A/N: I'm so enjoying fixing so many relationship problems in this story and it's lovely to see, in reviews, that some of you are enjoying it too :) So, how about we give our two favourite couples some alone time now? :)

(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)

Chapter 15

"I just don't know what he wants from me. I've tried everything, at least, everything I can think of. Doyle just keeps on telling me it's not really what he's looking for."

Jess hated seeing Rory so downhearted. She was flying so high after The Festival of Living Art last week. She did a great job as Portrait of a Young Girl Named Anthea and was proud as anything of her mom for not flinching when she portrayed the Renoir girl, something that she apparently hadn't achieved the last time the circus was in town.

That same night, Sookie had gone into labour, giving birth to a baby boy that she and Jackson named Davey. That seemed to make Rory happy too, and things at Yale had calmed down a lot, so all was right with the world. At least, it was until the editor of the Daily News started rejecting her write-ups on various campus events.

"Seriously, be honest with me, what is wrong with what I'm doing?"

He kind of wished she hadn't asked him that, because it meant he had to tell her. It wasn't that Jess didn't know what this Doyle guy was getting at, because he actually did. He knew the facts, he just wasn't sure how to put them into words, or maybe he did, but not in a way he was prepared to say to Rory. He cared about her way too much to hurt her like that.

Making a big deal of leafing through the paper copies of her latest articles, his eyes were either on them or the water of the lake flowing beneath the bridge, because it just seemed safer for as long as he didn't know what to say. Even when he thought he had it figured out, he was loath to meet her gaze, but he made himself do it, even as he sighed.

"You want the truth?"

"An honest opinion," she confirmed, nodding her head.

"The writing is great," he assured her. "Come on, Rory, you knew that already," he said when she dared to look even slightly surprised or relieved to hear it. "I think Doyle is just looking for the same thing you are. Honesty. A real honest opinion about what you're experiencing. This is all facts, which is great and, obviously, important for a newspaper article, but it's supposed to be a review, right? You're supposed to tell your readers what you think. I, for one, know you have a lot of opinions. It's one of the best things about you," he said, finding her a genuine smile and glad to see a similar expression reflected back on her own face. "So, put them in your articles. Pretty sure that's what your editor wants."

Rory nodded as she took the papers back from him. "You're probably right. It just feels weird, putting so much of me into the writing. Like you said, articles need facts, and I'm good with that. It's just a different kind of style, I guess."

"But you can do it," Jess told her definitely. "Rory, you know you can."

At that, she smiled once more and leaned in to kiss his lips. "Thank you. I mean, I do know that, mostly, anyway, but it's very nice to hear somebody else say it, especially when that somebody is you."

"Happy to help," he promised her, kissing her right back. "So, anything else on your mind you need me to figure out for you?"

"I don't think so," she said, considering for a moment. "How about you? Problems, worries, concerns?"

It would be very easy to say no, to make pretend everything was fine, just so they could stop talking for a while. Just so he could pull her close, kiss her like he really wanted to, lay her down on the bridge and show her how much he wanted her. Jess was pretty sure there would be no objections from Rory if he did that, given the way she had held onto him and kissed him when they first met up today. Of course, if he told her there was nothing bothering him at all, it would be a lie. Only a small one, but still, he really didn't want to start down that path with her again, not when they had come so far already.

"Luke has been driving me a little crazy," he admitted at last. "Ever since I got my GED, he keeps on asking me what I think I might want to do with the rest of my life. If he sees some job advertised that he thinks could work for me, he makes a big deal of telling me, or he'll find any excuse to bring up community college courses. I know he means well, I honestly do, it's just... right now, I'm fine with how things are. Working in the diner, being around whenever you're around. I'm not looking to make a change this second."

He wasn't sure if any of that sounded lame to her. Jess was too afraid to ask. Not that he would ever admit to that. Guys like him didn't do scared, at least, that was what everybody else was supposed to think. His focus was back to the water and the view, until Rory moved up very close and planted a kiss on his cheek that got his attention.

"I love that you're making being available when I'm here a priority in your life," she said softly, her face so close to his own that she was a little out of focus when he tried to look at her, "but you know, you can get a different job, if you want to. You can take a class or not, whatever works for you. I just... I'd hate to think you were using me as an excuse not to.

"I want great things for you, Jess. Luke does too. Don't get me wrong, if you're happy just the way you are right now, that's fine. I wouldn't ever want to push you in a direction you don't want to go, and I can't imagine Luke would either, but just know that I believe in you, okay? Just like you told me I can write anything if I put my mind to it, I know you can do absolutely anything you put your mind to. I really believe that."

"I know that you do," he told her softly, smiling as he reached up to push her hair behind her ear, letting his hand linger there. "You know, we should really go on a date sometime soon."

"A date?" she echoed, apparently surprised by the suggestion. "Um, yeah, I guess we should. I mean, we are dating, so actual dates are implied. We just didn't so much get around to that part yet. Not this go-around."

"Not enough on the last go-around either," he told her what he was sure she was already thinking anyway, what they both knew too well, but neither had been willing to say before. "You deserve to be taken out on dates. I want to take you."

"I want to go," she assured him, grinning widely, leaning in for another kiss.

Their lips were a hair's breadth apart when the beeping started up loud and clear from her watch. Rory sighed and pulled away, pushing the button to silence the noise.

"And I have to leave... again," she said, sighing regretfully. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be sorry," he told her. "It's fine. Yale is a priority, that's how it should be."

Rory stopped midway through repacking her bag and turned to him sharply.

"Hey, you're a priority too," she told him firmly. "You do know that, right?"

Though Jess tried to evade, Rory wouldn't let him, her hand on his shoulder and her eyes fixed on his face until he finally met her gaze. "Jess?"

"I know," he told her at last. "I do, I get it, I promise," he said, stealing one last quick kiss while the chance was there, "but you still can't be late for your class this afternoon."

"That is true," she admitted with a sigh, quickly going back to pushing her books and papers into her bag, so she could run off back to New Haven all over again.

"Hmm, you have no idea how good this is."

"It's just a chicken salad sandwich," said Luke, a little bemused by how euphoric Lorelai seemed about it. "Light on the salad too, because hey, I know you."

"Yes, you do." She grinned awkwardly around a mouthful, then laughed at herself as she tried to swallow before continuing. "But I wasn't really talking about the sandwich, at least, not just the sandwich," she clarified, shifting to better face him on the bench inside of the gazebo. "I feel like I'm on this treadmill lately, you know? It's just going and going and going, all of the time, and not even always in the same direction, and I'm just barely keeping up, and I'm so tired, all of the time. Not that I'm complaining, not really. I mean, I know that it sounds like I'm complaining, because, seriously, who wants to be running all of the time? Not me, that's for dang sure, but at least I'm running towards something, most of the time.

"And sure, the opening of the inn is a really long way off, but I'm happy to be doing this. Happy to know that the dream is right there and I'm going to make it, eventually. It's just rough, you know? Handling so much of it by myself because, of course, Sookie has Davey, and he absolutely has to come first but, well, I guess what I'm really saying is, I'm really appreciating the little moments, right now. Sitting here, with the man I love, eating a really good sandwich, just taking a breath, you know?"

Luke marvelled a moment at the irony of Lorelai talking about taking a breath, when he was pretty sure she hadn't stopped to let in oxygen at all for that entire speech, but he didn't say anything about that. It didn't matter anyway.

"I get it," he promised her. "Not that running the diner is usually quite so crazy as what you have going on right now, but it is nice to get away sometimes, to just take a moment. Especially when that moment is with you," he added, not an afterthought exactly, but a deliberate thing to say that he knew she would appreciate, not least because it was true.

"I guess it helps that you have another pair of trustworthy hands."

At those words, Luke actually choked on his own sandwich. "I'm sorry," he said, just as soon as he was able to form words. "Did you just call Jess trustworthy?"

"Well, yeah." Lorelai shrugged. "Come on, Luke, you wouldn't leave him in charge of the place if you didn't think so."

"Oh, I know that I think so. I just never thought I'd hear you say that you thought so," he explained. "You and Jess... Not that I don't understand the reasons, because believe me, I do, but you've never exactly liked the kid."

"That is true," Lorelai agreed, "but you know, that was before. When he first came here, I don't think anybody is going to fight me on the fact he was kind of a punk. As much as I hate to agree with Taylor, he wasn't exactly a huge distance from the truth when he started calling him hoodlum."

Luke squirmed. "He had some problems, I'm more aware of that than anybody."

"Exactly. He had a 'tude, no doubt, and I was not thrilled about him getting close to my daughter, and then, when they actually dated, he didn't exactly put in the effort I thought he should have, and with the whole running away to California when things got rough... All in all, he did not exactly come off like a winner."

"I won't argue with that, but he's doing much better now."

"And that is my point exactly," Lorelai told him, reaching to put her hand over Luke's own. "You made a difference. You and Rory both, I guess, plus maybe he just grew up along the way, like we all have to at some point. All I know for sure is, the idea of Jess taking care of your diner, and more than that, dating Rory, it's way less scary than it was before. He's trustworthy now, right?"

Luke smiled widely. "Right," he agreed, leaning in to kiss her lips.

They both got back to eating then, a key part of the lunch date, after all. They had failed so badly at arranging anything for an evening or a weekend lately, what with all of Lorelai's inn start-up commitments and how exhausted they often left her, plus Luke's own diner-related responsibilities, it wasn't easy. Lunch was doable, at least, and it was better than nothing. It made Luke feel a little less worried about the status of their relationship.

"So, you heard anymore from that guy your dad works with?" he asked, trying for nonchalant, sure that he was failing. "What is it, Dumptruck or something?"

Lorelai giggled like a kid. "Digger, his nickname was Digger," she confirmed, "but his real name is Jason, and yes, he did call once, double-checking that I really couldn't be persuaded on the whole date thing. I confirmed, one more time, that I had a boyfriend and it just wasn't happening, not now, not ever. I think I also said that if he bothered me again, that said boyfriend would have to go on over and teach him some manners," she said, smirking hard.

Luke couldn't quite figure out if she was kidding about that part or not and ceased worrying about it either way when she patted him on the knee and grinned wide; "Don't worry, you could absolutely take him."

To Be Continued...