"I'm sorry, do I know you?" Lorelei jested as she walked out of the kitchen to greet her daughter at the front door. "You look a little like my daughter but that's impossible because my daughter moved to Philadelphia and never ever visits the mother who gave up so much to raise her."
"Well that's because you did such a wonderful job of raising her that she grew up into an amazingly talented- and very pretty, I might add- woman and left the nest and started her own life as a top-notch journalist," Rory bantered back.
"Eh, she's not that amazing," Lorelai dead-panned.
"Hey!" Rory pouted, placing her hands on her hips.
"Well OK, maybe you're a little amazing," she conceded. "I've missed you kid," she added drawing Rory into a heartfelt hug.
"Missed you too Mom." Rory smiled.
"So, how are you doing?" Lorelai asked seriously.
"Tired from the drive...and kind of thirsty," Rory answered, clearly being evasive.
"That's not what I meant," Lorelai chastised.
"Yes, well that doesn't make it any less true. I'm gonna go get a soda," Rory answered. She walked off towards the kitchen and Lorelai followed.
"So, you going to tell me what's going on?" Lorelai asked as she drew a chair out from the kitchen table and sat.
"I already told you everything," Rory pulled open the refrigerator door.
"You told me the Reader's Digest version. I'm the Mom, I don't get the Reader's Digest version."
"OK this is weird," Rory said as she looked in the open refrigerator.
"What's weird?"
"There are vegetables in here," she said, still avoiding her mother's inquisition. "and..." Rory opened the freezer just to take a look. "There's chicken in here that isn't pressed into nugget shapes and breaded."
"Luke's," Lorelai said nonchalantly. "I told him not to bring his healthy food here. It doesn't feel at home in this kitchen and I think the tator tots and Mallomars make fun of it."
Rory tilted her head to the side, examining the contents of the refrigerator. "Yeah, this banana has a bruise. I wonder if it got beat up by the pudding cup sitting next to it."
"I wouldn't doubt it, those pudding cups can be vicious," Lorelai dead-panned as her daughter sat down next to her with a can of Coke. "Hey, I have an idea. Instead of the soda we can go to Luke's and get some coffee and pie," she said excitedly.
"I don't know..." Rory hesitated.
"Aww, are you scared of Luke?"
"No," Rory insisted. Lorelai responded with a knowing look. "Fine, maybe I'm a little scared of Luke," she admitted. "I just don't want him to be mad at me."
"First, he's not mad at you. He doesn't have any idea what happened. All he knows is what Jess told him which is that he moved back in with his old roommates while the two of you worked some stuff out. Second, you can't avoid Luke by not going to Luke's, seeing as he lives here now."
"I can hide in my old room," Rory said hopefully.
"Kid..." Lorelai said, raising her eyebrows at Rory.
"I know," she pouted.
"So, coffee and pie at Luke's?"
"Coffee and pie at Luke's," Rory agreed, standing up from the table and grabbing the coat she'd draped over the chair. "Let's go."
Rory plopped herself down at one of the tables in the diner. "I swear that walk used to be shorter, that had to be a good quarter mile from the house," she huffed.
"It just seems longer because you're getting old," Lorelai told her.
"Hey!" Rory pouted. "If I'm getting old than you're practically mythic."
"Yes, and as any good mythical enchantress my beauty never fades."
"You keep telling yourself that," Rory rolled her eyes at her mother.
"It's true, Luke agrees with me, don't you honey?" she asked as he walked towards the table
"Yeah, sure," he mumbled in response.
"Aww, see how much he loves me?" Lorelai directed the question at Rory but was ignored.
"Hi Luke," Rory said uncomfortably. She smiled slightly.
"Hey Rory, how's it going?" he asked her, equally uncomfortably.
"I'm OK," she responded. "I'd get up and give you a hug but I'm much to tired from the walk here," she grinned.
"Well that's because you're wearing those ridiculous shoes," he admonished pointing to the three inch heels on her feet.
"They're not ridiculous," she pouted. "They're pretty."
"Pretty and impractical."
"Yes, but the important part is that they're pretty," Rory emphasized.
Luke rolled his eyes. "You're as bad as your mother."
"I at least come a close second," she responded, giving him a bigger smile.
"So you're doing alright than?" Luke asked Rory again.
"I'm alright," she promised.
"Good. My nephew is a complete lunk head. I told him what an idiot he was on the phone."
Rory felt a wave of guilt hit her. She didn't want Luke to be mad at her but she certainly didn't want Luke to be mad at Jess, it wasn't his fault after all, she was the one messing things up. "No, Luke. It's not Jess's fault. They're are just somethings that we need to work through. It'll be alright. In fact, I spoke to him yesterday. We're going to work through this, don't be mad at Jess," she pleaded on her fiance's behalf.
"You didn't tell me you spoke to Jess yesterday," Lorelai spoke up.
Rory turned to her mother. "It was a short talk, I just stopped by the bookstore to let him know I was coming here for the weekend. There's still a lot we need to talk about but it was a start."
"I'm always the last to know everything," Lorelai whined.
Luke rolled his eyes at his wife and chuckled softly. "OK well I'm going to go get you guys some coffee. And some pie," he added.
"He knows us to well," Rory said to her mother.
"Yes, I trained him well," she answered proudly.
Just as Luke turned and walked away from the table the bell above the door rang. Rory turned to see Kirk walk into the dinner. "Hey, it's Kirk," she said, happily anticipating a good dose of wackiness. "Why is Kirk wearing that green sash? Did he win the Miss America pageant or something?"
"Oh just wait..." Lorelai told her daughter conspiratorially.
Kirk saw Rory out of the corner of his eye and turned to walk towards the table. "Rory, it's very nice to see you again. It's been a long time," he said evenly.
"Hi Kirk," Rory waved.
"Would you like to buy some Girl Scout cookies?" Kirk asked her.
Rory turned to her mother "Girl Scout cookies?" she silently mouthed. Lorelai nodded her head in response.
Rory turned her attention back to Kirk. "So Kirk, you joined the Girl Scouts?" she asked
"Lulu is a troupe leader and I offered to help out. The other girls in the troupe all got vests to put their badges on but they didn't have any vests in my size so I had to get a sash," he explained, pointing to his chest.
"Oh, I see. Well thanks for the offer Kirk but Luke is getting us some pie so I don't think we need any cookies right now."
"That's OK. I'll be over there," Kirk pointed to a table in the corner. "If you change your mind."
"OK, thanks Kirk."
"Bye Rory, it was nice to see you again."
Rory turned to her mother and sat back in her chair, sighing contently. "I love this town."
It was Saturday evening and Lorelai and Rory were walking back to the house, arms full of videos and junk food for their traditional movie night. As they walked up the lawn towards the house they heard a familiar nasal voice call out.
"Rory, sugah!" Babette called to her. Rory smiled, handed her bags to her mother to bring in the house, and walked over to her neighbors.
"Hi Babette, Hi Morey."
"I heard you were home for the weekend but I haven't seen you around. I was beginning to think my sources were gettin' it wrong," Babette complained.
Rory smiled. "I'm sure you're sources are fine Babette. It's good to see you again. What are you guys working on?" Rory asked, taking note of the elaborate Halloween supplies all around.
"Oh we're just settin' up our Halloween skit, doll. You like the guillotine?" Babette asked, pointing to the contraption sitting on the lawn. "Morey, go lay down on the guillotine, let's show Rory how it works."
Morey laid down on the table with his head under a towel. Babette untied a rope and let it go. The blade above the table came hurtling down to where Morey's neck was and Rory heard a thump as something went rolling off the table into a basket bellow. She screamed and jumped back. "Wow, that was very...realistic," Rory said, completely shocked by the graphicness of the skit. Morey was still convulsing on the table.
"Thanks, hun!" Babette said proudly.
"You're...welcome," she replied hesitantly.
"We're still working on it of course. We're gonna get some fake blood and squirt it around and stuff. It'll be great."
"OK, than I'll let you get back to work. Mom and I have some movies to watch. I'm sure I'll see you again before I leave."
"Buh bye hun," Babbette called as Rory walked back towards her house.
Rory walked into the living room a few seconds later where her mother was already setting up the massive amounts of food. "Ooh, goody pizza!" she said, grabbing a slice and sitting down on the couch. "What movie are we watching first?"
"Well before we start..." Lorelai began.
"What? Did we forget something?" Rory asked, scanning the table to make sure they had the requisite snacks.
"No, we've got everything. It's just that I was thinking."
"Uh oh."
"I think you've been procrastinating long enough," Lorelai told her daughter.
"Procrastinating what?" Rory asked.
"Talking about this Jess-Logan situation," Lorelai sad matter-of-factly, turning to face her daughter on the couch.
"No talking," Rory said simply. "It's movie night rules."
"Yes, well movie night hasn't officially started yet and I..." Lorelai pulled out the remote control and held it up, "have the power."
Rory sighed. She had been avoiding this talk all weekend and she knew she couldn't put it off any longer, Lorelai wouldn't let her. "Alright, She-ra, what do you want to know?"
"I want to know what you're going to do about it."
"I'm going to make things right with Jess," she answered simply.
"And what about Logan?" Lorelai pried.
"What about him? I mean, I know what I did was wrong- not telling him about Jess- but he knows now and I haven't heard from him all week so I'm sure he's gotten the point," Rory answered. Lorelai wasn't so sure she agreed with Rory's assessment that Logan had just moved on but she decided not to say so to her daughter.
"And that's what you want? Because I'm going to tell you something that someone once told me," Lorelai responded.
"And what's that?"
"You have to decide what you want, and what you're willing to give up to get it, and then you've got to be OK with that."
"Who told you that?" Rory asked.
"Oh, that shrink that you're grandmother tried to set your father up with."
"Oh, you mean the one who convinced you to ask Luke to elope which caused you to get into a big fight and drove you into Dad's bed?" Rory asked.
"Umm...yes," Lorelai answered hesitantly.
"So this is the advice you're giving me?" Rory asked, wide eyed.
"Well I know it sounds bad. But I made a decision and I had to live with the consequences of that decision. In the end though it all worked out. It took a while but in the end, Luke and I worked everything out and now we're doing great."
"Hey Mom," Rory said, suddenly having an epiphany. "Do you think Logan is like, my 'Dad'?" she asked.
"I certainly hope not," Lorelai said with mock horror. "That would have some very disturbing consequences."
Rory sighed. "You know what I mean Mom. Logan is to me what Dad is to you. They just disappear and then come back into our lives when things are finally starting to work out and they cloud our judgment and make us do stupid things."
"Maybe," Lorelai said. "It certainly is an interesting parallel but I think there are some differences too."
"Like?" Rory asked.
"Well I think the reason that I am that way with Christopher is because of the history we have together. I've known him my whole life and being around him is completely comfortable. Despite all of his screw ups he's one of my best friends and I can really be myself with him. You and Logan don't have that kind of relationship, you didn't know each other long enough."
"So then why does my judgment go straight out the door whenever he's involved?" Rory asked sadly. "Why can't I control myself around him?"
"Because you're in love with him, kid."
"I know, but I love Jess too and I made a promise to him. I told him I wanted to spend the rest of my life with him and I want to do that. At first I was scared, I wasn't sure if I could handle the thought of forever but then I started thinking about our future and everything we could have together. I want that. I want a future."
"So what are you willing to give up to get it?"
Rory sighed audibly. "Can we watch the movie now?" she asked instead of answering the question. She didn't have an answer. She wasn't even sure it mattered anymore.
"Sure," Lorelai turned back to the movies on the table and looked them over. Picking one, she smiled broadly, knowing it was the perfect choice. "I think it's a Thelma and Louise kind of night, don't you agree?"
Rory laughed at her mother's excellent choice. "It's definitely a Thelma and Louise kind of night."
Rory stirred as she felt someone kiss her on the forehead. "Happy birthday little girl," she heard her mother's voice. She opened her eyes only slightly and looked at the clock, 4:03 AM.
"Hey," she said groggily as Lorelai climbed into bed with her.
"I can't believe how fast you're growing up," Lorelai told her.
"Really? It feels slow," Rory replied.
"Trust me, it's fast. So what do you think of your life so far?"
"I think it's pretty good."
"Any complaints? " Lorelai asked.
"I'd like that whole humidity thing to go away," she answered, sleep still in her voice.
"All right. I'll work on that," Lorelai assured her.
"So do I look older?" Rory asked, already knowing the answer she would get.
"Oh, yeah." Lorelai said emphatically. "You walk into Denny's before 5, you've got yourself a discount."
"Good deal," Rory laid her head on her mother's shoulder.
"So you know what I think?" Lorelai asked
"What?"
"I think you're a great, cool kid, and the best friend a girl could have," she informed her daughter.
"Right back at ya," Rory agreed.
"And it's so hard to believe that at exactly this time many moons ago, I was lying in exactly the same position..." Lorelai began the story
"Oh, boy. Here we go," Rory said in anticipation of what was to come.
"Only I had a huge, fat stomach and big fat ankles and I was swearing like a sailor..."
"On leave," Rory filled in.
"On leave - right! And there I was..."
"In labor."
"And while some have called it the most meaningful experience of your life, to me it was something more akin to doing the splits on a crate of dynamite," Loralie said, her voice full of nostalgia.
"I wonder if the Waltons ever did this."
"And I was screaming and swearing and being surrounded as I was by a hundred prominent doctors, I just assumed there was an actual use for the cup of ice chips they gave me," she continued, ignoring Rory's question.
"There wasn't."
"But pelting the nurses sure was fun."
"I love you, Mom," Rory said, not only because it was traditional for her at this point in the story but because she truly meant it.
"Shh. I'm getting to the part where he sees your head..."
"Ugh, I can't believe it's time to go home. I don't know if I'm ready," Rory said on Monday evening as she dragged her bags out of her bedroom.
"So stay," Lorelai suggested.
"Mom, you know I can't miss another day of work," Rory said regretfully.
"So wake up early and drive back in the morning."
"It's over three hours. With traffic I'd have to leave here at 5 AM."
"So? You'll drink lots of coffee- Luke's coffee, it's the best there is," Lorelai pleaded.
Rory sighed but didn't answer. "Come'on kid, you know you want to," Lorelai added. "I'm about to go to a town meeting. You know you don't want to miss a town meeting. Taylor's bound to have some sort of crazy scheme up his sleeve."
Rory looked at her mother and laughed. "You're a bad influence on me."
Lorelai smiled brightly. "Let's go, we don't want to be late." Lorelai pulled Rory out the door.
Half an hour later the two women were sitting in Miss Patty's with a container of french fries from Luke's on their laps.
"For our first order of business," Taylor boomed from the front of the room. "I would like to address a very important issue concerning safety during this..." Taylor motioned with his hand as though he were using it to try and find the right words. "Holiday season," he finally said, although it was clear he was uncomfortable referring to Halloween as a holiday. Taylor hated Halloween.
"What's the problem Taylor?" Gypsy called out from the middle of the room.
"Well the problem is two-fold," Taylor began. "First I would like to address my concern over certain pranks and vandalism that tend to occur on the night of October 31st. I propose we institute a curfew to control the riff-raff that might otherwise cause trouble."
"Please, Taylor," Babette called out. "There hasn't been any riff-raff in this town since Jess moved away."
"Hey!" Rory protested loudly from the back.
"Well honey," Miss Patty responded, "He may have turned out alright but you have to admit he caused his fair share of trouble when he was a kid."
Rory couldn't really argue with them so she just popped a french fry into her mouth and continued to observe the town ritual.
"You can't institute a curfew for no reason Taylor," Andrew, owner of Stars Hollow books, objected, getting back on track. "We've never had any problems before."
"Well I suggest we let the town decide for themselves," Taylor responded. "All those in favor of instituting a curfew for Halloween, raise your hand." Kirk's hand went up in the air along with two other hands. Taylor rolled his eyes. "All those apposed?" The rest of the hands in the room shot up. "The irresponsible majority wins again," he sighed.
"What's the second thing?" Babbette called out.
"Well," Taylor began, "We all know the dangers associated with accepting candy from strangers." Rory laughed to herself. She could see where this was going already. "In order to protect our youth and provide a safe environment for them I am suggesting we only allow people to distribute candy purchased from approved proprietors."
Gypsy stood up to yell at Taylor. "This is ridiculous Taylor. It's an obvious business ploy. I might as well suggest that we only allow people to have theirf car fixed by me because other mechanics aren't trust worthy." Rory watched as Gypsy said this and a smile spread across her face as though she was suddenly liking the idea of becoming the town sanctioned mechanic, even though she practically already was.
"This is not a business ploy. Anyone who would like to provide Halloween candy would be allowed to do so as long as their establishment was inspected and improved. Of course there would have to be a small fee for the inspection..." he replied.
Rory sat silently as she watched the ensuing argument. "Town meetings are way more entertaining than anything on TV these days," Rory whispered to her mother. "This was definitely worth sticking around for."