A/N: Sorry for the holdup, but I swear, school is hijacking my life. I had my own personal hell-week last week and on top of that my internet has more or less broken down. Basically I'm stuck waiting for someone (apparantly someone who doesn't understand how important it is for a student to have working internet connection) to fix the problem. I'm already doubly-screwed, so hopefully they'll get if fixed properly and soon, so as to not add to my scewed-ness because that would suck. Anyhoo, here you go, chapter 12!
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…).
12. We're getting there
"Babe and Rocky junior, are you home?
Lorelai was positively jumping up and down, waiting for Rory to open.
"Lorelai, would you please not jump on my foot?" Luke asked her in a strained voice.
She ignored him, and prayed silently that Jess had gotten Rory to speak and that things were somewhat better now than before.
"Pulling out the baby pictures as we speak, and this time I mean it!" she instead shouted, jumping a bit more enthusiastically.
"Lorelai, would you stop doing that, it feels like the floor is about to give in!" Emily scolded her.
"Oh come on Mom, I know you're just as psyched as I am to see if Rory's better."
Her mother scoffed at the word 'psyched', probably not finding it an appropriate adjective to describe the her, Richard smiled, stifling a small laugh.
"Richard, this is not funny." she said.
"I know my love, but you are." he answered.
"I most certainly…" Emily began reproachfully.
She couldn't finish that sentence, as the door swung open. Rory and Jess were standing together in the doorway, Rory looking somewhat nervous, while Jess was holding his arm around her waist. Emily couldn't help but smile at them.
"Babe! What took you so long? Did you get stuck in the tub?"
Lorelai whirled forward, capturing her daughter in a hug, managing to get half of Jess stuck in there too.
"Okey, not breathing here!" Rory choked out.
"Right, air, breath, why can't I learn?" Lorelai rambled, hitting her forehead.
"And I was just explaining to Jess why I shouldn't housebreak you."
"Wow, thanks Rory." Jess muttered sarcastically.
"I love you too." Rory answered him smilingly.
"Housebreak me? Isn't Paul Anka enough? And why should I be housebroken? As far as I know I have a house, and at one point I was broke, so you can check that off your list, mister." Lorelai said and turned to Luke. "Luke, your nephew is so slow on the uptake. Has something happened? He had such a bright future…"
"See what I mean?" Jess told Rory, quirking an eyebrow.
"Not really."
"She's damaged for life." Luke chipped in.
"Hey!" mother and daughter echoed.
"Just kidding…"
"So, what, are we just gonna stand here and wait for the floor to give in?" Lorelai asked, making Emily roll her eyes at the comment.
"You can come in." Rory replied, and she and Jess stepped out of the doorway.
The four of them stepped inside, and closed the door. Richard took Emily's coat, and Luke, feeling he couldn't be any worse, did the same to Lorelai.
"So guys, are things okey?"
"Lorelai, for heaven's sake, let the youngsters be. I swear, it's like you've been raised by savages."
"I wouldn't put it past the citizens of Stars Hollow, mrs. Gilmore." Luke told her, looking amusedly at Lorelai.
"Coming from the man who is one." Lorelai pointed out.
"I'm the only sane person in that medical experiment of a town." Luke defended himself.
"Oh, don't say that uncle Luke…" Jess teased.
"You stay out of this, nephew!"
"He called me 'nephew'…"
"Oh boy…" Rory sighed.
"Rory," Emily said, trying to regain some normality in present company. "Are things… better?"
Rory took a deep breath. This would be hard.
"We talked. Jess and I, we… Yeah. We talked."
"I think she needs more than that…" Jess whispered to her, taking her hand.
"And… well, the engagement's on again, on the condition that no one butts in until I specifically asks them to. Then it's butts away." Rory finished, internally letting out a huge gust of relief.
Lorelai smiled at her. Rory figured she was proud of her for having the guts to stand up to Emily 'the marriage-grinch' Gilmore. Luke and Richard were unspecified, they probably didn't care that much, so long as Rory was happy. Emily… Well, to say that her grandmother looked pleased would have been a lie.
"Grandma," Rory tried. "This is… well I can't say it's personal, because it is. You were out of line there, and you see how that almost ended. But, you need to understand, I am not… I am not mom."
"And I'm gonna pretend I didn't hear that." Lorelai muttered.
"I know you were afraid I'd leave you out of it, and that we'd run off and get married without letting you know it. I couldn't do that to you and grandpa, but I needed time, and you took that away from me."
Emily was quiet for a long time, and Rory could almost see what she was trying hard not to say. The words 'people' and 'talk' were involved, often in the same sentence.
"Emily." Richard said warmly, putting and arm around his wife's shoulders.
"I… suppose we can wait." Emily answered stiffly.
Rory smiled, and went to hug her grandmother.
"But can you at least give me a rough time frame?" Emily asked pleadingly.
"God mom, got much in your schedule? Some tennismatch you've booked years in advance?"
"Years?" Emily turned first to Lorelai and then to Rory, astounded.
"I think I asked for no one to butt in, mom, that means you, too." Rory told her mother.
"Definitely not naming baby Rory the Second."
"Thank God for that…" Luke grunted, only to get poked in the ribs. "Hey!"
"I'm hormonal." Lorelai said dismissively.
"So Rory, time frame? Roughly? That's all I'm asking for." Emily asked.
"I only just got back from the campaign trail. I need to unwind, and get moved in here properly, and get a job, and… Oh God, jobs!"
"What? What did I miss?" Lorelai asked confusedly.
"I have jobs!"
"You have a job?" Richard asked. "That's wonderful, Rory!"
"Yes, I got letters from the Philadelphia Inquirer, and Philadelphia City Paper. I need to call them and schedule job interviews, and…"
"Philadelphia Inquirer, that's an excellent newspaper, Rory. You're making your old grandfather very proud." Richard told her, swelling with pride, although he could have been talking to a wall for all the response he got.
Rory was flitting around nervously, trying to find the envelopes from the newspapers.
"Okey, calm down honey. This is not your hell-week from Chilton." Lorelai reminded her.
"You've got time, just relax." Jess agreed. "And your envelopes are in Stars Hollow, with all of our bags."
"And swans…" Lorelai teased, and got a dark look from Jess.
"But I need to prepare!" Rory protested, oblivious to the staring match between her fiancé and her mother.
"You so much as think that one more time and I'm calling up Paris so she can make you a whiteboard schedule." Jess smirked.
Rory had made the mistake of telling him about the whiteboard schedules Paris had made in what must have been some form of academic psychosis. Jess had teased her for it relentlessly, and reminding her about the whiteboard was enough to make Rory calm down a notch.
"You are playing dirty." she finally relented.
"And you love me for it."
He gave her a light kiss on the nose, and she quickly snuggled up against his neck, feeling like nothing bad could touch her there.
"Get a room if you're going to go gooey on us here."
"Oh, we're getting there, Lorelai." Jess told her and smiled wickedly.
"God, I think I might need a room now."
"I'm right behind you." Luke said, sounding very uncomfortable.
"Oh, behave like adult, you two." Emily scolded them.
"Mom, I'm fo… I am an adult!"
"Got a problem with your age there, Lorelai?" Jess asked her, tentatively arching an eyebrow.
"Not as much of a problem as you will have if you don't drop it, Rocky boy." Lorelai replied.
"I'm so going to take advantage of that…"
"You are four, again." Rory told Jess, kissing him lightly on the lips.
"Ugh!" Lorelai exclaimed hopelessly, staggering over to the sofa.
"So, what now?" Lorelai asked twenty minutes later from where she was sitting in the sofa, trying to conceal herself from Jess' and Rory's occasional acts of gooeyness.
"Like 'what now-now' or 'what now-undefinably later'?" Rory counter-asked.
"I can't decide. What have you got for now-now?"
Rory thought for a moment.
"I'm drawing a blank."
"Good, 'cause I've got something."
"And thank God I don't have a Bop-It." Rory mused.
"Hey! The Bop-It was great!"
"The Bop-It almost caused a physical fight."
"Did not!"
"Ask Luke!" Rory said, and pointed at Luke.
"I'm not getting involved in this!" Luke protested when Lorelai turned to eye him.
"The Bop-It was innocent." Lorelai claimed.
"You keep telling yourself that."
"So, wanna hear what I had in mind, or do you want to accuse any more of our belongings?"
"No, I'm good, go ahead."
Then Lorelai gave her daughter a smile that only Rory could decipher. The girls smiled at each other, before simoultaneously saying:
"Coffee!"
"You just had coffee!" Luke protested.
"That was subterfuge coffee, I want real coffee." Lorelai explained.
Luke was looking at Lorelai, not seeming to get the logic behind it. Jess smirked.
"Luke, I would have expected you of all people to not questions their insane logic."
"Yeah, well, at times I forget. They can act so normal, it's almost scary."
"Definitely not naming baby Luke!" Lorelai countered.
"Thank God for that." Jess said, earning a scolding look from Luke.
"Are you understanding any of this?" Richard asked Emily.
"Mystery." Emily said simply.
"I'd say this calls for extra-special coffee." Rory pointed out.
"You mean..?" Lorelai began, getting fervent nods in answer. "Oh Luuuke!"
"Do I want to know?" Luke asked, defeated.
"Kitchen, middle cupboard, tin can. Your blend." Rory explained.
"And?"
"Well, it wouldn't really be Luke's coffee if it wasn't made by Luke." Lorelai elaborated. "Now, coffee mister, chop chop! You got a pregnant girlfriend, an engaged almost-stepdaughter, her fiancé, which by the way is your nephew, and your future in-laws if you're brave enough to have me."
"Nuts, the pair of you." Luke told the girls accusingly, before trudging off into the kitchen.
A/N: Review and rock my slow internet connection!