A/N: This has been on my mind since I first saw "The Prodigal Child Returns." Honestly, I was expecting this to happen, and I was so shocked/offended that it didn't. So I decided to write this out to feel better about it.

Dedicated to Vera Cobb because she gave me the nudge I needed to complete this :) (Go read her stuff – it's amazing!)

Standard disclaimers apply.

Phone Call

Lorelai is happy, truly and completely happy for the first time in months. Her best friend, her daughter, her partner in crime, has finally come back to her, and she can barely contain herself.

She's babbling a thousand miles a minute and she doesn't even realize what she's saying. But it doesn't matter, because Rory's back!

Rory's back, Rory's back…

"Mom? You okay?" Rory asks, grinning as she digs into a bag of Red Vines, pulling one out to munch on.

Lorelai focuses on her daughter. It's so nice to finally see her again, the real Rory. For a while there…

The smile fades a little from Lorelai's face as she tries to figure out why Rory is suddenly the old Rory that makes lists and grounds herself again.

"What made you change your mind?" Lorelai asks, taking a Red Vine from the bag in Rory's hands.

"About what?" Rory yawns for the tenth time that minute. They've been up for hours talking, watching movies…making up for lost time.

"About…everything. Living with Emily and Richard, the DAR, Yale. How did you come to the realization that you had temporarily gone insane?"

There's a small smile on Rory's face. It's full of relief and appreciation. "You won't believe who."

"Oh, a who? Who?"

"Well…it was Jess."

Lorelai keeps staring at Rory's face, waiting for her to start laughing and yell, "Psyche!" but she doesn't.

"Jess. You mean…Jess…" and she trails off, because it just can't be…

"…Mariano. Yes. Him."

"Jess. Jess Mariano. The Jess that lived in Luke's apartment for over a year? The Jess that you dated? That Jess?"

Rory sighs. "Yes, how many other Jess's do we know?"

Lorelai stutters for a few moments, not quite sure how to word the series of questions she has in her head.

"Look, I'm really tired. I'm going to go to sleep, 'kay? We'll finish our movie marathon tomorrow…" Rory stands up and sluggishly moves towards her bedroom, leaving Lorelai sitting in the exact position she was in when Rory dropped that piece of news on her.

Jess Mariano. The infamous hoodlum of Stars Hallow. The boy that swept into town with a devil-may-care air about him, darkly handsome looks, and a mind bright enough to grab Rory's attention.

Lorelai knew that boy was trouble the moment she saw him. She saw the turmoil and rage behind those piercing dark eyes. She had identified with the turmoil and rage behind his piercing dark eyes. She recognized ones like them from years ago, having seen them in the mirror when she still lived with her parents.

But he's smart, that she knew was true. She would watch him at the corner of her eye, and he carried a different book with him everywhere. But it was never showing off like some people do to show how sophisticated or intelligent they were for reading Hemingway or Dumas. He did it for his own pleasure, just like Rory.

And when she started making those comparisons between Jess and Rory years ago, Lorelai knew that trouble lay ahead, because she knew that her daughter would realize them too.

He was too messed up for Rory to handle. She couldn't fix him, and it broke Lorelai's heart to see that look of defeat in her daughter's eyes when Jess ran away. He was her first failure, and she hated Jess all the more for doing that to her daughter.

But he woke Rory up – that must mean something, even though Lorelai isn't sure what. And she has to know.

She doesn't even realize that she had already grabbed the phone and dialed Luke's apartment until she hears a gruff, "Hello?"

"What's Jess' number?" She never thought she would be saying anything remotely like that.

"You want to know…what?" He sounds more awake.

"How can I contact your nephew?"

"Lorelai…it's almost four in the morning."

"Just give me the damn number!"

"Okay, okay, geez. Do you want to explain why you're doing this? Do you remember who Jess even is? Speaks in monosyllables…brooding in nature…dated your daughter for a period of time? Left town without a word?"

"Yes, that's why I have to call him. Do you have the number?"

She hears him sigh. "Yeah." He recites a number and she scribbles it on the corner of a magazine cover. She doesn't recognize the area code.

"Thanks Luke. I'll explain tomorrow. Or later. I'm never quite sure which one to say –"

"Good night."

"Night."

She hangs up and stares at the number she wrote down. The numbers are shaky. Why is she so nervous about this? Is it because every time she spoke with him, it was like she was speaking with a more dangerous version of her younger self?

She dials each number slowly, a second in between each one. She quickly tiptoes to her daughter's room and is satisfied to see the door is shut and there's no light seeping under, meaning she's out for the night.

The phone rings for a long time, and she's about to hang up when she hears a groan that she supposes is a greeting.

"Hi…could I speak to Jess…Mariano?"

"Y'speakinahim."

"Oh…hi."

There's a long silence on the other end and she thinks that he hung up on her until he says in a quiet, but clear voice, "Lorelai?"

She swallows. "Yeah. Hi." She remembers a cold fall day where there were awkward greetings, but she saw a heartfelt fondness in his eyes when he talked to her daughter. It frightened her then.

There's a pause. "How are you?" he asks before clearing his throat, throwing her off guard. This boy barely spoke two words whenever he was in her presence, and now he's asking about her wellbeing like a gentleman?

"I'm good, really good, and yourself?"

"Tired," he replies pointedly.

Well, some things don't change, like monosyllabic answers. But she supposes that's a Danes family trait.

"Sorry for calling you so late…early…whichever way you prefer to look at it. But…well…I had to call to see if it was true."

He doesn't say anything.

"You know…you coming to see Rory?"

He's not going to make this easy for her.

"She told me you snapped her out of…whatever thing she was under," she whispers, biting her bottom lip.

"She's back in Yale?"

"Yeah, she is. She's back to normal."

"Good."

Tears in her eyes make her nose sting. "Thank you…so much for bringing her back. You have no idea how painful it was going through that, not speaking to her." She tries so hard not to cry.

She can imagine him trying to appear nonchalant. "I didn't do much."

"That's not true, everyone had tried to convince her to go back, and no one has been able to for the past few months except you."

"If you say so."

Same old Jess, and Lorelai has never been happier about that.

"Uh, not to pry, but why did you visit Rory in the first place?" Lorelai asks, getting comfortable on the couch.

There's an uncomfortable silence. "Nothing. Was in the neighborhood…just wanted to catch up."

"Uh huh." She doesn't believe that at all, but she supposes Rory will fill her in later, which she thinks is what Jess is relying on. "Funny, isn't it? This whole…situation."

"I guess. Unexpected and awkward, yes. But sure, funny works too."

Lorelai has so many questions for this boy. Does he still love her daughter? She has a sneaky suspicion that he does; he's the most intense out of all Rory's boyfriends, and he would be the one to feel the deepest, but the last to admit having such emotions.

"You changed. I'm really happy…for Luke's sake. And Rory's. And mine."

"Look…you don't have to continue the mushy stuff."

She looks down at the hem of her ratty t-shirt. "Sorry that I didn't really give you a fair chance years ago…I was kind of bitchy to you."

"It's okay. I was a jerk too, no biggie."

She wants to hold onto the conversation for a longer amount of time. She actually wishes that he were sitting across from her, so they could have a deeper conversation. She supposes that this is the unsatisfied feeling Rory must've felt after he left.

"So…is that it? Because some people actually have to work in a few hours."

"Well, well, you've grown up," she says in a soft voice. "I feel like I should…I don't know…pay you back somehow."

There's a brief pause before he says, "There's one thing you can do for me."

"What?" For a brief moment, she wonders if that's really safe.

"Make sure Rory doesn't…continue to involve herself with people that don't know the real her, including that jerk."

"Logan? You met him?"

She thinks she hears him chuckle a little. "Oh, yeah. Quite the class act, really. Richard and Emily would be proud."

"Oh, you have no idea," she mutters.

"Do you like him?"

Does Lorelai like Logan? She does find him charming and extremely good looking…but he does rub her the wrong way sometimes. But Rory loves him…and that should count for something, right?

"I don't really have a say in the matter. Rory is going to date whomever she pleases."

"You don't like him. The only one you ever really liked was Dean." He doesn't sound malicious. He just sounds really tired, and she isn't sure if it's because of the hour in which the phone call is taking place, or if it's because the whole situation between him and Rory is just old.

Lorelai then realizes with a shock that he's so behind it all. He doesn't know that Dean and Rory had briefly gotten back together. He doesn't know that Rory had given her virginity to Dean, instead of Jess, who Lorelai thought would be the one to take her innocence away completely.

"I wish it was you, sometimes." At least if it were, it would never be a regret. It would forever be remembered as a moment of complete passion during Rory's eighteenth year of life.

"What?"

"Never mind. Delirious. Eating nothing but junk food for the past six hours."

"Isn't that normal for you Gilmore girls?"

She smiles a little. "Yeah."

Why doesn't she want this conversation to end? This is ridiculous – it's awkward, strange, and way out of her comfort zone. But the only thing that keeps her going is the fact that Jess hasn't tried to end the conversation either.

"Dean turned out to be a cheating bastard. So…I don't know which one of Rory's boyfriends I liked the most. I know I should say Logan…but…I can't help but think at least with you…it was always what you see is what you get. Of course you had other sides to you…but…"

"Lorelai…you know that's not true. You're just saying all this because I maybe convinced her to figure out what she was doing with her life. You're grateful for my existence, for that one moment. I bet in a few weeks, you'll go back to silently hating me. You'll remember all the crap I pulled when I was seventeen and you'll hold me to it."

Lorelai is hurt and a bit insulted by his curt words. "That's not fair, Jess. You're not the only person capable of changing. Yeah, I hated you four years ago, but could you blame me? I was worried about my daughter. Dean wasn't like a real boyfriend. He was…straight out of a movie. Polite, friendly, sweet…and I never really had to worry about her."

"You know, even though I'm over hating the Bag Boy, I still don't want to hear his praises."

"The point is you were just…you were the typical rebellious guy with the dark looks and the unpredictable air to him. And to normal people, that would be enough to do them in. And I first thought, 'Well, not enough to tempt Rory!'" She takes a breath. "But it's like you were tailored to make her fall for you. Because not only did you have those qualities…but you just happened to be well read and extremely smart. That combination is just…Rory was a goner. And it scared me because I saw you hurting her in every way possible. And I suppose that I was right about that."

"Look, Lorelai, I was really messed up back then; I had these bad…I had a lot of things going on and if I stayed…I think I would've exploded. Or done something worse."

There's a long and painful silence. She knew he was messed up back then, there's no other explanation for his sudden running out of town. But she never considered the possibility…

"You wanted to change for her," she gasps.

"I have to go. Work."

A tear falls down Lorelai's face. "Okay. Thanks, again."

But he'd already hung up.

She wipes her face and takes a shaky breath. Looking down at her phone, she wonders when she'll ever get to see him again…

The wedding.

Now she has more than one thing to look forward to on whichever day Luke and her decide on. She can't wait to see for herself how he had changed; just hearing him on the phone unsettled her, so she can't imagine how Rory handled it in person.

Or maybe Rory was just proud that Jess morphed into the potential man she obviously saw in him years ago.

Lorelai hangs up the phone and makes her way up to her room, extremely tired, but pensive.

Jess Mariano, blasting in and out of Rory's life, as if determined to not be forgotten, unwilling to remain a high school boyfriend of the past. Because he's more than that.

And from that phone call, she knows he deserves more than that.

A/N: So I make my return! If you want me to stick around, review! It makes me very happy :)

MissGoalie