Rory followed behind Jess with her hand in his, not sure where he was taking her, confused when it seemed like they were going up instead of down. Weren't they supposed to be getting out of here? She didn't say anything because this whole place was pretty much brand new to her since the remodeling. It seemed he felt her confusion, though, because he answered her unasked question.

"Before the remodeling, the only way to get to the higher floors was the stairs in the other shop, for some reason, Luke's only had half of two floors while the empty place next to it had the rest. I haven't been over here since Luke said he was going to try to rent this place out to someone trying to open up a new shop, but I think the stairs are still here."

"Oh, okay," She didn't want to ask because she figured this wasn't the right time, but she was also worried about the plan for once they got away. It wasn't like Stars Hollow was huge and they could just hide until his mom got bored and left. For all they knew, Liz was planning on staying here for a long time. She hoped not, and she knew that was probably a horrible thing to think, but she hoped Liz was just stopping by.

"Shh, these stairs squeak," Jess whispered, and Rory nodded.

She noticed Jess stand a little straighter once they made it outside like he felt a little more at ease. Though it was clear to Rory that he was still really uncomfortable, he was fidgeting, moving fast, and he kept looking around, looking over his shoulder as if he thought at any moment something was going to attack. She wanted to comfort him, like really badly, but had a feeling that was not what he wanted right now, that it'd only make things worse. So she stayed quiet and just followed where he led. It wasn't long before she realized where he was walking towards, she should have known right away, it was where he always went when he needed to think or something was going wrong for him.

As she sat down next to him on the bridge, she realized he still hadn't let go of her hand once. Normally, she'd think that was romantic, but she knew from his hold that it wasn't like that for him, it was more of a comfort thing, safety even. Which, she supposed, was romantic in its own right, your boyfriend taking comfort from you, trusting you to be there for him. She awkwardly let her backpack fall off her shoulder as she watched Jess just stare out into the lake. Her mind was swimming, trying to come up with ways to help him, but she was drawing a blank.

'Damn it, Lorelai, think! You're smarter than this.' She scolded herself.

She wondered back to how he had made her feel better in the past and felt a blush come over her; she was sure kisses weren't the answer right now. Then she remembered other times they were here, and when he read to her, yeah, that always made her feel comfortable and content. It worked for her when her mom read to her when she was little, too. So with that thought, she dug through her bookbag with one hand, the other still firmly grasped in Jess', she ignored all her school books and the ones she had for Jess' tutoring, skipping over the one she kept for when she was stuck on the bus, and dug all the way down to the bottom, to her book she kept in her bag for fun. She smiled when she saw which one she had on her because she and Jess had spoken of it before, and she knew he enjoyed it.

She opened up The Fellowship of the Ring, The first Lord Of the Rings book, and started at the very beginning even though it was earmarked almost halfway through, "When Bilbo Baggins of Bag End announced that he would be shortly celebrating his eleventy-first birthday with a party of special magnificence, there was much talk and excitement in Hobbiton…"

By the end of the first page, the tenseness in Jess' body started to ease, by page three, he was leaning closer, and by page five, he was resting his head on her shoulder with his eyes closed. Rory stopped after two chapters when Jess seemed more like his normal self. She didn't know what to do; she had never been in a situation like this before, but she knew for sure people were going to come looking for them soon, and they had to have a plan. She was surprised her pager hadn't gone off yet with her mom asking where they were. Hey, maybe they could go there, if her mom knew what was going on she would have reached out by now, since she didn't, her house was probably a safe bet.

Jess finally sat up. His mind was going a mile a minute, but he was thankful to Rory because when she was reading, and he could just focus on her, he was able to slow down and calm down. Now that she stopped, though, all the thoughts were back, and he was just as confused, hurt, and overwhelmed as before. What he wanted to do was grab Rory by the hand and walk to the bus station before hopping on whatever bus was leaving here the soonest with no intention of coming back, but he knew she wouldn't go for that. He doubted he'd even be able to convince her to disappear with him for a full night. Fuck, what was he going to do? He couldn't see his mom, couldn't deal with her right now. And what was she doing here? Was she trying to drag him back with her? Well, he had news for her: if it was up to him, he'd never live with her again.

Then again, he knew life wasn't like that, it wasn't up to him, if Luke told him to go with his mom, he'd have no choice but to go. He might not have to leave with his mother, but he couldn't stay if he wasn't wanted. Jesus, did Luke call his mom here because he was tired of Jess? What was he going to do if Luke wanted to kick him out? He couldn't go back to New York with her. Sure, that was his home for his whole life, but it didn't feel like that anymore, not really, he was making a life here for himself. He didn't want to have to go and do that all over again. Fuck, fuck, fuck, he couldn't go back, he'd have to go out and try to make it on his own, he had a decent amount saved up, not quite enough to put first and last months down on an apartment and enough to help him survive until he found another job but maybe if he found a roommate he could make it work.

He got up and started pacing. Or maybe the best bet would be to get the car from Gypsie before he left, it wasn't as if he was a stranger to sleeping in a car for a few days, weeks, months, his mom made sure of that. Yeah, that was what he'd do, he could stay at rest stops until he found his new home. He flicked the completely smoked cigarette he didn't remember lighting into the lake before turning around on his next pace and seeing Rory looking out over the lake. Rory, damn it, he couldn't just leave, that would mean leaving her. And even if he could convince her to come with him, he wouldn't want to put her through how rough it was going to be for the next few months until he was able to get himself settled. Maybe he could send for her then, when he had a place to live and food in the pantry? No, she had a good thing going for her, and he couldn't ruin that, plus, with someone as special as her, he knew there'd be someone sniffing at her coattails minutes after he left town. It wasn't as if she was in love with him or anything, so he couldn't expect her to wait for him.

No, there was no way she felt the same way about him as he did about her, life didn't work for him like that. He wasn't that lucky, having her care for him and wanting to be with him was the best he could hope for, there was no way she'd ever love him back. He stopped in his tracks. Did he just admit that he loved Rory? Did he actually love her? Yeah, of course he did, he'd known that for a while, no matter how hard he was trying to ignore it. Fuck, this was too much for one night, he had to put that sucker punch of a thought away for another day and focus on the immediate, what the hell was he going to do now? He didn't want to leave, but he had no choice, right?

"Jess…"

He stopped pacing, which when did he start back up again? When he heard Rory's timid voice, he turned to look at her, taking another drag of his probably third cigarette in as many minutes, "Hmm?"

"Don't take this the wrong way, but you look like you might be spiraling…" She ventured, standing and walking up to him slowly with one hand out like he was a scared, injured, but dangerous animal.

'Not too far off from the truth,' he thought sardonically. "Understatement of the century."

When she finally reached him, her hand landed softly on his chest before moving up around his neck, her other hand coming around to pull him into a hug, he automatically bent into it but didn't wrap his arms around her until he realized she was about to pull away. "Listen, uh, you've been very tight-lipped about your mom, and that's totally fine, I respect it and your privacy. But the thing is, I don't know what's happening right now clearly you're upset. But how upset are we talking, on the scale from one to Russel Crowe and his tendency to use phones as weapons?"

"More like Mel Gipson, Freeheart addition."

"Woah."

"Yeah"

"Okay, so I'm guessing you don't want to go home anytime soon."

"Nope."

"You can stay with me." Jess' disbelieving face was all the answer she needed, "Not with me, with me, I just meant my mom would probably let you sleep on the couch. It's extenuating circumstances."

"You think?" Jess hated how hopeful he sounded.

"It's worth a shot. Come on, let's go."

She held out her hand to him. He reached out and grabbed it; sometimes, it felt to him like he'd follow her anywhere. He mentally shook his head at the cheesiness of his last thought. The walk was silent and comfortable, but in the back of his head the whole time, he was worrying about his mom, about Luke, about his spot at Luke's, his future in general. And although he hated himself a little bit for still worrying about her, he was worried about his mom, how was she doing? Why was she here? Did she need money? Was she drinking too much? Was she getting into harder stuff than just the few lines of coke she always had handy?… did she need him? He was the one who made sure the electricity stayed on, made sure there was food in the fridge, and made sure she was up in time for work.

Those thoughts carried him the rest of the way to Rory's. He stepped up on the porch with her, but she stopped him with a hand on his shoulder, "Just… let me go in and talk to her by myself first. It'll go better that way."

"Okay, whatever you say." He trusted her. Though he didn't have very high hopes for her plan, he figured it was worth a shot.

Rory smiled, then leaned in and kissed him. As she was pulling away, he wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her closer, prolonging the kiss. It was strange, different than he normally kissed her, if Rory had to put a word to it, she'd have to say it was a desperate kiss, as if he was scared to let her go. She wanted to tell him he had nothing to worry about but figured now probably wasn't the best time for that. So she kissed him back until his hold on herloosened, and the kiss slowed.

"I'll be right back." She finally said against his lips when the kiss ended. Smiling as, she felt more than seen him agree.

She walked in the door, preparing to call for her mom, but she heard Lorelai talking to someone on the phone."No, they're not here, why, what's wrong? What happened?"….. "Oh wow, and he just walked out? Rory too?"…. "Well, it's not too surprising, given what he's said in the past." … "I know I said it was a good idea, and I stand by that, but maybe we should have given him a heads-up. All we know is what he told us, and knowing Jess, he probably only told us the bare minimum. It might be way worse than we know."… "She's crying? I'm sorry, I wanna help her too, but if Jess isn't ready to see her, you know we have to support him, maybe just give him some time."… "I know you're on his side, Luke! I wasn't saying otherwise. It's just that I know you're on her side, too, she is your sister, after all."… "There's nothing to feel sorry about, Luke. You're doing your best, and I must say, you're doing right by Jess, this is just another bump in the road. There will be plenty more, welcome to life as a parent with a teenager."… Rory heard Lorelai laugh at whatever Luke said, "I promise to let you know when they show up. I don't think it's quite time to send out the search dogs yet; they're good kids, and they're not going to do anything stupid."… "Yeah, yeah, I heard it, I'm knocking on wood now, so no jinxing happening here."… "Alright, call me if you see them."… "Bye, Luke."

Rory heard the phone hang up, and she was about to step out and make herself known when she heard, "You can come out, kid, I know you're there."

Rory walked into the kitchen with a sheepish smile, "Hey."

"Hey there, runaway. How was life on the road?"

"Dark and angry, it changed me. I think we killed a man in Tucson."

"Like mother like daughter."

"What?"

Lorelai laughed, "Where's Jess?"

"On the porch. So I guess you heard everything that's happening over at Luke's?"

"What is he doing out there? Get him in here! And yes, I heard."

"I'll bring him inside in a second; I just have a question to ask first."

"Oh yeah?" Lorelai asked while looking her daughter over. She took a seat; she knew Rory better than anyone, and she knew from the look that this question was going to be a doozy.

Rory quickly ran over to take the seat across from her mom, making Lorelai even more worried about whatever this question was. "You should have seen him, Mom, I was so worried. He's not okay. I guess you and Luke know more about his home life before coming here than I do, he doesn't talk about it much, but from what he did tell me, I know it was bad. He can't be around her right now; he's not ready to see her. Did you know she was coming? From the phone call, it kinda sounded like you did."

Lorelai sighed and looked down, regretting that she overheard that conversation between Luke and his sister, or at least regretting not getting him to talk to Jess about it after, "Yeah, I heard Luke call his sister to yell at her, and it ended with him inviting her over."

It wasn't often Rory got mad at anyone, much less Luke, but right now, she was sure she'd never been this angry at him in her whole life, if he was there, she'd do more than yell at him, she'd give him a piece of her mind. "He should have warned Jess. No, what he should have done was talk to Jess before inviting her here, but at the very least, he should have warned him."

"Yeah, kid, I see what you mean. But I also know he was just trying to help, trying to be there for Jess, be what he needed."

"Yeah, well, he messed up."

"Maybe, I guess we'll know for sure when Jess goes home for the night."

"About that…"

"What?" She asked with a note of warning in her voice.

"Mom, he's not okay, please don't make him go back there tonight. Let him sleep on the couch. I'm afraid if he doesn't have somewhere safe to stay, he'll end up sleeping outside because I know he's not ready to go back there and see her."

"…Rory…" Lorelai didn't know what to say; she didn't know what the right thing to do was either.

Of course, her initial reaction to her daughter asking for a boy to sleep over is a big honking no, especially because the boy was her boyfriend. But this was Jess, and even though things were a little strained between them for a few weeks there, over the months that he'd been here, Lorelai learned that he was a good kid, a really good kid who just had a really tough life and that life made him rough around the edges with walls around him a mile high, but he was a good kid nonetheless. And she knew, above all, that he never wanted to hurt Rory, it was clear as day that he loved her, and even if she wasn't ready to admit it, Rory loved him too. But that brought up another problem: two hormone bomb teenagers in love in the same house overnight was a recipe for disaster, then again, all she and Chris needed were the three minutes inbetween class in the janitor's closet, and voilà, Rory was made. So she also knew if they wanted to be alone together and intimate, her stopping him from sleeping over wasn't going to be the deciding factor. The most important factor, Lorelai decided, was that Jess was in trouble and needed them, and she'd be damned if she was just going to be another adult in his life who disappointed him.

She took a deep breath, "Alright, get him in here."

"Is that a yes?" Rory asked, her eyes lighting up in happiness.

"That's a bring him in here, and we'll talk."

The happiness dimmed a little, but not much, she got up and kissed her mom's cheek before running to the front door. "Okay, mom. Love you!"

"Love you too, kid." She said, though, she was pretty sure her daughter was already outside focused on her boyfriend.

Rory had a big smile when she walked back outside as she ran and hugged Jess again. "I feel like I should take this as a good sign, but you Gilmore girls are quirky, and I've been wrong before."

"Why is it when you call me quirky, I can't get over the feeling that you're calling me a weirdo, but in a way that won't get me mad?"

"Because you're a smart lady."

"Jess!" She said with a laugh as she slapped his chest, "You're lucky I like you, now come on."

"Is that a yes? I can stay?"

"It's an 'I think so, she just has to sit us down to talk and threaten us so we don't do anything to make her a grandma before the age of 70'". Rory blushed, even talking about the consequences of sex to Jess made her all gooey and shy.

"Ahh, okay, I'm pretty sure I can almost repeat this speech from her verbatim by now I've heard it so often."

"Me too."

Rory dragged him to the kitchen and sat down, a second later, Jess took the empty seat and looked at Lorelai, "Hey kid, how are you doing?"

Jess shrugged, trying to pretend like he hadn't been going through a complete freakout, and wasn't on the verge of breaking down, "I'm okay."

Lorelai squinted her eyes at him, seeing right through the lie, "Still, though, it must be pretty hard seeing her after so long."

"You could say that again."

"it must be pretty hard seeing her after so long." Both Rory and Lorelai said at the same time.

"Funny," Jess replied dryly, looking back and forth between the two.

"I have some rules if you're going to stay tonight."

"I'd expect no less."

"One: you're to sleep on the couch, and only on the couch, no late-night switches, in fact once it's time for bed, just don't get up at all; bring a glass of water to the living room in case you get thirsty throughout the night but remember not to drink too much, or it's going to get really uncomfortable sleeping because the sink in the kitchen has a drip and we all know what running water does to someone who already has to go to the bathroom." Jess cringed but let her continue, "Two: no sneaking off somewhere and doing something that'd make me become one of those shotgun fathers that chase the boyfriend out of the house hooting and hollering shooting wildly into the air because a) I've never shot a gun before, I can see that ending terribly and b) I don't want to have to go out and buy a shotgun, I don't even know where I could get one this late at night. Rule 3: we call Luke right now and let him know you're here and safe. I just got off the phone with him, and he's already worried, I had to talk him off the ledge; he was preparing to call the cops, plus you need his permission, I'm not going to go against him, he's your guardian."

Jess's eyes widened, he wasn't expecting that, it wasn't as if Jess hadn't gone off on his own before without telling Luke. Sure, Luke would notice, but noticing and worrying are two completely different things. He wasn't quite sure how to take that new information. Eventually, Jess swallowed, nervous for some reason, then nodded his head, "Okay, uh, thanks, Lorelai, it means a lot to me."

Jess' awkwardness was clear to the two, Lorelai took sympathy on him, "If you want, I can call him." Jess simply nodded, "Okay, why don't you kids go grab some take-out menus and pick the movie for the night, I'll make the calls."

"Thanks, Mom!"

"No problem, sweets."

"Yeah, thanks." Jess again said awkwardly, still not used to people going out of their way to be kind to him, though it was starting to get easier to take.

"Of course."

Rory grabbed his hand and dragged him over to the takeout menu drawer, she grabbed all of them and then pulled him into the living room. Rory was excited, it wasn't often she had sleepovers, her best friend was Lane, and it wasn't as if Mrs. Kim often let Lane out of her sight too long, let alone permitted her to sleep somewhere else. Paris had stayed over a few times, but usually, those were fewer slumber parties and more cramming sessions because a project or a test was due soon. She knew this was a unique situation, not a regular slumber party, but at that moment, she made a promise to herself to have as much fun as possible and make the most of it.

Jess, on the other hand, was lost in his own little world, lost in his thoughts, and right now, those thoughts were pretty dark. Sure, he was grateful to Lorelai and especially Rory for being there for him, but he was still stuck thinking about his mom, he wasn't naive enough to think that this would make her give up, that tomorrow he'd wake up, and she'd decide to head back home. And hell, even if she did decide that, he wasn't sure that was for the best either. He was just so confused, and he kept thinking about his life with his mom, all the dark times, of which there were a lot, but of the nice times too. Like that one time, she remembered it was his birthday and took him to Coney Island. Sure, they didn't have a lot of money, so he could only choose a few rides, but it was one of the best birthdays he had with her, one of the best birthdays he ever had.

He was so confused; his initial reaction was to run from his mom and stay as far away as possible for as long as necessary, but now that things calmed down a little bit, he was worried. She had to be here for a reason, and he had a feeling it was because she needed his help with something, and as angry as he may be at her, he'd have to help her if he could. She was his mom, and even though he had very love/hate emotions when it came to her, he also knew he'd do whatever she needed him to. Fuck, he decided, that meant he had to go talk to her.

"Jess?"

"What?" He asked. He had no idea what she was saying, but he had a feeling she was asking him something.

"Pizza or Chinese? Or maybe roll the dice with Al's? It's mystery night."

He chuckled, "You two are braver than me, I'd never roll the dice with mystery night."

"Oh, come on, it's not that bad!"

He held his hands up in surrender, "I know better than to get in between a Gilmore girl and her food, if that's what you want to order, you won't hear me complaining."

"Smart man," Lorelai said, walking into the living room.

"Did Luke answer?"

"Mhmm, yup, he did."

"Well, you don't have on the face that everyone gets after they've been yelled at and lectured by Luke, so I have to figure it went okay?" Jess asked, and Lorelai could hear the hope in his voice.

"Yeah, it went fine, he said take the time you need but to call him tomorrow, he wants to talk to you bright and early." Jess simply nodded, "So, did I hear we decided on Al's mystery night?"

"No, Mr. Weak Stomach over here can't handle it. I think we should go easy on him and choose pizza."

"What a wimp."

"You're telling me."

"Hey, you're the one dating him."

"I'm sitting right here, you know."

"Oh, you heard that? Sorry, I just assumed your hearing was as weak as your stomach," Lorelai deadpanned.

"Good one," Jess replied just as dryly.

"Okay, okay, pizza it is, but I better not hear any complaining about toppings."

"Now, now, Lorelai, did you so quickly forget how terribly you failed the hostess test last movie night?"

She mock gasped, "I thought we had an unspoken agreement never to bring that up again."

"Oh, we do, it was just a gentle reminder about treating your house guests well."

"Oh, right, I suppose that means you have opinions on pizza toppings,"

Jess held his hands up in surrender, "Me? No. Now opinions on movies, now that's a different story."

The girls laughed, for the first time since his mom walked into his room earlier today, he felt the tenseness and storm raging inside him ease. He wasn't really paying attention to the movie or the banter between Rory and Lorelai, though he was tuned in enough to laugh at the appropriate times, Before he knew it, the second movie was ending, and Rory was asleep, head resting on his shoulder and arm thrown across his stomach, he looked down at her and noticed a little trail of drool coming from her mouth, down her chin, and onto his shirt, his lips quirked into a smile. He knew for sure that he loved her because there was no way he'd ever consider the sight cute if it was anyone else, but with Rory, he did.

"Okay, I think it's officially time to throw in the towel, Rory's about five seconds away from snoring, and believe me, you don't want to hear that. You'll never be able to see her as a cute polished girl again. I swear, those snores sound like they're coming out of a 50-year-old man who's been smoking for 40 years and has sleep apnea."

"Quite the vivid description."

"And still, it's nothing compared to the sound."

"Well then, let's get her to bed. Gotta keep the mystery alive and all that."

Lorelai laughed and nodded. She didn't try to stop him this time when he scooped her daughter up and brought her to her bed. She watched from the hall as he grabbed the blanket at the end of her bed and placed it on her before running his hand over her hair and whispering, 'Night, Rory, and leaving the room, closing the door behind him.

Lorelai yawned, "Well, I think it's about my time to call it a night, too. I'm not as lucky as you teenagers; I have to work on Saturdays."

Jess just nodded as he walked back to the living room and started picking up the leftover food, wrappers, and dirty dishes. Lorelai watched him for a few moments before joining in, they cleaned in a comfortable silence, but Lorelai could tell Jess' head was all over the place, she wanted to help, but she didn't know how.

It wasn't until the living room was clean and they made a makeshift bed for him on the couch that she opened her mouth, "You know if you need to talk, I'm here. I get that we had two very different mothers growing up, two very different lives, but just because mine might not have been as rough as yours doesn't mean I don't know a thing or two about bad mothers. Even if I can't offer any help, at the very least, I could listen, sometimes, just letting the words out is enough to make you feel better."

She saw his body tense again, she expected it. Jess wasn't one for heart-to-hearts, and she had a feeling he still didn't completely trust her or anyone who said they wanted to help him. That was fine; she was still going to be there for him, no matter how long it took. For now, though, she knew by his posture it was time to back off. He knew she was there, and he'd come when he was ready.

"Thanks," he eventually muttered so low she wasn't sure she actually heard it or ignored if she made it up,

"Night, Jess. I'll see you in the morning. Oh yeah, and I sometimes sleep and eat, which means don't be surprised if I come downstairs in the middle of the night to make sure you're on the couch, I mean, to get a snack."

Jess smirked, "Okay, Hyde. Are you going to smoke a doobie before bed too?"

"What Red, are you going to put your foot in my ass if I do?" Lorelai countered.

Jess laughed, not expecting her to watch that show. "Night, Lorelai."

"Night, dumbass."