I finally was in the mood to finish this chapter. I needed some time to come up with an idea for the chapters to come. Something new. I found it. I hope you like it! Please review!
Chapter 25: Sheila and Butch
"Luke, would you please take your annoying kids away, so that we can go on decorating the Christmas-tree?"
"Will, Sara, Laila, come here!" Luke yelled from the kitchen.
"Luke, that´s not helping. You tried that for the third time and they are still here!" Lorelai yelled back. Some seconds later Luke came through the door, looking really annoyed.
"Hey you! How often do I have to call you before you will listen?" he said to the three kids, who just went on playing with the decoration.
"Will, Sara, Laila! Kitchen! Right now!" he said.
"But daddy, it´s boring in the kitchen."
"But you are disturbing your mother and your sister in here. So go upstairs to your rooms or help me in the kitchen, but stay away from your mother! Otherwise she keeps yelling through the house, causing me a headache." he said and pointed to the door.
"Mommy, in-toor-voice!" Sara said and smiled proudly.
"Out! Now!" Luke just said and sighing they stood up and walked into the kitchen.
"Thank you honey!" Lorelai smiled brightly at Luke. He just rolled his eyes and went back to the kitchen.
"You will never change!" Rory laughed.
"Yeah, yeah, same old, same old!" Lorelai smiled.
"What does that mean?"
"Nothing. Just that nothing changed since the moment we got married."
"I would say since the moment you met!" Lorelai just smiled, but remained quiet.
"Daddy, that!" Sara said and pointed to the cookies which stood on the counter. Luke had spend the whole morning making different kinds of cookies, because Lorelai and Rory had begged him.
"No, Sara, please stay away from these cookies, they are still hot."Luke told her and took her already spread out hand in his, to keep her from burning her fingers.
"Why?" Laila asked him.
"Because I just took them out of the oven."
"Hungry, daddy!" Sara whined.
"You can have an apple or some yoghurt, if you´re hungry."
"Nooo, Cookies!" Sara whined.
"Sara, no! Forget it. You won´t have cookies now." Luke told her. Sara thought for a moment, then she started to scream.
"Sara, stop yelling!" Luke yelled, so that she would hear him. But instead of stopping, Sara threw herself on the floor. Luke let out an annoyed groan, then picked the kicking child up and walked out of the kitchen without another word. He held her hands in one of his, because otherwise she would slapp him in the face and her legs with the other. He walked past Lorelai and Rory and upstairs. While Lorelai just ignored it, Rory turned around and watched her screaming sister.
"What´s wrong with her?" she asked her mother.
"I don´t know. But she screams like this when she is angry. Not that often anymore, but still sometimes." Lorelai replied.
"And what is he going to do with her?"
"Place her in her bed until she calms down" Lorelai said with a shrug and placed another angel on the tree.
"Noooo! Daddyyyyy!" Sara screamed hysterically when Luke placed her in her bed.
"Time out for you. You know the procedure. I will pick you up when you calmed down." he told her calmly. Sara took the stuffed animals in her bed and threw them in Luke´s direction.
"Oh, so I can take them with me?You don´t need them anymore obviously. Even your "Piggy","he said and picked them up.
"Piggyyyy! Piggyyy!" Sara screamed and cried.
"Sara, you throw things at me, I take them away. Piggy will have to wait some time before he will see you again." Luke told her and walked outside, leaving the hysterical child in her bed. He still heard her screams through the closed door. It broke his heart to hear his daughter cry and scream like this. He looked down and saw her pink pig in his hand. Her favorite stuffed animal. She never slept without it. He considered going back and giving her at least her "Piggy" back.
"Luke come back down and leave her in her bed!" Lorelai said from the bottom of the stairs. He trotted downstairs and hugged her.
"Luke we have to do this. It´s for her own good" she told him and rubbed his back.
"I had to take away "Piggy" because she threw him after me. She hates me" he mumbled against her hair.
"Oh hon´. I think you can give him back to her when she calmed down. And she does not hate you. She just wants to get us to give in to her. But you know we can´t do it," she reassured him.
"I know, I know" he sighed and stepped out of her hug.
"Poor Lukey!" she said and gave him a peck.
"Don´t call me that!" he said, but a little smile appeared on his lips. He gave her hand a quick squeeze and then walked back to the kitchen.
"Poor Sara. She is still screaming, I can hear her." Rory said.
"I know. This girl has some lungs, I can tell ya. Most of the times she keeps screaming for ten or fifteen minutes, then she keeps crying for another ten minutes and then she has calmed down so that you can deal with her again."
"Mom, do you think it´s okay to just put her in her bed and let her scream?" Rory asked. Lorelai looked up from the bag she now had in her hand. She was surprised by Rory´s question.
"Rory, what should we do?" she asked her.
"I don´t know. But it hurts to hear her scream like this."
"Do you think we enjoy doing that? Haven´t you seen Luke´s expression when he came downstairs some seconds ago. We would both love to just run up to her and give her everything she wants, so that she will smile again, but we can´t."
"Did you do that with me, too?"
"No, I never had to. I always told you that you were a very quiet and nice baby and later child. But Sara isn´t. You know that." Rory nodded.
"William, now you have to stick the cookies in the chocolate" Luke said and pointed to the table.
"Daddy, hot!" Laila said and pointed to the chocolate.
"Oh,uh, sorry. Of course we first need to melt the chocolate." Luke said and grabbed the chocolate, then sighed and put it down again.
"I can´t stand this anymore!"he sighed.
"You two stay here and watch the cookies, I´m just..." he pointed upstairs and walked into the living-room. Lorelai turned around when the door opened, her eyes filled with tears.
"She sounds so desperate" she sniffed. Sara has been screaming for nearly twenty minutes. Her voice was husky, but she still screamed and cried for her parents and her piggy.
Luke held out his hand for her and she took it. Together they hurried up the stairs, while Rory walked into the kitchen.
"Piggy, daddy! Piggy!" Sara sobbed in her bed when her parents rushed through the door, Luke with Sara´s "Piggy" in his other hand.
"Oh, baby!" Luke said and picked her up.
"Piggy!" she cried.
"Sara, here is your Piggy, see. He is here" he said and gave her the animal while Lorelai rubbed her back and placed kisses on her hair. When she saw the pink pig, she calmed down immediately, grabbed it and held it tight. Then she lay her head on her father shoulder. Lorelai had one arm around Luke´s waist, with the other she rubbed her daughters back. Her head lay on Luke´s other shoulder. Within minutes Sara was asleep. At first Luke couldn´t lay her back down in the bed, but he knew he needed to.
"She has her Piggy now. It´s okay, Luke!" Lorelai whispered and he placed her in the bed, careful not to wake her.
Together they walked back downstairs, taking the baby-phone with them, so they would hear her if she would start to cry again.
While Luke started preparing dinner, Lorelai and Rory finished decorating the house. William and Laila stayed with Luke. It was the first time for months that Lorelai and Rory got to spend more than an hour alone together. They had both missed it, but for the kids, for William especially it was hard to understand why he wasn´t allowed to help his mother.
"Daddy can I help mommy now?" he asked every ten minutes and it got harder for Luke to distract him. When Lorelai came into the kitchen to grab something to eat for her and Rory William ran to her.
"Mommy, can I help you now?" he asked her and looked at her hopefully.
"Oh sweety, you can help your daddy in here. You know your sister and me need some girls-only time."
"Why?"
"Because before I married your father and then had you we used to have this a lot. And because I love Rory a lot I miss her and I want to spend some time with her. And now watch your daddy cook, so that you learn it!" she smiled and winked at Luke, then walked back into the living-room. William watched her leave, then he sat down on the floor and twirled a strand of hair with his finger. Something he always did when he thought about something.
An hour later, Sookie, Jackson, Davey, Martha and Logan had arrived, Sara was awake again and dinner was ready.
"Hey Luke, did you put lemon on the fish? You know that fish always needs lemon!" Sokkie asked. Luke rolled his eyes.
"Yes, Sookie, I know that fish needs lemon juice." he just said.
"Logan, what have you told your parents, that they let you come here?" Sookie turned her attention to Rory´s boyfriend.
"Nothing really. They were to busy fighting to listen. Since my grandfather found out that my mom and my sister are smoking, the dinners are getting more and more interesting every time." he shrugged.
"Oh, okay" Sokkie giggled.
"Sara if you lie Piggy down on the table you could eat better!" Lorelai smiled, but Sara just shook her head and grasped her animal even tighter.
During the dinner Sookie and Lorelai talked about the Inn and informed Rory about the newest gossip in town. Luke, Jackson and Logan discussed about baseball. Laila and Martha played with their dolls, Sara with Piggy, only William was sitting at the table not saying a word. When Lorelai gave the permission that the kids could stand up Sara ran to the living-room to play with her animal, Davey turned on his gameboy and Martha and Laila went upstairs to the twins room. Only William stayed at the table.
"Will, why don´t you bring down this new game of yours then we can play it. Maybe Logan joins us?" Rory asked him. William didn´t react.
"William Rory asked you something!" Lorelai told him. William looked up at his mother, his lower lip trembled.
"Sweety what´s wrong with you?" Lorelai´s voice softened. William started to sniff, but when she wanted to pull him over to her lap, he leaned towards Luke. He took him, but when William didn´t calm down after some minutes he stood up and walked upstairs with his son. He sat down on Williams bed and rocked him a bit in his arms before he pulled back and looked t him.
"William, what´s wrong? Are you hurting? Or tired?"
"I don´t want Rory here!"
"What? Why?" Luke asked him a bit shocked.
"She always has only-girl-time with mommy. Mommy kicks me out when she comes. Mommy promised me I could place the star I made at the tree. But Rory did. I seed it!" he sniffed.
"Rory did not know that, Will. But your mother is very sad when you don´t talk to her and when you don´t want Rory here. She is your sister. She belongs to this family just like Laila and Sara or you and me."
"We never have Will-only time. Just girls-only time."
"You, know what? Tell mommy that. I´m sure she would love to do that. When you were a little baby she sometimes took you out of your crib in the middle of the night. Then she sat down in the rocking-chair and just looked at you and talked to you. She loved your Will-only time. William, no matter how much time we spend with you, the twins or Rory, me and your mother love you all the same. But you know, Rory´s daddy wasn´t there when she was a baby. He´s never been there. So your mommy was always alone with Rory. And when we married and then you were born Rory got jealous, just like you are now. She thought that your mommy wouldn´t have any time for her anymore and she was very sad. That´s why your mother tries to spend some time alone with her, that she won´t get sad, because she has no daddy. Okay?" Luke finished, not sure if the three-year old had understood what he was trying to tell him.
"When I play with her is she lonely then?" William asked after some time.
"No, then she is happy." Luke smiled. William jumped off his lap and took out the game then ran downstairs with it.
"Rory play with me" he yelled and Lorelai jumped at his sudden outburst. Then she raised her eyebrows questioningly when Luke came back. He walked behind her chair, leaned down and whispered in her ear.
"Make sure you spend some time with him today. He wanted to kick out Rory, because he was jealous. And take his star off the tree so he can hang it up later. Obviously Rory did it, but you promised him he could do it!" he kissed her on the cheek and then started to clean the table.
Sookie looked at her when Luke went to the kitchen.
"I really couldn´t do it without him!" Lorelai just sighed and helped Luke with the plates.
They were all sitting in the living-room, just talking an hour later. William had proudly hung up his star together with Lorelai and then played with Rory and Logan. When it rang on the door, they all looked up surprised.
"You invited more guests?" Luke asked.
"Nooo, I didn´t. Maybe my parents decided to come back earlier from their trip?"
"Grandpa?" William yelled and ran to the door.
"William Jeremy! You are not allowed to open the door! How often do I have to tell you?" Lorelai yelled and followed him. William had already opened the door. A tall blonde woman stood in front of it. She seemed to be Lorelai´s age, was thin, tall and had green eyes.
"Hello?" Lorelai asked and looked at her curiously.
"Uhm, hi sorry! I know it´s late and it´s Christmas, but I just arrived here and Miss Patty told me that Butch, I mean Luke lives here."
"Yes, he does. Wait a second. Luke! Here is somebody for you!" she then yelled in the living room.
"Ah geez, Lorelai! Would you stop ye..." Luke grumped when he walked to the door then stopped.
"Hi Butch!" the woman smiled at him.
"Kirsten?" Luke smiled, then walked towards her and hugged her.
"Daddy who is this?" William asked and tugged on Luke´s jeans.
"Yeah, daddy, who is this?" Lorelai repeated. But Luke, who now stared at the woman in front of him, just ignored them.
"I can´t believe that you are here. It´s been forever since I saw you the last time!" he smiled.
"20 years to be exact" she smiled back.
"20 years. Wow, long time!"
"Yup! You look good!"
"You, too!" The two still smiled at each other.
"Daddy! Who is this?" William tried again and tugged harder on Luke´s jeans.
"William! How often do I have to tell you that you shouldn´t tug on my pants? It´s driving me crazy!" he said but picked him up. Then he turned around and saw that Lorelai was still standing there looking at him with an unreadable expression. He took her hand and pulled her softly to him.
"Lorelai this is Kirsten. We were neighbors from the moment we were born until she moved out of town 20 years ago. And Kirsten, this is my wife Lorelai and our son William." Luke introduced everyone. They shook hands and Kirsten smiled at William and ruffled through his hair.
"I´m really sorry to disturb your evening, but I couldn´t wait to see you again!" Kirsten said to Luke when she saw Lorelai´s look.
"No problem. I´m happy you are here now. We have Lorelai´s friends as guests, why don´t you join us?" Luke asked her.
"Oh thank you!" she smiled and hugged Luke again. Then they walked together into the living-room were all the others were still sitting. They all looked curiously at Kirsten when she walked in.
"So this is Kirsten, an old friend of mine. These are Sookie, Jackson, their son Davey and their daughter Martha, Lorelai´s daughter Rory and her boyfriend Logan and our daughters Laila and Sara." Luke said and Kirsten placed her hand on his shoulder and squeezed it when she said hello to all the others. This gesture did not go unnoticed by Lorelai.
They sat back down and before Lorelai could react Kirsten had sat down next to Luke. She stared at them or a second, then sat down in the armchair next to Sookie.
"So, tell me Kirsten. Why are you back in town? Visiting old friends?" she asked her and tried to sound polite.
"No, actually I bought the house next to yours. So we will be neighbors again, Luke. But the funny thing is I didn´t know it when I bought the house. I think that´s fate!" she smiled.
"Or coincidence. Are you married? Do you have children?" Lorelai asked her, not sounding half as polite as before. Luke shot her a look.
"No, I´m not married anymore. My husband and my ten year old son died two years ago in a car accident. No my twelve year old daughter and me finished the therapy and decided to start a new life. So I decided to move back here. I missed Stars Hollow and my old friends" she explained and the room fell silent.
"Oh, Kris´, I´m so sorry. Why didn´t you call? I could have helped you with... you know... things." Luke said.
"It´s okay, Luke. I needed some time, Honor needed me. And at first I just could believe that Dan and Freddy wouldn´come back anymore. But we are fine now. This is a chance for us, for me and Honor. And maybe you can help me moving in. If you have the time to!" she said.
"Of course we will. No problem."
"Yes, we can also help you. If you don´t have the time to cook, you can eat at the Inn and Jackson can help you picking up groceries or something" Sookie said excitedly.
"Yeah, no problem!" Jackson said.
"Wow, thank you guys!" Kirsten smiled.
"Where is your daughter?" Lorelai asked. Again Luke shot her a questioning look.
"She stayed with Miss Patty. She wanted to show her how she can dance. I told her I would pick her up when I saw you. I think I will do that now." Kirsten said and glanced at Lorelai.
"Kris´you just got here. Have you eaten something?" Luke asked.
"No, not yet. I think me and Honor will grab a sandwich somewhere, ´cause the kitchen will arrive next week."
"You know what, you will go, pick up your daughter and then I will warm you up some dinner. " Luke told her.
"Thank you Luke. You´re still my hero, you know that?" she smiled and stood up.
"Yeah, sure, Sheila!" Luke laughed.
"Shut up, Butch!" Kirsten shot back and left the house to pick up her daughter.
"She is nice!" Sookie said and Jackson nodded.
"She was kind of my best friend when we were kids. I can´t believe she´s back!" Luke smiled, picked up Sara and tickled her.
"Hurray!" Lorelai mumbled and rolled her eyes.
TBC Please review