A/N: Thanks to those who left reviews recently - always good to know there are still folks out there enjoying this :)

(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)

Chapter 16

"So, it's working out?" Jess asked Lane, as he put her order of bagels into the box.

"I think so," she considered. "I mean, yes, in the sense that Gil absolutely rocks, but not so much in the way that Zach and Brian make faces every time the poor guy mentions his wife or kids."

Jess smirked at that, it was tough not to, especially given the way Lane was literally weighing up the ups and downs with her hands held out either side of her like a scale. He supposed he ought to feel partially responsible for Hep Alien's guitarist crisis. Not the part where Dave up and left them, of course, but the whole hiring a much older guy thing, he did have a hand in that. He had been the one to point out to Lane that the only person the band auditioned that didn't completely suck was Gil, also noting that age was, when all was said and done, only a number.

"Anyway, I have way bigger problems than the band right now," she said, huffing out a sigh. "God only knows what I'm going to do about the marriage jug."

"The marriage jug?" Jess echoed, shaking his head in bemusement. "Yeah, that one needs a little more explanation."

Lane glanced down at her watch, then shook her head. "No time. If I'm not back with these in the next forty-eight seconds..."

"Mrs Kim's head will explode," said Jess for her, sure that was more-or-less the gist. "Start running now, save the whole town a lot of clean-up."

"I wish that any of that was an exaggeration." Lane rolled her eyes, grabbing up the box of bagels and leaving the money for them on the counter. "Oh, but before I start running, as Rory's best friend, I feel compelled to remind you that tonight's first date of Rory & Jess, Part Deux better be epic levels of amazing, my friend!" she said, pointing a finger at him even as she backed up to the door.

"That is the plan," Jess assured her, a little too late in warning her that there was someone right behind her, opening the door.

Lane almost fell backwards, caught herself just in time, and gave a quick wave before literally pelting across town square. It was distraction enough, that Jess failed to realise who the next customer coming into the diner was, until she was practically under his nose.

"Hey. Remember me?" she said with a polite smile.

Jess looked up and felt his eyes get a little wide. "Nicole, right?" he said, not really sure he needed her to confirm, but what else was he even supposed to say?

"Right. Um, I was wondering, is Luke around?"

Opening his mouth to answer, Jess closed it again fast on hearing footsteps coming down the stairs. One pair of feet in boots, another close behind in heels. God, this was about to be so weird and awkward, he really would rather be anywhere else.

"Luke!" he called, moving quickly to the curtain and whipping it open. "Good luck," was all he said, as he slipped by his uncle and Lorelai, hurrying upstairs.

He was due a break anyway and Jess knew for sure his presence wasn't going to improve the love triangle situation at all. God only knew why Nicole had come around looking for her ex. The way Luke told it, he had told her that Lorelai was the reason they were over, and Nicole hadn't exactly reacted well. Whatever was about to happen now, he would rather not know.

Instead, he went into the apartment and right over to the table where Lorelai had said she would leave him a copy of the Yale Daily News. Rory's latest article had actually been printed, a review of some ballet recital, which would not usually be enough to hold Jess' interest, of course, but since it was Rory's writing, he would absolutely take a look.

Sitting down in a chair at the table, he picked up the paper and began to read. As he did, his eyes grew wider and wider, his mouth dropping open for good measure. Three times he had to check that the name on the article really was Rory Gilmore. A large part of him was sure it had to be a mistake, and yet, at the same time, he did know her to be more than capable of this kind of wit, even some of the more scathing remarks. She would rarely say such things to anyone's face, but behind their back, the town princess had a mouth on her sometimes. It only they knew. Well, apparently, if they read the Yale Daily News, now they did.

It would make more sense to wait until tonight, when they were having their date, but Jess couldn't help giving into temptation and calling Rory. There was every chance she would be in class or just too busy to talk much, but he at least had to try. She picked up after two rings, and without preamble, he dove right into his assessment of her review.

"So, you really hated this ballet recital. Not that I expected you to love it, because hey, it's ballet, but seriously, Rory, you hated it."

"Oh, God," she groaned in his ear. "You read it."

"Of course, I read it. I read all your reviews. Granted, I usually have to wait until I see you, but your mom insisted I read this one as soon as possible, and now I know why. I cannot believe that you went the Fantasia route..."

"Jess, stop!" Rory complained, in such a way that he actually started to feel a little bad.

"Oh, come on, please don't tell me you're feeling bad about this," he said, knowing already that she almost definitely was, because that was just Rory. "You know, if it really was this awful..."

"It was," she confessed, albeit sounding as if she wished she didn't have to. "It was terrible. Her leotard didn't fit, and the guy was wincing when he tried to lift her, and me and Mom completely lost track of the number of times she slipped and tripped around the stage. The whole thing was horrifying!"

"I'm getting that from the article," Jess agreed, "but that's my point. If everything you wrote is true - and you're you, so I know that it would be - then you do not have to feel bad about it. You shouldn't, because it's an amazing review. Clearly, your editor thought so too, since he actually published it."

"Doyle loved it," Rory grumbled. "Everybody loved it, from Paris to my mom and my grandparents besides. Absolutely everybody thinks it's one of the best things I ever wrote... except for Sandra."

"Sandra?"

"The ballerina."

"Huh." Jess didn't really know what to say after that. Now he better understood why Rory was feeling so awful about her article, because clearly Sandra had made her feel bad.

"I know it's stupid to let it get to me," she said then, heaving a sigh. "I know that every word I wrote in that article was fair and true. Doyle says I just have to learn to deal with the aftermath of these things, that us journalists aren't in this business to make friends."

"He probably has a point."

"Yeah, but it kind of sucks when you're getting yelled at by a ballerina in the cafeteria where everyone can hear."

"That's not cool." Jess sighed, sympathising now, knowing how easily Rory could get upset when somebody, anybody, even people she didn't really know, got mad at her for something. "But hey, you know, you were just doing your job, and you do it so well. I don't think even I would have mentioned the roll of fat around her bra strap."

"Stop it!" she told him once more, though at least there was laughter in her voice this time. "Oh my God, if I was more insulting than you could ever be, then I really was the ultimate in mean," she teased him back, the way he hoped she would.

"Yeah, I'm clearly a bad influence on you. Maybe I shouldn't be taking you out on this date tonight."

"You better not stand me up, Mariano. After everything I have been through with the crazy ballerina, I deserve a truly amazing date with my boyfriend, don't I?"

The stupid grin that always appeared on his face when she called him that never failed to make Jess feel so great and so stupid all at the same time. Not that he planned on telling Rory that.

"So, you'll be here at eight?"

"I'll be there at eight," he promised, "and I know it's not exactly a date night topic, but could you please explain to me what the hell a marriage jug is and why Lane has one? She left me hanging before and it's just going to bug me."

"I promise I will explain," Rory told him, "but right now, I have to go finish an assignment that I would be working on tonight, you know, if it wasn't date night."

"I should probably go too," he admitted, eyes flitting to the door as he considered telling her what may or may not be happening downstairs.

In the end, Jess left it well alone. Until he knew exactly what was occurring, there really was nothing to tell, and leaving things vague might just make Rory worry. He never wanted that.

After a semi-long goodbye, they ended their call and Jess took a deep breath as he rose to his feet. He had to head back down there, he had work to do, but a part of him was dreading what he might be walking into. He couldn't imagine Luke or Lorelai being glad to see Nicole, or her being all that happy about coming face-to-face with the woman she lost her boyfriend to. Still, she had to know what she was going to find when she chose to show up, and Jess couldn't really imagine her having any kind of breaking up ability where Luke and Lorelai were concerned.

Bracing accordingly, he hurried down the stairs and out through the curtain, just in time to hear and see the diner door slam behind Nicole. Glancing sideways, he noticed Luke looking awfully shifty and Lorelai looking more then a little pissed.

"Everything okay?" he asked carefully, the hair on the back of his neck standing straight up.

"Apparently, everything's fine," said Lorelai shortly, grabbing up her purse and slamming her own way out of the front door too.

Luke sighed and ran a hand over his face.

"Should I even ask...?" Jess ventured carefully.

"It's nothing." His uncle shook his head. "Nicole was in the area, she thought she'd just come in, say hi and no hard feelings, you know? It should've been fine."

"But?" Jess prompted, sure he was missing something, because nobody seemed anything like fine when he walked in.

"But... Nicole said she always knew that me and Lorelai were destined to be together. That made Lorelai get over-familiar and a little cocky, I guess, which I called her on, since Nicole was looking really uncomfortable, and apparently, that was completely the wrong thing to say."

Jess winced on his uncle's behalf as he continued to explain.

"Nicole started to get snippy and Lorelai was snippy back, so I just said at least everything worked out for the best in the end. That no matter what happened before, we're all grown-ups here, at least everything is fine now."

"Except Lorelai didn't seem like she meant it when she said things were fine," Jess noted.

"Neither did Nicole." Luke sighed. "Not that I'm all that concerned about her. If she never came in here, none of this would have happened." He ran a hand over his face one more time.

"You going over to see Lorelai, try to smooth things over?" asked Jess, watching his uncle closely.

He seemed to consider for a long time before he finally answered. "No, not right now. She'll cool off, think it over. Before long, she'll probably even realise she over-reacted and come looking for me."

With that, he turned around and headed out back, leaving Jess alone behind the counter.

"Yeah," he said to himself, "I wouldn't bet on that."


"How you can be this nervous going out on a date with a guy you've been making out with off-and-on for a year?" asked Paris, in that way that only Paris could.

Rory slammed the drawer shut and shook out her arms. "If I knew that, I would tell you," she said snippily, feeling ridiculous.

For once, she had to admit that her friend had a point. It was sort of crazy that she could feel so genuinely shaky and strange about a date with Jess. They did indeed start going out around a year ago, and she had known him for a year before that too. They got along so well, cared so much for each other, were stupidly attracted to each other, and were almost guaranteed to have a great time tonight. So why could she not be calm?

"Hey, you're not thinking that tonight's going to be the night, are you?" asked Paris then, getting up from her bed and coming to stand in Rory's pacing path. "I mean, it's short notice, but I could probably find someplace else to sleep if-"

"Paris, that's just... No," she said, shaking her head. "Jess and I are going out on a date, key word, out. Not staying in, going out."

"Fine, fine, don't say I didn't offer." Paris had her hands up in mock surrender as she went back to her side of the room.

Rory sighed and put her own hands to her face, too mindful of her make-up and her perfectly blown-out hair to freely mess it up too much. Jess would be there any moment. She hoped he understood they were going out and that was all. That she had no intention of bringing him back to her dorm to finally go that far. Someday, probably someday pretty soon actually, she figured that could happen, but not tonight. She really wasn't in a place where she was ready to do that tonight.

A knock on the outer door was followed by voices, then Tanna calling loudly for Rory. Taking a deep breath, she grabbed her purse and jacket, heading out before Paris could make any more comments, or before she could second-guess herself.

Tanna smiled widely before disappearing into her room, and Rory went over to the door, finding Jess just outside of it staring at the noticeboard.

"Something interesting up there?" she asked curiously, getting his attention and liking the way he smiled as he looked her over in the dress she had specifically borrowed from her mom for tonight.

"Not by comparison," he told her easily. "You look great."

"Thank you, so do you," she replied, actively trying not to drool - he really did look so good in that leather jacket. "So, shall we?"

"I guess so," he agreed, as she closed the door. "The ballerina?" he guessed, knocking one knuckle on the white board where it still said, 'Die Jerk' in large letters.

"Yes. Permanent marker."

"Huh. Did I tell you my personal highlight was the line about regretting how evolution had led man to stand on two feet because it led to that night?" he asked her with a smirk.

Rory could only laugh, putting her arm around him and hiding her face in his shoulder, as they headed outside, her nerves evaporating in moments. His arm across her shoulders and the kiss he planted in her hair didn't hurt any either.

To Be Continued...

A/N2: Please note, the next chapter will be posted on Wednesday 4th September, because next week, I'm on holiday/vacation :)