AN: I'm not gonna pretend. These characters aren't mine. What I can pretend is that they did what they do in this story. This is a LL story (is there any other kind?), and I'll be upfront with you: There will be a happy ending. Life is crappy enough as it is, so at least in this story there will be rainbows, unicorns, clowns, and little cute, furry (where was he going with this?)... I'd be nothing without my beta Junienmomo, who again agreed to make this all readable for you fantastic people. I want to dedicate this chapter to the woman who wrote me a drabble when I had the flu, so this is the least I could do (sorry for the rhyme, it was totally intentional): DSLeo. This is the only thing that the glass fiber wires actually are able to transport. So sorry for the long AN. Enjoy the story!
Chapter One: A Death In The Family
A long winter was finally coming to an end. It was the first sunny day that was warm enough to leave the winter coat in the closet. Lorelai didn't know how much longer she could stay in the potting shed. It was a somewhat romantic notion when you think of yourself as a 17 year old mother with a one year old daughter, but now that Rory was getting closer to adolescence, even the softest summer night with stars in the sky and an open potting shed door had lost all its earlier attractiveness. The truth was, Lorelai didn't know how much longer she could tell herself that her living situation was optimal. She had worked long and hard at the Independence Inn and was rewarded with the assistant manager position. But even nine years of saving every penny couldn't buy her a much needed house. All she could afford was a one bedroom, and where was the sense in that? She wanted Rory to have her own room, she wanted to buy her a desk, and probably a bookshelf. Or ten.
That's when the letter came. A letter so out of the blue that Lorelai had Mia and Sookie reread it to her to make sure she wasn't dreaming. Her grandfather had died. Not only that, but he had left her something. She didn't know what it might be. She had almost no memory of her grandfather, but what she did remember was a painting of Madame Pompadour that she admired as a child. Ever since the letter came, images of her grandfather kept flashing in her head, images of family dinners, her mother's hands tugging on her tights, just to make sure everything was perfect. Lorelai never claimed to be perfect. With puberty came the decision to at least drive her mother up the wall with her imperfections. But growing up also meant that Lorelai wanted her parents' approval, even when she couldn't explain why, and didn't want to want said approval.
With all that in the back of her head, Lorelai changed her dress for the third time, and she knew she would be late if she didn't make up her mind soon. She changed back into her first choice, a navy dress with white polka dots. Her mother was determined to criticize her no matter what she wore, her grandfather's funeral a few weeks ago was proof of that. She didn't care if the blue wasn't dark enough, or if patterns were allowed yet. Lorelai grabbed a hair clip, fixed a few of her curls in the back of her head, and let them cascade down her back. Just in that moment, Sookie came by to pick her up. Lorelai had decided to take her best friend, because she literally had no idea what to expect. That, and the fact that her car had broken down again earlier that week.
"Sweetie, are you sure you don't want me to drive you back to the inn?", Sookie asked concerned.
Lorelai had been quiet the entire drive home from Hartford.
"By the school's fine", Lorelai mumbled distractedly, her eyes scanning the people on the sidewalk.
"If you're sure...", Sookie said, but knew she couldn't get through to Lorelai.
Who knew what must be going on in her head right now. As soon as they had been back in Sookie's car, Lorelai had wanted to share the news with Rory. She checked her watch again. School would be going for another hour. The car stopped in front of Doose's market, but Lorelai didn't move.
"We're here", Sookie announced.
Lorelai looked startled, thanked her friend again, and got out. She walked through the aisles of the supermarket, not really sure what to buy. If only she could remember her shopping list... She left the store again, checked her watch again, and sighed again. She wondered if she could splurge a little and go to that diner. She remembered the building. After her parents had given her some money for Rory's education a few years back, the four year old had taken ballet classes at Miss Patty's. When the grand-plié turned into a grand disaster, the little girl had run out across the street and into the hardware shop. It had taken Lorelai only ten minutes to get there after receiving the phone call from Miss Patty, or Madame LaCosta as she called herself when she taught classic ballet. The time it took to get Rory out of the backroom she had locked herself into was about three times as long.
Lorelai hesitated. She looked around, and walked slowly to the newsstand by Patty's dance studio. She gave the vendor a polite smile and a small nod, and grabbed the Stars Hollow Gazette. He accepted her dollar, and watched her walk back to where she came from. With a determined look on her face, she entered the former hardware store, and immediately compared it to what it used to look like. The shelves had disappeared except for the ones on the walls. The counter had more than doubled in length, and of course the smell was different. She was surprised to see it so busy at this time of day, basically in the afternoon lull. She recognized a couple of faces, smiled politely, and for a moment caught the eye of the man behind the counter. In her head she was already going through make-over ideas for the handsome, but by no means well-dressed man, who she guessed couldn't be older than 30.
She watched him refill the largest coffee cups she had ever seen, and couldn't help but wonder what made the proprietor pick the over-sized mugs. He walked back behind the counter as soon as the little bell rang, grabbed the plates and delivered them to a table by the window. As quickly as he had put the plates down in front of the middle-aged blonde woman and her friend, Lorelai noticed that the patron's eyes followed the man as well. With a smile, Lorelai registered how the two women were exchanging looks, their faces contorted with delight. Just a moment later, she watched the man in the denim shirt ring up the next customer, and she had no idea how he did it, but he actually had managed to pick the two ugliest shades of denim she had ever seen, and combined them. Just as a table came free, Lorelai missed her chance, and three high school boys took the seats. She wondered if she would ever get a seat with all the hustle and bustle.
"Luke, honey", Lorelai heard the blonde woman with the very raspy voice say.
The man walked over to her table by the window, and refilled their coffee. She again watched the two women watch Luke as he walked by Lorelai, who stood in the middle of the diner, still unable to digest any of the news she had received not an hour ago, and still unable to get a seat. She was fascinated with the scene in front of her, and she desperately wanted to figure out why two middle-aged women giggled and ogled the man with the backwards baseball cap. Not that he wasn't good-looking, he was just not a Richard Gere kind of type; he was a double-take kind of guy, not really heart-throb level of handsome. Lost in thought, the intoxicating aroma of coffee pushed all the blur away, and Lorelai focused on the getting a seat part of her agenda. As if the gods had heard her, a bearded older man stood up and vacated his stool at the counter. Lorelai quickly walked over there, and lay the newspaper she had tucked under her arm on the counter.
She'd really take that cup of coffee now. She sought eye-contact with the guy with the coffee pot, but he was just ringing up another customer at the cash register. Sighing, she unfolded the newspaper, and scanned a few articles, before her patience ran out, and she waved her hand to get his attention. He delivered a plate at the other side of the counter, and on his way back he told her to wait her turn, rather rudely, she thought. It wasn't helping that both people on either side of her were drinking coffee and Lorelai had the aroma in her nose the entire time. Her tongue desperately wanted what her nose promised.
"Hey, um, excuse me, sir? I'd like a cup of coffee", she said loud enough for him to hear.
"I said in a minute", he told her and brought the high school boys two plates of fries and a reuben sandwich.
Lorelai spun around on her stool, and shook her head at the non-existing kindness at this place. She'd rather do nothing than follow the rude guy in the denim shirt through the entire diner, but she couldn't give up her seat.
"Please, I'm dying to get to taste your coffee, it smells amazing, so please give my tongue what my nose already has!", she said with annoyance.
"I have no idea what that means, please wait your turn, you're being annoying", he said angrily.
"I'm annoyed, mister, not annoying."
He looked at her more closely this time. "You are... something", he mumbled.
If the wait staff at the inn talked to customers like that, Lorelai would have to hire new people. She checked her watch.
"Um, listen, I have to pick up my kid from school at 3, so you either give me coffee, and take my money for it, or this stool will be vacant in ten seconds, OK?", she announced.
"Lady, would you shut up for a minute? Can't you see this place is packed? Wait your turn, and I'll get to you as soon as I can", he told her, and cleared the plates off the table by the bathrooms.
"How long does it take to grab a mug and pour coffee into it? What are your priorities?"
"My priority is to survive with two waitresses out sick today, and everyone in town deciding to take an extra late lunch break. It's only 2.30, so you have half an hour before school's out."
"When's your birthday?", Lorelai asked as she flipped through the Stars Hollow Gazette again.
"On the 35th of May", he deadpanned.
"Very funny", she grimaced.
"What? I'm not telling you that! That's none of your business!"
"Why? Are you afraid I'll bake you a huge cake for being super charming to me?", she scoffed.
Luke shook his head, and disappeared into the kitchen, before he came back out with plates of meatloaf and a burger.
"If you tell me your birthday, I promise I will leave you alone", she whined.
"No way!", he said from behind her.
Lorelai turned around and felt all eyes on her. "Listen, burger boy, I inherited a hundred thousand dollars today, and I'm more than overwhelmed by that. Now is it too much to ask to celebrate it with a cup of coffee? So could you please stop being an ass to me, and tell me your birthday?", Lorelai said loud enough for everyone to hear, and quickly covered her mouth with her hand, surprised that she had just let the entire diner know about the money.
He mumbled something, went back behind the counter, stood right across from her, leaned in a little, and whispered, "Only if you promise that under no circumstances will you tell a guy named Kirk about it, and that you'll stay far, far away from me and this diner on my birthday. Are we clear?"
A wicked grin spread over her face, and she nodded, quickly adding, "You think they all heard me?"
He looked at her like she was insane, because everyone in a hundred yard radius could have heard her. Then, he leaned in closer still, and for the first time, she noticed how kind his eyes looked. Piercing blue, but kind nonetheless. "November 5th."
He turned around, after someone from the kitchen had said "Order up!". When he walked by Lorelai, she handed him a piece from her newspaper.
"What's this?", he asked her.
"Read it", she told him.
"You said you were gonna leave me alone", he hissed.
She grabbed him by the wrist and shoved the tiny slip into his palm. "Read!", she repeated a little too loud.
He unfolded the piece of paper and he let his eyes scan her scribble in the margin, read the actual text, flexed the muscles in his jaw multiple times while doing so, and without a word went behind the counter again, grabbed a blue mug and poured coffee into it. Lorelai held his gaze, but had to smile at his behavior.
"Keep it in your wallet, it will bring you luck some day", she said in the manner of a fortune teller at a carnival.
As soon as the rim of the cup was on her bottom lip, the aroma got more intense, and she took a small sip. That was all it took for her to understand why the cups were huge: This was possibly the best coffee she had ever tasted. Lorelai went back to reading the paper and drinking the delicious coffee. Though she didn't have time for a refill, Lorelai knew she could neither keep her promise and leave the coffee guy, whose name may or may not be Luke, alone, nor keep the one she had just scribbled down in the margin of the newspaper, next to the horoscope for Scorpio.
She finished the cup, folded the paper and walked to the cash register.
"How much for the coffee?", Lorelai asked while trying to get another glimpse of those deep blue eyes, but was distracted by the length of his lashes.
"First time customers owe me nothing", he said with indifference.
"I see", she nodded.
"See what?", he asked and looked up.
"This is what makes people come back in spite of the rudeness and the awful service", she told him in defiance.
He held her gaze, and with his mouth in a thin line, he said, "A dollar fifty."
She handed him two dollar bills, again noticed the lashes that framed his eyes, and commented with a wink, "Keep the change, the service was... exceptional."
He couldn't recall the last time he got a thirty percent tip, and felt the redness creep into his face when the annoying woman blew him a kiss on the way out. He watched her walk to the town square, and for the first time this day allowed himself to smile.
The newspaper again tucked under her arm, Lorelai walked the short distance to the Stars Hollow elementary school, where Rory would meet her in five minutes. After a short while the brown-haired girl came out with her friend Lane by her side.
"Mom", she yelled and ran towards Lorelai.
"Hey hon, how was your math test?", she asked and hugged her daughter.
"Piece of cake. Turns out the homework we got three days ago was exactly like the test, just with different numbers", she shook her head.
"Again? Miss Bell did that last month already!"
"I know, maybe I should complain."
"Or you could just be quiet and be happy about the A you'll get", Lane interjected.
"That'd definitely be my approach, kid. Hey Lane, do you have to go home right away? I was thinking we could go for ice cream", Lorelai suggested.
"I better go home. Mrs. Kim can smell if I had dairy", Lane explained.
"Maybe next time then. Coming, sweets?"
Rory hugged her best friend, and followed her mother to the ice cream parlor.
"It's a bummer we have to walk so far to the ice cream parlor, I think we need one closer to the school and the gazebo", Rory suggested.
"Maybe I'll bring it up at the next town meeting", Lorelai replied.
"You finally gonna go to those? Mia has told us the funniest stories about the town meetings..."
"Actually, yeah, I think I might finally go. I never saw the point since we stay at the inn a lot. But that might change, you know", Lorelai said carefully.
"You haven't told me yet how it went. Did you get the painting of the famous French lady?", Rory asked her mother.
"Um, no. Let's just get ice cream and I'll tell you about it, OK?"
Five minutes later, their sundaes stood in front of them, and mother and daughter dug in.
"So, um, you asked me how it went earlier?"
Rory nodded.
"As I told you, we didn't get the painting. It was a long shot anyway. I don't think I told Grandpa Charles about my fascination. But I, we, got something better."
"His books?", Rory asked excitedly.
"No. You know Gran and your grandfather would have to die before either one of us got the books. Rory, we got a lot of money from Grandpa Charles, and it will be enough to finally buy a house", Lorelai told her daughter.
"Really?"
"Yes, hon", Lorelai smiled.
"We're buying a house?", Rory asked, still a little incredulous.
"Yup", Lorelai simply said.
"A real house?"
"Yeah."
"A brick house?"
"Let's not go crazy, OK? We got money, but we're no millionaires."
"How much money did you inherit?", Rory asked shyly.
"I'm gonna tell you when we're not in a public place, OK? This is no one else's business."
"OK", Rory said happily and went back to eating her hot fudge sundae.
After another ten minutes of assuring Rory that she'd get her own room, shelves for the books, and possibly a half bath, the two went back to the Independence Inn to share the news with Mia. Hugs and kisses were exchanged, a real estate agent was recommended, and that night Lorelai slept like a baby. In spite of her baby kicking her shin.