Life: 2.0

Chapter 15: Flower Rhyme

Author: knowhere

Rating: R

Disclaimer: Nothing.

AN: I know, it's been a long time. Well, enjoy!

Summary: Literati. Life doesn't always turn out like you expect. Jess and Rory meet as adults when their lives are at a transition period. Life, love, and everything else: Version 2.0. AU.

Jess struggled with juggling his armful of papers and notes that had to be read and revised over the weekend, the groceries, and the little paper bag containing Rory's prescription. He had stayed up late waking her up every hour or so to ask her if she knew her name, how old she was, where she lived, and other simple questions that the doctor had instructed him. Jess had watched her sleep, seeing her familiar body take in each breath. When she curled onto her side, he rearranged the pillows for her so that she wouldn't put undue pressure on her broken arm.

Yesterday he had already made up his mind to talk to her and ask for a second chance. But watching her last night really cemented his desire to make up. His fears of being hurt seemed so trivial and childish when she brought back happiness into his life. Sure, life sucked sometimes and threw some big curveballs, but when he was with Rory, he had the ability to take in the day and enjoy it without letting the small stuff get to him.

With Rory, there was fun in his life again. And Jess knew that he was missing that. He missed enjoying his life. He realized that for the past few years, he'd been so on guard for being hurt that he stopped enjoying things. He focused on Gabe and on his career and how to juggle the two. But he stopped believing in love. Even when he told Rory that he loved her, a part of him was just waiting for the other shoe to drop. The inevitable in his mind: heartbreak.

But he had been mistaken. If he wanted the good, he had to deal with the bad sometimes. But he couldn't live in fear expecting the bad stuff to happen. Love wasn't always about sunshine and roses. Sometimes it was dark, rainy, and smelled like shit. But when it was good, and it had been good with Rory, it was really good. If truly loving someone was learning to see rain and know that in the end, there would be sunshine again, then Jess would learn to love the rain as well.

She awoke feeling disorientated. Her head hurt and her arm was stiff and her forearm itched like crazy. When she reached down to scratch she suddenly remembered that her arm was broken and in a cast and that Jess had shown up unexpectedly at the hospital after the accident. She remembered the horrible sounds of metal meeting metal and that weird moment where everything is silent except the beat of her heart that pounded and the blood that roared in her ears. But things had turned out all right considering. Her car was totaled and her arm hurt like a bitch, but she was alive and relatively unscathed. The car would be replaced and her arm will heal but as cliché as it sounded, the accident made her sit up and take notice of life.

It wasn't as if she suddenly wanted to sell her house and go on a yoga retreat in India or anything, but it made her realize that if she had happiness in reach, she should go for it. And happiness for Rory was currently spelled J-E-S-S. He made her laugh and feel safer than she never had with any man. On the downside, he made her cry like no man ever had the ability to do so in the past. But if the pain were a part of love, then she'd take it because it was worth it.

Even in her state, she knew she wasn't in her own bed. Jess had taken her to his home and she remembered what he had said about needing to talk about their relationship. Rory turned to find a bouquet of red and burnt orange gerbera daisies on the bedside table. She tugged the covers up as she rested on the headboard, pushing her hair off her forehead. The door opened and her breath caught at the site of Jess standing at the door.

"You're awake." He approached her.

"Hi." Her voice sounded hoarse.

He sat on the edge of the bed by her hip. "How are you feeling?"

"A little woozy but otherwise okay."

Rory stilled as her eyes widened as she watched him reach out and touch the band aide on her forehead. "They gave you a lot of painkillers at the hospital and I had a hard time waking you during the night to check for signs of a possible concussion."

The conversation lulled as he dropped his hand onto the other side of her, forming a loose cage with his arms. She wanted to go back in time where it would have been the norm for him to wake her up with a kiss and a snuggle, perhaps even with a good-morning romp between the sheets. But what they were left with was a giant pink elephant in the room and a broken arm with a few cuts and scrapes.

"The flowers?" She wanted to know if they came from him.

His face softened and he glanced over at them. "They seemed like something you'd like." Jess sneakily sidestepped the question but she knew from his evasion that they were from him.

Without thinking, she plucked a daisy out of the vase and pulled a petal, smiling as she chirped, "He loves me, he loves me not, he—"

He reached over and pulled another petal as he looked her dead in the eyes. "He loves you." His expression caught her off guard. She had started the childish flower rhyme as a way to break the tension but he had just turned it to be something serious.

There was a marked silence in the room until she squeaked out, "That wasn't the last one."

He smirked, not breaking eye contact as he grabbed a hold of the flower and continued, "He loves you, he loves you." He raised his brows and twirled the steam with the last remaining petal. "Oh, look. He loves you." The flower fell onto the bedspread, forgotten. "I love you."

Rory raised her eyebrows, her forehead wrinkling in confusion. "Are you sure I don't have a concussion?"

"No." He chuckled but then she saw his features become serious. "I never stopped loving you."

"What about," she paused. "What about when you broke up with me?"

"Are we going to talk about it now?"

She shrugged. "Why not?"

"I was an idiot." He offered her a sheepish look.

"That's it?" Rory's eyes bugged out. "That's all you have to say?"

"Uh," Jess paused and hesitated. "I'm sorry?"

She scowled. She was starting to work herself up into a lather. "Was that a question?"

"Look, don't get upset."

"Don't get upset?" She raised her voice without knowing it. "Don't get upset! That's such a guy thing to say. You know what, mister?" She poked him hard on the chest. "You broke up with me and it was totally unfair." Another poke to the sternum. "Yes, I didn't tell you that Logan called but I didn't want to stir the waters with us. Everything was going so well. And then I make this one little mistake in our relationship and you bail!" Poke, poke.

"Ow." He grabbed her hand and brought her finger up and nipped it. "Stop with the violence already. I'm sorry. I overacted. When it happened it brought back some bad memories for me and I didn't know how to deal with it."

She knew he was telling the truth and yet she was afraid that this would be a reoccurring problem with them. "What if this happens again? What if I do something that triggers another memory? Are we going to keep breaking up?"

"No." His eyes hardened as well as his resolve. "I promise you, I'm not going to bail like I did. If we break up, it won't be because of that."

"If we break up?"

He rolled his eyes. "I just meant that I'm going to try not to let my past fears get in the way. But nothing is for certain, Rory. You know that."

She sighed loudly and hunched over, deflated. "Yeah."

"So," he tipped up her chin. "Am I forgiven?"

"Explain it to me again?"

"What?"

She shrugged, having a hard letting go. "Your insane thought process when you were breaking up with me."

"I just shut down, Rory. That's it. All I saw was a lie and even when it happened, I knew," he paused. "I knew it was wrong. But I just couldn't stop it. Does that even make sense?"

"Not that I wanna admit it or condone it, but yes, it does make sense in a weird way."

Jess paused as if gathering his bearings and looked at her seriously. "Rory, I want you to understand that I know I screwed up." He wanted to look away but forced himself to maintain eye contact. "I know I didn't treat you the way I should have but I want to you to know that I'm not going to let my insecurities get in the way again. Or at least, not as much in the way as they did the other day."

Her heart softened and she thoroughly appreciated the honesty in his statement. He wasn't promising her the world or that the relationship would be all perfect and dandy. He wasn't making grand vows that even a saint couldn't keep. He was admitting that he was wrong that he knew it, which was more than she ever got from any other man. Jess was telling her that he screwed up and that he would try not to let it happen again.

"I'm sorry, Rory. Really."

"And I'm sorry for not letting you know about Logan. I just didn't want to make it into a big deal because he means nothing to me anymore. Seriously."

"I know. I overreacted."

"Okay. Try your best not to be such a big ass again, all right?"

The corner of his lips kicked up in a smile. "Deal."

"Tell me you've been miserable without me."

Jess laughed and it coaxed a giggle out of her. "This is a weirdest reconciliation I've ever experienced."

"I feel like I'm giving in too easily." She grumped, pretending to hold a grudge. But they both knew that it was over. "I feel like I should make you work for it or something."

"I've beaten myself up enough about it already. And don't worry, Gabe has barely spoken to me since we broke up. I've been doing a lot of thinking since you've left. I've missed you like hell."

"Me too."

"And I knew I was going to come talk to you yesterday and explain but then you got into that car accident…"

"I was going to talk to you too."

"Really?" He smiled.

Rory made a face but a smile curled her lips. "Yes, but I still feel like I should make you pay."

"Oh, I'm ready to pay." Jess got a devilish gleam in his eyes. He leaned forward and kissed her gently. "I'll make it up to you."

She leaned back and pulled him on top. "You'll be my slave."

"Hmm," he hummed against her, nuzzling her neck. "Your sex slave, maybe." He inhaled her scent, drawing it deeply into his senses, trying to memorize something that he had missed. He shook his head at himself at the thought that he had carelessly thrown away such a precious gift. What an idiot.

Jess levered his body up until he rested on his elbows and framed her face in his hands. He watched as her eyes drifted shut as he descended closer to her lips. Right before he made contact, he felt her indrawn breath and it aroused him in a heartbeat. "Make sure your arm is out of the way."

"Uh huh." Rory mumbled absently.

He tugged off the soft well-worn tee he had put on her and he smiled at the predictable way she blushed at her nudity. He loved that she still got embarrassed in front of him. He had licked peanut butter off her breasts once when he got playful after a midnight snack in bed. At the time, she had arched her back to press closer to him, encouraging him to nibble and suck to his heart's content. But after all that, she still blushed when she was naked and it was the contrast in her nature that fascinated him.

Jess paused to take a moment just to drink her in. "Damn, you're beautiful."

She smiled but remained silent. She loved that he constantly told her that. Bram had once said that it must be nice to hear it since she was so irrationally self-conscious, and it was true. Too often she only saw the flaws in herself: her small breasts, her too wide hips, her gangly limbs that seemed too long for her body, but Jess made her feel beautiful and she loved him for that.

She felt the warm wet suction of his mouth on her sensitive flesh and her nipple budded as he nibbled on her breasts. "Jess…"

"Fuck. I could come just from tasting you." His voice was husky and rough, letting her know just how on edge he really was. "Lie back baby. I wanna taste some more." He shot her a wicked grin that made her toes curl and with one motion of his arms, he threw off all the covers and scooted between her legs.

Rory held her breath, knowing what was coming but nothing could have prepared her for the sensations. She expected him to remove her panties, but shock shot through her veins as she felt him erotically kiss her through the soft cotton. "Jess!"

"That's me." She could clearly hear his amusement in his response. He used his clever fingers to push aside the fabric barrier and delved into her with a smile on his lips.

"You're killing me!"

"No," he chuckled and breathed into her, "I'm just loving you."

"Well love me up here." She pulled at his hair, briefly giving him a sting that only aroused him more. "I want to touch you too."

"Sounds good." He sidled up her body and parted her legs.

"What happened to your clothes?"

"Lost 'em. Can't be a love slave with them on, now can I?"

Rory laughed. "You're such a dope. I love you."

He stopped and stared at her. "Say it again."

"I love you."

Jess kissed her hard, imprinting himself onto her. "I can't believe you gave me another chance. I'm such a lucky bastard."

"I missed you too much."

His tongue tangled with hers and she stroked light fingers across his shoulders, chest, and abdomen. She suddenly felt him between her legs were she was aching the most and then he was filling her with an exquisite feeling that only Jess could provide. When she moved her legs onto his lean hips, he slid to the hilt, seating himself fully within her. One hand held her hip while the other skated down to where her body met his at every thrust. He played with her sensitive bundle of nerves, his thumb creating little bolts of lightening behind her closed lids. "Come for me baby."

She did.

And when she obeyed him the second time, he followed her into the abyss.

"So are we back to rooting for Team Jess and Rory?"

Rory shifted the phone to her other ear and smiled even though Bram couldn't see her. "Yup."

"You have a ridiculously sappy smile on your face right now, don't you?"

"Yup."

"Jess just did ungodly things to your body to put that smile on your face, didn't he?"

Rory giggled but still blushed as she spied Jess just a few feet in front of her, flipping over another grilled cheese sandwich on the stove. "Sure did."

"Did he grovel?"

Rory made a face. She didn't think Jess Mariano would ever grovel. But he had admitted he was wrong several times. "In his own way, yes."

Bram's voice softened into a serious tone. "Are you happy?"

"Yes." She didn't have to think twice on that one.

"Good."

They spoke for several more minutes and Bram had promised to come visit her next weekend. As she hung up, she noticed Jess watching her. "Am I going to have to deal with an angry best friend?"

Rory smiled. "Not anymore."

"He came to talk to me after we broke up."

"Oh?"

"He basically called me an idiot and made me realize that I had my head up my ass. But by then, I was already regretting what had happened."

"Bram came to me and defended you."

Jess flipped the sandwich onto a plate and handed it to her. "Serious?"

"Yeah. He made me see that blaming you for everything wasn't right and that I still cared for you."

"Seems like I owe him." Jess smiled.

Gabe entered the kitchen and his eyes locked onto the food that was prepared. "One of those for me?"

Jess rolled his eyes. "You had lunch."

"That was almost three hours ago."

"Take the rest. I'll make more."

Gabe grabbed the last two grilled cheeses and sat down next to Rory. "How are you feeling?"

"Much better, thank you. And I never got to say thanks for calling Jess to let him know that I was in the hospital. It really helped out." Rory reached out and touched Gabe's arm.

Gabe blushed. "I'm just glad you're okay." The kitchen was briefly quiet as Rory dug into her sandwich and Jess returned to the stove to make another. Gabe swallowed his bite and asked, "So you two back together now?"

"Is that all right?" Jess asked without looking up from buttering the bread.

"Yeah."

"Good."

Rory smiled at the brothers' typical monosyllabic exchange and took another bite of her lunch.

It was a little weird how they were able to setting into routines so quickly again. Jess smiled as he watched Rory bend over Gabe and point something out on a worksheet. They had been working on his homework for over an hour now. "What's this?"

Gabe shrugged. "The substitute gave it to us."

"That's the wrong one. We're not doing this until next week." Rory examined the worksheet.

"Does that mean I don't have to do it?" Gabe perked up at the idea.

"Yeah. Don't worry about it."

"That's great!" He jumped up and whistled. "Wes!" Gabe turned to Jess. "I'm gonna take him out for a walk."

Jess nodded absently. "Take your phone with you just in case."

"Yeah, yeah." Gabe clicked on Wesley's leash and led him out the door.

"Looks like homework time is over, Teach." Jess slide up behind Rory and hugged her, his arms tight around her belly.

She leaned back against him. "I've never seen him move so fast."

"No homework will do that to a kid."

"And what are you doing?" She teased.

"I'm making my own kind of move."

Rory smiled. "We just had sex a couple hours ago."

"Does your arm hurt?" He kissed her shoulder and moved up to the side of her neck, teasing her with his nipping caresses.

"No. The painkillers are little miracle workers."

He pressed a wet open-mouthed kiss on the curve of her neck. "I want you again."

She wiggled her bottom and felt the urgency in his erection. "Obviously."

"Let me tell you what's going to happen."

Rory heard the smile in his voice. "And what's that?"

"We're going to go back upstairs to the bed and I'm gonna lay you out and tease you until you can't stand any more. Then, I'm going to make love to you. Gentle, easy, and slow. And then we're going to catch our breaths," he hummed into her skin and she shivered. " But baby, after that, I'm gonna fuck you until we can't move, let along catch our breaths, and you're going to love that most of all…"

"Gabe said he wouldn't mind if I married you."

Rory could barely process the words that Jess uttered softly next to her. She whipped her head to face him next to hers on the pillow they shared. "What?" Her voice was a high screechy sound.

He smirked and turned onto his side, easing one of his legs between hers and nudging his semi-erection into her hip. It was a wonder he could muster any strength after the sex they just had. "You heard me."

"You just said the M word."

"Too soon?" He sobered and stared back at her in a way that always managed to unnerve her.

"We just got back together!"

"We took a two week break," he countered.

"But…"

"Before that, you took me into your body without a condom. What can be more serious than that?"

"But…" she floundered. "But…marriage?"

He cocked his head and smirked. "You never thought about it? Never doodled 'Rory Mariano' on a Post-It?"

She had but she wasn't going to admit that. "You're really throwing me for a loop here. We just made up."

"But still. What do you think?" When he saw her hesitate, he answered, now unsure of his position. "I know that I don't really have a typical family situation, what with me having custody of Gabe and all that. I can understand if it's too much—"

"Shut up. That's not it and you know it. I love him like he's already part of my family."

He smiled at her forceful statement. "So what is it? Is it me?"

"I love you."

"Then?"

"It's just a big step."

"I wasn't actually proposing, you know?" His lips kicked up in a grin.

Her jaw dropped open. "Then what are you doing?"

"Seeing how receptive you are to the idea."

"You're ready?"

"With you?" He smiled. "Yeah. Someday soon."

Her heart skipped a beat and she thought about her future. Could she see herself being with Jess forever? Have kids? Experience everything with him with his quirky smartass attitude and his special way of making her laugh? He was the perfect puzzle piece to fit hers. Yes, she could see herself waking up to this man every day for the rest of her life. She thought back to when she had accepted Logan's marriage proposal. At that time, she thought she was getting the prince. But one look at the man next to her made her realize that she might have had the prince at one time, but she wasn't compatible with the prince. She was much better suited to the hero who played at the villain.

"How will you propose then?"

He grinned widely, realizing what she meant by the statement. "Well, for starters, I'm not going to begin with the fact that Gabe was the first one to mention the idea…"

"Maybe you shouldn't rent out your house. After all, I think we need it just to store all your stuff." Jess grunted as he carried another box from next door. "We don't have enough room for the insane number of shoes you own, let alone anything else."

"Oh you big baby." Rory walked by and kissed his cheek.

He dropped the box and pulled her into his arms, deepening the kiss. Her hands ended up twined around his neck as she sank her fingers into his thick hair. Rory felt his hands slip down her back and settle into the back pockets of her jeans, copping a feel.

"You've got to be kidding me!"

They broke apart at the sound of Gabe's outraged statement. Jess shot him a dirty look. "You're interrupting again?"

"This is the fourth time today! Ever since we started moving Rory's boxes over to our house I keep catching you two making out in every room!"

"Why don't you just turn around next time?"

"Give me a break."

"Yesterday when I came home from work I saw you kissing Kerry in the backyard, I turned around for you."

"Oh." Gabe blushed a bright red.

Jess smirked and pushed his brother's buttons trying to embarrass him some more. "And in front of Wes too. You probably scarred that poor little dog for life." Jess had entered the house last night to find Gabe embracing his girlfriend. Though he enjoyed making fun of him, he was happy that his brother was finally adjusting to his life. Gabe was on water polo team and vice-president of the school's swim club. He was doing well in school and making friends, even bringing home a girlfriend a few weeks ago. Kerry was full of smiles with a mass of curly black hair and seemed perfect for Gabe. Jess was ecstatic to see his brother content.

"Okay," Rory interjected with a hand on Jess's chest and a soft smile. "Don't embarrass him any more." She paused. "But really? You finally kissed her?"

Gabe blushed even more. "Can we drop it?"

"Need some pointers?" Jess smirked. He teased Gabe, but knew that if there were any real questions, his brother would come to him. When Rory had come home from work one day and mentioned that she may have seen Gabe eating lunch with a girl, she had suggested that Jess ask if Gabe was starting to date. She was delighted to see that the man whom had a predilection for dirty talk in bed was nervous to talk to his teenaged brother about sex. But Jess had managed and made it clear that Gabe was to be safe and sure before doing anything remotely sexual with his girlfriend. Though the brothers were slightly uncomfortable with the conversation in the beginning, Jess was honest and forthright with Gabe and ended with an open invitation for any future conversations involving sex.

"I've seen enough from the two of you, thank you very much. I don't need any pointers." Gabe mumbled about grabbing some more boxes and escaped as quickly as he could.

"He was really kissing Kerry last night? Why didn't you tell me?"

Jess reached for Rory once again and brought her into his embrace. "Because you opened those shopping bags of yours and showed me all that naughty lingerie. I especially liked the little see through teddy with the black garters."

"Oh, right." She smiled. "So was it a kiss or were they making out?"

"Kiss, I think. I really did turn around as soon as I saw."

"Was it like this?" She stood up on her toes and brushed a soft gentle kiss across his lips.

"Maybe." He pretended to think about it. "Do it again."

She did and he caught her in his arms, pulling her closer. "Deeper. With tongue."

Rory giggled. "Maybe we should move this into the bedroom before Gabe yells at us again."

"Hmm…I like the sound of that." With one quick graceful move, he swept her into his arms, making her laugh out loud. "Now you…you don't need any pointers."

When she woke up, Jess was still sleeping next to her, his body tucked tight against hers. She thought about how things had progressed since after her accident. They had gotten back together, started with a clean slate with less anxieties and no real secrets between them, and she loved every single moment of it. Three months after they got back together, Jess had casually slipped on his house key onto her keychain and asked her to move in. She happily agreed. Two days ago when she was cleaning out Jess's sock drawer so that she could use it for herself, she found a little velvet box. Her hands had trembled when she opened and she bit her lip at the sight of the one-carat diamond that winked up at her in its platinum setting. She knew Jess was waiting for the right time but she had been doodling more and more "Rory Mariano's" lately and was ready for him to ask her to marry him once and for all.

But she was going to wait for him because she knew he was the one worth waiting for.

AN: That's it! The end...

Read and Review. Thanks so much.