Chapter Text
It was a long time since Rory had to sneak into her own house in the dark. As a teenager, she really wasn’t the type to stay out late. Well, except for that one time with Dean when she had genuinely fallen asleep, in all innocence, with no funny business whatsoever occurring. Even when she was dating Jess, she never missed curfew, no matter how much he encouraged her, no matter how much she had been tempted, and she really, really had. Her mom actually made fun of her sometimes for being such a good kid.
Of course, Rory made up for that a little when she got into college. Her rebellion had come later, in her late teens, ever more so in her early twenties. She could try to blame Logan, but it wasn’t entirely his influence. Even then, she hadn’t had to sneak into her home. She was in college then, and never felt the need to worry what Paris might think of her coming home late, or even early in the morning.
As an adult, she lived alone a lot, and even after Noah, she could count on one hand the number of nights she had stayed out later than intended. Most times, her son was being cared for by his grandparents, leaving Rory free to stroll into the house past midnight, without a care in the world. Things were a little different tonight.
Since Noah had been old enough to be home alone for longer than five minutes, Rory had never stayed out late. Not because of her son exactly, just because the situation never arose. Tonight was the first time, in more ways than one. Not just the first night she had to creep into the house at three a.m. while her son slept upstairs. Also, the first time she and Jess took the big step that a part of her had been waiting for since she was seventeen years old.
On the way home, she had actually stopped in town square, looking back at the diner to wave at Jess up in the lighted window, and it hit her harder than at any moment before that.
“I just had sex with Jess Mariano.”
She actually said it out loud, and a delicious shiver ran through her at the sound of the words, not to mention all the deliriously wonderful memories of the proceeding few hours. It was good. Really good. In fact, Rory wasn’t sure there were enough ‘reallys’ in the world for how good it actually was. They had certainly waited long enough.
Maybe it was the anticipation that made it even more special than it otherwise might have been. She couldn’t imagine it being as spectacular as that when they were young. She had no experience at all then and wasn’t certain he had as much as the rumours suggested either, actually. Now, they knew what they were doing, and they were so certain and so ready for it all. Rory had zero regrets, except maybe that she hadn’t given enough thought to the whole sneaking back into her house thing.
Easing the front door closed behind her, she paused in the hallway, shoes held in her hand, listening intently for any sound or movement from above. Sure there was none, she tiptoed carefully towards the stairs, then started going up.
She moved slowly, a whole lot slower than she had when she was all-but chasing Jess up into the diner apartment a few hours before. To think that just the other day she had been worried he might make a move she wasn’t ready for. That he might expect things that she wasn’t prepared to give. It seemed so stupid now. When they were stood outside the restaurant, even before that, when they were across the table from each other, or in the car on the way to Hartford, or perhaps even from the second they linked arms on the porch outside her front door, she just knew the night was going to end somewhere beautiful.
Kissing was a given. More than kissing started to appeal pretty quickly, and though it wasn’t purely the wine that made her want to go further, Rory had to admit, it did a good job of bolstering her confidence. It was in the parking lot, when Jess was casually leaning on the car, smiling that enigmatic smile that never failed to make her weak in the knees, that she realised he still had that same effect on her. She wanted him, so bad. At least at this point she knew she could go there if she wanted to. That it wasn’t the same big deal it had been when she was young.
Not that there was no pressure at all. After thirty years, she and Jess crossing that line was most definitely a moment worthy of note and worth taking pretty seriously. The last thing Rory wanted was for him to think she was using him, or that she was making him a promise she couldn’t keep later. She tried to tell him, somewhere between the desperate kisses and their clothes coming off all over the apartment, that this was what she wanted, but she couldn’t promise him anything else. That maybe she could later, she wasn’t sure, but for the moment, this was all she was sure she wanted.
“Rory,” he said, pulling back to look at her seriously. “You want this to happen?”
“Really do,” she told him without pause.
“Then if you’re okay with everything else being put aside until later, I’m okay with that too. Agreed?”
She smiled and nodded affirmatively. “Agreed.”
They dived back in then, head first and without another’s moments pause or concern, and it had been wonderful. Thinking of it made Rory feel so much, it overwhelmed her to the point where she almost missed the top step entirely, narrowly avoiding face-planting into the carpet by a fraction of an inch. Braced on the floor, on her hands and knees, she stopped and waited again. Her eyes flitted to Noah’s bedroom door. The light was out, as it should be at three in the morning, and if she listened closely, she was almost certain she could hear his light snoring.
Letting out a small sigh of relief, Rory clambered back to her bare feet and hurried to her own room, opening the door in silence, and closing it as softly as she could behind herself. Bracing her back against the door, she let herself take a moment and relax. She made it. No harm done. No disturbance made. That was a very good thing.
Pulling out her cell she checked the time. 3:12. She was officially a crazy person, staying out so late. Even when she had the opportunity to be earlier, she threw it away. She recalled reaching for Jess’ cell on the nightstand after what must have been the second time, showing him the figures that stated 12:04.
“So much for being ruined for days by staying up past midnight,” she had said breathlessly, falling down onto the pillows beside him.
“Huh. I think we’re doing pretty well,” he said, referring to their stamina she supposed. “You know, for our age.”
She had slapped him for that, right across the shoulder, pretty hard, actually. Jess only laughed, and didn’t stop until she bodily threw herself on top of him to kiss him some more. She couldn’t seem to stop, not for anything in the world. For someone who had been uncertain about her feelings all of a few days ago, it seemed crazy that she could be so into him now.
Rory might have wondered about it more, but she was too tired, as well as too happy, to think anymore. What she really needed was to go to bed and get whatever sleep she could before she absolutely had to get up again and face the world. Thankfully, it was Saturday, which meant Noah wouldn’t put in an appearance until maybe nine. Nobody was expecting Rory, in any capacity, so she could easily sleep in. When she did sleep, she was pretty sure she was guaranteed some fairly special dreams, and the best part was, when she did wake up in the morning, it would be to a reality that resembled those dreams quite nicely.
There was a huge grin on Rory Gilmore’s face as she slipped out of her clothes, into her pyjamas, and right into bed. She had a feeling she would be wearing that expression all night long and potentially for days after. It felt good and certainly wasn’t the only thing tonight that did!
There was a clattering sound and what might have been somebody cursing. Rory was confused, bleary-eyed, and not at all sure what was happening. When she tried to raise her head from the pillow, she was bemused to find there was no pillow there. She seemed to be upside-down in her bed, the covers caught on her head. That hadn’t happened since she was a kid, at least, not when she was alone in the bed anyway.
A giggle escaped her lips and she bit her lip, recalling who she had been sharing a bed with before she came home. Recalling all that they had done, much of which had played on her mind to the point where she had dreamed about it. That and more that hadn’t really happened, but she wouldn’t mind at all if it did, sometime soon.
Another loud noise from the floor below startled her from the happy daydream and Rory sat up fast in her bed. Jess wasn’t there. She had left him at the diner apartment and come home, so her son wouldn’t wake up in the morning and wonder where she was and why.
Her son.
“Noah,” she said aloud, hopping quickly from her bed.
Rory got herself showered and dressed, then downstairs faster than she had in a long time, reaching the kitchen door, and immediately wondering how she could possibly face Noah after what she had done. She had sex with Jess last night. This morning too. Just a few hours ago, she was in bed with her boyfriend from thirty years ago and they had done things she hoped her fourteen-year-old had never even thought about yet. She certainly wouldn’t want him to know she had been partaking in those same activities, and within a mile of their house.
“Get a grip,” Rory told herself in a harsh whisper. “It’s not like you broke any laws.”
“Mom?”
She flinched when he said that, knowing he must have heard her speak or move or something. Putting on her best smile, Rory pushed on through the kitchen door, eyes going wide when she saw the devastation across the kitchen counter.
“Hey. So, I’m making breakfast. Trying to,” he corrected, making a face as he looked down into the pan before him. “Apparently, it’s not as easy as Grandpa Luke makes it look.”
Rory laughed lightly, then bit her lip so she didn’t make poor Noah feel bad. Rushing over to join him by the stove, she winced at the sight that met her eyes.
“Yeah, I’m pretty sure it shouldn’t look like that.”
“You don’t even know what it’s supposed to be,” Noah countered smartly.
“Whatever it is, I doubt it’s edible,” she said, patting his shoulder kindly. “Sorry.”
Noah sighed. “Don’t I at least get points for effort?”
“All of the points for effort,” she promised him, planting a quick affectionate kiss on his cheek, even as she moved to open the lower cabinet door that revealed the waste bin.
Noah tipped the egg-based mess into there without ceremony, then dumped the pan into the sink. “I also burned the toast, spilled the orange juice, and I’m almost certain the milk has gone bad.”
Rory smiled and shook her head. “Please tell me you did nothing awful to the coffee machine.”
“What, you think I have a death wish?” he scoffed, grabbing a mug from behind him and handing it to Rory with a flourish.
Pulling the steaming mug of java into her hands, she took a long sip. “Most favourite child,” she told him seriously over the rim.
“Only child,” he reminded her.
“A mere technicality.” Rory waved away his remark, taking a seat at the counter and savouring her coffee some more. “Now, I don’t mean this in any kind of insulting or ungrateful way, but what did I do to deserve you making me breakfast today? It’s not Mother’s Day or my birthday, and I’m certainly not sick.”
“I just figured maybe you wouldn’t feel like making breakfast.” Noah shrugged, turning away towards the sink, but not exactly starting on the dishes, so much as moving them around for something to do. “You were out pretty late.”
“Yes, I’m sorry about that. We... lost track of time.”
“It’s fine, I get it. Hey, I’m the teenager with the curfew. You’re the mom who can do whatever she wants, with whoever she wants.”
Rory tried very hard not to choke on her coffee when he said that. For one horrible moment, she thought he was implying something. That in some weird way he knew what she did last night. That couldn’t be true. God, she really hoped it wasn’t true.
“Hey, I’m not asking,” he was quick to say, obviously seeing some kind of look on Rory’s face, even though she wasn’t entirely aware of her own expression. “I just... In a totally non-interested in any kind of detailed way,” he clarified, “I hope you had a good time.”
At that, Rory smiled. “Thank you,” she told him gratefully, “and yes, for your non-detailed information, I did have a great time. We both did, actually.”
“Cool.” Noah nodded his approval. “So, I have homework I figure I may as well work on since, you know, still grounded until at least next week, right?”
“Right,” Rory agreed, recalling that his reduced sentence didn’t give him his freedom until then. “I’m not shaving off any more days for the attempted breakfast, sorry.”
“I didn’t mean for you to.” Noah shook his head. “And don’t worry about me. I had Pop Tarts while you were still snoring.” He grinned at her, throwing up his hand in a brief wave, and then, he was gone.
Rory didn’t even care to yell at him, not even in a joking way. He meant no harm. Her beloved son who cared so much about her. Who was trying so hard to be supportive through the weirdness of his absent father showing up and his mother dating her ex. It was a lot for a fourteen-year-old, but he was handling it beautifully. She couldn’t love him more if she tried, but if she could, this last week or two would’ve caused her to do it.
Speaking of people who had a big impact in her life, especially in the last couple of weeks, Rory felt her cell vibrate in her cardigan pocket and smiled on pulling it out and seeing a message from Jess.
‘You ruined me, Gilmore. I got maybe four hours sleep before the diner opened up and I can’t think about anything but you. Not that I have any regrets.’
‘No regrets here either,’ she began to type as her reply. ‘It was the most amazing night. We should really do it again sometime.’
Two seconds later, his response came through. ‘Name the time and place, you know I’ll be there.’