A/N: Borrowing from the note I wrote on my Veronica Mars fic, because it's relavant - December is right around the corner, which means Christmas fics, exchanges, and real life stuff that won't give me time to continue with this story right now. Peops, the fic is going on hold for a while BUT I'll be back in 2016 with more. I hope y'all will still be around then and wanting to read this fic? (Your reviews mean a very lot to me!) In the meantime, here's one more chapter for the road :)
(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)
Chapter 7
"You okay there, honey?" asked Lorelai, watching her son move his oatmeal around the bowl without actually eating so much as a spoonful.
"Huh?" said Billy, snapping out of a daze. "Sorry, Mom. I was just... I'm not really hungry."
The spoon clanked down into the bowl and Lorelai's eyes widened to comic proportions. She sat down heavily in the chair next to her son, hand grabbing onto his arm.
"Um, no," she said with all the over-dramatics she could muster, and that was a lot. "No child of mine is ever, ever without an appetite! I mean, sure, with Rory it was a junk food thing, just like her Momma, and you're my little health-food freak thanks to your father," she said, all affection even as she insinuated both her husband and son were a little cracked. "But always, always, you two are hungry. If you're not then... Well, I don't even know what to think. Next thing y'know the world will be spinning counter clockwise and night will be day!"
"You can stop any time," said Billy, rolling his eyes, though he was smiling too.
It was impossible not to be amused when Mom rambled like that, especially when she got into one of her crazier moments. Not that it changed his over-riding mood of quietness that went along with the lack of want for breakfast this morning. The truth was, he had been working up to telling his parents something significant for a while now, but never quite found the nerve. Just lately, he thought it was more important than ever, what with the situation going on with Jack and all. Still, no time seemed like the right time.
Luke had gone off to the diner early this morning to take in a delivery, leaving Billy alone with his mom. She was likely to be a little more understanding in this particular circumstance. Not that Billy was afraid to talk to his dad. They got along real well, but there were some things that he was just more comfortable bringing up with one parent and some with the other. He assumed all kids were the same, though Billy didn't like to talk about feelings and such enough to ever ask anyone else.
"Seriously, hon," said Lorelai then. "Is something on your mind? Are you feeling sick at all? Give me something to help you with."
"It's... it's nothing," said Billy eventually shaking his head. "Honestly, I'm not sick, and everything is cool."
Lorelai wasn't quite sure she believed him, and yet it wasn't really in Billy's nature to lie, especially not to her or Luke. He was very much like Rory that way, a good kid who wanted to do what was best for everyone. He had his grumpy moments, when he was very much Luke's son, but was mostly of a sunny disposition like his mom and sister. That was why it was so weird and unnatural when he was acting this way.
"Okay, let's just pretend I believe you for now," said Lorelai, reaching out to ruffle his hair the way she had since he was small. "Cool moms don't push, right?"
"Right," he smirked, even as he straightened his hair back as it had been. "Thanks, mom."
"No problem, soldier," she assured him, getting up from her seat. "But, if you wanna talk, ever..."
"I know," he promised. "You're gonna be late for work."
"Perks of being the boss" she said with a grin. "Have a great day at school, kid!"
She was gone in a moment, the front door slamming in her wake. Billy sat back in his seat a minute, running his hands over his face with a sigh.
"So much for that," he said to himself. "Maybe tomorrow."
Billy got up from the table and went into his room to grab his school bag. On his way to the door, he sent a text on his cell, and half way down the drive a beep told him he had a response. With a real genuine smile on his lips for the first time today, Billy looked up and across the street, raising his hand in a wave to the girl waiting out of sight.
"So, I talked to Mama Kim, and it turns out that Steve has been talking about this whole priesthood thing for quite a while," said Lane, explaining the whole situation to Rory who sat at the other end of the couch, looked alternately shocked and riveted by the tale. "I mean, I don't mind. At least I don't think I do," Lane frowned. "I'm still processing the actual 'man of the cloth' part, it's the secret keeping I'm having trouble with."
"Lane, all kids keep secrets," said Rory with a pointed look. "Seriously, do I have to mention the floorboards? The closet? The clothes and make up and temporary tattoos that you had stashed at my house?"
"I know, I know!" Lane exclaimed, waving her hands in empathetic gestures. "I know I'm the last person to be judging my kids for keeping things from me when I spent more than ten years of my life hiding things from my mother, but this is... I thought we were cool. I thought me and Zach were just the coolest parents, or at least some of the coolest, next to you and Jess, and Luke and Lorelai," she rattled out so fast any Gilmore girl would've been proud of her. "Seriously, we've always been so laid back about stuff, encouraged communication. How could Steve not tell us?"
Rory sighed and shook her head.
"I wish I knew," she said, her looks all compassion as her hand went to Lane's shoulder. "I guess you were such a rock 'n' roll family. Kinda like the Osbournes with less cussing, and drama, and drugs, and... Well, okay, not so much like the Osbournes, but you know what I mean. Maybe Steve was feeling a little like the odd one out?"
"But I don't want him to feel that way," said Lane sadly. "I never ragged on him for quitting drums. Sure, it hurt, but I wanted him to be happy any way he could. Now it turns out being the person Mrs Kim dreamed of me being for too many years is exactly what makes Steve happy. It's so weird."
"Yes, weird and unlikely," Rory considered. "But also cool. I mean, you're a Christian. A rock 'n' roll Christian, but still. You raised the boys in that faith, and now Steve wants to really embrace it. He wants to help people and dedicate his life to a cause that really means something to him. That's pretty incredible."
She smiled and Lane couldn't help but smile too. She hadn't really stopped to think of it like that. Mostly Lane had focused on the downsides, the things that Steve wouldn't have as a pastor, plus the fact he had felt he couldn't talk to her or Zach about his decision. Now Rory was helping her see the brighter side of this whole thing. Steve had found a vocation in life. At fourteen, he knew what he wanted to do with his future, and it was something good and honest, something that would help make the world a nicer place.
"Y'know Lewis Carroll was a priest," said Rory thoughtfully.
"I heard that," Lane agreed. "And y'know Alice Cooper's father was a lay preacher."
"And Dusty Springfield fell in love with the son of a preacher man," added Rory, unable to say it as dead-pan as she planned.
A smile pulled at her lips and Lane laughed at the stupid joke, as well as the look of repressed amusement on Rory's face.
"Y'know, Jess and his smirking habit might be rubbing off on you."
"After twenty years, what do you expect?" said Rory, shrugging her shoulders. "I'm just glad that in all this time he and Dean have both grown up enough not to go all Rocky vs Apollo when they see each other."
"That is a good thing." Lane nodded her agreement. "Have you seen Dean yet?"
"From a ways away," her friend told her with the strangest smile. "It's so weird to see him now. Even after me and Jess got together the second time, when I was carrying Jack, there was always... I don't know there was a feeling, like a little piece of what I used to feel for Dean was still inside of me for a long time. I would never have done anything about it, I never wanted to. It was like saying 'I love chocolate'. You mean it when you say it and it's totally true, but if it was a choice between a chocolate bar and your husband?"
"No contest," said Lane definitely, knowing that was as true for Rory as it was for her. "So, you craved Dean like a candy bar?"
"Kind of, in a way," Rory considered. "But the fact is when I saw him the other day, nothing. Not even the slightest feeling of anything. Well, maybe a little vague nostalgia for my sixteen year old self."
"She was cute."
"Hair was always shiny, and she never gained weight."
Lane snorted at that.
"Yeah, because you're just huge now," she said flatly, looking Rory over. "I've eaten burgers at Luke's that had more meat on them."
Rory blushed as she was still want to do when any compliment was paid to her by anyone, even at the age of thirty eight.
"Blessed with the Gilmore metabolism," she noted. "I never expected to be this lucky after two kids."
"Sometimes I can't even believe we're both old enough to have two kids each, and teenagers!" Lane exclaimed loudly. "Five minutes ago, we were teenagers."
"And now you have one son trying to be Chuck Berry and the other Chuck O'Malley, whilst my son has his first date with Dean's daughter on Saturday night. Life's funny, isn't it?" she said with the widest dumbest grin on her face on purpose.
"Oh yeah, hilarious," she agreed, as they clinked coffee cups.
"Taylor, I really don't care if your ice-cream is made by fairies from Middle Earth, I'm not putting advertising for it in my diner!" insisted Luke, loudly so that they could probably hear him across town.
"Well, now you're just being ridiculous," said the Town Selectman huffily. "All I was saying is that my ice-cream is of a high quality, more now than ever since I switched suppliers, and I don't think it would hurt for us, as fellow businessmen and adjoining stores, to do a little shared advertising. It's for our mutual benefit, Luke."
"How? How is it for our mutual benefit? People come in my diner to eat. Why would I want to send them some place else to do that?"
"You don't serve ice-cream, Luke. You serve burgers, fries, greasy things that might be helped down the throat by a nice cool, smooth ice-cream dessert."
"I serve desserts. I have pie."
"Hardly the same thing," Taylor tutted, shaking his head. "In any case-"
"Um, Mr Doose?" said a small voice. "I'm so sorry to interrupt but we're all out of nickels in the cash register."
Taylor and Luke turned as one to look at the young girl behind the counter of the soda shoppe, both a little thrown by the interruption. Not that Luke was sorry to have the fighting stop. He enjoyed railing at Taylor but sometimes when he was being particularly insufferable, it was just best somebody stopped them before he put the guy through a wall, or the window between the stores maybe.
"Belinda, why didn't you mention this sooner?!" Taylor asked his sales assistant crossly. "How many times do I have to impress upon you, when any of the change compartments reaches a ten percent level, that is when you report it to me for replenishment?"
"I'm sorry, sir," Belinda said politely. "I'll try to remember next time."
"See that you do that, young lady," said Taylor sharply, still muttering to himself as he headed out back to the safe for more nickels.
Luke let out a long breath, leaning hevaily on the counter. Belinda smiled.
"I thought you might appreciate the break so you could escape," she told him.
"Thank you for that," said Luke, smiling right back at her. "Belinda... Aren't you John Pressley's kid?"
"That would be me," she said, nodding her head. "He mentions you sometimes, how you guys used to go fishing together back in the day."
"Back in the day is right," Luke nodded, remembering how long it really was. "Wow, it's gotta be... Well, we were no more than your age back then. I mean, you're probably around fifteen or sixteen, right?"
"Actually, I'm seventeen," she clarified. "My sister, Tara, is fifteen."
"Right. Well, I appreciate the help today, Belinda," he said then, turning to go. "Tell your father I said 'hi'."
"I will. Have a nice day, Mr Danes."
"You too, Belinda."
Luke headed back around to the diner, literally bumping into Lorelai on the doorstep.
"Hey, aren't you supposed to be in there?" she joked, right before he kissed her hello.
"It's where I'm headed," he agreed, opening the door for her like a gentleman.
"Well, good. I don't know who else can pour my coffee just the way I like it."
They went inside together and Lorelai took a seat on a stool by the counter. Luke wasted no time in pouring his wife a large cup full of coffee that she was as grateful for today as any other. She happened to glance at the window to Taylor's soda shoppe as she drank, and frowned when she realised some teenage girl was waving at her.
"Um, okay," she said, waving back. "Luke, honey, why am I waving at this girl?"
"Apart from because she waved at you first?" he countered with a smile at his own joke.
"Okay, why is this lovely little girl waving at me?" Lorelai tried again.
"I was just talking to her. She actually saved Taylor's life just now."
"Isn't that punishable by stoning?"
"Not officially," Luke dead-panned. "Her name is Belinda Pressley" he explained of the girl next door. "Her dad and I used to go fishing together when we were kids. Anyway, she distracted Taylor so I could leave before something unfortunate happened."
"Unfortunate like Taylor ending up head first in one of his barrels of candy?"
"That'd be unfortunate?"
"For the kids who want to buy that kind of candy."
"Very true."
"So, Belinda seems friendly, sweet. Disturbingly pretty too."
"That's what I was thinking," said Luke, causing his wife to look at him with wide eyes. "No, not like that. Lorelai! I was thinking of Billy."
"Billy? And Belinda? Oh, like a set up?" said Lorelai, finally getting it. "Luke Danes, you old softy. You wanna match make our son with the soda shoppe girl?"
"Why not? I mean, you know how much I want him to concentrate on his studies and everything, but at the same time, I'm not sure it's normal how little interest he seems to have in... y'know, girls."
"Yes, I do know girls. Oddly enough, I used to be one," said Lorelai with a grin. "Raised one too, as a matter of fact. Of course, now I'm raising a son that has recently gone all distant and weird, and oh my God, Luke!" she said suddenly grabbing is arm.
"What?" he asked worriedly, taking in her own freaked out expression and tone.
"Billy already has someone," she said as she thought about it. "Think about it, he's being secretive and quiet. He wants to be at the diner all the time, not home, not anywhere else. Oh my... it's a regular customer, or someone he can see from the window or..."
"Lorelai, you're getting ahead of yourself," Luke told her, his hand over hers at his arm. "How do you even know Billy is dating anyone? Besides, he would tell us if he were."
"Would he? I never told my parents anything."
"We are not the Gilmores," said Luke firmly.
"No, but that doesn't always make a difference. Kids don't always talk about things, not when they're teenagers. Surely you remember being a teenager!"
"Of course, but... Well, yeah, I guess all teens keep secrets."
"Jess sure was a secretive one. Rory could be too when she really wanted to be. They share genetics with Billy, both of them!" she reminded her husband with real agitation in her voice.
Luke took a moment to think over the points she had made. Maybe Billy had got a secret, and maybe that secret was a girl. Luke was ninety nine percent that if there was a person in his son's life it was a girl and not a guy. There was an incident with a certain magazine found in the bathroom that cleared up that question. Still, for Billy to have a girlfriend and not tell him or Lorelai, it seemed strange. It could explain why he wanted to hang out in the diner so much. There were girls from the high school that came in on a fairly regular basis, plus those that he would see through the window in the soda shoppe.
"Belinda," he said suddenly.
"Again?" said Lorelai, craning her neck to look through the glass, half expecting another wave-fest.
"No, I mean, what if she's the girl Billy is dating?" he suggested. "If he is dating someone, and you think he wants to be at the diner to see her, they're right next door, able to see each other through the window. Plus, it might explain why she suddenly did me a favour today."
"Get in good with the parents for when the big secret comes out!" agreed Lorelai with enthusiasm, proud of them both for cracking this case wide open. "Hey, aren't we just Nick and Nora today, putting all the evidence together?"
"It's a theory, Lorelai. Not concrete," Luke pointed out to her. "And I don't think we should mention any of this to Billy. He'll tell us in his own time. If we confront him wanting answers, demanding information, it's only going to send the message that talking to us leads to confrontation."
"Good thinking, Dr Phil," Lorelai nodded. "Well, in the meantime, could I get a burger... and fries... Ooh, and pie!"
Luke smiled at her fondly, leaning over the counter to kiss her lips.
"Y'know I love you as much now as the day I married you, Mrs Danes," he told her. "Maybe even more actually."
"Mmm, the service here is very good," she said, grinning as she claimed another kiss.
Though Rory and Jess were grown with teens of their own and Billy was entering the age of dating too, Lorelai and Luke never did feel old. After all this time, they felt young and in love more often than they didn't, and it was one of the best feelings in the world.
To Be Continued...
