So one throwaway line about glitter and you guys are all in a tizzy!
Thanks for the reviews! They mean a lot.
There are probably mistakes here, my eagle eye grows weaker every day.
viii
"You know what the best thing about getting married is? Strippers! Maybe if I had done this with Max instead of the Drag Club, we would have gotten married."
"I doubt it was the queens, Mom, but that Liza did bring a bit of milkshake to her yard. Or his. I never know the politically correct term."
The two girls were in the corner of the club, tipsy and bordering on smashed. A fine specimen of a young boy was demonstrating how astronauts passed their time up in space on the podium through the medium of dance, and below him a herd of married women, Liz and Babette in the forefront, were entreating him to demonstrate further. Lorelai and Rory had excused themselves from the action and were spending some quality time sloshing their drinks all over each other and giggling.
"What time is it?" Lorelai asked, looking around her. "Oops," she laughed, and tried to mop up her daughter's lap.
"It's party time!" Rory shrieked.
"I think they're closing. Are they closing?" As if on cue, all the lights came on at once, and the two women shut their eyes against the brightness amid disappointed protests from the others.
"Come on, he was just getting started!" Miss Patty complained.
"I thought strip clubs stayed open all night," Rory pouted.
"That's probably just men strip clubs. Or ones not in Woodbridge."
"Stupid Woodbridge," Rory sighed. She looked at her watch. "Oh, it's four a.m. Nowhere will be open anymore!"
"You know what we should do?" Lorelai said conspiratorially. Rory leaned in closer. "Have a party at our house."
"We can't!" Rory said frantically, for Lorelai had stood up to make the announcement.
"Why not?" Lorelai splashed red wine on her shoes and guffawed.
"There are boys at our house," Rory hissed.
"Ugh, boys. Spoiling our fun." She brightened up suddenly. "Luke is getting up in an hour! For deliveries. I bet Jess will party with us. He probably likes parties," she said knowledgably.
"And if not?"
"He can sleep through it."
"His bed is the couch."
"Oh! Big glowy light bulb! He can sleep in your bed, because you will be doing shots with Mommy in the living room."
Rory looked horrified. "I can't have Jess in my bed!"
"Why not?"
"Because it's Jess."
Lorelai grinned wickedly. "Are you afraid you won't be able to control yourself, Rooory?"
"Kind of!" Rory flung her arms out in front of her and dropped her wine glass. She put her head in her hands. "I don't feel so good."
"Who's having sex with my kid?" Liz arrived behind Rory and helped Lorelai pull her to her feet.
"Nobody is, but somebody wants to," Lorelai sang. Rory's head lolled on her mother's shoulder, and together they stumbled out of the club and into a cab.
"Do not!" Rory argued belatedly.
"Shush, honey. You've already given yourself away. Plus, Liz doesn't care if we talk about you having sexual healing with her son, do you?"
"As long as I don't have to see it, I don't give a crap," Liz said. Lorelai, who had begun her own sexy-times dance, stopped suddenly.
"Why would they do it in front of you?" she asked with an expression of pure disgust.
"Oh, come on, Lor," Liz laughed. "Don't tell me you've never walked in on your kid doing it!"
"I caught Rory and Logan at my parents vows renewal," she conceded.
"I'm gonna get sick," Rory mumbled. The cab driver gave her a worried look, but seemed satisfied he could get another mile without her spraying his upholstery.
"I walked in on Jess when he was sixteen, with the girl who lived down the hall." Liz started laughing. "I'll never forget his skinny butt in the air."
Lorelai clapped her hands over her mouth and laughed along with Liz. When they had calmed down, she asked her, "What did you do?"
"I sent him here!" Liz burst out, and the two started cackling again.
A few minutes later the cab stopped at Liz's house. "This is me!" she laughed. "But before I go, I want to say thanks for tonight. It was amazing. And I want to say how happy I am to have you as my new sister."
"Oh, Liz," Lorelai sighed, getting drunk-teary.
"I mean it," Liz cried. "I never thought he'd find someone, and here you are, and of course, my new niece here-" she patted Rory's shoulder, who seemed to be coming out of her coma a little. "Who wants to sleep with my son, but that's cool, as long as they don't have kids because then I don't know if I'd be a grandmother or a great aunt." With that pronouncement, she exited the car and tottered up to her door.
Lorelai watched her go. "Man, can that girl hold her liquor."
The car sped off again and let the girls out at their own house.
"My house, my love!" Lorelai stumbled over the lawn. "My castle, my casa. Hey Kid, what's wrong with you?"
Rory had stopped in her tracks. "I can't go in there." She looked frantically at her mother. "You're right, I can't control myself. I might not even get past the couch."
"So what? You're going to sleep on the lawn?"
Rory sat down. "No, I just need to sober up. Cool down."
"Ha! Are you hot and heavy?"
"Sit down, Mom," Rory glared.
"Ooh, serious face." She sat down cross-legged and looked wistfully at her nice, comfortable house while Rory sat in deep thought.
"I don't get it," Lorelai sighed. "Why Jess?"
"He's Jess," Rory shrugged. "Don't you feel like that with Luke?"
"I love Luke because he's kind and dependable and he gets me, and takes care of me, and loves me."
"Well, Jess is smart and funny and he smells nice and is a really good kisser and I-"
"Love him?"
Rory lay back on the grass. "I could do. I used to love him, once. He's doing so well now. I mean, he's a published author. He got me to go back to Yale. I'm single, why shouldn't I give it another go?"
"Maybe he doesn't want that," Lorelai said bluntly, and lay down beside her. "Plus, he hurt you so much."
"I don't care," Rory said slowly and softly.
"I do," Lorelai grumbled. "Did you just say he got you to go back to Yale?"
She received no reply. Glancing over, she saw that her daughter was asleep. "That's convenient," she said to the unconscious girl, and tried to fall asleep herself.
ix
"Okay Lorelai, we're both here. What is your big announcement?"
"Is Rory here yet? I thought I heard a car."
"Rory is running late, she phoned early and said she'd try to make the first course."
Lorelai looked horrified. "What? I have to wait for Rory, then."
"Lorelai, please." Emily looked at her watch. "I need to check on dinner."
Lorelai looked a little deflated. "Sure. Okay, never mind. It can wait."
"Are you very sure?" Richard asked. "I don't want you grumbling later about how we wouldn't listen. We are all ears."
"I'm sure, dad," Lorelai said glumly.
Emily returned. "Dinner's ready," she announced. "Let's hurry up before Hildegard goes crazy with the seasoning again."
"She does use a heavy hand," Richard chuckled, and pulled out a chair for Lorelai to sit in.
Hildegard ladled out the peppery soup and they began to eat, Lorelai looking nervously around her.
"So Lorelai, how is Luke?" Emily asked her.
"He's fine, Mom."
"The two of you are still together?"
Lorelai rolled her eyes. "Yes, Mom, like the last time you asked."
"I just like to keep track," Emily said blithely.
"I've been thinking," Richard began, and Lorelai got that tingly feeling in her spine that foreshadowed bad things. "We really don't know any of Luke's family. His parents are dead; I know that, but what about siblings?"
Lorelai struggled through a massive spoonful of peppery soup and sneezed violently. "He has a sister, Liz. And a daughter, April."
"Well, we've heard enough about April," Emily grumbled.
"Liz has a little girl, Doula," Lorelai said loudly. "Her husband's name is TJ. I can't imagine two people you would hate more."
"Oh, now really, Lorelai," Richard took offence. "We must meet them. You'll set it up for some night they are available. We can have it here."
"No children, though," Emily said distastefully.
"TJ is a carpenter," Lorelai panicked. "Liz makes jewellery. They travel the Eastern Seaboard selling their wares in Renaissance fairs."
"What fun!" enthused Emily.
"Since when do you like crafts and fairs?" Lorelai asked.
Emily opened her mouth to respond, but was interrupted by Rory's appearance.
"Am I too late?" she rushed into the room. "Did you tell them?"
"Of course not," Lorelai laughed, standing up to hug her daughter.
"Rory, give your coat to Hildegard," Emily instructed tiredly. "And Lorelai, make your announcement. This soup is done for, anyway."
"Well," Lorelai began excitedly, and grabbed Rory's forearm. "Luke and I are getting married!"
Silence.
"You've been sitting on that all night, and you didn't tell us until now? What is wrong with you?"
Lorelai sat down tiredly.
x
"I don't think she's much of a reader."
Liz and Jess look down at the toddler chewing on the book in her sticky hands.
"She loves it," Liz says firmly.
Jess obviously doesn't believe her, but he shrugs it off.
Liz puts her hand on his shoulder. "It's a lovely gift, sweetheart. Come with me, I have something for you."
Jess follows her sceptically as she leaved the living room and heads upstairs. He notices, as he passes, several framed pictures of Liz, TJ and Doula posing in front of alpine and autumnal backdrops. In one picture, they are all wearing the same white t-shirt and jeans. In every picture, Liz and TJ are grinning happily and Doula screams.
Liz notices him looking at the pictures. She smiles gently and almost apologetically at him and takes his limp hand. The only picture Jess knows of him and Liz is from when he was a lot older than Doula, maybe about five or six. It is a candid shot taken of his first day of school by another parent and presented to Liz as a parent. Jess remembers the two of them standing apart from the other families who were crying and hugging, neither of them sure what to do. He doesn't remember being sad to see Liz leave, or excited to start school. In the picture, Liz smoothes his hair as he stares sullenly behind her. Neither of them makes eye contact.
"Hurry up," Liz demands, and Jess notices that she is bouncing on her toes in anticipation. They round the corner and Liz throws open a bedroom door. At first, Jess doesn't notice anything.
He asks her, "What's this?"
"Your room!" she announced, arms spread, in a "Ta-dah!" motion.
It is a small, white room, with a little single bed and black curtains. When he takes a step toward the bookshelf, he notices all his books. Some of them he remembers wanting Liz to send to him when he came to Stars Hollow the first time. Others he remembers leaving behind him in Luke's. He picks up a copy of Don Quixote, flips the pages over his fingers. This one is Rory's.
"I took some stuff from Luke, because I didn't have much in storage. He said you'd want them left there, but I wanted to collect all your things and put them together, so that you would have a place, this place, to call home." Her voice wavers a little on the last word, and Jess realises that his silence is worrying her. It is a nice thing to do, nicer than anything Liz has ever done before. He would have preferred them to stay at Luke's, which was more of a home to him than any apartment that he and Liz ever shared, but he appreciates the gesture.
"Thanks," he says sincerely.
Liz beams.
Jess picks up a framed picture of himself on a baby. Liz is holding him, and Luke sits beside them, regarding the baby as if he is about to detonate.
"I don't have any pictures of you since you were twelve," Liz says, and she sounds sad.
"We'll get one at the wedding," Jess says quietly.
Liz cries for at least twenty minutes; Jess gets so pissed off he leaves the room.