The next morning at the Dragonfly Inn, Lorelai is called from her office by a pleasant as usual Michel and in response to his usual pleasantness she made him wait while she gathered together the last of the inn's receipts for that quarter and shoved them in an envelope. When Lorelai finally does walk into the reception area, carrying that envelope, pieces of receipts sticking out everywhere, she drops it with a thud on Michel's desk.
"These are for you." She says haughtily.
"Someday you will pay for the sick pleasure this gives you." He threatens.
"Maybe, someday, but not today and I wouldn't get your hopes up about tomorrow either. You summoned?"
"Yes, some person is here to see you." Michel motions languidly towards the sitting room.
"What?! Michel! You failed to mention that someone, other than you, was waiting for me." Lorelai scolds, glaring at him.
"Did I? What a shame." He replies not attempting believability.
Lorelai glances into the other room, asking herself for what seems to be the millionth time, why she hadn't fired the infuriating Frenchman.
"That's not just some person, Michel. That's Lane. You know Lane."
"Whatever, I do not keep track of all the little people in your life, Lorelai. Contrary to popular belief, that is not part of my job description."
"Either is being a royal pain in my ass, but that hasn't stopped you." Lorelai snaps before she takes off to the other room to greet the very patient Lane Kim.
Lane is standing in the middle of the sitting room humming 'Icky Thump', her left hand drumming the rhythm on her thigh, her right holding tightly to a Luke's bag. The sight and sound makes Lorelai grin, you have to love this kid.
"Hey Lane! Honey, I am so sorry. Michel, didn't tell me you were waiting."
"Hi Lorelai. It's no problem." Lane assures. Lorelai smiles reflecting, she'd had the pleasure of watching two little girls grow into amazing young women. While Lorelai was looking Lane over during her trip down, well, memory lane, she remembered the bump, or rather, she saw the bump.
"Wow, twins! Lane, Rory told me and I am so happy for you! Oh my god, you are going to be so huge!" Lorelai squeals excitedly. "Beautifully so, beautifully huge." She adds quickly, making a face that broadcasted her recalculation. Yup, she had spent too much time with books these days, not enough human contact.
"I think, thank you." Lane says uneasily, wrestling with the mental picture Lorelai had inadvertently conjured up.
Lorelai clears her throat guiltily, changing the subject she points to the Luke's bag Lane is carrying.
"Making a delivery?" Lorelai half giggles, half cringes. "No pun intended."
"Um, yeah." Lane mumbles still picturing.
"Shouldn't you be sitting?" Lorelai asks. "Why don't you tell me which traitor is to receive what's in the bag before Sookie sniffs out a competitors ware because we all remember what happened last time and no one wants a repeat of the Wooden Spoon Bashing of '05. I'll make sure it gets to them, I promise. I'm trustworthy. While you sit, because standing for three, can't be fun." Lorelai rambles as she gestures toward the couch and then to add a final enticement says "I will make sure they tip you big, I'll play up that whole pregnant with twins angle. It'll be fun."
Lane can't help but laugh. "That's alright. I'm good, I don't need to sit." She says still giggling.
"Are you sure? You could start a college fund." Lorelai tempts.
"I'm sure."
"So, who's the deliveree to your deliverer?" Lorelai asks her curiosity piqued.
Lane stops smiling. "It's you." She answers gently.
"What? What's me?"
Lane extends the bag out to Lorelai, illuminating. "This is for you."
Lorelai shakes her head. "I didn't order anyth . . ."
"I know, it's been sent to you."
"Sent to me." Lorelai repeats dumbly.
"Boss's orders." Lane offers with forced lightness. Lane knew from second one that this would be no simple task, after all she was neither deaf nor blind and certainly from seconds five, six, and seven on when Luke took her aside giving her his specific instructions, so unlike Luke, being usually the 'throw it in a bag, get it out the door, make sure you get paid before the heart attack sets in', kind of guy. Then there was the solemnity with which he said "Make sure she takes it, Lane," top that off with the way Lorelai was staring at the bag now as if it would recoil and strike her at any moment, so not your average delivery.
"Boss's ord . . .Luke?" Lorelai asks her voice cracking. Lane nods.
"Why?"
"I'm just the messenger or deliverer." Lane smiles apologetically.
Lorelai crosses her arms in front of her body, guarded. She narrows her eyes at the bag, her mind spinning in a million different directions, none of them good. After an awkward silence she glances back up to Lane with new appraisal.
"An adorably pregnant, irresistible, Korean Trojan horse." She says as if reaching an epiphany.
"Huh?" Poor Lane, confusion puts it lightly.
"What's in the bag, Lane? An explosive device, perhaps?" Lorelai asks accusingly. Lane sighs.
"Coffee and a danish, hardly the makings of a bomb." She says kindly.
"Arsenic coffee. Anthrax danish." Lorelai clarifies for her.
"Luke had me pour the coffee and wrap the danish myself. Probably anticipating this." Lane says motioning to Lorelai and her current state of suspicion. "So, you're in the clear, no Arsenic, no Anthrax, no explosive device, I promise. Besides think of all the explaining I'd have to do to Rory if I were responsible for your blowing up, who has that kind of time?" Lane smiles thrusting the bag into Lorelai's hands, it was time to make a quick exit. "Take the bag. You'll be fine." Lane reassures before leaving.
"Bye, Lane." Lorelai calls after her, her eyes never leaving the bag.
A gust of cold November wind skirts around the closing door and rushes tumbling into the room. Lorelai shivers, the chill waking her from her stupor and retreats, carrying the bag at arms length, into the kitchen, ignoring Michel's amused look as she passes through his line of sight.
"Luke sent me coffee and a danish." She announces abruptly as she walks through the doors, setting the offending bag on the kitchens center island. Sookie looks up from her work that statement having made its impression. "Luke was here?" She asks surprised.
"No. Lane."
"Hmm, smart." Sookie assess.
"Yeah, huh?"
Sookie dries her hands on a nearby cloth and reaches for the bag.
"No!" Lorelai yells slapping Sookie's hand. "What are you doing?! You don't just open it, not without listening for a ticking sound or the exhale of toxic gases or something!"
"Honey, you really should quit watching 24." Sookie advises as she reaches for the bag, only to have her hand slapped again. "Ow, stop it! You're being ridiculous." Successfully grabbing the bag, Sookie pulls out its contents and sets them on the counter, sure enough, it's your everyday, run of the mill, coffee and danish. However Lorelai has ducked behind the table in preparation for a blast. "See, nothing." Sookie smiles showing off the offenders with a wave of her hand.
"Yeah, well." Lorelai mutters straightening up and dusting off her pants. "I still wish I had one of those taste tester guys that protect royalty from poisonous assassination attempts." She pouts unconvinced of the benign nature of the offering.
"If it will make you feel better, I'll take a bite."
"Oh, yeah, that'll make me feel better, having my best friend and mother of two take a bullet for me. No thank you."
Lorelai leans against the island, her elbows on its counter, her chin resting on her hand. She and Sookie stare at the danish, waiting for inspiration.
"In your haste to dispose of the hazardous waste you received from the Asian girl, you forgot to put your signature on this." Michel says as he walks through the door waving the sheet under Lorelai's face. She grabs it and signs shooting him daggers until the moment when an almost visible light bulb goes off over her head. Lorelai's frown turns into a sweet smile, understand, that when I say sweet, I mean to say sweetly devious and she hands the paper back to him.
"Michel?" She purrs. "Would you like a danish?
"Oh yes and afterwards why don't I go to Mc Donald's and drink the grease from the deep fryer." He says, disgusted.
"So, that's a no?"
"Absolutely not!"
"How about just a bite?" Lorelai pushes, advancing on him with the danish in hand.
"Get away from me! You are insane!" He yells fleeing from the kitchen.
"Sorry, hon." Sookie laughs.
Lorelai looks at the danish in her hand.
"Tell Rory I love her." She says dramatically before taking a bite.
"Mm. good." Then quite suddenly her face sours and she begins choking and gurgling.
"Lorelai!" Sookie panics and rushes to her side.
"Ha, just kidding." She laughs, instantly recovered.
"You're horrible." Sookie admonishes pushing her lightly.
"Here, try the coffee." She challenges, handing her the cup. Lorelai takes it with a raised eyebrow.
"Mean." She mumbles the cup already to her lips. "Mmmmmm, oh my god, I've missed this."
"Do you and the coffee need a moment alone?" Sookie teases, picking up the bag to discard it in the trash but stops when it rattles. She looks inside to find that on her first inspection she had overlooked a card.
"Lorelai."
"Hmm." She murmurs still indulging in the coffee.
"There's a note." Lorelai's head pops up. She stares at the card held in front of her, not a card really but a folded piece of paper with her name on it, her name written unmistakably by Luke.
"And I was worried about the food." Lorelai sighs setting the coffee down and reaching for the note. She holds it in her hands for a time, fingering the lettering of her name its familiar twists and turns, her mind disappearing into memories too intimate, too fragile to voice aloud. Sookie diverts her eyes from Lorelai face, letting her read the note with some privacy. It seems like an eternity, Sookie fidgets on her feet, she twists a dishrag round and round in her hands, she lists the ingredients of tonight's entrée over and over in her head until finally she can take it no longer and blurts out against her better judgment. "Lorelai?!"
"It just says 'thank you'." Lorelai whispers, and indeed that's all it said; Lorelai, Thank you. Luke .
"Thank you?" Sookie repeats waiting for an explanation and when it was evident that Lorelai wasn't about to provide one, she asks "For what? What does that mean?"
"I don't know."
"Sweetie?" Sookie prompts.
"I don't know." Lorelai admits. "It could be a nostalgic thank you like 'thanks for the memories' or it could be an angry thank you like 'thanks for staying the hell out of my diner' or even a sarcastic thank you like 'thanks for ripping out my heart and doing a little tap dance on it', I don't know!" Her distress increasing with every possibility.
"It could be a 'thank you for saving my ass at the town meeting'. Sookie suggests.
"Yeah, I guess."
"What do you want it to mean?"
"I don't know." Lorelai answers a little too quickly.
"What are you going to do?"
"I don't know."
"Are you going to talk to him?"
"Sookie!"
"Let me guess, you don't know." Sookie scoffs lightly.
Lorelai glances down at the note in her hand, willing it to magically reveal to her what Luke was thinking and when the 'Jeanie' nod and the 'Bewitched' twitch offer no further aid, she puts the note in the pocket of her jacket and picks up the coffee.
"Is there any hope left that there might have been some Arsenic in this coffee?" She asks peering into it.
"No, honey. You'd have dropped by now."
"Crap." Lorelai laments.
"Lorelai . ." Sookie begins.
"I am happy, damn it!" She shouts, it would seem a random statement to some but not to anyone who truly knew her and Sookie did.
"I know." She says firmly.
"I just mis . . ." Lorelai's voice fades away.
"I know." Sookie whispers wrapping her arms around her friend in a tight hug.
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