Title: Rory Gilmore, This Is Your Life!
Chapter 15: Shocked and Surprised
Summary: Fifth ex-flame time! No, really, I mean it this time! Paris freaks—no, not like normal. The perfect purple-haired couple (half of it is purple-haired, so the whole thing's purple haired) argue. Oh, no! Luke admits something to Lorelai—two chapters early. Lorelai admits something back. Go, JavaJunkies! Yay!
Disclaimer: You own nothing? I own nothing!!!! Hee. Sorry.
Distribution: Whoo! Go, email!!! Am I hyper? Of course!!!!!
A/N: Well, the chapter outline I wrote during the fifth chapter has been changed and expanded. Some things are shifted forward, and some are shifted back. Everything will turn out the same, I promise.
Which is good to some people, bad to others. Oh, you poor unsuspecting people!
How 'bout that whole "Hayden family" part of Chapter 13? That was all made up. That's not in the outline. How's that for improv?
~~~~
"Luke," Lorelai said.
"Uh, hi," he responded, holding up his free hand in some semblance of a wave.
REM continued singing. The song played out, and then started over, and Lorelai finally jumped up from her spot on the couch and turned it off.
"Sorry," she said, blushing, not looking at Luke.
"'S okay," Luke responded, also looking away from her.
After a few minutes, Lorelai finally turned from the CD player and looked at Luke.
"So, what are you doing here?"
"Oh. I, uh, found this," he said as way of explanation, holding up the large wallet and looking up at her.
"Great. And?" Lorelai stuffed her hands into the back pockets of her jeans. Luke blushed and looked away quickly as her shirt rose a few inches, showing a thin layer of skin on her stomach.
"And I brought it here."
"Hmm." Lorelai walked over and pulled the wallet from Luke's hands. "Well, it's certainly not mine, and I don't think it's Rory's. It seems a little…green."
"No, I know whose it is."
"Great."
Luke was silent.
"Whose is it?" Lorelai finally asked.
"Oh, it's Nicole Bezou's."
"Oh. Is that the new owner of the porcelain—"
"No, that's Sophie Jacobs," Luke interrupted. "No, Rory's gonna interview Nicole Bezou, so I figure Rory'll know how to get in touch with her."
"You know where Rory is?"
"Yeah, they're wandering around town."
"Oh, good. At least she's not lost."
"It's impossible to get lost in this town."
"I agree, but still, it's better to know where she is."
"Right."
There was silence once again.
"So, I guess that's it, huh?" Lorelai finally asked.
"What? Yeah, I guess." Luke shrugged and turned to go. Lorelai turned around and threw the wallet on the coffee table. It'd be lost in a few hours, but at least it was there now.
"Lorelai?" Luke suddenly said. Lorelai turned around to see him standing not ten feet away from her, a serious look on his face.
"Yeah?" she asked, worried and wondering what he was going to say.
"About last night."
Lorelai nodded, afraid to do anything more.
"You, uh…well, it's the damnedest thing, actually." Luke chuckled slightly, and then looked serious again. "You see, you…you kissed me."
Lorelai stopped moving, stopped breathing, she was so shocked.
"And…and I liked it. A lot," Luke finished, staring at the floor again. "A whole lot," he whispered.
Lorelai smiled, a little scared, but mostly elated. She walked over to Luke and took his hands in her own.
"I don't remember it," she started, smiling. "But, I do know, that when you're drunk, like I apparently was last night, you sometimes do things you never would have done regularly." Luke's hands tensed inside Lorelai's, but she squeezed them and they relaxed. "Because you would be so scared normally. But when your inhibitions are down, you feel free, and you can do the things you always wanted to. And I think," she whispered, smiling into Luke's eyes as he finally looked at her, "that's what happened last night."
Luke's face broke into a grin, and then he leaned forward and kissed her with all his might.
And she kissed back.
~~~~
Todd Jenkins groaned in disgust as his driver pulled to a stop in front of the Gilmore home.
"Just goes to show that this girl would live here," he muttered, waving for his driver to wait as he stalked up the steps. He raised his hand to knock, but then noticed a couple through the window. They didn't look like they wanted to be interrupted, so he turned around and pulled a sheet of paper from his back pocket.
"Luke's Diner," he read from the reference sheet that Josh Martins had given him the day before when he'd shown up at Rory's office looking for Greg. "God, how sickingly small-town do these people have to be?"
Todd shook his head and walked back to his car.
~~~~
"How many books did you get?" Lane asked, pulling the plastic Stars Hollows Books bag from Rory's hands and rifling through it. "Eight?" she asked, looking back up at her friend.
"And two magazines."
"Wow. That's a lot."
"You're telling me. I only got three," Nicole piped in, holding up her much smaller, almost identical bag.
"I can't believe we had to look five other places till we found you." Paris shook her head.
"Me, too. You guys didn't think to check the bookstore first?" Rory asked.
"I wanted to, but Paris over here—"
"It was not me!" Paris protested.
"Oh, yes it was!"
Rory shook her head as her two best friends descended into an argument. Nicole was watching with rapt attention, but Rory looked ahead of her, towards the center of town. She watched as an unfamiliar town car rode through slowly. Automatically she wondered who was behind the tinted windows, the way she usually did with luxury cars and limousines. This habit caused for a lot of time-consuming stopping in the streets of New York, but in Stars Hollow it was a rare occurrence, so Rory took the opportunity to follow the car with her eyes as it rode right on past her.
And that's when she noticed a familiar mid-size car with an even more familiar driver. She grinned.
"Greg!" she called, running from her friends and to the other side of the street. She stopped on the sidewalk and the car stopped beside her. Before he even turned the engine off, Greg spilled out and threw his arms around his fiancée.
"Hey, sweetie!" He smiled over her head, which fit perfectly under his chin.
"We have to do something tonight, just the two of us," she requested, and he nodded.
"I agree. Preferably away from my brother."
"Oh. Didn't have a nice family outing?" Rory asked, pulling away so she could look at him. He shook his head.
"You don't wanna hear about it."
"Okay." Rory leaned back into the hug, and then pulled away as three throats were cleared behind her. "Oh," she blushed, and extracted herself from Greg's embrace, while still keeping one arm wrapped around his waist. "Hi."
"Hi," Paris said. "You ran away from us."
"During our argument. You can't do that," Lane piped in.
"You're the moderator."
"And we can't argue without a moderator."
"Yes, you need to moderate."
"Okay, okay, enough!" Rory laughed at her two best friends. "I'm sorry."
"That's okay," Lane smiled. "I wanna do it too." She turned around to see Dave standing directly behind her. "Hello."
"Hello." He smiled, and they kissed.
"You gonna introduce me?" Nicole asked Rory.
"Oh, I'm sorry. Greg, this is Nicole Bezou. She wants me to—She writes."
"Nice to meet you." Greg stuck out a hand and Nicole shook it.
"You, too."
"Yeah, what about me?" Steve asked.
"This is Steve," Greg said dismissively. Steve glared at the back of Greg's head and turned to Rory.
"Yeah, so, I'm sorry, but I'm gonna head back to the Inn."
"Sure, you do that. We'll see you later?"
"Whenever you need me, just call."
"Okay." Rory air-kissed his cheek goodbye, and Steve walked off. Rory watched him for a minute and then slapped Greg's arm. "You were being rude."
"He annoyed me."
"Don't be rude. He's your brother."
"He annoyed me!"
"You're not twelve. If he annoys you, get over it!"
"Fine." Greg sighed.
"Thank you, sweetie." Rory kissed Greg on his chin. He smiled.
"Uh, Rory, I'm gonna head back to the diner. See if my purse is there." Nicole said.
"Oh, okay. Good thing you always keep twenty bucks in her pocket, huh?"
"Yeah. Bye."
"Bye."
Nicole smiled, waved, and walked away. Paris looked around her at the two remaining couples and sighed.
"I'm gonna head back to the Inn. I've got work."
"No!" Rory and Lane both protested.
"Yeah, I need to work!" Paris said right back, copying their tone. "You guys focus on…your guys. I'll be at the Inn."
"Okay," Lane reluctantly agreed.
"Hey, if you need anything, you know you can call."
"I know." Paris nodded, waved, and walked off also.
"We should probably go, too," Dave said to Lane, a glint in his eyes. Lane giggled.
"Yeah, we should."
They leaned in for another kiss, and after a while finally remembered Rory and Greg and broke apart.
"Oh. We'll see you guys later."
"Okay," Rory grinned. "Don't forget, we've got major planning to do." She held up her large bag full of books.
"I know. I'll call you tonight."
Dave cleared his throat.
"Tomorrow. I'll call you tomorrow. In the morning."
"Okay. You go have fun."
"We will!" Lane giggled, and she and Dave ran off. Rory turned back to Greg.
"Well. What shall we do?"
"All alone." Greg observed.
"There's no one here."
"Just the two of us."
"I can think of a few things we can do." Greg smiled and leaned in for a kiss. When he was millimeters away, Rory suddenly pulled apart.
"I need coffee."
Greg sighed.
"Come on, you get some too." Rory started walking toward Luke's, pulling Greg with her.
"Do I have to?" Greg whined.
"Yes, you have to," Rory smiled. "And you'll like it."
"Yes, ma'am!" He saluted.
~~~~
Nicole walked up to the counter and looked around for Luke or any sign of her purse. Nowhere to be seen. She sighed and leaned against the counter, and then noticed a guy standing not five feet away from her in the same stance. A cute guy. A familiar guy.
She gasped.
"You're Todd Jenkins!" she practically yelled, turning towards the man and pointing, her hand over her mouth.
"Yes, I am." Todd smiled his movie-star smile.
"Oh, my God! I have seen, like, every single one of your movies."
"Thank you."
Nicole giggled. "What are you thanking me for?"
"When people see my movies, they see me."
Nicole giggled some more.
~~~~
"Coffee, coffee, coffee, coffee," Rory spoke the word with each step she took. Greg, walking right behind her—and even hindering her walk forward with his arms wrapped around her waist—just shook his head.
"I like coffee, yes I do," she started to sing softly.
"Glad to see that your mind is preoccupied with happy things," Greg laughed into her ear.
"Yes. Coffee is much happier than deadlines and interviews," Rory smiled and pulled Greg's arms tighter around her waist. "Coffee's a good thing, you know it's true."
Greg laughed as she continued the song, only soft enough for him to hear.
"This is the best thing in the world." She said after a few verses.
"I agree whole-heartedly," Greg kissed Rory's earlobe softly, tickling her.
"Stop that," she laughed. "That tickles!"
"What tickles?"
"That," she continued laughing. "No, stop. Stop!"
And then suddenly she stopped, Greg thumping into her.
"Oh, my God. Stop!" she screamed at the couple making out as they walked down the street. Nicole looked up, blushed, and leaned back into Todd. Todd refused to look up, knowing the voice, so he just led Nicole further down the street.
~~~~
Paris opened the door to her room at the Inn and looked around. It was empty.
Well, except for the large piles of work strewn everywhere from the desk to the other bed to the bedside table.
Paris sighed. After seeing both Rory and Lane with somebody, she was feeling a little…sad. And lonely. And actually wanting to go on a date with somebody. Instead, she was standing in a hotel room, staring at two double beds and about four months of work.
"The hell with this," Paris muttered, turning around and leaving the room, pulling her car keys from her purse as she made her way down the stairs.
~~~~
"What are you doing?" Rory called, running across the street to catch up with Todd and Nicole. Greg followed her almost as quickly.
"Todd, I swear to God!"
"What are you doing?" Rory demanded, pulling Todd away from Nicole.
"We were just kissing." Todd shrugged and leaned in again.
"Oh, no, you don't," Greg protested, pulling Todd towards him. "You've got an image to uphold, man. And this sure as hell ain't it."
"What's wrong?" Nicole asked desperately. "What did we do that was so bad?"
"You can't get involved with him. It can only lead to heartache." Rory explained sadly.
"Didn't happen to you," Todd muttered.
"Man, how many times have we been over this? You were ignoring her," Greg stressed.
"And so she decided to go run into the arms of my PR guy?"
"I was spending a lot of time with him, Todd. He was the one who kept telling me that you couldn't be reached."
"Yeah. You made me lie to your girlfriend. That's bad."
"Why'd you do it?" Nicole asked.
Greg shrugged. "It's actually in my job description. If the client says he can't be reached…he can't be reached. Sometimes not even the client's mother is authorized to talk to him at that point."
"So, you're like a professional liar."
"No, not really. I just put a spin on the truth," Greg protested as Rory laughed into her hand.
"Yeah, he just spins the truth, to tell all the paparazzi all the good things about the celebrities. Like, there's a certain movie actress I'm sure you would not believe owns a—"
"Ror." Greg interrupted her. "Confidentiality."
"Right. Confidentiality," Rory nodded, and then she turned her attention back to Todd. "Don't kiss my possible interviewees. I've told you this before."
"Yeah, well, everything changed when you took up with that asshole," Todd muttered, glancing quickly at Greg.
"Hey! Don't call him an asshole!"
"I will if I want to!"
"I've got the power to ruin your career, man. With proof," Greg threatened.
Todd shut up.
~~~~
"Hey, we should invite Paris to dinner," Lane said suddenly. She and Dave were lying on their stomachs on their bed in their room at the Inn, watching some "Behind the Music" documentary on the band they'd toured with a few years back.
"We shouldn't invite anybody to dinner," Dave left a trail of kisses going from the side of her lip to her chin.
"Come on, we should." Lane pushed Dave gently away from her and rolled onto her back, propping herself up on her elbows.
"I guess…she did seem kinda lonely," Dave said grudgingly, rolling off of the bed and standing up.
"Yes, exactly!" Lane stood next to her husband and kissed him on his chin. "You can be so sweet."
"Yeah. Sweet. That's what I want to be," Dave rolled his eyes and turned off the TV.
"Sweet can be good. And rewarding," Lane added, snaking her arms around Dave's neck and kissing him sweetly.
"We're so having a short dinner," Dave muttered out of the edge of his mouth.
~~~~
"Well. That was fun," Lorelai stated simply, leaning into Luke after their extensive make-out session.
"Very fun," Luke agreed, happily playing with a strand of Lorelai's dark hair. She craned her neck to look up at him and smiled.
"Why didn't we do this sooner?"
"Because we're idiots," Luke answered, leaning towards her lips once again.
"Apparently so," Lorelai smiled through the kiss, surrendering herself to Luke's masterful lips.
Suddenly—
"Oh, my God! I'm so unplugging that phone!" Lorelai groaned, throwing her arm above her head and reaching for the phone on the end table next to the couch. Finally Luke grabbed it and handed it to her. "Thank you," Lorelai smiled, kissing him quickly before finally answering.
"Oh, my God, what?" Lorelai demanded, annoyed. Suddenly her looked changed to one of disgust. "Here? That horrible movie star guy?"
"Who?" Luke asked, intrigued. Lorelai just shook her head and sat up, giving her full attention to the person on the other end of the phone.
"He did what?" Lorelai exclaimed. "Oh, my God. Eww!" Lorelai listened again. "Oh, okay, honey." She moved the phone away from her mouth and said to Luke, "She's got another call."
"Who are you talking to?"
"Rory."
"Who's she talking about?"
Lorelai opened her mouth to answer, but suddenly moved the phone back to her mouth. "Rory? What? What happened? Oh. And they can't find her? Oh, okay. You do that." She hung up the phone.
"What happened?" Luke demanded.
"Paris is gone. They can't find her."