A/N: This idea came to me a long time ago. So I thought to share it with you. I hope you like it, I did like to write it. If you did, please tell me (and even if you didn't), so I know if you want me to continue or not.
I'm sorry for my bad grammar, English isn't my first language and I hate looking for a Beta. But if you like this, I promise I start the heavy job of finding one.
Disclamier: I wish but no, Gilmore Gilrs are not mine.
Coffee, Hot Chocolate and Marshmallows (Or the Lack of Them)
"I brought Rory!"
Luke wasn't sure if he should be worried or not that he recognized the voice even if he had heard it only once. He closed his eyes for a moment and felt thankful for the fact that it was the time just before the closing in the diner, so there were no customers. Then he found enough patient to look up. The woman was indeed the same who had irritated him so much just the day before by following him around and begging for coffee. The girl next to her was about eleven-years-old, had brown hair, blue eyes and a shy smile. Without saying a word Luke took a cup, poured coffee into it and handed it to the woman. She took it with a huge grin.
"He's a fast learner", she said gleefully and turned to the girl. "This is Rory", she said. "Actually, she's Lorelai. It was either that or Susanna, but, you know, they give you drugs when you give birth. But since it would be complicated if we'd both be called Lorelai, like if someone on the street would shout 'Hey, Lorelai!' and we wouldn't know which one they mean, we just call her Rory", the woman paused to catch some air. "Say hi to Luke, Rory."
"Hi, Luke", Rory said.
"Hi", Luke answered after a small pause. It all made so much more sense now. Miss Patty asking him if he'd met Lorelai already. Babette hinting that some single mom had bought the old Westerson's house and could need some help in there. Taylor asking for old pots and pans for charity. This was the woman who's name had been at everybody's lips for the past two weeks.
"What can I get you?" he asked Rory.
"Can I have a cup of half coffee and half hot chocolate?"
"What?"
"It's like chocolate coffee", Lorelai said taking a sip from her cup.
"Yeah, I get that. But aren't you a little young to drink coffee?"
"I drank coffee without chocolate when I was at her age", Lorelai answered for her daughter. Luke, who somehow wasn't even a bit surprised, didn't look at her.
"I'm heading towards plain coffee", Rory added. "But for now I prefer half coffee, half hot chocolate."
Luke made the order and handed the cup to the girl. Lorelai peaked into the cup like to see if he had made the right drink.
"No marshmallows?" she asked. "Rory's so miserable! Do your miserable-face", she said to Rory, who pushed out her lower lip and looked at Luke like Bambi. "Look how miserable she is!"
"Oh, jeez", Luke muttered, went to the store and came back with a small bag which he threw to Lorelai. It hit her on the face and dropped to the counter. She picked it up looking more curious of the bag than offended by the fact that Luke had just thrown her with an unknown item.
"Ooh, gummyworms!" Rory said eagerly. "Do you think they'd go with hot chocolate?"
"I don't know, honey, why don't you try."
And to Luke's great discomfort Rory opened the bag, poured half of the gummyworms into her drink and tasted it.
"Well?" Lorelai required.
"Not as good as with marshmallows", Rory said.
"There you have, we learnt something", Lorelai said.
"You'd think they melt", Rory said, poking her drink with a spoon.
"I think they're so full of everything that's unhealthy that they've lost their capability of melting", Luke pointed out.
"Our kind of food", Lorelai grinned. "Can we have two burgers and fries?"
"Didn't you say that if I give you coffee, you'll go away?"
"That was yesterday", Lorelai answered. "The prophesy has changed since then."
"Oh yeah? What it says now?"
"The inner eye can't see by command!"
Luke rolled his eyes and turned to Rory, who was now fishing the wet gummyworms and eating them one by one.
"Is she always like this?" he asked.
"This is a good day", she shrugged and put another worm into her mouth. "She told me all about you."
That surprised Luke, although he thought he probably shouldn't be surprised.
"Oh yeah? What did she say?"
"That you make good coffee, are crumby when you're busy and that you're a Scorpio."
"My whole biography", Luke answered. Rory giggled.
"She also said you have a nice smile", she added like an afterthought. At that, Lorelai made a small, offended noise. Luke turned to see her properly for the first time since they walked in the diner.
"A nice smile, huh?"
"Well, you did smile at me yesterday about a second. I think you could smile more. It'd do good for you."
Once again Lorelai made him smile against his will. And like to answer his smile, she smiled. Luke had always thought that it was stupid to say that a smile could lighten up a room. No one could smile like that, not even Rachel. Now he had to admit that he was wrong. He cleared his throat and turned to look at Rory, who had now finished with her worms.
"You want more?" he asked.
"No, thanks. I don't think that gummyworms really work with hot chocolate."
"Next time you should have marshmallows!" Lorelai hinted. Luke didn't even answer that but left to the kitchen to make his customer's burgers.
#####
"Hey, Luke."
It was Rory. She was hanging her back bag on one shoulder and looked a bit shy. Luke, who had never really liked kids, looked behind her to see if her mother had arrived as well. She hadn't.
"Hi", he said. And then, after a pause, he added, "Rory."
"Is it okay if I wait here until my Mum gets off from work? I... I mean she doesn't want me to go home alone", she blushed slightly. "I'm not any trouble. I'll sit in a table and do my homework. It shouldn't take that long, anyway."
"Sure", Luke said. "You want that chocolate coffee of yours?"
A smile spread across Rory's pale face. She didn't look so shy anymore.
"Yeah, that would be great, thank you", she said.
"Go and sit down, I'll bring it to you", Luke said. He watched as the girl walked cross the half empty diner, sat down and opened her bag back. She took out a book, opened it and started to read. Luke hoped that Lorelai would arrive soon. If Rory would get hungry and cranky, he didn't know what to do. He shook his head while he filled the cup and took it to Rory, turned his back at her and was about to leave, when Rory made a small squeak.
"There's marshmallows!"
Luke felt a bit ashamed. He really shouldn't have done that. It had been stupid. If Miss Patty or Babette would hear about this, they wouldn't leave him alone and probably start hinting Rachel that he wanted children. Which he didn't.
"That's really sweet, Luke", Rory continued. He looked at her. She smiled warmly and at that moment looked a lot like her mother.
"It was not a big deal", Luke waved it off and went back to the counter.
#####
After an hour the phone rang and Luke picked it up.
"Luke's"
"Hi, this is Lorelai. Is Rory there? Can I speak with her?"
"Lorelai? You know, this isn't a public phone. This is for orders."
"Yeah, I know. So the sooner you give the phone to my daughter, the sooner the call will end and you can continue your order taking."
He sighed and looked at Rory.
"Rory, your mother's calling."
Smiling sweetly the girl rounded the corner.
"Hi, Mum. Yes, I am here, speaking with you in the phone at Luke's. Yeah. Oh. No, it's okay. What? No", she looked at Luke and turned a bit like to hide her words. Luke went to the kitchen and banged some kettles so he didn't hear what she said next. When Rory came to the kitchen door and handed him the phone, he frowned. Sure she was able to put it back where it belonged by herself?
"What?" he asked quite rudely.
"She wants to talk to you."
"What?"
"Something about orders", Rory shrugged and went back to her table as he took the phone.
"Hello?" Luke said.
"Hi! Is it okay if Rory stays a bit later? A work emergency. Maids starting a riot, cooks throwing kettles, horses galloping through the hallways. You know, the basic stuff."
"What?"
"Tell her she can eat anything she wants and I'll come up later to pick her up and pay."
"What?"
"Put it on my tap."
"You don't have a tap."
"Okay. I want to open a tap. Now I have a tap. Put everything Rory eats on my tap. I promise I'll pay it. If I don't, you can keep Rory. She's great at drying plates."
"What?" he said again. He tried to keep up on what she was saying and what parts were important and what weren't.
"I'll come about nine. Thanks. Bye!"
"At nine? Hold on a minute -" too late; Lorelai had already hung up. Luke sighed and put the phone to its place. Rory was reading.
"Hey, Rory. You want something to eat?"
#####
The bell above the diner door rang and Lorelai rushed in.
"I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry", she said and bent to kiss the top of Rory's head.
"What happened?" Rory asked.
"Michel."
"Ah", Rory said like that would explain everything. "What's he done this time?"
"He got mad to Ralph because he had thrown away his low-fat cheese. And Ralph got mad that Michel got mad and he said it was either him or Michel."
"Oh, no!" Rory said. "But you can't fire Michel. We like Michel."
"I know we like Michel, honey. But that means we're out of four cooks."
"Four?"
"Three of them left with Ralph", Lorelai said, sighed deeply and leaned against the table. "So I started to find another head chef and three cooks and two maids, because Miranda and Helen left because Miranda was dating Eddie and Helen doesn't do anything without Miranda."
"What about the horses?" Luke couldn't help but ask. Both Lorelai and Rory turned to look at him, both of their mouths open.
"The horses?" Lorelai stuttered.
"You said the horses were galloping through the hallways."
Lorelai and Rory changed a look and Rory hid a giggle pretty badly.
"It was a joke. I was joking."
"Yeah, I figured, but as the other two were true I started thinking that...never mind."
"Anyway", Lorelai said slowly and turned back to Rory. "We better go, school day tomorrow", she stood and gestured for Rory to pick up her stuff. Luke watched the girl to stuff her book into her back bag.
"Go wait in the truck and I'll pay and follow you in a minute", Lorelai said and handed the car key to her daughter. Rory startled and her eyes grew large and scared. She moved closer to her mother.
"But Mum", Rory whispered. "What if there's Kathy Bates in the truck?"
"There's no Kathy Bates in the truck, kid", Lorelai answered calmly. "I checked it just before I came in."
"She might've gotten in there while you were here. None of us would've noticed."
"Okay, if Kathy Bates is in our truck, before she kidnaps you into her lonely house in the snowy mountains, hobbles you and tells you to write a bestselling novel, remember to ask her to give an autograph."
The corner of Rory's lip pulled a bit.
"Mum!" she whispered loudly.
"Just go to the car, hon. I'll be right there."
Rory took her back bag and left. Lorelai moved to the counter.
"Thanks", she said. "For looking after her."
Luke shrugged.
"That's okay. She was no trouble."
"Yeah, I trained her well with a whistle and cookies."
Luke didn't even bother to ask what she meant. Suddenly Lorelai smiled.
"No, really. Thank you", she said. Luke forgot himself for a moment as Lorelai's smile was so astonishingly beautiful. Then he remembered he had a girlfriend he loved and cleared his throat.
"Yeah."
Lorelai nodded and took out her wallet.
"So what do I owe you?" she asked. Luke pulled up a random amount of money. He honestly had no idea what everything Rory had eaten during the day had cost. Lorelai gave him the money and bit good night. Before she stepped out of the door, Luke called after her. She stopped and turned.
"What would Kathy Bates do in your truck?"
"I put two bullets into this gun. One for me and one for you", she responded. Luke looked at her like she was a crazy-person, what she probably was. What on Earth was she talking about?
"What?" he managed to ask.
"I'm your number one fan", she said with a biggest grin on her face. He shook his head.
"I have no idea what you're talking about."
"Misery?" she offered, taking a step towards the counter. He just looked at her blankly. "Stephen King?"
"Oh, I've heard of that guy", he said.
"Heard of that -, oh... Oh, Luke Danes. There is so much I can teach you", and with that she went to the door. "See you later!" she called before shutting the door behind her.