Disclaimer: Gilmore Girls and all it's characters and situations are property of Amy Sherman-Palladino and The WB/The CW. I do not own anything and will not make any profit from this story.
A/N: If Jess is not that sarcastic it's because he's just with Rory, and he's mature and grown up and just not that cocky round Rory anymore. Around Taylor, Kirk, Luke, yes. Rory? No.
A/N: I know, I suck. And to make it worse, this chapter is a bit shorter and a bit more devoid of Literati. And to make it even worse, I have exams coming up, however, my first two exams are math, so once that is out of the way, I'll have more FF time. :)
A/N: I LOVE you all. Thanks for reading and reviewing.
Lorelai woke up to a buzzing sound coming from the front yard. She sat up in bed and blearily looked at her surroundings before heading to the window. It took her a full minute to finally realize what she was seeing.
"Oh, God", she muttered to herself before heading down the stairs to the front door.
"Kirk!" she yelled loudly, banging open the door. Kirk jumped a foot in the air, "Oh, Lorelai," he greeted casually. Lorelai smiled as she approached him. "Kirk, what are you doing to my lawn?"
Kirk gulped, "It needed trimming."
Lorelai's face changed to one of disbelief. "Trimming? It was fine! Look! It's practically bald now. What the hell did you do that for?"
Kirk didn't bat an eyelash," yelling won't help. I'm merely following orders. Taylor said-"
Lorelai gasped," Taylor," she growled in an excellent imitation of Luke. "Luke's gonna kill him," she said. "And you," she added when Kirk started mowing again," if you don't stop now."
Kirk ignored her. She narrowed her eyes. "Fine, you know what, no more grilled cheese sandwiches for you!" she yelled, heading off to the Diner.
--
"Luke!" Lorelai yelled as soon as she entered the Diner.
"Calm down, I've got your coffee right here," he said, emerging from the kitchen and handing her a mug.
"Aww, thanks," she said sweetly, taking a seat at the counter. She sipped quickly before remembering what she was doing there in the first place. "Kirk is killing our lawn," she said dramatically.
"What?!" Luke's head snapped up.
"Yeah, apparently Taylor told him that our grass was too high and he's over there mowing it and it's getting bald."
"And you let him?"
"What do you mean? I came straight here to tell you so you could go kick his ass."
"How very considerate of you," Luke smiled. She smiled back at him, "you know me, I'm all sorts of helpful."
He gave her a kiss and headed off to the Crap Shack.
"Hey, Lane," Lorelai greeted as the Asian girl came out with her French toast.
"Hey, Lorelai," she returned the greeting cheerfully. "So how are you holding up sans Rory?"
Lorelai shrugged," oh, you know… I miss her like crazy. But don't tell anyone, 'cause my street cred'll go right out the window."
Lane grinned, "yeah, 'cause you sitting here in your pyjamas didn't do that already."
Lorelai smiled at the woman who had been her daughter's best friend for more than a decade now. Being a mother and an expert at dealing with drama had heightened her senses and she sensed something wrong with Lane.
"Lane, are you okay?"
"What?" Lane asked, suddenly alert, "Why? I'm fine. Why?"
"Nothing, you just… seem a little… off," she wrung her hands, "Rory told me you and Zach had a fight-"
"She what?"
"She meant well, honey," Lorelai smiled gently," you know, the word around town is that Rory and I are quite alike. Which means that I'm an amazing substitute for Rory, not that there could ever be such a thing, but you get my point. I'm here if you need anyone to talk to."
"Look, Lorelai, I appreciate it, but I'm swamped right now, so…" she hurried off like a deer caught in headlights.
"No problem," Lorelai replied, with no one around to hear her.
"Jess, we have got to live here!" Rory said excitedly for the fifth time since landing in Perth, her feet in the sand, Jess next to her, refusing to take off his Converse.
"Rory, it's the beach, we have them in the US too," he said, squinting his eyes against the glare of the sun.
"Hey, Howard Roark, how bout a bit of enthusiasm?" she joked, elbowing him lightly.
He sighed, "Sorry, I'm still a little jetlagged, I guess."
"It's okay," she wrapped her arm around his waist," I'm sorry I keep on wearing you out."
"You could never wear me out, " he replied," well, you can," he smirked.
Rory rolled her eyes. "Yeah, yeah… But seriously, don't you love Australia? I mean, it's gorgeous weather, even in the winter, and the winters aren't even that cold, the summers are amazing-"
"Won't you miss the snow?" He interjected as they headed back up the boardwalk so she could put on her shoes.
"I have sand here," she countered.
"Okay, what about the funny accents?"
"Who says ours are the normal ones? For all we know, Australian English could be the real English."
Jess shook his head disapprovingly, "you're a lost cause."
"Well, birds of the same feather flock together," she smiled cheekily.
"Ouch," Jess pretended to be wounded by her remark," you know what I do like about the beach? You can throw pesky little brown-haired ladies into the water."
Rory's eyes widened and she started to move away from her husband, "Jess, I swear, do not- Aaargh!" She squirmed as he tickled her.
"Okay, truce, truce, Hemmingway rules, whatever you want!"
"Much better," he replied, grinning as Rory adjusted her top and blew a stray hair out of her face.
"I'm gonna get you," she threatened.
"Oh, I should hope so," Jess baited.
Rory narrowed her eyes and stalked off with a laughing Jess behind her.
"Taylor!" Luke stormed into Doose's yanking Kirk by his collar. "You left something in my yard."
"Taylor turned around and spotted Kirk, "I have no idea what you're talking about," he said casually, continuing his work.
Luke's face turned red, "Taylor! You cannot just decide to mow people's lawns!"
"You were 5 inches over the norm, Luke. How do you expect me to make Stars Hollow a better place for future generations?"
"By leaving," Luke grumbled under his breath.
"Excuse me?"
"Taylor, I don't care what the hell the norm is, you make sure Kirk gets his damn lawnmower off my lawn!"
"Now, Luke, there's no need for such language, I am merely-"
"Now!" Luke barked.
Taylor sighed and went with Kirk to the Crap Shack, muttering under his breath, "and he was such a nice fellow… dunno what went wrong."
Luke shook his head and spotted a young, blonde fellow in the corner with two black-haired boys.
"Hey, Zach," Luke greeted, having calmed down a bit. "Hey, Steve, hi, Kwon," he knelt down and smiled at the boys. "Pout a little and you'll get double of what he's buying you know," he winked and stood up. "How are you?" he directed to Zach.
"I'm fine. If fine means being taken for granted and picking up all the slack, then I'm just peachy."
Luke just stood there, not sure what to say. Luckily he didn't have to.
"How are you and Lorelai?"
"We're great- Zach, is something wrong?"
His head suddenly snapped up as if he just realized he'd been talking to an actual, living person. "What? No. Like I said, everything's cool. You know."
Luke nodded, "well, if you ever need you know… to talk to a guy who's older than 7, the door's always open."
"Yeah… well, I gotta go," he said when he saw that Taylor had returned.
Luke waved awkwardly.
--
"Dude, where were you?" Gil said when Zach returned home with the boys. "I've been waiting like forever."
Zach shrugged off his jacket and sat down next to Gil, evidently in a bad mood," sorry, I took the boys out to pick on Taylor, but then they decided they wanted candy and that took another good half hour."
"Hey, man, it's fine, I was just wondering."
Zach nodded. "You want a beer?"
"Sure."
Lane walked into the kitchen, "okay, I'm off to work, you took the boys out, right? You gonna be okay?"
Zach looked at her, feeling frustrated, "Yes, Lane, I took the boys out and yes I can handle one night without you, okay?"
Lane looked a little taken aback but not all that surprised at his reaction. "Fine. Sorry."
She plastered on a fake smile and headed for the living room.
"Bye, boys! Bye Gil," she kissed Steve and Kwon on the head and headed out the door.
"Bye, Lane," Gil said as the door closed.
"Here's your beer," Zach said, placing it on the coffee table and flipping on the TV.
Gil just stared at Zach, "you guys okay?" he asked, glancing at Zach.
"We're fine," he said, a bit agitated.
"It just looks like there might be some tension."
Zach remained quiet.
"Is there?"
Zach shrugged.
"Dude, that's not cool. If there's something wrong, you need to talk to the wife about it."
"Dude, if I need a shrink, I'll let you know."
"Alright, alright…" Gil faced the screen and took a swig from his beer, contemplating something.
"You know, a shrink might not be a bad idea-" he faced Zach and met an extremely pissed face- "never mind."
"Oh, do you know what Kirk did this morning?" Rory asked Jess as they finished eating their dinner.
"Does anyone here but you?" He answered cheekily.
She gave him a look, "you know, keep this up and you're not getting any tonight," she joked.
"Have I told you you look gorgeous tonight?" He replied, grinning lazily at her and taking out his wallet as the cheque arrived.
"Nice try, buddy."
"Oh, come on, you're not serious are you?"
She smiled devilishly.
Jess sighed, "what did Kirk do this morning, oh, amazing wife of mine?"
Rory grinned at the sound of Jess saying wife. The boy sure had changed.
"Well, since you asked so nicely… My mom woke up to this buzzing sound, and she looks out the window and sees Kirk with a lawnmower-" Jess chuckled- "I know right. And she walks down and starts yelling at him and he doesn't budge-"
"Kirk sure has changed," Jess interrupts.
"- well, finally she tells him that there will be no more grilled cheese for him from Luke's and she huffs off to get Luke."
"Of course."
They exit the restaurant and walk hand in hand through the city.
"Okay, so Luke goes to the Crap Shack and rips Kirk a new one and then he drags him through town by the collar all the way to the Sweet Shoppe and starts yelling at Taylor, and well, it ends well for their lawn."
Jess laughed," and what was Kirk's reason for mowing their lawn?"
"Apparently their grass was 5 inches above the norm," Rory said in a mocking voice.
"Sounds about right," Jess replied. "I hope they don't touch our lawn," he added as an afterthought.
"They wouldn't dare," Rory said.
"Oh, Taylor would."
"And risk your wrath?"
"Oh, but I'll get my revenge for Luke and Lorelai."
"Jess-"
"Don't worry, don't worry, I'll tell you when it goes down so you'll have the best seats in the house."
"That's all I ask," Rory replied.
"So, Mom, what's new?" Lorelai asked as she stabbed her fork into a cherry tomato. It was Friday night and per usual she and Luke had headed over to the Gilmore mansion for their weekly dinner. They had already exhausted the topic of Rory and Jess and Lorelai had already told the Kirk-Lawnmower story, after that silence had taken over.
Emily glanced at Richard who glanced back before quickly fixating his stare on his plate.
Lorelai picked up on it and shot Luke a questioning look. Luke shrugged, as confused as Lorelai.
"Hey, Jennifer, Angelina, what's with the cold shoulders? Did you guys have a fight or something? You've been pretty quiet the entire evening."
Emily put down her fork and Richard cleared his throat.
"Dad? You guys are worrying me…"
"Lorelai, we have some bad news to tell you," he said, also putting down his fork.
Lorelai froze, "what kind of bad news?"
"The medical kind," Emily said, looking rather stiff.
Lorelai pushed away her plate and looked worryingly at Luke. He shot her a comforting glance and gently touched her foot under the table.
Richard took a deep breath and looked his daughter in the eye, "Lorelai, your mother has cancer."
Lorelai's expression froze, she heard a ringing in her ears, felt nauseous. She felt like her whole world was crashing down on her. She grumbled about her mother, revelled in pissing her off, sometimes extremely disliked her and once upon a time cut her out of her life, but she always knew her mother was still there, and that comforted her. She looked at her mother.
"What?" she choked. "I- I… what?" she turned to her father, hoping he would suddenly start laughing and announce it was all an extremely cruel joke. Instead he just looked at her gravely.
"I went for a mammary exam and they found a lump," Emily said, still sounding stiff, as if she was hoping that by not breaking down, it would somehow not make it true.
"What did the doctor say?" Luke jumped in, since Lorelai was staring at the cherry tomato she had stabbed minutes ago.
Silence punctured the air again.
"Mom," Lorelai said desperately.
"He said I had 6 months to live," Lorelai felt the air leave her lungs, "but I didn't like his answer so I went to see another doctor. That stupid little twat, how old was he anyway? 15?"
Lorelai felt a little relieved at her mother's behaviour, it meant she was still okay. For now.
"What did the other doctor say?" Luke asked.
"He said I have a chance if I start treatment immediately."
"So, that's what we're gonna do," Richard added.
There was five minutes of silence before Emily spoke again, "Lorelai, I would appreciate if you didn't mention anything to Rory just yet. I'd like to tell her in person."
Lorelai nodded numbly.
There was only silence until the maid turned up five minutes later with cherry pie announcing it was time for dessert.
Sorry for leaving you with a cliffy. But that's how I roll.
Please review, even though I don't deserve it.
P.S.: I have been to Australia, but only Sydney and Melbourne. But I get all my Perth info from my "husband". :)
Review!
xD
