Lorelai POV
I climbed over Jess to get back to my viewing point, but with a hot cup of coffee in my hands. He stirred and looked up at me, "Whatcha doing?"
"Watching Luke and Rory," I told him, "Were they there when you moved?"
"Yeah, they were dead to the world, so I covered them with a blanket," He told me, and then blushed, "Repeat that and... I don't know, I'll figure it out."
I looked down at him curiously, "You're not too good at this in the mornings, are you?"
He glared at me, before sitting up from his position on the stairs, stretching and standing up, "Shut up."
I snorted but decided to ignore him as he went to the kitchen, likely for coffee himself. I returned to watching the pair on the couch, noting how he was holding her like he was trying to protect her. I silently walked down the stairs and grabbed the camera that was on the mantle with the photographs, putting my coffee cup in its place. I took a quick photo after making sure the flash was off, knowing this was something they'd treasure.
I finished my coffee, and went to go back to the kitchen when Luke spoke, "How long have you been watching us?"
I chuckled to myself, turning to look at him, "You know me far too well."
His eyes were still closed, but he had shifted slightly in the way he does when he wakes up, with a small smile on his lips, "I'll be through in a minute to make breakfast, just let me wake Rory first."
I nodded and went through, joining Jess. He was hunting through the cupboard for something, "Luke will be in to make breakfast in a minute."
He grunted in response but didn't stop hunting, so I caught on to what he was doing, "If you're looking for the lighter you hid in there, it's not there."
He froze, "How did you..."
"Luke goes in that cupboard twice a day at minimum and he uses almost everything in there. He was going to find it," I told him, "That, and I did something similar when I was that age, but with sweets. It only worked because my parents never cooked and the maids didn't last long enough to find out that I wasn't allowed sweets."
"Is there anything you haven't done?" He asked dryly, standing up and looking down at the floor.
"I never tried illegal drugs, but I did steal a couple of pills from one of my friend's live-in maids. I did most other things if you hadn't noticed," I told him with a smirk, "Are you running out of ways to rebel, yet?"
He blushed, "I'd run away but I don't think it's a good idea."
"Why not?" I asked curiously, "It worked for me."
"I don't want to turn into my mom. She ran away from home when she was 17 years old and look at her now," He sighed, "Before she kicked me out, she said that I was turning into her, and I don't wanna be her."
"Then why are you fighting everything?"
He shrugged, "Because I've always done it and I don't know how to stop."
"Okay," I said, "We'll try and figure something out; I think I'm going to train you to work at the inn, and do what I did with Rory. Not only will it give you experience for a multitude of jobs, but it will keep you so busy that you won't have time to think. And obviously, you'll earn a bit of cash."
"Can I earn cigarettes instead?" He asked cheekily and I laughed.
"No, but nice try."
Because Luke had taken Rory out for the day to god-knows-where, I took Jess to work with me, planning on training him in being a maid, first. He glared as he put the uniform on, and his ego definitely got knocked a few times as I had to correct him on his method, despite his claims that he knew how to clean.
Once he had the basics done, I handed him off to the head-maid and got to work on my own job. Sookie seemed more eccentric than normal which led to a lot of running back and forth, but Jess didn't seem to cause any problems, even though he wore a permanent scowl.
Once we were finished for the day, we headed home to find Luke cooking dinner and Rory in her room, writing in that journal of hers, "What did you do today?"
"We drove," I looked at her confused, but she smiled up at me, "We drove around for hours, listening to music and talking about things. We were going to go to that new museum in Hartford but we got distracted and just drove."
It had been a long time since they did that. They used to do that quite a lot, but as Rory got older, it became less and less until it almost stopped completely. But it was still their thing, and it was the one thing that I hoped he wouldn't do with April – she deserved that much.
"Was it good?" I asked, even though I knew the answer.
"It was the best," She closed her journal and tucked it away under her bed, "Do you have anymore wrapping paper? I ran out as I've got more presents than usual."
"Yeah, I finished up last night and have some leftover. Do you know if Jess has wrapped anything yet?" I asked her and she shook her head, "We've got 5 days until Christmas, he hasn't got long left."
"He'll do it, he's probably just putting it off," Rory said, "You know what he's like; he'll waste time and somehow manage to do everything just in time."
"Dinner is done," Luke said loudly and we turned our attention to the food, knowing it was going to be good.
AN: Two chapters to go... or one chapter and an epilogue, however you want to count it.