Chapter 3

"This is your new home, Izzy," Lorelai said as she walked through the front door, holding her daughter.

"Wow, it's so big," Isabelle said, looking around with wide eyes. "Where do I sleep?"

"Well, right now, you're going to have to sleep with me in my room, but it's only for a little bit. You'll have your own space soon."

"I get to sleep with you?" Isabelle asked, with a bright smile on her face.

"Yes, you do. But don't worry. Your own room is on its way."

"Why would I worry? I want to sleep with you."

"Well, we'll worry about that later. Right now, let's eat," Lorelai said, setting Isabelle down in a chair at the table. Just as Lorelai sat down too, Rory burst through the door with at least 3 different bags in each hand.

"Thanks for all the help, guys," she said sarcastically as she slumped into a chair at the kitchen table with her mother and sister.

"Anytime," Lorelai replied as she took a big bite of her burger. "We'll be glad to help bring in the rest of the stuff after we save ourselves from potential starvation."

"Oh yeah, you sure look like you're withering away to nothing over there," Rory replied, rolling her eyes. Isabelle just sat at the table, quietly eating and giggling at her oh so amusing family. She was very happy to be home with them.

"So, Izzy, what's your favorite movie? I figured we could have a movie night tonight," Lorelai said as she stuffed two or three fries into her mouth.

"Movie night?" Isabelle asked, confused.

"We watch tons of movies and eat lots of junk food," Rory told her proudly.

"And Mommy doesn't yell at you for eating so much sugar right before bed?" Isabelle asked, perplexed.

"No. Actually, she encourages it."

"Encourages?" Isabelle struggled to get out.

"It means she likes it. She wants us to eat all the sugar."

"Whoa," Isabelle said, slumping back in her chair.

"So? Any movies you'd like to watch?" Lorelai asked with a smile. There were so many things she had to teach her youngest daughter.

"Um… Willy Wonka! I love that movie!" Isabelle stated, shooting up in her chair, with big eyes.

"Oh, great. Now I have no shot whatsoever at being the favorite daughter," Rory said, feigning defeat.

"Huh?"

"Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory is my favorite movie too!" Lorelai said, sticking her palm out to Isabelle for a high five. Isabelle gladly smacked her hand, happy to be brought into the mix.

"I love the Oompa Loompas," Isabelle stated, taking a sip of the apple juice Luke gave to Lorelai, especially for Izzy.

"Great. Now I look like Hitler compared to you," Rory said to her sister.

"Really? I'm going to marry one some day, y'know," Lorelai said, matter-of-factly.

"Cool!" Isabelle shouted.

Their conversation went on like this for the rest of their meal and throughout the rest of the day. It was like things had never been different. They all loved each other more than anything else in the world. Lorelai was beaming. Ever since Isabelle was born, all she wanted was for her to come home and be apart of the family she and Rory had. Now that it was here, it couldn't be more perfect.

At about 7:30, the girls were sitting on the couch, after bringing in all of Izzy's stuff and the stuff Rory and Lorelai had bought for her earlier in the day. They were exhausted.

"I wish Luke would hurry up with our food," Lorelai said. Right on cue, there was a knock at the door. After sharing a look with Rory at the odd moment, she got up and opened the door. On the other side stood Luke, holding two boxes of pizza and a mystery bag.

"Luke, you didn't have to get pizza. Burgers would've been just fine," Lorelai said, leading Luke into the kitchen.

"Well, that's what you had for lunch, so I figured you wouldn't want it again. It's no problem, really." For some reason, Luke seemed a bit nervous to Lorelai.

"Luke, are you okay?" she asked, as she pulled out a chair and motioned for him to sit down.

Taking a seat, Luke said, "Yeah, yeah… I'm fine. Couldn't be better, as a matter of fact."

"Well, good." Lorelai stood above the table and opened the mystery bag that sat atop the pizza boxes. Inside was a gallon of rocky road ice cream. "Luke, you shouldn't have," Lorelai said, putting her hand to her chest. She was truly touched that Luke had thought of all this.

"It was nothing. I figured you girls would want to have one of your movie nights and you can never have enough ice cream for one of those. At least, that's what you say, anyway."

"Well, it's true."

"And I knew you and Rory both love Rocky Road, so I figured she would, too. If she doesn't, I could go get what she likes, or-"

"No, Luke, you've done enough. Let me go get something to pay you back with."

Lorelai started walking towards the living room to get her purse when Luke got up to follow her. "No, Lorelai, this was just a favor for you guys. I'm not taking anything," he said, as they entered the living room, where Rory and Isabelle were still sitting on the couch together.

Lorelai stood next to Isabelle and was about to protest not giving Luke anything in return for his blatant chivalry, when Isabelle tugged on her sleeve, pulling her down to Isabelle's level.

"Mommy, who's that?" she whispered in her mother's ear.

Lorelai stood back up and smiled. "Oh, that's Luke. He brought us some dinner." She turned towards Luke. "Luke, this is Isabelle."

Luke just smiled awkwardly. He was never good around kids. There was just something about their jam hands that gave him the creeps.

"Hi, Luke," Isabelle said, as she smiled from ear to ear. "You can call me Izzy if you want."

"Um, okay. Hi, Izzy."

Lorelai just smiled at Luke. He was trying hard. She could tell. She turned back to Rory and Isabelle. "There's pizza in the kitchen if you want some." At this, Rory shot up and headed straight for the kitchen, making sure to thank Luke as she passed him.

Isabelle got up off the couch too, but went straight for Luke, and grabbed his hand. Hm, no jam hands, he thought. She said, "Come on, Luke! Let's go get some pizza!" She dragged him off to the kitchen with her.

"Oh, well, I-"

"Oh, come on, Luke. Stay for dinner," Lorelai said, as she trailed behind her daughters and Luke.

"Well… okay. I guess Ceasar can manage without me for a little while. But I can only stay for dinner. No movies or ice cream."

"Like you would eat the ice cream anyway," Lorelai said, sarcastically.

"And die young? I don't think so."

They ate together, just as they had early in the day. Nothing was awkward, and nothing could be more perfect. Luke even had a conversation or two with Izzy. Afterwards, Luke bid the ladies farewell, and walked out the door, but not before receiving a hug from Isabelle, and not before Lorelai could slip a few bills in his back pocket without him noticing.

At around 9, when Willy Wonka had just sent the chocolate bar across the room by television, another knock came at the front door.

"I wonder who that could be? Maybe Luke found the money I slipped in his back pocket." Lorelai stood up to go answer the door, holding Isabelle, because she had fallen asleep minutes before. She thought it safe, because who would come to her house this late at night but Luke?

She swung open the door, not even looking to see who was there, and whispered, "Look, Luke, I'm not taking the money ba-" Just as she was about to finish her sentence, Lorelai looked up to see Babette standing before her, with eyes as big as donuts. Lorelai could swear she stopped breathing.

"Oh, hi, Babette. Come on in." Lorelai swallowed hard. This would take some explaining.

"Hi, doll. I just came over cuz I saw you had a guest earlier. You were bringin' in bags upon bags and I was just wonderin' what was goin' on," Babette whispered when she saw that the mystery girl Lorelai was holding was asleep.

Lorelai led Babette into the living room. Upon seeing Babette's entrance, Rory's mouth dropped open wider than the grand canyon. "Uh… Hi… Babette," she stuttered.

"Hey, Sugar," she said, as she took a seat next to Rory. Any other neighbor would have left the second she saw that Isabelle was asleep, but Babette was on a mission. She could not let the town down.

"Hey, Rory, can you bring her upstairs for me?" Lorelai said, as she handed Isabelle to her oldest daughter.

"Sure."

"Mommy? What's going on?" Isabelle asked as she stirred when being handed from person to person.

Damn. There's no chance in denying her now, Lorelai thought, sarcastically. "Rory's just bringing you upstairs to bed. We'll finish Willy Wonka in the morning."

"Okay. Goodnight, Mommy."

"Night, babe. I love you," she said, as she kissed her on the cheek.

"I love you too." With that, Rory walked upstairs and into the bedroom, clicking the door shut to give her mother and Babette some privacy.

Lorelai turned back to Babette, whose eyes were wide, and whose mouth was dropped down so far, it could touch the ground. Lorelai took a seat next to her. "I guess you want an explaination, huh?"

Babette just shook her head quietly. Lorelai reached her hand out to shut Babette's mouth, and began.

Thirty minutes later, Lorelai was guiding Babette back out the front door. Babette hadn't said a word during their entire exchange. She just nodded and smiled. By the time Lorelai was finished telling her about Isabelle, she was sure Babette's jaw must be broken from all the dropping it did.

Tomorrow was going to be an interesting day.

Tbc.

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Coming up…
The town knows. Ugh. Max doesn't know. UGH. Max comes to visit and runs into Miss Patty. Enough said.