Finally, chapter five! I hope you like it. Thank you for reading, please review!

Disclaimer: I do not own anything affiliated with Gilmore Girls.

Chapter: 5

"Okay, for the next hour we're pretending your name is Hans, you were born in Belgium, and you immigrated to the U.S. at the age of eighteen to pursue your life long dream of becoming a masseur because I think my feet might be permanently fused in the tiptoe position." Lorelai groaned as she kicked her heels off in the hallway and winced when her aching feet met the cold hardwood floor. She slipped out of her coat and threw it on a hanger before walking towards the living room. "Babe?"

Rory sniffled slightly and turned her head towards her mom. "Hey." She said weakly before turning back to her large bowl of chocolate chip ice cream.

"Oh, Rory!" Lorelai said, concern filling her voice, as she immediately walked over and sat down beside her daughter. "Sweetie, what happened?"

"It was so awful Mom." Rory sobbed for a moment before breathing in sharply, trying to steady her emotions. "One minute everything was going great, normal, and then the next we were just screaming at each other. I don't even know what happened." She shook her head as a new wave of tears hit her.

"You and Dean?" Lorelai blew out an astonished breath. "I don't understand. I thought everything was going great." She pursed her lips and gave Rory a questioning look.

"So did I." Rory stirred the spoon in her bowl, creating a slurry of chocolate chips and vanilla ice cream. "We were watching a movie and I mentioned that I was hungry, and I don't know, I guess I said something about possibly going to Luke's…"

"Oh, not good." Lorelai winced and gave her a sympathetic look.

"And then he just snapped." Rory licked her lips in a dumbfounded way. She let out a small huff as she ran a hand through her hair. "He started saying all this stuff about how I'm constantly over there and the only reason I go anymore is to see Jess. I couldn't help it, I just got so angry and upset that I started yelling back, but then he got this look on his face like…" She trailed off and swallowed hard. "He just looked so upset. And so hurt, I didn't even know what to do. I've never seen him like that before. And when I told him I loved him it was like…like he didn't even believe me."

"Honey." Lorelai reached out and pulled Rory to her, rubbing her back in a motherly way. She pulled back a little and brushed some hair out of Rory's face. She put her hands on her arms before saying, "Dean knows that you love him. Anybody would have to be crazy not to see that."

"But he sounded so unsure, like he really didn't know anymore." Rory wiped at her face with trembling fingers. "I thought I was being a good girlfriend, I thought I was being attentive and caring-"

"Hey, stop right there." Lorelai said firmly. "You are a crazy awesome kid and the best girl a guy could ever hope to have. You have been so good to Dean. You call him, you see him, you dressed up like Donna Reed for him for God's sake." Rory couldn't help but let out a sporadic spurt of laughter through her tears. "This is in no way your fault."

"What if you're wrong? What if I have been doing something that I shouldn't have. Maybe I shouldn't have been going to the diner so much." Rory's voice picked up in speed as a small dose of panic set in.

"Maybe you need to chill out." Lorelai planted her arms solidly on Rory's shoulders and gave them a firm squeeze. "Let's focus, shall we?" She took a deep breath before staring at Rory intently. "Now, have you kissed Jess?"

Rory's mouth hung open for a minute before she spluttered for a response. "No!"

"Have you wanted to?"

Rory's face burned a deep crimson. "No!"

Lorelai eyed the blush on her daughter's cheeks but proceeded with her line of questioning. "Have you guys been sneaking around behind Dean's back for secret late night trysts among the ketchup dispensers and salt shakers?"

"Of course not!" Rory's voice rose in indignation.

"Then, Rory, you did nothing wrong!" Lorelai said definitively. "You haven't cheated, you haven't even thought about cheating. You've been completely loyal and faithful and whatever is going on with Dean is his own problem. I'd have to say it sounds like he's feeling very insecure."

"I just don't understand. I don't know why he's feeling that way. I mean, he doesn't even know about yesterday." She said quietly for a moment before her eyes widened and she looked at her mom, panic stricken. "Oh my god, you don't think he found out do you?"

"Well, did he say anything about it?"

"No." Rory said a little breathlessly.

"Then I think it's safe to say he didn't. I doubt that's something he would keep to himself."

"Yeah, yeah you're right." Rory swallowed hard and nodded, some of her composure returning.

"I hate that he's making you doubt yourself like this." Lorelai gave her a concerned look.

"It was just so sudden, that was the first thing that came to mind. But, I'm okay now. I don't know what I was thinking; of course I've been a good girlfriend." She said with a little more confidence and a reassuring nod.

"Aw, that's my little trooper." Lorelai grinned in relief, happy that Rory was acting like her usual confident self.

"Thanks for letting me know that I was acting like an irrational bimbo." Rory sighed and leaned against Lorelai's shoulder.

"Hmm, I don't think you could handle being a full blonde just yet." She gave Rory a squeeze before standing up. "So when do you think you'll see him?"

"I'm not sure. He said he needed time to think and that he'd find me when he was done." She gave a half-hearted shrug and looked down at her lap.

"Ugh, men. How much time is 'time'?" Lorelai made a disgusted face. "Hey, I say if he's not groveling at your feet by the end of the week, begging for your forgiveness, he's certifiably insane. It'll be his loss, not yours."

"Thanks Mom." She smiled softly at Lorelai who returned it warmly before walking up the stairs to her bedroom.

"Aw, that sucks, big time." Lane pulled at one of Colonel Clucker's feathers as her and Rory sat cross-legged on Rory's bed.

"Tell me about it." Rory mumbled as she flopped back onto her pillows.

"And he walked out, just like that?"

"He said he needed time." Rory sighed and shrugged her shoulders as best she could.

"Time? Like 'Planet of the Apes' kind of time?" Lane tossed the Colonel onto the foot of the bed.

"God, I hope not." Rory's faced scrunched discontentedly.

"I'm just trying to get into the right frame of mind here."

"My mom gives him a week."

"Hmm, I give him three days." Lane said with a resolute nod.

"Hey, this isn't 'Maverick', I didn't ask you to place your bet." Rory shot her a pointed look.

"You're right, sorry." Lane gave her an apologetic cringe.

"Lane, what do I do?" Rory asked miserably with a slight pout.

"Give him space?" She answered uneasily.

"That sounds so lame." Rory swung her legs off the bed and walked over to the CD player.

"I know, definitely not my best advice as of late." Lane shrugged. "But what else can you do? It's not like you can force him to talk."

"That's the worst part. If I push him it'll make everything worse, but just sitting around doing nothing makes it feel like I'm losing him even more." Rory flipped through her CD's slowly. She lifted two and turned to her best friend. "Aesop Rock or Pulp?"

"Which Aesop?"

"Float?" Rory shook the CD's slightly in her hands. At Lane's nod she removed the CD from its case and put it in before returning to her spot on the bed.

"Do you really think you're losing him?" Lane asked hesitantly.

"It feels that way. The past couple of months have just been…weird." Rory said with a resigned shake of her head.

"There's definitely been some drama." Lane nodded in agreement.

"I never thought dating would be this complicated." Rory picked at a thread on her sheet.

"That's because your innocence has you ill-prepared for the world's harsh ways." At Rory's glare she relented. "I'm kidding. Besides, I think we've both seen enough episodes of 'Beverly Hills, 90210' to understand that relationships are very tricky."

"I guess I should be thankful he hasn't slept with Kelly Taylor yet." Rory cracked a smile.

"That's always a good sign." Lane grinned back.

Rory idly swung her legs back and forth, the tips of her converse barely skimming the water's surface. She shivered as the breeze blew softly, casting a few fallen leaves onto the pond's edge, and pulled her jacket closer. She sighed softly as she turned another page of 'The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test'.

"Too young to be a beatnik and too old to be a hippie."

Rory glanced up and smiled momentarily before turning her attention back to the page in her hand. "Hey."

"Hey." Jess walked leisurely across the old wooden planks, scuffing the heels of his boots with each step. He smirked as he watched Rory's expression slowly turn to aggravation due to his noisy approach. She hated having her concentration broken.

He stood behind her and peered over her shoulder, knowing she hated that as well. When she refused to close her book he frowned slightly before lowering himself to sit beside her. "What's with you?"

"What do you mean?"

"You didn't even comment on my Kesey reference."

"I'm concentrating." Rory continued to stare at her book, though it was obvious the words were long forgotten.

"You haven't been by the diner in a few days." Jess rested his weight on the palms of his hands as he stretched his arms behind him.

"You keeping track?" She said with a little bite to it, turning a page to feign indifference.

"It's kind of hard not to notice your absence." He drawled lazily in a flirtatious tone and gave her a sideways glance.

Rory felt her cheeks flush with a mixture of embarrassment and pleasure. She quickly glanced at him and blushed deeper as she caught his amused expression.

Jess smirked in satisfaction at her revealing discomfort, reveling in his ability to so easily rile her.

She cleared her throat softly before speaking. "I've been busy."

"Or you've been avoiding it." He countered knowingly. "So what's wrong?"

"Nothing." She answered curtly.

"Okay." He said with a sigh. He extracted a cigarette from his pocket and rolled it between his thumb and index finger.

They sat in silence for a moment, Rory still keeping up her 'reading' charade, and Jess idly rolling the cigarette between his fingers.

Finally Rory sighed and closed her book. "There is…something."

"What happened to nothing?" He asked smartly.

"Fine, forget it." She narrowed her eyes a little.

"I'm just messing with you." He grinned slightly. "Come on, tell me."

"Dean and I had a fight." She stared at the water and dipped the toe of her shoe in, watching the resonating circles.

"Seem to be having a lot of those lately." He commented offhandedly.

"Yeah, well, I've just kind of been in a funk for the past couple days."

"You guys haven't made up?" His brow furrowed slightly.

"We haven't talked in four days." She stated miserably, slapping the sole of her shoe against the water.

"Why not?"

"He's…thinking." She sighed before pulling her legs into a pretzel.

"Thinking?" Jess asked with an incredulous scoff. "About what, how Taylor can afford to sell those green beans at five bucks a can?"

"I don't know, whether or not he wants to be with me." She said bitterly with an exasperated huff.

Jess was silent for a moment, momentarily shocked at her outburst and all that it implied. "Do you want him to want to be with you?"

"What?" Rory's head snapped to the side as she stared at him in disbelief.

"You said things have been weird lately and you've been fighting more. Maybe it's for the best." He shrugged slightly.

"This is how you comfort somebody?" She glared at him and folded her arms.

"I'm not trying to comfort you, I'm being honest." He finally lifted his forgotten cigarette to his lips and lit it quickly, inhaling deeply.

She snorted. "That's a first."

He grinned at her evasive response, knowing she didn't want to explore the possibilities of his words. "No, I'm serious."

"We've been together for more than a year." She stated as if it were justification.

"So were Ike and Tina, you see how well that turned out for them."

"We have no reason to break up."

"Other than the two I've just stated." He flicked some ash into the water.

"Whatever, I'm done talking about this." She huffed and looked away from him.

He nodded his head and took a slow drag.

"Why do you care so much anyway?" She suddenly asked, turning her body so she was directly facing his side.

"About what?" He asked nonchalantly, staring straight ahead.

"Don't act stupid, you know what." She looked at him expectantly.

"I don't care." He denied, finishing his cigarette and flicking it into the pond.

"Oh really?" She glared at the side of his head.

"Really." He turned his head to fully look at her, challenging her confident expression.

"Then why do you sound so interested?"

"Hey, I just gave you a suggestion, I didn't say you had to follow through with it. Do whatever you want." He held up his hands in a sign of surrender.

"So if I decided to stay with him, that wouldn't bother you at all?" She was beginning to surprise herself with the blunt force of her accusations.

"Where is this coming from?" He pulled his feet onto the bridge and folded them to mirror her position.

"N-nowhere." She fumbled.

He smirked. He caught her. "Again with the evasion."

"Well I learned from the best." She raised her eyebrows. When he continued to stare at her she looked at her lap with a sigh. "Forget I said anything."

"Why?" He stared at her unabashedly.

"Because I don't want to talk about it."

"Tough." He leaned forward slightly, resting his forearms against his thighs.

"It's embarrassing." She fidgeted and looked out into the trees.

"So is that fact that you like 'Savage Garden'."

Her mouth dangled slightly. "That's a low blow. 'Sugar Ray'."

"I would proudly admit I liked 'Sugar Ray' if it came down to that and 'Savage Garden'."

"That's so not fair, you heard me listening to them one time. That doesn't mean I like them."

"No, but the fact that you knew every word to every song does."

"You know the words to 'Fly'."

"That pales in comparison to belting out 'Truly, Madly, Deeply'."

"Ha! You know the title to one of their songs." He stared at her with a victorious expression. "This is extortion. I never got to clean your rain gutters and thereby discover all your guilty pleasures."

"I can safely say all of my guilty pleasures are no where near as bad as liking 'Savage Garden'."

"Well I won't be satisfied until I have proof." She said with a shrug.

He chuckled quietly. "You know you're avoiding the inevitable right? Eventually you're gonna crack."

"Gilmores have been known to be very obstinate." She raised her chin slightly.

"That's one way of putting it." He smirked.

"You're such a gentleman." She wrinkled her nose.

"I'm just trying to fit in with the crowd." He stretched his arms over his head and yawned.

Rory watched the thin T-shirt beneath his open denim jacket stretch across his chest as he took a deep breath.

Jess kept his expression stoic as he watched her eyes dart across his torso before flickering up to his face. He met her gaze with a silent question.

"You're gonna laugh." She frowned slightly.

"I won't." He stated simply. At her hesitance he elaborated. "I swear, I won't laugh."

"The fight…that me and Dean had the other day was…oh my god, I can't believe I'm saying this," she paused for a moment as she wrung her hands, "it was about you."

He nodded his head and kept a calm expression. "What about me?"

"He thinks…he thinks that you like me." She let out a short nervous chuckle. She twisted the bracelet on her wrist, refusing to meet his eyes.

"Ah." Well, he was right, he wouldn't laugh. He swallowed hard and looked down at his lap, expression completely impassive.

Rory glanced up to find him staring unwaveringly at his lap. Her heartbeat sped up a little, not expecting that type of response. She expected him to laugh, despite his promises to the contrary, or to brush it off as bullshit, not to have this intensely serious expression. "Ridiculous, right?" She let out another nervous laugh, but it sounded forced and unnatural.

"What do you think?" He asked quietly, finally lifting his head to stare at her intently. He let his head roll to one side but kept his eyes on her face.

She licked her lips and opened her mouth wordlessly. She breathed slowly for a moment. "What do you mean?"

"Do you think that I like you?" He said it slowly. It was the only time she'd ever heard him sound vulnerable.

"Why are you asking me that?" She cleared her throat and turned her head to the side. She could feel another blush creeping up her throat.

"Why won't you just answer the question?" A trace of irritation leaked into his tone, his patience wearing thin. There were too many emotions warring inside him to stay calm for much longer.

"Why do you keep answering my questions with a question?" She could see him tensing up but she couldn't stop. This was all too much.

"God damnit Rory!" He passed a hand through his hair. "It's a simple question, why can't you just give it a simple fucking answer."

"Stop yelling!" She said angrily.

"W-what do you want from me Rory?" He quickly fumbled his words as his face contorted into a hard sneer. "Did you tell me all this so I could reassure you? Tell you it was all bullshit, that he didn't know what he was talking about? Then everyone would be happy right? Send you on your merry way, back to your perfect fucking relationship. No harm, no foul."

"I didn't tell you all that just so you could reassure me." She scooted away from him until she could stretch her legs out slightly.

"Really? 'Cause as I recall, you said I was doing a bad job at 'comforting' you. Still say you're not looking for reassurance?" He shook his head in disgust.

"I didn't come to you, okay? You found me. So don't act like I came crawling to you, pouring my heart out, asking you if I had the perfect relationship. That's crap and you know it."

"Then what do you want from me? You don't want my reassurance, you don't want my honesty, then what do you want?" He lowered his head slightly in an attempt to catch her gaze.

She breathed slowly for a minute, anxiously shaking one leg. Jess stared at her silently before sighing in aggravation. "Whatever Rory."

As he made a move to stand her voice stopped him.

"I…I want to know…if he was right." She swallowed tensely before looking up. Their eyes locked and she stared at him intensely.

His jaw tensed for a moment before he took a large breath. He let it out slowly before quietly saying, "He was right."

Her stomach was churning with uneasy butterflies and her heart was pounding in her chest. "Oh."

"Yeah." He moved to stand again.

Her hand shot out and grabbed his wrist. His head snapped back to look at her just as she had managed to pull her knees beneath her. She leaned forward clumsily as she yanked on his wrist, causing him to shakily rise to his knees as well.

When she kissed him it was rushed and awkward, her lips clashing with his in a nervous frenzy. He pulled his wrist from her grasp and settled it on her face gently, trying to slowly coax her into a steady rhythm. With his fingers lightly skimming her cheek and his other hand on her waist she slowly relaxed into a more natural kiss.

He snaked his arm further around her back and pulled her closer, kissing her softly. Suddenly her hands slid between their bodies and pushed against his chest. He detached from her sloppily, not prepared for the sudden turn in events. She was leaning away from him; her hands still firmly planted on his chest. As his eyes focused he could clearly see the panic on her face.

"Oh my god." She was breathing heavily, a combination of the kissing and her anxiety.

"Rory." He stated, also somewhat breathlessly, resisting her urges to push him away.

"Jess, let go." She squirmed against his hands that were resting on her lower back.

"No." He stated firmly.

"I can't do this." She continued to wrestle with him, to no avail.

"You already did." He raised his voice slightly.

Her body instantly stilled as the impact of his words washed over her. She had cheated.

Jess watched her face crumble and finally released her, his hands dropping limply at his sides. A second later he fell back, sitting with his legs stretched before him as his hands supported his weight.

The last image he registered was her retreating form.

Oh jeez, I'm hoping for some super amazing and happy reviews for the amount of R/J-ness in this chapter haha. Thank you so much for reading and please review!