NOTE: I really wish these Gilmore Girls people belong to me but, sadly, they don't. I will have the power one day, though.
A/N: Well, here it is. The sequel to Play Ball. Some of you might not know of that story so you'll just have to go read it and enjoy. Now on with this oh, so lovely sequel.
CHAPTER 10
Rory headed downstairs a little later that evening, flipping through a stack of video tapes she had. The doorbell suddenly went off and she headed over to it.
"Hi," Rory smiled at Rosa and Jess as she opened the door.
"Hey," Jess returned the greeting.
"Hi," Rosa waved, her voice soft.
"Come in," Rory instructed. Jess, followed by Rosa, entered the house.
"Whoa," Jess noticed, looking around. "Same old house."
"Well, not really," Rory said, coming up behind him. "We got a new couch."
Jess glanced over at the couch. "Nice."
"Yeah, great deal and all," Rory said. "So, anyway, anybody up for videos?" Jess just shrugged his reply. Rory held the video tapes out to Rosa. "I got a bunch of movies I thought you might like. You can pick anyone you want."
Rosa took a moment before pulling one from the stack. "The Lion King Two," she announced. Then she noticed another one. "And Ice Age, too."
"Classics," Jess sighed.
"I love those," Rory smiled at Rosa. "And I ordered pizza and sodas and we can make popcorn?"
"Really?" Rosa asked, her eyes sparkling with interest.
"Mmhmm," Rory nodded.
Rosa beamed brightly. "This'll be fun."
Lorelai sat on the large island in the middle of the Inn's kitchen, watching Luke work on the sink, which seemed pretty natural for him. Luke finally pulled out from under the sink, wiping his hands off with a nearby dishrag.
"He's alive," the man announced.
"Yes!" Lorelai cheered, taking a large leap from the island. "Luke, you are the best."
"Do I get a shiny, plaque now?"
"More along the lines of the golden baseball cap award." Luke began to pack up his tool kit. "Listen, I really wanna take you for this. You really came through."
"It's what I do," Luke reminded her, not looking up from the toolbox.
"I know," Lorelai said. "And I really do appreciate it, the way you come through."
"Hero business. Suits me I guess." Luke headed for the door but Lorelai ran up and blocked his path.
"Luke, you... you've been working on this stupid sink and now it's all better. Don't you think you deserve something for it?"
Luke shrugged, "Like?"
"Dinner?" Lorelai suggested. "You're always serving people. Let someone do it for you tonight. Let's go out to a restaurant where they would look down on us as being hicks or something." Luke sighed deeply. "Come on. My treat. What do you say?"
Luke asked plainly, "Do I have to change shirts?"
A smile spread across Lorelai's beautiful face.
Rory sat a large bowl of freshly popped popcorn down on the kitchen table, surrounding it by a bunch of different ingredients. Rosa stood on a short chair and looked over the things that were scattered over the table.
Rory first picked up some melted butter and began to pour it over the popcorn. "OK. This'll make it taste great." She grabbed a shaker of cheese flavored salt. "And never use regular salt. It's not worthy."
Rosa smiled at her and picked up a small cup of brown sugar. "We use this, too?"
"You got it," Rory replied.
Jess entered the room then but stopped at the sight he saw. He couldn't help but to smile. Jess noticed how Rosa resembled Rory so much, as if they were honestly related, and seeing them together that way only made it even better.
"This is the only way to make good popcorn," Rory said to Rosa as the child sprinkled brown sugar on top. "Don't let anyone mess up your head about the art of popcorn."
Rosa stuck a kernel of corn into her mouth. "This tastes good already," she said.
"Oh, wait. We forgot the best part." Rory picked up a bowl of melted chocolate.
"Chocolate!" Rosa squealed with delight. "Mmm!"
Rory spread the chocolate all over the popcorn. "This'll be so great. Just wait until you try it, Rosa."
"I can't wait. You're a good cook, Rory."
Rory smiled, thinking if the child only knew what happened when Gilmores were in the kitchen. All disaster would break loose or something.
Rory finally noticed Jess. "Are you being smile-y?" she asked him, clearly amused.
Jess shook his large, goofy grin off his face. "No," he quickly replied. "I was just..." the two brown haired girls looked at him, waiting for his answer. The doorbell rung. "Thank God," Jess sighed.
"Pizza!" Rosa beamed then jumped down from the chair, running for the door.
Rory took Jess's arm and began leading him out. "Smile-y," she teased.
"Popcorn head," Jess quickly shot back, thinking that he had been hanging around children far too long.
A few minutes later, Jess, Rory, and Rosa lay snuggled up on the couch together, Rory in between the father and daughter team. They all had pizza, popcorn, and a soda, all watching the Lion King Two.
As Rosa took another handful of the popcorn she glanced up at Rory. "Rory, where's your potty?"
Rory smiled and told her where to find it upstairs.
Rosa hurried up the stairs to the bathroom, not wanting to miss a minute of the movie.
"So what part of Africa has singing lions in it?" Jess asked Rory, watching the movie.
"I think they're in the background somewhere," Rory replied.
"What about dancing hippos?"
"That, I can't explain."
"Will Ice Age make any sense?"
"What makes more sense than the Lion King?" Rory had to smile.
"This is nice," Jess finally admitted, getting Rory's attention. "The three of us, getting to hang out. It's nice." He looked Rory in the eye. "Tell me that was mushy enough and that I don't have to keep going on."
"No, I got your mush point. And you're right." Rory scooted over closer to him and rested her head on his shoulder.
Rosa came back down then and saw them, both looking quite happy. She didn't know whether to go over and join them or to run away and cry. Rosa slipped into the kitchen, neither Jess nor Rory detecting her, and saw that a room's door was ajar.
Rosa poked her head into the room and smiled. It was Rory's bedroom. Rosa entered and her eyes instantly lit up at the sight of all of the books, as if she were in Disney World.
She picked up one of the books from its shelf, delighted by its title. Rosa sat down on Rory's bed and began to read, quickly getting indulged in the story.
After a couple minutes, when the movie got to the part where a Simba and Kiara were running through the Pride Lands, Jess noticed it. He began to glance around, getting Rory's attention, who still rested on him.
"What is it?" she asked, her gentle blue eyes looking into his brown ones.
"Where's my ankle biter?"
"Oh. I thought I heard her come down a few minutes ago. I'll check in the kitchen." Rory stood and went into the fore mentioned room.
When Rory entered her room she saw Rosa sleeping contentedly on her bed, what looked like a smile on the child's face, and the book she had been reading rested on her chest. Rory tipped over and spread the large blanket over Rosa, causing her to move around a little in her sleep. Rory planted a light kiss on Rosa's cheek before exiting the room and returning to the couch with Jess.
"Find her?" Jess asked.
"Yeah. She fell asleep in my bed," Rory replied. "It was so cute."
"Oh. I didn't know she'd fall asleep or anything," Jess said. He sighed. "God, I really don't wanna wake her up." Jess tried his hardest to try casual.
"Well, you don't have to," Rory said, buying his act. "You guys could stay here tonight."
Jess shrugged, still keeping his casual mood. "Sure, thanks."
Lorelai and Luke were just leaving the restaurant that they'd had dinner at. Lorelai laughed soundly, her arm looped through Luke's stronger one.
"That girl was totally hitting on you," Lorelai laughed.
"She wasn't hitting on me," Luke told her for the third time.
"Yeah. I'm sure all waitresses hold out their boobs to you so that you can stuff wads of money right down the middle of them."
"Probably." The two of them stopped and sat on a bench.
Lorelai sighed, gazing up at the sky. "Look at that. That's what I love about Halloween. It always has this huge moon thing going on."
"It's the same as any other day," Luke grunted.
"No. Halloween has a kind of magical feel to it. Not a Christmas feel but a... fun feel. You know?" Luke just nodded. "So, tell me, did we have fun?"
"Isn't "we" a pronoun that would include me?"
"Come on, Luke," Lorelai nudged, still holding his arm.
"I guess. It was nice; getting away from the diner."
"I had fun. I never get to see casual fun Luke." Lorelai looked at him closely. "Would it kill him to come out more often?"
"I'd probably kill him," Luke said, turning his gaze towards her.
They continued to stare into each other's eyes, as if frozen.
"This really was fun," Lorelai said softly.
"I know. I..." Luke had no idea what took over him when he found his lips attached to hers.
Lorelai could not believe it, either, but the two of them were soon locked in a passionate kiss. Luke pulled her in closer, wrapping his arms around her as they continued to lock lips. The moon above them seemed to glow brighter as they continued. Slowly, very slowly, they pulled away.
"Wow," Lorelai breathed. "Just... wow."
"I..." Luke had no idea what to say. "I'll..." he straightened up a little. "I'll see you tomorrow."
"Tomorrow's good," Lorelai said quickly.
Two duo got up and dashed off in opposite directions.
A/N: I would like to thank Smile1 for the awesome suggestions for this chapter. I would also like to thank Milov for suggesting that they watch Ice Age as one of their movies. Thank you, guys! *Gives Smile1 and Milov a big huggles*