Thanks for the reviews on chapter fifteen: rocknflorida4lif, DiehardJavaJunkie14, lillitgirlx2, Curley-Q, smartbookworm, ShaolinQueen, Jeremy Shane, tortallanrider, and gilmorefanforever.

Disclaimer: I own Sully and his malicious, devious ways. But that's about all. Yeah, actually that's it.

No Glue Backs

Jess was flopped across his bed with one arm dangling off the side. He was holding a study guide over his face and was scanning the different bullet points with his eyes. The apartment was silent except the low hum of The Clash playing on his stereo across the room. When he had first started to study, the music was blasting. After a few minutes, he realized that he couldn't concentrate and had turned it down as low as possible.

He flipped a page in his study guide and sat up in order to reach his highlighter. As his fingers brushed the cap, the green florescent marker fell on the floor. Groaning, he creased the packet by the staple and leaned over the side of the bed.

"Hey!" Sully yelled as he ducked into the room. Jess reacted to the shock by tumbling over the side of his bed.

"Hi," he mumbled, rubbing the elbow he had whacked off the bed table during his fall. Jess hoisted himself off the floor and back on his bed. "What do you want?" he grumbled, realizing he had lost the highlighter in the crossfire. As he hung off the edge of the bed searching for his highlighter, Sully stood in his doorway with his arms crossed.

"You're an accident waiting to happen," Sully joked as Jess braced himself against the headboard. Sighing, he reached over and retrieved the green marker from the corner of his bed. "Looking for this?" he asked, shaking the highlighter in front of his friend's face.

"Yes." Jess reached over to grab the marker, forgetting that he had been hanging onto the bed for stability. He hit the floor again, whacking the same elbow off the bed table once more. "Fuck," he cursed, rubbing the sore patch of skin.

Sully tried to hold back his laughter as Jess lay sprawled across the floor. "Want some help?" he asked, offering a hand.

Jess scowled in response, but lifted himself to his feet. "What did you need?" he asked, straightening out the papers on his bed.

"I, uh, forgot." Sully laughed. "You fell off the bed and I just forgot."

"Gee, thanks. Glad to know to amused you."

"You know, we haven't had a guy's night in a long time," Sully said, tapping on the doorframe.

"Yeah, so?" Jess asked, glancing away from his study guide.

"There's beer in the fridge and we could order a pizza," Sully suggested, grasping at straws.

"Maybe tomorrow," Jess said uninterestedly, flipping a page.

"Aw, come on. You never want to do anything anymore." Sully jutted out his lower lip. "Please?" he begged. "You're always busy."

"I have work to do."

"So do I," Sully said. "We can do it together."

"Yeah, and then we can hold hands and skip." Jess recapped the marker and flipped another page.

"You never even thanked me for taking care of you when you were hung over," Sully snapped.

"You let me do shots with Ben. He's like, six foot five. You won't even do shots with Ben."

"Wait. Are you pissed at me for letting you get drunk?" Sully unfolded his arms and shot a look at Jess.

"No."

"Then what the fuck, Jess?" Sully demanded.

"It's nothing." Jess turned back to his paper.

"Fine." Sully turned around and slammed the door so hard that the wall clock slipped from its position over the window.

Rory creaked the door open, curious as to why it was so silent inside. The occupants were usually loud and obnoxious. When she slipped inside, she furrowed her brow at the sight.

Neither Jess nor Sully were present, but there was a line of masking tape down the center of the apartment. She scratched her head as the bathroom door slammed and a towel clad figure emerged.

"Corey Michael Sullivan!" Jess bellowed, slamming his fist against the bedroom door. His bath towel was secured around his waist, but something green was dripping from his hair. "You open that door right now, or I'll-"

Sully flung open the door. "New rule. No pants, no talking." He shut the door, leaving Jess outside the room.

"Oh, you son of a-"

Sully yanked open his door and grabbed the towel hanging at Jess's waist. "That's my towel," he said before slamming the door again.

Rory giggled from her spot in the kitchen.

"What?" Jess snapped. "It's not funny!" he pleaded.

"You have such a cute little butt," Rory cooed.

Jess shot her a glare.

"We're going to look back on this and laugh."

"No, you're going to look back on this and laugh." Jess kicked the door and stalked back to the bathroom.

Rory shook her head and tapped on Sully's bedroom door.

"It's my towel. I'm not giving it…hi Rory." He paused as Rory laughed at his loss of momentum after flinging the door open.

"You guys are fighting?" she asked.

"It's not really a fight. We just…"

"Decided to decorate the apartment with masking tape?"

Sully scuffed his sneaker against the rug. "He flipped over Baxter!" he reasoned.

"Baxter?" she questioned.

"My turtle. When we were kids, the sadistic bastard used to flip him on his shell." Sully scowled.

"And what's with the green…?"

"Hair dye in his shampoo bottle," Sully finished.

"Why?"

"Super glue in my hair gel."

Rory sighed. "Why?"

"Toilet water in his mouthwash."

"Ew." Rory made a face. "And what started this?"

"He flipped Baxter on his shell."

Rory sighed again. She wasn't going to get a direct answer. "Because…?"

"Because we're fighting."

Rory sighed and rubbed her face with her hand. "You dyed my boyfriend's hair green and made him rinse with toilet water?"

"But he super glued my hair and flipped Baxter on his shell!" Sully pleaded.

"Okay. Whatever helps you sleep at night." Rory walked away from the Sully's room and rapped her knuckles against the bathroom door. "Jess?" she asked cautiously as he heard the water stop running from the shower.

"My fucking hair is green!" he exclaimed from the other side of the door.

"So?" Rory asked.

"So don't come in here until I fix it!"

Rory laughed. "You're going to be in there for a long time if you're waiting for it to grow out."

"I'm not. I'm trying to find more shampoo to wash it out with."

Rory sighed. "I'll still love you if you look like a leprechaun."

"Leprechauns have red hair," he grumbled.

"Well, then I'll be waiting outside."

"I'm staging an intervention," Rory said. "You, sit here." She pointed to Jess. "And you, sit over there." She directed Sully to his own chair. "Okay, you're going to handle this like men," Rory said, shooting each friend a look. "Not like little boys that put green hair dye in shampoo and super glue in hair gel."

Jess tipped his eyes up to meet Rory's.

"That's right. I know what you do in your spare time."

Jess started to say something, but Rory held her hand up in protest.

"I haven't been here for three days. I've talked to you five times in those three days, and you never mentioned you were at each other's throats." Rory crossed her arms over her chest. "Quite frankly, I'm surprised you two didn't do more damage to each other."

"Yeah, we're not very resourceful." Sully reached back to rub his neck. "I was going to get him with the glue, but…"

"No glue backs," Jess reminded him.

"Is that like no take backs?" Rory asked, sure that the intervention was going to take longer than expected.

"He glued me, so I can't glue him because it breaks the rule," Sully explained.

"What rule?"

"You know. The rule that says you can't glue someone that already glued you," Sully elaborated.

"Perfect sense. Moving on…"

Jess and Rory strolled around Harvard Square, his arm tucked securely at her waist. The chilly January breeze cut through her puffy coat and his leather jacket, but they continued around the corner to The Garage.

Rory shrugged off her heavy winter coat as Jess rubbed his hands up and down his arms. "You wouldn't be so cold if you wore something heavier than that leather jacket," Rory said. "It isn't even lined anymore."

"I'm fine," Jess said, blowing warm air on his hands and rubbing them together.

"Your nose is pink," she said, grabbing his chapped hands in hers. She rubbed her gloved hands against bare ones and he smiled.

"Your nose is pink, too," he said. "You sure you still want ice cream?"

"I never say no to ice cream," Rory said, peeling the gloves back from her hands.

"Even when it's negative ten degrees?" he asked, unwrapping the scarf from around her neck.

"Even when it's negative ten degrees," she said, hanging the purple scarf around Jess's neck. He let it hang over his leather jacket without protest.

"The usual?" he asked.

"The usual." She piled her winter clothes on the third chair and boosted herself up on the high seat. Rory concentrated on getting warm while she watched Jess collect their ice creams from the counter.

"This is the only kind of ice cream I can't eat in a cone," Jess said, examining the vast dish of Chunky Monkey.

Rory nodded. "There are a lot of big pieces in there. You never know what could happen if you catch your tongue on one."

As usual, Rory finished her dish of ice cream first. Before Jess could protest, she dipped her pink spoon into his bowl and dug out a huge chocolate chunk. "Hey."

"You let me take it," she reasoned, licking the remaining banana flavored essence off her spoon.

He shrugged and scooped a spoonful of ice cream out of the dish. "Yeah, I did."

"You what?" she asked, tapping her spoon against the empty dish.

"What?"

"When I was little, Luke told me there were pieces of monkey in Chunky Monkey ice cream and I believed him."

Jess laughed and pushed his cardboard bowl of ice cream toward Rory. She smiled and scooped the remaining amount out with her spoon. "Luke told me about the monkey in the ice cream too, but I ate it anyway."

"You would," she said, elbowing him. She scrunched up her face. "Brain freeze."

"Not that another freezing loop around Harvard Square isn't appetizing, but how would you liked to come home with me where the heat is?

"You wouldn't be cold if you bought a winter coat," Rory teased, pulling on the frayed corner of the scarf that was still hanging around his neck.

Jess hopped down from the chair and tossed their bowls and spoons in the trash. "Come on," he said, tugging lightly at the fluff on her hat. "Let's get warm. We'll swing by the movie place and rent something. Then we can run into the convenience store and buy a bunch of candy. We'll have a full blown movie night."

Rory zipped up her winter jacket and buried her chin in the faux fur that surrounded the collar. "Okay," she agreed, slipping her arm through his. "But only if you wear my gloves." She pulled the tiny purple gloves out of her pocket and waved them in front of his face. "They match your scarf," she said.

He groaned and took the tiny gloves from her hands. He knew it was a losing battle, and there was no arguing with a persistent Gilmore. "My hands are too big," he pleaded before pulling on one of the gloves.

"They'll fit," she insisted, watching he snap the other glove on. "I should have bought you a pair for Christmas."

"Well, what do you know?" He admired the purple gloves.

"Come on, purple boy. You promised me movies and candy." She tugged on his jacket and then ventured outside in the cold.

Shivering, he pulled her close for the body warmth while they walked to the train station.