A/N: I'm pretty new to Gilmore Girls. Never watched it when it aired, just found the dvds recently and decided to give it a try. I'm half way through Season 3 now (and I love it!) but shortly after completing the Season 2 boxset, I got this one-shot idea. It came out a little different to what I intended (been playing with the present tense) and I think it might need adding to yet, but I figured I'd just post this for now and see if it got any reaction...

Disclaimer: Gilmore Girls and all its characters belong to other people, none of which are me.

Here We Are

It wasn't supposed to go like this.

When Jess left Stars Hollow it was for good, he was so sure of that. Hurting Rory, however inadvertently, it was the worst thing he could've done, the very worst thing. Running from that was wrong, he was all aware of that, but it was just the straw that broke the camel's back. Luke didn't really want him around, the town at large already thought he was the devil's spawn, and now he had hurt everybody's favourite girl, his favourite girl.

Jess left Stars Hollow and thought he could forget, but that wasn't how these things worked. He missed Luke, and the diner, and the whole stupid picture perfect town. More than all of that, he missed Rory. Calling her out of the blue was stupid, epicly stupid. He actually had this idea that maybe she'd be so happy to hear from him, that she'd beg him to come back or something. Fat chance when she still had Lurch hanging around like a little lost puppy. It was one of the more ridiculous parts in the whole 'Jess calling Rory' incident. Worse was hanging up without really saying what was on his mind.

When she showed up in New York, Jess was genuinely stunned. It wasn't just her being there to see him, though that was a huge deal. Rory had skipped school. That was crazy, like wife in the attic type crazy, but without the hysterics. She was awfully calm for a good girl gone bad, but that didn't matter. She was right there with him, and Jess was not about to question it.

They spent the day together. Jess is fully aware that he's turning into a sappy greetings card when they stand at the bus station and he realises this had been one of the best days of his life. In fact, if it isn't number one on the list then he isn't sure what would be. He won't say it, because it just wasn't him, but he thinks Rory knows, somehow.

Never was a girl so proud to be asked directions. It makes Jess smile, perhaps too much, because right now is not a moment to be happy. Here they are at the bus, her transport back home. Rory belongs in Stars Hollow and history has proved in short order that Jess definitely doesn't, and yet...

Then she is on the bus, and Jess is fighting with the two voices in his head. The oft-ignored angel tells him to just let her go, back to where she belongs and who she belongs with, but the devil pokes his fork in Jess' other shoulder too hard to be brushed off. He wants to know, he needs to know, and if he doesn't ask now...

Forever is a very long time.

"Why'd you come here?" he asks - the closed window takes the question away.

When Rory opens it up and asks him to repeat, he almost doesn't bother, almost chooses once again to run away and say it's for her own good, but this time he's come too far. She looks taken aback by the question, like he just asked her to explain the meaning of life in ten words or less. Maybe what he wants to know is really just as hard for her to say. Maybe.

"You never said goodbye," she admits, and something deflates inside of Jess.

She wanted a goodbye, that was all. It's what she came here for, all that she wanted, at least that's what her mouth says. In her eyes Jess swears he sees something else, something she was even more afraid of than cutting class and riding the bus to an unfamiliar city.

"Goodbye, Rory," he tells her, the words she asked him for and yet she seems to flinch at the sound.

"Bye, Jess," she replies, with the faintest hint of a smile, and that's that.

Jess turns to stroll away, hands in his pocket, the deed done. Rory wanted closure, or so she said, but he has to know it wasn't what she meant. He hopes he's right, especially when his feet take him up the steps, his hand going out to the rail and giving him momentum enough to get onto the bus with ease.

Rory is still looking out of the window when he gets to her seat and the empty space beside her that just seems to be waiting for him. Jess wonders if she was trying to see where he had gone as he walked away and the irony would be amusing in any other moment.

"This seat taken?" he asks, smirking a little as she turns sharply to meet his eyes.

"Jess, what are you...?" she tries to ask, but he just dropps down into the seat beside her, hands still in his pockets, his usual air of nonchalance in place, even as his heart hammers in his chest. "This bus is about to leave!" Rory insists in desperate tones. "I'm going back to Stars Hollow, you can't just... You can't be on here!"

"Why not?" he shrugs like it's nothing, but his gaze is so intense as he stares at her.

Rory loses her words then. Jess liked knowing he could do that to her, the girl renowned for her essays and speeches, who has read more books in her seventeen years than many people would manage in a life time. She was so very smart and he alone could render her speechless with a look. That had to mean something. Her coming here had to count for something.

"I'm going home," she tells him, as if he didn't know. "This bus is going home, and you don't have any bags or a plan, and what will Luke say when you just show up?" she asks all in a rush, receiving no more answer than an amused smirk. "I'm serious, Jess, you can't just do this!"

"Yes, I can," he tells her easily. "Look, I travel light, it's no big deal, and I'm kinda done with this place right now."

"Yes, okay," Rory nods along, but her frown remains. "But still, you wouldn't be on a bus if I hadn't come here, right? I mean, why would you want to follow me home like this?" she asks finally, completely at a loss apparently, though there's this hopeful note in her voice that Jess couldn't miss if he wanted to.

When he asked why she came here, he was looking for a confession that he didn't expect to get. Now the situation was reversed and he suddenly understands her awkward answer. Admitting what you're feeling to someone who holds your heart, it is terrifying, but Jess knows it's too late to back out now. He never cared for anyone like he cared for Rory, and he knows it's way too soon for the L word, but there just isn't another he could conjure up to fit what she caused in him.

He could brush it off as nothing, call her on being big-headed and expecting her to be his reason for everything. Maybe she was, but that isn't a confession he really wants to make either. Laughing at her sudden panic after trying to be this cool wannabe New Yorker might be fun, if the moment hadn't gotten so stupidly serious. Jess takes a breath and finally speaks.

"You're going home, maybe I am too," he tells her straight, eyes on hers, so his meaning ought to be very clear, without him having to say what he truly feels right now.

She stares a moment, blinks a couple of times and then slowly nodds her head. A smile comes to Rory's lips and she finally settles back in her seat beside him, looking comfortable, even content maybe.

"Good," she sighs, as she turns her gaze to the window, leaning his way just a little more than maybe a girl with a boyfriend should.

Jess doesn't say a word, he doesn't need to.