A/N: I'm ALIVE! I know right? Crazy. It's like… Stephen King's return to horror. Well I'm glad to be back and glad to have a giant vat of coffee at my side for whenever I decide… "Eh, I don't like where this is going," solution: drink vat of coffee quickly while ignoring the rapturing of taste buds and skin cells along the way.

Chapter Seven

For the past three days Sookie had answered every one of Emily's phone calls about the travel arrangements, being very cautious in keeping it an absolute secret from Lorelai. This had turned out to be quite more successful than any other secret Sookie had tried to keep from her best friend in her entire life; including the instance when Sookie had decided to not serve anything "meatless" and disguised pork chops as burnt celery sticks with a rabbit sauce.

This rang ever true on this particular morning due to Sookie's extreme difficulty in balancing a full kitchen staff serving a very large Foot Fetish Anonymous meeting—who would've thunk it?—an out of the ordinarily talkative Lorelai, and Emily's most important phone call to Sookie thus far, which would confirm the separate flights that had to be arranged due to "Luke and Lorelai's quite inconvenient work schedules."

"So Sookie, do you think Room Number Five deserves a coffee maker? I mean really. If the guests that often stay in 'Room Number Five'," Lorelai said, using air quotes to emphasize the audacity of those guests, "aren't going to take full advantage of their caffeine privileges, I mean why not give their coffee maker to someone more needy?"

"Like who, someone who drinks coffee, on average, seven times a day to suit her 'caffeine needs'?" Sookie asked mockingly in a breathy tone as she shuffled through the chaos as Lorelai followed, dodging flying cutlery.

"Exactly! I am so glad that I have someone else who understands my point! I mean, come on, seriously." Lorelai said, as if she was running a political campaign.

The phone rang in the background, but neither Sookie nor Lorelai noticed as Sookie's assistant chief, Renaldo, answered it with his thick Colombian accent.

"Lorelai, you can not have the coffee maker from Room Number Five just because you think it would be 'totally wicked' to have two coffee makers," Sookie said, holding Lorelai's hand as she was about to interrupt her with another absurd argument, "Even if one is for your office here at the inn."

Sookie couldn't help but laugh at Lorelai's little bits. It didn't really matter if Lorelai was serious or not, it was still damn hilarious.

"Sookie. It's Em—" Renaldo held out the phone to Sookie, and Sookie interrupted him just in time as the realization struck her who was on the other end.

"Thanks Renaldo! I'll take it from here!" Sookie said, grabbing the phone and rudely pushing the foreign man away.

"Who is it Sook? Everybody knows not to bother you around 11:30 because that's when I'm at my coffee rush and the dining room is always full of starving paying customers but I take up all your time with my needless rambling because you are really the only person who—" Lorelai babbled obnoxiously but luckily, Sookie saw the signs and stopped her just as she was gaining speed.

"Honey!" Sookie exclaimed loudly to get Lorelai's attention, which she did, "It's about your birthday. Please," and she pointed to the kitchen's swinging door, implying for Lorelai to allow Sookie and her secret phone caller some privacy.

"But my birthday isn't for two months, 17 days, four hours, and…" Lorelai began to rock her head back and forth while looking at the ceiling, counting under her breath, "47 minutes."

"Lorelai." Sookie gave her a stern look, which instantly reminded her of Luke so she dropped the argument and submitted.

"Fine…but be sure to insist on a vat of coffee eight feet high that people stick their faces under like at the Olympics except like—" Lorelai, again, began to babble but was interrupted once more.

"Lorelai!" Sookie yelled, making everyone in the kitchen pause what they were doing to stare at Sookie and Lorelai.

"Fine. I'm just gonna go, ya know," Lorelai pointed her thumb back towards the door to the dining room, "chill with my homies, who truly care…"

Sookie took a deep breath, relieved she had finally gotten that babbling crazy woman out of her kitchen. Immediately, however, the tightness in her chest returned as she realized the peerless woman at the other end of the phone cord…

"Hello Emily! It's so nice to hear from you!" Sookie greeted the woman eagerly.

"Good morning Sookie. It's nice to speak with you again. I must insist, however," Sookie knew it was coming, it always does, "that you and your kitchen staff invest in hold. It is a wonderful invention the prevents the second party on the telephone to not be forced to submit to the needless verbal exchanges of the members of the first party on, in this case, your end of the phone."

"My deepest apologies Mrs. Gilmore. I will definitely look into that, thank you so much for the suggestion." Sookie said, a bit annoyed but after observation of Lorelai's interactions with her mother, she herself had adapted her own way of dealing with Emily…submit.

"Excellent," Emily Gilmore said, with a much lighter tone, "Now, back to my business of this call."

"Of course." Sookie agreed, grabbing a pen and note pad with The Independence Inn's trademark and information because she knew that Emily would give a "mini-quiz" at the end of their conversation; which she had discovered during her first phone call with Emily when she had, needless to say, failed miserably Emily's "exam" and had to listen to Ms. Van-uppity for the next hour repeating her information, as if to a five year-old.

"It was quite unfortunate Luke and Lorelai's schedule which you relayed to me, making it a bit more tricky to arrange the flights, but it has been done. It is set that Lorelai's plane will leave JFK airport in New York City at 5:47 a.m. on Feburary 27 and Luke's plane will depart also from JFK airport, except his will leave at 12:54 p.m. on the same date. Do you suspect that this will be appropriate?" Emily relayed the information as Sookie scribble furiously.

"Hmm," Sookie looked over the information closely, thinking of every excuse either could come up with and finally decided, "Yes, that should be perfect."

XoXoXoX

Lorelai sat in her office uselessly tapping her pen on her desk to the beat of "We Got the Beat" by the Go-Go's every now and then breaking out into a major solo making guests who meandered by her office to pause briefly and watch the show until Lorelai realized they were standing there. Then she would stop suddenly in mid down-beat and blush deep red, apologize for her "little show" and go about her business once again.

"Lorelai!" Sookie rushed into the office, scaring Lorelai.

"AGH! SOOKIE!" Lorelai screamed and threw her pen in the air and grabbing Sookie by the shoulders as Sookie embraced her likewise.

"You'll never believe what just happened!" Sookie screamed into Lorelai's face as they began jumping up and down.

"If I guess right do I win a new car?!" Lorelai yelled giddily back, "Oh, or wait! Is that what has happened!? Did I win a new car? Is Oprah in the dining room!?"

"Okay, you killed it." Sookie ended her giddy façade and released Lorelai's shoulders.

"Oh come on now sour-puss, what is it? What is so ultra-fabulous you had to rush in here and nearly make me have a heart-attack?" Lorelai asked, genuinely curious, but also teasing Sookie at her tendency to overreact.

"Well… It really is fantastic and you're going to be extremely angry at yourself for wasting this much time of me not telling you and us celebrating." Sookie said, quietly pretending to be angry at Lorelai for teasing her.

"Sookie… come on please tell me. I really wanna know and am fully prepared to cut myself if necessary." Lorelai said, easily convincing Sookie to relinquish the information.

"Ok," Sookie said with a giant grin on her face, "Well, KTVL was just having a contest on the radio and it was one of those things where they play the song backwards and you have to be the first person to call in and say what tune it was. At first I wasn't exactly sure, I mean I thought it was what it was but I wasn't completely sure so I called Jackson first and had him listen too—"

"Sookie, honey, I know I'm one to talk but you're babbling." Lorelai interrupted.

"Anyways, I called in, guessed "Where the Streets Have No Name" by U2—" Sookie continued, but was once again interrupted.

"Of course! How could anyone miss that!?" Lorelai added.

"—And I won one, all expenses paid, trip to France!" Sookie finished, saying the last few words through her giant grin again.

"Oh my God Sookie, that's wonderful! But I have one question, why just one ticket?" Lorelai asked, genuinely happy for Sookie, but also thinking to herself how much she would love to be able to get away from this God-forsaken town by herself for a few days.

"It's KTVL." Sookie answered like everyone should know that.

"Well, I'm really excited for you." Lorelai congratulated her dear friend, trying to press down the monster of jealousy that rose once again in her stomach, "What did Jackson say?"

"He said he was really happy for me too, but…" Sookie suddenly got this look across her face like she was afraid to tell Lorelai something.

"What is it Sook?" Lorelai asked, immediately concerned with Sookie's change of spirit.

"I can't go." Sookie finished, "It's a long story, and I really don't want to babble again today, so I'm giving the ticket to you."

"Sookie! But why? I mean I know you don't want to babble, but not even a gist?" Lorelai asked, curious as to what on Earth could stop Sookie from taking this trip.

"Eh, Jackson, fruit, strawberries crossed with tomatoes, huge Techno Geek convention next week, I just can't." Sookie explained

"And after that very cryptic explanation…onto my next question, why me?" Lorelai asked, going through ways to have Michel cover for her at work while she was gone, and who Rory would stay with, and just how much she would enjoy being able to get away from the inn, Michel, Max, Rachel…Luke…

"Because you are my best friend, and I understand you are stressed right now and I think you deserve something nice for yourself." Sookie answered honestly.

"Sook. You really are my best friend aren't you?" Lorelai hugged Sookie close.

"When does the plane leave?" Lorelai asked Sookie, suddenly very interested in the details.

"Feburary 27 at 5:47 a.m." Sookie answered, as if the information was burned into her brain…or written in red ink on her arm.

"Sook, that's the day after tomorrow." Lorelai concluded with a stunned look on her face.

"Hmm…that sounds about right." Sookie answered lightly.

Lorelai rushed out of the room in a flash, "Where are you going?!" Sookie called after her.

"I've got to pack…and shop!" Lorelai called back as she grabbed her coat and purse from the coat rack by the door.

"Your welcome!" Sookie called again, but Lorelai was already half-way to her jeep starting the engine.

"One down, one to-go." Sookie said to herself, in the now empty office and skipped off chanting "Lorelai's going to France, Lorelai's going to France." Arousing the same curious looks from the guests that Lorelai had received…except Sookie could careless because she had a grumpy diner owner to convince now.

XoXoXoX

I hope you enjoyed it! I also hope you missed me! I also hope you will review, to encourage me to keep going and to not allow my muse to escape me! AGH! :]