Part 5
Okay, I also had to split this one into two (it got too long) so things start to get resolved here, and it continues into part 6. I think part 6 might be the last, or maybe not, we'll see. But the main issues of the show's cliffhanger should all be resolved by part 6.
Lane is in my story, pretend she and her band haven't gone on tour yet. ;)
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Lorelai sat on the floor of Luke's apartment, gathering up books from his bookshelf and placing them in a box. She tossed a good amount of them into a box that she had found that had already had books in it and carried it over to the kitchen table.
"So what's the deal with all the books?" she asked him, pulling some of them out of the box and looking at them.
He shrugged. "A lot of them were my dad's," he explained. "I don't even know what half of them are."
"What do you want to do with them?" she asked. "I mean, I assume you want to keep them, but do you want to move them now or later?"
"We can move those later," he stated. "I don't use them much. If ever."
She nodded. "Hey, look, here's that golf book I think you were looking for when you went golfing with my dad." She laughed. "I still can't believe you did that."
"Yeah, well," he grumbled. "Lot of good it did me."
She tilted her head and looked at him, feeling sorry for him, wishing she could force her parents to accept Luke. Speaking of which, she should probably call them back one of these days.
"Forget about them," she told him gently, "they're not worth it."
He went back to looking through the drawer he was looking through and she continued to look through the books. It dawned on her that she had no idea why she was looking through the books because she wasn't sorting them or anything. So she decided to make herself useful she would wipe them off and check out their condition.
When she got to the bottom of the box, she pulled out a book and frowned.
"This looks familiar," she stated.
"What is it?" he asked, passing by her on the way back to the bedroom area.
"Isn't this Jess's book?" she asked, holding it out to him. "The one I was making fun of and we got into a little thing about. At Liz's wedding," she added.
"I remember," he said quickly.
"Why do you have it?" she asked innocently as she brushed the dust off. "Jess leave it here?"
"Yeah. He, uh, gave it to me."
She frowned. "Why would he give you this book?"
"I guess I should clarify. He gave it back to me."
"Back to you?" she asked. "But it wasn't--" she froze. "Oh my God. Oh… it was yours," she realized. "No wonder you got so defensive about it. Oh my God, I'm an idiot."
He laughed a little. "Well it is perfect mocking material."
"Which is why I couldn't get why you weren't mocking it. If that had really been Jess's, man, you would have been all over him!"
He chuckled. "I know."
She looked up at him, her eyes asking him to explain the story more, but she didn't dare ask him seeing as how he didn't exactly seem to enjoy this conversation.
"I gave it to Jess when I was done with it, that's why you saw him with it. He told me that he had told Rory he loved her and ran so I thought maybe he could use a brush up."
She looked down at the book and brushed it off once more with her hand. "So why did you have it in the first place?" He shifted slightly and looked uncomfortable. "Was that why you… you said you were done with it… is it why you asked me to the wedding?"
He looked down at his feet awkwardly. He really hated this conversation. He nodded slowly and she smiled. "Yeah," he admitted.
She marveled at this for a moment. "I am so sorry for making fun of the book. I mean, how insensitive of me. You know me, always have to make a joke, have to mock everything."
He dismissed her with a wave of his hand. "Forget it. It is mockable. I mean, you should have seen how embarrassed I was to even have bought the stupid thing."
"So why did you?" she asked curiously. "It's so not you."
"I don't know, it was just one of those impulses." He sighed. "Remember when I came to the inn right before it opened to take the official 'investor's tour'?" he asked her. She nodded. "And Sookie tried to set you up with the poultry guy."
"Yeah, right. I still can't believe she did that, by the way," she added.
"Then we started talking about relationships and why they were so hard and doesn't it make us sad. And I guess I just got thinking and remembered you saying something about Dr. Phil books being in our future. So I just decided to check out the books about this kind of thing and ended up buying one."
"Wow," she said, taking his story in. She looked down at the book for a moment, thinking. "What did it say?"
"What, the whole thing?" he asked with a frown.
"No," she said with a laugh. "I mean, I highly doubt it says 'Luke Danes, you have to go ask Lorelai Gilmore out now, and trust me because that's the right thing to do and you'll be happy for the rest of your life' because not only would that be creepy, it would mean the book was a little bit psychic. What did it say to make you come to me?"
He sat down on one of the chairs at the table next to Lorelai, and she sat down as well, still holding on to the book.
"It came with an audio tape," he said with a grimace.
She gasped. "No! You listened to it?" she asked in surprise.
"Kind of," he admitted. "Anyway, it asked me all these questions about people. Like, 'when you get good news, who do you most want to share it with?' and 'who's phone calls and visits are never unwelcome or too long?' and then after every statement it asked, annoyingly, might I add, 'Can you see her face?' and I guess… I could."
"Mine?" she clarified.
He laughed at her doubt. "Yes."
"So that's why you… the wedding."
He nodded. "Yeah."
"Wow."
He took the book from her. "We don't have to keep this one," he added, getting up to toss it.
"No!" she exclaimed, jumping up and grabbing his arm and taking the book from him. "We are so keeping this one."
"Why?"
"Because this is the book that got us together!" she explained. "This is our biggest supporter."
"Lorelai…" he groaned.
"Don't worry, if anyone ever sees it I'll say it was mine. Or we can say it was Rory's. Yeah, we can blame it on her."
"Fine, whatever," he said with a shrug, turning to head back to the things he had been cleaning out.
She stopped him by grabbing his arm and turned him back towards her. "Hey," she said before leaning in to kiss him deeply. She let her hands play with the hair that was sticking out from under his baseball cap while his arms slowly moved around her.
When she pulled away, she smiled at him. "I'm glad you got that book."
"Me too," he agreed softly.
"You really thought all those things about me?"
"What things?"
"That I'm the one you wanted to share good news with and the one who's phone calls and visits are never too long or unwelcome? Because, seriously, sometimes you practically threw me out of that diner."
He smiled at her. "Yeah, well, the book didn't say coffee addicted customers who beg for coffee even at midnight were taken out of the equation, so I just assumed."
She giggled, letting her hands still play with his exposed hair. "You make me sound like a drug addict."
"You are," he stated. "Caffeine is a drug, you know."
"Luke?"
"What?"
"I was always waiting," she admitted.
"For?"
"You to ask me out."
He frowned. "But--"
"I know, I never made a move. But you know me; I have a reputation for making an idiot out of myself. See: Luke and Jess's book. So I figured if you really truly felt something for me you'd ask me out eventually. You were my best friend. You still are. And it was just hard for me to tell if you had feelings feelings for me or if you just thought of me as your best friend and that's where the way you felt about me came from. I'd never had a man in my life that was so important to me and I just couldn't read the signals. And plus, I was so sacred I'd mess us up and lose you and… I don't know."
"I get it," he said. "Why do you think it took me eight years?"
"And a self-help book."
"Right," he said with a roll of his eyes. "I'm never going to live that down am I?"
"We'll see," she said with a chuckle, removing her arms from around him and heading back to the table to finish with the books. "I just wish it hadn't taken us so long."
"It happened when it did for a reason," he told her.
"Look at you Mr. I Don't Believe in Fate."
"Well, not fate exactly, but… we weren't ready before."
"I guess," she agreed. She thought about if for a moment. "No, you're right," she said more decisively. "I think we needed those other relationships and," she rolled her eyes painfully, "marriage, before we got together."
He noticed her eye roll. "I guess now I understand your hatred of Nicole."
She looked at him for a moment. "I didn't hate her. I just really hated that relationship," she stated.
"You were jealous."
"Was not."
"You were."
"Not jealous, exactly, just--"
"You were jealous. Admit it."
"Well, maybe a little. But I had a right to be! You married her."
"I guess, somehow," he said.
She frowned. "You did. You had a divorce at the end of that relationship, so I think that means it was a marriage."
"Legally, maybe," he said. "In actuality it never was. It was just us fooling ourselves."
"Why did you?" she asked.
"Why did I what?"
"Why did you marry her? Why didn't you go through with the divorce the first time? Why did you move in with her? I mean, your heart was never really in it, I could tell."
"It wasn't," he agreed.
"So why did you push things with Nicole?
"I don't know. I guess, there was Nicole or there was… you. I never thought you were on the same page as me and I just never thought you and I would happen. So I tried to forget about whatever feelings I had for you at the time and tried to still end up with someone so I wouldn't become my uncle Louie."
She smiled a little. "If she hadn't… you know… the whole sockman thing, would you have still gotten divorced?"
He thought about this for a moment, clearly thinking the answer over in his head. "Eventually."
She nodded, not wanting to really push him on this anymore. "Oh."
"She and I were never really married," he explained again. "We were trying to work our way back up to that. But that's why getting married destroyed our relationship; we both knew it wasn't right. She always knew that emotionally I wasn't completely in our relationship. She may have actually cheated on me, but I was pretty much cheating on her by being in love with… you. It wouldn't have ever been a real marriage, so at some point we would have had to get out of it. It wasn't like with you where everything clicked and I wanted to be that committed. I didn't have fun with her and feel totally comfortable with her."
"I know that feeling," she said quietly, rearranging the books on the table as she spoke. "With Max, I mean," she added, glancing at him to see if he was uncomfortable with this topic. He looked more interested than anything else, so she continued. "I was so caught up in all the fun of planning a wedding that I just didn't realize I would later have to spend my life with him. He was a good guy, he was sweet, he was good to Rory, but it just hit me suddenly that I didn't want to be around him everyday for the rest of my life. I couldn't talk to him about everything, I didn't let him into Rory's life, I couldn't have fun with him. He wasn't turning into my best friend, and that's what was lacking," she said, catching Luke's eyes and smiling. "Marrying your best friend."
He smiled at her in return. "Yeah," he agreed. "Marrying your best friend."
Her stomach churned a little and she smiled at him, going back to cleaning off the books.
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"She wants me to come to dinner," Lorelai said dramatically, walking into the diner and taking a seat on the stool nearest the cash register.
Luke looked up from the receipts in his hands. "Your mother?" She nodded. "It's because you never called her back," he stated.
It interested her how he had suddenly gotten her mother all figured out. "Hey, when did you get an A in Mastering Emily Gilmore 101?"
He shrugged. "She's pretty easy to figure out sometimes. You didn't call her back so she's now going to try and make sure she gets to talk to you by making you come to dinner."
"I don't want to go to dinner," she pouted.
"Just go," he told her. "Sooner or later you have to end this thing with your parents, you might as well just do it now."
"But Rory will be there."
"Since when are you afraid of Rory?"
"I'm not. But things between Rory and me are weird, and things between my parents and me are weird, it's weirdness all around. And they're all on one side and I'm on the other."
"Lorelai, look," Luke said, stopping what he was doing to lean on the counter closer to her. "You've got to work this thing out with Rory."
She looked down sadly. "I know."
"I know that she made a choice that disappointed you, it disappointed me, too. But she's still Rory. You still love her, she's still your best friend and your daughter. I'm guessing that you've made a few choices in your life that your mother doesn't approve of, either," he added, "and you two still manage to have some sort of relationship most of the time. You and Rory don't have to cut each other out just because she made this choice. That I'm still willing to bet she'll go back on soon."
She sighed. "I know, I know, you're right." She paused. "But I don't want to go to dinner."
"Do you want me to go with you?"
She looked up at him in surprise. "To dinner?"
He shrugged. "Yeah."
"You don't have to do that."
"I know."
"I promised you when we got back together that you'd never have to go back in that house again if you didn't want to."
"And I'm telling you, if it will make you feel more comfortable, I want to."
She smiled at him lovingly. "I know you do," she said, holding up her left hand. "That's why I wear this," she added, turning her soft smile into a grin. "You don't have to go. I will not subject you to their torture again just yet, especially at a crucial time like this."
"If you're sure."
She nodded. "Yeah."
"So you're going to go to dinner?"
"I guess," she muttered. "I'd rather deal with my parents and Rory separately. Maybe Rory won't be there anyway. I mean, who knows if she's still going to Friday Night dinners. She doesn't have them paying for Yale anymore." She thought about that. "Hey, maybe that's why she dropped out. She finally figured out my parents and would rather drop out than keep going to dinner."
He shook his head. "I think Rory likes your parents," he reminded her.
"Well, maybe she did," she joked, "then she just couldn't hack it anymore."
"Maybe," he humored her.
"Luke!" Kirk called from his table.
"What?" Luke asked.
"I need to order."
"Be right there, Kirk," he told him. "Go call your mother and tell her you'll at least talk to her."
She grumbled. "Okay, okay." She leaned across the counter and kissed him. "Bye."
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Lorelai stared at the phone on the desk. She just had to call her mother, it shouldn't be this big of a deal. Why did she find herself in this situation more and more often? Afraid to call her mother and dreading the conversation she would have with her.
She finally picked up the phone and dialed. She was about to hang up, losing her courage, when her mother answered.
"Hello?" Emily's voice said. There was a crashing noise in the background and Lorelai frowned.
"Mom?" Lorelai asked, frowning into the phone as she heard a lot of commotion on the other end after her mother had answered.
"Yes, hello. Sorry," Emily apologized. "Lorelai?"
"Yeah. Hi."
"Well, how nice of you to finally call me back."
"I told you before, my machine is on the fritz. You should call my cell if you can't get me at home."
"Perhaps it was overworked," Emily stated.
Lorelai narrowed her eyes. "Anyway. About dinner. I really don't want to--"
"Lorelai, you are not backing out of dinner."
"First of all, I never agreed to dinner, second of all, I'm not trying to back out of talking to you, I would just rather talk to you and dad without Rory around."
"Oh," Emily said. "Well, maybe we can work something out."
"How about you come to the inn?" she asked. She heard the words what in the world are you doing run through her mind. Stupid Luke. Stupid Luke could make her be mature and do the right thing.
"In Stars Hollow?" Emily asked.
"Yeah, my inn in Stars Hollow, not one of my other inns. Those inns are just not up to par yet," Lorelai replied sarcastically.
"Sarcasm does not become you, Lorelai."
"Mom, lunch at the inn or not?"
"I suppose that could be okay," Emily said. "I'll check with your father."
"Sure, let me know."
"Tomorrow?"
"Tomorrow," Lorelai gulped. "Uh, sure, tomorrow," she agreed. She glanced at her calendar. "Yeah, I think tomorrow is okay. Oh wait I have…" don't back out, she reminded herself. "Oh no, that's okay. Tomorrow is good. Tomorrow."
"Okay, we'll see you then," Emily agreed.
"I thought you had to check with Dad?"
"I'm sure he will agree," Emily said quickly, and Lorelai swore she wanted to get the plans cemented before Lorelai had a chance to back out.
"Okay," Lorelai agreed. "Tomorrow," she said, making a face as she hung up the phone.
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"Rory!" Emily called, knocking on the door to the pool house around ten the next morning.
Rory groaned and lifted her head from her pillow, about to go answer the door, when she remembered she hadn't spent the night alone. Crap, she thought, looking at Logan next to her. I shouldn't have talked him into staying.
"Coming, Grandma!" Rory called. She nudged Logan. "Wake up," she hissed.
Logan groaned and wiped his eyes sleepily. "What's the matter?"
"My grandmother is at the door," Rory said. "Don't let her see you here, okay?" she said, getting up to go answer the door. "Just stay in here until she's gone."
Logan nodded. "Whatever you say, Ace."
Rory sighed and moved quickly to the door. She pulled it open and smiled at Emily.
"Oh. Did I wake you?" Emily asked. "It's after ten in the morning, I assumed you'd be awake already."
"Oh, it's okay," Rory said, putting a hand to her hair to see if it was out of order. "What's up?"
"Felicity is doing the laundry," Emily said. "Do you have any laundry you need done?"
Rory panicked, knowing laundry was in her bedroom. "No, no laundry, Grandma," Rory said quickly.
"No laundry?" Emily asked. "You must have laundry. You haven't done any yourself, have you? Because that's what we pay Felicity to do."
"It's okay, Grandma, really," Rory said. "I, uh, I have a lot of clean clothes left."
"Nonsense," Emily said. "We may as well wash all your dirty clothes now, then you'll have more clean clothes to choose from."
"I don't like clean clothes, clean clothes are overrated."
"Rory, honestly, what is the matter with you this morning?"
"Nothing," Rory said quickly. "Okay. I'll go get my laundry. You just wait here, be back in a sec," she said, moving back to the bedroom quickly.
"She gone?" Logan asked. Rory shook her head fiercely and put a finger to her lips. "She wants my laundry!" Rory said in a hushed whisper.
She then went around the room gathering up clothes into a laundry basket, not caring if they were clean or not, just wanting something to give to her grandmother so she would leave. She took the basket and returned to Emily, handing it to her.
"Here you go," Rory said, trying to sound cheerful. "Thanks."
"Wonderful," Emily said, taking the laundry basket and leaving. Rory sighed a sigh of relief and plopped down on the couch.
"Now she's gone, right?" Logan asked, emerging carefully.
"Yeah. Sorry."
"That's okay," Logan said, and watched as Rory picked up her cell phone and checked for messages. She frowned when she saw that she had none. "What's the matter?" he asked.
"Nothing," Rory said sadly.
"Why don't you go talk to your mom?" Logan asked her.
Rory shook her head. "Why would you suggest that?"
"Because you're clearly waiting for her to call you."
"Am not," Rory said, crossing her arms across her chest. "Besides, she can't accept my decision."
"Rory, who does accept your decision?" he asked.
"My grandparents do! I thought you did."
"Your grandparents don't want you to drop out. They let you stay with them, yes, but that doesn't mean they accept this."
"Well, my mom told me I couldn't even come home if I decided to drop out, so my grandparents are a little more accepting than her."
"And I don't accept your choice. I mean, if you really think this is best, then fine, but I think it's wrong."
"Logan--"
"I thought you were different, Rory," he said. "I thought you had a brain and a dream and a good head on your shoulders."
"I do!" Rory said. "Just because I'm taking time off from Yale means that I'm not smart anymore?"
"Rory, I just, I want what's best for you."
The door opened and Emily appeared again. "Rory, Felicity is looking for more white--" she stopped when she saw Logan, shock on her face. "Logan. Hello."
"Emily," Logan said nervously.
"You're here early," Emily said.
"Yeah," Rory said, knowing that by their looks there was no way they could make up an excuse. They had both just clearly woken up. "Uh, Logan was here last night and fell asleep, so he stayed over."
Emily nodded numbly. "Yes. I see."
"And he was just going," Rory added, shooting Logan a glare.
"Yeah, going," Logan said with frustration. He returned to Rory's room to change into his clothes from what he had slept in.
Emily stared at Rory for a long moment and Rory looked down at her hands. "I'm sorry, I should have told you Logan was here."
Emily nodded dully. "Well. Logan will not be staying here anymore, understand?"
Rory looked up at her in surprise. "Yes. Sorry."
"I will not have you making your mother's mistake," Emily added, turning on her heels and leaving.
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"What's the emergency?" Luke asked, arriving at the inn later that afternoon, toolbox in hand.
Lorelai spun around and smiled in relief when she saw him. "Oh, thank God. Dishwasher. Can you fix it?" she asked, looking as helpless as possible.
"I'll see," he said, heading towards the kitchen.
"Please, please, tell me you can fix it. We've been washing them by hand and it's taking forever," she whined, following behind him. "And we're out of plates and people are getting antsy and…"
"I'm on it," he told her.
"Thank you Luke," she said, flashing him a grin.
"No problem." She followed him to the dishwasher and watched as he attempted to find the problem when Michel came in.
"Lorelai, phone for you," he said, looking annoyed that he had to walk all the way to the kitchen to find her. She nodded to him and he disappeared.
"I'll be out there if you need me," she told Luke. He nodded and she returned to the lobby to get the phone.
"Hello?"
"Mom?"
"Rory."
"Hi."
"Hi."
"I, uh… is this a bad time?" she asked.
"Well, kind of. There's chaos in the kitchen, Luke's trying to fix the chaos by repairing the dishwasher, and I'm really dreading lunch."
"Grandma and Grandpa?" Rory asked.
"Yeah," Lorelai stated.
"Right. I can call back then…"
"What's up?"
"Nothing, I just wanted to… I don't know… I just. There was a little incident this morning and…" she sighed. "Never mind. I shouldn't have called you."
"Oh," Lorelai said. "Everything okay?"
"Yeah, sorry. I don't know what I was thinking calling you."
"Rory, you can always talk to me."
"I know. But this is dumb anyway."
"What happened?"
"I just wanted some advice on how to deal with Grandma, but that is so inappropriate to ask you right now…"
"Well I did write the book on that subject."
"Please, just forget it. I've gotta go."
Lorelai shrugged. "Okay. Call me if you change your mind."
"Bye," Rory said. They hung up, and Lorelai stared at the phone with confusion for a moment.
"Lorelai."
She groaned inwardly and looked up. "Hi Mom. Dad," she said calmly. "You're early."
"Not as much traffic as we thought," Richard stated.
"Oh. I see. Okay, well…"
"Is this a bad time?" Richard asked. "If we're too early we can wait."
"No, no, it's fine. I just, uh, let me check on the kitchen, the dishwasher's broken and, well, chaos is taking place, so…
"Right, of course," Emily agreed.
"One second," she told her parents. "If you guys want to go ahead and have a seat, follow me," she added, heading towards the dining room. She led her parents to a table and sat them down. "I'll be right back," she said, heading towards the kitchen. She ran into Luke on her way.
"Oh!" she exclaimed. "So, what's the verdict?"
"It'll pull through," he told her with a smirk.
"Oh, thank God," she said, putting a hand over her heart. "You fixed it? That fast?"
"Yeah, sure, it wasn't too big of a deal."
"I swear, we're going to fire that handyman who's supposed to do these things and get a reliable one." She paused. "Looking for a second job?" she teased.
"Flattering, but no, thanks."
"Darn."
He nodded towards the dining room. "Your parents are here already?"
"Yeah, they got here early," she said. "Are they watching us?"
"Yes."
"I guess I should accept my fate and eat with them, then," she said with a roll of her eyes. "Thank you so much for fixing the dishwasher. I owe you," she said, raising her eyebrows.
He laughed a little. "I won't forget it."
"See you tonight?"
"Sure."
"I'll let you get back to your business," she added, leaning in to kiss him. "Bye Babe."
"Bye," he replied. He gave a nod to Emily and Richard just to have some sort of hint of being polite and then headed towards the front door.
"Thank you!" she called after him again. He turned and waved her off before leaving the room.
"Sorry," Lorelai apologized, sitting down with her parents.
"What was Luke doing here in the middle of the day?" Emily asked.
Here we go, Lorelai thought. "Fixing my dishwasher emergency."
"Luke was?" Richard asked. "Don't you have some sort of handyman to do those things?"
"Yes, but he never returns our calls. We're in the process of finding someone new." She waited for someone to respond. "So are we going to jump right in with this topic or are we going to start with how you stabbed me in the back for a change of pace?"
"Lorelai, we did not stab you in the back," Richard said.
"I came to you. I asked for your help to not let Rory drop out. You said okay. Next thing I know, you decided, without me, that Rory is going to drop out."
"Well, when Rory explained the situation to us, she said she had nowhere to go."
"That was supposed to encourage her to go back to school," Lorelai stated.
"Rory is a smart girl. She will make the right choice," Emily added.
"I know that. At least, the old Rory would have. There's no telling what this new Rory will do at any given moment."
Emily stiffened a little, remembering the glimpse she had caught of the new Rory this morning.
"Lorelai, you have to understand that we were just trying to do what's best for Rory," Richard said.
"You're always trying to do what's best," Lorelai stated. "Only you never really seem to know what's best!"
"Lorelai, look," Richard said, "we don't want Rory to drop out of Yale forever. None of us want that. We don't even really want her to take a year off. But we can't force her to do something she doesn't want to do, and right now she doesn't want to go back to Yale."
Lorelai sighed. "I know she doesn't."
"So what do you suggest we do with her? Leave her on the streets?"
"No! Of course not."
"So?"
"I didn't mean she had to go and live with you guys. I told her she couldn't live with me if she wasn't going to school and was just going to bum around. I wanted her to find a job or find some kind of solution so that she would be doing something productive and remind her why she's in school in the first place. And now all she's doing is lying around your pool house anyhow. It's like she played us against each other. She got the better end of the deal and doesn't have to do anything by going to live with you. I had a plan, and that's why I felt like you stabbed me in the back. She just came to you and suddenly my plan was out the window and now she thinks I just kicked her out of her house!"
"Well, Lorelai, you never explained all that to us," Emily reasoned with apparent regret.
Lorelai raised her eyebrows. "Well you told me you were on my side, I didn't think you were going to switch teams so quickly."
Richard looked to Emily. "Maybe we were a bit too hasty taking Rory in," Emily said. She couldn't forget the fact that Logan had been in the pool house that morning. She wasn't sure how that was her fault, but she assumed if Rory had been at home Logan wouldn't have been staying over.
Emily hadn't been sure about this whole arrangement in the first place, and now she was really wondering if it was right. She wanted Rory back in Yale, now, and she no longer had the energy to fight with Lorelai about why they had been right to support Rory.
"Maybe," Lorelai repeated softly. The three of them sat in silence for a moment. "It doesn't matter now anyway," Lorelai said a bit sadly. "What's done is done."
Emily looked down at her silverware and nodded. The waiter came over to take their orders then, which was a nice interruption. When he walked away, no one spoke for a few minutes.
"Well," Lorelai said, "this is fun."
"Now what about you not telling us about your engagement?" Emily finally asked.
"What's there to tell?" Lorelai asked them, "You hate Luke, why would I run to you to tell you the news?"
"We don't hate Luke, Lorelai," Richard said. "Luke is a fine young man."
"We just don't think he's right for you," Emily added.
"There you go again thinking things when you don't know anything."
"Lorelai, you are capable of so much. We would hate to see you be held back."
"By Luke?" Lorelai asked. Emily nodded. "You know that if it wasn't for Luke I would be nowhere right now. There's a good chance I wouldn't even have the inn."
"What?" Emily asked, her face wrinkled in confusion.
"You have no idea how much Luke has been there for me through this whole inn thing, from the very, very beginning, when it was just an idea. He's made it possible when I got stuck, he's always encouraged me and told me I could do this, especially when I thought I couldn't."
"Well what about Christopher?" Emily interjected. Lorelai stiffened.
"What about him?"
"You've always been waiting for Christopher. He has himself together now, Lorelai, he wants to be with you."
"I know. But I don't want to be with him."
"But all those years--"
"Mom, if I wanted to be with Christopher, I would have been with Christopher after you broke Luke and I up. Remember that?"
"But Lorelai, this is Christopher," Richard added.
"I know!" she exclaimed. "I know, it's Christopher, the same guy who did nothing but hurt and abandon me and Rory time and time again."
"He has himself together now."
"So that just erases all the years of hurt?"
"We're just saying, just because Christopher has hurt you before doesn't mean you should just settle for someone else."
"Being with Christopher would be settling," she told them. "Luke is not settling. Luke is amazing and he's perfect, and truth be told, I probably don't even deserve him. Christopher and I were never meant to be, as much as you want to believe that. We were just kids who were stupid and we ended up with Rory. Which is a plus. But had we never had Rory, Christopher and I probably would have broken up and been over before we finished high school. It's only because we have Rory together that he keeps coming back into our lives and why you think we're meant to be and why I kept going back to him and wanting to try again. But it wasn't right, and that's over now."
"You would be married to him right now if his girlfriend had never gotten pregnant," Emily reminded her. "But now you're just telling us that he's history and the man you could have been with back then as well is the person you now know you want to spend the rest of your life with?"
Lorelai shrugged. "Life works in funny ways. I know you'll never understand how in love with Luke I am, you'll probably always think that I am settling for Luke, and if that's how you feel, then fine. Feel that way, because I know the truth. But you have to understand, I'm marrying Luke. February is going to come, and I'm going to marry Luke. There is no negotiation about it, and this is not going to end like my last engagement did. So if you're interested in coming to the wedding and being a part of the wedding plans and being an active part of our lives and your future grandchildren's lives, then you better start getting it into your head that it's Luke that I'm going to spend the rest of my life with. I'm a big girl, and I can see all my options and I can make my own choices, and I have made the choice that Luke is the only man I could ever want to be with for the rest of my life and have a family with."
Emily looked down and Richard nodded. "I know you are."
"What?"
"In love with Luke. It's as clear as day, Lorelai. It always has been."
"So why on Earth did you want to take that away from me?"
Richard and Emily were both silent, apparently neither one with an answer.
"And furthermore," she added, feeling like she was on a roll. "I don't want either of you trying to change Luke or taking subtle shots at him," she said, glaring at her mother. "Because if Luke doesn't feel comfortable around you, I won't make him be around you, and that means I won't be around you very often, either."
"Fine," Emily stated.
Richard nodded. "Very well then."
Lorelai raised her eyebrows skeptically and nodded. "Well, good."
xxxxxxxxxx
"Luke's," Luke answered the phone at the diner the next day.
"Hi, uh, is Luke there?"
Luke frowned. Who called the diner that didn't know him, yet would ask for him? "This is Luke."
"Oh, hi, Mr. Danes. This is Logan Huntzberger." Luke frowned, knowing this was something he didn't want to get into. "You know, Rory's boyfriend?"
"Right. I know."
"Oh. Okay."
"Can I help you with something?"
"I know you probably don't have the best opinion of me," Logan said, "what with the yacht and the vow renewal and all and the fact that Rory's mother doesn't seem to like me and you're dating her."
"Do you have a point?"
"Oh. Sorry. Look, it's just, this thing with Rory and her mother, it's killing Rory. And I can only assume that her mother is feeling the same way."
Luke sighed. "She is."
"And they're both too stubborn to fix it on their own. At least, I know Rory doesn't want to make the first move, and since her mother hasn't made a move, I assume she doesn't want to either."
Luke frowned. "Where's this going?"
"I think they need a little push."
"Oh."
"And I've tried to talk Rory into going and just talking to her mother, but it isn't working."
"Yeah, not working with her mother either," Luke grumbled.
"I mean, I don't know firsthand how close they really are, but from the way Rory's talked about her mother, I don't think this is normal."
"Definitely not," Luke agreed.
"So I just thought, maybe if we could get them in the same room they'll talk."
"They will kill us, you know," Luke told him.
"I know. But I know Rory wants to work this out."
Luke sighed. "So does Lorelai."
"So what's the harm of just pushing them to work it out now?"
"Well… I don't know. It is their fight."
"She won't drop out of Yale," Logan said suddenly.
"What?" Luke asked with a frown.
"I can tell she's already regretting it. I've tried to talk her into going back and slowly she stops resisting me so much. And it's not too late for her to change her mind."
"What does that have to do with Lorelai?"
"If she just talked to her mother I know she would listen this time. Last time she was upset and worked up and everything. Now that she's starting to regret the decision, I think she just really needs to talk to her mother."
Luke sighed. He knew this was screaming bad idea. He didn't know much about this Logan kid, and he wasn't sure he really liked him. He knew getting into the middle of this and tricking both Lorelai and Rory was screaming disaster. But if it could get them to fix things and it had a shot at getting Rory to go back to Yale, then maybe it was worth it. But how much could he trust that Logan knew what he was talking about?
"Fine," Luke said. "Have any ideas on how to get them in the same room?"
"Well, I thought that's where you could help," Logan stated.
xxxxxxxxxx
"Rory!"
"Ah, the ears, Lane, the ears," Rory said, removing her cell phone from her ear. "What's up?"
"I really need to talk to you," Lane said urgently.
"What? What's wrong?"
"Oh, it's this whole thing. The band, and… Zach. And my mother," Lane added.
"What's wrong?" Rory asked with concern.
"Can you just come over today or something?"
"Come over?" Rory asked with a frown. "Like Stars Hollow, come over to Stars Hollow?"
"That is where I live."
"But—"
"Please, Rory. I really need to talk to you. This isn't over the phone talking, this is girl talk talk."
"Okay," Rory agreed. "I'll be there as soon as I can."
"Thank you, you're the best," Lane said.
"See you soon," Rory added, closing her phone and gathering up her things.
She drove to Stars Hollow, a little afraid of going back to the town. Everyone would see her. Everyone probably knew that she was dropping out of Yale and about the yacht. And that she wasn't talking to her mother. They could clearly see that Rory wasn't back in town for the summer. If someone saw her in town and then told her mother that she had been there, how would that look?
She hoped that no one would notice. They might see her car in front of Lane's, but maybe they wouldn't notice it was hers.
She pulled up in front of Lane's place. She was just about to get out of the car when her cell phone rang.
"Hello?"
"Rory?"
"Lane?" she asked. "I just got to your house."
"Oh," Lane said. "Darn, I was hoping to catch you before you got there."
"Why? What's up?"
"I had to go in to work," she said. "There was an emergency, short staffed, so Luke called and I agreed to go in."
"So you're not home?" Rory asked, getting a bit irritated.
"No. I'm sorry. I just, I really need the money and so I needed the extra hours…"
"No, forget about it. I guess I'll just go back to Hartford…"
"Come to the diner?" Lane asked.
"Uh, well…" Rory said, searching for an excuse. "I can't, really, what if…"
"Oh, your mom, right. She's not here though."
"But Luke is. And he'll see me here and then he'll tell my mom I was here."
"So you're afraid of Luke?"
"No! I'm not afraid of him, I'm just…"
"Rory, please."
"But Lane…"
"Okay, you're right. I guess it's unfair of me to ask you to come here. I just really need to talk and I'm asking you to do things you don't want to do. I'm sorry."
"Can't you take a break or something?" Rory asked, suddenly feeling guilty. Lane needed to talk to her. She's been friends with Lane since kindergarten, she couldn't bail on her now. Especially after all the times Lane had been there when she needed to talk. She talked to her for a long time about the whole Dean affair, even blowing off band practice for her.
"I just started," Lane said, sounding sad. "It's okay, forget it. Sorry you drove all the way out here."
Rory groaned. "Okay, I'll be there. I'm leaving my car here though so it's not as noticeable. Are you sure my mom isn't around?"
"I'm sure."
"I'll be right there," she said.
"Thank you so much, Rory. I owe you!" Yeah, you do, Rory thought, hanging up the phone.
She walked over to Luke's, nervous about the whole thing. Luke would be good. She had even called Luke before. Yeah, Luke would be fine. But what if her mother came in? She was known to appear at Luke's at any time. What if Ms. Patty was there? No, she usually had classes at this time. Rory sighed and decided to suck it up for Lane.
The bell above the diner jingled, and she noticed it was quiet inside. Short staffed? she wondered. "There's no one here they need staff for," she mumbled. Luke appeared from the kitchen.
Rory bit her lip and Luke raised his eyebrows.
"Hey Luke," she greeted carefully.
"Rory. Hi."
"I, uh, sorry to just come in here like this…"
"People usually do. It is a diner," Luke joked.
"Right. True. But, well, you know."
"What brings you to town?" he asked with a curious expression.
"Lane called, she said she needed to talk to me," Rory said, glancing around the diner in paranoia.
Luke frowned. "Oh. So why are you here?"
"To see Lane."
"Lane's not here," he told her.
Rory gasped, her mouth opening. "But, she told me she had to work!"
"She just went out on an errand," Luke added. "How long ago did you talk to her?"
"Like two minutes!" Rory said, frustrated. "She could have told me she was going on an errand, I could have met her."
"She should be back soon," Luke added.
"Maybe I should just go and wait for her somewhere…" Rory said.
"She's not going to come in," Luke told her.
"Lane?" Rory asked. "But I thought…"
"No. Your mother."
"Oh," Rory said, sitting on a stool. "You're sure?"
"She's shopping. In Hartford. She won't be back until much later."
Rory accepted this. "Well, she is shopping," Rory agreed.
"As long as you're here, you want something to eat?"
Rory thought it over for a moment and realized she was starving and had missed Luke's food a great deal. "Burger and fries?" Rory asked.
"You got it," Luke said, disappearing into the kitchen.
Rory sighed and let herself relax. She was playing with the menu in front of her on the counter when she heard the bell jingle. She looked towards the door. She gasped.
Sure, shopping, Rory thought with sarcasm.
xxxxxxxxxx
Okay, so the Luke and Logan thing… weird? Unpredictable? Something new? You decide, lol. But I had to try and be different from everything else I've read out there.
I split this here because it went on waaaaay too long otherwise. ;) Cruel? Maybe.
