A/N: Thanks to those who left positive reviews - thank you, as always :) A little unsolicited advice for those leaving negative reviews, because they either don't ship Rory/Jess or just don't like the way this story is going - stop reading my fic, because you're only hurting yourself. If you leave comments telling me how you don't like either the canon or my fiction, I'm just going to hit delete and likely won't even read the whole review, because I actually don't care and don't have any more time to waste on that stuff. Now, for those who do ship Lit and want to see what happens next in this story, buckle up because here we go... :)

(for disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)

Chapter 15

"Seriously, Mom, are you feeling okay?"

Rory looked up fast at the sound of her son's question, feeling worse than ever when she saw the genuine worry in his eyes. Now she was scaring Noah. After confusing herself and crying all over her mom, it really was a banner day for Rory Gilmore. Shaking her head, she laid down the fork she had barely been using on the side of her still practically-full plate. No wonder he was worried about her. When a Gilmore didn't eat, there was always something up.

"I'm sorry," she told him, reaching around the table to put her hand on his arm and squeeze comfortingly. "I have a lot on my mind right now, but I promise, I'm okay, or I will be, really soon, I swear."

Noah looked less than reassured. "Is it about... him?"

"Him?" Rory echoed, unsure why it came out as quite such a squeak as it did.

"My dad," he muttered awkwardly, "because if it is-"

"No, it's not about Logan," Rory promised him genuinely. "I swear, as much as I probably should be thinking about him, I haven't. Not today anyway. At least, not since... Uh, well, Jess came over today."

"Oh."

The smirk that produced on Noah's face was almost scarily similar to one that she had seen too many times on her ex's face. There was absolutely no way for any of the Mariano blood to have got into her son, and yet.

"Oh?" Rory echoed, trying to meet Noah's gaze, but he evaded valiantly. "Am I supposed to deduce something from that 'Oh'?"

"Not really." Noah shook his head. "I just had an idea he might come see you soon, maybe ask you something specific?"

"Ask me something?" Rory shook her head too. "Jess didn't ask me anything. Was he supposed to?"

"Not exactly." By that time, Noah was actively squirming, which didn't seem good. "Noah Richard Lucas Gilmore-"

"Okay, okay. He wanted to ask you out!" he said too loudly, moderating his tone the moment he must have noticed her flinch. "I mean, he seemed like he did, so I said maybe he should. You know all I want is for you to be happy, right? And since you guys have known each other forever, and you obviously used to date, and he obviously still likes you... Look, if I made things weird, I'm sorry. Like I said, I just want you to be happy."

Rory had a feeling she was going to start crying all over again any second, but at least they would be very happy tears if she did so. Noah was, without question, the best kid in the world. Not that she didn't know that already. Not that she wasn't aware of her huge bias on the subject. Still, he really was pretty damn special.

With everything that was going on with Logan, his trying to track him down, then the prize ass himself making such a mess of their reunion, and still Noah was thinking of Rory's happiness ahead of his own. It was incredible, and wonderful, and if it were possible for her to love him more, she absolutely would, but Rory was sure she didn't have any more to give to him - he already had just about every drop she had.

"Hey," she said softly, encouraging him to look at her again. "I have you. That automatically means I'm happy."

He smiled at that, just briefly. "I'm not a kid anymore, Mom. I do know people can be happy with their life, their family, their job, whatever, and still not be a hundred percent happy. I know about people needing people. Men and women needing each other. God, please don't make me say anymore!" he urged her.

At that point, Rory wanted to laugh rather than cry. It was kind of funny and kind of awkward, but of course, she did know exactly what Noah was getting at. Thankfully, she didn't think he was directly talking about sex, because that had been a horribly awkward conversation when the original facts of life talk came up a while back.

He was smart enough to realise that there was more to a romantic relationship than just the physical, especially for those not running purely on teenage hormones. Apparently, he could also see something between her and Jess that even she hadn't been wholly aware of. Rory wasn't sure if that made her son even smarter than she ever realised, or just proved that she wasn't half so intelligent as she once thought.

"Noah, honey, I, I am grateful that my happiness is a priority for you. You know that it's the same for me, right? That all I ever want is for you to be safe and happy and-"

"I know," he confirmed, nodding once. "But you know I can be happy with you dating, right? I mean, I don't want to hear about it or anything, because seriously, who wants to hear that from their mom?"

"Not me," Rory confirmed without pause.

"Exactly, but you deserve somebody who really wants to be with you. You know, like Grandpa Luke and Grandma Lorelai, or Aunt Lane and Uncle Zach. I want you to have somebody, and Jess seems like a good guy."

"He is a good guy." Rory sighed, even as she confessed it. "Trust me, the first time we dated, when we were... well, just a little older than you are now, he had his problems. I think he told you about some of them?"

"Absent father, unstable mother." Noah nodded his agreement. "A lot of issues."

"Yes, he did have," Rory agreed.

"But he's over it now," her son told her happily. "I mean, he seems like he is, and he's been really cool with all this crazy stuff we've had going on with my dad and everything. I know he likes you, I think probably as much as he did when you guys were young, which is a little crazy on the surface, but I can't exactly think it's weird that a person could love you for their whole life or whatever. You're pretty amazing, as moms go."

Rory laughed at that, she really couldn't help it. It was such a fourteen-year-old boy thing to say. The last part was, of course, very sweet in its way, and strangely, the rest of what he said really simplified a lot of the things that had been playing on Rory's mind ever since Jess first confessed to her, a few hours ago, that he had been in love with her for thirty years straight.

She could only think how crazy that was, how insane. How anybody's feelings could be that constant, even when they weren't seeing the other person, were barely even talking or keeping up with their life. The way Noah put it, it sounded more like a fairytale. Like the prince being so dedicated to his sleeping beauty, that he would wait a hundred years for her to wake from slumber and return to him. He could never love another as much. It was so strange to be getting romantic notions from her son, but Rory couldn't deny she appreciated the perspective.

"So, you said Jess didn't ask you out?" Noah looked confused. "Because he must've said something."

"He did," Rory confirmed. "He, uh... Well, I guess what he did was give me the option of us going out again, but without really asking me. I know that doesn't make much sense to you, and I swear I don't mean this to sound patronising, because you're right, you're not a kid anymore, but it would be really hard to explain to you right now."

He looked a little bemused, but not like he was going to argue or push, which Rory took to be a good thing.

"Okay," he said, eventually. "So, he's giving you the option, and you just don't know which option you wanna choose?"

"Something like that." Rory nodded. "Although I have to admit, it's a tempting offer. I don't hate the idea of a date with a guy I already know is kind and trustworthy, not to mention fun and interesting. I haven't had much of that in my life lately, at least, not in a dating way."

"You haven't had much dating in your life at all, and don't get me wrong, I can live without having a mom like... well, you know, Jess' mom," he said pointedly - Rory knew he knew as much about that from overhearing Luke talk as anything Jess told him, "but like I said, I also want you to be happy, always."

He was the best kid. As if Rory didn't already automatically think so, but aside from one brief moment of what she chose to think of as temporary insanity, when he ran off to New York without a word, Noah really was proving himself over and over, especially of late. At least she understood his motivation for the unannounced trip. She only hoped that opening up this whole can of worms with Logan wouldn't complicate their lives as much as it seemed it might. She dreaded making it worse by adding Jess too far into the mix.

"I just think maybe the timing is bad," she admitted, staring down into her barely-touched food. "I mean, you just reconnected with your dad, and that's a really complicated situation-"

"Which has absolutely nothing at all to do with you dating Jess," Noah told her before she could begin to ramble, as they both knew she was prone to do, even now. "Mom, if there's one thing I know for sure, it's that my parents are not getting back together," he said firmly, his hand on top of hers to get her full attention. "I'm not looking for that. I was never looking for that. Well, maybe when I was super young, but not for a really long time now. I just... I wanted to meet him. I'm pretty sure even after everything he said to me, about you and his other kids and all, I'm still going to talk to him again.

"There are answers that I need and... But anyway, like I said, this is not about me wanting the perfect nuclear family. I have you, and Grandma and Grandpa, plus Aunt April, and this whole 'found family' vibe with just about half the freaking town," he told her, grinning too much and making her smile also, in spite of the tears still burning in her eyes. "I promise, I'm cool with it."

Rory sighed. "Okay, and thank you for that," she insisted, turning her hand over to grip onto Noah's own, "but I want you to promise me something. If you're ever, you know, not cool with it, if anything at all starts to make you feel uncomfortable, in any way, and that includes anything to do with Logan or his family, or Jess, or me, just anything, I want you to tell me. Promise me, you will talk to me about what's going on with you. Please, Noah."

"I promise," he told her fast, meeting eyes before repeating the vow. "Mom, I do, I promise."

She believed him. As a rule, her kid didn't lie, and when he looked at her like that, thankfully, she didn't see the shifty look that Logan too often wore when he was spinning her a line or a half-truth. She saw a steady, honest gaze, the kind she knew she could believe in, since it looked a lot like a similar expression her mom so often wore.

"Okay then," she said at last, nodding her head. "Enough talk for now, let's finish up with dinner, because I think we're both going to be needing our strength!"

Jess was deep into a novel, when a knock on the door startled him out of concentration. He couldn't imagine who would be up there. Anybody who came calling on him had to pass through the diner, and it wasn't as if a lot of folks in town would even want to come visit. Luke might knock, but he would walk in a second later, not worrying too much about waiting for an invitation, not least because it was his place anyway. That really made it a toss-up between Noah or...

"Rory."

He smiled when he said her name, pleased as anything to see her, and yet his heart lurched at the possibility of what she had come to tell him. After his confession about what he still felt for her, what he had always felt for her, she had been pretty quick to get him out of the door. She needed time to think, to process, and he could understand that, but now, she had come to see him, and her expression wasn't exactly sunny. That couldn't be a good sign.

"Uh, come in," he said belatedly realising he should've done so right away. "Sit down, please."

"Thanks," she replied, moving towards the couch, before doubling back and pulling out a chair by the table instead.

She didn't need to say why she did it, Jess was pretty sure he already knew. The couch may be a different piece of furniture to the one she was recalling, but it was in the same place as the old one. The memories still hung around that part of the apartment, a lot of parts of the apartment, truth be told, as vivid sometimes as if the events only happened yesterday, rather than the better part of thirty years ago.

"I'm sorry to come around so late. Honestly, I wasn't sure I was going to make it before the diner closed and I didn't want to be banging on the door after that. I mean, maybe you wouldn't mind, but Taylor still has the ears of a bat, even after all these years-"

"Rory," Jess said gently but firmly, jumping in before she could ramble too far away from the point. "Could you maybe just say whatever you came to say?" he urged her, sitting down in the next chair over and trying for a smile that he was pretty sure didn't quite come off. "I'm guessing it's not good news."

"Why would you say that?" she asked, shaking her head, a frown creasing her brow. "I mean, I didn't come here with bad news. At least, I don't think it's bad. I can't imagine you would either, unless what you said earlier was just-"

"What I said earlier was the truth," he confirmed without pause. "Come on, you really think I would tell you something like that, then change my mind a few hours later?"

There was a brief burst of laughter that came out in her sigh. "No," she admitted, "but you have to know, Jess, you, you just about floored me with what you said. If you had told me you wanted to try again, that you thought it might be fun to go on a date and see what happened, I probably would've handled it better. What you said was that you loved me. After thirty years... I'm sorry, but I wasn't expecting that. Which doesn't mean to say that I'm not flattered, or that I don't... You know I love you, the same way I love all the people that I've been close to for so long. Right now, I'm not sure that it's the same love that you're feeling. I wish I knew, I really do. I just wasn't expecting to need to know, I guess," she told him, as honest as she had ever been, he knew. "When you were never around, and I had Noah... I can't say I forgot about you. How could I? That would never happen..."

"But there was at least a little 'out of sight, out of mind' going on." He tried not to let the words come out bitter, but Jess wasn't at all sure he managed it.

"A little, I guess," Rory confirmed, nodding her head, fingers twisting in the straps of her purse, as they had been ever since she first sat down with the bag in her lap. "But like I said, that doesn't mean I'm feeling negative about any of this, because I'm not. You surprised me, but Jess, I, I really am glad that you told me how you feel. Like I said, I'm flattered, and I'm not unhappy at all, and if you wanted to, well, go out or something?" She shook her head then, worrying him that she had immediately changed her mind, but no. "That sounds so small and stupid after everything you said, and at our age... Is it stupid?"

Jess shook his head, cleared his throat so the words might actually come out right. "Not to me," he promised, still more softly than he meant to.

He watched Rory take in a deep breath and let it out slow. "Okay then," she said eventually. "So, we're going out on a date and seeing what happens?"

"I guess we are." Jess nodded once. "Uh, you want me to book something...?"

"Sure, yes," Rory agreed. "Oh, but not in the next couple of days. I'm sorry, but Wednesday is-"

"Your birthday. I know."

"Right." They shared a smile, on his side born of pure happiness, on hers perhaps the same, at least, he would like to think so. "Well, there are plans afoot for that, but obviously, you're not here forever, so..."

"I can be here as long as I want. How about Friday?"

"Friday?" She looked thoughtful for a second. "Sure, Friday is good. You can just text me about a time, or call, or drop by," she suggested, as she got up as if to go. "Pretty sure I'll be dropping by here in the meantime anyway because, you know, food."

He followed her to the door and opened it for her, since she seemed in kind of a hurry to go. Turning back around on the threshold, she ended up very much in his face, not that Jess was complaining one bit.

"Why is this so weird?" she asked him, eyes moving over his face.

He wished he had an answer to that, but he didn't. His mind was entirely taken up with trying to figure out if he was allowed to kiss her or not, until suddenly she took a small step back.

"Bye, Jess."

"Bye, Rory."

In spite of that, she didn't leave, just continued to look awkward, swaying a little in place. Just when he was about to ask what was wrong, she suddenly lurched forward, pressing a kiss to his cheek, then quickly walking away, before he could hardly blink.

"Friday," said Jess, still standing there long after she was gone, with the dumbest grin on his face, that just wouldn't shift.

To Be Continued...