Disclaimer: I do not own Gilmore Girls.

Two updates for different stories all in the same day? I'm blaming it on the GG reunion giving me the motivation to just write and write and write for these lovely characters.


"Man, I can't believe I forgot my map," Rory complained. "Wait," she backtracked, glancing over at her mother. "I can't believe you wouldn't go by the apartment so I could get my map."

"You packed enough clothes at home so there was no need to go by the apartment. And it's not my fault that you only have one map that is only located in your apartment," Lorelai replied. She took one had off the steering wheel and picked up the giant CD case from the center console. She plunked the CD case down in Rory's lap. "At least this time we didn't forget the tunes. Now be a good little passenger and pick some music. I need my tunes. I'm thinking a little AC/DC."

Rory sighed as she began to flip through the CD case to find her mother's requested tunes. "Well as good as the tunes may be they are not going to help us if we get lost."

"We are not going to get lost," Lorelai replied.

"There's no way you can guarantee that. We don't have a map and not having a map equals getting lost," Rory retorted. "It's a basic road-trip fact."

"But if we don't know where we are going then we can't really get lost because where we end up will be where we were meant to be. Therefore we will not get lost because we will be where we are and that is a place where we will not be lost." Lorelai paused to take a breath before she nodded her head. "Yeah, that's what I meant."

Rory tried to follow her mother's train of through but that was like trying to understand the enigma that is Kirk or trying to understand why their town was constantly raising money for the bridge. A bridge which she never actually saw any construction taking place no matter how much money the town had raised. Just when she thought she had it figured out, something came along that blew her theory to smithereens.

"You lost me," Rory finally stated. "Just like we're going to be lost because we don't have a map."

"I was being philosophical," Lorelai explained. "And we're not going to be lost because of my philosophy!"

Rory abandoned her search through the CD case because she felt this conversation could go on for a while, and once she put the tunes on, all the hopes of maintaining a conversation with her mother would be lost. "Your philosophy should be that we stop at the next gas station and pick up a map so we don't really get lost by you trying to be philosophical," she argued.

Lorelai couldn't help but glance down at the gas gauge as Rory mentioned a gas station. She couldn't remember the last time she filled up the tank which meant she probably needed to stop to get gas. She inwardly scowled when her suspicions were proven correct by the needle leaning more towards empty than full. They would have to stop at a gas station which meant that Rory would get her precious map and their last-minute spontaneous road trip would now have a sense of direction. It's not that she detested the idea of a map but she just liked the idea of just picking a direction and driving with no map to point them in a certain direction.

"Fine," Lorelai grumbled. "We will stop at a gas station not for your map though, but for gas. And possibly snacks and coffee."

Rory smiled smugly, "Snacks, coffee, and a map. A map so we won't get lost."

Lorelai sighed dramatically but still maintained the smile on her face. She took her eyes off the road for just a second to look at her daughter. "Well my money is not going to a map but I can't control where your money goes."

"Well just think about it this way; if we have a map then we can pick a destination. Then maybe with a destination in mind we won't end up at someplace like The Cheshire Cat again," Rory pointed out.

Lorelai stuck out her tongue as she made a disgusted sound, "Blech. As soon as I get those awful memories out of my head, you bring it up again. You devil child. I'm going to have nightmares about that tonight."

"Well with a map we could possibly avoid another Cheshire Cat situation," Rory replied. "With a map we can decide on a destination and then we will have a direction and no Cheshire Cat situation."

Lorelai patted the steering wheel once. "Or we could just let the jeep decide."

"This jeep is old and breaks down a lot, letting it decide where to go is probably not the best idea," Rory pointed out. She glanced out the window as they whizzed past a sign. "Ooh gas station, next exit! My map awaits me."

Lorelai merged into the next lane and prepared to get off at the next exit. "Now don't go crazy and buy out all the maps."

"I make no promises," Rory replied. She looked down at her mother's purse as her cell-phone began to ring. "Aren't you going to answer that?"

Lorelai shook her head, she already knew who was calling her. Someone she didn't particularly want to talk to at this point. "Nope. This weekend is just you and me. I don't have to accept calls. Sookie and Michel can control the Inn, so there should be no calls from there."

"But what if it is Luke calling to talk about what went on between you two?" Rory asked, carefully watching her mother's expression so she could try to understand the situation at hand.

Lorelai gave a casual shrug of her shoulders, "Well then it's Luke. Too bad I'm not accepting calls this weekend." In her head, she told herself that wasn't true. She knew that she would answer his call at some point but it wouldn't be in the car and not when she's right next to her daughter.

"Mom," Rory said exasperated. She knew that if they could just talk then they could work through whatever was going on. She knew a little about things but her mother was also being very tight-lipped about her relationship with Luke. Just then a thought crossed her mind. "Does Luke know that we are going on a trip?"

"Well..."

"Mom!"

"Rory," Lorelai droned.

"I know something happened between the two of you and you're probably still upset and probably still mad at him but you should have at least told him that you were leaving town," Rory replied.

"New road trip rule!" Lorelai declared, avoiding the situation at hand. She pulled off onto the exit and began heading down the road to the gas station before she replied. "No more talk of anyone whose name begins with an L. So that means no Logan, no Luke, no Lance Armstrong."

"But I was just..."

"You were just nothing," Lorelai interrupted. "You were encroaching into the land where my road trip rules don't apply. Stay in the land where my road trip rules apply please. I made the rules for a reason."

"What happens if I don't?" Rory challenged.

Lorelai smiled as she pulled up next to a gas pump at the gas station. "Then I leave you here and you can use your precious, coveted map in order to get home."

"Evil woman," Rory said as she narrowed her eyes. "You do realize that your name begins with an L and my birth name begins with an L, right?"

"Yes but we don't call you by your birth name, we call you Rory," Lorelai remarked. "And as far for me then you can call me Roxie."

Rory scrunched up her face. "I'll just stick with calling you Mom."

Lorelai gathered her purse and moved to get out of the jeep, "Just go get your precious map," she said with a smirk on her face.


Luke snapped his cellphone shut as his call was forwarded to Lorelai's voice-mail. That was the third time today that he attempted to call her cellphone only to have his call end up going to voice-mail. He didn't have any better luck by calling her house phone. Every call ended up being answered by the answering machine. Of course he did leave messages on both her answering machine and voice-mail telling Lorelai that he wanted to see her and wanted to talk to her, but she had yet to call him back.

The earlier calls he made were sporadic since he had to make them during a hectic and exhausting morning rush combined with an equally hectic lunch rush. But now, he sat alone in his apartment trying to get in contact with Lorelai. He knew that they needed to talk about what happened the night before. They needed to clear things up. He was sure that if they could just try and talk this out again that things would be okay. They would be okay.

After she left his apartment the night before, he waited for a while before reappearing in the diner and kicking everyone out. He wasn't sure where he should go but he didn't want to sit at home, so he went to a bar. He didn't go after Lorelai or even check at her house for her because he felt that they both needed to cool off and process. He still didn't see why Lorelai couldn't understand that he needed time with April. He had his daughter to consider. He considered Rory when Lorelai wanted to postpone the wedding until things were right between them. He was in the same situation now with April. He just wanted Lorelai to give him the same respect that he gave her with Rory.

After calling her cellphone and house phone one more time each, Luke decided that he needed to go and see her. He could afford to leave Cesar by himself at the diner now, they were in a lull anyways. After telling Cesar that he was heading out for a while, Luke decided to stop by the Inn first. Lorelai was most likely working today, she didn't always answer her phone when she worked.

Arriving at the Inn, Luke began to look around immediately for Lorelai. He didn't see her jeep where it was usually parked but that didn't mean anything. He walked through the lobby of the Inn and internally groaned when he noticed that Michel was the only one at the front desk. He would have to deal with the snooty Frenchman and he didn't like snooty French people.

Michel gave Luke a look of disgust as he approached. "It's you," he said drolly. He rolled his eyes at the flannel-clad man. "What do you want?"

"Is Lorelai around?" Luke asked, trying to remain civil.

"She didn't come in today. As usual, she's leaving me to do all the work," Michel complained. "I should be the owner with as much as I do around here."

"Look, I'm not in the mood to play games," Luke responded, an irritated edge to his voice. "I really need to talk to Lorelai. Where is she?" he questioned.

Michel narrowed his eyes. "I'm serious. She didn't come in today. In fact she called earlier and said she wouldn't be in for a few days so I'm in charge."

"Did she say why?" Luke asked.

Michel groaned, "You've taken up enough of my time. I have an Inn to be in charge of, I'm busy," he replied before walking away from the front desk not giving Luke a chance to ask any other questions.

Now, a little more pissed off since he had to deal with Michel, Luke stomped out of the Inn and made his way back to his truck. Michel comment about Lorelai calling in and taking a few days off really worried him. She normally loved working and only took days off if she really needed to. But he wasn't sure why she would need to take a few days off. Unless it had to do with their fight last night. Yes, it was one of the worst fights but he still didn't understand the need for her to take a few days off.

Luke jumped in his truck and sped his way towards Lorelai's house. He needed to talk to her and tell her that he did love her, that they would be okay, that they could work through this, but he would still need to take a little time to figure out things with April. They could sit down and talk, talk through everything that happened last night. They could figure things out.

When Luke pulled up in front of Lorelai's house, he immediately noticed that her jeep wasn't at home however Rory's car was. She could still be home even if her car wasn't. Even if Lorelai wasn't home, Rory might be home and he could try to find out from here where Lorelai is. He got out of his truck and headed for the front door.

"Lorelai," Luke called as he knocked on the door.

He waited for a few minutes and knocked two more times but still didn't receive an answer. He turned the doorknob only to find at the door was locked. He thought that was odd since she rarely locked her door but he didn't give it too much thought. Instead, he grabbed his keys from his pocket, found the key to the house, and opened up the door.

"Lorelai," Luke called out yet again to what seemed to be an empty house. He began to walk through the house, "Lorelai, are you here?" he called louder.

Luke did a quick sweep through the house but saw no signs of Lorelai or Rory. He did notice that Lorelai and his bedroom had clothes thrown all around the floor, but the room looked like that sometimes. He hadn't slept over in a while so there was bound to be a little mess.

Upset and now even more worried since he couldn't find or even get in contact with Lorelai, Luke headed out of the house only to be stopped by Babette who was rushing towards him from her front porch and calling his name. For once, he was almost grateful for her presence. Since she lived next to Lorelai, she was bound to know something about Lorelai. She knew everything else.

"Oh Luke, thank God I caught ya," Babette said in between trying to catch her breath. She leaned on Luke's arm until she was able to breathe properly again and speak. "Lorelai forgot to bring over Paul Anka's leash before she left and since Sookie is watching him, I thought she might need the leash. I used the spare key to Lorelai's house this morning and I accidentally lost it. Could you get the leash for me?"

What did she just say what he thought she said? That Lorelai left? That couldn't true. Yeah, they fought just the night before but she wouldn't just leave without telling him. Though, her leaving made sense with the comment Michel made about her taking a few days off. But still, she wouldn't just leave without telling him. He was sure of that. Babette was continuing to babble about how she misplaced Lorelai's key and the weird things Paul Anka had done at her house. Luke needed to make sure that he heard her right.

"Wait a minute Babette," Luke said holding his hand up to stop her babbling. His other hand rubbed at his temple as he tried to process what Babette had said just a few seconds earlier. "Did you say that Lorelai left?"

"Yeah," Babette said with a nod of her head. "You know, she and Rory went on that trip. She said that they just needed some mother-daughter time so they were going out of town. I'm supposed to watch Paul Anka until Sookie picks him up tonight. Sookie is watching him because she said that dog would bond with Davey or something." She stopped speaking when she noticed the forlorn expression on Luke's face. "Oh honey, you knew about this didn't you? I heard about your fight but I told Lorelai that you two would be fine. I thought she told you about this."

Luke tried to compose himself. He knew that if he gave Babette the slightest idea that he didn't know about Lorelai going out of town, it was going to be spread around town within minutes. They were probably already talking about the fight, whatever they knew about it. He didn't need them to talk about this, who knows what they could come up with then.

"Yeah," Luke said probably a little too brightly as he lied through his teeth. "I just...I um...I just mixed up the time when she was supposed to leave. I knew they were going somewhere. I definitely knew."

Babette looked at him skeptically, unsure if she believed him or not. Something in his demeanor made her not want to believe him. If he didn't know, maybe things were worse off between Luke and Lorelai than she thought. "Okay Luke, if you say so," she said, trying to convince herself that she believed him.

Dimly he remembered something about Paul Anka and a leash. "Didn't you say you needed Paul Anka's leash?" he asked to which Babette nodded in response. "Let me get that for you, be right back."

Babette watched as Luke disappeared into the house. She still didn't believe him that he knew about Lorelai going out of town, his expressions betrayed him. Surely things couldn't be that bad between them, that Lorelai would keep something like this from him. They were a couple that was supposed to be together, they had to be together.

With the leash in his hand, Luke walked out of the house and handed it off to Babette. She quickly made an excuse to head back to the house and he was sure that she was off to spread the latest gossip which involved him and Lorelai. Once she was gone, he found himself walking back to the house and collapsing down on the porch swing.

Luke felt his stomach drop as he remembered the last time Lorelai suddenly took off on a road-trip with Rory. The last time was when she called off the wedding to Max. His mind raced of thoughts of what this meant for him and Lorelai. Surely it didn't mean the same thing that it did for Max. It was only a fight. Yes, it was one of their worst fights and Lorelai walked off but this didn't mean things were over. They couldn't be over. She couldn't just call it off like this, without a single phone call.

Luke reached into his jeans pocket and pulled out his cell-phone once again. He hit speed-dial for one that Lorelai had set up long ago so it was easy to reach her. He waited as the phone rang and rang, hoping that Lorelai would answer this time but when her voice chirped on the phone informing him that he had reached her voice-mail, he slammed his phone shut and forcefully dropped it down.

Panic, worry, anger, all coursed through his veins at the moment. He wasn't even sure what he was supposed to feel. He was worried that Lorelai and Rory both might not be safe since he had no idea where they could be. He was angry that she hadn't told him that she was taking off and angry that she wouldn't even take the time to answer his calls. He was panicked over the thought of losing her for good.

One horrifying thought popped into his mind as he thought back to last night.

Lorelai doubted that he loved her. God, he never wanted to be the person that made his partner doubt that he loved them. They weren't the type of couple that said 'I love you' to one another every day and they both knew that, but he never thought that Lorelai would doubt that he loved her. He never wanted to make her feel like that.

And he wanted to marry her, he did. He wanted nothing more than to marry her. He wanted her to be his wife, to be the mother to his children, to be the person that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with, to grow old with. Still there was April, and that had him still all in his head. With April came Anna who was so concerned about April getting too close to Lorelai, but she shouldn't be. It was just all so much. Still so much to process.

Luke decided that he really needed to fix things but he just wasn't sure where to start.


Much later that same night, Lorelai sat on the edge of her hotel bed while Rory was in the bathroom getting ready for bed. After getting a map at the gas station and vetoing several towns that sounded familiar but were not some place she wanted to visit, she and Rory decided upon just heading to New York City. It wasn't such an original place to head on a road trip, especially since it wasn't even that long of a drive for them and could easily just be a day trip, but it was still where they decided to go.

Lorelai decided to head to New York City in the name of retail therapy. Plus they couldn't really decide on anywhere else to go and she really underestimated just how much she wanted to drive in the mood that she was in. Rory didn't argue with her mother at this point, wherever she wanted to go, she would go too. Plus New York City wasn't such a bad place to be.

After they made it into the city earlier and found a place to stay, they decided to head out and do a little walking around since they had just spent the past few hours in a car. They eventually found a place for dinner and just spent the time talking about anything but the L names that they were not allowed to mention at this point.

Lorelai found that it was easy to avoid talking about Luke, it was just something that she just wasn't ready to open up about with her daughter just yet. There was too much surrounding the situation and she wasn't even sure what was going on herself, so she didn't want to bring her daughter in yet. She knew that rule she made about not talking about Luke or Logan would be broken this weekend because eventually she would talk to her daughter about Logan and eventually she would come clean about Luke. It was bound to happen. It couldn't stay inside for too long.

Lorelai looked up just as the bathroom door opened and her daughter walked out dressed in her pajamas.

"Bathroom is all yours," Rory said as she collapsed down onto her own bed. She laid her head down on the pillow, "Man, I'm so tired."

"Well just make sure that you get enough sleep tonight because tomorrow we are hitting the stores for a little retail therapy," Lorelai said as she gathered her pajamas for her suitcase. "And I'm planning to shop until we drop."

"Sounds good," Rory mumbled sleepily.

"Great babe," Lorelai replied before she walked into the bathroom, shutting the door behind her.

By the time Lorelai exited the bathroom, her daughter was already snoozing away. Lorelai was dead tired as well but she still wasn't sure how much sleep she was going to get that night. She kissed her sleeping daughter on the cheek before walking over to her suitcase and retrieving a small book that she had taken from her own room at her parent's house.

The book was her diary from before, during, and after she was pregnant with Rory. So basically just her diary from her teen years. She thought that she lost it long ago when she left her parent's house. But spending the night in her old bedroom led to the discovery of the diary.

Lorelai sat down on her bed, crossed her legs, opened up her diary, and was about to take down a trip down memory lane when her cell-phone rang once again. It had been silent for the last couple of hours, except for a call from Sookie with a question about Paul Anka, but now it was ringing again and she could think of only one person who would call her at this time of night.

Her suspicions were proved correct when she looked down at the screen and saw Luke's name flashing up on the screen. She took a deep breath and considered not answering the phone, it would serve him right for not coming after her last night and for how he treated her lately, but she knew that if he were gone away that she would be panicking if he wasn't answering her calls.

Lorelai picked up the ringing phone and walked over to the glass door in their hotel room that opened up to the balcony. She opened the door and stepped out onto the balcony, making sure to be quiet as she shut the door behind her. She took a deep breath and leaned against the wall before holding the phone up to her ear and answering.

"Hey," she greeted tentatively.


And a cliffhanger. I know you're probably mad about the cliffhanger but I have to make you guys come back for me and what better way to do that than a cliffhanger?

As always, reviews are always appreciated.

While you're at it, go ahead and check out my newest story, the third part to my "Presenting…" series.