The Stars Hollow town square in was loud - Lane having volunteered to be in charge of music this year - the band playing classic rock songs that they'd found thematically fitting for the Barbeque festival in question. Besides the band the square was laced with tents, carts and trucks, all offering something in the form of a barbeque, leaving a smoky cloud lingered above the town, and a crowd of hungry mouths moving from one to the next.
"Can I have a hot dog?" Leo asked Luke. Luke had been tagging along with him until Lorelai got there having been queing for something that had caught her attention.
"Kid, you're at a barbeque festival…," Luke said as he rolled his eyes at him. "Don't you want a burger or something?" he suggested noting the nearest food item he noticed. This really wasn't his scene, and the only reason he had come was because one of his vendors whom he had already found an chatted with about some new sauces that he was considering for the diner.
"Okay," Leo replied disappointedly.
"Fine, go get a hotdog," Luke relented, surprised that the event even contained a hotdog car, and gave the boy 2 dollars.
"Thank you," Leo replied and rushed off.
Luke didn't quite feeling like Leo was 'his' at this point, not the same way he felt about April or Rory, but they had grown accustomed to each other in the half a year they'd lived together. They both knew what they liked and what they didn't and the coexistence was pretty painless, Leo always being a little cautious. But he did care - he wished the best for him, though it felt strange and a little painful to think about that - as the part he hated the most about this was the unknown of how long he was actually going to stay with them.
"You lose the kid already?" Lorelai asked, carrying a cup full of sticky grilled chicken and biting into one of them.
Luke simply gestured towards the hot dog cart line as a reply.
"Didn't you just eat at the diner?" Luke noted, realizing he really shouldn't have asked but have known by now not to ask these things.
"But this is a barbeque festival - you're supposed to eat here," Lorelai pointed out.
They walked along the square, nodding friendlily to a few people they knew. To Lorelai this was as much about people watching as the food, though she had to admit, it was always a lot more fun with Rory who never complained.
"Oh, hey, Liz," Lorelai noticed and stepped by Liz's booth, where he was selling her jewellery and some of TJ-s wood carvings and some cutting boards. Borderline barbeque theme - but close enough.
"Hey, Lorelai! Hey, Luke," Liz greeted.
"Wow, these look great, " Lorelai noted a pair of blue earrings on Liz's earring tree.
Lorelai elbowed Luke, hinting he should get them for her.
"Fine," Luke grumbled, then asking," how much for these Liz?"
"Family discount - 10," she replied, making a whispering gesture.
"Here," Luke replied, handing her the money.
"Thank you, aw…, you shouldn't have," Lorelai replied, making an innocent face, causing Luke to only roll his eyes once more.
"Great doing business with you," Liz said theatrically, and waved them off.
"Alright, I've had it with this place," Luke noted. "Are you sure it safe to leave you here amongst all this food?" he asked Lorelai.
"Oh, I'll be just fine," Lorelai replied, seeing Sookie in the distance. "Sookie!" she called out and began rushing towards her.
Luke really shouldn't have been surprised and he continued to walk back towards the diner, figuring he'd go get some paperwork done while Leo on Lorelai were having their fun at the festival.
"Where's Lorelai?" Leo rushed to him and asked, his mouth full of hot dog, having lost the sight of her.
"Over there with Sookie, by the Armenian grill," Luke replied, gesturing towards the spot.
"Thanks," he replied, biting into the last bite of his hotdog, and rushed off.
It was then Luke noticed it, an unfamiliar woman sitting on a bench, clearly looking out of place in her less than exemplary clothing consisting of a oversized jeans jacket, a worn out t-shirt, and long black pants, which seemed awfully hot for a day like this. What caught his attention though was her attention to Leo, she was observing him, and looked away as soon as Luke looked at her. He should've known this would happen sooner or later.
"Hey," he approached her, glancing briefly back so Leo wouldn't see him talking to her.
The woman tried to ignore him at first.
"You're Leo's aunt, aren't you? You look a little alike, I have an eye for it," he added, not wanting to seem like he was making assumptions based on her shabby clothing.
"I am," she hesitated.
"Can I sit?" Luke asked, gesturing towards a spot on the bench.
The woman shrugged.
He sat, but hadn't really expected a reply.
"Leo is doing pretty good, graduated from second grade with a 3.5 grade point average, but I'm not sure that even really matters in elementary school," he said. "He has a few friends, he likes lacrosse - he's pretty good at it actually," he gave a brief overview. He would've like to add that they boy had also gained 10 pounds with simply eating like a boy his age should and that he was a lot more confident, but he couldn't really see the point in that, rubbing something like that in.
"So what you're saying is that you think he's better off with you than me," she replied defensively.
"That's not what I am…," he began, clearly seeing that it was difficult getting his point across. "What's your name?" he asked, realizing he really didn't know.
"Andrea," she mumbled, correcting, "Andrea Lacey."
"Okay, Andrea, my name is Luke by the way," he said. "All I wanted you to know that you shouldn't worry about him - he's doing well," he shared.
"Could I see him, talk to him?" Andrea asked, with some regret in her voice.
"That's not for me to decide, you really should speak to the case counselor first. And unless the court give the permission to see him, set up visitations or says that he can come with you, I don't think it'd do him much good to see you lurking like this," Luke explained.
"I'm just sitting on a bench," Andrea replied.
Luke shrugged, realizing this wasn't really proving to be a very fruitful discussion.
"Speak to the counselor," he repeated and rose to leave and texted Lorelai to stay clear of that side of the square and keep an eye on Leo because of whom he'd just seen, as he headed towards the diner. He could feel trouble approaching.
"God, I feel like I've been to a work camp or something," Celeste chuckled as she stepped out of the car in front of their Brooklyn townhouse, wearing her only pair of leggings she'd brought, that were now paint-stained. She'd done her share of painting the bedrooms, though she felt like she hadn't nearly enough compared to Jess.
"Tell me about it," Jess noted, his own muscles ached as well - renovation definitely was the best exercise for recalling what kind of muscles one had that one had nearly forgotten about. He'd been working on the firehouse for the past three day, and while their bedroom needed another coat of paint - Evie's was just waiting on the wallpaper, which meant that they had at least one room to stay in the next time they went to Stars Hollow. No more staying above the diner, and that alone seemed like a major accomplishment.
Celeste carried Evie, who was already beginning to look a little sleepy up to the bathroom for her bath while Jess went to make them both some late dinner in the kitchen. He had to admit, that while he loved this house for having all that they needed, both of them having put considerable amount of money and elbow grease into making it like this, he felt a certain heaviness too - memories of the times they hadn't been doing so well, Celeste's depression - those things he was very glad to leave behind.
There was still a lot of packing to do, about a half of their things only really going to Stars Hollow, they were leaving most of the impersonal items for the tenants and some stuff they were taking over to Greenwich village as agreed. Celeste's dress collection, while a lot smaller by now, they were simply stashing away downstairs in the spare bedroom with April. Celeste still kept the collection - she wasn't even sure why and she hadn't really explained it well enough for Jess either - probably a combination of nostalgia of her former life, hope that maybe she'd fit into them someday again, which probably was wishful thinking, and in some way supposedly also for their value as vintage clothing - it was like an investment in a way too.
Celeste was sitting on the floor of the bathroom upstairs, Evie's smaller fold-up bathtub placed inside the large tub, waiting for the water to fill up. Evie was already giggling away at the bubbles and her toys. She'd quickly discarded her dirty clothed, having just grabbed one of her wrap dresses that she pretty much used instead of a robe at home to pull on, and enjoyed the cool tile under her legs after a long day.
Her mind wandered - it was funny how much she'd struggled with everyday things like this - Evies bath- and bedtime - her mind usually spiraling into a dangerous path of thinking of everything she hadn't been happy with in her life in not too distant past. She'd felt out of place, out of sync, not valued enough for herself - being a mother and a wife having not felt like it was enough. She'd gotten the help, the meds and the support - and she really did feel better. She knew her thought process - thinking that maybe she didn't need her meds anymore, was a dangerous one, yet more and more she'd begun to think it. And as tomorrow was her last session with her therapist, that was actually in person, not online, she hesitated whether she should propose giving them up.
She was awakened from her thoughts by Jess' footsteps heading up the stairs, a second later Evie splashing some water onto her dress. But it was just a few drops so she really didn't make a big deal of it.
Jess joined her on the bathroom floor, leaning his back against the wall next to her, and offered her one of the avocado and cucumber pesto tortilla he'd quickly pulled together, as the two of them had not really had a chance to eat since the late lunch they'd had, unlike Evie who'd already eaten a few pouches of her favourite mango-pumpkin puree and some cookies in the car.
"Busy weekend," she sighed, having chewed her food for a few minutes.
"But we got a lot done," Jess replied, placing the now empty plate he'd been holding down next to him.
She finished her meal and snuggled into his side, resting her cheek onto his shoulder.
"You seem sad, everything okay?" he asked, noting her being a little more thoughtful than usual, the broad smile she'd had on for most of the weekend having disappeared somewhere.
"I was just thinking about therapy tomorrow. I've been thinking maybe I don't need the meds anymore, but it's scary, you know. What if it's all an illusion and once I stop… I just break again," she explained. She was discussing this quite calmly, her worries were legitimate, but Jess had to admit that with everything they'd had going on he could've easily have forgotten all about her illness if he didn't see her taking her med each morning, a routine she'd stuck to.
"I think there is no risk in discussing it, it doesn't mean you have to do it right away," Jess pitched in. Inside this made him a little frightful, frankly - sure he wanted her to be as happy as she'd seemed recently, hhe wanted her and them to be as well as they were, but he too was feared to find out how much of that was just the meds.
"What do you think? Do you think I'm ready?" she insisted.
"I think that the move, the renovations and settling in in a new place can be stressful, despite its perks. I guess I just think maybe you shouldn't rush it," he admitted. "Unless of course Erica thinks that you're ready," he added, not wanting to discourage her either. He wanted to be supportive and not let his own insecurities make her doubt herself.
"I guess," Celeste sighed, pulling herself out of her thoughts, her gaze fixating on an empty spot in front of her.
She felt another splash from Evie, and that alerted her.
"Evie, I bet your toes are getting wrinkly..," Celeste said with endearment, as she knelt to tend to her, beginning to rinse her off.
Jess stayed there for a moment longer, thinking. What he feared the most was that no matter what changes they made in their lives, where they moved or what they did, in some way she would still realize that she was unhappy underneath it all. He knew that there was no use of pondering about the 'what if'-s of this, the reality would show itself once she came off the meds, whenever that was. All he wanted was his actions and support to be enough. He could help her find a job, self-fulfillment, help her publish or present her art, he could offer his free time and take care of Evie, he could offer her support, understanding and his patience - but he couldn't really do anything about her past - her lack of love from that time nor the fears she still had to live with that were related to it.
For years Jess would've thought that he of all people could relate - his mother hadn't exactly been exemplar either, his father even less so, but there it had been about the lack of their control over him, and for Celeste, or Odette at that point, it had been quite the opposite. He didn't really know how to understand and help with that.
Rory had spent a couple of days alternating between her bed and their lounge couch that was positioned right now in their parlor, another thing that had been misplaced during the move - she hadn't exactly been paying attention when the last few truckfuls had arrived. But for the time being she was happy with the solution, enabling her to leave the French doors wide open and allow a nice summer breeze to flow in, making the long white sheer curtains billow. The room felt so much lighter now that it was painted in alighter shade and the bars from the window had been removed and replaced with a much less visible, yet user friendly, security system.
While they had essentially figured the fourth floor living room would make the perfect playroom for Finny, right now, with the parlor's formal entertainment function being irrelevant, and Finny preferring to spend a lot of time outside with Maya, this was infinitely better, leaving Rory in the midst of everything.
"There you are, stranger," Celeste exclaimed as emerged from the foyer into the parlor. She had a key and had brought a few boxes with her, planning on staching some stuff to the guest rooms that they'd agreed on. This way she wouldn't have to pack more than her purse or Evie's essentials if she ever wanted to just drop by and stay for a night. There was more to bring, naturally, but she planned on coming to visit Rory as much as she could while they were still during the weekdays mostly positioned in the City.
"Hey," Rory greeted her, happily accepting her hug and cheek kisses. It was Tuesday now, and Rory had already spent two whole days on bed rest, which felt like forever. She didn't quite care for reading in her condition, somehow each position she took for reading felt uncomfortable, the 'beached whale' position remaining as the most preferred one.
Celeste kicked off her heels and positioned herself, legs crossed, on the lounge couch next to her.
"So how is the female portion of this family doing?" Celeste inquired, having just texted with Rory during the past few days. She'd wanted to come the day before, but with therapy, Cathy being on her holiday until Rory and Logan were going to need her again and April working, she hadn't quite had a chance to come sooner between all the packing and tending to Evie.
"One was just kicking, the other just finished hiccuping and I…," she said, exhaling, "am trying to hold my tongue so I wouldn't complain about how I'd want this to be over," Rory replied. Celeste was her outlet, the no judgment - no-holding-back-the-word vomit-person who was just there when she needed it. Rory wanted the babies to not be born before they were ready, but at the same time, this wasn't in any ways easy for her either.
"It must've been pretty scary," she replied. Celeste knew well the whirlwind of emotions that came with the prospect of having a baby early. The only difference was that she really hadn't had a lot of time to ponder over it.
"Yeah, still is," she replied hesitantly. She'd calmed a lot since the evening she got home the other day, but still, the fear hadn't gone anywhere.
"I have a good feeling, you know. I believe you're all going to be just fine," she soothed her.
"Thanks," Rory replied.
"So what have you been doing? I see the place is looking better and better," Celeste noted the parlor that was taking form.
Instead of keeping their books in their studies or a separate library as the initial idea had been, they'd gone with their decorators recommendation to have the entire one wall of the parlor as a gigantic book shelf - all 18 x 16 ft of it with a ladder and everything. It was currently still empty but already they could see it'd benefits - the room no longer echoed like it had at first and the rest of the furniture, while slightly chaotic, some items having ended up downstairs instead of the playroom, was cosy.
"Binge watching…," Rory sighed, not sounding terribly excited, gesturing towards the TV, that also wasn't supposed to be in the parlor.
"Nothing good on?" Celeste inquired, knowing how much Rory usually liked stuff like that. Celeste really didn't know much about TV-shows these days, she hardly watched the news even, getting most of her entertainment in written or audio format.
"I thought it would be good idea to watch some of my old, favourites - Supernatural, True Blood, Buffy, Outlander… you know, hot but a little exciting, you know... whoknows when again I would have time for stuff like that. But then with Finny around I keep having to pause and skip over the scary bits and it really beats the whole purpose of binge watching, and now I'm stuck in the 7+ and 13+ segment of things which just make me feel old," she added gesturing towards an episode of Felicity. She'd also considered Grey's Anatomy, ER and The Resident, but realized pretty soon that anything that could potentially have a case about someone who was pregnant, she just didn't want to see.
"Hmm.. I'm not expert on tv-shows, but maybe try something British. They have a bit of a sarcastic quirky humour... When Logan was away on his business trips, I sometimes watched Black Books or Green Wing or something along those lines," Celeste recalled.
"You know I never really knew what your life was like when you two lived together. I mean I know the gist, but… you know.. I mean it must've been lonely when he was away," Rory pondered. Logan had put that kind of life behind him - sure, he had gone on a couple of few-day trips during the past few years, but Rory knew herself that when he'd resided in London Mitchum had really played him like a puppet - a reluctant one - but nonetheless, often sending him on trips instead of going himself with very short notice.
"Wow, it's been a while since I thought about it," Celeste sighed.
"You don't have to… I just…," Rory began to apologize. She was simply bored, and in a way wanted to understand better, hoping this would provide a good distraction for her.
"It's fine... ," she replied. "I guess it was lonely at times. Sure we talked, but because of moving from Paris I really didn't have a lot of friends in London. And as I wasn't really finding people very easy to trust back then, I guess I didn't really go out all that much on my own. It was easier with Logan. His friends were my friends, well acquaintances at best. But it was good I could work a little," she added in a more positive tone, not wanting to go into that period in detail. Until she'd figured out that she wanted a baby, she really had been rather aimless, in limbo just waiting to see what happened with Logan, hoping to simply get away from her family. She really didn't miss that time.
"Did you ever know that I'd been over? But I guess that was before you were moved in...," Rory hesitated, recalling the timeline.
"Of course I did," she chuckled. "I mean some mysterious boxes in the closet with some woman's clothing..," she added, raising her eyebrows like it had been obvious, "and besides Logan was always a little different afterwards, sometimes more energetic, sometimes a little sad, thoughtful," she explained. "So yeah, I could tell," she added.
"Did he talk about me?" she asked.
"Not a lot, he was usually pretty drunk when he did, but then it just poured out of him. It wasn't like he was pining but he would just go on and on about what you did or how you did things… it was just so obvious," Celeste explained. "And I even did try to tell him, you know, to talk to you, but I guess he just didn't want to hear it or… didn't think it was a possibility...," she added, not knowning if she really wanted to hear that.
Rory knew that Logan had been hurt for years for her turning down his proposal, they'd been over this in therapy, and that really wasn't what she'd wanted to end up discussing. But still, bringing it up had been a very efficient distraction.
"For what it's worth, I'm sorry you had to go through all that - the pretence, the stuff with your family," Rory said.
"Hey - I'm here aren't I, things are good. Jess is… amazing," she said with a deep breath, the recent image of Jess building them a home freshly imprinted into her brain.
"How's he taking the move?" Rory asked. The idea of Jess back in Stars Hollow still seeming foreing to her.
"Surprisingly well actually. He really seems to be grabbing the renovation by its horns. I think actually see him enjoying the process. He has all these plans about the deck, the store and the parking out front…, I swear, he's really immersing himself in it," Celeste replied smilingly, Jess' enthusiasm really having rubbed on to her as well, not that she lacked it before.
"I wish I could come and see the place," Rory said, longingly. Sure she'd seen the photos and she knew the building, but it wasn't the same.
"And you will. Once it's done, and you're mobile again," Celeste replied, optimistically.
"Yeah…," she sighed.
"Now, tell me about this show you're watching, I haven't seen it..," Celeste said, seeing that what Rory really needed the most was just company and a lot more distractions - and even if she couldn't be there for her all the time anymore, she was there now - and that she could offer her.