Chapter Eight

Author's Note: So sorry for the long wait. A round of bronchitis struck my house and I have been curled up on the couch coughing up my left lung.

Mrs. Kim began pounding on her daughter's apartment door, knowing that boy was in there. The slightly off key guitar gave that much away. She was not going to let him hurt her daughter and then happily play guitar all night. She would break his fingers first.

Bryan was either the first one to hear the banging or he wasn't as lazy as Zach tended to be. So, Bryan was the one to open the door and be the first to face Mrs. Kim's rage.

"Hello Mrs. Kim-"

Though Mrs. Kim wasn't unhappy with Bryan he was just in her way, she as polite to him as she usually was. Zach was the one she was looking to eviscerate. "Where is he?"

Bryan had a fair idea who Mrs. Kim was looking for but he had to ask to make sure. He wasn't going to be the person who lead Mrs. Kim in the wrong direction, the woman gave him nightmares. "You mean Zack?"

"Yes, I mean the tall, slightly stupid one."

Bryan stepped out of the door and pointed toward the band's rehearsal area, where Zach was still playing his guitar, completely clueless to what was going on. Bryan was not about to get in Mrs. Kim's way. He greatly enjoyed having all of his limbs attached to his body unharmed.

Mrs. Kim marched over to stand in front of Zach, point her finger in his face and bellow, "You!"

Having someone scream in his face broke Zach from his semi-Zen musical trance with a jump. "Oh, um, Hi, Mrs. Kim."

Mrs. Kim just glared at him thinking that there was no way this boy could be smart enough to deserve her daughter. "What are you doing to my Lane?"

Zach's mind, while never quite able to move at the speed of light, froze completely when faced with Lane's very angry, very scary mother. "I haven't anything with Lane, honest, Mrs. Kim."

Mrs., Kim narrowed her eyes, enjoying Zach's obvious discomfort, "Then why did she call me crying?"

Lane was crying? Zach racked his brain trying to figure out what he could have done to make Lane cry. "When?"

Mrs., Kim didn't want to just tell this walking monkey what he'd done. "You lie to her! You see other women! Then you want me tell you why she is crying?! You shape up and explain yourself to Lane or I will be here personally everyday to attempt to beat some sense into you. My Lane deserves better!"

After saying that Mrs. Kim slammed out of the apartment. She had nothing to say beyond that to Zach.

Bryan gave Zach a few minutes to digest what just happened. He totally agreed with Mrs. Kim. Lane could do so much better than Zach. He and Bryan got along just fine but Bryan couldn't see Lane with Zach in a forever type of way.

Zach finally unfroze, "Did that seriously just happen?"

Bryan nodded sympathetically, "Yep."

Zach's brain was finally rebooting and adapting to the new information, "I should go find Lane."

Bryan just nodded again. "Yea, before Mrs. Kim comes back for round two."

When Richard returned to his office, after finishing a lunch meeting Monday afternoon, he began looking around Karen's desk for the mail. Richard had been waiting for a certain package, quite impatiently, since he ordered it Saturday morning.

Richard's secretary, Karen, came in from the hall as saw her boss snooping around her desk. She couldn't help but think that she had done something wrong. "Can I help you, Mr. Gilmore?"

Richard jumped at the sound at the sound of Karen's voice. He knew he wasn't doing anything wrong, per say, but he also knew that Emily would not approve of his latest purchase. It was causing a small feeling of guilt about the whole situation. Hence, the package being delivered to his office rather than the house. "Ah, yes Karen. I've been waiting for a package and I was just checking to see if it came with the mail I was out."

After taking a closer look at her boss Karen could see a hint of excitement about him. Like he was a young boy waiting to open a large gift Christmas morning. "I put all the mail on your desk, Mr. Gilmore."

"Was there a small package?"

"Yes, there was, The papers from Aero International and one from some place called Truncheon Books." Karen had almost refused that one but since it was addressed to Mr. Gilmore personally, she decided against it.

Richard's face lit up with a smile, before he almost he almost ran to his office while calling back, "Thank you, Karen."

Richard pushed all his business mail to the side of his desk, before he tore into the small nondescript package.

'The Subsect' by Jess Mariano. Ever since Rory had mentioned Truncheon Books, he had done some research on the small company. Richard has stumbled across this book, and could only assume this particular author and Luke's vagabond nephew were one in the same.

Richard flipped to the first page and his granddaughter's name caught his attention, making him look more closely.

'To Rory Gilmore, Ernest and I will always only have lovely things to say about you.'

Richard was immediately hooked. He swiftly punched the intercom to Karen and said, "Hold all my calls, please."

If this Jess cared about Rory this much than he certainly deserved Richard's full attention.

Lorelai had procrastinated all morning. Dreading making this phone call. The only reasons she could bring herself to do it now was the massive cup of coffee she had in hand and the promise that it would all be worth it in the end.

"Hello." Emily's aggravated voice answered.

"Hi Mom." It was the best greeting Lorelai had come up with that didn't involve calling Emily Satan, or one of his many followers.

'Lorelai?' Emily questioned. The last time they had spoken Emily got the impression that Lorelai was still angry with her and wouldn't be speaking to her in the near future.

Lorelai had to bite back a sarcastic comment about being the only person to call Emily 'Mom" to her knowledge and just sais. "Yes, Mom. It's Lorelai."

'Is everything ok? Is Rory hurt?' That would be the only reason Lorelai would be calling her.

Lorelai knew this wasn't going to be easy. "Yes, Mom. Everything is fine. I was just…."

'You were just, what?'

Lorelai decided to treat this whole thing like she was taking off a band-aid, you just had to rip it off. "I don't want to fight anymore."

Emily was stunned. Lorelai was actually trying to end this disagreement. Maybe, everything Emily had been saying was finally sinking into he daughter's think skull. "Really?"

Lorelai had to just grin and bear it. "Yes, Mom, really. Luke and I were thinking about joining Rory for Friday night dinner to officially smooth things over."

Emily didn't know what to say. Lorelai, the most stubborn person she knew, wanted to come to dinner uncoerced and willingly to 'smooth things over'. 'Really?'

Lorelai sighed and mentally reminded herself that seeing her mother's face when Jess walked in would be the perfect revenge for everything,. "Yes, Mom. Really. Can we please add another word?"

Emily quickly decided this could be even better than she had hoped. Perhaps Lorelai would see her past mistakes and finally wake up. Or even if that failed to happen, Rory would be able to see how she clearly was better than the path her mother had chosen to take. 'Fine. We'll see you and Luke at 6:30.'

Lorelai could hear the triumph in her mother's voice. It reminded her why this was a necessary action. "We will be there."

Jess knocked on Rory's door Friday night to pick her up for dinner. They hadn't seen each other since they left Stars Hollow Sunday afternoon. Jess had been busy supervising the remodel of his store. Rory had been swamped with studying, school work and articles for the Daily news. But the two had talked every chance they could. Rory had even emailed him several papers for her classes to edit and critique. That had given Jess a moment of shock. He, the high school drop out, was be being trusted to edit Yale level papers.

Paris opened the door and looked Jess over. She was still trying to decided where she stood with Jess moving back. He had taken care of her after the drunken screaming binge. But that still didn't make her fully trust him again. "You clean up nicely, slacker."

Jess had actually put a little effort into getting ready for this evening. Just his presence was needed to set Emily off, and he wanted to show Rory and Lorelai that he had done some growing up. His clothing choice were simple black slacks and a button sown shirt that he'd found in Philly. He bought it simply because it was the closest match to the color of Rory's eyes that he'd seen. "Aw shucks, I thought I was ready for my photo shoot with GQ, too."

Paris almost had to give it to him. Jess did look damn good, but she would never tell him that. "Don't push your luck. Rory's in her room getting ready. And I'm going out with Doyle."

Jess wasn't overly interested in but after being berated simply for having the same sexual organs as Doyle he figured 'what the hell', "So he called, huh?"

Paris smiled at the memory of coming home to find a sick Doyle in her bed. It had given them a chance to talk and settle things. "He was here when I got back from Rory's."

"Brave man." Jess joked. Anyone willing to ambush a hung-over Paris and live to tell about it had to be brave.

"He decided to commit." Paris told Jess, trying to replace some of the horrible thing she vaguely remembered saying about Doyle to Jess.

"Brave man." Jess felt the comment worked well for that information, too.

Paris realized to ensure Jess never telling Doyle about her comments she would have to be more direct. "Could we keep what I said when I was drunk to ourselves?"

Jess pretended to consider it, just to watch Paris squirm. Bugging her was always fun. "On one condition."

"What's that?"

"I want a written apology for all the things you said to me while you were punch drunk." Jess was mostly joking. He had no plan to ever bring up that evening in front of anyone, let alone another guy.

"No way!" Paris scoffed

"Well then, don't blame me if my tongue just happens to slip in front of the oompaloompa sized trogl-"

"Fine! I'll do it. Deal?" Paris stuck her hand out. Somehow she knew that she could trust Jess in this instance at least.

"Deal." Jess shook Paris' hand jovially. They really were making some progress toward a friendship.

Rory came out just as the deal was struck. And instantly glad Paris and Jess seemed to be making friends again. They always had the best debates about literature, listening to both sides was always fascinating. "Finally playing nice, you two?"

Jess looked up at Rory and felt his heart lurch. She was utterly enthralling wearing a deep blue knee length dress. It was modestly cut but hugged her small frame in an elegant way. He found himself speechless, unable to form any thoughts. The only thing he could manage to get out was, "Wow."

Rory blushed and smoothed an invisible wrinkle from the fabric of her dress. "I'll take that as a compliment."

"You should." Jess said quietly.

Standing between the couple was becoming very uncomfortable for Paris Even though she knew she was there, Rory and Jess seemed to have forgotten. "You two take the love fest some where else. It's truly sickening."

Paris' voice snapped them out of their almost trance. Rory decided they needed to leave now if she was going to stop herself from jumping Jess on the spot. "She's right. We should go if we're going to be on time."

Jess nodded, still finding words difficult. Lorelai wouldn't be happy if they left her to deal with all this alone. "Yea, we wouldn't want to be late."

When they closed the door behind them as they left, Jess turned Rory to him and hissed her with all the passion he felt. He may not be good at verbalizing he effect on him but he was going to do his best to show it.

Rory reluctantly pulled away after a few minutes of deep kissing. "We should…."

"Go." Jess finished for her.

He took her hand and began walking towards the parking lot.

Lorelai was waiting for this generation's 'Helen and Paris' I the driveway of her parents house. She wasn't about to start the war of a thousand ships without them. Just as she was beginning to think they decided to turn tail and run Jess' car pulled up behind hers.

"Finally! I thought you two has run off to join the circus instead of going through with this."

Rory hugged her mom with a laugh. She always did have a flare for the dramatic.

"I would never abandon you, Mommy!"

Jess chuckled beside the two. "I briefly considered the idea, but clowns freak me out, so here I am."

The group seemed to preparing themselves for the coming explosion. They may the ones igniting it but they had no idea how big it would actually be. Lorelai was the first to ask, "You ready for this?"

Rory squared her shoulders and nodded.

Jess sighed, "Ready as I'll ever be."

Inside the parlor Emily was trying her best to maintain a steady stream of small talk with Shira and Logan. Mitchum had been delayed at the officee and Richard was finishing up something's in his office.

"Well, Logan, How are things on the paper? Don't you and Rory both do some work for the Daily News?"

Logan was anxious for Rory to arrive. He could only handle so much small talk with his mother. But he knew that he needed to make a good impression with Emily. "The paper is doing great. Ace really brightens the place up."

Emily was confused for a moment, "Ace?"

Logan hadn't realized he used his nickname for Rory. "Yea, that's what I call Rory. Because she's the paper's Ace reporter."

"Oh how lovely! You have a pet name for her. Are you two close then?" Shire asked, chiming in.

"Close enough. She is a special girl." Logan told his mother. He wanted both his parents to be nice to Rory.

"I couldn't agree more, Logan." Emily knew she had seen the connection between the two at her wedding. And she was pleased that it extended to Yale. Hopefully it would continue to strengthen.

Shira smiled, "Then I am even more excited to meet her."

Emily checked her watch. It was 6:30 on the nose. Everyone should be arriving soon. Rory was usually very punctual but Lorelai couldn't be here on time to save her own life. "Well she should be here soon. What time did you say Mitchum would be joining us, Shira?"

Shia winced inwardly, Mitchum always got so wrapped up in work he forgot about his other responsibilities. Tonight his assistant had promised to have him out at seven. "He should be here around 7:15. I do apologize for his lateness, Emily."

"Nonsense, Shira. We both know how men can be when it comes to work. They forget everything else outside the office exists." Even if Emily was slightly annoyed that the "reason" for this dinner was absent so far, she had to make the best of it. "Logan, you'll do your best to remember your family when your married, hmm?"

Logan laughed uncomfortably. Married? He was barely okay with the idea of being with Rory exclusively. And by that he meant that he knew he would make several mistakes he would just have to do his best to hide them from Rory. "I'll do my best, Emily."

Emily smiled picturing his children with Rory. His blonde hair, her blue eyes. They would be simply gorgeous. "Well, as I said, Rory should be here very soon."

Emily's announcement was followed by the sound of the door bell chiming. Emily went to greet the new arrivals as the maid took their coats.

When she saw the group, Emily froze.

Lorelai saw the shock on her mother's face when she recognized Jess. Lorelai's abdominal muscles began to stretch from holding back a torrent of laughter. You could almost see the bitter anger pooling in Emily's eyes.

Emily wanted to scream and yell but with Shira's presence in the next room that option became eliminated. Instead when was limited to asking, "What is he doing here?"

Rory turned and responded with ice dripping from each word. "He has a name, Grandma."

Jess decided to try and calm the situation down. It was a little early for yelling. Jess at least wanted a drink in his hand before that part of the evening commenced. "Hello Mrs. Gilmore. Luke caught the flu, so he sent me in his place."

Emily stared at Jess with unhidden loathing. Not only was this boy back but he was now here, ruining her dinner. How could Rory even think that bringing him would be in any way acceptable? "I see."

Emily had to try to remain a good hostess to the Huntzburgers while secretly wanting to slap her daughter, that disgusting boy and even, in this moment, Rory. So she marched back into the living room. "They're here." She tried to say sounding happy.

Shira was confused at the sight of three people. "Oh I'm sorry, I thought we were just expecting Rory."

Logan turned around and caught sight of Jess. Logan was immediately irritated. This guy was here? At Friday night dinner? Rory had brought him?

Jess smirked at the obvious questions running through Logan's eyes. Jess decided to try and make him even more upset, if possible by giving him a small falsely friendly wave.

Emily stood by the drink cart trying to focus. "Drinks?" She asked shortly.

Lorelai nodded, "White wine, please."

Rory said, "One for me too, please."

Before Jess could ask for a drink, Emily cut him off saying, "I'm sorry but we don't have any beer. Is there anything else you might like?"

Jess heard the condescension in the tone and found it amusing that Emily even had high standards when it came to alcohol. "That's fine, Mrs. Gilmore. I'll just have a scotch neat, if you have that."

Emily handed out their drinks quickly, wanting to just barrel through the rest of this evening. With Jess here, she couldn't see making any progress on the Rory/Logan match. "Shira this is my granddaughter, Rory. And her mother, Lorelai." Emily chose not to deign to introduce Jess.

Shira could feel the tension in the room as everyone took their seats. She wanted to be in the loop, so she tried to stir the pot just a little. "And you are?" Shira looked at Jess.

Jess looked at who had to be 'casual Logan's' mother. She was the embodiment of a trophy wife, coated in high class hypocrisy. "I'm Jess."

Jess' short answer didn't really tell Shira a whole lot but she got the impression that she shouldn't press unless she was ready for a battle.

Logan didn't care about social awkwardness at this point the was too angry about the entire new direction this dinner was taking to mind his manners. "So, how long have you known Rory, Jess?"

Jess turned to stare at Logan, realizing that being friendly just wasn't in the cads for them. Jess brought back his monosyllabic alter ego. "A while."

The women all got the quiet. Sensing that this was a conversation best left to the two young men in the room. Emily was hoping that Logan would tear Jess about and show Rory that Jess' intelligence was lacking. Lorelai and Rory knew that Jess could hold his own with just about anyone, so they were more concerned as to how Logan would walk away from this confrontation.

Logan pushed, "Ya date?"

Rory decided to jump in on that question, "Yes, we dated."

Jess smirked. Even though they hadn't had an in depth disscussion about it, Jess figured they were already past the dating part this time,

Logan interrupted Rory and Jess' private smile session. "Ah, no hemming, no hawing. Always a good course of action.. So were you two high school sweethearts, rock around the clock, two straws in a milkshake?

Shira was beginning to get uncomfortable with Logan's attitude. He was always embarrassing her, "Logan!"

Logan didn't really care what his mother thought about his attitude. "So what is it that you do, Jess? You don't seem like colligate type."

Wow, 'casual Logan' was trying to come out swinging. He wasn't making any hits but Jess had to give him kudos for trying though. "This and that."

"Describe the this. Describe the that."

Rory was getting tired of Logan attempting to attack Jess. "He writes."

"He writes. Impressive." Logan said to Rory, sarcastically. He turned his attention back to Jess, "What do you write?"

Jess didn't really feel like defending his work to this over blown Yale dick head. He just said, "Nothing important."

Rory always hated how Jess down played his achievements. There were few things a person had a right to brag about. Writing a novel was one of them. Rory decided to brag for him. "He wrote a book."

Emily was shocked out of her silence. "He wrote a book?" she asked in a critical way.

Logan smiled at Emily's tone. At least she was on his side. "Oh, so you penned the great American novel?"

Jess half laughed, "It wasn't quite that ambitious."

"So what are we talking here? Short novel? Kafka or longer? Dos Passos? Tolstoy? Or even longer? Robert Russo? Proust?… I'm not throwing you with these names am I?"

Shira was growing more and more embarrassed. It was one thing to be gossiping about people; it was a whole different story when the people were gossiping about her. And Logan's attitude would surely be the main topic at Emily's next DAR lunch. "Logan, mind your manners!"

Jess was actually starting to enjoy blondie's attacks. If Logan thought this was the way to win Rory's heart than he was really mistaken. "It's ok. And Logan, you seem really obsessed with length."

Logan was getting more and more upset at Jess' unruffled answers. "Yes, I'm just trying to get a picture in my head, that's all."

Even though Jess was handling Logan's insulting interrogation very well, the same could not be said for Rory. She snapped at Logan, "It's a short novel."

Logan looked at Rory and could see her disapproval of his treatment of Jess, which just angered Logan even more. "Any good?"

"I haven't read it yet."

Logan gave Jess a smile and went on with his barrage. "Yet? Well, at least you're going to have one reader, that's something."

Jess couldn't help but laugh. Logan really overestimated him self and underestimated everyone else. "Yea, it is something."

Logan could stomach Rory's obvious pride in Jess. It was making him want to be sick. "You know, I should just write down all my random thoughts, stuff that happens and conversations I have, add a bunch of 'he said' 'she said' and get it published."

Jess tried to imagine a book about the playboys life and could only see it turning out to be a whiny, daddy never loved me, poor little rich kid's story. It would be hilariously mockable. "I'm sure it would be fascinating."

Emily was sure that conversation would have continued this way if Richard hadn't chosen that moment to emerge from his study. "I am deeply sorry everyone, I could not for the life of me, get Floyd off the phone."

Emily was relieved to have Richard join them. He was always very good about easing tense situations with his calm manner. "Oh, Richard, good. Come meet the guest Lorelai brought."

Richard hadn't noticed Luke's absence and now saw the dark haired sitting next to Rory, gently holding her hand. Richard walked over and offered his hand, "Oh, Hello, I'm Richard Gilmore."

Jess stood to shake Richard's hand. Jess could tell he and Richard would get along. "Hi, I've heard a lot about you. I'm Jess Mariano."

Richard almost jumped out of his skin. This was the famous Jess. "Oh, wow. I've just finished your novel. It was wonderful, I honestly couldn't put it down."

Emily suddenly became so angry that she forgot there was company in the room. "Richard Gilmore, you actually read this horrible ruffian's book?"

Richard, in his excitement, had forgotten that Emily was in the dark about his recent literary pursuits. "Well, um, yes. I ordered it from the store in Philadelphia. It was quite good, Emily."

"I don't care how 'good' that book was, Richard, that boy is nothing but a past juvenile delinquent who probably still belongs jail."

Rory was not going to let her grandmother talk about Jess that way, especially while he was in the room. "You don't even know him Grandma! Don't you dare talk about Jess like that."

Lorelai didn't really have anything to ass and figured she was just there for moral support. She turned to Shira and tried to distract her. "So, Shira, right?"

"Don't you raise your voice to me in my house, young lady! That boy is completely insufferable. You have no business being near him."

Logan was silently cheering Emily on. Not realizing that her opinions mattered very little to Rory. He looked at Jess and smiled triumphantly.

Jess may not have cared about all the things Logan said had said to try and insult him but that jubilant smile grated on Jess' nerves. "I'd keep the joy to yourself, pretty boy. It won't last long."

Logan scoffed, "How would you know?"

Lorelai had reached her breaking point on dealing with Logan's patronizing attitude. "Maybe because he actually knows Rory. Just a guess, though."

Logan hadn't expected Rory's mother to side with writer boy. Rory had always said that her mother wanted the best for Rory. "I know Rory."

Lorelai gave Logan the patented mother's death glare. "I'm sure. That's why you think she's a casual kind of girl."

Richard sighed listening to the fighting that was erupting all around him. Rory was screaming at Emily. Lorelai was getting ready to physically attack Logan. Shira looked like she was about to summon some form of maternal protectiveness. It seemed like a good a time as any to sneak away to avoid the shrapnel. Richard looked at the only other silent observer in the room and asked, "Do you know what I've found to be the best course of action in these situations, Jess?"

"Hide and let the storm blow over?"

"Exactly. I actually have a couple first edition Hemmingway's in my study. Would you be interested in seeing them?"

Jess knew in that moment he had found a life long friend and ally among the Gilmore clan. "Hemmingway happens to be my favorite author."

Richard smiled knowingly. Jess may be less than perfect but any one who loved the written word was in his mind. "I figured that would be the case when I read your book's dedication."

Then the two men left the women and Logan to their growing fight.

Twenty minutes later the fight had encompassed everyone left in the parlor. Everyone was attacking everyone. No one was safe.

Logan was not yelling at Rory. "Why are you bothering with him, Rory? So what, the guy writes. He's a high school drop out from what Emily just said. Don't you realize I'm so much better for you?!"

With all the fighting no one had noticed the new person standing in the entryway watching the fireworks. Mitchum had walked into quite a bizarre form of a 'lovely evening' but he always did enjoy a twist to the normal.

When Mitchum heard Logan talking about someone else's lack of achievements he felt it was time to step in. "And what exactly have you done that's so great, Logan?"

All heads swiveled to see that a new person had joined them. Mitchum walked further into the room.

Shira felt like a small child caught breaking her strict father's rules. "Mitchum, we didn't hear you come in."

Lorelai was still in the quip mood. "Well, how could we? Over all the noise we were making in here, Shira? Not too bright huh?"

Logan stood silently watching his father take over the conversation. Logan knew how much his father thought of him. And it wasn't much.

Mitchum had missed the start of the high volumed argument he has walked in on and now found himself very curious about the initial spark. "Would anyone like to fill me in?"

Everyone stayed silent for a moment. Then Lorelai thinking she had nothing to loose unloaded the whole story. "Rory," Lorelai pointed to her daughter, "was about to be ambushed with a blatant set up with your son."

The picture was beginning to take focus in Mitchum's mind. Though he didn't think any sane person would try to set their granddaughter up with his lothario son. "I see it's going well."

Lorelai shrugged. "Just smashing. Except for Rory's boyfriend and I crashed the party in a preemptive defensive strike."

Logan couldn't stop his sudden outburst toward Rory. "He's your boyfriend now?"

Rory was still trying to process the fact that all of this personal drama was playing out in front of a world renowned journalism mogul. "What's it to you, Logan? Going to try and insult him some more?"

Mitchum looked around for the infamous 'boyfriend'. The only other male he saw was Logan. "Do I get to meet this trouble causing boyfriend?"

Emily caught on and looked about the room. "Where is Jess? I swear, Lorelai, if that boy touches one thing in my house -"

Richard and Jess reappeared from the study after they heard a lull in the yelling. Richard cut Emily's tirade off before it could really get rolling. "Emily, don't' speak about our guest that way, please. Hello Mitchum."

Mitchum shook Richard's hand and then moved on to Jess. "Ah, the man of the hour. Mitchum Huntzburger."

Jess shook the older Huntzburger's hand and looked at Logan who was practically vibrating with anger. "Jess Mariano."

"So, I understand my son was insulting you earlier."

Jess snorted. Logan's insults were nothing short of hilarious. "He was trying to. Wasn't having much success."

Logan wanted to defend himself. His father obviously wasn't going to understand all of this. "I wasn't insulting him. I was just challenging him."

Rory laughed heartlessly at Logan's pathetic excuse, "You were being a jerk, Logan."

"Hey, if Hemmingway can take it, so can he. If he wanted to he could have taken a pop at me. Pugnacity, it's a vital component in literary life. Again, consult your Hemmingway."

Jess looked at Rory with smiling eyes. Logan didn't even know their connection to Hemmingway. The irony was amazing. "Rory's not a big Hemmingway fan. Maybe, you could find a different author."

Mitchum had heard enough from his son for one evening and they hadn't been together for more than ten minutes. "Who are you to challenge him, Logan?"

Logan began sputtering, "Just because he wrote a book doesn't make him great. Anyone can write a book. He didn't even graduate high school. He isn't even going to college. So yea, I think I can challenge him."

Mitchum took a step towards Logan, to use his advantage of height to add impact to what he was about to say. "You only graduated high school because of the large sum of money I donated and the fact that your school wanted you out. And college? The reasons your in Yale, your last name and yet another check I wrote."

"But-"

"And if he wrote a book, that's a lot more than you have done in months. You can't even finish three hundred word articles for the paper. Maybe, you should be asking Jess some pointers."

Logan tried one more defense, "He's still a nobody. Rory deserves better than that."

Mitchum laughed, "You calling someone a nobody? That's rich. We will discuss your short comings at a later time, Logan. This isn't the place for that long list."

When Mitchum finished taking Logan down a peg a two, he looked around at all the faces in the room most ranged from angry to highly uncomfortable. This was not how he was going to be spending his evening. "Well Shira, we've caused enough damage here for one evening, we should go."

Emily stood quickly from her chair and said, "But we haven't had dinner yet."

"We will come for dinner another time, Emily. Let's go, Shira, Logan."

Jess stepped out of the way to give the Huntzburgers room to flee the scene. As Mitchum passed he looked at Jess. "You wrote a book?"

Jess could only think of sarcastic retorts, so he just nodded silently.

Mitchum glanced at Richard, he had heard something about Richard being a traitor by even glancing at it. "Was it good?"

"Oh it was very good. I couldn't put it down."

Mitchum as always looking for new up and comers. "Send me a copy, Jess, please."

Jess shrugged, thinking how bizarre all of this was turning out. "I'll do that."

Mitchum felt like he was forgetting something. Ah, yes, Rory. When Shira told him the 'reason' for this dinner, Mitchum had dome a little checking up on the girl. Rory had his attention, maybe he could find her an internship. "Oh, yes. Rory, here's my card, I'd like you to send me your resume and a few of your pieces."

Rory felt like a truck just smacked her, Mitchum Huntzburger wanted to see her work. Even after all this. "Yes, sir."

With all that done Mitchum shook Richard's hand one more time and walked out. Shira and Logan quickly followed.

Jess saved the image of Logan running after daddy into his memory. That guy had a lot of growing up to do.

When the front door the front door closed, what little of Emily's hostess façade dropped. "How dare you bring that foul boy here, Lorelai? You completely ruined my dinner."

"You mean we ruined your chance to meddle in Rory's life and try to manipulate her into dating. Your idea of the perfect boy? I'd apologize but then lightening would strike me dead and I don't have that scheduled until later next week."

"You know what, I'm going to bed. You and Rory are both lost to your diner boys and I'm too tired to talk to you."

Emily stormed upstairs still muttering about her plans being totally ruined.

Rory sighed, feeling the weight of exhaustion on her shoulders. "So another wonderful night at the Gilmore house comes to a close."

Richard sighed, yes the evening had been eventful and dinner was never even served. "Perhaps, we should say goodnight."

Lorelai agreed whole heartedly. She needed coffee, a burger and a truck load of sugar to recover from the past forty-five minutes. "Yea, we should go. Mom probably needs some time to cool off."

Rory may have been angry with her grandmother but she didn't want to start a fight with her grandfather. "I'm sorry about all this, Grandpa."

Jess had let Richard in on the entire plan while they were in the study. Richard had to agree that Emily did deserve a small dose of her own medicine for once. Don't be, Rory. I had a wonderful time getting to know Jess. He is a fine young man. So, next week?"

Richard wanted the invitation extended to everyone in the room, especially Jess. He had a funny feeling have to give up her past conceptions of this boy because he really wasn't going to be going anywhere, anytime soon.

Lorelai smiled at her father. "Friday night."

Jess got the implied invitation in Richard's voice. "I'll clear my schedule."

The three stepped out of the house and simultaneously heaved a sigh of relief.

Lorelai wrapped her arm around Rory's shoulders. "Man, I'm starved."

"Me too."

"Luke's?"

"Luke's."

Lorelai began walking to her car calling back, "Meet you guys there!"

Rory looked at Jess. He had disappeared early into the fight. "So, where did you run off to when the throw down started?"

Jess smiled at Rory, she would have been really happy about how well he and Richard had gotten along. "Richard rescued me in an attempt to save some of my sanity."

"Grandpa saved you?" Jess and her grandfather had joined forces?

"We'll talk about it at Luke's ok?" Jess had more important things to do at the moment. He gently brushed Rory's hair behind her ears and kissed her.

This girl was his everything. His absolute everything.

Author's Note: So who do you guys think is better for Lane…. Dave or Zach?