"And I hear your ship is coming in
Your tears a sea for me to swim
And I hear a storm is coming in
My dear, is it all we've ever been?"
"Anchor" by Novo Amor

x-x-x

Later in the evening, Rory walked through the door of her mother's house with suitcases in hand. "Lucy, I'm home!" she screamed as she sat down her bags. It didn't take too long for Elinor to come bolting down the stairs to hug her mother. "Hey, kid," she greeted her with a large smile. Nothing in the world felt better to Rory then getting to see her daughter after traveling.

"Hey, kid," Lorelai repeated to her daughter as she stood at the top of the stairwell. "How was the Europe trip?"

"It was unbelievable," Rory started as she gestured with her hands, "you have no idea." She had been there plenty of times, but she never expected a journalism stint to be as satisfying as that one was. "I'll tell you all about it over dinner. I'm starving."

"Me too," Elinor retorted as she craned her neck to look up at Rory. "Off to Luke's we go," she smiled happily and grabbed a book off of the coffee table. She was trying to read The Fountainhead like Rory had at her age. She was more than happy that she had passed down her love of reading to her daughter, but she knew that Elinor eventually give up and wait a few years until she decided to read it again. That's how it worked for Rory at least.

Rory picked up her suitcase and headed towards her old bedroom. "Let me go set my stuff down and we'll go, okay?" Unbeknownst to her, Lorelai had quietly followed her in and shut the door behind her so Elinor couldn't hear them talking.

"Honey," Lorelai said with a serious tone, the tone that was used whenever bad things happened. For a moment, Rory panicked thinking that someone had died or was sick. She hadn't heard her mother speak like that since she was told that her grandfather had passed away and it made her heart race. "Sit down, I've got something to tell you."

Rory closed her eyes and sat down with caution. She wasn't ready for whatever was about to come from Lorelai's lips. "Did someone die?" she asked blatantly as if it were an everyday occurrence.

Lorelai gave her a sympathetic smile and let out a small bout of laughter. "No, nobody died. Sorry for scaring you." She looked over at Rory and cupped the girls' cheek in her hands, not knowing how to prepare her for the next words she was about to speak. "I don't know how to say this delicately, but Jess is in town."

"Huh?" Rory asked, suddenly panicking. Her Bambi eyes were now wide and bright and she looked like she was unable to comprehend the situation. "What is Jess doing here?"

"He's just visiting. It wasn't planned so there was absolutely no time to let you know."

Rory bit down on her bottom lip and shook her head. "Mom," she whined, "I can't do this."

Lorelai tugged on Rory's shoulder and pulled her into a hug. "Yes, you can. I know you can. Let's just go to Luke's and see how everything plays off there, okay?" Rory nodded her head slowly and took in a large gulp of air before standing up and finishing unpacking a few things. She wasn't exactly sure how she should react to the news – if she should even react to the news, but deep within she felt as if it was going to be a disaster. Her stomach churned and turned in a way that made Rory feel as if she was going through morning sickness all over again. She stumbled over to her vanity and looked at herself in the mirror. She hadn't looked too fresh faced from her long flight home; it was obvious that she was more jet legged than she thought possible. If Jess was here, she wanted to look more exuberant than she did at the moment which made her take her shaky hands and try to put on makeup in order to look representable out in the town before going out. Rory never stopped thinking about the worst-case scenario in a situation such as this one and it was obvious that something bad could instantly happen if they were to run into each other before he left. Everything in her being was hoping and praying that he would not be there, but it was highly unlikely.

Rory finally left her room after minutes of touching up her makeup and changing her clothes. Nervously, she asked, "How does Al's Pancake World sound instead?"

Her daughter glared at her the only way a Gilmore knew how to and it scared Rory how much she had gotten that from Emily. "I want to go to the diner," Elinor whined. Of course she had gotten her whining from her mother and nana. It was another Gilmore trait that the girls had accidentally passed down.

After a few seconds went by, Rory nodded her head. "Off to Luke's we go then."

Elinor made a mad dash out of the house, leaving the other Gilmore girls behind. "It's going to be okay," Lorelai whispered as she placed a hand on Rory's shoulder and walked her out of their house.

x-x-x

Once they arrived to the diner, Rory was greeted by some of her old friends. Luke had awkwardly tried to hug her, but it was almost worse than the day she was accepted into Yale. She sat down next to the girls with a dreary look on her face. "Why does he do that?" she asked her mother with a frown.

"Because he loves you," she stated matter-of-factly making Rory smile. He acted more like her father than Christopher ever did and he truly cared about the three girls. Rory was lucky to have someone like Luke, even if their hugs were quite odd. Lorelai and Rory scanned the whole place, making sure that Jess was nowhere to be found, but just as the anxiety started to fade from their stomachs, Lorelai saw him coming down from upstairs. "He's here," she whispered.

Rory turned around in her seat and looked back at him. Instantly when she saw him, it felt as if she had been transported back in time. There was something about the way he had always looked at her that made her weak in the knees and unable to speak. "Hey," Rory finally greeted him with a small smile.

"Hey," he said back as he shoved his hands in his pockets. "Where have you been, stranger?"

She lifted her eyebrows at him and didn't speak another word. Instead, everything became a blur as she stood up from her seat and suddenly landed with her arms wrapped around him. Tears were brimming in her eyes as she laid her head on his shoulder, squeezing him tighter and closer to her every once in awhile. Finally, she released herself after realizing that everyone in town saw her desperately hanging onto Jess of all people. He wasn't as hated as he used to be. In fact, some people finally came to like his presence around town, but Rory felt as if letting go would be the best for the both of them. As she pulled away, she saw the large smile on his face as he looked down at her. Rory's cheeks started growing hot and red, making her hang her head in embarrassment and sit back down at their usual table.

"Hi, Luke's nephew," Elinor waved. Rory wasn't aware that they had already met and started fearing for the worst.

"His name is Jess," Rory told her daughter with a grin.

"Hi, Jess."

"Hi," he said back. He was never a person with too many words to say. He would write books upon books, but for some reason, his mind went blank every time he spoke. "What's your name?"

"Elinor Bennet Gilmore."

Jess could hold back his grin once he put it all together. "Jane Austin?" he asked Rory, trying his best not to laugh. If it weren't for Rory, he wouldn't have understood the reference.

She nodded her head and looked up at him from her seat. Her eyes were sparkling like they usual did when she saw her old friend. There was something about Jess that Rory still didn't understand. It had been years since they had met, but he was still a mystery to her, especially now that they were all grown up. "Literary names seemed fitting," she shrugged.

"That's very you," he nodded, a small grin still on his face.

Once Luke brought the girls their food, Jess couldn't help but to look at Elinor. She had brought a book to the diner and read all the way through her dinner. The closer he looked, he could see that her hair was a darker tint than Lorelai's and Rory's. Something about it bugged him. Dizziness fell upon him as he thought that somehow he could've been her father. He knew Rory well enough to know that she would've told him. She shrugged it off as another mans kid for the time being, but before he left the diner to head over to Gypsy's, he ducked down and whispered in Rory's ear. "Can we talk later?"