Lorelai pulled up beside the diner and jumped out of the car. Rory attempted to follow but Lorelai quickly stopped her.
"Stay in the car."
"Mom…"
"Rory, stay in the car." Lorelai's voice was stern and Rory could sense her mother's anger. Rory stepped back into the car and shut the door.
Lorelai entered the diner and saw Luke standing at the counter putting out a fresh apple pie.
"Luke…" Lorelai started walking towards her new husband. "We need to talk, now."
Luke glanced up at Lorelai. "Just a second. If I don't get this pie under glass it'll start to go stale."
"This is much more important than a pie, Luke." Lorelai grabbed him by the arm and led him upstairs to the old apartment, where Luke had been storing extra supplies.
"Lorelai… what are you doing?"
"Talking… and so are you." Lorelai closed the door to the apartment. "Guess what happened to me today, Luke?" Lorelai began sharply. "I just got back from picking my crying kid up from school…"
"Rory's crying? What happened?" Luke asked concerned.
"That's a good question. Why don't we ask Jess? Where is the scoundrel anyway? Knocking over the nearest Piggly Wiggly?"
"What?"
"He went to school and told everyone what he saw… My daughter has been ridiculed, embarrassed, and harassed. I know things don't always work out perfect, Luke and that things take time, but when my daughter is crying because some jerk kid asked her if her mom is a stripper and that he'll be over later to have coffee with me, I don't have much patience for time."
"You're kidding?"
"Does it sound like I'm kidding?"
Luke swallowed heavily. "He won't get away with this, Lorelai. I won't let him…"
"Damn straight, he's not getting away with this. He's in my house… You and I are married, and I deserve respect. And so does Rory. You talk about how things are different now and how I'm going to have to get used to having two guys around, well same goes for you."
"Lorelai, I'll handle it…" Luke assured.
"You'd better." Lorelai stared him directly in the eye. "We didn't come back to Stars Hollow for this."
Luke suddenly felt defensive. "Why did you come back to Stars Hollow, Lorelai?" he asked bitterly.
"Because, Rory thought this was some magical place that was going to make all of her dreams come true. Some fairytale land that was full of storybook characters and charming coffee shops."
"And it's not?" Luke asked.
"No… It's not." Lorelai turned and left the apartment, slamming the door behind her.
Lorelai bolted out of the diner and hurried into her car. Rory didn't say a word. She knew that now was not the time to talk to Lorelai. A few minutes later they pulled into their driveway and sure enough, there was Jess sitting on the back porch reading one of his books.
Lorelai had contemplated saying something to Jess, but before she could consider her options, Rory was already out of the car and headed towards the boy.
"You jerk!"
"Nice to see you too." Jess replied.
"How could you do something like that!?" Rory stormed over beside him.
"Something like what?"
"Don't play stupid…"
Jess stood from the steps. "That's kind of hard to do when talking to you."
Lorelai came up behind Rory. "Rory, don't…."
Rory turned back to her mother. "No… He needs to admit what he done and apologize."
"Apologize for what?" Jess asked.
"For telling everyone at school what you saw yesterday morning." Rory snapped her head back at Jess. "You're never satisfied until you wreck everything are you?"
"Wreck everything?" Jess replied. "I took up for you. I got into a fight for you."
"Yeah, right…" Rory spat.
"Rory…" Lorelai repeated.
"Okay, so I told some people Lorelai spilled coffee on her. It was funny. I didn't tell them anything else… When they started mentioning all that other stuff, I told them to back off."
"Stop acting like your some charming heroic gentleman! Just admit what you did!"
"I already admitted what I did!" Jess yelled in return. "If you'd get your head out of your ass every now and then, maybe you could see that!" Jess rushed off the steps and started walking away from the house.
"Run!" Rory shouted. "Run away just like you always do, Jess!"
Lorelai was surprised. She had always thought she carried a mean punch, especially when it came to putting a guy in his place, but she wasn't the only feisty Gilmore in the house. It was like looking back into Lorelai's teenage years, but was that a good thing?