Title: A Perfect, and Somewhat Dysfunctional, Family

By: bokayjunkie

Summary: Luke and Rory has always had a special father/daughter bond that no one can break. But what happens when someone comes along to ruin that bond. Set in Season 1. Luke and Lorelai are not together…YET. A little RD also.

Disclaimer: my life sux

A/N: Yeah, people really didn't like the fact that Max stayed over. Nor the fact that he and Lorelai are together. I didn't like it either. But there's just this one scene in my head, that I wanted to write out in this story, and for that to happen, Max and Lorelai had to be together. But don't worry, Max and Lorelai will only be together in the next, three or so chapters.

I've already written down the part where Luke and Lorelai get together. All I need to do is type it up.

-I'm gonna be playing the timelines a little. That way, I can get max and Lorelai to break up sooner.

CHAPTER 17: A Boy in the House that's not Luke

Rory had woken up a little before seven. She never wakes up that early on a Saturday. Only when she sleeps over at Luke's. But, she just doesn't feel right sleeping in this place. She always felt comfortable in her own bed. Or in Luke's bed. But the bed at her grandparents just didn't feel right.

Rory checked her pager to see if Luke paged her back. Just to see if he got her message. But nothing. Looks like she'll just have to wait until she gets home to find out what's wrong.

Rory hadn't stayed for breakfast due to the fact that their cook wasn't there. Rory assured her grandparents that she will eat a decent meal once at her home. A home cooked Luke's meal. plus a cup of heaven. She couldn't wait to go home and see Luke and her mom, and Lane to talk to her.

Emily had insisted on driving Rory back in their limousine. Rory didn't object. Seriously, how often do you get to ride in a limo? Once they arrived at Stars hollow, Rory instructed the driver to stop at Luke's first, hoping to catch the diner man. But the diner was closed. Which was weird seeing as how Luke's should have been opened by now.

She told the driver to drive her to their house. Before she could open the front door, it opened and came her mother.

"Hi." with a nervous smile.

"Hi. What's up?"

"Nothing," trying to be nonchalant, "what's up with you?"

she narrowed her eyes at her mother. "You have something to tell me."

"Boy, you're so smart." she laughed nervously. "Right, okay, here we go" she drew in a deep breath, "I've got a boy in the house."

"Oh. Luke's here." of course. Where else would he be? "Cause I just passed the diner and it was still closed, so I was wondering why-"

"No" Lorelai interrupted. "It's not Luke."

Rory's face fell. Not Luke? A boy in the house that's not Luke. "What? Who is he then? And why was he sleeping here in the first place?" a boy that's not Luke, slept over at our house. The Gilmore-Danes house has been undertaken by another man?

"Nothing happened, I swear." she said quickly. Which made Rory's heart beat faster and faster. "He slept the whole night on the couch." then added, "And you know him."

"I do?" oh great, now I'm gonna have to hate this guy.

"And you like him. I don't know if that's relevant, I just thought that I would throw that in there."

"It's Mr. Medina." Rory said simply, her tone and expression blank. Her and Lorelai were standing behind the couch, watching Max sleeping peacefully on the couch.

"I know." biting her lower lip nervously.

"My English teacher is on my couch." still at an emotionless tone, but inside her she wanted to cry. She got that 'hiding your expression by putting on a blank face' from Luke.

"It was the snow." Lorelai shrugged. "You know how I get, it's like catnip. I was walking, he was there, his car was broken, we had fiesta burgers. It was the snow. Rory, say something."

Rory didn't say anything. She just walks towards the kitchen, Lorelai followed her.

"Rory, talk to me. How do you feel?"

"I don't know." she shrugged, taking a water bottle out of the fridge and taking a big sip.

"Take a guess. Angry, frustrated, nauseous?"

Rory took a breather from her consuming of water. She placed the water bottle down on the counter. "Weird," she said. "I feel weird. Has he been here all night?"

"Pretty much."

"Oh, my God. Did he go into my bathroom? I have stuff hanging in there!" he should have gone into the your bathroom with all of Luke's stuff. Seeing as how the adults shared the bathroom upstairs cause theyw anted to give Rory privacy in her own bathroom. It was their 13th birthday gift to her.

"Honey, you knew I was gonna date him, right?" well, not officially. at least until I talked to you about it. And probably Luke. But he seemed ok with it last night. "This isn't a total surprise."

"Yes, I knew you were gonna date." but I expected you to wait until I can get you to open your eyes and realize you don't want to date him. That you want to date Luke. "I just didn't expect for him to be here . . at our house. . .in the morning." oh god, please tell me nothing happened between them.

She sighed. "I know."

"I don't remember ever there being a man in our house except for Luke."

"Yeah, well, I kind of broke the rules."

"God, why is this so weird for me?" she said to nobody in specific. "I mean, Luke has slept over numerous of times before. Sometimes the three of us together on the floor. And I've slept over at his place before too."

Lorelai shrugged. " Maybe because I should've told you first."

"No." that's not it.

"Because I should have talked to you before I did this."

"No." not it either.

"Because you're afraid he smushed the couch pillows out of shape?"

"Do you love him?" all of a sudden with a serious expression. Cause I know you love Luke as more than a friend but you just wont admit it. But has her mother really gotten over Luke without even giving it a try in the first place.

No. "I, uh," boy, how to answer this, "we had one date. It was a nice date. But it was just a date. Honey, I promised myself a long time ago that I was gonna keep all this stuff separate from you, and I want you to know that that still stands, okay? This was a one-time thing. I'm not gonna start just bringing guys home. This is not a trend."

"I want you to be happy." she says quietly.

"And I love you for that."

"Plus, I know you're not a cat person, so you truly will be alone if you don't…" marry Luke. "…find someone."

"Okay, look, someday I will bring somebody home, but when I do I just want to be sure it's the guy."

But Luke's already the guy! "So, Mr. Medina's not the guy?" yay!!!!

"I don't know, he might be." she shrugged. Rory's face fell. "But right now it's just you and me." And Luke! Rory added in her head. then Rory's bedroom door opens. "And sometimes Lane." she finished, turning around to see Lane, carrying her band uniform, standing in front of Rory's bedroom door.

"Hey." Lane said to Rory.

"Hey." Rory greeted back.

"I'm gonna go wake the man up." Lorelai announced walking out of the kitchen towards the living room.

"Your mom let me spend the night here." Lane said after a moment.

Rory walked up to her. "I tried calling you back all night but the phones didn't turn back on until this morning."

"It's okay," she says quietly, "I understand."

"Lane, I'm so sorry. I've been the worst friend lately."

"No, I just wigged out a little. I get jealous sometimes. I mean, you seem to have this really great life going and I don't really fit in there."

"That's not true, you totally fit in."

"Yeah?"

"I'm talking Legos."

"I hope so." she smiled.

"I will be better from now on, I promise. Twenty-four hours a day at your disposal."

she snickered. "Dean'll love that."

"Well, he'll have to, you came first."

"That's right. I got dibs." she cried, hugging Rory tightly. "Okay, I have to go home." pulling back.

"Coffee at Luke's, 2 o'clock?"

"You're on."

"And I wanna hear all about that hair touching incident."

Lane giggled, then lowered her voice and said, "And, I'm sorry about the whole…" tilting her head towards the living room.

Rory lowered her head and gave her a sad smile. "It's ok. I just want her to be happy."

"I tried to get Luke to stay." Lane said. "Honest. I asked Lorelai if he could stay. Made up a stupid excuse that I'd feel better if he does, but he had to go to the diner and-"

"Wait Luke was here?"

"Yeah. He brought over the food." she said. " he told me you paged him and told him to bring food. He probably saw your teacher and kind of went to blank mode. He just kept on the same expression all night."

Rory was silent, still reeling in the fact that Luke was here. Here when Mr. Medina was here.

"Anyways, I better get home." Lane said and gave Rory one last hug then left through the back door.

Rory walks into the living room but stops when she sees her mom and Mr. Medina on the couch, talking. She saw her mother smiling and couldn't bare to look anymore. She felt the tears in her eyes threatening to escape.

She walked back to the kitchen and looked out the window. She pulled out the picture that she kept from her grandparents house. The picture of her, Luke and her mom on Christmas. She looked at it. Still not believing this had happened. How could this had happened?

She had worked so hard trying to get her mom and Luke together. She practically took the Parent Trap title from Hayley Mills and Lindsay Lohan. But how? How could something like this had happened. She looked at the picture again. They looked so happy. Her mom's arms linking with Luke's as she rested her head on his shoulders. His left hand resting on Lorelai's lap. His other arms encircled a little Rory securely. As she clutched onto Luke tightly. And they smiled bright, even Luke. They looked so much like a real family.

She couldn't take it anymore. She dropped her backpack on the floor and rushed out of the kitchen.

"I'm going to Luke's." she said to her mom, not even bothering to hear her reply. She walked out of the house, then once outside she started running towards Luke's. Though she shouldn't even be running. On account of the snow and the ground might be slippery.

Though, she must admit to herself, for being a Lorelai, she could run. She's convinced that she got that from Luke. Even though it's genetically impossible for her to have a running gene seeing as how Luke isn't her biological father. The Gilmore's sure as hell didn't run. Just look at her mother. And surely the Hayden's didn't run either. So how else could she have the running genes?

She was already at the square when she slowed her pace. She didn't want to slip and break her legs. But she jogged non the less. She arrived at Luke's, which was still closed. But Luke was already behind the counter, getting ready to open.

She knocked on the door, slightly out of breath. Luke looked up and smiled seeing Rory. Still in her Chilton uniform. He walked over to the door and unlocked it. Rory flew in the diner before Luke got the chance to open the door.

"Rory are you ok?" seeing her panting, "Did you run all the way here?" he was about to start on a full rant mode, when Rory dashed her way up towards Luke's apartment.

Luke stood there curiously at Rory's behavior. In a second he locked the door and rushed up to his apartment to talk to Rory. His apartment door was already opened. He walked in to find Rory standing in the middle of the room, her back to him.

"Rory what's going on?"

Rory turned around, her face was filled with tears. Luke has never been more worried in his entire life. "Rory?"

"How could you let this happen?" she cried, her tears streaming faster.

"I-"

"You were there! Lane told me. You were there!"

Luke didn't know what to do. Seeing as how he didn't even know what she was talking about. So he just walked over to her and hugged her. Rory clutched on him tightly, still sobbing.

"You could have stopped them! You could have told her how you felt." her voice muffled through his chest.

"Told who? Stopped what?" he said calmly, rubbing the girls hair.

"Why didn't you stay? If not for mom, why not for Lane?"

Then it dawned to him that she was talking about Lorelai and Max. Luke didn't know what to make of this. He didn't know what to say. So he just kept rubbing Rory's back, trying to calm her down from her sobbing.

"You could have stopped them." she said quietly, then sobbed again.

Luke walked them over towards his bed. He sat down, with Rory in his lap. She sobbed quietly in his chest as Luke calmed her.

Rory breathed in and smelt the familiar scent of Luke's room. She opened her eyes and took her time to adjust to the light. She fully opened them and saw that she was, indeed, in Luke's apartment. She also noted that she was still dressed in her Chilton uniform. Then the events of this morning came back to her. She groaned and sank her head back down on the bed. She must have fallen asleep while Luke was calming her down from her meltdown.

Then, she heard the door open and close. She smelt the familiar heavenly smell of coffee. And pancakes. And eggs. and bacon. And toast. Seconds later, she saw Luke setting a tray that and her breakfast and a cup of coffee.

"Hey." he said softly, stroking her head.

Rory rolled her body so she was laying on her back. "Hi." she gave him a small smile.

"You feeling better?" she nodded. "I didn't know if you already ate at your grandparents, but knowing you I know you'd want seconds."

She smiled more a bit. She sat up on the bed and took the tray and placed it on her lap. "Thank you." she said quietly, taking a sip of her coffee.

"So, do you want to tell me what happened earlier?"

"Not really." she mumbled, biting in her toast.

He looked at her for a moment. "Do you not like Mr. Medina?"

"Do you?" she challenged.

He raised his brows at her. "It doesn't matter whether or not I like him Rory." he said. "This is between you and your mom. She's the one going out with him and you're her daughter."

"But your opinion matters to her also." she said. And I know what your opinion on the matter is.

"Yeah, but my opinion is your opinion." he sighed. "If you like this…Mr. Medina, if you think your mother should date him … then I agree with you."

But I don't want mom to date Mr. Medina!

"But…" he continued, "If you don't like Mr. Medina, if he's a mean teacher who always gives you homework," Rory giggled a bit, "If you don't want your mom to date him, at all…then I'm with you on that 100 percent."

Rory stared at him. "You know you're giving me so much power."

"I know." he smiled. "But I only want what you want kid. I want whatever will make you happy."

What'll make me happy is if mom went out with you and you two get married. "I just want mom to be happy." she said sadly.

"I want her to be happy too. And I want you to be happy."

Well I'm not! "Do you think mom's happy with Mr. Medina?"

"I don't know. You're gonna have to ask her yourself." she sighed. Then he said. "But, she seemed happy."

Rory inwardly groan. Why did he have to say that? Does he not want to be with mom at all? He's practically throwing mom at Mr. Medina. I though he loved mom. I thought he wanted to be with her. Why did he say that?

"Sorry for breaking down earlier." she said quietly.

"It's ok."

"Can we possibly, not tell mom about this?" she asked hopeful,

"It'll be our little secret." he said as he stood up, "you can finish up your breakfast, and then take a shower. And afterwards, if you're feeling better, you can come downstairs and help me. Lane's not gonna be in today, so I'll probably need it."

Rory smiled and nodded as he left. She took a sip of her coffee and looked out the window. It was snowing. She sighed. Her mother had always said that wonderful things always happen when it snows. Boy, could her mother be anymore wrong.

Snow sucks!

REVIEWS!-yes, please, I would love to hear what you think of this story so far. Good, bad and in between. and any SUGGESTIONS, IDEAS, and/or REQUESTS you would like for this story, or any of my other stories, please do tell.

♠bokayjunkie♣