Part 15: Kicked Off
Rory had finished getting ready and smiled at her reflection as she fixed her short hair behind her ears. She knew that Finn had just been teasing her last night about not liking her hair. She hoped. Frowning she shook her head and opened her door, slightly confused when she saw a trail of Post-Its in front of her door leading towards the living room.
"Mom?"
"Follow the Post-Its!" Lorelai called. Rory frowned as she carefully stepped on the yellow pieces of paper finding her mom crouching down, putting more on the floor.
"Does our life seem at all ridiculous to you?" Rory asked, knowing her mother wouldn't respond.
"I spent all morning carefully tracking that motion detector," Lorelai said, sounding proud of herself.
"What an excellent use of your time, ignore the fact that we have a mountain of dishes in the sink that need to be washed or crap from last night littering the tables. But, of course, a Post-It path is the first thing on your to-do list." Rory rolled her eyes as Lorelai turned.
"You're very quippy this morning, and as long as we stay on the path, we're good."
Rory smirked. "So I should follow the yellow stick road?"
Lorelai gave a fake laugh. "We'll be here all week, try the veal." She looked over her shoulder at her daughter. "Stop."
Rory halted. "What?"
"Read."
Rory looked down at the Post-It in front of her and read. "'Crouch down and hop'." She looked at her mother in disbelief. "Oh come on!"
"The motion-detector beam at the top of the staircase dips very low over there"
Rory glared. "You seriously want me to crouch down and hop?"
Lorelai smiled wickedly. "Like a little hunchbacked bunny."
Rory sighed as she crouched down and hopped from one Post-It to another. "You know, I had decided that if I ever went to therapy, I was gonna leave you out of it, but now…" Rory said hopping down the trail.
"Okay, you can stand up," Lorelai said, standing and bringing Rory with her.
"Did you at least call that stupid security company again?" Rory asked grabbing her book bag from the couch.
"Yes, Meg sends her love." Rory glared. "Don't worry, I'll stop on my way to the inn. Now, what are your plans today, Persis Khambatta?"
"Well, today I'm going to do nothing but hang out in town, read, veg, drink coffee and have the perfect Stars Hollow day." She pulled the book bag over her shoulder and smiled.
"Look out," Lorelai laughed. "I get to go over to the inn and hear a contractor laugh at me every time I say 'But that won't cost me too much more, right?'" Lorelai sighed in frustration. She hated being in a financial bind.
"Enjoy," Rory said with a laugh.
"Late lunch at Luke's?" Lorelai asked, turning towards the stairs to go finish getting ready.
"You're on," Rory agreed, turning and looking down to see which way the Post-Its led, only to frown. "So, uh, which way do I go?"
Lorelai turned back. "Oh, just follow the Post-Its."
"But they're going in two different directions," Rory said pointing out the scattered Post-Its mess."
"They are?"
"Look."
Lorelai noticed it and frowned. "Oh, I must have kicked some out of the way by accident."
"Well, which one do I take?"
"Which looks more intentional?"
Rory looked at her mom in disbelief. "No Post-It path looks intentional."
"I'm drawing a complete blank."
"You seriously don't remember?"
"Sorry," Lorelai shrugged.
"Well, how are we supposed to get out of our house?"
Lorelai thought about for a moment before crossing her arms over her chest, nodding her head and blinking. "Unng!"
"I hate Kirk," Rory muttered looking down at the path.
"Trial and error, kid," Lorelai said causing Rory to sigh. She decided to take the one closest to the door, only to take a wrong step and cause the alarm to go off again. Rory gave a growl of frustration as she heard her mother laugh over the alarm.
"Wasn't that one!"
"Thanks!" Rory said glaring up at the stairs. Feeling the need to get back for the response, she scattered the Post-It notes even more, before leaving the house. Shaking her head, she walked towards Luke's, enjoying the walk and just being home in general.
Since school started, she hadn't been able to visit as much as she'd wanted, spending most of her weekends studying and spending time in the library. After spending three years at Chilton she was used to spending more time in a room full of books and dead authors than she was with her mother.
But even a bookworm like her got homesick and needed the feel of home. So as she entered Luke's, she took in her surroundings, smiling at the little eccentricities that happened in the town. Gypsy was arguing with Jackson over his truck; Taylor was in front of his shop, probably gathering the nerve to talk to Luke. And Luke, he was serving coffee and wiping down counters, his blue baseball cap firmly in place.
Walking in, she relished the sound of the bell sounding over her head, announcing her presence.
"Rory!" Luke said a bit awkwardly. She blushed, her mother hadn't stopped at the making out comment last night, but had kept the gag going, embarrassing both her and Luke in the process. "How are you?"
"Missing my boyfriend," she sighed. "But other than that, hungry."
"Well, I can help you there. What can I get you?"
"Coffee." She looked at the fresh muffins, then back at Luke. "And two of those."
"Coming right up," Luke laughed pouring her the coffee. "So how's Yale?"
"Hard." Rory laughed as she watched him cap the coffee cup and go over to the muffins. "But that's what my grandparents are paying for, right?"
"Right, and the boyfriend…"
"Finn?" Rory asked, as he put the bag with the muffin in front of her. "He's fine, we talked last night."
"And he's where?"
"Fiji," Rory sighed, "For the year with his buddies. But we talk on the phone and send e-mails, so we're in constant contact with each other."
"I like him," Luke said, feeling the need to show his approval. Rory had always been like a daughter to him, and he'd always felt protective towards her.
Rory smiled at his caring tone as she gathered her things. "Thanks, Luke, that means a lot coming from you, and I like him too."
"Good."
"So how much do I owe?"
"First year Yale students eat for free," Luke smiled, leaving to help someone before she could respond.
Laughing she picked up the bag and coffee and left Luke's going towards the gazebo. Sitting down, she took out her iPod, set it on random and stuffed it back in her bag, taking out one of her reading books and starting where she left off. The perfect relaxing day. She sighed, taking a sip of her coffee. Definitely good to be home.
XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX
Finn had always been a light sleeper, anything could wake him up. There were only those rare moments where he fell into such a deep sleep that a bomb could go off and he wouldn't wake up. But that was usually when he'd either just had a good bout of sex or his mind was alcohol induced. And tonight he hadn't had either of those.
He'd gone to bed, shortly after one in the morning, after he and Colin had stayed up playing video games and drinking a few. He'd planned on sleeping until noon so he could talk to Rory before she and her mother occupied themselves for the night.
But now he was wide awake, thanks to the sound of what sounded like someone rattling his door. Staring at the ceiling, he turned his head and looked. It was currently three in the morning. He sat up and frowned at the door before it opened. Someone was pushed in, then the door was closed.
"Who is it?" Finn asked.
Someone cleared their throat, causing Finn to frown even more and lean over the nightstand to turn on the light. Turning back he saw a young woman standing at the door, looking rather uncomfortable.
"Got lost?" He smirked, assuming it was one of Logan's bedmates.
The girl cleared her throat before answering, "Actually, your friend pushed me in here, said you were looking for a good time."
He could see the blush rising in her cheeks and he was all of a sudden reminded of Rory. The way her face would get a slight pink tint while she talked about things such as sex or any innuendoes he passed her way.
"My friend?"
The girl nodded. "Uh, we met him on the island, at one of the clubs. He said he had two friends who were in the need of some women. So we volunteered."
"To whore yourself out?" Finn asked.
The girl glared. "I'm not whoring myself out."
"You just told me that you can in here to have sex with me. That's whoring yourself out. You don't even know me, yet you were willing to sleep with me. Or you found out my friend and I are loaded, then in that case you're just a gold digger."
"Me and my friends were just looking for a good time."
"Well, you're not finding it here." Finn gestured for her to turn around. "Let me put some clothes on and I'll show you out."
"But you're-"
"My friend made a mistake," Finn said, watching as she turned around. He got out of bed and pulled on some boxers as well as an undershirt, and led her out, turning on the light for the hall. "Stay there," he said leaving her by the stairs and opening Colin's room.
By opening the door, he accidentally hit the girl standing on the inside of Colin's room. He grabbed the girl's hand and pulled her out. Luckily Colin was the heavy sleeper. "Go join your friend."
"But-"
"Go!" Finn said, glaring at the girl before going to Logan's room. He opened the door, Logan looked up and pushed the girl off him.
"What the hell, Finn?!"
"Show the girls out, me, you and Colin need to have a little talk. Now!" He growled before slamming the door again and going back to Colin's room. After waking Colin up and telling him what was going on, they walked up the stairs to see Logan apologizing to the girls. They bypassed the scene and they sat in the kitchen.
Colin got out two waters and passed one to Finn who was sitting in the booth in the corner of the kitchen, while Colin took a seat at the counter, swinging his legs and looking at a very calm Finn. And a calm Finn only meant one thing…
"You're pissed," Colin pointed out.
Finn looked over at him slowly. "Yeah, well, I have a right to be."
Colin sighed. "Logan meant well."
"No, Logan meant to piss me off, Colin." Finn shook his head. "If he pisses me off anymore, I'll pull out."
"Finn, come on," Colin said, never doubting that Finn was serious. When Finn had his mind set on something, he would stop at nothing, and when he gave you his word, he meant it.
"No, he's pushing it, Colin," Finn shook his head. "I'm not going to stay here for a year and let Logan be a bastard. Not if it means that he's hurting Rory in the process."
"So you're going to throw a long time friendship away for a girl?"
They turned and saw Logan looking at Finn with astonishment written all over his face.
Finn looked seriously at Logan. "You put a girl in my room and told her to have sex with me, Logan."
"And you said no. Fine, whatever."
"No, it's not 'whatever', Logan. You deliberately set it up so I would cheat on Rory, knowing that all it would do would piss me off. You did it to Colin too who, you know, is about to commit as well."
"We don't know that."
"We don't?" Colin frowned, then looked at Logan. "I told you that I was going to call Lane and talk to her about it. I'm pretty sure we do know this little tidbit of information, Logan. The only reason I'm not pissed about it is because had I slept with this girl, not saying I was, I wouldn't have been cheating."
"You would have felt guilty though," Finn pointed out.
"Oh, no doubt about it." Colin then looked at Logan. "But you knew that by putting that girl in Finn's room you'd piss him off. Finn's warned you, Logan, that if you did anything to jeopardize his relationship with Rory, he'd pull out of the trip. And with this little 'prank' that you pulled, you're practically telling Finn to leave."
Logan rolled his eyes. "I didn't mean it that way, I just thought that if Finn used the girl, he'd stop…" He trailed off.
"Stop what?" Finn asked sitting up, then smirked. "Are you jealous?"
Colin laughed. "Oh god, you are!"
"What do I have to be jealous of?" Logan asked crossing his arms over his chest.
"The fact that I spend my time talking with Rory than I do hanging out with you. Newsflash, Logan, she's my girlfriend."
"It's no reason to put her before friends."
"And I'm not!" Finn argued. "I talk to her when it's convenient! There's a time difference, Logan! So while you think that my day is spent talking with her, it's not!"
"Yeah, it is!" Logan yelled.
Finn shook his head. "Yesterday I talked to her twice!"
"On the way here, all you did was spend time in your room," Logan pointed out.
Finn rolled his eyes. "Not talking to her. Sort of impossible, what with the lack of phone lines, I spend the two weeks in my room watching movies and sleeping, Logan. I sent her e-mails. That's about it." Finn shook his head. "I don't need to explain myself to you. I'm a big boy, it's my private life that I'm not going to share."
"The thing is, Finn, you're here for a year with us. Not her."
"I realize that," Finn nodded patiently. "But that doesn't mean I'm going to stop thinking about someone that I care for. Get used to the fact that Rory is here to stay."
Logan shook his head. "It's not going to last, Finn. Your attention span is too short to really commit to her."
Finn rolled his eyes. "Oh please, had my attention span been as short as you claim, I would have dumped her weeks ago, but I haven't. You promised to deal with it. Before we set sail, I asked you if you could accept Rory as my girlfriend, and if not, to tell me and I'd pack my things and leave. You said yes."
Logan nodded. "I did."
Finn stared at Logan who kept his gaze. "I'm asking you again, mate. Can you deal with the fact that Rory is my girlfriend. If not, tell me now, I'll pack my things and get the first plane out of here."
Logan looked over at Finn and noticed that he was dead serious. He thought about it and sighed. The truth will set you free, he thought before uttering "no."
Colin frowned as Finn sat in shock.
"What?" Colin asked.
"I can't deal with it." He shrugged. "If you want to leave, fine, I don't care."
Finn shook his head before getting up and nodding. "Fine. I'll go pack."
"Finn wait!" Colin sighed, but Finn ignored the call and left the kitchen. "Did you seriously just do that?"
"At this point, Colin, I couldn't care less," Logan said with a shrug.
"So are you going to kick me off too when I ask Lane to be my girlfriend?"
Logan shrugged. "I don't know."
Colin scoffed and shook his head. "You better make up your mind fast, Logan, because by the looks of things, you might be taking this trip by yourself." Colin pushed past the blonde and left.
XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX
Turning the page of her book, she reached her the highlighter in her book bag when she felt someone stomp up the steps of the gazebo and set something down. She looked up and saw a guy setting down a box. Pulling out her earphones and holding the place in her book, she looked at the guy.
"What's going on?" She asked, confusion lacing her voice.
"I'm just setting things up for tomorrow," he said absently, trying to figure out how to open the box.
"Oh, tomorrow." She rolled here eyes as if she knew what tomorrow was. According to her day planner it was Sunday. "What's –"
"Heads up!" A voice interrupted her. She felt the air stir above her head, causing her to duck down as a packet of linens came flying over her head, the man in front of her catching them.
"I think you may need to move," the man said.
"Yeah, I kinda got that," Rory said rolling her eyes, and gathering her things. "I'm sorry, but what's tomorrow?"
The guy turned before responding, causing Rory to sigh in defeat before turning and seeing Lindsay and Mrs. Lister talking below a few feet from the gazebo.
"I was thinking tons of tulle, so that everything looks like frosting," Lindsay said with a giggle, looking at the woman who Rory assumed was a planner.
"She's our only daughter - frost the town," Mrs Lister said proudly.
"Now, where should we put the poster?" Lindsay asked holding up a blown up picture of Dean and herself hugging. "I want to make sure everybody sees it."
"Oh!" Mrs. Lister said, apparently having a genius idea. "What about next to the cake?"
"Yes," the wedding planner nodded, "Next to the cake." Lindsay squealed excitedly hugging her mother. Rory frowned before turning and jogging down the gazebo and towards her best friend's house.
How could she have not known that Dean was getting married this weekend? Had Lane and her wires gotten crossed or had Lane told her and Rory had just forgotten, what with all the other useless crap she had to remember for school?
Shaking her head free of the thoughts, she walked into Kim's Antiques, not bothering to knock.
"Lane?!" She called.
"Rory?" Lane asked coming into view and hugging her.
"Have you heard of a phone?" Rory asked, deciding Lane hadn't told her ."Because as my friend, it is your responsibility to use it to call me and tell me that my ex-boyfriend's wedding is on Sunday so I'm not accidentally in it."
Lane frowned, confusion written on her face. "What?"
"I'm sitting out in the gazebo, reading, and this guy almost brains me with a stack of tablecloths."
"Oh, that's right, they're having their reception in the town square." Lane nodded, remembering, then frowning, trying to figure out why she hadn't told Rory.
"Yeah, and Lindsay was out there holding a giant picture of her and Dean and…"
"Oh my god!" Lane said interrupting. "Did she see you?"
"I don't think so. I do a pretty good idiot run when I need to," Rory sighed, relaxing a bit.
"I'm sorry. I meant to tell you, I just didn't know you were coming home this weekend. It totally slipped my mind. Things have been so crazy, I just figured I'd tell you when we talked, and then we didn't, and…" Lane trailed off as if remembering something ."Oh, I'm sorry, can you hold on just a sec."
Rory frowned as Lane walked away, further into the store and opened the armoire that sat against the wall. Rory stifled a laugh as she saw the tall forms of Brian and Zach stuffed inside.
"Not cool, Lane," Zach said stepping out, Brian behind him.
"I'm sorry, guys," Lane apologized, trying hard not to laugh.
"Fourth time today," Brain pointed out.
"Well, I thought Rory was my mom," Lane pointed out.
"The resemblance is uncanny," Zach said dryly.
"We should get your mom a bell… like a cat," Brain suggested.
"What's going on?" Rory asked confused.
"We're having a band meeting," Lane said. "We need to figure out what to do about a guitarist."
"I think I got a splinter," Brian said randomly, looking at his finger.
"You know that a splinter can get into your bloodstream," Zach said. "Go straight to your heart and kill you."
Brian looked at him incredulously. "Why would you tell me that?"
Zach rolled his eyes. "Whatever, dude. This is lame, I'm gonna bail," he said starting to leave.
"Zach, come on!" Lane pleaded grabbing his arm to keep him from leaving.
"We need to find a guitarist," Brain pointed out for Rory's benefit.
"That's right. We have come too far to let the band fall apart just because Dave…"
Zach cut her off. "Hey, do not say the 'D' word, Lane."
"But…"
"Don't!" Zach said finally.
"Dave-" Lane began.
"Dave is dead to me!" Zach yelled. "Comprendo? Dead. Cover the mirror, rip a shirt, that guy doesn't exist."
"He just went to college, Zach," Brian said.
"No," Zach said, "He did not just go to college, he walked out on his art, man. He walked out on his sound. Do you think a sound is easy to find? Did you ever see that Glenn Miller movie? For two hours Jimmy Stewart's walking around, "I gotta find a sound. I gotta find a sound' Well, we had a sound and Dave took that sound to freaking California. You don't come back from California, man. It changes you."
Lane frowned. "What did you expect him to do – not go to college?"
"No true rock 'n' roller goes to college."
Rory felt the need to add her own two cents in, plus she loved getting a rise out of Zach. "Mick Jagger went to the London School of Economics."
"What?" Zach asked in confusion.
"Yeah, and, uh, Dexter Holland of The Offspring got his PhD in Molecular Biology at USC. Greg Ginn of Black Flag graduated from UCLA. Greg Graffin from Bad Religion got his Masters in Geology from UCLA, and he's working on his PhD in Evolutionary Biology at Cornell." She bit her lip as Zach looked at her in shock.
"Wh-" he spluttered.
Rory bit her lip as she thought about more. "Then Tom Scholz of Boston got his Masters in Electrical Engineering from MIT, Brian May from Queen got a PhD in Astronomy at the Imperial College London, Mira Aroyo from Ladytron got a PhD in Genetics from Oxford in England, and then there's Sterling Morrison from Velvet Underground who got his PhD in English from the University of Texas," she nodded with a small smile.
Zach looked at her in disbelief before turning to Lane. "Lane, she's your friend."
"I'm sorry," Rory said as Lane turned her attention to Rory. "Um, I'm going to go. I'll call you later?"
"Are you mad?" Lane asked worried.
"No, I'm not, I promise. I'm just a little surprised. I mean Dean's wedding."
"I know," Lane said knowing that even though Rory loved Finn, no matter how much she denied it, the fact that her ex was marrying was a bit weird.
"But it's okay. It just means that I have to be a little more careful about where I go this weekend, that's all."
"Okay, well, I'll see you tomorrow," Lane said. "We're using the garage, you know, guitar auditions."
Rory nodded. "Okay, well, I'll see you tomorrow."
"Shut up, shut up, shut up! Weezer did not go to Harvard," Zach said covering his ears.
"Not the whole band," Brain corrected. "Just the lead sin-"
"Get away from me!" Zach said pushing Brian out of the way. "I mean it."
Lane and Rory laughed as Rory reached the door. "Oh, before I forget, let Colin speak next time you talk to him."
Lane frowned but nodded. "All right, bye."
"Bye." Rory waved leaving the store. She shook her head, hoping that Lane would find that guitarist soon or else Zach would probably go out to California and kill Dave for leaving. She smiled slightly to herself. Not noticing where she was going, she bumped into something. Backing up a few steps she noticed that something happened to be her ex-boyfriend's chest.
"Hi," she said quickly, rubbing her head that had made impact.
"Hi. Uh, were you…" He pointed at Lane's.
"Oh, yeah, I was at, uh, Lane's." She frowned, why was this so uncomfortable?
"Right, Lane's. " Dean nodded. "Um…"
"Um…" Rory bit her lip, trying to figure out what to say. Unfortunately she came up drawing a blank.
"So, you're home this weekend," Dean stated.
"Yeah," Rory said excitedly and with a nod, tucking her hair behind her ear. "I ran out of clean clothes and quarters, so…" she bit her lip. "How are things?"
"Good. You?"
"Good," Rory nodded.
"You like Yale?" Dean asked.
"I love Yale," Rory smiled.
"I figured," Dean nodded.
"And Connecticut State?" Rory asked.
"It's…" Dean trailed off, then shrugged. "It's good."
"Oh, that's good. I'm glad it's good. I mean, not that I would have had any recourse if it wasn't, but this makes my lack of recourse a lot easier to deal with." She heard a slam behind her and looked over her shoulder to see another box hit the gazebo. "So I see you've taken over the town."
"Oh, yeah, Well, Lindsay thought…She likes the gazebo and…" Dean trailed off, not quite sure why he was at a loss of words at the moment. He and Rory were friends. They could talk and not have it be awkward.
"And it's her wedding," Rory pointed out.
Dean nodded, a light smile playing on his lips. "It is her wedding."
"And your wedding. I mean..." She shrugged. "It's your wedding too."
Dean nodded. "Yes, it is. It's my wedding too."
"Well, it's nice. Pretty," she said. "It looks like heaven or a Victoria's Secret commercial." She felt her cell vibrate in her pocket. Taking it out she continued. "Which to some people is basically the same thing." She frowned at the caller ID, then looked at Dean. Sorry, I have to take this."
Dean shrugged. "Oh, ok."
Rory opened the phone and frowned. "Isn't it like four in the morning where you're at?"
"I'm coming home," Fin stated into the phone.
"Excuse me?" Rory asked in disbelief.
"I'm coming home."
"Oh god, is something wrong with your dad, 'cause I'll go check on him."
Finn laughed. "No, my dad's all right. Logan kicked me off."
Rory rubbed her head and frowned. "Logan kicked you off… the yacht?" Rory asked.
"No, love, the spaceship. Yes, the yacht."
"So you're in the sea right now." Getting the image of Finn floating in the middle of the ocean talking to her while holding on to a piece of driftwood to keep him afloat. "You can swim, right?"
Finn sighed, "No, I'm on the yacht packing my things. I'm getting the first flight out. And yes, I can swim."
"Want to explain to me why?"
"I took swimming lessons," he teased.
"Not the reason why you can swim, the reason Logan's kicking you off the yacht!"
"Rather not."
"Well, I'm not letting you come home if you're not telling me why."
"It's not your decision," Finn said.
Rory shook her head. "No, it's not, but you're going to regret this, Finn, he's your best friend."
"Ex-best friend."
"Oh jeez, that is so fifth grade, Finn." Rory rolled her eyes, "You're much more mature than that."
"He's a poophead and that's' all there is to it," he teased gently.
"And now you're a second grader. Nice, I'm robbing the cradle."
Finn sighed, trying hard not to laugh. "Look, we had some words and it resulted in Logan kicking me out. Aren't you happy that I'm coming home, get to see your handsome boyfriend again?"
Rory laughed. "I'd be very happy to see my boyfriend again, Finn, but I want to know why you and Logan are arguing."
"I really really don't want to tell you, love."
"Then I really really don't want to talk to you right now."
"Oh crap, I really can't have two people mad at me right now."
"Then go work it out with Logan and call me when you grow up," Rory said. "Now I'm hanging up."
Finn sighed. "I'll call you in five minutes!"
Rory shook her head before hanging up and keeping the phone in her hand. "Sorry, um... my boyfriend."
"Oh…" Dean nodded. "Right, boyfriend."
"He's out of town for the year, so we're doing the long distance thing. Though he may come back." Rory shook her head with a smile. "Who knows."
"Unpredictable?"
"At times," Rory nodded. "He left a few weeks ago," she shrugged.
"So... I didn't know you were going to be here this weekend." Dean mentally slapped himself, he'd already said that.
Rory shrugged, feeling a bit more awkward. "Got kicked out of my dorm. My roommate and her boyfriend wanted the dorm to themselves, and, well, it was a self-preservation thing."
"Oh," Dean nodded, shocked that Rory was so open about talking about sex, even if it was discreetly. When they had dated, she had been so shy about things and now… well, she was really different. "Well, if I had known, I would have invited you to the wedding."
"Oh." Rory frowned. "Well, it's okay.I mean…"
"No, you should come."
"What?" Rory asked raising an eyebrow.
"Yeah, you and Lorelai, come to my wedding."
"Oh, we-"
"Chicken or beef?"
"What?"
"Chicken or beef? Wait, beef, of course beef. I mean, the two of you are definitely beef. I mean, not like you resemble beef or anything."
"You know, you don't even have to-"
"Okay, so noon at the church. I'll be the one in the tux. And don't worry, we didn't write our own vows and no one's singing opera. I know you think that's lame," Dean laughed.
"Oh, no, well, it's a wedding. It's supposed to be… operatic," Rory said, not quite sure what she had just agreed to.
"Okay, so I better get over there. Lindsay's expecting me. So I'll just see you two tomorrow."
"Wait-" Rory trailed off and she watched Dean walk across the street and the phone vibrate in her hand.
What had she just gotten herself into??
XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX
"Now?" She heard Kirk call from upstairs.
Lorelai frowned looking at the security box on her wall. Nothing had changed. Everything on the little LCD green screen was as it was two seconds ago. "Nothing!" she called back.
"What about now?" Kirk asked again.
"No, nothing!" She really doubted that Kirk was doing anything to the box upstairs and she really hoped the weirdo wasn't going through her underwear drawer or something. She shuddered at the thought.
"Okay. Now?"
"Nothing!" She sighed. "Kirk, what's supposed to happen?"
"What?"
"I don't know what I'm supposed to be looking for." She yelled up the sitars. When she got no response, she sighed in frustration. "Kirk?"
"I'm not sure."
Shaking her head, she turned away from the screen and up the stairs. "Kirk, please come downstairs."
"Are you going to hurt me?"
"Kirk!" Lorelai warned.
"I swear," he explained as he started down the stairs. "They told me it would be self-explanatory. I just had to get in the main box and in seconds this thing would be disabled. They didn't tell me that I needed a key or, that if I didn't have a key, that I would be mildly electrocuted, and then after all that, when I got in the box, there was nothing self-explanatory about it."
"Kirk." Lorelai sighed resiting the urge to pat him on the head, like a little puppy who just did wrong.
"I was trying to do a nice thing," Kirk said in a low voice.
"I know."
"And Jimmy said he would install it for me because I do not have those skills yet." Lorelai raised an eyebrow. "The class was full by the time I go there," he explained.
"That's okay."
"Damn my constant tardiness."
Lorelai nodded but was still frustrated. She was tired of not being able to walk freely in he house without having the neighbors duck and cover in fear of Sputnik coming down on their heads. "Kirk, please, what can we do right now? The alarm is just so loud."
"Yeah, that's my fault too. I asked Jimmy to really crank it up."
"Well, he did," Lorelai said dryly.
"If you're gonna have an alarm, you need it loud. You don't want some crazed knife-wielding gunman at your throat and the neighbors are going like, 'Is that a fan? Did I leave the water running?' You want them to know 'Hey, that's an alarm.'"
Lorelai frowned, still stuck on something he had said. "Your imaginary attacker has a knife and a gun?"
"And a really dirty tank top." Kirk nodded matter-of-factly.
"Okay," Lorelai said. That was way too much information for her. "So, uh, Jimmy's out of town, but until he gets back we can…" she trailed off, hoping to all the gods above that Kirk would fill in the blank.
"Change the code," Kirk said, going over to the security system on the wall.
"Really? To something I know?"
"You can pick it," Kirk nodded, punching some buttons on the system.
"And you know how to do that?"
"Yes, I do."
"That is perfect," Lorelai said happily.
"Okay, here you go, just punch in a six number sequence.
"Thank you," Lorelai said, punching in the first two numbers of her and Rory's birthday year, which was 19, then the last two numbers of both her and Rory's years which were 68 and 84. Punching it in, she heard the door open and someone walk in.
"Hey!" Sookie said, popping out from around the corner.
"Hi," Lorelai said pushing 'Enter'.
"Did you know your phone's not working?" Sookie asked.
Lorelai frowned. She knew she paid the phone bill that month. "What?"
"I've been calling you for an hour. I had the operator check it. She said it's cut off or something."
Lorelai shrugged. "It was working this morning."
She heard Kirk head towards the sitars. "I'll be right back."
"Kirk!" Lorelai yelled as he ran up the steps.
"I have tape!" He called over his shoulder.
Sookie looked at Lorelai in sympathy. "You look tired."
"Yeah, well, Kirk," Lorelai said with a sigh pointing upstairs.
"Right." Sookie laughed as they walked into the kitchen. She took a seat as Lorelai grabbed a pitcher of lemonade from the refrigerator and some cups. "I got a call today."
"From?" Lorelai asked, putting the cups on the table and pouring some for her and Sookie.
"Michel, a very upset Michel."
"Why?"
"Well, apparently he called you and you never called him back."
"When did he call me?" She racked her brain to try and remember if she'd ever gotten a call from the irate Frenchman.
"He said he called you in July."
"I went to Martha's Vineyard at the end of July. Do you think he called then?"
Sookie shrugged. "I don't know, but I think that he thinks we're trying to ease him out of the Dragonfly."
"Oh come on," Lorelai said. "Why would he think that?"
"I don't know, but he was so hysterical that his voice got in that high pitched squeal he does," Sookie said, doing the high pitch noise, not quite reaching Michel's level though. "And all I could make out was 'fire' and 'abandon me' and something about not receiving a thank-you card for the Statue of Liberty."
"That is crazy!" Lorelai said, not quite believing that she had to deal with the craziness of Kirk and now Michel's bipolar moods. "He knows we always intended to take him with us. I mean… we love Michel… right?"
"Right," Sookie agreed. "He's the best concierge in the world."
"Absolutely," Lorelai agreed, then added. "A little abrasive."
"Kind of impatient," Sookie added.
"But charming," Lorelai pointed out.
"And great at what he does, knows the community."
"And he's willing to go that extra mile."
"Just a tiny bit obnoxious," Sookie said, putting her forefinger and thumb closer together.
"And makes you want to scream 'life's too short!" two, three times a day, but.."
Sookie smiled. "Picture life without him. We do need him, right?"
They stayed silent for a moment and Lorelai smiled as she felt the weight of the world feel so much lighter without having to deal with Mitchel's irate moods, but before she could convince herself that life was indeed easier without him, she found herself at the bottom of the river, with lead shoes and Michel pointing at her laughing.
"Let's just go down there and talk to him," Lorelai told Sookie, who nodded.
"Right."
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A.N.: Sorry that last part was pretty much all transcript, lol… Next two chapters I know for a fact vary. I have some plans, plans I hope you all enjoy. And yes, I realize Logan's an ass,and he will continue being so indefinitely. Trust me, you will hate Logan if you don't already. He's not misunderstood, he really is that much of a jackass. Lol.
Hope you all enjoyed, and I'm hoping that the next part of this comes out soon!!
Kassandra