Chapter 72

First call Luke made was to Rebecca to make sure Rachel still had the same number. He didn't want to end up calling and some random stranger answers. That was way too awkward, and Luke had enough to worry about than explaining to some random stranger he had the wrong number.

After a few rings, Luke got her voicemail and had to leave a message asking to call him back. Rebecca got back to him in under three hours.

"Sorry about missing your call. I was in the middle of a pedicure and the lady advises us to keep our phones turned off," she explained.

He casually shrugged. "No problem. I was just calling to ask if your sister has the same number or if she changed it."

"I haven't called her in a couple weeks, but I'm pretty sure it's still the same. Why?"

"Uh, no reason. Just wondering." Luke hoped Rebecca wouldn't press anything and the conversation could end there and they can hang up. Of course, everything else seemed to be going wrong. Why should this go in his favor, as well?

"So, you just suddenly, out of the blue, wonder if Rachel kept the same number after a year for no reason?" She questioned suspiciously. "You randomly wonder if people you forbid from your child's life, keep their same number or not?"

"Yeah, sure..." he shook his head, stopping himself. "I mean, no." Swallowing, Luke placed a hand on his side. "Rachel was just on my..." He caved. "Okay, I need to talk to her about something important. Okay? You happy now?"

"Talk to her about, what? About Shelby? Is everything alright? She's not sick, is she? She looked okay, two weeks ago when we came to see her soccer game, but I guess things can take a turn for the worse, overnight." Boy, can they ever!

"No, it's nothing like that. Something just came up that I need to discuss with her, that's all." Luke messed with his ear, nervously. Remembering what Rebecca had said about knowing this total mess with Rachel would eventually blow up in his face, he did not want to give the woman the satisfaction of being able to say, I told you so.

"Um, okay. She has yet to return any of my calls the past year, just a head's up. Frankly, I'm surprised she still has the same number, to be honest," Rebecca told him. "Each time we came to visit, I would share with Rachel afterwards so we could keep her up to date on how Shelby's been doing. So she knows about Shelby playing basketball and soccer, and how well she's been doing in school, and stuff like that. I told her about Shelby breaking her arm, too. So you won't have to fill her in on much if you get a hold of her."

Luke thanked her before he told Rebecca that he should go, needing to get back to work. Shortly after, they ended the call. He waited until that evening, after closing early, to give Rachel a call. Like her sister predicted, Rachel did not answer after the phone rang several times.

After the voicemail beeped, Luke left a brief message. "Hey, Rachel. It's, uh, Luke. You're probably surprised to hear from me. If you could call me back as soon as you can, that would be great because I feel I could possibly be murdered in my sleep if I don't get a hold of you in the next seventy-two hours. So... if you could call me back, that would be really great. Uh, thanks. Bye." With that nervous, awkward message said, Luke hung up the phone.

Luke then sat there in what felt like an empty apartment. He stared at the floor, still thinking about the night before. Shelby still hadn't come home yet. In fact, Rory had come by that afternoon to pick up an overnight bag for her.

On the positive side, Luke wasn't all alone. Gexie was still there.

Standing to his feet, he made his way over to check on the little gecko who was out of her hide. Luke looked down inside. "Looks like it's just you and me, Gexie," he told her.

Gexie just stared around at her surroundings, as geckos usually did. Carefully moving the netted lid to reach his hand in, Luke offered to let Gexie climb on top, which she took to after some consideration. He then lifted her out of the tank, making sure Gexie didn't fall off. Luke rarely picked the gecko up unless he and Shelby were cleaning out the tank. Considering the events that led to this point, Luke made an exception.

Gexie took to climbing up his forearm where she liked to lay. She especially liked Shelby's arm since it was smaller and the perfect size for her. Luke was glad the two seemed to get along so well. Being an animal, he worried it would try to bite the kid or hiss at her. Gexie looked like a snake with legs. Thankfully, that wasn't the case.

Gexie pawed at his sleeve, another thing the little gecko seemed to enjoy doing. So much so, she had begun tearing at the paper towels they would put along the bottom of the tank until Luke switched to using a kind of soft soil safe for leopard geckos so Gexie could dig if she wanted to.

It was mostly quiet as the two bonded. Luke used the side of his pointer finger to pet her gently on the head. When he took his finger away, she looked up with those big, black eyes and stared at him as if to ask, "why did you stop for?"

Luke petted her one more time, receiving the same stare. "You are one needy gecko, you know that?"

Gexie just continued to stare at him.

So, Luke had no choice but to continue. "Boy, does Shelby have you spoiled," he pointed out as if Gexie could understand him. The gecko just enjoyed the attention/affection, raising her head in the air with her nose pointed towards the ceiling. Honestly, though, Luke smiled. Even a girl leopard gecko could get him to do what she wants. Was he that big of a softie towards all females?

It wasn't until the following evening, while Luke was cleaning out Gexie's tank, did Rachel finally call. He had moved Gexie over to her travel tank while Luke switched out the soil for fresh soil. The phone rang while he was pouring the old soil into the trash can.

Setting the tank back on its table, Luke then made his way over to grab the phone, pressing the receiver between his shoulder and the side of his head.

"This is Luke."

"Hey, Luke. Got your message." He recognized the voice immediately.

"Rachel, hey," he replied. "How you've been?"

She breathed out, "I've been good. Just landed back in Chicago, actually. So, perfect timing for your call. How are you?"

"Good, just cleaning out a gecko's tank." Luke dumped the rest of the soil into the trash can.

There was a long pause before Rachel asked, "Is that what the kids are calling it, these days?"

"What?" he asked, confused, before realization sunk in. "Uh, no. No. Shelby has a pet leopard gecko, and it's been a while since her tank's been cleaned."

"Shelby actually talked you into getting her a pet?" She sounded surprised but very impressed at the same time. "Go, Shelby." There was some proudness mixed in.

"It all started when Shelby had to take home the class hamster for the weekend..."

Luke heard Rachel snicker. "Which I'm sure you loved."

"Let's just say we went through a ton of air freshener that weekend," he said. "And so ever since then, Shelby had been asking for a pet of her own, and I finally decided it might be a good idea to get her a pet. I figured it would help teach her some responsibility. And it has. For the most part, she makes sure Gexie is fed, few times a week," Luke set the tank back on the table and ripped open the small bag of soil to pour along the bottom, "makes sure Gexie has enough water to drink, has plenty of her vitamins." Before pouring in the fresh soil, he wiped out the bottom with a safe cleaner that wouldn't harm Gexie once she was back in her tank.

"Hm," Rachel replied. "I'm impressed, Luke."

"Most importantly, Gexie doesn't smell or stink up the apartment, unless we use live crickets. But we agreed to getting the dead one. It's easier for Shelby to feed since we have to sprinkle some calcium on them to make sure Gexie's getting enough."

"I had planned on taking Shelby to the humane society so we could pick out a cat," Rachel admitted.

"For your place, right?" Luke made sure.

"Yes, my place. We all know how you feel about cats being overgrown rats who constantly lick themselves and moan strange noises," she assured him.

"You do realize all of its hair would get all in Shelby's suitcase and backpack, and all over her clothes where it would end up all over my place?"

"Luke," Rachel told him. "I'm pretty sure you didn't call me to discuss pets. Now what do you want?"

Luke poured in the fresh soil and used the back of his fingers to pat the soil down. He took a deep breath, letting it out. "Lorelai requests, or rather, demands a word with both of us. About Shelby."

"About Shelby?" she repeated, confused. "What about Shelby? Because last I checked, I was no longer part of her life. So whatever your girlfriend has to say, she can say it to you and you can deal with it." There was a hint of a clear grudge towards him.

"I don't think she'll accept that answer." Now, with the soil taken care of, Luke replaced each of Gexie's hides inside the tank. "She's really upset with the both of us."

"I have not been there all year, so I don't seem to quite understand why Lorelai would just now be upset with me," she pointed out. "Unless..." There was another long pause. "Oh my God."

"What?" Luke topped off the calcium dish.

"You never told anyone what you did, did you?"

"Nobody needed to know," he said and set the small dish inside and headed over to the sink to refill the water dish.

"Did you...? Did you let our daughter think I abandoned her again?"

"You did abandon her, Rachel. You chose to walk out on her, I just told you to stay gone because I didn't think the kid needed a mother who keeps walking in and out of her life, breaking promise after promise."

"And I told you, I just needed some time. I took a job in the meantime and left a note, Luke. I had every intention on coming back. I eventually called, didn't I?" she pointed out.

Luke had turned off the water and was now carrying the water dish back over to the tank. He took a hold of the phone in his left hand as he walked. Luke started to argue but stopped himself, taking a deep breath. "Look, Rachel. I didn't call to argue, so let's just agree to disagree. Alright? Sound good?"

"Sure, I guess," he heard her breathe out. Rachel sounded exhausted.

Setting the water dish right beside the calcium dish, he asked, "So, should I let Lorelai know you're on your way or what?"

"Perhaps," she said. "Long as I have room to say my side of the story."

Luke had almost forgotten the moss for Gexie's warm hide and began pulling some out of its sealed bag to stuff inside the hide. "I don't know what it is Lorelai has planned for us, so I can't make any promises. I just know that I have seventy-two... less than forty-eight hours, now, actually, to get you back here. I'm sure Lorelai would hear you out. She normally does."

There was more silence. Well, from Rachel, that is. A female's voice could be heard in the background as if over an intercom, instructing everyone of the last flight arrivals for the night. Since it was almost late in the night, it didn't sound as loud as airport terminals normally were.

"Rachel?" Luke finally asked, making sure she was still there.

"Yeah, I'm here. Listen, I'm tired. I had a long enough flight as it is, traveling from China." Luke caught a yawn escape.

"Okay. I will let you go then," he said.

"I will book the first flight to Hartford as soon as I can, tomorrow, and will call you when I land. Okay?"

"Okay. Thank you for doing this."

"I'm not doing this for you. I just want to see Shelby again. I've missed her so much the past year I could barely think straight." Hearing how much Rachel missed their daughter added to the guilt that was already spilling over with everything else.

"I'm sorry, Rach. I was only looking out for our daughter," he apologized softly.

"I understand, Luke. If the tables were turned, maybe I would have done the same." There was a brief pause before Rachel told him she had to go. "Night."

"Night." Luke took the phone from his ear and hung up. He then stared at nothing in particular for a very long time.

Rachel ended up calling back the next day around three in the afternoon. Luke asked if she needed a lift from the airport, but she declined, stating she had a ride. So, he told her to meet him at Lorelai's house before hanging up the phone.

Since the diner was in between rushes, Luke closed for a couple hours and headed over to Lorelai's in his truck. When he pulled up, Luke turned the truck off and stepped out, walking up to the front door where he had rung the doorbell. He had called ahead of time to let Lorelai know he had gotten a hold of Rachel and made sure Lorelai was home before coming over.

The front door opened. When Lorelai saw it was Luke, she slipped out onto the porch as she shut the door behind her.

"How's she doing?" he couldn't help ask right away.

"Rory's been busy with finals, so I've been keeping Shelby's mind busy with whatever I could think of," she told him. "I got her a copy of Shrek, so we've been watching it a few times. Seems to help keep her laughing, at least for a little bit."

Luke forced a smile. He was glad something was making his little buddy laugh, even if it was a cartoon ogre, whom he's been told could be the ogre version of him. "Well, that's something at least."

"Yeah," she agreed.

"So, I assume," Luke slid his hands into his back pockets, "Rory also knows Jess left."

Lorelai nodded. "Not the best time either considering she's studying like crazy, but what can you do?"

"Pretty sure he's not coming back," he added.

"I'm so sorry, Luke," Lorelai gave her sympathies. "I can see how hard this is hitting Shelby, especially. I guess I never realized just how close they really were. Jess never really seemed like the kid-tolerable type."

"Jess made a big difference in Shelby's life. He got her into reading, he's the one who's mostly been helping with her speech sounds, helping with her homework," he listed off on his fingers. "Whenever Shelby was ready to buy another game, he got it for her with his discount. Jess even played with her."

Lorelai looked at him in surprise.

"I just wish he had tried harder for his cousin's sake. I mean, Jess was so protective of that kid," Luke nodded towards the house. "But I guess you were right. Not even a kid like Shelby could change him." He stared towards the floor. "At least enough to make him want to finish school."

She shrugged. "Shelby's just a kid and Jess is an adult."

"I know." He wiped a hand over his face before turning around to pace away. Luke stopped at the railing to stare out at nothing.

"Luke?"

Luke turned back around and leaned on the railing, staring at the floor again. "I failed them. Not only my nephew, I failed my own kid."

Lorelai moved closer to him. "You did not fail either one of them," she pressed at him. "Jess, you supported. You defended him. You gave him a chance, and if he chose not to take it," she shrugged, "then there's nothing more you can do."

Luke sniffed in, trying to hold it together. "Yeah," he nodded, trying so hard to believe that.

"And you know Shelby still loves you. She's just hurt and confused by all of this," Lorelai continued. "I mean, to lose her cousin the same time she learns the truth about her mom. I know you were looking out for her, Luke, but closing that door was not the right move. I told you that."

"Rachel kept making promise after promise she wouldn't leave, and she did. You should have seen how broken up Shelby was over it, last summer. I thought we would never cheer her up again. Then when we finally do, that's when Rachel wants to come back? How fair is it for a kid to have a mom like that?"

"It isn't fair, I know, and Shelby shouldn't have to deal with that. If you remember, I'm a single parent too, you know," she reminded him.

Luke forced himself to lift his gaze for a moment. "Whenever I noticed Shelby seem to have a hard time with it, I tried getting her to talk. But she never wanted to."

"Expressing her feelings is probably hard for her. Not most kids can fully express themselves with the whole limited vocabulary they got going on."

He looked up at her again just in time to see Lorelai look over behind him. Standing up from the railing, Luke looked over at what she was looking at.

"Who's that?" she asked, just as a man in his thirties was pulling up in an off-road jeep, missing its top.

Luke recognized him as somebody Rachel went to college with and was good friends with. In fact, he was usually the one who she would go with on assignments. "That's Roger," he explained. "A friend of Rachel's."

Rachel slid out of the passenger seat and came around to Roger's side.

"Mm," Lorelai nodded in observation when the guy wrapped a supportive arm around her. "Looks to me they could be more than just friends."

"Well, he seemed to have more in common with her than I did," Luke shrugged off. The two met the other two, halfway.

"Hey, how's it going?" Lorelai greeted Rachel.

"Hey, Lorelai," Rachel returned the greeting and introduced her to Roger, who held his hand out to shake Lorelai's hand before wrapping it around Rachel once more. "Roger's been a huge support this past year. Wouldn't have gotten through it without him." She smiled at the guy lovingly, confirming Lorelai's suspension.

"Good for you," she smiled, supportive of Rachel finding that special someone.

Roger turned to look over at Luke. "Good to see you again, Luke," he nodded once at him. "I hoped I'd see you again."

Luke looked at him strangely. "Yeah, and why's that?"

The cheerful disposition quickly vanished. "So I could punch you right in the face," he suddenly blurted out.

"Roger," Rachel warned him.

It was Lorelai who stepped in. "Alright, no need for violence."

"So, what was it you needed to speak to both of us?" she asked, getting right to it.

Folding her arms tightly across her chest, glancing towards the ground, Lorelai said, "Oh, where do we even begin?" She smiled, forcing a chuckle. "I guess, Luke and I already started discussing how I feel on the matter, about how it wasn't the right decision to make, shutting that door between you and Shelby."

"Thank you, Lorelai. It's nice to hear I have support on this," Rachel nodded in relief.

"Hold up there, sister," Lorelai told her. "I didn't say I'm taking any sides. What Luke did was a terrible thing to do for Shelby, but you seemed to have not made it any easier for him not to, and I can see why he did what he did. And, yes, Luke has the legal authority to close you out and does not need to give you the time of day. You, on the other hand, have also made some poor decisions that could have prevented Luke from ever thinking, shutting you out of your daughter' life."

"So, I bet Luke didn't even tell you, I left a note. That I was planning on coming back, I just didn't know when," she told the woman in a bitter tone.

"Hun, I don't care what you had planned. You do not take off, especially without an end date when you are coming back." Lorelai's tone changed to a firm one, rising. "The truth of the matter is, you took off for over a month, and did not bother to call and check in. Put yourself in Shelby's shoes, Rachel. How would you feel if your mom did the same to you?"

"Shelby knows my trips take at least four to six weeks. I've explained that to her," Rachel stubbornly replied.

Luke spoke up at that. "You sure about that?" he asked of her. "Because you weren't there. You didn't see how broken up she was. Her cousin and I had to do all we could to lift her spirits and make sure she knew she was still loved."

Rachel looked away as if in thought. "I didn't come here to be ganged up on," she eventually snapped.

Lorelai softened. "And I didn't call the two of you here to make you feel that way. The two of you need to get it together and work something out for that little girl's sake. Things may not have worked out between you, you still have to work together. You still share a daughter."

"If I may speak," Roger said. "From my understanding, Rachel has tried to work with him," he nodded over in Luke's direction, "but this guy doesn't want to agree on anything. He takes advantage of the fact he has complete custody and expects Rachel to agree to what he wants." He gave a hard glare over at Luke.

"I know what's going on, Roger. Thanks, I got it," Lorelai assured him.

That didn't stop Luke from speaking up for himself. "When it comes to my nephew, you damn right, it's my decision. Rachel had no right to tell me I couldn't let my nephew come back just because she didn't feel comfortable with him being around Shelby." He turned his head to look at Rachel. "Shelby was completely safe the whole year."

"Okay, but what about the sleeping over arrangement?" Roger continued.

Before Luke could respond, Lorelai ended it. "That's enough. We are not here to point fingers and make anyone look like the bad guy. My point I am trying to make is, starting right now you two," she quickly switched between Luke and Rachel, "need to figure out some way to work something out for the sake of that little girl in there." She pointed over her shoulder at the house. "Do I make myself clear?"

Luke nodded as Rachel shrugged. "I can if Luke will," she said.

"Oh, trust me," Lorelai smiled once more. "He will," and looked over at him. "Right, Luke?"

"I'm willing too."

Lorelai also added, "Besides, it would best be a good idea to nip this in the bud before you and Nicole get even more serious, don't ya think?"

He suddenly felt nervous having Nicole brought up in front of Rachel. Clearing his throat, Luke agreed. He couldn't help steal a quick glance over at Rachel. She was his girlfriend at one point. Then again, it seemed like she had moved on. Not to mention, Luke was sure Rebecca had told her during one of her messages. But he couldn't help notice a confused reaction from Rachel, so maybe her sister didn't mention it.

"So, are we all good now?" Lorelai looked between the parents once more.

They both nodded.

That's when Luke admitted Madison's offer of seeing Shelby's old therapist. He still hated the thought of seeing a therapist, but Luke was desperate to try anything. Both ladies were impressed, knowing the guy well enough to know how he would feel about seeing one. Lorelai wasn't fond of them either, but thought Madison could be right. Maybe bringing in a professional was a good idea.

Rachel agreed.

"I'll give Madison a call and get the information from her," said Luke.

Everything seemed to be settled. Hopefully.

"Can I see her?" Rachel asked afterwards.

"If Shelby wants," he shrugged.

"I'll go ask," Lorelai pointed over her shoulder and headed inside. She abruptly stopped to look back and asked the men, "are you two gonna behave while I'm gone?"

"They will, I'll make sure of it," Rachel answered for them.

"Only because my kid is right inside," Luke stated, eyeing Roger like a hawk. Even though Roger was taller than he was, Luke still felt he could take him.

Lorelai then disappeared inside for a while before returning five minutes later. She shook her head. "Shelby's still isn't up to seeing either of you." She looked over at Luke. "She's pretty shaken up about everything. So, if it's alright with you, Luke, Shelby's welcome to stay for the rest of the week."

"Are you sure?" he asked.

She nodded. "I'll make sure Shelby gets to school in the morning."

"Remember, she has practice, Tuesday and Thursday, and the games are on Saturday. In fact, I think our weekend to bring snacks is this Saturday."

Lorelai held a hand up in reassurance. "I got it covered. Besides, it would be nice to live the soccer mom lifestyle for a change. Gotta admit, I have wondered how that feels like."

"Yeah, my sister mentioned Shelby was playing soccer now," Rachel said.

"She's trying it," Luke explained. "She wants to return to baseball afterwards, then back to basketball after that."

"I wasn't expecting the interest in basketball, at all when I heard."

"Neither did I," Luke agreed. "Kid's been going through this whole phase, wearing basketball jerseys all the time. Her backpack is basketball related. Everything. Even has the video game."

"So, I guess this summer will be baseball, then basketball in the fall?" she asked.

Lorelai answered that. "Shelby has also informed me, she made the final decision for Disney World."

"What about Disney World?"

It was Luke who explained. "Remember Shelby's friends, Ethan and Alan?"

She nodded. "Yes."

"Their parents take the family to Florida every summer to visit his parents, and this year, for Christmas, they got tickets for Disney World. Their oldest is going on a school trip during the same time, so they have an extra ticket and thought since Shelby is always spending time over at their house, she's like a part of the family now and invited her to come along. Up till this point, she's been unsure about whether she wants to go, and I guess," he let out a sigh, "Shelby has made up her mind."

"Now that I'm back, I'm sure Shelby's not gonna want to go. I'm finally being let back into her life," Rachel pointed out.

"Rachel, Shelby just informed me just now when I went in there, even with the knowledge of you being here," Lorelai told her calmly. "I think this trip would be good for her. Give Shelby some time away from everything, away from Stars Hollow. To have some fun with her friends. Those boys have been a tremendous help to Luke this past year."

The woman didn't seem to want to give in.

"Remember what I told you, Rachel. Give it time. Things aren't gonna fix themselves overnight."

She nodded. "Okay. If Shelby wants to go to Disney World, then I guess that's okay." Stealing a look with Roger, Rachel asked, "How long before I can see her?"

Lorelai shrugged. "Whenever Shelby is ready. So, you might want to stay. We have plenty of rooms at the inn if you need a place to stay," she offered.

"Thanks, that would be nice." Rachel smiled at the offer.

Since Rory wasn't home from school yet, Lorelai couldn't go with her to help Rachel and Roger get checked in. She said she would call Michel and let him know a couple guests were on their way.

Luke, on the other hand, did not want to leave without his little buddy. Hoping some more time apart would do them some good, Luke forced himself to get back into his truck. He turned it on but fell against his hand he held on the door, thinking about the upcoming summer he would spend without Shelby. It was hard enough, two summers ago when she went with Rachel. The two had spent little time apart since. It was going to be even harder this time, and Luke couldn't help find it hard to swallow.