Rory met the new day with renewed spirit. Last night's events had jumpstarted the part of her that had lain dormant all these years, the part of her that still wished and dreamed, and she woke up rearing to go. Before her mother had even come downstairs, Rory was already showered, dressed, and making a healthy breakfast.
"Coffee, coffee, coffee," Lorelai chanted as soon as she entered the kitchen.
"Morning to you too, Sunshine," Rory said from where she sat the kitchen table. She stared down at the bowl in front of her, contemplating its goopy contents, before finally lifting a spoonful up to her mouth. The lack of taste almost made her gag. "I know this is supposed to be oatmeal, but why does it taste like the color beige?"
Lorelai walked over and handed her the Nutella jar. "One or two spoonfuls. Trust me."
Rory, desperate for her tastebuds to live again, swirled a spoonful of Nutella into the oatmeal before trying another bite.
"Eh?" Lorelai asked with a smile. "What did I tell ya?"
"Not bad."
"And it's got hazelnuts, so there's one of your food groups."
"I don't think it works like that," Rory said, taking another bite.
"Course it does. It's science." Lorelai yawned as she sat down at the table with her mug of coffee. "So why are you up so early today?"
"I'm getting my life in order."
Her mother's eyebrows rose.
Rory consulted her notebook. "First item on the agenda: Go to Hartford and get license renewed."
"You mean you've been driving around with an expired license?"
Rory ducked her head, avoiding her mother's shocked gaze. "Two: Buy a car."
"What kind?"
"I haven't decided."
"You mean you haven't already created a spreadsheet, comparing all the cars based on mileage, trunk size, and cost?" Lorelai asked.
Rory pulled out a printed sheet from under the notebook. "I have. I just haven't made up my mind yet," she said. "Item three: Find place to live. Four: Sign up for grad school."
At that, Lorelai's eyes grew wide. "Grad school? What? When did this happen?"
"Last night. I couldn't turn off my brain to sleep. I just laid in my bed and thought about my life, about where I am and where I'm headed. And to be honest, I don't know where that is. For the first time in my life, I feel rudderless. Aimless. As I was laying there, my thoughts kept drifting back to Grandpa, during that low time in his life when he was forced to retire from his company," Rory said, feeling a wistful smile touch her lips. "He didn't let that get him down. He got back up and built a new company to rival the old. That was Richard Gilmore, you know? Whenever life knocked him down, he always got back up."
"Yes, he did," Lorelai said with a wavery smile.
"I like to think that he handed that tenacity down to his daughter. And, hopefully, to his granddaughter."
"There's not even a question."
Rory nodded. "So I'm not going to let this get me down. I've decided where I want to go—back to school to get my masters."
"Plus, school, right?" Lorelai asked with a knowing smile.
Rory shrugged, even as the thought of returning to school thrilled her. "I am kind of looking forward to going back to school. The books, the classrooms, the school supplies," she said. "It'll be fun."
A little while later, Rory followed Lorelai out the front door with a box in her arms.
"Where are you going?" Lorelai asked. "The DMV doesn't open for another few hours."
Rory held up the box. "I need to get some things done before then."
"Need a ride?" Lorelai asked, getting into the car.
"Sure."
Lorelai started up her Jeep and started backing out of the driveway. "You know, you don't have to move out. You can stay as long as you need. Forever, if you want," Lorelai said as she drove. "Luke is already drawing up plans to extend the house."
The image of Luke mulling over blueprints brought an unexpected smile to Rory's face. She counted herself lucky to have such a wonderful father figure in her life. "That's sweet. But I think I need to do this. It's strange but I sometimes still feel like a kid in that house, like I'm in a state of arrested development. I think it's time for me to find a place where I can plant my roots and grow. Somewhere... mine," Rory said. "Does that make sense?"
Lorelai reached over and patted Rory's hand, her eyes misty. "More than you know."
Jess awoke to the sound of the front door opening. He lifted his head off the bed, listening to someone moving around the apartment, pulling aside the curtain. He rolled over to his stomach and tried to go back to sleep, but the sounds carried across the apartment.
"Luke, keep it down," Jess grumbled, tugging a pillow over his head. He groaned when the footsteps became louder as his uncle made his way over to the bed, no doubt to berate Jess for pulling a disappearing act last night. But Jess hadn't really gone anywhere; he'd only sat on the old bridge, trying to parse through his jumbled emotions, only coming back to the apartment when his toes and fingers had gone numb from the cold.
"You're here," said a surprised voice that was definitely not his uncle's.
Jess peered out from under the pillow, his eyes making out legs in dark skinny jeans, sweeping up to the long sweater, and coming to a stop at a pale face furrowed with emotion. "So are you," he said.
"I didn't know you'd be here."
"Well, I am." He let out a sigh and turned his head away, hoping she'd get the hint.
"Sorry for waking you. I'll try to keep it down." And without an explanation of what she was doing here, or how she even got in, Rory walked off. A few minutes later, he heard the unmistakable sound of fingers tapping on a keyboard.
He wrenched his eyes shut, trying to force his mind to go blank, but Rory's presence was impossible to ignore. How could he, when she was right across the way, typing madly on her laptop. His brain betrayed him by speculating on what she could be writing, and he found himself badly wanting to read over her shoulder as she did.
Before he knew it, he was rising up out of the bed and padding across the apartment in his bare feet. Through the partly open curtain, he could see Rory at the desk, her attention on her computer. On the floor beside the desk sat a box full of books and office supplies.
Jess stood back a moment and observed her working, feeling a small sense of satisfaction that she was actually using the writing area he had created for her. He and Luke had all but killed themselves trying to get that behemoth up the narrow stairwell, but seeing Rory utilize it made all the aches and pulled muscles worthwhile. Even if he and Rory couldn't be together, at least he could give her the gift of an office.
"What are you doing here? It's not even seven in the morning," Jess said in his best disgruntled voice. Belatedly he realized he was shirtless, but decided he didn't care. If she was just going to come barging in here, then she had better be prepared to see all manners of things.
Her eyes flicked down to his bare torso, looking unimpressed, then she turned her attention back to the computer. "Filling out grad school applications."
That gave him pause. "Grad school?"
With her eyes on the screen, she nodded. "Yes. I'm going to get my masters."
He crossed his arms over his chest, thinking of the possibilities. He'd always thought she should have gone to grad school immediately after graduating from Yale, but there was no way she would have taken educational advice from unruly jerk who didn't even graduate high school. Sure he got his GED after the fact, but in the grand scheme of things, he was still a dropout and she was an Ivy League school grad. They were the living, breathing West Side Story of Stars Hollow. "What's the endgame?" he asked.
"Teach at Chilton."
That took him aback. "Teaching? Since when?" But the image of Rory in front of a classroom wasn't all that hard to imagine. He remembered when she'd tried to tutor him once upon a time, and how it had ended in complete disaster that resulted in him skipping town. But then, that had all been his fault, not hers. He was sure she would have proven herself an excellent tutor had he not been so difficult.
"Since Headmaster Charleston offered me a job," Rory said, bristling.
"What about journalism? For as long as I've known you, you've been propelling yourself towards becoming a journalist. Why settle?"
"I'm not settling," she said with a resolute set to her jaw. "I'm merely changing course."
"You good with kids?"
She flashed him a nervous smile. "Guess I'll find out in seven months."
The mention of the baby was like a deluge of cold water over his head, dousing any warm feelings that might have started to return. It was exactly what he needed to remind himself why they were here in this place, with this gaping chasm between them, talking without really saying anything at all.
He turned to leave when Rory's voice reached out and held him in place. "Jess. We should talk."
He shook his head, keeping his back to her. "It's not going to work, Rory. It's too complicated."
"Can we still be friends?"
When he turned around, he found her standing only a few feet away. He gazed at her, thinking how beautiful she was in that moment, her face absolutely aglow, her eyes so blue and hopeful. He thought of the girl who had visited him in New York despite the fact that he'd just crashed her car and fractured her wrist a few weeks before, remembered the rueful expression on her face when they'd said their goodbyes. He had decided in that moment he would do anything to see her smile again. Because if there was only one constant in Jess Mariano's mercurial existence it was this: He loved Rory and would do anything for her. Even hurt himself over and over to make her happy.
He let out a sigh. "Yeah. Friends."