Incoming

Disclaimer: I don't own any of it. Not even the computer I wrote it on.

Summary: Jess shows up at Richard and Emily's vow renewal. Luke has something to say about it. Rory is less than happy. Lorelai has to deal with Christopher. And the day is definitely not everything Emily hoped it would be.

Feedback: Reviews are fun. Like a barrel of monkeys. Why anyone would put monkeys in a barrel…I don't know, but it's supposedly a lot of fun.

A/N: I'm putting more time between 'Pulp Friction' and 'To Live and Let Diorama' than there was on the show.

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Lorelai slid onto her stool at the diner and frowned at Luke. "Hi."

"Hey." He leaned over and kissed her forehead. "What's wrong?"

"I miss my baby."

"She was just here on the weekend."

"I know. But she was with Jess the whole time. We haven't spent any time together since she had spring break. That was like a month ago. And now she's in Hartford, working on some newspaper thing with Paris and Doyle. I miss her." She looked around the diner then back at Luke. "We should paint." She said decisively.

He didn't even blink at her sudden change in subject. "It's only been four years. Find something else to paint."

"But we never got to paint together."

"We're not painting the diner."

"Why not?"

"Because it would make Taylor too happy. And I'd have to buy more paint and I'd have close for a day. So no."

"I wanna paint." She pouted

"No."

"Fine." She stuck her tongue out at him. "But you have to say I did a great job last time." She looked around again, surveying her handiwork, when her eyes landed on something that wasn't there before. "What is that?"

"What?"

She pointed. "That. Next to the pork chop."

He looked over at it and smiled. "Jess's diploma."

"He let you hang it up?" She asked incredulously.

"No."

"Right."

"But speaking of Jess, guess where he is."

"Off having sex with my daughter?"

"Jeez Lorelai."

"Sorry. So where is he?"

"New Haven."

"Why? Do you know what's in New Haven? Nothing."

"How 'bout Rory."

"Oh yea."

"Well, do you want to know what he's doing there?"

"Having sex with-"

"Would you stop. Rory's not even in New Haven."

"Fine. What is Jess doing in New Haven?"

"He's apartment hunting."

"He's…wow. So I guess him and Rory are pretty serious now. Well, they have never been not serious, but I didn't know they were 'move to New Haven' serious. This is big."

"I know. But you can't tell Rory. It's a surprise."

She made a zipping motion across her mouth. "Not a word."

He smiled at her then turned around when the phone rang. "Luke's." He answered. "Okay…I'll be right there." He hung the phone up and looked back at Lorelai. "I have to go. Can you get your own coffee?"

"I can go behind the counter?"

"Just this once." He kissed her quickly. "Can you tell Caesar I'll be back in a few hours?"

"Sure. I'll see you tonight."

"Sounds good." He kissed her one more time. "Bye"

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Luke pulled his truck over when he saw Jess standing in front of a large building. "Hey." He said, walking over to his nephew. "What are you doing? I thought you were looking for an apartment."

"I want it." He said, not taking his eyes off the building.

"What?"

He looked over at Luke. "I want this building."

"Why?"

"I saw it after Liz's wedding, and I just wanted it."

"What were you doing in New Haven after Liz's wedding?"

"Luke."

"Never mind. I know the answer to that. Are you asking me for money?"

"I don't know what else to do. You know I would never-"

"Jess. I'll give you the money."

"Really?"

"Of course. Did you talk to the owners yet?"

"Yea."

"Well, let's go back to the diner and you can call back them and set up an appointment or something."

"Okay." He was about to walk to his car, but he stopped when he saw Luke looking at him funny. "What?"

"Where are you gonna live?"

He pointed at the building. "There's two floors. I'll live upstairs until I can pay you back and get my own place. And it has separate rooms…with doors. Which is more than I can say for some apartments."

"Lorelai'll be happy." He said, ignoring his nephew. "She was begging me to let her paint earlier."

"She begged you to let her paint?"

"Lorelai has strange passions."

"Well, she is dating you."

"You really can't help yourself, can you?"

"It's a medical condition."

Luke shoved him a little. "Get in your car."

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Luke was sitting across from Lorelai at one of the tables in the diner. Not something that happened often, but she pouted until he agreed to eat dinner with her after he closed for the night. They had finished eating, and were now watching Jess, who was on the phone with the people he was buying the building from. "This is like the third night in a row that he's talked to them." Lorelai said quietly.

"He wants to get this done as soon as possible."

They turned their attention back to Jess when he hung the phone up and looked at them with a huge smile on his face.

"Oh my God." Lorelai picked up her cell phone and brought it to her ear, pretending to talk to some one. "Hello…what…no…it's not possible." She gasped. "Blizzards in hell? It's unheard of…"

"You're not funny." Jess told her as he sat next to Luke.

"Really?" She asked. "Because I was thinking of going on the road with it." She grinned. "As much as I would love to sit here and talk about me, you need to explain the creepy smile."

"It's all finished. The paperwork."

"So we're sitting here looking at the proud new owner of a big empty building in New Haven?" Lorelai asked.

"Yep."

"Very nice."

Luke nodded. "Yea, congratulations."

A disturbed look spread across his face which made Luke and Lorelai both turn around to see what he was looking at.

"Ah, Jeez." Luke said when he saw Taylor in his store dancing with the cardboard cutout of himself. "I hate that window."

"Well, what if I was over there naked. Then how much would you hate that window?" Lorelai asked him.

"Okay, one, why the hell would you be naked in Taylor's store? And two, I really don't want to talk about this in front of my nephew."

They all looked up when the door opened and Rory walked in. She didn't say a word as she walked over and collapsed onto the last empty chair at the table and dropped her head onto the table.

"So how was Friday Night Dinner?" Lorelai asked with a smirk.

She didn't bother to lift her head as she pointed at Jess. "You're coming with me next week."

"I'm what?"

She sat up and looked at him. "You're coming to Friday Night Dinner next week."

"No I'm not."

"You told her about you and Jess?" Lorelai shook her head. "Bad move, kid."

"I didn't tell her. She just knew."

She gasped. "Maybe she's working with Taylor."

Luke looked over at her, confused. "What?"

"Taylor bugged our house." She said flippantly, before turning back to her daughter. "Did you at least try to get him out of it?"

"Of course I did. I do like him." She sighed. "She wouldn't give up. I didn't know what to do."

"You should have said he was dead or something."

"Are you trying to protect Jess?" Luke asked, smirking at her.

Her jaw dropped. "What? No. I just think subjecting anyone to my mother is cruel. It has nothing to do with Jess."

"He has met Grandma before." Rory told her.

"And I heard that went very well."

"It was a bad day."

"And Emily was there."

"She was fine."

"She hated him the since first time she heard his name."

While the Gilmore girls continued to talk, Jess looked over at Luke. "They're really slacking. She didn't even try to make it sound like I have a choice."

He shrugged. "They can't be in their element all the time."

"I'm sure Lorelai would disagree."

"What?" Lorelai asked, tearing her attention form her daughter.

"Huh?" Luke said.

"I heard my name. I'm assuming it was in a 'let's get Lorelai some coffee' kind of sentence." She nodded.

"Actually it was." Luke agreed. "But I remember the word decaf being in there somewhere."

She gasped. "Blasphemy."

"Yea." Rory narrowed her eyes.

Lorelai stood up and grabbed her purse. "Come on, Rory. We want nothing to do with these mean, mean men."

"Okay." She jumped out of her seat and followed Lorelai out the door, making sure to say a quick goodbye to Jess before she left.

Luke and Jess sat there for a minute before Lorelai ran back inside and kissed Luke. "In case you're not here in the morning I need someone to give me coffee." She told Jess then ran out again.

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Lorelai was sitting on her couch watching some infomercial, wishing Rory hadn't gone to bed, when she heard a knock on the door. She turned the television off and went to open the door. "Jess?"

"Hey."

"It midnight."

"I know. The light was on, so…"

"Oh, well, Rory went to bed an hour ago."

He nodded. "Actually, I came to see you."

She narrowed her eyes. "Really?"

"Yea."

She walked onto the porch and pulled the door shut behind her. "What's up?"

"Luke said you have some paint leftover from the diner?"

"Yea." She said skeptically.

"Then do you wanna help me?"