A/N: This is where we see if I can really write Lorelai properly...

(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)

Part 3 of 5

It's seven in the morning and Lorelai hasn't had her coffee yet. The person knocking on her door has a death wish, she's pretty certain on that before she ever gets there. When she gets to opening said door, she's doubly sure this guy wants to die by her hand. The reason her little girl has a broken wrist, as well as the reason that same precious baby has been crying into the night, and here he is in the flesh.

"Huh. Of all the gin joints..." she mutters as she faces Jess with a forced smile. "What can I do for you, Mariano?"

"Nice to see you too, Ms Gilmore," he tells her over-politely and with the sarcastic

smirk to match. "Is, er, Rory around?" he asks then, hands behind his back still.

Lorelai is pretty sure he's hiding something there and she would really like to ask what it is, but she won't. It's none of her business after all. What is her business is her daughter and what Jess wants with her at seven in the morning.

"She's sleeping," she says eventually, unsure if that's actually true but running with it. "Y'know, like any sane teenager would do?" she tells him, with a smart look of her own.

Jess nods once. He knows it's probably a lie, because Rory is always up early. She told him before how she likes to be up and active at a decent hour, whether it's to study or spend time with her mom or whatever. There was no way he was too early for her.

"What? You're not the stay in bed type, because you strike me as the stay in bed type," says Lorelai as she studies him, as if he were a frog she's about to dissect, but Jess won't flinch. "Y'know, requiring an air-raid siren and a tyre iron just to lever you out of the bed?"

"Sometimes," he shrugs, shifting from foot to foot. "Depends if I have a good enough reason to get up."

"And today you do," she replies.

"Today I do," he confirms in turn.

The stand off continues a moment longer, until Lorelai realises Jess is going nowhere and her lack of coffee is never going to help matters. Under duress, she invites the boy into her house and has him follow on to the kitchen,

"You want coffee?" she asks him as she pours her own cupful.

"No, thanks," Jess replies, wandering around the kitchen table aimlessly, stopping near Rory's door.

He thinks about knocking but soon changes his mind. If Lorelai wasn't here, maybe, but not so long as she's giving him the Mama Bear looks of warning. As if Dean wasn't a big enough obstacle in the winning over Rory stakes. Lorelai was going to be an even tougher prospect. Jess had to have known that when he got on the bus to come back here; he did know, but somehow when Rory was there beside him, it had seemed worth it.

"So, back in Stars Hollow, huh?" says Lorelai, in some vain attempt to make polite conversation, for the sake of her daughter who may yet end up dating this kid.

"Yes, ma'am," he replies, making an effort not to flinch when the coffee pot slams back down into place.

"Okay, no more ma'am or Ms Gilmore, and none of your clever smirky-smirk stuff, 'cause I've seen it all before," she tells Jess then, turning around to look at him with her eyes mostly closed like she's hanging onto civility by a thread, "Now I was angry at you before, like really, really angry. We're talking PMS-ing She-Hulk anger here," she explains, in the way that only a Gilmore can.

"And yet you're not tossing me out a window, so I guess I'm supposed to ask why that is?" replies Jess smartly.

He shifts his stance as if readying for an actual physical battle somehow, though his hands remain behind his back, holding onto whatever he came in here with that Lorelai has yet to see. She tries not to wonder about that.

"Because of Rory," she explains. "She went all the way to New York, blowing off school and me, to find you. You came back, to a place you claim to hate, for her,"

"I never said..."

"You didn't have to" she interrupts before he can make whatever excuse is about to come out of his mouth - they both know it was going to be lame.

There's a moment when they just stare at each other. They've reached an impasse here. He's trying to be reasonable because she's Rory's mom and getting tossed out before he's seen the girl does not appeal. She's trying to keep her temper because this is the guy her daughter has fallen for, and as distasteful as that may be, she woudn't hurt Rory for the whole world.

Some kind of understanding occurs in the strange collection of seconds that follows, and then the bedroom door opens half way.

"I heard voices..." says Rory, before her eyes go comically wide. "Jess? Oh God, I'll be right back."

The door slams and the cute sleep-rumpled face of the girl he came back for disappears in a flash of pink PJs and brown hair. Lorelai notices a smile on Jess' face that she's pretty sure he doesn't even know he's wearing. It's genuine, maybe the first and only look of that kind she's ever witnessed on him. The boy has it bad, equally as bad as Rory, she realises.

"I'll be upstairs," she says, already walking that way. "Help yourself to a soda, and mind your manners around my daughter," she tells Jess as she backs towards the living room and the stairs.

"Yes, ma'am... Lorelai," he amends off the look she gives him.

She's gone in a second and Jess somehow feels even more uncomfortable than before. He's been here before, several times in fact, but never like this. Jess always likes to think he's in control, and he usually feels like he is. Rory is just about the one thing that can throw him off like this, and he loves it and hates it all at once.

"Hi."

He suddenly hears her voice and spins to face her. She's standing in the bedroom door, looking as awkward as he feels, but she's here, and that's what matters.

"Hey," he replies, producing the bag from behind his back and handing it to her. "You, er... you forgot Belinda on the bus yesterday."

"Oh, thanks!" she smiles brightly as she takes it from him, so very happy to have it after everything else that happened on the crazy day before. "But why didn't you just give it to my mom?" she asks curiously, barely looking at him. "You knew it was for her..."

"Not my gift to give," he shrugs like it's nothing - it is definitely not nothing.

Rory knows what it took for him to come here and face her mom. There was so much anger and pain after the accident that led to Rory's own broken wrist. She looks down at the cast now and remembers it all. The memories hurt more than the fracture ever did.

"That's the only reason?" she asks, toeing the ground, daring once glance up when Jess is quiet too long.

"Yes," he tells her, unable to keep the smirk of his lips when she looks his way and finds him closer than she thought. "Maybe," he amends. "You okay?"

"Yes," she nods once as her eyes meet his and something that Rory doesn't feel safe in trying to understand crackles between her and Jess. "Thank you," she adds politely, because what else she's supposed to do, she has no idea at all.

"Okay, so I should probably go," he says eventually, hiking one thumb over his shoulder, like neither of them understands what 'go' means.

"Okay," Rory agrees, and yet neither of them moves. "Except you don't have to go right now, if you don't want to," she flounders badly. "Um, you want coffee?"

Rory can't breathe and she wishes she knew why. Then she realises she does know and the thought of it scares her to death. Still, sometimes you have to just go for what you want. She remembers her mom saying so, and she knows now what she has to lose if she doesn't.

One second, Jess is opening his mouth to answer her coffee question, and the next Rory's pressing her lips to his own. He's startled, and so is she, even though she started this thing. She started it, he's finishing it, and it feels good, and then they're standing staring at each other like they don't understand what they just did.

Of course, they know what it was. Jess knows it's a revelation. Rory knows that as right as it felt, it was wrong to let it happen before she's had a chance to talk to Dean, and the guilt comes crashing down on her head like a tidal wave.

Jess sees the light in Rory's eyes darken, and he knows. She regrets it, or at the very least feels so bad he can't stand to hear about it. He makes excuses and then he's rushing for the door. Running is the coward's way, but it's all he's got for now. Nothing ever felt like this before, and he's losing control. That can't be good, though it felt great a minute ago.

Inside the house, Rory has her hand to her mouth and tears in her eyes when Lorelai comes back to the kitchen.

"You okay, hon?" she asks, looking between Rory and the front door that isn't quite closed - Jess appears to be gone.

"I got you a gift..." replies Rory vaguely, handing over the mystery package that her mom assumes Jess was carrying the whole time he was here.

Lorelai barely gets the record half out the bag and certainly gets no chance to say thank you before Rory is rushing into her room.

"I have to call Dean," she yells over her shoulder, a nanosecond before the door slams shut.

Lorelai is beyond bemused, but when she looks down at the gift she's been given she smiles. It's perfect, which is much more than she can say for the latest situation she and her daughter are finding themselves in.

"Okay then," she sighs, running her fingers over the signature across the album cover bearing The Go-Go's picture and name. "Well, Belinda, I think this is gonna be a bumpy ride, but on this one I'm taking a leaf outta your book - my lips are sealed."

To Be Continued...