A/N: Thanks to those who took the time to review last time around. I hope y'all are with me for the long haul on this one, because I seem to have decided to go kind of slow burn on this with Rory/Jess. Oops? Well, at least Luke/Lorelai are happy together, right? That's got to count for something :)

(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)

Chapter 7

Luke was well aware he had a big dumb grin on his face as he listened to Lorelai ramble on. He had been much the same on their first date last week, though she had been breifly rendered speechless then, first by the location of said date, and later, he was happy to say, by a pretty epic kiss goodnight.

There was a minute there where he had actually thought it might turn into one of those dates that ended in breakfast, but with Jess waiting on him at home, and the long, emotionally draining day Lorelai had had in getting Rory off to Yale safely, it had seemed better to wait, in the end.

That was okay with Luke. He had waited this long, he could manage a little longer. It might be tonight, after this second date, or it might not. Either way, he was fine about it all. Besides, there was more to what he and Lorelai had than just that kind of thing. Maybe some people would get bored of a person who talked as much as she did, but that had never really been the case with him. Sure, sometimes when she got into a big rant about something fairly meaningless to him - like a pair of shoes in a sale that she missed out on or a reality TV show that he would never, ever watch - he did breeze out a little, but for the most part, he found her rambling more endearing than anything else. Besides, opinionated women never bothered him. Better that than foolish, docile, Bambi-eyed girls who just nodded at everything that was said to them. Nobody, male or female, should ever be that dumb.

Not that he loved hearing about Lorelai's best friend having a meltdown, because that wasn't nice for anybody concerned. Sookie was in some later stage of pregnancy, as far as Luke knew, and probably shouldn't be getting so worked up. Certainly, Lorelai didn't need the stress of an argument with her best friend, especially now, when she was already feeling Rory's absence so much.

"Thankfully, I talked Sook down and managed to convince her that she will not be the world's crappiest mom, just because she didn't handle a Lord of the Rings party perfectly. I mean, nobody is perfect and everybody gets freaked out about parenthood. I know I did," Lorelai told him definitely, "but in the end, it just works out, somehow. God only knows how, but it does."

"It more than worked out with Rory," said Luke, smiling across the restaurant table at her. "You have done such an amazing job, and starting out so young, I know it wasn't easy."

Lorelai smiled right back at him, her cheeks colouring a little from his compliments. "Thank you, but honestly, even when it was hard, it was kind of easy with Rory. She is just the best kid, and yes, I know, I'm biased."

"No, it's not just you, she is the best kid," Luke assured her. "How's she doing, by the way? You know, with Yale and everything?"

"Good, I think." Lorelai nodded, and yet, somehow looked a little uncertain. "Honestly, great as she is, Rory sometimes has a little trouble with the whole getting to know new people thing. I half-expected her to call me on her first night, all panicked about how she would deal with everything. You know, she's never really been out on her own before, not in a big way. A couple of sleepaway trips for school, but this is actually living life away from Stars Hollow, away from me. It's a big step."

"For the both of you." Luke agreed, nodding his head. "Are you coping okay?"

A strange smile pulled at Lorelai's lips before she answered that one. "I am, if I don't think about it too much," she admitted, reaching across to put her hand on top of his and give it a squeeze. "So, even though I love that you love me enough to care and ask about this stuff, a subject change would probably be good."

"Oh, okay, um..."

It was a struggle to come up with something else just like that. Luke had naturally assumed Lorelai would want to talk about Rory, as she so often did, and he had no problem with that. Of course, he could understand why it was easier not to think about her daughter for a while, since she was clearly missing her, and he would talk about something else if he could think of anything. Lorelai's hand on his never really helped his brain function all that much anyway.

"How's Jess doing?" she asked all of a sudden, completely taking Luke's attention away from the fairly innocent but distracting touching that was going on.

"Jess?"

"Yeah, you know, your nephew?" she reminded him, clearly trying not to laugh. "Lives in your apartment, works in your diner? Dark hair and a bitchin' leather jacket?"

Luke rolled his eyes. "I know who Jess is," he told her, as if she needed him to. "I just... I guess I wasn't expecting the question. You really wanna know how he's doing?"

"Sure." Lorelai nodded, taking her hand back so that she could pick up her coffee cup more easily. "I mean, he seems to be trying really hard to be a good guy, you know, for you and for Rory. If he's going to try, then I want to try too."

That made Luke smile. It was true that Jess really did seem to want to be a better person, someone who was a little more understanding and considerate of the feelings of others. He knew where he had gone wrong with both Luke and Rory before, and now, he wanted to do better, which was exactly what he told Lorelai.

"Is he just going to keep on working for you, or does he have some kind of career plan, or what?"

"He has been talking about getting his GED. I mean, he's smart enough, we all know that. It wasn't a lack of intelligence that kept him from graduating. So, yeah, I guess once that's done, he might look at getting a different job, something more... in his areas of interest."

"What are his areas of interest exactly?" Lorelai asked, seemingly genuinely curious. "I mean, I know he reads like woah, he and Rory always had that in common, but aside from that?"

"Honestly? I have no idea," Luke admitted. "Don't get me wrong, he's talking a little more than he used to, hence my knowing about the whole GED thing, but... I don't know, when he's in the apartment, or even in the diner, his nose is in a book or he has his music on. When he goes out, I'm not a hundred percent sure where he goes, and even though I have tried asking, I usually just get 'out' as a response. I'd push it, but he's over eighteen now, technically an adult. Do I even have the right to ask?"

"He's living under your roof, so kind of, yeah."

Luke tried not to smile when he asked; "If you were still living with your parents at that age, would you want them to know everywhere you went?"

Lorelai made a face. "Yeah, maybe Jess can go where he wants without telling you," she considered. "God, parenting never gets any easier, even when your kids get older. Actually, it might get harder when they get older. Much as I love and trust Rory, and you know I do, the idea of what she might get up to, out on her own in college?" She literally shuddered at the thought. "I'm dreading knowing and yet scared to death of what I'll imagine if she doesn't tell me."

"Yeah, I guess I feel the same way about Jess sometimes," Luke agreed, his face contorting of its own accord.

He and Lorelai looked at each other then and both seemed to realise how foolish they were being.

"Hey, isn't this supposed to be a date?" she asked him then. "I mean, it's supposed to be an us thing, right? You and me, not the teenagers we're worrying so much about."

"Yes, it is," Luke agreed, picking up his coffee cup as she did the same. "How about we agree, no more talk of Rory or Jess tonight?"

"I will drink to that," Lorelai agreed, moving her cup in to clink against his own, before they both drank.

Luke tried not to show his surprise when she suddenly leaned further across the table and kissed his lips right after, though he had to admit, it was a very good way of distracting him from thoughts of where Jess might be tonight, or what he might be up to. He really hoped nothing too shocking was going on.

He felt stupid. Jess knew that when Rory invited him to attend a college party that incorporated her dorm-room, he should've cried off. It wasn't so bad when he came by last week to talk her down from a panic attack on her first night, but they were hardly likely to be alone tonight.

Besides, college parties were, for the most part, intended for college students. Maybe not always the ones who attended that particular school, but still, that kind of person. Jess was more aware than ever that he was not the student type when he arrived on campus, and didn't feel any less out of place as he ventured over to the hall where Rory lived.

The place was heaving with strangers, or at least, strangers to him. No doubt most of them belonged at Yale, and those that didn't attended college close by. Jess was the outsider and he was well aware that it showed. Of course, some people tended to appreciate an outsider, as two girls were making very clear when he glanced their way. The blonde practically had her tongue hanging out as she looked him over, and though the brunette was a little less obvious, she was clearly interested too.

They were good-looking, Jess was not about to deny that, and being the object of female attention was never exactly a hardship. Of course, the twisting feeling of guilt in his gut caught him off-guard. After all, he and Rory were just friends these days, and likely to be no more than that any time soon.

Even so, he headed for her door, determined not to get caught up in any drama with the girls who kept on whispering to each other and smiling too much. Jess was getting the distinct impression he was about to be offered a three-way and, honestly, that wasn't a conversation he much wanted to have right now, just in case he said something he regretted later.

Just as he was approaching the open door of Rory's room, he realised she was exiting, her attention taken in a second as somebody else called her name. Jess sighed and tried to push his way back down the busy hall in the direction Rory was headed, only to catch up with her just as she reached her friends.

"Huh." It was all he could say on realising that Rory actually knew the two girls who seemed to have been making serious bedroom plans for him only moments before.

"Jess, you're here." Rory smiled brightly at him. "Girls, this is Jess Mariano. Jess, Louise Grant and Madeline Lynn. We went to Chilton together," she told Jess of the girls. "I'm pretty sure I mentioned them to you a few times."

The look on her face conveyed everything he might need to recall about Madeline and Louise, two friends of Paris who ran at a much faster speed that Ms Geller had ever even imagined. It made sense, now that he had names to go with the faces, but Jess decided not to say too much about that. Instead, he only nodded his head at Louise and Madeline, then asked Rory if there was beer at this party.

"Oh, there's a keg in our dorm," she explained, pointing back that way, "but be warned, Paris is holding court."

"Thanks," Jess muttered, turning away.

As he tried to fight his way to the relative sanctuary of the dorm, he heard Louise's voice very distinctly above all the others.

"That's Jess Mariano? The guy you dated senior year? Okay, I'm officially confused and so, so jealous!"

When Rory finally got back to her dorm, she found Jess squeezed into the corner of the new couch, his nose buried in a book, very clearly trying to ignore everything that was going on around him. Not that she didn't understand that feeling, even at a party, but it was kind of a shame that he was secluding himself like that, especially when he had been the one encouraging her to make friends with all the new and interesting people in the building.

"Excuse me," she said politely to the couple making out on the rest of the couch, trying her best to squeeze in between the back of the girl in question and Jess himself.

The making out couple did not move, didn't even seem to hear her, and given the very small size of the space left, Rory didn't dare try to push herself into it. Somehow, she just knew being pressed up against Jess, especially with that going on a few inches away, just wasn't going to improve the evening any.

"Huh," said Jess, looking up from his book and seemingly noticing for the very first time the sexual activity that was happening right there next to him. "Hi," he said to Rory then.

"Hi," she replied, sure her smile looked as awkward as the rest of her felt. "So, um... is this your first college party? Because it's my first college party, and even though it's kind of loud, and so weird having everybody in my room, I think it's going okay."

"I've seen worse." Jess nodded, letting her know that it probably wasn't the first party he had attended on a college campus.

It would actually make more sense if he had done this before. As much as he didn't care for the company of others, as a rule, a party anywhere would have been a safe, dry, warm place to go, back in a time when he was having trouble with his mother. Rory frowned at the thought, recalling some of the times when Jess had let his guard down and told her tales from the past. As much as she loved when he actually bothered to open up to her, the stories were rarely happy ones.

"You okay?" he asked then.

"I'm fine," she answered fast, ironically unwilling to tell him anything about what she had been thinking. "Um, I'm guessing you haven't been talking to anyone in here?"

"Paris said hi, told me not to mess up the new sofa, since your grandma bought it," he explained, looking amused at the thought. "Apart from that, I think I did a pretty good job of looking antisocial."

"You are good at that." Rory rolled her eyes as she said it, forgetting whatever her next sentence was going to be, when the making out couple from before all-but fell into Jess' lap.

"Geez, get a room," he muttered, practically leaping up from his seat as the pair laid down together all over where he had just been. "Pretty sure your grandma would not approve of that on her couch."

Rory hoped her cheeks were not as red as they felt as she moved away, pulling Jess by the arm so he would go with her. There really wasn't anyplace else to go. The common room was packed, and so, Rory made the quick decision just keep walking, headed for the only place that couldn't be full of others.

Maybe she should have thought it through a little more, but the weirdness factor of having Jess in her bedroom really didn't hit her until she was closing the door on the party and turned to see her ex-boyfriend standing perilously close to her bed.

"Nice room," he said flatly, moving in a distinctively non-bed direction and sitting down on her chair, his finger immediately running along the row of books she had stood up at the back of her desk.

"Thanks," Rory replied, smiling in spite of herself as she watched him a moment.

It all reminded her so much of the first day they met. Jess remarking that she was hooked on phonics, before suggesting they bail out of the window to go anyplace else for the evening. She had been tempted even then, despite having a boyfriend, despite having met Jess just a minute before he said, 'Shall we?' She wished she knew what it was about him, from that very first day. Maybe she knew exactly, but it so wasn't the time to be thinking about that.

"So, Madeline and Louise really like you," she blurted out, just for something else to say.

"Yeah, I got that part," he said, smirking hard, though his eyes remained on the books yet.

"You're not interested?" Rory asked, wincing when she realised she had, but then powering on regardless, because perhaps she really was just that desperate for something to say that didn't involve her own feelings for her ex. "I mean, most people think they're attractive. They dated a lot at Chilton. A very lot."

"I know the type." Jess sighed, finally giving her his attention. "What do you want me to say, Rory?"

She opened her mouth to answer and realised she had absolutely no idea. Heaving a sigh of her own, she sat down heavily on the end of her bed, giving in because she didn't know what else to do. Why was she trying to get Jess to admit he thought her friends were hot? What would that even achieve? She was starting to wonder why she ever invited him to the party. It wasn't a date, she was clear on that, but she had to admit that he looked very good, just like always. No matter how badly things had gone between them before, he was never not attractive to her, and just lately, he had been so sweet, such a good friend. It was as if he was going out of his way to make her fall for him all over again.

"Maybe I should just go," he said then, immediately rising from the chair. "I mean, no offence, but this isn't really my scene or whatever, and I'm guessing you're already regretting inviting me so..."

"No, not regretting exactly," she insisted, looking up at him from her spot still sat on the bed, feeling so small and stupid. "I'm so sorry, Jess. I... I didn't handle this well. I don't feel like I'm handling any of this well. Bringing you in here, that was probably not the smartest move when we... well, given what we were before and..."

"Hey, it's fine," he assured her, his hand almost making contact with her shoulder, before he seemed to think better of it. "I know it's kind of awkward, with our history. Trust me, I get it. This is not your fault."

"It's not entirely yours either," she countered. "We're just... adjusting still. It's probably totally normal."

Jess looked as if he doubted her assessment, but he didn't argue, just said he probably ought to be going anyway. He wanted to be home before Luke got back from his date with Lorelai, rolling his eyes as he mentioned his uncle actually seemed to worry about him if he wasn't home at nights.

"It's nice when people care," Rory said, with a smile that she hoped conveyed all that she meant.

When Jess returned that smile, just before he stepped out of the door and left, she was sure that she had managed it. So, maybe the night hadn't been a total loss after all.

To Be Continued...