"I think you'll find that one to be quite enjoyable. Thanks for stopping!" Rory smiled handing the customer his purchase. It was a Tuesday. Tuesday's were always slow. She sat there for a few minutes, content to wait for the next customer but soon got bored with it. She glanced at her NYU admission info but she'd looked at it so much already that it was a bore at the moment. She decided to actually be productive and get some work done so she went back into the stock room to see what books needed shelving.

She'd not been back there more than five minutes when the bell above the door rang. She could hear it, not terribly well, but good enough. The customer took a few steps and she knew they were looking for something.

"Can I help you?" She asked loudly.

"Ah, yes actually. I'm looking for a book that a friend suggested to me. The title is something like The DaVinci Clue, or The DaVinci Case. Do you know what book I am speaking of?" The man replied.

"Yeah, it's actually The DaVinci Code. Very popular, it should be over on the right wall shelf; sorted under B for Brown." She yelled back picking up a stack of books. She'd only directed ten other people to that same book in the last two weeks.

"Ah, so it is. Thank you. I'd like to purchase it." He replied after a minute or so of searching.

"Okay, I'll be right out." She emerged carrying a pile of books so high it covered her face and her line of sight. She had to walk sideways to see where she was going. She set down the books and without paying too much attention to the customer, scanned the barcode on the book. "You're total is eighteen dollars and ninety-five cents." She remarked upon the computers response.

"Rory?" There was no mistaking that voice. She hadn't heard it in full clarity while she was in the stockroom but now there was no doubt in her mind. She took a deep breath in and looked up.

"Grandpa!" She exclaimed.

"Rory, what on earth are you doing here in New York City."

"I could ask you the same question."

"Well, of course you could and I would tell you I'm here on business." He replied.

"Didn't Mom tell you? She must have."

"Tell me what?" Richard looked genuinely confused.

"I moved out here. I quit Yale and I'm starting at NYU this year. Oh, and I'm living with my boyfriend, Jess from a few years back." The last part she muttered softly.

A mixture of shock and disappointment spread prudently across Richard Gilmore's wrinkled face. "Well, I must say. You're choices of late surprise me, and so does your mother's disregard for letting us in on apparently public knowledge. You said eighteen-ninety-five? Here." He handed her a twenty dollar bill. "Keep the change."

"It's not as if my mother and I are on speaking terms, she probably doesn't exactly want to tell the whole world." Rory retorted handing him his book in a bag.

"That is no excuse. Rory, I'd personally like to tell you how much I have distaste for drifters and those people of that sort. Running away from your perfectly good life at Yale for some boy and a bookstore job that pays all of five-dollars and hour? Not something any Gilmore has ever done before." Here comes the guilt trip, she thought. "But I'm actually kind of proud of you for being adventurous and getting out of Stars Hollow." His tone completely changed at that moment.

"Thanks, I guess." She smiled a little.

"Well, I better get back to my work. Thanks for the book. Give us a call would you?" He replied before he left.

"Sure." She sighed heavily as soon as he left. "Wow!" She said out loud.

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"Seriously Lou, I don't think you understand here. This is not the way I work. Let me do my own thing. Give me some plans and let me do it. Okay? I am not a happy team work kind of guy, got it?" Jess had quite possibly overstepped his bounds and was yelling at his boss.

"Fine, I get it Jess. I have some new plans for you, okay?" He took a blank piece of paper out of his printer which sat in the dingy on-site office and sketched a drawing with his pen and handed it to him. Jess glanced at it. It was a picture of a scruffy haired stick figure on the opposite side of a door. In big bold letters it read, "You're fired."

Jess was furious. He crumpled it up into a ball and threw it as hard as he could at Lou. "You can't fire me, I QUIT!" He said throwing his hard hat on the table and slamming the door on the way out.

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Rory was starting to get worried. She stood over the stove, sautéing the onions for the dinner that night, but as she glanced at her watch time after time she wondered where Jess was. He was usually home by now. It was 7:15, then 7:30, then 7:55. He was never this late.

She picked up the phone and dialed. The phone on the other end rang, and rang again. "Hello, Gilmore's." The perky woman on the other end of the phone answered. Rory quickly pressed the talk button on the phone. That was the fourth time she'd tried to call her mother since she'd moved. She'd just never had the courage to talk to her.

She sighed and went back to stirring the onions. A good song came on the radio and she ordinarily would have begun dancing and singing but she wasn't exactly in that kind of mood.

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It was dark out and Jess wandered his was through the streets of New York. It wasn't a good idea to be here this late, he knew that. But it also wasn't a good idea to be half-drunk like he was either. It didn't matter. He did it anyway. Up ahead he saw the building which contained his apartment--their apartment. His heart sank again. He couldn't go in there. He'd just lost his job letting his temper flare up. He was supposed to worry about two people now, but he was just concerned with himself.

Lorelai was right. What a screw up! She'd always said; so had everyone else. Maybe they were right. That's all he'd ever be. He trudged up the stairs and touched the door knob, loosely turning it.

----------------

Rory ran to him as soon as she saw him. Almost in tears with worry she embraced him. "What's going on, I was so worried." She asked. Then she smelled the liquor on him. "Have you been drinking?"

"Rory, I screwed up okay; again."

"What? What'd you do?" She asked leading him over to the couch.

"I got fired, or I quit. Well, one of the two. The point is we're screwed." He looked so angry yet so sad at the same time.

"Jess," She snapped out or reflex but realized it was not the solution for this situation. "You didn't like that job anyway, did you?" She asked.

"No, that's why I got fired." He replied sarcastically sobering up a bit.

"Well, then forget about it. You can get another job. Something maybe that you actually care about." She smiled and touched his hand in reassurance. They'd completely switched roles now. She was telling HIM everything would be all right, not him telling HER. "Now I made dinner so I want you to sit down, relax and watch the news while you eat. Okay?" She grabbed a warm plate from the counter and handed it to him. He took it and looked at her now through less drunken eyes. She really was loyal and strong willed. He'd always loved that about her. She sunk down in the chair next to him as they watched local news. "You know what I heard today? Well actually I read it today in the most reputable magazine in the world. I read that Martha Stewart had a robot made for her so she didn't have to go to jail."

"Reputable magazine, huh?" He shot back actually laughing a bit.

"Oh yeah, I get all my information from the National Enquirer. Never all dull issue of that publication. So trustworthy too, bringing me quality trash for ever so many years." She giggled and then there was silence. "Oh, turn it up! Human interest story---oh cute! That dog is having puppies." She was amused by the smallest things, just like her mother. They stayed up and watched Leno and Conan O'Brien, even a bit of Letterman between commercials but by 12:20 Rory had fallen asleep with her head resting on his lap. He brushed his hand across her hair and she breathed in. He pressed the power button on the remote and leaned his head back and waited and see what tomorrow had in store.