A.N. Here is chapter 2... I had fun writing it! Thanks to Maddy :):) And special thanks to every one of you who took the time to leave a comment. It makes all the difference in the world! Every reviews gave me a boost to write faster so you could get another chapter within a week. Keep it up and I'll do the same!

Disclaimer: Gilmore Girls isn't mine. But if ASP wants my ideas, she doesn't even have to ask! ;)


Chapter 2

Script, Coffee, and Bras

"How did I get tricked into this?" Lorelai asked herself as she dragged her exhausted body all the way to her couch. If watching people acting all day made her this tired, she'd never survive acting herself. And what about what people would think? Since Luke's mocking this afternoon, she could barely think about telling Rory. Oh, her kid would die in laughter. She, Lorelai, was the one making fun of the actors. It was her lifestyle. She was NOT the one to be made fun of.

"I have to get out of this one," she sighed. "Costumes, I can do. Making a fool of myself in front of Stars Hollow, I can usually pull off... but on a STAGE!"

She buried her face in a pillow. Still moaning when the phone rang, she barely heard it in time.

"Allo?" she answered, hoping it was a wrong number even though it happened maybe only once a year in Stars Hollow.

"Sweetie! I heard you were the female star of the production... Oh my! I bought my tickets right away," Babette breathed.

"Tickets?" Already!

"Taylor is pre-pre-selling tickets. So! Tell me about Dougie! Last time I saw him he was a kid. Is he a good kisser? Are you aloud to use tongue on stage?"

"We haven't rehearsed yet, Babette. It hasn't even been official for 5 minutes. And I don't wanna burst your bubble, but I don't think the on-stage kisses are real."

"Just let me know if his ass is!" she said in a playful tone before hanging up.

Lorelai couldn't help but smile when the phone rang again, two seconds later.

"No, I haven't touched his ass yet."

"Well, don't take too long then... Whose ass, dear?"

"Oh, hey, Miss Patty!"

Great! Now's my chance to quit. It's now or never.

"Lorelai, you went home so fast I didn't have time to give you the script..."

"Oh, well, speaking of which..."

"...so I sent Kirk to deliver it to you."

There was a pause where Lorelai tried to figure a way to back out. But she didn't.

"Great, thanks. So, I'll see you soon."

"Tomorrow, sweetheart. First rehearsal is tomorrow 10am."

"So soon?" Lorelai thought she might die.

"We've got to get moving, the show's in 3 months! Well, I have a date so I'll see you tomorrow!"

Patty hung up. Lorelai realized how hectic and weird this afternoon had been so far. Just before she reached the kitchen, her door bell rang. Four times.

Exasperated, Lorelai shouted, "I'm coming! Don't break anything!"

Kirk was on the porch - not smiling - with abig, fat, sealed envelope. She had never seen him this serious before.

"Hi, Kirk. Are you feeling better?"

He didn't bother to answer, nor did he look at her.

"This is the official script. It can change without prior notice. Don't show it to anyone don't mention its content to any living mammal."

"Got it." Lorelai tried not to laugh while attempting to takethe package. Kirk took a step back.

"I just want you to realize how lucky you are to receive one of these."

"I do." Not. And she reached again. Kirk took another step back.

"If you don't want to give it to me, Kirk, don't." She sighed.

"You have to sign here." Putting the package under his arm, he took a bunch of papers out of his pocket. He handed one of the sheets and a pen to Lorelai. "If you need a lawyer, we can provide one for you."

Ridiculous. Without reading anything, Lorelai signed. She motioned to give the pen back along with the paper when Kirk pulled out another sheet.

"Here and here," he added.

She signed the two lines he pointed out. When Kirk handed hera blank note pad, Lorelai had to ask, "What's this one for?"

"It's for me. In case you become a star."

She executed his demand. Kirk took the pad back and read. "Coffee Gigi L. More... That's not your name!" he protested.

"It will be if I become famous."

Kirk put the envelope in Lorelai's hand as slowly and carefully as if it was a new born. And with a last, teary look at it, he turned away. Finally.

Lorelai set the envelope on the coffee table and stared at it as if it was a bomb. She couldn't bring herself to open it because once it was open, it was real. She was an actress. Oh God. She couldn't even say it out loud.

Before panicking completely, she hid it somewhere and tried her luck for a nap. Surprisingly, she fellasleep pretty fast and for alittle too long. She woke up past 9:30pm because she was starving. She didn't have to look in her fridge to know she didn't have anything edible in it. She picked up the phone for pizza and then, it hit her. In about 12 hours, she had a rehearsal. She didn't know anything about this. She didn't know anything about the part she was playing. She didn't know where to start and what to do. She was in trouble. The last time she had felt this helpless was when she knew she was pregnant with Rory. Yeah, ok. Maybe she was over reacting,but it doesn't change the fact that she was close to hyperventilation.

She had an idea. She called the only one who would help her even if the situation was ridiculous. She'd have to trick him into it though...

"Luke's," he answered.

"Hi, I'd like to place an order for delivery, please." She tried to change her voice a little, but her acting talent was not so good...even only on the phone.

"We don't do deliveries, Lorelai."

"But I need to eat!"

"Call elsewhere."

"But I need some Luke's!" she pleaded.

"Then come over, we're almost closed."

"I can't."

"Why not?" he asked. "You're 5 minutes away."

"I can't get out of the house," she explained.

"Oh. You're a hostage again?"

"No. I'm in my pajamas."

"..."

Luke remained silent. Well, he made a soft kind of gaspy sound, but he didn't say anything. He played with the phone cord so hard it almost broke. She was in her pyjamas... oh God. He breathed in slowly and finally spoke up.

"Get dressed."

"Nooooo..." He could see her pout just by the childish tone of her voice. "I'm comfortable. And starving. Please, Luke..."

His throat was so dry. All he could see was her, comfortable, in her pajamas... He pretended to be annoyed and sighed.

"Ok. I'll be there with your dinner."

"And co..."

"And coffee. I'm not stupid and I don't have Alzheimer's."

He hung up before she could say thank you or squeal, delighted by her amazing ability to make him do whatever she wanted him to do. She was so happy with herself that she forgot her rehearsal problems for a few minutes.

Mechanically, she went to the bathroom and brushed her hair which was down. She applied some clear-cherry lipstick, smacked her lips together and smiled at her image in the mirror. She froze, suddenly.

"What am I doing?" she said out loud. "This is not a date. It's Luke. With dinner. I'm not going to dinner with Luke, Luke is bringing me dinner." She sighed. "Gahhhhh!"

She put back her makeup in the cabinet and looked at herself once more. "There's no harm in wanting to look pretty, right? Right. Besides, Luke doesn't care. So I'm doing this for myself. He doesn't care..."

She felt down, now. She didn't feel pretty anymore, just like that. And then she heard the knock on the front door. Her stomach flipped, even thoughshe tried hard to stay calm. She opened the door, where Luke was holding bags of food. When he saw her, he froze, looking at her from head to toe

"You're not in your pajamas," he stated.

She shrugged her shoulders and grinned shyly, like a little girl would do if she had gotten caught eating cookies before dinner.

"If you came to see my pajamas, I can show them to you."

"I'm just delivering your food and coffee." He gave her the bags and turned to the door.

"Stay!" she shouted.

Luke turned around, almost in slow motion. What had she just said?

"I'm freaking out!" she continued.

Luke chuckled. "You seem fine."

"You wanna see me freak out on you? Because I can. It's only a switch away."

Luke held up his hand. "It's fine. Why are you freaking out?"

"The first rehearsal is tomorrow," she whispered.

Luke couldn't help but burst into laughter.

"That's right! You are an artist now!"

"You can make fun of me as much as you want, only if you help me."

She took his arm and pulled him over to the couch, forcing him to sit down and put the bags of food on the table.

"Whoa, whoa! I can't help you."

"Yes you can! You took acting lessons!" she reminded him.

"Not that again..." he mumbled.

"Luke, this is serious. I've never done somethinglike this before. I have NO idea what to do or what to expect. You know how it works, you've done it before!"

"You sound like a virgin," he let out, his face turning red instantly.

Lorelai smiled slowly. "I would show you I'm not, but I don't have time. The rehearsal is in 12 hours."

Slightly disturbed, Luke shifted in his seat making sure he wasn't looking at Lorelai. Caught off guard, he agreed to help her.

"Just this once."

She jumped up and down, clapping her hands.

"Thank you, thank you!"

Lorelai stared at Luke the way a student stares at a teacher, waiting for him to tell her what to do.

"What are you waiting for?" he asked, sounding impatient. "Go get the script!"

Her smile froze at that last word.

"We need the script?"

"Jeez! Of course we need it. You know what a script is, don't you?"

"Of course I know what it is." She thought for a second. "I just don't know where I put it."

"You lost it?"

"I... misplaced it."

"How could you do this in such a short period of time?" he said, amazed.

"I hid it and I don't remember where."

"You hid the script. May I ask why?"

"He was mocking me."

"HE!"

"Yes," she pouted.

Luke nodded and got up.

"Where do you usually hide the things that mockyou?" he asked, shaking his head afterhearing how serious he had said that.

"Uhm... under the sink, in the cupboards, in the bath, under my bed, in the laundry basket, in Rory's bedroom so they can mock her instead..."

"Enough said. You look upstairs, I'll cover the first floor."

"Yes captain!" And he watched her climb the stairs. That woman was crazy. And she smelt good.

"Okay, Danes. You're on a mission here," he reminded himself, heading to the bathroom.

The first few minutes of his search were useless. When he saw the laundry basket, he told himself there was no way he was going to look in it. So he stared at it for a few seconds. "The sooner I find the script, the sooner I'll get home," he thought. So he looked in it. Carefully at first, even slower later. He brought one of her shirts to the side and started to dig in the mess, telling himself there was no chance of finding a script buried so far in clothes. Then he saw it. The black, delicate, lace bra. His knee went weak and his breath got caught in his throat. He was being stupid. He was acting like a stalker! He knew he had to stop staring at it. He wasn't 16 for God's sake! But his hands decided otherwise and he ended up with the bra between his fingers.

"I found it! It was under a..." Lorelai stopped as soon as she saw her bra in Luke's hands. "...pillow," she whispered inaudibly. Her brain stopped functioning. She blushed, putting a hand over her opened mouth. Their eyes met and locked. Her heart was pounding way faster than it ever had. She was embarrassed, to say the least, to see Luke's fingers on her lingerie... She was troubled, flustered.

Luke quickly turned to Lorelaias soon as he heard her. He didn't even think about dropping the bra back into the basket. He didn't know what to say. Was she going to throw him out? Was she going to be scared for life?

He finally said some stupid words. "I didn't... intentionally. I was digging into…to see if the script was... I... You know I'm not a maniac or anything... I'm... I'm sorry, I..."

Lorelai had never seen Luke like this. She couldn'thelp but to start giggling under her hand.

"It's okay, Luke," she finally said. "Pull yourself together, I still need your help."

And she returned to the living room as if nothing had happened. Luke took a minute to settle down and find the courage to sit beside her on the couch. She opened the envelope and was looking through the script.

"So, what do I have to do for tomorrow, Luke? There's no way I'm gonna learn this by heart tonight. I'm not Rory."

"Well..." He was still shocked about earlier but he managed to hide it a little. "You probably have to read the script a couple of times to really know what it's about. And... uhm..."

She was looking at him intensively. But he knew she wasn't listening to a word he was saying. Her mind was clearly elsewhere, judging by the smile playing on the corner of her lips.

"What?" he asked. He shouldn't have.

"What do you think?"

Oh. God.

"About?"

Luke had always had a way to pretend everything was cool.

She grinned evilly, unconsciously lickingher lips. She was killing him without even touching him. If she did, he'd die.

"About my bra."

She said it as if it was no big deal. If only he had known how nervous she was, just having this weird conversation, he might have felt better. But she continued to smile, because she loved making him uncomfortable.

"Aw Jeez! Lorelai! Come on... don't do this."

He looked around, nervously.

"Luke, I caught you poking through my underwear. The least you can do is to tell me what you think about it..." she said in aninnocent voice.

"I was not poking..." he said, looking at her straight in the eye. He had no idea how he managed to do so, but he was not going to look down first this time.

She kept gazing, tilting her head.

"What do you think of my bra?" she repeated. She sounded really silly, but she was having a blast.

"I... I think..." his gaze dropped and he accidentally looked at her breast. This situation was impossible! He stood up and paced around.

Even though she was feeling so nervous, Lorelai laughed at his reaction.

"That good, huh?" she teased. She would never have admitted it, but she really wanted to know.

Luke adjusted his baseball cap and looked at Lorelai. She wanted an answer? She'd get one.

"You're clearly not a virgin."

She narrowed her eyes.

"I'll take that as a compliment..."

Luke nodded.

The tension being unbearable, Lorelai changed the subject.

"So... all I have to do is read the text? That's it?"

"And eat your dinner before it's too cold."

"Thanks, Luke," she smiled genuinely.

When Luke closed the door behind him, they both let out a breath they didn't know they were holding. And they smiled. They both knew they were gonna tease and get teased about this incident for a long, long time.

THE NEXT MORNING

Lorelai was already up when her alarm clock went off. In fact, she was up, fed and caffeinated. It might have been the first time she experienced being in advance. She wondered why she didn't make a habit out of it.But after 46 minutes of walking around her living room, making sure she didn't skip a page while reading the script and looking at the time on her VCR; Lorelai remembered why she was always late. It gave her less time to stress and obsess.

When 9:56am finally showed up, she walked to the mirror to make sure today's inevitable humiliation wouldn't be caused by some weird thing on her face... Good thing she did check; nothing on her face, but her blouse was missing buttons and you could totally see her bra. I wonder what Luke would think of this one, she thought. Remembering the look on his face, she cracked up. It was halfway up the staircase that she stopped laughing. She was thinking about Luke again. That was happening too much lately. She spent way too much time with him. She needed a boyfriend, or at least some man-related-action. She ran up the rest of the stairs and changed her exhibitionist blouse for a tight, but turtleneck tank top.

When she entered the studio, everyone was sitting on a yoga mat on the floor, except Doug. He was standing tall; looking handsome in the back with a coffee cup in is hand. He saw her first and discretely waved. She flashed him a shy smile and walked up to him without a noise. Usually, when she walked into any place, she liked being noticed. But today... she felt like the 6-years-old-Lorelai, chocking in 20 meters of white tulle. That's why she felt like melting when Miss Patty greeted her Hollywood fashion-ly.

"Lorelai Gilmore! Everyone, everyone please look at her. This gorgeous piece of a woman will be your female lead."

And if that wasn't enough...

"I hope she knows her lines," Kirk shouted from somewhere, "because if she doesn't, we will have to replace her."

Oh God. Luke didn't tell me I had to know my lines! I'm gonna make a fool out of myself!

"I can do it," Kirk continued cheerfully. "I know her lines. I know everybody's the lines. I could do a one-man show with it! Here it goes: 'Hey...'..."

"Enough Kirk. Sweetie, we are not going to rehearse the script today. This is our first meeting!" Patty cleared up.

We're not? I'm gonna kill Luke.

Doug must havefelt the tension Lorelai was experiencing right now because he lightly put his hand on her lower back to make her relax. And it worked. She turned to him and smiled. He gave her his coffee and said, "It's for you. Luke told me you were a junkie."

She brought a hand to her heart and battered her eyelashes.

"Already talking about me?" she joked.

"It just came intothe subject."

"Did he tell you about my laundry basket?" She needed to forget this. She was being redundant with herself.

"What about your laundry?" Doug asked, curious, confused, and cute.

But Miss Patty had a rehearsal to run. She told them they wouldn't need the script for today and put them all in groups of two partners.

"The partner you get today is gonna be the one you keep until the premiere."

And Lorelai ended up with Doug. She made them sit down on the same mattress, facing each other and she said, "I'll give you three exercises for today. There purpose is to make you all feel more comfortable and trustful with each other."

"Patty..." That was Kirk again. "I don't have a partner. Can I skip the beginner's level and go straight tothe advanced class?"

"You're not taking swimming lessons, Kirk. You're doing a play. I'll be your partner."

You could see from his face that poor Kirk was scared, almost on the verge of tears. Miss Patty explained the first exercise.

"The woman in your partnership is going to let herself fall back for her male partner to catch."

As soon as those words were out of Patty's mouth, everyone jerked their heads toward Kirk. He ran away faster than he ever ran.

A few minutes later, Lorelai was the only one who hadn't tried the fall yet. Her back was still to Doug who was waiting patiently, encouraging her. Every time she closed her eyes and tried to let her body go, she made a step back.

"Wait. You're too far, you're gonna drop me," she said. Then she shook her head. "I'm sorry, I'm sure you are a strong healthy man... I'm just... reaaaallllly heavy, you know?"

Doug just laughed. Seeing how much trouble Lorelai was having, Patty approached them and said, "Lorelai, doll, you ought to let go of your trust problem with the male kind. Let yourself experience the pleasure of abandoning your body to a mannnn."

Now, that sounds weird.

Doug chuckled. Lorelai knew everyone was staring at her like in her worst nightmare. Except she wasn't naked.

"I'm not having trust issues!" Lorelai protested. "It's just physically impossible for me to fall backwards. It's because of this really bad chickenpox I had; the doctor said my balance had been affected... And that, unfortunately, I would never be able to fall back again. Ask Rory! When I trip, it's always a fall on my face."

"Nice rant..." Doug whispered, impressed.

"You are a born-star!" Patty laughed, theatrically. "Now, everyone! The next exercise is very simple and it will conclude today's rehearsal."

She went to the stereo and pressed play. A slow song came on.

"That I can do." Lorelai smiled at Doug.

They had no trouble at all dancing together. Some people would even have said they were perfect for it. They laughed quietly and talked like two old friends.

That's when Luke decided to show up with the case of water bottles Miss Patty had ordered from him. He nearly dropped it as he saw them dancing really closely, and having fun. He put down the case next to the door, and with a last look in their direction, understood he had a choice. He could do something really quickly... or let them be.


A.N.2 Sad. I didn't want to stop writing but I wanted you to have something... so here it was. In the next chapter, even more Luke&Lorelai action... I know you hate Doug, but he's there for a reason. Even the ugliest spider has its purpose. So don't squish it! And review!