A Guys Favourite Place

Happy Birthday Ace Hedz!

A/N: This is set in mid season three for Gilmore Girls (Rory and Jess era) but Luke and Lorelai are together and season four for Doctor Who. All of the hardware terms have been invented by me.

The Doctor looked around, and liked what he saw. He was in one of his favourite places in the world, Stars Hollow. But he hadn't visited it in many, many years, so it was very different. Williams Hardware still had the sign up, but it now had a Luke's Diner sign as well. Had the best place on Earth for buying compatible TARDIS parts been turned into a diner?

William was a good guy, too. The doctor used to take broken TARDIS parts into the store, and he would tell him what earth objects they resembled. The Doctor thought that his moving or leaving would be a shame. Maybe the diner owner ("Luke?") could tell him what happened to him...

It was very quiet in "Luke's". Just a skinny man and a slightly older looking man with a backwards baseball cap on were inside. The doctor walked up to the backwards baseball cap man, who was behind the counter.

"Excuse me, but I'm looking for the owner of the diner."He said "Luke, I think?"

"I'm Luke. What do you want?"

"I was wondering if you knew what happened to the man who, I assume, you brought this place from. William Danes?"

"Oh, he's...he's dead. He died about fifteen years ago. He was my father."

"Oh, your father? You look alike. I mean you looked alike. Or he looked like you? Well anyway, I'm sorry to hear that he's dead. Can I have a burger and chips, please?"

"Chips, or fries?"

"Oh, American, sorry. Fries please."

"If you sit down I'll get you your order."

"Got it". The Doctor went to sit down at the table in the corner. He sat there for about an hour. In that time the place filled up completely. It was at about the time that the last table was filled that two people, a girl who looked 18 and a woman who looked 34, came in and looked around. While looking around, the older woman said to the younger "Man, this place is packed."

The younger woman replied "Damn that Zagat Guide."

"We need to start spreading rumours."

"Like vermin."

"Or no portable water."

"Or no portable vermin."

"That ought to scare them away."

"Or confuse them away."

"Only the loser mini table is open."

"What do we do?"

"Time to hover. Oh, no, that man in the corner looks about to leave..." said the older woman, looking at him. The Doctor was in fact not leaving, but had got the biggest table.

"Um, I'm not leaving," He said "But you can sit at the table with me, if you don't mind."

"Oh, no, we won't mind, thanks." The older woman answered "I'm Lorelai, and this is my daughter Rory."

"Your daughter? You look alike."

At that point, Luke came over."Don't bother the man, he's a new customer."

"Oh, no." Said the Doctor"They weren't bothering me. And can I get another plate of chips?"

"Yep. And Lorelai?" Luke said, turning to the older woman.

"Two giant cups of coffee, and two donuts. Oh, and chilli fries."

"Luke, when will Jess get back from school?" asked Rory.

"Um," thought Luke, looking out the window "Oh, look, he's here now." Just then, a young man, who The Doctor assumed was Jess, walked in and sat next to Rory. He kissed her then turned to The Doctor "Who are you?" He asked

"Oh, I'm The Doctor."

"How is that a name?" Lorelai put in.

"I guess it just is. John Smith if you want a real name."

"John Smith. Nice to meet you." Said Lorelai, and the others all nodded in agreement.

"So," said Lorelai, continuing the conversation "What do you do for a living?"

"What do I do?" said the doctor, wandering how to answer their question

"Yeah, like I run an inn, Jess works here, at the diner, Rory is very lazy and doesn't have a job, and Luke" she said, pointing at Luke, who had gone back behind the counter, followed by Jess, "owns the diner."

"I travel, just go places."

"Oh, cool!" said Rory, deciding to join the conversation "So where do you go?"

"Anywhere and everywhere."

"So, where was the last place you visited?"

"London, in 2008."

"How is that possible? It's 2003?"

"Well, if I told you it might violate my privileges as a traveller in time."

"You're a time traveller? How is that possible?" said Lorelai.

"Again, if I told you it would violate my privileges as a traveller in time! Weren't you listening?" said the Doctor, slightly exasperated.

"Ok, calm down" said Lorelai.

"Anyway, can we see your ship?" said Rory, trying to move the subject slightly before her mother could make a rude comment

"Of course you can. Look out the window, it's the blue box." The Doctor replyed

"But thats not much of a ship. How does it fly?"

"It doesn't fly, it just sort of disappears then appears where you want to go."

"Wow! Can you take us somewhere? Can we go anywhere?"

"Actually, I was in need of some spare parts, and thats why I came here. Williams Hardware. William used to look at my alien parts and tell me what I could use to replace them."

"Oh, well Luke could probably do that for you, he's an expert." Said Lorelai, sounding slightly smug.

"Okay, I can give it a try."

"Hey, if you have a thing to fix, Luke can fix it. He's my super Mr Fix It Man....I'm working on the name."

Rory butted in, saying "But his tool belt will glow!"

"Yeah, and smell like roses. Hmm, to much?"

"What's to much?" said Luke, walking over.

"Your Super-Mr-Fix-It tool belt glowing and smelling like roses."

"I don't have a Super-Mr-Fix-It tool belt."

"Well, obviously not now, you haven't turned around a lot of times very fast in a phone box. Duh!"

"What the..." said Luke, but he was cut off by the Doctor, who said "I'm told you can tell me what things I need to buy if I show you some broken parts?"

"Yep, just let me see them."

The Doctor produced what looked like the debris that you get at the bottom of a tool box out of his pockets.

"Um, that looks like a four ply inch bolt, and a four ply inch screw. That looks like a double V plug, and that... looks like... a Spiderman action figure with the paint taken off."

"It's a Zeus plug! And it's not broken, thank you very much, it's just a spare." With that, the Doctor put the action figure look-alike back in his pocket."And, and the last one..." he said "Ah-ha!" The Doctor had taken out of his pocket another bunch of debris.

"I can do that, easy!" said Lorelai "Thats some yo-yo with a broken string, thats some ripped sticky notes, thats a DVD with a really bad scratch and thats...another Spiderman. Or Zeus plug or whatever you called it."

"Four ply inch bolt, four ply inch screw, double V plug, yo-yo, sticky notes, a DVD. I knew I had seen a DVD before, cause it looks like a circle dodo socket. Thanks."

And with that, the Doctor left.

"Okay, we got marshmallows, we got peanut butter, and jelly beans, we got red vines, we got toaster waffles, and the pizza is on its way. Anything missing?"

"Nope. We're gonna be so sick!"

"Well, you can't watch "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" without massive amounts of junk food. It's the law."

Rory and Lorelai were having a movie night, about a month after they had met the weird man in Luke's. They had almost completely forgotten about it, when they heard a weird noise.

"Whats that?" asked Lorelai?

"I have no idea. Sounds like its coming from the kitchen" Rory replied

Just then, they heard a voice "Hello? Anybody here?"

Rory and Lorelai both screamed. Rory, the first one to recover the use of her brain, said "Be careful. Put your hands up and enter, and beware, I have a gun."

"Doctor, they've got guns." Said a voice from the kitchen.

"I know Donna, but I haven't. They can shoot me dead, but the moral high ground is mine."

"John Smith?" asked Lorelai questioningly.

"Yep, thats me."

"Why are you here?"

"I wanted to reward Rory for her help fixing my TARDIS so that I could save Donna from savage beasts. You've already got your reward, and Luke too, but Rory has yet to be rewarded."

"What was my reward?"

"A happy life. I went back in time and told Luke to tell you that he liked you. That was his reward too."

"Ooh, can we see my future?" asked Rory.

"Sure, but you can't change anything. And rule number 1 is don't wander off."

"Got it."

"Oh, and wear this, that way people people won't be able to see you." The Doctor handed Rory a key on some string, and motioned for her to step into the TARDIS.

The TARDIS materialised where a young woman was packing up for the day. Her phone rang, and she went to answer it. As no-one was around, she put it on speaker.

"Hi! I'll be home by nine." She said.

A voice that Rory recognised as Jess answered. "Okay, but hurry. I know you love it at that office but you have to come home some time. I miss you."

"Sure. And if I didn't work as hard as I did, I wouldn't be the editor of this newspaper."

"I love you, you work freak. So, did you interview the replacements?"

"Yep, and none of them were good enough. What stupid bozo invented maternity leave, anyway?"

"The stupid bozo that worked towards babies not being born ill. I know you hate it, but it's for the baby."

"Yeah, I know. So, did you read the Stanford Gazette?"

"You have forbidden me from reading any other paper than the Times, cos you're the editor."

"I know, but this morning I walked past a newspaper stand and I happened to spot the Stanford Gazette saying that it had reviewed "The Long Morrow.""

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah. Can I just quote the article?"

"Go ahead."

""Mariano's fifth book is his best yet.... Anyone who does not like this book will be shunned by all his/her friends for expressing such blasphemous views, but this is almost definitely not going to happen as this book is the best I have ever read!"

(Younger) Rory turned round and looked at the Doctor. Her eyes were shining with tears of pure joy. She needed to say no more. Wordlessly, she followed him back into the TARDIS. She took one last look at her future self, walking out from behind her desk with a slight bulge in her stomach, and closed the door.

(Six years from the beginning of the story)

Jess had looked nervous all night, and Rory was beginning to worry. She was scared that he was going to end the relationship and the perfect future the Doctor had shown her when she was eighteen was going to disappear. They were in the restaurant just eating desert, when Jess looked Rory straight in the eye.

"Rory, I want to tell you, no ask you something." Said Jess, as he got down on one knee "Will you marry me?"

Rory's eyes were bright with tears."Yes." she said, as the romantic proposal from completely out of the blue had thrown her off course. She was crying tears that were exactly the same as the ones that she had cried when she had seen her future. She knelt down and kissed him. She had said only one word, but it was enough.

The End