A/N: Really appreciating those reviews, folks, thank you, so do keep them coming. So love reading your thoughts and your theories! :) Now, time for Jess to revisit Stars Hollow after so long away...

(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)

Chapter 3

The drive from New York to Stars Hollow was only supposed to take a couple of hours. Checking the clock on the dash, Jess saw that was proving true, and yet, he felt as if he had been trapped in awkward silence with Noah for at least double that length of time. They had to be no more than thirty minutes away from his home by now, and still, the kid said nothing. His earbuds were pushed firmly into his ears and his eyes were fixed on the screen of his cell. That probably should have made things easier, but it didn't.

Glancing across to the passenger side, Jess could hardly believe this was the same kid that he had held as a baby. Only once, but he remembered it very well. Any memory that included Rory was indelibly marked on his mind, never to fade, and none more so than those last couple of times he had seen her.

"Jess, meet Noah Richard Lucas Gilmore," she had told him proudly, passing the kid over without a moment's pause.

It meant a lot that she trusted him that much. Jess wasn't sure he trusted himself not to drop the poor kid or something. Still, he tried to recall all the things he had been told the first time he was handed his baby sister - support the head, don't tense up, and so on. Noah seemed comfortable enough in his arms. At one point, Rory even said he clearly liked Jess, because he smiled. At that age, Jess was fairly certain babies didn't smile, they just got gas and it caused a similar expression. Either way, it had felt like a nice enough moment, until he remembered that the baby wasn't only the product of Rory, but of Logan Huntzberger too.

Some father he had turned out to be. Noah didn't have any more concrete memories of his dad than he did of Jess, which was pretty bad. Not that Jess didn't understand how that went, since he never met his own father until he was eighteen. It was something, he supposed, that Logan had been around in the beginning, which he knew he had. Apparently, not so much for the last dozen years or more.

For all that Noah had been pretty determined he wasn't leaving New York until he tracked Logan down, the conversation with Rory had clearly put paid to that little run of teenage rebellion. Jess was glad, in one way, and maybe just a little disappointed in another. After all, teenage him would never have listened to his mother's firm words, telling him he was absolutely not going to go track down his father. Not that Liz often had cause to say that because Jess hadn't been all that curious, for a long time.

It seemed that, as curious as Noah had been, determined enough to leave his hometown all by himself and take off into the night without a word, Rory's instruction to come home with Jess as soon as possible was met with little or no resistance. Of course, she had to be a million times better as a mother than Jess' own mom had ever managed. Still, it made him a little nervous that Noah was just as likely to leap out of the car at the next red light and hitch his way back to the city.

Unfortunately, Jess didn't feel he was equipped to talk to Noah about his father. Maybe if he didn't know the guy in question, it would be different, but he did know Logan. He wished to God he didn't, but he did. Not that he had seen the guy inside of Noah's lifetime, but that wasn't the point. Huntzberger was a dick as a young man and was proving to be much the same now that he was older. Jess couldn't think of a single positive thing that he could say about the guy. No matter how mad Noah was at his father, it certainly wasn't Jess' place to add to it.

So, they said nothing. The car was as silent as if it had been empty, all the way from New York to the sign that said that Stars Hollow was a mere twenty miles away. That seemed to get Noah's attention. His eyes had been closed for most of the journey, but he must have been marking time somehow, because they opened not long before that particular mile marker. His expression had been largely unreadable before, but when he knew home was so close, a kind of nervous energy seemed to build up, not just in his expression, but his whole body.

Jess had to keep his eyes on the road, but it was impossible not to notice the kid shifting around, as he had recently realised he was sitting in the most uncomfortable seat in the world. His phone and earbuds were gone, either into his pocket or the bag in his lap, and his hands wouldn't be still.

"Almost there," Jess said pointlessly, though it was nice to know that his vocal cords hadn't seized up altogether, and that Noah's hearing wasn't at all impaired.

"I know that," he answered sharply. "You know, you can just drop me in town square. You don't have to actually come to my house or anything."

Jess tried and failed to keep a smirk from spreading across his lips. "Pretty sure your mom would like it better if I took you to your door."

The muttered response to that was probably nothing Jess would care to hear, so he didn't bother to ask Noah to repeat it. Silence reigned once more, until they finally reached the Welcome to Stars Hollow sign.

"Geez, I don't think that thing has changed in thirty years," said Jess, without really thinking about it.

"Nothing here changes, ever." Noah sighed. "I should live in the city."

"You wouldn't last a day in the city," Jess told him like a reflex, wishing he hadn't said a word the moment the kid started glaring at him, but it didn't change the fact he was right. "Hey, I have lived in cities and in Stars Hollow, so trust me when I tell you that somebody who has only ever known that crackpot town would never, ever survive long in New York or any other city. That kind of place would eat you alive."

"You don't know me." Noah huffed, equal parts the snotty teen his father had no doubt been once upon a time and the indignant part of Rory that Jess remembered as fondly as he recalled every other part of her.

"No, I don't know you," Jess agreed anyway, unable to do anything else.

It was a strange kind of relief as he drove around town square and down towards the Gilmore girls house which now belonged to Lorelai and Luke. From there, it was just a couple of turns to the place Rory and Noah had made their home. Easy distance from the family. It was the only place Jess could imagine for Rory, after everything that had happened.

Pulling the car to a stop, he pulled on the parking brake and looked up and the quaint little home. It was so Stars Hollow. So what he would have expected the Rory he met at aged seventeen to dream of, at least until he learned there was so much more to her than that. The big-time journalism career never really happened for her. He wasn't sure why he should be so sad about that, when she had made it clear long ago that she had no regrets on that score, not anymore. Of course, that conversation had been more than a decade ago. He hadn't been in the same room as her from that day to this.

"Thanks for the ride and... everything," Noah said, almost as if he meant it, before he moved to get out of the car, retrieving his bag from the back seat.

Jess could have happily stayed put, watched the kid go into the house, then drove away at top speed. The old Jess would have done it, had done it, on other occasions. When things got tough, when he was expecting trouble or rejection or anything the younger version of himself hadn't known how to handle. It was supposed to be different now. He was supposed to be different. That meant he should and could face his problems head on. It meant he had to get out of the car and follow Noah to his front door. It meant facing Rory.

"Okay, here goes," he said to himself, unhooking his safety belt and pushing open the driver's side door.

He hurried up the porch steps, hitting the top just as the front door opened. Rory must have been looking out for them or heard footsteps outside and figured it had to be them. Quick as a blink, mother and son were in each other's arms, a sweet reunion, at least, it should have been. Jess wasn't exactly looking at the pair from that perspective. All he saw was Rory's face over Noah's shoulder, noting every tiny way in which she had changed, alongside all the ways in which she looked exactly the same. With her eyes closed, she didn't see him at first, and then, when she pulled back from hugging her son, she was too distracted with telling him how thoughtless and dumb and crazy he was for anything else to register at all.

"Now, get inside," she said at last. "Go shower and change and be back down here in twenty minutes, prepared for a very long conversation about what your punishment is going to be!"
Noah pelted up the stairs then, not giving word of argument. Maybe that part came later. Maybe he wouldn't even be indignant and angry with her. Maybe the tears would come out then. Jess knew only too well how that went. How much you could hurt, how much you could hold in, before it finally all became too much, spilling out everywhere, usually at the most inopportune moment.

It was as much those thoughts as anything else that led to him clearing his throat too loudly, though it had the added effect of catching Rory's attention at last.

"Jess."

He hadn't heard her say his name in far too long. It was still the best it had ever sounded.

"Rory," he replied in kind, hands in his pockets, one shoe scuffing on the porch, as if they were seventeen all over again and he just didn't know how to talk to her - maybe that was because he didn't anymore.

"Thank you, again," she said after a moment's pause. "I can't... I just don't even want to think about what could have happened to him if you hadn't found him, and it's amazing, because obviously, you weren't even looking. I'm actually floored that you recognised each other, after all this time..."

"We didn't." Jess shook his head. "I mean, I recognised him from pictures Luke sent. He didn't know me, until I explained. Believe me, he took some convincing, which is probably a good thing, actually. At least you know he's not going to be easily conned by predators or whatever."

"Always good to know." Rory nodded and gave a half-smile. "It's really good to see you, Jess. Crazy circumstances, but still, really good."

A familiar warm feeling spread through the whole of Jess' body when she said that, when she looked at him like that. The better part of thirty years and not one damn thing had changed, and yet, at the same time, absolutely everything had.

"Uh, so now he's back safe, I should probably..." he trailed off, hiking one thumb over his shoulder.

He thought perhaps he imagined the way Rory's face fell. Wishful thinking, that was all, at least, he assumed that was all it was, until her hand caught a hold of his sleeve.

"Oh, do you really have to go right away?" she checked. "I mean, as much as I'd love to invite you in right now-"

"You have the runaway to deal with." Jess both smiled and nodded knowingly. "That's why I thought it was better if I just got out of your hair."

"Sure, sure," Rory agreed, "but I mean, you're not heading straight back to New York, right? You'll be around for a while? I guess I assumed you would want to see Luke, maybe your mom..."

It wasn't that the thought hadn't crossed his mind. It had. It was just that it was mostly pushed aside at every turn by the overwhelming feelings that came with knowing he was going to see Rory again. Now that they were there, standing a mere six feet apart on her porch, a part of him wondered what all the panic had been about. Of course, another part knew exactly.

"Sure, I'll be around a while," he told her what she wanted to hear, even though it flew in the face of his real plans. "Like you said, I want to see Luke, maybe Liz, Doula. Yeah, I'll be around, just for a couple of days."

The bright smile that earned him made it all worthwhile, even if he had no idea where he was going to stay, what he would do about clothes or work or anything, really. He should have known that it would be just as it always had been before - nothing else really mattered when Rory Gilmore looked at him like that.

To Be Continued...