A/N: Okay, fair warning: there's no Jess in this chapter. I'm a sucker for a good Friday night dinner, though!

"Food poisoning! With that big Thanksgiving dinner yesterday, something was probably poisoned."

"Mom, Grandma and Grandpa ate the same food we did," Rory said, fastening a necklace around her neck. "Wouldn't it be a little suspect if you were the only poisoned one?" As Rory had suspected, Lorelai had not immediately jumped on board with going to Friday night dinner after just seeing her parents the day before. Rory had successfully cajoled her mother into getting dressed, but now that it was time to head out Lorelai had plopped down on the couch and didn't seem eager to move.

"Luke will back me up," Lorelai said. "Won't you, love?"

"The poison. It hurts," Luke said obediently. To his credit he was already dressed and wearing shoes, and was waiting by the door with the car keys in his hand. Rory knew he didn't want to go to dinner any more than Lorelai did, but he got points for having a better attitude about it.

"You're both children," Rory said. "I have to fly home Sunday. Do you really want to deny me this time with you because you'll have to see Grandma two days in a row?"

"Absolutely," Lorelai said with zero hesitation.

"Mom!"

"Well, Rory, you're a grown up now. Mommy can't always be there to hold your hand. After all, someday I will be dead. In my mind I always go out tragically. In an explosion, maybe. Or a boat wreck. Or an explosion on a boat."

"Do not even joke about that," Rory said, thinking of Luke's boat. Her mom had mentioned that she and Luke had gone out on it several times over the summer and now the thought made her nervous. "Now can you please put your shoes on? If you do it without whining I'll buy you coffee ice cream on the way home."

"The good stuff?" Lorelai asked, taking the pair of shoes Rory handed her. She looked at them and started to protest, but one look from Rory kept her quiet. They were already way too late to discuss the merits of slingbacks versus pumps.

"We'll party it up with Ben and Jerry," Rory promised, holding out her pinky. Lorelai hooked it with her own pinky and shook.

"Good," Lorelai said, grabbing her purse. As they made it out the door and Lorelai turned to lock the house up, she thought of something. "Hey, what if I say Paul Anka has food poisoning?"

"I'm not going to build a spa, Mother," Lorelai said, taking a long sip of her martini. It took less than ten minutes for Emily to usher them in, pour drinks, and start in on Lorelai about adding a spa to the inn. Her grandmother was persistent; Rory had to give her that. Personally, she thought adding a spa might be kind of cool. It would be nice to come home and have a place to get a massage. She knew nothing about the inn's finances or how big of an undertaking a spa would be though, so she kept her mouth shut. "Hey, we could turn this into a drinking game," Lorelai continued. "Every time I say no, just do a shot."

"Better break out the shot glasses, Grandpa," Rory said, sipping her Coke. Even though she had been of legal drinking age for two years, she felt weird accepting cocktails at her grandparents' house. She drank wine during dinner with everyone else, but having her grandma mix her a martini just felt weird.

"Rory!"

"Mom, I was kidding," Lorelai said. "Seriously, though. Let's say I would even begin to entertain the thought of possibly adding a spa. Isn't it a little too late to start planning if we hypothetically wanted to break ground in the spring? My contractor is probably already booked through next Thanksgiving."

"That's why we need to make decisions now," Emily pointed out. "You know, last weekend I went to a beautiful day spa in Stamford. Top of the line, and brand new. Yours could be better though. With that darling little inn of yours attached? It would be a rave!"

Lorelai sighed. "Yes, my little inn, attached to a spa. Can we talk about this another time not at dinner? Rory is here for the first time in months, if you haven't noticed."

"We noticed Rory, Lorelai," Emily said. "That is an excellent idea, though. This really isn't the proper place. I'll meet you at the inn at noon on Monday for lunch."

Lorelai looked like she wanted to protest, but Rory jumped in before her mom could turn the evening into World War III. "So, Grandma, how was your dinner last night?"

Emily shook her head wearily, as if even thinking about it was exhausting. "If I had known what it would be like we never would've left yesterday," she said. "The Cullpepper's cook isn't a patch on Sookie."

"The used canned soup in their green bean casserole," Richard added disapprovingly.

"Canned soup? That's the culinary version of the c-word!" Lorelai exclaimed, clearly glad to put the spa talk behind them. She and Rory had practically lived on canned soup before they discovered that Beefaroni was vastly superior to Campbell's condensed.

"What's the other c-word?" Emily asked, sounding confused.

"Google it if you must, Mom. I'm not explaining it in mixed company."

"Oh, never mind," Emily said, not satisfied with Lorelai's answer. "Let's not talk about that horrible dinner. So, Rory, how are things in Michigan? We've only heard about the paper. Are you making good friends out there?"

Rory ran a finger around the edge of her glass. Truthfully, a lot of the time she wished she had more friends in Michigan. Things had gotten better over the last few months but it was nothing like being in Stars Hollow and having Lane right in town, or even being at Yale with Paris there all the time. "Some," Rory said carefully. "A lot of my co-workers are a lot older than I am, so we don't have a lot in common. Most of them are really nice, though."

"Any young men?" Emily asked meaningfully.

Rory chose to ignore the meaning behind her question. "Young men work there, yes."

Emily sighed. "Any of significant interest?" she asked.

She shrugged, even though Rory knew her grandma hated that. "Not right now. I went on a date with a co-worker, but that was months ago and it didn't go anywhere."

Richard looked relieved, but Emily wasn't satisfied with her answer. "You know, it has been a while since you and Logan broke up," she mused. "You really should get back out there. You're not going to be young forever, you know. I wonder if we know anyone in your area. Richard, who do we know in Michigan?"

"Mom, stop trying to marry off my daughter," Lorelai said to Rory's relief. "She hasn't even been single a year yet. It's not like she's a leper. And she's focused on her career. Isn't having a great career more important than having a boyfriend?"

"You have both," Emily pointed out. It was possibly the closest thing to a compliment she had given Lorelai in a long time. "I just don't want her to miss out on any opportunities."

"Trust me, Grandma, there aren't a lot of opportunities in that area right now," Rory said reassuringly. "If I ever do meet a nice young man, I will let you know."

"What about that boy that was at dinner, yesterday? The one who was at your graduation?"

Rory wondered if her grandma didn't realize that Jess was the same one she had brought to Friday night dinner all those years ago. "Jess just came to dinner to be with his family," Rory said. "We're friends, sure, but there's nothing going on there."

"You're friends?" Lorelai asked interestedly. Rory hadn't gotten around to telling her what had happened at dinner and she wasn't sure what her mom would say if she did.

"I've been friends with Jess for a long time," Rory said, looking at her grandma. She didn't want to get into a conversation about their period of not talking with her grandparents around. They didn't need to know that Rory had acted like a pathetic girl who threw herself at a boy and then gave him the silent treatment for months when he turned her down.

"Right, I know," Lorelai said, not catching Rory's rather pointed glance. "But what about—"

"Dinner smells great, Grandma," Rory said, cutting her mom off. "What are we having?"

If Emily was confused about the abrupt and completely obvious change in topic, she played it off very well. "I had Ellie Mae cook a pot roast," Emily said. "I know it's one of your favorites."

"Wow, Grandma. That was really nice." Rory loved pot roast and didn't get to have it very often, and she knew her Grandma didn't think very highly of it. She had once said before that pot roast was for people who couldn't afford steak. Rory was pretty sure the last time her grandma served pot roast was when she invited her minister over to talk Rory out of having sex. "Thank you."

"Anything for our girl," Richard chimed in.

"Hey, I'm your girl too," Lorelai complained. "And last we you made me eat pigeon."

"It was squab, Lorelai," Emily said, rolling her eyes.

"Which is a type of pigeon."

"A young pigeon, actually," Luke said. Lorelai looked aghast.

"You made us eat baby pigeons?" she demanded. "I like meat, but I don't know how I feel about eating baby animals."

"You had veal just last month and enjoyed it," Emily said, standing up to signal that it was time to head into the dining room. She walked out before she could see Lorelai's horrified face.

"I didn't know it was veal!" she said, quickly gulping the last of her martini before following her mom into the dining room. "Mom, do not secretly feed me veal again!"