A/N: Thank you to all you guys who review. It really means a lot to me, knowing that there are people reading my writing, so thank you.

A/N 2: I'm going to set the story during the wintertime. I know it wasn't winter when Rory and Dean broke up, but it will work out in this chapter if it is set in winter.

Chapter 8
Talking Does You
Some Good

While Luke and Rachel were talking, Malina was waiting at the bus stop for Rory. Finally, she saw Rory's bus heading her way. She got up off her seat and went over to the stopped bus.

"Finally!" Malina cried when Rory got off the bus.

"How long were you waiting here?" Rory asked, adjusting her backpack on her shoulders.

"About twenty minutes. Your bus was late and I came here at the time it's supposed to come."

"I'll never understand you." Rory said shaking her head. "So, where to?"

"Let's go to Weston's."

"Why not Luke's?"

"Because he'll be there, duh Rory." Malina rolled her eyes.

"Fine, let's just hurry, it's getting colder."

"Okay."

Weston's
Rory and Malina are sipping hot chocolate

"So what exactly is this big plan that you have?" Rory asked.

"I don't know." Malina said straight-forwardly.

"Great. So when you asked me to help you this morning, you didn't have an idea."

"Yup."

"Nice going, genius." Malina stuck her tongue out at Rory, and Rory flicked her ear.

"Ow!" Malina said, rubbing her ear.

"That's what you get for being mean."

"I'm being mean?"

"Yes, you're being mean."

"Me?" Malina said pointing at her self.

"Yes." Rory said.

"You're the one who flicked me. I didn't lay a finger on you."

Rory rolled her eyes. "Whatever, but let's be serious now."

"Fine, but no more flickingness."

"Fine. So…"

"So…"

"This is ridiculous. You were supposed to have an idea."

"Well hello, I need you to think too." Malina said. "That's the reason you're here."

"Fine. Let's start over again. No more fighting or poking or hitting or tongue sticking outing."

"Fine."

"I think that we should lock them together in one place for a long period of time."

"Yeah right, so they could say 'Luke I need coffee, I'm dying' and then 'There is no coffee here, Lorelai." Malina said doing a Luke and Lorelai impression. "Then Lorelai's going to have some witty remark about how he has magic powers and he's Superman."

"Fine, well then that's out of the question. Do you have any ideas, genius?"

"Well, as a matter of fact, I do." Malina said.

"Well then enlighten me, Einstein."

"Well, since you asked ever so nicely," Rory rolled her eyes and Malina continued, "I was thinking that we could set them up, like send them on a wild goose chase."

"What?"

"You know, like write all these things on pieces of paper and tell them where to go and they'll end up at the same place. But, the only catch is that they are going to think it's from a secret admirer."

"That's crazy!"

"It's not crazy!"

"Is too!"

"Is not!"

"Is too!"

"Is not!"

"Yes!"

"No!"

"Yes!"

"No! It's not crazy Rory, just think about it."

"This is Luke and Lorelai we're talking about, Mel. There not as clueless as they look. Not only are they not clueless, but they're stubborn too."

Malina sat back in her seat, and folded her arms on her chest. "Then what brilliant ideas do you have?"

"I don't know." Rory sighed. "Why are we even bothering with this?"

Malina sat back up. "Because. We've seen your mother go through guy after guy for a while, and my dad is only now starting to date again. We know they're perfect for each other, the town knows they're perfect for each other, and now all we have to do is convince them that they're perfect for each other."

Rory sighed. "You know that wild goose chase thing might now be such a bad idea."

Malina thought about it and said, "You know what, never mind, I don't like it anymore."

"Well than other than that, we're stuck."

Malina sighed. "So…now what?"

Rory shrugged her shoulders. "Maybe we should just forget about it."

"We can't give up!"

"Think of it, Malina! Whatever we do to try and help them get together isn't going to work! They're too stubborn to talk about the subject! What makes you think that if we try and get them together that it'll work?"

Malina shook her head, put her jacket on, and began to leave.

"You can't leave without me!" Rory called.

"Why?"

"It's starting to snow really hard, and you could get lost!" Rory yelled.

"So, it's Stars Hollow! You take three left turns, and you're back in the center of town!" Malina yelled before shutting the door behind her.

Rory sighed, put some money on the table, and left Weston's.


While Rory and Malina had been at Weston's, he went to take a walk after he spoke with Rachel. Surprisingly to him, he ended up in front of Lorelai's house. He saw her jeep, so he decided to go and knock on her door.

"Oh hey, Luke. I didn't know you were passing by." Lorelai said when she opened the door.

"Yeah, I was just taking a walk." Luke said.

"Do you wanna come in? I was just watching a movie and Rory's with Malina-"

"So that's where she went." Luke muttered.

"What?"

"Malina ran out the diner and didn't tell me where she was going."

"Oh. Where's Rachel?"

"Diner." Lorelai nodded. "I actually need to talk to you about something."

"Okay, well come in. It looks like it's pretty cold."

"Yeah." Luke said. Lorelai made some room in the doorway so he could pass through.

Lorelai shut the door behind Luke and led him into the living room.

"Do you want anything to drink? We don't really have anything but bottled water and coffee."

"No, I'm good, thanks."

"Okay. So what do you want to talk about?" Lorelai said, sitting down on the couch.

"Well uhh…" Luke sat down across from Lorelai. "Rachel said that you uhh…talked to her…about Malina."

"Uh huh…and?"

"I just kinda wanted to know…what you uhh…what you said to her."

"It was nothing really, she said that Malina hated her, I told her she didn't, and then she said she wanted to get to know Malina better and I said that Malina's stubborn and that she should ask you about Malina and stuff like that."

Luke nodded. He then stood up and clasped his hands together. "Did it ever occur to you that Malina doesn't want to get to know Rachel?"

"Luke I'm aware of that. Malina said it too."

"Then why would you go and tell Rachel to talk to me?"

"What the hell are you talking about? Don't you want Malina to get to know her mother?" Lorelai said starting to get angry.

"Of course I want her to get to know her mother, but I don't want to force it on her! With Rachel coming here has screwed up Malina's routine and life!"

"I know that Luke! Why are you telling me and not Rachel?" Jeez, he knows how to make a pointless argument, Lorelai thought.

"Because you had to talk to her about God knows what for nothing! I don't want to see Malina get hurt!"

"Okay, you know what? You gotta keep your story straight. What are you trying to tell me? You're jumping all over the place!" Luke was about to open his mouth, but Lorelai said, "No, it's my turn! You're giving Rachel all of Malina's jobs and letting her stay without Malina's permission! You don't want to hurt Malina? Yeah, I think you've already done it!"

"Where was she supposed to stay?"

"Hello, Luke, I don't know if you remember, but I run an inn!"

"I didn't want her to have to pay if she was only staying for a little while! Besides I couldn't just say no!"

"Well the least you could have done was ask your daughter!"

"You know what? This conversation is over." Luke said.

"I highly doubt that this was a conversation. It was more of a pointless argument that you started."

"No, I didn't."

"Yeah you did."

"No I didn't."

"What are we, in kindergarten?"

"All I'm saying is I didn't start." Luke said. Lorelai and Luke stood there in an uncomfortable silence. "I should go."

"Fine." Lorelai said simply.

"Fine."

Luke began to head to the door and Lorelai followed him. "Don't expect to see me at the diner tomorrow."

"I didn't plan on it."

Lorelai opened the door for Luke, took one look at the weather and said, "Luke, you can't go out there."

"I'll be fine."

"Luke, are we seeing completely different things. I see a snowstorm; I don't know what you see."

"It won't take me long to get back."

"Luke you can hardly see out there."

"Don't worry about me."

"Look, I know I'm not you're favorite person in the world right now, and you sure aren't mine either, but I still care about what happens to you. You are not going out there. We are going to wait in here until you are able to see."

"Fine." Luke said reluctantly.

"Good." Lorelai said. She walked back into the living room and sat back down on the couch. "Oh great, Luke, you made me miss the part where Paulette calls all men big, fat retards."

"What?" Luke said, confusedly.

"You've never seen Legally Blonde?"

"Chick flick?"

"Yeah."

"Then I'd say no." Lorelai shakes her head and continues watching.

"Can I borrow your phone?"

"For?"

"Not that it's any of your business, but I need to call Caesar and tell him to close up so he can head home before it gets any worse."

"Knock yourself out." Lorelai said, handing Luke the phone.


While Luke and Lorelai were 'talking', Malina had left Weston's and gone back to the diner. Rory had followed her back, but staying at least 10 feet behind so she had Malina in her view.

Malina knew that Rory was behind her, but didn't turn around. When she got to the diner, she opened the door and shut the door without waiting for Rory.

"Caesar!" Malina called as she entered the diner.

"He's already gone." Rachel said as she wiped the counter.

"Why?"

"Hi Rachel." Rory said as she opened the diner door.

"Hi Rory. Coffee?" Rachel asked.

"Thank you." Rory said gratefully.

"No problem."

Rory looked outside. "I think I'm going to be here for a while."

"Why?" Rachel asked. Rory pointed outside. "Wow. It's really something out there."

"Yeah, I'm surprised Taylor isn't giving some emergency town meeting about how to stay safe."

"Oh he offered it today, but nobody really took him on but Kirk."

"Do you mean to tell me that I'm going to be stuck with you guys here for a few hours?" Malina asked out of nowhere.

"Yup." Rory said.

"Oh great. Could this day get any better?" Malina said. She marched upstairs to her room. Rory heard her slam the door.

"Did something happen with you guys?" Rachel asked.

"We had a little misunderstanding at Weston's, but we'll get over it eventually. We aren't really speaking right now because of it." Rory said.

"I see."

"Yeah. Do you mind if I use the phone? If I don't call Mom I'm going to be in so much trouble."

"Yeah go ahead. Or better yet, how about we go upstairs, and you can use the phone there."

"Okay." Rory followed Rachel up the stairs and into the apartment.

"Mel?" Rory called as she put her backpack on the side.

"Go away!" Malina called.

Rory shook her head. Rachel handed her the phone. "Thanks."

"You're welcome. I'm glad I'm not here to deal with Malina by myself so it's good that you're here."

"Oh I know how you feel. Malina can hold a grudge for a long time, and when she does, she can put everyone in a bad mood." Rachel nodded. "I'm just gonna call my mom, tell her I'm here, and we can deal with Malina together."

"Okay. I'll go make sure we have enough food up here." Rachel said.

"Okay." Rory dialed the number of her house.

"Rory?" Lorelai said frantically as she picked up the phone.

"Hi Mom." Rory said.

"Thank God. How are you? Are you okay? Do you have food? Do you need me?"

"Mom, relax, I'm fine. I'm at Luke's right now with Malina and Rachel."

"Mel's there?" Lorelai said. "Malina's fine Luke! She's at the diner with Rory and Rachel! Hey Rory, you guys are okay, right?"

"Yeah, Mom, we're fine. Mel and I had a little argument. We aren't speaking, but we'll be fine."

"Okay. Call if…need…me…Luke…"

"Mom, I can't hear you! You're breaking up!"

"Rory…careful…okay…"

"You too, Mom, and Luke. Bye!" But the phone had already disconnected.

Lorelai's House

"Damn it, we got disconnected." Lorelai said.

"But they're okay, right?" Luke asked.

"Yeah. Apparently Rory and Malina aren't talking to each other."

"Why?"

"I don't know." All of a sudden, the television had turned off, as well as any other power that was on.

Luke's Apartment

"Oh well this is just perfect." Malina said. She had come out from her room and was watching TV.

"Well then, I guess we have to be entertained for the next few hours until the storm passes." Rory said. "Does Luke have flashlights and candles?"

"Of course he does. He's Luke." Rachel said.

"Well then let's go get them."

Lorelai's House

"Oh great." Lorelai said sarcastically.

"Lorelai do you have any flashlights or candles or lanterns or something?"

"Do I like a camping type girl to you?"

"I'm guessing that's a no."

"Well, actually we have flashlights. Me and Rory used them one time to camp in the living room on the couch. Batteries I'm not too sure about."

"Okay. We better get them before it turns darker." Luke said.

"Okay." Luke and Lorelai sat there in silence. Even though they were talking, there was still some tension. "Luke?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm bored." Lorelai said.

"This is going to be a long night." Luke muttered.

Author's Note: I know I said Rory and Malina were going to have a plan to get Lorelai and Luke together, but don't lose hope! Don't forget to review!