Presenting … Lucas Danes?
By GilmoreGirl1979 (the Reigning Quote Queen)
Provider of Quality FAN FICTION
R/R: yes please I love reviews, I wanna marry them (as previously stated, I have strange passions.)
Friendly disclaimer: I REJECT ASP's/DR's REALITIES AND SUBSTITUTE MY OWN! NO HARM NO SUE!
Dedicated to all my defenders and minions HUGS!!
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Chapter 45:
Coffee Drop
Or
When Everything Goes Wrong
(it's like Rocky and Bullwinkle…with two titles… no one else watched Rocky and Bullwinkle?? Okay just me!)
For the rest of Stars Hollow, Lorelai would go to work appearing strong, be the sparkling confident creature she had always been, it was an act. Rory saw a different side to the story; Lorelai would come home and bundle under the covers and wallow at night, it seemed ever since the car accident she would go to bed early. Now that Lorelai was free from academia and the bridesmaid dresses were done, she had even more time to devote to wallowing. Rory didn't say anything about her mother's practice; she would from time to time take a break from her own studying and homework to sit with Lorelai as she slept, trying to find the words to tell Lorelai that Luke still loved her, that he was going to propose to her that night, but it seemed they had a new exchange of hurtful words and Lorelai didn't want to hear Luke's name despite that she would be wearing his flannel shirt. Rory took care of her mother from a distance, as penance for going to New York, she would sneak loads of laundry out of her mother's room as Lorelai slept and even going to the store.
"Oh, I got to stop in here for a few things," Rory veered into Doose's and Lane followed her in.
"Hey, let me …" Lane took the basket before Rory could grab it, "You've got a busted arm… just point to the things you want…"
"Okay. Thanks, let's see, tissues, anything chocolate, ice cream, coffee…"
"Is she drinking it again?" Lane asked.
"Not so much, it's mainly or me…she says coffee makes her think of him, but I insist where I can, it's the only way she will be up for work."
"Ah. So how is your mom?" Lane asked with a wince.
"You can't tell anyone."
Lane assured, "Cross my heart!"
"You promise?"
"I swear on the Soul of Freddy Mercury."
Rory sighed honestly, "She's a wreck, but she won't admit it! She goes out of the house all strong, but then…at night, she openly cries in front of me now… all the while saying she's fine. I swear, she's so stubborn..."
"You got to admit, it is a family trait."
"I guess, but at least we are talking again."
"Well, you did skip town and missed her graduation."
"To which I'm making up for now. I just wish I could get them talking again."
"Well according to Miss Patty she went to the diner after her graduation, and when she left ten minutes later, she didn't look like a woman what had made up with her boyfriend."
"I've never seen her like this… I mean… I think she's really…heartbroken," that's the only word in Rory's vocabulary that fit, "She's sick to her stomach over it, hardly eats."
"Your mom? Not hungry??" Lane now understood the seriousness of the situation.
"She's playing the Ally McBeal soundtracks over and over."
"Wow, Vonda Shepard? That's some serious wallow," Lane said in awe.
"If I hear 'What Becomes Of The Broken Hearted' one more time, I'm going to break my other arm. When she discovered Don't Break My Heart Slow, she put it on repeat."
"Aw man, any way to pull a parent trap?" Lane asked with hope.
"I'm working on it; 'cause believe me something's got to change!!" Rory vowed. Rory didn't know if telling Lorelai of the planned proposal would hurt or help the situation.
Unknown to the teens, one Luke Danes over heard them in the next aisle over, feeling appropriately guilty and responsible for Lorelai's current state.
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Lane helped Rory home with the groceries and they immediately saw her mother in the living room energetically bawling on the couch while watching a movie.
"Jeez, you sure she's okay?" Lane asked.
"She's wallowing," Rory whispered and sighed.
"I know but…I've never seen her like this."
"I know. Umm, just leave these by the door, I'll call you later," Lane left quickly and quietly.
"Mom?" Rory tested as she entered the living room. Lorelai didn't seem to care that her hysterical display had been discovered. "SHHH," Lorelai hushed focus on the screen.
Rory noticed Lorelai had already changed into her Pajamas and it wasn't even five 'o'clock yet. Next Rory saw the ice on her mother's leg as she had it propped up on the coffee table, then Rory looked at the movie, it was When Harry Met Sally, which they had just watched at New Years', with Luke. I thought I hid that? Rory walked in the living room and sat with her mother as Carrie Fisher was delivering quite possibly her best line of the picture, "All I'm saying is that somewhere out there is the man you are supposed to marry. And if you don't get him first, somebody else will, and you'll have to spend the rest of your life knowing that somebody else is married to your husband."
Lorelai literally whimpered at the line, Rory couldn't ever remember her mother whimpering before, "I love this movie," Lorelai sobbed again, "It could have been called When Luke Met Lorelai. I mean Sally and I are both so high maintenance, Luke and Harry are both balding, with the dry, sarcastic humor," she hardily blew her nose.
This wasn't good. If Lorelai was wallowing that meant she was trying to move on from Luke; as in for good. "What happened?" Rory switch to sit on the coffee table to try to comfort her mother, "Did you try to talk to Luke today?"
"No!" Lorelai admonished, "… I tried… to get coffee," then Lorelai sobbed again.
"What?"
What then unfolded was the longest, most revealing conversation between mother and daughter since the silent treatment began. Lorelai was desperate for her best friend and confidant, and recounted her story for her daughter, sighing heavily through her tears.
"The night of my graduation, I did try to make up with Luke…I mean he sent me that beautiful basket, made baked goods from scratch just for me, and he even came to the ceremony, he dressed up in a suit for me; I saw him in the back after they handed me my diploma. You didn't make it but he did. I thought it was a sign that he was ready to talk, that he was open to making up, but he … he said….the most hateful thing, and you weren't at my graduation, but he of all people was."
"Oh anyway, today, like Wonder Woman I bucked up and got up early to go to work today. But there was no coffee at the inn, Sookie has been so distracted by the wedding plans that she forgot to order more, and she tried to put a rush order in, but the delivery guy somehow got stuck in traffic… traffic! It's Stars Hollow we only have one stop light. So this afternoon, in spite of Luke, I went to Weston's, 'cause I couldn't take the constant headaches anymore. I mean, Luke was right coffee was going to be the death of me…little did he know I'd die of the withdrawal of not having his…" Lorelai blew her nose again.
"So I go to Weston's, defiantly hoping he'd see me… hoping to thumb my nose at him, you know, flaunting the fact that 'ha, ha I'm drinking coffee you're not the only supplier in the world'… and of course, the only parking space was right in front of the diner, but I thought 'good increases the chances of him seeing me'. So, I got out of the car, walked across the square to Weston's, got the largest, most vile cup of coffee with whipped cream and jimmies on top, walked back across the square and actually used the cross walk with the stupid stop light, again to be sure Luke would see me, flaunting that I was okay without him, flaunting that I still had coffee; but as I walked back to the Jeep in front of the diner … but my heel broke and I twisted my ankle trying to save my coffee, when I fell hard on my knees hard and now my knees are all scraped up and really hurt along with my ankle, but the coffee…"
Lorelai took a deep breath to steal herself from reliving the horror that happened next, "…my beloved coffee literally FLEW into the air, it was all supernatural like, like it was an extra in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, like it was freakishly frozen mid-spill in the air…mocking me… and then landed on the ground about a foot from me with a sploosh. I was so distraught, so shell shocked, I just sat there and debated if it would be odd if I started licking it up off the ground. My beautiful coffee, slain in its prime, not realizing its true destiny of degrading my nervous system…"
Rory knew Lorelai was talking about more than the spilled coffee.
"I meekly crawled into the Jeep, praying Luke didn't see, my leg hurt the entire ride home as I was trying to drive. It's just so not fair!! That I let him affect me this way!!" Lorelai gasped again, "I mean, it was like fate was rubbing my face in that I'm only supposed to drink Luke's coffee and now I can't. I mean, he's the one who is being unforgiving, I went there in the name of peace and he just flew off the handle and said the most horrible things. I don't know what I'm more upset about the precious coffee wasted on the ground or the fact that I would subject myself to inferior non-Luke Coffee," or the fact that Luke hates me…
Rory tried to comfort her mother, "Well, you like Fran's coffee; she does that mocha chocolate caramel swirl-a-chino with extra whip cream that you like so much."
Lorelai sniffled again, "That's exactly what I ordered, With Jimmies!! But it's not the same without Luke there to tell me 'That sounds disgusting'," Lorelai lowered her voice to do an impression of Luke, before breaking down again. "He could have been the one," Lorelai whimpered, "My stupid dream of us being married and pregnant and him finding watermelon in January for me could have come true… and now it never will."
Rory's antenna were up, she really wanted to mention that Luke had planned to propose, but give her mother's forlorn state she was afraid of pushing Lorelai over the edge even more. Had the car accident never happened, Luke and Lorelai would have been engaged by now, eventually Lorelai and Luke would have gotten married, Luke would have been Rory's step father, and everyone would have been happily ever after; Rory thought she'd check and see on Luke's behalf, if somewhere in this despair if there was a glimmer of hope, "Mom? … You've thought about marriage? "
"You know I have! Those stupid dreams, your Grandmother going on about grave plots and Russian themed weddings… and after Uncle Louie…." Lorelai remembered that passionate night with Luke, "it just seemed like we'd go on forever. I mean, married to Luke, Aw, kind of, generally, I don't know... it just seemed like... that was the happy ending we were naturally heading toward... God could you imagine how he would have asked me?" Lorelai chuckled, "I bet it would have been beautiful," then her face wrinkled up again, "but it's over now."
Rory got a little lost over the Russian wedding idea, but still tried to sooth her mother. It wasn't over. Not if Rory could find a way.
"…All those beautiful dreams I had. With him and me...," Lorelai crumbled again. The dreams and tales they spun back in November for the ball would have become reality. Maybe they would have had kids one day. Rory let Lorelai cry for a few minutes until the doorbell rang, Lorelai begged Rory to answer the door. She didn't want any of the townsfolk to see her like this.
"I'll be …right back." She left Lorelai on the couch for a moment, and when Rory opened the door no one was there. She was about to return to her mother when Rory looked down and saw a tray of four coffees just sitting on the welcome mat. Rory saw the note on top addressed to her and she opened it.
Rory,
Your mom looks like she had a rough day.
Luke
P.S. tell her you brought these.
It was a sign that Luke still wanted to take care of Lorelai. Rory held the cups in her hand now, looking for Luke retreating down the street, wanting to yell at him to get his butt in her and tell Lorelai everything would be fine. Her mother asked timidly from inside, "Who is it?"
"Um, no one? Must have been the ghost again. Or maybe a short."
"A short?" Lorelai groaned, "That means we need to find a handy man, because Luke hates me," Lorelai sulked, knowing her usual handy man wouldn't be available.
Rory didn't know what to do with the coffee. Lorelai was bound to smell it, unless her super sniffer was severely stuffed up from her sobbing. Rory put the take out tray on the foyer table, unsure if she should show her mother the note and the coffee.
"Rory, please come back here, I can't watch this by myself…"
Rory knew that When Harry Met Sally made Lorelai think of Luke even more, Rory knew her mother shouldn't be alone. If anything, Rory could save the coffee for later.
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"That was all God given talent"
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A/N: Lorelai's Coffee Drop was based on the true events of Localizy's Coffee Drop. Her chapter title was When Everything Goes Wrong.
Thanks babe! You showed true character by rising above your coffee loss ordeal. We mourn your beverage, slain in it's prime, before it could be truly enjoyed.
A/N: I Love Alliteration! I.E. Lorelai was bound to smell it, unless her super sniffer was severely stuffed up from her sobbing.
R/R: PLEASE, I like to better myself. To quote The Princess Bride,
"...Remember this is for posterity ... so be honest."
Please be specific with R/R; name one (or as many as you can think of or want to mention…) At least one specific thing you liked
Please! It makes me feel good...inside (Dirty!)
Hence the Rant option below.
Insert Rant here V
A/N: if not completely satisfied with this chapter, please return unused portion for a full refund...