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: Thanks so much for all the reviews, I think that's the most I've gotten in such a short time and it really has been the best incentive to write! Well, as well as the fact that I kind of want to finish this fic before NaNoWriMo… But again, thanks so much to every one of you that took the time to review, you're amazing, please keep it up! Sorry, this ended up being quite a short one too, I should never make promises of any sort…
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: Blame Booze and Melville
Disclaimer: I own nothing. If I did, this would be a lot better written.
"I've been telling you for years that you need to dial back your world dictator references."
All Rory got by way of response was a groan from the passenger seat, where her Mom had her head slumped against her folded arms on the dashboard in front of her.
"I mean, after you upset that very nice waiter at the Italian restaurant with one of your patented 'Il Duce' quips, I thought you'd learned your lesson."
Another groan.
"But no, you just decided Stalin would be your new go-to. And that me and whatever horrified service industry worker is within earshot were not a sufficient audience, and that it was time to ramp it up to all travel magazine subscribers the world over. Oh, and Grandma, let's not forget Grandma. Oh, and Grandma's Russian adopted ballet dancer, how could I forget-" Rory was interrupted mid-sass by a projectile bread roll from across the car. "Hey! When did you even have time to pocket that?"
"When Grandma was locked in the study and you were trying to comfort Mikhail," replied Lorelai, who had now emerged from her cocoon of shame and was sulkily chewing on what Rory suspected was a second stowed away bread roll from her purse. "What?" Lorelai asked, in response to Rory, who had turned her gaze briefly away from the road to give her mother a look of judgement, "This is the first time in months I've been left alone with the rolls – regardless of circumstance, you've got to capitalise on that kind of rarity."
"They've upgraded your suite in Hell so many times I don't think there's any room left in the place. Hey, maybe you can share with one of those dictators you love name-dropping so much!"
"Hey, by the end of the evening Grandma had stopped glaring and Mikhail wasn't threatening to leave the country anymore, so how much harm did I really do?"
"That's the spirit," Rory replied. Then, after a pause, "How many of those rolls you got?"
"Oh, you mean my shameful insensitivity rolls? Why do you ask?"
"Consoling weeping Russians is hungry work, I'll have you know."
"Stop berating Mommy and there are at least two rolls in it for you."
"Done and done," Rory agreed as she pulled into their drive. Rory had elected to leave her car there and travel up with her mother, as she planned on spending one of her last free weekends before finals cramming kicked in in Stars Hollow. Lorelai, who after their gruelling evening felt barely capable of operating her electric toothbrush, let alone her car, was suddenly very grateful for this decision. They went into the house and Lorelai immediately made a beeline upstairs, "You going to bed already? It's like nine o'clock."
"Kid, the sooner my head hits that pillow, the sooner this night becomes a far and distant memory to me."
"Far and distant are the same thing."
"And with that, I bid you goodnight," Lorelai said, faking a curtsey and retreating upstairs to her room.
Heading for her own room, Rory flopped down on her bed, bored and still very much awake. Cursing herself for leaving the book she was halfway through at Yale, she did what was now her next recourse when she lacked entertainment: pulled out her phone to call Jess. It had been a couple of weeks now since the museum opening debacle, and although there were still voices of doubt in her head that his sudden evasiveness had called into life, they had been gradually quietening again seeing as she hadn't detected it since.
"Hello?" she heard after a couple of rings.
"Hey," she replied, before launching straight into the night she'd just had, "so I just had another classic night at the Gilmore residence."
"Oh yeah? Someone show up with a black eye?"
"Not that classic," Rory teased, happy that they could now bring up what had been tense moments in their past so casually. "No, the only injuries were the emotional ones my Mom inflicted upon a poor Russian male ballerina."
"Hm, should that be ballerino?"
"I don't think you're dwelling on the most important part of the story here."
"Sorry, please continue."
And so, Rory proceeded to regale him with the events of the evening, grinning whenever she was rewarded with a muffled chuckle from over the line. "And to think I almost skipped this dinner to study for finals, how have I not learned by now that my services as a generational Gilmore buffer will never not be needed?"
"Are you eating something right now?"
"Just Mom's insensitivity rolls," Rory replied, tearing off another bit and putting it into her mouth.
"Her what now?"
"Never mind, you've heard enough about my family for one night." And here she paused on the brink of asking him how his night was going: ever since her first failed enquiry into his out of work hours routine, she'd kind of shied away from the topic, not wanting to give fuel to the doubts that she had been trying so hard to stamp out as of late. But, wanting to be proved wrong, she continued, "Anyway, how's your night been?"
"Well I didn't piss off any international guests, so fairly good comparatively."
"Oh yeah, has Jess Mariano suddenly become a homebody?"
"Oh, no, I knocked over at least four liquor stores, they were just all American owned."
And there it was again. In what was perhaps an overreaction, Rory said, with a slight edge to her voice, asked, "Is this how it is every time I ask about your life now? Some flippant joke and then back to your regularly scheduled banter?"
"What are you talking about? We talk about work all the time, Christ, I even talk to you about stuff with my parents," he shot back, and she was surprised to find him matching her annoyed tone – she'd gotten used to the new, incredibly accommodating Jess.
"Okay, yes, that's true, but the second I try to ask about anything in your current life outside of work, you clam up – what is with that?"
"Look, Rory, I get that we're trying to rebuild trust here, but you don't get to blow up if I don't tell you every tiny aspect of my life, as if that cancels out everything else. And by the way, I seem to remember you disappearing on me too, and yet you don't get me calling you up out of the blue demanding you start detailing your life history."
"I'm not blowing up, I'm just frustrated! And as if you would need to call me up to ask you that – I tell you everything!"
"Oh, is that right? Because there are definitely some parts of your life I could use a little clarification on – like maybe the part where you decided to show up at my apartment in the middle of the night and fuck me, remember that?"
Rory inhaled sharply – despite Jess being generally quite rough around the edges, she didn't often hear him curse, and it always surprised her when she did. "I remember," she said, quietly.
"Oh yeah? Because you wouldn't think so – I don't think I've even heard you acknowledge it happened since that time in the diner when you apologised for doing such a heinous thing."
"I meant the disappearing, not the sex! God, do you really think I regret that?"
"You don't?" The anger in his voice had suddenly been replaced with surprise.
"Look, we're getting off topic," Rory said, steering them away from what for her was still too dangerous ground to approach. She paused, summoning up the courage to give voice to the thought that she hadn't even dared to examine too closely herself, so scared she was of how it'd make her feel, "Are you seeing someone, is that it? Is that what you don't want to tell me?"
"Why would it matter to you if I was?" He challenged.
"It wouldn't," Rory said, quickly, and was mortified to find herself blinking back tears as she did so. She hated that the idea of Jess with someone else was such a torment to her, but at the same time she wasn't about to hold him back from pursuing something that didn't come with the ridiculous amount of emotional baggage that she brought to the table. Rubbing the tears away before they could fall, she took a deep breath, and said, "Look, I'm sorry I pried. You're right, this is none of my business. I don't even know why it's so important to me to have to trust you. I guess I thought maybe, one day, we… Anyway, I'm sorry. I'm going to go now."
"Rory-"
"Bye, Jess," she said, snapping her phone shut and tossing it across the bed like a grenade, before he had a chance to offer her any pity, or worse, to start elaborating on whoever it was she was now sure he was seeing. Drained and numb, she sank back into her bed.
Whereas, miles away, Jess was feeling more hopeful than he had in months. Ever since she'd glossed over their night together in that café he'd just assumed it was some huge source of regret and embarrassment for her that had obviously resulted from some fleeting moment of weakness-slash-insanity. And yes, that had hurt, but if acting like it never happened was what it took to keep her in his life, that was something he was willing to do. But no, she'd said that it wasn't a regret – she'd snapped out the words, even, as though they were the most obvious thing in the world. And more than that, she'd been clearly bothered by the idea of him with someone else, and had even semi-hinted that she'd envisioned some sort of future with them together.
For the first time since he'd left for California (bar that one amazing, anomalous night), Jess was able to contemplate the vague possibility that she could want more than friendship from him. And somehow, that was enough to remove the last obstacle that had been holding him back from sharing everything with her.
He immediately started rummaging around his desk, snatching up and ordering various papers before shoving them into a large manila envelope addressed to a certain Rory Gilmore.
A/N: As always, please review! The last chapter is on its way…