A/N: Hello ya'll! Here's another one, and again, thank you to all of you who have reviewed. Keep 'em coming guys!

Those-aren't-my-lucky-charmsxX: Sophies is Rory's and Logan's ship name, whilst Narc is Rory's and Dean's. Javajunkie is for Lorelai and Luke and the other ship name that I know is BalconyBuddies and that's for Lorelai and Chris. Hope you found this helpful! )

So enjoy guys! It gets more interesting after this chapter, I think, I hope. :)

R&R!

STAND STILL, LOOK PRETTY
CHAPTER 3
MEMOIRS OF DODGER

To the untrained eye, it would seem that Lorelai Gilmore was sitting idly on the porch of her house, calmly sipping a glass of lemonade. She wore a white summer dress with blue flowers adorning the piece, the same shade of blue as the paneling of her house. Her hair was straight today instead of her usual curly look, and she sipped her lemonade absently. Her legs were neatly crossed and she was tapping the edge of her chair almost obsessively.

To the trained eye, this was nothing but a façade.

Luke Danes pulled over into the driveway, eyeing his wife as he exited his truck. He was worried that she was worried, but he also worried what his wife was worrying. He grabbed the paper bag that contained food from his diner from the other seat and made his way to the chair where Lorelai was sitting.

He placed the paper bag gently on the small table before them, in between the jug of lemonade and the bowl full of apples and turned to face his passively distraught wife.

She met his eyes, stare for stare; brilliant blue meeting gleaming green.

"I know what you're going to say Luke," Lorelai said immediately. "I know but I don't want to hear it. Something's wrong. She would not have stopped sending me emails if something was not wrong. She's not busy; she has never been too busy to stop replying."

"Lorelai," he started to say.

"No, no," Lorelai interrupted, shaking her head while doing so. "God, whatever's happening there should be on the news, breaking news, whatever show is on should be cut off for the news, for this news. Don't they know who Rory is over there? She's special, if anything happened to her, it should be on the news… it should be on the news."

Luke held Lorelai's hand as she continued her anxious ranting, tightening his grip as he felt his wife's fear seeping into his own, increasing his worries by tenfold. It had been two days since Rory replied their last email and while that might be a short period of absence for some, it was not to this household. He felt just as worried as any father would; he had always thought of Rory as his daughter, heck the whole town did too, and he knew that this agonizing concern came from the deepest part of his heart.

"Maybe she lost her internet connection," he said softly. "And that she had to leave the premises quickly."

"Why, Luke? Why did she lose it? What happened? What the hell happened over there?"

"If I knew I would gladly tell you, but all this stress is not good for the baby Lorelai, let me do the stressing for the both of us."

That little reminder helped her to calm down a bit. Just a bit. But it was good enough for the time being.

He did feel that he was stressed enough for two. Chilling scenarios played in his mind, occupying his every thought, that he did not notice the taxi pulling up in front of the house.

"Oh my God, RORY!"

Lorelai broke free from his grip and ran out to meet her twenty-six year old daughter who smiled broadly and screamed happily as she ran towards her mum.

A feeling of deep relief washed over Luke and he just sat there on the porch, watching, full of glad, a mother and a daughter reunite after three years of being apart.

Once he had gathered himself together again, Luke came down from the porch and hugged his step daughter who laughed when she saw the tears of happiness in his eyes.

"Oh Luke, you big ol' softie," she murmured as her own tears began to overwhelm her.

Kissing her forehead, Luke wiped his eyes and went off to grab her luggage which the cab driver had finally unloaded. He paid the necessary fare and started lifting the bags into the house.

Rory and Lorelai waited until he reached them, before they too, made their way inside.

It had been a long while since the Gilmore house felt complete. And as Luke walked in right after them, the house truly did feel whole.

Rory cheerfully strolled around Stars Hollow in the morning sun, stopping every now and then to talk to old friends who had welcomed her back delightedly with opened arms. She had been back in Stars Hollow for over two weeks now and had made her rounds at least twice, not mentioning the numerous parties that her mother had thrown in her honor.

The reason why Rory had not emailed her mother was because the day after she was told she could return back home… was so hectic, that she did not get a chance to type a quick email to let her mother know that she would be home soon. She knew that she had caused her mum a lot of trouble by worrying over her and she had apologized profusely ever since she got home. But Lorelai had brushed it off, elated with the fact that Rory was finally home, was finally with her again. And Rory simply felt blissful.

She had caught up with everyone and was sure that she had not missed out on anybody. Kwan and Steve had greeted her enthusiastically, fascinated by her innate understanding of little boys, and by the end of the week, they had grown to love her and had given her a piece of paper with scribbles of colourful lines that they both had worked on together.

Lane told her it was their way of saying that she had pleased them and Rory, knowing that she had been accepted and deemed worthy by the two four year old boys, cherished the drawing very much. With Lane she had talked about everything, she filling Lane in with all the details of the gruesome yet satisfying work of being a journalist, and Lane, in turn, telling her how it was like to be a housewife with naughty twin boys who only decide to listen to her every once in a blue moon.

She had visited Sookie's house where she was stuffed silly with many different types of cookies that Rory was sure she was finally sick of, of any type of cookies for that matter. Davey, Martha and Jamie all had different preferences and Sookie, being the great chef/mother that she was, catered to all their food fetishes. Jackson welcomed her back with no little tears, same with Sookie, and they had invited her and her mother and Luke almost every night for dinner ever since Rory made her presence known.

All the others, Rory met too. She also had driven to Hartford where she stayed a few nights at her grandparents in order to make up for lost times. She never realized how much she had missed the dinner at their house that the first night there, she had had more than two helpings. Her grandma and grandpa, just like her mother, had followed her every step during the three years and had video tapes saved of her from all the appearances that she had made.

They watched them together, her grandma ranting about how Rory always scared her out of her mind, but at the same time, proud that Rory was where she was now and her grandpa just could not say it enough.

Rory loved being back home and she enjoyed every moment of it.

But it wasn't long before those three letters came back to haunt her. As Rory walked along the busy street of Stars Hollow, Rory remembered what each men had said to her. They had all seen her report the news during the time of an intense major violent political protest when she was in the Middle-East many months ago and had all expressed their worries in the beginning of their letters. What the rest said though, very much differed. And Rory knew that she had to go meet them one by one.

Her first choice was Jess. She kept on telling herself that she had made the choice purely based on practicality. The address on the back of the letter told her that he still lived in Philadelphia and that was the closest to where she was compared to where Dean and Logan were. And even though her mind was telling her that this was basically the reason why she had chosen Jess first, her heart was telling her a different story.

The thought of Jess, stopped her heart. And as Rory entered Andrew's bookstore to buy a book for some light reading, she was now sure beyond a shadow of a doubt that Jess definitely had to be the first; things between them felt unfinished and it was about time that they both cleared the air. What they had been, what they could be now… those were the questions that Rory needed answered.

No matter how hard she told herself that she was over Jess, things between them were never really over.

"It is what it is, you, me."

Smiling at Andrew and all the while trying to push that sudden memory out of her mind, Rory made her way to the shelves, searching with her eyes for an interesting title.

She and Jess; something had always come in between. That was what he had thought, and for a long time, she did too. But now that they were older and that everything in their lives seemed right, Rory was willing to see whether without that theory, something could really happen between them, that the reason for them not working out many years ago was truthfully because something always got in the way, that it wasn't just them subconsciously knowing that they were not meant to be.

Scanning the shelves, Rory contemplated a classic. Her cell phone rang which at first, she very much wanted to ignore, but when she saw that it was from her mum, she quickly picked it up.

"Hey mum," Rory said to the mouth piece, half-distracted.

"Hello Rory, my sweet, my love, my darling. Where ever in the world are you?" Lorelai said in that weird accent that she had always used whenever she was being foolish.

"I'm at the bookstore; do you want me to get you something while I'm out?"

"Oh I thought you'd never ask," Lorelai replied, her voice becoming hers again. "I need you go to Doose's and-,"

As Rory listened to what her mother was saying, she saw a title that tugged at her memory. Memoirs of Dodger. Rory stared hard at it, at first not seeing the name that was screaming at her face. Once her eyes made out the name of the author, her eyes widened in shock and her rosy lips parted a little.

"Rory, Rory?? Earth to Rory…!"

Speech seemed lost to her. Everything in the world disappeared. It was just her and the little black book in front of her.

Dodger. Him. Her.

A memory came rushing back into her, a memory that she had blocked out of her life for years.

"You bought a copy? I told you I'd lend you mine."

"It is yours."

"You stole my book."

"Nope, borrowed it."

"Okay, that's not called a trick, that's called a felony."

"I just wanted to put some notes in the margins for you."

"What? You've read this before."

"About forty times."

"I thought you said you didn't read much."

"Well, what is much? Goodnight Rory."

"Goodnight Dodger."

"Dodger?"

"Figure it out."

"Oliver Twist."

Her hand shook as she took the book out of the shelf, seeing now that there were many copies of it behind the one that she had taken. A book by Jess Mariano.

Slowly, Rory opened the first chapter and read the first few lines.

She was not that girl anymore, the girl that had named me, the girl that had changed me, and the girl that had saved me. She became everything that she hated. And she didn't even know it.

Dumbstruck, Rory stared at the words uncomprehending.

When understanding finally dawned on her, her shock was soon replaced by anger.

She heatedly closed the book and roughly threw it back into the shelf. Storming out of the bookstore, Rory quickly changed her mind. She was not going to see Jess first, oh no, not for a long time.

She was furious, furious that she had fantasized what they both could now be, when all along, it was never meant to happen. She was angry at herself and livid with Jess.

"Screw you Jess," she muttered under her breath. "Screw you Dodger."

A/N: The link for the picture for this chapter can be found on my profile page, as usual. I hope you guys like it. Now click those review buttons. Please review. It motivates me… you motivate me!

Till next time

Hint: A letter will be opened for you to read :).