A/N: Some lines taken from various gilmore girls episodes. Poem taken from "Notes from a Dirty Old Man" I don't own it and i don't own GG, if i did Rory would have jumped in Jess' arms and let him carry her off into the night when he asked her to run away with him.

The language in the book excerpt is definitely not rated G, if you know what i mean, there's more curses and dirty words in it than there has been in my whole story so far, so you've been warned. If you don't want to read it skip the poem, it won't change the story for you at all

Thanks for all the reads, comments and favorites, i appreciate them all!

When Rory walked in her front door her mom was talking to her from the kitchen before the door even shut. "Hey hon, you're sure home late tonight. Man, that Paris is a real slave driver, huh? Did you at least get to write anything fun? You will not believe the day I had and the new drama that's going around town since this morning. Here's a little preview, Ms. Pattys got a new man. Oh yeah, you heard that right, tell me you're as excited as I was when I found… oh Rory, what's wrong?"

Lorelai stopped talking when she finally made it to the front door to greet her daughter but saw she had a distressed look on her face. She took the two steps separating them so that she could put her hands on her daughter's shoulders.

"I kissed Jess."

"You kissed Jess? Like on the mouth? Or did he kiss you and you just kissed back?"

"I kissed Jess, he didn't do anything to initiate it, it was all me."

"Oh okay… that's okay… I mean it's not okay okay but we can work with this, I think it's pretty clear what you have to do thou…"

"And I skipped school!"

"Wha…"

"And crossed state lines!"

"State lines?"

"With Jess, we went to New York!"

"Okay Rory, mommy is going to need you to slow down, I think I just had an aneurism, or a stroke, possibly both. Can you start over? And maybe speak slowly while using small words."

Rory took a deep breath and opened her mouth to tell the story but felt safer taking another deep breath. "Well, Jess walked me to the bus stop and sat with me until the bus came. We talked, you know like we always do, and then I said bye and planned to go to school. I was surprised when he sat down next to me on the bus. He told me he was going to New York and I said I wanted to come along, so I did."

"Rory…"

"I'm sorry, I'm grounded, I'll ground myself, bed with no dinner, no TV for a week, and no outside for a month!"

"Rory, stop it kid, let me talk. Now I know that's not how it happened, tell me the truth or I'm going to call the cops and have him arrested for kidnapping my kid and it's a felony because as you so aptly put it, you crossed state lines."

Rory sighed again but eventually started talking and once she did the whole story came out, all the fun sightseeing, the many many books, great food, amazing music. Meeting someone really close to Jess and how she thought it was one of the best days she's had in a long time, maybe ever. She even told her about all the hand-holding and touching him any chance she had a reasonable excuse to.

"Okay, so when did the kiss happen?"

"On the bus ride home, we were just talking and then all of a sudden it was like I didn't have a choice in the matter, I just leaned in and kissed him, he was more shocked than you are I think."

Lorelai knew she was going to have a good talking to with her daughter about how much trouble she was in later but for right now she decided to focus on helping Rory out, she was freaking out right now and she needed to help her calm down. "Wait, are you saying he didn't kiss you back? How embarrassing!"

"What? No! He kissed back, he was just shocked for a second but yeah… then he kissed back." She mumbled the last part with an adorable little blush on her face, in Lorelai's completely unbiased opinion anyway. "But then…"

"Then?"

"Then I pulled back and said 'I have a boyfriend!' No, not said, it was definitely loud enough to be a yell, borderline scream, yeah, now that I think about it, it was a scream, I'm sure the people in the back heard."

Lorelai cringed, she wasn't very happy with Jess right now but she couldn't help but feel bad for him. That response after finally kissing the girl he's liked for months now must have really hurt. She felt bad for her daughter too, she knew Rory must be really confused, Rory was one of the nicest people she'd ever known, way nicer than Lorelai herself, so she knew that her daughter didn't want to be hurting anyone but that didn't mean she wasn't.

"What did he say?"

"He got upset, not angry, sad, basically he said he knows. And then he said that I kissed him, not the other way around, and that he doesn't know what I want from him."

"Yeah, I get that."

"I know, I felt terrible, I feel terrible. And then he got more upset because, at the pick a basket, he asked me if I needed him to back off if I wanted him to leave me alone and I said no,"

"He asked you that and you said no?" Lorelai couldn't believe all this was happening between those two and she didn't even know it. She knew something was going on but not this much. She shook her head, this wasn't about the drama, juicy as it may be right now, it was about helping her daughter. "You know what? It doesn't matter. Where did things end up? Did you separate being upset with each other?"

"No… because I told him I had to break up with Dean."

"Oh, kid. I hate to say it but that's probably a good idea, you're obviously not happy with him, I know you and you wouldn't get yourself into these situations with Jess if you were."

"Yeah…"

"So when are you going to do that?" She asked in a soft calming voice, she hated that her kid was hurting right now but she also knew stuff like this was inevitable.

"Now I guess, it's six and I'm sure he's waiting to hear from me. Oh wait, what am I saying? I can't go anywhere, I just got grounded for a month."

"Rory, I wasn't the one that grounded you, you did that yourself. If you want to do this now then go ahead."

"Really?"

"Yeah, but we will be talking about punishment later." In a lower voice she grumbled, "And I have a thing or two to say to Jess too."

Rory started to stand up thinking the conversation was over for now but when she heard her mom's words she sat right back down. "Mom no! None of this is Jess' fault, he didn't pressure me to come with him, he didn't kidnap me, he didn't even really invite me, he just told me he was going and I told him I was coming too. Really, be mad at me, ground me for a month, or two, heck ground me until graduation but don't be mad at Jess. He likes you and I don't think he has a lot of adults he feels comfortable around."

Lorelai sighed, "Rory, even if you didn't go today he did wrong, he shouldn't be skipping school, he needs to have consequences."

"Yeah but not from you! Let Luke handle that, he told me he almost didn't bid for my basket because he thought you'd be mad."

"Jess was worried I'd be mad at him?" She asked dubiously.

"Well, the language he used was much more colorful but yeah, the sentiment was the same."

Lorelai sighed, "Okay, I'm still going to talk to him and he's going to know this is strike one but I'll make sure he knows he's not written off of my good side yet. If he pulls another stunt like that though…" She let her sentence trail off, and Rory eventually nodded her head, she knew that was the best answer she was going to get right now.

When the front door shut after her daughter left to break up with her boyfriend Lorelai plopped down on the couch with a long sigh. She belatedly had a panic attack that happened exclusively to parents when their kids weren't where they were supposed to be. Her daughter might have made it through the day and trip to NYC unscathed but it was an incredibly dangerous and dumb thing for her kid to do. She got the need for teenage rebellion, probably better than most but she didn't think her daughter had anything to rebel against. She really hoped this would be the only time Jess put her in these types of situations because she did like the kid, and she did want to help him have a better life than he's had but if he put her daughter at risk again or messed up her life, there'd be hell to pay.

Rory was almost at Dean's house, she had already turned around to go home and turned back at least five times. She was stuck between wanting to do this tomorrow and wanting to get passed it as quickly as possible. She knew this was going to suck and hurt, not just her but Dean too but she had to because he didn't deserve this, he knew something was wrong, he had to.

She nodded her head, she had to be strong. She took the final few steps up his walkway and knocked on the door. A few seconds later his mom answered and smiled brightly at Rory, "Rory dear, I wasn't expecting you this evening. Are you hungry? We just finished dinner but there are plenty of leftovers."

"Oh, no thank you, Mrs. Forrester, I've already eaten. I was wondering if Dean was home."

"Of course, come in, come in." She said welcoming Rory, she turned her head towards the stairs, and in a louder voice, she continued. "Dean you have a visitor."

Rory felt terrible, his mom was always so nice to her and after tonight she was probably going to hate Rory, the bad feeling doubled when Dean came down the stairs with the big goofy grin Rory used to love on his face. "Hey Ror, what are you doing here? I thought you were going to call when you got home from school."

"Oh, I decided to just come over instead. Uh, I'm in the mood for a walk, do you want to go on a walk with me?"

"Rory Gilmore doing any form of exercise without it being mandatory? Are you okay?" Dean said with a laugh.

Rory tried to laugh too but she was positive it came out loud and weird sounding. Was she speaking at a normal level? She had a feeling she was too loud right now. "Yeah, I'm fine! Just, you know, it's a nice night, fresh air, work off dinner, pretty visuals." She listed off any exuse she could think of for taking a walk. Yeah, she was sure she sounded crazy right now, going by the look he was giving her, Dean thought she was being strange too.

"Okay… well let me get shoes on then we'll go."

Rory nodded and waited awkwardly by the door for him to return. Clara happened to come down the stairs before Dean and ran up to Rory to give her a big hug, which made Rory feel even worse, she was yet another person who'd hate Rory by the end of the night.

"Hey Clara, how are you?"

"Good, I got an A on my English paper, thanks for looking it over for me!"

"No problem, it was a great paper, you deserved the A."

Dean came down and held out his hand for her, "Ready?"

"Yeah," She took his hand, what else was she supposed to do, ignore it?

They walked in silence for a while and Dean seemed to be enjoying the stroll. Rory knew she had the worst luck in the world when they turned down Plum Street and happened to see Jess walking down it with a book in his hand, she had a feeling he was on his way to the bridge. He almost flinched when he looked up and saw the two of them walking together and holding hands. He quickly looked back at his book and ignored them when they passed each other. Now Rory felt terrible for a different reason, was she just a terrible person? About a block later she pulled her hand from Dean's and kept walking in silence.

Dean didn't think too much of it when she pulled her hand from his, she wasn't the type to hold hands for a long time, she said her hands god sweaty. His opinion changed though when he seemed to notice Rory was getting more and more uncomfortable as the walk progressed. Eventually, he stopped walking and pulled her to stop with him. "Okay Rory, you gotta tell me, what's wrong?"

"What?"

"Something is up with you today, you're acting weird. Tell me, what's wrong? Did something happen at school today?"

'It's now or never' Rory thought. "No nothing bad happened at school today, it's just I've been thinking a lot and I think… I think we need to break up."

Okay, Dean was not expecting that. The only thing he could think to respond was, "What?"

"I'm sorry, I don't want to hurt you and I know this will hurt, it's hurting me too but I think the hurt will just continue to multiply if we stay together."

"What? Why would it multiply? Rory, what's going on?" His voice was starting to get louder because he was getting angry, and sad, and very confused.

"I-I don't want to be your girlfriend anymore."

"But why? I love you, you love me, we're happy, at least I thought we were."

Rory felt tears building in her eyes, she hated to hurt people she cared about, heck, she hated hurting anyone at all. She reached over to try to grab his hand but he flinched away. "I just don't feel the same way about you anymore. I know I have love for you but I think it's the love someone has for their friend, not their boyfriend."

"What are you talking about? I've been your boyfriend since I've moved here and you never said anything like this before. What's changed… wait, I get it, I know what this is."

"What do you mean?"

"This is because of Jess, you're breaking up with me for him aren't you?"

"No, I'm not breaking up with you because of Jess. It's more that I've realized that we're better as friends, we don't want the same things in life, we don't have many of the same interests, and we have nothing in common."

"That's bull Rory, just admit it, you wouldn't be breaking up with me right now if that punk never came to town!"

"I don't know, maybe!"

"I'm going to make sure that kid gets what's coming to him."

"It's not his fault! Just meeting someone I actually have things in common with opened my eyes."

"Oh please, so you both like to read? That's all just superficial surface stuff anyway, not something to build a relationship on. He won't be there for you when you need him, he'll just hurt you in the long run, mark my words."

"Dean…"

"No Rory, you've made your choice, you're going to regret it though and by then it'll be too late."

"What do you mean?"

"I'm not going to just sit around and wait for you."

"I don't want you to, I want you to be happy Dean, you deserve it, I think we both do."

"And you think he can make you happy?"

"I don't know but that doesn't matter, like I said, I'm not breaking up with you because of him, I'm breaking up with you because I think it's the best choice and we'll both be happier in the long run."

Dean paced back and forth for a few minutes looking angry, then his look morphed into only sadness. Every few paces he'd look at her with his mouth open as if he wanted to say something but at the last moment, he'd decide against it and go back to pacing. Eventually, he stopped and looked at Rory, "Okay."

"Okay?"

"Okay, it's clear I can't change your mind, I'm not sure I'd want to if I could anyway, I don't want to be with someone who doesn't want to be with me. I love you, Rory, and I think I always have, I just want you to be happy, and while I don't think Jess will be able to give that to you, I respect your choice to try anyway. I've always known you don't love me as much as I love you, I've known that since our first break up. I don't know, maybe I shouldn't have gotten back together with you that first time, I think we've been heading here since then." He looked so stricken, so heartbroken the tears Rory was holding back finally fell.

"Oh Dean, I'm so sorry, I don't want to hurt you." She ran at him and wrapped her arms around him and started crying in earnest. He held her for a few seconds before grabbing her and separating them.

"It's okay, I'll always be here for you if you need me though, okay Rory?"

"Okay, me too." He gave her one last sad smile before turning and walking away.

Rory dried her eyes and took a deep breath as she watched him go. She was sad but she also felt a profound sense of relief, that more than anything proved to her that she was doing the right thing, if she really loved Dean like he loved her she'd be heartbroken right now, not just sad. She turned around and started walking home.

Or at least walking home was her plan but she wasn't all that surprised when her feet led her to the bridge, she smiled when she saw Jess sitting with his feet dangling off the side and she could tell by his face that he was emersed in the book though she couldn't see what he was reading from this angle.

She felt bad because she saw a hurt look flash in his eyes when he saw her walking hand in hand with Dean, especially because he didn't know what she was planning on doing during that walk. So her walk up to him was tentative. She cleared her throat when he didn't acknowledge her, "Is this seat taken?"

"It's a free country." He replied gruffly.

She sat down next to him, much closer than she would have just yesterday but felt a little discouraged when he moved away from her. "Jess?"

"Hm?" He asked still not looking up from his book, she wanted to sigh because he was acting this way but she also kind of understood. She decided to take the bull by the horns so to speak, so she reached over and took the book from him. "Hey, give that back!"

"No, I didn't even get a hello!"

"Sorry, figured you already had enough of the proper greeting by your boyfriend, didn't think it was necessary."

"Jess…"

"No, really. You two sure looked cozy, walking down the street hand in hand with big goofy smiles on your faces. I figured I better keep my distance, wouldn't want to be the cause of more fights between you and your boyfriend. I'm so…"

"Ex-boyfriend."

"Happy… What?"

"He's my ex-boyfriend."

"Sure didn't look that way to me."

"Well, that's because you saw us pre-breakup." Rory was starting to get a little upset but she calmed down when Jess finally looked at her and she could see the confusion and hope in his eyes.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah, I broke up with him. It just wasn't working, I didn't love him like a boyfriend, he's my friend, it just took me a while to realize that."

"Oh," Jess replied quietly but moved a little closer to Rory.

"So that's it, I guess, my first ever time breaking up with someone."

"Are you okay?"

She smiled softly at Jess and leaned a little closer, "Yeah, I'll be okay. I'm sorry."

"For what?" He asked sounding genuinely confused.

"I haven't been fair to you, to you or Dean really. I should have broken up with him a long time ago, as soon as I realized…"

"Realized what?" He asked, his voice low, slowly moving closer to her.

"Realized I had feelings for you." She couldn't stop the blush that came over her face so she looked away onto the lake.

She was getting nervous because of how quiet he was, she was sure she admitted her feelings for him at least an hour ago and he hadn't said anything since. Okay, so she was probably being dramatic it wasn't that long but she was sure him staying quiet for so long meant that she had it wrong, that he didn't feel the same way about her that she felt about him. She felt the tears pulling in the back of her eyes and was convincing herself to stay strong long enough to get out of there so he didn't see her cry. She was surprised a second later when his hand came into her view, he placed his hand under her chin and lifted it so that she had to look at him. He wasn't forceful about it or anything but she didn't fight it either. She looked at him with her eyes wide trying to read what he was feeling.

Jess had never been a man of many words, he majored in sarcastic asshole but that was about as far as His speaking expertise went. That is why he decided actions were better than words right now so he leaned in and kissed her. She was surprised for a second but it didn't take long for her to kiss him back. He moved his hand from her chin into her hair, he'd been wanting to do that for a long time, plus it was an easy way to pull her closer.

Rory was the one to break away first, once she needed to breathe she turned her head away and breathed in deeply. This time when she looked at him she was a little more confident though she still had a question in her eyes. Kissing was all well and good, and she especially enjoyed doing it with Jess but that didn't replace words and those were what she needed right now.

He seemed to understand that without her having to say something, or worse, ask him. He cleared his throat, looked away, and sounded awkward when he replied. "Yeah, um, I you know, like you too."

She'd never tell Jess this because she was sure he wouldn't like it but she found his awkwardness adorable, the guy was always so sure of himself and confident, and it gave her butterflies to know that she was the one who was making him like this. "You do?"

"Yeah, come on Rory, you know I do."

"I had a feeling but wasn't positive. It's nice to hear the words either way."

He smiled softly at her and that made the butterflies in her stomach swirl faster, she was almost positive they were now a permanent resident Of her stomach. She didn't mind too much. This time it was Rory that leaned in for another kiss, it wasn't as long as the last one, more sweet than anything but Jess enjoyed it all the same.

When she pulled away she asked, "So what does this mean?"

"What do you want it to mean?"

"We're together now… right?"

"If that's what you want."

She sighed, "It's not just up to me, you're a part of this relat… whatever this is too, you have just as much say as I do."

"Okay then, we're together." He smirked at her.

"Okay." She nodded decisively which made Jess chuckle lightly.

He leaned back so that he was resting on his elbow looking at the water, it took Rory a few seconds but she leaned back too, it reminded her of the night of the pep rally and laying here with him in these same positions. This time she wasn't shy about leaning close to him and she didn't feel any guilt about Jess wrapping an arm around her to pull her even closer. She was about to ask him what he was reading ready to be read to again but it seemed like Jess knew where her head was at because he took his book back out, opened it to where it was earmarked, and started reading. It only took her about a paragraph to know that the book was "Notes of a Dirty Old Man' by Charles Bukowski. So she closed her eyes and let his words lull her. She blushed the whole time, yeah she'd read this before but it was completely different hearing it spoken out loud, and by her new boyfriend no less.

"To Funky Bukowski

I call you funky Bukowski, because

I think you're nasty

Don't get mad, cause, I like your

Nasty – it makes me hot to read

About; you looking up ladies dresses

Or jacking-off in elevators or sniffing drawers – to get

High;

Now I know you're wondering who

This is writing you. Well I'll tell

You who I am, nice and clear

So there'll be no mistake

In pointing me out. I'm the clean

Smooth cunt you think about

When you fuck those discharging wrinkled

Pussies, I'm the lady who sits

Down the row from you in the all night

Movies, and watches you cum and cum

In your jacket pocket, and I slowly hike

My skirt up, hoping you'll look at my thighs

As you – get up to go wipe your hands, I call

It long dis-stance sex. But I love it

I love the feel of your heavy breathing on the

Back of my neck as you try to poke your

Fingers in my asshole through the crack

In the seat; now you're thinking, (it sounds

Nice, but I don't remember you.) but from

Now on you will/think of me/and after all –

That's what I wanted anyway. My nasty

Man –

Rory and Lorelai were walking to Luke's the next afternoon after she made it home the night before her mom and she stayed up late into the night talking about how her conversations went with each of the respective guys. They had a lot of fun with the girl talk and didn't go to sleep until they were falling asleep in their seats, they enjoyed the last Friday night they'd have free before the grandparents came back from their vacation. That's why Lorelai woke up in such a good mood that she decided to be productive and clean out her gutters. Her mood took a swift turn downwards when she climbed up on her latter and saw how disgusting her gutters actually were, her mood fell even more right along with her as she fell off the latter and injured her hand.

So the walking was less that and more stumbling than anything as she tried to wrap her hand while walking though she put on a brave face. Rory tried to wrap it for her, and she also tried to convince her to at least wrap it at home and leave after but Lorelai was hearing nothing of it, she needed her coffee and needed it now after all the turmoil those damn gutters gave her.

"It still hurts." She complained.

"Do you need stitches?" Rory asked though she knew her mom didn't, she made sure of that before they left the house.

"Probably."

"Well, then we should go to a doctor."

"No! no doctors, you go into the hospital and you don't come out again!"

"Well said Ida Morganstern."

"I'm starving, I need pancakes."

"Can I just ask…"

"No!"

"… what on earth you thought you were doing?"

Lorelai scoffed, "I thought I was being a self-sufficient woman."

"You hate ladders, you hate heights!"

"Well, we needed our rain gutters cleaned."

"Yeah well, hire somebody."

"Oh well, aren't we suddenly a Rockefeller?"

"Well, it's better than you killing yourself."

In an overly dramatic breathy voice, Lorelai replied, "Oh I'm fine, I'm just being dramatic, it's what I do,"

"No more ladders." Rory put her foot down.

"I promise."

"Okay."

Lorelai kept messing with her now-wrapped hand. "I think I have gangegreen."

"You do not!"

"I'm vertigo."

"Oh boy."

"One leg suddenly feels shorter than the other."

"This is going to be the vanity fair papercut incident all over again, isn't it?"

"Wow."

Rory looked over to see her mom was looking at her cut, "Leave your bandage alone!"

"Look, it's turning purple but a really glowy purple. Look!"

"No, thanks."

"Hmm, maybe our rain gutters are radioactive or made out of some kind of alien metal so that when I got cut I got infected with an extraterrestrial substance which is altering my internal makeup." She was starting to sound excited, "Maybe I'll turn into a superhero!"

"Maybe."

"Like maybe tomorrow I'll wake up and suddenly be able to shower really fast!"

"We'll go pick out your cape after lunch," Rory suggested, pushing Lorelai into Luke's.

Rory was both excited to see Jess and nervous, she wasn't sure how to act, she wasn't sure how he'd want to act. Plus, it wasn't like she wanted to hide their relationship or anything but she also didn't want to hurt Dean any more than he needed to be right now. She realized she wouldn't have to worry about that right now because she was disappointed to notice that Jess wasn't down in the diner yet but she quickly turned her attention back to her mom.

"God I'm starving, must be from the loss of blood."Lorelai declared as they took off their jackets and sat down.

"Must be."

"I'm getting pancakes with a side of pancakes. Where's Luke?"

"I don't know, storage room?"

"Where's the boyfriend?" Her mother asked in a sing-song teasing voice.

"I don't know that either." Sometimes Rory really wished she had more control of her bodily responses, she hated that her blush gave her away and made her mother smile brighter.

"Do you have plans with him today? Boyfriend-girlfriend type plans? Holding hands, telling him how pretty you think he is?"

"Mom, stop!"

"Okay, okay!"

"Hey, I have a good idea."

"What's that?"

"Hire Jess to clean the gutters, he…" Rory trailed off and was giving her mom the wide-eyed look that made it clear that she didn't mean to say something.

"He what?" She asked.

"He, well he's always looking for extra work, he's saving for a car."

Lorelai knew there was more to the story than Rory was saying but she decided not to push it, not right now anyway. She also remembered what Luke said about his research and kids who grew up in Jess' situation tended to do whatever they could to squirrel enough as much money as possible to feel safe, so of course she had no problem giving Jess the job. Plus she needed to have a word with him anyway and figured that'd be the perfect opportunity.

"Sure, I'll ask him if he's interested."

"Okay, thanks, mom."

They finally saw Luke come from behind the curtain and at that point, Lorelai was so hungry she didn't think twice about standing up and walking to the counter, of course, Rory followed. "Hey Luke we're going to need some donuts stat, we're so hungry we can't wait for the pancakes with a side of pancakes to be ready so we'll take the donuts as an appetizer."

"Coming right up."

Jess came down the stairs as Luke was grabbing their 'appetizers' and froze for a second when he saw Rory standing at the counter. He walked up to them too.

"Hey," Jess greeted.

"Hey," Rory replied with a smile.

"Hey." He said this time to Lorelai.

"Hey."

"Hey," He finally said to Luke.

"Hey?" Luke's came out as more of a question, something weird was happening here.

"Thanks for the donut Luke, you can hold my pancakes, I forgot, I have to get going."

"Going where?" Lorelai asked with a cheeky smile on her face, she wasn't dumb, she knew what her daughter was trying to pull.

"Lane's, I forgot I have to return a CD."

"Hmm."

"Yeah, I have to get going too."

"Bye." Rory started this time.

"Bye," Jess replied then turned to Lorelai, "Bye."

"Bye," She was actually enjoying herself and this whole interaction, it took effort not to laugh at how awkward the two kids were being.

"Bye!" Rory said to her mom.

This time a small snort of laughter did come out, "Bye."

"Bye," Rory waved at Luke.

"Bye." He was more confused than before.

Everyone stared at each other for a few more seconds before Rory turned to leave and Jess went upstairs to grab his coat.

"Okay, what was that?" Luke asked as soon as he knew he wouldn't be overheard.

"Oh, you didn't hear? They're dating now."

"What? What about Dean? I know yesterday you said you thought it was going to happen but what changed this fast?"

"Oh, so you really didn't hear. My daughter and your nephew both skipped school yesterday and spent the day in New York City."

"What?!"

"Oh, I know. Rory already felt my wrath, Jess is next."

"Jeez, I'm sorry Lorelai. I know it has to be Jess' fault, I won't let him hurt Rory and get her into bad stuff, I'll tell him he's not allowed to talk to her anymore, I'll lock him in the apartment, I'll…"

"Calm down there, Ward Cleaver, it's fine. I mean it's not fine but it's not just his fault and they're safe. Rory knows not to do it again and Jess will know too by the end of our conversation. They messed up, it happens."

"You're sure handling this calmly."

"Yeah well, I might have spent some time researching how to help a kid like Jess too, and yelling at him is definitely not the way. And I know even though he doesn't like showing it, he actually cares what I think, so I have a feeling that just talking to him will get through to him a lot more than yelling or trying to keep those two separate would."

"Yeah, that makes sense I guess. I'll make sure to keep calm while I have a little chit-chat with him tonight. Thank god you're here or I would have flown off the handle."

Lorelai scoffed, "No, thank god Rory told me last night and I didn't see Jess until today so that I had time to cool down."

Luke nodded and they both stayed silent for a while before Jess came back down. Lorelai could tell that he was planning to walk right passed them so she called out his name to stop him. "Hey, Jess."

"Hmm?"

"Do you wanna make some extra money?"

He shrugged, "Doing what?"

"Cleaning out my gutters."

On one hand, Jess definitely did not want to climb up a ladder to clean out what were probably disgusting gutters but on the other, he could use all the money he could get, and being on his girlfriend's mom's good side couldn't be a bad thing. So after thinking it over he nodded his head. "Sure."

"Good, come by tomorrow morning."

Jess nodded his head and then turned to the door to leave, he had a feeling he knew where Rory would be.