It Is A Small World After All

Disclaimer: I met a man named Disclaimer last week. He said, "Please tell them I don't own Gilmore Girls." So I decided to pass on the message.

Once again, I want to thank all the beautiful reviewers especially helaluvE :D

Ok so that AN was my little moment of insanity and sadness. I promise I won't do it again. Surprisingly though I got more reviews when I posted that than I did before. Ah well, let's get on with the story.

IMP: Ok so Chapter 6 left off (as I imagine it) a few hours before Jess meets Rory in her grandparents' driveway in 'Let Me Hear Your Balalaikas Ringing Out'. THIS chapter is going to pick up right after Rory, Jess and Logan go out to dinner. So the famous 'This isn't you. I know you' speech has been given and they parted just like in the show.

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Jess drove back to Star's Hollow exhausted. He was leaving in the morning and wanted to get a good sleep before the long drive to Philadelphia.. Seeing Rory was tough enough, seeing Rory and Logan together had been excruciating but yelling at Rory and seeing her so defeated and so, well unlike herself, had been too much. He was still surprised he didn't knock Richie Rich's two front teeth out. Guess he really had grown up.

He walked up the diner stairs while still halfway through a mental rant of 'How the hell could she go out with him? And besides the Porsche and looks, what's he really got?' and opened the door leading to the apartment.

He nearly fell back down the stars when he saw someone lying on the couch but on closer inspection he found it was Becky. He smirked at how overly zealous she was to know the developments of the night. Clearly, her precious niece going astray had affected her a lot but Jess wasn't looking forward to explaining the truth of what happened.

He slowly nudged her shoulder so she would wake up and after a few mumblings of "Lorelai, Luke's coffee will still be there in ten minutes", she opened her eyes. It took her a while to recognize the face leaning in front of her but as soon as she did she salt bolt upright with an immediate, "How did it go?"

Jess avoided Becky's gaze and instead offered her a soda.

"Jess." Becky called him through gritted teeth.

Jess slid a hand through his hair nervously and said, "Define 'smooth'."

"What you mean as in a character trait?"

"Yeah."

"Em… I don't know. Suave. Glib. PERSUASIVE."

"Yeah well, don't count on me to write a dictionary based on my experiences anytime soon."

"I'll keep that in mind... What happened?"

"The Porsche pulled in right before we left, that's what happened."

Becky looked sympathetically at Jess. "I was hoping that could be avoided."

"What me duelling with the blonde dickie. Yep that was avoided. Me yelling at Rory, not so much."

"You yelled… at Rory? What did you say?"

"I might have alluded to the fact that this wasn't like her. Something about us making fun of guys like Logan was also mentioned."

At this point, Becky was staring him down waiting for him to explain everything.

"What else?"

"Nothing Beck. Nothing. There was no great eloquent motivating speech. I'm the high-school dropout remember. I'm the one that's not motivated. She's the one that went to Yale because she can be something. Although apparently that's been shot to hell by her boyfriend's father. Yeah you think I didn't know about that? I did. Part of the reason why it took me more self-control than I ever even knew existed, to not punch that guy senseless.

This isn't like her. She's supposed to be in Yale. Why can't she see it? I swear sometimes she can be the most clueless person on the face of the planet. I may have screwed up but her… She was never supposed to do that…. Great now the speech comes."

By this point, Jess was on edge. Becky had a fleeting thought that Lorelai should see him now, so riled up because Rory isn't where she should be. The kid really did love Rory. It didn't even matter if where Rory was supposed to be wasn't with him.

She kept giving him a sad yet sympathetic smile, "You know I always hated the Huntzbergers. I recall Mitchum, that's the asshole dad, trying to feel me up on at least three different occasions WHILE being married, another five or so before that."

Jess let out a chuckle, "Moments like that I'm proud not to be in the Hartford elite."

"It sucks… big time. I hate being in it."

"Really?"

"Yeah. Nobody to have a real conversation with. The one person I could talk to had the guts to run away. And now Rory's' going right back into their clutches."

Jess shrugged. "Sometimes you want to accommodate the same people that put you down you in the first place?"

"What are you talking about?"

"Well I wasn't exactly the most popular person in this town while I was here. But for some damn reason I wanted to come back and show them all that I made something good and decent, something like the bookstore."

"Or the book?" Becky smiled knowingly.

"No, not the book. The book is to be read by no one in Star's Hollow unless I specifically give it to them." Jess didn't want any of these people inside his thoughts. He knew they'd just misunderstand everything and turn the book's plot into some cheesy love story. He wouldn't be surprised if Ms. Patty went around saying the lead character was her as a young girl.

He internally rolled his eyes at this and continued, "No what I mean is Rory. She secretly wants to make them all happy because she thinks she failed with the Yale thing. So she's in the DAR for her grandparents and in all kinds of little cliques for Logan and his family. She forgot about Star's Hollow and the people here. They want her to be happy doing things she actually wants to do."

Becky's eyes widened. She hadn't thought to look at it all exactly that way. "Is that why you told her this all isn't like her."

Jess ran a hand through his hair. "Well yeah. I might have needed to stick around and explain for it to settle in though."

Becky couldn't help but give him a small pat on the shoulder. "Don't worry. Rory's smart. She'll figure it out."

"Really?" Jess asked sceptically.

"I think so." Becky smiled at Jess and finally thought that the kid deserved all the opportunities that could be offered. Here he was taking an interest in an ex-girlfriend with whom he barely had any closure. He really was trying to change.

"Jess I have a proposition for you."

"Huh?"

"Sit down."

Jess looked at her worried, "What is it this time?"

"Don't worry. You don't have a long-lost brother too. Just sit down, will ya?"

Jess grudgingly sat down on the couch. Becky started pacing the room and he realised this seemed to be a trait of hers when she was nervous. He couldn't help but let out a low chuckle.

"Jess," she started, "I haven't told you everything about, well, everything. You see when my dad died, he left me and Chris a lot of money and didn't specify what we had to do with it. We were sort of surprised because he had always wanted to control both of us and we thought he'd try and do it form the grave too, or at the very least have Mum politely, yet bluntly point out what we were supposed to do with it.. Anyways, in Germany I made a good amount too. I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm not bragging, it's just it was a nice job, worked hard to get it, worked real hard to keep it and I got my fair share. I invested a bit here and there with some friends because I always wanted to come back here and be able to do whatever I wanted. With dad's money, I was very…no extremely lucky that that plan sped up.

But the thing is I still didn't really know what to do with all of it. I didn't want to just splurge my way through. I wanted to do something productive, something that I could really say helped somebody else, and I didn't know what that was until a couple of days ago."

Jess kept looking at her, silently encouraging her to continue.

Becky took a deep breath and smiled what she hoped was a confident smile. "Jess how would you feel if I helped you set up the bookstore financially?"

"What?"

Jess knew Becky was eager to get to know him. She felt very strongly about the yeas she had missed out on but this was insane. She wouldn't, no she couldn't be offering him a bucket load of cash. "Becky, I can't.."

"Now I know what you're going to say. You're going to tell me you can't take it. But what you really want to tell me is you won't… because you want to do this all on your own. You want that bookstore to be truly and completely yours. Yours and your friends … you want to say you did it. Am I right?"

Jess looked at her pensively. She wasn't completely off the mark. It wasn't pride, ok maybe it was a bit of pride that made him want to do this all by himself but he also couldn't just take her money, so he settled for, "I don't know."

"Just here me out. I've given this a lot of thought. How about you think about it, and you talk to your partners about it. I guarantee you, no I promise you that I won't interfere with how things are done. That will be entirely up to you. I don't care how you set up the place or what colour the walls are. I won't even interfere in what books you order if you don't want me to. I'll be that really silent partner that you never hear a peep out of. And even though my name will technically be behind the first initial expenses, you guys will mange the entire place. You get the profits. It will be all your business.

I can help out of you want me to. I can disappear if you want me to. All I ask is that I can tell people that my godson owns the finest bookstore in Philadelphia."

A moment of silence passed between them. Jess on one hand was trying to figure out why his mother had been stupid to let go of such an honest friend. Secretly he became jealous of Rory and her family all over again. All those years, Rory had undoubtedly enjoyed the constant albeit long distance love from Becky.

Becky was silently pleading that he would accept her offer.

"I don't know Beck. Chances are it'll be a small crappy business that makes no profit at all..."

"Jess, if your writing is any indication of your passion for doing this… there's no chance in hell it will be crappy business."

GGGG

About a month and a half after their talk about setting up the business, Becky was comfortably seated with Lorelai in Luke's diner, both of them nursing a cup of coffee lovingly.

"I can't believe you're leaving me again," Lorelai let out for what seemed like the hundredth time.

"Lor, do you actually think I won't be visitng more often than any regular relative would if she lived in Philadelphia and the people she wants to see live in Connecticut. I swear at the very least, I'll come by once a month, and I'm saying that because I'm trying to be sane and rational."

"What the hell are you going with sane and rational for? You know in this family it's kooky and spontaneous or you're out."

"Fine," Becky raised her hands defeated and smirked, "Twice a month… at least."

"I can deal with that as a basic rate," Lorelai agreed with an evil grin.

"I think Rory's more excited about this than I am."

"Oh hun, she's really excited about all the free books she's gonna be getting once you guys open." Lorelai's evil grin still in place.

"Well mummy Lorelai did always teach her, "Why pay for it when you can bum it off a relative?"

Lorelai looked shocked, "I never said any such thing."

Becky smirked at her, "I believe it was No 43 in your 'List of things to teach the Lorelai Jnr'."

"No I distinctly remember it was No 48 after 'Must teach Lorelai Jnr how not to cook. " Lorelai flashed a wide grin and the two burst out laughing.

Finally, Becky straightened up and whispered, "This has been the best month and a half in a long, long time Lor."

Lorelai smiled even if she didn't like being reminded of when she and her daughter were fighting, as Becky's comment clearly referred to that.

"Yes, finally movie marathons have been returned to their sacred state. And this way we do really well when we're saying the lines with the movie. You do the male actors, Rory does females and I do sound effects or any difficult accents."

"Hence why we've watched Godfather ten times in the last month."

Lorelai stuck out her chin and spoke with Marlon Brando's accent and did the famous hand gesture, "It never gets old."

After they both inevitably laughed at how they managed to create such strange scenarios every time they were in Luke's diner or anywhere for that matter, a beat of comfortable silence passed between them.

However, Lorelai wanted Becky to know something before she left for Philadelphia. She sighed and couldn't believe the words that were coming out of her mouth. "You know, technically, I need to thank Jess."

Becky nearly choked on her coffee. She couldn't believe Lorelai VICTORIA Gilmore had just admitted to the necessity of showing other than sarcasm and annoyance at Jess Mariano.

"I swear to God, if you tell him I told you this, you will regret it. I'll have Rory call you up and talk to you about all the Angelina Jolie movies she's seen," Lorelai held up a threatening finger while saying this, "and believe me we've done movie marathons based on her, so she's seen them all. Yet, Rory does a REALLY bad imitation of her."

Becky looked shocked, recalling that Lorelai knew of her hatred for the actress, "You wouldn't."

Lorelai narrowed her eyes, "Try me."

"But, but, but YOU just said you should thank him!"

"That doesn't mean I want it to happen any time soon. I can do it later. When he's forty and balding, maybe I'll do it to make the poor guy feel better."

"I'm sorry, have u seen Jess's hair? It's like the fountain of eternal cowlicks. And if Luke's any indication, he has nothing to worry abut."

"Never mind. Jess knows nothing of what I just said. Got it? Get it? Good"

Becky rolled her yes and huffed like a little girl but finally relented.

"Good."

Another moment of silence passed between them until Becky glanced over at Lorelai and a grin slowly creeped onto her face, getting wider and wider.

"Lor?"

"Huh?"

"Jess got Rory back."

"What?"

"JESS got RORY back."

Lorelai rolled her eyes. "Yeah yeah yeah, Sparky I know that AND all that you're implying. No need to blind me with your shiny teeth."

Becky seemed satisfied and taking her last gulp of coffee, stood up and got her bag. Lorelai stood up as well and they walked outside.

"Well I guess I best be off." Becky started, although she clearly didn't want to leave.

"Quick cue the cheesy music."

Becky laughed but continued in a serious tone, "I didn't think they'd actually want my help. But now they got me doing all sorts of things with setting the place up. The shelves are supposed to get there tomorrow."

"Things are coming along nicely huh?" Lorelai smiled proudly at her first protégée.

"Yeah well. Jess knows what he wants. So do Matt and Chris and they're just really nice guys. I don't know… we kind of all just got along immediately. I thought they'd only like me because Jess told them to. But Chris is always coming to me for girl advice and Matt is always going on about my music collection."

"Which was highly influenced by me!" Lorelai exclaimed.

"Which was highly influenced by you, true. I have mentioned that. I talk about you a lot. But you know we're taking it step by step. The place is no where near being ready. Painters are supposed to come before shelves and everything's a mess. I'm slowly getting to know the guys but I'm so scared that they're gonna find out one thing about me and hate me for it."

Lorelai grabbed both of Becky's shoulders to stop her form continuing her rant. "Beck, you are gonna do fine. If I can open an inn with Sookie catching fire and an overbearing French man, you can do this. Things are meant to go all wrong before they go all right. Believe me I've done this before."

Lorelai rounded off her little advice with a cheeky grin. Leave it up to Lorelai to know how to calm a person down.

"Thanks Lor. I'll be ok…."

Lorelai narrowed her eyes at her as though hinting that that's not what she wanted to hear.

'Everything will be ok.", Becky continued, uncertainly at first, but then gave a confident shrug at the end.

"That's my girl. Now we call as often as possible especially if you need any advice on the fastest way to get things done. Remember what I told you?"

Becky scrunched up her face, "Beer for the plumbers, coke for the painters, lemonade for the electricians. Never leave a delivery guy waiting, pray to God the air conditioner guy isn't afraid of heights... I still don't get how he could be an air-conditioned installer and be afraid of heights."

"Trust me it happens. Go on."

"And never ever piss off the internet guy because they are the touchiest of them all."

"Very good grasshopper. That all took us weeks to figure out. See how much I look out for you. "

"I know. I love you Lor,"

"I love you too sweetie. Rory wanted me to say sorry again for not being here to see you off."

"Oh I must have missed the other thirty times she told me."

"You know how she is. She was really upset with Doyle for dragging her in."

"Cut Doyle some slack. I'm a changed woman after I MET Paris Gellar. That boy actually sleeps with her."

Both women shuddered involuntarily at the mental image but laughed nonetheless. Becky got into her car and said one final goodbye to her best friend, knowing she'd miss her as soon as the Star's Hollow sign was behind her. Lorelai kissed Becky on the cheek through the open car window.

"Drive safely ok."

"I will. Bye …and thanks. For everything."

"Hun, I need to be thanking you. Why do you think I've been buying you gallons of Ben & Jerry's for a month!"

With one last smile, Becky drove off and waved just before Lorelai couldn't see her anymore.

Loreali waved back but then let her arm fall to her side. She looked pensive and softly whispered, "Jess got Rory back."

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This was supposed to be the shortest chapter and ended up being the longest!

Well I hope you like it. As maybe you can tell from the last line, I'm going to try to shift the attention much more onto this story being a Lit now that I think I've satisfied character development criteria enough :P

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