A/N: I don't know what it is about this third part of the trilogy, but it's just giving me problems. Hopefully, I'll hit my stride soon. Your encouraging reviews make all the difference to my want to make it work, that's for sure, so keep them coming, folks, and thanks so much for those I've already received. Okay, let's see where we go from here...
(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)
Chapter 4
"So, basically, Luke told Taylor that if he didn't make the permit issues with the inn disappear or something, he was going to rue the day he made trouble for 'his fiancée'," said Lorelai proudly. "I had no idea I could love a word so much, but fiancée? It's my new favourite, and I don't see that changing for a very long time."
"It might change. Y'know, when you're a wife instead," Rory suggested, hardly able to keep the amusement out of her voice or the smile off her face.
"Hmm, I do like the sound of that too," Lorelai admitted. "but fiancée is good right now. Really, really good," she said, looking dreamily at her man.
"You have no idea how happy it makes me to see you guys so happy," said Rory, grinning wide.
"Well, you're not exactly unhappy yourself, babe," her mom pointed out. "You and Jess don't seem to have suffered for spending even more time together."
"Actually, we haven't really... spent any more time together, I mean. With classes and everything, it probably evens out to about the same amount of time as when we were around here. It might even be less than when we were at Chilton together."
Something passed over Rory's face that gave Lorelai pause for thought. Her daughter and the boyfriend really seemed as stupidly happy and deliriously in love as ever for the most part, but right now there was something in Rory's eyes that bothered Lorelai, something she wasn't saying.
"Hey, sweets? Y'know, if something's wrong, you can still tell me. You may be grown-up college girl now, but I'm still your mom. I still wanna help if anything's bothering you."
"Nothing is," Rory insisted, shaking her head, though she saw immediately that Lorelai didn't quite believe her. "I don't know," she admitted, "I think... I think Jess is still adjusting to the whole Yale thing."
"Well, isn't everybody?"
"I guess, but I always planned to go to college. So did Paris. It's different for Jess, the decision came later, and I keep thinking... Well, I wonder if he felt pushed into it too much, by me, and Paris, and Luke. Not in a bad way, I mean, none of us tried to make him do anything he didn't want to do, it's just... I don't know, I'm probably being stupid."
"I doubt that," said Lorelai pointedly, "but you might be worrying for nothing. Knowing Jess the way we do, I seriously doubt he would do anything he really didn't want to do and not say anything about it."
Rory looked across at her boyfriend, taking animatedly with Luke at the counter, and sighed.
"You're right," she told Lorelai then. "I'm sure you're right."
"Aren't I always?"
Rory wasn't sure how to answer that for the best and was prevented from having to try when the guys joined them. Despite original plans to all attend Friday Night Dinner last night and then return to the Hollow for the whole weekend, Jess had begged off from visiting the grandparents in Hartford and driven himself home this morning instead. He caught up with Luke, worked a shift in the diner, and now the four of them were all going our together on a kind of double-date.
"You find your fifty-four cents?" asked Lorelai, smiling too much.
"It was a dollar eighty-seven, and yes, thank you," said Luke smartly.
"Every cent counts," said Jess, shrugging his shoulders.
"Huh. He does listen to me." Luke smiled.
"I'm sorry, what did you say?" asked Jess, smirking wickedly as sat down beside Rory at the table.
"No, no. No sitting," said Lorelai urgently. "Movie starts in ten and I do not want to be late. Kirk gets so cranky when that happens. Last time, he made an example of me - it was not pretty."
"She is not exaggerating," Rory confirmed before either of the guys could argue.
"Then let's go," said Jess, getting up again and offering a hand to his girlfriend.
They walked down the street towards the Black, White and Read, Rory and Jess in front and Luke and Lorelai a pace behind. Both couples had their arms around each other and were the picture of people in love.
"Look at the Gilmore girls, out with their fine young men," said Miss Patty, smiling wide. "You almost make me jealous."
"Sorry, Patty," said Lorelai cheerfully. "I'm not sharing."
"Me either!" Rory called over her shoulder.
"Spoil sports!" their neighbour declared, laughing as she walked on by.
Thankfully, they got to theatre in time for the movie, though neither Luke nor Jess was particularly enthralled to realise they were going to watch Pippy Longstocking. The girls were clearly loving it though, singing along to the theme song and stuffing themselves full of popcorn and candy. They talked through at least half the movie, catching up on general life stuff as well as making comments about what was happening on the screen. They were amusing enough to make up for the fact that neither of the guys much cared for the movie itself. As double dates went, it really wasn't such a bad evening.
After the movie, they headed back to the Gilmore house, laden down with treats that Luke fetched from the diner. They all hung out in the living room for a while, sharing news and stories from the last couple of weeks. The girls in particular never tired of talking, but Luke and Jess were well-used to that by now.
"I swear, if you left them alone together for a year, they'd still find more to say," said uncle to nephew as he put away dishes and Jess and returned from taking out the trash.
"They can talk," he agreed, shifting awkwardly in place.
Luke couldn't help but notice that his nephew didn't seem eager to return to the living room but didn't really look as if he wanted to be in the kitchen either. Something wasn't right with Jess since he got home. Luke wondered if it had to do with Yale or Rory or something else entirely, but was just a little wary of asking. Jess wasn't the most talkative of kids, at least, not about anything real or serious. Luke couldn't really blame him. He wasn't the sharing type himself, and certainly Liz was not the kind of mother Jess could really talk to about anything serious. He had hoped the two of them were close enough now to talk out anything that needed to be said, but Luke was always wary with Jess. He really didn't want to push him away.
"Hey, you okay?" he asked carefully, mindful to keep his voice down and unheard by the Gilmore girls.
"Sure, yeah." Jess shrugged. "I mean, I don't think I'm getting that damn Pippy Longstocking song out of my head for a week, but I'll live."
"Yeah, that's a little too catchy." Luke nodded. "I actually meant, well, things are okay with you and Rory, right?"
"Yeah, they're fine."
"And with Yale?"
"Yes, Uncle Luke," Jess intoned, more than a little sarcasm and irritation creeping into his tone now. "Seriously, what is this? Twenty questions?"
"No, I just... I just want to make sure you're okay, that's all."
Jess thought about getting mad at being questioned. He never did like it, and yet he tried to make himself be calm and more accepting of help. Luke meant to be helpful, be the good guy, the kind of father figure that Jess ought to want in his life, he supposed. The trouble was he still wasn't used to this, to having somebody care so much, and always want to know what was going on in his head. He didn't hate it, it was only that even after a couple of years of being in Stars Hollow, knowing Luke, playing brother to Paris, being so close to Rory, he still hadn't quite adjusted to being cared about all this much.
Taking a calming breath, Jess tried not to let it out like a sigh, since he knew that wouldn't help at all.
"I'm fine," he told Luke, meeting his eyes. "Rory and me, we're fine, and Yale is fine. It's all kind of an adjustment, I guess, but it's fine."
"Yes, but is everything fine?" asked Luke, with a smirk akin to something his nephew would usually be found wearing.
"Ha ha," said Jess, rolling his eyes. "Honestly, if I'm worried about anything, it's Paris. She's being really weird about her boyfriend."
"Weird, how?" asked Luke, as the two of them returned to the living room.
"Weird like not wanting to talk about the guy or spend any time with him," he explained. "If I thought he did anything wrong, I'd tear off his kneecaps, but she swears that's not it."
"Paris and Jamie?" Rory checked, sure that was what they must be talking about. "Something is not right there."
"You ask Paris if there's a problem?" said Lorelai, frowning some.
"I did. She said everything was fine, but then when Jess talked to her about it, she kind of implied he was being clingy or something. How can you be clingy from Princeton?"
"Constant phone calls, emails, letters?" Lorelai suggested. "You don't have to literally have a hold on someone to drag them down."
"That doesn't really sound like Jamie," Rory considered.
"How well do we really know the guy?" asked Jess then. "I mean, I've spent more time with Marty in the last two weeks than I've ever really spent talking to Paris' boyfriend."
"I spent time with him in Washington last year, and I've seen him with Paris enough to know that he's completely in love with her, and she was in love with him too."
"Was?" Lorelai echoed.
"Is," Rory amended, "or at least, I guess she still is. I don't suppose it's impossible to think they drifted apart. It does happen to people," she considered, thinking of herself and Dean.
Though Jess had been a large factor in their eventual break up, if Rory was honest with herself, she had known for a while before that things between her and Dean hadn't been as good as they should be. When people grew and changed, sometimes it was apart rather than together, it was a part of life, though she hated to think of that happening with Paris and Jamie. She certainly never, ever wanted it to happen to her and Jess. The very idea of it made her want to curl up closer to her boyfriend on the couch, just hold on and never let go.
"Well, either they'll figure things out or they'll call it a day and move on," said Lorelai eventually. "All you can do is be there if Paris wants to talk, I guess."
"We will be," said Jess definitely, his arm around Rory as he kissed the top of her head. "Don't worry about it, Ror. Paris knows she's not alone, no matter what happens with the boyfriend."
"I know." Rory sighed. "It's almost a shame that she frightens Marty so much-"
"Please, God, do not even finish that thought!" said Jess quickly. "As much as I love Paris, I would not sic her on Marty. The guy does not deserve that kind of pressure. I think he would literally curl up and die out of fear."
"Your new friend Marty's a fraidy cat?" asked Lorelai, clearly amused by the thought.
"Hey, they're talking about dating Paris," Luke reminded her. "I think most guys would be justifiably afraid of that situation."
"Oh, you love Paris!"
"I don't dislike her. She's a good worker and a nice girl, when she wants to be, but you know as well as I do, she is not entirely... Well, she's an intense personality."
"Very well put," said Rory with a giggle. "There's no denying that Paris is an acquired taste, but she is a great person underneath all the spiky armour."
"Then I'm sure whatever happens with her and Jamie or her and Marty or anybody else, she'll do just fine," said Lorelai. "Like Jess said, she has the two of you for support."
"Always," he confirmed, nodding his head.
"Speaking of always," said Rory then, "you guys thought at all about setting a date for your wedding?"
"Not really," said Lorelai, looking at her fiancé with a grin. "Being engaged is pretty cool right now, but we're not going to wait forever. Things have just been a little too crazy lately to be making plans."
"Between your mom's inn and the diner, plus getting you guys settled at Yale and everything, things have been a little busy", Luke agreed, taking a hold of Lorelai's hand and kissing it. "But we definitely won't wait too long."
"Aaaw." Rory sighed, hugging Jess ever tighter. "It's so sweet."
"Yeah," he replied absently.
It wasn't that he didn't like the idea of his uncle marrying Lorelai. They were so happy and they deserved to be. Jess thought nothing about the fact that marriage would make him and Rory some kind of cousins by marriage, because that was a nothing sort of relationship anyway.
What bothered him was how life seemed to be carrying him forward lately without his making any real decisions about it. He was in Yale for four years now, stuck in quick sand, at least that was how to felt in some ways. If Lorelai and Luke got married, that would mean changes too. They'd want to live together, maybe here, maybe elsewhere, and Jess wasn't sure what that meant for him.
When he was home, would he stay at the diner apartment or would he be expected to live with the family? He doubted him and Rory sharing a room was going to be okay with her mother or his uncle, despite the fact everybody knew they were sleeping together and had been for a while. It was too much, too many questions, too many serious things that made Jess instinctively want to run away. He wouldn't do it, but that didn't mean the urge wasn't there sometimes.
"Hey, you okay?" asked Rory, looking up at him.
"Sure, yeah," he told her, finding a smile. "I'm just tired. It's fine."
Rory kissed his cheek and laid her head back down on his shoulder. Jess stifled a sigh and tried to pay attention to conversation. For more than one reason, it didn't come easy right now.
To Be Continued...
