Works of Fiction

A/N- Thanks for the reviews. Keep them coming.

Chapter Four: Artificial rain

Rory had been wandering around the festival for a while looking out for Jess while trying to make it seem as though she wasn't. Her mind was racing at a million miles an hour trying to make sense of the things her heart was guiding her towards. In a few hours Dean would be home and she didn't know what would happen then, a part of her knew that it all depended on how speaking to Jess went.

'Hun who are you looking for?' Her mothers voice shocked her, she'd forgotten she had been next to her, to cover who she was searching for Rory smiled and laughed a little.

'No one, just taking in all the madness.' Rory said cheerfully, casting another glance round the festival, her eyes landing on the person she'd been looking for, he was standing next to a tree kissing some blonde girl, Rory felt a mixture of hurt and anger rising inside her, but she couldn't pull her gaze away from him. Tears pricked at her blue eyes and stung, she couldn't believe what she was seeing, after everything that had happened he was standing there kissing someone else. In that moment she hated herself, because she knew that she had no reason to be angry at him, she'd been the one to tell him the kiss meant nothing, she was still with Dean, Jess had done nothing wrong. As Jess broke away he caught her staring at him, her heart rate increased and tears spilled over, down her cheeks before she turned and ran away.

'Rory?' Lorelai called confused, before Lorelai could go after her daughter Jess had sprinted across the square and was following her.

'What's all that about?' Luke asked coming over to Lorelai.

'I don't know but I'm going to find out, come on.' Lorelai pulled him along.

'Lorelai we shouldn't be spying on them like this.' Luke whispered as they hid behind some bushes down at the bridge as Jess approached Rory.

'Shh.' Lorelai hushed him.

'Go away, I don't want to speak to you.' Rory shouted.

'Well too bad because I want to speak to you.' Jess shot back.

'What's her name?' Rory asked folding her arms over her chest.

'Shane'

'As in come back?'

'Rory…what did you expect? You'd just come back and things would be…' Rory cut him off before he could say anything more.

'I didn't expect anything, Jess we kissed I thought that maybe it meant something to you.' Rory shouted. Lorelai and Luke looked at each other in shock.

'So did I, but did I just miss all the calls this summer, did you once call, or write, send a fruit basket, no smoke signal, nothing. You're still with that guy and so what was I meant to do.' Jess yelled. 'Why are you so mad, you are still with Dean right?'

'Yeah I am, you know I am.' Rory said frustrated.

'Then I don't see where the problem is.' Jess shrugged locking eyes with her, they stood there staring at each other for a few seconds. Rory shook her head, the thought of him with someone else was driving her crazy but what could she do, he was right she hadn't called or anything for the whole summer, and he had every right to see someone else.

'I should go…uh I'm sorry things got so messed up for us, I wasn't….I mean just forget what happened.' Rory said holding back the tears.

'Fine, just like you said it didn't mean anything right.' Jess shrugged his shoulders and walked away quickly. Lorelai and Luke ducked out of the way so they couldn't be seen from where he was walking.

'Jeez.' Luke sighed shaking his head.

'Yeah, do you think I should go over, make sure she's ok?' Lorelai asked already half getting to her feet.

'And let her know we were spying on her.' Luke raised his eyebrows.

'You're right, I just can't believe she kissed him, she's got a boyfriend.' Lorelai shook her head.

'So what do you think, do you believe them when they say it meant nothing.' Luke asked.

'I don't know, I guess I need to trust Rory and if she says it was nothing then I have to believe that, what else can I do?' Lorelai sighed again, her eyes on her daughter who was staring out over the water.

*

'Have you met our new neighbour?' Lorelai asked coming into the house with a stack of pizzas.

'No why?' Rory asked curiously, her mind only half on her mothers question as she was reading a book.

'You're lucky, I just got stuck out there talking to the guy and he wouldn't stop, anyway very long story short, he got divorced moved here and is going away on business tomorrow sop we have to water his grass or it'll die or something. He's given me strict instructions on how long the grass needs to be watered. He's completely nuts.' Lorelai said dropping the pizza onto the table in front of her.

*

'Oh no!' Lorelai said loudly.

'What?' Rory looked up from her food, They were sat in the diner eating their breakfast when Lorelai suddenly spoke up.

'I forgot to put the sprinklers on and I have to get to the inn.' She looked at her daughter with a hint of begging in her smile.

'Mom no, I need to get to school soon.' Rory complained.

'Yeah but not yet, you've got time to run over and do it, come on I wouldn't ask if it weren't important.' Lorelai begged.

'Uh fine, but you owe me big.' Rory said getting to her feet and walking in the direction of their neighbours house, she turned the sprinklers on then went inside to water the plants inside. It took her a few minutes then she came outside again when it was time to switch off the sprinklers. She tried to turn them off but it wouldn't move, panicking she pulled out her pager to try and get hold of Dean, but there was no answer, she stomped her foot in frustration, now wet through she ran from the house to search for help. Knocking into Jess who was as usual walking down the street holding a book.

'Jeez what's the hurry?'

'Nothing, get out of my way.' Rory snapped running past him, but he fell into step alongside her.

'You look nice, very blue crush.' Jess smirked, she threw him a look to let him know she wasn't in the mood to joke about. 'What's wrong? Other than the fact your obviously out of towels.'

'Nothing, our neighbour asked us to water his grass and it can only be watered in small increments or it drowns and now the thing is broken and I can't get it to stop so I need someone, Luke or Taylor or someone.' Rory rambled, Jess nodded turned and headed in the direction Rory had come from, she stopped dead and followed him.

'What are you doing? You don't have to do this, I didn't ask you to do this.' Rory said as she once again started getting wet along with Jess. He didn't listen, turning the water off.

'Wow you made it look so easy.' Rory said impressed, she looked up and met his eyes, his hair was wet and fell into them messily, she had to stop herself reaching out and pushing his hair back.

'It was loose, just had to push it and twist.' Jess shrugged as if it were nothing. Rory looked back at him, there was an uncomfortable tension between the two of them, they'd not spoken properly since she got back from Washington and certainly not nicely to each other, and yet here he was helping her out and now she couldn't look away.

'Well thank you.' She said genuinely thankful to him for coming to help, she smiled at him shyly and to her surprise he smiled back, both of them were nervous around each other.

'So…everything's good?' Jess asked looking down at the floor then back to her as she spoke.

'Yeah everything's good.' Rory confirmed.

'School?'

'Good.'

'Still gonna do the Harvard thing?' He asked her.

'Yeah…' She smiled and he nodded, inching forward as her pager went off, she stepped back and looked at it.

'Who is it?' Jess asked half knowing the answer. Rory looked down as she answered him.

'It's uh, Dean I paged him earlier to come over and help so he's…'

'Coming over to help.' Jess finished for her, nodding his understanding, he looked at her sadly for a second, part of him happy they'd spent this time together. He turned the sprinklers back on and stood looking at her for a second, before going to walk past her, but before he could leave she caught his arm, he turned back to look at her.

'Thank you for coming.' She said holding his gaze.

'Sure, anytime.' Jess nodded, both of then stood there getting wet, but she couldn't let go of the sleeve of the jumper he was wearing.

'Jess…' Her voice was full of emotion and before he could say anything she'd moved forward and was kissing him. His arms wrapped around her waist as they stood there in the artificial rain.

'Rory! What's going on?' Dean's voice was thunderous as it broke into the little bubble Rory had put herself in where it was only her and Jess. She looked past Jess to where he was standing, her hands still resting on Jess' arms.

A/N- So I'll leave it here for now, hope you like it, please review. Sorry it's so short and broken up into little parts but I hope you liked it.