"Do you think they're both still alive in there?" Lorelai asked Luke.

"Well the yelling stopped." Luke pointed out.

"Do you think she canned him with the beans?" Lorelai inquired.

"I doubt it. But that's probably not a good thing to mention in front of Libby."

"Mama." Libby babbled.

"Your Mommy will be back as soon as she's finished yelling at your Daddy for being an idiot and not knowing how a telephone works." Lorelai informed Libby.

"I think your grandmother needs coffee." Luke added.

"I'm still waiting." Lorelai pointed out.

"It takes time for the pot to heat up." Luke reminded her.

"Bla bla bla ba." Libby pointed.

"What is it hun?" Lorelai turned to look where Libby was pointing. "Luke you have a popsicle on your doorstep."

"What?"

"Kirk."

"Great." Luke muttered. "We're not open yet Kirk." Luke informed him.

"But Lorelai is here."

"Lorelai is visiting her granddaughter." Luke replied. "We'll be open in half an hour." Luke closed the door.

Lorelai saw Kirk look a little lost before he sat down on the door step to wait.

"Luke."

"What? He told the whole town I was having a sex change."

"Luke it's freezing out there." Lorelai picked Libby off of her lap and carried her to the door and open it. "Kirk come in, you can't order anything but it's too cold to wait out there."

"Thank you." Kirk took a seat in the corner out of Luke's way rather than his favourite table.

"You just had to didn't you?" Luke scowled.

"Yes. I'm teaching Libby to not be like my mother."

"Your mother leaves people out in the cold…" Luke heard what he just said. "Never mind."

Luke had just put her coffee cup on the table when Jess came out of the store room and headed straight upstairs. Rory came back into the diner a minute or so later, her eyes a little red from where she had been crying.

"Are you okay hun?" Lorelai asked.

"I'm fine. Jess went to take a shower, he's freezing." She noticed Kirk. "Hey Kirk."

"I'm not really here."

"Good to know." Rory replied. "Do you want to bring your coffee upstairs?"

"Okay. Do you want to take the coffee or the baby?"

"Baby." Rory took Libby from her. "Hey Luke?"

"Yes Rory?"

"Don't let Liz kidnap him again."

"I'll try not to."

"So what happened?" Lorelai inquired when they were sat on the bed.

"Liz decided she wanted Jess's help buying Libby a birthday present and dragged him to New York."

"It took fifteen hours to go to New York?" Lorelai questioned.

"She ran out of gas halfway back. The only place near was a bar where the phone wasn't working, so she proceeded to get him drunk."

"Jess isn't twenty-one yet."

"Not for another six weeks." Rory confirmed.

"How did they get back?"

"They were thrown out at closing time and Liz managed to get some one to drop them a few miles outside of town so they had to hike back. She's going to get TJ to drive her back to get her truck later."

"He couldn't call you?" Lorelai asked.

"He didn't have any money."

"This is where keeping money in your shoe comes in useful." Lorelai stated. "Or your pockets."

"I know."

"Do you want me to watch her for a while while you get some more sleep?" Lorelai offered.

"That would be good." Rory agreed yawning.

"But I'll just stay here for a while." Lorelai said.

When Jess left the bathroom dressed fifteen minutes later, Rory and Lorelai were asleep on the bed. Libby was sat on the bed in between them playing with a toy.

"Come to Daddy Lib." Jess requested. Libby crawled over to him. "Let's go downstairs so we don't wake Mommy and Grandma."

TBC