Title: Chances and Choices
Author:  Megan Reilly
Rating: PG
Summary: It's better to take a chance and have it turn out bad than spend your whole life wondering what might have been.
Disclaimer: Gilmore Girls belongs to Amy Sherman-Palladino, the WB, etc.
Archiving statement: OK for Mystic's archive. Other archives, NO. Please do not archive this story without my permission.

Rory jumped up from her seat, but Jess was blocking her path to the aisle. "I've got to get to school."

"Why?" Jess asked.

"Because I don't just ditch every time I feel like it," Rory explained. "You can be a juvenile delinquent if you want to, but I don't."

"Right. Harvard. The big dream. I forgot," Jess said.

"You're not moving," Rory pointed out. She sank back into her seat, and pressed the bell to let the driver know to stop at the next stop. "There's nothing wrong with having a goal, Jess."

"Nothing wrong with not having one, either," he pointed out.

Rory couldn't really argue with that. She looked down at the book she was holding on her lap, but didn't open it. She turned her head and looked out the window, watching the miles pass between her and school. Her digital watch beeped the hour. She was late.

"You're already late, why don't we go have some fun?" Jess suggested.

"I have to go to school." The brakes of the bus squealed as it pulled to a stop. Rory got up, and after a moment's glare, Jess rose and allowed her to exit the bus. He was right behind her.

"You're already late," he said.

"You already said that," Rory pointed out.

"You can't miss just one day?" Jess asked, and to his delight, Rory seemed to hesitate. He raised his hands to indicate the world around them. "It's a nice day. Feels like spring's here. I can't tempt you?"

He had her until he mentioned tempting. This was Jess. This wasn't Dean. Jess wasn't really a friend, he wasn't someone she knew she could trust. Her instincts said she could, but her instincts were also pointing out that it was a gorgeous day and she hated walking late into class. She
hadn't missed a day of school in a really long time. Just one day couldn't hurt. Could it?

"I have to go to school," Rory insisted, strolling to the traffic light so she could catch the bus on the other side and return to Chilton.

"Hey, isn't that Mark Twain's house over there?" Jess asked.

Rory stopped and looked where he was pointing. "So?"

"Great American writer. You ever been there?"

Rory shook her head.

"I'm surprised at you." Jess's tone was teasing. "Mark Twain lived in a city you come to on a daily basis and you've never bothered to pay him a
visit?"

"His house. Not him," Rory pointed out.

"I bet it'd be fun," Jess pressed. "Connecticut Yankee..."

"Have a nice time," Rory said. The light changed and she moved to cross, but Jess grabbed her hand. She turned and looked at him.

"Come on." He pulled her hand in the direction of the historical building. "Please?"

Rory rolled her eyes, and glanced at her watch. By the time the bus came and she got back to Chilton, she'd have missed well into second period. "Okay." She'd barely relented when Jess broke into a run, dragging her along behind him. He gave a little skip for good measure.

The phone rang at the front desk. "So it does work," Lorelai said, sorting through the mail, which had just arrived. The phone continued to ring, even though Michel was standing right next to it, playing computer solitaire. "You can hear that, right?" she asked.

He sighed, and picked up the received. "Independence Inn, Michel speaking." He paused. "It is for you." He set the phone down.

Lorelai picked it up, stretching the phone cord like a trip wire in front of Michel. She moved closer to where the phone's base was, or tried, but Michel was in the way. "Move it."

"My game -" Michel protested. Lorelai shoved him. "Ouch!" He grabbed the mouse and dragged it with him.

Finally they'd shuffled their positions behind the desk. "This is Lorelai Gilmore," she said into the phone.

"And this is Headmaster Charleston." He needn't have bothered - she would have recognized those dour tones anywhere. "Are you aware your daughter is not in school this morning?"

"She was running late this morning," Lorelai said. "It's possible she missed the bus and..."

"It's eleven a.m., Ms. Gilmore. Your daughter has had plenty of time to catch any one of the next seven buses. This is an unexcused absence. A second will be possible grounds for suspension. Good day, Ms. Gilmore."

Lorelai stood there with the telephone in her hand. "What time is it?" she asked Michel.

"Eleven-oh-two," he replied.

Lorelai nodded, instantly feeling panic flood through her. "Call the guy in room 27 and tell him he missed check-out again. He has to go this time because we're overbooked this weekend and no one's cancelled. I have to go." She tossed the phone to Michel, and with shaking hands picked up her car keys.

"Where are you going?" Michel demanded.

"I have to find Rory." Lorelai broke into a run, then realized she'd parked in back, and reversed her direction, flying through the kitchen. She ran into Steve, one of the waiters, and her keys clattered to the tile floor.

"Lorelai?" Sookie inquired, calmly picking up the keys and handing them to Lorelai.

"Rory's school called. She's not there. I don't know where she is." The keys jangled in Lorelai's trembling hands.

"Maybe she missed the bus."

"It's eleven, Sookie. We had a fight this morning, and I don't know where she is."

"Lorelai, calm down. This is Rory. I'm sure there's a good reason. It's not like her to go off without telling anyone."

"You're right, it's not like her. And it's not like her to talk back to me, either, or to hang around with guys who are trouble. It's like me to do those things. Rory's acting exactly like I did at that age, and I haven't done anything to stop her."

"Lorelai, listen to yourself," Sookie suggested. "This is Rory."

"I can't. I have to find her." Lorelai pushed past her friend.

"Pretty interesting," Jess said, gliding along the red stanchions separating the public from the furniture that had once belonged to the author of Tom Sawyer.

Rory nodded.

"I was thinking we could get some lunch after this, are you hungry?" Jess asked.

"I brought my lunch," Rory pointed out.

"I didn't," Jess said. "I'm buying. Anyplace you like."

"I could probably get to school for fifth period," Rory said.

Jess sighed. "You just don't know how to have fun."

"Maybe your idea of fun and mine are different." Rory smiled.

Jess looked at her sincerely. "Lunch?" he persisted. "I saw a big park on the way here...I think it might have had a carousel. Even if it didn't, we could have a walk around, maybe feed some ducks."

Rory hesitated. "Okay," she agreed. "But I want to go to the gift shop first. See if they have anything really tacky as a souvenir."

"You got it," Jess agreed.

Rory wasn't at the house. It was the first place Lorelai went, and the only place she could think of. "Rory?" she yelled, walking through the living room and pushing open the door to her daughter's empty room. "Rory!?" she hollered again, but there was no answer.

Where would she have gone? Rory wouldn't have gone off by herself, would she? Lorelai remembered when Rory had gone to Emily's, the last time they'd had a big fight. But that had been a big fight. And Lorelai couldn't call Emily and ask whether Rory was there without raising serious questioning from her mother. Emily would panic. No, Lorelai decided, if Rory had gone to her grandparents' house, then Emily would have called so Lorelai wouldn't worry. There were no messages - Lorelai had checked, several times. That meant Rory wasn't there.

This didn't make any sense, Lorelai thought. But it was happening, and she had to deal with it. She got back into the car. The only thought she could come up with was to find out if Lane or Dean had any idea where Rory was. That meant a trip to Stars Hollow High.

Wait...cell phone. Rory had a cell phone. Lorelai could just call her. Why was she freaking out when she could just call Rory? Lorelai grabbed her phone and began dialing as she drove toward the high school. She glanced up two seconds before she would have hit a pedestrian, and jammed on the brakes.

The pedestrian looked up and she saw it was Luke.

I don't need to deal with this right now, Lorelai thought. "Sorry!" she called through the window.

Luke eyed her warily, then approached the car. "What's wrong?"

"Rory didn't make it to school today." Lorelai tried her hardest to keep her voice even.

Luke's face tightened into a hard, ugly frown. "Neither did Jess," he said tersely. "Damn it."

Lorelai was already reaching for the passenger door lock. "Get in."

Luke climbed into the Jeep and sat tensely beside her. Lorelai glanced at him and saw he was holding her cell phone, which she must have dropped onto the seat. "You shouldn't use these while you're driving, you know."

"I know. I was calling Rory," Lorelai said. "Finish dialing, would you?"

Luke held the phone up close to his face, squinting at the small keys.
"I don't know how to work these things," he grumbled.

"Press '5' then 'send.'" Lorelai looked from him to the road and back as he found the right buttons, then looked to her. "Put it up to your ear," she suggested impatiently.

Luke did, and heard a warbling ring. "It's ringing."

Rory's cell phone rang from the pocket of her backpack. The other museum patrons looked at her as though she'd just committed a heinous crime. She saw the incoming call was from her mother's phone and instantly felt guilty, knowing she'd be in trouble. She took a deep breath and answered it. "Hi, Mom."

"This isn't your mom," a rough male voice startled Rory on the other end of the line. "Although you've scared her out of her mind. Where are you?"

"Who is this?" Rory demanded, suddenly worried something had happened to Lorelai while she was off goofing around.

"It's Luke," he said, as though Rory should have known.

"Is my mom all right?" Rory asked.

"She's driving. Where are you?" Luke demanded.

"Hartford."

"Is Jess with you?"

Rory glanced at Jess, who was watching her curiously. "He's here." There was silence for a moment and Rory thought the call had been dropped. "Luke?" she said, and saw Jess flinch with the realization they were now both in trouble.

"We'll be right there," Luke said.

"I'm going to kill her," Lorelai declared, clenching the steering wheel. "Move it, jerk!" She hollered at the slow-moving car in front of her on the freeway.

"Calm down," Luke requested, clinging to the handstrap. "I'm sure this is Jess's fault."

"That's not exactly reassuring," Lorelai pointed out. "Why can't you control him?"

"Control him?" Luke scoffed, his voice rising. "He's 17!"

"That's no excuse."

"Could anyone control you when you were 17?" Luke challenged.

"No," Lorelai snapped. "Why do you think I'm worried?"

"She's not like you, Lorelai," Luke said.

"Gee, thanks," Lorelai said.

"That's not what I meant," Luke said quickly.

"I know. She's a good kid. A smart kid. Which is why I can't understand why she's doing this."

"Maybe there's a good explanation," Luke offered.

"She's 16!" Lorelai cried. That was the explanation.

"Could you slow down a little?" Luke cringed as the Jeep bounced off a pothole. "He's not going to get her pregnant before we get there."

"If I wasn't driving, I'd sock you for that," Lorelai threatened, increasing her speed just to spite him.

Luke figured it would be safer if he didn't say anything at all.

"She's going to kill me," Rory said to Jess as they made their way out of the museum, to the bench where they'd arranged to be picked up.

"We could run away," Jess suggested. Rory couldn't be sure if he was serious.

"Running away doesn't solve anything," Rory said. "My mom's been running away from things her whole life."

"It wouldn't be so bad to grow up and be like her, you know," Jess said.

Rory just looked at him. "I love her, but I don't want my life to turn out like hers."

"How do you know what you want?" Jess asked. "Sounds like you just know what you've been told all your life."

Rory didn't say anything.

"'Go to Harvard.' 'Be a good girl.' 'Don't turn out like Lorelai.' - you think I don't see it? Everyone's telling you what to do - or what not to do. When are you going to do what you _want_ to do?" Jess asked.

"This is what I want to do," Rory insisted.

"Then why are you so miserable?"

"I'm not!" She took a second to think about it, though. "Maybe you should take your own advice."

"I do what I want," Jess told her.

"Then why aren't you happy?"

He'd really gotten her riled. Jess smiled, and she looked at him like he was insane. "We only get so many days on this earth, Rory Gilmore. It's better to take a chance and have it turn out bad than spend your whole life wondering what might have been."

"Is that what you told Luke this morning?" Rory challenged.

"No," Jess said. "It's what he told me." Rory seemed surprised by that, because she continued to look at him even as Lorelai's Jeep pulled up to the curb. "They're here." Jess stood, picking up Rory's heavy backpack.

"I can carry that myself," she insisted, trying to grab it back from him.

He wouldn't let her have it. "No need."

"Get in the car," Lorelai ordered from the driver's seat.

"Mom, I'm sorry, "Rory said.

"We'll talk about this at home," Lorelai informed her.

"I didn't mean to worry you," Rory continued apologetically. Lorelai said nothing, so Rory put her head down and got into the backseat with Jess.

"Hi, Uncle Luke," Jess said, smiling. "You two have a nice drive?" His question seemed to insinuate something more.

"Keep your mouth shut," Luke suggested.

"What?" Jess asked, as though astonished by the command.

"Jess," Rory said, cautioning him.

"Keep your mouth shut or I'm sending you back to Liz," Luke said.

"I bet she'd have something to say about that," Jess retorted. He and Luke were stuck with each other, and they both knew it.

Luke turned around in his seat. "You don't know when to stop, do you?"

"What're you gonna do, Uncle Luke, hit me?" Jess demanded.

"Would it make a difference?" Luke asked rhetorically. He wasn't going
to hit Jess. After a moment, he turned so he was once again facing the
windshield.

"Ms. Gilmore, would you please turn up the radio? I like this song," Jess said, as though nothing in the world was wrong. Lorelai cranked the stereo, but it couldn't drown out the silence.

To be continued...

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