The end of spring brought fresh air and increasing stress levels. While work continued to pick up for Rory, tasks and assignments at Jess's office continued to decrease at a slow but steady pace. As they finished projects with existing clients, Jess and Alex started to notice fewer new clients signing on with Truncheon, especially at the New York office. And most of said existing clients politely declined to renew their contracts with Truncheon, claiming they appreciated the work that Truncheon did but money was tight and they were going to try to sign with a bigger publisher that could provide the signing bonus and steady sales they needed. In was beyond frustrating and honestly a little offensive, but they carried on. Jess took advantage of the lighter workload, diving in deeper on his own work and finishing the first draft of his next novel, while Alex really started to make the zine her own, adding in a section for art and writing from local youth. So while they didn't have as many major projects to work on, they still had plenty to do to keep them busy.
Ellie had come so close to walking. They practiced with her every single day, had her bounce in a standing bouncer to strengthen her legs and get her used to standing. But, no matter what they did, she was much happier shuffling around the house on her knees. Not even crawling, she preferred to sit upright on her knees and scoot around the apartment. She had begun wearing holes in the knees of all her onesies and Rory had attempted to learn how to sew to patch them up, hoping Lorelai's sewing capabilities had been passed down genetically. It ended up being a pretty messy patch job, but at least her kid's knees were protected.
Since Ellie's birthday party, Jess had been stuck in between his parents, something he never thought would happen considering he wasn't just a child of divorce but also that of parental abandonment. But the emotional explosion between Liz and Jimmy had had a kind of Freaky Friday effect on their family dynamic – suddenly, Jimmy was the one with the excessive phone calls and Liz was the absent one. It was a sort of chilling experience for Jess, annoying to say the least. He wasn't keen on listening to recurrent and apologetic voicemails from his father and was frankly peeved by his mother's petty and childish behavior as she employed the silent treatment.
Luke had also been calling more frequently, though every call was stilted and awkward and under the guise of "just checking in". It seemed as though hearing about the not so great parts of Jess's childhood, even vaguely as they were shouted from Jimmy's mouth, had opened Luke's eyes a little. He hadn't come forward and said it directly, but the way he was suddenly dancing around the topic of Liz instead of trying to talk Jess into communication with her said enough in Jess's opinion. It also made him realize just how little Luke must have known about his nephew's upbringing. Jess had heard Luke grouse about Liz's flakiness plenty; he was always jumping in to try to fix her problems and knew she wasn't exactly the most stable person on the planet and was. But it had dawned on Jess that Luke really didn't know anything about just how awful a mother she'd been to him. He knew about the drinking, but not about the drugs. He knew that she wasn't the most reliable parent, but didn't know she would leave Jess alone for days at a time before he was in the double digits. Witnessing Jimmy call Liz out on her behavior had apparently taken away the curtain and opened his eyes to who his sister was when he wasn't around.
Jess groaned and picked up his ringing cellphone for what felt like the millionth time that week, barely bothering to glance at the caller ID before sending the caller to voicemail. He dropped the phone on the couch and returned his attention to the papers in his lap, trying to make it through some of the first edits Chris had given him on his new novel.
"Jimmy again?" Rory asked, stepping into the room with Ellie in front of her. She had Ellie's hands in her own and was trying to get her to walk with assistance, but Ellie was just whining and letting her knees bend, doing what they had dubbed "the noodle leg" in an attempt to get out of walking.
"Who else?" Jess grumbled.
"How long has it been since you answered?"
"Two days."
"Do you think you should try to listen to—"
"No."
Rory rolled her eyes. Blew the hair out of her face as she bent down to get Ellie back on her feet for the umpteenth time that day.
"I saw that," Jess grumbled.
"Sorry," Rory mumbled back.
"Hey, imagine if it was your dad that flipped out and then started contacting you incessantly."
"I can't, my dad didn't come!" Rory fired back, finally giving up on trying to get Ellie to walk and hoisted her up, propping her against her hip.
Jess's breath caught briefly in his throat as he winced. "Right…" He cleared his throat. "Sorry."
Rory breathed in and out slowly, trying to let go of the resentment against her father. "It's okay, it's not your fault he'd rather pretend he only has one daughter."
Jess sighed heavily. "Our dads suck."
Rory snorted. "Yeah, they kinda do." She looked down at Ellie, running a finger along her cheek and chin. "I'm just glad she'll never feel the same sentiment." She looked back up at Jess who was looking at her with a soft, grateful expression, eyes slightly shiny and saying everything words couldn't.
Rory walked over and plopped down next to him on the couch, tucking Ellie in between them. She leaned her head over to Jess's shoulder, watching Ellie play with and chew on the chain of colorful plastic rings she had gotten for her birthday. Jess turned to kiss Rory on the head, staying there for a moment, eyes closed and inhaling deeply, taking in the smell of her shampoo before tilting his chin down, resting his brow against Rory's head.
"We'll work all this out," Rory said quietly.
Jess nodded against Rory. He was so tired. Tired of having to parent his parents and manage other people's lives, tired of weighing down the people he loved with problems he felt like were his and his alone to solve. But in that moment, the three of them safe in their bubble, he felt a little bit rejuvenated. A little stronger for knowing that no matter what his mind said, Rory was there to lean on.
He was sure he wouldn't be anywhere close to who he was without her.
The month of April brought a welcome wave of sunshine and melted snow to the city. There was of course rain and cool breezes, but it was all a welcome change from the constant gray cold that they'd tired of during winter. It brought them out of the apartment more often, taking family walks through nearby parks and opening up all the windows to let in the breeze and make the house feel less stuffy.
It was nice, being able to be out and about again. People almost seemed friendlier now that the trees and flowers around them were budding. Ellie loved seeing dogs being walked near them, her squeals of joy often making the dogs' owners laugh and stop to introduce them to Ellie as she reached for the puppies from her stroller. Not being pet people themselves, Rory and Jess were starting to kind of dread the day Ellie asked for her own dog.
Jess went into the office for some meetings one day and Rory, taking the afternoon for a long lunch, decided to put Ellie in her stroller and set off on an excursion on foot. They stopped into the store to get some snacks before setting off towards the nearest park for a picnic. Ellie seemed to love being outside now that her enemy the snow wasn't all over the ground. She took great pleasure in exploring and touching everything she could get her hands on, and Rory loved watching her little girl's curiosity grow, despite it meaning that Ellie was starting to get herself into trouble by opening up cabinets and pulling things off of shelves, plus the occasional mouthful of dirt that they had to frantically rinse out, much to Ellie's dismay.
On the way home from their picnic, Rory decided to pop into the new music store on their street. Jess had been working himself to the bone and dealing with all his parental drama, and she wanted to find a little something for him to try and lift his mood. The store's interior reminded her a little bit of Sophie's in Stars Hollow, sending a little wave of nostalgia through her as she rifled through the boxes of records.
Ellie threw her toy on the floor for what felt like the hundredth time before looking up at Rory and yelling, very upset at the turn of events. She was deep in the process of learning cause and effect and was consistently outraged when throwing something resulted in it no longer being in her hands.
"Okay, okay, El, I'll get it," Rory mumbled, bending down to pick up the toy, dusting it off on her jeans before handing it back to Ellie. As she stood back up, she collided with someone's armful of records, sending them cascading to the floor.
"Oh my God, I'm so sorry!" Rory cried, flying to the floor to gather everything back into as neat a pile as she could.
"It's fine, nothing's broken…" the employee sighed.
Rory's head shot up as she recognized the voice. "Dave Rygalski?" she laughed as she stood up.
"Rory?! What!" Dave grinned widely, reaching to pull Rory into a hug.
"Um—" Rory faltered, glancing down at her full hands.
"Oh, right, sorry, let me…" Dave grabbed the records from Rory, placing them carefully on a shelf and then wrapped an arm around Rory's shoulders and giving her a friendly squeeze. "What are you doing here?"
"Here as in the store or here as in New York?"
"Both, I guess."
"Well, here, I was out and thought I'd stop in on my way home, and New York, I got a job working for a small paper based here so I moved here not long after I graduated from Yale."
"Wow, Ivy Leagues, very impressive," Dave said, nodding approvingly.
Rory flushed and waved him off, embarrassed at the praise. "What about you? I don't think I've heard anything about you since you left for California."
"Yeah, uh, tried out the whole college thing for a minute, hated it, dropped out, and after a fever dream of a few years of working minimum wage jobs every second I could, I somehow ended up here."
"Here as in the store or here as in New York?" Rory asked, repeating Dave's earlier question with a laugh.
"Both, actually," Dave said with a smile, rubbing his neck. "I co-own this place and have a small production studio upstairs."
"Dave, that's amazing!" Rory said. "Congratulations!"
"Thanks, I appreciate it. So—"
Dave was suddenly interrupted by an angry yell from the stroller. His eyes went wide as Rory rolled hers and bent down to retrieve the toy again, turning the stroller so it was facing her better.
"Whoa, you have a kid?" Dave asked in amused disbelief.
"I do," Rory said with a happy nod, unbuckling her and lifting her out of the stroller. "Dave, this is Ellie."
Dave bent a little to meet Ellie's eyeline, giving her a smile and a little wave. "Hey Ellie, it's nice to meet you."
Ellie shyly tucked her head under Rory's chin, but still offered a small, "Hi," to Dave, waving back.
Dave stumbled backwards and clutched his chest. "I think I may have just died from adorableness."
Rory laughed, bouncing Ellie on her hip a little. "I might be biased, considering I'm her mom, but I think she's pretty cute." She pressed a kiss to Ellie's soft hair.
"Are you married then?"
"No, not quite. Ellie was a little bit of a surprise to Jess and I, but a happy surprise."
"Jess? No way, you guys are still together?" Dave asked with a grin.
"Uh, sort of," Rory laughed before explaining the overall arc of the past few years. "What about you?"
"What about me?"
"Are you seeing anyone?" Rory asked, desperate for information but trying to appear aloof.
"Uh, no, y'know, I work basically 24/7, so there's not a lot of time. Plus I just haven't really connected with anyone, I guess…"
Rory nodded understandingly.
Dave glanced down at his hands. "So, uh… h-how's—"
"Lane's fine," Rory said, offering Dave an understanding smile.
"Good, good…" Dave said quietly, nodding.
"She and Zack, actually…" Rory started, not quite sure how to break the news.
"Yeah, I'm friends with Zack on Facebook," Dave said with a small smile.
"Zack's on Facebook?" Rory laughed, bewildered.
"Yeah, I'm not convinced he knows how it works though." Dave shook his head, chuckling under his breath.
"Does… do they know you're back on the East Coast?"
"No, I didn't quite know how to tell her, or, um, them. I kind of just up and left, abandoned the band, abandoned Lane…"
"Dave, you went to college, that's not a crime."
"Yeah, well…" Dave cleared his throat. "Is she… are they happy?" he asked softly.
"Uh, actually…"
"No, you know what, never mind, it's so not my business—"
"No, Dave, they're divorced."
Dave blinked owlishly. "Divorced?"
"Yeah, late last year."
"O-oh. I… don't know what to say without sounding like an ass," Dave laughed.
Rory laughed with him, silently agreeing with his unspoken sentiment, before Ellie started to balk.
"I need to get her home, but, hey, why don't you come over for dinner sometime? I'm sure Jess would like to see you and we could catch up."
"Yeah, that sounds great," Dave said with a smile.
Rory and Dave exchanged information before Rory ducked out of the store, speedwalking home in hopes she would get Ellie down for her nap at a decent time still. The whole time, she was stuck in her mind, formulating plans and conversations and trying to figure out just how exactly to tell Lane that Dave missed her as much as she missed him.
While Rory was out enjoying the outdoors and reconnecting with old friends, Jess was stuck in a meeting that was officially at the three-hour mark. He and Alex sat at a conference table, surrounded by crumpled yellow papers and huddled next to the phone with Chris and Matt on the other end in Philadelphia. The original Truncheon location wasn't doing the best they ever had, but they were still surviving, maintaining a slew of clients and hosting periodic community events. Meanwhile, the New York location was still having trouble breaking into the local community, having trouble bringing in and maintaining clients, having trouble finding artists and authors to feature in the zine. In short, the business was struggling, and it was starting to harm the business as a whole. They were trying to find solutions, but so far no ideas had been broached that they hadn't already tried. Community events, advertising in bookstores and newspapers, putting free copies of the zine in coffee shops. Despite all of their efforts, nothing seemed to be working.
Jess dragged himself home after work that day. Despite their meeting lasting almost all day, they'd reached no solutions. He felt stuck with work, felt guilty for letting down Chris and Matt, felt bad that he wasn't being the role model that Alex deserved. He leaned his head against the door, taking a deep breath, before unlocking it and entering.
"Jess! Jess Jess Jess you'll never guess who I saw today," Rory gushed excitedly, running over to him from her place in the living room.
"Oh yeah? Who?" Jess asked, putting a great deal of energy into feigning interest.
"Used to be in a band, plays everything from rock and roll to hymns on his guitar, Lane has been in love with him since high school…" Rory said, her eyes bright and mischievous.
Jess's interest suddenly became real. "Dave? Seriously? What's he doing here?"
Rory puttered around the kitchen, heating up leftovers as she spoke a mile a minute about the music store and the recording studio and her conversation with Dave.
"I invited him over for dinner sometime, I thought it'd be nice to reconnect!"
"Yeah, he's a cool guy, it'd be cool to see him again," Jess said tiredly. "I'm gonna go shower." Jess excused himself from the room with a vague gesture towards the bathroom, his evident exhaustion and lack of interest confusing Rory. Brushing it off, Rory finished heating up food and got it all served up.
When Jess emerged from the shower in sweats and a t-shirt, toweling off his hair, Rory was feeding Ellie. She took notice of the expression on Jess's face, how he seemed to be lost in thought. She watched him grab his plate of reheated spaghetti and sit at the table, diving in without saying a word.
"Jess?" Rory asked hesitantly.
Jess continued eating.
"Jess!"
Jess startled, gaze shooting up from his plate and meeting Rory's concerned expression. "Huh?"
"Are you okay? You seem really distracted."
Jess sighed heavily, setting his fork down on the table. "Long day."
"Wanna talk about it?"
"Not yet,"' Jess said, shaking his head. "But eventually?"
Rory smiled softly, reaching across the table to grab Jess's hand and give it an encouraging squeeze.
That night in bed, Rory tucked her head into the curve of Jess's neck and shoulder, reaching around his middle and nestling her leg between his. Jess settled into her embrace. It was like she was a sponge for his stress. He felt the tension seep out of him at her touch, felt himself relax in her arms. He tilted his chin down and planted a firm kiss on her head, wrapping his arms around her shoulders.
He inhaled deeply, trying to breathe in the courage he needed to get the words out.
"We might have to close the New York office," he said on the exhale, so quietly he wasn't even sure Rory heard him. The way she froze in his arms told him she did, though.
"What?" Rory asked softly, barely keeping the tremble out of her voice.
"We aren't doing enough business to fund the expenses," he said tensely. "We're starting to hemorrhage money."
"Oh," Rory whispered. "What…" she muttered, the rest of her sentence getting lodged in her throat.
"I don't know," Jess said, hating how his voice shook.
Rory curled herself further into Jess, burying her face in his chest, breathing him in to try and calm the thoughts racing through her head.
Jess just held her tighter.
Rory had never dreaded going into work as much as she did the morning after Jess's announcement. Jess brought Ellie with him to his own office, hoping her joyful presence would lighten the mood a little, but Rory had to mentally prepare herself for a day of finalizing the layout of article after article detailing job losses, foreclosures, and bankruptcies.
It was just a little too close to home that day.
Not that anything was even final yet. They didn't know for sure that Truncheon: New York was going to have to shut down. There was still a chance that everything would smooth out and be completely and totally fine.
That was what Rory had to tell herself every time the panic started to rise.
Take a deep breath. Remind herself that everything would be fine. Jump into the next task.
It was Rory's mantra throughout the day.
She had never been more thankful to leave work and have some time on the subway to people watch and stop thinking about her problems for a while. As she climbed the stairs out of the subway station, her phone started ringing. Frantically searching through her bag for it, desperately hoping it wasn't Jess calling with bad news, she found it and answered without looking at the caller ID.
"Yes, hi, hello?"
"Hi," came Lane's voice laced with confused laughter. "You okay there?"
Rory sighed a breath of relief as she started her journey home. "Yeah, I'm good. Hi! How are you?"
"Well, I have my first full childfree weekend coming up."
"Oh wow!"
"Yep. Zack's parents want to see the kids so he's taking them to see them so I have a whole lot of free time coming up."
"Don't Zack's parents just live on the other side of Hartford? Why don't they come to you?"
"Zack seems to want to be Super Dad for a couple days without me being there as a safety net…"
"So instead he's using his parents as a safety net."
"Yep," Lane said, her voice tight.
"Well… congratulations on being a free and single lady for a few days!" Rory said cheerfully as she rounded the corner to the apartment.
"Thanks," Lane chuckled bitterly.
"Not excited?"
"I'm not ready to leave the boys for so long!"
"It's only a couple days! They'll have Zack and their grandparents and you can call them plenty!"
"I know…" Lane sighed, her voice quiet and sad.
All of the sudden, the puzzle pieces in Rory's mind all clicked together. "I know! Why don't you come stay with us for the weekend?"
"Really? You and Jess would be cool with that?"
"Totally! It'd be nice to hang out, you'd be distracted, and you and I could have a slumber party like we did when we were kids!"
"That does sound kind of fun," Lane said with a smile in her voice. "Alright, I'm in! God, you're like the best best friend ever, thank you Rory."
"A title I'll gladly accept," Rory said, grinning as she stepped into the quiet apartment to find Jess and Ellie on the living room floor watching Teletubbies, Jess leaning back against the couch and Ellie on a blanket, surrounded by toys but transfixed by the TV. "I'll talk to Jess and then call you to finalize the details tomorrow, okay?"
Rory ended the call feeling much lighter than she had before Lane called and dropped down onto the couch behind Jess, who was grimacing at the TV.
"That vacuum cleaner is creepy as hell…" he mumbled as Rory rubbed his tense shoulders.
"Honestly, how that and the sun baby don't give kids nightmares is beyond me," Rory responded.
Jess turned to face Rory, greeting her with a smile and a kiss as he pulled himself onto the cushions next to her. "So, what details are you finalizing with me?"
"Well, Zack's taking the kids to his parents' for the weekend, and Lane was a little bummed, soo I invited her here! She's never been the apartment and it'd be fun to see her and, y'know, IalsothoughtIcouldinviteDave…" she said in a rush.
"What was that?" Jess asked, narrowing his eyes in suspicion.
"Lane misses Dave, Dave misses Lane, so I thought, what better time than to have them both over for dinner?" Rory said with a wide grin.
"Rory, no…" Jess groaned. "Playing matchmaker cannot go well."
Rory stuck her lip out in an exaggerated pout. "Come on! We could have a little dinner party! It'd be like old times!"
"You mean the old times in which we hung out with them a grand total of maybe twice?"
"Jess!" Rory said, frustrated.
"What?" Jess asked defensively.
Rory sighed. "How about I talk to Lane about it first. See what she thinks. Then, if she wants to see Dave, we'll invite him."
"And let him know that Lane will be there too."
Rory nodded and held out her hand to shake. "Deal."
"Deal," Jess said with a smirk, holding her hand in his and drawing it to his mouth to kiss her knuckles. "But let it be known that I don't approve of matchmaking."
"It's officially on the record," Rory said with a laugh. "And besides, you're the one that called it matchmaking. I'm just inviting two old friends over for dinner."
"I can't decide if I'm scared of impressed with this level of scheming and plotting," Jess said with a teasing smile, pulling Rory closer to him with a gleam in his eye.
"What can I say? I am Emily Gilmore's granddaughter, after all," Rory said, smiling mischievously.
"Aw, come on, don't bring your grandmother into this," Jess groaned. "I have plans that definitely do not involve her."
"All thoughts of her are gone," Rory said in a low, husky voice that sent chills down Jess's spine and butterflies through his stomach. They leaned forward, lips meeting in a heated kiss. Rory continued to crawl forward, forcing Jess to lie down on the couch with her hovering over him. He let out a noise in the back of his throat, making Rory smile against his mouth, his hand finding its way up the back of her shirt.
"Mama," came a little voice from next to them.
Jess drew back with a grumble of frustration, leaning his head against Rory's collarbone. Rory snickered and turned to see Ellie standing next to the couch, watching them.
Rory's jaw dropped.
"Ellie, did you walk?!"
"Huh?!" Jess's head shot up and he looked at Ellie. There she was, though wobbling a little, standing unassisted with a drooly smile on her face.
Rory frantically climbed off of Jess, narrowly avoiding kneeing him in the crotch, and walked across the room. "Ellie, come over here to Mama!"
Ellie followed suit, toddling across the room, her arms outstretched towards Rory. When she got to her destination, she was lifted into the air and hugged tightly as Rory laughed.
"Ellie, you're walking! You're so good, baby girl!" she gushed.
"Put her down, put her down," Jess said in a rush, sitting up on the couch. Rory placed Ellie back on the floor and Jess reached out towards her, beckoning her towards him. Ellie stood from her place on the floor with the help of the coffee table and wobbled her way over to Jess, laughing and clapping as she enjoyed the new game they seemed to be playing.
Jess hoisted her up when she reached him, peppering her face with kisses.
"Nice, work, kid," he said with a grin before blowing a raspberry on her tummy, feeling his heart swell as her squealing giggles and Rory's laughter filled the room with joy.
A/N: Eeee so much is happeningggg! I'll be honest, it's so hard to not write Dave with too much Seth Cohen in him but I'm doing my best lol Thank you so much for all your lovely reviews and all your encouragement, I appreciate it so greatly 3
