"It's not that many classes!" Rory exclaimed as she walked into the diner with her mother, clearly in the middle of a charged discussion.
"If it's too many for me to see all of your teachers in one night, it's too many classes." She said, collapsing into her stool at the counter dramatically. "Coffee please," She requested of Luke as he appeared from the kitchen.
"What's going on?" he asked as he poured cups of coffee for his girls. "I could hear you from down the street."
"If you could hear us from down the street, you'd know what was going on." Lorelai countered.
"You're insufferable," he told her as he pushed her coffee cup towards her.
"It's parent-teacher conference season, but… I have a lot of teachers." Rory confessed.
"Like, a million." Lorelai added.
"Nine. I take nine classes." Rory corrected.
"That's a lot," Luke remarked.
"I had a hard time narrowing it down last semester… Admittedly I did less narrowing than I probably should've." Rory told Luke.
"Why do you have to go to parent teacher conferences anyway? I thought those were for kids who were failing. You're not failing anything, are you?" Luke asked, growing concerned.
"No, Chilton requires them for every student." Rory explained.
"Oh," Luke remarked.
"And when you have a daughter as perfect as mine, it gets pretty repetitive. 'Rory's so bright, Rory's got a great future ahead of her, Rory is the reason I come to work every morning,' blah, blah, blah, I already knew all of that, and I knew it before they did. Of course, I can't pretend I don't love to brag a little." Lorelai said, pinching her daughter's cheek teasingly.
"Ow, Mom!" Rory laughed, smacking her mother's arm away. Luke smiled at their antics before interjecting.
"I'll go with you," Luke said. "If that's okay with the school and everything."
"It's fine by me, if that's what you mean by "and everything," Rory teased, and Luke smirked at her and blushed.
"Oh, Luke, would you? That would be such a help." Lorelai asked.
"Of course I'll go. It'll be nice. I like to brag about Rory, too, so her teachers and I will have something in common," Luke said, and now it was Rory's turn to blush. "When is it?"
"Next Thursday night at 6." Lorelai answered.
"I'll have Ceasar close."
"Oh, thank you so much, Luke!" Lorelai expressed her gratitude. "This means a lot to me."
"It means a lot that I get to go." He told both of them genuinely.
Luke unlocked the door to Lorelai's house and walked inside. He could hear voices, but he couldn't tell where they were coming from.
"Lorelai, where are you?" Luke called.
"Upstairs with Rory," Lorelai called back.
Luke made his way upstairs and walked through Lorelai's open bedroom door to find Rory sitting on the bed, surrounding by wrinkling balls of fabric.
"Do you think this one's any better?" Lorelai asked as she came out of the closet in a pink sleeveless collared shirt tucked into a sleek black skirt, paired with matching pink pumps.
"I think that one is just as good as the last outfit or any of the fifty outfits that came before it." Rory rolled her eyes.
"You're lucky that I'm going to be late if I take the time to yell at you." Lorelai told her daughter. "Pizza's in the fridge, ice cream is in the freezer, don't answer the door for strangers… Be good. No parties, there isn't-"
"Enough booze in the house, I know. It's going to be fine, Mom. Go, before you're late. I love you," She said, kissing her mom on the cheek.
"Bye dad."
"Bye, Rory. Be good."
"Am I ever anything less?" She smiled, and Luke smiled back, putting a hand on Lorelai's back and leading her out of the room.
"Okay, so, I asked Rory if she had any young, beautiful teachers, and it turns out she does, so I will be meeting with her piano teacher for sure so that I can be certain that she doesn't try to seduce you," Lorelai informed Luke as she climbed into his truck.
"Sounds like a plan." Luke chuckled.
"You'll have to take all of the ugly teachers." She told him.
"Well, someone's got to do it." Luke smiled at her.
"Have I mentioned how much I love seeing your face light up when Rory calls you Dad? You're a softie, Luke Danes. I thought by now you'd be sick of hearing it." She teased.
Rory had been pretty regularly calling Luke "Dad" when they were in the house, but she still called him Luke when they were in the diner or otherwise in view of the town. This hadn't gone unnoticed by either of them,
"I won't ever get sick of it." He told Lorelai genuinely. "It's the greatest gift she ever could have given me… letting me into her life like that. I know it can't have been easy for her. I'm so proud of her. I love her, Lorelai. I love her like she was my kid."
"She is your kid. And she's pretty fond of you, too."
"I just hope I can continue to be worthy of that level of affection," He told Lorelai.
"Oh, no," Lorelai whispered as she looked over the copy of her daughter's class schedule.
"What's wrong?" Luke asked, looking over to make sure she was okay.
"I uh… I forgot that Max is her English teacher." Lorelai admitted.
"I'll go to that one." Luke told her.
"Luke, no…I need to face this like an adult." Lorelai told him.
"He tried to kiss you last time he saw you, I'm not letting you go in there alone." Luke said sternly.
"Okay, well, Rory takes nine classes. We'll each take four by ourselves, and we'll save Max's for last and go in together."
"Okay… I don't like it but it seems like the best-case scenario." Luke said.
"Luke… I'm nervous." Lorelai told Luke hesitantly.
"About seeing Max? It's going to be fine. I'll be with you the whole time." He said, taking one hand off of the steering wheel to place it on her thigh.
"No, I'm nervous about leaving Rory alone. I haven't left her alone since…"
"Hey, you can't think like that. This had to happen someday. The door's locked. Nothing has happened in months. We'll be home in two hours. It's all going to be fine." He said, using his thumb to rub comforting circles on her skin. "You look incredibly hot, by the way. There's no chance of the piano teacher seducing me. Not that there was a chance before, but-"
"Damnit!" Lorelai said.
"Sorry, I take it back, you look awful."
"Sorry," she shook her head. "I just...wanted to make a good impression. I'm not like other Chilton moms. I want her teachers to like me."
"Her teachers will love you." Luke asserted confidently.
"How can you know?"
"Rory is your first impression, and she's a damn good one." Luke told her.
"That she is." Lorelai concurred, smiling at Luke.