"She's already asleep, she won't even notice we're gone," Luke reassured her. He could tell she didn't like this, but he felt he could trust Jess for just a little while.
"Lorelai, I'm just going to sleep on the couch. I promise I won't touch her, or talk to her, or anything." Jess Mariano plopped himself on the couch, as if to prove his point.
Lorelai sighed heavily. She couldn't ignore the sinking feeling in her stomach as she looked at her nephew, she still hadn't completely forgiven him for the accident in Rory's car; but it was just one night, a couple of hours really.
She swallowed hard, and then nodded her head. She took one more look at the infant sleeping in her crib. She leaned over and kissed her forehead. "Mommy loves you. We'll be right back, okay?"
Lorelai felt the same lump in her throat swell as she spotted Luke's Diner from a distance. Of course, it hadn't been Luke's Diner in almost thirteen years, but she still couldn't seem to think of it as anyone else's.
For the most part she avoided this side of town. She took the long way to the Inn and kept on the other side of the gazebo at town functions. That diner just had too many memories of him. Of them.
She knew she was being petty and childish but she couldn't help it. She couldn't help but wonder if she stopped trying to avoid the building if the pain would eventually dull, but it hurt too much to think of a life that had once held so much promise. A life that had once been perfect.
The subtle changes in the building screamed out to her as if there were flashing neon signs pointing them out. The absence of the William's Hardware sign and the dark yellow writing reading Luke's Diner were obvious, especially now that they were replaced by the nauseating teal cursive letters reading Cathy's Café after Cathy Burgess bought the building about ten years ago. But it was the slightly darker grey paint that covered the entire building that most didn't notice but made every part of Lorelai's insides twist in pain.
She knew Cathy's intentions had been good. Cathy was from Savannah, Georgia and had fallen in love with the picturesque Stars Hallow. She tended to add a little bit of a southern flair to while still trying to keep the historical value in the town, which Taylor Doose absolutely loved. Cathy had tried to keep the paint as close as possible to the original color but according to Lorelai she may as well have painted the diner bubble-gum pink. Lorelai was well aware of the fact that Cathy's Café was very cute and Lorelai probably would have frequented the Café had it not once been Luke's Diner, however, it had been Luke's Diner and she found the Café revolting.
Lorelai never voiced any of these thoughts aloud, however, because then the town would know she was still not over the diner's previous owner. Not that every town member didn't know that she was still very bitter over the whole separation and the events surrounding, because they did know, but it was a small town and no one ever talked about these things. Not to her face anyway.
Lorelai picked up the pace as she walked past the dinner and gave it a wide berth as she concentrated on crossing the street to Miss Patty's. Today wasn't about the diner or the diner's previous owner. Today was about the previous diner owner's daughter. Her daughter.
She spotted her daughter across the sea of dancers in various warm-ups and leotards sitting and stretching on the grass in front of the studio. She was chatting with another girl that Lorelai recognized from her track team. She would recognize the dark brown hair that matched her own anywhere, but Lorelai had to catch her breath when it dawned on her that her daughter was the only one with her hair not yet twisted up into a bun like the rest of the dancers.
"Oh My God! Luke!" Lorelai screamed as she jumped out of the passenger seat of the truck.
Whatever Luke had been about to say he completely forgot as he looked up to see his wife running toward their flaming house. Without even thinking he was in the house. The first thing he saw was Jess passed out on the sofa and he heard the eerie sound of flames crackling but even worse he didn't hear the baby crying.
It didn't take a genius to figure out the source of the fire was in their kitchen, but what Lorelai couldn't figure out was how to get past the wall of fire between her and her daughter. She looked around the room for something, anything really, that could help. She picked up a glass of soda that had been sitting on the side table next to the couch and threw its contents at the flames and as she suspected, it didn't make a difference to the roaring blaze. She looked around for something else wondering when she heard glass shatter.
She could barely make out the shadow over the fiery wall, but she would know that shadow anywhere. Luke had gone around the outside of the house and broke in through the window! That brilliant, brilliant man!
As fast as should could she ran through the front door and to the window that had once been Rory's just in time to see Luke climbing out, baby in his singed arms.
One of the neighbors must have called the fire department because they came roaring up about that time.
Instead of stopping as he passed Lorelai he handed the silent baby to the paramedic that had rushed up to him. "She's not breathing!" he loudly informed the paramedic as he handed over the tiny little girl.
"Okay sir, we've got it from here," he tried to reassure the distraught father.
Lorelai quickly followed the paramedic with her daughter. Another approached Luke, "Sir, are you hurt anywhere besides your arms?"
Luke looked down at him arms, surprised. They were red and bleeding from where the flames had licked him. He suddenly looked back up, "My nephew's still inside." Then he turned and sprinted back toward the house.
Luke heard the fireman say something about the structure, followed by Lorelai scream for him not to go, but he had to.
Lorelai turned back to her baby, who looked so tiny lying on the gurney as the paramedic injected her little leg with something.
"Come on Gwendolyn, breathe baby. Please breathe for mommy," Lorelai begged. And as if on queue the baby wailed.
