A/N: Thanks for the supportive reviews and constructive criticism. I have a pretty good idea of where I'm going with this, but any new ideas are more than welcome.
Disclaimer: I still don't own anything.
Mia helped Lorelai and Rory get settled in the potting shed, which didn't take long, since they had only a duffel bag and the small pink bag that Christopher had bought for Rory that had her name stitched in.
"Chris!" Lorelai shouted out of nowhere, as Mia was finishing sweeping up the floor.
"Who's Chris?" Mia wondered aloud.
"No one. I'm going to go tour the town a little."
"You do that, Hon. I'll watch Rory."
Lorelai ran through the lawn and back through the inn's front door. She went across the giant front yard and right into the depths of Stars Hollow. Circling the town, she couldn't find a pay phone that cost a quarter or less anywhere, which happened to be a problem, considering she'd only brought twenty five cents with her.
As she stood across the street from Luke's Diner with that grand opening sign that was starting to get extremely annoying, with its huge picture of coffee, something she couldn't really afford at the moment, something caught her eye. Through the glass window at the diner, she noticed a black telephone hanging on the wall behind the counter.
The bells jingled on the diner's door as Lorelai walked inside.
'Oh God, is THAT going to get annoying!' she thought.
Her shoes made a weird crunching sound, though she didn't know what she could've possibly stepped on in here. She looked down and noticed a crisp five dollar bill.
'Coffee!' she thought. "COFFEE!" she shouted.
"Line", the scruffy-looking guy behind the counter said, pointing to the ten people standing in front of her.
"Luke! You're Luke!"
"This is Luke's Diner. I'm the guy standing behind the counter."
"Terrific, so…coffee!"
"Wait in line!"
"Horrible service here, Luke."
"If you don't like it, go somewhere else."
"I'm going to need a suggestion."
"Just wait in line!"
Lorelai reached over to the table she was standing next to, where an elderly man dressed in golf attire was sitting. She picked up his newspaper and tore out the day's horoscope section. "Thanks" she whispered.
"So, Luke, when is your birthday?"
"Why do you want to know?"
"Oh, you know."
"I do?"
"Go with it, Luke."
"Stop saying my name!"
"Tell me your birthday!"
Luke sighed, completely exasperated. "November 5".
"Scorpio!" Lorelai shouted.
"Yeah, that's me, so are you going to sit down and shut up because you're disturbing my customers, or are you going to leave?"
But Lorelai was too pre-occupied to hear him. She reached over to the old guy's table again and took the pen he had been using to do a crossword before he fell asleep. She circled the Scorpio horoscope, crossing out the "Err on the side of caution this week", and adding "You will meet an annoying woman today. Give her coffee and she'll go away" in its place.
She got up and went back to the counter, where Luke was busy tending to the long coffee line. She walked behind the counter to get his attention, which didn't go over to well.
"Don't come back here!" Luke yelled.
"I just wanted to give you something." Lorelai handed him the horoscope.
"What is this?" he asked, reading. He sighed and took the coffee he'd made for the next person in line, added some sugar, and handed it to her. "Here."
"Such good service", she said with a smile. "Hey, if you keep that and carry it around with you, it'll bring you good luck."
Luke returned the smile, unable to keep it in. Still grinning, Lorelai made her way towards the door. With coffee and Luke on her mind, she didn't even notice that she'd forgotten to call Chris.
Meanwhile, back in Hartford, Richard Gilmore was exasperated. "Marina! Where's that tea Emily asked for 10 minutes ago?" he called from beside his wife's bed. Marina ambled timidly into the bedroom with a tray.
"Here, Emily, drink. It'll make you feel better" Richard coaxed.
"'Dear Emily and Richard, I don't belong here' ? Who taught her to write a letter like that? No details, nothing." Emily was in tears.
"I've got some work to do. You'll be okay here? Just rest", Richard said.
After he was gone, Emily tiptoed out of the room and into the library. There was something about this room that was serene and calming. She took a seat in the giant leather chair Richard had bought her for their tenth anniversary. She remembered how angry she'd gotten, since this gift was neither romantic nor practical, since she already had about 15 leather chairs stored away. But now, the chair was positioned in such a way that Emily almost considered it an omen, because from this perspective, she could see one of Richard's travel books open a crack on the wooden table that sat in the middle of the room. She slowly reached for the book, and opened to a dog-eared page. Highlighted was "Stars Hollow, Connecticut", and underneath, the author of the book had summarized the town's attributes and such. But before Emily saw this, she noticed a certain picture circled in blue pen. An arrow reached from the picture to the edge of the book, where in her daughter's handwriting, it said "Independence Inn: talk to Mia Candace about $".
A few minutes later, after Emily had made sure Richard was in his study and the maid was out of sight, she was in her car, on the way to Stars Hollow. She wasn't exactly sure how to get there, but Richard had some old road maps she'd attempt to follow.
Emily pulled up to the Independence Inn, slammed her car door shut, and walked, almost ran, to the entrance.
'What kind of hotel has a doorbell?' she thought
She rang the bell and someone in a maid's outfit answered.
Before the woman could say anything, Emily asked for someone named Mia Candace.
"She's in the back right now, very busy, but I can help you. Do you have a reservation?"
"No, I'm looking for my daughter."
"Who's that?" the woman asked.
"Her name's Lorelai Gilmore."
"Oh right, she's not out back, but I can tell her you were here."
"Out back?"
"Yeah, in the shed."
"Excuse me?"
"Look, ma'am, I've really got to get back to work."
"Just tell her to call me the instant she gets back."
Emily left the inn a wreck and with a feeling she'd experienced not too long ago, on Lorelai's sixteenth birthday when she announced that she was pregnant. It was the feeling of disappointment, but this time it came with a sting of reality. It was the feeling of terror and grief; the feeling that you get when you give your child the best of everything all her life, and she runs away from you, and the feeling that she'd lost Lorelai.
A/N: So, Lorelai's not fully herself still, but the point I'm trying to make is that she feels comfortable enough around Luke that she can mix her fear and distrust with her usual wit and sarcasm. Also, I know that this isn't exactly how Lorelai and Luke met, but it's somewhat similar. Please review!