(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)
Chapter 24
It had been a hell of a week. Actually, as Lorelai laid alone in bed thinking about it, she realised that it wasn't even one whole week since all the crazy started. Today was Thursday. At the same time last week, they had already seen the passing of Stan and endured the pain of his loss and his funeral, but the crazy hadn't really begun until after that.
Friday night, Rory told the grandparents about Jess, which had actually gone a little better than anyone could have expected. Sure, he was invited to tomorrow's family dinner and that could prove to be less-than-good, but Lorelai was trying to be positive about that. Just because her dad had hated Dean on first meeting, and Emily had already decided that Jess was pond scum, thanks to the last time he had sat at her table, it could still be okay. If she hoped hard enough, Lorelai wanted to believe that it could.
No, the real crazy had started over that weekend. The bells began to drive people insane. Just a little at a time, but it had started there. It was so nice to have church bells ringing when they were first mended. A really nice, calming, homely sound that was well-appreciated and reminded everybody of Stan. Good old Stan. Of course, as time passed, with the bells chiming at every hour, on the hour, feelings started to change.
Sookie's little Davey was so averse to the sound, he would start crying in anticipation of the bells, not even waiting for them to start. Some people's dogs would bark or whine and cry. Other folks were getting migraines and headaches. The rest just seemed to be irritated to the point of being in a near-constant bad mood. Lorelai could relate on that last part. She felt as if she were coming apart at the seams lately, stressing over the inn and other things besides, the whole feeling amplified exponentially by those confounded bells ringing and ringing and ringing.
Not that she would be a calm and happy place, even without the bells. How could she be when she was dealing with so much teen angst? She counted her lucky stars that it wasn't Rory who was suffering, but it was very nearly as bad seeing Lane all broken up. Nobody saw it coming. Nobody could ever have guessed that after a lifetime of hiding her true identity, activities, a whole other part of her life from her mother, that Lane would suddenly come out and tell her everything.
It started with Jess, which Lorelai knew sounded bad, since none of it was really his fault at all. He felt awful about it, he said as much, but it would have been obvious even without the verbal cues. It was only a hug, just between friends. Lane had been so excited, Luke said, to have gotten a gig at CBGBs. Not that he got the words or letters right when he told the story, but still. He could see how thrilled Lane was, how happy Jess was for her. It was a wonderful moment of real friendship and joy, until Mrs Kim saw the hugging and happiness and mistook it for something else.
Of course, Lane explained, and of course, it made no difference. The way she told it, the moment she realised there was no way she was ever going to be able to properly explain without making matters worse, and that even if she could find a way, it would just be piling lies on lies that she was too tired to come up with, she gave in. Lane told her mom everything. She took her up to her room, pulled up the floorboards, flipped over the mattress on her bed, and revealed the false back of her closet. Mrs Kim finally knew everything, absolutely everything. Poor Lane had to move out the very same day.
Lorelai was glad to give her Rory's room, at least for as long as the kid was away at Yale. They could even share when Rory came home for the weekend or whatever, though of course, it couldn't be a permanent arrangement. It was another strain on her already stretched finances and Lorelai had no idea how she was going to cope with that. It was something she hoped to talk out with Luke tonight, but wouldn't you know, when she asked him if he wanted to come over, he had other things he needed to do. He said he was sorry and that he would make it up to her another night. She had no doubt he meant it and would more than follow through, but for tonight, it didn't make Lorelai feel any better.
"Crazy week," she muttered to herself, turning over in bed, determined that she must go to sleep, and yet, she already knew it wouldn't happen, ever more so when the bells started chiming the hour again - eleven o'clock, which meant it would be going on forever! "No. No, no, no," she intoned, hopping out of bed and reaching for her clothes. "No more, just no more!" she insisted, shoving her feet into her boots and rushing towards the stairs.
She made a plan as she went, creeping around in the half-dark, trying to tread lightly and not wake Lane. She needed a flash-light and a hammer and... well, mostly things Lorelai knew damn well she didn't own.
"But I know a man that does," she whispered to herself, pulling her hat down harder on her head, grabbing her keys and heading out into the night.
Jess wasn't really the type to scream like a girl, but if he had been, he was pretty sure Lorelai's own squeal of panic would have drowned him out anyway. She was perhaps the last person he had expected to find on the other side of the apartment door when he flung it open, shortly after eleven p.m. The fact he had a wrench and a hammer in his hands probably didn't make him look too good in her eyes either, most especially since he was dressed in all black, complete with hat and gloves. It was only as he stared at her that he realised she looked pretty similar, just without the tools.
"Luke's not here," he told her, when they were both breathing evenly again.
"I know," she said, shaking her head at him, before her eyes finally settled on the tools in his hands. "Planning a heist, Bugsy?"
"Not exactly." Jess squirmed, pretty sure he was about to be in all kinds of trouble, unless... "Bells?" he asked, hoping he was right, because if he wasn't...
"Bells." Lorelai nodded her agreement.
They shared a smile then, the kind of which Jess never thought he would be sharing with his girlfriend's mother, especially over something as crazy as church bells. Whether that made him cracked or her a lot more of a heathen than anyone might have suspected, he wasn't at all sure. Either which way, ten minutes later, he and Lorelai were letting themselves into the church, by way of her credit card in the door, with plans to literally put a wrench into the workings of the bells, so they would never have a chance to clang and clatter ever again.
"Stan would understand," said Lorelai as they walked through the church towards the steps up to the bell tower, "right?"
"Absolutely," Jess agreed wholeheartedly. "Come on, he was a decent guy. He thought he was going a nice thing, I get that, but there's no way he could have remembered how annoying those bells are. He just couldn't"
"Obviously not" Lorelai nodded. "We're doing this for Stan as much as for anybody else."
"Is that so?"
The new voice startled both of them into jumping almost a foot in the air. Lorelai immediately dropped her flashlight, but Jess raised his wrench like a weapon, ready for anything. The streets of New York had taught him to be that fast and that prepared. Still, it was a real relief to realise it was his uncle staring at him from the shadows, arms crossed over his chest.
"You said you had some place to be tonight," Jess reminded him.
"That was true." Luke nodded. "The place was here. These bells are just..."
"Tell me about it." Jess smiled and Lorelai actually giggled on realising they had said the exact same thing at the exact same time.
"Well, that's disturbing," Luke grumbled, putting one foot on the bottom step of the stairs leading up towards the bells. "Anyway, I pretty much have this covered. You two just keep your voices down and, I don't know, play look-out, I guess," he advised.
"But the bells!" Lorelai called behind him, perhaps just a little too loudly, though she went for something a little quieter after they both shushed her some. "I just... Do you even know how to make them stop?"
Luke smirked in the beam of her flashlight. "Who do you think broke them the last time?" he asked, before ascending quickly out of sight.
Jess wasn't sure he had ever felt closer to this Uncle Luke than he did right then.
Rory had been super-nervous about Friday Night Dinner from the second her grandpa said she should bring Jess along. She wanted it to go well, she almost believed that maybe it could, but only almost. After all, her grandpa had never been all that great about the guys she dated (read: Dean) and her grandma already seemed to have formed a bad impression of Jess from the first and only unfortunate meeting they had.
At least this time there were no black eyes to worry about, and her mom was actually on her side, supportive of the whole Rory and Jess relationship thing. In fact, her mom and her boyfriend seemed to have bonded almost a little too well, though Rory couldn't quite work out how.
"Let's just say we found we had more in common than we ever thought possible," Lorelai told her with a grin as they drove over to Hartford that night. "Right, Jess?"
"Something like that," he agreed, smirking terribly.
No further explanation was given and Rory was too nervous to get into it right there and then. When they arrived to dinner, she had to admit her grandparents were both very polite and welcoming, though it was clear to all that Emily was faking. Richard seemed genuine, and Rory had never loved her grandpa more for the effort he made. He actually did seem impressed by Jess' knowledge of literature, and they talked for a long time about the wonder of Hemingway, and shared criticisms of some of the more long-winded Russians too.
"And what about The Fountainhead, which Rory tells me is such a wondrous text? I confess, I have started and failed to complete the book at least three times, not through a lack of understanding, but purely out of sheer boredom!"
"I'm with you on that one, sir," Jess told him easily. "I just don't have the patience for that kind of thing, but I respect the fact that Rory is all for supporting female authors. There are plenty of good ones. You ever read Jane Austen?"
"Pride and Prejudice, I think, and, uh... Northanger Abbey, I believe. Not bad," Richard considered, "but not entirely to my taste, I'm afraid."
"To each his own." Jess shrugged, putting the last spoonful of dessert into his mouth.
"Great souffle, Mom," Lorelai told her with a smile. "You know, chocolate is always a winner with me."
"I do know that, Lorelai, but I confess I was thinking more of Rory's guest when I arranged the meal. A special friend requires a special dessert," she said, smiling too much.
"Grandma, Jess isn't my special friend, he's my boyfriend," she corrected gently, "but I do appreciate that you went to an effort."
"Yeah, me too. Thanks," said Jess himself, mostly because Rory nudged him, she was pretty sure, but that was okay. "Dessert was great, thank you. The whole dinner, actually. Uh, thanks for inviting me."
He looked so awkward, but he was trying so hard. Rory really appreciated that and intended to make sure he knew it later. Not that she could thank him quite how she would like to, not tonight, anyway, but sometime, she would. She was determined on that.
"Rory?"
She barely heard her name, until Jess nudged her this time. "I'm sorry, what?"
"Your grandfather asked how things were going at Yale," Jess told her softly.
"Oh, everything's fine with Yale," she insisted with a smile. "I mean, yes, my advisor did say that he thought maybe I was taking too many classes, which I admit I disagreed with at first. After all, you took five classes, Grandpa, and I was sure I could handle it too, but honestly? It just leaves me with so little free time. And sure, I know Yale is all about a good education, but it's like you told me yourself, it's also about experiences. I can't experience much if I'm doing nothing but studying all the time, until I'm so stressed my head feels like it might explode."
"Exploding heads are never a positive thing." Lorelai nodded too seriously.
Rory saw Jess trying to hide his smirk in his napkin as she ploughed on. "So, anyway, I thought about it, and I decided, four classes is probably plenty. It causes me way less stress, and it leaves me more time to spend with mom and Jess and my friends in Stars Hollow. Plus," she continued quickly, not least because she saw her grandmother opening her mouth to say something that would probably be an argument, "with five classes, I was reaching a point where I had so much to do, I almost had to cancel Friday Night Dinner a couple of times, and you guys know, I would hate to do that."
"Oh, well, of course, we would hate to miss you," said Emily, looking concerned and awkward both.
"I know Rory always hates it if she thinks she won't see you guys for a while. She was really down over the Holidays when you went away."
It was honestly an involuntary reaction when she kicked Jess for that remark, at least, that's what Rory planned to tell him later, if he asked.
"I can't say it's not always pleasant to hear that one is missed in their absence," said her grandpa then, smiling at Rory, "and of course, I completely understand why you felt the need to take one less class, right now. After all, I'm sure the advisors at Yale know what they're talking about. If you have been told it's for the best and also feel that way yourself, I for one believe it to be true. I certainly would never think any the less of you for making such a decision."
"Me either," said Lorelai, grinning wide. "So, everybody good, everybody happy. Right, Mom?" she said, staring hard at her own mother.
"Yes, of course," said Emily, side-eyeing Jess over her coffee cup.
She was never going to like him, Rory was certain, but at least she was being polite. At least Jess had been on his best behaviour and managed to get on so well with Grandpa that she suddenly realised he was inviting Jess to go see his library and perhaps borrow a book or two, if he would like. Her mom was smiling at her from the other side of the table, and so, all in all, Rory had to admit, the night had gone much better than it could have. It was a blessed relief to realise that.
To Be Continued...