Chapter 57

The following weekend, Ethan and Alan invited Shelby to a sleepover at their house. The boys were going to a Pokemon trading card game session at a comic book store and asked if she would like to go. Shelby was so excited to go, she and the twins spent every minute they could, practicing. Luke reminded her not to practice during class or she couldn't go. So the kids spent both recess and lunch battling against each other. Friday afternoon, while waiting on the twins' mom to come pick her up, Shelby tried once more to teach Lorelai how to play.

Lorelai drew a card with a picture of a round, yellow duck holding its head. "Ooh. This little guy is so cute. I play him." She set the card down in the center of the table.

Shelby leaned closer to get a better look at the card. "Ta's Psyduck. He's a water type," she explained. "Bu' he also has psychic a'tacks."

"So why isn't he a water/psychic type?" asked Rory, who was spectating the match. Shelby had explained Pokemon and each of the elements each creature was.

She shrugged. "I don' know. Some Pokemon can learn each o-ter's attacks. Like 'tarmie, who is also a water type, can learn t'underbol'." Shelby meant to say Starmie can learn a thunderbolt attack, an electric type move.

"Well, Psyduck doesn't sound like a good name for a cutie like this," Lorelai stated. "His new name will be Quackers. Quackers the duck."

"Quackers?" Rory questioned of her mom.

"Yeah, like crackers, but he's a duck and ducks go quack." Turning back to Shelby, she asked, "hey, uh, Shelby. You think, instead of battling, your frog-plant thing can go get a milkshake and be friends?"

"Ba'toe-ing makes tem grow 'tronger so tey can evolve," she pointed out. "Tey like to ba'toe."

"I said it once, I'll say it again. That's not how evolution is supposed to work," Rory pointed out once more.

"I' is if i's a Pokemon."

"With logic like that, who can argue?" Lorelai snickered at the girls.

Luke had been standing there, spectating as well while holding the coffeepot in his hand, making his rounds.

"I'm just saying. Things don't evolve because they gain a certain level or are touched by a rock. They evolve to adapt to their environment."

"I stopped questioning it when I started getting headaches from thinking about it too much," he shrugged.

About that same time, the twins' mom walked in the diner. Shelby slid off her chair to go greet her best friends' mother, giving her a hug. With how much time the kid spent over at their house, Shelby had practically become a close friend to the entire family, including the twins' older brother.

Cheryl greeted Luke and the Gilmores, making small talk while Shelby picked up her cards. Rory helped, grabbing her mom's since Shelby was still one-handed. Afterwards, Shelby gave Lorelai and Rory a hug, and Luke, a hug and kiss good-bye before following Cheryl outside to her minivan.

Shelby had a blast at her friends' house, spending the entire weekend there, coming back Sunday evening. That's when Luke could finally take her shopping, having almost forgotten. They found a Harry Potter costume in Shelby's size, who tried it on to show Jess, pretending to use the freeze spell that was used on one of the characters in the first book/movie. However, instead of pretending like he was frozen, Jess said he deflected it, while looking at his own book he was reading.

This year, Shelby didn't win any special awards during her school's Halloween assembly. Her class did have a Halloween party. Thankfully, Luke didn't have to take Shelby trick-or-treating this year. Instead, she went with Ethan and Alan, and their family, bringing home a ton of candy she couldn't touch until Luke inspected it. Jess tried once again to steal more than one piece of his cousin's candy.

"You know, if you ass nicely, you can have more tan one," she pointed out, matter-of-factly.

"Okay then. Can I please have more than one piece of candy since you have enough to open your own candy store?"

Shelby nodded. "Yes, you may."

Grabbing a fun size Snickers, Jess pointed out, "You know, I don't recall anywhere in the book, Harry Potter ever wearing a baseball cap."

"You're su'posed to use your imagin-a-tion," she replied.

"Oh," he said, as if he had gotten a revelation. "Okay. Got ya." Jess gave a wink at his cousin before telling her to come upstairs so they could work some more on Shelby's speech sounds.

During the first week of November, Luke took Shelby back to the hospital to have her cast and pins removed. Dr. Lancaster took some more x-rays first, to make sure the joints healed properly, which they seemed to heal up all nicely and assured he could remove the cast and the pins. One of the first things Dr. Lancaster asked, though, was, "No big brother, this time?"

Shelby shook her head.

"He had to work," Luke answered for her. "But he said he was bringing a surprise if Shelby took this like a champ." He smiled at Shelby, who stared up at him, nervously. Rory had assured the machine they used to cut the cast off was so harmless it couldn't even cut skin. It might even tickle, actually. The only downside was the machine was very loud, which Shelby wanted Luke to cover her ears for her. Unfortunately, Rory knew nothing about getting pins removed and Shelby thought she would have to have another surgery.

Dr. Lancaster cut the cast off first.

While he started the process, Shelby repeatedly tapped her hand to her dad to remind him to cover her ears. Luke did, covering both his hands over her ears while she watched carefully. Once Dr. Lancaster finished, he used a tool called spreaders to pull the cast apart and used special scissors to cut the padding underneath, leaving some around her elbow to use while he removes the pins since there would be some blood.

"Would you like to keep the cast, Shelby?" the doctor asked while he was taking the cast away, setting it on the tray where his supplies were.

Shelby shook her head. Her nose scrunched up from the smell coming off her arm from not being washed for a month.

"No?" he chuckled. "It looks like you have a lot of friends there." Dr. Lancaster smiled between Shelby and her cast.

"Oh, yeah. Shelby was quite popular when she went back to school after getting it on." Luke was rubbing her back in circles.

He chuckled at that.

Next, Dr. Lancaster prepared Shelby's elbow for the pin removal, applying some brown soap to the area that reminds him where they had inserted each pin. Luke let Shelby squeeze onto his hand while she had to be still. It didn't hurt when Dr. Lancaster twisted them, but Shelby felt slight pain when he pulled the pins out, assuring her he was trying to be as gentle as possible. Her eyes watered and she sucked in her lower lip, but Shelby held strong during the entire process. After Dr. Lancaster removed the last pin, he placed a piece of gauze over her elbow and wrapped it up as he explained she was to leave it on for twenty-four hours.

"They'll just be like tiny ant bites, though," he explained.

While the doctor was removing the pins, Luke had asked him how long it would be before Shelby could fully take part in sports and P.E. again. There was still some recovery left that would take another two weeks since her arm would be stiff from being immobile for a month. At that point, they would need to come back one last time to make sure there weren't any other complications.

Once they were all done, they said good-bye to Dr. Lancaster after he walked Luke and Shelby out. Well, Luke did. Shelby waved, giving him a thumb's up. Luke translated she was thanking him which he said, she was very welcomed.

Back at the diner, Luke let Shelby have a bowl of ice cream for having to go through all that.

"Can you bend it okay, kiddo?" he asked, making sure.

Shelby attempted it. Though, with her elbow wrapped in the ace bandage over the gauze, it was a little difficult. But she managed to bend as much as she could, nodding at him.

Jess got home around seven that night, holding something behind his back, telling Shelby to pick a hand. She picked the left hand. Jess pulled his hand out to show her a large plush toy of her favorite Pokemon, Charizard, the large orange, flying lizard with the flame on the end of its tail and dragon-like wings on its back. Her eyes widened and her mouth turned into a complete O shape at the sight of the toy, and suddenly jumped her cousin, wrapping her arms around his waist as Shelby squeezed the life out of him, or tried to at least, thanking him repeatedly.

That same week, the second Harry Potter movie was supposed to be in theaters. Jess promised he'd take her going on a Friday. However, something seemed fishy when they returned and Luke asked how the movie was, and all they said was, it was great. He thought Shelby would be all excited, telling him all about it. Then Shelby started having nightmares again for the next week that made her climb into bed with Jess. When Luke tried to ask about it, Shelby just said the movie was scary at a couple parts so Luke just let it go, reminding her none of it was real. Strangely enough, she freaked out at one point when the TV's picture was fuzzy and Luke had to quickly change the channel.

November also brought some other events. One was Luke's birthday, which Shelby was the only one who knew, buying a cupcake from Fran's with her own money, and made her dad a card. That was actually right after she got her cast off. A week after that, the town was holding its annual dance marathon, which Luke got talked into setting up a coffee stand for the dancers. Lorelai had a little trouble finding a partner. When she found one, he had to bail on her because his wife felt intimidated by Lorelai, and had to ask Rory to do it. Shelby tagged along to help her dad. With the dance marathon starting early before the sunrise, Rory questioned the kid why she wasn't tired.

"She's used to waking up early with me," Luke explained. He had made a special batch beforehand, knowing the Gilmores wouldn't be able to wait while he got things set up. Mostly, while everyone danced, Shelby sat on the bleachers playing her Gameboy, occasionally watching. At one point, she ended up passing out and taking a nap during one of the breaks.

Lorelai hurried over, asking if he'd seen Sookie or Jackson. At that point, Jackson appeared beside her, looking upset. He told Lorelai the discussion of how many kids he and Sookie has, was only between them and them alone.

When Luke overheard the term, four in four, he stated it was crazy, adding fuel to Jackson's already lit fire. He quickly added having one kid in four years was crazy. As much as Luke loved Shelby, one was definitely enough. Though, none of his input was helping. It ended with Jackson storming off and Sookie running after him.

"Oh, they're gonna make great parents," Luke stated with sarcasm.

Jackson's loudness ended up waking Shelby from her slumber. She lifted her head, peering around at her surroundings.

Squatting to her level, he placed a hand on her back, assuring her it had just been Jackson. Since it was still early in the evening, Shelby sat up, rubbing a fist against her eye. Once she was fully awake, Shelby helped her dad for a bit before pulling out her Gameboy again. Bored himself, Luke watched her play her game for a short time, glancing up whenever someone was out, or whenever someone came over for some coffee and stood up to tend to them.

By midnight, Shelby was out, once again.

The dance marathon ended up lasting until around five-ish Sunday morning when the only ones left standing were Kirk and his partner. Lorelai and Rory tried staying in to beat him, but Lorelai's heel broke and had to use her yellow card to go ask Luke to fix it. He had to rush back to the diner to grab some glue, asking Lorelai if she could keep an eye on Shelby, who was still sleeping. Though, she probably will be waking up soon. When he returned, Sookie was there, talking with Lorelai. Things had finally smoothed over between her and Jackson, and things were at peace once again.

"Uh, listen," he told Lorelai as they sat on the bleacher in front of where Shelby laid on her stomach. "I didn't really mean all that stuff I said earlier."

Lorelai handed him the heel to her shoe.

"You know, the kid stuff." Luke squeezed some glue out of the small bottle onto the heel.

"It's no big deal," she shrugged, reaching for her shoe.

"Yeah, I know. I'm not really anti-kid, as I might've come off."

"'Drop another sucker off?'"

"Okay, yes, I don't always have the patience for them. They tend to be, sort of squishy, and it freaks me out a little. I mean, Shelby's great and I love her to death. Though, it's probably because she's a miniature version of me..."

Lorelai interrupted his rant. "Luke, you don't have to want more kids. Or like kids aside from Shelby. It's not for everybody. But you do still seem to be doing well with her. Shelby seems like a happy-go-lucky, sweet kid."

He shrugged, sticking the heel back on the shoe. "I know, but..." Luke took in a breath. "Although, I would be happy to go an entire day without having to deal with someone else's bodily functions." He shrugged some more. "If I ever happen to meet the right person..." He stopped to shrug again. "Well...it would be a discussion."

"A discussion," she nodded once.

"Yes. Probably a short discussion, but still..." Luke handed her the glue bottle so he could hold the shoe together while it dried. "What about you? You ever think about having another kid?"

"Oh, I don't know how much fun it'd be without biology finals and a headgear." Lorelai smirked, which Luke gave a quick chuckle. "But sure," she smiled. "If I ever happen to meet the right person, another kid might be nice." The two then shared a look between them, smiling at each other before glancing away.

"Your shoe will be ready in a minute," Luke told her awkwardly, staring at the shoe while he continued to hold it.

"Thank you," Lorelai replied, staring at the floor.

Neither one could make eye contact for a while.

Shelby suddenly jolted out of a sound sleep when Miss Patty blew an air horn, announcing Kirk was this year's winner. "Wha' was ta, Dad?" she asked, peering around through half-closed eyes.

"An air horn. Kirk just won the dance marathon, kiddo."

She sat up, rubbing her eye again. "So it's over?"

"Yep. It's over. We'll pack up and head home. Possibly get some sleep." Once she was awake, Luke asked if Shelby would help him serve the last batch to help everyone make it home. Afterwards, they packed up the coffee stand and headed for the diner.

Caesar worked the morning shift for Luke while he took a nap, taking over around lunchtime, giving the guy the rest of the day off. Shelby helped out all afternoon with frequent breaks. One of which Jess pulled her away, wanting to borrow her for a second to tell her something. When Luke asked about it later, she told him, happily, there wouldn't be anymore of Shane around, which surprised Luke. What really surprised him was when Shelby added who had taken the girl's place. But in a good, hopeful way. In fact, Luke thought it was great Jess was with Rory now. However, nobody was excited for it than Shelby. When Lorelai and Rory came in the diner, Monday morning, she dashed right over to hug the older girl. Being still sore from the dance marathon, Rory couldn't hug back and told the kid to be careful.

Although, there was one person who wasn't thrilled for the new couple. Lorelai told him how she fought against the Jess thing. However, Rory made her choice and her daughter's happiness was more important, so Lorelai was just hoping for the best which Luke stated how romantic, in sarcasm. She returned the gesture by reminding him how he had said, "finally" at the end of Love Story. Luke walked away in defeat to get her coffee.

Later, when Rory stopped by the diner alone, Jess and Shelby came downstairs at that moment. She suddenly changed her mind about being hungry.

"You know, I got that book upstairs," Jess suddenly pointed over his shoulder.

"Oh," she replied. "The book we talked about."

"Yep."

"Great," Rory nodded.

"We can go upstairs and look at it," he suggested.

"Look at the book. Sure. Let's go upstairs and look at the book."

"Okay."

"Okay." Rory slid off her stool she was sitting on.

Luke listened as he poured the coffee. He knew they weren't actually talking about a book. Shelby, on the other hand, who was volleying back and forth as the teens talked, piped in as they started for upstairs. "Can I come look at the book, too?"

Jess immediately stopped her. "It's not a book for children's eyes."

"Oh, is i' a dir-tee magazine?" The response that came out of the little girl's mouth got the attention of both Luke and the teenagers.

Jess automatically stated in defense he did not teach her that, throwing his hands up.

"Shelby, where did you hear about those kinds of magazines?" Luke asked of his daughter, the shock still not washed over.

"From Alan," she answered. "He overheard his mom and dad talking to his bro'ter abou' finding one in his room."

"And what did Alan say?" Luke was really hoping he didn't need to give Shelby the talk yet. He wasn't ready for that at all.

"Nuh'ting," Shelby shrugged. "Ta he wasn' supposed to have i' and kep' calling them, dir-tee magazines and ta tey were only for adul's."

He felt himself blow a tremendous sigh of relief. But then came the questions.

"Why? Wha' is i'?"

Luke froze as Jess spoke up. "Well, good luck with that," he said and slapped his uncle on the shoulder, playfully, before heading upstairs with Rory.

Luke stared down at the kid, who had her inquisitive expression on her face. Not knowing what else to say, he quickly tried to distract Shelby away from the question, by asking how school was since he hadn't gotten around to asking yet, anyway. Thankfully, the subject changed and hopefully Shelby forgot all about it.

When Rory's burger was ready, he took it upstairs, practically sprinting up there. Just as he opened the door, the two suddenly bolted away from each other. He gave her the burger which she thanked him for and thanked Jess but couldn't remember that it was a book he was supposed to be showing her. Once she left, Luke sat the boy down and laid out some ground rules. Jess pointed out whether they should have him committed or if Luke would like to check himself in, and made a wisecrack about how he was dating Rory, not his cousin. But Luke made sure to tell him how serious he was which Luke thought would work. However, though he's been a father for almost two years, he still had a lot to learn, especially involving the dating thing.

Lorelai and Rory stopped by the diner, a few days later, coming more prepared than most of his customers did as they unloaded a bag of tacos. He insisted they at least order a cup of coffee, a weird combination in his opinion, but this was Lorelai and Rory Gilmore he was dealing with. Lorelai tried to offer Shelby a taco until Luke stopped them there.

"Hold up there," he said.

"Wha'" she asked, innocently.

"You know what," Luke nodded towards her.

"Why can't she have a taco?" Lorelai questioned.

"Because this kid and Mexican food do not mix well. Last time I made burritos for dinner, we almost made her sleep downstairs in the diner because she kept farting throughout the night. But not before blowing up the bathroom before we went to bed." He noticed all three of them had snickered when Luke said the word, farting, and continued while he was talking. It made him roll his eyes as he let out an annoyed sigh. "Besides, Shelby, you already ate dinner."

"But ta' was a long time ago."

"No, it wasn't a long time ago. It was an hour ago. If you are still hungry, you can go grab a piece of fruit from upstairs."

Frowning, Shelby gave the wrapped taco a gentle push back towards Lorelai.

"You're no fun, grumpy," Lorelai told him, unwrapping the first of her tacos.

"It's getting late and just about time for bed. Shelby doesn't need to be eating junk before bedtime." At that point, Jess came over, greeting Rory. "Please, I'll finish it," Luke said before chanting hi, over and over. "I'm getting the coffee." Giving Shelby one last warning, he went to fetch the coffeepot.

Jess stopped him as Luke walked by. "I gotta run out for a second to get a part for my car."

"Get a receipt this time," was all he said before Jess left.

"Hey, Luke," Lorelai called out to him as he made his way back over with the coffee in hand, "what's the record for most tacos eaten in a diner that actually doesn't sell tacos?"

He poured hers first. "I have no idea."

"Find out, will you," she replied with her mouth full of food, "'cause if it's less than five, we're famous!" Lorelai punched the air above her head.

"Where'd ya get those things, anyhow?" Luke poured Rory's next.

"New Haven."

"Really," he said, surprised. "The dump was closed?"

"We paid a little visit to Yale today."

Shelby stared at them, strangely. "You visi'ed a fish today?" which Lorelai explained it was a big college and Rory added she did not want to relive what happened before saying she was going to go study, saying bye to both Luke and Shelby.

When Rory left, Luke took her seat. "Uh, listen, I just want you to know I had a little talk with Jess."

Lorelai sounded surprised, but in a slightly mocking sort of way. "You did?"

"I did. I really laid down the law concerning him and Rory. Trust me. He now knows that I am going to be watching them every second they are together," he explained.

"Ah, good," she nodded, unconvinced.

"Yep."

"You know, they're together now."

"What?" Luke questioned in disbelief.

"Yeah. 'I have to get a part for my car? I'm gonna go study?' That's kid code for meet me at the previously agreed location far away from my clueless uncle."

Luke stared at her, hoping she was kidding. "You're kidding me, right? You don't really think that...?"

Lorelai smirked at him, tilting her head to the side.

Once it sunk in, Luke hit the table in frustration. "Damn! They are. They're together. They used the kid code and now they're together."

"It's okay, Luke," she assured him.

"It's okay?" he questioned and held a hand out. "They are out there right now, doing God knows what, completely unsupervised!"

"Me and Jess aren' supervised," Shelby innocently pointed out.

"It's different from when you're together than when he's with Rory, kiddo," he explained to her.

"Oh, you mean when tey kiss?" she asked.

Lorelai was the one to answer the little girl, "Yes, sweetheart," receiving an "Oh."

Luke turned back to Lorelai to demand how she could have let this happen.

"Me?"

"Yes, you. I thought you were against this."

"I thought you were all 'this is so great, and Rory's gonna change Jess." she reminded him.

"What, is she a miracle worker? Come on, Lorelai. Wake up. The guy's trouble." Holding up a finger, he stated, "I have to find them," quickly standing to his feet. Luke called out to Caesar, he'll be back in a little while and asked if he could keep an eye on Shelby, before grabbing his jacket from the coat rack.

"You're seriously gonna run all over town looking for Jess and Rory?"

He held his hands on his sides as Luke hunched over to Lorelai's level. "If I have to, yes. And if you were really a concerned mother, you'd go out there with me."

"No, I can't do that. But if you like, I'll let you sniff Rory's sweater," she offered, mockingly. "Maybe her scent will help you track them down."

Luke stared at her. "The things you find amusing, astound me sometimes." He turned and headed for the door when he stepped back to grab Rory's sweater.

"You're not really gonna sniff it?"

"No, it's cold out. She might need it." At that, he turned and headed out the door.

As he shut the door behind him, Luke overheard Lorelai tell Shelby something about feeling sorry for her once Shelby got to the dating age.

In all honestly, Luke was not looking forward to that period of his little buddy's life at all.