I know, I know. I haven't given up on this story, I've just been distracted. Better late than never though, right?

"Where's your friend?" Luke asked the next morning. He was working hard to keep his voice low and level so the gossip hounds in the diner didn't pick up on anything.

"With Sookie and Davy," she said as she accepted the coffee cup from him. "We need to talk about this," she told him without looking up from the inky black liquid in her cup. She frowned a little as Luke asked her what, exactly, could they possibly still have to talk about in regards to GG. With a sigh, Lorelai swallowed her pride and bit back the barb she had been prepared to sling at Luke. She looked up at him and his demeanour immediately began to soften when he saw the look on her face. He called out to Caesar that he'd be back in a bit before he put the coffee pot back on it's burner and gestured towards the curtain. Lorelai slipped silently off of her stool and led the way up to his small apartment.

"So?" he asked as they entered the apartment.

"My mother stopped by the inn yesterday," she said, by passing any more talk about the less than pleasant conversation they'd had the last time they had talked. "She tracked down Straub and Francine for me. They're gallivanting around the finer hotels in Europe right now."

"Have you called them?" he asked as he rummaged through the fridge. He didn't want to look at her right now because he didn't know if he was wearing a relieved expression on his face or not. She hesitated and fumbled for an answer and he knew what that meant. "When are you going to call them?" he asked after a moment.

"Soon," she said immediately. He frowned. He knew what soon meant in Lorelai's world. He asked her when soon was and she replied that it was as soon as she no longer felt nauseous while dialling the phone.

"Just leave a message at the front desk. Make them call you."

"But I don't want to deal with them in the middle of the night," she whined. Luke gave her a look and she quickly explained that if she left the calling up to them, they'd do it when it was convenient for them, not for her and she really felt no need to have this conversation at 3 am.

"Well, I guess you know what that means then."
"I can send them a singing telegram?" she asked hopefully. He sat down at the table and sent her a look before she let her head fall to the table with a groan. "Hand me the phone," she said, her voice muffled by the wooden table in front of it.

"You are going to have to speak clearly into the phone," he reminded her with a bit of a grin as he got up and headed for the phone. Lorelai merely grunted as she pulled herself up off of the table and fished the now crumpled Post-It out of her pocket. With one last deep breath, Lorelai accepted the phone from Luke and began dialling the hotel in Europe.

Luke shook her head a little as he wandered into the living room, taking in the disaster it had become in recent days. With a resigned sigh Luke began to move around the room, gathering the GG items and placing them in the corner of the room before moving on to the dirty dishes that had started to build up. He kept one ear on the conversation that was going on in the kitchen while he was cleaning and was starting to understand Lorelai's aversion to calling Christopher's parents.

"I didn't say anything to him . . . No, Sherry left him a note and took off and then he called me," he heard Lorelai explaining the story for the millionth time. "Yes, and then he called me a couple of weeks later, begging for a sitter and never came back." Luke deposited the dishes in the sink as Lorelai shot him a 'kill me now' look. "Why would I make this up? And if I was making it up, why would I phone you about this?" Luke snuck out of the kitchen at this point to tend to the magazines, DVD's and video tapes that were still strewn around the living room.

"I don't want your money! When have I ever wanted your money?" he heard Lorelai almost yell into the phone. "What I want is for either Christopher to show up on my door step or for you and Straub to show up here and collect your granddaughter. . . Because she's not my kid! If I wanted another kid I'd have one myself." she informed them. Luke listened as some more arguing took place followed by the phone slamming onto the kitchen table.

"So," he said as he wandered back into the kitchen. "That sounded like it went well." Lorelai simply let out a grown from where her head was buried in her arms on the table.

"She thinks I'm lying and until she can independently verify my story, they're not going to cut their Europe trip short," Lorelai informed Luke. He frowned as he headed over to the coffee maker.

"They don't care at all?" he asked.

"Oh, she's concerned that I might be lying, that I'm trying to get money out of them. She's also concerned about Christopher's whereabouts. About GG? Apparently not so much." She finally raised her head up and looked at Luke. "I figure we have her, guaranteed, for at least another week, maybe two." Lorelai watched as the muscles in his back tensed and he hesitated with the canister of coffee grounds. "So, um, have I apologised to you in the last 20 minutes?"

"You have," he said as he finally continued on with making her coffee. She nodded her head as she chewed on her bottom lip for a moment. "I'm not mad," he said after a moment.

"You look mad," she said. "Your forehead has those little Angry Lines on it," she informed him while gesturing to where the Angry Lines sat.

"I'm . . . concerned," he said after a while. "This isn't fair to any of us, especially that little girl. I mean, what father thinks this is even remotely a good idea?" All Lorelai could do was shrug and supply the only answer she could think of.

"Christopher," was all she said as she looked Luke in the eye.