Disclaimer- Gilmore Girls and the characters associated with the show are not mine.
Chapter Nine: A Table Setting
The smell of bacon woke Garret the next morning and lured him to the kitchen. He hovered at the door watching Luke cook. There were pans on every burner, and nothing was burning. Watching Luke stir the scrambled eggs, butter the toast and turn the bacon, Garret thought maybe he'd died and gone to heaven. Besides the great smelling food, the kitchen was calm. There was no screaming, no smoking, no strangers glaring at him because he existed. No dirt, no grease, no pile of stinking dishes and garbage. No chaos, no fuss. Luke cooked with a minimum of movement which impressed Garret. Every action was controlled and precise. A flick and a pancake was flipping in the air to land neatly in the pan. Garret was stunned to realize, Luke was an artist too.
"Come on in. Jess ran to check on a few things. How many pancakes do you want?" Luke asked the hesitant boy who was watching him flip the cakes.
"Two?" Garret said, unsure of what would be okay to ask for.
"That's it? Really? I'll make you a few more, and if you don't eat them, Lorelai will. Rory and Lorelai are food vacuums. Want to set the table? We'll eat in the dining room. There will be a few more people joining us," Luke said as he gestured to the stack of dishes and silverware on the counter. Garret liked the fact Luke assumed he'd help, and didn't treat him like he was three. Taking the supplies into the beautiful dining room, Garret walked around the table as he laid out items. He wasn't sure what went where so he tried to make it look nice, in a way which made sense, hoping it was good enough. He thought about asking Luke as he began bringing in the food and adding it to warmers, but seeing Garret was finished, Luke gave him a nod and a smile. It was enough.
"Rory and Lorelai are in the library, will you let them know food's on? Try not to get trampled as they run in here," Luke said, only half joking as he noticed Jess gesturing to get his attention in the kitchen.
"What did you learn? Any news?" Luke asked, pulling the cinnamon rolls out of the oven.
"Good and bad. The good is Richard was able to convince one of his lawyer friends to join us for breakfast, they'll be here soon. The bad is- Garret's grandma didn't make it. I need to tell Garret. It will come up when the lawyer gets here, and I don't want him taken by surprise," Jess said. Luke nodded.
"Are you sure he should be at the meeting? He's young."
"When you're in his situation, you have no control of what's going on in your own life. You pull away from yourself and everything around you. Detach, and then you quit living and just exist. Hopeless, waiting for life to begin at eighteen. I don't want him to feel like I did. It's amazing he hasn't done it already. I want him to be part of his own life," Jess replied. He didn't know if Luke understood. Hell, he didn't know if he even explained it right. Lorelai understood.
"Even if he can't make the decisions, you want him to know how they are made and why the events unfold the way they do. You want him to feel as if he's part of the process. Not a puppet being pulled from one place to another," she said from the door. Jess met her eyes and realized the truth. Lorelai would be a great parent to Garret. Despite what he'd said the night before, he hadn't been sure. She was a lot like him, but she had a bit of Emily in her too. Now he was sure. She got it, she understood.
"Luke, put your spatula down, let's get Rory and Garret and we'll tell him about his grandma together," Jess said, leading the way into the dining room. Rory stood; she could tell the news was bad. Garret glanced at the adults with their identical serious expressions and dropped his head. Luke pulled Garret's chair back away from the table, and stood behind him with a hand on his shoulder, squeezing gently. Jess sat down facing him, and Lorelai and Rory flanked him. Garret looked at Jess.
"No sugar coating, right?" he said, voice soft. Serious brown eyes looked into eyes turned murky grey with fear. Jess felt dammed poetic as the pictured the stormy ocean in Garret's eyes. What was it about this boy? Gathering himself, he spoke.
"Right, no sugar coating. Your Grandma Betty didn't make it. She had another heart attack in the hospital." Lorelai knelt next to Garret and looked into his wide eyes.
"Now, I don't know if you were close to her. How long you've known her, or if you loved or hated her. But it doesn't matter. No matter what you feel right now, there is nothing wrong with it. You can be happy she's gone, and we wouldn't think less of you. You can be devastated because you're so sad, and same thing. Or anything in between. You can even feel nothing. No matter what your feelings… They're right for you," Lorelai said. She placed one hand on his cheek, as his lower lip began to tremble. Leaning forward, she wrapped her arms around him lightly. Letting him get used to her hug. She could feel his tears soaking through her shirt onto her shoulder¸ although he wasn't making a sound.
"Your feelings may change over and over again. It's normal. It's part of being human. We're here for you, Garret. All of us," Rory said as Garret pulled away from Lorelai and wiped his face with his hands.
"Can we eat?" he asked, wanting to have time to think about everything. To "process" it the way everyone said Rory always did. He figured if there was a time for processing, this would be it. He looked at Rory, knowing she'd understand. Giving his hand a squeeze she nodded. Lorelai met Luke's worried eyes and winked. She'd seen Rory do the same thing time and again.
"Good plan. My stomach is already protesting the idea of waiting longer and there's nothing worse than rubbery pancakes," Lorelai said.
"Uh, yeah there is! Decaf coffee!" Rory added, "and possibly rubbery bacon, although bacon is seldom bad. Did you see the bacon jerky in the store? I almost bought some." A knock on the door sidetracked Rory's ramblings, and Jess went to answer it, as the rest of the group took their places around the table.
