Chapter 2: The Magic of Ever-Ringing Phones

Rory reached the house and was no sooner out of her car than her mother was out the front door, down the steps and by her side. Lorelai wasn't fooled by the hastily dried tears on her daughter's face and concern was evident in her voice.

"Rory? Honey, what's wrong, your call earlier really freaked me out!"

Rory sniffled, her mind in a completely different place than her mothers. She was disturbed, and distracted, and distant. She looked up at the house, the home, where she had lived to that age of 18. "Is Luke here?"

Lorelai's brow furrowed at her daughters avoidance of her questions. "No, he's staying at his place tonight. Why? Honey, what is going on?"

But Rory had conversation ADD and was thrown off by what her mother had just said, especially given the fact that her head was still swimming with the conversation she had had with her father earlier. "Why isn't he staying here?"

"He has an early delivery tomorrow. But seriously, Rory, the evasiveness had got to stop. You call me frantic saying we have a problem, and then you get her and you're all concerned about where Luke is? You've got to tell me what's going on!"

It was only then, with her mother's pleading that Rory snapped out of her spawn-of-Satan (read: Christopher) induced haze to fully understand how freaked out her mother must be. "Yeah, okay. Let's go inside. I'll explain everything. Let's just...go inside."

Lorelai's eyes softened at her daughter's obvious distress over whatever it was that was bothering her. "Ok, hun." She wrapped her arm around her and they headed up the white stairs into the Crap Shack.

They reached the inside and the foyer of the house and, still leaning on each other, made their way to the couch. After collapsing on it, and a few moments of comfortable silence, Rory began to talk.

"So..."

"So," Lorelai countered, trying to not appear too desperate to know what was on her daughters mind.

"Okay. So, I was driving around tonight after..." she was suddenly cut off by the ring of the phone and spoke too quickly to think about what she was saying. "Mom, don't answer that!" He wouldn't, she thought.

Lorelai was already halfway to the mail table but whirled around at the urgent tone in her daughters voice. "What?"

Rory started to speak even faster, aware that the person on the other end of the phone could successfully ruin everything that she came here to say. He wouldn't. Not so soon.

"I just, really really want to talk to you so could you just not answer the phone."

But unfortunately this was not one of those magical ever-ringing phones and the answering machine kicked in before Rory even got a chance to figure out what to say, as the message playing in the background, Lorelai gave her daughter a look that clearly said "you're going crazy." Rory didn't even had a chance to refute that thought, she was too busy waiting, dreading the beep. He wouldn't.

Beep.

And the voice on the other end filled the room. "Lor, it's me…" Rory shut her eyes. He would. Lorelai stood frozen, eyes wide on her daughter, and then the machine, and then her daughter. And then the machine as the message continues, Christopher nasally voice seemed to envelope both of them. "I just, really want to talk to you. About Gigi, and about you, about…everything. Please just call me back. Bye"

Lorelai turned to face her daughters, whose freshly opened eyes were starting to well up.

"Rory? What was that all about?"

Rory took a deep, shaky breath and began. "Ok, so like I said, I was driving around tonight, and I stopped at Dad's…"

Lorelai jumped in here, too confused to be polite. "What? Why?"

Rory glanced at her mother with pleading eyes. I just need to tell her, just need to get this out. "Mom, please…"

"Sorry."

"So anyway, I stopped there. I told him…asked him to stop calling you. I asked him to just leave you alone."

Lorelai's voice came out in little more than a whisper. "Honey? Why would you do that?"

Rory's voice was stronger now, almost incensed at her mother's naivety, at her inability to see the obvious. "Because Mom, I didn't want him to mess things up with you and Luke! He always comes in and screws with our lives, but you're in a relationship now, and if he pulls a classic Dad move, it could be so much worse than before! I know that, and you know it too!"

Lorelai couldn't even form words at this point. "Honey…I don't…"

But the emotional well inside of Rory was open now, and it was running until dry. "I just…he started talking about you and him and I know you never mean anything to happen but he wants to be with you and he asked me if you loved Luke and he kept talking about being a family again and he might just be sad that Sherry's gone but I don't think that's it, and I just didn't want him to mess with you again. Because it's different this time. It's Luke."

Lorelai was dumb struck. "Yeah, it's Luke. Hey, what did you say?"

"What did I say when?"

"When he asked you if I loved Luke. What did you say?"

Rory didn't understand why this was important. "I told him I didn't know. We haven't really talked about it…do you?"

Lorelai got a far-off look in her eye that Rory didn't recognize. Not even all the times Lorelai had talked about Christopher during her childhood had she ever seen that look. But it was fleeting, only appearing for a few moments before being replaced by the hardened rational look that consumed most of Lorelai's love related matter. "Oh, I don't know. It's too soon."

Rory heaved a big sigh, knowing the bulk of this talk was over. "Yeah, that's what I thought. I should probably get going. I'm sorry to sling all this drama on you. Maybe it's nothing. Maybe he needs more diaper advice."

Lorelai only half-heard her daughters words. "Yeah, okay. Listen babe, if it really bothers you. I won't call him."

Rory got up and headed for the door, emotionally exhausted. "Mom, you do what you want. I trust you. Just please, don't let him mess up you and Luke. I…I want you guys together."

Lorelai snapped out of her thoughts at this comment. All these years, her daughter had wanted her mother and her father together, had crazy dreams that involved Chris whisking them all off to California to be one big happy family. But now… "You what?"

"I want you and Luke together, Mom. As long as that's what you want. He makes you happy in a way I've never seen you be before. He loves you and is so dedicated to you in a way Dad never has been and never will be. You know that. Yes, I used to have this dream that you Dad and I would one day be a family. But Luke has always been there. I almost told Dad tonight that Luke is like a father to me. I didn't want to hurt him, but it's true. I would rather have Luke in our family than Dad. But I don't know what your heart wants. Just figure that out okay? Don't let Dad ruin this, unless you honestly want to be with him."

And with that bomb, she was gone. Leaving her mother in the biggest emotional shock, since, well, probably since she found out she was pregnant. She walked in a haze back into the living room, and without thinking, hit the play button on the answering machine, hoping maybe re-listening to Chris's message would help her clear things up.

And as she heard his voice again, all she could think about was Luke. About how Chris didn't hold a candle to Luke in every aspect. About how Rory wanted her with Luke. Not that Rory had always bee the reason for her wanting to be with Chris, she wasn't saying that. But it had always been there, the hope that they could be a family. But Rory wanted Luke for their family, not Chris. And dammit, so did she.

Now what was she going to tell Chris?

Unfortunately for her, she wouldn't have much time to mull that over.

Tee Bee Cee.