A/N: Time to wrap up Christmas!

(For disclaimer, etc. - see prologue)

Chapter 33

Lorelai had been gone for at least two hours, though Rory had failed to notice. She was oddly hypnotised by her ring for a while, and then actually reading a little of Jess' Hemingway over his shoulder. They were curled up on the couch, quite happy and comfortable, neither really worried about moving or anything, until suddenly the door opened and Lorelai called in to them.

"Hey, kids!" she yelled. "I come bearing gifts!"

"Yay, more presents!" Rory clapped like a little kid, making Jess roll his eyes.

He shoved a page marker in his book and helped Rory up off the couch, but the second they started to turn around, Lorelai protested.

"No, no, no! Backs to me, eyes closed!" she ordered.

Luke wandered out of the kitchen just in time to see the odd display, Rory and Jess in front of the couch, hand in hand with their eyes closed, whilst Lorelai brought their gift in from the porch. This was the very last thing either of them would be expecting, perhaps an even bigger surprise than half the diner. Luke stood back with his arms folded across his chest and a smile on his face as Lorelai got herself into position.

"Okay, and... Merry Christmas!"

It was a close call as to who's eyes were widest when Rory and Jess realised their gift was nothing bought at the store or wrapped in pretty paper. Their gift was a person, the one person who could complete this happy family scene.
"Oh my... Mrs R!" Rory gasped as she threw herself at the sweet old lady.

"Merry Christmas, bella Rory!" she smiled, hugging her tightly. "Look at you, you are glowing. Bella, bella!" she enthused with tears in her eyes.

Rory was bowled over, and honestly, Jess was feeling equally as stunned. The fact that Lorelai even got Mrs Rossini out of New York was incredible. He should've known she could be that thoughtful, for Rory at least, if not for him. It was amazing though, having Mrs R here. She had meant so much to him and to Rory, and now she was here. As Christmas gifts went, it was right up there amongst not just the best Jess had ever received, but the best he had ever heard about anybody ever getting.

"Jess, isn't this incredible?" said Rory with so much glee and the biggest grin on her face.

"Yeah," he nodded absently, feeling stupidly emotional. "This is... I didn't think you'd ever leave NYC without chloroform and duct tape being involved," he told Mrs Rossini.

"You and that smart mouth," she scolded lightly. "Come, give old Maria a hug," she urged him, and without complaint Jess did just that.

Off to the side, Lorelai had moved in close to Luke, curling into his side the moment his arm went around her shoulders.

"You did good," he told her softly, kissing her temple.

"It almost killed me keeping this secret and the diner secret too," she moaned as if finally letting out the pain the situation had held her in for days now. "But it was so worth it," she declared, watching Rory and Jess with Mrs R, all with smiling faces.

"I should get back to the dinner prep," said Luke then, giving Lorelai a final squeeze before slipping away.

Lorelai remained, damp eyes fixed on the scene in the living room still. To herself she whispered; "This is just a great Christmas."

Richard knew he was banned from the house whenever Emily was around or even when he might be caught by the staff, because they would report back to the lady of the house. Still, this was Christmas, Emily was away visiting her sister, and he didn't see why he should spend a chilly day in the pool house if he didn't absolutely have to. Bringing himself in through the French doors, Richard had plans to go down to the cellar and find a particularly nice bottle of brandy he had been saving, as well as pick up a few more of his records from the study whilst he had the chance. He was humming White Christmas absently to himself as he came through to the living room, and walked straight into his estranged wife.

"Richard!" she gasped at the sight of him. "What are you doing here?"

"Emily," he said, clearly startled. "You, er... I believed you had gone to visit your sister. I understood from Lorelai that Hopey was expecting you..."

"She was," Emily admitted, glancing away. "But, I... I found as the time drew nearer to leave that I just couldn't face her. With things as they are... there would be too many questions," she said awkwardly, looking down at where her fingers played idly with the trinkets on the table. "I thought you had gone to spend the Holidays with the Clemenceaus," she noted, looking up sharply then as the realisation of it hit her.

Richard shook his head.

"Claude informed me that the weather in France has been quite the Arctic snap," he explained. "All planes have been grounded in Paris, nothing going in or out for a couple of days now thanks to an unprecedented amount of snow."

"Goodness, I had no idea," his wife replied conversationally, though theirs was far from any regular talk between two regular people.

It was months now since they parted ways, if living one in the house and one in the poolhouse really counted as true estrangement. Most separated couples had a little more distance between them, and though Emily suspected Richard had been seeing other people, and he thought the same of her, neither had really moved on at all. Maybe they were both just waiting for whatever got broken between them to fix itself, though neither was about to admit it. Backing down was not the Gilmore way, even if you did know you were wrong.

"Emily..." said Richard, in a soft tone she hadn't heard in too long.

It unsettled her and immediately she moved away.

"It's a good thing you're here," she said, clearing her throat, picking a wrapped gift out of a drawer. "This is labelled as being for the both of us, from Rory and that Jess she insists she's going to marry," she sighed and rolled her eyes at the same time. "I wasn't going to open it without you present."

Richard looked down at the gift in Emily's hands as she returned to stand before him. There in Rory's neat handwriting the label said 'To Grandma and Grandpa, Merry Christmas, from Rory, Jess, and the bump!' He smiled at what seemed like an adorable sentiment, though he made no comment. It was quite unseemly to speak of an unborn child in such a way, he was sure, but in its own way it was sweet enough.

"Very well," he said then. "I'm here now, you can open our gift."

Emily nodded once and started to carefully pull the paper off the present. She had felt through the wrappings what seemed to be a photo frame, though she couldn't quite figure out what it might be surrounding. She gasped when she saw the family tree display inside of the frame, and all it's perfectly placed photographs. Richard moved in close beside her to better see the pictures. The family tree had Rory and Jess towards the bottom, and the sonogram picture of their unborn child. Above was Lorelai, Christopher, and then a beautiful portrait of Richard and Emily themselves. There was even a picture of Trix in there. It was the most beautiful and thoughtful gift their granddaughter could have given to them. Emily's eyes quickly filled up with tears, and a sob escaped her lips unchecked.

"Oh, Richard," she declared tearfully, and he took the frame from her hands for fear she might drop it. "By next Christmas we're going to be great-grandparents."

Richard took a long look at the pictures and then carefully placed the frame on the table. On automatic, he reached for his handkerchief, offering it to Emily so she could wipe her eyes. She was really crying, so moved by the gift it seemed. Despite the situation they were in right now, their separated status be damned, it was just instinct for a man to pull his wife into a hug when she was in such distress. Emily didn't argue, though he wondered if she might at first. She just curled into his chest as she always had before and allowed him to hold her as she cried.

They stood there in the living room, arms around each other for at least five, maybe ten minutes, before Emily was calm again and her brain caught up to her body. This wasn't correct at all, not the proper thing to do. To be in Richard's arms when they were separated, it was all wrong, and yet it did feel so good to be back in the one place she always knew she belonged.

It seemed to be in the very same moment that both Emily and Richard realised this was probably not the right thing to be doing. Slowly, they parted from their hug and met each others eyes, trying to recall why this wasn't the way things were supposed to be. They had been married almost forty years, stood by one another through so many tough times, through their daughter's teenage pregnancy, through Richard's job worries, through everything, just as people who make marriage vows should. Now it was all falling apart, and as they stood here in this moment, neither was entirely sure they remembered why that was.

"What are we doing, Emily?" asked Richard.

"I cried and you comforted me," she explained simply. "That's all, isn't it?"

"I didn't mean what are we doing in this precise moment," he rolled his eyes at her. "I mean... I mean, living as we are, parted from one another. To what end?" he asked in earnest. "All these years together, all that we have faced, I know we don't have a perfect marriage, but surely no two people have."

Emily shook her head and stepped out of his arms.

"I'm not the one seeing other people," she said coldly, sniffling a little, folding her arms across her chest as she looked away.

"Who am I seeing?" he asked, arms open wide. "Who are the women that you accuse me of taking out on the town, Emily? I can assure you, that between the club and my barbershop quartet, I would have little time for such activities even if I wanted to indulge in them, and I most certainly do not!" he said definitely.

Emily looked up then, met his eyes once more and knew he spoke the truth. It made her feel strangely guilty, and yet mostly, she was just overwhelmingly relieved. A smile came to her lips unbidden as she made her own confession.

"I... I went on one date," she told him. "I hated every minute of it" she frowned then. "As charming as the man was, I'm afraid he could never really mean anything to me. Richard, he simply wasn't... he wasn't you," she said, feeling awfully silly admitting it, but it was the truth and nothing else would do somehow. "I've missed you terribly," she told him openly, watching both surprise and joy show on his face as he took in her words.

"I have missed you too, Emily. A great deal," he assured her, moving in close again, taking her in his arms - she didn't try to stop him. "It can't be too late, can it? Surely, we can work all of this out? I mean, do you even remember what we were fighting about in the first place?" he asked her.

The frown returned to Emily's face.

"Yes, I do," she said definitely, though she soon let her smile return as she looked up into the face of the only man she ever truly loved. "But perhaps we can talk it all through later, tomorrow or something," she waved one hand in a dismissive gesture then reached up to take his face in her hands. "Perhaps just for today, we can enjoy a merry Christmas?" she suggested.

"Well, Emily, I think that is the best idea I have heard in a very long time," he agreed, leaning into her touch, happily kissing her lips.

Though he had only been living a hundred yards from the house this whole time, in that moment Richard felt it had been an exhaustingly long journey and now finally he had come home.

"You are an excellent cook, Luke," Mrs Rossini complimented him as the family group sat around the dinner table. "Delicious, truly belissima."

"Well, thank you, Mrs Rossini," he nodded politely. "That's very kind of you. It wasn't that much really."

"Oh, don't say that, honey," Lorelai told him, patting his arm. "You know you make the best food in town. Why do you think I've stuck to you this long?" she winked.

That got a hearty laugh out of everybody, since it was clear to anyone with eyes, nevermind good sense, that Lorelai and Luke were as in love as anybody could be. Rory swallowed her next mouthful and smiled.

"Y'know Mrs R is an amazing cook too," she told them. "No disrespect to yours, Luke, because you know how much I love it, but Mrs R's lasagne is just to die for!"

"I would have brought some if I knew you liked it so very much, Rory," said Mrs Rossini with a smile. "Or if I knew I was coming before the very last minute!"

"How did this happen anyway?" asked Jess the, intrigued by the whole situation. "I mean, you two never met before," he said, gesturing between Mrs R and Lorelai with his fork.

"Ah, but I had her address from all those letters you guys send back and forth," explained Lorelai with a grin. "And you both kept on saying how much you would love to see Mrs R, and I was coming up blank on the right Christmas gift for you guys, so I just drove on over to the Big Apple, knocked on the door, and kidnapped you an old lady!"

"Lorelai!"

"Mom"

Luke and Rory admonished her in unison for the description she used, but Mrs R just laughed heartily.

"What did she say that is not true?" she asked. "You do not get to my age and still believe you are young. Anyway, I think it was a beautiful idea to bring me here for Christmas. As much a gift for me as for anybody," she said with a wide smile as she put her cutlery down on her near-empty plate and picked up Lorelai's story from her own side. "You know when this rapping came on my door, I was wary. You know the neighbourhood, Jess, it is not all it could be," she said with a look. "I check through my spy hole and I swear I see Rory, so I open the door without question. I was surprised to see somebody else, but immediately I guess, this must be the famous Lorelai."

"I'm famous," the woman in question told Luke with a grin - he rolled his eyes.

"Then she offered me the chance to come here and spend Christmas with your beautiful familia." Mrs R went on. "How could I refuse such an offer? And I stay at the most wonderful inn, all hospitality and such good food. The lady chef, she is a wonder!"

"Sookie is the best," Rory agreed with a nod, before looking to her mother and adding; "We really know a lot of great cooks."

"Which is a good thing," Lorelai nodded. "Given that we almost burnt down the house trying to boil water that one time."

Another wave of laughter passed around the table, even though that comment hadn't exactly been a joke. They were just a very happy group of people on a perfectly nice Christmas day.

Though Rory and Jess had been keeping Mrs Rossini up to date with all that had been happening with the baby, apartment hunting, and the like, it was nice to have her physically with them, to see how Rory was in a real sense, to meet Lorelai and Luke. She felt like a part of the family after barely ten minutes of them all being in the same house together, and in a lot of ways that was exactly what she was. Rory couldn't help but think of Mrs R in the same way her own mom thought of Mia. Mrs Rossini had stepped in when Rory was in crisis and her mother wasn't there to help, much as Mia had been Emily's substitute when Lorelai first had Rory. In the end the rift had been healed, Rory came home and Lorelai was right back to being there for her, but that didn't make Mrs R obsolete. She had taken care of both Jess and Rory when they needed it most, and that mattered a lot.

"It's so great to have you here, Mrs R," Rory told her as Luke and Jess got up to clear the plates from the table. "How long are you staying?"

"I do not know for certain," she confessed. "Your mother brought me here for Christmas day, so I suppose tomorrow..."

"Oh, no, don't leave tomorrow!" Lorelai complained, then off Mrs R's surprised look she added; "I mean, you can, if you really want to. We're certainly not keeping you captive or anything, but you are welcome to stay for just as long as you want, Mrs R. That room at the inn? Totally yours for as long as you want it."

"Oh, thank you, bella, but you need paying guests, and I cannot..."

"Guests, schmests!" Lorelai waved away her concerns. "It's one tiny single room, and like I told you already, I'm covering it, no charge," she promised her. "We want you to stay, for Christmas, for New Year's, until next Christmas if you want."

Mrs R reached out to take Lorelai's hand in both of hers.

"Bless you, sweet girl," she said with a smile and grateful tears in her eyes. "I see where Rory gets not only her beauty but her kind nature too."

Rory felt her own eyes welling with tears at the sweet exchange. It was so great to be here with her mom, Luke, and Mrs R as well. She and Jess were just so lucky and so blessed. There was no denying that life had sure taken some serious twists and turns over the past few months, but they were adjusting, things were good. They were different, but they were very, very good.

To Be Continued...