Early in the afternoon of the Friday of Jess and Rory's first week of their second year of preschool, Lorelai ushered the kids into the house after taking them out to lunch to celebrate. Lunch with the two overly excited kids, who had been chattering nonstop since she picked them up, had left Lorelai feeling frazzled. She helped Jess and Rory put away their shoes and backpacks before sending them to the living room to play, while she made herself some much-needed coffee.

After quickly drinking one cup of coffee and pouring herself another, Lorelai went to the living room, intending to relax while Jess and Rory played. She found Luke sitting on the couch, speaking quietly on the phone. Luke aimed a small smile of acknowledgement in Lorelai's general direction and gestured for her to sit down next to him. Moving slowly, so as not to disturb Luke's phone call or spill her coffee, Lorelai curled up next to Luke and sighed happily when he draped his arm around her shoulders.

Lorelai sipped her coffee and waited for Luke to finish his phone call. When he had hung up the phone, she said, "I'm glad we decided to keep Jess in preschool with Rory. I don't think I could handle drop offs and pick ups at two different schools. I can barely handle it at one school."

"I noticed they were bouncing off the walls. Did you give them sugar? Or coffee?"

"No! I didn't even let them order dessert. If I had, we'd be peeling them off the ceiling."

Chuckling, Luke asked, "If they aren't on a sugar high, why are they so hyper?"

"Apparently, Nicky brought his hamster to school in his backpack and it escaped. The hamster spent the morning running around the classroom and escaping capture."

"Sounds exciting," Luke commented with his usual dry humor.

"It gets better. It seems Miss Jenson is terrified of rodents and started screaming when she saw the hamster. Her screaming brought the teacher from the next room running to help, but when I got there, the hamster still hadn't been caught and Miss Jenson was standing on her desk. She refused to come down until the 'disgusting creature' was caught."

"For the love of…it's a hamster."

"It was cute hamster too."

"So, did our kids learn anything at school today."

"How to catch a runaway hamster?"

"That's useful."

"Mhmm," Lorelai murmured in agreement while sipping her coffee. "Who was on the phone?"

"Your dad."

"Did he have any news about Liz?"

"Yeah, but we should talk about it when we don't have an audience."

Lorelai sat up so that she could see Luke's face and asked, "Is everything okay?"

"I'm not sure. I want to talk to you about it, but later," he reiterated with a pointed glance at Jess and Rory. Despite her concern, Lorelai simply nodded and settled back against Luke's side.

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Later that night, after making sure that William was sleeping peacefully, Luke stumbled into his bedroom and collapsed on the bed next to Lorelai. She rolled over and propped her head up on one hand while resting the other on his chest. "I'm only awake because you wanted to talk," she informed Luke, who merely grunted. "I don't speak grunt, so you'll have to use your words to tell me what my dad said about Liz."

Luke groaned and rubbed at his eyes, fighting against sleep. Dropping his hand to cover Lorelai's on his chest, he said, "Your dad was just letting me know that the private investigator managed to track down Liz last week."

"And they waited until now to tell you?"

"Yeah. Your dad had they guy follow her all week, so they could tell me what she was up to."

"Are you going to tell me what they found out? Or am I going to have to torture it out of you?"

"I'm curious to know what your method of torture would be, but I'm tired, so I'll just tell you that Liz is living in a run-down apartment in New York with three guys. According to the private investigator, a bunch of other people come and go from the apartment at all hours of the day and night. Liz might be dating one of the guys that she's living with, but the private investigator couldn't be sure. She didn't go to work at all this week, so she probably doesn't have a job. Apparently, instead of working, she spends her days smoking pot and her nights partying."

"Wow."

"I had hoped that she would get her act together after she left. So much for that idea, right?"

Lorelai leaned down just long enough to press a quick kiss to the corner of Luke's mouth. "Sorry, babe."

"Why can't I just have a normal sister?"

Instead of answering, Lorelai deflected by asking, "What do you want to do now that you've found her?"

"I don't know. I know my dad will still want to see her, but I'm not sure that's a good idea. What do you think?"

"It doesn't matter if we think it's a good idea. Your dad is going to want to see Liz. If it were Jess or Rory, we would want them to come home, no matter what they'd done. But, given how sick William is, I think you need to talk to Liz and see if she even wants to come home before you tell him anything."

"What do we do about the kids if she does want to come home? I doubt she's the type of person we would normally let near them."

"Obviously, Jess and Rory come first. I'm sure your dad would agree that Liz would have to follow certain rules."

"Any idea what those rules should be?"

"We could start with the basics," Lorelai stated with thinly veiled sarcasm, clearly implying that the rules should be obvious. "No drinking, no drugs, no men. Nothing that could hurt our kids in anyway."

Luke nodded in agreement, but, after a moment, his brow furrowed when a new worry crossed his mind. Cautiously, he asked, "What, um, about Jess?"

"What about him?"

"Well, Liz is, um, well, she's his biological mother."

Lorelai inhaled sharply, her entire body stiffening in reaction to Luke's comment. She pulled her hand out from under Luke's, physically withdrawing from him, and growled through clenched teeth, "I'm his mom."

Moving his hand from his chest to Lorelai's thigh and squeezing gently, Luke said, "I know you are, but, if Liz visits, it will be the first time she's seen Jess since he was born. We're going to have to deal with that."

With a heavy sigh, Lorelai rolled onto her back. "He's my baby. I know she's his birth mother, but I won't share him."

"I wouldn't expect you to," Luke assured her.

"She can visit as Aunt Liz, but I'm his mom," Lorelai insisted vehemently.

Luke decided it would be best to drop the subject, at least for the time being, and distract Lorelai before her frustration turned to anger. He rolled onto his side and pushed her hair away from her face, letting his fingers trail lightly over her cheek until he was cupping her jaw in the palm of his hand. Leaning over her carefully, he pressed his lips to hers.

Lorelai pushed against Luke's chest until he broke the kiss. "You can't just kiss me to shut me up."

"That's not what I'm doing," Luke said, kissing a path along her jaw and down her neck.

"Yes, oooh, you, mmm," Lorelai began to reply, but let her words fade into a moan when she felt Luke's teeth scrape against a particularly sensitive spot at the base of her neck. Realizing that he had successfully distracted her, Luke couldn't help but smile as he continued to nip at the spot that was causing Lorelai to make such tantalizing sounds.

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The next day, Luke surprised Lorelai by showing up in the inn's kitchen at the start of her lunch break. "What are you doing here?" she asked. Looking around and not seeing the kids anywhere, she added, "And where are Jess and Rory?"

"Hello to you too," he greeted her, brushing a soft kiss against her cheek. "I let the kids go to Nicky's house to play, so that we could have lunch together."

"Is everything okay?"

"Why wouldn't it be?"

"You don't usually show up here in the middle of the day just to say hi," explained Lorelai.

At that moment, Sookie appeared with Lorelai's lunch. "Hi, Luke."

"Hey, Sookie. Can she get that to go?"

Sookie glanced at Lorelai, silently seeking permission. When Lorelai's only answer was an indifferent shrug, Sookie responding, "I guess so. Do you want me to make you a sandwich or something?"

"That'd be great. Thanks, Sookie."

"Sure thing. I'll have it ready in a minute."

Once Sookie had walked away, Luke shifted his focus back to Lorelai. "So, what do you say, Lorelai? Want to have lunch with me down by the pond?"

"I think I have to. You just hijacked my lunch."

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The pond was peaceful and silent. Too silent. Luke hadn't said a word since they left the inn. The only noise came from the ducks that were swimming nearby. From where she was sitting with Luke at the edge of the pond, Lorelai watched the ducks swim in circles. Occasionally, one of the ducks would swim close and she would toss it a piece of bread.

When Luke still hadn't spoken by the time her lunch break was half over, Lorelai knew she was going to have to be the one to break the silence and start the conversation. "You never did tell me why you're here," she said pointedly.

Luke deliberately slowed his chewing, as if biding his time, before finally saying, "Can't I just be here because I want to enjoy a nice lunch with my wife?"

Lorelai smirked. "You could, but you aren't. Care to try again?"

"Can't keep anything from you, can I?"

"Nope! Now, answer, please."

"Fine," relented Luke with a frustrated sigh. "I wanted to talk to you about Liz. I called her this morning."

"Does she want to see William?"

"She said she'd think about it."

"You told her the sooner she decides, the better, right?"

"Yeah. I also told her that I'd go to New York to pick her up, so that she wouldn't have to travel alone. I even told her that if she wanted to stay for a few days, she could sleep in her old room. It seemed like she was going to say yes until I told her there'd have to be some rules to keep the kids safe."

"Well, it's not like we expected her to like the rules."

"It's not that. I think she understood why there had to be rules. I think she even agreed they were what was best for Jess and Rory. It was almost like she didn't think she could stay clean long enough to visit for a day or two."

"I actually think that's a good thing."

"In what way?"

"It sounds like even though she's far enough gone to have a problem, she's not so far gone that she doesn't realize she has a problem."

"How is it a good thing that my sister has a drug problem?"

"It's not, but I think it's a good sign that she knows she has a problem and that she's thinking about how it might affect her family if she were to visit."

"So, do you think she'll come home?"

"You're the one who talked to her. What do you think?"

"I wish I knew. I want her to though."

"Is she going to let you know what she decides?"

Luke shrugged helplessly. "She said she would, but Liz has never been known for being reliable."

"But you are reliable, so you're already planning to call her again. Aren't you?"

"Next week," he admitted grudgingly.

"You're a good man, Luke Danes."

"Yeah, yeah. I'm amazing."

Lorelai laughed. "You're modest too."

"I learned from you," joked Luke as he started to gather their trash. "Can I walk you back to the inn now?"

"Oooh, I get to be escorted to work by a handsome man? Yes, please!"

Shaking his head in amusement, Luke stood up and offered his hand to Lorelai, who let him help her to her feet. "Come on, crazy lady, let's go."

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Lorelai walked into the hardware store to pick up Jess and Rory and caught Luke trying to quickly end a phone call. She stopped at the counter and eyed Luke suspiciously, raising one eyebrow when she noticed the guilty look that flashed across his face. After saying goodbye to whoever was on the phone, Luke leaned across the counter to kiss Lorelai, but she turned her head so that his lips landed on her cheek. "What did you do?" she demanded.

Luke groaned. "I knew I should have called earlier. If I had, you wouldn't have caught me."

"Called who?"

"Liz."

"Already? So much for waiting until next week."

"I almost made it!" he exclaimed with mock outrage.

"No, you didn't," laughed Lorelai. "You barely made it to the end of this week."

"Which means it's almost next week."

"You're grasping at straws."

"Do you want to argue about the timing of my call or do you want to know what she said?"

"An argument is tempting, but I guess you can tell me what she said instead."

"She said that she's going to come home for Dad's birthday, but she doesn't want me to pick her up in New York. Apparently, she's going to take the bus."

"It's nice that she's coming, no matter how she's getting here."

"It'll make Dad happy."

"When's she getting here? How long is she staying?"

"She's going to get here the morning of his birthday. She said she'll stay as long as she can, but might only make it through the day."

"How's she getting back to New York? The bus?"

"Since she doesn't know how long she's staying, she asked if I could take her back when she's ready to leave. That's why she's not having me pick her up."

"Interesting. She seems so much more…" Lorelai paused, gesturing wildly as if she would be able to pull the right word out of thin air.

"I know. I hope her visit goes as well as the phone calls have."

"Me too."