Title: Twenty One Ways to Celebrate a Birthday
Author: Louise
Rating: Pg-13
Category: Humor
Spoilers: Missing scene from The Perfect Dress
Disclaimer: Obviously, I don't own Gilmore Girls or its characters. No infringement intended.
Summary: Lorelai and Rory go to Atlantic City to do a delay celebration for Rory.
Dedication: Justina for beta reading this fan fiction and helping me with my English.
A/N: This is my first Gilmore Girls fic, so be nice with me.

Atlantic City, 23:50

Lorelai and Rory walked into the Trump Taj Mahal wearing pretty dresses that Lorelai bought the minute they arrived in the city. Rory was wearing a blue dress and Lorelai a red one. She wanted to do something special for Rory's 21st birthday, for they've been planning this forever, ever since Rory was in kindergarden.

Lorelai knew the celebration was a little belateted since they spent months not talking after Rory had quit Yale, but now they were back on track again and she just wanted to do everything they had planned forever for that special day.

So, after they arrived in Atlantic City and bought the dresses for the night, and cought up with the latest news from their lives, they were finally ready to celebrate Rory's 21st birthday the way it was supposed to be.

"Come on, we only have 9 minutes!" Rory reminded Lorelai while they were arriving at the casino.

"We still have plenty of time, kid. Don't worry, we'll do everything right this time!" Lorelai said with a proud smile to her beautiful and grown up daughter. Suddenly, she remembered something. "Shoot, I have to call Luke to see how Paul Anka is doing. Hang on!"

Lorelai took her cellphone out of her purse and dialed while she waited until Luke finally picked up. "Hello? Luke?"

"Lorelai?" Luke asked on the other end of the line.

"Did I wake you?" Lorelai asked a little concerned, as she looked at her watch. 7 minutes to go. "Listen, I didn't want to wake you, I know you like to sleep early because… well, you wake up earlier. I just wanted to know if Paul Anka was doing okay."

"No, you didn't wake me. I'm fine. And Paul Anka is fine. He is sleeping right now." Luke explained. "He misses you."

"Yeah?" Lorelai asked with a silly grin.

"Yeah… he keeps staring at the door waiting for you to come back. I miss you too."

"I miss you as well, Luke." Lorelai sighed still staring at her watch. "Listen, I have to go. We only have 5 minutes before the start of the celebration of Rory's birthday. So, I talk to you when I come back, right?"

"Right. Have fun." Luke said before hanging up.

Rory looked at Lorelai and noticed she had the silliest grin on her face. Rory couldn't remember when was the last time she saw Lorelai this happy but Luke brought out the best in her mother.

"You are happy, aren't you?" Rory asked while they were passing the black-jack table waiting for the start of the celebration at the 23:59. "Luke is making you happy, isn't he?"

"Yes and Yes." Lorelai nodded with a smile. "And now we are back to our wedding preparations. Luke and I can plan the wedding properly since Sookie was way too anxious to start baking that wedding cake."

"I bet she was." Rory grinned as she looked at her cellphone with hope Logan would call but he hasn't so far. She wasn't get to worry today, though. That was a special night for them and nothing was gonna get in her way. She could get pissed off at Logan once they were back in Stars Hollow.

"23:59, kid." Lorelai pointed out showing her watch to Rory. "Midnight, happy birthday, Rory!"

"Thank you, mom!" Rory said with a smile before they shared a hug. "I love you, mom. I'm sorry… for everything."

"Hey, we are here to celebrate your birthday. We already said sorry enough for one month in the last week. No more sorries, are we clear?" Lorelai said in a serious tone as Rory only nodded her head. "And I love you too."

"So, what we going to do now?"

"What have you been planning since forever? Test our luck." Lorelai and Rory sat down at the table and the Croupier dealt the cards. "But first…." She noticed a waitress next to her and smiled calling the blonde woman. "Hey, can you bring us two martinis? And my daughter is 21, in case you didn't notice."

"All right," The waitress looked at her with a weird expression before heading to the kitchen.

"So, we want to bet on the 21!" Lorelai said enthusiastic. "Everything on the 21!"

"Everything on the 21!" Rory repeated as she gave the croupier money to bet after Lorelai did the same.

"Okay." The croupier nodded, figuring Lorelai and Rory were already drunk.

When the waitress come back with the drinks, Lorelai picked them and handed Rory one, before patting the waitress on the shoulder. "Keep them coming, all right?"

The waitress gazed at her raising her eyebrow, before she nodded. "Sure."

"Thank you."

Two Hours later, Lorelai and Rory already had their hands full of bags after they won in the blackjack. They were pretty much drunk and were stumling every few steps, when suddenly they saw a man dressed as Dolly Parton. He made them both laugh hysterically.

"Oh my god, Rory!" Lorelai said, between gulps for air. "Look, it's Luke!"

"Where?" Rory asked turning around. "You mean that guy?"

"Yeah. It's like Luke's lost twin brother."

"Mom… he is dressed like Dolly Parton. I don't think it's like Luke to dress that way--."

"You didn't notice the chin?" Lorelai pointed out making Rory look at her with an amused grin on her face. "It's so Luke! Come on, we have to get a picture of him to show to Luke later!"

"Are you serious?"

"Deadly serious!" Lorelai said with a serious expression pulling Rory's hand. "Come on!"

"Okay."

They followed the guy to a nightclub which they entered just as the guy went backstage before his performance. Lorelai and Rory went after him and he finally noticed they were following him.

"Hey, what the hell are you doing?" The man yelled. "Are you following me?"

"I'm sorry, Sir." Lorelai said giggling. "But we need to take a picture of you."

"What? Why?" He asked, suspicious. "Who are you?"

"I'm Lor… We are Wendy and Lisa. Anyway, My fiancé could be your twin brother and I have to take your picture to show him." Lorelai explained and Rory nodded, also giggling. "Luke will never believe if we don't bring your picture, Mr…"

"Derek McKinney, but tonight you can call me Dolly." He said with a smile, relaxing. "And can I see a picture of your man before I let you take a picture of me?"

"Sure. Man, he's going to flip out." Lorelai pointed out, looking for her wallet. "He is this handsome guy who owns this dinner in our small town." Lorelai explained still looking for her wallet. "Oh here it is. And we are engaged." She picked her wallet and opened to show Luke's picture to Derek, who frowned at them.

"And how this guy looks like me? He doesn't look anything like me."

"You didn't notice the chin?" Rory pointed to the picture. "It's so similar."

"All right. Whatever. I have more important things to do. Take your damn picture and go away. I'm already tired to deal with crazy stalkers for one day."

"Thank you." Lorelai and Rory said in unison before Rory picked her camera. She took a picture of him before he went on stage and started to sing "Jolene".

"Nice guy." Rory observed before they left. "Luke would be so proud of his twin brother." hehe

"I'm sure he would." Lorelai commented before they sat down among the audience to watch Derek's show.

Two Hours later, they were back in their room with tired faces, still holding bags in their hands. They dropped on the floor, before closing the door.

"Man, I'm so tired!" Lorelai complained jumping in her bed and lying down. "I wasn't expecting to actually win in the blackjack. I think you give me luck, kid."

"Mom, you are drunk!" Rory stated trying to balance herself on her high wheels.

"And so are you!"

"Well, at least we can't complain about the services in the casino. How many martinis did we have?"

"5?"

"I can't remember. I don't know why you thought we would be able to drink 21 shots." Rory pointed out as she sat on the bed. "Even I thought it was crazy."

"Well, at least I got the picture of Luke's Dopplegangland." Lorelai said with a proud smile as she stared at the picture of the man dressed as Dolly Parton. "Because if I tell him about his lost twin brother he will never believe me."

"Probably not." Rory said giggling. "So, I can't believe we actually got 21 guys' numbers. I never thought we would able to get all 21."

"Well, technically we didn't." Lorelai reminded her with a smirk. "But Wendy and Lisa did."

"Right."

"So, seems our night is over." Rory pointed out a little sad.

"Who said so?" Lorelai scoffed rolling her eyes.

"Mom, it's 5am."

"Yeah, but we still can do stuff."

"Like what?" Rory asked confused scratching her head.

"We can do some phone calls." Lorelai explained with a sly grin on her face making Rory gaze at her. "Come on. We have 21 numbers in our hands after all. Let's play a little."

"Mom, it's 5am." Rory repeated in case Lorelai didn't hear the first time.

"Well, that's a good idea for being drunk. We can always blame the booze."

"Oh boy!"

Later at 10 am, Rory awoke already felling very dizzy and with a painful headache. The hangover was pretty bad. She noticed Lorelai was closing the door and putting a tray with breakfast on the table that was in the center of the room.

"Good morning, Sleeping Beauty! How are you today?"

"Sick." Rory answered, a little grumpy. "I need a coffee."

"So, come here. I asked for the room service. It will be good for cleaning our system." Lorelai sat at the table and poured some coffee into Rory's mug, while Rory come back from the bathroom after brushing her teeth. "Did you sleep well?"

"I think so. Coffee!" She sniffled a little her mug before takes a sip. "Just what I need!"

"You are a party popper, you know that? You fell asleep after I picked the fourth number to call." Lorelai said while Rory was still very sleepy, drinking her coffee.

"I'm sorry. But I was too tired. So… what will we do now?" Rory asked curiously, since it was supposed to be their last day in Atlantic City. They would come back to Stars Hollow the following day.

"Well, unfortunally Paul Anka isn't here anymore. Damn, I should've checked his schedule before but anyway, I think the only show that's left for us to see is Queen without Fred."

"It's weird how many groups without the lead singer are performing around here." Rory commented between sips.

"Tell me about it."

"Well, at least we still have good shows around here." Lorelai commented eating a piece of her brownie. "And it's a good thing that there's so many Paul Anka shirts left so I can buy one for Luke."

"You are a lucky woman, mom!"

"I know. Especially now that you are by my side again." Lorelai smiled at Rory who smiled back.

"So, okay. I'll change my clothes and then we can buy our tickets to the concert." Rory said before gulped her last cup of coffee.

"All right, Rory."

"And mom?" Rory called making Lorelai turn around to face her. "That was the best birthday ever. The way I have always dreamt it." Rory said with a smile before Lorelai approached her and pulled her for a tender hug. "Thank you."

"You're welcome, Rory. I'm glad you liked it."

The End