A/N: Chapter two, and we're off to Stars Hollow. If anyone is interested in what Apocalyptica-song Jess is playing the car, it's a song called "Somewhere around nothing", google it on YouTube and imagine hearing that early in the morning, full blast, when you want to sleep… I couldn't resist bringing in something Finnish into this story, I'm a Finn so... :D Also, this chapter contains a special appearance by someone from Jess' past... ;)
Disclaimer: I, the author of this story, do not own any of the characters from Gilmore Girls. That honor belongs to the wonderful Amy Sherman-Palladino. I won't even pretend to own YouTube. I am not making any money on this (in fact, I wouldn't be surprised if I'm losing money over it…).
2. Rematch
"Rory."
Rory groaned, and turned around, hoping to avoid anymore pokes and calls for her.
"Rory… Come on, it's wakey-wakey."
"What..?" she whined, slowly opening her eyes.
The room was dusky, and but she could still make out Jess' figure in the room.
"Why are you wearing gloves?" she asked him, puzzled.
"Oh, you bit me the first time. You should've warned me." Jess answered with a smirk.
"I bit you? Shoot, I'm becoming more and more like my mom."
"Like the fast talking, the coffee-drinking and the insane food habits didn't already point to that?"
"Shut up. What time is it?"
"Trust me, you really don't wanna know." he said, and gave her a kiss. "Come on, I've got coffee ready, we'll pack later, seeing as we didn't get much done yesterday, and then we can leave."
She groaned again, knowing that since he hadn't said how early it was, it had to be an extremely ungodly hour, and she tried her best not to look at anything that could tell her what time it was.
An hour later, after much packing debate, the two headed out to the car, and Rory looked forward to being able to sleep all the way to Stars Hollow. She wasn't much of a car-sleeper, but it was still early, and she was desperate for sleep. However, her hopes were crushed when the car stereo came to life.
"What the hell is this?" Rory asked over the loud music.
"It's a Finnish band called Apocalyptica. I found it when I was surfing YouTube trying to find something to annoy Matt and Chris with, seeing as they found that freaking hamster-song there."
"And you chose this? I'm sorry, but it' not annoying, just very, very loud and… What are they playing, and when does the singing begin?"
"That's the beauty, there is no singing. Just three dudes who play the cello. They mix rock and heavy metal with classical music, it's awesome."
"Three dudes playing the cello? Where the heck does the drums come from then?"
"Apparantly they just hired a guy for the drumming."
"So there are four dudes?"
"You know your math."
"And you seem to know an awful lot about them." she pointed out.
"Do you Yahoo?" he simply answered, smiling widely when she remembered this remark.
Four hours later, they pulled up in front of the Crap Shack, and Rory was out of the car before Jess had even turned the engine off.
"House!" Rory yelled, running up the porch. "Good old Crap Shack, I missed you!"
"You're a safety hazard, and I can't believe I just said that about you, Gilmore." Jess said when he reached the porch.
"Coming from the guy who used to smoke, faked a murder and got into a car accident, where I broke my wrist." Rory teased.
"Am I ever going to get past hearing about what I did when I was young?"
"Not in this town, I'd say you're lucky if Taylor doesn't come running at you with a paper that certifies him to banish you."
"Hey, I wasn't that bad."
"I'll put in a good word for you. Come on, we'll dump our stuff and go to the inn.
They unpacked, loading everything in Rory's old room. Rory felt like she had never left it, except that her book collection here was a bit thinner than it used to be. Her bed was made, Colonel Clucker was sitting on it, and her Yale-wall was still there, despite the fact that she had graduated.
"We met here." Jess said behind her.
"Yeah. You told me you didn't read much, then you nicked my copy of Howl and befouled it."
"I take offense to that, I improved it."
"Quite an ego you have there, mister."
"I'm a writer, why shouldn't I have?"
He kissed her, backing towards the bed, and it creaked when they fell down in it. Rory felt like she wanted to stay there forever, it was a perfect moment. She felt her breathing get heavier when Jess began trailing her face and her neck with a feather light touch. He knew she liked it, and he saw her bite her lip, while she ran her fingers through his messy hair.
"We… should really… go." Rory said a few minutes later, feeling her cheeks heating.
"I'm doing some of my best work here, and you want to go?" Jess asked her, mock hurt.
"I just… It doesn't feel like the right time…" she said and blushed.
They hadn't had sex yet, there had always been something or someone interrupting. While they were still living above Truncheon, there were Matt and Chris, who had the annoying habit of entering without knocking and not learning to knock even after the tenth time. Other times it was just… timing. She was stressed, or he was stressed, or there wasn't enough time. She wanted it to be perfect, and Jess was willing to wait.
"It's okey." he smiled. "I don't think your rooster approves of us anyway."
"What, Colonel Clucker?"
Rory turned and saw that her stuffed rooster was now all askew, with his face turned towards them.
"You're right. We'd better leave before he beaks us." she joked.
"Don't talk to me about beaks, I was traumatized!"
"Come on then, or I might just traumatize you more. We'll take a shortcut to the inn, and I promise you won't see anything on the way there that resembles a swan."
"I'll hold you to that…"
They set out, Rory leading the way. When they came to the little footbridge, Jess stopped dead.
"What is it?" Rory asked him.
"That." he responded sternly, pointing at something behind her.
She turned around, seeing a family of ducks swimming out from under the bridge.
"Oh, the Armbrewster's…"
"The who?"
"No, the Armbrewster's. Yeah, I forgot about them." Rory said smilingly.
"They're birds." Jess said, looking darkly at the birds that were lazily swimming around in the water.
"Very observant."
"You said I wouldn't have to see anything resembling a swan."
"They're ducks!" Rory tried.
"They have feathers, and beaks, and they swim."
"You're three, now come on."
"Fine… But I'll hold you liable to any bird-related injuries.
They were just about to cross the bridge, when another bird swam out from beneath it, but it wasn't another member of the Armbrewster-clan. Jess' eyes widened, and again, he stopped dead.
"You've got to be kidding me…"
"Hey, I did not know there were any swans here!" Rory tried to defend herself.
"That's just not any swan…" Jess said, his eyed fixed on the bright white bird. "That is the swan."
"The one that beaked you?"
"I'd recognize that beak anywhere."
"And he ganged up with the Armbrewster's?" Rory mused. "That's new, they usually don't let strangers in. Seems their morals went right out the window. Or water."
Jess walked back a bit, picking up a large branch, still looking straight at his nemesis.
"You know what this means, pal… Rematch, and this time, you can bet your feathery ass that it's personal…"
Lorelai was having a perfectly normal day. She was standing in the kitchen, drinking coffee and talking to Sookie, when Michel walked in, looking surly at her.
"Lorelai. Your offspring has arrived with a gangster in tow. Would you please remove them from my sight and make sure the boy does not give us water damage."
"What?" Lorelai exclaimed, looking at Sookie.
"I had nothing to do with it!" Sookie said defendingly, managing to cut herself on the knife she was chopping vegetables with.
"Lorelai!" Michel said pointedly.
"Coming, Michel. God, you're needy today..."
She followed him out to the reception area, where she saw Rory stand, along with a dripping wet Jess, who looked like he wanted to kill someone.
"Loinfruit!" Lorelai exlaimed, and the two girls flung their arms around each other. "What are you doing here babe, and why does it look like Jess went for a swim and forgot to take his clothes off?"
"Mom! I came back to Philadelphia yesterday, and I just wanted to visit you, it was such a long time ago. So I convinced Jess, and he took some time off from Truncheon, and here we are."
"Still doesn't explain his state." Lorelai said and nodded towards Jess.
"Oh, yeah, he had a bit of a harsh encounter with the Armbrewster's and their newest clanmember."
"No..! They reproduced again?"
"More like recruited." Jess chipped in. "That freaking swan has not seen the last of me…"
"Swan? I thought we were talking about the Armbrewster's"
"You remember his black eye? Well, turned out he was beaked…"
"Beaked?"
"Yes, beaked. In the eye, by a swan." Jess said.
"Yeah," Rory continued. "Now apparantly, that swan has nestled his or her way into the Armbrewster clan. We thought we'd stop by here and say hello, and it was forever since I took the shortcut, and I sort of forgot about the Armbrewster's, and when we came there, Jess saw the swan, and planned to give it a piece of his mind, but the swan made a last minute evasive manouver, and Jess fell in. I actually think Armbrewster Sr laughed at him."
"Don't remind me…" Jess groaned.
"Well, that does it, never trust the Armbrewster's. They actually had a calm period not too long ago, perhaps they were negotiating with the swan." Lorelai suggested.
"Lorelai!" Michel shouted from the desk. "The hooligan is destroying the floor."
Lorelai went over to the desk, took a key and returned to the two.
"Here, the room is empty, you can use the shower and I'll call Luke and casually tell him to bring some makeshift clothes for you, while completely ignoring his loud outbursts of surprise." she said, ignoring Michel's wild protests.
"Thanks Lorelai." Jess answered, and disappeared up the stairs.
"Come on Rory, Sookie's in the kitchen, and she has a stash of chocolate chip mudcake with your name on it hidden in a cupboard." Lorelai smiled, and hugged her daughter again as they walked into the kitchen.
A/N: Yeah, I know I said "no speedy updates", but this chapter was more or less ready when I put up the first, but now it's totally incognito... or something. There is no chapter 3 yet, haven't really had time to write now, and from here on I'll just write what I can, when I can. The suggestion box that I so officially opened after finishing "I think I may have loved you" is still open, so if there's something you want to see in this fic, a moment, a person, you name it (and I'll try it!), put it in a review or a PM. Wow, am I not fishing for reviews here... Oh well, they make me happy, and keep me going, and you want me to go on with the story, right? Right?
