Jess Mariano: What if?

1

"Come with me." Jess stared into her eyes.

"What?"

"Come with me..."

She crossed her arms, trying to figure out how to react.  "Where?"

"I don't know... Anywhere.  Away.  Come with me."

"You're crazy." She opened her door and went inside.

"Probably.  Do it.  Come with me.  Don't think about it..." He followed her in.

"I can't do that!" She began to pace.

"You don't think you can, but you can.  You can do anything you want to do.  Damn it, Rory, will you look at me?"

He gently grabbed her shoulders so she would face him.  "Come with me..."

"No," she whispered, trying not to look in his eyes for fear of what she might realize.

"Yes.  Fine, if you can tell me right now that you don't love me, then I'll leave and I won't bother you again.  Tell me Rory.  Tell me that you don't love me." He stared at her with an intensity she had never felt before.

She finally met his gaze as she was about to burst into tears.  "I can't tell you that because I do love you!"

He softened.  "I love you too..." He held her a little closer. 

"But..."

He sighed.  "But?"

"But... I can't drop out of Yale.  I've worked my whole life to get here.  I don't want to give it up."

He nodded thoughtfully.  "You're right. I can't ask you to give that up... So what if we ran away to here?  I hear New Haven is nice in the summer.  We could get an apartment close to campus... It's perfect."

Her heart was lifting with every word he said but she was still skeptical.  "But you want to be in New York."

"Correction: I want to be with you.  No matter where you are."

She saw that he was serious and let out a laugh of disbelief as she covered her face with her hands.  "Oh my god... We're crazy.  This is crazy, isn't it?  Could we actually do this?"

"Like I said.... You can do whatever you wanna do," he whispered, watching her carefully.

"I want to do this," she said, almost to herself.  "I want to do this," she said a little louder.

"Then let's do it." He grinned.

She opened her mouth to speak and then shut it.

He smirked. "Have I finally made a Gilmore Girl quiet? I should win an award..."

She punched his arm. "Shut up," she said shyly.

He searched her eyes.

"So..." She began.

"So... What does this mean for us? For right now?"

She crossed her arms.  "Well, I kind of thought that after all of that you'd kiss me, but it's really whatever you want."

He laughed.  "I've missed you."  In less than a second he closed the distance between them and kissed her slowly.  Fireworks exploded, butterflies were released, there was a choir singing in the distance.  It was incredible and so totally familiar, everything they had hoped it would be.

It was Rory who finally pulled away for air, but Jess could not be stopped.  He continued to kiss her cheek, down her neck.  She couldn't help but laugh breathlessly.

"Jess... What about that thing called oxygen?"

He stopped only long enough to say, "Oxygen is for suckers," before getting back to what he was doing.

Rory just let herself enjoy it.  That is, until her phone rang.  She groaned and went to grab it but Jess got it first.

"Hello, this is Rory Gilmore's phone... Jess speaking."

There was a pause on the other end of the line.  "Uhm... Hi.  This is Christopher Hayden... I'm Rory's father?"

Jess froze.  "Oh.  Hi Mr. Hayden."

"Yeah, hi.  I'm assuming my daughter is alive, right? You aren't demanding some sort of ransom?"

Jess broke into a smirk.  "Wow, no surprise you two are related.  I'll put her on.  Hey Rory, it's for you."

"Well no sh- hey dad." She glared at Jess as he put it to her ear.

"Hey kid.  Who was that?" Chris couldn't keep the smile out of his voice.

Rory blushed.  "That was Jess.  May I ask why you're calling at... Almost one in the morning?"

"Is that how late it is? Geez, I'm sorry Ror.  It's just... I'm driving to see my folks and I thought I'd drop in and see my favorite girl."

Jess saw how Rory's eyes lit up as she exclaimed, "Oh, I'd love that.  Come have coffee with Jess and I.  There's this cute little place across from campus."

"I don't want to intrude.... Actually, scratch that, you're alone with a boy and I'm your dad, I'm gonna intrude."

She rolled her eyes.  "I'll meet you there in ten."

She hung up and met Jess' expectant gaze.  "So.  Coffee?"

-------------------------------------------------------

"So, fill me in.  What's your dad like?" Jess asked, leaning back in his chair.

"Don't worry, he's really laid back.  I mean, he's a little more dad-like now that he has GiGi but underneath that is the same Harley-riding guy that would roll into town with maxed out credit cards and empty promises."

"Yikes.  Sounds heavy.  And who is GiGi?"

"My half-sister.  It stands for Georgia."

"Wow... I didn't know you had a half-sister.  So is she like... A mini you?" He smiled.

"God I hope not.  She's evil.  She's three, but she's evil."

"Noted." He nodded. 

She smiled as she saw her dad through the window.  "There he is..."

Jess' eyes widened.  "Wow... He's really young."

"Well what did you expect? He's sixteen years older than I am. And it's not like your parents are old people."

He shrugged.  "I just forgot that they were so young when they had you.  Lorelai is too scary to be that young."

Rory frowned.  "She's only scary to you because she really doesn't like you."

"Thanks."

"You're welcome.  Dad! You made it."  She got up and hugged him tight.

"Of course, kiddo.  I only talked to you a few minutes ago.  Even I can't get derailed that quickly." He hugged her back and kissed her head.  "New hair?"

"Yeah, I cut it a few months back... It felt more grown up."

"It looks more grown up.  In a good way..." He smiled softly, admiring his daughter.  He then noticed the boy sitting behind her.

"I'm going to go out on a limb and say you're Jess... Nice to see you face to face and know you aren't a kidnapper." He shook his hand.

Jess smiled a bit.  "Nice to see you too."

"Dad, Jess is Luke's nephew... You know, look from the diner?"

Christopher's smile faded.  "Ah yes.  Luke.  Of course."

An awkward silence ensued and when it became too much for Rory she slapped a hand on both of their backs.

"Well, you two crazy kids take a seat and I'll go get us some coffee.  Heck, I'll get us a barrel of coffee.  A pool of coffee, if you will.  I'm going now."

She went up to the counter, leaving the two men in complete silence.