Title: Day 6
Author: tarotgal
Fandom: Gilmore Girls
Rating: PG
Pairing: Rory/Jess (past Rory/Dean)
Disclaimer: Not my characters. I wish they were mine. I definitely don’t get paid for this.
Summary: There's more than one reason Jess doesn't want to go to the Winter Carnival.
Notes: Written during my 12 Ficlets in 12 Days in 2014 project for symphonyflute

Walking past the town square, it was impossible to miss the booths that were being constructed. White lights were being hung from all the trees. Fake snowmen were being put out on the actual snow, which wasn’t enough yet to make snowmen with. The high school’s winter carnival was swiftly approaching. Excitement bubbled up inside Rory, and she stopped with an extra enthusiastic bounce.

Her hand in Jess’s swung just as enthusiastically, and she felt him squeeze it through their gloves.  “So… are you sure you don’t want to go to the winter carnival?”

Jess gave her a look that said, without a doubt, ‘I’m sure.’ But the look also said, ‘I have dark, brooding eyes that are irresistible, and wouldn’t you want me to go everywhere with you?’

Rory cocked her head. “Yeah, but are you sure sure?”

Jess sighed a sigh that said, unequivocally, ‘I’m absolutely sure.’ But it also said, ‘You’re starting to wear me down and if you push me a little harder, I’ll give in.’

Rory pouted and moved in for a kiss, but Jess pulled away and dropped her hand.

And that was a pretty clear sign. Rory rocked back. “Fine. I get it. You don’t want to do this with me.”

“No, I don’t want to do town stuff.”

“But I do. And if you’re going to date me—“

“God!” Jess rubbed his hand over his forehead. “I can’t do this again right now. I have a headache.” He shivered and pulled the zipper up higher on his black jacket.

“Aw, you look cold. Do you want to go into Lukes’ and keep talking?”

“Keep arguing, you mean? I don’t think so. I’m going to just go. I’ve got to get to school anyway. See you later, Rory.” He started to lean forward to kiss Rory, and Rory closed her eyes, expecting it. But he gave her a quick peck on the cheek before turning and heading down the street.

Rory looked over at the winter carnival construction then headed to Lukes’ for coffee. She and Jess were new. New was hard. She’d been with Dean so long, she’d almost forgotten what new was like. And now she remembered. New was hard. And coffee would make everything better.

*

Jess breezed through the diner, which wasn’t full in the early afternoon right between lunch and dinner rushes. He stood at the bottom of the stairs, looking up at them. There were suddenly so many of them. But his bed was at the top, and he really wanted that. Unless he could just curl up behind the counter with a sack of flour as a pillow and his jacket as a blanket. He could actually do that. But he was pretty sure Luke would notice. And the last thing he wanted was someone else on his case right now. So, with a sigh, he started up the stairs.

There were so many stairs. Flinging the door open, he threw himself inside. He stumbled over to his twin bed and collapsed upon it. And that felt wonderful. For exactly one minute. Then he felt cold and realized his blankets were underneath him and he’d have to get up to get at them. Getting up didn’t seem like a particularly good idea at the moment. So he tried to keep warm by tucking his arms under himself and squeeze his legs together. He tried to talk himself into thinking this was warmer, though he knew it wasn’t. With any luck, though, he’d be asleep in two minutes and it wouldn’t matter that he was cold.

“huhh…” But, naturally, luck was not on his side. “huhhh!” He turned his head, burying his face in his pillow. “huhhh-Uhmphhh!” It was the least satisfying sneeze he’d ever sneezed. “h’Uhfchmff!” Correction: that was the least satisfying sneeze he’d ever sneezed. Plus, his pillow was starting to get wet.

Jess raised his head. Tissues. Luke had to have a box of tissues somewhere, right? He looked around the room. Hockey skates by the door, about a thousand bottles of seasoning in the kitchen, a hammer by the radio for some reason… but no tissues.

“huhh-Chooo! Hah-Uhchuhhh!” Now those had been satisfying. But they’d also been wet. His nose was dripping. Rubbing the back of two fingers under it, Jess pulled himself off the bed and began a search for tissues. He checked under the counters and in the pantry. He checked the bathroom and the closet. The closest thing he found were paper towels in the kitchen and toilet paper in the bathroom. After trying both, he went with the paper towels because they didn’t fall apart in his hands. He should have swiped a box at the school clinic.

He’d been sent to the clinic three times during the day—the first was when he’d fallen asleep in class, the second when he couldn’t stop sneezing, and the third because he’d not been paying attention and claimed it was because of a killer headache, though it was really because class sucked. Except that his head did ache. And he felt horrible. So he’d just skipped last period and gone home.

When Jess collapsed back in bed, he remembered to pull the covers down first. He burrowed under the blankets with the paper towels, coughing and sniffing and shivering and aching. It wasn’t until he was mildly comfortable in bed that he realized he should have taken something. Luke never closed the diner. He had to have, like, the world’s best cold remedies in his medicine cabinet.  But he was warm now and didn’t want to move. If he was good enough at it, maybe he’d be asleep in a couple minutes.

“Jess!”

Jess groaned. Luke. Of course it was Luke. “What?”

“What what? I need you downstairs in the diner.” He paused. “Wait, aren’t you supposed to be at school?”

“No.”

“But it’s the middle of the day.”

“No.”

“Are you going to get up and fill some coffee cups?”

“No.”

“No?”

“No.”

“So you’re just going to lie here the rest of the day?”

“Yep.”

“Fine.”

The door slammed as Luke left, and Jess winced in pain as the sound made his headache intensify. He wished he’d asked Luke to get him some medicine. But Luke hadn’t stuck around and Jess didn’t want to complain. “huhh-Uhschihhhh! Huh-Shickkhhh!” For now, lying here underneath warm blankets and blowing his nose into thick paper towels might not be the worst way to get over a cold.

*

Jess shivered as covers slipped off him as he tried to get at his phone. The damn thing’s ringing had woken him up, and only one person could be calling him right now. Luckily, that was one person who could make him feel better just by saying a few words to him. He cleared his throat and answered his phone. He was still in bed, an arm draped over his eyes, a dozen balled-up paper towels piled next to the pillow on his bed. “’Lo?”

“Awww, did I wake you? You sound sleepy.”

She had no idea. “You have no idea.”

“I’m outside. Want to take a walk with me?”

God, he wanted to… but, at the same time, he didn’t want to get out of bed. And anything outside meant winter and snow and cold. But it also meant Rory. “I’ll be down in a minute.”

He peeled off his coat only to put on a sweatshirt over his flannel before quickly putting it back on again. He raided the medicine cabinet and downed two pills of something that had a picture of a cartoon guy sneezing on the box. He tore paper towels off the roll and stuffed them into his pockets. He considered borrowing a hat or scarf from Luke, but he didn’t want Luke to ask him about them on his way out, so he skipped them and just headed down.

The diner was busy enough that Luke didn’t even notice him slipping out. And Rory was waiting for him under the overhang of the shop next door, out of the snow, and conveniently out of sight from Luke, who might be glancing out the diner window. “Hi,” he said, his face lighting up as he saw her smiling one.

“Hi,” she replied, moving in for a kiss.

Quickly, he turned and pointed toward the town square. “Did you see they got new benches?”

“I saw.” She took his arm and they began walking. Everything from the sidewalk to the parked cars were dusted with snow. Every bit of greenery from shrub to tree was covered in strands of white lights—there were even some on the newspaper boxes and trashcans. “Boy, it’s pretty out tonight, isn’t it?”

“Sure is.”

“Like a snow globe.”

“Mmhmm.” He knew where she was going with this. Even if he felt well, he wouldn’t want to go to the stupid Winter Carnival, but now, all he could think about was crawling back into bed. Or at least sneaking a paper towel out of his pocket and blowing his nose without her noticing. The crisp air was making his nose run even more than it had been already.

“Sparkley. I mean, I don’t think a night comes any prettier than this one. And if you take away the pretty night and add a corn dog…”

Yep. He’d seen that coming from down the block. “I’m not going to that carnival with you.”

“But why not? Do you suddenly have something against corndogs?”

“Rory, I…” His runny nose was one thing. But now it was tickling. A lot. He tried giving a hard sniff and rubbing a knuckle against his nose as surreptitiously as possible. But neither worked. The tickle intensified so quickly and sharply that he knew it was useless to fight against it. He tried to pull away, but Rory had a firm grip on his arm. So all he could do was cup a hand to his face as the sneeze bent him in half. “huhhh-IHSchikkhhhh!”

Even her “Bless you!” was cheerful and perky. Clearly she didn’t suspect that he was actually sick.

“Thanks.” He gave another strong sniff and put his arm around her, trying to act casual and normal. But another sneeze was already working its way through his nose, causing his breath to catch. This one came on even more quickly, and he pitched forward again. “huhh-H’Schxxhhhh!”

Rory laughed, reaching up and patting his hand. “Oh, I get it. You’re doing that thing where you stretch and try to put your hand around my shoulder and then you sneeze and your hand falls and you try to grab—“

“huh-uhh-IHSchuhh! Hihshuhhh!”

“Uh, Jess?”

“HehKShuhhh! Hehhh-UHschhhhh! HuhKshh!”

They’d stopped walking, of course. And they’d started attracting attention on the street. Feeling overly self-conscious as he pulled out a paper towel, he turned away from Rory successfully and blew his nose repeatedly, glad Luke bought the good, strong brand.

When he turned back, she was looking at him with concern. “That was a whole lot of sneezing. You okay?”

“Yeah.” He waved a hand dismissively. “I’m fi… fi-ih-huh-Hihtchuhhh!”

“You don’t sound fine.” She had one hand on her hip. “You sound like you’re coming down with something. Jess, are you coming down with something?”

“No.” It wasn’t exactly a lie. He’d come down with something that morning. What he now was a full-blown something.

She took his arm again. “You know, you could have just told me you weren’t feeling well and that’s why you didn’t want to go to the Winter Carnival. Wait… is this why you didn’t kiss me earlier?”

He shrugged, and she hugged his arm tighter. “Jess! You have to tell me these things!”

He didn’t, though. He’d gone most of his life fending for himself, and it had been just fine that way. He could look after himself.

She started to kiss him again, as if to tell him she understood or to tell him it wasn’t a big deal or to tell him she was sorry he was sick. He wasn’t sure which it was, because, just before her lips touched his, some little girl in a giant powder blue coat came running out of nowhere. “Rory!”

And Rory turned and hugged her. “Clara! Hi!” They said more to each other, but Jess wasn’t really paying attention because his gaze had travelled further down the sidewalk, and he had seen the person he least wanted to see in the whole world: Dean.

And, just like that, Dean and Rory started talking about the carnival, talking like they were friends or like they were still dating. Inside his pockets, Jess clenched his fists around the paper towels. He couldn’t even look at the guy.

The little girl was eyeing him suspiciously. “Who are you?”

“No one.”

She laughed, “Yes you are.”

“No, I’m not.”

Rory introduced him. “That’s Jess. Jess, this is Clara.”

Clara didn’t look too impressed with him. “Are you two going to the carnival?”

Jess noticed that Dean didn’t want to look at him just as much as Jess didn’t want to look at Dean.  Rory answered for them both, which was just as well, because his nose was itching again.  “I’m going. Jess isn’t.”

Clara wasn’t going to let this go, apparently. “Why not?”

“He has things to do.”

“Then you can go with me and Dean… riiight?”

“Oh, well—“

“I’m going.” Jess couldn’t believe he was saying it. Not only did he not want to go to some silly town carnival, but he was miserable just standing here, trying not to sneeze in Dean’s presence.

“What?” Rory looked at him like he was crazy, and he definitely felt it.

“To the carnival. I’m going to the carnival.”

And that was it. He was going. He was sick and miserable and going. Dean and Clara headed across the street. Jess put his arm around Rory as they followed behind. “Are you sure?” she whispered.

“Yeah. I’ll be fine.” Damn it. He hated lying to her, but it had to be done. “I… huh...” He pulled out a paper towel and pressed it firmly to his face to muffle the sound of whatever was to follow. “h’uffshhhhh!”

Dean glanced over his shoulder, eyes narrowed, but he didn’t say anything. Jess wondered how long that would last. And, as Clara started pestering him with more questions, he wondered how long until she noticed he was sneezing more than he was talking. This was a bad idea on so many levels, but he couldn’t let Rory go to the carnival with Dean. He just couldn’t.

*

She’d lost Jess. He was probably around somewhere; the carnival was big but it wasn’t that big. Jess had been sneezing his head off all night and trying to look like he didn’t have the world’s worst cold. He’d told her he’d needed a minute alone, presumably to blow his nose or hack up a lung or something, but it had been ten and he wasn’t back yet. Dean and Clara were missing in action as well. And as much fun as the carnival was, standing in the middle of it alone wasn’t all that much fun. Mostly, though, she was just nervous about Jess.

She should have told him to go home. But he’d insisted on staying, and he’d kept saying he felt fine. She didn’t believe him for one second, but she hadn’t realized how sick he was until it was too late. Coughing into his sleeve after every other sentence. Sniffing almost constantly. And sneezing through… how many paper towels did he have in his pocket? For that matter, why wasn’t he using Kleenex? It’s just that she’d wanted to share the carnival with him so badly. This was the first big Stars Hollow event since the two of them had gotten together and she wanted to prove to him that she didn’t mind the town knowing that they were together now. Plus, the carnival was fun and magical and she wanted to share that with Jess.

So she hadn’t insisted he go. But now she thought she should. Assuming she could find him. She tried closing her eyes and listening for coughs or sneezes, but that didn’t work. So she set off in the direction she thought Jess had gone in and hoped for the best.

She found him. She found him at the school, just inside. She found him doing the one thing she had hoped he wouldn’t do: fighting with Dean. Rory quickened her pace as she crossed the street, finally coming close enough to hear what they were saying.

“You think she’s taking pity on me?” Dean laughed. “Have you even looked at yourself tonight?”

“You thidk you’re goig to wid her back by beig her friedd?”

“I didn’t—“

Rory ran in, waving her arms. “White flag!” She grabbed Jess’ arm and pulled him back a foot.

“We were just talkig,” Jess explained. Earlier, Rory had noticed that Dean and jess wouldn’t even look at each other. Now their gazes were locked as if they couldn’t look away. That couldn’t be good at all. And Jess was sounding worse by the minute.

Just then, Clara came out of the bathroom, ready for popcorn.

“Aww, I’ll pass,” Rory told her, smiling down at her. “I think Jess and I are going to take off, actually.”

“I’b fide,” Jess said for the hundredth time that night, and each time he said it, he sounded less and less fine. Now he sounded tired and stiffed-up and angry—not a winning combination for anyone but in Jess, a recipe for certain disaster.

“Jess is fine,” Rory told Dean and Clara. She took Jess’s hand and squeezed. He tried to pull his hand away, and she squeezed again. “But we’re still going. Good night, we had fun. Didn’t we, Jess?”

“Yeah, fun.” His breath caught and he caught his nose between his thumb and forefinger, breathing heavily into his glove.

Rory steered him down the sidewalk and around the corner. As soon as he was definitely far enough away from the carnival, he turned his head and let himself sneeze. “huh-Shifffff! Huhh-Shehffff!” He dropped her hand and cupped both of his at his nose. “huhh-H’Shuhmffffff!”

“Bless you.”

“Thanks.”

“No, really. I’m sorry you’re sick.”

“I’b fide.”

Rory rubbed her hand up and down his back.

“You dod’t have to babysit be.” He plowed ahead toward Lukes’.

Rory reached out and took his arm, stopping him. “Let me get something straight. I’m not taking pity on you.  I’m with you because I want to be with you, even if you’re feeling sick, not because you’re feeling sick. I want to share things with you, even silly things like the Winter Carnival. And if you don’t like that, then maybe we shouldn’t be together.  But that’s not what I want. And I hope it’s not what you want. Is… is it what you want?”

Jess sighed deeply. “Rory?”

“Yes?”

“Honestly?”

“Yes?”

“What I want right now is to go somewhere warm, preferably somewhere with a bed and tissues.”

Rory smiled and grabbed his arm. “I know just the place.”

They headed to Lukes’. Jess started toward the stairs, but Rory redirected him toward the counter which Luke was busy wiping down. Luke wiped harder, but he didn’t look up. “Nice to finally see you, Jess. You could have told me you were going out with Rory. I could have used your help around here tonight.”

Jess grunted and rubbed as hard at his nose as Luke was rubbing the counter.

“Um, Luke?”

Luke looked up at her and sighed heavily. “Do you want coffee?”

Rory nodded. “And some chicken soup for Jess.”

“We’re outa chicken. We’ve got tomato or nothing.”

“But… your chicken soup’s the best for colds.”

“You’ve got a cold?”

“No. Jess has a cold. Hence the chicken soup for Jess.”

Finally, Luke looked over at Jess, teeth clenched. “You missed your shift tonight.”

Jess nodded. “Yeah, I did.”

Luke raised his voice. “Then you went out without telling me.”

Jess nodded. “Right about that too.”

Luke angrily threw the washcloth down on the counter. “And now you’re going to sit there while I whip up a batch of chicken soup for you.”

Jess started to nod then his head snapped down. “huhh-IHTchhuhh!” Jess’ cheeks reddened.

From behind the counter, Luke pulled a box of tissues and slammed it down in front of Jess. This time, when he spoke, he did so without anger in his voice. “Give me a couple minutes for the soup.” He poured them both coffee then took Jess’ back. “Wait. I’m getting you tea. Tea’s better for a cold.”

Jess hunched over, not looking up. “Fide.” But as soon as Luke went to make tea, he pulled out a whole handful of tissues and blew his nose. “huh… huh-Hschhhh! H’Ihshhhhh! Hih-Kihshuhhh!”

“So…” Rory sipped her coffee. “About the carnival…”

“Rory!” he said through the tissues. “We’re fide.”

She smiled back and nodded. “Fine. And I hope when you’re feeling better and more in a kissing mood, we’ll be better than fine.”

Jess lowered his head, smiling so wide she could see it behind the tissues.