A/N: Thanks to all reviews they make my days a lot better! I really like to know what you've been thinking, please feel free to share your thoughts on my story.

I want to thank the best betas in the whole entire universe: MrsDionysiusOGall and OzDust !

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Chapter 4 - Shopping buddies and sandbagged eyes.

NEXT DAY- 2 DAYS UNTIL THE REUNION

Luke observed a very tired-looking Lorelai drag herself to the closest table; she had her hair up in a loose ponytail and wore glasses (mainly to hide the dark circles under her eyes; she was so exhausted, her vision remained foggy either way). She dropped her head on the table, leaving her purse on her lap.

"Coffee?" Luke asked the un-Lorelai-like Lorelai sitting in front of him.

"Mmmm…" Her head rose, sniffing the air from that coffee goodness aroma coming from a cup, a cup that Luke had recently put in front of her. "You…" She took her first gulp. "Are…" Second. "My…" Third. "Hero!" She smiled up at him.

"Yeah, yeah, just don't sue me when you die at a young age…"

He waited a second for a witty comeback, but it never came.

"Lorelai, are you ok?" He sounded worried, and he truly was; Lorelai had dropped her head on one arm, again; and was trying to drink her coffee while in that position (need I say it wasn't working?).

She noticed that Luke was still standing next to her; had he just asked her something? She hadn't heard anything. She turned her face, still not removing it from her arm; in a way, she could see him entirely, not just his feet like she saw from her previous position. She saw Luke looking at her expectantly; yep, he had definitely asked her something…

"What did you say?" she said, looking up at Luke's face, her head still firmly resting on her arm.

"Are you ok? You don't look so good…" He saw her flinch at his comment. "I mean, you look …" He was trying to think of the right thing to say; he didn't want to piss off a tired Lorelai.

"Yeah, well, every vain cell in my body is too tired to care." She finally gave up drinking her coffee with her head down on her arm, and straightened up to take a big gulp. "Besides I had to work last night… Dotty called me at eleven last night to change a few things at the reunion, two days before it happens, two days! She had months! I would have had months, now she wants to change it, NOW!" Lorelai began to get exasperated. Luke reacted the only way he knew how: he filled her mug again. "Thanks, and keep ´em coming!" She gave him a tired smile, took off her glasses and tried to rub the tiredness out of her eyes. It didn't work…

"How about a doughnut?" Luke asked sympathetically.

Lorelai immediately stopped rubbing her eyes, gave him another smile and a nod; that made him hurry up to grab her doughnut.

She immediately took a bite of her doughnut. Who knew she was hungry? How could Luke have known if even she didn't? She had put her glasses back on, noticing the time: 8 A.M. She had only slept four hours… no wonder she was feeling sooo tired… She had given the morning off to everybody on the staff who had helped her out last night/morning; but she was the boss, and the boss couldn't take the morning off…Being the boss didn't sound so appealing in these kind of situations…

Luke saw that she had already finished the doughnut--any normal person would have taken at least double the time to eat it; so he brought her a new one; because, also different from any normal person, she could eat them like there was no tomorrow.

"It's amazing how this kinda junk makes you happy; it's almost like you're more awake now," he observed.

"Oh it's not the doughnut, it's all in the magic of coffee, baby!" Although she seemed more awake, she wasn't up to full speed yet…

"They must have made quite a few changes on the reunion thing…I mean they were able to achieve something I've been trying to do for years." That got Lorelai's attention. "They made you quiet! That is a very hard thing to do…"

"Yeah, they wore me out… and not in a good way either…" She took an awfully long gulp of wonderful coffee, but she was still moving in slow motion, for Gilmore standards, that is.

"I can see…" Luke chuckled, amused by the effects of tiredness on her; she looked at him in disbelief.

"Don't insult my tired appearance! It's not fair when I'm too tired to actually care…" She tried not to smile at the image of her grumpy friend chuckling at her. "And I could have slept another hour if Lilly hadn't decided to call and chat…" She snorted. "She felt the sudden urge to chat with me at seven A.M.! After I spent the whole night working because of her! It almost makes me miss the clean-freak couple…"

"Who?" Luke was totally lost by now; how women had the ability to understand each other was still a great mystery to him.

"Never mind." She smiled at his 'I sooo don't know what you're talking about' face. "And you know why she wanted to chat at 7A.M.?" She was feeling almost in awake mode now.

"Should I try to answer?" He felt defeated; what the hell was she talking about…

She ignored his question and went on with her explanation.

"She wanted to remind me to dress properly at the reunion!" She dropped both hands on the counter in indignation. "Like I don't know THAT! I've been doing these things for years. Who does she think I am? Who does she think she is? I swear, if I could somehow kill her…and get away with it!" She took a deep breath, trying to calm herself down. "And you know why she HAD to remind me to dress properly?" she said in a voice mocking Lilly.

"I'm not supposed to answer that either…right?" Luke was not very good with rhetorical questions…

"Riiight!" Oops, she sounded mad at him; so Luke, wise man that he is, decided to refill her empty mug. He knew that would distract her enough to forget about the interruption.

She drank her coffee while hot, forgetting his rude interruption, but not forgetting that she was in the middle of a rant.

"She just HAD to wake me up to gimme this useful piece of advice cuz the other day, when she came to my house without warning, I might add, I was wearing my hot momma t-shirt with my juicy pants. Now, I thought that was an excellent combo, I mean it's not every t-shirt that goes with those pants…they are extremely picky, and sometimes they fight if I wear it with conservative shirts…" She paused to check if he was getting her point, which, of course, he wasn't.

"Yeah, it happens with me too." Luke answered sarcastically.

"So just cuz she went to my house unannounced and saw me in that outfit, she's scared I'll ruin the entire reunion with scandalous clothes!" She finished with a snort of disbelief.

"Does she really think you would wear that to an event at the Inn?" He couldn't believe this woman either.

"Hey I'm the wild child that got pregnant at 16, anything's possible…" She had calmed down.

"I don't like her…" He really didn't. How could someone just assume the worst of people based on one fact…you know what they say about people who assume…

"Wait 'til you meet her in person…" Lorelai answered unexcitedly, and then pointed at her empty mug, hoping he would pick up the ´subtle meaning of her gesture.

"Can't wait…" He turned around, ignoring her; he had noticed her gesture (of course) and there was no way she was drinking any more coffee…not from him, anyways. And in spite of what Lorelai thought, he still had other clients to serve. And since he still had the coffee pot in hand (ok, half a pot) he decided to go around the diner to see who needed a refill, besides Lorelai that is.

"Luuuuuke!" She sing-songed his name while he tried his best to ignore her. "Luuukey!" She tried again with no success; he suddenly found the other side of the diner sooo interesting…

"Don't pretend you didn't hear me!" Luke proceeded on his rounds, coffee pot in hand. "Your hearing was fine 'til a minute ago!" She was louder than she intended, of course, she blamed it all on her frustration with him ignoring her; and when he continued doing so, she decided she had to try a different approach…

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Luke saw Lorelai stand up from her chair, and for once, he thought he had won; she was leaving without drinking any more coffee just like he wanted, for once. But when she didn't pick up her purse or jacket, he realized she was probably coming to yell at him for ignoring her. But then she walked right past him through the curtains and up to his apartment (he could hear her angry steps on the stairs). What was she going to do now? He soon followed her, after telling Caesar to take care of the diner; he was not about to leave a crazy woman in his apartment, alone.

He entered his home and looked directly into the kitchen; he was certain Lorelai was going to be fussing with his coffeemaker, but found nothing, no Lorelai there. Then he heard some noise coming from the… oh no!

"Lorelai, what are you doing in my bedroom?" He stepped into his bedroom; almost all his flannels were on over his bed, and in front of his open closet, Lorelai was with a hanger in hand, obviously surprised by his presence.

"Jeez, almost gave me a stroke!" She put her hand over her heart, which was beating a mile a minute; then she turned around and threw the hanger she was holding on top of the others on Luke's bed.

"Are you sure that's not your artery-clogging-breakfast's fault?" He moved closer to take a better look at what she was doing, still not understanding. Lorelai had already moved back to her doings.

"Lorelai?" He tried to get her attention.

"Huh?" She didn't turn, still occupied shuffling through Luke's closet.

"What are you doing going through all my stuff?" He let a thin vestige of anger rise on his voice; he was obviously losing patience…

"Well…" She turned around, carefully examining a navy blue sweater she had just picked out from his closet. "I was sitting downstairs thinking about what I'm gonna wear this weekend. I was doing a pre-selection in my mind to make it easier to choose when the day comes, ya know, what's proper enough." She started playing with the soft fabric of Luke's sweater. "And then it occurred to me… What is Luke gonna wear to this thing? Is it appropriate? Is it flannel? So I decided to ask, but you kept ignoring me…" She pouted a little, making Luke smile (slightly, of course…). "So when you didn't answer my pleading, I just decided to see for myself." She finished, still holding the same sweater.

After a couple of seconds of his not saying anything, she thought that maybe she hadn't been clear enough.

"And that's what I'm doing…here," she pointed at the wood floor, "…in your apartment. I'm selecting viable options for the weekend; so far, I've only found this sweater." She showed him the one she'd been holding and threw it over her shoulder.

"Lorelai, I know how to dress myself." He was on the edge of being mad at her; who did she think she was barging into his apartment like that? And going through all his things…that stuff was private…and now she wanted to show him how he should dress…who died and made her the boss of me?

"I know Luke, you're just a little repetitive." She pointed at the big pile of flannel on the bed, but before he could say anything, she continued. "It's just that this reunion's pretty important to me, it's like my second chance with these people, you know?" She looked at him meaningfully. "They all just think I'm worth nothing cuz I got pregnant at the wrong time, and I can finally prove them wrong by showing them how much better I have it now!"

"You don't have to prove anything to these people." He sat on the small space left on his bed.

"I know…" She sat next to him. "But I want to."

"Ok, but what does my clothing have to do with anything?"

"You're part of the new me! You're coming with me and we're gonna kick ass!" she explained excitedly.

"Then go through my closet, pick whatever you want." He noticed the sudden glow in her eyes. "Let me say that again, pick whatever you think is right for the weekend." She smiled broadly at that. "Just put everything back where you found it!"

She pouted.

"Yes, mom!"

He rolled his eyes at her response.

"I'll be downstairs if you need me." Luke stood up and left her to do her thing.

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1 HOUR LATER

"That's it, I give up!" Lorelai entered the diner through the curtains and sat at the stool in front of Luke; there were now two pants and one new sweater to keep company with the navy one, all on her shoulder. "Gimme some coffee, presto!"

He looked at her in disbelief.

"Why are my clothes on your shoulder?" he asked while he quickly filled a mug and handed it to her.

"Cuz that's all there is!" she exclaimed, exasperated. "These are the only outfits you own that are not flannel, or too casual, or too chillin´ at home, or pjs!"

"You went through my pjs too?"

"Of course not; I wasn't looking for sleepwear, was I? Besides, I sooo don't wanna know what you wear when you sleep; I'll be disappointed if it's not flannel…" She smiled knowingly.

"So sue me, I have a lot of flannel!" he said, annoyed by her constant bugging. She laughed at his reaction, but didn't forget her point.

"Luke, are you free this afternoon?" She certainly made him forget about thinking about how mad he was at her.

"Why?"

"We have to go do some shopping for you! The reunion is in two days and you don't have anything to wear. Now I could just send you on your own, but I don't trust you; or I could call Rory to help, cuz I know today's a slow day for her, but I figured that would be kinda weird for you two."

He agreed.

"So that leaves us with, well, us, me and you going to the mall this afternoon to fix this fashion crisis! So, what do you think? Can you do it?" She looked at him hopefully, using her best puppy-dog eyes.

He hated going to the mall, and he could not imagine what a crazy thing it would be to go to the mall with a Gilmore girl…But she did make it sound like something really important to her so maybe he could give in this once, for a friend…

"Yeah, I can go." She smiled at his positive answer. "As long as you don't call it a fashion crisis!" He flinched at what he had just been obliged to repeat, men didn't have fashion crises…

"'K, I'll call it something else! How about a clothing contigency? Is that more manly?" She smiled innocently.

"Lorelai…" He said warningly.

"Yeah, yeah…I'll come back at four; be prepared… Have your credit card in hand!" she said before she left the diner and went to the Inn.

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Luke looked at his watch: 4:30 P.M.

He had gone up to his apartment at 3:00, taken a shower, changed into some clean clothes (ones that didn't smell like coffee and burgers). He then went back downstairs and decided to work while Lorelai didn't arrive. At 4:00, Caesar reminded him that Lorelai should've been at the diner by now. At 4:15, Caesar told him to chill and that he looked nervous (What? He wasn't nervous, of course, why would he be nervous?) And now, at 4:30, there he was, wiping the counter and smelling like burgers and coffee again. At 4:45, Hurricane Lorelai came in, dragging herself to a stool.

"Sorry, Luke. I'm late, couldn't leave sooner." She looked up at him.

"No big deal…" he answered nonchalantly. "Are you ready to go?" He could see the tiredness on her eyes. "I'll drive."

Was he anxious to go to the mall? They both asked themselves.

"Ok!" She stood up. "But we're taking the jeep." She handed him the keys and they left for the mall.

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FIVE HOURS LATER

"How can you like shopping? We just spent four hours walking around pointlessly and spending my money on things I'll use once! People are really rude, even competitive about items that are on sale; I mean, that woman almost choked me to get that shirt!" Luke continued the endless rant he had been giving Lorelai since they left the mall. He pushed the diner door open and entered it, arms full of bags.

"I though you liked walking…It's exercise you know…" Lorelai said, following him upstairs to drop the bags she was helping carry to his apartment.

"That was not exercise!" he said, leaving his bags on top of the coffee table, then went to the kitchen to grab a beer.

"You're right, it's more of a relaxation process…it's what's kept me out of therapy…" She left her bags with his and dramatically sat on the couch, took her shoes off and put her feet on top of the small table. She sighed with relief; there's nothing better than taking off your high-heeled shoes after a hard day at the mall…

"Want a beer?" Luke asked, holding the freezer door open.

"Just one, I still have work to do…" She caressed her temples; she felt exhausted…

"You should rest…" He handed her a beer after sitting next to her on the couch.

"Can't, too much to do, little time, must kill Gucci Nazis!" She was still caressing her temples; only now, she was using the cold bottle of beer to do so.

He observed her tiredness and tried to think of something to say that would convince her to slow down; nothing came to mind, just a big blank.

"You should sleep a couple of hours, recover your energy; when you wake, you'll be good to go." He tried to convince her it was for the best.

"That's not how it works with me." She opened her beer and took a big gulp. "I can't sleep for a couple of hours; when I sleep, I really sleep, you know? I need at least eight hours, or else I get cranky…" She pouted, then drank her cool, refreshingly nice beer.

"Well, if that's how you feel…" Luke gave up on convincing her; he should have known better than to try to convince a Gilmore into doing something they don't want to.

"Yep…" She realized her beer was finished; she couldn't remember beer bottles not lasting this long in the past…

"I don't wanna keep you from work," Luke said after noticing Lorelai observing her now empty bottle.

"Riiight…I should be going…" She stood up. "You know I had fun today." She smiled at her grumpy friend, who used all his will not to smile back, too broadly that is. "You'll be my new shopping buddy!" she exclaimed enthusiastically.

"Didn't you have to leave?" Luke certainly didn't like her idea; did he possess enough energy to become Lorelai's new shopping buddy? And the answer was no.

"Oh yeah…" Her shoulders dropped. "I don't wanna go…" She whined. "They're eeevil!" She whined some more.

"The sooner you go, the sooner you'll be able to go home and sleep." He tried to reason with her.

"Ooh, right. You have a point…I'm gone!" Lorelai said, then disappeared down the stairs and out the diner.

Luke smiled when she left, he had had fun today too; maybe he could handle a whole weekend of Lorelai.

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FRIDAY, D-DAY

So today was the day. It would all start today, the weekend from hell, a.k.a. her punishment for everything wrong she ever did. No one deserved to go through all of this trouble just to, in the end, see people they didn't wish to see. That and she was looking like crap too; yep, sleepless nights can do that to you; even beautiful people, like herself, were affected by mortal ills such as tiredness and dark circles under the eyes. But she had to recover by tonight, because there was no way she would be ugly TONIGHT, of all nights. She had to look her best if she wanted to show those gossip-y people that she had made it in life! Only the truth was: right now, she didn't feel like a success; she couldn't care less about success, and she wanted to kill the bastard who invented alarm clocks.

Lorelai sat at her desk, staring intensely at a piece of paper; the only problem was, she couldn't read it. Not in the "I never went to school, so I can't read" way; she couldn't read because she was too tired to have the incredible ability of focusing her vision on tiny details such as letters. She was suddenly startled by her obnoxiously loud cell phone.

"What?" she answered in a tone that would warn the caller about her not-so-good mood.

"Oh hello to you too, mommy dearest!"

"Oh, hi Rory…"

"So…I called to find out how the last-minute plans for the infamous reunion are going?"

"Arg…" Lorelai grunted in response; although it was a simple grunt, profound dislike could be heard.

"Oh oh, that bad, huh?"

"Yeah, they're trying to kill me; it's an attempt to murder me! I should report them!" Lorelai said, being the drama queen she was.

"Come on…it can't be that bad!" Rory said, letting a small chuckle escape; she knew her mom was probably overreacting…

"Guernica seemed like a nice dream compared to what they've put me through!"

"Wow, was there bombing too?" Rory decided to play along with her mom's crazy comparison; she seemed serious about it…better to help her get it all out before she decided she needed to have a breakdown in the middle of the reunion.

"Worse, they used a chemical mass destruction type-y weapon; I think I probably have some rare French-named disease right about now…" Although she was talking crazy, she did sound/feel sick…

"That IS bad. Why French?"

"It seemed appropriate…"

"I thought it would have to be a Spanish-named disease, with the Guernica and Picasso reference…"

"Oh, but French is sophisticated, and elite sophisticated people only get rare diseases that have French names!" Lorelai used a 'this is obvious' tone.

"Enlightening…"

"Thought so." Lorelai obviously didn't feel like talking…otherwise she would have been talking non-stop by now.

"So, besides the new French-named disease, was there any progress last night?"

"Yep, we're actually done with the whole thing, thank God…" She sighed in relief. "The ladies had to leave early last night, so we were able to actually work without the whole constructive criticism …I'm only working 'til lunchtime, then I have the entire afternoon off to beautify myself!"

"Right, cuz you have to kick ass tonight!" Rory said excitedly.

"Is that the lingo they teach at that fancy expensive school of yours? Seriously, I could have sent you to the ghetto instead!" Lorelai faked indignation.

"I'll just ignore your last comment…you should take advantage of your free time and get some sleep; that will help with the beautifying process too!"

"That was actually part of my plan! And believe me when I say: I can't wait!" She was still trying to focus her vision enough so she could read the paper in her hands, no such luck…She really needed to read that…

"Ok, so I'll let you get back to your work." Lorelai growled at that. "I know we've talked about it but…Are you sure you don't want me to come and help you tonight?" Rory was on the edge of begging here; she wanted to help her mom, and more importantly, she wanted her to have a good time.

"I've told you it's not necessary, I'm a mother, I'm trying to shield you from these people!"

"But I don't want you to overwork yourself just to hide from them! You should try to have a nice time…"

"That's very Rory of you, hon; but I don't need you here to be my buffer or just a distraction… Besides, I have Luke; I'm sure he won't want to be by himself in the middle of this cheery reunion, so he will probably be the one hiding behind me!" What had she done to deserve such an amazing kid?

"I had forgotten that Luke was going with you… Now I'm calm, I trust Luke; he'll take good care of my mommy." She used her sweet-little-girl voice.

"Mommy promises she'll be fine." Sometimes she wondered who the mom in this relationship was.

"'K, I'll call you tomorrow to find out how everything went! Break a leg mom!"

"Thanks kid, bye…"

"Bye!" Then she hung up.

After Rory's call, Lorelai still tried to get some work done, although that proved to be a nearly impossible task to achieve, especially while she was finding it so hard to keep her eyes open. That's when she decided to develop a new way of working, actually the only way that seemed to be working; she only kept one eye open. It felt easier to fight against just one sandbagged eye…But that only worked for a while, because before she knew it, she was fast asleep…

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