Thanks to Grizzly for betaing!

Chapter 14: Zen

"Luke we still need to stop by the vet and see how Barney is doing," Lorelai said when they drove past the gazebo.

"Damn, I completely forgot about him," Luke cursed and stopped on the side of the road to turn around and drive to the vet when the cars behind them had passed.

"Maybe we should call the vet first and ask how he is doing. If he's good we should take Will with us when we pick up the pig," Lorelai replied and immediately started to look in her purse for her cell-phone. She dug out a see-through bag with cosmetics and placed it on the headboard, a half empty bottle of coke, which she placed in the storage pocket of the car door. Then cookies on a wrapper, which she placed on the middle console.

"I can't believe that you still have those cookies in there. How old were the twins when you put them there? Six months?" Luke snorted when he saw the cookies.

"And? I never intended to eat them anyway, they're tasteless baby cookies," Lorelai shrugged.

"Because that makes it less unnecessary to carry them around with you," he shook his head and pulled back on the road and continued the ride to their house.

"Oh shush you!", Lorelai laughed, amused by his annoyance and finally found her cell. "Aha!" she exclaimed and flipped through her saved phone-numbers to find the one of the veterinary. When she found it she pressed the phone to her ear and waited for someone to pick up.

Luke listened to her call while he drove them back home and breathed out in relief when he could tell that the his son's pet seemed to be better.

"He is fine. He ate some hay and seems to be stable at least. We can pick him up later," Lorelai confirmed what he already knew and snapped the phone shut.

"That's good. I'll pick up the girls while you're gone," Luke replied.

"Will would have been devastated if Barney had died," Lorelai said and pressed her forehead against Luke's shoulder for a second.

"He's still alive and everything will be just fine," Luke reassured her when he pulled into their driveway. They opened the doors and got out of the car when the front door flew open and William stormed out, shoeless, with a wrinkled shirt and his hair slick with sweat.

"And?" he asked when he reached his parents just as they stepped onto the porch.

"What happened to you?" Luke asked and tugged lightly on William's wet hair.

"Grandpa said I have to learn karate to defend myself and I started training. But what did Mrs. Gleason say?" William asked, talking so fast that Luke barely understood what he was saying.

"You won't be going back to that school Will," Lorelai told him and turned him around by his shoulders so they could go inside.

"Yay, I don't have to go to school anymore," William yelled in victory and raised his arms over his head.

"Not so fast, honey. I said you won't be going back to the school in Stars Hollow, but we will find a new one," Lorelai explained and pulled William's shirt over his head.

"Mommy, what are you doing?" the boy complained and looked at his father so that he would help him, but Luke just chuckled at William's puzzled look.

"I'm cleaning you up, because once you're ready we can go and pick up Barney," she replied and toweled his hair dry with his shirt.

"Really?" he asked doubtfully, his blue eyes wary.

"Really, but not before you wash your face, comb your hair and put on a new shirt," Lorelai told him and the next second he ran off to do as she told him.

Both Luke and Lorelai just shook their heads and finally entered the living-room.

"Hey mom, dad" Lorelai greeted her parents and sat down on the couch. Both Emily and Richard had obviously been waiting for them to get back and now looked expectantly at their daughter and their son in law.

"William won't be going back to school," Luke said with a sigh and plopped down on the couch next to Lorelai.

"What is that supposed to mean 'He won't be going back to school'?" Emily asked while Richard looked too shocked to speak.

"It means that Lulu wasn't cooperating at all and refused to put William in the other class. She also said that before she does anything she has to talk to the jerk who did this to William," Lorelai recalled.

"That is unacceptable! That little idiot has to be kicked out of school! And you should sue his parents," Richard said loudly and basically jumped off the couch and started pacing.

"Actually Luke threatened to sue them. We will get the best attorney we can find and then make them bleed. Their house will be ours, their car will belong to us," Lorelai said and winked at Luke.

"You shouldn't joke about this, Lorelai. This is a perfectly reasonable thing to do. Obviously the boy's parents must have told him those horrible things about you, otherwise he wouldn't have attacked William. You can not sue the boy, but you can sue his parents for libel," Emily lectured her.

"I am just saying that before we sue anyone we should probably talk to them first," Lorelai replied.

"What is there to talk about? You were called a whore, William was beaten up and now he even has to change schools. I will call my lawyer and put him on this case immediately," Richard's voice echoed through the living-room.

"Richard, please lower your voice; William does not need to hear any of this. We will talk to the parents and then decide what to do. In the meantime we will look for a new school for William," Luke said, although he was seconds away from losing his temper again.

"What about Lorelai's reputation?" Emily asked.

"Nothing left to ruin," Lorelai replied and rolled her eyes.

"Is this a joke to you Lorelai? Is having people call you a whore fun? You put on one of those obscene shirts and prance through town with a smile, while your kids are beaten up in school. If you dressed properly maybe none of this would have happened. You own pants that have the word "juicy" on the butt and shirts with a penis in rhinestones. How many times have I told you that…" Emily yelled but was interrupted by Luke.

"Enough! This is not about Lorelai's clothes or one of your old disagreements. I think it would be better if you left now and called us when you have calmed down so we can talk about finding a new school for William. I don't know anything about the private schools around here and neither does Lorelai, so we would appreciate your help. But now: Leave!"

Without another word Emily and Richard turned around and left the house. Once they heard the door close Luke turned to Lorelai. "How many years until they'll forgive me for that?" he asked.

"Probably never," Lorelai nodded and gave him a soft kiss.

"Good to know at least," Luke whispered against her lips and kissed her again.

"Mommy, I am ready, let's go!" William screamed the next second as he ran down the stairs. Luke and Lorelai both sighed and broke the kiss.

"Come on! Hurry!" William said , bouncing up and down when Lorelai didn't get off the couch immediately.

"Hold your horses, mister. Your old mother isn't that fast," she replied and stood up.

"You're fast when there's ice-cream involved," William grumbled.

"Did you just say "involved"?" Lorelai asked him and raised her eyebrows. When William only gave her a duh-look she turned to Luke and said "He just said "involved". We're getting old."

"As long as we still get what he is talking about," Luke shrugged and stretched his legs. "I'm gonna change and go to the diner. I will pick up the girls later and meet you for lunch?" he asked.

"Sounds good, see you later," Lorelai replied and gave Luke another peck.

"Mommy!" William urged and pushed her to the door by her rear-end.

"Luke! Another guy has got his hands on my butt! You'd better hurry before my reputation is completely ruined," she joked, then turned around and picked a squealing William up the next second kissing his cheek noisily. Luke only laughed and waved before he climbed the stairs.

Lorelai didn't carry William very far because at the age of six, he was already too heavy. For a while William kept babbling about his karate lessons which he had taken by himself that day and skipped happily along,holding Lorelai's hand. The closer they came to the veterinary surgery though the quieter he was.

"Meeko was angry at me today," he said quietly when they reached the town square.

"Aw, really?" Lorelai replied and gave his hand a comforting squeeze.

"Yeah, he doesn't like me anymore because I hurt his brother," William explained.

"No one likes it when someone hurts a member of the family. Make sure you give them some extra cucumber in the evening as an apology," Lorelai proposed.

"I don't think we have a cucumber at home," William shook his head sadly.

"We will buy one on our way back home, ok?"

"Ok," he nodded and rubbed his nose and his forehead against her arm. Lorelai decided that it wasn't that far anymore and picked him up to carry him the rest of the way. William obviously was okay with that because he buried his face in the crook of her neck and closed his eyes.

"Mommy, what if the kids at the new school also say mean things about you?" William mumbled into her neck.

"Then you come home and tell me and Daddy and we will take care of it," Lorelai told him, already knowing where this was going.

"But what if it is really mean and I don't want to tell you?"

"Then tell your father."

"And if I don't want to tell daddy?" William lifted his head and looked at her, obviously looking for reassurance and a guarantee that something like this would never happen again. Lorelai stopped and put him down, before she crouched down in front of him so she was at eye level.

"William, look: If something like this happens again then you have to tell us. We're your parents and no matter what stupid things they say about us we know that it's not your fault and we will take care of it. We take of you, Will, not the other way round. If you have a problem you have to tell us, no matter what happens. If you don't talk about things it will backfire and everything will be worse than when you talk about it. Believe me your daddy and I made that mistake several times and it never did any good. So if someone beats you up or insults you, you will tell us and we will take care of it. I'm really sorry that we weren't able to get you into the other class, but maybe it's better if you change schools. You can make new friends and keep your old friends from the soccer team," Lorelai told him, while she kept his hands in her own.

"You also said that when I got into the other class and then they beat me up," William said doubtfully.

"It will work out, you'll see. Rory also changed schools and it wasn't easy at first, but then she made new friends and so will you," she said and got up. "And now we'd better get Barney before Meeko gets even angrier and we have to buy all of the cucumbers at Doose's," she joked to lighten the mood.

"He could never eat all of the cucumbers at Doose's! He would explode, mommy," William giggled.

"Or he might blow up like the coyote," she laughed with him.

"Yes, and then we would have to tie him to the bed, because otherwise he would fly away," William laughed.

"Or he could be so heavy we would have to roll him in and out of his cage."

"I could play soccer with him," William agreed and started to skip excitedly beside her again.

That evening, after Barney was safely back in his cage, the guinea pigs had been fed a whole cucumber and William and his sisters were finally asleep, Luke and Lorelai were relaxing in front of the TV when the phone rang.

Luke muttered while he went over to the sideboard to pick up the phone, because it was already half past ten and everybody knew not to call them that late because the kids were asleep. So it was either something important or someone dumb and he wasn't in the mood for either.

"Danes," he barked when he picked it up.

"Luke, I really don't want to talk to you again today, but I have no choice. I made some calls when we got home and all of the private schools told me they would accept William. However he will have to join as soon as possible and they demand a placement test as well as an intelligence test. We will meet tomorrow at the Hartford school for boys at nine. Be on time for once," Emily said and hung up before he could say a single word. Slowly he turned his head and stared in disbelief at the phone in his hands.

"Who was it?" Lorelai asked.

"The woman who signed our son up for an IQ test tomorrow. And don't say anything, obviously we need to do this in order to get Will into one of those snob schools. Just take it with Zen," he replied and sat back down on the couch and let out a long and exhausted sigh.

"Zen, I got it," Lorelai replied and snuggled up to him for some comfort.

TBC