In 1984, in the hospital, two twin girls were born. One would grow up to go to private schools and be given everything she ever wanted. The other would end up bouncing from foster home to foster home until she leaves at 16 and finds her way to a sma...
Parker and Jess are walking down the road, as she remembers that she needs to grab something from the market. She walks into the market, and Jess catches sight of Rory, walking over to talk to her as Parker goes inside.
Parker walks to the back aisles of the market, grabbing a few things as she went, looking at the list Luke had given her.
"Eggs, cream, lettuce" Parker rattles off to herself as she walks down the aisle. Suddenly, Rory's boyfriend Dean walks up to her.
"Need help finding anything?"He asks her, smiling.
"Oh that's right, you work here don't you?" Parker asks, being polite.
"Yeah I do" Dean says, looking at the list in her hand. "Here, the cornstarch is over here with the paper" He says, leading her down the different aisles.
A few minutes later, when she's all ready to check out, She walks up to the counter. Up at the counter, is Taylor, who gives her a nasty look as he scans her items.
Dean tells a joke as they walk out and she laughs. She catches Jess's eye and tilts her head, saying 'let's go' silently. He nods, and happily follows after her, taking one of the grocery bags to help.
"What were you and Rory talking about?" She asks him as they walk, curious because it did not look like a happy conversation.
"She was telling me something about how the entire town was attacking Luke about us." He says, with an annoyed shrug. "And then something about how Taylor's lettuce losses are our fault, and now we have made Luke a pariah"
Parker looks at him in confusion. "I got none of that" She says, and they laugh about it
"What were you and Dean talking about?" Jess asks.
"He was just helping me find some stuff, since he works there." She responds nonchalantly. Secretly, Jess is pleased with this answer, but he's not exactly sure why.
"I do feel a bit bad though, that they're coming down so hard on Luke" Parker adds. Jess nods in agreement. "She thought our prank was funny though" He says, and Parker smiles.
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Parker sits in a chair in the diner with a book and an apple, and her feet up on a table as she watches Jess work on fixing Luke's toaster. He had decided that he wanted to give Luke a sort of thank you for sticking up for them without actually having to say it.
Of course, he didn't say any of this, but Parker could tell that's what it was about. Parker on the other hand, had made a full fledged dinner upstairs, and left it in perfectly lunch sized containers for Luke to have for the next week. So, she sat in the chair and watched Jess work on the toaster.
Occasionally, she would tell him something from her book, and he would make a joke, or they would make sarcastic comments across the room. But oftentimes, they just sat comfortably, enjoying having each other there but not having the pressure to say anything to each other.
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The next morning, Rory and Lorelai are sitting at a table in the diner, and Rory asks Luke for toast. Luke looks a little upset, as he declines her request, saying that the toaster's broken.
All of a sudden, Jess turns around, and pushes down the tab of the toaster, showing him that it did in fact work.
Parker smirks from where she's standing in the diner, as she hears Luke interrogate him about if he fixed it or not. Finally, Jess gets out of the conversation by using school as an excuse.
"Hey Parker!" He yells towards her, "Time to go!" She nods to him, tosses her apron to Luke, and jogs after him, waving to Lorelai and Rory. Jess places his arm around her as they walk off.
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After school ends, Jess is waiting by the entrance for Parker to come out. Once she does, he hops off of where he's leaning, and jogs up to her.
"Hey, you want to go on an adventure?"He asks her, excitedly.
"An adventure? Where?" She asked him, interested.
"We'll see!" He responds.
He takes her to the nearest bus stop, and they sit together waiting for the bus to come. Once it does, they get on, and Jess looks at Parker weirdly as she waves and smiles at the lady driving the bus, as though she knows her.
Once sitting on the bus, Parker shivers a little, and Jess puts his arm around her shoulders, and she tucks in close to him, to warm up. They sit like this for a while, as they go wherever he's taking them.
At one of the stops, Jess taps her on the shoulder and they get up, rushing off the bus before it leaves again. She looks around, and realizes that she's in Hartford.
"Why did you bring us here?" She looks at him curiously.
"You'll see! Don't ruin the surprise!" He says back, laughing. They walk for a little while, down old cobblestone streets with little shops everywhere.
She wants to stop into a few of them, but he keeps her from getting distracted, reminding her that they have somewhere to be. Eventually, they come up to this very old looking place, and as she looks inside, she sees rows and rows of books, and ceiling high bookshelves. The place is covered in beautiful plants, and warm airy lighting.
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Once she walks in, she takes a deep breath in, and she can smell all of the books. She turns to Jess with a wide grin on her face, and immediately goes to searching through the books.
They spend the next few hours laughing with each other, playing around, and searching through every book they could find.
Jess loved looking at her, and seeing the amazing smile on her face whenever she found a book that she was interested in. He loved seeing the amount of joy on her face when she saw the cat laying on the chair in the store. He loved hearing her laugh whenever he made a joke, and seeing the way her eyes lit up when she made him laugh.
Jess didn't want to admit it to himself at that point, but he knew that he was starting to have feelings for her. They scared him enough that he was trying to push them down, as far down as he could. But the farther he pushed them down, the more they seemed to fight back.
He didn't know what to do, and he had absolutely no idea how Parker felt.
Parker on the other hand, knew that she had feelings for him. But it wasn't the feelings that scared her. It was the worry that one day, she'll have to leave again, run again, and she'll leave him on his own.
