A/N: I'm sorry, I'm sorry! I know I haven't updated this or a lot of my other stories in… a very, very long time. But, when life and writer's block come together, they're a pretty powerful anti-fiction force. I've been getting a lot of reviews on this story, wondering when it was coming back. Here you go, I hope it was worth the wait.
As the baseball season began to wind down, the Red Sox did just the opposite. They clinched the wild card, and swept Anaheim in three games, the last one being a nailbiter. However, lately, the Red Sox were running out of luck. On the morning of game four of the American League Championship Series against the hated Yankees, Lorelai walked downstairs to find Luke wearing his blue baseball cap instead of the Red Sox cap he had been wearing since the Red Sox won the last game against the Angels. She rubbed her eyes, ensuring that her blurry morning vision wasn't the reason for the change, and headed for the coffeepot.
"Why aren't you wearing the Red Sox cap?" she asked, pouring herself a cup of coffee.
Luke put Lorelai's breakfast on a plate and placed it on the table. He shrugged. "Change of karma," he offered.
Lorelai nearly spit out her coffee when she heard him utter that phrase. Luke? Karma? He wasn't ever a superstitious baseball fan before, why was he starting now? "What?" she asked.
"The Red Sox are down three games to none to the Yankees," Luke replied.
"He says like I should just KNOW the significance of that," Lorelai finished.
Luke rolled his eyes. "In a best of seven series, that's not good. They have to win four in a row against the Yankees in order to win the series. It's never been done before. In sports history."
"So very pessimistic!" Lorelai gasped, taking a bite of her pancakes.
"I'm not being pessimistic, I'm being realistic," Luke insisted.
Lorelai got up from the table and ran into the bedroom. She grabbed the Red Sox cap that was sitting on the dresser and promptly placed it on her head. "If you're not wearing it, then I will. They're going to win the series, and then they'll win every other game they have to win, and I will be right, and you, mister, will be hearing it. I won't take this hat off until they win the Superbowl!"
"First, it's the World Series, and second, you're insane. You think it's going to happen?" Luke asked.
Lorelai's eyes widened. "Sure, why wouldn't it?"
"You believe whatever you want to believe. That's fine with me. We'll see who's right," Luke insisted.
Lorelai smiled. She was determined to wear the Red Sox cap that she had bought for Luke, since Luke seemed to have abandoned it. She was convinced that it would bring the Red Sox luck. Lorelai vowed to wear the cap, matching it with every outfit she possibly could.
Needless to say, when she walked into the inn, Sookie and Michel were confused as to why she was suddenly interested in the welfare of the Boston Red Sox.
"You look like one of the women in that insipid movie starring Tom Hanks," Michel offered.
Lorelai grinned. "Well, Madonna was in that movie, so I'm not complaining. You like the hat?"
"I do," Sookie started, "But I'm just curious as to why you're wearing it. I mean, I know Luke likes the Red Sox, but… why are you wearing the cap?"
Lorelai walked behind the desk. "It's simple enough. It's going to bring them luck. I am making a sacrifice for the team. I am risking a serious case of hat hair, you know. Luke abandoned the hat, and I bet him that the hat would make the Red Sox win, even if they're so oppressed like he makes it out to be."
Sookie nodded. "So what do you get if you're right? What did you bet?"
"Well," Lorelai cleared her throat, "We didn't really… bet, I just, uh, told him that I'd be right, and he was set in his ways, so I suppose that means bragging rights?"
"Why, because you are too scared that your team will lose and you would prefer that your mountain man boyfriend tell you that you were wrong, rather than paying him a large sum of money?" Michel added.
Lorelai glared at Michel. "No, because I just want to be right. I want one of those magnets that has the two rules on it, one that I'm right, and that if I'm wrong, we go back to the first rule. I want Luke to say I'm right… it's an obsession of sorts now."
Sookie giggled. "Well, imagine if you are right. Luke would probably be too excited about how good it was that they won, and he probably wouldn't be worrying about who was right."
"Oh, don't worry, he won't hear the end of it without some sort of concession that I'm right," Lorelai insisted.
Lorelai wore the cap for the next four games. She watched bits and pieces of the games with Luke, taking in the Dave Roberts stolen base and A-rod's slap of Bronson Arroyo's arm in Game Six. They debated the validity of Curt Schilling's bloody sock that brought them even closer to victory. She danced around the couch when Johnny Damon hit the Grand Slam in Game Seven. The way things were going, Lorelai was beginning to believe that bragging rights were hers.
After watching the Red Sox come back from a 3-0 deficit to win four in a row against the Yankees, Lorelai still wasn't necessarily thinking about anything but winning the argument. Luke was pleasantly surprised that the Red Sox were able to accomplish what hadn't been done in the history of baseball, but being a Red Sox fan, he realized that they could still blow the lead at any time. The Red Sox were perfectly capable of disaster as they were of victory.
The disaster part seemed to be fading away. The Red Sox took the first three games from the Saint Louis Cardinals without major difficulty. As Luke and Lorelai sat down to take in Game Four, and Johnny Damon hit a lead off home run to begin the game, Lorelai poked Luke. He turned to look at her, and she pointed to the hat and raised her eyebrows.
"It's the hat," she said as Luke rolled his eyes.
Luke shrugged. "Sure it is," he said, not wanting to argue that the hat bringing the Red Sox luck defied all logic.
As Edgar Renteria, the last hope for the Saint Louis Cardinals, came up to the plate, Luke sat up straight on the couch. Lorelai did the same, staring at Luke. He turned to look at her.
"What?" he asked.
Lorelai smiled. "Just wanting to see your reaction when I win," she said, pointing to the hat once again.
"Hey, you're not the only one winning, you know. Every Red Sox fan… ever, and the team is also winning. Potentially," Luke added, watching as Keith Foulke's first pitch to Edgar Renteria was called a ball.
"Afraid to jinx it?" Lorelai inquired, "You said 'potentially,' and that's usually not a completely positive word. Are you having doubts in your team that you've followed since you understood baseball?"
Luke simply ignored her as Edgar Renteria's ground ball reached Foulke, then Doug Mientkiewicz at first base. The last out was made, the Red Sox were champions, and Lorelai was right. "The Red Sox won," he said, almost in disbelief.
"I won! I mean, they won!" Lorelai said, jumping up and down. "We won! Luke!" She leaned in to kiss him. "Why aren't you more excited about this?"
Luke stood up. "I'm thrilled. I'm just… in shock. This is… amazing!"
"What's even more amazing is that I wore this hat through their victory, I, too, earned a victory. So are you going to give me my bragging rights?" Lorelai questioned.
He smiled. "How about a lovely parting gift?" he asked, carrying her up the stairs.
"I could handle that," Lorelai said, tossing the baseball cap over the railing.