A/N: Nice to see lots of happy people enjoying the story - many, many thanks for the lovely reviews. Now, more Literati cuteness and Danes guys awkwardness ;)

(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)

Chapter 21

"That's a really unimpressed expression given what just happened here. Seriously, that was some of my best work."

Rory smiled when she heard that, turning to look at Jess, kissing his cheek, then reaching out to fix his mussed-up hair a little.

"Trust me, your work was very much appreciated," she promised him, pulling the covers of her bed up a little higher over them both. "If I don't look happy, it has absolutely nothing at all to do with you."

"Then what's going on?" he asked, his eyes even softer than his words.

Rory sighed. He really was so great. Beautiful and kind and sweet and smart and, even though she really had no frame of reference, as far as she knew, amazing in bed. Certainly, she had a good time on every occasion so far, and there had been a few, between Thanksgiving and New Years. The last part of the semester at Yale had been crazy-busy with finals, but the winter break had proven to be a wonderful mix of family fun and alone time with Jess. Rory couldn't remember a time when she had ever been so totally and completely happy.

Unfortunately, this was probably going to be her last opportunity to spend any real time with Jess for a while, not just in bed, but anywhere. January started with a few more vacation days, but they had slipped away so fast. Today, she needed to start packing up her things, and tomorrow, she would be back in her dorm, with classes, lectures, and assignments all ready and waiting to eat up the vast majority of her time and energy.

"As much as I love knowing you're going to be working at Yale now, and that we might actually be able to see each other from time to time without one of us driving twenty-two-point-eight miles, it's not going to be the same." Rory sighed one more time. "You'll be working, I'll be working, and even if we do find time to be together, I don't know how we'll ever be alone."

She wasn't just talking about sex, though obviously, that was a thing. Rory's room at home was her own, and yes, they had to wait for her mom to be out of the house, but it was still easier than trying to get a four-person dorm to themselves. Even if she might risk being overheard by Janet or Tanna, Paris' bed was a small number of yards from her own, and she wasn't exactly a social butterfly who went out much.

"Rory, it'll be fine," Jess insisted, propping himself up on his elbow to look at her. "Come on, you know it will. We coped okay when we had all those miles between us and we'll cope with this too. For what it's worth, I do understand what you mean. Seeing you more is going to be great, but seeing you for five minutes at a time when you're running between classes and I'm on a short break from work, it will probably be tough for a while, but we'll get used to it. We'll make it work."

The way he said that, the look in his eyes too, it all made Rory feel better, feel warm inside in a way she could never describe, even if someone paid her to try. He really believed in them, in their relationship. The last time, she had never been sure. She was pretty sure Jess hadn't been either, and that was half their problem. The first time, they were both balanced on a knife edge, just waiting for disaster. This time, things were so different. This time, they knew they were going to make it.

Reaching out to bring him closer, Rory kissed Jess firmly on the lips, lying back down and pulling him with her. He didn't protest at all. Honestly, she never expected him to. After all, like her, he probably didn't want to waste a minute of the uninterrupted free time they had left together. It seemed foolish to spend it worrying, when they could spend it making each other so very happy.


"I'm not getting out of this any longer, am I?"

"No, I really don't think so." Lorelai sighed sadly, reaching out across the counter to put her hand on Luke's shoulder. "I'm sorry, honey, but I think the awful moment has arrived," she said, so very much in high-drama mode, some Southern Belle accent starting to creep in as she went on, as if she were in Gone with The Wind or something. "There's no way out, no turning back. Lucas, darling, I'm afraid you're going to have to face it. You must... play golf with Richard Gilmore!"

As she ended her speech, she pretended to break down in noisy tears, gaining a little too much attention from the smattering of people sat around the diner. Luke rolled his eyes and urged her to stop. Of course, she was grinning widely and started bowing to her audience the moment she looked up.

"What? I do a great Scarlett O'Hara," she said, off Luke's undoubtedly unimpressed look.

"Right now, I'd like it better if you'd do a great Lorelai Gilmore and help me out with some advice for this golf thing with your father," he said urgently. "You do know I am not a golfer. I mean, sure, I managed to find this book my father left in the apartment, Learn Golf the Arnold Palmer Way, but frankly, I'm not sure I'm going to do so well."

"Oh, honey, I don't think even Richard is expecting miracles," she told him, with a smile. "Just do your best, and if he asks questions, keep your answers short and concise. That makes it harder for him to read into anything or pull you into a deeper conversation. Trust me, you don't want that. That's how you end up caught in the strings of the Puppet Master."

She was back to the dramatic, Luke realised, but at least she wasn't being a whole other person while she was doing it this time, so that was something. Also, she was trying to be helpful, which he couldn't mind at all.

"Do my best, short answers, and in the meantime, pray it snows some more so the whole thing gets called off?" he tried.

Lorelai smiled big. "Now you're getting it," she told him, leaning over the counter for a quick kiss, before hopping down from her stool. "Okay, so I have to get back to the house, make sure Rory has all her stuff ready for tomorrow."

"Uh, you may wanna give them some time," said Luke awkwardly, hating that Lorelai didn't immediately understand what he was saying, because that meant he was going to have to elaborate. "Jess, he went over there a while ago, and since you and me are both here, and those two have gotten closer lately..." he said pointedly, adjusting his hat, hoping so much that she was about to catch on, because he really did not want to go any further down this particular path.

"Closer lately... Oh, God." Lorelai made a face, shook her head, and sat back down on her stool very hard. "Um, yeah, so with the not going back to the house right now. That's a good plan. So, what I'm gonna do instead is go over to Sookie's place. Yeah, I'll do that, because plans for the inn and baby Davey will both distract me from... from the thoughts," she said, waving one hand wildly by her head.

"Yeah, always a good thing to get distracted from those thoughts," Luke agreed. "Believe me, I know."

It wasn't that he didn't feel happy for Jess and Rory and the fact they were doing so well in their relationship. He knew Lorelai was doing better with the whole concept of them being together this time around too, but nobody, absolutely nobody, wanted to think about the kids in their life in that way. It would be a very strange person who was comfortable with it, Luke was certain.


He kept staring at him. Jess knew he should probably be used to that by now. Luke liked to take an interest in his life, which he had learned to not mind too much, as time went by. Rory seemed to think it was great how her mom wanted to know so much about her life, so Jess tried to embrace somebody caring about him too. It just didn't come easy sometimes, especially when the part of his life that was making him most happy right now was how things had progressed with Rory.

Jess couldn't imagine that Luke wanted to do what the Gilmore girls did and talk about their sex lives. Honestly, he would rather die than even start to go there himself. Maybe what was on Luke's mind was something else, like the job Jess was starting tomorrow, though why he wouldn't just come out and say something like that, he had no idea.

"What's going on with you?" he asked eventually, unable to keep up the pretence that he didn't know he was being watched like a bug under a microscope.

"Nothing, no, it's nothing," his uncle insisted, waving a hand in some kind of dismissive gesture.

Jess finished tidying up around the counter, turned to face his uncle head on, fixing him with a 'Are you kidding me?' look until he caved.

"It's nothing," Luke repeated, but they both knew that wasn't true. "I was just thinking how it'll be a little weird when you're not here, that's all. I mean, it's great that you have that new job at the library in Yale. Honestly, I could not be happier for you, but I think it's just occurring to me that you won't be here."

"You knew that already." Jess rolled his eyes. "It's why you hired Lane, to cover the shifts that I won't be here to do, remember?"

"Oh, sure," Luke agreed, nodding his head, coming off weird and shifty as he looked everywhere but at his nephew. "It's not that I didn't know you wouldn't be here, it's just... Doesn't matter."

Again, with the dismissive hand gesture, and then he moved right by Jess and headed for the stock room. It would have been better to just let it go, Jess was sure that it would, but he was becoming a real sucker lately and didn't listen to his own good sense on stuff like that. With no customers to speak of in the diner for the moment, he gave Caesar a yell to let him know he needed to pay attention if the bell rang, then followed Luke out back.

He was counting jars when Jess found him, something he almost definitely did not need to be doing. Not that he was about to tell him that. It was none of his business if the man wanted to recount his pickles and mayonnaise. What mattered was to somehow make sure that he wasn't upsetting Luke by taking this other job, without actually getting too sappy about it.

"So, you know I'll still be around, right?" he said awkwardly, deciding if Luke was going to count jars, he could maybe count boxes on the opposite shelf to keep himself busy too. "I mean, I do live here, so you'll see me every day."

"I know that," said Luke shortly. "I just kind of got used to working with you, that's all, but obviously, you need to move on. I want you to. A library is the right spot for you, and you'll be closer to Rory, which I know you'll appreciate. I'm sure she will too."

"That was part of the appeal," Jess admitted, glad he wasn't looking at his uncle and that Luke probably wasn't looking at him either when he said that - they sometimes did better with their backs to each other, especially when it came to this whole verbal thing. "So, you got that whole golfing thing coming up, right?"

"Right." Luke sighed. "I guess I'll manage somehow, and if not..."

"If not, then you'll suck at golf and Richard Gilmore will just have to accept you as you are," Jess told him, finally turning around to face his uncle just as Luke did the same thing. "You're the right guy for Lorelai. Doesn't mean you have to be her dad's ideal guy too."

"You say that because you know the grandmother hates you, don't you?" Luke smirked a little.

"Maybe." Jess smirked right back at him. "We're really not the blue-blood approved type."

"I think I'd be more worried about the both of us if we were," said Luke, slapping Jess on the back and actually smiling as he headed back to the diner, just as the bell rang out.

"Yeah," Jess agreed, following on behind him, "me too."

To Be Continued...