Chapter Four: Lorelai

It's nearly six in the morning before I can extract myself from my enthusiastic best friend Sookie and begin to head home. We have a huge wedding coming up, other than mine that is and last night I was there so late I figured I might as well stay at the Inn rather than try and drive home in the hail. As I reach my car my phone begins to ring, the Star Wars theme, which I picked for my fiancé Luke, he hates it by the way, he's a former Trekkie, but I couldn't get that ring tone.

"Hi." I say answering.

"Have you seen my nephew?"

"Now there's a mood killer if there ever was one."

"Lorelai..." He sighs in that exasperated tone which I know means that inside he's secretly laughing, most of the time anyhow.

"No Luke I haven't seen him, did he not come home or something."

"That's about right-Kirk-what the hell are you doing!" I can hear him moving around the diner in the background yelling at people. "You're not allowed back there, I don't care if you need sugar -get out of there-Lorelai?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm gonna call you back, if you for some reason see that punk send him over would you?"

"Unless he's making eyes at my daughter again in which case I might just impale him, preferably with one of your spatulas 'cause I think that would hurt the most."

"Impale him?"

"When else am I going to get to use a great word like impale?"

"You've been reading Rory's history books again haven't you?"

I smirk. "Guilty."

I can tell he's probably smiling by now, I have that effect, "I love you." He says, "I'll see you later okay."

"I love you too bye."

I flip my phone shut just as I pull into the driveway. It's way too early for Rory to be up, especially on a Saturday morning after she's been out with Dean. I unlock the door as quietly as I can and tiptoe into the house. I'm about to climb the stairs when I notice that there is someone on my couch. Someone with tuffs of dark hair sticking up all over the place who seems to have left a book open on the coffee table. I peek at it, Salinger, of course. Well that explains where Jess is though, why the hell he's laying on my couch is a mystery to me. At least he's on the couch and not somewhere else. I decide that I should check in on Rory and maybe ask her what's going on but as I open the door and peek into her room I find that the person in her bed is in fact not Rory, it's some blonde girl. Welcome to the twilight zone, if I do not locate my daughter somewhere in this house very soon and get a very through explanation, someone is going down.

"Mom?" I hear someone call.

Oh thank god.

"Rory? Is that you? You haven't been kidnapped by body snatchers that have turned you into a blonde?" I ask as I come out of her room.

"All here and still brunette."

"Rory, why is Jess on our couch and who is the strange girl in your bed?"

She sighs for a moment. "Let's go upstairs."

She proceeds to tell me a very long winded story about Dean leaving her at some party, (someone else is going to get impaled very soon) and how she ran into Veronica and Jess and how Veronica was raped and Jess took them here but his car wouldn't start so he stayed the night on the couch.

"Um...wow." I say as she finishes. "So I take it you had quite an evening."

She bites her lip for a minute." I um...haven't told you everything."

Oh god she finally figured out what I've been afraid of for months. That she's got a crush on Jess as big as the one he's got on her and she finally did something about it. Oh please, please let it be something else, let it be that my mother called. Huh, I never thought I'd say that.

"Dean...he um...came by...around one...and..."
"And...?"

"And I was tired and mad and he and Jess were yelling at each other and I just...I had it. I broke up with him."

"You did?"

"He made me so angry and he was being so stupid and...I don't regret it. It was time, and I'm sick of him getting jealous every time I spend time with Jess. I mean, I'm going to live with him soon and if Dean can't live with that well..."

Well, it's not as bad as I thought but it's close, if Dean's no longer in the picture than Jess could be…and he's trouble. He may be my fiancés nephew but he's got some issues, issues I don't want Rory wrapped up in.

"You broke up with him?"

"Yep."

"Just like that?"

"Just like that."

"Rory, I'm not justifying how he treated you, it was low of him to just leave you there, but maybe you should hear him out, he could have a really good reason."

"Yeah, he forgot about me."

"Rory…"

"I can't believe you're justifying this, I mean you've always made it clear that I shouldn't be with someone who I feel like doesn't treat me right and he didn't treat me right. God, you've been preaching that for as long as I can remember." She looks so much like my mother when she's angry it really scares me.

"Rory…I just…"

"Forget it." I watch as she walks out of my room and slams the door behind her apparently forgetting that there is a house full of people asleep and no where she can go without waking them all up. I want her to be happy I really do and if Dean's not going to do that then fine. If it weren't for Jess being around I wouldn't worry so much but there's something about that kid I just don't trust, I just can't.

I suppose I should call Luke and tell him he's here so he can stop freaking out. Luke's not much of a worrywart as far as Jess's well being is concerned but he does worry about him getting into some kind of trouble and he worries about Rory constantly, she's like a daughter to him and always has been. His protectiveness towards both of us is really one of his most endearing traits.

I bang my foot against the edge of the bed as I dial the number to the diner, it's almost through ringing before Luke picks up.

"Hello?" He says gruffly.

"Hi it's me," I say, "I've located your nephew."

"Where the hell is he?"

"He's currently asleep on my couch."

"Lorelai, why the hell is Jess on your couch?"

"It's a very long story but basically he took Rory home from a party last night and his car wouldn't start so he just stayed on the couch. You know, if you'd just clean out the garage we could get that all fixed up and he'd have somewhere to sleep that's farther away from my daughter."

"It's your garage Lorelai."

"You said that if I did all the wedding planning that you'd do the garage so we could fix it up for Jess to sleep in and the garage is still full of crap."

"Yes but when we made that deal you neglected to inform me the garage was full of crap so I consider all contracts associated with that garage null and void."

"No fair!"
"You cheated."
"I did not!"

"You did too!"

"Is Patty hanging around there, because if you don't stop the whole town is going to think I'm having some illicit affair."

"And you care because…"

"Well actually it might be entertaining."

"Have I told you recently that you're exhausting?"

"Drink some coffee, it'll help you keep up."

"I love you, I'll see you for breakfast."

"You'll have coffee?"

"The poisonous stuff that you're slowly killing yourself with, yes I will have that but whether or not I serve it too you is a different story."

"What if I do something dirty?"

"I'll see you in an hour."

"I love you."

"I love you too, would you tell Jess to get his ass down here by the way?"
"Bye Luke."

"Goodbye crazy lady."

I hang up the phone sighing, I'm still upset about fighting with Rory but talking to Luke always makes me feel better, unless he's withholding coffee that is.