Again, thank you, thank you, thank you, for the reviews – I don't think I can fully explain how much I appreciate them. As for Logan being pathetic and psychotic – he was equally obnoxious on the show. The coffee cart, the flowers, the chocolate, the stalking… you think he would take a hint. But nothing gets through that dense little head of his, it's a shame he's so annoying because Matt is a cutie.

Now back to the fun.

Don't Panic – Chapter 11

The door began to open and I stopped paying attention to Jess' ratty copy of Catcher and the Rye. I knew it had to be Jess because I threatened to call the police on Logan if he tried to open the door after the third time, knowing his criminal record breaking and entering was not something he wanted to be accused with. Logan mumbled something about sitting there all day, and I wished him luck as I closed the door on him again.

I pulled the headphones off my ears and looked up at Jess, who was staring at me quizzically.

"Hey Ror?" He asked slowly. "Why is there a rejected backstreet boy sitting outside my door?"

"He's still out there?" I responded incredulously. "That's impressive. I mean, really impressive. He deserves some major props for that one. An award or a statue or something. I have now gone through five cds and two Salinger books."

"He's been out there through all of that?" he questioned disbelievingly as he removed his tie and started to unbutton his shirt.

"Plus an episode of Jerry Springer, but that didn't last very long. He was being too loud for me to be able to fully appreciate the skank-i-tude of today's whoreanus population." I smiled at the faces he made while I described my day with crude nonsensical words.

"Thank you Perez, that was not only enlightening – it was classy." He sighed, as he poured himself a glass of water.

"No. Way. You visit Perez Hilton? That's way too weird. I can't handle that. Wow." I was too stunned to laugh at the absurdity of Jess reading a celebrity gossip site.

"Do you yahoo?" He asked, raising his glass, "Now, back to the fact that your ex has been camping out in my apartment complex all day."

"Right."

A pregnant pause.

"Why the hell is he out there?" Jess asked flustered.

"Well he called, and was like 'hey let's go on a trip.' And I was all 'no we can't I'm in Philly.' And he was like 'Haha guess what me too!' and then I opened the door and BAM! He was there. Which I tried to not let throw me – but it was a tad stalkery. And then I told him I was with you and closed the door and as soon as I closed the door he said 'I love you.' and then refused to leave, oh and by the way – you're out of poptarts." I rambled.

"I don't eat poptarts."

"Nobody doesn't eat poptarts. It's a staple, a food group; everyone eats poptarts."

"I don't eat poptarts."

"I'm buying you some poptarts."

"Which you'll end up eating – so technically, you're buying yourself poptarts."

"What if they're strawberry?"

"So, you're just going to leave him out there?" Jess motioned to the door. "Sitting there, pining, rather pathetically, over you?"

I nodded, "That was the plan."

The lack of response from Jess bothered me, he just nodded briefly and left to get changed out of his work clothes. I called into the other room to him, "Jess?" no response. "Jess?" I got up and moved into the doorway of the bedroom.

"What's your damage, Heather?" I asked softly, hoping he would appreciate the quirkiness of using that reference sincerely, and not freeze me out so completely.

"And they say there are no stupid questions."

"Didn't we agree we were going to work on this?" I leaned up against the doorframe and tilted my head to the side. He pulled a Clash tee-shirt over his head and mumbled something into the fabric. I made a small questioning sound.

"You're making a habit of this." He snapped as he pushed through the doorway.

"What are you talking about?" He shrugged my hand off my shoulder as I tried to get him to stop moving.

"He loves you Rory and you're acting like it doesn't matter at all – does this seem at all familiar to you?"

I stopped moving towards him. "When did you start liking Logan, last time I checked – you hated him. I seem to recall your only interaction with him ever going incredibly poorly, in fact, calling it an interaction implies that there was something remotely civil about it."

"I'm not denying that he's a dick Rory. You're also not denying this trend of yours."

"This isn't even remotely similar! Jess you come up to me on the street after a year of no contact. No good-bye. No letters. No phone calls. And expect me to accept you with open arms? That nothing had changed. That everything was ok? I thought you were smarter than that."

"Huh, I seem to recall you doing something amazingly similar. How was summer between Junior and Senior year for you Ror?"

"That was a summer, I was confused!"

"And I wasn't? You were debating between two high school boyfriends, I was meeting my dad, I was getting kicked out of school-"

"Now whose fault was that?" I spat bitterly. "And I don't think you give me enough credit Mr. My-Life-Is-A-Sob-Story, my dad had promised us that we were finally going to be a family, he was moving back, he promised. Now I know things happen for a reason but that sucked."

"At least you knew your dad Ms. My-Life-Is-A-Fucking-Lifetime-Movie."

"God! I can't believe were having this argument again."

"Well what are you going to do about Aaron Carter?" He asked angrily.

"Leave 'em." I stated simply. "He'll leave sometime."

"Ok then."

"We really need poptarts." I whispered.

"Now?"

"Please?"

"Ok let me get the keys."

And with that we left the apartment. I followed behind Jess, closing the door cautiously, making a point to look nowhere but my shoes and the back of Jess' head. I quickly attached myself to his body, and looked over at Logan, smiling weakly.

"Logan, please, go home." I whispered as I leaned up against Jess' shoulder, Jess had stopped walking and was now staring down at Logan who was sitting back against the wall reading a copy of the Philadelphia Inquirer.

"Ace, I don't know if I can do that." He turned the page.

"Logan, please-"

"Please what Rory? Please leave so you continue playing house with him? What happens when the week is over Ace – what then? When the glow of whatever it is you two do in the there wears off and you go home – what then? You leave, you go back to Yale, you stay in Stars Hollow, Book Boy stays here and continues his life. We all know it – why not skip all the hurt and heartache and just come home with me now? I love you. You love me. Come on." He stood up straightened out his jacket. "I just want the best for you Ace."

I struggled to keep my voice calm, "Then why did you sleep with Megan the night of the fight?"

"How do you know about Megan?" He asked perplexed.

"Please Logan, you really thought you could keep that a secret? I knew Megan from the paper, she has a blog, Paris reads blogs, she came across Megan's and hadn't realized you and I had broken up, and told me, dearly hoping that I would kill you. Because honestly, she's never liked you. Regardless long story short – I found out. I pretended it didn't bother me, but it does dammit. It does. Was I not worth fighting for Logan? Working for? Exerting the tiniest bit of effort for? Dear God this all feels familiar." Tears were threatening to fall, "Did you not love me enough to try?" I asked Jess this time. "Why didn't you try?"

I slammed the door to the apartment behind me and slumped up against it, letting the tears I promised myself were never going to fall drip down my face. I was supposed to be over Jess. I wasn't supposed to be in his apartment in attempts to reconcile with him. He was supposed to be someone I never thought about, but now I was in his aparement, smashed up against his door, crying tears of him.

"Great. Rory! Rory!" Logan pounded from the other side of the door. "Please this is exactly what I didn't w-"

"Shut up asshole." Jess cut him off.

"She's in there crying because of you – and I don't even know what you did."

"I didn't cheat on her, that's for sure."

"I was drunk, we had had a fight." Logan didn't hesitate, he wasn't nervous in his justification; he really didn't think that what he had done to me was wrong.

"You're also delusional if you think she's coming out for you."

"What makes you think she'll come out for you?"

"Oh, she's not going to come out for either of us." I smiled inspite of myself. Jess was right, I wasn't coming out for either of them. "She's much too spoiled for that." Again, something I wasn't about to deny.

"And seeing as how I, not you, have the keys to the apartment which I know she's locked because that she's practical along with being dramatic, I not you, get to be the hero. So I guess this is," the door was getting pushed open and I had to scoot out of the way, "bye, bye, bye."He sang.

"You really like those boy band puns don't you?"

"Oh, you have no idea." He squatted down to where I was sitting on the floor, "We had another fight."

"Well seeing as you didn't actually participate I don't think it can be qualified as a fight."

"We can't keep doing this." He rubbed his temple.

"You should have thought of that when you took pity on Logan." I snapped.

"I didn't pity him." He sat down and leaned into the door, "I was merely noticing similarities in situations."

"You were pitying him."

"I was being frustrated with you."

"And the truth comes out." I sighed.

"Can you blame me?" He asked.

"Yes."

"And why I didn't see that coming will always remain a mystery."

"I don't want to fight with you." I moved closer to him and rested my head on his shoulder. "Things are nicer when we don't fight."

"I'm trying to be better about things." He said pulling me closer. "I want this to work."

"You are such a sap." I snuggled even closer.

"I'm not a sap. I'm being open. I'm being honest." He smiled a little.

"No more Dr. Phil for you." I chided.

"You know everything isn't ok now, right?"

"Well that's a given – we still don't have any poptarts."