Rory didn't look right on a train. Her surroundings were metal, and harsh, even the squeal of the tracks sounded awful compared to her voice. Everybody else on the train was wearing black, wearing gray, wearing every other maudlin color that existed. Rory was like a doll, a sweet-faced doll with pink lips and a light blue t-shirt that stuck out furiously among the worker bees.

The butterflies in her stomach had risen to her chest, their wings beating against her ribs. It was an undeniably unnerving moment, her head light with the anticipation of ... whatever was to come. Barack Obama, online journalism. God, just the words had set off a mental domino chain that started in nervous and ended in frantic.

The preperation that had seemed ridiculous previously was becoming more and more justified, the extra sweaters, tooth paste, the extra deoderant: all of it was necessary and becoming even more so.

Back in Stars Hollow, Lorelai was no less scared than Rory was. Where was she? How was she doing? Was she OK? Lorelai laid in bed, nested under the covers. A Star Is Born, Judy this time, blared throughout the house. She didn't even need to be around the TV in order to be able to visualize Mrs. Garland belting out "Here's What I'm Here For."

The phone rang, although it was hardly audible under My heart insisted, I seek you out ..., and Lorelai's scrawny arm picked it up. "Hello?" She said, her voice croaky and shallow.

"Lorelai?" Luke. Luke's rich, smooth, heavy voice spilling through the line. However groggy and unavailable she had been, she was now attentive, and quickly jogging downstairs to extinguish Judy.

"Luke?"

"Yeah, what's going on over there?"

"Nothing. A Star is being Born."

"Someone's having a baby?"

"Judy Garland is." Lorelai's voice was thick with sarcasm as Can you forgive me? ... was suddenly silent. "Luke, okay, I'm here now."

"So, what are you doing?"

"Hanging with Hootie and the Blowfish, you?"

"I think we need to, y'know, talk." He was anxious, and she could hear him squirm under the pressure of her answer. She could even hear his relief through the telephone lines at her sweet "Yes. Ten minutes?"

Lorelai hung up, and ran back upstairs, throwing her hands into what she believed to be a tangled mess of uncut black hair. She pulled it back down, a greasy crown teased up around her scalp. She peeled off her "Juicy" sweats, and her ratty Police t-shirt. What would look intelligent, she thought, without looking not sexy without looking prude? It was a heinous process, one she was soon to be excited to repeat.

All of her worries had vanished at the sight of Luke's scruffy, kind face, his pearly smile. She had finally ended up wearing a black sweater, one of her favorite's, and a pair of jeans. She had almost ended up wearing her "chandelier" dress, but decided against it.

"Lorelai." He laughed, and gestured upstairs, throwing his hands to the curtain that seperated his diner from his personal life. She followed him quickly, without any hesitation. When they got inside his apartment, recently repainted, and sat on the couch. It was awkward without being uncomfortable. "Lorelai. I ..."

"Thank you for the party." She said it with a shrug, and she flipped her hair to the side, remembering his comments on it's manipulatory abilities. "It was better than Animal House, I mean, y'know, minus Bluto and his 0.0 GPA." She spoke on, an endless spout of useless information ranging from a Godfather impression to her lucky find of a Strawberry, no-stick lip gloss. When it ended, Luke leaned over, and kissed her. It wasn't like a favor, or a family obligation. It was heavy, and emotional. Lorelai shivered, and Luke pulled away.

"Sorry, I ..." Luke started, looking down into his lap. Lorelai leaned into him, however ambivalent on the reunion she was.

Before anything else could happen, anything more, in came Kirk, wearing a Zorro mask. However surprised they should be, they weren't. "Oh, Luke," his gruff voice echoed through the wooden room. "Caesar is out of milk. He sent me up to get some more."

"Caesar, the dead one?"

"Like Julius?"