AN: OMG!!! I'M SOOOO SORRY FOR TAKING AN ETERNITY TO UPDATE!!! You hate me now!!!!

Disclaimer: I do not own Gilmore Girls. If I did the new writers would have been fired before the first episode of the pitiful final season even aired.

Chapter 4

How could this be happening? He swore he would never let her back into his life and yet that was what he was doing. This was insane! How could he have agreed to this? Had he learned nothing from the last time? Apparently not, because it was Wednesday morning and she was due to arrive with his uncle sometime during mid-afternoon …

"Whoa! Jess man, you look like total shit what's eatin' you?" Tristan DuGrey asks when he spots his co-worker/ best friend slumped over his desk with a coffee mug at his side and head in his hands looking like he hasn't slept at all.

When he gets no answer Tristan goes to the upstairs apartment to find Matt and the others. He figures they're still asleep because it's 7 am and the store doesn't open until 10:30 so he knocks on the door. Leo answers.

"God, Trist! I know you like coming in early but that doesn't mean the rest of us do. It's 7am for God's sake!"

"I know Leo and normally I wouldn't you bother you guys this early but something's up with Jess. I mean I know he works late nights on Tuesdays but when I came in just now I saw him slumped over his desk. I don't think he even came up here last night."

"Damn, that doesn't sound good let me get the guys up."

Tristan nods and heads back downstairs to Jess.

RJRJRJRJRJRJRJRJ (Tuesday afternoon, Crap Shack)

"Hey Rory, I just finished talking to your mom about the whole staying in Philly thing." Luke says walking back into the kitchen and finding Rory sitting at the table with her head down.

"Yeah I know I heard the screaming." Rory replies defeated. "I knew this would never fly with her."

"Oh Rory don't tell me you've lost faith in me already! Sure your mom was a tough sell but Jess was the reason you were even in this house for her to scream about and try as she might that was a point not even your mom could argue with."

"Oh… Um… Really? So I guess I've better start packing then huh?" Rory says getting up from the table.

"Well if we plan on getting to Truncheon sometime before closing tomorrow we've gotta get a pretty early start so… yeah packing now would be a good idea."

"Thank you so much, Luke for doing all of this you must really care about me a lot."

"More like love, Baby girl." Luke says kissing her on the cheek and giving a quick hug before letting her leave to her room. "More like love."

RJRJRJRJRJRJRJ

"Oh. My. God. Why the HELL is somebody knocking on the door at FIVE O'CLOCK IN THE FREAKING MORNING on a WEDNESDAY?!!! Because seriously it is INSANE and whoever it is asking to be PUT ON THEIR DEATH BED!!!"

"Good morning to you too, Lorelai" Luke greets sarcastically after she has opened the door. "As much as I would like to know what a death bed feels like I'm here to pick up Rory. Is she ready?"

"Oh Rory… right. Her bags are in the kitchen so you can start putting them in the back of your truck while I get her up."

Luke nods and heads towards the kitchen.

RJRJRJRJRJRJRJ (7:10 am, Wednesday, Truncheon)

Leo has gotten the rest of the guys downstairs and they're ready to prod Jess until he cracks.

"Alright, Mariano. Spill. What's going on with you?" Chris demands

"Yeah Jess, what exactly did your uncle call you about last night? I mean I'm assuming that's why you're like this… what happened?" Matt wants to know.

"Alright already… damn it! Do you guys ever plan on leaving me the hell alone?"

"I know I don't. Leo?"

"No, Jake I don't either. How about you Trist?"

"Me? I can stand here all day. Mike?"

"I ain't movin' an inch until Jesse here starts talkin'."

"FINE! If it'll get you guys to shut up I'll tell you."

"We're all ears, Jesse."

"You guys remember that girl that came to visit me the open house last year?"

"The Yale Girl?" asks Leo recalling vaguely.

"Yeah her. Well her name's Rory and we used to…"

"Rory what?" Tristan cuts off.

"What Trist?"

"You said her name was Rory… Rory what?"

"Gilmore, Rory Gilmore. Why?"

"Did she go to Chilton?"

"Yeah… How'd y…"

"Holy Crud! You went out with my Mary? How'd you get rid of Dean?"

"Wait, you know Rory?"

"Know her? I went to Chilton with her sophomore year."

"Wow… small world huh?"

"Yeah I guess so."

"Well anyway, I started weakening the hold Dean had on her junior year and by October of senior we were together and I was even going to take her to prom. Like an idiot however, I screwed things up majorly by skipping to many days of class. So I couldn't graduate. By then, my uncle had kicked me out and I just couldn't face her. She was graduating valedictorian and headed for Yale fall. I couldn't ruin that for her so I went to go crash at my dad's in Cali for about six months. After Cali and a brief visit to Stars Hollow to pickup my car and tell Rory I loved her (only to drive away like a coward afterward), I moved to New York."

"Where you first moved in with me and Matt." Chris interjects knowing this part of the story particularly well.

"Yeah, and couple months after you moved in your uncle came looking for you because your mom was getting married to that TJ guy and she wanted you to walk her down the aisle so you left for about a week. When you came back you told us that you went to The Yale Girl's … oops… I mean Rory's dorm and made yourself like a complete jackass by asking her to run away with you." adds Matt.

"I'm never going to live that down am I?

"Nope." Both Matt and Chris say at once.

"Ok, in that case I'm going to move on… after that degrading visit to Yale I decided I needed to do something to both prove myself to her and my uncle and to make something of my life which, is part of the reason I decided to partner up with you guys and open this place. Then when you guys finally decided to publish my book I made Connecticut one of my first promo stops knowing Rory wouldn't believe me unless I showed her in person. When asked my uncle where she might be though, he told me that she had moved in with her grandparents in Hartford because she and her mother had gotten into a fight which, if you knew those two as well as I'm assuming both Tristan and I do then you'd know that never happens. I knew something was up so I went Hartford to find out what it was. As it turns out, Rory had decided to take some 'time off' from Yale and was at the moment a member of some old biddy's club called the DAR per her grandmother's request. As if matters could any worse she was also dating this pompous, dickheaded, rich frat boy named Logan who couldn't give a crap less about her."

Hearing what Jess has just said sends Tristan on a tirade.

"WHAT?! AS IF BREAKING MY LITTLE SISTER'S HEART WASN'T ENOUGH NOW THAT ASSHOLE'S GOT RORY TOO?!!!

"So Logan dated Chrissy?"

"Yeah, for like a year until she walked in on him in bed with Shannon Christi, the Hartford elite's equivalent of Pam Anderson!" says Tristan through gritted teeth, balled up fists at his sides.

"She was a wreck for months, Jess. I SWEAR IF I COULD GET MY HANDS ON THAT JACKASS I'D KILL HIM DEAD!!!"

"Get in line man, get in line." Jess says flatly before continuing…