Jailbait

Summary: After being dragged to Louise's party by Paris, Rory ends up having to call Jess to pick her up from jail. One shot set in series 2, sometime inbetween There's The Rub and Teach Me Tonight.

A/N: Okay, this is another instant of me having sat down to write something, and ending up with something else entirely. You see, I just got a new laptop for Christmas, and while I was procrastinating writing what I'd originally intended (the next chapter of Community Service, if anyone's interested), I ended up looking through all of the files I'd transferred over. Anyway, I found this, half of which I'd already written, and decided to finish it, I hope you like it!

Oh, and one of the reasons I never finished it all that time ago, was that I noticed that it was quite similar to another story that I'd read (whose name escapes me now) after starting to write it. If this seems familiar, I'm really sorry, I honestly started writing this before I read anything of its kind.

Disclaimer: I own nothing but this laptop and the vague intention to write something.

"Shut up."

Jess' smirk widened as Rory walked past him into the car.

"I didn't say anything." He replied, nonchalantly.

"You were smirking. That could mean one of three things: you're amused by Taylor's idiocy, you're about to comment on my boyfriend's height-"

"He is ridiculously tall." He supplied, interrupting her.

Rory continued, ignoring him, "-or you're about to say something sarcastic and Jess-like." She paused, before carrying on, slurring slightly, "Well, I don't see Taylor here, and you just got a height-related Dean comment out of your system, so the odds are in favour of the sarcastic, Jess-like option. Hence the 'shut up'."

"You're a very talkative drunk."

"You're a very annoying man."

"I didn't know you knew my smirking tendencies so well, I'm flattered." Beat. "So...How does it feel to have a criminal record?"

"Ah! There it is: that's the sarcasm I was talking about!"

"You know, I think you may be the first Stars Hollow resident to ever be arrested."

"I repeat: shut up."

"Well, not the first: there was that time when Kirk got caught sleep-walking in the nude and got arrested for indecent exposure, but Rory Gilmore being arrested for underage drinking? At a cop-raided party no less? That's unheard of!"

"Aren't you supposed to be the monosyllabic one?" Rory asked, exasperatedly.

"Aren't you supposed to be the one picking me up from jail?" He shot back, enjoying himself.

"Touché," She admitted as he turned on the engine, starting the drive home.

Earlier that night...

"How long do we have to stay here again?"

Rory really wished she was better at saying 'no' to Paris. Sure, she'd start off strong but, after hours and hours of being grated away at, she always caved. This time it was because Paris had had enough of her mom trying to force her to socialise, so she decided to shut her up by going to the latest party of Louise's. This, of course, meant that Rory had to come, too. Heaven forbid Rory had anything better to do on a Saturday night.

Admittedly, Rory didn't really have anything to do that particular Saturday night, but that wasn't the point. Had she not been forced to go to this quasi-inebriated gathering, she'd probably be with her mom at the diner which, while not sounding quite as "cool" as attending a high school party full of drunken rich guys, was infinitely preferable. The diner had all she needed: coffee, junk food, her mom, a semi-father figure and coffee again. And Jess, said a voice in the back of her head which she chose to disregard; she'd been disregarding that voice a lot lately.

"Too long," Paris replied, dread already filling her expression as they walked into the house, taking in the masses of people, the snacks of questionable hygiene and the obnoxious, loud music.

"Paris, Rory!" Madeline exclaimed happily, stumbling her way toward them, Louise in tow. Rory could tell she'd already had a bit to drink.

"Glad you could make it," Louise said, giving that worldly smile of hers. "Rory, where's that boyfriend of yours?"

"Yeah, you should have brought him!" Madeline agreed, her eyes lighting up at the mention of any tall, handsome male.

"Things are a bit...tense between us lately." Rory said, hesitantly, hoping they wouldn't linger on the subject of her currently patchy relationship. Louise had other plans.

"What's wrong? You're not going to break up, are you? You two are just darling together." Louise asked. Rory took this to mean 'Is he going to be single anytime soon?'

"No, no, we're fine," Rory assured her, observing with amusement as Louise's face fell a bit, "circumstances are just making things a little turbulent lately."

Paris snorted, "Circumstances, right. Whatever you choose to call him."

Madeline perked up, "Ooh, who is this 'him' of which you speak?"

Rory shot Paris a glare, "No one."

"His name is Jess. He reads, he listens to The Clash, he enters into literary debates over Kerouac and Austen, he knows how to make a good cup of coffee. He was basically invented in the deepest realms of Rory's imagination and brought to life, leather jacket and all," Paris said, earning another glare from Rory.

"He's my friend," Rory said, getting tired of repeating this over and over again to various people.

"Ooh la la, Miss Gilmore, who knew that you had it in you." Madeline said, grinning.

"Yeah, two guys at once, the nickname Mary gains a whole new meaning." Louise added.

"If this is going to disintegrate into girly babble, I'm finding a room unoccupied by dancing inebriates," Paris said, pulling out her book as she began to plough through the various crowds of people, leaving a very uncomfortable Rory behind.

"So, tell us about this guy." Madeline pressed, extinguishing all hope in Rory that they'd forgotten the subject.

"There's nothing to tell," Rory said, wondering how she'd got into this position, "Jess is my friend, Dean is my boyfriend, end of story."

"Whatever you say," Louise said, the sly grin not leaving her face. Rory could tell that she hadn't convinced her.

"Louise, come on, we promised we'd show Mike and Chad around the pool house," Madeline said with a wink, before dragging Louise over to two semi-attractive-in-an-arrogant-kind-of-way guys, leaving Rory standing alone.

So much for Paris needing me, Rory thought, bitterly. She didn't really know what to do with herself, so she wound her way inbetween the groups of drunken students, until she reached the edge of the room. She leaned against the snack table, trying not to look as ill at ease as she felt.

For want of something to do, she ladled herself a glass of punch, wondering whether to just leave without Paris. It was a strangely strong taste, but she drank it up none-the-less, wanting to look like she had something to do. It was quite good really, it left a pleasant buzz at the back of her throat, and it made her feel slightly less uncomfortable somehow.

She continued to help herself to the punch, trying to ignore the thumping base, pulsating around her head, making the room spin. Gee, what did they put in this stuff?

Jess turned the radio on, earning a groan from Rory as her headache intensified.

"Can you turn that off before my head explodes, please?"

Jess smirked, turning it off.

"Ugh. Enough with the smirking already; you're sarcastic, you're cute, I get it, now stop before your face freezes like that." Rory retorted, leaning against the window.

This just caused further smirking, "Cute, huh?"

Rory blushed as she realised what she'd said, "Not cute cute, just...I didn't mean...Just shut up, okay?" She finished, lamely.

"You say that a lot."

"Yeah, well, it doesn't tend to stick."

"Well, you could've just called the jolly green giant to come and get you; you've got him a lot better trained."

"Can you never just call him 'Dean'?" Rory asked; she didn't mind really, but she just thought it best if he didn't find out how much his nicknames for her boyfriend amused her.

"I could," Jess admitted, "but jolly green giant, bagboy, Frankenstein: they all suit him so much better."

Rory couldn't help but let out a little laugh.

"You didn't answer my question: why didn't you call him?"

Rory shrugged, "Things are a bit weird between us at the moment."

"How come?"

"You know why."

"I do?" he replied, in that over-innocent voice that he pulls out when he wants to annoy her.

"Just for once Jess, could you drop the stupid act?" She asked, exasperated, the alcohol still in her system giving her new-found confidence. "You know very well that the reason things are weird is because, for some reason, he doesn't like that I spend time with you, which is ridiculous because, as I've told him," and myself, she added, in her head, "a million times, we are Just Friends. Capital J, capital F," she said, rambling her way to a stop. She pressed her head against the cool glass again, trying to calm the buzzing in her brain. Huh, she thought, who knew windows could be so comfortable? Maybe if I just close my eyes for a minute...

"Huh."

"Elaborate, please, I don't have my Jess-to-English Dictionary on me at the moment," she murmured, squinting at the way her warm breath clouded against the glass of the window, before her eyes slid closed again.

"Just seems weird that you'd pick the person who's supposedly causing your relationship problems to come pick you up in the middle of the night," he observed, nonchalant as ever.

Rory blinked, frowning slightly in thought at this comment, "It's not that it's just...I dunno, I knew you wouldn't judge me, or be disappointed in me or something just because I got dragged into this whole stupid party thing. I guess with you, I just feel...I just..."

"You just what?" Jess asked, trying to look between her and the road. "Rory? Rory?"

The soft breathing he heard from her side indicated that she was no longer in the land of the conscious. Sighing he drove on, glaring at the 'Welcome to Stars Hollow' sign as he drove past it.

Ring. Ring.

Fuck them. No one wakes Jess Mariano up at two am.

Ring. Ring.

Shoving his head under his pillow, defiantly, he continued to ignore whichever idiot had decided to call him at this ridiculous hour, jolting him out of what was turning out to be a pretty enjoyable dream involving a certain Gilmore.

Ring. Ring.

He was going to throttle this person. Possibly using a phone wire. After having woken them in the middle of the night using this annoying ringing sound. Even just before death, it's never too late for a little payback.

Not that he was ever going to find out who it was, because there was no way he was answering that phone. Was it just him, or has this silence been a bit longer than the last one? Could it be that they've finally-

Ring. Ring.

Fuck it.

"What the hell do you want?" He practically growled into the phone, preparing to find out just who it was he'd be murdering the next day.

"Jess?"

All thoughts of various phone-related murders slipped from his mind as he recognised the quiet, timid voice on the other end of the line. He sat up straight too quickly, hitting his head on the headboard; stifling the choice profanity that generally accompanied stupid injuries, he spoke again, "Rory?"

"Hey," she replied, lamely, only serving to further his bemusement. Her voice still sounded nervous, but under that he caught a slight hint of an emotion he couldn't quite put his finger on.

"Is there any particular reason for this call or...?" he trailed off, desperately trying to connect the puzzle pieces in his still sleep-befuddled brain.

"Um, I kind of need you to- I need a favour." Embarrassment. That was what it was.

Biting back the obvious question of why she'd chosen him to ask this, he rubbed his eyes, trying to wake up, and pressed on, "And that would be...?"

"I need a ride," she said after a considerable pause.

Trying with all his might to stop thinking of the various non-PG connotations of that request, he complied, "Okay, where from?"

"Do you- um...do you know where Hartford jail is?"

"Rory," he whispered, gently shaking her shoulder, before repeating her name slightly louder, "Rory!"

"Jess..." she mumbled vaguely, still half asleep, before her eyes snapped open and she looked at him with vague surprise, as the events of the night came flooding back to her.

"We're here," he said, indicating to the Gilmore house.

Her eyes suddenly widened in panic, "No, no, no, I can't go in there! I was supposed to be staying at Paris' after the party! If I come in now with breath that could probably stop an elephant she'll know, and she'll freak out, I mean, I thought it was bad when I stayed out for the night at Miss Patty's, but having to be bailed out of jail...Why the hell did I think there'd be nothing out of the ordinary with that stupid punch? Stupid! I have no idea what-"

"Rory!" he said, snapping her out of her slightly slurred rant. "Relax, okay? You've still got the overnight bag that you were gonna take to Paris'?"

"Yeah, but-"

"Then it'll be fine," he assured her. "Luke's staying the night in Woodbridge for an early delivery there so the apartment's empty – you can take my bed for the night, I'll take the couch, your mom will never have to know," he said, watching her panicked expression fade slightly, starting to realise the kind of pressure she must always be under as the "town princess".

She eyed him uncertainly, "Are you sure?"

"It's either that, or you find a nice warm bush somewhere to spend the night in – what'll it be, Gilmore?" he asked, sarcastically, pulling out of the Gilmore drive.

Rory gave him a sleepy smile, having resumed her position against the car window. "You're such a good friend, Jess..." she murmured, before drifting back to sleep again.

"Friend," he repeated, somewhat bitterly, as he thought of the lucky bastard who was allowed to call Rory his girlfriend. "Right."

He tapped on the car window, causing her to jolt awake before he opened the car door for her, "Wow, Jess Mariano getting the door for a lady like a proper gentleman, never thought I'd see the- woah!" She exclaimed, abruptly, as she tripped over in her attempt to climb out of the vehicle.

Catching her reflexively in the way that only someone used to dealing with drunken people could, Jess put an arm around her shoulders and stumbled with her towards the diner. "D'you think you can stay upright long enough for me to unlock the door?" He asked in a deliberately patronising tone.

She narrowed her eyes, "I think I can manage."

He quickly grabbed the key, opening the door and going back to support Rory before she took another treacherous step forward. "I swear, Gilmore, what with this and The Fountainhead, you owe me big time..."

"I'm sure I can find some way to make it up to you," she muttered, absent-mindedly, focussing on walking.

Jess shook off the suggestiveness of that reply as he manoeuvred them towards the stairs.

"Jess?"

"Yeah?"

"How do you climb stairs?"

Rolling his eyes and mumbling, "You better be as light as you look..." he used his other arm to lift her legs up, much to her surprise, and started a slow walk up the stairs. Rory giggled as he stumbled up the stairs under her weight, finally reaching the top.

He threw open the door and staggered the last few steps towards the bed, pausing to make sure he laid her down on it as gently as possible. She turned her head towards him, smiling in that truly genuine way of hers that made him feel as though he'd never done any wrong in his life before. For a long moment she just looked at him, making him reluctant to pull back from his position, hovering over her long after he'd finished laying her down on the bed, hypnotised by those deep blue of her eyes, visible still through the darkness. Just when he'd passed it off as a vacant stare that happened to be aimed in his direction and started to pull back, he felt her tiny hands grab his collar, and suddenly found himself kissing Rory Gilmore.

As soon as he fully realised what was happening, he responded, moving his hands to pull her up into a sitting position as he sat down on the bed, pulling her to him as his lips moved against hers. Other than the fact that she tasted like the kind of alcohol that you could use to remove tar with, it was possibly even better than he'd imagined – and he'd been imagining this for quite some time. It was when he felt her soft tongue slide against his bottom lip that what might pass as a conscience kicked in, and the unfortunate truth that she's drunk started to reverberate around his brain.

With more self-control than he felt was humanly possible, he gently pulled away from her, allowing her to fall back against the bed with a sigh. Smiling, contentedly, as if what she'd just done had been the most natural thing in the world, Rory murmured, "Thanks for tonight Jess," before falling asleep for the third time that evening – or morning, more precisely.

With a final, long-suffering sigh, Jess backed away from the bed, finding his way to the couch in the dark, ready for a night of reliving that fleeting moment. True, the chances that she'd actually remember what had happened the following morning were diminishing by the second, but the fact that she'd kissed him, drunk or not, was definitely something to think about. Maybe things in this town were finally starting to look up...

A/N: Hope you liked it – please, please, please review!

Julia