Are you guys teasing me with the reviews? Oh, last chapter in all my thanking, I forgot to thank AquarianGirl. Thanks! So, read on.

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"Jess?" Rory called from the bedroom, "are you packed?"

"Yes," I called back, not looking up from my copy of Ishmael. "You ready yet?"

"Have you seen my red sweater?" she asked, coming out of the bedroom.

"Isn't it in your suitcase?"

"No," she called back, pulling her suitcase out. "Wait...it is."

"Okay," I said, stretching as I stood up, "So…ready?"

We were going home for Christmas. For the first time in my life, I felt like everything was working for me. I had an amazing girlfriend, a home, an apartment, a job, and, suddenly, a somewhat stable family: Luke, Lorelei, me, Rory. There was always the chance that my mother would show up, decide to surprise us, but I didn't count on anything.

oooooooo

"Snow," Rory screeched, as the door swung open, dragging her suitcase behind her. I kicked the door shut behind me, dropping my suitcase.

"Rory?" Lorelei called, running down the stairs, "Rory! Rory…" Lorelei grabbed Rory, pulling her tight to her.

"Bones…cracking," Rory groaned, "organs…crushing."

"Jess wouldn't carry your suitcase for you?" she asked, squinting at me skeptically. "What kind of man have you child?"

"Hey," I defended, "I offered. She wouldn't let me."

"Oh, sorry Jessy," Lorelei laughed, turning back to Rory, now squinting at her skeptically. "What be wrong with you child?" Rory shrugged, dropping her bags in her room.

oooooooo

"Mommy, it's snoooowing!" Rory laughed, skipping next to me as we walked to the diner with Luke and Lorelei.

Lorelei turned to face Rory, contorting her face in pleasure. "Christmas is in three days." She turned to Luke. "Did you get me anything?"

"Yep," Luke sighed, as if he had already had this conversation before and was now growing tired of it. Knowing Lorelei, he probably had, and was.

Lorelei turned to Rory. "And you, daughter…did you get me a present?"

"Nope," Rory quipped, "All those years of parenting, definitely not worth a present. Labor? Forget it, you are so not worth twenty bucks." Lorelei pouted, clinging to Luke. "I only got you the best present ever!" Rory said, bouncing up and down, pulling me with her. Lorelei opened her mouth, but Rory interrupted her. "Not going to tell you what it is."

Lorelei pouted again, tugging Rory into the diner.

oooooooo

"This one's pathetic," I stated, trying to pull Rory away from the tree, standing just shorter than five feet. "Look at that big, tall one," I induced, "Just think how many presents can fit under it."

"But this one looks sad," Lorelei piped in.

"Yeah," Rory cut in, "I bet no one will buy it, and it will have to spend it's Christmas all alone."

"Yeah," Lorelei became enthusiastic. "And it will be doubly sad because not only will it have no family, but all its big, fully grown Christmas tree friends will be gone, because they were all adopted."

"But…" I began.

"Don't try to make sense of their madness," Luke said, leaning closer to me.

"Unless a midget family comes along looking for a tree," Lorelei pondered.

"Mom!" Rory interjected, "The correct term is Little Person. A Little Person family."

"Jeez, sorry," Lorelei defended, scrunching up her face, "I don't think that there are very many little people families in Connecticut anyway."

"Oh yeah," I started, piping up into the insanity that this conversation had been reduced to, "Little People families seem like the kind of thing that would happen in places like Texas, definitely not Connecticut."

"Taylor would have a field day," Luke muttered.

"He would probably call a town meeting about the political correctness of the whole thing," Rory said, now taking Luke's side.

"So, how long will it take me to convince you to get the nice, normal size one?" I asked, attempting to get home by midnight.

"Okay, first of all," Lorelei began forcefully, "Pokie," she looked questioningly at Rory who nodded in approval of the name. Lorelei went on, "Pokie here is a very normal tree, and he does not appreciate your put-downs mister."

"In answer to your question," Rory said, latching on to my arm, "It would take you a good, two-"

"Three," Lorelei corrected.

"Right," Rory finished, "a good two, maybe three hours to talk us out of getting Pokie."

"Pokie it is," Luke said, carrying the tree to his truck.

oooooooo

It was Christmas morning. We, the four of us, were all gathered around Pokie. It was only six, but, surprisingly, we had been woken up Lorelei's incessant knocking and chanting of the word 'Christmas.' Now Lorelei sat on the coffee table, holding Rory's present, the Go-Go record in her hand, still wrapped.

"This is your fantastic present?" Lorelei asked skeptically. "A calendar?"

"You cannot judge it," Rory said, snuggling into the blanket that was wrapped around her, "You have yet to open it."

"Thanks for the fancy Calendar," Lorelei snorted, peeling the shiny red paper back. "Oh my God… is this…"

"Yup," Rory said.

"From the day you snuck to New York?"

"No, I found a new one," Rory stated. "I said that I would find one like it and I did."

"It's signed by Belinda," Lorelei giggled, pulling Rory into a hug.

"Sure is," Rory said.

"Was it on a bus?"

"No," Rory laughed, "I bought it at a record store. Duh."

We finished opening the presents. Mine to Luke, mine to Rory, mine to Lorelei, so on, so forth. Now it was time to go eat dinner. Luke and Lorelei only had one to attend, but Rory and I had two. First stop, Hartford, and I was dreading it. I assumed Rory had talked to Lorelei last night, or Lorelei had taken it upon herself to pity me, because I had overheard the phone conversation between Lorelei and her mother.

"Mom," she had said, sighing, "Rory is bringing a, err, gentleman caller with her tomorrow-"

"Yes mom, I have met this boy…I think you haven't met him because Rory's scared to bring him over…Why? Are you joking? What happened when she brought Dean over? He was practically interrogated about his fifteen year plan…. Well, what I wanted to say was that this boy is very important to Rory, and, regardless of what previous thoughts you have of him it would be greatly appreciated if you were nice…. Yes mom, I know that you are always nice, but maybe you could just be, um…a little extra nice. Well thank you." She hung up.

"Thanks," I said, making my presence known.

"You heard?" she asked. I nodded. "Well, I don't know if it will help, but…"

oooooooo

A maid opened the door, greeting us as we walked in, taking out coats, motioning us to the living room.

"Be polite," Rory whispered into my ear as her grandpa walked in.

"Aren't I always?" I snorted. She pinched my shoulder playfully.

"Hi Grandpa, Merry Christmas," Rory greeted, hugging her grandfather.

"Ah, Merry Christmas. Rory, Lorelei, you look lovely as always." He turned to Luke, "why hello Luke, nice to see you again," he greeted, shaking Luke's hand. Finally, he turned to me, "Ah, and you must be Rory's friend…" he assumed, extending his hand.

I shook it, retreating back to wrap my arm around Rory's waist, "Yes, Jess Mariano. Nice to meet you."

"I'm Richard Gilmore," he paused, looking around, "and this is my wife, Emily." He turned to Rory's grandmother, "Emily, meet Rory's friend, Jess." She turned around, inspecting me for the first time, and her jaw dropped.

"Lorelei, can I speak to your for a moment in the kitchen," she demanded.

"But Mom…the tree and the…scones, and-" Lorelei stumbled.

"Lorelei!"

"Be right back," Lorelei mumbled in defeat, leaving the rest of us to sit in the other room.

oooooooo

"Lorelei, isn't that that horrible boy with the black eye?" Emily opened in a shushed screech.

"Mom, yes, but he's changed and he-"

"The boy you were going to keep Rory away from?"

Lorelei pushed on, ignoring her mother's latest question. "Mom, I am the last person to want to admit this, trust me, but he is different."

"Different," Emily spat, "Different? That's your explanation for this, Different? After all he's put her through, he has the audacity to come here on Christmas."

"Well, Mom, maybe he wanted to be with his family."

"Well let him spend Christmas with his mother and father," Emily said simply.

"It doesn't always work out like that mom. It's just not that simple." Lorelei sighed, "We are his family. Luke is his uncle, Rory is his girlfriend."

"Yes well, I still maintain that this Jess character shouldn't be with Rory"

"Mom, he loves her," Lorelei sighed.

"How do you know that?"

"And she loves him," Lorelei yelled, loud enough for everyone in the other room to hear, setting off a flush of color on Rory, and spurring Richard to awkwardly push on with the conversation.

"But how do you know that? How do you know that she loves him and he loves her?"

"Because Mom," Lorelei stated in a once again normal voice, "Rory is my best friend. I have watched her change over the last twenty years, and I have never seen her this happy. She is in love. And Jess," she went on, "I've known Jess since he was seventeen, and I'll be blunt: he's screwed up. But Mom, Jess would never come back and do any of this if he didn't honestly love her."

"I'm not happy about this," Emily said, as if admitting defeat.

"Well, no one is asking you to be. You just have to be nice, Lorelei commanded, pushing her mother back into the living room.

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"That was-" I began on the ride back to Star's Hollow.

"Kooky," Lorelei finished.

"Eccentric," Rory offered.

"I was thinking more along the lines of Hellish," I sighed, slouching in my seat.

"Aw, poor baby," Rory commiserated, nuzzling her head into my chest.

oooooooo

"Why do you have to leave so early?" Lorelei whined, attempting to pull Rory away from the car, back into the house.

"Mom, it's two days after Christmas. Jess has work, and Paris is having some sort of nervous breakdown," Rory sighed, explaining to her mother again.

"But-"

"I have to study, Jess has work, Paris will never admit that she needs help, and, frankly, I miss my apartment!"

"Won't you miss-"

"Yes, mommy dearest," Rory laughed, hugging her mom, "I will miss Luke's Coffee and you and Luke and all of Star's Hollow, but I want to go to New Haven." Rory got in the car, shutting the door behind her.

Lorelei leaned through the open window, folding her arms so that she could peer in. "What about you Jess?"

"Tired of living under the microscope," I declared.

"But won't you miss-"

"Nope."

"Well what bout-" she started again.

"Nope," I cut her off again.

"You know mister, love of my baby's life, I'm starting to feel a little neglected over her. How can you sit there, in that car, and honestly tell me that you will not miss me? I mean, think about it from my perspective here kiddo, if you-"

"Mom!" this time it was Rory who interrupted the ceaseless rambling.

"Fine," she said, pulling the word out so that it was two or three syllables. "Bye sweets, love you," she kissed Rory's forehead, before going back inside so we could leave.

"Your grandma hates me," I muttered as Rory flipped through our CD's.

"Don't take it personally," she laughed. I nodded, kept staring straight ahead. Emily Gilmore hated me, she had always hated me. Word has it, Emily Gilmore hated everyone that attempted to date Rory. I knew I shouldt take it personally, but I couldn't help being upset that my girlfriend's family hated me. "Jess…" she started, putting her hand on my arm.

We stopped at the stoplight. "Ironic, never could quite get out of this town," I muttered, clearly despondent.

"Jess," she said again, repositioning my face to look at her. "I love you." I nodded again, looking down. "I don't care what she thinks you know," she said again. "Us Gilmores, we're of tough blood," she laughed. "She hated Luke too," Rory said. I looked up, meeting Rory's eyes. "Yeah, she doesn't think he's good enough for my mom." She laughed again, "I don't think she'll like anyone that isn't from Emily World." I smirked. The light turned green, but I didn't move; no one was behind us. "But I, I love you, a lot. I don't care how many boring guys she shoves at me. I love you; you're my chilly dog with everything."

I stopped the car, leaning against Rory until her back was pressed up against the window, my face only breaths from hers. "Yeah?"

"Yeah."

And with that, the conclusion of our trip to Star's Hollow, my lips clashed with hers, to an almost violent level of fervor. Until Rory broke us up that is. "Jess," she muttered, my lips still on hers, "the light."

I sighed, pulling away, and turning back to the steering wheel. "Your too good to me," I muttered, not sure if I wanted her to hear it or not. Part of me, the part that wanted to be a good boyfriend and live up to all of Rory's expectations, wanted her to hear, to reassure me that she wasn't, but part of me, the part that was determined to do everything on my own, to be tough, independent, self-contained Jess, didn't want her to hear, because then she would know what I was thinking, making me somehow weak. It was stupid, I knew.

"I am not," she said, creating a winner out of my better side. I smiled, turning on to the interstate.