And I think of you whenever life gets me down,
I think of you whenever you're not around
And you rest your bones somewhere far from my house,
but you still pull me home

New York City — December 2013

Rory rummaged through her dresser drawers on her day off in order to find anything else that belonged to her ex and place it in with his boxes before heading off to Stars Hollow for the holidays. It had been a crazy few months and she was ready to get out of the city for once. As much as she thought of New York as her home now, sometimes it was good to escape and go back to somewhere as familiar as Stars Hollow. Not much ever changed there and when it did, Lorelai was right on the phone to tell her daughter about it. The girl felt warm thinking about her hometown, but was still devastated as she searched high and low for Elliott's things. She wanted to wipe the entire apartment clean of that man, but she also wanted to give in and let him come back home. She knew she couldn't be thinking like that, though.

The third drawer was dumped out on the floor. It was all random junk that didn't have any other place in their apartment. Whenever something didn't fit, into the junk drawer it went. Often this would lead to misplaced keys and tape recorders, but they always knew to come back to that one damn drawer.

Rory sighed as she sifted through the pile; she wasn't sure what junk was hers and which was his at this point. None of it even looked slightly familiar until she came across a very beat up copy of Allen Ginsberg's "Howl." The woman smiled softly as she ran her fingers across the cover and all of its cracks. She opened it up to see the well known handwriting in the margins. She had seen this book over and over again — along with Jess' other works of vandalism on her books — but it always took her back to that night in towns square. At that point, the two had known each other for going on five years, but that night everything changed for her in a way. That was the night that she knew how perfect Jess was just because he was an avid reader like herself (even after years of scrutiny from Jess himself about how reading made her so uncool.) That was hard to find in a teenage boy, and it surprised her to find it in a teenage boy named Jess. That's how he became Dodger in the first place. She let a full-blown smile take over her lips at the thought of that perfect memory.

After reading through his notes for the hundredth time in the past sixteen years, she came across a little pink Post-It note that was wrinkled in a million different ways. The girl shook her head as she read it aloud to herself.

I, Jess Mariano, vow to marry Rory Gilmore if we are not seeing anyone at the age of thirty. This is a promise.

She stroked the piece of paper back and forth with her thumb and thought about Jess and how much time had gone by since the last time they spoke or the last time they even saw each other. It had been a few years now and Rory didn't understand how she let it get that bad between the two of them. The last words they said to each other weren't the nicest seeing that they came out of spite and alcohol. Since then, the two always seemed to miss each other on holidays. Jess was never in town to see his mom, step dad, and uncle when Rory was around. He'd skip Christmases and spend them with his new friends or with his dad and Sasha in Venice where it was always warm and sunny, no matter the season. The woman missed him dearly, but he was almost an after thought these days.

Without hesitation, Rory picked up her phone and quickly dialed her mother.

"House of Beauty, this is Cutie." Lorelei answered and Rory could almost hear the grin on her face as she thought up that clever line.

Rory chuckled to herself. Her mother never changed and that's what she loved the most about her. "Well Cutie, I have a favor to ask of you and Luke."

"What's going on, babe? Do we have to bail you out of jail again? This is like the fifth time, Rory. You really need to stop doing that."

"Jail?" Luke spoke up from the other line.

"Yes, jail. Our perfect angel is in jail." Lorelei joked and Luke scoffed. "Really, Ror, what's up?"

With a deep breath, Rory tried her best to conjure up the words, but they came out as a simplistic plea instead. "Jess," she spat out, "please get Jess to come home this year."

A few seconds of silence passed between the mother and daughter before she heard her mother exhale deeply. "Is that a good idea? I know what happened between you two."

"Mom," Rory whined, "I need to see him."

Lorelei quickly talked to Luke. Rory couldn't quite make out the conversation, but she knew that Luke always took her side. If it was Jess that Rory wanted, Luke would find a way to make that happen. After what seemed like forever, Lorelai finally came back. "Luke says he'll try to get him here," she explained. "Just… Be careful, okay? If you think this is a bad idea, we'll put a stop to it before he comes."

Rory nodded, forgetting that her mom couldn't see her at that moment. "I just want to see him," she muttered under her breath, "I miss him."

"I'm sure you do, sweetie." Lorelei sounded sympathetic, but Rory didn't know if it was genuine or not. Her mother wasn't exactly Jess' biggest fan, but she knew that she'd be able to slightly understand where her daughter was coming from. "I gotta go make sure Luke isn't getting into trouble with Babette," Lorelai quipped. "I'll see you in a few days, alright?"

"Bye, mom." Rory ended the conversation and hit the end button on her phone. Earlier all she wanted for Christmas was stability and maybe even Elliott, but now that she thought deeper about it, all she truly wanted was to have her best friend back and hopefully Luke would come through with that wish.