A/N: Wow, final chapter! I'm quite amazed that I've managed to keep up a story for ten chapters! Thank you again for the reviews on the previous chapter, and I hope you like this, my last chapter for "Post Scriptum". I'll try and get to working on a sequel for "I think I may have loved you", and maybe (but just maybe) I'll get conked in the head by inspiration and write a sequel for "Everything's gonna be okey" on a whim! Heaps of thanks to Pchefbeth, who gave me a good hint to when Jess' birthday may be!

Disclaimer: I, the author of this story, do not own any of the characthers associated with Gilmore Girls. That honor belongs to the wonderful Amy Sherman-Palladino. I have no intention of making any money on this (in fact, I wouldn't be surprised if I'm losing money over it...).

10. Joy to the Crap Shack

There had never been a Christmas quite like this in all of Rory's life. Since she came home she had been feeling uneasy and troubled. She was worrying about Jess, but didn't dare to call Chris or Matt to ask if he was ok. They hadn't called her either. Now it had been a week since she had bolted out of Truncheon, it was Christmas and her Christmas spirit was nowhere to be found. She could tell her mother was worried. At Friday night Christmas dinner she had been absent-minded, and Lorelai had been forced to try and carry on the conversation so that Emily and Richard wouldn't start ambushing Rory with questions, thus making the whole dinner party turn their attention to Rory.

Lorelai had tried to make Rory wallow, but just like when she and Dean had broken up, she refused profoundly. She would be gone when Lorelai woke up in the mornings, and then be gone all day. No one in town seemed to have seen her, but she always turned up in the evening, looking cold, and going into her room without saying much. Lorelai knew her daughter was pining and most likely blaming herself for whatever had happened in Philadelphia. For the first time since… Lorelai didn't even remember how long it had been since she had felt this helpless.

"Rory?" Lorelai said, knocking on Rory's door. "Honey?"

A muffled "What?" came from inside the room.

"Don't you wanna come out? There's a Christmas hooplah waiting for you in the living room. Sookie made muffintops and I got Luke to make us Santa burgers and they're waiting for you."

There was a long silence, and Lorelai felt like she wanted to kick down the door.

"Fine. Just give me a second."

"One…" Lorelai counted jokingly.

"Not fun, mom."

"Oh come on, a little fun? A fragment of fun? A Luke-kind of little fun?"

"I'll be out in a minute, mom. Go guard the burgers."

When Rory came out of her room, and entered the livingroom she felt misplaced. Everything was so happy and cheery. Her mom had fixed the Christmas tree, put all the presents under it, and their socks hung from the banister, and beside the fireplace was a half-empty bowl of gum and the mantlepiece was adorned with her and her mothers' cranberry-popcorn garlands. Her mom looked happy, Paul Anka looked happy, but she… She felt all but happy. She was miserable, and she kept thinking of Jess, who was more or less the Grinch in a leather jacket. Sitting down in the couch with a fake smile on her lips, Rory felt relieved that she at least had finished her present shopping before Philadelphia, otherwise the recipients would have thought she had pulled an Uncle Scrooge before the various ghosts on them.

On the coffee table in front of them was a basket of Sookie's muffintops (who had the faintest smell of someone who had taken a bribe), a plate laden with Pop tarts of virtually every flavor there was, as well as two of the most disgusting-looking Santa burgers Rory had ever seen. She knew Luke had made one for her mother a couple of years back, and she was fairly certain Luke had protested wildly when Lorelai had requested them again this year, and to top it off she had wanted two. "Poor Luke's upchuck reflexes…" Rory thought to herself.

"Come on, kiddo! Dig in, and I'll load the video!"

"What? We don't watch movies on Christmas Eve."

"New traditions, you can protest if you want, but it's already too late!"

"Let the record show: Whatever." Rory noted in a sarcastic tone.

"Rory." her mother said and turned around. "I don't know what got you in this funk, since you don't want to tell me. You've been moody and absent-minded all week, and you disappear in the morning and no one sees you until you come home in the evening. You know I love you, honey, but isn't time you either let go, or tell me, the very reason for your existence, what's bugging you?"

She wanted to tell her mom, she really did. Her mom was her best friend, and they had always been able to talk about everything. Still, Rory felt that this wasn't anything she wanted to share with her mom, not all the details. On the other hand, it would be nice to get some of it out, it was starting to consume her from the inside. All week she had been sitting down by the bridge, drawing meaningless pictures in the snow with her hands and feet, wondering about Jess, thinking about him, reminiscing about him. She was angry with herself, for blowing it all. She knew so little about him, and it irritated her that she got to hear about his life in Philly from Cammie and not from him. She didn't even know his birthday, because they had never celebrated it. He was just like before, just the same, and still so different. Perhaps she was the one that had changed? In what universe would she be the one to pull a full on Jess Mariano, complete with the three little words and the turn-and-run act? Perhaps they had both changed into each other? He had become like her, responsible, sensible, and she had turned into him, reckless and badass. Perhaps..?

"Honey? Please talk to me…"

Rory looked up at Lorelai, her mom really wanted her to talk.

"I screwed up" she blurted out.

"How?" Lorelai asked.

"Well, for one thing, I went to Philadelphia, in the middle of the night, and he was there, and she, and the other she, and then there were letters, he said he had thrown them away, and I slept on a couch and then I told him I loved him and ran away!"

Lorelai looked taken aback by this sudden flood of confessions.

"Okey… I take it that was a quick recap. Would you mind elaborating so mommy can understand something?"

Rory took a deep breath. "Screw the holding back now…" she thought, and began:

"I went to Philadelphia, and Jess was there."

"That much I know."

"We went for coffee to this coffeeshop where a girl named Cammie worked, and she was really nice. Anyway, I asked him about the Christmas card, and he said he had wanted to write to me, and that he had written four other letters but never sent them, but thrown them all away. Later, I found three of them, he had kept them, and I read them, and they were wonderful, so I thought I'd talk to him about them, but then I found out that he more or less had a new girl, so I ran away."

"What?! Jess has a new girlfriend?"

"They just dated, but she seemed to really like him, and that hurt, so I took off, and spent the night at Cammies', and I forgot to take my purse and my coat, and he came over with my coat that evening. Next day, we talked over coffee, and it was really good coffee…"

"We're not talking Luke-kind-of-good, are we?"

"Close." Rory answered."

"Thank God, something is still right in the world. Go on."

"He asked if I wanted my purse back, and since I had my car keys there, you bet that I wanted, so we headed back to Truncheon, and I got my purse, and then my head went blank and I told him I loved him and then bolted out and drove home."

"Oh... Now I totally get that answering message for you. And I understand why you've been acting all grumpypuss all week. You owe me for that Friday nightmare dinner, by the way."

"Mom! Not helping!"

Lorelai smiled.

"Sweetie. We're talking about Jess here. The guy who pulled so many heartbreak-and-run on you that he practically has the record. You feel bad because you did to him what he did to you. You're a good kid, Rory, beyond good, and for you to do something like this, it makes you feel bad, but you shouldn't. Jess…"

"Jess is not the same."

"Did I just say that?" For months, if not years, she had maintained the thought that Jess would always be the town hoodlum, always up to something, but… He wasn't. Not really.

"He has changed, and he changed for me. He wrote a book, I haven't written a book, and it's a good book, far better than any of my newspaper pieces." she tried to explain to her mother.

He had tried to move on, both of them had, but both of them were stuck in their old tracks, the ones they used to share. She still doubted that he loved her, after the stunt she pulled on him, but she loved him, and perhaps that was the real reason she had turned down Logan, the reason to why she had taken a job that would have her traveling around the country, because maybe they would bump into each other.

"You love him don't you, kid?" Lorelai smiled at her.

Rory could only nod.

"After all these years, huh?"

New nod.

"No wonder you've been super-crabby then."

"Hey, I thought I was just grumpypuss!"

"Sorry, I just upgraded you to super-crabby."

At that moment, the doorbell rang.

"It's open!" Lorelai shouted.

Whoever was at the door didn't enter, but kept on ringing the bell.

"It's..! Honey, would you mind..?" Lorelai continued and nodded towards the door.

Rory got out of the sofa and walked over to open the door. Her mouth fell open when she saw who was outside.

"Jess?" she whispered.

He looked cold, almost as cold as she had looked in Philly. She looked over her shoulder, her mom was busy trying to get the tape to work, so she stepped outside, quietly closing the door.

"I didn't hear you come."

He was wearing his old leather jacket, but it didn't seem to provide much warmth for him, as he was shivering.

"You cold?"

No reaction, he just looked at her.

"Jess, what are you doing here?" she asked.

Still no reaction.

"Does Luke know you're here?"

Slowly, he shook his head.

"Then why..?"

She never got to finish that sentence. He lounged at her, took her in his arms and kissed her, his lips icy cold against her. She knew she should've pushed him away. She knew she should've questioned his methods, and lectured him about trying to fix the problems without actually confronting them. She knew she shouldn't be kissing him, but nevertheless it felt heavenly. He filled her with something, and whatever it was, it made her feel like she was floating.

Jess had no idea how he was going to explain himself when the moment was over. He had prepared a speech, a long explaination as to why he was there and what he wanted, but when he saw her all his words scattered. The only thing left was this urge to hold her, to caress her and kiss her, so he did. He had parked his car in town, and walked to the Crap Shack, all prepared. When he saw the front porch he stopped. Suddenly he was nervous, and he went over his speech again and again. Slowly, he came closer to the front door, but didn't dare to ring the bell. He didn't know how long he had just stood there, but apparantly long enough for his face and hands to turn numb.

He let his hands travel up to her neck, almost feeling her pulse through the soft skin. She shuddered at this touch, but he wanted more, more heat, more Rory. His hands entangled themselves in her hair, and he pulled her closer. It was perfect, this moment was perfect, but what would happen when they broke off the kiss? He wanted it to go on forever, but soon even he felt the need for air, and he ended the kiss. Taking a deep breath, Jess looked at Rory. She was flushed, cheeks heating, herself now shuddering.

"Merry Christmas." he said.

She didn't move, just looked at him with her piercing baby blues. Often, it had been him that had made her uncomfortable with a look, but this time, he was the one squirming under her gaze.

"I… I just wanted to… I don't know." he tried. "I had this whole speech planned out, and it all went away when you opened, and I can claim temporary insanity about the kiss if that makes you feel better. And don't worry about Jaima, I finally called her, and said I couldn't date her, and she understood, and I talked to Cammie, and she has calmed down and dethroned me at least, you're still queen as far as I know, but anyway…"

He could see a small smile playing on her face.

"Should I take it you're happy to see me, or that you're having some strange reaction to me? Should I go?"

"No! Don't go." she said.

She threw herself into his arms, hugging him tight.

"Don't leave me."

"Okey…" he whispered to her, holding her in a soft embrace.

"When's your birthday?" she suddenly asked.

"I'm sorry?"

"Your birthday. We never celebrated it."

"Why's that important?"

"I realized I know so little about you." she explained. "Come on, Jess, spit it out."

He smiled at her. She was gonna find this funny.

"July 21st." he answered. "Same day as Hemingway."

"Really?" she asked, looking suspiciously.

"Ask my mom if you don't believe me."

"No wonder you have this weird obsession with Hemingway…"

"Hey, it's not an obsession, and I could say the same about you and Rand!"

"You are mean, and you look cold. Come on in, and give my mom a heart attack to go with her Santa-burger."

They entered, and caught a glimpse of Lorelai zooming around the livingroom talking to someone, by the sound of it Luke.

"Oh come on, you totally cheated on the Santa-burger, this one actually tasted like crap. Get your butt over here, celebrate Christmas with us and bring lots of fries!"

With that she ended the call, throwing the phone on the sofa.

"Honey, was that you?" Lorelai asked.

"Yeah, it was me. And we've got company."

"No way Luke is that fast. And if it's Santa tell him that it took him long enough to understand that the front door works better than the chimney."

"It's not Luke." Jess answered. "And it sure as hell ain't Santa."

He could hear Lorelai stopping, and seconds later she was standing in front of them.

"Philly don't do Christmas?" she asked.

"Mom…" Rory said warningly.

"Do I wanna know what you're doing here?" Lorelai continued.

"Mom! Please!"

"I didn't find celebrating Christmas alone that hot, and I had something I wanted to talk to Rory about." Jess explained.

"Like what?" Lorelai demanded, looking sternly at him.

Jess answered by taking Rory's hand. Rory felt how a tingling sensation seemed to emanate from his hand, and she smiled.

Lorelai's face seemed to soften at this sight. Her daughter was happy, and that was reason enough for herself to be happy, even if the source of happiness was Jess Mariano. She nodded at them to come in, and went back to the livingroom, picking up the phone to call Luke.

"Yeah, hi. You're coming right? Okey, bring a plethora of fries, Jess just arrived." she said, before hanging up on a very surprised Luke.

She turned to Rory and Jess.

"And all is well in the world, joy to the Crap Shack and on earth peace and good coffee to all men."

Jess sniggered, he never really figured out how the Gilmore girls' head were working.

"And P.S," Rory whispered to him. "I love you, Dodger."

"Love you too, Dominique."

"Dominique? Oh, I forgot you had read The Fountainhead." she smiled.

"You know what that means."

"I will pretend I don't."

"Merry Christmas, Rory." he said, pulling a parcel out of his jacket.

"Do I even have to ask what it is?" she said, while tearing off the wrapping paper.

She had already guessed it, and her guesses were confirmed when the paper came off and revealed The sun also rises. She opened the book to find a written dedication in it:

To Rory.
Happy 19th, 20th, 21st, 22nd and 23rd birthday!
Happy thanksgiving, Merry Christmas,
and congratulations for everything I've missed.
Much love,

Dodger.

She smiled at him, kissing him softly on the lips. Just then, Luke came in through the door, and upon seeing the young couple kissing, he let out a loud "Jeez!" and disappeared out again. Everything was in deed well, and Rory felt happier than ever before. She had Jess, and that was all she would ever need.