Running After Kansas by Oregano
If you were to ask Jess Mariano why he had come back to Stars Hollow, he would either allude to an old story with underlying themes reminiscent of the Gilded Age, or just say, "Which time?" He was a simple man, really. If he felt like it, he would do it. No real conflict or anything. But of course, that feeling never lasted long because as soon as he did what he felt like, he would later realise that it made no sense. He should have learned, but apparently, he had a learning disability—he didn't seem to want to.
That was what Jess Mariano felt like in this one particular moment. Standing next to Nicholai as they both checked the inventory in the storage room, he saw the utter pointlessness of his existence here in Stars Hollow.
But then Nicholai Stratt started to speak. "So, my mom broke up with that Pete guy," he said with a small knowing smile at his employer. He picked up a bottle of pickles and played with its lid.
All Jess did in reply was grunt and write something down on his inventory list.
However distant his companion was, Nicholai was not to be deterred. He felt like bonding, and dammit if Jess Mariano was the perfect guy to talk to. He replaced the bottle onto the shelf and continued to stack more up from an open box beside him. As smoothly as he could, he asked, "Tell me about when you were kids."
Jess halted, mid-count, and stared at a can of peaches. He let out a soft sigh but still said nothing. His fingers curled around the edge of the shelf as the question brought back all his childhood memories.
"Nothin' to tell, really. I was new, your mom was there, and it just wasn't right."
Nicholai sensed Jess's discomfort about their past and said nothing more about it. Suddenly he stopped stacking and scratched his chin. "Hey, Jess," he said, wincing at the awkwardness of casual address, "do you want to have dinner with us tonight?"
Great. Jess Mariano was carrying a cherry pie and going to have dinner with the Gilmores. He looked to the man walking gruffly beside him. And he was coming with Luke Danes.
There were just so many things wrong with this scenario that he couldn't even muster any feelings of amusement over it.
They both walked up the path that led to Lorelai's house to pick her up. It felt like some sort of circus train. After a few minutes of silent hostility, Lorelai Gilmore finally emerged from her door, stumbling, carrying her bag and pushing her hair back all at once. She grinned at the two men and gave then a small wave, where her small handbag promptly fell to the ground from the action. Luke sighed and bent down to grab it for her.
"Hey, guys. Ah, sorry about that, Luke," she said after she accidentally hit him with her elbow.
"What the hell is wrong with you? You're like a Goddamn cartoon character," Luke gruffly exclaimed at her as he handed her the purse.
Lorelai gave him a look and said, "This is the first time in twenty years that we're all going to be together again in one room. Voluntarily, and you're nowhere behind a counter serving us food. This is a very big deal, Luke."
Great. After Lorelai spoke those words, the party of three was suddenly hit with a cold remembrance of previous conflicts and unforgiving pasts. Jess had to force himself to not make a face once they got to Rory's house.
The three of them silently, and not amiably at all, made their way towards their common destination. When they got to the porch, Lorelai was fighting a smirk, Luke's face was sour, and Jess wanted to kill himself.
Nicholai opened the door even before any one of them could fight over the doorbell. Apparently, he had been waiting by the window, like an eager puppy watching the world, eyes glazed over with excitement.
Apparently, Nicholai Stratt had something up his sleeve.
And apparently, everybody had guessed this as soon as Jess Mariano entered their house, Rory Gilmore-Stratt saw him and smiled affectionately, and Nicholai Stratt snorted with mischievous glee. They all turned to him when he made that odd sound, and found him smiling and hunched over like a man with a plan. Which, of course, he obviously was.
Everybody inwardly groaned at the fact that an innocent boy led them all into this, but nobody had the heart to tell him that despite what Will Smith may suggest, matchmaking was a totally insipid concept when it came to Jess Mariano and Rory Gilmore.
Dinner commenced, and Jess found himself astonished at how well Rory's cooking had improved. The last time they were together, her idea of lunch was ripping open boxes of Pop Tarts—and that didn't even include a microwave. Now, there were actually meat and potatoes, and well, nutrition, in this, and he promptly exclaimed his surprise over it.
Rory glared pointedly at him, yet a trace of a grin played around her pursed lips.
"Well, she didn't get this from me, that's for sure," Lorelai mumbled as she put a small bite into her mouth.
Her daughter, tired of their reaction to the fact that she could actually work a stove without setting something on fire, placed her hands on her hips and announced, "For your information, I did take lessons from Sookie a little before I got married."
Lorelai's eyes widened over this fact, for a cloud of mystery just suddenly dissipated from her face. "That's what you were doing!"
"Mom, you knew perfectly well that I was with Sookie. We fought over it, remember?"
It took a while to come back to Lorelai, but when it did, another light bulb went off in her head. "Oooh, right! You said I was over-reacting--,"
"Christ, that's like every fight we've ever had," Luke interrupted with a grim roll of his eyes.
"Hey!" Lorelai cried. "I do not over-react!"
The table was silent for a solid minute, confirming that Lorelai Gilmore, was indeed, as over-reacting as Jim Carrey in every single one of his films.
Lorelai did not know what to say upon realisation of this fact. So instead, she gave them all a glare and said, "I am great and you all… aren't!"
Seeing as that statement had no other function than to force the dinner conversation into a complete stagnancy, Nicholai waited a moment before changing the subject (for respect for his grandmother, of course). "So, Mom how did you and Mr. Mariano meet?" he asked earnestly.
Rory stopped for a moment, as if lost in the years when she was still wearing a Chilton uniform. Jess noticed this and smirked, the side of his mouth attractively lifting at the same image. Suddenly, Rory spoke, almost with a small faraway look in her eyes.
"Let's see," she began, " Well, Jess had just come from New York, and he was all new and he actually thought that he was cooler than anyone else in Stars Hollow."
"I know!" Lorelai exclaimed. "Presumptuous jerk."
"Well, it was true then, and it's true now," Jess replied in mock defensiveness. "I mean, come on—the guy I was living with looked like a lumberjack from Canada ninety-eight percent of the time!" He nodded at his uncle, whom, in true Luke Danes fashion, unwittingly emphasised his nephew's comment with his current wardrobe of a blue plaid shirt.
After Luke's crotchety remark about Jess's hairstyle back in the day, Nicholai's mother continued with her story. "Anyway, he was new, and your Gramma invited him and Luke over for dinner. We all expected that as most characters are, the tough-guy façade would dissolve once Jess Mariano saw the friendly little Oompa-Loompas that resided in Stars Hollow, Connecticut."
"And a fine lot of orange-haired midgets you made," Jess retorted, disregarding whatever politically incorrect term he may have used. He was suddenly compelled to prove to his audience that he was, and still is, a badass. Screw PC.
Lorelai pointed to Jess and addressed Nicholai in an effort to colour the boy's imagination of the events of that particular moment in time. "And that was his exact behaviour during this wonderful dinner that Sookie made for all of us. He took my beer and picked a fight with me."
"Well, you were so protective of Old Man here!" Jess said with a toss of his head towards Luke.
"He asked if I was sleeping with Luke!"
With that, Luke Danes gasped, and a piece of potato suddenly dove into his throat from the sudden action. With teary eyes and a hoarse voice, he exclaimed, "WHAT!"
Nicholai burst out laughing at everything that came out, each story, each blast of unknown truth, tickled by the fact that these four people have such a great history together and he never would have known this if it wasn't for Jess Mariano.
Rory Gilmore was laughing again, and it felt wonderful. It was as if a great weight was lifted from her heart, to put it in clichéd terms, yet she felt the lightness in her chest all the same. She stole a glance at Jess, who was currently bickering with Lorelai. His face was harder, older, yet there was still youthfulness in his expression. It was a stark contrast to when he was younger, where it seemed like the weight of the world was precariously balanced over his shoulders. She loved the way that he had transformed into a simple man. No more family issues, no more drama that was too much for either of them to handle. No more teenage jealousy, no more confusion as to anything she felt.
Suddenly, it was clear what she had to do, what she wanted to do.
After dinner was over, Nicholai and Luke volunteered to wash the dishes while the girls lounged around lazily in the living room (more due to the fact that if they didn't wash the dishes, nobody would—a Gilmore's a Gilmore: lazy as a pig). Jess could not be roped into doing such a thing, much to the other two dishwashers' disappointment, and preceded to take a small walk outside.
Of course, Rory, seeing this, followed. She ventured outside and found Jess standing on a small patch of lawn, curiously studying the gnomes behind Babette's house. She studied his back and noted that it had certainly filled out since their childhood. Walking closer, she touched his shoulder blade, and Jess spun around defensively.
"Crap!"
Rory held back a laugh and covered her mouth with her hand in order to block the smile that threatened to escape. Her companion breathed a sigh of relief and regained his composure, save for the light blush on his cheeks.
"I--," she started, but stopped herself. "So how've you been?" Rory laughed this time, but more at herself. "You've been here for almost a month, and I only ask you this now."
"I've been good," he replied softly.
Jess stared at Rory for a moment and saw that there were actually tears forming in her eyes. He felt a small pang in his chest at the sight of this, for this was what she must have looked like when she found out that the last time that she was ever going to see him in twenty years was on that bus.
"Rory, I--," he tried, but he could not form the words.
Slowly, she smiled and put her hands against his face. Jess closed his eyes for the immediate contact that he had not realised he was waiting for ever since he saw her again for the first time.
And there it was. He felt hesitation from her quivering lips, but they touched him all the same. His hands went up and down her back and settled on the tips of her hips, his thumbs perfectly resting on the bones that jutted out through her thin dress. Her own hands did their own exploring, and finally settled into fists gripping the material of his shirt.
That night, without another word to Luke or anyone else, Jess Mariano dug up the contract Luke had long ago given him. Without a word, he uncapped a pen, and with his handwriting a tad messier than usual, he scribbled his name over the dotted lines three times.
With a defeated breath, he leaned back onto the leather sofa and waited for the sun to rise.