Chapter 1:

"Oh My God," she heard a gasp the moment she walked into the diner; quickly followed by her mother holding her tight against her body.

"Mom," Rory responded with a huge smile on her face. She missed this town, the memories, this diner, Luke, Lane, but more importantly her mom; her best friend, an older version of herself.

"Offspring," Lorelei whispered into her daughter's hair. She was quickly cut off from the embrace by a crashing sound. They both looked towards the kitchen where Luke -Lorelei's fiancé and the man who practically raised Rory as his own- dropped a coffee pot.

"Rory?" He asked as surprised as Lorelei had been to see her.

She smiled and gestured with her hands, "the one and only." Luke smiled and Lorelei kept a hand on her daughters back, rubbing affectionately. He quickly walked over and wrapped his arms around his soon-to-be step daughter. "I'm glad your back, I'm not sure I could keep myself sane if I spent one more alone moment with your mother," he said in her ear as he held Rory close. She laughed, living with her mother for over 18 years meant that she understood what he was talking about. "I've missed you," she said smiling at him once they pulled apart. Hugging started out awkward for them but after knowing him for the majority of her life, it became natural.

"Stop hogging my daughter," Lorelei said and glared at him slightly but couldn't seem to hold back the smile that was tugging at her lips.

"I thought you wouldn't be here for another week."

"Yeah but since Obama has already won, I thought I'd come home to the small-minded people of Stars Hallow." She said but was smiling nonetheless.

"Oh, don't you dare belittle us now that you all high and mighty," her mother said.

"All hail, Rory." Her mother mocked, waving her hands up and down to prove her point. Rory rolled her eyes at her mother and took a moment to look around. Even after a year of being gone; nothing seemed to change. Stars Hallow seemed exactly the same from when she left. She was just waiting for the mob to hurry through the doors and welcome her.

"I've missed it here," she said.

"Good. Because the town realized once you were gone that we didn't hate you as much as we all thought and you actually…..grew on us. And we are determined to never let you leave again."

"You need therapy- the town loves me. I'm town princess, remember?" Rory asked, doing a little twirl. Lorelei chuckled. "Oh, trust me, I did not forget."

Luke watched their encounter and felt a strong urge of déjà-vu and comfort. His Gilmore girls were once again reunited in his diner. He had missed this, he missed Rory, and he missed them- together, united.

"I'll leave you alone for a while," he said, knowing they had a lot of catching up to do. He smiled at both of them as he walked towards the kitchen.

"Bye Luke!" Rory called out as her and her mother stood in the middle of the empty diner, it was Sunday morning and majority of the town was at church.

"Okay, so I don't want you to be ambushed just yet so let's stay at the apartment?" Lorelei asked, referring to Luke's old apartment above the diner that was now used mainly for storage because he was living at her house.

"Okay," Lorelei said enthusiastically. "Tell me everything." Rory sighed but smiled anyway. "Well it all started with….." Rory said telling stories from her very first day up until the last one. Lorelei didn't particularly care how long this would take, she was just glad to have Rory home. She wanted to know and hear everything since the moment she dropped Rory off at the bus station the same time last year.

She dozed off for a moment while Rory was talking about how horrible the coffee had been and took moments too look at her daughter. She smiled.

"What?" Rory asked, self consciously touching her hair to make sure it was in place.

"Nothing," her mom replied but continued to smile. "Just missed you is all."

Rory smiled back. "Me too, Mom; you have no idea," she gushed. Lorelei almost forgot that a Yale graduate and grown woman was standing in front of her, but instead she saw an innocent seventeen year old ready to see the world and craved adventure. She then instantly remembered that this was not the case. The girl in front of her was no longer a girl, but instead a woman of 24 that had seen the majority of the United States and Europe. She smiled nonetheless. Rory never changed that much anyway. She might as well be seventeen because no matter what; Rory would always be her little girl, her other half, her best friend.

…..

"I still can't believe you're getting married in a month!" Rory said excitedly, still in Luke's old apartment. She mentally thanked Luke for taking out all the old furniture because if he hadn't, unwanted memories were more than likely to come up; memories that involved Luke's nephew, Jess.

"I know, isn't it in incredible?"

"Yes! But you know, it's taking you quite a long time for this to actually happen." Lorelei shoved her lightly.

"Trust me, I know. I've been waiting to marry Luke….well, I'm not exactly sure but it's been an awfully long time." Rory smiled. Despite the fact that as a child she always secretly wished to be in a normal family with her mother and her father, Chris; she had more strongly wished that both Luke and her mother would realize they're love for each other and become a family.

"Since the first day you met him," Rory said, her eyes shining as if she was 8 again and watching Luke and Lorelei's introduction.

"I wouldn't push it that far. Although, I do recall thinking of marriage when he gave me his coffee that I cannot live without and then even more once he stopped charging me for it."

"You know, Mom, I find it incredible that you never realized that the grumpiest and biggest cheapskate in Stars Hallow had feelings for you when he started giving you things for free." Lorelei shrugged.

"What can I say? I'm the queen of de-Nile." She responded cheekily. "Get it?" she nudged Rory. "The queen of denial?" Rory rolled her eyes at yet another one of her mother's lame jokes.

"I got it the first time."

"Well, how was I supposed to know that? You didn't laugh and I don't read minds." She said.

"I can't wait till Lane gets here!" Rory exclaimed ignoring her mother's last comment.

"She'll be here anytime; if she plans to keep her job and raise her sons, then she will." Rory still didn't feel like dealing with the townspeople of Stars Hallow quite yet. Thus, Luke was going to send Lane up once her shift started.

"Her sons, wow, that's still so weird to say."

"Oh my gosh, you haven't seen them in a year! I almost forgot."

"Yeah, I've tried talking to them through the phone a few times. And I have a lot of photos but nope, I haven't seen my nephews in over a year." She smiled with pride to say the word nephews. It made her sound sophisticated and grown up, she liked it.

"There big," Lorelei said grinning. "They look like Zach….and act like him too."

"Poor Lane," Rory sighed. She honestly loved Zach but he was just an overgrown five year old.

"Yes, poor Lane, but despite getting characteristics from Zach, they're adorable."

"So better than our relatives children?" Rory said referring to Christmas cards from many moons ago.

"Much, much better," Lorelei assured her.

"Good to know." A smile tugging at her lips, she was there aunt, their Lorelei.

"Okay, Luke, I'm going!" Rory heard a familiar voice as the treaded up the stairs. She stood by the door so that she could scare her best friend. The door slowly opened as Lane was grumbling, "Why did he need me to come up here? I think he needs to have is head reexamined- Ah!" Lane ended her tan drum with a yelp. "You're here!" exclaimed Lane; pulling her best friend into a tight hug.

"Yes!" Rory said equally enthusiastic.

"I'll let you too bond," Lorelei said as she went downstairs to her fiancé.

Luke smiled as he heard Lane scream. Stars Hallow was finally whole again.

….

"So you already went and saw Kwan and Steve?" Lorelei asked Rory, hours later. The town had already found out that she was here.

"Yes." Rory said smiling.

"And?" Lorelei pushed for details.

"You were right, they're little Zach's."

"Unfortunate, huh?" Lorelei said jokingly. She had also grown to have a soft spot for Zach, it had just taken awhile.

"Very," she agreed teasingly. They reached the diner where they found Babette and Moray.

"Rory, sweetheart, we heard you were back!" Babette she said in a heavy accent and running straight towards her. The short woman hugged her tightly.

"I am," Rory managed to squeeze in.

"I can't believe you waited until now to see us!" Rory almost pointed out that they had come to see her and not the other way around but she bit her tongue.

"I was just so tired," Rory lied.

"Oh, I understand sweetheart. Moray, it's Rory. Say hi to Rory," Moray put up a hand and mumbled a 'hey Rory.' She smiled at him.

"Well we better be on our way, I just wanted to drop bye and say hi to you. Well bye, doll. Don't be stranger, mi casa es tu casa." Rory smiled and realized how much she had honestly missed Babette's high spirits.

"I won't," Rory said and waved and then made her way to the counter to sit next to her mother.

"When are you coming?" Luke said into the phone smiling both at Rory and Lorelei who were sitting at the counter and most likely listening to his phone conversation.

"No, you have to come sooner! You said you'd be here sooner!" He said loudly into the phone which caused Rory and Lorelei to give each other interested looks.

"Who do you think he's talking to?" Lorelei asked her daughter with her eyebrows raised.

"I don't know," Rory honestly said although her mind was whispering Jess, that's the only person he talks to like that. But she didn't dwell on it. She couldn't dwell on it without going temporarily insane.

"10 bucks says it's Liz," Lorelei predicted.

"You're on," Rory smiled competitively.

"No, the town won't banish you! No stop coming up with excuses for coming and get your butt down here by next week." With each word that was exchanged the likelier the possibility that it was Jess and not his mother. Luke listened as the person on the other line talked for a second.

"Because we're going to have rehearsals and I need more support." It was Jess, there was no doubt in Rory's mind that it was. Yet she still hoped that it wasn't. She knew she'd have to see him; he was Luke's nephew after all. She had just planned it being in a month- a whole month so she could get ready to see him- to have to able to talk to him, let alone see him.

"I need you to be here. You hear me? I asked you two weeks ago if you'd come this week and you told me yes. You promised you'd come." Rory was amazed at how desperate Luke sounded for a moment. Realization seemed to dawn on his face and he spoke into the phone.

"This has nothing to do with our earlier conversation does it?" He asked, quieter then before but still loud enough for Rory and her mother to hear.

"Good. Then you have no reason not to come. I plan to see you Sunday, okay?"

"Bye," he finally said and slammed into the holder and mumbled something about how unreliable family is.

"Who was that?" Lorelei asked not even trying to hide her nosiness.

"Just…um," he looked at Rory for a split second through the corner of his eyes.

"My best man," he finished. Rory hadn't known that Jess was going to be Luke's best man but she knew it was Jess he was talking about,

"You can say his name, Luke." Rory said even though she wasn't completely sure that she could handle hearing it. She had to get used to it though.

"Jess," he sighed and Rory trying to cover up all emotions that came up with that name, turned to her mother and said "Ha! You owe me 10 bucks." Lorelei groaned and opened her purse looking for a 10 dollar bill.

Rory turned her attention back to Luke. "So he's coming Sunday?" Rory asked trying to sound as nonchalant as possible. But contraire to her outside appearance inside a whole mass of emotion were going on. Just by that name- Jess- her whole body lit up like a firecracker. Anger, excitement, disappointment, confusion, brokenness, sorrow, depression, happiness were roaming her body just like it did when anyone brought up his name when she was 17.

"How long is he staying?" She felt like she could win a Grammys with the act she was pulling.

"He'll be here on and off for the next month."

"Where is he staying?" Questions were bubbling up inside her. She hadn't talked to Jess in over a year and she needed to get as much information out of his uncle as possible.

"Well, since the apartment no longer has any beds in it I was thinking the couch at the house but…if you're not okay with that he can stay at the inn."

"Of course she's okay with that," Lorelei put in, handing Rory 10 bucks that she just found.

"Oh, I just wasn't sure because Jess hasn't really mentioned anything since Philadelphia and I wasn't sure if you two had gotten in a fight." No, no fight just me being an incredibly rude jerk and breaking the heart of the boy that broke mine, Rory thought.

"What?" Lorelei said turning to look at Rory. Oh, right, I didn't tell her, Rory thought.

"When did you go to Philly?" Rory's mothers face was clear with shock.

"Around the same time Luke did for Jess' open house."

"Why didn't you tell me?" Why didn't she tell her mother?

"I thought I did," Rory lied because she couldn't come up with a response that would make sense to her mother. She had reasons though, plenty of them; I wanted to see what his life was like. I wanted to know where he was living. I wanted to see him grown up and responsible. I wanted him to know how proud I was of him. She also didn't want to talk to her mother about what happened. She didn't want to talk about how she broke the heart of one of the few people who have known her for a long time and still believed in her. She didn't think she could talk about it without having a meltdown.

"Did something happen? Is that why you didn't tell me?" Luke was looking at Rory very intently also waiting for her response. He had wondered for quite awhile if something had happened between them in Philly and that was why Jess was avoiding anything that had to do with her. He suspected that something had, Jess and Rory never exactly knew how to control themselves in one another's presences; it's like they forgot that there was a world beyond the two of them.

Rory quickly glanced at Luke and Lorelei got the message. She picked up her bag and kissed Luke's cheek. "We're going home. I'll talk to you later." This was code that she knew Luke was dying to know and she would fill him in tonight. Lorelei grabbed Rory by the arm and practically forced her out of the diner. Jess was a sore subject between them but Lorelei would be damned if she wasn't completely filled in to anything related to the two of them. As much as Lorelei hated to admit and would deny anyone that said it, she knew they were meant to be together. She knew that Rory honestly believed that she had loved Dean and Logan but Lorelei knew that the only person her daughter had ever really loved was Stars Hollow's rebel. She had yet to see the new and improved Jess. But she clearly remembered the smart, sarcastic, quiet boy who was a lot like herself as a teenager- independent and didn't respect authority. She didn't like him the moment she met him. She knew he'd hurt the two people closest two her, Rory and Luke. But the more she got to know him the more she realized he was misunderstood and angry at the world and frankly the boy version of her, growing up. She grew to respect him- nowhere near the way that both Rory and Luke adored him- but they had a mutual understanding that she wouldn't interfere with his relationship with Rory as long as he didn't hurt her. And he did. He proved her right and she had hated him for it probably more than Rory had. He left without as much as a letter. Luke had been miserable, wondering if his only nephew was okay but she knew a small portion of him was relieved. Rory was miserable. Even though, her daughter wouldn't even admit it to her; she knew it was true. She sulked and mourned silently, doing everything she could possibly do to avoid thinking of him. It wasn't hard either, she was finishing up finals and then she was off to Europe. But Lorelei knew that he haunted her. She knew when Rory dreamt about him because she would dream with a smile on her face and then wakeup crying. And unlike Rory's other boyfriends, she didn't make a box of his things after they broke up. She couldn't because everything she owned gave her some reminder of him- all of her movies they had trashed together, all of her music they had had debates about and half of her books had his neat precise handwriting in them and the other half he had read. She couldn't part with everything but Lorelei saw how Rory would avoid certain book. She wouldn't read anything that he had written in or as much as look at them. When she had needed one for a book report, she would borrow one from the library and when Lorelei would point out that she owned it, Rory would deny it. All the books that Rory had treasured were dusty on her shelf. Untouched and unread; A bit like her feeling for Jess, Lorelei thought bitterly. He sure knew how to get under peoples skin didn't he?

"Talk," Lorelei said not respecting the fact that her daughter obviously didn't want to discuss it.

"Mom," she said.

"Do not, mom me. You went to see Jess over a year ago and you didn't even bother telling me."

"Fine," Rory said and took a deep breath. Jess. It was hard enough to think about him, she wasn't sure if she could handle talking about him.

"I was jerk. A huge, gigantic jerk and I never even apologized. I wouldn't blame him if he hated me."

Lorelei knew that even if her daughter wanted to think he hated her. He didn't. Lorelei knew him well enough to know that he could never hate Rory the way that he probably should.

"I doubt you were that big of a jerk. But I honestly can't tell you, considering I don't know what happened!"

Rory took a moment to gather her thoughts before telling the story. It was long and painful for her to retell but she managed, for her mother's sanity. Even though, she wasn't quite sure that her mother still had her sanity.

At the end she summarized it, sadly. "I went there to see him but he thought I was going there to get back at Logan and I never bothered to correct him. He kissed me, mom. And I broke his heart." Jess' heart had already been long gone since she refused to go with him that fairytale winter day years ago. But Rory didn't need to know that.

"Oh, honey," Lorelei said with sympathy in her voice even though she was anything but proud about how her daughter had acted.

"He hates me, he has to." She said.

"No, he doesn't."

"Yes. He does and I don't want him to, mom."

"I know you don't."

"He means so much to me. Even though, I haven't seen him in a while and we don't have the best track record he's still a huge part of my world."

Lorelei knew this but she was glad that Rory was finally admitting it to herself.

"I wanted him to know how proud of him I was and I blew it." Tears started to gather in her eyes. It had been so long since she cried over her bitter ex.

"You did," Lorelei admitted. She would sympathize with her daughter but she wasn't going to defend her this time.

"What should I do?" Rory asked, wiping the tears that had spilled over.

"I'm not sure," Lorelei said honestly. Rory laid her head against the couch. Just great, the only person she thought could help her and she couldn't even seem to fix the web that Rory had gotten herself tangled in.

They sat for a moment in silence, which wasn't very common in the Gilmore house hold.

"Just make sure it doesn't interfere with my wedding," Lorelei joked.

"Wouldn't dream of it," Rory said smiling. Rory then sat still for a moment longer, pondering in her thoughts.

"Just talk to him," Lorelei said. That was the only advice she seemed to come up with. She was pretty positive that it would make things easier. Rory didn't hold grudges very well and Jess never seemed to either when it involved Rory.

"Did Logan ever know?" Lorelei asked curiously. Something about the story had been bugging her.

"No," Rory shook her head.

Lorelei paused not sure if she should ask what she wanted to know. She did though. "Did Jess, by any chance have anything to do with you declining the marriage proposal?" Rory looked startled. She hadn't even though about it. She knew the truth though.

"I think," she stuttered with the word. "I think he did." She admitted quietly. Lorelei had already known the answer before she had asked the question and she seemed satisfied when her daughter gave her the same answer she'd been expecting. "That's what I thought." Rory nodded. She put her head on her moms lap and cried. Finally, letting everything that had been stored up in her for the last six years out.