7

It was a little after five when the call came.

Lorelai and Luke were at Lorelai's eating supper.

Luke had spent part of the day at the inn doing a few minor repairs.

After lunch, he drove back to Lorelai's house where he changed the oil in her Jeep, then drove it to Gypsy's to have the transmission serviced and the brake fluid changed.

"That Lorelai!" Gypsy complained. "She has no concept of how to treat a car! Good for me, but bad for this poor Jeep."

Luke agreed wholeheartedly, then went back to Lorelai's to do a few odd jobs around the house. He then drove to the inn at five to pick her up. Sookie sent along a couple of salads, breaded pork chops, garlic potatoes and fried squash.

Lorelai looked on as Luke listened intently to the results of the fire inspection.

Earlier, after Luke had gone back to the Dragonfly, Lorelai was very happy to hear that Luke's dad's things hadn't been destroyed by the fire. She was hoping she could continue to be happy.

"So?" Lorelai asked when Luke hung up the phone. "How bad IS it?"

"Well, the good news is, it could have been worse."

"That's not saying much."

"As they suspected, the fire started in the kitchen. One of the wires in the wall leading in from the outside had been chewed through, either by a squirrel, or possibly by a mouse or a rat."

"You don't have mice, or rats!"

"Well, whatever it was, it caused the fire. The kitchen is completely gone, none of the appliances are serviceable. My apartment is pretty much history, including my clothes, the stove, the refrigerator and just about everything else up there. The floor burned under the safe, and it fell through into the diner, but it's okay. Most of the supporting joists in the center of the second floor are burned beyond use. But the upstairs ceiling, the walls and the roof are in pretty good shape except for the water damage."

"Which means . . . ?"

"Which means if I replace the floor joists and the floor, redo the ceilings and walls, and buy new kitchen equipment, I can have my apartment back and reopen the diner."

Lorelai jumped up and almost knocked Luke off his feet as she ran into his arms, trying to get him to dance around with her, and screaming with delight as she did.

After a few minutes of this, Luke suggested Lorelai call Rory with the good news. She then called Sookie, and then Babette, who she knew would spread the news to the rest of Stars Hollow via Miss Patty.

"Tomorrow morning, I guess I'll go down to see what I can salvage."

"I'll come with you. You're going to need some help."

"What about the inn?"

"Hey, Michel took this morning off, so I'm taking tomorrow off."

8

The next morning at seven-thirty Lorelai and Luke were standing in front of the burned-out diner, staring through the windows at the semi-dark interior. Not much detail could be seen. Everything had the same dark gray color.

Lorelai could tell that Luke was having trouble going inside. Not that she blamed him. It was going to be traumatic for him regardless of how little damage there might be to his dad's things. And the almost overwhelming stench of burned wood and wet ash didn't make it any easier.

Lorelai waited patiently. She knew he would go in when he was ready.

She heard him take a deep breath.

He looked at her for comfort, then took her hand for support and they went through the opening where the door used to be.

Inside, things looked even worse than from the outside. Most of the mugs that were in the rack behind the counter had fallen to the floor and were broken. The tables and chairs were charred or broken. The stools and counter weren't much better. Everything that had been on the walls was gone – knocked off by the force of the water from the fire hoses. Looking up, the water-damaged ceiling of the apartment could be seen through the burned-through floor.

Lorelai couldn't see anything that looked worth saving.

"My God," Luke said, so low Lorelai barely heard him.

She gently put one hand on his shoulder.

"You okay?" she asked.

When he didn't answer, she rubbed his shoulder softly, letting him know she was there.

"Hey," she said. "We can do this later if you'd rather."

Luke shook his head.

"Now or later, it doesn't matter. We might as well get it done, and get it over with."

"I'll go get the boxes."

They had stopped at the Dragonfly and picked up a half dozen sturdy cardboard boxes on their way over.

When Lorelai came back in, Luke was behind the counter at the cash register. She heard it ring open.

"At least this still works," he told her. "They don't make 'em like this anymore."

"No, they don't," she agreed with him.

"I assume the money is in the safe," Lorelai said, indicating with her head where it lay on its side near one of the front windows.

"Yeah," he replied.

"Anything down here you want me to pack up?"

"Doesn't look like there's anything worth saving. Maybe there's something upstairs."

"Is it safe to go up there?"

"As long as we stay away from the middle of the room, it should be. But maybe you should stay down here, just in case."

"I weigh less than you do, maybe I should be the one to go up and you stay down here."

"You wouldn't know what I'd want to keep, or what to look for."

"Then I guess we'll go up together."

Luke nodded then led the way to the stairs.

Even though the stairs went up over part of the kitchen, they seemed to be okay, at least from the top. Luke tested the upper steps, just to make sure they would hold, and was satisfied with them.

The glass in the door to the apartment was broken but the door was still intact.

The apartment wasn't much better. Everything was either water logged or charred. It was obvious the beds, the table and chairs, the refrigerator and stove, Luke's clothes, and those things he treasured the most were a total loss.

"Nothing up here," he said, the disappointment very much evident in his voice.

"Isn't there ANYTHING of your dad's you want to get?"

"No. It's gone. It's all gone." He was having a hard time keeping his voice from breaking.

As he started to push his way past Lorelai toward the door, she put her arms around him. He resisted for a moment, then returned her embrace.

"I'm so sorry," she whispered to him.

They stood together for a minute or two, thenwent back downstairs.

"You want to look in the kitchen?" Lorelai asked.

"Not much use in doing that. I know there's nothing in there that's worth anything."

Luke walked over to the safe, struggled to turn it on it's back, worked the combination, opened it and emptied it of the cash and documents – the insurance policy and the deed to the building among the papers.

They left the diner in silence, never looking back.