A/N: Well, I promised the first chapter of this fic would be posted in September and I made it... just! lol Sorry for the delay, there ended up being a ot more to 'Our Little Corner of the World' than I expected, plus I really needed to have a very solid set of notes and plans for this story before I started, because damn, its going to get confusing yet! lol

Now, I don't usually believe in giving great long character lists at the start of a fic, but on the occasion, I just want to run down who's who and how old as we start the story on 5th Jan. 2022! So here goes, parents followed by kids, with ages:
* Rory & Jess - Jack (16) and Tori (14)
* Luke & Lorelai - Billy (14)
* Sookie & Jackson - Davey (18), Martha (16), and Jaime (14)
* Lane & Zach - Steve & Kwan (14)
There will be other kids too, but they'll be explained as we go along.

Finally, you will notice some of this chapter (and the next when we get there) is kind of familiar. I'm using chunks of Our Little Corner of the World #13 to get things started. Hope you like it anyway! :)

Disclaimer: All recognisable characters from Gilmore Girls belong to Amy Sherman-Palladino and other folks who aren't me. All new characters belong to me, Ultrawoman, a.k.a. Ultra.

Chapter 1

"I guess high school is okay. We've reached the point now where everybody knows I'm the kid that skipped a grade in middle school. I get so bored telling that story, and I know what you're thinking 'Tori, you should be proud of yourself', and I am, honestly, it's just... I don't know how to explain it. Sometimes I just feel like everybody is staring at me, and I hate it. Other times it's like I'm invisible and I hate that too. Mom says it's all part of being a teenager. Grandma Lorelai always agrees with her, so I guess it must be true. Dad just tells me to keep on keeping on, don't let the... people get me down. Well, you and I both know he doesn't always say people, but I swear if I cuss even this far from home somehow Grandpa Luke will find out and there'd be H-E-double hockey sticks to pay.

Maybe it's just that everybody seems to have something that they do, that they love and are really good at. I'm good at a lot of school stuff, but none of it exactly thrills me. There's other stuff I like but... I don't know. It's dumb.

Well, I guess I should go. Grandma Lorelai is expecting me at the Dragonfly, help her out with the filing for some extra to add to the allowance. I'll be around again soon, Mrs R."

Tori Mariano levered herself up off the ground, kissing her hand and placing it on the headstone a moment. She gave a small smile to the sky as she hefted her school bag back onto her shoulder and headed off. Maybe it seemed weird to some people that a fourteen year old girl would want to come to the grave of a woman that wasn't actually related to her and tell all her stories and secrets, but it was perfectly reasonable to Tori.

It wasn't as if she didn't have anybody else to talk to. Tori had a brother, parents, grandparents, great grandparents, and more aunts, uncles, and cousins than she could count, though most were not related to her by blood. She didn't lack for company at all, but sometimes it was nice to be alone with just Mrs Rossini for company. She didn't answer what Tori said, but then even in life she had been such a great listener. Mrs R knew she didn't necessarily need to give clever replies, she just had to be there. Tori believed Mrs R was still there for her, even now. Not in the mortal world, but somewhere, watching out for them all. It made her feel better about the loss of her honorary great grandma, who had been gone more than two years now.

Heading further into the town square, Tori crossed the street to the diner. As always, Grandpa Luke was behind the counter serving customers, and Billy was helping out by bussing tables while he waited for his dad. As soon as Tori walked in, Billy went over to the counter and served up a sweet treat for his friend, who was also technically his niece.

"You're giving me a doughnut?" she asked as she hopped up onto a stool. "You? The same guy who lectures us all on the evils of sugar whilst crunching down on carrot sticks to the point where you make Bugs Bunny nauseous?"

"Sugar's fine in moderation," Billy reminded her too seriously. "Besides, you seem down today."

Tori smiled at the fact he had noticed. Billy was that kind of the guy, mostly quiet and seemingly uninterested in what was going on in everybody else's lives, but he noticed things, he was always watching out for those he cared for. He was a lot like his father that way, though usually less grumpy.

"I'm fine," said Tori, taking a big bite out her doughnut, sending a shower of rainbow sprinkles onto the plate below. "I guess it's just the whole going back to school thing. Winter break is always too much fun."

Billy nodded his understanding but his attention was soon taken by his father. Luke was pretty strict about studying and a good work ethic in general. It seemed he was switching shifts with Jess in the next five minutes and ensuring Billy came straight home with him so he could get to his homework already.

"I'm all for you helping out here, learning the ropes of the diner and earning some extra cash, but this is Freshman year in high school and a crucial time for you," said Luke definitely.

"Tori's a Freshman too," said Billy grumpily as he moved to pick up his books and jacket from the end of the counter.

"Tori is a grade ahead of everybody else her age," Luke reminded his son smartly. "And we're very proud of her," he said to Tori herself.

"We aim to please," she grinned around a mouthful of doughnut. "Seriously though, thanks, Grandpa Luke," she told him then. "I'm just trying to do my best."

"That's all I ask of anybody. Unfortunately, Billy would rather give a hundred and ten percent to football and waiting tables than to English and Math," he said rather loudly so his son couldn't miss the comment.

Tori hid a smirk in her snack and finished it off fast. If her mouth was full of food it couldn't be too smart and make Luke mad, something her own father was still too good at sometimes. Tori had been told more than once that she had Jess' smart-alec tendencies. She ought to feel bad about that, but actually she loved it. Her dad was just the coolest of all the fathers she ever met, and that was the truth. Of course, talking to him had gotten a little tougher lately. She had yet to figure out quite why that was.

"Hey, Grandpa Luke?" she said when a thought hit her. "You think you could drop me off at the Dragonfly on your way home? Please? I'm supposed to be helping out there for a couple of hours and toting this bag is killing my posture."

"Sure, no problem, kid," Luke assured her, hustling Billy to head out and warm up the truck, and to take Tori with him.

They got outside just as Jess arrived at the diner.

"Hey, kids. Good first day back?" he checked.

"Not bad," Billy smiled, spinning Luke's keys on his finger as he went to get into the truck.

"Tor?" Jess prompted a response from her when none came. "You okay?"

"Peachy keen," she said with a smile her father recognised as forced.

"Hey, don't give me that crap, kid. I invented it," he reminded her. "What's going on?"

"Nothing." She shook her head. "Honestly, Dad, I'm fine. I just... I don't know. Having one of those days."

Jess frowned a little at that. Tori seemed to be having a lot of 'those days' lately and Jess couldn't quite figure out why. Rory said it was most likely to do with being a girl and growing up, all those teenage hormones and body changes. He knew well enough that was true for both genders, even if he didn't know all the intimate details of the female experience and never wanted to. It was tough enough being a father to a teenage boy sometimes, but to a girl it was that much harder. Tori didn't want to be Jess' little girl anymore, but at barely fourteen she wasn't old enough to be a woman yet either. Sometimes Jess thought this was as difficult for him as it was for her.

"Okay," he said eventually. "Well, I guess I know what it is to be a teenager having 'those days'."

"You can remember that far back?" she asked him with a smirk that was way too much like looking in a mirror.

"Beat it before I change my mind and decide that's not too smart to be punishable," he warned her, trying his best not to laugh.

Tori literally ran to the truck in mock-terror, laughing all the way. Her life didn't suck, she knew that, and she would never suggest she was in any way hard done by. Sometimes she just felt like she was missing something, or something was missing her. It didn't make sense and she knew it, but that was how she felt. It didn't mean she was depressed or even unhappy most of the time. She just felt a little out of it some days. Perhaps it was just the transition to high school and puberty and all that stuff. Maybe everybody felt like this at her age. Tori wasn't absolutely sure, but she had a feeling Grandma Lorelai would understand, because she usually did. On the off-chance that she didn't, she could always supply chocolate and hugs, so there was no bad.

"Hey, Moonbrain!" said Jess more loudly, lightly tapping Jack upside his head.

His son reacted suddenly, looking over with surprise. He clearly hadn't even realised he had zoned out, ignoring his father who had probably been talking to him this whole time.

"Sorry," he apologised. "Er, what did I miss?"

Jess tilted his head a little as he stared at his son. Something was going on here, something not normal. First he had Tori acting weird and now Jack. The difference was, Tori seemed to have a pattern lately of being quiet and not quite herself, which Rory put down to 'girl changes' and a new school. Jack was different. He got thoughtful. He had a tendency towards the brooding thing that Jess allowed to happen to himself at times, but that only lasted so long before he turned into the male incarnation of Rory. Jack would start by asking one or both of his parents their opinion on a topic, and then give his own ideas quickly and relentlessly, rationalising away the problem before either Rory or Jess really got a chance to assist. This was different, this wasn't some unknown issue that would come out later. Jess knew that look his son was wearing, he remembered it very well from his own teenage years.

"What's her name?" he asked with a smirk that was hard to repress.

"Huh? Who are we talking about?"

"Seriously? You're gonna do that fake dumb thing that you couldn't pull off if your life depended on it?" asked Jess, moving down the counter to pour coffee into empty cups of other patrons, working his way back towards Jack. "C'mon, just tell me the name of the girl that has your brain so busy, because if you don't, I will tell all the women in this family to bug you until you cave. You really think the Mom-Grandma-Sister tag team is preferable to talking to me?"

Jack let out a heavy sigh and added an eye-roll for good measure. He really didn't want to admit that he may yet have discovered love at first sight today, but when the new girl walked into English class and smiled in his general direction, Jack lost all sense of reason. She had been on his mind all day whether she was within staring distance or not, and Jack wasn't sure how this had happened to him so fast.

"It's not just that she's beautiful, which she is," he said before anything else, speaking in a low voice as he and his father leaned across the counter towards each other, mindful of all the ever-alert ears in the Hollow. "The teacher called on her a couple of times in class and she gave these really deep answers, and she completely tied Mr Kuroda in knots with her theory on the character's motivation, it was awesome."

"So she's smart and she's hot," Jess nodded approvingly. "I know the type," he said definitely, thinking of Rory but giving no indication of that.

It might freak Jack out just a little too much to realise he was fast falling for a girl that was quite similar to his own mother. Jess would be a little weirded out himself if not for the fact he already knew very well how many similarities he and Jack shared. Such was the way with fathers and sons sometimes.

"It's more than that," Jack insisted. "I mean, there a lot of hot girls at SHH, but Alison is... She's really beautiful."

Jess bit back another smirk and just nodded that he understood. This really was a big deal if the word 'beautiful' was being thrown around. Jack wasn't exactly a horn dog, not like his buddy Alex who had been on heat since puberty hit, and it had come just as early as it could to that boy. Jack was more subtle, but he noticed girls well enough, and he knew what it meant for a female of the species to be attractive, just as all guys did. Beautiful was different. Beautiful was for a woman you cared about rather than one you'd like to meet under the bleachers to make out. In terms of Jess' experience, Alison seemed to be a Rory rather than a Shane.

"So she's beautiful, she has brains, and she's named after a Costello song," Jess summarised whilst wiping down the counter, gesturing for Jack to bus the nearest table whilst he was waxing lyrical on the wonderful Alison. "No wonder you like this chick."

"Dad! She's not a chick, she's... different. Special," he said definitely.

"Like stop eating the paste special?" he checked jokingly.

Jack was not impressed.

"Like I think I'm in love special," he blurted out, much to the surprise of not just Jess but himself too. "But I'm probably not."

Jess opened his mouth to say something but then closed it again fast. Falling in love was something that some teenagers did every week of their lives. They thought they were in love with movie stars, musicians, those people who were famous just for being famous which Jess never quite understood, or they picked a different person at their school to fawn over until they got bored and shifted onto the next.

There were crushes, there was dating, but genuine love was rare as gold dust. Jess should know. Of all the girls that passed through his life, there was only one who ever had his heart, the same one he had married and made two babies with. Jack wasn't the type to think he was in love unless he was. He had the heart of a poet and the brains of a genius, plus more good sense than Jess ever possessed when he was a teen. If Jack thought he was in love at barely sixteen, then there was a good chance he was. This could get messy.

The bell jingled over the door and Miss Patty walked in, gossiping already with Babette at her side. Jess shook his head and turned to glance at Jack. The kid already had his books piled up and his bag thrown on his shoulder. His butt was up off the stool before his father could speak at all.

"I'll see you at home, Dad," he said and then he was gone.

Jess blinked and then turned to the two women who replaced Jack at the counter.

"Ladies, what I can get you?" he offered with a winning smile.

"Was it something we said, sugar?" asked Babette, hiking her thumb back towards the door through which Jack had hastily passed.

"Nah, he's just got a lot on his mind. Homework and stuff," he half-lied. "Now, what's your pleasure?" he tried again to take their order.

"Oh, Jess, honey, rephrase the question, please!" Miss Patty urged him, leaning all over the counter. "The thoughts in my head are positively sinful right now," she told him as her eyes raked over his body.

"Still married, Patty," he reminded her with a grin, tapping the ring on his finger for emphasis. "But if Rory ever lets me off the leash, you'll be the first to know."

"You bad boy!" the dance teacher told him with a girlish giggle that really didn't belong to a woman of her advancing years, but that never stopped her before.

She and Babette ordered their food then, and Jess busied himself with getting the coffees to go along with. He had his back to his patrons, not paying a heck of a lot of attention to what was being said. Still, it was hard to ignore Babette and Patty when they were in full flow, they were never exactly quiet about their gossip.

"I heard she's a real beauty, tall too, like her father," said the blonde. "'Course I also heard she had smarts. No offence to the parents, but where in the heck did the brains come from?"

"Well, not everything is about genetics, honey," her friend told her. "And I don't think she was especially dumb. Taking him back after what he did wasn't the smartest move, but they seem to have done okay since the whole leaving town thing."

"Y'know why they came back? 'Cause East Side Tilly said she was told it had to do with his parents, that maybe his father was sick?"

"Oh, that's just awful!"

"Here you go, ladies," said Jess as he turned and presented Babette and Patty with their drinks. "Food will just be a few minutes."

"Thank you, darling" said Patty with a smile. "Well now, you see just about everything from behind this counter, Jess. Have you seen anything of your old adversary yet?"

"My what now?" he asked, feeling a little confused.

"Dean Forester, sugar," said Babette, loud and blunt as ever. "Y'know him and Lindsay moved back to town all sudden and everything, with a teenage daughter in tow. She started Stars Hollow High just today. Did Jack mention any new girls at all?"

Jess wasn't sure what it felt like to have a heart attack or a stroke for that matter, and yet he was pretty sure in this moment he was having one or the other, quite possibly both at once. The blood rushed and pounded in his ears, so loud that he could barely hear what Babette was saying anymore. Shaking himself out of a momentary haze, Jess refocused his eyes and forced himself to form words.

"You know the girl's name?" he checked, trying to sound as calm and cool as he usually would be, even though he felt anything but.

"Oh, that I do know," said Patty easily. "Alison Jane Forester" she said proudly.

After the first three syllables had left her lips, Jess' legs were already in motion. He was over by the door in the fewest number of strides possible, opening it up and announcing that the diner was closing - now!

"But, sugar, we didn't even get our order yet..." Babette began to complain.

Jess would not be moved. He apologised, said they would open up again just as soon as possible, and that Miss Patty and Babette would get whatever they wanted on the house, but for now he really had to close. Getting home and talking to his wife was priority one.

To Be Continued...