Hey, thanks once again for all those lovely reviews. Glad you like the story. This chapter has less Lit. interaction (please don't kill me). But I promise the next one will. Thank you for reading! Please review to let me know how it was.
Disclaimer: I do not own anything affiliated with Gilmore Girls
Chapter 3:
"Grandma…" This is death. All those years of excessive eating and coffee bingeing have caught up to her at the ripe old age of sixteen. She's dead. Emily Gilmore might as well be draped in a black cloak and holding a scythe because there's no way she's coming out of this alive.
How is she here? Shouldn't she be at a spa right now drinking cucumber water, listening to Enya, and sitting in a tub of mud? And if she's here then that means…
Rory Gilmore might have just died twice.
If her grandmother is here that can only mean her mother isn't too far behind.
"Rory, what on earth are you doing?" Emily stares at her in a state of shock. She figures she must be a sight at the moment, hair mussed, her cheeks red and her eyes wide, leaning forward in a mid-run stance, her arms slightly elevated to keep her balance.
She ignores her question. "You're home early." It's all she can muster while she stands up straight, trying to compose herself.
"My god, look at this place." Emily looks distastefully at the living room, scrunching her nose in disapproval.
Rory turns with her, looking at the disarray of crumpled napkins and take-out wrappers strewn about the coffee table. There are half-eaten burgers and fries and empty soda cans tipped over on the floor. A couple of the couch cushions are falling out of place from earlier, when Rory had made a mad dash over the couch to hide from Jess as quickly as possible. The blanket that usually rested on the couch was flung onto the carpet in her haste. A potted plant in the corner had been knocked over and some of the soil scattered over the floor.
"It looks like a zoo." She turns to stare at Rory accusingly, obviously waiting for an explanation.
"I was…really hungry." She replies lamely, wanting to disappear under her grandmother's scrutinizing gaze.
"Young lady, I come through that door and the first thing I see is you bounding down the stairs and running through the house like a mad man. There's garbage strewn about and the house is in shambles. Explain yourself." Her stance is haughty and grave, a force not to be reckoned with.
No more than twenty feet away, Jess stood petrified in the doorway of the laundry room. When Rory began to take an unusual amount of time to find him, he'd figured she'd given up once again. Creeping to the doorway, he'd immediately froze when he heard a woman's shrill and angry voice coupled with Rory's timid one.
If the woman was already in the house, what the hell was he supposed to do now? He could try and hide in the room, but he wasn't sure how long she'd be there. That could result in hours of waiting, and there was still the chance he'd be caught. He could try and sneak out the back door, but that also posed the threat of detection if he was heard or seen. His third, and most unpleasant, option would be to make himself known and let come what may.
Meanwhile Rory was having a panic attack of her own. Emily was still staring her down, eyes hard.
Maybe she could faint. Just collapse right at her grandmother's feet, pressing a hand to her forehead for dramatic effect. Emily couldn't possibly be worried about explanations while her angel of a granddaughter was reduced to a crumpled heap on the floor could she?
'No,' Rory thought sadly, 'she'd probably insist on riding in the ambulance just so she could finish her questioning.'
"Well-" She started.
"Hey sweets!" Her mother chose that perfect moment to stumble through the door, carrying a bag in each hand. Setting them down, she looked up with a smile. "We tried calling, but the line just wouldn't go through. Guess somebody forgot to put the phone back in the cradle. I'm sure those late night chats with loverboy have nothing to do with the battery's very short life span." She said suggestively with an impish grin.
"So what's with the change in plans?" Rory tried to say casually, but her heart was practically beating out of her chest.
"Oh…we just felt like coming home. Missed that small town charm, you know? Well Mom doesn't live in a small town so I guess she missed…Helena. Gotta love those maids, right? Best to come back and make sure they're not pilfering the fine china and silverware…" She rambles uncomfortably, glancing at Emily. She arches an eyebrow at Rory, giving her an 'I'll explain later' look.
"Well, its good to have you back." Rory tries to say enthusiastically, but its hard to keep the worry off her face when she knows that somewhere in her house is a seventeen year old boy, one that her mother is none too fond of.
"Of course it is. No one should have to be deprived of this for more than a day." She says with feigned arrogance, taking a stance and gesturing to herself. She laughs and then steps further into the house, walking towards the living room. When she looks in, she stops short, doing a double take. "Woah, I guess you really did invite those bikers huh?"
"What?" Emily interjects, her eyes widening.
"Kidding." Lorelai says quickly. "What's with the mess? You didn't join the cast of 'Animal House' right? Cause I gotta say, I would have gone with Lambda Lambda Lambda." She chuckles while looking at Rory.
"That's just what I was asking before you walked in, but I haven't gotten so much as a word out of her." Emily looked between them both, still concerned but now confused by Lorelai's babbling.
When Rory just looks at them, Lorelai begins to grow worried, frowning at her before walking over to the coffee table.
"This is from Luke's." She states confusedly. "I thought you ordered Sandeeps?"
"I did, I was." Rory stammers.
"Ok, that doesn't really explain anything babe."
"I did order the Indian food, but then I canceled it."
"So you went to Luke's and figured you'd stock up for the winter?"
"I didn't go to Luke's." Rory says with frustration. She's hugging her arms and looking at the ground.
"If you didn't go to Luke's then how did you end up with all of this?" Lorelai gestures around her, starting to get annoyed by Rory's vague responses.
"Someone brought it over." She looks around the room, obviously distraught.
"Someone? Someone who?" Lorelai's lips are stretched in a thin line.
"Someone who works at the diner." Rory knows she's walking on thin ice, but she can't gather the courage to say his name.
"Ok Rory, that's enough with the run around. Who brought it?" Lorelai says firmly.
"Jess." Rory turns her eyes to the ceiling, waiting for the onslaught.
Lorelai is momentarily speechless as she attempts to calm herself. She looks down at the floor, nodding her head sardonically while placing her hands on her hips. She looks back up and grinds her teeth, moving her jaw from side to side. "Jess."
Rory hears the disdain in her voice and sighs. "Yes."
Lorelai clears her throat. "When?"
"About an hour after you called." Rory says quietly, staring at the hardwood floors.
"Why?" Lorelai replied stonily, trying to keep her emotions at bay.
Although she now knew the real reason, she decided to use Jess's original excuse. "It was a care package from Luke. He didn't know how long you would be gone."
Lorelai nods, but she isn't satisfied. "And he sent Jess to bring it over?"
"He volunteered." She wanted to say yes, but she'd already lied too much tonight.
Lorelai laughs sarcastically, shaking her head. Of course he did.
"He just wanted to get out of the construction zone." Rory feels the need to defend him, tired of her mother's constant judgement. It's just food for god's sake.
But then she remembers the fact that he's still there, and that effectively ends her train of thought.
"Well then he should have taken a walk." Lorelai says with an irritated sigh.
Suddenly there's a thud, like something hitting metal, and all three heads whip towards the kitchen.
"Oh my god, there's someone in the house." Emily says in hysterics.
Lorelai shoots Rory a look, more suspicious than worried, and starts determinedly walking through the kitchen.
Jess had been standing in the laundry room, intently listening to the conversation. Once he'd determined that he distinctly heard Lorelai's voice, he'd strained as hard as he could to listen to what they were arguing about. He realized they were grilling Rory about the food. When he heard his name, he took a step back, fearing they were looking for him. His foot caught onto a pile of clothing on the floor, causing him to stumble a bit and slam his elbow into the washing machine.
He closed his eyes and breathed deeply, clenching his jaw. Fucking fantastic…
When he opened them again he was faced with a pair of seriously pissed off blue eyes, glaring daggers at him. Murderous daggers.
"Living room. Now." Her tone was low and dangerous, indicating this was not the time for his smart ass remarks.
She turned sideways, allowing him room to stalk past her before following after him.
Spotting Jess coming out of the laundry room, Rory looks at him apologetically, trying to convey how incredibly sorry she is for what's coming.
He looks at her blankly.
"Who is this? Who are you?" Emily asks in rapid succession.
Jess looks at her with hostility, catching her disgusted tone.
"His name's Jess, Grandma. He's Luke's nephew." Rory mumbles miserably.
"Him?" Emily asks looking at Lorelai. "You were supposed to keep this boy away from her."
"Excuse me?" Jess asks with a scoff.
"Jess." Rory says his name pleadingly, but with a warning. He looks at her and then looks away with a sigh.
"Mom, we're not getting into that right now." Lorelai puts her hands to her temples and closes her eyes. A moment later she opens them and clears her throat. "I don't know what the hell is going on, but I better start knowing. Fast."
Rory stands awkwardly for a moment, looking at the three people around her before starting. "Like I told you, he came over to drop the food off, but then once he was here we decided to hang out for a while. We watched a couple movies and then ate some of the food. That's it."
She looks at Jess but he's staring apathetically at the wall, refusing to look at anybody.
Lorelai nods before saying quietly, "Jess I think you should leave."
More than happy to oblige, he looks once at Rory before walking around the couch and out the front door, shutting it quietly behind him.
As soon as Lorelai hears the soft click, she looks at Rory, anger showing full force. "Now I want the real story."
"That is the real story." Rory says exasperatedly. She walks past both of them and into her bedroom.
"Oh, don't you walk away from me right now." Lorelai trails after her. "What is going on with you?"
"What are you talking about?" Rory looks at her angrily.
"Why in god's name would you let him into this house when there's no one else here?"
"It's just Jess! We ate food, we watched some movies. Why are you freaking out?" Rory runs her fingers through her hair and laughs bitterly. "Wow, deja vu."
"Because it's Jess! Look, I know I said I would give him a chance but that was before I knew you guys were hanging out alone in a house together, completely unsupervised."
"Unsupervised? We don't need supervising! We were hanging out, that's it." She emphasizes each word, her face feeling hotter the angrier she gets.
"Oh please." Lorelai shakes her head, huffing.
"Oh please what? That's the truth, why won't you believe me?"
"Because I know what guys like him want and he's not getting it from my daughter." Lorelai says vehemently, sweeping her hands in front of her.
"Getting? What, like I would just let him? Because I'm so weak and easily manipulated, right?" Rory sneers in disgust. "And what do you mean 'guys like him'? You don't know anything about him, so don't act like you do!" Tears sting her eyes but she blinks them back, refusing to let them fall. "I am so tired of this."
"Of what?"
"Of fighting about this! How many times are we going to have this conversation? It's never going to change! I asked you to give him a chance and you said you would, but the first thing you do is go on a tirade about what a horrible guy he is!"
"I don't trust him Rory!"
"You're supposed to trust me!" She shouts, causing Lorelai to go speechless.
"I do." She says quietly.
"No, you clearly don't." Rory says bitterly. "If you trusted me then you would know I would never do that with him and I would never lie to you about it. You want the whole truth? Fine. He came over and we folded some laundry together. Then we ate food while watching 'Airplane!' and then 'Titanic'. Then we decided to play hide and seek because I was too tired to read, and that's what we were doing when you showed up. That's why he was in the laundry room. I wasn't purposefully trying to hide him from you guys. I didn't even know you'd be home tonight." She said with a sigh, sitting down on her bed. "I didn't ask him to come over."
Lorelai stared at her silently, letting everything she'd said sink in. Rory looked so upset and dejected.
After a minute she spoke. "You guys watched 'Titanic'?"
"Yeah." Rory mumbled, looking up at her mom.
Lorelai nodded before coming to sit next to her on the bed. She looked contemplative for a moment before asking, "Did he mock it?"
Despite the situation, Rory grinned softly. "The entire time. We actually only made it through an hour."
Lorelai chuckled softly, pulling Rory against her with her left arm. "I'm sorry." She said with a sigh.
"I know." Rory said quietly.
"I do trust you Rory. You have to know that." She looked at her daughter carefully, trying to gage her reaction. "But I also know that things happen, usually when you least expect them. I know that you are a smart girl who is capable of making her own decisions. But I also know that you're sixteen and inexperienced with guys. Especially different types of guys. Dean is every mother's dream, trust me. He's sweet and considerate and completely in love with you. He's also safe," she gave Rory a pointed look, "he's never tried anything with you, even after more than a year. A mom can only be so lucky." She grinned sadly.
"And then we have Jess." She said with a sigh. She felt Rory stiffen a little and quickly continued. "No, no. Hear me out. He's pretty much every mother's nightmare. He's sarcastic and witty, handsome and sly, plus he's got that whole bad boy thing going on, a big crowd pleaser for a lot of women."
Rory rolled her eyes at this but kept quiet.
"And he's nice to you. Only you. Now, I know that type of attention has to feel pretty good. And, as much as I hate to admit it, you guy's talk. Like, really talk. I mean, I have no idea what about, considering I've never heard more than two syllables out of him, but I've seen it. And all of those things coupled with his other charming attributes," she said sarcastically, "can make a mother worry that something might happen."
"Well nothing did." Rory said firmly, pulling back to look at Lorelai. "And nothing will. We're just friends Mom."
"That could change." Lorelai said wisely.
"Not for us." Rory looked at her lap, thinking, before quietly saying, "Jess is a good person Mom. I know you don't think so…but I know."
"Ok." Lorelai said. She was still skeptical but willing to let it go for now. " I know I said I would give him a chance but I don't know if I can Rory, and you might just have to accept that. But I do promise to at least be civil, if only for your sake. I'm sorry for jumping the gun. I just got a little freaked out, temporary insanity if you will." She smiled at Rory, squeezing her slightly before letting go.
"It's ok. I know it's just your motherly instinct to be highly irrational and somewhat hysterical when it comes to boys."
"Only certain boys." Lorelai mumbled, but held up her hands in surrender when Rory shot her a look. "Ok, ok, I'm done. So we're good again, right?"
"Definitely." Rory smiled.
"We should probably go out there and explain things to your Grandmother. That'll be fun."
"Tons." Rory said sarcastically before following her mother into the living room.
Half an hour later, they'd successfully calmed Emily down enough to explain the entire situation with only a few interjections, before she'd bid them a quick goodnight and went home.
"That woman is exhausting." Lorelai plopped down on the couch with a tired sigh. It was almost ten thirty now.
"She's your mother." Rory said in a scolding tone, sitting beside her.
"Only biologically." Lorelai mumbled, closing her eyes.
"My mistake." Rory rolled her eyes. "I guess I should clean all this up." She pouted while looking at the trash, wishing she could just go to sleep.
"No, leave it. We can get it tomorrow." Lorelai flung her arms across the back of the couch with a groan. "You know after going to a spa you'd think I'd be a little more relaxed."
"Speaking of the spa, you never did tell me what was up with you and Grandma." Rory pulled her legs up onto the couch, folding them into a pretzel and turning to face Lorelai.
Lorelai smiled before starting her story. Five minutes later her and Rory were absentmindedly munching on french fries.
"Apparently that lipstick company forgot to put a warning label on the side: The use of this product will, in fact, turn you into a Viscous Trollop."
Rory laughed before saying, "I can't believe Grandma called herself an adulterer."
"Well there's no denying it now. I'm sorry you had to find out this way." Lorelai grinned.
"Hmm, I wonder how Grandpa's taking this development."
"Who knows, with all that talk about horseradish, maybe he'd like to spice things up a bit."
"Gross." Rory makes a face of utter disgust before tossing a pillow at Lorelai.
"Sorry, sorry, mustn't tarnish those virgin ears." Lorelai laughs before standing up and stretching. "Well, Mommy's tired, off to bed I go. Night sweets." She kisses Rory on the cheek before walking over to the staircase.
"Night Mom." Rory says quietly. "And thanks…for understanding." She looks over and smiles.
"Aw, anytime." Lorelai says before walking upstairs. As soon as she's out of Rory's sight she sighs quietly, looking a little forlorn. "Anytime." She repeats softly before walking into her room.
Rory hears her mother's door shut quietly and gets off the couch, grabbing the cordless phone on the way to her room. Shutting the door softly, she dials while lying back on her bed.
"Hello." She smiles at his voice, noting that it sounds a little more boyish over the phone.
"Hey."
"Hey. What's up?" He asks, setting his book on his nightstand, placing his arm behind his head.
"Just wanted to make sure everything turned out okay. With Luke, I mean. Was it bad?" She shifts on her bed, closing her eyes contentedly.
"All my limbs are accounted for, if that's what you mean. He yelled, I yelled, and all is as it should be."
"I'm sorry. I probably shouldn't have lied. Maybe he wouldn't have been so mad." She bites her lip, worried that she may have gotten him into trouble.
"Nah, it was better this way." It's silent on the other end, and he likes to imagine that she's smiling. "What about you? Any casualties?"
"Surprisingly no. We did our share of yelling, but I guess we came to an understanding."
"Sorry about that." He mumbles.
"It's fine. I mean, once I got her calmed down beyond the initial screech, I was able to explain everything."
"Should I be worried?" He asks with a lopsided grin.
"No, I think she's harnessed her violent tendencies. But if I'm wrong, a good cup of coffee can usually quell the savage Gilmore."
"I'll remember that." He chuckles. It's quiet for a moment before he speaks. "So about this Roark guy…" He begins, picking his book up from the desk.
Rory smiled widely, rolling over onto her stomach.
Twenty minutes later she looked to her right and saw that it was after eleven. With a sigh she said, "Hey, sorry to interrupt but it's getting kind of late. I should probably go to sleep."
"Right. Plans with Lorelai tomorrow?" He figured that maybe they were smoothing things over.
"Um, no actually. I'm hanging out with…" She trailed off, feeling uncomfortable.
"Ah." He said in realization.
She couldn't help but notice he sounded less than thrilled at her admission. "Yeah." She said quietly.
"I'll let you go then. Night Rory."
"Goodnight Jess." At the sound of the dial tone, she clicked the 'end' button, bringing the phone up to rest against her chest.
After a minute she set it on her nightstand with a sigh. She stood up to change into her pajamas, then quickly returned to bed after shutting off her light.
Lying under her covers, surrounded by darkness, she closed her eyes with a frown.
But sleep didn't come.
See, no cliffhanger this time! I bet that's a relief. You guys were just dying for Dean to be at the door haha. I hope you liked my twist though. This is, after all, a remake and in my world Dean would have never shown up in the first place. He will definitely be in the next chapter though. Thank you for reading and please review!