Disclaimer: I do not own anyone who you might recognize. Mickey and Elizabeth are owned by Lindsay.

A/N: Sarah has been a kick-ass beta-reader on this, as well as many previous stories. She keeps me honest and on-target and what more could one ask for in a beta-reader? Thanks are due also to Lindsay for being the one who came up with this idea. She's the one who demanded that I write it down and for that I'm very grateful. She's got good taste.

A week later, Mickey was again set up in the kitchen with her books. It was late afternoon, the rooms upstairs were clean and she was trying to concentrate with Elizabeth babbling in the background.

"Please," she said to her daughter. "Please just be quiet for ten minutes, okay? Mommy needs to study."

Elizabeth regarded her with a look that seemed to say, "Well, maaaaybe….nah. Not gonna happen."

Mickey let her head fall into her hands. She was never going to pass. She'd been foolish to think that she could. The last year she'd spent in high school had been all about making herself invisible. She couldn't remember anything any of her teachers had said. It was hopeless.

"Mick?"

Mickey's head snapped up to see Lorelai before her. She hadn't heard the clip of her heels which told her that she really must not have been paying attention.

"Uh-huh?" Mickey answered, feeling like a wild animal backed into a corner.

"This is Caroline, I've just hired her to be the upstairs maid."

For the first time Mickey noticed that there was a woman standing behind Lorelai. "Hi," she said. "Nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you, too," Caroline answered.

"Caroline lives in Stars Hollow and actually used to work for us at the Independence Inn. She's starting tomorrow, isn't that great?"

Mickey gave the two women a smile that she hoped conveyed happiness. "That's great," she said.

Lorelai gave her a funny look and then took Caroline back into her office. Mickey drooped over her book as E ratcheted up the banging. Just as she was starting to force herself to concentrate the back door opened and Owen came in wearing a pair of soft denim jeans, a Henley shirt, a fleece jacket, and some work boots. He looked as gorgeous as he did on the first day they'd met, but Mickey refused to let herself look.

"Seen Lorelai?" he asked without preamble.

"In her office. She's interviewing someone."

"What job?" he asked.

"The cleaning job, for the guest rooms," Mickey told him impatiently, wishing everyone would just leave her alone.

"You going somewhere?" he asked.

"What are you talking about?" she demanded. "Where on earth would I go?"

He lifted his hands in surrender and said, "Hey, I'm just asking. It's your job she's interviewing for, right? Does that mean you don't work here anymore? I'm just asking."

Mickey felt foolish and angry. "Oh," she said. "No, I still work here, I'll just be in the kitchen full time."

"Gotcha," he said. Then, wanting to change the subject, he said, "Lorelai told me she had some errands that needed to be done. Do you know what they are?"

"Sorry," Mickey replied shaking her head. "She's just wrapping up with the new maid, though, so if you hang for a minute you might catch her."

As she always did when Owen entered the room, E had quieted down immensely. Owen caught sight of her and bent down so that he didn't look too big and scary. "How's it going?" he asked the baby.

E cocked her head and stared at him as if to say, "Look, buddy, I don't know who you think you are, but that is some very weird hair, okay?" Mickey watched them as Owen stuck the first two fingers of his left hand through the slats of the playpen. E grasped them and was immediately pleased with herself for doing so.

"Ba-ba-ba!" she called joyously.

"What's that mean?" Owen asked.

"Not a thing," Mickey answered.

"You don't think she's trying to talk?"

"I think it's a little early. Let's get teeth in her head first," Mickey said dryly.

"Still studying?" he asked, nodding at the books in front of her.

"Yeah," she said sounding defeated.

He nodded, wondering if he should offer more help. Before he could decide, Lorelai came back and said, "Owen, great. I've got a list here for you. What's the weather like out there?"

"Cool," he answered, "but nothing major."

"Great. Once Thanksgiving passes it can get really bad, fairly quickly," Lorelai said, almost to herself. "Okay," she exclaimed, catching herself, "You've been here a week, it's time you got to know the town. Mickey, can you take him in and introduce him around? I've got supplies that need to be picked up from Doose's and Luke's."

"Supplies from Luke's?" Mickey asked.

Lorelai shifted her eyes away and said, "Yes," she said a little defensively, "my lunch."

"Your lunch," Mickey repeated. "But I don't – "

"Mick," Lorelai interrupted, "please just pick it up, okay? Here's the list of things from Doose's. If it's nice out, you should put E in the stroller and make it a nice walk," she finished before leaving.

Mickey and Owen looked at each other. Finally, Mickey stood and went to the walk-in closet where she pulled out the stroller and E's winter coat. As she lifted her daughter out of the pen and tried to wriggle her little arms into the coat, Owen knelt down to where they were and helped zip her up. Elizabeth immediately began to squirm and fuss. When she finally was wearing her little blue jacket, Mickey deposited her into the stroller and stuck a green hat on head along with two green mittens. Standing to inspect her work, she said after a second, "She really does look like a boy."

Owen laughed and helped her into her own jacket. It was a ratty old thing she'd found at the thrift store. Lorelai had offered to give her one of her old coats but Mickey wouldn't hear of it. Taking things for her daughter was one thing, accepting charity for herself was out of the question.

The short walk to town was a silent one. Mickey pushed the stroller while Owen took in his surroundings and E babbled quietly to herself. At Doose's Mickey introduced Owen to Taylor. Taylor had always been cool to Mickey, if not outright distrustful of her. Mickey thought that the only thing that kept him from asking where her scarlet "A" was was the knowledge of what Lorelai would do to him. She moved away from him and bent down to check on E.

Taylor was happily pumping Owen's hand, clearly delighted to meet an upstanding new member of the community. Mickey rolled her eyes as she caught part of what Taylor was saying in a confidential tone. "Just, keep your distance from her. She got one young man into trouble and I've no doubt she'll do it again. You know how girls like that are."

Then, to her utter astonishment she heard, "No, actually I don't. It seems to me that when you're left on your own with a kid, the most responsible thing you can do is try to find a place to live and a good job. I think she's done both. And it also seems to me that she was the one left 'in trouble' by someone, otherwise whoever it was would be here right now."

Mickey snuck a glance over her shoulder to see Taylor, mouth open, clearly unable to come up with a reply. With a disgusted shake of his head, Owen left to collect the items on Lorelai's list. Taylor spun around in a huff, gave her the stink eye and headed for his office in the back of the store.

"Mommy's a harlot," Mickey whispered to E, still playing with her daughter's feet. Elizabeth giggled and blew her a raspberry.

"Hello, dar-ling!" Mickey heard behind her.

"Hey, Miss Patty," Mickey answered as she turned. "How's it going?"

"Fine," she trilled as she stooped over Elizabeth. "Next year, my darling! Next year I'll have you in my tumbling class, mark my words! You're a natural, an absolute natural."

Elizabeth was, as always, delighted to see Miss Patty. She always kicked her feet out in excitement which Patty took to mean that the baby was a natural dancer. "She'll be there," Mickey promised, although she was skeptical about a tumbling class for one-year-olds.

"Hey, Mick, I can't find – "

"Well!" Patty interrupted. Owen had come back to ask a question and was starting to regret it. Miss Patty sidled over to him and purred, "I don't believe we've been introduced, my dear boy."

"Miss Patty, this is Owen Melville," Mickey told her. "He's Jackson's cousin's son."

"Delectable," Patty murmured with narrowed eyes and pursed lips, clearly imagining very descriptive and wonderful things.

Owen shifted a little under her stare and said to Mickey, "I can't find the condensed milk."

"It's in the baking aisle," she told him.

"Great!" he said, uncomfortable. "I'll go get it and we'll be set." With that, he made for the aisles.

"Oh, honey," Miss Patty said, recovering. "That is one fine specimen."

Mickey appeared to be considering, although she secretly agreed. "I guess," she said, noncommittally.

"You guess," Patty cooed. "Honey if you have to guess it's been too long."

"Ew," Mickey said. "I'm never doing that again, no matter how good the," she winced, completely grossed out, "specimen is."

Miss Patty laughed as if someone who was mildly retarded had just told a joke. Then she said, "We'll see," before paying for her plums and leaving.

When Patty was gone Owen found her again. He was carrying the bag of groceries and looking relieved that they were alone. His eyes kept darting around as if looking for the next incoming.

"Ready?" she asked.

"Yeah. Where to next?"

"Luke's. Lorelai said she called in her order, all we have to do is pick it up."

They crossed the street in silence and made their way to the diner. As they walked, Mickey felt a smile tug at her face. Their last interaction had been embarrassing, yes, but Luke had been instrumental in getting her the job with Lorelai and she'd never forget that. He'd listened to her when she'd needed someone and he had passed no judgments. She considered him to be her first friend in Stars Hollow.

The bells jingled cheerfully as they entered the diner and Mickey saw Luke behind the counter as always. Mickey and Owen got to the counter with Elizabeth in the stroller and Mickey said, "Hey, Luke."

Happy to see that she was wearing a coat with no evidence of leakage, Luke grunted, "Hey, Mick, what's up?"

"Not much. This is Owen Melville, he's related to Jackson and he's going to be helping out at the Inn for a while." Luke eyed Owen and then extended his hand.

"Nice to meet you," Owen said.

"You, too," replied Luke.

"And Lorelai said she called in a lunch order. We're supposed to pick it up."

"Yeah, it's here. I'll put in on her tab." Luke handed over the bag of food.

"Great," Mickey said with a smile. They were about to turn away when she added, "By the way, I still have your shirt." Owen's eyebrows almost hit the ceiling. "It's cleaned and ready to go, but E won't give it up. She's sort of sleeping with it. I'm going to keep trying to get it away from her, but she cries if she doesn't have it, so it might be a while."

"Keep it," Luke ordered, looking and feeling more uncomfortable that he ever had in his entire life. "I got plenty." His eyes skidded from Mickey to Owen and back again. "Really. Let her have it."

"No, I can't do that. You'll get it back eventually, I swear."

"Whenever, okay?" Luke said firmly, just wanting the conversation to be over. He peered over the counter to where E was in her stroller and she stuck her tongue out at him and called, "Ba-ba!"

"Thanks, Luke," Mickey said. "We appreciate it."

"Don't sweat it," he answered, pulling back with the familiar look of fear plastered on his face. "Just get going, okay? It's getting cold out and you don't want her to catch anything."

Mickey suspected that he wanted them gone not because he worried about E getting a cold, but she thought he was sweet to give them the shirt so she said, "Okay. And thanks again."

When they were back outside and on their way Owen said, "So is he like your ex-boyfriend?"

Mickey stopped walking. "What?!"

"What?" he asked, startled at her tone.

"Could you be a bigger lunkhead?"

"Why are you yelling at me?"

"Because I can't even begin to think of a response to such a ridiculous question." With that, Mickey turned and kept walking, speeding up with the hope that she could leave him behind. Ex-boyfriend. What the hell was the matter with him?

"Hey!" Owen called catching up to her. "I'm sorry. Sometimes I just blurt out what I'm thinking without really…" he trailed off and she finished for him, "Thinking?"

"Yeah," he answered lamely.

She stopped again and looked at him. He really did look miserable, as if he knew that what he'd just said made him an ass. "No, Luke is not my ex-boyfriend. He's the first person I met when I came here and he helped me get the job at the Dragonfly. That is all."

"What about the shirt?" Owen pressed, not understanding why it was important to him.

"E puked on one of his shirts and I took it home to wash. End of story. Besides, he's ancient!"

They started walking again, slower this time. "Sorry."

"You should be. Jumping to conclusions like that. I mean, did you think that E was his or did you think that I'd be jumping into the sack with someone new while I had a baby at home?" She stared at him, daring him to choose one of the two options she'd put out there.

Owen was not stupid, though. "Neither. I thought maybe you'd gone out a few times and it didn't work out."

"In my experience people don't think that teen moms just 'go out' with guys they date."

"Well I did. So I'm sorry if you jumped to the wrong conclusions about me. Not everyone is out to get you, you know."

"Whatever," she muttered as they came to the Dragonfly.