A/N: Ok, I'm back again with another apology. I'm sorry that it's taken me this long to get this chapter up, but I was in the second semester mainstage, and then I had exams, and then I had to run the house while my mom was in the hospital… Anyway, I'm finally on summer break, and I promise that I'll keep plugging away at this story until I'm happy with it. So here's the latest chapter – hope you like it.
Summary: Rory has mono. Luke/Lorelai friendly, Jess/Rory friendly (but I'm not sure if they'll actually get together or not). In the last chapter, Rory had a trippy Jane Austen dream. From here on in, I'm not going to be going day-by-day, so there will be about a week passing between the chapters. This time, a week and a half has passed.
Chapter 7: Saturday
On Saturday morning, Rory woke up feeling strangely fine. Her body was relaxed and it felt somewhat renewed – not like her usual continual exhaustion. A quick glance at her clock told her that it was nearly a quarter after eleven. Seeing four ones in a row the digital face made her quickly close her eyes again and make a quick wish in her head. This done, she sat up and pushed the blankets off her lap. She would make the most of the time she had. And the first thing that would have to happen was a shower. Rory pulled on her robe and made her way to the bathroom, only to hear the sound of running water as she neared the room. Momentarily put out at Lorelai for stealing the shower before she could, Rory quickly got over the feeling and went back to her room. She knew that Lorelai could be in the bathroom for at least half an hour, so she booted up her laptop and opened her Societies textbook to the assigned reading. She'd answer questions until the bathroom was available.
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Rory had just typed the answer to the last question her teacher had assigned for the week when she heard the bathroom door creak open, and the unmistakable padding of Lorelai's bare feet coming down the hall. A soft knock on the door preceded Lorelai's entrance into Rory's bedroom. Rory smiled at her mother, who had a pink towel wrapped around her head and a shocked look on her face.
"Surprise! I'm up."
"Well, paint me purple and call me Morton. So you are." Lorelai's surprise quickly left and was replaced with a sense of purpose. "Alright, how much energy do you have?"
Rory did a mental check-up of her body. She wasn't as relaxed as she had been earlier, but she wasn't completely fatigued, either. "I think I can get some work done today. I'm already done my Societies assignment, and I'd like to finish off those Trig equations before I get too zonked again."
Lorelai pulled a face at the idea of spending a perfect October Saturday doing math, but soon brightened up. "Ok, well, here's some trig to start you off: If Train A is headed for station Bathroom and Train B is headed for station Luke's, and station Bathroom is fifteen feet away and station Luke's is about 5 miles away, how long will it take Train A to wash her hair?"
"Mom, that question makes no sense, and it's not even trigonometry. But, I will keep my shower short, and by the time you get back from Luke's, I should be out. Maybe."
Lorelai beamed at her daughter. "All those brains and gorgeous, too. I'll be back in two shakes of a doggie-on-a-dashboard head." Lorelai left Rory's room and would have gone straight to Luke's if Rory hadn't called out to remind her that maybe she should blow-dry her hair, or at least lose the towel, before showing herself in public. After quickly scrunching her hair in the towel, Lorelai threw it into a braid – she'd let it air dry – and threw on jeans and a red shirt. As she left the house, she heard the shower running.
As Lorelai started the Jeep, a smile crossed her face. She knew that Rory had work to do, but Lorelai had a better idea for the day. She backed out of the driveway quickly and headed in to town. It seemed that all the stars had aligned on this particular day, because there was an open parking spot right in front of Luke's. The bell jingled happily as Lorelai breezed through the door, and surprisingly, there were only three customers in the diner.
"Hey, Luke!" The man looked up and half-smiled at Lorelai. He couldn't help himself; her energy was contagious. It was good to see her smiling after so many days of worry and rushed meals. "I need your help with something. Please?"
"I refuse to participate in anything illegal, but aside from that, I'll do what I can. What do you need?"
"A lobotomy and some tights." At Luke's confused look, Lorelai waved her hand in the air. "The Breakfast Club was on TBS last night. I swear, when that movie came out, I looked exactly like Molly Ringwald, except for the red hair, and the fact that I was pregnant. Minor details. Anyway, I need a thermos full of coffee… no, make that two, and two cheeseburgers and – no wait, those will get cold and the lettuce will wilt… Ok, I need two orders of pancakes to go, four donuts, also to go, and throw together some sandwiches, please. To go."
Luke was quickly jotting all of this information down. "What kind of sandwiches?"
"Um, what tastes best?"
"Tomato, lettuce, and cheese on sourdough."
"Great, then I'll have tomato, lettuce, bacon, and cheese on white. With lots of mayo. And could you slice them in triangles and put those fancy crinkle-top toothpicks in them? The coloured ones?"
Luke cast a weary glance at Lorelai. "I don't have those toothpicks. Will regular ones do?"
Lorelai pouted, then brightened up. "No, it's ok, I'll pop over to Doose's and pick some up. Do you have a basket and a picnic blanket?"
"Yeah, but they're buried under the crinkle-top toothpicks." The sarcasm was obvious. "Although…"
"Although what? C'mon, tell me!"
"I might still have the basket that I bought during that stupid basket auction."
"Hey, that basket was darn good."
"Yeah, the basket was ok. The food inside would have given a health inspector reason to throw you in jail, but the basket itself wasn't edible, which means it has likely managed to survive in the back of my closet."
"Well, I don't know whether to feel warm and fuzzy that you know exactly where the basket is, or insulted because you just threw it into your closet."
With a sharp exhalation of breath, Luke put down his order pad. "Look, do you want my help or not?"
Lorelai's face took on a more serious look. "I do want your help. Thank you, Luke. You always help me when I need you. Need it, that is… need help. You always help me when I need help. You know, help is a really funny word. And a great Beatles song."
"Lorelai… go get your crinkle-top toothpicks. I'll have your food ready soon."
With a quick smile, Lorelai turned and left the diner, and Luke went into the kitchen, humming 'Help'.
A few minutes later, Lorelai returned, clutching a box of toothpicks in her right hand. "Luke, can you put one colour in each triangle? There are red, green, blue, and yellow toothpick crinkle-toppers, and I want each triangle to be a different colour. You know, four triangles, four colours."
Luke rolled his eyes, but took the box of toothpicks and soon returned with three styrofoam takeout trays. "Now, don't just leave these sitting around. They're not good for the environment; I don't even know why I have them here."
Lorelai solemnly agreed to take the trays back home and wash them out before putting them in the recycling. She was halfway out the door when she remembered about the picnic basket. "Oh, hey, Luke, I forgot… can I just grab the picnic basket out of your closet?"
Luke, who was now busy taking an order, nodded distractedly, and Lorelai set down her trays before going upstairs. Suddenly Luke's eyes widened as he remembered that Jess would likely be waking up soon. His worries were soon put aside as he heard a yell from inside his apartment, followed by what sounded like a body hitting the floor. He quickly slapped the order down on the counter behind him, ordered Caesar to take care of things, and ran upstairs. Opening the door to his apartment, he nearly ran into Lorelai, who was standing one foot away from the door with her hands covering her eyes. Facedown on the ground half a room away, lay Jess, clad only in boxer shorts. Hearing movement at the door, the teen looked up, pushed himself off the floor, and stalked back into his bedroom with a look of absolute disgust on his face.
"Lorelai, I'm sorry; I forgot that Jess sleeps until about now on Saturdays."
"Yaaaaaaah. I will never, ever, ever be able to erase that picture from my mind. It may very well be the last thing I think of before I die. I always thought that my last thought would be something like, wow, it's shiny up there, but now I know it'll be, wow, Jess has white little chicken legs. Thanks a lot, Luke."
Luke looked down, hiding a small smile, and scratched the back of his neck. "Sorry. I'm really sorry, Lorelai." His voice, however, betrayed him, as a hint of laughter was shot through his apology.
Lorelai turned around and glared at Luke through chinks in her "protective eyewear"; holes she made by separating her fingers so they formed a diamond around her eyes. This struck the already laughing man as hilarious – Lorelai looked slightly like a tall, angry raccoon. A grin quirked the corners of his mouth, and Luke began laughing, quietly at first, and then louder. Soon he was doubled over, gasping for breath, and Lorelai was giggling, too.
"Lorelai… you look… the look on your face… oh, I wish I had a camera."
"Never, for as long as I live… I have never seen legs that scrawny and white! Never!"
Their laughter ended abruptly as Jess opened his door with a bag, grabbed his coat, and angrily shoved between them and tromped down the stairs. When the bell over the diner door chimed, and they heard the door slam, Lorelai and Luke glanced at each other and began laughing again.
A minute later, Luke had fetched the basket from the back of his closet, and Lorelai put the takeout trays in it. She had remembered that there was a blanket at home that she could use, so in two minutes she was on her way back to get Rory. She put the basket behind the passenger's seat and ran into the house. She found Rory in her room, working on a Trigonometry problem.
"Hey, kiddo, put down your pencil. We're leaving."
"What? But Mom, I have to get this done!"
"Ok, fine, take it with you. Just quit working on it now, put on a coat and shoes, and let's go."
"Where are we going?"
Lorelai grinned. "Wouldn't you like to know?" She held up a head kerchief. "It's a surprise. You'll have to trust me."
Rory looked at her books and sighed. She really should stay inside until all of her work was done, but the prospect of getting out of the house for an hour or two was really tempting. "Alright, I'll leave my work here. But don't let me go to sleep until I've finished this assignment."
"Augh, I could do your homework for you; no one would be the wiser."
"No, we write our two's differently, the teacher would know in a second."
"Spoilsport. You never let me do anything fun." At Rory's quizzical look, Lorelai amended her thought. "Not that Trig is fun, but in a hypothetical perfect world, it would be. Come on; stop dallying. Coat, shoes, bandana over eyes, and we're ready to go."
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Lorelai drove around for fifteen minutes to confuse Rory, and then pulled into the driveway of the Independence Inn. After parking the Jeep, Lorelai grabbed the blanket and basket out of the back seat, and then went to help Rory out of the Jeep. The teen still had the bandana over her eyes, so Lorelai led her. They followed a small path for five minutes before Lorelai stopped them.
"Now… I think it's somewhere around here." She let go of Rory's arm and began pushing aside tree branches at the edge of the path. "Aha! I knew it." Going back to her daughter's side, she gently pulled Rory to the left and parted the branches again. "Ok, Rory, you have to walk slowly as I direct you."
Rory nodded and licked her lips. "I don't like these trust games. The last time I played a trust game was in Miss Patty's beginner ballet class, when you have to fall into your partner's arms… I couldn't sit for a week."
Lorelai grinned at the memory of a six-year-old Rory walking around with a pillow tied to her butt. "Oh, but the pillow. That was worth all of it."
"I'm so glad that my pain brings you happiness." Rory scoffed. "Now, tell me what to do."
"Slide your left foot forward… little more… good. Now right foot, up and over the bump. That's it. Step, step, and then slide with the left again."
"This is starting to sound like ballet lessons again. I don't think I like it."
"Don't worry, you shouldn't fall down if you listen to me. Now, right arm up, cuz there's a branch right at face level. Push that aside, and take two steps." Lorelai followed Rory into a small clearing. "Ok, you can take off the bandana."
Rory did so, and a smile crossed her face as she looked around. "I love this place. I used to play princess here when I was little. I wore that pink dress you made me and I made up princes with names like Frederick and Hobbisan and daydreamed that they came on white horses to rescue me. They always rescued you, too."
Lorelai smiled at the anecdote. "Well, you've got a prince named Dean now… Not quite as fantastic as Hobbisan, but hey, you just don't see many Hobbisans anymore. Especially on white horses." As Lorelai spoke she moved further into the clearing and set the basket on the ground. The grass was damp; the sun wasn't warm enough to completely get rid of the early-October frost, but it had turned into water droplets and was slowly evapourating. Lorelai unfolded the blanket until it was only folded in half. She figured that this would prevent the wetness from seeping into her and Rory's clothes. Moving quickly she set the basket in the middle of the blanket and motioned for Rory to sit down. "Your dinner, madam." With a flourish, she unpacked the trays that held their breakfasts. "I got pancakes. They might be a bit cold, but they should still taste good, right?" Rory nodded in the affirmative, and she and Lorelai tucked into their meals. Once the pancakes were gone (washed down with coffee from one of the thermoses) Lorelai pulled out the sandwiches and handed one to Rory. She watched as her daughter's eyes widened at the sight of the fancy toothpicks.
"Did Luke have these?"
"No, I went and got them. Aren't they cool?"
"They're fun! I like 'em." Rory bit into a triangle. "I think they make the sandwich taste better."
Lorelai laughed. "I'll tell Luke. I'm sure he'll be thrilled that his sandwiches are improved by little splinters of wood with plastic on the tips." Rory giggled in response, and the women continued eating. After the sandwiches, they ate the donuts and drank the rest of the coffee, then flopped onto the blanket and watched the clouds sail overhead. Rory pointed out one that looked like her math teacher, and Lorelai found one that looked like a man on a horse. Soon they got up and went back to the Jeep. They drove home, where Rory managed to finish all but three of her Trig equations before going back to bed. As promised, Lorelai washed out the trays and put them into the recycling bin before settling down on the couch to watch 'The Princess Bride.' Rory woke up in time to see Inigo Montoya get his revenge, and he, Fezzik, Buttercup, and Westley ride off into the sunset.
"You wanted to see someone get rescued and ride away on a white horse, didn't you, Mom?"
Lorelai smiled sadly. "Yeah, I did."
Rory nodded and rested her head on her mother's shoulder. "I wonder if Luke would repaint his truck."
Lorelai craned her head around awkwardly to look at her daughter's face. "Why would Luke repaint his truck?"
Rory shrugged and replied, "I don't know." But as Lorelai turned to watch the end of the movie, a small smile crossed Rory's face. A plan was forming itself in her head, and she'd put it into action as soon as she could.
A/N: Alrighty… There's your new chapter. Now, all I have to do is figure out what exactly to do with Luke and Lorelai. I literally have no idea what will happen. I hate that I'm resorting to this, but if you have an idea of how to get the two of them out on a date, please email them to me at heybinder@hotmail.com. Thanks for your patience with me, and please keep waiting. I promise, I will finish this story this summer.
