Instruments of Insomnia

He walked her home. She asked him to come in, but he refused quite vehemently, saying that if he came in now he wouldn't leave until tomorrow morning, and call him old-fashioned but maybe they should have dinner first. With a quick glance at Babette's darkened windows he kissed her goodnight and walked away, and she managed to force her wobbly knees up the front steps and inside. She never thought she was the kind of woman who went weak in the knees over some guy, but maybe she was- and after all, this wasn't some guy, this was Luke. She leaned against the back of the closed front door, catching her breath and collecting her thoughts, and then called for Rory.

"Rory?" she was surprised at how she sounded, all excited and breathless and emotional.

When she got no response she headed for the kitchen. "Roryroryroryroryroryroryrory…" her voice got louder as she got closer to her daughter's room, and she threw the door open. She could just make out the tangle of blankets and limbs that was her daughter in the dark, but there was absolutely no way that this could wait until a more sleeper-friendly hour. "Rory!"

Rory shifted in her bed, making unintelligible but disgruntled-sounding noises. Lorelai plopped down next to her and shook her shoulder.

"Are you awake?"

"No," Rory groaned, finally giving in and sitting up in bed, rubbing her eyes. "What time is it?" she mumbled.

"What are you talking about?" Lorelai asked impatiently, glancing at the alarm clock's glowing numbers that read 2:18 AM. "It's not that late, what are you doing asleep?"

"What are you doing awake?" Rory demanded, slightly irritated.

"I kissed Luke," Lorelai confessed in a confidential tone.

"I know, I was there, remember?" Rory sighed, exasperated. "Just because I'm trying to block that mental picture from my memory doesn't mean you should."

"I did it again," Lorelai half-whispered, sounding like someone who had just done something she shouldn't have but had gotten away with it.

"Did what?" Rory asked sleepily.

"Kissed Luke," Lorelai repeated. "Again. A lot."

Rory's eyes widened. "Why?"

"Because he is the most incredible kisser in the world," Lorelai said giddily. "I mean it, there should be a statue, or something, and if you weren't my daughter and way too young for him I would tell you to kiss him as well, because it was so fantastic, so rock-my-world- ew, I can't believe I just said that- but I swear, when he-"

"Okay, stop right there," Rory pleaded. "I caught the live-action version earlier, which already made me want to gouge out my eyeballs, so please spare me the details that will make adding 'puncture my own eardrums' to my self-mutilation to-do list sound like a good idea."

"Sorry," Lorelai apologized. "It's just- this is so, wow, and I feel like- like I could jump off the Empire State building and not even ruin my shoes, oh my God I can't even remember ever feeling like this, and I don't know how to calm down!" She pulled in a huge breath to make up for all the oxygen she'd just expended, and she noticed her hands were shaking. This was too much- wobbly knees and shaking hands, what was wrong with her?

Rory smiled at her mother's elatedness and leaned forward to hold her hands- she'd noticed them shaking, too. "This is unbelievable," she agreed. "You and Luke."

"Me and Luke," Lorelai repeated, laughing giddily. "Me and Luke, me and Luke, me and Luke- it sounds good, doesn't it?"

"Very good," Rory said reassuringly. "So what happens now?"

"I guess I need to talk to him," Lorelai reasoned. "There's a lot to figure out."

"You haven't talked to him?" Rory said in amazement. "You've been gone for hours, what were you doing?" The second she asked she realized she probably didn't want to know the answer.

"Not talking," Lorelai answered sheepishly.

"Mom!" Rory protested.

"Hey, a lady never kisses and tells," Lorelai explained condescendingly. "Although I guess I'm not a lady, since I tried to tell you but you had an apoplexy so I couldn't."

"Keep it that way, would you?" Rory requested.

Lorelai merely smiled and kissed her forehead. "You should go back to sleep, because I'm going to wake you up at five in the morning so I can be at the diner the second it opens."

"Get out," Rory ordered her mother, horrified. "He's your Luke, why do I have to get up?"

"Because you love me," Lorelai answered cheerfully on her way out of the room.

"Remind me of that tomorrow morning when I want to kill you," Rory muttered as she rolled over and switched off the light.

"You can't hurry love, no you just have to wait…"

Lorelai frowned in her sleep, dismayed that someone with no vocal talent was heartlessly murdering a classic Supremes song. Had they no shame?

"'Cause love don't come easy, it's a game of give and take…"

The music was getting louder, and Lorelai was horrified to realize, as she reluctantly woke up, that it was coming from her room.

"How long must Luke wait? How much more can he take? Before loneliness, will cause his poor heart to break?"

"Gah!" Lorelai opened her eyes and glared at her daughter, who was cheerfully singing off-key not twelve inches from Lorelai's face.

"I really, really want to throw this pillow at you," she indicated, "but it's the only thing I have to block out your singing."

"Tough dilemma you got there," Rory commiserated, straightening up and folding her arms. "Time to get up, sunshine."

Lorelai rolled over and squinted at her furry purple alarm clock. "It's ten o'clock in the morning!" she exclaimed. "It's ten o'clock on a Saturday morning. Who are you, you evil sadist? You can't be my daughter, because my daughter knows better than to wake Mommy up on a Saturday morning. Mommy gets very cranky when you wake her up!"

"Mommy has forgotten that this isn't just any Saturday morning," Rory matched her mother's sarcastically condescending tone. "This is the Saturday morning after the Friday night that happened yesterday. Luke happened yesterday, and you said you wanted to be at the diner at five AM. Don't shoot the messenger, Cruella."

"It's five o'clock?" Lorelai sat bolt upright in bed.

"No, it's ten. I thought we already established that," Rory replied, exaggeratedly patient.

"It's ten? But I wanted to be at the diner at five! Why didn't you wake me sooner?" Lorelai demanded.

Rory rolled her eyes. "Because you're grumpy early in the morning!" she complained. "And apparently easily confused."

"I have to get up," Lorelai shoved back the covers and jumped out of bed. "Be a good girl and go make Mommy some coffee."

"We're going to Luke's," Rory pointed out.

"So?"

"So, he has coffee, remember? It's really good coffee, too- you've made up numerous songs about how good the coffee is-"

"Rory, I can't go to Luke's without having at least one cup of coffee," Lorelai explained, as if it were perfectly obvious. "I'm not presentable until I've been properly caffeinated."

Rory grinned. "Okay, okay, one cup o' joe, coming right up." She headed out the bedroom door, but she didn't even make it to the stairs before her mother called in a pathetic voice, "Rory?"

Rory turned around with a sigh and stuck her head back in her mother's room. "Yes, my lady?"

"I don't know what to wear."

"Wear what you usually wear when we go to Luke's," Rory advised.

"But I don't usually go to Luke's after making out with him the night before," Lorelai whined.

"Details!" Rory complained loudly and clamped her hands over her ears. She wasn't mad- one look at her mother, all nervous and excited, and she was back in Sister Suffragette mode.

"It's probably best for the both of you guys if you act like everything's normal," Rory suggested, going over to root through the closet. "Just because you- you…" she had trouble saying it, but Lorelai quite willingly helped her.

"Kissed, snogged, made out, locked lips, played tonsil hockey-"

"Doesn't mean that you aren't still friends," Rory finished loudly, mentally erasing all the unwelcome images that had just invaded her brain with Lorelai's words.

"So I can look good, but I shouldn't look like I'm trying to look good?" Lorelai wondered.

"Exactly," Rory said, relieved that the snogging litany was over. She emerged from the closet with a pair of jeans and a green shirt. "Here, wear the B-52s."

"No!" Lorelai said quickly.

"No to the B-52s?" Rory said in amazement.

"No, not no to the B-52s, no to the B-52s shirt," Lorelai explained. "I can't wear that."

"Why on earth not?" Rory demanded, a tad irritated. She was hungry, and she hadn't had any coffee, either.

"That's the shirt I was wearing the first time I met Max," Lorelai said uncomfortably. "I can't wear that to the diner, with Luke being there and everything."

"Oh." It was perfectly understandable to Rory, but she was curious about one thing. "Why didn't you put it in the Max Box?"

Lorelai pouted. "Because I love my B-52s shirt," she said piteously. "And someday I'll wear it again, just not today. And not anywhere near Luke."

"All right, bye-bye, B-52s," Rory said, resigned. "But hurry up and get dressed, will you? I'm starving, and Luke's is always busy on Saturdays at lunchtime."

Lorelai giggled. "Looks like my super, futuristic clothing power already wore off, huh?"

"Looks like," Rory agreed, disappearing back into the closet.