Alright, so this story starts in season three (I know, way back), in the episode 'Eight O'Clock At The Oasis'. It's only a few episodes before the dance that breaks up Rory and Dean. Anyway, there's a new Gilmore introduced and everything. Fancy that, THREE Gilmore Girls. Hope you like it.
"That'll be thirty dollars, miss."
Marie Gilmore lifted her head, realizing that she was supposed to be paying for her bus ticket to Stars Hollow. The older ticket booth man looked at her impatiently, obviously having had repeated the price to her several times before she noticed. Marie imagined that he had been stuck with this dead end job for too long for either of their good. She smiled apologetically and fished through her duffel bag for her wallet, her long, newly dark hair falling into her brown eyes and greatly hindering her performance.
The ticket man sighed loudly as Marie emptied out a large amount of change onto the counter and started to count it. It became evident that this was no new procedure for her as her nimble and numerously ringed fingers quickly sorted the change into piles of one dollar each, ending with twenty-six piles and sort out four creased one dollar bills to add to her fare.
Fifteen minutes later, the coach lurched into motion and Marie breathed a deep breath of relief and apprehension. Stars Hollow had not seen her in four years, since she and Rory had been fifteen. It was her home, although if asked directly, she would deny the fact profusely. She preferred to think of L.A. as her home.
She rolled her eyes as she caught a glimpse in the window of the reflection of the man who sat a few rows behind her, already fast asleep, two minutes into the six hour journey. She stifle a yawn herself and decided that the man was not really worthy of scorn but of appreciation of his wisdom so she pulled her hood further over her head and followed suit.
It was movie night at the Gilmore house. Lorelai and Rory had just arrived home from their weekly Friday night dinner with Emily and Richard Gilmore. An event Lorelai never failed to incessantly poke fun at, complain about and describe in derogatory ways.
"Oh, I should've told her that her friend's son has a terribly bad case of toe fungus that I fear may be contagious and that's why I couldn't possibly go out with him again," she hooted as she filed through the video cabinet and her daughter flopped on the couch in front of the TV.
"What the 'my extracurricular activities as a highly trained and frequently requested exotic dancer slash cleaner at our local strip joint is inferring with my social life' excuse didn't get enough of a reaction out of grandma?" Rory replied dryly.
"Oh yeah. That was pretty good, huh?" Lorelai grinned as she pulled out two videos.
"Grandma was horrified," Rory sighed.
Lorelai nodded and narrowed her eyes, "Exactly."
Rory rolled her eyes as her mother stood in front of her with the two chosen videos behind her back conspicuously. She slowly drew out one.
"Choice number one, not by coincidence, is the romantic comedy 'Crybaby', starring the then teen heartthrob, Johnny Depp. An all time favorite, the film is highly acclaimed by Lorelai Gilmore for it's classic and heart touching 'because electricity killed my parents' scene, bound to jerk a few tears," Lorelai summarized the film before pulling out the other video behind her back, sighing loudly.
"And choice number two is 'Rambo: First Blood'. Although this is the first movie in a trilogy, one would think that it was the fifth installment in a terrible drawn out torturous cycle of B grade movies that producers with way too much money put out just to terrorize the public for fun. Amid supposedly infuriatingly humiliating shower scenes and incredible amounts of property damage is the occasional whining and attemptedly gruff comment from ol' Sly-"
"Why are you asking me when it's obvious you've made your decision?" Rory interrupted the all important synopsis.
Lorelai pouted, "Can't a mother pretend to care about her daughter's opinion anymore these days?"
"Fine. Just put 'Crybaby' on. It's what I wanted to watch all along," Rory lied to skip the end of her mother's ranting about 'Rambo: First Blood'. Lorelai grinned in triumph before turning to put the video in the VCR.
"I don't know about you but the scene Amy Locane jumps on the hood of the car and sings to the sheriff to let Johnny out always makes me cry," she smiled.
She glanced at her daughter as the movie started, "So, whos' winning in the raging 'Dean vs. Jess' saga?"
"No one's winning, there's no saga. I love Dean. That's it," Rory answered quickly, shooting down all of the questions her mother could possibly have.
It was one in the morning when the coach pulled into the bus station a few miles away from the Hollow. After retrieving her solo piece of luggage, Marie hailed down a cab.
"You want to go to Stars Hollow?" the cab driver asked in suprise. Marie cursed silently.
He had recognized her.
"Yeah. It's not far, right?" she asked casually.
"No," the cab driver shook his head numbly, not taking his eyes off of her, "You changed your hair."
"The blonde was too hard to maintain... Is the meter going?" Marie frowned.
The cab driver jumped into action, apologizing profusely. Marie gave him the directions to the only place she could think to go.
Luke mumbled something indiscernible as a loud knocking was heard on the door of the diner below. He assumed he had dreamt it when he cracked an eye open groggily and saw '1:24' in infra red on the face of the digital clock by his bed. He rolled over and prepared to drift back to sleep when the knock sounded again. Only louder and more urgent. He opened narrowed eyes, trying to work out who would have the nerve to wake him at such an ungodly hour. The knocking sounded again and a groan was heard on the other side of the room, fondly referred to as an apartment.
"Answer it," Jess muttered, pulling his pillow over his head.
"We're not open," Luke stated stubbornly as the offending person knocked again.
"Unless you want whoever it is to keep us up until we are open, go answer it," Jess mumbled, his demand muffled by the pillow on his face.
Luke sighed and dragged himself out of bed to look out the window that overlooked the entrance below. He saw a small frame of a young female below as she knocked yet again on the glass door of the diner.
"We're not open!" he called down.
She took no notice, much to his frustration. She knocked again.
"Hey! I just said we're not open. Come back in the morning!"
The only response was another incessant knock on the door.
Luke shot a glare over at Jess' sleeping form as he stalked to the door of the apartment and grabbed his baseball cap.
"If this is one of your girlfriends, you'll have hell to pay," he growled. Jess smirked.
Stumbling down the stairs, Luke muttered angrily under his breath. He was still muttering as he reached the door and hastily unlocked it.
"What the hell do you want!" he exclaimed at the knocker before the door was barely open.
Large honey eyes stared back at him through wisps of dark curly hair and sleepy recognition furrowed his brow.
"Marie?"
"Hi, Luke," the girl smiled sheepishly, shivering with the late November cold.
Luke took another moment to realize that it was, in fact, the girl whom he knew well but had not heard from in years before a welcoming grin brightened his face and he pulled her into a tight hug that she returned just as tightly.
"Come in," he smiled, closing the door against the icy chill in the air outside behind her.
"Sorry to intrude with no warning in the middle of the night," she apologized with mock lack of concern and he laughed, turning on the coffee machine instinctively.
"No problem. I love having people wake me up at one in the morning in winter," he lied sarcastically.
"See, that's why I came here," she pointed out, "Your amazingly warm, hospitable charm."
"I thought you were in LA," he told her. She shrugged as she sat on one of the stools at the counter.
"Thought I'd come home for the holidays."
"You still call this place home? I'm sure Miss Patty would be over the moon."
Marie grinned at the mention of her old drama teacher, "She's still here, eh?"
"Are you kidding? The woman would probably be in a vegetative state if she didn't have the Stars Hollow Rumor Mill to keep running," Luke sighed as he poured a couple of mugs of coffee. He didn't need to ask her if she wanted three sugars, half milk and half cream. Marie smiled gratefully as her placed the hot mug in front of her. A short silence followed.
"So, how have you been?" Luke asked finally, a question that both parties had been wanting to avoid.
"You mean you don't know already?" Marie replied, staring at her coffee as her smile wavered. Luke wished he had left the question to itself.
"Well, I wasn't sure what to believe. Nothing sounded like you."
"Nothing sounded like me when you knew me, when I was fifteen, right? I've changed...," Marie drifted off, not particularly wanting to go further.
Luke observed her. Damn right, she'd changed. She was still undeniably beautiful, just more tired than he had remembered. And there was nothing to her, she was rake thin. He supposed that meant the anorexia claims could not be completely thrown at the window. Her hair, which used to be strawberry blonde, after that a platinum blonde, was now a drastically dark auburn. She had the worry lines of someone twice her age and her dark eyes no longer twinkled happily like they used to, instead seeming distant. Her frequent laughter had been replaced with bitter smirks.
She had changed.
"Are you planning on seeing Lorelai and Rory?" Luke changed the subject.
"Of course. I just didn't feel like waking them up so early," Marie replied.
"But with me on the other hand, you were fine with banging down the door in the middle of the night," Luke finished and she grinned, nodding.
"Will you need somewhere to stay for a while?" he asked her.
"Just for tonight. Then I'll probably stay with Lorelai," she told him and he nodded, collecting her empty mug.
A few minutes later and after Marie's profuse declining, Luke changed the sheets on his bed and dragged up an old matters beside the fold out couch that Jess presently snored on. At the early morning hour, he forgot to mention Jess to their guest.
After another half hour when Luke's clock read '2:24', all were asleep.
Marie's shriek from the bathroom could be heard from all the way down in the noisy diner the next morning. Luke looked up from the coffee he was pouring for Kirk, worried. Kirk looked above his head to where the apartment would be and then back at Luke with disgrace on his face.
"I didn't know you were entertaining upstairs, Luke."
Luke's head whirled to face him, "What?"
"Who is it? Some poor young girl that you lured up there with your coffee and pancakes?" Kirk further interrogated.
Luke screwed up his face in a puzzled frown, "What?"
Kirk only clucked his tongue disapprovingly and continued reading the paper before him. Luke made haste for the stairs. He met a bewildered looking Jess half way up the hall to the apartment. Jess pulled him inside and motioned towards the bathroom.
"Is it just me or is Jessica Starling in our shower?" he whispered, pushing him towards the now locked door. Luke sighed, having forgotten to inform his nephew of their guest.
"Yes."
Jess' eyes widened, "So it's not just me?"
Luke nodded. Jess waited for further explanation. Luke offered none.
"What is she doing here?" Jess pressed impatiently in a hushed tone, "Why is there a celebrity in our shower?"
"She was staying the night. She used to live here when she was younger... long story," Luke replied gruffly.
"Luke! Luke, is that you?" Marie called from the bathroom, "You have a pervert in your apartment!"
"Settle down, Marie, he lives here," Luke called back.
Jess frowned, "Why did you just call her, Marie?"
"Her name's Marie Gilmore. You don't honestly think people still use their real names in Hollywood, do you?" Luke asked incredulously.
"Gilmore? Her name is Marie Gilmore?" Jess repeated loudly, in a state of disbelief and shock.
"I understand that that may be an incredibly interesting little piece of information but I would appreciate it if you kept a lid on it," Luke hushed, closing the apartment door. Jess nodded numbly.
"But how is she a Gilmore?" he whispered.
"She's Lorelai's cousin. Richard's brother's daughter," Luke replied quickly as the bathroom door opened and Marie peeked out.
"You could've told me there was someone else living here, Luke," she told him, trying to hide an embarrassed smile.
"Sorry. This is Jess, my nephew. Jess, this is Marie," Luke introduced the two awkwardly.
"Hi," Marie greeted, holding out her hand. Jess stared at it for a moment before realising that it was for him to shake and he quickly obliged. Luke suddenly felt a little uneasy about leaving the two up in the apartment alone, hence his decision to request Jess' help downstairs and tell Marie that he would take her to see the other Gilmores in a couple of hours.
All taken care of.