Disclaimer: I don't own anything. I'm poor. It's sad.

A/N: So, I haven't written fanfic in a long, long while. Seriously. It's been ages. Literally. I just didn't have the inspiration to do so and didn't really feel the urge either. Unfortunately, this still hasn't changed, but I found this little piece of fanfiction saved on my computer somewhere. I wrote it back in the day and I know it's nothing really special and that the character of Jess is way out of character and that this story is actually pretty bad, but I just felt like uploading it. I mean, what's the fun in just saving it on my computer, right?

Summary: Lorelai and Jess don't get along, no surprise there. So what happens if they're forced to sit together and make conversation? Something surprising maybe?

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Lorelai Gilmore sat on her precious couch, reading the latest issue of 'Instyle'. The magazine was resting on her lap and in her left hand she was holding a smoking hot cup of homemade coffee. A content smile decorated her already more than pretty face. This was the exact definition of 'the good life'. Funny, how the small things could bring a smile to your face.

She moaned as she heard the doorbell rang.

"I'm not here." She murmured as she flipped the page and continued reading.

The doorbell rang again and Lorelai threw an annoyed glance at the frontdoor.

"I'm still not here..." she said out loud to no one in particular while raising an eyebrow as if only the thought that someone would assume that she was home was totally ridiculous.

When the doorbell rang for the third time, she gave up. She closed the magazine and placed her cup of coffee on the table of front of her. She impatiently got up from the couch and made her way to the door.

"Fine...I'm here." She said, right before she opened the door and was eye to eye with her least favorite person. The fact that he happened to be her daughters boyfriend, stopped her from smashing the door in his face, but the truth was she gladly would've done that.

"Jess.." she started, trying to sound not at all annoyed by him. "You're here for Rory?"

Of course he's here for Rory. He's most certainly not here for me. Thank God.

The boy simply nodded. He apparently didn't care enough to open his mouth and let his girlfriends mother share in his knowledge of the English language that Lorelai still didn't quite believe he knew that much of, since she had never heard him use sentences that consisted out of more than three words.

"Well...she's not home yet. She should be here any minute though."

"That's okay. I'll wait on the porch." Jess said.

Lorelai nodded and smiled. She hoped it looked sincere. She hated everything about this kid, but she had promised her daughter to give him a chance, so she could at least try to be polite to him.

"Okay..." she said.

Jess turned around and started to walk away, taking a book out of his backpocket, obviously planning on sitting down on the porch and spend his time reading. Lorelai watched him as she slowly closed the door, not taking his eyes off him. When the door was almost closed, the guilt set in and in one simple motion she opened the door again.

"Jess..." she started.

He turned around.

"You could come in if you want." She finished the sentence.

She quickly realized the invite didn't sound very inviting. That was no surprise, because she didn't want the invite to sound inviting, since the thought of having him in her house when Rory wasn't there was worse than ripping off her own fingernails, but her intentions had been good and she had planned to make the invite sound a little bit more sincere. She waited for him to respond, but he didn't. He just looked at her. It kind of gave her the creeps.

"I mean...it's freezing out there. I know I'm evil, but I think there's a very likely possibility that Rory would kill me if you freeze to death because of me and we all know I'm too young and way too pretty to die."

"I'm fine."

"Of course you are...but...if you change your mind..."

"I know where to find you."

"...Good..."

Jess went back to reading and Lorelai watched him for a second, before deciding she had given it her best shot and closing the door once again. She walked back up to the couch and sat down. She bit her lip and her head moved towards the door again. She hadn't been kidding. It really was freezing out there. She ignored the sense of guilt that was going through her and picked up her magazine again. She tried to focus on the reading, but it didn't really work. She sighed and put the magazine aside again. Damn that boy. She got up once again and walked up to the window. She peeked through the curtains and saw Jess sitting on the porch. He was trying to read, but Lorelai could tell he was cold to the bone. She shook her head in disbelief and walked back to the door again. She opened it.

"Would you please come in." She said.

It sounded more as an order than a question. Jess looked up. For a minute he seemed to hesitate, then he got up and walked up to Lorelai.

-x-x-x-x-

Jess sat down at the kitchen table. Lorelai stood near the refrigerator and looked at him.

"Can I get you anything? Something to drink maybe?"

She didn't wait for an answer. She just opened the refrigerator and searched for something drinkable to offer to her guest.

"I was supposed to go to Doose's later today, so I don't know if there's anything in here that won't kill you. We have...orange juice that I should've thrown out about a month ago...I wouldn't drink that if I were you...uh...there's milk. That is if you're willing to look pass the chunks that are floating in it. I can't even remember when I bought it...I wouldn't drink that either..." She slowly closed the refrigerator and turned to Jess.

"There's water." She offered. "I think it's safe to drink that. And I could probably make some tea if I remembered to buy some."

She wanted to walk up to the cupboard to check if she had tea, but didn't have to when Jess said:

"Water's fine."

"Smart boy." Lorelai said as she walked up to the sink.

She took a glass from the counter and filled it with water. She placed it in front of Jess.

"Here you go."

"Thanks."

Lorelai stepped back again and watched Jess. Words couldn't describe how incredibly uncomfortable she was.

"So..." she started.

She had no idea what was going to follow the 'so'. Part of her was kind of hoping Jess would take over, but she knew very well that was a very unlikely possibility.

"Yeah..." Jess said, nodding.

"You're here to see Rory." She stated.

"Yep."

"You were supposed to meet her?"

"Yep."

"Oh. She didn't tell me."

"Should she have?"

Lorelai tried to ignore the annoyed tone in Jess' voice. This was not the time to fight. Although there were very few things that she could think of right now that she would rather do than fight with Jess.

"No...of course not. I didn't mean that. I just meant that she usually tells me those kind of things and...well...that's what I meant."

Jess didn't respond or react. Little punk.

"Well...I just remembered that I was supposed to call my mother. So...I'm just gonna do that."

Jess nodded.

"Don't let me keep you."

"Oh, I won't." Lorelai said, a fake smile plastered on her face.

She didn't move though. Could she leave him in the kitchen? All by himself?

"I'll stay away from the good silver." Jess added off Lorelai's look.

As if being Rory's boyfriend wasn't bad enough, he was also a mind-reader now. Scary...

Lorelai's uncomfortable and fake smile grew wider as she nodded and left the kitchen.

"It's not the silver I'm worried of..." she murmured bitterly as she entered the livingroom and grabbed her cell phone from her purse.

She started dialing as she threw another glance in the direction of the kitchen. Jess was still sitting at the kitchen table (part of her was surprised by this fact), his back facing her, reading his book (as far as Lorelai could tell). She brought the phone to her ear and waited for the person on the other end to pick up.

"Hello?"

"Hello mom. It's me...Lorelai...your daughter." She practically yelled into the phone, making sure that Jess would hear it.

"Mom? What's going on?" Rory asked.

"I just remembered I was supposed to call you about...the thing." She continued, speaking up so Jess would hear every single word.

Jess didn't move or showed he was affected by anything Lorelai said or was even listening to anything she was saying.

"What thing?"

"You remember the thing. You've been bugging me about it for weeks...mom." She emphasized the 'mom'-part of the sentence.

"Why are you calling me mom?" Rory's suspicious voice sounded.

"What's that? You wanna do the thing right now? Well, right now isn't a very good time, mom. I have company."

Jess still didn't show any movement.

"Stop it, mom. What's going on?"

"Rory's boyfriend is here...Yes, Jess...isn't it funny how that rhyms? Well, he's here...and...he's waiting for Rory, so...I cannot do the thing with you right now. I think it's be if we reschedule."

"Jess is already there?" Rory said surprised.

"Positive." Lorelai nodded.

"He's inside the house?"

"Oh yeah."

"Are you two killing each other?"

"Not yet. But Monday sounds good."

"Is that code for something bad? Or are you just trying to make Jess believe you're calling grandma?"

"Sounds wonderful, mom."

"So that means the latter?" Rory asked for confirmation.

"Absolutely. I'll make sure to be there." Lorelai confirmed, throwing a quick glance at Jess who was still reading.

"I can't be home for at least another 20 minutes."

"Uh...that on the other hand doesn't work for me...At all."

Just the thought of spending another twenty minutes in a room with Jess was enough to make her consider jumping off the roof.

"Well, what do you expect me to do? I'm in a bus. I'm sorry, but you're gonna have to try and survive for another twenty minutes... Make conversation about something."

"That's an interesting suggestion...but I don't think I can do that."

"Of course you can. Talk about...movies or something."

"Or not. I really can't do that."

"You could try."

"I did. Trust me, I did...mom."

"Stop calling me mom." Rory ordered.

Lorelai threw another glance towards the kitchen, then she made herself as small as possible (as if that would really make a difference) as she put her hand around the mouth piece of the phone.

"Considering the level of evilness you've reached just now and the level of evilness my real mother lives by, calling you 'mom' seems highly appropriate." She whispered.

"I'm going to hang up now..." Rory threatened.

"No!" Lorelai exclaimed, causing Jess to turn around for a second and frown. "I mean...Please don't."

"Go back to Jess and make conversation."

"I don't want to..." she pouted.

"There's no other option here. Just go talk to him and play nice."

"...Fine..." Lorelai gave in. "But you're going to pay for this, missy."

"Don't you think Jess is going to think it's weird that you're calling your mother 'missy'?"

Lorelai thought of an appropriate, yet smartass answer.

"Well...maybe."

Oh right, that was a wonderful smartass answer.

"He's not an idiot, you know?" Rory continued.

"I personally feel that's still up for debate."

"He's probably figured it out by now."

"So?"

"So nothing. I just thought you should know."

"I'm gonna go now. After all, I have company. I'll just see you on Monday."

"To do the thing." Rory mocked her mother.

"Right. To do the thing."

"Play nice."

"I can't make any promises."

"Bye now."

"Bye."

Lorelai put down the phone and sighed. This situation sucked. Big time. Jess was still sitting at the table, his back turned towards her. Lorelai slowly started to make her way back into the kitchen. She hesitated, but then sat down across from Jess. He looked up.

"I'm back." Lorelai announced.

"So I see. What did Rory say?"

Lorelai's head shot up.

"Rory? I wasn't talking to Rory. I was talking to my mother. Were you eavesdropping!"

"You were practically yelling into my ear." Jess told the woman sitting across from him. "I'm not an idiot."

"Or so the rumour goes." Lorelai sighed as she rested her head on the table.

"When will she be here?"

She checked her watch.

"In about 17 minutes and 34 seconds...Just a rough guess."

"I could go home and come back in a little while." Jess offered.

"God knows I want you to." Lorelai admitted. "But I promised Rory I was gonna play nice and talk to you."

"The exact reason I don't make promises."

"Excuse me?"

"Promises." Jess started to explain. "They're usually very unpleasant and hard to keep."

"Which is why its smart to only make them to people that you like." Lorelai told Jess.

"That explains it."

"Explains what?"

"That I don't make promises."

Lorelai frowned, still not quite following.

"I don't like people." Jess explained.

"You like Rory."

"That I do." He confirmed.

"And under any other circumstances I would rather kill myself than admitting this, because I can honestly say I have no idea why, but she really seems to like you too."

"So she says. I'm not exactly sure why myself."

This caused Lorelai to look up. There was something in Jess' voice that she didn't think she had ever heard before. And she was intrigued by his words.

"Come on...That sounds like you've got major self esteem issues going on." She said.

Jess didn't respond. He was probably already regretting opening up to Lorelai like this.

"I mean, I can see where you're coming from, since I don't really see why she would like you either...which is not helping here at all...but...Rory sees something. Something good."

"Something good that probably isn't even there." Jess murmured.

Lorelai frowned at his words. Was it possible that she and Jess shared the same opinion when it came to him?

"Or maybe Rory notices something that neither of us see. She's got pretty good judgment when it comes to people."

Lorelai couldn't believe she was saying all of this. She was actually sitting here, defending Jess. In his presence. Defending him against himself. Jess of all people. This was insane.

"Whatever..." Jess said, apparently deciding he had enough of this conversation and he picked up his book again.

Lorelai just watched him.

"Do you love her?" she suddenly found herself asking.

Jess looked up, an irritated expression on his face.

"What!"

"...Nothing...Just ignore me."

"Gladly." Jess said as he continued reading.

"And we're back to being Mister Sunshine again." She sighed, more talking to herself than to him.

Jess' head shot back up.

"Ever considered the possibility that me being Mr. Sunshine, whatever that means, is more about you than it is about me?"

"Ever considered that I have no idea what the hell you're talking about?" Lorelai shot back.

"Look, I don't need you to remind me every damn second of every damn day that I'm not good enough for Rory. I 'm very well aware of that fact myself and I don't need you yammering on and on about it, okay!"

"...Okay..." Lorelai said, too shocked by his outburst to come up with anything else.

"You shouldn't worry about it anyway. She'll figure it out sooner or later. She's smart enough. I'll screw it up. Before you know it she's back in Dean's arms...or at least in the arms of someone Dean-ish."

Lorelai chuckled at Jess' Gilmore-like use (or abuse perhaps) of the English language. Jess seemed to be surprised at this gesture.

"Sorry." Lorelai apologized, still chuckling. "This doesn't mean I think you're funny in any way. It just means that...it's once again proven that spending too much time around a Gilmore rubs off...and that is something I consider funny."

"Glad to be the one that made you laugh." Jess sarcastically said, a grumpy look decorating his face as he went back to reading his book, no longer acknowledging Lorelai's presence.

By the lack of movement of his eyes, Lorelai could tell he wasn't really reading, but she doubted right now was a good time to joke about that. Instead she just watched him and carefully considered her next words. Words that she just knew she was going to regret the second they were out.

"Look, Jess...I know we're not exactly friends or anything resembling that and God knows there's nothing in this world that makes me happier than knowing that we're not friends, but...You deserve to know that in some, so far unexplained way, you make Rory happy. Happier than she's ever been around Dean or someone Dean-ish. You make her laugh. You two have more things in common than anyone I know. Even more than Rory and I have in common. Maybe that's part of the reason you're on top of my least favorite people-list. Maybe I'm just a little jealous, but...I'm glad she's got someone like you in her life, even though I don't like you...at all. Rory's not perfect, okay? No matter how hard those eyes of her try to make you believe otherwise. No one's perfect. You sure as hell aren't. Rory knows that too. But you're the reason she hasn't been able to stop smiling these past few months. You are all she ever talks about lately. You're important enough to her that she always tells me these little stories about you, in the crazy hope that I will actually start liking you. I don't think that will ever happen, but I'm starting to see now that you're not the devil in diguise and that you're not half as bad as you pretend to be. You make my daughter happy, meaning you really do have some good inside of you, otherwise she wouldn't be with you. You might think you don't deserve her, but I'm sitting here right now, thinking that maybe you're wrong about that. And that means a lot coming out of my mouth."

Jess was now staring at one specific spot on the page of his book, showing Lorelai he had listened to her every word. He didn't react though. She hadn't expected him to.

"I'm going back to the livingroom and read my magazine now. If you need me, you know where to find me." Lorelai said.

Still no reaction. Lorelai smiled to herself. She knew her words had had some effect on the boy sitting across from her and it felt good.

She got up from her chair and left the kitchen. The second she was gone, Jess put down his book. He stared down at the table. Then he snapped out of it and started reading again. Not much later, something changed. Something in his face. Calling it a smile would give it too much credit, but something was different. Softer. It kind of resembled the expression on Lorelai's face as she sat back down on the couch and started flipping through the magazine again. Life wasn't that bad sometimes.

The End

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