It's Just Unbelievable

Rory takes a deep breath before she knocks on the door to her mother's room. The door opens almost immediately, revealing her mother, who is quite clearly trying her best not to freak out.

"You and I have very different definitions of what 'be right over' means," Lorelai bursts out, her eyes taking in the slightly disheveled appearance of her daughter, ushering her inside before closing the door.

"Sorry," Rory apologizes. "I kinda freaked out and locked myself in the bathroom for a while."

"You freaked out?" her mother says, tone somewhat sharp. "About what?"

"Nothing happened, mom!" Rory quickly assures her, realizing what she's thinking.

"But…" Lorelai implores, apparently not fully assured.

Rory wrings her hands together, not at all comfortable to be talking about this with her mother, but knowing she should. "But, for a moment there, I think I wanted it to," she finally admits, feeling the heat rising in her neck and cheeks as her eyes fall on the desk behind Lorelai. It looks exactly the same as the one in Jess' room.

"Oh."

"God!" Rory exclaims. "I've gone crazy, right? I mean, who does this? I sure don't!"

"Rory…"

Rory isn't listening. "I literally just met him, and I went to his room in the middle of the night, knocking on the door like some… something! And then I decided to stay the night? Oh, and not only that, but I asked him! I did all of it! And God, I kissed him too. And not just any kiss, I basically threw myself at him! I should come with a warning label: Danger! May attack unsuspecting males on sight!"

"To be fair, I hardly think Jess was unsuspecting," Lorelai cuts in, but her obvious try to pull her daughter out of her freak out falls on death ears.

"I can't believe I almost… I mean, I didn't even think! Oh, and that's another thing. When I'm around him, I can't think! It's like my brain just shuts down and all I can think about is kissing him, and I don't know what's going on with me." By now she's calmed down, and is instead wondering what her mother will say about her behavior. She hasn't exactly been the model daughter since last night.

"Oh, honey, I think you know," Lorelai says with a somewhat sad smile.

"Well… yeah," Rory admits, unable to stop her silly smile. But it soon falls. "I just… I'm sorry I left the way I did, just leaving a note. I shouldn't have done it like that, but I really wanted to stay, and I didn't want to discuss it with you at two in the morning."

"Oh."

"And I'm sorry all of this has derailed our plans for the weekend."

"Well, us getting lost wasn't in the plan either, and that still happened," Lorelai points out.

"Well, yeah, but…"

"To be fair, he did sort of save you," her mother continues, "and we wouldn't have had the dinner we did last night if he hadn't been here, so…"

"I know," Rory says carefully. "But I wouldn't have spent the night with a guy I just met."

"Yeah, there's that," Lorelai nods. "But you keep telling me nothing happened, and I believe you. And I was young and in love once, so I know what you're feeling. Can't exactly blame you for that."

But Rory hardly hears anything after her mother oh so casually threw a certain word into the conversation. It's a scary word, one she's had some bad experience with in fact, and for her mom of all people to use it now, like it's no big deal is making her strangely nervous.

"I don't…" she starts to protest, but finds herself unable to say the words. "I just… wasn't expecting anything like this. I…"

"You can't go around predicting these things," Lorelai says gently, shaking her head at the strange idea. "Sometimes they just happen."

"Yeah, I guess," Rory agrees. "But, why him of all people? I mean, it's almost as if it was fate or something."

Lorelai frowns, clearly not following. "What do you mean?"

"Oh, right, I never told you!" Rory exclaims. "Jess is Luke's nephew."

"What?"

"Can you believe it?" Rory grins. "I mean, what are the odds?"

"Pretty slim," Lorelai answers, still frowning. "But honey, are you sure you're not just wishing he was? How do you know?"

"It all fits!" Rory exclaims excitedly, choosing to ignore her mother's reservations. "He's the right age, he has an uncle named Luke or Lucas in Connecticut, and his mom wanted him to live with this uncle last year, but that never happened. And he thought he recognized the name Stars Hollow. I mean, come on. There can't be two people with the exact same family history."

"No, I guess not," Lorelai agrees. "But we still have to call Luke, ask him about it."

"Of course," Rory nods. "That's what Jess wanted too. I told him Luke would be thrilled to hear that we found him, and that he should go with us, but he didn't want to say anything definite before we talked to Luke."

"You asked Jess to go home with us?" Lorelai asks.

"Well, yes," Rory confirms. "I mean, he needs a place to live, and it's not like his parents will do anything for him, but Luke can help."

"And you want him to be closer to you," her mother says knowingly.

Rory can feel herself blush, but still smiles. "Um, well… Yeah."

"You guys really had quite the talk," Lorelai observes, watching her daughter closely.

"Yeah, I guess you could say that," Rory nods, suddenly uncomfortable, wondering how much her mother will want to know. "Actually, we mostly talked about books."

"Books?"

Rory smiles. "Yeah."

"You're serious?"

"Yes," Rory frowns. "Why wouldn't I be?"

"No, I don't know… I just didn't think…"

"Didn't think what?" Rory asks, her frown deepening. "Didn't think he would read?"

"No, I knew that," Lorelai says, rolling her eyes. "The guy's got a book in his pocket, and I'm pretty sure that's not the standard chick magnet, so… But, anyway, I mean, you just told me, not too long ago that you have trouble thinking around him, and now you tell me you were in there discussing books the whole night?"

"Oh," Rory mumbles, feeling herself blush at her mother's words. "Well, we weren't exactly sitting too close… then… And besides, he's read a lot of books and he's so smart, like really smart, and I mean, we didn't actually agree on anything, but it was great, you know. Because the fact that we didn't agree made it all the better."

"Wow, you really did discuss books," Lorelai mutters, shaking her head.

"I told you."

"Yeah, you did," Lorelai agrees, then frowns. "So, how did you end up discussing Luke?"

"Well, I'd told him some things about me, my life before, when we were out getting dinner, and then, in his room, he'd told me some stuff about him, and… his mom… "Rory trails off awkwardly, realizing that bringing up the exact topic of their talk probably isn't a good idea, and then she continues quickly to cover it up. "And well, I just asked if he didn't have any other family and he mentioned an uncle. And I guess I just kept asking questions, and… Yeah."

"I still can't believe it," Lorelai mumbles, shaking her head. "It's just unbelievable."

"Yeah, I know."

Lorelai sighs. "What about his parents though?" she asks. "What did he tell you?"

"Not much," Rory mumbles uncomfortably. She doesn't want to tell her mom what Jess told her, don't exactly think he'd be ok with that, but she knows she has to say something. "His father's never been in the picture as far as I can tell and his mom… Well, there's been no contact since he turned eighteen two months ago."

"Oh," Lorelai says, frowning and clearly itching to ask more, but then she doesn't. "So, I guess we gotta call Luke?" she says instead.

"Yeah," Rory nods.

"Ok. So… should we do it now?"

"I mean, we could, but don't you think we should involve Jess in that too? Luke's his uncle, after all."

"True," Lorelai reluctantly agrees.

"So, maybe we should call after breakfast?" Rory continues. "Because I'm kinda starving. Plus, it's the morning rush at the diner now, so it might not be the best time to call."

"Also true," Lorelai sighs. "So… Breakfast? How about we check out what the hotel's got to offer?"

"Yeah," Rory agrees. "I would just prefer to change first."

Lorelai stares at her incredulously. "What? Don't you want to go down in your pajamas?"

"Not particularly," Rory giggles. "I'll be done soon."

"Alright, I'll just be here. Waiting. Starving," Lorelai says overly dramatic.

"My mother, the drama queen," Rory mock presents, rolling her eyes and goes to get her bag. On her way to the bathroom she suddenly remembers. "Oh, and his last name's Mariano."

"So, he told you, huh?"

"Yup," Rory grins, and then slips into the bathroom.

Once inside she hurries as much as she possibly can, changing quickly into a nice dark red dress, applying a light make-up that she knows looks good on her. She knows her mother will make fun of her for dressing up, but she doesn't care. She wants to look good, and she can feel herself blushing when she thinks about Jess' eyes on her.

No, she definitely wasn't expecting this, but she can't deny that she enjoys it. Very much so.

Eventually she is finished, and just like she predicted, Lorelai watches her with a knowing smile, but Rory ignores it, just smiles back at her. "You ready?"

"I was born ready," Lorelai responds, her straight face lasting all of two seconds before she bursts out laughing.

"I don't know you," Rory mutters, rolling her eyes and starts towards the door.

"Sorry, sorry," her mother quickly apologizes, following her. "I just couldn't resist."

"Yeah, I know," Rory sighs, but she can't help but laugh.