Friday went by in a rush for Jess. He woke up, showered, dressed, worked, came home, ate dinner, read and slept, with a brief phone call from Rory in-between the last two.

When he arrived at thee diner Saturday morning, he was surprised by the lack of Gilmore Presence. Luke was ringing up Gypsy's order with a troubled expression.

Jess walked behind the counter and picked up his order pad and pencil. "What's wrong with you?"

"What?" Luke asked, looking up from the register briefly. "Nothing."

"Sure," Jess nodded, leaning against the counter.

Luke sighed.

"What?"

"He has a date tonight," Gypsy snickered.

"Ah," Jess nodded with a smirk. "And who is the luck victim?"

"Lorelai," Luke muttered.

Jess blinked in surprise. "What?"

"Lorelai."

Jess smirked. "Huh."

Luke glared. "What?"

Jess shook his head, his smirk widening.

"What?!"

"I have nothing to say," Jess replied.

"You're annoying," Luke groaned, walking back to the storeroom.

Jess smirked. "Yeah." He reached into his back pocket and pulled out a book, which he opened and began to read.

A soft voice cleared itself from the other side of the counter. "Excuse me. Shouldn't you be working?"

He didn't really hear her as he was engrossed with the pages of his book.

A moment later, it was snapped from his grasp, and he looked up, annoyed, until he saw who it was. "Hey."

Rory smiled and sat across from him. She marked his page, and then started from the beginning of the book.

"Hey!" he cried, grabbing the book back.

"Hey!" she cried back with a laugh. She grabbed for the book again, but he kept it from her grasp. "I wanna read!"

"Don't you have your own?" he asked with a smirk.

"Yeah, but I've read mine before," Rory pouted. "I haven't read yours. I wanna."

"You can wait until I finish," he replied.

She grabbed for the book again, but he held it above his head and then pointed a finger at her in warning.

"Stop it."

She smiled and got off of her seat; slowly walking behind the counter. He backed away from her.

"I mean it, Rory. You can wait until I finish."

Her smile widened and she began to chase him just as Luke walked out from the storeroom.

"Hey, hey, hey!" Luke cried. "No running in my diner!"

Jess bolted up the stairs with Rory following closely behind. "You can't have it!"

Luke heard Rory laugh all the way up to the apartment. He shook his head and looked out at the diner. He spotted Lindsay staring sadly at the curtain-covered stairway and frowned. She looked a little sick. He walked over to her with his order pad.

"Hey."

"Hey, Luke," she replied. "Uhm... can I have some waffles, please?"

He nodded. "Sure... you okay?"

She sighed and didn't meet his eyes. "Yeah."

"I'M GOING THROUGH YOUR CLOSET!!"

Rory sighed and closed her book from the couch. "You went through my closet already!"

"I'M GOING THROUGH IT AGAIN!" Lorelai called as she ran down the stairs to her daughter's room.

Rory got up and followed her in. "Why are you freaking out about this?"

"I wanna look good."

"It's Luke."

"I wanna look good!"

"Okay," Rory replied, putting her hands up. She dove into her closet and pulled out a blue dress.

Lorelai gasped. "How did I miss that?!"

"I hide it," Rory smiled. "It's the dress I got in New York when we went to bust Jamie out of jail."

"Ah," Lorelai nodded. "It's perfect. Can I?"

Rory bit her lip. "Don't spill on it."

"I won't."

"And don't get it sweaty."

"I won't."

"And don't-"

"I won't!" Lorelai grabbed the dress and ran back up to her room.

"You look fine."

"You sure?"

"Yeah."

"You lying?"

Jess smirked as he wiped off the diner counter. "Would I lie to you?"

Luke rolled his eyes and grabbed his coat from one of the stools. "Alright. I'm leaving. Be good."

With a straight face, Jess placed his hands over his head in the shape of a halo.

Luke blinked and shook his head. "Bye, Jess."

"Be home by midnight."

Luke groaned.

"And don't do anything I would."

"No buildings will be defaced, I promise," Luke replied, heading for the door.

"And look both ways before crossing the street."

"Shut up."

Rory opened the front door and smiled. "Hey. Come on in, she's almost ready."

Luke nodded and followed her into the house. "Thanks."

"Mom!" Rory called. "Luke's here!"

"Coming!" Lorelai yelled back. She rushed down the stairs and tripped, landing on her butt on the bottom step. "Ow!"

Luke stared. She looked beautiful, in the mesh-y, blue dress and high heels. He looked down at his slacks and nice shirt. He hoped to god Jess wasn't lying about him looking fine.

Rory had rushed over and was helping Lorelai to her feet. The older woman blushed ever-so-slightly.

"Hey, Luke."

He smiled weakly. "Hey, Lorelai... you look great."

"Thanks... you don't look too shabby yourself." She blinked. 'Shabby?' she thought. 'Who am I, tonight?!'

"You kids have fun tonight," Rory smirked.

Lorelai gave her daughter a thin smile. "You have fun with Jess."

"There will be no Jess tonight," Rory assured them. "I will be studying."

"Yeah, studying Jess's-"

"Have a nice time," Rory interrupted her, pushing both adults gently out the door and slamming it shut.

Lorelai snickered as they walked out to the truck. "Jess will be over here within a half hour."

"Can we not think about that?" Luke asked. "I like to keep my mind off of my nephew's love life. I have the feeling that the less I think about it, the longer I'll live."

Lorelai stopped as they reached the truck. "I think I felt rain."

Luke looked up and shook his head. "Nah." He opened the passenger's side door for Lorelai, and it began to rain heavily.

Lorelai nearly dove into the truck and Luke slammed the door behind her and ran to the driver's side, getting in quickly. "Okay. So I'm wrong."

She laughed a little and gently flicked a raindrop from his nose.

Lindsay had been sitting in the diner all day, and had ordered very little. When it was about time for Jess to close up, He slid into the chair across from her. He wasn't quite sure what to say. He had no idea how to say "please leave" to someone who looked as distraught as she did.

"Hi."

She looked up. "Oh. Hey, Jess." She looked around and saw that she was the only person left. "You're closing. I'll... get out of your hair."

They got to their feet at the same time, and stood awkwardly.

"Uh... are you alright?" Jess asked. He mentally kicked himself. No, she wasn't okay.

She tried to give him a smile. "I'm... I'll be okay," she told him.

He nodded. "Where's Dean?"

She sighed, her smile disappearing. "He's in Chicago."

"He coming back?"

Lindsay nodded. "Yeah... soon... he better be, at least."

"Why do you want him to?" Jess asked nonchalantly. "He's a jerk."

She nodded. "Yeah. But I'm pregnant. And I'll be damned if I go through this alone."

With that, she gathered her jacket and purse, and walked out, leaving Jess to sit back down and stare off into space.

Rory went over her article for the paper once more before putting it away. She glanced out the window and sighed at the pouring rain. Her mother was probably getting her dress all wet and muddy. And she missed Jess.

Where had that come from?

She sighed and wandered into her room, flopping onto her bed. She sighed and picked up the old bear from her pillow.

"Hey, Hephaestus," she said, brushing his fur a little. She sighed. "You look sad."

The bear, of course, said nothing.

"You miss Jess, you say?" Rory smiled. "We can fix that."

She stopped and got a pizza before driving to the diner. If it hadn't been raining so hard, she would have walked. She looked into the window, and found him sitting at a table, staring off into space. She found the door unlocked, and she walked in.

Jess looked up at her in slight surprise. "Hey. Thought you were studying."

"I was," Rory smiled. "I finished."

He nodded and sat back a little.

"Everything okay?" she asked, opening up the pizza and taking a slice.

He nodded slowly and let a smirk spread across his face. "You got my toppings."

She smiled and handed him a slice. "I did. Eat up."

He accepted the slice and took a bite in silence.

Rory sighed. "Okay. Out with it."

"Out with what?"

"Whatever's bothering you," she replied. "Out with it."

"There's nothing bothering me," Jess reassured.

"Then why do you have bothered face?"

"I don't."

Rory finished her slice and reached into her purse. She pulled out Hephaestus and shoved him into Jess's face. "Even Hephaestus can see it."

"Put that thing away," Jess ordered in an annoyed tone. "If you get sauce on him my mother will never forgive you... or me."

Rory smiled and put the stuffed animal back in her bag. "Seriously. What is it?"

Jess sighed. "Lindsay was in here."

She looked a little surprised. "Oh... okay..."

"She said she's pregnant."

Rory's eyes widened. "Really?"

He nodded.

"Wow... does Dean know?"

Jess shrugged. "She said he's in Chicago right now."

"Wow."

He nodded, and they fell into silence as they ate their pizza.

"Rory?"

"Hmm?"

"You ah..." He sat back again. "You're not..."

She had to smile a little. "Nope."

He sighed. "Huh. Good."

"Would you run to Chicago if I were?" she asked, studying her new slice.

He squinted at her. "What the hell would I be doing in Chicago?"

She snickered and handed him another slice.

Lorelai followed Luke as they rushed from the truck to the front porch. They were both soaked, and both a bit on the muddy side. When they reached the door, they looked each other up and down and Lorelai promptly started laughing.

"What?" Luke asked with a chuckle.

"You're totally soaked," Lorelai replied with a wide smile.

"Yeah? So're you," Luke accused with a smirk.

Lorelai laughed a little more and sighed. "Thanks for tonight... it was... it was really nice."

"Yeah? I'm glad you had fun."

"Did you?" she asked.

He nodded. "Yeah. I had a great time."

She nodded back. "Good."

"Well," he said awkwardly. "I better get back before this rain gets any worse."

Lorelai nodded. "Y'know, you'd think it'd snow already."

Luke looked out at the rain. "It's coming late this year, isn't it?"

"Yeah."

"Yeah."

They leaned in to kiss, just as thunder cracked quite close. They both jumped apart, looking uncomfortable.

Luke gave a weak smile. "I'm gonna get going."

Lorelai nodded and watched him go. He was almost to the truck when she ran after him as best she could in her heels and the rain. He turned around just in time to be kissed soundly.

She let go of him a few moments later and smiled. "G'night!" She rushed back through the rain up to the front door and let herself in.

Luke watched her in slight shock, before getting into the truck and driving him with a smile.