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

A/N: Thanks to Sarah for being such a great beta-reader. And thank you, Lindsay, for coming up with the whole idea and then browbeating me into writing it. Good call by you.

xoxoxo

Mickey looked at her watch for the tenth time in thirty minutes. She was standing over the sink at the Dragonfly, rinsing a colander of green beans, and noted with irritation that it was still only 4:30. She'd been up since four that morning baking at Westin's and her shift there ended at three, but she was still picking up hours at the Dragonfly during the dinner prep and rush. E's first day of Kindergarten was taking forever to end. As much as Mickey hated herself for it, she'd felt compelled to enroll her daughter in the after-school day care program. She consoled herself by thinking that additional socialization would be good for E, who'd spent most of her childhood so far playing with only Davey and Madeline.

Madeline was a trip. She refused to answer to Maddie; it was Madeline or nothing, ever since she'd been read the books.

With another short look at her watch, Mickey sucked in through her teeth while pursing her lips, itching to get away. As much as she loved her job at the inn, she desperately wanted to be with her daughter, to listen with rapt attention as she recounted all the things she'd learned, to find out if anyone had picked on her, to examine her little self and make sure nothing was broken or punctured or scraped or upset.

"Mick?" Sookie came up behind her like a cat and Mickey jumped.

"You scared me!" she scolded and then immediately regretted it.

Sookie ignored her, though, and just commented kindly, "Didn't anyone ever tell you that a watched pot never boils?"

"Not true," Mickey replied quickly, not hearing Sookie's tone. "When you put heat under water, it will boil."

Sookie caught Mickey's eye and lifted her eyebrows. Mickey looked miserable. "Oh," the younger woman said. "You mean…"

"Honey, why don't you take off, huh? Go get E, take her to Luke's for dinner and find out how her first day went?"

"Are you sure you don't need me? Absolutely, positively?" Where Mickey might once have refused a few times, tonight she was already untying her apron.

"I can't stand the sight of you right now," Sookie told her playfully, pushing her toward the door. "Now get out."

"Thank you!" Mickey said breathlessly, giving Sookie a quick hug before grabbing her purse and snatching at the doorknob.

It didn't take Mickey long to cross town on foot and stride purposefully up the walk of Stars Hollow Elementary. She paused just long enough to enjoy the delicious fall breeze as it tugged at her russet curls. The winter would be there before she knew it!

Inside, Mickey made her way to the gymnasium where the after-school program was held. She practically jogged inside before stopping short and scanning the crowd of children for her own red hair. Immediately she saw E with three other little girls playing Ring Around the Rosie. Her cheeks were flushed bright pink and her hair fell in tangled waves down to the small of her little back.

"Mommy!" she yelped when she saw Mickey.

"Hi!" Mickey said as she leaned down to meet her daughter, who was now running at her. They embraced long and hard. "How was your day?" Mickey whispered, hoping she wouldn't cry.

"Good," E said sounding muffled against Mickey's shoulder.

Mickey pulled back and looked E over carefully. Before she could ask any more questions, E said, "I'm hungry, can we eat at Luke's?"

With a wry smile Mickey said, "You always want to eat at Luke's. If I let you, you'd have three meals a day there."

"Puh-lease?" E pouted.

"All right," Mickey gave in. They collected E's new book bag and headed for Luke's.

"So tell me about your teacher," Mickey said, shouldering the bag and taking E's hand.

"Miss Bee is nice," E said. "She taught us the vowens today and told me that I shouldn't be called just a letter."

"She what?" Mickey asked.

"The vowens, Mommy. A, E, I, O, U, and sometimes Y. And she said I shouldn't be called just a letter. She told me to tell you."

Through gritted teeth, Mickey said, "I think you must mean vowels, now vowens and what am I supposed to call you if not E? It's what I've been calling you since you were born."

"Lorelai told me that you called me Cookie for a little while," E challenged.

"Cookie isn't a proper name."

"Neither is E."

They had reached Luke's door and Mickey pulled it open, letting the sound of bells wash over her. They never failed to remind her of that first time.

"So what am I supposed to call you?" Mickey asked as they found an empty table and sat down.

"Elizabeth," E replied with hilarious hauteur.

Mickey stared at the pale little face, dotted with freckles. She wasn't kidding.

"Ladies," Luke said, coming up to them. Mickey looked up and smiled.

"Hey," she said.

"Something to drink?"

"I'll have a water and Miss Elizabeth will have a milk."

E tilted her head to one side and rolled her eyes self-importantly. Luke tried to hide a smile as he left to get their drinks, and Mickey stared at her daughter.

"What else did you learn today?"

E shrugged.

Luke came back and E smiled and batted her eyelashes at him. "Luke," she began.

"Yeah," he asked, smiling gently down at her.

"Did you know that the 'U' and the 'E' in your name are vowels?"

"I had heard something about that, yes."

"Just checking."

Now it was Mickey's turn to roll her eyes. "Hey Luke," she said.

"Yes, ma'am," Luke replied, directing his attention to her.

"E says she needs a new nickname."

"Not this again."

"It's not me, her teacher told her."

Luke turned his gaze to E who sat calmly sipping her milk and staring at him with starry eyes. "Tell your teacher to stuff it."

With a giggle, E said, "Okay!"

"No!" Mickey fought to make her voice heard over E's laughing. "Thank you, Luke, but she cannot tell her teacher to 'stuff it.' "

Before the conversation could continue the bells on the door jingled again and Owen stepped inside. Mickey was immediately distracted. Her face went hot and she had to look away or be humiliated by her reaction, so she looked again at E who was waving him over.

Owen waved back and headed for them. They were conveniently seated at a four-top so he just pulled out one of the unused chairs and made himself at home. Hellos were exchanged.

Mickey tried to surreptitiously stare at him. He looked grown up. His shaggy blonde hair was gone, now cut close to his head. Mickey found that it changed the shape of his face somehow…or perhaps with all that hair Mickey had never looked closely at his face before…or maybe it had been too long since she'd been able to focus on his face for any length of time. She had no idea, but she did know that she couldn't keep mooning over him.

He was talking with E about school she was chattering away about some boy in her class whom she hated. Luke had gone away for a moment but would be returning to take their orders soon, so Mickey picked up a menu and looked it over, if only to distract herself.

When Luke returned Mickey ordered a salad, Owen ordered a burger and E announced that she was a vegetarian.

"A what?" Mickey repeated.

"A vegetarian, Mommy. It's when you don't eat meat."

"I know what one is, but I don't understand why you want to be one."

"Animals are our friends," E said loftily. "Right Luke?"

Mickey looked up at Luke helplessly. E was doing the same but her look was filled with worship. Mickey noticed and rolled her eyes again.

Luke grunted and flushed a little. "I may have let it slip that I'm a vegetarian," he told Mickey looking guilty.

"Thanks a lot," she said ruefully. E ordered a peanut butter sandwich and carrot sticks.

The conversation with Owen was a little stilted as they ate and after dinner Mickey could have killed E when she announced that she would be having dessert at the counter with Luke.

As she scampered away Mickey looked at her back longingly. "So," she finally said. "It's good to see you again."

"It's good to see you, too," he told her.

"How's school?" She knew he was four years in with four more years to go.

"Exhausting," he admitted. "But it'll be worth it in the end." He leaned forward and looked conspiratorially into her eyes. "I have a plan."

She never could resist those deep gray-blue eyes. "Yeah?" she asked a little too breathlessly for her liking.

"After med-school is over I'm going to set up a private practice here."

"Here?" Mickey squeaked. But Rory was going to Europe.

"Yep," he confirmed. "Here."

"But Rory…" she stammered out before she could stop herself.

Owen looked sheepishly into his glass of water. "I know you must have heard the news," he chided her.

Mickey flushed again and nodded, but didn't say anything. She didn't trust herself.

Owen rubbed the top of his head thoughtfully, as if he were wondering what happened to all that hair, and said, "It was never meant to be with Rory. We got along great, and had the same interests but there was nothing moving us forward. No impetus to take the next step."

"Oh," Mickey said, considering this. The next step.

"What about you?" he asked, deftly changing the subject.

"I've got a plan, too," she admitted, fidgeting with her fingers.

He nodded encouragingly and so she began to speak. "I graduate next week from culinary school as a Master Baker. I've already got a job with Westin's to take over as their baker and E and I have a new apartment right above so I'll be close to work. Eventually I'd like to buy it, though. I'll have to run it for a few years, to prove to the banks that I can do it, but someday I'll own it and it'll be mine," she finished with a dreamy look on her face.

Owen couldn't help smiling at her and inside he felt something say, "You idiot!"

Mickey continued not noticing his expression. "We've got a little half mattress in the office of the bakery so that when I get there at four am, I can bring E with me and she can keep sleeping. Then, at seven-thirty I wake her up and she goes upstairs and gets ready for school and then by the time she comes back down someone is at the bakery and they can take care of the front counter while I walk her to school. It's a great little system."

Owen nodded again and again felt a little tug inside. Something he'd never felt before with Rory. Something he could vaguely remember from helping Mickey study for the G.E.D. all those years ago. Why had he been so stupid about med school? Why hadn't he made an effort to be here more?

Mickey was still fidgeting with her fingers and Owen realized that he'd let the conversation lag. "That's great," he said a little too quickly. "It's amazing that a four year old can get themselves ready for school like that."

"Well, we practiced a lot and she understands the deal."

"The deal?"

"Yeah. Mommy's got to work so that we can eat and live and without a Daddy we sometimes have to do things we might not love, but the tradeoff is that we get to have a good time together just as girls. I don't know how long she'll buy that for," Mickey laughed, "but until she gets wise it's what we do."

They shared a laugh and Owen nodded at the counter where E was enthusiastically piling pie into her mouth. "You're doing a great job."

"Thanks."

"She sure does like Luke, huh?"

Mickey laughed again and considered telling Owen about her daughter's crush, then thought better of it. It would be a betrayal to tell anyone about it. Besides all anyone had to do was look at E to know she was crushing.

For her part, E knew her mommy liked Owen and it was a-okay to leave them alone for a few minutes if it meant spending more time with Luke. The dinner rush had calmed down and E still had half a plate of chocolate cream pie in front of her. Luke stood over her hemming and hawing over the sugar but E was adamant: meat was one thing; pie was another.

To change the subject E said, "How's Lorelai?"

Luke blushed and said, "Shhhh!"

So far, E was the only one who knew about them. All those years of babysitting her had led to…things…Luke blushed again just thinking about them. And E was the one person in all of Stars Hollow who knew and therefore the one person who could blow their cover. He offered her a second slice of pie.