Wanting It

Part 3

My only A/N is to promote the Help Give Lauren Graham an Emmy campaign/donations. To find out what it is and how to donate, visit the Gilmore Girls section of fanforumdotcom and look for the GG FYC Awards Campaign thread. Every little bit helps!

Okay, I lied, a second AN. I know nothing about trials and whatnot, lol. Even though I almost had to have one myself (shh!) when I was sixteen. So bare with me here. And I don't know if Rory and Logan would have the same trial together or two different ones, but I asked around and people said it could be either way, but I don't think they really know. So they're having one together, for the story's sake.

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It was a slow day at the inn, and Lorelai was slumped over the desk, where she was covering for Michel who should have been back from lunch ten minutes ago. She was just starting to contemplate going to Luke's to get something to eat herself when Luke walked into the inn. She straightened up immediately and flashed him a smile.

"Hey!"

"Hey," he said. "I see you're busy."

She shrugged lightly. "Yeah, you know how it goes." She noticed Michel try to sneak in the front door of the inn. "Michel you're late!"

"I'm sorry. I see it's extremely busy here at the moment, I don't know how you survived without me."

She rolled her eyes. "I'm leaving, I'll be back in a little while."

"Where are you going?" he asked with a frown.

"Out!" she told him, heading around the desk and to Luke. Michel opened his mouth to speak. "I don't want to hear it," she added and Michel frowned before looking down at some papers on the desk.

"So, I take it you're here for your surprise?" she asked, grasping Luke's hand and pulling him toward the door.

"I guess so," he agreed with a frown. "Though this whole surprise thing is really a little unnerving."

She shook her head. "Just come on," she said. "We're walking there, it's not far from here."

He shrugged and let her pull him down the stairs. "Lorelai," he groaned as she picked up the pace. "Slow down. When was the last time you ever walked this fast?"

She chuckled. "Come on, keep up," she said, tugging on his hand but slowing down the pace just a bit. "This is exciting."

"If we're going to some place that has the world's best coffee then—"

"Nooo, we're not," she mocked. "Besides, that's the diner and that wouldn't be a very good surprise for you now, would it?"

He gave up and let her pull him along.

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"Are we there yet?" he whined a few blocks later.

"Almost, almost."

"Please don't tell me we're going to Sookie's."

"Of course we're not."

"You say that as if we weren't right in front of Sookie's house."

"God, Luke, whine whine whine."

"Are we at least close?" he asked, trying to ignore all the thoughts that came with the Twickham house that was looming in the distance.

"Very close," she confirmed. He let his eyes drift towards the Twickham house and noted that Kirk must have it securely in his grasp by now. He suddenly wished he hadn't been so hasty in telling Taylor to forget about the house. But he knew it was for the best. After all, had he been insane not talking to Lorelai about the house first? Especially after everything they had discussed last night, about talking to each other and telling each other everything. It was best that it hadn't happened.

Lost in his thoughts, he kept walking but bumped into Lorelai who had stopped in the middle of the sidewalk.

"What are you doing?" he asked her with a frown.

"We're here."

"Where?"

She sighed, trying to act annoyed. "To your surprise," she said. "Would you keep up already?" She felt her heart beat faster and she was suddenly nervous. Were her palms sweating? She was glad she had finally let go of Luke's hand.

"Where's the surprise?"

She gave him a knowing look and glanced at the house. He raised his eyebrows and then turned to look at her.

"What? You… know? I didn't—I mean, this isn't… I backed out of it."

She nodded and bit her lip. "I know. And I backed into it."

"What?"

"You backed out of the house—"

"And now it's probably Kirk's," he interrupted her. "Which is a scary thought. But it's not mine anymore, which is for the best because I should have talked to you about it before I did anything anyway."

"It's not Kirk's yet. However, if you don't go to Taylor today and tell him you still want the house, it may be Kirk's tomorrow."

He looked at her for a moment then took her hand, pulling her to the steps of the house where he sat down and pulled her to sit next to him. "What's going on?"

"I found out that you had bought the house. Patty and Babette found out, I guess, and well, need I say more? Kirk confirmed that you and him had been battling for it, and Taylor confirmed that you backed out of it. And I just… I knew why you backed out, Luke," she said softly. He held her gaze for a moment then looked down. "And I felt horrible for making you think that I wasn't, well, that I wouldn't want everything you wanted. So I begged Taylor not to give it to Kirk and here we are."

"What the hell did you say to Taylor?" he asked. "It took me weeks of begging and being nice to him to get him to give it to me in the first place."

"I reminded him of a bunch of pretty little ribbons he passed out to the town a couple months ago," she said with a knowing smile.

He laughed a little and raised his eyebrows. "Well done."

"Thank you," she said with a laugh.

"Lorelai—"

"I know," she said. "We have to talk about this."

"Don't feel like you have to do this. Don't feel like you have to move. I know your house is your home and it has memories, so—"

"Yeah. It does. But you know what? The Independence Inn had memories, too. And I moved on from that. Though that was taken from me and I didn't really have a choice, but the point is… that sometimes you have to move on. Sure, you could move in with me. That would be good, too."

"It would," he agreed.

"But," she continued, "I want a house that's ours. Completely. You know? Where we argue about how to decorate each room. Where I bother you about curtains for the living room and we argue about where in our bedroom to put our bed."

"Sure. Lots of arguing is good," he joked, playing with a leaf that was on the step.

"And my house is small," she added. "And we're bordering on territory that we again, need to talk about, but judging by something you said the other day at the inn, I'm thinking we might want more space. For, you know, another bedroom or two."

He looked up at her. "We might."

"So?" she asked.

"So what?"

"So, are you going to go and talk to Taylor?"

"We don't have to rush into this," he added, "I want you to be sure. You should talk to Rory about this," he noticed her wince at Rory's name, "and you should have time to think it over. Or, maybe you want another house, it doesn't have to be this one…"

"Luke."

"What?"

"Go to Taylor."

"Are you sure?"

"I wouldn't have done this if I wasn't sure." He nodded, then looked behind them at the house. She followed his gaze and smiled at him. "Our house," she said.

"Our house," he agreed.

"If you go talk to Taylor," she added. She looked at him for a moment and then threw her arms around him. "Everything is coming together, huh?"

He laughed a little. "Yeah."

"I think we're growing up."

"Possibly."

"I love you."

He grinned. "I love you too," he whispered in her ear, causing her to grin.

"Okay, so this is it. No more not telling each other stuff. And that includes buying houses."

"I'm sorry. You're right, I should have—"

She stopped him by placing a finger on his lips. "Stop. I know. Just, no more, okay? And I won't get go get houses back for us and keep that a secret anymore either," she teased.

"It's a deal."

She giggled. "Taylor. Now."

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Later that night he watched her walk out of the diner. He was surprised. Impressed. He was impressed that for the most part, she seemed happy.

And it wasn't that she seemed happy in the sense that she was putting on a front, trying not to let anyone see that underneath everything she was hurting. He was sure she was hurting by the whole Rory and her parents' situation. But the happy manner in which she had been acting lately was genuine and he knew it. He could always see through her, could always tell when she said she was okay and she was and when she said she was okay and she wasn't.

As far as he knew, she hadn't seen or talked to Rory other than the brief moment where she and Rory passed at their house. She had told him that she knew Rory had come back again because more things seemed to be gone from her room, but apparently Rory had planned the time of the trip better this time and hadn't ran into her mother.

But it didn't seem to bother her for some reason. Maybe she was too hurt to worry about the fact that Rory hadn't called her. Maybe she was too happy about the engagement to let it really get to her. Maybe she just shut it all out and pretended it didn't exist. He wasn't quite sure. But he knew that most of the time, she wasn't letting it bother her. There were the moments when Rory's name would come up and he could see the pain on her face, and the moments where she just seemed to be sad. But they went just as quickly as they came.

The phone rang and he snatched it up after putting a plate down in front of Kirk. "Luke's." There was silence on the other end and he frowned. "Hello?"

"Luke?"

Uh oh, he thought. "Rory?" he asked carefully.

"Uh, yeah. Hi," she said softly.

"Hi," he replied. There was silence again and he wondered if she was waiting for him to say something. That certainly didn't seem right.

"Are you okay?" he asked her, finally, sure that she was but mostly to get the conversation moving.

"Yeah. I'm fine. I'm here, in my grandparents' pool house," she added, sounding a bit sad.

"Right," he said. "I know."

She laughed a little. "Of course. Sorry." The silence again. "So, uh, are you okay?"

"I'm fine," he told her, taking the coffee pot and refilling the cup of coffee belonging to the customer sitting next to Kirk.

"And, uh, is…" Rory took a deep breath. "Is she okay?"

Luke sighed and put the coffeepot down. "I don't want to get into the middle of this."

"I know, I know," Rory said apologetically. "It's just that I haven't seen her or talked to her and I was just afraid that… I don't know. Does she hate me?"

"Of course she doesn't hate you, Rory."

"But she seemed so upset."

"She doesn't want you to make a mistake."

"And she seemed so hurt."

"She was hurt. She is hurt, I think. Why don't you just talk to her?"

"I wouldn't know what to say. I don't know what to do, where to begin…"

"You've never had any problems talking to her in the past."

"But…" Rory sighed, then changed her mind. "It's okay, never mind. I was just wondering."

"She's okay," he told her, giving in. "She's hurt, deep down in there somewhere. She was really upset at first, but lately she's been happy. And not that fake pretending to be happy stuff she does, I think it's genuine. But make no mistake, she misses you and she hates all this."

Rory sighed sadly. "I hate it too."

"Just talk to her," Luke advised.

"I don't know. Maybe." There was silence again and Luke sighed.

"Are you really going to drop out of Yale?"

"Just for a year. Not forever."

"You really should reconsider it."

"There's no point. I'm lost. I don't know what I want to do anymore, so there's no point in wasting my time at Yale twiddling my thumbs."

"Well, if your mother can't talk you out of it, I don't think I can. So I'm not going to try. But Rory?"

"Yeah?"

"If you need anything," he told her. "I'm here."

"I know," she said with what seemed to be a smile for the first time, "thanks."

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Lorelai walked into her house the next night and put her keys down on the desk. She turned around to find Luke. She gasped in surprise and put her hand over her chest.

"You scared me!" she said with a laugh.

"Sorry," he apologized.

"It's okay," she said, removing her hand. She smiled at him. "Actually, I like it that you're here when I get home. I think this whole marriage thing might work out."

He smiled and kissed her quickly. "Good to know."

"What are you doing here anyway?" she asked. "Not that I'm complaining."

"I came to fix your bathroom sink," he told her with a grumble.

She gasped, excited. "And did you?"

He nodded. "Yeah, all fixed. Just try and keep your hair out of it this time. Even though I know I've told you that a million times before, please, consider taking my advice this time."

She laughed. "My hero!" she told him, throwing her arms around him. "Thanks." She pulled away a minute later and looked at him, keeping her arms looped around his neck. "I missed you today. I didn't see you this morning and I didn't get to come to the diner in the middle of the day because of the stupid meeting."

"How was it?" he asked, following her to the kitchen where she retrieved a bottle of water from the refrigerator.

"Eh, not bad," she said with a shrug. "Sookie will be excited that we're officially allowed to have lunch again. We're pretty much on track with our income and for a first year we did pretty well. So I guess we're coming back for another year," she joked. "Season two."

"Good. Good year."

She smiled a little. "Definitely a good year," she agreed giving him a knowing look. "So, I take it you talked to Taylor."

He nodded. "Yeah."

"And?"

"Everything is good."

"So he let you have the house back with no problems?"

"Minimal problems," Luke corrected.

"Good. Didn't want to have to make him cry," she said, putting her bottle of water down on the counter. "So we have a house?"

He nodded and grinned. "Yeah. We do."

"Wow."

"Of course, it needs a lot of work," he added. "I mean, you saw how that cannonball fell right through the floor. A lot has to be done to it."

She nodded. "Right, makes sense. Because I sure would hate to be the next thing that falls through our floor." She emphasized 'our' and then grinned. "You hear that? We have a floor. You and I have a floor. Together, we have a floor."

He shook his head in amusement. "You really are something."

"Yeah, well, I'm your something." She paused and thought for a moment. "So the house needs work?" He nodded. "How long is it gonna take?"

"It's hard to say right now," he said, "a little while, though."

"So in the meantime are you just going to live in your apartment?"

"Well, I do prefer it to the street."

"Live with me," she said suddenly.

"What?"

"You don't have to move everything here, since we're eventually both going to move anyway, but you can just bring the things you need and leave the rest of the stuff in your apartment until we move." He stared at her for a moment, so she continued. "You know, good practice. And, um, I hate being apart from you. This way there's no off nights where we're separated."

"Okay," he stated, "how about this. I'll move in with you now and we'll save the house for after we're married."

She grinned suddenly. "That's really good."

"It will probably take it that long to be ready anyhow," he mused.

She smiled at him and walked over to him and took his hand. "So. I think we have something to celebrate again," she told him, raising her eyebrows and tugging him towards the stairs.

"That's the only reason you did this, isn't it?" Luke teased as she leaned in to kiss him.

"Nah," she muttered against his lips with a giggle. "It's not like I need an excuse to get you to go upstairs. And even if I did, I could've just said I had to thank you for fixing the sink."

He smirked. "Somehow I doubt in the years to come I'll stop being thanked for fixing things."

She giggled. "Then you better take advantage of it now. Come check out my bed. I think it needs fixing. I'm not sure if it's durable enough. Any ideas how we could check that?"

He ignored her and brought her lips to his again, guiding her to the stairs.

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"I still haven't talked to her and it's tomorrow," Lorelai pouted from her stool at the counter of the diner.

"Lorelai, you need to call her," Luke said, wiping off the counter. "This is insane. She's going to court. Tomorrow. You're her mother. You have to talk to her."

"Well, it's not like I have to be there," she told him, "she is over eighteen. She's on her own. The sentence is the same whether I'm there or not. I'd just be there for support, which she probably doesn't want from me anyhow."

"You're not telling me you're not even going to go?"

"Of course I'm going to go. But she won't want me there."

"Yes she will."

"No she won't. She wants to make her own choices and deal with everything all on her own."

"She wants you there. She loves you, you're her best friend, even if she's acting more like your daughter than your best friend right now."

"I know. I guess," she said, looking down at her coffee sadly. "Hey," she said suddenly, lifting her head. "When we get married does that mean I own half the diner?"

"No," he said simply, though he probably figured it did. "Not if it means you think you can add things to the menu or decorate."

"Does it mean I can go behind the counter?"

"Yes, you can come behind the counter," he conceded. "After we're married," he added.

"Score!" He rolled his eyes at her and she took a sip of her coffee. "Everyone there will be against me."

"Everyone where?"

"Tomorrow. My parents will be there, no doubt. Rory, Logan, his parents, probably. They all either have something against me or I have something against them."

"You'll be fine," he told her.

"I'll look pathetic sitting there all alone knowing they're all looking at me and laughing."

"No one is going to be laughing at you." He paused. "This isn't like you to be so worried about being there on your own."

"I wish I had just one person there who was on my side. So I wouldn't feel so outnumbered. Even if it was just… one of those guys who bailed Logan out of jail."

He stopped what he was doing and looked up at her. "You want me to go with you?"

She looked up from her coffee cup. "Really?"

"If you want me to come with you, I'll come with you. If it won't bother Rory," he added.

"I'm sure it wouldn't bother Rory," she told him. "But you don't have to come," she added. "I know my parents aren't your favorite people."

"Well, they aren't yours either," he reasoned.

"True," she said with a laugh. "But you know, I don't know if…"

"What?"

"It's just that I don't exactly know what's been going on with Rory and if she's told Christopher about all this. I mean, there's a chance, a very small chance, that he might be there if she has."

Luke stopped for a moment and took in a breath. "It's fine."

"You sure?"

"As long as there's no secrets about him you've been keeping from me that you plan to reveal to me tomorrow, then yes, it's fine," he told her with a smile to show he wasn't serious.

She returned his smile. "No secrets, I promise. Haven't even heard one word from him since I yelled at him to get away from me and ran out of the vow renewal."

Luke raised his eyebrows. "Well, then, okay."

"Okay. So you're coming with me?"

"If it will make you feel better, I'll be there."

"You really don't have to if it's too much of a hassle."

"I'll be there. For you and Rory." She smiled at him and gathered up her things.

"Thank you," she said before leaning across the counter and giving him a kiss goodbye.

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"Ugh, I hate these places," Luke muttered as they walked through the courthouse.

"More than hospitals?" she asked with a hint of sarcasm looking at signs and trying to figure out where they were going.

He thought about that for a moment. "No." He sighed. "It's just that everyone here is so formal and there's lawyers all over the place."

"Hence the being in a courthouse."

He shrugged. "Whatever."

"Oh!" she gasped, stopping and looking at her hand.

"What now?"

"I forgot to take my ring off."

He grumbled. "I thought you were going to take it off last night so you wouldn't forget?"

"Well, I was, but then," she looked down shyly, "I didn't want to take it off. So I just decided to take it off this morning before I took a shower. But then I didn't want to take it off first thing, so I just kept waiting and waiting and then I guess I forgot."

He rolled his eyes. "Lorelai…" he stopped and watched her as she pulled the ring off. "Now what are you going to do with it?"

She shrugged. "Keep it for me?"

"Keep it where?"

"Don't you have a box for it or something? The box it came in!"

"Not on me," he reminded her. "There is a box. At home. In Stars Hollow."

"I guess I can put it in my pocket," she said, unsure. "Maybe I should just leave it on. What do I care if they know?"

"We don't want Rory to find out that way," he reminded her. "Here, come here," he said, pulling her to him and reaching behind her to unclasp her necklace-- the necklace he had given her almost a year ago-- and removed it.

"What, no jewelry allowed?" she joked.

He ignored her and took the ring from her hand and put it on the necklace chain, then put the necklace back around her neck and closed the clasp, then adjusted her jacket so the necklace was mostly hidden. "There."

She raised her eyebrows and smiled at him. "Good thinking."

"It's not completely hidden, but it's not obviously an engagement ring either. You can always move the ring to the other side of the chain so it's behind your hair. Now can we please find the place?"

"Yeah, yeah," she said, looking at the signs. "This way, I think."

"This is like the blind leading the blind."

"Hey, then help out here, Buddy."

"Listen." They stopped and listened and Lorelai groaned.

"My mother." She followed the sound of her voice and arrived at a courtroom where Emily was outside talking to a lawyer.

"I swear, you better not screw this up! I don't know where on Earth Richard is, but he'll give you a rundown on what's going on before the trial starts and…"

"Emily," he interrupted. "I know everything that's going on. Rory is in good hands."

Emily sighed. "Fine. She better be!" The lawyer walked into the courtroom and Emily went to follow him when she noticed Lorelai.

"Lorelai!" she said in surprise. "Luke," she added, her voice dropping. "You're here."

Lorelai rolled her eyes slightly and shook her head. "Of course I'm here!"

"Well, don't act so offended. You haven't had contact with any of us in weeks."

"You really think I wouldn't show up to my daughter's trial?"

"Well I never know with you. I never know what's going on in that head of yours."

Lorelai shook her head. "Let's go," she told Luke, grabbing his hand and pulling him past her mother.

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Lorelai sat with Luke, her parents a row ahead of them. She watched them closely all through the trial, watching when they would whisper to each other and when her father seemed to be outraged at something that was being said. The trials for Rory and Logan were being held together, as they were both charged with the same crime and the attorneys had agreed this was a better idea. Logan had his father's lawyer and Rory had a lawyer chosen by her grandparents by their sides. Lorelai wondered briefly how this had gotten to this point, where Lorelai hadn't been there for Rory at all during this.

Across the way she noticed people who she assumed were Logan's parents. While she was supposed to know them, according to her parents she didn't recognize them absolutely but they did look a little familiar. She wanted to go up to Logan's father and give him a piece of her mind for what he had said to Rory. However, she knew this was not the time and that this was not even her battle to fight. She was fidgeting in her seat, perhaps from nerves or anxiety, and she felt Luke place his hand on her leg to calm her without tearing his eyes from the front of the room.

She sighed and instantly calmed down, remembering that Luke was there for her. She focused her attention on Rory who looked like she was scared to death and ready to throw up. She sat next to her lawyer who was looking through papers. Next to him was Logan, who looked surprisingly calm. He probably has done this before, she mused, remembering his friends who had come to bail him out of jail. His lawyer sat next to Logan, intently listening to what was going on.

And the thing she noticed most of all was that Rory hadn't looked at her once.

Lorelai wasn't sure if Rory even knew she was there at this point. She hadn't turned in her direction, and it was either because she didn't think to or because she knew Lorelai was there and didn't want to look at her for whatever reason. Even Logan had caught her eyes and nodded to her before the trial had started.

And her parents seemed to have no problem holding a gaze as they would continuously look in her direction and give her a look. Usually one that signaled disappointment or resent, she had noticed. She tried her best to not give them a look back but to ignore them and stare straight ahead.

"I'm going to let both of you off with twenty hours of community service and six months of probation," the judge finally concluded. "Though stealing something as great as a boat is not something to be taken lightly, the boat was returned safely and the owners do not wish to press charges as they know Mr. Huntzberger and his parents and this was his doing as it was his idea. Case dismissed."

Lorelai looked to Rory and Logan when the judge stated that the whole thing had been Logan's idea, wondering if Rory had been lying to her when she said it was her idea. Then she noticed Rory's head whipping towards Logan, her jaw open in shock.

People began to file out of the courtroom, and Richard and Emily immediately got up to go to Rory and Logan.

"I thought it was her idea," Luke whispered to Lorelai as they stood up.

"She told me it was," Lorelai agreed. They approached Rory and Logan as well, and Rory did a double take when she saw them.

"Mom!" she said, acting as if she was going to hug Lorelai, then thought better of it.

"Hey," Lorelai greeted her softly.

"Luke, you're here, too," Rory noted.

"Yeah, I hope you don't mind, I just—"

"No, no, I'm glad you are."

"Well well, wonderful news!" Richard said.

"Hardly wonderful, Grandpa," Rory said. "Six months of probation and twenty hours of community service."

"Well that's nothing," Emily said with a wave of her hand. The Huntzbergers approached and everyone went silent.

"Richard, Emily," Shira greeted.

Emily nodded to her coolly. "Shira."

"Son, can I speak to you for a moment?" Mitchum asked Logan. Logan looked nervous and let his father take him to the side, just behind Lorelai. She tried her best not to listen, and to glance around the empty and cold courtroom as her mother tried her best to say as little as possible to Shira, but it was difficult not to hear what was going on behind her.

"Are you crazy? You just took the fall for the whole thing," Mitchum said to Logan in a harsh whisper.

"Well, Rory's lawyer didn't know what he was doing!" Logan reasoned.

"That's her problem," Mitchum said. "Her mother didn't want our lawyer. What if taking the blame had gotten you a stiffer sentence?"

"Well it didn't, okay? The Richardsons know me, but they don't know Rory. They wouldn't press charges if they think it was my idea, they might have changed their minds if they knew it was Rory's."

"Once again, that should have been her problem, Logan."

"Well, I should have stopped her when she wanted to take the boat. Besides, nothing came of it, so what's the big deal?"

"The big deal is you're ruining your reputation!" he said, raising his voice. "And you're dragging our name through the mud in the process."

Lorelai felt her heart fall a little for Logan. She knew that argument better than any other. She tried to ignore the conversation and watched Rory fiddle with the bracelet on her arm as Emily still tried to speak as few words as possible to Shira.

"Just lighten up!" Logan said. "This whole thing was punishment enough for Rory, she doesn't do this kind of thing. Okay? I made a choice, now deal with it."

"You've been making a lot of choices lately, Logan," he said, "and I have to say, I don't agree with many of them. You better get your act together and start taking life seriously by making good choices or I'm not going to be supporting you at school anymore."

Logan made a face. "Well it was all your fault she wanted to steal the boat anyway. You treated her horribly."

"I told her the truth."

"Whatever," Logan said, turning to leave the courtroom.

Mitchum watched him go and then turned to his wife. "We better go," he told Shira.

"Where's Logan?" she asked. "I need a smoke anyhow."

"Logan left already, probably making some bad choices out in the hallway."

Emily stared at them coolly. "See you later," Emily told them, with a voice Lorelai had thought was reserved only for her.

"Goodbye Emily. Goodbye Richard," Shira added, letting Mitchum lead her out of the courtroom.

"I can't believe those two," Emily said with a roll of her eyes. "So fake. They're all about appearances and names, not thinking Rory is good enough for Logan for heaven's sake."

Lorelai turned and looked at Emily, raising her eyebrows. Emily looked at her for a moment before dismissing the look.

"Yeah, sure do hate it when people don't think other people are good enough just because of their names," Lorelai snapped bluntly. She turned to Rory then, leaving Emily to think about that. "Rory, kid, you okay?"

Rory looked up at her mother and nodded. "Yeah, it was all just a little—" she stopped talking for a moment, and Lorelai followed her gaze to her necklace, "overwhelming," Rory finished.

Lorelai nodded in understanding, unsure of what to do next. She wanted to hug Rory, but she wasn't sure if she was supposed to. "Well, everything worked out," she assured her. "You'll do the community service and be good for six months and you'll be clear. Then you'll just have a good story to tell and plenty of opportunities to be mocked."

Rory nodded, then stepped forward and gave her mother a hug. Lorelai immediately pulled Rory closer and gave her a kiss on the head.

"Well, we better get home, Rory," Emily interrupted. Rory pulled away from Lorelai slowly.

"Oh. Yeah," Rory agreed reluctantly. "Home."

"Yes, I have a phone call from China coming in this afternoon," Richard added.

Rory looked to her mother, then nodded. "Yeah. Let's go. Home," she said softly.

Lorelai watched sadly, wishing that she could just take Rory home to her real home. But just because this trial was over and the yacht issue resolved didn't mean that the dropping out of Yale issue was resolved, and that was what started the whole spereation.

"Goodbye Lorelai," Richard said. "Luke," he added with a nod.

Rory turned to Luke and gave him a hug. "Bye Luke," she said softly. "Thanks for being here," she added. "Even if it was just for Mom…"

"It was for both of you," he assured her. Rory smiled at him and then looked to her mother.

"Bye Mom," she added, moving towards her than thinking better of it. Finally she quickly placed a kiss on her cheek and then followed her grandparents out of the courtroom.

"Bye," Lorelai said absently. Rory watched her mother as she walked out the door, turning to glance back at her every few steps.

When they were gone, Lorelai turned to Luke. "I hate this."

He nodded in sympathy. "I know."

"I should have been there for her more through this. This was huge, potentially traumatizing, and I abandoned her. I let the Yale thing get in the way of this. I'm a horrible mother!"

"She's fine," he said, rubbing her back soothingly. "Besides, there wasn't much you could have done for her other than tell her everything was going to work out when you didn't know if it really would."

She nodded. "I guess. I still hate this."

"I know," he agreed softly. He reached around he neck and unclasped her necklace again. "Here, maybe this will cheer you up." He took the ring off the necklace and slid it back on her hand before putting the necklace back around her neck.

"Hmm, yeah," she said, holding out her hand to look at. "I think that does cheer me up."

"You have to tell Rory about this soon," he added gently.

"I know," she agreed. "And I want to tell her. But I don't want to tell her when things are like this."

"Well what if she finds out some other way?"

"How?"

"I don't know, considering her best friend works for me and knows we're engaged, it's possible."

"Lane," Lorelai realized. "Ugh, you're right. We could tell her not to say anything!"

"That's not really fair to Lane," Luke reasoned. "We can't ask her to do that."

She sighed. "Yeah, I guess not."

"You just need to work things out with Rory. All you have to do is talk to her."

"You make it sound so easy."

"It's you and Rory. It will be easy."

"A year ago, maybe. Not now. Things have become so different."

"It's still you and Rory. If you couldn't tell from the way she was acting in here today, she misses you as much as you miss her."

Lorelai sighed, looking down at her hands. "But what about Yale? That's what started this whole thing. I told her she couldn't come live with me if she was dropping out of Yale. So unless that changes…"

"You can at least still talk to her. It doesn't mean that you have to cut all contact just because she's doing something you disapprove of and she's living somewhere else for the summer. Talking to her doesn't mean you suddenly approve."

"I guess."

"Call her."

"I don't know."

"I'll tell you what, you call her and we can negotiate the going behind the counter thing so that you could maybe do it before we're married."

She grinned at him and laughed, wiping at her eyes where tears were threatening to fall. "Thank you," she said, throwing her arms around him. "I really needed to laugh right now." A moment later she saw Rory pass by the door and stop to look at them when she noticed them still inside. She looked at Rory for a moment, waiting to see what she was going to do.

"The bathroom is a little further up, Rory," Emily's voice echoed through the halls.

Rory stopped looking at Luke and Lorelai and turned to look down the hall at Emily. "Right. Thanks Grandma," Rory said, forcing herself to move past the doorway.

"Not going to be as easy as it seems," Lorelai whispered to Luke.

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Hmm, I hope that whole court thing came out okay, I really didn't know how to write the actual court and sentencing, but I wanted the character interaction. Hope it wasn't too bad!

Part 4 soon!