Authors Note: Your reviews are so amazing – thank you so much! Enjoy this chapter…

'Love Dodger'

The reception was held outside, beside the lake. It was beautiful. The sun was beginning to set and the water glowed as the last remnants of day reflected off its surface. All shades of pinks and oranges coloured the sky while fairy lights twinkled away, readying to light the oncoming darkness. Lorelai and Luke shared their first dance, and as an instrumental rendition of 'Moon River' lulled the guests into blissful happiness Jess approached Rory for the first time in over two years. Her back was to him. She was so transfixed by her mother and Luke, who looked so content in each other's arms, that she only registered his presence when it was too late.

She looked wilted, faded, like the wedding had taken a toll on her. Not just physically, emotionally too. But her eyes sparked when she smiled at him. A smile which was tentative at first, but soon blossomed into the radiant one he always saw when he closed his eyes at night and let his mind drift to what ifs and remember whens.

"Hello…" Jess managed to say, his tone casual enough. Too casual, he thought, as if she were anyone when she was everything. But what else could he have said? He almost laughed at the irony – a writer unable to think of words. He'd written enough encounters like this that he should have known how to handle it better, but alas he was left clueless.

"Hello." Rory responded, her eyes lighting just a little. Her wilted body suddenly straightened, as if the sun had rose and she was straining towards it. Jess had always loved her silent beauty – hidden beneath plaid skirts and school uniforms, with books obscuring her face the majority of the time, but she'd changed. Since high school she'd grown into this amazing, beautiful women. There was nothing silent about her beauty anymore. It demanded to be seen, it ordered to be noticed. And he couldn't keep his eyes off her delicate face or the curves of her body. Her striking eyes almost seem to glimmer in his presence. That deep blue that he'd dreamed of for years were finally staring back at him – not filled with sadness like their last encounter, not bewildered and confused like the time he'd tried to get her to run away with him, not shocked and hurt like the time he told her he loved her. Just Rory. She was as happy as she could be. And she was pleased to see him it seemed.

Jess grinned, one of those lopsided grins Rory used to love. "Long time no see."

"Long time indeed." Rory grinned back. She realised that she'd missed him. The banter, the jokes, the books – he'd been her intellectual equal in all ways. He challenged her, fought with her, debated with her. Their love had been deep and wide, filled with commonalities. Their interests, for the most part, had aligned perfectly, while their differing personalities allowed them to retain the excitement and mystery necessary in any relationship.

"Oh…" Jess said, a thoughtful expression on his face. "I forgot. I brought you something."

"Oh, you did?" Rory questioned, bewildered. Her imagination flew through the possibilities, but she couldn't imagine what this man could have gotten her, or why he would bother considering he barely knew her anymore.

"Yeah." Jess gave her a small smile. "I know we haven't spoken in a long time. But I knew I'd see you here, and I wanted you to have a copy of my new book."

Rory's face transformed from shock to excitement. "You wrote another book!?" Jess couldn't hide his happiness over her reaction. She'd always believed in him, and he wanted her approval, her validation, that his book was good enough. He realised with a shock that writing this book, and his last, everything he'd done since leaving Stars Hollow, had been to better himself… for her. Everything had been in pursuit of their lost love. Maybe it couldn't be reclaimed. Maybe that fire had burned to ashes long ago with no hope of being rekindled.

"Yeah, I did." He replied, suddenly nervous. "I'll get it for you before the reception finishes. I'm staying at The Dragonfly. Lorelai offered to give me a room for free for a while. Their honeymoon isn't for a few days. Thought I'd catch up with Luke…" He stopped, realizing he'd been rambling pointlessly. Rory looked amused, like he was some odd, fascinating creature she'd never seen before. Suddenly Jess felt shy, which was something he wasn't accustomed to.

"Okay." She gave him a small smile. "I'm looking forward to reading it."

His last book had been amazing – which is a word Rory used to describe only those works of literature that were truly unique. And anything from Jess Mariano's mind was exactly that. She knew she'd love his new book to.

"I expect you to give me a raw review, completely honest…" Jess smiled.

They grinned at each other for a moment, both feeling the loneliness they'd felt all these years begin to thaw.

Lorelai and Liz watched with trepidation as their children talked, both aware of the fact that Rory and Jess would always be drawn together, yet their destructive relationship from the past made each mother wary. Neither wanted their kid to get hurt again, each aware of the loneliness they'd faced. Rory's last relationship had ended with a proposal and tears, and Jess had never had a relationship after Rory, just meaningless nights with random Philadelphia girls in skimpy clothing he'd find in clubs – fuelled by alcohol and self deprecation.

"What if it doesn't work out?" Lorelai asked in a whisper, her face anxious – worried like only a mother could be.

Liz wrapped her arm through Lorelai's, a smile forming on her face. "What if it does?"

Rory held 'The Prevalence' in her hands carefully, like it was some fragile ancient book that could desiccate in her hands. She was, after all, holding the brain of Jess Mariano – something that had to be handled with care. She was inexplicably nervous. She'd never been nervous to read a book before. It was insane. Though it did make sense. His last book had contained so much of him that reading it had made her miss him desperately…now she had another piece of him, but what piece would it be? Maybe his brain or his heart – what if this book contained parallels to the life he'd been living without her? What if some other girl had influenced the words on these pages? Spilt ink in dedication to Philadelphia girls, girls that didn't kiss him and run away, girls who knew how special he was and didn't break him by leaving. Girls who were intelligent enough to know that this man had the potential to be one of the greats.

She held her breath and opened the book – the first two words a dedication of sorts.

Two simple words.

Love Dodger…

Her heart thumped in her chest, her mind drifting back to after they'd met, later walking through Stars Hollow she'd run into Jess, and he'd produced one her of books out of thin air. She'd called him Dodger that night. And there it was again…on paper. Love Dodger. A smile formed on her face. Eagerly she turned the page.

This chapter isn't that long, but I wanted to update before going away this weekend – I hope you enjoyed this chapter!

Please review and let me know what you think!