Author's Note:
For Lynn specifically: Just to clear it up, he said the thing about "he knew what she was talking about but he hoped she was wrong..." yeah. He said that because he hoped that Rory didn't actually believe that he had loved Shane. And the beginning? So out of character. but he's pretty much been OOC the whole story, hasn't he? I'm really bad at writing Jess. And Rory, for that matter. Actually, Lorelai is the only person I'm good at writing. I wrote a Rogan story once that had a lot of her in it. But you probably wouldn't want to read that if you're in to Lit. Ok, I should stop rambling now.
Please review!
He was running, but he knew he was too late. She was gone. Pain ripped through him, blurring his senses, making him drop to his knees in agony. He felt like someone was stabbing into his heart with a million knives. Then, a gun shot. His eyes snapped open. She was close. But he was helpless. He could do nothing but listen as the end came. Her scream bore through him, the freshness and pain of it making him gasp. And then, just as soon as it had started, it stopped. He heard her whimper, her dying breath. It was ten times worse than her screams. Then, all was still.
Jess's eyes snapped open and he sat up quickly. His entire body was covered in a cold sweat and he was gasping, his heart rate irregular.
He let himself calm down and he had the sudden urge to call Rory, just to hear her voice. He was being unreasonable, he knew she was fine. But he had to call, just to be sure she was ok.
The ringing of the phone woke Rory. She glanced at the clock. 2:00am. Stumbling out of bed, she groped through the darkness of her house and reached the phone, answering it with a sleepy "'lo?"
"Rory?" Jess said.
"Jess? Are you ok? It's early- sleepy..." she said.
"I'm- sorry, I just... had a dream."
Rory wrinkled her eyebrows in confusion, waiting for him to elaborate. When he didn't, she finally said "A dream?"
"Yeah. A bad dream," he said, hesitantly.
"Oh," Rory said, confused. "Are you- ok?"
Jess sighed. "Yeah, sorry it's stupid. I just- I dreamt that you- It doesn't matter, never mind."
"Jess, you woke me up. You have to tell me what happened," Rory said.
"Fine. I dreamt- that you- were- that I was running- and you were shot. You- were dead. I had to-" Jess stopped, his breathing heavy.
"Jess... I'm ok, I'm right here," Rory said, slightly bewildered. Jess had dreamt that she had been shot?
"I know, I'm sorry I called you so late. I'll let you go back to sleep now," he said.
"No, I'm wide awake now, stay on the phone with me," Rory said, shifting in bed to make herself more comfortable.
"Happy two month anniversary, Rory," Jess said.
"Love you, Jess," she responded.
"Do you think it's crazy that I called you?" he asked, at 10:00am when Rory arrived at the diner.
"No, I think it's incredibly sweet," Rory said, kissing him chastely.
"Huh. Interesting. You think it's sweet that I woke you up in the middle of the night?"
"No. I think it's sweet that you had a bad dream so you called me to make sure I was ok," Rory said, rolling her eyes and placing her head against his chest.
"I'll keep that in mind."
"Shut up," Rory said, slapping him lightly on the shoulder.
"So. Come with me," he said, pulling Rory out the door before she could protest.
"Where are we going? I wanted coffee!" Rory screeched, fighting against his embrace.
"Coffee can wait. I want to give you something," Jess said. They arrived at the bridge, where Rory figured they were headed.
"Really?" Rory said, smiling. "Because I have something to give you, too. It's in my coat pocket at this moment."
"I'm terrible at this romantic crap, you know," Jess said.
"Well, let me tell you, that wasn't very romantic," Rory said, smiling. "However, you have been known to be incredibly sweet, on occasion."
"Gee, thanks," he said, rolling his eyes and pulling out a black velvet box.
Rory's eyes widened. "What did you do?" she said, her voice almost scolding.
"Open it," Jess said, smirking.
"Jess, you really didn't have to do this," Rory said, hesitantly taking the package from his hand. She snapped the lid open and her eyes got even bigger.
"You like it?" Jess said, cockily, sure of Rory's answer.
"Jess... I love it, you couldn't have chosen more perfectly," Rory breathed, staring at the necklace in the case. "But... this looks... expensive..." she trailed off, closely eyeing the diamond on the end of the chain. It looked suspiciously real.
"Don't worry about it," Jess said, shrugging. Rory smiled, and handing it to him, she commanded:
"Put it on, please."
Once the necklace was securely in place, Rory turned, smiling to him. "Getting me that necklace was definetely romantic."
"Huh," he responded, before giving her a deep and satisfying kiss.
"Ok, my turn," Rory said, practically jumping up and down in excitement.
"Wow, I've never seen you this phsyked to give someone a gift before," he said, his eyebrows raised in real interest.
"Well, I got you the most amazing gift ever. After this necklace, of course," she said. smiling and fingering it.
"Wow, you've caught my interest," he said.
"Here," Rory said, pulling out a rectangular object and handing it over.
"A book?" he said, slowly breaking the tape on the wrapping paper and carefully taking it off, trying not to rip it.
"Are you being slow just to annoy me?" Rory asked, accusingly.
"Possib...ly..." he said, trailing off when he saw what he was looking at.
"The Old Man and the Sea?" he said, turning to her. "It looks old."
"First edition," she said, proudly. Jess's eyes popped.
"Are you serious?" he said, looking down at the book with new-found respect. "This is- how did you find this?"
"My grandfather has a huge collection of books like these. When I mentioned your love of Hemmingway," she paused to roll her eyes at his obsession with the most boring author of all time in her opinion, "he told me to take anything I wanted."
"Wow, Rory, thank you so much, this is... incredible..." he was running his hands over the worn binding, feeling it's weight. Slowly, he cracked the cover, and his eyes widened again.
"What's- this-" he said, haltingly, refusing to believe it.
"Oh, did I forget to mention it's a signed copy?" Rory said off-handedly.
Jess's breathing hitched. "Oh, my God. You got me a first edition signed copy of The Old Man and the Sea. Ok, this is the most amazing gift ever. Way more so than that necklace," he said, setting it down on top of the wrapping paper so it didn't get dirty, and kissing her.
Rory made a sound of protest when he tried to pull away, and instead deepened the kiss, throwing her arms around him. Jess smiled at the action.
The doorbell rang, and Rory put down her book to answer it, fingering her necklace. She smiled, thinking about Jess and how amazing he was. She then proceeded to roll her eyes at herself for thinking such sickly-sweet thoughts. The door opened, and all thoughts of any sweet nature flew right out of her head.
"Tristan?!" she said. What could he be doing here?
"Mary, let me talk to you," he said, dead serious. He was swaying slightly, and he was very pale, almost green. He was drunk again, maybe not as much as he had been the last time, but still enough to make her nervous.
"No, Tristan, I don't want to-" he grabbed her wrist and dragged her out the front door. "What are you doing?!" she screeched, panicked."
"Shut up, Mare. Don't make me do something we're both going to regret," Tristan said, opening the passenger side of his car and roughly shoving her in. He raced around to the other side of the car before Rory could even process what was happening. The next thing she knew, they were speeding down the road.
"Tristan, let me out of this car," she demanded. She had meant to make her voice threatening, but she was shaking so hard that her comment came out more hysterical than anything else.
"No. I'm going to talk to you about something," he said, calmly.
She pulled out her cell phone, to call the police, or Jess, or her mom, she wasn't quite sure, but Tristan, seeing the movement, snatched it out of her hand.
In the middle of the dinner rush, in the middle of pouring a glass of water at the diner, Jess felt a chill go through him. He paused slightly, and, trying to ignore the feeling, went back to serving customers. Wasn't Rory supposed to meet him? He glanced at his watch. She wasn't supposed to be here for another ten minutes. He relaxed, or at least tried to convince himself to relax, but he couldn't help but feel that something wasn't right.
They had been driving for 45 minutes, when Rory's cell phone rang. Tears streaming down her face and her whole body shaking with nerves, she managed to catch a glimpse of the caller-ID before Tristan snapped open the phone. Jess.
"Rory's not available, don't call again," was all he said before snapping it back closed. She felt relieved at this, because she knew that Jess would figure it out.
"Where are we going?" she managed in a shaky voice.
"Here," he said, pulling over quite suddenly.
"What's going on?" she asked, clearly hysterical.
"I needed a place to talk to you, where we wouldn't be inturupted," Tristan said seriously.
And despite the dangerous situation she was in, Rory couldn't help but roll her eyes and say sarcastically, "So you felt the need to practically kidnap me and take me all the way to Hartford?"
Tristan looked uncomfortable. "Yeah..."
"Dammit," Jess said, closing his phone angrily. That was Tristan on the other end, he'd bet anything. After waiting twenty minutes for Rory to show up, the gut feeling that something was wrong didn't go away. In fact, it got worse. So, he called everyone he could think of, and he went over to Rory's house. She was nowhere. Panicked, he started towards Hartford. He thought that if he talked to Rory's grandparents, maybe they could get the police searching.
And now, he knew who she was with, if not where she was, and it certainly didn't make him feel any better.
She heard the gunshot, and she screamed.
Tristan looked freaked as well, and he grabbed Rory's arm and turned her down a back-alley, running as fast as he could.
"Tristan!" a voice called. He turned. How did this guy know his name?
"M-Michael?" he said, shocked. What was the crazy guy that Duncan knew doing here?
"I need the money to fix my car," he said.
"What?" Tristan exclaimed. "I had nothing to do with that! It was all Duncan! Why are you-" his voice cracked in fear.
"Duncan's dead," Michael exclaimed. "And she's dead, too, if you don't agree to give me the money."
Rory felt like she had stepped into a really bad horror movie, as a second man stepped out of the shadows and held her arms behind her. Michael's gun was pointed straight at her head. In the inside, she felt herself on the verge of panicked tears, but she tried to keep herself composed as she said,
"Listen, um, Michael, was it? I would really appreciate if you would let me go?" she said meekly.
"Shut up. Tristan, can you get us the money?" Michael said, focused on Tristan, but keeping the gun focused on Rory.
Tristan thought through everything. His family sure had the money, but he couldn't exaclty get ahold of any of it without his parents knowing. And Duncan was dead?! That was insane. He couldn't even summon up some remorse over this piece of news, and that made him sick. He couldn't think. Rory's life was in danger. What did that mean to him?
"Ten... Nine..." Michael began threateningly.
Whatever kind of fate brought it about, Jess was driving by the alley when the first gun shot sounded. He immediately pulled over, and began running toward the where the noise had come from. He heard Rory's scream, and his mind suddenly transported back to the dream. But he wouldn't let this situation have the same outcome. He wouldn't let her get hurt.
Voices sounded. He couldn't hear anything distinct, but he heard Rory say something, and he cringed, hearing the raw terror lacing her words. Then came the voice of a stranger, talking to someone. He heard the name Tristan.
There was a silence. Suddenly, as he rounded the corner, he saw four peope just ahead. Tristan, and a man with a gun. And... Rory. Her arms pinned behind her by the forth man. No...
"Ten... Nine..." he heard the stranger count down.
Jess sanpped out of his trance and quickly pulled out his cell phone, calling 911. He informed the police in a whisper of his location, and then snapped the phone shut, zooming back in to what was happening.
"Eight... Seven..." the voice continued. "I'm serious about this, Tristan. You don't give us the money, your little girlfriend dies."
Jess was beyond freaked out at this point. Come on, Tristan... say something... he was rooting for Tristan, of all people.
"Six... Five... Four... Three..." Jess saw his finger twitch on the trigger of the gun, and something snapped inside of him. Breaking away from his spot in the shadows behind a dumpster, he ran at the man with the gun at full-speed.
"Two... One!" Jess lunged, pushing Michael over, just as the gun shot sounded through the alley. The man that was with Michael ran for his life, and Tristan managed to kick the gun out of Michael's hand before he could recover from Jess's attack. Police sirens sounded in the distance, but Jess heard none of it. Everything seemed to move slowly, and he could heart beat pounding in his head as he scanned the alley for Rory.
"No!" he yelled, when he saw her, lying still, too still, with crimson liquid soaking through her shirt. "Rory!"
He scrambled over to her, and not caring that he was staining his own clothes with her blood, he put her head into his lap, and brushed through her hair with his fingers, trembling. "Don't- do this, please," he managed to get out through his sobs. "Rory I can't- God, don't you dare leave me. Please, don't do this to me, I can't live without you. Rory? God, please, please wake up."
She stirred slightly. His breath hitched and he stared down at her. She groaned and looked up at him. "Jess, what happened?"
Author's Note: Do you hate me? Well too bad. I want a LOT of reviews on this. See if you can beat your record, which is 20 for the first chapter. No reviewing twice, if you're an annonymous reviewer. That's cheating. I'll update when I'm satisfied with the number of reviews!