It's Christmas in July! Well, only for us. On that note, merry first of July! Without further adieu, here's a sentimental holiday chapter.
Thanks for the reviews on chapter twelve: Kassandra27, ShaolinQueen, swimmerluver, DiehardJavaJunkie14, Curley-Q, Jeremy Shane, krymsunkiss52, gilmorefanforever, cmtaylor531, Djux, lillitgirlx2, and CherryWolf713.
Disclaimer: Nope. Still not mine. I just checked.
"Christmas is in four days," Sully reminded Jess again. He had been keeping a running countdown since July, informing Jess of the time spontaneously. Jess neglected to respond, so Sully continued. "What exactly are we doing for Christmas?" he asked.
Scratching his head, Jess looked up at Sully. "I'm not sure," he said honestly. "All I know is we're spending some time with Rory in the next few days."
"What about food?" Sully asked.
"We're in a diner." Jess rolled his eyes. "Luke is cooking and Lorelai and Rory will probably leech off him."
"So we're all eating together?" Sully asked.
"That would be the conclusion."
"What about presents?" Sully asked.
"What about presents?"
"Did you buy any?" he asked.
"It's Christmas," Jess reminded him. "Of course I bought presents."
"Did you buy me a present?" Sully fished.
"Yes. I bought you a present," Jess said. "But I'll give it to someone else if you don't shut up."
"Sorry," Sully apologized, turning back to his laptop.
Jess turned his attention to the book he was reading. They were engaging in a bit of downtime while Luke closed the diner. For the past few days, Jess and Sully had been helping out downstairs. That night, Luke decided to give them a break by closing up alone.
"Did you buy Rory a present?" Sully asked suddenly.
"Of course I bought Rory a present. She's my girlfriend."
"Right. That would make sense."
"Why are you talking so much?" Jess asked, closing the book and resting it on his thigh.
"Oh, well…" Sully scratched the back of his neck. "I don't know."
Jess drummed his fingers on the cover of his book. "Seriously. The sooner you talk about this, the sooner I can read."
"Right." Sully closed the cover of his laptop. "Man, I'm jealous. Okay?"
"Jealous?" Jess fought a laugh. "Jealous of what? Me?"
"Dude, you have a family. You have Rory."
"And you. Which automatically means you have me," Jess pointed out, tossing the book on the coffee table.
Sully sighed. "Yeah. I guess."
"Okay. This is getting old."
"I just…I don't have anyone…"
"Except me," Jess cut in. "And you know, Rory's pretty partial to you."
"Oh?" Sully smiled. "So I'm not a third wheel?"
Jess groaned. "You were never a third wheel."
"Okay." Sully opened his laptop back up and his fingers flew across the keys. "We're blood brothers," Sully reminded him. Flipping his hand over, he examined the faint scar that marred his pink skin.
Rolling his eyes, Jess eyed his own scar. "Right. Blood brothers." He smirked and traced the little white line that shot across his palm. "We were stupid little kids."
"But we had fun," Sully reminded him.
"Didn't say anything to the contrary."
"We were pretty messed up. We did slice our palms open with a jackknife." Sully ruffled his red hair and glanced around the room.
Shrugging, Jess picked his book off the table. "I don't regret it."
Sully smiled. "Neither do I."
"Merry Christmas!" Rory's cheeks were flushed and pink from the cold. She handed Jess three wrapped packages and he set them under the little tree Luke finally put up with their help.
"Merry Christmas," he whispered, pulling off her knitted hat. "Where's your mom?"
"Downstairs with Luke. They're trying to convince Kirk to go home." Rory smiled and slid her puffy winter jacket off. Jess tossed it with the rest of the coats and they joined Sully on the sofa.
Sully, as usual, was perusing a Red Sox website on his laptop. "What are you doing?" Jess asked as he watched Sully's fingers fly over the plastic keyboard.
"Posting."
"Posting what?" Rory asked.
"Season predictions." Sully tapped the enter key and scrolled down the page.
"Like winter?" Rory asked, leaning over Jess to see the screen.
"Baseball season," he responded, throwing his fingers into full throttle against the keyboard.
"Didn't that just end?" Jess asked.
"Spring training is soon. Lots of trades and stuff going on. The usual."
"Right." Jess and Rory nodded, even though they still had no idea what Sully was doing.
Luke and Lorelai burst through the door before Sully could inform them about the Red Sox. Lorelai dropped her tiny package with the rest under the tree and Luke checked the roast in the oven.
Luke turned his head in Jess's direction. "You checked this, didn't you?"
"You were gone a long time." Jess shrugged.
"And you stirred…"
"You were gone a long time."
Luke shook his head. "Dinner is going to be ready in about an hour," he announced.
"Ooh! Presents!" Lorelai exclaimed with a smile. She sat on the end of Luke's bed while he sorted the gifts into little piles.
"How are we doing this?" Luke asked as he handed out the presents from under the tree. He had never opened gifts with so many people at one time.
"By age?" Lorelai suggested.
"Alphabetical order?" Jess suggested skeptically.
"I know!" Sully shouted, causing Jess to chuckle. He knew what was coming next. "Whoever's grandmother lives closest to Toledo!"
Rory laughed faintly into her hand and quickly turned it into a cough.
"Where the hell is Toledo?" Luke asked.
"Ohio!" Sully exclaimed.
"And let me guess, your grandmother lives in Toledo?" Luke asked, raising his eyebrow.
"Damn. I've been here for too long." Sully snapped his fingers in mock frustration and sat back on the sofa.
"Why don't we go around in a circle so we can see everyone's presents?" Rory suggested timidly, fingering the curled bow on one of her packages.
"Sounds good." Jess nodded and squeezed Rory's knee.
The three teenagers were allowed to dig into their packages before Luke and Lorelai. Rory yanked the bow off the slim package from Luke. Ripping open the envelope, she found a twenty five-dollar gift card to Barnes and Noble. "Wow. Luke…thanks." A sheen of blush spread across her cheeks.
On Luke's glance, Jess lifted the large box off the floor. "Luke," he warned, tearing the paper gently with his finger.
"I thought it was practical." Luke shrugged as Jess balled up the paper and tossed it in the paper bag next to the couch.
"Luke, it's too much," he said, tracing his thumb over the tiny Dell logo on the side.
"I was going to write you a check," he said, "but I knew you didn't have a computer. You need a computer for school."
Nodding, Jess smiled and picked at the tape. "We'll set it up later?" he asked.
"We'll set it up later," Luke promised.
Moving down the line, Sully ripped into a package with his name scrawled in Jess's handwriting. "The Sims 2?" he asked, ripping the plastic around the box.
Jess smirked. "You've mentioned it before." Sully lunged at his friend, giving him a hug and a brief pat on the back.
"Yes! Now my Sims can die in three-D!"
Curiously, Lorelai reached for the lone package in her pile. "You got me a present," she said, smiling.
"Yeah, well." Luke rubbed the back of his neck. "Didn't want you to feel left out."
"Believe me, she didn't feel left out this morning," Rory interjected, shooting her mother a glare.
"I'm a spoiled momma," she joked, tearing the paper on the present. She flung the paper aside before looking at the design on the box. "Hello Kitty?" she asked, diving into the box and pulling out a pink travel mug.
"Seemed appropriate," Luke said, brushing her off with a shrug.
"Hey, Luke?" Jess interrupted as his uncle reached for the blue envelope that he had scrawled his name on two hours ago.
"What?" he asked gruffly, picking at the tape.
"Can you maybe…open that later?" he requested softly.
"Uh, sure." Luke tucked the envelope in his pocket and ripped the paper off the Jimmy Buffet CD and Red Sox magazine that Rory and Lorelai had wrapped together to disguise the contents. He smiled at both the Gilmore Girls, muttered his thanks, and left the room to check on the roast.
Lorelai followed him as Rory, Jess, and Sully continued their circle of presents. "I just wanted them to have some privacy," she claimed as the trio burst into laughter. She turned around in time to see Sully press the tiny bows Rory had adhered to his package on his shirt, over his nipples.
"Ribbon boobies!" he laughed as Jess knocked his fist into his shoulder.
Rory grinned and ripped the bow of the present Jess had bought for her and pressed the ribbon puff on his swell of gelled hair. While Sully immersed himself in the baseball cards Rory had purchased for him, Jess dipped down to kiss Rory tenderly on the lips. "Open it," he pressed as she slipped her fingernail under the tape.
He had wrapped as much scotch tape around the paper openings as he could. Aware that he was a sucky wrapper, Jess needed to cover it up by making the package hard to open. "What's this, a whole roll of tape?" Rory asked as she ripped another strip of sticky plastic away from the snowy paper.
Jess smirked as she finally worked the remnants of the tape and paper away from box it coated. "You like it?" he asked as she stared at the peach and silver box.
"It's a camera," she said curiously. "You got me a camera?"
"You don't like it?" he asked cautiously. "I thought you wanted a camera."
"I did!" Rory exclaimed. "And I love it. It's great," she continued. "I just didn't want you to spend so much money on me."
"Hey. I wanted to." Jess straightened the red bow perched on the top of his head.
"Well, now you have to open this." Rory thrust the package on his lap. She smiled while thumbing the crease in the camera box.
"Okay," he consented, peeling off the bow and sticking it to Rory's forehead. Laughing delicately, Rory pressed the ribbon until it stuck to her skin fully.
"Come on. Open it!" she forced, helping him rip the paper.
"Pushy." Jess swatted her hand away and tore flipped the cover of the box open to find another wrapped package. "What is this?" he asked. "A Matreshka or something?"
Rory laughed. "No. You would have figured out what it was if I didn't wrap it twice."
"Okay." Jess unwrapped the second package to find an old, delicate book with letters scrawled in gold type. "Jesus, Rory. Is this a first edition?"
Grinning madly, Rory threw her arms around her boyfriend's neck. "Yes! Do you like it?" she asked hesitantly.
"Of course I do," he said with a tiny smirk gracing his lips. Again, he swooped down for a kiss and the bow drooped from his hair.
After dinner, a round of pictures were taken with Rory's new camera. Sully's "ribbon boobies" were caught on film for future humiliation, as was Jess's new hairdo. As promised, Jess and Luke sat on the living room floor after Rory and Lorelai left and tinkered with the new laptop. It blared to life and Luke smiled slightly at his nephew. He had really changed, and he was actually enjoying the young man's company this time around.
"Luke?" Jess asked while they were downloading software.
"Hmm?" Luke mumbled in response as he placed another disc in the optical drive.
"You can, uh, open that envelope now." He rubbed the back of his neck nervously. Pausing, Luke dug the present out of his pocket and turned to look at Jess. "It's not a lot," he said carefully as Luke ripped the seam of the envelope.
A personal check fluttered from the confines and Luke's eyes darted over the amount. "Jess, you didn't have to…"
"It's for, you know." Jess shrugged. "Sorry I didn't pay you back sooner." He paused. "And sorry I didn't get you anything else." A frown formed on his lips as Luke continued to stare at the check.
"Tell you what," Luke said. "It doesn't matter." And with that, he tore the check in half.