You know what today is? Well I personally think it's a nice day for a white wedding. But that's just me. Lorelai's getting her June 3rd and Lane's almost throwing up with nerves. Allow me to put the poor girls out of their misery with Wedding Week!

Song, you say? Billy Idol seems appropriate, no?

Nice Day (pt. 1)

The town of Stars Hollow was known for its eccentricity. Other towns mocked its festivals and rituals, but secretly wished they had the guts to start a knitting marathon. There'd been dancing and pie eating, but never something as extravagant as this. Taylor had organised teams of people to cover the town with as much lace, flowers and ribbons as humanly possible. Kirk had been conducting the high school marching band terribly all week. Babette and Miss Patty were brewing unknown alcoholic concoctions to 'test' which ended up with them both passed out in front of Luke's. Brian and Gil had spent the better part of the weekend setting up sound equipment and arguing over song choices. Gypsy was personally checking the expensive-looking rental cars that were staying with her for most of the week. Now it was Monday morning and Stars Hollow's first (and probably last) Wedding Week had begun.

"Welcome to the dollhouse." Paris said as her and Doyle drove through the centre of town. The place looked like Vera Wang had thrown up on it and she was a little unnerved by the commitment everyone had given. Commitment that meant they should probably be committed. Still, she saw that it was kind of nice that the town cared enough to throw the biggest party ever for two of their couples. "Has Rory sent you the itinerary yet?"

Doyle checked his phone and nodded. "Looks like tonight is bachelor/bachelorette night, tomorrow is a spa day and Wednesday is Lane and Zack's wedding. Thursday is Luke and Lorelai's rehearsal dinner in Hartford so we're probably not invited, Friday has all the men going to a 'yet to be determined sporting event'… wow, it really says that. Saturday is the main event, Luke and Lorelai. This thing seriously describes it as 'the main event'; I'm not making any of this up. Sunday features both couples leaving for their honeymoons as everyone else nurses a massive hangover. I'm not the only one who thinks this is completely insane, right?"

"This place is the inmates running the asylum, don't be surprised by anything."

"Got it. Do we really have to stay the whole week?"

"Yes! We're going to every single sock hop and cow tipping party this place throws at us!"

"You're making me go alone to a bachelor party with complete strangers."

"You better make sure you get a lap dance too. We're getting the full wedding experience here."

Meanwhile a similar conversation was being held in another car coming from Stamford.

"I don't see why I have to go."

"You're Luke's best man, Jess."

"But I'm also a bridesmaid, bride's guy, bridesdude or whatever for Lane."

"So you want to come with us girls?"

"I think the two cancel each other and I should just stay home."

"No! You're going to go to the strip club and shove dollars down the nice lady's clothes."

"Or alternatively we should both stay at the diner apartment and I could pay you to take your clothes off." Jess said with a smirk, widening to a smile when he saw the ever predictable blush emerge. "You made me get all these dollar bills so I might as well just stick them down your bra."

"You're ridiculous."

"I'm amusing. You're telling me you really want to go to whatever Babette and Miss Patty planned?"

"They seemed really eager to help! Besides I don't think my mom would be too pleased if I blew her off to-"

"I've got a really dirty ending to that sentence."

"-go make out with my future cousin!" She finished as she ignored him.

"Oh god, don't say that!"

"What, it's true! In a week we're going to be cousins!"

"Do you hear that?"

"The banjos?"

"I think they're getting closer."

Rory shook her head and gasped. She'd been working the entire weekend and had yet to see the town's decorations that her mother ranted over the phone about. Of course the rant was cut short when Jess sneezed and Lorelai asked who she was with. After convincing her mother that Paris did have a really masculine sneeze but didn't like to talk about it, Rory started to feel like this whole hidden relationship was getting a bit tiresome. They were going to two weddings in a week, which in Rory's mind meant twice the amount of women hitting on Jess. Jess was thinking something similar, but his visions featured men suited up personally by Rory's grandmother, invited purely to vie for the debutante's affections. He wouldn't be surprised if Emily got something like that by Lorelai without the bride noticing. Rory, who by that point was gaping at the magnitudes of lace covering the gazebo, noticed him looking thoughtful.

"Penny for your thoughts, Mariano?" She asked with a smile that would probably melt butter.

"Just wondering who Emily Gilmore's bringing for your date."

"What? Grandma wouldn't... Do you think it's too late to stop her?"

"There's a good chance she lined this guy up the day you dumped the asshat."

Rory laughed, because it sounded like a very Emily Gilmore thing to do. Not that she ever actually told her that she broke up with Logan. Rory had let Lorelai take the fall for her on that occasion, while Rory sat in her bedroom eating copious amounts of post-breakup ice cream. That was a depressing week full of Boxing Day shoe sales and wallowing over her first post-high school relationship while at the same time wondering what that moment in the alley with Jess meant. The fact that she had to specify which alley she was talking about to herself (the one near the bar or the one near Luke's, both of which featured strange 'moments' between the two) proved that there was unfinished business. Now, months later, she realised how right she was. It just happened to turn out that the 'unfinished business' was having a relationship that was actually healthy and happy for a change. That was new to them.

"Thinking hard there, Gilmore?" Jess asked as they pulled up to her house, mirroring her question from before.

"Just thinking about how insane it is that we're actually in a normal, healthy relationship." Jess smirked at this admission and leant in to kiss her softly.

"Apart from acknowledging said healthy relationship to people outside this car." He muttered against her lips.

"Not true. Lane knows, Paris knows. Matt and Chris know."

"Which would be fantastic if we needed people to witness our elopement." Jess said as he kissed her quickly several times. "But I'm starting to feel like you're ashamed of me."

Rory pulled back from him, shock and hurt shown on her features.

"That's not it at all! How could you even think that?"

"Because it's damn obvious that you think no one would approve of your dating choice!" His defence mechanisms were kicking in, something he'd been training to avoid the last few years. But he was angry, hurt and above all confused. He wanted to be screaming this from the rooftops, in a manner of speaking. Not hiding down dark alleys and behind closed doors.

"I don't care what anyone else thinks!" She said, her voice faltering a little. The second it slipped out she knew he wouldn't believe it.

"Bullshit! I'm not some rich douchebag that you can show off to your grandparents. I won't sit and watch movies with you and your mother like some obedient dog!" Jess barked, the familiar feeling of shame and vindication seeping in. To anyone else those emotions wouldn't work together. Jess Mariano had been dealing with them since he was ten and found out his mother had sold his books to buy gas for her boyfriend's car. The very same gas that drove him far from New York as he left Jess to pick up the pieces of a classic Liz Danes breakup.

"Do you think if I wanted that I'd be here right now?" Rory shouted back, coming entirely too close to tears. This conversation had started with kissing, how did it get so out of control?

"I don't know what I think right now." He answered honestly. What he really needed was to walk somewhere, smoke a lot and think things through. He didn't need this yelling.

"Well don't talk to me until you do!" Rory said finally, getting out of the car and slamming the door shut. She wasn't surprised when Jess sped off straight away. Everything else was taking her by complete surprise. She honestly didn't know why she was keeping their relationship a secret, but she knew for sure it wasn't because she was ashamed of him. He wasn't the boy who turned up for Friday Night Dinner with a black eye any more. Or at least she thought he wasn't, though his latest outburst said otherwise. She liked to think of him as an adult, a self-published author who was gaining notability in the literary world. Jess was everything she wanted in a man, everything he had the potential to be when he stepped off the bus in Stars Hollow as a scruffy seventeen year old with a massive chip on his shoulder.

Maybe she was wrong.

Jess slammed the door of the diner apartment and slumped onto the double bed that once belonged to Luke. He glanced at the other side of the room and noticed how ungirly it was. He'd been told April spent time here, though you couldn't tell looking at his former sleeping area. He supposed she spent more time at Lorelai's. Groaning into the pillow, he was seriously regretting being the designated driver. That was what happened when the mini bus hired for the wedding was a stick, and the only other person who could drive it was Luke. Or Lane. Probably Gypsy too. But they were all too busy actually getting drunk to drive.

It hadn't been the worst night, all things considered. He'd brought a good book at sat with Luke watching football on a TV near the bar at the strip club TJ found. They'd been joined eventually by Doyle, who seemed almost as neurotic as Paris as he muttered about laps and glitter. Jackson had run home early to relieve the babysitter (Bryan, who was allergic to beer) and Zack had spent an hour sitting in the corner freaking out about Mrs Kim being his mother-in-law. Jess had been pretty oblivious to everything though; he'd been too busy trying to figure out how the hell he had managed to screw things up with Rory yet again.

His musings of the night were interrupted by a bang, followed by a shriek of laughter. Someone was coming up the stairs clumsily, making more noise than Jess thought possible. Eventually the door to the apartment sprung open and there stood Rory, her shoes in her hand and completely drunk. On any other night Jess would've laughed, teased her and put her to bed. But they were fighting, and he wanted to know why her drunken subconscious wanted to be here.

"You look like hell." He said finally, which put a huge smile on her face.

"I feel pretty great. Did you know they made bubble gum flavoured vodka? Why aren't you drunk?" She slurred quickly, making it hard to hear. Jess was an expert at speaking Gilmore, but this was a struggle for him.

"Designated driver."

"Boo! This makes this whole drunken apology thing a lot harder." She sat down at the table in the middle of the room and started rubbing her feet.

"So you're here to apologise?" Jess was confused. Wasn't he the jerk in the situation? Why was she sorry?

"Yep! I had a great speech planned and everything, but that was before the dancers did a rousing rendition of 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' and Lane needed cocktails to wipe the abomination from her mind."

"Dancers?"

"We went to a burlesque club! It was freaking awesome! The costumes, and… something else."

"Okay."

"Monosyllabic Jess?"

"Drunk Rory."

"We'll be here all week, ladies and gentlemen."

"So what's so important you've barged in here at two in the morning?" Jess was tired, and altogether too sober and annoyed for this conversation. Rory pouted a little.

"I wanted to say sorry. I was thinking and… It's not because I'm ashamed of you. Seriously, look at you. You're like a fantasy. A sexy writer with a leather jacket. My mom loves you, Luke obviously loves you, and that's the only people who matter. But… when it's a secret it's safe. There's no outside expectation or, um… what's the thing I wanted to say?"

"I have no idea."

"We work really well when no one's judging us. But I'm really sick of it! Lane told her mom that she's marrying the non-religious lead singer of the devil's music, Paris and Doyle get to be all cute. I want to be all cute! I want my mom to tease me because I get all dreamy-eyed when you walk into a room. That's what I want."

"Okay then."

"Okay? That's it? You were all shouty and now it's just 'okay'?"

"Yep. For one thing you're completely hammered and probably won't remember this conversation in the morning. But you've made your point and I can see why you think like that. Besides, I was an absolute dick this morning."

"No arguments here."

"So… can we not be fighting now?" Jess asked and watched as Rory's face turned from drunken confusion to a wide, happy smile. He barely had time to react when she lunged at him and kissed him firmly. He managed to wrap his arms around her and reciprocate before she was tugging him back towards the bed in a drunken flurry. Jess just shook his head and pushed her into the bed and draped the covers over her.

"Jess?" Rory asked, confused as to why she was still wearing clothes.

"Go to sleep. I'll make you my secret hangover cure in the morning."

"Aspirin and coffee is hardly a secret." Rory protested, her eyes already heavy as she felt Jess lay next to her.

"If you throw up you're never allowed to come near me drunk again." He whispered into her hair, making her giggle sleepily.

Lorelai, after waking up on her couch wearing a feather boa, glitter and nothing else, realised that she may have had a teensy bit too much to drink. Rory's door was still closed so she decided to be a loving mother and let her daughter sleep the alcohol off a bit longer and go meet all the girls at Luke's without her. It was Spa Day, the one thing scientifically proven to rid them all of the toxins they had all readily ingested the night before. They were all taking the mini bus to a place an hour or so away that had been entirely paid for by Emily Gilmore. They'd butted heads over it, but after Emily almost tearfully admitted that she just wanted to be a part of her daughter's wedding Lorelai relented. They were leaving at nine o'clock sharp, and Lorelai planned to give her mother as many Bloody Marys as possibly before they took off.

Showered, dressed and comfortable, Lorelai was once again the life of the party as people entered the diner ready for the escapades. Miss Patty had made drinks that they were all sneaking under the watchful eye of Luke. April had arrived and Emily was starting to laugh a little loudly, so Lorelai decided it was time to pile in the bus and go pick up her daughter. But first she needed their driver, who was no doubt reading upstairs. Without a second thought she practically sprinted up there and tore open the door. Clearly her experiences hadn't taught her to knock. Otherwise her retinas would not have imprinted the image of her daughter dressed in only a sheet swapping spit with a fully-dressed Jess Mariano.

"Oh! Um, we're ready downstairs!" Lorelai proclaimed before getting the hell out of there. Her eyes hadn't deceived her. She wondered if this was just a drunken one night thing, or if they'd been seeing each other for a while. It would certainly explain why Rory was being so secretive about why she checked 'plus one' on the wedding invitation despite being single. Her heart hammering, she decided it was time to face the fact that she was once again going to have to get used to the idea of Rory and Jess, The Couple.

Rory meanwhile was a deer caught in the headlights. Her mother caught her kissing Jess and she wasn't even wearing pants! Rushing to get dressed (accidentally leaving her stuff in Jess' car now seemed like a god send) she decided that this it. They were officially coming out of the dating closet.

"Looks like we're publicly dating now." She said resolutely, and despite the situation Jess smiled. Walking downstairs hand in hand they lifted the curtain to meet their demise. Fortunately for them Emily was holding court, showing everyone their customised Spa Day bathrobes that read 'Wedding Week 2006' on the back.

"I know they're a little tacky, but how adorable are they?" She said loudly, and Rory wondered how much alcohol her mother had fed her already. Emily was still smiling when her eyes landed on Rory and Jess. "Rory! You didn't tell me you had a boyfriend! He's cute. Isn't he cute, Lorelai?" Rory nearly choked on laughter and Jess' look of shock. Former black eyes and rudeness didn't really matter when Bloody Marys were involved.

"As a button, mother." Lorelai replied as she tried to hide her amusement. Her mother getting drunk two days in a row was a perfect example of why mass weddings worked. The tension of their relationship dissolved by an improperly drunk Emily Gilmore, Rory and Jess both looked forward to the week in their own ways.

Part one of Wedding Week complete! This was originally only going to be a two-parter, but I've got too many ideas so three parts it is! Next up we have Lane and Zack's actual wedding, and an interesting surprise for Jess. Maybe I'll even write some Taylor in.

But you know what would be super cool? Reviews. WE BROKE 100 REVIEWS I'M SO EXCITED AND I JUST CAN'T HIDE IT! You guys make me so, so, so happy to write and hear from you. All the love in the world, my pretties.