AN: Oh god this took forever. Sorry (read the AN at the bottom for more infos).

Disclaimer: Be not mine.

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"Two pretzels were walking along the street," Jess said to Rory, who was beginning to lean on him a little more than before. She smiled at the mere thought of the pretzels walking. "One was assaulted." It took her a minute, but when Rory got the joke, she started to laugh hysterically. "Come on Ror, we've got another twelve hours! You can't go goofy on me now!"

"Too late," she giggled, just as Lorelai and Luke danced by them. "Mom!"

Lorelai's head bobbed up and down, a grin spread across her face. "I heard. He's a funny man. We should call him funnyman."

"Because diner man is already taken," Luke added, sarcastically.

"Naw, if you call me funnyman, people will constantly come up to me wanting me to tell jokes. You can't do that to me,"

"Too late, funnyman," Lorelai giggled and danced Luke away.

Jess looked deeply at the woman he was dancing with: she had a goofy smile toying with her features, the sleep and lack of coffee apparent. She had reached slap happy mode. "Ror?"

"Yeah baby?"

"Baby?" He repeated, surprised. "Baby?"

"Would you rather be funnyman?"

Shaking his head 'no,' Jess kissed her on the lips. "As I said, there's twelve hours left…"

"Uh huh," she grunted and leaned into him a little more.

"Do we really need to stay for the next twelve hours or just quit now and say we tried? We could go home and go to bed…"

"Dirty, dirty boy!" she giggled into his chest. "Maybe I should call you dirty-boy…but that'd be my name only!" Rory made a noise that he swore was a rowr and he laughed.

"You're tired," he pointed out. She was always goofy but it was worse when she was tired.

Rory nodded, but lifted her head up to look in his eyes as she talked. "So is everyone else here. We have to stay for Mom."

"You know I'm only doing this because I love you,"

Her head collapsed back onto his chest, "You know you love it too."

Jess smiled and kissed her forehead. It was going to be a long twelve hours, but damn her being right.

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Lorelai and Luke trotted away from the younger couple; Luke followed her because he couldn't let go of her hand, and she might fall down if he did. This marathon was a crazy idea and everyone in it was crazy too. That included him too. Oh well, he shrugged. Lorelai had led them to a corner of the gym, at a distance from everyone else. "Sudden urge to be alone?" he asked, wrapping his arms around her waist.

She nodded and rested her head against his chest. Lorelai's eyes were focused on the crowd, but he could feel her squeeze him. "Time to observe a bit, there aren't many people left."

Luke smiled and rocked them back and forth, keeping his feet stationary. "That, and you're tired." He yelped when she kicked his shin, "Okay okay, everyone's tired."

"I'm a champion," she said, sleepily. "I never get tired."

"Uh huh," he grunted and started to dance backwards, towards the crowd. "Never tired."

Luke spotted Jess and Rory dancing next to Lane and Dave. He couldn't see Sookie or Jackson anywhere but he hadn't seen them leave either. Dancing Lorelai over towards the group, he announced, "As much as I hate to say this, we need a coffee fix."

Jess nodded adamantly, "She's about to go on me too."

"Same here," Dave added.

Luke looked at the three women and began to laugh. "Why are they tired and we're…"

"For starters, I got..what? Three hours more sleep than you?" Jess smirked and shifted Rory around in his arms so she was facing everyone else. "You're the one that busted in two hours earlier than need be this morning."

The motion had a delayed response on Rory, who looked around confused. "What? Where's Jess?" She looked around and then her head drooped down again.

The three men laughed heartily as Jess tapped her on the shoulder and she twisted her neck to see him. "It's okay, just stay awake until we can get you coffee." There was a small nod barely visible, and her head drooped back down to her chest.

Lorelai's arms still encircled Luke's torso and he remained dancing for the sake of the crazy marathon. "What about you Dave? Why is Lane half asleep and you seem fine?"

The small Asian woman in Dave's arms twitched at her name, but didn't respond. "She's been on a funky sleep schedule ever since we got back from touring… I on the other hand, have been getting ready for this. She'll pipe back up around 3am…"

"Smart man," Jess muttered. "I've been opening the diner and getting ready to move. I apparently need very little sleep to function though," he glared at Luke when he mentioned the diner.

"You said you'd work as much as I wanted before you moved, to make up for the fact that you were moving," Luke reminded him.

"I know, I know," Jess muttered. "Thank you because I need the money too. Now, let's find some coffee before they become more deadweight."

"Hey," a groan escaped all three women's lips.

"Imagine that," Luke chuckled. "Automatically think we're talking about their weight."

"Well…" Dave said, wearily, "We were…"

"It was a joke, Dave,"

"Hey look, coffee," he said, trying to hide his embarrassment.

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I'm actually really sorry peoples. This is a short little chapter but I have had it written for like a week already and I just decided to post it and let you all know I'm still alive. I'm alive and I have a broken stress-o-meter. It got too big and the end just popped right off. Thank you to everyone that reviewed my last chapter (except for a recent one that was extremely bitchy, you can blow me).

I got a second job… I now have 2 jobs, an internship, and school. Finals are coming up and I probably would've written last Sunday but I kinda wrote a 10 page term paper from 11am-10pm. Straight. I was all writinged out. Now I'm just tired and a little crazy. If you want a better explanation for the like, month, hiatus…just review or shoot me an email starcastic(at)gmail(dot)com. I swear the gods just haven't wanted me to write, that or they just want to drive me up the freakin wall.

Please review even though it took forever to post and it's tiny. Sorry.