Author's Note: What can I say? I'm a sucker for a happy ending. I had to repost this chapter for a mistake I made. I had written that Rory's grandparents had been paying for Harvard instead of Yale. A reviewer pointed that out to me. Thank you very much for that. I've gotten a lot of reviews on saying that this chapter seemed rushed. I agree. I didn't mean for it to be that way, but it sort of happened. It did all fall into place very easily. Maybe a sequel will follow to make up for it. Not sure yet. Thanks so much for all of your reviews. I've enjoyed writing this story and I'm sorry if you were unsatisfied with my ending. I truely am. Keep checking for a sequel, I'm not sure if it will happen yet.
Rory stood in the pool house, straightening out her messy hair. She glanced over at Jess and couldn't hold in her laughter. She giggled slightly, then became serious again. She saw her grandmother through the window, standing in the house, talking to her grandfather. She was guessing that she was telling him about what she'd just found. "I'm going to get so much crap for this. I'm never going to hear the end of it."
"Yeah, so am I."
"What?"
"Uhm, remember, Luke?"
"Oh, yeah. I keep forgetting that you're going to stay with him."
Jess smiled. "Well, whatever crap he gives me, it'll be worth it."
Rory blushed. She bent down and put her shoes back on. She was fearing what her mother was going to say once she got there. She heard Emily yelling at Lorelai over the phone about it, so she knew that she was coming over. Yes, doing what her and Jess were doing in her grandmother's house was not smart at all. But, sometimes you get swept up in the moment, and that's what happened. They were swept up in the moment. Twice.
Rory got distracted from her thoughts at the sound of the pool house door opening. She looked up and found her mother standing at the door. With Luke. She exchanged worried looks with Jess. This wasn't going to be fun. She watched as Lorelai closed the door behind her. She walked to the center of the room, facing Rory and Jess. "Okay, listen you two. You cannot be doing things like this. Especially not in my mother's house!"
"Mom, I can expl-"
"No! I'm talking right now," Lorelai cut her off, "This is unacceptable. I get that you guys are adults, and that means that in a relationship, you're going to be doing adult things." Lorelai made a suggestive face, "But you have to do that on your own time, in privacy. Twice in one day you got caught on the verge of doing something extremely personal."
"And, what have I told you, Jess" Luke jumped in, "I told you that with a girl like this, you need to be a gentleman. This is completely the opposite. This is disrespectful and inconsiderate of her family!"
Rory glanced over at Jess to see his reaction. It was, of course, the typical Jess Mariano reaction. He stood staring straight ahead, not really acknowledging the lecture that Luke was giving him. He didn't talk back, because he knew it would get him no where. Rory knew Jess knew that Luke made sense and so did Lorelai. Jess just wasn't the kind of guy to admit such a thing. Everyone who knew him knew that. Her thoughts were shaken once again at the sound of Lorelai's persistent lecturing. "Same goes for you, Rory. I understand that you may be on the outs with your grandmother as of this moment, but that gives you no right to disrespect them in their own home, or anywhere for that matter." Lorelai stopped for a moment to collect her thoughts, rubbing her forehead and looking down at the floor. "I get that you guys are together now. I get that you have feelings that you've both had for a long time. But you have to think, Rory, about all of the things that are going on here. You almost dropped out of school. You need to get back on the right track."
"Mom, I am back on the right track. I'm going back to school and coming back home for the summer."
"Yeah, I know that," an annoyed look grew on Lorelai's face, "But you still have to go to court for stealing that boat with Logan! That's going to be a lot of pressure and drama for a while. We need to find a lawyer and you need to focus on the case."
"I know. I can handle it."
"I'm not saying you can't. I just want you to think about things. You know how much your grandparents have given you. They paid for Chilton and they're still paying for Yale. I know that you're mad at your grandmother for certain things, but you cannot shut them out of your life. Give it time, yes, but don't freeze them out. They love you so much."
"I know." Rory felt a pang of guilt. Her mother was right. Her grandparents had given her everything she'd ever asked for. Now, when she rethought some of the things she had said to Emily, she felt bad. Of course, she'd needed to hear them, but Rory could have said it in a better way. "You're right."
"Okay. Me and Luke are going to help you pack up the rest of your stuff as quickly as possible, and then we're out of here."
Rory immediately jumped into packing mode. The four of them had everything in its rightful box within an hour. Jess and Luke carried the boxes out to the cars. Lorelai pulled Rory aside once the two men were loading the last two boxes of things. "Listen," she started, softly, "I'm sorry that I blew up like that infront of Jess. But I think that what I said needed to be said. Badly."
"Yes, it did."
"I'm glad we're on the same page." She bent down and kissed Rory on the forehead and pulled her into a tight hug. "I missed you, sweets."
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Jess followed Luke over to Rory's car with a cardboard box filled with some of Rory's clothes. The box was open and he could smell her scent on them. He watched Luke open the door to the silver car and put the box he held in the back seat. "What the hell is this?" Jess heard him say.
Jess walked over to the car to see what Luke was talking about. He saw the tiny kitten that he and Rory had found in the middle of the street a few hours ago. "Oh," he said, "that's Jasper."
Luke looked up at Jess, completely confused. "You have a cat?"
"Well, we were driving over here and he was in the middle of the road. Rory got out to move him so she wouldn't hit him, and he just followed her. So, we took him with us and named him Jasper." Jess was peering through the window at Jasper as a large smile creeped across his face.
"I never knew you were a cat person." Luke said, mockingly.
Jess broke his smile and became defensive. "I'm not. Rory likes him, I couldn't care less."
"Right."
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Rory closed the door to the pool house behind her. She walked toward the house, Lorelai's arm around her shoulder. As she opened the door, she took a deep breath. She knew she had to straighten things out with her grandmother.
Emily in Richard's study, talking to him in a hushed tone.
"Mom!" Lorelai shouted to her, "We're leaving."
"One minute, Lorelai."
Rory stood there, her heart beating rapidly. She wasn't even sure what to say, but she knew she had to say something. Emily started walking out of the study and toward the two of them. "Grandma, can I talk to you?"
"What is it, Rory?" she asked, almost impatiently.
"About before. I shouldn't have yelled at you like that. You and Grandpa are so good to me and you didn't deserve that. I'm really sorry."
"Don't apologize."
"What?" Rory was taken back by this.
"You were right. I don't give your mother enough credit. She raised you all alone and you're a wonderful girl." Emily turned to Lorelai. "I know that I can be hard on you sometimes, Lorelai. A lot of times I realize that I'm unfair."
"Mom, I understan-"
"Let me finish. I know that we have given you a piece of our minds on how we thought running away and raising Rory all by yourself was a terrible decision. But now I understand that if you had done it any other way, Rory would not be the same. I know that if you had married Christopher, you wouldn't have been happy. You would never have moved to Stars Hollow, and you never would have found Luke. I don't want to shut either of you out of my life. I have made some mistakes in the past, and I just hope that I can be forgiven. Your father and I both. We love you two very much."
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"Okay," Lorelai said, walking up to Rory and Jess who were on Luke's couch. "Me and Luke are going out for dinner to celebrate. We're going to be back late. You guys are going to hang out here?"
"Uhm, we may go out for ice cream or something, but we'll be here." Rory answered.
"Okay, see you later then. Love you."
"Love you too, mom."
Rory watched Lorelai hook Luke's arm and walk out the door, closing it behind her. She leaned over and kissed Jess. "I love you."
"I love you too."
She got up, walked over to the door, and locked it.
THE END
