Insert Strong Bad voice:
Like a Phoenix, from the ashes

...she rises again!
(Hey Tom is this distracting yet?)

Written in the Stars
By Gilmoregirl1979 (the reigning Quote Queen)

Rating: PG-13

Hi this is your friendly disclaimer: Once again, I don't own (DAMN IT!), No Harm No Sue. WE just use the Gilmore Girls dolls during our slumber parties…. It's fun (shirtless Luke: with coffee pouring action, and the "Fry it and Buy it" Luke's Diner Play Set sold separately!)

R/R: yes please I love reviews; I wanna marry them (as previously stated, I have strange passions.)

Summary/ The Q: What if LL hooked up when they first met? What if things had moved … a touch more quickly…?

JEEPY: thanks for the beta!

A/N: Nov 15th… now I have my own DARK DAY! (Nov 15th 2005 a day that will live in infamy… for GG/JJ/LL fans any way…) who wants to help me Devil egg ASP's car? ...

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Chapter 16:
Something To Talk About

For the next few weeks, with everyone on good terms with everyone else, the girls would go to the diner…together… in the morning before work/school, and occasionally at night for dinner. Needless to say, it wasn't long before the Gilmore girls had sampled everything on Luke's menu, and even a few things he made special just for them. With the budding relationships, sometimes Luke would come over on weekends and offer to do little chores around the Gilmore house.

On one particular Saturday, while Luke was checking on Lorelai's Jeep… again, he began to feel a little self conscious and unnerved, and he finally noticed the small shadow watching him from the porch as he worked, "Oh, Hey Rory," he shyly smiled over his shoulder, trying not to be too uncomfortable with the young girl sizing him up.

Rory was embarrassed to have been caught spying, and only returned a shy, "Hey Luke," and she casually made her way down the porch steps, now that her presence was known.

It had been about a month since the Friday night dinner introduction, and Luke and Rory really hadn't talked much without Lorelai being around. Usually Lorelai was their go-between and Rory was always seemed a little uncomfortable whenever Luke came over to invade the space that was usually girls-only with his manly helpful chores.

Granted, Luke wasn't exactly comfortable around kids him self, he wasn't going to be on the cast of Sesame Street anytime soon, but he didn't want Rory to be afraid of him. She was his girlfriend's daughter, and he knew they were a package deal, so he always tried to be friendly and open to talk to, despite his discomfort, but it would seem a 30 year-old man and an 11 year-old girl had no common ground.

Lorelai assured her boyfriend that Rory would warm up to him, that Rory was always shy around new people. Luke was a little relieved that Rory wasn't an Exact Clone of her mother; that would have been creepy. He could understand how, when your mother was as excitable and as flamboyant as Lorelai, you would be content just to fade into the background with a book, and not even try to compete with your mother's need for attention.

Luke knew Lorelai was just inside, but he hoped this covert attempt by Rory was because she wanted to make an effort on her own, to really want to get to know Luke, truly accept him, and be comfortable around him, if for no other reason … for her mother's sake. "Anything I can help you with?" Luke asked over his shoulder, trying to meet her halfway in the attempt.

"Um, no," she replied shyly, not sure what else to say to her mom's boyfriend. She gave them credit; they were easing her into it. They would see him in the diner, and Luke would only come over to the house on Saturdays, making his exit promptly before dinner to leave the girls to their movie night tradition.

When Lorelai came outside, she was a little disappointed that she hadn't interrupted anything. Come on, you two have to talk some time. Lorelai had never been in this position before, how do you open the lines of communication between your boyfriend and your kid? "Hey you two! Anything going on…?"

"Luke's fixing your car," Rory shrugged, almost clinging to the porch post.

"Oh, well thank you," Lorelai went down the steps, beside Luke, not sure if she should show any affection toward him in front of Rory. Lorelai was almost afraid to touch Luke as she stood beside him… peaking at his work over his shoulder.

"Your welcome … Hey, I could make us some lunch," Luke offered.

"With what? We have nothing," Lorelai joked.

"Well, knowing the average state of your kitchen, I brought some stuff over."

"Great, Rory… how's that sound?"

"Fine," Rory said shortly, and sat down on a step.

Luke wasn't sure what was wrong, but he could tell Rory was obviously preoccupied and down about something. Maybe it was how her dad had gone missing again, maybe it was the not knowing how to talk to him as her mother's boyfriend, maybe it was the Luke/Lorelai relationship in general, but maybe it had nothing to due with their current situation at all.

"Okay, well I'll just, um, wash up and get started… " Before he stepped inside, he gestured to Lorelai to talk to Rory, because he honestly wanted to know what was wrong, if there was anything he did wrong that he could correct. He didn't know what else to do but give the girls the privacy to talk.

Lorelai sat down next to her daughter on the steps, "Hey kid… you okay?"

"Yeah…" Rory answered dully.

"Alright… is there a problem?"

"Not really…"

"Is there sorta a problem?"

"No"

"Rory, something's up," Lorelai only wanted to make her daughter feel at ease around the new man in their lives, "… is it Luke?"

"No, he's fine…"

"You sure?" She asked, knowing Rory wasn't one to complain.

"Yes…" Rory was frustrated and she couldn't think with her mother's questioning. "It's just … a school project. It's not due for weeks, and I need to figure a few things out…" When it came to school, Rory wanted to make her best efforts first, how would she learn other wise? If she was still stuck, she would then do a mountain of research, and then, if absolutely necessary, she would ask for help.

"Okay. Well, I'll help if you need it…"

"No, it's okay. I have a plan. I just need… to find a time… or a way to … execute it," she finished with a heavy sigh. "Well, I'm gonna go inside and read 'til lunch is ready."

Both girls went in the house and Rory retreated to her room and Lorelai went to join Luke in the kitchen.

"What's going on?" Luke asked in a whisper.

"It's just school stuff," Lorelai replied, touched by Luke's concern but still doubting if school was really her daughter's main concern, "She's got it covered."

"Oh, okay," he said, obviously relieved and he focused back on prepping lunch. 'He knew Rory was a bright kid, and that he could be of absolutely no help to her with a school project. Fixing a porch rail, sure, installing bookshelves, he was your man, which reminded him to measure her bedroom walls before he left for the evening. Luke hadn't gone to college, how was he going to help a girl aspiring for the Ivy League?

Rory peeked out of her door and saw how her mom rubbed Luke's back as he assembled sandwiches. It was kind of sweet, her mom being cute with a guy, even if Rory had always imagined that guy to be Christopher. Still, even before Rory knew the reason, she had seen that her mom was much happier since she began to bring home Luke's take-out cups. Now before her eyes, Lorelai seemed to beam, she wore a wide smile, unable to stop teasing and talking to the cause of that smile, an understanding man who was fixing lunch for the girls.

Lorelai went upstairs to find a CD she had borrowed from Lane, Lorelai was constantly trying to expose the hermit diner man to the music and movies he didn't feel was necessary to pay attention to. With Luke alone in the kitchen, Rory tried her hand at a conversation with Luke again …in order to execute… phase one, "Um, Luke?"

It was the one of the few times Rory had addressed him specifically. "Yes Rory?"

So, she decided to just go for it. "Well, I have this project… at school…" and Rory hoped he would be the one to help her out.

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When Lorelai came downstairs she was surprised, to find Luke and Rory in the kitchen together, with Rory perched on a small step stool she could see into her pan easier. "What are you two up to?"

"Mom, Luke is teaching me how to cook!" Rory smiled excitedly, knowing she had chosen the right man for the job.

It was the first time Rory wore a real smile around the diner man, but the activity completely threw Lorelai. "He's what?"

Luke tried to ease his girlfriend's concern for her daughter's proximity to fire. "We're starting off slow with grilled cheese for lunch," Luke assured Lorelai, and got the can opener out of the drawer for the soup, which, according to Rory, he was in charge of.

To think, a child of mine …cooking "Rory… what brought this on?"

Keeping an eye on the bread in the pan, just waiting for the edges to turn the perfect golden brown as Luke had instructed, Rory guiltily confessed as she shifted the sandwiches in the pan with the spatula. "Well, my Home Ec teacher, Mrs. Kelly, she pulled me aside after class and told me that I needed to practice more. I mean, it's school, but it's not like book study work that I'm used to… well there are cook books of course… but, I'm kinda… stinking at the whole cooking thing, maybe because it's a family trait, and in a few weeks we have to make a layer cake and decorate it… as part of our final grade, and I didn't have much luck with the soup we tried to make during my midterms…"

Luke now understood why he was in charge of the soup.

Rory continued her story, "… And I figured I really like cake… I want to be able to actually eat the cake… so… I asked Luke to teach me a few things… because well Sookie is always so busy at the Inn with Rafael making her work morning, noon and night… and well... Luke was here…"

It was the most Rory had spoken around Luke … ever.

"Oh, okay?" Leave it to Rory to not want anything to ruin her GPA, "So… how's she doing?" Lorelai asked Luke.

"Well, despite needing a bit of a boost to be a safe distance from the burners… she's doing just fine."

"It's kinda like in my science class when we do experiments… cooking is all about measuring the right ingredients, and getting the right conditions to manifest," Rory observed.

Luke had never looked at cooking, or grilled cheese for that matter, that way before. He could only marvel at the brilliant observation of the young prodigy now in his life.

"…And it's kinda fun!" Rory smiled at her mom; happy that she was not only learning something new, but also she finally found a way to put Luke and her at ease around each other.

Lorelai watched as Luke gave Rory pointers on proper spatula technique and explained that he used milk instead of water for the canned soup to make it creamier, and therefore taste better, and there was the added bonus of calcium, which every growing girl needs, of course. Lorelai smiled too, that they had finally found something to talk about.

Once Rory started talking to Luke, she didn't stop. Over lunch, Rory asked Luke about some of the problems she and Lane had run into with the floorboard project. The young girls were able to find the hardwood floor staples as he described, and make an appropriate sized hole, but then there was the issue of protecting the actual CDs and not losing them in the house's insulation and frame work. Luke suggested a box to be suspended in the hole. He would have felt better if he could have installed it himself, but Mrs. Kim hardly trusted Lane alone with Lorelai, he couldn't imagine how far she would trust a single man in her only daughter's room.

Rory slurped up the last of her soup, pleased that she had an entire conversation with Luke, feeling things were finally getting on track with her own relationship with him. She then felt bad for banishing Luke on Saturday nights. Saturday night was usually date night, after all, but Luke would go back to close the diner when he had finished his little house projects for the Gilmores, and would leave before dinner. Rory didn't mean to exclude him, but she began to wonder if the boyfriend knew he would be welcome on Movie Night. Rory wondered if Luke and Lorelai had even had an adult date since the introduction Friday night dinner a month ago.

"Luke?" Rory looked up from her bowl.

"Yes, Rory…"

"Would you… wanna stay … for Movie Night?

This caught the attention of both adults. "Oh I don't know… I don't want to … you know… intrude…"

"It's not intruding if you are invited," Rory reasoned.

"Well, sure, if you want me to stay…"

"I do… and Mom would like it too."

The adults couldn't argue with her there, and they exchanged shy smiles at Rory's observation.

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To accept the invitation, Luke called the diner to check in and to tell Ben and Caesar he wouldn't be in that evening; he promised to make it up to them over the coming week. With their mutual powers of persuasion, Lorelai and Rory convinced Luke to trust their movie choices when they went to the video store and sent Luke to Doose's to get something for dinner. Both girls seemed excited to have Luke make dinner again in their seldom-used kitchen and watch a movie with them in the living room.

It was late after their mini movie-fest and Rory was still up because it was not a school night, and Luke was still at the Gilmore house. Lorelai walked him to the door and was just about to say goodnight to Luke.

"What's wrong?" Luke asked when he saw her expression.

She sighed, "…It's 11:30 on a Saturday night."

"So?"

"Soo you shouldn't be here…"

"I'm going now…"

"No. You shouldn't be here…" Lorelai stressed, feeling like Rory and her were cramping his hermit bachelor style.

"You invited me. Actually, Rory invited me." She's trying… we both are…

"Luke, you should be out at a bar or something… meeting nice, single women…"

Luke pulled her closer, "Hey, I'm dating a nice, single woman…"

"One without a kid," Lorelai clarified dryly.

"Lorelai, you know that doesn't matter to me. Besides…" Despite my self, "I …had fun," he shrugged

"You had fun watching Willy Wonka and Dark Crystal? Dark Crystal had Puppets. I'm sure you hated the Puppets…remember how annoyed you were during Labyrinth? "

"Well, despite the puppets, I had fun being with the two of you."

"The two of us?"

"Yeah, you two made the movies … bearable," he said, hoping Rory was getting more comfortable around him when she started the mocking the movie thing that she no doubt learned from her mother.

"You're sweet," and Lorelai closed the space between them.

He smiled, "It's late. I'd better go."

"Okay," and Lorelai wrapped her arms around him in a long hug, wishing he could stay, but knowing that would probably not fly with Rory; but being so close to him, smelling his scent, only then and there did it hit Lorelai that she and Luke hadn't been "alone" alone in over month. Well considering I couldn't keep my hands off him before…. now is a little… sexual…time off. Still, she missed being with him. "Hmm, I'm crazy about you," Lorelai murmured, realizing too late that her slip left her a little exposed and vulnerable, two feelings that she hated.

"Nah, you're just crazy... but… the feeling's mutual… " Luke loved being close to her, a stolen moment while Rory was out of sight. Luke didn't know if he could ask Lorelai out on an Adult date again now that Rory was in the picture, but he would let Lorelai take the lead, they were dealing with her kid after all; he wasn't going to step on anyone's toes. "I'll see you two for breakfast?"

"Yes, you will," and Lorelai gave him a goodnight kiss to seal the promise, and then reluctantly let him go.

Rory didn't mean to spy, but she peeked around the corner just in time to hear her mother suggest Luke see other women. I thought she liked him, she wondered, but she had to smile when Luke refused to see anyone else but her mom, well duh she's a babe. Lorelai was the one he wanted to spend time with, and he liked hanging out, the three of them together. Rory was starting to like it too, almost like a family. When he wanted to, Luke could be just as funny as the Gilmore girls with his dry humor.

Rory heard the "I'm crazy about you" confession, and then she saw her mom kiss Luke, and wondered why they didn't show more affection to each other if they liked each other so much. Rory figured it was to make her more comfortable around the pair. Rory recalled her mother's metaphor and it was kind of like a movie; only this was a real life love story. Rory began to wonder how long this could go on, and if her father was truly out of the picture, would Lorelai marry Luke one day. That prospect was exciting and scary at the same time… Rory decided to consider how she felt about that at a later on and not get ahead of herself.

When her mother closed the door, Rory saw how content and almost giddy Lorelai was merely thinking of Luke on the other side of the doorframe. Then Rory tried to remember if the adult pair had been alone in the few weeks Rory knew about the relationship.

"Hey sweets! Whatcha doing?" Lorelai asked, her tone almost conveying she was going to have good dreams tonight.

"Is Luke leaving?"

"Well, it's late, and he opens the diner very early in the morning. You and I probably aren't even up by then…"

Rory's forehead furrowed, suddenly recalling with perfect clarity that it had always been the three of them together, Luke and her mom hadn't had an adult date since Rory found out about the relationship.

"What? Did you need to ask him something for your project?"

"No… it's just… well," Rory didn't know how to say it; she knew generally what adult relationships entailed, again from the constant stream of movies that flew through the house. "I know you two… like each other…"

"Yeah."

"Well, do you think you'd…?" Rory didn't know if she could talk about this with her mother, it was territory that was uncomfortable and new.

"What?"

"Would you … want him to … stay over?" Rory asked with such innocent eyes.

"Stay…over?" Lorelai was confused, and then she saw what Rory was offering. "Honey? You mean like have Luke… spend the night?"

"Well yeah, like in the movies…" Rory explained, using her mother's metaphor again, so she would understand.

"Oh… Um, I don't know… it's kinda soon for that…" We just got you two talking… "Are you sure?"

"Well … yeah," Rory said not too convincingly. "Well, maybe… not every night, but… you know… you two should be together… as much as you want to." Now having seen them affectionate, Rory thought it was kinda cute.

"Let's think about this before we… invite Luke to stay the night… okay?"

"But Mom, since you've told me about… the two of you… you guys haven't really… been alone. We've always been in public at the diner or the three of us here… What if Sookie babysat… and if you and Luke wanted to see a movie or have dinner together… like a real date without me, I don't mind, really …"

"Rory…?"

"I just don't want to be in the way…" Rory only wanted to make sure her mother would continue to be happy.

"You are never in the way," Lorelai said firmly, and to appease her daughter, Lorelai would at least consider it. "We'll see, but thank you… for … being …so considerate," Lorelai smiled lamely, uncomfortable talking about her sex life with her 11 year-old daughter.

"Oh My Gosh!" Rory exclaimed.

"What?" Did she finally realize what she said and wants to take it all back?

"We are missing the monologue of Saturday Night Live!" Rory rushed to the couch, already a princess of segues, as she learned from her mother.

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"That was all God given talent..." why thank you Luke!
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R/R: PLEASE, I like to better myself. To quote The Princess Bride,
"...Remember this is for posterity, ... so be honest."
Please be specific with R/R; name one (or as many as you can think of or want to mention..…) At least one specific thing you liked

Please! It makes me feel good...inside (Dirty!)

Hence the Rant option below.

Insert Rant here V
A/N: if not completely satisfied with this chapter, please return unused portion for a full refund …

HELLO, MY LITTLE CRACK WHORES! (And other shout outs):
Sorry I'm trying to do this really quickly before work so you all can get a hit before my dark day!
A/N: okay… I can't win, (no I'm not talking about my office football pool although Hollie has won two weeks in a row…. Sus-pi-cious!) You all gotta cut me some slack on chapter lengths… I'm only one person…

A/N: As my beta put it –"… epiphanies are like buses…none forever, and then they all come at once – I read that in a book somewhere – Rory realizes how great Luke is and takes steps to make him a bit more present."