I'm sorry that it took so long for me to update. I have no excuse.

Anyway, thanks go to Ari for stepping up in my time of need (I'm not melodramatic at all, am i?) being a wonderful beta for me, and to everyone else that have supported me in writing this. I love all of you!

Jayde

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Chapter 3: Rory 'Lorelai Leigh' Gilmore

Walking in a half-aware daze through the town, Rory mechanically tread towards the diner where she knew that her mother was waiting for her. Taking a pull on the cigarette that she had only been half aware of lighting, she frowned.

One word. It was only one word. A word that she had said, written, and read countless times, and never really thought that much about. Did that one word have so much power that she never paid any mind to? It must, since she was running it through her mind a million times a minute.

Jess had always said that they were forever, hadn't he? A forever that didn't even make it to the six-year mark. Angrily blowing out the acrid smoke, she berated herself -not for the first time- for leaving him. For giving up.

She wasn't sure what the word meant for her, though. What Jess had meant it to mean. Had he added it before she had left, when they were still happy and in love, and just never told her? Or after, after she gave up on him, and in turn, them.

She stopped short, as a thought struck her; perhaps he hadn't even written it. In all probability, he had never added it himself, but another couple, blissfully in love and unaware of the worlds' harsh realities, had seen a roughly hewn, empty heart, and claimed it as their own.

She wondered why she felt a pang of sadness with that thought. After all, she concluded mentally, that stage of her life was over, and had been for years. Never again would she think that love conquered all, that people who were 'in love' were invincible. Those were the thoughts of a naïve twenty-something, and although she was still in her twenties, she had become much more jaded, and cynical. Seeing so much hate and sacrifice had pushed her out of the fantasy that had been her life, and into the real world.

She sighed as she took one last drag of her cigarette, and then idly flicked it onto the curb. She allowed herself a small smile as she saw the familiar diner, but before she could walk up to the steps, or rather, ramp, she hard an unfamiliar mechanical buzzing, and then a not so unfamiliar voice bark up at her from behind.

"Young lady! Young Lady! Do you not see the clearly posted signs that read 'no littering'! And if I saw correctly, you just littered! You tossed that filthy cigarette butt right onto the street! Now, since you're new around here, I'll only give you a warning! But next time it'll be a fine! Do you hear me? Fifteen Dollars!"

Rory shook her head, and rolled her eyes. "Don't do me any favors, Taylor." She turned to face him, ignoring the look of shocked recognition on his face, "And grow up. A piece of trash won't end the world." She stuck a hand in her pocket, and grabbed the first bill that came into her hand, which happened to be a twenty. Dropping it on the stunned mans' lap, she shook her head mockingly, "Keep the change."

Silence reigned as she turned from him and walked towards the diner. She opened the diner door, and heard a familiar chuckle, then a sound of muted applause from outside. Looking behind her, she saw some of the high school students had braved the cold weather to be outside for their lunch period, and therefore had witnessed her little altercation with Taylor. She could barely hear the kids' excited chatter, but what she did pick up was the fact that her appearance in Stars Hollow would be the main topic of the rumor mill for days to come.

Looking back at her still chuckling stepfather, she smiled, feeling oddly shy.

In an uncharacteristic movement for the once gruff Diner owner, he opened his arms and walked forward to take Rory into his arms. "Hello, Rory."

She stiffened slightly before she let herself relax and wrap her arms around him in return, "Hey, Luke." She closed her eyes and let herself get lost in the moment, the unfamiliar feeling of security washing over her. As Luke gave her one last squeeze and pulled away, she could see him examining her critically.

"You're too thin." He said flatly.

Rory grimaced, "You can never be too thin, Luke. Or too rich," she added as an afterthought.

He only grunted in return and turned towards the kitchen, "One 'Double L' Special. Pronto."

As Luke tuned from her, she took a look around her, one thing fairly obvious in her mind, "Hey, Luke? Where is everybody?" she asked as she walked over to the counter and sat on one of the raised stools.

"Well, when your mom called here, she said that she'd be late for lunch because of something happening at the Inn, she told me that you were going to be here, and she thought that you really wouldn't want all the questions that would come with the crowd. So, I kicked everyone out of the diner, in hopes that your arrival wouldn't be in the gossip mill for at least another few hours."

He shook his head as he turned with a fresh cup of coffee in his hand, "I guess it was all for nothing, since that scene with Taylor. I congratulate you for that, by the way. I don't think that I've seen him that shocked since he learned that Hank in Woodbury decided to open what could be described as a clone of the old 'Soda Shoppe'." He placed the steaming cup of coffee in front of her and motioned for her to drink, "You must be freezing in that getup. Don't you have any proper winter clothes?"

Rory smiled gratefully, and wrapped her hands around the warm cup, blowing on the contents softly. Once she figured that it was cool enough – or rather, when she couldn't stand smelling the once familiar brew and not tasting it, she took a sip. Shrugging, she let her eyes meet Luke's for a moment, "I've been living in California for the past few years; winter clothing is an almost non-existent concept there." Taking another sip, she sighed, "I think this is even better than I remembered. Thanks."

Luke shrugged, "It's no problem."

Rory nodded, and didn't say anything.

He nodded in return, silent.

She took another sip of the coffee.

He crossed his arms, and leaned back against the back counter.

They both spoke at the same time;

"So—"

"Did you and—"

They stopped, and looked at each other, silent again. Just then, a loud 'ding' broke the silence, and Rory visibly jumped. Luke turned, and took a plate from the counter that led to the kitchen, and then placed it on the table in front of Rory.

She looked down at the plate in front of her, and frowned. "What is this?"

"It's uhhh," He ran his hand over his face, "It's the Double L special."

"'Double L?'" she queried.

"It was your mothers idea. 'The Double L'. Lorelai Leigh. It's sausage wrapped in a pancake tied together with bacon." He turned from her and busied himself with the coffee maker.

Rory looked down at her plate again, a small smile forming at the corner of her mouth. "You put my Yale Special on the menu?"

"Your mother put your Yale special on the menu. I had nothing to do with it." he denied, still not turning around.

"Okay." Rory smiled; she could see his ears had grown red from embarrassment.

"So, what were you going to say earlier?" Luke finally turned around, his scruffy face still flushed.

Rory blinked innocently, "Earlier?"

"Right before your food was ready. You started to say something."

"Oh, it was nothing. Just... how are you?"

Luke nodded, knowing that wasn't it, but playing along, "I'm good. Business is great, life is good."

"I saw a few family photos in the living room earlier; you look happy in them."

"Yeah? Well, I am." Luke looked at her untouched plate, "Eat."

"I'm not really that hungry right now," Rory started,

Cutting her off mid-sentence, he gestured towards her almost empty coffee cup, "Eat, or I won't give you any more coffee."

She narrowed her eyes at him, and wrinkled her nose, "Playing dirty, huh?"

"I learned from the best."

Rory was just finishing her lunch, and nursing her fifth cup of coffee, when the door jingled open, and Lorelai walked in, pushing Brandon in front of her in his stroller.

"Hey hunnies! I'll be right back; I'm just putting Brand upstairs." She unclipped the sleeping infant, and made her way upstairs, stopping briefly to kiss each Rory and Luke on the forehead and mouth respectively.

Rory frowned as her mother went upstairs, and looked at Luke quizzically.

"There's a crib set up in the old apartment, so when he falls asleep in the diner he can be put up there." He motioned to a smalltwo way monitor that was sitting on one of the diners' shelves. There was a crackling noise, and then;

"Testing, testing, Luke? Ror? Can you two hear me?"

"Yes, we can hear you, Lor."

"Okay, I'll be down in a minute."

"Luke?"

Rory turned her head at the unfamiliar voice, and saw a young man stick his head through the door to the kitchen. He couldn't have been any older than twenty, and when he looked around the almost empty diner, and then focused on her, she could see the flash of recognition in his eyes, and then embarrassment flood his features.

"Uhh... I..."

Luke, oblivious to any discomfort that his employee was feeling, smiled and made introductions,

"Jon, this is Rory, Lorelai's daughter, and Ror, this is Jonathan Cameron, he's my cook."

"Hi." Rory stood and held her hand out to him, smiling.

Jon looked at her hand like he'd never seen one before, and then slowly held his hand out to her. "Uhh, h-hello." he said, dazed.

"Was there something that you needed, Jon?" Luke spoke, startling the younger boy out of his shock.

"I uhh, I was just... that is... uhhh, I'm just going to leave. Since there's nobody here, and all I was doing back there was some stuff for my classes. Will you be opening later? Should I come back?"

"Yeah, go on and leave, I'll be opening again in an hour or so, but I won't really need you until around the dinner rush, so could you come back around five?"

"Sure, boss. That's no problem; I'll just be going now." He turned to Rory, "Uh, g-goodbye Miss Gilm...Miss Leigh."

Rory smiled at the boy's nervousness, "Call me Rory."

"Okay." Jon quickly turned, and walked back into the kitchen.

Luke and Rory could hear the back door open and close, and Rory shrugged, used to people acting odd around her. Luke however, was staring bemusedly at the place where his young cook had stood only a moment before.

"I don't know what got into him. He usually doesn't talk all that much."

"He was star struck, Babe." Lorelai said as she entered the main diner, "Or did you forget that Rory here is one of Hollywood's elite?"

Luke shrugged, "She's just Rory."

"To you and me, yes." Lorelai walked behind the counter and got herself some coffee, "To the rest of the people, she's this celebrity, who you don't really expect to see in your hometown."

"But it's Rory. Everybody knows that she's from here."

"Ah, my poor naïve Luke," Lorelai patted his cheek, "Knowing something, and knowing something are two very different things. Now go be useful and make me a cheeseburger." She shooed him into the kitchen, and then turned to her daughter, who had been looking on in amusement. "Coffee?" She asked cheerily, picking up the pot again.

"Fill 'er up."


"Did you see that?"

"Do you think that it was it really her?"

"Well, this is listed as her hometown on her website. I checked when I came back in."

"She told Taylor off!"

"I know, did you see his face!"

"He turned purple! And he was speechless! It was so cool!"

"What are you girls talking about?"

"You don't know!"

"Know what?"

"Lorelai Leigh is here!"

Jess Mariano looked up sharply from grading the tests in front of him, and looked over at the gaggle of excited students in the back corner of his classroom. He looked back down, and tried hard to look uninterested in what they were saying, while at the same time trying to catch every word.

"Here? In Stars Hollow, here!"

"Yeah! And she told Taylor off in the middle of the town! I thought the old buzzard would have a coronary right there in front of the diner!"

"Are you sure that it was really her?"

"Of course! Here, I printed this out in the Library, it said right here that her hometown is Stars Hollow Connecticut, and that her real name is Lorelai Leigh Gilmore! The lady who owns the inn's last name is Gilmore-Danes! And remember, she has a daughter... what did she go by?"

"Rory. That was her name. My sister's best friend Clara, her brother used to go out with her."

"Cool."

Jess smiled and shook his head, tuning out the chattering. So, Rory Gilmore is back in town. God help us all.


Thanks for reading. I'd love to know what you thought.

J.