So this ended up being the final chapter, that's why it took so long,I had a lot to fit in. I intended for the story to end here all along, but when I wrote the beginning of this it felt very final. I hope you all like it and look out for the sequel.
Chapter 28- Home Away from Home
Philadelphia 20 Miles the sign on the side of the highway said as it shone in the afternoon sun. The last few weeks had been a whirlwind for Rory. She had reconnected with Jess, lost her job, witnessed her mother marry her soul mate and accepted a wonderful step-father into her life.
Now that she thought about it her mother's fears about her relationship progressing too quickly didn't seem so crazy. But it wasn't like they had just met and had some whirlwind romance. Jess and Rory had known each other for almost six years and the feelings they had for each other could probably be traced back to those first few weeks in Stars Hollow. She smiled as she reminisced about the boy she called Dodger for stealing her book. The two of them had a bond from that first day , one that could never be broken. Sure it had been tested over the last few years, but that fact that they were where they were right now was proof that nothing would ever be too much for their love to bear.
Rory had gotten off to a later start than she had planned to this morning. After their fight on Saturday she and her mother had a long talk, similar to the one she had had with Luke. Lorelai had first and foremost apologized and assured her daughter of her unconditional love for her, before begrudgingly admitting to, "maybe liking the new, human version of Jess," and telling her that as long as she was happy an being treated well then Jess was as good a guy as any; but that if he ever hurt her, she knew where Luke kept his nail gun. They had finished the evening with a movie night. Yesterday had been filled with shopping and catching up and doing all the things they hadn't been able to do for the past year. Rory had been so exhausted when she got home, that she fell right into bed with no thought of packing. She had awoken to a phone call this morning to a phone call from Jess, and after cursing loudly and apologizing profusely for the fact she would be late, she threw all of her remaining things into trash bags and shoved them into the car. She met her mother for a late breakfast at the Dragonfly and left after a teary hug and promises to visit all the time, with or without Jess.
She pulled off the highway, on the final stretch to her new life. She had called Jess after she got off the highway and wasn't surprised to see him waiting outside of truncheon for her. He had told her on the phone to meet him there and he would ride to their apartment with her, while giving her the directions. She practically ran into his arms, kissing him as soon as she got close enough. The kiss intensified and she moaned into his mouth, locking her hands on the back of his neck in an attempt to pull him closer. They split apart at the annoyed throat clearing behind them. Jess turned, irritated to have been interrupted, and looked at the person behind him. Rory apologized, looking as guilty as a kid who got caught with her hand in the cookie jar.
"Sorry, Man, but this establishment has a policy against public sex and as proprietor I chose to stop you before the authorities were called." The man said with a playful smile.
"Screw you, Matt," Jess huffed putting his arm around Rory's waist. "You guys have met, right?" He asked looking between the two, they both nodded. "We should probably get you introduced to everyone else," Jess said as he pushed past Matt.
Jess felt Rory relax as soon as they walked in the door, he pulled her closer and smiled, happy that his bookstore had the same effect on her that it did on him. He walked her over to a dark skinned man with an unruly afro working frantically on his laptop, "this frazzled looking goober is Chris."
Chris flipped him off, never looking away from his screen, "need to get this done," he grumbled as he continued to type.
"He does our e-zine and always waits until the last minute to get everything done." Jess told her smiling.
"I'm a poet, not a journalist, "Chris barked looking up for the first time.
"Sorry, Mike left and someone had to take over, you drew the short straw."
"Whatever, I've got work to do. Nice meeting you Rory." Rory smiled, but made no attempt to say anything seeing his eyes focus back on the computer screen.
"Brandon is out today, so that just leaves Gemma." He said as a short girl with caramel colored hair and skin and big, yellow topaz colored eyes walked up to them.
She extended her arm out, "So great to meet you, Rory. I need another girl around here. These guys are hopelessly and it makes finding girls to hang out with hard."
"They all already know my name," Rory said feeling a little creeped out that they all knew her before being introduced.
"Of course we do, you're all he ever talks about," Rory noticed the embarrassed smirk on Jess's face.
"Well, I am always up for a junk food filled movie night," Rory told the other girl, taking some of the heat off us Jess's embarrassing situation, not that she wouldn't tease him about it later.
"Awesome," squealed the girl, who resembled a long haired cat.
"She's relatively new," Jess said into Rory's ear, causing her skin to prickle momentarily. "After Mike left a few months ago we all split up his responsibilities, but quickly realized we were going to need someone to take over some of our shifts at the store."
"She seems nice."
"She's good at what she does, but don't let her fool you into thinking she doesn't like hanging out with us. She and Brandon flirt like crazy and we're pretty sure they have something going on behind our backs.
"Are you all here together all the time?"
"No, there is usually just one person actually working in the store, with some overlap in the afternoon. I edit in the office a lot. Brandon and Matt are the ones we make go out and cover stories, like they care about journalism, no offense to you," he added quickly, "it's just not their thing, but the ad space on the e-zine actually makes us money, so we don't want to ditch it. They also work on the editing and publishing thing too. Chris sets up the open mic nights and advertising, in addition to putting out the zine."
"Cool, if you need any help before I find a job, just let me know. I would love to work here for a while."
Jess kissed her temple and quietly chuckled. "You ready to go? We can get your stuff unpacked and grab an early dinner."
"You don't have to work?" Rory was a little disappointed; she thought she would get a chance to really explore this place while Jess finished things up.
He shook his head, "I expected you to be here a couple of hours ago, so I didn't schedule anything for this afternoon." Rory shrugged guiltily. "S'okay. So, shall we?"
"I guess," Rory was more nervous than she had expected to be. She had been with Jess before, had even lived with Logan. This shouldn't be making her nervous, but it was. Jess gave her a curious look and squeezed her hand before announcing to his workmates that he was leaving.
Rory followed his directions to a small apartment community a few blocks away. "I probably could have found this on my own," she told him.
"I know, but I thought it was better if we came together, I'm not gonna carry you inside or anything, but I didn't want you to feel like you were just like a roommate or something. This is our place now."
They walked up the stairs to the second floor and stopped at an apartment marked 2C. There were only 6 apartments accessible through this door. Rory thought that made it cozier and gave it a safer feeling. Jess unlocked the door, letting them in and dropped the bags he was carrying. Rory looked around, hugging her bag closely. The apartment was on the smaller side, the door had opened into a living room furnished with a black fabric couch, flat screen TV(not ostentatiously large like Logan's or her Father's), a few racks of DVD's and a decent looking stereo system with accompanying CD's and vinyl records. Instead of a dining room, there was a bar top that over looked the kitchen and two stools. Jess obviously used this area as an office, judging by the laptop cord and pens and paper spread about.
She put the bag she was holding down, and Jess grabbed her hand pulling her into the kitchen. "I bought a coffee pot, I usually just grab a cup on the way to work, but I know you need at least three cups to even get out the door."
"Ha Ha," Rory scoffed, though; secretly she was very grateful for the coffee pot, because he was right. Not that she was ready to admit it.
"Bathroom," he said pointing across the hall, "not wonderful, but fulfills basic needs. I didn't know how much room you'd need, if there's not enough, you can move my stuff." There was only one door left, and when it opened, Rory's jaw dropped. There were bookshelves, at least 6 feet high, on two of the walls, a shorter on under the window and piles stacked in the corners. Her books had been intermingled with the others, in Jess's personal organization system. In the middle of the wall adjacent to the door was a bed, probably a queen size, on a medium colored wood frame. There was a light blue comforter with dark blue sheets. And on either side of the bed was a white nightstand and lamp. It all looked new, especially the sheets. "You bought new sheets?" Rory guessed.
"I had to get a bookcase anyway. I figured since I was already at IKEA I should get everything I needed. There's a second set of sheets, they're grey."
"You didn't get all new furniture just for me did you?" Rory asked a little amazed at the gesture.
"No," he kissed her head reassuringly, "just the coffee pot and sheets. I was using a wooden crate as a nightstand before, so I needed one anyway. I didn't get a dresser though. You can have as much space as you want in the closet, I don't have much in there, and I made space in the drawers under the bed." Rory looked down, realizing that the knobs weren't just for decoration and opened one of the drawers. "That's where I used to keep the books. I'll go get the rest of your stuff."
"That's like the most I've ever heard you talk in a day before," Rory told him with a smirk.
"You know how the verbal thing comes and goes; we'll probably have to write notes to each other for the next few days."
He smiled; she giggled and moved to kiss him. "I love you," she breathed into his mouth, before he turned and exited the room.
Rory dumped the first bag onto the floor and began sifting through the contents, folding things into piles and putting hanging items to the side. After bringing all the bags in Jess ordered pizza, which arrived just after Rory got all her things put away. They ate on the couch while watching a movie. The movie became background noise before long and the couple made their way to the bedroom.
%GG%
Light shining in the windows caused Rory to grumble and roll over, burying her head deep in Jess' bare chest. He kissed the top of her naked shoulder, "morning", he croaked out, voice still full of fatigue.
"Early," she groaned in return.
"Are you hungry?" He asked as his arms wrapped fully around her body.
"Tired."
"Coffee?" He asked, fingers trailing seductively up her spine.
"Sleep," she purred in response to the stimulation.
"Are you sure?" He asked before he kissed her. Her response was to throw her head back and moan as he moved his focus lower.
%GG%
Her stomach grumbling is what woke her this time. She could feel Jess against her back, breathing evenly, still asleep. She moved his hand up from her hip to her stomach, hoping he would feel it churning.
"Now, I'm assuming you're hungry." He whispered.
"Yep," Rory responded brightly, "I'll go make coffee." She said getting up. Jess grumbled but got in the shower anyway. She was finishing her second cup of coffee when he came into the kitchen, dressed and with slightly wet hair.
"I figured after breakfast, I'd show you around the city."
"Can we see the Liberty Bell?" She asked excitedly.
Jess laughed and rolled his eyes. "It amazes me how small town you are sometimes." She playfully swatted him on her way to the bathroom.
Jess poured himself a cup of coffee and sat on the couch to wait for phone buzzed and he saw Chris's number pop up.
"What do you need,Chris?" He answered the phone, somewhat testily. They knew he was taking today off and shouldn't be calling him.
"Help Man, I need help." Chris answered sounding frantic. "I am still so far behind on this damn thing."
"I told you guys I wasn't coming in today."
"Stop having sex and get over and help me." Chris demanded.
"We're not having sex, we're getting ready to go out for breakfast."
"It's 10:30 in the morning!"
"What's your point?"
"Why are you just now having breakfast? Because you were having sex. Now, please come down here and help me?"
Rory had come into the living room, wearing a grey t-shirt, denim capris and had her hair in a wet braid. He looked at her and reluctantly asked her if she would be okay going to Truncheon for a while. She happily agreed, stating that she didn't get a chance to look around yesterday and would do that while he worked.
They arrived and headed back to the office. Rory had intended on exploring the small bookstore but realized that what Chris needed help with was exactly her kind of thing and she quickly sat down next to him and talked him through the process of editing and publishing the e-zine. When they were finished two hours later, having been brought food and coffee by Jess while they worked, they had finished and Rory was exhilarated. "I forgot how much fun putting out a paper can be. I know that it wasn't actually a paper to be printed and the deadline was a little more lax, but it was still super exciting," Rory rambled. Jess smiled. It was good to see her thriving in her element, even if only for a little while. The two had a late lunch at a small bistro before spending the evening exploring the city.
%GG%
Two weeks passed with little change, Rory had moved her job search out of the Philadelphia area and still hadn't had so much as a single interview. She had started writing freelance and working at Truncheon a couple of days a week. Jess had told her that he didn't need her to work at the store, the two of them were doing fine financially and could get by until she found a job. But she liked working in the bookstore and honestly she was bored sitting in the apartment all by herself since she didn't know anyone in Philly other than Jess and the other guys from Truncheon.
She had been helping Chris and giving him ideas for software to use use that were good for this type of publishing. She told him it would be easier if he focused his bi-weekly issues more, like dedicating one to local stories and the next to national/international stories, or to have one be politics based and the next more about art and society. By the time the zine came out during her second week, she had pretty much taken over.
Jess was in the office editing when Chris, Matt and Brandon all came in. He looked up and was instantly weary that they were all in the office at the same time.
"Can we talk," Chris asked, sitting in his desk chair, "about Rory?"
Jess immediately went into defensive mode. "Hey, Rory has done nothing but help out around here, especially you, Chris, and we barely pay her."
"That's exactly what we want to talk about," Chris countered.
"You asked for her help Chris, it's not her fault she took over. You didn't really fight it." Jess was irate and got up to leave.
Matt pushed him back into his chair, "will you calm down and hear him out?"
Jess glared at Chris, daring him to speak ill of Rory. "I was thinking," Chris started, "and I already talked to everyone else, that we could maybe let her take over the e-zine." Jess was speechless, this confrontation not going how he had expected. "I mean she's really good at it and I know she likes doing it. There's money in the budget so we could pay her more. I know she probably won't be here long term she's way over qualified, but I hate doing it and..." Chris trailed off, not really knowing what else to say.
"Ok, so why are you asking me?"
"We wanted to run it by you before we offered, I mean you worked here first, and may not want to work with your girlfriend or whatever." Brandon added.
Jess smiled and Rory into the office. She freaked out a little, seeing all the men in there waiting for her. "It's okay, Babe. They wanted to know if you wanted to take over the e-zine."
Rory's face took on a look of amazed shock. She could do nothing but nod. "Are you guys serious?"
"Chris is awful at it and hates it. You's really be doing us a favor." Matt responded.
She hugged them all in turn, saving Jess for last, he held her for a long time. She kissed him passionately, not caring that they were in an office full of people. The other guys quickly left the two of them alone. "You happy," he asked her. She responded with a kiss.
