So Far -- Lorelai goes to her parents' house to find Rory but she is with Christopher. Lorelai and Emily exchange harsh words.

Chapter Five

The Magic Words

"I thought you wanted to go somewhere to get away from everything." Luke said.

"Changed my mind. No matter where I go, I'm still going to be thinking about Rory."

Luke expected Lorelai to take him back to his truck, but instead she drove straight to her house.

She got out without saying a word to him and he followed her to the house.

"Would this really be such a bad place to live?" Lorelai asked when they got to the porch.

"No, not at all. And after all the work I've done here, it feels like it's partly my home, too."

Lorelai unlocked the front door.

"Coming in?" she asked.

"I really need to get back to my truck. I left the keys in it. And I should get back to the diner. The Saturday night rush has probably already started."

"You want me to drive you?"

"It's only ten minutes away. I can walk."

"If you're not too tired, would you mind coming back after you close up?"

"I can do that."

"But if you're too tired, I'll understand."

"I'll be here, ten-thirty, eleven at the latest. You'll be up?"

"I will if I know you're coming."

"Then I'll see you later."

Luke turned to go, but Lorelai put her arms around his neck and they kissed.

When they broke apart, neither spoke, but let their eyes express how each other felt.

Lorelai went inside and checked for any messages; there were none.

She kicked off her shoes then went into the kitchen and got a beer out of the refrigerator. She went back into the living room and turned on the TV and sat down on the couch.

A few minutes later there was a knock at the front door.

"You forget something?" she yelled out, thinking it was Luke. When there was no answer, she went to the door and opened it..

"What the hell do you want?"

"Lorelai, we need to talk."

"Oh, I think you said all I need to hear."

"What was I supposed to say? Rory was standing right there."

"Where is she, by the way? Mom said she was with you."

"She's with Gigi. I told her I had some business to take care of."

"Then I suggest you go back and tell her your business has been taken care of."

"Can't we even . . . ?"

She shut the door in his face.

"Lorelai! Do you have any idea how much Rory is hurting?"

Those were the magic words. Lorelai opened the door to let Christopher come in.

He walked into the living room and saw her beer on the coffee table.

"Any more of those?"

"In the fridge."

Lorelai picked up the bottle and followed him into the kitchen and sat down at the table.

Christopher got himself a beer from the refrigerator, another for Lorelai, and then sat down across from her.

For a half minute neither spoke.

"Lorelai, we need to figure out someway to get you and Rory back together."

"As if I didn't know that?"

"The thing is, you did it all wrong. You never should have come down on her like you did."

"All I said was that she wasn't going to quit Yale and end up working at the book store."

"But maybe she needs the time off to decide what she wants to do. It seems like if we give her some space, then maybe by the time the fall semester starts she might be more inclined to go back."

"You keep saying 'if' and 'maybe' and 'might.' That's not good enough! She HAS to go back to school! She HAS to have more than I did, DO more than I did! She's so smart and, up until that bastard Mitchum Huntzberger shot her down, she knew exactly what she wanted and where she was going."

"Then we have to make sure that happens, but it's going to take both of us. Right now, she trusts me, she thinks I want exactly what she does, and we need for her to keep thinking that until we can make her understand how important it is for her to go back in the fall. And I think the only way is for us, you and me and Rory, to spend some time together. But you're going to have to lighten up on her. I'm pretty sure can arranged for the three, four, of us to, I don't know, go out to eat, take some kind of road trip, whatever. But right now, it has to be on HER terms – no talking about Yale or going back to school or her future plans."

As much as she hated to admit it, Lorelai realized he was making some kind of sense. Christopher was with her, and she wasn't, and like it or not, he was her ticket back to Rory.

"You know," Christopher continued. "She really would have liked to have heard about you and – Luke, from you."

"How did she take it? I know what she said over the phone, but other than wanting to hang up as soon as she could . . . ."

"Mixed emotions. When I first told her, she didn't say much about it, and there wasn't much expression on her face, but after talking to you she said she didn't feel well and excused herself."

Lorelai bit the inside of her bottom lip, fighting back the tears.

Christopher got two more beers for them.

Luke got to Lorelai's a little before eleven. He pulled up behind the unfamiliar car, wondering who was there. He went up to the front door, then couldn't decide whether he should knock or just go in. He started to knock, but then stopped. He could barely hear voices. One was Lorelai's and the other was a man's.

Luke went back down the front steps and walked around to the back porch. He quietly went to the kitchen door and saw Lorelai and Christopher sitting at the table, at least eight empty beer bottles were between them. He couldn't see Christopher's face, but from the expressions on Lorelai's face and her tone of voice, they seemed to be getting along pretty good, too damned good.

Luke left the porch and went back to his truck. He got in and started the engine.

"I wonder how long it's going to be before they break out the tequila," he said bitterly, then drove off.

To Be Continued