A/N: GET READY!!! In the next two hours, I'm going to be posting two or three chapters on this fic. Please review a LOT to keep me going. This is the only thing that's keeping me alive during work.

My Latest Mistake

Chapter Seven

Meetings

Rated T

He hovered… God-help-him, he hovered. Luke had dropped him off at one o'clock, it was now six… and Rory had finally gotten home. He sat beside her driveway and watched her for a few seconds, his chest tight and his breathing difficult, but he knew that he had to do this. Taking a deep breath to calm his nerves, he opened the gate slightly and leaned forwards so that she wouldn't see the wheelchair.

She turned around at the sound of the gate opening and the look on her face made breathing a little bit easier. It was a mixture of shock and happiness. He was glad that she wasn't staring at him like some sort of monster… not like last time.

"Jess," she gasped, the happiness oozing into her voice. He smiled at her, but it was more of a grimace, and wheeled his way into the driveway.

Her face changed, like magic. The pleasant shock was soon replaced by concerned, confused horror. He nodded inwardly, having known that the reaction was coming.

"Oh my God," she whispered under her breath, but he heard it.

"Hey," he said lightly, trying not to let her gasping affect his happiness at seeing her. But he couldn't lie to himself… it hurt.

"Oh my God," she repeated, walking towards him slowly. "What happened?"

"Ah… nothing," he shrugged it off, waving his hand through the air as though cleaning it of a bad smell.

"Jess, this isn't nothing!" she replied, almost frantic.

"Rory!" he began, but took a deep breath and calmed himself down before he started yelling at her. "Sorry… but I came here to talk… and this isn't my favorite topic, is there somewhere we could go? To talk?"

"Yeah, sure… I'm sorry," Rory stammered and danced a little bit.

"It's early… have you eaten at all?" he asked with a small smirk, trying to put her at ease.

"No, I mean… normally I'd eat here, but that's okay. I don't really know anywhere, though," she rambled, and he attempted not to laugh at her. She was almost as nervous as he was.

"It's okay… just, not anything with food in its title," he shrugged.

"What do you mean?" she inquired with a scrunched nose.

"No olives, no gardens… no plantations," he clarified.

"Sure, sounds good," she stumbled, her eyes were still on the wheelchair. "Can you… I mean, do you…?"

"How far's the college district?" he cut her off.

"About a mile," she sounded ashamed, like she should be able to move it closer.

"S'okay. I'll call a bus," he attempted to reassure her.

"A bus… Jess… what happened?" she pressed hand gently on his shoulder. He attempted that smile-grimace again and looked away, gently pushing her hand off his shoulder. It burned the skin beneath his jacket.

"Hey… we have all night. Aren't you supposed to serenade me before we get to the hard questions?" he evaded and pulled out a cell phone from the second pocket of his wheelchair. The other held his book, three copies of it. One of them had her name on it, but he was still gaining up the courage to give it to her.

"Yeah… sure, okay… I guess we could meet by the Olive Garden," she offered, obviously flustered. The small smile she gave him was a shadow of the smile he used to be able to conjure when they were teenagers.

"Great," he smiled at her and opened his cell phone. The number for the bus had been ingrained in his memory. It was one of the first things he'd bothered to memorize when he'd been given the list of 'Important Numbers'.

"How long before it gets here?" she asked, shuffling on her feet and staring at him in concern.

"Not too long, maybe five minutes," he shrugged and smirked. It was nice to see that she was concerned… at least she hadn't totally forgotten about him.

"Good… I'll just, wait here with you until it gets here," she offered, and he nodded mutely. What could he say? I love you, even though you drove me to be a drug addict for two years, and eventually I lost the use of my legs because of you? No… it didn't have a nice ring. "So what are you doing back here?" She beat him to it.

"I've been here for awhile," he evaded. "Thought I'd stop by."

"How'd you know where I was?" she asked a bit suspiciously.

"Luke mentioned it… I talked to your mom a little bit," he shrugged, and decided that he wanted a topic change. "So what are you doing here? Isn't it a bit of a drive to Yale?"

"Yeah… it is," she echoed his smile-grimace, and he attempted to keep down the anger boiling in his veins. He'd heard that she left Yale… he'd heard every tale he could possibly not want to hear about her. Everything from Dean to Logan and none of it amused him.

"So why're you here?" he pressed, eyeing her.

"Because I'm not going anymore," she sighed. "Luke didn't tell you?"

"Oh… he told me, I just had to hear it from you," Jess grumped, shaking his head in disbelief and attempting a smile.

She didn't say anything, barely looked at him. Her eyes were glued to the ground, obviously ashamed with her words. "But it's all temporary," she finally reasoned.

"Temporary?" he repeated.

"Yeah, just… until I find out what I want to do with my life," she smiled at him, attempting to be convincing. It wasn't working.

"I thought that we'd already decided that you were going to be an overseas correspondent," Jess reminded her.

"Yeah, but I never did get my help," she responded, a small, but real, smile on her lips.

"My tutor didn't exactly work out too well. We got a bit distracted before I could learn that second language," he continued.

"I think I read about that… had something to do with a crash, didn't it?" she mocked.

"Well at least we know that you're prepared for one of those," he shot back, and they gave each other real smiles.

Headlights appeared at the end of the road and Jess rolled forward a little bit, breaking the moment. Unfortunately, as they got nearer, it was obvious that this was not a bus, but a car, a Porsche, to be exact. A frown appeared on his face and he rolled back quickly to avoid being hit. A sharp look at Rory earned him an apologetic shrug. The door to the Porsche opened in a stream of light and a man, who Jess could only guess was Logan, emerged.

"Logan, hi!" Rory greeted, almost grimacing and shuffled on her feet. "What are you doing here?"

"I thought I'd swing by after class," he informed her as he swaggered over, giving Jess a dirty look as he moved. Jess kept his face impassive, not wanting to intrude on Rory and her boyfriend. "Who's this?"

"Oh… Logan, this is Jess. Jess, this is Logan, my boyfriend," she stammered, obviously not happy.

"Huh," Jess muttered, but didn't offer anything else.

"We were just going out for dinner," Rory muttered. Jess knew it was a mistake the moment the words were out of her mouth.

"Ah… do you mind company?" Logan asked, but the look in his eye stated that he wasn't going to take no for an answer.

"No, of course not!" Rory shook her head and looked at Jess.

"Can I talk to you for a minute… alone?" Jess asked Rory, nodding towards the road.

"Sure," she nodded and followed him slowly as he wheeled out of the yard and onto the shoulder.

"Dinner doesn't matter. I just wanted to give you something," he shrugged, taking out her book and handing it to her.

"What's this?" she inquired upon receiving her odd gift. A few scans of the front page finally brought her eyes up to his. "The Subsect, by Jess Mariano?"

"Yeah… I got it yesterday," he told her lifelessly. Any excitement, pride, which he might have had in telling her that, was destroyed when Logan stepped into the picture.

"You wrote a book?" she gasped.

"It's a short novel," he shrugged, looking away.

"You wrote a book!" she repeated, louder.

"Yeah, hard to believe, isn't it?" he snapped, shaking his head and staring at the headlights coming towards them. "This is my ride."

"Jess… can we talk, again, I mean?" Rory asked as the bus got nearer.

"I'm half an hour away. I've been living in Luke's since… well, for the past month," he informed her, feeling the slightest bit of hope in his heart. He desperately attempted to destroy the feeling, but it wasn't going away. Damn her, she was making him fall for her all over again and they hadn't even really talked yet.

"Luke's?" she repeated, the slightest bit of tension and fear in her voice.

"Yeah… remember, the diner? You used to come, drink coffee, I used to work there?" he mocked.

"Funny," she scoffed and the bus stopped right in front of them, seeing its target.

"See you later," he told her, not giving her a way out.

"I'll come see you tomorrow," she assured him and he nodded, smiling slightly and staring at the gate, where Logan was waiting for her.

Jess rolled into his seat, allowed the driver to buckle him in, and then waited. The ride back to Stars Hollow was uneventful. It was twenty minutes for him to beat himself up over things that he could have, should have, said. Starting with voicing his burning hatred of Logan, which didn't have anything to do with Logan himself, but everything that the stupid idiot stood for… and what was Rory doing with that arrogant dick anyway?

Absently, he yanked out his cell phone and called Luke. "Hey," he greeted, his eyes glassy and his voice hollow.

"I'm taking it by your cheerful voice and happy greeting that you've seen her?" Luke grumbled.

"And her shadow," Jess sighed, his uncle's attempt at sarcasm bringing him back into the present.

"Her shadow?" Luke repeated, obviously not understanding the reference.

"Logan," Jess replied simply.

"Ah… so the meeting didn't go as planned," it was a statement, not a question.

"She said that she'll come see me tomorrow… at the diner," Jess mused.

"In Stars Hollow?" this time it was a question.

"Yeah," Jess nodded, even though there was no one to see him.

"Where are you?" Luke said instead of commenting on Rory being back in Stars Hollow.

"I'm in a bus on my way to Stars Hollow," Jess informed him and looked out the window.

"So I don't have to come get you?" Luke seemed grateful for this.

"Nah… I'll roll the rest of the way home. I could use the exercise," Jess shrugged.

"Call if you need me," Luke reminded him warily.

"I'm not going to pass out on the middle of a street and get hit by a random semi coming through Stars Hollow," Jess growled uncomfortably.

"I know, I know… I just don't want you to get hurt," Luke reminded him uncomfortably, and a moment of silence followed.

"Thanks," Jess stated instead of some sort of smart-ass comment.

"You're welcome," Luke answered back, and it was obvious that there was quite a bit of shock in his voice.

"Bye, Luke," Jess muttered and hung up the phone. He continued to stare out of the window as the scenery passed by them, too fast for him to even contemplate it.