Lorelai was taking her lunch break, sitting away from the rush in the kitchen of the Inn. The cook was a large, sweet, round-faced woman who had practically shoved food at her when she came in. So she sat in a chair, happily munching on a leftover pasta dish with shrimp and garlic. Even the baby seemed content to just absorb the nutrients, rather than practice karate inside her. The baby had been unusually active for the past few days, and Lorelai was glad for the break.
The door to the kitchen opened and a woman Lorelai had often seen at the diner came in. She was carrying a clipboard and looked very efficient. "Good afternoon, Sookie," she said to the cook. "How're things coming for that banquet we've got tonight?"
"Hello, Ms. Gilmore," she said, then gasped and covered her mouth. "I'm sorry! I meant—"
"The person who ran this place before me was a stickler for protocol, wasn't he?" the other woman asked. "It's all right, really. Just tell me how the food's doing. I've got a flower delivery that's supposed to be here in five minutes. I swear, if they're late one more time…."
Sookie launched into detail about the menu and the preparations for the banquet. Lorelai had been helping to clean and prepare their event hall for the big shindig, so she listened curiously to find out what the big deal was. Not that she understood a single thing that Sookie said. Oh, sure, she got the general terms like, "lettuce," "soup" and "appetizer," but beyond that she was lost. It all sounded delicious, though.
"Well, that sounds great, Sookie," the woman said, and patted the woman on the shoulder. "You'll let me know if there's any trouble, right?" When the redhead nodded emphatically, the woman smiled. "Well, I'll check in again before the banquet starts if I don't hear from you. Bye."
"Bye, Ms. Gilmore. Oops! Sorry! Bye Lorelai!"
"Thanks, Sookie," the woman said, smiling as she left the kitchen.
The noodles Lorelai had been about to swallow immediately came back up as she began to cough. One of them went halfway up her nose. An assistant cook came over and handed her a glass of water and asked her if she was okay. She nodded and managed to croak, "Just went down the wrong pipe." She drank the water until she felt she could breathe again.
As she finished her plate of food, she didn't notice that she didn't taste the garlic and shrimp, or that her hand was shaking as she brought the food mechanically to her mouth. She didn't notice anything. Her work for the rest of the day didn't suffer, but she barely recognized she was doing it.
She hadn't heard what she thought she had. That was all there was to it. It would be far too big a coincidence if her birth mother were in Stars Hollow at the same time she was. That was just too horrific to contemplate.
"Lorelai!" Jess said. She entered the diner looking shell-shocked. He rushed to her, and took her elbow. Only when he actually touched her did she see him.
"Oh, Jess, hi," she said absently. Then she looked around. "Oh. When did I get here?"
"Are you all right? Is something wrong?" he demanded.
She almost began to laugh, and had to stifle the slightly hysterical urge. "No," she said, and made a little coughing noise. "No. Nothing's wrong. Just weird." She paused slightly then focused on him. "Did you know there's another Lorelai in town?"
Luke froze, and almost over-poured a mug of coffee. "Ooh, jeez," he said, wiping up the dollop he'd spilled. "I'm sorry." He and Jess exchanged glances, and he jerked his head upstairs. Jess nodded and began to pull her towards the curtain. She went without any hesitation, which Jess saw as a bad sign.
When they were upstairs, he sat her down on the couch. "Lorelai," he said, and waved a hand in front of her face. "Come on. You've got to snap out of it. You're freaking me out here."
She blinked several times, then batted his hand away. "Knock it off, Jess," she said irritably. "I'm in shock, okay. I'll get over it. It's not every day that I find someone who in all likelihood is my birth mother in a town of less than ten thousand people." She mulled that thought over for a moment, then gave into the laughter tickling her throat.
When the first giggle popped out of her mouth, Jess didn't know quite what to do. Normally, he would join in on her contagious laughter. But this was almost scary. She was hysterical. "Not to mention she owns the place where I work," she added, giggling through the words. "And—" she hiccuped—"And she comes into the diner every day. Oh, God, this is too funny!"
He put his arm around her shoulder and pulled her to him, stroking her hair and her arm as she laughed and laughed. "I'm sorry," she managed to gasp out once. "It's just …so unexpected. It's this huge coincidence…." That was all she could say before she began laughing again, her forehead on his shoulder, her whole body shaking.
At some point, she began crying, and she eventually subsided to quiet weeping, curled in his arms on the sofa.
After she'd cried herself out, she fell asleep, and Jess laid her on the couch and covered her with the blanket he'd been using. She curled into the pillow and sighed, her face red and tear-streaked from her crying jag.
Jess shook his head as he went back down to the diner. He greeted his uncle by saying grimly, "The shit has hit the fan." Luke didn't even bother to snipe at him for the profanity. He just nodded, and the two went into the storeroom to confer. "My Lorelai did not take it well," Jess told him, propping himself up against a box-laden table. "I think she's afraid Gilmore will reject her if she finds out about the baby."
Luke sighed heavily. "So…does she know you knew?"
Jess rolled his eyes. "I hate it when sentences start to sound like that. But, no, she didn't know. She remarked on what astronomical odds led to her and her birth mother both settling in a town the size of Stars Hollow and then began laughing hysterically. Then she started crying and fell asleep. It was horrible." He abruptly slammed his fist through the top of a box, cracking his knuckles on the top of a pickle jar. "I couldn't do anything! I can't help with this situation: I can't make it better. In fact, I might be making it worse if she finds out I knew." He raked his hands through his hair in impotent frustration.
"This is emotional stuff, Jess," Luke said quietly, watching his nephew have a nervous breakdown. "They're both going to have to work through it their own way."
"Yeah, easy for you to say," Jess said bitterly. "You weren't up there while she was crying her heart out." He squeezed his eyes shut. "And stress can't be good for the baby."
"What's wrong?" asked a concerned voice from the doorway. Both men jumped guiltily and turned to see the elder Lorelai looking at them. "There was nobody at the counter, and I heard you guys talking," she said by way of explanation. "What's wrong?" she asked again.
"Nothing!" Luke blurted out quickly, eyes wide. He felt panic stirring and tried to suppress it.
"It's just been a long day," Jess said.
"Yeah," Lorelai said, nodding. "I've got to go back to the Inn soon. We've got this big function. But I heard that we'd hired your girlfriend," she added. "I haven't gotten around to welcoming her personally, but no complaints so far from her immediate boss. Tell her she's doing a good job."
"I will," Jess assured her. She looked at Luke and cleared her throat expectantly.
"Oh! Yeah!" Luke jumped into action, and Lorelai raised her eyebrows at his odd behavior. "Can I get you something?"
"Do you even really need to ask any more?"
"Coffee it is," he said.
There was an expectant pause while she sat on the other side of the counter. "No arguments?" she asked as he began to pour her a mug. "No comments about how caffeine is addictive and bad and will eventually kill me?"
Luke shrugged, dismally failing to look casual. "I figure you've heard it before."
"Okay, seriously," Lorelai said. "If there's something wrong, maybe I could help. You know, give you a woman's perspective."
Jess and Luke exchanged glances. "No, really," Luke said. "I think we'll be okay. She's just having a tough day."
"Was work bad?" she asked. "I know it was a stressful day, but we don't have events like this all the time, thank God. Not every day is going to be this hectic."
"I'll pass that along," Jess said, and went to help other customers, leaving his uncle alone with the older Lorelai. He hoped his uncle could handle it.
"So, really," she asked, lowering her voice. "How're things going with the baby and all?"
"Fine, actually," Luke said. "They've got a doctor's appointment Saturday. The baby's due sometime in May."
"Well, I know how the job search went," she said. "But what about the apartment hunting?"
Luke shook his head, relieved they were sticking to innocuous topics. "No word on that yet. She filled out some applications, but no one's called."
She hummed as she took a large drink of her coffee. "I'm pretty sure one of the units in my building is open," she said. "What price range is she looking at?"
Luke shrugged. "I don't know. I know she filled out an application for one of them on your street, I just don't know for sure which one. She filled out one for a two-bedroom one bath, kitchen/living room."
She shrugged, and a moment later her cell phone rang. Luke scowled and pointed at the prominent sign behind the counter. She studied the caller ID. "The Inn. I guess I'll be leaving."
"See you for breakfast?" he asked, and she nodded and left, phone at her ear. He was so intent on watching her he didn't notice that Jess was once again at his side.
"Oh, no," Jess said, keeping his voice as low as he could. "Do not make this situation any more complicated than it already is." Luke turned and scowled at his nephew.
"What are you babbling about?" he muttered as he shoved past Jess.
"Luke," Jess said warningly. "It's way too twisted if you were going to fall for my girlfriend's mother." Thankfully, he kept his voice low, and the noise level at the diner was enough that no one overheard it.
"Look," Luke said, and stalked back to the back room. Jess followed. "She's pretty, smart, and a nice person. She's crazy, but I can deal with that. But I can keep myself under control." He began to stalk back out. "Oh," he added, spinning back around. "For the record, I'm her friend. That's all. That's all she feels about me, too."
He didn't wait for Jess' response before he left the back room. When Jess was certain his uncle was gone, he let out a loud groan. "Oh, jeez," he muttered to himself, knowing that the situation would get more confusing before it sorted itself out. Stupid Lorelais, he thought grimly. There was just something the Danes men couldn't resist about them, apparently. Because Luke was already on his way towards caring about his girlfriend's mother, who was also his baby's–Luke's grand niece or -nephew's–grandmother.
"I jinxed myself with that whole, 'small towns are soap operas beneath the surface,' thing I told Lorelai." Maybe now that she knew, he could ask her about calling her Lori, or something like that, to help avoid confusion.
He emerged from the back room just in time to see his Lorelai coming down the stairs, looking very pale and very tired. She'd changed into a large sweatshirt and leggings, which were basically her sleep clothes. He was immediately at her side, and she leaned on him. "I'm okay," she murmured.
"You liar," he said. "What happened upstairs is a long way from okay."
"Fine," she said, frowning at him. "I will be okay. Now get me some coffee."
Jess realized it would be pushing his luck to continue talking about this, so he got her a mug of coffee and went about his work. After several minutes, she seemed to have calmed down, and he deemed it safe to approach her again. "So, I've been thinking," she said.
Jess felt faint stirrings of unease, but ignored them. "About?"
"You didn't seem surprised," she told him, her voice holding almost no inflection. She held up a hand when he opened his mouth. "Don't worry. I know now why you asked if I wanted to find my birth mother." She laughed without humor. "Must've freaked you out big time when I told you I didn't."
"So…you're not mad I didn't tell you?" he asked.
"I kept this a secret from you," she said, gesturing at her stomach. "And for a lot longer. But I can imagine how hard it must have been. Looking back, I can see your nervousness whenever she and I were in the diner together."
Jess shook his head in relief. "I kept wondering how you'd find out."
"Oh, jeez," she said, slapping herself on the forehead. "And the Inn! That must've given you a heart attack when I told you I'd applied for a job there."
"You're not going to start laughing again, are you?" Jess asked, concerned.
"I'm not really going to do anything right now," she told him honestly. "I feel drained. I'm definitely going to bed early tonight."
"Okay," he said agreeably. "What do you want for dinner?"
"I'd like a BLT, actually," she said. "Fries, milkshake."
"Coming right up," Jess said, and squeezed her hand before going back to call in the order.
She sighed and laid her head on her forearms on the counter. She'd told the truth: she felt completely drained of everything. Energy, thoughts, feelings had all fled while she was asleep on the couch. Everything happening to her was overwhelming. Abruptly, her eyes focused on Jess as he worked. Without her being aware of it, a small smile formed on her lips.
He was absolutely perfect, she thought idly. She again told herself how lucky she was. You'd better tell yourself that every day for the rest of your life, she thought vehemently. No matter how tough things get, you're one of the luckiest teen mothers in recorded history. Never, ever forget that.
"Hey, Lorelai," Luke said, and she slowly raised her head to look at him, tearing her eyes from her boyfriend. "You should go upstairs. Jess can bring the food up to you."
"Why don't you call me Lori," she said, the small smile still in place. "I know about the other Lorelai now, so things could get really confusing. So just call me Lori." She tested it out a few times in her head, and nodded in satisfaction. "And thanks," she added. "But I think I'll stay down here. It's comfortable."
"Could you at least sit in a chair?" he asked her.
"Luke, do you believe for one moment that I wouldn't change my seat if it wasn't comfortable?" she asked, feeling humor stirring.
He considered this, then acknowledged the logic. "You'd be off that stool like a shot," he agreed, and went to serve the other customers.
She fluctuated between being hyper aware of time, and not noticing its passing. She ate, then continued to sit and let her mind meander wherever it wanted to go.
While Luke and Jess were cleaning up after closing, she shifted on the stool, suddenly aware that her back hurt in the same place it had been the night before. She raised her head just as familiar hands began to knead the small of her back, and let her forehead fall back onto her arms. "So you guys are closing up?" she asked, her voice muffled.
"Yeah," Jess said quietly from behind her. "Time for bed."
"Hmm," she nearly purred. "In a minute." He chuckled slightly, and continued to soothe her muscles. He began to pull away, and she reached back and caught his hand, pulling him to her as she turned. "We're going to be okay, Jess," she whispered as he pressed himself against her. She kissed him lightly then hugged him, her head resting on his chest. "Maybe everything won't go perfectly," she continued. "But we will be okay."
"I know," he told her, then pulled her up into the apartment. He clicked off the lights in the diner, noting his uncle had left them alone. "I love you, Lorelai," he said, and tucked her into bed. He kissed her forehead. "Night."
"Nigh'," she murmured, and was asleep before he got into his own bed on the couch.
