Disclaimer: I still don't own the Gilmore Girls. Although, I wish I owned Luke and Jess.

Chapter 24

Jess was in the kitchen reading a book when he heard the doorbell ring. He didn't hear anyone get the door so he put his book down and went to answer it himself. He spotted Luke and Lorelai making out on the couch as he passed through the living room and shook his head. Luke's hands headed toward Lorelai's chest.

"Hands," Jess said loudly. Luke and Lorelai raised their hands in the air, but didn't stop kissing. Jess opened the door to find Richard and Emily on the other side. "Hello Mr. and Mrs. Gilmore."

"Hello Jess," Richard greeted.

"Good morning Jess," Emily greeted.

"Would you like to come in?" Jess asked.

"Yes we would. Thank you for asking," Richard said as he and Emily stepped into the house. They headed to the living room and paused when they saw Luke and Lorelai on the couch.

"Hey! Hands! I mean it. Don't make me get the hose," Jess threatened. "The in-laws are here."

Luke and Lorelai broke apart and jumped to their feet. "Richard, Emily," Luke said. "Hi."

"Mom, Dad, we weren't expecting you until tonight," Lorelai remarked.

"Your father wanted to beat the traffic," Emily explained.

"Oh. How bad was it?"

"There was none," Richard replied.

"I'll go get your bags out of the car," Luke said. He and Jess followed Richard to the car.

Rory heard her grandparents' voices and emerged from her room. "Hi Grandma," she smiled. She walked over to Emily and gave her a hug. "Where's Grandpa?"

"He's outside with Luke and Jess getting the bags from the car," Emily replied. "I thought you'd be spending the holiday with Logan."

"I am. Mom and Luke said he could spend Christmas with us."

"I thought it'd be nice to have three generations of smiling Gilmore couples for Christmas," Lorelai joked. "You know, Logan and Rory, me and Luke, you and Dad."

"Grandma, is that a smile I see?" Rory grinned.

"I was just thinking of something," Emily lied.

"Oh come on Mom. Don't act like you and Dad don't have a little thing going," Lorelai teased.

"We've all see you two together," Rory remarked. "The romantic dance at my engagement party, the giggling and flirting between you two, the make out session at the town Christmas party."

"By the way Mom, I'm sending you my psychiatry bill. So just tell us. Are you and Dad getting back together?"

Lorelai walked out of the kitchen and plopped on the couch next to Rory. Richard looked up from his book. "I thought you were helping Luke cook dinner," he said.

"I got kicked out of the kitchen," Lorelai replied.

"What happened?"

"I set Luke's shirt on fire. Don't ask. It's a long, complicated story."

"Honestly Lorelai, you're an accident waiting to happen," Emily said.

"Gee Mom. Thanks for the booster. So much for learning to cook. Oh well. At least Sookie's in there helping Luke."

Just then, Sookie came walking into the living room with her head down. "Luke kicked me out of the kitchen," she announced sadly.

"Why would he throw you out of the kitchen?" Jackson asked.

"I accidentally set his pants on fire." Everyone gasped. "The flames just jumped onto his pants!"

"Hey, it's better than my pyromaniac episode," Lorelai joked.

"Poor Luke," Rory sighed.

"Wait, so he's in there cooking dinner in his underwear?" Logan asked.

"If we're lucky," Jess joked.

Lorelai was surprised when she heard the doorbell ring. She excused herself before going to answer the door. "Uh, hello," she said to the man at the door. "Can I help you?"

"I have a package for Ms. Lorelai Gilmore," he said.

"I'm Lorelai Gilmore."

"Sign here please." The man held a clipboard and pen out to her and handed her a large garment bag. "Have a nice day ma'am."

She unzipped the bag a little and looked at what was inside. "Oh my God. Rory! Sookie! Mom!"

"What's wrong?" Rory asked as she, Sookie, and Emily ran into the foyer. "And what is that?"

"It's my wedding dress," Lorelai replied in a whisper. "Some man came to our house and delivered my wedding dress to our door."

"But it's not supposed to be here until next month," Sookie remarked.

"I know that! How am I supposed to hide a wedding dress from Luke? He's going to see it."

"No. No he won't. We'll just hide it," Emily said.

"What about the other new room? Aren't you using it to work on dresses?" Rory asked.

"Yeah," Lorelai replied.

"Hide it there and lock the door so he can't get in. Or tell him the dress came a month early."

"Ok. Distract him so he doesn't see me with this."

"What should I do?"

"Set his hat on fire."

Lorelai stared at Luke as he slept and reached out to caress his cheek. She wanted to be sure it was real and that she wasn't dreaming him being in her bed. She found herself doing this every night for the past few weeks. A part of her still couldn't believe that she was getting married to Luke. Luke Danes, the guy that's been serving her coffee everyday for the last nine years, was going to be her husband in a month and a half. She got out of bed, put on her robe, and headed down the hall to her work room. She stared at her wedding dress she had put on a mannequin. She couldn't help herself. She disrobed and put the dress on. She stood in front of the full-length mirror and smiled. At that moment, she knew she wouldn't be continuing the ridiculous ritual she had put herself through every night for weeks. She had something else to do every night.
"Wake up! Luke, Mom, wake up!" Rory yelled as she ran into Luke and Lorelai's bedroom.

"What's going on? Why are you yelling? " Lorelai asked as she quickly woke up. "Luke, wake up. I think something's wrong."

"Huh? What happened? What's wrong?" Luke asked frantically, still half asleep. His eyes finally focused and he glanced at the clock, then at Rory. "Rory, it's five A.M.. Is everything ok?"

"Everything's fine," Rory smiled.

"Then why did you come in here screaming?" Lorelai asked.

"Because it's Christmas!" Luke and Lorelai exchanged glances andthen they both threw a pillow at Rory. "Hey! Come on guys. Get up and we can open the presents."

"Go back to bed," Luke ordered as he sunk back into bed and pulled the covers over his head.

"But it's..."

"It'll still be Christmas in two hours. Go back to sleep," Lorelai interrupted. Rory sighed and left the room. They lay in bed, trying to go back to sleep, but it was useless. "I can't sleep."

"Me neither," Luke sighed. He got out of bed and headed to the door.

"What are you doing?"

"Going downstairs."

"Why?"

"To open the presents like Rory said. Come on."

"No."

"I saw like ten with your name on it."

Lorelai tossed the covers off and ran over to Luke. "What are we waiting for? It's Christmas!"

"Well look who decided to join us," Rory teased when she spotted Luke and Lorelai coming down the stairs. "Now that we're all here, we can start opening gifts."

"She's been holding us hostage down here for twenty minutes thanks to you," Jess said.

"You're lucky I didn't smoother you with a pillow last night," Luke bit back.

"Edgy aren't we?"

"It's early."

"This coming from a man that wakes up at four thirty every morning to open the diner."

"Not on Christmas I don't."

"Who should open the first present?" Rory asked excitedly.

"Not Mr. Sourpuss here," Jess teased. That comment earned him a pillow in the face from Luke.

"Before we open the gifts, Emily and I would like to make an announcement," Richard said. "It may come to be a surprise to you, but Emily and I have been getting closer as of late. We ended the separation the night of the engagement party."

"Grandma, Grandpa, that's great!" Rory smiled. She ran to her grandparents and hugged them.

"I'd be so much more excited if I didn't know that already," Lorelai joked.

"I beg your pardon?" Emily asked.

"What is she talking about?" Richard asked.

"She had a hunch that you two were getting back together," Luke replied. "She's been talking about it for weeks and swears it was true. I guess she was right."

"How do you like your gift Ace?" Logan asked.

"I love it," Rory replied. She looked at the DVDs he had given her. "The Marx Brothers DVD collection, The New Adventures of Pippi Longstocking, Casablanca, Cool Hand Luke, The Princes Bride, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. This is the greatest DVD collection ever."

"Are there anymore gifts?" Lorelai asked.

"Actually, I have one for Rory," Jess said. He pulled a small box out of his pocket and handed it to Rory. "Merry Christmas."

Rory tore the wrapping off and opened the box. She had seen this before. It was in pictures at the old Danes home and Luke had told her stories about it. "Jess," Rory gasped.

"It belonged to my grandmother," he said as Rory took the charm bracelet out of its box. "My grandfather gave it to her on their first wedding anniversary with the cross charm. He gave her the blue 'L' the day Luke was born and the pink 'L' when my mom was born."

"Jess…I don't know what to say."

"A simple thank you will suffice."

"No. Jess, this is beyond amazing. It's the best Christmas gift ever. I love it. I'll keep it forever."

Logan's jaw tightened when Rory gave Jess a hug. He could feel the heat rising in him when Jess returned the hug. How dare he give her that bracelet? What was he trying to pull? Maybe he was trying to steal Rory from him. No, that wasn't going to happen. He wasn't going to allow it to.

"I've found three large boxes behind the tree," Richard announced. He pulled the boxes out. "This is to Rory from Luke. This says to Lorelai from Luke. And to Luke from Lorelai and Rory."

Rory took her box from Richard and opened it. It was a Build-A-Bear teddy bear dressed in a Chilton uniform and a book in its hand. "Oh my God, it's a teddy bear of me!" she laughed.

"There's a change of clothes for it in the box. A Yale sweatshirt and a skirt," Luke informed.

Lorelai also got a Build-A-Bear version of herself. It was wearing a power suit and had a coffee cup in its hand. "Aw Luke, it's adorable!" Lorelai cooed as she hugged her bear. "I love it, along with the other twenty million gifts you gave me. But this is the best."

"I guess great minds think alike," Rory said.

"What?" Luke asked.

"Open your gift and you'll see what we're talking about," Lorelai replied.

Luke unwrapped his gift and smiled at the familiar box. "A Build-A-Bear box," he laughed. "Man, I wonder what it could be." He opened the box and pulled out a bear in a flannel shirt, jeans, and a backwards baseball cap.

"Now isn't that adorable," Jess laughed. "Looks like you've got a teddy bear family going on."

"I've never seen so many gifts in my life," Luke sighed as he fell back onto the bed.

"Well there's more," Lorelai said. She handed Luke a gift. "Merry Christmas Coffee Man."

Luke tore the wrapping paper off the box and opened it. He held up the pocket watch so he could admire it. As he stared at the watch, he recalled the story he had told Lorelai. When he was a child, his father had a pocket watch just like the one he had just received.

"Wow. It's…it's great. Thank you." Luke pressed the button at the top of the watch and it popped open. Inside was a picture of him and Lorelai at Liz's wedding and on the back was an engraving.

To Luke-

So you'll always remember I'll love you for all time.

Love, Lorelai

She knelt on the bed and hugged him from behind. "One day our son is going to see you with this and he'll come up to you and say, 'Dad, where did you get that ?'," Lorelai said. "And then you'll tell him the story about how his father and mother met and fell in love. Just like you asked your father and he told you."

"The story behind my father's watch was that my mother gave it to him when she found out she was pregnant with me. Are you trying to tell me something?"

Lorelai hugged him tighter. "It was negative." She could feel him take a deep breath and let it out slowly. "This was just our first try."

"I know."

"Don't get discouraged. It's going to happen. You'll be a father one day and you're going to be wonderful. It's going to take time."

Luke looked at the pocket watch and smiled. "Yeah. Time."

Next time on "Meet me at the Chuppah": Luke and Lorelai attended a 40/50s themed New Years Eve party hosted by the Life and Death Brigade. At the party, Luke discovers something about his family's past. Rory and Logan argue about Jess. After the blowout, Rory walks out on Logan and takes a cab back to Stars Hollow, where she makes a decision concerning Jess.

A/N: In the original version of this chapter, the ending was a little different. Hopefully, I made the right decision in choosing this one. Now, as for the Rory/Logan/Jess situation. I state now and for the record, I am a Logan fan.