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.
A/N2: I finally hit the one hundred mark. And it only took me thirteen chapters. That's just a little bit sad. No, I am very happy. Thank you guys for reviewing. And so far only one flame or constructive criticism, hold the constructive. I would like to thank that person too because…well, because it's my author's note and I thank whoever I want.
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Lorelai stood in the doorway to Rory's room for a minute, watching her daughter sleep, before going to the living room and grabbing the phone. She dialed the number at the diner and waited for Luke to pick up.
"Hello?"
"Hey." She said softly.
"Hey. How is she?" He asked; his voice full of concern.
"She's sleeping." She sighed. "Did Jess ever come back?"
"No. I tried to call him earlier but there was no answer. I'm worried."
"I'm sure he's fine. He's probably just cooling off. Maybe he went to the bridge."
"No, I looked. He wasn't there."
"Well, maybe he went to his place."
"Yea, probably."
"He'll come back, Luke. He just needs some time. I mean, he just found out Rory slept with Dean and not from the person who should have told him. They broke up last time because Jess didn't talk to Rory and now she's doing the same thing to him. He needs some time to think."
"It freaks me out a little when you defend Jess."
"Yea. Me too. But he's a good kid, just a little hurt. Wow. That wasn't as painful as it used to be."
"You like him." He accused.
"I…I have to go. Bye Luke."
"Bye Lorelai." He laughed
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Jess was laying on the floor in his apartment trying not to think about Rory, when his cell phone rang. He moved his hand over the floor until he found it and brought it to his ear. "What?"
"Aren't we in a fun mood?"
"What do you want Lorelai?"
"I want you to come downstairs and unlock the door."
He got up and walked to the window. "Why are you here?"
She looked up at him and frowned. "Because you're upset and Rory's upset and I don't want you guys to break up over Dean. Well, I don't want you to break up at all, but especially not over something that ended months ago."
"It's not about her sleeping with Dean. It's about her not telling me she slept with Dean."
"Really?"
"Okay, it's a little about her sleeping with Dean, but she should have told me. Dean stood there and threw it in my face that she slept with him. And I just stood there like an idiot because my own girlfriend won't talk to me about her life."
"Jess. She was scared. It wasn't about not wanting to talk to you. But telling your boyfriend that you slept with your married ex isn't exactly an easy thing to do."
Jess leaned his head against the window. "I know."
"How 'bout you come back to Stars Hollow with me and you can talk to Rory."
"It's one o'clock in the morning."
"I really don't think she'd mind if you woke her up."
"Okay."
"Okay?"
"I'll be down there in a minute."
"Okay." She smiled at him as she hung up her phone.
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Lorelai pulled into her driveway and looked over at Jess. "Alright, good luck. I'll be at Luke's if you need me. So…" She reached into her purse and pulled out a box of condoms.
"Oh God." Jess sighed.
"Just in case." She told him. "But I don't want any details."
"But I was planning a slumber party. I thought we could braid each other's hair and talk about our sex lives." He said sarcastically.
"You want to know how Luke is in bed?"
"Yea, I don't know if I can make it, actually."
"Are you sure? Because I have plenty of-"
"Bye Lorelai." He cut her off before jumping out of the car.
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Jess eased Rory's bedroom door open and smiled a little when he saw her asleep, clutching her pillow. He walked over and sat down on the bed next to her. "Hey." He said, as he ran his hand over her hair. "Rory."
"What?" She mumbled and opened her eyes. "Jess?" She sat up when she saw him.
"Hi."
"Hi. What are you doing here at…" She looked over at her clock. "…one-thirty?"
"I'm sorry for running off like that."
"I'm sorry too. I screwed up. I should have told you about Dean. I'm such a hypocrite. I mean I yelled at you for not talking to me last time we were together and now I'm keeping secrets from you. I'm so sorry."
He leaned forward and kissed her hard then leaned his forehead against hers. "I love you, Rory."
She smiled and put one arm around his neck while the other rested on his chest. "I love you, too."
They sat like that for a minute before Rory pulled back a little. "How long do you plan on staying in this room?"
"Huh?"
She picked up the condoms that were on his lap. "A whole box?"
He smiled and looked down, trying to hide the red that was spreading across his face. "Lorelai gave them to me."
"Oh my God. Are you blushing?"
"No."
She laughed as she slid her hand to the back of his head and pulled his lips down to hers. "You're totally blushing." She said, before kissing him again and pulling him down onto her bed.
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"This was supposed to be mine and Rory's weekend." Lorelai whined as she climbed into Luke's bed. "Why couldn't your nephew be a drama queen next week?"
He rolled over and looked at her. "Hey."
"Sorry. I didn't mean to wake you up. I was just talking to myself"
"What are you doing here?"
"I brought Jess to the house to talk to Rory, and I don't want to walk in on anything, so I came here."
"You found Jess?"
"Yea. About an hour ago. He was at his place."
Luke looked smiled at her. "You drove to New Haven in the middle of the night to find Jess?"
"Yep. And then I drove him to my house, gave him a box of condoms, and told him to go wake up Rory."
"Condoms?"
"Uh-huh."
"You gave him condoms? You gave my nephew, the boy who is dating your daughter, a box of condoms? Why would you do that?"
"Cause Rory doesn't have any in her room?"
"Oh My God. You know what, I need to go to sleep." He rolled over onto his back and closed his eyes.
Lorelai laid her head on his chest then frowned after a minute.
"Oh jeez." Luke groaned.
"Bad mental image?"
"Yep."
"Me too."
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Rory had her sheet wrapped tightly around her body as she lay on top of Jess, tracing her finger lightly over the bruise around his eye. "Does it hurt?"
"Not really." He watched her face as she went back to tracing the bruise, then closed his eyes. "It was a swan."
"What?"
He looked up at her. "The black eye, when I met you grandma. I got beaked by a swan."
Her eyes widened. "Are you serious?"
"You really think I'd make that up?"
She bit her lip to keep herself from smiling, but she couldn't help it as her face was soon buried in his bare chest, laughter shaking her body.
He smiled and kissed the top of her head as he rubbed his hands over her back. "I told you it was embarrassing."
"Oh my God." She laughed with tears in her eyes. "A swan?"
"I was walking by Larson's dock and it came out of nowhere and beaked me in the eye. It could have blinded me."
She kissed him softly. "Oh, poor baby."
"I'm never gonna live this down am I?"
"Definitely not after I tell my mom."
"Remember when it happened and you promised not to mock me or tell anyone else?"
"Well, if you had told me then, I…no I'd still mock you and tell everyone I know."
"You're so nice." He said sarcastically.
"I am very nice. So nice, in fact, that I called my grandmother and told her you couldn't come to Friday night dinner until the Friday after this one."
"You just didn't want me to have a black eye both times I went to your grandparents' house."
"It's for your own good."
He kissed her forehead. "Thank you."
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The next weekend Lorelai stayed in Luke's apartment so Rory and Jess could have some alone time and because she really did not want to listen to her daughter have sex.
"Hey." Luke said to Lorelai when he saw her come downstairs from the apartment.
She smiled as she walked around the counter and kissed him. "Morning."
"Coffee?" He didn't wait for her to reply before pouring her a cup.
"No argument?" She went around to the other side of the counter and sat on a stool.
"That stuff is gonna kill you."
She grinned and took a sip of her coffee. "Better."
"You want breakfast?"
"No, I gotta meet Sookie in fifteen minutes. We're going to say goodbye to Old Man Twickham."
"Is it that time of the year already?"
"Hey, it's been a good two years since the last time he was dying. And I heard Kirk's got souvenirs this year."
"Everyone in this town is insane."
"Yep." She finished her coffee and stood up. "I gotta go. We wanna get there early this time. The last time, it rained and we had to stand in line for two hours, so by the time we got to see him, we were drenched. It wasn't fun."
"As death should be."
"Well, if he's gonna die, he should check the weather first." She leaned across the counter and kissed him. "Alright. I'll see you later. Are you coming to the town meeting tonight?"
"Yea. I'll be there."
"Good. Oh and if you see Rory and Jess, tell them to come say goodbye to Old Man Twickham." She waited for him to say okay then nodded and ran out the door.
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Lorelai, Sookie, Rory, and Jess walked into the diner around six-thirty. Sookie was pushing Davey in his stroller and Lorelai, Rory, and Jess all had armfuls of souvenirs. "Ugh." Rory said to Lorelai as they dropped their piles of bats, balls, foam fingers, hats, and flags on one of the tables then sat down. "I can't believe you bought all this stuff. It's so tacky."
"It is not. This is my Old Man Twickham remembrance collection."
She held up a foam finger and looked pointedly at her mother. "You're horrible."
Luke walked over to the table and looked at all the souvenirs. "What's with all the crap?"
"It's my remembrance collection." Lorelai told him.
"Old Man Twickham died." Sookie explained.
"Really?" Luke asked.
"Yes." Jess said. "He's dead. After you sent us over there, we stood in line for three hours before these two showed up…" He gestured to Lorelai and Sookie. "…because Lorelai decided she wanted to have breakfast at Sookie's. Then they came and got in line with us, where we stood behind Taylor for another five hours, because by ten o'clock, which is when we got there, the line was so long it was on the other side of town."
"Thank God we got to see him, because that almost wasn't worth it." Lorelai said looking at Luke. "He was about to close shop for the day but we got in, told him good-bye and that we'd miss him, we left and then apparently he just closed his eyes. Muttered something about Lori Loughlin and that was that."
"I can't believe he's gone." Rory said sadly. "He's been dying my whole life."
"Hey is it seven yet?" Luke cut of the conversation.
"Uh…" Lorelai looked at her watch. "About twenty of. Why?"
"Well, there's a town meeting tonight, and you know, since you're back from Old Man Twickham's, I thought we could go."
"O-kay." She said unsurely.
"Great. I'll close up and we can head over."
"Luke, we have twenty minutes before it starts."
"Well, the place is dead. Might as well go help set up or something." He explained before going to the kitchen to clean up.
"What was all that?" Sookie said quietly.
"I don't know." Lorelai shook her head. "Maybe Taylor came in while we were buying souvenirs and slipped him something."
"Ooh. Maybe."
"This sucks. I've never even been on time to a town meeting. I have a reputation to uphold."
"I have to bring Davey home before the meeting, so I'll probably be late, if you want to come with me."
"No. I want to find out what's going on with Luke."
"Okay. Well, I'll see you guys later." She stood up and pushed Davey's stroller to the door
"Bye Sook." She waved as Sookie left then quickly turned to Rory and Jess. "We need to stall. No way am I helping Taylor set up."
"What do you want us to do?" Rory asked.
"I don't know…go tell him you had sex with Jess."
"Uh, no."
"Well, go order food or something. Do something. Ooh, ooh. Spill something. Break all the ketchup bottles."
"I am not breaking Luke's ketchup bottles just so you can be late to the town meeting."
"Please?" She begged.
"No!"
"C'mon."
"There is something seriously wrong with you."
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Lorelai sat in Miss Patty's, not really paying attention to Patty and Taylor discussing who in town should take Kirk in for the night. Every few seconds she glanced at Luke, who was listening intently, then looked over at Rory, Jess, and Sookie to see if they had any idea what was going on. After they shrugged, she gave up and crossed her arms across her chest. Taylor had moved on to Old Man Twickham's will, which they had apparently gone over the day before 'in case it needed to be brought up at the town meeting.' She frowned, knowing Taylor had to have some selfish reason for doing this, but her attention was quickly brought back to Luke when he spoke for the first time since they got there.
"What does that mean, to the town?" He asked.
Taylor seemed a little surprised to see Luke, even though he knew he was there. "He left the house to the Historical Society along with his ample collection of valuable memorabilia. His will stipulates that the house is to be converted into a museum."
"A museum?"
"Are you going to interrupt me the whole meeting?"
"I'm just asking."
"A Stars Hollow museum. We will display his personal historical artifacts for a period of two months. After two months, the house is to be disposed of at the discretion of the head of the Historical Society, he meaning me."
"Oh, goody." He mumbled.
"So now you're going to talk under your breath."
"I'm sorry."
Jess leaned forward and stared at his uncle. "What?"
Taylor ignored them and continued. "So, we're going to need strong volunteers to make this dream a reality. Now, anyone with appropriate skills, let's see a show of hands."
Jess was still staring at Luke, when he saw him, along with several others, raise their hands. He mumbled a few obscenities then sat back and raised his hand.
"Uh, you're really going to have to fill me in on the gag, here." Lorelai looked between the two of them.
Rory's jaw dropped and she looked at her mother. "What's happening?"
Taylor glared at Luke and Jess. "Don't come to these things just to mock our business."
"I'm not mocking anything, I'm volunteering." Luke said.
Jess nodded. "Yea."
Taylor narrowed his eyes. "Patty, take down the names of the legitimate volunteers, please. Now, whoever's actually going to show up, our day starts at seven sharp. To the rest, shame on you. Now, onto item number three. The budgetary concerns about the new snowplow."
Lorelai frowned at Luke. "I'm sorry; does Taylor have compromising pictures of you or something?"
"It's no joke."
"Why on earth are you volunteering for Taylor?"
"Well, um–"
"Luke."
"How well did you know Old Man Twickham?"
"Somewhat."
"Well, I knew him all my life. He was like another dad, in a way."
"Oh. Nice."
"And I didn't show up to say good-bye, and I'm feeling a little guilty about it, you know. He's a good guy. I just want to do right by him."
She smiled. "Well. You are a terrific fellow, Luke Danes."
He was about to reply, but Jess grabbed his arm and started pulling him towards the door. "Hey."
Once they were outside, Jess let him go and pointed back at the door. "What the hell was that? Why are we volunteering for Taylor?"
"Hey, I didn't make you volunteer."
"No, I did that so I could find out what the hell you're on."
"I didn't say goodbye. I feel guilty. So I'm helping out."
"Why are we doing this?"
"Jess."
"Why?"
"Because I want the house. You got your…building and I want this house."
"Okay."
"You know we have to go back in there."
"No."
"You do realize we're trying to get on Taylor's good side, right? And we can't do that if we leave before he brings up the whole window thing."
He sighed. "Fine. Let's go."