Title: Crazy Little Thing Called Love
PDLD
Disclaimer: I OWN NOTHING!
Rating: PG (or "K+" as they're calling it now… I personally like the old rating system better but Times Are A' Changin' I guess…)
A/N:
OKAY! OKAY! I GET THE MESSAGE! (…from your reviews that is…) I'm a horrible, horrible writer for leaving you all apparently 'starved' for more updates…
All I can say in my defense is that Junior Year has literally taken over my life… I know many of you probably won't believe me but I literally haven't had any spare time because of all the work they pile on us… I could give you a DETAILED list of all the crap that's been required of us since July (yes! That's right July! They gave us a crap load of work to do OVER THE FREAKIN SUMMER!) but I figure you guys hate me enough as it is…
Oh! ONE EXTREEMLY IMPORTANT THING! There was a small (read: gigantic) typo in one of the last chapters. Luke was not supposed to be at the Gilmore's Thanksgiving Dinner. I've changed this story around so many times that I completely forgot that I mentioned him in one of the precursory chapters. There was going to be this whole sub plot about how he didn't go to dinner because Lorelai had called to warn him about not showing up… but that Idea sort of got scraped… anyway I decided just to move forward in the story and explain the mishap in this A/N so that everything can be all cleared up…
In lieu of the Luke-less-ness that we've thus far had to endure, I've made him a very prominent character in this chapter… So without further ado here is the oh-so-long awaited 13th chapter! (ya!)
CHAPTER 13: Wedding Bells Ringing?
Rory Gilmore stumbled through the front door of her apartment after a long day of work. The holiday season was upon all of New York City, (what with being Christmas only two weeks away); so, naturally, the city was in complete chaos. She breathed a sigh of relief as she dropped her numerous bags of holiday gifts that she had bought on her lunch break (for as a result of working for the paper for a little less than a year, Rory Gilmore had now become a master at the art of multi-tasking AND speed shopping).
In short: Life was crazy…
Glancing at her answering machine, Rory realized that she had numerous voice messages. It never ends…she thought as she pressed the "Play" button.
Beeeep!
"7 days 6 hours and 53 minutes and counting, Love… see you then…"
Rory chuckled softly after hearing Finn's random message… the "Countdown", as it had come to be called, had started up a week or so ago when Rory had first made plans to fly out to L.A. and spend Christmas with Finn (much to Lorelai's dismay). At first the inside joke had been an annoyance, but now Rory had rationalized it as just another example of Finn's quirky personality.
Beeeep! The answering machine rang out again, indicating the start of the next message…
"Oh where art thou, forsaken child of mine?" Lorelai's sang in its ever-so-dramatic fashion "If your plan of abandoning me for the holidays is still standing, you better return this call – We need to do some serious mother-daughter-bonding-time if I'm going to give you up to that MAN for 3 whole weeks!"
Rory just rolled her eyes at her mother's "distress" call – the woman's antics had gotten even crazier of late, ever since Rory's plans for the holiday season had been finalized. She made a mental note to buy her mother a dog or something – so that she would have someone else to worry about for a while.
Beeeep!
"Ummm… Rory? It's umm Luke… Listen give me a call back when you get a chance… I need to talk to you about something, something important… Nothing like life or death important! No one's dying… but it's still really important… sort of life changing in a way… like the life of your mom and I… so if you could give me a call back as soon as you get this that'd be great…. Umm bye."
Rory was still giving the answering machine a weird look, trying to wrap her head around what in the world Luke could be talking about when the last message came on…
Beeeep!
"Rory dear, this is your grandmother… I have some lovely color combinations that you simply must take a look at for the ceremony… although, considering your recent tract record of simply IGNORING my calls I won't be waiting on baited breath… just remember this, darling, you will have to talk to me sooner or later… whether it be on the phone or at the ceremony itself –"
"BEEEP! Message Deleted…" came the oh-so-satisfying electronic response as Rory deleted the most recent of her Grandmother's attempts to go over wedding plans with her. "You have no more new messages…"
In an attempt to forget about her "almost" phone encounter with Emily, Rory decided to satisfy her curiosity and see just what in the world Luke's message had actually been about… she dialed the familiar numbers that, by this point in her life, she had learned by heart and waited for what she expected to be a very good, if not interesting, explanation…
"Luke's Diner," came the gruff greeting from the other end of the line.
"Luke? Hi. It's Rory… I'm calling to return your message…?"
"Oh Rory! Great… ummm… so how've you been?"
"Fine," Rory replied with a slight chuckle at the man's awkward attempt at small talk. Although she had always been close to Luke, since moving to New York, Rory had rarely seen the man,…and since rarely talked on the phone, the apparent awkwardness was not exactly unfounded. "How are things back in Stars Hallow?"
"Good… Things here are good. New York?"
"Crazy… but that might have something to do with living in 'city that never sleeps'."
"Right, right…" Luke responded in a some what distracted voice.
"Luke? Are you okay? You sound a little… off… now… and the message you left before was well…"
"Yeah… I know… Listen Rory I need to talk to you about something. I was hoping to speak to you in person - when you came home for the holidays. But, from what I hear you're spending Christmas with the actor," Luke said with just a hint of distain in his voice. He had never actually met Finn in person, but the fact that he was going out with Rory automatically meant that he wasn't good enough for her – the fact that he was an actor really wasn't helping his case that much either. "Anyway… I wanted to talk to you about the possibility of me proposing to your mom…"
"Luke… are you serious?" Rory exclaimed with a healthy amount of astonishment filling her voice. She had always known that Luke and her mom were perfect for one another – and she also knew that they were in a deeply committed relationship – but she had had no idea that Luke was this serious.
"Yea… now Rory, this is why I came to you first. I don't want to do anything your not comfortable with. You've known your mom longer than I have and you've basically had dibbs on her first from the very begining. The way I see it you two come as a package deal… I won't even ask her if you don't say yes first…"
"No Luke… I'm sooo happy for you guys! Seriously this is great!"
"Are you sure… because I realize this decision affects you too—"
"Luke stop! I'm sure I'm sure. This is the best thing that could have happened."
"Good," Luke replied as he breathed a long sigh of relief. "It's so good to hear you say that Rory. Now I just have one more favor to ask…"
"Anything Luke."
"I need help picking out her ring. I've narrowed it down to a silver art deco diamond ring with two small emeralds surrounding a large square cut diamond or… a classic solitaire square cut diamond ring in silver with small diamonds going around the entire band."
"Ummm…." Rory replied as she tried to picture which one Lorelai would like more.
Beep!
"Uhh Luke…" Rory said.
Beep!
"Someone's cutting in on another line… I'll be right back," she replied as she switched lines muttering, "Saved by the 'beep'" at the same time.
"Hello?"
"Oh my forsaken child," Lorelai exclaimed in greeting as her daughter answered the phone. "Why have you been ignoring mommy's calls all day? You know how cranky she gets when you do that…"
"I know, I know. I'm a horrible daughter. But I've been busy—"
"Yeah… busy, busy, busy… gettin' busy with the actor you mean."
"Mom! I know you're upset that I'm not spending Christmas with you but there's no reason for you to take it out on Finn."
"Who say's I'm taking it out on Finn… I'm happy for you Honey…I'll admit, I'm not so thrilled about the Christmas thing… but about everything else – I think it's great. And beside, at least ONE of us is gettin' some."
"Oh… what's wrong? Thing's not so peachy-keen with you and Luke?"
"Ehh… I don't know… the dinner man has been acting strange lately. I'm not sure what's up – but I'm sure as hell going to find out!"
"Hehe," Rory replied with a nervous chuckle, knowing exactly why the 'dinner man' had been acting so strange. "Well I hate to say it mom but I've got to go. I'm actually on the other line with a very important call so I need to call you back later."
"That's fine, Babe. I'm almost at Luke's anyway… I'll talk to you later."
"Bye Mom!" She replied as she quickly changed back to the other line, "Hey Luke?"
"Yea?"
"Listen, we don't have much time to talk… Mom's about to come into the dinner."
Upon hearing this Luke quickly looked up to see that Lorelai was, in fact, just across the street.
"How did you do that?" Luke asked in disbelief.
"Never mind… anyway I think that mom would like the classic solitaire square cut diamond with the sliver diamond band."
"Okay, good… that was the one I was leaning toward too. Listen you're mom's just walking in now so I'm going to have to go. I'll talk to you later."
"Okay Luke… see you later," Rory replied as she hung up the phone and crashed face first into her soft, fluffy couch. "I guess I won't be needing that dog anymore…" Rory said to herself as she let the news of her mother's impending engagement settle in.
XXXXXXXXXXXX
TBC…
A/N: Ok… so I know what you're all thinking… I waited all this time for that! And I know it could (and more importantly SHOULD) be A LOT better than this… but what can I say… I basically wrote 95 of this in a day because recent reviews have made be feel extremely guilty for my recent inability to update… I promise the next one will be all about Rory and Finn so that we can get back into the PDLD swing of things… Unfortunately that "next one" won't be coming around until AT LEAST February… (please don't send me hate reviews…) I know that's a horrible timeframe, and knowing me It will probably be much longer than February but with all the midterm papers that have recently been assigned it's simply the best I can do… I hope this chapter was good enough to satisfy some of that hunger… I guess I'll see you all the next time…