Lorelai, Rory, Anna, and Emily are sitting in the living room of Gilmore Manor. "Well, this is nice, isn't it?" Rory looks around the room. "So, Grandma, Grandpa is traveling again?"
"Yes, he is." Emily nods.
"Business must be good." Rory smiled.
"Seems to be." Emily stares off to the side, refusing to look at the couch because then she would have to see her daughter. Lorelai was looking off the side, refusing to look at her also. Anna sighes, leaning back into the couch not wanting to deal with this childish behavior.
"That's great. Isn't that great, Mom?" Rory tried to get her mom into the conversation.
"A jig is forthcoming." She shakes her legs.
"Mom's business is great, too. I mean, not that it's without its problems, you know, but they're usually funny problems. . .like, um. . .oh! Mom, why don't you tell Grandma about the mouse?" She tried to start a conversation.
"What mouse?" Emily looked alarmed.
"Mom?" Anna knew this wasn't going to be the outcome that Rory wanted, but getting the argument out of the way was the only way to move on from this.
"There's a mouse at the inn." Lorelai reluctantly told her.
"Is the place dirty?" Emily asks with no hesitation.
"No, it's just surrounded by this thing called nature and. . .mice happens." Lorelai sighs.
"Mice carry diseases, you know," Emily told her like it wasn't a common fact.
"It's a tiny little field mouse, Mom," Lorelai said through gritted teeth.
"There is never just one mouse. They are pack animals." Anna had been telling her this.
"Be quiet, you're not helping." Lorelai hissed at her youngest before looking at her mother. "Let's just change the subject, shall we?"
"You should set a trap," Emily advises.
"Got it covered." Lorelai points at her.
"Just make sure you don't use poison," Emily recommends.
"Got it covered." Lorelai sips her wine.
"They will eat the poison and then go into the walls and die, decompose, and the entire place will smell." Emily had a friend who made that mistake.
"I've got it covered, but thanks." Lorelai was trying to get rid of this conversation.
"I just have to say, I don't know why you're the one sitting here with an attitude. I'm the one who should be mad." Emily was tired of dancing around the subject.
"Let's not do this, okay Mom?" Lorelai didn't want to have this argument again.
"After all, you're the one who just walked out of here last week without saying a word." She looked towards the door.
"Because I couldn't get a word in." Lorelai defends herself.
"Your father and I were shocked and upset." Emily felt like they had a right to their emotions.
"So what else is new?" She rolled her eyes.
"You didn't give us five minutes to digest the news." She needed time to process.
"Please, find the off switch." She whispers to her children.
"You simply dumped it on us and walked out. I hardly think that's fair." Emily hated the way her daughter handled conflict with them. She would either blow up or walk away.
"Mom, it doesn't matter. It's over. Let's just move on, okay? We came here to have a nice evening, so. . .come on, let's have it." She picks up the newspaper from the coffee table.
"Something smells good." Anna was getting hungry. While she wishes they could talk out their problems like normal people, she would be satisfied with food too.
"Braised lamb shank," Emily told her.
"Oh, braised lamb shank! How does one braise a lamb shank?" Rory was once again trying to fill the tense silence.
"Oh, I can answer that question." Anna perks up.
But, she never got to tell the room, because she was interrupted by her mother. "Oh my God."
"Reading in front of other people is extremely rude, Lorelai." She scolds her daughter.
"Shauna Christy shot her husband." She stares at the article.
"What?" Emily was shocked.
"Shauna Christy, you remember Shauna Christy." She looks at her mother.
"Yes, I remember Shauna Christy, she was a lovely girl." She nods.
"Well, apparently this lovely girl came home to find her husband giving the nanny a nice little bonus package. And they say good help is hard to find." She snickers.
"That's just gossip." She couldn't believe that she knew a killer.
"Gossip? The man was shot thirty-five times. He looks like a sprinkler system." She passed her the newspaper.
"I can't believe this. Shauna was always such a nice girl. She was bright, cultured, and well-spoken." She felt bad for the two lives ruined.
"And a big Annie Oakley fan." Lorelai teased.
"This is not funny, the woman committed a crime." She looks at her daughter horrified that she would make a joke out of this.
"Okay, fine." She put her hands up in surrender.
"This is a tragedy." Emily went on.
"My bad, sorry." She apologized.
"A man is dead, a young woman ruined." She felt like she was going to be correcting Lorelai's moral compass her whole life.
"Consider the subject dropped." Lorelai folded her hands over her lap.
"At least she had a husband to kill." Emily began to read the article.
"This is nice, isn't it?" Lorelai looks over at Anna, who was giggling.
Anna was eating her breakfast at the counter in Lukes with Jess across from her reading a book when he was supposed to be working.
"It's our last day of summer, what to do? What to do?" She hummed, swinging her legs.
"Whatever you want." He didn't look up from the book.
"So, we can dress up in drag and sing at the karaoke bar?" She hummed. He looks up at her to see that she was joking before looking back at his book. "Come on, make a suggestion?" She whines.
"Can't we do what we normally do?" He sighs.
"Picnic at the lake and a movie at Black-White-Read." She gave the classic duel.
"After I'll take you to the bakery to get a pie." He told her.
"Okay… let's go." She took her last bite of pancakes.
"I'm out, Luke." He walks around the counter.
Anna and Rory were in the kitchen filling up their thermos with coffee. "Today is is the last first day of high school you're ever gonna have." Lorelai tears up.
"Yeah." They shrug, not seeing the big deal.
"You guys are all grown up and soon you'll be going off into the world." She would miss seeing them making their coffee in the morning.
"Not yet." Rory didn't want her to sob like she did on their first day of freshman year.
"But soon. And after you spread those wings and fly away, I won't have the opportunity to give you this." She hands them each a piece of paper.
"What is it?" Anna looks down.
"It's your bill." She smiled.
"My what?" Rory tilts her head.
"Yeah. I've been crunching the numbers, you know, adding up what you've cost me over the years: raising you, clothing you, feeding you, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. I've itemized everything here by years and income ratio. I thought you could factor it into your student loan." She taps the total.
"Why do we have the same number? You were living with Grandma when you had me." Rory looks at her sister bill.
"One thing that's painfully obvious here, you've used an extraordinary number of diapers." She pointed at the line that showed the price of diapers.
"I'm gonna go take a shower." Rory was in her pajamas.
"I need to get dressed." Anna had finished taking a shower. She was in her robe and had her hair up in a towel.
"It cost a fortune. What were you using all those diapers for?" She took the bill from her hands to look it over.
"I was building my make Mommy go away castle." Rory picked up her robe.
They were starting to walk out of the room when Lorelai blurted out. "Kirk asked me out."
"Shut up!" They turn around to walk back to her.
"Yesterday he came to the inn and asked me to dinner." She told them.
"That's so sweet." Rory gasps.
"Sweet?" She was surprised that they weren't horrified.
"You should wear your dress with the ponies on it. I bet he likes ponies." Anna giggles.
"I cannot go out with Kirk." She stares at them with wide eyes.
"Why?" They whined.
"Uh-huh. . .why? He's. . .he's Kirk!" She yelled.
"Well, as long as he loves you." Rory teased.
"You are not serious." Lorelai needs real advice.
"We want you to be happy." Anna gigglings.
"Hello Headmaster Charleston, this is my stepfather Kirk. Please don't make any sudden movements, he's a fear-biter." She pretends to introduce him.
"Okay, so how will you let him down?" Rory got serious.
"I don't know. That's why I needed to talk to you, you're the nice one in the family." She pointed at Rory. Anna pretended to be offended.
"Well, you could just tell him the truth. You could tell him that you're not interested in dating him and that you just wanna be friends." Rory found the truth was always best.
"That sounds so lame." Lorelai whines.
"You could tell him you're involved with someone else," Anna recommends.
"Yeah, because my current karma is so great in that area, I can afford to jinx it with that kind of lie... NO!" She shook her head.
"Okay, then you figure it out." Rory couldn't help her mom with Kirk if she was going to shoot everything down.
"Alright. . .we're gonna have to move." She thought of the best way to avoid her problem. "Take off in the middle of the night, leave everything behind, assume different identities. I'll join a local community theater and I'll drive you guys to soccer. It'll work for many years until the FBI comes to get me, and by that time, you're on your own."
"I don't play soccer." Rory grabs a cereal box.
"Soccer doesn't work for me either. Can I try a knitting group?" Anna opens a pop tart bag to put two in the toaster.
"You will learn." Lorelai grabs a bag of marshmallows. There was a moment of silence as Rory grabbed the milk, Anna stood by the toaster, and Lorelai was eating. The daughters couldn't hold back their giggles. "Stop! It's not funny, it's bad! I have to see this guy. He works at every business in town, I can't get away from him!"
Anna grabs the pop tarts and puts them on a plate. They sat down at the table. "Well, then you should marry him and move in with his mother." Rory pours cereal into the mix mixing bowl.
"I'll handle it myself, thank you very much." Lorelai puts some marshmallows into the bowl.
"Sorry, just trying to help." Rory pours the milk.
"So you have your swearing-in ceremony today." Lorelai put a spoon in the bowl to take a bite.
"At three, do not be late." She reminds her of the time.
"I will not be late." She nods.
"Okay, I have something to tell you." Rory put a spoon into the bowl.
"Is it about Vince Foster?" She asks.
"It's about Grandma," Rory told her.
"Oops." Lorelai pulled a face.
"She's coming today." Anna gave the bad news.
"No!" She whines.
"Mom, I'm sorry. She found out about it, so she called. . ." Rory apologizes even though she shouldn't have to.
"And you said yes?" She felt betrayed.
"She's her grandmother." Anna defends her sister.
"Yeah, what am I supposed to say?" Rory didn't see what her mother wanted her to do.
"Say Sorry, Grandma, but if my mother sees you, she'll run screaming down the hall." Lorelai didn't want her mom to ruin this big day for her daughter.
"You'll be sitting there listening to the ceremony, you hardly have to talk at all." Rory reasoned.
"Mom, you can deal with it for Rory." Anna took her pop tarts up to her room to get dressed into the vest Chilton uniform.
Anna was sitting with her friend waiting for the ceremony to start. "You sure you don't want us to sit with your mom and grandma, so you guys can share this moment," Henry asked.
"Are you kidding? I already had to sit through that awkward Friday dinner, I'm not doing it again." She shook her head.
"What are they fighting about this time?" Roger asks.
"My mom told them she was getting back with my dad. They were excited about it, but it is not happening now so they're bitter." Anna explained.
"Why?" Elenor didn't know why they wanted their daughter to get with her deadbeat baby daddy.
"Because they're old-fashioned and they want her with the man that got her pregnant." She knew under it all they had good intentions but they were misguided.
"Do you Gilmore always have drama?" Thomas flips through the program.
"You don't get to judge when you love hearing every detail." She grabs the booklet to smack him with it.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, I welcome you. Assemblies like this are always happy ones for me, initiating a new group of school leaders. Chilton's always prided itself on the quality of its student government, and this year we may have outdone ourselves. These young men and women on this stage represent the best and the brightest of what this school has to offer. Ladies and gentlemen, it gives me great pleasure to present to you your student body government of 2003." The headmaster stood behind the podium. They clapped for their peers. Anna ends up falling asleep on Henry's shoulder after the third speech.
"Francis, did what? When I see her I'm going to break her face in?" Anna was seeing red when Rory was telling her how Francis pulled her into a bathroom to threaten her to get Paris to play nice.
"You will not. I'm going to handle this. This will not be like the time you gave Kyle Gibson a wedgie because he pulled on my ponytail." Rory told her firmly.
"Someone had to stand up to the bully then and now." She points down. "She thinks she is god because of those damn puffs. No cares about those pastries."
"I thought you would be for the hemline rule. You do get written up a lot." Rory knew she probably got written up today.
"I don't mind the detentions. I do my homework during that time." She grumbles, not wanting to admit that the rule change would make her life easier. "She wants to make herself out to be tough then why doesn't she go after Paris herself."
"She knows Paris is unreasonable," Rory sighes.
"No, because she is a cream puff whose filling has gone bad. She knew she could never push Paris around, so she pulled you into the bathroom to push you around. You should be outraged." Anna didn't see why she was so calm about this.
"She's right. This is politics. I have to play it smart." Rory couldn't let her anger blind her like Anna or Paris would.
"Maybe I'll get Thomas to say yes the next time she asks him out, making her fall in love with him, and then smash her heart at prom." Anna plots.
"What, no?" Rory was horrified.
"You're right, it wouldn't work. Thomas is not that good of an actor. Too pure of a heart." She tried to think of something else.
"Don't plot anymore." Rory thumped her head to try and stop the thought process.
"I can't believe you did it." Anna did Rory's makeup for Friday night dinner.
"It was to help Paris gain a connection with the other presidents." She was about to convince Paris to let the hemline through.
"The principal is going to veto it anyway." Anna put blush on her face.
"See, so it's harmless." Rory reasoned.
"Ugh, I'm not going." Lorelai came down the stairs as Anna finished up.
"You are going." Anna put her makeup away in the bag.
"She has done this to me for the last time. From now on, I'm not giving her any information about my life at all." She moved the mail around on the table to grab her keys.
"As opposed to all the details you've heaped upon her in the past." Rory rolled her eyes.
"I can't believe she called Christopher. She has no respect for me or my feelings or my privacy." She couldn't believe the bomb her mom dropped on her at lunch.
"Well, she didn't think of it that way. She thought that she was helping." Rory tried to see it from her side.
"You do know there isn't a Santa Claus, don't you?" Lorelai couldn't deal with her positive energy right now.
"She tried and it didn't work, so can't we just forget it." Anna knew it wasn't going to work, but she still had to try.
"I'm never going over there again." She walks over to the vanity.
"Not an option." Rory helped her put her necklace on.
"It should be. Sometimes you have to cut people out of your life." Lorelai looked at her in the mirror.
"She's your mother." Anna reminds her.
"I want proof, I want tests done." She fixed her hair.
"Do you want your red purse or your blue?" Rory asked.
"Blue." Rory went to get the purse. "Gee, I wonder who else she's calling. She's probably on the phone with Kirk right now. I heard through my spies you're taking my daughter out to dinner. Let's talk about China's patterns. God, I'm furious!" She took the lipstick that Anna passed to her. The phone rings. "Don't get that, it might be her."
Rory came back into the room with the purse. "I doubt she'd call when we're supposed to be over in half an hour."
They heard Kirk's voice on the answering machine. "Hello? Hello?" He hangs up.
"The answering machine confused him." Lorelia stared at the machine amazed. "And that's the guy who likes me."
"I'd consider adoption if I were you." Rory teased.
"My life stinks. Hey, let's look into each other's eyes and say I wish I were you at the same time. Maybe we'll pull a Freaky Friday!" She looks at Anna in the eyes.
"No, thank you." Anna squeezed her eyes shut.
Lorelai turned to Rory. "Or we can just pretend that we did and you can go around acting immature. Oh, wait. . ." She paused to say that she already acted like a teenager.
"I can't believe you won't switch bodies with me." She pouts.
"Forget it. Then I'd have to date Kirk." Rory pulled a face.
"I would switch bodies with either of you in a heartbeat if you wanted." Lorelai whines.
"Considering how we both have teenage boyfriends, that's a little creepy." Anna wonders about her mom sometimes.
The phone rings again and they stare at the machine waiting for it to pick up the call. "Lorelai, hi. I just called, I think there might be a problem with your phone. I was just wondering if I could ask you a couple of quick questions." Kirk got interrupted by his mom.
"Hello?" She picked up the phone.
"Mom?" Kirk couldn't be more embarrassed.
"Who is this?" She wonders who her son was sneaking off to talk to.
"Mom, would you please get off the phone? Mom?" Kirk pleads.
"Is this Dr. Marshall?" She wanted to know if Kirk was having any medical problems.
"Mom, it's an important phone call, please hang up. I – I – I – I'll call you back." Anna and Rory crackled as Lorelai groaned.
They had to ring the doorbell rings several times. "Oh, for heaven's sake," Emily answers the door.
"Hey, I don't think your doorbell's working." They walked inside.
"Believe me, it's not the doorbell." She had been doing all the work around the house lately.
"Oh, so it was the door." A brunette maid walks into the room.
"Yes, Sarah, once again, it was the door." Emily gave a strained smile.
"Okay, so I have to remember that the big bell is the door and the small one is the oven." She nods.
"Yes, that would be a wonderful thing to remember." Emily was ready to throw her out the door. Sarah walks away. "Okay, well, let's have a drink, shall we?" She guides them into the living room.
They took their usual seats. "So, Grandma, you have a new maid?" Rory asks.
"Yes, I do." She nods.
"How is she still here?" Anna asked.
"Anyone wants a drink?" She got up to go to the bartending cart.
"I'll have wine if there's any left." Lorelai watches her mom refill her glass.
"Girls, soda or water?" Emily asked.
"Soda, please." They nod.
Emily looked at the bottom of the cart to see that nothing was there. "How about water?"
"Water's fine, too," Anna answered for them.
"What's up, Mom?" Lorelai looked back at her.
"Nothing." She put ice in the girl's cups.
"You seem tense." She was enjoying this more than she should have.
"You always think I seem tense." She pours the drinks.
"But tonight you seem tenser than usual." She pushed the subject.
"Well, I'm not!" She hands them the drinks. "Rory, Anna, tell me about school." She sat down in the armchair.
"It's the same old song and dance. Classes, homework, projects…." Anna trailed off.
"Rory, Do you like student government?" Emily asked.
"I think so." Rory shrugs. Anna wondered what Emily would do about Francis.
"And your grades are still good?" She asks.
"Yes." They nod.
"Do you take any sort of physical education?" She tried to keep the conversation going.
"Not this semester," Rory said.
"But eventually you will take some sort of physical education?" Emily hopes for them to take over the subject soon.
"I hope not." Anna knew she might have to try out for a sport again, but she hoped that was the extent of it.
"But trust me, the minute they decide to run after a ball and take a public shower with thirty other girls, you are getting a call." Lorelai smiles.
"Well, thank you." She nods.
The maid came in. "Dinner's ready!" She turns around to go out of the room.
"Sarah, one minute please." She stops her from leaving right away like she normally did before Emily could tell her anything.
"Yeah?" She turns back to face her.
"I told you we eat dinner at seven. . .and right now, it's six-thirty. Therefore, one could conclude that maybe it's just a tad early for dinner." Emily had been having an issue with her timing for every meal.
"Oh, I'm sorry, I..." She didn't know what she was supposed to do.
"We want to eat at seven!" Emily yelled.
"But the food's ready now." She thought fresh food was best.
"Okay, never mind, we'll eat. We're eating. Up, up, let's go." Emily stood up to take them to the dining room. "It's fine. It's better, then we can all be in bed by nine. Sit down."
"Mom, tell us what is up right now." Lorelai was becoming more suspicious with every second that her mom interacted with the maid.
"What is up with what?" She sat down.
"With you, with her, with you and her." Lorelai and the girls sat down.
"Well, she's new, Lorelai. She's only been here three days, she's still getting the hang of things. I think it's only fair to give the woman a chance. Why are you staring at me?" She felt all their stares.
"Mom, you've had maids deported who were better than her." Lorelai had seen her mom pick apart great maids, so it was odd to see her being patient with a terrible one.
"I have not." She lies.
"Talk." She gave her a pointed look.
"Your father made a crack the other day about my not being able to keep a maid," Emily told them. They let out a noise of realization. "Of course, it's a gross exaggeration. Yes, I've had maids I haven't liked, but I've also had maids I've loved."
"Name one." Lorelai put up a finger.
Emily had to take a moment to think. "Dahlia."
"Who?" She didn't remember that one.
"You remember, she took you shopping once." Emily trusted her that much.
"How old was I?" She asked.
She had to think long for that answer. "Four, five."
"Mom, you haven't liked a maid since I was four or five?" She gasps.
"I have liked a maid. You asked me whom I loved. I loved Dahlia." She emphasized love.
"And whatever happened to Dahlia?" Anna wonders why she didn't keep her.
"Oh, how should I know? But I loved her." She shrugs.
The maid enters with some plates. "Okay, so salad?"
"Thank you, Sarah." Emily smiles. The doorbell rings. "Oops, big bell." She goes to answer it and takes the salads with her.
"Sarah, the salad! Sarah!" She yelled for the maid to come back. She sighs, giving up. "Pass the wine, Lorelai."
"You want a straw with that?" She passed her the bottle.
"You're enjoying this?" Emily poured some into her glass.
"Well. . .yeah." Lorelai giggled.
Christopher walks in. "Lor, I need to talk to you."
"Chris, what are you doing here?" She couldn't believe that he was there.
"You won't return my calls!" Chris yelled.
"Did you do this?" Lorelai glares at her mother.
"I knew you'd be here." He didn't want Emily to take the blame for this.
"I did not do this." Emily defends herself. If she did this, she wouldn't have Chris come in aggressively. She would have him come in gracefully and with a gift.
"Dad, this is not how you do this." Anna glares.
"I was given no choice." He defends himself.
"After I told you to just stay out of it!" Lorelai couldn't believe her mom.
"Lorelai, I did not do this!" She backed off like she was told.
"Yes, you did have a choice. Sherry was your choice." Anna had told him countless times that he had to wait for mom to get over this before they could be friends again.
"You have to go." Lorelai stood up to show him to the door.
"I'm not going until you talk to me." He followed her.
"Where are they going?" Emily called for them.
"Hopefully he will go out the door." Rory felt bad for her mom.
"Do we go or stay out of it?" Anna wonders.
"She said to stay out," Emily told them.
"Maybe, we'll listen and see if she needs us," Rory concluded.
They listen to Lorelai telling him to leave and promising to talk to him later while he insists for them to have a conversation right now. Rory couldn't listen anymore when he accused Lorelai of keeping her from him. "I didn't call you back because I didn't want to. Me. Mom had nothing to do with it." She walks over to them.
"Okay, honey, calm down." Lorelai didn't want her to say anything she couldn't take back.
"You promised me. You promised me at Sookie's wedding that this was going to work, that you were going to be there, you promised me." Rory yelled.
"Honey, please understand..." Chris wanted to explain his point of view.
"No, I always understand, and I don't wanna understand! I don't even wanna talk about this right now. I've got Mom, that's all I need. Go be somebody else's dad!" Rory grabs her mom's hand.
"Don't say that." His voice shook.
"I'm going upstairs. Call me when he's gone." She goes upstairs.
"She did not get there by herself." Chris pointed after her. They yell at each other some more.
Emily had enough when she looked over to see Anna crying silently as she listened to her mom talks about how much it hurt to see him. She stood up to walk over to them. "Christopher, I think you'd better go now."
"Emily, I . . ." He thought she would be on his side.
"Leave now, please." She left no room for argument. Christopher looks at Lorelai one last time before he leaves.
"You know, you need a mask and a horse when you do that." Lorelai chuckled through her tears.
"Something's burning." Emily smelled the air as she ran to the kitchen.
Rory, Anna, and Lorelai were walking down the sidewalk in Stars Hollow. "Well, now, that was a fun night. I haven't had that much fun since labor." Lorelai brought it up.
"Ba-dum-bum." Rory pretends to play the drums.
"But seriously, ladies and gentlemen, is this on?" She made it sound like she was tapping a mic.
"I can't believe he came over." Rory wasn't ready for dad drama tonight.
"He misses you." She rubs her arm.
"He misses you." Rory nods to her.
"What about me?" Anna pouts.
"We are all very missable. Honey, he loves you so much, he didn't mean to mess..." Lorelai did want them to have a relationship with their father.
"No, he never means to, but he does. And I don't care what he says or does, I'm not going to this wedding." Rory didn't want to see them together. Honestly, after tonight, Anna didn't know if she wanted to either. Her dad proved that he wasn't thinking of anyone else but himself.
"You don't have to." She wasn't going to force them. "But you might, at a later point in your life, when you're not so angry and you make up with your dad, as we both know you will, you might be sorry you missed it."
"It's the wrong wedding." Rory sighs.
"Ah, things happen for a reason." A part of her knew that she and Chris weren't meant to be.
"Since when is that your philosophy?" Anna snorts.
"Since now. By the way, I'm also a communist." She said matter-of-factly.
"Really?" Rory asks.
"Yes, 'cause I look damn good in red." She wiggles her eyebrows.
"I'm starving." Anna whines.
"Really? Could it be 'cause dinner sucked?" She groans.
"I can't wait for Grandma to fire her." Anna didn't want to think about how many horrible dinners she was going to have to eat.
"Let's do mac and cheese," Lorelia suggests.
"And tater tots," Rory adds.
"And those little pizza rolls." Anna was addicted to them.
"Oh, and chili beef soup." Rory was getting hungry too.
"After which we will install a vomitorium." Lorelai could feel the stomach ache coming on.
"Okay, nix the soup." Rory nods.
"And add some cake." Anna hummed.
"Okay, let's be organized, make it fast, make it snappy, and if there's any impulse buying, make it chocolate." She gave the game plan when they stopped in front of the market.
"Aye aye, captain." They saluted her.
"Lorelai!" Kirk called for her from down the street.
"Oh no. Go on in." She looked at the face of her suitor.
"Are you sure?" Rory asks, seeing as she has been through a lot tonight.
"I have to take care of this." She nods.
"Good luck." Anna sings as they go inside. They went through the aisles, putting things into their baskets.
Jess came over when he saw them. "Doing a little sho… Have you been crying?" He drops his friendly neighbor act. He cups her cheeks and angles her face up so he could look into her bloodshot eyes.
"My dad stopped by for Friday night dinner. It was an ugly fight between him and mom." She told him.
He hums as he rubs her thumbs along her face. Rory stares, never having seen this soft side of him before. "I'm fine. Rory had it worse than me. They kind of fought over her." Anna put her hands over his to pull them off her face.
"You alright?" He nods to her sister.
"I'm okay." She moved her hair behind her ears.
"Good." He looks at his girlfriend. "You're having another movie night." He nods to the basket.
"Yeah, comfort time for all of us." She nods.
"Alright, I'll see you tomorrow." He kissed her goodbye. Rory couldn't help but wish that Dean was more like that. If it was Dean he would insist on coming over. Jess understood personal space. He knew how to allow Anna to be independent while being beside her.
