A/N: So, how does one do a Christmas chapter when the timeline for the story is in March?...Carefully. Merry Christmas, everyone. And thank you for the reviews, support and well wishes. I'm overwhelmed with everyone who took the time to send me a message. Thank you.


The Grinch won't steal Christmas

"Santa Claus!" Rory exclaimed, pausing the movie.

"What fictional character is said to deliver present to children on Christmas?" Jess asked, a confused look on his face. "Sorry, I thought we were playing Jeopardy." He chuckled when she slapped his leg, placing a kiss on her shoulder. "Though, to be fair, you didn't give me a category…"

"What are we telling baby about Santa?"

"That he's a fictional character that delivers present to children on Christmas?" He shrugged, laughing again. "Why are we having this conversation in March?"

"Because I was watching reruns of Home Improvement earlier and I remembered I wanted to ask your thoughts on this."

"I have none." Jess picked up his coffee cup, looking longingly at the TV. "Can we finish the movie now?"

"Jess, this is serious!"

"Why can this not wait until she's actually born and old enough to care? I doubt a five month old will remember anything about Christmas, we can get away with it until next year."

"But I want to settle this now!"

"Why?"

"Because I'm insane, that's why." She stuck out her tongue, laughing. "I don't care if it's March, I want to have a definitive answer on whether or not our daughter will grow up believing there's a Santa Claus."

"Christ." He sighed again, shaking his head. "Your mother is going to drive me crazy one of these days, kid." He smirked at her stomach. "I'm going to assume you're voting yes on the issue."

"I'm not voting. I want to hear what you think first."

"I don't care. And honestly, even if I do, there's no way I'm stupid enough to try to fool myself thinking that you and Lorelai are going to let me get away with ruining poor Brett's Christmas from now until the end of time by not making her believe that some random fat guy with a beard delivers presents."

"She's not just my kid. And mom doesn't get a vote. If you don't want a Santa, then we won't do it." She smiled softly, trying to appease him. "We're in this together."

"So if I say no Santa…?"

"Then I would like to know why, but we'd end up not doing Santa."

"Ror, I'm not saying I don't want to do this. I just don't see the point in telling her that Santa gets her presents."

"So you want the glory?"

"No." He shook his head, smirking. "I just…I don't know. I don't care. We'll do Santa if that's what you want. Fuck knows I want her to have as normal of a childhood as possible and Santa's just that, isn't it?"

"Did you never, even for a little bit believe in Santa when you were a kid?" Rory ran her fingers through his hair, leaning forward and kissing his forehead.

"In Liz's house? You're cute." Jess laughed, shaking his head again. "I didn't exactly have presents, let alone a Santa."

"No presents?"

"Not unless Luke sent them." Shrugging, he kissed her softly, seeing her expression change. "No crying."

"But…"

"No crying." He repeated more forcibly, placing quick kisses on her lips and nose. "Please."

"Right, tell your emotional pregnant wife not to cry." Rory giggled, wiping her eyes at the same time. "She wants to hug you too." She took his hands, placing it on her stomach.

"I think you're the one out of the two of us that needs cheering up." He remarked, pulling her into a hug, his hand still lingering on her bump. "So, Santa? Yes or no in the end?"

"I say yes. If only so we can get the pictures of her with him." She smiled, twisting her head enough to place a kiss on his cheek. "I used to love doing that when I was a kid."

"I know, you've made me sit through the endless string of pictures." He smirked, placing a small kiss behind her ear.

"Hey, Luke has one of you, Mister I-never-believed-in-Santa."

"He paid me 20 dollars." He shrugged, thinking of the day the now infamous picture had been taken.


"Jess, please." The man sighed, looking at the seven year old boy who was sitting on the plastic chair, a book hiding most of his face.

"No."

"Your mom will like it."

"Mom won't care." He sighed, shaking his head. "She didn't care about my school picture either."

"I thought you looked very good in it." Luke clenched his fists, trying not to get annoyed with his sister. "Plus, your mom's got a job now, things are going to be better for you guys."

"She's had four jobs this year."

Standing up, Luke walked around the table, pulling the book down gently to be able to look at the child. "Jess, she's trying really, really hard to do what's best for both of you. And she loves you, you know that, right?"

Rolling his eyes, Jess glanced anxiously at his book, wanting to get back to it.

"Ok, if you don't want to do it for her, how about you do it for me? I have your other pictures at home, I'll take this one with me and put it next to them."

"No."

"I'll buy you a book?" He tried to bribe him and Jess' eyes lit up as he weighed up the offer in his head.

"No." He decided after a while, shaking his head again.

"Two books?"

"No."

"Fine, I'll get you a book and twenty dollars."

"Pleasure doing business with you, uncle Luke." The boy extended his arm, still smirking and Luke shook it, ruffling his hair.


"Seriously?"

"Oh, yeah." He nodded, kissing her head again. "What, you honestly thought that was the face of a kid that wanted to be there?"

"I think you looked very cute."

"There's got to be some sort of rule against smoking crack while pregnant."

Pulling away from him, she stuck her tongue out, giggling at the same time. "Nah, don't think so."

"Good to know, I'll get the pipe out." Jess smirked as well, leaning over and kissing her quickly. "When she finds out that there's no Santa, you don't get to pout for ages though."

"Depends, are you planning on having anything to do with that discovery? Because if you don't want to play along, we should just not do it altogether."

"I'll eat the damned carrots if you want me to." He admitted, nodding, his hand resting on her stomach again. "Whatever."

"Sing Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer?"

"Ok, almost whatever. You two can sing all you want, I'm staying away from that."

"Spoilsport."

"No way." Jess shook his head, picking up his coffee cup only to find it empty. "I do reserve the right to direct her to you when she's old enough to have any serious inquiries about his existence because I'm not going to be the one that tries to convince her not to tell all the other kids on the playground about this."

"To be fair, you'd probably be the one spilling the beans." Rory snickered, looking at the mug in his hand. "Were you going to go get more?"

"Why, yes, I was. I assume…"

"I love you." She grinned, nodding.

"How long until we can have a robot Rosie around the house, getting us drinks instead?"

"A while, I think."

"Can I train Brett instead?"

Rolling her eyes, Rory nodded. "As soon as she's old enough to walk. Now go get me coffee."

"Yes, master." He replied, standing up and picking her empty cup as well. Following him into the kitchen a couple of minutes later, Rory wrapped her arms around his waist, hugging him as close as she could, pressing her bump against him.

"Remember our first Christmas together?"

"First time around or this time?"

"I saw you for like five whole minutes when we were in high school." She laughed, shaking her head. "You didn't want to share any holiday cheer."

"Trust me, I wouldn't be doing it now either if I had a choice."

"You have a choice."

"Not if I want to spend any time with you, I don't." Jess turned around in his arms, tilting his head towards the coffee machine. "Still brewing, gonna take a minute or so."

"Ok. No, I was thinking this time."


A few years earlier.

"Christmas, Christmas, Christmas!" Rory bounced on the bed in the diner apartment, laughing. "Get up, Grinch."

"No." Jess mumbled, pulling her down, his arms wrapped tightly around her. "Evil plan succeeded. Now you can't leave the bed either."

"Jess!" Rory tried to escape, laughing too hard to actually be able to fight him off. "Mean." She placed a kiss on his lips when she calmed down.

"Still not letting you go."

Curling up closer to him, Rory smiled contently when he kissed the top of her head. "I like Christmas."

"I know."

"Do you know that enough to let me get out of bed and find presents?"

"No." He smirked, hugging her closer. "No getting out of bed. I asked Santa for a week of being in bed with you."

"Maybe you've just been naughty all year."

"I probably have." He chuckled, flipping her over quickly, propping himself up on his arms above her. "What are you going to do about it?"

"Jess, come on. Mom's waiting downstairs. She's going to barge in if I don't join her for breakfast soon."

"I locked the door."

"Luke has another set of keys."

"Left the key in the door. Not that stupid." He chuckled, kissing her softly. "You're supposed to get presents on Christmas morning, isn't that how it works?"

"Ok, then let me get your presents." She tried to escape, still laughing.

"It's ok, you don't have to get out of bed for that. Or, you know, we can, if that's what…"

"Jess!" Slapping his chest, she weaseled out from under him, jumping out of bed, her hands on her hips. "I'm getting dressed and going downstairs. We have to be at Lane's soon or we won't get to see the twins opening their presents. Then there's Liz, because she made me promise I'll drag you there so you can spend some time with her and Doula without everyone else there and then we have to get ready for dinner."

"Breathe."

"Can't, I'm excited!" She clapped her hands, laughing. "It's Christmas!"

"I know." Standing up, he tangled their fingers together, placing a soft kiss on her lips. "Merry Christmas, Ror."

"Merry Christmas."

"Close your eyes for a second."

"So you can drag me back to bed? No way, mister."

"Ror?"

"Fine." She sighed, determined to not let him move her. After a bit of rustling, he kissed her.

"Open 'em." Handing her a small package, he shrugged, smiling at the same time. "I already said merry Christmas."

"Jess, we weren't supposed to be doing presents until later."

"I didn't want everyone there when I gave you this. Open it." He instructed and she bit her lip, ripping the paper away. Opening the small box, she saw a necklace and bit her lip, looking back at Jess.

"Jess, this isn't silly."

"I didn't know it was a requirement for presents to be."

"This is beautiful." She ignored him, glancing back at the necklace.

"I love you, Ror."

"I love you too." She whispered back, kissing him. "Thank you." Taking the necklace out of the box, she looked at him and Jess nodded, motioning for her to turn around. "Looks good?" She asked when she turned around to face him again, anxious.

"You're beautiful."

"The necklace, silly."

"Don't really care about the necklace."


"And then you proceeded to drag me to every single damn thing on your list, without any concern for my anti-social heart." Jess' voice pulled her out of her reverie, as he placed a kiss on her cheek, handing her a coffee cup. "Can we finish watching the movie now?"

"Listen to that, baby, your dad is whining about me forcing him to make a very important decision about your upbringing because he wants to watch a movie instead."

"No, your dad just does not care about flipping Santa Claus." He laughed, flicking his thumb over her stomach. "Or the Easter bunny." He added preemptively and Rory laughed.

"Fine then, go watch your movie."

"You're going to go find that stupid trinket, aren't you?"

"It's not a trinket and yes, I am. I'll be back in a minute."

"The movie…?"

"You can finish watching it." She shot as she started walking up the stairs. Shaking his head, Jess chuckled to himself before heading back to the living room, starting the movie again.


Walking into the nursery half an hour later, Jess found his wife sitting in the rocking chair, reading out loud.

"A Christmas Carol? Seriously?"

"I'm in a Christmasy mood."

"You're in a crazy mood." He smirked, walking to her and pulling the footstool closer, sitting down in front of her.

"Sh, Marley's ghost just appeared."

"Let me spoil it for you. They all live happily ever after. Well, except for Marley. He's dead."

"Scrooge."

"Thought I was the Grinch."

"You're not green. And I'm pretty sure I alternate between those two."

"Probably." He shrugged, lifting his shoulders. "Thank you."

"What for?"

"Not hating me because of the holiday grumpiness. I know you don't like it, but you put up with it."

"You don't have to wear a snowman sweater. Plus, I knew very well what I was getting into when I started dating you."

"I take you in sickness and in health, despite knowing you grumble your way through the holidays and try to drown your sorrows in the always too damn weak eggnog and hide in the kitchen?"

"Something like that." She leaned forward, running her fingers through his hair. "I hear that's what real relationships are supposed to be all about."

"Something like that, anyway." He nudged her knee with his, smiling. "Promise you won't let me infect the kid with my mood. I want her to be like you, not me."

"Why?" Rory ruffled his hair again. "I like you."

"Nah, she should to believe in Santa and magic."

"Your daughter? She'll be a smart-ass that tries to argue with everyone that it's not possible for Santa's reindeer to be male, because male reindeer lose their horns in the fall."

"I'm just saying, if you're going to lie to kids, lie accurately."

Rolling her eyes, Rory laughed, dropping the book in her lap on the table and moving to the edge of the seat. "Smart ass."

"Thanks, I try."

"So we're going to lie accurately?"

"We're going to lie." He shrugged, chuckling. "No use going against the entire commercialized world just because I'm stubborn."

"Good. Also, sometimes you remind me too much of Luke. Just for the record."

"Sometimes, your mom is really mean to me, Brett."

"Oh, poor you." Rory picked up his hand, placing a small kiss on his palm. "Is it bedtime yet?"

"Yeah, it is." He nodded, standing up and extending his hands, helping her up. "I love you, Ror." He whispered in her ear, wrapping his arm around her waist as they started heading out of the room.

"Love you too, Grinch."