This is set in mid-season 2. It is kind of AU, as you all will see very shortly ;)
I have to say one thing at first: I only translated the story. It's all written and done, so input on the SL won't find any open ears.
The story was written in German originally by Jalaila. All credit goes to her.
Enjoy!
A big THANKS to Steph for beta! You rock!
Disclaimer: None of this is mine.
"Please!!" Her eyes were begging him.
"No."
"Why not?"
"Cause you've had five cups of coffee within the last thirty minutes. You consist of caffeine now." Luke was wiping the counter of the diner. Outside it was already dark and he wanted to close like two hours ago, but Lorelai was sitting at her table brooding over several books and notes.
"Cash account systems."
"What?" Luke stopped in the middle of a wipe, wondering if caffeine affected the brain cells the same way like alcohol.
"I'm made of caffeine and cash account systems." With a pen she pointed at a book and sighed. "I have to read another fifty pages. But I think I will be falling asleep because the little cash account system devils will attack the caffeine angels and beat them up. And as you maybe know, the cash account system devils are famous for forcing innocent evening class students painfully to go to sleep, because they…"
"Ok, ok, you get your coffee." Luke raised his hands in defense and reached out for the coffee pot.
"What would I do without you?"
"Study at home?" Luke suggested.
"Nah." Lorelai declined. "Rory's staying at Lane's. And when I'm alone, I'm in serious danger of…distracting myself." She grinned.
"I see."
"You know, somewhere around there lies the new copy of a gossip magazine and in there it's written Brad Pitt had an affair and why you shouldn't use green nail polish.
"Sounds terrible."
"Who? Brad Pitt?"
"No, the nail polish."
"You see, and because of all that I forget… this." She gestured at the table and wrinkled her nose.
"Why are you learning all that stuff anyway? Is there a test again tomorrow?" Luke pulled up a chair and sat on it astride.
"No." Another sigh. "But next week there is a volunteer-ish test."
Luke grunted.
"What?"
"I've never heard you mention the words 'volunteer' and 'test' in the same sentence before."
Lorelai shot an offended look at him. "Maybe I should really go home now." For a few moments there was silence, then she pulled away her chair very noisily and began packing her books in her bag. Luke also got up.
"I have a good suggestion for you: Reduce your consumption of caffeine. Six cups within thirty minutes. I hope you can work out for yourself how long you need for one cup then. Besides, you are insufferable when you've had too much coffee."
"You should meet me when I've had none." She swung her bag on her shoulder and shot a smug smile at him. After taking two steps forward, she looked back at her table, went back and drank the last gulp of coffee just to spite him.
Luke shook his head with a grin and looked at the clock: 1 am.
"See you tomorrow." Lorelai said smiling.
"I will have the coffee machine ready by then."
"Great idea." Standing with one foot on the steps already, she turned around. "Thank you, Luke."
He just nodded.
---------
"Wow!" Lorelai flinched as the door of Luke's closed loudly and Rory sat down next to her, in a shiny mood.
"Morning, Mom. How was your night?" Rory reached out for the coffee pot sitting in front of her on the counter and poured herself some coffee.
"Short and awful."
"Oh. Coffee?"
Lorelai shook her head.
Luke, coming out of the storage room, was greeting Rory and put a plate with toast in front of her.
"Thanks." She picked up the slice and hastily took a bite.
Luke bowed his head and whispered: "Lorelai said you were at Lane's. I don't know of anything worse than dry wheat bars for breakfast.
Rory nodded and grinned at him.
Then Luke turned to Lorelai who held her head with both hands and had trouble keeping her eyes open.
"We didn't have a nice sleep, did we?" he said, with a touch of gloating in his voice.
"Two thirds of the capital resources combined with twenty-seven percent of … What?" For a short moment, like having been awoken just a second ago, she sat up straight and looked at Luke and then at Rory.
"Oh." And went back to her previous position.
Luke grabbed a cup and the pot and was about to pour her some coffee.
"Stop it." Lorelai pushed the cup away. "No coffee."
"No."
"Yes."
"Rory, get a voice recorder." Luke put down the pot and pretended to be astonished.
"What about a camcorder?" Rory reached out for the box of cornflakes in front of her and acted a camera.
"Just mock me. Did you ever take an Aspirin and drink coffee right after? It's just like curing headache with Nirvana."
Rory put the box back. "How long have you been studying?"
"No idea."
"We have to change that."
"Huh?"
"From now on you have to go to bed by eight."
"Rory!" Lorelai frowned. "That is not a joking matter."
"No. Of course not", she said dead serious and continued in the same voice. "I have to leave for school, Mom. And that ain't funny at all."
Lorelai uttered a noise of anger which couldn't be clearly defined and threw the cornflakes after her daughter. But it bounced off the door and fell to the floor.
"Watch it!"
"Sorry."
"Next time I will kick you out at ten."
"The world has plotted against me." Lorelai took her bag and straightened her hair. "I also have to go."
"See you."
"See you", she said, picked up the box from the floor and tossed it to Luke before leaving the diner.
--------
Two weeks later
"Rory!" Lorelai slammed the door behind her and got rid of her shoes while walking into the living room. The coat found its place on the couch.
"Rory?"
"Kitchen!"
Lorelai stopped and did a 180 to continue her way in the opposite direction.
"I got it!"
"What?" The younger Gilmore looked up from her homework and focused on her mother.
"The results!" Lorelai jumped up and down excitedly. She was holding the mail. Three of the letters were thrown on the kitchen table carelessly but she let her finger glide over the fourth one like it was a treasure.
"Mom?"
Lorelai sat down. "Do you still remember the test last week? "
Rory nodded.
"In here are the results. In here it's written, if I belong at the top or the bottom."
"And why don't you just open it?"
"Perhaps because I could belong with the lower fifty percent?" Lorelai interrupted her fidgeting and looked at the envelope skeptically.
"You only know if you open it."
"You're so wise."
"I know."
"Hand me your nail file."
Rory gave the requested utensil to her mother and watched her Mom excitedly open the letter. Her eyes wandered over the paper impatiently. The silence, only interrupted by drops coming out of the faucet, was insufferable.
"Ahaaa!"
Rory flinched. "Mom, you're pulling an Aaron Carter taking a shower!"
"But he doesn't belong to the first five percent. Here. Read." Lorelai gave the sheet of paper to her daughter. Again there was silence.
"'… are pleased to inform you that you received a score that is amongst the seven best test results.' Wow, Mom, you are famous."
"Keep on reading", Lorelai pushed.
Rory's eyes rushed over the sheet. She began to frown.
"'… would be glad, if we could convince you to take a course in London that would last six months. You would receive official training in the following special subjects…' Mom?" Rory let the letter sink down. "What's that all about?"
Lorelai declined. "Nothing important. I don't wanna go there anyway. But the fact that they want me… My alter ego's battling my brain. They argue about buying a t-shirt with 'Super brain was invited to Europe' written on it."
"Who's winning?"
"At the sight of knowing half of Stars Hollow wouldn't get it … my brain."
Rory looked down at the sheet of paper.
"Wow…" She grinned. "My Mom – who knew."
"Hey, didn't you think I could do that?"
"Speaking from experience."
Lorelai grabbed the paper and acted offended. "Is it nice talking to your mother like that? You have to go to bed without desert."
"Sure. And without socks."
"You're right."
---------
Something was wrong. She hasn't found out what exactly was wrong yet, but it simply didn't fit in. A noise? Where the hell was a noise in the middle of her REM sleep coming from? A knock, she finally found out, but that was theoretically impossible. After all she was still sleeping. At least she was supposed to.
Sleep… Apparently this was the decisive, missing fact in her head. If she wanted to find out who knocked at her door – or somewhere else – in the middle of the night, she would have to wake up eventually.
Dazed and out of time she opened her eyes. She was surrounded by darkness. With lots of effort she put her hand in the direction where she suspected the lamp and switched on the light.
"Whoa…" Dazzled from the sudden brightness she closed her eyes again.
Another knock, louder, almost impatiently.
"If this isn't important, you…" she muttered sleepily but couldn't make it to the end of her warning. Slightly staggering, she made it to the door and opened it.
"Luke?"
"He's gone." Without waiting Luke passed Lorelai and walked into the kitchen, came back and stroked his hand through his hair nervously.
"Do you know what time it is? And… who… who's gone?" Lorelai tried getting the sense of this situation but gave up, irritated.
Luke began pacing in her living room. Then he stopped, like not having noticed her question until now.
"Jess. We… we had a fight – and then he ran away."
"Something new every day…" Lorelai muttered, still very sleepily and put on a dressing gown because she was freezing.
"You… you gotta help me."
"Now?" Suddenly she was wide awake and the sense – or maybe non-sense, she wasn't sure about that yet – of this situation jumped into her mind.
"Oh boy." She sighed, put a hand on Luke's shoulder and pushed him onto the couch. Then she sat down next to him.
"Luke", she mentioned carefully. "It's not the first time Jess didn't come home at night."
"I know, but…"
"But?"
"It's different this time."
"Huh?"
Luke put his elbows on his knees an put his face into his palms. A short sigh escaped him and he looked back at her.
"We fought about him stealing."
Lorelai wanted to reply but said nothing and waited.
"I… I reproached he will be just like his father."
"So?"
"His father is an alcoholic and hit his mother."
"Oops." Lorelai didn't know what to say. For a while there was awkward silence, then she stood up and nodded.
"Come on."
"What?"
"Come on. We'll search for Jess."
Luke looked at her slightly confused but nodded and followed her outside.
"Where do we start?"
"I… I don't know. You have a daughter of the same age. Where would Rory go?"
"Rory wouldn't run away." Lorelai headed toward town.
"Right."
"What… what is his favorite spot in Stars Hollow?"
Luke seemed to be thinking. They walked side by side for quite a while. As they almost approached the gazebo she broke the silence.
"Luke?"
"Yeah."
She stopped and looked at the ground. "Has… has Jess ever been hit?"
She looked up for a second to see his reaction, but looked down again fast. Luke was sensitive when things came to Jess.
"To be honest, I don't know."
"Hm."
"Why 'hm'?"
"Just… nothing."
Silence again. Lorelai had no idea what to say or do and that happened to be quite rarely. They kept on searching in silence. But nor in or around the town could they find him. Luke sighed.
"We should go to the lake", Lorelai suggested.
"Really?"
She shrugged. "Don't know. But it's the only place we haven't been yet."
"I pushed him in the lake. I don't think he…" He interrupted himself, sighed again and smiled weakly. "Let's try."
The lake, like the rest of the town, lay in the darkness of the night. It was cold and the air was humid. They searched the shore and afterwards the footbridge. Still no Jess.
"You're worried, aren't you?"
Luke stopped and looked at her, surprised. He nodded.
"It's weird."
"What's weird?"
"Actually, I don't like him at all. He is bad, lazy, moody, always finds fault with everything. And then he doesn't even mention it but acts as if everything's alright. Speaking of which… Since he's lived with me, it takes me hours to find things. It's a complete mess. And don't get me started about his stubbornness and the bad behavior." Luke took a deep breath and lowered his hands which were waving around in the air while he talked.
"But…" He tried to find words. "You know, he's my nephew. When he was three, I visited him at his mother's."
"I might be wrong, but is that a smile?" Lorelai pointed straight into his face.
Luke bowed his head, smiling. "He always wanted me to be the horse and he would be the rider. But he was too small and couldn't hold tight. After twenty-seven attempts I stopped counting the times he fell off my back."
After a while the smile faded and made space for lines of sorrow. "I just wanted to say…" He rubbed his eyes and blinked with sleepiness. "I'm getting used to him. He might have his kinks, but… so do I. He will never be like his father, for sure. And, to be honest, without him it was pretty much more boring."
"You're getting used to me, huh?"
"Jess!" Lorelai stepped back, scared, and Luke turned around so fast he almost lost balance.
"Geez, do you have to scare us like that?"
Jess grinned. "If you haven't closed the hole in your wall yet, I'd like to put in a door."
Luke looked at him, confused, then realized. He hugged him. Then, surprised with his reaction, he let him go again and patted his shoulder.
"But none of those squeaking pine-wood ones."
Jess nodded, grinning.
"Where have you been actually?" Luke wanted to know.
"Just here." Jess pointed over the lake and around the shore.
"But we…"
"You know, I learnt hiding right after the holding tight thing."
"I see."
"Let's go, horsemen." Lorelai mentioned and rubbed her arms to drive away the cold.
"And the talking coffee-bean of course. Couldn't find me on your own, huh?" Jess' grin grew bigger.
"Yes. I'd like you to meet Lorelai Starbucks", Luke said dead serious.
Lorelai replied a noise you could take as a growl or an angry grumble.
"Is she dangerous?"
Lorelai acted grim. "Only if you get her out of bed in the middle of the night to search for runaway boys."
"Ok, ok." Jess raised his hands in defense. "We should get back."
"Ha!" Lorelai said with an undertone of gloat in her voice. "Luke, you have a really intelligent nephew here."
On the way back to Luke's Diner they remained silent.
Luke unlocked the diner and wanted to step in but then looked to Lorelai who was standing on the sidewalk, slightly shivering and just recognized that she was only wearing her pajamas and the dressing gown. He wanted to slap his face for his recklessness. So he went in, got a blanket and gave the keys to Jess.
"I'll be right back", he said and lowered his voice. "I'm taking her home."
"Sure", Jess said, shrugging.
Luke went down the few stair steps and unfolded the blanket.
Lorelai opened her mouth, surprised. "You… aren't serious. I don't walk around in a blanket."
"Oh yes, you are. Otherwise it's my fault if you're lying in bed with pneumonia."
With a slightly offended look on her face she had wrapped the blanket around her and she looked down at herself.
"Oh no, there is no red 'S' sewed on?"
"Let's go, Superwoman." Luke walked a few steps ahead.
Lorelai pouted and finally approached him. For a while they were walking next to each other.
"Thanks", she finally mentioned.
"For what?"
"For lending me your Superman-costume."
"No big deal. There's a fire department in Hartford now and I haven't worn it since."
"It's so tragic. Who needs real heroes nowadays if there's already 911?" Lorelai sighed theatrically.
Luke grinned.
As they reached the Gilmore house they stood still.
"So…"
"So…"
Both of them stared at the ground.
"Thanks", Luke said.
"I haven't shown you my Spiderwoman-costume yet."
"But you got up in the middle of the night without complaining to search for Jess."
"You were worried."
"Exactly."
"Exactly?"
"Don't mind. Forget it."
"Sorry?"
"Go to sleep." He signaled toward the door with his head.
"Not a very intelligent attempt to change the subject", she mentioned grinning. "But I'm a little slow in absorbing things into my brain right now anyway."
He nodded and she went to the door. In the door she turned around once again.
"Good night."
"Back at you."
---------
Although the horizon was already turning light blue, everything was quiet. Rory would be sleeping at least for another two hours, and so should she. But she didn't feel like sleeping, she got over the phase of pure protest which came from her body, telling her to go to sleep a few hours ago.
Aimlessly she strolled through the house. She took a glass out of the kitchen cabinet silently and poured herself some water. As she sat down at the table, she noticed the letter from the evening class, unfolded, just like she had left it.
Hesitatingly she picked it up and began reading once more. Something inside her started to rebel. A bad feeling spread throughout her body and tried to warn her taking the letter too serious in any way. And still… The opportunity was there. Lorelai sighed.
Six months were a long time. And Rory was just sixteen. It was impossible leaving her daughter behind in Stars Hollow and flying to Europe. And taking her with her was even less an option.
Lorelai sighed again and the sigh remained there in the room like an unnoticed question, until it vanished unanswered.
The thought was tempting. She would earn more money there – and if she would save properly she could collect enough money to let her big dream finally come true: Opening her own inn with Sookie. Or taking over the 'Independence Inn'.
Lorelai rubbed her eyes and felt the sleepiness crawling back into her body. Perhaps she wasn't in a good mental state for thinking about such things right now. She would speak to Rory again tomorrow carefully and then… she would see. But now she should sleep for another one or two hours.
She stood up, yawning, and traipsed upstairs. She put the letter in the drawer of her nightstand and snuggled down into her bed. Were six months really that long?
So, if you've read it, please also leave a review, ok? Thanks.
