A/N: What could be more fun that putting Rory, Jess, and Paris into the Geller house alone together for the weekend? Not much where this story is concerned, am I right? Thanks for all the reviewage, reader peops :)

(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)

Chapter 15

"Explain to me again why I agreed to this?" asked Jess as he pulled his car onto the drive outside of the Geller house.

"Because, why wouldn't you agree?" said Rory, shrugging her shoulders. "What could be better than a weekend spent in the company of your girlfriend and your pseudo-sister, both of whom you love and adore?" she asked, smiling enough that he knew she was at least half-joking, and yet she also had a point. "C'mon, would you honestly rather be waiting tables and driving your forklift?"

"No," he admitted, "but I can think of better ways to spend the time with you than studying and watching whatever movies Paris likes," he said, fingers messing with her hair and then pulling her head closer.

"Better ways?" Rory echoed, like she didn't know exactly what he meant.

If there had been any shred of doubt before, there certainly wasn't when he was done kissing her.

"Mmm, better ways," she said as they parted. "I'm not sure that's going to happen while we're staying in this house," she considered. "Lucky I don't want you just for your body," she said smartly, planting a quick peck on Jess' lips before hopping out of the car.

Jess rolled his eyes and followed her out onto the driveway and up to the front door. He meant to be pissed about this whole weekend, but it was tough to keep up the facade. Actually, hanging out here with Paris and Rory probably wouldn't suck. He did have some homework he needed to finish, and he never really objected to junk food and movies as a rule. He was still adjusting to living in Stars Hollow with Luke rather than here in Hartford with Paris. Despite seeing her at Chilton, sometimes he actually missed her a little bit, though Jess would never, ever admit such a thing.

"You're late," Paris snapped as she opened the front door.

"Good to see you too, sis," he shot back in full dead-pan mode. "Didn't know we were on a schedule."

"Life is on a schedule, Jess," she told him quickly, ushering both him and Rory inside. "I have this weekend planned out exactly."

"What happened to studying, movies, and whatever we want?" asked Rory, immediately wishing she hadn't when she saw the look on her friends face.

"Do you realise how close we are to Graduation? One hundred and eighty days, people. That is all that stands between us and the end of our high school careers."

"And that's not a reason to celebrate?" Jess checked. "'Cause last I checked the lack of mandatory education past the age of eighteen is one of the things that makes America great."

"Are you trying to make her head explode?" asked Rory, eyes wide with shock.

"Maybe," Jess admitted.

Paris literally growled as she stormed off down the hall. Her friends followed only because they knew running wasn't an option.

"Now wondering why I didn't blow Paris off to go to Yale with my grandparents after all," muttered Rory.

"Waiting tables and driving my forklift is looking pretty good right now," Jess agreed, his arm around her shoulders as they followed Paris. "Stay close, I have a feeling it's going to get worse."

"You're not afraid of Paris, are you?" asked Rory with amusement as she leaned in closer to her boyfriend.

"Aren't you?" he countered.

Rory knew she couldn't deny that sometimes she really was. Of course, the scary thing didn't seem to be Paris flipping out about their graduation that was still a good sixth months away, as much as the whiteboard and the flipchart she had set up in the living room. Both were covered in colour co-ordinated scribbles so multiple, it practically looked like a mosaic. The words were practically illegible in places, made clear by the way Rory and Jess both tilted their heads to try to decipher them and got nowhere fast.

"Er, Paris?" asked Rory then. "I don't... Um, why have you...?"

"I think the gist of what Rory is trying to say," Jess cut in, "is ...what the hell, Paris?!"

"This is the plan," his 'sister' told him easily.

"For today?" checked Rory.

"For my life," Paris confirmed. "Obviously it's not set in stone, hence the whiteboard. The flipchart is the plan for this weekend. We have a lot to cover."

Rory's eyes were wide like saucers as she slipped away from Jess and got closer to the flipchart to read exactly what it said, whilst Paris continued to make amendments to her whiteboard. She put Jess in mind of some mad scientist from a cartoon, only slightly less smart and a whole lot more psychotic. He had meant what he said before about still thinking of Paris as his sister. She was cool, and he guessed he loved her in some weird way, but this was beyond a joke.

"This is not happening," he muttered, dumping his bag into the armchair and stalking over to Paris.

She didn't even realise he was there until he picked the pen out of her hands, making an awkward line of blue through her carefully written text.

"Jess!" she snapped at him. "What the hell-?"

"Come with me," he commanded, dragging her by the sleeve.

Paris was going a shade of red that Rory recognised and wished she didn't. Still, she followed her and Jess out the door into the hallway and onward to a whole other room. Rory knew the place once she was there. In her head, she called it the Geller multiplex since it had a pretty big flat screen TV that had all the cable channels, a DVD player, and a stereo system with fancy speakers all hooked up to it. It was like entertainment central and she was in awe of it all, though Rory was curious right now as to why they were here. Probably just the next nearest room that Jess knew would be empty.

"Let go of me, you freak!" Paris yelled at Jess, trying to get by him and back out of the door but he purposefully stood against the exit and wouldn't budge.

"Paris, breathe," he told her sharply. "You're doing it again."

"Doing what again? Being responsible for my future? Behaving like an adult when all those around me seem to think they can be Princess Barbie wannabes for the rest of their lives?"

"That better be a comment about Madeline and Louise and not me," said Rory, momentarily offended by the suggestion.

"Obviously." Paris rolled her eyes and folded her arms across her chest for good measure. "Now, let me out of this room, Mariano!"

"Nope," he told her smartly, mocking her stance with his arms firmly folded as he leaned all his weight back against the door. "You remember last year? It was maybe two weeks before Liz got us kicked out."

Paris opened her mouth as if she was ready to argue with him, tell him she had no idea what he was talking about and make a big deal of physically removing him from the door. Rory was ready for all of that, but it wasn't what happened. Paris' face went from puce and livid to washed out and hopeless in point five of a second. Whatever Jess wanted her to recall she was clearly remembering it now, and it knocked all of the fight out of her.

Rory watched in awe as Paris took a couple of shaky steps back and then sank down into a chair, her hands covering her face. If it were anybody else, Rory would suspect she was crying, but that just wasn't Paris. Looking curiously at Jess, she eventually got an answer to her unasked question.

"Paris and me, we have a deal," her boyfriend explained with a sigh. "She got herself into kind of a psychotic state over school and The Franklin and a whole bunch of other academia crap that isn't half so important as she thinks it is," he said, continuing without pause even when Paris hurrumphed in indignation. "Anyway, one night I walk by her room and I hear her talking to herself. No, not talking, yelling at herself. I seriously thought she lost it this time, so I knock on the door and she doesn't even notice. I let myself in and... Well, let's just say it wasn't a pretty sight."

"I had a bad day" said Paris then, looking up with daggers in her eyes. "It happens to everybody. I only ever took them that one time."

"Took them?" said Rory, feeling something tighten in her chest. "Paris what did you take?" she asked, hardly able to believe that Paris was dumb enough to try any kind of drug.

"You've seen the Saved By The Bell re-runs, right?" Jess rolled his eyes. "Apparently, Paris missed out on that part of her moral education. She kinda pulled a Jessie Spano and got so excited."

"Caffeine pills?" Rory gasped.

"One time. Once!" Paris repeated. "It was not a big deal. Unfortunately, as with most food-related items, my body reacted badly to them."

"Ain't that the truth?" Jess agreed. "You barely knew what day of the week it was. It took four attempts before you knew who I was," he reminded her. "Anyway, that's not the point. What's important is that me and Paris made a deal that night, and again in the morning since she didn't exactly remember the night before after the fact," he explained. "If I ever saw her going too far off the rails, it was my responsibility to pull her back from the edge."

Rory wasn't sure what to make of what she was hearing. It was kind of shocking to hear that Paris even went as far as caffeine pills, which were far away from being as dangerous as binging on alcohol or taking any serious kind of drugs. Knowing that Jess had promised to look out for her from that point forward was really quite sweet, though she was surprised neither of them had ever told her about it until now.

"I coped just fine before you came along, Mariano!" Paris snapped at him. "I can do it again!"

"Tell it to your face, Geller," he told her, with much less malice than such words might've held if he meant for them to.

Only now did Paris seem to realise she had shed tears, albeit probably borne out of frustration rather than sadness. She never really showed actual emotions in front of anyone, Rory knew. She and Jess were probably the exceptions to a very stern rule that Paris had on this kind of thing.

"I'm not going to make it," she said then, more sad and lost than anything else. "Harvard. It's not going to happen."

"It'll happen," Jess told her, moving to sit on the arm of her chair. "And hey, if it doesn't, there are other schools, other options. Hell, you get real unlucky, maybe we'll end up in the same one," he said, nudging her shoulder with his elbow.

"What are you talking about?" she asked shakily, looking up at Jess. "What is he talking about?!" she demanded of Rory next when her 'brother' gave no answer.

"Um, college?" said Rory, clearing her throat and seeing the look of defeat from Jess that meant she may as well just say it. "Jess applied."

Paris was wide-eyed with shock rather than crazy now as she looked between the two of them. She wasn't sure how she felt about it, that much was clear. She had bugged the hell out of Jess about applying to schools that they all knew he was smart enough to get into, and he had said he'd never do it. Now she had discovered he did do it, and he kept it from her, at least until now.

"Harvard?" she checked.

"And Yale." Jess nodded. "Plus Southern Connecticut State and the University of Bridgeport. Just don't ask me to explain why, okay? I plead temporary insanity."

There was a long moment when Paris said nothing, in which Jess refused to look at her, just in case she had a smug look on her face. Eventually, when he dared to glance her way again, he found she was smiling, but in a nice way, in a way that a sister should smile at her brother, he supposed.

"Thank you, Jess."

"For what?"

"Just, thank you," she said, getting up from her seat without further explanation. "Er, I'm going to go freshen up. You should pick out a movie or something. I'll be back."

When Paris was gone from the room, the door clicking shut behind her, Rory looked to Jess for some kind of explanation. He didn't seem to have one.

"She really is cracked," he said eventually.

"She's not so bad." Rory shrugged.

It was impossible for her to keep from smiling as she walked over to Jess and put her arms around his neck. Kissing him soundly, she gave no explanation for her behaviour or the huge grin on her face when they parted.

"Maybe you're cracked too," he considered, smirking some by now.

"Maybe," she agreed. "But you're much better at being a brother than you think."

Jess shrugged "Maybe."

"So, what was Paris's side of the deal?" Rory asked curiously then. "You're supposed to stop her going crazy about school stuff, what's she supposed to do for you?"

Jess looked awkward, looking anywhere but at her for a while, before he finally confessed.

"She is supposed to stop me from ever screwing up with you," he admitted.

Rory didn't think anything could be sweeter than Jess 'saving' Paris, but that just might be it.

In the end, the weekend went much better than Jess ever imagined, and perhaps better than even Rory or Paris would have guessed. For all the studying Paris had planned, and all the lack of same that Jess intended, what they ended up with was something very much down the middle. They did school work, but they also hung out a lot, watching movies and eating enough junk that Paris had to take several sets of meds. She said it was worth it, and nobody argued with her. All in all, they just had fun.

Staying over for the night was kind of cool too. Rory hadn't been prepared for Paris' declaration that she would be wearing the good kind of noise cancelling headphones so her friend and brother could do whatever they wanted in his old room. Rory wasn't sure she was entirely comfortable having sex with Jess when Paris was only just down the hall, but after a couple of experiments in deliberately trying to beat the effectiveness of the aforementioned headphones, and the fact that the bedrooms were quite a distance apart, she took very little coercing. Being with Jess again was something she had literally been dreaming about since the first time, and he sure didn't disappoint her.

It was Sunday afternoon when they had to start thinking about heading home, and it was surprisingly hard to leave. Paris had certainly made them welcome, and she calmed down a lot after Jess' intervention. Rory's proudest moment was when Jess handed Paris his lighter and they both watched as she set light to the pages of the flipchart she had spent too long obsessing over. She really needed to be a little more level-headed about her education and career.

Rory couldn't believe what an influence Jess seemed to have on her, but that was no bad thing. They balanced each other out in a weird way, like they were born to become siblings, even if that did seem illogical.

"I promised Mom I wouldn't be too late home," said Rory, checking she had all her stuff before she and Jess made a move. "She wants to finalise next week's Thanksgiving schedule. Do you have plans, Paris?"

"It's doubtful my dad will be home, so it'll be just me, I guess," she admitted, trying to look brave, but mostly appearing sad about the prospect.

"So come to the freak show that is Stars Hollow," Jess suggested, hiking his bag higher on his shoulder. "C'mon, there's so many people running around sharing food and festivities, nobody is going to notice one more in the mix. Besides, an extra brain might balance out some of the surreal."

"You should definitely come, Paris," Rory agreed, smiling widely at the idea.

Paris herself looked a little uncertain, and then with a dramatic sigh and over-done eye-roll, she relented.

"I guess I could, if you really want me to," she said. "Of course, it'll mean some shelter missing out on my expert ladling technique."

"Geez, how will they ever get by?" Jess dead-panned, making a hasty exit when he realised he was probably about to get hit.

Paris waved from the front door as her friends finally left, looking markedly less crazy than when they had arrived the day before.

"Still think waiting tables and driving your forklift would have been more fun?" asked Rory as they got into the car to go.

"I think I'd have more money right now if I worked this weekend." Jess shrugged.

Rory smiled. He didn't say anymore because Jess would not lie to her. He had fun this weekend and he actually enjoyed hanging out with Paris, being able to be there for her, like family. Rory had a feeling Thanksgiving next week was going to be a lot of fun too. There was really no reason she could find for it not to be.

To Be Continued...