Chapter 21: EPILOGUE aka Parent's Weekend
Author: Gluglug
Spoiler Warning/Timing: Late-Third Season
Rating: PG -13
Disclaimer: Gilmore Girls and all characters are property of The Dubba Dubba Dubba WB, Dorothy Parker Drank Here Productions and Amy Sherman- Palladino. They don't belong to me, just borrowing.
Summary: This is sort of an epilogue, it takes place in November 2003.
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It was Thursday evening and Lorelai heard the phone rang. "Hello?"
"Hey, Mom."
"Rory, how is my beautiful and brainy offspring?"
"Not feeling so beautiful and my brain hurts. You wouldn't believe the amount of work I have to do. And I thought Chilton whipped my butt when it came to endless reading assignments."
"Well, at least you're prepared. Besides the hellish schoolwork, how is everything?"
"Well, Jill and I joined a Dorothy Parker reading group, and we've met some really cool people. There's also this cute guy who keeps flirting with me. I've told him I have a boyfriend but he doesn't seem to get it."
"Rory no matter how many books these guys read, they're still ruled by one organ."
"Don't be gross."
"I'm restraining myself." Lorelai chuckled.
"Hey, I want to ask you something. Parents' weekend is coming up in a couple of weeks and I'd love you to come. I asked Dad but he can't come, he has to fly to LA for some business trip. But Jess is planning to visit that weekend, too. Maybe you'd like to invite Luke?"
"Oh, honey, I'll definitely be there but I dunno about Luke. If he's more than 50 feet from the diner alarms go off. If Jess is coming to see you, he won't leave the place to Caesar and I doubt he'd close up for the weekend."
"Well, just ask him, maybe you can use your persuasive charm. Hey, I hate to chat and run but I've got to get back to my reading for Psych class. I'm thinking of minoring in it, if I can take on the workload."
"I guess your informational discussion with Dr. Lieberman went well?"
"Oh, yeah. She's really cool, thanks for setting that up. And anyone who could get you and Luke together is a miracle worker."
"Yeah, she's a modern day Annie Sullivan. Okay, I'll let you get back to your reading. Miss you and love you."
"I love you too, Mom. Bye"
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Later that evening, Lorelai entered the diner. It was after eight and there were only a few customers around. Luke looked up and smiled when he saw his girlfriend come up to the counter.
"Hi Lukey."
"Don't call me that."
"Okay, Lucas."
"Not that either."
"How about Butch?"
Luke gave her an exasperated sigh. "Will you stop that? You know what to call me."
Lorelai raised her eyebrows suggestively. "Big strong sexy diner man?"
"Only in private."
"You're blushing, Luke."
"Ah, you finally got it right. Only took four tries this time."
"I'm a fast learner."
Luke took out his order pad. "So can I get you anything, I mean that's food related?"
"Um, a burger and an iced tea."
"No coffee?"
"No, Dr. Lieberman's got me on a strict program, but the iced tea is allowed. I'm afraid I'll never be able to return to the over caffeinated glory days of yore."
Luke nodded. "I don't miss them. I like the new you."
"So I've noticed."
"I'll be right back." Luke went into the kitchen to give her order to Caesar. A minute later he returned to the counter with a glass of water.
"So, I talked to Rory today."
"How is she?"
"Busy. She's thinking of minoring in Psych. She also mentioned that it's parent's weekend on the 20th. I'm gonna go see her and I think Jess is planning as well."
"Yeah, he mentioned that. I think I can survive without him for the weekend."
"Speaking of surviving for the weekend, I wanted to ask if you'd like to come with me to Yale."
Luke was surprised. "You want me to come to parents' weekend?"
Lorelai nodded. "Yes, I'm inviting you to come with me. What do you say?"
"I don't know. With Jess away, I can't leave Caesar here by himself. And I don't know if I'd feel comfortable. I mean I'm not a parent, and it's called parent's weekend..."
Lorelai rolled her eyes. "Because it's for parents, hence the name. Come on Luke, it will be fun. There'll be all sorts of activities and Rory would like to see you. Why not close the diner for a weekend? So you'll lose some revenue. Wouldn't you like to get away for a couple of days with your fabulous and sexy girlfriend? We could get a nice room with my hotel association and parent's discount, it would cost next to nothing. And imagine the damage we could do to each other in a hotel...."
Luke tried to imagine what he and Lorelai could do, this was no contest.
"Okay, let's do it. But no throwing TV's out the window or vomiting on the carpet. And no groupies."
"Killjoy. Oh, Luke this will be so much fun. What made you cave so easily?"
"The discount. Oh and I would like to see Rory, I haven't seen her in weeks."
"And?"
He smirked at her. "That's it. Hey, let me check on your burger."
Lorelai threw her napkin at him but she missed. It didn't matter anyway, she knew why Luke said yes.
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Two weeks later, Lorelai and Luke were walking on the Yale campus. They had just checked into their hotel and were coming to surprise Rory; they had made good time and were an hour early. Jess had driven up earlier that day - he said there was no way he was going to sit in the back of Lorelai's jeep while she and Luke bickered like a married couple about which was the quickest route to New Haven from Stars Hollow.
They approached Rory's dorm, where several other pairs of parents were gathered, greeting their kids. Lorelai pulled on Luke's arm and stopped him.
"Luke, I don't think we should surprise Rory."
He gave her a puzzled look. "But this was your idea."
She motioned to the parking lot next to the building. "See, does that car look familiar?"
Luke nodded. Oh, that's Jess' car, so he's already here."
"Yeah, so he and Rory are probably upstairs catching up."
"Right." Luke still looked puzzled until it dawned on him what Lorelai meant. "Oh, I get it. You think they're having sex?"
"I know they're having sex. I mean, Jess hasn't seen her in like a month and I don't want to repeat a scene from "American Pie 2."
"Didn't see it."
"Yeah, well I figured that. There's a scene where the Jason Biggs character's parents walk in on him having sex in his dorm room."
"Yeah, I guess you're right, we probably shouldn't go up."
"Hey, since we have an hour to kill, why don't we explore the campus and then come back here and take Rory and Jess to dinner at Hector's Tacos, as planned?"
Luke put his arms around her. "Okay, although I had another idea on how we could kill an hour."
Lorelai smiled and kissed him. "I bet you do, but we can do that later. And besides, I want to show you the garbage can where my dad proposed to my mom."
Luke raised his eyebrows as Lorelai tugged on his hand. "A garbage can? How romantic."
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Rory and Jess were lying on her in her dorm room, in various stages of undress.
"So are you sure your roommate isn't going to walk in on us?"
"Jill's having dinner with her folks. She has to break it to them that she's majoring in Art History and not Economics; she won't be back for hours."
"You two should have some kind of system, though, like a sock, or a bra."
"A bra, Jess? There's no way I'm hanging my lingerie on the door. Everyone would know what we're doing in here."
"Well, when they hear your screams of passion, they'll know something's up."
"Well, why don't you shut up already so we can get to that part?"
Jess gave Rory a passionate kiss.
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"Where is that damn garbage can? This place looks different in the dark. Damn daylight savings time. Whose brilliant idea was to make it pitch dark at 5PM?"
"I believe it was the farmers. So, you can't find it. We can look tomorrow." He sat down on a bench and Lorelai sat next to him.
"But tomorrow will be too late - we have all of these events to go to tomorrow. Lectures, campus tours, a Whiffenpoof performance. My dad was one of those..."
"What the hell is a Whiffenpoof? Some kind of gay fraternity?"
"No, an all male a cappella singing group. Very popular, from what I hear. I think my mom fell for my dad because he was a singing stud."
"So both your folks went to Yale?"
"No, just my dad. My mom went to a nearby women's college. Apparently she stole my father away from another woman."
"Really? The scandal."
"Yeah, my mother: the harlot in a blue dress." Lorelai chuckled. "It was so sweet to see them reminisce about their courtship. They've been together for nearly 40 years and they're still in love. As much as I like to grouse about my relationship with my parents, that's the one thing that I really admire about them. They've managed to stay together and make it work."
"Yeah, that's an accomplishment. Hey, have you ever told them that?"
"That I admire their marriage? No, never. They'd somehow turn it around on me and tell me that I my relationships barely last 40 days, never mind 40 years."
"Well, we've made it past 40 days; hell I think we're in the 80s."
"Oh, Luke. Have you been counting?"
He looked sheepish. "Yeah, I have. It's been 85 days."
"How sweet and slightly creepy. Hey, what about the hours and seconds?" Lorelai teased.
She then paused. "Luke, do you think you and I could ever be like my parents? Not the judgmental and controlling part, but the stay together for a lifetime part?"
Luke turned to her and noticed she had a very serious look on her face, something he didn't see too often.
"It's only been 85 days, like I said. But I wouldn't mind spending the next 85 years with you."
"Wow, are you sure? That's a really long time. You might get really sick of me."
"Maybe, but I doubt it. I love you, Lorelai." Luke's voice was quiet and sincere.
"I love you, too." She put her arms around him and gave him a sweet and loving kiss.
Suddenly, Lorelai's cell phone rang. Luke cursed. "Damn thing."
Lorelai fished in her purse. "Hello?"
She heard Rory's voice on the other end. "Mom, Jess and I are ready to go to dinner. Do you want to meet us at the dorm or at Hector's?"
"Oh, Luke and I will meet you at Hector's. Say in about 15 minutes?"
"Great, see you then."
A/N: I think I'll end it here, unless the muse strikes. Forgive me for not putting more R/J but this story is an L/L.....
Author: Gluglug
Spoiler Warning/Timing: Late-Third Season
Rating: PG -13
Disclaimer: Gilmore Girls and all characters are property of The Dubba Dubba Dubba WB, Dorothy Parker Drank Here Productions and Amy Sherman- Palladino. They don't belong to me, just borrowing.
Summary: This is sort of an epilogue, it takes place in November 2003.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------
It was Thursday evening and Lorelai heard the phone rang. "Hello?"
"Hey, Mom."
"Rory, how is my beautiful and brainy offspring?"
"Not feeling so beautiful and my brain hurts. You wouldn't believe the amount of work I have to do. And I thought Chilton whipped my butt when it came to endless reading assignments."
"Well, at least you're prepared. Besides the hellish schoolwork, how is everything?"
"Well, Jill and I joined a Dorothy Parker reading group, and we've met some really cool people. There's also this cute guy who keeps flirting with me. I've told him I have a boyfriend but he doesn't seem to get it."
"Rory no matter how many books these guys read, they're still ruled by one organ."
"Don't be gross."
"I'm restraining myself." Lorelai chuckled.
"Hey, I want to ask you something. Parents' weekend is coming up in a couple of weeks and I'd love you to come. I asked Dad but he can't come, he has to fly to LA for some business trip. But Jess is planning to visit that weekend, too. Maybe you'd like to invite Luke?"
"Oh, honey, I'll definitely be there but I dunno about Luke. If he's more than 50 feet from the diner alarms go off. If Jess is coming to see you, he won't leave the place to Caesar and I doubt he'd close up for the weekend."
"Well, just ask him, maybe you can use your persuasive charm. Hey, I hate to chat and run but I've got to get back to my reading for Psych class. I'm thinking of minoring in it, if I can take on the workload."
"I guess your informational discussion with Dr. Lieberman went well?"
"Oh, yeah. She's really cool, thanks for setting that up. And anyone who could get you and Luke together is a miracle worker."
"Yeah, she's a modern day Annie Sullivan. Okay, I'll let you get back to your reading. Miss you and love you."
"I love you too, Mom. Bye"
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------
Later that evening, Lorelai entered the diner. It was after eight and there were only a few customers around. Luke looked up and smiled when he saw his girlfriend come up to the counter.
"Hi Lukey."
"Don't call me that."
"Okay, Lucas."
"Not that either."
"How about Butch?"
Luke gave her an exasperated sigh. "Will you stop that? You know what to call me."
Lorelai raised her eyebrows suggestively. "Big strong sexy diner man?"
"Only in private."
"You're blushing, Luke."
"Ah, you finally got it right. Only took four tries this time."
"I'm a fast learner."
Luke took out his order pad. "So can I get you anything, I mean that's food related?"
"Um, a burger and an iced tea."
"No coffee?"
"No, Dr. Lieberman's got me on a strict program, but the iced tea is allowed. I'm afraid I'll never be able to return to the over caffeinated glory days of yore."
Luke nodded. "I don't miss them. I like the new you."
"So I've noticed."
"I'll be right back." Luke went into the kitchen to give her order to Caesar. A minute later he returned to the counter with a glass of water.
"So, I talked to Rory today."
"How is she?"
"Busy. She's thinking of minoring in Psych. She also mentioned that it's parent's weekend on the 20th. I'm gonna go see her and I think Jess is planning as well."
"Yeah, he mentioned that. I think I can survive without him for the weekend."
"Speaking of surviving for the weekend, I wanted to ask if you'd like to come with me to Yale."
Luke was surprised. "You want me to come to parents' weekend?"
Lorelai nodded. "Yes, I'm inviting you to come with me. What do you say?"
"I don't know. With Jess away, I can't leave Caesar here by himself. And I don't know if I'd feel comfortable. I mean I'm not a parent, and it's called parent's weekend..."
Lorelai rolled her eyes. "Because it's for parents, hence the name. Come on Luke, it will be fun. There'll be all sorts of activities and Rory would like to see you. Why not close the diner for a weekend? So you'll lose some revenue. Wouldn't you like to get away for a couple of days with your fabulous and sexy girlfriend? We could get a nice room with my hotel association and parent's discount, it would cost next to nothing. And imagine the damage we could do to each other in a hotel...."
Luke tried to imagine what he and Lorelai could do, this was no contest.
"Okay, let's do it. But no throwing TV's out the window or vomiting on the carpet. And no groupies."
"Killjoy. Oh, Luke this will be so much fun. What made you cave so easily?"
"The discount. Oh and I would like to see Rory, I haven't seen her in weeks."
"And?"
He smirked at her. "That's it. Hey, let me check on your burger."
Lorelai threw her napkin at him but she missed. It didn't matter anyway, she knew why Luke said yes.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------
Two weeks later, Lorelai and Luke were walking on the Yale campus. They had just checked into their hotel and were coming to surprise Rory; they had made good time and were an hour early. Jess had driven up earlier that day - he said there was no way he was going to sit in the back of Lorelai's jeep while she and Luke bickered like a married couple about which was the quickest route to New Haven from Stars Hollow.
They approached Rory's dorm, where several other pairs of parents were gathered, greeting their kids. Lorelai pulled on Luke's arm and stopped him.
"Luke, I don't think we should surprise Rory."
He gave her a puzzled look. "But this was your idea."
She motioned to the parking lot next to the building. "See, does that car look familiar?"
Luke nodded. Oh, that's Jess' car, so he's already here."
"Yeah, so he and Rory are probably upstairs catching up."
"Right." Luke still looked puzzled until it dawned on him what Lorelai meant. "Oh, I get it. You think they're having sex?"
"I know they're having sex. I mean, Jess hasn't seen her in like a month and I don't want to repeat a scene from "American Pie 2."
"Didn't see it."
"Yeah, well I figured that. There's a scene where the Jason Biggs character's parents walk in on him having sex in his dorm room."
"Yeah, I guess you're right, we probably shouldn't go up."
"Hey, since we have an hour to kill, why don't we explore the campus and then come back here and take Rory and Jess to dinner at Hector's Tacos, as planned?"
Luke put his arms around her. "Okay, although I had another idea on how we could kill an hour."
Lorelai smiled and kissed him. "I bet you do, but we can do that later. And besides, I want to show you the garbage can where my dad proposed to my mom."
Luke raised his eyebrows as Lorelai tugged on his hand. "A garbage can? How romantic."
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -----------------------------------------
Rory and Jess were lying on her in her dorm room, in various stages of undress.
"So are you sure your roommate isn't going to walk in on us?"
"Jill's having dinner with her folks. She has to break it to them that she's majoring in Art History and not Economics; she won't be back for hours."
"You two should have some kind of system, though, like a sock, or a bra."
"A bra, Jess? There's no way I'm hanging my lingerie on the door. Everyone would know what we're doing in here."
"Well, when they hear your screams of passion, they'll know something's up."
"Well, why don't you shut up already so we can get to that part?"
Jess gave Rory a passionate kiss.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -----------------------------------------
"Where is that damn garbage can? This place looks different in the dark. Damn daylight savings time. Whose brilliant idea was to make it pitch dark at 5PM?"
"I believe it was the farmers. So, you can't find it. We can look tomorrow." He sat down on a bench and Lorelai sat next to him.
"But tomorrow will be too late - we have all of these events to go to tomorrow. Lectures, campus tours, a Whiffenpoof performance. My dad was one of those..."
"What the hell is a Whiffenpoof? Some kind of gay fraternity?"
"No, an all male a cappella singing group. Very popular, from what I hear. I think my mom fell for my dad because he was a singing stud."
"So both your folks went to Yale?"
"No, just my dad. My mom went to a nearby women's college. Apparently she stole my father away from another woman."
"Really? The scandal."
"Yeah, my mother: the harlot in a blue dress." Lorelai chuckled. "It was so sweet to see them reminisce about their courtship. They've been together for nearly 40 years and they're still in love. As much as I like to grouse about my relationship with my parents, that's the one thing that I really admire about them. They've managed to stay together and make it work."
"Yeah, that's an accomplishment. Hey, have you ever told them that?"
"That I admire their marriage? No, never. They'd somehow turn it around on me and tell me that I my relationships barely last 40 days, never mind 40 years."
"Well, we've made it past 40 days; hell I think we're in the 80s."
"Oh, Luke. Have you been counting?"
He looked sheepish. "Yeah, I have. It's been 85 days."
"How sweet and slightly creepy. Hey, what about the hours and seconds?" Lorelai teased.
She then paused. "Luke, do you think you and I could ever be like my parents? Not the judgmental and controlling part, but the stay together for a lifetime part?"
Luke turned to her and noticed she had a very serious look on her face, something he didn't see too often.
"It's only been 85 days, like I said. But I wouldn't mind spending the next 85 years with you."
"Wow, are you sure? That's a really long time. You might get really sick of me."
"Maybe, but I doubt it. I love you, Lorelai." Luke's voice was quiet and sincere.
"I love you, too." She put her arms around him and gave him a sweet and loving kiss.
Suddenly, Lorelai's cell phone rang. Luke cursed. "Damn thing."
Lorelai fished in her purse. "Hello?"
She heard Rory's voice on the other end. "Mom, Jess and I are ready to go to dinner. Do you want to meet us at the dorm or at Hector's?"
"Oh, Luke and I will meet you at Hector's. Say in about 15 minutes?"
"Great, see you then."
A/N: I think I'll end it here, unless the muse strikes. Forgive me for not putting more R/J but this story is an L/L.....