A/N- Lovely readers, here is an extra-long chapter to make up for the lateness of last night's. Hope you enjoy this! As always, read, review...recommend if you feel like it. I do not own Gilmore Girls or any of its characters or concepts, but I love manipulating ASP's.


Chapter 64

Two hours later, Rory's phone started to buzz. Obnoxiously. Without end.

"Ugh!" she groaned, waking Jess. He rubbed his eyes and lazily looked toward her.

"Thinking about me?" he smirked. She shot him a glare he couldn't see.

"Phone," she grumbled, quickly picking it up, "Do you have a death wish?"

"Rory," Lorelai said quietly, "There's been...well…an…"

Suddenly Rory heard someone grab the phone.

"What your mom is trying to say is that someone robbed the Dragonfly."

"What?" Rory shot up in bed. Jess immediately came toward her, climbing in and leaning toward the phone to hear, "What do you mean, robbed?"

"I mean, someone came into the Dragonfly, broke into the offices, and took bank files as well as a great deal of the valuable property on the premises," Luke said flatly, "Including a lot of your mom's personal assets."

"Dirty," Jess muttered, earning a simultaneous glare and smile from Rory.

"When? How? Doesn't she have a night manager? She always had a night manager!" Rory exclaimed, standing up and pacing.

"She rehired Tobin a few months ago. We haven't been able to find him and no one saw him come in tonight. Michel said they usual try to avoid seeing each other. I'm going to strange him…"

"Have you tried calling?"

"No answer. Rory, she needs you."

"We're on the way." Rory handed off the phone to Jess, meeting his eyes. He nodded, taking the phone and putting it to his ear as she picked up a backpack and started shoving some of each of their clothing into it.

"Luke, we're coming. How is she?" Rory turned, her face in shock.

"I can't believe I didn't even ask that!"

"It's okay," Jess mouthed.

"She's…well…hold on," Luke became quiet for a minute before continuing, "Sorry, went into the other room. She's a wreck, Jess. The whole place looks like a crime scene. Which, of course, it is. But it's not like Stars Hollow has a decent police force. And I swear to god, when I find the guy that did this…"

"I'll help you wring his neck," Jess affirmed, "Now, is there anything we can bring? Do? Pick up from either of your places? I'm assuming you're at the inn."

"Yeah, actually," Luke answered, "Bring enough for a week and tell Matt and Chris you won't be into work. I'm gonna need you at the diner. Maybe Rory too."

"We can do that."

"And have Rory bring some things to calm Lorelai down. Candy, movies, whatever girly crap they like. There's some stuff called Sephora that Lorelai seems to be into…"

"It's a store," Jess sighed, "As I have recently learned. Don't worry, we'll take care of it. What about you?"

"I'm fine," Luke said gruffly.

"Luke…"

"I'll be fine, as soon as Lorelai's fine," Luke answered firmly.

"Okay," Jess nodded, "Well, we'll bring enough for the week. We're leaving in the next half hour so we should be there by two or three. Want us to meet you at the inn?"

"I'm gonna try to get Lorelai to come home, back to her place, though I'm not sure if I'll have any luck," Luke answered, "So no, just head to the diner. Mind opening tomorrow? I'll come by when I can and we'll go from there."

"Anything you need," Jess promised, "Tell Lorelai I'm sorry. We're sorry."

"I will," Luke answered, smiling. He couldn't help it. This was the kind of man that Jess had always been, that he'd always known. And if anyone could help him fix this it was Jess. "Thanks, Jess."

"Anytime," he replied. Hanging up, he looked at Rory.

"Holy shit."

"Go ahead and tell me there's no use for my OCD," Rory grinned, gesturing to the two fully-packed bags, as well as the additional tote bag stuffed with candy and movies, "Though we need magazines and more candy."

"You're both gifted and sick," Jess affirmed, "We can stop. Malomars?"

"Got 'em," Rory answered.

"Then let's go."

An hour or so later they were halfway to Star's Hollow. Jess turned to Rory.

"You know, the point of me driving was so you could sleep."

"I can't sleep. I'm worried about her."

"Your mom? The infamous Lorelai?" Jess scoffed, "Rory, that woman left your grandparent's house with you and a stroller and a Walkman. She'll be okay."

"It's just not fair," Rory said quietly, "Her, of all people. She does all this, for everyone. She's so unselfish. I mean, sometimes she seems selfish, but she's not really selfish. She's more selfless than anybody."

Jess nodded, remembering the time she'd spoken to him on the back porch of the Gilmore house.

"But of course, the Independence caught on fire. She was functionally single the entire time raising me, got divorced before even being married for a year, and hasn't actually been married, really, to someone she loved and wanted to spend her life with, even now. And someone decided to rob the Dragonfly. Why does all this shit happen to her? Why can't it happen to someone awful or even someone just…not as good as her."

"Maybe it's because she can handle it," Jess offered, "I know that probably doesn't help, and you know as well as I do that I don't believe in God or fate or any of that Sunday-school-tarot-card crap. But your mother is strong. Maybe the reason it happens to her rather than someone else is because she's strong enough to take it. Whereas if all of that happened to most people, they'd collapse."

"I don't know how she hasn't," Rory replied.

"She won't."

"How do you know?"

'I know."

They sat there quietly for a few minutes. Suddenly Rory grinned.

"Do you remember the first time we drove together?"

Jess glared at her.

"Really? You had to bring that up?"

"Why do you look so mad? It was fun."

"We crashed and you ended up in a hospital."

"Details."

"What exactly was fun about a night that ended with me leaving you in an emergency room?"

"Well, for starters, I realized how bored I was with my life," she answered, "That I hadn't thought anything through. I realized I'd never really put thought into why I wanted to be a journalist."

"And I felt awful about making you doubt your lifelong goals. I'm really feeling great about my performance that night," Jess looked at her, slightly irritated.

"No, it was good," Rory insisted, "I just wish I'd been…that I hadn't…I was scared."

"Of me?"

"Of being wrong," she admitted, "That it wasn't what I wanted to do. Or even that it might not be. That I might not want to date a lanky guy who played sports and had never read a book for pleasure in his life. That my mom was flawed. That I was even more flawed. That it was okay to be angry and imperfect."

"You got all that from one conversation?" Jess asked disbelievingly, "I think I made one comment."

"Think about it. You weren't talkative," Rory answered, "So when you said something, I listened. It usually mattered. I was just afraid to risk everything it would mean risking. The life I thought I wanted and had planned out."

"And now?" Jess ventured, meeting Rory's eyes briefly before returning his to the road.

"Now," she sighed, "I have no fucking clue. Which is wonderful and everything I knew it would be, and also completely terrifying. But I wish I'd been brave enough to do it sooner. Save myself and everyone else a lot of trouble."

"You aren't trouble," Jess countered, "Except for when you're intending to be."

Rory smirked. "You really can't keep your mind out of the gutter these days, can you?"

"Well, you are still wearing the Metallica shirt," he pointed out. She looked down in surprise. "Good thing you're not stopping by the inn. I have no idea how you'd explain that one to your mom."

"Dropped on my head one too many times on a baby?"

"Nowadays that might go over more believably than my negative influence."

"You aren't completely redeemed, Jess," Rory smirked, "You still corrupted her only daughter."

"Just helped bring out what was already there," Jess shrugged, "Plus, I wouldn't say you're completely corrupted…" His hand grazed her thigh experimentally and she drew in a sharp breath. He grinned widely.

"Maybe a little," he retorted, "But I won't tell."