The girls had some time to themselves after Obama won the nomination in Denver; they were off until September sixth.

Lydia and Daniel took the opportunity to make a quick trip home to Ottawa to do the meet-the-parents thing before Daniel and Jess had to start a new academic year at Temple on September second. Because Daniel had come into Temple with more transfer credits than Jess, and with Jess doing a full course load through the summers, they were both in fact due to graduate with their Master's at the same time -in 2011, after four years instead of the traditional five.

Rory and Jess split her time off between Stars Hollow and Philadelphia.

News that Rory had a byline in the Times took off like wildfire –much to Taylor's delight, it boosted tourism in Stars Hollow beyond his wildest dreams. Kirk was selling a whole series of commemorative tee shirts and Miss Patty staged a dramatic reenactment of Rory and Lydia's big U.S. Attorney interview –Sookie was persuaded to play Lydia while Lulu played Rory. Sookie recounted the entire absurd tale for Rory and Jess when they got into town. Framed copies of Rory's article in the Times were proudly displayed in the window of every storefront and business in town.

Whenever she wasn't with her mom and Luke, Rory over at Lane's. She was in awe of how the twins had grown and rendered speechless at witnessing the adorableness of Uncle Mess first hand. Jess played with Steve and Kwan, he sang to them, he fed them, he knew how to soothe them when they cried and took one of them off Lane's hands if they were both fussy at once.

"Stop looking at me like that," he smirked at Rory when he caught her staring.

"Sorry, it's just –"

"I know. Five years ago I hated everyone, now I'm good with babies. Trust me, its way weirder for me than it is for you."

"I keep asking him to babysit and he always refuses and then I remind him that he essentially does it anyways," Lane laughed.

"Number one, I'm not here that much, Lane," Jess chuckled.

"True, but when you are, you're a glorified babysitter Jess. You shouldn't feel bad –being good with babies is totally rock and roll. If you don't believe me, talk to Gil."

"No thanks. Number two, you're always here when I'm with the babies. If you think I'd ever actually let you leave me alone with them, you're nuts. You have Zach –you had an opportunity to sucker me into babysitting when he was on tour and you didn't, that ship has sailed."

Rory, Jess, Lorelai and Luke made time to have dinner with Emily and Richard. Jess still couldn't get over the weirdness of the fact that Emily and Richard didn't answer the door at their own house. When a maid offered to take his jacket, Jess stifled a small laugh and politely declined, asking where the closet was, assuring her that he could put it away himself. With a trembling hand, the maid pointed to the closet and begged that he not tell Mrs. Gilmore that he hadn't let her take his coat –she needed to keep her job.

"Christ, Ror –your grandmother puts the fear of God in these people," he quipped.

"No, she doesn't –God's got nothing on the wrath of Emily Gilmore, mini-Sly," Lorelai whispered, overhearing his comment.

After drinks, during which Jess was given the gears about not coming to see to see Emily and Richard before now, they sat down to dinner –Jess' eyes went wide at the intricacy of the place setting. He'd never seen so many forks, spoons and knives laid out for a single meal before.

"This is a little ridiculous. Are we actually going to use all these?" Jess asked.

"If you know what's good for you and you don't want to incur the wrath of my grandma, you will," Rory answered.

"Believe me, I don't –I've grown out of my wrath-incurring phase, thank you very much. I'm in no hurry to revisit it, ever. Especially with your grandmother," Jess whispered.

"I know it's a more complicated place setting than most humans are used to but if you get confused about which cutlery goes with which course just start from the outside –"

"And work my way in. I know. I've seen Titanic Ror, just like everyone else in the world. I'm very hip to Kathy Bates' wisdom about fancy place settings. I'm just happy that there aren't any raisons in the salad this time," he winked.

Richard and Jess got into a pleasant conversation about how well his first year at Temple had gone and how happy he and Emily were that his car accident from the winter had not ended up being a much more serious matter.

Their silence around Thanksgiving and Christmas was in no way meant to be misconstrued as them not caring, Emily explained –they simply thought it best to leave Jess alone during that time so that he could be surrounded by loved ones while he focused on getting better rather than being concerned about putting on a brave face for his not-even grandparents-in-law, to whom he was not related and owed nothing –assuming that grandparents-in-law were even a thing. While in the not-too-distant past Emily's comment about not owing them anything because they weren't related might have been perceived –and even intended- as an insult, Jess knew the sentiment was genuine. Before thinking twice, he heard himself tell them that when the day came that he and Rory were ready to get married –while assuring them that that day was still years off- he would gladly refer to them as grandparents-in-law given that he never had any grandparents as his own.

With sentimentality out of the way, conversation between Richard and Jess quickly turned to golf. Jess had grown close with Richard since his heart attack –it actually started with their heart-to-heart conversation at Truncheon a few days prior to his hospitalization that no one besides himself and Richard knew of, to this day- but he had a hard time not being so bored by golf talk that it could have lulled him into a very ill-timed nap. Jess snapped out of his daze when he heard Richard invite him to come to the club to play a few holes.

"Golf is a wonderfully relaxing sport Jess," Richard said, "just a man, his clubs and a ball on a green. Nothing else compares to it."

"That's really nice of you to invite me, Richard, but I'm not sure golf is exactly my thing," Jess replied politely.

"Have you ever played?"

"No, never tried it."

Well then –nonsense. How can you be sure if it's 'not your thing,' if you've never played? You must come to the club with me."

"Don't do it," Luke said to Jess as they drove back to Stars Hollow after dinner.

"Don't do what?" Jess asked.

"Play golf with Richard. Believe me, golf is a pretty innocuous sport, but not when you play it with Richard Gilmore. Over the course of one golf game, he'll convince you to franchise Truncheon and formulate a new life ambition to become the next Stephen King of the literary world."

Jess laughed quietly. "That's a little extreme, don't you think, Uncle Luke? I mean yeah, golf is pretty yawn worthy and it's not like I'd ever actually find it fun –but it's just golf. How bad could it possibly be –boredom notwithstanding?"

"Just golf," Luke chuckled under his breath. "That's exactly what he wants you to think."

"Okay, but I remember you telling me about all that –Emily and Richard were trying to break you and Lorelai up, right? Emily and Richard, as much as I never thought I'd live to see the day where I knew it was genuinely true –they like me, Luke; they're not interested in me and Rory breaking up… anymore," Jess said, before resting his head against the window and letting out a deep breath.

"You okay, Dodger?" Rory asked, lacing her fingers between Jess' and giving his hand a loving squeeze.

"Yeah, it's just fairly freaksome that your grandparents are onboard with me, nor do they want to lock you away in a tower when they hear casual mention of us spending our lives together. It's the good kind of strange, but it's strange as hell," Jess chuckled breathlessly.

"You have a point there," Rory agreed. "But so does Luke –even if the intentions aren't to scare you away and even if there are no malicious ulterior motives whatsoever- golf with Grandpa is never just golf with Grandpa," she laughed.

"Great, ex-nay on the golf-say. Got it."


Jess and Rory's time in Philadelphia was blissful –Rory didn't realize how much she'd missed all the Truncheon boys. Rory was inexplicably excited that she got to be in Philadelphia as Jess started his second year at Temple –her inner academia enthusiast couldn't help but be more proud of her boyfriend's college journey than she was even at her own.

Jess came home from his first day of American Lit with a mischievous smirk on his face.

"What's so amusing Jess?"

"Guess what we're reading in American Lit?"

"What?"

"Ginsberg –Howl, to be exact."

"No way!" Rory said excitedly. "That is so awesome. I like this class of yours."

"Odds are, I'll be writing my term paper on it –I mean we have other choices, but come on, how can I not?" Jess laughed.

Rory rolled her eyes. "Way to challenge yourself, Mariano." After some thought, she looked at him with a mischievous grin of her own. "You know what would be challenging? And fun? And sexy?"

Jess closed the distance between them and wrapped his arms around her. "What would that be?"

"We got each other the same book for our anniversary this year –we gifted each other with erotic Howl…"

"We did."

"So, wouldn't it be fun –if you're writing a term paper on Ginsberg's Howl for American Lit- if we wrote our own term papers? For each other, on dirty Howl?" Rory asked in a seductive whisper.

"As long as the grading is purely driven by a sex-based reward system," Jess smirked.

"Of course."

"Well, that'll definitely keep things fun and interesting. It'll get us through the last leg of the campaign, that's for sure."

"That it would. And hey, if we're writing sex papers, that means we get to devise the said sex-based reward system we'll be using to grade each other's… work."

"Sign me up. We can work on the rubric together, but reserve the right to come up with fun, unexpected bonuses. Rubrics in this case are working documents that can be changed at any time. We should come up with surprising twists for each other."

"I'm with you," Rory nodded. "But one more thing."

"What?" Jess asked.

"Your American Lit class is one term. It runs from September to December, right?"

"Yeah."

"So, our dirty Howl papers are due to each other at the same time that your term ends."

"But you'll be moving to Philly a month before term ends…"

"Too bad. You're studying American Lit and writing a term paper on Howl that you're handing in at the end of term before you break for Christmas; therefore, we will exchange, grade –and reward- each other's papers on dirty, erotic Howl at Christmas."

"You drive a hard bargain," Jess said against Rory's skin, sucking on her neck softly. "But you have a deal."

"Just make sure you don't hand in the paper meant for me to your American Lit professor," Rory giggled. "That would be a disaster."

"I'll make sure," Jess said, leaning in so close to whisper in her ear that the heat from his breath gave her goose bumps, "you have no idea what kinds of ideas are already swirling around in my head about grades and rewards. When I'm done with you, you're hardly going to be able to walk."

"I'm counting on it. What makes you think you'll be able to walk?" Rory asked in a whisper before kissing Jess deeply.


On Friday October tenth Lydia and Rory arrived in Philadelphia to cover a rally for Obama the next day, where the newly minted Democratic presidential nominee would be speaking. The outdoor event was orchestrated to take place on Locust Street, no less. The rally was also on Saturday, which meant that Daniel and Jess could attend with Lydia and Rory and that the girls could spend the whole weekend –Friday morning to Sunday morning- in Philadelphia.

Jess had done some apartment hunting for Rory and he'd set up a few appointments for showings for both Rory and Lydia to go to. He was excited by the fact that Rory's presence in Philadelphia that weekend was for so much more than just work –in a way, this weekend marked the very beginning of the next phase of their lives. Jess was just as invested in making sure that Lydia liked their prospective homes –Lydia was his friend and he wanted to do right by her. He set up viewings on Friday afternoon, as it was the only time they really had to accomplish this particular task. He'd found about half a dozen buildings that met the vague requirements the girls had and Jess was sure that between six buildings they were bound to find an available unit they both liked. Both Lydia and Rory were very aware of their time crunch and they were ready, willing, even hoping to sign a lease that weekend –they had less than a month before the campaign was over and they needed to have a place to live. Now was the only time they had to find it.

Daniel's twenty-first birthday was that day as well. Jess had no idea that Daniel's birthday was literally days after Rory's. One thing was for sure –there'd be lots of celebrating, the girls weren't just in town for work. The necessity and the proper opportunity for the four of them to have a little fun together as friends was a welcome change.

"How did I not know your birthday was so close to Rory's, Dani Boy?" Jess asked on Friday evening. They were sitting at the bar, waiting for the girls to arrive from a press meeting being held in advance of the rally the next day. Because Daniel was turning twenty-one and finally able to drink in the land of the free, they started a little early.

"We barely knew each other at this time last year," Daniel answered.

"That's not true!"

"Fine, you were too busy explaining all the details of why you needed me to buy you a Canadian Mounty hat and then arguing with me over the merits of apple pie. It must have slipped my mind."

Jess chuckled at the memory.

"Hey, look! It's the woman I love! Hey, woman I love!" Daniel yelled when he saw Lydia walk in with Rory.

"Yeah, you know, I'm just going by Lydia now," she answered with a laugh.

"I love you, Carrots."

"I love you too, Daniel."

"How was your meeting?"

"Good. Tomorrow's rally should be a really great event. Hey Jess, how awesome is it that it's on Locust Street?"

"Pretty awesome," Jess smiled and slipped his arm around Rory's waist. "What did you ladies think of the apartments you saw today? Any winners?"

Rory nodded, beaming. "We signed a lease!"

"You did? Which one? Where?"

"Hamilton Court, on Chestnut at 38th."

Jess leaned in and kissed Rory deeply, tangling his fingers in her hair. "You're moving here," he said quietly, his cheeks hurting from smiling so widely. "You're really moving here. Rory!"

Rory held Jess' cheek in her palm. "There's nowhere else I'd rather be."

Jess laughed as though he didn't have a care in the world –because he didn't. The love of his life was moving to Philadelphia in a matter of weeks –not years or months, but weeks- and he couldn't remember ever being this happy before. He picked her up in his arms and twirled her around. "I love you, Rory Gilmore. Happy birthday."

"My birthday was two days ago," Rory giggled.

"I know, but you're here now."

"I love you too, Jess."

"I love you three, Jess," Lydia laughed. "The apartment we signed on today is beautiful. The building is perfect and the amenities are great –we even have central air. Two bedrooms for under nineteen fifty! It's way cheaper for us, splitting the rent to live there together than to pay for a smaller one bedroom on our own in the same building. It's still pricey but you can tell that's a place where people live most of their lives, not just a few years –everything about it is amazing. How did you find that place?"

"I have my ways," Jess smirked. "No magic tricks, though. I just pounded the pavement and did some hardcore research. Plus, I know Rory and what she likes, aesthetically and financially. Lucky for me, you two have similar tastes. Besides which, I was basically looking for an apartment for myself. I love that you two are going to be living together, but what's yours now will be mine in a few years," he winked.

"Well, thank you," Lydia smiled, pulling him into a hug.

"No problem, Anne girl."

"I can't believe you're moving here, Lydia," Daniel said wistfully.

"I know. Are you excited?"

"Yeah. I want to have a nice, moderately boring life with you."

"Me too. Moderately boring sounds good."

"Jess, thanks for finding the woman I love a place to live," Daniel said.

"No problem, buddy. Happy to help," Jess laughed.

"Seriously, why is he having such a hard time calling me Lydia tonight? It's his birthday, so how does that explain that he's suddenly a bit of a simpleton?" Lydia asked with a laugh.

"It's his twenty-first birthday, Lydia," Jess explained. "Your boy here can finally get shmammered in the land of the free! He didn't start hard, but he started early –he's a little –"

"Shmammered?"

"Exactly. Evidently, Americans make more serious alcohol than whatever they have up in the great white North."

"No they don't," Daniel interjected. "No you don't. I've just had more…"

"And why shouldn't you? Embrace it, Frenchie. You can drink everywhere now, which means you should drink a little more tonight –because you can have more."

"You seem to have all your wits about you, Jess," Rory whispered.

"Yup, because Frenchie's a few drinks ahead of me. He's my friend Rory, my friend who's only turning twenty-one just this once. What kind of friend would I be if I let him see the bottom of his glass?" Jess winked.

Lydia leaned in close. "How many has had, exactly?"

"He'll be a little hung over in the morning, but nothing serious. He's a little happy right now, that's all; he's not even slurring his words. I wasn't gonna let him have many more –he'll still be able to be at the rally tomorrow and be no worse for wear. You won't have to help him hug the toilet, I promise. You'll still have a good night," Jess said quietly, with a smile. "Did you really think I'd let him get sloppy and put a damper on your whole weekend here?"

"Okay, good," Lydia sighed. "But if you are at all wrong or off in your estimation, I'm breaking a slate over your head."

"Trust me. If I'm wrong, I'll happily go so far as to provide you with the slate."

Lydia laughed as she and Jess shook on it.

"One more round –a round with our ladies and then everyone goes home happy," Jess said, signaling the bartender. "It's on me. Rory's not paying for herself because it was her birthday two days ago and Daniel's not paying for you, because it's his birthday today and he's shmammered. Between Rory's birthday, Frenchie's birthday and you guys signing a lease today, we have some celebrating to do. What'll you have, Carrots?"

"You don't get to call me –" Lydia started

"Oh relax, Daniel will call you Carrots later. Now, do want to show your boyfriend how Canadians can hold American liquor, or don't you?"

"Rum and Coke –dark rum."

Jess laughed. "She even knows how to drink like a boss. What do you want, Ror?"

"Mmm I want something sugary… Singapore sling, please," Rory smiled.

"Sure, but I'm ordering nachos too. Eat. Can't have you waking up with a headache for the big event tomorrow. Plus, we're gonna have some fun later that you'll want to have energy and no headache for."

"When have you ever had to tell me to eat?"

"Touché. Are nachos enough?"

"Lydia and I had dinner at the meeting, so yeah."

"And by 'dinner' she means a salad, a main plate and dessert," Lydia laughed. "Banquet food, but still… I'll never get used to how this woman eats!"

"That's my Ror, ever the marvel," Jess smiled. "You want anything else, Lydia?"

"Has Daniel eaten enough to sop up some of that alcohol?"

"Of course I have," Daniel insisted.

"Good. Forgive me for checking in with a trustworthy source. Have I said happy birthday since I walked in here?"

"No."

"Happy birthday, my love," Lydia smiled, kissing him full on the lips.

Jess cleared his throat when their drinks arrived. "A toast –to friends, to love, to birthdays and apartment leases and to the ass-kicking Senator from Chicago who brought us all together to form a very unlikely foursome. Next time we're together like this, raising a glass, may it be to Rory and Lydia's new home and our new ass-kicking president. Thank you for your big dreams, Obama –you make Americans proud to be American and you saw to it that two beautiful Canadians found each other. Oh, Canada!"


A/N: The campaign era might be winding down (there's still the historicalness of the night he was elected), but get ready for the blissful, domesticated, happy couples era! Plus, you know, a certain swearing-in ceremony!