AN: So, I was trying to figure out how much longer this is going to get. My answer, after much planning is: I have no idea. So, to everyone's who is reading and enjoying, thanks and here's another installment.
He hadn't slept all night. He'd tried warm milk around 3am, blocking out all light from coming into his room at 4am, and blaring music around 6am. He'd gotten close to sleep with the music until Ambrose and Jules came in to check on him in the late morning, and turned it off. Now he tried to sit up and be coherent as his kids climbed on the bed. They hadn't done that together for over five years. They all used to climb into the same bed, and Jess would read to them and Erin would listen as well. This was how most of their Sunday mornings were spent from the earliest years. The good memories made him smile, but he wondered if they'd ever stop being painful now.
"How was your date?" Jules asked, trying to sound okay about it.
"It was fine," Jess yawned.
"How late were you out?"
"He was back around midnight," Ambrose hit his sister with a pillow. "He came over to the house last night."
"You were sleeping, Jules, I wasn't going to wake you."
She smiled and leaned back against his chest.
"You okay?" he asked, trying to look at her face.
"Mmmhmm."
"You should get started with your tutoring today," he broke out the official father tone.
She scrunched up her face in disinterest. "Dad, it's Christmas."
"It's a break when you don't have new stuff to get further behind on."
"Damn," she said, rolling away from her dad and pulling a pillow over her face. Hearing her choice of words, something Erin tried to discourage in the kids, he held the pillow over her face for a second as she smacked his hand away.
"He just wants to get rid of us so he can go back to bed," Ambrose smirked.
"Why are you still here?"
"Why are you still in bed? It's almost 11am."
"I'm tired. I have these children who won't leave me alone."
Ambrose rolled his eyes, and moved to grab his sister's hands to pull her up. "Come on, we can go find Jake."
"Do we have to?"
Jess was watching his kids' converse about what exactly to do once they let him get back to sleep when his cell phone rang. He reached out without a thought and grabbed it off the nightstand.
"'Lo?"
"Jess, it's me."
"Oh, hey."
"Is this a bad time?"
"No, it's not. I was going to call you, actually."
Both kids were blatantly staring at him, not trying in the slightest to leave anymore. Both were still on the bed, with Jess looking very uneasy.
"I just wanted to know how you were."
"I don't know how to answer that."
"Why?"
"Can you hang on a sec?"
"Uh, sure," she said hesitantly.
He covered the receiver and looked at his kids sternly.
"Who is it?"
"It's your Mom."
"Can we talk to her?"
"Just, go to your room, and I'll come give you the phone after I'm done."
They nodded and got up, leaving him alone with the phone.
"Sorry."
"It's okay."
"Look, Erin, I can't tell you how I am—I feel like my whole life is on hold. I can't do anything, not like this."
"I'm sorry," she sighed.
"I know you are, but Erin, I can't do this. We're married, but you're keeping me in this limbo, and I can't," he said, getting more frustrated.
"Is this about your date? You're frustrated because of that?"
"Fuck, listen to me! I don't want to be with other women. This isn't about me, it's about us, Erin. You and me. Whether or not you want to be married to me anymore."
She was silent after his reaction. His frustration grew, as he felt she was keeping him in the dark on purpose. He wasn't sure what she was thinking, and it killed him.
"You can't keep putting this off on me. I love you, but," he paused, not wanting to instigate a worsening situation out of his angry words. "We need to make a decision."
"I know. I know."
"Are you coming out for Christmas?"
"I'm not sure that's a good idea."
"You don't have to come to all the family things here, you can hit your folks house, but you should at least see Ambrose and Juliet."
"It's only like five days away, Jess."
"So, now you're content with a phone call to your kids on Christmas?"
"Jesus, Jess, no, but it's going to be expensive."
"I can pay for it, they shouldn't have to suffer just because you're short some cash."
"No, I'll pay. I'll make the arrangements and call you back."
"The kids wanted to talk to you."
"I'll call you back in fifteen minutes, I'll talk to them then. Are they doing okay?"
"Oh, yeah, they're peachy."
"Jess," she warned.
"They're fine, considering their parents aren't living in the same state. They're going to be fine," he assured her. He was going to make sure of that.
"Alright. Fifteen minutes."
"Fine."
He hung up the phone and wanted to scream. If she wanted to reconcile, she had an ass-backwards way of showing it. He knew she was implying that he wanted to date and get rid of her, but he wasn't about to stoop to her level and ask her about her current love life. He pulled the pillow back over his head and slid back down on the bed.
&&&&
When Luke headed off to work the next day, after going home and changing, Lorelai went out as well. She drove straight over to her son's apartment and ran up to the door. After a minute of knocking, her son opened the door, not looking very amused.
"Mom, I hate that."
"Well, you won't give me a key."
"I wonder why?"
"We need to talk."
"Okay. Have you had coffee?"
"Just, let me in, will you?"
He sighed, and stepped back, allowing his mother to walk into the main room. Davey was sitting in his boxers on the couch, eating cereal and playing on the Playstation.
"Dude!" he yelled, pulling a blanket from the other end of the couch around himself.
"Aw, please. I literally used to change your diapers."
"We don't have to talk about that again, do we?"
"Hey, where is the appreciation? I saved you from under a bed," she reminded him.
"And I'm grateful. I'd still like all comments to you seeing my naked posterior to cease."
"Fine," she rolled her eyes and looked to Will. "So, how was the date?"
"It went really well, actually," he said, ready to continue, but she jumped in.
"Great, so when are you going to tell Sookie?"
He let his head drop back and he closed his eyes. He should have known this would come sooner or later—but he was hoping for later.
"Mom, no. Not yet."
"But why? It's going well, right?"
"We've had one date," he said slowly, as if she were unaware.
"No, you don't understand, I had to pretend I had no knowledge of this. Why did you tell me?"
"So, now you want me to keep my life from you so it won't infringe on your friendships?"
"That would be greatly appreciated, but for now, I need you two to be out of the relationship closet."
"No."
"Will, ahhn, come on! How long are you going to hold out on this?"
"Until we're ready. I'm sorry, you're going to have to have privileged knowledge for a while. I know it's rough," he coddled her.
"Fine. But you owe me."
"I thought I was still paying on the whole 'I gave birth to you' thing."
"Right, right. So, I'll just add it on to your sentence."
Dave watched this whole exchange, and snickered. Lorelai really was good at the pleading, but Will had inherited just enough of Luke's no-nonsense attitude to be partially resistant to it. All the best people in her life were, though he'd never met anyone completely resistant to her 'charms' as she called it.
"Are you sworn to secrecy, too?" she turned to Dave.
"Actually, no. I figured it out on my own, no one told me anything, including not to tell Mom and Dad."
Will shot him a look, and groaned. He couldn't win, these two were impossible. "Look, just please don't make me crazy about this. It's going well, and I really like her. And I really don't want to do anything to mess this up. Please?"
Lorelai smiled at her son. "Sookie's knowing won't mess this up."
"Mom, you said yourself that she'd be planning a wedding, that's pressure neither of us needs. We want to enjoy this, and go slowly."
"Well, she loves you both, is it wrong for us to be excited about this?"
"No, but how would have felt at my age to have your parents planning a wedding with someone you'd only had one date with?"
"Hey, I had my parents trying to marry me off at sixteen," she reminded, but still her face fell from her prior excitement. "But I get your point."
"Good. Now, go. We need to play video games in our underwear," he smiled.
"You boys are no fun. Are you sure you don't want to go Christmas shopping with me?"
"I'm all done."
"Even for Anna?"
"Yes."
"Did you shop before or after you asked her out?"
"Before. Why?"
"What'd you get her?"
"A book."
"EHN! Wrong," she said, gesturing her thumb over her shoulder.
"What? She'll love it."
"A book is a friend gift. You give your girlfriend a book, and it's like saying, here's something to do instead of me," she instructed.
"God, Mom!"
Dave put his head in his hands, still in disbelief at how Lorelai's mind worked. If his own mother had ever said such a thing to him, he probably would have passed out. He cringed even more because she was making these remarks about this about his sister.
"Well, I'm just trying to help you out. If you change your mind, you know where to find me."
"I'll see you on Christmas Eve," he said, moving to open the door. As he did, he surprised Anna, who'd just walked up to the door.
"Oh, hi," he said, surprised.
"Hey, Anna," Lorelai smiled brightly at her.
"Hey, Aunt Lorelai," she smiled. "Is this a bad time?" she turned to Will.
"No, Mom's just leaving, and Dave, he needs to put clothes on," he said, furrowing his brow towards his friend.
"FINE!" Dave said, standing up causing the blanket to fall and he made his way down the hall mumbling about how a man should be able to sit in his underwear and eat cereal in his own house.
"Wow, my brother, I'm so proud," she grimaced.
"Oh, Anna, could you tell your mom something for me?"
"Sure, what?"
"Uh, just tell her that I need her to come by the house, to sign some papers for the Inn."
"Oh, okay. Sure," she smiled again. Both the kids looked at Lorelai as if they couldn't wait for her to leave. She felt like the old drag of a parent whose immediate departure set off a make-out session. But she couldn't help but be happy for Will. He really deserved to be happy.
"See you kids later, then," she said, giving one last smile before heading out.
"What was all that about?"
"Nothing. Trust me. Just Mom being Mom."
She smiled and nodded. She understood. He loved that about her. He pulled her into a hug and kissed her. "What are you doing here?"
"Just wanted to see you," she sighed, in that happy-new-relationship-contented way. She wrapped her arms around him as well, and they forgot about families and Christmas presents, and anything else that might have been in their minds before.
&&&&
Rory poked her head into the room where Ella was staying at the Dragonfly. She was lying on the bed, writing furiously in what appeared to be a journal. Wanting to be respectful, she knocked on the doorframe. Ella's head snapped up, and she shut the cover to her journal.
"Can I come in?"
"Sure."
"Busy?"
"No, I'm just thinking."
Rory nodded. "How about some shopping therapy? Lorelai's downstairs, ready to take us to the mall," she offered figuring her daughter couldn't resist the offer. Ella had definitely followed in the women of her family's footsteps as far the thrill of shopping was concerned.
"Well," she bit her lip. Part of her thought the break would be nice, but part of her felt she needed to talk to Billy. She'd been thinking about what Jess had said to her the night before, about trusting her feelings—but she wasn't quite sure what those were yet. She wasn't sure if talking to Billy would make her more or less sure, either. It couldn't hurt to get out of her head for a while.
"Yeah, let's go," she said, shaking her head and smiling.
"Great!" Rory said excitedly. "Your Grandmother is really freaked out about something, so this will be one for the books. She's already babbling about girlfriend gifts."
"Girlfriend gifts?"
Rory shook her head. "I have no idea."
Tristan appeared behind Rory and slipped his arms around her waist. "You're leaving me?"
"Just for the day."
"Sephora?"
"Ooh, Mom, can we?"
"That's going to be another two hours, you realize that," Rory smirked at him.
"I'll never understand you girls."
"Hey, check in on Jess sometime today, will you?"
"My next stop."
"Good. Okay, we're off," she kissed his cheek, as did Ella as they raced down the stairs to meet Lorelai, leaving Tristan to entertain himself for the day.