A/N: So, Paris fixed the Rory/Jess relationship, didn't she? Did she? You'll find out when you read on! In the meantime, thanks to all the fabulous reviewers. Also, I intend to complete this story in another 8 or 9 chapters when we reach the end of Season 3; however, there is a possibility I'll go for the full trilogy and rewrite Season 4 later... maybe... possibly ;)

(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)

Chapter 23

Rory had hoped when she met up with Paris at lunch that Jess would be there too. Unfortunately, he had other places to be, but Paris did assure her that she had told her brother in no uncertain terms to talk to Rory as soon as he could and figure out their issues. It was why it wasn't altogether surprising and yet very nice for Rory to step out of school at the end of the day and find her boyfriend waiting by his car for her.

"Hey."

"Hey."

They greeted each other a little stiffly. It was weird, they never really fought before, not since they had been together. In the beginning when they first knew each other, when he liked her and though she liked him she persisted in dating Dean, things were not always so good. As a couple in love, Rory and Jess had never had a fight, until now. They both hated how it felt and clearly neither wanted the weirdness between them to go on a second longer.

"I'm sorry," they said at the same time, both smiling when they realised what they'd done.

"Jess, I really, really never meant to hurt you," she said, walking up to stand right in front of him. "I was just trying to make it easier, to make it so you wouldn't hate the idea, and I know I got it wrong. I screwed up the delivery, I see that now."

"You didn't exactly make me feel great about myself," Jess agreed, "but I probably could've handled it better. It was a jerk move to avoid you all this time."

"It was." Rory nodded. "But I get it."

They both seemed to agree that they were equally a little bit wrong and a whole lot sorry. So that was that, everything fixed, case closed, and yet it didn't feel that way. Jess moved which meant Rory had to back up a step, then he opened the car door for her and ushered her into the passenger seat. Joining her in the car, Jess started it up and headed home without another word. They were half way back to Stars Hollow before Rory dared to break the silence.

"So, we're okay now, right?" she checked.

"Sure, we're okay," Jess agreed, though he didn't so much as glance at her.

Rory rationalised that he needed to keep his eyes on the road, and yet somehow it seemed like more than that. She opened her mouth to ask but then closed it again quickly. Jess just told her they were okay, and she couldn't think why they wouldn't be really. She was sorry for what she had done and he was sorry if he over-reacted. They loved each other, that part hadn't changed, so there was really nothing else left to say. Strange then that Rory felt as if something was missing, as if there was something she should've said or that Jess wanted to say and wasn't.

"About Prom..." she ventured, not saying more yet, trying to gauge her boyfriend's reaction to her even bringing up the topic.

"Maybe we could just not talk about Prom for a while," he said, his tone mostly even like it didn't bother him much, and yet still he wasn't so much as trying to glance her way.

"Good idea," she agreed anyway. "We'll just put a pin in that for now. Come back to it later. No big deal."

She said it like she meant it, and yet Rory wasn't entirely happy to let it go. Prom took preparation. If they were going, she needed a dress, they needed to plan how to get there, if they were doubling with Paris and Jamie or not, things like that. True enough that they did have quite a bit of time yet to get everything pulled together, but Rory didn't know when she was supposed to bring it up again, if ever. Now didn't feel like the right time to ask.

"So, tonight," she tried instead. "You, er... you want to come over? Or we could-"

"Can't, sorry." Jess shook his head. "I think I'm gonna be working a lot this week. Luke is kinda pissed at me for my little disappearing act over the weekend," he explained.

"Oh, sure. I get it," Rory agreed, though she could feel the tears forming in the back of her eyes even as she smiled.

Jess wasn't trying to hurt her, she was sure of that. If he had to work, that wasn't his fault. Still, it stung that he was being so overly-normal with her after their fight, and couldn't even try to make time to spend with her this evening after the better part of three days spent apart.

When they got to her house, he didn't even offer to get out of the car with her, which he usually would. He did lean over to kiss her, but it was a nothing sort of a kiss, barely a peck. There were times when they could stand on the porch lost in each other for a good fifteen minutes and not even notice.

"I'm reading too much into this," Rory told herself as she waved to Jess and saw him raise his hand in response before he disappeared around the corner. "Everything will be fine."

The week passed slowly, and Rory saw very little of Jess. He drove her to school and back every day as normal, but didn't talk much on the journey. In classes, he was the same, at lunch he always had somewhere else to be, and in the evenings he was working, either at the diner or Wal-Mart. The couple of times Rory went to hang out at Luke's just to be near him, Jess seemed to have way too much to do. When he wasn't waiting tables he was in the store room, disappearing upstairs to check something, running an errand so Luke didn't have to. He was still avoiding her, Rory knew it, and yet any time she asked if he was okay, he said he was fine.

This she was explaining to Lorelai on the phone on Saturday night, after a whole day waiting for Jess to finish his Wal-Mart shift and his homework before he called her or dropped by. It was seven o'clock and she hadn't heard from or seen him yet.

"I called his cell and nothing," she explained. "Then I tried the apartment and I got the answering machine. I even tried Paris' house and he's not there either. I don't understand."

"Guys can be complicated, sweetheart," her mother sympathised. "After that fight you had, I guess it's taking Jess a while to get over it."

"But if he's not over it why did he saw that he was? He said everything was fine."

"Yeah, 'cause us girls are always fine when we say we're fine!" Lorelai chuckled. "Honey, guys can be just as good at using the 'not fine' fine as we can, they just don't like to admit it."

Rory considered that as she sat down heavily on the couch.

"Well, it's not fair," she complained. "I apologised, he apologised. It's supposed to be fine, even if it's not."

"And I am not supposed to be working Saturday night, but as we all know, life is not fair," Lorelai reminded her. "If Taylor Doose and his entire family of misfits hadn't upset the rest of the guests so badly that I need to be here to fire-fight, I could be home with you, a large carton of Rocky Road and a Godfather movie marathon, but as it is, kid, I'm afraid you're on your own."

"I hate being on my own," Rory grumbled. "Actually, that's not true, I hate being on my own because some guy decided for me that I have to be," she complained, anger rising with every word. "I mean, who does he think he is? I apologised, and he said it was fine. Now he's avoiding me, which he knows is jerk behaviour because he said as much before and apologised for it, so why is he still making me feel bad? That's not cool!"

"You tell him, baby girl!"

"I would, if I could find him."

"Well, tell it to the answering machine if that's all you've got, but I'm sorry, babe, I really have to go now."

The call ended then as Lorelai rushed off to some inn business or other. Rory was seething as she dialled the number of Luke and Jess' apartment again and waited for the machine to kick in. Jess could not treat her this way, it wasn't right, and she planned on telling him so.

"Hi, this is a message for Jess. Just who do you think you are, Mister! Yes, we had a fight, and I did the wrong thing, I know that, but I apologised, and you apologised, and then you said we were fine. You said it so many times, I thought hey, it's gotta be true, but no, you lied to me, Jess. You lied and said we were fine when clearly we're not. If you were an adult like you're supposed to be then you would talk to me, tell me the truth about how you're feeling and then we could figure things out, but no, you've gone back to that jerk behaviour of avoiding me. Well, when you finally decide to call me or come over, don't expect me to be waiting. I'm going out tonight. I'm... I'm going to the hockey game! Yeah, that's where I'm going. I'll go with Lane and Young Chui and we'll have a great time and you can just... you can just be a jerk all by yourself!" she declared, about to hang up before something occurred to her. "Oh, this is Rory. Bye!"

Throwing down the phone, Rory stalked off to her room and grabbed her jacket, pulling it on. She wasn't sure she was that interested in seeing a hockey game to be honest, but she knew it was a place where she could go and hang out with friends, and that was all she wanted right now. Certainly she wasn't going to wait around to be made a fool of by her boyfriend who didn't seem to want the title anymore anyway.

Heading for the front door, she yanked it open, stepping out onto the porch. She stopped short of the steps when she realised she was not alone.

Jess was stood on the driveway by his car, a set up not dissimilar to when he waited for her outside school on Monday afternoon, except this time he was actually smiling. A click got her attention and then Rory was suddenly aware of a hundred or more twinkle lights coming on all around her, and music playing too. It was beautiful, like something out of a movie, only even more perfect and special because it was actually happening.

"What is...? I don't understand," she told Jess, shaking her head.

"You kinda stole my thunder last week," he explained, pushing off the car and coming to stand at the bottom of the porch steps. "I had a plan, I just hadn't... perfected it yet," he said awkwardly. "But this was how it was supposed to be," he said, gesturing to the lights and all. "This was how I was going to ask you... Rory, do you wanna go to the Prom with me?"

She was crying and hadn't actually hadn't noticed she was until she tried to speak and found no words came out. Tears spilled down Rory's cheeks as she swallowed hard and tried again to give her answer.

"Yes," she said at last. "Jess, I would love to go to the Prom with you. This is amazing."

"And now you can probably see why I was kind of pissed about your little set up at Miss Patty's," he said, stepping up to join her on the porch, his arms going around her as naturally as ever.

"I get it. More now than before," Rory admitted. "But why couldn't you just tell me this was the other part of the reason why you were so upset with me?"

"And ruin the surprise even more than you already had?" he said, giving her a look. "I know I've been kinda distant this past week, but I needed to... I don't know, regroup? I had to figure out if it was still worth it."

"Our relationship?" said Rory, terrified that she had come that close to losing him for good.

"No, not that." Jess rolled his eyes. "C'mon, Rory, you know how I feel about you," he told her, his hand at her cheek, thumb wiping away another stray tear. "I just... I don't know, I psyched myself up to do this whole Prom-posal thing that guys are supposed to do, and then... Well, you made me feel like an idiot, which I know you're sorry for," he added quickly, "but it doesn't change how I felt. I'm still not used to all this boyfriend stuff. It's all new territory. Throws me off sometimes."

"I think you're an amazing boyfriend," said Rory, smiling at him now. "I just really missed you these past few days."

"I'm sorry about that," he told her honestly, "but we're cool now, right?"

"I am if you are," Rory promised.

Jess nodded his head and pulled her closer. This time when they kissed it was how it was supposed to be, and Rory truly believed Jess when he said everything was okay. Lost in the moment, neither of them cared if they were alone or if the whole world was watching. A week was way too long to have been at odds like they had been, and they were both fools for letting things drag on like they had.

"Mom will be at the inn 'til late," she said when they parted, with a look that was unmistakable. "You wanna come inside for a while?"

"I think I can spare the time," Jess teased her, making her laugh before he kissed her again.

They were in her bedroom, clothes already coming off before a thought occurred to Rory and she suddenly pulled away.

"Jess?"

"What?"

"When you get home, delete any messages on your answering machine, okay? Don't even bother to listen."

Jess frowned at that and then nodded his agreement, happy to forget about the weird request within a second when Rory kissed him again and pulled him down onto the bed with her.

To Be Continued...