There were the strange sounds of beeping coming from everywhere. Pain ran through her arm and head, it felt as though someone was attempting to break it open. Hesitantly she reached up to feel her face, but a shooting pain through her arm made her stop. A hand settled over the arm she tried to lift and she opened her eyes, trying to focus on something.
"Rory?" the person asked, and she smiled.
"Jess?" she asked, barely recognizing her voice.
"Yeah," he told her, placing a hand on her forehead.
"What's going on?" she asked, trying to open her eyes again.
"We're in a hospital… Dean attacked us…" Jess told her, his voice sounded different, but she couldn't place the emotion.
"Dean…? Oh," she whispered, as she remembered the night. "Did he hurt you?"
"I'm fine," he told her.
"What happened?" she asked after a few seconds.
"It doesn't matter," he told her, and she felt her mind swimming again.
"Jess… what happened?" she asked again and managed to crack her eyes open.
He looked about as good as she felt. Both of his eyes were completely black and he had a bandage over the bridge of his nose. The image was the last thing she saw before her world fizzled down to black again.
Jess sighed as she went under. He'd been sitting by her side for almost a week. Rory had slipped into a coma for a few days and had just come out of it the day before. She'd only gained consciousness for a few seconds before they slipped her a sedative and knocked her back out again.
After a few seconds, he pulled back and settled his elbows down on his knees. He was there for a few minutes, pondering going back to sleep, when Lorelai walked into the room.
"How's she doing?" she asked, attracting Jess's attention. Despite their having to be together in this issue, Rory's mother had barely spoken three words to him since the attack.
"She was up for a few seconds, wondering where she was," Jess told her, and one of his hands went back to Rory's. He squeezed it gently, watching her.
"My mother wants to press charges," Lorelai told him, stepping over to look at Rory. He saw the fragile balance in her face. Her daughter being in a hospital bed had ruined what little composure she'd had the night of the attack.
"It was aggravated assault," he told her with a shrug. "I knew Dean would attack me when I told him about Rory… I just didn't expect him to attack her."
"So why did you do it?" she demanded. He was positive that he should have gotten a blast of anger in the comment if she wasn't so tired. The two of them had been living off of caffeine and two or three hours of snatched sleep here and there.
"I don't know… to prove a point? I don't know," he told her, letting go of Rory's hand. "I'm gonna go get some soda."
"Here," Lorelai said and handed him one that she'd picked up at the vending machines.
"Thanks," he offered and frowned at the drink.
Despite having his excuse taken away, he rose to his feet and moved to the other side of the room. Originally Rory had been placed in a public room, but then her grandparents had come and paid the hospital for a private one. It had a lot of room for him to pace, which was something that he'd been doing a lot of in the past few days.
"You don't have to be worried," Lorelai told him, a reminder that she was still in the room.
"Huh?" he asked her, not understanding the comment.
"She's not going to blame you," she said with a shrug and took another sip of her coffee. Luke had been bringing coffee to her three or four times a day, the rest of the time she bought it from the vending machines.
"What?" he asked her, stepping back a little bit to catch his balance. He was exhausted and his balance wasn't exactly on its best behavior.
"The fight, she won't think that it's your fault," Lorelai explained, and he suddenly felt like there was a catch to this conversation.
"Is that so," he muttered, watching her like she was dangerous.
"But that doesn't mean that I don't. I don't see what's so special about you, but Rory seems to… care a lot about you. I don't want to lose my daughter because of a guy. I'm not going to be my mother. If you hurt her, I will make sure that you never see her again," she threatened, but her voice and body were completely relaxed. He knew this threat and he knew that it was serious.
"I didn't mean for this to happen!" he shouted, pointing at Rory.
"But it did anyway, didn't it?" she asked, the infamous Gilmore-anger bubbling to the surface.
"You know, whatever," he snapped and flew out of the room. Halfway to the door that would lead him out of the hospital he smashed into someone. That someone was carrying coffee and the coffee was soon all over the floor.
"Jess?" Luke whispered. Despite being smashed in to, he continued to keep his eyes downcast. He really didn't like hospitals.
"Luke," Jess returned, and stopped his fleeing.
"What the hell are you doing?" he muttered, and shoved Jess back towards the room, wanting to get out of the hallway.
"I'm trying to get away from Lorelai," Jess admitted. It was stupid and cowardly, but she'd been on his case all week. He needed a break from her constant threats.
"It's not going to happen," Luke told him and opened the door. He shoved the younger man inside and then entered himself. Once the door was shut, he lifted his head and looked at Rory.
"Hey," Lorelai greeted. Her eyes were looking for coffee that wasn't there.
"Sorry about the coffee, there was an… incident in the hall," Luke said awkwardly, motioning to the door.
"It's okay," she said with a shrug, then went back to watching her daughter.
"Do the doctors know when she'll be able to go home?" Luke asked, going to stand by Lorelai.
"No…" she said, tears in her voice.
"She woke up a few minutes ago," Jess offered.
"That's a good sign," Luke said, hoping to get some semblance of peace between the two feuding people in the room.
"Yeah," Jess and Lorelai admitted in unison, before glancing at each other. Lorelai glared and Jess just watched her impassively. He had no intention to be angry at her, he just wanted to be apart of Rory's life.
The room then proceeded to fall silent. There were about ten chairs strewn around for all the visitors that she got. Just by sitting in the room, Jess had managed to meet over half of the town. Some of them admitted that they had come twice just so that they could get to know Rory's 'boyfriend'.
Jess didn't mind the attention, although it wasn't particularly his style. After almost a week and a half of lying in the hospital bed, Rory finally managed to wake herself up enough to get up and walk around. Jess had been there for her one arm and Lorelai for her other. Luke was there to catch her if she fell. For a few seconds, until Lorelai chewed his head off, he almost felt like he belonged there, with them.
"She's doing very well and should be able to go home tomorrow," Jess overheard the doctor say when she'd hit the two week mark.
"He says tomorrow," he relayed to Rory, who was sitting up in her bed and waiting for the answer. She was sick of just lying in bed.
"Thank God," she said gratefully and grabbed onto his hand with her un-fractured one. The cast that had been crafted to contain the fracture would be able to come off in a few days.
"Hey, Rory…" he started, wanting to talk to her while her mother was out of the room.
"Hmm?" she asked, reveling in the idea of being in her own bed.
"Do you blame me?" he asked. His eyes were downcast, he didn't want to see her if she said 'yes'.
"For what?" she asked instead, like he'd never done anything wrong in his life.
"For this," he answered, motioning to the bed.
"This was Dean's fault," she told him, squeezing his hand.
"But I picked the fight," he told her, angry with himself.
"Maybe you did, but Dean still attacked you," Rory told him, letting go of his hand to lift his head up. She connected their eyes and pulled him forward. He moved carefully and kissed her softly.
A cough from the door broke them up. Luke was standing, very awkwardly, holding coffee and doughnuts.
"Oh, doughnuts!" Rory exclaimed and grabbed one as soon as they were in reach.
Luke offered one to Jess, but he turned them down. Despite his girlfriend's eating habits, he had a tendency to avoid those kids of food. He wasn't a healthy eater by any means, but he also couldn't see how Rory and her mother could eat as much as they did.
"So, I have some good news!" Lorelai announced from the door.
"I get to go home tomorrow!" Rory chimed in, grabbing Jess's hand again and smiling at everyone.
"Cheater," Lorelai grumbled cheerfully and walked over to them. She kissed her daughter's head and gave Jess a look before sitting down.
"So what's happening with Dean?" Luke asked curiously. He hadn't been kept in the loop with this part of the situation.
"Grandma wants us to press charges… but… I don't know," Rory admitted honestly, shrugging her shoulders. Jess looked away. He was still guilty over the situation. He'd almost left twice, to give her a chance to get her old life back, before he'd decided that he couldn't live without her and went back. That had been the day that she'd regained consciousness for a couple of hours and after the fight with Lorelai.
"Well, I think you should do it," Luke admitted. "Everyone says that Dean attacked, even when he knew you were there." It was strange how the 'lumberjack' could be so protective over someone that he wasn't related to at all.
"But he's Dean," Lorelai protested weakly.
"Yeah! He's Dean!" Rory added.
"What do you think, Jess?" Luke asked, trying to get someone on his side.
"It's up to Rory," Jess answered with a shrug, trying to get out of having to answer awkward questions.
"So you don't think that you should?" Luke demanded.
"I don't know," Jess re-answered and turned away from the room. Everyone knew that the movement usually meant to leave him alone.
"I say no," Rory finally answered.
"I think so too," Lorelai agreed.
"Jess?" Luke asked the back of the teenager.
"Whatever," Jess answered, then turned and slammed out of the room.
"Jess!" Rory shouted and jumped out of the bed. With only her gown on, she scrambled after him. Lorelai chased after her and Luke chased after all of them.
"Jess, stop!" Rory begged, knowing that she wouldn't be able to keep up with him if he really didn't want her to catch him.
"Rory, you shouldn't be out of your bed," their doctor shouted over the chaos and chased the, rather large, line up of people.
After a few seconds of fuming, he realized that he was being chased and he slowed down. Rory skidded to a stop right in front of him and he caught her so that she wouldn't finish by knocking them both over.
"What are you doing?" he asked her, angry that she was up and about.
"Jess, it wasn't your fault," she told him, hugging him close.
"If I hadn't talked to him… he wouldn't have…" Jess said, unable to form the rest of the words. The room was watching them by now, but neither of the angst-filled teenagers paid any attention.
"It would have happened sooner or later," Rory told him, trying to reassure him.
"But look at this mess! You've been in the hospital for two weeks, Rory," he reminded her.
"Yeah, and I don't care," she told him honestly.
"How can you not care?" he asked.
"Because you're still here," she replied with a small smile.
"What do you mean?" he asked with a frown.
"I was told that you almost left… twice," she said, looking over her shoulder at her mother.
"Yeah," he admitted, and realized that he was attempting to flee yet again.
"But you didn't…" she told him and lifted herself onto her toes. She kissed him softly.
"No… I didn't," he said with a frown, as though this was a rather large accomplishment. He'd been told by his mother, and Luke, that Mariano boys had a terrible tendency to flee at the first sign of complications in a relationship. It had been his first choice, as well, but he'd gone with option number three in the hopes of being able to reconcile with Rory.
"I love you," she told him. It was the first time that he'd heard those words from anyone, and it caused a ripple effect. First he didn't believe her, and then he looked around the room, not seeing faces, but just to look around and memorize the place so he would always remember it.
"I… love you too," he finally said, and supported her against him so he could kiss her.
The silence in the room was absolute while they were kissing. Different feelings were being thrown off at the idea of this admission. Lorelai was resigned that her daughter had fallen for a jerk, Luke was happy that he had someone like Rory to help him keep Jess in line, and the doctor was busy writing up instructions for Rory's recovery-time at home, which included 'minimal' physical activity.
Then, after quite the lip-lock, Jess escorted Rory back to her room. The next day she was released. There was a bit of a blow out about who would get to drive Rory home, but Lorelai ended up winning when Rory promised to spend the rest of the day with Jess. Said day was still heavily monitored by parents, guardians and towns people who randomly cut in on their every movement. It seemed like they were everywhere that they went. When the week finally past and Friday rolled around, both of them were sick of it.
"This place is hell," Jess said after they were caught for the twentieth time that day.
"This is why I kept it to just us," Rory told him, then grabbed his hand and started towards the city square.
"Understandable," he muttered, allowing her to tug him to wherever they were going.
Rory dragged him through town until they reached an area he recognized. It was the bridge that they'd taken their picnic at. It only took a swift look around to realize that there was no one waiting in the wings to come out and pounce on them. He was grateful for that.
"So," he said as they walked into the middle of the bridge.
"So," she repeated, taking his other hand and smiling up at him.
They closed the small distance between them, kissing softly at first before exploring and deepening the kiss. Their hands broke apart so that they could search the other's bodies. One of Jess's hands slipped into his coat pocket. He grasped an object within and dragged it out. Gently, he pulled away and handed her the item.
Rory looked down at the box in her hands like it was going to eat her. It was covered in black velvet… it was a ring box. She looked up at Jess, eyes shining in amazement.
"Open it," he told her, feeling awkward with all her attention on him.
Not saying anything, she opened the box and took out the small note that was propped up within, covering something. She read the note before she looked inside.
"I promise," she read out loud, barely hearing herself. Then she looked inside and saw what looked like part of a ring. She pulled it out, blinking back tears, and just stared at it for a second.
The band was white gold and the diamond was tastefully placed, but it looked like it was supposed to fit into something else. She looked back up at Jess, who was standing like he was going to pass out any moment.
"Jess?" she asked, not really knowing what else to say.
"I know we're young, but I promise that I'll go through with this… when we graduate," he told her, his eyes rising from the ground to her face.
"Are you sure?" she asked, looking down at the ring again as though the small rock was going to suddenly disappear from her hands.
"Yeah," he said with a nod. "Well?"
Rory looked between the ring and him twice before placing it in his hand and smiling.
"Put it on," she told him, just as she was sure he was about to panic about having the ring given back to him.
Her words put him to rest and he visibly relaxed. He gently slid the ring along her finger, all the while pulling her towards him. Their lips met again and their hands wandered over each other, searching for the next step.
"Jess… I'm ready," she told him, looking at him with her eyes shining.
"Last time you said that you told me you were going to Boston," he told her between kisses.
"I'm not going anywhere," she promised and leaned into him.
"Okay," he said with a nod and took her hand. "Tell your mom we're going out for the weekend."
"She'll know," Rory said, as though objecting. The very idea of telling her mother about the two of them actually having sex sent a jolt of terror through her body. Lorelai hadn't exactly hid her disdain of Jess.
"I don't care," Jess told her, turning around and kissing her as they were walking. Neither of them really knew where they were going, and after a few seconds, Jess felt something hard hit the back of his heel. He lost his balance and grabbed onto Rory to try to level himself, it didn't work. They both fell back into the water.
"Shit!" Jess cursed as he tried to get his seating.
Rory was laughing at his panic. She grabbed onto his shirt, leveling them both in the water and smiled up at him. Her eyes glanced at her ring, admiring it and what it represented for a moment, before turning back to him.
"I love you," she told him.
"I love you too," he promised and pulled her to him for another kiss.
"I'm freezing," she told him when they finally pulled apart. Her teeth were chattering and her body was shivering.
"Come on," he said, pulling her into his arms and carrying her out of the water.
"I need to change," she told him.
"Alright," he agreed and they headed off towards her house.
"Aren't you cold?" she asked him.
He shrugged in response and she shook her head at him and continued home. When they walked through the door, Rory's grandma was standing there waiting for them. Jess froze in place and Rory grabbed his hand in hers, trying to convince him that this wasn't going to end badly.
"What are you doing?" her grandma asked, appalled at them both being drenched to the core.
"We fell in the creek," Rory chattered out. Jess moved behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist, adding their body heat so that she wouldn't be quite as cold during this interrogation.
"I don't want to know," her grandma said and motioned her off to her room.
Rory nodded and dashed off to the kitchen, leaving Jess to deal with Emily Gilmore. He stood awkwardly for a second, trying to decide what the best form of action would be.
"Well?" Rory's grandmother asked him.
"Hello Mrs. Gilmore," he answered and turned to close the door.
"What were you doing?" she demanded, reminding him of the interrogation.
"We fell into the creek," he answered defensively.
"How could you have fallen into the creek?" she inquired.
"We weren't watching where we were going?" he offered.
"Why not? It's a cold day, you could have caught a cold and Rory's weak right now!" she scolded.
"We were making out, okay?" he told her, shifting uncomfortably in her presence. All the Gilmore women were crazy.
"No, that's not okay!" Emily answered, and was about to start harping on him when Rory's door opened and she hopped back out.
"Hi," she said to Jess, forgetting that her grandmother was there for a minute.
"Hi," he said back, and the goofy smiles on their faces said it all.
"What is going on?" Emily demanded of them, not understanding the googly eyes.
"Uh, nothing," Rory answered, hiding her hand behind her back after remembering that her grandmother was there. "What are you doing here?"
"I'm here to make sure that you don't 'mysteriously' forget about tonight's dinner, and I was going to ask if you could bring him," she told them, motioning to Jess.
"Dinner?" Jess said. The horror in his voice was obvious. "I'm working."
"But I thought…?" Rory said, thinking about their romantic weekend, before she realized that he was attempting to get out of dinner. She then smiled at him behind her grandmother's back.
"Working? Can't you change… shifts?" Emily sputtered out after remembering what the word was. Gilmores didn't have shifts. They had solid, constant jobs.
"Well, that's tonight, it's short notice," he told her, his voice solid but his body showing signs of panic at being forced to spend a night in the presence of three Gilmore women.
"How about I call Luke's and see if I can talk him into it?" Rory offered. She was looking at both of them with doe-eyes, as though it were the 'least she could do'.
Jess gave her a 'look' that told her that she was going to have to pay him back for this, and then Emily turned back to look at him and he wiped his face clear again.
"That would be wonderful, Rory," Emily said, smiling at Jess as though this would make his night.
Rory mouthed, 'I love you,' behind her grandmother's back and rushed into the kitchen. Jess looked down at the ground for a second, gathering his wits about him. He was going to need them all for the night.
"Yeah, that'd be great," he muttered and walked into the kitchen, trailing water on his way.
"Hey Luke?" Rory said into the phone, but Jess could see that the light wasn't on the phone. "Do you think that Jess could have the night off? He can? Thanks, yeah, he's asked to come to dinner with me tonight. He won't be home until later. Bye, Luke!"
Jess glared at her and leaned over her. He pulled her against him, effectively drenching her again and kissed her. "You owe me," he whispered into her ear and turned around to leave.
"Where's he going?" Emily demanded as she watched Jess march out the door.
"He's going to change," Rory said with a shrug and looked down at her clothes. Sighing, she headed back to her room.
"I'll be right out," she told her with a smile and skipped into her room again.
Emily was then left in the kitchen wondering what had just happened. She was still sitting in the kitchen when Lorelai returned home and Rory came out of her room.
"Hi," Rory said to her mother, her stomach in knots.
"Hi," Lorelai greeted back.
"Could we go talk upstairs?" Rory asked, motioning to the stairs nervously.
"Sure," Lorelai said, frowning at her daughter's manners.
"We'll be right back," Rory told her grandmother, who nodded and rolled her eyes.
Once upstairs, Rory turned to her mother and grinned. "Mom… I need you not to freak out about this, okay?" she asked her, the happiness glowing off of her was only giving her mother bad vibes.
"Okay," Lorelai said anyway, deciding to give the situation a chance.
"He asked me to marry him," Rory said, showing off her ring finger.
"What?" Lorelai asked, her world falling to pieces. Her daughter was not supposed to be married before her.
"He said that we're going to do it when we graduate… I'm so excited!" Rory said, bouncing up and down. Lorelai placed a hand on her daughter's shoulder to stop her.
"Rory, this is a big step," she tried to convey.
"I'm ready, I would be ready now if I could… but I think he wants to wait, so that we can move to Boston and get our own place," Rory told her, not registering her mother's sadness.
"Boston?" Lorelai asked, sitting down on her bed.
"Yeah, I'm going to Harvard and he's going to go to the community college there. We're going to get our own little place and visit on the weekends," Rory explained. Her eyes were shining with hope for the future. She wanted nothing more than to be with Jess for the rest of her life.
"Rory, that's still a year away, don't you think that you're… I don't know, giving this too much thought?" Lorelai asked, feeling hopeless when it came to the situation between her daughter and Jess.
All of a sudden there was a shout of, "It was you!" from the kitchen and Rory and Lorelai were shocked out of their talk. They were stumbling down the stairs to see what was going on when they saw Emily standing up, staring at Jess, who was dressed in the same tuxedo-esque outfit that he'd worn to Rory's Debutante Ball.
"Rory?" Jess asked when he saw her, hoping for her to come to his rescue.
Rory hurried down the rest of the stairs and went to stand in front of him. She took his hand behind her back and smiled at her grandma.
"Yeah, he wanted to be my escort… but he couldn't because no one knew about us yet," Rory explained.
"How long as this been going on?" Emily demanded, having been left out of the Jess-part of Rory's life.
"About ten months," Rory answered, and her grandmother gaped at her.
"Ten months? Ten months and you didn't tell anyone?" she asked, feeling completely forsaken.
"Drama queen," Lorelai grumbled from the stairs and Rory attempted to hide her smile. Emily turned to glare at her daughter.
"How could you let her do this?" Emily demanded, and Lorelai looked at her like she was crazy.
"I didn't let her do anything," Lorelai said with a shrug and finished the last few steps.
"It was our choice… ma'am," Jess offered. His arms were now wrapped around Rory's waist and her hands were covering his on her stomach.
"Are you pregnant?" Emily asked, noticing the position of their hands.
Like shrapnel, they jumped apart and stared at each other in terror. Neither of them wanted a child, they wanted to get their lives settled first.
"No," Rory gasped and looked at her like she was crazy.
Emily glared at them like they were hiding something and walked past them, outside and to her car. Rory and Jess walked with Lorelai, but there was about an inch separating them the entire time. The ride to the Gilmore Mansion was made in complete silence, neither really wanting to comprehend the idea of Rory getting pregnant.
When they arrived, they continued to walk with space between them. It was then that Lorelai noticed this partition and frowned at them.
"Are you alright?" she asked, confused at the distance that the, normally lovey-dovey, couple were placing between them.
"Yeah, we're fine," Rory said cheerfully and rang the doorbell to discourage further questioning.
"Hello," said the new maid and let them in.
"Can I take your coats?" she asked, and the three of them gave her their coats. Jess also gave up the jacket of his tux, as he figured that it was too stuffy in the house already.
"Hello, Lorelai, Rory!" Richard greeted them from the study, and then his eyes fell upon Jess.
"Jess…" he finished. Jess had met everyone at the hospital, but he'd been in a rough state himself. Most of the time he hadn't even noticed anyone talking to him, he was too busy beating himself up over Rory's injuries.
"Hello, Mr. Gilmore," he greeted with a nod, not really sure what else he was supposed to say.
"Well, come in," he said, waving them into the study. "Would you like something to drink?
"I'll have a martini," Lorelai answered.
"I'll take a soda," Rory said with a smile and took Jess's hand. The two of them walked into the study and sat down on the love seat.
"And you?" Richard inquired of Jess.
"I'm fine," he stated.
"Alright," Richard replied and went about making their drinks.
"Hello, everyone," Emily finally greeted, coming down the stairs in a different outfit from the one that she'd worn to pick them up. It was obvious that this one was more 'tailored' for the occasion.
"Hi, grandma," Rory greeted.
"Hey, mother," Lorelai answered cheerfully, after being handed her martini.
"Hello, Mrs. Gilmore," Jess asked after being nudged by Rory.
Emily gave Jess a look, before resuming her perfect 'hostess' position on the chair at the head of the study. Richard took a seat beside Lorelai on the couch across from where Jess and Rory were sitting. There was silence for a few seconds, before Richard finally got it in his system that this was another boyfriend to torment.
"So, Jess, what do you do in your spare time?" he asked, hoping that this wasn't another Dean.
"I read," Jess answered simply.
"Oh, what do you read?" he asked, liking this one better than Dean already.
"Anything…?" Jess said, looking like a trapped specimen.
"Do you read the classics?" Richard further inquired, attempting to get out an answer more than two syllables long.
"Some," Jess answered with a shrug.
"And how do you do in school?" Richard asked, starting on the same route that he'd gone with Dean a few months ago. Everyone in the room was tense, except Jess, who didn't know how the last round of this had turned out.
"That all depends," Jess said with a shrug and grabbed Rory's hand.
"On?" Richard asked, frowning at the boy's lack of speech.
"If I go or not," Jess answered with a shrug. He then got a small nudge from Rory and got the message, 'explain'. "I wasn't exactly there for two weeks."
"Ah, so you can speak in sentences," Richard proclaimed, and Jess blinked in confusion. "What grades do you get normally?"
"When I'm there, I'm the top of my class," Jess said. Everyone knew that Jess was smart. It was just a matter of actually being there to prove it.
"Good!" Richard said, another check in the 'Jess' survey. This caused everyone to let a little bit of their tension go. "And where are you going to college?"
"I'm going to college in Boston, somewhere near Harvard, and then I want to transfer in sometime," Jess said. The last part was foreign to Rory. She had no idea that he actually wanted to go to the same school as her.
"Harvard? Well, those are quite some ambitions," Richard stated with a nod.
"Yeah, but I have something to keep me going," Jess offered, shrugging and looking at Rory out of the corner of his eye. They both smiled and looked away from each other.
"Indeed," Richard said with a small, mysterious smile. "Shall we go to dinner?" He led the party to the dining room.
As they were standing, Rory leaned over and kissed Jess, rather passionately, and then pulled him to his feet.
"What was that for?" he asked her, confused.
"I love you," she told him simply, then took his hand and led him into the dining room.
Jess was rather confused at the looks he got from the other females in the room. Lorelai glared at him for gaining her father's approval and Emily merely frowned at him, curious as to whether or not the boy was telling the truth, and if he was, if it was so bad for Rory to be seeing him. Jess tried to ignore the looks and concentrate on Rory, but it was difficult to do when you were constantly being studied. He consciously made a note to himself to never agree to dinner again, even if Rory was promising him the world.