TITLE Second Star From The Right

RATING PG-13-R

SUMMERY After the fire at the Independence Inn one of the guests sues Lorelai.

DISCLAIMER I own nothing. I don't even have the cash to buy the DVDs.

SAFE SPACES

Though the entire day had been like one giant roller coaster ride through Hell—and Lorelai was the type to get sick whenever she was in a moving vehicle that she wasn't in control of, which had made Rory's driving lessons very interesting until she had managed to convince Luke to play driving instructor—as Lorelai parked her Jeep in the cobbled courtyard at Chilton she felt the crappiness of everything she'd gone through and expected to go through again on a near daily basis until this was all over with just melt away. And, considering how she had never had a completely good visit to Chilton's cavernous hallowed halls, Lorelai found herself more than slightly creeped out by the fact that, for the first time in two and a half years, she wasn't creeped out by the building with it's stone gargoyles and hand-shaped stone walls and blue plaid uniforms that she and Rory planned on destroying in a colossal bonfire during the massive graduation bash they were going to have after the tassel hats had been tossed and the obligatory mini-celebration with the grandparents was out of the way.

Rory had called for a ride home just before Emily talked to the cook about adding a third person to the dinner plans, and, while Lorelai was thrilled that her parents were helping her so willingly and weren't belittling her for getting herself into the mess to begin with as she was so sure they would have only a few years ago—hell, even a few months ago—there was only so much quality time that the Gilmore's could spend together before things got ugly. And, like the shopping trip before Rory's sixteenth birthday, Lorelai wanted to hang on to the good memories for as long as possible before the usual lacklustre relationship with her parents reasserted itself and the balance was restored.

There were so few good memories that Lorelai had of spending time with her parents. She remembered when she was eleven and she had been given the beautiful dollhouse that had been the only thing she regretted leaving behind when she moved out, and, other than the fact that she wasn't allowed to actually play with the dollhouse, Lorelai had never had a better present because it had been exactly what she wanted, which meant that her parents must have listened to something that she said at some point in time because not even her father's assistant, Largie-Margie, was privy to Lorelai's dream dollhouse's existence, let alone specifications. Then, almost four months after her birthday, she had broken her leg in a car accident—the maid who had been driving her home from school was promptly deported, even though it hadn't been her fault, but had been the fault of the moron who was drunk at three thirty in the afternoon and decided to run a red light and slam into the luxury vehicle that had been going through the intersection—Emily had stayed home one Saturday and had taken the glass off the dollhouse and they had sat on the floor playing mindless games until Richard came home and announced that his mother was coming to visit. That, of course, had put Emily in a foul mood, but Lorelai had been so happy that she had finally gotten some real mother-daughter time without fights or being scolded that she wasn't worried by thought of Gram coming to visit while her leg was wrapped in electric pink plaster to below her knee and that her friends had taken permanent markers to her leg during a visit after they got off school one day earlier in the week and they had amused themselves by writing things that Lorelai was sure her grandmother wouldn't approve of if she understood what had been written. And her grandmother was a very smart woman and could usually keep up with Lorelai long after her parents gave up trying.

Lorelai had stopped for coffee before heading to Chilton, hoping that it would save her from explaining why she was avoiding Luke's—which wasn't the truth at all because she had no problems with the diner itself, she was just currently having issues with the proprietor, but, since one didn't come without the other, the childish tactic of avoidance was the current answer to her problems—and, while she didn't want to let her precious coffee go, Lorelai decided to leave it in the car, to keep Rory's company, and to give her extra incentive to get Rory out of the Franklin office as soon as she got there.

Her low-heeled boots clicked loudly on the floor as Lorelai negotiated the corridors, going up flights of stairs and down others, sure she was going to end up completely lost and would spend the rest of her days wandering around hoping for a Minotaur to put her out of her labyrinth misery—which, naturally, set her to thinking about David Bowie and how creepy he was in Labyrinth—but finally she found the ever elusive office and, through the window, she saw her daughter hunched over the layout of the next issue with a few other students. All had shed their sweaters in deference to the warm weather and the lack of modern amenities like air conditioning in the castle-like building, and Rory was no longer wearing her tie, her hair, which had been hanging loose that morning, was tied in a messy knot on top of her head, held in place by several pencils, and her sleeves were rolled up past her elbows. And, Lorelai smiled when she noticed the last thing that was thoroughly out of place in the halls of Chilton—Rory wasn't wearing her shoes. The other students were looking just as rumpled and relaxed as Rory, though none of them had been bold enough to eschew footwear, despite how uncomfortable their feet must have been in the regulation shoes.

Tapping lightly on the glass before opening the door, Lorelai felt like she was intruding upon something sacred. Several of the students shot her a glare that gave whole new meaning to 'if looks could kill'. Madeline smiled and waved before turning back to her computer and Louise nodded her head in greeting before going back to collecting her papers from the laser printer in the corner of the room. Rory's reaction, however, was the most gratifying. Her entire face lit up like a kid on Christmas and Lorelai couldn't remember the last time she'd seen Rory smile that widely.

"Hey, we'll be done in about ten minutes," Rory promised.

"Fine, but every moment you stay here is a moment that your coffee gets a little bit colder," Lorelai warned, regretting her decision to leave her to-go cup in the car.

"We aren't going to Luke's?" Rory asked with a frown as she put the finishing touches on the layout and made sure that everything was secure. "Madeline, you almost done with your piece?" she called over her shoulder.

"Five minutes," Madeline called back as Louise handed a small stack of pages to Rory.

"Mom? Luke's?" Rory prompted as she continued working.

Lorelai shook her head. "Not today, hun. I was thinking maybe grabbing something from Al's Pancake World. Or we could just go crazy and try to make it through all twelve layers of the twelve-layer German chocolate cake that, to date, is the only cake to defeat the great and powerful Lorelai's Gilmore."

"We've never been able to get through all those layers before," Rory pointed out.

"Hello, leftovers," Lorelai said like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"And I have serious concerns about attempting to tackle the Everest of layer cakes on the spur of the moment just because we've been beaten in the past," Rory continued, ignoring her mother's comment.

"What we need is a good food-related challenge," Lorelai insisted.

Rory shook her head vehemently. "I need real food tonight, not forty pounds of sugar. Why can't we go to Luke's?" she asked. Rory stopped what she was doing and frowned, the realization hitting so hard that she couldn't believe that she hadn't figured it out sooner. "You're in a fight," she said.

It wasn't a question.

"Sorta," Lorelai admitted. "And I'll explain it all over Al's take-out if you get a move-on."

"My parents would never let me have pancakes for dinner," one girl commented as she worked on the layout.

"Al's doesn't actually serve pancakes," Rory said gently. She got several strange looks. "It's a long story," she said before turning her attention back to her mother. "This isn't like after the accident, is it? You're not going to have to pretend to be Mimi again just to get a decent cup of coffee, are you?" More strange looks were passed as the conversation continued, but neither Gilmore girl noticed.

"No, because I'm not going to be making the first move this time. If anyone does anything it'll be him 'cause he's the one in the wrong here," Lorelai said, though she didn't believe her own words. She sighed heavily, idly wondering if she could stand to go back to her parents' house for dinner, or, at the very least, drinks. "Finish up here. I'll be in the car," she said before leaving the office and heading out of the school, this time finding a very direct route and taking it.

Even though Rory knew that her mother hated fighting with Luke she couldn't see why this latest fight was getting to Lorelai so deeply. So, making an executive decision, Rory told Josh Reinhardt, her right hand and Chem lab partner, to finish the layout before he drove the paper over to the printers and then she gathered up her bag and the discarded pieces of her uniform and ran out after her mother, shoes in hand, her stocking feet slipping on the cool marble floors.

"Mom, wait up! I'm not wearing any shoes!" Rory called as she chased after her mother. Lorelai didn't stop, but she did slow down once she reached the courtyard, allowing Rory to catch up. Rory threw her things into the back of the car and then put her hand on Lorelai's arm. "Mom, what happened today? Everything was fine this morning."

"When we get home, okay? I don't want to talk about this while driving," Lorelai said rationally. Rory nodded and got in the car, sticking her feet into her shoes after getting buckled in.

The ride home passed in silence and, after parking the car in the driveway, Lorelai turned to Rory and spoke. "Do me a favour and get in the house as fast as you can. I don't want Babette to catch you before I can explain everything."

Rory frowned but did as her mother asked, hurrying into the house and heading to the kitchen to lock the back door just in case. Lorelai gathered Rory's things and followed, locking the front door and dropping her daughter's belongings in her bedroom before taking a seat at the kitchen table.

They sat in tense silence for a long time. Lorelai had no idea how to tell Rory what had happened between the time she left for school and the confusing encounter at the Franklin. Rory didn't want to push, knowing that that would just make everything more difficult for her mom. So, for what was probably only the tenth time in the history of the 'Crap Shack', silence reigned over Lorelai and Rory Gilmore.

Finally Lorelai sorted her thoughts out and she started speaking.

She explained everything, from the Suit handing her the blue-backed papers to the fight with Luke to going to her parents to the call from Jess. She went into detail about her meeting with Jamison Garvy and how he had given her hope as well as some tidbits about Nicole that made both Lorelai and Rory worry about their dear friend, Luke. Then, as she was winding down with her quick and timely escape from the house that Gilmore built, insured, and filled with guilt and an endless stream of maids, the phone rang and Lorelai was reminded that she had told Sookie, Tobin, and Michel that she would meet them at Sookie's house after she talked with the lawyer. Leaving Michel and Tobin in the same room for long periods of time—for any period of time—was like putting a stick of dynamite next to fire-breathing dragon—though she wasn't sure if there was any other kind of dragon out there, and, even if there was, they were long extinct by the time dynamite was invented making her mental metaphor faulty on numerous levels—so, after promising to be back soon, Lorelai left and Rory went into her room.

Rory unpacked her bag and got changed into her 'civilian' attire and then, before she talked herself out of it, she left, running through the town that had been the only home she could remember, until she came to a stop in front of the home away from home that had always brought her comfort.

Luke's.

It was predictably empty, the dinner crowd having gone home leaving Luke time to go over the day's receipts before actually closing up. Not even Kirk was there, which was strange because, for a man with a million and one jobs, Kirk spent a lot of time at Luke's.

She opened the door, shooting a glare at the bell above the door because it made making a sneak-attack utterly impossible, and went inside. Luke looked up and tensed up when he saw her, an involuntary reaction that broke Rory's heart.

"Jess isn't here," Luke said flatly.

"Not here to see him," Rory said, hopping up on a stool in the centre of the counter. She rested her elbows on the Formica and peered at the man who had always been her father-figure and who, she had to admit, she had always hoped would one day get his ass in gear and actually become her father. Or step-father, technically. Not that she didn't still hold onto the childish hope that one day her mommy and daddy would get together and they would be a family, but Rory was, if nothing else, a realist, and the reality was that her father had never done anything but hurt her mother and Luke had never done anything but be there for both of them, even when they made it nearly impossible for him to do so.

Never one to beat around the bush when it really mattered, Rory got right to the point. "I talked to my mom. She told me what's happening. What Nicole is doing."

"I swear I didn't know about this, Rory," Luke said plaintively.

Rory nodded. "I know that. Mom does, too," she said, knowing in her heart of hearts that she was telling the truth. "It's just… like it or not, Nicole is in our lives as long as she's in your life 'cause somewhere between the day I came in here in tears, wearing sparkly pink fairy wings and asked you to come to a caterpillar's funeral and this moment right here… you've become part of our lives, and not just because of your coffee and the fact that you feed us pretty much every meal that we eat." Luke managed a half-hearted smile at that. "So, if Nicole is in your life she's in ours, and she's representing the woman who is suing mom and Mia so it's… weird. You're the one who brought this woman into our lives."

"She only came to Stars Hollow because of Taylor," Luke pointed out.

"Maybe so, but she's not sleeping with Taylor," Rory shot back, barely holding in the added editorializing of 'he's about the only guy she's not sleeping with', holding her tongue on that one only because she knew it would only serve to both hurt and anger Luke, neither of which was her intention. "Sorry. That was completely uncalled for," she said quickly. Luke, too shocked at Rory's comment, leaned back against the coffee maker looking like he had been punched in the gut. "I… uh… I'm gonna go. Bye, Luke," Rory said before beating a hasty retreat.

I meant to post this on Friday before I went out of town but the universe conspired against me and my plans, as always, had to change to adapt to the universe's mandates.

For those of you wondering what happened to me on the JAG front, I'm still working on those stories but my family has been going through some major upheavals lately and I just haven't been able to write much for those stories. I will try to post more soon, though, even if the chapters are a little shorter than I'd like.

What did you think of this chapter?

M