Nearly a year after I last wrote something for GG I am back with this little story. I can already tell you that this is going to be different and I can only advice you not to eat while you read this story. I hope you like it. Thanks to Grizzly for beta- reading!

Story: On the loose again

Working title: Body on the ducks

Disclaimer: I own nothing!


Chapter 1: The Armbruster victim

Lorelai opened the door and as the bells jingled she stomped her feet on the ground to get the snow off. Walking towards the counter, she took off her white cap and scarf and unbuttoned her red jacket.

"I was just attacked by evil ducks," she said in greeting as she sat down on a chair. Luke only raised an eyebrow and turned around to the coffee machine so he could pour her the liquid death. "You don't believe me? After I found your present I decided to thank you, so thank you, and wanted to take the shortest path, which meant passing by the lake. So, innocent me was deep in thought, already preparing my "thank you" and "I told you so" speech when suddenly something hacked into my leg. I looked down and I saw Rambo Armbruster followed by his wife the wicked witch of west and their four evil little ducklings, all ready to attack. I started running and they kept chasing me, so I ran faster and I couldn't find the path anymore under all that snow and now my jeans are wet and I have snow in my shoes," she finished her tale and pouted until he placed a cup of coffee in front of her.

"You sure you saw "evil little ducklings?" Because I don't think there are ducklings in the middle of winter." Luke replied and put a plate with a slice of apple pie in front of her.

"See, I told you they aren't normal," she said, taking another gulp of the coffee and then holding the already empty cup out to him. "They breed in hell that's why they don't need the sun." Another eye roll from Luke later, she had a fresh cup of coffee in front of her.

"So, did you bring my shovel?" Luke wanted to know, referring to the snow shovel she'd had for a while now.

"Yes, sure, but you can't see it because I said Abracadabra and made it invisible," she told him with a smile.

"I told you I needed it."

"As far as I remember you yelled at me that you gave it to me three years ago, you didn't mention anything about me giving it back," she grinned. With a heavy sigh he gave up, knowing that if he ever wanted his shovel back he needed to go to her garage and get it himself.

"And what was that present you were babbling about?" he asked just to change to another topic.

"The tulip I found on my porch this morning. I have to say the message is a bit cryptic though," she said and swatted his arm playfully.

"What tulip?" Luke asked confused and pulled his arm off the counter so she couldn't slap him again.

"The tulip on my porch," she repeated.

"Why would I put a tulip on your porch?" he wrinkled his forehead.

"As an apology for not telling me that you moved," she said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"I already told you that I would have told you at some point," he argued.

"And I told you that's not what friends do. Friends tell each other when they move," she insisted. Luke knew that it was fruitless discussing this with her. They would only get into another fight and he wasn't up to it so soon after the last one. So he closed his eyes for a second and breathed out slowly.

"Why don't we just talk about something else?" he asked then.

"You just want to change the topic because you know you'll lose," she grinned cheekily. Luke just grumbled something and moved on to his other customers. There weren't that many in the diner because Lorelai had chosen the afternoon lull for her dramatic entrance. Her silence didn't last long and when he walked back to the counter to hand the orders to Caesar in the kitchen, her coffee cup was once again empty and she had polished off the apple pie.

"So you really didn't leave a tulip on my front doorstep?" she wanted to know again.

"Nope," he shook his head.

"Do you know what it means if you didn't send me the flower?" she asked him with an excited smile.

"That I don't like flowers?"

"That I have a secret admirer who is crazy about me," she smiled.

"That someone is crazy. Period," he snorted and caught the napkin ball she threw at him in response.

After he had finished another round of re-fills, she tugged on his sleeve and asked "Luke can you walk me back home?"

"Would you stop that?" he grumbled and pulled his arm away.

"Please," she pouted.

"Why? It's not like you can get lost in Stars Hollow."

"I'm scared of the Armbrusters," she told him, her pout still firmly in place. He tried to resist, at least for a second, but when he sighed and threw the towel on the counter she knew she had won. Luke disappeared for a minute behind the curtain to get his jacket and his gloves.

"Hurry up, I have to work," he said when he came back downstairs and ushered her out of the diner and into the cold afternoon. They turned right when they left the building and turned right again to get onto the path to the small lake. As Lorelai had said the ways weren't shoveled and they could hear the snow cracking under their shoes. A comfortable silence stretched between them until they reached the lake and Lorelai heard her new enemies.

"Oh no, they know we're here and getting ready to attack," she whispered loudly and stepped closer to Luke.

"You're being ridiculous," Luke snorted but looked around to find the ducks. He found them on their left a few meters away and pointed them out to the crazy female by his side.

"You have to fight them off! Be my hero," Lorelai said and linked her arm through his and pressed into his side. Luke stepped a bit closer to the lake in order to find a stick so he could at least pretend to protect her from the ducks. Lorelai stayed close to him, her eyes never leaving the animals that were still not even close to them.

"What is that smell?" Luke asked quietly more to himself than Lorelai. "Stupid people using the lake as a garbage dump," he grumped although he didn't believe in that theory himself. It wasn't anything he had ever smelled before. It was sweet, nauseating and disgusting. It hung in the air and made him shudder involuntarily. His shuddering drew Lorelai's attention back to him. She turned her head to look at him and froze.

"Luke," she finally pressed out in a toneless voice, the horror in it so evident it made Luke shudder again. He followed her look and hoped that this was only a bad dream.

Luke stared at the surface of the water, his body rigid, his breath loud in his own ears, his heart thumping so hard he thought it might jump out of his chest at any second. He felt Lorelai's fingernails digging into his arm, but it didn't hurt. He felt numb while he stared, then blinked in disbelief. His breathing became faster. The sweet smell hit his nostrils and he felt the nausea rising from his stomach up to his throat, the base of his tongue already jumping. He saw the water cover the blue-ish, swollen face again, rising up to the blonde hair, washing over the open wound on the head and touching the snow covered shore. Then it rolled back, showing the obscure face of what he could only guess had once been the face of a young, beautiful woman. His eyes locked on those of the body and he thought the wide, watery blue eyes would fall out of the head any second, so bloated was the face- just like the rest of the body from what he could see. As he looked at the half-missing tissue of the nose, another cold breeze wafted over to them, and he was brought out of his shock by Lorelai's heavy retching next to him as she vomited the pie she had eaten just minutes ago. He waited until she was done, forcing himself to look at her and not at the gruesome scene by the lake side. He stepped in front of her, blocking her view so she couldn't look at the body again.

"We need to call the police," he told her in a hoarse voice and pushed her backwards, afraid that if he stood beside her she would look back over her shoulder. He didn't want her to see the body again, he would stare at it himself for hours if it would erase the picture that had surely burned itself into her brain. She let him push her back, then, once the lake was out of view, let herself be dragged beside him back to the diner. As soon as he let go of her after he had maneuvered her on a chair his hands started to shake, the nausea came back, but he knew he had to make the call. He had to type the number several times before he got it right. He didn't bother to call the town sheriff, this was not for him, this was for real cops. Coop had never seen a dead body as far as Luke knew, and he was sure he wouldn't know what to do, just as they didn't know what to do. When he heard the male voice of the operator on the other line he told him as fast as he could what they had seen, where they had seen it and how to get there. When he described the body he saw Lorelai dash from the room in the direction of the bathroom, her hand pressed to her mouth. The man told him to hang up and stay where they were, the police would come to them. Luke did as he was told and placed the speaker back on the receiver, his hand shaking so violently that the plastic made angry noises and he thought he might break the phone. He looked up to the chair where Lorelai had sat just a minute ago and suddenly saw the woman from the lake sitting there, her hair wet, her skin blue, her nose half missing, just as he had seen her, the sweet smell of the rotting flesh hanging in the air. He made it to the kitchen sink just in time.

TBC