Chapter Three

Hope you brought a toothbrush

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"Damn it, Michel, just try the frosting!!!"

Lorelai smiled, hearing Sookie calling after Michel as he left the kitchen in a hurry.

"You ought to pay me more to work with her," he said to Lorelai, resuming his position at the front desk.

"Why?" Lorelai asked. "You're annoyed that she asked you to try some of her amazing buttercream frosting? Most people would pay ME to have a job like that."

Michel sighed. "Well most people are also fat."

Lorelai sighed. "I would scold you for that extremely insensitive comment, but I'm not going to, because I finally understand the source of your bitterness."

"Really? Enlighten me then."

Lorelai grinned. "You're just pissy all the time because you never eat ice cream, which lord knows, is the answer to all of life's troubles." Michel rolled his eyes, but Lorelai continued. "I mean honestly, I'd be bitter too, if I never ate junk food. I mean, especially working here, what with Sookie making cookies and cakes all kinds of stuff that's just SWIMMING in sugar. I mean, strawberry short cake, baked Alaska, lemon meringue pies, double chocolate cookies, raspberry glaze on cheescakes, vanilla-"

"In case you hadn't noticed, I am ignoring you now."

"Party Pooper," Lorelai said. "I was just about to get to all the good desserts." She sighed and left him to go find Sookie in the kitchen.

"Hey, I'll try the frosting if Michel's too much of a tight-ass to do it himself!" Lorelai volunteered, sitting at the counter as Sookie worked. "You can always count on me to rise to the occasion."

Sookie grinned, handing Lorelai a spoon. "Here you go. I bet you'll love it, it's chocolate buttercream with extra chocolate."

"Hey," Lorelai said, taking the spoon greedily, "Anything with the words butter, cream, and extra chocolate in it is ok in my book. Hand it over." Lorelai tasted it greedily, obviously enjoying every second of it. "Ugh. I'm in heaven. Sookie, you're a goddess."

"Thank you," Sookie said with a giggle.

"Seriously," Lorelai continued. "This frosting could coax Luke back to the Dark side. He'd be a sugar addict for the rest of his life after tasting this; it's just THAT good."

Sookie smirked. "Speaking of Luke Danes," she said, eager for gossip, "What's going on with you two lately? Last I heard, you were planning to have a date."

Lorelai sighed. "Well, we were... and then all this stuff with Jess happened, and he's been acting weird, like it never even happened."

"Well did you try to bring it up?"

Lorelai nodded. "We talked about it once, after everything with Jess and Rory was resolved. But it just turned into a big joke, just like it always does with us." She sighed. "I dunno, maybe we were all wrong, and he really doesn't think of me as anything more than the crazy sugar-craving lady who drinks all his coffee and keeps him company at the counter when he's desperate for conversation."

Sookie laughed. "Ha! Yeah right."

"I'm serious," Lorelai insisted. "I'm not feeling the vibe anymore like I was before. Maybe I was just going through a temporary insanity."

"Lorelai, if I were you, I wouldn't trust myself to pick up on Luke's real feelings. He's been in love with you for years, and you only just figured it out a couple weeks ago. You don't have a great track record, in terms of reading his signals correctly."

Lorelai wrinkled her nose. "Don't say stuff like that."

"Like what?"

"'He's been in LOVE with you for years.' It freaks me out."

"Why?"

"I don't know. I mean the word 'love'. It's such a big deal, you know? I can accept that Luke may have had a little bit of a crush on me for a while, but... it's just too weird to think he's been in LOVE with me."

Sookie rolled her eyes. "Lorelai, you're 35. I think it's time you got over that whole 'like, not love' thing."

Lorelai chuckled. "Ha. You say that as though you think I'm emotionally mature, when we both know that in reality, I have the mind of a 14 year old."

Sookie ignored her excuses. "He's probably just a little weirded out by this whole Jess thing. I bet he still really wants to go out with you, he's just too distracted to do it right now."

Lorelai sighed. "So what are you suggesting? That we schedule a date for sometime after Jess gets back from New York or something."

"You don't have to schedule anything," Sookie said. "Just make sure he knows you're still interested so that he doesn't give up hope."

"And how exactly am I supposed to do that?"

Sookie rolled her eyes. "You know how, Lorelai, you've done it a million times. You put on some floral perfume and a cute skirt-"

"Oh yeah, you gotta show some thigh."

"-and a cute shirt-"

"Cleavage gets their attention every time."

"-and you spend ten extra minutes fixing your hair so it's perfect and shiny-"

"And in perfect condition for both flipping AND twirling in my fingers."

"-And you flirt with him so he KNOWS you like him. Just like you did with Alex."

Lorelai sighed. "That was different. Alex and I had stuff in common to make small talk about, like... coffee, and running businesses..."

"Luke runs a business," Sookie said. "And he makes a good 80 percent of the coffee you drink."

"Yeah, but Alex and I AGREED about that stuff. Luke and I just argue about it."

Sookie sighed, frustrated. "Lorelai, this isn't that hard. All you have to do is say something nice to him."

"Like what? Nice baseball cap, it makes you look just dreamy?"

"I refuse to dictate this to you," Sookie insisted. "You'll just have to figure out how to flirt with Luke on your own." She whisked away the bowl of frosting from a frowning Lorelai to continue her work.

Lorelai crossed her arms and pouted. "Fine. But I won't ask him out myself! I draw the line at asking men out! I REFUSE to wear the pants in this relationship."

Sookie smirked. "That's fine. I'm sure Luke wouldn't mind your decision not to wear pants."

Lorelai rolled her eyes, standing up. "Hey! Get your mind out of the gutter, lady, this is a professional environment."

"Says the lady eating frosting out of a bowl with a baby spoon," Sookie teased.

Lorelai took another spoonful of frosting. "I'm the boss, I can eat frosting however I want." She headed out the door to go back to the front desk.

"Yeah, like off of Luke's fingers?"

Lorelai plugged her ears, walking away. "LALALA, I CAN'T HEAR YOU!!!"

Sookie chuckled to herself as Lorelai left. It was gonna take a miracle to get those two together.

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Rory sat nervously in Taylor's soda Shoppe with Lane, Dave, Zak and Brian. The four band mates had decided to take a break from practicing in Rory's garage to have some root beer floats and discuss which song by Echo and the Bunnymen they most wanted to do a cover of. Rory had tagged along; she had grown to be pretty good friends with all of Lane's band mates since they'd started rehearsing in her garage. She liked hanging out with them after rehearsals.

But today, she couldn't seem to focus on the conversation at their table. Her mind kept wandering to the cryptic, vague message she'd found on her message machine when she'd come home from breakfast at Al's pancake world.

"Hey," he'd said, sounding strange. Dejected, almost. "I told you I'd call when something happened, so... here it is." Jess paused for a long time after saying this. "Just... I'll call you later. Bye."

She'd tried to call him immediately, but he didn't answer. She must have tried to call him 30-something times. No answer. And no matter how many reasons Lane gave her not to get too worked up about it, she was worried. So worried, she couldn't concentrate on anything else. What had he meant? He seemed to be implying that something had happened, something important. Was it something good or bad? His tone of voice made it seem bad. But then again, she could have just been imagining that.

"Whoa, Rory, are you alright?" Dave's voice shocked her back into reality.

"What?" she said, caught off guard, but she recovered quickly. "Oh, I'm fine."

He looked skeptic. "Are you sure?" he asked. "Cuz... I don't mean to doubt you, but... I've never seen anyone's leg jitter quite so violently in my entire life."

Rory looked down, embarrassed, and suddenly conscious of her shaking leg. She giggled a little. "It must be all the sugar."

"Oh," Zak nodded, "What a drag."

Lane rolled her eyes as an oblivious Zak continued eating the candy he'd bought and rambling about how much easier it would be to just perform 2 songs by Echo and the Bunnymen.

"Are you alright?" She mouthed silently to Rory across the table. Rory nodded, even though they both knew it wasn't true. Impulsively, Rory stood.

"I'm gonna go over to Luke's," she announced. "To get some real food."

"Hey, while you're over there, could you get me some fries?" Zak asked, getting out his wallet to give Rory some money.

"No she can't Zak," Dave replied for her. He had enough sense to see that something was up with Rory, most likely something having to do with Jess. So he tried to shield her from Zak's occasional insensitive stupidity as well as he could.

Rory flashed Dave a grateful smile as she headed out of Taylor's Shop. She was so glad he had found Lane. He was such a great guy. They really deserved each other.

Rory had to use decorum to keep from running into Luke's. As soon as she got inside, she felt all eyes on her. What with all the chaos and drama between herself and Jess lately, her presence in the diner was being very closely observed. But she avoided everybody's eyes, and headed straight for Luke at the counter.

He smiled awkwardly as she approached him. He still hadn't really gotten over the idea of her and Jess having sex... he felt as though he should be held responsible. He had been in charge of Jess; he could have prevented it.

But on the other hand... she and Jess did seem really happy together. Maybe it was for the best that all this had happened.

"Hey Rory," he said, a little too kindly. He wasn't too good at disguising his awkward feelings.

She smiled a little. "Hey Luke," she said. "Can I ask you for a favor?"

"Anything."

She avoided his eyes. She couldn't lie while looking into people's eyes. "There's this book up in Jess' room that I meant to borrow before he left, but um... I guess I just forgot it, in all the chaos, so I was wondering if I could run up there and look for it?"

Luke eyed her suspiciously. He always got the feeling he was lying to her when she wanted to go up there, whether it was to see Jess or not. But he said, "Sure," anyway. Jess wasn't even in town. What harm could it do?

Thankful, Rory dashed up the stairs and into their apartment. But instead of going to Jess' room, she went straight to the phone. Luckily she found exactly what she'd hoped to find there. Eagerly, she flipped through the pages. M... Mariano. She found what she needed, and quickly copied the information down on the back of a random receipt she'd found in her pocket.

Satisfied that she'd made her first step in the right direction, she was about to turn to the door and leave. But of course, she realized Luke would be suspicious if she returned without a book. So she went into Jess' room to grab a random book off the shelf.

Of course, once she went in and closed the door behind her, she lost sight of the task at hand. It was so strange; she'd been in his room so many times. But always with him in it. It looked strange and bare without him, and with some of his clothes and books gone. And when her eyes settled on his bedside table, she couldn't resist the temptation. Quietly, she sat on the side of the bed and opened the drawer.

Her heart nearly melted at what she saw. A pile of photos, not very cleverly hidden underneath an old book. And every single one was of Rory, or Rory and Jess together. Every one had little fingerprints all along the edges... they'd obviously been admired several times.

It shouldn't have been so surprising. Most boys in long term relationships would be expected to have pictures of their girlfriends in their rooms. But for some reason, this tiny discovery left Rory with no doubt that he loved her, and no doubt about what she wanted to do.

Stopping quickly at the Soda Shoppe to tell Lane where she was headed, Rory went straight back to her house. Determined, she went straight to her bedroom, barely even noticing her mother, stretched out on the couch watching the VH1 true Hollywood story of Aerosmith.

"Hey honey!" Lorelai called through a mouthful of popcorn. "You gotta come see this! Steven Tyler is shamelessly exploiting his daughter in a music video with the girl from Clueless! It's great, come quick!!!"

Rory walked out from her room, her heart beating a mile a minute. Lorelai turned to see her, sensing that something was off. Rory tried her hardest to seem sure of herself; but she knew she needed Lorelai's support now.

"What's wrong?" Lorelai asked, concerned.

"Mom," Rory said with a sigh, "I need your help."

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He felt like a complete idiot.

He'd been so determined the night before. He'd torn the alley apart, and finally resolved to go to the hotel, and go meet his father.

And he'd gone to the hotel. But as he reached the lobby, he suddenly felt so intimidated, he almost turned back. His father was staying at the Paramount Hotel. Jess had expected the Paramount to be some tacky, low quality hotel using the good name of Paramount Pictures to attract stupid, vulnerable tourists. But it wasn't. It was ritzy, and artsy, and apparently very expensive. Jess hadn't expected his father to have any money whatsoever.

Getting over the initial intimidation, however, Jess headed up the 3rd floor, and began looking for room 312. It was easy to find; he got there almost immediately. But then came the hard part. It took him several minutes to work up the courage to finally knock.

Of course once he did, no one answered. 'Figures,' he thought to himself. Just when he'd gotten himself worked up, he got let down. His whole life had a tendency to be that way.

Dejected, he headed back down to the lobby, and impulsively to the small, dark bar for the hotel guests. He went straight to the bar and asked the bartender for a beer. He had no desire to get drunk... but he needed to calm his nerves. Just this once, a beer wouldn't really hurt.

The bartender didn't bother to card him; in places like this, all one had to do was be confident, and no one would ever question you. Jess had learned this early on in life.

Just as Jess was about to pour his drink into the provided glass, something caught his ear. At the other end of the bar, and man was sitting down, greeting the bartender by name.

"Hey Rick, can I get a beer?"

The bartender smiled as he responded, "Coming right up, Jimmy."

Thinking back on it, Jess wasn't sure why this had caught his attention. There were a million men in the world named Jimmy. The chances that this particular one happened to be Jimmy Mariano were slim to none.

But when Jess looked at him, there was no question in his mind. He had the same wavy dark hair, the same blunt chin, the same piercing eyes. The man at the other end of the bar was his father; he had to be.

Jess could do nothing but stare for a few moments, but as soon as he regained his senses, all he could think to do was pay for his drink and get out as quickly as possible. So he did.

He finally had the chance to meet his father, and he'd run away.

'What a wimp,' he'd thought to himself, lying awake in bed most of the night.

The next morning, he couldn't concentrate on anything. His mother stayed in the house during the day and was gone working most of the night, so Jess planned to stay out of the house all day and come back at night. He and his mother weren't getting along all that well.

As soon as he got outside, he found a payphone and tried to call Rory. It was pretty early in the morning, so as he expected, no one answered the phone; they were probably asleep, or at Luke's getting coffee to wake themselves up. He left a message, not really sure what else he could do. And after that, he'd spent the day wandering the streets of New York, avoiding Times Square as much as possible. He had nothing to do but walk around, avoiding the one problem he had never been able to face.

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Then she appeared

Apple Venus on a half open shell
Then she appeared

The first photograph on Fox Talbots gel
I was a little frightened
Flying with my senses heightened
Cherubim cheered
Then she appeared
Then she appeared, as the giggling crew of Marie Celeste
Then she appeared, pale Atlantis rising out of the west
I was a little dazzled
Catherine wheeled and senses frazzled
Know it sounds weird
Then she appeared
And the sun which formerly shone
In the clearest summer sky
Suddenly just changed address
Now shines from her blue eyes
Then she appeared, brittle shooting star that dropped in my lap
Then she appeared, dressed in tricolour and phrygian cap
I was a little troubled
Hookah with my senses bubbled
All Edward leared
Then she appeared
And the moon which formerly shone
On the marbled midnight mile
Suddenly just packed its bags
Now shines from her bright smile
Then she appeared
Out of nowhere

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Rory knocked tentatively on the paint chipped door, trying to decide how she would explain herself. It was past 10 o'clock; she'd been running full steam ahead for hours, and she hadn't realized until just then that maybe this wasn't the best idea. So she racked her brain, preparing a little bit of a speech to justify her presence.

But the moment the door swung open and she saw his eyes, she couldn't remember a single word she'd planned to say. His eyes were wide; she was obviously the last person he'd expected to find at his door. At first, he looked worried and upset, obviously thinking she'd come to deliver bad news.

She let out a small nervous laugh. "Hey," she said. "... I have absolutely no idea why I'm here..."

The concerned look in Jess' eyes softened. He was more relieved to see her then than he'd ever been in his life. He smiled a little.

"Hey," he said. "Does Lorelai know you're here?"

Rory nodded. "Yeah... I'm not sure how she feels about it, but... hey, she voluntarily went to the garage to find a duffel bag for me, so... that's a good sign, right? Doesn't it seem pretty supportive?"

He didn't answer. He glanced at the stuffed full duffel bag she held in her hand with a sly smile. "You planning to stay?"

She sighed. "I don't know. I just jumped on a bus, and here I am." She took a deep breath and laughed at herself a little. "I obviously didn't spend a great deal of time thinking this over..."

He paused. "Do you WANT to stay?"

"Do you want me to?" Rory asked, avoiding telling him that she wanted desperately to stay there.

He paused a moment. He wanted to be able to say no. He didn't know how he would deal with introducing her to his friends, or to his mother... he'd never intended for Rory to see this part of his life. She wasn't cut out for the ugly truths of New York City. Sure, it was fun that day last year when she'd skipped school to visit him for the day. But living there for a while? Was she ready to deal with that?

Still, just seeing her there, hearing her voice, being able to reach out and touch her... he knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that he needed her there. So he reached for her hand and took her bag.

"Come on," he said. "I hope you brought your tooth brush." He smirked, turning and heading inside, leaving the door open behind him.

Rory grinned to herself before following him inside. She could tell by the look in his eyes that he wasn't just being polite; he really did want her there. And she was more than happy to oblige.

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A/N: Ok so there it was. I know I promised some Luke/Lorelai action this chapter, but it took longer than I had planned to get to this point. The good Luke/Lorelai stuff comes next chapter, I swear!!!! Cross my heart and hope die, really. And now that I've finally got our favorite couple in the same CITY together, this is gonna be a lot easier to write. It's about to get really interesting, you guys. So keep reading!!!! And Keep reviewing because it puts me in a good mood when I read reviews!!!! And just for future reference, I DON'T CARE if there are issues with the lyrics of the songs I put in my stories. I didn't even write the songs, so it doesn't matter much to me if I got some of the words wrong or something... I just want reviews so I can know what you guys are hoping will happen, or won't happen in some cases. Give me advice, I'll probably use it!!!!

Next chapter comes soon, and it will be juicy, I swear.

~Emaline