Incoming

Disclaimer: I don't own any of it. Not even the computer I wrote it on.

Summary: Jess shows up at Richard and Emily's vow renewal. Luke has something to say about it. Rory is less than happy. Lorelai has to deal with Christopher. And the day is definitely not everything Emily hoped it would be.

Feedback: Reviews are fun. Like a barrel of monkeys. Why anyone would put monkeys in a barrel…I don't know, but it's supposedly a lot of fun.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rory and Paris walked into the Gilmore house at eight-thirty after spending the night at the theater. They had been up until six watching movies and talking when the three of them fell asleep on Big Red, only to be woken up two hours later when a worried Zach called Lane's cell phone to find out where she'd been all night.

"Ugh." Paris groaned as she collapsed on the couch. "Need sleep."

Rory made her way to her room and dropped onto her bed. "Yea." She agreed before burying her face in her pillow. She sat up quickly when she realized her bed wasn't made. "My God. Does she let people sleep in my bed every night?" She got up and walked to the living room to see if there were any messages on the machine. When she saw the light blinking she pressed play and heard her mother's voice fill the room. "Hey, hon. I just wanted to tell you that Kirk moved out of his mother's house last night. Also I advise you to change your sheets. Now put those together, and you get what? That's right. Kirk slept in your bed. Wait for it. Wait for it. Naked. Yes. Kirk slept in your bed naked." Rory took off her jacket and threw it on the floor disgustedly. "Oh God. Shower…I need…shower…oh God." She started towards the bathroom, but stopped mid-step when she heard a voice that definitely should not be on their answering machine. "Hey Lor." He said hesitantly. "It's Chris. Umm, I think we need to talk, so just…call me when you get this and we can maybe go to lunch or something. Okay. Bye." She angrily deleted the messages then made sure Paris was asleep before grabbing her keys and walking out of the house.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Lorelai slid onto the stool next to the register and put her head on the counter. "Coffee." She said when she heard someone walk out of the kitchen.

"Hey." Jess poured her some coffee and put the mug in front of her. "You okay?"

She looked up, surprised. "Uh, yea. Nothing a little coffee can't fix." She picked up the mug and took a sip. "Thanks."

It was his turn to be surprised. "No problem." He grabbed his order pad and turned to her. "What do you want to eat?"

"Just some fries. I gotta get back to the inn."

"Coming right up." He went to the kitchen and gave her order to Caesar.

"Hey, Jess." Lorelai called.

He went back to the counter. "Yea?"

She held up her cup and grinned.

He grabbed the coffee pot and refilled her mug. "So, uh…what….how…"

"Rory's good." She smiled.

"Oh. Good. That's good."

"She's not avoiding you."

"Yes she is."

"Okay, yes she is. But she'll come around. She just needs some time."

"Yea." He said quietly.

She downed the rest of her coffee and stood up. "Alright kid. I gotta go. Tell Luke I'll call him. And just give it some time, okay." She started out when he nodded, but turned around when she reached the door. "Hey, enjoy those fries." She smiled and left.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Christopher pulled his front door open when he heard someone banging on it and saw his daughter. "Rory."

She pushed past him into his apartment. "Don't 'Rory' me."

He shut the door and looked at her. "What?"

"You…what is wrong with you?"

"Wha-"

"You called her? Why would you call her? After what you did. How could you think she'd be okay with that? Every time you walk into our lives you break her! And I don't know exactly what happened between you and Mom and Luke, but it broke all of us. We lost the only person who was always there. Who wouldn't walk out on us for anything. Do you not get that? You knew exactly what would happen the moment you showed up at the wedding and you still think it's okay to call her. But it's not. They're finally getting things back the way they were and you are not going to ruin that. She's happy. They both are. He's the one, Dad, not you."

He walked to the kitchen and sat at the table. "You think I don't know that? Do you think I couldn't see that? I have never seen her so happy, except the day you were born."

She sat down across from him. "Then why would you do that?"

"I don't know. I was jealous and drunk and…stupid. I guess when Emily came here and told me what was going on, I thought I might have a chance, but when I got there and saw her and Luke together I knew it was over."

"Hence the drinking."

"Yea."

"Why did you call?"

"I don't know. I guess I wanted to see if there was something left to salvage. A friendship. Anything."

"There isn't. You can't be part of her life anymore. If you ever need anything, call me, but leave her alone. Please."

He nodded. "Okay."

Her eyes went wide when she saw one of Gigi's toys sitting on the counter behind Christopher. "Oh my God. Is Gigi here? I was yelling and I didn't even think-"

"She's with my mom."

"Oh."

"Yea." They lapsed into an uncomfortable silence, until Christopher realized he hadn't asked how his daughter was. "So what's been going on with you?"

"Not much. It's spring break so no school."

"Right. How's the kid from the wedding?"

"Logan. And I don't really know. We're not together."

"Oh. Why not?"

"You could at least try to hide your excitement." She smiled at him. "He just wasn't the right guy."

"Good. I didn't like him."

"You never liked any of my boyfriends."

"That's one of my rights as your father."

"Sure." She stood up. "I need to go. I really need to shower and change my clothes…and change my sheets."

"Why?"

"Naked Kirk was in my bed last night."

"I'm sorry…what?"

"Kirk needed some where to stay and since I wasn't home, Mom let him stay in my room."

"So you weren't…you know?"

"Dad! Eww."

"Sorry. You say there was a naked guy in your bed, what do you expect me to think?"

"I'm not sleeping with Kirk."

He got up and hugged her. "Thank god."

"Hey, Dad."

"Yea?"

"Do you remember Jess?"

"Your ex-boyfriend? The one who crashed your car?"

"Yea. I kissed him on Saturday. Bye." She nodded and ran out of the apartment.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Hey Michel." Lorelai called as she walked out of the kitchen at the inn. "Where's Sookie?"

"I do not know. That vegetable man of hers was here about an hour ago. Maybe she left with him."

"Oh, right. She had a checkup today. I forgot. Can I have the phone?"

"No."

She shook her head as she leaned across the desk and took the phone. "Mean." She walked away and dialed her house number.

"Hello?" Paris answered.

"Hey Paris. It's Lorelai."

"Hi."

"So what are you up to?"

"Eating ice cream and watching Casablanca."

"He still didn't call?"

"What do you think?"

"Okay. Can I talk to Rory?"

"No."

"Oh."

"She's not here."

"Where is she?"

"She wasn't here when I woke up so I called her and she said she had to pick something up from Yale. She didn't even leave a note. She just left."

"Okay."

"If Richard calls with those estimates, give him my cell number."

"Richard? As in my father?"

"Yea. I was looking over your insurance papers when I was there and you are totally getting ripped off. I talked to your father about the prices and he said he he'd call me with some estimates. Of course they won't be exact, because he's going to have to look at the inn but it'll give us a general idea."

"Okay." She said unsurely. "I'll tell him to call you."

"Great."

"Bye Paris."

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After he took a shower and got dressed, Jess walked out of the bathroom in the apartment, but stopped short when he saw Rory sitting on the couch playing with his cell phone. "Rory?"

She turned around and smiled at him. "Hey."

He walked over and sat next to her. "What are you doing?"

She held up his cell phone. "You, my friend, are very lacking in phone numbers."

"What?" He took the phone out of her hand and scrolled through the numbers. "This is the whole town."

"Pretty much." She nodded. "You never know who you might need to talk to."

He put the phone down and looked at her. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm…well…I came to see you." She mumbled as she looked down at her hands.

"What?" He frowned when she didn't answer. "Rory."

She looked up at him. "I came to see you."

"Oh."

"So, when does your shift start?" She asked, not yet ready to talk about the real reason she was there.

"Umm, eight."

"Oh."

"Yea. Luke's going to see Lorelai, so…"

"Right."

He sighed. "This didn't used to be so awkward."

"Why didn't you say goodbye?"

"Rory…"

"Jess. Please."

"I couldn't. I needed to get away from here. Rory, I was so screwed up, and I knew I wouldn't be able to leave if you asked me to stay."

"That morning, on the bus…part of me knew you weren't coming back. But I guess I just wanted to pretend you'd be there when I got home."

"I didn't know what else to do. I was screwing everything up." He stood up and walked over to the window before facing her again. "I wasn't graduating high school. I couldn't take you to your prom."

"You think I cared about that? I mean, of course I wanted you to graduate, but it was never about that, Jess." She walked over to him and put her hand on his arm.

He looked down at where she was touching him then back up at her face. "You should have listened."

"To what?"

"To everybody. They all told you I wasn't good enough."

"I am so tired of this self pity crap. Yea, everybody told me you weren't good enough…well except Luke…but I chose you. I wanted to be with you and that was my choice, because I saw something no one else did. And maybe along the way we both forgot it was there, but we grew up, Jess. You're stopped hiding, and I finally saw what would make a sixteen year old girl with a baby run away with no money and no where to go. I want to be happy without having to worry about what everyone else wants. I just want to do something because it's what I want." She slid her hand down his arm and laced her fingers through his.

He squeezed her hand and smiled at her. "Well, who am I to keep a Gilmore from what she wants?"

"I am very glad you feel that way." She leaned up but stopped herself just short of lips. "Obviously I don't care what you want because I'm doing this for completely selfish reasons, but I just thought you should know that I'm gonna kiss you."

He didn't give her a chance to as he his lips were on hers as soon as she stopped talking.

"Cheater." She pouted when he pulled away.

He kissed her again then leaned his forehead against hers, smiling. "Aren't we full of complaints today."

She wrapped her arms around his neck. "Actually I have one more."

He groaned in mock annoyance. "What?"

"I haven't had Luke's coffee in almost three days."

"You've gone longer without Luke's coffee."

"Yea, but other than a couple hours this morning, I have spent every moment of the past two days with Paris. Do you have any idea what that's like? After that trip to Washington there were some serious thoughts about a murder-suicide thing."

"Alright. Let's go. My shift's starting anyway. I'm surprised Luke hasn't started yelling yet."

"Luke left. The place is dead. You, my friend, are all-" She stopped when they heard the bell above the door downstairs ring and Kirk start yelling Luke's name. Rory looked towards the apartment door. "Mine and Kirk's." She finished lamely.

Jess sighed and stepped away from her. "Is he even allowed out this late?"

"Didn't you hear? He moved out of his mom's house yesterday."

"Really?" He started towards the door, watching Rory to make sure she was following him.

"Yea, and let me give you this little tidbit of fun before you guess where he slept last night. Kirk sleeps naked." She followed him out of the apartment and pulled the door closed behind her, smiling when she heard him start laughing. "It's not funny." She whined. "I climbed into that bed when I got home this morning."