AN: smut warning (and maybe not for everybody) - if unsure skip to Paris' and Rory's scene towards the end. I just felt I hadn't really focused on Celeste and Jess in other ways much than the bookstore/work or her family drama. They needed to unwind a little.
Celeste couldn't have been furthest from the Christmas spirit despite what all the Christmas decore at the Hunztberger's should've created, even after Emily's offer to help. She certainly wasn't going to argue, if Emily wanted to try, though she wasn't quite sure - after all the woman didn't owe her anything. If anything she had been a threat to her granddaughter's happiness and reputation once. She really didn't know whether she would be able to help, but then again Emily Gilmore was much more her mother's generation than Shira or Mitchum ever had been - maybe she had a point? Maybe things should be dealt differently with her? But either way, ever since she'd found out about the possible properties, she'd been a ball of stress, putting up a good face for Evie, not to spoil her Christmas.
They'd stayed in Manhattan another day, watching Evie play with Finny so effortlessly as if they were siblings, already providing reason enough. Jess had now had plenty of time to discuss the book with Rory and as Celeste really had no objections, they'd agreed that Rory would give it a try, feeling a little rusty not having edited anything in years like this. And this was definitely a book she was emotionally invested in as well. Jess knew that that could be both a benefit and a con, but time would tell, promising to let her know if he ever thought it wasn't working and she'd promised to accept critisism with her head held high. It was funny, how roles had been reversed since a few years ago.
They'd taken Celeste's Mazda this time as it was a bit more dependable in the snow and cold these days, also having better winter tires, which definitely came in handy in the slushy weather that balanced on both sides of 32 degrees. Driving out of New York hadn't been half bad, most of the people returning from their holidays and taking the opposite direction. As they arrived in Stars Hollow, Evie sleeping peacefully in the back seat, it felt like arriving in some alternate reality, the temperatures being several degrees colder than elsewhere and there was actually a full layer of snow everywhere. It did cheer her up a little. The place was beginning to really feel like home.
"We could take Evie to my mum's for a bit," Jess suggested as the passed Monty the rooster, noting Evie beginning to wake after the long drive.
"Do you think she'd mind?" Celeste said. While she hadn't really done anything strenuous, she felt exhausted. But it was mostly the mental kind, feeling like she just wanted to hide out.
"I don't think she'd mind at all, I bet there'd be more holiday things there actually…," he said, cryptically not wanting to outright mention the presents.
"Okay," Celeste sighed.
"Ok, I'll call ahead and drop you off, and then take her," Jess suggested and that was what he did. Liz hardly ever had any such plans that would stop her from watching her for a few hours, she often brought her along wherever she went even or there was Doula who loved playing with her.
Having finished the quick call, while driving through Stars Hollow towards the Apparatus Bay, Jess asked, "Evie you want to go see grandma for a bit?"
"Gramma!" came the squeal from the backseat, much louder than either had expected. For a moment Celeste thought how lucky Evie was to have at least one normal part of the family, no matter how quirky. At least they were well-meaning through and through.
Celeste gave her daughter a quick kiss and took most of their luggage in through the kitchen door in the back, and little by little began to unpack their belongings.
She felt tense and rigid, alert and jumpy. It was not a good mixture, hence halfway through the unpacking she simply decided to give up. The only thing she could think of was that she needed a long, hot shower.
The bathroom was a little chilly, one of the downsides of the old house and she quickly ran the water, allowing the steam to warm up the room a little, before fully undressing. Having thrown most of her clothes to the hamper, she looked down at her grey cotton hipsters she noted a small slick dab of blood.
"Shit, that's just what I needed," she groaned sarcastically, realizing she'd gotten her period. It probably wouldn't leave a huge stain or anything, it was just that she hadn't really expected it - her cycle had been dragging longer little by little ever since Evie was born and sometimes she nearly forgot about it, it being so difficult to anticipate. With everything she had going on, she simply felt she could've done without it right now, feeling exhausted and crabby, probably a result of the hormones anyways, as it was.
She tossed the panties into the hamper, and stepped into the shower. The hot and ample water washed off a great deal of her week. But it really only touched the surface though. Her family was definitely getting to her - even after all this time and distance, even from behind bars in her brother's case.
Celeste used her best shampoo, the small luxury of the way too expensive hair salon line she still bought sometimes but didn't splurge to use each time. The scent filled the room with the luxurious smell of the Shu Uemura Muroto Volume - salty, soapy flowers and zingy citrus. It did bring her back to the memories of her former lifestyle - where the small treats of life were almost too usual, having not really appreciated them the least bit.
Through the noise of the water she could then hear Jess' footsteps on the metal stairs, snapping her back to reality, but not unpleasantaly - she liked having him around. She'd clearly been in that shower way too long, the room thick with steam. She rinsed off anything that was left on her, and switched off the water, dried herself and wrapped the towel around her body.
As she went across the hall, knowing she should get a pair of period underwear, knowing this early on they'd probably suffice. Jess was in the room, changing out of his city clothes. He usually wore a pair of exercise shorts, which definitely didn't look half bad on him and some old band t-shirt - and that was fine, neither wanting to have to be at their best around the clock.
"I'll go pick up Evie later, she said she missed her own bed," Jess said.
"Sure," Celeste exhaled, not feeling up to much anything other than perhaps kicking back a painkiller or some wine and simply curling up doing nothing. She pulled on her panties, and began looking through her closed what else to wear.
"Are you doing okay?" Jess asked with concern in his tone. He knew she wasn't, but he needed her to tell him what she needed.
"I just… I feel like they've won or something. I feel so tense, I just… I hate what they could just do that to me," Celeste sighed, speaking expressively with her hands, still standing there just in her towel.
"They haven't won squat. From everything I know about Emily Gilmore from Rory and her manuscript, that's not a force to be messed with. Sure she'll be off her home ground, but I am confident she knows what she's doing. She's not the kind to just offer if she doesn't mean it. The lawyers are taking care of everything else," he assured. "We have the townhouse if things get tough," he added, and wrapped his arms around her, kissing her slightly damp forehead.
She simply nuzzled into his neck, breathing him in.
"You have two more days before work, and let's just be lazy and relax, okay. You ought to relax, we'll get through this," he assured once more.
"I know," she said, though only half believing it. But his touch always did work wonders, making her believe in herself like nothing else.
"How about a massage? It might get you to relax," he suggested, kneading her shoulders gently as he held her.
"Would you?" she said. God, that sounded heavenly right now.
"Of course," he stroked her upper arms.
"But be warned - I just got my period," Celeste replied, squinting her eyes. More often than not his massages tended to lead to much more than just that, having quite a long history at that, for example often massaging her feet after she'd had a long day on heels, almost as if out of appreciation for her wanting to look her best in those. She did look gorgeous in heels, it always having been a weak spot for him.
"I'm really not that easily intimidated," he murmured in a deep tone, smiling crookedly, and gestured towards the bed for her to get comfortable. He wasn't offering the massage to get laid, her wellbeing, mental and physical, was the priority in this, but he definitely wouldn't have minded if it ended up there. He decided to take it one minute at the time, and take his time. It was the least he could do to help.
Celeste slipped off her towel and positioned herself onto her stomach.
After covering his hands in some jojoba oil that Celeste sometimes used as body oil, he let hid hands them trail all over her body - back, shoulders, arms and hips, until he'd spread all of it, planning to add some later elsewhere.
Jess climbed to straddle her upper legs, and beginning from her shoulders kneaded her tense muscles, alternating firm and gentler motions, before moving on to her shoulder blades. He was really rather good at it, considering he'd never gotten any training in it. Next it was time for the arms, making her tickle slightly as he brushed down along the inside of her arms, sensing her smile into the pillow that she'd placed her head on, mostly supporting her forehead.
To finish off the hand, he spent a good five minutes on her hand covering wrist, palm and each finger one by one, letting the details of the week wash to the background slowly. Hands were so often forgotten, while deserving so much attention after putting up with the toll of day-to-day life.
After finishing one arm, he went up her neck, continuing the small circular motions that softened the tissue.
She felt like she was in heaven, as his hands travelled up her neck and slipped into her damp hair and massaged her scalp. The motions were firm, yet gentle, circular motions that alternated by simply running his fingers along her scalp in each direction. Her hair was all over the place, a few drops of water dripping to her back, tousled and probably ending up oily after all of this, but she wasn't objecting.
His fingers continued down her neck again over to her other shoulder and from there, down the arm, the promise of his touch on her hands already in mind.
Celeste's mind was certainly somewhere else by now, focusing only on what she was feeling.
Leaving Celeste's fingers tingling pleasantly Jess continued over to her lower back, moving upwards. He knew just the way she liked her lower back massaged when she had her period, compressing the sacrum for almost half a minute at once which was supposed to relieve pain.
"You should get paid to do this," Celeste mumbled in approval, getting a low sensual chuckle in return. For a moment he just couldn't help himself and kissed the back of her neck, letting his forehead trail downwards for a couple of inches. It was the greatest feeling to know that what he was trying to do was working.
He continued to knead her flesh, on occasion pressing down the heels of his palms for added pressure. His hand moved out on the side of the back, thumbs pressing along either side of her spine.
Jess then moved lower and applied some more oil, this time covering her legs in full length, even the soles of her feet. He began slowly and casually, just getting the feel of her muscles. Neither had truly realized how tense she'd been before he reached her calves, the tissue there truly needing to be softened. It took him several minutes until her legs began to relax.
Having soothed over both calves he continued downwards, bending up her leg from the knee and focused on her feet, one by one, his fingers digging into the ball and sole of her foot, creating a mixture of pleasure and ache, letting his fingers probe her deeply. Celeste uttered some deep, incomprehensible sighs of approval, having truly needed this.
Before moving back up to her thighs he felt the urge to kiss each thigh, appreciating how well the few extra pounds she'd gained after having Evie had spread out on her body, only just making her a little rounder.
It was then she surprised him, suddenly rolling onto her back.
"Come here," she beckoned invitingly, wanting a real kiss.
He smirked, knowing how sometimes she got turned on by the strangest, not necessarily directly sexual touches. Definitely a pleasant side effect to getting her to relax.
Jess kissed her with authority, almost making her transform into a puddle. She couldn't help it.
His shirt was shoved off hastily, and his shorts pushed down, barely breaking the deep kiss that carried on.
"Do I need to get the towel?" he asked, between kisses, not really wanting to speak but do.
"Nah, it's not that heavy," she replied, and began nudging down her own underwear urgently.
As the kiss broke, Celeste's fingers intertwining around his neck and into his hair, Jess kissed her neck and clavicle, pantingly, one hand cupping her breast.
He could already sense her readiness, having not needed to so much as touch her at the apex of her thighs. And now simply ran his tip over her slit numerous times, observing her impression as he did. That look of pleasure was all the thanks he ever needed.
Jess entered her patiently, pulling back and going a little further the second time, giving in to the bucking of her hips. His gaze never diverted from her eyes. Celeste pulled him close by wrapping one of her legs around her hips, moving with him. While they both sensed the urgency, he settled into an almost agonizingly slow and sensuous rhythm, taking his time. It was belly against belly, her nipples grazing his chest, his groin pounding into her clit, causing the climax to begin to build. The thrusts slowly grew deeper and closer together, alternating with lazy circular motions and on occasion pulling out and stroking her labia again, making her moan. As her ecstasy carried, Celeste's eyes closed involuntarily for a moment being unaware of anything else. He never stopped as her high hit her, and she could feel him gripping her shoulder more tightly and breathing becoming more ragged and urgent as he was about to cum. He panted into the side of her neck as he did, Celeste sensing his lips turning cold along with it. She only clutched him tighter not wanting him to pull away. He was her rock, her distraction, her guide - they'd get through this.
It was Friday the 27th, and the Dynasty Makers clinic was bustling as if the three free days in between had never existed. They usually took appointments only, making sure that even just a few regular patients rarely saw one another to keep things as private as possible, the VIPs usually coming in through the back entrance altogether. But as this was after the holidays, they allowed walk-ins for their patients, knowing how people's concerns tended to snowball when they had too much time to think.
For this reason Paris was dealing with actual patients that day, helping out. She didn't have as much of a bed-side manner really, she was rather a saleswoman, but she did have the qualifications and it was good to remind herself these things every once in a while, not wanting to get too rusty.
Having already seen seven patients that day, she actually felt on a roll, most of the cases being simple and straightforward, and more importantly the patients being not complete morons, in some cases only really involving doing the presentation on the surrogacy services they provided or helping a couple pick out a sperm donor - those she could do in her sleep. Finally she had a moment to sit down, having guiding the last patient on her way, deciding to call Rory for a change, having not spoken to her in weeks.
"Hey," she began as she heard Rory pick up.
"Paris, hi," Rory replied, the sound of Finny attempting to sing along some Christmas carols the TV was playing, quite off-key. Everybody had gone home and while it had been great to see everybody, she was relieved to have the house to themselves, with just Maya helping out when they needed her.
"Happy holidays," Paris said.
"Same to you," she replied, not minding that they were doing this after Christmas was over. She knew Paris had never actually cared much about the specifics of these things.
"So how's everything? Is Logan home?" Paris inquired.
"Things are good, calmer. I just had everybody over for Christmas. It was a bit much, reminded me a bit too much of Friday night dinners," she noted with a chuckle. "And, yes, Logan is home until New Years," she added.
"How long does he plan to keep up this ridiculous commute?" Paris continued.
"He hopes it'll just be a month more or so, he wants to make sure Owen has a handle on things before he comes back," Rory explained.
"I haven't checked, how was the blow up from that revelation?" she asked, knowing that announcing Owen as Mitchum's son must've caused some ripple effect.
"You know… I expected worse," Rory said, not quite believing herself. She'd gotten so used to being in the public eye, that the couple of articles that had been published on the topic, hadn't made her do anything other than shrug. Without Shira around to cause commotion and the times certainly being very different, it had actually raised the HPG stock a little.
"Well played," Paris nodded approvingly.
"We had one article made to order which set the tone. Though I don't know how it happend, it was Paul of all people who wrote it, I saw him at the interview when I went to support Owen," Rory recalled the embarrassing coincidence.
"That must've been interesting - I mean the both of them," Paris noted.
"With Owen - we're good, friendly. There's just a bit of that intellectual draw we used to have. I get good ideas when I talk to him, but that's not really anything of concern," Rory explained, having told Paris about Owen kissing her when she'd been in Maine years ago, and Logan knew it too. It had been a drunken, unfortunate, event. They still had their little moments, Rory couldn't deny that, but Logan was so much more than that to her. What she had with Logan was allconsuming accompanied by the knowledge that their relationship had survived so much already. "Paul… he just ignored the history, it was a little weird but he was professional," she added, having decided to not bother herself by thinking more about him. It was just embarrassing.
"So does that mean Paul is like Logan's employee now?" Paris speculated, realizing that they'd probably had one of the HPG papers to do the exclusive.
"I guess it does…," Rory replied, having not really thought of it that way. That certainly was weird, not that Logan would ever really be involved in managing any of the papers up close like his father once had. He tried to stay clear of things like that, wanting to maintain a very different kind of style of leadership culture from his father's as much as he could.
"That's what happens when you land the whale," Paris chuckled, recalling what she'd said when Rory had first said that Logan and her were boyfriend and girlfriend all those years ago.
"Oh come on," Rory groaned laughingly.
"How's the Tristian situation?" Rory inquired after a moment.
"Well there isn't one, I think… I know it's probably weird and I really should be bringing it up with my therapist instead, but I kind of like this ex of his. I mean we've actually become friends… I think," she pondered.
"Definitely weird," Rory confirmed. "Does she know that you know him?" she asked.
"Not yet. I've been meaning to slip Chilton in somewhere so she'd make the potential connection… but as much as I've talked to her - hell, I've probably talked to her more than I've talked to any of my employees about our personal lives… I... I see Tristian very differently than I did before. I mean he's not a monster, but I see some real faults now. He's not just the boy who was misunderstood and poorly parented. And I don't know - I think I could honestly say that I wouldn't have that reaction if I saw him now like I had the last time we went to Chilton. I think I just had some memory of him stuck in my head - like something unattainable, putting him on a pedestal or something. And now I'm just like 'meah'," Paris explained, surprising Rory by saying what she'd been thinking all along.
"Well if you really want to keep a friend, you really should, you know - though I think it'd be a lot easier if you kept the details to a minimum. You know, that you were in the same class, went on one date that a friend set up or something like that…," Rory suggested.
"Yeah, you're probably right. I'm overthinking this. Because there wasn't anything else, was there? The rest is just in my head," she agreed, feeling like she'd just found some new type of energy to do this. She didn't have anything to hide, not really, nothing that was real at least.