Disclaimer: I own nothing - you know it, I know it.

Once more she looked at Florry Wendy reading on the fire escape.

"Goodbye, Francie," she whispered.

She closed the window.

She finished the book and quickly scribbled a few thoughts beneath the notes that were already on the page. She looked out the passenger side window for the first time since they had gotten in the car and was surprised to see that they were almost there.

It normally took two hours to get from Boston to Stars Hollow, but somehow they had managed to make the trip in an hour and fifteen minutes. She looked at the speedometer.

He was speeding. She should have known. He always sped. She attributed his haste to the fact that the sooner they got to Stars Hollow, the sooner he would be rid of her.

She figured she should probably be upset that her father finds her a nuisance in his seemingly perfect life. But she wasn't. She just wanted to go home.

Lorelai Madison Gilmore, the seven year old product of the union (so to speak) between two of the most prominent families in Connecticut, had spent the last week in the Hell that is high society.

Leila could stomach dinners and luncheons with the arrogant upper-class only in the presence of her mom and Grams, both of whom found these events to be as pointless as she did. But last week, she had no one to turn to other than Logan, and he had been preoccupied with drinking games and woman.

She almost went insane. She would have if it weren't for the duffel bag full of books Jess had packed for her.

Needless to say, when Logan informed her that their visit would be cut short, it was all she could do not to jump for joy.

"Do you want me to drop you off at your house?" Logan interrupted her thoughts.

"Um…no. The diner's fine."

"You sure, Squirt?"

"I'm sure." She hated it when he called her that.

Logan pulled up in front of Luke's. As soon as the Porsche came to a stop, Leila hopped out of the car and ran into the diner.

It was practically empty inside. Jess was wiping down the counter when he heard the bell over the door ring.

"Have a seat wherever," he said. "I'll be with you in a min…" Jess stopped mid sentence when he turned around and saw who had entered the diner.

"Jess!" Leila squealed and ran over to him.

He picked her up and hugged her. "And how's my favorite girl," he asked while moving her to his side, balancing all of her weight on his hip.

"Huh." Leila smirked.

"What?" Jess narrowed his eyes.

"I'm your favorite girl?"

"Shhh…don't tell your mom." He whispered.

"Ok." She whispered back.

Logan entered the diner carrying Leila's bags. "Where do you want me to put this stuff?"

"Hey Logan. Um…" Jess looked around, "I guess you should just leave it all by the door."

He put the bags down. "So…" he said, suddenly realizing how awkward the situation was.

"What are you guys doing here," Jess asked. "Aren't you two supposed to be in Boston for another week?"

"I have to go to Prague on…um…a business thing," he answered.

"Oh, right." Jess couldn't believe this guy – the selfish bastard couldn't even spend two weeks with his own kid.

"Yeah…"Logan sighed. "Hey Squirt can I get a hug before I leave?"

Leila rolled her eyes.

"Go say 'goodbye,' to your dad," Jess set her down.

They hugged and Logan gave her a kiss on the cheek.

"I'll see you soon, ok?" He said as he walked out the door.

"Yeah…looking forward to it," she replied sardonically. Luckily Logan left without picking up on her sarcasm.

"That bad, huh?" Jess asked.

"I read a lot," she said, trying to focus on the good parts of her trip. "Hey, where's Luke," she asked hoping to change the subject.

He acquiesced and answered her question. "He and your grandmother got roped into some DAR thing Emily's hosting."

"Ah, an afternoon with the Gilmores. Luke must be thrilled. Mom go too?"

"No, she had to go to Hartford - something for work."

"So I guess we're kind of stuck here, aren't we?"

"Yep."

"Hey, Jess?" She smiled sweetly at him.

"Yeah?"

"Can I help you out down here? You know clean tables, take orders, that kind of stuff," Leila asked.

Jess raised an eyebrow and looked at her.

"Please," she begged and pouted.

Jess hated when she made that face – he could never say 'no' to that face. "Fine," he sighed.

"Yay!" Leila clapped her hands and ran up the stairs.

Jess tried to focus on his recently abandoned task of wiping down the counter, but was having trouble concentrating. His thoughts drifted to Leila and Logan. He couldn't understand how Logan could so easily treat her like she was nothing. Practically everyone adored the girl. Even Jess liked her, loved her actually, and he rarely liked anyone, especially kids. He accredited his general disinterest in children to the fact that they were loud, annoying, and always seemed to have sticky hands – like they were constantly eating jam, or something.

But Leila was different. She was smart, funny, quirky, free of jam-hands, and loved to read. In short, she was just like her mother. And how anyone could resist the charms of those two was beyond him.

Jess had been so wrapped up in his thoughts that he was surprised when a slender hand snaked around from behind him and rested on his stomach.

A soft voice whispered in his ear, "Working hard, Mr. Mariano?"

He smirked and turned to face the culprit. "As you know Ms. Gilmore, my mission in life is to provide a clean and positive dining experience to everyone in the greater Stars Hollow area."

"Oh, right. How could I forget," Rory replied sarcastically before throwing her arms around his neck and passionately kissing him. Jess eagerly responded, pulling her as close to him as possible. They parted only to catch their breath.

"Well, hi," Jess smirked.

Rory blushed, "Hi."

She leaned in to kiss him again, but he pulled away.

She furrowed her brow, "What's wrong?"

"Leila's upstairs."

"What?"

"Logan dropped her off awhile ago," he answered.

Rory sighed and shook her head. "Why does he do this? It was his idea to spend time with her. I better go talk to her."

She stepped away from him and began to walk away, but Jess grabbed her arm.

"I don't think that's such a good idea."

"What? Why not? She needs to talk about this, Jess."

"I know. But I don't think now is the time. She's happy to be home; just let her be for today. Ok?" He pleaded.

"I don't know."

"When she's ready to talk about what happened, she will - like she always does. But you have to give her time to process things on her own. If you push her, she'll just get upset."

"Fine," she sighed. "You know, she gets this whole not talking thing from you."

"I know. But she is a Gilmore. And that means she will talk eventually."

"This is true." She agreed.

Jess cupped her face in his hand and stroked her cheek with his thumb.

"She'll be alright," he reassured her.

Rory nodded and smiled at him. He leaned down and kissed her cheek. Jess then gave her light kisses along her jaw line before sweetly kissing her lips.

"What did I say about doing that here!" Luke interrupted them. He and Lorelai were standing in the doorway staring at the couple.

"Do it as often as possible?" Jess replied.

Luke scowled at his nephew.

"Oh, Luke lighten up," Lorelai interjected.

"You really want to see your daughter make out with that hoodlum," he asked.

"Hey!" Rory and Jess chorused.

"It's not that bad. I mean," Lorelai explained, "we should just be thankful it wasn't naked kissing."

"Dirty!" Leila yelled as she came around from behind the counter. She was dressed in one of Luke's plaid shirts and had on a backwards baseball cap.

"My favorite granddaughter!" Lorelai squealed as she and Leila hugged.

"I'm your only granddaughter, Grams." She notified Lorelai.

"Yes, and therefore, you are my favorite." Lorelai looked at Rory questioningly.

"Don't ask," Rory mouthed. "Hey sweetheart," she greeted her daughter.

Rory gave her daughter a kiss and pulled her into a hug. "I missed you."

"I missed you too, Mom."

"What are you wearing?" Luke finally inquired.

"Well," Leila turned to face Luke, "Jess said I could help him out down here until you guys came back."

"But why are you wearing my clothes?"

"Because Uncle Luke, this," she pointed to her outfit, "is the uniform."

Jess smirked.

"I should have known you had something to do with this," Luke glared at Jess.

"Maybe you three should get out of here before there's bloodshed," Lorelai warned Rory.

"But I wanted to help," Leila protested.

"We can have a movie marathon instead," Rory suggested.

"Yeah, you don't want to hang out here anyway," Jess added. "Uncle Luke still hasn't removed that stick that's stuck up his a…"

"That's it!" Luke interrupted. "Out." He looked at Jess and pointed to the door.

"We're going," Rory assured as she ushered her family out of the diner.

Jess picked up Leila's stuff and they proceeded to walk out the door.

"Bye Luke. Bye Grams." Leila called over her shoulder.

Lorelai waved, "Bye sweets."

"That kid," Luke shook his head.

"Oh c'mon, it was cute and you know it."

Luke's mouth upturned in a slight smile.

"Coffee. Now." Lorelai demanded, sitting down on one of the stools.

"You've had enough coffee today," he scolded her as he walked behind the counter.

"Blasphemy! You can never have enough coffee." Lorelai pounded her fist on the counter. "Please Luke," she pouted, "just one more cup."

He sighed, "Fine." He placed a mug in front of her and filled it.

Lorelai greedily grabbed her cup, "Sucker!"

Rory was cuddled up to Jess on the couch and Leila was lying on the floor surrounded by junk food. They had just finished watching The Princess Bride for the second time that day.

Rory yawned and stretched her arms above her head. "What time is it?"

Jess looked at his watch, "Almost 12:30."

"I'm so tired," she yawned again and looked at Leila on the floor. "Think she's asleep?" Rory whispered.

"Yeah," Jess nodded. "She's been out ever since the Pit of Despair."

Rory stood up and pulled Jess up off the couch with her. "We should put her to bed."

"You mean I should put her to bed," Jess smirked.

"You carry her and I'll tuck her in."

"Why do I have to always do the physical labor?"

"Because that's why I have you," she smiled.

Jess just shook his head. He picked up Leila and went up the stairs with Rory right behind him. They reached Leila's room. Rory walked over to the bed and pulled back the covers so Jess could set her down. After he did, she tucked Leila in gave her a kiss on the cheek.

Jess leaned down and kissed Leila's forehead. "'Night Leila."

He and Rory headed towards the door.

Leila rolled over on her back. "Jess?" she asked sleepily.

"Yeah?"

"You're my favorite, too. Favorite boy, I mean."

Rory couldn't help but smile at her daughter's comment.

"Thanks." He said.

Leila rolled back over on her stomach and went to sleep. Rory and Jess left the room, quietly closing the door behind them.

Rory placed her hands on his hips and looked into his chocolate eyes. "You're my favorite boy, too," she admitted and began kissing his neck

"Oh really?" Jess smirked.

"Yep," she replied before kissing him soundly on the lips.

Jess pulled her closer and let one hand rest on her lower back, while the other cupped her cheek. They continued kissing while her hands slowly traveled up his body and entangled themselves in his hair. Rory then took his lower lip between her teeth and lightly bit him.

Jess pulled back slightly and rested his forehead on hers. He grabbed her right hand and entwined it with his left one.

"I thought you were tired," he smirked.

"Who? Me?" Rory looked at him innocently.

"Yes. You."

"That was then, this is now," she stated matter-of-factly. "C'mon," she said, leading him down the hall into their bedroom.

Rory turned to face him once they had crossed the threshold. She grabbed onto to his belt loops and gave him a devilish smile, followed by a wink. He let out a small laugh before kissing her fervently and using his foot to shut the door behind him.

A/N: This is my first fic. Please let me know if you thought it sucked. Thanks.