A/N: I pretty much started writing this intent on getting the actual wedding in one chapter. And then it reached 5000 words(and still not done) and I figured that may be a bit excessive, so this is a two-parter, with the next part coming in the next few days. I hope you have as much fun reading it as I had writing it.

Beginning of forever

Very late Friday night, Rory opened the door to her room at the inn, finding her mother standing on the other side, a basket in her hand.

"Happy wedding day, little girl." Lorelai smiled, walking in the room and closing the door behind her. "I come bringing chocolate and food and some sparkly apple juice to celebrate since I can't bring you champagne and I just…you're getting married."

"I know." Rory sighed happily, sitting on the bed, pulling her knees up to her chest. Grabbing two glasses from the basket and filling them, Lorelai handed her one before sitting down as well, a giant smile on her face.

"How do you feel?"

"Excited." Rory grinned, sipping from her glass. "I still can't believe I get to marry Jess in a few hours."

"Unless you're deciding this is not for you and you're running away. The horses are in the stables." Lorelai joked, laughing.

"Mom, I'm scared of horses. And no matter how much I love you, I am not following in your steps for everything."

"Hey, I want it to be noted that I was there for my other two weddings. So two out of three isn't that bad."

"I don't think your wedding to dad should count, since that wasn't planned. So I'd say you're at 50%, really."

"Whatever." Lorelai laughed, drinking from her glass. "God, I just can't believe this is the way it worked out."

"What?" Rory smiled.

"You and Jess. Someone go back to the time you guys were first dating and tell me it will go like this. It would have saved me a lot of trouble. And a few wrinkles. Seriously, he's to blame if I ever decide I need Botox." She laughed again, picking up some chocolate and taking a bite.

"Oh, please it would be just as good to go back in time about 5 years and tell you it will be ok. Because you didn't take well the fact that we were dating again." Rory chuckled, remembering her mother's reaction.

"No, I didn't take well my daughter and her new cousin sleeping together. It took a while for dating to be mentioned."

Five years before

Walking into the inn's dining room, Rory saw Lorelai sitting at a table, talking to Sookie. Walking to her, she leaned over, whispering in her ear.

"I need to talk to you. Now. Please."

Nodding and excusing herself, Lorelai walked to her office with Rory following closely behind.

"What's wrong?"

"I need you to promise you won't get mad at me."

"Why would I get mad?"

Cringing, Rory looked at her mother. "Because I think I may have done something stupid and I'm not sure how to handle it."

"How stupid?"

"Stupid." Collapsing in an armchair and hiding her face in her hands, Rory closed her eyes. "I may have slept with someone last night."

"Someone?" Lorelai sat down in another chair, taking a deep breath, trying to run all the possibilities in her head.

"Yeah. But you have to promise that you'll hold off having an opinion on this and give me advice on how to handle it first."

"Ok, what's with all the warnings? Because I really can't think of any…" Stopping mid-sentence, she looked at Rory again. "It's not someone who's married again, is it?"

"No. Definitely not married." Rory shook her head.

"Then that doesn't leave us with many options. Unless we're talking…" She trailed off again and Rory nodded.

"Yeah."

"No." Lorelai shook her head. "You didn't sleep with him. Not him, Rory."

"Don't be mad, please. I need you to be my best friend right now, not my mother who still hates him for something that happened years ago."

"You decide to jump in bed with Jess, after everything that happened between you two, and expect me not to get mad? Ha!"

"A very long time ago."

"I don't care." Lorelai started pacing around the room, her arms crossed across her chest. "You can forgive him, that's fine, I don't care. But as your mother, it's my right to hate him for being a jerk to you."

"Fine, be angry with him, hate him, whatever. But please tell me what to do now, because I don't have a freaking clue." Rory pleaded, looking at her. "Please."

Taking a deep breath and pulling a chair closer to Rory's, Lorelai sat down.

"Ok. What happened?"

"After the party was over…we got drunk. Very drunk apparently. And, I don't know, stuff happened."

"So you had a drunken one night stand with your cousin?" Lorelai snickered, suddenly more relaxed.

"Don't call him that."

"Well, technically…"

"I don't care. Just…this is embarrassing enough as it is, can you not make it any worse?" Rory laughed, blushing at the same time.

"Did something happen after…stuff?"

"He brought me coffee this morning." She smiled softly, staring at a point on the carpet. "And we went for breakfast. And talked. Not about anything, just…catching up. Talked." She tried to explain, her smile growing bigger.

"What does this mean?"

"I don't know." Rory shrugged. "Hence why I needed to talk to you. He's upstairs now, dealing with work stuff and I'm going to see him again in about 10 minutes and I don't know what to do."

"Do you want to date him?"

"I…don't know." Rory shrugged.

"Ok, that was the point where you were supposed to say 'no' in a very convincing tone."

"I don't know what I want. Or what he wants. And I can't want it by myself. Even if he wants it, I don't see how we could do it."

"Hon, your job isn't going to last forever. 9 months isn't such an impossible amount of time to be apart, if you guys do decide to go this way."

"So would this mean you'd be ok with us hypothetically giving it a try?"

"This means I am…being your friend. That's it." Lorelai sighed.

Shaking her head, Rory took a deep breath. "I'm being stupid anyway. He probably thinks it was just a one night thing and I am overthinking this."

"Talk to him. That's as much as I can tell you. Just…wait for him to come downstairs and talk to him. See what he thinks about it and take it from there."

In the meantime, in another part of the building. Throwing himself on the couch in the library, next to Jess, Matt smiled.

"What's wrong?"

"Vows." Jess sighed, shaking his head. "I just…can't get them right."

"Seriously?" He chuckled, looking at his friend. "You're a writer, you know that right?"

"Why, gee, thanks for reminding me. 'Cause that's going to help." He laughed as well, twirling the pencil between his fingers.

"Stop focusing on getting it right and just write what you feel. Take it from there. Write everything, edit the hell out of it, then see what that leaves you it. Just like writing everything else." Standing up, the young man smiled. "I'll leave you to it. I'm supposed to call Jane soon."

"Isn't it too late?"

"She's been at work tonight." Matt shrugged, taking his phone out of his pocket. "Good luck with that."

Later that day. Walking back downstairs, Jess ran a hand through his hair before sitting down at random table, trying not to attract too much attention to himself. Walking back in the room, Rory flashed him a small smile as she walked past him, making him smirk back. As soon as she saw Lorelai, Emily jumped from her seat, walking to her daughter and starting to talk to her about something, leaving Rory alone. She stood around the room, talking to her grandfather when she felt someone's hand brush past hers and turned around, seeing Jess smirk, standing in the doorway. Quickly excusing herself, she walked after him, finding him leaning against the wall. Without giving her time to think, he took her hand and dragged her in the empty kitchen, backing them against a wall and kissed her, his hands pinning her down.

"Sorry. Just felt like doing that." He shrugged when he pulled back.

"It's…uh…it's ok." She mumbled when she caught her breath, making his smirk grow bigger.

"Good to know." He kissed her again, lifting one hand to play in her hair. Hearing someone's steps, he quickly pulled back, walking to the coffee machine and pouring himself some coffee while one of the waiters picked something up before walking out again.

"What, you're only going to be near me if there's no one else in the room? Or do…that, for that matter only if we're alone?"

"Didn't think you'd want to risk someone seeing us. You didn't seem too keen on being near me in Weston's earlier."

"I was still thinking."

"And now you're done thinking?" He chuckled, handing her a coffee cup and she pointed to the door.

"Mind if we do this somewhere else? Someone might come here again."

"Sure."

A few minutes later, they were upstairs in her room and he grinned, seeing the bridesmaid dress hanging on the door.

"You looked very good in that dress."

Smiling and blushing softly, she pushed a strand of hair behind her ear. "Can you not flirt with me for a second and just…be serious while we talk about this?"

"Talk about what?"

"Last night. You kissing me. All of this."

"Is there something to talk about?"

"You don't think there is?" Her smile faded and he walked to her, putting his mug down on a table and cupping her face in his hand.

"We can talk."

"Jess, if this was just a one night stand for you, it's fine. Really is. But if that's all there was, you have to stop acting like this because I don't know what I want and you doing this is unfair. You're making me think you want more."

"Who says I don't want more?" He whispered after a long time, making her bite her lip.

"Don't do this." She shook her head, pulling away from him and stepping away from him.

"Rory, I don't know what you want me to say or do. It's ok. We can just leave it as a one night stand. Trust me, I'm not going to cry myself to sleep or anything."

"Can I ask a hypothetical question?"

"Sure."

"If I didn't want to leave it at this…how would that work? I'm going to be at this job for the next 9 months. That's a long time."

"Well, hypothetically speaking…" He tried not to laugh, looking at her. "…I suppose we could always just, I don't know, talk on the phone. Email, stuff like that. See each other if you're ever in Philadelphia. Maybe I could drive over if you're within driving distance."

"And when my job ends?"

"That's your call. But, still hypothetically, of course, if you're close enough, we could see each other at weekends. It would work for a while."

"And you'd be willing to do that?" She smiled softly, stepping closer to him.

"I'm not promising it would work indefinitely, but…I'd be willing to give it a try." His voice lost its playful tone as he took another step towards her.

"Don't say that if you don't really mean it." Lowering her eyes, she took his hand in hers, running her thumb over his skin.

"I mean it."

"Are you sure?"

"Ror, we've never had good timing. This is probably about as good as we're ever going to get. And if we both want this, there's no good reason why we couldn't at least try."

"You don't have to be just with me, ok?" She looked at him, chewing on her lip. "We're most likely going to be apart for months at a time until November. If you want to sleep with someone else, you can."

"I'm sure those details can be arranged at a later date." He chuckled softly, closing in on her and kissed her, his free hand playing in her hair.

"So, we're really giving it a try?"

"Wait, wasn't that conversation hypothetical?" He chuckled and she kissed him, laughing as well.

"Jess…"

"We're really giving a try."

Back in Rory's room.

"This was how it was always supposed to be." Rory smiled, leaning against the headboard of the bed. "Don't get me wrong, I like the way we got here-we both had time to make mistakes and be stupid, but…he was always supposed to be the one. Although a bit less heartbreak in between would have been better."

"He's a good guy, Rory. He really is."

"I know." Rory smiled softly, eating some chocolate. "And I get to marry him tomorrow. Grow old with him, have his kids…they're actually happening. Well, at least the kid bit is." She grinned, her hand playing on her abdomen.

"I'm so happy for you, kid." Lorelai grinned, jumping from her place and hugging her daughter.

"Thanks." She wiped her eyes quickly before letting go.

"Now go on, sleep time. You have to be pretty tomorrow."

"Are you implying that I'm not usually pretty?" Rory laughed.

"No, I'm implying that if we don't stop this conversation soon I'll start bawling at the thought of you getting married and I am trying to not let that happen. So sleep." Lorelai smiled back, standing up. "Enjoy your last night as a single woman, ok?"

"Will do." Rory grinned from her bed as Lorelai left the room again.

The next morning, Lorelai walked in Rory's room, holding a cup of coffee.

"I bring coffee. Lane is on her way and Paris said she'll be here as soon as she's done talking to her mother."

"How was that going?"

"Yelling was involved."

"Have you seen Jess?" Rory bit her lip, looking at Lorelai.

"He was downstairs, getting coffee."

"How is he?"

"Looking good."

"Nervous?"

"Not as far as I could tell, but…he's Jess. Only you can tell."

Smiling, Rory nodded, sipping from her coffee. "I'm excited."

"Not nervous?"

"A bit. Good nervous, though."

"Go on then, let's get you pretty. The photographer is on his way as well."

In the meantime, downstairs. Walking outside, Jimmy spotted Jess leaning against the railing, a cup of coffee in his hand.

"How are you doing?"

"Not bad." Jess smirked, drinking from his cup.

"Holding up ok?"

"Pretty much."

"So…excited?" Jimmy asked after a few seconds of silence.

"Yeah." Jess nodded, drinking from his mug. "Finally finished writing my vows. I'm about 3 hours ahead of schedule."

"You're writing your own?"

"Rory's idea."

"How'd it go?"

"Hit a snag last night." Jess chuckled. "On second thought, maybe leaving them for the night before wasn't the best idea."

Not knowing what more to say, Jimmy just shoved his hands deeper in his pockets, looking at Jess, who remained equally silent. Almost a minute later, Luke appeared in the door. Seeing Jimmy, he started glaring at him, making the man shake his head slowly.

"Hey, Luke." Jess greeted, amused by the interaction between the two.

"Morning." Luke grumbled, looking at the other man. "Jimmy."

"Luke."

"Great, you still recognize each other." Jess chuckled, drinking from his mug.

"I'll be inside." Jimmy muttered, walking back inside the inn, leaving the other two men alone.

"That went great." Jess laughed again, shaking his head. "Where's Will?"

"April's with him. She was very excited to see him again. So…did I interrupt something?"

"Nope. Just awkward standing around, not knowing what to say." He smirked, looking at his uncle. "How's it going inside?"

"Got kicked out by some guy trying to arrange chairs around the room. How do you feel?" He looked at Jess and he shrugged.

"I'm good."

"You sure?"

"Yeah." The young man nodded again, drinking from his cup.

"Jess…?" Luke looked at him again after a few seconds of silence.

"Huh?"

"I'm happy for you. You and Rory are good together. And you…? You've grown up to be a really good man. I'm proud of you." He lowered his voice slightly, making Jess smile.

"Thanks. For saying that. And for all the help."

"You don't have anything to thank me for." Luke smiled again, hugging the young man quickly.

"I should head back inside. Shower and stuff." Jess smirked, looking at the door.

"Yeah. I'll be around if you need anything."

Back in Rory's room.

Fixing the strap to her dress, Rory smiled as Lorelai started looping the ribbon in the back on the dress.

"How are you holding up?" Lorelai asked, not looking up.

"Still good. Feeling perfect, for once."

"No more morning sickness?"

"Not really. The kid has agreed to let me have the day off."

"Well, my grandchild is very nice."

"Since you're not the one who's been throwing up for the past month because of him, you're allowed to think that. I know better." Rory grinned, her hand resting on her bump quickly. "Hurry up, I want to see how it looks."

"Two more minutes. You don't want me to get this wrong, do you?"

"Nope." Her smile growing bigger, Rory bit her lip, trying to choke back tears. "I can't believe I'm getting married in less than an hour. Really, really can't believe it."

"I could pinch you." Lorelai laughed.

"No, thanks. But it's just…I've wanted this for so long and I've been waiting for him to ask and this to happen and now it finally is and we're getting married and I…love him. So much."

"Hey, no going all mushy on me. Save that for later."

A couple of years earlier.

As Rory was standing in front of a shelf in the small bookshop, leafing through a book, he walked up to her, wrapping his arms around her waist from behind. Kissing her shoulder gently, he smiled.

"Good book?"

"No." Rory snickered, twisting her neck and placing a small kiss on his lips. "Great find though. This shop? Awesome." She smiled, turning back to look at the shelf.

Looking at the owners of the shop, who were standing behind the counter, talking and pointing to a book, he laughed.

"Think that's going to be us in fifty years?"

"What?"

"They're arguing over Sparks. He refuses to give it a try and she's calling him pigheaded and stubborn." He smirked and she turned around in his arms.

"I don't know…that's implying that we'll be together for the next fifty years."

"I don't have a problem with that." He placed a soft kiss on her lips, making her smile.

"Fifty years is an awfully long time."

"I might even make it to the end of 'Atlas Shrugged' by then."

"Actually opening the book would be a good start."

"Someday."

"Then I'll just have to be with you until you finish it."

"Promise?"

"Not if that means you won't even give it a try."

"I will. At some point." He smirked and she shook her head, laughing at the same time.

"Pigheaded and stubborn." She turned around, putting a hand over his that was still resting on her waist. "It would be nice. Being like them."

Kissing her hair, he just smirked as the man behind the counter looked in their direction, winking at him when Rory wasn't looking. Placing another soft kiss on her head, he let go, picking up another book from the shelf.

"Dress is ready, hon." Lorelai's voice announced, pulling her out of her reverie. Turning around, the huge smile still on her face, Rory looked at herself in the mirror, biting her lip.

"What do you think?"

"You're beautiful, kid. Just…perfect."

"Thank you." Rory nodded, wiping the corner of her eye quickly. Opening the door, Lorelai let Lane and Paris back in the room and they sat on the bed, dressed in their bridesmaids' dresses.

"Oh, wow, Rory, you look beautiful." Lane grinned, looking at her best friend.

"Thank you." She blushed, lowering her head.

"Looks nice." Paris smiled as well and Rory nodded. Handing them two glasses of champagne and getting some more apple juice for Rory, Lorelai sat next to the girls.

"Ok, last check. Something old?"

Lifting her hand to touch the necklace around her neck, Rory grinned. "Luke's mom's necklace."

"Something new?"

"Dress."

"Something borrowed?"

"Veil." She lifted her hand to touch her hair, the white veil falling down the back, softly covering her hair.

"And blue?"

"Garter." Rory grinned.

"Then you're all ready to get married, hon. I'm going to run downstairs and check on things, see if everyone's here and ready."

"Doula. Don't forget to make sure she's here."

"I know. Relax." Lorelai smiled, opening the door and running down the stairs. After checking the library and making sure everything was in place, she stepped in the dining room, finding everyone gathered there.

"Lorelai!" Emily's voice boomed from the other side of the room and she turned around, taking a deep breath.

"Yes, mom."

"How is she?"

"Almost ready. We should get started soon. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to find Jess." She excused herself quickly, breathing out loudly when her mother left her alone. Walking to Jess, Lorelai smiled, rubbing his arm quickly.

"How are you holding up?"

"Good. How is she?" He asked anxiously and Lorelai smiled.

"She's great. We're almost done."

"How is she feeling? Morning sickness and all that?"

"None at all, don't worry about it, ok? We're taking good care of her." Lorelai reassured him again and he nodded.

"Thanks."

Smiling softly, Lorelai nodded. "Have you seen Michel? I need to know if everyone's here and stuff."

"He was at the front desk."

"Thank you. Shouldn't be long now, ok?" Jess nodded and Lorelai stepped away, stopping in front of her husband quickly and rubbing his arm.

"Can you go keep Jess company? Make sure no one talks to him and stuff."

"Matt and Chris had that covered."

"Well, he was alone just now, so go!" Lorelai grumbled, kissing Luke quickly before walking to the front desk.

"Michel, is everyone here?"

"Almost. We're just missing…"

Before he could finish his sentence, Chris raced in the room, taking a deep breath.

"Traffic. Stupid, freaking traffic."

Giving the man a quick hug, Lorelai smiled. "Don't worry, there's still plenty of time."

"Good." He exhaled, trying to relax and Lorelai grabbed a glass of champagne from the front desk, handing it to him.

"Here you go. I'm going to head back upstairs and check on Rory, you go take a seat and breath for a while. Wait, Gigi?" Lorelai remembered just as the little girl walked in the room behind the man.

"Dad, told you we'd be here on time." She smiled, looking at Chris.

"Hey, kid." Lorelai smiled, hugging the girl.

"Hey, Lorelai."

"Gigi's here, as you can see. Ok, we're going to go find seats." The man smiled, heading towards the dining room. Turning back to Michel, Lorelai smiled.

"Is Doula here?"

"Yes. She and the troglodyte that is her father are in the library."

"And Liz?"

"Dining room, looking for her son."

"Thank you, Michel."

Walking back up the stairs, Lorelai opened the door to her daughter's room, finding the three young women sitting around, talking.

"Everyone's here, including Doula and your dad. Jess asked about you."

"How is he?" Rory grinned.

"He's good. I made sure Luke keeps him company so your grandmother doesn't attack him or something."

"Thank you."

"So? Ready to get married, kid?"

"Yes." Rory grinned, nodding enthusiastically.

"Are you sure? Because if you are, I'm going to go gather everyone and tell them it's a go."

"I am very, very sure." She nodded again, standing up.

"Give me two minutes then." Opening the door again and walking downstairs, Lorelai spotted Luke and Jess.

"Hey, Jess, you ready?"

"Yeah." He nodded.

"Then get ready to stand." She grinned making Jess grin as well. "I'm going to go find the Reverend and Doula and then we're getting started."

"Ok." Jess nodded again, taking a deep breath. Looking at his nephew, Luke smiled.

"You still ok?"

"Being nervous? That's fine, right?"

"I'd question your sanity if you weren't." Luke chuckled, looking at Lorelai who nodded, taking Doula's hand and leaving the room. As soon as everyone was seated in the other room, Matt and Chris walked to Jess, grinning.

"As your groomsmen, we feel it is our duty to inform you that you still have time to run away. As your friends, we feel it is our duty to inform you that if you did decide to do that, we'd be obligated to kick the shit out of you because you'd be an idiot." Matt announced, grinning.

"I'm pretty sure you'd have to get a ticket. There might be a long line of people wanting to kick my ass if I decide to leave."

"I have second dibs, after Lorelai." Luke chuckled, tilting his head in the direction of the library. "I think we need to go stand over there now."

"Ok." Jess took a deep breath, walking towards the improvised altar as everyone looked at him.

In the meantime upstairs, Lorelai handed Doula her flower basket, smiling. "Ok, everything's done. Rory?"

"I'm good. Let's go!"