Hullo, back again with the eighth chapter which could very well be the last. And if it is the last I would like to give special thanks to as always laura mariano because your reviews are always so awesome and inspiring. And to iminlovewithaboynamedJESS, AvidTVfan, smile1, Luke Rules, Jade-Tessier, Thena, tonx, Emily Carol, tegan and anyone else that I did not name. Thank you so much for your support, you're probably the only reasons I continue to write.

~Kay

You better let somebody love you,

let somebody love you

before it's too late

The Way Home

When Rory wakes up the next morning with a rosy pink to her cheeks, and her eyes sparkling Lorelai notices and wonders. When they start stealing secret looks at each other from across the table Lorelai becomes suspicious. When they touch hands whenever they can Lorelai knows. And when they are found discussing literary classics it is confirmed. By seven o'clock Lorelai is dying to ask Rory what happened since the last time she had spoken to her alone and crying.

"Luke," she whispers, "what is going on between those two?" They stand alone by the kitchen sink while Rory, Jess and the boys watch a movie in the T.V room.

Luke shrugs in an unperturbed manner and says, "Looks as though they've made up. It's a good thing or I would have pounded his face in."

"In what way did they make up though?" Lorelai says stealing a peak around the kitchen corner to see Jess and Rory sitting too close together on the couch. Their hands lightly touching.

"Does it matter?" Luke asks and begins scrubbing another dish in pink soap and water. "I'm sure Rory'll tell you as soon as she gets the chance."

Lorelai turns to her husband and sighs, "I guess." She comes to help him dry the dishes, "When did she get home last night?"

"I'm not keeping tabs on Rory's whereabouts, she's an adult now."

"I know that!" Lorelai says while rolling her eyes. "It's called gossip."

"I don't keep tabs on that either. I leave that to Babbette and Ms. Patty." Luke hands Lorelai another dish. He looks sideways at her, "And you."

Lorelai grins, "What if they're doing the smooches?"

"The what?"

"Oh come on, you know . . ." And Lorelai kisses him on the lips with a loud smack.

"If they are I don't want to know about it." Luke grimaces.

"Why did I marry such an unfun man?"

"That's not even a word."

"Yeah, well, you work at a diner. So there."

"What? Are you trying to use that as an insult? I've served you coffee there for the past twenty years!" Luke shakes his head and lets out a defeated sigh. "You make no sense."

Lorelai shrugs and dries another plate, "Sense smense. Who needs it when you have Brad Pitt?"

"You're still on about him? What happened to Mel Gibson?"

"He got old." Lorelai wrinkles her nose and shakes her head. "What a pity."

"Not really, he only had two good movies. Maybe one."

"What?!"

"Oh come on, 'What Women Want'?"

"You obviously don't know!"

Their argument can be heard from the T.V room as Lorelai's voice grows louder with injustice. Rory and Jess smile with amusement over Mathew's head. His arm is now laid across the back of the couch behind Mathew until it reaches Rory. His hand is on her neck playing with her hair, it sends small tingles down her spine and she grins.

Later on that night Mathew and Tyler are put to bed and Jess leaves with a promise.

It's finally Lorelai's chance to pounce on Rory with questions and she does the second they're alone.

She finds Rory alone in the kitchen making coffee and makes a beeline for her, "What's going on?! I've been out of my mind all day wanting to ask you!"

Rory smiles so broadly that a light touches her eyes in a pool of inky blue. "Mom! I am so happy!" She's nearly jumping like a school girl.

Lorelai does jump like a school girl, "Oh my gosh! What happened?"

A giggle escapes from Rory's lips as she grabs her mother's hands and pulls her to the kitchen table where they both sit down. "A lot happened last night while you were at the Dragonfly."

"Yeah! So I've noticed!" Lorelai says exasperated. "You have not peeped a word to me about to all day and I'm nearly going insane!"

Rory laughs and says, "I'm sorry, I just wanted to talk to you alone."

"But mostly you wanted to talk to Jess alone the entire day."

A blush creeps up Rory's face, "Well, maybe a little."

"Oh! That's okay chica!" Lorelai says with a wink. "So spill, what happened?"

"Okay," Rory says still smiling, "As you recall I was still in a state of distress when you left me."

"Even with a little help from Ben and Jerry."

"Yes, even with their help I was still upset. So after you left I took the longest nap of my life since Lane and I never went to sleep. I woke up to the smell of some really good smellin' sauce and of course I could not simply stay in bed!"

"Of course not! Who would?"

"Exactly. I mean I had to get up although I knew Jess was there and eat whatever it was that Luke was cooking." Rory says and than she tells her story from last night to her mother the best she can. Yet there are no words to describe how she flew through stars and moons and sky when she was with Jess, or how his hand felt upon her cheek.

But none of that really matters. Lorelai doesn't need to hear these things because she already knows. She can tell by the way Rory's mouth tugs upwards when she says his name, her eyes alight when she recalls their kiss, her arms wave around as she tells her story, and her cheeks are still pink with the tendrils of love brushing her face.

Rory slows down as she comes to the end of her story, "We just talked and talked nearly the entire night, that's why I slept in so late today." She yawns and says, "Going nearly two days without much sleep was not the best idea but totally worth it."

"Well," Lorelai says with her eyebrows raised and laughter in her eyes, "you don't have to sneak through the window tonight."

Rory laughs and thanks her mother for knowing her so well.

***

I've been trying my hardest not to let myself become too happy, but it hasn't been easy. I can't help but grin so widely that my cheeks hurt when I think of him, and my heart simply will not slow. It's still hard to believe that two weeks ago I couldn't stand coming back to Stars Hollow and hadn't thought about Jess in years. It seems as though he's all I think about now.

Yesterday we met after dinner as promised and he surprised me with a fresh batch of cookies. If we don't slow down soon I am going to fall so hard in love that I don't think I will be able to stand again.

My hands splay across the small of Tyler's back as I push him forward on the swing and he squeals in delight. I am babysitting this morning while Mom's at the Dragonfly and Luke's at the diner. Jess should be here at any minute.

"Don't forget me!" Mathew yells from the swing next to Tyler.

"Not a chance," I say and give him another push. "Remember to pump your legs!"

"It's all in the legs!" Mathew shouts repeating what my Mother had said to me this morning when she suggested I wear a skirt instead of jeans. I laugh as my little brother flies higher into the air.

The sun is so bright today that it could evoke the child in anyone, it's a day when playfulness and freckles are inevitable. A small breeze tickles my bare legs and feet, it causes the hair wisps around my face to dance and wave in the air. There are banana yellow leaves dashing across the yard, I wonder if this will be the last lingering summer day before fall blows in.

I push Tyler again as he asks if there really is a coffee pot at the end of a rainbow.

"Well duh! Of course there is!" I say imagining what other kind of fairy tales Mom is feeding her children.

"Cause Daddy says there isn't!" He says connecting with the blue sky above him and then soaring back down.

"Mommy promised." Mathew tells his brother firmly and knowingly.

"Mom told me that too, you know." I say now pushing Mathew up into the air.

Tyler is swinging back to me when he says, "Dad tolded me not to believe anything Mommy says."

I am trying to hold back my giggles as I continue to push them through the air into the sky where a sun is grinning widely back at us. "Next time we see a rainbow we'll try to find the end of it. How's that sound? Then we'll know and prove your Dad wrong."

"Okay!" Mathew and Tyler yell together excitedly. I see their hopeful faces and know they're already imagining what the end of a rainbow looks like and if they can climb on it and if there really will be a coffee pot waiting for them. I am thinking back to the night when Mom told me the same story and how she smelled like coffee next to me so much that I completely believed her.

"What's this about searching for a rainbow?"

I look up to see Jess sauntering across the lawn towards us, my heart does an involuntary leap in my chest so suddenly that I nearly gasp.

Mathew and Tyler have already skidded to a stop and are running to him. When they reach him they're both asking questions so quickly about coffee pots and rainbows that their words are jumbled and mixed.

"Woah, slow down!" He says looking up at me with a grin. I can feel myself flushing with pleasure already.

When Tyler and Mathew finally manage to ask if there really is a coffee pot at the end of a rainbow Jess is smiling even more widely. "Who told you this? Your Mom?"

"Ya." They say.

"Huh," he says looking back up at me again and ruffling their hairs, "then there must be."

"Really?"

"Oh, yeah. Lorelai doesn't tell lies." Now he's not grinning but smirking in a very familiar way.

Mathew and Tyler are staring up at him now with confused almost scared faces. "Lore . . .Lore . . .lai?" They both struggle to say their mothers name.

"Mommy he means." I say walking over to them.

Relief spreads across their faces and the smiles return, they both let out an identical, "oh."

"Hey," he says to me, his eyes graze over mine and than downward where they linger. I make a mental note to thank Mom later for making me wear a skirt.

"Hi," I say after a moment because I too let myself trail my eyes over him. I love it when he wears a long sleeved shirt with the arms rolled up. He used to do it when we were growing up too fast, it sent shivers down my spine than too.

"Are we still going to the zoo?" Tyler asks pulling on my skirt and I tear my gaze away from Jess' muscular arms that are making me crazy.

"Of course!" I say and pick him up. I kiss his cheek and rub my face into his hair; sometimes my maternal instincts kick in so much that I am actually itching for my own children.

I look up to see Jess staring at me and for some reason I have to look away.

Later on Jess and I are both strapping the boys into the car when I realize it might cool down later on so I run back into the house to grab the their jackets. I am searching the jumbled closet chock full of my mother's coats when I feel him put his arms around me and kiss my neck.

I turn around and entangle my hands in his hair, "The boys . . ."

But he cuts me off with a kiss so fierce that I have already forgotten their names, I can only think of his lips against mine so hot and his fingers pressing into the small of my back.

When we break away he says, "I'm sorry, I couldn't wait." But his eyes aren't sorry and he's smiling again.

"I'm glad you didn't," I say but push him away. "Now, I have to find their jackets."

He grins, kisses me once more and than lets go to walk to the door.

A thought suddenly occurs to me, I spin around away from the closet, "Jess?"

He looks back and raises his eyebrows.

"Ride home with me Sunday?"

His eyes stare into mine with such ferocity that I almost want to look away, but I don't. A smile slowly spreads across his face and he nods, "Yeah, okay."

When I turn back to the closet I am grinning as widely and as brightly as the sun.

***

They are all thinking how fast two weeks can go by when Luke loads their suitcases into her car. And when they step outside into a cool afternoon every one is wishing Sunday hadn't come so fast. Jess still believes he is living in a fairy tale, this is new to him and he wishes it to never end. Rory has never loved Stars Hollow more and is wondering how she could have ever grown away from it. Lorelai feels the familiar lump forming in her throat every time she watches her only daughter leave home. The twins are mourning over two playmates that can take them to the zoo, and Luke is so proud of his nephew he could burst.

But the end of something wonderful has come, as it always does as time tap dances itself across the earth.

They each say their good-byes to Mathew and Tyler with kisses and hugs and hair ruffles and the promise that they'll be back very soon to search for a rainbow. While Jess shakes Luke's hand and thanks him for the hospitality, Rory and Lorelai cling to each other as though it's the first day of Rory's college. It happens every time though; Luke has grown used to the red eyes, the forced girlie giggles, and random references to famous movie goodbye scenes.

Today's favorite reference is Moulin Rouge as Lorelai tells Rory that she will love her 'come what may'.

It is still another five minutes of this before Rory and Jess finally find themselves climbing into the car readying themselves for the ride home.

Her hands still before turning the key in the ignition as she stares at her childhood home and says, "It's always hard leaving, but going home makes it worth it." Rory is already itching to start working again as soon as Monday begins . She can barely wait to tell Kylie the past two weeks of her life. But most of all, she's waiting to start her real life again dating a guy with a really good name.

Jess places his hand over her and starts the ignition, "Then let's be on our way."

Rory smiles at him and with one last wave backs the car from the driveway and down the road.

They're both happy that their conversation starts so easily and freely, they're both glad that when the are silences they are never uncomfortable. They both smile to be in one another's company.

Rory feels exceptionally lucky when they begin talking about J.D Salinger, it's been years since she's had someone to talk to like Jess over literary classics. "I'm sorry, but 'Catcher in the Rye' is my absolute favorite of the Salinger's."

Jess snorts, "That entire book all Caufield does is whine."

"Not true!" Rory says indignantly, "He obviously has problems with happiness but the way Salinger describes his emotions it's as though you're inside his head."

"I still prefer 'Nine Stories'." Jess shrugs.

"I did like 'Nine Stories' too, but the first story was so hard on me for some reason. One second I'm laughing about the guys feet and the next he's shooting himself in the head."

"That's what's so intriguing though. There's all these hints in the beginning as to his depression, yet when he finally kills himself it's such a shock that you have to read the entire story over again, but still you don't truly understand it."

"I guess." Rory says, but still remembers the way she had to put the book down and cover her mouth when she read the last sentence.

"If you really like 'Catcher', you've gotta read this book I bought a few months ago, it reminded me of Holden Caufield so much that I read 'Catcher' again."

"What is it?" Rory asks suddenly interested.

"'Disobedience' by Jane Hamilton."

"Map Around the World?"

"Yeah."

"What's it about?"

"This kid finds out that his mother is having an affair when he opens her email."

Rory raises her eyebrows, "Sounds interesting."

"It is, you'll love it. Promise."

"I trust you." Rory says. They both smile and their hearts grin.

The suns is falling behind them leaving splashes of soap bubble pink and red the color of Hawaiian punch. The road stretches black and inviting before them, neither is afraid where it will take them.

AN: I fully intended for this to be the last chapter, but now I am not so sure. Many reviews have been expecting it to continue more into the future and that has had me thinking that maybe I should. I'm not sure if I'll write more chapters or simply do a sequel. Neither would be very long, and at this point I am at a complete loss for ideas. So if anyone would like to share their opinion it would be incredibly helpful.

Jess is on tonight! Finally! I thought it was going to happen about three weeks ago! Damn previews. Thanks for those who warned me that he wouldn't be.

REVIEW PLEASE!!