I am so sorry that this is taking so long to get written! I am also sorry that it is really short compared to the last chapter. well, I hope that you forgive me, i promise that my updates will happen sooner now! Oh! and i would like to thank all of my wonderful reviewers! keep reviewing and i promise a happy ending!
Disclaimer: i still own nothing. get over it!
Chapter 7: Two spats, One a pickle
"Ok Sookie. Thanks. Yeah, I will. Bye." Rory said as she walked down the street towards Doose's pushing Jake in the stroller. She then hung up the phone.
Rory had just been talking to Sookie about what Lorelai had told her. She was surprised to hear that Luke had stopped by again after the fight. Didn't he know how much he must have hurt her? She thought. And then her mind skipped to the part of Sookie's story where Lorelai had had expressed her feelings on the situation. It seemed as if her mother still loved Luke but didn't want her heart broken again. That was just how her mother was; she gets hurt and then shuts herself away from the world before anyone has the opportunity to do it again.
Her mother wanted Luke back. She knew it, but would her mother's pride and her emotional survival instincts allow her to try?
She entered the little grocery store still pushing the stroller. Jake was silently watching everything around him. He observed the people passing by him. He took in the surroundings and the new environment they had just entered.
Rory grabbed a basket and went straight to the chip isle. She looked at the shelf, choosing three different bags and then moving on. By the time she had made it to the cereal, she had pop tarts, Twinkies, marshmallows, and every other sugary food imaginable in the red doose's shopping basket she was carrying. She quickly grabbed the cereals she needed and then went to pay for everything. She made sure to grab some coffee ice cream for her mother too on her way to the front.
As they stood in line Kirk and Taylor were fighting over the price of a jar of pickles.
"But they were 1.50 the last time I was here!" Kirk yelled in a whiny voice.
"And now they are 1.60." Taylor argued forcefully.
"But I want the pickles for 1.50!" Kirk stated.
"You are not getting my pickles for 1.50. My pickles are 1.60 now Kirk. Take it or leave it!" Taylor yelled back. Rory was now about to erupt into laughter. Jake was cooing with a huge smile on his face. This is so funny! Rory thought.
"Fine!" Kirk said in defeat as he slammed the money on the counter and hastily skulked out of Doose's. If only mom had been here to see that! Rory thought.
As Taylor was finishing up with scanning the items that Rory had set on the counter, she looked out the door and saw him. Luke, she thought. He was outside helping some woman with bags. He put some in her car and walked back to her to get some more.
"That will be 17.58." Taylor said bring Rory back to reality after staring at Luke for 3 minutes.
"What, oh! Ok, here." She said giving him a twenty.
"Here you go, enjoy your day!" Taylor said handing Rory the change and the bags. She then flashed him a quick smile and headed out the door, bags in hand, stroller in front.
"Hey Luke!" she greeted as she walked up to him.
"Hey…uh, Rory." He greeted back. He didn't know if she knew exactly what had transpired between him and Lorelai. He knew she had heard that he was back in town from the lack of shock in her voice. He then looked down to notice the baby in the stroller she was pushing. It was Lorelai's son; his son.
"So, who's that?" she asked pointing to the woman he had been helping earlier.
"Who?" he asked looking behind him to see who she was talking about, "oh, that's my sister Liz." He answered when he saw where Rory's finger was pointing. Phew! Rory thought.
"Oh." Sounding disappointed but she was actually quite relieved that it was only his sister.
She had never really gotten to meat Luke's sister, but she had heard stories. These stories had been collected from many different sources but she had not once met Liz or even seen a picture of her.
"So, how are you?" Luke asked changing the subject.
"I'm good. Junior year of college, you know." She said in a casual tone.
"Oh yeah! How's that going for you?" he asked. He had not talked to her in a while and had wondered as much about her in the past year as he did Lorelai; A LOT!
"Uh…Good, it's doing good. Teachers like to give you undoable assignments, you get good grades, bad grades, grades in general." She said. She felt nervous and just wanted to get off this topic. She had more important things to discuss.
"So," Luke said, realizing Rory's lack of enthusiasm in the conversation turned his face to the baby in the stroller, "I am guessing that this is Jacob?" he asked.
"Uh, yeah, but we call him Jake. Jakey sometimes too." She said watching Luke. He seemed stiff and uncomfortable.
"ok, well," Luke started. He wanted so desperately to hold his son. He didn't know why but he felt that once he had held him for the first time, that it would actually hit him; it would become reality. He had son. Even though he had gone over this thought over and over again he still half expected to hear a ringing that was an alarm clock waking him up from a dream, a very odd dream.
Just then Rory's phone rang which brought Luke back to reality.
"Hello?" she asked as she answered her phone.
"Hey babe!" she heard her mother speaking to her.
"Hey, so what do you need?" she asked knowing her mother must be calling for a reason.
"Well see, I just finished off the last pop tart here. So that means I need more and some more cereal would be nice and…" Lorelai said going down the list of things she needed.
"Mom! I got you some pop tarts now stop and tell me the real reason you called!" she said.
As soon as Luke had heard Rory say 'Mom' into the phone he had looked up. He had been concentrating on his shoes previously. He had come to the conclusion that new shoes were needed because his were starting to give way to a hole on the toe.
"Well," Lorelai continued, "I was wondering how my little boy was doing." she stated.
"Oh, so that is all? Well he is happily sitting in the stroller right now chewing his fingers." She said looking at her little brother.
"Have you gotten to the bonding part of the outing yet?" Lorelai asked.
"No, we were just on the street when we ran into…" she started and then stopped herself when she caught herself almost telling her mother that she had run into Luke. Luke was looking at Rory now wondering what she was going to tell her mother. He thought again decided she would probably tell her that it had been some crazy random person on the street.
"Ran into who? You ran into who?" Lorelai said eagerly when Rory failed to finish her sentence.
"Uh…just Taylor. He was acting crazy. Something about another town event or something. Well I gotta go; I will see you in a bit. Bye mom." She said quickly hanging up without giving Lorelai a chance to respond to what she had just said or even give her a chance to say goodbye.
"So…that was your mom?" Luke asked.
"uh, yeah. She was just calling to check up on Jake." She said answering his unsaid question along with the one actually asked.
"So…" Luke started, "How is she?" he finished. He was referring to Lorelai.
"Uh, good. She hasn't dated anyone if that is what you mean. She still denies your existence; she closes herself off from the world…" Rory had now become angry. She didn't know why but she had. "Oh, and don't forget the big one of the year: she is still heartbroken! Because of you of course." she added. She had turned into her mother at this point; she was now trying to hurt him in anyway she could.
"Rory I…" he tried to stop her.
"Luke. You. Broke. Her. Heart. No one has ever hurt her before like you have. Oh, and you blaming her because she didn't come and track you down when you left, that is not fair! You left, not her! End of story. Now, if you don't mind," she said now cooling down a bit, "I have something more important to do." She said as she pushed the stroller towards home while still holding the Doose's bags full of food.
Luke had not even gotten a chance to tell his side of the story. He was still mad at Lorelai somewhat, but was surprised to see Rory act the way she did. He had never seen her defend her mother like that. He now realized that she was right, but how was he to go from there? Should he rush over to Lorelai's house and profess his never ending love to Lorelai? how was he even supposed to approach her without them ending up in an argument? He didn't know.
"Luke, can you help me with this?" Liz asked him not aware of the event that had just taken place. Luke then snapped out of his thought process and went to help his sister with some bags.
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NEXT CHAPTER: flashback number 345543! just kidding! it is only about the 5th or 6th. lorelai thinks back to the day Jake was born. It reveals his full name too for all of you out there who have a strange need to know his name (i know a few of you out there).