So, ladies and gents, time for chapter two! Let's see where it goes!

OH! And I got a review on the previous chapter from someone else who likes the song "Ben Franklin's Kite," and pointed out that you can't really tell why the song inspired the story. Just trust me when I say we'll get there! Thought I'd let you know the song was relevant, so you don't all think I'm coo-coo for cocoa puffs. I mean...I am...but still...

Disclaimer: I like cheese and "Gilmore Girls." I don't own either at this time.

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Lorelai watched with a smile as her daughter slobbered and giggled over one of the chew-rings William had given them. They'd been in Stars Hollow for almost a week now, and work at the Inn was going well for Lorelai. Cleaning definitely wasn't something she enjoyed, but she did it well, and did it without ever complaining, even when Mia had her doing the really disgusting stuff. She hadn't seen William or his charming son since the day she retrieved the baby furniture. She kept meaning to stop by the hardware store, but her hours were long and she was always too tired afterward to go anywhere. Most of her evenings, now, were spent with her daughter until they both let exhaustion take hold. Lorelai was beginning to feel guilty, afraid that William would see her as unworthy, or like she'd used him for furniture and never intended to see him again. So as she watched her daughter toss toys about, she decided that after her shift was over, they would both go visit William.

"Lorelai," Mia called to the teenager, who was just returning from her lunch break, daughter in her arms. "Do me a favour before you go back to your work?"

Lorelai walked to the reception desk, "Of course. What is it?"

Mia gestured to the kitchen door, "Could you go tell the kitchen staff that we need to double our asparagus order and cut our sprout order in half?"

Lorelai nodded and started toward the kitchen. She adored the kitchen staff at the Independence Inn, and always looked for an excuse to visit them. Every morning, she wandered in for coffee, to give her the little jolt she needed, and David, the head chef, was the only reason she and Rory hadn't starved yet. He always fixed her two extra plates of whatever had been the breakfast, lunch, and dinner special over the day, and neither of them said a word to Mia about this. He was a very kindhearted man, much like William, but with a much shorter attention span. Today, however, as Lorelai pushed open the kitchen door, she heard him yell for the first time in the week she'd known him.

"No, no, and no. Get the hell out of my kitchen!"

"But, David--" a young, female voice squeaked.

"OUT!"

"Would you just listen?!" The voice yelled back, "I only want to observe you while you're working."

David barked an angry laugh, "Last time you said that, you observed me right in the head with a frying pan."

"It slipped!"

"No."

The voice became whiney and pleading, "But, David, you know how much I love to cook! I just want to watch and see if being a chef is for me." Then, hoping it would tip the scale, she added, "I worship you, David Gaylord."

Lorelai heard David sigh, "Fine, but you sit in a corner and don't touch anything. I mean it this time."

"Yes, sir." Lorelai saw a shorter girl, about her own age, appear from being one of the shelving areas and perch on one of the stools by the far counter. Lorelai cocked an eyebrow and walked over to where David was standing with his eyes closed, trying to regain control over himself.

She smiled widely, "Hi, David!"

He opened his eyes and blinked rapidly, then returned the smile with a sigh of relief, "Oh, Lorelai, good; a sane person."

Lorelai smirked, "That's probably the only time anyone has ever referred to me as sane. Thank you."

He laughed, "Well, compared to today's suspects, you're the poster-child for sanity. That," he pointed to the red-headed girl, "Is Sookie St. James, the klutz of Stars Hollow, and she wants to be a chef."

"Scary."

"No, the scary part is," he shook his head and lowered his voice, "She really is a great cook, and she hasn't had any training."

Sookie smiled, "I heard that! And thank you!" David groaned.

"Oh," Lorelai said, remembering, "Mia sent me in to tell you to double the asparagus order and cut the sprout order in half."

He turned and wrote this down on one of the Post-Its on the counter, "'Kay." When he turned back to her, he smiled, as if noticing Rory for the first time, and gave the baby a little tap on the nose.

Lorelai nodded, "All right. I have to get back to work. I think I'm going to eat out tonight, but lunch was amazing, as usual."

"I aim to please," he told her as she walked to the door.

Before she left, she turned and gave him a cockeyed look, "You're last name is Gaylord?"

He rolled his eyes and pointed to the door, "Out!"

She giggled and left to continue her work. It always took her a little longer to do her work than the other maids, because she had yet to master the art of making a bed right the first time, or getting the entire floor spotless when she vacuumed, plus she had to watch Rory at the same time, so it was almost 7 in the evening before she got off. When she and Rory were both bathed and redressed, Lorelai loaded her daughter into a stroller Mia had given her and they began their trip to the hardware store.

--

Luke was closing up when they got there, and Lorelai rushed through the door right as he was about to lock it. She gave him a "nanner-nanner-boo-boo" grin and asked him where his dad was.

"Up in his office; I'll go get him," then Luke disappeared up the stairs. He came back down a few minutes later, his father on his heels.

When William took sight of the two girls, he smiled and walked over to them, hugging them like they were old friends he hadn't seen in years. "Well, there you are. I was beginning to wonder if you hadn't been swallowed up by the earth."

Lorelai chuckled at this, "No, no swallowing. Work is just a lot harder than I thought it would be, and I tire easily." Luke scoffed from behind the counter, but Lorelai chose the ignore it, her attention on the older man. "But I thought I'd bring Rory by, just so you knew we weren't, you know, freeloaders or anything like that."

"Just because you bring your kid by doesn't mean you aren't a freeloader," Luke mumbled under his breath.

"Lucas!" William hissed at him, a stern look in his eye. Luke only shrugged. Turning back to Lorelai, William apologized, "Don't mind him. I know you aren't freeloaders, and I'm very glad that you came by." He looked down at Rory, then back to her mother, "May I?"

"What? Oh!" Lorelai leaned down and unbuckled the belt of the strolled and picked Rory up, "Of course." She held her out to William, who took her lovingly into his arms and held her to his shoulder. Rory took to him immediately, smiling and taking a handful of his shirt to chew on. "Wow," Lorelai laughed, "You're like a grampy."

"I am a grampy," William pointed out. "My grandson, Jess, is almost two now. I don't see him often," he added as a painful afterthought.

Lorelai frowned, "That's right; Luke mentioned he had a nephew. I'm sorry you don't see him often."

William just shrugged and looked down at Rory, "Hello, there. How are you?"

"Brehgroopva!"

"Ah, me too."

Lorelai smiled, then had a thought, "Would you like to watch her for a few minutes? I was going to run to the market and pick up something for dinner." When William nodded, she smiled, retrieved her wallet from the diaper bag that hung on the stroller's handle, and left. A few minutes later, the phone began to ring upstairs and William frowned, walking over to the counter.

"Lucas," William said, holding the little girl out, "It might be Barry; could you hold her until I get back?"

"What? But--" but the little girl was already in his arms. When William exited, running up the stairs, Luke looked down at the dark-haired baby in his arms, and she stared back up at him with the bluest eyes he'd ever seen. "Hi," he said, unable to think of anything else.

As if it were the most entertaining word in the world, Rory threw both of her arms up and began giggling madly. Luke smiled at this and moved to hold her to his shoulder, so that he could hold her with one arm and use the other to go through reciepts. This plan, however, failed when he ended up having to use the other hand to play a game of catch with Rory's teething-ring. After a few back-and-forths, Luke laughed lightly, "You've got a good arm, there, kid." He handed the ring back to her and she tossed it again, right into his open palm. When he tried to give it back, she refused, turning her cheek and letting her head rest on his broad shoulder. Luke put the ring down on the counter and rubbed her back a few times before he heard her let out a light snore that told him she was asleep. Unsure of what to do, he perched on the stool behind the counter and turned his torso back and forth, to create a slight rocking motion.

Lorelai opened the door, clutching a Doose's market bag in one hand, and stopped at the sight of Luke rocking her sleeping daughter. She grinned, unable to stop herself from comparing her daughter to Cindy Who, melting Grinch-Luke's heart of ice.

"Hey," Luke whispered in his rough voice, "Take her?"

Lorelai shook her head, "No chance, buddy. She likes you, and I'm not about to ruin the moment. Jeez, where's a camera when you need it?"

"Just take her."

"Nope." Lorelai walked over to the counter and put the bag down, rifling through it. She pulled out a premade sandwhich, a can of soda, and a chocolate bar. She tore open the packaging on the sandwhich and took a bite, smiling at Luke when he gave her a very irritated stare. "What? Something on my face?" She asked innocently.

He rolled his eyes and continued rocking Rory, then looked over the food spread across the counter, "You really eat that junk?"

"Its good. Plus, I don't really have a choice."

"Why?"

She swallowed her bite and explained, "See, usually, David gives us leftovers to eat, but since we were out tonight, I figured we'd get something when we were out. But I don't have a ton of money, and I can't buy anything that has to be cooked, or stored. So these are the best options. Plus, did I mention how yummy it is?"

"You could have at least bought an orange or something."

"Fruit is for losers."

Luke scoffed, "Is that how they climb the social food-chain where you come from? You gain popularity by the amount of scurvy you've managed?"

Lorelai sighed, annoyed, "You know, you've got that whole 'judgemental' thing down good."

"I'm not judgemental," he informed her.

"So you're just a prick for no reason?"

"You're a Jedi Master of 'judgemental,' too," his voice was louder now, and startled Rory awake. She began whimpering, close to crying, so Luke resumed rocking her and lowering his voice, "Shh, shh, its okay," his hand came up to rub her back, "To back to sleep." She fell silent and her head crashed against his shoulder again.

Lorelai's eyes were wide, "You are right out of a Robert Louis Stevenson novel, aren't you?"

His eyes shot up, surprised, "You know who Robert Louis Stevenson is?"

Then realization sunk in, and Lorelai knew in a second why Luke had been the way he was toward her, "You thought I was just some dumb bimbo who got herself knocked up and ran, didn't you? Sorry to burst your bubble, kid, but I was one of the top students in my class, and I was at an advanced school."

Luke grumbled, "Don't call me 'kid.' I'm older than you."

Lorelai's hands smacked the table and, in a voice like that of a sports announcer, she said, "That's right, ladies and gentlemen, he did not deny the accusation."

He rolled his eyes, "Okay, I might have thought something like that. But that's not the reason I am how I am. This is just...me."

"So, you are a prick for no reason?"

"No," he shot, "I just don't like people very much. They always have these annoying bits that they can't give up. And the second you smile at someone and strike up polite conversation, they take you to be their best friend and start hanging around all the time, thinking you actually give a damn about every detail of their pathetic lives." He looked at Lorelai and she held an expression that said she'd taken the comment more personally than he'd meant her too, and he sighed, "Hey, that's not even--"

"I'd better get her back," Lorelai told him, putting her food back in the market bag. She reached across the counter and took her daughter from his arms, "Tell William I said goodbye, and that I'll be back to visit soon." She fastened her daughter into the stroller, grabbed the market bag, and went out the door, leaving Luke staring after her. Once she was gone, he sighed and mentally kicked himself for offending his father's friend. This lasted about three seconds before he hardened back up and told himself, She's just sensitive; who cares? and went back to closing up the store.

--

When Lorelai got home and finished eating, she opted not to wake her daughter for her meal. She'd wake up on her own if she got hungry. Lorelai slipped into her pajamas and slid under her blanket, thinking. Luke was good with Rory when he held her, and she'd never seen her daughter fall asleep in anyone else's arms but her own. He'd been very sweet and gentle with her, even as he was being harsh and rude to Lorelai. She sighed, trying to will away the thought going through her head: He may have a Jekyll/Hyde thing going on, but my god, that man is gorgeous.

--

Luke said goodnight to his father and went home to his apartment, which he'd rented only two months before. It was still weird for him, being out on his own, not having to check in with anyone. He showered and changed into a pair of sweatpants and a black t-shirt before sliding between his covers and laying with his eyes opened for a long while, thinking. He hadn't meant anything by what he said to Lorelai, but he couldn't figure out why he cared so much that she'd been offended by it. Then his mind began to drift to a place he didn't want it to go to. Lorelai's sapphire eyes, the way her figure was outlined perfectly by her t-shirt and jeans, her bright smile and the way she'd put up with abrasiveness. He tore his mind from that, only to find it in another place he didn't want it to be, and he was now caught up wondering why he'd felt so comfortable holding little Rory, rocking her to sleep the way a father would. He couldn't figure out why, when he'd held the baby, he'd actually felt like her father.

He shook his head, as if to clear it, god, Danes, get your head on something else. Need you remind yourself, you have a girlfriend! That did the trick. His mind went to Anna and he fell asleep soon after.

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A/N:

Okay, so, good? Bad? Ugly? ...I love that movie...and the song..."Good, Bad, Ugly," by Ani DiFranco... OKAY! My attention span is back; what did you think of this chapter? Remember, as long as you read and review, I'll continue writing!

Oh, and for the record, I have this set up to where Luke is three years older than Lorelai, so he's 20. He's currently dating Anna Nardini [don't worry, there will be NO April drama in my story!, and he CAN cook, which we'll see later. Liz and Jess live in New York already, but they might return later; who knows? Sookie is the same age as Lorelai and attends Stars Hollow High; she'll play a bigger role later. William lives alone in his house [sadness. And...Lorelai's house has no refrigerator or stove.

Also, I hope I didn't offend anyone with the name of Gaylord. I think its a very charming and traditionally-based name, which is to be respected. So...sorry!