Yes I am still alive! Sorry for the late update. You guys should go thank JJsMommy27 for being amazing and reminding me to type up this chapter. Or else I probably would have pushed it farther back into my mind.

By the way, finals and last minute research papers are coming up this month so bare with me guys. This story has only one last chapter, than an epilogue, and then this story will be officially done.

Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own Gilmore Girls or anything affiliated with the show. I still do not understand why this needs to be clarified, but oh well.

Shortly afterwards, his breakfast with Rory ended. She had wanted to get back up to her room and she told him that he needed to tell Danielle right away. So that's why he was currently stationed outside his hotel room door, trying to convince himself to go in. Finally, plucking up the courage to go in, he slowly opened the door.

Inside, Dani was already fully dressed and sitting on the couch watching TV. The discarded food dishes on the coffee table indicated that she had already ordered and eaten breakfast.

"Hey," she greeted, her voice emotionless, "Where have you been?"

"With Rory. I had to talk to her about some stuff."

"Oh…" She trailed off leaving an awkward silence.

"How was last night?" Jess stalled.

"Good. It was an amazing club, kind of unreal, but a lot of fun."

"Unreal?" he questioned.

"Yeah. It was really modern and a little futuristic. And the new was amazing. All the sides were windows and they looked down on the strip. It was breathtaking."

"Well, it sounds like you had a good time."

"Yeah, I did," Danielle paused, "What about you?"

"Hm?" he asked absentmindedly.

"What did you do yesterday? You were crashed on the couch when I got back."

Jess sighed, "That's what I need to talk to you about."

His girlfriend started to blink rapidly, probably trying to hold back tears. She seemed to be expecting something bad. Jess guessed that Rory was right about girls being able to sense things.

"Oh?" Danielle asked in a high voice.

"I kissed Olivia."

It was as if time stood still. Jess didn't know what to say and no words came out of Danielle's mouth, although she tried to talk several times. The silence was deafening and he just needed her to say something, anything to let him know where her head was at.

"Dani?" he asked, reaching out towards her.

"Don't. Touch. Me," she spit out venomously, making his hand recoil almost instantly.

Jess knew she would be upset, he even expected it, but seeing her this upset and knowing he was the cause broke his heart into a million little pieces.

"I'm not that girl Jess. I'm not a trophy or a prize or someone who will overlook everything just because I want to be with you. I have my life, my job, and my friends, truthfully I don't need you. I'm not clingy, I'm independent…"

"I know that hun-"

She put a hand up to stop him from interrupting and continued, "I'm with you because I love you, but this is the last straw. As much as it's going to shake the ground beneath my feet, I am not going to compromise myself or my values for you. I'm better than that and I know it."

Jess stood speechless. He could not have heard her right. She was leaving him? Just because of one kiss that didn't even mean anything? No, he must have heard wrong. He knew she was independent, but leaving just because of that seemed a tiny bit extreme.

"What?" he asked dumbly, still a bit shell-shocked.

Danielle rose slowly from her spot on the couch, "I think I'm going to fly back to Los Angeles. I can book a flight for tonight, so all my stuff will be out of here this afternoon. I'll have to call the studio to let them know I'm coming home. Oh…I guess that means I can do that wedding next week…"

She always did this when she got upset; she tended to try and control everything when there was one huge thing that she couldn't. Such as when her father had a heart attack a few months back.

Dani had called their lawyer, the restaurant that they ate dinner at to cancel the reservations, and she got his will all ready to go. She tried avoiding the entire situation by filling her time with meaningless activities. It wasn't until he was cleared to go home that she finally let herself break down and cry. Jess was afraid of the inevitable break down that she would be experiencing after she stopped to think.

"Danielle, please don't leave. We can work this out. We just have to sit down and talk about everything."

But she continued to walk away, "No, I really have to get of here. I'll send movers to get my stuff from the apartment tomorrow. Oh, I have to find somewhere to live."

"Danielle!" Jess yelled over her rambling, making her stop.

"What?" she asked and he could hear the exhaustion in her voice.

He sighed, "Just please…don't go."

"Jess…I can't stay here. You cheated on me! I trusted you, probably more than I've ever trusted anybody before. But you ruined that, and I just can't deal with that right now."

"Danielle, please," he pleaded with her.

She paused and Jess could see that she was contemplating everything that had just happened. Finally, she relaxed her shoulders and took a deep breath while Jess was holding his.

"I've got some things to think about Jess. Just give me a little time."

"Okay, I can do that," he watched as she walked towards the door, "Where are you going?"

"The pool." At his confused expression, she explained further, "I've got my bathing suit on under my clothes. Hopefully the water will give me a fresh perspective on the situation…"

With that she just left. No goodbye, no I'll talk to you later, just the echo of the door closing and the sound of Jess sinking into the chair beside the couch.

Logan came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her lean body, "Hey babe."

"Hey!" Rory turned around and kissed his lips, "You're up."

"Yeah, the arrival of a certain someone this morning got me up."

"Well he got me up too, so it wasn't only you," she laughed.

"How did that go? And why in the world did he have to come so early in the morning?"

"He needed to talk to me about some things; stuff from the past and advice for the future. You were right about him and Olivia. He cheated on Danielle." The disgust was obvious in her voice.

"Whoa…he what?" Logan was definitely shocked. Sure, he had seen the two of them together and they had seemed…chummy to him, but he didn't actually think Jess would do anything. At least not to Danielle. It was obvious by his actions when he was around his girlfriend that he really did love her.

"Yeah, it didn't go very far; just a heated kiss because he stopped it before it could go any farther. I'm so proud of him in that respect, but he still cheated on her. I mean, how is she going to deal with that?"

Logan just shrugged. He really had no idea what to say to her.

"I'm expecting that she might want to talk to me about it today. Hopefully it's not awkward between us. I really, really liked Danielle and she was good for Jess too."

Surprisingly, at that moment they heard another knock at the door. Rory walked over and opened it, then found that she was face-to-face with the woman they had just been talking about. She had tearstains on her cheeks and more tears were threatening to flow out, "I know you're probably busy and have got better things to do, but do you think you can listen to my problems?"

Rory just smiled at her softly, "Of course. Why don't you come in and I'll change into my bathing suit really quick."

Danielle agreed and stood in the living area awkwardly as Logan looked on. As the two of them made small talk, never once mentioning Jess, Rory sent a quick text to Stephanie and Shannon telling them to meet her by the pool in ten minutes. She changed as quickly as she could then met her newest friend back out in the main room.

While walking down, she could tell that Danielle was in deep thought. She had not said a word since they left the hotel room and the way she was acting seemed almost like she wasn't really there; as if she were just going through the motions. Rory lightly nudged her, "Are you sure that you want to talk?"

"Yeah…I have no idea what to do."

"Okay," the brunette spotted the other girls and the two lounge chairs that they had reserved for them, "Come on, they're over there."

As they walked over, Stephanie greeted them with a cheerful hello. But then she began to sense the tension and her smile morphed into a frown.

"What happened?" she asked automatically.

Rory didn't say anything because she knew that this was something that Danielle had to face head on. She waited until the other girl finally spoke, "He cheated on me."

Steph gasped and even Shannon had wide eyes.

"He did?!" the blond exclaimed. She had come to like and respect Danielle as a friend and she couldn't believe this happened to her.

"Yup. He didn't sleep with her but he did kiss her."

She dropped down on the chair in defeat. Her head went directly into her hands to try and stop herself from crying.

Rory sighed and rubbed comforting circles on her back, just like her mom did whenever she felt sad or lonely.

"Shhh…it's going to be okay hun, everything is going to turn out okay. You'll see."

Dani lifted her head up and wiped away her tears, "I don't know what to do though. As much as he hurt me and as much as I never want to see him again, I still love him."

Stephanie exchanged a confused look with Rory, then spoke, "What do you mean?"

"I mean that through everything, I could forgive him. It would take a little while to gain that trust back but I could go back to him. And that scares me because I've never been the type of girl that needs a guy in order to be happy."

Rory sighed, "Trust me, I don't condone cheating and maybe you should get the hell out of here and move on with your life. But here is the catch, you love him. So maybe you shouldn't give up on the two of you quite yet."

"But..." Danielle tried interrupting but the brunette wouldn't allow it.

"This is coming from a girl who has been hurt by Jess before. I think I might have loved him, to this day I'm not completely sure, but I wasn't in love with him. So when he finally came back, it was easy to not even care. But if you love him you shouldn't give up yet."

Everyone was quiet and Rory wasn't sure if they agreed with her or viewed her advice as crazy talk. Finally, Shannon decided to give her two cents.

"I agree," she said softly, "To you it may seem like you're being anti-feminist by going back to the guy that cheated on you, but a lot of times it's the opposite. It takes a lot of strength to listen to your heart instead of your head."

"She's right, you know," Stephanie smiled, "Listening to your heart is about as easy as trying to become the president of the United States. You can want to all you want but that doesn't mean you will."

"Yeah…I guess so."

"Now that doesn't mean that you give him a free pass," Stephanie chuckled, "Make him sweat over it for a little while, make him work to get back your trust. Keep him on his toes, but don't give up so fast. It's obvious that he loves you and everyone knows that Vegas makes a person do crazy things."

Rory laughed, "Oh, you've got that right. The first time we came here, we woke up the next day with huge hangovers and we were in the wrong hotel."

Danielle giggled a little bit at her memory, exactly what Rory was aiming for. She just wanted to get a smile back on her face. But soon enough her face fell again, "But is that really enough? Just make him worry a bit and then blame it all on the thrill of Las Vegas? I feel like I would be cheating myself."

"Now, now, that's not what the three of us are saying Dani," the blond corrected her, "Don't just blame it all on Vegas. I say take a break. Maybe go back to Los Angeles and come out and visit Jess on the road every once and a while. And then slowly you guys will get back to the good place that you were in before. And then when he eventually comes home for good, you guys can really work things out."

Shannon nodded, "Yeah. And you have us to talk to about all this too. You should definitely come visit all three of us one of these days."

"Definitely! Anytime you want to come out, just give me a call and I'll have Logan fix everything up. You just have to meet my kids. I think you would love them. And they love new people, so you would probably become their new favorite person."

For the first time that morning, the smile on Danielle's face didn't go away. It remained there, shining bright, "That sounds amazing."

That just goes to show that the person who came up with 'hoes before bros' was a complete genius.

Soooo…what did you guys think? Were you surprised? Happy? Mad? Tell me your thoughts by dropping me a lovely, extremely appreciated review. :)

I don't know when the next chapter is going to be up, I've got a VERY busy couple of weekends coming up so we'll see how much time I'll get to write inside of class.