A/N: I'm so glad it's not just me that wanted Jess in more of Season 4. Y'all are really into this story, huh? Very cool. Loving all the reviews, so thank you very much :)

(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)

Chapter 8

Jess checked the clock and smiled to himself. His shift at the diner was over, and if he remembered right, Rory would be out of her last morning class.

"Luke? I'm out!" he called to his uncle, grabbing his leather jacket from the back and heading for the door.

Luke barely reacted but Jess didn't mind. Lorelai had been commanding his attention for the last half hour and Jess knew better than to interrupt those two. Sure, Luke was married to another woman and apparently Lorelai had a guy in her life, but Jess knew better than to think any of that was going to work out. If ever he believed in any two people being destined to fall in love and be together, Luke and Lorelai were them.

If he could be as sure about himself and Rory, maybe Jess would be happier, but for now they were at least back to being friends, and that wasn't nothing.

Now he had a cell phone and Rory had the number, it was that much easier to stay in contact. Her meltdown on the porch steps a few days ago had given Jess one more reason to need to keep on talking with Rory. They checked in with each other on a pretty regular basis since, via text for the most part since it was cheaper than calls, and nobody could eavesdrop. Not that they ever said anything earth-shattering, just bantered back and forth about books, movies, Yale, the diner, all nonsense topics, and yet her messages were the highlight of his day.

Rory had mentioned a few times that she wasn't feeling all that great. It was just a cold, so she said, though Paris had been acting like the bubonic plague had infiltrated their room. The room-mate would be the downside to visiting, Jess knew, and yet seeing Rory was well worth facing the wrath of the Geller beast. Surprising Rory would be even more fun.

Stopping by Doose's on his way, Jess bought the usual supplies a person suffering with cold symptoms might need. Before long he hit the check out with Advil, Kleenex, and throat lozenges, plus a few other items and some candy just for the hell of it. He hadn't really been paying attention to his surroundings much until a guy next to him in the line spoke his name.

"Jess, right?" said the blond who did look vaguely familiar. "Dude, I thought it was you, especially since Lane said you were back. Zach, from the band," he added on realising he had not been recognised.

"Right." Jess nodded. "Good to see you," he said, only because he knew that was what a person was supposed to say in such situations.

Honestly, he had given little or no thought to the random folks in Stars Hollow since he left here. Luke, Rory, and perhaps Lorelai notwithstanding, Jess had put the whole lot of them out of his head for all the months he was away. Now he supposed he was going to have to reacquaint himself, especially with the people that would be connected to those he cared about. Lane was cool, and she was Rory's best friend, so Zach and the guys from the band would require civility at the very least.

"Somebody sick?" asked Zach, trying to make conversation, Jess supposed, as he noted the items being bought.

"Not really. Rory has a cold is all," he explained, paying for his purchases and grabbing the bag to leave. "I'll see you around."

"Probably more often than you think," said Zach with a grin. "All goes good, we might be getting an apartment in Stars Hollow."

Jess nodded and smiled, wondering about how excited the guy looked about a place to live. Then he remembered how tough it could be to find such a place that was decent and affordable sometimes.

"Good luck," said Jess as an afterthought before he left the store.

Congratulating himself on at least avoiding any contact with Taylor Doose himself, Jess headed across the street to his car, threw the bag on the passenger seat and set off for Yale. The first red light he hit gave him a chance to check his phone which had buzzed with a message almost the moment he began driving. Jess smiled when he saw it was Rory.

'Paris is determined to deplete the world's supply of Lysol.'

'She needs help,' he replied immediately.

'No, I think she's doing just fine on her own ;)'

Jess smirked at the joke and shoved his phone aside as the light went green. No use wasting time texting with Rory when he could be right there with her. He drove on down the road, trying not to think about the distance he was travelling, 22.8 miles. He had looked it up once and the knowledge of that had thrilled his girlfriend at the time. Jess sighed and turned up the radio, trying desperately to think of something else. How he screwed up just hurt his head and the heart that most thought he didn't own when he upped and broke Rory's own. Healing the wounds he had caused wasn't so tough with Luke or even Lorelai, but Rory was a whole other story. It was easier to pretend things were okay, that they were just friends now and that it was enough. That was such a lie, and Jess knew he probably wasn't the only one willing to say so if asked, but for now he was sticking with what was working. He and Rory had been friends before they dated the last time. Maybe baby steps was what it took to get them back to where they wanted to be.

Arriving at Yale, Jess pulled off his seat belt and grabbed his bag from the passenger seat. Checking the piece of paper from his back pocket, it didn't take long to track down Rory's dorm room. He knocked, leaning on the door jamb as he impatiently waited for a response. There was the sound of raised voices and then Paris appeared.

"Well, if it isn't Bukowski."

"Always a pleasure, Austen," he snarked right back, the ever present smirk showing through.

Paris looked like she either didn't get it or didn't want to, but it wasn't long before she broke down and smiled. Jess and Paris were never enemies. Honestly, they didn't know each other all that well, only hanging out on a very few brief occasions via Rory. Their first meeting at the Gilmore house was the one Jess recalled most clearly, and it seemed Paris remembered too. Rory aside, they were each other's greatest sparring partner when it came to literature, and that was to be respected, in spite of everything else.

"I want you to know that as smart or cute as you can be, in my capacity as Rory's best friend, I can't completely like you right now," said Paris, arms folded across her chest.

"Best friend?" echoed Jess, looking past her at a flustered Rory. "Does Lane know? More importantly, does Lorelai?"

"Please, don't engage," Rory urged him, opening the door wider so she could reach past Paris to drag Jess inside.

He was a little startled by the contact but didn't comment or even hardly react. Sure, a week ago he and Rory had been sat on her porch steps wrapped in each other's arms, but that was down to extenuating circumstances. Rory had been a wreck over the whole dropping a class thing and Jess was comforting her, no funny business. Now she was actually dragging him into her bedroom, and he wasn't sure what to do with that. The reason was to escape Paris, nothing else, and yet it couldn't feel anything but strange.

Rory's brain only caught up to the rest of her when she got done yelling at Paris for being sweet, for caring, but ultimately crazy and slamming the bedroom door in her face. She turned to see Jess hovering awkwardly between her bed and her dresser, and the room suddenly felt smaller than a closet. Jess Mariano was in her bedroom, and it was weird.

"Um, I'm sorry... about her," she said, gesturing towards the door beyond which Paris was still muttering more loudly than a person should mutter. "She's protective of me, and also a little crazed about not wanting to catch the cold."

"I noticed that." Jess nodded. "Speaking of," he added, holding the bag in his hand out at arm's length so Rory could take it from him.

She was frowning at first and then smiling as she tipped the contents out onto her bed.

"Jess, you didn't have to," she told him. "I'm hardly even sick anymore, but thank you."

He shrugged like it was no big deal, hands pushed deep into his pockets as he rocked on his heels. He looked just about as awkward as she felt. It was so stupid, they had been alone together before, and in her room too. Of course, back then they were dating and kind of all over each other. Rory blushed furiously at the very thought of those days. She put her head down so her hair fell and obscured her from Jess' view, at least she hoped he couldn't see how red her face was. He was the type to ask why and Rory really, really didn't want to explain.

"You sure you're feeling okay?" he checked, suddenly much closer. "You look a little flushed."

Rory started at his hand near her hair. Jess backed up as if burnt.

"Sorry, I wasn't..."

"It's fine," she insisted, pushing her hair back behind both ears. "I, er... I just didn't know you were there, that's all. I'm so surprised that you're here, at Yale, I mean, but this was a really sweet idea," she said again about the cold remedies and such spread out on her bed. "Thank you."

"No big deal" he told her. "Hey, you're the smart college student, want to explain to me why we suddenly can't be a room together and talk without feeling this awkward?"

The question made Rory laugh, mostly because she knew the situation was just as stupid as Jess did. She had no answer though, none she would want to give anyway.

"I don't want to be awkward, Jess. It's just... A lot happened with us. Good and bad. It's hard to go back to the way we were before all of that, isn't it?"

"I guess so," he agreed. "But maybe we don't go back, maybe we go forward, find a new way to be comfortable."

"Yeah." Rory smiled. "That sounds like a plan."

"So, since you're not exactly bed-ridden or anything, how about I take you to lunch?" Jess tried. "I mean, I know we're trying to avoid bringing up the past here, but I'm assuming yon still eat like you used to?"

"You better believe it, mister," said Rory with enthusiasm, moving to grab her coat and purse. "Any food that doesn't come out of the dining hall is to be treasured, especially if I don't have to pay for it. Unless... Well, I mean, I can pay, if you're not... I know you spent a lot on your car and..."

"Rory!" Jess cut in, in spite of the fact he was almost enjoying the chance to bask in the familiarity of a Rory Gilmore ramble after way too long. "I offered to take you to lunch, which kind of implies that I can afford to pay."

Rory sighed. "Right, of course," she said, nodding her head. "Blame the cold. It's not fully cleared out of my head yet."

Jess smirked but said nothing, just moved to open the door like a gentleman so they could leave. Thankfully, Paris seemed to have gone out whilst they were in the bedroom, which meant she wasn't there to pass anymore judgement. That was a relief for everybody!

Jess drove Rory to a nearby cafe and they ate their way through enough curly fries to beat some kind of record. Distracted some by food and less awkward now they were away from scary things like beds and Paris, they could talk more. He told her things she missed whilst she was away from the Hollow at Yale, and she filled him in on her classes and her friends at the school. It was comfortable, familiar, like days gone by, and yet at the same time it was new and different. There was no denying they still did the friends thing pretty well, and that was okay for now.

They were almost done eating when Rory's cell went off in her pocket. She apologised for not having turned it off, but on seeing it was Lane, it was clear she really wanted to accept the call.

"Rory just answer it," Jess insisted. "I don't care."

Smiling at him and mouthing 'thanks' she accepted the call and asked Lane what was up. It was a relief for Rory to realise it was good news that had her friend calling, something she explained to Jess the moment she was done on the phone.

"They got an apartment. Lane and the guys from the band."

"Together?" asked Jess, wide-eyed with shock. "Wow. Mrs Kim's head might actually explode when she hears that one."

"It is going to be pretty shocking for her," Rory agreed, taking another drink from her coffee cup. "But nothing weird is going on. Zach and Brian are good guys and apparently they're going to sleep in the living room, and Lane gets the bedroom."

"I remember the band." Jess nodded. "Actually I ran into Zach at the market when I was buying your cold survival kit. He mentioned something about getting an apartment here. Never thought it'd be with Lane."

"She's gone independant." Rory nodded. "A lot's changed since you went away."

Jess bit his lip at that comment and his eyes stayed in his own drink. Rory didn't mean to hurt him, he knew that before she ever said it, which she did a second later. It stung though to be reminded of how he upped and left the way he had.

"It's okay," he assured Rory. "I did everything wrong with us, Ror, and I know it."

"But you apologised, and I didn't mean to make you feel bad again," she told him. "Jess... I do want us to be friends again, and we are, but I can't... I don't think we can ever get away from what we were and what happened with us in the end."

There were no good answers or easy fixes here, Jess knew that. He could try to be Rory's friend and vice versa, but she was right, it was impossible to forget all they had meant to each other, what he had told her she still meant to him. It was just as ridiculous to think she could forgive and forget so easily after the way he treated her. They cleared the air, she wasn't mad anymore, but it couldn't ever really be like it was two years ago when they first met. Going back was impossible, they already established that, and apparently going forward wasn't all that much easier.

"So, Lane invite you to see the new place?" he asked, thinking a subject change was the only way forward.

"Not specifically." Rory shook her head. "It'll probably be a while before I can get back to Stars Hollow. I have to catch up on some stuff after being sick and everything."

Jess nodded. "I should probably offer to help her with the moving in and everything. She's been pretty decent to me since I've been back."

"Lane always liked you." Rory smiled. "She didn't always want to, but she did."

Their eyes met across the table as she spoke, more by accident than design, and Jess couldn't help but wonder if she was only talking about Lane now. Sure as anything, he wasn't going to ask for fear of hearing a truth that wasn't what he wanted.

"You have classes this afternoon?" he asked instead.

Rory checked her watch and blew out a sigh.

"In a half hour," she admitted sadly. "Sorry. I kinda hoped to give you the tour if you ever visited me, but today isn't the greatest day."

"No big deal. There'll be other days," said Jess, waving away her concern. "Now, c'mon, let's get you back to school, Miss Yale Student," he said, smirking the way he always did.

Maybe they couldn't go back to what they were, but Rory couldn't give up on the moving forward. This was Jess after all, and he meant way too much for her to let go of him now he was finally back. Whether that made her smart or not she didn't know, but frankly, right now, Rory couldn't much care.

To Be Continued...