AN: You guys have been incredibly kind with your reviews. I hope you enjoy the remainder of the fic. I'm projecting a long one.

This one's a short chapter, with a mammoth one to follow. Sorry for the lack of Luke, but I have a couple other plotlines to take care of before we get back to the L/L.

Lorelai had all of twenty seconds of peace between the moment Luke's truck pulled away and the phone started ringing. She ran to catch it in time, taking out a coat rack and an errant umbrella on her way.

"Hello?"

"Lorelai?"

"Chris…hi."

"Hi. So, anything you want to tell me?"

"Marijuana consumption has been down since Phish broke up."

"More specifically?"

"I've got one less daughter living with me than normal."

"She showed up at my front door at seven in the morning. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm always happy to see her, but this was out of nowhere."

"That's one word for it."

"And when I ask her about it, she just says she missed me and wanted to spend some time with her younger sister."

"Well, that's nice of her."

"What's going on?"

"Chris, Rory is an adult. If you want to discuss anything with her, you'll have to ask her."

"She's nineteen."

"And what were we doing at nineteen?"

She heard a sigh from the other end of the line. "Is she okay?"

"You're the one who's with her."

"It's not good, is it?"

Lorelai bit her lip. "Chris…she doesn't want to be taken care of, but she probably needs it."

She heard Christopher sigh from the other end of the line. "That bad, huh?" Then, a moment later, when she didn't respond: "I will."

"Is she around?"

"Sleeping. She seems pretty exhausted."

Lorelai nodded, as if it would somehow transmit over the line. "I'll have to catch her later, then. Bye, Chris."

A pause; she suspected he was about to say something else, but he merely sighed again. "Goodbye."

Lorelai disconnected, stuck somewhere between relief and fury, and briefly considered throwing the phone against the opposite wall. She decided to save her wrath for the proper outlet: Taylor's comment cards.

She steeled herself and managed a glance in the mirror. Luke had been…kind. On the upside, she could finally audition for that KISS opening. She sighed heavily (this was becoming a disturbing pattern), scrubbed off the remainder of her eyeliner, and headed for the Dragonfly. Work was good. Work was healthy. Work could keep her mind off the low, throbbing ache in her head and the deeper, more painful one in her chest.

She woke with that same ache the next morning, quietly cursing the world and the idea of Monday before getting out of bed.

Coffee. She needed coffee. For days like this, it should come in kegs.

The atmosphere at Luke's was surprisingly…unsurprising. Kirk was making strange sub-vocal noises in one corner (and was, for some reason, dressed in layers), Miss Patty was making inappropriate remarks in the other, and tourists in the middle were poring over maps and asking for multiple substitutions on their orders, much to Luke's annoyance.

The normalcy only made her more jumpy, set her nerves on edge. She was all but certain she was wearing some sort of flashing sign: here! her! this is the adulteress' mother! All Stars Hollow, whisper and judge!

And yet…nothing. Naked Kirk was the town's headline, with congratulations on the inn and the Banyan boys' latest pranks as a distant second and third. Beyond that….nothing. Business as usual.

Luke flashed her a half-smile as he poured her coffee, and gave her no more than an annoyed grunt when she ordered pancakes and bacon, extra syrup on the side. She managed to get through the order with knocking only one pepper shaker onto the floor, which was quite an
improvement. Luke didn't seem impressed.

It felt strange, somehow, to be here and sitting and talking and eating like normal, after everything had changed. She felt as if there had been some earth-shattering news bulletin, and she was the only one to hear. Yet Stars Hollow was the same as it had been two days before, with the exception of Kirk's extra clothes. (She had no problem with that change.) Lorelai sighed and set in on her second cup of coffee.

Well, she thought, there's something to be said for small miracles.

Sookie was already at the Dragonfly by the time she arrived and, by the sound of it, back in her element. Lorelai heard a crash from the kitchen, followed by a muffled shriek and an "I'm okay!" and decided it was best not to investigate.

Michel was taking reservations at the front desk and dutifully sorting comment cards. ("This one says the Inn was lovely, the only drawback being there was no place to bring one's dog." "Well, I don't see why employees cannot write their own!")

She gave it until noon before trying the cell phone.

Hi, you've reached Rory, leave me a message.

She skipped past 'angry and hurt', thought briefly about 'right and justified' and went instead for 'normal and non-tense'.

"Hey, it's me, just wanted to make sure you made it to Christopher's okay. Call me when you get the chance."

"Hey, Lorelai, bad news."

She nearly jumped at the voice over her shoulder. "Tom, I thought we discussed this."

"Hey, Lorelai, great news."

"That's what I love to hear."

"Two of my guys called in sick this morning, and one quit. So we'll be shorthanded the rest of the week."

Lorelai felt a knot of dread in her stomach. "Who quit?"

"Dean, shame too, he's always been such a great worker."

"Okay, break down the rest of your list and I'll find some outside help for the simple stuff."

"Got it."

Lorelai crossed to the kitchen. "Sookie? Put down the knives and pick up the phone, cause it's gonna be a long week."

The day passed in a blur of work unfinished, calls unanswered, and increasingly concerned looks from Sookie. She smiled, tossed off another line about lack of sleep, and said it would all be okay.

She fell asleep that night with the scent of paint in her hair, fingers curling lightly around a still-silent cell phone.