Chapter 2: October 11, 2000
The first thing Lorelai did after flinging a couple of dollars in Luke's direction for the coffee was run to the library and find everything she could on time travel. There was the Outlander series, and she grabbed every book. Next was A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, A Wrinkle in Time, The Time Machine, and a few VHS tapes of Doctor Who. She already had the Back to the Future trilogy. Juggling everything, she headed and spent the afternoon reading through as much of Outlander as she could.
OK, Jamie was hot. Not as hot as Luke, but Lorelai was biased.
She had switched to watching Doctor Who while browsing The Time Machine when Rory came home from school, calling out a cheerful greeting and drawing up short when she saw what her mother was watching.
"Isn't that British?" Rory asked.
"Uh huh," Lorelai said absently.
"You said the only British TV you'd ever watch was required to have the words 'Monty Python,' 'Danger Mouse,' or 'AbFab' in the title."
"I'm catching up on the classics, kid," Lorelai defended herself. She gestured to the TV where the Doctor paraded around wearing a long multicolored scarf that she kind of wanted for herself. "Broaden the horizons, isn't this the education your grandparents are paying for?"
"Yes, but I don't think Chilton has a classic sci-fi course," Rory said, sitting gingerly on the couch. She blinked at the book in her mother's hands. "Mom, since when did you get an interest in H.G. Wells?"
"I've always had an interest in H.G. Wells."
Rory narrowed her eyes. "The last time I mentioned him, you said he created a very good ice cream sandwich. Are you OK?"
"Yeah, I'm fine." Lorelai patted Rory's arm and admired just how young her daughter was. It'd been so long since she'd seen Rory with her baby face and her long hair and her neat-as-a-pin Chilton uniform. She hadn't realized until that moment just how much she missed seeing Rory this innocent. Before Jess, before sleeping with Dean, before Logan, before the rift, before … everything. "How was school?"
As Rory launched into the latest round of Paris making her day a living hell, Lorelai set the book aside and picked up the copy of People with that week's date on it. Everything she had checked, from her Filofax to the wall calendar to every publication on the newsstand, firmly placed her in October 2000, just before Rory's 16th birthday. When she'd gotten up that morning, it had been November 2006. She couldn't begin to figure out what happened, other than walking into that strange stone circle.
Lorelai's gaze settled on the bookmarked copy of Outlander, her stomach filling with dread.
It was strange being back in the Independence Inn, literally picking up where life had dropped her off so long ago. It was odd to see Sookie and Jackson in their pre-relationship bickering that was code for flirting, something Lorelai abruptly recognized that she and Luke constantly did as well. Michel was still Michel, and that was a relief. Lorelai considered getting the inn inspected more, especially the kitchen. They were two and a half years away from the fire that changed everything, but still …
When she had a break in her duties, Lorelai headed for the lake. She found the path that took her back to the stone circle. It was still there, looking the same as it did when she stumbled it upon it a day earlier and six years later. She frowned at it and thought of what she'd gleamed from Outlander. Humans had dreamed of time travel for centuries, but it had to be based in some sort of truth, right? OK, it was really far out there, or Lorelai was in some bizarre dream. She stared down at her arm, at the tiny row of bruises where she had repeatedly pinched herself the night before. Nope, still there, still hurt. This wasn't a dream.
She warily circled the stones. If she stepped through them again, would she be back in 2006? Somewhere else? God forbid she land back in the 1800s before indoor plumbing and coffee makers, that would be a nightmare. Why had she gone back in time? It made no sense to relive her life again, watching disaster after disaster fall into place once more. Rachel, Max, Nicole, Jason, April, the rift with Rory, the ultimatum with Luke, all those fights with her parents. Everything circled Lorelai's mind as she circled the stones.
Was she supposed to fix those things?
Lorelai hugged herself and stared at the sun, the rays peeking through the dense foliage. The only person she could think to ask about this was Liz, Luke's sister. It seemed like the sort of thing she would be familiar with. But at this point in time, Lorelai wasn't supposed to know her. They were a year from Jess even being in the picture at all, when he landed on Luke's doorstep and he had to figure out how to be a guardian at warp speed.
Oh God, Luke.
For the first time since fleeing the diner the day before, she thought of their failed relationship in the future. How could she cope with being desperately in love with someone she wasn't meant to have for another four years? She laughed a bit bitterly, knowing now how Luke had felt on his end. Now she saw him all too clearly. How had she missed the signs? They'd been there when she and Rory were in the diner that morning: the subtle flirting, the looks he tried to hide behind a layer of gruffness. She knew all his tells now, and all she wanted to do was grab a fistful of flannel and kiss him senseless in front of the entire town.
She could try going back through the stones. She could go back to 2006. But what was waiting for her there? A broken everything with Luke. Her not-quite whole relationship with Rory, who hadn't been exactly thrilled that Lorelai had made the leap from Luke straight to Christopher. A half-hearted attempt to take what she could get with Christopher and G.G., and she had been planning to sever that. Her shattered relationship with the town that she loved, because she had avoided them and they had rallied behind Luke with this breakup.
Lorelai nearly didn't hear the soft crunch of dirt as someone walked down the path, and she jerked around in time to see Patty emerge into the clearing.
"Oof," Patty huffed as she made her way toward Lorelai. "Been a long time since I've made that hike."
"Miss Patty?"
Patty reached Lorelai's side, holding up a hand as she caught her breath. She patted Lorelai's arm. "I figured you would come back out here. I did the same thing when it happened to me. It's a bit overwhelming to go through it alone."
"I'm sorry?"
"The stones!" Patty nodded to the stones. "You've been through the stones."
Lorelai's knees went weak with relief. Hello, handy exposition. "You know of these?"
Patty smiled. "Oh, sweetie, every woman born in Stars Hollow knows of the stones. It's our secret, you know. You weren't born here, but you're one of us. The stones recognized you."
Lorelai nodded slowly. "Right."
"You don't believe me."
"Considering that I'm currently doing an excellent impression of Marty McFly without the cool hoverboard, I figure you know what you're talking about."
"Come, walk with me. There's a place to sit by the lake." Patty led Lorelai back down the path toward the water. "I saw you at Luke's yesterday, asking him about people he didn't know, looking around like something's missing. That's when I knew it happened for you." She chuckled. "How far back did you leap?"
They settled themselves on a large, flat stone overlooking the lake. "A little over six years," Lorelai admitted. "It was November 2006."
"Ah. Quite a bit further back than I did. Just 25 months on my end. I fixed a very bad situation with Taylor. It's not worth repeating, let's just say some things are just never meant to be." Patty gave her a bright smile, but pain briefly flashed in her eyes.
Questions burned on the tip of Lorelai's tongue, and she wanted to know exactly what had happened between Patty and Taylor. But before she could ask, Patty continued and Lorelai promptly forgot everything but the words that came next.
"The stones are old, old magic, and they have been here since the town was settled in the 1700s. They say a young woman had lost her lover in the Battle of Yorktown, and she created the stones so she could go back in time and prevent him from going to Virginia. When she saved him and they married, she blessed the stones so they could be used by any woman that claimed Stars Hollow as their true home, so they could get a second chance to fix something in their lives.
Patty leaned forward. "Here's the thing about the stones. When you go back in time, you carry a large amount of foreknowledge. The bigger the leap, the more you know. But you're not meant to change everything about your life, nor the entire world. That's abusing the magic, and it could have serious repercussions on everyone who's ever used the stones. You've been sent back to fix one thing, one crucial event in your life." Patty nodded at Lorelai's pale face. "You already know what it is, don't you?"
Lorelai absently rubbed the place where her engagement ring once rested. "I've a pretty good idea. Will I get sent back if I go through the stones again? Or somewhere else? I really don't want to be stuck in a pre-coffee Stars Hollow."
Patty chuckled. "No. It's a one-way trip. You have the chance to do something in your life over and send it down a different path. Here's the thing, Lorelai, it may not be any better than the life you left behind."
"It couldn't possibly be any worse," she whispered.
"Well, then, figure out what needs fixing and do it." Patty patted Lorelai's arm one more time. "I've got to be getting back. I've got a class of 4-year-olds waiting for me, and I have a limited attention span between nap time and Blue's Clues to get them to at least listen to the Nutcracker Suite."
Lorelai watched as Patty headed back toward town. When she was gone, she slid off the rock and wandered back to the clearing. Even though it was supposedly safe, she stood just on the outside of the stone ring and let Patty's words replay in her mind. She had one chance to fix something. She sifted back through her memories, picking out key moments from Rory's first year at Chilton.
It was 2000. October 2000, before Rory's 16th birthday. Max Medina wanted to date her, but she couldn't quite remember if it she had done that initial coffee date with him yet or not. April was seven and a half years old. Her parents had just re-entered her life. She could change things, steer them all down a new path. OK, so that went against what the Doctor Who tapes had said, but there was Back to the Future and that was a pretty good role model. There were fixed events, this much she understood, but maybe she'd been flung back so far because there were things that weren't fixed.
Lorelai stared hard at the stones, then spun on her heel, bidding good-bye to the future she didn't want. She had foreknowledge and she was going to use it. There was no way she could prevent something as big as 9/11, her gut knew that. But she could change her life and Luke's and Rory's.
"It must be nice to have extended lunch breaks," Michel drawled as Lorelai walked across the Independence Inn's lobby.
She ignored him. "I'm going to be spending time in my office."
"Oh, yippie skippie. I get to be out here all by myself."
Lorelai motioned to where Grella was playing. "You have Grella."
"Yes. Grella." Michel rolled his eyes.
Locking herself in her office, Lorelai drafted a list regarding the future and what she knew would happen to the people she loved. There was April. Dean, Jess, Logan. Her parents' separation. Max, Christopher, and Jason. She already knew that Max, Christopher, and Jason would be on the list of things that wouldn't happen. Her physical self was back in 2000, but her heart was in 2006 and there was no way she could go back to the denial she'd lived in before Liz's wedding. Part of her wanted to change everything, but she knew that it probably wouldn't result in the outcome she wanted. Preventing Rory from dating Dean wouldn't change anything except to drive a wedge between her and her daughter. There were certain situations she would know how to handle better, such as with Jess, and that would help things a lot. The same thing with her parents. Preventing her father from retiring would make him only more and more miserable.
And then there was them.
Lorelai glanced at her purse, which had come into the past with her. Everything she needed for day-to-day life in 2006 was in there: her updated Filofax, her wallet, a few novels, random snacks, makeup, and various odds and ends. She pulled out her wallet and then a battered picture tucked behind her driver's license. She knew Chris wouldn't riffle through her wallet without permission, and it was safe to hide that one picture there. It was the only thing that hadn't gone in the Luke boxes.
She traced her finger around the image of her and Luke dancing at Liz's wedding. How had she not seen the adoration from him before? Luke was staring down at her like he'd won the lottery and been given every wish he'd ever asked for at the same time. She gazed up at him in pure and utter wonder, just recognizing what he felt for her and what she did in return. Lorelai wiped away a tear and kissed the photo before tucking it back where it belonged and knew exactly what one thing she was going to change. The one thing that went horribly wrong that she was going to do over again and get right.
Lorelai circled April's name at the top of her list. Helping Luke to find his daughter years earlier would help both of them immensely. He wouldn't get back all those lost years, but he would regain a good bit of them. She smiled at the vision of him with a tiny April.
She knew the risks she was taking. She was possibly killing any chance of a relationship with Luke in this timeline. But she wasn't going to change her mind. If the situation was reversed, she knew he would do whatever it took to ensure that she and Rory were together. She loved him, and because she loved him, she was going to get him his daughter back.
The how part … that would be tricky.
She was being strange again.
Granted, "Lorelai Gilmore" and "being strange" were things Luke constantly associated with each other. Every time her mouth opened, something new or weird came spilling out. Like a couple days earlier when she stared at him like she'd seen a ghost then proceeded to have a heart attack over a newspaper.
But something about Lorelai's strangeness was extra strange, and Luke couldn't quite put his finger on it. She even looked different: drawn and tired. If anything, she seemed to have lost weight overnight, and that alarmed him. It made him want to serve her half the menu then send her and Rory home with all his leftovers, because he knew damn well a small child could put Lorelai's cooking skills to shame.
Then there was the way she kept looking at him, as if she could see straight into his soul. They were friends, and they casually flirted, but she had never given him a look quite like that one. She stared at him like she knew every inch of his body, from the bald spot he did his best to hide at all costs to the appendectomy scar he got when he was eight. Something told him if she stripped him bare, she would know every single pleasure spot on his body and a few that he didn't even know existed.
And there went his imagination again. Luke cast his eyes to the ceiling, willing his unruly body to simmer down. Friends weren't supposed to have sexual fantasies about their friends, especially while standing in the middle of a crowded diner.
But since fate liked to make an endless joke out of him, Lorelai came breezing into the diner at the very moment he thought he could come out from behind the counter without embarrassing himself. She still looked lost, like she had misplaced something. Usually, that misplaced something was Rory.
"She's not here yet," he said, referring to Rory.
Lorelai just hovered by the door and nodded.
When she didn't move, Luke sighed. "You realize you're currently being a fire hazard."
"I just-" For the first time in the years he'd known her, words seemed to fail her. She almost looked afraid, like he was going to grab her by the scruff of the neck and boot her out the door. Yes, there were times he was sorely tempted to do that, especially during the two years she called him Duke. But even if he had, she'd just saunter right back inside, armed with a witty retort.
Luke held up an empty coffee mug by the handle and dangled it from his thumb and index finger. Lorelai immediately made for the counter, sliding onto the stool next to the register.
"Are you implying I'm Pavlov's dog when it comes to coffee?"
"It worked." He held the now-filled cup just out of her reach. "How many today?"
"Not enough."
"I'm not sending you to an early grave."
"I'm sure Emily Gilmore is going to do that for you. Gimme." Lorelai started to lunge for the coffee, then shrank back, as if she expected him to yell at her.
He placed the mug before her. "You're behaving weird, even for you."
"I suppose I am."
Luke turned at the sound of Cesar pushing an order through the slot, then back to Lorelai. "Did I piss you off?"
Lorelai choked on her sip of coffee. It took her precious moments for her to swallow, then breathe. "No! You haven't done anything wrong."
The way she emphasized the you made him think that he had done something wrong. Luke racked his brain as he delivered one order, then bussed two tables. He couldn't think of anything outside of their normal banter that would cause her to act almost scared of him, like he would start yelling if she breathed at him harshly. It was something he was deeply uncomfortable with. His father had drilled respect for women into him from early childhood, and he was bound and determined not to be one of those jackasses that forced himself on a woman that didn't want him.
He decided to chalk it up to some strange Lorelai-ness when the door blew open, the wind ushering in a heap of bags that vaguely resembled his sister.
"A little help, please?" Liz's muffled voice came from behind the bags, and Luke removed enough to expose her face.
"What the hell is all of this?" He peered down into one of the bags to see it was nearly full of zucchini
"Co-op delivery." Liz dumped the rest of the bags on the closest empty table.
"I told you not to do those in here anymore."
Liz ignored him like every other time he asked her to exercise common courtesy and not use the diner as a vegetable drop-off. She took the zucchini from him. "You know how Taylor gets when I do them in the town square. He always yells at me about needing a permit, then won't give me one because it's "competition" for the overpriced stuff he stocks." Liz gave him quick air quotes as he spoke, then started to sort bags. "Where do you want yours?"
"I'll take them." Luke found the three bags with the diner's name on them and hefted them into his arms.
Liz glanced around the room and spotted Lorelai. "Oh hey! I've got that jam Sookie wanted. Three jars, right?" She reached for a bag, then froze. "Lorelai?"
Luke turned toward the counter to see Lorelai had spun around on her stool to face them. All the color had drained from her face, and she looked about five seconds away from passing out. He abandoned the bags, weaving through the tables to grab her arms before she toppled off the stool. Her muscles trembled beneath his hold, and her eyes had gone glassy with shock.
"Are you sick?" Liz started rummaging through her bags. "I've got some tea that should help if it's the flu."
"It's too early for the flu," Andrew called out from one of the tables.
"Maybe she needs some iron or potassium," Babette suggested from the table she shared with Patty. "Luke, you should give Lorelai a banana."
"Yes," Patty replied, eyes sparkling. "He should definitely give her a banana."
"Miss Patty," Luke hissed and prayed to every deity there was that he was glaring and not blushing.
"Bananas are very good for you," Patty continued.
"No, no!" Lorelai seemed to return to her senses, and he hastily let his hands drop. She laughed, something hollow and false that Luke knew was a cover for whatever was really going on with her. "I just didn't expect to see you."
"I told you yesterday morning I'd be by today," Liz replied.
"I forgot," Lorelai admitted.
Not forgot, Luke thought as he retreated back to being an observer. Something else entirely. Because Liz and Lorelai had talked at breakfast hours before she'd come rushing back into the dinner looking for a newspaper. Hours before she started acting like he was about to throw her over his shoulder and haul her off either to scold her or … give her a banana. Probably both.
The worst thing about it was he had seen it before.
Patty got up from her seat, and Luke started to sort through his order pad for her ticket. But instead of going to the register, she moved to where Liz was sorting vegetables. She leaned in close, and the two started whispering about something. Luke did not consider himself a nosy man by nature, but he was damn sure that the something had to do with Lorelai's weird behavior, especially since Patty was gesturing toward Lorelai.
So he returned his focus to her. Lorelai was hunched over her coffee, and he found himself smiling. Her face was exactly like Rory's when she was trying to puzzle out something complex. He opened his mouth to ask her about it, but then Liz abandoned her bags and wove around the tables to Lorelai's side.
"Hey!" Liz gave Lorelai her sunniest smile. "You've got a few minutes to chat?"
Lorelai managed a wan smile. "Sure."
"Great!" Liz waggled her fingers at Luke. "Can I borrow your place, bro? We'll be up there 15 minutes, tops."
He dug out his keys and tossed them to her, frantically trying to remember if he had scooped up his dirty laundry before heading downstairs that morning. Liz smirked, and he scowled at her.
"I'll make sure your tightie whites aren't where she can see them," Liz murmured sotto voce as she passed him, and Luke glared after her. Sisters.
The urge to follow them upstairs and press his ear to the door was strong, because he knew that whatever they were discussing, it would involve whatever was going on with Lorelai. Part of him yearned to know what was going on in a way that seriously annoyed him. He had no right to know what was going on in Lorelai's life other than when it crossed his own, usually with a plate of food in one hand and a coffee mug in the other. His mind started to wander down that dangerous road of "what if?" Maybe she was sick. That idea shook him to the core.
"Luke?"
Kirk's voice pulled him back to reality, one that included Kirk standing before him wearing a scarecrow's outfit. "I was wondering, how many ears of corn do you have in the back? Taylor won't let me have any from the store, but I need to complete my Scarecrow costume for Halloween."
Luke winged an eyebrow. "Are you sure you're not looking for a brain?"
Kirk sniffed. "Don't insult my ability to prepare a screen-accurate costume. My brains are right here." He brandished a bowl of cooked spaghetti, sans sauce.
"Is that screen accurate?" It had been years since Luke was forced to watch Wizard of Oz reruns on TV with his mom and sister.
"I'm sure it is in some universe," Kirk informed him, then turned to go to a table. His feet tangled in the straw sticking out of the legs of his pants, and he pitched forward. The bowl of spaghetti went flying. The pasta wound up covering half the diner, and the bowl landed upside down on Gypsy's head.
"Hey!" Gypsy yelled.
Luke glared at Kirk, then headed into the kitchen to get a broom.