Time After Time - A Gilmore Girls Fanfic #1

Chapter 6

Jess sat at his grandfather's desk, fingers tap-tap-tapping on the keys of his computer. His laptop was a relic, a veritable dinosaur by today's standards. Bulky and definitely not light, with keys that often stick, saving a document on its hard drive had long become a game of chance. But Jess and this laptop had been together for a long time and he refused to part with it. Maybe he was becoming a sentimental old fool, but he couldn't imagine writing without Big Bertha at the helm.

When he completed the chapter—a cliffhanger, of course—he stood up and stretched his arms over his head. As he did, he caught a glimpse of dark hair out the window. He moved closer to get a better view and saw Rory walking on the sidewalk with her black laptop bag slung on her shoulder and a Weston's coffee cup in her hand. She looked different today, but he couldn't pinpoint why. She seemed almost smaller, as if she'd shrunk overnight. But then again, it was easy to think that from up above.

Turning away from the window, he hit save on Bertha then grabbed his jacket on the way out.

"Where you going?" Luke asked as Jess strode through the diner.

Jess headed straight for the door. "Out." His boots hit the concrete at a rapid pace and he caught up to Rory before too long. "Hey," he said, falling in step beside her.

She yawned. "Hey."

"Long night writing?"

"Just couldn't sleep," she said. "Had too much on my mind."

When they arrived at the Stars Hollow Gazette, Jess took hold of the door and held it open, waiting until Rory entered before following inside.

"Charlie, Esther," Jess said, greeting the two Gazette employees who seemed to always be in the same place each time he saw them.

"Don't steal anything," Esther said and returned to her endless filing.

With a shake of the head, Jess took a seat in front of Rory's desk, in the same place he'd been when he first learned of her less than ideal circumstances. He always knew she'd end up working for a newspaper, but not in this place that time had forgotten. No offense to this little town but he felt she had always been destined for something bigger than Stars Hollow.

"Whatever happened to your dreams of becoming the next Christiana Amanpour?" he asked, crossing one leg over the other.

She shrugged. "Life," was all she said before booting up a computer so old it could have been Big Bertha's great, great granddaddy.

"Got any more for me to read?" he asked, desperate to get her talking. A quiet Rory had always unsettled him.

"Unfortunately not." She pulled out her laptop and a brass object and set them on the desk.

Jess reached over and grabbed the item before she could react, clicking it open to find an old compass.

Rory walked around the desk and leaned against it, looking down on him with an unreadable expression on her face. "It was my grandfather's. It apparently dates back to the Civil War."

"This should be in a museum somewhere."

A shadow of a smile touched her lips but was gone too soon. She lifted the compass from his fingers and studied it. A second later, her rueful expression gave way to surprise as her eyebrows drew together. Then her eyes flicked up to his and their gazes locked. Everything stilled in that moment, the entire world growing silent.

But in the next second Rory blinked and severed the connection. She shut the lid of the compass, carefully setting it down beside Bernie Roundbottom's name before returning to her seat.