Chapter 10

Emma knew she had to talk to Rory, but she couldn't help thinking it wasn't going to work. She had to try to convince Rory to go have lunch with Lorelai. She knew Rory wouldn't agree. She didn't know why, but she knew Rory would have a million excuses, the first one being "It's been too long," and the classic "We're both too stubborn," fitting nicely into her argument somewhere.

I wonder if Sookie's talked to Lorelai yet? Emma thought. I'll call her, and if she's had any luck, I'll try Rory. Emma realized her thought sounded weird, even to her own mind. I mean Mom.

Automatically, Emma walked over to the phone in her room. It wasn't until she picked it up and dialed the area code that she realized she didn't have Sookie's number. Guess that won't work then. She thought of calling Lorelai, but that would be way too obvious. They were going for subtle, weren't they? This is ridiculous. I can't even talk to my partner in crime, Emma thought. Well, not crime, this is more Parent Trap-ish.

Emma suddenly had an idea. It might not work, but it was worth a try. Rory wasn't home, so Emma got her address book from the telephone table again. Emma looked under St. James, Sookie's maiden name.

Great! Rory had the number. Emma wrote it down on a post-it and took it back up to her room. She dialed the number automatically.

A familiar female voice picked up. "Hello?"

"Hi, uh, Sookie?" Emma said, trying to make sure that was really who she was talking to.

"Hi," Sookie said sounding as if she didn't quite know who she was talking to, but it was all the confirmation Emma needed.

"It's Emma. I wanted to talk to you about our plan from before. Setting up Lorelai and Rory again?" Emma noticed herself referring to her mother by name again, but this was the first time she had said it out loud.

Sookie didn't notice, or at least didn't say anything about it. "Oh, yea. What about it?"

"Have you talked to Lorelai yet?"
"Oh, no. I haven't had a chance, and after thinking about it I'm not so sure it will work anyway. Have you talked to Rory?" Sookie didn't even seem to realize Rory was Emma's mom, not consciously.

"No, I don't think it will work anyway. I'm out of ideas, though. What else could we do?"

"I don't know."

"Didn't you say something about Lane being good with stuff like this?"

"Yea, she is. Maybe we should call her."

"I'll do it, I started this whole thing."

"Okay, do you have her number?"

"I can get it. Mom has an address book with everyone's number she knows in it. Um, I guess I'll go do that then."

"Okay."

"Should I call when I'm done and let you know what she said?"

"Sure, if it's anything good."

"Okay, talk to you shortly then hopefully."

"Okay. Talk to you then."

Emma hung up and went to get Lane's number. A few minutes later she dialed the number she had written on another post-it.

"Hello?" said a voice that Emma knew well.

"Hi Lane, it's Emma."

"Oh, hi Emma! I haven't talked to you in awhile. What's up?"

"Well, I met Lorelai a couple weeks ago," said Emma, gradually getting to her point.

"Really? How'd that go?" said Lane, sounding interested, not as if she was just trying to make conversation.

"Great. Lorelai's great, I really like her. I wish I had met her sooner. What's up with her and Mom though? Everyone keeps telling me how close they used to be, but they haven't talked in what, twenty years? That's crazy!"

"Yes it is, I agree with that. They did used to be best friends. I think your mom was closer to Lorelai then she was to me."

"Really? I didn't know that, I thought you were her best friend."

"Well, I was. I was her best friend by the formal, usual 'This is my best friend, Lane' definition, but Lorelai and Rory had their own definition. They were closer than I thought it was possible for a mother and daughter to be. They were actually closer than I thought it was possible for two people to be."

"Really? I didn't realize. I knew they were really close, but I didn't know…" Emma trailed off. "I guess I didn't really understand how close they really were." Emma's voice was quieter than it had been, her mind was partially somewhere else.

"They had a really special kind of relationship. It sounds stupid, but they really did."

"Okay," said Emma, her voice gaining confidence again. "That's even more reason they have to get back together again," Emma said strongly.

"Well, yea, I know that, but it's been so long. I don't think it's going to happen."

"You sound like one of them! See, they won't do it on their own, they're too stubborn and yes, it has been too long for us to let them try to sort it out on their own. We have to help them! We have to somehow force them to make up. Again, they're both too stubborn, so we have to force them without them knowing we're doing it. We have to do something sneaky, I just don't know what! That's why I called you, Sookie told me you used to be really good at things like this." Emma said this not quite at a shout, but with such urgency and speed in her voice that it had the effect that it would have if she had shouted.

Lane heard this urgency and was amazed. As long as she'd known Emma, since she was born, she had never heard Emma be so passionate about anything. "Okay," said Lane, jumping right in. "What you want to do is get them alone together. It sounds like we're matchmaking, but we're really not," Lane said with a semi-childish giggle. "They need a chance to talk about things, anything, everything really, on their own. They need to do it without us there, without any distractions."

"I know that, Sookie and I had planned to get them to go out to lunch together. Lunch is good because it's less formal than dinner, they'd be more likely to agree to it. It won't quite work though, we won't be able to get them to go."

"Of course you won't, not if you tell them what they're doing ahead of time. Neither one of you has told one of them the plan, have you?"

"No, we both realized it wouldn't work before we had the chance."

"Good, that would make it more complicated. I can do complicated, but this is better. What we're going to do is trick them. We have Sookie helping, right?"

"Yes. She said we can get more if we need to, too. Luke, Paris, and people from Star's Hollow mostly."

"Good. Probably won't be necessary, but good. You get Rory to go out to lunch with you. Sookie will go to the same place with Lorelai. It has to be neutral ground, somewhere they'll both be comfortable."

"Luke's?"

"Would that be good for Rory? She used to like it, but it's in Lorelai's town. She might wonder if you said you wanted to go to Luke's with her for lunch."

"Yea, maybe. Where else is there though?"

"Fast food? It's easy and unassuming. What do they both like? Everything really. Burgers, tacos…"

"There's a good taco place about halfway between Star's Hollow and Hartford."

"Perfect. That'll work."

"How will we know when they're both free?"

"Stay in communication with Sookie. Try a date you think will work, and if it doesn't work for one of them, make up an excuse and change it. Try not to change it too many times or it will look suspicious."

"How do we leave them alone? We need to, but where do Sookie and I go?"

"That'll be tricky. You can't leave them completely alone of course, you need to be there in case things get ugly. We definitely can't give them the opportunity to make things any worse between the two of them."

"No," Emma hadn't thought of this. "So what do we do?"

"That's tough. They have to think they're alone, there will be other people around of course, but they can't know you and Sookie are watching. Well, you obviously want to make it seem like you weren't expecting to see each other there. You can go up to Lorelai and say hi or something. Get all four of you sitting at the same table. Then Sookie can go get everyone food, and you can go to the bathroom or something, or go to 'help Sookie carry the food.' They should get talking and forget about the two of you."

"Well, that's flattering."

"It'll work though. Of course, watch them, and make sure things stay civil. You can grab a table around the corner or behind a wall and listen to what they're saying."

"Sounds good. That should work. God, I hope that works. You are really good at this, Sookie was right."

"I've had practice."

"When?"

"When I was your age, hiding boyfriends and band members and CD's and makeup and pretty much everything else from my mother."

"Oh. That would do it."

"Yep. Call me and let me know how it went, okay?"

"Yea, I will. Thanks a lot."

"Talk to you then I guess. Hope it's good news!"

"Me too. Bye, Lane."

"Bye, Emma."

Emma hung up the phone. She had a strange adrenaline flowing through her, she was truly excited.