Author's Note: Sorry for such a long wait. Also I posted this chapter once already tonight and the uploader made it really weird. I hope it works better now!

Disclaimer: I still don't own Gilmore Girls, or the dialogue taken straight from the show.

Rory could practically hear her mother's heart beat stop over the phone. She had tried to sound casual but Lorelai hadn't taken the news well. Apparently informing her mother she was in the hospital couldn't be a simple phone call.

Rory bite her lip as she waited for a response. Surely her mother couldn't say nothing; a parent can't say nothing after their kid calls to say they're in the hospital. But Lorelai seemed speechless. There was the small chance she had fainted or dropped the phone but Rory just assumed she had gone mute. This was actually a pretty amazing feat.

If the situation wasn't so bad she would make a joke about her mother's speechlessness she might even feel proud of the accomplishment. But as it was she figured joking around wasn't the smartest thing to do. Instead she waited with baited breath for her mother to say anything.

"What do you mean you're in the hospital?"

Rory didn't know what she was supposed to say. She'd been very clear when she called her mother. Lorelai was smart enough to guess what she meant –not that she had to guess since the sentence had been so obvious.

"It was a car accident, will you please just come get me?"

She didn't want to deal with all the trouble. If the doctor would let her she'd just go home and not say anything. But she needed a cast and the doctor needed her mother. It was ridiculous, she couldn't even believe that she'd done enough damage to her arm to need a cast.

"I'll be there."

The line went dead. Rory could imagine her mom going nuts as she left wherever she was to come to the hospital. It was a funny image and Rory let a small laugh escape her lips. The doctor glanced over at her and she just gave a small smile.

She didn't need to explain her thoughts to him. He was the reason she had to call her mom at all. If he'd just let her go home she would have been fine. Or if he could have given her the cast without taking to her mother. Rory was never madder about being a minor.

She let her thoughts roam to Jess as she sat on the table waiting for her mother's arrival. He had seemed so upset when she turned him away. Rory was worried that maybe she had done the wrong thing. But she couldn't let him come to the hospital and take all the blame for what had happened to her.

She had made the decision to keep driving around, she had distracted him before the animal drove into the road, she had been the one to fling her arms up in the way of the dashboard. If she had let him come with her he would have taken all the blame so her mother wouldn't be mad at her…

Well Rory wasn't positive he'd take the blame. It was one of the many confusing things about Jess. Alone he acted like a sensitive sweet guy but she could never be positive how things were going to play out when other people were involved.

He had said he would talk to her mom, had said he'd take responsibility but Rory wasn't sure how much she believed him. When Lorelai Gilmore is mad at a person she can get frightening. She hated Jess enough without Rory handing over another reason. Though she wasn't sure how she was going to explain the accident.

"Rory." She heard her mother's voice from the doorway.

Rory looked up at her and smiled. The phone call had been short. A simple 'I'm in the hospital' was all the details she had given out. But Lorelai had known she was with Jess that night so Rory didn't think she could get away with much.

"I'm fine. Doc, tell her I'm fine." Rory asked looking towards the doctor who was standing in the corner.

"You're daughter is fine, Ms. Gilmore."

"If she's fine why does she have a wrap?"

"I raised my arms to the dashboard in the accident, my wrist got a hairline fracture."

"You broke your wrist?" Lorelai said as she crossed to Rory's side.

"No, it's just a fracture."

Rory bit her lip again. She could see her mother was panicking but she wasn't sure how to stop it. Lorelai was going to go into one of many mother modes and Rory could only hope it was the calm one.

"George Clooney, talk to me."

A joke. That was a good start. Lorelai's voice had been strained but making a joke was a good sign.

"It's a tiny fracture. We'll get her in a cast and she can go home tonight."

"A cast?"

"Mom, it's okay. It doesn't even hurt that much."

"It's just her wrist?" Lorelai asked the doctor.

"She seems perfectly healthy."

That wasn't good. Rory could see her mother's stance change.

"Seems?"

The doctor seemed to realize his mistake right away. Lorelai might have cracked a joke but her daughter was still sitting in the hospital about to get a cast. There was no reason to push her buttons. Rory wished there was a hospital in Stars Hallow, then the doctor might have known Lorelai well enough to handle the situation correctly.

"Ms. Gilmore, I assure you your daughter is fine."

"I don't want her fine. I want her perfect."

"I'll run a few more x-rays and get her in the cast. It'll be a while."

"I can wait." Lorelai said placing her hand on Rory's shoulder.

"Rory, I'll be right back. You sit still for a minute, okay?"

"Okay."

"I'm sorry." Rory said once the doctor had left the room.

"You don't have to be sorry kid, accidents happen."

Rory was shocked how calm her mother was being. It almost didn't make sense in her head. She had expected Lorelai to come running in guns ablaze.

"You're not mad?"

"No, I'm not mad. Oh God, the car." Lorelai said realizing the car would most likely be totaled.

"I don't really care about the car." Rory was still shocked there was no screaming.

"Dean'll be upset." He had worked so hard on the car for months.

"I don't really care about Dean right now. You're really not mad?"

Rory was glad she didn't need to drive the car around anymore. She would have one less pretense to keep up with. But she needed to know her mom wasn't mad at her for recklessness. She wanted to know that she wasn't going to get in trouble once they left the hospital.

"Kid you shouldn't say that. You're antsy from the accident. You'll be okay."

"Dean and I broke up."

She hadn't meant to say it. The words had slipped from her lips. She had been trying to talk to her mom about it for ages and she finally said something. It wasn't the graceful explanation she had planned out, but it was out there. Lorelai stood still for a minute seemingly shocked before she managed to speak.

"What?"

"He broke up with me and the accident gives me a reason to not drive the car without awkwardly giving it back so…"

She was waiting for the blow up. Something. Lorelai Gilmore never did stoic emotion. She was loud and extravagant. Rory couldn't fathom why she was being so quiet and calm. There had been no doubt in her mind that her mother would freak out about the accident and she had always assumed her mother would be upset about the break up.

"What?"

Lorelai was looking at her with eyes filled with confusion. Rory knew what she should say. A simple and vague explanation of the break up then another apology for the accident. She should be calm and tell her mom –albeit vaguely- the truth. But that wasn't what happened.

"I know, I know I should have told you but I couldn't. You and Grandma had actually had a nice night together and I didn't want to mess with that. And then all this time passed and whenever I got a chance it didn't seem right, and then so much time passed that it just felt like I shouldn't say anything. And now I'm sitting here in the hospital and I have to get a cast, and you're saying you're not mad, and I don't even know what happened to Jess. And now I don't have a car."

"Jess?"

Crap. She hadn't meant to mention him. She ran over what she had said, convinced she hadn't said a word about him. But when she realized her mistake she wanted to smack herself. Her mom had been very patient with her, but throwing Jess into the mix might complicate things.

"Oh… Jess was the one driving. I distracted him and we crashed."

"Why was Jess driving?"

"We went to get ice cream and an animal ran in the road, he swerved to miss it and we crashed into one of Taylor's benches."

"Jess swerved?"

"Yes."

"Jess was driving?"

"Yes."

"Jess was driving your car and you got in an accident?" Lorelai reiterated.

"Mom, I'm fine can we please not do this. It isn't Jess' fault."

Lorelai looked like she wanted to say more. She opened her mouth to say something, yell something but the door to the room opened again. The doctor had entered with one of the nurses and he was smiling at the pair of them. Rory was sure the tension in the room was noticeable.

"Okay, Rory, I'm gonna have the nurse take you down to x-ray now."

"Okay."

Lorelai didn't say anything else as Rory was wheel away. She wasn't sure if she had expected her mother to speak but either way she was disappointed with the silence. Getting the extra x-rays seemed tedious and getting the cast put on had been boring. Rory didn't know how long she had been away from her mom but she hoped in that time Lorelai had calmed down, maybe thought of some things to say. Rory would rather argue than sit in silence.

When Rory got back to the room Lorelai was sitting in the chair. She didn't look comfortable, in fact she looked a little out of breath but Rory ignored it. The nurse told her to gather her stuff and that she was free to go and Rory thanked her. The nurse closed the door behind her and Rory went to gather coat.

"I called your dad." Lorelai broke the silence.

"Why would you do that?" Rory couldn't believe her mom would bring Christopher into this.

"He has a right to know. Now let's get you home."

"Wait, can we go by the diner?"

"No." she hadn't even thought about it for a second.

"Mom…" Rory knew he mom wouldn't want her around Jess for a while, but she wanted to check on him. She needed to tell him it was okay despite the awkward goodbye they had shared.

"No, kid."

"I'm the one with a cast aren't we supposed to do what I want? Please, take me by the diner."

"I'm not going in there, I've already fought with Luke tonight."

Rory paused.

"What, when?"

"I went to yell at that scummy little hoodlum, who wasn't even there by the way."

She couldn't believe it. Her mother's temper was ridiculous. It wasn't even Jess' fault to begin with but to yell at Luke was laughable. Luke wasn't involved in the accident at all. But Rory figured that didn't matter to her mom when she was in a bad mood. Lorelai had probably found some way to connect Luke to what happened –found some way to blame him.

"So you yelled at Luke instead. Mom, why?"

"He hurt you!" Rory laughed.

"Luke didn't, and Jess didn't mean to! Please. Please, just drive by the diner."

She wasn't sure how she had convinced Lorelai to take her to Luke's rather than home but she was happy about it. They didn't speak much as they checked out and drove back to town. Rory thought it was probably because Lorelai was mad. Her mother had been rash enough to yell at Luke once already and now she was heading back.

Rory told her mother to stay in the car when they finally parked outside the diner. She didn't need her mom walking her inside and causing a scene. She just wanted to check on Jess for a minute before she headed home. She wanted to tell him that Lorelai knew about the break up, that she wasn't mad about the accident.

Luke was sitting at one of the far tables of the diner. Rory knocked quietly on the door before she opened it. Luke looked up at her and stood but he didn't make a movement towards her.

"Luke, where is he?"

Luke however didn't answer her question. He turned his eyes to her cast and frowned. He stood up walking over towards her with what Rory could only assume was the intention of giving her a hug.

"Oh, Rory, your arm."

She didn't let him close the entire distance between them. She held up her hand to stop him and just looked him in the eyes. She didn't want his pity, she could handle a cast for a few weeks while her wrist healed. She just wanted to check on Jess.

"It's no big deal, where is Jess?"

Luke looked down to the ground. He was shifting uncomfortably and Rory couldn't tell why. As far as she could guess he didn't have any reason to be uncomfortable. The cast wasn't too bad, and she wasn't here to blame Jess for anything. For a moment she remember her mother had already yelled at Luke and thought maybe, just maybe that was why he was uncomfortable.

"He's at the bus station." The words were almost too quiet to hear.

But she had heard them. Luke was still looking at the ground and she was trying her best to process what had been said to her. She couldn't understand why he would be at the bus station. The only logical explanation this late at night would be he was leaving. But he couldn't be leaving. She told herself silently over and over again –there was no reason for it, so he couldn't be leaving.

"What?" she asked not understanding.

"I'm sorry, Rory." Luke sounded truly upset, and Rory couldn't tell if he was apologizing for the accident or Jess leaving.

She hadn't processed that she was running before she made it outside. The station was close, if she could just get there in time. In a mad dash she ran passed her mother's car and towards the square.

"Rory, where are you going?" Lorelai called out the open car window.

Rory didn't listen to her mother's calls instead she just kept running across town square. It wasn't as though she had far to go from Luke's to the station –even on pain meds she could manage to get to the station by herself. The bus was pulling up to the stop when she caught sight of him.

Jess was standing with just a duffle bag slung behind his back. He didn't look happy by any account and she didn't know if she would make it to his side in time to stop him. But she knew he would hear her if she called out to him.

"Jess!"

But he didn't say anything back. His eyes travelled from her face down to her arm. He looked at her with a frown on his face as he stepped onto the bus. She stood there sure that he would get off, sure that he would realize he had no reason to leave. She was there –wasn't that proof enough that she didn't blame him? She had been the one to tell him to turn right. He hadn't done anything wrong.

But now… Stepping on that bus had been wrong. Of the whole night that was the only choice she couldn't excuse. Her heart was beating fast as she watched the bus start to pull away. How could he have gotten on that bus? How could he have left her there?