A/N: Now we've had such a lovely Luke & Jess moment, how about throwing the diner guys into the mix for Friday Night Dinner? And even better, let's invite Paris too! ;)
(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)
Chapter 28
"Well, it certainly is nice to have such a full table tonight," said Richard, smiling at the assembled guests for Friday Night Dinner.
"I, for one, am flattered to have been asked along," Paris told him genuinely. "Richard, Emily, your extending this invitation to me was beyond the call of usual society manners. I appreciate that effort you've made," she told them, before digging right into her dinner.
Jess looked across the table at Rory and tried his best not to smirk, though it was clear he was finding it difficult. Lorelai was staring at Emily, openly grinning at the landed fish expression on her mother's face and enjoying it way too much. Luke was just eating and hoping nobody asked him anything or made any comment he was required to have an opinion on.
"I'm sure you're quite welcome, Paris," said Emily after a while. "And thank you," she added, looking as if she wasn't quite sure if she was supposed to be grateful or insulted.
When Lorelai opened her mouth to make some comment about it, Luke knocked her elbow with his own and shot her a warning look the moment he had her attention. This dinner was not fun for him, she knew, and she had promised not to make it any more painful than it needed to be. With a heaving sigh, she started to eat too, letting her clever comments remain unsaid.
"I suppose you young people are quite looking forward to the end of your high school careers," said Richard then. "From what I hear from Hanlin, the race for valedictorian is a close call."
"Being valedictorian isn't everything," said Rory, glancing up in time to see Paris roll her eyes.
"Says the one person that might actually beat me to the title."
"I'm sure your parents are extremely proud of you, Paris," said Emily then. "Valedictorian or not, just to be in that top percentage is quite the achievement you know."
"I don't deny that I'll be happy enough in just graduating from a school like Chilton with the GPA I currently have," said Paris definitely. "But unfortunately, my family really pay very little attention to my achievements. I wasn't afforded the firm bedrock of an upbringing, with the solid pillars of grandparents that the two of you clearly are to Rory."
"What a wonderful description, Paris," said Richard with a smile. "I thank you for it. I rather like the idea of being a pillar, holding up our Rory in all her endeavours."
"You've definitely made a big difference." Rory nodded. "Everybody at this table has made a difference. I wouldn't have got this far without any one of you."
She was speaking of everyone but she was smiling at her mom and Jess most of all. Rory meant every word. She really did believe everyone here had such a positive influence on her, and though she tried not to make a big deal, she was pretty sure she would get valedictorian. Paris' scores had dropped just a little of late. Somewhere between dating Jamie, not getting into Harvard, and leraning not to be quite such a school-focused freak under her brother's tutelage, Paris has slipped just a little bit and Rory had gone out in front with the higher GPA. It certainly wasn't a bad feeling.
Conversation took several turns after that, covering topics as diverse as the weather, Richard's work, Luke's diner, and everybody's summer plans. Once again, Rory and Lorelai's trip to Europe was a bone of contention, but it didn't take long for Paris to change the subject and rant for a good twenty minutes about the pitiful lack of good housekeeping staff these days.
"Geez, when will it ever end?" Jess muttered to Rory, who tried not to laugh.
"I'm not deaf, Mariano. I can hear you," Paris told him, but at least it stopped her talking.
"Well, how about now everybody hears me?" said Lorelai, literally raising her hand. "I, er... Well, I kind of have an announcement, and a gift, kind of," she said, realising at the last how inarticulate that was. "Um, okay," she ended lamely, moving from her seat to hover near her mother. "This is for you."
Emily looked confused by the non-descript envelope being pushed into her hand but nevertheless accepted it with thanks and opened it up. Rory had a death grip on Jess' hand by now, and Lorelai was looking at Luke for a confidence-boosting smile, which he dutifully provided.
"Now, before you say anything," Lorelai hurriedly said when she saw her mother's eyes narrow, "I want to explain. This money is to pay you back for Rory's schooling. I promised you would get the money back for Chilton and here it is but - and this is a really big and important but, we're talking JLo here, or we would be if you had a clue who that was," said Lorelai, shaking her head. "Okay, anyway, just because I'm paying you back does not meant that Friday Night Dinners are over," she told her mom and dad both. "I know the original deal was that for as long as I owed you guys money then we had to come to dinner, but it's different now, isn't it?"
"Is it?" asked Emily, her expression unreadable.
"Mom, you know it is," said Lorelai desperately.
"We love to come see you, Grandma," added Rory. "Both of you, you know that."
"Yes, I'm sure we do," said Richard, finding a smile. "I must admit it would be quite strange if your weekly visits were to cease."
"I don't want that to happen, Dad," Lorelai insisted. "And yeah, there are Fridays when maybe driving to Hartford isn't the most convenient thing. Some weeks maybe a different night would be good, or there could be the occasional week when we don't come over, but I don't... I don't want things to be like they were before. Only seeing you guys at Christmas or whatever. This is better, isn't it?"
Everybody was waiting for Emily's reaction. It could be anything, as Lorelai knew better than most. Maybe she would be happy to have her money back, but more likely she would be mad at having her power taken away. There could be a fall out here and it may not be pretty. Honestly, it was part of the reason why she and Rory hadn't minded too much when Luke and Jess were invited to dinner, and then Paris too. In front of such company, Emily was less likely to create a scene, at least, Lorelai hoped so.
"Very well," she said eventually. "I'm sure there can be some flexibility on dinners in the circumstances. I'm sure I should never want to inconvenience anyone."
Jess bit back a smirk and Rory knew her mom would be laughing or even arguing that point if she wasn't so relieved.
"Thanks, Mom," she said instead, reaching a tentative hand out to take her mother's own. "For everything, thank you."
The two women shared a smile and Rory heaved a sigh of relief, leaning into Jess whose hand she still had a tight hold on. She really, really did not want anyone to fall out, over money or otherwise. It was so much better when everybody just got along. If only such a thing were possible all of the time.
"Wow, and I thought my family was awkward," said Paris, in what ought to be a muttered tone to Luke, but it was clear the whole group heard her. "Hey, don't get me wrong, I'm impressed at your acceptance when your daughter and granddaughter have clearly chosen men that you would never consider to be in their social class," she continued, looking directly at a startled Emily and Richard. "Still, times are changing, am I right? The world is not as it once was. We live in a society that likely gave my place at Harvard to Kate Hudson just because she's been in a movie, whilst I, Paris Gellar, fourth generation to have applied to the school, was denied entry and must now attend Yale."
"Well, Yale is a fine school, Paris," Richard told her quickly. "You know it was my own alma mater."
"That is some comfort, Richard. Thank you," she told him, taking a long drink from her glass of soda. "But, if I may..."
Without waiting to be granted any sort of permission to go forward, Paris launched into one of her rant-filled speeches that were by now legendary. Jess sat back in his seat and just enjoyed the show, encouraging the others to do the same.
"I'll come to dinner here every other night if we can always, always bring Paris," said Lorelai in a low voice.
"Amen, sister-friend," Rory agreed with a grin.
It was Saturday, and the band had a gig. Lane was very excited about her first chance to show a portion of Stars Hollow's young people how well she could actually play drums, and to launch her career as a musician. Sure, the band had no name and they were only playing a keg party for a guy whose parents were out of town, but it was better than nothing. Rory was happy for her, and for Dave and the guys. She promised to help with Lane's hair and make-up, and even to announce the band if they would like her to.
"You're coming to the party, right?" she double-checked with Jess as they sat across a table from each other at the diner that afternoon. "I just realised I didn't actually ask you that."
"I don't know." Jess shook his head. "Isn't Luke taking out Lorelai tonight? He probably needs me to cover here."
"No!" Rory complained loudly. "My mother cannot have a date at the detriment of my social life. We haven't been out together in forever!"
"We've stayed in a lot," Jess noted with a smirk.
"Yes, and that is fun too," she admitted, blushing furiously. "But what is the point in having a boyfriend as good looking as you and never getting to show you off to the world?"
She was at least half-joking and they all knew it, though Jess appreciated the compliment either way. He wasn't exactly heart-broken to not be able to go to some dumb party at the house of a guy he never met, to hear a band he could care less about. Still, he knew what it meant to Rory, and he really did hate to disappoint her.
"I say enjoy yourself while you have the chance," said Paris, eyes never leaving the page in front of her as she drew a perfectly straight line with the aid of a ruler. "We have a lot of study ahead of us. Finals are right around the corner. Save for Prom, it is all uphill now until graduation, people."
"Don't we know it?" Jess rolled his eyes. "It's not that I'm trying to get out of this party anyway, but if I have to work-"
"Oh for God's sake!" Paris all but exploded then. "Luke?" she called as he passed by their table, plates in his hands. "Is Jess required to work tonight?"
"Er, yeah. I have a date with Lorelai, you know that," he said, looking from Paris to Jess.
"Does it have to be Jess specifically?" she checked then. "Because he and Rory have plans and I'm willing to step into the breach on this occasion"
"Oh, I don't know, Paris." Luke shook his head. "I mean, you helped out before, I know, but this would be different. Some of the time it'd just be you on your own, with Caeser in the kitchen, obviously, but still-"
"I attend Chilton. I got into Yale and Princeton. I have an IQ with a third digit, which outranks half of this crack-pot town. I think I can run a diner for a couple of hours by myself," she said snippily.
Luke looked from her to Jess and saw his nephew shrug. He clearly figured the diner was safe in Paris' hands, and Luke had learnt to trust Jess' judgement, at least as far as this kind of thing went.
"Um, okay?" he said warily. "I guess if it's just for a couple of hours. Thank you, Paris. I think," he ended, muttering the last couple of words as he headed off to serve his customers.
"Another problem solved," said Paris happily. "You're welcome," she told Rory, going back to her papers.
"Thanks, Paris."
"Don't thank me yet" she advised, suddenly handing one of her many pieces of paper to Rory and another to Jess. "Like I said, we have a lot of work ahead of us."
"Aaw, geez!" Jess protested, looking from the page in his hand to Paris and back again. "Are you kidding?"
He already knew she wasn't. It seemed Paris had been making up schedules for them all, fitting in school and work with large amounts of time set aside for group study, private study, pop quizzes, practice tests. He would love to tell her she was cracked, that he was not going to live his life to her timetable, and that she had gone too far - again. Unfortunately, Jess could already see that Rory was approving of the system and even making plans to add more study time into her own version of the schedule. Besides, with finals coming up, Chilton being as strict as it was, and Luke putting so much faith in him, Jess knew he really shouldn't slack off at all, however much he was tempted. He already cut his hours at Wal-Mart and now it looked as if he might have to give up that job altogether, at least for the time being.
"Great," he muttered to himself. "This is my life now."
"You better believe it, buster!" said Paris with a grin. "Enjoy the freedom of your party tonight. It might be the last you get for a while."
To Be Continued...
