"Ow, Mom," Rory squirmed as one of her mom's pins poke into her thigh abruptly. She sure didn't remember her mother as being such a hasty seamstress back in the days when she hemmed her plaid skirts or made ball gowns for Chilton.

"Sorry," Lorelai smiled, obviously not too sympathetic because her grin was spread from ear to ear. "It's just," she paused, stepping back to admire her daughter. "Wow."

"Wow? Oh Mom, you really shouldn't have brought me such a pretty dress; you know the rule? The maid of honour is in no way allowed to upstage the bride! We'll have to just un-wowify it."

"Un-wowify it? I'm glad to see the Ivy League education paid off." Rory rolled her eyes. "Anyway, it doesn't matter as far as I'm concerned: I've been waiting for this day so long, I thought I'd become a Miss Havisham. And now it's finally here." Lorelai sat back on her sofa, pulling her daughter down with her and together they admired the living room. Bar the extra bits of Luke's clutter (such as his fishing equipment stacked, all too neatly for Lorelai's liking, in the corner of the room) it looked the same as it did all those moons ago when the pair first started living there.

The phone rang but neither made a move to answer it. They just sat there together, enjoying their rare moments of togetherness. Rory had only just been given the time off to come down for the couple of weeks to help Lorelai prepare for her wedding and soon she'd be off on the campaign trail again. It was rare that they crossed paths but they still kept up communications. Every night at six o'clock they'd ring each other or sometimes Skype, but Paul Anka would start to howl every time he heard the call music so the latter was less often.

The phone rang again but before either could reach it, Luke burst in through the door. "What's the point of you assigning me this thing," he frowned, holding out his cell phone in disgust, "if you don't answer my calls from it?" Luke did not mix well with technology, it was proven.

"Maybe I saw it was you and deliberately didn't answer, you ever think about that, huh?" Lorelai teased, that twinkle in her eye as she watched Luke give up in comical exasperation.

"Rory!" he cried, his eyes falling on her. "I thought you only came back at noon!" Rory ran towards him and he enveloped her in a bear size hug. Rory loved his hugs: they felt like home, they smelled of Lorelai, he hugged her the way a dad held his child. "She's grown," he exclaimed, holding her out to take her in. "How's she grown? I read an article the other day saying girls were supposed to stop growing at twenty one and yet here you are defying all the rules!"

"I promise I've not helped myself to any Upelkuchen whilst I've been away." Luke frowned, he rarely understood her cultural references but it didn't matter.

"It's just that you're home! You're home and it feels like ages since you've been home! Have you met up with April yet? She's buzzing to see you again, she keeps on harping on about getting to have a new sister- of course you don't have to call her that, that's just April being April- and she's going through a kind of Jo March kind of phase, which is odd because she's always been more of a scientist, but she's been nagging me to get you to give her some pointers and-"

"Mom, have you been teaching him to talk so fast, because seriously this is some skill for a newbie." Rory asked when he finally paused for breath.

Lorelai finally got up off the sofa and mock hit her fiancé, "Out." He made a face like a kicked puppy. "I'm sorry but it's bad luck to see us in our attire before the wedding."

"I thought that only applied to the bride?"

"What do you know? With us it's kind of a package deal." Lorelai smiled, looking over to Rory who had taken interest in the CDs they'd collated on the table for the band to draw inspiration from.

Luke took his fiancée by her waist. "I wouldn't have it any other way." He said, pulling her in for a kiss but she stopped him.

"I'm serious mister, come back after we've finished and I'll crack open that bottle of wine Liz brought us and we can make a night of it."

"What happened to this whole celibacy thing?" Luke winked, keeping his voice just above a whisper to keep Rory from hearing and cringing.

Lorelai shrugged, "Where's the fun in it? Rory's staying over at Lane's and when Jess gets back I guess you'll have to be staying at the diner for a while just to check he isn't planning of burning the place down whilst your away."

"He's not like that anymore," Believe it or not, Luke was actually very close with his nephew now, a fact that Luke had never thought would be true. Jess had become so mature, he was no longer the ne'er do well that had first come to reside at Stars Hollow all those years ago. "But you're right; I can hardly leave him there alone. He won't know anyone and he isn't that keen on having bonding sessions with TJ."

"Who are you on about?" Rory asked, her ears had perked up when she'd heard his name but she didn't want to make it obvious. Of course things weren't like that anymore. She'd kissed Jess in Philly but that was the last of it, she'd promised herself. At the moment, she couldn't handle being with a boy, she was at such a pivotal moment of her career. But hanging around with Jess again could be fun. They hadn't seen each other in a while and his feelings had probably gone so seeing him could do no harm. Besides, Rory knew they'd run into each other eventually and she didn't fancy the reunion being an extremely awkward session of eye contact whilst Lorelai and Luke exchanged vows at the altar. It shouldn't be like that.

"Jess, hun," Lorelai said, moving over to her to tame a stray hair. "He gets back tomorrow. Staying at Luke's of course."

"Of course," Rory smiled: well now they'd be bound to run into each other before the big day: she'd need her daily coffee fix and it'd be a worse sin than blasphemy to go anywhere else.

Luke knew exactly what Rory was thinking. "The problem is that he'll probably be bored stiff. He never made many friends at high school and if I know Jess he'll be itching to get back to his writing. I'm not going to discourage that but-"

"I couldn't dare leave him to go stir-crazy alone up there." Rory intercepted slyly. "You want me to go collect him tomorrow from the airport?"

Luke stopped, baffled. He wasn't expecting that kind of enthusiasm from her; a mere acknowledgement and promise to talk to him was all he was rooting for. Luke wasn't so sure what terms they'd last ended on but he knew that after her visit Jess had become a little more reclusive. She seemed to do that to him. He'd cage up and give one word answers. Of course, he was still perfectly civil- and this never ceased to amaze Luke- but for a while he'd purposely avoid the subject of the Gilmores.

Maybe they'd had a spat. Despite his polite manners nowadays, Jess still had an uneasy temper and Rory wasn't a doormat. Jess could've said something to upset Rory, god knows she was fragile then due to all of the pressures of studying, any little thing could've brought up bad memories.

Now her proposal seemed to suggest otherwise. Luke wouldn't pry, if he could help it.

"I thought we were going shopping tomorrow? Grandma's coming too, she's invited herself and we have Friday night dinner too. You can't miss that!"

"And I won't, but you're bound to be busy with Sookie tomorrow planning the menu. I love Sookie and all and her food is to die for, but I'd just be in the way. I don't mind going to collect him, we can catch up; I'll be home for lunch and then we can hit the malls and follow it with Friday night dinner, sound plausible?"

"Sounds great," Luke smiled.

Lorelai didn't have the heart to bat him for his obvious attempts at acting Cupid. In the past she'd made no secret about her dislike of Jess but maybe he had changed; after all, he wasn't a bad boy at heart.