A FEW WEEKS LATER

"Lorelai, I'd like you to meet Charlie Hamrick. He's going to be helping us out for this incident."

"Oh, well, thank you. It's nice to finally put the face to the voice from the telephone. Oh, and this is Luke Danes." she says, shaking his hand and then gesturing to Luke, who stood beside her.

"Mr. Danes, I want to thank you for coming down here and agreeing to testify on Miss Gilmore's behalf."

Shaking his hand, he replies, "Well this Jason guy is a real jerk, and I would do just about anything for Lorelai."

"I'm going to call you to the stand first and ask you a few questions, and then his lawyer is going to ask you a few questions. You just have to be relaxed and tell him all that you remember. How does that sound?"

"Well, it sounds pretty good if we can do something to this guy."

"Luke, I'm going to have you up on the stand first after I present to him your neighbor's signed statement. Which, by the way, thank you for getting for me…I'm sorry that she couldn't be here today."

"Well, the gnomes can't wait."

"Pardon me?"

"She and her husband went to a garden show featuring different gnomes from around the world." she says, with the most serious face that Lorelai could ever make.

"That is why she couldn't make it?" he asks with a confused look on his face.

"Mr. Hamrick, while it sounds odd, you'd have to understand Stars Hallow to fully understand the importance of a good garden gnome to Babette." Luke chimes in, always willing to show the craziness of the town.

"I will take your word on that Mr. Danes"

LATER IN THE COURTROOM

"So, she came into the diner, and sat down at the counter?"

"Yes."

"Then what?"

"Well, she wasn't talking at all, which for Lorelai is a rare occurance. Finishing like half of her coffee, she stands up to leave and I knew that something was wrong."

"Why would you say that?"

"Lorelai has never left a half-full cup sitting at my diner unless there was something wrong. And the way she was carrying herself wasn't right."

"How do you mean?"

"She is the most confident woman that I've ever meant, standing tall, not letting anyone get her down. That night, she was slumped, and she couldn't even meet anyone's eye."

"So, you approached her?"

"Yeah, I put a hand on her shoulder as she was walking out, and she turned to me, finally meeting my eye, and starts to break down. So, I told my grill guy that I would be back, and I took her upstairs to my apartment above the diner."

"And what happened up there?"

"She told me what happened with Jason…" Luke starts the story that Lorelai told him, pausing a moment here or there while remembering how hurt she was when she told him what happened.

"And she left, but promised that she would call if she needed me."

"You're a good friend Mr. Danes."

"She's a wonderful woman, and she needed someone."

"Yes, she did. She called you that next morning, didn't she?"

"I got a call earlier in the morning from Lorelai telling me to come quickly and telling me that she needed me. I told my waitress to call the cops and proceeded to run over to Lorelai's to find out what was going on."

"What did you find when you got there?"

"Jason Stiles" he says through clenched teeth.

"What was he doing?"

"He was harassing her basically, telling her that she was making a big mistake, and that he should get another chance."

"Did you get physical with Mr. Stiles?"

"No, he tried to rush me, but the police came right then, so it never got physical."

"Thank you Mr. Danes, I appreciate you being here today." Charles says while sitting down once again.

The judge makes a small gesture to Jason's lawyer, telling him that the witness was now his.

"Mr. Danes, how long have you known Miss Gilmore?" he asks for his first question.

"Nearly eight years."

"You come from a small community, am I correct?"

"Stars Hallow is quaint, yes."

"Does Miss Gilmore have many friends?"

"Everyone gets along with Lorelai… except for Taylor, but he doesn't get along with anyone."

"So, answer this Mr. Danes… why did Miss Gilmore choose to come to you that evening?"

"Lorelai and I have been friends for a long time, and she knows that I will always look out for her."

"So, it wasn't because you were romantically involved."

"No."

"Mr. Danes, you forgot one part of this small equation."

"And what is that?"

"Are you involved with Miss Gilmore?"

"By involved you mean, am I seeing her?"

"Yes."

"Then, yes, she and I are dating."

"So you were the cause of the separation of my client and Miss Gilmore."

"No."

"Well, you're dating aren't you?"

"Yes."

"How long have you been "together"" he says, allowing his fingers to make airquotes as he talks to his witness.

"Since the morning that jerk came to Lorelai's harassing her." he says angrily, pointing in Jason's direction.

"Now now, Mr. Danes, you are under oath. Were you and Miss Gilmore involved while she and Mr. Stiles were dating?"

"No, we were not."

The lawyer appears flustered then, turning to Jason with a questioning look in his eye.

"Had you ever met Mr. Stiles before that day, Mr. Danes?"

"No, I had not."

"According to both Miss Gilmore and Mr. Stiles, they dated for quite sometime… nearly half a year, and you never met him?"

"No."

"Being in such close acquaintance with Miss Gilmore, that seems a bit odd to me. Are you sure you never met Mr. Stiles before this?"

"Lorelai and I have always kept our relationships out of our relationship. We don't really talk about dating or other romantic involvements, so I hadn't heard much about this Jason guy."

"What had you heard, Mr. Danes?"

"She told me that she was seeing some guy, actually, I was the one who figured out that she was seeing someone, she didn't really tell me."

"How did you "figure it out"?"

"She was always dressed up all that time, and I made a comment about that, and she admitted that she had been seeing someone."

"I see. Well, that is all Mr. Danes."

As the lawyer took a seat, you could see him get aggravated with Jason. Their plan to make Jason out as a good guy that would never do anything was foiled. The lawyer figured that if Lorelai had talked about how wonderful Jason was to Luke, then they could prove to the judge that it really was a strong, healthy relationship, and that he wouldn't have done anything like that to Lorelai.

After a short recess, they came back in and Jason was called to the stands. His lawyer stood up, and began his questioning, of course making Jason out to be a saint. Mr. Hamrick was determined to change that.

"Mr. Stiles, why did you and my client have a falling out?"

"I don't know. I thought that things were going great between us, and then she stopped returning my calls."

"According to Miss Gilmore, you are in a lawsuit against her father, is that correct?"

"Yes, I am."

"According to Miss Gilmore, she informed you that she did not want to be in a relationship with someone that was suing a member of her family. Is this true?"

"Yes, but it was never officially broken off."

"What do you mean by officially?"

"She walked out on me and stopped returning my phone calls. She didn't tell me flat out that she didn't want to be together any more." He says, his voice elevating in pitch.

"Mr. Stiles, you appear to be a bit upset, are you?"

"Upset that I never officially broke up with a woman and find out that she's dating someone else, yes."

"Did you call her often after the day that you told her you were suing her father?"

"I wouldn't say that often, but I did call her."

"Though it can't be proven after the fact, my client says that she turned her phone off because of your insistence."

"I wanted her back."

"Enough to go to her house."

"Yes."

"Enough to break into her house?"

"I didn't break into her house, I knew where the spare key was."

"Mr. Stiles, did Miss Gilmore know that you were going to be there?"

"No."

"Did you think that she would accept you being there?"

"It was the only way to get her to hear me!" he yelled.

As silence filled the courtroom, Charlie smiled. This was exactly the temper tantrum that he needed to show the judge.

"Mr. Stiles, before I let you go sit back down, I'd like to show you some pictures that Miss Gilmore's daughter took after the incident." He brings the pictures up to Jason, who dismisses them.

"I didn't do that, she did it herself."

"What hand do you write with Mr. Stiles?"

"My right."

"You can sit down Mr. Stiles." He says, and then submits the photos to the judge to examine.

The judge asks for a recess, saying that he didn't need to hear any more.

HOURS LATER

"Well, how do you feel?"

"I don't know exactly. I'm glad that he got punished, but sorry that it wasn't that horrible of a punishment."

"Oh, believe me, a man with that kind of pride and ego is certainly punished by having to pick up trash on the side of the highway. If his so-called reputation wasn't tarnished before now, it certainly will be." Richard says, with a smile on his face.

Lorelai laughs, and shakes Charlie's hand. As Luke and Charlie exchange thank yous and shake hands, Richard puts a hand on Lorelai's shoulder, guiding her away from the pair.

"Lorelai, I'm sorry for everything that happened."

"Dad, you can't possibly think that you had anything to do with this."

"Well, if all of that hadn't happened between Jason and I, then it wouldn't have caused all that tension between the two of you, so I apologize for that."

"While I think it's nice of you to apologize, there is no need."

Looking down, he starts to seem very uncomfortable, stepping into this unfamiliar territory with his daughter. "I don't know what I would have done if he would have done worse, Lorelai."

"But he didn't dad, he didn't." she says, looking up at him with watery eyes.

A bit awkwardly, he pulls his daughter into a hug, for once letting emotion get the best of him. Where did we go wrong with her? She turned into this wonderful woman, and I can't say that I helped her with any of it. "I'm proud of how you handled this, Lorelai." He says, giving her a last squeeze before separating.

"Thanks, dad."

Luke and Charlie had now made their way back over to Richard and Lorelai, Luke putting a hand out to bid Lorelai's father goodbye. "Mr. Gilmore, thank you for helping out with this."

"And thank you, Luke, for being here on my daughter's behalf."

"Always."

After goodbyes had been exchanged, Luke's hand found Lorelai's, and the two walked out hand in hand.

As they made their way down the courthouse steps, they saw a familiar face, making their way up to greet them.

"Mom…"

Random… Seriously. This is by far the worst chapter, but I needed to get the court part out of the way, and I wanted to rub it in Jason's face again that he was a jerk. Anyways… I promise that the next one will be better. I'm working on my other fics at the same time, so my brain is kinda going crazy at like fifty thousand miles an hour. Also, for those of you that haven't checked it out, you need to all subscribe to the Gilmore Girls Podcast! Go to for more info, but I found it and I love it! The people that run it are cool, so check it out. Before that, though… please review if you feel like it!