Title: Peer Pressure
Summary: Fourth installment in the WHW series. A Trory, of course. And, you know a billion other pairings.
Rating: T, for teen. Because there are so many of them running about.
"Did they break up?" Lorelai asked as they walked back toward the diner after the movie let out.
Luke looked at the woman that normally nearly dragged him by the arm to the diner for after movie pie. Tonight she was strolling along, almost lagging behind, in thought.
"Who?"
"Jess and Gwen."
"No, why?"
"Well, if something is up with Jess, and the kids are fine, and it's not Erin," she laid out.
"He and Gwen are together."
"Did he lose his job?"
Luke looked at her. "Why would he have lost his job?"
"Is he sick?"
"Why is it bad?"
"What?" she asked as he unlocked the door and turned to face her.
"Why are all the things you're asking about Jess, why are they all bad? Doesn't he deserve a break after everything that's happened to him?"
"Of course," she put her hand on his arm. "You just look preoccupied, concerned. I didn't think a good thing would make you concerned."
"I'm not concerned," he lied.
"Luke, what is it? Is he okay?"
"He's fine, he's just," he put the pie plate on the counter and handed her a fork.
"You handing me a fork isn't a sign that things are good," she pointed out.
"I promised him I wouldn't talk about it," he said finally.
"Oh."
"I mean, everything is fine, he's fine, it's just, he wanted time before," he began, unsure as to how to continue without giving away the thing he was supposed to hold in.
She put a forkful of apple pie in her mouth and chewed as he seemed to be searching for his next words. After everything he'd been through, she couldn't imagine what would happen in his life that he'd need time to adjust to before letting people know about it. . . .
"He's not," she started, but frowned. Luke looked at her carefully.
"What?"
She shook her head and swallowed the bite of pastry and sugary fruit. "Nothing, it's just, the only thing that I could imagine him wanting to get used to, before letting everyone in his life know about it, would be if Gwen was pregnant," she tried to sound flippant, but she eyed him carefully to see if he paled or winced or looked at her as if she were truly crazy.
"Would you blame him?"
His tone was even, so she played along. His eyes were trained on hers, so she looked down and scraped some crumbs onto her fork.
"No. I mean, I was in his situation, sort of. Having a raised kid when I got pregnant later on," she said. "Unmarried, to boot," she said. "But I guess these are things better discussed when and if he decides he wants to share what's going on with everyone."
Luke nodded, relieved. "Yeah, I guess so," he said, taking the offered fork and allowing himself a bite of pie as well.
XXXX
Jess carried in a tray of the re-warmed leftover Chinese food as Gwen came out of the bathroom with a toothbrush in her mouth. She took it out for a moment as he began to situate himself on the bed.
"Can you get rid of the one with all the sweet and sour?" she wrinkled her nose.
He looked up. "Serious?"
She nodded. "Like you wouldn't believe. I'm sorry, I know it's your favorite."
He looked into the carton of fried pork. "Nah, I'll just," he got up and jogged with the offending containers to the kitchen with him. He returned to find her settling down on the bed, pulling a container of fried rice toward her.
"So, I take it with all the food aversions and trips to my bathroom, you're either planning a remodel before you move in, or you've been to the doctor and he confirmed that you're actually," he looked down to her stomach.
She nodded. "Yep, it's all official. Gave me a prescription for vitamins, and we set up an appointment for an ultrasound."
"When is it?" he asked immediately, reaching for another random container, really wanting the flavor of the sweet and sour pork.
"Oh, next Tuesday. You don't have to come, it's just a preliminary checkup," she assured him.
"I'm coming," he said. "You couldn't beat me away."
"You're sure?" she asked. "There's gonna be lots of doctor's appointments, lots of them way more exciting," she said.
"I know, and I want to be there for all varieties," he assured. "It'd be easier if you don't argue about this," he warned.
"I know, it's your kid too," she smiled.
"That's not it," he half frowned as he forked some lo mein noodles, before slowly spinning some around the prongs.
"You enjoy doctor offices? Let me guess, you used to con the nurses into giving you more than one sucker?"
He grinned, showing that she was right. "I want to come for you. Though I'm sure I could wrangle you some extra suckers. Which flavor do you like the best?" he asked.
"Grape," she giggled. "Thanks, for being so supportive," she said, looking for a moment as if she were about to burst into tears.
"Hey," he said, putting his food down and drawing her into his arms. "You okay?"
"I'm fine, it's just all these hormones," she sniffed. "I cried at a car insurance commercial earlier," she confided.
He tried to hold in his laughter, but she glared at him. "You're being amazing," she said finally, after her ability to maintain her fixed evil gaze on him wore away. "Most guys, I can only imagine what would be happening right now," she began.
"I'm not gonna pretend that this doesn't freak me out, or that I think the timing is perfect," he started. "But as much as all of it should bother me, somehow," he held her gaze.
"It doesn't," she questioned.
"No. I don't know if it's because I've done this before, or that ever since I met you, I've just," he took her hand in his and held it against his heart. "Just from the moment you walked into Luke's, I wanted to be near you."
She was crying more by this point, unable to hold tears in if she'd tried. She touched his lips, as if to make him stop talking, but he continued.
"And I know you have trouble believing that I'm ready for this to be more, but it already is more, and not because of the baby," he looked like he wanted to fall into her eyes as he spoke.
"Jess, don't," she closed her eyes as she leaned her forehead in to his. As their skin met, she was breathing hard, clutching to his shirt.
"You love me," he whispered.
"Yes, but," she whimpered.
"You know I want to marry you," he said in just as even a tone as before.
Her eyes opened. "Yes," she nodded.
"If you really don't want me to ask you, I won't," he conceded, waiting now with bated breath as he held the woman he loved in his arms.
She didn't hesitate—rather she paused.
"Ask me," she bid him.
XXXX
Rosa slammed the door shut behind her, and seemed to be glaring at the boys as if they represented all men in general.
"Isn't it early for you to be back?" Ambrose asked, in no way afraid of her nearly lethal stare.
"Is it ever too early to leave hell?" she tossed her purse toward her bedroom door, but missed as it hit the wall and slid down to the floor.
"I take it we're starting to look good to you?"
"One of you is, but I think it's more fun if I don't tell you which one," she teased.
"What, did he take a hair off your head and start flossing with it at the table?" Ambrose asked, causing her to smile genuinely at the reference.
"Close," she began. "His favorite topic was him and how he wouldn't dream of insulting my feminist sensibilities by paying for me, then preceded to hand me the check after I suffered through the disaster that was dinner."
Ambrose raised an eyebrow.
"So, I dumped my drink in his lap, took my purse, and hailed myself a cab."
"I like your style," Ambrose said as she slumped down between them.
"You don't say," she laughed to herself and picked up the phone.
"It's still off," Jake informed her, speaking of his sister's cell phone.
"I figured," she said as she waited for her caller to pick up. "Hey. I have some guests that need entertained, and I could use a pick me up myself," she explained to the other end, and the boys just continued on in their method of killing time—chick flicks and diet soda—the best they could scrounge up in the girls' suite.
XXXX
Ella took Jasper's hand as he began to jog down the hallway, ever on the lookout for someone in an official hotel uniform. They'd been pressing themselves into walls, peering around corners, and now he jiggled the door handle as she waited, on the lookout for his illegal actions.
Once he popped the door and let them in, she giggled and fell onto the bed in awe.
"Wow," she breathed. "I don't think I've ever felt sheets this soft," she said, running her hands over the pillow cases. "I never want to stop feeling this pillow," she said, looking up at him. "Sorry," she cringed.
"They are nice," he nodded, leaning back against a wall rather leisurely.
"How long do you suppose we have?" she asked.
He held up a room key. "As long as you like."
She sat up properly, her mouth agape. "But, you—we, why?"
"Didn't you have fun?"
"Well, yeah, but," she said as he moved to sit down next to her on the bed.
"I wanted the option for spontaneity. I'd have hated to see the look on your face had we wanted a room only to find they were all occupied," he explained.
"I see, and you weren't, by chance, hoping that I would want to see one of these very posh rooms, were you?"
He smiled. "Not at all. I expected only lady-like behavior from you."
"So, the eating the entire piece of chocolate cake by myself blew my cover?" she wrinkled her nose in delight.
"A bit. But no more than my manhood was blown in not being able to finish my own piece."
She held up the container of his half-eaten cake. "More for me to enjoy tomorrow."
"Promise you'll think of me."
"You want me to equate you with perfection and heaven on earth?" she teased.
"Yes," he leaned in to kiss her softly.
"You gave up all rights to this cake, Buster," she fluttered her eyes open slightly, but he smirked and leaned back in to make her forget about the cake.
XXXX
Tristan rolled over onto his side, where he noted in his half-slumbered wakefulness that his wife was still laying on her back, staring with wide eyes up at the dark ceiling.
"You sleep?" he asked groggily.
"No," she whispered back.
"Go to sleep, big day," he yawned, trying to pull her body flush against his in efforts to help her relax.
"Can't you hear the crickets?" she asked.
"What?"
"The constant clicking, and what is that sound that gets louder, like the Doppler effect? There isn't a NASCAR track around here, is there?"
"Those are cicadas, and what NASCAR track would be running in the middle of the night?" he asked, now a bit more awake at her questioning.
"Cicadas?"
"Just go to sleep," he yawned, hoping her rant would wind down now.
"You can sleep though all that noise?"
"It's nature."
"It seems wholly unnatural."
"Rory," he groaned, slipping a hand under her t-shirt to rest warmly against her stomach.
"Would you have moved, if it'd been me?"
"Are we discussing this now? We have to be up early," he reminded.
"I'm serious. If I'd gotten a job offer would you have just quit your job and picked up to move?"
"Yes. I've done it before, and I've turned down other jobs that have meant moving us earlier," he reminded her.
"Sorry. I'm being insane. Let's go to sleep," she curled her body into his and a moment of silence passed between them.
"Rory?" he asked.
"Sleep," she reminded.
"You're not sorry that we're doing this, are you?"
She turned to face him, pressing the front of her body now into his. "I've never been sorry about anything concerning you. I don't plan on starting now."
He nodded and kissed her. "Sleep?"
"Sleep," she kissed him once more, quickly to seal their conversation, and she shifted to rest her head against his chest, to be lulled to sleep by the beating of his heart.
XXXX
Jess was standing in the dark kitchen, eating out of a single carton with a pair of wooden restaurant chopsticks. He heard the soft click of his front door shutting, looked up to see his daughter was home seven minutes to the dot past her midnight curfew, and dug his sticks back down into the carton. Her soft padding was clearly an effort not to alert her sleeping father to her late arrival. She rounded the corner into the kitchen, and her hand flew to her heart as her eyes had adjusted and saw his form leaning into the island, still eating his food in the dark.
"Ohmigod," she exclaimed.
"Shh, you'll wake Gwen," he chastised, but couldn't help be laugh at the sight of it all.
"What are you doing?" she asked rather harshly, not pleased at the alarming rate her heart had reached, out of sheer terror.
"Eating, want some?" he waved the box in front of her, and she took an extra chopstick and speared a piece of pork on the end.
"Huh. That's an unusual approach," he frowned as she dipped her pork into the sauce, letting it soak through the breading.
"Don't most parents wait in the front room with the lights on?" she asked.
"I wasn't waiting up to catch you coming in after curfew," he promised.
"You weren't?"
"Just a midnight snack, I promise. Though you were late, and you will suffer the consequences."
"Usually the pork is the first thing to go," she frowned. "And why didn't you just take it back to bed? Gwen doesn't like food in the bed?"
"Long story. So, you guys have fun?"
"We just went to a movie."
"Where?"
"The Village."
He gave her a look but said nothing.
"I need to go shopping next week," she said, stabbing another piece.
"Do all girls say that all the time, or is it my imagination?"
"I need stuff for school. I'm the girlfriend of a varsity basketball player," she teased.
"Yeah, speaking of that, are you trying to kill me? I mean, I realize being a teenager you aren't supposed to like me, but I was hoping to at least get favorite parent this year," he gave her a look.
"Court is great," she said.
"Well, he was sufficiently scared of me," he grumbled. Jules giggled and leaned in to kiss his cheek, causing him to smile as it always had.
"He asked if you had guns," she smirked.
"You tell him yes?"
"You don't have guns," she laughed harder.
"I can get them if I need them," he said instead. "I want to know the second I need to put this kid in a headlock."
"I promise," she nodded. "Why are you really up?"
"Being the father of teenagers is hard on a guy," he put his arm around her and offered a piece of pork up to her lips. She took it with her teeth and munched on it in silence. "How about Gwen taking you shopping?"
Jules nodded. "Is she feeling better?"
"Yeah. But I should go back and check on her. You want the rest of this?" he offered.
"Maybe we should save it—we might be having more of these late night talks," she smiled and headed down the hall to her room, disappearing just before the soft light appeared from under her door. He sighed, realizing that everything was different now. His daughter was dating, his kids were happy—he was happy. It'd been so long since the house was filled with a general sense of contentment in the air. He just hoped that continued once they shared their news with the kids.
XXXX
Ella had Jasper's neck encircled with her arms. Their lips had been fused for the better part of the last twenty minutes, as they'd made attempts to say goodnight. This was their first official date, after all, and she'd never been a girl to jump into such physical decisions so soon. They'd had their fair share of being unable to deny themselves the pleasure of being together—and they'd lingered longer in both her bedroom the night before and the luxurious sweet this evening than she'd planned to. Perhaps she was just learning these things couldn't be planned. She'd told herself that she'd deserved the cheering up after the night that Pax had subjected her to—and tonight, well, she'd just never been in such a nice place in her whole life—and she'd been in some fancy places. How could she not take advantage of the surroundings with a boy as charming as the one that she was currently in the arms of?
"Can I come in?" he breathed.
"I shouldn't," she groaned as his lips continued to plead his case against her jaw.
"Why not?"
"Rosa will be home," she argued.
"She was home last night," he reminded.
"Jas," she pushed his chest with her hands gently, needing air to formulate a reasonable response. "I had the most wonderful time, but I think that we shouldn't be in any hurry," she swallowed. "If you come in now," she trailed one hand that had been used to push him back down his chest. "It's just not how I want to do this."
He nodded, reluctantly, his eyes filled with desire to disobey her common sense and carry her though to her room. "Okay. Does that mean we'll be doing this again?"
"God, I hope so," she leaned up again and caught his lips against hers, surprising him a bit at first, but he pulled her back against him and nearly made her forget all her prior comments as he backed her against the door. When she felt the handle in her back, she let out a soft whimper.
"It's late," she whispered.
He nodded. "Enjoy your cake," he smirked and kissed her cheek once more before turning to leave her to unlock her door and creep back into her darkened room.
She didn't bother collecting herself or combing down wild hairs that had been mussed in the rather intense goodbye she'd just experienced. The thought to do so never entered her mind as when she opened her door she found light, not dark, and a crowd instead of emptiness.
There was music playing, and Rosa was laughing her head off as she seemed to be allowing her body to be steered around by Ambrose—doing some dance that she'd seen her great-grandparents do back she used to see them as a young girl at parties with their friends. It was definitely not a modern style of dance—it was much too involved for that. Her brother was seated on the couch next to Pax, both drinking out of darkened tumblers and now looking at her. She swallowed, not sure which one she minded seeing her like this more. She set her cake down on their mini-fridge as Rosa called out.
"Els, come help me!"
Not meeting the eyes of either seated boy, she moved to Ambrose and Rosa. "What are you doing here?"
"Taking up your gracious hospitality?" he offered.
"Or?"
"Dad banished me from the house while Jules' boyfriend came over to meet him."
"Nice," she shook her head.
"Move it, white boy," Rosa moved from Ambrose and grabbed Ella by the hips and hand. Rosa whipped her head around to face Ambrose for another second. "Oh, and take notes."
"What are we doing?" Ella asked.
"Jitterbugging," she smiled. "You can follow a lead, right?"
"Uh," she frowned.
"Unlikely," Jake said, which earned him a glare from his sister.
"Shut up," she stuck her tongue at him and nodded at Rosa. "Just come on," she sighed.
Rosa put the CD on repeat and the music began to swell again. Rosa walked her through a couple of steps, and having recognized them from her elder family member's parties from long ago, she picked up the steps quickly. Soon the girls were going full tilt, laughing and kicking their shoes off.
"I didn't know you could do that," Jake said as they slowed to a stop.
"Me either," she smirked.
"I mean, Mom can't even find a beat," he continued.
"Maybe I take after Dad, he can dance," she reminded.
Jake shrugged. "You're hopeless," he told Ambrose.
"If Ella can do it, so can I. Give me another lesson?" he stuck his lower lip out to Rosa in playful sorrow.
She laughed. "Why should I? You stepped on my foot earlier," she chastised.
"You stepped back," he pointed out.
"It's late," she said.
"Since when does that slow you down?" Ella tossed out at her friend, who narrowed her eyes at her. Ella shrugged, opened up the container of cake, and took a bite. Jake tried to swipe the fork from her hand, but she smacked at his.
"Get your own," she shook her head.
"At this hour?"
"Not to mention it's quite a drive to Belhurst," Pax chimed in. Ella caught his eye mid-chew and shrugged.
"'Suppose so."
"Wait, Belhurst Castle? Who'd you go out with, one of the Rockefellers?" Jake asked.
Ella rolled her eyes. "I'm tired. You sleeping in my room or out here?" she asked Jake as she stood up.
Jake looked to the dancing pair, wondering when the party would break up. "I guess on your floor."
"I'll get the extra mattress," she nodded and turned to go into her bedroom to get it ready for her impromptu visitor. She was tugging at the mattress in the back of her closet, where it'd been shoved by Will and Luke on her first night—after some weird comments from Luke about like mother, like daughter, and Rory's insistence that she really had forgotten in all the excitement of the summer to call the mattress removal guys—when she heard her door shut. She swiveled her head to see Pax moving toward her, his arms outstretched to grab the other side of the mattress.
"I can get it," she said quietly.
"I know," he said, continuing to help her heft the thing out nearly effortlessly with the force of both of their arms lifting it out of it's resting place. "I hope for his sake you washed your extra sheets," he said.
Ella smiled quickly, but wiped it away to resume her look of disdain. "I wouldn't do that to him."
He caught her sharp tone—as if he could miss it. "Ella," he sighed and sat down on the edge of her bed as she began to unfold sheets onto the top of the mattress on the ground. "I screwed up."
She shot him a look. "I know."
"I know you know," he breathed out loudly. "I'd say I don't know what came over me, but that's not true," he admitted. "I'd like to make it up to you."
She shrugged as she sat on her folded knees beside the now covered mattress. "How?"
"Well, I see that Jasper has beaten me to the ever popular chocolate cake," he smiled slightly, "But I do have other tricks up my sleeve."
"I highly doubt any of them taste as good at that cake," she said.
He smirked. "I thought you said you didn't want to compare us."
"It's really good cake."
"It was stupid of me to corner you like that."
"Yes," she nodded.
"I won't do it again."
Her eyes flashed. "Why did you?"
"Isn't it a bit early in our relationship to break out the brutal honesty?" he asked.
"We don't have a relationship," she reminded. "And unless you want to keep it that way," she warned.
"The way you were looking at him, and I knew where he'd take you tonight," he closed his eyes. "I couldn't stand to think," he opened his eyes.
"I was looking at you, too," she said softly. "You can't compare the two situations," she urged.
"It's all I can do! Dating more than one person is one thing, but you're not dating random people here. He's my best friend; we're everything the other isn't. That's why we get along so well, but when it comes to dating the same girl," he began.
"I don't want to be the cause of you two losing your friendship. Maybe it'd be easier if I just," her eyes welled up a bit, hating the thought of what she was about to say.
"I'll figure it out," he cut her off. "Just let me know if we're still on for tomorrow."
"Well, my brother is here now," she bit her lip.
"Let Rosa entertain them. She's good at it," he smiled softly.
"Okay. We're on," she nodded, standing up from her crouched position. She walked him to her door and lingered before touching the door handle. He looked like he might kiss her, and truth be told, no matter how much fun she'd had with Jasper tonight there was a part of her that had been aching to see what it felt like with Pax—they'd had so many 'almost' moments. She looked into his green eyes and waited.
"You're wrong, you know," he barely whispered.
"What?" she asked, clearly not hearing the words she thought she was in for.
"You said there was nothing between us—just because we haven't gone out, that doesn't mean there's nothing between us."
She gasped a bit as his hand came up to her cheek, this thumb stroking down the length of her cheekbone. Her eyes closed in anticipation of his lips seeking hers, but all she felt was his lips as they followed the same path as his thumb had. When he opened the door to slip out, he left her even more thunderstruck than she'd imagine he could, only managing to look after him as he smiled back and went out the main door. Her brother approached her, wanting entrance to the place where he had decided to crash for the night.
"What's with you?"
"Huh?" she asked, focusing her blue eyes on her brother's face.
"You look like Mom, right after—oh, God!" he groaned. "You didn't do anything on my mattress, did you?"
"I do not look like Mom," she turned and stalked off to her bed. He followed and shut the door, leaving Rosa to entertain Ambrose.
"Weren't you on a date with someone else tonight?"
"We didn't do anything!" she exclaimed, not willing to be hounded about this by her younger brother.
"He likes you."
"I know," she said, looking at him finally. "How do you know, did he talk about me?"
"He asked about you," he shrugged.
"What did he ask?"
Jake smirked. "Does it matter? You're dating someone else."
"I'm going out with Pax tomorrow night."
"You're back to this again?" he groaned.
"Back to what?" she demanded.
"Els, before you dated Billy, you dated every guy at our school."
"I did not," she rolled her eyes.
"You were a serial offender. You didn't wait for the last guy to get cold before you were on to the next one."
"This is different," she frowned.
"How?"
"It's just two guys—I just got out of a serious relationship! I'm allowed to date whomever I want. They both know about it."
"That makes it better?"
"What do you care? You're a guy, you should understand; it's not like they're not free to date other girls."
"What are you going to do, when you see them dating other girls?"
"What?"
"Wednesday afternoon, when you're dragging your ass to get coffee before class, and you see one of the guys you're stringing along, with their arm around some other girl as he buys her coffee—you're telling me you won't care one way or another?"
"Look, Jake, this is college," she tried to reason her unwillingness to discuss the topic further.
"Fine," he held up his hands. "I just wouldn't expect to get a chance to choose between these guys if you put the decision off too long."
She looked at him for a beat. "What did Pax ask?"
"If you normally dated more than one guy, what your favorite kind of flowers were," he started, then smiled. "And he asked me what I used to do to really drive you nuts when we were little."
Ella frowned. "He what?"
"Hey, you're dating him," Jake laid down on the mattress.
She peered down from her mattress. "Not yet. You told him about that?"
Jake laughed. "I still don't see why it bothered you so much."
"It's creepy!" she defended her behavior.
"Saying Beetlejuice three times in a row isn't going to drag you into the Netherworld," he laughed.
"It's the guy with the shrunken head," she glared at him. "Thanks a lot; I'm never going to be able to sleep now."
"So go out there and pry Am off of Rosa," he suggested, yawning to signify he'd have no trouble falling into a peaceful slumber.
"I'll give him another hour—by then she might be so tired she'd need the help," she pulled the covers up over her head, not wanting to see any shapes in the darkness that could be construed as anything that might shrink her head.