Hey guys! This is chapter 13 (I think) which I know is unlucky for some people but I hope it's not unlucky for this chapter. Sorry about the weird opening to this chapter, by the way, but I was super tired when I wrote it and I kinda like it. Anyway, enjoy!

"Mom!" yells Mia, after school on Monday. "My entire class, including me, thinks you're insane! Not clinically insane, but insane."

"Well, I try." says Lorelai, coming out of the kitchen.

"It doesn't matter to me, though, because I think it's fine to have a mother who's insane as long as she loves me."

"And I do, most of the time." says Lorelai, sitting on the couch.

"When don't you?" says Mia, giggling.

"Well when you ask me food, that's kind of annoying. In labour you weren't particularly charming and you use a lot of water."

"Why do you talk like a bad mom when you're the best." says Mia, laughing and poking Lorelai.

"Oh, I know I'm the best!" says Lorelai, hugging her. "But our water bill was kinda high this month so..." she stops speaking and collapses into laughter because Mia's throwing pillows at her.

"Seriously, mom? Are you five years old?" says Rory, walking in after school.

"No but I wish I was!" says Lorelai. "Come on! Join in, it's fun!" she throws a pillow at Rory. Rory gasps.

"Well now I have to get revenge." says Rory, joining the fight.

The phone rings at the independence inn.

"Michel!" says Lorelai, running behind the desk. "I don't employ you to stand there and look pretty, you know."

"You should've made that clearer." says Michel.

"Michel, it's Friday, I'm too tired to argue with you." she says, picking up the phone. "Hello, Independence inn, Lorelai speaking."

"Lorelai, it's your mother."

"This is your fault!" Lorelai whispers to Michel. "Hello mother."

"Lorelai, it's snowing terribly."

"Oh... oh my god! It is! You're right! I shall immediately alert all news outlets. Michel, get the emergency supplies. It's snowing."

"Are you being serious? I can never tell." says Michel, Lorelai glares at him.

"I don't have time for your comments today, Lorelai. I've sent someone to pick up Rory from school. I gather you won't be coming tonight?"

"No, mom, I can't get there in the snow."

"Ok well Rory should probably spend the night here." says Emily.

"Well ok mom. Oh and you'll have Mia too. She's at Chilton today." says Lorelai.

"Really? Why?"

"I don't know, some music course they were running."

"Ok great!" Lorelai can hear Emily smiling. "I have both of them tonight. Oh! They've just arrived."

"Great, mom. Can I talk to them?" asks Lorelai.

"So we're staying at grandma's?" asks Rory, once she's got the phone.

"Yeah, too much snow to drive."

"Ok. So tomorrow night we do our snow walk?" says Rory.

"Yeah tomorrow night. Can I talk to Mia?" asks Lorelai. Rory hands the phone to Mia.

"Mom?" says Mia.

"Hey kid."

"I don't want to spend the night away from you. I've never done that before."

"I know kid, but I'll see you tomorrow. I'm only a phone call away."

"What if I have a nightmare?"

"You won't, sweetie, you'll be fine. Besides, Rory's there." says Lorelai, reassuringly.

"Yeah I guess. Oh wait! The reenactors!"

"Yeah, what about them?"

"I'll miss them. Can you take photos for me?" asks Mia.

"Of course! We don't want a gap in the yearly album. I'm getting the camera ready as we speak."

"Thanks Mom."

"Bye kid." says Lorelai, hanging up the phone.

Lorelai walks through town, enjoying the snow and watching the reenactment. She spots Max Medina and smiles.

"Max Medina." she says, making him jump. "Look what the cat dragged in."

"Lorelai, hi." says Max

"What brings you to this neck of the woods on a Friday night?"

"My car broke down." says Max. "And I'm so pleased it did."

"Me too." says Lorelai.

"Where are your kids tonight?"

"Stranded at the grandparent's." says Lorelai.

"I see."

"Let me take you out." says Lorelai.

Lorelai and Max get food and see a movie. The evening flies by and they both forget about everything else. For the first time in a long time, Lorelai feels a bit of something that could be love for someone other than her daughters. She's having so much fun that she forgets about her rules on dating until they are both standing outside Lorelai's house.

"So this is my house." says Lorelai.

"I see." says Max. "It's a nice house."

"Thank you." says Lorelai. There's a pause. "I'm sorry Max."

"Sorry about what?"

"Sorry that I can't invite you in."

"Why not?"

"It's not just my decision and this is not just my house. I can't bring guys in without talking to the girls. It's their house too."

"What about just for coffee?" says Max.

Lorelai smiles and walks in. Then she turns around. "Fine just coffee."

Max follows Lorelai in and trips over Mia's guitar case. Lorelai smiles. "Told you it's their house."

Lorelai and Max are kissing on the stairs when the phone rings. Max pulls away. "Is that very important?" he asks.

"No." says Lorelai, she carries on kissing him, then pulls away. "Mmm, wait. Yes." Max looks disappointed. "It could be the girls."

She picks up the phone and sure enough, it's Rory.

"Hey kid, is everything ok?" she says when she hears Rory's voice. She smiles apologetically at Max.

"Yeah mom, everything's fine. We just wanted to say goodnight. Are you ok? You sound out of breath." Rory says.

"Oh it's nothing. I'm fine."

"Ok. Goodnight!" Lorelai hears both girls say down the phone.

"Goodnight kiddos." says Lorelai, hanging up.

She and Max look at each other. Lorelai sighs.

"I'm sorry, Max. I don't think we can do this right now."

"Ok, that's fine. I'll just go get my car and head home." he starts walking towards the door. Lorelai grabs him.

"No, Max! Don't leave and definitely don't drive. It's a snowstorm out there. Stay here, please, you can sleep on the couch."

Max looks uncertain.

"Please, Max. I want to wake you up tomorrow with coffee."

"Ok, I'll stay but just for coffee." he says, smiling. "And the goodnight kiss."

When Lorelai wakes up she hears Mia giggling. She turns over to go back to sleep before she remembers where the girls were last night. She jumps out of bed and races downstairs, past Max who is still asleep on the couch. She runs to the front door before Mia opens it.

"Oh hey!" says Mia.

"Hey, listen I have some explaining to do before you come in and I'm sorry I didn't talk to you about this and I didn't plan it this way but it just kinda happened. Blame the snow." says Lorelai.

"Mom, what's going on?" says Rory. They all walk inside and stare at the guy on the couch.

"Hey, it's the art guy from Rory's school!" Mia whispers. "The one who liked the same painting I did."

"It's my teacher." says Rory. "On my couch."

"Rory, nothing happened. It was a terrible night out there so I asked him if he would like to stay on the couch." says Lorelai. Rory says nothing. "Rory, come on, talk to me."

"I don't know what to say," says Rory.

"I told you both that Max and I were dating. This wasn't a complete shock."

"I know." says Rory. "You shouldn't have to explain yourself to me. I need to process this."

"No I do need to explain it to you, both of you. You have that right. Mia what about you?"

"I just can't believe he's in our house." says Mia. She looks up at Lorelai. "I don't know what's going on with me. This is really difficult to figure out." she says. "I can't figure it out."

"Mia, you don't have to." says Lorelai, kneeling down and hugging her. "I'm sorry for messing with you like this, sweetie, you're far too young."

"I don't wanna be."

"I know." says Lorelai. "Now listen. Rory you too. This is a one time thing. Guys are not just gonna show up in our house. I will let you know before I bring home another guy, or the same guy. Will you do the same? When you're older, obviously."

The girls nod.

"Good. So we have a deal?"

They nod again.

"Good," says Lorelai, but she still doesn't feel like they're completely ok with it.

"Happy Monday!" says Harrison, when Mia walks into class.

"I'm not even joking, I'm so tired I could cry."

"Aw, come sit next to me. How's it going?"

"When I came home on Saturday morning there was a man on my couch."

"Really?"

"Yeah, Mom's boyfriend."

"Oh that guy from the wake." says Harrison.

"Yeah." says Mia, nodding.

"So listen, now I'm ungrounded I thought I'd make the most of my freedom so I bought three ice skating tickets. It sounded fun and I figured we could go together with Clara. I thought your mom could take us cus she's the coolest." says Harrison with a smile.

Mia pauses.

"What? Would your mom not want to take us? Because my mom can do it..."

"Its not that, it's just... I went skating with Clara and her mom. Just the three of us."

Harrison doesn't react. "And?"

"Well I didn't tell you about it. I went the weekend before last and I told you I went with Rory." says Mia.

"Well, I'm not happy about the lying bit but why didn't you tell me?"

"I didn't think you'd take it well because of all the stuff with Clara before."

Harrison smiles. "You're smart, Mia, but sometimes you can be very, very stupid."

"What do you mean?"

"Of course I wouldn't flip out about something like that. Clara is our friend and you can hangout with whoever you want." Harrison says. He smiles. "It was sweet of you to think of me, Mia, but I'd prefer if you just told me the truth. Deal?"

"Deal." says Mia, relieved. "Thanks for being mad."

"I was stupid, before." says Harrison. "And I don't wanna lose you again cus that sucked."

"I know!" says Mia, laughing.

Thanks for reading this chapter! Please leave a review because those fanfic emails make me so happy!