A/N: Well, here we are folks, the end of the line for this story. It has been so much fun and so weirdly therapeutic to write - Season 7 needed fixing and I feel like I've given it my best shot and not entirely failed. Reviewers - you are wonderful, and if I ever thought for a moment that this story wasn't worth the effort, you all proved to me that it was. Thanks all, here's the final (fairly long) chapter that takes Rory & Jess into their happily ever after :)

(For disclaimer, etc. - see Chapter 1)

Chapter 25

"There was supposed to be more time!" Rory exclaimed, not for the first time since the phone call had come in one week before. "Oh, God, this is the first day of college all over again!"

"Sweetie, breathe," Lorelai urged her. "Okay, yes, I am seeing the similarities, unfortunately, but even so, we figured it out then and we can deal again now."

It was kind of a crazy replay of the end of summer 2003, when Lorelai and Rory returned from Europe to find that instead of having a whole week to prep for Yale, they had only a couple of days. On this occasion, the shock was actually bigger and the plans to be crammed into a short space of time even more insane.

Originally, Rory had thought her start date at the Times would be in August, since that was what they told her, but it turned out the person she was replacing had to leave earlier than originally expected. Suddenly, they were asking if she could be available in just two weeks, in New York, ready to work. Rory had kind of a meltdown about it, then her life went into overdrive, and all the people she loved went with it!

Jess certainly wasn't any more ready to up and leave than Rory had been, but he did handle the sudden shift much better.

"Years of Liz and her constant need to leave places at a moment's notice finally pays off," he said of the situation, promptly making fast plans for a quick exit out of Philly.

Luke and Lorelai said they would lend a hand in any way they could and both Rory and Jess were grateful for it, even if they were a little skittish about accepting the money they offered. It happened separately, out of necessity. Jess had to go back to Philadelphia to work and make arrangements, and Rory was busy with graduation plans and packing up her apartment. Luke called his nephew while Lorelai sat her daughter down and they made their offer to pay the deposit and first month's rent on whatever apartment the kids found in NYC. Both Rory and Jess thanked their respective family members and then got straight on the phone to each other.

"Can we do that?" she asked, biting her lip. "I mean, it would help. A lot."

"I guess it'd be pretty rude to not accept a gift like that," he considered.

It didn't take long for them to decide they probably could and should take the help when it was being offered. They arranged to tell Lorelai and Luke their answer together two days later when Jess came back to the Hollow, chiefly for Rory's graduation, but to, hopefully, also hit New York and find themselves an apartment.

"How did I end up with this much stuff? I think you spoiled me," Rory declared, opening another dresser drawer and staring in at the contents in despair.

"Yes, it is all my fault that you have so many socks, CDs, hair clips, and... what is this?" asked Lorelai, pulling the offending item out by what might have been an arm, though she couldn't be sure.

Rory frowned as she stared at it a moment and then laughed. "That's Lane's David Bowie doll. Wow, I hid that for her when we were maybe ten? I guess he's suffered a lot, stuffed in the junk drawer."

"You girls really should've shown him some respect," said Lorelai, straightening out the doll as best she could and rubbing a thumb over the scuff marks on his face. "I can't even tell if he's Ziggy or the Duke."

"Well, he doesn't have the hair for Jareth the Goblin King, that's all I know for sure." Rory shrugged, pulling more trinkets and happy memories, as well as a healthy supply of junk, from the back of the bottom drawer.

It was how Jess found her a short while later.

"Do you know how weird it is when the door opens and a mangled David Bowie doll is immediately shoved in your face?"

"Things you say when greeted by Lorelai Gilmore," said Rory, like a triumphant Jeopardy winner.

Jess smirked from his place leaned in her bedroom doorway. "Having fun?"

"It's a nostalgia trip," she admitted, scrambling up from the floor to greet him with a kiss. "I never knew I had so much stuff."

"It's a lot." Jess nodded, noting the boxes and bags, as well as piles of things all over the carpet. "Pretty sure our books alone could take up the entirety of any shoebox we can afford in the city, but that's why it's pretty cool of your mom and the guys at Truncheon to let us keep the non-essentials where we used to live."

"Amen to that," Rory agreed from the circle of his arms. "It still messes with my head when I think that in a couple of weeks we'll be living in New York, together, that I'll be a real-life member of The New York Times staff, and every night I get to come home to you."

"Sounds pretty good, doesn't it?" Jess smiled just thinking about it.

"It really, really does." Rory grinned too. "Of course, first we have to find an apartment to actually live in... and I have to finish going through everything I own." She turned to look back at the carnage in her room and sighed.

"We'll get there," Jess promised her, urging her to look at him again. "Come on, after everything else that we've already accomplished between us, this should be easy."

The smile was back on Rory's lips then and he was more than glad to see it.

"Ooh, I have other great news too," she remembered then. "So, it turns out Yale is pretty much stuck on every student only having four tickets for guests at the graduation ceremony. If you want extras you have to ask way back in September and probably be sleeping with someone in the administration."

"And this is good news because you're secretly having an affair with the provost?" asked Jess, smirking more than a little.

"How do you even know that word?" asked Rory, shaking her head. "Never mind. Obviously, I could not get extra tickets, either the proper way or by way of subterfuge," she continued to explain, "but when I was telling Paris my tragic tale of woe and how I really need at least five tickets, suddenly she had this flash of divine inspiration or something and she gave me her spares!"

"Paris did that?" Jess checked, wide-eyed with shock.

"Yeah, she just handed them over," Rory nodded, grinning wide. "Apparently, she has no desire for her parents to come along, and it'd pretty much be a miracle if they showed anyway, so all she needed was one ticket for Doyle and one for her Portuguese nanny. The others were available so she just gave them to me, and she hugged me too. I actually think the whole engagement thing is really good for her."

"So, now you have six tickets?"

"I do, for Mom, Luke, you, my grandparents, and... well, I thought seeing as I had an extra, and he did pay for at least some of Yale, I should probably invite my dad."

The way she squirmed when she said it made Jess frown. "You think I'm going to make a big deal about you inviting your own father to your graduation?"

"I don't know." Rory shrugged. "I know you guys never officially met but I figured you wouldn't like him much. He hasn't always treated me or mom so well, and he's a part of the reason why Luke got so hurt-"

"Rory," Jess cut in when the rambling started to go into overdrive. "It's cool, okay?" he promised her, his hand at her cheek. "He's your dad and you love him, he should absolutely be at your graduation, and if that meant that I couldn't go-"

"But you can go," Rory cut in this time. "You are going. Jess, I want you there. I want everybody to be there when I finally graduate Yale."

"Then we will be there," he promised her, holding her face in his hands. "Me and Luke, your parents, and your grandparents, all right there, fighting over who gets to be most proud of knowing and loving Rory Gilmore."

"Sometimes you just say all the right things." Rory sighed happily, right before they kissed, there in the middle of the destruction that was her childhood bedroom.

"So, how does it feel, kid?" Lorelai asked as they climbed into the car to come home.

"A little strange," Rory admitted, one hand holding onto Jess' own, the other waving to friends out of the window yet. "In a lot of ways, it's an ending," she said, glancing back at the school buildings, "but in others, it's a great new beginning," she added, turning to gaze at her boyfriend beside her.

"You looked amazing up there," he told her, squeezing her hand. "I can't believe I'm dating a Yale graduate."

"I can't believe we all sat in that row for an hour and nobody got seriously hurt," said Luke from the driver's seat.

"That is a little miraculous," Lorelai had to agree.

They really only achieved the lack of bloodshed by some very careful manoeuvring. Chris was placed on one end of the six, next to Emily who was the one person in the group who actually still liked him a little bit. Richard was next to her, then Jess, who played buffer between him and Lorelai and Luke. Thankfully, they made it through the ceremony without incident, and now, Rory's time at Yale was officially concluded. It was time to get on with the rest of their lives.

"Saying goodbye here was actually the easy part," she said thoughtfully, watching the last of Yale's grounds disappear from view. "Saying goodbye in Stars Hollow tomorrow is going to be so much harder."

"You're not going to be so far away," Luke reminded her, taking one hand off the wheel to grab a hold of Lorelai's hand too, since he sensed she was going to cry again. "We'll come visit you and you'll come see us. It'll be great."

"Yes, it will," Jess agreed, putting his arm around Rory to pull her closer, kissing her hair when her head landed on his shoulder. "Trust me, crazy as it sounds, I know what it is to miss home, but we can handle it, I promise."

"I know we can," Rory agreed, swallowing hard. "And I am so excited about New York, and The Times, and starting a new life with you," she said, peering up at Jess.

"Well then, that makes two of us," he said, dropping a kiss on her lips.

A clattering sound woke Jess with a start and he sat up very quickly in the bed, taking a moment to remember where he was and why. Rory's room barely looked as if it belonged to her anymore. Most of her stuff was packed into boxes, cases, and bags, and even a bunch of the furniture, like the bookshelves and the desk, were gone. Pushing his hair back from his forehead, Jess surveyed the bare surroundings then spotted Rory herself with a tray in her hands, the cups and plates on it all askew.

"Sorry," she said, wincing yet. "This wasn't exactly how I planned on waking you up."

"Oh yeah?" asked Jess, rubbing his eyes as she came closer to the bed and set the tray down.

"It was supposed to be more like this," she explained, leaning over to plant a good long kiss on his lips. "Good morning," she said when she finally pulled away.

"It is now." Jess sighed. "So, you made breakfast?" he asked, no lack of cynicism or fear in his tone.

"Luke made breakfast," Rory confirmed. "I just carried breakfast, badly apparently."

She handed Jess his tea and took her own coffee cup in her hands drinking deeply.

"It's so weird to think this is our last morning waking up in the Hollow. By tonight, we'll officially be New Yorkers."

"Hey, I have always been a New Yorker," Jess said definitely.

Rory giggled. "Come on, you are so a Stars Hollowian too. You know you are!"

"I am not admitting that," said Jess, grabbing a piece of toast and shoving it in his mouth before she could try and make him, which she probably would.

The truth was, Jess didn't hate the place. Stars Hollow was where he met Rory, and she wouldn't be her without the crazy little town that helped raise her. Honestly, the people of the Hollow had helped Jess to become who he was too, Luke most of all. It didn't exactly thrill him to be associated with all of the people who roamed the streets of the quaint little town that Rory had always called home, but Jess had to admit, there would always be some things about the place that made him think of it fondly, no matter what.

"So, how early are we leaving?" he asked Rory as she climbed back into bed beside him and they both set about eating their eggs. "I'm pretty sure it'll take a while to pack everything up and then there's all the goodbyes that you saved for today, right?"

"Yeah, but that's just Sookie, Jackson, and the kids, Lane, Zach, and the twins, and then Luke and Mom. I got to everybody else yesterday."

Jess nodded that he knew that, unwilling to actually comment. He knew how tough this was for Rory, leaving everybody behind that she loved. It had always come so easy to him, to just up and go at a moment's notice. He never really missed anyone, not until Rory, and Luke too, if he was honest. He still couldn't understand what it must feel like to have a home in the way Rory did, to feel like you would miss a whole town that much.

A rapping on the door got their attention then and both Rory and Jess looked up to see Lorelai stepping into the bedroom, her hand clamped firmly over her eyes.

"Is it safe? Should I just close the door and pretend this never happened?"

"Mom, it's fine. You can look," said Rory, laughing through her words.

Lorelai peeked between her fingers, realised nothing worse than a little of Jess' bare chest was on display, and sighed with relief as she let her hand drop to her side.

"Okay, so are you guys gonna be ready soon, because we should really be moving. Let's go, go, go!" she said, clapping her hands frantically.

"It's barely eight o'clock," Rory noted. "You're never this awake so early on a Sunday. Even on my last day, I figured you'd need at least a couple more hours to sleep in."

"Not today, loin-fruit," said Lorelai, smiling widely. "As you said, this is your last day, and that means things are happening. So, up, up, up. Rise, shine, greet the day. We've got a diem to be... carping? Carpeing?" she tried, frowning at Jess. "You're the author, what am I trying to say here?"

"That we should get out lazy asses out of bed?"

Lorelai considered it then nodded her head. "That'll work. Let's go!" she cried happily before rushing from the room.

Rory and Jess shared a look that was as amused as it was baffled but still did as they were told and got up, ready to face the day. Within a half hour, Lorelai had them in the car, though she wouldn't tell either of them where they were headed.

"Did Luke leave before us?" Rory asked, fastening her seat-belt.

It was no secret that Lorelai had her boyfriend stay over at the house last night too, especially since he had been the one to make breakfast this morning, and yet, Luke seemed to have disappeared somewhere between cooking the eggs and now.

"He had things to do," Lorelai said mysteriously. "Now, no more questions, let Mommy concentrate on the driving."

Rory said no more, just leaned in close to Jess and watched the usual scenes go past her window, except the more Rory looked, the more they didn't seem usual at all. It was as if nobody else in Stars Hollow was even awake yet. She didn't see Babette and Maury on the front porch, or Kirk on his way to whichever job he was working today, or any of the people she would've expected.

"Where is everybody?" asked Jess, almost as if he read her mind.

Rory opened her mouth to tell him she was just thinking that exact thing when Lorelai turned the car into the town square and the answer was revealed.

"Oh my God!"

"Huh," said Jess almost at the same time as Rory gasped.

The whole town was packed into the square, underneath banners that proclaimed 'Bon Voyage, Rory,' and then in smaller writing underneath, 'and Jess.'

So much for saying her goodbyes yesterday, it seemed that had been a waste of time. Everybody who was anybody had turned out to wish Rory well before she moved out of her home town and headed into the future with Jess. The crying started before she even managed to exit the car, but at least they were happy tears.

"Good thing I don't have a problem with driving in the dark," said Jess when he and Rory finally set about leaving for New York.

So much for getting an early start, the party in mostly Rory's honour had gone on for most of the day, with food, dancing, speeches, the full works, as everybody in Stars Hollow, plus Rory's grandparents, gave the town princess the send-off that she truly deserved. Actually, even Jess had got more than a few kind words and handshakes, and that part he really hadn't been expecting.

"It's not so late," said Rory, putting her last bag into the back seat, "and besides, it was totally worth it, wasn't it?"

"Yeah, I guess so," Jess admitted, pulling her into his arms. "That everything?" he checked, head tilting towards the overstuffed car.

"That's everything," she confirmed. "All done."

She turned to glance up at the house a moment, blinking fast when her gaze returned to Jess' face.

"Hey, we're not shipping off to 'Nam," he reminded her, wiping a stray tear from her cheek the moment it put in an appearance. "We'll come visit, a lot. Come on, we made this thing work with us when I was in Philly and you were here. If we can do that, we can do anything."

Rory nodded and sniffed hard to keep the crying at bay. "At least I feel better knowing we're not leaving either of them alone," she said, looking across at Luke and Lorelai as they approached, hand in hand, down the driveway.

"Yeah, that doesn't suck," Jess admitted, smiling at the very same sight.

"So, this is it," said Lorelai as she reached them. "My little girl is officially leaving home."

"Seems that way." Rory nodded, slipping out of Jess' embrace to hug her mother tightly.

Jess and Luke watched them a moment then looked at each other instead.

"Take care of yourself, nephew, and if you need anything, you know you can call, any time."

Jess nodded his head then pushed forward and went for the hug. "Thanks, Uncle Luke," he said softly, getting a pat on the back for his trouble.

"Bye, Luke," said Rory, moving to hug him next.

Lorelai and Jess eyed each other warily for a second, then she rolled her eyes and sighed. "Oh, what the hell!" she declared, reaching to pull Jess into a big hug too.

"Take care of yourself, Aunt Lorelai," he said with a wicked smirk as they parted.

"You too, hoodlum," she countered, daring to ruffle his hair.

Jess only smiled and turned to look at Rory. "You ready?"

"Uh-huh." She nodded, clearly about to bawl in a big way.

Moving around to the driver's side, Jess got in the car, unsurprised to see Rory hugging her mom one more time before she finally joined him. Seat-belts duly fastened, radio flipped on, Jess put the car into gear and pulled off the driveway, while Rory waved to Lorelai and Luke, standing on the porch steps now with their arms around each other.

"I swear at least some of these are happy tears." Rory laughed and cried at the same time as Jess drove them out of town.

"That's good to know," he said, spotting the 'You Are Now Leaving Stars Hollow' sign and feeling strangely nostalgic as they passed it. "You know that thing is a lot less painful to go by this time than it ever has been before."

"Why?" asked Rory, wiping her face with her hands now that the tears were subsiding.

"You know why," Jess told her, glancing from the road to meet her eyes for a moment. "Every time I left before, it was like... like I was leaving a piece of me behind. It's nice, not to feel that way anymore."

Rory's hand found his when he reached for the gearshift and squeezed.

"We finally fixed everything," she said with a smile as bright as the setting sun. "Now, let's go home."

The End