A/N: What's this? A brand new chapter? After five years of abandonment? Why, it can't be! I would give a huge apology to anyone that was waiting for me to update, but since they have probably moved on with their lives by now, I'll just say hello to all my new readers! This was one of my favorite stories to write back in the day and I have always wanted to continue it. But you know life, it tends to get in the way of things we want to do. My hope is to get this story finished off before I disappear from existence again, but just in case I don't, please remember to check back half a decade from now to see if I've returned. Let me know what you think of this long awaited chapter and please enjoy!

Five weeks had passed since they had decided to buy the inn. Lorelai was still in awe about Luke arranging the whole entire thing for them. He was always there for her, but this gesture went above and beyond. Fran had agreed that as soon as they had the money for the sale that the place would be theirs, so as of yesterday the title was transferred over to their names. The Dragonfly officially belonged to them.

She hadn't stopped smiling since they signed the papers, her once out of reach dream was now a reality. To celebrate they had invited Sookie and Jackson over for dinner. The girls spent the whole entire time brainstorming more ideas for the inn, while the guys mostly spent the evening bickering over who's burgers were cooked better. All in all, it was a great night.

Now that everything was settled, Lorelai was ready to get started on all the work they had to do to get their inn up to standards. However, that meant starting with the walk through she had planned with Tom the contractor. Which didn't sound all that bad, that was until her mother had somehow talked herself into joining in.

Lorelai hurried into the house, kicking her shoes off as she looked at her watch. "Thirty minutes, just enough time." She said to herself, tossing her coat on the rack before running upstairs. She got to the bathroom door, hearing the shower running inside. "Luke, I'm coming in." She said, flinging the door open and walking inside.

Luke peeked his head out the curtain, an annoyed expression on his face. "Lorelai! What are you doing in here? I'm showering."

Lorelai glanced over at him as she pulled a bag out of the top drawer. "I would hope so, because the whole frosted tips thing isn't really your style."

"I was mid lather."

"I have to redo my makeup before I go to the Dragonfly. Speaking of which, I'm gonna need to borrow your truck. The Jeep was making some gurgling sound and I already had to bribe Michel to drive me home."

"Can you even drive a stick?"

"I can drive a stick." She paused. "For the most part." She said, unzipping her bag and pulling out a makeup wipe.

"You can't do that anywhere else in the house?"

"When I have to see my mother? No. I need the good bathroom lighting to make sure it's perfect."

"There's another bathroom downstairs."

"Rory's bathroom has the forty-watt bulbs that fit her complexion, I need the sixties." Lorelai said, making him exhale. "You should worry a little less about what I'm doing and worry more about the fact that that curtain is see-through." She said, causing him to move back away from it. "I'm kidding, will you calm down!" She said, chuckling. "What are you doing showering now anyways?"

"I was teaching your daughter how to make Gumbo and it exploded."

"It exploded?" She asked, taking her blush out to start applying it.

"There is still a chunk of bell pepper on the ceiling I wasn't able to reach."

"Did Rory get hit too?"

"She ducked behind me. Luckily, she's got really quick reflexes."

"It's the coffee." She said, closing her compact and tossing it back in the bag before grabbing another item out.

"Well, she said she'd pick up some Chinese food for tonight after she's done at the library."

"Good, one thing I can look forward to today."

"You still freaking out about your mom seeing the inn?"

"I have been since the second the words left my mouth. 'Hey, mom, guess what? I'm opening my own inn!' Stupid!" Lorelai said, mimicking her conversation from last Friday night dinner. "Sharing my personal life with my mother, what was I thinking? This is the kinda mistake Rory would make, not a seasoned professional like myself." She said, tossing her eyeliner stick back in the bag. "I should have my head examined."

"I would have suggested the same thing last week after you agreed to let Kirk anywhere near the wiring here."

"I needed to know if he'd be able to handle doing the inns electrical."

"You should have known the answer to that without letting him screw up this house."

"It's not that bad." She said, leaning in near the mirror to put her mascara on.

"I tried turning on the porch light last night and the sprinklers came on."

"That's just a bonus in my eyes. Now I don't gotta walk all the way outside to set the timer."

"You say that like you have ever actually gone outside and set it."

"Okay, so you don't have to. Doesn't that make you happy?"

"Oh, yeah, those five feet I had to walk were really starting to get exhausting."

"No, what is exhausting is having to show my mom around my new business while someone points out everything wrong with it." Lorelai said, digging through her makeup bag to find her favorite shade of lipstick. "I was hoping when I told Tom about my mother joining us that he would have insisted she wasn't allowed to come like he did with you."

"I did not kibitz."

While they continued talking they were oblivious to the fact that someone was downstairs at the front door. That someone being her mother, Emily. When she had no luck with anyone answering the door, she grabbed the key out of the turtle and let herself inside. She figured that Lorelai was still at work so she planned on taking a seat on the couch till she got back, it being empty now that they started hiding Luke's blankets in the closet during the day that way no one else would see them. Just before she went to sit down she heard the sound of the shower running upstairs. She walked over to the staircase, heading upstairs to let her daughter know she was there. When she got up there she walked past the bedroom, stopping when something caught her eye. She took a step toward the door, reaching her hand out to push it further open. Her eyes widened, noticing several things out of the ordinary. She walked inside, going over to examine everything she was seeing.

On the dresser there lay a men's watch, a men's leather wallet, and a set of keys to the truck she saw outside that she had originally assumed belonged to a worker of some kind. Over on the end of the bed was a set of clothing; tee shirt, jeans and a set of boxers that all belonged to someone much larger and more masculine than her daughter or granddaughter. It didn't take a genius to figure out what was going on, but she still hoped for some explanation to all of it.

In the bathroom Lorelai had just finished up with her makeup, puckering her lips to get the color set in. "Okay, I'm all done, so you can stop pretending to be annoyed that you got some nice company for what would have otherwise been a very boring shower experience."

"Yeah, I'm considering looking into hiring someone to yap at me during all my future showers. It's very relaxing."

"Check the internet, I'm sure they have a few people on there looking for the opportunity." She said, zipping the makeup bag back up and setting it inside the drawer again. "Where are your keys?"

"On your dresser. If you're gonna be in there long just toss my clothes in here."

"No, I'll just grab the keys and head out."

"Try to avoid running anything over with my truck."

"That sounds interesting, never tried that before while driving." Lorelai said, reaching for the door. "See ya later." She said, leaving the bathroom and heading over to her bedroom. When she was about to walk inside she stopped dead in her tracks, seeing her mother standing near the bed. "Mom." She said, eyes widening. "What, what are you doing here?"

"We had plans."

"I thought we were meeting there."

"I got over this way earlier than expected and I thought I'd come here to wait. I rang your doorbell several times, but it only seemed to open and shut the garage door."

"Yeah, we're having some wiring issues."

"We're?"

"Yeah, Rory and I, the only residents of this house." Lorelai said, nervously. "You, ah, could have called me. I would have just gone over to the inn sooner."

"I didn't know it was a crime to show up at my daughters house."

"No, it's not. I just, I don't have any crackers here. Can't be a good hostess without crackers." Lorelai said, glancing down the hallway toward the bathroom when she heard the water shut off. "We should leave and go get some." She said, gesturing to the stairs.

"Is there a man here?"

"What, a man?" She shook her head. "No."

"Someone just turned off the shower."

"No, that's just this house. Y'know, these old pipes are always making noise and oozing all kinds of stuff out. You've seen The Amityville Horror, right?"

Just then the bathroom door flung open, a towel wrapped Luke walking out into the hallway. "Lorelai, I thought you were leaving." He said, looking over at her.

"I was, I just hit a little roadblock." Lorelai said, nodding into the bedroom.

Luke walked over, curiously looking into the room at what she was referring to. His eyes widened the second he saw her. "Gilmore, Emily, Missus Gilmore." He stuttered, tightening the grip on his towel. "Hello, Missus Gilmore."

"Hello." Emily said, looking back over at her daughter who let out a nervous laugh.

"You see, funny story," Lorelai started, pointing over at Luke. She watched as her mother's gaze moved to her hand, her eyes trained on the shiny piece of jewelry she wore on her left ring finger for several seconds before she looked back up at her in shock. "Luke and I are engaged."

Emily's face tightened up with a look of betrayal, glancing over at Luke who gave her an awkward smile. "I think we should cancel our plans for today." She said, looking back at Lorelai before walking past her and down the stairs.

"Mom, mom." Lorelai called out. "I gotta go talk to her."

"Sure, and I'll go put on some clothes." Luke said, walking in the bedroom while Lorelai hurried downstairs.

"Mom, wait, stop." Lorelai said, reaching her in the foyer before she had a chance to open the front door. "I wanna talk to you."

Emily took a deep breath, turning around to face her. "What do you want to talk about?"

"I don't know, I honestly didn't think you'd turn around." She said, her mother turning to try and leave again. "No, mom. I'm sorry." She said, getting her to turn back again.

"Sorry for what?"

"For not putting my hide-a-key in a tougher spot to find." She said, giving her an amused smile.

"Can you please take this seriously, Lorelai?"

"What am I supposed to say? You know why I'm sorry."

"Because you hid an engagement from your own mother?"

"If you need the play by play, yes. I hid our engagement from you. I shouldn't have kept it from you."

"When were you planning on telling me, huh? Before the ceremony, I hope. Or was I even going to be invited to that?"

"Mom, of course you would be invited to my wedding."

"How am I supposed to know that? It's not like you include me in any other part of your life."

"I didn't mean to keep this from you, it's just a very complicated situation."

"What? You're both in the CIA now? Were a group of operatives going to drop down from a helicopter, gag you, and toss you into some mysterious black van if you so much as tried to mention it?"

"Luke has a kid." Lorelai said, Luke just catching her saying that as he stood at the top of the stairs to listen if they were still down there.

"What does that even matter? You have a kid."

"He just found out about her." She said, her mom remaining quiet so she could explain. "Everything that happened between us happened so fast. One day he was just my friend, Luke. Then all a sudden, out of nowhere, he became so much more than that. I didn't even see it coming. Which I know is crazy, because everyone told me that there was something between us. I mean, hell, you saw us together for a matter of seconds at Rory's birthday party and figured that out."

"Lorelai, what does any of that have to do with him having a kid?"

"He found out about her right after we got engaged." Lorelai said, surprising Luke that she hadn't just told her the real story. "We agreed that all our focus needed to go into Luke getting to know his daughter, not into a wedding."

"So, this engagement, it is on hold?"

"No, more like on the back burner for now."

"Okay." Emily said, nodding. "Is Luke free this Friday?"

"Why, you looking for a date?" Lorelai joked. "Because I gotta tell you, he's a bit young for you, mom. And really, what would dad say?"

"If your engagement is still on, then I would like to meet him."

Lorelai looked over at her, confused. "You do know the man coming out of my shower was Luke, right?"

"Yes, of course I know that."

"Okay, well, then, you've met him."

"I've met him as one of your townies, and as the friend who came to the hospital with you that you claimed you were not on a date with,"

"Which I wasn't."

"But I have not met him as your fiancé. I don't even know his last name."

"It's Danes. Now you know, no need to re-meet him to ask."

"This Friday, have him come with you and Rory to dinner."

"I don't know if Luke is available Friday."

"Well, tell him he has to be. This is family."

"Yeah, but,"

Emily cut in. "He would say no to having dinner with his future mother and father-in-law? Is this really the kind of man you want in your life? Is this really the kind of man you want to be Rory's stepfather?"

"Luke is not saying no."

"Are you?"

"No. I'm not saying no, either."

"So, no one's saying no?"

"Right."

"So, you're saying yes?"

"Yes."

"Good, I'll see you all on Friday." Emily said, leaving before she had a chance to protest any further.

Lorelai exhaled loudly, running her hands through her hair in frustration as she walked over into the living room.

"Hey." Luke said, walking down the stairs and joining her in the living room. "I listened to make sure she was gone before I came down."

"You heard us talking?"

"Yeah." Luke said, taking a seat on the couch. "I'll clear my Friday."

Lorelai walked over and sat next to him, resting her head on the back of the couch where his arm was resting. "Sorry I got you roped into dinner with my parents."

"That's fine. I got you roped into all of this in the first place." He said, pausing a moment. "You know, you could have told her the truth. That we aren't really together."

"We agreed that I'd only tell Rory and Sookie."

"That's when we assumed your parents wouldn't find out. I didn't really expect you to lie to them."

"Don't worry about it. It isn't the first time I've lied to them, definitely won't be the last."

"Okay, as long as you're okay with it."

"I am."

Luke sat quiet a few moments, then he glanced over at her. "What were you talking about with your mom, something about her knowing there was something between us at Rory's birthday party?"

"Oh, that. It was pretty ridiculous." She said, letting out an uncomfortable chuckle. "That night when you came into the house with the ice and I hugged you, my mom saw us, and she thought we were together."

"She thought we were together because we hugged?"

"Well, she said it was more about how you looked at me."

"How I looked at you?"

"She may have mentioned something about you looking at me like I was about to give you a lap dance." She explained, fidgeting nervously with a string on the throw pillow next to her.

"What? Really?" Luke said with a laugh.

Lorelai turned her head toward him, watching him act like that was unimaginable. "So, I guess you don't agree with her about that?"

"No, I don't." He replied, shaking his head. "I was not looking at you like that."

"You act like that would be so crazy for you, a grown man, to be attracted to me, a grown woman."

"It is crazy." Luke said, not noticing the flash of disappointment on her face before he continued. "I was over here for Rory's birthday party. If it was my party, maybe." He said as he looked over at her with a smirk, earning one in return. "Come to think of it, my birthday was right after hers and I never got a party. How about you peel a few layers and make it up to me?"

"You have been living with me far too long." Lorelai said, the both of them chuckling. When they finally stopped they got caught in a stare, neither of them able to break away. This exact thing had been happening more and more lately, but one of them always managed to look away before anything could happen. This time was likely the longest it had gone on, and there was no sign of either of them breaking their eye contact. That was until the house phone started to ring, causing them both to jump. "I'll get it." She said, getting off the couch and going over to answer the phone. "Hello? Hey, Tom… Sorry I'm running a little late, but I will be right there… Okay, see you in a few… Bye." She said, hanging up the phone.

"Tom at the inn already?"

"Yeah." Lorelai said, grabbing her purse. "And he said he's already started making a list of repairs needed on the outside, so this should be a fun walk through." She said, digging through her bag. "Crap, my mother's chilling presence threw me off and I left your keys upstairs."

"I grabbed them for you." Luke said, pulling them out of his pocket and tossing them over to her.

"Thanks." Lorelai said, smiling over at him. "I'll see you later."

Later ended up being about two minutes, Luke having to come outside when Lorelai couldn't get his truck out of reverse. He gave her the rundown then she was on her way to the walk through. It took a little over an hour for them to go over the place, the list getting longer with every step they took. But she couldn't help still feeling giddy about the whole thing, a lot of work and even more money aside, she got to walk around her own inn.

"I've returned." Lorelai called out from the foyer, heading toward the light she saw on in the kitchen.

Rory looked over from where she was sitting at the dining room table, studying. "I'm sorry to tell you this, but you took too long to get home and I ate all the Chinese food."

"What?" Lorelai said, gasping. "Say it ain't so!"

"Leftovers in the fridge." She said, smirking at her mother.

"Thank god." Lorelai said, walking over to the fridge and pulling the containers out. "Where's Luke?"

"He had to run to the diner quick. Caesar called in a panic about some fish disaster."

"Did fish start attacking the diner? I told Luke if he kept murdering those poor things they would find him and make him pay the price."

"I think it was more like a salmon outage."

"Well, sure, that's what they would want the people of the town to think. They find out about the attacks and they would shut off the water supply to the diner so as to stop anymore from stampeding the place."

"That's brilliant on Luke's part for keeping us in the dark about it. This way we won't be subpoenaed for the Fish Vs. Danes court case of '01."

"He's a smart guy." Lorelai said, putting her plate of food in the microwave to heat it up.

"So, how was the walkthrough?"

"Well, you remember how you said the list of stuff that Sookie and I had written up was way too long?"

"Yeah?"

"The Gettysburg Address compared to Tom's list."

"That bad, huh?"

"Not that bad." She said, taking her plate out of the microwave and sitting down at the table with it. "He says just as long as we don't get too attached to the horses, the roof in the barn can stay as it is."

"That sucks that there is so much to do."

"Yeah, well, I'm gonna show the list to Luke later and see what we can do on our own to save money." Lorelai said, eating as they talked.

"I bet grandma started offering up stacks of cash when she heard everything that needed to be done."

"Oh, yeah, about that." Lorelai said, setting down her fork a minute. "Mom didn't actually come along for the walk through."

"What? I was sure she was going to hold you to that offer." Rory said, surprised. "How did you talk her out of it?"

"It wasn't so much talking her out of it. More like her showing up at the house and catching Luke coming out of my shower."

"What?!" Rory said, her face lighting up in amusement. "Grandma saw Luke naked?"

"He was not naked, he had a towel around him."

"But under his towel, he was naked."

"I'm assuming so, unless he showers with underwear on."

Rory laughed, picturing the interaction. "Oh, god, grandma must have freaked."

"Even more so when she saw my engagement ring." She said, making her daughter's jaw drop in shock.

"I go to the library for a couple hours and I miss all the excitement." She pouted. "What did she do after she saw him?"

"She went to leave, but I managed to stop her. I apologized for not telling her about Luke and I being engaged, then we talked a while, and she was actually surprisingly understanding."

"Grandma? Understanding?" Rory said, getting a nod in response. "Are you just messing with me?"

"You thought her catching Luke in nothing but a towel was plausible, but not her understanding me?" Lorelai said, pausing a moment. "Wait, no, you're right. That actually does sound crazier."

"So, she really did seem to understand?"

"Yeah. I told her that Luke found out about April right after our engagement, so everything we had going kinda got set aside to put his daughter in center focus. I told her that's why I hadn't told her yet."

"Well, that sounds like a pretty good reason. But I still can't believe grandma didn't make a big deal out of it."

"I said she understood, I didn't say she didn't make it a big deal." She clarified. "She insisted that Luke come with us next Friday for dinner."

"Oh." Rory said, grimacing. "And grandpa is going to be there?"

"Yes. And we will be front and center with ring side seats."

"Poor Luke. Did you tell him yet?"

"He knows." She said with a nod. "He's fine with it. He was just surprised I didn't tell her that it wasn't a real engagement."

"Wait, yeah. Why didn't you just tell her the truth?"

"Because, we are trying to keep it a secret for Luke."

"It's not like grandma and grandpa even come to our town, so who would they even tell?"

"I think we learned today with her impromptu home visit that sometimes our worlds do collide."

"But still, the chances of that happening again would be pretty slim. Besides, you could have told grandma not to tell anyone."

"And have her label Luke as a liar in her head forever? No, thanks."

"Grandma never even sees Luke, he'll never be a part of her life, so why would it matter what she thinks of him?"

"They are both in our lives. She has already managed to meet him twice before this, and I just didn't want her treating him badly in the future if they happened to have any other run-ins together."

"So, that's the only reason you want her to think well of Luke?"

"Yes." Lorelai said, squinting her eyes. "What other reason would there be?"

"No, no reason I can think of." Rory said, picking up her pencil and getting back to studying.

Lorelai finished up the last couple bites of food on her plate then stood up. "I'm gonna run to the video store before they close and see what movies I can find to torture Luke with tonight." She said, walking out of the kitchen. "Don't try making any Gumbo while I'm gone."