Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It was 1:05 when he took off for the Gilmores house. He walks there, carrying his work bag. He thought that since he didn’t have anything planned for the rest of the day, he might as well spend the day working there. Also, the idea of being in the same room as Rory is definitely appealing.

He knows this is a dangerous situation, but he couldn’t help it. He spent the last 4 years after that night in Truncheon convincing himself that he was over Rory, that he is pathetic, and that he really, desperately needs to move on. Surprise surprise, seeing Rory again and reconnecting with her last summer was all it took for him to be back at the start. He’s not pretending now; he’s just… being subtle. Perhaps to her and to the rest of the town, but to Jess? He was practically wearing his heart up front, open and vulnerable. If Rory herself asks him if he’s still in love with her, he would say yes. He doubts that will ever play out, though.

Rory is… complicated. Plus, he knows now that she has a baby on the way, which makes it more complicated. That blond jackass is getting on his nerves again after all this time, and now he will be a permanent factor in Rory’s life whether Jess likes it or not. That thought sometimes makes him fume, even though he has no right to. She’s not his to keep, and he’s starting to think that she will never be, even though Jess knows in every fiber of his body that he will always be hers. It’s a fact, a hole he needs to accept and live with. He sighs and starts walking faster.

Not long after, he was knocking on the door, hoisting his bag higher on his shoulder. Through the windows, he can see Rory skipping down the stairs and telling Paul Anka to stop barking. Then the door opens, and Rory Gilmore greets him with a wide smile and a pen in her ear. Her hair was up in a low ponytail, and she chirped when she saw him. Gosh, he is so gone.

"Jess, hi! Come on in!" She slides her body to the side to let him in, then walks towards the kitchen counter to grab some soda from the fridge. "Want some?" she offers, and he just nods. She hands the can to him, and both of them chug it at the same time.

"Well, aren’t you full of energy? Find any treasure in the backyard?" He eyes the back door, smirking at the narrowed look she’s giving him.

"Funny. You should be a comedian."

"So I’ve been told." His smirk widens, and Rory gives him a withering stare.

"Ouch, Gilmore. You didn’t need to do that!" He acts all dramatic, gasping and putting a hand on his chest. Rory scoffs in exasperation and marches back to her room. Jess snickers behind her but doesn’t move. He knows she’s coming back, so he settles himself on the couch, opens his bag, and grabs his laptop.

"Well, aren’t you cozy here," He hears her voice and turns his head to see her with a laptop too, approaching the couch before sitting beside him on the other side of the couch.

"Yeah, sorry. I don’t have any plans or places I need to attend after this, so I was just guessing you’d let me stay here for a while," he says while turning on his laptop. Then he’s looking at her again with a pointed look. "If you’d let me, of course. I could just work above the diner. I just thought… a company would be nice," he said softly.

She mimics his smile, "Of course you can, Jess. Your company is always welcome." She says then, her stretched feet brushing his thighs. 

They sit in silence for a while, both focusing on their own tasks. The sound of keyboards clicking and occasional sighing is the only thing heard in that house. Well, apart from Paul Anka barking at fallen leaves outside, It’s so incredibly peaceful and comforting, just two people typing away and enjoying each other’s presence along the way. Her feet shift a lot, to the point where Jess becomes distracted and promptly lifts both of them to rest on top of his thighs, using the pillow he used as a table for his laptop as a barrier between them. She can feel the feign heat radiating through the laptop, and it warms her feet.

At one point, without warning, she lifted her feet and stood up, making his laptop jump. He’s startled, attempting to secure the device before it crashes on the floor or the table underneath. Thankfully, he managed, and when he turned to Rory, she gave him a sheepish smile and apologetic eyes.

"Sorry..." she pouts, and he could never stay mad at that face.

He rolls his eyes with a quirk in his mouth and continues working on a particularly frustrating manuscript he promised Matt he would check out this week. He internally curses himself for that.

She disappears into the kitchen, and he hears cabinets being opened and closed and plastic bags rustling. He refocuses on the screen, frowning hard at a painfully long and unstructured paragraph that makes his eyes and brain hurt to even think about reading it. Suddenly, he feels slight breathing and a quiet hum on the side of his face. He moves his head and sees Rory behind the couch, peeking over his shoulder and leaning down to read the said paragraph. Her eyes are moving fast from left to right, and she grimaces for a while. He’s guessing the headache it causes finally dawns on her.

He watched her from the side, observing her side profile and her face in general. They’re what, thirty-two? But still, he can see that full-spirited, ambitious, and super-intelligent girl he fell for at seventeen. She wrinkled her forehead and the top of her nose, a gesture he knows all too well. She smells nice too; she always does. She leans more to get a better look, and now Jess is full-on staring. He didn’t care; he stopped caring about hiding his feelings for Rory a long time ago. He hears a soft grunt coming from her lips, and suddenly she whips her head to face him, catching him in his act.

"Yikes," was all she said, glancing at the laptop with a sympathetic smile.

"Yup," he sighs, facing the screen again and pretending to be unphased, but Rory doesn't move. She’s still peeking over, still scanning the paragraph.

"The punctuation stinks and the sentence arrangements need a lot of work. A visual challenge indeed. Mind if I try to fix it?" She says this from his shoulder, and he can feel her breath on his neck.

"You sure? My brain malfunctions just by looking at it," He says without looking back at her, scrolling mindlessly through the manuscript.

She finally rounded the couch and sat back to her original position, even prompting her feet against his once again. When she’s settled, she throws a bag of chips at him. He didn’t even notice it before.

"I’m sure I've got some ideas, I think. God, my editing skills are getting kinda rusty," she leans back, her own bag of chips open. He watches her for a second, smiling softly.

"Well, Miss Yale editor, how can I say no?" He grins and passes the laptop to her lap. She receives it gladly, her own laptop forgotten on the table.

"While you’re at it, I’m gonna head out for a while. You want food?" he asks her while standing up, dropping her feet on the pillow.



She pouts,"First of all, I’ll always want food, you moron. Second of all, no, don't leave! My feet are cold without you," she looks actually disappointed, and he doesn't know what to do with that information. "Can’t we just order?" She’s looking at him with the best puppy-dog eyes she can manage, and he almost gave in. Almost.

He chuckles. "Don’t get too attached now, Gilmore. Besides, I really need some fresh air after that," he points to the laptop. What's Al’s serving this time? I was thinking of just going there," he said, grabbing his coat on the way out.

Her pout disappears in an instant. "Indian," she grins, wiggling her eyebrows at him.

He groans. "Might as well go to Sandeep’s then. But you’re helping me burn the house later." He points at her then the whole house, emphasis on everything. She giggled as he went out the door. 

It’s been 10 minutes since Jess left for food, and Rory’s trying very hard to focus. She was massaging her forehead when she heard a phone ringing loudly. Looking across her, there lies Jess’s phone. He left it, apparently. She decided to ignore it, not wanting to invade his personal space. It dies down shortly after that, and she goes back to the manuscript at hand.

A few minutes later, the phone rang again. She fights the urge to just answer it, but she takes a deep breath and lets go, letting the call die a second time. This time, the phone rings again instantly, and she gives up. Grabbing it, she presses the accept button and answers the phone with her greeting voice. At least that dreadful time in the DAR brought something beneficial.

"Hello! This is Rory Gilmore speaking. Who’s this?" She’s met with silence on the other hand, and she frowns. "Hello?" she tried again.

She hears someone clear their throat, probably a guy. "Uh, hi, Rory," he said awkwardly. Her frown deepens.

"Hi. Uhh, do I know you?" She asks, and the guy clears his throat again. She also hears low mumbling; she thinks there’s another person in the room. Her theory is proven, as the voice she hears next is different from the last one.

"Shut up, give it to me- Hi! Yeah, hi. Um, Is Jess around?" This voice is a bit friendlier, and she exhales in relief.

"No, he’s out buying food for us. But I could tell him you called if you guys tell me who you are," she draws. She hears mumblings again, followed by chairs moving and someone whisper-shouting. She can’t hear any of the words, though.

"Hello…?" She’s kinda annoyed now, thinking that maybe this is some kind of fraud tax company that wants to ask Jess for charity or something. She’s going to just hang up when she hears the guy speak.

"Food for you? As in, both of you guys together?" The voice is careful, and it sends her on edge.

"Uhh… yeah? He was at my house, took a break from working, and decided to grab us something to eat." Her voice is also careful, even though she doesn't know why. "Wait, why are you asking anyway? Who are you guys?" Her voice grew more urgent.

"Uh, sorry. Hi Rory, I’m Chris, and the other gentleman you spoke with earlier is Matt. We’re Jess’s coworkers, slash friends. Remember us?" His voice is still friendly, but now it’s kinda tinted by sarcasm. She swallows hard.

Oh, that’s why they sounded so shocked at first. Matt and Chris, from Truncheon Press. God, they hated her, didn't they? Perhaps Jess told them about them; after all, they are his friends. And judging by the interactions that she remembered from that night, they’re really good friends. Jess could be open with them—open enough, at least. If Jess did tell them about the incident then, well, she couldn’t really blame them for resenting her. It still sucks though.

"Uh...," She breathes, unsure what to say next. Chris beats her to it.

"Yep. So, Rory, tell Jess we called, alright? And tell him to call us back immediately, too. Okay? We've gotta go now. Have a lovely day, goodbye." With that, the line goes silent.

She sat there, struck still. Damn, that was bad. She shook her head and went back to the manuscript, giving it some finishing touches. Not 15 minutes later, her door opens, and Jess, with two bags full of takeout in either hand, quickly walks to the table.

"Alright, Tikka Masala and Kofta for you, butter chicken and Rogan Josh for me. Chai tea for both of us. Did I get that right?" He’s panting a bit, and Rory smiles at the fact that he still remembers her order after all this time. But she’s still silent, still recovering from that phone call.

"Rory?" Jess asks, looking confused as ever.

"Matt and Chris called." She says this, making his eyes widen for a split second.

"Oh… Did they, did they say anything?" He eyes his phone, catching up on what might have happened when he was out.

She hums. "Yep, they said some stuff, and told me to tell you to call back immediately when you’re around." Her voice is full of false cheeriness, and it worries him.

"Rory…" "They hate me, don’t they?" She blurts out, eyeing his face.

Jess sighs, propping himself beside her and grabbing her legs against him again. "No, they don't hate you. They’re just… Look, perhaps you didn't give them the best first impression-"

She scoffs, laughing flatly, and Jess presses one of her toes to stop her.

"Hey, stop. Who cares what they think anyway? They didn't know you then, and they definitely don’t know you now, so don’t think about it, okay? The guys are just kinda protective, that’s all," he shrugs.

"They’re sweet with you. I can tell that they care a lot." She smiles softly at him. "You have really good guards there, Dodger."

"Yeah, well," he says, grabbing the food containers and handing her her meal. "I’m lucky to have found them the way I did. I don’t know where I'd be now if I hadn’t crossed paths with those guys. Definitely not here." Then he grabs his own food, and both of them relax on the couch, eating silently with the warmth of Jess’s body heat coursing through her body from her feet. It’s comfortable. She can get used to this.

Holy shit, she really needs to stop thinking.

"Did you tell them about us?" She needs to ask him; it’s killing her to not know.

The question startled him a little; hearing the phrase ‘about us’ is enough to make his heart stop for a full second. "What?"

"Just now, on the phone, I said my name and mentioned you were out buying us food, and they got... let’s say they entered an interrogation mode." She says it so casually, but the tension on her shoulders is a dead giveaway.

"I, maybe? Honestly, I have no idea," he shrugs, and that makes her look at him all funny. "How can you have no idea?"

He sighs, "Look, after that night, it was not my proudest moment, ok? I got kinda drunk in the office, and maybe I spilled my entire life story and what had happened to them; I don't know! The next morning, they were all so gentle and careful with me that it drove me nuts, and I demanded their full explanation. They didn’t explain the details of what they heard that night, but yeah, I guess they know you now." He’s trying to shrug it off, but he's eating that poor butter chicken a bit aggressively now. 

She’s gaping, and her eyes are blurry again all of a sudden. "Jess," she calls him, and when he turns around to her on the verge of tears, he softens.

"Jess, I am so sorry for what I did that night. That was so bad—one of my worst moments—up there in the top 5. You, you didn’t know. You didn’t deserve it. God, I was such a jerk! Attempting to use you like that? Low blow, Gilmore. Low blow," she hides her face in her palms, her now untied hair framing her face. He sighs and starts to reach out to her, but it’s a bit hard since her feet are on the way. He settles for rubbing her feet instead.

"Rory…" He wanted to say ‘it’s ok’, but the words stuck in his throat. It was not okay, really. None of it was, but he used to think it was some universal law crashing down on him. He hurt her, she hurt him back, and the world continues on. Call it karma if you like.

"We’re okay now, no use dwelling on past mistakes, alright? We’re here, and we’ve healed. I don't know about you, but I would hate it if someone sees me and all they see is a messed up brooding 17-year-old kid who skipped town and left a mess wherever he went, even though it’s not entirely wrong either," 

She looks like she's about to protest, but he continues, "The point is, you’re not your mistakes, Rory. You’ve grown. You learn to forgive and forget, and you move on. That’s it, you need to let it go, Gilmore. I’m not hung up on it; why should you?" His voice is soft, her hands are gentle around her ankle, and his smile is comforting. She relaxes a bit, feeling the lump leave her throat.

"Okay," she sighs, and gets back to forking her chicken. 

They ate in silence again for a little while, his right hand never leaving her ankle. His fingers sometimes swiped up and down between her fingers, making her giggle.

"For what it’s worth, I forgive you." His eyes never leave his dish, but he squeezes her toe again, and she can just feel him as if his heart is in her hands. She has that power—to embrace it or to crush it, and it terrifies her.

She managed a smile at the last second, just before he turned his face toward her. "Thanks,"

He simply nodded after that. When they are finished with their meals, Rory gathers their boxes and Jess cleans up some remaining bits, both of them moving simultaneously around the couch to the kitchen. Jess volunteers to make some coffee, and Rory praises him for being an angel. They’re back on the couch in no time, instinctively returning to their work mode. Rory hands over his laptop, and she goes back to her own book.

"Wow, Gilmore, nice job. Definitely much more readable now," he smirked at her, patting her legs. "Thanks, I owe you."

"No problem, glad to put my skills to work again. God, I miss working like this." Her tone shifts again, and he worries he may have said something wrong there. Alas, he sighs deeply.

"Nope, nu-uh, no sad Rory is allowed anymore today. From now on, only happy Rory is welcome." When he looks at her and finds she’s still pouting in defeat, he goes ahead and tickles her feet for real this time, making her squirm and shake, laughter echoing through the walls. His grip is firm around her ankle, leaving no room for her to break free. She’s gasping now, her eyes watery as she continues to scream his name, urging him to stop. 

"Oh my god, Jess! Stop, Jess! Oh, I’m so gonna kill you after this!" She’s sat up and tries to reach for her ankle to push Jess’s hands away. Jess saw that coming, though, and pulled her feet up against him to avoid her roaming hands, resulting in Rory’s thigh basically on top of him. None of them notice that yet—Rory is still rolling on the couch, and Jess is too focused on making her laugh.

Finally, Jess gave in and released her feet with a huge grin on his face. "Welcome back, happy Rory."

She rolls her eyes and reaches out to smack his knee. Only then does she notice how close they are now—her thighs are on his! She blushed, hoping Jess would just see it as the aftermath of some intense tickling and laughter. Oh, Jess definitely noticed. Seeing their positions too, he stilled and waited, curious as to how she would react. He hoped, he hoped, he hoped...

She clears her throat and retracts herself, much to his dismay. He cleared his throat too, and awkwardly reached for his laptop again. The atmosphere around them changed, and Rory hates it, desperately wanting it back to the way it was. Then she remembers the reason she invited him in the first place, and that makes her face a bit brighter.

"Hey, Jess?" He hums in response, his fingers clicking rapidly on his keyboard.

"Will you edit my book?" She asks in a hushed voice, and that makes him face her instantly.

"What?" His voice is full of disbelief, and she smiles softly.

"Well, you could be my book editor! You’re more than qualified to do this, and I… I trust you. I trust you with this, with my story. You already know a large chunk of it, so it’s like seeing it from another person’s perspective, right? There’s no one else I would like to be my book editor more than you. Well, I mean, I don't know that many editors, actually. But you’re here, which is very convenient, really. Because-"

"Yes," he says, stopping her, and her smile grows wider. "Really?" 

"I’d love to," and now they’re staring at each other with soft smiles on their faces, and everything feels right again.

I love you.