There is absolutely no cause for celebration, no matter how much Sookie insists upon it. Yay, Rory started kindergarten today - she'd have been able to go to preschool if there was a public one in town. Yay, Lorelai was promoted to housekeeping manager - maybe now she'll be able to live somewhere that isn't a shed. Yay, some dude in town opened a diner - Lorelai doesn't even know him, and she is not in the mood to watch Sookie chuckle at a plate of fries and make some remark about how she could have made them better.
Still, the way her friend balls up her fists and hops from one foot to the other in front of her bed makes Lorelai feel bad about saying no to her. Pretentious as she is, Sookie's joy is unparalleled, and while Lorelai wants to spend the last seven minutes of her break sleeping, she knows that Sookie has been able to lift her out of every bad mood she has been in. So when she tells Lorelai that they are going to the grand opening of Luke's Diner, she holds back a remark about it being a little less grand at 8 o'clock at night and says yes.
Sookie then sits by Lorelai's side and tells her the life story of this mysterious Luke. He's 25 and his father used to own the property; it was a hardware store. Last year, Papa Luke died and Son Luke has been trying to run it, but everyone agrees that if he had tried to keep that up, he would have gone bankrupt, mostly due to his lack of knowledge on hardware. So Luke had dipped into his inheritance, bought some tables, bought a sign, and rechristened the place as Luke's Diner. As of today, he was in business.
Lorelai looks at her watch, and as soon as Sookie takes a breath, she interrupts with, "How long have you been on break?"
"Since coming in here. I have another twenty minutes. Why?"
"Rory's getting out of school soon and I don't think I can make it in time to pick her up. Do you think you could run and get her?"
"Oh, absolutely! What, she doesn't take a bus?"
"She's five and I don't think the schoolbus will make a stop at the hotel where she lives."
"I'm sorry."
"It's fine. It's better than - do you know where her school is? Do I need to give you directions?"
"No, I know where it is. Come to the kitchen in twenty minutes and pick her up, okay?"
"Okay. Thanks, Sookie."
She leaves and Lorelai's head sinks down into her knees as she thinks, I fucked it up.
Hours later, Lorelai and Sookie are done for the day and Rory is walking in between them as they make their way into the center of Stars Hollow. "I think my name is Lorelai now," Rory says softly.
"Your name has always been Lorelai, we just call you Rory because it makes it easier to tell the difference between us. Like when you buy two turtles at the pet store and make a red dot with nail polish on one of their shells," Lorelai answers.
"Today at the beginning of the day, Mrs. Ricksen took attendance and she asked us if we had anything we'd like to be called, and when she called my name I didn't say anything, so I think I'm Lorelai now."
"That's fine, hun. I'll talk to Mrs. Ricksen tomorrow."
"Thank you."
When they walk into the diner, no one is there. No one, that is, but a man in a flannel shirt and a brown baseball cap that he's wearing backwards. He jumps when they walk in and a bell rings. Lorelai does not know if she would trust this man to handle a grease fire.
"Hi," He says, raising a hand in greeting from across the counter that they have not reached yet. "I'm Luke. Sit wherever ya like." His smile looks like it has been plastered onto his face against his will.
Lorelai and Sookie guide Rory to a table by the window and sit down. Luke hurries over to them in a quick shuffle with a notepad and a pen. "Hey," He says again. Sookie smiles while Lorelai busies herself with investigating the table. "What'll ya have?"
"Um, where are your menus?" Lorelai asks.
"My menus?"
"Yeah. The big things with the foods and the prices listed on them."
"This is a diner. I serve diner food. What do you need a menu for? Have you ever been to a diner?"
"I understand that this is a diner, but I do need to know how much I will be paying for whatever I order."
"What kind of budget are you on? Did Mom and Dad send you over with five bucks or something?"
"As a matter of fact, they didn't."
Rory looks at Sookie, whose smile has turned into a frown. She is trying to interject. It is not working. Lorelai and Luke seem to have lost awareness of anything other than each other. Her mother has been exhibiting signs of unhappiness all day, but usually she cheers up when Sookie and Rory are there. But she didn't even pick up Rory from her first day of school today. And when Rory tried to sit on her lap while she made phone calls, she got all tense and stood up. She must be having a very bad day.
"Lorelai, honey, it's okay, I'll pay," Sookie says, touching her shoulder.
"Yes, but how are you supposed to know how much you'll be paying? How much money do you make?" Lorelai only cursorily glances at Sookie, and she doesn't notice at all when Rory slides underneath the table and walks across the diner, behind Luke's counter.
"For Godsake, you ask me how much something costs and I'll tell ya!" Luke is yelling now.
"Well, what do you serve?!"
"Diner food!" Luke's arms go up into the air. "Jesus Christ! Hey, didn't you have a kid with you?"
Rory hears this from behind the counter. She doesn't move. She is curled up against the wall with her knees to her chest, trying to remember all the ways she usually makes her mom feel better after a bad day. When that fails, she tries to think of how her mom makes her feel better. Most of these things involve the two of them being together. Even though she knows this, she stays still while a search party commences.
"She wouldn't leave, would she?" Luke asks. He's close.
"No. She's smart." The words leap out of Lorelai's throat from farther away. Luke peeks under the counter and finds Rory, who can't help feeling like she has been caught.
"Found her," He says, and as he's reaching out a hand to help her get up, Lorelai makes her way past him and kneels down on the ground in front of Rory. She doesn't look too sharp now, and part of her feels like she is seeing her for the first time since she went to school this morning. With a single swipe of her arm, Lorelai takes her daughter in and hugs her.
"I'm sorry, Rory," She says, "Did the mean man scare you?"
"Hey!" Luke says.
"You're having a bad day," Rory answers. It is a statement, not a question.
Lorelai hugs Rory again, seemingly for no reason, Luke thinks, until she picks her up and turns around. There are tears in her eyes.
"You okay, Mom?" Rory asks, and another realization hits Luke. There's no way this girl had her kid under stable circumstances. She looks even younger than he is.
"You wanna go, honey?" Sookie asks from behind him.
Jesus Christ, I did not just start a fight with a single mother.
"I'm closing," He says, and the words fall out of his mouth like an accident. "If you guys stay, you're my personal guests. You don't pay. I won't let you."
"That's okay," Lorelai says, speaking softly for the first time.
"I insist. You've obviously got some stuff going on. At least let me pour you guys some orange juice or somethin'."
"Do you have coffee?" Rory asks. She has remembered one of her mother's favorite things.
"That stuff will kill you." Luke says, bewildered.
"Do you have it?"
"Yeah, but - "
"Coffee would be nice." Lorelai says. She appears to have composed herself. She places Rory on a stool in front of the counter and sits down next to her. Sookie slowly makes her way to the other side of Rory and sits down. Maybe, Lorelai thinks, they'll get away with just coffee, and Sookie won't have anything to criticize.
Luke sighs, gets on the other side of the counter, and makes a pot of coffee.