AN: Thanks so much to everyone who's been faithfully reading and reviewing. It is greatly appreciated. I hope you all enjoy this newest chapter. I have a three-day weekend thing going on and will be out of town with my hubby who's bowling in a men's tournament, but I plan on taking my trusty laptop with me so I can use my three days off to do some much-needed catching up on my writing while he's bowling. Thanks for being so patient with me. In a couple more weeks, my winter bowling leagues will be ending and I'll have more time for writing in the evenings before my one summer league starts and should be able to update more often like I did last summer. Again, thank you all for your patience.
Lanie
Luke was working in the kitchen of the diner at six O'clock the next morning once again helping Caesar prep more ingredients for the special omelet. While the only patrons in the diner at the moment were a handful of townies, he knew it was only a matter of time before the place was swamped again as it had been for a while. He couldn't believe that the Times review had been written nearly two weeks before and he was still this busy. He was furiously chopping tomatoes while Caesar cooked extra bacon. If it kept up like this, he was going to need to hire more help. It was good, though. It gave him some security in knowing that he'd be able to provide for his family with no problems regardless of what Emily Gilmore thought of him. He sighed as he thought of the hurt she'd caused Lorelai at the previous night's dinner. He was happy that Rory had come home and things were right with her and her mother again, but he knew that Lorelai was still upset and hurt over her mother's actions and that things were not resolved there by a long shot. He was yanked from his thought by yelling coming from the direction of the front counter. He stopped mid-chop to see what was going on, stepping toward the doorway just as he heard Miss Patty yelling.
"You've got some nerve showing up here, Sister," She was saying. Luke hesitated at the doorway and wondered who she was talking to.
Patty's loud boisterous voice was soon followed by Babette's gravelly one who said, "Yeah, Luke's gettin' married and he is so over you!" Luke groaned as he thought of his future mother-in-law's trip to New York, wondering if it had prompted Nicole to pay a visit now that she knew he and Lorelai were together. He imagined she wouldn't be able to resist rubbing his nose in it that she'd been right all along about his feelings for Lorelai.
"And he's gonna' be a daddy," Mrs. Cassini added in her squeaky old lady voice. "So, you just turn right back around and go back to wherever you came from."
Luke stepped out of the kitchen and said, "What the hell is going on around here? What's all the shouting about this early in the morning?" It was then that he noticed the town's own Hello! Magazine surrounding someone, but he couldn't tell who.
The three busybodies turned toward him forming a line as if to shield him from whoever it was they were yelling at and Babette said to him, "Never you mind, Sugah. We've got this covered!"
"Move it, Babette," he said with a stern glare trying to mentally steel himself for the confrontation with his ex-wife that he was sure was coming. When Babette stepped aside he was surprised to find that the person the overprotective townswomen had been attacking was the not the ex he was expecting. "Rachel," he said with stunned look on his face.
"Hi," she said with a self-conscious smile as she fidgeted nervously with the camera bag o her shoulder.
"You three, Out!"Luke growled gesturing toward the front door with his thumb.
"But we haven't had our breakfast yet," Mrs. Cassini protested soon followed by the grumblings of Miss Patty and Babette.
"I don't care! Out, Now!" Upon seeing the steely glare on his face, all three gossips made a hasty retreat out the diner's front door leaving Kirk the only customer in the diner as it was still early.
"So," Rachel said awkwardly. "You're getting married."
"Oh, don't act like you didn't know!" He said angrily sure that Rachel's presence in Stars Hollow was another one of Emily's schemes to tear him away from Lorelai. She'd been asking his friends and neighbors insane amounts of questions about him and had hired a private detective to dig up dirt on him so it wasn't a stretch to think that she'd planned this too.
"I didn't know, not until I stepped in here and got attacked by The Stars Hollow Inquirer," she said with a smile trying to joke away the tension in the room.
"Come off it, Rachel! I know why you're really here! I'm not stupid. So, where did Emily dig you up at, huh? Sunbathing in Borneo? Cliff diving in Croatia? No, I got it, hiking the Inca trail in Peru!"
"Actually, most recently I was in Puebla, Mexico for the Cinco de Mayo celebration. I got some great pictures too. The parades, the parties, People just having a good time." She glanced at him warily wondering where his anger was coming from.
"And you left all that to come back here to boring old Stars Hollow, just on a whim, like last time?"He asked skeptically.
"Kind of," She said.
"Don't play games with me, Rachel. I want to know what Emily did to get you to do her dirty work! Don't try to tell me she's not behind your impromptu visit to a town you couldn't wait to get away from!"
"First of all, I don't know who Emily is and I'm insulted by the fact that you think that I would do anyone else's dirty work. You know me, Luke. You should know better than anyone that I go where I want, when I want!"
"Then why are you here? If you think you can just waltz in here again and pick up where we left off, you can think again," he said hotly still not believing her. "it's not gonna happen!"
"Get over yourself, Luke! I didn't come here for you," she said as she rummaged in her bag and pulled out a magazine slamming it on the counter in front of him. "This is why I came!"
Luke glanced at it and saw that the magazine she'd unceremoniously dropped on the counter was the issue of American Travel containing the review of the Dragonfly. "Oh," he said looking down at it. "You saw this, huh?"
"I spend a lot of time in airports, Luke. This was in every one of them. When I saw that Lorelai finally did it, I wanted to come see the inn in person since I'm the one who helped her find it," she explained. "I just thought I would come here first and let you know that I'm in town. This is a very small town and I thought you should hear it from me rather than someone else."
"So, you're really not here as part of my future mother-in-law's scheming to break up me and Lorelai?"
"Why would I do that when the last time I was here, I was encouraging you to tell Lorelai how you really felt about her? God, you're an idiot sometimes!"
"I'm sorry," he said. "It's just Lorelai's mother has been interfering non-stop since she found out that we're engaged." He went on to explain some of the craziness of Emily Gilmore's machinations.
"It's ok," she said then gestured to the magazine. "I understand from that article that she'd not the easiest woman in the world to get along with," she added with a grin. "I thought that stuff sounded a little exaggerated though."
Luke chuckled as he recalled the stories Lorelai had told about her mother and replied, "No, not exaggerated. That's Emily Gilmore. She's not at all thrilled that I'm marrying her only daughter."
"I imagine she's even less thrilled that you got her pregnant," Rachel said recalling Mrs. Cassini's outburst that Luke was going to be a daddy.
"You could say that," Luke replied.
"She's not a very nice person," Kirk piped up.
"That's the understatement of the year," Luke said still chuckling having momentarily forgotten that Kirk was there. "Sums it up, though."
"When I brought out the review in the Times of Luke's cooking, she just turned up her nose at it as if it wasn't a big deal. Of course, I've always known that Luke was good. Who else would let me have a patty melt cut into stars or make me a smiley face with my bacon and eggs or put gummy worms in my mud pie?"
Rachel laughed at the way Kirk judged good cooking and said, "What's this about a review in the Times?"
Kirk fished the crumpled newspaper clipping out of his pocket and handed it to Rachel. "Here it is," he said and turned back to his breakfast.
"You're still carrying that stupid thing around?"Luke asked him in surprise while Rachel read.
"Well, sure," Kirk said. "How else am I gonna spread the word? The critic said we've got a hidden gem here in Stars Hollow. People need to know about it so it doesn't stay hidden."
"Look at you, coming up in the world," Rachel said when she finished reading, "Getting a review from the New York Times."
Before Luke could say anything in response Lorelai came flying through the door yelling, "Luke! Coffee, coffee, coffee!" She was followed by a lagging Rory who looked half-awake.
Luke looked at his fiancée and said, "No, No, and hmmm, let me think here, No."
"Luke!"Lorelai pleaded with a petulant stomp of her foot.
"Well, I can see at least some things never change," Rachel said with a grin.
"What are you doing here?"Rory asked suddenly alert as she eyed Rachel suspiciously wondering as Luke had if this was another one of her grandmother's plots to split them up. "You just decide to drop in once every five years to mess with Luke's head?"
"I'm not here to mess with anybody's head…"Rachel began but was cut off by Luke.
"She saw the article on the inn and came to see it," Luke explained to his future step-daughter before things could get ugly the way they had with Miss Patty, Babette and Mrs. Cassini.
"Oh," Rory said as she sat down at the table by the window still skeptical, wondering if that was her true intention. "Can I get some coffee, Luke?"
"Sure," he said as he reached for the coffee pot and poured her a cup.
"Great, you'll give her coffee, but you keep me deprived. That is so wrong," Lorelai pouted.
"You'll live. Decaf or nothing," Luke said not backing down on his coffee mandate.
"Fine," Lorelai said in a huff as she sat down with her daughter.
Luke walked to the table with the decaf pot he asked her, "What are you doing up so early anyway?"
"This rotten kid of yours woke me up, once again delighting in making Mommy sick," Lorelai said while Luke poured her coffee.
"At which point, Mom decided that if she had to be up, so did I," Rory grumbled. "It's so not fair. You get her pregnant and I'm the one who has to suffer. I was peacefully sleeping and she dragged me up off the couch insisting that we had to come here."
"Speaking of which, how come you let us just stay there on the couch?"Lorelai asked him.
"I tried to get you up about two, but you bit me so I decided to just leave you there," Luke answered.
"I did not bite you," Lorelai protested indignantly.
"You did too," he said rolling up the sleeve of his flannel shirt to show her the faint bite marks on his forearm.
"Hmmm, so I did," she said with a giggle then added with a wicked grin, "But you've never complained about me biting you before."
"Mom, Eww," Rory said with a grimace.
"You guys want breakfast?"Luke said hastily changing the subject.
"Banana pancakes with a side of bacon," Lorelai answered.
"Again with the banana?"Luke asked with a grin.
'Yes, again with the banana," Lorelai said mocking his smug tone causing Luke to laugh.
"French toast for me, please," Rory said, "Extra powdered sugar and half bacon, half sausage."
"You got it, Kid," he said as he scribbled down their orders and walked back into the kitchen to hand them off to Caesar.
There was a momentary awkward silence as both Gilmore women stared warily at Rachel and wondered if she'd really just come to see the inn. It was soon broken by Rachel as she picked up her copy of American Travel from the counter and held it up for Lorelai to see, "So, um…congratulations, Lorelai. You really did it," she said with a pleasant smile.
"Yeah, I did, but I didn't do it all alone. I had Sookie, and Michel, and Luke," she said with an emphasis on Luke's name.
"I'm happy for you. I saw the pictures and it looks amazing. Of course, what can you really tell from a picture, unless you've got a really good photographer?" Rachel teased with a gesture to her camera bag trying to lighten the mood a little. "I wanted to see it in person. I remember the ruin it was when I showed it to you and I don't know…I….uh….I just wanted to see it."
"That's really the only reason you're here?"
"That's it," Rachel confirmed.
Rory eyed her disbelievingly and asked, "If that's true, then why did you come to Luke's first and not the Dragonfly?" After learning of her grandmother's ill-conceived ploys to try to ruin her mother's happiness, she wasn't willing to just let it go. Her mom was so happy and she was determined to see that she stayed that way.
"I thought that I should at least have the courtesy to let Luke know I was I town. I figured he should hear it from me before the gossip-mill that is this town started spreading rumors and coming up with all kinds of crazy ideas about why I'm here. Besides, I also wanted to see if he listened to the advice I gave him before I left last time. Apparently he did."
"What advice?"Lorelai asked curiously.
"He didn't tell you why I left?"
"No," Lorelai said burning with curiosity. "Why did you leave?"
Rachel hesitated for a moment, debating on whether or not to tell her and decided not to, "It doesn't really matter. If you want to know, ask Luke about it. The important thing is that you two are together now and he's happy. That's all I ever wanted for him."
"So, you're ok with me and Luke?"Lorelai asked in surprise.
"Yeah, I just said I'm happy for you, didn't I?"
"I thought you meant about the inn," Lorelai replied never imagining in a million years that Luke's on-again, off-again girlfriend of many years would be this supportive when her own mother wouldn't.
"I meant about all of it. Let's face it, Luke and I were never meant to be the happily-ever-after kind of couple. He'd strictly a home-town guy and I'm the girl who's racked up more frequent flyer miles than anyone could possibly use in a lifetime."
"So, you're not staying in town then?"Lorelai questioned still wondering if Rachel was being sincere.
"Probably not for long," Rachel answered. "I hadn't really decided yet. I'd just some back to The States after I finished up a job in Mexico, saw the review of the inn and got on a plane to Hartford. I wasn't even thinking about what I was going to do when I got here until I was here."
"Well, now that you're here. Do you wanna join us for breakfast? You can tell us about your job in Mexico."
"Mom," Rory said in a warning tone, still distrustful of Rachel.
"I don't wanna make you uncomfortable," she said.
"It's fine. We can catch up. I'm going to be at the inn for a while this morning. Maybe I could give you a tour of the place."
"That'd be nice. I'd love to see what you've done with it."
"Good, so, come on, sit down."
"Ok, I'm in," she said as she sat opposite Rory who was still glaring at her coolly.
Lorelai gave her daughter a look that said 'Be nice' causing Rory to soften her expression a little before asking, "So, what were you doing in Mexico?"
Rachel looked at the young woman who'd grown up so much since the last time she saw her and launched into an explanation of her partying in Puebla. Rory's expression changed from one of stubborn disbelief to one of rapt enthusiasm as Rachel detailed the Cinco de Mayo celebration she'd just been a part of. Rory listened eagerly as she'd always had a desire to travel and see the world, all of her fears about Rachel forgotten.
Luke stepped out of the kitchen and watched the three women interacting with a smile, insanely relieved that Rachel seemed to be telling the truth about not being there to cause trouble. He delivered their food in silence, not wanting to disrupt the conversation. As he set their plates down, he noticed that the trio of town gossips had returned and were forlornly staring through the window at them leery of re-entering the diner after being barked at by him just a short time ago. He silently gestured for them to come back inside letting them know that they were still welcome. The three women wasted no time in barreling back into the diner and peppering Rachel with questions about her travels, Miss Patty, of course being the loudest one of all. Luke shook his head at their nuttiness, but smiled all the same. He knew that even though they may be overbearing at times, he also knew that all of the crazy things they did were done because they cared. He was well aware that their rapid change in attitude toward Rachel was all about Lorelai and the fact that she accepted her being there. Who could argue with that?
While Rachel was being hammered with non-stop questions, Rory quietly slipped from her seat and approached Luke where he stood watching from a distance. "Can I talk to you for a sec?"She asked hesitantly.
"Of course," he said wondering what the look of concern on her face was about.
"Well, I know this is a lot to ask with what's been going on, but I kind of need a favor," she said. "And it's kind of a big favor."
"Anything, Kid," he said. "Just tell me what it is."
Rory hesitated for another brief moment not sure how to get the words out. When she finally did say what was on her mind, it all came out in a rush. "Well, when I left Grandma's last night, I was so angry that I wasn't really thinking about anything but getting the hell out of there. I just threw some stuff in a bag and bolted, but the rest of my stuff is still in her stupid pool house and I need to go back there and get it. I don't want to, but I need my stuff and my car just isn't big enough to get in all in one trip and Mom refuses to go back there, which I totally get, but now I'm kind of stuck because I don't want to have to keep driving back and forth to get all my stuff and I was wondering if maybe you'd drive me up there in your truck, so I only have to deal with being there one more time. I'll understand if you say no and I wouldn't blame you a bit if you did after the horrible way Grandma's treated you, but-"
"I'll do it," Luke said cutting her off mid-ramble.
"You will?"She asked in surprise.
"Yeah, I'll do it," he repeated. "When Lane gets here in a little while, we'll go. I think I've even got some boxes left from when I moved my stuff over to the house that you can have for your stuff."
"You really don't mind doing this?"
"Not if it keeps you in Stars Hollow where you belong," He said. "Besides, it'll give us some time to catch up while your mom's at the inn."
"Ok, Good. Do you think we'll have enough time to get it all done before the shopping trip this afternoon? Mom asked me to go with her and Sookie to shop for a wedding dress."
"We'll make sure we get done in plenty of time," Luke said confidently not wanting Rory and Lorelai to miss out on anymore mother-daughter time.
"Thanks, Luke," Rory said with a grateful smile.
"You're welcome. Now, go eat your breakfast before it gets cold."
On her way back to her seat, Rory was crushed in a hug by Babette who gushed, "Oh, Sugah, we are so glad you're back. You have no idea how worried we were about you when you didn't come home for the summer!"
"Thanks, Babette," Rory said struggling a little in the smaller woman's vice-like grip. "I do need to breathe, though"
"Babette, Honey, give the child some air," Miss Patty said. "We're all glad Rory's home, but you don't want to suffocate her.
"Right," Babette said releasing her firm hold on the younger Gilmore girl. "I just got a little carried away there. I'm just so damn happy you're home, Kiddo."
"Me too," Rory said with a smile at her mother as she returned to her seat and rejoined the conversation.
Emily walked out the front door of her house to leave for her DAR meeting and was shocked to find a familiar ugly green truck parked in her driveway. She hurried back into the house to find out what was going on. She found Richard in the living room engrossed in the morning paper. "What the hell is that man doing here?" She demanded of her husband.
"What man?"Richard said glancing up from the paper but not putting it down.
"What do you mean 'what man'?" she asked incredulously. "That filthy man with his filthy truck!"
Richard lowered his head back to the newspaper and said calmly, "If you're talking about Luke, he's here to help Rory retrieve the rest of her things." He resumed reading not caring anymore that his wife was having one of her usual fits about Luke's presence on their property.
"What? You just let him come in here without informing me about it?"
Richard finally put the paper down, removed his reading glasses and stared at his wife before saying in an even tone, "As you can very clearly see, Emily, he's not in here. I imagine he's in the pool house with Rory helping her to pack up her belongings."
"You mean you don't know for sure where he is? How could you let this happen? He could be anywhere doing anything in our home!"
Richard sighed and said, "No, he couldn't. I imagine that he had no desire to step foot in this house again after the way you've been treating him. He only came here for Rory. He made that very plain when I talked to him on the phone this morning."
"You knew about this?"
"Yes, I knew about it. He phoned me this morning to make sure that it was ok. Unlike you, Emily, he doesn't just go barging into people's homes without permission."
"He phoned you? That's funny, because I don't remember hearing the phone ring."
"It didn't," Richard replied. "Luke called me on my cell phone to ask me if it was all right to come get Rory's things."
"Your cell phone? You gave that despicable man your personal cell phone number?" She couldn't believe what she was hearing.
"Yes, Emily, I did, before I left Stars Hollow yesterday. I wanted him to have a way to contact me in case something happened to Lorelai. It's quite clear that you're no good at delivering messages since you neglected to tell me about Sookie's messages regarding the engagement party tonight."
"I just can't believe you would do this," Emily said with a frown at her husband.
"Believe it, Emily," He said firmly as he sat back down in his favorite armchair before adding, "Shouldn't you be going? You'll be late for your DAR meeting." He picked up his glasses and put them back on before retrieving his newspaper and diving into it once again.
"I'm going, but this conversation is not over," she said in a huff.
"Have a nice day, Emily," he said as she walked out the front door, slamming it behind her.
Lorelai bounced into the diner on Saturday afternoon carrying a large box and smiling happily at all the progress she, Rory and Sookie had made on planning her wedding. "Luke," she shouted when she didn't seem him anywhere.
"What's up," he said as he emerged from the kitchen and leaned over the box to greet her with a kiss. "What is that?" he questioned as she set the box down on the nearest empty table.
"This, my friend, is the perfect wedding dress that I'm going to wear on the day I marry my prefect man," she gushed and reached up for another kiss.
"You found a dress already?"
"Yeah, I did and I picked out your tux. I've got the address of the bridal shop so all you have to do is show up for a fitting. Oh, and I found the perfect daisy invitations and got them ordered, which I know sounds a little girly, but trust me, there are no macho wedding invitations, so you just have to give me that one. Anyway, it cost a little extra but they're doing a rush order on them since the wedding's so soon. They're supposed to be delivered to the house on Tuesday. All we have to do is finalize the guest list and get them sent out. Sookie's got the menu all planned out now, along with the cake. We picked out Rory and Sookie's dresses and shoes and they'll be ready next weekend. It's all coming together, Hon."
"Good," he said with a smile at her enthusiasm.
"I can't wait until you see me in this dress. Your eyeballs are gonna pop right out of your head."
"Just make sure you save the eyeball-popping until our wedding day. You know it's bad luck for me to see the dress before the wedding."
"Since when do you believe in superstitious stuff like that?"
"I don't," he said. "But when it comes to our wedding, I'm not taking a chance on anything screwing it up."
"Nothing is going to screw up our wedding day," she said firmly. "If we made it past all the hell my mother's put us through for the past week, including last night's drama-fest, we can make it through anything," she added as she picked up the dress box."Now, I'm gonna go home and stash this in Rory's closet so we don't run the risk of you seeing it before the big day and I will see you later."
"Ok," he said as he kissed her lightly. "I'll be home early so I can get dressed for this surprise engagement party tonight that we're not supposed to know about."
"Just remember, act surprised," she reminded him as she bounced out of the diner as quickly as she'd bounced in.
Richard walked into the bedroom he usually shared with his wife that evening to make sure she was getting dressed for the party and found her in bed with a book. He looked at her curiously and asked,"What are you doing in your pajamas already?"
Emily glanced up from her book and said,"The last few days have been a little rough and I've got a headache so I thought going to bed a little early might help me feel better."
"This is not going to happen, Emily. You're not going to spend the night in bed instead of going to Lorelai's engagement party."
"Yes, I am. I'm staying right here," she said and returned to the pretense of reading her book.
Richard stomped over to her and snatched the book from her hands, tossing it across the room before grabbing his wife by arm and pulling her out of bed, "No. you're not. You are going to get dressed and get downstairs to go to this party."
She yanked her arm out of his grasp and said,"Have you completely lost your mind, Richard? Do you honestly think that I have any desire to go to that party to celebrate this travesty?"
"I don't care whether you have a desire to go or not! You're going to this party and you're going to smile and nod and shake hands with people and be polite and at least pretend to be happy for our daughter," Richard said firmly as he walked to the closet and pulled a dress from it. "Now, put this on," he said as he tossed the dress to her.
"I will not!" she said petulantly as she flung the dress to the floor. "Going to that party would mean that I support Lorelai's decision to marry that horrible man and I don't! I can't! You can simply tell Lorelai that I'm not feeling well."
"I won't lie to our daughter on your behalf. You're going to that party. If I have to forcibly drag you to Stars Hollow kicking and screaming, I will. You are not going to turn your back on your daughter just because she's doing something with her life that you don't like!"
"She's the one who's turned her back on me! She's the one who stormed out of here last night and made it clear that she was never coming back and got Rory to do the same, and that man is to blame!"
"Emily, for once I'm putting my foot down! You're coming with me to this party and that's final!" He shouted as he advanced on her. "Now, are you going to cooperate and get dressed or do I have to do it for you? I will, if that's what it takes. Or better yet, I'll take you there in your pajamas. I don't care one way or the other, but you're going with me to this party!"
Emily shuddered a little at him towering over her with a look of fury etched on his face. The only other time in their life together that she'd seen that look was when she'd seen him blow up on Christopher the day they'd found out about Lorelai's teen pregnancy. "Fine, I'll go, but I'm doing this under protest and if you think that I'm going to suck up to that man, you're insane."
"I'm not asking you to suck up to him, but you need to at least be civil to him. In just a month, he's going to our son-in-law. He's the father of our unborn grandchild and you will be cordial to him. I mean it, Emily! If you do one thing tonight to cause Lorelai anymore heartache, I will personally make sure that you pay for it. Now, get dressed. If you're not downstairs ready to go in ten minutes, I'll be back." He walked out of the room and slammed the door behind him. Emily stared at the floor for a moment trying to calm herself before picking up the discarded dress and following her husband's orders.