"Load it up, Luke!" Lorelai teased from her seat in the diner overlooking the street. There was no one out that night due to the late hour...Luke was just about to close shop when she and Rory had come bounding in.

Across the table, Rory heaved a sigh of relief when she saw that Jess was no where to be found - usually he helped Luke close up the diner. As Luke placed her frothy cappuccino down in front of her, she greedily buried her head into the bubbles. Boy, it tasted good - she loooked up, to see Lorelai laughing at her, wiping her foamy nose with her finger, and transferring it to her own nose.

From his vantage point clearing the counter of crumbs, Luke looked up and smiled at the mother-daughter duo. He'd never really thought what it would be like to have a son. And to take care of him, watch out for him, be there for him...no - in his whole life, Luke had only ever thought as far as marriage, and most certainly never about children...

But now...

He let his mind linger. Then, thinking in a dreamlike state to himself, "Scott is a nice name...I could definitely have a Scott in the family - and how about Jake? Matt?" Then, he shook himself out of his trance. What was he thinking! "...have a Soctt in the family..." - was he insane? He wasn't even married, or with a girlfriend for crying out loud!

Come on...his inner voice slowly cajoled him back into the afforementioned trance...it's not a crime to think about children - teenagers barely 16 years old were already having children! And so Luke kept on thinking...he wondered if he would ever get married...and to who? Would his wife be a loving mother? A dominating evil stepmum? A loyal puppy-dog type? Time would tell, he supposed.

His eyes darted from here to there in the diner, and then finally rested comfortably on Lorelai's smiling face, complete with a frothy nose. Oh yes...time would tell...

- - - - - - - - -

"Rory?"

"Speaking," Rory felt shivers up her spine. Tristan's voice sounded so damn good on the phone!

"Tristan here..." she could almost hear the smug on his face. Trying to act cool, she replied nonchalantly, "So, what's up?"

"I was thinking...if you're not busy...would you like to go out this weekend? You know, for lunch or something? I know this fantastic Asian restaurant near Chilton."

Rory felt her heartbeat quicken as she thought carefully about the consequences of eating out with Tristan DuGrey the, so-called 'man-on-campus'. The repercussions would be bad, but amazingly enough, ever since Tristan had come back to Chilton, she's found herself starting to actually genuinely enjoy his company.

"Well...Tristan, that would be...great," she said, and the smile on her face was unerasable.

"Great, I'll make reservations - talk to you in school?" Click.

"Sure thing," she whispered to the monotone beep.

She wondered if she should tell Jess about her and Tristan's lunch date. But then she frowned - she'd just make Jess unnecessarily jealous and hot-headed, for no reason at all. This was an innocent meeting, after all - between two platonic friends.

True, her platonic friend had given her a beautiful necklace..."But that was for being...friends," she reminded herself, ignoring the bald-faced lie that was growing. And it wasn't like she had a crush on him, was it?

No, of course not...