The Missing Lorelai

"Mom! Get up! I need to get some coffee and food in my system before I shut down."

After a few moments of silence, Rory ran up the stairs that led to her mother's room.

"Mom!" she yelled again. After staring at an empty room, she began to get worried. She searched the rest of the rooms in their house, and, when her mom was no where to be found, she grabbed her jacket and ran to the only place she could think of.

"Luke! My mom is gone!" before even realizing how loud she had screamed this out, she soon had the attention of the whole diner. She chuckled uneasily, and made her way to the counter, only to ask the same question again.

"Luke, do you know where my mom is?"

"Probably lying in a ditch somewhere, dying from those clogged arteries of hers," he said with a chuckle. Luke didn't think that Rory was serious, since the mother and daughter always seemed to know where the other one was at all times.

After hearing no response from Rory, Luke looked up at a terrified face. He quickly took back what he had said and became worried. "You really don't know where she is?"

Rory dropped her head on the cold counter and began to cry.

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Luke left Caesar in charge as the worried pair set off to find the missing Lorelai.

"Where would she go at this time of day without no one knowing where she is?" Luke questioned.

Rory was so worried that she didn't even bother trying to answer Luke's question. They went back to the house. Still empty. Rory went to sit down on the couch in their living room and seemed to go into a trance.

Just then, the phone rang. Rory waited a few moments before getting up, then she answered the call.

"Hello?" Rory said flatly.

"Rory! How are you doing this morning?"

"Um…I'm actually busy right now, Grandma." Rory didn't want to take any more time talking to her incessant Grandmother now, but she didn't want to be rude.

"With what? You can't find time in your busy schedule to talk with your Grandmother for just a minute?" she replied sternly, but still in a calm voice.

"Of course, Grandma, I just can't find mom and I'm starting to get worried."

"Who? Lorelai? Well, she's over here, darling."

A breathe of relief filled Rory's lungs. "Why is she over there?"

"Oh, I asked her to come. I'm going to have a dinner party and she and Sookie are going to cater it for me."

"Oh. Well, can I talk to her, please?"

"Why, of course."

After a few moments of silence, a familiar voice was heard over the phone.

"Hello?" the voice said in a bright , sunny tone.

"Mom! Why didn't you tell me that you were going over there? Luke and I have been worried!"

"Wait, Luke is over there?" Lorelai said amusingly. "Is he actually worried about me or just there cracking jokes?"

"Mom!" Rory said, now getting angry.

"Well, babe, I told you that I was coming over here today, remember?"

Rory paused, searching her mind. Of course! Her mother told her last night when she was studying.

"Mom. You told me when I was studying! You might as well have just told me when I was asleep!"

"Sorry! Well, I'll be back home in a couple hours."

Rory hung up the phone and looked up apologetically at Luke.

"I'm so sorry Luke. Mom was over in Hartford this whole time. She told me last night but I didn't really hear it because I was studying, and…"

Before she could continue, Luke interrupted by saying, "It's okay, Rory. I'm just glad that you came to me for help."

Both exchanged grateful smiles before starting to head over to the diner. Rory had begun to tell Luke about how much she liked Yale, when all of a sudden, he just paused in the doorway. Rory noticed that something caught his attention. She looked up, and there he was sitting at the counter. Jess.