Apparently, dispite my intense hatred for the commercial aspects of Christmas, it will continue. Probably just for one more chapter after this, but who knows? Well, enjoy.

Luke shifted a little nervously as he waited for the door to open. He didn't get why he was feeling like this; things should have been easier by now, but for some reason it was about as nerve-wracking as ever, standing there, waiting.

"Luke? What are you doing here?" Lorelai asked, pulling open the door. She wrapped her coat tighter around her as the temperature changed, the cool air invading her nice warm apartment. "Jess isn't here; Rory said something about meeting him for a movie, but when they get back I can give him a message for you."

"No. That's not why I came."

"Oh. Ok," she waited for him to explain, but he didn't. "So, did you need something, or…?"

"I just wanted… I-I brought you something."

"You…? Why?"

"Christmas present. Peace offering, peace on earth, all that. Whatever."

"But Christmas isn't for two weeks, remember? You've been complaining for days about how early things get started here."

"Yeah, I know, but... I don't know. Just, you and Rory have both been going on about your crappy coffee, so I thought, maybe…"

"You brought me coffee?" she checked and he brought his hands from behind his back where he'd been holding a canister of his special blend of ground coffee beans. "You did, you brought me coffee, I can't believe this."

"I'd be a lot happier if the two of you just stopped drinking the stuff altogether, but-"

"No you wouldn't." Lorelai interrupted, turning back inside and indicating that he should follow. "Remember that time I tried? One week of pure hell for everyone around me. You don't want the two of us stopping."

"Huh, yeah, I guess I forgot about that week. Blocked out the horror or something,"

"A wise decision." She carried the coffee over to the counter and put it next to Wanda, the coffeemaker, before opening the fridge. "So did you want… well, other than coffee I think I have… water. Oh, there's some coke in here." She added excitedly, but after twisting open the top, and not hearing a fizz, she frowned. "I think it's flat though."

"No. That's ok. I should be getting back to practice my patented 'don't even think about trying any funny stuff' look. For the next time they're on my watch,"

"You've got one of those, huh? Is it as good as Emily's, 'I know all, I see everything, you can't hide anything from me' look?"

"Oh, I think it's even better."

"Wow, someone thinks rather highly of himself."

"Well I have to; I rarely have anyone to boost my ego, so I've got to do it myself."

"Fair enough,"

"Anyway, I should go. You've got that Christmas party tomorrow night, right?"

"Yes. Thanks for reminding me."

"At least now you'll have some coffee to get you through."

"That is a very good point. Thanks for this."

"Your welcome, I'll see you… tomorrow?"

"Uh, sure. Probably. We have to eat, and since I'm not so great in the kitchen…"

"I still can't believe that. You'd think between Sookie and me, we could have taught you something."

"No, you see that's the thing though. Between you, Sookie and the million maids and chefs at my parents house I never had any need to learn how to cook. Probably should have though, would have made the last decade a little easier if I wasn't afraid I'd burn the house down every time I tried to boil an egg."

"Maybe we can remedy that sometime."

"That'd be nice, Luke. Thanks. And thanks again for this." She added, holding up the coffee.

"Sure. I'll see you," he reached for the door handle and walked back out into the hall. That wasn't so hard, now was it? He thought walking towards the stairs.

"This is crazy." Rory stated as she walked through the town square with Jess an hour or so later.

"Christmas is a big deal here," he replied.

"No, I get that. But it's still a fortnight away and they're acting like every morning is Christmas morning. Am I the only one who finds that strange?"

"No. Luke agrees with you. And I do understand your point, but I still love it."

"Of course you do, you were baby Jesus. It's in your blood now or something."

"I wish I hadn't told you that." Jess shook his head and Rory reached out to take his hand.

"I'm glad you did. I liked hearing about those things. I missed out on most of the makings of a fun happy childhood, but I'm glad you got to experience it."

"You can too, you know."

"Have you got a time machine stashed in your garage or something?"

"No, just my grandfather's boat, but I mean, if you want, I'm sure we could talk Taylor into letting you be the baby Jesus. They accept people of all ages as the Pilgrims for Thanksgiving, but you missed out this year, so you'll just have to hang around 'til next year. And as for the leprechaun's, that's easy. We'll just dress up in green from head to toe and dance along behind the floats. No one will think it's weird."

"Has anyone ever told you you're insane?" Rory asked, shaking her head and stopping to stand in the middle of the street.

"Ah, yeah. I think I've heard that somewhere." Jess replied, standing with her. "Why?" he asked, dipping his head down a little to kiss her. "You don't like my idea?"

"It's very nice, and the St. Patrick's Day thing sounds almost feasible." She grinned, wrapping her arms around his neck. "But there is no way in hell I'm going to lie naked in the manger back there for the entire town to see," she explained, pointing back towards the centre of town.

"Oh, no. You wouldn't be completely naked. There's a blanket that you get wrapped in. Although," Jess looked her up and down for a moment, "given the difference in size, it'd probably look a little like covering yourself in a hand towel."

"Well that case," Rory rolled her eyes. "Maybe we'll leave that to the little ones. I wouldn't want to deprive Mrs. Cassini's granddaughter of her fifteen minutes of fame."

"No. I guess that would be a bad idea. Ok, well we'll just do St. Patrick's then, how's that sound?"

"Will there be whiskey we can partake in?" Rory asked hopefully as they resumed their walk home.

"I'm sure there will be whiskey. However, the chances of us getting any…"

"Slim to none?"

"Very slim to almost non-existent," he corrected and Rory shrugged.

"Oh, well. You can't blame a girl for trying."

"I guess you can't."

"How did we get here so fast?" Rory asked, looking up at her mom's apartment building, disappointed. "We stopped and everything."

"Considering the very short amount of time it takes to get everywhere in this town, it's really not all that surprising that even with your attempts to get me to break both our curfews, we still made it back here on time."

"That's another thing I don't get."

"Curfew?"

"Yeah. I mean, I've never had one before. All those years in the city, that I was out, causing trouble and generally screwing up my life, Mom never told me that I had to be home by a certain time. It was just sort of implied that I'd get back from whatever I was doing at some point before sunrise."

"I guess it's a part of her new parenting strategy."

"I blame your mother."

"Mom? Why?"

"She's too good at her job and Lorelai has decided she needs to emulate Liz's behavior, which means I suffer for it."

"Even if your mom wasn't trying to better things, I'd still have to be home, so you'd still be bored, whether you were in your room or wandering around in the dark. Which, by the way, I never liked you doing,"

"Excuse me? You did it too! And also, this town is probably about the safest place in the world to wander around after dark in."

"Fine, you've got me there."

"I certainly do, don't I?" she wrapped her arms around him again and leaned in to kiss him for a moment, before he pulled back.

"I still have to go."

"No."

"Yes. But I'll see you tomorrow and I'll help you prepare for your grandparent's crazy party, ok?"

"Crazy grandparent's party," She corrected.

"Whatever you want to call it, I'm still going home. So get inside, would you?"

"Fine! Just leave me all alone. I'll find a way to amuse myself."

"Good to know."

"Night Jess," Rory smiled at him as he ok a step back towards the foot path.

"Night Ror," and then he was gone and she headed inside.

"Ok, so we'll just go in, 'hi', 'hi', 'merry Christmas', 'hi.' Take our drinks, and sit quietly until dinner."

"At which point we'll burst into the Bette Midler medley we've been rehearsing all week?" Rory returned, climbing out of the car. Lorelai had recently bought a Jeep Wrangler and she loved it.

"Exactly. Mom will go nuts for it, I think."

"She'll certainly go nuts," Rory replied.

"Alright, so… you ready?" Lorelai asked, nervously.

"Apple tarts," the young girl reminded her and she sighed.

"Yes, apple tarts. Ok. I can do this, I think."

"Good, let's go." Rory rang the door bell and they waited until Emily came and opened the door.

"Hello girls, don't you look lovely?"

"Hi Mom, merry Christmas," Lorelai replied. Rory looked at her oddly, once again thinking, 'it's not Christmas,' but Lorelai nudged her and she also wished her grandmother season's greetings.

"Thank you, merry Christmas to you as well."

"Oh, here, we have a gift for you too." Lorelai added.

"Well, isn't that nice? Thank you. I'll put this under the tree, go on inside and meet our other guests, won't you?" Emily instructed, heading off and leaving them alone.

"Oh no," Lorelai stopped in the doorway, staring into the room.

"What?" Rory whispered to her mother as they slowly made their way into the living room.

"Holland Prescott is here. And… Alan something. I'm not sure. But these people where coming here before you were even born. I can't believe it. Nothing in this house ever changes."

"That could be a good thing," Rory pointed out.

"How so?"

"It could mean the apple tarts…"

"Are still here. Yes, you're right. I'm so glad that I have you here to remind me of that."

"No problem,"

"Holland, do you remember my daughter Lorelai?" Emily called out as she returned to the room.

"Oh, yes. Lorelai, it's so nice to see you again."

"You too, Holland, this is my daughter Rory. You probably don't remember her though."

"Hello Rory."

"Hi," Rory smiled back at the woman and spoke with her briefly for a moment before she and her mother were able to make it over to the bar.

"I think that went very well," Lorelai announced as the door shut behind her and Rory "Don't you think that went very well?"

"Aside from that insufferable Gigi, I think it went ok, yeah. The tarts were good."

"Didn't I tell you? Best ever."

"Did I see you sneak one into your purse?" Rory enquired as they pulled out onto the street.

"Nope,"

"I'm sure I saw you wrapping one in a napkin and-"

"Take a look," Lorelai instructed and Rory lifted the purse in question from the floor and looked inside.

"There are four apple tarts in here, how did you manage that?"

"Pure skill,"

"What are you planning on doing with these?"

"Well, I thought I would give one to Sookie to study, analyze; see if she can't work out the recipe."

"And if she can't?"

"I'll simply thank her with another one, leaving the other two for you and I to enjoy."

"That's a very well thought out plan."

"I know,"

"So who came up with it?"

Lorelai scoffed and looked away from the road for a moment. "I'll have you know, your genius mother did."

"Well, isn't she clever?"

"I believe so, yes. So, um, what do you say we stop at Luke's?"

"He'll be closing up now. Or, probably closed already, actually," Rory replied, checking her watch.

"Surely he wouldn't mind making one last pot of coffee for us. I mean, he likes you, at least when you aren't sucking face with Jess."

"Thank you for being gross."

"I'm just saying, we should stop by, see if he's still down there. If he's already headed upstairs for the night we'll continue on home. What do you say?"

"You've been spending a lot of time at the diner lately."

"Well, yeah. If I didn't I'd only get to see you two nights a week."

"I'm with you now though," Rory pointed out, before realizing she should shut up. It was working.

"Ok, so we'll just-"

"No. Actually, on second thought, coffee sounds great. I don't know what I was thinking. Let's go."

"You're sure?

"Yes. Come on, before he really does close. Step on it!"

"Alright," Lorelai sped up a little and they quickly reached the diner to find Luke putting the chairs up onto the tables.

"Luke! Hey, open up." Rory called out, banging on the door. He stopped, mid-lift, and put the chair back on the floor, before coming over to unlock it.

"What are you doing here?" he asked, not opening it too wide.

"Freezing to death, mainly, can we come in, grab some coffee?" Rory asked, hopping from foot to foot to keep warm.

"Oh, and pie!" Lorelai added.

"I'm closed. I turned off the-"

"There's still half a pot there," Rory pointed out. "Is it warm?"

"Probably. But did you not hear the bit about me being closed?"

"Oh, yeah, no I heard that, I'm just disregarding it."

He closed his eyes as the two of them continued to bounce and then stepped aside. "Fine, but just one cup of coffee and one piece of pie and then you're out of here. Got it?"

"Told you he liked you," Lorelai muttered to Rory, who just shook her head and moved to sit down. She was pretty sure the only reason Luke agreed was because her mom was with her. Had she tried that alone, he would have just told her to shut up and go to bed.

"And I'm giving you decaf." Luke added, placing a plate in front of each of them.

"What?"

"Why?"

"Because that's what this is and since it's close to eleven I don't want to be responsible for the two of you bouncing off the walls when you get home."

"He tricked us!" Lorelai grumbled, digging into her cherry pie.

"You're the one that wanted coffee, mom." Rory replied, "So you just have to deal with what's on offer."

"But decaf? There is no point in drinking decaf. It doesn't even taste like coffee. It doesn't even smell like real coffee."

"When you're done comparing and contrasting regular and decaf, lock up, would you? I'm going to bed." Luke interrupted, heading for the stairs. "Oh and-"

"Rinse the plates and cups." Rory finished. "Jeez, anyone would think you didn't believe I knew how to do my job."

"Good night," was all he said before walking away.

"Night," the girls called out after him.

Rory climbed out of bed the next morning and slowly made her way into the kitchen. She was desperate for a coffee, but couldn't manage to drag herself to Luke's just yet. Instead she removed the bag from the freezer and sniffed the contents of the bag, scrunching up her nose in displeasure.

After a second of thought, she sniffed again and smiled thoughtfully. This was not the awful crap that had been there the week before.

If she has Luke's coffee, Rory thought, why did we have to stop there last night? And why didn't he say anything? How did she even get this?

Then it occurred to her, obviously he had extended an olive branch and they were making some slow progress. I won't say a word, she decided. I'll just sit back and enjoy the show till one of them mentions it.

Aren't we proud? They're moving forward, things are mending. Maybe this will all work out after all. I have to stop using the word 'maybe'. Don't yell at me Addie, ok? I didn't mean it. It will work out.