Disclaimer: Alas, I own nothing. Not Lorelai. Not Rory. Not Luke (wipes away a tear). Nothing.
Chapter 10- The Diggers that came to dinner
"You gonna order yet?" Luke asked as he walked over to Kirk's table.
"Hm," Kirk said as he looked through the menu.
"The menu hasn't changed in twenty years Kirk."
"I just don't know what to get. What do you suggest Luke?"
"I suggest you order before I kill you. So you better do it quick before your wife and kids get here and have to watch."
"I'll have a hamburger and fries with a soda please."
Luke scribbled down Kirk's order and walked behind the counter. "More coffee Dave?"
"To go please," Dave said as he stood up. "I need to get back to the music store."
"Here you go. See you later." Just as Dave was leaving, Taylor walked into the diner. Luke groaned and tried to ignore the old man.
"Ah Luke. You're here," Taylor said as he headed to the counter.
"Where else would I be in the middle of the day?"
"I don't know your routine."
"Taylor, I've been opening and closing the diner at the same time for thirty-three years."
"You're not always here Luke."
"What do you want Taylor?"
"There's something I'd like to talk to you about."
"Look, if this about renewing the lease on the ice cream shop, you tell Travis he needs to walk his carcass over here and give me the papers himself."
"That's not what I'm here about."
"Well if you're here to try to talk me into participating in that stupid town event, I told Lorelai I'd think about it. But don't hold your breath on me saying yes."
"Oh no. I'm not here to talk about that. Besides, Battle of the Bands was thrown out the window," Taylor said as he sat down.
"Why?" Luke asked, generally interested.
"My nephew the town selectman decided against the idea."
"You're kidding."
"He's removing the competition part from the function and making it a concert under the stars."
"Travis vetoed your town function idea?"
"Don't rub it in young man."
"I'm not rubbing anything in. I'm just surprised you're just letting this happen. Come on Taylor. You've held the town selectman title longer than anyone else. There's gotta be something you can do."
"I'm not asking for your support on this matter Luke, but you're right. There is something I can do, but I'll need your help. You see, my nephew may be the town selectman, but there's one title I hold he wants more than anything." Luke stared at Taylor, completely clueless to where Taylor was headed in this conversation. "I'm not sure if you're aware of this but the board of elders is in the process of selecting a new council. Each elder chooses someone to replace them. As of today, the board is just about ready to initiate the new elders. The only problem is: I haven't chosen my replacement yet."
"Wait. Aren't you the head elder?"
Taylor grinned. "That's what I came here to talk to you about."
Lorelai was finishing getting the house ready for their guests when the doorbell rang. She paused to stare at the plate of questionable cookies on the coffee table. Lana was in the girls scouts and trying to get her cooking badge. The cookies were her first attempt. Lorelai headed to the foyer to answer the door. As she had expected, it was the Stiles family.
"Hi guys, you're right on time," Lorelai greeted with a smile. She stepped aside to let them in. "Did you have a problem finding the house?"
"No, we found it just fine," Jason replied without much enthusiasm.
"Lorelai, this house is beautiful," Nicole remarked as they followed Lorelai to the livingroom.
"Thanks," Lorelai said. "Luke bought it the minute it was on the market. He just had to have it."
"So you've been living here for how long?"
"About seventeen years. Anthony, I'd hate for you to have to sit here and be bored. We have a lounge downstairs with a pool table, an entertainment center, video games, and stuff like that. Would you like to go down there? I think Will's down there practicing guitar."
"He'll go," Jason answered for his son. Anthony eyed his father. "I suggest you go downstairs."
"It's right through that door," Lorelai instructed. Anthony sighed and got up to go downstairs. Lorelai spotted Jason and Nicole reaching for a cookie and stopped them. "I wouldn't do that. My daughter's a girl scout and she's trying for the cooking badge. Unfortunately, she takes after me in that department." Lorelai took drink orders and passed them out to her guests.
"Lorelai, did I hear the doorbell earlier?" Luke asked as he came downstairs. He froze when he walked into the livingroom and saw Jason and Nicole. "Jason, Nicole. You're here. Lorelai, why didn't you call me?"
"If you weren't always locked in that study of yours, you would have heard the doorbell."
"If you had called my name, I would have came."
"Dirty!"
"Ah jeez." Luke sat on the opposite couch from Jason and Nicole and picked up one of the cookies. Before anyone could stop him, he took a bite of it and his face went sour. "Wut da hell did I juss put in my mouf?"
"Lana's cooking experiment," Lorelai replied, obviously fighting back a strong laugh.
"Dis is wealy howable." Lorelai handed Luke a napkin and he spit the cookie out. "I knew I hated cookies for a reason. Did you guys eat them?"
"No," Jason replied, chuckling a little.
"Great, so my wife is just trying to kill me."
"Ah. You've uncovered my secret plot."
"What good would it do you to kill me? All you'd get is a diner." Lorelai playfully hit the back of Luke's head. "Where's Anthony? I didn't exactly get to meet him yet."
"He went downstairs to your lounge to hang out with Will," Nicole replied.
"Your son's practicing for the Battle of the Bands competition that you refused to participate in," Lorelai teased as she handed Luke a drink and sat beside him.
"It's not going to matter anyway," Luke shrugged. "Travis cancelled the competition."
"What? When did this happen?"
"Taylor came to the diner earlier and told me Travis vetoed the competition and made it an open mic concert. I bet the prick did it because he doesn't have a lick of musical talent."
"What about the trophies?"
"I guess Taylor's going to have to return them or something."
"Urgh! This sucks!"
"Lorelai," Richard called as he walked in from the back porch. "I thought I heard a car earlier. Is Rory…" Richard trailed off when he saw Jason and Nicole. The couple stood to greet him.
"Mr. Gilmore," Jason greeted, extending his hand to the older man. "It's nice to see you again."
Richard stared at Jason and Nicole, obviously getting angrier by the second. "Dad, can I talk to you outside for a minute?" Lorelai asked.
Richard stepped outside with Lorelai. Luke, Jason, and Nicole remained quiet and could hear the muffled voices from outside, but It wasn't clear exactly what was being said. Richard was yelling and Lorelai was yelling right back at him. They walked back inside and Richard silently took a seat in Luke's recliner and angrily stared at Jason and Nicole. Lorelai took her seat beside Luke after fixing Richard a drink.
"So Jason, Nicole, do you have any kids other than Anthony?" Luke asked, breaking the silence.
"No," Nicole replied. "Well, together anyway." Luke and Lorelai looked at Nicole questionably.
"I have a daughter in New Haven from my second marriage," Jason explained. "Anthony doesn't really like the idea of having a half-sister."
"I guess our sons are more like each other than we thought," Lorelai half-heartedly laughed. "Will loves Rory, but the idea of Luke or me being with someone else boils his blood."
"That's why we never told him about you and Lorelai or our marriage," Luke added. "And we'd appreciate it if you didn't talk about it around him or any of our kids."
"How many kids do you have?" Nicole asked.
"Four. Five counting Rory. There's Will, Emma's fourteen, Lana's eight, and Richie's four."
Suddenly, Richard slammed his fist onto the side table, making everyone jump a little. "This is ridiculous! I refuse to sit here and go along with this," Richard said forcefully.
"Dad, you promised," Lorelai said.
"This isn't right Lorelai!" Richard continued to yell as he stood. "Those boys fighting only proves that these families cannot get along. You of all people should understand that! How could you be so irresponsible Lorelai? I'm very disappointed in you."
Luke had heard enough. He jumped to his feet and stood toe to toe with his father-in-law. "You're out of line Richard," Luke stated.
"How dare you…"
"No. How dare you. You will not come into my house and yell at my wife. It's disrespectful. I You may be my father-in-law, but you're a guest here and if you continue to disrespect me and my wife I'm gonna have to ask you to leave."
"I do not like this Lucas. It's not right to have them here!"
"You're right. They shouldn't be here. I should say 'To hell with this. Get the hell out of my house' and kick them out. I'll just pull Will out of Chilton and enroll him into Stars High."
"What?" Richard and Lorelai asked at the same time.
"Have you lost you mind man?" Richard asked. "If you pull him out of Chilton he won't have a chance of getting into Harvard or Yale or Princeton…or any ivy league college! It's suicide!"
"You're right. It'll be an excruciating blow to my son's educational career. Not to mention what it'd do to him in the long run. Speaking of which, think about Richard- the grandson of Richard Gilmore and the grandson of Floyd Stiles in business together. The two heirs of two of the greatest insurance men working together. By God, they'd be an unstoppable force! Now I'm not saying they have to be the best of friends, but it wouldn't hurt to be friends."
Richard thought seriously about what Luke had said. "They would make an outstanding team."
"Alright. Why don't you take a seat and we can continue on with this evening in a civil manner."
Richard stared at his son-in-law for a few second and then a smile broke out across his face. "By God you're good," he laughed, taking his seat again.
"I can't believe you just did that!" Lorelai whispered to Luke as he sat down.
"I'm still a little shocked myself," Luke admitted.
"Luke's right," Jason remarked. "It would be beneficial if our sons got along. But that doesn't mean we have to." All eyes were on Jason at this point. "Look, you guys don't like us and we don't like you. Seriously, why do we have to have dinner and act like nothing has ever happened between our families?"
"Do not make a scene Jason," Nicole whispered loudly to her husband.
"No! That stupid headmaster is making us sit here and pretend to get along. Our sons are the problem, not us. Why should we be punished? I mean come on , what good is this going to do us? I say we drop the act and put an end to this. It's not like that brainless, piece of shit headmaster's going to find out."
"On the contrary Mr. Stiles," Max said, making his presence known, "that's where you're wrong." Max and Rachel stood with Rory and Logan at the entrance to the livingroom from the foyer. "Dominic," Max said to his thirteen year old son. "Bring your brother upstairs please."
"Yes Dad," Dominic said, quickly obeying his father.
"They were outside when we got here so we let them in with us," Rory told Luke and Lorelai.
"Headmaster, what are you doing here?" Nicole asked nervously as she and Jason stood.
"I didn't, but I'm glad I came."
"Headmaster Medina," Jason started. "About what I said…"
"Save it Stiles. You think I'm a brainless piece of shit Mr. Stiles? You know, I'm beginning to understand why Anthony acts the way he does. I mean, of course you'd act out if you were the son of an overly protective mother and negligent workaholic father who not only ignores his daughter in New Haven, but also his son at home."
"Max, come on. That's enough," Luke said as he tried to calm his friend down.
"Who the hell is Max?" Jason asked.
"I am," Max replied. "My family has been friends with Danes family for years. In fact, my wife and I are Luke and Lorelai's daughter Lana's godparents."
Jason laughed to himself. "No wonder their kid doesn't get into trouble."
"I don't treat Will any differently than any other student at my school. And I resent the fact that you would even suggest that I did."
"Headmaster Medina," Nicole called. "Please excuse my husband. He isn't thinking straight."
"You're excusing the problem Mrs. Stiles. Your boys cannot get along if their parents won't even try! It won't work unless you all try. That includes you Mr. Stiles! You need to lead by example! Now I thought that you could be civil for just one evening, but obviously I was wrong. I am here by enforcing that these families meet once a week to settle their differences."
"Now wait a minute!" Jason yelled as he jumped out of his seat. "You can't do that!"
"I can and I just did! If you had read your Chilton handbook, you would have known in extreme cases, the headmaster has compete authority to dictate the situation."
"Well I'm not going along with this."
"Very well then. Come Monday morning, your son will be expelled from Chilton Academy."
"No! We'll do it," Nicole said. She faced Jason. "You are not getting our son expelled."
"Luke, Lorelai, do you two have any objections?"
"Doesn't seem like we have much of a choice," Lorelai sighed.
"Like Lorelai said, we don't have much of a choice," Luke said. "God I really wanna kick your ass right now."
Next time on "Breakaway": Emma notices that Tyler has been avoiding her and she confronts him. When Sam's biological father comes to town, he stirs up trouble. Lori accuses Will of having a thing for Lena. Luke and Lorelai spontaneously take off to spend a romantic weekend together.
A/N: I decided to cut Jess's scene out because there's enough drama going on don't you think? Lol. That scene will show up somewhere down the line. I have like two or three alternate opening dinner scenes because I couldn't decide which one I liked. This chapter was actually five pages longer, but I decided to use the other material for later. The alternates from this chapter and the extra scenes from The Broken Road will be posted on my site by the end of the day.