Wires and Waves

Summary: 4x21. Rory has enough money for a cab and so doesn't call Dean for a ride home. Jess shows up too early and, while waiting outside her dorm, has a chance to re-think his proposal. Season 5 re-write: What if Rory stayed in touch with Jess throughout his transformation into the guy we see in Season 6?

A/N: First off, thanks so much for the warm welcome back! That was a big part of the speediness of this update; it was so nice to be reminded how lovely this community was and continues to be. Secondly, sorry if this chapter seems quite short or filler-y, it comes from a deep-rooted desire to skim over all things pertaining to Logan. I promise you there is way more interesting stuff to come soon!

A quick apology to continuity-pedants: the timing here is not always going to be completely true to the show, for the sake of the plot. Sorry! I'll always mention the episode to give a vague idea of where we are in the series, even though the plots won't always track, and I'll be skipping over or combining a few.

Episodes: Tippecanoe and Taylor, Too – You Jump, I Jump, Jack

Disclaimer: I own nothing. If I did, this would be a lot better written.

"Well, I've just had one of the most insufferable conversations of my life."

"Ah, good, glad the bar's set pretty low for this one."

"Hey, that's no excuse to get sloppy, I'm still expecting your conversational A-game, Mariano."

"Yes, ma'am, now care to elaborate on your opening statements while I warm up for this scintillating battle of wits?"

This was the stage they'd reached by now following on from the slight blip in Rome, after which Rory's brief silence seemed to have been enough to re-establish the tenuous boundaries that allowed her to talk to him with such ease. By the third week on from that incident any residual awkwardness had died away, by week five they'd established a weekly call pattern that Rory could pretty much set her clock by, and now, at week seven, they were at the point where they were so well settled into this routine that the need for the initial 'hello' had vanished completely, leaving the impression that they did not engage in individual, weekly conversations, but rather one long one they could always jump back into seamlessly, no matter how long the intermission.

Slightly less neat and tidy were the ramifications of her recent interactions with boyfriend number one, who, after penning her a now infamous missive about the complicated emotional backlash of their almost-whatever-it-was (Rory didn't like to think about what she suspected might have happened in too much detail), had been kicked out by his wife and gone to stay with his Grandparents for a while to escape the scrutiny of the town. Also, possibly, to escape Rory herself, who upon returning from Europe had penned him a letter of her own, explaining as kindly as she could why anything that happened that night would have been a step backward for both of them. While this had removed one of Rory's sources of anxiety from Stars Hollow, the other, blonder, decidedly more feminine one was still roaming free, which had led to a nasty confrontation with Lindsay by the gazebo. Rory couldn't really blame her; as much as she liked to deny it, she had a pretty good idea of what would have happened that night were it not for Jess' phone call.

All in all, a return to Yale and all of its drama-free academic rigour had been a welcome change. That is, until a certain encounter with the blondest and smuggest of assholes so set her teeth on edge that she felt the need to immediately vent.

"Well, remember that guy I told you about who was really rude to Marty?"

"Was Marty the guy who carries around a picture of his girlfriend from aged twelve?"

"No, that's Glen – everyone's rude to him, I can't say it's not deserved."

"From what little I've heard I wholeheartedly concur. Oh, I remember, Naked Marty – I didn't recognise him without his full title."

Rory rolled her eyes, "I'll be sure they get that right when they print his diploma. But, yeah, you remember how I told you about that guy who totally belittled him for tending bar at one of his parties?"

"I believe he was dubbed The Preppy Douche From a 90s High School Movie."

"Huh, my naming skills have grown horribly unconcise."

"Yeah, can't say it has the classic panache of Naked Marty."

"But yes, him – well guess who I just encountered in the hallway while I was posting memorial flyers?"

"Yeah, I'm not repeating that moniker again, I'd need marathon training first. Also, can we loop back to the memorial for a minute?"

"Oh, that might need a whole phone call of its own."

"Okay, so you ran into He Who I Will Not Name."

"Oh, come on, that's barely any shorter than mine." This was becoming fairly typical for their talks: they'd get so carried away with the back and forth that half the time Rory would forget the topic she'd been trying to talk about in the first place. However, this time, such was her annoyance at what had just happened it anchored her easily diverted mind to the point. "Anyway, let me tell you, this encounter was just as charming as the first, if not more."

"Did he get his tips frosted in the meantime? Because that would really go with the whole nickname thing."

"I honestly don't think I would even have noticed, I was that annoyed by what he was saying."

"Wow, must have been something major to distract you from such a potential source of mockery."

"Well, it started off with him forgetting my name, plateaued when he argued that he could treat his servers however he liked, and dipped off at the end with him saying he wanted me to call him Master and Commander from now on."

"Admittedly that is a sleeker nickname for him than your current one."

"Ugh, I'm still mad," Rory said, instinctively heading to the kitchen to soothe her ire the best way she knew how: caffeine.

"Well, if 90s high school movies are to be believed, it won't be too long before he's trying to turn you into the most popular girl in school as a bet, all the while you gradually fall for each other – just giving you a heads up now."

"Ugh, don't even joke, I haven't been this annoyed since Madeline and Louise made me sit through an episode of Dawson's Creek that time."

"You refer back to that incident surprisingly often, was it that traumatic?"

"The long words they keep using are meant to show how smart they are but they're constantly misusing the words! Do the writers not know? Are they doing this on purpose?" Rory took a sip of her newly brewed coffee. "God, what a jerk, not even coffee is doing anything to help my rage." Jess chuckled in response, but she sensed something slightly forced about it. Perplexed, she started heading back to her room and was about to question him on it when she was distracted by bumping into Paris' antique printing press and, as a result, splashing piping hot coffee onto herself. "Ouch!"

"Is the memory of this conversation actually causing you physical pain now?"

"Oh, no, I just walked into my new roommate."

"Must be quite a solid individual – are you living with the Old Spice guy?"

"If only, my new roommate is far older, larger, and more at home in a Victorian publishing house."

"I'm going to need you to unpick that one for me."

"We have an antique printing press now."

"An antique printing press?"

"This actually loops nicely into the memorial thing. Okay, so this is kind of a long and disturbing story…" And with that, Rory started to embark on the epic tale of Asher and Paris, only realising as she said it how much she'd missed telling Jess all the various bizarre things that had happened during the year of his absence.

And all the while, from a state away, Jess listened with slightly distracted amusement (and, as was only fitting for that particular story, horror). Rory might not have realised it herself yet, but that tone of exaggerated annoyance was achingly familiar to Jess: it was the same tone she'd used during the mock-frenemies portion of their early relationship, when he'd wind up Dean or do something to get Luke in trouble and she'd come and tell him off. He was willing to bet that there was a part of her that had enjoyed that conversation, even if she'd never admit it, and he couldn't help feeling a slight pang at that knowledge. He'd known going into this new attempt at friendship that there was no possibility of anything more: the way she deliberately backed away from anything more than the most surface levels of conversation revealed that she still hadn't really forgiven him for what he did – and maybe never would. He didn't blame her for it, and he was willing to accept whatever trace of their former relationship he could get at this point, but that didn't mean it wasn't painful to hear about what might be the start of her next one.

And over the coming weeks, Jess' suspicions began to be proved true, though he didn't get any confirmation of this himself – as Rory became gradually more aware of her attraction to Logan (she'd relented on the nickname front), she'd stopped mentioning him altogether. It was true that she was genuinely infuriated after that conversation, but after she'd cooled off that feeling started to give way to intrigue, which started to give way to…something else. She wasn't quite sure what it was, but she started to feel begrudgingly excited whenever Logan would appear in the newsroom. Whatever it was, it was new, fresh, and above all uncomplicated, nothing to do with the tangled webs of her first two relationships, and that made it all the better a way to divert her thoughts from the mess she'd made of the Dean situation and whatever the hell it was she was doing with Jess.

And so, when one day, while following a lead on a mysterious secret society that was somehow linked to the guy that'd been the source of all this, that very same guy whisks her off to an extravagant undercover event, she can't help but go along with it. And when, while settling into the surprisingly well-equipped tent she'd just been shown to during the aforementioned event, she realises with a start that it's time for her weekly call with Jess, she only hesitates a moment before whipping out her phone, typing a hurried, Sorry, can't talk this week, got carried away working on an article, and going out to join the festivities. When Jess gets the text it's a blow at first, but softened by what he comes to recognise as resigned expectation. Who knows, there may even have been a small part of him that was happy for her, after all, who knew better than him how painful it was to be unable to move on.

A/N: Okay, this may seem dispiriting, but trust me, I have a long term game plan :P Also, apologies if this seems rushed – I'm trying to stick vaguely with the timeline and events of the show, just with the addition of Jess, so I don't really feel the need to linger on events that we've already seen play out between Rory and Logan on screen.

Anyway, please review! It was really lovely seeing how many of you seem to remember this ancient fic, and to find some newcomers too! And if nothing else, reviews are a reminder not to forget about this for another four years…

Okay, time to return to binge watching BoJack Horseman season four. I really don't know how I tore myself away for this long.