Lorelai gaped at her daughter and Jess for several long seconds before squealing so loud that Jess had to release Rorys hand to cover his ears. The Lorelai was charging across the diner and enveloping them both in a giant hug. No one was more surprised that she was doing so than she herself was.

AI should be so mad about this.

Rory laughed, wrapping her arms around her mother. AYoure just glad you wont be worrying about me getting mugged as much.

AI know. Which is why Im not mad. Hes lived there before. He knows how dangerous it is, and he may be scrawny, but hes got the scary glare down pat. Its enough to scare off most would be muggers.

Jess rolled his eyes. AThanks. Thats just what Ive always wanted to be. Scary looking. And Im not scrawny.

Luke stood and gripped Lorelai by the hips, tugging gently so that she released them to have the conversation. It was a little awkward, the three of them having a normal everyday conversation when she was wrapped around the other two. AI think this calls for pie.

Lorelai was at the counter less than two seconds later. Laughing, Rory and Jess followed, Rory perching between her mother and Jess. Luke served slices of blackberry pie, then broke tradition in pulling a stool up to his side of the counter after giving his sons smaller slices and joining them. It was a perfect moment, and that nearly made Rory cry. She didnt get many perfect moments like that anymore.

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Lorelai hated work. Well, actually, she loved work. She had the Dragonfly, and she loved it. It was her baby. But when her only daughter was moving to New York in less than a week, she didnt care for work all that much. Shed have much rather been at home, gorging on junk food with her children and watching ridiculously stupid movies and teaching the boys to mock them. But instead, she was manning the front desk during Micheles break. She knew he was late simply to annoy her.

However, she perked up when Jess walked in. If Rory and the boys had run him out, then that meant they were at least getting to gorge on insane amounts of sugar and coffee and mock movies until someone who actually wanted to watch couldnt concentrate and had to leave.

AJess! Come keep Aunt Lorelai company.

AYou arent my aunt. Youre Lorelai. If you were my aunt, me dating your daughter would be illegal and disgusting.

ARight. I knew there was a reason you didnt call me that. Thats a good one. No incest in this family. Its one of the few things we arent proponents of.

AYeah. Whatever. I need to talk to you.

AWhat do you call this?

AMindless chitchat.

AHuh.

Jess smirked. AThats my line.

ASo it is. Ill never use it again, promise. Can this be discussed here, or should we go grab a table in the dining room so I can take a break and have a pot of coffee?

AEither way.

AJess! Lorelai hissed desperately, AWork with me here. I havent had coffee since I got to work this morning.

Jess looked at his watch. AIts only noon. Thats just four hours.

AFour hours to a Gilmore is like nearly death. Please, please, please.

AOkay. Its very sensitive information that needs to be discussed, and no one else can here us talk.

AMichele! Get your lazy French ass up here and man the front desk, I have a business meeting!

Michele rounded the corner thirty seconds later. ALorelai, if you have a business meeting, dont you think you should watch how you treat your employees?

ANo. Its just you. No one likes you.

AWhich is fine since I like no one either.

ARight. Whatever. Were going to be in the dining room, have Sookie bring out some coffee. A Lorelai amount of coffee. Come on Jess, lets go talk.

Jess rolled his eyes and followed her into the dining room. Once they were both seated, Lorelai refused to talk until she had consumed two cups of coffee, and then she had to goad him over the fact that he didnt drink coffee for another fifteen minutes before she settled back to get down to business. What was supposed to have been a twenty minute errand was now going to take an entire hour.

AOkay. Whats up?

AI need your help.

Lorelai lifted her eyebrows. AThose are words I never thought Id hear from your mouth. Help with what?

ARory. Look, I messed up a lot in high school.

AI know. I was the one with a heart broken daughter, remember?

AYeah. he plowed his hand through his hair, seriously considered the coffee still sitting in front of him that he hadnt touched, and didnt like. AI want to make up for it.

AWell then, you should be talking to Rory, not me.

ANo, this is about Rory. Remember the prom I was supposed to take her to?

AThat you couldnt because you werent going to graduate?

AThat would be the one.

AWhat about it?

AI want to give her prom.

Lorelai thought about that for a minute, quelling her first instinct to say something along the lines of it being a little late for that. But once she considered it, it was a good idea, and it would make Rory happy. AOkay. What do you need my help with?

AA dress. And decorating the gym at the High School.

ADone. Michele! Im taking the rest of the day off! she grabbed her purse from the chair next to her, wondered briefly why she had been carting it around all morning. ALets go to Hartford. Well shop there. You need a tux, too. Let me call Luke and get him on the decorations. Dont worry, no ones going to tell Rory. When are you planning this for?

ATonight?

APerfect. Lets go.

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Rory came out of the living room when she heard her mother enter through the front door. Lorelai was buried in packages, and flailing for somewhere at least waist high to set them down. Chuckling at her mother's antics, Rory took half the packages and sat them on the kitchen table.

"So I see someone called off work and went shopping. Without her favorite daughter."

"Nope. I called off and went shopping. With my not so favorite, but quickly rising on the list Jess."

"Your Jess, huh? Wait." Rory paused as that set in. "You went shopping with Jess? And he went willingly? And I was not invited to be present at this miracle of an event? I'm insulted and chagrined."

Immune and uncaring, Lorelai looked around. "Where are my other progeny?"

"Asleep in front of the TV. I movied them out."

"Good. Jess got you something."

"A present? A present from Jess? And he left it with you?"

"Not only that, I helped him pick it out." She tossed a box at Rory. "Open it." She paused. "Wait. Don't open it yet. There's a letter that you have to read first."

Lorelai handed Rory the envelope and watched her daughter open it. The note therein was short, and straight to the point. It was also so completely Jess that it had to make her laugh. He always had been a man of few words.

Rory,

Meet me at Luke's at seven. I have a surprise planned for you. And wear your present.

Love always,

Jess

Rory laughed and picked up the box. What she found took her breath away. It was a dress, simple and black, and stunning. It was long, would sweep the floor when she put it on, tied around her neck, and the ends of the ties had glittering strands of crystals. The neckline was relatively plunging, and clipped with a strand of the same crystals. It was silk, and shined in the harsh light in the kitchen.

"Mom, Jess did this?"

"Jess did this. Go get ready. I'll be in to help you with your hair in a few minutes. But first I'm going to dump my twins into bed, and find the shoes I have that I know will match that dress perfectly."

Rory nodded and ran into her room. Lorelai heard the shower start before she was even to the living room. She shook her head and smiled. It was good to see the light back in Rory's eyes again. Really good. She hadn't thought she'd see it anytime soon, but Jess had managed to do that. And she was going to do everything in her power to make sure it stayed there. And if that meant aiding and abetting Jess' scheme, then so be it.

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Rory arrived at the diner at seven on the dot. No one but Luke was in there. Thinking that Jess had set up upstairs, or in the back, she walked in. Luke smiled at her, and pushed another note and a cup of coffee across the counter.

"Here's your clue, and coffee for the trip." He shook his head. "I don't know how I always get roped into these things, but he's gotten me involved in his little plan. You're on a scavenger hunt, Rory, and for some reason unbeknownst to be, my deadbeat nephew is the prize."

Rory's brows knit together. "Really? That's so… not Jess."

"Don't I know it. Anyway, better get going. He's planted these things all over town."

Luke walked upstairs, and Rory sat at the counter to pull the note from the envelope. It, like the other one, was simple and to the point.

Sorry to make you walk in your heels, but the next one of these is at the bridge. I'd think of something clever to put here, but your mother was set on me quoting Willy Wonka and mentioning something about a chocolate river. So I'll be unoriginal and just tell you where it is."

Grinning, Rory grabbed her coffee and ran toward the bridge. Or, walked as fast as she could in her heels. Sure enough, taped to the banister of the bridge was another white envelope. Eagerly, she snatched it up and ripped it open.

Here's an actual clue as opposed to just telling you. Chalk.

Doose's market. The chalk outline. Shaking her head over his clue that was as good as just telling her where it was, she struck off in the other direction and headed back to the center of town. Her feet weren't hurting yet, so she was good for another twenty minutes of clue searching. More than that if he got to making with the literary references.

She plucked the envelope from Taylor's front door and pulled the single sheet of stationary out. There wasn't anything other that the clue on it though. She smiled. He was getting better, but not much.

Their eyes were watching God

She did have to think about it for a second, and her mind leapt to the church for a brief second, before it settled on the tree in the middle of the town square. She spotted the envelope from ten yards away and pulled it off the trunk, excited about what it would contain.

The Fountainhead.

Rory studied that one a while longer. There were no places in town that corresponded to anything in the book, so it had to be a play on the title itself. But there was no fountain in town, nor was there a head just randomly sitting somewhere. She stared at those two words for a good three minutes before it finally hit her. The gazebo. Taylor had wanted to tear it down several years earlier and erect a fountain in the middle of town with his bust on it, immortalizing him as a God of Stars Hollow.

And sure enough, on the bench inside was another envelope. She decided to sit while she read and studied that one, as they were getting harder. More abstract at the least. And she didn't want to stand in high heels any longer than absolutely necessary.

The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin did not contain this important event in his life

Okay. She'd read that book. It had bored her to tears, but she'd read it. She could remember vaguely what he had written in it. He'd covered his adventures in whore houses, with his wife, his trip to France, the war, the printing press. Wait. That was it. He hadn't covered his discovery of how to contain and channel electricity.

He was just getting desperate. She could tell that as she walk toward the nearest telephone pole. There really weren't that many in Stars Hollow, but she had to walk a block before she found the right one. She pulled out the stationary and leaned against the pole to read it.

Almost done, Ror. Hang in there. This one's a little harder. Remember that book you had to read for sociology at Chilton? Guns, Germs, and Steel? Well remember back there. You complained about the gore in this chapter.

She remembered reading the book, and not agreeing with its socioeconomical implications. She'd had a heated debate with her teacher over the mistakes and contradictions. But she could only remember talking to Jess about the chapter on germ warfare in the seventeenth century against the Indians. Germs. What did that have to do with anything? He couldn't put the note on a germ. Germs were everywhere? She grinned as the answer came to her.

Yes, germs could be found anywhere. But they were much more common and numerous in the doctor's office across the street to the high school. She straightened, and headed in that general direction, cursing her mother's shoes the entire way.

The note was on the door, taped up like all the rest. She pulled it down and opened it, sticking the envelope in the ever growing pile in her hand.

I'm getting sick of trying to be clever, so bear with me here. This is the last one. Go to the Dance Marathon.

Rory snorted. That one was easy. The Dance Marathon was in the gymnasium at Starts Hollow High School. She headed across the street, wondering what in the world he could possibly be doing that wasn't illegal in the gymnasium at the high school he never graduated from. Her question was soon answered.

She pulled open the door and saw lights. Really cheesy Christmas tree lights, and big banners on colorful paper proclaiming that it was the Stars Hollow Senior Prom of 2003. And there was Jess, in a tux, holding a corsage, and waiting for her. She nearly cried on the spot, and imagined that she would by the time the night was out.

"I never got to take you. I always regretted that, Rory. So I'm staging a repeat, except without all the people here that aren't you." He held out a hand, and she slipped hers into it. "Wanna go to prom?"

Rory nodded, barely trusting her voice to work. "I'd love to."