Rory watched Dean walk out of the dance marathon, slowly realising how horrible she had been to him. He was right. Everything he said. He was right.

She ran away from the dance marathon, not knowing that Jess was following closely behind.

She sat down on the bridge, and let the tears flow down her face and make little ripples in the water below. She looked at her reflection, seeing how depressed she looked. Dean was her world, and she treated him like trash. Now he was gone forever.

"Dean's a jerk." Rory turned to see who had said that, and was suprised to see Jess standing next to her. "Yelling at you like that, breaking up with you like that... the guy's a total jerk."

"No he's not," Rory sobbed. "He was right. About everything, me lying to him... everything he said, about you, about you and me, he was right."

Jess said nothing.

"Well..." Rory said, confused. "Wasn't he?"

Jess still remained silent.

"Well fine, he was right about me then. Now go away."

After another moment of silence, Jess finally made a noise. "He was right..." he said, almost in a whisper. "He was right about... all of it."

Rory sniffled. "So... what now?" She asked.

"I have to go take care of something." Jess said, and Rory knew he meant breaking up with Shane. As Jess was walking away, Rory realised she couldn't be alone right now.

"Stay," she told him.

"What?" He asked.

"Stay. Please?" Rory really hoped he would.

Jess nodded, and sat next to Rory on the bridge, putting an arm around her. Rory started to cry harder. "Hey, it's ok. I'm here. You'll be fine, Rory. You're strong. You can get through this." Jess squeezed her gently, reminding her that he would always be there for her.

"Thanks" Rory muttered, then rested her head on Jess' shoulder. He stroked her hair gently, then hesitated before kissing her forehead.

Everything seemed perfect, but of course Rory couldn't have a totally perfect moment to herself. She heard footsteps, and Rory and Jess turned to see Dean glaring at them.

"Give her a rest, man. You broke her heart, now get lost." Jess put his arm a little tighter around Rory, as if protecting her from Dean, but Rory knew she had to handle this, so she started to talk. "Dean..." she said. Dean shook his head, but Rory kept talking. "I'm sorry that I lied to you. I feel just horrible."

Dean glared at her, saying: "Yeah. You feel so horrible that you're probably already hooking up with this jerk. Whatever, Rory."

"Dean, I really did love you. I hope you know that, and I hope... I hope there's a way that some day you won't hate me anymore."

"I hope so too." He said flatly, before walking away. Rory started to cry again.

"It's ok. You're too good for him," Jess said.

Rory looked at him. "I loved him. I loved him but I ruined our relationship. My mother loved him. Everyone loved us together. It was completely perfect, and I totally ruined it."

Jess took a deep breath, knowing what he was about to say could make Rory angry. "You would have broken up with him, if it weren't for your mom. She kept this thing going. None of this would have happened if you hadn't been dancing with her, or if she hated him. You were too scared to break up with him, because he was so close to Lorelai and she's your best friend in the world. It's completely wrong if your mother likes your boyfriend more than you do." He watched Rory's face go from angry about him accusing her mother to totally believing him.

"You're right. Well, it's done now, I guess. Come here." She hugged him, pressing her face against his chest, she could feel his breathing, him kissing her hair.

"We can totally make this work, Ror."

"I hope so." She said, before kissing him. He hated thinking like this, but she couldn't help but realise that Jess was so much better than Dean.