As Jess left the school he was excited for the rest of the day. Rory was coming over so they could study together, and he was finally going to be able to show her his new room. Granted, Luke wasn't all that happy; Jess guessed he couldn't expect him to be, no one was happy getting called into the principal's office. Damn, that was a long lecture Luke put him through after he got home. Sure, it probably went a thousand times better than it would have if this was a few months ago, before the promises to both Luke and Rory about going to school. He only skipped a few times recently, so his attendance was way up, and he even handed in all his assignments, then again, what he actually wrote on those assignments was a completely different story. Okay, so maybe he could put more effort into doing his work, but he still didn't see the point behind it. He had no intention of going to college, and the only reason he was putting in even minimal effort was because the people he love— the people important to him asked him to.

Either way, it worked out for him because Luke panicked, he didn't handle authority figures well (And they wondered where Jess got it from, it was clearly a Dane gene), anyway, he panicked and ran right over to the Gilmore's and begged Rory to tutor him. Of course, Rory agreed because she was the nicest, best person he had ever met, so that was what they were doing today. He liked to think he knew his girlfriend pretty well, and knowing her, he had a feeling she was going to come over with a stack of books taller than her, ready to study. That wasn't Jess' intention at all, though, he was going to take Rory up and show her his room and finally have some time with her without having eyes on them from one of the myriad of 'helpful' neighbors or guardians.

Still, though, something was different about today. He felt it in his bones, on his skin. It wasn't that itchy feeling he long since grown used to, the one that told him to run. No, it was different but similar. He had no idea why, and he didn't believe in things like premonitions and reading cards to know your future, but he knew there was something different about today. He hoped it wasn't anything bad because he was actually excited about the day, and that didn't happen to him often. Who was he kidding, of course, it wasn't going to be anything good. As soon as things looked like they were going kinda sorta okay in his life, something came along to fuck it up. Okay, a lot of times it was him, he was the reason things got so fucked up, but not this time, he was finally starting to feel comfortable and, dare he think it? Safe. He was starting to think that he had someone to rely on, had a home.

"Oh no, what's going on now?" Lane asked, snapping him out of his thoughts. How long had she been walking with him?

"What? Nothing."

"I've never seen you make a face like that before. Heck, I've never seen anyone make a face like that before."

"What's wrong with my face?" He asked as he nonchalantly touched it, making sure there was nothing embarrassing on it like leftover smeared ketchup from lunch or something hanging from his nose.

"No, nothing like that!" Lane laughed, she didn't get to see Jess self-conscious often. "It's just you're making a face, and I can't tell if you're happy or terrified."

"Welcome to my world."

"Oh, stop, Mr. Overdramatic. Listen, tomorrow Rory's mine. Mama is doing something with her church friends, and I'll have a whole three and a half hours to myself. I need some best friend time."

Jess held his hands up in surrender, knowing better than to get in between those two. "Got it. And don't call me dramatic."

Lane laughed as she patted his arm once before taking the turn to her house and waving goodbye. Jess continued walking to Luke's but couldn't help but look in a shop window to try to see his reflection. He huffed, he didn't look weird.

"Rory! Hurry up, I feel my stomach starting to eat itself; I'm starving! You don't want me to starve, do you? I mean, unless you're still holding a grudge from that thing that happened at your third birthday party. I thought you forgot about that, though."

Rory poked her head out of her room. "What thing?"

"Don't play dumb with me, you know exactly what I'm talking about, if you didn't, you wouldn't be trying to get rid of me by way of starvation 14 years later."

Rory rolled her eyes before going back to her task, "I'm not trying to starve you, you know I'm tutoring Jess after dinner."

"Oh, right. It's surprising, right? I mean, the kid is smart, there's no denying that."

"Yeah, I think Luke is just freaking out because he got called to the principal's office. Sure, Jess missed a lot of class the first few months, but ever since our whole New York excursion, when he promised me he'd stop skipping, he had. Luke said the principal told him things were going better this last month, but 'he just wanted to bring it to Luke's attention.' I don't think he needs a tutor; it's more to make Luke feel better than anything else."

"Oh," Lorelai said, holding the O, sounding like she was hearing a piece of juicy gossip, "So this is just an excuse to hang out and make out with your boyfriend."

"Mom!"

"Rory and Jess sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G. First comes love…."

"Stop!" Rory said, touching her cheeks when she felt them heat up in embarrassment. "It's not like that."

"Sure, it's not."

"It's not!… Not really, anyway." She mumbled at the end of her sentence.

"I knew it! Ah, young love."

"Okay, I'm ready to go," Rory said, coming out with a bag of books Lorelei was sure weighed more than her daughter.

"I guess we're driving."

"Probably for the best," Rory said as they walked out of the front door. "Hey, what happened on my third birthday?"

"Ohh, good, you really don't remember," Lorelai said, not giving any more information.

Dinner was nice, though the whole time she was wondering where Jess was, she hadn't seen him all day. She must have been too lost in thought because her mother noticed, "Earth to Rory, are you okay in there?"

"Huh? Yeah, sorry, just really focused on this yummy food."

"Uh-huh, sure you are. It's okay; you'll be with loverboy soon."

"Mom! Lower your voice," She said, looking around, hopeful that Jess didn't hear that. It wasn't often she found her mom embarrassing. She lowered her voice, "And don't call him that!'

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry. Got it, no codename lover boy. Oh, but then what can we call him? I vote for Caulfield."

"Mom!"

"You know, because of Holden…"

"I know why, and no!"

Lorelai laughed but didn't push it any further. "Okay, well, where's this study session happening?"

"Not sure yet, maybe down here, probably upstairs where there's less distractions."

"Hmm," Lorelai said, not letting her opinion show.

Rory opened her mouth to ask her mom what that 'hmm' meant, but Luke and Jess took that moment to come down the stairs. "I'm just saying you're acting weird."

"Since when is it weird to care about your nephew's education?"

Jess sighed, "That's not what I'm talking about and you know it! You've been acting weird all week. I didn't know it was possible for you to grow even more stoic and grumpy, but boy, did you prove me wrong."

"Jess, you're making things up in your head."

"No, I'm not! I've grown used to your and Lorelai's pitying 'oh how sad, no one should grow up like that' looks, but this last week has been different. You keep looking at me like you know something that I don't."

"Well, I do, I got a good 20 years on you, Jess, I know a lot that you don't. And we don't give you pitying looks."

Fuck yeah, you do."

"Language!"

"Sure, it's gotten better since the first month I got here, every time you both talked or looked at me, it was with big puppy dog eyes, and I swear I could hear, 'I can fix him and make it all better' playing on repeat in both your heads."

Luke sighed, he guessed he didn't hide his thoughts as well as he thought he did. "Jess…"

"Whatever, I'm used to it. Do you think you two are the first people to look at me that way? You're not. The first I can remember was back when I was six, and the state had to decide if Liz was a fit parent, they kept me at their office for a few days while they were trying to find her. That was a few months after you stopped coming around as often." Jess regretted the words as soon as they were out of his mouth, not only did Rory hear them, but so did Ms. Patty and Babette, the whole goddamn town would know within two hours, and that was giving them an hour to finish their meals and leave the diner.

"Jess…"

"It doesn't matter, forget I said anything. I guess I'll find out what you're hiding from me eventually." He walked over to Rory at the table and held his hand out, "Are you ready?"

"Mhmm." It was the only thing she could manage to come out of her mouth, and she placed her hand in his.

Jess saw the regret and sadness in Lorelai's eyes, but he ignored it, though he did nod in acknowledgment when, in a sad tone, she said, "Have fun, you two."

He didn't say anything as they walked up the stairs hand in hand. She probably thought he was upset, but really, he was embarrassed for letting his emotions get the best of him like that. He had a feeling this would open up a can of worms worth of questions that he for sure wasn't in the mood to answer.

"Wow, I've never been up this high in this building before."

"Strange, isn't it? It took me about a week to stop doing a double take every time I saw the stairs go higher now. My room isn't even on the top floor."

"Woah, so I finally get to see this special amazing room I've heard so much about?" She joked, just happy that he didn't seem too upset, though she was sure she'd have a lot of questions later.

"I don't talk about it that much."

"Last week, we were on the phone for two hours one night, and I swear you didn't talk about anything else, I couldn't even sway the conversation when I brought up my most recent trip to the bookstore." She saw Jess turn his head slightly to look at her, and her smile grew when she was sure she saw a light blush on his cheeks.

"Okay, okay, so maybe I brought it up a lot, I was just excited," He huffed.

"Aww, that's okay, I'm excited for you."

"I'm excited that there is finally someplace I can hang out with my girlfriend where we don't have eyes on us the whole time."

"Yeah, that doesn't sound too bad either," She said as she squeezed his hand.

"Without further ado, my room." He said as he opened his door with a flourish.

Rory's eyes widened, "Woah, this is huge!"

She walked in, taking in the room one area at a time, Jess following behind her. The only word that came to her mind was Jess; this was so his room, the band posters, and the clearly stolen street signs that were posted on the wall, the dark sheets on his bed. Her eyes grew even bigger when she saw the one wall that wasn't mostly windows was a huge bookshelf. "Woah!"

She walked over, one of her favorite things to do was discern someone's book organization, she thought you could learn a lot about a person by the way they organized their books. Jess' method didn't immediately pop out to her like most people's did, especially because there were books and CDs mixed up in seemingly no order. She got excited trying to solve the mystery.

She heard Jess plop on the bed but ignored it. Eventually, she asked, "Genre?"

"Yeah." He answered, already knowing what she was asking. "Well, kinda. More like genre mixed with the mood you want to be in while listening and reading it."

"Oh, yeah…" She said, the bookshelf making sense to her now. She decided she liked it; it was a very Jess thing to do. She was too type A to be able to keep her books like that, but she thought it worked well for him. After a few more moments, she turned to look at him, "Nuh-uh, no way. We're studying."

"What?" He asked innocently as he grabbed her bag and laid it out on the bed.

"No, we have a perfectly good desk right there. The table is for studying; the bed is not."

"But my new bed is so comfortable. I, for the first time since I moved here, don't wake up with a crick in my neck and my back hurting." He patted the bed invitingly, "Come on, feel it, I promise you won't regret it."

She huffed but gave in, it did look really comfortable, after all. "What are you doing?"

"Getting on the bed like you asked?" She replied, half question, half answer.

"No, you're sitting on the very edge with your back ramrod straight, how is that comfortable?" He again patted the spot next to him, his back against the wall and his legs on the bed. She rolled her eyes but climbed on, not really annoyed at all. When she made it to him, she rested her head on his shoulder, and her smile grew when she felt him kiss the top of her head.

"There, now see, isn't this a nice bed?" The best one he ever had by far, and the biggest, though he wasn't going to say that.

"Mhmm," She hummed, getting comfy. They were quiet for a few moments until she saw what Jess was reaching for. She sat up straight and pointed at him, "Nuh-uh, nope! Put that remote control down, Jess Mariano. I'm here to study, and that's exactly what we're going to do, I'm not going to let you distract me."

"Okay, fine, it was worth a shot, let's see what you got in this Ms. Frizzle bag of yours…"

"Hey, I used to love The Magic School Bus!"

"Are we going to do any of those School House Rock songs? Do you have the box set in here?"

Rory snapped her fingers, "Oh shoot, I forgot my cassette tapes."

"Well, that stinks because you know they say if you can just make learning fun…" Rory grabbed the pillow she was sitting on and swung it at him, Jess laughed, lifting his arm to block the swing. "Ahh, so I see we're going with the whole Catholic school nun approach to teaching. Don't tell me you have a ruler in there."

"Jess, be serious." She said while laughing.

"Come on, Rory, we don't need to study; Luke was just being like an overprotective parent. I bet he's never been called into the principal's office in his life; it was a big day for him, and he panicked. I'm good with school."

She looked at him, hard, trying to read if he was just trying to get one over on her or if he was serious. Jess made the most innocent face he possibly could, opening his eyes wide and tilting his head down.

Rory laughed, "That look doesn't work for you, innocent is not what comes to mind when I think of you."

"I take offense to that."

"Okay, okay, let's make a deal."

"I'm listening…"

"Give me one hour to really study, then I'll test you, and if you pass, we can go rent any movie of your choosing."

Jess considered it, "Nah, not worth it."

"Hanging out with me, your girlfriend, and having movie choice even though you know it's my turn isn't worth it?" She pouted.

He leaned forward and kissed her, when he pulled back, the pout was replaced with a small smile. He acted like he was thinking hard, "Hmmm, nope, not worth it. I'm going to need something better than that if you're going to force me to sit still and study for a full hour. Do you know how difficult that is for someone with ADHD?"

"Okay, then what will get you to actually study with me?"

"Hmm, I'm not sure yet. Let's go with to be determined at a later time of my choosing. Plus choice of movie and snacks."

"Oh yeah, right, like I'd sign a blank check like that."

"What? You don't trust me?" Rory couldn't tell if he was joking or was actually upset.

"Of course I trust you. But you should know me better than that by now; I'm a worrier and a planner, I like nice laid-out plans."

"Fair. Fine. Okay, then, the choice of movies and choice of snacks for the next three movie nights."

She thought it over for a few moments before holding her hand out, "You drive a hard bargain, Mariano, but you've got yourself a deal."

He looked like he was going to shake her hand, but instead, he snaked his hand behind her head and pulled her into a kiss. Rory was the one to finally break the kiss a few minutes later, "Nice try, but you're not getting out of studying that easily."

Jess groaned, "Ugh, fine. It was worth a shot. If I'm being honest, this is a little bit of a hit to my ego; I couldn't even distract my girlfriend by kissing her."

"It's okay; your ego can take the hit." Jess brought his hand to his heart and made a face as if Rory hurt him, causing her to laugh. "Oh, stop, you know you have no issues in that department, how many times have I almost missed the bus because of you?"

"Thanks, that helped, actually."

Rory laughed, "Alright, Cassinova, get your books."

"Sure I can't convince you to spend our time in more… entertaining ways?"

Rory felt her cheeks blush; she pointed to the bookshelf, "School books, now."

He saluted her, "Yes, ma'am."

The hour went by quickly. Rory knew Jess was smart, and he showed it when he actually tried, it was getting him to try that was the problem. She noticed he had a problem paying attention and staying still for too long. She knew he could do it, though, and she made sure to give him lots of encouragement, she had experience being a tutor, after all, so she knew what she was doing. Though, she could admit, if only to herself that this was the most fun she had tutoring before, she was sure she enjoyed the kisses of encouragement when he got an answer correct as much as he did. Rory was sitting in the same spot, at the top of the bed with her back resting against the wall, after switching positions maybe a thousand times, Jess was currently lying on his side, his head propped up by his hand, just high enough that he could see what he was writing with his other hand.

"Done," Jess said, handing her the notebook that held her self-made test.

She took it with a smile and looked down to see how he did. "Hey, this isn't Shakespeare."

"It's not?"

"It's the words of a Clash song."

"Ahh, but what Clash song?"

"I'm not the one being tested."

" Ten seconds," He said, looking at his wristwatch.

"Jess…"

"Nine, eight, seven…"

"Stop it!"

"Six, five, four…"

"You know you're really starting to,"

"Three, two…"

"Oh! Oh! Guns Of Brixton!"

"A plus."

She smiled again before getting serious again, "Jess, come on, we should be studying."

Jess threw his head back roughly and ended up lying flat on the bed, his head on the pillow, and groaned. "Rory, I can't take this anymore, I tried, I really did, I gave you a solid hour, can't we just take it for the win that it is?"

"Fine. We'll call it quits for today, but we're going to do this again, I have an addendum to our deal."

"What? That's not how it works!"

"It does today, on your other movie choice days, we do this again: an hour of real studying."

"Ughhhhhhhh."

"Come on, it was fun, right?"

"I can think of a lot of other things we could be doing that are much more fun than studying."

"Jess!" She said with a blush on her face.

"What?" He asked innocently. "Okay, okay, let's go, I already know what movie I want to rent."

"What movie?" Rory asked while quickly packing up her books and putting her shoes back on.

"Almost Famous."

"Oh, yeah, that's on my to-watch list. It looks like a decent movie." Jess nodded as he grabbed her hand, and they made their way down the stairs and out of Luke's.

An hour later, they were back in his room with the popcorn popped, soda cans opened, and bags of candy laid out. Not without the reminder from Luke as they were walking up the stairs to 'Keep the door open' and his empty threats of violence if he saw otherwise.

Jess wrapped his arm around Rory, pulling her close before pressing play on the remote. Jess liked the movie, he'd already seen it a bunch of times, though Rory didn't know that. It wasn't long before he found himself getting distracted by Rory, it wasn't like she was doing anything other than watching the movie and eating enough snacks for three people twice her size, it was just being close to her, having her alone without prying eyes.

His hand, which was just resting on her shoulder, started making a lazy circle on it without his conscious consent. He turned his attention back to the movie for a while before being distracted by her again, this time because she rested her head on his shoulder and snuggled in. He noticed Luke make and not so conspicuous walk past his door, and Jess waved at him like the asshole he was. There was no reason Luke would be up on this floor unless his bathroom broke or something. For all that talk of storage space Luke was so focused on during the renovation, the top floor was empty, so there was no reason for him to go up there either. He could rent it out to someone if he wanted to, but until then, Jess couldn't think of one reason Luke would be up there that wasn't just to check on them.

Whatever, Jess decided when he heard Luke walk back down the stairs, he wasn't going to let his uncle ruin his time with Rory. Sure, it wasn't quite as private as Jess had hoped being in his room would be, but it was fine. He reached over to turn Rory's head; she looked at him questioningly until he leaned in to kiss her. They went on like that for a while; Jess wasn't sure how long. They migrated to lying flat on the bed, Jess leaning over her, rubbing his hand up and down her side, her hands cupping his face.

He thought he heard a noise but decided he must have imagined it and gave his full attention back to Rory, back to making out with her. Enjoying the sound she made when he took her bottom lip between his teeth. This time, he was sure he heard a sound, someone clearing their throat. He froze, that was a woman's voice, fuck, he hoped it wasn't Lorelai, but who else would come up here?

Slowly, after breaking the kiss, he turned to look towards the door, Rory looking just as caught as he felt. If he thought he was frozen a second ago, it was nothing compared to the tenseness of his muscles when he saw who was standing there with a big smile on her face. He sat up, Rory following suit.

"Liz." He felt Rory tense up, too, knowing the name.

"Hi baby, long time no see, how are you doing?" She held her arms out for a hug.

"What are you doing here?" He asked, standing up but not moving closer.

"I didn't hear back from you after my letter." She slowly put her arms back down realizing she wasn't getting a hug.

"Yeah, well…" He trailed off, not in the mood to placate her or explain himself.

"It's okay, I probably deserve that."

He felt a little better when he felt Rory slip her hand into his; he squeezed it once. "So, what are you doing here?"

"This is your room, huh? I knew sending you here was the best choice. This one room is probably bigger than our last four apartments, nicer too." Jess scoffed, about to say something scathing, knowing that her sending him here was purely selfish and not for him at all, but she continued before he could. "Quiet, too. Oh wow, and look, you don't have to stuff your books under your mattress to use them as a box spring."

"Mom, stop." He said sharply but continued softer after everyone jumped at his voice, "Uh, just go downstairs, okay? I'll be down in a minute."

"Oh, right, right, sorry. Sure you probably want to say goodbye to your, uh, friend before we catch up. Okay, I'll be downstairs." She said and left without another word, shutting the door behind her.

Rory wasn't sure what to do or say, especially when it looked like Jess' legs gave out, and he flopped back on the bed, resting his head in his hands and exhaling loudly. She sat next to him and cautiously rested her hand on his back, feeling a little better when she felt him lean into her touch. A few moments later, he took a deep breath and sat up straight, "Well, that was unexpected."

"So, uh, that's your mom?"

"Yeah, but only in the loosest sense of the word."

"She seems nice." Rory ventured.

Jess laughed dryly, a little darkly. "Yeah, for now. Just wait until she gets a hold of Luke's beer."

"Jess…"

"Wanna get out of here? I can't really deal with this right now."

"Jess, she's your mom, you have to talk to her, I want to meet her too."

He scoffed and stood up, clearly searching his room for something, but Rory didn't know what. "Well, have fun with that. I'm going to head out."

"Jess!"

"No, Rory. You don't know her, and you should count yourself lucky. There's no point in me talking to her because I know exactly what she's going to say. She goes through cycles, and right now, it's the 'I love my kid and am going to make up for all the fucked up shit I've put him through' stage, it's by far the shortest of them, and if you don't mind, I'm going to sit out this round of the marry go round."

He picked up a backpack, and Rory couldn't help but wonder if he had that bag packed so he was ready to run at any moment. She didn't like that thought. He went over to the window and sighed, "What are you going to do? Jump down two stories?"

"Yeah, your window is much easier to get in and out of. I might want to avoid my mom, but I'm not trying to do it by breaking a few bones."

"Well, thank god for small mercies."

"I'd be stuck in a hospital bed with nowhere to run when she came to visit."

"Oh well, I guess that means we have to go downstairs and meet your mom."

"Rory,"

"Jess, it can't be that bad. I mean, I know from the little you've actually told me that things between you and your mom aren't great, but she's still your mom"

He walked over to her and grabbed her hands, making sure to look her in the eye. "Rory, I'm trying here. I'm not used to talking about certain shit, like my feelings, for example, but I'm really trying, and right now, I'm telling you I can't be here. Are you going to keep trying to convince me to stay, or are you going to come with me?"

Her eyes widened, for some reason, she felt like the next words out of her mouth were very important. She was his girlfriend; she wanted to help him, and she wanted to make things better for him, but she knew, above all, it was important to support him. She just didn't know what was the best way to support him. Leaving with him? Or using tough love to make him face his mom and hopefully make things better. She just wished he actually talked to her about his mom, because she knew things weren't like how she and her mom were. She knew that their relationship was so rocky he had no problem calling her by her first name, and she knew his mom was flaky to the point that he needed to start working at ten in order to eat, but she didn't know much more than that. She read the desperation in his eyes.

"Where do you want to go? And how do we leave without them stopping us?"

He smiled, a real smile, one she didn't see too often, and she knew she made the right choice. He started moving again but didn't let go of her hand, "Come on, I got an idea."

'Note to self,' Jess thought, 'The next time you get a strange feeling or premonition, take it seriously.'was so rocky he had no problem calling her by her first name, and she knew his mom was flaky to the point that he needed to start working at ten in order to eat, but she didn't know much more than that. She read the desperation in his eyes.

"Where do you want to go? And how do we leave without them stopping us?"

He smiled, a real smile, one she didn't see too often, and she knew she made the right choice. He started moving again but didn't let go of her hand, "Come on, I got an idea."

'Note to self,' Jess thought, 'The next time you get a strange feeling or premonition, take it seriously.'