Title: Another Round
Chapter 7, WIP
Rating: PG/PG-13
Parings: Rory/Logan, Rory/Jess, Lorelai/Luke
Spoilers: Nov 22nd's episode
Disclaimer: No profit is being made from this story. All rights and characters are owned by the genius mind of Amy Sherman-Palladino and her writers and the WB.

"She's back?" Luke looked astonished. "I wonder if... wow, I wonder if Jess went and talked to her, did she say anything about him?"

"Jess?" Lorelai looked confused, "why would Jess go see her? How would Jess even know where she was?" Lorelai looked at Luke suspiciously.

Luke looked at her, flustered. "I, um, guess that's a no?" He rubbed his forehead. "Fries? Would you like some fries? A burger, maybe? A milkshake?"

"Ooh a milkshake. With fries and burgers. Must be chocolate." Lorelai paused, "so you told Jess to go see Rory?"

Luke shook his head. "No, no, no. He came here and asked about her, and I...possibly told him what was going on, and that she was staying with your parents. That's it." He gave Lorelai's order to Ceasar, and pulled her out of the kitchen behind him.

"Luke, how could you do that?" She half-yelled at him. "You should have at least told me." Lorelai sighed, she didn't want to let anything ruin her daughter's return. She glanced over at Rory who was looking up at them. "I hope you remembered to add coffee to that order, buster." She told him and she headed back toward Rory.

"We'll talk about it later," Luke said quietly before falling Lorelai over to the table. "Rory, it's good to see you. It's been awhile. He gave her one of his awkward hugs, with a grin. "What can I get you?"

"Ooh," Lorelai said getting one of her evil grins, "you should order everything, you haven't eaten here in such a long time I think you deserve it. He could make the entire menu and serve it while wearing a pink frilly apron." She grinned at Rory and then looked up at Luke with one of her 'I'm an angel' smiles.

Rory looked up at look and smiled. "I'll take whatever she's having...and a piece of pie... and nacho's..." She looked around, trying to think of anything else she could possibly want. "I think that's good for now."

Luke nodded and walked back to the kitchen. "It'll be ready in a few...it's good to have you back."

Lorelai sat in the stool and tried not to ask anything about Jess even though she wanted to know what had happened a little at a time, she told herself. "So...you're back, kiddo. Really back. We should celebrate or something."

"We should!" Rory exclaimed. "What shall we do? Where shall we go? Who shall we tell?" Rory took a huge sip of coffee, and sighed. "I've missed this."

"Aww, me too." Lorelai said grinning big. "So what do you want to do? The world is yours, you get to pick."

"Aah...bookstore?" Rory suggested with a sneaky grin. "I know how you love it so. I haven't been to the Stars Hollow Bookstore in such a long time!" Rory looked excited just talking about it. She also wondered whether Jess would have his book there or not.

"Oooh, and on the way we should go on a tour of the town so you can see all the changes that have been made, and then we should stop at the Inn for lunch, I know Sookie would want to see you." Lorelai grinned. "Okay, well for dinner, since this is obviously lunch." Lorelai said as she saw Luke come out with quite a few plates. "Luke, I love you." Lorelai said in her child-like voice.

"Yeah, well I hope you feel the same when your arteries are clogged," He said and sat down the plates.

Rory laughed and looked at Lorelai's face. "You guys are so cute together," She said between fries.

"I know," Lorelai said beaming, "I think the flannel look goes well with my eyes."

Rory nearly choked on a fry. "Are you trying to kill me?" Rory said, laughing. "When you're going to say something funny can you atleast wave your arms around first or something?"

Lorelai gaped at her daughter, "So you don't think that I'm normally funny? I think I'm hilarious, they are calling me Ellen at the inn, and constructing a brick wall that I can stand in front of." She turned to Luke, "But seriously though, doesn't the flannel pattern go well with my eyes?"

Luke pretended to glare at her.

"You're absolutely right. The red of the flannel compromises the blue of your eyes, and makes them just 'pop'," Rory said, throwing her hands in the air at the pop, over-dramatically.

Lorelai turned and looked from Rory to Luke, "Okay fine, Siskel and Ebert, I give up." Lorelai picked up her fork and stabbed two fries with it and began to eat. "At least the food likes me." She said pretending to be sad.

Rory threw a fry at her. "I love you. And we know flannel boy loooooooves you."

Luke stood up quickly as his face reddened. "Can I get you two anything else?"

"No I think we're set for now, Flannel Man." Lorelai said grinning at Luke. "And that color red goes great with the flannel, just so you know."

Luke huffed off back towards the kitchen.

Rory grinned. "So how is it really going? With you two? Everything's good?"

Lorelai leaned in conspiratorially, "Everything's great, and so much better now that you are back. We can set a date for the wedding," she whisper-squealed.

"Oooh, the wedding. Wow," Rory whispered, although she didn't know why. "I'm so excited. Luke and you... I wonder who won the bet...I'll have to ask Sookie."

"A bet. You mean my friends bet on my relationship with Luke? What is this world coming to?" Lorelai asked stunned and then added, "and how come you didn't bet, we could have cashed in on this."

Rory looked confused. "But you didn't know about the bet? Is there a bet on the wedding too? I missed it! No way!"

Lorelai laughed, "you might still have time to get in on the wedding bet, you'll have to ask Sookie about that, but you might want to wait til we know for sure before you put money on this." Lorelai finished up her fries, "so...whenever you're ready kid."

Rory took a final sip of coffee. "I'm ready. Are you ready?" Rory stood up and grabbed her purse.

"Lead the way," Lorelai said as she picked up the ceramic mug and her purse and headed toward the door. "Bye Luke!" she yelled to the kitchen, "I'll bring this back later."

"Have fun," He yelled back, and muttered something about how she always steals the cups.

Rory opened the door. "And... we're off..." She looked around. "So, oooh, the Stars Hollow Annual Track and Field Day was last week, right?"

"Oh, yes," Lorelai said smiling wickedly, "Kirk tripped again, he's so clumsy. You would think that after tripping every year he'd learn to watch where he's going. I think Taylor is considering making a law against Kirk registering just so the others don't trip over him. We had a huge pile-up. I'm sorry you missed it."

"Was it like a dog-pile? Did you go and jump on top?" Rory asked, picturing the whole thing. Then realizing what she asked, she waited for it...

"DIIRRRTY!" Lorelai smirked. "And just so you know, who do you think tripped Kirk?"

"Ohhh, mom!" Rory gasped. "So you admit that you wanted to jump on top of Kirk? I knew it. I always knew it." Rory nodded.

"Hey!" Lorelai was offended, "why would I want to jump ontop of Kirk. GAH! Maybe I wanted to jump on top of that hot sprinter." She raised one eyebrow. The two continued to walk toward the bookstore in a comfortable banter. "Wow it seems like the store got closer to Luke's I wonder if we moved it with out collective psychic power."

"I was just thinking the same exact thing. Lets try to make coffee appear next, okay?" Rory said as they approached the front door, and she scanned the window.

Lorelai handed Rory the half empty coffee cup, "ta-da" she said simply as she opened the door for them. "So what are we looking for today? The thickest book they have?"

Rory took the cup of coffee and mumbled distractedly as she walked inside. It wasn't in the window.

Lorelai looked confused but didn't say anything. She followed Rory around as she walked up and down the isles and finally asked, "what are you looking for?"

"What?" Rory snapped out of it. "Oh, um... just a book." Rory shrugged.

"Because we're in a bookstore," Lorelai said looking at the shelves, "tell me what it's called, I'll help you look."

"Well, I'm just looking for a book. Not a particular book. Non e in particular. No title's to tell." Rory nodded.

"Oh, well," Lorelai looked at all the books and pulled one from the shelf, "this looks like a good book, it has a pages, and a picture on the cover, and," she opened the book, "words on the pages."

Rory glanced at it. She read the cover aloud, "Roses are purple? Yes, mom, that sounds like a fascinating book. Maybe you should go and buy it, and I'll keep looking," Rory suggested.

"But I have no interest in roses, even if they are purple, which they aren't. They are red. Or white, or yellow, or pink..." Lorelai paused, "so what kind of flowers do you think I should have?"

"Daisies?" Rory looked around quickly and grabbed a book. "Look mom! A book on daisies. I think you'd better buy this." She pushed Lorelai towards the front of the store.

"I can't have daisies," Lorelai whined, "that's so been there, done that, broke off the engagement the weekend before. I don't know. Maybe we don't need flowers. Flowers attract bees and they are bad, with their little stinger things," Lorelai gestured, "and then they'll see the cake with the little icing flower things on it and attack the cake and then I'll have bee cake and I can't have bee cake. I want to eat my cake, so the bees can't have it. Unless it's left over, and stale, and moldy, then maybe they can have it, but not until then."

"Oh, mom, daisies...bad... I'm sorry." She grabbed the book and placed it back on the shelf. "What about maybe a non-pollinated flower? Um..." She looked around. "Ooh, look! A wedding magazine, I think you better buy that," Rory said once again, and pushed her towards it.

"But then they wouldn't let you bet in the pool." Lorelai protested, "plus I already have that one at home." Lorelai paused near the magazine stand, "why do you keep trying to push me out of the store?"

Rory glanced at her. "I'm not trying to push you out of the store, mom. I'm just trying to...keep you amused." Rory grinned.

"I'm amused by whatever it is you are trying to hide." Lorelai said as she looked at her daughter skeptically, "however, I'm willing to be lenient if it involves a hot guy. Huh? Huh? Hiding someone in the back of the store that you don't want me to see?"

"Oh, yeah, Mom, you've caught me. Really, you're so perceptive. Does that mean you'll go over there now?" Rory asked.

"Fine." Lorelai said slightly confused, "but if you're looking at a dirty magazine I wanna see."

Rory laughed. "Alright, I promise."

"Okay," Lorelai walked to the front of the store and looked at the candy bars near the register. "Oh, hey Andrew," Lorelai said cheerfully, "I didn't see you there, under the counter, whatcha doin?" she asked.

"I dropped a roll of nickels and I'm trying to find them." he said distractedly and then realizing he had a potential customer asked, "can I help you with something, Lorelai?"

"Oh, no, I'm just here with someone." Lorelai attempted to make a drum roll noise which sounded like a helicopter, "ladies and gentlemen, Rory Gilmore!" she exclaimed. Andrew looked around and then back at Lorelai sadly, "If you say so. Things will get better." he added.

"No, she's right over there." Lorelai said pointing between two tall shelves of books. "Rory, come here. Mommy needs you to explain to the nice man that she isn't hallucinating."

Rory finally spotted it. The thin, white spine was shoved between two huge books. "Um, hang on mom!" She pulled the book out and looked at it. I can't believe he wrote a book! She wanted terribly badly to buy the book, but knew that it'd be better if she left it there, since it was the only one she could find. But on the other hand she wanted to ask Andrew if there were any others. Rory walked to the front of the store, and stood next to her mother. "Hey mom, you wanna go back there and find the hot guy I was talking to?"

"I think that might make Luke jealous." Lorelai said pretending to ponder the thought. "Ooh, I forgot I promised Sookie I'd pick up the new Joy of Cooking cookbook, just so she could point out all the errors to the cook staff, be right back, hun" Lorelai said as she quickly disappeared into the cooking section to find the book.

"Andrew?" Rory whispered. "Do you have multiple copies of the book The Subsect?" She leaned over the counter to him.

"Rory I'm glad you're back, I've missed seeing you perusing the shelves." he paused to look at the inventory sheet, "Yeah I think we have a few in the back, but we're lacking shelf space right now," Andrew said, "did you want a copy?" he asked.

"I found it!" Lorelai proclaimed as she headed toward the front counter. "Can you put this on the inn's tab Andrew?" she asked him.

"Sure Lorelai, anything else?"

"Um, yeah, but could you just put one on hold for me?" Rory answered quickly.

"Ok." Andrew said as he rang up the book for Lorelai, "will do Rory."

Lorelai looked at Rory, "I hope that's my wedding present you're talking about. And it should be a diamond studded book." She grinned. "Bye Andrew."

"Bye Andrew," Rory said. "I'll be back later."

"Now we're going to the Inn?" Rory asked as they walked out the door.