"Will you hurry up?" Rory asked Jess, who was taking his sweet time getting the pop-tarts and coffee.
"Daddy, Pippy is starting!" Valentina ran into the kitchen of her grandmother's home. Lorelai had an early morning emergency at the inn, so she couldn't be here to watch the movie marathon. Jess accepted the invitation of celebrating Valentina's birthday with her and Rory, and Valentina loved the idea as she was really starting to get close to Jess.
As Valentina walked into the kitchen, she gasped. The whole kitchen was filled with pink and purple balloons and presents covering the kitchen table.
"Daddy! The birthday fairy came!" She jumped up and down, and hugged Jess' leg.
"Mommy come here!" Rory paused the movie and ran over to the kitchen, thinking that something was wrong. She had the same expression on her face that her daughter did when she walked in. Valentina was already sitting at the table, tearing open the wrapped presents.
"What did you do?" Rory half whispered to Jess as she kicked a balloon away so she could stand correctly.
"What? I couldn't spoil my daughter on her birthday? And do not worry, a lot of them are books. Good books. Books that she will understand." He smiled at Rory.
Valentina proudly held up her own black leather jacket, to match her daddy's. Jess laughed. "I never said that all of them are books. Plus, come on, our kid needs their own leather jacket." Valentina kissed Jess' cheek and then went back to ripping open presents. Most of the presents were books. A lot of and Disney Princess stories, but still books. Jess had also put out the gifts that Rory had gotten her, so it didn't seem like he was the better parent.
"You're impossible, Mariano, you know that." Rory shook her head.
Before Jess could make a snarky comment back, Valentina opened her last present.
"This. Is. Amazing!" Valentina smiled, holding up the complete Curious George set.
"I think the birthday fairy knew exactly what you wanted this year." Rory smirked at Jess.
He winked. "Come on princess, let's go watch Pippy." He said, placing a princess crown that Rory had gotten her on her head and leading her inside, into the living room.
Valentina sat on the couch, in the middle of both of her parents. The movie started, and Rory and Valentina start half-screaming, half-singing the words to the song that was playing.
"So I'm guessing you watch this movie-" Before Jess could finish his sentence. Valentina put her finger over her mouth and shh'ed him. "There's no talking during Pippy, Daddy." she said, with a serious tone of voice. She could be a very serious girl when she needed to be, but knew when to let her guard down, just like her mom.
The next two hours and forty minutes were dreadful for Jess. The only thing that was keeping him from falling asleep was when either Rory, or Valentina, or sometimes both, would scream out quotes that they knew from the movie as the actor or actress was saying them.
As the DVD ended, Valentina ran inside to grab her Curious George collection. "I wanna read now mommy." She sat back down her in her spot, between Rory and Jess and pulled out the first book. For the next hour, it was all about Curious George. All of the collection was read, Valentina was a fast reader, just like Jess.
"Mommy, I'm hungry." Valentina said as she closed her last book.
"Okay, do you want your leftover Chinese food or do you want to go see Papa?"
"I wanna go to Papa's!" She smiled and ran to get her sandals on.
Jess gave Rory the 'I don't want to see my Uncle Luke' face. "Come on Ror, why can't we stay here? I'll let you sing all the Pippy you want." Jess pleaded.
"Jess, she wants to go to Luke's. If you really do not want to go, then stay here or leave. Besides, it's tradition." She sighed as she went to grab her pocketbook from the kitchen.
"Daddy, are you ready?" Valentina smiled as she went over to hold Jess' hand.
"Yes. I'm ready." He sighed as he looked at Rory, as if she say, 'You owe me one'.
They walked down the street and around the corner to Luke's, as Valentina pointed everything along the way out for Jess, as if anything had changed since he was last there. Everyone on the street wished Valentina, she had definitely taken over her mom's job as town princess when she was born. Together the three of them walked into Luke's, where a table was set up with balloons, like Luke did for Rory on her birthday.
"Oh honey look, go say thank you to Papa." Rory smiled as Valentina ran over to Luke and hugged him, even though he was in the middle of serving a table.
Rory and Jess sat down at the table, waiting for Valentina. Jess picked up a menu, as if he didn't already know what his uncle served. Valentina came back and sat in between the two.
"Mommy, I ordered your coffee, and pancakes for me." Rory smiled and nodded, proud of how outspoken her daughter was.
"What looks good Jess?" Rory said, after a few minutes of Jess scanning the menu.
"You." he said simply. "Even though I think a burger might look a little better." He smirked and yelled across the diner to let Luke know that he wanted a burger.
"Daddy. You just don't yell like that." Valentina sighed, a little disappointed.
"Sorry princess." He said as Luke came over with the pancakes and coffee and the burger.
"I'm sorry Papa. I told Daddy not to yell." Valentina looked up at Luke.
"It's okay. But thank you, I'm glad someone is finally putting him in his place." Luke filled Rory's coffee and then left.
"Is there anything left to do today?" Jess asked, before he took a huge bite of his burger.
"We have birthday cake later, on the bridge by the lake and watch the sunset. We celebrated with my mom and Luke last night. We always celebrate with them the night before, so for her actual birthday, it would just be me and her, and for this year, you." She said. "You can leave if you need to though. I don't think she would mind if you gave her a good reason." Now, Valentina was sitting on the counter, wanting a danish because Rory told her that it was danish day when it wasn't, just to bug Luke.
"Come on Papa! I wanna a danish!" Valentina said loudly, but not loud enough to break her own rule of no yelling in the diner.
"I don't have any. Tell your mom to stop playing this little game of hers." Rory chuckled.
"Are you ready to go have some cake?" Rory came up to the counter, to prevent her from bothering Luke anymore.
Valentina jumped down and ran over to Jess, who was done with his burger and fries.
"Let's go daddy!" She nearly pulled her parents out of the diner because she was so excited to have her cake. Sookie made a special cake for Valentina, with all of her favorite characters from books that she loved.
They quickly stopped back at home to get the cake and forks to eat the cake with, then walked over to the lake.
"Daddy, look, it's a swan!" Valentina shrieked and waved at the swan.
"I hate swans." Jess said, with a hint of anger in his voice.
Jess followed Rory and Valentina onto the bridge and sat down. Rory lit the number 4 candle that was on the cake already and her and Jess sang happy birthday to their daughter.
"Now, you just take a fork and break into the cake. There's no time for cutting, and I hate working for my food. It's just a waste of time." Rory gave Jess a fork. Valentina's mouth was already covered in pink icing and little cake particles.
The sun was already setting and there was a soft summer breeze in the air. After devouring as much cake as she could handle, Valentina fell asleep on Rory's lap.
"Ror?" Jess asked, after he put his arm around her.
"What's up?" she said, with a quiet tone of voice so she wouldn't wake Valentina.
"Are we a thing? You and me? Would you say that we are a family now?" He asked. He so badly wanted to be with Rory and Valentina forever, as cliche as it sounded.
"I think so. There's still a lot more to be done, but I think that we're doing this parenting thing great. Valentina loves you, a lot. She normally doesn't warm up to people as fast as she did to you."
Jess smiled and pecked Rory's lips. "This was an amazing day, as stupid as Pippy Longstocing was."
Rory shook her head. "That's a classic you're talking about like that, but I think it was a great day as well." She smiled and kissed him once more.
The new small family sat there until it got pitch-back out, the way that it was always meant to be.
I know, I know. This chapter wasn't the greatest. I couldn't think of much to write about for her birthday. I promise you though that the next few chapters will be better. Keep reviewing and following, it means a lot :)
