See you in Washington

Disclaimer-Oh yeah, so I'm really Amy Sherman Palladino and when I'm not writing Gilmore Girls-because David Rosenthal has been killed by me-and not basking in my sheer brilliance I like to come onto this little website and make up stories about Gilmore Girls instead of actually making them the plotline. Oh, yeah, and I'm queen of the world.

A/N-Hey, so new chapter. This one is long. Rory's finally back. She and Jess talk. Numerous times. Check out my AN at the bottom when you're done cuz it might answer some questions.

Now, my fabulouso reviewers:

gg-ghgirl759- yay! You like my story. That chapter was supposed to be kind of sad.

ilovejessssss-you're so right, this story would be going no where if they were just together the whole time. I'm glad you like my story. Of course I appreciate you're opinion!

Just A Girl Of The Hollow x3-you're super reviewer! You never stop…I'm so glad you love it.

xliteratiwhorex-they will, trust me, they will…

Curley-Q-They talk…they will be ok, just not in this chapter. Sorry, but the entire story can't just be happy Rory/jess bliss. I have to go somewhere with it. Thanx for reviewing

Britterina-I hate Shane with a passion. I'm glad you like my story so much and I really do try to capture Lorelai's personality so I'm happy it's working for you!

Literati and naley forever-Thanks for reviewing every chapter, I'm happy you liked my chapter:-D

hollowgirl22-Yay! Thank you!

watergurl123-you liked my chapter-that's good. Jess never was the most reliable was he? I couldn't make him perfect because that wouldn't be realistic.

allycat1186-I'm so glad you like my Lorelai, of course who can do it better than APS though?

RBDFAN-thank you thank you thank you! Just one thing-RBD as in the band? If so, I don't know you. (I'm not mean, as you may be thinking right now, I just can't stand RBD)

gilmorejunkie1230-yay, you like it! Boo, no gf for jess, he and Rory are the only couple I will ever have together.

Chapter 8

Rory held his gaze. Why does he have to have such amazing eyes? How could she have forgotten those, the miles of chocolate brown? Oh, who was she kidding, she hadn't forgotten a thing. She had remembered everything about him, from the way his muscles flexed underneath his shirt when he worked around the diner to the exact creamy color of his skin. As exciting as she had been to come home, returning to Washington was sounding pretty good right now.

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He tried to figure out what she was thinking but the only thing her eyes said was lost. She looked lost. Lost in what? Him? No, she had ended it, he wasn't enough for her, and it was over. He had to accept it. Except…she was staring at him too intensely to be feeling nothing. Oh come off it Mariano, he told himself.

Lorelai was staring at the both of them. They seemed frozen in time, stranded in space, and Rory had on a look Lorelai had never seen before. She sighed, knowing it would be like this for a while, now that Rory and Jess were on such awkward terms with each other. "Ahemm." She cleared her throat to get Rory's attention. It seemed to not be working.

"Hey Luke, look, Rory's back! Rory, why don't you go say hi to Luke?" Lorelai prompted loudly. Rory immediately whipped her head up and broke the trance between her and Jess. Jess blinked and sighed, before turning and walking up the stairs to Luke's apartment. Rory took one last glance at him before turning to meet Luke, who was oblivious to the goings on in his diner, quite the contrary to Babbette and Miss Patty, who had already leaned in and were talking in hushed tones. And we all know nothing good could come of that.

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After Luke's, Rory and Lorelai went home, where Rory unloaded her bags and Lorelai made no remarks on Jess and Rory's little staring contest. They then met Sookie and Jackson and made their way to the Summer Madness Festival. Taylor had once again gone all out with this and the incessant "Roll out those lazy hazy crazy days of summer" was starting to drive Rory crazy. She made her way to the farthest part of the festival, over near the balloon blower's booth. She wondered how they could possibly call it a booth when it was five times the size of a normal tent and had 3 tables stuck inside it, each with different colored balloons on them.

"Song killing you too?" Came a voice from behind her. Rory whipped her head around to see Jess mere inches from her face. Immediately, she backed up and began looking around for an easy way out.

"What?" she asked, having not quite caught what he had said.

"I said, 'is the song killing you too?'."

He noticed her darting eyes and her feet that moved back a little more with every word he uttered. "I'm not going to eat you, you know, and if I do attempt to, I promise I'll give enough time to escape, you don't have to start backing off now." He said.

"Oh, yeah, sorry. It's just…"

"Awkward?" he finished for her.

"Yeah, awkward. Hey, what do you think would happen if I pushed that in?" Rory asked, gesturing towards one of the metal poles that held the "booth" stabilized. On the pole was a small piece of metal sticking out of a hole with a sign that said, Booth will fall if touched. Nothing about not pressing it, just that it would fall if it was pushed in.

"Considering the sign says it will fall, I'm guessing it will fall. Why? You feeling daring today, Gilmore?" He asked, his eyebrows raised in a disbelieving fashion.

"No, I was just wondering." She hurriedly said.

"Uh huh…right…You know you want to Rory…" He teased.

"No way, I am not destroying the balloon booth! If you're so stuck on that, you do it!"

"Hey, you're the one who came up with the idea!" He exclaimed.

"I was only curious. I had no plans to actually touch ever. In fact, the thought hadn't even crossed through my head into you brought it up." She announced defensively.

"Not even one thought?" He asked, challenging her.

"Nope. Well…"

"Oh, you so admit it. You want to. Just press it. Ha, I can see the headlines now: Rory Gilmore, Resident Town Princess Destroyed Booth. Banishings Will Be Held, Hangings Will Be Admonished. Jess Mariano Was Said To Be An Alliance To Her In This Time Of Horrors." He said loudly. She let out a small giggle before the smile turned into a mischievous glint that only showed in her eyes.

She's really going to do it, she just needs a little push, he thought.

"Come on, it's the perfect time!" he encouraged as the balloon man, dressed in red and white pinstripes and a red top hat, put up his lunch break sign. God Lord, he looks like a candy cane, Rory thought. It was perfect time and the thought was so tempting. It was about time she bent the rules a little. In her mind, she counted to three and then reached out and jabbed her finger into the metal before taking off and running.

She was oblivious to anything around her, she just ran. When she was far enough away, she turned around and looked at what she had done. The tent was on the ground, candy cane man was standing in front of it looking like he was about to cry, balloons were flying through the air all around the tent and Taylor was sitting in his wheelchair, mouth hanging open, dumbfounded. A small crowd was gathering around the tent as more balloons rocketed upwards and all Rory could do was laugh. She laughed and laughed and she now knew why Jess enjoyed this so much. Taylor had jumped up from the wheelchair and was hobbling about giving different people directions. This was definitely worth it, she thought to herself.

"Welcome to the dark side, Rory." Jess muttered as her passed her, a smirk adorned on his face. Rory rolled her eyes but as soon as he was out of eyesight she smiled a tiny smile, a smile she saved just for him. What am I doing? She asked herself.

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"Another fun one!" Lorelai yelled as she met up with Rory and they walked back to their house.

"Our town isn't capable of hosting one uneventful event." Rory replied, knowing this one's events happened to be because of her.

"Yeah. I wonder how that thing fell. Taylor said it could only collapse if someone touched the little metal thingy-ma-jig. Whoever did it, they have my prayers, because if Taylor figures them out it'll be 'here's Johnny' all over again except instead of an axe bashing through the door, it'd be a chainsaw. Of course then it would be more Chainsaw Massacre than The Shining. Well whatever, they're both equally threatening in my mind, especially with Taylor as the main character." Lorelai rambled. Rory was avoiding her mother's eyes and her face was flushed with a faint pink. They had reached the Gilmore home and were walking up the driveway now.

"Hon, I've got to go take a shift at the inn. I'll see you at around seven alright?"

"Kay, I'll order Chinese." Rory offered.

"Oh, let's tackle the beef column this time!" Lorelai said excitedly.

"Ok. See you mom."

"Bye honey." Lorelai called as she jumped into the Jeep and drove off.

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Rory still had yet to see Dean once since she had arrived home, since she had taken to avoiding Doose's and the only times she saw Jess were when she was in Luke's and he was working there. They hadn't talked since their run-in at the festival, though occasionally when he was pouring her coffee or serving her food he would give her a tiny, almost invisible smirk, to which she would blush and look away. She realized that she only had books on her shelf that she had read before. She didn't mind rereading books but any one of these would be a 5th timer and she wanted something new to read. It was time for a trip to Andrew's.

When she arrived she went straight to the Classics section, one of her favorites. She realized she had read everything on all 3 of the shelves. She moved onto the drama/romance section but decided that was too intense for right now. The new editions would have something. After gathering up her pile of 16 books-a miniscule number compared to her average pile-she turned around to go pay. That's when she saw it.

Jess. Jess and a girl. Jess and a pretty girl. Jess and a pretty girl laughing. Rory couldn't see his expression but the girl looked like she was having the time of her life. Every cell in Rory's body was taken over by anger. She wanted nothing more than to rip this girl limb to limb and then run home and cry. Why was she feeling this though? She wasn't with Jess. He wasn't going to just sit and pine over her. She hadn't expected him to. Well, maybe she had just a little but she shouldn't have.

The girl finally left the store and Rory marched up to the checkout line, standing just behind Jess.

"Hey." He greeted when he noticed her.

"Hey yourself." She replied huffily.

"Did I do something to offend?" He asked, confused by her behavior.

"You? Oh, no…nothing at all. Really." She said, more trying to convince herself than him.

"Huh." He watched as Andrew bagged his books before finally saying, "Her name's Nicole." She looked up at him startled before realizing what he'd said. Could he read her mind or something?

"I know her. Head cheerleader? Constantly surrounded by a huddle of people who seem to be laughing about nothing? Yeah, I know her." Rory replied bitterly. Jess nodded and grabbed his bag before walking out, Rory staring after him, longingly.

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Two heavy bags in tow, Rory stepped out of Andrew's and into the sunlight. Why did I have to get so many hardbacks? She asked herself before making her way across the town. Suddenly she stopped as her eyes zoomed in on a certain couple walking down the street a ways in front of her. Dean. Dean and…was that? No. Oh my God, it was. Dean and a petite, perky redhead named Lucy. Rory had always hated Lucy with a passion and now suddenly Dean was with her? Rory felt a faint pang of pain in her heart as Dean slung his arm around Lucy's shoulders, just like he'd always done with Rory. His shoulders shook and she could tell he was laughing with…uck, Lucy. Rory immediately turned away and stood frozen for a few moments before she made her way home. Dean was with Lucy and Jess was with Nicole. Lane was with Dave; Paris was with Jamie, everyone was happy. Except for her.

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On arriving home, she slammed the door and decided it was time to wallow for both the boys she had lost. First on the list of wallowing: coffee. Rory loaded the pot up and pressed the On button and then pressed Grind Before Brew before walking over to the 'sappy love stories' section of their movies selection-Rory had taken it on herself one day to organize and label every video and DVD she and Lorelai owned-when she heard a huge pop, bang, and a sizzle. Rory jumped at the sound, causing the bags of books that were still slung over her back to smack into the shelves of movies. Not good! She thought, but it was too late. Every movie came crashing to the ground.

"Crap!" She exclaimed. She looked down to see a trail of blood dripping down her leg. One of the corners of the DVD case had slit the side of her knee, so now she had stained the sleeve of her favorite t-shirt, was bleeding a heavy flow of blood, had destroyed her movie collection, and-wait, what had been the noise that had started this chain of events? Rory quickly jumped up and ran to the kitchen to find coffee spurting everywhere. Rory, in her delusional state, had forgotten to close the top of the machine, which was definitely not good, she now knew this from firsthand experience. She rushed to the counter and fumbled around before finding the electric socket, pulling out the plug and sighing. She took in their kitchen, the walls now dripping with coffee, before noticing a note on the counter. Out of band-aids. It read in Lorelai's handwriting. Great, just great, now on top of everything, I have nothing to put on this cut. Rory wet a paper towel and blotted up the blood only to find this made more drip out. Rory threw the towel on the ground and marched out the door.

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Rory walked up to Luke's and saw the 'Sorry, we're Closed' sign up. She tried the handle anyway and it opened. As soon as she stepped in one of the bags on her back broke and her books tumbled out onto the floor. "gracefully she enters…" Rory muttered before dropping to the ground to beginning to gather them up.

"Luke, I know you're closed but I had a really terrible day and I really need some coffee and I'll even make it myself and put it in a to-go cup and then leave as quickly as possible, but before I leave I promise I will pay. Just please let me have a cup of coffee, because when I say I had a terrible day and mean really bad." Rory begged while finishing up her pile of books and dropping the other bag to rest on the floor. Finally Rory stood up to see Jess walking out of the storage room, a rag in hand.

"I thought you were your mom." Jess remarked at seeing her.

"Close." Rory mumbled, refusing to look at him. Jess poured her a cup of coffee and pushed it onto the counter. Rory tentatively walked towards it.

"Bad day?" He asked.

"Yeah, really bad."

"Look, I can get out of here; I mean I'm sure you've got a date with Nicole or something. I can just pour this into a to-go cup and leave." Rory said miserably.

"Date with…" Suddenly Jess realized why Rory was acting the way she was. "Rory, I am not dating Nicole. She was flirting with me in the bookstore, nothing more. If you asked me my opinion on her, the words 'mindless idiot' would definitely be in my reply." He assured her. A huge wave of relief flooded over her.

"Oh." Was all she could think to say.

"Yeah."

"Ok." She stalled.

"So…how was the rest of your trip in Washington?" he asked, but immediately regretted it. He just had to bring Washington up.

"It was good…uneventful." She replied after a moment. He could see the hidden meaning in her words.

"Huh." He said. He slowly moved his hands across the counter and took hers in his, caressing her palm with his thumb. His simple touch sent chills up Rory's spine and she immediately moved her eyes upward to find his gaze.

"Rory, I…I'm sorr…" Bang! Rory jumped away from Jess's hands and turned to see Luke standing in the doorway. Rory turned one last time and caught Jess's eyes. She couldn't tell what he was feeling but her eyes showed confusion and pain.

"Thanks for the coffee Jess." Rory said quietly before turning and running past Luke, straight home. About halfway there she realized she'd left her books but she wasn't going back now. When she arrived at her house, her mother was standing in the kitchen, her gaze shifting between the coffee that was splattered on the walls and floor, to the bloody wad of paper towel that lay on the ground.

"Rory, do I even want to ask…Oh, honey, what's wrong?" Lorelai cooed as she stepped over to her daughter and wrapped her arms around Rory. The tears that streamed down Rory's cheeks were blotted by Lorelai's shirt.

"I don't know what to do, Mom. I just don't know."

"Oh, honey, I know…I know." Lorelai reassured Rory, even though she didn't know.

"I think it's a Princess Bride night hon." Lorelai said and led the way into the living room.

"Oh, umm, the 'sappy love stories' shelf fell. The movie might be a little hard to find." Rory said, before resuming her crying. Lorelai stared at the mess of DVDs and videos that lay on the ground near the TV. She would ask later, she decided, before kneeling to the ground and sifting through the movies, while Rory curled up on the couch and wondered what to do.

AN: So, chapter 8. Long right? Hope I didn't make you guys too sad. For all of you who might be wondering about the whole Lorelai/Chris ordeal that occurred in the season 2 finale, Chris never came back, Lor and Chris never slept together, Sherri is still pregnant I guess, but I'm going to leave that out of this story. As for the Lorelai/Luke fight that happened in Teach Me Tonight, let's pretend they made up while Rory was in Washington. I do have a general idea of what each chapter will be but I don't know how long this story is going to go on. I have plans for a sad ending though; I don't know why I just told you that. I hope no one's losing hope in this story, Rory and Jess will get back together, I promise! Reviews are the love of my life! I have passed the line of want and now truly need you to-what's that word ladies and gentlemen? That's right-REVIEW!

X0x0x-Chloe