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Chapter 10

Lorelai was standing behind the reception desk at the inn sorting out some paperwork. For the past week she had kept to her promise and wasn't working as hard. Sookie was happy to cover for her and even Michel wasn't grumbling as much. Luke had been making sure she'd been having proper meals and she was feeling much better. The phone rang at the desk.

"Hello, Independence Inn, Lorelai speaking." She answered.

"Lorelai, it's your mother." Emily said.

"Oh hi mom." Lorelai forced a cheerful voice on. She hadn't told her parents about her pregnancy yet.

"Have you seen the weather forecast?" Emily asked.

"Uh no mom, I've been at the inn." Lorelai said.

"Well there's a huge blizzard on its way." Emily said. "I'm getting Rory and Jess collected from Chilton and driven straight here."

"Both of them?" Lorelai asked surprised.

"What do you mean?" Emily asked.

"Nothing." Lorelai sighed. "Thank mom."

"So when are you, Luke and Alice getting here?" She asked.

"Well geez mom, I don't know how we would get there." Lorelai said.

"You're not coming." Emily said shortly.

"Well if the weather's as bad as you say I don't know how we will get there." She said.

"Fine. Well I don't know how they would get back home then so maybe they should stay the night." She said.

"Ok."

Lorelai heard the sound of a door opening and closing. "Oh they're here." Emily said.

"Put them on the phone." Lorelai said.

"Rory, it's your mom." Emily said handing her the phone.

"Hey mom!" Rory said.

"So the weather's bad huh?"

"Yeh it's really bad here! There was so much ice and it was so slippery." Rory said.

"Aw you fell!" Lorelai grinned.

"Twice." Rory grumbled. "But Jess fell more!" She grinned.

"Hey, I was helping keep you up! I was being a good brother!" Jess exclaimed in the background.

Rory grinned. "So are you coming tonight?"

"Not tonight, sorry." Lorelai said. "Which sort of gets me off the hook for another week."

Rory glanced over at her Grandma who was listening to them. She whispered so that she couldn't hear her. "You'll have them tell them at some point."

Lorelai sighed. "I know but at least I can prepare what to say now."

"Ok, well give Alice and dad a kiss from me." She smiled. She saw Jess holding out his hand. "Wait a moment, your son wants to speak to you."

"Put him on." Lorelai smiled.

"Hey." Jess said.

"Hey, so you fell loads huh?" She joked.

"I was protecting Rory!" He defended himself.

"Aw such a good brother." She teased.

"Yeh yeh whatever." Jess said.

"Ok so we can't make it tonight but be good ok? And don't worry, you'll be home tomorrow." She smiled.

"Yeh ok." Jess said, not really liking the idea of spending the night at the Gilmore Mansion where he knew Emily didn't like him.

"Just stick with Rory. If they make you eat anything healthy, tell me and I'll call the food police." She joked.

"You know you and Rory are the unhealthy eaters in our family. I actually am able to eat vegetables." He smirked.

"Yeh well you take after Luke." She said.

Jess smirked. "I better go." He said seeing Emily watching him intently. "See you tomorrow mom."

"See ya Jess." Lorelai smiled. She heard Rory shout bye from the background and then she hung up.

Later that evening, Jess and Rory were studying on the dining room table where they could hear Emily talking on the phone angrily. They watched as she hung up. "Unbelievable!" She muttered. "Well we're stuck. The cook's not coming."

Richard looked up from his newspaper. "What's that?"

"Richard! The cook isn't coming. What are we going for dinner?" She exclaimed. "This is probably the only good meal they have weekly."

"Rory, Jess, do you feel like you're malnourished in any way? Would you like us to set up a charity for you?" He asked.

"We're good." Rory said looking over at Jess who was smirking.

"They're good, Emily." Richard said.

Emily huffed. "Well we have to eat!"

"Why don't Jess and I have a look in the kitchen, Grandma? I'm sure we could whip something up." She said.

"Whip something up?" Emily asked astounded.

"Yeh Jess is actually quite a good cook." Rory said.

"Wow thanks for the note of surprise." Jess smirked.

Rory grinned. "And Luke's taught me a few things. I'm sure we can make something. We'll go look." She said getting up.

"Well ok..." Emily said doubtfully.

Jess and Rory headed into the kitchen with Emily and Richard following. They opened the fridge and Jee hid his smirk. There was nothing in there except the frozen pizza and the basic things.

"Well there's frozen pizza." Rory said.

"How did that get there?" Emily asked surprised.

Rory took it out.

"What are you doing?" Emily asked.

"We're going to make it." Rory smiled. "It's easy. You just put it in the oven. What are the chances that you'll know where a baking tray is?" She asked.

"I'd say doubtful." Richard said.

Jess smirked.

"It's fine. We'll look around and we'll make something for dessert as well." Rory smiled.

"Well ok." Emily said unconvinced but left with Richard.

"So what are we going to make for dessert?" Jess asked, looking in some of the cupboards and then finding a baking tray and taking it out.

"Well they've got eggs and flour and butter and chocolate. I bet we could make some brownies." She said.

"You know how to make brownies?" Jess raised his eyebrows.

"Luke taught me when we were younger." Rory said, taking the pizza out of the plastic and putting it in the oven. She then got all the ingredients out for brownies. She started measuring out everything. She grinned at Jess. "Did I ever tell you about Luke and I having a flour fight?"

"Luke had a flour fight?" Jess asked surprised.

Rory laughed. "I remember it so well. My mom was going out with Sookie and Mia and she had noone to watch me. This was before her and Luke got together." She said. "He heard us talking about it and he offered to watch me. It took mom some persuading but she finally agreed. The thing was that when she left me with Luke, I was sat at the counter doing some reading and we didn't really know what to do. He then suddenly suggested making some brownies. He let me in the kitchen and everything!" She grinned.

"Wow!" Jess chuckled.

"Anyway, we were making the mixture and suddenly I knocked over the flour and some went on the floor and some over him. I was scared that he would be angry but then suddenly he took a handful and threw it back at me." Rory smiled at the memory. "It relaxed me a bit and then we finished making the brownies and then went up and played monopoly."

Jess chuckled. "God he's such a sap."

Rory playfully hit him. "He was trying to put me at ease. It was nice. He actually took an interest in me."

Jess smiled. "Sounds cool."

"Yeh it was." Rory smiled.

Jess saw the flour lying on the side and suddenly there was a glint in his eye. He picked up a handful.

"Jess, don't you dare! Grandma would freak!" Rory said.

Jess grinned and threw it at her.

"Jess!" Rory laughed. She then threw some back at him.

They then proceeded to have a full on flour fight and at the end they were both covered in flour. They looked around the kitchen which was a mess. "We better clean up." Rory said. "Before Grandma comes back in."

Suddenly the door opened and Richard came in. "Your Grandma wanted me to check to see how everything's going." He said. He then stopped when he saw the state of them and the kitchen. His lips twitched. "I'll tell her that everything's going fine. I can probably hold her back from coming in from checking herself for another 10 minutes. After that, you're on your own." He said.

"Thanks." Rory said hiding a smile.

"You should probably get your clothes clean as well." He said with an amused smile and then left.

Rory and Jess both looked at each other and smirked. "Come on, we better get cleaned up. Grandpa's right. Grandma will be in soon."

Jess nodded and they start cleaning up and wiping the flour off their clothes. By the time they served the pizza and the brownies were in the oven, Emily was the none the wiser. Surprisingly, both Emily and Richard enjoyed the pizza.

At about 9, Jess and Rory headed upstairs. Rory was having her mom's old room while Jess was in the guest room. Jess went with Rory, though, to hang out for a bit.

"This so does not seem like mom." Jess said looking round the room.

Rory nodded, agreeing. "I can't imagine her in here." She said. She went over to the chest of drawers and looked at stuff on top of it. She then opened the drawers and found an album. She pulled it out and opened it. "Hey it's an album of mom!" She smiled taking it over to the bed. They both sat up against the headboard and started looking through it. "Aw that must have been Grandma an Grandpa's wedding day." She smiled.

Jess nodded. He then smirked. "They were right. Mom did have a big head." He joked pointing to a photo of her as a baby dressed in a dress.

Rory smirked. "Don't be mean! She grew into it!" Jess grinned.

They looked through a few more pages when they got to a photo of Lorelai in a pretty white dress. She looked about their age in it. "Wow she's beautiful in this." Rory said in awe.

"Must have been an event or something." Rory said.

"It was her coming out." Emily said from the door.

They both turned their heads to the door and saw her standing there. "Mom had a coming out?" Rory asked.

"No, she didn't." Emily said shortly.

Rory suddenly understood. Coming outs were had when you were 16. "Oh..." She said quietly. Something then fell out of the album from the back. Rory picked it up and saw her mom making faces with a boy. She turned it over and realised who it was when she read what her mom had put. She turned it back over.

"Is that...?" Jess asked.

Rory nodded. "Christopher..." She said. She then tore up the photo into little bits.

"Rory!" Emily exclaimed.

"She wouldn't want it anymore." Rory said.

"He's still your father!" Emily said.

"No he's not. Luke's my dad. That will never change. Why have you suddenly had a change of mind anyway? You helped us with that restraining order!" Rory said angrily.

"Rory, calm down." Jess said gently.

"He's changed. He's proved to us he's changed." Emily said.

Rory just shook her head. "He'll never change." She said angrily. "He thinks he can just waltz back into my life. He can think again. I'm not just going to forgive him for everything!"

Emily was shocked by her outburst.

"Luke is the one who's cared for me! He was there for my birthdays! He was there when I fell off my bike for the first time! He was always there! He's never let me down! Ever! You seem to forget he's the reason mom and I are even alive! He could have died in that car crash!" Rory shouted, feeling tears well up.

"Rory, calm down. It's ok." Jess said. "Come here." He said pulling her to him.

Rory cried into his chest. "Why does he keep doing this? Everywhere I go, there's always a reminder of him. Why can he do this me?"

"It's ok." Jess comforted her. He looked up and saw the shocked look on Emily's face. He hoped she wouldn't make it any worse.

"Rory, I'm sorry." Emily said quietly. "I didn't realise..." She went to leave but stopped at the door and looked back. She watched as Jess comforted Rory and she could see how much they meant to each other. They really were like brother and sister. She went back downstairs and found Richard in the living room.

Richard looked up and saw her worried look. "What's wrong?" He asked concerned.

"I got them all wrong, didn't I?" Emily said quietly. "Jess, Luke, Alice...Because they weren't the family I wanted for Lorelai and Rory, I treated them so badly..."

"Oh Emily..." Richard said softly.

"She ripped up a photo of Lorelai and Christopher." Emily said. "She was looking through that album of Lorelai's and this strip of photos of her and Christopher fell out. Rory started going on about how much Luke had done for them and how he would always be her dad. She was hysterical."

Richard sighed. "Luke is a good man, Emily. He's looked after them all these years. And Jess is a good kid. Him and Rory are so close."

"I know." Emily said quietly. "I just...I wanted so much more for Lorelai. I wanted her to be happy and successful."

"She is." Richard assured her. "She is happy."

Emily sat down next to him and sighed. "I didn't know Christopher had affected Rory so much. I guess I just didn't think. You should have seen her Richard."

"Why don't we just concentrate on getting our family back?" Richard said gently. "Lorelai's finally let us back in. We should use this to get to know them all better."

Emily nodded. "You're right. I never thought this day would come." She admitted.

"Lorelai may not have the life we had hoped she would but she's got a very good life. She's found someone who loves her and she's expanded her family. And look at Rory, look at what a good job she did with her." He said.

"Rory is great." Emily gave him a small smile. She looked at Richard. "Is it just me or does Jess remind you a bit of Lorelai?"

Richard chuckled. "I thought exactly the same when we first met him. He won't take any rubbish and he would do anything for his family, especially Rory."

Emily smiled. "Yeh."

Richard took hold of her hand. "Let's go to bed. It's been a long day."

"Ok." She said and followed him upstairs.

Richard smiled to himself, hoping this was the start of finally having his family back and united.

Sorry not much Luke and Lorelai in this but I promise there will be more of them in the next chapter! :) So what did you think? Please review and let me know! Thanks! :)