dejectedly.

"She's not going to cancel," Rory assured him. Jamie gave her a doubtful look. "She wouldn't," she tried to convince him, but she was anything but sure. She'd like to think Paris was better than that. Besides, it's not like Paris was one to shy away from conflict if she didn't want to see him anymore. Then again, Rory would also like to think her friend wouldn't cheat on her boyfriend and she'd been wrong on that account.

"Well, she's been canceling plans for weeks. She's not calling me as much. I know, I sound pathetic."

"Especially since it's Paris."

Rory shot Colin a look. "No, you don't," she said to Jamie. "And Paris has been so busy. You've been a freshman in college, you know what that entails."

"Yeah," he agreed, unconvinced. There was an uncomfortable pause. "Has she been seeing someone else?

Rory shrugged awkwardly "Not that I know of." Damn Paris for turning her into a liar. At least Logan had clearly been true to his word and not told the stooges about the Professor. There's no way the gig wouldn't be up if they knew.

Jamie smiled wryly and stood. "I'll let you go. Thanks, this…actually helped."

"Good. It will get better, Jamie. I really think that." What ever happened between Paris and him, Jamie was a good guy. Smart, and kind, and not bad on the eyes. He'd be okay eventually.

"Good." He said matter-of-factly as he backed away from the table. There was a pause. "It's my birthday," he shrugged, trying to pretend it was no big deal—an afterthought.

"Oh wow," Rory replied, suddenly feeling ten times worse. "Happy birthday."

"Thanks," he said as he turned and walked away. Rory watched him guiltily for a few seconds.

"Paris has a boyfriend?" Colin asked.

"Oh, was that the CSPAN breakdown guy that deflowered her and kept her out of Harvard?" Finn asked.

"So he's the reason we got stuck with her?"

"It's gotta be a kink thing…"

Rory let her head drop defeatedly to the table as her friends chattered on.

"So Paris broke up with her boyfriend?" Logan clarified. He was laying on his bed with his marketing analytics textbook open to the same page it was a half hour ago. Rory was sitting at his desk, papers strewn about in her own form of organized chaos while she worked on her game theory paper.

"Yes, she finally called him after I practically forced her to, and she told Jamie that I told her to do it. I did NOT tell her to do that. I like Jamie. And he loved her. And it was his birthday," she added the last with a pout.

"Well personally I couldn't think of a better birthday present than being free of Paris Gellar," Logan rolled on his side, propping his head up on his hand to look at Rory.

"Not nice!" she turned to him. "And your friends were not nice either. They humiliated him in the cafeteria."

"Oh, so they're my friends now?" Logan asked with a chuckle.

"Yes. They were your friends first."

"But they like you better."

"It's not my fault I'm so awesome," she argued, shaking her head and trying to turn her focus back to the screen in front of her. "And you need to stop distracting me so I can get this work done."

"Your paper's not even due for over a week," Logan reminded her.

"Yes, but I have to at least have this outline finished before I go home. This weekend is important and I don't want to be distracted. I look forward to the Firefly Festival all year. Plus, this is the first time you're going to get to spend any real time with my Mom since we've been dating."

"Yay?" he replied unenthusiastically. Logan wasn't exactly the meet-the-parents type. He knew Lorelai wasn't his biggest fan—and he was pretty sure Rory had told her they were sleeping together. He was not anticipating the warmest of welcomes. But it was important to Rory, so here they were.

"It'll be fine. Mom is great. And you two actually have a lot in common. She just needs to get to know you a little better. I promise, she's going to love you."

"I love that you believe that," Logan told her with a warm smile despite his trepidation. He just had a bad feeling about this weekend.

Things were good in their relationship but he couldn't help that just below the surface there was a tiny, niggling seed of doubt. And it freaked him out. This wasn't him—the insecure relationship guy. But he couldn't rid himself of that voice—the one that reminded him that he was more invested than she was. He loved her, but she didn't love him, not yet anyway. He'd never felt like this before. Women fell in love with him, not the other way around.

What if he did something stupid to mess it all up? What if she decided he just wasn't the one for her? What if Lorelai hated him and forbid Rory from continuing to see him?

It was driving him crazy. He didn't want to feel like this. He didn't want to care so much but he didn't know how to stop himself.

"I do," Rory replied resolutely. "But you're going to be a much harder sell if you flunk out of Yale so you better get back to studying!"

Logan laughed. "Fine. No talking for one hour—then I get a…shall we say…study break?" he smirked at her.

Damn if that smirk wasn't going to be the death of her.

"So that was fun." Rory said with a poorly suppressed smile as she pulled onto the highway.

"Oh sure, it was a bucket of laughs—for my mother! I swear I don't think I've heard her laugh as much in the 35 years I've known her combined, as she did tonight. Is the idea of Jason and me as a couple really that absurd?"

"Don't forget you were also upset when she thought the two of you would be perfect for each other." Lorelai had been planning to confess to Emily Gilmore that she was dating her father's new business partner, Jason. But Emily was not his biggest fan. She'd started the night off almost immediately by listing every annoying thing about Jason she could think of, then suggesting he and Lorelai would make a perfect couple. Then laughing hysterically when Lorelai got offended. She had, understandably, chickened out.

"Yes, it's good to know what my mother really thinks of me and my romantic prospects."

"Listen, Grandma is just…Grandma. She's going to find a way to get under your skin no matter what you do or who you date so you really should just get it over with and tell her." As much fun as it was watching her mother try to keep this secret from her parents, Rory preferred when things were out in the open. Between her mother and Jason, and Paris and Professor Fleming, she'd had enough of secret relationships.

"Easy for you to say, you've got the perfect, Gilmore approved boyfriend. One who can be invited to such things as Rare Manuscript Charity dinners."

"Technically your boyfriend got invited too."

"Because he's Dad's partner, not because he's my boyfriend."

"That's because they don't know he's your boyfriend," Rory pointed out with an eye roll.

"So, how do you think Logan is going to take the news that he now has to go to this stupid charity thing?"

"Pretty well, actually."

"Really?" Lorelai made a disbelieving face.

"Well, I'm not saying he's going to want to go, but faced with the alternative, I think he'll be relieved."

"What's the alternative?"

"Spending the evening with you." Logan was more nervous that he was letting on about spending the weekend in Stars Hollow. She could tell. But he was going to be fine. Logan could charm honey away from a bear. The town was going to love him. And Lorelai, well, she'd at least play nice for Rory's sake.

"Moi?" Lorelai asked putting her hand to her chest dramatically.

"Oui, toi," Rory answered.

"He doesn't want to spend time with little ol' me?" Lorelai asked again?

"Well, it's just that like you said, Grandma and Grandpa actually like him. And he may not enjoy these boring parties, but he knows how to deal with them."

"Hey! I like Logan." Lorelai protested. Rory looked less than convinced. "I—pretend to like Logan," she amended.

"You might want to work on your pretending a little more before tomorrow."

Lorelai sighed. "It's not that I don't like him," she explained. "It's just…"

"I know," Rory granted. "But he's not that guy. He's more than his family, or the money he comes from. And he's not Dad either." Rory loved her father, and he loved her—and Lorelai. But he could also be selfish and irresponsible. And he'd left Lorelai broken hearted more than once in her life because of it. Rory knew her mother didn't want that for her.

"I know he's not," Lorelai nodded. "But…you can see where I draw the parallels, right?"

"Actually," Rory said, "He kind of reminds me of you."

Lorelai's face did a weird grimace-y thing. "Me?" she asked dubiously

"Sure." Rory asserted. "He's got that…spark in him. He's smart, and talented, and he can do so much. But in a lot of ways he's trapped. The family obligations and the business…I mean, you know what that's like."

"Yeah, but it took me getting pregnant with you to get me out of it. And no offense to your boy toy, but if gets knocked up with your love child, it won't ingratiate him to me."

"Well luckily I think we can probably rule that out," Rory laughed.

"Hey, if it can happen to Arnold Schwarzenegger, Kid, it can happen to anyone."

"Please do not say that word again," Rory begged as she and her mom walked out of Taylor's Soda Shoppe, styrofoam cups in hand.

"It's a free country," Lorelai argued, taking a sip of her beverage.

"Just say hot chocolate or say nothing at all."

"Mmm," Lorelai mocked. "Terrific 'Ho-Cho'."

"Eww," Rory shuddered, her face scrunching up in disgust. "I hate that. It's so cutsey-wootsey."

"Do you hate it as much as my favorite summer treat?"

"Don't!"

"An ice-cold Fro-Yo!"

She knew Lorelai was just saying it to annoy her, but she seriously hated when people butchered the English language like that. "Stop! Just stop…" And Lorelai did. Clearly having bored of mocking Rory, she flipped open her cellphone. "Who are you calling?"

"I'm calling Jason," Lorelai informed her. "I promised I would check in."

The mother and daughter started walking down the sidewalk past Luke's. Rory sipped her hot chocolate as Lorelai bantered on the phone with her boyfriend. Suddenly, out of the corner of her eye, Rory saw something that made her feet slow and her heart speed up; a rusty, old, AMC Ambassador parked across the street.

It couldn't be…not after all this time. He didn't even have that car anymore. It had been stolen last year. And yet, somehow, there it was. Before she knew what she was doing, her feet started moving towards the vehicle.

She looked into the frosty back window, and there, asleep and shivering in the back seat, was her leather clad, ex-boyfriend. The one she hadn't seen since the day they'd almost hooked up at that end of the year party nine months ago.

She felt Lorelai walk up behind her. "Um, is that - ?"

"Yes." She replied harshly, not even knowing where to begin.

"Oh" Lorelai seemed equally at a loss for words.

"I don't believe this." She wasn't even sure which part she didn't believe. The part where he just showed up back in town after disappearing off the face of the plant for almost a year? The part where he was sleeping in his car in the 20-degree weather six feet from his uncle's place? Or the part where she cared what Jess Mariano did at all.

"What is he doing here?"

"What is he doing…" Rory gestured towards the vehicle, "there?"

"Asleep in his car—is he living in it?" Lorelai asked.

"I don't see stuff." No backpack, no food, not even any blankets. He was going to get hypothermia or frostbite or something. Not that she was worried about him—right?

"Does Luke know he's here?"

"Well," Rory shrugged. "I know what you know."

Lorelai turned to look at Luke's, then back at Jess in disbelief. "He…may not know."

"Well, it's right in front of his place. How could he not know?" Anger was creeping into Rory's voice, but she didn't know who she was angry at—Jess? Luke? Herself? All of the above?

"Well, it's freezing out here. He could die, he must not know," Lorelai insisted.

"Or doesn't care." So why did she? Jess had treated her like crap when they were together. He ignored her, was rude to her family and friends. And then that party…She'd almost felt herself falling for him again. He'd had a rough life. He'd messed up but he was a good guy—right? But then, when she couldn't just forgive him and give him what he wanted…True, he hadn't forced himself on her, but to make her feel guilty for not sleeping with him—when they weren't even together? And then just disappear without a word? Who did that?

"Do you think David Blain put him up to this?" Lorelai tried to break the tension.

"Why is he here?" Rory lamented "I mean, why did he come back?" Things were good with Logan right now. She didn't need this. Couldn't he have just stayed away?

"Light's still on in there," Lorelai said looking back at the Diner. "Luke's in there somewhere, should we go talk to him?"

"No." Rory fidgeted uncomfortably. "It's too weird. And it's - weird." She didn't even know what else to say about it.

"Definitely weird," Lorelai agreed.

"Well, I'll just see you at home. Umm—cause I don't want to deal with this," she waived dismissively at the car. "I'll see you at home." Rory turned and quickly walked off, her mind consumed with a whirlwind of thoughts and emotions.

AN: Jess is back-dun, dun, dun...And just as Logan is coming to town. Will they see each other? Will Rory's feelings for Jess resurface? What's going to happen?

I debated telling you this because I'm afraid it might take away some of the suspense, but the next chapter is our last chapter. I know I could keep writing this tale forever, but all good things must come to an end. This story has bee 14 years in the making and it's time to close this chapter of my story-telling life with the next chapter of this story. But I've still got Rediscovering Logan Huntzberger to work on, and would like to get back into Family Affairs so make sure you check out those stories if you haven't already.

As always, thanks so much for reading, and please leave a review.