A/N- It's been awhile for this one, hasn't it? But I think Blizzards and Broken Hearts was worth it, honestly. (To any of you who haven't read that... go do it! It's awesomesauce!) This chapter was kind of weird, but overall I'm reasonably happy with it. I basically just felt the need to update since all the good Lit fics got updated a couple days ago and now all that's on the lists is Rogan, JJ, and a couple of starter Lits that have a lot of potential but are still too short to keep me busy for long, and I really felt the need to break up the Logan-loving a little.

9. Sunday

Rory woke up with an atrocious crick in her neck. She shifted a little, felt the warm weight of an arm around her shoulders, and opened her eyes only to realize that she and Jess had fallen asleep cuddling on the couch. Despite the twisting pain in her muscles, Rory couldn't help but smile.

Her movement seemed to have awakened him, and he let out a low groan, bringing a hand up to his own neck. "Please tell me we didn't fall asleep on the sofa," he mumbled without opening his eyes.

"'Fraid so," Rory responded.

"And here I thought I was done with crashing in people's living rooms," Jess sighed.

"Definitely not the most comfortable sleeping arrangements," she agreed. "No amount of coffee can truly erase the feeling of having fallen asleep in your clothes."

Jess nodded, a sour expression crossing his face as he discovered the stiffness in his shoulders. "Speaking of which, I'm gonna go grab my stuff. Do you mind if I use your shower?"

"Go ahead," Rory responded. "It's the second door on your right at the top of the stairs. Don't worry about waking Mom; when she's hungover, she sleeps like the dead. I'll make bacon and order tacos."

Jess raised an eyebrow in question.

"Tacos are the ultimate hangover food," Rory said, as though this were obvious. "And I want bacon. Maybe bacon in tacos..."

"I think I agree with Luke," he said, shaking his head with a smirk firmly in place. "You Gilmores are a little sickening with your eating habits."

"Why thank you," Rory said, grinning madly. Then her face slipped into a softer smile. "Good morning," she said.

"Good morning to you too," Jess replied, kissing her sweetly.

Ten minutes later, Jess appeared in the kitchen, hair still wet and Stereophonics t-shirt clinging to his slightly damp torso. Rory did not mind in the slightest.

"So you really weren't kidding about the tacos," he said, a hint of wonderment in his voice as he surveyed the spread Rory had set out on the kitchen table. He came up behind her and slid his arms around her waist, resting his chin on her shoulder as she made a very distracted attempt at turning over the bacon.

"Nope, not kidding," she responded. "And I've got bacon and scrambled eggs for those of us who didn't have eleven shots of tequila last night."

"I didn't know you could cook," Jess said.

"People do tend to lump me together with Mom in that department," she conceded. "And I'm definitely not Luke or Sookie, but I can manage simple stuff. Eggs and bacon? No problem."

She felt Jess' smiling lips on her neck. "Learn something new every day," he said in a low, sarcastic voice as he kissed along the column of her neck.

"Careful, Mr. Mariano. If you don't want to be responsible for yet another Gilmore Kitchen disaster, you'd better hold off on distracting me until the bacon is safely out of the pan," she said breathily, holding back a giggle as his tongue swept across a ticklish place. He responded by simply moving his attentions to the other side of her neck.

Somehow, Rory managed to get the bacon onto a plate and the pan drained of grease without any serious mishaps, and she and Jess sat down to eat, exchanging lighthearted banter of the usual variety. An hour later, when Lorelai slumped downstairs, their dishes had been piled in the sink and the two were still sitting at the kitchen table, engaged in a debate over the merits of microwave popcorn versus the stovetop kind.

"Your voices are too loud," Lorelai groaned, laying her head on the table.

"Sorry," Jess said, too amused for his apology to sound genuine.

"Tacos are in the microwave, I'll just reheat them for you. Aspirin is next to your face. Orange juice is about two inches from your left hand," Rory informed her, as though this was a routine occurrence. It wasn't, normally, but Rory was a quick study (and she had to admit, having dealt with Logan, Colin and Finn on a routine basis was excellent preparation for a hungover Lorelai).

The distinct taco-y smell as the microwave heated them seemed to revive the elder Gilmore somewhat, at least enough for her to sit up, take the aspirin with the orange juice (which in and of itself was surprising, given her aversion to fruits of all kinds), and observe the laughing couple sitting across from her. Lorelai devoured the tacos, with various accompanying noises of appreciation and slight nausea, then stood up. "Rory, come upstairs with me, I need your opinion on hangover clothes."

"What?"

"Sweats or PMS jeans?"

Ignoring Jess' groan, Rory said, "I really don't think you need my opinion to make that decision."

"But in my current state, how will I possibly pick out the appropriate attire for today?"

Rory rolled her eyes, but stood up nonetheless. "In case you forgot, you do have work today. The Casher family reunion is coming in today, remember?"

Lorelai gasped melodramatically. "Well that adds a whole other layer of choices, thus making my problem that much worse!" she groaned. "Please, baby girl? Help a friend out?"

"Fine," Rory sighed. She leaned down and left Jess a lingering kiss. "I'll be right back." He nodded, and she followed her mother out of the room.

Once they were out of sight, Lorelai pushed Rory up the stairs as quickly as Rory's bunny slippers and Lorelai's dizziness would allow. "What the...? What are you doing?" Rory demanded, but Lorelai refused to speak until she had pushed her into the master bedroom and closed the door securely behind them.

"Oh my god!" Lorelai exclaimed. "Did you sleep with Jess?"

Rory was completely taken aback. "What? I... no, we didn't!"

Lorelai's eyebrows drew down in confusion. "Wait, you didn't?"

"Nope."

"Then why's he looking at you like... well, you know. All lovey and like he wants to devour you and stuff."

Rory groaned. "Oh my god."

Lorelai shook her head, amazed, then closed her eyes tightly for a second, having forgotten the hangover headache which the aspirin had as yet not touched. When she recovered her balance, she said, "The guy was all over you down there!"

"Since when has Jess ever been good with personal space?" Rory asked rhetorically.

"Good point. Seriously, though, what did you do to him? He's practically wrapped around your little finger! I noticed it last night, too. He was being all sappy, which is especially weird because it's Jess, but even by normal-person standards he was being pretty sweet with you. Only this morning it's, like, a thousand times worse! What did you do?"

Rory shrugged. "Nothing. We just talked."

"About what?"

"We went through all the history and talked it through. Apologized for all the stupid stuff we did to each other back then, tried to figure out how to avoid making the same mistakes again."

Lorelai shook her head wonderingly. "That is so much weirder when you realize it means that Jess talked that much."

Rory smiled softly. "He really opened up to me, Mom. And you know what? He's the same Jess he's always been. Just better at the verbal thing." She was quiet for a moment, still smiling happily.

"This thing with you and him is serious, isn't it?"

"Yeah. I think it is. I mean, I want it to be. He seems to want that, too." Her happy expression grew as she contemplated it. "The two of us... I think it's kind of an all-or-nothing thing. It was a big part of the reason why we didn't work out the first time: we were both too scared of our feelings to really be in it all the way, and that didn't work. We're going to be better this time."

Lorelai sighed, partly from the thumping in her skull, and partly from her mixed feelings about this new/old relationship. "I'm happy for you," she said. "But Rory? Please be careful." At Rory's outraged expression, Lorelai quickly cut her off. "I know, I know. He's grown up, things are different. But when the two of you didn't work out the first time around, it just about killed you, didn't it? At the time, I really just wanted to believe that you were fine, that Jess was a jerk and it was no big deal, but looking back? It just seems like you were never really quite okay after that."

"I really don't think I was," Rory said quietly. "I did a good job faking it, because I didn't want you to be worried and hate him even more than you already did, but I just felt like some big part of me was missing. Eventually I even started to believe that I was fine, but looking back, everything just kept falling more to pieces as time went on, and it wasn't until Jess came back and told me what an idiot I was being that I started to get better."

Lorelai nodded. "I get that. Now." She let out her breath in a huff. "That being said, I am fully, one hundred percent on the Jess bandwagon now, okay? It's kind of cute, actually, now that he's willing to say more than two words at a time. Even your dad noticed."

"Really?"

"Yes, really. While you two were dancing, he and I were trying to get plastered and he started asking all about Jess and what the deal with you two was."

"Oh? What did you tell him?"

Lorelai shrugged. "The edited version of your history. You dated, Jess went to California to find himself, there was never really any closure, now you're back together."

"And what did Dad have to say to that?" As pathetic as it was, as little involvement as Christopher had in her life, Rory was really hoping for both of her parents to support her in this. Though they had really only been dating a short while, she had known Jess for years, and as she had told Lorelai, this was serious. Something about Jess was just special, and she wanted this to be right.

"He mostly just grunted and said you made a cute couple," Lorelai said. "I didn't really give him a whole lot to work with."

Rory held back a sigh. "Okay," she said. "Well, that's good, I think. I guess I'm just worried because, well, he really liked Logan. And I don't blame him; they had a lot in common." Her expression grew slightly bewildered and she said, as if realizing it for the first time, "Actually, I think that's a big part of the reason I fell so hard for Logan. He reminded me of Dad. Except now Dad's gone and gotten attached, and I'm worried he won't give Jess a chance because he'll always think Logan was better."

"Would it matter?"

"No," Rory said firmly. Then she glanced down at the floor, worry seeping into her voice. "I just really want everyone to get along."

Lorelai put an arm around her shoulder, rubbing her arm comfortingly. "I know, Sweets. I know." At the cessation of Rory's frown, Lorelai encouraged, "Now, go on, go see your lover-boy and leave me here to figure out what the hell I'm going to wear today."

"Need any wardrobe advice?" Rory asked. "You know, since that was your very believable excuse to get me alone?"

"Nah, I've got it. If I get stumped, I'm sure I can ask all those pink elephants from last night."

"So, what's on the agenda for today?" Jess asked, his hand finding hers almost the instant they stepped out on the porch. Rory had to fight to suppress her grin.

"I was thinking Andrew's," she suggested. "I've been looking for a new copy of Gods and Generals."

Jess raised an eyebrow. "Shaara?"

"That's the one."

"Should I ask why you need a new copy?"

Rory shrugged. "My old one fell apart."

"How?" he asked incredulously.

"Why so surprised?"

"Well, firstly, you take ridiculously good care of your books, and secondly, Gods and Generals is a bore."

Rory feigned a horror-struck expression. "How can you say such a thing?" she gasped, dropping his hand.

"Don't get me wrong, I loved The Killer Angels as much as anybody else. It's a masterwork, and nobody with an IQ higher than a boulder's would say otherwise. But Gods and Generals just drags on and on and on and it never actually goes anywhere! Jeff Shaara is trying way too hard to be his father! I get that it's a prequel to his father's book, but it's just ridiculous! He should have written it naturally, rather than trying to imitate everything his dad did. I mean, jeez, is it too much to ask for a little original thought?"

Rory bit her lip to keep from laughing out loud at the outraged expression on his face. Once she'd suppressed the urge, she gave him a cool look and said, in an extremely serious voice, "I can't believe you just said that. How can you criticize a novel with such a sharp depiction of General Lee?"

"A sharp depiction which was only achieved by using concepts already laid out for him in The Killer Angels. I say again: where's his creativity? He was just riding his dad's coattails!"

"Just for that, I should refuse to speak to you," Rory said, still playing the part of the offended literatus.

Jess opened his mouth to defend his point again, looking annoyed, but before he could speak, Rory lost her self-control and broke down laughing. "I... can't believe you... fell for that..." she gasped, almost bending over she was laughing so hard.

He stared at her for a long moment, and then he was laughing too, that happy, childlike laughter she had only had the good fortune to coax out of him a handful of times. Rory took several deep breaths, trying to calm herself so that she could enjoy the moment, watching him laugh like this, so unrestrained and joyful. It always gave her a happy tingling feeling, knowing that she could make Jess Mariano laugh.

When both of them had gotten themselves back under control, Rory said, "Seriously, I get what you're saying, though. He did borrow a lot of concepts from his dad's work. But if you just take it as a standalone novel, not as a prequel to The Killer Angels, you can't deny that it's really very well-written."

Jess' only response was to grab her by the hips and pull her into a passionate kiss right there in the street. Rory lost her mind for awhile as he pulled her close and ravaged her mouth, kissing her fiercely. It was only when they heard Babette wolf-whistling at them from across the street that he pulled away from her, leaving her breathless in his arms. He rested his forehead gently against hers and she could see his smile. "Have I ever told you I think you're pretty damn wonderful?" he said.

"No, but it's good to know," she told him cheekily, but the effect was spoiled somewhat by the fact that she was still trying to catch her breath.

The smile turned to a smirk, and he gave her a quick kiss on the lips before wrapping his arm around her waist and guiding her off in the direction of the town square. "Come on, Miss Gilmore, let's get you your book..."