Time After Time - A Gilmore Girls Fanfic #1

Chapter 4

Rory awoke to her mother and Luke looming above her. For a few dazed moments, she wondered why they were over ten feet tall before she realized she was laying down.

"Jess." The name escaped her lips as she sat up, the blanket sliding off her shoulders. She looked around, seeing that her favorite pillow had somehow migrated from her room to the couch sometime in the night.

"I sent him home," Luke said. "Back to the diner, I mean."

"He was sleeping there with his head thrown back, snoring like a dying warthog," Lorelai said, motioning to the oversized armchair beside the fireplace. "We figured he'd be more comfortable in a real bed. Or, at the very least, he could take that racket somewhere else. Somewhere not in the audible vicinity."

"What time is it?" Rory asked, getting up and throwing the blanket onto the back of the couch. She looked around and saw that their mess from earlier had been cleaned up, the paper sacks and plastic containers all gone. Even the stack of magazines that had lived on the coffee table since the dawn of time had been arranged neatly.

"It's almost three in the morning," Luke said.

"I can't believe you two were out so late," Rory said, and gave Luke a mock stern expression. "I told you to have her home by two, young man."

"The party was over at one," Lorelai said, smiling up at her new husband. "But we sat in the gazebo, surrounded by the lights and the flowers, and we just enjoyed our first night together as man and wife."

Rory smiled. "Sounds nice."

"Also, we may have gotten a little naughty on one of the benches," Lorelai added with a mischievous grin.

"Ew, which one?" Rory asked. "On second thought, maybe I don't want to know."

"A lady never tells," Lorelai said with a mock-Southern belle accent then reached over and pinched Luke's behind.

He let out a groan and rolled his eyes. "Never happened." He took hold of Lorelai's hand and started tugging her up the stairs. "Come on, crazy. Let's get you to bed. Goodnight, Rory."

"'Night." Rory watched them go with a bittersweet smile then grabbed her pillow and made her way to her bedroom. She closed the door with a yawn and turned to her bed, only to find her manuscript on her desk.

She withdrew her phone from her pocket and sent Jess a quick text.

Thank you. For everything.

Once she was tucked under her blanket, she leafed through the manuscript and saw that Jess had written down notes all over the place in his small, blocky handwriting; what he liked and what he thought needed improving. Rory smiled to herself, glad that, even after all this time, Jess still did not hesitate to write in a book's margins.

Rory was up early the next morning, her laptop in her bag and a spring in her step. For the first time in a long time she hadn't woken up sick to her stomach, which was in and of itself a triumph of sorts. She headed over to the diner, expecting Cesar to be waiting the tables. Instead, through the window she saw Jess taking orders and pouring coffee, wearing a white t-shirt that was definitely not loose, jeans, and motorcycle boots. In other words, he looked like the world's sexiest biker who also moonlights as a waiter.

"Morning," he said when she entered the place she'd come to consider a second home. He flung a dish towel over his shoulder and leaned on the counter. "You feeling better?"

She flashed him a smile as she settled on a barstool. "Much."

"Coffee?" he asked, already sliding a huge mug across the counter. It stopped directly in front of her, mocking her with its gaping pit of emptiness.