"No Wowy," she said after a moment, finally turning to look at Lorelai, a red block in one hand and a blue one in the other.
"I know that," she said with a smile as she got up off the couch and convinced Charlie to follow her. "We'll move your bed down here," she said as she stood in the door frame. "We'll move the furniture around to fit you in here." She watched as her youngest looked around the room with a critical eye and considered what was being proposed of her to the best of her ability.
"No," she said firmly. "Wowy woom," she insisted as she quickly turned and left the room, heading back to the living room and her blocks. Lorelai frowned, this was going to be harder than she had anticipated, but she didn't have much choice. She had caught Charlie trying to climb out of her crib the other day and she was also starting to want to have her room all to herself again. She'd give Charlie another week to get used to the idea, or until she could get Rory home to help her re-arrange furniture. Lorelai took a moment to wonder if Charlie's response to moving into Rory's room was indicative of what her response to toilet training was going to be. Lorelai had been making out budgets and if she could get Charlie out of diapers, she'd have a little extra cash to play with. Not a real significant amount, but it was enough that it might keep her and Charlie fed for another week.
"And to think, I used to be happy with your sense of determination and stubbornness. . ." Lorelai quipped as she pushed herself off of the door frame and cast a glance at Charlie before she finished gathering up the papers she needed to take to Sookie's. "Come on Sweets, let's go and see Sookie," she said after a moment, making sure that she had tucked everything away into her bag. Charlie looked up from her blocks and frowned a little when she saw the her mother was already standing at the door.
"Wait," she said firmly as she pushed herself up off the ground and rushed over to her toy box. She quickly pulled out a little case that was in there before hurrying back to where she was playing. She quickly shoved the case full of blocks and managed to get it closed again. "Otya, go," she said as she joined Lorelai. With a shake of her head, the elder Gilmore threw the door open and watched as her toddler marched through and held tightly to the railing as she slowly descended the stair case. Realising that Charlie was heading off with out her, Lorelai quickly locked the door and hurried after the little girl, grabbing her hand as they made their way into to town.
"You would not, in a million years, believe what Sookie signed us up for," Lorelai proclaimed to the diner as she and Charlie strode in. Luke and the small pre-dinner crowd turned to look at the pair. "Well?" she asked Luke as she heaved Charlie up into her chair.
"Oh, you really wanted me to guess," he said, sounding more than a little disinterested as he came over with a mug of coffee for her and some juice for Charlie. "Sorry," he said when he saw the look on Lorelai's face.
"She signed us up to cater Aaron Thompson's Lord of the Rings birthday party next week without telling me." Luke blinked at her and commented that she didn't cook. She quickly corrected him, saying that Sookie would be cooking and she was going to have to get costumes, props, decorations and the movies together.
"That doesn't sound so bad," Luke commented with a bit of a shrug. "Don't you love doing things like that?"
"Well, yeah. But I usually have more than a week to get stuff like this together. Hey, could you," she started. Luke cut her off, saying that he had plans and that there was no way he could work Charlie into them. She arched an eyebrow and sent him a look.
"You spend way too much time here to be able to spring babysitting on me any more," he said calmly. "Order?"
"I didn't mean tonight," she assured him before saying that they weren't going to order and leaning over to pick up the sippy cup Charlie had knocked to the ground. She put it back on the table and took one more sip of coffee before she pulled Charlie into her arms and pushed away from the table. "I now, apparently, have stuff I need to pick up."
"What do you mean not tonight?," he called out after them as he watched Lorelai and Charlie quickly breeze out of the diner.
"Come on, come on, come on," Lorelai called to Charlie as she rushed the little girl into the house. "We're late," she said as they got into the house. As Charlie sighed in frustration at her mother, Lorelai raced through the house, grabbing the phone, some plates, napkins and a cup for Charlie before she rushed back into the living room and plopped down on the couch just as the phone rang.
"They burnt our fries, forgot to give me an extra side of barbecue sauce, the jeep is making that crunchy sound again, Charlie refuses to even consider giving up diapers and I have to spend my evening making elf ears for Aaron Thompson's Lord of the Rings party," she said quickly as she handed Charlie some fries.
"Grandma broke into my dorm and redid the entire common room in $25 000 worth of furniture and stereo equipment," Rory lamented as she picked at her dinner.
"You win," Lorelai sighed as she poured some of the soda into Charlie's cup and listened to Rory lament about the room and not knowing what to do about the whole situation. Lorelai smirked a little as Rory started to lay out a plan about how she was going to break things to her grandmother. Lorelai quickly spilled out the down side to Rory telling Emily that she couldn't keep the furniture, including the guilt trip she was going to get.
"Or I could keep the furniture," Rory sighed in defeat.
"Yes, you could," Lorelai said confidently before she jerked forward and saved her soda from hitting the floor when Charlie grabbed for it.
"This is great," Rory lamented as she tossed her chip back into the take out container. She had suddenly lost her appetite.
"Hon, seriously, if you feel strongly, say something. I just want you to be prepared, that's all," Lorelai said as she hung on to the cup so Charlie could get her fill because apparently, the soda in Charlie's cup just wasn't good enough.
"I know."
"And take heart in knowing that when it comes to controlling a person, my mother targeted my soul, my independence, and my entire future, and at least with you, she threw in an ottoman," Lorelai offered with a shrug as she dug her burger and Charlie's chicken fingers out of the take out bag. The smile on Lorelai's face grew a little larger as she listened to Rory sigh again before the subject was changed.
"Leave the horn the bow and the bill," Lorelai told Lane with a sympathetic smile. With a sigh, the teenager gathered up the cape and slowly left the house, the weight of having to go to an Adventist college sitting heavily on her. Lorelai and Sookie both watched as Lane headed out of the house. "Charlie, what are you doing?" Lorelai called out after she had finished checking over her list of supplies again. The toddler had been far to quiet for far too long.
"Books! Lotsa books!" Charlie called back from the living room.
"My mother bought her a box of books this summer and they only managed to read 12 of them. That box must have held 200 books," she said with a shake of her head. "How on earth did they only manage to read 12?"
"Lots of social events?" Sookie asked. She knew that Lorelai came from a rich family, but she was just now starting to realise exactly how rich is rich. All Lorelai could do was shake her head again before she began lamenting about finding a cheep sitter for the party. Sookie asked about Heather, but Lorelai quickly explained that they were officially on a budget and Heather had been budgeted in for a certain amount of hours a week with little to no lee-way.
"What about Jackson?" Lorelai asked hopefully. "They seemed to get along last time."
"Sure," Sookie said brightly. "As long as he doesn't have to do any actual work. . . "
"Really?" Sookie nodded before explaining that Jackson was all for playing with her, but really wasn't down with the bathing, diaper changing and feeding aspects.
"Something about her not being his, I think." Lorelai chuckled and couldn't help but add that Luke had used the same excuse in the beginning.
"I need to get out and meet more people. I'm running out of ways to just surprise Luke and get away with it. He actually managed to say no to me the other night." Sookie put down her pen to stare at Lorelai. "Of course, it was a pre-emptive no and I had left before he realised that I had said I wasn't asking about that night in particular." The pair shared a laugh over this that was interrupted by Charlie, demanding to be read to and not taking no for an answer. Sookie took this as an opportunity to gather her things and head home to start cooking. "Alright my little book worm, let's start in on those books," Lorelai said with a smile as she watched Charlie turn and race back out to the kitchen before she got up and followed, leaving all the Lord of the Rings paraphernalia she had assembled in the kitchen.
As the party she and Sookie were supposed to cater grew closer and closer, Lorelai still hadn't nailed down a sitter for Charlie. In a last ditch effort, she was trying to lure Rory home from Yale for the night. Unfortunately, it wasn't going well.
"Come on Rory, you miss your sister, don't you?"
"Of course I do," she said, finally looking up from the text book she was reading. "But I have a lot of work to do. A lot of readings and some notes to finalise," Rory explained.
"And you can't do that here?" Lorelai asked.
"Why don't you ask Grandma and Grandpa to take her over night? They love having her over," Rory suggested, trying to bring the conversation to an end so she could get back to work. Lorelai quickly vetoed that idea. She quickly launched into how they'd had her all summer and Lorelai felt absolutely no need to send her back to them any sooner than necessary. "Well, maybe they'll come here," Rory tried again but held in a sigh when her mother made up yet another excuse about Saturday afternoon being DAR time. "So, what are you going to do with her then? Bring her with you?"
"Maybe," Lorelai said quietly. Rory rolled her eyes on the other end of the phone.
"Well, you've obviously got a lot to figure out, so I think I'm gonna let you get to that."
"Come on Rory," Lorelai started. Rory bowed out of the conversation a second time and the girls eventually hung up and Lorelai was the one who rolled her eyes this time as she tossed the phone onto the couch beside her. Charlie and Lorelai locked eyes for a moment before Charlie shifted her glance to the phone.
"Wowy?" she asked, pointing a finger to the phone.
"Yeah, that was Rory." Charlie pushed herself up off the floor, Charlotte in one hand, and wandered over, asking if Rory was coming home. Her face fell a little when Lorelai said she wasn't but the little girl perked up soon enough when Lorelai announced that it was time for a bath. With a little squeal and a smile, Charlie quickly headed upstairs, Lorelai on her heels. Eventually, as bath time drew to a close, Lorelai sat back and let her mind wander as Charlie continued to splash away. Inevitably, her mind wandered to places that she didn't want it to and she found herself thinking about Luke and the playpen he kept stashed away in his closet and, eventually, she came back to him and Nicole and what this was doing to his relationship.
As she pulled a less than happy Charlie from the tub and wrapped her tightly in a towel, she decided that this was the last time she was going to leave Charlie with Luke, even if it meant that she was going to have to get her parents more involved in her life and Charlie's.
Luke frowned a little as he watched Lorelai dash out of the diner and off to some kids birthday party before he shifted his gaze to the toddler who was watching the controlled chaos of the lunch rush from her high chair near the back of the diner. Luke's frown deepened when he saw Patty come into the diner and notice the little girl just before she took a seat. She changed her mind and headed to Charlie, interrupting her people watching and Luke got the sinking feeling that what could have been a fairly peaceful afternoon was going to become rather loud in a few moments. Fortunately for Luke, Patty disappeared soon after she had arrived, only really having time to stop in for a cup of coffee and a muffin before she had to get back to teaching the next wave of little ballerinas.
"How about some lunch?" he offered after Patty had left. Charlie watched him as he handed her her juice cup before looking around the diner at what other people were having.
"Dat?" she asked, pointing to Kirk's half eaten club sandwich. She continued to point as she looked up at him.
"I would love to know where you get your food choices from," he said with a shake of his head. While he couldn't talk Lorelai or Rory into a club sandwich on the best of days, Charlie regularly picked the healthier alternatives on the menu.
"Luke?" Charlie called out, just before he got out of ear shot. "Does too," she said, pointing at a plate of fries as it passed by.
"Let there never be any doubt who your mother is," he muttered as he headed to the kitchen.
As the dinner rush died down and Charlie ran out of people to watch, Luke began to wonder exactly how long a kids birthday party could go on. Grudgingly, he let Charlie out of her chair and gave her free reign of the nearly empty diner, ignoring Kirk's offers to take the little girl off of his hands while he wiped down the tables. Charlie followed Luke for a while, watching him carefully as he moved from table to table, clearing plates before he cleaned the table top.
"Me too?" she asked after a few more tables.
"You can't even see the top of the table," he commented as he kept going. The little girl frowned, she didn't often hear a flat out no.
"Me too! Me too!" she said again, bouncing a little as she tried to convey how urgent her want to help was. With a heavy sigh, Luke looked down at the little girl before he dropped his cloth into her hands and went to find another. As he started on one of the last tables he had to clean, he glanced over at Charlie and couldn't help but smile as she studiously worked on making sure the chairs were clean enough to sit on. As he finally shook himself out of his observations and got back to cleaning, the bells above the door jingled and he looked up, hoping that it was Lorelai.
"Hey Luke," Nicole said with a smile as she slipped in.
"Hey," he replied some what absently. Luke was more than a little shocked to see her again so soon because Stars Hollow was more than a little out of Nicole's way.
"Who's your friend?" she asked when she saw Charlie peaking around a chair at her.
"You know Charlie," he said as he fidgeted with the cloth in his hand for a moment.
"Right, of course," she said, sounding less than pleased as she watched the little girl hurry over as Luke tossed the cloth onto a table before he swept her up into his arms. Nicole watched as Charlie kept an eye on her, but quickly began to try convince Luke to head upstairs and find something to do. Eventually, having had enough complaining, Luke called out to Caesar that they were heading upstairs and ushered the girls upstairs.
"Uh, just give me a minute," he said as he put Charlie down and pulled out a cardboard box from the closet. "Here," he said to Charlie as she wandered over to see what he had pulled out. Satisfied that she was distracted, Luke moved on to his other guest who was taking in the disaster area that was his apartment.
"Well," Nicole said as she took a seat at the kitchen table while Luke put the kettle on for tea. "I was going to see if you wanted to catch a last minute movie, but you seem to already have plans for the evening."
"Oh, yeah. Lorelai and a friend of hers are catering some kind of party and she couldn't find a sitter."
"So you volunteered," she filled in. Luke was tempted to make a sarcastic comment, but decided against it.
"Uh, yeah, I volunteered," he said as he found cups and searched through the cupboard for the sugar bowl. "She should be back soon, I mean, how long can a kids party last?" he asked rhetorically with a snicker that Nicole returned, somewhat awkwardly.
"Well, I'm glad that the redecorating isn't permanent," she said as she moved Charlie's bag from on top of the table to the chair beside her before she pushed some of the other paraphernalia on the table to the side. Before glancing around at the other toddler items that were strewn around the apartment. Luke took a moment to glance around his place as well and suddenly had a feeling that he should be very glad he hadn't pulled out the playpen to stash Charlie in. Having a box of toys in your closet was one thing, but having a playpen when you don't have a kid of your own is a completely different story. As the water finished boiling and Luke brought the cups to the table, Charlie looked up from the box that she was pulling things out of. She stared at the wooden block in her hand for a moment.
"Luke! Dis?" she asked holding it up. Her brow furrowed as she tried to figure out how this could be a block too when all her blocks at home were coloured and plastic. She stared at the block again for a moment before she dropped it to the floor and went looking for something else to play with.
"What I wouldn't give for a stiff shot of tequila right about now," Lorelai muttered as she dumped the bags of jimmy's and other candies into bowls while Sookie and her kitchen staff moved the store bought food from box to oven to plate and finally to the kids. She took a moment to assure Sookie that all was forgotten and that it wasn't a big deal.
"Why don't you head home," Sookie finally suggested as the last of the food was served to the kids.
"We still have to clean up," Lorelai replied as she finished arranging the cupcakes on a plate. Sookie assured her that she and her boys would have it covered.
"We can have the kitchen cleaned up by the time they're done eating and have the rest mostly cleaned up before the kids have even headed home," Sookie finished as she and Lorelai locked eyes. Lorelai considered her options for a long moment before she finally agreed. She returned a small smile as she gathered up her things and handed Sookie the papers she had in her bag detailing their hours of work and what they should be paid. After a quick explanation to Sookie about things and insisting that she call her if there were any more problems, Lorelai packed up and headed to Luke's to pick up Charlie.
"Oh my God, you would not believe what happened at the party," Lorelai exclaimed as she dashed into the diner. "Where's Luke?" she asked Caesar. He nodded up the stairs and after thanking him, she dashed up the stairs. "Oh my God, you would not believe what happened at the party," she exclaimed again. "Sookie made all this adult food and green mac and cheese and a huge rum raisin cake and Nicole," she stopped in her tracks when she noticed the blonde and Luke sitting at the kitchen table. "You should have told me you had plans," Lorelai said as she headed over to where Charlie was sitting on the floor to start cleaning up the toys around her.
"I was a surprise," Nicole said as she grabbed Charlie's bag and headed over to Lorelai.
"Ah," she said with a bit of a smile as she tossed the rest of the blocks into the box. "Well, kind of like Charlie. Thanks," she said, accepting the bag from Charlie. "You ready Sweets?"
"No," Charlie replied as she got up and headed over to the coffee table where a few of her books were still sitting. Lorelai didn't give her a chance to get over to them before she had scooped the little girl up into her arms and headed for the door.
"Thanks again Luke," she said quickly, raising her voice to be heard over the tantrum Charlie was starting to throw. "Nice to see you again Nicole," she added with a bit of a smile as she slipped out of the door, her bag and Charlie's starting to slide down her arm. "Sabotage," she muttered to herself as she headed down the stairs to her jeep.
After finally settling Charlie down on the living room floor with Charlotte, a snack and a stack of books taller than she was, Lorelai had a spare moment to grab the phone and quickly dial Rory's number.
"Nicole is back," she said as soon as she heard Rory breathing on the other end.
"I know," Rory said. "You told me about her and Luke still being together."
"No, Nicole is back, back," she said again, trying to convey how serious the situation was.
"What do you mean back, back?" she asked as she put down her pen and sat back from her desk and the piles of work that were spread out in front of her. She listened, almost in disbelieve as Lorelai rambled through a brief summary of the disaster that was the Lord of the Rings party before she got into the nitty gritty of the situation.
"So, I stroll," Rory cut her off and Lorelai could hear the smile on her face.
"Stroll?" Lorelai ignored her and kept going.
"So I stroll into Luke's and up to his apartment and there's him and Nicole at the kitchen table, talking and laughing over tea while Charlie tries to figure out how wooden blocks compare to her plastic ones." Lorelai waited as the line fell silent, she knew that Rory was digesting this and, right on cue, she asked what they were talking about. "No real idea, they both dropped silent and quickly began gathering up Charlie's things to usher me out."
"You sound stressed," Rory said after a moment.
"I do not," Lorelai said, almost too quickly as she turned and wandered back out to the living room to sit on the couch.
"You do," Rory said again, not giving Lorelai a chance to come up with any more excuses. "Does it bother you that they're still together?" she asked quickly, almost worried about what the answer was going to be. Lorelai sputtered for a moment before she got out a less than convincing 'no'. "Uh huh," Rory said, picking up her highlighter again.
"Don't say uh huh, there is no uh huh," Lorelai said quickly, leaning forward on the couch a little. "Anyways, that sounded a little distracted, are you studying?"
"I am, but. . "
"Then I should let you go," Lorelai said quickly and all Rory could do was shake her head and sit back in her chair. "I'll call you tomorrow hon, me and Charlie love ya and we miss ya lots, bye!" she said, adding some false happiness to her voice as she clicked the receivers off and turned her attention to the toddler, just in time to watch her carefully pull an apple skin, devoid of any apple from her mouth and make sure it stuck to the side of the bowl before she picked up the next piece. Lorelai returned her attention to the receiver in her hand for a moment before she tossed it onto the coffee table and flopped back on the couch. There was something about Nicole that didn't sit right with her. She couldn't put her finger on what the something was, but it was there, no matter how many happy faces and "I'm happy for you's" she offered to Luke. Her mind took a sharp detour to the conversation she and Sookie had had last spring on their walk to the burned out Independence Inn, about the thing Luke didn't have for her and the things she didn't have back. She quickly gave her head a shake, hoping to physically remove that train of thought from her head for once and for all. As she turned her attention back to the toddler who was still diligently peeling her apple slices, she had a sinking feeling that she hadn't shaken hard enough.
Even more concerned about eliminating her dependence on Luke, Lorelai spent the rest of the week avoiding the Luke and the diner. She and Charlie instead sought refuge at Al's or Sookie's. Unfortunately for all parties involved, the novelty of playing in the garden with Jackson wasn't even enough to keep Charlie's displeasure in check. The toddler had a routine and she liked it and was bound and determined to make sure that things got back to normal as soon as possible.
As Friday night dinner approached, Charlie made sure to make everything, from running errands to getting dressed a challenge.
"Come on Charlie," Lorelai complained as she tried to hold the little girl so she could get her into a pair of tights.
"No!" she said firmly as she went back to trying to roll over and get away. Lorelai rolled her eyes and began muttering under her breath as she blew some hair out of her eyes and grabbed Charlie by the ankle and pulled her close again as she began to wrestle a dress onto her.
"Finally," Lorelai said, mostly for herself, once Charlie was dressed. She quickly grabbed her bag, Charlie's and Charlie and headed out the door. "Here, you yell at Charlotte for a while," she said as she strapped her in and handed her the spider before she closed the door and slid into her own seat. When they finally pulled into the driveway of the Gilmore mansion, Lorelai felt no end to the relief of seeing Rory already standing outside of her car. She quickly handed Charlie over to her and nearly cried in relief as the little girl finally stopped complaining.
"So, I've decided I'm going to do it," Rory said, raising her coffee cup in a small salute. Lorelai arched an eye brow as she looked at her eldest before questioning her on her sobriety. After being assured that Rory was indeed sober, Lorelai offered her the ever important advice.
"Wait for the right moment," was all she said as she ushered her girls to the door. When they got inside the house, Lorelai repeated her words of wisdom once more. "Wait for the moment," Lorelai whispered to Rory as she accepted Charlie from her. Rory quickly squared her jaw and marched up to Emily, telling her that she wanted to talk. The pair stared at each other for a moment before Richard burst into the room, announcing that he and Digger Stiles were going into business together.
Lorelai, Rory and Charlie watched as Emily and Richard quickly got into a fight about the fact that Digger wanted to work with Richard to make his father mad. As the fight got more heated, Lorelai and Rory headed to the couch and took a seat. When Emily and Richard finally stormed out of the room, Lorelai looked over at Rory.
"It wasn't the right moment," Rory grumped as she slouched down in the couch and crossed her arms over her chest. Lorelai looked at her for a moment before she began clucking at Rory, much to the delight of Charlie. "I was about to when Grandpa came in. He interrupted, and now Grandma's mad, so I'm sorry if it seems to you like I chickened out, but I didn't and now it's just gonna have to wait," Rory said quickly.
"Mmhmm," Lorelai said as she crossed her legs and sat back for a moment. She started clucking at Rory again as Charlie giggled away.
