Hey - know the first bits slightly long winded but I wasn't really sure how or when to break it. Thanks for reading – also thanks to everyone whos given me input or sympathy previously – it is muchly appreciated I love you all – even the ones with daggers – anyway I'm updating everything and adding some new ones – and ill go back to updating everything within a week now that I'm out of hospital and definitely breathing. Thanks. Lovelil.

Rory was laying on Jess' bed above the diner waiting for him to finish his shift. He knew she was tired so rather than going out like originally planed tonight he'd gotten her a burger and sent her up to rest for the last hour of his shift; after which they were going to stay holed up there watching movies. To some degree Jess was disappointed, it was a Friday night, Lorelia would be back Sunday morning and he knew that he wouldn't get to see her until Lorelia had made up for the lost week. He'd planed for them to go out, have a nice meal, have a good night, but Rory had over worked herself lately, not even he could slow her pre-semester break freak and the excessive learning that came with it, so instead they were spending the night in the apartment, she'd probably call it quits early as well, she'd been up till 3 the night before finishing something and would be up at crack of dawn to study again. Although – as he poured Patty's tea he had to admit he'd dreamt of getting Rory up in that apartment. As his mind continued to wander he came to the conclusion that it wasn't the change of plans that was bothering him. It was the fact that he didn't know how approving Lorelia would be on the fact that when she left Rory was dating Dean and was now frequently seeing Jess. He also didn't know how much longer Rory could wear herself this thin, barely sleeping and only stopping to eat drink coffee or kiss him on her way out of the diner, thy were doing that now – kissing comfortably in public, on a frequent basis actually and that's why he was worried Lorelia would try to rip him in two. Actually no – it was because Lorelia would rip him into 4, and then only stop because of how dirty it was and oh no her poor lucky charms top.

He pushed it all out of his mind and reminded himself that he was almost dating Rory. They were a serious moment away from using the term girlfriend and he had the permission to kiss her when he wanted. And he got to see her.

Tonight before he went upstairs he'd run to dose's and buy enough to keep her happy before going upstairs and having her bury into him as they watched whatever she'd picked. And really why the hell was he complaining about that? Was it such a terrible thing they got tonight to themselves? He mentally kicked himself for thinking about the reservations he'd made at that place in Hartford before thinking about what he was getting out of losing those reservations. As he put down his rag he had to smirk – such a pity they weren't going out tonight.

He was halfway through the candy lane, his basket already brimming when Taylor came up with a moping Dean tailing behind him like the obedient stock boy he was. Jess smirked as Taylor stopped him and Dean's expression went from cheerless to furious at his presence. Taylor began ranting about how he was watching Jess and how if there were any glue or chalk in his basket he wouldn't be allowed to take it out of the store as Taylor would not encourage a misspent youth. Jess simply rolled his eyes and grabbed a pack of red vines and another bag of skittles. As he continued to load up Taylor then became suspicious of him shop lifting, that would explain why Jess, whom was barely ever seen buying more than a pack of gum was now struggling to balance all his sugar based goods as he made his way to the check out, it was a diversion to whatever he was taking. As the cashier rang up his goods to almost fifty dollars Jess turned to Taylor "seriously – I'm not shoplifting Taylor – if I were I would have pocketed some of these as well as the superglue – I mean come on – fifty dollars on candy as a diversion for what? And just because I'm the one buying all the candy doesn't mean ill be the one eating it all.' Jess paused in consideration of terms before smirking internally "just because I don't feel the need to have dentures before I can legally drink doesn't mean my girlfriend doesn't dream of a pair of detachable's. So if your going to have a go at me about anything healthy eating would make the most sense – but then that would even be irrelevant as I wont eat more than a bag of Chico's. So excuse me boys – I'd love to stay and chat but…well I've got my girlfriend waiting and well…your both boring and I don't like either of you at the best of times."

With that Jess had turned around and continued his path to Rory.

He didn't see her for four days. No that's wrong. He saw her but they didn't SEE each other for four days. And as the time had passed he'd noticed the expression change every time she kissed him before running back to her others side. It had gone from 'yay! Mums back!" to "yay! I have mum and you!" to "why don't I get a conversation with this kiss before I run out the door?" in a matter of say a dozen diner visits. The fourth morning was when Jess had had enough of waiting for Rory to get over Lorelai's presence and decided to a lot some Jess and Rory time.

He'd pulled her upstairs for a book – which was somewhat true – he had wanted to give her Nick Hornby's latest novel so that he could hear her opinion, however he'd thought that about two weeks back and hadn't bothered to give her the book until now. Considering Lorelai had hated him a few months back shed seemed to take the news better than expected, there were still weird moments – many of them in fact – but he was still in one piece and she was ok enough with him dating Rory that when he'd spoken of the book Lorelia smiled slightly and said that shed order for Rory in return to the questioning gaze Rory had sent her.

As they walked the stairs Rory had a quiet smile on her face and slipped her hand onto his, pulling Lord Of The Flies out of his back pocket with her other one. They reached the top of the stairs and Rory slowed, so Jess followed suit stopping in front of the door and watching her flip through his book vaguely, glancing down at a margin note occasionally with a fond expression.

"So I was wondering what you were doing for tea tomorrow?"

"well its Friday but the grandparents are seeing us tonight because tomorrow there at some big charity thing in New York." She gave him back the book and eye-contact for the first time since the were downstairs "why?"

"I was thinking that we could try to have the date that failed last time?"

"failed date? We were supposed to do something particular?"

"go out"

"yes – I knew we were going out but I didn't know there was actually anything planned."

She looked sad and took a step closer rubbing his check slightly "you'd planned something? I feel bad now I so didn't think. I was just so tired."

He brought her a little closer as he replied "well what sort of guy doesn't surprise there girlfriend every now and then. – and don't feel so bad – as it was a surprise you couldn't have known know could you? And you were tired – you overworked yourself all week – I had to feel sure that you'd let yourself relax at some stage – if I weren't there how would I enforce it? The next morning you would have gotten up and worked yourself just as hard if we'd spent the night running a marathon than if you hadn't woken the day before a tall."

Rory held a small glint in her eye "you were going to surprise your girlfriend?"

Jess paused looking into her eyes, in a second he'd found his answer, nodding and wrapping his arm a little further around her waist. "Is there a problem with that?"

She shook her head slightly biting lip "I spose it's a very sweet gesture, a boyfriend wanting to do something special for his girlfriend."

Jess lent in, hovering just over her lips driving her insane momentarily as she could feel his breath and almost feel his lips before he finished the conversation with a "good" and a hand playing with the tips of her hair as he saved her last thread of sanity by finally closing the gap. After awhile the two had pulled apart and continued on there way into Jess' room where he pulled out the book for her and they finalized the plans for Rory's 'surprise outing' the next night.

He felt uncomfortable standing at their door for once. It was probably because he was aware that Lorelia would be waiting on the other side rather than Rory. Lorelia was a lot more likely to physically harm him, she also had a bigger influence on Rory than he would like to think about right now, she didn't like him – how long would it take before that wore off on Rory? The coffee addiction took as soon as the strip turned pink. It took Lorelia a whole of two seconds to answer the door after he'd knocked. To his surprise she smiled. He paused in confusion before nodding "hey – is Rory ready?"

"well you see she almost is …she just has to find a book for tonight bravo though."

"hum thanks – why?"

"your fifteen minutes late. If it weren't for the clip fiasco you'd have had perfect timing with the touches and the approval."

"ahh." it was around then that Rory walked out of her room.

Lorelia smiled as Jess went over to her telling her that she looked pretty and giving her a small peck on the lips. Lorelia found some reason for Rory to leave the room for a few minutes and turned back to Jess "I don't hate you."

"good to know."

"I just don't overly like you – now Rory says that's because I don't know you."

Jess nodded waiting for her to go on. "now I'm not sure if that's true or not but ill wait and see before I pull out the axe we have in the shed, don't know why we have it, don't know when it was brought or why it was used, however its old, and rusty and so far the only reason I've considered using it was for narcolepsy boy…so stay awake and don't ride a motorcycle and you should be fine."

"noted"

There was a pause, Lorelia turned to the door of Rory's room where she had sent her awaiting her return. "just so you know – I don't hate you either."

And at that Lorelai and Jess became slightly closer with a quiet "huh." Leaving both with a smirk on their face as Rory reentered.

Thanks for reading. Please reply. Lovelil.