Disclaimer: Still don't own.
Thanks for all the reviews/follows/favorites. Now onto the verdict!
The next morning, Lorelai padded down the stairs in her bedroom slippers. Despite her choice in footwear, she was all dressed and ready to head over to the inn seeing as she couldn't take another day off since she missed the day before. In her hand, she carried the heels that she so carefully picked out to match her outfit, opting to put them on right before she left the house. She headed into the kitchen where Luke was busy cooking breakfast while simultaneously keeping one eye on his cell-phone that was conveniently placed next to the stove.
Lorelai set her shoes down in one of the chairs at the table, knowing that Luke would say something if she dared set them on the tabletop. She crossed the kitchen to where Luke was busy switching his attention to different pans as he cooked her breakfast. She leaned her hip into the counter. She already knew the answer but she still had to ask.
"Have you heard anything."
"Not yet."
"It's still early, you'll hear something soon," Lorelai assured him. When she saw her opportunity, which was him turning his head in her direction, she leaned in and pressed a quick kiss to her lips. "Good morning."
Luke replied with a small smile, "Good morning."
Lorelai bent down and ruffled Paul Anka's fur as she said her 'good morning' to him before she straightened back up and started to fix herself a cup of coffee. Just as she was about to take a sip, an unpleasant smell drifted her way. She quickly sniffed the coffee to make sure that it wasn't a bad batch or that Luke didn't switch it out for decaf, as he had been threatening to do, but she soon realized it wasn't the coffee but Luke's cooking. She glanced over at the stove-top where not only a pan of scrambled eggs was beginning to burn but the bacon as well.
"Luke, hon," Lorelai called to get his attention. "You're burning the food."
"Ah damn it!"
Luke switched the burners off and snatched the pans away, moving to scrape the burnt and inedible remnants of what was supposed to be breakfast in the trash before he dropped them into the sink with a ceremonious bang. He braced his arms on the counter, taking a moment before he moved to the refrigerator declaring that he would start over and it wouldn't be long before her breakfast would be done.
Lorelai shook her head as she took the carton of eggs from him and placed them back in the refrigerator. "Don't worry about it."
She knew he was nervous over the verdict and would continue to be until his phone rang and it was his lawyer on the other end. If there was anything that took the brunt of Luke's emotions, it was definitely his mood. When he was angry or upset and now she could add nervous to that list, his food was typically burnt, orders were often wrong, and most of the time the food was inedible to most. Kirk being the exception. When he was happy or in a more pleasant mood than usual, his food definitely saw some improvements. His pancakes were as fluffy as clouds, extra spices were added to the burgers, and sometimes food was even on the house for certain customers.
"You sure?" Luke asked. "I can make you a non-burnt breakfast. Anything you want. You name it and I can cook it."
"Hon, we both know you're an emotional cook. I'll sit this one out, save us both the time," Lorelai replied, adding a teasing lilt to her voice. "Besides Sookie is getting a little upset that I haven't had her breakfast in a while, so the least I can do is let her cook for me. Honestly it's what is best for everyone."
"In other words, you're doing Sookie a favor by letting her cook for you."
"Exactly. She loves it, you can ask her yourself."
"I'll pass."
While Lorelai grabbed her coffee, the newspaper, and what she called a pre-breakfast snack that embodied itself in a pop-tart, Luke busied himself with the cleaning of dishes that still held traces of the burnt breakfast. He tried, and failed, to keep his mind off the important phone call that he was supposed to receive this morning. After a night of restless sleep, he woke up earlier than he usually did on a day where he didn't have to open the diner. As the minutes ticked slowly by, agonizingly slow, he began to grow more anxious over the verdict. Even though Lorelai reassured him plenty of times the night before that everything was going to work out, that didn't stop him from thinking of the worst case scenario.
Lorelai looked over the brim of her newspaper to see Luke cautiously watching his cell-phone but trying to act like he wasn't by busying himself with other things, like cleaning out the refrigerator which only held food that Luke bought from Doose's and only one take-out container. It was a trend she noticed happening more and more ever since she and Luke repaired the damage to their relationship and spent every night at the house, the apartment only being used for storage and their little way to escape from the craziness of the town during the middle of the day. She smirked when she noticed that Paul Anka seemed to have taken notice of Luke's actions and was even trying to mimic him since he kept watching the counter where Luke's cell-phone rested.
"You know what they say, a watched phone never rings," Lorelai spoke up.
"It's a watched pot never boils," Luke corrected her.
Lorelai gave a slight shrug of her shoulders, "Same thing."
Luke finally joined her at the table, clearing his chair of her shoes and handing them to her before he sat down. He crossed his arms on the table. "I want to make sure that I answer the phone when he calls. I don't want to miss this call. It's very important."
Lorelai reached across the table and gave his forearm a sympathetic squeeze. "I know hon." She pulled her hand away and began to slip her heels onto her now slipper-less feet. "Which is why I wish I could stay here with you until you receive the news but I really have to get to the Inn for our meeting. Can't let Michel run it again, he tried to fire three people last time. Three essential people."
"I understand." Luke stood up when she did and pulled her close for a goodbye kiss. "I'll call you when I hear something."
"You better." Lorelai reached down on the table for her coffee cup, finished the last sip of coffee, and handed the cup to Luke who was waiting on it. "Oh I forget to tell you. Rory texted me this morning and said that she can join us for dinner tonight to celebrate the news that you're going to get." When she noticed that it seemed like he was about to refute her claims, she added on, "The news that is going to be good and worthy of celebrating."
Luke didn't feel like wasting his breath to tell Lorelai that she couldn't see the future so she couldn't say for certain that the news was going to be good. They had that discussion the night before and Lorelai tried to prove her psychic powers. Instead he offered a suggestion.
"I'll call Maisy and let her know we're coming tonight."
"Sniffy's," Lorelai said, a fond smile appeared on her face. "Haven't been there in a while. Rory will like it."
"I'm sure she will."
With a few trips back and forth from the kitchen to the living room and even a trip upstairs in search of her keys, Lorelai was out the door and headed to the inn but not before calling over her shoulder to Luke to remind him to call her as soon as he heard any news. With Lorelai now gone and the house silent except for the sound of Paul Anka's paws pacing around on the floor, Luke came to the realization that he needed to do something to get his mind off the fact that the morning was slowly drifting away and his lawyer still hadn't called with any news. He couldn't just sit in the silence. If he did, his mind would wander and that was never a good thing. He could clean. That would keep him busy. It didn't matter that he spent a majority of the day before cleaning after they returned home from the courthouse. It's not like the house could ever be too clean.
Lorelai picked at the pastry that Sookie had given her on her third trip to the kitchen that morning where she claimed to just be checking in to see if everything was running smoothly. She had no idea what the pastry was, she zoned out when Sookie explained it to her, but she did know that it wasn't so much about a taste test just about getting her to sit still and focus on something else for more than a few minutes. She tore strips of flaky crust from the pastry, some stuck together with some kind of fruity filling. A few pieces made it into her mouth and she had to admit that Sookie really outdid herself this time and it would definitely be something that they added to their menu but still her focus wasn't completely there.
She made it to the Dragonfly just in time to stop Michel from leading the meeting, which he was all prepped and ready to do in case she played hooky another day. The meeting was over rather quickly, just a quick run through of policy and procedures followed by the current events that were being held at the Inn and what still needed to be done for them. Once she concluded the meeting, Sookie fixed her a breakfast that came with a side a questions all relating back to Luke, April, and the custody case. Lorelai answered her friend's questions as best as she could while she ate before she excused herself to go check in at the front desk to see if there were any calls left for her or if there were any missed calls on her cellphone. But, alas, she found nothing.
Which meant she busied herself at the inn; following behind the maids and fixing things that didn't need to be fixed, inserting herself in the middle of the dining staff who only had a few guests to serve, and organizing then reorganizing everything on the front desk much to Michel's annoyance. One hissy fit thrown by Michel later brought on by the reorganizing of his post-it notes, Lorelai tried to find other ways to help only to be shut out by her employees this time so it was back to the kitchen for her where Sookie was eager to try and distract her. Sookie's distractions always came in the form of food.
"Do you not like it?" Sookie asked, noticing that half of the pastry she had given Lorelai now rested on the counter-top in tiny strips surrounded by crumbs. "It's a new recipe."
"Hm, what?" Lorelai asked as she broke out of her daze. She quickly realized what she was asked as Sookie started ranting about how the recipe was new and she was still working out the kinks so if there was something wrong, she needed to know the specifics in order to fix it. "No, Sookie, it's not that. This is great, some of your best work, and if you want to add it to the menu then you have my full approval. I'm just a little distracted."
Sookie breathed a sigh of relief. "Good. I mean not good that you're distracted but good that you like the dessert because I worked hard on that recipe. I'm happy." She grabbed a discarded rag from the counter behind her and cleaned the mess her friend and business partner had made. "Still no word from Luke?"
Lorelai shook her head, "Nope." She grabbed her plate, carried it over to the sink and deposited it there before she leaned back against the counter and crossed her arms. "I know that things will work out for him, they have to, but he was supposed to hear something this morning and he still hasn't called. I'm just a little worried."
"Everything well be fine." Sookie replied. "And if not and Luke doesn't get custody and gets to missing April, I'll let you take Davey for a few nights a week. We'll all co-parent him."
"Martha doesn't need co-parenting?"
"Oh no, she's still my sweet baby who will never do anything wrong," Sookie gushed. "Davey, on the other hand, is getting to a bit of a handful these days."
Lorelai had to laugh at her friend's attempt to cheer her up. "I'll think about it."
"Just don't take too long, we already have other offers."
"Right."
Lorelai didn't dare try to busy herself in the kitchen. That would only end badly. Sookie was very specific about how she wanted to run her kitchen and Lorelai was just fine with that, except for days like today where she just wanted something to do to keep her mind from racing. She let out an exasperated sigh and decided that it would be back to the front desk for her once again.
"I going to see if I can annoy Michel even more with his post-it notes. I'm thinking instead of arranging them by prettiest color, I'm going to play a game of hide-n-seek with them. I'll leave him a trail of the sticky notes leading the way to where I hid them. The twist being that the trail would lead to a different color of sticky notes than what I used for the trail."
Sookie giggled, "Report back!"
On her way back to the front desk, Lorelai greeted a few of the guests and asked if there was anything she could do for them. When they replied that they were happy and didn't need anything at the moment, she continued on her original task to annoy Michel. A task that would not only help distract her until Luke called but it would also make her smile. Her mood was lifted and a smirk crossed her face when she noticed that Michel already saw her coming and was standing protectively by the front desk.
"Don't even think about it," Michel warned as Lorelai approached. "I just got everything back in order, I do not need your chaos."
"Chaos?" Lorelai echoed, bringing her hand up to her chest as if she was really hurt by his accusation. "I'm hurt that you think so little of me that you think I would purposely mess up something of yours. I would never even dream of making your life harder."
Michel rolled his eyes. "Every day that you breathe, you make my life harder."
"Oh honey, don't try and flatter me now, I am an engaged woman after all," Lorelai replied with a smile. She narrowed her eyes but still kept a playful tone to her voice. "Instead you might want to use this time to think of new comebacks because I'm pretty sure I've heard that one before."
"Doesn't make it any less true," Michel hissed.
Satisfied that she successfully pissed Michel off for the moment, she turned her attention to the computer. Her eyes skimmed over the current reservations and the reservations for the upcoming weeks and she was thrilled to report that they were almost fully booked. That was typical for this time of year seeing as people liked to travel and experience the fall foliage in Connecticut and well as the one-of-a-kind festivals that their town so proudly held. She was shuttled back to reality when the phone rang; she reached for it, hoping it was Luke with good news, but Michel beat her it and she resumed her activities when it was only a potential guest calling about a reservation. When she was literally bumped out of the way by Michel so he could use the computer, she announced that she was taking her break which Michel answered with a wave of his hand and a sarcastic comment about the amount of work she managed to accomplish this morning and how she truly deserved a break.
"Just remember who signs your paychecks Michel," Lorelai called as she exited the inn. She was stopped when she heard a familiar voice. The voice of a man that she was just about to go find.
"Going somewhere?"
"Only to see you," Lorelai replied. "You see when you didn't call at all this morning with news, I thought you might have received some bad news and you might be somewhere wallowing all by yourself and I didn't want you to wallow alone because that's just pathetic. Luckily for you, I'm an expert wallower, I could help if need be."
"There's no need," Luke acknowledged.
"Does that mean what I think it means?"
"Yeah," Luke answered. "I just got off the phone with my lawyer a few minutes ago. He claimed that he couldn't call early this morning because he just got the call from the judge, apparently she had other situations to deal with this morning and couldn't give out her verdict until she handled those situations. Then there were negotiations or something with another of his cases going on, I don't really know what he said because I wasn't listening that well because I just wanted the news about the verdict…"
"Luke, babe, you're rambling," Lorelai pointed out, intercepting him since he was not getting to the point of his story. "Remember that's my job. Now, your lawyer called and by the rambling and smile on your face, I'm assuming he gave you good news?"
"Good news," Luke confirmed. "Incredible news actually. I won."
"That is incredible!" Lorelai agreed. She closed the distance between them and wrapped her arms around him, hugging him tightly. After a few seconds, she pulled back. "I told you there was nothing to worry about."
"I know but there was still that doubt. You were there, you heard everything Anna had to say about me, you heard all the dirt her lawyer dug up on me."
"None of what Anna said was true though, at least not of the person that you are now," Lorelai assured him. "It doesn't matter what she said now, you won Luke. That's amazing."
"Still I thought I was screwed. I was so worried, you have no idea."
"Really?" Lorelai asked, her voice laced with a playful sarcasm. "I have no idea? Because I think I might have an inkling of an idea. At least a small snippet of an idea seeing as we do live together and I know you were up most of the night worrying over this."
"Okay, so you do know," Luke conceded.
"I do."
Lorelai tugged on Luke's arm until he followed her to side of the porch where two wooden rocking chairs were placed. They each took their own chair with Lorelai positioning hers so she was facing more towards Luke. She couldn't help but smile when she noticed just how relieved Luke looked at the moment, like the weight of the world had been lifted off his shoulders. He had been so tense ever since Anna dropped the custody case bomb on him during the summer. But this, today, was the end of those worries for him, he would no longer have to worry about when he could see his daughter or if Anna would do anything to prevent them spending time together. They would have their time together, he would be able to get to know his daughter that was kept from him for twelve years.
"What does all of this mean now?" Lorelai asked. "I mean obviously you won and that's great, but what does this mean? When do you get to see April? Is she going to come stay with us soon?"
"That's what we're looking at, that's what I wanted," Luke answered. "We're going to split the major holidays, my lawyer said something about splitting up weeks so she would stay with us in Stars Hollow for a little while then go back to her mom's house. We still need to work out some details, that's where I was headed but I had to come by and tell you the news first."
"Wow," Lorelai sighed. "That's great. So this is really real, April is actually going to stay at our house. I mean I knew you were going to win, I just didn't know what to expect when you won."
"Apparently the judge was impressed with what April had to say when they spoke and there was something my lawyer said about the judge not understanding Anna's reasoning for keeping April from for twelve years and she wanted April to be able to get to know her father," Luke replied. "It's a big change for us but since April's school isn't too far away and she already loves the town, it's not going to be such a big adjustment for her, at least I don't think it will be."
"Everything will be fine, we'll figure it out."
"I don't know when all of this will start, when we'll start switching off weeks or whatever we're going to do, I still need to talk with my lawyer and hammer out the details but that's what we discussed on the phone." Luke paused for a moment. He looked over at Lorelai, a wide grin plastered onto his face. "I'm just happy that this all worked out."
Lorelai took his hand in hers and gave it a gentle squeeze, "Me too."
"Like I said, I still have to talk to my lawyer and that's where I was going after I came by here so I should probably go. I want to get this worked out as soon as possible so I can spend time with April," Luke explained as he began to get up out of his chair.
Lorelai copied his actions. "Yeah, of course, you go get everything worked out. I'll be here working and finding even more ways to annoy Michel."
Luke laughed. "Have fun with that." He reached out for her, pulling her close to him and placing a gentle kiss on her lips. "I called Maisy, they're expecting us tonight around seven."
"Looking forward to it. Congratulations hon, you really do deserve this."
"Thank you," Luke said sincerely. "For your letter, for putting up with me these past few weeks, for everything."
"Of course, that's what I'm here for." Lorelai leaned in for one more kiss before he had to go. "Now go, get out of here. Stop being sappy."
"I was not being sappy."
"Maybe a little, just a bit of sappy, a sapling if you will."
"I'm going to leave now."
Lorelai smiled, "Good choice."
"What is this place?" Rory asked, she walked alongside her mother who walked alongside Luke as they crossed the parking lot and headed towards the front door the restaurant.
"Sniffy's," Lorelai answered. "Man, I don't know how you managed to get into Yale if you can't even read the sign in front of the restaurant."
"You know what I meant," Rory replied. "This is the place you went on your first date, right?" she asked, answered by a nod from both her mother and Luke. "Aah so this is Luke's Luke's. I feel so honored that I get to come here."
"It's just a restaurant," Luke chimed in.
"Oh no mister, that's where you're wrong, it's not just a restaurant. We have great memories of this place and this place means a lot to you, so not just a restaurant," Lorelai replied. She gasped. "Oh Rory, you have to read the menu. And I don't mean for food because they don't listen to you order anyways..."
"What kind of place is this?" Rory asked curiously, "They don't listen to your order? How do they know what you like?"
"Doesn't matter, you'll like it. They have great food," Lorelai answered. "Anyways like I was saying, you have to read the menu to learn the story of this place. Now be warned, the story could use a little editing but still you should read the story. It has everything, romance, drama, suspense, twist ending."
Luke sighed as he held the door open to allow Lorelai and Rory into the restaurant. "She does not have to read the menu. It's not a requirement. Not that many people read the menu."
"I'm definitely reading the menu now."
Since he made the reservation, Luke didn't wait around for Maisy to appear to be seated. Instead he led Lorelai and Rory back to the table where he and Lorelai had their first date, a table that was always theirs whenever they visited. Just as they were seating themselves, Maisy appeared and questioned Luke as to why he thought he could seat himself and his guests.
"He just doesn't listen to authority," Lorelai answered Maisy's question. She smiled at the older woman. "Nice to see you again Maisy."
"You too Lorelai, it's been a while, though this one hear is probably to blame for that," she said as she nudged Luke in the side. "Who's this you brought with you?"
"This is my daughter, Rory," Lorelai answered, she draped her arm over Rory's shoulder. "Luke's future stepdaughter."
"Hi, nice to meet you," Rory greeted.
"Nice to meet you too," Maisy replied.
After being introduced to Rory, Maisy went and pulled Buddy from the kitchen to introduce him to Rory as well as give Luke the opportunity to share his latest news with both of them. It was decided that champagne was needed to celebrate the news, despite Luke's hatred of the drink. But as the champagne was served, Maisy also brought a beer to the table for Luke and briefly discussed what she was going to bring them for dinner before she disappeared again.
"Why did you insist that I read that?" Rory exclaimed when she finished reading the back of the menu. "That doesn't have everything, there's no happy ending!"
"It's the experience of this place, I wanted to share it with you," Lorelai defended her actions. "You come here for dinner, you read the back of the menu. It's tradition."
"Not that many people read the back of the menu," Luke said. "Sniffy was an old dog, he lived a good life."
"That doesn't make me feel that much better," Rory replied.
"I think he's lying about that anyways," Lorelai said, shooting a grin over at Luke. "Given today's news, I think what we should be talking about is the fact that there was another character reference taken into account yesterday. Now why didn't you tell me you wrote a reference sweets?"
Rory shrugged her shoulders, "I don't know. I didn't plan to write one but I was trying to do homework and thinking about all of this and I realized that I had something to say. It was last minute really. I just wanted to help."
"You did help, you helped a lot," Luke acknowledged. "My lawyer even said that your letter, both of the letters, did help to make a difference. Thank you."
"Well you're family," Rory replied. "And April's a cool kid, and family too, I guess. Not officially but soon. Anyways, I'm happy to help out."
"Very nice," Lorelai teased. She lifted her glass of champagne as Rory did with hers and Luke lifted his beer bottle. "Here's to you," she said directing her comment at Luke.
No other words were exchanged as they clinked their glasses and bottle together before they each took a sip. As Luke set his bottle back down, he made a comment about just how weird it as to see Rory drinking even though he knew that she was technically of the legal drinking age.
"I know, it's weird," Lorelai agreed. "But if you think that's weird, I won't tell you about the times she drank before she was legally able to do so. We won't worry you with that. You can still think of her as the little girl who conned you into going to a caterpillar's funeral."
"Well she had the Rory face," Luke explained.
Rory nodded her head, "It's a very good face."
"Indeed." Lorelai leaned closer to Luke. "And here you were worried that you might not make a good dad. You've already proven that you are, in a way."
"That's why I had to write the character reference," Rory chimed in.
"Well thank you again," Luke said to which Lorelai cleared her throat prompting Luke to add on, "Both of you, thank you."
Lorelai smiled, "Better."
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