A/N: Yeah, so I've been sort of absent here with the chapter-updating. I just had a hard time getting this one good, I'm sort of anal about this story, since it's a sequel to my first. Oh well, it feels just about right now, so here's my Christmas present to all of you. Happy Holidays!
Disclaimer: I, the author of this story, do not own any of the characters from Gilmore Girls. That honor belongs to the wonderful Amy Sherman-Palladino. I am not making any money on this (in fact, I wouldn't be surprised if I'm losing money over it…).
5. It takes a town…meeting.
"People, people, this is very important!" Taylor pleaded, standing at his little desk, gavel in hand.
The townspeople all sat quiet, dull-eyed, filtering out Taylor's voice.
"Taylor, if we agree to this, whateva it is, will ya shut up an' move on? Morey an' I are late." Babbette croaked from the middle of the crowd.
"It would of course be coercing my own motion, but… yes, it might just be…" Taylor began.
"Aye!" came the loud echo from all of the townspeople, agreeing to something, whatever Taylor had been enforcing.
Just then, Lorelai, Rory, Jess and Luke entered.
"Oh man, did they start early?" Rory whispered.
"Either they're early, we're late or both, in which case we should crouch." Lorelai whispered in answer.
"Lorelai!" Miss Patty exclaimed from the front.
"Shoot!" Lorelai hissed. "Hey Patty… and the rest of you.
"Lorelai… I hope that isn't food you're bringing with you." Taylor said in a reproachful voice, eyeing the suspicious bag Lorelai was holding, before turning to look at Rory. "How nice of you to join us. Welcome back."
"Thanks Taylor." Rory smiled.
Jess nodded a greeting to Taylor, who only scowled at him.
They sat down, and the regular chaos that was the town meeting commenced. Kirk wanted permission to do his Kirk-in-the-box again, only this time he wanted to do it nude, to which everyone voted against him. Jess felt tempted to vote in favor of it, what could be more hilarious than Kirk in the nude in a see-through box? Gypsy wanted to sue Bootsy for not saving her a copy of Car & Owner. Bootsy was offended, saying that it wasn't his fault Gypsy was slow, she knew very well he only had so many copies of Car & Owner. Taylor dismissed the whole case, saying this was a town meeting not Ally McBeal.
"Taylor knows Ally McBeal?" Rory whispered.
"I so do not wanna know why…" Lorelai said, stuffing a handful of fries in her mouth.
"Now," Taylor announced. "Before our last errand, is there anyone who would like to bring something up?"
"Oh, there's my cue!" Lorelai said excitingly.
"God help us all…" Luke muttered, grumpily.
"No? Nothing? Good!" Taylor concluded, looking smug.
"What?! No, I had something!" Lorelai yelled, standing up.
"Lorelai, I'm sorry, but you're too late. You should have spoken up when the floor was open for new topics."
"Taylor, the floor was more or less closed by the time our brains had got the message that it was open!" she protested.
"Lorelai, you had perfectly good time to stand up and claim the floor. Too bad, now. Maybe next week." Taylor answered.
"You bet…" Lorelai murmured under her breath, giving Taylor a look that could kill. Or at least incapacitate for an unknown time.
"Well, on to our final matter. We have all noticed the return of our own Rory Gilmore. As our honorary Stars Hollow citizen…" Taylor began.
"What, I'm an honorary citizen now?"
"Yeah, they announced it just after you left." Luke whispered.
"Mom! How could you not tell me?"
"Hey, you freaked out about the ice cream queen thing, you think you'd wanted to know about this?"
"…Jess Mariano." Taylor finished.
"What? Me?" Jess asked.
"Jess? What's he done?" Rory asked aloud.
"Well, for one, he's returned." Taylor responded, looking disapprovingly at Jess. "We all remember his previous stays here, am I not right?"
No one answered, as they were all busy staring at Jess.
"Babbette? Did he not kidnap Pierpont?"
"Oh come on, Taylor!" Luke yelled and stood up. "He returned that gnome in one piece!"
"That he did!" Babbette agreed.
"The fake murder outside a certain establishment?"
"Aren't you sort of biased there Taylor? It was your own store?" Andrew asked.
"No matter, he still faked a crime scene! People, you seem out of it. We have a hoodlum seated among us! Will you risk your property and your safety for this hooligan? I say no! So by the power of the new supplement to paragraph 7 of bylaw 65, which states that the mayor of Stars Hollow can banish a citizen, effective immediately, I hereby banish Jess Mariano."
Pandemonium broke out. Luke, looking like a rabid animal, almost jumped over five rows to get at Taylor, Lorelai and Rory started yelling at him, Lorelai trying to mow him down with the remaining of her fries, and the rest of the townspeople suddenly came alive, buzzing among them, figuring that this was the law they had agreed to earlier, and wondering how this would play out. All the while, Jess sat quietly in his seat, laughing silently.
"Jess! What are you doing?" Rory asked, panic in her voice. "Say something! Defend yourself, you can't let that stupid, idiotic moron of a mayor have his way!"
Jess just smiled at her, pulling her down to sit, while he stood up.
"Taylor? May I speak before you have me leave?"
The room fell silent in a second.
"I'm sure we are all thrilled to hear your last words, young man." Taylor said and agreed hesitantly.
"Thank you. I'm sure you lay up all night hashing out all the details for that little supplement, and as far as I can hear it's all by the law and all you people probably agreed because Taylor's a big yawn."
"The point, Mariano, the point!" Taylor urged.
"I won't leave."
"Of course you will! The supplement to paragraph 7 of bylaw 65 clearly states..!"
"That you may evict any citizen of Stars Hollow." Jess continued calmly, stressing the word citizen. "Too bad I'm not a citizen."
Taylor looked completely blank.
"Guess you didn't think of that. I changed my hometown from Stars Hollow three years ago, when I moved to Philadelphia."
"I will not tolerate this nonsense, you will leave!"
"Sure I'll leave." Jess said as he sat down, and shrugged his shoulders. "In a week."
Taylor looked like he was ready to blow.
"Come on, Taylor, give the kid a break!" Lorelai prompted.
"If you so much as…" Taylor began.
"Shut up Taylor!"
Jess looked up at Rory in surprise. She had that look, he had seen it a couple of times. This was not good.
"You will not tell him what to do! He's a grown man for heaven's sake, I live with him and can testify that he's completely reliable! You so much as think the thought of banishing him then you can kiss your town princess goodbye!"
"Rory!" Lorelai gasped. "Take that back, remember mommy's mental health and the Renoir girl!"
"Come now, Rory, don't be so harsh…" Taylor tried, sounding whiny.
"I'll be harsh if that's the only thing that works, damn it! You are totally unbelievable and childish to hold grudges against people like that! He was seventeen, for crying out loud, and it wasn't like you were making an effort to help him."
That made Taylor silent, along with the rest of the crowd. The common thought swirling through their heads was something along the line of "This isn't like Rory…"
"Now," Rory continued her voice calmer. "Are we clear here? Jess stays, and if you so much as try to harass him…"
"I'll expose you!" chipped in Lorelai.
"You'll do what?" asked Kirk, confused.
"Wow, that didn't come out right…" she muttered.
"Come again, Lorelai?" Taylor asked, looking worried.
"I've got my eyes on you…" Lorelai said, trying to sound mysterious, making a move with her hand to indicate she would be watching.
After that, Taylor adjourned the meeting in three seconds, and disappeared before anyone had noticed.
"Well… That was interesting…" Jess said smilingly, when he and Rory walked around town afterwards.
"Yeah, I'm sorry, I just snapped. I mean, how could he be so conceited and… mean?"
"That's Taylor for you. But… next time someone makes a personal attack at me, could you perhaps let me defend myself? Not that I didn't enjoy you playing my very own Ally McBeal, but I did have a good defence speech ready."
"Sorry… I'll bite my tongue next time."
They wandered along, Jess consciously leading her towards a certain place. This would be as good a time as any.
"Hey, where are we going?" Rory suddenly asked.
"Now that you mention it… It's a surprise."
"I love surprises!"
Jess laughed, he would never get tired of her exuberance. They were quite close now, so he put his hands over Rory's eyes.
"Hey! What's with the hands? I can't see a thing!"
"That's the general idea. Come on, I'll make sure you don't fall."
It took him ten minutes to herd Rory to the right spot, mostly because she would stop all of a sudden to guess where they were going. So far she had guessed wrong with home, Luke's, the bridge, the gazebo and for some strange reason, she had also suggested church. When he finally had her in the right spot, he stopped.
"Okey, I'm gonna take away the hands, but I need you to keep your eyes closed, okey?"
"Eyes closed, got it."
Slowly, Jess pulled away his hands.
"Eyes closed?"
"More closed than a legal case." she giggled.
"Keep 'em that way."
Rory felt jittery, what was this? She obediently kept her eyes closed, but tried to use her other senses to get a clue as to where they were and what they were doing wherever they were. She could sense Jess moving in front of her, before he became still.
"Okey, you can open them."
She opened her eyes, but everything was black. She blinked a couple of times, looking around. It took her a while to recognize the place. They were at the old Independence Inn, right by the pond, under the tree where she had kissed him for the first time. She looked around again, finding Jess' face a bit lower down than she was used to. Her mouth fell open.
"Jess..?" she breathed.
He was down on one knee, smiling dazzlingly up at her.
"Rory. I can see you remember this place. I thought it would be fitting."
"Oh my God…" Rory whispered, her right hand flying up to her mouth.
"Rory Gilmore, will you, someday when the time is right, be my wife?"
Rory felt strangely dazed. She had been proposed to before, but this was nothing like it. This was by someone she had longed for, someone who knew her to her core. This was nothing like she had felt when Logan proposed at her graduation party. There weren't anyone else present but her and Jess, and it felt… right.
"Ro..?"
"Yes!" she squealed and fell down beside him.
They fell into a hug, Jess beaming widely and Rory letting out squealing sounds of joy.
"So… where's the ring? Shouldn't there be a ring somewhere in all of this?" Rory asked teasingly.
"Yeah, there's a ring. It's in my bag in your room. I didn't think I was doing this tonight, to be honest, I wasn't sure when I was gonna pop the question, but I guess there's nothing like a town meeting to get me in the mood for matrimony."
At the last word, Rory's face went sort of pallid. Her look faltered, and she suddenly seemed far away.
"Rory?" Jess asked worriedly. Did I say something?"
"No, I'm fine, it's just… people will be all over this, and mom, and oh my god, grandma! I'll be married before I'll know it!"
"Hey, you don't want to rush, then that's fine by me. I don't have any imminent urge to dress up in a tux and have Miss Patty and Babbette pinch me in the ass."
"Jeez…" Rory said, mocking disgust.
They lay quiet for a while.
"So you're okey with a long engagement then?" she asked him.
"As long as you want it to be." Jess promised.
"I promise I'll marry you someday." Rory teased. "Come on, let's go home. I'd like to see my ring. No, I demand it!"
"You demand is… whatever, let's go." Jess smiled.
"You know we'll have to tell my mom. And grandma and grandpa."
"Any bright plans or otherwise smart suggestions for that?"
"None."
"We'll wing it."
A/N: Wohoo for that! Think of reviewing as Christmas presents, I've been good!