AN: Thank you for the reviews. Enjoy.
The next week, Lorelai and Rory walked towards the front door of the Gilmore mansion and looked at the boy between them. Jess was the picture of tranquility.
"You're not the least bit nervous, are you?" Rory asked as they stepped up to the large door, wanting to make sure he wasn't putting on some charade to put her at ease.
"No, I'm fine. Are you nervous?"
"Well, kind of; you're total calm is extremely disconcerting." She'd planned on passing Jess' message along tonight, but Emily had called the very next day after they'd been discussing it, and so here he was.
"Yeah, I mean, I grew up in that house," Lorelai added, looking him over with a reproachful eye. "I've been through two of these boyfriend-meets-the-parents dinners, this night isn't about me, and yet, I still don't want to go in there."
"First of all, I think you should be studied." Jess informed Lorelai. "You should be over these parental issues by now, surely. I mean, how old are you? And secondly," he added to Rory before he could be interrupted. "I have met these people before, so this will be fine. I have also spent time in Tristan's house, including a few meals, which means, I do know how to act. And as an added bonus, I grew up with Mrs. Kim always around to scare the crap out of me. I'm ready for this; we'll all be fine, now we just go inside?"
"I don't want to." Rory shook her head.
"I should be studied?" Lorelai repeated, gaping at him. "Have a nice walk home buddy."
"Oh, for the love of…" Jess reached forward and rang the bell before either of them could stop him. "Drama queens, the two of you are the biggest drama queens I've ever seen."
"Are not," Rory pouted.
"Are too," Jess insisted, smirking for a moment before the door swung open.
"Oh good, you're here, come in, come in." Emily instructed, stepping aside. "How was the drive?"
"Not bad," Rory replied, handing her coat to the mad who promptly disappeared once she'd put away the other two.
"That's very nice to hear. Hello, you're Jess, I presume? I'm Emily Gilmore."
"Hello, we've actually-"
"What smells so good Mom?" Lorelai asked, cutting him off, not wanting him to bother trying to explain that they'd already met. There was little point in that when it came to her parents.
"Oh, I'm afraid there's been a slight change of plans this evening,"
"Dinners been cancelled, and that's just some fancy air-freshener?" she asked hopefully.
"Unfortunately drinks have. It seems the maid who was sent to me from the agency this morning is incredibly feeble-minded and started dinner early, so if we don't eat now it will just go to waste. I'm very sorry about this Jess," she added, speaking to him over her shoulder as she led the way to the dining room. "We usually like to have drinks first; it allows us to get to know our guests the first time we meet." Jess opened his mouth to say something, but Rory shook her head and Lorelai spoke again quickly.
"How can you cancel drinks?" she demanded. "Drinks are an essential part of the evening. They're volatile, indispensible! They-"
"There will be wine with the meal, Lorelai there is always wine with the meal. Although, I'm not too sure you should be drinking any, considering the way you're acting and since you have to drive someone else's child home tonight, not to mention your own."
"Actually I'm driving." Rory cut in, taking her seat at the table. "I'm going to try for my license next week, so I'm trying to get in all the practice I can."
"That's wonderful Rory, I'm sure you'll do excellently."
"No wine for you, but I can have as much as I want," Lorelai added quietly just before her father's voice was heard from the sitting room.
"Terribly sorry to have kept everyone waiting, I- Emily?" he called out.
"We're in the dining room Richard."
"In the dining room what on earth for?"
"Louisa made an error, so we're eating early tonight. She'll be gone by the morning."
"Ah, well, here we all are. I'm sorry about that, did I miss anything earth-shattering?" he asked, coming in and taking his seat at the head of the table.
"I was just telling Mom about how I shattered the earth earlier today. They didn't cover that on the news?" Lorelai questioned, accepting the glass of wine the 'feeble-minded' maid handed her.
"No, I don't believe so. This must be the young man I've heard so much about. How are you my boy?" Richard stood up again and moved over to where Jess was also climbing to his feet and shook his hand.
"Heard so much-"
"Don't look at me," Rory shook her head; she'd tried her best to keep Jess out of conversations as much as possible since her first slip up.
"A friend of yours was in my office the other day, with his grandfather. Tristan DuGrey, I believe you attend Chilton with him?"
"Yes, right, Tristan. Yeah, he's actually the first friend I made there."
"Very good to hear, I always liked that boy; you've made a wise connection there." Rory tried to hide her smirk as Jess smiled and thanked the man a little hesitantly, suddenly growing worried, trying to think of what Tristan may have said.
"Is something wrong Mom?" Lorelai asked, watching her mother looking around in irritation.
"I just can't believe this! That woman is an imbecile. First she misplaces my dry-cleaning slip, then she disrupts the order in which we conduct out meals and now that we're sitting here, waiting for the food and thirsty, I might add, she has the audacity to withhold our dinner! The second she puts those plates down, the very second, I am going to fire her incompetent-"
"Maybe we can hold off on the name-calling, huh? Wait and make sure our food hasn't been tampered with in some harmful way, how's that sound?"
"I'm going to see what's taking so long." Emily decided, throwing her napkin down on the table and pushing her chair back, apparently not hearing a word from her daughter. "Louisa? Louisa where are you?"
"Mom seems to be pretty mellow these days, right Dad?"
"Hmm, what's that? Yes, I suppose so. Now Jess, tell me, how are you doing at Chilton?"
"I think I'm doing alright at the moment. I'm all caught up in everything now, so hopefully I can stay that way. I'd like to think the Latin test next Tuesday isn't going to hurt me too much."
"How can you have another test?" Rory queried, astonished. "When do you even have time to learn anything to be tested on?"
"They squeeze things in now and then." Jess shrugged.
"Tristan mentioned something about the school paper, is that something that you're interested in pursuing?" Richard started again and Jess chewed his lip. I think Tristan and I need to have a talk of our own, he thought.
"Uh, the paper… yeah, it's good. I like it. I mean, its fun, and, well, not all fun. I'm learning stuff too. And I enjoy the opportunity to write."
"Wonderful to hear. What about your plans for the future? Have you given any thoughts to which college you'd like to attend?"
"Oh, well, umm,"
"And we're off," Lorelai mumbled.
"I'm just asking the boy a question, Lorelai."
"Yes, I know Dad. It's the same question you started dinner with the last two times we did this, remember?"
"Christopher was from a prominent family, he and Luke both attended a prestigious school." All three dinner guests tensed slightly at the mention of Rory's father, but not noticeably, and Richard continued talking. "I thought it only natural to ask what they planned to do with their lives. Many Chilton students go on to the Ivy league."
"Chilton students?" Jess asked, confused.
"You do know that your uncle was at Chilton with Rory's parents, don't you?"
"No, I-"
"Here we are, dinner is served." Emily announced, walking back into the room, a tight smile on her face as Louisa followed, carrying the plates.
"Ah, well. This looks lovely." Richard smiled and picked up his fork, beginning to eat as both Lorelai and Rory looked at Jess, he seemed completely mystified.
Rory walked slowly beside Jess, her arm linked through his as they returned to the car later that night. "How are you doing?" she asked carefully as he got into the back seat.
"Uh, yeah, you know, still processing." He replied. Rory shared a look with her mother as she put the car in drive and they headed away from the house.
"Are you sure Luke never mentioned anything?" Lorelai asked, glancing at the boy in the rearview mirror.
"Not about going to Chilton. Although, come to think of it, I should have guessed,"
"Why?"
"It was so easy for me to get in. At the time, I thought that had something to do with my academic records, but I realize that was only part of it. That would only count for so much for everyone. The fact that Luke went there had to of helped. And when he came to help with a project we were doing he looked as if he really didn't want to go in."
"Did he sort of pause on the sidewalk, and take a few deep breaths before shaking his head and finally going in?" Lorelai asked.
"Yeah, how'd you know that?"
"I saw him do the same thing each morning when he got there back in the day."
"So when I was going through the year book that I found in the closet, I should have mentioned this to you?" Rory checked, keeping her eyes on the road like she did every time she drove now, ever since Luke barked that order at her the first time they'd gone to one of these dinners.
"I don't know, maybe. It probably would have been better that way, so I didn't spend half the night sputtering and gaping, like a fish. God those people must think I'm such a moron."
"No, they don't." Rory reassured him. "Grandpa liked you, I'm sure."
"Oh yeah." Lorelai agreed. "Finally having someone in the house who shared his love of Papa? This was a great day for Richard Gilmore."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes, absolutely. You didn't see it, coz, you were still trying to work out which fork to use – nice work bluffing your way through, by the by - but as soon as you said the man's name, there was a twinkle in my father's eye. I found it a little disturbing."
"I wasn't bluffing. I told you, Tristan's house was just like that place, only there was less conversation, less interest in my presence, actually, Tristan's was so much better."
"Ah, but did you get a kiss goodnight after having dinner at Tristan's?" Rory enquired, glancing over her shoulder as she came to a red light.
"Yes, actually, when we got to my house, he-"
"Stop it! Oh God!"
"You are a very strange child, are you aware of that?"
"Hmm, I had an inkling thank you for confirming my suspicions."
"My pleasure,"
"I don't have to do this again, do I? Come to one of these dinners? Because they're nice people, but…"
"I think you're off the hook for a while." Rory told him. "Unless Grandpa grows bored of me and decides he wants his Hemingway buddy back. But if that happens, we can always do that thing that we discussed."
"I may just take you up on that."
"Take her up on what? What did you discuss?"
"A break-up for the grandparents benefit,"
"Oh that's good. How come I never came up with that?"
"Because you're not me. And you lived there, so it would have been a smidgen more difficult to convince them. Thankfully I dodged that particular bullet."
"Yes I think we're all thankful of that," Lorelai replied as they pulled over in front of her building. "Ok, well thank you for the drive Jeeves. I guess I'll see you upstairs in a few?"
"Uh, yeah. See you in a few." Rory replied, climbing out of the car and moving towards Jess as Lorelai headed inside. "I didn't think she'd ever leave."
"You mean you expected her to disappear when we were in a moving car?"
"Well, I had hopes." Rory replied as they started walking in the direction of Jess' house.
"That's an impressive notion."
"I'm an impressive girl."
"I see that." Jess looked around for a moment and stopped Rory. "Where are you going?" he asked.
"I'm walking you home."
"But I was under the impression that the guy was supposed to walk the girl home."
"I guess that means that when we get to your place you'll just have to turn around and escort me back, won't you?"
"It looks that way." He commented as they came to his driveway. "So how does this work exactly? Are we supposed to say goodnight here, turn around and do it again when we get to Lorelai's?"
"That sounds good to me," Rory grinned and kissed Jess as he brought his hands up to cup her face. "How long do you suppose we can stay out here before anyone notices we're missing?"
"Probably not too long, Mom was a little worried about me going to that dinner, so there's probably a very good chance she's gonna start watching out the window for my return any second. Unless she already has,"
"Well in that case we'd better get me back home so you can go and calm her down." Rory started walking back in the direction of town again and Jess reached out to take hold of her hand before she could get too far.
"So, are you really sure they don't hate me?" he asked after a moment of walking in silence.
"Of course they don't. Aside from you're living in this town, I'm pretty sure they wish I had the life you have. You're smart, nice to people, you get along with your mother and, despite the fact that you never answered that question about college, you have plans. If they could switch me for you, I bet they would."
"No they wouldn't."
"How do you know?"
"Because you're perfect." Rory turned to look at Jess and he shook his head self-consciously. "I mean, you're… Exactly what I said, what the hell? You're perfect. But also, you're they're granddaughter, they know very little about me, I hope – remind me to talk to Tristan in the morning – they've leaned things about you these last few months and I'm pretty sure that they like most of what they know."
"Aww, that's nice. My grandparents like me and I'm perfect. I should get you to walk through town in the cold multiple times a night more often. Do you think if we did another lap you'd have more to say about me?"
"I'm not so sure I can top 'you're perfect'. But maybe later we can give it another go and I'll see what I can come up with."
"That sounds fair." Rory stopped outside her mom's building and took Jess' other hand. "So this one's for real? You sure we can't have another practice goodnight?"
"This one is for real. Sorry, but I think that at this point both of our mother's are sitting up waiting for us." Rory glanced up at the window that looked out of the living room of her mom's place and sighed.
"Yeah, you're probably right. Ok. Well, good night then," she dropped his hand and took a step towards the entrance, but Jess still held her left hand and pulled her back towards him.
"What happened to that kiss I was promised in the car?" he asked, his mouth hovering by her ear.
"Who promised? I just asked if you got one the night you were with Tristan. I never said you'd get one from me. Although, you did at your house, so-" he kissed her, cutting off her excuses and she smiled against his lips.
"You talk too much."
"That's not possible, because if I'm perfect then there can't be anything that I do too much or too little of. Look it up, or think of a more appropriate word next time." Rory instructed and Jess shook his head.
"Good night crazy."
"Oh, hey, are you going to ask Luke about Chilton tomorrow?"
"I don't know. If he wanted me to know, he would have said something, right?"
"Yeah, I guess. But now you know, and he should know you know, shouldn't he?"
"Maybe. I'll think about it."
"Ok, well as long as you're ok with it,"
"I think I can deal."
"Good. I'm going to go inside now, unless you object to that?"
"No, I suppose I really can't, can I? You go. I'll see you tomorrow."
"Yes you will." Rory kissed him again before stepping back towards the door of the building. "Go on, get out of here," she instructed, pushing the door open and walking in backwards.
"Night," Jess called out and Rory waved as he walked away.
AN: Review.