"What did you do?" Rory demanded as soon as she slammed the front door shut, being sure that Jess was on his way home and not sneaking around the house listening to them.

"What? Rory, what are you talking about?"

"No Mom, what happened?"

"Ror…"

"He wouldn't even come inside, you promised you wouldn't be mean, you said you'd make sure he knew that you still liked him," Rory said, stomping through the house with Lorelai following her.

Lorelai figured they were going to have this conversation in her daughter's room when Rory went right there but was proven wrong when she just angrily through her bag on her desk, stomped past Lorelai, into the kitchen, and in the fridge to start riffling around. Lorelai cringed, she knew there was nothing in there, especially because she and Jess finished off the Chinese food and she also knew that Rory always came home hungry from the Kim's, Lorelai would rather starve than eat all that healthy kale and cardboard Mrs. Kim serves too, so she understood.

"Kid, I wasn't mean to him. It was going fine, I think there was just some miscommunication. What did he say? Did he say I was mean or harsh?"

Rory slammed the fridge shut, in the back of her mind she knew she was being dramatic and even childish but all she knew was that two of the most important people to her were fighting right now and she didn't like it. Plus, she was hungry, she always got a little snappish when she was hungry. The fact that there was nothing in the house to eat didn't make her mood any better. She was walking past Lorelai again, not really sure where she was going in her anger when Lorelai stopped her by putting her hands on her daughter's shoulders and turning her to face her mom.

"Come on, hon, sit down," She offered, leading Rory back into the kitchen and to the table, pulling the chair out for her and putting pressure on her shoulders making her sit, "I'll order Al's, it's mystery night. Then while we're waiting we can talk this out because I'm not really sure what happened either."

Rory pouted but nodded, realizing that her mom was probably thinking clearer than she was right now. She sat there and stewed in her upset while her mom walked around the house ordering enough food for five people, well, if those people weren't Lorelai and Rory Gilmore. Because it was them, there might be enough leftovers for a midnight snack. Lorelai sat down at the seat across from Rory with a sigh as she hung up the cordless phone and put it face down on the table.

"Okay, now, can we start this again? What happened, what did Jess say because I don't know why you'd think I was mean to him."

"He didn't say anything, not really, he wouldn't talk about it. It was just clear he was upset and he wouldn't come in for food, or to say goodbye, or to even get paid. Something obviously happened during this 'talk' you demanded to have with him." She used finger quotes around the word 'talk' and crossed her arms when she was finished speaking. She really didn't know why her mom forced a talk with Jess, it wasn't like she was his guardian, she should have let Luke handle it, and look what happened.

"Nothing bad happened Rory, in fact, I told him I might not even be against you guys doing something like that again, I just have to know about it. I just told him that I have to know where you are and to know you're safe. He seemed to take it fine."

Rory's tense shoulders finally relaxed after hearing her mom, that didn't seem so bad but that still didn't explain why Jess seemed so skittish and wanted to leave as soon as he did. "Okay, but then what happened?"

"Well…" Lorelai hedged.

"Well…?"

"Well, there might have been a little more to the conversation after talking about your impromptu New York expedition."

"Okay," Rory said sounding suspicious. "And what was this 'more'?" Rory asked using the air quotes again.

If Lorelai was being honest, her daughter's attitude was starting to upset her. She took a deep breath before responding, it'd help no one if she lost her cool too. "Well, Jess has been through a lot, kid. Not all of it was his fault, most of it was just circumstance. But because of those circumstances, he's experienced more than you. Or, another way to put it is that he's more experienced than you."

"Oh God, Mom, no! Please tell me you did not try to have the sex talk with my boyfriend!"

"I wouldn't call it a sex talk, per se…"

"Oh yeah? And what would you call it then?' She stood up, her anger back in full force, she closed her eyes and shook her head in disgust, "God, no wonder he didn't want to talk to you! That's not your place, you're my mom, not his! Let Luke handle the parenting when it comes to Jess!"

Lorelai stood up too, officially angry. "Hey, don't talk to me like that, I'm your friend, yeah but I'm also your mom, first and foremost. You can talk to me about how you feel and you can express your dislike when I do something you don't want but you've got to be respectful about it. And I have every right to talk to him about respecting boundaries and not pushing you too fast when he tried to bring you up to his room after your first date, your first date Rory. Dean didn't even kiss you till, what was it? You know my memory isn't the best, oh yeah, your fourth date! And here comes Jess, kissing you when you have another boyfriend, and trying to have you alone in his room two days after you get together."

"How many times do I have to tell you, I kissed him, not the other way around? Also Dean didn't wait until the fourth date! And what are you talking about? He didn't do that, he wasn't trying to bring me up to his room to have his way with me!"

"Uh yeah, I was there, remember? Yesterday, Luke and I were upstairs when you two got there, I don't even wanna think about what he would have pulled if we weren't."

Rory scoffed, turning her back to her mom, and walked to her room. She turned back to look at Lorelai, "We were getting food before he was going to bring me home, the only reason we went to their apartment was because we heard you and Luke up there. And more importantly, I thought you trusted me, trusted me to know what I want and to not let myself be pushed around. I'm not a kid anymore, I won't be pressured into doing something I'm not ready for. And Jess would never pressure me to do more than I'm ready for." Rory slammed her door shut after she finished, not giving Lorelai a chance to respond.

So Lorelai raised her voice to be heard through the door, "Yeah, well, if you don't want to be treated like a kid stop having temper tantrums and slamming doors!"

She stood there staring at her daughter's door, she wasn't sure if she was hoping Rory would come out and talk, or cool down in her room. Then again, if she were to come out so soon it'd probably be nothing more than the second round of their apparent screaming match fight and Lorelai didn't want that. She sighed and flopped on the couch. "Well, that went great." She held up her hands as if she was accepting an award, "Me? Really? Mother of the year? Well, there are so many people I'd like to thank, like my short temper and my affinity for expecting the worst in teenage boys."

After a while Lorelai left the house deciding it was best to give Rory some space, she figured she'd stop at Doose's and pick up some ice cream, ice cream always helped smooth things over when the Gilmore girls had a fight. If she left right then she should make it before the store closed. Normally, she'd stop and Luke's too to get two nice big waffles to make waffle Sundays but unfortunately Luke's closed a while ago.

That was why she was surprised that someone was in the diner when she walked by. She almost kept walking thinking that it was probably Jess. She wasn't quite ready to talk to him and fix whatever was broken between them and she definitely didn't want to have yet another round of 'fighting with hormonal teenagers' tonight. She slowed down and looked in the windows, she was too curious for her own good most of the time. Her eyes opened wide when she saw it was Luke and her feet moved her to the door before her head thought better of it. She knocked on the door and saw Luke turn to look at her, he got up and unlocked the door to let her in.

"Hey," She ventured.

"Hey, what're you doing?"

"Oh you know, getting reinforcements," She said holding up the bag of ice cream. "I never thought I'd be the type of mother to bribe their child into talking to them but you learn something new every day." She said with a shrug, trying to joke but Luke could tell she was upset.

"What happened?" He asked, stepping back from the door and giving her more room to come in.

"Nothing," She said waving off the question. "Well, nothing that some good old ice cream can't fix. I came to check on you, what are you doing down here?"

Luke went back to his seat at the table in the center of the diner, that was when Lorelai noticed there was a small little portable TV there plugged in and she realized he must have been down in the diner for a while. "Oh, you know, watching TV."

"Oh, that's cute." She said pointing at the miniature TV, "Is that the first time it's been away from its mother?"

Luke sighed, "It's a very good TV."

Lorelai nodded seriously as if to agree with him wholeheartedly, "Mhmm, black and white, coat hanger antenna, really bad reception…"

"It's fine." He cut her off.

"Don't you have a fully grown TV upstairs?"

"Yeah well, Jess is upstairs."

"So?"

"Well more accurately, all of Jess' stuff is upstairs, there's no room. Plus Jess was in a bad mood when he came home today and when he's in a bad mood I know that means music blaring." Lorelai cringed because she knew she was the reason he Jess was in a bad mood but managed to hide it from Luke. "I just needed a little privacy."

"So you came downstairs…"

"Yes."

"… to sit on an uncomfortable chair in an empty diner that smells like onion rings."

"Yes."

"Calgon, take me away."

"It was very peaceful until two minutes ago. Speaking of, don't you have to get home before that ice cream melts?"

"Ha, very funny." She said dryly while sitting down next to him. "Hey Luke, do you ever think that uh maybe you should get a bigger apartment?"

"I don't need a bigger apartment."

"That place upstairs was your father's office, you turned it into an apartment. It was never meant to be lived in, much less with two people."

"It's fine."

"It's too small for two people, it's too small for one person if they have any kind of life."

"We'll make due, we just need to organi—"

"No, you don't need to organize, you need to move."

"I like my apartment."

"It's not just your apartment anymore, Jess lives there too."

"Jess is fine."

"Are you sure? Did you ever get him off that air mattress? I'm pretty sure he could be pinned down by a box for a year in that place and you wouldn't know it. Well, that is, until the neighbors started to complain about the smell."

"I know what I'm doing, Lorelai."

She held her hands up in surrender. "Okay, okay, just a humble opinion from little ole' me. I'm going, I'm going."

"Yeah, yeah, get home safe, I'll see you in the morning."

"Night Luke."

"Night Lorelai."

Jess woke up as soon as his music was turned off, he tried to ignore it and go back to sleep but then he heard his uncle's crazy ramblings. Normally, he'd ignore those too but this time his ramblings were about him.

"… no clue how someone so young has so much junk. I know the kid likes to read but does he need this many books?"

"Every single one of them," Jess said as he sat up.

Luke jumped, so lost in his own rant he didn't notice that he woke Jess up. "Oh jeez, trying to give me a heart attack?'

Jess shrugged, "That depends, are you going to let me get back to sleep anytime soon?"

"Funny. We're going to have to get rid of some of this stuff Jess." Luke took a step and tripped on what Jess thought was his box of CDs that were hidden under some clothes. Jess was about to yell something like 'Hey, watch it' but he saw the moment Luke lost his cool. He started picking up Jess' clothes and other belongings to throw them out of the way. "This place is awful, I can't live like this!"

"Luke, relax, or that heart attack won't be a joke much longer."

"I can't relax, I can't sleep! I'm having nightmares about being chased around by boxes with arms, and they tackle me with piles of clothing on top of my face and secure it around my head with packing tape and I'm just lying there choking. While you're just sitting in the corner laughing and putting jell in your hair with a switchblade!"

"Should I be putting a tongue depressor in your mouth right about now?"

"We're moving!"

"What?"

"Tomorrow!"

"What are you talk…"

"I'm talking about you and me, going out, getting a paper, and finding a new place to live."

"But I…"

"No buts! Ten o clock tomorrow I want you up, washed, moosed, and ready to leave, end of story!" He emphasized his points by slapping a fist onto his other hand every word.

Jess shrugged, it didn't sound like a good time or anything but at least he might actually get his own room with a door out of the situation. "Whatever."

"Yeah, whatever! And no more loud music when I'm trying to sleep, it's insane, barely even qualifies as music." Luke demanded, getting another one of his grievances out of the way while he was at it. Jess stayed quiet and looked away. Luke noticed, so even though he was still angry, he couldn't help but ask, "What?"

"I can't sleep without the music." Jess spent his whole life living in Harlem, while still technically Manhattan and highly populated, it wasn't the safest place in the world and it was very loud, even at night. It wasn't called the city that never sleeps for no reason, so moving to a small town as quiet as Stars Hallow, it wasn't easy for Jess to fall asleep at night in complete silence.

"Fine, you can keep the music but I'm making sure we get somewhere with thick walls!" Luke said, still yelling though he was starting to calm down.

Jess was sure the sun had just barely risen when he was rudely woken up the next morning by having some clothes dropped on his head. At least he could smell coffee and bacon cooking, he sat up with a groan and wiped his hands over his face, he was not a morning person at all.

"I was thinking we'd invite Lorelai and Rory to help us house hunt. She seems like someone who'd know what they're doing." Luke never shopped for an apartment before, he had no idea what he was doing if he was being completely honest. And truthfully, though he never said it out loud, he'd take pretty much any opportunity he could get to have some time with Lorelai. He figured since the kids were dating now or whatever, it'd be great to invite the girls along for help. He had a feeling for some reason Jess didn't feel the same way when he cringed at the suggestion.

"What, don't think we can handle this on our own? We're big boys, we don't need help to find a new place to live." Jess said almost tauntingly. When he felt backed into a corner, the first thing he did was attack and although he knew Luke wasn't trying to upset him, he couldn't stop his impulse to act out.

"What? Did you and Rory have a fight or something?" Luke asked, not taking the bait.

"No, we didn't fight," Jess said defensively, putting on his leather jacket which was like armor for him.

"Then what's the problem?"

"Nothing, just don't think we need help, is all."

Luke watched Jess, he knew the kid was hiding something, he just wasn't sure what it was. He didn't know if he should push or not, he wanted to help Jess, he really did, he spent a lot of his waking hours wondering and worrying over how best to make sure Jess had what he needed. The problem was, talking to Jess was like walking over a minefield, he never knew when something he said would set Jess off. Sure, they'd fought a few times with yelling and slamming doors but more often than not, setting Jess off meant a sarcastic reply and a withdrawal from the conversation, sometimes even the apartment. He didn't want Jess to feel like he had to run from him, so Luke knew he had to handle the situation tactfully, the problem was Luke was never known for his tact.

"Alright, that's fine, we don't need to invite them. Just thought you'd like having Rory along for the day."

Jess shrugged and Luke was positive he could see a little blush dust his cheeks even though he turned his head away. "Sure but I'll just see her later."

"Alright." He finally agreed. They continued getting ready, Luke wanted to get an early start. They didn't say another word to each other until they were both dressed, ready to go, and almost finished their breakfast, "You know, you can uh, well, you can talk to me. No judgment. I'm here for you, that's all I'm trying to say."

Jess scoffed, "Yeah, thanks."

"I mean it, Jess."

"Thanks for the show of support, Uncle Luke but we both know when push comes to shove this town and the people in it are your real family. They'll always come first and you'll always be on their side."

"Wh—what are you talking about?" He asked, flabbergasted for lack of a better word. "Jess, you're my family."

"Come on, be honest, if not with me then at least with yourself. People like Lorelai will always come first in your life before me. If there was a fight, you'd always side with her—them. It's fine, I get it."

"Jess, what? No, that's not true at all. Wait, did you and Lorelai fight?"

"It doesn't matter, it's whatever. Are you done eating? Let's get this over with, I have stuff to do today. Don't want to waste the whole day having a therapy session with you. Just forget I said anything."

Luke knew by his tone he had to stop pushing or Jess would run. So he sighed and nodded but he knew he had to talk to Lorelai later, if he wasn't going to get the story from Jess, he knew damn well he'd get it from her. "Alright, I'm ready, let's go."

Jess was sure he had died and this was some number level of hell, he wasn't sure which one but he was positive he was there. They'd been looking at places for hours and not one worked. Jess didn't have very high standards for finding a place to live but his uncle sure did. He just wanted his own room, somewhere he could make his own, somewhere to listen to music as loud as he wanted and stay up late with the light on so he could read.

Okay, so maybe he was a little picky because he knew for sure he wasn't living here, the place was so… pink. They walked out of the apartment, Jess ahead of Luke. "Forget it!"

"What, what was wrong with that one?"

"It was pink."

"We can paint it."

"You mean I can paint it."

"We can paint it together."

"Great, then we can hold hands and skip afterwards."

"Fine, which one do you like?"

"The one from before."

"The one with the two fridges?"

"No."

"The one before was the one with the two fridges."

"No, the one we saw before was the one with the cat."

"I hate cats."

"Well, I don't think the cat came with the place."

"Yeah, but it had carpeting which means it's always going to smell like a cat."

Jess shrugged, "Clean the carpet."

"Paint the pink," Luke countered.

"Fine. The one next to the bank." Jess offered another good place, this one a house.

"Too many windows."

"What?"

"Six windows all on one side, three o clock in the afternoon we're sitting in an oven."

"So we get curtains."

"Well then you're going to have to help me put them up."

"Great, then we'll hold hands and skip afterward."

"Stop saying that."

"You know what? I don't care, pick whichever one you want."

"I'm not picking by myself."

"Whatever, I gotta go."

"Go? Go where? We still have three more places to look at."

"I just gotta go, I have something to do, choose wherever."

"Alright, alright, I'll take some Polaroids and you can look at them when you get home."

"I don't care, just choose a place," Jess said as he started to walk away.

"Jess come on!" Jess was about halfway down the block when he turned back to Luke.

"Listen, no one asked me if I wanted to move to Stars Hollow but I'm here, pick whatever place you want and I'll be there too." He said as he turned back around and continued to walk away.

Jess knew he was being an ass, well, more of an ass than usual but he was in a shit mood. Honestly, he thought it might be best for him to ditch Luke and go somewhere alone to read so he could calm down and reset. He knew deep down that Lorelai didn't mean to accuse him of anything but it didn't really matter what her intentions were, she made it seem like he was going to hurt Rory, and even though he had no idea what he was doing or how to be in a relationship he knew the absolute last thing he wanted to do was to hurt Rory.

He went to the place his feet always seemed to lead him when he was upset, the bridge. He sat down and opened his most recent book, the one Rory picked out for him at the book fair, opened to the earmarked page, and started reading.

Rory closed her calculus book, she was glad she finished her work, it wasn't due until Friday but she always felt better when she finished it early. Plus, though she and her mom were in a better place after their late-night ice cream extravaganza, it was still awkward and the tension was still at an all-time high. So since Rory wasn't someone to liked confrontation, she chose to stay in her room all day, only coming out for the necessities, food, bathroom, and caffeine. Now that her homework was completed, she was starting to go a little stir-crazy though, so she decided she needed to get out of the house. That's why when she heard her mom answer the phone and get lost in a conversation with who she thought was Luke, Rory took the opportunity to sneak past her mom, grab her jacket, slip on her shoes, and walk out the front door.

She wasn't surprised when she found Jess at the bridge, so she sat down next to him and waited for him to finish his paragraph before greeting her. She knew better than anyone how important it was to finish the paragraph in a good book when someone was interrupting you. Once he finished reading the sentence at a good stopping point he turned his head to face Rory while lifting his lips in a semblance of a smile, "Hey."

"Hey. Whatcha reading?"

Jess showed her the cover and Rory's smile grew when she saw that he was reading the punk book she got him. "I'm surprised to see you here, I thought you'd be with your mom right now."

Rory cringed, "Yeah, well, things are a little tense between us at the moment so I'm in avoidance mode."

"What do you mean?"

"Jess, I'm sorry, before you came over to do the gutters I told her she didn't have a right to lecture you, I didn't think I would have to go as far as to tell her that it wasn't her place to have a sex talk with you either. It wasn't cool."

Jess looked away, he didn't want to talk about this again. He loved—cared about Rory a lot but her insistence on always talking about feelings and problems really wasn't his favorite thing about her. Before moving here, he'd always seen emotions and problems be handled by ignoring them until the person exploded and either a huge fight would break out or the person would spend a few days getting as fucked up as possible until they felt better, or at least could go back to ignoring the problem. He wasn't used to talking through things and he was pretty sure he wasn't a fan of it either.

"It's fine Rory, don't worry about it."

"No, I have to worry about it, it wasn't right, and I know you were upset about it."

"Seriously, don't worry about it, I'm fine. Your mom was just worried about you."

"Well yeah but still, it wasn't her place to say anything to you."

Jess sighed and stood up, his voice came out a little harsher than he intended when he said, "Seriously, stop. I don't wanna talk about it anymore, I'm over it."

"O-okay. So uh, what are you doing for the rest of the night? Want to go see a movie or something?"

"Sure," He eventually replied after lighting a cigarette, even though Rory got the feeling he wanted to say no. She didn't mean to upset him even more and she didn't know how to fix it.

Jess was quiet during the walk over to Black White and Read but eventually got out of his head long enough to notice that Rory seemed upset and sad, and he had a bad feeling it was his fault. For someone who was mad at Lorelai for even suggesting that he'd hurt Rory, he felt like an ass for doing just that not even a day later. He took a deep breath, exhaling all the negative thoughts swirling around his head, and reached his hand over, intertwining his fingers with hers. Rory looked at him with a shy smile before squeezing his hand with hers. Though the rest of the walk was still quiet, it was much more comfortable and it was clear they were in lighter spirits.

After the movie, Jess walked Rory back to her house. He decided that even though it wasn't planned, it was a successful second date. Even though they only watched about half of the movie, the other half of the time they were caught up in each other, talking, kissing, holding hands. It was good that they were the only ones there to watch a movie because Jess was sure if there were others they'd be the talk of the town tomorrow, there'd be rumors galore. That plus he doubted Rory would have been so open if people were watching them. He wasn't used to going so slow with someone, just small kisses, hands staying in PG places but he decided he kinda liked it. Then again, he'd never been with someone he actually cared about so he was pretty sure he'd do whatever if it made Rory happy.

"So what are you doing after school tomorrow?" Rory asked bringing Jess out of his thoughts as they got close to her house.

"I have work."

"Oh, well maybe I'll come by after school and keep you company for a little while."

"No," Jess said and Rory jumped, surprised at his brashness, he continued quickly once he realized he hurt her feelings, "I just mean I'm not working at Luke's tomorrow."

"Oh, okay."

"Tuesday I'll be working there though."

"Okay, well I guess I'll see you then," Rory said, feeling clingy when she realized she was upset that she wouldn't see him the next day at all.

"Are you coming in for coffee in the morning?"

"Oh, yeah, I can do that." She smiled.

"Good, then I'll see you tomorrow," Jess said as they walked up her porch steps.

"Okay. Well, I had fun today." She said shyly, looking down at her feet.

"Yeah, it was a good time," Jess said a little uncomfortably, he wasn't sure why he felt so strange admitting he had fun with his girlfriend but he did.

"Okay, well, goodnight," Rory said reaching for the door after they stood there for a few seconds in silence.

Jess reached forward, stopping her hand from opening the door and Rory looked at him questioningly. He leaned forward and kissed her, Rory sinking into him. They stood there lost in each other, neither sure for how long. They only stopped when the front door opened and Lorelai cleared her throat. Rory looked at her mom a little embarrassed while Jess held back a sigh because they were interrupted. He had a feeling Lorelai would be doing that to them a lot in the future.

Rory turned back to Jess, "Okay, goodnight Jess."

"Night, Ror." He turned to the steps ready to start his walk home, planning to ignore Lorelai completely when she called his name and he had no choice but to turn back to her.

"Jess, hey, uh, Thursday is another movie night if you'd be interested." She said, offering an olive branch. She really didn't mean to upset him the day before and she said her peace so she was hoping things could go back to normal now. She'd really like it better if she and her daughter's boyfriend didn't have to avoid each other.

Jess opened his mouth to say no but he couldn't ignore Rory's big hopeful pleading eyes begging him to say yes, and believe him, he really tried to. Eventually, he let out a sigh of defeat knowing it'd make her happy. "Uh sure, I have to check and see if I'm working that night but if not, I'll be there."

Rory let out a squeal that reminded him of the one she made outside his room the night all his stuff arrived from New York and he couldn't help but smile at her fondly before starting his trek home while the Gilmore girls made their way into the house, Lorelai's arm around Rory's shoulders.