AN: Sorry it's been so long. This was originally much longer but I decided to break it up into two chapters. Thanks again to my roomie for editing. Oh and any One Tree Hill fans out there, look for the OTH reference.

Chapter 25

Rory was putting the finishing touches on her makeup when she heard a knock at the door. Since Amber was in the bathroom trying on her third outfit for the night, Rory went to answer the door, assuming it was Jess. "Oh hi Chris, I thought you were Jess." She said surprised.

"Oh, yeah he's right behind me actually, he took the elevator, you know the leg and all, but I decided to take the stairs." Chris replied appearing nervous. Rory had to stop herself from laughing; it was cute how nervous he was.

"Ok, well Amber is just finishing getting ready; I'll go check on her. When Jess gets here just let him in and tell him I'll be right out."

"Yeah, oh, ok." Chris said still incredibly nervous. Rory smiled to herself and then knocked lightly on the bathroom door.

"Amber it's me, I need to grab my lipstick." Rory said as the door opened and Amber pulled her inside.

"Is he out there?" She asked in a panic.

"Yes and he's so nervous, it's adorable."

"That is cute. But Rory look at me, do I look ok? I've changed my outfit six times and ended up in the very first thing I tried on." She said reminding Rory of the time Paris went on a date with Jamie in DC.

Rory chuckled, "Amber you look great. And you guys have already basically gone out and talked, don't be so nervous."

"Ok I guess you're right. You look cute by the way, good thing Jess and Chris are friends or I wouldn't stand a chance." Amber joked, still nervous.

"Whatever, you've got that hot southern belle thing going for you. Now come on, I'm sure Chris is getting more nervous as he sits out there." Rory said rolling her eyes at her friend. It really was cute how nervous they both were.

The girls finally came out of the bathroom to find both guys sitting on the bed, Jess appearing to calm down Chris. "Oh look, the girls are ready." Jess said looking relieved. He walked over to Rory and gave her a kiss. "Thanks for relieving me," he whispered, "Chris is driving me crazy. Suddenly he's all shy and nervous."

Rory just rolled her eyes as Chris and Amber looked at each other.

"Well," Chris started, "Shall we? I found this really cool eclectic Mongolian food restaurant that I thought you'd like."

Amber smiled, "Sounds great. Bye Jess, bye Rory; have a good night."

They left and Rory started laughing. "Our friends are crazy. I haven't seen anyone that nervous about a date since Paris had that date with Jamie."

"Oh man, I can only imagine a frantic Paris. You know she may be the only person in the world who truly frightens me, well besides Mrs. Kim, that lady is downright scary."

"You'll get no argument there, even my mom is scared of Mrs. Kim. So, you ready for dinner? Where are we going?"

"Well, we have two options. If you want something more fancy, we can go to this great little Italian restaurant that's just down the street a little ways. Or, I was thinking we could go downtown and just walk around and look at some the local scenery, see the Liberty Bell and the stairs from Rocky and eat Philly cheese steaks."

"Ooh, option two, I've never had an authentic Philly cheese steak! Plus I really want to see the Rocky stairs!"

"I thought you'd pick option two. You Gilmores and your food and movies, it seemed like a win-win."

"You know me so well." She said then stopped as a thought occurred to her. "What about your leg? Can you walk around a lot?"

"We'll take a cab to get there and there are some places to sit if I get tired. Plus, I haven't been on my leg much today so I should be fine; I'm hoping to get this thing off soon anyway, this will be a good test for it."

"Ok, good, I'm excited! Let me just put on some better shoes and grab my coat and we can leave."

Rory and Jess headed downtown and Rory was thoroughly excited. "These cheese steaks are great! I can't believe how much better they are here than anywhere else, it's like buying a hot dog in New York City."

"Well, I'm glad you like it," Jess said laughing at how excited she could get over food.

"My mom is going to be so jealous, one of these days I'll have to bring her here. Oh and she can bring Luke and by then your leg will be healed so we can all do the Rocky run on the stairs!"

"Oh jeez. I thought showing them to you tonight would be enough and then I wouldn't have to run up them."

"Well you thought wrong. Speaking of, can we go there now?"

He agreed and went to show her the famous steps. She was so excited and kept going on about how she had to bring Lorelai here at some point. Jess smiled at how much the little things in life excited her. He thought back to the time he visited her when she lived with her grandparents and she had a lot of other priorities in her life besides enjoying the simple things. He was glad she was back to normal. On their way back they passed a book store. "Oh Jess can we please go in? Other than Truncheon I haven't been to a small local bookstore in weeks. And Truncheon doesn't really count because it's a publishing house that happens to sell some of the books it publishes."

"Yeah we can go in. I've been wanting to look for a copy of To Kill a Mockingbird anyway."

"You don't have To Kill a Mockingbird?" Rory asked shocked.

"I did but Chris lent it to some girl he was seeing, without asking I might add, and then when it didn't work out she refused to see him again so I didn't get it back. She didn't even read the thing I don't think."

"Well at least Amber won't steal your books." Rory smirked. They walked into the bookstore. Jess went on his search for Harper's classic tale while Rory walked around looking at the staff recommendations. She found some old classics like The Tell Tale Heart and Howl, (that one made her smile) as well as some more current popular books like the sixth Harry Potter book, with a sign announcing the upcoming release date of the seventh and last book in the popular series. She also found a couple of things she had never heard of like a book called An Unkindness of Ravens by someone named Lucas Scott. It was released by a small press but looked interesting. She decided to buy it and when she picked it up, noticed the book sitting next to it. "Jess, come here," She said waving him over. He hobbled over, holding a copy of To Kill a Mockingbird. "Look what I found in the staff recommendations!" She said excitedly shoving the book towards him. He looked at the book and groaned when he realized it was The Subsect.

"Really? The staff must not read much." He said slightly embarrassed.

"Oh whatever, we are not having this conversation again. Hey do you think if you tell them it's your book we'll get a discount or something?"

"Rory, I am not telling them, you know I hate all the hype, I just write because it's what makes me happy and I do the few book signings and media stunts because it gives me a paycheck that I need to pay bills. I don't like making a big deal out of it; I still don't understand why people even like it."

"Ok fine, have it your way. But I just think you need to be proud of your work."

"Yeah, yeah I know. Now are you ready to go or do you want look around some more?"

"No, I'm ready. I found a new book, some independent thing, thought I'd give it a read."

"Wow, in a bookstore and only getting one book, I'm impressed."

"Well, I was going to get the other independent book in the section, but I figured I don't need four copies and if I did, I could get a better deal anyway, Matt seems to like me." She joked. They went up to the counter and Jess grabbed Rory's book from her. "We'd like these please." He told the young man at the cash register. Rory started to protest but Jess just smirked and handed his credit card to the man. He looked at the card and suddenly smiled very big.

"Mr. Mariano, nice to meet you, did you find everything you were looking for today?"

"Um, yes, thank you." Jess said realizing that he must have recognized his name on the card and hoping he didn't make a fuss.

"Good, well here you are, I've given you our standard 15% discount for those that do business in our store, please come visit us again soon."

They left the store and Rory beamed at Jess. "You didn't have to buy my book you know."

"I know but I wanted to."

"Well I guess it paid off since you got a discount, 'Mr. Hot Shot Writer'." She said playfully.

"Yeah, I'm just glad he handled it professionally. That kind of treatment I can handle I guess."

Rory just shook her head. "One of these days I'm going to convince you to be proud of yourself."

They walked around a little more until Jess's leg started to hurt. "We should head back, your leg can't take much more."

"I'm fine, I want to spend as much time with you as possible."

"Oh, what a softie. But seriously, we should get back; we can hang out there some."

They got a cab and headed back to Truncheon and just enjoyed each other's company.

"So, how does it feel now that Obama has officially won the nomination?"

"Kind of strange actually. It was really exciting getting to report on such a crazy primary, but it's just as exciting now that he's in full swing. I'm glad I get to keep reporting and it's nice to have a definite time frame now you know?"

"Meaning?" Jess asked.

"Well when we weren't sure if he would win the nomination or not, I wasn't sure how long I'd have a job. I could be unemployed in a few days, a few weeks, or not until November. It's hard to plan for that. But now, I know it will be November because the election will be over. Whether he wins or not, I'll be done reporting on the campaign."

"Ahh, and since you are the ultimate planner, it makes you feel better that you can plan far enough in advance right?"

"Something like that. Though the uncertain can be fun too."

"You are more daring than I remember. So where to next?"

"Boston actually."

"Boston? So are you going to visit Paris then?"

"Yeah she and Doyle have an apartment there, we're all going to meet for dinner one night. And then my dad moved back there after he and my mom split up so I'll try to see him and Gigi too."

"It is weird now that he and your Mom aren't married?"

"Honestly? It was weird when they were married. My entire life my parents weren't together and every time they tried, something happened that derailed it. So I just got used to the fact that they weren't going to be together. Then when they were, it was kind of strange. My dad being around all the time, living at our house, Gigi using my bedroom, it was weird. Now things are a little more like they always were. Plus she's so much happier with Luke."

"Makes sense I guess." They continued talking breaking every so often to kiss. A couple hours later the bell on the door dinged and they both looked up to see Amber and Chris walking in.

"Hey guys. Hope we aren't interrupting, Chris was just going to get me a book, then I was going to head back to the hotel." Amber said to the couple.

"It's fine," Rory said looking at her watch. "Oh man, I didn't realize the time, we leave early in the morning; I should probably leave too." She said sadly to Jess. She hated the goodbye part of their visits. They said a tearful goodbye while Chris got the book for Amber. After the two couples finally said their last goodbyes Amber and Rory started the walk back to the hotel. "So what book did you get?" Rory asked Amber on the way home.

"The Subsect, I've read Downfall but never got a chance to read his first one."

"You know I have like three copies of that right?"

"Yeah, but I didn't want to take one of yours. Plus, I didn't want Chris taking me back to the hotel. I knew if we went back I would be temped to invite him in, and I'm still not ready for that so this was a good excuse for me to drop him off rather than the other way around."

"Ahh makes sense. So I take it the date went well?"

"It did. Once we both stopped being so nervous it was really nice. The Mongolian restaurant was great and then we went to this music store that sold original records and I even found a signed copy of Joshua Tree on vinyl!"

"My mom would be so jealous. I'm glad you had a good time."

The girls went to bed and got up early the next morning to get on the bus. It was weird that this bus was almost like their home the past few months. They arrived in Boston a few hours later. Rory realized that one thing she would not miss about traveling was the bus rides. They were too long and cramped and the seats were uncomfortable. After getting to the hotel and going to the press conference, Amber and Rory got ready to meet Paris and Doyle at a local restaurant. Rory tried to prepare Amber for meeting the strange couple, but knew that one didn't really understand Paris until they met her; she just hoped they all got along alright.

"Paris, Doyle, nice to see you guys again!" Rory said to the couple as she and Amber found the table. "This is my friend on the campaign, Amber. Amber this is my old college roommate Paris and her boyfriend Doyle."

"Nice to meet you both. So you all went to Yale together?"

"Yes we all worked on the Yale Daily News together. Actually we all took a turn being editor, I'd like to think I helped make these two part of who they are today." Doyle said in typical Doyle fashion.

"Yes because our hard work had nothing to do with it at all." Paris shot back. Rory just rolled her eyes at the typical Paris-Doyle fight.

"So Paris, how's school going?" Rory asked hoping to get the conversation back on track.

"It's going well, it's weird not having you to compete with, but I've found some good replacements."

"That's good. And what about you Doyle? How's your work with the local paper?"

"It's going well. Actually, I had a favor to ask of you. Your friend Jess that I met at that dinner at your grandparents, the writer, do you talk to him quite a bit?"

"Yeah, we're dating now, so I'd say we talk quite often why?"

"I'm looking for some new human interest art pieces and thought I might do a review on his latest book since I did the first one and thought I might get an interview with the guy. Interviewing inspiring artists is really big right now. I'm hoping to send some of my stuff to the Boston Globe and thought this would make a good piece. Do you think he'd do it?"

"Wow, well, I really don't know Doyle, you'd have to ask him yourself; I try not to interfere in his work. But I can give you his email address and you can ask him yourself if you'd like."

"Great. Thanks Rory. So Babe, should we tell them the other news?" He asked Paris.

"Well, I guess now is as good a time as any." Paris answered him.

Amber just looked bewildered, still trying to take in these very interesting people while Rory asked "News? What's going on?"

"Doyle asked me to marry him!" Paris said excitedly.

"And she said yes!" Doyle said immediately.

"Really? Congratulations both of you." Rory said surprised but still genuinely happy for them.

"Yeah, I know, me Paris Geller, getting married. But I made him swear that if I make more money than him he won't resent me. And if we ever have kids I'm not giving up my career to raise them."

"Well, that's good, I'm glad you've come to an agreement." Rory said knowing this would be the only way Paris would ever agree to be married. "So have you set a date yet?"

"Actually we wanted to talk to you about that. Now, you know I don't really have very many friends. So I was wondering if you'd be my maid of honor? We're thinking getting married in January, you know after Christmas but before the new term would start. So what do you say, will you do it?"

"Of course Paris. And by then I'll be done with the campaign so it's perfect timing."

"Great. Ok, so enough about us," Paris said taking a drink of her wine. "Amber what exactly do you do on the campaign, are you a reporter too?"

"Oh, well, sort of. I work for the same online publication as Rory, but I do a podcast, so it's not as formal and it's all talk instead of written." Amber answered, a little thrown off guard by the question.

"Fascinating, so did you study journalism in school then?" Paris asked in a sharp tone, leaning in on her elbows slightly, like she was interviewing her.

"No, I got a communications degree from Stanford actually."

They continued their conversation through dinner and then the group split up, Rory and Amber needing to get back to the hotel to prepare for the next day and Paris needing to go back home to study. Rory promised to keep in touch and told Paris to let her know when she needed help with the wedding.

Rory and Amber got back to the hotel and started getting ready for bed. "Whew, I'm exhausted. Rory, your friends are tiring."

"Yeah, sorry about that, Paris and Doyle can be a little overwhelming. They mean well, but they can be tough to take."

"Is everything a competition for Paris? I mean I felt like I was being interviewed and sized up the entire evening."

"Yeah, Paris is intense. She doesn't exactly know how to separate her academic competiveness from everyday life."

The girls finished up their conversation and then headed to bed. Rory was thinking about Paris and Doyle and the fact that they were getting married. It was strange; a year ago marriage seemed like such a long time off for her and her friends, well other than Lane. When Logan asked her to marry him, all she could think about was the things she would be missing out on. She knew Paris had similar fears, they had conversations about it. But now, she couldn't help thinking that marriage no longer seemed like the end of her life as she knew it- the giving up of possible opportunities. No, lately marriage didn't seem like the end but rather a beginning. And she couldn't help but hope that beginning would be with the brooding author in Philadelphia.

AN: And there you have it! Hope you liked it, let me know what you think! Hopefully next chapter won't be such a long wait but no promises.