Disclaimer: Still not mine. Some of it is, but mostly not.

Will was walking out of his parents' house in order to check the mail for his mother. She had her usual post-Thanksgiving hangover, which was as always brought on by a mass of carbohydrates. She was on the couch for the day, convincing people to bring her things so as not to interrupt her leisure. She was waiting for some catalogue to come, and Will was one of her errand boys today. Luke, Errand Boy #1, was currently in the kitchen, arranging some saltines and coffee to help 'settle her stomach'.

He'd just rifled through the box, the one that had the word DANES painted in small script in front of GILMORE, never changed from the day Lorelai had taken the paint herself and made an addendum when Luke moved in. Successful in retrieving said catalogue, he smiled in anticipation of her over-dramatic response.

"You're happy."

He turned and held up the catalogue to show Anna.

"Victoria's?"

"Hey, first of all, no, and secondly, it's not for me."

She took the catalogue and leafed through it, and nodded. "Lorelai's?"

He nodded, taking it back as the walked up the front steps.

"She's on the couch?"

He smiled and nodded again. "What brings you here?"

"I forgot my scarf here last night," she explained.

"Will? Is that you? Did it come? Because you can just call Kirk and—oh, hey, Anna!" Lorelai half turned to face the front door, greeting the two, and then happily grabbing the catalogue from Will's hands.

"You got some bills, too," he informed her.

"Gah, just throw those in the pile," she waved her hand behind her.

"Right."

"So, Anna, what brings you here?"

"My scarf, I think I left it last night."

"Oh, well, there's a pile of leftover clothing in Will's room—we always seem to have one of those, like we're having some sort of wild parties or something," she grinned to herself.

"Okay, so we'll go look. You rest up, Mom," he shook his head and pulled Anna along behind him.

Meanwhile, somewhere between Stars Hollow and Martha's Vineyard, Tristan's BMW rolled along the interstate. The most noise was coming from the sound of the tires as they moved against the pavement. The silence in the car was deafening. At the Dragonfly, Rory had gone up to get Erin to agree to join them as Jess packed his bag. They met at the car, and not much had been said since.

Rory looked to her husband, who was concentrating on getting where they were going. She moved her left hand to cover his right one, and gave it a squeeze. She half turned in the passenger seat, to check on the state of things in the backseat. Jess and Erin were sitting in their opposite corners, no touching, no eye contact. Taking a deep breath, she decided she had to say. . . something.

"So, Erin, how is work going?"

Erin looked up, almost surprised. "Oh, well, you know. Busy," she offered.

"Yeah, me too. Busy," she bit her bottom lip, wondering what would get the other woman on a talking spree.

"So, how is Jules liking school so far?"

Erin glanced at Jess, giving him a rather accusatory look, before answering. "I'm not sure. She seems to have been sort of overwhelmed by it, but I think she's bucking up now," she added.

Jess scoffed, but said no actual words.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Erin shot at him immediately.

"I didn't say anything," he pointed out tiredly.

"No, you never do, do you?"

"Erin, I swear to God, don't start with this now," he gave her a warning look.

"I should have just gone," she muttered under her breath.

"Real nice," he said, looking back out the window.

Rory winced when the bickering started in front of them, and she turned back in her seat. Tristan squeezed her hand, acknowledging her efforts even though they seemed to have failed. All four took to staring out windows, dreading the arrival at their destination.

In Will's old bedroom, still as he left it when he went off to Yale the first year, Anna and Will sat on his twin bed. She held her scarf that had been pulled out of the pile of leftovers: a glove, her scarf, a pair of mittens, three hats, and a coat.

"So, what are you up to tonight?" she asked.

"Well, Dave's off to see mystery woman, so I guess hanging out with him at home is out," he shrugged. "I'm not sure."

"Mystery woman? Davey has a girl?"

Will grimaced. "Ooh, yeah. I didn't tell you that," he pleaded with her, using only his eyes.

"Oh, no. Nuh-uh. I am so using this knowledge to my advantage."

"Ann, come on," Will tried to reason with her.

"Who is it?"

"Dunno."

"Bull. Tell me."

"Seriously, I don't know. I've never met her, and he never uses her name. I think he knows it himself, but he doesn't share this knowledge."

"But you guys have been best friends all your lives. Why won't he tell you?"

"I have no idea. I don't push people on things like this," he raised his eyebrow at her.

"We should spy!" she bounced a little on the bed, obviously happy at her thought.

Will held in a groan—a stakeout to see whom Davey was seeing sounded like a bad idea. Dave wasn't telling for a reason, obviously, but Anna seemed really excited about the prospect. Anna hadn't seemed excited this whole visit, and he knew she needed to get her mind off of what had happened to her.

"Will, come on," she pleaded, giving him the puppy dog eyes in conjunction with the pouty lip—a lethal combination.

"Fine, we'll tail him. But if we get caught," he pointed at her.

"Will, I'm his sister. Of course he'll blame me," she shook her head, signifying Will's oversight of thought. She clapped her hands happily and they went out to rejoin Lorelai in the living room, and Luke, who was futilely attempting to get her to agree to take down the Christmas tree already.

Pulling into the modestly large garage, Tristan turned off the ignition and looked at Rory. She looked sad, past the ability to muster enthusiasm enough for the four of them.

"So, I guess we should get our bags in and get settled. We could to go to Silvio's for dinner," he suggested.

"Sure," Erin mumbled.

"Whatever," Jess said as he opened his door and exited the car.

"Thank you," Rory leaned over to give him a kiss on the cheek. They sat in the car a moment as Jess and Erin fled, in all probability to separate rooms.

"I just couldn't say anything more. I thought talking about the kids would be safe," she continued.

"I know, but I'm not sure anything is safe with them right now. Jess said they were fighting about the kids. Ambrose has been getting into some trouble at school, and Jules' grades aren't so good right now."

"Jess told you all that?"

"Yeah, he did."

"Oh," she paused, wondering why he hadn't told her. "Well, Jules did just start there, maybe Jake could tutor her, help get her up to speed," she suggested to her husband.

He smiled and kissed the back of her hand. "That's why I love you. The eternal optimist, always looking to make something positive."

"Hey, someone has to, right?"

"Right. Come on, let's get in there before they kill each other," he smiled at her and got out of the car.