Title: Telescope Time

Rating: PG

Genre: Gen

Spoilers: General for the series

Characters: Lorelai, Babette, Miss Patty, Taylor, Gypsy

Disclaimer: Don't own, not being paid.

Word count: 793

A/N: Something I started a long while ago, probably as a grr against time allocation committees, and just managed to finish. Thank you to starrylizard and Cha Oseye Tempest Thrain for the beta.

Summary: Stars Hollow gets a telescope...and of course Taylor makes it complicated.

"That can't be right."

"What, sugar?" Babette said leaning towards Lorelai.

"I didn't get any time."

"What?" Babette squeaked, reading through the lists again. "Surely you got time. Taylor said that everyone was going to get time."

"No," Lorelai said, annoyed, "I'm not on the list. Again." She pouted.

"You should speak to Taylor about it," Miss Patty said from behind them.

"Did you get time, Miss Patty?" Lorelai turned and asked.

"Oh, yes," she said with a flirtatious smile. "Now I'll be able to study Sven all I want."

"Patty!" Babette said, scandalised.

"What? That boy can massage me anytime. Good luck talking to Taylor, my dear." Miss Patty gave Lorelai a gentle pat on the shoulder before walking off.

"Great," Lorelai said, "Miss Patty gets to perve on Sven, and I don't get time. I would have looked at-at-at things...exploding...really far away." She gestured with her hands to indicate how far away they were. "Really really far away." Lorelai looked at the list and gave it a glare. "What are you going to look at, Babette?"

"Morey bought me a star and named it Cinnamon."

"Oh, Babette."

"Yeah, the man's a doll. You better get in and talk to Taylor, before he disappears. Give him hell!"

"Will do, thanks Babette."

Lorelai walked across the square to the town hall and opened the door to arguing.

"…telescope is always open when people are scheduled. You obviously turned up at the wrong time," Taylor said, his face annoyed.

"The door was locked," Gypsy said, moving forward to lean further into Taylor's space, "and Kirk was out in the square with the telescope charging people to look at their real estate on the moon."

"You must be mistaken," Taylor said nervously. He waved his hand around. "The man who looked like Kirk must have had some other telescope."

Gypsy leaned forward even further. "It was Kirk."

Taylor looked at Lorelai with relief. "Lorelai," he said, "what can I do for you?"

"I want my time, Taylor," Gypsy said, not moving out of the way.

"Yes, yes," he dismissed. "Fill in a suggestions form and put it in the box, I'll get around to it."

Gypsy glared and turned with a huff, brushing past Lorelai and muttering under her breath.

"Yeah, no, I think I wouldn't take my car to get a check up at Gypsy's for the next month if I were you, Taylor." Lorelai grimaced; that would not end well. Gypsy stopped at the suggestion box sitting on a table near the door and deliberately knocked it onto the floor before stamping all over it. "Make that two months," Lorelai amended.

Taylor gave one of his tight smiles that indicated that he thought what she'd said wasn't very funny.

"What can I do for you, Lorelai? You don't want to hold up everyone else."

Lorelai looked around the empty town hall, wondering what exactly he was talking about. "Everyone else? There's no one here, Taylor."

"Yes, but if there was, you'd be holding them up, so chop chop!"

"Oh, okay, all right then," Lorelai stammered. "Gee, pushy. I wasn't on the list, for the telescope. I wasn't on the last list, either, and you said that I'd be on this one. So, I want to be put on the list and I'm not taking no for an answer."

"Okay," Taylor said, pulling a box out from underneath his desk. He took the lid off, rummaging through the papers filed neatly in the box. "Gilmore, Gilmore...Ah ha! Here it is. Gilmore, Lorelai." He opened her observing proposal and made a hmph sound. "That's right, I remember now, you didn't fill in the dates you couldn't do, so I'm afraid you got moved to the bottom of the pile and then, well, there was more interest than anticipated this quarter."

"That's because there wasn't any dates I couldn't do, Taylor," Lorelai replied, trying to keep her tone civil. "I was wide open. So, what's going to happen is that you'll make room for me on the roster somewhere, I dunno, maybe on one of the three nights that Kirk has, or at the next town meeting I'll get the people to vote you off your little time allocation committee of one. Because really, do we need a three page form to use the telescope that we all paid for?" She smiled, a piranha going in for the kill. "How's that sound?"

"I suppose I can squeeze you in," Taylor said grudgingly. "Take Kirk's first night."

"Thank you, Taylor." Lorelai flashed him a bright smile. "Me and my stars, we thank you."

Now she'd just have to call Rory and ask what she should look at. Although, there was always Sven...

--FIN--