Title: "Don’t Leave Me…"

By: Lauren PeoplesWolfluva@hotmail.com

As she drove away, Rory could hardly believe she’d said that to Dean. *No, I’m right!* she thought. *He can’t choose who I’m friends with, he can’t control my life! It’s MY life, not his!* Taking deep, slow, even breaths, she was calm by the time she got to the station. She entered, asking for Jess. The overly fat officer pointed to his right and said "Number 13, miss."

Rory went to the cell without a word to him. What she saw nearly broke her heart…Jess was lying there, looking lost, defeated, and he had a look of such hate on his face it scared her. He seemed to be remembering part of his past in New York, and Rory realized that he gone through much more than he cared to share. Then he sat up and looked at her, and the wall around his emotions was back in place. She decided she would just ask him later, when he was in a better mood.

He sighed. "Hey."

She said with a forced grin, "Hey…you’re definitely gonna have to explain what happened on the way home, troublemaker."

He nodded. "Ok, not really much of a story though. But if you insist…"

"Yeah, I’m curious. Let’s go, I left Dean standing there, and if my mom gets home before I do and she speaks to Dean…well there’s going to be some *cough* minor problems."

"Yeah, ok, but what does it matter? Dean, Lorelai, Taylor, all of them hate me anyway."

They had reached the car. Rory felt as if she was supposed to prove him wrong, comfort him, but she had no words to do it with. Instead, she just said "I thought you didn’t care what other people think about you?"

He sighed again. "I don’t…didn’t…" Frustrated, he searched for words. "I never used to care, none of it bothered me. The pointing, the whispers…I dunno Rory, it was just so different back in New York. You can’t care what anyone thinks there, there’s too many people to please."

Rory sensed that he was going to say something that could very possibly leave them awkwardly silent. "Jess…"

"Rory" he interrupted her. "I didn’t care. And then I came here…"

"And this wacky, perfect little town got to you" she said quickly, nervously.

"No. You got to me. I’m different, Rory. Better. Because of you." He stared at her pointedly, penetratingly, and Rory looked into his eyes and saw the loneliness in them. And she saw the longing he had for her, the longing that he had always kept so well hidden. Her mouth moved, but no words would come out.

Finally, she croaked "Jess…you already were a good person. I’m just the only one who was willing to see that." She sighed in exasperation. "Look, can we talk about this later?"

"Yeah, ok. Whatever." Silence.

Jess wanted to tell her. He actually wanted to tell another human being what he was feeling, what had been going through his mind in the cell…the memories, the pain. But she was keeping oddly quiet, and if she didn’t want to hear it, he sure as Hell wasn’t telling her.

"So."

"So what?"

"What happened? Why did they think it was you?"

"Don’t really know. Some old guy said I looked like the kid who broke into the CD store. Of course, the police believed him…" He trailed off, and there was a short silence which was broken by Jess’ almost growl. "They always do believe the witnesses. Course they weren’t gonna believe me, never have, never will."

Just then, the radio played a song Rory hadn’t heard in forever. She was surprised to see Jess mouthing the words to it. "I always wanna feel like part of this was mine, I wanna fall in love tonight…" He noticed her gaze and smiled. "What, I’m not allowed to like some Jimmy Eat World?" When the "I wanna fall in love tonight" part came back on, Rory found Jess looking pointedly at her. She could do nothing, nothing but stare back; she was paralyzed. Jess closed in the distance between them slowly, keeping eye contact before his gently kissed her. Rory let out a little gasp, not really of surprise but sort of a "FINALLY!! I’VE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS FOREVER!" sort of gasp.

"Shit…I’m sorry Rory, I…"

"Oh…it’s ok…its just…" She looked to their right, and Jess followed her gaze. And sure enough, there was Dean with Lorelai. Looking at them. *Shit!!* Jess thought. *Now look what I’ve done! I’m taking the blame for it though, I’m not letting Rory get in trouble over me.*

"Rory? You know that I’m taking the blame for all this, right?"

"No! You can’t do that! If you do, Dean will kill you, then Luke will kill Dean, then someone will kill Luke. And then I won’t have anywhere to go for coffee!!" she replied, pretending to be horrified.

Jess chuckled. "You and your coffee…I’m still not letting you get yelled at."

Rory sighed, defeated. "Fine, if you insist."

"I do."

Taking deep breaths, the two got out of the car and walked over to Dean and Lorelai, prepared for a fight. Dean looked upset, and Rory’s mother was in a rage.

"You two have a lot of explaining to do…no wait, I don’t wanna hear Jess’ version, so you can just go home now." Lorelai said to Jess.

Jess just stared at her for a moment. "Look, don’t blame Rory for what happened, it was entirely my fault. And I know how eager you must be to hear that she did nothing wrong, so just…believe it. Don’t be mad at her…"

"Hah. You know damn well it’s your fault, Jess. Rory, come in the house…let these two fight it out." Lorelai said, shaking her head.

Rory looked at Jess apologetically, and shrugged. "Be careful, both of you…" She said it to both boys but looked at Jess. Of course, Dean didn’t fail to notice this. "Dean…I’m sorry, don’t be too mad, OK?"

Dean was silent for a moment. "Fine. Just don’t let it happen again." Rory followed her mother into the house, and Dean gave Jess a threatening stare. "You know, maybe you should just leave…go back to New York, where you won’t mess with innocent girls’ minds."

Jess stared back darkly. "Maybe I will…since Rory seems to be the only one in this God-forsaken town who doesn’t just see me as a punk with a few too many problems." Jess nodded. "Yeah, I will. Hope it makes you happy, Bagboy!" Jess said with a forced, thin smile.

Jess headed to Luke’s, and decided he really was going to go back to New York. He decided he wouldn’t say goodbye to Rory, but leave a note for her. He just hoped it didn’t hurt her too much. But she was going back to Dean, and he couldn’t live with that.