Disclaimer: It still applies—I still don't own it.

"July twenty-third."

Luke looked at Lorelai in confusion. "What?"

"July twenty-third." Lorelai repeated.

"What about July twenty-third?"

Lorelai grinned at him from the stairway: "Let's get married on July twenty-third."

Luke stared at her incredulously. "Do you mean it?" He didn't want to raise his hopes. "You really want to set a date?"

"Yes. I want to marry you on July twenty-third."

Luke left his place from behind the counter and ran over to embrace her. He kissed her happily, then pulled back and looked into her eyes, seeing her own happiness shining there.

"You know that means this is really happening, right? You can't back out now."

Lorelai nodded her head vigorously. "There will be no backing out, mister. I promise. I'm all in."

"Me too." Luke breathed softly, before pulling her in for another kiss.

Rory crept silently down the stairs from the apartment, and slipped a note into her mother's purse before leaving the diner. The note said that she would meet her mom at home, so they could finalize their plans. Right now, she thought, Luke and Lorelai needed some time together, where they could finally be completely happy. She knew that with her and her mom fighting, they would not be able to fully concentrate on their upcoming marriage. Out of all the problems she had caused lately, that was the one she regretted the most. Luke and her mother deserved to be happy together.

---

"Rory!" Lorelai called as she entered the house, loving the feeling she got from actually expecting an answer.

"I'm in the kitchen."

Lorelai sat down at the table, setting down two of Luke's to-go cups of coffee, one in front of Rory and one in front of herself.

"So," she began tentatively, afraid that maybe this wasn't real, or that her daughter had changed her mind. "This is definitely going to happen, right? You going to school, I mean."

"This is definitely going to happen." Rory nodded.

Lorelai smiled again. "So, you can't go back to Yale, right?"

"No, I definitely ruined that. My plan is to take classes at a community college here for this year, and I'll try reapplying to Yale for next year, and other schools too, in case Yale doesn't take me back."

"Right," Lorelai agreed, glad to have her little genius back. "We just might have to settle for Harvard or Princeton."

Rory laughed, pleased at how easily her mom and she had slipped back into their old ways. It was great to have her best friend back. Oh god! Lane! She'll be so upset I haven't told her anything about this yet!

"Mom, I need to go see Lane."

"Oh, of course! I really should be heading back to the inn anyway. If I keep not showing up like this, my boss might fire me."

"You are your boss."

"Yes, well, Sookie might withhold my coffee!"

"Then you'll just go to Luke's."

"Yes, his is better anyway."

"Plus you can't make out with Sookie."

"Well, I could, but Jackson might get a little upset." Lorelai joked as she watched Rory head out the door, satisfied with the knowledge that she would be coming back. Suddenly, she got an idea for a great surprise for Rory. Pulling out her cell phone, she called Sookie and explained the situation and why she wouldn't be coming in for the rest of the day. Then she hopped into her car and drove off down the road and out of Stars Hollow.

---

Ding-dong

The door opened and Lane's face broke into a grin when she saw who was standing on her doorstep.

"Rory!"

"Hi Lane." Rory followed Lane inside and into her bedroom where they could have a private conversation away from the boys playing some video game in the living room. "Hi Brian, hi Zach." Rory acknowledged them as she passed, but received no response.

"Don't bother talking to them when they're like that. You will get nowhere—believe me, I've tried." Lane led Rory over to her bed and waited patiently for her to speak. She knew that Rory had something big to share, or else she would have just called.

"I'm going back to school."

"Really?"

"And I'm moving back here."

"Really?"

"And my mom and I made up."

"Well, that doesn't surprise me at all."

"It doesn't?" Rory was the one who was surprised. "I mean, this was a pretty big fight."

"Well, you had to have a big fight with her, it's only fair."

"What?"

"You two had the greatest relationship for so long. It was freakish. Mothers and daughters are not supposed to be friends. This was nature's way of balancing things. Now that you've got this big fight out of the way, things between you can go back to normal. Well—your normal."

Rory smiled at her friend's outlook on life. "Yeah, I guess your right." Their conversation was interrupted when music started playing from the foot of the bed. Lane picked up Rory's bag and handed it to her.

"Your purse is ringing."

"Thanks." Rory pulled her cell phone out and answered without bothering to check who it was.

"Hello?"

"Hey Ace." Logan's voice came through. "Where are you?"

"I am in Stars Hollow."

"You're… but I thought…"

"Yeah, my mom and I made up."

"Oh, that's great!"

"And, I'm going to go to school."

"Oh…"

"What's with the 'oh'?" Rory was lost as to why he wasn't excited about this.

"Nothing, it was just kind of cool dating a drop-out."

Rory rolled her eyes at her boyfriend's immaturity.

"Sorry to disappoint."

"Why don't you make it up to me by letting me take you out to dinner tonight."

"Sounds like a plan."

"Cool, so, I'll pick you up around five?"

"Okay, um… I'll probably be at Luke's diner. It's right in the middle of the town. You can't miss it. And don't be thrown by the Hardware sign."

Logan didn't question her, he was used to the oddities of her town, as they came up so often in conversation.

"I'll see you then, Ace."

"Bye."

---

"Lorelai!"

"Hi mom." Lorelai pushed past her mother and into the foyer, wanting to be inside before the questioning began.

"Well, this is a surprise." Emily Gilmore smiled at her, as though all of their issues were conveniently on vacation. "What are you doing here."

Lorelai didn't want to talk to her mother at all, but since she had to, she would just try to keep the talking as minimal as possible.

"I'm here to pick up Rory's stuff."

"What stuff?"

"All of it."

"What do you mean? What's going on, Lorelai? Why do you always have to be so mysterious?"

"I'm not being mysterious, mom. I'm here to pack up Rory's things and take them home with me."

"Why on earth would you do that? You kicked her out of your house, and now you're not going to let her have her own things? Is she just supposed to buy all new things?"

"No mom, she's not. Rory's coming home."

"What?" Emily couldn't conceal her disappointment.

"Yeah… She's coming home, so I'm going to need to bring her stuff back with me."

Lorelai was sick of this circular conversation. She went back out to her car, pulled out all of the cardboard boxes she had brought, and headed into the pool house to pack up her daughter's things.

---

Rory was sitting at a table in the back of Luke's diner, sipping her third cup of coffee. Normally, Luke would have cut her off at two, and she figured that she must have looked pretty pathetic for him to have given her another, no questions asked. She looked at her watch again. 5:45. She was just about to get up and leave, when the bells above the door made her look up, and she saw Logan enter the diner. Finally.

"Logan." She called, walking over to meet him. "Your forty-five minutes late!"

"I said I'd pick you up around five. This is around five."

Rory sighed, but followed him out to his car. He opened the door for her, and soon they were speeding off to who-knows-where.

Sitting next to him as he talked on and on about his latest escapade with Finn and the guys, Rory began to tune him out, and think about their relationship. Lately, things had been pretty shaky with them. He didn't seem as interested in her as he used to be, and she was starting to get a little tired of the way he acted sometimes, like when he picked her up tonight. If he had just apologized, I'd be fine. Or he could have at least acknowledged that he was late, instead of expecting me to just wait around for him.

They ended up at a nice restaurant, and the evening quickly got better. Rory was actually having a pretty good time, and she decided that she was just being silly before when she doubted them. She explained what happened with his dad, and he sympathized with her, and even trashed his dad a bit. It made her feel a lot better to know that he was on her side.

About an hour into dinner, though, all her doubts came back. He had left his cell phone on the table, because he said that he was expecting a call. While he was in the bathroom, it did ring, and Rory, acting on instinct answered.

"Hello?"

"Oh, sorry, wrong number." Some girl said from the other side.

Rory hung up the phone and placed it back on the table, when it suddenly rang again.

"Hello?"

"Um…" the same voice came through again. "Maybe this isn't the wrong number. Is this Logan Huntzberger's phone?"

"Yes, is this his sister?"

"No, this is Cindy… who are you?"

"I'm Rory Gilmore, his girlfriend."

"Oh, god. I am so sorry. He didn't tell me he had a girlfriend."

"What? What do you—" Rory stopped mid-sentence, hearing that the girl had hung up. What was that about? Is he… could he be?

At that moment, Logan came back to the table.

"I'm back, did you miss me?" He grinned at her.

"Who's Cindy?" Logan's grin dropped off of his face immediately.

"How did you—?" Rory handed him his cell phone before he could even finish the sentence. Before he could say a word she got up and walked calmly out of the restaurant. Logan reached into his wallet and placed on the table more than enough to cover the dinner before chasing after her. He didn't have to run very far, as Rory was waiting next to his car. She just looked up at him sadly for a moment, before whispering, "Take me home, Logan."

They drove in silence for about twenty minutes: Rory not wanting to talk to him, and Logan not wanting to push her. Eventually, Rory couldn't handle the silence anymore.

"How long?"

"What?" Logan pretended not to know what she meant.

"How long, Logan?" He sighed in defeat.

"A month. Cindy was the third."

"One-night stands?"

"Yeah."

"Well, I guess she didn't know that."

"I don't know how she got my number!"

"And that makes it okay?"

"No! No. I just—"

"You just what, Logan?"

"Look," Logan was beginning to get frustrated at the way she was making him feel so guilty. "I told you I wasn't a 'boyfriend' kind of guy. That I don't really do the whole 'exclusive dating' thing. I told you that."

"You said you would do it for me, Logan. You promised."

"Well… I tried. I tired, and I wasn't very successful."

"Clearly."

They didn't talk anymore for the rest of the ride. He pulled up in front of her house, and got out to open the door for her. He had been raised to be a gentleman, after all.

"So I guess this is it." He said as she walked away from him.

"Yeah, I guess so."

She placed her key into the lock, glad that she had been unable to bring herself to throw it away. She was amazed at how she felt right now… at the fact that she wasn't really that upset. She was upset that he cheated on her, and she was angry at him for doing so… but she wasn't really upset about breaking up with him. I think I only stayed with him because too much was changing. I just needed something normal to hold on to.

She walked into her house to find her mom standing in the middle of the living room, staring at her in anticipation with a silly grin on her face.

"Mom? Are you okay?"

"I have a surprise for you."

"Um, okay." Rory followed her mother, not sure what to think. She followed her into the kitchen and to her bedroom door, where they came to a stop. She looked at her mother, now totally confused. "Wow, a door… but I'm pretty sure this has always been here mom."

"Open it."

Rory opened the door and stepped into her room. At first, she was just as confused as ever, not getting what the surprise was, but as she continued to look around, she understood.

"My stuff! It's all here." She turned around and gave Lorelai a big hug. "Mom, when did you do this?"

"This is what I spent all day doing."

Rory hugged her mom again. "Oh mom, I love you. I missed you so much."

"I missed you too."

Rory went over and lay down in her bed, and her mother followed. They lay there together looking at the ceiling, basking in the fact that they were together.

"Welcome home." Lorelai whispered into Rory's hair.

Rory smiled at her. "There's no place like it."

A/N: Wow, I was wrong. Another fast update. I don't think it will happen again soon, though, I've got a lot of tests coming up.

And by the way, this was eight pages long on Microsoft word. That may not seem like much, but you should know that's a record for me. The previous chapter was four pages and the prologue was one and a half. My record is five pages. I'm pleased, and I hope this isn't a one-time thing.

Also, I hope I didn't do a sucky job with the Logan thing. I needed to get them apart, because they shouldn't be together… but I don't hate Logan, I just don't like him as much has other people, so it was hard to do.