Between the Sheets

So I'm back with another one-shot, because I came up with this idea the other day and decided to roll with it. For context I'd say this takes place in 2011, so the same year Rory and Jess get married according to my timeline. They're recently engaged (which I still need to write) and all is well.

Rory tapped her foot impatiently as she waited in line at the cafeteria. Briefly she considered going to the café down the road for a sandwich, but it was Tuesday. Tuesday was burger day at her new job, and she hadn't missed one yet. The cook, Cassie, was a burger making goddess. It was on par with anything made by Luke and it reminded her of Stars Hollow just enough to be nostalgic, but not quite homesick. It was odd that she still thought of that small town as home despite not really living there since she left for college. Still it was more her spiritual home than New York, even though she'd been living there for almost three years.

"Ah, if it isn't the lovely Lorelai," Cassie greeted her with a big smile, piling food onto her plate.

"Please call me Rory, Lorelai's my mother."

"I can't tell if you're joking or not. We ran out of bacon about ten minutes ago, but I saved you a few pieces. Can't have you baconless on burger day."

"You are literally my favourite person in New York," she smiled brightly, glancing down at her food as a sparkle from her left hand caught her eye. Okay, maybe Cassie wasn't her absolute favourite person in the city, but she was top five material for sure.

"You've gone all misty-eyed on me, thinking of that author man of yours." She was happy to see Rory smiled brightly, which was new. The first few weeks on the job Rory had avoided mentioning her fiancé, knowing what some people thought about him in regards to her new position. Cassie had never been one of those gossipy journalists, so she never took it harshly when she mentioned him.

"Thanks for lunch, Cass."

"Anytime, sweetheart."

Rory found an empty table and dug into the delicious meal, not being disappointed in the slightest. The bacon was almost burnt, just the way she liked it. She tried explaining this to Jess one day, and discovered he was the type of person to barely cook his bacon, just enough to make it warm. As though knowing she was thinking of him her phone started to ring, his name flashing to the tune of a Clash song.

"Hey, I was just thinking about your bacon."

"Is that a weird euphemism?"

"What? No, it's burger day!"

"Enjoying your charred meat, dear?"

"More than I thought possible. What are you up to?"

"Just got off the phone with my agent."

"Chris called? Did he get the care package I sent him?"

"Yes he did and he says thanks, but he wasn't calling as a friend. This was all business."

"Did he mention the vouchers? Because I wasn't sure if California had-"

"Rory, I'm trying to tell you something important here," She imagined him running a hand through his hand, which he did when he was frustrated.

"Sorry," she mumbled sheepishly.

"Don't be. Long story short, my new book's ready," as though ready for her squeals and praise, he continued, "I know it's cool and everything, but new book means new promoting. Chris is thinking big, too. Lots of European places. Did you know my last book was number one in Portugal?"

"Yes, but I'm an obsessive stalker."

"So is Chris apparently, though I think it might be his job to know what countries like me. Apparently there's a few. Enough for a six week whirlwind tour of several continents, to be precise."

"Six weeks?" Rory's eyes widened in surprise. In the entire time they'd lived together they hadn't spent more than a week apart. The last time he promoted his book it was strictly US-only, and she came along for the two weeks as a sort of vacation.

"It'd be in a few weeks, when the book comes out. Chris is trying to handle it all, but he thinks I need an assistant."

"You're one movie deal away from needing a bodyguard, Mariano."

"It sucks, I don't want things to be so complicated."

"Yes you do, it means you're good at what you do and you're successful. Successful people get assistants. I'd apply for the position myself but I've kind of just accepted my dream job."

"Well if that doesn't work out I'm sure I can find a position for you somewhere."

"Why does it sound dirty when you say that?"

"Hey, you took what you wanted from that offer. Chris has someone in mind though, and I bring it up because I'm giving you complete veto power."

"Which means it's a woman. Or a gay man, I guess."

"The former. You remember our Truncheon intern, Tammy?"

"Short hair, long legs?"

"Sounds like her. Well she's just graduated and we think she's sick of unpaid work. Chris thinks it's a great idea because she fits well in the company and though we don't really need any other staff in Philly, I need someone to sort my professional life for me."

"So you're asking if you can spend six weeks with another woman travelling across the globe."

"Feel free to use that veto power."

"Part of me wants to. The part of me that gets jealous when girls in autograph sessions tell you they love you, which I know is stupid. On the other hand, I know I can trust you. More than that, I know she's right for the job. If you hire someone you've never met you'll need to catch them up to speed on how you guys run things, while this girl knows you all already."

"You're incredible, you know that right? Sometimes I wonder how you got stuck with someone like me."

"All the other bestselling authors I hit on were already married," Rory looked at her watch and sighed. She'd only eaten half her burger, as consumed as she was by this conversation with Jess, and it was time to go back to work, "you owe me a new burger, mister."

"I'll go pick up some supplies then. You coming home on time?"

"Unless something dramatic in my field happens. You know, JK Rowling says Neville was bisexual, M. Night Shyamalan makes a halfway decent movie."

"See you at six."

Rory panted her way up endless flights of stairs on her way to her fifth floor apartment, cursing the broken elevator currently being repaired in the lobby. She was running late, something that had been occurring all week while her boss covered the Oscars. Before he left there'd been the insinuation that he was getting too old for assignments like this, and it was time to find a suitable replacement. The way his eyes lingered on her made Rory's heart jump, imagining covering the biggest movie event in the world for the New York Times. For now she'd have to make do with blogging about the best hairstyles of the night without a byline, but who knew what the future had in store.

Right now, she was late for a Skype date. Jess had landed in Australia a few days earlier and they hadn't spoken since, their promise of a face-to-face conversation every other day broken for the first time. She opened her laptop and clicked on his face. He answered almost immediately, a wry smile gracing his face. Rory noticed he was wearing a suit and tie, which seemed a little formal for the morning.

"You know I have a signing in twenty minutes, right?" He asked, grinning widely when she opened her mouth to apologise. "Relax, I'm not mad. How's work?"

"Brutal. Jerry's in LA so we're trying to make do without him, but he's the department head. I think everyone's taking it as a chance to prove themselves, he's so close to retirement and everyone can smell that management position," she sipped from the coffee she'd bought on her way home, smiling at the anticipation of a caffeine rush and takeout dinner. She wished the man on her screen could join her, but he was an entire world away, "enough about me. How's Melbourne?"

"About ten people have laughed at me for the way I pronounce the city, but it's cool. You'd love it, there's fantastic coffee every few feet. Everyone seems pretty chill, but the real test is later today."

"I was wondering about that suit."

"I've been invited to a luncheon for creative types. It's in a ballroom so I figured I better suit up."

"You look good. Really, really good. I miss you." She hadn't meant to say that. For the past two weeks they'd attempted to keep things light, talking about movies he watched on planes or what books they were reading. Seeing him brought on a curious sensation of homesickness, though she was sitting in their tiny apartment in Brooklyn.

"I miss you too. God Rory, I miss you more than I want to admit. We're only two weeks in, this is so stupid. This is the trip of a lifetime and all I can think about is wanting to jump through this screen and hold you."

"Hey, only four more weeks to go. I'll meet you at the airport, we can go to that sushi place downtown."

"Sounds good to me. You're okay, aren't you?"

"Of course," Rory was surprised at his worried tone, before remembering their last conversation. She was feeling especially homesick for Jess, and had ranted about the way she felt left behind, which wasn't something she'd experienced before. Normally she was the one going places and seeing the world, and though she wouldn't begrudge her fiancé of the experience it felt wrong that she wasn't exploring with him. It didn't help that work was totally kicking her butt and her mother hadn't visited since having Ritchie. Rather than burden Jess with her worries, she chose a safe topic of conversation for them, "what are you reading?"

"I just finished 'The Life of Trees' by Richard Valance."

"I nearly bought that the other day, is it any good?"

"No. I mean, yeah, but don't buy it."

"Why? We've got doubles of a lot of books, I know it might not be the best thing for the environment, but-"

"Just… give it a few days, okay?" He looked suspicious, but Rory didn't question it any further, "I really need to get going. I'm already fashionably late as it is."

"Sorry for being late."

"Don't be. I'm just glad I got to see you. I love you."

"Love you too."

A few days later Rory was surprised to find a package waiting for her at the front door. She hadn't ordered anything online for weeks, her Amazon addiction waning the more time she spent looking at bookstores around town. There was still a purchase almost weekly, but she'd been very good lately. For a moment she wondered if it was something for Jess, until she read the messy scribbled address. It wasn't for Jess, but it was certainly from him. Rushing inside she almost tripped over a box she'd been meaning to put into storage. Times like this reminded her of how tiny their apartment was, as though it couldn't fit more than one person at a time. Throwing her keys and bag onto the table she carefully unwrapped her gift, only to find a book staring at her.

"'The Life of Trees', huh? Guess that explains everything," She sat in her favourite reading position on the couch and made herself comfortable. The book wasn't too long, she could probably read the whole thing that night with enough time for a pizza break. Opening the book she gasped at the first page. It was absolutely covered in margin notes, like the ones he used to write for her as teenagers. Resigning herself to a longer night of reading than anticipated, Rory made her way to the kitchen to make some coffee.

She read until after midnight, consumed more with the words Jess had written than the actual text. It was an interesting enough novel, but it had nothing on his insight and wit. Around halfway through she noticed with a jolt that he'd circled the word 'fiancée'. By the end of the book it had appeared thirty-three times and he'd highlighted every single one of them. It caused a fluttering in her stomach to know every time he saw that word he thought of her, though he made no further elaboration in the notes. Smiling to herself despite the incredibly depressing ending, she turned to the last page and was unsurprised to see a note for her:

Rory,

If I wrote a word for every time I missed you this book would be nothing but inkstains. I'm writing this at an airport in London waiting for my flight, drinking the worst coffee I've ever tasted. You know I'm not much for the stuff, so you could guess I'm pretty tired. Doesn't help that even the terrible stuff reminds me of you. So does defacing books, which I haven't done in years. I'd be a terrible librarian, I enjoyed scribbling insults to stupid characters too much. This may have invigorated an old passion for hooliganism, so keep me away from garden gnomes and chalk in the future.

I look forward to hearing your opinions of the book, if you have any. Personally I found it too much like something you would read, which is probably why I chose it.

Love you. Miss you. Need you.

(That was so cheesy, I'm sorry)

Jess

Rory smiled to herself, trying to not to cry at his words. This was the best surprise he'd ever arranged, it was so simple and so Jess that it made her heart soar. Checking her phone she realised it would be mid-afternoon where he was, so there was a good chance he'd be available. Grabbing her laptop from the coffee table she signed into Skype, very happy to see him online.

"Hey night owl," Jess smirked at her, noticing that she was still in her work clothes despite arriving home hours ago. Rory took in the sight of her fiancé and felt a weight she didn't know existed lifted from her chest. He looked tired and was considerably less formal than the other day, in a faded t-shirt.

"Hey yourself. I just lost track of time reading the most interesting book. At least I think it was interesting, some jerk wrote all over it."

"It does kind of ruin the rhythm of a first read, doesn't it?" He shrugged apologetically, but she waved him off.

"Please, I'd read your notes over almost anything."

"Good to hear, because the next book should be there in a few days."

"You wrote more?"

"It's a long flight from Dubai to Sydney, my dear."

True to his word, Rory received books from Jess at least once a week. He must've had copious time for reading on flights and layovers, and each new tome represented that. When he was flying to Japan he mentioned cherry blossoms and Hello Kitty in his notes, and the journey to Sweden including several diagrams of IKEA furniture. Along with Jess' notes Rory was cheered immensely when her mother announced she would be visiting for a weekend. Luke was staying to work and take care of Ritchie, so it would be a trip to New York filled with shopping and other girly things the two couldn't impose onto their respective partners. Lorelai would be visiting a week before Jess would arrive home, grateful for both the break from her small child and an excuse to get out of Friday Night Dinner.

Rory rushed home from work, hoping that peak hour traffic had meant she would beat her mother to the apartment. That was not to be the case as Lorelai sat cross-legged in front of her apartment, a package sitting on her lap. Upon seeing her daughter she leapt up and pulled her into a bone-crunching hug.

"Look at you, Ms. Big Shot Writer! You're all grown up, sweets," Lorelai surveyed her daughter's outfit and smiled, her eyes watering.

"Mom, are you going to do this every time you see me in my work clothes? I thought it was fairly well established I was grown up. New York, the Times, being engaged, these ring any bells for you?"

"When I don't see you for a few weeks it's easy to imagine you as a ten-year-old."

"If I was ten wouldn't you be worried that I wasn't home in weeks?"

"You're asking logic from your ageing mother, when I barely had any to begin with," Rory rolled her eyes as she sidestepped her mother and her suitcase to open the door. With dexterity she avoided several of the boxes set aside for storage and flicked on a few lights. Lorelai wasn't so adept to avoiding containers full of books and cutlery, and almost tripped over twice.

"Sorry, we've been meaning to store all the stuff there's no room for."

"It kind of turns this shoebox into a matchbox, kid."

"Tell me about it," she sighed, thinking about their current living situation. The place was fine when Jess lived here and Rory would visit, but they'd lived together for two years and it seemed to be shrinking on them.

"Speaking of boxes, this was waiting for you when I got here," Lorelai handed her the package, making her smile sweetly, "I'm going to hazard a guess and say that's from the other occupant of this box factory."

"You remember how Jess used to write in all my books when we were kids?"

"Vividly, we wasted a lot of good money replacing them when you couldn't stand the sight of his handwriting," she said bitterly, but brightened instantly, "but hey, that was almost a decade ago."

"Well he hadn't done it since, until he went on this trip. I've gotten six books covered in it, and it looks like this is number seven."

"Ah, so this is the romantic kind of vandalism?"

"Shut up," she opened the packed only to be met with magazines. Jess had attached a post-it note to the top one:

I know Lorelai's staying with you, so I figured I'd send something you could both enjoy. See you soon xxx

"So it finally happened. You've both read every book in the English language and have resorted to- ooh, that's Italian Vogue!" Lorelai peered over Rory's shoulder at the post-it and grinned. "I knew I liked that kid for some reason."

"We've also got a copy of Cosmo that comes with bright red lipstick."

"I'm definitely stealing that. You don't think he's written in these margins, do you? Maybe notes on the dirty sections?"

"Mom, gross!" Rory admonished, but smiled a little when she noticed a small arrow pointing at one of the more salacious front cover stories.

Having her mother over had been a massive boost to Rory's spirits. It seemed Lorelai needed that as well, thoroughly enjoying her first weekend without her son. They had cocktails and spent far too much money on unnecessary items, and for a while it felt like they had travelled back a decade, before Yale or the Dragonfly or Luke and Jess. The latter was back in the continental US and was making his way back east in the last leg of his tour. Rory hugged her mother goodbye Sunday afternoon, ready for the longest five days of her life.

Work was surprisingly dull, with very little going on in the world of mainstream film (the subsection she was currently assigned to), being in the middle of the lull before a slew of summer blockbusters would mean several viewings of brain-melting robot action just so she could spellcheck for whoever got to write the actual piece. It would be disheartening to see paper after paper, internet news blasts and blog posts without her name being printed once, but Rory knew she was good at her job and would earn those eventually. She had to get past most of her co-workers thinking she was only hired due to her connections with Jess, but she planned to win them over with hard work and zero complaining when they sent her out for coffee while they held the important meetings.

Soon enough it was Friday afternoon, and Rory raced home despite Jess' flight not getting in until nine. Upon choosing what to wear she suddenly became self-conscious, and a little nervous. She knew if she wore anything too fancy he would tease her for trying to impress him, but on the other hand… she wanted to impress him. Remembering their sushi reservation she chose a light blue sundress which she matched with thick stockings and her new pleather jacket she'd bought with Lorelai. Applying the bright red lipstick her mother forgot she felt completely removed from the business attire folded neatly at the foot of the bed. Soon enough it was time to drive to the airport, contemplating moving to a bigger place just so they could have one more parking space so she wouldn't have to drive Jess' clunky car anymore.

She arrived early enough but the time it took to find (and pay for) somewhere to park meant she was almost running late by the time she reached the terminal. Checking the board she made her way towards the baggage carousel belonging to the flight from Chicago. She'd barely been waiting for five minutes before the passengers began to arrive, and she stood on her tiptoes in an attempt to see her fiancé, cursing herself for not making a sign.

He saw her while she was scanning the crowd, but it only took her a split second to lock eyes with him. The rest of the world faded away as they both tried not to sprint to one another, with Rory failing in the end and running full tilt into his arms. Jess was surprised when she wrapped her legs around his waist but barely noticed as she kissed him, both grinning widely with Jess unable to control his laughter as their lips met. When they separated Rory's eyes widened and she sprang from him as though burned.

"Oh my god, I can't believe I just did that! In front of people!" Her face had gone a bright shade of pink.

"I'm not complaining, though it has given me ideas of ditching sushi and going straight home."

"We've got plenty of time for all that over the weekend. Right now all I want is to sit across from you and listen to you talk while eating teriyaki."

"Sounds good to me." Jess smiled before kissing her again, in a more suitable for the public way. Draping an arm around her, he guided them towards his bags. The two walked in comfortable silence out of the airport and towards the car.

"You're never allowed to leave again," Rory said suddenly, making Jess laugh.

"It part of the job description, sweetheart," she rolled her eyes at the use of a pet name, which he only did when teasing her, "soon enough you'll be going on assignments, you know."

"Good, then you can be stuck in the tiny apartment missing me!"

"It really is tiny, isn't it?"

"I think it worked better as a bachelor pad."

"Are you saying you want to move?" He didn't seem upset by the idea, more curious than anything. Rory shrugged.

"It sucks having no storage space for half our clothes, or two thirds of our books. Plus mom didn't say anything about it, but I know she hates sleeping on the couch. Sometimes I think it'd be cool if we had somewhere big enough that she could come stay with Luke and Ritchie. Or maybe a study so we could work from home. Then I think about hypothetical stuff, like if we're gonna have kids, and-"

"You're rambling."

"I tend to do that." They'd reached the car. Rory handed the keys to Jess with a sheepish grin, and he gave her a pointed look about embracing driving stick. They were driving for a few minutes when Jess spoke.

"I hear it's a buyer's market right now, but that might just be an annoying buzzword people say to make you consider buying something. Though if we're being realistic, I just got my advance for this book and we're both working steadily right now so if there was ever a time to upgrade it's now."

"Seriously?"

"Why not? We wouldn't even need to sell our place, just get a tenant in or something."

"This is all sounding very grown up."

"We're getting married, sweetheart."

"Fair point. Wow, in the span of one year I could potentially have a new job, home and be married."

"When you put it like that it sounds like too much. We could always push back this relatively new idea of moving. Or the wedding, if you like. It's not like we've booked anything."

"No way, we're getting hitched this November no matter what. Maybe I should just let grandma organise it like she offered."

"What? You can't do that to me!"

So that was fun. Big shoutout to Ultrawoman who made me some lovely covers for all my stories. You should check them out if you have the time, and perhaps leave a review if you feel so inclined. This was a little fluff piece that was awfully fun to write, but I think next time I'll be going a little more serious…