Chapter 5- The Unexpected Letter

Eruva

A/N: If Jess sounds cheesy and girly, I'm sorry, I don't really know another way to write these kinda of letters…

Enjoy

She woke up to an unexpected letter sitting next to her on her pillow. She recognized the writing at once from the words that had been scribbled in the margins of her books. It belonged to Jess. With that realization, she quickly pulled the covers closer to her and sat up in her bed to see if he was in her room. But he wasn't. One of her windows, however, was left slightly open. She sighed, guessing that Jess had stopped in Stars Hollow for a quick visit, but hadn't put her name down on the list of people to see. She tore open the letter and began to read.

Rory,

I'm sorry that I can only write this and not tell it to your face, but you know I have never been the best at meaningful conversations.

I owe you an explanation to why I left. When I found out I wasn't graduating and that Luke wouldn't let me stay with him any longer, I ran for it. I probably should have said goodbye first, but I didn't want to see that look on your face. See, I promised you I would take you to Prom, that I would graduate and we would work everything out with the 22.8 miles between us. When I knew that it wasn't going to work, I didn't want to see that look of disappointment on your face. I had already gotten it from Luke, but to get it from you, the person who has believed in me and helped me through everything, would have been unbearable Yes, leaving without saying goodbye does make me a coward. But I have never had, in my life, a person to disappoint, and disappointing you and Luke will always be in my mind.

So, I'm sorry I left, because honestly, nothing since then has made me as remotely happy as I was when I was here with you. I'm not asking for us to pick things back up from where we started, but can you find it in yourself to forgive me. I've moved back to Stars Hollow, after promising Luke I would finish my GED and work at the diner to pay him back for all the trouble I've caused. I have convinced him to close the diner this morning, however, you and your mom are welcome to come in, and, most likely, yell at me.

I hope you can forgive me,

Jess

Rory finished the letter and now that she had an explanation, she was happy. Jess was back. Something she had wished for, for so long was finally happening. She was happy and excited to see how much he had changed. She was scared though, because him coming back meant that he had to have made some significant change his life to face his fears. But, she had spent so many days missing him that she didn't really care if he was different, she just wanted to see him and be with him.

She got out of bed and went into her mom's room and jumped on the bed to wake her up. "Mom!" She screamed.

"Five more minutes, devil child." Her mother replied from underneath all her blankets.

"We've got to go to Luke's NOW! Jess is back!"

At the last phrase her mom jump straight up in bed. "What? How do you know?"

Rory laughed at her mom and handed her the letter. "I'm going to take a shower." With that she left her mom's room.

Twenty minutes later Lorelei had forgiven Jess for leaving Rory like that, because she knew how it felt to not want to disappoint important people in her life. The two Gilmores were walking silently down the street to Luke's diner. When they reached, there was a crowd of people looking in at the diner through the windows.

"Hey, Kirk, what's going on?" Rory asked Kirk because he was the first one they ran into.

"Apparently Luke wants to see you two because you're the only ones allowed in the diner this morning." He replied and walked away.

Rory felt scared, all the "what if"s were running through her head. "It's gonna be ok." Her mom whispered in her ear, giving her shoulders a light squeeze before opening the diner's door.

"Luke!" Lorelei screamed.

"We're upstairs you two. Lorelei, do you promise not to rip his head off." Luke screamed down from the apartment above the diner.

"Yes, I've quite forgiven him now." She answered as the two come up the stairs.

"That's a first." Luke said opening the door. "Let's leave the two alone." He told Lorelei pulling her arm and dragging her downstairs.

Rory slowly pushed the door further open and walked into the room. She stopped at the sight before her. Jess looked exactly the same. Little did she know that Jess was thinking the same thing about her. There was a comfortable silence as the two tried to take in as much as possible about the other.

Finally Rory spoke, "I forgive you, but I still wish you had told me. But I forgive for that because I know it feels to never want to disappoint someone."

Jess walked forward and pulled Rory into a hug, thinking about how happy he was to hear her say that. "I've missed you," he whispered to her. "You look good."

"And so do you," she replied happy to be in his arms again. They pulled apart and she asked him "no more running?"

She searched his eyes as he answered, "Not unless my life's on the line," with a smile on his face.

She laughed and let the words "I love you," slip out of her mouth because they were true and they seemed to fit the time.

She waited as Jess did a double take. "I wasn't expecting that." He whispered and fear entered Rory's mind, "but I love you too, and I'm really glad I'm back or else I don't think I would have ever known."

With that they kissed before heading down the stairs, hand-in-hand, to join their guardians.

That's the end of this one… I might write a squeal sometime, when spring break comes up.