An airport shuttle van drops Lorelai, Anna, and Rory off in front of their house. "Agh!" Lorelai screamed at the car as it drove away.
"And we're home." Rory sighs.
"I can't wait to be in my bed." Anna wanted a soft bed compared to the hard hostile beds.
"How long does a freakin' van ride take?" She glares at it like she could still see it.
"Not that long!" Rory swore the driver was going ten below the speed limit.
"Everybody in the world's life flashed before my eyes. That's how much time I had. I thought we were gonna die in that van." She looked at them and pointed in the direction the van went.
"It seemed like a good possibility." Rory grips her backpack tightly.
"You should have slept like me." Anna dropped her backpack to stretch.
"I'm not going to sleep in a stranger's car." Rory shook her head.
"Ugh, that van ride felt longer than our train ride from Paris to Prague, and we had that group of French boys singing Sk8er Boi and smelling like a soccer field sitting all around us." She grumbled.
Babette comes out of her house and rushes over to them. "Oh my God, you're back! Morey, they're back! Are you hurt? Are you bleeding?"
"Oh, we're fine." Lorelai put on a strained smile. She loved her neighbor but she wanted her night to end.
"You're fine? They're fine! Morey! MOREY!" She screams for her husband.
He opens the front door. "Yeah?"
"They're fine!" She yelled.
"Okay." He goes back inside.
"What the hell happened to you three? According to the itinerary that Rory gave me, you were supposed to be home on Saturday." She had been worried sick.
"The itinerary that Rory gave you?" She looked at her daughter.
"Itinerary?" Anna looks at her sister. Lorelai's big rule was no planning.
"So when you girls didn't show up, we panicked! Morey?" She yelled for him again.
He opens the front door. "Yeah?"
"Didn't we panic?" She asked him to confirm.
"Yeah." He goes inside. He, like the Gilmore Girls, was ready for bed.
"Hey, Morey, have you ever thought about just staying out here at times like these?" Lorelai imagined he just sat down when she called for him.
"By Sunday night, I was a complete basket case. I thought you'd been kidnapped by some crazy Sandinistas or something." She put a hand over her speeding heart.
"Because the Sandinista movement is so popular in France." Lorelai sighed at the geographical ignorance.
"So, finally, I just started calling consulates." She told them.
"Consulates?" Anna wonders how she got those numbers.
"How many consulates?" Lorelai asked.
"Ah, jeez, all of 'em. Anyhow, you're here. Let's go inside, I wanna hear all about Europe. Morey, I'm going in!" She yelled to her husband.
"Okay." He yelled out the window.
Babette goes into Lorelai's house without the girls. "You gave her an itinerary?" She didn't know why she would do that.
"I thought it would be good for someone to know where we were." She reasoned.
"Oh, you gave her an itinerary and she called every consulate in the world." Lorelai pointed out why she shouldn't have done that.
"If we were caught smuggling hash over the border and we were thrown in some Turkish prison, wouldn't you want someone to know that we were in Turkey?" Rory explains why she did it.
"I guess that makes sense." Anna picks up her bag.
"Make sense? Where'd we get this hash we were smuggling?" Lorelai asks.
"You were at a café, you met a guy, he was sweet-talking you, he put the stuff in your purse when you weren't looking." She said the scenario she came up with.
"At least tell me he was cute." She decided to let it go since it was already done.
"He was not bad for a hash dealer." Rory nods. Lorelai throws an arm around each of her daughters as they walk into the house.
"I'm making cocoa!" Babette called from the kitchen.
"She's making cocoa 'cause you gave her an itinerary." She wanted Rory to know it was her fault for the long night they were about to have.
"I may have given her the itinerary, but you're the one who got us busted for drug smuggling." Rory gave her a pointed look. They dropped their bags by the door.
"Reality has no place in our world." Lorelai sighs. They walk into the kitchen.
"Okay, I wanna hear all about Europe. Come on, tell me, what'd you see?" Babette put the teapot on the stove.
"Well, everything. Uh, Notre Dame, the Roman Baths, St. Peter's Basilica." Lorelai listed as they sat down.
"Mom touched the Pope," Rory said the most exciting thing that happened.
"You're kidding!" She gasps.
"I just touched his car. Then one of the Swiss guards in the fruity cool clothing busted me." She corrected.
"Luckily, Mom's fluent in flirting." Anna giggles remembering how she used a lot of hand gestures.
"And flirting with a guy in a pompom hat and a skirt is quite an accomplishment." She nods proudly.
"Well, it sounds like you had a terrific trip." She smiled.
Lorelai gestured for them to yawn. Anna let out a loud exaggerated yawn, making Lorelai glare at her for the theatrics. "Aw, are you okay, hon?"
"I'm just tired." She rubs her eyes.
"Aw, of course, you girls must be wiped. I'll, uh, get out of here." She caught the hint.
"Oh, but thanks, Babette." She smiled.
"Well, goodnight, sleep tight. I'll talk to you tomorrow... Morey, I'm coming home!" She screams as she walks out the door.
"I'm going to sleep." Anna walks up to her room. She looks at her things packed up. She was helping pass out souvenirs in the morning, but she was leaving for Philadelphia after that. Her orientation day for the job was in two days. She was buzzing with anticipation of seeing Jess after so long. She was nervous about them living together. She was nervous to go to work and culinary school. She was excited to hit the ground running but was nervous that she was going to land face first.
Rory and Anna are organizing the souvenirs in the living room. Lorelai walks down the stairs, talking on the phone. "Gilmore, Lorelai, yes. My daughter's name is Lorelai also. Well, very confusing or, in your case, extremely convenient. Uh, no, see, we were never missing, it was a big mistake."
"Who are you talking to?" Rory asked.
"Belgium… Yes, uh huh, Babette Dell. She got our arrival dates mixed up and she was just worried, but we're fine, we're here. We just loved your fries. Okay, sure, bye-bye." She hangs up. "Okay, Belgium's done, Lisbon's calling me back, Berlin had no idea what I was talking about, and Paris is pissed."
"At who?" Anna asked.
"Ugh, who knows? Okay, I'm taking a break, and then I'm taking on the Netherlands. I still cannot believe Babette did this." She looks down at the phone.
"She just loves us." Rory defends her.
"Well, be a little less lovable, would you, 'cause it's costing me a fortune. Try being one of those kids where people are like, Oh really, she was kidnapped? Hey, well, thin the herd." She shrugged.
"Very nice. Hey, who are the rosary beads for?" She held them up.
"They're mine." She snatched them.
"What do you need rosary beads for? You don't pray." Anna was packing up the souvenirs that they were going to pass out today.
"They're cute and I think they're going to match my blue suit." She put them in her pocket.
"They have just upgraded you to a queen-size bed, Jacuzzi tub, and junior suite in hell." Rory hummed.
"Hm. Oh, Pieta placemat?" She held up a gift with no label.
"Oh, Gypsy." She hands her the tag.
"How are you guys feeling?" She looks at them.
"You know, not bad. Just a little spacey." Rory nods.
"I'm pumping with nervous adrenaline." Anna has been wired since she woke up.
"So, can we go over the schedule, please?" Rory liked knowing what she was going to do.
"We're going to pass out the gifts in the morning and then I'll head out." Anna listed.
"Well, everything's in order, so, uh, let's get going and get this stuff out of here." Lorelai looks at the living room full of gifts. "Wow, we sure have a lot of gifts. Do we like this many people?"
"I didn't think so. Maybe we're getting soft in our old age." Rory realizes that fact too.
"Okay, well, I guess we should get some tote bags." Lorelai nodded to the coat closet.
"We don't have tote bags." Anna narrows her eyes at her mother.
"We must have tote bags." She insisted.
"Where would we get tote bags?" Rory asks.
"Excuse me, every woman who's ever purchased seventy-five dollars worth of Clinique products has some tote bags." She knew she had spent that much to get the bag.
"You use those tote bags as a gift bag every time we forget to wrap a gift before the party, and we always forget." Anna reminds her.
"Oh, right. Well, how are we supposed to get this stuff out of here?" She had no idea how they were going to get all those things out.
"The same way we brought them in." Anna nods over to the large backpacks on the ground.
"No." Lorelai whines, never wanting to wear it again.
The Gilmore Girls walk down the street wearing their backpacks. "Now we're the quirky backpack ladies." She pouts.
"One of the kinder nicknames that have been attributed to us." Rory smiles.
"Let's just be very efficient about this. Okay, we'll start with Patty, work our way clockwise around the town, and end with Andrew. And let's stick with my mom touched the Pope anecdote. It's quick, it's peppy, and everybody likes a nice Pope story." Anna needed to get this done promptly so she could get to Philadelphia by the afternoon.
"Can we stop by Luke's first? I'm starving." Rory groans.
"Absolutely… some people are bound to be there that's on the list." She went on when she saw Anna's look of panic.
"Fine." She was stressed about time.
"Hey, I wonder if Luke and Nicole went on that cruise." Lorelai wonders out loud.
"Why wouldn't he?" Anna looks at her mom, thinking she knew something they didn't.
"Well, I don't know. Because he'd have to pack and leave, plus he'd have to buy a bathing suit." She shrugged.
"Well, I hope he went. He could use a good vacation. Plus, he seems to like Nicole." Rory wanted Luke to have a loving spouse.
"What the hell?" Anna's eyes widened when they got to Luke's window. "You guys?" She turned to her mother and sister with tears in her eyes. Everyone including her grandparents and friends were in Luke's.
"You thought anyone was going to let you leave without saying see you later." Lorelai smiled. She hugged them before going inside the diner. She ran to the closest person to the door.
"Oh my god, Sookie." She rubs her baby bump.
"Oh my…" Lorelai got in on the rubbing. "Hello, I'm your Auntie Lorelai and this is your Auntie Anna and this is Auntie Rory…. Rory got over here." She waved when she saw Rory standing a few feet from them.
"I'd rather not." She sat at a table with Babette and Miss. Patty.
Anna made her rounds to greet everyone and thank them for seeing her off. "I can't believe you guys showed up." She knew her friends had things going on.
"We're more than high school pals." Henry pats her back.
"I know but you guys have to be busy preparing for college and your big Eupore trip." She looks at Thomas.
"It's not a trip, it's a job." He insisted.
"Oh okay, we believe you won't sneak out of the hotel to go clubbing." Eleanor nods.
"Our responsible boy." Roger pinch his cheek.
"Hey, it seems like a lot of people are going to miss you." Her eyes widened as she recognized the voice.
"Jess!" She turned around to throw herself in his arms. "I told you, you didn't have to come. I would have driven up there by myself."
"No way. It's your first time driving that long." He squeezed her tight. "I missed you." He whispers, kissing the side of her neck. She shivered in his arms, feeling like she was going to wake up from a dream.
"All of this is too much." She looks around at the diner. "I LOVE YOU ALL!"
"Warning." Jess backed up and covered his ears.
"Sorry." She smiled.
"Call me when you get there." Lorelai held on tightly to her daughter. They were standing in front of her packed car.
"I will." She nods.
"Call me regularly." She let her go to grab her hands.
"Me too." Rory gave her a side hug.
"I will." She nods.
"You're going to do great." They pulled away.
"Amazing," Rory adds.
"We are all going to do amazing on our new journeys." She smiles.
Lorelai turns to Jess. "Take care of my baby." She pulled him into a hug, surprising everyone.
"I will." He pats her back.
She moved back but held onto his arms. "I know we don't have a good relationship but I trust you with her."
"Thanks." His face was blank, but her words did touch him.
She walked into the apartment and her eyes went to the marble countertops. "Oh my god, so beautiful." She ran her hands along the white cabinets and countertops. She opened up the black stove to look inside. "So clean." It didn't look like he used it. "A breakfast counter." She sat on one of the bar stools and spun around to look out at the living room and balcony.
She went onto the balcony to look at the view of the city. Jess joined her. "Does this make it feel like home?" She looked out at the skyscrapers and buildings.
"A little… more now." He looks at her taking everything in. "You know there is a walk-in closet."
She ran inside to go to the bedroom. She went alongside the queen bed to open the closet. "Oh, half of it is empty."
"What you thought I was going to take up the whole thing?" Jess follows her around. He thought she looked like an excited puppy.
"This is so surreal. To think that you and I are going to be living here together alone." She felt like such a grown-up.
"Yeah, I felt like that the first few days here." He nods. "You better call your mom before she thinks I locked you in a basement."
She pulled out her new phone, a T-mobile Sidekick with a Juicy Couture case. "Hey mom, guess where I'm calling you from."
"I'm hoping from Philadelphia." She put it on speaker so Rory could hear too.
"Yes, but more specifically a walk-in closet." She brags.
"What, no way!" She gasps.
"Yes, and a modern kitchen and a balcony with a view of the city. I'm a high-class city girl now." She threw herself on the bed. Jess snorted, making her push him with her foot. She detailed the apartment and promised to take pictures.
Anna walks into Gillespie's. She looked over her uniform of a red chef coat, black slacks, and black chef shoes. She had her hair neatly tied into a rose bun. She gasped when she saw Chef Esther Gillespie walk up to her. "Hello, are you one of the students that got a working spot here?"
"Yes, I'm Susanna Gilmore. It's an honor to meet you, Chef Gillespie." She couldn't believe one of her cooking ideals was standing in front of her.
"Come in, you can meet the others." She led her into the back to see she was the last one there. It made Anna wonder if she should have shown up earlier. She joined the other workers that were standing on one side of the kitchen.
"This is Chef Ned Blois. He's the main teacher for your guy's classes and helps out in the kitchen here to see your process. This is Chef Marie McKelvey, she is a brilliant pastry chef that will also be one of your teachers." She introduced them.
"Today, we just want to see where you are. If you'll be a prep cook or a dishwasher." Ned told them.
"At each station, there are different ingredients that we want you to cut: a julienne, a small dice, a mince, and a fine brunoise," Marie instructed.
Anna went to a station and saw a potato, peppers, carrot, and onion. She did the peppers julienne, the onions mince, the potatoes fine brunoise, and the carrots small dice. "Finish first." Ned stopped in front of her. He inspected the food. "Who are you?"
"Susanna Gilmore." She introduced herself.
"Sookie Saint James' recommendation." He nods before walking over to the next student. They were given recipes to make sauces, parboil, make salad, and other things. They were waiting for the chefs to come back from the office to give the results. Everyone was silent, thinking about all the mistakes they made.
Anna perks up when they walk back into the kitchen. Esther gave the results. "The prep cooks will be…." She listed names. Anna was listening for hers. "...Jaci Flores and Susanna Gilmore. Don't be disappointed if you're a dishwasher, okay? You have two years to grow and climb the ladder." She let out a breath of relief.
"Here are your schedules. You're accommodated for your classes." Marie passed them out.
She looks to see that she got the 10:30 am- 6:30 pm shift. Being that her classes were 6a-10 am. "I suspect a lot of Sookie's Saint James' pupil," Ned spoke as she walked by him.
"I won't disappoint." She matches his hard gaze as she walks by.
She noticed a girl with a red chef coat walking in the same direction as her. "Hi, I'm Susanna Gilmore." She ran to catch up with her.
"I'm Jaci Flores." She nods.
"You're a prep cook too, congratulations." She smiled.
"You too." They stop in front of the same building. "You live here?" She asked when Anna walked inside with her.
"Yeah, I just moved in two days ago." She nodded.
"Cool." She pushed the button to the elevator.
"Oh, I like your keychain." Anna saw a fox keychain hanging from her purse.
"Thanks, it's from Naruto. It's the chibi version of the nine-tail fox." They went into the elevator.
"What?" She didn't understand what any of that meant.
"It's an anime. You should check it out." Jaci loved to convert someone into an anime fan.
"Will do." She nods. "Do you have morning classes too?"
"Yeah." She nods.
"Maybe we will walk together." Anna got off first.
Anna was telling Jess about her day as she laid out dinner on the breakfast bar. She made chicken parmesan burgers and fries. "So, what are we watching again?" Jess looks at the laptop she set up in front of them.
"A show called Naruto." She pushed play before she sat down. She watched a blonde boy in an orange jumpsuit run away from a few adults.
One episode turned into more. They were watching another one in bed. "So, what made you want to watch this?" He asks.
"A co-worker suggested it to me." She leaned her head on his shoulder.
"Are we watching this so you can make a friend?" He knew that was a big worry of hers.
"Maybe. She has the same class and work schedules as me and she lives in this apartment so it would be good to make friends." She thought it was perfect.
"I'm happy you had a good first day despite that intense teacher." He shut off the laptop and put it on the nightstand.
"Yeah, I got to ask Sookie about him." She made a mental note to call her tomorrow. She turned off the light. "I'm so happy you're here." She cuddled with him as she fell asleep.