A/N: Thanks for the latest feedback, folks. Yes, I know, a canon plot point came in and spoilt all the happy that was going on, but what can you do? Well, let's find out... ;)

(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)

Chapter 20

"I was thinking about opening a Coyote Ugly lemonade stand."

Lorelai wasn't serious when she said that, obviously, but the look on Luke's face suggested he thought maybe for a second that she was. Honestly, she was a little amazed that he got the reference at all. She was clearly a really good influence on him and his movie habits lately. If only everything were as easy as educating her man in pop culture.

"You know, it's actually not as bad as you think," said Luke, brushing some more under-the-house dirt from his clothes before he came to sit down beside her on the porch steps. "I mean, there's definitely a little damage."

"Kirk said that the joists were totally gone, and that the foundation has lost all its structural integrity." Lorelai shook her head. "Fifteen thousand dollars was mentioned. I know, because the figure has been flashing in my head in big red figures like something from The Price Is Right ever since he said it," she said with a groan, putting her face into her hands.

She really did not know what she was going to do. Getting the money for Rory to go to Chilton had meant crawling to her parents and the pain of Friday Night Dinners was a weekly reminder of why she was never making that mistake again. Unfortunately, Lorelai just didn't know where else she could turn, at least, not until Luke gave her an option she hadn't considered yet.

"I can help you with the money," he said softly, his hand resting on her knee.

Lorelai's head snapped up so fast, she almost gave herself whiplash.

"I know a contractor, he did some work on the diner before," her boyfriend told her. "He'll probably bring the price down a little from what Kirk told you, and then..."

"And then?" Lorelai asked, curious to see how he thought fourteen or even ten thousand dollars would be any better for her.

There were no number of thousands of dollars rolling around in Lorelai's checking account. She was lucky when she had a number of hundreds sometimes.

"Look, you can call it a late Christmas present..."

"You got me a Christmas present already."

"...or an early birthday gift."

"Seriously? A fifteen-thousand-dollar birthday gift?" Lorelai shook her head. "Luke, that's not-"

"Lorelai, come on," he urged her, the moment she tried to fight him on it. "You need help with this and I have the money, it's not a big deal. I'd like to think that if I needed that kind of cash and you had the means to help me out, you would."

She smiled then, she couldn't help it.

"I would," she told him without pause. "And you would say no, and I would say yes, and after a long time of me being really annoying, you would crumble and take the gift with gratitude."

"Exactly," he said, smiling back at her. "But since I don't do the whole annoying-people-until-they-crack thing quite as well as you, I'm hoping you'll just let me help you out without fighting me on it. Please?" he said earnestly. "And yes, I know, you are an independent woman, and I love that about you, but everybody needs a helping hand sometimes. It's not like..." he trailed off, apparently noticing at last that Lorelai could do nothing but stare at him with the most ridiculous grin on her face. "What?"

It took a while for her to be able to tell him what he clearly hadn't noticed himself. She was so overwhelmed by it, so inordinately happy after feeling so completely in despair about her crumbling house just minutes before. That was Luke, always able to surprise her, even though he probably didn't even realise it.

"You said you love that about me. My independence, you said you loved it about me."

A hundred and one emotions seemed to pass over Luke's face as he apparently replayed his own words and realised that what she had said was true. There was a moment in there when Lorelai thought he was going to deny it or try to explain it away. For a split second, she actually believed he was going to get up and start running, but no. Luke didn't do any of those things. He just took a moment to process, adjusted his hat, and then sighed.

"Yeah, well," he said, meeting her eyes. "There's a lot to love about you."

"I like to think so," Lorelai replied, wondering when her voice got so soft, but not really worrying about it right now. "And for the record, there's a whole lot to love about you too, Luke Danes. Not least your generosity," she told him pointedly, picking up his hand in her own and squeezing it.

"So, does that mean you are or aren't going to let me help you pay for the repairs?" he checked.

Lorelai bobbed her head from side to side as if considering it carefully before she answered.

"Yes and no," she admitted. "I can scrounge up a little cash of my own, and I will take up your offer of the special friends and family rate from your contractor. If you would be willing to then lend me the rest of the money," she said with a look, "I would appreciate that, but I will pay you back, Luke. I have to, and it's not because I'm stubborn or independent, though I guess I am both of those things," she admitted. "It's for us. It's for this relationship, which is going so well. I don't want it getting weird because of money. So, you'll pay and I'll repay, regularly, without fail, something completely business-oriented that is totally separate to this," she said, gesturing between them. "Agreed?"

"Agreed." Luke nodded, leaning in to plant a sweet kiss on her lips that sealed the deal.

"So, do you feel... peppy?" asked Rory awkwardly.

"Really, that's your question?" Lane checked, making a face. "You know, this is why I was hesitant about telling you."

"Lane, come on! This is not something I ever could've expected. We used to make fun of cheerleaders and hide from pep rallies and now... It's weird!"

"Oh, so, now, I'm weird? Thanks, Rory, really supportive."

"Are you two going to have some kind of cat fight?" asked Jess, backing away from the girls as they started squaring up to each other. "Because I'm not saying I'm against that kind of thing, but right in the middle of town square is maybe not the best place. Even in Stars Hollow, it's going to draw a crowd. Especially with Lane in that outfit."

"We're not going to fight because I'm going home," she said crossly, turning to go.

"Hey, Lane, you dropped your pom-pom!" Jess called behind her, stooping to pick it up to hand to her if and when she finally came back.

She stormed over to him and ripped the offending item from his hand.

"Two are pom-poms," she told him. "One is just a pom."

With that, she turned on her heel and stalked off again. Jess heaved a sigh and ran a hand over his face.

"Wow. That did not go well."

"Can you believe her?" Rory asked, shaking her head. "I mean, really? Lane? A cheerleader? And then she said she couldn't tell me because I would judge!"

"Imagine that," said Jess softly, though apparently not softly enough given the look on Rory's face. "Look, I'm not saying you're judgmental, okay? It's just... Lane's not having the best time lately and it seems like, I don't know, she misses you."

"But I'm right here," said Rory, shaking her head. "It's not like we haven't talked at all lately, we have."

Jess felt sick when he saw the sadness in her eyes. Rory was maybe the nicest, sweetest person he ever met. When it came to caring, especially for her family and friends, she really went all out. The problem was mostly her spreading herself too thin, Jess supposed, something he noticed, from the outside looking in, but something that Rory herself was apparently oblivious to.

"Jess?" she prompted when he was clearly too quiet for too long. "Do you think I've abandoned Lane?" she asked sadly.

At that, he shook his head. "Not abandoned," he insisted, picking up both her hands in both of his own and lacing their fingers together. "It's just you've had a lot of stuff going on lately. Your house and the termites, everything at Chilton, plus I guess a lot of your spare time has been taken up by yours truly," he said with a look. "Lane probably wouldn't be quite so sensitive about being on the back burner for a while, except... well, I'm pretty sure things with her and Henry are coming to an end."

"What?" Rory gasped. "How did that happen? I thought it was going so well," she said, just this side of whining. "And how do you know about this and I don't?"

"Trust me, I would love it if Lane would start doing the girly sharing thing with you again instead of me," he insisted. "I am not comfortable being anybody's girl-friend, but she's mentioned a couple of times that he hasn't called, and that when she called him, his mom said he was busy. It seems like he's avoiding her," Jess explained, shrugging his shoulders.

"I don't understand why he would do that... except maybe I do," said Rory as she thought it over and then looked up at Jess. "You know, the other day, Lane warned me about trying to hide what we have, trying to keep you like a dirty secret or something," she said, shaking her head. "Not that I ever wanted to do that, but it's just kind of ironic, isn't it?"

"That now Henry is probably done with Lane for keeping him a secret from Mrs Kim." Jess nodded in agreement.

"Poor Lane." Rory sighed one more time. "I really should've been nicer about the cheerleading thing, but it's just so bizarre."

Jess smirked. "You think that's bizarre, wait until you see their new routine. From what Lane told me, she has really shaken things up in the music department."

"Really?"

"So she says. It's the first time in my entire life I'm actually looking forward to attending a pep rally. You're coming, right?"

Rory grinned. "I wouldn't miss it," she told him definitely, "but I don't think it really qualifies as a date."

"A date?" Jess echoed, pulling her further into his arms. "You asking me on a date, Miss Gilmore?"

"I was kind of hoping you were going to ask me on one, Mr Mariano," she countered, evading when he tried to kiss her and laughing at the look on his face. "Come on, Jess, we're supposed to be dating, right? Aren't we ever going to go on a real date?"

He looked thoughtful for a moment before finally sighing.

"You really know how to ruin a surprise, don't you?"

Rory's eyes widened, but she never got a chance to verbalise her surprise before he continued.

"As it happens, I had some potential plans for us for Saturday, but now it seems like I'm just saying that because you asked, so..."

"No, it doesn't," she insisted fast, holding him close when he moved as if to get away. "You really have a plan for us? For a date?"

"Would I lie?" he asked, a challenge in his eyes as he met her gaze once more.

"To me? I hope not."

"Then believe me, there are plans."

A giddy feeling came over Rory as she considered what Jess was telling her. She knew she kept on hoping he would ask her on a real date, but sometimes she had to remind herself that Jess was very different to Dean. It wasn't that he didn't know how to be sweet or romantic, because he did, but arranging special dates didn't seem entirely like something he would do without prompting. That said, it was easy to think that Luke could never be so thoughtful either, but she knew that he was sometimes, especially with Lorelai.

"I was going to figure something out for Friday night," Jess said then, "but then I remembered that the Gilmore family dinners start up again this week, right?"

Rory sighed. "Yes, they do. I mean, it will be nice to see Grandma and Grandpa again after a month of them being away, but the whole fixed dinner event thing? And especially right now, with mom all stressed out over the termite situation..."

"Well, when it all starts driving you crazy, just think about Saturday instead," Jess suggested, lifting one hand to push Rory's hair back from her face.

"Hmm, it is nice to have something to look forward to," she said with a smile, "even if I don't know exactly what it is I'm looking forward to yet."

"What? Girls don't like surprises now?" Jess asked with a smirk.

"No, girls do," she told him, leaning closer. "This girl absolutely does."

He kissed her then, which was no surprise at all, but Rory still liked it all the same. Things were maybe not going so great in all areas of her life right now - the house might fall down and Lane was clearly mad at her - but apparently, she got good SAT scores and Jess had a wonderful surprise of a date planned for Saturday. Certainly, it wasn't all bad in the world of Rory Gilmore.

To Be Continued...