AN: I'm back, one week later than I thought. Sorry for that. I want to thank you all so much for the great reviews, faves and follows for this little story of mine. I'm totally overwhelmed. Thanks Junienmomo for betaing, you rock!

Chapter Two: The House Hunters

Lorelai felt completely overwhelmed. This was the third house she was looking at, and though she got better at paying attention to things big and small, this was still beyond her expertise. She looked around the master bedroom, trying to imagine how spacious it would be with furniture. To her, it was more than luxury to have a bedroom the size of her current home. But could she even afford it? Marc, her realtor, hadn't given her the numbers yet. Lorelai has not decided yet if she liked his tactic. From a realtor's point of view it was probably best to let a client fall in love with a house before shocking them with the price, but Lorelai didn't want to get her hopes up in case this would cost too much.

A light knock on the open door pulled her from her reverie.

"Lorelai, there you are", Marc said and smiled politely. He had left her alone after their tour of the house, so she could look at it with Rory, but soon her daughter wanted to look at the yard.

"I was trying to picture it with a bed and dresser."

"That's good, so I take it you like it?"

"It's a beautiful house. I'm just not sure I can afford it", she said honestly.

"OK. Then let me take a look here", he said as he opened his briefcase to take out a sheet of paper with all the data on it. "This house has two bedrooms, two full baths, 1,600 sqft, sits on 4,000 sqft, and asking price is 148,000$."

Lorelai let everything sink in. That would be a lot more than she actually wanted to pay for the house.

"I don't know if Mia told you this, but I will have to buy new furniture, and I don't wanna pay too much for a house."

"No, Mia only told me that you probably wouldn't need a big loan from the bank, and you were very nice and beautiful, which I can testify to now that I met you", he said charmingly.

"Yes, I inherited some money, but I can't afford to spend it all on the house", she said and made a short pause, "and now that I've seen three houses, I think I need a few days before I can make a decision."

"Oh, certainly. That's no problem at all. We could also make a new appointment and I'll show you a fourth option. Unless you think your future house is among the three you've seen."

The first house Marc had shown Lorelai was on Walnut Street, and had great exteriors. When they entered the house though, Lorelai was a bit disappointed. She was imagining a house where no major repairs would be necessary. A coat of paint, stripping the floors, replacing a lock. More work would mean hiring professionals, and that would mean spending more money. What she had found was a house without kitchen cabinets or appliances, a bathroom where the tub had been ripped out, and a few tiles were missing. There were traces of a water damage in the master bedroom, and Lorelai immediately thought of mold.

In the second house, Lorelai felt better, but she was feeling that everything was too perfect. It had three bedrooms, two and a half baths, and was close to the Stars Hollow elementary school. Not that Lorelai would have minded that, on the contrary. She loved the idea of Rory being able to walk to school instead of having to take the school bus. But close proximity to a school also meant noise. And if Lorelai liked one thing, it was sleeping in on a Thursday, her usual day off. Thursday being a school day could endanger this ritual of hers.

"Mom!", her daughter's voice pulled Lorelai out of her thoughts.

"Up here", she replied.

"You can talk it through with your daughter, and give me a call in a few days", Marc offered.

"Yes, there will definitely be a lot of talking necessary", Lorelai nodded.

Rory came into the room, smiling at her mother and the realtor. She tugged her mother down by her arm.

"How long are we going to stay here?", she whispered into Lorelai's ear.

"Not much longer, sweets. Why?"

"I wanna start on my homework for the weekend."

"OK, we'll just be a few more minutes, you can wait in the car if you want", Lorelai suggested.

Rory did just that, and Lorelai gave Marc an apologetic smile.

"Did she just say she wanted to start on her homework? It's only Friday afternoon", he asked.

"She's a special kid. She likes to have Saturdays free for the star assignments", Lorelai said, beaming.

"Star assignments?", Marc asked with a furrowed brow.

"Her teacher always adds extra homework for the students who are faster than others, and marks those with a little star. Rory loves to do those on Saturdays. Sunday is our day together, so she wants all of her homework to be done by Saturday night."

"Wow, that's really... extraordinary. Maybe you're lucky and she'll keep that attitude throughout puberty. I was a good student in elementary and high school. Middle school however..."

Lorelai chuckled. "Yeah, I can relate. Other things are so much more important in 8th grade. Like cutting off your jeans, getting pink streaks or-"

Marc interrupted her "-pranking the janitor."

"You did that?", she asked with eyes wide open.

"Yeah, he was such a weird older man. Don't remember his name. But boy was he grumpy. You asked him if he could unlock the classroom for you after lunch, and he mumbled incoherently, and made you seem like an idiot."

"What did you do to him?"

"My friend Todd put superglue into the lock right before I called him to unlock the door one day, and his master key got stuck", he smiled wickedly.

"You didn't! That's possibly the meanest thing ever!"

"He deserved it though."

"And there were no consequences for you?", Lorelai wondered.

"Oh there were. Todd and I had to pay for a new lock, a new master key, which we took from our allowance. The next day we had to apologize to the entire school via speakers right after the pledge of allegiance", he told her.

"So you got a lot of laughs for the rest of the day?"

Marc nodded, "And quite a few congrats. Most kids really hated the guy."

"We had the greatest janitor in high school. He knew all of our names, and he was very helpful when it came to, well everything. His name was Mr. Scott, he was bald, but not in an ugly way, it kind of fit his face. And I recall in my sophomore year, we finally talked our English teacher Mrs. Rickowsky into knighting him. Even after I had dropped out, I ran into him one day, and he recognized me and still knew my name."

"Who wouldn't remember the name Lorelai? It's the first time I heard it", Marc commented.

"He remembered the Cindys, Brads, and Claudias as well."

Lorelai heard a honk. "That must be Rory. I gotta go, but I'll call you on Monday, OK?"

"Sure, take your time. I want my clients to find their dream home, not just some house."

"Yeah, a house is not a home", Lorelai replied thoughtfully.

Rory snuggled close to her mother, a sign the younger Gilmore girl was slowly waking up. The older Gilmore girl was still in the land of dreams, confused if she took the right train, and determined to put on the emergency brake. It was a recurring dream. Just as she walked through a subway tunnel, Rory's grip on her arm intensified, and Lorelai's eyes fluttered open.

"Good morning mom", Rory said with bright eyes.

"Morning baby girl", Lorelai yawned.

"Have you made up your mind?", she asked her mother.

"Yeah, I wanna go back to sleep."

"About the houses, mom."

"Not really. Maybe after a few more hours of sleep..."

"No more sleep, it's 8.30 already, and I'm getting hungry. Let's walk over to the kitchen and see what Sookie has prepared for brunch."

That's another ritual. Sunday mornings always started with the Independence Inn brunch. 30 minutes later, Lorelai and Rory walked into the kitchen.

"Hi Lorelai, hey munchkin. I'm almost done here. Our buffet is over there", Sookie smiled and motioned to the little counter by the staff table.

She did a separate little buffet for the staff, with more eggs and less salmon. Soon all the waiters were done setting the tables, and entered the kitchen in pairs or small groups. Lorelai and Rory dug in and only two hours later even the crispiest slice of bacon couldn't make it into their fuller than full stomachs.

"You think that the lower parts of our gullets widened considerably right before they're stuck into our stomachs and are used as some sort of extra storage space, like the garage in our digestive systems?", Lorelai asked her daughter.

"Here we go...", Rory moaned.

"What? It's a legitimate question. Sometimes I'm not hungry for half a day, and I want to think that my gullet keeps something extra in there for bad times. Like the hamsters do."

"Firstly, hamsters do not keep extra food in their cheeks for months, and secondly, why would your gullet be the storage unit, when all the food you eat later would push the older food into your stomach?"

"Maybe that new food will just replace the older food in the gullet. It'll stay there."

"Mom, how many times do I have to tell you to not speak your mind after you're completely full? Not to insult your brain, but it works in weird ways when your stomach's busy with digestion. Now, could we please talk about the houses?", Rory whined.

"You think my brain can take on a new task when it hasn't figured out yet where the extra space in my stomach is coming from?"

"You said earlier that you can't make a big decision with an empty stomach. Now you can't make one with a full stomach?"

"I'll need something in the middle. Who thinks hunger or satiety are great?"

"The woman who ate enough for three?"

"She must be crazy then."

"OK, I'll give you an hour, and then we'll talk, mom."

"Alright. What do you wanna do in the meantime?"

"I'll go to the library, and return last week's books."

"Need a ride?"

"Sure."

Lorelai sat in the gazebo and watched people walking by. She smiled at the few she knew. She liked how the town looked with a couple spring flowers here and there, the air had this indescribable, clean smell, and since it was a Sunday it was very quiet. Lorelai stretched her legs and allowed herself to close her eyes for a moment. As the sun warmed her face, she couldn't help but think how save she felt. For the first time in over a decade she had a feeling things were really working out. For the longest time Lorelai had felt like a disappointment to her family, and an utter loser in general. A grown woman living in an 13 by 16 potting shed, sharing a bed with her pre-teen daughter every night, save for a couple sleepovers at Lane's, which she usually didn't spend in her bed either. But that was a thing of the past. Lorelai was feeling she was really growing up now. She had to be grown up in so many other ways, but this money from her grandfather marked the start of growing up financially, too. A smile crept on her face as she again thought about how fitting the name Independence Inn really was.

"Lorelai?", she heard a low female voice say.

She turned around to see Miss Patty approach the gazebo.

"Hi Patty", she greeted her daughter's former ballet teacher.

"What brings you here?", Patty asked as she sat down next to Lorelai.

"I'm waiting for Rory. She's in the library, told me she wanted to bring back the books from last week, but 45 minutes in, I'd say she's already picking the new ones."

"There's only one genre that makes me read, and it doesn't come close to how much she's reading", she said with a wink and a more than explicit tone.

Lorelai was silent, partly because she had no idea how to reply, and partly because she wondered how Patty would recover from that.

"So, I hear you're buying a house, dear?"

"That's the plan. Though I'm not sure which one. We saw three so far, but Marc, that's our realtor, suggested looking at more. For me, this is the first time buying a house, and I don't know if there should be an instant spark with the house, or if I'm supposed to be all rational about it", Lorelai explained her dilemma.

"Oh honey, like in love, it has to be a healthy middle between those two. You have to like it, of course. Sometimes a house has bad wallpaper, but as long as it has good bones, that's just a technicality. You said your realtor was Marc? Marc Feldman?"

Lorelai nodded.

"Now he definitely has good bones, and good wallpaper...", Patty commented.

"Patty!", Lorelai gasped.

"What? You can't tell me an attractive girl like you hasn't noticed his... wallpaper?", she said suggestively.

"He's my realtor! I've been focussing on the houses. And he must be ten years older than me."

"You wanna know the difference between twenty-something men and thirty-something men? Experience! Just don't let yourself be blinded by nice wallpaper, only to realize later that the bones weren't so great after all. If I had known that when I was your age, husband number two would never have happened", Patty said as she lost herself in memories.

When Lorelai again was at a loss for words and didn't know how to steer the conversation back to things that weren't awkward, she was saved by Rory who finally decided to come out of the library.

"Hey kid!", Lorelai yelled across the town square.

Rory happily bounced over the lawn, though a heavy bag in her right hand made it considerably harder not to trip.

"They throw you out yet?", Lorelai asked her daughter.

"Very funny", Rory grimaced, adding, "I'm hungry. You think we can have pie?"

"Sure, we can go to Weston's", Lorelai suggested.

"Haven't you heard, honey?", Patty interjected.

"What?", Lorelai asked and she and Rory looked at her with eyes wide open.

"They're closed the entire week because they're painting. The re-opening is on Friday."

"How could I not know this? We get our dinner rolls from them at the inn", Lorelai asked.

"Their bakehouse is still running for all their contracts with other businesses. Paulette told everyone at the last town meeting", Patty informed the Gilmore girls.

"Paulette?", Lorelai asked.

"She's the town selectman. She owns the Black, White and Read bookstore and leads the town meetings."

"Damn, I really need to start going to those", Lorelai remarked.

"Yeah, maybe when you live closer to the town square. Luke's is open though. And I heard about your little, how should I put this, sparks last week?"

"Sparks?", Lorelai asked her in utter confusion.

"Babette and Tilly had lunch at the diner that day and told everyone how you made him smile for the first time that day. Apparently he also gave in to cutting Kirk's sandwiches in stars that day."

"Who is this Kirk guy? Luke mentioned him, too", Lorelai wanted to know.

"Oh honey, you'll meet him, and you'll instantly know", Patty explained, but Lorelai was just shaking her head lightly at Patty's vagueness.

"OK, I think we'll go to Luke's then?", she asked in Rory's direction, who sat next to her mother, deeply immersed in a book.

Mother and daughter stood up, and Lorelai smiled at the ballet teacher. "Thanks for the advice, Miss Patty."

"You're welcome, dear. And don't let yourself be scared away by the wallpaper. There's great bones where you're heading", she said with a wink, knowing the deeper meaning of her words would fly over Rory's head.

Lorelai felt the heat in her cheeks, and went side by side with Rory to the corner of Luke's diner. When they entered, she was surprised to see the exact opposite of how the diner had looked like when she had last been there almost two weeks ago: empty.

Lorelai cleared her throat. "Um, hello?"

Luke came out of the kitchen, wiping his flour-covered hands on his apron.

"Well hello", she repeated with a smile.

"Hi. Take a seat anywhere", he said, went back to the kitchen and washed his hands.

A moment later he came out, had lost his apron, grabbed two menus from under the counter and handed them to Lorelai and Rory.

"Mom, can I have a hot chocolate? I know it's not cold anymore, but I kinda feel like having one", Rory asked.

"Sure, hon", Lorelai nodded as she perused the menu.

"And maybe we can order different pies and then split them?", the ten year old asked her mother.

"Sounds good, there are no pies on the menu though", she said and craned her neck for eye contact with the diner owner.

"Excuse me?", Rory said loud enough for Luke to hear and surprised her mother with her openness.

Luke came to their table, pen and paper in hand. He looked at them expectantly.

"What kinds of pies do you have?", Rory asked again.

"Are you that hungry, sweets?", Lorelai wanted to know.

"It's the books, they always make me hungry."

Luke watched and listened to their exchange. He cleared his throat. "I still have rhubarb, apple, blueberry, peach, and boysenberry."

"We'll definitely take one boysenberry, and one apple?", Lorelai asked and looked to her daughter, who nodded in confirmation.

"And a hot chocolate and coffee, please", she added.

Only a short while later they had pies and their beverages in front of them.

"Remember when I told you about our school hiking trip?", Rory asked her mother.

"Yeah", she nodded.

"Miss Bell made a list about whose parents have agreed, whose parents haven't agreed yet, and those who won't come."

"OK", Lorelai replied questioningly.

"Maybe we could make a list about the houses", Rory suggested.

"What do you mean? Like a to-do list?"

"No, I mean when you told me last night that you hadn't made up your mind yet because it was all based on your gut feeling", Rory said and waited for a response.

"Yeah, it's hard to weigh out the pros and cons."

"Then why don't we write them down? The longest pro column wins. That way you can't say it's about your gut."

"Alright. I like that. Do you have paper?", Lorelai asked as she rummaged through her purse for a pen.

Rory shook her head. "Maybe you can ask the man with the apron?"

Lorelai stood up, and walked to the still empty counter. She saw Luke in the small kitchen as he expertly kneaded dough and recognized the technique Sookie used.

"Hello?", Lorelai asked, and added Is it me you're looking for? in her head.

"In a second", she heard him mumble, before he came out a moment later.

"Can I borrow a piece of paper?"

"That depends", he smiled.

"On...?"

"When you plan on returning it", he said and his smile was a full blown smirk now.

Wow, the diner man can joke. His smile doesn't look too bad either, Lorelai thought.

"Maybe on the 35th of May", she said and his smile widened at the callback of a joke he made when they had first met.

"I expect more for my birthday", he countered.

"I thought I was banned from the diner on your birthday, your actual birthday that is", she retorted, her smile making sure he'd second-guess the seriousness of her statements.

He got more serious and his smile fell. "I, uh, didn't think you'd come back here after... last time."

"Well", she said, "you make a decent cup of coffee. And Weston's is closed till Friday".

No need to admit his coffee is the best thing since sliced bread.

"What I'm trying to say is that I'm sorry. I was stressed that day, and it was unfair to attack you in front of everyone. I actually was hoping I'd see you at the town meeting so I could apologize", he explained, his eyes barely looking up to hers.

"Yeah, I really need to go to those. I hear they're always very entertaining."

"That's one way to look at it", he grunted.

"Everyone has a bad day once in a while."

"Yeah, I just felt really bad afterwards. I'm sorry", he said genuinely.

"Apology accepted. So, um, how about that paper?", she asked.

"Oh, right", Luke said and took his order pad, "One enough?"

"Actually, maybe three. The pad isn't very large."

Luke ripped out three sheets of paper, and handed them to her.

"Thanks, now I know what to give you for your birthday."

"Oh, I don't think three sheets of paper are beatable."

"Just you wait", she said with a smirk.

Lorelai went back to her table, where Rory waited patiently.

"Look", she said and waved the paper in front of Rory's face.

"Cool", Rory smiled and finished the last of her apple pie.

"So, what's the verdict?"

"The boysenberry was very good, and the apple reminded me of those apple tarts that grandma makes for Christmas."

"High compliment", Lorelai nodded, "I liked the boysenberry a lot."

She cleared her throat. "OK, so um, what did you like about the first house?"

"It had a great yard. And it looked nice from outside", Rory recalled as Lorelai was taking notes.

"Yeah, I liked that, too. But the rest looked like a lot of work. It was cheaper than the other two, but that might be a bit tricky. What if it's more expensive after the repairs?"

"Then write that in the con column. And that the second bedroom was very small."

"Alright, noted. What about the second house?"

"It's close to school, so I could sleep longer. And I liked the kitchen. We've never had a kitchen before, besides Sookie's at the inn. So having an own kitchen will be awesome."

"Yeah, but it was so big. Not the kitchen, I mean the house in general. It'd be like living in a museum compared to the potting shed."

"What about the third?"

"Honey, it's way too expensive. We'd have almost nothing to do but move in, but I'm afraid I wouldn't have any money left for furniture if we took that house."

A frown spread on Rory's face. "So what does it mean?"

"I think it means we need to look at a few more houses."

"Yeah?", Rory said and her face lit up.

"Yeah, what are you so happy about?"

"Just that you made a decision. I hated not knowing..."

"Come here, sweets", she said and hugged her daughter. "I think a celebration is in order. More pie?"

"Make it à la mode and I'm in."

"That's my girl!"

Twenty minutes later the second helping of pie was eaten and the boysenberry plate may or may not have been licked clean.

"Hey mom?"

"Hmmm?"

"Lane's coming out of church, can I talk to her?"

"Sure, hon."

And with that Rory ran out of the diner and Lorelai watched with a smile as she hugged her best friend and both girls jumped up and down. Lorelai stood up and walked to the counter, where Luke was sorting through receipts.

"Delicious pie", she remarked. "Didn't know Weston's made such a great boysenberry pie."

"I actually made that myself."

"No kidding? Wow, you're like the perfect housewife with your apron and your secret pie recipe", she mocked him.

"It's not exactly a secret."

"Sure it is. If it weren't, you'd be ruling the world because everyone was addicted to your pie. Like you're the biggest pie kingpin or something", she babbled.

"You're nuts", he said, but couldn't help but smile at her craziness.

"If you say so. All addicts believe what their dealer is saying."

"I'm not a dealer, or a pie kingpin. There is no such thing."

"I think Betty Crocker begs to differ."

"So, um, how's the house hunting going?", he asked her, apologetically adding, "I couldn't help but overhear."

"It's going fine, we're a bit stuck, so we need to look at a few more houses. Why? Got some real estate tips?"

"No. Just don't let anyone know what you yelled here last time. If realtors know how much money you got, they're totally gonna rip you off."

"Oh. I thought you were gonna talk about wallpaper and bones..."

He gave her an unknowing look.

"Never mind", she said with a dismissive wave of her hand. "Am I allowed to pay today?"

"Sure. You did pay last time, if I recall correctly."

They exchanged smiles, and Lorelai paid their bill.

As she walked to the door, she heard Luke say, "Maybe I'll see you at the next town meeting?"

She nodded, and when she was almost out the door, she stuck her head in the diner again, and told him, "My name's Lorelai by the way. And you shouldn't hide those teeth behind your lips. You have a killer smile, you know."

And with that, Lorelai again had left him with an open mouth, before a smile slowly crept on his face.

Hope you liked it, let me know in a review if you will.