Epilogue

"Com'ere, sugar! Tell me, what exactly is this?"

"It's a sculpture."

"I could see that. But what does it represent?"

"Honestly, Babette? I haven't got the slightest idea."

"One would think that for running the place you'd have a clue about the artwork in your gallery."

Jess turned and pointed at a man who was sitting at the end of the room, in a corner, knitting a scarf. "That's the artist right there. If you manage to get something more elaborate than everything is knots, please, come and tell me."

"I think I'll get a drink instead."

"You'd be better off."

"MOREY! Get me another one! And make sure it's a double!"

Most of the crowd gathered at the New York office of Truncheon books turned and forgot momentarily their conversations, deafened by Babette's command. Jess rubbed his face.

"Dear son-phew-in-law, you seem to have reached your quota of human interactions today."

"Please, Lorelai: stop calling me that. We're not really in-laws, and it's not even that funny."

"Loinfruit's sweetheart?"

"Jeez."

"The ex-boyfriend who lived? Taylor's Bane? Putative daddy?"

"Hey, Luke? How do you deal with her when she's hyper?"

Luke grabbed Lorelai by the waist. His wife was beaming after having managed to make Jess uncomfortable – again. "I told you already: you need to stop caring. She feeds on your weaknesses."

"You know, Lorelai? I feel your real talents are wasting at that inn of yours. You'd make a great torturer."

Lorelai smiled and started singing: "Jess and Rory are lovers and cousins."

Jess searched for a distraction. "Look! Logan's coming, thank God."

Logan reached them while putting his coat on. "Congrats again for the event, man. I don't think there could have been a better book presentation – intellectuals, hipsters and Stars Hollow's crowd all gathered in one place. Look at Kirk trying to pitch his novel Stars Hollow – The real truth, and not what Rory wrote to that reviewer."

"I was considering getting him away from her but then I thought that he's really doing the best promotion possible, and for free."

"Yeah, let him. Lorelai, I think your daughter's book will have the unintended side effect of making Stars Hollow a very trendy destination. Miss Patty has convinced half of the people to go check her show at the Summer Festival. Imagine all those visitors, and you with both inns now."

"That's what I told Taylor! But he insists that it is bad rep to have an almost pornographic book set in the town. He tried to raise funds to sue Rory and have a fictional name used instead."

"Oh, that's fantastic, I'm going to tell that to the New York Times lady before leaving." Logan shook Luke's hand and gave Lorelai and Jess a quick hug. "We'll drop Oliver tomorrow before noon, Jess. I'd better go say goodbye to Rory, Odette freaks out a little bit when she takes care of the baby for long – she thinks she's going to give him a French accent, and that it will affect his college performance down the road."

Logan left to look for Rory. Jess gave Lorelai a pretend annoyed look. "I was wondering, Lorelai: why in hell you never bash Logan as you do me?" He then turned to his uncle. "She wasn't doing it while Rory and him were dating, was she, Luke?"

"Not that I noticed. It was all banter-ish, at most."

"Then, for crying out loud, Lorelai: why me?"

Lorelai grabbed Jess' arm and smiled. "Because, dear son-phew-in-law, my cruelest kips are only directed to my favorite people in the world."

Jess smiled at that. "Come on, let's free your daughter from James Carpenter. He's seen Logan leaving and will now try to sell her some custom made writing desk, and probably his book of poems, too."

But Rory had just been saved by her grandmother, so Jess and Lorelai stood close by and were joined by Liz while Emily said goodbye.

"I'm so happy, Rory, to have been able to be here today – even if I was mad when I first read the book. Your grandfather would have been so proud of you. A most talented Gilmore writer! His heart would burst with joy."

Rory let out a single tear remembering her grandad. "Thank you so much, grandma. You don't know what that means to me. I thought for so long, with the unplanned pregnancy, that he would have been mad."

Emily shook her head. "Nonsense. If I managed to come to grips with it, so would have he. You were the light of his world, after all, and you came unplanned as well. Oliver would have been his life, too. And I guess he would have even enjoyed Jess' company and talking to him about books. He's not so bad when he's not being hit by things."

Rory kissed her grandmother on the cheek. "And he loves me and Oliver, and makes us happy, remember that."

"Yes, well. I guess there must be something in the Danes blood for the Gilmore girls. Perhaps Luke has a relative he could introduce to me, then we would be all triply related." Rory laughed at that, although she was a bit weirded out by it. "Oh, I'm just joking, Rory. As if I could stand a man in a flannel shirt. I hope to see you all soon in Nantucket."

Emily kissed her granddaughter and waved goodbye to all while elegantly putting her coat on and heading for the door, that someone opened for her as if even Truncheon Books was her domain.

"My grandma said she wants to date your great-uncle, Luke."

"What? That nutcase that lives in a log cabin and refused to be taken to a hospital when he shot his own leg hunting?"

Rory laughed. "Nah, I'm just joking. It's just she's jealous of us with our Danes-Mariano men."

She put her arm around Jess while she said this, smiling. Lorelai, Liz and Luke started to discuss about the latest town meeting, where Taylor had tried to approve a motion to ban Rory's book from Andrew's bookstore and Stars Hollow library. Jess took advantage of the distraction and whispered to Rory's ear.

"Are you alright?"

"Of course! Everything went perfect."

"Don't lie to me, Ror. You know what I mean."

Rory stared at Jess, still amazed after over a year at his partner's insight. "I will be. At least he apologized about not being able to make it."

Jess frowned but then softened, caressing her arm lightly. "He'll get there someday, you'll see. It's not like you said anything bad about his parenting."

"No, it's actually the lack of presence in the book that bugs him, but it is what it is. Look at Logan – he's fighting for Oliver. And he even managed to get Odette on board. And look at you… You are the best father a boy could dream of. So I'm not sorry – we didn't have dads to count on while growing up, and our boy has two."

Jess pressed his forehead against Rory's and squeezed her waist. "And both dads would die for him, so you are right. We have each other to take care of ourselves. No need to mourn those who didn't want to be involved."

Jess gave Rory a quick kiss and another squeeze and tried to gather his senses back so he could overlook the party. One could never know when the Stars Hollow bunch and his world could come clashing. Lane and Zach approached them at that moment.

"Rory, look at Paris – I think she's flirting with that old guy over there."

Rory looked and saw Paris talking spiritedly to none other than Dr. Harold Ackerman. "God, I can't believe it – not again!"

"Jess!" Doula came running through the crowd. "Look what Chris gave me! He said it's the Harry Potter of the seventies. Is it good?"

Jess grabbed the book and nodded. "Ursula K. Le Guin is great, I think you'll love the Earthsea trilogy: it's beautiful."

"Did you read them when you were my age?"

"I actually read them when I was already in my twenties, but I enjoyed them all the same."

"Oh…"

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing, I'm just worried I won't understand them."

Jess caressed his sister's head. "Don't worry, Doula. I think you're perfectly capable of getting them, but even if you don't, that's alright." Jess looked at Rory, smiling. "There are some books you will only be ready to fully enjoy at a particular moment in time, and it doesn't matter if it takes you a while to get there."

Doula pretended not to notice the intense look between his brother and Rory. "Oh, great, I was worrying. I really want to become a writer like the two of you."

Rory, who was still beaming at what Jess had said, turned to Doula. "I think that you have the potential to become a great writer, Doula, but especially an awesome person. Just remember to stay true to yourself."

"Do you hear that, Jess?"

"What?"

"Exactly that – nothing. Just you and me, and a bottle of champagne I have in the fridge, because Oliver is not here and the book presentation was great and I'm not breastfeeding anymore and you are the handsomest, smartest, most amazing editor-partner a woman could dream of."

Jess kissed her roughly and Rory moaned. "Fuck the champagne, Ror."

"No way! You'll have to wait, mister, and then you'll have to make love to drunk Rory, who's quite lazy in that state, I'm afraid."

Jess laughed and took the champagne bottle out of the fridge. "You know? I was going to get something fancy to celebrate with the champagne, like oysters…" Rory wrinkled her nose. "But look what I got your mom to bring instead."

He beckoned Rory to check the inside of the fridge. "It's Al's!"

"Yeah, I know you love this shit reheated."

"Yay! What is it? Oh, don't tell me, I'm so nervous."

"I think the stench will be a dead give away. Emphasis on dead."

"You got me Indian?"

"Yes."

"After you said, and I quote, that Al probably stews his stuff in water from the Ganges? And that he cannot tell a Madras curry from a paella?"

"Yes, and I hope this tells you very eloquently how much I love you."

"Right, because being my soul mate, the best pregnancy companion a girl could dream of, and the best half-daddy to Oliver could not do it, right?"

"Oh, that is easy, Ror. Look at this shit." He opened a container. "I'll give you 50$ on the spot if you can tell if it's animal, vegetable or mineral."

"Come here."

They kissed languidly for a long time, until Rory broke the kiss and opened the champagne bottle in a daze.

"So, I guess we have more stuff to celebrate tonight, right?"

Rory had an evil grin on, the one that she inherited from Lorelai. Jess knew she was onto something mischievous. "What are you up to?"

"No, Jess: what are you up to?"

"Oh, no, you didn't."

"Yeah, I did!"

"Ror! You can't go through private stuff like that, thank god I'm not fifteen and it wasn't old porn stashed under the bed!"

"So, when were you planning to tell me?"

"I don't know, I was waiting for the right moment. After your presentation seemed like a good time. And I needed to re-read it like a million times before sharing it with you. It's taken me so long that some parts have lost their meaning somehow."

"Oh, I'm not talking about your novel, which I read a couple weeks ago, anyway, and who makes me really, really jealous of your talent."

"Then what the hell are you talking about?" Rory beamed. "Oh, no, you didn't that one. Man, it was really well hidden! How the fuck did you find it? Lorelai told you, didn't she?"

"Yes, but don't be angry! She only wanted to make sure that I liked it so in case I didn't she could tell you to exchange it for another one with a weird false pretense. I'm going to be wearing it forever, after all."

"You are?"

Rory nodded. "Imagine I hadn't seen it and then, when you gave it to me, I didn't like it. It would have been really awkward. You could have thought that I was saying no when I was just saying no to the poor ugly trinket."

"The worst thing is that your and your mom's crazy logic is making sense to me. Plus, you saved me a really uncomfortable proposal, so thanks."

"Wait, no proposal?"

"Nah, I think you can go get the ring now, you know where it is, and you said you would be wearing it already."

"Jess! That's not fair!"

"Hey! You saved yourself from an ugly ring and I saved myself from an uncomfortable moment, it's a win-win. Plus, if you think about how embarrassed I would have been, isn't it nice that you chose to do this for me? Because you love me?"

"But you had something planned, didn't you?"

"I was still weighing a couple options, but yeah."

"I'll tell you what: I'll do anything you want if you propose."

"Anything?"

"Wait, I get a veto."

"Just one?"

"Yeah, but don't play dirty and save what you really want me to do for when I've vetoed your first idea."

"I'll tell you what: if you get no vetoes, I'll propose in the two ways I had imagined."

"Really? You would do that for me?"

"Remember: you will be doing something for me, too."

Rory extended her hand and Jess shook it. "Deal! So, what do you want?"

"Oh, I need to think about it. I mean… anything. You are so in trouble."

"Jess! It's not fair, it could take you ages to come up with what."

Jess pulled Rory to him by the waist and smirked. "Honestly, Rory: you know you're everything to me already, and we have created the most beautiful family a guy with my background could dream of. Who needs to put a ring on it?"

THE END

A/N: here it is, at last! It makes me really happy to label this as complete, and to have mapped out what would have been the perfect revival ending for me. I hope you enjoyed it.

Again, thanks everyone for the lovely and detailed reviews – they've given me strength along the way to keep on with the story, so this is all for you. And if it's something you would be interested in, I could think of a couple lighter one-shots that could fit in between the end and the epilogue – there so many things that I would love to re-visit!

May you encounter great loves in life and fiction,

I.