Aki- This chapter is really just a filler. In my opinion it is not that good. Next chapter will be better.
Chapter 5
Rory concealed her grief and pain as she and her mother chatted friendly over lunch. Inside, though, it was killing her. Jess…her daughter, the daughter she abandoned. She could not understand how she could have done that.
She talked like nothing was wrong even though she was torn up inside as her mother caught her up on the town news and gossip, but that inevitably lead to…
"And then there is Jess," said Lorelai unabashedly, "At first I thought he was the same old punk, but then he has this daughter," Rory tensed, Lorelai did not notice, "She's real cute, so then I walk in on her and Jess in the middle of a pillow fight."
"What?" asked Rory, a little surprised.
"I know."
"Did you just use the words Jess and pillow fight in the same sentence without a not in their somewhere?"
"Yes," said Lorelai matter-a-factly.
"Are you sure?" asked Rory in a humorously skeptical way.
"I almost got hit."
"Wow."
"But that is nothing compared to what I walked in on the next morning," said Lorelai in a build up.
"Tell me," commanded Rory, genuinely interested, but hiding the guilt at the same time.
"I walked in to find Jess and his daughter sleeping in the same bed all snuggled up…with a teddy bear between them."
"Was the teddy bear Jess' or Amber's?" asked Rory.
"I don-…Wait, how did you know her name?"
"Whose?"
"Amber, Jess' daughter. I don't think I mentioned it to you yet," Lorelai's tone was not accusatory, but rather, curious, yet Rory felt like she was being interrogated.
"Um-," said Rory trying to come up with an effective lie, "I must overheard it somewhere. Everyone is talking about it. I think I heard it from Miss Patty…"
"Yeah," said Lorelai, readily accepting the answer, "I could have mentioned it to, I just don't recall."
After an awkward silence, "So was the teddy Jess' or Amber's?" asked Rory again with a grin.
Her mother smiled back, "I don't know, but I'm definitely going to find out."
Later, at the Dragonfly…
The inn was bustling with activity as the Christmas decorations were going up. Lorelai loved this time of year, with the trees, tinsel and lights, garland, turkey, and mistletoe. It was romantic. It was festive. It was beautiful.
Lorelai sighed dreamily at the check-in desk, her chin rest causally in her hand as she stared dreamily about the room.
"Do you always work like that?" asked a voice snapping Lorelai out of her stupor.
"Wha-?"
"Down here," said Amber, directing Lorelai's attention to the shorter girl.
"Oh, sorry about that, I was just caught up in the moment," said Lorelai. Amber just raised an eyebrow, but asked nothing about what moment she was referring to.
"Can I ask a question?"
"Shoot."
"Can I borrow some of the garland, if there's extra?" she asked hopefully.
"Um..," said Lorelai, pondering the question, "Why?"
"To decorate the room," answered Amber as though it were the simplest thing in the world.
"Are you going to be here the rest of the day?"
"Think so."
"Okay, when we're decorating down here I send the excess up to your room, 'Kay?"
"O-kay," answered Amber happily, starting to go back upstairs.
"Wait," said Lorelai, Amber stopped, "Why didn't Jess send you to ask?"
" 'Cause I'm the cute one!" Amber said matter-a-factly, then skipped upstairs.
Lorelai smiled to herself. A few minutes later, one of the decorators started to wrap garland up the railing.
"Hey Joe," said Lorelai to the man. He looked up at her, "Wrap the garland threw every other post on the railing, not each one like I said before. I need some extra for something…" She really liked that little girl.
A little later…
Lorelai knocked on the door of room number six with a large cardboard box filled with various Christmas decorations balanced precariously in her arms.
Jess opened the door, "…You're actually knocking this time?" he asked.
Lorelai opened her mouth for a retort but never got a chance because Amber suddenly pushed past Jess, took the box from Lorelai's arms before running back into the room taking a second to shout,
"Thanks."
Jess raised an eyebrow in question, but Lorelai only returned a shrug as an answer.
They both followed Amber into the room, where she was already busy at work decorating. Some decorations had already been put up previously. Lorelai spotted a pitiful, Charlie Brown like artificial Christmas tree decorated in the corner as well as a green and red paper chain hanging along the mantel along with stockings.
On closer inspection, Lorelai realized that there was something written on each individual paper link in black marker. She took a step or two closer to it and started reading some of them: business success, good grades, a place to live, meeting new family…
"It's a tradition," Jess said, startling her, from behind Lorelai.
"Hmm?"
"When Amber was in kindergarten, they had to make a paper chain for Christmas writing everything they were thankful for of the past year. She came home and made me do it too, and now we do every Christmas."
"Oh," said Lorelai. That really wasn't a Jess-like thing, especially to admit something like that freely.
Amber brushed by the two and leaped onto one the beds proclaiming loudly as she did so, "My masterpiece is complete!"
Lorelai realized in that the few minutes she was absorbed in the paper chain and talking to Jess that Amber had laced the window frames with garland and showered everything else she could with some extra tinsel that Lorelai had put in the box as well. Later that night…
As Lorelai walked across the road to get to Luke's for an after work coffee only to run into Miss Patty.
"Hey, Lorelai. I heard Rory is back in town early."
"Yeah she is. I was scared she wasn't going to get back in time for Christmas."
"Of course it does add a little more tension in the town doesn't it. You know with both Jess and Rory here. Add the kid and this town is bound to explode," Miss Patty checked her watch, "I got to go, hun, have a class in a few minutes. Tell Rory to stop by sometime, I haven't seen her since she got back. Tata."
"O-okay. I will," said Lorelai, slightly confused as Miss Patty walked off. 'That's funny,' she thought, 'Didn't Rory said she thought she had heard Amber's name from Miss Patty…" Lorelai tried to shrug it off, but it weighed heavily in the back of her mind.