Chapter Text
“Wow, that was...”
“Intense,” Jess finished for Rory, as they all walked out of Miss Patty’s together.
“I was going to go with long,” she admitted, “but sure, intense works too.”
“I swear, I used to love town meetings,” Lorelai chimed in. “When did they get so... snipey?”
“A lot of them were always like that,” Luke assured her. “You just forget.”
“Do I?”
“I still think people used to be nicer,” Rory insisted, in her mom’s corner, just like always, which was sweet, in its way. “What’s so funny?” she asked Noah then, when he bust up laughing.
He waved his hand like it was nothing, but with four pairs of eyes all on him by then, he had to crack eventually. “Old people always think everything was better back in the day,” he admitted then, shrugging like it was no big deal.
“Old people?” Lorelai checked, grabbing hold of her grandson’s ear and giving it a playful tweak. “Did you just say old people?” she checked.
“Older, I said older people,” he insisted, probably wincing more from the unintentional offence he might’ve caused rather than his ear, Jess suspected.
“Uh-huh,” said Lorelai, letting go of the ear and pulling her grandson into her side to hug him instead. “Sure you did, slugger.”
Jess smiled to himself, watching the scene, casting his eye over the denizens of Stars Hollow all filing out of the dance studio and heading home after another town meeting. They were probably all saying the same kinds of things as their own family were saying. Just the same as they had for years before, just as the same as they would for years to come. That kind of thing used to depress the young Jess Mariano and make him long for escape. Now, he couldn’t imagine anything better than staying in Stars Hollow, with Rory and Noah, for the rest of his life, becoming more and more like his Uncle Luke every day.
“Jess?”
“What?” he asked, coming back to reality with a bump when he saw the concern on Rory’s face. “Sorry.”
“Where’d you go?” she asked curiously, as they continued along, arm in arm, behind Luke, Lorelai, and Noah.
“Nowhere, that was kind of the point actually,” he admitted, finding her confusion just a little amusing, truth be told. “It’s nothing, I promise. It’s just... You know, as much as I hate to admit it, this place was always home to me. Coming back here, it’s just right. It’s where I had to end up, partly because you’re here, obviously, but it’s something else too. Probably some kind of voodoo this insane asylum of a town puts on you the minute you cross the border or whatever.”
“I actually wouldn’t be so surprised if that were true,” Rory deadpanned, the way only she could.
For that, Jess kissed her, because why the hell not?
“Seriously? In the street?” Noah asked, catching them in that moment.
“I’m sorry, was it not you and Sarah I saw kissing in the gazebo just yesterday when you thought nobody was looking?” his mother countered.
Noah squirmed, then looked to Luke for help. “Hey, Grandpa, do you have any more of that pasta thing leftover at your house? I’m still kind of hungry.”
“Sure, there’s some in the fridge. I could heat it up for you, no problem.”
“You guys should all come over,” said Lorelai, turning to look to Rory and Jess. “We’ll eat, drink, be merry. I mean, Christmas is coming up fast, gotta get in lots of practice, right?”
“Sure, we’ll come along. Right, Jess?” said Rory, glancing at him with a hopeful smile.
“I would, but I’m supposed to be on a call with Chris and Matthew in around ten minutes,” he said, checking his watch to be sure of the time. “I’m sorry, we already rescheduled three times and there are things we need to figure out.”
“Hey, it’s fine. Work is work, you have to get it done,” said Rory, all full of understanding as ever. “There will be other nights.”
“I promise, there will,” he said, giving her another kiss, just as they reached the diner. “And hey, if the call doesn’t go too long, maybe I’ll text you, see if it’s worth coming over then?”
“Sounds good.”
Jess waved them all off then went inside, up to the apartment to get into his video call with the guys in Philly. It was true what he said, they did have work to discuss. A manuscript that was causing problems, an author that was getting antsy about his latest novel, not to mention yet another attempt by a larger publishing company to buy them out.
Of course, Jess wasn’t stupid enough to think the call would be all work-related talk. The guys were always going to ask about his personal life, they just couldn’t help themselves. To be fair, it took an entire hour, when they were pretty much done with the actual work stuff, before they got into other things.
“So, how’s life back at the homestead?” asked Matthew, grinning too much.
“It’s fine,” Jess assured him, also smiling but probably not so much like an idiot, at least, he hoped not.
“Just fine?” Chris checked.
Jess rolled his eyes. “Okay, it’s great. It’s excellent, it’s as close to perfect as anything ever gets in real life. You happy now, or you need me to hunt down a thesaurus and give you a few more adjectives?”
“Ooh, this is not the attitude of a man who’s happy with his small-town life,” Matthew teased him, but then seemed to sober up when he asked; “Seriously, man, everything okay?”
“I promise, everything is fine,” he told both his friends. “You know I’m not effusive about this stuff, it’s not me, but everything is cool. I’m happy with Rory, and Noah’s doing good, and everybody’s fine. I don’t regret leaving New York, I don’t hate being here. Of course, I’m starting to wish I had business partners that were less nosey...”
“Man, be nice, okay?” Chris said snippily, even though he had to know Jess was joking. “We care. It’s not a crime.”
“After all this time, I’d be worried if you didn’t,” Jess muttered. “I know you guys care, okay? If it were either of you changing your whole life around, I’d be asking how you were, so I do get it, but like I said, it’s all good here. No problems, no worries.”
It did feel good to be able to say all of that and mean it, even if sharing that kind of stuff was never Jess’ favourite thing to do. He really was very happy to be back in the Hollow on a permanent basis, and extremely happy to be with Rory too.
“I’m happy for you, Jess,” said Matthew sincerely.
“Me too,” Chris agreed. “It’s about time you got the family set-up and all. You waited long enough.”
“Any talk about you moving in with Rory and the kid yet?” Matthew asked.
Jess tried not to wince at the question. “That’s not... I know it took a while for me and Rory to get where we are, but even so, rushing into things never made anybody happy, in the end. Besides, there’s Noah to think about and... I don’t know, I guess when the time is right, then we’ll talk about it. Right now, I’m just being happy with what I have and not pushing anything.”
Just as the guys started to answer that, and also ask if there was anything else anybody needed to say before they ended their call, a knock on the door made Jess jump in his seat. With his family congregating at the old Crap Shack, he wasn’t expecting anyone to be calling for him, especially not in the evening time.
“Guys, I gotta go,” he told his friends and business partners, ending the call and getting up to go see who was there. “Noah. Hey, everything okay?”
The really strange look on the kid’s face worried him for a second, but then, it was gone so fast, Jess almost thought maybe he imagined it.
“Uh, yeah, everything’s cool. Well, mostly. So, my great-grandma called and it has to do with arrangements for Christmas and, basically, things got kind of crazy. I needed an excuse to get out, and I figured, since it involves you too...”
“It involves me, how?” asked Jess, shaking his head, almost scared to imagine what the answer to that question might be.
Noah made a face that was not encouraging. “Yeah, you should definitely come back with me and talk to Mom.”
“Ugh, I feel drained, and that’s just from talking about going to see your great grandma for Christmas,” Rory complained as she all-but staggered dramatically into the house.
“I really don’t see why it’s such a big deal,” Noah told her, smiling far too much, in his mother’s opinion, and her expression must have told him so. “Okay, I get it, Great Grandma can be intense, and apparently, she and Jess didn’t exactly hit off when they first met, but that was thirty years ago. Things change. People change. From the way you and Grandma tell it, Great Grandma has changed a lot.”
“In some ways, I guess,” Rory agreed, dumping her coat and bag on the end of the couch, then deciding to give up and fall down alongside it. “But in other ways... Let’s just say the great Emily Gilmore will always be the great Emily Gilmore.”
“You make her sound like The Wizard of Oz,” Noah laughed into his words. “You know, The Great and Powerful Emily Gilmore.”
“Trust me, your great grandma has waaaay more power than any wizard. You haven’t spent enough time with her to really understand, and you didn’t know her before she moved to Nantucket. Now, don’t get me wrong, I love her to pieces, always, but when it comes to family, most especially men who want to be in the lives of her daughter or her granddaughter, she is...”
“Intense,” Noah said for her, making her smile, because it proved just how much he had been paying attention. “Okay, but she invited Jess to come with us for our Christmas visit,” he said then, coming to sit beside her. “That seems like it should be a positive thing, like she wants to include him in our family, but the second I said that, Grandma Lorelai made a noise that I seriously thought meant she was having a seizure, or possibly some kind of breakdown.”
Rory smirked a little, she couldn’t help it. “I still remember the first time Jess was invited to Friday Night Dinner, and also, the story of the first time Luke was invited too. Both occasions did not exactly end well.”
Of course, it was true that her grandma had mellowed a lot in her later years, but still, Rory wasn’t entirely looking forward to whatever grilling or snide remarks Jess might get from the Gilmore matriarch. To be fair to him, Jess seemed to largely take the news in his stride, agreeing to come along to Nantucket without pause, not even flinching when reminded of how badly the whole thing could go.
“Wherever you and Noah are going to be for Christmas, you know that’s where I want to be too,” he had said at the time. “Now, we didn’t think that would be possible, hence the whole pre-Christmas event you were planning - which we can still totally do, if you want, just so we can have our own private thing too - but I am absolutely okay with going with you to see your grandma for actual Christmas. Who knows? Maybe she’ll like me this time.”
“No black eyes,” said Rory, too seriously.
Jess smiled and kissed her forehead. “No black eyes, I promise.”
“Mom?”
She snapped out of the memory to look at her son. “Sorry. I was just thinking, but I’m fine. So, it’s kind of late, and I don’t know about you, but I could use some sleep.”
“Yeah, me too.” Noah nodded. “But before that, I just wanted to, you know, run something by you.”
“Okay,” Rory agreed, stopping halfway to standing up and sitting right back down again. “It doesn’t involve actual running, does it?” she joked, partly because she really was so tired she barely wanted to even walk, and partly because he looked so serious she felt the need to make a joke and lighten the mood.
“Running? Seriously? We’re Gilmores.”
“That’s my boy,” said Rory, pulling him close for a brief hug. “So, what did you wanna say?”
“I had an idea for a Christmas gift, for Jess.”
“For Jess?” Rory checked. “Oh, I wasn’t sure if you wanted to... I mean, you can, obviously. I’m pretty sure he has something for you.”
“I figured, but I had no idea what to get him. Now, I do. I think. You know, if you think it’s a good idea, since it kind of involves you too.”
“Okay, that’s cryptic.”
Noah smiled. “It won’t be, when I explain it to you...”