Just Another Gilmore

Jess

Rory awoke the next morning to a completely silent house, and when she checked her phone and saw that it was 10:30, she realized why. Even pregnant, she was surprised at herself for sleeping so late; she had always been an early riser even when she had nothing to do. Clearly things were changing, and she guessed that her sleeping patterns would be the least of her worries in a few months.

After a quick shower, she headed to Luke's for a (very) late breakfast, expecting to find that her new step-father had gone back to business as usual. No Luke in sight when she entered the diner, only a slightly frantic Caesar yelling that a burner had gone out on the stove. Rory claimed a seat at the bar and readied herself for a show, but unfortunately the drama was cut short by the emergence of Jess from the back room with a box full of tools. He passed them off to Caesar with a few instructions and then turned back to Rory with his signature crooked smile.

"I was wondering when you were gonna show up," he said by way of a greeting. "Coffee?"

"Decaf, and a blueberry muffin to go, please," she responded.

Jess looked at her like she'd grown a second head. "Decaf? Am I in an alternate universe? You know, one where pigs really can fly and you really did just ask me for decaf coffee?"

Rory shifted in her seat, suddenly remembering that she'd asked Luke not to mention her pregnancy to Jess, a move she was definitely regretting at this moment.

"Oh... yeah, well, my sleeping has been all wacky, hence the coming in here at 11am, so I thought I'd see if going off caffeine helped. All those studies can't have been for nothing," she floundered. Time for a subject change. "So what are you doing back here so soon after the wedding? Don't they need you in Philadelphia?"

"Nah, the press is running well enough that they can manage without me for a while, and Luke mentioned that the town was ramping up to put on its annual giant-cornucopia-in-the-town-square thing for Thanksgiving so I figured I'd come help him out during the holiday rush. It's been a while since I've seen one of these ridiculous displays of town-wide craziness, anyway. I was starting to wonder if I'd hallucinated all of it."

A mischievous smile spread slowly across Rory's face as Jess poured her coffee. "You missed this place," she said accusatorily.

"I did not," he scoffed.

"Oh ho ho, you so did!" She cried with glee. "It only took fifteen years for Stars Hollow's very own bad boy to warm up to the place." She put a hand to her heart as if this were a very touching moment for her and then laughed at the glare she had earned from Jess, one which faded almost immediately at the sight of her grinning triumphantly over her coffee cup.

He propped his elbows on the counter in front of her and said, "So what if I did miss certain things, is that so terrible?" His tone was light, humorous, but something in his eyes made Rory's laughter fade out as she held his intense gaze.

"Not at all," she said softly.

Behind Jess, the toaster binged, and he turned around to retrieve her muffin, breaking whatever moment or non-moment that had just occurred between them.

She took her muffin with a grateful smile, sliding off her bar stool and casually commenting, "Hey, why don't you swing by the Gazette later whenever you can get away? I want to talk to you about the book and... other stuff."

He looked at her curiously but nodded his head. "You got it."

—————

Later that night, Rory was the only one left in the office of the Stars Hollow Gazette, though she wasn't even there on official paper business. She found that the silence and seclusion of the newsroom was conducive to her writing needs, primarily when she didn't feel like driving all the way to Hartford to write in her grandfather's office.