2: An Unnatural Disaster?

"I do," Lorelai said.

And then, while Luke and Lorelai smile at each other, they move in for the official wedding kiss. Kirk busied himself snapping pictures as the crowd around them erupted into applause.

"Ugh, this town is too much," Luke whispered to his wife.

"Yeah, but it's home," she smiled back.

She turned toward her daughter, who hugged her.

"Congratulations, Mom," Rory said.

"Now I'm Mrs. Backwards Baseball Cap," Lorelai grinned. They both laughed, and Rory momentarily ignored the fact that he was there, just a few feet away from her. Everyone would now head for the open area behind them for the reception, which included food, music and, of course, coffee.

The guests were filing by, giving their congratulations to the newlyweds. When Emily and Richard reached them, Emily seemed to be a bit emotional. But of course, that could well have merely been Lorelai's imagination.

"Congratulations. It was beautiful," Richard said.

"Thanks, Dad." They stood there a bit awkwardly, until Richard pulled his daughter into a hug.

"Really, Lorelai, it was lovely," Emily said. "Congratulations."

"Thanks, Mom," Lorelai said, waiting for an additive.

"I'm pleased to see that you seem to have taken my advice about the flowers. Aren't they nice and fresh?" Ah, there it was. Lorelai sighed inwardly, and nodded in agreement. After all, her mother had been right.

"And we left out the ketchup bottles, even though we considered them for the bouquet, but dismissed the idea because they might be a bit harmful when thrown" Lorelai added, grinning, causing her mother to say, "Dear God."

Jess walked up to her. "You're probably starting to get sick of hearing it over and over again, but – congratulations," he said.

"Oh, well, thank you, Jess. I'm glad you could make it," Lorelai replied. She was, actually. Luke had looked pleased to see his nephew, who had obviously been getting his life on track more and more over the years. She turned toward her husband, or at least, toward where he had stood before. Where was he? She looked around, but couldn't see him anywhere.

"Rory!" she called out. Rory came straight over.

"Have you seen Luke?" Lorelai asked, trying not to look like she was panicking. God, was this like the 'Runaway Bride', only the other way around? 'Runaway Groom.' But, wait, hadn't the bride run away before the "I do"? Kirk passed her just then and snapped another picture.

Rory, meanwhile, looked throughout the crowd, but with no success.

"Hey, Kirk, have you seen Luke?" she asked as he passed her.

"Not since a few minutes ago. Wait, Rory, I need to take a picture of you just like that. I'm trying to document this whole event, so this is an important part of it –"Kirk said, taking the picture.

"Kirk? Kirk! That's nice, but maybe you could take the camera away from your face for a second and take a look around?" Rory asked, feeling a little frustrated.

Kirk straightened up. "Fine. People! People!" He shouted. "Has anyone seen the groom? I repeat, we appear to be missing the groom!"

Great. Now this wedding would turn into a search party. Lorelai and Rory stood there, and watched the crowd look a bit alarmed.

"Geez, can't a guy step away for a few minutes?" Luke's voice suddenly sounded.

"The groom has been spotted, everyone, the groom has been spotted," Kirk called out.

Luke came up to Lorelai and Rory and handed them a cup of coffee each.

"I just figured I'd get you some coffee before you go into the coffee junkie's form of cold turkey," he said.

"Ooh, thank you... Snuffy," Lorelai snickered.

Luke rolled his eyes as Rory laughed.

---------

"Look at the two of them, they look like they're avoiding each other like the plague," Miss Patty was telling Babette, gesturing toward Jess and Rory.

Babette nodded. "It's like looking into the past again, with him being in town."

"And he's still quite a looker," Miss Patty said, glancing knowingly at Jess.

Oblivious to the two women's comments, Jess and Rory were at opposite ends of the party. Rory was standing by Lane and Dave, who were busy creating a mix of songs for the festivities.

"I can't believe the two of you are going to be making records," Rory said.

"I know! Neither can I. It's amazing," Lane replied.

"You'll be the twenty-first century Paul and Linda McCartney, or John and Yoko. We'll all be able to say we knew you when," Rory grinned.

Dave laughed. "We're going to credit you guys in our record sleeve, for letting us rehearse in your garage."

"This is so exciting!" Rory laughed.

Lane moved to put another song on. "Okay, how's the mix been so far? I'm trying to play lots of love songs, in keeping with the wedding theme."

Dave and Rory both agreed that it was great. Lane pressed play and the opening chords of Paul McCartney's 'Maybe I'm Amazed' sounded. Rory glanced out at the crowd in front of them, and her eyes met Jess. Quickly, she looked away, and then, back again. He wasn't looking her way anymore, she noted. She returned her attention to Lane and Dave's DJ activities, not seeing Jess glance over at her again.

"Where's my favorite daughter?" Lorelai came up to her. "Hey, honey, are you monitoring our music?"

Rory smiled. "It's going great."

"You sure?" Lorelai asked.

Rory nodded, hoping she looked convincing.

"Well, he came. It's not a problem for you, right? You said you're over him," Lorelai enquired.

"No, no, it's no problem at all," Rory was adamant to say.

Lorelai had her doubts, but decided to let it rest for now. She couldn't force her grown daughter to admit more than she wanted to.

Just then, Rory's cell phone sounded from inside her hand bag.

Taking it out, she pressed the 'on' button.

"Hello?"

"Rory. This isn't really like me, but I called to say, congratulations to your mother and the diner man."

"Paris?"

"Of course. I remembered that you had told me about this wedding, and Matthew –"

"Matthew?" Rory questioned, in confusion.

"My... my boyfriend. He reminded me that it would be polite to call, so I did."

"Oh," Rory was a bit taken aback. Paris had a boyfriend? God, there were couples everywhere these days.

"Well, thank you, Paris. Really. I'll pass it on to my Mom," Rory continued.

"We'll see each other at work, undoubtedly. Bye, Rory," Paris finished, leaving Rory with the dial tone sounding in her ear.

She pressed the 'off' button, and turned to her mother.

"Wow. I heard. Thanks," Lorelai said. "That was a surprise."

"Tell me about it," Rory said.

"Okay, hon, I'm getting some more coffee," Lorelai said, heading off toward the food area.

Rory decided she might as well try to get her hands on some food, she hadn't really eaten in the past, well, two hours. At one end of the table, there was pudding, in various flavors including chocolate. Rory reached for a bowl, and moved to scoop herself some. At the same time, another hand reached for the spoon.

"Oh, sorry. Go ahead," they both said at the same time. Rory looked up – and right at Jess.

"Uh, no, go ahead, I can wait," Rory replied, flustered.

"Are you kidding? I know a hungry Gilmore when I see one. I'll wait," Jess said.

Rory almost smiled but remembered that she was trying to be indifferent. No, no, she wasn't trying, she was indifferent. She scooped herself a large portion and mumbled, "It's all yours."

Hurriedly, she went over to where her grandparents stood.

Jess looked after her, and then, shaking his head slightly, took himself some pudding as well.

Luke had watched the little exchange. It was a good thing they behaved reasonably well, he thought. He would have hated to see Hurricane Jess take place at this wedding.

"Hey, why are you starting off into space?" Lorelai came up next to him.

"I was just watching Rory and Jess. They had a little encounter by the pudding."

"Was it an argument? I knew we should've gotten more flavors," Lorelai joked. Seeing that Luke didn't grin in reply, she stopped.

"You don't think they're over each other yet?" she asked.

"I don't know. It looked a little weird. Rory was sort of quick to escape," Luke mused.

"From food?" Lorelai shook her head. "Maybe we should have a subtle word with them."