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Ch. 8: The Seventh Inning Retch
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A month into the school year, the whole town came out to the ball field to witness the first ever Stars Hollow High Ladies Softball team's game. Though the real season didn't start until spring, they had a slew of exhibition games with nearby high schools scheduled.
Lorelai and Rory were looking for a good spot on the bleachers, each carrying an ice cream cone. "So let me get this straight," Lorelai said, avoiding stepping on toes and hoping she wouldn't fall through the cracks of the large metal contraption. "They have spring training, only in the fall?"
"Apparently so," Rory answered. They found a few seats near the top, where they could look down at the people below them and make comments. It wasn't like they'd be watching the game; they wouldn't even know what the hell was going on.
Rory spotted Lane on the field and waved to her. Lane waved back.
"Aw, she's so cute in her little uniform," Lorelai said.
"Well, she's determined to get as far away from her mother as possible when it comes to college, so she thought adding 'Softball Team' to her college applications would be a good boost. Plus, time spent practicing means time out of the house."
"But, um, how do I put this delicately? Doesn't she kind of suck?"
"Oh, totally. But when the season starts they have varsity and junior varsity, and only the varsity really counts in competitiveness. So she'll just be having fun on J.V. And they don't practice as much in the beginning of the school year so she still has time for cheerleading."
"She's an all-American girl, that Lane."
"I believe that is the point she's trying to make."
They ate their ice cream, and when Lorelai spotted Luke, she put her fingers in her mouth and gave him a loud whistle. "Yo, hot mama, I got a seat for you right here," she yelled like a construction worker.
Rory made a disapproving noise. "Look, you made him all embarrassed. And you know how embarrassment turns to hostility in Luke."
Lorelai just shrugged. "He's coming up here, isn't he?"
"Yes, but he's coming up with a look that says 'I'm planning on pushing Lorelai Gilmore off the bleachers.'"
"Well, if he does, I'll just grab onto you and you can take the fall with me."
Rory made a gesture of presentation. "My loving mother, ladies and gentleman."
Luke made it up to their row. "Call me 'hot mama' again and I'll push you off this thing."
Rory threw her arms up in a 'touchdown' gesture. "Score one for me!"
"What the hell are you talking about?"
"Nothing," Lorelai said for her. "Just sit."
Luke complied.
Lorelai looked at the girls doing softball type things on the field. "Did the game start yet?"
"No. They're warming up."
Lorelai offered some of her ice cream to Luke. He groaned and pushed it away. "Come on, cheat just a little!" she said, sticking it out again.
"Get that crap away from me," he muttered, pushing it away again. They got into a back and forth cycle of offering and rejecting.
Rory pretended not to be interested in the goings on, but a smile crept up on her lips. Things were always better when they got back to normal.
"Eat it!" Lorelai ordered.
"No!" He pushed it away. Lorelai yelped as she fell backwards.
"Jesus Christ!" Luke grabbed her before she fell off the bench completely. They were on the second to the top row, so she wasn't in danger of falling off the bleachers, but she still could have hit her head or something.
Lorelai's brain was reeling, and not from the fall. It was currently thinking, 'Mmm, Luke-arms' over and over again. He pulled her forward and she was seated again.
"Thanks," she said, and his arms left her. Lorelai was a little disappointed, and a little surprised. Since when did a casual touch from Luke provoke such a feeling in her? She took a lick of her ice cream to cheer herself up, but it wasn't in her hand.
She looked behind her and saw it splattered on the bench. "My ice cream," she whined.
"That's what you get for monkeying around," Rory chided, but she was still smiling.
Luke got up. "If I get you another one,
promise to keep it away from me?"
"Aren't you sweet!"
"If you don't get another one, you'll whine the whole time."
"True. So yes, I promise."
"I'll be back," he said over his shoulder as he headed down the bleachers.
"Two scoops!" Lorelai called after him. Rory was still grinning. "What? You think your mother almost dying is funny?"
"Hilarious," Rory said.
"Tell me what's so funny, missy."
"'Eat my ice cream, Lukey!'" She mocked in a high voice. "You fell off the bench because you were climbing all over him."
"I was not!"
"Was too."
"I'm not sharing any of my new ice cream with you."
"Fine by me. You'd just get 'I love Lukey' germs over it, anyhow."
Lorelai was trying to find something to say back. "Nuh uh!" Oh, good one.
Rory shrugged. "I think you got some 'splainin to do."
"Did Patty and Babette get to you? They didn't take you to the strip club and brainwash your mind, did they?"
"Patty and Babette are two very observant ladies." Rory spotted Luke returning with the ice cream and stopped pressing the matter.
Luke reached them and gave Lorelai her ice cream cone. "Keep it away from me."
Rory noticed something on the field. She leaned forward to get a better look. "Is that Kirk down there?"
Luke nodded. "Yeah. They had an opening for assistant coach and he offered."
Lorelai snickered. "Did someone tell him all those girls are illegal minors?"
"They wouldn't go out with him anyway," Luke said
Lorelai wanted to say, 'speaking of going out…' and ask Luke about Jay, but she couldn't bring herself to. Jay and Luke had been getting friendlier and friendlier over the past month, but no one in town had actually seen them do anything other than talk. Luke had been occasionally helping out with the softball practices, when he'd had the time. So instead, she asked him about that.
"How come you didn't volunteer for the position?"
"Because then I'd have to attend even more stupid meetings with the PTA and Taylor's at every one."
"Gotcha."
Jay must have called all the girls in because they were running toward the little caged in part with a bench. "Now what are they doing?"
"They're going in the dugout because the game's about to start."
"That's the little cage?"
"Yeah."
"Why don't they call it the little cage, then, instead of a dugout?"
Luke could have gotten into the specifics, but he had a feeling this was going to be a long, long night of explaining things. "Because dugout sounds cooler."
Rory leaned over to Luke. "She's been watching baseball movies to brush up on the game," she confided.
"That plan seems to have worked well."
"Okay, Mr. Sarcasm, no one asked you." Lorelai crossed her arms over her chest.
At that point, everyone rose for the national anthem. During it, Lorelai whispered, "Aren't you supposed to take off your hat? Isn't it against the Constitution to wear it?"
"It's permanently attached to my skull," he shot back.
Rory turned to both of them. "I don't think you're supposed to talk right now."
As if to prove that point, Bootsy turned around and shushed them. "Don't you people have any national pride?"
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"Look at Miss Patty," Lorelai whispered. "She's waving her handkerchief at that umpire again."
Rory giggled. "She wants him to 'dust her plate'."
They both giggled. Luke rolled his eyes. "I've had to listen to four innings of this crap. Can't you two take a break?"
"But baseball metaphors are the only things about the game we know."
"Yes, but if you giggle and say 'she got all the way to second base' one more time I'm going to tell Kirk you both want to date him, and got into a fight over him."
Rory gasped. "You wouldn't!"
Lorelai gasped louder. "You couldn't!"
"Then shut it."
"Fine, we'll talk about the game," Lorelai appealed. "Who's winning?"
"We are."
"Then yay us!" They watched as a ball was hit by the opposing team into right field, where Lane was.
"Come on, Lane," Rory said, half encouragement, half prayer.
They could see the fear on Lane's face even from this far away. When Lane actually caught the ball, they let out their collective breaths.
"Did you see that?" Lorelai cried. "It was awesome!"
Luke shrugged. "She just caught a ball, no big deal," he said, but he couldn't help smiling. He'd been working with Lane all last week. She had a habit of freaking out and turning her face away right before the ball got to her, which Luke had finally gotten her to conquer.
Lorelai nudged him. "Look at you, all beaming with pride."
Lane's catch was the third out, so the Stars Hollow team was returning to the dug out.
"They're pretty good, for being a new team," Rory pointed out.
"Most of the girls had played before in the community leagues."
"I didn't even know they had community leagues," Lorelai said.
"It's not too late if you want to sign Rory up. The teams go up to eighteen years." Rory and Lorelai both burst into giggles at the notion. Luke smirked. "That was kind of funny."
* * *
In the bottom of the fifth season, when the Stars Hollow team was up to bat, Jay and one of the girls left the dug out and headed over to a grassy area without spectators in the way.
"Uh oh, I think she's in trouble," Lorelai said about the girl.
"Maybe she was on steroids," Rory suggested.
"That's Mindy, she's a pitcher. Jay's going to warm her up and put her in."
"Heh. 'Warm her up,'" Rory said.
"Heh heh. 'Put her in,'" Lorelai echoed.
"I am never going to another ball game of any kind with you," Luke stated.
Lorelai shut her mouth. Jay probably didn't make stupid comments like that. She probably knew all about the game and talked about strategy and earned runs and batting averages.
"Sorry," Lorelai said.
As Jay and Mindy passed the bleachers, Jay spotted them and waved. All three waved back. Jay turned her hat from forwards to backwards.
"Oh my god!" Lorelai said. "She's giving the Luke sign!"
"She is not." Luke resisted the urge to fidget with his cap. It was like the fiftieth comment Lorelai had made about it that night. He was tempted to go back to not talking to her like in the summer. "She's going to catch for Mindy, so it's probably to increase her field of vision."
"Nothing sucks more than a softball in the face," Rory said.
"What about a softball to the groin?" Lorelai asked. "Does that suck more, Luke?"
Luke's shoulders slumped. "Kill me now."
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After the away team's last out in the seventh inning, the Stars Hollow crowd stood up and cheered.
"What the hell's going on? Is this that seventh inning itch I've heard so much about?" Lorelai asked.
"Seventh inning stretch," Rory corrected.
"Neither," Luke said. "Only seven innings in girls' softball. And since we're the home team and we're ahead, we don't have to finish the bottom half of the inning."
"He's like the Yoda of baseball," Rory said.
"But much, much taller."
"And not quite as green." Rory stood up. "I'm gonna go find Lane and congratulate her on her catch." She started picking her way down the bleachers.
"How on earth did I make it through the entire game?" Luke speculated. He made a firm resolution to find someone else to sit next to at the following game. Taylor, maybe.
"Because you stared at Jay for half the time."
Lorelai was just shooting in the dark on that one, but Luke was visibly agitated. "I did not."
Lorelai was playing it cool. It didn't matter to her if Luke was interested. Just like it didn't matter that his knee brushing against hers sent little shivers up her spine. "So you two aren't, you know, you two?"
Luke shook his head. "She's just a friend."
Lorelai watched him get up and head down the bleachers. She was hardly reassured. She wondered how many times had he said that regarding her?
She eventually got up and followed him. The park had started to clear out, leaving behind mostly the parents of the players. Jay was having a post-game coach talk with the team. Rory was waiting by the fence.
Lorelai joined her daughter. "Waiting for Lane?"
"Yep. Got a big reassurance smile ready for when she struck out, if she needs it."
"Do you want me to wait for you, or do you guys want to walk back?"
"I think they're almost done; let's wait."
Lorelai nodded. She tried to nonchalantly look around for Luke, but couldn't find him. There was only so much searching she could do before it stopped looking nonchalant and started looking deliberate. She turned back to Rory.
"Do you like Jay?"
"She's nice. Jess even gets along with her. He actually shows up to her class almost every day, from what I hear."
"Chemistry? He's probably taking notes on how to make explosives."
"Mom."
"Okay, ignore my previous comment," Lorelai shrugged. "Do you think that Luke likes her?"
"Of course he does." Rory's eyes got a little wider. "You mean like like!"
Lorelai had that hand in the cookie jar expression. "Maybe."
"Nuh uh. You're scared."
"Am not."
"You're scared she's going to snatch him up and then he won't be there in case you decided maybe one day…"
"Fine, maybe I am. Just a little bit. But I'm also thinking about Luke; he hasn't dated anyone that we know of since Rachel left and that was way over a year ago."
"That we know of being the operative word. Maybe he lures attractive female tourist customers up to his apartment at night."
"Rory!"
"You really should have seen the look on your face. It's the same one Grandma gets when you joke about giving me drugs and booze. Like you're horrified that someone would even joke like that, but part of you is afraid it's not a joke."
"Hey, would you look at that? The little huddle is over," Lorelai pointed out, grateful for the distraction. They both waved at Lane.
She ran over to them. "I caught the ball! And I didn't look away, and it didn't smack me in the face!"
"I can hear Kool and the Gang already," Lorelai said. "Celebratory ice cream, anyone?"
"Me please!" Rory said.
"Me too," Lane agreed.
They walked to the parking lot. When they got to the Jeep, Rory and Lane waited for Lorelai to open it. Lorelai stood there for a second.
"Dammit!"
"Left your purse on the bleachers, didn't you?" Rory asked knowingly.
"Well, we can't all be perfect," Lorelai mumbled. "Stay away from strange men," she ordered them, and left the parking lot. She fought her way over the narrow path that led to the ball field against the remaining stragglers who were headed out in the opposite direction. She got to the field and spotted her purse on the floor board below where she'd been sitting. Instead of climbing the damn thing again, she walked under it and reached up, pulling her purse through the crack.
She was turning to go when she saw Luke standing under a tree off the right field area. See, she'd learned something that night about baseball. She was going to go ask him if he wanted a ride, or say goodnight, or something, when she saw that Jay was also with him.
Leave, her mind told her. She obeyed it very, very slowly. So slowly in fact, that a casual observer would have sworn she wasn't leaving at all.
They were a good two hundred feet away, so she couldn't hear one damn thing they were saying. Luke must have said something funny because Jay laughed a little. When did Luke say funny things? Luke wasn't Mr. Funny Pants, so why the hell did Jay keep smiling? Why was Luke smiling? Was he so damn funny he even amused himself?
Luke took Jay's bag from her, and Lorelai watched as Jay took off the baseball hat and pulled her hair from the ponytail. She shook it out and Lorelai wondered why she didn't just blatantly copy the scene from the Little Mermaid where Ariel breaks the surface after turning human and tosses her hair back. It would have been just as subtle.
Luke handed her back the bag when she was done tossing her hair around. Good, he wasn't carrying it for her. Jay took it, shouldering it, but Luke's flannel got caught in the transfer and he stepped closer to her to untangle it.
Lorelai wondered why she was still here when she'd told herself to leave already. She shouldn't be staring at them from under the bleachers like some sort of hobbit. But it was like watching a train wreck. She didn't want to look, but she couldn't stop.
Suddenly, Luke kissed Jay. Not a deep, long kiss, but a quick, lean forward and kiss her lightly then lean back to see her reaction kiss.
Lorelai felt something funny in her chest; maybe she was having a heart attack. Maybe she had indigestion from that ice cream and the hot dog she'd had for dinner. Maybe it was that acid reflux disease they were always advertising pills for on television.
She wanted to turn away and go back, but her feet had completely disobeyed her orders at this point. She watched as Jay's hands tugged on his shirt and she kissed him back. Lorelai didn't have the best view, but she could just tell that this time there was tongue involved.
Her feet finally obeyed her, and she ran the rest of the way back to the jeep, the funniness in her chest still not subsiding.
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Lorelai's finally getting the picture… g
Thanks again to those kind reviewing people. As I'm seriously five minutes away from an anxiety attack, it distracts me from completely stressing out. I won't bore you with details, I just want to let you know how grateful I am. So thank you. ;)
And yes, yes, a thousand times yes, this is a Luke/Lorelai fic. It's just taking it's sweet time.