Disclaimer: These characters are so not mine. This particular scenario is though.

AN: When I sat down to write the last chapter, it ended up being ten pages long, so I broke it into two parts. Here's more!

Be Mine?

After buying the dress, driving back to Star's Hollow, and safely storing Lorelai's dress in Rory's closet – Luke wouldn't dare go in there – Rory and Lorelai headed to Luke's for lunch.

As they settled into one of their usual tables, Luke arrived with two mugs and a pot of fresh coffee.

"Oooo! Fresh coffee, I can smell it! And we didn't even have to argue over it. He likes me, he really likes me."

Lorelai batted her eyelashes for good measure while Luke sighed heavily.

"It's just that I know you and Rory were going to look at some dress, and the last three times you came back from wedding dress shopping, you were disappointed and begged for coffee right away. I figured I'd play it safe and have the coffee ready for you."

"Aww, how sweet. Look, hunny, I think I found a keeper."

"Yeah, well…this time you look happy. I assume it went well?"

"It sure did, Luke," Rory supplied excitedly. "The dress is perfect, and she looks amazing!"

Lorelai shot Rory a look and warned, "Shhhh…no more info for him. I got a dress. That's it. He can find out more on the wedding day."

Luke rolled his eyes, but leaned down to whisper quietly in Lorelai's ear.

Rory couldn't quite hear what Luke said to her mom, but she could tell it was something mushy by the sparkle in her mother's eyes. Rory loved that Luke had a sentimental side that he kept hidden from most of the world. It made him hard to get close to, but it was worth it once you got there. Once again, Rory's train of thought brought her back to Jess. If ever there was someone who put up walls to hide his emotions behind, Jess was that person. The past few days though…she could feel him literally taking his walls down, brick by brick, to let her in. It made her feel special that he would take the time to open up to her, especially since through their conversations she had started to realize exactly how thick those walls of his were.

Rory's phone rang and she smiled as Luke put on his serious face and pointed to the door.

"I'm going, I'm going," she assured Luke as she pulled out her phone to check the caller ID.

"Actually, Luke…could I?" Rory asked as she pointed to the stairs which led up to the apartment.

Luke seemed surprised at her request, but nodded anyway. Rory dashed up the stairs so she would be out of earshot by the time she answered. She pressed "answer" and started out with a slightly breathless, "Hello".

Rory didn't want to invade Luke's apartment, even if he didn't spend much time there anymore, so she sat down and leaned against the wall in the hallway at the top of the stairs.

"Hi Rory, did I catch you at a bad time?"

"No, Jess, I'm glad you called. I was in the diner, and, well, you know Luke."

"Well, that explains it."

"So…"

Rory fiddled nervously with a small piece of her hair that had come down out of her ponytail, waiting for Jess to talk.

"So…actually, there is a reason I called."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, I wanted to double check the dates of your spring break. I can take two weeks off at work and since I'm coming back for the wedding, I thought maybe I'd stick around for a while after. I'm sure Luke will need help at the diner while he's gone, but even if he doesn't…I figured maybe…if you're off, and I'm off, we could spend some time together."

Rory's stomach balled up in a knot at the thought of spending time with Jess. Alone time with Jess. Where they could talk or…well, just be together, by themselves.

"Oh. That would be…really nice. Have you asked Luke if he needed help?"

"No, but I thought I'd offer. I'll mention it next time I talk to him."

Rory paused to smile at the thought of Jess voluntarily offering to help Luke out. She placed this bit of info on the mental list she had of proof he had changed from his hooligan ways.

"Um, my last midterm is on Wednesday, March 1st, and classes start again on March 20th. The way my classes fall I get a pretty long break. Of course the wedding is on the 11th, so anything before then will probably be filled by helping my mom out with any last-minute details. And I still have my job at the Stamford paper, which I don't really get time off from, but I'll be home otherwise."

"Good to hear. The week before the wedding is going to be crazy for me at work, but they're expecting a bit of a lull after that, so they were okay with me taking off for a while. Besides, I'm going to take the opportunity to check in at a few of the bookstores which agreed to carry my book, so I figured that technically, I'm not completely abandoning work for two weeks."

"It's nice that your job is that flexible."

"Well, it's not always that way, but this is a special occasion, and the guys understood."

"So, you'll be back in town when?"

"I have a few things to take care of right after I get done with work, but I figure I'll be in Stars Hollow by the 6th, and stay until Luke and Lorelai get back from their honeymoon on the 19th."

"Rory!" Rory looked up when she heard her name being called up the stairs.

"Yes, Luke?"

"Your food is ready. Your mom ordered for you. I just wanted you to know."

"Thanks!" Rory shouted down the stairs.

"Sorry about that," she apologized to Jess.

"No, it's okay. Hey listen before you go…"

Rory waited for Jess to continue, though it took quite a few seconds.

"What are you doing for Valentine's Day?"

"Why?" Rory asked perplexedly.

"No reason, really. I want to know if there are any other guys out there trying to woo you or something. Just…I feel bad that I'm here in Philadelphia, and I won't be there…with you."

Rory sighed at being reminded of Valentine's Day again.

"Well, there's a town dance, which I actually don't want to go to, especially not alone. I'm kind of jaded about Valentine's Day right now, anyway. You know, the whole holiday created by the greeting card companies thing and all that. I have classes all day and won't finish until after five. I think I'm just going to stay home and do some work. I have an article due Friday, so I might as well work on it then so I'm not finishing it last minute."

"Oh. Alright then…just…Ror?"

"Yes?"

"You know I want you to be my Valentine, right?"

Rory couldn't suppress the smile spreading across her face at that moment.

"Aww, look at you. Going soft, already? Two years ago I would've had to bribe you with a book and a kiss to get you to do anything Valentine's related," Rory teased gently.

Jess answered more seriously than she expected. "I'm not the man I was two years ago, Ror."

Taking a deep breath and swallowing her heart, which had found its way to her throat, Rory answered, "No, you're not. I'm seeing that more and more."

The two sat in a comfortable silence for a few moments, contemplating their situation.

"Well, I should go eat my food before it gets cold. Goodbye, Jess."

"Goodbye, Rory. I'll talk to you later."

Rory headed downstairs to find a burger, fries, and a fresh cup of coffee at her seat.

"Aww, what a good provider you found us, mom."

"I know I did," Lorelai smirked while casting a surreptitious glance at the man in question.

Luke was in the middle of a conversation with Lane, who had arrived for her shift while Rory was upstairs.

"No, Luke. I'm not doing it," she stated exasperatedly.

"C'mon Lane, it's not that hard. You just need to go over what we used during the week and then place the orders on things we need so we don't run out."

"No, Luke. I'm sorry, but it's not happening."

"C'mon Lane, I'll be gone for a whole week after the wedding, and I can't go that long without ordering."

"Make Caesar do it."

"No way, the last time I let him to the ordering, we ended up with 300 jars of pickles, 20 packages of pumpernickel bread, and nothing else."

"Luke, I'm sorry, but I do music. I can play music, write music, list every band to hit #1 on the charts for the last twenty years, but I will mess this up. Maybe not as bas as Caesar, but bad enough were you do not want me in charge of it."

Luke growled in frustration and sent Lane back to serving the customers, while he wiped the counter to soothe his nerves.

Rory looked over at Luke.

"Hey Luke, did Jess ever do the ordering when he was here?"

Luke looked at her questioningly. He was confused as to why she was bringing up Jess, seemingly out of nowhere.

"Yeah, he did it a few times, why?"

"Why not ask him to do it?"

"Well, he'd kinda have to be here to do it, Rory."

"Well, yeah, but he said that he's going to stick around for the week after the wedding. He said he figured you would probably need the help here at the diner, so I'm sure doing the ordering would go as part of that."

Luke just stared at her for a moment before answering.

"When did you talk to Jess?"

Rory lowered her eyes sheepishly from Luke's questioning gaze.

"He, uh…actually, that was him on the phone earlier. We've been talking a bit…the past couple days."

"Oh. He's not being a jerk or anything is he? Cause I'll kick his butt when he gets here if he is..."

"No, no. He's been…really nice."

"Oh. Well. Huh."

"Yeah."

"Thanks for telling me…you know, about him offering to help out."

"No problem."

Luke went back to wiping the counter, this time shaking his head in disbelief. Rory went back to eating her food but was still a little embarrassed about Luke finding out her and Jess that way. It didn't help when she caught the smirk on her mom's face.

"Mom!"

"What hunny?" Lorelai asked innocently.

"Ignoring you now."

"Go right ahead. You can't ignore my mocking forever!"

"Watch me."

Rory went back to eating her food, again. This time she couldn't help but feel a little giddy inside; Jess wanted to be her Valentine, even if he wouldn't be there with her, she was going to see him at the wedding, and he was going to stick around for a whole week after that. She was happy and nervous, and just generally excited. She didn't know who was looking forward to this wedding more, her or her mother.

AN: Well, those two chapters only took about eight hours to write. Hehe, I'm too much of a perfectionist for my own good. That's it for now, but more will be on its way soon.

Please review, it really does encourage the writing process!