A/N- Hello all! Glad you've been enjoying this lately. I really appreciate the leeway and understanding about the craziness of real life. You are wonderful readers and people, and honestly I wish that half the people I deal with in real life were as understanding as you all seem to be. Anyway, wanted to mention something really quickly. I hope you're all enjoying the Literati of it, and I wanted to see if people thought that it had suddenly become Lit or the progression seemed natural. You can be honest, I'm curious for feedback. As always, please keep reading and reviewing (your reviews make my day, not even exaggerating) and recommend to your friends if you'd like. I do not own Gilmore Girls or any of its characters or concepts, but I wish I owned Truncheon.
Chapter 47
The next morning, Jess woke up and turned over to find Rory, still asleep, in the adjacent bed. At that very moment she began rubbing her eyes and lifting herself up. She turned her head toward him and jumped in shock. Jess grinned.
"Well good morning to you too," he smirked at her surprised expression, "You look like you've just seen a criminal in your bedroom. Oh wait, you are the criminal…"
"Do you just gawk at me like this every time you wake up first?" Rory retorted, unable to keep the grin off her face, "And I have no idea what you're talking about. You can check my record, I am nothing but an upright, moral citizen."
"And the grand theft naval…"
"Must be a figment of your imagination, because I have no idea what you're referring to," Rory shrugged innocently, getting out of bed, "God, I need coffee. Especially since we're about to embark upon a three hour drive."
"Think you can stand three hours alone in a car with me?" Jess raised an eyebrow. Rory looked at him mischeviously.
"Good point. Maybe I should call Paris, ask her to chaperone."
"You'd need mac and cheese to bribe her with."
"Didn't you say you cook?"
"Not to my own detriment."
"Damn. My lack of domestic prowess is once again ruining my plans."
"Stepford's an efficient place. They get shit done there." Jess gallantly handed Rory a mug of coffee and she looked up at him in surprise.
"How..."
"You don't realize how much time passes during these Before Sunset conversations of ours," Jess grinned before taking a huge gulp of his own coffee, "I could probably have made a four course meal by now."
"And you didn't because…" Rory questioned, smiling.
"Because I'm a cruel, cruel man."
"I'll say," she retorted, grabbing a pair of jeans and a shirt before heading to the bathroom, "You didn't even provide me with bacon. How do you expect me to be conscious and functioning without bacon?"
"Since when am I your provider?" Jess called, struggling not to laugh, "I thought you Gilmore women were all self-sufficient. Isn't independence your claim to fame?"
"Not when it comes to food," Rory answered through the door, "And you should know that by now. You've had about seven years of proof to draw that conclusion. Wasn't intelligence supposed to be your thing?"
"So the wit comes with the coffee," Jess responded as Rory emerged, just as he'd finished getting dressed, "I'm pretty sure you're wrong about that. If I had any intelligence whatsoever I have no idea what I'd be doing standing within five feet of you before your third cup of coffee."
"Well now that you've acknowledged your intellectual failings, maybe you should try to fix that in order to avoid my pre-coffee, pre-bacon induced homicidal tendencies," she suggested as she walked downstairs, with Jess quickly following behind.
They were both surprised to see the diner was nearly empty. Cesar was in back, and said that Luke had called him to open and said that he'd be in around ten. There were two people at the counter and two occupied tables, but otherwise the place was clear and nearly silent. Rory smiled contentedly.
"All the more energy you can focus on making me bacon," she grinned, sitting down at the counter. Jess shook his head, smiling.
"Coming up," he said, heading toward the back.
"Wait! Aren't you going to take my order? I don't want only bacon," Rory called, "That's unusual even for me."
"Really? Because I just put five pounds of it on here," Jess answered back. Rory rolled her eyes.
"Jess…"
"Relax. I'm bringing food, that you'll like, and that you'll eat so voraciously that you would make football players look like they're dieting," Jess continued. She could hear the bacon frying. "Alright?"
"Okay," Rory surrendered, opening the book she'd brought down with her. She knew Jess was trying to force her to stop thinking. And at this point, she realized how nice it was even just to try.
Ten minutes later, two plates landed in front of Rory. She inspected them curiously.
"Is that…"
"Omelette. With cheese, bacon, ham, and no vegetables of any kind," Jess began, "French toast with powdered sugar, extra on the side, syrup on the side, since you oddly enough never really seemed to be much of a syrup person. And of course, all of which is accompanied by about a half pound of bacon."
"How did you…"
"I told you I could cook," Jess shrugged, "And I know what you like." He grabbed another plate and set it down in front of himself, with an identical omelette and about half the bacon. Then he refilled both coffee mugs.
"Well…thank you," Rory smiled at him, before attacking her meal, "God, I never would have thought of this. And it's perfect."
"You know that usually that would be three separate meals, right?" Jess smirked as she tore through her breakfast, happily gulping down coffee like she were dying of thirst in the Nevada desert.
"Well if I were usual would you find me even remotely interesting?" Rory inquired, finishing off the rest of the bacon, "Hey, is there more of this?"
Jess laughed out loud, heading back into the kitchen and bringing out the rest of it. "I made the package, just in case. God, you're a medical marvel. And it's so hard to conceive of a world in which you're normal that I can't really answer that, though it's also hard to imagine a scenario in which I don't find you interesting."
Rory blushed. They continued eating in silence for a moment. It was nice, Rory thought, to wake up like this, and have a morning like this. To not have everything planned and to just let things carry her along. More specifically, to just let Jess do so. She wouldn't trust most people with decisions that affected her, even trivial ones. She always thought she liked to be in control. But with Jess around, she could breathe, laugh, let go, not worrying about what anyone thought or what she was going to do. Here she knew who she was. She already had the answers she was looking for. It was just a matter of reaching them, when she was ready. There was no rush, no pressure. All was still.
