I am just crankin them out this week. That's probably a bad thing, since I'll most likely forget about one of them. Anyway another version of There's the Rub. Paris leaves before Jess arrives and then the madness ensues. I borrowed a few lines from the original episode. I hope you like it, PLEASE review to let me know if I should continue! I also appreciate criticism.
Disclaimer: I do not own anything affiliated with Gilmore Girls.
Chapter 1:
"You'll do fine Paris!" She shouts before closing the door with a sigh. One hour and fourteen minutes now gone of her 'alone' night…
She walks into the living room, eyeing her laundry, disappointed that she'd only successfully completed her whites and T-shirts with writing. She sat on the couch, contentedly separating her colors into piles of dark, medium, and light.
She walks to the washer, tossing in the darkest of the colors when the doorbell rings. She smiles thinking how delicious that Indian food would be, Lorelai would just have to deal with the smell.
Grabbing the money on the counter she walks to the door, yanking it open. Her head is down while she counts out the correct amount plus a tip.
"Hey Jerry, thanks for throwing in that extra…" when she finally glances up she sees a pair of long callused fingers wrapped securely around a brown cardboard box. Her eyes travel along denim-covered arms all the way up to brown eyes and a crooked mouth.
"What?" She's surprised and she knows it's evident in her expression. Her eyes are shifting from his face to what he's holding, trying to wrap her mind around it. Jess is here? Carrying mass quantities of food emblazoned with Luke's symbol? She hears him vaguely talking about delivering a care package.
She informs him that she already ordered Sandeep's and she almost smiles as he mentions burning the house down but she's still too shocked for pleasantries. He's talking again but she's more focused on his fingers as they grip the cardboard and they way his mouth hooks when he says kitchen.
Since when did he move so fast? She closes the door when she realizes he's no longer standing on the porch. His footsteps are light and quick and by the time she makes it to the kitchen he's already unpacked half the food.
"This could feed twelve." She's a little offended as she watches more and more being piled onto the table. She doesn't eat that much. She may not be a count-your-calories, eat-only-salad type, but watching a boy remove six hamburgers intended specifically for you was no girls idea of flattery.
"Excuse me, I've seen you eat." He talks like it's the most basic knowledge on the planet, giving her a knowing look.
She wants to deny it but being Luke's nephew, she knows it's pointless.
He's talking about getting out of the construction zone and she feels like he's lying. If he just wanted peace and quiet he would have gone to the bridge. She wants to call him out on it but knows he doesn't take well to accusations.
It seems he's already read her mind.
"Why, did you think I wanted to come over here and see you?" His smirk is smug and it makes her want to roll her eyes. Of course he would spin this onto her, like she asked him to come in the first place.
His excuses are sloppy and revealing, but she plays along, the truth is too awkward to face in this proximity.
She's waiting for him to leave but it's becoming increasingly clear that he has no intention of doing so. He's making small talk, a feat in and of itself.
The more he stalls, the more amused she becomes but it's soon turning into annoyance. She looks at the clock, watching seconds of her evening tick by. He's taking off his jacket and she wants to throw it back at him and tell him to put it back on but the words never make it out of her head, much less to her throat.
He leans back against the counter and she watches as the veins travel from his wrists up his forearms, standing taut against his olive skin. They disappear beneath the cuff of his rolled sleeves and she finds herself imagining her fingers traveling along them slowly, like a road map. She wonders what destination they would lead her to.
Her tongue feels thick and heavy as he steps closer to her. This is dangerous territory. With no one around it's not so easy to ignore.
"That sounded invitation-like." He openly stares, daring her to contradict him. She's up for the challenge.
"That was not an invitation. You barged your way into my house and then twisted my words." She raises her chin and crosses her arms.
"Really?" He smirks and she seethes.
"Yes really. This was supposed to be my nice quiet evening. I was going to do laundry, eat the food that I like, watch movies, and just veg out. Now with you here there can be no vegging. I have to be dressed and have make-up on and be girly all while playing the nice hostess." She clenches her jaw.
"Hostess? What…" He begins before she cuts him off.
"I should be wearing Mr. Peanut pajamas right now, sitting on that couch," she points to the living room, "folding laundry, eating tandoori chicken, and watching 'Airplane!'. Instead I'm in this cramped kitchen staring at twenty pounds of diner food, wearing jeans and a T-shirt, I'm about to go put on mascara and lip gloss, talking to you!" She finally ends with an exaggerated huff.
He looks at her and then clenches his jaw, looking away. She suddenly feels small and somewhat guilty. She catches his eye for a second and he looks upset. She uncrosses her arms and looks down. She fidgets with her foot, twisting the toe of her shoe on the floor.
He can tell she feels bad by the way she's suddenly silent and keeps changing her position. He decides to take the high road to keep her from beating herself up too bad.
He sighs heavily as he leans closer to her, supporting his weight on the back of the chair. "Look, how about I make you a counter offer?" She curls her hair behind her ear and he knows he has her attention.
"Go put on your pajamas, we'll call Sandeep's and cancel the order, you can sit on the couch and fold all the laundry you want since I'm sure you have some system for folding clothes too, I'll put Airplane on, and forget about the make-up. You know that's ridiculous."
He leans his head down, attempting to catch her eye and sees her chewing her bottom lip. She's thinking.
Finally she looks up and sighs. "I'm not changing into my pajamas." She's going to keep one sliver of dignity tonight.
"Ok." He grins lopsidedly. "I think Mr. Peanut will be very disappointed though."
She rolls her eyes but can't stop from smiling. "Well if he knows what's good for him." She grabs the cordless phone, calling Sandeep's and canceling the order, apologizing profusely if they already started to make it.
Jess walks out of the kitchen and into the living room, kneeling down as he spots the DVD cabinet.
Rory watches him from the hallway, blushing as his shirt rides up a little to reveal the top of his boxers and the small of his back. She spots a little brown spot shaped like a diamond and wonders if it's his birthmark. She turns quickly and walks to the laundry room, effectively stopping her train of thought.
He smirks as he looks over his shoulder and catches the red on her cheek as she retreats to the back of the house. He finds 'Airplane!' and puts it into the DVD player. As the display screen plays, he walks back into the kitchen and grabs the take-out, setting it on the coffee table.
She tosses her wet darks into the dryer and goes back out to find Jess already seated on the couch, munching on a french fry while he holds her pile of medium colored laundry.
When he sees her, he stands and hands her the clothes. Their fingertips briefly touch in the tangle of fabrics and she avoids his eyes.
"Need any help?" He asks quietly and his eyes make her nervous.
"I still…have some whites to fold. You could try if you want, but I'm very picky." She tries to act normal, gesturing to the small pile behind him. She walks away to put the mediums into the washer. Her head is foggy and she doesn't like the way her heart is beating.
He stares after her, wiggling his fingers slightly to get rid of her touch. He blows out a breath slowly before walking over to her whites. He smirks when he sees the first things on the pile are a bra and panty set, made of simple cotton. He'll probably picture her in this later, but for now he respectfully moves them to the side. Touching her underwear, even if he had pseudo permission, stills strikes him as a slightly creepy move. One he's sure she wouldn't appreciate.
He folds her clothes somewhat carelessly, knowing no matter how meticulous he is, she'll refold them herself. She was only accepting his offer to be polite. He's beginning to understand just how well he knows her. And he thinks she is too. It makes her uncomfortable and for some reason that makes him oddly happy.
Walking back, she blushes deeply when she spots her underwear seated to the right of the pile. She picks up the clothes and she can tell he sees her utter embarrassment, but he chooses to ignore it, instead picking up a burger and beginning to unwrap the foil.
She feels some type of inexplicable happiness, knowing he's taking her feelings into consideration. She wonders if Dean would touch her underwear. Probably not. He's much too worried about her virtue for that.
She's pretty sure Jess isn't concerned with virtue. He's probably more worried of her having a nervous breakdown if she had found him twisting her panties around in his hands.
In her bedroom she blushes brighter than before, feeling like she's about to start sweating in her thin clothes, as flashes of him at the foot of her bed flit through her mind. She can see his bare shoulders, one of his hands is holding her bare leg at the ankle, slightly elevated. His other hand is slowly pulling her panties over her foot…
She abruptly tosses the clothes into an open drawer and slams it shut, trying to stop all such images from entering her mind. She rakes her fingers through her hair, effectively pulling off her headband and tossing it onto the dresser. Her heart is still pounding and she lets out a shaky breath. She calms herself as much as possible before walking back to the living room.
When he sees her he knows something is off. Her pupil's look dilated and her hair is a little mussed. Her walk is somewhat clumsy as she stumbles on her own foot. He raises his eyebrows at her but she avoids his eyes.
"Did you refold the clothes?" He smirks at her, trying to lift whatever funky mood she's in.
"Um, yeah." She lies unconvincingly. That had been her original intention, at least. She didn't think she could trust herself to look at those particular clothes right now without blushing.
He shakes his head slightly at her nervous nature, but hands her a burger instead. He'd already removed the pickles and lettuce.
She sits beside him, making sure there's a cushions distance between them, and smiles in appreciation as she takes the food. When she lifts the bun to take off the lettuce and pickle, she finds it's already removed. She looks at the coffee table to see two pickles and a leaf of lettuce sitting on top of a napkin and grins. She looks over at him and sees he's already looking at her, smiling as well.
Two hours later they'd consumed half the food and watched the entirety of 'Airplane!' and were now forty-five minutes into 'Titanic', as Jess mercilessly mocked every minute of it.
"This is like Romeo and Juliet on ice." He laughs when she throws a french fry at him.
"Would you please shut up? I realize this is a terrible movie, with a terrible plot, and it's cheesy, as are most romances, but I told you this was my alone night and I was going to watch my movies. Now if you're going to mock every minute of it then you might as well leave." She glares at him through the darkness of the living room. "And…yes it is like Romeo and Juliet." She grudgingly admits, burying herself deeper into the cushions.
"How can you like this? It's so unrealistic. They fall in love in the course of five days and then she just loves him forever, regardless of the fact that she marries and has kids with another man. Don't you think that's a little unfair to him?" He glances at her sideways, smirking at the annoyed looked on her face.
"Didn't you hear her? A woman's heart is a deep ocean of secrets. You're supposed to overlook that. It's romantic okay, just accept it." She huffs loudly, trying to indicate this conversation is over.
"That is not romantic. That's about as unromantic as it gets. She's been in love with another guy for 80 years."
"Fine!" She shouts, picking up the remote and stopping the movie. A blue glow settles over the room as the screen saver pops up.
He chuckles quietly and looks at her to see that she's glowering into the darkness. "Fine I'm done." He says holding up his hands.
She glances at him, still holding her angry expression, but it's slowly softening. "You swear?"
"Cross my heart." He says while rolling his eyes.
"Pinky promise?" She asks holding up her hand and sticking her pinky out.
"I am not pinky promising." He scowls at her, looking at her finger with furrowed brows.
"Come on. It'll make it official." She starts to smile, amused by his displeasure.
"No." He pushes her hand away with his own, then crosses them over his chest.
"Mean. Me and Lane used to all the time." She pouts at him and clasps her hands in her lap.
"And how old were you?"
"Six…or seven." She admits sheepishly.
"Exactly." He twists to the left, reaching to the far end of the coffee table to grab his soda. As he did so, his shirt lifted up, once again revealing the diamond shaped spot on his back.
Rory stared at it before looking up in time for him to turn around without noticing. She looked back at the TV screen quietly, contemplating.
"Hey Jess?" She glanced at him.
"Yeah?" He asked, not really paying attention.
"Do you have a birthmark?" She tries to ask nonchalantly.
"What?" He turns to face her, completely thrown by her seemingly random question.
"Nothing, forget about it." She says, taking a sip of her soda to hide her embarrassment.
He looks at her for a moment before saying, "I'll show you mine if you show me yours."
She turns back to him, "Really?"
He silently lifts up the back of his shirt, displaying for the third time that night the small diamond pattern.
"It's a diamond." She smiles at him, pleased with herself for already knowing where it was.
"Your turn." He smirks at her.
She turns a little pale. She hadn't exactly thought this through. Her birthmark wasn't located so innocently.
"I…" She trails off, not knowing what to say.
"We had a deal." His expression is turning a little more serious, and it makes her heart beat faster.
She coughs to clear her throat and takes a deep breath. She stands and looks at him nervously before continuing. She hooks her thumb into the top of her jeans and pushes the left side down about two inches to reveal a reddish-brown circle on the V of her hip.
The hand on her hip is trembling slightly and she looks up to see that he is staring intensely at the mark. He licks his lips quickly and his hand begins to slowly drift upwards.
Her breathing is faster now and she's entirely focused on his hand as it rises higher. The minute it comes in contact with her skin her lips part.
His hand is on her hip, his thumb placed perfectly over the mark, while his other fingers wrap around her side. He stands and softly places his other hand on her waist.
The hand that was on her hip is now resting on top of his. She feels his fingers gripping her skin and she tries to slow her breathing.
That's when they both hear it. A knock at the front door.
I know, evil cliffhanger. But hey, it's the only way I can keep you guys coming back! I hope you liked it and PLEASE review!