Author's Note: Okay, finally! The chapter that I've wanted to write all
along! I really hope that you please forgive me for the crappiness of the
last two chapters…by the way…if it comes down to me pulling my hair out in
panic…would it be okay if I went back and changed the day of the wedding
to, oh I don't know…July?
Chapter 11
Beginning of May…
"Rory!" Lorelai called.
"What?!" Rory whined grumpily. "It's Saturday at eight in the morning! What could you possible want at eight in the morning!?" she complained as she stumbled into the kitchen and sat next to her mother.
"Good morning to you too." Lorelai said pleasantly, enjoying the fact that she was annoying someone so early in the day.
Rory glared but accepted the cup of coffee Lorelai offered her. She took a deep drink and looked at her mother expectantly.
"Well?"
Lorelai frowned in thought. "Wait, hold on, I know I dragged you out of bed for a reason. Was it so I could make fun of how scary you look in the morning? No, I don't think that was it. Maybe it was so I would have someone to talk to? Hmm…no, maybe…"
"Mom. Tell me what you want." Rory enunciated her words to show her impatience.
"Okay, you know those invitations that I made you and Tristan design, then take to get made, and then made you leave in the clutches of my psychotic mother?"
"Vaguely." Rory mumbled.
"Yeah, well, a week ago I sent mom a list of people I wanted to invite to this whole wedding thing and she spent the entire week addressing them in that small, curvy, perfect handwriting she has."
"And?" Rory prodded tiredly.
"And it is annoyingly perfect. I mean the woman has probably never even touched a bottle of white out because she has this freakish ability to never mess up, never, not once!"
"Mom! I get it! Where are your ramblings heading?"
"Jeez, someone got up on the wrong side of the bed this morning." Lorelai huffed.
"That's because I'd rather be in the bed right now."
"Well, anyway, as I was saying, I need you and Tristan to go pick up the invitations and take them to the post office."
"What? Why can't grandma do that?" Rory inquired.
"Because I offered since you two will already be in Hartford on other errands."
"What other errands?" Rory asked confused.
"The errands that I was going to give you when you woke up, which is right now." Lorelai explained, enjoying the torture she was putting Rory through.
"More? What about Jess? Make Jess do some of this stuff! He's the best man you know! Or what about Sookie? Or Michel? Or Lane? Anybody?"
Lorelai gave her a 'what are you thinking?' kind of look. "Jess can't do anything because he's too busy trying to bring up his grades before finals. Sookie has enough on her plate what with cooking for the inn and experimenting with food for the wedding. Michel is too grouchy to do anything and I can't force Lane into it because her mother will probably throw a fit. Besides," she began to tear up, "there's no one else who I trust completely. This means so much to me, I only want everything to be perfect because I have waited so long for this. I only hoped you would help because this affects your life too."
Rory crumbled. "Oh, mom, I'm sorry. God, how could I even think of ruining this for you? I take it back. What errands do you have for us?"
Lorelai looked up and blinked away some tears, sniffling just a little. "Well, other than taking the invitations to the post office I suppose you could register Luke and I at this list of department stores at the Hartford mall." she slid a slip of paper with store names across the table towards Rory.
"That's it?" she asked.
Lorelai sniffled again. "That's it." she affirmed.
"Alright, okay mom. Let me go call Tristan and get ready. Are we okay?" Rory asked cautiously.
"Yes, it's okay kid, go get ready." Lorelai nudged her playfully.
Rory smiled and retreated back towards her room.
"Gets 'em every time." Lorelai mused.
"What'd you say?" Rory spun around.
Lorelai put the sad eyes back in place. "Nothing Rory."
"Oh, okay." Rory closed her door.
Lorelai let out a sigh of relief. "It's a good thing I never taught her the fake tear routine." she mumbled under her breath.
~~~~~~~~~
"It's nine thirty in the morning." Tristan said in a monotone voice.
"Yes it is." Rory nodded.
He looked over at her, his black sunglasses masking his tired eyes.
"Why are we doing this?" he complained. "It's nine thirty in the morning! No one should be up this early on a weekend!"
"Hey, be glad you weren't up at eight like I was." she muttered dryly as she backed the Jeep into reverse and turned to drive down the long driveway. "I have no idea what possessed my mother, the sleep-in queen, to wake up so early!"
Tristan laughed dryly and dug through the glove compartment. "Here." he said holding a pair of sunglasses in her direction. "Cover your eyes, you look like hell."
She pursed her lips in annoyance but took the glasses and slid them on. "Nice to know we can be honest with each other."
"What? I'm saving you from embarrassment. I'm not saying I don't look like hell either, that's why I'm wearing the shades. Plus, it's a fashion statement." he smirked.
"Ah, hey, no smirking this early in the morning." she objected as they turned onto the street and headed towards the Gilmore residence.
"I didn't see that in the Gilmore Circle of Insanity rulebook."
"Pencil it in for me then." Rory muttered.
Tristan chuckled and sank back into his seat. Closing his eyes he reveled in the delight of sitting in Rory's car, having a friendly conversation with her. If someone had told him eight months ago that he would be in that position he would have laughed.
"So," Rory called him from his thoughts, "I know why I'm tired, but you look worse for the wear, definitely a side of Tristan that I have never seen before. Why do you not look like your normal, poster boy for the pretty people of America, self?"
"I was up late last night." he answered.
"Doing what?"
"Oh, nothing, just chatting with a friend of mine who lives in another country." he lied.
Rory seemed to accept the answer and didn't press the subject further.
Truth be told, Tristan's case of insomnia had nothing to do with chat time with a 'friend'. His dreams were plaguing him…the same dreams that he had been having on and off for the last few months. Part of him would wake up, telling himself that he only wanted to be friends with Rory but the other wanted nothing more than to make the images of chasing her by the pond and kissing her on a patch of grass reality. He coughed as he forced himself not to relieve the vivid images and instead focused on the road before them.
"So, what about you? Why couldn't you sleep?" he asked.
She hesitated as she thought of a lie. "I-I was reading and I just sort of got caught up in the plot. By the time I was able to put it down it was two in the morning."
"So basically you're running on six hours of sleep?"
"Yup, that and a pot of coffee."
He shook his head in amusement. Rory looked over at him briefly. He couldn't find out about the dreams that haunted her. But did they really haunt her? Hadn't she enjoyed the images of Tristan, fitting perfectly into her life? She went stared ahead at the road, forcing herself not to dwell on those questions.
"We're here." she announced. "My grandma should be waiting for us."
Tristan just nodded in response and together they stumbled, rather sleepily, to the door. Before they even had a chance to ring the doorbell Emily swung the door open.
"Good morning Rory, Tristan! Have you had breakfast yet? I had the cook fix you up some!" she said in a rushed, enthusiastic voice.
The two teens just stared dumbly at her.
"Well don't just stand there, come in!"
Tristan lifted his glasses to rest atop his head and threw a questioning glance at Rory. Shrugging she followed the same suit with her shades and went inside with Tristan close behind.
~
"Luke, I need food." Lorelai whined.
"Is that all I'm good for?" he asked.
"No, you make really great coffee too." Lorelai replied.
He half smiled and leaned over and gave her a small kiss. "I'm making your usual breakfast now. Come back here and get your coffee."
Lorelai giggled and ran to the door separating the counter area from the rest of the diner. Slowly she took a step in and let out a content sigh.
"What are you doing?" he asked as he went back towards the grill.
"Relishing in the feeling of being behind the 'sacred' counter."
"You're been behind the counter before." he reminded her as he flipped her pancakes.
"Yes, but you've never actually invited me over, I invited myself."
Luke just shook his head in amusement and the need for coffee convinced Lorelai she had relished enough.
"So," she began as she took a sip of her coffee and came to stand by Luke's side, "where's Jess?"
"Upstairs sleeping." Luke answered.
"Hmm…about that." Lorelai said cautiously.
"Yeah?"
"Well…it's just that…we're getting married."
"Really? Is that what we've been planning all this time?" he teased.
"Luke, I'm serious." Lorelai said, though she was smiling. "We're getting married and generally married couples live in the same house."
"Yeah, they do."
"So we should move in together." Lorelai blurted out.
"We should." Luke nodded, his eyes glued to the pancakes.
"So we will…right?"
"Right."
Lorelai nodded happily.
'But…"
"But?" Lorelai prodded hesitantly.
"But, what about upstairs? I can't just have it empty, especially not after Jess and I remodeled it so he could have his own room…oh God, what about Jess? Where could he stay? Is there room at your house?"
Lorelai looked thoughtful. "I could clear out the sewing room and make it Jess's."
"But where will you keep that stuff…and what about my apartment?"
"We could have it as storage."
"No."
"I could use that as my sewing space."
"But then you'd have to come here to do all that stuff." Luke reasoned.
"Well…maybe Jess could stay here, that way he wouldn't have to move." Lorelai suggested.
"Do you really want to leave Jess here, at the diner, by himself?" Luke asked skeptically.
"Oh good point, that doesn't paint a pretty picture. Besides that defeats the whole point of living together like a family." Lorelai agreed.
Luke nodded. "If only you had another room."
"Yeah…" Lorelai agreed. Then, a sudden idea sprang to mind. "Hey, why don't we?"
"Why don't we what?"
"We can add another room!"
"What? You can't just ADD a room!" Luke objected, the pancakes were now forgotten.
"Of course we can! The backyard is way too big and it's not like we use it anyway! Plus the grass is all brown and crunchy. It's big enough to add an addition without it being all cramped! You can head the construction because you're mister manly man with your tools and I'm sure some guys around town will help us."
"I don't know." he said hesitantly.
"Come on, you know you and Bert wanna."
"But, the wedding is in a month. I'd want Jess and I to be moved in before then."
"So, we'll get started right away, today in fact. We can start drawing up the plans."
"What about the diner? I'd have to be there 24/7 to make sure no one screws up. No roof falls on my nephew." he said confidently.
"Put Caesar on the counter." Lorelai offered. "And if you don't think he can handle it full time, Jess, Rory, and I can alternate helping out."
Luke pondered this and Lorelai could tell that she was close to winning him over. He shrugged slightly.
"We could maybe even add another bathroom too. One bathroom for four people is really stretching it."
Lorelai grinned, knowing he was warming up to the idea. "Yeah, you know, there's an extra storage closet upstairs by my room that we could turn into a bathroom just for us. It's right next to the sewing room so we could even take out a bit of that and make it even bigger."
"We could have double sinks." Luke agreed snaking his arms around her waist.
"Yeah," she pulled her arms around his neck, "we could have one of those big bathtubs. You know the ones perfect for bubble baths." she murmured softly.
"Okay…but what about the office?" he asked, ruining the moment.
"Well, it could be the kids' hang out place." Lorelai shrugged.
"Hang out place?"
"Yeah, you know when Rory and Jess have their friends over at the house and are being annoyingly loud we can kick 'em out and tell them to go to the diner. It's big enough and it's the perfect spot. If we're lucky, they'll be there often, very often, and we'll have the house all-to-our-selves." she dragged out the last few words, emphasizing the meaning.
"You've sold me." Luke agreed pulling her in for a kiss.
It would have lasted longer had Lorelai not wrinkled her nose and pulled away from him.
"What's that smell?" she asked.
Together they sniffed and looked towards the grill as it smoke billowed from two flat pieces of back crisp.
"The pancakes!" they said together.
~
"Oh, you have to tell your grandmother that if she ever fires that cook of hers the DuGrey residence will be more than willing to hire her." Tristan said, rubbing his stomach appreciatively as they set down the driveway away from the meal they had just enjoyed.
"Heh, don't count on it! That woman is staying for a long time!" Rory retorted as she slipped her glasses down back over her eyes.
"So post office first?" Tristan asked as he adjusted his sunglasses back to their place.
"Yeah I guess so, then it's off to the Hartford mall." Rory sat apprehensively as she looked both ways for traffic before making her turn.
"Where's the list of stores?" Tristan asked.
"Um, it's in my purse in the back." Rory said absently.
Tristan reached pack and retrieved the small bag and fished around till he found the list.
"Jeez! There are like twenty stores on this thing!" he exclaimed.
"Yup, we've got a long day ahead of us." Rory agreed.
"Why are there so many?"
"Because, Grandma insisted that mom and Luke register at some expensive over the top department stores so that all of her friends could shop there but mom wanted some normal stores, Luke was indifferent about the whole thing and Jess…well, if you look towards the bottom those music stores are his pick."
Tristan laughed. "And right below that I spy a bookstore. Wonder who put that there?"
"Shut up. If Jess can put down three stores selling nothing but no-name garage bands I can add in at least one store of my choice."
"Yes, but you're not supposed to be able to add any in! This is for Luke and Lorelai! The soon-to-be wed adults only! The kids aren't supposed to have a say in this."
"Relax, Jess and I added those as a joke…well, at least I did, not so sure about Jess though…anyway, it doesn't matter because we're not going there."
"So, I'll just cross those off the list."
Tristan fished again but this time for a pen. Finding one, he crossed the last four stores of the list.
"Look at that, we haven't even left the car and we're already down four stores!"
Rory rolled her eyes and grabbed the invitations. Tristan sighed and relaxed back into his seat as he watched her disappear into the post office.
~
"Okay, this is the last store." Rory panted.
She and Tristan had spent the last six hours wandering around the mall, hopping from store to store in attempts to get the happy couple registered for gifts. They had agreed to split for a portion of the day to save time but now they met together for the last store. They stood outside of Macy's, tired, but glad that the hell was almost over.
"Thank. God." Tristan matched her tone. "Let's go in."
"Okay." Rory said, staring blankly at the entrance.
"Rory, come on."
"I'm coming."
"You're not moving." Tristan pointed out.
Rory looked down at her feet. "Are you sure? I could have sworn I was moving."
Tristan sighed and put his hand on the small of her back, guiding her along with him.
"We're moving now right?" Rory asked.
"Yes, we are." Tristan answered. "Maybe I should drive home."
"No, no, I just need coffee. All this running around…no time for coffee…need coffee." she mumbled.
Tristan shook his head as they entered the customer service department. Rory took a look around. There were lush couches along the walls and a mahogany desk towards the back where a friendly looking woman sat…but Rory however was looking past the woman, at the small caddie behind her.
"Coffee!" Rory yelled out before running towards the coffee maker.
Before the woman could protest Rory had already begun inhaling the ambrosia. Tristan sat down in one of the chairs in front of the desk.
"I'm sorry about her. She has an insane obsession for coffee and she's been suffering withdrawal."
The woman nodded and accepted this as an answer.
"I heard that. It's not insane." Rory argued.
"I'll write to you at the asylum sweetie." he smirked.
"I hate you honey." Rory sugar-coated as she poured another cup.
"You know you love me." he smiled as she sat down next to him, inhaling the mocha scent appreciatively.
The woman sat, enjoying the refreshing banter of young love. She cleared her throat. "I'm Vivian Hart, you may call me Vivian or just Viv. How can I help you today?"
"We're here to make out a gift registry for a wedding." Rory answered, knowing the drill all too well.
"Ah, all right then. I'll start need to start with your names please."
"Our names?" Rory asked.
"Yes, your names."
Rory was confused, at the other stores they had simply asked for the couple's names, but she decided that every store does things differently. She wondered if Tristan had the reaction to the stores he had gone to.
"Um, I'm Rory Gilmore and this is Tristan DuGrey."
"Yes, and when is the wedding?"
"June 12th." Tristan answered.
The woman nodded as she typed everything in.
"All right. Now do you have a pre-planned list of products and brands you'd like on the registry or will you need to take a walk through of the store?"
Rory was about to take the walk through but Tristan cut her off. "Yes, we have a list."
"We do?" she asked in a hushed tone.
"Yeah, I had the lady print out a list of products at the last store I was at. She included everything they didn't carry and stuff because I told her that I'd be coming here." he answered as he retrieved the folded paper.
"Oh," Vivian said cheerfully, "great then! I'll just scan this into the computer."
She took the paper and went into a back room.
"Smart." Rory commented.
"Thank you."
A few minutes later she came back.
"Well, that was quick. I have to say, most people who come in here take hours deciding what they want, it's dreadful!"
"Then we're glad we haven't put you through any of that." Tristan flashed her a charming smile.
Vivian laughed embarrassedly. "It's no trouble at all. Especially for a darling couple such as yourselves."
Rory wondered what she meant by that but decided to let it slide.
"Okay, it's almost set in the computer. So, when a guest purchases a gift there is a sort of thank you statement that is just a default kind of thing. If you don't like the default you can write your own."
"Um, lets hear the default." Tristan said as he looked to Rory for approval who nodded as she took a slow sip of her coffee.
"Okay it will read: 'Thank you for sharing in our joy by showing your love and support through this gift' signed, the future Mr. and Mrs. DuGrey." Vivian smiled.
~
AN: Okay, yeah, bad place to leave it, I know. Sorry about the whole gift registry thing. I haven't actually done one before so I don't know if that's how it works. I'm only guessing on the limited amount of knowledge I do know. Thanks to Gnat for her idea (love ya girlie!) and I suggest that if you like this chapter you not only review (cuz I love hearing from ya) but also go check out Gnat's (Gnat10886) stories cuz we think alike and you might enjoy her work as well.
Chapter 11
Beginning of May…
"Rory!" Lorelai called.
"What?!" Rory whined grumpily. "It's Saturday at eight in the morning! What could you possible want at eight in the morning!?" she complained as she stumbled into the kitchen and sat next to her mother.
"Good morning to you too." Lorelai said pleasantly, enjoying the fact that she was annoying someone so early in the day.
Rory glared but accepted the cup of coffee Lorelai offered her. She took a deep drink and looked at her mother expectantly.
"Well?"
Lorelai frowned in thought. "Wait, hold on, I know I dragged you out of bed for a reason. Was it so I could make fun of how scary you look in the morning? No, I don't think that was it. Maybe it was so I would have someone to talk to? Hmm…no, maybe…"
"Mom. Tell me what you want." Rory enunciated her words to show her impatience.
"Okay, you know those invitations that I made you and Tristan design, then take to get made, and then made you leave in the clutches of my psychotic mother?"
"Vaguely." Rory mumbled.
"Yeah, well, a week ago I sent mom a list of people I wanted to invite to this whole wedding thing and she spent the entire week addressing them in that small, curvy, perfect handwriting she has."
"And?" Rory prodded tiredly.
"And it is annoyingly perfect. I mean the woman has probably never even touched a bottle of white out because she has this freakish ability to never mess up, never, not once!"
"Mom! I get it! Where are your ramblings heading?"
"Jeez, someone got up on the wrong side of the bed this morning." Lorelai huffed.
"That's because I'd rather be in the bed right now."
"Well, anyway, as I was saying, I need you and Tristan to go pick up the invitations and take them to the post office."
"What? Why can't grandma do that?" Rory inquired.
"Because I offered since you two will already be in Hartford on other errands."
"What other errands?" Rory asked confused.
"The errands that I was going to give you when you woke up, which is right now." Lorelai explained, enjoying the torture she was putting Rory through.
"More? What about Jess? Make Jess do some of this stuff! He's the best man you know! Or what about Sookie? Or Michel? Or Lane? Anybody?"
Lorelai gave her a 'what are you thinking?' kind of look. "Jess can't do anything because he's too busy trying to bring up his grades before finals. Sookie has enough on her plate what with cooking for the inn and experimenting with food for the wedding. Michel is too grouchy to do anything and I can't force Lane into it because her mother will probably throw a fit. Besides," she began to tear up, "there's no one else who I trust completely. This means so much to me, I only want everything to be perfect because I have waited so long for this. I only hoped you would help because this affects your life too."
Rory crumbled. "Oh, mom, I'm sorry. God, how could I even think of ruining this for you? I take it back. What errands do you have for us?"
Lorelai looked up and blinked away some tears, sniffling just a little. "Well, other than taking the invitations to the post office I suppose you could register Luke and I at this list of department stores at the Hartford mall." she slid a slip of paper with store names across the table towards Rory.
"That's it?" she asked.
Lorelai sniffled again. "That's it." she affirmed.
"Alright, okay mom. Let me go call Tristan and get ready. Are we okay?" Rory asked cautiously.
"Yes, it's okay kid, go get ready." Lorelai nudged her playfully.
Rory smiled and retreated back towards her room.
"Gets 'em every time." Lorelai mused.
"What'd you say?" Rory spun around.
Lorelai put the sad eyes back in place. "Nothing Rory."
"Oh, okay." Rory closed her door.
Lorelai let out a sigh of relief. "It's a good thing I never taught her the fake tear routine." she mumbled under her breath.
~~~~~~~~~
"It's nine thirty in the morning." Tristan said in a monotone voice.
"Yes it is." Rory nodded.
He looked over at her, his black sunglasses masking his tired eyes.
"Why are we doing this?" he complained. "It's nine thirty in the morning! No one should be up this early on a weekend!"
"Hey, be glad you weren't up at eight like I was." she muttered dryly as she backed the Jeep into reverse and turned to drive down the long driveway. "I have no idea what possessed my mother, the sleep-in queen, to wake up so early!"
Tristan laughed dryly and dug through the glove compartment. "Here." he said holding a pair of sunglasses in her direction. "Cover your eyes, you look like hell."
She pursed her lips in annoyance but took the glasses and slid them on. "Nice to know we can be honest with each other."
"What? I'm saving you from embarrassment. I'm not saying I don't look like hell either, that's why I'm wearing the shades. Plus, it's a fashion statement." he smirked.
"Ah, hey, no smirking this early in the morning." she objected as they turned onto the street and headed towards the Gilmore residence.
"I didn't see that in the Gilmore Circle of Insanity rulebook."
"Pencil it in for me then." Rory muttered.
Tristan chuckled and sank back into his seat. Closing his eyes he reveled in the delight of sitting in Rory's car, having a friendly conversation with her. If someone had told him eight months ago that he would be in that position he would have laughed.
"So," Rory called him from his thoughts, "I know why I'm tired, but you look worse for the wear, definitely a side of Tristan that I have never seen before. Why do you not look like your normal, poster boy for the pretty people of America, self?"
"I was up late last night." he answered.
"Doing what?"
"Oh, nothing, just chatting with a friend of mine who lives in another country." he lied.
Rory seemed to accept the answer and didn't press the subject further.
Truth be told, Tristan's case of insomnia had nothing to do with chat time with a 'friend'. His dreams were plaguing him…the same dreams that he had been having on and off for the last few months. Part of him would wake up, telling himself that he only wanted to be friends with Rory but the other wanted nothing more than to make the images of chasing her by the pond and kissing her on a patch of grass reality. He coughed as he forced himself not to relieve the vivid images and instead focused on the road before them.
"So, what about you? Why couldn't you sleep?" he asked.
She hesitated as she thought of a lie. "I-I was reading and I just sort of got caught up in the plot. By the time I was able to put it down it was two in the morning."
"So basically you're running on six hours of sleep?"
"Yup, that and a pot of coffee."
He shook his head in amusement. Rory looked over at him briefly. He couldn't find out about the dreams that haunted her. But did they really haunt her? Hadn't she enjoyed the images of Tristan, fitting perfectly into her life? She went stared ahead at the road, forcing herself not to dwell on those questions.
"We're here." she announced. "My grandma should be waiting for us."
Tristan just nodded in response and together they stumbled, rather sleepily, to the door. Before they even had a chance to ring the doorbell Emily swung the door open.
"Good morning Rory, Tristan! Have you had breakfast yet? I had the cook fix you up some!" she said in a rushed, enthusiastic voice.
The two teens just stared dumbly at her.
"Well don't just stand there, come in!"
Tristan lifted his glasses to rest atop his head and threw a questioning glance at Rory. Shrugging she followed the same suit with her shades and went inside with Tristan close behind.
~
"Luke, I need food." Lorelai whined.
"Is that all I'm good for?" he asked.
"No, you make really great coffee too." Lorelai replied.
He half smiled and leaned over and gave her a small kiss. "I'm making your usual breakfast now. Come back here and get your coffee."
Lorelai giggled and ran to the door separating the counter area from the rest of the diner. Slowly she took a step in and let out a content sigh.
"What are you doing?" he asked as he went back towards the grill.
"Relishing in the feeling of being behind the 'sacred' counter."
"You're been behind the counter before." he reminded her as he flipped her pancakes.
"Yes, but you've never actually invited me over, I invited myself."
Luke just shook his head in amusement and the need for coffee convinced Lorelai she had relished enough.
"So," she began as she took a sip of her coffee and came to stand by Luke's side, "where's Jess?"
"Upstairs sleeping." Luke answered.
"Hmm…about that." Lorelai said cautiously.
"Yeah?"
"Well…it's just that…we're getting married."
"Really? Is that what we've been planning all this time?" he teased.
"Luke, I'm serious." Lorelai said, though she was smiling. "We're getting married and generally married couples live in the same house."
"Yeah, they do."
"So we should move in together." Lorelai blurted out.
"We should." Luke nodded, his eyes glued to the pancakes.
"So we will…right?"
"Right."
Lorelai nodded happily.
'But…"
"But?" Lorelai prodded hesitantly.
"But, what about upstairs? I can't just have it empty, especially not after Jess and I remodeled it so he could have his own room…oh God, what about Jess? Where could he stay? Is there room at your house?"
Lorelai looked thoughtful. "I could clear out the sewing room and make it Jess's."
"But where will you keep that stuff…and what about my apartment?"
"We could have it as storage."
"No."
"I could use that as my sewing space."
"But then you'd have to come here to do all that stuff." Luke reasoned.
"Well…maybe Jess could stay here, that way he wouldn't have to move." Lorelai suggested.
"Do you really want to leave Jess here, at the diner, by himself?" Luke asked skeptically.
"Oh good point, that doesn't paint a pretty picture. Besides that defeats the whole point of living together like a family." Lorelai agreed.
Luke nodded. "If only you had another room."
"Yeah…" Lorelai agreed. Then, a sudden idea sprang to mind. "Hey, why don't we?"
"Why don't we what?"
"We can add another room!"
"What? You can't just ADD a room!" Luke objected, the pancakes were now forgotten.
"Of course we can! The backyard is way too big and it's not like we use it anyway! Plus the grass is all brown and crunchy. It's big enough to add an addition without it being all cramped! You can head the construction because you're mister manly man with your tools and I'm sure some guys around town will help us."
"I don't know." he said hesitantly.
"Come on, you know you and Bert wanna."
"But, the wedding is in a month. I'd want Jess and I to be moved in before then."
"So, we'll get started right away, today in fact. We can start drawing up the plans."
"What about the diner? I'd have to be there 24/7 to make sure no one screws up. No roof falls on my nephew." he said confidently.
"Put Caesar on the counter." Lorelai offered. "And if you don't think he can handle it full time, Jess, Rory, and I can alternate helping out."
Luke pondered this and Lorelai could tell that she was close to winning him over. He shrugged slightly.
"We could maybe even add another bathroom too. One bathroom for four people is really stretching it."
Lorelai grinned, knowing he was warming up to the idea. "Yeah, you know, there's an extra storage closet upstairs by my room that we could turn into a bathroom just for us. It's right next to the sewing room so we could even take out a bit of that and make it even bigger."
"We could have double sinks." Luke agreed snaking his arms around her waist.
"Yeah," she pulled her arms around his neck, "we could have one of those big bathtubs. You know the ones perfect for bubble baths." she murmured softly.
"Okay…but what about the office?" he asked, ruining the moment.
"Well, it could be the kids' hang out place." Lorelai shrugged.
"Hang out place?"
"Yeah, you know when Rory and Jess have their friends over at the house and are being annoyingly loud we can kick 'em out and tell them to go to the diner. It's big enough and it's the perfect spot. If we're lucky, they'll be there often, very often, and we'll have the house all-to-our-selves." she dragged out the last few words, emphasizing the meaning.
"You've sold me." Luke agreed pulling her in for a kiss.
It would have lasted longer had Lorelai not wrinkled her nose and pulled away from him.
"What's that smell?" she asked.
Together they sniffed and looked towards the grill as it smoke billowed from two flat pieces of back crisp.
"The pancakes!" they said together.
~
"Oh, you have to tell your grandmother that if she ever fires that cook of hers the DuGrey residence will be more than willing to hire her." Tristan said, rubbing his stomach appreciatively as they set down the driveway away from the meal they had just enjoyed.
"Heh, don't count on it! That woman is staying for a long time!" Rory retorted as she slipped her glasses down back over her eyes.
"So post office first?" Tristan asked as he adjusted his sunglasses back to their place.
"Yeah I guess so, then it's off to the Hartford mall." Rory sat apprehensively as she looked both ways for traffic before making her turn.
"Where's the list of stores?" Tristan asked.
"Um, it's in my purse in the back." Rory said absently.
Tristan reached pack and retrieved the small bag and fished around till he found the list.
"Jeez! There are like twenty stores on this thing!" he exclaimed.
"Yup, we've got a long day ahead of us." Rory agreed.
"Why are there so many?"
"Because, Grandma insisted that mom and Luke register at some expensive over the top department stores so that all of her friends could shop there but mom wanted some normal stores, Luke was indifferent about the whole thing and Jess…well, if you look towards the bottom those music stores are his pick."
Tristan laughed. "And right below that I spy a bookstore. Wonder who put that there?"
"Shut up. If Jess can put down three stores selling nothing but no-name garage bands I can add in at least one store of my choice."
"Yes, but you're not supposed to be able to add any in! This is for Luke and Lorelai! The soon-to-be wed adults only! The kids aren't supposed to have a say in this."
"Relax, Jess and I added those as a joke…well, at least I did, not so sure about Jess though…anyway, it doesn't matter because we're not going there."
"So, I'll just cross those off the list."
Tristan fished again but this time for a pen. Finding one, he crossed the last four stores of the list.
"Look at that, we haven't even left the car and we're already down four stores!"
Rory rolled her eyes and grabbed the invitations. Tristan sighed and relaxed back into his seat as he watched her disappear into the post office.
~
"Okay, this is the last store." Rory panted.
She and Tristan had spent the last six hours wandering around the mall, hopping from store to store in attempts to get the happy couple registered for gifts. They had agreed to split for a portion of the day to save time but now they met together for the last store. They stood outside of Macy's, tired, but glad that the hell was almost over.
"Thank. God." Tristan matched her tone. "Let's go in."
"Okay." Rory said, staring blankly at the entrance.
"Rory, come on."
"I'm coming."
"You're not moving." Tristan pointed out.
Rory looked down at her feet. "Are you sure? I could have sworn I was moving."
Tristan sighed and put his hand on the small of her back, guiding her along with him.
"We're moving now right?" Rory asked.
"Yes, we are." Tristan answered. "Maybe I should drive home."
"No, no, I just need coffee. All this running around…no time for coffee…need coffee." she mumbled.
Tristan shook his head as they entered the customer service department. Rory took a look around. There were lush couches along the walls and a mahogany desk towards the back where a friendly looking woman sat…but Rory however was looking past the woman, at the small caddie behind her.
"Coffee!" Rory yelled out before running towards the coffee maker.
Before the woman could protest Rory had already begun inhaling the ambrosia. Tristan sat down in one of the chairs in front of the desk.
"I'm sorry about her. She has an insane obsession for coffee and she's been suffering withdrawal."
The woman nodded and accepted this as an answer.
"I heard that. It's not insane." Rory argued.
"I'll write to you at the asylum sweetie." he smirked.
"I hate you honey." Rory sugar-coated as she poured another cup.
"You know you love me." he smiled as she sat down next to him, inhaling the mocha scent appreciatively.
The woman sat, enjoying the refreshing banter of young love. She cleared her throat. "I'm Vivian Hart, you may call me Vivian or just Viv. How can I help you today?"
"We're here to make out a gift registry for a wedding." Rory answered, knowing the drill all too well.
"Ah, all right then. I'll start need to start with your names please."
"Our names?" Rory asked.
"Yes, your names."
Rory was confused, at the other stores they had simply asked for the couple's names, but she decided that every store does things differently. She wondered if Tristan had the reaction to the stores he had gone to.
"Um, I'm Rory Gilmore and this is Tristan DuGrey."
"Yes, and when is the wedding?"
"June 12th." Tristan answered.
The woman nodded as she typed everything in.
"All right. Now do you have a pre-planned list of products and brands you'd like on the registry or will you need to take a walk through of the store?"
Rory was about to take the walk through but Tristan cut her off. "Yes, we have a list."
"We do?" she asked in a hushed tone.
"Yeah, I had the lady print out a list of products at the last store I was at. She included everything they didn't carry and stuff because I told her that I'd be coming here." he answered as he retrieved the folded paper.
"Oh," Vivian said cheerfully, "great then! I'll just scan this into the computer."
She took the paper and went into a back room.
"Smart." Rory commented.
"Thank you."
A few minutes later she came back.
"Well, that was quick. I have to say, most people who come in here take hours deciding what they want, it's dreadful!"
"Then we're glad we haven't put you through any of that." Tristan flashed her a charming smile.
Vivian laughed embarrassedly. "It's no trouble at all. Especially for a darling couple such as yourselves."
Rory wondered what she meant by that but decided to let it slide.
"Okay, it's almost set in the computer. So, when a guest purchases a gift there is a sort of thank you statement that is just a default kind of thing. If you don't like the default you can write your own."
"Um, lets hear the default." Tristan said as he looked to Rory for approval who nodded as she took a slow sip of her coffee.
"Okay it will read: 'Thank you for sharing in our joy by showing your love and support through this gift' signed, the future Mr. and Mrs. DuGrey." Vivian smiled.
~
AN: Okay, yeah, bad place to leave it, I know. Sorry about the whole gift registry thing. I haven't actually done one before so I don't know if that's how it works. I'm only guessing on the limited amount of knowledge I do know. Thanks to Gnat for her idea (love ya girlie!) and I suggest that if you like this chapter you not only review (cuz I love hearing from ya) but also go check out Gnat's (Gnat10886) stories cuz we think alike and you might enjoy her work as well.
