There's a light sound of footsteps outside her door and she looks up. She's sitting on her bed, legs crossed and stares out into the room.
"See if you can get her to talk to you. She's hardly spoken a word." Lorelai's whispering voice sounds sad and choked with tears. "I don't know what to do."
"I'll do my best, but if you can't get through to her…" It's Lane's voice. Lane. Lane was supposed to be her maid of honor. They had picked out an amazing dress together, a dress that matched the flowers in Rory's bouquet. Now Lane wouldn't get to wear the dress and there wouldn't be a bouquet to match it.

"Hey." The door is slowly opened and Lane steps in.
"Hey." Rory looks up at her friend and follows her as she sits down besides her on the bed. Her face is worried, her body language reveals how uncomfortable she feels in the situation they're in. Lane. Sweet, wonderful, caring Lane. Rory knows her so well. She knows she's afraid to say the wrong things, that she's afraid she can't find the right things to say.
"Thanks for coming." Rory whispers. She wants to make it easier for Lane, she doesn't want to see her best friend tip-toeing around her, afraid to upset her.

"What happened? Last night you were looking forward to the wedding. I don't get it. Did Logan do something?"
Rory shakes her head and meets Lane's eyes. And in that instant she decides she needs to tell Lane about the letter. Not for Lane's sake, for her sake. She needs to talk to someone, she needs to vent.

Even though she usually discussed all problems in her life, big or small, with her mother, she wanted to talk to Lane. She couldn't explain why, just that maybe she wanted to feel the same naïve hope she felt when they used to discuss boys when they were younger, before everything became so complicated.

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"Lane, I got a letter from a boy."
"A love letter? You're so lucky. Who's it from?"
"I found it in my locker. It's from Jack."
"Jack? He's kind of cute. What'd it say?"
"He asks if I he can borrow my notes for English class."
"Oooh, that's so romantic."

Together they had analyzed every word in poor Jack's short note. Well, to be honest they hadn't stopped at the words, they had analyzed the pen he used, the paper it was written on and the way it was placed in her locker. As it turned out, Jack, whose existence previous to the letter they knew very little about, had been home sick for a week and the very same note he left Rory had also been placed in the five lockers that were closest to his own.

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"Lane, I got a letter from a boy." She says and tries to smile as if to mirror the excitement, the happiness and the hopes and dreams of that day so many years ago. But this letter was different, she was different. They were no longer naïve 12 year olds who saw romance in everything and to whom every cute boy came with the possibility of what in their young eyes could only be described as lifelong love.
Lane smiles back at her, it's a sad smile, but a smile nonetheless.
"A love letter? Who's it from?" Lane immediately catches on, which is not surprising, only a week ago they'd been walking down memory lane as they were talking about Rory's speech at Lane's wedding and Rory had tried to figure out the different possibilities Lane had at reciprocating it.

Rory swallows before she answers. It was not unnoticed that Lane had left out the 'You're so lucky' comment. She was certain Lane remembered it, since Rory had been teasing her about that specific comment in combination with the "Oooh, that's so romantic' statement last week.
"It's from Jess."
"Oh." Lane looks shocked. "Oh my."
Rory doesn't say anything; she just looks at Lane with a failed attempt at a smile. 'Oh my', yeah you could say that again.
"So…" She hesitates. "…what did he say? He says he wants you back?"
Rory shrugs her shoulders, points towards the letter and nods as if to encourage Lane to pick it up and see for herself.

Lane carefully reaches towards the letter, as if she half expects Rory to change her mind. She gives Rory a questioning look, which she answers with a short nod, before she opens the letter and starts reading.

While Lane's reading the letter Rory's heart starts pumping faster. What if Lane can see something she missed? Maybe there really is a hidden meaning somewhere between the lines, a hidden meaning that she missed because she's been staring herself blind at the words, a hidden meaning that Lane's fresh eyes will discover. A hidden meaning that doesn't keep that door so irrevocably shut. For a short moment of time she remembers the spine-tingling feeling from that day so many years ago when she showed Lane the letter that had been shoved in her locker.

Lane looks up from the letter, Rory leans forward eager to hear what Lane have found in between the lines.
"Sounds like he wrote to wish you good luck on your marriage." Lane looks confused.
Rory's heart drops, no not drops, it slowly sinks until it hits the floor beneath the bed she's sitting on.

"But you know Jess better than I do. I could never figure him out. Is that all he's saying, or is there something more?" She looks at her with that same eager hope that Rory hade in her eyes just a few seconds ago.

To Lane she doesn't need to explain why she cancelled her wedding because of a simple 'I wish you and your groom all my best on your wedding day' letter. Lane knows that a letter from Jess could never be just a simple letter. She knows that nothing concerning Jess is simple. From the first day he stepped in to her room in Stars Hollow Jess had been stirring up her emotions.

Rory shakes her head.
"No. There's nothing more."

This time there would be no analyzing of why he used that specific pen or what motives he could have had for choosing that specific paper to write on. This time there was no doubt that the pen and the paper were merely instruments, tools needed for him to tell her that he has moved on. That was all. Nothing more, nothing less.

They both sit quiet, staring out in to the same emptiness before them, as if they both just realized that they were not 12 anymore. As if the way in which everything was more complicated now was something new to both of them.

"Lane." Rory breaks the silence. "Would you…" The words get stuck in her throat; she clears it and tries again. "They…they deserve to know, you know? Why."
Lane nods, agreeing and then stops as the realization hits her.
"You want me to tell them?"
Rory nods, afraid that she might be asking too much. She should be the one to tell them, but the murmur of voices she's been hearing from the living room all day tells her that there's a lot of people out there, and she doesn't want to break down in front of them. She can't break down in front of them. Still, they deserve to know. They have the right to know why they are making all this cancelling.

"Just tell them I realized I couldn't go through with it. Tell them he only wanted to wish me luck…" She can't fight it anymore, the tears start streaming down her face, but she needs to continue. "…tell them he only wanted that, nothing else, but I realized…" Lane moves closer to her and puts her arms around her.
"Ssscchh…it's okay…sscchh, everything will be okay." She says while stroking Rory's back, trying to comfort her.
"I realized I can't marry Logan…" she whispers into Lane's hair, her voice muffled by the tears. "…because I still love Jess."

Lane nods.
"I will. I'll tell them that." She lays Rory down on the bed and starts tucking her in and Rory lets her. A feeling of relief fills her body; she's no longer alone in this. Lane's in there with her, and soon her mother will know. She attempts giving Lane a smile to show her how much she appreciates this.
"Meanwhile you just lay back, and we'll take care of everything. Don't worry, everything will be okay, you'll see." Lane continues and strokes her hair back before she stands up.
"I'll come back."

She listens to Lane's footsteps as they make their way towards the living room. Soon everyone will know. Soon everyone will know that Jess sent her a letter and that she cancelled the wedding.

She can't make out their voices, it's all just a low murmur until one voice is heard above the other, murmuring voices.
"Jess!" It's Luke's voice. He sounds upset and she can almost picture him before her eyes, twitching his hands and pacing the room as he gets more and more agitated.
"Jess did this!" His tone is both questioning and assertive at the same time.

Someone shushes at him, probably her mother and the conversation relapses into being nothing but a murmuring sound of indistinguishable voices.

She doesn't want Luke being mad at Jess for writing her that letter. It's not Jess' fault she called of the wedding. Didn't Lane tell them he only wrote to wish her good luck on her marriage? She has to make sure to explain that to Luke. She'll explain it later. She'll explain when the words "Jess doesn't want me back" will not drive tears up hear eyes and give her that panicky 'It's all too late' feeling she's gotten so used to these last hours.

Not many minutes has passed before she hears someone walking, no marching, into the kitchen. There's a scraping sound as something gets dragged against the table and then picked up. When the footsteps marches back towards the living room she hears the beeping sounds from the buttons on the phone. Probably someone's calling to cancel something. A heavy weight of guilt falls upon her at the thought of all the work associated with her cancelling the wedding. Work that she takes no part whatsoever in. She cancelled the wedding, she should be the one making all those dreadful phone calls. She should have been the one telling the caterers there will be no wedding party to serve at, she should have been the one telling the florist that the beautiful flowers she picked out will not be needed, she should have been the one telling the guests they invited that the Huntzberger-Gilmore wedding they planned to attend would not be taking place, she should have been the one telling Logan that his bride would not be attending the wedding. She should have been, but she couldn't; she can't. The pain in her heart, her chest, her whole body, is paralyzing.

"You're damn right I sound angry!" Luke's voice rises above the quiet murmur once again. A suspicion flitters through her mind, and she sits up straight in the bed, could the number she heard someone dial be Jess' number? Did Luke call to yell at him? He doesn't deserve that. He has moved on, it's not his fault that the wedding is cancelled; it's she that hasn't moved on.

Without giving it any closer thought she gets up from the bed, opens the door starts making her way to the living room.
"Nothing! You've done nothing you say? You've created a mess, that's what you've done! What were you thinking sending her a letter on her wedding day?" She hears Luke yelling into the phone and fastens her steps.

The living room is full of people, everyone's there; her mother, her father, Luke, Lane and Sookie and they're all busy cancelling and laying down plans. The only one to notice her is Paul Anka and he just slowly lifts his head and stares at her.
Luke is standing in the far corner of the room, as if he thought that would subdue his voice and prevent it from carrying in to her room.
"You didn't mean no harm? Are you kidding me Jess?"
"Luke." She says with a soft, calm voice.
Everybody stops, as if the whole room has frozen and they're all just staring at her. Luke's hand that's been holding the phone up to his ear drops and he stares at her with his mouth open, as if he's trying to say something but the words just won't come out.
"It's not Jess' fault."
"Honey…" Her mother gets up from the couch and starts walking towards her.

Rory shakes her head and looks at her mother, not at Luke, while she continues.
"He just wanted to send his best wishes on my wedding day. It's not his fault that…" She hesitates, not sure how to continue, not sure how to formulate everything that's happened in to one short sentence. She shifts the focus of her eyes back, from her mother to Luke, making sure he hears and understands what she's saying. "…things got out of hand."

No one says a word. The only thing to break the awkward silence in which the whole house has been covered is the beeping sound as Luke hangs up the phone without as much as even looking at it.

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