A/N: I feel like this is a little delayed (and probably especially since I wrote the one-shot lol) so I'm gonna try to do at least two chapters in this week which I hope everyone enjoys!
"Ugh," Rory groaned. Her face was still smashed into a pillow and she lying on her stomach. Rory peeked open her left eye, trying to remember where her blasting headache came from.
There was a problem though. The wall she was facing was not her wall. Not the wall at her mom's house, not the wall of her NYC apartment, not even a reminder of Yale. Opening her right eye, Rory flipped herself over so she could see the room better. Oh my god, she thought.
She now recognized where she was.
Rory looked down at herself and sighed in relief. She was fully clothed, that was a good sign. It means they didn't do anything while she was...how drunk did she get anyway? Instead of getting up, she laid there with the blanket over her and tried to piece it together.
They went out to dinner right? And then to the bar, she remembered. Where Rory ran a tab for their drinks and for some reason, couldn't not drink. How did they get home? She couldn't remember that part.
Oh, she groaned. What happened?
Just as she struggled to think harder about the previous night, the door to the upstairs opened. She panicked, considering hiding in the bed. But then, she saw just who was walking in, relaxing as it wasn't Luke. But she wasn't exactly relieved considering she didn't remember the whole of last night.
"Hey," Jess told Rory as he walked in. "You're awake."
"Yeah," she agreed. "I couldn't remember much, though."
Jess laughed. "You did drink a lot."
"It's not funny," she smirked. "It's not!"
"I'll stop laughing," he walked closer to her and placed coffee and a muffin in front of her. "Peace offering?"
Rory stared down at the muffin. "Is that gonna make me throw up?"
"I'm not sure," he made a face but then turned teasing. "It might seem weird to say this but do you have hangover preference foods?"
She considered this a moment then smiled a small one. "Mac and cheese. But I'm usually fine with eating my breakfast after."
"Does this happen often?" Jess asked. His tone was different, like a wondering curiosity.
"No," she said quickly. Maybe it was too quickly. "Not...too often."
Rory started drinking her coffee to avoid more questions about her drinking. That might lead to talking about Logan, which she did not want to do, especially with Jess.
He watched her carefully. There was a look in his eyes as he did so, Rory couldn't tell what it was. She had a feeling his own thoughts directed to Logan just as hers did. She wanted to find some way to make it clear she didn't drink to forget her ex-husband but she couldn't think of an explanation he'd want to hear.
"Rory?" He asked after a moment. Her eyes looked up to his, meeting his face. He really grew up good, she couldn't help but think. "What time do you have to leave?"
She turned to look at him and then a clock. It was only 8 am it seems. "A couple of hours, probably. I should start driving around 10:30, 11."
Jess nodded. "You're okay to drive all the way to the city after last night?"
A part of her wanted to ask what happened last night, as if she believed there was more than drinking that happened. She couldn't quite explain it but then again, things between them were never as they seemed to start with.
But Rory did know Jess. If something had happened, he'd tell her.
"Yeah," she finally answered. "I shouldn't be that hungover."
"Okay," he accepted.
Jess started backing out of the door to leave but his name stopped him in his tracks. "Jess?"
"Yeah?"
"Thanks."
"For what?" He asked.
She shrugged. "The coffee, the muffin. Dinner. You name it."
Jess smirked and put his head down, looking back up at her after a few seconds. "You're welcome."
And with that, he turned back around and left the apartment. Rory looked around for her purse and grabbed it. Her phone was off. It had probably died at some point while she was sleeping. Rory groaned, stood up and stretched.
...
There was a loud crash across the apartment. Rory jerked awake, sitting up to see what made the noise. The room was so dark but she squinted to try to make out a figure. She sighed in relief when she recognized who made the sound. "Logan?"
"Ssh," he whispered. "I'm trying to not wake my wife up."
"Logan," she tried again but not as a question this time. "I'm already awake."
"Shit," he muttered and stumbled into a table.
Rory got up from the bed, turning on lights as she passed. Logan winced when the light hit his eyes and that just made her turn on another. She finally reached him and noticed what time it was. "It's 3 o'clock in the morning, Logan. Where were you?"
"Colin and Finn were in town," he slurred. "They wanted to go out."
"And drink," she finished for him. He nodded but closed his eyes to the head movement. "Logan...why?"
"I told you," he said. "Colin...and Finn were here."
"I know," she said icely. "But you told me this was over. That you wouldn't come in at any hours or the night after last time. Do you remember last time?"
"Not this again," he groaned. Logan slipped his shoes off sloppily and then started peeling his clothes off. When he was only left in his boxers, he sat on the bed. "I just want to sleep."
"So did I," she argued. "But then my husband waltzed in drunk off his ass and woke me up."
"So go to sleep," he replied with his eye closed and still sitting upright. "No one's stopping you."
"You are!" She shouted. Logan winced at her volume and opened his eyes. Rory couldn't deny the annoyance she saw in them. "You promised me, Logan! Did that mean nothing?"
"Of course not!" He shouted back at the loudest he could without hurting his own head. "But my friends were here. They wanted to go out. I'm sorry I wanted to have a good time with guys I haven't seen in a while!"
Rory shook her head. "I'm not going through this again!"
"No one told you to!" He said back. "Just go to sleep. Come on, Ace."
"No," she said and grabbed her purse and a pair of jeans, racing into the bathroom.
"No?" He yelled. "What the fuck does that mean?"
She cams out of the bathroom, now wearing the jeans with the shirt she wore to bed and her purse over her shoulder. "It means I can't be around you right now."
"Rory!" Logan yelled from the bed. He was feeling very sober now and stood up to follow her.
Rory grabbed her jacket and slammed the door behind her. She practically raced down the hallway of their loft and heard the door open behind her. She didn't look back to see him or to even check if he was following her. She got downstairs minutes later and walked right to her car and took a deep breath.
"Its 3 am," she said to herself. "Where the hell am I going to go?"
But she started the car anyway and pulled out of her spot just in time to see Logan exit the building in his boxers still.
Rory had no idea where to go. They lived in Chicago for past six months after Logan transferred here. She didn't have many friends here, not ones she could come at any hour in the night and ask for someplace to stay at least. She cursed herself for not packing anything before she left as she considered places to go.
After more minutes of driving, a half hour after leaving her home, Rory's eyes started closing. She pulled over to a street and just broke down. She wasn't sure how exactly she got here, to this place in life, how her and Logan got so off-track...it scared her. He promised it would be better. He promised less drinking and partying. He told her after the last time he got really drunk that he was done.
Logan told her he loved her more than the feeling he got when he drank. And how it was because of that, he could give it up. Because he wouldn't be able to give her up if he had to choose.
Rory sobbed hard against the wheel of her car her grandparents had gotten her all those years ago. She never felt the need to upgrade it because she loved IG so much. And right now, it was her best friend.
She looked down at her phone and considered calling someone. Rory didn't exactly want to confide at this particular moment but she needed to hear her mom's voice. She felt bad at the thought of waking her but she also knew she needed to talk to someone. Rory dialed her mother and waited.
It seemed like forever when she finally heard Lorelai's voice. "Rory?"
"Hi, mom," she whispered and hoped her emotions weren't too obvious in her tone.
"It's... almost 4 am," Lorelai pointed out. "What is it? Is something wrong?"
"Um...yeah," she managed to say.
"Rory, hun, where are you?" Her mother asked. She felt comforted her mom could tell so much.
"I'm not sure," she looked around at the buildings surrounding her. "I just kept driving."
"Tell me what happened," she said. The more seconds they were on the phone, the more awake Lorelai became.
"Logan came home drunk," Rory explained. "He went out with friends and just came back almost an hour ago."
Lorelai nodded, understanding. "Oh, sweetie. What happened after?"
"I blew up!" She exclaimed. "I yelled at him and he started yelling back. It was a mess! Then I walked out. And I have nowhere to go and its the middle of the night in a new city. Maybe not new-new, but you know what I mean."
"Honey..." She told her. "I think you made the right decision."
"Really?" Rory asked skeptically.
"Really," her mom agreed. "Last time was...scary. I hated seeing you deal with that. If you needed time to breathe, then you did the right thing."
"I have nowhere to go," she argued in a sad voice. "What do I do?"
"Go to a hotel," her mom answered. "Sit, cry, sleep. Take a shower. Do whatever you need to do. Then decide later what's next."
Rory nodded to herself, biting her lip and holding back tears. "Okay."
They talked for a few more minutes and when they hung up, Rory drove out to a nearby hotel.
...
Jess walked down the stairs to find Luke staring at him. The younger man ignored the stare and went behind the counter. Luke followed him there and when Jess noticed, he turned around and annoyedly asked. "What?"
"Juat wondering if you're gonna tell me what happened last night," Luke shrugged.
"Nothing happened," Jess said. "We were drinking, couldn't drive home. Aren't you supposed to be calling me responsible for this instead of giving me the second degree?"
He grabbed plates from Cesar and walked out of the kitchen and handed it to a table. Luke walked with him, his expression softer. "You know you don't have to help out here, right?"
"I know," Jess said. "Its just a habit, I guess."
"Can we talk?" Luke asked.
"Not right now," he answered. "Later. Not that there's anything to talk about."
"Fine," he put his hands up in surrender. "But I will be asking."
"Fine," Jess said back in his own tone.
Just then, he heard footsteps on the creaky stairs that led to the upstairs apartment and the curtain pulled back to reveal Rory. Miss Patty and Babette gasped in surprise at seeing her emerge from there. They looked between both Rory and Jess and nodded approvingly. Jess rolled his eyes at them as Rory walked towards him and his uncle.
"I should probably get home," she explained. "I don't have many hours left before I should hit the road."
"Okay," Jess nodded. "Drive safe."
"I will," she smiled then turned to her stepfather, hugging him. "See you, Luke."
"Bye, Rory," he smiled then they broke apart. She waved goodbye at the two men then everyone else and was out the door. Jess stared at her as she left but broke out of that stare quickly when he heard a familiar husky voice whispering.
"She was upstairs," Babette said. "All night. Something had to have happened."
"We know it didn't work out with Logan," Miss Patty agreed then flicked her eyes towards Jess. "Maybe because of him."
"Those two never did get over each other," Babette added. "Remember how long it took her to date again?"
Jess went up to their table with the coffee pot. "Anything else I can get you?"
"No, doll," Miss Patty said, surprising him. Usually she'd want to grab his butt or something like that.
He nodded, making a suspicious face because they weren't as quiet as they thought they were. He stepped away and waited to see if they'd start it up again. Which they did seconds later.
"Besides, have you seen him?" Miss Patty continued. "The boy grew up good."
Babette nodded. "I'm sure she couldn't resist that with him looking like he does and looking at her like she's the only girl in the world still."
"I can barely resist that!" Miss Patty said. Jess cringed as he listened to the two women objectify him. "Rory actually has a chance at it. She won't make the same mistake twice."
He was done listening now. Jess made a whistle sound with his fingers in his mouth and all heads turned to him. "Okay, listen! One, Rory did stay upstairs last night. Two, no, nothing happened. No matter how much resisting you think there needs to be. Third - it's none of your damn business!"
Jess went right up the stairs after his speech and Miss Patty and Babette just looked at each other. Kirk stared at the curtain while everyone else went back to eating. "He does look pretty good."
Luke rolled his eyes. "Shut up, Kirk."
...
Rory opened the door and shut it behind her. She tried to do it as quietly as possible so she could sneak and get a change of clothes but there was Lorelai, sitting on the couch and facing her.
"Have fun last night, sweets?" She asked.
Rory nodded and took off her coat. "Yeah. It was nice."
"Were you safe?" was her next question.
Rory's jaw dropped. "Excuse me?"
"You know, safe," Lorelai began to clarify. "Protection. A rubber."
"Oh, God," Rory made a face.
Lorelai resisted the urge to laugh. "That bad?"
"No!"
"So it was good?"
"No," Rory said again. "It wasn't anything. Nothing happened. I don't think."
"You don't think?" She asked.
"No, I know," Rory nodded. "We had a little too much to drink. So I crashed at Luke's apartment."
"Uh-huh," Lorelai said. "And I should believe this?"
"Yes!"
"Why?"
"It's the truth!" Rory walked into the living room and rooted through her stuff looking for clothes. "You really think we just jumped each other because we had dinner?"
"No," her mother answered. "I think you jumped each other because you never have and have more sexual tension than anyone I've ever met. Well, aside from me and Luke but now that we relieve that tension, its not as obvious."
"Ew, gross," she made a face.
"Well, there's proof," Lorelai pointed to her belly and towards Evan's room.
"There is no sexual tension," Rory defended. "We had a nice dinner, we caught up. Then we went out for a drink and couldn't drive so Luke picked us up. I didn't want to worry you because I drank and you were asleep. So I stayed there. End of story."
She found clothes to wear and headed towards the bathroom. "Really?"
"Really."
Lorelai searched her daughter's face, looking for a hint of a lie. She saw none and her suspicion eased. "Okay."
"Okay," Rory agreed. "Now I'm going to take a shower. Is that all right or is there more questions?"
Lorelai pretended to think for a moment. "None that I can think of right now."
"Okay, good," she said as she closed the door behind her.
...
The following day, Rory walked back into the loft she shares with her husband. He wasn't anywhere to be found. But she did spot a note on the table next to where her house keys go.
She picked it up, looking over her name written in Logan's handwriting.
Rory -
You were right. I did promise this wouldn't happen again. I'm sorry. Watching you walk out last night made me realize what an ass I'd been. I've decided to get help. Maybe AA or something that will help. Anything that will get that look out of your eyes when you see me or smell the alcohol on my breath. I hope you're still here when I get back. I love you.
Her hands shook as she reached the end of his letter. Rory's sobs took over and she collapsed into the nearest seat.
A/N: So this one switched back to Rory past tense with more with Jess is coming, I promise! Thank you so much for everything, you guys. I hope you're still reading and liking!