Act One

Lorelai was putting the finishing touches on her makeup on Friday morning. She wore it 'natural' that day, as her and Sookie planned painting some of the rooms in the inn. She briefly checked her hair once again to make sure that her braids were secure. Braids were actually a cute look on her, something she was thankful for that morning as Luke was going to help them paint. They hadn't really talked about that night two weeks ago when he'd walked her home, but there was still something between them and Lorelai wanted to impress.

The phone rang. "I'll get it," Lorelai hollered down the stairs to Rory.

"Okay!" Rory called out.

"Hello, Busty's Truckstop," Lorelai greeted into the phone.

"Good lord, do you always answer the phone in that way?" Emily replied over the line, sounding quite scandalized.

"Hi Mom," Lorelai forced out a pleasant voice as she rolled her eyes. "No, not always. Sometimes I answer Joe's House of Meat or else Hootie McBoobs Brothel."

"I certainly hope that you don't teach that to Rory," Emily scolded. "It's barbaric."

"What's up Mom?" Lorelai cut in impatiently.

"I was just calling to make sure that you are still coming over for dinner tonight, now that Rory will be out of town."

"Is it Friday?" Lorelai asked.

"Yes," Emily sounded shocked that she didn't know the day.

"Then I'm coming over," Lorelai deadpanned. She suddenly brightened. "Unless you wanted to call it off this week?"

"Of course not," Emily said. "I also wanted to let you know that your father has invited some old friends that he ran into last night. Since it will be five of us, and that is an awkward number, I thought you might like to bring a guest with you."

"Who did you have in mind?" Lorelai had a sneaking suspicion that her mother was up to something.

"Oh, I don't know," Emily replied, her voice dripping with false innocence. "Perhaps that man who always wears the sweaters, or that fellow from the photo store where Rory works."

"Taylor and Kirk?!" Lorelai cried out in shock. "You're joking right?"

"Or maybe even that Luke that you are so fond of," Emily finished suggestively.

Lorelai sighed. "Why would Luke want to come for dinner Mom?"

"Why not?" Emily asked in return, daring Lorelai to give her a reason.

"I'll see you later Mom," Lorelai sighed again.

"Good bye," Emily replied politely and hung up the phone before Lorelai could hang up on her. Lorelai rolled her eyes at her mother's antics, and checked herself quickly in the mirror once more.

Finally satisfied with her appearance, she bounded down the stairs into the kitchen. "Rory, you won't believe what your crazy grandmother just told me-" she stopped talking as she came around the corner and into the kitchen, where Rory and Luke sat talking at the table. "Hi!" she said to him in surprise.

"Hey," he replied, taking a sip of his drink. "I'm early, sorry."

"No that's fine," Lorelai waved her hand and poured herself some coffee, then sat down beside Luke, across from Rory.

"What did Grandma say?" Rory asked her, reminding her of what she was saying.

"Oh," Lorelai hesitated, unsure of whether or not she wanted to tell Luke. "She wants me to bring someone to dinner tonight. Apparently Dad invited some old friends and she thought that I would feel weird being the fifth wheel." Rory shrugged. "What are you doing?" she asked Rory and Luke, and gestured to the pile of pictures on the table.

"I'm showing Luke our pictures," Rory smiled, obviously enjoying playing tour guide for him. "Graduation pictures and Europe pictures."

"I like the Oxford pictures," Luke added, picking up a shot of a smiling Rory in front of the Oxford University sign. "Nice campus."

"I know, that was one of my favorites," Rory added gleefully. Lorelai smiled softly behind her coffee cup at the sight of Luke and Rory together.

"So, are you all packed?" she asked Rory.

"Yep," Rory nodded. "Suitcases are by the door, money's in my bag. I'm all ready."

"Are you going to bring these to show your dad?" Luke asked, peering at a graduation photo of Lorelai and Rory in her cap and gown. He looked over to Rory when she didn't reply and noticed that she had suddenly grown silent, the smile on her face now faded. "Rory?" he asked again, worried this time.

"Ror," Lorelai leaned over the table slightly, looking her daughter straight in the eye. "You know he wanted to be there."

"I know," Rory replied quietly, and Luke suddenly realized that she was hurt that her father didn't come to her graduation.

"Sweetie, I thought you were okay with him not being there?" Lorelai sounded confused. Luke stayed silent, but he was pretty sure that Rory wasn't okay with it, no matter how hard she tried to convince herself otherwise. "He had to work, it was unavoidable."

"I know," Rory said again. She glanced down at one of the pictures by Luke; one of the ones Sookie took of Lorelai, Rory and Luke. "He has to work a lot." Her comment held a tone of resentment "Unavoidable?" Rory sounded doubtful. "Or was my graduation just less important?"

Lorelai didn't know what to say to her. In her opinion, Rory's graduation took precedence over everything, but then, her and Chris were very different parents. "At least it'll be nice to see him," Luke said, trying to be helpful. He wasn't really, but Rory had to smile at the fact that he bothered to try.

She nodded to him; she actually was glad to see her dad, even if she was still sore about her graduation. "Yeah, it will be," she told them. Lorelai smiled and checked her watch, and then groaned.

"We have to go," she said to Luke. "Sookie is meeting us at the hardware store in fifteen minutes." Luke nodded and they both stood up to get going.

"Have a good time Rory," Luke told her, ruffling her hair.

"Bye, have fun filled painting day," she laughed at him.

"Bite your tongue," Lorelai spat comically. "Painting will be the best part of my day."

"Oh, yeah, the Gilmore dinner," Rory sighed in sympathy. Her face suddenly lit up with an idea. "Why don't you bring Luke?" Luke looked uncomfortable, and thought that maybe they forgot that he was in the room. Lorelai, on the other hand, seemed to be considering it.

"Hey, yeah," both girls turned to look at Luke. "Do you want to come with me?" Luke looked skeptical.

"To your parents?" Luke asked.

"Don't worry Luke," Rory looked accusingly at her mother. "Not all Gilmore's make you cook for them." Luke smiled slightly as Lorelai scowled at her.

"Well," Luke drawled hesitantly. "I guess I wouldn't mind seeing them again."

"Really?" Lorelai asked, surprised that anyone would want to speak to her parents.

"Ignore her," Rory said again. "She just can't comprehend that not everyone hates Richard and Emily Gilmore."

"I don't hate them," Lorelai protested. "We just really don't get along. So you'll come?" she looked up at Luke hopefully, and made her lip pout slightly.

"Fine," he agreed and tried to sound annoyed, but was secretly pleased that they thought of him.

Rory smiled to herself a few minutes later while she picked up the photos. Luke and Lorelai had finally left to meet Sookie, after saying goodbye and some almost-tears from Lorelai. Her mother and Luke may not be ready to admit it yet, but Rory wasn't blind; she had the feeling that if things kept progressing the way that they were, she'd be calling him 'Daddy Luke' one day.

* * *

"What do think of pink?" Sookie asked holding up a can of pink paint for Luke and Lorelai to see. They were standing in the middle of an empty room with primed walls. She was covered in smears of paint and her overalls had a smiley face painted on over her now enlarged tummy, just over the baby, courtesy of Lorelai.

"In the honeymoon suite?" Lorelai looked unsure.

"You can't paint the honeymoon suite pink," Luke said firmly.

"Why not?" Sookie asked him.

"You just can't," he assured her. "If I was on my honeymoon I couldn't stand looking at pink walls the whole time."

Lorelai snickered. "Poor Luke. It wouldn't be a very great honeymoon if you spent it looking at the walls."

Luke turned red. "Shut up!" he told her, then turned to Sookie. "What you do is paint the room a nice ivory or bream color, then use flowers and furnishings for the color."

Sookie looked at him and smirked. "Now that you've gotten in touch with your VERY feminine side." Sookie joked and he scowled at her. "But I think you're right about the walls. I vote for the ivory."

"I say the cream," Lorelai chimed in. "The honeymoon suite should definitely have a creamy colored wall." She tried not to snicker as Luke blinked at her in annoyance.

"Dirty!" Sookie said. "Okay Luke what color do you think?"

Luke looked around the room and tried to ignore Lorelai's pouting as he replied: "I think the ivory." Lorelai pouted even more. "Cut that out," he said to her.

"Woo," Sookie cried in her usual exuberant way. "Ivory it is." She opened one of the cans of ivory paint that they'd bought earlier; they painted the kitchen ivory and had got a dozen cans of it upon Lorelai's insistence.

They each took a wall and started painting. By the time Jackson arrived with lunch for them, the room was almost done and Luke was touching up the high spots. "Thanks Jackson," Sookie greeted him with a kiss. "Luke's almost done. It would've been done already if he would have just let me do it before instead of arguing with me for fifteen minutes," she cried over her shoulder to Luke.

"I told you," Luke replied as he climbed down the ladder, finished with the wall. "You're not climbing anything for at least four more months."

"Thank you," Jackson said to him pointedly; he'd had this conversation with Sookie as well.

"I'm hungry," Lorelai whined. They all agreed to eat, and Luke and Jackson brought the food downstairs to the lobby, where they had chairs and a table already. "Go on ahead," Lorelai told Sookie. "I'm just going to call Rory." She pulled her phone out of her pocked and dialed.

"Hello?" Rory answered over the line.

"Hi babe, are you all ready to go?" Lorelai asked her.

"Yep," Rory replied. They should be here any minute-" Rory stopped at the sound of a car horn. "Oh, Mom they're here."

"Alright, have fun okay?" Lorelai said, feeling kind of sad about her daughter going away, even if it was just for the weekend.

"I will," Rory sniffed and Lorelai suspected that she might be crying. "I'll call you tomorrow from Dad's."

"Say hi to them for me," Lorelai frowned slightly as she remembered their earlier conversation about Christopher. "Love you."

"I love you too," Rory said. "Bye." Rory hung up and Lorelai sniffled.

"You okay?" Sookie asked from behind her on the stairs. Lorelai pouted and Sookie smiled sympathetically. "Come on, Jackson brought you coffee."

At this, Lorelai brightened and followed Sookie back to the food.

Commercial Break.