Luke had finally gotten past the incessant "Would you like to ring the bell?" and had just gotten past his mental rant about the over sized cat on the stair, the coincidentally had just about stepped on. Causing the over sized tabby to go racing towards the counter he himself had just retreated from.
"Jeeze."
His breath had quickened by the time he made it to the door that he had eventually been directed to after a very frustrating chat with the owner. His hand poised to knock, while at the same time the plan that he never made began to run through his mind, causing yet more flustering to occur in his hands. Swallowing the fear that he had been harboring since he had turned the keys in his truck he let his hand make contact with the flimsy wood of the door. Whoever the contractor was for this place should have been fired before the first nail had been even touched this door. But all thoughts aside, he was surprised to find that the door moved to open under his hand.
Slightly nervous and from the lack of "In here!" he was used to hearing whenever he knocked on the Gilmore's door he figured that he should look beyond the door for evidence if this was even her room.
Rory had completely missed her opportunity of any kind of narrow escape as soon as the rain had hit. She now resided under a pink umbrella that was being shared with her by the couple that she had met earlier. It may have been a different setting and time, but that didn't mean that they were going to give up the chance of carrying on the conversation concerning her and her "fella".
It was pouring at this point and considering that she didn't exactly feel like getting soaked in the rain with a limited supply of clothing in her and her mother's room, Rory was trapped.
"So how long have you been seeing this young man of yours?" The woman had been smiling at her the entire time, while still not so subtly mentioning her nephew and what a catch he was.
"Oh leave her be honey. I'm sure that she has other things to do than talk to us about her boyfriend."
Rory smiled gratefully at the woman's husband, trying to send a mental thank you. "Actually, I should probably be getting back to Mom, she said something about dinner earlier."
The escape was set.
Until of course, the husband added to his comment.
"Oh well, that's perfect!" He exclaimed as he took out his B&B schedule. "Dinner's right now, I almost forgot, why don't you join us?"
They had begun moving back towards the Cheshire Cat's entrance as they spoke, all of them huddling under the umbrella.
"Oh well-" Rory was about to refuse, but then she spotted something unsuspected in the parking lot ahead.
Luke's truck.
"What was that dear?" The woman smiled warmly at her.
Rory stared at the truck, with a small smile. "Actually, that would be great. I think my mom's sleeping, come to think of it."
"Great!"
"Looks like we're going to have you all to ourselves!"
"Guess so." Despite the fact that she had just jumped out of the frying pan and into the fire, or which ever way the saying went, Rory smiled. Hoping that her sacrifice was worth it.
Max, now finally getting to the end of traffic, sat impatiently in the driver's seat. Watching the windshield wipers go back in forth. The image was beginning to drill in his mind as he sat, wondering what might await him if he were ever to reach his destination.
The thought whether Luke was there or not. Though considering the traffic that surrounded him, he found it doubtful.
The doubts had been building in his mind as he sat. "Where had it all gone wrong, when did he leave Lorelai's heart, was he ever even there in the first place." Mysterious as these thoughts were, he wouldn't solve anything just sitting there.
But to his disadvantage, traffic wasn't agreeing still.
Rory sat half-heartedly at the table. Boston Dentists was an understatement at this point. The profession maybe not, but the concept defiantly was a possibility. It seemed that she was the only subject that the other residents were interested in. They did of course bring up some of the aspects of their own lives, but some how everything ended up relating to her in some way. First they were talking about their kids and grandkids, some even their great grandkids and where they were at that time. Which of course came about the subject of her own hometown, what more her mother did for a living beyond the vague "publishing" answer. Which caused her answers to entail comments equally vague and full of unfortunate lies.
She made a note to blame her mother if she ever became a liar.
Luke was having the same kind of luck with his conscience. As the door opened and revealed the sleeping Lorelai it had been guarding, without much success I might add. He didn't know whether he should close the door and knock again, hopefully waking her up, or coming in and figuring out what to do from there.
Deciding that he wasn't quite ready or brave enough for this after all, he placed his hand on the knob and tried to put it back into it's original state. Only to freeze after the door began to creek, loudly.
Yet again cursing the contractor who picked out this door and the worker that installed it he pushed his hand forward to open the door, in an attempt to regain whatever courage he had had in the first place. Only to be meat by the full force of the creaking he had just tried to prevent.
He stepped forward, seeing Lorelai stir in the bed before him.
Upon entering he was struck by the "floral" of it all. "Dear god, the floral." After grimacing at the flowery disarray that lay before him, he smiled at the thought of what Lorelai's reaction might have been to the spinning pattern that now surrounded him. He had finally gotten past the door way while he tried to avert his eyes from the wallpaper, the counters, the pictures, even the carpet as he looked at it closer. The bed, though the eyesore it was, had made up for it's faults by having the whole reason he had even woke up that morning laying in it.
"Lorelai."
"About time!" Traffic had cleared at last, with him only a half an hour for the Cheshire Cat, Max was quite pleased with himself for sticking it out as long as he had. Not that he had had much of a choice when he got on the one-way road in the first place, but it seemed like an accomplishment non-the-less.
Grinning he congratulated himself for leaving the gruff diner man in the dust behind him.
Not that he had ever known anything of any real truth or relevance in the first place, why should he be right now?
Rory sat in the dining room, now somewhat enjoying the conversation that was going about her, when she found that a writer was in her midst. "Yet another reason she had to be thankful to Luke."
Luke stood over the bed that held Lorelai and reached out his hand and brushed aside a stray curl, amazed that he had gotten this far
None of this was meant to happen, but sense when was anything if no one did anything about it?
-TBC-
Wow, it seems that I'm really into this story. I'm actually updating without anyone bugging me for a month lol. Your criticisms, comments, and everything else of the like are appreciated.
En