AN: Two chapters in less than a week! This chapter is different, there isn't a ton of Jess and Rory in it (or Jess really at all until the end), but I had a ton of fun writing it. Enjoy!

Chapter 36

Two days after Thanksgiving, Francine passed away. Rory didn't go back up to the hospital beforehand but decided she would go to the funeral with her grandparents. She felt that her dad could use her there. Other than that, the next month was filled with keeping busy at the paper and getting last minute details ready for Paris's wedding the next month. Due them getting married so close to the holidays they decided to do her bachelorette party before the weekend before Christmas. The biggest obstacle was finding something that Paris would actually enjoy for her party. When Rory was planning Lane and Lorelai's they were pretty easy. But Paris? She was a whole different ball game. It was that topic that Rory and Lorelai found themselves discussing on a Saturday two weeks before Christmas while they were stringing together popcorn garland for the tree. "What about a drag club like we went to for my bachelorette party when I almost married Max? That was kind of fun." Lorelai suggested.

"Paris at a drag club? She'll probably start going off about how these transgenders have rights and that the government is restricting their freedoms. No thank you."

"Point taken. Well, what karaoke and drinking like at my last one?"

"Paris hates karaoke."

"Man this really is tough. Well what does Paris like? Is there something she likes but she doesn't get to do much of?"

"Well. You know she did grow up where she couldn't eat a lot of junk food. That night when Jess came over to bring me food while you were gone and Paris and I were studying he brought mac and cheese and fries and burgers and she freaked out she was so excited. And she hasn't seen many movies either." She paused and got a look on her face like she just had a great idea. "So what if we do a movie marathon of movies about getting married or engaged or whatever and couple it with junk food?"

"And alcohol too right?" Lorelai asked with a pleading look on her face.

"Well it's a bachelorette party for someone who is not pregnant I figured that was a given."

"Point taken. So who all is invited to this thing?"

"Well the wedding party only consists of me as the maid or honor and then Doyle's childhood best friend as the best man. So Paris told me to invite you, as well as Lucy and Olivia since they were fairly friendly our last year at Yale as well as a couple of girls from her classes at Harvard. I told her I would get the information to you and Lucy and Olivia and that she could tell her other friends the details."

The weekend for the party finally came. Since Friday night dinners were still happening, they had decided on Saturday. They were going to start the festivities at Rory's apartment in Hartford. She had arranged for takeout from a local restaurant that served macaroni and cheese as well as fries and all the other junk food Paris never got as a kid. They were going to plan on starting around 7:00 and Rory had planned on letting people stay over if they needed too. Paris showed up around 6:00 incase Rory needed any last minute help.

"Hey Paris, ready for your last hoorah as a single woman?" She asked as she put a bachelorette sash with blinking lights on her.

"Sure. Oh and I invited a couple of other people is that ok?"

"Sure, more people from school?"

"No, actually I ran into Madeline and Louise and they kind of invited themselves, I hope that's ok?"

"Sure. It will be nice to see them; I haven't seen them in awhile. I'll just call Mom and tell her to pick up a little more food; she's bringing it on her way here."

"Are you going to tell me now what we're getting?" Paris said acting annoyed.

"Nope. All part of the surprise." Rory said smugly.

Paris helped her rearrange her furniture and they were putting up decorations when there was a knock at the door. "Hurry up and let Mommy dearest in, I've got the food!" Loreali yelled from the hallway.

Rory just rolled her eyes and opened the door. "Hurry up and take the food to the kitchen, I turned the oven on low to keep it warm. Everyone else should be on their way."

Lorelai took the food to the kitchen while Rory made Paris sit down in her arm chair and wait to greet her guests. There was another knock on the door and Lucy and Olivia walked in, both carrying a couple of large gift bags. "Hey guys! Paris congrats, this is going to be a blast!" Lucy said coming in. They dropped off two of the bags on the table Rory had designated for gifts. Lucy grabbed Rory to ask her what to do with the stuff in the other two bags. Rory looked in them and told her to take the stuff they brought for margaritas and daiquiris to the kitchen and to keep the rest of the stuff out so they could pass them out once everyone got there. In the next few minutes Paris's friends Shannon and Brandi from medical school showed up.

"Madeline and Louise said they might be a little late if we want to go ahead and get started." Paris told Rory at fifteen after 7:00.

"Ok everyone lets get started. The food is ready but first Lucy and Olivia have graciously gotten a little something for everyone to remember the night by." She said as she grabbed one of the bags they brought and pulled out a black t-shirt that had green writing on it and said "To Paris with love" on the front and "Paris's last ado before "I do"" on the back. There was one specifically for Paris that also said "Bride to be" on the back above the catchy phrase and one for Rory that said "Maid of Honor". The rest said "I'm with the bride".

"Guys these are really great!" Rory told Lucy and Olivia. She had called them earlier knowing they were the perfect people to design and get their shirts.

"Thanks. And we got a few extras since we weren't sure how many people would get here so there should be plenty." Lucy said.

"Ok, now that we've got our shirts we need food and of course alcohol. We've got margaritas and strawberry daiquiris complete with…" she paused for dramatic effect as she reached into the other bag that Lucy and Olivia had brought with them. "Penis straws!" She said as she passed them around and everyone giggled. "Ok, so let's let Paris go first. Paris I know you were deprived as a child of all the great children's foods and being as this is your last real night of freedom we decided to serve all the best junk foods you didn't get to eat as a kid!"

Paris grinned as she saw the spread of mac and cheese and chicken nuggets as well as fish sticks, and tons of French fries. All the girls got their food and headed back to the living room to eat and start with the gifts. Paris was having a great time opening all the lingerie, naughty sex toys and various body oils when there was another knock on the door.

"That'll probably be Madeline and Louise. Keep opening presents Paris I'll let them in." Rory said getting up. "Madeline, Louise it's so great to see you!" She said excitedly.

"Rory!" Madeline exclaimed. "We're so excited to be invited"

"Yeah when Paris told us she was getting married we just had to help out." Louise said.

Rory got a little nervous by this and Madeline continued. "Yeah and we've brought a surprise!"

"Madeline and I have recently been doing passion parties. So we brought all of the stuff and decided to do one free of charge for Paris since we go way back."

"A passion party?" Rory gulped out. "You mean like sex toys and stuff?"

"Oh yeah, they're great. Totally classy if you do them correctly." Louise answered.

"A passion party? That sounds great; it will give this snooze fest some action!" Paris exclaimed from the living room.

"Right." Rory started hesitantly, "Come on in. Mom has the food set out in the kitchen if you want to grab some and then as soon as Paris is done opening her gifts you guys can set up I guess." Rory said all the while thinking this sounded like a terrible idea. She handed them each a shirt while they hurried up and ate as Paris opened up her last gifts. They then proceeded to get to the passion party. Rory went over and sat by her mom who was thoroughly enjoying seeing how red Rory was.

"Come on hon, you're not the innocent girl you once were. This could be fun!"

"Yeah, well I may not be virginal anymore but this is still embarrassing!" She said in a hushed whisper. She had never seen half of things Madeline and Louise pulled out of their bag. Paris on the other hand was having a great time, telling everyone just how excited she could get Doyle with the various things they were shown. Rory looked around to see how the other guests were taking it. Lucy and Olivia were laughing as Lucy "tried on" the thunder beads like the grandmother in Made of Honor. Shannon and Brandi were just examining everything and getting into a discussion with Paris about which things were medically proven to enhance pleasure. Lorelai on the other hand just kept looking at Rory's face and how red it got every time something new was brought to the table. After what seemed like an eternity, but was really only about an hour, the demonstration had ended and the girls were deciding which items they wanted to purchase. Rory looked at her mother "And how am I supposed to follow that with girly movies about getting married?" She asked.

"So change it up. Act a little wild, it may be Hartford but it's got bars, lets go bar hopping!"

"You're just excited because you actually have a night out where you aren't carrying two screaming babies."

"Well maybe. I mean I love the boys, but I haven't done this kind of thing since before the boys."

"Fine." Rory said sighing. She was hoping for a semi-quiet bachelorette party but she guessed she should have known better with Paris. She told everyone the plans and they all let out a "woo!" and got ready to go. Madeline and Louise with the help of Lucy and Olivia got together a "suck for a buck" sign with candies all over Paris's t-shirt.

The evening actually went better than Rory expected. They went to four different bars and Paris got over $50 from guys wanting to suck candy off her shirt thanks to Lucy and Madeline bringing more candy to attach. Finally around 2:00 as the bars were starting to close and everyone except Rory and Lorelai were completely trashed they carefully guided everyone back to Rory's apartment and split up to sleep on various air mattresses with Paris taking the couch. After everyone was asleep Rory looked up at Lorelai and they both started laughing.

"Who would have thought Paris would be able to get so wild?" Lorelai said not able to keep in the laughter at all.

"I should have known. Alcohol does crazy things to her." Rory said, also still laughing. They finished cleaning up the living room and then headed to Rory's room where they were planning on sharing her king sized bed. As they were getting ready for bed Rory looked up at her mom. "Hey thanks for holding out on getting completely wasted so that I would have some help wrangling them all up."

"No problem. Plus I am forty," she said the last word in a whisper. "I figured I've got to grow up sometime.

They got into bed and were about to fall asleep when Rory leaned over to see if Lorelai was still awake. "Hey mom?"

"Yeah sweets?"

"When I get married, whatever you do, don't invite Madeline and Louise to my bachelorette party!" She said and both Gilmore girls laughed until they fell asleep.

Rory woke up the next morning around 10:00 to her phone ringing. She smiled when she saw it was Jess. "You're lucky you're cute waking me up the morning after a bachelorette party." She answered playfully.

"Yeah. Well you better be nice to me, I have a surprise for you."

"Really? And that would be…" She trailed off as she heard a knock on the door. "Hang on, someone's at the door."

She went to answer it and saw Jess standing there his arms full of bags of groceries. She hung up her phone and went to grab one of his bags and give him a kiss on the cheek. "What's all this?" She asked lowering her voice since the living room was full of sleeping girls with hangovers.

"Well," he started, also whispering, "I figured that a bachelorette party would lead to several hung over ladies in need of a good breakfast."

"Aww that's sweet of you." She said helping him carry the bags to the kitchen.

"And I didn't want to succumb your hung-over guests to your cooking, that's just cruel and unusual punishment." He said with a smirk.

She playfully swatted him with his spatula. "Can I help?"

"Only if you promise not to actually cook, I don't want any of these girls getting food poisoning."

They spent the next forty-five minutes or so making pancakes, eggs, bacon, sausage and waffles. The smell woke Lorelai up who came to see who could possibly be cooking.

"Hoodlum!" She exclaimed. "Well aren't you brave to be the cock in the hen house!"

"Nice to see you too Lorelai." He said sarcastically but with a small smile. Rory smiled, still shocked sometimes at how well her mother and Jess got along now.

Lorelai let the young couple finish getting everything ready while Lorelai began the process of waking up the rest of the party. "Look ladies a nice, over-gelled gentleman came over and cooked us breakfast!" She announced as they started stirring.

One by one the girls started getting up and going to the bathroom to brush their teeth. Paris was the first one in the kitchen demanding pancakes. "God Gilmore, why did you let me drink so much? Will this headache ever go away? And turn down the sunlight!" She said pouring copious amounts of syrup on her pancakes. She looked up, noticing Jess for the first time. "What's he doing here? Wasn't this supposed to be a bachelorette party? As in no boys allowed." She said glaring at him like he was solely responsible for her hangover.

"He's here because he thought we might want a nice hangover breakfast. Now be nice or I'll open up the blinds!" She said in an annoyingly sweet voice as she poured herself a cup of coffee.

"Hey who invited the hunk? Is he for part two of the bachelorette party?" Louise said seductively as she and Madeline walked in looking in way better shape than Paris.

"Sorry to disappoint, the hunk's taken." Rory said as she deliberately gave Jess a long deep kiss in front of them.

"Damn Gilmore, you've got good taste. First that stud we met at the Chilton dance, then that other boyfriend you had while we were atChilton, though I never actually saw him. Heard from Paris he was a good piece of eye candy though. What was his name, Jesse?" Madeline said.

"Jess actually." Jess replied.

"You know about her ex-boyfriends? I'm impressed."

"He's the same guy you idiot! And why aren't you more hung-over? You drank at least as much as me and don't look half as bad as I feel!" Paris half yelled.

"Years of practice my dear." Madeline spoke up. "And you're the same boyfriend from before? Wow, he really is a fox Rory!"

"While I'm glad we've established that my boyfriend is good looking, you better get some food, I'm sure the rest of the group would like some too and you're in their way." Rory said as Madeline and Louise turned around and saw Lucy, Olivia, Shannon and Brandi standing behind them, all looking a little grumpy with Shannon and Brandi looking as bad if not worse than Paris. Lucy and Olivia looked a little better though not as good as Madeline and Louise. Rory was sure they had a lot of experience with holding their alcohol but not near as much as the other two. "Hey Jess!" Lucy said excitedly. Jess smiled and gave her a little wave then turned to Rory and gave her an annoyed look.

She chuckled. "Hey you came over here willingly." She whispered to him. "And it's not my fault that you are so talented that my friends just adore you!" She said giggling. He rolled his eyes. The girls all moved back to the living room to eat their breakfast and started watching The Wedding Planner while Jess retreated to the study to work on some editing and avoid the craziness that was a bunch of women. Once the movie was over everyone seemed to be feeling better and they slowly started leaving. Shannon and Brandi left first with Lucy and Olivia following closely behind. Madeline and Louise started to leave too but not before Louise decided to pinch Jess's butt in a very obvious way that even Miss Patty couldn't rival. Finally it was just Paris, Lorelai, Rory and Jess.

"Thanks so much Rory, I had a blast. And thanks for breakfast Kerouac; it really did help the hangover. As always, great to see you Lorelai." Paris said as she was leaving.

"Well that just leaves the mommy and the boyfriend. How about I clean up the living room if you guys tackle the kitchen?" Lorelai said and Jess and Rory just agreed.

Jess started on the dishes while Rory took up all the extra food and started cleaning the counters. "Thanks for bringing breakfast Jess. It really was thoughtful." Rory said with a smirk. She knew Jess hated it when she made a big deal out him doing something for her.

"Well I knew if I didn't you'd just call me or Luke to bring you something anyway, and I couldn't have you starve, you really are a terrible cook." He said trying to justify himself.

Rory just shrugged it off. It reminded her a lot of how Luke was with her mom even before they were dating. He always was looking out for her best interests. "Oh and sorry about Madeline and Louise. And Lucy and Olivia for that matter. I haven't seen Madeline and Louise since spring break my freshman year at Yale and I almost forgot how crazy they are. And Lucy and Olivia are suckers for anyone who is a "famous artist" of any sort."

He laughed. "No problem. It did make me realize something though." He said with a smirk on his face.

"Really what's that?" She said wondering what he could find funny about the situation.

"I realized that I'm really glad that of all your crazy friends that one of my best friends could end up with it was Amber. Because next to the ridiculous girls I met this morning, she's totally normal." He said with a straight face.

Rory just laughed. It was true, Lucy and Olivia were a little like the artsy, more studious version of Madeline and Louise who hadn't changed much since high school. She looked over at Jess finishing the dishes that were only dirty because he came over to make her and her crazy friends a hangover breakfast. She smiled, glad some people did change. Herself included.

AN: There you go! I had a ton of fun writing Paris's bachelorette party. I figured with Paris it would get awkward for Rory at some point. As always, let me know what you think, reviews are greatly appreciated!