Holy shit, things are getting intense! Even for me! Now – don't hate Rory too much. In the end, we're all human. Plus Rory was a major douche towards the end of season 4, anyways, so I'm just following the rules...

Chapter 20

I've ruined it... I've ruined everything... Rory thought. She covered her mouth with a trembling hand, the other running through her short sugar-brown hair.

Rory was supposed to be walking home. She was supposed to go home, talk to her mother and eat a tub of ice cream while watching The Breakfast Club because it bitterly reminded her of Jess.

But she wasn't walking home. Actually, she didn't know where she was heading, but she knew it wasn't anywhere in the direction of her house. Rory had walked past Peach Street and Plum, finding herself at the beginning of a completely different one. Rory picked up her pace; partially because it was freezing and partially because she wanted to stop herself from thinking. Yeah... that didn't work.

What have I done? She thought, scared and desperate. I knew what I wanted! I knew! Rory rubbed at her eyes to stop the tears from coming.

Then why...?

But before she could properly ask herself why she cowered out, she knocked on the door of a slightly familiar townhouse that she had never really entered.

What am I doing? What am I doing? What am I—?

The red-painted door with the golden handle squeaked open.

"Rory?"

"Hi," Rory breathed, with a false smile that didn't make it to her eyes. Her baby-blue eyes of innocence looked up into the tall figure's.

"Hi," Dean said with a genuine smile, baring his perfectly white teeth. His head practically touched the top of the door frame and he leaned against it, his hands shoved into the pockets of his over-sized jeans. But his genuine smile faltered when he saw her eyes and how they were on the verge of tears. Dean was too good a man to ignore her obvious vulnerability, fear and discomfort... usually.

He stepped aside and said "Come in."

Rory gave him a weak smile and walked into the married man's foyer where she immediately saw Dean and Lindsay's wedding photo on a side table. The happy couple were hugging each other with huge, beautiful smiles on their faces. Rory felt a sharp pain in her heart. "Where's Lindsay?" Her voice wavered, but Dean pretended not to notice.

"She's..." Dean closed the door. "...Staying with her grandmother for the week – she's sick..."

"Oh." Rory didn't say anything else. She squeezed her numb hands together until her knuckles turned white – or whiter.

Dean walked closer to her and she did the same. "So... That night... when you – you comforted me..."

"Yeah," he said, taking another life-altering step. "...I could be wrong, but I feel like..."

"Like what?" Rory breathed, taking another minuscule step closer.

"Like it could have turned into something more..."

Rory squeezed her eyes shut. "I felt the same..." she whispered, knowing the words she was forcing herself to say were lies. She couldn't look Dean in the eye. She couldn't think, and she couldn't stop herself...

"Dean?"

"What?" He whispered, taking another step closer, lowering his forehead to touch hers.

"What..." What about Lindsay? Rory wanted to know, but she knew that if she did... she would stop. "...I just can't believe this is happening," she said honestly. She really couldn't, but not for the right reasons.

"I can," Dean whispered before raising Rory's chin into a kiss.

Rory could feel the tears begin to fall down her cheeks, and Dean felt them against his own. He knew: he knew how vulnerable she was and how she didn't know what she was doing. But, for once, it didn't matter to him. This is Rory, he told himself.

Their kiss lingered, his tongue massaging hers, but then they parted. Without a word, Dean took her hand and led her up the creaking stairs, past the multiple photos of Dean and Lindsay in love. He ignored them, but Rory couldn't help but stare, a pit of guilt growing stronger...

When they got to Dean's room, he pulled her close and she let him.

"I love you, Rory..." he said. Rory's eyes squeezed shut and instead of responding, she just wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him. He lowered her carelessly onto the bed – his bed – Lindsay's bed.

And before the two of them knew what was happening, Rory's thoughts ran wild.

She couldn't stop herself from thinking, from hearing haunting words running through her mind. But then when Dean leaned in closer, the only words Rory could hear running through her mind were Jess's saying those three simply words:

I love you...