A/N: Thanks so much for those interesting and supportive reviews, reader-peops! :) Now, how about a whole chapter of Jess, Noah, and Rory? :)

(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)

Chapter 8

Rory wasn't exactly expecting anarchy when she got back home. Her son wasn't usually so unruly, and they certainly seemed to have at least a little bit of a breakthrough in communication earlier, but there was tension still. Leaving a grounded fourteen-year-old alone in the house could mean trouble, Rory knew, but she hoped not when it came to Noah.

As she let herself in through the front door, she frowned on realising she could hear two people's laughter coming from the kitchen. Part of her son being grounded was not having his friends over, and that definitely wasn't Luke's voice she could hear. No other guy ought to be in her home unannounced, as far as she was concerned. There was a horrible moment when she actually thought maybe Logan had shown up out of the blue. She felt instantly guilty when she realised just how wrong she was.

"Hey, you tell anybody you heard that from me, there will be consequences!" said Jess, still with laughter in his voice, making his threat seem a little empty.

"I swear I won't," Noah replied, sounding equally amused. "But dude, that is so cool."

"Huh. It's been a while since anybody thought anything I did was cool."

"Apparently, it's a lot of years since you did do anything cool. You're my mom's age, right?"

"Yes, she and I have the same carbon date, more or less," Jess snarked, in the way only he could. "Geez, when did being in my forties make me ancient?"

"It doesn't." Noah assured him. "But first-wave Millennials, man. It's like this whole different era."

"Welcome to my world," said Rory, stepping into the kitchen at last. "I'm constantly being reminded that our generation are so 'old school' and 'we just don't get it.'"

"I never said it was your fault, Mom." Noah rolled his eyes. "You guys just didn't grow up with the technology or the awareness that my generation did. You can't help being behind the times, but don't worry, I get that it's tough for you. No shade."

Jess scoffed and looked away.

Rory only smiled indulgently at her son, shaking her head at the same time.

"Okay, I think that's enough mocking of your elders now," she told Noah definitely, before looking to Jess. "You didn't have to bring him home from anywhere else, did you?" she checked, only half-joking, truth be told.

"I actually came here to see you. I mean, to talk, catch up, like you wanted." Jess seemed to be floundering horribly, his eyes constantly shifting between Rory and Noah. "We just started out comparing notes on absent fathers, and then... conversation moved on," he admitted awkwardly.

"Jess pulled the best pranks back in the day." Noah grinned at Rory.

"Uh-huh. Yeah, those are things I really hoped you would share with my fourteen-year-old," she said, cutting her eyes at Jess.

It was one of the few times in her life when she had seen him squirm horribly. As much as it shouldn't be, it was still as entertaining as it had ever been in times gone by.

"Okay, so, I'm heading back to my room," said Noah, hiking his thumb over his shoulder, then quickly disappearing through the other door.

His footsteps went across the living room and up the stairs fast, leaving Rory to stare at Jess, and Jess to squirm some more under Rory's new and improved withering stare.

"I swear I did not mean to tell him about the pranks, it just sort of happened," he admitted awkwardly, yet the smirk she knew so well was evident beneath the guilt. "Come on, he's a smart kid. He knows better than to copy-cat seventeen-year-old me. Besides, I made sure to tell him that if he did, I would personally be letting the authorities know which door to come knocking on, the second the chalk outlines appear."

Rory didn't mean to smile, she really didn't, but between the look on Jess' face and the memory of that particular prank, along with others she had secretly enjoyed so much, she just couldn't help herself.

"Oh my God, Jess," she found herself saying then, one hand to her forehead, even as she tried hard not to laugh. "I can't believe you're here and that you're telling my teenaged son about things like that! Seriously, were we ever that young and foolish?"

"Apparently so," he admitted, leaning back on the counter across from where she was now doing the same.

It was a nice moment. Strange, but nice, at least for as long as it lasted. Rory was pretty sure she should've known it couldn't be long. In all the time she had known Jess Mariano, their relationship seemed to be constantly ricocheting between perfectly wonderful and awkwardly terribly, or maybe that was terribly awkward? Both seemed to fit in their own way.

"You never told him that we dated."

His words were not a question, but a statement. Not an accusatory one, Rory noted, but still, she hadn't been expecting him to say it, just like that, if she had even expected it at all. Her first reaction was to say that the subject had never come up, but that would be a lie and Rory didn't want to do that. The truth was usually better. Not always, she had found, as she grew older, raised a son, and so forth, but usually.

"No, I didn't tell him about that," she confirmed, forcing herself to look at Jess the whole time. "Up until a couple of days ago, it never came up, and then, when he asked... I don't know. It felt kind of strange to say. You and me, dating, it was such a long time ago."

Though she hoped it didn't show on her face, inside at least, Rory winced at the sound of her own words. What she said was true, of course. It was a long time ago, but that choice of words, even the way she had said them, it sounded flippant, dismissive. As if what was between them once upon a time didn't even matter anymore and perhaps that it never had.

"Jess..."

"Hey, I don't blame you for not telling him," he told her fast, presumably trying to pre-empt whatever she might say next. "I didn't either. He asked. Pretty sure he's as smart as his mom and then some," he said, with a smile that was so genuine she could hardly stand it. "Anyway, I told him it was not my place to talk to him about your past, and even though I was comfortable sharing parts of mine, that wasn't an area I was prepared to get into with him. That's how you want it, right?"

Rory opened her mouth to answer, but then closed it again without a single word or sound escaping. It was a simple question that ought to require a simple answer. 'Yes, you did the right thing,' 'No, you got it wrong.' Two very easy choices and she already knew the first one was the correct choice, yet she didn't say it.

Instead, she was doing what she so often did. She was overthinking, overanalysing. Unable to keep from wondering if Jess had kept their dating history from Noah for her sake or for his own. Wondering if it meant he might even regret what they once shared, or if he was just too scared to bring it up because he was harbouring hopes of, what? Rekindling something? That would be crazy, and yet, Rory heard Lane's voice in her head and wondered if that were really true. Heard Noah making his own pointed comments about Jess' potential lingering feelings for Rory and wondered at those too.

'Pretty sure he's as smart as his mom and then some,' is what Jess had said about her son, which was a very nice compliment, but was there more to it than just that?

"Rory?" Jess prompted, letting her know she had been silent too long. "Hey, if I got this all wrong-"

"You didn't," she told him fast. "I'm sorry, I'm not... This is all a little crazy and unexpected and... I know it's stupid, but between Noah running off to New York and then you being here, I feel like my head is going to explode a little bit."

"Can things actually explode just a little bit?" asked Jess, seriously enough that it made her laugh out loud.

That was probably his intention. God, she loved him so much sometimes. The very thought of those words should have been scary to contemplate, but honestly, Rory couldn't worry about it. She already knew she loved Jess. What form that love took was a whole other question, but after so many years and all they had been through, yes, there was love in her heart for him and there always would be.

"Thank you, Jess," she told him then.

"You said that already," he reminded her.

Presumably, he was thinking only of his bringing Noah back to her, or maybe even hanging around long enough for them to spend some time. That wasn't what she meant at all. For that, at least, she was determined to find the right words, the right answer. Rory was starting to realise this might be one of those 'now or never' times in her life, too many of which she had allowed to slide by all too easily in the past.

"I meant thank you for... well, everything. I don't think I've been grateful enough for you being in my life before, Jess, or maybe I have but, but I don't know that you've ever realised how much I appreciate you. Maybe I didn't either, not entirely, not until you were gone so long. It's been a really long time."

He looked away then, the guilt back on his face, the same look he wore too often when they were young and he knew he had screwed up again. In their teen years, he did his best to mask it with anger, humour, anything so that she wouldn't see the pain. Rory hadn't known how to help him then. She had barely known how to help herself. At least with all this time past, with all their life experience, they ought to do better. She ought to do better.

"Jess, I don't know exactly why you haven't been around much in the last... wow, it has to be the better part of a decade, at least. I could make some educated guesses, but I won't. All I do know for sure is that I've missed you. Some times more than others, but I have missed you. We've known each other such a long time, even though I know I had seventeen years of my life before you came along, it's tough to imagine a time when you weren't there. I almost feel like it's been even longer than it has. I have trouble contemplating how we have not seen each other for these last ten years, not once."

Rory hadn't realised how emotional talking about it was going to make her, until she heard her own voice crack, felt the tears welling in her eyes.

"I know people grow up and grow apart, and you have a life that can't always be in Stars Hollow. I don't want you to feel guilty for not being around, that's not... You don't owe me anything. It's a long time since either of us have owed each other anything, but I... I'd like to think that maybe we could both make more of an effort from here on out. Now that I've seen you again, I'd like to keep on seeing you, sometimes. You think you would want that too?"

She almost dreaded the answer he might give her, even though she was fairly certain it would be positive. Maybe that was what she feared most, him telling her what she thought she might like most to hear. That he cared about her still, that he loved her even. That after all this time, she was still the one.

Despite all that she had heard from Noah and Lane, she couldn't really believe it was true. They had put foolish ideas into her head, and she had been reminiscing too much. Her and Jess as anything more than friends, that was so long over, it was laughable to even consider it for a second. She had to see if that way. Surely, he did too.

"I'm sorry I haven't been around so much," said Jess at last. "I... There were reasons, probably too boring to mention, but I'll try and be around more, if that's what you want."

"It's what I want." Rory nodded into her confirmation, a smile curving her lips. "I always want us to be friends, Jess. Really good friends."

"Me too."

His voice was as soft as it had been a million years ago. Quiet moments between them in the dark, that she could never quite forget. Times when he had told her things she knew he would never tell anyone else. When she had sworn he was going to cry, but he never quite did. When she had almost thought he might tell her he loved her, but instead he had kissed her, and still she felt as if he had said the words somehow.

"So, I guess a good friend would make you a cup of coffee," he said then, clearing his throat and sounding like Jess would usually sound as he moved to put on the machine. "You really look like you could use one. Not that a Gilmore girl ever really looks like she doesn't."

Rory smiled and pulled herself up onto a stool by the counter. "I'm not sure I should expect a friend to make me coffee at my own house, but I also won't try and stop you."

"I never thought you would," he told her, sounding amused as he went about his task. "But since we've reestablished what great friends we are, there's something I should probably say to you, you know, friend to friend."

It was tough not to let herself feel equal parts hopeful and wary as she asked him what it was he had to say. Not that he answered right away, which only made it worse. Rory was about to prompt Jess to go on, when suddenly he turned around and faced her head on again, his expression caught somewhere between serious and pained.

"I think you need to talk to Huntzberger."

Rory wasn't sure how to take that, not least because it was probably the very last thing she ever expected Jess to say.

"I know, it's not my place to give a parent advice, not least because I have no experience in this area whatsoever," he went on, before she could think of anything to say herself, "but I know what it is to wonder about an absent father. What I said before still stands, me and Noah, we're two very different people in two different kinds of situations, but we talked a lot today and, and I just really think he needs to see his dad. I get that it's awkward and it won't necessarily end well, but he needs something. Even if it's just a fight and a chance to yell. Even if it's proof of what an ass Logan really is. He needs something. Some closure, I guess. Not having that..."

"It eats away at you," Rory finished for him.

Jess only nodded in reply, turning away again in a second when he realised the coffee was ready.

Once again, Rory opened her mouth to speak, but found she just didn't have the words, or maybe she did and was just to afraid to speak them. At her age, she hoped to have got over her inability to speak up about anything. There was nothing to be scared of, especially not when it came to Jess, she was sure, but saying any more about what they used to mean to each other, what they might mean yet, she just couldn't. Not with everything else that was going on. She just didn't have the capacity, not in her brain, most especially not in her heart.

"Here," said Jess, placing a steaming mug of coffee in front of her.

"Thanks," she replied, reaching for said mug before he had quite taken his hand away, their fingers briefly touching. "Jess..."

"I think maybe I should go now."

"Really? Why?" she asked, feeling sick at the thought. "I mean, you came to talk, to catch up, and all we talked about so far was super serious stuff about Noah and Logan and... Please, I want to hear what's going on with you. Tell me about Truncheon and the guys, and what books you've been reading, and your travels. You have been travelling, right? I'm sure Luke said something about Europe."

"He did. I was over there for a while," Jess confessed, "but I don't know how interesting I am as travelogue guy."

"I know I'll find anything you want to share interesting," Rory insisted. "Please?"

It wasn't fair. If he wanted to leave, she should just let him. Using what he used to call her 'turning on the big blue eyes' was so underhanded and just plain bad, but Rory couldn't help herself. Part of her wanted to see if it still worked. The other, larger part just really, really wanted him to stay and talk to her some more, about anything, about everything.

"Fine." He sighed like it was the biggest inconvenience in the whole world to spend any time with her, and yet the smile he tried and failed to repress proved that wasn't true at all.

Rory knew she was grinning as she led the way to the living room and took up her place on the couch. Maybe it a hurt a little that Jess sat quite so far away from her, but she got over it fast. She had his company and attention for a while, and in that moment, it was all she wanted.

To Be Continued...