Hey guys! I know it's been awhile. It turns out that i didn't have aas much time in Europe to write as i thought i would. I hope you guys are still interested in the story. When we left off, Chris had slept with Lorelai and Rory was grounded for sneaking out and spending the night with Jess. and so it goes on...

Luke looked up instinctively as the door to his diner opened, but he paused when he saw who was entering. Lorelai was being hustled in by a protective Sookie and they took their seats by the counter. A fist curled itself around Luke's heart, and he squeezed the rag he was using to wipe down the surface.

"Morning Luke," Sookie greeted brightly. "We'll get two coffees, and I will have one of your blueberry muffins. Lorelai honey, do you want something?" Lorelai shook her head. She looked smaller somehow, like she had given up and was just slipping away.

"No thanks," she almost whispered. Sookie frowned.

"You need to eat," she prompted.

"Allright," Lorelai gave in, too weak to put up a fight. "I'll have pancakes, I guess," she said to Luke.

"Don't sound so excited about it," he mumbled sarcastically.

"Excuse me?" Lorelai looked up at him, and made him stop in his tracks. Her blue eyes looked so scared and hopeless, as if the world was one big black hole waiting to swallow her up. Her hair was unbrushed and fell in limp wisps around her shoulders. She sat slouched, as if trying to take up a little space as possible in her foreign world. And yet she was still beautiful. But then the image of her and Christopher together popped back into Luke' head and his anger reared once more.

"You make it sound like by eating my food you're doing me a huge favor. I've got customers and I've tasted my food, and if you don't want to eat it, that's fine with me!"

Lorelai was shocked by his outburst.

"Luke I didn't say that! I'm just not very hungry right now…"
"If you're not hungry, you shouldn't be in a diner now should you?" He slammed the food down in front of them and left to the back of his store, where he sat for a a very long time staring at the wall.

Meanwhile in the front of the store, Lorelai and Sookie were trying to make sense out of what had just occurred.

"Did I do something to offend him?" Lorelai asked, wringing her hands together.

"I don't know," Sookie commiserated, her eyebrows furrowed. "I mean, there's no way he knows about you and Christopher is there? Because that would definitely set him off."

"Somehow I doubt Christopher would go up to Luke and tell him that we did it," Lorelai said.

"Then I don't know, but something is definitely bothering that man!" Sookie pondered. Just then Christopher entered the store. His eyes met Lorelai's, and he made his way towards her.

"Hey," he greeted.

"Hi," Lorelai returned, looking down into her lap.

"Is everything okay?" Chris asked worridley, confused by her distance.

"Um, yeah," Lorelai said looking up. She glanced around. "Where's Rory?"

"Well, I grounded her," Chris confessed.

"You what?" Lorelai asked, spitting out her coffee. "Why would you do that?" Chris took a step back.

"She snuck out of the house last night. What was I supposed to do?"

"Not ground her! I've never grounded her!"

Chris, about to answer, paused.

"Wait, how could you possibly remember that you never had to ground her?" this stopped Lorelai in her war path.

"I don't know," she said slowly, running her fingers over her lips. "I just somehow know that it's true." Sookie stared at her, wide eyed.

"Well if I can't ground her," Chris continued, running his hands through his hair, "What am I supposed to do? She's going out of control."

Lorelai took his hand calmly. "Try talking to her."

Luke was flipping pancakes in a pot when Jess came thundering down the stairs.

"Where are you going?" he asked his nephew.

"Out," came the vague reply. Luke rolled his eyes.

"Out where?" Jess shrugged his shoulders.

"No clue," he mumbled, grabbing a doughnut. "But try to find something to do other than pine after Lorelai while I'm gone okay?" Jess winked and ran out the door.

Rory lay on her back in her bed, staring at the ceiling and tossing a stress ball from hand to hand. There was a knock on her door.

"Come in," she mumbled. Her father entered slowly.

"Can we talk?" he asked, holding back as if he was scared Rory would lash out at him. Rory lifted herself up on her elbows.

"Now you want to talk?" she shot. Chris cringed. Slowly he moved into her room and took a seat at the end of her bed.

"Listen Rory, maybe I acted to hastily by grounding you." He heard Rory snort. "Hey!" he stopped her, growing impatient. "It wasn't exactly so responsible of you to sneak out and then spend the whole night out." Rory shrugged, avoiding his gaze. "Hey, look at me," he demanded. Rory turned her face to his. "I know I'm new at this, but I figured this much out. If this is going to work," he indicated the two of them, "then we're going to have to work through our issues okay? Nothing is going to get solved if every time you get mad at me, you run away from the problem. I know it's not the easy way out, but you're going to have to talk it out with me. And I'm going to have to try harder to listen to what you have to say. Do we have a deal?" Rory thought for a moment, then nodded.

"You want to talk," she began, "let's talk. Let's talk about you sleeping with mom!"

"I don't understand why it upsets you so much," Chris protested.

"Because, it's Mom!" Rory tried to explain. "Dad, you're messing everything up! Mom is just trying to get back on her feet. You're getting her all confused. The second you start something with her, you mix up her past, present and future all into one big confusing mess! And all she's trying to do is figure out the difference between all of them. You knew that. What were you thinking?"

Chris was quiet for a while. Silently he stroked his daughter's back.

"I think I just wanted to make sure that this time, I'm in her future."

Luke was heading back to his shop after paying a visit to the small tool store around the corner. All of a sudden he heard someone laugh crazily around the corner. He rounded it, and came face to face with Lorelai. She was walking unsteadily, veering off to either side of her, with a silly smile plastered on her face.

"Oh hello, Luke," she greeted loudly, giggling. "Lucas, Lue, Louie," she continued, slurring her "s's" as she pronounced each name.

"Lorelai?" Luke asked. He had never seen her like this before.

"Isn't it a lovely night?" Lorelai continued, throwing her hands out, and stumbling so much that Luke had to put a hand out to stop her. She let out a gleefull chuckle.

"Are you drunk?" he asked her.

"Well, normally I would deny it, but then I remembered that now I'm 32. So, yesssss," she told him.

"O wow, you are very drunk."

"Uhuh," Lorelai giggled, throwing her arm over Luke's shoulder.

"Okay, let's get you over to Sookie's," Luke suggested, uncomfortably pulling her along with him as he headed to his car outside the diner.

"Nuh-uh," Lorelai stopped him. "Sookie's not home. She's at a cooking seminar in New York. I miss her," she added in her drinken stupor. "She's a very nice person."

"Yes she is," Luke grunted, moving Lorelai along. He was practically carrying her, so impaired was her ability to support herself. He dragged her down the block until he stood in front of his own Diner and, having run out of options, led her inside. He led her up the stairs into his apartment.

"Is this where you live?" Lorelai drawled as she stumbled into his apartment. "It's cuuuute! It's so clean! I bet you have those little men come and clean up! What are they called?"

"Dwarfs?" Luke suggested as he led her to his bed.

"Dwarfs!" Lorelai shouted, climbing onto the bed obligingly.

"Okay, try to get some sleep," Luke commanded. Lorelai was out almost as soon as her head hit the pillow. Luke stood, watching her sleep peacefully for a few minutes. Then he grabbed a pillow and settled himself on the floor.

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