Jess Mariano's Sister

Thanksgiving

-- Edited --

Willow's POV 

Since starting school I started hanging out with Lane. Being friends with Rory also helped. Lane is amazing and I love talking music with her. And since I'm friends with her I was invited to her family's Thanksgiving celebration.

I walk out of the diner and see Rory buying flowers and Lorelai coming out of Doose's.

"Hey, guys. You headed over to the Kim's?" I ask.

"Yeah, we have their cranberry sauce, and flowers for everywhere we have to go today," Rory says.

"And chocolate turkeys," Lorelai says, smiling.

Rory asks her mom if she had seen him, meaning Dean. It seems like they are smoothing stuff out. I hope that helps with the stuff with her and Jess because I saw their little confrontation before I left the diner.

"Let's go eat," Lorelai says.

"And eat," Rory replies.

"And eat. And eat. And eat," we all repeat, as we head over to Lane's.

We knock on the door, and Mrs. Kim opens it and we are greeted with singing.

"Ah, the Gilmores, and Willow. Happy Thanksgiving," she says.

The Gilmores give her their gifts and we spot Lane's boyfriends-friend-random guitar guy, Dave. Lane greets us and explains why he is here and her plan to get Mrs. Kim to agree with them dating.

As we walk to the front of the room, they say hello to people, seeing as they come here every year.

We grab food, including tofurkey, and stand in the back getting watched by Mrs. Kim the whole time, so we have no way of disposing of the horrifying, terrible thing.

I go along with them to say hi to Sookie, before heading back to the diner and eating with Luke and Jess.

Sookie was losing her mind over Jackson frying their turkey. She wanted nothing to do with the frying of the turkey and was panicking.

"Hey, everybody," Lorelai says, as we walk into the diner.

"Oh, hey there, doll faces. Happy Thanksgiving," Babette greets us.

"Yeah, Happy Thanksgiving," Mory says.

Rory hands Luke his flowers.

"What's this?" he asks.

"Flowers, Uncle Luke," I say.

"What am I supposed to do with them?" he asks.

"Ugh, not this again," Lorelai says.

They bicker about the flowers, and I quickly walk to the back of the diner and get an empty coffee container and put water in it. I take the flowers from him and stick them in.

"Flowers. Vase. Water. Happy? Problem solved," I say as I place them on the counter.

Luke points out our table, and we spot a mutilated Kirk. He tells us about his crazy cat, also Kirk, and we head over to our table.

"Hey," Jess says walking up.

"Hey," Rory responds, a little awkwardly, and he gives her a quick kiss.

"Hi," he says to Lorelai.

"Hi. Happy Thanksgiving," she says.

I gave Jess a hug before we all sat down. Rory and Jess on one side, Luke and Lorelai on the other and me on the ends sitting between Jess and Luke.

Caesar and Luke come over with our food.
"I'm starved," Jess says.

"You could have eaten," Luke says.

"You kept telling me not to eat," he shoots back.

"I did not," Luke tried to defend himself.

"You did too. You said we were waiting for them," Jess says.

"That's what I remember you telling him," I say.

"Aw, you didn't have to wait for us," Lorelai says.
"No, I wasn't waiting for you. It just worked out this way," Luke says, handing out plates.

"Right," Jess and I say at the same time.

"Shouldn't we give thanks first?" Luke asks.

"Thanks for what?" Jess and I say, again, at the same time.

We look at each other like we're crazy.

"Well, that we're not Native Americans who got their land stolen in exchange for smallpox-infested blankets," Luke says.

"Amen," Lorelai says, and we all start eating.

We all get a few bites in before Lorelai asks for more marshmallows and Luke tells us to do refills.

It's nice celebrating with them. Though I know Jess is still having a hard time, this is the most stability we've had in a while. Even when mom was clean and sober there was always the thought, or when will she go back?

When will she fall apart again? Here we don't have to worry about stuff falling apart. That is if Jess doesn't do something stupid, or crazy.

--

We were starting cleaning for the night and Luke was making Jess run around, getting rid of the trash bags.

"You should get more trash cans," Jess complains.

"I don't need more," Luke states.

"You're making me run around town for a place to dump this," Jess says.

"Just dump it in one of Taylor' bins. It gets it out of here. It'll drive Taylor crazy. It's a win, win," Luke says.

I help hand Jess the bags just as the Gilmores walk up.

"Hi, guys!" Lorelai says.

"We're out of food," Luke says, as they walk in.

"Oh, please. We're not eating for a year," she states.

"Or 'till tomorrow morning,'" Rory says.

"That sounds more accurate," I say.

"Hi, St. Nick," Lorelai says, looking at Jess.

"Tell him he needs to get more trash cans," Jess complains again.

"Just go," Luke says.

"Say hi to Rudolph for me please," I say, earning a look from Jess.

"You got any coffee?" Lorelai asks.

"That I've got," he says leading her in.

"Hey, did I see flames come from Sookie's place about a half-hour ago?" Luke questions.

"Yeah, why?" Lorelai asks, like it's nothing.

He doesn't respond, and she walks in to the dinner, as Rory walks up to Jess and kisses him. While Lorelai and Luke are busy, I watch the young couple through the window.

They kiss a bit and Rory runs back in smiling. Jess is left stunned.

We talked for a little while, and they somehow got Luke to hand over our extra rolls. Unique creatures, these ladies.

"I don't see how you do it," he says, smiling.

"Well, you're not us. Night, Luke," Lorelai says.

"Night, Luke. Night, Will," Rory says.

"Night."

"Goodnight, crazy ladies!" I say.