"It's times like these when you wonder why on earth no one has invented a time-machine yet."

Rory looked around in Lorelai's room as her mother tried on a different sets of clothes after many outfits where carelessly discarded. "So you can go back in time and pick the correct set right at the beginning?"

"No, so that I can just skip these meals with my mother." Lorelai answered.

"But wouldn't that mean that you weren't actually at the meal, so you still have to go at a different time?" Rory wondered way too logically for Lorelai's taste.

"Fine, then let's just speed it up so that I won't actually have to listen to what she's saying all the time."

"Well yes, but then..."

"Ugh, quit with the temporal paradoxes already. Can't you just let your mum wallow from time to time?"

Rory sighed. "But thanks to the Luke-thing you've already reached your monthly wallowing-limit."

Lorelai answered by pouting.

"Oh no, that's cheating."

The pouting increased.

"Fine, stay here, wallow, just don't let me hear it. I'll wait for you downstairs." Rory said and walked out of her mother's bedroom.

"Now what's the point of wallowing if you can't annoy someone with it?" Lorelai asked retorically to the mirror, stopped pouting and continued searching for clothes that her mother may actually approve of.

"So Lorelai, how are things in Stars Hallow?" Emily said, trying to start a pointless conversation simply to stop the long and even worse silence.

"Well you know, pretty much the same as it was about a hundred years ago. Michel calls the customers names, Sookie keeps bickering with Jackson about ingredients, Lane keeps finding new ways to listen to loud music in secret, while her mother finds new ways to stop her and between all of that Miss Patty is still busy with her never-ending quest for finding any gossip in town." Lorelai gave Emily a vague smile and then continued eating, a clear sign that she wanted this conversation to end as soon as possible. Some things were even worse than an uncomfortable silence, like trying to talk to a lion on the prowl: you were simply waiting it to attack you in one swift stroke. And with lions it was always to woman one who hunted.

"You're forgetting about Luke, who still serves coffee with a cynical touch."

Lorelai immediately gave her daughter a glance after Rory had added that, which clearly questioned Rory's intelligence. You don't look predators in the eye, you don't make any sudden movement and you'd certainly didn't try to keep the conversation going with them.

"And I suppose he still wears that baseball-cap of his. Ah well, I'm sure that if you keep something long enough it should get back in fashion sooner or later. Though in this case it's probably later." Emily answered and then she sipped her wine.

Even though Lorelai was used to her mother's biting tone by now, but this one hurt. Of course it was just a casual remark, at least from Emily's perspective, but Luke wasn't so casual to her anymore. All of the sudden she realised that her mother wouldn't approve of a relationship with him. It would simply lower her mother's opinion of her even more. She looked around, trying to ignore her mother's glare. She noticed her dad, who was probably still pondering about the latest developments in the insurance business. She doubted he'd care much about who she dated, as long as he would treat her with respect. And she knew that despite Luke's ability to seem harsh, he would never hurt anyone without a very good reason. Then she turned her head around some more and noticed Rory.

Oh no, Rory! She had been so busy pondering about what on earth she'd do about Luke that she had completely forgotten about her. She didn't even know if her daughter would approve it. Okay, Rory hadn't complained yet, so she figured it wouldn't be that bad, but she still felt guilty not talking about this to her. Whatever would happen, it would affect her daughter too, so she should have a say in it. But so far things had been sayless.

The steamed vegetables suddenly didn't taste as good as they did before and Lorelai just kept chewing slowly, hoping time would pass as soon as possible, though of course because of her desire time did exactly the opposite thing.