(For disclaimers, etc. - see 1.)

3. From Dodger, With Love
'Verse: canon
Date/Timeline: December 2001 (Season 2)

"Hey, hon? I think somebody left this for you."

Rory didn't know what to think when her mom pulled something from underneath the reception desk of the inn and placed it in her hands. It was a small wrapped gift.

"Somebody?" she checked, staring at the tag that only had her name on it, nothing else. "It couldn't be Grandma and Grandpa, or Lane, and I highly doubt it was Paris. Who else would just leave me a gift without saying anything?"

"I honestly don't know, babe," Lorelai confirmed, shrugging her shoulders. "But since you're the only Rory around here, it absolutely has to be for you. Michel said somebody picked it up during the clean-up in the dining room. It was right there under the tree, all by itself. Hey, you know, it was probably Dean, trying to be cute or something?"

Rory wasn't sure she quite believed that. For one thing, she and Dean had agreed to exchange gifts in a couple of days, since she hadn't had time to wrap his yet. Not that she could think of anyone else who would leave her a mystery present like this, unless... Staring harder at the tag, she tried to decode the handwriting but had some trouble. The four letters of her name printed boldly in black marker didn't give anything away. It was almost as if her anonymous gift giver really was determined not to be identified. Curiouser and curiouser.

"I'll be back in a few minutes and then we'll head out. I just have to double-check a couple of things before we leave, okay?" Lorelai said, not really waiting for an answer, before she rushed off to talk with her staff, no doubt.

Rory barely noticed her going, instead drifting over to sit down on the couch in the lobby, still staring at her gift. She could try to save it for Christmas, but curiosity was going to get her eventually. She figured she may as well give in and open it now. Carefully removing the plain green wrapping, she wasn't entirely surprised to find a book waiting for her inside. It was a fairly solid Rory Gilmore gift choice, after all. She figured most people who knew her would default to a book when it came to buying her a present, so it hardly narrowed down the options for the giver, until she opened up the cover and looked inside.

Far from a brand new, virgin copy of Visions of Cody by Jack Kerouac, this one was special. It had been well-thumbed and even annotated in the margins with the thoughts and insights of a previous reader. 'Perhaps someone who has read this book at least forty times,' Rory considered with a smile. Now, she knew who's handwriting she was seeing. Now, she knew who had left her the gift.

"So, Jess Mariano," she said softly, "you don't think everybody in town is a jerk."

"Okay, I'm back. Let's go!" Lorelai announced as she reappeared in the lobby, clapping her hands together. "You ready, babe?"

"Sure, I'm ready," Rory agreed, scrambling to her feet and deliberately hiding the book in one of her larger jacket pockets.

"What happened with the mystery Christmas gift?" her mom asked curiously.

"I'm going to look at it later," said Rory, deliberately keeping things vague.

Lorelai didn't need to know she already unwrapped her present, and it certainly would lead to no good if she knew who it was from. All Rory had to do now was figure out how to get the gift she had bought for Jess (albeit she assumed she would never really have a reason to give it) over to him without anybody knowing about it. That one was going to take some thought!