Everything comes back to you -J.MARIANO

[4.01]

ＷＩＮＴＥＲ

𝓔ight years later and snow still covered Philly in the same way it always did. However Winter in Philly was nothing compared to winter in Stars Hollow, the decided location of Taryn's birthday celebration for that year. They had, for the years previous, just remained in Philly despite how her parents asked her to come home as schedules just ever seemed to align. But with her birthday falling on the weekend this year, it seemed perfect and Taryn was glad to return to Stars Hollow for the second time that year.

After parking in their usual spot outside Taryn's family home, they headed inside the small cottage that still felt completely like home to her despite how long it had been since she had actually lived there. The lingering smell of home cooking and her usual birthday cake hit her nose the second she walked through the door and removed her key from the lock.

Jess and Daisy walked into the living room, deep in discussion about the book that she had spent the car journey reading. Taryn, however, chose to walk towards the kitchen in search of her parents. As she did so, her parents both grinned and signed at the same time, ^Happy birthday!^ She smiled in response and placed her bag down onto the kitchen table before letting herself be enveloped by her Dads in the classic birthday hug she had so missed over the years.

"We were planning on going to Luke's for lunch, did you guys want to join?" she asked as the hug broke and the remaining two from their family joined them in the kitchen.

"Da has an appointment at the hospital in an hour," her Dad responded discreetly, not wanting to alert Daisy to what had been going on for the past two years. They liked to keep it on the down low just for now, as it wasn't entirely severe. It just seemed to Daisy that her grandpa often misplaced his keys or forgot that he had already called on their usual catch up Thursday phone calls. Jess, Taryn, Luke and her Dad were the only people who were aware of Da's condition and they liked to keep it that way - for now at least.

Taryn nodded discreetly in response and sought to change the subject before any questions could be asked but she struggled desperately to find a topic. Luckily, her daughter saved the day without even knowing as, after she had hugged both of her Grandparents, she pulled out photographs of her recent art project at school that she had been so desperate to show every single person she knew. Taryn remembered doing the exact same thing for her first ever handmade dolls outfit when she was younger and wondered if her Dads had felt the same great level of pride that she did currently. It was such a wonderful thing to see her child succeed in something she had so much passion for, even if her carpets did suffer the brunt of spilled paint.

-

Taryn planned for them to leave for Luke's just before her Dads' would have to leave for the hospital so perfectly that they left the drive once Daisy had pulled open the door to the diner in pure excitement to see her other Grandpa. "Grandpa Luke!" she exclaimed as she ran into the diner and Luke immediately ditched the plates in his hands, placing them down onto the counter, in order to hug his favorite grandchild. Daisy grinned as she joined her parents at the counter in the diner, sitting in between the two of them as always. Taryn had her designated seat and next to hers was Daisy's - she simply refused to sit anywhere else. Luke, after delivering the previously ditched plates, hurried over to take their orders whilst catching up with the various little details that had happened in each of their lives since the last time they spoke (on the previous Wednesday.) Apparently they had just missed Rory, who had stopped by for only a day before jetting off again on some important work trip. Luke talked in great detail about how Rory and Lorelai's habit of eating whilst he was cooking still aggravated him to levels of frustration even Jess had never seen before. Taryn wondered how, even after him being with Lorelai for years, he still did not expect that to occur.

After Luke had delivered their lunches, with a promise to Daisy that he had made everything especially away from meat for her, an awfully dire sounding crash echoed through the diner from the kitchen. Jess climbed from his seat to go and assess the damage after Luke's angered swears caused Taryn to cover their daughters ears. Whilst Jess' laughter subtly sounded from the kitchen, it seemed he was trying to hide it and doing an awful job, Taryn's work phone began to trill in her bag. Without even thinking, she fished it out and whispered an apology to Daisy before she exited the diner and answered the phone.

Olive rambled on the phone for five minutes about an incredibly large problem involving vogue and a specific dress that had been ordered by a customer for their vogue documented wedding. Apparently there had been a mix up in shipping and the bride had received a dark green skirt instead of her floral embroidered wedding dress that Taryn herself had spent so much of her time perfecting. No one knew where the dress was. There were multiple fixes for this problem and Taryn quickly relayed them to Olive. She asked her to track down the person that had ordered the green skirt and figured that the dress would have accidentally been sent there instead. Additionally, she asked her to contact the shipping department and ask them to check for the wedding trees through the entire warehouse. Next, she asked for a lengthy apology note to be sent from stationary that Taryn had pre-signed for this specific issue just to add that personal factor that she hoped would soothe the bride somewhat. Then, just as Taryn was about to relay another way to fix the problem if all else failed, her phone was snatched from her hand

"Jess-"

"Do you have all the information you need Olive?" he spoke into the phone, pausing for the response. "Okay...Send the email to me and I'll let her know. Thanks Olive," he continued before the phone call was ended on Olive's end and her phone found its way into Jess' back pocket."No work on your birthday," he smirked softly, brow raised.

She frowned, "But-"

He, turning his tone to one of reassurance, added, "This has happened before. Olive can handle it."

She sighed and struggled to smother her smile as she walked closer to him and whispered, "Mariano..."

"That's not going to work," he whispered back as she attempted to wrap her arms around his torso, using a hug to distract him enough that she would be able to reach into her back pocket and take the phone back. She only wanted to send a lengthy email to Olive with all the other ideas that had popped into her head, along with stress filled emails to other employees that would likely take hours out of the day even though she was technically on holiday and wasn't supposed to be bothered.

"Can't fault a girl for trying," she shrugged, arms still wrapped around his torso. As he leaned in to the right to avoid her left hand making a take for the phone, Taryn attempted to grab it with her right but failed miserably as Jess stepped out of the hug entirely. "Funny."

"I don't see you laughing," he replied with a sarcastic and smug grin that so reminded her of a past version of him that she couldn't prevent her heart from leaping just a little. He leant down and pressed a brief but meaningful kiss to her lips, giving an apology even though they both knew it was not needed. Jess was only doing what she had asked him to - helping her to achieve a work life balance.

As they both turned to walk back into the diner, they stopped to watch as Daisy finished up her conversation with Luke and just turned back to her book. It felt sort of full circle, for Taryn anyway, to see her kid sitting in the same place that she had, reading. Her phone decided to ruin the moment and started blaring in Jess' pocket. "Don't even think about it," he jokingly warned at a whisper as Taryn started to lean back in her boots every so slightly.

"But Vogue-"

He shook his head, "No buts no cuts no coconuts."

She grimaced, her entire body shivering with disgust. "That was disgusting, never do that again."

"You forced my hand Tee," he shrugged and draped his arm over her shoulders, pressing a kiss to her head as they walked back into the diner.

Later in the day, after all the appointments were finished and everyone was home again, Taryn's birthday dinner went without fault and was perfect. Well apart from when her Dad laughed so hard that he knocked over his glass of water onto his plate of half eaten food - which had them all laughing even harder and Taryn nearly choked.