Mom
"Hey Rory, what's up?" asked Lorelai over the phone.
"I'm okay…"
"What is it?" Lorelai asked, concern flooding into her voice.
"I- I've moved back with Paris… Logan and I broke up," she answered hesitantly.
"Oh, I'm so sorry. Are you okay? I didn't know you were having trouble," Lorelai immediately sympathized.
"No, I'm fine," retorted Rory, with a touch of humor on her voice because of her mother's instant concern. "It was like a week ago, and I broke up with him."
"Why?" asked Lorelai, not accusing, but curious.
"Because…sometimes you know even though you care for the guy, it's just not right. Like you and Max."
"I understand, but are sure you are okay? Breaking up with anybody can be hard."
"Trust me, Mom," Rory replied with a chuckle, "I'm fine. In fact, there is already someone new."
"That's fast."
"Well. I knew him before…" she trailed off, wishing she hadn't said anything.
"Rory," Lorelai said slowly, reprimanding her, but holding back a laugh. "Did you leave Logan for another boy?!"
"Sort of," Rory replied meekly.
"Sort of meaning yes," she teased.
"…maybe…"
Lorelai laughed over the phone. "It seems you always have guys trailing after you." She sighed, "To be young again."
"Mom!" Rory said, scandalized.
"Okay, so why the switch?"
"He made me realize what I knew all along."
"Which was…?"
"That I wasn't staying with Logan for the right reasons and that I was staying away from him for the wrong reasons."
"Very philosophical. So is he cute?"
"Why's that important?" asked Rory, trying to sound indignant, but barely suppressing a laugh.
"Duh, cute grandkids."
Rory sighed in fake exasperation. "Yeah, he's pretty cute."
A snicker in the background, it came from neither Rory nor Lorelai.
"So am I gonna meet him?"
"Eventually."
"Oh, well I just mark that down on my calendar."
Rory rolled her eyes.
"See ya soon."
"Bye."
Arms wrapped around Rory's middle from behind after she hung up her cell phone.
"So when are you gonna tell her it's me," a teasing voice whispered in her ear.
"Eventually…" Rory drawled.
"Well, I'll go write that down on my calendar.
"Funny," commented Rory, leaning her head back on Jess' shoulder and looking up at him awkwardly. "That's what Mom said."
"Huh."
"I need coffee," Rory said around a yawn.
Jess raised his eyebrows, "Don't you always."
"Don't mock," she said, breaking away from Jess and going over to the mini kitchen to pour herself a mug of the java.
Jess sat down on the couch. "So, I'm cute?"
"Well," said Rory shrugging, "On your good days."
"Oh, man," said Jess, grabbing his chest where his heart would be, "Way to knock a man down a few pegs."
"But I like you anyway," said Rory, sitting down next to him.
"Well that's good news."
She leaned against his chest and sighed, "'M sleepy."
"Then why are you drinking coffee?" he teased in a serious tone.
"That's a moot point."
He kissed the top of her head, catching the hairspray and strawberry scent of her hair.
"Let's get you to bed than," he suggested.
"Too tired to move," she whined, leaning heavier against his chest as if he where an oversized pillow, dropping her already swiftly emptied coffee cup on the floor by the couch. "Sleep here."
"Oh, no you don't. You took a nap on me yesterday and I couldn't feel my legs by the time you where done."
"Please…" she whined, looking at Jess with wide, pitiful eyes, a look she had learned years ago that Jess couldn't resist.
"Fine," he muttered, "But next time you get play the mattress."
"Deal," mumbled Rory, although she didn't intend to keep her side the bargain, ever.
Jess situated himself more comfortably in the corner of the couch, between the back and the arm rest. Rory pulled herself more on top of him and snuggled deep against his chest.
"Night," she whispered.
"It's quarter after two in the afternoon," she replied smartly.
"Shh…" she told him without even opening her eyes.
Jess suppressed retort and instead watched Rory's peaceful, slumbering face. He knew he complained about it, but he couldn't help but love times like this. The times, whether in sleep, or watching television, or just sitting and reading together, when no words were needed between them. It just was and that worked for them. He wrapped his arms protectively around her, to keep her from rolling off before resting his chin of the top of her head and dosing off himself.
…
"Hi, Lorelai," commented Paris as the met each other going up the stairs to Paris's apartment. "Here to see, Rory?"
"Yeah, she's not expecting though. I had to drive here to deal with some urgent inn business with this group that is doing a wedding there and thought I'd stop by while I was in town."
"That's nice," replied Paris with out much caring in her tone as she unlocked the complicated door.
"Here we are," Paris said as she opened the door and walked determinedly through it. Lorelai followed, but stopped right inside. Rory was asleep on the couch on top of a boy that looked uncannily familiar.
"Oh my God!"
Paris stared at Lorelai as if she were nuts. That was until, Jess and Rory, having been so shocked into consciousness, feel in a tangled heap onto the floor in front of the couch.
"Mom?!" asked Rory, confused, getting clumsily up off the floor. Jess seemed more reluctant to do so. He stood partially behind Rory when he stood. "What are you doing here?"
"I wanted to surprise you," she said, her voice high as though almost hysterical, "But, boy, how the tables have turned!"
Paris, having determined what the shock was all about, asked in surprise, "You haven't told her?"
Rory ignored her. Jess said nothing. This was an 'a' 'b' conversation between Rory and Lorelai.
"Come on," said Rory, taking her mother outside the still open apartment door and closing it behind them as the stood in the hallway.
"Jess!" asked Lorelai, stunned. "Jess is your new boyfriend."
Rory sighed to herself. "Yes," she answered firmly.
"Why didn't you tell me?!"
"Because I know you'd react like this," Rory replied in exasperation.
"Okay," said Lorelai, trying to make herself calm down. "It's your life, but Jess? How did this happen?"
"Like I said on the phone, he made me realize what I knew all along."
"But he broke your heart," Lorelai reasoned.
"We're pretty even on that front now, Mom," Rory replied. Lorelai wasn't quit sure what that meant, but didn't prod.
"But is he good for you?" she asked skeptically.
"Was Logan good for me? How about Dean the second time around? It's not perfect, but…"
"But what?"
"He saved me."
"From what?"
"From myself." Lorelai looked quizzical at that response. So Rory explained. "Ever wonder what happened to make me come home, get a job, go back to Yale."
Lorelai looked phased at that question. "I just assumed that you just came to your senses."
"No, it was Jess. He came to visit. Do you know he works in a publishing house in Philly now? And he has a book published?"
"I think Luke mentioned it once."
"It was crazy. I mean, we were twenty-one and who would have thought back when we were seventeen that he'd be the one fixing my life."
"What are you talking about?" asked Lorelai perplexed.
"Jess," Rory said adamantly. "He was the one who showed me how bad my life at become. He made me question dropping out of Yale, and Logan, and everything my life was at that time. He saved me. He is good for me… and, I can't explain it, but I love him."
"Wow, um, Are- are you sure?"
"Mom," she said sincerely. "Sometime you just know."
"I guess you do… It's just going to take some getting used to."
Aki- Hey, hope you liked it. Anyway, who is sad about the season finale? Who is glad that Rory and Logan aren't getting married? Who wished that Jess would shpw up in the last episode?
