"You have an interesting definition of 'moving a few boxes'," Jess teased Celeste, as he arrived at Rory's and Logan's to drop off a few more boxes, placing them on top of the ones Celeste had brought earlier that hadn't moved from the foyer. Celeste and Rory were comfortably settled onto the lounge couch in the parlor. Their choice of tv-shows had gone through a wide variation for experimentation reasons, eventually settling for Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.
"I got them here, didn't I?" Celeste smirked and pulled Jess close for a kiss, barely propping herself up on her elbows.
"Yeah," he rolled his eyes at her. He knew that her wanting to come over a little earlier, even if that meant taking the couple of boxes by Uber, had been more about spending time with Rory than anything else, and he didn't mind. But that didn't mean he couldn't tease a little.
He glanced around the place, having not been there before, but didn't say much. It wasn't to his taste - but he knew that Rory wouldn't take offence at his lack of praise.
"You feeling better?" Jess asked Rory, as he sat on the armrest besides them.
"'Better' is a good way to put it," she replied, not really wanting to go into it again.
Jess could take a hint. Celeste had also had that period just before delivering Evie, when she'd just been sick of it, and he could only imagine what Rory was going through - being sick of it but still wanting to keep the babies in there for long as possible.
"Is your sister here yet?" Jess inquired. He hadn't seen Gigi in two years, since Rory's and Logan's housewarming party at the penthouse, an event in which he had had completely different things on his mind. But yet, it seemed fascinating to him that Rory would even consider taking her in like she had. Besides, while the circumstances were very different both of them having half sisters had always been yet another thing for him and Rory to connect on.
"She's here, but honestly I haven't seen much of her since Friday. I was almost beginning to think that we were breaking the ice the other day - she was stuck in the elevator during the blackout. But now she's back to keeping to herself again. I'm not really sure what's up with her," Rory explained, glancing briefly towards the stairway which Gigi now mostly insisted to use, having lost trust for the elevator despite the self-assembled emergency that kit Finn had installed. They'd agreed on the ground rules, no staying out late, answering when she called or texted and she'd promised to tell her if she needed help or was in trouble, but Rory really wanted this to be more than just a place to stay for her.
"Huh," Jess noted, pondering if he could actually offer some advice, but really couldn't. He only knew the bare minimum about 12-year olds, older than that he was driving blind as well.
"But she's not giving you attitude at least?" Celeste inquired. She was feeling a little defensive of Rory to be frank, thinking that having to deal with a teenager's moods was the least that she deserved in her situation. Hence she hadn't felt particularly forgiving after hearing about the argument that they'd had the other day over the phone.
"No, it's civil, but she's not like an open book or anything," Rory replied. "But you know," Rory recalled with a chuckle, adding, "my mom actually suggested I sit her down with both you and Logan so you guys can give her a good scare about the city and teenage boys, you know, as a precautionary measure," Rory replied joking, gesturing to Jess, wanting to tease a little.
"And that truly sounds only so much different from Emily sitting you down with reverend Boatwright," Logan commented with a smug smirk, as he came down the stairs bringing a plate of watermelon for the others, having just finished unpacking the playroom upstairs.
"I don't think I've ever heard this one..," Celeste inquired, feeling amused.
"Well apparently when I was 21 and living at my grandparents pool house for a while, my grandmother was under the impression that I needed some guidance," she explained with a straight face.
"Religious guidance?" Celeste asked, squinting her eyes, unsure if she was getting the point.
"What was it that he said - something about your virtue, and giving the next guy a sweater?" Logan pitched in laughingly, as he sat into the formal couch positioned opposite them. While he hadn't been there himself, he'd laughed about that talk a number of times - if reverend Boatwright had only known how wild the innocent looking Miss Gilmore had been in bed back then, not that it had really gone anywhere later.
"Yes, apparently Emily Gilmore was worried that I might be," she explained, followed by a demonstrative cough to clear her voice, "considering giving Logan my virtue," she added with a chuckle.
"At 21? Which 21st century was she living in?" Celeste laughed.
"She apparently had, well in some way still probably has, a blind spot for me," Rory commented with a shrug. Then again, she did ponder, that maybe after finding out that she was seeing Logan while he had been engaged to Odette
Suddenly Celeste caught a sight of Gigi arriving home almost beginning to slip away to what used to be the tenant's stairway to head upstairs.
"Hey, Gigi! Celeste called out to her. "Why don't you join us? We're having some watermelon, we might order something to eat soon. Rory and I just watched Gossip Girl and we really need a crash course in teenagers," Celeste laughed, taking the brave step. She was never the kind of woman to just wait for things to clear up, she liked to grab the reins, and if Rory wasn't feeling up to it, it was the least she could do.
"Hey," she said, as she slowed her pace somewhat reluctantly. "I don't know..," she began to say. She was wearing a pair of paper bag shorts and a loose oversized sheer blouse on top along with a pair of sneakers. The girl had the legs for the look, no question.
"Come on, you've hung out with me and Rory before, we're not that dull, are we?" Celeste pleaded, making a demonstratively sad face. "Rory's stuck here all day, she could use all the entertainment we can offer her," she added.
"Well alright then," Gigi relented, at the lack of a good excuse, asking, "I was kind of hungry, what are you ordering?"
The next few hours passed almost without noticing. It wasn't like they hit some big break through with Gigi or anything, but it was simply about hanging out, ordering a bunch of food and enjoying it as a family, even though it wasn't exactly the most conventional kind. They learned bits about Gigi and what she does all day, and while she could've been fibbing of course, it did relax Rory a little, it all seemed perfectly innocent for a 16 year old - social media, photography, shopping, going out to eat with her friend Amelia and her friends and they'd been showing her some of the city's sights she hadn't seen yet. Rory even suggested she should bring her friend Amelia over, as she'd like to meet too, but again she was hit by a bang of guilt pondering how much different it made her from her own mother, or worse, grandmother by asking things like that.
Logan soon joined Finny upstairs to give him a bath, Rory and him having decided to at least keep that tradition going as much as possible. This way Finny would at least get to have the undivided attention of at least one of his parents during bath and bedtime, keeping at least some things consistent, despite the chaos they were soon expecting.
While Celeste helped Rory upstairs, Jess took their boxes to the guest rooms, which he hadn't even seen before.
Jess still wasn't completely sure how he felt about having rooms to crash in with Rory and Logan. It seemed a little excessive, but they did have the room for it. It was a little like accepting Logan's charity again, which in a way made him feel small - but he knew it was about more than that, and it probably hadn't really been Logan's idea either. As the rooms were within one of the separate apartments, just like Gigi's place, accessible by the other stairway it gave them the freedom to just come and go, not really having to interfere with Rory and Logan's day-to-day life. It was a nice prospect to perhaps come to the city some weekend with Celeste just to take her out for the night, if Stars Hollow grew too dull.
"Oh, you're still here," Celeste came from the stairway, looking for Jess, who'd lingered for a minute or two at the apartment, glancing out the window and getting a feel for the place. New surroundings worked wonders for his writing usually, and he couldn't deny that that particular courtyard was already giving him plenty of ideas for stories. The apartment was furnished with the bare minimum at this point - beds - their's and Evie's, nightstands and a small round dining table with chairs. They were having their own lounge couch from their upstairs study delivered here, knowing that the firehouse needed something a little different.
"It almost feels like that tiny apartment I first had in Brooklyn," Jess replied, wrapping his arms around her hips.
"The one I helped you get," Celeste pointed out, cockily.
"Oh yeah?" he smirked.
"Uh-uh," she replied, kissing him.
"That was a pretty good first date, wasn't it?" Jess recalled. Taking her apartment-shopping as the first official date was very different, but the good kind of 'different' - a crash course in really knowing the person.
Celeste laughed. That had been very far from a classical first date.
"I could also say that being back in the Village feels a little exciting," she noted. After all it was just a few blocks from where her first townhouse had been and where they'd lived for some months also together. It had been the time when everything had been so exciting between them, each day discovering something new - but all the obstacles they'd had then, they'd overcome them almost effortlessly, both of them struggling to believe it was possible for something to come so easily.
"I can't argue with that," Jess replied. "I think we should have a datenight.. take advantage of the city while we're still here. We could even just come stay here for the night, walk like we used to," he suggested.
"I'd like that," she replied smilingly, liking that prospect very much.
That smile melted Jess' heart, feeling to incredible urge to kiss her then. And it didn't dissapoint - the tingle it made him feel in his gut was still tantalizing.
"We really should be getting home, you know," Celeste added smilingly, as the kiss broke, feeling it in his touch what he craved. She craved it too. But she was a mother, wanting to get home before her child went to bed - sometimes that guilt just worked against her.
He kissed her once more, making the follow through on the 'should' a little difficult for her too, before relenting.
"But I'm not through with you," he murmured, making her bite her lip. But sometimes waiting was well worth it.
"So I talked to Leo's case counselor today," Lorelai told Luke, as they'd retreated into their bedroom for the evening.
"Yeah?" he asked, a toothbrush in his mouth.
"She's been charged with neglect, spent two months in rehab, and two months in jail, and now she's on probation for the rest of the year pretty much. They're not really going to review Leo's case before that is through," she explained.
"I guess that's... good?" Luke hesitated, having rinsed his mouth. He always struggled with labels - was this good and good for who exactly?
"Well I think this is good - it gives her a chance to stay clean and get her life together, so there wouldn't be any more experimentation with him," Lorelai discussed, having still some trust in the system.
"But does she get to see him?" Luke asked.
"Apparently that is up to us, but I think that would just be unfair for us to decide - so I think we should ask Leo what he wants," Lorelai explained.
"I guess that makes sense, besides then he'd at least know that she has been inquiring about him, that she's not indifferent to him," Luke noted.
"So we'll sit down and talk to him tomorrow," Lorelai suggested, and climbed into bed and turned on Jimmy Fallon.
"I spoke to April today," Luke shared.
"Oh yeah?" she replied.
"She was a little worried Celeste and Jess might sell their place," Luke shared, as he got settled in bed as well, his arm propped up under his head.
"Haven't heard much from her in a while," Lorelai pointed out.
"Yeah, she's been busy with her internship and work," Luke replied.
"But I thought Jess and Celeste weren't going to sell the place just yet," Lorelai added.
"They're not as far as I know, and even April said that they had some tenants already lined up, but I don't know.. I guess she's just gotten comfortable there and the rents are high. She wasn't asking for money as such, she seemed to have saved a decent amount herself, but I don't know … maybe now that they are not around as much she's feeling more lonely or something," Luke explained. There were large bits of April's life that he didn't quite grasp. She even spoke so differently, so intensly that sometimes he didn't get whether what she shared was really a real convern or just something that was happening in her life.
"What - she doesn't have friends, a boyfriend?" Lorelai inquired, finding it a little hard to believe. After all, college was a prime spot for meeting people.
"Beats me," Luke sighed.
"Well we should go see her, you should spend some time with her. I was planning on going to the city anyways to see Rory this weekend," Lorelai reminded him.
"Yeah, you're probably right," he sighed. He'd been pondering a lot lately how at some point in life the content of life seemed to become worrying and caring for their children - step or foster or whatever Jess had been - didn't even matter. He tried to imagine what his life would've been like if he'd never found out about April - would he even have been the same person?