All right, I promise a long time ago to LitGG1982 that I would replace this first chapter with a more internationally-friendly version. I apologize to her endlessly, I felt like a Grade-A moron for doing this. I used the term "Nazi" as a simple and careless insult and I have apologized and am replacing with something more appropriate. Please accept my deepest apologies to all of those who I've offended.
Also keep in mind, as I plan on saying in Chapter 7, reviews do make the world go around. It helps writers get motivated by getting acknowledged for their work! My last 2 chapters have been getting very few reviews and it concerns me. Even if you don't have great things to say, I want to hear them so I can improve my writing!
Again, this is for LitGG1982 and all those others who were offended but didn't speak!
A/N-All right, so I decided to go with my first idea and name this And I Kind of Like You Driving Me Crazy, which hopefully will have significance, but is already self explanatory.
This story is directly consecutive to the Season 3 happenings of From the Bottom of My Heart, but it won't include any more Season 4 stuff until I work my way there.
I'm hoping to add more to stories after this one. I'm looking at it also only being about fifteen chapters long. The conflict in this one will be a little bit more situational as opposed to the last conflict (to avoid spoilers, I'll keep my mouth shut).
Note, PLEASE READ!In order to understand where I am going with this story, how it starts, or how the past has affected it, you WILL need to have read From the Bottom of My Heart. Whereas, you could read that and not read this and be fine. Either way, just know that IF you choose to read this as a standalone, I am NOT responsible for confusion.
With that said, onto the THANKS (and there are many!) for my last update—
Kat-As usual, thanks a bazillion times. Hope you like this one just as much! You were and are my fave reviewer!
Nicolle-I already told you, but your review was by far the most extensive and made me the happiest. I have it saved on my computer. I honor your feedback so much, thank you for taking the time as the great writer that you are, to read my beginner's work!
Bittersweetbloodbaby-I've already told you this so many times, but thank you for taking the time to read my story. It's been an honor. I hope you continue to read and enjoy as I have with your work.
Spinaround-I'm glad I finally got that sorted out for you! Sorry it was so confusing! You'll be glad to hear this one isn't in that same format, so your confusion will end! Thanks for reading!
Papaslittlecj, sanfrangiantsfan, miloluver, Kylie1403, just hidden, gottalovethegilmores, lexi, curlygurl, Jade-Tessier, music4mysoul, mezz, HOLL3R, Waffler, and MiloxIsxSexy—Thank you immeasurably for your kind words of encouragement! They really helped me finish that story. I just wanted to say that FTBOMH was the first FanFic that I ever finished and was proud of and I couldn't have done it without ANY of you!
So, I don't own Gilmore Girls, and I'm not Amy Sherman-Palladino. Here we go….!
It was Halloween day in Stars Hollow and the fear of the nights activities were safely excluded from the community. Children ran around in costumes, hopped up on sugar, and that was by far the scariest aspect. Teenagers would carouse the town a little later and maybe vandalize Doose's if they had the nerve, but, for better or worse, things were calm.
Lorelai and Rory Gilmore crossed the street to the market on the mild Sunday afternoon, both giddy.
"I love Halloween," Lorelai said as they entered the store and were instantly inundated with the shelves of candy that were placed before them.
"Buy it while you can get it ladies," Taylor said as he walked up to them hurriedly. "I only roll these bad boys out for holidays and they are in short supply, let me tell you." He stepped back and appraised Rory. "Miss Gilmore."
Rory, temporarily confused as to Taylor's distance, looked at him curiously before their conversation in the square more than a week ago crept back into her mind. "Uh, hi Mr. Doose, nice to see you again," she said politely, hopeful.
Taylor straightened his back and looked at her imperiously. "Good to see that somebody remembered to take her manners pill this morning," he said briefly before he walked out of the vicinity again. Lorelai and Rory exchanged a look and Lorelai gestured mystically.
"We will never understand that man, I swear," Lorelai said as he began selecting bags, somewhat randomly.
"Question. Why do we always buy seventeen bags of candy when we only get nine trick-or-treat-ers?" Rory asked her mother as she pulled down a bag of M&M's and handed them to her.
"Because," Lorelai said, getting off into a rant of reasoning where she didn't think or know how to prove that she was right, "kids these days have higher standards in amounts and you know how they know about profit margins and stuff…," She trailed off. Rory smiled sympathetically and nodded along, knowing that Lorelai would fail all the while. "All right, I don't know, but we should buy it while we can!"
"We are never going to be able to get rid of all of this," Rory pointed out.
"We'll freeze it!" Lorelai said tremendously.
"Frozen candy sucks," Rory complained.
"No candy sucks more!" Lorelai exclaimed.
"There are other ways to get candy than Taylor's thrice-annual candy sale," Rory said reasonably. Lorelai reached out and picked up a bag of Sugar Daddies.
"How often do we see big bags of Sugar Daddies?" Rory fidgeted, her face falling as she realized her secret obsession with the candy. She once had eaten three in an evening and still managed to get a full night's sleep.
Rory fidgeted, her rational excuses failing her. "Not often." She paused again and watched a Cheshire-Cat sized smile spread across Lorelai's face. "I really want one, okay? Just put them in the basket and keep walking, geez," she said, pushing Lorelai. Rory briefly felt a familiar breath near the back of her neck and she felt the pulse in her neck jump exponentially when she realized who it was.
"Boo," Jess said quietly as he brandished a single, brand-new Sugar Daddy before Rory's eyes. She grinned and blushed, turning around to kiss him. She heard Lorelai's cries of disapproval as she covered her eyes and looked the other way, only egging on the teens further and causing them to grin, pleased with her displeasure. They broke finally in submission to Lorelai's chiding and turned to see her, gesturing frantically across the small market where they could see Dean working, not having caught on to the antics yet.
Quickly collecting themselves, Jess offered the candy to Rory again and she grinned at him thankfully, taking it and pressing a small kiss to his cheek. She turned to her mother and watched as she shoved her index finger down her throat, jokingly disapproving.
"Oh hush," Rory whispered, laughing still. She would've had it in her heart to hate Dean if he had broken it, but it was never his to break and she now knew that much. So instead she chose to look at him as a fixation of her environment. He would always be there, always scowling or towering or threatening to ruin things with Jess, but he would never know the validity of their bond and he couldn't break it, no matter how he imposed.
Lorelai gave Rory a look of seriousness and Rory rolled her eyes when she turned back around. The pair, accompanied by Jess who was quietly, but amusedly following, chose their final selections and went to the register, weighing their chances of Dean being their Bag Boy.
"Rory," Jess said, seeing her squirm in discomfort. "I wanted to show you this idea that I have, but we need to go outside, you need the visual of the town to really get it," Jess said in mock seriousness, pulling her close to him by wrapping an arm around her, a claim to their relationship. She exhaled a little and smiled up at him, thankful for his presence. Even if Rory knew where Dean stood in her life, it didn't mean that she wanted to be around him when she didn't have to. Lorelai sighed loudly and Rory smiled at her and waved as they walked out the door. Lorelai winked at her to show her carefree manner and proceeded through to the checkout.
Outside, the couple walked to the intersection and waited to cross back to the diner, Rory looking at him appreciatively.
"What?" Jess said, half laughing as he noticed her staring mixed with a loony smile. She looked ahead as they crossed the road, his arm around her shoulder protectively, smiling despite her idiocy of the moment.
"I just realized that I haven't thought about Dean for one offhand second since we've been together, and I was going to feel bad about it, and then I just had the shocking realization that I love you," she said to the side of his smirking face as they reached the other side and he pulled her close by the collar of her jacket, feeling macho until she said I love you.
He faltered for a second, his world shaken and turned, skidding out of balance, but he maintained all the while, holding steadfast to her jacket, to her words. They had exchanged words that suggested the fact, shared kisses and retrospectively cheesy moments of boundless adoration and obvious affection, maybe love. But the words. He'd never dreamt in a thousand years of togetherness that he'd hear them.
Then her speaking them so profoundly, almost goofily. It dawned on them both at the same time that there wasn't a more perfect way for Rory Gilmore with all of her adorable quirks to tell someone that she loved them. And anything was better than punctuating the statement with an exclamation point and the word 'idiot'.
She didn't take his silence and disheveled look as disbelief or hurtful silence. She took it as shock with a good peppering of awe and she savored the seconds like champagne and let them sit in her mouth, the bubbles and tingles rising to her palate before the burn of pleasure would caress her throat and sink into her bones like a prayer.
Jess found his voice hanging from his belt loop and pulled it back into this throat, but not before grinning at her with a combination of admiration and something only identifiable as love. And without hesitation nor agenda, they fled from his lips.
"I love you too," he said as he watched her smile while he found the words and leaned down to kiss her. His masculinity reclaimed by returning her favor, he pulled her almost off the ground, pushing their bodies together almost inelegantly so. But the weight of the moment outweighed the town's reservations on etiquette and it all seemed to fall from the grace of a black and white Audrey Hepburn movie for a brief moment when Jess wasn't analytical.
"Hey now," Lorelai said, walking up, destroying the détente of their kiss and resulting in Rory blushing twenty different shades of pink. Jess just put a street-legal amount of space between he and Rory and stuffed his hands in his pockets, avoiding Lorelai's eyes, but the glow of a landmark playing in his eyes. "Making out on street corners isn't allowed in this town. Something you know very well," Lorelai said to Rory as she walked into the diner, past the two, clearly trying to distract from the two huge bags of candy she was toting.
"Hey! Where did all of that come from? When I left you we had ten bags, that has to be at least fifteen!" Lorelai did some quick tabulating in her head and re-closed the door to the diner.
"You are such a crap bag today! Being all lovey with your boyfriend and then turning around and yelling at me because I impulsively bought a bunch of Snickers!"
Rory blinked at her mom. "I think we need to go home before you die of sugar withdrawal," Rory said, looking at her mom and then at Jess. "Call me?" she pleaded.
Jess rolled his eyes, overdramatic and kissed her. "Fine." Walking down the street, the girls linked arms, Rory still tutting at her mother's hording ways.
Meanwhile, Jess watched them walk, mesmerized by their camaraderie and banter that in any other situation with any other group of people would have been off-the-wall insane. But their bond was toxically poetic. They regaled one another gracelessly and the casual awkwardness didn't bother them or the followers of their wake. Jess watched this with a level of cautiousness. He could sip from their fountain of youth unnoticed, it was his thing, but he could never fully bask in the childish innocence that they so faithfully sustained.
He had grown up too fast for his childhood to still live strong within him. It had shriveled away with the hunger for holidays, for affection, for attention. It all died away.
Still watching, Jess smiled mournfully. The murderer of his purity was dead. Provided, the killer was his mother, he was still justified. And the fact that some shred of justice being served started to satiate the itching hunger that had presided in his stomach since she has emotionally abandoned him.
"Jess!" Luke called through the door, Jess still standing on the corner with his hands in his pockets, now watching a void. "Get in here, your break ended ten minutes ago. I don't have time for this," Luke said, exasperated but happy. Only Jess could really tell.
Luke could be livid with him but as long as he knew where he was and that he wasn't off impregnating his girlfriend, Luke was actually happy with him. It didn't take much to please Luke. It took a lot to get him to show it.
Taking one last appraising look at their path, Jess felt their influence fading away. But he never felt it, even in waves of adolescence, leave his heart that moment.
"Seriously, stop being such a damn slacker," Luke said in a last-ditch effort to get him inside. Sighing heavily, Jess turned on his heel and entered the diner behind his uncle.
xxx
Evening had wrapped its arms lovingly around Stars Hollow in anticipation of the outside world, and inside the habitants began to suffocate on the anticipation of candy.
"Rory?" Lorelai called, coming out of the kitchen where she had been emptying bags of candy into a more-than-likely unused cooking pot.
"Hmm?" she said from her position, nestled so far into the couch with her book that she didn't hear the doorbell ring.
"We have customers, and I have to pee, wanna field this one?" she asked pleadingly as she danced at the base of the stairs.
"You got it," Rory said, bouncing up and quickly retrieving the overflowing pot, dragging it into the entrance hall.
"Trick or treat!" she heard as she opened the door, eyes still focused, shocked, at the sheer quantity of candy that was before her. Quickly looking up, she found Dave Rygalski smiling at her, wearing a very cute clown costume, and someone next to him, draped copiously with a white sheet, eyeholes cut in an all-too The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown manner. Rory stifled a laugh, but wondered who it was.
Before she could wonder aloud, she heard a muffled "Hi," and the sheet was being lifted.
"Lane?" she asked, taken aback. Now that Lane was of good marrying age, Mama Kim let go of all of her childish rule breaches and made sure Lane passed out pamphlets on Halloween, directly advertising the dangers of the devil and supporting him in such a mass gathering. Lane was clad in a yellow, bible camp t-shirt, tucked into her jeans in a way to please her mother, and a pair of very modest jeans, the outfit finished by a pair of unmarked sneakers.
"Yeah, I snuck out so I could hit some candy. You'll probably be my first and only house. I heard Taylor grumbling about Lorelai putting him out of business and I figured if I got here right away, this was the place to be," she said quickly, gesturing nervously. She and Dave had been together only briefly and her general cadence with him was still inhibited.
"Sounds like a plan. She did clean him out. Jess and I ducked out before Hurricane Dean made his way over to bag up the goodies and I didn't get to police her purchases," Rory said as she dumped innumerable handfuls into their bags. Lane checked the bottom of her bag and shrugged, handing it to Dave.
"Sneak it through my window at eleven," Lane said, also slipping off the sheet and handing it to him, checking herself for sinful debris. "Thank you a million times Rory."
"Bless you and your children," Dave said, grinning as he peeked at the bottom of his bag.
"Who are a very long way off, indeed," Lorelai said, coming down the stairs, grinning at Dave who was now waving.
"How're you doing Lorelai?" he asked.
"Not bad," she replied, equally pleasant.
"That's good. Well, I have to be going, Lane has to return to her mother's bible reading and I am supposed to be ushering her through the dangers of All Hallow's Eve. I'll see you both later, thanks for the candy!" he said as he galloped off the porch and into the night, he and Lane subconsciously entwining their hands.
"So cute!" Lorelai gushed when the door closed and nobody could hear them.
"I know, aren't they?" Rory said, also smiling uncontrollably.
Lorelai bent down and picked up a mini-Snickers. "A toast!" she said, unwrapping it ceremoniously. Rory grinned at her and picked up on of her own.
"A toast!"
"To Lane and Dave, Luke and I, and you and…," she trailed off, sounding almost as if she had excluded his name. She moved to take a bite out of the bar and Rory stopped her, by clearing her throat.
"Jess! Geez, holidays do not do anything for your nerves," Lorelai said, knocking candy bars with Rory and taking a bite. Rory smiled as she chewed the car and dwelled on her afternoon.
"Not always," she said dreamily. Lorelai looked at her with her eyebrows together in curiosity. Rory caught this movement and Lorelai raised an eyebrow questioningly.
"Something I need to know?"
Rory grinned.
(Very much happening in this chapter, this story will be more emotional than situational. Hope you like it!)