AN: Allright people. Let's reveal who the mysterious person is. Thanks again for the sweet reviews. I know I can be evil sometimes, Mimimoon :) and thanks again to ProFfeSseR, who I can always count on to read my updates; I guess you were wrong Niccole; was that your guess, Javababe?
Well thanks for reviewing!
Disclaimer: All characters belong to Amy Sherman-Palladino and the WB.
Rating: PG-13
"Rory," she said almost inaudible.
"Mom!" Rory jumped up and ran into her mother's arms hugging her tightly. "I'm so so so sorry, for running away like this."
"It's ok, hon. It's ok." She whispered into Rory's ear, hugging her back just as tight, a single tear escaping her eye. She finally had her daughter back. At least she was hoping she did.
Luke had watched the scene from a few steps away. He knew they would be ok. Maybe not completely right now but they would work it out. "I'll talk to you later," he said slightly whispering to Lorelai, who nodded at him.
"I'll call you," she whispered back to him, still holding her daughter in her arms.
Luke nodded his head and went outside to his truck, heading back to the diner.
Back inside the Dragonfly…
"I'm sorry, Mom, I really am." Rory told her mom with a few tears rolling down her cheeks.
"It's ok, hon. I'm glad you're back and we can work everything out."
Rory nodded. "Can we go home please?"
"Sure, sweetie. I'll just go tell Sookie. Why don't you wait outside in the truck."
"Ok." Lorelai gave her the keys and she went outside to the car while Lorelai walked to the kitchen.
"Hey, Sookie."
"Ohh, Lorelai, you're back!" Sookie said running over to her best friend. "How was it? You gotta tell me everything? Ohh, I'm so happy for you guys!" she said jumping up and down with excitement.
"It was… perfect." Lorelai said with a dreamy smile.
"Oh I'm so happy for you." Sookie saw the somewhat sad look on Lorelai's face. "Oh, no. Did something happen. You guys didn't break up, did you?" she touched Lorelai's arm with a concerned look on her face.
"No, Sookie, we didn't break up, we've never been this happy before."
"Oh, good. That wouldn't have made sense the way you two are all over each other."
Lorelai rolled her eyes.
"But what's with the face then?"
Lorelai took a deep breath. "Rory's back. She's outside waiting in the car. She was waiting for me in the lobby.
"Oh." Her best friend said in an understanding tone.
"And she saw Luke and me holding hands."
"Oh."
"And that's why I'm here. I need you to take care of the Inn for a while longer, so I can take her home and talk to her." Lorelai said in a slightly begging voice.
"Oh sure. You'll go take her home. I have everything under control. Take as much time as you need, no reason to worry."
"Really?"
"Of course," she said hugging Lorelai. "You'll be okay." She added, sensing Lorelai's concerns about Rory.
Lorelai nodded, putting on a sad smile. "I'll see ya."
"Yeah, bye. Say hi to Rory."
"I will." And with that she turned to face a long day of talking.
The ride home was quiet and somewhat uncomfortable.
As soon as the car had stopped Rory got out of the car, and went straight to her room.
Lorelai sighed and followed her leaving her keys in the hallway.
She softly knocked on the door and poked her head through the slightly ajar door. Rory was walking around her room putting her stuff from the trip away.
"Hey can I come in?" Lorelai softly asked.
Rory opened the door and motioned for her to come in. Lorelai sat down on the bed, watching her putting her things away.
"Rory," she said after a few more minutes of silence. Rory stopped and looked over to her mother.
Lorelai patted the sheets next to her. "Come, sit with me."
Rory sighed. She walked over to the bed and sat down next to Lorelai.
"Please, talk to me, Rory." Lorelai said, putting an arm around her daughter's shoulder.
But instead of answering, Rory threw her arms around her mom's neck and started to sob hard into her mom's shoulder. Lorelai pulled her close to her body. Rory pulled up her legs to her side and laid her head on Lorelai's lap. Lorelai started to rock her back and forth gently, murmuring comforting words to her, while softly stroking her head, hoping she could take away some of her pain. She was relieved that Rory let her comfort her.
Their position reminded Lorelai of Rory's childhood, where she used to comfort Rory in the same position they were in now, except that Rory had been much smaller and was able to fit in her lap completely.
After what seemed like a long time Rory's sobs started to ease and her breathing became more even. After a few more minutes Rory took a deep breath and sat up. She took her shoes off and sat cross-legged on her bed facing her mom, who did the same.
"Feeling a little better now?" Lorelai asked smiling at her daughter.
"Yeah, sorry 'bout that."
Lorelai took Rory's hand in hers. "No need to be sorry, that had to come out eventually, and if it makes you feel better it's even more ok."
Rory took a deep breath. "Mom, I need you to listen to me."
"Ok, no problem, sweetie." Lorelai said.
"But please let me finish before you say anything, I need to get this out, ok?"
"Sure, I'm listening."
After taking another deep breath Rory started, "I'm really sorry that I ran away like this. And I'm sorry about the fight we had. But I'm not a little kid anymore, I'm definitely capable of making my own decisions, even if they might not always be the best decisions. I talked to grandma a lot on our trip and I know what Dean and I did was wrong and that we shouldn't have slept together. I know that know, but we can't change it anymore. I wrote a long letter to Dean, telling him that he should try to work things out with Lindsey, and that I'm sorry about what happened. I told him that I don't regret it, because it was the best first time I could have imagined."
Lorelai flinched a little at her words but kept quiet.
"But I also told him that I see no future for us. I'm always gonna love him as my first real love, but nothing more, and that I hope we can be friends someday in the future, but not right now, not with everything that's happened between us during the last couple of months."
Lorelai was speechless. She had expected many things to hear from her daughter but not something like this.
Rory looked at her a little uncertain. "Mom, say something."
"Sorry," Lorelai said still a little in awe. "I wasn't expecting that."
"Will you forgive me?"
Lorelai pulled her into a tight hug. "Oh, honey. There's nothing to forgive about. We had a fight, so what? Wasn't the first one."
She pulled back and looked into her daughter's relieved eyes.
"I'm glad you were able to think about this on your own, and I have to admit I'm glad about you're decision. You just need to let some time pass and then maybe you and Dean can talk about what happened. So you don't hate me?"
Rory shook her head forcefully. "I could never hate you, Mom. I'm sorry I said that stuff to you. I love you, Mom."
"I love you, too, honey." She said pulling her daughter into another hug, " and I'm glad you don't hate me."
"So how about some pizza? And you gotta tell me everything about Europe. I'm sure my Mom took you to some really fancy places."
Rory grinned at her mom. "Yeah let's get some pizza. You're right she did, 'only the finest places for the finest girls', she kept saying all the time."
They both had to laugh about that.
Lorelai got up and went to get her purse in the kitchen, "why don't you go to Al's pancake world and get a pizza and I'll have everything set up when you get back?"
"Allright sounds good," Rory said taking the money from her mom. Lorelai walked into the living room when there was a knock on the front door.
"I'll get it." Rory said and went to open the door.
"Luke, hi, what are you doing here?"
Lorelai froze in her tracks and went into the hallway.
"Hey, Luke what are you doing here?"
Luke seemed a little uncomfortable.
"Uh, I thought that the two of you could use some food," he said holding up two bags from Luke's diner.
"Great, that's even better than pizza," Rory said and took the bags from him bringing them into the living room.
"Does she know?" Luke whispered to Lorelai.
"No, not yet. I think we should tell her together."
"Ok," Luke stared at her realizing her plan. "What now?" he said in disbelieve.
"Yeah, why not." Lorelai said shrugging her shoulders.
"Do you, I mean, do you think now is the right time?"
"I'm not sure if there'll ever be 'the' right time, so why not tell her now?" she said taking his hand in hers and pulling him into the house.
"Ok, if you say so." He said closing the door behind him.
Lorelai gave him a peck on the lips. "Come on."
They walked into the living room still holding hands. Rory was setting the food on the table when she saw them coming in. "Hey, Luke, why don't you stay and have dinner with us? Would that be ok, Mom?"
"Sure, hon. Uhh, but I think we need to talk about something first, before we can have dinner."
Rory looked at them a litlle surprised. "Sure, what it is?" At that moment Rory saw their entwined fingers. "Oh." She said in a small voice.
Lorelai let go off Luke's hand and took a few steps forward. "The night of the test run, when I came back here I wanted to tell you something. That was before…, well you know."
Rory nodded her head slowly still looking at her mom, glancing over to Luke occasionally. He was still standing in the same spot with his hands stuffed into his pockets looking a little uncomfortable with the situation.
"Well what I wanted to tell you," Lorelai continued, drawing Rory's attention back to her, "was that Luke and I had kissed on the porch."
Rory sat down on the armrest of the couch. "That's not it, right?"
"No. Remember when I told you I thought I was dating Luke?"
Rory nodded her head slightly.
"Well, if we weren't back then, we are definitely now."
Rory kept quiet for a few moments letting the information sink in. Lorelai shot a concerned look over to Luke and then back to Rory.
"Rory, hon, say something, please?"
Rory looked at Luke and then at her mom. "Are you happy?"
Lorelai nodded with a smile. "Very."
Rory looked over to Luke. "Yeah, me, too." He said taking a step forward.
"Good, then I'm happy, too."
Lorelai's smile grew even wider. "You are?"
"Yes, I'm glad the two of you finally got a grip on yourselves and admitted you're feelings for each other." Rory hugged her mom and then went over and gave Luke a hug, too, who seemed a little uncomfortable at first but then returned the hug.
"So now that that's out of the way, why don't we sit down and have dinner?" Lorelai said.
"Yeah, sure." Rory said sitting down on the floor in front of the couch.
"Luke?" Lorelai turned to him. "Can you stay?"
"Uh, sure I guess. I told Ceasar to close up anyway."
"Great, then I'll just go get some drinks."
"I'll help you." Luke said walking into the kitchen after Lorelai.
"Get me a coke, will ya?" Rory called from the living room.
"Sure, hon." Lorelai called back from the kitchen and went to the fridge to get the drinks.
"Do you want a beer, sweets?"
"Uh, sure." He said stepping behind her. He took the drinks from her and put them on the kitchen table.
She slung her arms around his waist and put her head on his chest. "See, everything went fine."
"I know. Although I was a little scared there for a moment." He said gently stroking over her hair.
"Yeah, me too. But I'm glad we told her. I don't wanna hide anything from her."
"I don't either."
"I love you," Lorelai said looking up into his eyes.
Luke bent down and gave her a gentle kiss. "I love you, too." He said when they broke apart.
Lorelai put her hand on his neck and pulled him down into another more passionate kiss. Luke allowed her tongue to tangle his own and slightly pushed her against the fridge, deepening the kiss.
"Stop the making out, and come in here so we can start watching the movie." Rory called from the living room.
They broke apart panting. Lorelai grinned at him. She took the drinks and walked into the living room followed by a slightly red Luke.
Rory had to laugh when she saw his embarrassed face.
Luke and Lorelai settled down on the couch while Rory was sitting in front of it, each of them enjoying their meal."
"Two Weeks Notice, great choice hon", Lorelai said happily watching her two favorite people in the world.
TBC
AN2: Allright that's it for now. Hope you liked it. I promised it would be a longer one again. Who was right with guessing the person sitting in the lobby? Well, as always, reviewing makes me write a lot faster, so keep the reviews coming!!