Rory and Jess: Everything fixed

An umbrella for two

Rory's POV

And there he was. He smiled at me and I started to feel weak in my knees. Standing there in the rain in front Luke's diner was Jess Mariano, the boy whose face came to mind when Logan proposed to me. He was getting soaking wet, but he still smiled. Did he even realize it was raining?

My heart started to race inside my chest just looking at him. I got an urge to run to him. Maybe I had missed him more than I wanted to admit to myself. Did this mean he missed me too? What else was he doing back in Stars Hollow? I guess he came back to see me? Or maybe-

"Rory, are you okay?", Taylor asked.

Right, I was still giving my speech. Shit. Just how long was I staring at him? My head snapped back to Taylor who was still standing beside me. Then I looked in front of me. The whole crowd looked concerned in my direction.

"Uh what? Oh no I'm okay! Really, I'm fine."

It didn't come out really convincing and I kept looking back to Jess, afraid he would disappear if I looked away for too long, like he did so many times before.

"Someone get her some water, I guess she's just a little overwhelmed, right?" Taylor asked.

"Hmm what?"

"Honey, sweetheart, what are you looking at? It's like you've seen a ghost or something," Babette shouted from the crowd.

They all turned their heads to look at the man standing in the rain in front of Luke's diner. He was completely soaked by now, of course.

"What's that little punk doing back here?" Babette shouted.

Everyone started talking at once.

When he saw everyone looking at him I saw him getting a little uncomfortable. I looked over to my mom, who stared at me with a concerned look on her face. She probably didn't want me to talk to him. But she was wrong about him. She didn't know how much he changed.

"Don't you worry honey. We'll get rid of him."
Miss Patty said.

"Oh no no, you don't have to. It's okay. I'll talk to him," I said and I grabbed an umbrella as I started making my way over to him, escaping their judgement.

I felt their eyes burning on my back as I started to cross the street. But one look at him and I completely forgot about them.

What was I even doing? He was probably here to visit Luke. Why would he ever want to see me again after what happened in Philadelphia? And even if he came here to see me, what would it matter? I was leaving tomorrow.

But I didn't care why he was here or what tomorrow would bring, I just wanted to talk to him one more time.

"Hey," he said.

"Hi"

"Hi"

"You already said that," I said with a little nervous laugh as I held up the umbrella in a way so we could both stand under it.

"Right, right. Of course."

And then there was silence. We both just gazed into each others eyes as we nervously smiled at each other. Both not knowing what to say, both not wanting to ruin the moment.