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.
A/N: Sorry this took so long to update. We were hit by Hurricane Wilma and we didn't have power since Monday, but I am happy to report that as of 8:15 tonight our power is back. And I can update. I would also like to apologize because after you waited all that time (Okay, it was only ten days but it sure as hell felt like a lot longer to me) for an update, I leave you with a serious lack of Rory/Jess and Luke/Lorelai interaction in this chapter.
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Luke and Jess were standing on either side of Taylor, all in their bright orange shirts, while he held their hands tightly. "I'd like a moment with the two of you."
"Yeah, time to let go, there, Taylor!" Luke tried to pull his hand away, but Taylor held on.
"I want the straight skinny from you."
"Really, let go of my hand."
"Not until you tell me what you're doing."
"I'm really just trying to get my hand away from you."
Jess glared at Luke. "I hate you."
"Thanks."
"No, I really hate you. I have never hated anyone as much as I hate you right now."
Taylor ignored them. "Why are you here? Why did you volunteer?"
"Because I wanted to!" Luke yelled at him.
"Luke, you hated Old Man Twickham. I know that for a fact. You said despicable things about him your whole life!"
He shot Jess a 'you better go along with this' look before answering. "Well, okay. If you must know, Lorelai asked me."
"Lorelai?"
"That's right. You know, we've been through a bit of a rough patch–"
"Yes."
"Well, I want to make things right with her. Get off to a good new start. She really wants me to get involved with community things, so she asked me to get involved. So, I'm doing it for her."
"Well, I think that's very nice." He smiled then shot a glare at Jess. "What about you? Why are you here? Trying to cause trouble?"
"Hey, I'm just here because he is." He pointed at Luke with his free hand. "Because Rory thought I should help him out." He added when Taylor looked skeptical.
"So you two are here because Lorelai and Rory asked you to come?"
"Yes, Taylor." He ground out.
"Well, that's wonderful." He said happily. "It's nice of them to get you involved."
He looked pointedly at Luke. "Oh, yea. Very nice."
"Alright. Jess, why don't you go over by the stairs and help Gypsy organize Mr. Twickham's personal effects. And Luke, how about I make you my right-hand man? Stick by me! Be me when I'm not here! What do you say?"
Luke looked down at their hands than back up at Taylor. "Well, I'll need my right hand back for that, I think."
"Of course." He dropped both of their hands. "Okay. Good. I like this side of you two." He turned away from them and started talking to Kirk.
Jess glared at Luke as he wiped his hand on his jeans. "I really, really hate you."
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Lorelai and Rory walked - well, Lorelai walked and Rory hopped on one foot while trying to put her shoe on the other one - arm in arm towards the diner. "Please, Mom." Rory begged. "Just stop for a minute. I need to put my shoe on."
"Well, if you had been ready when it was time to leave…" She said, not slowing down.
Rory yanked her arm free and slipped her shoe on. "You woke me up five minutes before we left."
"Oh, it was at least seven." She waited for Rory to get her shoe on and straighten her skirt before continuing in the direction of the diner.
"Fine. Seven minutes. Four of which, you followed me around the house and whined because Caesar's cooking today and you want pancakes."
"You know he doesn't make them fluffy like Luke does."
"But that doesn't mean you have to take two thirds of the extremely short amount time you gave me to get ready to complain about it."
She stopped right in front of the diner and turned to her daughter. "Do you think if I went over to the Twickham house and told Luke I wanted pancakes-"
"Don't even think about it." She pushed past Lorelai and walked inside. "You can order something else."
They sat down at the table next to door and Lorelai continued to pout about her pancakes.
"Hey, guys." Lane said, walking towards them with two mugs and a coffee pot.
"Hey Lane." Rory smiled at her friend.
She raised her eyebrows as she looked at Rory. "Please tell me that's Jess's shirt."
She looked down at her chest then widened her eyes at her mother. "Why didn't you tell me I was wearing this?"
Lorelai smirked. "Because life is not nearly as much fun that way. And because there is nothing like watching you daughter walk around town with the F word written across her chest."
She glared. "I need to go find a different shirt." She shook her head and headed up the stairs.
"No." Lorelai called after her. "I want to see Taylor's face when he sees you in that." Not quite through embarrassing her daughter, she turned back to Lane and said very loudly, "So, did Rory tell you she slept with Jess?"
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"Did you tell Rory yet?" Luke asked Jess as they were setting up the diorama upstairs.
"Tell her what?"
"About your apartment building thing."
He climbed into the wagon and took a mannequin from Luke. "Not yet. I want to wait until it's painted and stuff."
"Don't you think she'll want to help?" He passed another mannequin to Jess.
He shrugged. "I guess I'll tell her in a couple days."
"And what are you planning to do with the place?"
"Books, music, a bar. It's ten minutes from Yale so I figure something that appeals to college students would be the best idea."
"This is gonna cost a lot of money, Jess. Money you don't have. Money I can't afford to give you."
"I know. I'll think of something. I'll probably have to get another job, so I don't know how much I can work for you."
"Don't worry about it. Do what you have to. And if worse comes to worst, I know for a fact that Taylor pays twenty bucks if you jump out of a plane."
"I think I'll pass on that one." He said, jumping out of the wagon.
"That's probably wise."
He nodded. "Hey, do you think Lorelai can take Friday off and go paint shopping with me?"
"You'd have to talk to her, but you really want Lorelai to pick out your paint?"
"As opposed to…Kirk or Taylor? I think I'll stick with Lorelai."
"Alright, but let me warn you…she has a painting song."
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Rory played with Lorelai's palm pilot as they drove to New York to go the record store Jess took Rory to. "…And Doyle calls her his girlfriend so she's been really happy. It's a little bit creepy." She went to the to-do list frowned. "Is something wrong at the inn?"
Lorelai looked at her for a second. "No. Why?"
"Cause 'call Tom for price estimates' is on your to-do list."
"That's for a friend. You know, since Tom did so much work for me, they asked if I could call him for them."
"Oh. What friend."
"Uh, just a guy. No one you know."
"You have friends that I don't know?"
"Oh, yea. Tons of friends. You don't know everyone I know."
Rory gasped. "Oh my God! Are you cheating on Luke?"
"No! I am not cheating on Luke. Jeez, Ror."
"Well, you say you're calling Tom to do work for some guy that I don't know. And you're being all cryptic with your 'call Tom' code."
"It's not a code! I need to call Tom."
"Then what's going on? Who needs construction work done?"
"Well…I'm not allowed to tell."
"Somebody asked you not to tell anyone that they need a contractor? What the hell are they building, a crack house?"
"Hey," She said, changing the subject. "You know what would be really great? Coffee. And directions."
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Luke ran back upstairs after Taylor had called him to his office to discuss the progress of the museum and a few things that still needed to be done. "Jess."
He was standing on a ladder, with a power drill, attaching a spotlight above the caveman diorama. "Yea?" He turned to Kirk, who was standing at the bottom of the ladder with a toolbox. "Hand me the Phillips head."
"Taylor needs me to go with him to pick up a cannonball. You good here?"
"Oh yea. Got Kirk. Got the Jebediahs. What more could a guy ask for?"
"Alright. Call if you need anything."
"Actually," Kirk chimed in. "We need five screws, two light bulbs, and a tuna melt."
"I'll send Kyle up with the screws and the light bulbs." He said to Jess before walking out.
"What about my tuna melt!" Kirk yelled after him.
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When Dean finished building a couple simple tables to display Mr. Twickham's possessions, Gypsy sent him upstairs to make sure the covered wagon and the kitchen table in the diorama were stable, as per Taylor's orders. He walked up the stairs adjusting the tool belt on his hips and went to the room the diorama was in. He glared when he saw Jess, but he was too caught up in the argument he was having with Kirk to notice Dean enter the room.
"No, Kirk!"
"Please…"
"You are not going up the ladder."
"But you put up all the lights. Why can't I put up this one?"
"Because I don't think Taylor would appreciate someone dying when a friggin spotlight falls on their head in the middle of his museum."
Kirk huffed and stepped to the side so Jess could climb up the ladder. "Fine."
"You're just worried that you'll be the one whose head gets crushed. Can I have the drill?"
"I dropped it out the window." Kirk told him.
"You what? How…you know what, I don't want to know. Just go get it."
"But, Dean had a drill. Can't you use his?"
He followed Kirk's line of vision and saw Dean looking at him. He really didn't want to ask Dean for a favor, but it was that or be alone with him while Kirk ran outside for the other drill. And knowing Kirk, that could take an hour. "Shit." He muttered then looked over at Dean. "Could I…please…use your drill, Dean?" He said, trying not to sound pained.
"You need to borrow my drill?"
"Yes."
"So, you, Jess Mariano, are asking me if you can borrow my drill?"
He clenched his teeth. "Yes."
"Well, I'm gonna get it back in the end so…" He said smugly, handing the drill to Kirk.
Kirk passed the drill to Jess, who was glaring at Dean's back. "Be careful. He seems to really like this drill."
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"Oh my God." Lorelai said happily as she and Rory sat on the couch looking through the records they bought. "That place is great. That guy was like Lane with a Y chromosome."
"I told you."
"And you didn't lie." She said appreciatively. "Kinda makes me wish I had a record player."
"We have a record player." Rory said, confused.
"Let me rephrase. Makes me wish I had a record player that still plays records."
Rory got up and ran to the record player. "Ahh! You broke our record player." She turned around and she gaped at her mother. "We just went out and bought a bunch of records that we can't even play?"
"Sorry?" She grimaced.
She shook her head. "I'll run over to Lane's. They have like three record players. I'm sure they'll let me borrow one." She grabbed her jacket and opened the door.
Lorelai jumped off the couch when she heard her daughter scream. "Rory?" She ran to the door and saw her holding her hand to her chest while Kirk stood next to her, his fist raised to knock on the door. "You okay, honey?"
"Kirk's here." She smiled tightly. "Like he seems to be every time I open the damn door." She added under her breath.
"I'll deal with this. You go see if Lane can help with our little record dilemma."
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Rory was sitting in Lane's room catching up with her best friend, when her phone started ringing. "Hello?" She answered.
"I understand that everyone loves me," Lorelai said. "But is staying at our house really that appealing?"
"Kirk's sleeping over?"
"Oh, it gets better."
"Really?"
"Paris is back. Doyle had to go somewhere for the weekend, and she was bored all alone at Yale because she finished the paper she had to write, so she came here."
Rory shrugged. "Maybe she heard Kirk was gonna be there."
"And…"
"And? There's an and?"
"You're boyfriend's here. I was thinking of inviting Luke over so we could have a big fun sleepover, but Jess is totally against it for some reason."
"Could it possibly be that you told him if you were at a slumber party you were gonna give him the details of his uncle's sex life."
Lorelai gasped. "He told you that?"
"No." She said slowly. "You told me that."
"Oh. Right."
"Just tell Jess…and Paris that I'll be over in a few minutes. Actually, tell Jess to come over here so he can carry the record player."
"Good idea. Use the boyfriend for manual labor. I like the way you think, kid."
"You taught me everything I know." She smiled. "I'll see you in a little while. Try not to let Paris kill Kirk."
"Bye, hon."
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A/N: I know there was some stuff out of the episode and a lot of you don't like that, but remember, this story is the same storyline as the show, but with Jess around…mostly. If you don't like it, then sorry. If you do like it, then yay. If you are indifferent to my use of stuff straight from the episode, then okay. Anyway, these next few chapters were written a while ago, before season five even ended, so I should be able to update more often because they just need to be typed.
