By Stew Pid
Rating: Should be okay
Disclaimer: I only own the Stew Pid stuff
A/N: Last chapter!!
It was a peaceful morning in Stars Hollow. An early morning shower seemed to have washed away the memory of the events of two weeks ago. The fresh, soft morning sunshine rested comfortably and casually on the desk, tools, and cabinets of Luke's office giving them a familiar, homey look, as though they had always furnished the room. The darkness in the storage room hid the items Jess left behind that Luke could not throw out, and the memory of Jess was hidden in a similar obscurity in the hearts of the three, Luke, Lorelai, and Rory. From a bird's-eye view, Stars Hollow had a dream-like, utopia look to it, and down below everyone wanted to pretend that that was exactly what it was. Merrily, merrily, merrily, life is but a dream, they might as well have been chanting in their heads. But the birds knew more than they did, for as they had just begun to breathe easily in the happy land of Oz, the birds could see that coming down the road was the car that many times had parked quietly just outside of town, where its young driver would check up on the people and place he left behind, and seemingly, never returned to.
"Hey, honey buns!" Lorelai exclaimed as she entered the diner with Rory.
"What did I tell you about pet names?"
"I wasn't calling you. I was placing my order."
"Oh. Well. Coming right up."
Lorelai looks at Rory and they giggle.
"So what's on the agenda today?"
"I'm baby-sitting for Sookie."
"What? Where is she going that she didn't invite me?"
"She and Jackson are going out for their anniversary."
"Oh my God!! Today's their anniversary?"
"I reminded you three times the other day."
"Huh? That was two days ago. You expect me to remember something you said three times two days ago?"
"Yes."
"You don't know me at all."
"I know you well enough to know you were probably going to forget so I picked up an extra just-in-case anniversary present."
"I love you. What did you get?"
"A karaoke machine."
"Okay, you're giving them that. I refuse to be responsible for it."
"Hey, I thought it was a good idea. You know every time they go away, Jackson worries about his fruit because he can't sing to them. Now he can sing with the machine and record it and when he goes away, he just plays the tape. The fruit will never know he's gone. Jackson will be happy. He'll be more comfortable with going out more often, and Sookie will be happy."
"Rory will have to baby-sit more often and she won't be so happy. But I really like that idea. I'll give them the karaoke machine."
"Okay, but what are you talking about? I love baby-sitting those two."
"Wait a second. When you go back to college, I'll be stuck baby-sitting the rascals. What do you say we get them something else, like a nice blood-pressure machine?"
"Remember when Sookie got you the "I'm Too Sexy" song on CD, even though you had already annoyed her enough with that song and she knew that now she really would never hear the end of it. And anyway, who are you kidding? You love baby-sitting them and you know it."
"Who raised you? I know it wasn't me."
"Sugarplum fairies and dwarfs."
"Well that explains it."
Luke comes over with coffee and honey buns.
"It's amazing how this town can have dozens of stores dedicated to selling collectible plates and yet it has not one mental institution. I'm going to have to book you two in Hartford."
"You don't realize it yet, but you're becoming one of us."
"Oh, trust me, I realize it. I have nightmares about it."
"You have nightmares of doing your nails, while drinking coffee, eating Twizzlers, and watching Willy Wonka?"
"No. But I had a nightmare where I was looking frantically for something but I didn't know what it was, and then I realized it was my sanity. I'm sure you must have had one of those."
"No. We stopped looking for that a long time ago," Rory interjected.
"It's true. It's probably beneath the couch with all the Goobers we've dropped under there and my mother's pen. But speaking of losing things, I lost my favorite silver earring in your office. Have you seen it?"
"Yeah. I'm sorry. I kept forgetting to return it. I'll get it."
Luke heads upstairs.
"So you lost an earring in his office?" Rory inquires, smiling.
"Yeah. The silver one with the dangly things."
"Uh huh. I guess those pillow fights can happen anywhere."
"No, no, no. We were cleaning. Who do I look like? Monica Lewinsky?"
"Well, you've sort of got the same hair cut."
"That's it. I'm definitely giving Sookie and Jackson that karaoke machine."
Luke walked into his office, head down, retrieving the earring efficiently from a small side table. He was about to walk out the door again when a voice from the desk startled him.
"I like what you've done with the place."
He looked up, startled. Jess sat at the desk, leaning forward.
"What are you doing here?"
"Hello to you, too."
"Don't give me that. You left for four years without telling me or anyone, and I hadn't heard from you or about you until two weeks ago. So if I'm not exactly teeming with joy, well, too bad."
Jess remained silent, shuffling a deck of cards in his hand.
"What are you doing here?" Luke finally asked again.
"Just wanted to say hello."
"You come to say hello after four years?"
"I'm moving back."
Luke was stunned into silence once again. His first impulse was contentment, but anger quickly pushed it down.
"You don't have a room here anymore," the words were intended to hurt and they did.
"I wasn't looking for one here." He wasn't.
Neither knew what more to say. Rather, they knew. They just didn't know how to say.
"I'm sorry," Jess finally said. It was as blunt as it could be.
"Why didn't you at least call once and let me know you were okay?"
"I had a reason then, but I don't know now."
"You've grown a lot." Physically he hadn't, but he didn't mean physically.
"Maybe. Not enough."
"I've got some of your stuff downstairs. I'll try to buy your bed back from Kirk."
"You don't have to do that."
"No, I don't. I've got my old bed still. Come on. Let's bring your stuff back up here."
"Maybe later."
"You're going to have to talk to her at some point."
"Later."
"All right. Well, I have to return this."
"You got your ear pierced?"
"No. Heck no. It's Lorelai's."
"Oh," he smirked, "I get it."
"I take that back. You haven't grown at all."
Later that day, Rory walked back to Luke's tired from an afternoon with toddlers. As she approached the diner, she saw a familiar car outside. She stopped in her tracks, staring at it with the pale astonishment customary of visions of ghosts. If more surprise was possible, it came when Jess himself appeared, approaching the car to gather more of his stuff.
"Jess!" she thought she screamed it, but her throat was so tight, the word was barely audible.
"Hey," he said casually, though his knees felt like clumps of lead.
"You're back."
"Way to state the obvious."
"Why?"
"Just wanted to."
"I thought you said good-bye and woke up and all that."
"I never said good-bye."
"No, you didn't."
"There are some dreams too good to wake up from, but then I guess, there are some dreams too good to sleep through."
"Welcome home."
With that, they kissed with all of Stars Hollow watching through the windows of Luke's.
"So I think I finally figured out the Fountainhead."
"Pray tell."
They walked off, shoulder to shoulder, back to the places where four years seemed to have not passed. Still, they would not have gotten there without those four years.
This, dear reader, is my parents' story, a story I never tire of hearing them tell, and so I thought I'd share it with you. This is the story about a girl who never lost her faith in dreams, and a boy who had to lose it in order to find it. The boulevard of broken dreams. That's where they found each other. That's where the dream came true.
A/N: Aaah!! Okay, at least it's over now. I know, the last part was stupid, but it was such a time saver. I don't have to go into how they dated for a while, got engaged, got married, had kids, and all that. Just make it that the kid told the story, and all that is understood. I guess you've never met my alter ego, Snee Key. We don't get along very well, but sometimes we're forced to work together.