Author's note: A couple of lines of dialogue were borrowed from "Written in the Stars." So if something seems familiar to you, that's where it came from. This chapter was born out of several reviews speculating on how the people in Stars Hollow would take Luke's sudden change in vacation destination.
Chapter 7: Intersections in Real Time
Ten days later: Stars Hollow
"Oh, Kirk! Kirk, sweetie, do you have my mail on you?" Babette asked as Kirk entered the diner wearing his USPS uniform.
"Proper postal procedures mandate that I can't give you your mail unless it's at your place of residence," Kirk informed her. "The only mail I'm allowed to deliver here is either for Luke or the diner. Since Luke isn't here and did not place a hold on his mail, I am permitted to leave it with the person to currently runs this establishment provided he or she does not open the mail marked as Luke's personal correspondence."
Caesar stuck his head out of the kitchen. "Just place it by the register, Kirk, I'll deal with it in a bit."
"Oh come on now, Kirk," Babette insisted, "surely it wouldn't hurt to see if there's anything for me. It'll save you a trip all the way out to my house. Plus, I'm collecting Lorelai's mail for her."
"Postal regulations forbid me from …"
Across from her, Patty squinted as she spotted a stack of colorful postcards at the edge of the bag. "Oh here, I'll make this easy on all of us." Ignoring Kirk's yelped protest, she snatched up the cards and shuffled through them. "Postcards from France! Babette, here's yours."
"Oooh, the Eiffel Tower," Babette cooed, eagerly starting to read it.
"Lane, two from Rory," Patty said, handing them over to Lane as she scooted by with an empty tray. Lane gave her a polite thanks before disappearing into the kitchen to read them. Luke hiring her on to assist Caesar before his cruise had been a very smart move on his part. Too bad, she mused, he hadn't had the same sense when it came to actually going on the cruise itself. She didn't care for Nicole one bit. "One for me, two for Sookie. Kirk, here's one for you."
Kirk stopped his recitation of postal rules long enough to gape at Patty. "Really?"
"Here you are." Patty handed him a card.
"Lorelai sent me a postcard. Lorelai sent me a postcard!"
"Everyone got one, sweetie," Babette pointed out as Kirk ignored her to read it.
"Taylor, here's yours," Patty said, walking over to Taylor's table and placing a card with two mechanical monkeys on it.
"Really? Well, how very thoughtful," Taylor said, abandoning his sandwich to peruse the card. "This isn't from Lorelai though. That's not her handwriting, and she certainly wouldn't just put 'We're calling the one on the left Taylor.'"
"Yes, she would," Patty replied.
"Well, that's definitely not her handwriting. I have seen Lorelai's handwriting plenty of times, and it most certainly doesn't look like this!" Taylor brandished the card at Patty.
"No, it's not," Patty murmured, glancing at the postmark of that card and the ones she still held. It was dated during the same time period as the ones she passed out and matched Rory's itinerary. She frowned. She'd seen that handwriting before, but she couldn't quite place it.
The bells jangled as Sookie and Jackson slowly entered the diner together, accommodating Sookie's advancing pregnancy. "Did you get them?" Sookie asked eagerly.
"Yes, I have yours and Michel's," Patty said and handed Sookie three postcards. Sookie beamed and took the remaining open table in the center of the diner and Jackson the seat across from hers. She reached for his hand, and he squeezed it as she began to read.
"Huh, a card for Caesar," Patty murmured, glancing at the one card left. "Same handwriting as Taylor's. Not Paris though. I think Avignon." She dropped it on the stack of mail that Kirk left for Luke and the diner. She tried not to read the message, but the writing was rather large and hard to ignore. It said. "Hope things are going well. This is some area in the south of France. Put it up somewhere. I'll check in soon." The gears began to turn as she stared at the postcard.
"Caesar," Patty called out, "have you heard from Luke lately?"
"Nah," Caesar replied. He emerged from the kitchen, wiping his hands on a rag. "His flight's not until tomorrow though, so he should be back in the diner day after next. Not really the type of person to randomly call and check in on things." Something Caesar was pleased with, because it meant his boss trusted him implicitly. "He's really not one to send postcards, you know?"
"Is he now," Patty murmured.
Sookie shrieked.
Patty whipped around, or rather whipped around as fast as her knees would let her. Sookie had her hand over her mouth as she read one of the postcards.
"Oh my God," Sookie gasped. "Oh my God!"
"Sookie, what's wrong?" Jackson rushed around to the other side of the table. "Is it the baby? Are you having contractions? Is …" He began reading the postcard over Sookie's shoulder. "Oh my God!"
"Jackson!" Sookie scolded him.
Jackson just gaped at her. "Luke's in Paris with Lorelai?"
The entire diner went silent except for Kirk, who was reading his postcard to himself for the 15th time. With funny voices.
"Jackson, Lorelai didn't want people to know! It's the first thing she said!" Sookie said.
"Luke's in Europe?" Jackson repeated, not listening.
"I thought he was on that cruise?" Babette asked.
Caesar picked up the postcard that Patty left on the counter. "Huh. He must be in Europe. That's his handwriting."
"It is Luke's handwriting," Taylor declared, waving his own card. "I remember it from the lease documents I signed for the ice cream shoppe. I went over every detail personally. What does he mean a mechanical monkey reminds him of me?"
"Oh, Taylor, I'm not explaining it if you can't figure it out," Patty replied, making her way to Sookie and Jackson. "Sweetie, the cat's out of the bag, so you might as well let us all in the loop."
Sookie glared at her husband, who merely shrank and gulped a bit. "Sorry," Jackson whispered. She ignored him.
Patty took the cards from Sookie and oriented them in the correct order, then handed back the one addressed to Michel.
"Hey, Sookie," she read out loud. "Please don't tell anyone what I'm about to tell you, but I've got to let you know. It's been a crazy couple of days. Rory and I got to Paris, and my purse and cellphone got stolen almost right away."
"Oh the poor dear!" Babette cried.
"Hope she got those cards canceled," Gypsy said from her table. Andrew, sitting across from her, nodded in agreement.
"I'm sure she did," Patty replied and turned back to the cards. "I panicked, not wanting to call my parents or be a burden on you and Jackson …"
"Of course she could have called us," Sookie sniffled, tears welling up. "Lorelai's never a burden. Oh damn, these pregnancy hormones." She rummaged through her purse for a tissue, then accepted napkins that Jackson passed over. "I'm still mad at you."
"I know, baby."
"… So I called Luke," Patty continued.
"I remember that," Caesar said, and everyone's attention swung to him. "She called the diner first, was in a real panic. The boss didn't want me giving out his cell phone number to just anyone, but it's Lorelai, you know? He'd want Lorelai to have it."
"Of course he does. You did the right thing," Patty said, then went back to reading. "Luke agreed to wire the money when he got to Seattle, because I forgot he was going on the cruise with Nicole. It didn't come, so I was panicking again, then suddenly he showed up! He broke up with Nicole and bought a one-way ticket to Paris to help me and Rory. Ohmigod, Sookie, I don't know what to think. And he's going to stay with me. Me and Rory. We invited him, and he's staying. So, we'll see how this goes. More later. All my love, Lorelai."
Lane burst out of the kitchen. "Oh my God, Luke's in Europe with Rory and Lorelai!"
"Yes, dear, we know," Patty told her. "Lorelai told Sookie."
"And Rory told me! It's on this second card I got from her. She said Luke showed up to bail them out of some money issues and decided to stay when they asked."
"Did she say anything else?" Patty asked.
"Only that she's gotten him to read the first Harry Potter book," Lane replied.
Patty tutted a bit. "Not a prime source of information there." She flipped to Sookie's second card, and her eyebrow winged up. "Oh! Well, well, well, things have certainly gotten interesting."
"What is it?" Babette asked.
Respecting the bonds of friendship, Patty passed the postcard back to Sookie so Lorelai's best friend could find out for herself before the rest of the town. Sookie scanned it then shrieked again. "Ohmigod, Luke and Lorelai kissed!"
"What?" A chorus of other voices chimed in.
Patty and Sookie exchanged a knowing look and Sookie quickly buried the card in her purse before anyone else could read it. The first card was one thing, but the second … it was far more private.
"It's about time," Gypsy muttered.
"Rory, you're holding out on me," Lane moaned.
"This is bad," Taylor declared. "This is very, very bad."
"What do you mean this is bad, Taylor?" Babette asked. "We've been wanting these two to get together for years! I wonder who won the betting pool?"
"Think of the consequences," Taylor told her. "What will happen when the relationship goes sour as, let's face it, most of Lorelai's relationships do? Do I have to remind you about Fay Wellington and Art Brush? Luke owns the diner and Lorelai will be opening an inn here within the next year.
"Taylor, there's no reason to believe that a relationship between Luke and Lorelai would have an economic impact on this town," Patty objected.
"Yes, it will! Two empty storefronts sat right here on this square for a year. I have the study that was done, charts, and everything. This simply can't happen again." Taylor pushed up from his table. "I have to get Gilmore and Danes vs. Stars Hollow on the agenda right away."
"Taylor, Luke's not due back until tomorrow, and Lorelai's not back until the end of August. Give it a rest," Patty said. "Just let those two be happy. Lord knows they deserve it after all this time."
"I can't give it a rest," Taylor thundered. "There's too much at stake. However, I am willing to table the matter until both parties involved can attend a town meeting together."
"Fair enough," Patty sighed as Taylor tossed down a couple bills and stormed out of the diner. She shook her head. "I'll try to talk him down from it," she told the rest of the room.
"Oh, those two are going to make the most adorable babies," Babette cooed.
—
Sookie waited until Jackson had gone to bed before re-reading the second postcard. It made her giddy enough that she consulted Rory's itinerary before pulling out the ingredients for her chocolate chip and toffee cookies. It would be worth the $100 to express a care package to Lorelai, Rory, and Luke, along with a very lengthy letter expressing her pleasure. She wished the girls had taken Rory's laptop. It would be so much faster, but the care package was much better. Oh, she could put her lingonberry and lemon preserves in there, and some rosemary crackers to go with them.
Humming, she preheated the oven, began adding ingredients to the KitchenAid, then consulted Lorelai's card again. This one had been sent from Avignon and was covered in tiny, tiny print. Lorelai had even given up and written on the front side of the card when she ran out of room on the back..
Sookie —
We're in Avignon, and I got my cards! Hallelujah! Forget about the trip, Luke kissed me yesterday! Well, I kissed him too, we kissed each other on the Amelie bridge! You know, the one where she skips the stones? He kissed me, then he kissed me again until we nearly got arrested, then when Rory was in the shower last night, we kissed some more. I can't seem to stop kissing him, Sook. Except we had to because of Rory, even though she approves me of kissing him. But we haven't talked yet and we need to figure out what we are first.
"A couple of idiots," Sookie said fondly.
I'll call when we get to Rome where I booked that B&B for Dragonfly research. - L
Sookie flipped to the front of the card where Lorelai had scribbled over the blue sky.
He's the best kisser ever. I think … God, I think … I think we're …
She had run out of room, but Sookie filled in the blanks.
"She's in love!" Sookie sang. "She's in love and Luke's in love and they're in love with each other!" She patted her stomach. "This, baby, is the best day ever!"