Story: Back to New York
Summary: Jake (Rory and Tristan's son) and Jules (Jess's daughter) are engaged and back from London. While apartment hunting, they find out just what their loved ones haven't been fully forthcoming about while they were living abroad. (Takes place before For You and after most of the rest of the WHW one-shots).
Lia Melville rounded the end of the short aisle in the bodega on the corner of her street, crossed her arms over her chest, and smirked at her best friend. "Would you like to be alone with those?"
"Don't tell Jake, because I love him more than anything in the world, but I missed Pop-Tarts so much, it was all I could think about some nights. Certainly more than a girl should miss a toaster pastry," Jules Mariano said as she put another box of S'mores Pop-Tarts into her hand basket.
"I'm sure he noticed the weeping when you were served baked beans for breakfast," Lia teased.
"He tried so hard to cheer me up when I got homesick. He found one place by his office that sold the strawberry Pop-Tarts, but they only had strawberry, and the kind without frosting," she said, as if it were the most sacrilegious act one could imagine.
"Why bother?" Lia asked in mock disgust.
"Exactly. See, you get me. You'd never serve me unfrosted Pop-Tarts or baked beans, especially in the morning."
"Well, I'm your best friend. And beans are not my area of expertise, baked or otherwise," she said as she tossed some multigrain bread into her basket, along with a loaf of white.
Jules eyed her movements with slightly exaggerated disbelief. "Since when do you eat white bread?"
Lia froze momentarily, though she attempted a quick recovery. "I like to mix it up now and then. It is essential for fluffernutters and PB&Js, after all. Nothing else will do. If you're going to do something that's bad for you, go big or go home."
Jules shrugged, appeased by the logic. "Makes sense. Oh, kosher dills!" she cried out before taking a jar of pickles off the shelf and embracing it lovingly.
Lia raised an eyebrow, though she was happy for her friend's easy distraction. "Are you keeping kosher now or suddenly knocked up?"
"Mock me if you must, but there are a number of things you don't realize you'll miss until they are completely absent from your life. Like a kosher dill on your plate when you order a deli sandwich."
"What other gems should I make room for in my cupboards? Remember, I live in New York and don't have much money, so space is a premium," Lia advised as they made their way farther down the aisle. "You've seen my one closet."
"Sorry. I won't go too nuts. I'm just so glad to be back. Being in London with Jake was an experience I wouldn't have traded, but now with the wedding to plan, it's good to be home and surrounded by those people and things that are familiar again."
"The Pop-Tarts and I have missed you greatly," Lia lamented, momentarily resting her head on her friend's shoulder.
"I can't thank you enough for letting us crash with you for a while. Dad offered, but I'm pretty sure he would have made Jake sleep alone on the couch."
"What about Jake's parents?" Lia asked.
"Jake says they're being evasive in general as to their availability of late. Plus he didn't want to have the longer commute into the city if he could avoid it."
"So you're definitely looking around Manhattan?" Lia asked.
"For an apartment and a job."
"You could be my assistant," Lia offered. "As long as you can live solely on Jake's income. I could pay you in food, now and then."
Jules snorted. "Please. The only baking I do is putting the Pop-Tarts in the toaster. I cook, but baking is a whole other animal."
"I meant more like a personal assistant. You could get my dry cleaning and stuff. I'm too tired to do it myself. I miss sleeping in," Lia sighed.
"Bakers work early hours," Jules pointed out.
Lia yawned. "I know. I know. I love it, even with Mom on my case about limiting myself in a bakery setting."
Jules giggled. "Yeah, well, your cake is better than your mom's hands down, any day. Just don't tell her I said that. Some guy with a pipe would probably take out my knees."
"For the compliment, I will take pity on your knees," Lia promised.
Jules paused momentarily in front of the short line for the register. "It would suck to hobble down the aisle."
Lia snorted. "Is Jake helping much with the wedding plans?"
"What wedding plans? We haven't decided anything, at all. Gwen says we're enjoying the fact we're engaged, but he's been so focused on his new job, we haven't really talked much about the specifics."
Lia appeared actively relieved. "There's no rush, right? Besides, weddings are supposed to take a year to plan or something crazy like that. But I was starting to worry that you hadn't asked me to make your cake because you didn't want me to."
Jules turned to frown at her friend in dismay. "I don't want you to make my wedding cake."
Lia was dumbstruck. "You don't? You just said my cake is better than my mom's."
"It is. But I can't ask you to do that. I want you to be my maid of honor."
Lia felt tears prick at her eyes. "You do?"
Jules nodded eagerly and nudged her friend with her elbow. "What do you say?"
Lia hugged Jules, awkwardly avoiding the overloaded basket hanging from her arm. "Of course! But I want to do both."
"You're insane!" Jules decreed. "That's too much!"
"Maybe, but you should have the best," Lia said definitely. "And Jake makes you happy, so he gets the best, too."
Jules laughed. "You sound like my dad."
"Is he beside himself to have you back?"
"I'm having lunch with him tomorrow, to discuss my application for an open position with his company. He wouldn't really take no for an answer."
"Well, Jake got you to himself for a few years. Now he has to share."
Jules got out her wallet to pay. "So, enough about my lack of plans. What about you? What's new?"
Lia shrugged noncommittally. "Nothing much. I work weird hours, if there are weird hours in Manhattan. Nothing new to report. You know Will and Anna are having another kid, right?"
"I saw the video online of Katherine making the announcement about her big sister status," Jules said with a smile. "She's so cute."
"She's by far my favorite niece," Lia said. "Not that I have favorites," she added for good measure, being that her brother, Davey, and his wife, Mallory, had a full menagerie of youngsters under their roof.
"Of course not," Jules agreed with a knowing smile, not giving one thought to how Lia had managed to evade any more personal questions. They took their bounty and headed back to Lia's fifth-floor walk-up.
-X-
"Keep dreaming, woman," Jake Dugrey said as he skimmed the newspaper that Jules had spent a good hour marking up for him. She didn't need to ask which advertised rental he was referring to.
"It says it's rent controlled," she pointed as she spoke, as if he might have missed the expression in print.
"It's a two-bedroom in our price range. It's either a crack den or it comes with a creepy roommate," he commented, sliding his blue eyes her way.
"I grew up in the city," Jules stated erroneously.
"So?"
"So, I know how to read the apartment listings."
Jake raised an eyebrow at his fiancé. "You've never had to look for an apartment. You lived with your parents until college, and then you and Lia lived together near campus. And Lia found that place, didn't she?"
"She did," Lia affirmed from the bathroom, easily heard thanks to the ajar door. The intermittent sound of water running and tooth brushing could be heard from the confines as well. The bathroom, as with the apartment in general, was a tight fit with one person, and Jules feared overstaying their welcome and her best friend's incredibly generous offer to crash while they gained their bearings.
"We don't even need two bedrooms," he pointed out.
"What if people come to stay?" Jules asked.
"That was a valid concern in London," he agreed. "But everyone we know lives near here. They can go back to their own homes at night; they aren't going to want to stay in our crack den."
Jules narrowed her eyes at him as Lia's laughter was heard from the bathroom. "Fine. What about when we have kids?"
"We'll move," he said without batting an eye.
"How often do you intend to move?" she asked, sounding hassled.
He looked up from the paper and took another bite of his Pop-Tart. It was cherry-filled with frosting and sprinkles on top. She wondered if he even realized he'd been going without those. His voice lowered in concern. "Are you pregnant?"
More laughter emanated from the bathroom. Jules sighed. "No. I just think that if we're looking for our first real home, it should meet our needs for more than a year or so."
He swallowed his bite of Pop-Tart in a quick manner that evoked a coughing fit. "You want to get pregnant in the next year or so," he said, as if trying out the idea in his head.
Jules shivered at the words. "No! God. I just thought two bedrooms might be a nice option."
He shrugged in a non-committal fashion, once he was able to breathe normally again. "It is. Are you planning on stripping to supplement rent?"
She stole his second toaster pastry. She wouldn't take it for granted, and she wasn't sure he deserved it after that last crack. "I submitted my resume to a few publishers today."
He smiled with pride. "That's awesome!"
She waved him off. "Don't get excited. Even if I hear anything the pay will be crap for the foreseeable future."
"It's the price we'll pay to live in Manhattan. I like the idea of a studio. We'll be in close quarters. Kind of sexy," he said as he leaned over to kiss the Pop-Tart thief.
There was a gagging sound, and then Lia emerged from the bathroom. "Please don't do it on my table. Or at least wait for me to leave and disinfect it after you're done."
Jake grinned, and Jules appeared sheepish. "We'll behave."
"You will. He won't," Lia said knowingly.
"You missed me," he announced, still pleased with himself.
"Mmmm," she murmured as she grabbed her bag and strapped it across her shoulders. "So this catering thing will run until seven, and then I promised Anna I'd take the train up and sit with Katherine for a couple of hours while they hit the late movie. I'll probably crash there, so you two lovebirds have the place for the evening. Don't be gross."
"Have I mentioned lately that we appreciate you letting us take over your place?" Jules asked.
"Not in the last hour," Lia said, and then with a wave she was gone.
Jake put an arm around Jules' waist and leaned heavily over to her chair, with his lips seeking out her neck in earnest.
She tapped at the paper. "We need to find a place."
"I agree. However, we're alone. That hasn't happened since we left London."
She turned into him and kissed him properly. "You're exaggerating, but yes, people are glad to see us."
"They're glad to see you. Even my parents haven't made time to see me."
"Have you talked to your folks again?" she asked.
"Mostly Dad. He and I are supposed to meet up on Friday. Mom's busy with an article, but she said she's happy to help you with wedding planning since Jess, and I quote, 'won't be any help at all in the matter.'"
"Gwen offered too, with similar sentiments. He did agree to give me away. Well, technically he said he'd walk me down the aisle. He made no actual promise to hand me over to you."
"He knows you aren't twelve anymore, right?" Jake checked.
"I'm his only daughter. It'd be different if I were Ambrose," she said.
"I would have never proposed to Ambrose," he said without missing a beat. "He's not my type at all."
"Because he's male?"
"Because he's surly," Jake corrected. "And he looks terrible in a dress."
Jules rolled her eyes. "Lia says we need like a year to plan this wedding."
"What? A whole year?" he asked.
Jules blinked her brown eyes at him. "Is that a problem?"
"I didn't think we'd do it next week or anything, but I'm not sure I want to wait a whole year," he confided, wrapping an arm possessively around her waist and drawing her in even closer.
"Then you should have proposed sooner," she said. "Apparently."
He smirked. "Are you wishing out loud again?"
She punched him lightly on his upper arm. "Shut up. Also, Lia's doing our cake. And she's my maid of honor."
"Any other plans I should be aware of?" he asked.
She thought for a second. "Nah. I'm out."
He grinned and went back to revisiting the apartment listings, per her instructions. "So how bad does Lia want us gone?"
"She's not sick of us yet. She did kind of miss me. But I don't want to overstay our welcome, so all our spare time has to be spent in search of the apartment. The wedding can wait to be planned."
"I don't disagree," he said simply.
She chewed absently at a fingernail. "How long did you want to wait?"
"Hmmm?" he asked, not looking up at her as he read over the listings she hadn't circled to find any hidden gems.
"You said you didn't want to wait a year. When you proposed, did you have a time frame in mind?"
He turned his attention from the paper in front of him to her waiting brown eyes. He favored his mother when he was deep in concentration and his father most of the rest of the time. "You know. A few months, I guess."
"A few months? To get married that soon, we'd have to get married at property our families own and have people we know pitch in food and supplies they had on hand."
He studied her for a moment, and then he smiled. "Lia's doing the cake, right?"
She nodded. "Yeah. But you need more than cake to get married."
He put a hand on her shoulder and ran it down her arm, giving her tingles. She'd known him forever, been dating him for years, and living with him for a good while—and her skin still tingled in anticipation when he touched her. "Let's get married at my parents' place over New Year's, out on Martha's Vineyard. Lia will do the cake, we'll have Sookie do the food, and we'll ask Lorelai to be the wedding planner. She's done about a million weddings at her inn."
Lia leaned forward and kissed him. "Sixty seconds. It took you sixty seconds to plan a perfect wedding."
He chuckled under his breath. "I'm awesome. Don't act like you hadn't noticed."
"So that leaves us freed up to find an apartment."
"Great," he said, handing her half of the listings. "This time, look for studios in neighborhoods that won't lower our life expectancies, okay?"
-X-
"How awful do I look?" Jules asked as she turned to peer at her backside for the tenth time in the mirror.
"Stop it. You're freaking adorable."
Jules put her hands on her hips as she whipped around. "I don't want to look adorable. I want to look authoritative."
Lia arched a brow as she considered the parameters. "Put on the black shirt, and don't bother with the top two buttons."
"I think you're confusing authoritative with slutty."
"If you don't want my opinion, don't ask for it. Which publisher is this again?"
"Media House," Jules said as she started changing her shirt again.
"Isn't that where your dad works?"
"He put my resume in the right hands. I still have to get the job myself. I wouldn't be working for him."
"Some other bad-tempered editor?" Lia mused.
"That's about right," she said as she re-buttoned the black blouse as instructed. "So now I'm not adorable?"
Lia nodded her approval. "Now you look like you might do dirty stuff in your downtime, as opposed to keeping a mouse in your pocket as a pet."
"Why are we friends?" she asked, feeling persecuted.
Lia grinned. "Adorable isn't bad."
"It is when your dad works at the company you're applying to. I don't want to be known as Jess Mariano's daughter. I want to be Juliet Mariano, kickass editorial assistant, who is on her way to being an acquisitions editor in the hopefully not too distant future."
"Not Juliet Dugrey?" Lia said. "That might throw them off, unless they notice you're basically a younger, more feminine version of your dad."
"Juliet Dugrey," she said slowly, trying out how the words sounded coming out of her mouth. She turned back to the mirror. "Hello, I'm Juliet Dugrey," she said again, then wrinkled her nose. "That sounds so weird."
"It's not that weird," Lia said. "No weirder than any other patriarchal custom that our culture adheres to."
She caught Lia's eyes in the mirror as she rearranged her hair. "Would you change your name, if you got married?"
"Please," Lia deflected, as if it were an absurd notion.
"What? It's legal in plenty of places, New York among them. You can get married," Jules pointed out.
"In theory, I could. But I've yet to be in a relationship which warranted that consideration. It is a very unlikely part of my future, given my dating history."
"Fine. Hypothetically, if you found Ms. Right, would you change your name?"
Lia rolled her eyes. "Maybe. I don't know. Maybe we'd toss a coin. You and Jake could do that. He'd take your name, if you wanted him to."
"Why do you say that?"
Lia gave her friend a knowing look. "Please. He'd do anything for you. It's one his finer qualities, how unbelievably hooked he is on you."
Jules beamed. "He would, wouldn't he?"
"Yes. Now, keep the confidence you've got going on right now and get out of here, or you'll be late."
"Oh, crap. You're right. Oh, before I forget, we're looking at another place tomorrow. I'm sorry this is taking so long. Also, I finished the bottle of vanilla-scented shampoo in the shower, because I ran out of my travel one. I'll replace it."
Lia tensed up, but kept her tone light. "Oh. Right. Don't worry about it."
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah, now go. You'll be great."
Jules flashed her friend a smile and left to fight city traffic on foot. Lia grabbed her keys and took her own exit, out to run an unexpected errand at the nearest salon.
-X-
Jake was singing along to his iPod under his breath as he jogged up the stairs to Lia's apartment. Work was going well, the wedding was basically planned, all parents and involved parties were on board, and while they still hadn't agreed on an apartment, their time back home was going better than anticipated. He was set to have dinner with his dad the next day, and he was eager to find out what his parents were up to. They'd sounded enthusiastic about opening up the beach house for the wedding, and he knew his mom would help his grandmother hash out a lot of details, so Jules could take it easy and focus on her job hunt.
He'd taken a half day, so he could surprise Jules by taking her out to dinner before looking at a very promising apartment, and as a reward for being a stellar fiancé, he was treating himself to a couple of hours alone at the apartment. He knew it was selfish, since they were crashing with a friend, but he'd been either at work or surrounded by women since stepping foot back on US soil. In London, he'd come home to their flat to find Jules had gone off to explore, saying she'd bring back takeaway for a late dinner on a fairly regular basis. He was planning to brew some coffee and read a book, in total, blessed silence. Jules was at a second interview with her dad's firm, Lia was catering, and he was able to play hooky thanks to cancelled meeting.
He was nothing if not a master of time management, thanks to his mother's rearing, and he decided to shower and change before Jules got back, so he'd be ready to go celebrate what would hopefully be good news from her the moment she got in. He tossed his briefcase on the table in the kitchenette, removed his ear buds, loosened his tie and started to disrobe in glorious freedom. Though he left his clothes neatly in the hamper, he still felt a rush of empowerment for not having to take his clothes off behind the confines of a closed door, lest he give a show to unwelcoming eyes. Once they got their own place, he planned on disrobing in any room he pleased, seeing as Jules was the only one that would be around to see him, if anyone, and he was always hoping she'd take the hint and join in.
It took him a good five seconds to register the fact that there was a naked woman standing in front of the sink mirror when he opened the bathroom door. Clearly his headphones had not only pumped music in, but drowned out other noise, as the naked stranger was also quite damp, from a recent shower. His mind worked fast, trying to assess how likely it was that a burglar would pause to shower during a theft, but then the screams started, first hers, then his own. His heart was pounding as he made haste out of the bathroom, ever the gentleman to give a lady her privacy in a delicate state. He grabbed a towel off the bed and wrapped it around his waist, and then called out with a grimace.
"Sorry about that. I'm Jake. And you are?"
The door handle creaked as it opened again. His company was also wrapped in a towel now, but her shoulder-length blonde hair hung down in damp waves. "I can explain. I'm Megan."
He swallowed. "Friend of Lia?" he guessed.
Megan nodded and wrinkled her nose as she answered. "We, um, yeah."
His eyebrows rose as understanding dawned on him like fireworks at the Fourth of July. "Oh. Right. You two… sorry. She doesn't exactly confide in me about, well, anything. I'm her best friend's boyfriend. I mean, fiancé. I should be more used to saying that now."
"Congratulations," she offered, awkwardly.
"Thanks. I'll probably see you at the wedding. She's the maid of honor, after all."
"Oh. Well, maybe," Megan said. She pointed to the bed. "I should get dressed and go."
"Don't leave on my account," he said quickly. "This is Lia's place, not ours. I'm just a glorified squatter."
Megan smiled. "No, it's not because of you. You seem nice. Maybe a little naked. I'm only slightly mortified."
"Right. I'll just trade you places. I'll go in there, and you are free to flee, if you must."
"It was nice meeting you. It would have been nicer with clothes on," she added as she gratefully took him up on his offer that allowed her to flee without further ado.
"Couldn't agree more," he said, and they rushed past one another and went on with their days after one very unscheduled incident.
-X-
Jake and Jules were having a wonderful dinner at one of her all-time favorite restaurants. He sprinkled some parmesan cheese on his slice as she took a giant bite of hers. Jules had been craving all things local since they got back, and this was their sixth visit to John's Pizza in the Village in the last three weeks. She'd told him it was her attempt to reorient them into New York, and he was happy as long as she was, as always. He cleared his throat as she chewed the cheesy, delicious mass. "So, I saw a naked woman today."
Jules half choked and reached for her cup. After sucking down enough liquid to require a refill, she blinked at him. "Excuse me?" she managed.
"It's okay. She was a lesbian," he said offhandedly.
"You were watching lesbian porn?" she whispered harshly in his direction. "At work?"
"What? No! I was trying to take a shower. There was a naked lady in Lia's bathroom."
Jules gaped at him. "Like in a magazine?"
"No, in the flesh. Literally a real woman who wasn't wearing any clothes. Her name was Megan. Lia probably already told you about her, but it came as something as a shock to me, given the lack of clothing especially."
Jules shook her head. "No, nothing. It was probably just a one-night thing. She never dates anyone for very long."
"Too bad. Megan seemed nice. I might have invited her to the wedding," he said, thinking back. "Did I mention I was naked, too?"
Jules stared at him in wonder. "Whoa, whoa, wait a minute. You met Lia's date, and you were both naked at the time?"
"It sounds bad when you say it all out of context like that. It's not that weird, in context. I don't know anyone who showers while fully clothed. That would have been way weirder," he reasoned.
"It's never going to sound anything but weird," Jules argued. She sighed, the weight of which dropped her shoulders. "I hope we like this next place. Lia's gonna kick us out for sure when she hears about this."
He offered a sheepish grin. "Megan was cool about it. Nothing untoward happened. I'm a gentleman. A betrothed gentleman, at that. And I've never hit on a lesbian, to my knowledge."
Jules pulled some crust off her pizza. "Have you noticed that Lia's been acting kind of secretive lately?"
"No, but between work and finding a place, I haven't been spending too much time with her. I barely get to see you enough," he said.
Jules nodded thoughtfully. "It's just… there are things around the apartment that I'm pretty sure aren't hers."
"Yeah, they're ours," he said. "And they're everywhere."
Jules wasn't dissuaded, especially by his lack of taking note of subtle differences in her best friend's belonging. "No, stuff like white bread. Lia only eats that nine-grain, whole shucked wheat stuff, the kind that has nuts and twigs and things in it. But she bought white bread."
"A loaf of bread doesn't point to harboring a secret."
"No, but there are shoes that aren't her size in her closet. Clothes that aren't her style. Shampoo that comes from a salon and costs an arm and a leg. Lia uses Pantene."
"Maybe they belong to Megan, the lady that showers there," he suggested. "I'm assuming she isn't always naked, so she'd need clothes there too."
Jules grew melancholy. "But if she's dating someone seriously, why didn't she introduce us? Or at least mention it in passing?"
He put his hand on hers. "Talk to her. Just try to make me sound like I'm not a total pervert in this scenario, if you could."
Jules smirked at him. "If you don't want to come off like a pervert, put pants on the next time you introduce yourself to people."
"Some life advice you have to learn the hard way," he lamented before taking a big bite of pizza.
-X-
"Your mom bought a turkey," Tristan said unceremoniously as he cut into his steak. The table between them was covered in a dark tablecloth, a ton of food common to a steakhouse, and dimly lit by a single candle in a Chianti bottle.
Jake took pause, contemplating the visual instead of digging into his own steak. "What, like, a live turkey?"
Tristan laughed at his son. "A frozen one. What would she do with a live turkey?"
"Why would she buy a frozen turkey?"
"For Thanksgiving," he said, as if it were business as usual, even though it very much was not.
Jake's eyes widened. "Oh, no. Dad, tell me you're joking."
Tristan raised up his knife to silence his son. "Don't."
"But… why?"
Tristan took another slice at his steak. "Ella's going to Grey's family this year, and since you and Jules are getting married, she figured she'd make a gesture and host Jess and Gwen and the kids at our house."
"And poison us all? We're all usually together in Stars Hollow anyway. Why the change up?"
Tristan cleared his throat. "Well, it's just this once. And if she does burn the bird, we'll get Chinese."
"Beef and broccoli isn't Thanksgiving food."
"It's one year. And she watched a YouTube clip on making a turkey. She took notes. Lots of them," he added with a concerned brow.
"Remember the meatloaf?" Jake asked, still scarred from that particular dinner experiment.
Tristan frowned. "This is completely different. Besides, I'll supervise."
"You'll drink beer and watch football," Jake corrected, based on years of observation.
"Fine. I'll ask Gwen to supervise. Gwen cooks."
"Why can't we just go to Stars Hollow? Won't Gramma be mad if we don't go?"
"Rory worked it out with Lorelai. It's happening, which is why I'm warning you, so you will be nice to your mother instead of how you're being now."
With that, he put a piece of steak in his mouth and chewed, as if challenging his son to disobey his wishes. It was a toss-up, which of his parents was more stubborn, but when it came to his mother's happiness, his father held a fast line.
Jake shook his head, realizing his only choice in the matter. "What prompted her to host Thanksgiving?"
"I told you, because you and Jules are getting married."
He made a noise of disbelief. "That might make sense if our families didn't know each other, but we grew up together. Everyone on all sides knows what a recipe for disaster this is."
Tristan put his silverware down and folded his hands together in front of him on the table. "Fine. I'll tell you, but you have to pretend that you're hearing it for the first time at Thanksgiving."
Jake sat, waiting in silence. Tristan shifted again and tapped his fingers on the table. "Back when we first had you, your mom and I made a pact."
Jake's lip curled in horror. "Is this going to make my ears bleed?"
Tristan smirked. "No. Unless you have some medical problem I'm unaware of."
"What was the promise?"
"Well, see, when you first have kids life seems to change overnight and drastically. Ella was two, and you were a baby and it just felt like we never got out of the house. Taking a vacation, the kind of vacation we'd been free to take three years prior, just a last-minute, month-long trip to wherever we pleased, seemed like an impossibility for the foreseeable future."
"When did you ever take off like that?" Jake asked.
Tristan smiled. "I don't tell you everything. I was young once, just like you."
"Ears bleeding," Jake warned.
"Anyway, to cheer her up in her postpartum state, I made her promise that when you, then our little tiny baby son, grew up and got married, we'd take time off work and head off for a month-long vacation."
"Sounds cool," Jake said.
"But it kind of morphed over time," Tristan continued.
"Morphed how?"
"We started talking about where we'd like to go, given all that time off, but the list got kind of long. You know how much your mom loves travel."
"Yeah," Jake said, his eyebrows knit together as he waited for the rest of it.
"We figure we'll need two months, at least, to get it all in."
"You both have time to take from work."
"We do. But to take that much time off at once, we decided we'd each take a sabbatical. We'll be gone, out of the country, and it didn't make sense to shut the house up for that long, and when we get back I knew she'd start to realize how you and Jules were in your home, and Ella has been married for years. The house is too big for just the two of us, so I suggested we put it on the market when we leave. We can put most everything in storage, and it'll be easy that way."
"Are you coming back, like, ever?" Jake asked, feeling a weird panic at his parents, his stable, hardworking parents embracing a nomadic lifestyle.
Tristan smiled at his son and his general curiosity into the matter. "Yes, after two or three months."
"Where will you live then?"
"We've been looking into smaller places in the city. That way we'll both be closer to work, and you two. The house was great, when you guys were growing up, and we left it and came back once before. But I think we're ready to let go of it now. Your mom is afraid you two will be upset. She wants to do a lot of 'last times' before we leave. Hence wanting to have Thanksgiving in our house, since it'll be the last chance."
"I think it's great. You two are going to have a great time."
Tristan smiled, a little relieved and a lot excited. "I think we will."
"You deserve it. When will you leave?"
"A few weeks after you get married. Which is getting sooner by the day. Are you getting nervous?"
"About marrying Jules?" Jake asked, shaking his head confidently. "I'm pretty sure it's the smartest thing I'll ever do."
Tristan raised his glass. "Your mother and I agree."
"Thank you. I just hope Jules agrees."
Tristan wasn't worried. "How's her job search going?"
"Good. She'd had two interviews at Jess' office, and she has another one scheduled next week, with an e-book publisher. It's actually close to the place we put a bid in on."
"Sounds like you two may be settled before the big day."
"That's the plan."
"You sound just like your mother."
Jake shook his head and went back to enjoying his dinner. "At least I'm not going to do unspeakable things to a perfectly good turkey."
-X-
Jules sat on her hands, like a child, waiting for Lia to return home. She'd attempted to read, but she couldn't focus. So much was up in the air right then, between her job, their apartment, and the fact that her best friend was harboring huge secrets from her, she couldn't focus on anything.
Lia entered casually, completely exuding a relaxed demeanor that made it very hard to tell she was hiding a part of her life from her loved ones. Jules stood up and confronted her immediately, unable to hold herself back.
"Who's Megan?"
Lia stopped, frozen in time and space, as she stared at her best friend. Finally, she sputtered. "How do you…?"
"Jake met her yesterday."
That explanation did nothing to ease Lia's surprise. "Where?"
"Here. She was getting out of the shower when he went to take one."
Lia's hand flew up to her mouth, her eyes wide with shock, and then she started laughing. It was contagious, and Jules couldn't help but join in as they contemplated the image and fought for breath as they doubled over, clutching their sides through their giggle fit.
Finally, as the laughter died down and their tears stopped streaming down their cheeks, Lia's whole expression changed. "I guess I owe her big, then."
Jules turned serious as their laughter subsided. "Have you been seeing her long?"
Lia upturned her hands. "Three or four months, I guess."
"You've had a girlfriend for four months? Why haven't you mentioned her?"
Lia sat down on the couch and stared at her hands for a beat. "This sounds kind of dumb, but I didn't want to jinx it. That's not me. I'm not a long-term relationship kind of girl. I like to date, I like to go out, but I like it to stay fun. I hate drama, and all that can accompany codependent relationships."
"They're not all bad," Jules said softly.
"I'm starting to see that now," Lia said with a small smile.
"So, I get why you didn't mention it at first, but now? Especially with us living here," Jules said. "Or were you waiting for Jake to meet her naked in the bathroom?"
More giggling transpired. "How do you just show up one day and say, oh, by the way, I have a girlfriend?"
"Just like that," Jules said emphatically, pointing at her friend.
Lia shrugged. "It just seemed easier. I mean, I can't imagine bringing her around my folks or my siblings. They're supportive, but they're too supportive. God, I can just see Megan's face as they contemplate out loud the finer points of being a lesbian," she shuddered.
"At least they're supportive," Jules offered lamely. She knew Lia wasn't wrong. "But if Megan likes you, she'll find it endearing, right?"
"I could hope. But we haven't really discussed how permanent things are. Inviting her to meet my family would force the conversation, wouldn't it? I love how things are going; I don't want to upset the apple cart."
Jules cringed. "Um, yeah. I think Jake invited her to our wedding."
Lia immediately freaked. "Why would he do that?"
"Because he was naked and panicked?" Jules said. "He's a pretty polite person, and he probably overcompensated in that scenario."
"Crap. Crap, crap, crap!" Lia groaned.
"I thought maybe you and I, we just weren't... well, with me being in London so long, maybe you didn't feel like you could tell me things anymore."
Lia reached out to hug her friend. "Oh, God, no! I wanted to tell you. I was just afraid. I'm a big chicken, when it comes to all the emotional stuff. You know that. I should have told you, and I'm sorry I didn't. It won't happen again."
Jules nodded. "I'm sorry my fiancé walked in on your naked girlfriend. I'll make sure that doesn't happen again either."
Lia thought it over. "Sounds like a fair deal. Wanna order Thai food and help me figure out how to smooth things over with Megan?"
"I thought you'd never ask."
-X-
"Was she hot?" Ambrose Mariano asked.
Jake groaned and picked his beer up off the bar. "That is not the point."
"How is that not the point?" Ambrose asked with a laugh, before taking a swig of his own beer. "It's a naked woman."
"She's a lesbian," Jake reiterated slowly, as if that might help Ambrose gain a better understanding.
"So? Lots of lesbians are hot. You're allowed to find women attractive, even if they don't reciprocate. You of all people should know that," he teased his best friend.
"Very funny. And here I was going to ask you to be my best man," Jake scoffed.
"That means what, I plan the bachelor party and give a speech?" he asked through the crunch of bar pretzels.
"As long as there are no naked ladies involved in either, yes."
"You can't have a bachelor party without a stripper. Actually, when it comes to strippers at a bachelor party, the more the better."
"How do you have a girlfriend?" Jake asked, aghast at his personal philosophy.
"I'm dating her, I didn't sign over my manhood," he said with a shrug. "Jules isn't your wife yet. You're allowed to look, if not touch. If you touch, as her brother, I'll end you."
Jake ignored the threat tacked on at the end. "Some of us are too busy to waste time in strip clubs. Besides, our dads will be at the bachelor party. Do you want to go to a strip club with your dad?"
"Okay, that's a valid point."
"So you'll be my best man?"
"Sure, why not? Where is this happening again?"
"My parent's house on Martha's Vineyard."
"A winter beach wedding?" he asked with slight distaste.
"We figured if we were going to do it in a couple of months, it would have to be a location we had open access to. Plus, it's sort of a meaningful place for us."
Ambrose cringed at his oldest friend. "Because we spent all the summers of our youth there?"
"It's where we first hooked up," he said without batting an eye. "The summer before Ella got married."
"Oh, jeez, I so did not need to know that," he groaned.
"I'm marrying her, it's not like I just took advantage of her."
"She's my little sister," he complained. "Please stop."
"Can I ask you a question?"
"If it has nothing to do with you and my sister hooking up, you can ask me anything."
Jake smiled at the sentiment, and then turned thoughtful again. "Is your dad… does he even remotely like the idea of me and Jules?"
Ambrose stared at Jake blankly. "Are you kidding?"
Jake shook his head and swirled his beer around the bottom of his glass. "No, I mean, I spent so much time at your house when we were growing up, and I always felt like he was a really cool uncle. I always felt comfortable. But ever since Jules and I started dating, it just feels like he's glaring at me. All the time, glaring. Like he's planning ways to kill me so it looks like an accident."
Ambrose arched a brow at him. "He's not glaring. Jules is like, his perfect daughter. He expected me to fuck up a time or two, you know, but with her, it's like he hates seeing any opportunity for hurt to come her way, so he gets a little overprotective. Drives her nuts, which I'm sure you know. And maybe once or twice he glared at you, but I think by now he realizes you aren't going to hurt her, and if you did, it'd kill you to do so."
"So he doesn't hate me?"
"He definitely doesn't hate you. Besides, if he tried anything, your mom would inflict her own unique brand of torture on him, so there's that."
"Our parents are so weird," Jake said, with a certain glazed look in his eyes.
"I'll drink to that."
-X-
Rory Dugrey pulled a small gift bag out of her huge tote and put it on the table. "I found this when we were packing. You don't have to feel obligated to use it, but I thought, well, maybe you might like it."
Jules glanced at Jake, who nodded, and she pulled the bag in front of her and pulled out the tissue paper. Encased under many layers of white wrapping was a beautiful sapphire and diamond bracelet, an antique piece for sure. Jules gasped and held it gingerly. "It's so beautiful."
Rory smiled wistfully. "Isn't it? My grandmother gave it to me to wear at my wedding. It was my something old and my something blue. You might already have something to use, and that's okay. I just wanted to offer it, since at this point it's a family heirloom. I'd like you to have it."
Jules' eyes welled up. "Thank you. I'd be honored to wear it."
The women hugged and Tristan emerged from the kitchen with two beers, handing his son one. "What's that?" he asked, inspecting the jewelry.
Rory turned to stare at him. "You don't recognize it?"
He looked from the bracelet to his wife, slight consternation creasing his forehead. "Should I?"
"I wore it when we got married."
Tristan leaned to kiss his wife on the cheek. "Honey, when we got married, I wasn't looking at your jewelry."
"That's either very sweet, or a blatant attempt to placate me."
Tristan smiled, but said nothing further on the matter. "Shouldn't we be giving housewarming gifts?"
"Oh, I brought those, too!" Rory said, digging back into the tote.
"I still can't believe we got this place. We'll be lucky to get moved in and get more furniture before I start work, though," Jules said, the pace at which life was currently moving obviously starting to catch up with her.
"You have back up," Tristan assured her.
She smiled back. "I know. And we are very appreciative, believe me."
"Here!" Rory said, handing a gift to Jake and one to Jules.
"You're just cleaning out closets, here, aren't you?" Jake asked.
"Gift horse, mouth," she said, gesturing and using her best mom tone.
He sighed and looked at Jules. "Wanna trade?"
Jules laughed and told him to go first. He obeyed and pulled out a sewing kit. "Um, Mom?"
Rory sat patiently. "Yes, son?"
"I don't sew."
"Gramma is going to teach you some basics, so that when Jules is on a business trip and your kid needs a button sewed on or a hem done, you can do better than staples or digging into dirty laundry."
"Your mother speaks from experience," Tristan commented.
"Hush you," she admonished.
"My turn," Jules said, delving into hers. She pulled out a small tool kit. "Cool!"
"Does she get instruction on how to use hers?" Jake asked.
Jules shot him a scrunched frown. Rory scoffed. "She was raised by Jess and spent summers working with Luke. She knows how to use more of those tools better than you do."
"I have to sew, and she gets to use tools?" Jake asked, wondering what had gone so very wrong in his world.
There was a knock at the door, and Jules rushed to answer it. She opened the door to see Gwen and her father, who was holding a box full of take-out bags. "I saw the guy in front of the building, buckling under the weight of carrying this load. I knew anyone with that much food was looking for Rory."
"I heard that!" Rory called from the kitchen.
"I said it out loud," he called back.
Jake came to take the box. "What do we owe you?"
"Please," Jess said, as Jules put her arms around her father's torso.
"Hey, Dad. I'm glad you guys could make it."
"First apartments tend toward the notoriously awful. I wanted to see what kind of hole the two of you scrounged up," Jess teased, squeezing her back.
"And?" she asked as they all made their way properly into the front space and shut the door behind them.
"I'm suitably impressed. That must be some salary that lured Jake back to New York."
"We have some money to play with," Jules informed him. "We can afford a nice place and to pay for dinner."
Jess shook his head. "Your money's no good here. I'm still your dad, no matter what."
"It's a great place. I assume you'll need more furniture?" Gwen asked, hugging Jules first and then Jake.
"I have a feeling Mom and Dad will be bringing a truck of rejects our way," Jake said as they joined said parents in the kitchen area of the loft studio.
"You're really doing it?" Jess asked Rory.
"A promise is a promise," she said, smiling at Tristan, who beamed back at her.
"She knows damn well I wasn't letting her put it off. Though I was starting to think Jake would never bite the bullet and ask Jules to marry him," Tristan said, taking a slight dig at his son.
"You'd rather your kid rush into marriage so you can take a trip?" Jess asked Tristan.
"Just wait until Jack is out of your house. Then call me," Tristan said, opening a bag an extracting an egg roll as Rory worked to hand out paper plates.
"I haven't lived in your house in years," Jake piped up.
"Yes, but the possibility was there that you'd boomerang in case of emergency. Until very recently you were crashing at a friend's apartment. Now you're settled in your own place, and officially starting your own family. Our obligations to house you are done."
"Not that we won't always be there for you," Rory added, patting her son on the arm. "But we might be hard to contact for a couple of months."
Jules squeezed his hand. "Don't worry, I'll take care of him."
"I won't," Jess said through his egg roll. "I still have Ambrose and Jack on my list. And, not that I believe parents should bet on their children, at this point I would expect Jack to be married before Ambrose."
"Don't listen to him," Gwen said. "You know we're always around if you two need anything. Especially while Rory and Tristan are gone."
"You just overruled me," Jess complained.
Gwen smiled and reached past him for the fried rice. "And?"
Jess sighed, which made both Gwen and Rory chuckle. Jess fixed his sights on Jake, which was enough to shoot his discomfort back up to the breaking point, especially as his expression grew downright bemused. "So, Jake, how was it, crashing with Lia?"
Jake sensed something in Jess' tone, but he played it cool. "Fine. We were lucky to have some place so centralized to get our bearings."
"I bet having naked women roaming around was another perk," Jess quipped, smirking as he piled noodles and chicken onto his plate.
"What?" Rory yelped, turning from Jess to Jake.
"It wasn't like that," Jake said, trying to calm his mother.
"Did you walk in on Lia?" she demanded, horrified at the display of awful manners.
"No, it was someone else," he said, feeling doubly stupid for having to recount this story for his parents.
"Why were there random naked girls at Lia's…, oh," Tristan said, mentally answering his own question.
"It was just one naked—one woman. I came back early one day, and she hadn't left yet. I wasn't expecting anyone to be there, so I got ready to shower, and she'd just gotten out of the shower. How did you know?" he directed at Jess.
"I talked to Ambrose," he said with a smirk and laughter in his voice. "I haven't laughed so hard in a long time."
"Who was the woman?" Rory asked.
"Lia's girlfriend, Megan," Jules answered. "She's been dating her for a few months. She might bring her to the wedding, if seeing Jake naked didn't send her running for the hills."
Jake yelped in self-defense. "Hey! I work out."
Jules patted his arm. "Sure you do, sweetie."
"You've never complained," he volleyed back, causing a chorus of protests from all other parties.
"Are you trying to alienate everyone we love?" Jules asked him.
"Not everyone," he said. "Lia wasn't mad at me. And I did apologize."
"She's more freaked out about the realization she's in a committed relationship than anything else. She and Megan are going to have the talk this weekend. Plus, she's hesitant to mix her family and her personal life."
"Sookie and Jackson are totally supportive of all their kids," Rory said. "I mean, if they could deal with Paris' daughter, then anything else is a cakewalk."
"Yes, but they're still Sookie and Jackson. Remember the first time I came to your house and they were there?" Jess asked. "He kept prattling on about eating his lemons, and she had made enough food to feed an army in case I had any food restrictions. And then things just got scarier."
"From there you tried to jump out my window and got busted trying to steal beer," Rory remembered. "They don't hide their eccentricities. But they live in Stars Hollow, being eccentric is a requirement."
"Megan seemed cool. I mean, we were naked and total strangers and unsure as to if the other was some sort of criminal, but we managed to exchange pleasantries and figure things out. If she can handle that with grace, she can take Sookie talking about every lesbian she's ever known and Jackson trying to feed them his new hybrid tomato kumquats," Jake said. "I mean, clearly the woman is unflappable. Plus, she's dating Lia and kept her interest for more than five minutes."
"He has a point," Jules said as she trapped a piece of chicken between two chopsticks.
"I just hope she eases her in slowly if she takes her to Stars Hollow. If you're used to the city, that place seems like a dumping ground for escaped mental hospital patients," Jess mused.
"Don't pretend like you don't love it," Gwen chided him.
"I had some good times there. Meeting you among them," he relented, giving her a quick squeeze on her leg under the table.
"And just think, if you'd never come to Stars Hollow, our kids might not be getting married soon," Rory chimed in.
"Speaking of which, why can't we have Thanksgiving in Stars Hollow this year?" Jake asked his mother.
"It's our last year at our house!"
"We never do Thanksgiving there," Jake countered.
"Which is why we should now, before it's too late."
"But we're going to miss all the insanity. Lia will bring Megan, Anna's pregnant again, and Ambrose will be the last person at the kids table over the age of 10. I don't want to miss that. Or be forced to eat an under- or over-cooked bird."
"Are you implying that I can't cook a turkey?" Rory posed.
"Yes," Jake, Tristan, and Jess all answered in unison.
"Hey!" she defended. "I have instructions."
"We know, Mom, but you said the same thing about the meatloaf," Jake reminded her gently.
She pointed a chopstick at him. "You promised never to bring up the meatloaf again. Did you put him up to this?" she asked her husband.
"I did not," Tristan said, glaring at his son. "I told him to get on board, because it was happening."
"But as wonderful as the gesture is, we'll still all be together in Stars Hollow. And it will be sad to have to wait until Christmas to see everyone. And we'll miss out on the drawing of names from the hat at Luke's the day of after, before we help Aunt Lorelai get her tree," Jules said, bringing up a few of their traditions.
"They can pick a tree without us," Rory said warily. "And they can still put our names in and draw for us."
"It's not the same. Plus you know your mom will be bombing your inbox with tree pictures from the tree lot. She never picks one unless you okay it. I still don't know why she thinks you're a tree expert," Tristan mused.
"I think that one's more just codependency," Jess informed Tristan.
"Ix-nay on the odependency-cay," Tristan said, slashing a finger across his neck.
"We're not codependent. We just like spending time together. Particularly at the holidays," Rory explained for the millionth time.
"Then let Sookie make our Thanksgiving meal. She makes all our favorites better than anyone. Sweet potatoes, green bean casserole. Pumpkin pie. You love her pumpkin pie," Jake urged.
"But our house," she said, a last-ditch effort to save her plans.
"Has never had a pie baked it in with any modicum of success," Jake finished the thought.
Rory sighed in defeat. "Fine. You win. We'll go to Stars Hollow for Thanksgiving. I guess I can donate the bird to the less fortunate. But we're decorating for Christmas. You boys will be hanging lights outside and decking every last hall in the joint, while we drink Swiss Miss and sing Grandma Got Ran Over By A Reindeer, got me?"
"I'll be there with bells on," Jake said.
"I'm holding you to that," Rory grinned at her son.
"So, we've got the holidays lined out, let's talk about the wedding," Gwen said, turning the conversation back to Jules and Jake and the event that would further co-mingle their lives and making sure that there would be plenty more evening gatherings with the people in that room in the years to come.