AN: Sorry for the long delay in updates. Once again this chapter ended up being longer than I intended it to be, but what can you do when your muse calls you? That and I was a little distracted by the NFL playoffs as I'm a huge football fan. GO COLTS!!! WOO-HOO!!! (I'm from Indiana, in cae you can't tell by my enthusiasm.)
Thanks to everyone who's been reading and reviewing and patiently waiting for an update. I greatly appreciate it.
:)
Lanie
Richard spent a fitful night trying to sleep in his granddaughter's room. He was not used to sleeping in a single bed and he wasn't exactly a small man. If he were truly honest with himself though, it wasn't the bed or its size that was keeping him from falling asleep. Other than during their painful separation the previous year, he'd been sleeping next to Emily for forty years. The harsh words they'd said to each other kept playing through his mind over and over again like a rerun of a bad television show. He hated saying the things he'd said to his wife, but they'd needed to be said. He wasn't going to let her meddling ways interfere with their daughter's happiness or prevent him from seeing his grandchild once he or she was born. He tossed and turned violently for most of the night. He'd gotten up once already to use the bathroom and splash his face with water hoping to clear his head, but it hadn't helped. At that moment, he thought of just going home to Hartford to try to hash things out with Emily, but he wasn't ready to face her yet. He was afraid that if he did, he'd just let his temper get the best of him again and things would be worse between them. No, it was better to wait until he'd cooled off before going home. He was still far too angry with her to risk another confrontation with her, especially now that he'd seen first-hand tonight just how happy Lorelai was with Luke and the fact that he'd heard just how far she'd gone to try to tear them apart. He was stunned by the fact that she'd actually thought trying to pay Luke off would work. He was very clearly not the kind of man who could be bought, not to mention the fact that it was quite plain that he was deeply in love with Lorelai and elated about his impending fatherhood.
As he'd left the bathroom he couldn't help but hear the soft moans and sighs coming from Lorelai's bedroom. He hurried down the stairs so he wouldn't have to hear anymore once he'd realized what she and Luke were doing. Perhaps she wasn't as tired as she seemed to be or maybe she'd simply faked it in order to spend some time alone with her future husband. He sighed as he thought that despite their protests to the contrary, he had been intruding. He couldn't fault his daughter for feigning sleep. It was only natural on the first night since they'd begun living together that they'd want some private time together. As he'd descended the stairs he heard his daughter calling out Luke's name. He quickly made his way back to Rory's room, closing the door behind him and laid down again even though he knew sleep wouldn't be coming anytime soon. His mind was too active. Aside from the argument with Emily, he kept replaying the evening he'd just spent with his daughter and future son-in-law in his head. He'd been immensely pleased that Lorelai had asked him to walk her down the aisle. He'd never thought in a million years that Lorelai would want him to play the traditional father role on her wedding day. He reflected on her hesitation in asking. He didn't quite understand it, but it seemed that she'd been afraid that he wouldn't want to do it. He recalled earlier in the year when he'd visited the Dragonfly to talk to Lorelai about her insurance policy when she'd been feuding with her mother after her break-up with Luke.
"Oh, my! What is that heavenly smell?" he'd said when the waiter had brought their tray.
"Scones," Lorelai had answered with a proud smile.
"I have never smelled anything as heavenly as this"
"Wait 'til you taste them," she'd replied as they began serving themselves.
"This is amazing," he'd gushed once he'd bitten into one of them. "Sookie is very talented in the kitchen."
"Yes, she is," Lorelai had agreed whole-heartedly.
Richard had simply looked at his daughter for a moment. While she'd complimented Sookie's cooking with a smile, there was also a trace of sadness in her voice. He'd wondered at the time if she were thinking of Luke since he also made his living by cooking, but he'd been afraid to ask not wanting to start an argument like the one they'd had in their phone conversation over Rory's outburst at dinner. Instead he'd said, "I have to say that I'm impressed...with all of this. You've done a wonderful job here."
"You already said that, Dad, but thanks for the compliment again," she'd said. "I had a lot of help. I couldn't have done it without…" her voice had trailed off leaving her thought unfinished as a look of pain crossed her face.
"Without what, Lorelai?" he'd pressed wanting to know what had caused the expression of sadness that had replaced her smile.
"It doesn't matter, Dad," she said trying to shake off her melancholy.
"If there's something bothering you, it does matter. I know that we've not had the best of relationships with each other, but if there's something that you'd like to talk about, I'd be happy to listen," he'd said encouragingly trying to do whatever he could to erase the pain from her eyes.
"Talking about it doesn't help, Dad, but I appreciate the offer. This is just something that I have to work through on my own,"
"I see," he said. He sat there mulling over his daughter's sudden shift in mood trying to figure out how to cheer her up when they were interrupted by Rory storming in and abruptly depositing a paper bag on the table.
"Mom, you have to talk to him," she said with a determined look on her face.
"What? Who," Lorelai had inquired looking up at her daughter.
"Luke! Who do you think I'm talking about? In that bag is the most disgusting cheeseburger I've ever tasted in my life," she'd said as she gestured at the bag she'd unceremoniously dropped on the table. It was then that Lorelai had actually looked at the bag and noticed the Luke's logo on it.
"That's impossible! Luke makes the best cheeseburgers in the world!"
"Not anymore he doesn't," Rory had said as she flung herself into the chair across from Richard. "Go on! You should try it, then you'll know what I'm talking about."
"I don't need to try it. I know Luke's cheeseburgers and if it's that bad, it couldn't have been Luke's. Maybe Caesar made it."
"No. Lane said it was Luke's when she brought it to me at the bookstore and she said this has been going on for a while. He's burning food, throwing things around, tossing customers out, and generally being a complete grouch." Richard had been watching this exchange between mother and daughter in silence not wanting to interrupt because he was curious to see where Rory was going with this and if she'd be able to get Lorelai to open up about what was going on in her head.
"Well, Luke's always been a little on the grouchy side," his daughter had said as if trying to laugh it off.
"Not like this, Mom. No matter what kind of bad mood he's been in, he's always cared about the diner. It's been his pride and joy as long as we've known him and now it's like he could care less about it. You have to talk to him," she repeated emphatically.
"No, I don't have to talk to him," Lorelai stated. "That's the thing about a break-up. You don't have to talk to your ex."
"But, Mom, he's only doing this stuff because he's miserable without you. Maybe if you talked to him, you could work it out."
"I tried that, Rory. I was miserable without him too, and when I tried to talk to him about it he blew me off. If he's so miserable without me, then maybe he should have thought about that before he dumped me. He's the one who said it was too much."
"I know that, Mom, but he was angry at the time. He's loved you for so long and all of this has really hurt him."
"Do you think it hasn't hurt me too? I lost not only my boyfriend, but my best friend too. I get now why you told me four years ago that I couldn't date him because it would mess everything up. You were right. I should have listened to you. Now, my best friend in the world is out of my life and wants nothing to do with me."
"I didn't want to be right," Rory had said sadly."Are you sure there's no way that you guys could work it out? You know that he really loves you."
"I'm sure. He's made his choice. If he really loved me, he would have given me a chance to explain things to him and try to work it out, but he didn't. He said point blank 'I can't be in this relationship.' That's not something a guy who loves you does."
"Mom can't you just…"
"No, I can't just…," Lorelai had said before her daughter could finish her sentence. "Luke and I are over, done. I wish we weren't, but I can't do anything to change it. I'm giving him his space just like he wanted me to and I'm not going to go running over there and be humiliated again by throwing myself at a man who doesn't want me."
"But he does want you. He always has," Rory had pleaded with her mother.
"He's got a damn funny way of showing it."
Richard had sat in silence while Rory, much like she had the previous Friday night, bolted from her seat angrily. She glared at her mother and said, "Fine! You want to be miserable, go right ahead and be miserable, but I'm not going to sit around and watch it. I have to get back to the bookstore anyway." She'd then snatched the Luke's bag off the table and stormed out in a huff.
After Rory had made her exit, he'd sat there not quite knowing what to say. Lorelai had said during their phone conversation that she and Rory were both extremely hurt and upset over Lorelai's broken relationship, but this was worse than he'd imagined. He'd had a feeling that his daughter's sadness was brought on by her feelings about her break-up, but she'd refused to talk about it until Rory has forced it out of her. "Do you want to talk about it?"
"I've had enough of talking about it," she said brushing away the tears that had filled her eyes.
"Lorelai, for what it's worth, I am truly sorry."
"Yeah, me too," she said sadly.
"Was this why talking about the inn had upset you?"
"Yeah," she admitted looking down at her plate. "Gran wasn't wrong about me needing more money to open this place." She looked up at him again and continued. "I was too proud to confess to you and Mom that I was broke. I didn't want you to think that I was a failure. So, when I needed money, I went to Luke instead. He's the one who loaned me the rest of the money I needed, but not only that. He was here during the renovation and encouraged me. He really supported me through all of this when I doubted myself and made me realize that I could do this. He was just always there," she finished. "And now he's not."
Richard shifted uncomfortably in the small bed as he thought of that day. She'd gone on to tell him that Luke had kissed her for the very first time on the front porch of the inn. It was in that moment as he'd sat quietly listening to his daughter talk about Luke that he realized for the first time in her life, Lorelai was truly in love. He'd found out a little over a week later that she and Luke had worked things out due to Emily paying an unscheduled visit to Luke at the diner. He'd hoped that Emily's effort to reunite them would have helped to repair the damage done to her relationship with Lorelai, but that hadn't been the case. Though things had been mended between Luke and Lorelai, the rift between mother and daughter hadn't. Lorelai still stubbornly refused to come to dinner or have anything to do with her mother for more than a month after that. It wasn't until she'd heard that Logan was invited to dinner that she'd made another appearance in their home. He thought back to that dinner just three weeks ago when Lorelai had told them her concerns about Rory's relationship with the Huntzberger heir while his wife had taken yet another swipe at Lorelai's relationship with Luke. He vividly recalled Emily's surly 'I never thought of you as a prude,' directed at their daughter. It hadn't hit him in that moment, but it struck him now that Emily had been clearly voicing her displeasure at Lorelai's sexual activity. He sighed as he began thinking how it might have hurt Lorelai that Emily, in her own subtle way, had insinuated in that one comment that she thought her daughter was a tramp. He didn't think of it that way. While he knew that Lorelai had had more lovers than he was comfortable with thinking about, he also knew that she wasn't the type to just randomly sleep around. He thought about the man who was upstairs making love with his daughter and his assertion in their conversation the other day that while they obviously had an active sex life, their relationship was far from being just a physical one. Luke had made it very plain that he loved Lorelai and not just for her body. Richard had not one doubt that Luke was fully committed to providing a stable home life for his family. His purchase of the larger house and his exuberance about making the necessary repairs to it to make it suitable for his future wife and child to live in had proven that. He thought again of his own wife and her attack on said house. He couldn't understand how she could fail to see what was right in front of her eyes. He was angered by that fact that her snobbery preventing her from acknowledging that Luke was unwavering in his determination to spend his life with Lorelai, despite her objections and that her actions, far from having the desired effect of ending their relationship, had in fact done just the opposite. It had only strengthened the younger couple's resolve in pursuing their dreams for the future. Richard felt like a failure. Despite his efforts, he'd been unable to convince Emily to abandon her insane behavior and make her realize that her actions were only hurting their daughter and were bound to drive an even bigger wedge between them if she didn't desist.
For the second time since lying down he flung himself from his granddaughter's bed. He walked into the kitchen, reached for a drinking glass from the drainer by the sink and filled it with water taking a long drink from it while seating himself at the table. He let out another deep sigh. He knew he wasn't going to be able to go to sleep until he could quiet all the thoughts rolling around in his overly busy head. He couldn't keep his mind off of the situation. He didn't really know what to do. On the one hand he was supportive of his daughter's new plans for her life but his support had caused a dispute in his marriage. On the other hand had he not shown his support to his daughter and her future husband, he would have risked being cut out of his daughter's life like he was sure Emily was about to be if she didn't end her crusade. He didn't want that. He wanted to be a real part of his daughter's life and have the opportunity to know his new grandchild. He reflected on the tension that had arisen between him and Lorelai at the beginning of the evening and her wariness in trusting him. She'd acted as if she thought that he shared her mother's censure of her relationship and had come here to carry on Emily's mission. He didn't want that. He wanted Lorelai to know that he supported her fully. His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a voice coming from the stairs.
"Come on, you stupid mutt. Let's go," Luke was grumbling as he descended the stairs followed by a shaggy dog, Lorelai not far behind them.
"Hey, Paul Anka is not stupid," Lorelai protested while Luke walked to the back door and opened it to let Paul Anka out while she headed for the refrigerator.
"Coulda fooled me," Luke groused as he looked at the dog who'd just stepped out onto the back porch and let out a whimper. "What," he said to the dog. "Why are you just standing there? Go do your business already!"
Lorelai chuckled and said, "He's afraid of the stairs. You're gonna have to carry him."
Luke looked at her incredulously. "You've gotta be kidding me,"
"Nope," she said as she poured herself a glass of milk and reached for the remainder of the boysenberry pie. "He got all freaked out by the front stairs when I brought him home."
"He didn't seem to have a problem barreling up the inside stairs when the doorbell rang earlier," he said indicating the stairs they'd just come down.
"I don't know why but he only seems to be afraid of outside stairs," Lorelai explained as she reached into a drawer for a fork and sat down at the table opposite her father.
Luke sighed with a shake of his head, stepped out onto the back porch, picked Paul Anka up and said to him, "You are a freak!"
Lorelai laughed again, then said to her dad, "What are you still doing up, Dad?"
"I'm having a little bit of trouble sleeping. You know how it is, sleeping in a strange bed," he answered not wanting to share with her the real reason for his lack of sleep.
"Well, I've got the perfect cure for that," she said indicating the pie plate in front of her as Luke stepped back into the room. "When I'm having trouble sleeping, a good healthy serving of Luke's pie always helps me nod right off. I'll share, if you want," she continued as she pushed the pie plate closer to the middle of the table.
"Thank you. I think I'll take you up on that. It was rather good pie," Richard said as he reached into the drainer on the counter behind him for a fork.
"You're eating again," Luke said to his fiancée.
"I am pregnant, Hon. I do need to eat."
"And you're eating out of the pie plate," he said with a groan.
"And I will clean it up when I'm done."
"Fine, do whatever you want. Your insane dog is taken care of, you've got your pie, now I'm going back to bed."
"We can't just leave Paul Anka out there all night," Lorelai protested. "Babette's cats will kill him."
"You want your dog back in the house, you go get him. I have to be up earlier than you do," he said and started to head for the stairs.
"Not so fast, Mister," she said.
Luke turned back around and said, "What?" Lorelai answered by leaning her head back and puckering her lips. He bent down and kissed her softly. "Just don't stay up too late, ok? You need your rest."
Lorelai watched Luke with a smile until he was out of sight before turning back to her father and saying, "Do you want me to get you a plate, Dad?"
"No, this is fine," he said with a gesture at the pie plate between them. "Though your mother would kill me if she knew that I was eating directly out of a serving dish," he added with a slight smile at the thought of Emily's reaction to this while he helped himself to a bit of the pie. He normally would turn up his nose at doing this, but it felt good to do something that he knew his wife wouldn't approve of. "I must say this is quite good. It's simple, but I have to admit that I get a little tired of all the syrupy sweet desserts your mother prepares." Lorelai's smile faded a little at the mention of her mother. Upon seeing this, Richard said, "I'm sorry, Lorelai."
"You don't have anything to be sorry for, Dad. You're not the one who's been running around Stars Hollow like a maniac doing anything and everything to try to make sure that I'm as miserable as possible."
"I don't think it's your mother's intention to make you miserable, Lorelai. She's simply trying to look out for your best interests, even if she is going about it the wrong way," he said not really agreeing with it but trying to do anything he could to wipe that pained expression off of his daughter's face. He wished he knew how to mend the rift between mother and daughter once and for all. He wished he could get Emily to look at things objectively and see that their daughter was in love and happy in her relationship.
"Don't you dare defend her to me! You don't know half of what she's been up to! She stood right there in my living room this morning and called me a whore!"
"She didn't?"Richard asked incredulously. He found it hard to believe that Emily would say that to her own daughter. "I know that she has trouble accepting that you're not exactly innocent, but I can't imagine her calling her only daughter a whore."
"Ok, maybe the word 'whore' didn't actually come out of her mouth, but it was implied when she asked me if I was absolutely sure that Luke is this baby's father. What does that say about what she thinks of me? How could she think that I could be in a serious relationship and not know who the father of my kid is? I mean, I know I have a past, but that's all over with. Luke is it for me. He is the one."
"I can see that," Richard said with a smile at his daughter's conviction to stick to her guns when it came to Luke. "It's quite obvious that you love him very much."
"I really, really do, Dad. Why is it that you can see it, but Mom can't?"
"I honestly don't know, Lorelai. As I said at dinner, your mother and I aren't seeing eye to eye on this."
"I hate this," Lorelai said as she stabbed at the pie with her fork. "I hate that you and Mom are fighting over me. I don't want to be the cause of another separation between you two, not when you just got back together three months ago."
"Let me tell you something, Lorelai, and I want you to really listen to me. You are not the cause of another separation between me and your mother. We aren't separating again. We're just having a disagreement, one that we will work out ourselves."
"How can you say that, Dad? You're spending the night here and Mom stayed at the inn last night. Isn't that how this whole thing started before, with Mom staying in hotels instead of at the house? This is all my fault," Lorelai said sadly.
"It's not," Richard said. "The blame is entirely mine."
"How do you figure?"
"I knew your mother was up to something the night that you told us of your engagement to Luke and I didn't do enough to stop it. I thought it was enough to come here and let Luke know about it, so the two of you would be prepared, but I was wrong. I should have stood up to your mother and put a stop to it before she did all the things she's done."
"I doubt even you would have been able to stop her," Lorelai said. "When Emily Gilmore's determined to do something, she does it no matter what anyone else says."
"That sounds a little like Lorelai Gilmore as well," he said with a smile. "I notice that your mother's interference hasn't changed your mind one bit about marrying Luke."
"No, it hasn't and neither will whatever other half-baked scheme she comes up with next. I can't wait to marry Luke."
"Well, I can't wait until that day when I get to walk you down the aisle and watch you marry him," he said as he rose from his seat, crossed to the other side of the table and laid a comforting hand on his daughter's shoulder. "I was deeply touched that you asked."
Lorelai also rose from her chair and wrapped her arms around her father and said, "Thank you, Dad."
Richard returned his daughter's embrace for a moment before pulling back a little taking her hands in his, looking down at the sparking diamond on her hand and saying, "This is quite the lovely ring Luke bought for you."
"Isn't it? He has good taste," she said with a smile as she looked at her engagement ring.
"He proved that when he chose you to be his bride," Richard said with a smile. "I'm very happy for you, Lorelai."
"I love you, Daddy," she said with a smile as she hugged him again happy that he seemed to be sincere in his support of her upcoming marriage to the man who'd made her so happy.
"I love you, too," he said as he planted a kiss on the top her head and simply held her. It was not something that he normally did, but it felt right in the moment. He closed his eyes and just reveled in the knowledge that while she'd been hurt by her mother's actions, it hadn't affected her feelings toward him. He'd figure out how to deal with Emily when he got home. For now, he just wanted to make sure that his daughter knew that she had the support of at least one of her parents.
Lorelai pulled back from him and said, "I'd better go check on Paul Anka."
"I should be getting back to bed, anyway," he said. "I think you're right, Lorelai. The pie was just the thing I needed," he added though he knew it wasn't the pie that had done it. While Lorelai stepped out the back door to retrieve her dog, he put the empty pie plate in the sink and returned to his granddaughter's room and lay back down confident that he'd be able to sleep now.
Emily sat in a private detective's office Friday morning unable to believe what she was hearing. "Are you sure there's nothing more?"
"No, nothing. I'm sorry, Mrs. Gilmore, but other than the arrest that you already knew about, which by the way is a matter of public record, I couldn't find anything incriminating on this guy. Even his divorce decree doesn't tell us a whole lot. The reason behind it is simply listed as irreconcilable differences, there's not even anything about the adultery you mentioned when we spoke on the phone yesterday."
"Damn," she said. She'd been hoping when she'd contacted the investigator the day before while she'd been nosing around Stars Hollow that he'd be able to uncover more about Luke's obvious propensity for violence that she'd heard about from his neighbors. "I was sure there was something that he was hiding."
"See for yourself," he said handing her the file he'd compiled on Luke for her while reading though his own copy of it. "Lucas William Danes, born November 10th, 1965 to William and Katherine Danes of Stars Hollow Connecticut. One sister, Elizabeth Marie Danes, born December 12th, 1966. His mother died May 4th, 1976 when he was only ten. His father was diagnosed with cancer in 1985 when the guy was still in college at the University of Hartford where he was on a baseball scholarship. He commuted to school from Stars Hollow on a daily basis while working in his father's hardware store. He left school after his father's illness started to take its toll. He cared for his father and ran the store until his death November 30th, 1986. After that Mr. Danes shut down his father's hardware store, sold his parents' house and converted his father's old office into an apartment that he's been living in ever since. He opened his diner in the same building in 1990 which has done a pretty decent business in the fifteen years it's been open. He was legal guardian to his nephew Jess Mariano for two years and in that time he bought the empty building next door to his diner in order to make the apartment above it big enough for both of them to live in."
"Did he take out a loan to do that?"Emily asked wondering if he was in debt.
"Not according to his bank. He simply withdrew the money from his personal account by way of cashier's check to pay for the building. He now leases the commercial part of the building to a Mr. Taylor Doose for a place called Taylor's Old Fashioned Soda Shoppe and Candy Store, which I found out was how he met his now ex-wife. She was Mr. Doose's lawyer who oversaw that deal."
"What do you know about her?"Emily inquired.
He thumbed through the pages and read, "Nicole Diana Leahy, born August 20th, 1967, graduated top of her class from Harvard Law School, now works for the firm Blodgett, Sage, Albert, Pettruccio, Stein, Lemming, and Stein, married to Mr. Danes on May 30th, 2003, filed for divorce on September 20th, 2003, put the divorce proceedings on hold on November 4th, 2003. She and Mr. Danes then shared a townhouse in Litchfield for a brief time before finalizing their divorce on April 27th, 2004 at Mr. Danes' request shortly after his arrest."
"So, he was married for less than a year," Emily mused. "What else?"
"Like I said, there's not much that I was able to find that you don't already know about. I managed to talk to one of his regular customers, a Kirk Gleason, who told me that his relationship with your daughter seems to have started shortly after the divorce. He said that your daughter had been his date for his sister's wedding on May 8th, 2004, where Mr. Gleason had been working as a DJ, and that he'd seen them kissing the following weekend when she did her test run for her inn. Let's see, what else," He said as he rifled through more of his notes. "He's bailed his sister out a number of times when she's needed it, including shortly after his divorce and her wedding when he spent some time in Maine helping her run her renaissance faire booth after she and her husband were injured in a car accident. He spent seven weeks there before returning to Stars Hollow where he resumed his relationship with your daughter."
Emily let the man drone on but had stopped really listening to what he was saying once he'd told her that Lorelai had started seeing Luke so soon after his divorce. She recalled Miss Patty telling her yesterday that Luke's ex-wife had accused him of cheating on her with Lorelai but she hadn't believed it at the time. Now she wondered if the accusations had been true, in spite of the dance teacher's assertion that Luke wasn't the type to stray. Maybe his wife had cheated in retaliation for his own philandering. She didn't want to think that her daughter was the type who would knowingly have an affair with a married man, but who knew with her? She'd certainly made it clear that she wasn't the least bit ashamed of her overly active sex life. While she didn't want to think that way about her only daughter, it was starting to make sense, especially if what the he was saying was true and Lorelai had been seen kissing Luke barely two weeks after his divorce had been finalized. Maybe his wife had caught them together and that's what started her on the path to cheating herself. After all, why would she have accused him of cheating if she didn't have some form of evidence to back it up?
She thought back to the weekend of the test run and realized that she'd been so focused on her anger at Lorelai for forcing her into spending time with Richard while they were separated, that she hadn't noticed what else had gone on. She tried to recall if there'd been some evidence of something going on between her and Luke that weekend. She seemed to remember passing Luke on the front steps of the inn while she and Richard were being ushered outside to that horrible shack Lorelai had booked them in. As she thought about it, she recalled that he'd walked into the inn with a bouquet of flowers in his hand. She also remembered Jason being there later that day. She tried to visually recreate that night in her mind. Now, that she thought of it, she seemed to recall Luke glaring at Jason from the dining room and hanging on every word that was being said. She remembered Lorelai telling her that Jason had just shown up uninvited, but she hadn't believed her at the time. Now, she saw all too clearly what had caused Lorelai's attitude that night. She'd had something going on with Luke and Jason had shown up unexpectedly and tried to wreck it just like she had wrecked Luke's marriage. Clearly she'd been angry because she wanted Luke and had just managed to get rid of his wife and make her move when Jason came around again. She'd known for several years that there was an obvious sexual attraction between her daughter and Luke, but it repulsed her to think that her daughter had stooped as low as breaking up the man's marriage to get what she wanted and now she was carrying that despicable man's child. "I think that's all the information I need," Emily said to investigator who was still yammering. "I think I know now what I need to do next."
"I'm sorry I couldn't help you, but there's really just no dirt there to dig up on your daughter's fiancé. Other than the one arrest for a minor charge, he seems to be a pretty decent guy. Granted, I've only been investigating for a day. I could do some more digging if you like, but from what I've seen so far, I really doubt I'll find anything else."
"That won't be necessary. Thank you for your time," Emily said as she picked up the file and prepared to leave. She glanced briefly at the man before making her exit and thought that while he didn't think he'd given her any dirt on Luke, she believed otherwise. Now, she just had to make use of it.
Lorelai walked into her kitchen and went straight for the coffee pot knowing that Luke usually made sure there was fresh coffee made for her when he left for work. She wasted no time in pouring herself a cup, but nearly spit it out after she took a drink of it. "That rat bastard!" she cried and she began tearing through cabinets and searching the kitchen frantically.
"Lorelai, what on earth is going on," her father inquired as he emerged from Rory's room already dressed for the day. "Who's a rat bastard?"
"Luke! Here I was thinking how sweet it was that he made sure I had a pot of coffee already made when I got up and it turns out, not so sweet! It's decaf," she grumbled. "Not only that, but I can't find the real stuff I had here! It's bad enough that he won't let me have the good stuff at the diner, but now he's taking it away from me at home. I'm gonna kill him!"
Richard chuckled as he watched his daughter continue to root through the kitchen and said, "Well, don't be too hard on him. He's only looking out for your safety. You really shouldn't be drinking a lot of coffee while you're pregnant."
"You're on his side now?"
"I'm merely saying that it seems to me that he wants to be sure that his child comes into this world healthy. I happen to think that's a good thing," he said as he poured himself a cup of coffee not caring like his daughter did that it was decaf. "Maybe you should talk to your doctor about your caffeine intake before you decide to kill him. "
"Well, I have a doctor's appointment this afternoon. I'll just ask him what he thinks, but I can't imagine him having any problem with it. I was perfectly fine drinking coffee when I was pregnant with Rory." She took another sip of her coffee and frowned. She knew that Luke wasn't going to back down on the coffee issue unless he heard from the doctor that it was safe. She recalled their conversation the night she'd related her dream about the twins to him and he'd said that a pregnant woman shouldn't be drinking coffee and that that was probably why Rory was a caffeine addict. She felt a momentary pang of sadness thinking of Rory. She knew that she'd see her tonight, but she was incredibly nervous about how that interaction was going to go. She didn't want to fight with her again.
"Yes, but you were twenty years younger then," Richard pointed out. Richard had not failed to notice the flicker of pain on his daughter's face at the mention of her daughter. "Speaking of Rory, there's something I should tell you, but I don't know quite how. I fear that it will only upset you again, but I feel it's something you need to know in order to be prepared for it at dinner tonight."
"Just spit it out, Dad. Whatever it is, I can take it. What's Mom done now?"
"I'm afraid that she spilled the beans about your engagement and your pregnancy. It was quite obvious from Rory's reaction to the news that you hadn't told her yet."
"Great," Lorelai said with a sigh. That explained Rory's hostility in her phone message, if she'd thought that they'd purposely kept the news from her.
"I'm sorry, Lorelai. Your mother came home very angry that night apparently upset with some confrontation she'd had with Luke. I know now that it was over her trying to pay him off. I just wish I'd known sooner what your mother was up to, then this wouldn't have happened.
"Again, Dad, not your fault. Mom is going to do what she's going to do no matter what you say. I just feel bad that you're stuck in the middle of all of this. You've been nothing but supportive, but she stubbornly refuses to see that Luke makes me happy."
"By the way, where is Luke?"Richard asked in an effort to change the subject not wanting to stir up more hostility toward his wife.
"Oh, he's long gone. He'd have gone to open the diner more than two hours ago. He opens at 6 and he's usually there by 5:15 at the very latest. I was going to stop in there for breakfast on my way to the inn. On the days he opens, I usually eat breakfast there. You're welcome to join me if you want before you head off to work. Luke makes really good pancakes, something I could use right now the way this kid of his had been making me sick."
"I'd love to join you for breakfast if you're sure I wouldn't be intruding on your morning routine."
"Dad, I wouldn't have invited you if I thought you were intruding, Come on," she said as she headed out the front door and began the walk to the diner.
"All right, I'm in," he said trailing behind her though he glanced at her warily as if still unsure that he was welcome.
"Dad, where is this coming from? You kept saying last night that you were intruding and we kept telling you that you weren't."
"But that wasn't true, Lorelai. I interfered with your evening plans with Luke. I'm not stupid, Lorelai. I figured out that you pretended to be asleep to get away from me."
"What are you talking about, Dad?"
"When I couldn't sleep, I went to the bathroom and I couldn't help but hear a little of your…um….activities."
"Oh," she said a little uneasily.
"I swear I wasn't trying to listen and I walked away as soon as I realized what was going on, but it still made me realize that I was a horrible intrusion on your private life last night. You should have just said something rather than feigning sleep."
"How would you have reacted if I'd just said, 'hey, Dad, it's great having you here, but I wanna take my man upstairs and undress him'? How would that have sounded?"
"It would have sounded honest, at least," her father replied.
"Dad, I meant what I said when I told you that you weren't intruding. I really did enjoy having you at the house last night, but I wanted a little alone time with my fiancée too, especially since we just moved in together. I don't feel that I should have to apologize for that," Lorelai said defensively.
"I'm not saying that you should apologize for it, Lorelai."
"Then what are you saying? I know you said you're not happy that I'm pregnant and unmarried, but you have to accept it and the fact that I'm not going to stop having sex with Luke just because you don't like it."
"I never said a thing about that part of things. Obviously I know that you and Luke are having sex. You wouldn't be pregnant otherwise. Let me clarify things for you a little here. I am happy that I'm going to be a grandfather again whether you're married or not. All I'm saying is that if you wanted to go to bed, you should have just said something rather than resorting to deception. I think you're letting your mother's disapproval get to you and you're confusing her feelings with mine. I have told both you and Luke repeatedly that I'm on board with your upcoming marriage. I have no problem with the idea that you're sharing a home now and I accept that you and Luke have an intimate relationship. I don't know what else I can do to convince you that I fully support you and your decision to marry the man you love. I told you how happy I was for you and how pleased I was that you asked me to give you away. What else can I possibly do?"
Lorelai glanced at her father and saw the pain etched on his face. "I'm sorry, Dad. You're right. I didn't mean to hurt your feelings or make you feel unwelcome. I'm not used to this fatherly approval thing. It's just with Mom constantly interfering and running down both me and Luke, I'm a little on edge."
"As am I, Lorelai. You have no idea how hard this has been on me. I feel as if the rift between you and Rory is my fault. On top of that, your mother and I are arguing over her meddling in your life but I'm really trying to be there for you as a father should, something that I should have done a long time ago. Maybe if I had, you wouldn't have such a hard time trusting me now."
"I appreciate that, Dad. I really do," she said as she pushed open the door to the diner. "Man, this place is crazy busy again." She spotted only one empty table near the window at the end of the counter and made a beeline for it while her father followed her. "That review in the Times has really increased Luke's business," she explained to her father.
"So it would seem. It was busy like this when I visited Luke the other day," he picked up a menu and began to peruse it. "So, aside from the pancakes, what's good to eat here?"
"I usually just get the pancakes. The French toast is good though."
Lane walked over to them coffee pot in hand and said, "Coffee, Mr. Gilmore?"
"Yes, thank you, "he replied politely. Lane picked up the cup in front of him and filled and was about to do the same with Lorelai's when she was stopped by a gruff voice behind her.
"Hey, hey, hey," Luke said as he came running up with the decaf pot. "Lane, what the hell do you think you're doing?"
"Pouring Lorelai's morning coffee like I always do," Lane answered bewildered by her boss' attitude.
"Well, stop it," he said indicating the decaf pot in his hands.
Lane looked at him warily. "You wanna risk your life with that one, go right ahead, I'm not taking that chance," She quipped as she ran off to fill more coffee cups.
Luke picked up Lorelai's coffee cup and filled it with decaf before smiling at her and saying, "Good morning," before leaning in for his morning kiss.
"Back off, Buddy," Lorelai said pushing him away slightly. "I'm mad at you."
"For what?" he said in irritation.
"Um….Hello?" she said gesturing to the coffee cup in front of her. "That and all the real stuff I had at home seems to have mysteriously disappeared. You wouldn't know anything about that, would you?"
"I haven't got a clue," he said with a grin. "I made sure you had coffee before I left the house this morning, didn't I?"
"That was not coffee," she protested. "That was a sick joke. Now, where did you hide the real stuff?"
"I don't know what you're talking about. I made your morning coffee with what was in the house."
"Come on, 'fess up. I tore the whole kitchen apart looking for the real stuff," she pleaded.
"Didn't find it, did ya," he said with a smirk.
"That's just plain mean, Luke! Depriving me of my morning jolt is nothing short of mental cruelty," she said with a pout.
"Sue me," he said. "I've got some customers to take care of so let me know when you're ready to order."
Luke walked to the counter and replaced the coffee pot on its burner while Lorelai jumped out of her seat and said, "Not so fast, Burger Boy."
"What?" he said gruffly as he turned to face her. Lorelai reached her hand up to the back of his neck and pulled him in for kiss, his hand instinctively going to her waist as they kissed. When he pulled back from her he said with a smile, "I thought you were mad at me."
"That doesn't mean you're not still a good kisser," she said as she pressed her lips to his again.
"Get a room," Gypsy said from her seat at the counter at seeing the public display of affection causing laughter to erupt amongst the townies in the diner.
"Knock it off, Gypsy," Luke said gruffly.
"So, are you seriously going to make me go without coffee for nine months?"Lorelai said with a slight whine in her tone.
"I just want to make sure that our baby is born healthy," he said softly as he shifted his hand to her stomach.
"I get that, but don't you think a happy mommy makes for a happy baby," she suggested.
"Why don't we wait to see what the doctor says this afternoon, ok?"
"So, I can have real coffee until then?"She asked hopefully.
"No," he said firmly. "Not until I here from the doctor that it's safe."
"It was worth a shot," she said as she sat back down with her father. Richard had watched this interaction with some interest. He noticed that while Luke appeared gruff on the outside, he had a tender side that seemed to be reserved just for Lorelai.
"So, do you know what you want yet?" Luke asked them as he picked up an order pad from the counter.
"Banana pancakes, with a side of bacon," Lorelai said.
"Banana," Luke questioned. "Not your usual chocolate chip?"
"No, I want banana, or actually Baby Danes here wants banana. I swear this kid loves fruit just like Daddy."
"It's nice to know that my kid can accomplish what I've been trying to do for years, get you to eat healthier," Luke said with a smug smile.
"Don't get cocky. I won't be pregnant forever," she said. "As soon as this kid comes out it's back to all the junk food I love."
"Imagine that," Luke said dryly.
Richard chuckled a little at the banter between Luke and his daughter. He was just beginning to see that this was a part of their relationship. He put down his menu and said, "I think I'd like to try that special omelet that the Times critic was so highly complimenting."
"You got it," Luke said as he wrote down their order and headed to the kitchen to hand it off to Caesar before continuing with his work day, taking orders, refilling coffee cups, clearing tables and running food out to hungry patrons.
Richard watched Luke and the ease with which he moved through the diner, jumping from task to task fluidly. "He's quite the hard worker, isn't he?"
"Yes, he is," Lorelai said with a proud smile on her face as she watched her man.
"Lorelai, you're staring," her father said.
"So? I like looking at my man hard at work, especially when he's bent over a table to clear it and I've got a good view of his butt," she said with a grin.
"Lorelai!"
"What, Dad? He's a really good-looking man. If these women sitting here knew what an amazing body he hides under all that flannel, I'd have to fight to keep him."
"I highly doubt that, Lorelai. He's made it clear that he only has eyes for you. As for what he's hiding under the flannel, I think I saw more than enough a few nights ago when your mother insisted on making a middle of the night trip to Stars Hollow," he quipped.
"See what happens when you walk into your daughter's room without knocking," she teased her father.
"Believe me when I say that I'm sorry we did. I had no idea when we walked in there that'd we be interrupting a private moment between you and Luke. It's not as if we expected Luke to be there. After all, his truck wasn't in the driveway."
"First of all, as we both told you that night you weren't interrupting anything but a sound sleep, that's all. That's why we were so startled when you guys burst into the room like you did. Second, Luke's truck wasn't there because he walked from the diner, something he does a lot."
"I see," Richard said pondering all the things he was learning about the ins and outs of his daughter's relationship. "So, tell me about your wedding plans," he said in an effort to shift the conversation in a different direction.
"We haven't gotten a whole lot done yet other than setting the date and picking the location, which is going to be at the inn, by the way."
"That seems appropriate for you and Luke with all you've told me of his connection to the Dragonfly."
"That's what we thought. The inn is sort of where our relationship first started so I think it's a nice idea to have our wedding there. Sookie and I are going to go dress shopping this weekend and start making more plans. We've got a lot of work to do before the big day, but I think we can manage it."
"I have no doubt," Richard said as Luke arrived back at the table with their food.
"Here you go. Special omelet," Luke said handing a plate to Richard. "And banana pancakes," he said with a smile as he handed another plate to Lorelai.
"Thanks, Babe," she said with a smile as she reached up for another quick kiss. "By the way, I didn't hear you leave this morning."
"I was trying to be quiet so I wouldn't wake you."
"Yeah, but I didn't even hear your alarm go off like I usually do."
"That's because your psychotic dog woke me up before my alarm went off by jumping on me begging to go out."
"How did I miss that?"
"You were sound asleep. That's how. So, I turned the alarm off, took Paul Anka out, and then got dressed for work as quietly as I could."
"You could've woken me up to say good-bye. I wouldn't have minded."
"You were sleeping so peacefully I didn't want to disturb you. Besides, you need your rest, especially with all the stress you've been under lately," he said as he lightly stroked her hair. "We have got to do something to keep that rotten little beast out of our bed."
"Hey, Paul Anka is not rotten. He's just still getting used to us. Since he was a rescue, he needs all the love and attention he can get. Just think of it as good practicefor when this kid's old enough to climb in bed with us in the middle of the night."
"Whatever," Luke said as he returned to work.
"I remember those days well," Richard said with a fond smile at his daughter.
"What are you talking about, Dad," Lorelai said. "I never climbed in bed with you and Mom in the middle of the night."
"Yes, you did, Lorelai. Many times, especially when you were little and had all those ear infections."
"Somehow, I don't imagine Mom being too thrilled with that," she said. "That'd be just one more imperfect thing about me that she'd hate."
"Contrary to what you may think about your mother, Lorelai, she really does love you."
"She's got a damn funny way of showing it," Lorelai said bitterly echoing the words Richard recalled her saying about Luke after their break-up that day he'd spent with her at the inn. He remembered that day also coming home to argue with Emily over the situation. His wife had been livid that Lorelai had talked to him, but was still shutting her out. She'd been a little childish about it actually calling him the favorite when the truth was that Lorelai had allowed him to remain a part of her life because he wasn't the one who had been responsible for her heartbreak. "If she loves me why can't she be happy for me?"
Richard's reply was cut off by a very upset Sookie storming into the diner with a newspaper clipping in hand shouting, "Where is he?"
"Who?"Lorelai asked.
"Luke! Who do you think?" She spotted Luke clearing a table by the window that looked into the soda shop. She marched over to him and waved the clipping in his face. "How could you do this to me!" she shouted angrily.
"Sookie, what the hell are you talking about?"Luke questioned.
"This," she screeched as she furiously waved the clipping around. "This is what I'm talking about! I trusted you in my kitchen, with my staff, and this is how you repay me! This should have been my review!"
"Oh," Luke said realization dawning.
"Oh? That's all you have to say? Oh? Here I am making myself crazy trying to plan your wedding in a month's time and you backstab me like this!"
"Sookie, I didn't backstab you! I had no idea that guy was gonna be there!"
Sookie went on as if Luke hadn't spoken, "And you had access to all my recipes all night and that wasn't good enough for you! You just had to throw in one of your own and get some recognition for yourself!"
"Again, Sookie, I didn't know he was going to be there," he said in frustration but it was clear that Sookie was in no mood to listen to reason.
"As if that weren't bad enough, you had to go and screw up my béchamel with the damn walnuts!"
"I didn't put walnuts in the béchamel," he shouted back. "I told you that that night when you kept second-guessing my judgment!"
"No? Then how come there's no mention of it! Every time a critic has ever tried my béchamel it's gotten rave reviews, but not this time 'cause you screwed it up! No, this article's all 'Luke's lamb chops' and 'Luke's special omelet' and 'Luke's this' and 'Luke's that!' What about the fact that it's Sookie's kitchen!"
"Hey, the guy also wrote in there that I was only a sub for the 'more well-known Sookie St James.' That's a compliment," he pointed out as he walked behind the counter and deposited the dirty dishes into a bus tub.
"How is that a compliment? That doesn't say anything about my skills! He could just as well be saying that I'm well-known for serving food that tastes like dog poo!" Sookie cried as she followed Luke behind the counter.
"Get out from behind my counter," Luke said.
"Are you serious?"
"Don't I look serious," he asked with a stern glare. "Move it!" He pointed to the other side of the counter.
"Fine," Sookie grumbled as she moved from behind the counter. "I just can't believe this after you went everywhere in my kitchen."
"Look, I didn't wanna be in your kitchen in the first place! I only did it as a favor to you and Lorelai!"
"And what a favor it was," Sookie said sarcastically. "I bet you just love this, don't you? You spent all that time in my kitchen with my staff and my recipes, stealing my glory and all because I was pregnant!"
"Like that's my fault? If you didn't wanna be pregnant, maybe that's something you should have discussed with your husband!"
"I never said I didn't wanna be pregnant! I'm not anti-kid like you are!"
"I'm not anti-kid, Sookie! In case you've forgotten, we've got a kid on the way!"
"But every time someone comes in here with a kid, you're all grouchy and impatient like they're a big pain in the ass!"
Lorelai who had watched all of this with some amusement up to that point, decided to step in before things started getting really ugly. "Sookie, Honey, calm down," She said laying a soothing hand on her friend's shoulder.
Sookie jerked away from her angrily and said, "Leave me alone! You're just as big a backstabber as he is! You invited him to take over my kitchen! Plus you…you're sleeping with the enemy!"
"Jeez," Luke said in irritation.
"Luke is not the enemy. He really helped us out that night. None of you kitchen staff knew what to do without you there. That's how good you are," she said trying to soothe her friend's bruised ego. "They were lost without you. He just stepped in to help, that's all."
"And stole what should have been my review in the process! And I've been running around like a crazy person trying to plan a surprise engagement party for the two of you and then I find out about this!"
"Way to blow the surprise," Gypsy muttered from her seat at the counter.
Lorelai's eyes widened in surprise as she said, "You were planning us a party?"
"It was supposed to be a surprise, "Miss Patty said with a glare at Sookie.
"You were in on it too?"Luke said to Patty.
"We all were," Patty said indicating Babette and Morey sitting with her. "You know how we've all been rooting for you and Lorelai. Even Taylor was helping and that's really saying something."
"I was gonna DJ," Kirk piped up. "I even got KC to lend me his karaoke equipment 'cause some people in town wanted to sing for you guys, but I guess that's shot now."
"It doesn't have to be," Lorelai said with a smile elated that their neighbors thought so much of them.
"But somebody blew the surprise," Babette grumbled.
"Look, Babette," Luke said. "It doesn't matter that the surprise is blown. You guys can still have your party and we'll show up and pretend to be surprised, ok?"
"Yeah, whatever," Babette replied half-heartedly with a look at Sookie who was looking cornered.
"Hey, are you ok," Luke said to Sookie.
"Yeah, I guess," Sookie said with a shrug. "But I'm still mad at you."
"Come on, Sookie, you know that I didn't intentionally try to take any attention away from you."
"I know," she said hanging her head slightly. "It just bugs me, you know? How would you feel if I took over your kitchen for a day and something like this happened?"
"Like I would ever let you take over my kitchen again," Luke said. "I like my kitchen just the way it is. The last time you were in my kitchen I couldn't find anything for a week, you threw out everything I already has prepped, you scared Caesar half to death you and you were doing cutesy little things like making rosettes out of the butter and other stupid stuff like that."
"But suppose when I'd been here that day, a food critic had come in wanting to review your cooking and I got the glory instead all because you were nice enough to let me use your kitchen."
"That was a different situation! The inn had just burned and you needed a place to feed your guests. I ran your kitchen that night because you weren't physically able to do it yourself."
"But…"
"Look, Sookie, you took over my kitchen once, I took over your kitchen once. The way I see it, we're even. Now, I'm sorry that you're bothered by this. Maybe you're right. Maybe that review should have been yours, but it wasn't. I can't help that and I didn't ask for it. I didn't know the guy was gonna be there and neither did you. One thing you should think about in all this is that even though it was my cooking that he reviewed, he came to the inn specifically because he'd heard good things about you. I wasn't the chef he wanted to see, you were. You should be proud of that at least."
Sookie's face brightened a little at Luke's statement. "He did come to see me, didn't he? I'm that good."
"You know you're good at what you do. Better than me," he said in an effort to smooth Sookie's ruffled feathers.
"You're good too, but you know, with a little of my input, you could double your business," Sookie said enthusiastically.
"Look around, Sookie," Luke said impatiently already regretting his compliments to her. "I've got all the business I need here. Now, don't you have a kitchen of your own to get to?"
"Yeah, yeah" she said with a glare. As she made her way to the door, she noticed Richard sitting there who'd been silently watching the drama around him unfold. "Hey, Richard, I didn't see you there. I'm sorry I didn't say hello."
"That's quite all right, Sookie. It seems your attention was directed elsewhere," he said with a bemused looked on his face as he glanced at his son-in-law-to-be who was still shaking his head over the situation.
"So, are you and Emily coming to the party tomorrow?"
"I wasn't aware until just now that there was a party or that we were invited."
"Hmmm…That's weird. I left three messages on your machine to let you and Emily know what we were planning. Didn't you guys get them," she asked unaware that there was any tension between husband and wife. She bit her lip nervously wondering if Lorelai was still feuding with her mother and Emily had just neglected to mention the party to Richard because of it.
"I haven't listened to the machine, but maybe Emily has. I'll have to ask her about it, but I assure you, messages or not, we will be there," he said.
"Great! It's tomorrow night at seven, right out there in the square," she said excitedly happy that Lorelai seemed to be working things out with her parents. "Seeya then!"
"Later, Sook," Lorelai said as she re-joined her father at their table while Sookie made her way out the door.
"Your friend is a complete nut," Luke groused as he returned to the table with two coffee pots in hand.
"Yeah, but she'd a lovable nut," Lorelai said. "It's so sweet that she wants to throw us a party."
"I agree," Richard said. "It's nice that you have the support of your whole community."
"It is," Lorelai agreed. "It's just sad that I can't get that much support from my own mother."
"More coffee," Luke said trying to change the subject in order to keep Lorelai from dwelling on her mother's actions.
"That stuff? No, thank you," she said as she turned up her nose. "I'll just get the real stuff from Sookie later. She still loves me," she pouted.
"Well, I'll have to have a talk with Sookie then," Luke said.
"I'd like to see that. She's pretty pissed at you right now."
"She'll get over it, especially if I offer her something in trade, like say, my lamp chop recipe," he said with a grin.
"You would stoop that low? Conspiring with my best friend to keep me caffeine-deprived?"
"If that's what it takes to keep our kid safe and healthy."
"I'd like another cup of coffee, Luke," Richard interjected causing Lorelai to bite back the comment she was going to make, leaving her stewing in silence instead.
"It's for your own good," Luke said while he poured Richard's coffee.
"Just go on about your business, Mr. Coffee Police," she said waving him off.
"Whatever," he said shaking his head as he returned the coffee pots to their burners.
Richard chuckled at Lorelai's frustration and said, "I don't think he's going to give in on this one."
"Believe me, I'll find a way to get him to give in," Lorelai replied with a grin.
"I don't think I want to know what method you plan to use to get him to give in on the coffee issue."
"Let's just say I have ways of convincing him to do what I want."
"I have no doubt that's true. You've certainly got him wrapped around your little finger," he said with a smile. "So, tell me what your ideas are for your wedding."
Father and daughter continued their breakfast chatting about the upcoming wedding and the plans that were being made before they both returned to the house to retrieve their vehicles and start their work days. On his drive back to Hartford, Richard thought again of his wife and was dreading the confrontation that he knew he was going to face when he got home in the evening and the drama that would surely ensue at dinner and tried to formulate a plan to keep said drama to a minimum.
Emily walked into the law office and was warmly greeted by the red-headed attorney. "Hello, Mrs. Gilmore. Please have a seat, "Nicole Leahy said as she gestured to the chair in front of her desk.
"Thank you," Emily replied as she took a seat. "I appreciate you seeing me on such short notice."
"I had a last minute cancellation, so it's really no problem. I understand from what you told my assistant that you're concerned that your daughter is engaged to a man with a violent side," Nicole inquired.
"Yes, I've seen this man lose his temper at the drop of a hat and I've heard from his neighbors that he has a propensity for destruction of property when he's having one of these fits of temper," she explained trying to gain some sense from the woman's reaction whether Luke had ever behaved violently toward her.
"Has he acted violently toward your daughter? Or hurt her in any way," Nicole probed.
"She swears that he hasn't but I don't quite believe her," she said as she laid it on thick. "He threatened to kill me just a few days ago when I merely suggested that he and my daughter weren't suited to each other."
"Well, a man can't be prosecuted for that. A lot of people say things that they don't mean in the heat of the moment, but it's usually just an idle threat. Now, do you know of any violent incidents in the past? Toward your daughter, I mean."
"No, but even if he hasn't done anything, I have a feeling that it's only a matter of time before he does something to her or to my grandchild," Emily said trying to make the situation sound more desperate than it was. She'd been hoping that by taking this tactic, it would get the woman talking about her own experiences with Luke and the car incident.
"There's a child involved?"
"Not yet, but my daughter's pregnant and I'm deeply concerned for her safety," Emily said with a sigh.
"Have there been police reports filed, formal complaints from neighbors about disturbances, anything like that?"
"No, my daughter's so obsessed with this man that she can see straight when it comes to him and while his neighbors are more than willing to share information on his violent nature, nobody seems to want to do anything about it. Maybe because they live in a small community, I don't know. I just wish I knew what to do."
Nicole frowned and said, "Well, unfortunately, if there's been no documented history of domestic violence and she's unwilling to report any such incidents, there's really not a lot I can do. Your daughter has to want to do something about it. If she were a minor, that would be a different story, but since she's an adult, she has to take the first step by reporting problems to the police. Until she's willing to do that, there's nothing I can do to help you."
"There has to be something that can be done, Miss Leahy. It is Miss Leahy, isn't it," Emily asked abandoning her original plan in favor of a new one.
"Yes, that's my name," Nicole replied wondering what the woman across from her was up to as the tone in her voice had just changed drastically. A moment ago, she'd been pleading for her daughter's safety and now she was speaking in a tone that suggested she was trying to interrogate her.
"I was just making sure. I didn't know if you still went by your married name, like some divorced women do. So, you don't go by Mrs. Danes anymore then?"
"I never went by Mrs. Danes," Nicole answered now starting to see where this was going. "I get it now. Gilmore, small community, I should've seen it sooner. I just didn't make the connection since New York's far from Stars Hollow and Gilmore's a fairly common name. You're Lorelai's mother," she said bitterly narrowing her eyes at the realization.
"Yes," Emily confirmed."You know my daughter?"
"Of course I know her. You don't forget the woman your husband left you for. You can leave now," Nicole said coolly as she rose from her seat and indicated the door to her office.
"Excuse me?"
"You heard me. I don't like you coming in here and wasting my time under the pretense of concern for your daughter's safety just to use me to get to Luke."
"I want that man out of my daughter's life," Emily said hotly as she too rose from her seat.
"Good luck with that one," Nicole said sarcastically. "I tried repeatedly to get her out of Luke's life and all I did was drive him right to her and for the record, he is not aviolent man, hot-tempered, yes but not violent."
"You don't know what you're talking about. I've seen his irrational behavior with my own eyes."
"I do know what I'm talking about. I was married to him after all. I know that while he has his faults, he's not the type that would ever raise his hand to a woman. We had some of the worst fights known to mankind and he never laid a hand on me."
"What about the car that he beat up when he caught you with another man?"
"That was a car, not a person and how do you even know all this?"
"The arrest is a matter of public record," Emily said using the private detective's words. "It didn't take too much effort to find out what was behind it, especially since Stars Hollow is such a small town."
"Look, none of this is any of your business!"
"Not my business? How can you say that? My daughter is on the verge of throwing away her entire future on this man! She's planning on marrying him and she's carrying his child!"
"So, that wasn't just part of your charade, then," Nicole questioned biting on her lower lip in displeasure at the thought of Lorelai having Luke's child.
"No, it was not," Emily said. "Your ex-husband got my daughter pregnant and now she's throwing away everything to be with him. She's alienated her daughter; she's neglecting her business, she's cutting me and her father out of her life and immersing herself in nothing but this man. I want this to stop."
"Just what the hell do you think I can do about it?" Nicole exclaimed getting angry now. "Luke and I are divorced. We have been for more than a year and do you wanna know the reason we're divorced? Your trampy daughter! He used the fact that I'd cheated as an excuse to go through with the divorce and treated me like I was some kind of whore when he was the one who started cheating first. He'd stopped coming home long before that and even when he did, he was never really there! When I'd ask him about his day, everything that came out of his mouth was 'Lorelai did this' and 'Lorelai did that'! It all came to a head when I had to go on a trip to Boston for business, a trip that I begged him to go with me on, but he said he couldn't possibly leave Stars Hollow and his business. Then one night while I'm there, he shows up there unexpectedly all dressed up, talking about how he wants to take me out. I was so excited that he was making an effort that I went to greet him with a hug and that's when I noticed that sickening sweet smell of Lorelai's fruity perfume on him. Do you have any idea what that was like for me! To know that he'd been with her that night before he came to me? How would you feel to be your husband's second choice? We had this huge fight over it which ended with him storming out and running back to Stars Hollow. Then as if that wasn't bad enough, when I got home from that trip, I found out that he'd written her a check for thirty thousand dollars without telling me about it! That was the final straw! He swore up and down that he was just helping out a friend in need, but I knew what kind of needs he was really helping her with," she said scathingly.
"That must have been awful for you," Emily stated.
"Don't patronize me," Nicole said fiercely. "You have no idea what I went through over him! I do have to admit that it was my own stupid fault. I knew from the time we started dating that his heart wasn't in it. It was always Lorelai he wanted, not me! Our marriage was over from the day we said 'I do'" I was just too blind to see it. When he proposed, I thought maybe he was actually serious and I jumped at the chance, but it turned out to be the biggest mistake of my life!"
"He wasn't ready to settle down," Emily queried.
"He was. That's the problem. He wanted to settle down and have kids and a house and the works, just not with me. It was always her. She knew it, too. She wasn't stupid. She knew that all she had to do was look at him with that pouty expression on her face to get him to do whatever she wanted. I tried to convince myself for a long time that he really was just her friend and that he wouldn't have married me if he didn't want to be with me, but deep down I knew better. No matter what I did, I couldn't change the fact that she was the one he was in love with. So, if what you're saying is true and he's engaged to her, there is no stopping it."
"It is true. They're planning a wedding for next month, even though they've only been engaged for a week. I can only assume that they're rushing the wedding because of my daughter's pregnancy," Emily said with disdain
"Look, I don't know why you felt the need to come here. If you think there's a way for me to stop the wedding, you're barking up the wrong tree. If I couldn't get Luke to be faithful to me while we were married, what makes you think I can do anything now?"
"There must be something you know about him that Lorelai doesn't, something that would change her mind about marrying him."
"I highly doubt there's anything I know about him that she doesn't. She probably knows him better than I do," she said with a sigh. "The fact is that even though he and I didn't work out as a couple, Luke is a decent guy. He's a hard worker, and a big part of his community and he's a loyal friend."
"He wasn't a loyal husband, it seems," Emily pointed out.
"No, but I don't entirely blame him for that. I was just as much to blame for the divorce as he was. I accepted his proposal even though I knew it wasn't right. I tried to make him love me when he didn't and I failed. Trust me when I say that if you're trying to get between him and Lorelai, you'll fail too."
"I refuse to accept that," Emily said adamantly.
"Then you're a fool," Nicole stated. "Now, I think I've sufficiently embarrassed myself by dredging up the past and I've got work to do, so you can see yourself out."
"We're not done here! There must be something you could say to him!"
"Yes, we are. We're done," Nicole said firmly. "I'm trying to move forward with my life, not backward. I don't want to discuss my failed marriage or my ex-husband anymore! I've already said way more than I wanted to and I'm done! Luke is a part of my past and I want it to stay that way! If he's with Lorelai now, then there's no way he's looking back at me either! Nothing I could say to him could possibly make a difference! I already told you, he never wanted me to begin with! I appreciate your concern for your daughter, but it's unfounded. He'd never do anything to hurt her. I've seen all too clearly how much he loves her. You're not going to change his mind or hers for that matter. She went after him while we were still together, not caring that he was married to me! Now that she's got him, there's no way in hell she's going to let go of him! That wedding will happen no matter what you try to do to stop it. Now, I've asked you to leave twice already! Don't make me call security to have you thrown out!"
"All right, you've made your point," Emily said in a huff as she made her way out the door still stewing over the situation. Her two hour drive to New York hadn't been entirely wasted though. She'd at least gotten confirmation from Luke's ex-wife that her suspicions were correct and the love affair between him and her daughter had started while he was still married. That would be something she could use as a new point of attack in her crusade to ensure her daughter's future.
Luke and Lorelai walked across the town square hand in hand after their appointment with the doctor both grinning from ear to ear. "Where are we going, Luke? The diner's that way," Lorelai said in protest.
"I've got a surprise for you," he said as he guided her in the direction he wanted her to go.
"Ooh, I like surprises," she said excitedly. When they reached the Twickham house, he pulled a set of keys from his pocket with a smile and unlocked the front door while Lorelai squealed with delight. As soon as Luke had closed the door behind him, he pulled Lorelai into his arms and kissed her fervently. He then lowered himself to his knees and placed a tender kiss to her stomach. She reached down and held his head against her for a moment and said, "So, you're happy?"
"Yeah," he choked out overcome with emotion. He pulled back from her and lightly stroked her stomach. "There's really a baby in there."
"You already knew that," Lorelai said with a smile. "You were there with me when I took the test, remember?"
"I know," he said as he got to his feet and looked into her eyes. "But hearing the doctor confirm it just made it seem really real, you know? We made a baby," he said softly as he gazed at her and caressed her face.
"Yes, we did," she said smiling back before pulling him to her and kissing him fiercely. When she broke the kiss, she said breathlessly, "I can't believe you did this. How did you manage to get the keys to the house so soon?"
"How do you think? I threatened Taylor," he said with a grin.
"You didn't," she said.
"Ok, no, I didn't. I just told him we needed to get into the house to start making plans and he was too busy to show us around the place himself so he just handed me the keys and told me to get them back to him by the end of the day. But I would've threatened him if he hadn't given in," he said. "I just…I really wanted you to see this place without all the creepy museum crap inside."
Lorelai looked around the house. She closed her eyes for a brief moment and tried to envision them living there. She already saw in her mind where she wanted her trusty TV to go. "It's beautiful," she said with a smile.
"You wanna see the upstairs?"He asked.
"Let's go," she said as she let him lead her up the stairs and into the room off to the right of the landing.
"This is the master bedroom," he said as they entered the room. He walked across the room and opened the French doors leading to the balcony that overlooked the town square. "It's kind of nice having the balcony here. That way when you drag me to all this town's goofball festivals that you love and I hate and I get tired of the insanity of our town, you can stay out there and enjoy yourself while I could come up here and watch you have your fun without us being too far away from each other."
"It's perfect," she said softly, touched by the fact that he'd put so much thought into their future, before bestowing another kiss on her loving fiancée. One kiss turned into another and another until Lorelai pulled him back into the bedroom and breathlessly whispered, "Luke, let's make love."
"Here? Now?"
"Right here, right now," she said as she kissed him again slipping her arms behind his head, knocking his baseball cap to the floor and began nibbling at his neck. "We have to properly christen our new bedroom," she whispered seductively as she lowered her hands to his butt and pressed herself against him.
Luke sighed contentedly as he wrapped his arms around her and kissed her passionately. "I swear, one of these days you're gonna kill me," he muttered in a low growl as he lowered both of them to the floor of what would soon be their new home.
A while later Luke grunted as Lorelai collapsed on top of him, trying hard to catch her breath. "Wow," he said breathlessly.
"Yeah," she said with a smile as moved slightly causing Luke to grunt against as her weight pressed him into the hardwood. "Are you ok, Babe," she asked as she raised her head to look at him.
"Fine, I'm just suddenly rethinking the whole sex-on-a-hardwood floor thing," he said as he shifted uncomfortably.
"I didn't hear you complaining two minutes ago," she teased.
"Not complaining now, just a little uncomfortable," he said as he tried to redistribute her weight a little.
"So, no more sex on our bedroom floor, check."
"Maybe if we get some rugs or something so it's not so hard."
"Dirty," she said with a giggle.
"I so set you up for that," he said with a groan.
"Ooh, can we get some of those really thick fuzzy rugs, the kind that feel really good on your bare feet?"
"Sure, whatever you want," he said as he ran his fingers through her hair and pulled her down to him for a kiss. "I think the decorating part is pretty much your territory."
"Well, the remodeling part's yours. You're the one who knows about woodworking and architecture and stuff."
"I don't know that much about that stuff. We're still gonna have to hire a contractor. I'm thinking Tom did a good job with the inn and the diner so what do you think about having him do the work on the house?"
"I think that's a great idea," she said a little too exuberantly causing Luke to groan again as her weight shifted again.
"That's it. I have to get up now. I can't take this floor anymore."
"Ok," she said as she reluctantly pulled herself up and reached for her discarded clothing, allowing Luke to get up as well. "So, show me the rest of our house."
They both got dressed and Luke continued to show her the house. They walked into the next room and he said a little hesitantly, "I…um…I was thinking this room would make a good nursery."
Lorelai looked at the room and said, "I think so too." She took his hand in hers and asked,"Why are you so nervous?"
"I don't know. I just…I want you to like the house. I know it's gonna be hard for you to leave your house and I…uh…I want to know that you'll be happy here."
"I do like this house and I will be happyhere as long as you're here with me." She lifted her hand to lightly stroke his stubbled jaw and kissed him softly before finally voicing her thought from earlier by saying, "I love it that you've put so much thought into how to turn this house into a home for us."
"Yeah?"
"Yeah," she said with a smile. "Now, come on, let's finish this tour. I've got some work to do at the inn before we go to Hartford tonight since I wasn't there yesterday."
"Ok," he said as he again took her hand and showed her the rest of the house envisioning the changes that would need to be made to make it livable while Lorelai was mentally picking out paint colors for every room in the house.
When they stepped into the library off of the living room, Lorelai gasped and said, "Oh my God, Rory would love this room."
"Yeah, I thought so too. When I was in here working on the museum, I kept thinking of Rory and how much she loves books. I thought if things worked out the way I wanted them to for us that this room would make her happy and keep her from having to store all her excess books in her dresser like she's done for years."
Lorelai looked at him adoringly and said, "You've been thinking about this for a while then?"
"Yeah, it's why I agreed to help with the museum in the first place. I wanted this house for us, for Rory, for our family," he confessed.
"You've been thinking about us in that way for that long?"
"Yeah, Ever since I saw you standing at the altar at your parents' wedding thing. During the ceremony, I kept picturing us up there saying 'I do'. Dumb, huh?"
"No, not dumb," she said reassuringly as she took another look around the large library. "So, your kidnapping plot, do you think it could still work, at least for long enough to show Rory this amazing room?" She had wanted so badly to share all the wonderful changes in her life with Rory, but she'd found out that her mother had beaten her to the punch. She wanted at least one thing that she could share with her daughter. She blinked back the tears that had started to form as Luke wrapped his arms around her, enveloping her in his comforting embrace. "I'm sorry," she said as she let the tears fall on Luke's well-worn flannel.
"Shhh," he said soothingly. "You have nothing to be sorry for."
"Yes, I do," she wailed. "You've done such a crazy wonderful job thinking about everything and making plans for our future and I don't want you to think that I'm not happy about this. I'm…I…I'm so happy with you, but…"
"You wanna share it with Rory. You think I don't get that, but I do," he lifted her chin and looked into her tear-filled eyes and added, "That's why I'm willing to put up with even more of your mother's brutal attack on me tonight. So you and Rory can try to hash this out and we can get her back on the right path. I know you're happy with me and that we're starting a family, but I also know that our family won't be complete without Rory in it."
"I'm sorry," she repeated. "I'm sorry that I'm so blubbery when you're trying so hard to make me happy. I think the pregnancy hormones are making me a little crazy."
"As opposed to how stable you were before," he quipped with an impish grin.
"Hey, don't mock my craziness" she said as she swatted at him playfully giggling a little.
"Now, that's what I like to see," he said indicating her smile.
"How is it that no matter how bad I feel, you can always make me laugh?"
"Just call me Shecky," he said dryly causing Lorelai to laugh even harder. Luke's smile widened as he heard her laughing as he tried to expand on his ideas for turning Rory around and getting her home where she belonged. As a thought struck him on how to accomplish this, he pulled back from her a little and said, "Listen, I've got some errands to run before we go to your parents' house tonight and you said you had to get back to this inn, so we should get out of here for now."
"What kind of errands, stuff for the diner?"
"No, just stuff to do. I'll fill you in later," he said as he walked out of the room and toward the front door.
"That's it? You're not gonna' tell me?" she questioned as she followed him out the door and they began to walk across the square.
"Nope, not yet, but I promise I will tell you everything when the time is right."
"The time is right now," she pleaded with him as they reached the street in front of the diner where their vehicles were parked."You're not planning on buying another house without telling me, are you?"
Luke glared at her and said, "No. This has nothing to do with you and me." When it looked like Lorelai was going to protest again, he said, "Look, would you just trust me?" The truth was he didn't want to tell her what he was up to until he was sure that he'd be able to do what he wanted to. He wasn't sure if his plan for getting Rory to listen to reason would work and he didn't want her to get her hopes up, just to have them dashed.
"I guess," she said skeptically.
"Good, now you need to get back to the inn and I need to get my errands run, so I'll see you back at the house later," he said as he pecked her lips and made his way to his truck to begin putting his plan into action.
"Ok, Mystery Guy," she said still wondering what he was up to while she got into her jeep and made her way back to the inn.
Richard pulled into his driveway and sat there in his car for a moment after turning the engine off dreading stepping foot into the house knowing that as soon as he did, Emily was sure to try to resume their argument of the night before. He removed his keys from the ignition, stepped out of the car, and stared at the house for a moment thinking about what was waiting for him inside. He decided to hold off the confrontation he knew was sure to come by walking to the pool house to talk to his granddaughter instead. He knew he was a coward in doing so, but he didn't want this evening to start off with Emily already in a bad mood. He was deeply concerned that her actions would have an adverse effect on Lorelai and the child she was carrying. He was happy about being a grandfather again and he didn't want to take the chance that his arguing with Emily would cause her to again attack Luke or Lorelai and pile even more stress on their pregnant daughter. He knocked on the door of the pool house and upon hearing his granddaughter answer stepped into the room.
"Hi, Grandpa," she greeted him.
"Hello, Rory. You look very pretty tonight," he said indicating the fancy dress she was wearing.
"Thanks. All dressed for dinner tonight," she said. "Grandma said it was going to be kind of a celebratory thing for Mom and Luke, so I just thought I'd gussy up a little."
Richard sensed a little sadness in her voice that he guessed was coming from the fact that Lorelai herself hadn't been the one to share the news with her. "Your grandmother told you that that's what this dinner is for?"
"Um…Yeah," she answered a little awkwardly. "Isn't it?"
"Well…" he hesitated. He didn't think it wise to tell her that the true motive behind this dinner was to try to talk her into going back to school. "Of course," he lied feeling guilty for doing so." I'm just surprised that she told you that considering that she hasn't been the greatest supporter of your mother's relationship with Luke."
"Well, maybe she's starting to come around," Rory said. "I mean, with Mom being pregnant, she'd want her to get married. I've heard her say for years that she should have married my dad when she got pregnant with me."
"True," he said as he wondered what Emily's motivations were in telling Rory such an outright lie. Emily wanted no part of helping to celebrate their daughter's engagement to Luke. She'd done nothing the past few days but try to tear them apart. "So, how do you feel about this whole situation? I know it's a lot to process."
"It is, but if Mom's happy then I'm happy for her," she said though she didn't sound very convinced of that. "And Luke's a great guy. He really loves Mom and I think that he's the one who has what it takes to make her happy. Plus, I know from first-hand experience with the way he's always been there for me that he'll make a great dad."
"But…?"He queried trying to get to the root of Rory's sadness.
"But nothing, Grandpa," she said defensively. "I'm happy for them, really."
"Rory, you know if there's something bothering you, you can always talk to me." When Rory remained silent, he prodded further, "What is it, Rory? Do you object to Luke being your step-father?"
"No," she insisted. "If any guy was going to be my step-father, I'd want it to be Luke. He's been more like a father to me than my own dad ever has been. It's just…"
"Just what, Rory?"
"It's just with him having a kid of his own, I worry that there's no room in his life for me anymore. He won't need me to be his surrogate daughter if he's got his own kid to be a dad to."
"You can't honestly believe that that's true. If you could hear the way that he talks about you, you'd know without a doubt that he loves you just as much as he will love any child of his own."
"I know that he loves me, but maybe all that will change when he's holding his own baby and watching that kid grow up. And Mom will feel differently about that baby than me too, since this time she'll be having a baby with someone she's actually in love with. I mean, Luke bought her a house and he's gonna be doing all the stuff for their kid that my dad should have done for me. They're gonna have a brand new family of their own and I don't fit into that family. I'm just Mom's teenage mistake."
"Rory, you listen to me. You are not a mistake! You were a surprise, yes, but it turned out to be a wonderful surprise."
"Yeah, so wonderful that Mom couldn't wait to get rid of me to make room for Luke and the new baby," she said bitterly.
"Why on earth would you think that your mother's trying to get rid of you? She loves you."
"Well, it's awfully convenient that less than a week after she told me I couldn't come home, Luke was moving in and she's making plans to sell the house I grew up in. It's like she's trying to erase the evidence of her bastard offspring now that she's getting married and doing things the right way this time."
"That's simply not true. Your mother is deeply hurt by your estrangement and wants nothing more than to make things right with you. You'll see when she gets here tonight."
"Maybe," she said unconvinced. "We'll have to wait and see."
"I don't think you'll have long to wait," Richard said. "I think I just heard Luke's truck roar in."
"Sounds like it," she said.
"Well, shall we go then?" he said offering her his arm.
"Yeah, I guess," she said as she linked her arm through her grandfather's and leaned on him a little for support while they made their way to the main house.
Luke took Lorelai's hand as he helped her out of the truck. "Have I mentioned how beautiful you look tonight?" he said.
"You might have mentioned it," she said with a smile. "You look pretty good yourself," she added indicating his very rare shaved face and the suit he was wearing with the blue dress shirt he'd worn the night of the magazine party.
"Thanks," he said and took in her appearance again. "You look amazing, though I can't figure out why you insisted on wearing that dress again," he said indicating the pink sparkly dress she was wearing. "You know that your mother's just going to jump on you for it when she sees how revealing it is."
"I wore this dress because it's symbolic of our strength as a couple. That no matter what she does, we're staying together," she explained. "This was the dress I wore the night we had our back-together date after she broke us up and I wore it the other night after she tried to break us up again. So, when we get in there and she starts harping on us and our relationship again, I want something positive to focus on. That and I'll be thinking about how much you love taking this dress off of me and how I just might let you take it off me again when we get home tonight," she said with a wicked grin.
"I don't know about that one. Our…activities earlier kind of left me a little stiff," he said and cringed at his choice of phrasing know what the next word out of her mouth was going to be.
"Um…dirty," she said as he'd known she would.
"Come on, let's get in there and get this over with," he said with a shake of his head as he reached into the truck for the file folder he'd brought with him after his errands in the afternoon.
"So, you never did tell me what's in that folder or what these mysterious errands of yours were earlier," she said as they made their way up to the house.
"You'll find out soon enough," he said evasively as he rang the bell.
"Come on, Luke," she begged as the door was opened by yet another new maid and they were ushered inside. "You promised you'd tell me what you were up to."
"And I will, but you'll just have to wait," he said firmly.
"You know me, Luke. I'm not very good at waiting for anything," she said as the maid took their jackets and they walked toward the living room.
"Haven't you ever heard curiosity killed the cat?"
"I'm not a cat, though you do know how to make me purr," she said suggestively as they stepped into the living room where they knew Emily was waiting to pounce.
"Hello, Lorelai," Emily greeted her daughter choosing to ignore her inappropriate comment.
"Hi, Mom, "Lorelai said with a nervous glance at Luke as she clung to him for support just waiting for some scathing comment from her mother.
"Hello, Luke," Emily said as she took in his appearance. "Don't you look dashing tonight? Blue is very becoming on you. It really brings out the color in your eyes," she said in a pleasant tone.
"Um, thanks, Emily," he said awkwardly as he and Lorelai shared a bewildered look both wondering why she was being so nice to him all of a sudden.
"I've always thought Luke looked good in blue," Lorelai said. "And I loved this shirt," she said as she stroked his chest affectionately knowing that it would set her mother off.
Luke took her hand with his free one and removed it from his chest. "You just keep your hands to yourself. The last time you got a hold of this shirt, I had to sew two buttons back on it the next day," he said with a glance at Emily as if daring her to say something.
"Well, look at what came out of it. That was the night our baby was made," she said with a devilish grin at Luke knowing that he mother was holding back her withering comments for some reason unknown to her. She couldn't figure out what she was up to. The past few days, she'd said whatever was on her mind regardless of how hurtful it was and she knew there was something that was brewing just underneath the surface of her polite façade. She also knew that her mother wouldn't approve of the direction this conversation was heading and would have something to say. She didn't like her mother's disapproval but it was better than this unnatural calm. At least the judgmental glares and snide remarks were honest. Whatever her mother had planned for the evening, she wanted it out in the open.
Emily bit back a retort and said as politely as she could, "Why don't you two make yourselves comfortable."
"Ok," Lorelai said as she and Luke sat together on the sofa and Luke set his file on the end table beside him. She was deeply unnerved by the fact that her mother hadn't taken another swipe at her relationship with Luke or her unplanned pregnancy when she'd so boldly given her the opportunity to do so.
"So, Luke, what's in the folder," Emily asked trying to make conversation before Rory arrived and she could set her plan for the evening in motion.
Lorelai looked at Luke expectantly and said, "I'd like to know that, too."
"Just some stuff I thought might help to get Rory back where she belongs," he said pointedly letting Emily know once again that he didn't approve of the way things had gone with Rory's decision to drop out of Yale.
"I see," Emily said with a smile that belied her true intentions.
"Where is Rory, anyway," Lorelai asked her mother.
"Probably still in the pool house, but I made sure she knew to be here tonight."
"And Dad? Where's he at?"Lorelai probed wishing her father were there to provide a kind of buffer between her and her mother.
"Oh, you know how your father is. I imagine he's gotten wrapped up in work and is still at the office," she said in a tone that was a lot calmer than she felt considering that she and her husband hadn't spoken since the night before.
"So, have you and Dad talked since you had your fight last night?"Lorelai probed wondering if they'd made up.
"What makes you think that your father and I had a fight?"Emily asked coolly.
"Oh, I don't know, Mom. Maybe the fact that Dad told me you guys had a fight when he had dinner with us last night."
"Your father had dinner with you last night?"Emily asked in surprise. She'd known her husband had said he was going to Stars Hollow but she hadn't imagined that it had gone that far.
"Yes, he did. A dinner that Luke cooked and that Dad complimented, by the way," Lorelai informed her mother.
"I'm sure that your father was just being polite. Diner fare is not exactly his favorite type of cuisine."
"Come on, Mom. You know Dad doesn't give compliments unless he means them. And for the record, we didn't eat dinner at the diner. We had dinner at home, which you should have known. I'm sure you remember Luke brining groceries home in the middle of our argument yesterday."
"Yes, of course. How forgetful of me," she said as she realized her daughter was right. Richard never complimented anything or anyone if he didn't mean it. She glanced at Luke, wondering just what kind of food he would have prepared that would have earned him a compliment from her husband, who was often critical of the food that was served in their own home. "As for this so-called fight, it was nothing more than a minor disagreement."
"If it was so minor why is it that he spent the night at our house?"She challenged her mother as she found it very interesting that while her mother was trying to break up her relationship she was succeeding only in damaging her own.
Before Emily could answer, their conversation was interrupted by Rory and Richard entering the room through the French doors. "Richard, where have you been?"
"I thought you said he was at the office, Mom," Lorelai said.
Richard ignored his wife and turned to greet his daughter with a kiss to the cheek. "Hello, Lorelai. How are you?"
"I'm good, Dad," she said with a smile. "You?"
"Wonderful, "he said before turning to Luke and shaking his hand. "Luke, how are you, Son?"He asked ignoring Emily's piercing glares.
"I'm doing well," Luke said.
"And how's the diner? Is it still busy?"
Emily stared at her husband in disbelief that he was blatantly ignoring her. "Richard, did you not hear me? I asked you where you've been."
Richard turned to his wife. "Emily, why don't Luke and Lorelai have drinks? Surely you haven't forgotten your manners," he said still ignoring her question.
"Richard, what's the matter with you?"
"There's absolutely nothing the matter with me, Emily. I'm merely inquiring about drinks. I've only been gone for one day. Certainly in that short a time, our tradition of having drinks before dinner hasn't changed."
"No, of course, it hasn't," Emily said impatiently.
"Well, since you don't seem inclined to do anything about it, I'll have to attend to it myself. Lorelai, what would you like to drink? I know that with a baby on the way you can't have a cocktail, but we have other things."
"Just a club soda's fine, Dad," Lorelai answered.
"The same for me, if you don't mind, Richard," Luke said.
"Fine," Richard said.
"You're not drinking tonight, Luke?"Emily asked with an arched eyebrow.
"I'm not really a big drinker anyway, plus I'm driving tonight, so I'd rather be safe than sorry."
"Very wise. Rory, your usual coke," Richard asked.
"Yes, please," Rory replied as Richard went to the bar to get the drinks. Rory looked at her grandparents wondering what was causing the tension between them.
"You say you're not a big drinker, yet I seem to recall Lorelai saying that the lack of precautions that led to her pregnancy was due to the fact that you'd both been drinking heavily that night."
"Mom, I never said we were drinking heavily," Lorelai said."I said we were tipsy and Luke's telling the truth. He doesn't drink much. That's why the alcohol he did drink hit him so hard."
"So, the magazine party false alarm really wasn't a false alarm," Rory said.
"No, Hon, it wasn't."
"Well, congratulations," she said half-heartedly.
"Gee, that was heartfelt," Lorelai said sarcastically.
"Wait a minute," Luke said to Lorelai. "How does Rory know about the magazine party thing when you haven't talked to her in a week?"
"Here are your drinks," Richard said as he handed them around in an effort to quell the rising storm. Emily stared at him with a scowl when she noticed that he hadn't made her a drink. She walked to the bar while her husband walked in the other direction and parked himself in the armchair at the other end of the room.
"Relax, Hon. I didn't give her any of the details or anything. I just told her that we were a little tipsy and things got a little out of control and that I thought I might be pregnant."
"I believe primordial was the word you used, Mom," Rory said with a grimace.
"When did this happen?" Luke said.
"When Sookie was in the hospital. That's when I first started having the apple cravings," Lorelai explained.
"What? That long ago?"
"Why are you getting so upset about this? You know I share a lot of stuff with Rory. I always have."
"But this is different! If I'm this kid's father, don't you think that I have a right to be the first one to know?" Emily watched the argument between Luke and Lorelai and took some comfort in the fact that things weren't as perfect between them as Lorelai made them out to be. She looked across the room at her husband with a smug smile who merely scowled at her in return.
"What do you mean, if you're this kid's father? You think you're not?"
"I never said that!"
"No, but you implied it. Did she get to you?"She said with a gesture toward her mother. "Do you honestly think that I would cheat on you?"
"It wouldn't be the first time I've been cheated on."
"Well, I'm not Nicole! I would never do that to you! I would think you'd realize that, especially with our talk today at the house. If I'm willing to give up a house that I love for you and our kid, that should tell you something."
"I thought you liked the new house," Luke said looking hurt.
"I do, but you don't know just how hard it's gonna be for me to leave the house that I raised my daughter in."
"You don't want the house, fine! I'll sell the damn thing to Kirk. He wants it more than you do, anyway!"
"Um…Mrs. Gilmore," the maid said from the doorway timidly as she saw that everyone in the room was glaring at each other.
"What is it, Ellen," Emily snapped causing Ellen to jump back a little.
"Um…dinner's ready."
"Fine, thank you. We'll be along in a moment," she said as she turned her attention to the others in the room. "Shall we go," she said pleasantly.
"I'm not hungry," Luke said still glaring at Lorelai.
"Me either," Rory said sullenly.
"Well, I, for one, am famished," Richard said as he made his way to the dining room.
"And I'm pregnant, so I have to eat," Lorelai said with a look of contempt toward her mother wondering what she'd done to get into Luke's head and make him doubt her fidelity to him. She stalked off to the dining room closely followed by Luke who had resigned himself to the fact that this dinner had to go on as planned if they had any hope of getting through to Rory.
Emily and Rory were left in the living room staring at each other. Emily broke the silence, by saying, "Come on, Rory. We're having your favorite, pot roast."
Rory only shrugged in acknowledgement as they both began to walk toward the dining room to join the others. "Grandma, what's going on around here? You said this was supposed to be a celebration for Mom and Luke, but that's not what this feels like," she said as she took her seat across from her mother and Luke. Luke snorted in response as Emily took her seat at the end of table next to him. He'd purposely seated himself in the chair that Lorelai normally occupied in order to keep Emily away from Lorelai.
"You have something to say, Luke," Emily asked coolly.
"Not a thing, Emily," Luke replied just as coolly. "I said everything I wanted to say to you when you were harassing me in my place of business."
"Well, I have something to say," Lorelai said. "I think it's interesting that you lied to my daughter and told her this was a celebration dinner when we both know that you're anything but happy about the situation."
"Well, you're certainly not one to preach to me about honesty with the information I found out about the two of you today," Emily said scathingly as the maid brought the salads in.
"What are you talking about, Emily," Luke questioned.
"I had a lovely little chat with your ex-wife."
"What? Why were you talking to Nicole? How were you talking to Nicole? She doesn't even live around here anymore. She moved back to New York after the divorce, so it's not like you could've just bumped into her at the corner market."
"I'm well aware of that. I drove to her law office to talk to her and you wouldn't believe the things she had to say."
"Emily, why would you do such a thing?" Richard asked in shock.
Emily ignored her husband as he'd been doing to her all night and plunged on, "I often wondered why Lorelai kept her relationship with you a secret from me for so long, but after talking with Nicole, I think I understand. She was obviously embarrassed by the fact that your relationship began while you were still married."
"Mom, that is so not true," Lorelai protested. "Luke and I never even kissed until after he was divorced and we didn't sleep together until months later. Rory can tell you. I talked to her about the possibility of dating Luke after I went to his sister's wedding with him, which was when he was already single again." Lorelai glanced across the table at her daughter looking for support.
"I don't know, Mom. The timing of things is awfully coincidental. I mean, you and Luke were pretty close immediately after his divorce and everyone in town always knew that you were the one he wanted. It's not a stretch to think that you might have had something to do with his divorce and it's not like you're that great at sharing what's going on in your life with me."
Lorelai looked at her daughter unbelievably hurt by her insinuations and retorted, "I'm not the one who likes to break up marriages by sleeping with somebody else's husband. I believe that's your thing."
"What?"Emily said looking in shock at her granddaughter.
"Thanks for bringing that up again, Mom," Rory said angrily. "I thought you were over that."
"Rory, what on earth is she talking about?"Emily asked her.
"Just so you know, Mom," Rory said glaring at her mother. "That was not entirely my fault. They were on the verge of divorce before I ever got involved."
"Who are you trying to kid, Rory," Lorelai said to her daughter. "It was Lindsay finding that letter you wrote to Dean and finding out that you slept with her husband that caused her to throw him out."
"Rory, is this true," Richard asked his granddaughter appalled by the idea that his granddaughter had destroyed someone's marriage.
"They would have gotten divorced anyway," Rory said. "They were much too young to get married in the first place."
"So, that just makes it ok?"Lorelai said.
"Like you have any room to talk, Mom. You were always flirting with Luke when he was married to Nicole."
"I flirted, yes, but I didn't sleep with him."
"That's not what his wife said," Emily challenged. "You know what they say, Lorelai, once a cheater, always a cheater. If he'd cheat on her to be with you, it's only a matter of time until he cheats on you too."
"Ex-wife," Luke corrected hotly. "And screw her! She was the one who cheated, not me. And she was constantly accusing me of cheating which I never did! I have never been unfaithful to any woman I've ever been with, but Nicole never believed that."
"Why would she accuse you of it if she didn't have some good reason to believe it," Emily asked.
"It's a classic defense mechanism! You know you're doing something wrong, so you accuse someone else of doing it to make yourself feel better! She was cheating so she tried to turn it around on me, like I was the one in the wrong!"
"Nonsense!"
"It's not nonsense, Emily," Richard argued."What he's talking about is called projection. It's when one takes their negative impulses or feelings and projects them on to someone else in order to rationalize their own bad behavior. In this case, Nicole was trying to justify her infidelity by believing that Luke was doing the same."
"Why are you taking his side?"
"Because I've spent some time this week trying to get to know our future son-in-law, while you've done nothing but try to drive a wedge between them and I realize that he's not the type of man to stray." At hearing her grandfather's statement, Rory fixed her grandmother with an icy stare.
"Thank you, Richard," Luke said.
"Grandpa's right," Rory said turning her attention to Luke. "Luke is not the type to cheat."
"Oh, but I am? Is that what you're saying," Lorelai asked her daughter defensively.
"I'm just relating what was told to me by his ex-wife," Emily said in response to both Richard and Rory.
"Was that before or after you tried to pay Luke to get out of my life," Lorelai questioned her mother with a hostile tone in her voice.
"What?"Rory said in astonishment before turning on her grandmother. "Grandma, tell me you didn't." When Emily remained silent, Rory said, "Please, Grandma, tell me that you didn't stoop so low as to try to bribe Luke to leave Mom."
"Oh, she did," Luke confirmed with a steely glare at his future mother-in-law.
"Well, so what?" Emily said hotly. "Somebody had to step in and do something about this. It's quite obvious that your mother's incapable of making a rational decision when it comes to this man."
"Hello?"Lorelai interjected. "I'm sitting right here."
"Yes, I see you sitting there, Lorelai. I'm not blind, but you obviously are as far as Luke is concerned. Why else would you have thrown morality completely out the window to be with this man while he was still married? If what you were saying earlier is true and Rory did break up a man's marriage it's apparent that she learned that bad behavior from you!"
"For the last time, I didn't sleep with him while he was married! Even if I did, it's not like you're in any position to judge me when you were asking me for dating advice while you and Dad were separated! Where's the morality in that, dating someone else while your husband's living ten feet away in the pool house? Maybe Rory learned that bad behavior from you!"
"Hey, I admitted that I made a mistake sleeping with Dean while he was still married to Lindsay," Rory said in her own defense.
Rory's statement came at the same time that Emily countered Lorelai's attack on her by saying, "The difference is that I never let anything happen between me and Simon unlike whatever you were doing with Luke."
"I didn't do anything with Luke when he was married," Lorelai said again. "We were just friends!"
"Who are you trying to kid, Mom?" Rory said. "You and Luke were always more than friends."
"See, even Rory admits it," Emily said. "She's on my side."
"I'm not on your side, Grandma," Rory said rising from her seat and glaring down at her grandmother. "I think you trying to buy Luke off is the lowest thing you could have done, especially since Mom's pregnant!"
"I didn't know she was pregnant at the time. I only found out about it later when Luke let it slip out while he was screaming at me," Emily said she said also rising from her seat with a hostile wave of her hand in Luke's direction.
"That's no excuse, Mom," Lorelai said as she too rose from her seat to level the playing field. "Besides that, even after you knew about the baby, you still tried to split us up! Who does that kind of thing, intentionally tries to keep a man away from his kid?"
"I only did what I thought was best for you and your unborn child. Do you honestly think that he's capable of being a stable role model for an impressionable child with his frequent outbursts of violent temper?"
"Luke doesn't have a violent temper, Grandma," Rory said. "If you'd ever spent any time around him, you'd know that!"
"I only know what I've found out about him from your way-too-friendly neighbors in Stars Hollow," Emily said. "I've got a file in the other room an inch thick on the numerous violent incidents in his past."
"A file, Mom?" Lorelai questioned. "A file? What'd you do, put a PI on his tail?"
"Well, why shouldn't I? I only want to look out for your safety."
"Just when I thought you couldn't sink any lower," Lorelai said with a shake of her head.
"Grandma, are you serious?" Rory asked incredulously. "You actually hired a PI to keep tabs on Luke?" Ellen, the timid maid stepped into the room and upon hearing the overlapping shouting, stepped right back out again.
"Why are you acting like it's such an insane thing to do," Emily said.
"It is insane!"
"No, it's not! How is it insane to want to look out for the future of your child? Maybe if your mother had done the same with you, you wouldn't have given up your innocence to a married man!"
"Mom, you are completely cracked," Lorelai shouted. "I don't need to hire a PI to follow my daughter around!"
"That's enough," Luke said as he jumped from his seat and towered over all three women finally having had enough of the bickering. "What's really insane are you Gilmore women! And I mean all three of you! That includes you, Emily," he said with a pointed look toward her before turning to Lorelai and saying to her, "You have been upset and crying all week long because you haven't heard from your daughter and when you finally do get a message from her, you stubbornly refuse to call her back, even though I've told you repeatedly that the two of you should be talking instead of giving each other the cold shoulder!" He then turned back to Emily and said, "And you have been running around Stars Hollow like a crazy person, trying to dig up whatever dirt you can find on me, in the hopes that it will turn the woman I love against me and when that didn't work, you tried to make me doubt her by suggesting the baby she's carrying isn't mine when I know without a doubt that it is! I know you hate me and the fact that I'm the reason that Lorelai's pregnant, but you've been so hell-bent on destroying our relationship that you never once stopped to consider that this kid is your grandchild!"
"So, now you believe this kid is yours?" Lorelai said. "You didn't seem so convinced of it in there."
"I never even suggested that it wasn't. You just took it that way. The only thing that I was saying is that I should have been the first one to know that you thought you were pregnant, not Rory!"
"I already told you that I was afraid of how you'd react. We hadn't been back together that long and I thought it might be too soon for us to think about having a kid together! We already went through this and you accepted that!"
"That was before I knew that Rory knew about it before me!"
"So, Mom's not allowed to tell me stuff about your relationship," Rory asked sullenly. "Is that why I had to find out about your engagement and the baby and the house from my grandmother?"
"Maybe if you'd picked up the phone and called your mother at least once in the last week you'd have known what's been going on in our lives. She wanted to share all of this with you herself, but just like your mother and your grandmother, you're too damn stubborn! How long would it have taken you to just once pick up the phone and say, 'Hey, Mom, what's going on in your life?'"
"As you already pointed out, I did call and Mom ignored me!"
"Yeah, you called her, after she spent damn near a week crying over you and the fact that you went running to your grandparents and turned your back on her. You should have called her long before then!"
"Like I told her in my messages, I lost my cell phone and I called her as soon as I found it!"
"That's it! You lost your cell phone? That's your excuse? With all the money your grandmother has, I know she's got a phone here in this mausoleum she calls a home that you could have used to call your mother if you'd really wanted to!"
"Mausoleum?"Emily questioned. "I suppose it would seem that way to you, with that dump of a house you just bought. A house that is in no way suitable for my unborn grandchild!"
Richard rose from his seat and glared across the table at his wife and said, "Emily, shut up!"
"How dare you speak to me like that after the way you've been behaving lately," she replied venomously.
"I mean it, Emily! Not another word until Luke has finished what he has to say," Richard said sternly refusing to back down.
"Thank you," Luke said as he turned back to Rory who was standing there sullenly with her arms folded across her chest. "As for you, I can't even begin to tell you how angry I've been with you this last week! Do you have any idea the hell you've been putting your mother through! She has been worried sick about you and the choices you're making with your life and you couldn't even be bothered to call her even one time to let her know whether you were alive or dead, happy or sad. I've had to endure a week of seeing the woman I love heartbroken by the person who means the most to her in the world, all because you're too wrapped up in your new high society world to even take the time to find out what's going on in your Mom's life! It's been tearing her apart and you don't even care that you've hurt her! And what the hell is going on with you, stealing a yacht, dropping out of Yale, and moving in with your grandparents? This isn't you!" The maid again stepped shyly into the room to once again attempt to let the group know that the entrée was ready to be served, but after hearing Luke's rant to Rory, she again walked back to the kitchen to hide.
"Stop it, Luke!" Rory cried. "Get off my ass! You're not my father! I've got a father and it's not you! Just because you knocked my mother up, that doesn't make you my father, so why don't you worry about taking care of your own kid and leave me alone!" Rory regretted the words almost as soon as they'd come out of her mouth when she saw the pained look on Luke's face. He couldn't have looked more stunned if she'd slapped him while Emily looked at Luke smugly at her granddaughter's outburst.
"Rory!"Lorelai said in shock at her daughter's scathing words to the man who loved her as if she were his own daughter. "How can you say something like that to him after all he's done for you over the years?"
"I've got this, Lorelai," he said to her before turning back to his future step-daughter. "I'm well aware of the fact that I'm not your father and you're damn lucky that I'm not! If I were, I would've driven up here the night you moved into the pool house, dragged you out your bed and forced to look at what a mess you've made and how much you've been hurting your mother! As for your worthless father, I don't see him around anywhere! Where's he at while you're on the verge of throwing your life away! Does he even know that you were arrested or that you dropped out of school? Would he even care if he did? Would he be here like I am to try to talk some sense into you before it's too late or would he just pat you on the back and say that it's ok for you to give up like he's been doing for years?"
"So, is that what this dinner is supposed to be?" Rory asked. "Some kind of intervention?" In case you've forgotten, Luke, I'm an adult!"
"Then start acting like it! Adults don't run away just because somebody criticizes them. I know you hate what that rich asshole said to you, but you can't let him get to you so much that you throw away your whole future!"
"He's right, Hon," Lorelai said.
"What would either of you know about it," Rory countered vehemently then said to Luke, "You just got a rave review from The New York Times right after Mom got a rave review from American Travel! You don't know what it's like to have someone tell you you're not good enough!"
"How can you say that, Rory?" Lorelai said to her daughter. "All my life, my own mother has told me that I'm not good enough, that I don't measure up to her insanely high standards and she's been telling both me and Luke non-stop for three days that he's not good enough for me so I think we know a little something about it!"
"God, Mom, you're such a hypocrite! You've done nothing but bitch for years about how Grandma interferes in your life and won't support your life choices, but here you are, doing the same to me! Why can't you support me on this?"
"Because Luke's right. This isn't you!"
"How would you know anymore? You've been so wrapped up in your life with Luke that you haven't paid a bit of attention to what's going on with me! All you've been doing is making plans to get me out of your life!"
"No, I haven't! Were you not listening to Luke just now? I have been a complete wreck the last week wondering what's going on with you!"
"If you were so worried, then why are you selling my childhood home the second I'm not in it anymore? Were you even planning on telling me about that or were just gonna wait until you moved to send me a change of address card?"
"Of course I was going to tell you about it! I wouldn't sell that house without talking to you about it first! That's your house too, but you have to understand that Luke and I are having a kid together and down the road we might want more kids. The old house just isn't big enough!"
"So, you just let Luke buy you a new house for your new family right after you tell me that I can't come home? Do you have any idea how much that hurt me? That I'm not included in your new family now that you're having a baby with a man you actually love? Are you able to replace me that easily?"
"Rory, this isn't about replacing you," Luke said before Lorelai could respond. "You're one of the reasons that I bought that big house. I was just showing your mom today the huge library this place has that I thought would be perfect for you. You'd have a place for all your books to have a permanent home, a place where you could read and study to your heart's content, something that you used to love to do, but with you dropping out of school, who knows if you'd even want it now?"
"You thought of me when you bought that house?"Rory said softly hanging her head slightly at the harsh words she'd said to him earlier.
"Yeah, I did. I even had a bedroom picked out for you and an Idea about where to put up all your Yale stuff that you've got plastered all over your walls. I'd be stupid not to realize that you and your mom come as a package deal. That if we're going to have any kind of real family life, you have to be included in it. I know that you're upset about this baby, but you don't have to be. We're not trying to replace you. I don't see what you can't focus on the joy of the situation. I mean, you're gonna be this kid's big sister."
"Half-sister," Emily corrected scornfully.
"Grandma, shut up," Rory said with a look of contempt at her grandmother who opened her mouth to say something but stopped when she saw the stern glare coming from her husband at the other end of the table.
"Where's all this coming from, Kid?" Luke said. "Did you honestly think that just because we're having a kid together that we wouldn't want you around anymore?"
"I don't know what I thought. Grandma said…"her voice trailed off as she realized how stupid she'd been to let her grandmother get into her head and make her doubt her mother's love for her.
"Grandma said?" Lorelai repeated. "That explains it all." Lorelai fixed her mother with an icy glare and said, "You've really had a busy week, haven't you? Telling me that I'm throwing my life away by marrying the man I love, talking to my friends and neighbors trying to dig up dirt on my fiancé, hiring a PI, talking to Nicole, and telling my daughter I don't want her around anymore? What, were you having a slow week at the DAR and you had to have something else to entertain yourself with?"
"You think I've been doing all this strictly for my own amusement," Emily asked her incredulously.
"Haven't you? I know nothing gives you greater pleasure than to see me miserable while you're happy."
"Lorelai, that's not true," Emily began until she caught a glimpse of the maid once again trying to enter the room. "Oh, for God's sake, Ellen, get in or get out! Stop hovering in the damn doorway!" Luke stared at Emily thrown by the way she talked to her employee. While he was a little gruff at work from time to time, he'd never been that cold.
"I…I…I…" the soft-spoken maid stammered.
"Well, spit it out! I'm not getting any younger here," Emily snapped impatiently.
"I…Um…I was just wondering if you were done with your salads so I could bring out the main course," she said softly.
"Oh, yes. You can clear these things," she said indicating the salad plates. The maid immediately began to clear the table, not wanting to incur Emily's ire again.
"Now that we're all a little calmer, why don't we all sit back down and try to enjoy the remainder of our dinner," Richard suggested as he resumed his seat.
"Good plan, Dad," Lorelai said while sitting back down. "Hon," she said to Luke while tugging on his arm to try to get him to sit.
"Yeah," he said taking his seat next to Lorelai while still gaping at Emily and her harsh treatment of her maid.
Rory and Emily soon followed suit. As Emily took her seat she said, "Well, she's going to be fired." When Luke muttered something under his breath she said to him waspishly,"You know that's very rude. If you have something to say, just say it! It's not as if you've held back at all this week."
"Oh, believe me, I've held back," he said trying to keep his temper in check. "I haven't said half the things I've wanted to say to you."
"Well, then just say whatever it is you're thinking, now," she said as Ellen left the room arms laden with half-empty salad plates.
"I'm just thinking that the way you spoke to her, that poor girl is going to quit before you have a chance to fire her."
"Are you questioning the way I run my household? How is that any of your business?"
"It's not," he said with a shrug. "I'm just saying that if I treated my employees like you just treated her, my business would go belly up faster than you can say chapter eleven. There's no way that I could run that place by myself."
"Speaking of which, Luke," Richard began before his wife could make another cutting remark, "You never did answer me earlier when I asked about the diner. How are things going there?" As he asked the question, the maid began to bring in dinner plates.
"Sorry about that. I think we all got a little sidetracked," he said with a withering look directed toward Emily before turning back to Richard and answering, "Things are about the same as when you left this morning."
"Good, glad to hear it," Richard said with a smile as Ellen sat his plate in front of him. "I just hope this meal is as good as the one I had in your restaurant," he added with a bitter glare at Emily.
"Just what the hell is that supposed to mean? You act like we never have a decent meal here," Emily said coolly stung by the fact that her husband had the nerve to compare the carefully planned out meals served in their home to whatever slop Luke served in his greasy diner.
Richard once again ignored his wife and turned his attention back to Luke and said, "I must say that the Times critic was quite right in his assessment of the special omelet. You must give me the recipe so that I can pass it on to our cook."
"Now, this is getting ridiculous," Emily scoffed.
Lorelai sat quietly smiling at the distress evident on her mother's face as Luke continued his conversation with her father as if she hadn't spoken. "I appreciate the compliment, Richard, but I don't share my recipes with anyone. Trade secret," he said with a grin.
"Oh, come now, Luke. I'm not a professional rival like Sookie," Richard replied with a smile as he recalled the very heated argument Luke had had with her in the diner.
"How is Sookie a rival to Luke?"Emily questioned. "Sookie is a highly skilled, highly trained chef, while Luke is nothing more than a burger flipper. How is that even close to the same thing?"
"Stop it, Grandma," Rory demanded. "You have no idea what you're talking about! Luke may not have the training that Sookie does, but he's really good at what he does! Didn't you see the review in The Times? That critic had nothing but good things to say about Luke's cooking both at the inn and the diner."
"Yes, I read the review; a review that Luke himself admits was a fluke! As I told your mother that only happened because he happened to be in the right place at the right time!"
"Well, so what? Who cares how it happened? The fact is that it did happen and you should be happy that Mom has someone in her life who takes such pride in his work! I would've thought that that article would've allowed you to gain some respect for him and how hard he works, but you're too much of a damn snob to see just how good he is!"
"Rory!"Emily said in shock at her granddaughter's brittle tone of voice. "You will not speak to me that way after all I've done for you!"
"I'll speak to you anyway that I like! You have no right to treat Luke like you have been when he's been the only real father-figure I've ever known!"
"Weren't you just screaming at him a moment ago about how he's not your father," Emily pointed out icily.
"I was out of line," Rory admitted with an apologetic glance toward Luke who simply nodded in return letting her know that she was forgiven. "And so are you," she said as she turned back toward her grandmother. "I think you need to re-read that review objectively and really take in what it says! You and I both know that if it were written about anyone else but Luke you'd be breaking every traffic law known to mankind to get to Luke's to sample his food, just so you could brag to all your friends that you were there!"
"She's got a point, Emily," Richard said finally breaking the silent treatment he'd been giving his wife. "Perhaps you should re-read the article and give it's fair due. I've been at Luke's twice this week and both times it's been completely packed." He turned back to Luke and said, "While we're on the subject, Luke, have you given anymore thought to the conversation we had at the golf course?"
"Dad," Lorelai said in a weary tone knowing what was coming.
"Lorelai, I'm talking to Luke," Richard said sternly. "Well, Luke?"
"To be honest, I really haven't."
"Why not? Now would be the perfect time to think about expanding your business. Strike while the iron is hot, so to speak. I'd be more than happy to make another call to Herb Smith on your behalf."
"I appreciate the thought, Richard, but I'm not at all interested in franchising my diner."
"I don't understand that," Richard said. "Are you afraid of failing? You've obviously got the skills necessary to make it a success, if that's what's holding you back."
"It's not," Luke said. "It's just that I like my business the way it is. I like interacting with my regular customers every day. I like that, as crazy as they are, my home town friends and neighbors continue to support my business and keep it running successfully."
"But think about how much more successful you could be if you branched out a little."
"The thing is, I don't think that I would be successful with any other location because my heart wouldn't be in it. Opening the diner was never about the money to me. I opened the diner where I did because that was my dad's building. He poured his heart and soul into the hardware store that used to be there. Now, I never had the love for the hardware business that he did, but I love that building and what it represents. It's my family legacy, which I know is small compared to yours, but it means something to me. I want to someday pass it on to our kids," he said with a meaningful look at Lorelai before he continued. "My dad left that building solely to me and not my sister because he knew that I'd love it the way that he did. That's why I kept so much of it just the way my dad left it. Any other place just wouldn't be the same."
"You see, Richard, it's just like I told you," Emily said snarkily. "This man has no ambition whatsoever."
"Stop it, Mother," Lorelai snapped. "I mean it! I'm sick of you and your snide comments about Luke and his so-called lack of ambition! What's your great ambition in life, world's biggest bitch?"
"Lorelai! How dare you come into my home and attack me like this!"
"You mean, like you've been doing to me all week? You came to my home, attacked me, attacked my fiancée, and tried numerous times to split us up! You're lucky I even came here tonight!"
"Lucky? Lucky that my only daughter is calling me names in my own home?"
"I didn't even want to be in your home! I hate it here! I've always hated it here! The only reason I even came here tonight was because of Rory, so I could have one more chance to stop her from throwing her life away!"
"Look who's talking about throwing her life away! You're shacked up with a man who couldn't care less about providing a stable financial future for you and your unborn child!"
"Knock it off, both of you," Luke said crossly. "What's wrong with you? What kind of mother and daughter are you that you talk to each other that way?" He turned to Emily and said, "Lorelai's right. She didn't want to come here until I talked her into it. The only reason that we came here tonight was for Rory to try to get her to change her mind about leaving school."
"You guys are unbelievable," Rory said. "Have either one of you stopped to think about what I want in all of this?"
"I know what you used to want, "Luke said. "You've talked about nothing but being a reporter since you were a little kid. I remember you running around when you were ten interviewing everybody in town for that little Stars Hollow newsletter you wrote. You've been dreaming about it for as long as I've known you, but if you want to make that happen, dropping out of school is not the way to go."
"I don't want that anymore," Rory said unconvincingly.
"I don't believe that. I don't think that dream will ever die."
"Well, it doesn't matter if I still want it or not, that dream is gone!"
"Who says it is? That jackass who told you that you weren't good enough? Since when do you care about what anyone else thinks of you?"
"Since he's the biggest newspaper guy in the country," Rory said.
"Is that really the reason or is it because you're dating his son and his snotty relatives made it clear that they don't want you marrying into their family?"
"You don't get it, Luke," she said not wanting to admit that he was right.
"Yes, I do. Look how much grief I've had to put up with from your grandmother telling me that I'm not good enough to marry into your family? Do you think I let that stop me from going after what I want?"
"It's not the same. Mitchum Huntzberger is the authority on what makes a good reporter."
"What makes him the authority? The man hasn't written anything of his own in ten years! I looked it up! All he does now is buy up newspapers where the only thing he does is show up once in a while to bark orders at people and scare the staff half to death! When he was running you down, did you even bother to ask what the people who actually run that paper on a daily basis thought of your work?"
"No," Rory said. "But he's their boss!"
"So what? Does that mean he can't be wrong? You may not have asked what those other people thought, but I did!" He walked to the living room and retrieved the file he'd brought with him and slammed it on the table next to her. "In that folder are more than a dozen different letters of recommendation written by the people you worked with in Stamford. You were just yelling at your grandmother about reading that review of my work, now maybe you should read the reviews of your own!"
Rory picked up the folder and started thumbing through the papers within it while Luke returned to his seat across from her. She looked up and him and asked, "How did you get this?"
"It wasn't that hard. I just drove up there and talked to people. Every one of them was more than willing to share their opinions on you and on the dictator who made you feel like you're not good enough!"
"Dictator?"She said her eyes widening.
"Their words, not mine. You wouldn't believe how many of them can't stand him. The editor called him Herr Huntzberger and one girl there even said that he wouldn't know good writing if it bit him in the ass and that all he cares about is that the paper starts making more money."
Lorelai looked at Luke adoringly and said, "You did all this for Rory?"
"Yeah, somebody had to," he said nonchalantly as he resumed eating. "All of the people I talked to up there had nothing but compliments for Rory, but not a single one of them could muster up a single nice thing to say about their boss."
"That's our friend you're talking about," Emily said. "We've been friends with the Huntzbergers for years." She couldn't believe Luke's nerve insulting someone from their world when he was more than happy to be nothing more than a small-town diner owner with his small-town friends.
"He's your friend? You've got a funny way of looking at friendship if you think that anyone who was a true friend to you would hurt your granddaughter like this. To me, a friend is someone who's got your back, who's there for you no matter what. How many of your so-called friends would actually be there for you when the chips are down? Were any of them there for you when you and Richard were separated, trying to help you get through it? I don't think so. I seem to remember that Lorelai was the one you kept calling when that was going on. Our friends, on the other hand, were there for both of us when we broke up and were there for us again when we got back together and are being so supportive that they've planned this big engagement party for us. They were there for me when my dad died, they were there for me when I opened the diner, when Lorelai opened the inn, they're the kind of friends that you can be proud to have on your side. Your friend let his family attack Rory and make her feel like she wasn't good enough for Logan, and then turned around and gave her that internship just so he'd have one more opportunity to drag her down. Is that what you honestly think a friend is for?"
Emily glanced at Luke is silence as she realized that what Rory and Lorelai had said was true about his feelings for Rory. He was clearly taking it personally that Mitchum had criticized Rory. While she thought it was nice that he cared for Rory that much, she still didn't see him as being a suitable husband for Lorelai. She watched him as he ate and noticed that he hadn't touched his meat and was merely picking around it with his fork to get to the vegetables. She couldn't resist getting in another swipe at him. "What's the matter, Luke? Is the roast too dry for you? I know it's not as greasy as your burgers, but not all of us like our beef that way."
Lorelai slammed her fork down in irritation and said, "That's enough, Mother! I don't want to hear one more of your scathing comments about Luke! For you information, the reason that Luke hasn't touched the roast is because he doesn't eat red meat, something you would have known if you'd ever taken even five minutes to get to know him a little."
"Isn't that a little strange for someone who makes his living by serving burgers?"She asked before turning to Luke and asking him, "Is there some particular reason you don't eat red meat? Do you have some sort of health condition that prevents it?"
"No, I'm perfectly healthy," Luke said. "And I plan to stay that way. That's why I don't eat red meat, but I'm not about to run a restaurant like mine and not serve it to the people who want it. My customers want burgers, I give them burgers. It's not up to me to tell anyone else how to live, just because it's not my personal preference!"
"Why do you have to be like that," Lorelai asked her mother.
"Like what, Lorelai?"
"Suggesting that the only reason he doesn't eat red meat is because he's unhealthy."
"It's a perfectly logical assumption, given the fact that both of his parents died young. Have you even thought about the fact that there could be some health issue that he may have inherited from his parents that could be passed on to your child, That you could be exposing your unborn child to all kinds of potential health risks by choosing this man to father your children?"
"That's what this really boils down to, isn't it? My choices. This isn't about Luke, it's about me. You just can't ever accept the decisions that I make with my life if they don't fit in with your plans for me. When are you going to realize that I'm not going to live my life the way you want me to if it's not something that's going to make me happy?"
"I can see that you're positively glowing with happiness," Emily said sarcastically.
"I am happy. You just never see me happy because all you do is look down your nose at me and question my life choices. You're the one who makes me unhappy, not Luke. You can't see that I am with an amazing guy who would do anything in the world to make me happy, who loves me with all his heart, who loves my kid as if she were his and who's more than willing to do whatever it takes to make her happy too! All you care about is that he doesn't measure up to your standards, just like I don't! We all know that I'm nothing but a big disappointment to you, but I can't bring myself to care anymore! I'm tired of trying to win your approval! I know that I'll never be the daughter you want me to be! You're repulsed by the idea that I want more children and with a man I love and I don't get that! Why is it so wrong in your eyes that I want a family! Is it because you and Dad only had me?"
"Lorelai…"Richard said in a warning tone, not liking where this conversation was heading.
"No, Dad, I really want to know," Lorelai said before turning back to her mother." Why is it that I'm an only child? I figured once you figured out what a let-down I was, you'd want to have another kid so you'd have shot at getting the daughter you really wanted! You were still young enough then, so why didn't you?"
"Lorelai, that's enough," Richard snapped at seeing the pained look on Emily's face that his daughter was oblivious to in her anger.
Lorelai ignored her father and pressed on,"Come on, Mom. What was it? Were you too afraid you'd screw up your perfect figure if you got pregnant again?"
"Excuse me," Emily choked out as she threw her napkin into her plate and hurried from the room before her daughter could see the tears that she was holding back at her harsh words.
"That was completely uncalled for, Lorelai," Richard said severely. "Do you have any idea how much you just hurt your mother?" He was angry with Emily, but he knew that Lorelai's words would have cut her deeply since Emily had been heartbroken that they'd been unable to have more children after their daughter was born.
"What about the way that she's been hurting me? Do you have any idea what she's done to me this week or just how much she's hurt me? Don't you care about that?"
"Of course I care, but that doesn't give you the right to purposely hurt her in return."
Emily stood in the bathroom leaning against the door for support as she let her tears fall at the bitter memories her daughter's cruel words had brought up. She let her body slowly slide down the length of the door as her sadness overcame her. She could hear the faint sounds of her husband and daughter arguing, but their words didn't really register as she kept replaying her daughter's vicious taunts over and over again in her mind. How could Lorelai have thought that about her? That she would be so shallow as to care about her figure when she'd wanted nothing more that to be able to give her husband the family he'd desired. She remembered how elated she'd been four months into her marriage to discover that she was pregnant, only to be crushed when she'd lost the baby a mere month later.
It had taken almost a year for them to conceive again. When she learned that she was pregnant again, she decided to cut down on her activities in order to ensure a successful pregnancy the second time around, but it hadn't made a difference. The second baby hadn't survived the first trimester either. She'd been devastated at the second loss and to make matters worse, her mother-in-law had made her feel like a failure as a wife because she seemed to be unable to give her husband a child. The emotional pain had taken its toll. She'd even told Richard after the loss of their second child that perhaps he'd have been better off marrying a woman who wasn't reproductively faulty. She'd told him then that she didn't have it in her to try anymore. She couldn't bear the thought of disappointing him again. He'd been supportive, but she knew that their big empty house was mocking him the same way it did her. He'd bought the house for them specifically with the idea in mind of filling it with children. It was all they'd talked about for many months leading up their wedding day when he'd shown her the house and they'd begun making plans for their future, much like her daughter was doing with Luke now. Lorelai had no idea how lucky she was. She had to admit to herself that she was a little envious of her daughter. Why was it so easy for her daughter to conceive when it had been so hard for her? She'd gotten pregnant at fifteen and she gathered from the conversation they'd had in her kitchen the night she and Richard had gone there unexpectedly that she and Luke had only been reckless about taking precautions that one time and she'd gotten pregnant again when she wasn't even trying.
She couldn't understand why life was so cruel sometimes. She recalled vividly her belief that she and Richard weren't meant to have children after her second pregnancy had ended as abruptly as the first. She was determined that she wasn't going to put them through that again. It wasn't until her twenty-fifth birthday party in early August of 1967 when she and Richard had both had a little too much to drink that she'd let her guard down again. She hadn't even thought about the idea of trying again at the time. Lorelai's conception had been a complete surprise to her. They had decided to wait a while to tell anyone that she was expecting again until they were sure that they were going to be successful this time. Upon learning the news, she'd immediately consulted every reputable doctor she could find in order to determine the best course of action to ensure that her child would make it this time. She had followed their advice to the letter, unwilling to let her husband down again.
All her effort had paid off just two months after their third wedding anniversary when she held her baby daughter in her arms for the very first time. She closed her eyes and recalled how happy she'd been that day in spite of the trouble she'd had bringing Lorelai into the world. Her happiness was short-lived though as Richard's beloved Trix brutally pointed out the fact that the child she'd so longed for was a daughter and not a son who could carry on the Gilmore name. She was dealt an even crueler blow when the doctor informed her that more children weren't possible. It was then that Emily had decided to name her daughter Lorelai as a peace offering. Richard had been tickled by the idea and it seemed to appease her overly critical mother-in-law that at least her first name would be carried on in their daughter. She had then proceeded to give her daughter whatever she desired and more, knowing that she was the only child she would ever have. She spared no expense; nothing was too good for her only child. It was all thrown back in her face though on that long ago day when she discovered that she was going to be a grandmother way too young.
She'd been heartbroken to discover on Lorelai's sixteenth birthday that her daughter had so easily accomplished what she'd struggled to do for so long. While she was disappointed in Lorelai, she tried to see it as a good thing. Maybe this was what fate had intended for her, to help her rear her grandchild since Lorelai was still a child herself and wouldn't be able to properly care for her child. She'd thought of it as her second chance. She had tried desperately to get her daughter to do the right thing and marry Christopher so that her child would have both mother and father around. She'd had the whole thing planned out in her mind; that they would marry and live with her and Richard so that both young people could continue with their education. While Lorelai's pregnancy was a setback in her plans for her daughter, she saw no reason why, with her help, she couldn't still graduate from high school and go on to Yale as planned. She was more than willing to look after her grandchild while Lorelai went to school, but her stubborn daughter would have none of it. She flat out refused to marry Christopher and dropped out of school. Emily had watched her daughter like a hawk throughout her pregnancy, looking for any signs that she might suffer the same fate that she had. She strictly controlled her daughter's diet and her activities to be sure that her grandchild would be born healthy, but it had all been unnecessary. Lorelai had a perfectly normal pregnancy with no complications whatsoever and delivered a healthy baby girl who she then named after herself and her grandmother. Christopher showed up at the hospital several hours after Rory had been born and she'd tried once again to talk her daughter into marrying the young man, but she'd refused again and Christopher had left without ever even holding his newborn daughter.
Emily thought of that day Christopher walked away from his child as she recalled Luke's cold words at the dinner table about how worthless Christopher had been as a father to Rory. She knew that he was right. Christopher hadn't been a proper father to Rory, but she still didn't feel that Luke would be a proper step-father for her either. She'd often wondered if Christopher would have been a better father if Lorelai had married him when they were young. She sighed as she thought of how determined her daughter was to marry Luke now that she was carrying his child and wondered what made the difference. The questions kept running through her mind. Why was she so willing to marry the man who'd gotten her pregnant this time when she wasn't then? What was it that Luke had that Christopher didn't? Why did he have such a hold her daughter's heart? Had Luke told her the truth the other day? Had Lorelai really proposed to him? If so, why? Had his ex-wife told the truth? Had Lorelai really broken up their marriage or was Nicole just bitter about the divorce? If she had broken up his marriage, why had she waited until he was married to make her move? Had it really taken her seeing him married to someone else that had made her own up to her feelings for him? Why hadn't Lorelai seen like she had at Rory's sixteenth birthday party that she could have had Luke anytime she wanted him? Why hadn't she seen it when Luke had driven her to the hospital? Or when he'd helped her find Rory's lost chick? Or when she had helped him at the diner after his uncle had passed away? Or when he was there at Rory's high school graduation? Emily couldn't understand it at all. Everyone she'd talked to in Stars Hollow had told her about how Luke had loved Lorelai for years, yet her daughter had been oblivious to his feelings for her. She sighed again as she tried to resign herself to the fact that her daughter was going to marry Luke no matter what she thought of it. She knew she had to accept it, but she just couldn't. She worried that the marriage wouldn't last. She felt that Lorelai was clinging to this idea of marrying Luke due to the fact that it was coming about after so many years of missed opportunities between the two of them. She strongly felt that once the reality of marriage hit her daughter she'd realize that all the fantasies she'd built up for years about being with Luke would come crashing down once she came to see that the reality was nothing like the fantasy. While she had no doubt that her daughter cared deeply for Luke she knew that marriage was hard and that Lorelai had no idea what she was in for and she couldn't bear the thought of seeing her daughter heartbroken as she was sure to be by staying with Luke. Her reverie was broken by a knocking on the door and the sound of her daughter's voice.
"Mom, are you in there?"Lorelai called.
Emily peeled herself off of the bathroom floor standing on shaky legs as she called back in a voice much cooler than she felt, "I'll be right out." She walked to the mirror as she wiped the tears away and took a washcloth to wipe away the smudged mascara from her face refusing to let her daughter see how much she'd hurt her. When she thought she was decently presentable she opened the door and said, "What is it you want, Lorelai?"
"You've been gone a while. I just wanted to make sure you were ok," she said guiltily as she took in her mother's slightly disheveled appearance and her swollen eyes. It was obvious that she'd been crying. She hung her head slightly as she thought of her father berating her for hurting her mother.
"I'm perfectly fine, Lorelai," Emily lied determined not to let her vulnerability show as she brushed past her daughter heading back toward the dining room.
"You kind of don't look like it," Lorelai said as she pursued her mother. "You look like a mess right now, the puffy eyes, the rumpled dress…"
Emily whipped around to face her daughter as they reached the doorway to the dining room. "Look who's talking," she said icily indicating her daughter's appearance and her revealing dress. "Is that how you think it's appropriate to dress for a family dinner?"
"What's wrong with the way I'm dressed?"
"Nothing, if you're Samantha Jones," Emily said coolly knowing that her daughter would get the reference.
"Ok, first of all, how do you even know who Samantha Jones is? And second, why do you care what I wear? You've already got it set in your mind that I'm just as big a whore as she is, so what difference does it make?"
"You think I'm so out of touch, don't you? Well, it might surprise you to learn that I'm not so out of touch as you think I am. Some of the girls in the DAR love that show and talk about it non-stop. As for what you wear, that dress is not appropriate for an engaged woman to be running around in. If you're in a committed relationship, as you say you are, then you shouldn't be dressing like you're trying to attract a man."
"I wear what I want when I want," Lorelai said hotly.
"Is that really what you want to wear or is that just how Luke likes you to dress," she spat at her daughter unable to resist getting in another jibe at Luke.
"Leave Luke out of this," Lorelai shouted at her mother. "I wore this dress because I wanted to."
"Well, any decent man wouldn't let the mother of his child parade around looking like she belongs on a street corner!"
"That is it! I've had enough," Lorelai said as she stormed into the dining room. "Luke, Come on, let's go. Take me home. I can't stand being here for another minute!"
"What about Rory?" He asked in concern as he rose for his chair and walked to the doorway where the two older Gilmore women were still standing shooting frigid looks at each other. While he was not thrilled about the idea of putting up with more of Emily's hostility he didn't feel that they'd had enough time to really accomplish what they'd meant to with Rory.
"As she pointed out earlier she's an adult. She can make her own choices, though why she'd want to stay here with a woman like that is beyond me," she said as glared at her daughter then her mother.
"Lorelai, calm down. Just think about this for a minute. We still haven't finished talking about this."
"No, Luke! I want to go home! I knew it was a mistake to come here, but I let you talk me into it anyway. Now, I'm going! If you don't want to come with me, fine! You can stay here and be insulted the rest of the night, but I'm not staying for any more abuse! I'll call a cab if I have to since you won't let me drive your truck!"
"He won't let you drive his truck?"Emily asked in surprise. "What, is he afraid you'll wreck it? It's not like you'd be able to tell with as beat up as it is already," she added with a sneer.
"No, I'm not afraid she'll wreck it," Luke replied. "The last time she drove my truck, she nearly destroyed the transmission since she doesn't know how to drive a stick!"
"That's funny. I don't recall you having any trouble with the way I 'drive a stick' this afternoon when we were on the floor of the new house," she said suggestively with a defiant stare at her mother.
"Oh My God," Emily cried with revulsion.
"Jesus Christ, Lorelai," Luke said impatiently. "Would you knock that off? That was a private thing between just you and me! Why do you have to say crap like that in front of your mother?"
"What difference does it make? She already thinks I'm nothing more than a whore! She thinks I purposely set out to break up your marriage even though you and I both know it's not true! I was with Jason at the time, but she doesn't seem to remember that."
"Who cares what she thinks? She's already got it set in her mind that I'm not good enough for you and has done everything in her power to try to get between us and it hasn't worked. We're still together, aren't we? Isn't that what matters? We know what we have together even if she doesn't," he said with a nod of his head at her dress knowing she would get it.
"Yeah, we do," she said with a slight smile. "But can we please just go. I don't wanna be here anymore."
"OK, we'll go. Just try to calm down," he said quietly trying to soothe her as the doctor had told them today that she needed to avoid unnecessary stress.
"I'll calm down once we get out of here," she said with another icy glare at her mother.
Emily called out to the maid, "Ellen, get their coats."
"That's it?" Lorelai said. "You're not going to try to talk me into staying?"
"Why should I? You obviously don't want to be here, so by all means go. I'm not one for holding someone here against their will." The truth was she wanted her daughter to stay but she didn't want to spend another second in the same room with Luke after hearing what he'd be up to with her daughter earlier in the day. She glared at him disgustedly while she waited for her timid maid to bring the coats.
"Mom, wait," Rory said as she left her seat while the maid brought Luke and Lorelai their jackets. "Please don't go. Not like this," she pleaded.
"Sorry, Kid. I'm not staying here," she said as she put her jacket on.
"But…"
"No buts, Rory. You made your choice and I'm making mine! If you want to live your life like this, I'm not going to try to stop you, but I made the choice when you were a baby that I wasn't going to! You can do whatever you want to do! If you wanna live like a princess go right ahead, but I just remember who the queen is," she said with a gesture at Emily. "Now, I'm going home to Stars Hollow where I belong and I won't be setting foot in this house ever again!" Without another word, she stalked toward the front door with Luke trailing helplessly behind her flashing an apologetic look at Richard who'd remained silent throughout the whole exchange.
As soon as they were gone, Rory turned on her grandmother," How could you do that? How could you say something like that to her?"
"Don't you speak to me in that tone of voice!"Emily shouted back.
"It's no less than you deserve, Grandma! What the hell is wrong with you?"
"What's wrong with me? What's wrong with you? You're acting just like your mother! This is her attitude coming out in you and I don't like it one bit!"
"Deal with it! I don't know what to even think of you right now! All this past week, I thought you were trying to help me, but now I see that you only took me in to get back at Mom! You don't care about what happens to me! You're just happy that you got one over on her!"
"That's not true! I do care what happens to you! I care what happens to your mother too, but she's too stubborn to see that I only want what's best for her!"
"Do you really think that trying to take away the man she loves is what's best for her?"
"All right, stop it, both of you," Richard said finally stepping in. "This is ridiculous! We're supposed to be a family! Luke was right! All three of you are too damn stubborn! I've sat by and done nothing for far too long while you trade barbs with one another and I've had enough! I won't put up with this childish behavior for one more minute! Now, Rory, you owe your grandmother an apology for the way you spoke to her!"
"No, I won't apologize! I'm tired of her attacking Mom and Luke!"
"I understand that, Rory, but that's their battle to fight. Let them deal with it, please."
"Fine," she said. "Sorry, Grandma," she said grudgingly.
"That was heartfelt," Emily said sarcastically. "I can tell you really meant that."
"That's all I can manage. Sorry if it doesn't come up to your standards," Rory said coolly. "I'm too angry at you right now. I have to get out of here." She walked back to her seat, picked up the file Luke had brought her and left to return to the pool house.
"Thank you for trying," Emily said grateful that in spite of their argument he'd defended her to their granddaughter.
"Don't thank me yet, Emily! I'm still angry with you myself! You had no right to do what you did tonight! What were you thinking about, treating our daughter as if she were a common whore?"
"I did no such thing!"
"Were you even listening to yourself tonight?"
"Well, maybe if she'd stop acting like a common whore, I wouldn't treat her that way! Did you hear what she just said? What she was doing with Luke in that house? The thought of it turns my stomach! Why does she have to say things like that? It's indecent! Even her precious diner owner thought so!"
"Did it ever cross your mind that maybe she says those things to provoke you when you treat her the way you do? You hurt her when you treated her like a whore, so she acted like it to get back at you!"
"What about the other comments she made tonight? There was no excuse for that! Do you have any idea how much that cut me?"
"Yes, I do, Emily. After forty years together, don't you think I know when you're hurting? I know that Lorelai's comments about her being an only child bothered you, but she had no way of knowing just how hurtful that would be to you! In case you've forgotten, we never told her about the problems we had trying to have children!"
"It's not her business! That kind of thing should stay just between the two of us!"
"I quite agree," Richard said. "But if you follow that logic, the plans that she and Luke are making for their future should be between the two of them! That includes their plans for having a family. I saw that look on your face when Luke mentioned passing the diner on to his and Lorelai's children."
"What look?"
"You know exactly what look I'm talking about. That look of disgust when Luke used the plural form of the word."
"Well, it's bad enough that he got her pregnant once and I got the impression that if he had his way he'd continue to keep Lorelai barefoot and pregnant. Can you imagine it? That rotting house full of his screaming children while Lorelai spends her time being nothing more than a frumpy housewife and neglecting her business! I can't bear the thought of seeing the dream she worked so hard to achieve come crashing down around her."
"I don't see Luke letting that happen. He was a major factor in helping Lorelai to realize the dream of opening her inn. I don't think he wants anymore than you do to see it fall apart. He's quite proud of Lorelai, as am I. But you have to understand, Emily, that they are trying to build a life together and that life includes children. I don't see anything wrong with it. After spending the evening with them last night, I saw firsthand just how happy they are together."
"You mean when you ran away from home like a little boy," she sniped unwilling to relent.
"At least you knew where I was! I was right where I said I'd be when I left here last night! You didn't ever bother to call and let me know that you were all right when you left here the night before! I had to call Luke to find out that you were in Stars Hollow! Now, I've had more than enough of this endless squabbling between you and Lorelai. I want you to call her and apologize and promise to stay out of her personal life!"
"I'll stay out of her personal life! She's made it clear that there's nothing I can do to change her mind, God help her, but if you think that I'm going to apologize after the way she spoke to me tonight, you're out of your mind."
"At least think about it," Richard pleaded with his wife. "If you don't all you're going to do is drive her away again. Don't you remember what it was like after she ran away?"
"Of course, I do! That was the most distressing time of my life. How could you possibly think that I don't remember what it was like to lose my daughter?"
"Keep that in mind, Emily, because you're about to lose her again. Now, if you don't mind, I've had a very long day, so I'm going to turn in early. Just so you know I plan on staying in the guest room tonight. "
"Richard, you can't be serious," Emily said.
"Don't push me, Emily. I need some space from you right now," he said as he turned toward the stairs.
"Richard…"she said desperation in her voice but her husband ignored her and continued to ascend the stairs. Emily collapsed into her chair at the end of the dining table and dissolved into tears once again as she reflected on the events of the evening and contemplated the idea that she was losing everyone she loved.
