"Yeah, I was lucky and finished everything that I needed to do." Jess moved to sit by Rory on the bridge, he slipped off his shoes and socks to dip his toes slightly in the river below. The action made him remember all the other times he done the same with Rory sat beside him.

"That's good, I'm glad you could make it here for the wedding."

"I'm glad I could too, weddings aren't really my thing but I have a feeling Lane will have a slightly unconventional one."

"I'm positive of that, I have no doubt it will be fun."

"Do you have a speech planned?"

"I do, all a part of being the maid of honour, it should amuse everyone at least."

"I look forward to that."

Jess and Rory sat in comfortable conversation for a few hours. Sharing stories about work, school and friends. Jess loved listening to her stories about Paris and Doyle, they made Rory laugh as she told them and he enjoyed watching her telling the stories. Rory had to ask questions to get Jess to talk, he was so wrapped up in listening and watching her. He happily shared stories and jokes about Matt and Chris which made Rory laugh. She liked to see that he had made some good friends there, he clearly loved his job and life in Philedelphia.

Slowly they fell into a silence, both leaned back onto the bridge with their legs still dangling from it. Jess had put his arm around Rory's shoulders in the hope that it would make it slightly more comfortable for her, he could feel himself drifting off in the warm afternoon heat, he felt Rory stir beside him but was happy when he felt her curl towards him and her arm wrap around his waist. He held her hard to himself and kissed the top of her head as he drifted slwoly into a light sleep.

Suddenly he felt a sharp pain in his chin, it woke him up with a start and a loud yell. His shout had woken Rory up, it was her stirring in her sleep and somehow managing to head butt him that had woken him up in the first place so he saw it as fair revenge as she sat upright looking less than happy about being woken up that way. He laughed at the look on her face while still rubbing his chin, he sat up next to her, she was soon chuckling along with him. She then looked at her watch and her eyes widened in shock at the time, they'd been sat there most of the day and she was late for getting ready for the party.

"Dammit, my mum is going to kill me, I'm late, she would have started getting ready nearly half an hour ago."

"Get back to the house and blame me for keeping you distracted, she'd only blame me otherwise. I hadn't realised how tired I was when I came out here."

"Apparently I was more tired than I realised too. I'll see you later though?"

"I imagine you'll be out late and drunk tonight but I'll be around tomorrow before the wedding and for the weekend if you have any spare time."

"Ok, I will see you soon then."

With that Rory got up and left to go back to her house, Jess sat there for a while longer thinking about what this weekend could hold, he had hoped it would be a step in the right direction for him and Rory, he still hoped that, he didn't want to be stuck not knowing what was going to happen.

Rory got home and managed to get herself ready in time for the party, stopping her mums annoyance at being late. She hadn't told her that she was with Jess, she wanted them to get off to a better start than that. They got to the gazebo, where they had planned on meeting all of the girls for the party, they all got goody bags with fun things for the party but unfortunately the time of the movie had been wrong so their evening was put on a bad start as there wasn't much else to do.

After coming to the conclusion that there was nothing else to do, they ended up in Brain's aunt's basement, but having a fun time nonetheless with the guys as they played pool and foosball while eating the snack that Lorelai had put together and drinking the beer they had all brought along. It was a good night and the bride and groom seemed to enjoy there somewhat unconventional pre-wedding parties.

Jess knew he wouldn't see Rory tonight, he tried to imagine her taking part in the partying and drinking that go along with a bachelorette party, somehow he couldn't quite picture it but it was amusing to try. He lay on the bed in Luke's now, he stayed here whenever he visited Luke or Liz, it barely looked different from when he lived here before. He had brought his laptop with him in case inspiration took hold while he was here, he retreived the laptop now ad took to continuing the story, it was taking hold now but he knew he was going to have trouble with the ending, it could go a number of ways and he wasn't sure which would be best. He continued to write until he could feel his eyes drooping, he had written a lot this evening but he was never sure how good it was and now he was too tired to get any better, he closed his laptop and gave up trying to write for now, he may get a chance to go back through what he'd written at some point while he was here.

He settled himself into his bed and tried to relax, for some reason he couldn't, his mind was racing with thoughts of past memories in this town, he knew there were good memories here, ones he thought back on occasionally. The memories that flooded his mind today weren't so good, it seemed being back here with Rory was bringing them all back to him. He hated remembering himself that way, how he was back then, the hurt he brought to the people around him, those he cared about.

He heard some sort of noise downstairs, he couldn't make out what it was, he wasn't worried as this was Stars Hollow after all. The noise continued and it was beginning to annoy him, he decided to go and find out what it was. As he walked down the stairs and pulled back the curtain he saw her outside the door and found himself laughing loudly at image of Rory trying to fond the spare key above the door, it was even funnier to him knowing there was no key there as he had used it and taken it with him. She hadn't seen or heard Jess approach until he unlocked the door and chuckled again as she jumped slightly.

"Hey there."