*Disclaimer: After all this time I haven't gotten any closer to owning Gilmore Girls or anything that goes with it.*

A/N: Wow……….I feel horrible. I haven't updated this story in an insanely long period of time. I'm so sorry… Hope you all can forgive me and just pick it up again. If not, yes I know, it's my fault. Try to enjoy. I made it long to compensate.

~***~

The two sat down on the couch, and started to read their books. For the moment, Rory wasn't feeling too bad, especially with Jess there. She wondered what her mom and Luke were up to in "cowboy" country.

~***~

Lorelai was busy singing along with all the Hawaiian songs on the radio, as Luke rolled his eyes and kept on driving. She was on her 4th cup of coffee and they hadn't even reached the upcountry where more coffee was to be acquired.

"So Lukey, what do you think?"

"Hmm?"

"Pineapple. Did you ever know that it grew on pokey little bushes? I mean come on, how cool is that? It's got it's own personal defense system, so much, so that the workers have to use gloves to get them out. It's like armor…except not."

"Wow, who would have thought that you can actually process intelligent thoughts with all that caffeine buzzing around in your head?"

"Caffeine buzzing..Haha..That's a good one."

"Oh yes, I'm just full of them."

Ohmygosh Luke! That's the cutest church that I've ever seen! We have to stop."

"No we don't."

"Yes we do."

"No.."

"Yesssss."

"Fine…but you can't ask for anything else today…"

"Hehe, ok, grumpy."

They pulled into the church's parking lot, and Lorelai practically leaped out of the car, camera in hand. She then proceeded to run around, frantically taking pictures, as Luke stayed in the car and fiddled with the air conditioning.

A good five minutes later, and she reappeared, a huge grin plastered on her face. Luke couldn't help but show a small smile as he shook his head and started up the car again. They drove on for another 20 minutes and quickly a bohemian town appeared in front of them. Lorelai commented on the dreadlocks, and Luke concentrated on finding a parking place.

They'd been shopping for around an hour, or rather Lorelai had been, and was busy dragging Luke along. She'd found one of Sookie's presents, Michel's fat-free Kona coffee, and had managed to spend a few dollars on herself, while claiming they were purely for Rory's amusement.

"Lorelai, you can't seriously need to go into another tourist trap of a store."

"Why Luke, it almost sounds like you hate being here."

He sighed, took off the baseball hat, and ran his hand through his moist hair. "We've been in at least 10 stores already, and yet you still seem to need to go to this "one last one".

Lorelai stopped and looked down at her bags. After a moment's silence and thought, she brought her head back up and announced proudly, "nope, we've only been in 8. I bought at least something in every store, and I only have 8 bags; so you lose."

Luke grunted, and turned abruptly back towards the car.

"Wait, no, come on, we only have this one left. I mean look at it; it has gorgeous stuff…….. Please?"

-No answer-

"Come on Luke, I promise this is it..."

Lorelai gave in and simply followed him back to the car, head lowered, and a glower forming on her face.

*********************

Rory woke up from a light sleep, slightly disoriented. She was lying down….on a couch….her head was on a pillow….kind of a hard pillow….no wait, cancel that….it was moving…and at a steady rate, that reminded her of a heartbeat... She opened her eyes and found herself staring into the face of Jess, her pillow. He was sprawled out on the couch, and was reading, the book mere inches from her head.

Rory glanced left and right, and came to the quick conclusion, that being in between his legs, even in that clearly unsexual way, just wasn't working for her. She bolted upright, and in the process collided with the book.

"What the hell?" Jess jumped a little as Rory, who was previously sound asleep, hit his book and interrupted his concentration. She slowly rolled back down, and laid her head on his chest, rubbing her forehead.

"Hasn't anyone told you not to have such sharp books…especially above someone's head?" Rory mumbled.

Jess stared concernedly down at her. "Sorry, didn't think you'd be waking up for a while. You have to admit, that your choice of sleeping arrangements didn't lend itself to me reading."

Rory grinned sheepishly. "So um, how long have I been sleeping on… How long have I been sleeping?"

"Hour and a half."

"Are you serious?"

"No, I'm Nixon."

Rory glared.

He sighed, "yeah, I'm serious."

"So you've been stuck here for that long?"

"Pretty much. Didn't have much of a choice."

"I'm really sorry. I didn't mean to…"

"Hey don't worry about it, I got some reading done." Jess didn't mention that he would have been willing to do it for another 6 hours, just to be able to watch Rory's angelic face as she slept. She was so gorgeous. So close…and yet – not so far away anymore. He pictured her waking, reaching up and meeting his lips with her own.

Ok, so she had woken up, but the seconds following hadn't been quite what he'd hoped for.

Rory looked into Jess's eyes. He seemed to be deep in pondering something, as a smile played at his lips, and slowly turned into a frustrated expression. What could possibly be going through his head? She wanted so badly to find out…

As much as it was awkward to be in the position she was, Rory really wasn't minding being that close to Jess – able to feel every movement and heartbeat. She inhaled deeply. He smelled so good, felt so good, looked so good… Rory relaxed her body, letting her emotions wash over her.

Jess looked down and saw his angel with eyes closed again. He laid his hand gently on her forehead and was instantly able to come to the conclusion that she was burning up.

Bending over, he whispered, "Come on Rory, sit up for a minute."

She moved obligingly and Jess slid out from under her, put a pillow under her head, and guided her back down. Rory opened her eyes and looked up at Jess.

"What are you doing?"

"I'll be right back. I'm gonna go grab some medicine for you from the convenience store."

"No it's ok, you really don't have to. I'll be fine."

"You have at least a 101 fever, I'll be back up in a few minutes."

"Fine, I'll be here."

Jess smirked as he closed the door quietly behind him.

******************

Lorelai sat staring gloomily out the passenger window. Sure, she was acting like a baby, but she'd really wanted to hit that last store, and it pissed her off that Luke wouldn't give in. OK, so that just further proved how spoiled she was with him, but oh well. Every morning, the two Gilmores were able to acquire coffee from him, without too much of an argument. But now, he'd been so…in control. It was actually kind of hot…

Lorelai was brought back abruptly from her thoughts, as a hard U-turn was made.

"Luke, what are you doing!?"

"We're going back."

He'd had to deal with Lorelai's glum mood for the last 20 minutes, and he could only stand strong for so long. It hurt him a lot to see her upset, and at him. Sure, coffee was a little different, because it wasn't good for them, and of course in the end all 3 knew that Luke would eventually give in and give over the caffeine.

"Why?"

"Because, you seem to need to stop at that last store, so you'd better put the CD on repeat because we're going back."

"Awww Luke, that's really nice…But you don't have to."

"Now you say that," he mumbled, "yeah we do, cuz it's going to make you happy, and a happy Lorelai is a heck of a lot better than what you've been acting like for the last 20 minutes."

-Silence-

"I'm sorry."

"Hey don't worry about it," Luke responded.

They had only spent around 15 minutes in the store, but Lorelai had bought a candle, some tea, and a sarong, all for under $20.

"Wow, what a bargain. Thanks for letting us come back Lukey." She was back to her old cheerful self, and he could hardly stay mad at her for long."

"Yeah well it's fine as long as you manage not to call me Lukey."

"Hehe, how 'bout, Luke-I. Or, ooh, L-dog. I can see it for sure."

"Stop now, or we won't stop for dinner, and the only thing you'll be eating tonight is whatever junk you can find down in the store at the hotel."

"You're taking me to dinner?!"

"It's almost 6, and we have a good hour drive ahead of us, so yes, I am taking you out to dinner. Are you ready?"

"For shizzle L-dog…..Whoops, that one slipped."

****************

Jess trudged into the convenience store and started looking down the short aisles for the medicine section. He stopped abruptly as he glanced down a row and saw the person he least expected or wanted to see while he was in Maui – with Rory. The guy turned around, recognition flashed across his face, and his eyes narrowed. Jess stuffed his hands in his pockets and walked the short distance down to meet him.

"Well well, if it's not Bagboy."

A/N: K, well I hope the long chapter (long for me, mind you), compensated at least partially for the long hiatus. I'm so sorry for that. Days turned into weeks, and weeks into months. Anyways, here's a chapter though, so I guess that's good at least. I'm excited to write the next chapter, so hopefully it'll be up by next weekend.

I'm so busy this year (ballet 3 nights a week, dance team 4 mornings a week, football half-times that I dance at, homework, school, friends, and assorted other things) that I might not update any of my stories that much. I'll try lots harder though.

Speaking of my other stories, you might like them. I have one other literati, and then a Trory that I'm both working on. So that's 3 stories you can check for.

Please, please, please review. I love reviews; they mean so much to me. I get to hear what you think, and any suggestions you have. So please, do me a favor and push the button.

Next chapter:

Dean and Jess have a rather heated talk, Lorelai and Luke share a quiet dinner, Jess has to take care of Rory, as she feels much worse as the evening moves on.