AN: Ok, sorry this one took longer than I thought. It was so much harder than I was expecting, but this is the best I could do. I hope it's as good as what you're expecting.
"Sookie, there is a very annoying woman out the front demanding that she see you right now. And that someone give her a cup of coffee. I do not like her and I am now going to take my ten, could you please ensure that she is gone by the time that I return?" Michel Gerard, the Independence Inn's concierge requested, before turning on his heel and leaving the kitchen.
Sookie put down the piping bag she was using to decorate Rory's birthday cake and walked out to the reception desk, confused. It wasn't hard to annoy Michel; people did it constantly, some times on purpose.
But he seemed particularly irritated by this mystery woman.
Wiping her hands on her apron, Sookie scanned the lobby until her eyes fell on someone she hadn't seen in many years.
"Lorelai?" she asked, just to be sure, before she hugged someone she didn't know.
"Hey, Sook. What's happening?"
"Oh my God! What are you doing here?"
"Well, I heard there was pretty good coffee in this joint, and the chef makes killer risotto, so I thought, maybe, I'd come by, check it out."
"Not killer. It's got magic healing powers. You know the story, you were there."
"No. Sookie, I know all about the magic risotto. I meant that it was really good."
"Oh, right. Thanks. Rory must be so excited that you're here! I'm so glad you came in time for her birthday, and you'll be at the party, and everything is going to be so great. This… I'm just—"
"Sookie? Honey, are you ok?" Lorelai asked, putting an arm around her friend's shoulders as she began to tear up.
"I'm just so happy you're here. Now everything can be fixed, and we'll go back to the way things were, and you'll be so happy together, and-"
"Sookie, I didn't come back for Luke."
"You didn't."
"No. I came because it's my kid's birthday, and I missed her, and you, and I just wanted to be here. But Luke and me… God that would take a lot longer than a long weekend to fix, not that I'm saying that's something I really plan to do. I mean, it would be nice, if we could get along, if just for Rory's sake, but if we can't… Well, this agreement isn't forever, so eventually we won't have to deal with one another again, and we can go back to living our lives separately."
"Separately, right. Of course." Sookie began leading the way to the kitchen and made Lorelai a cup of coffee, before returning to her cake preparations. "Well, at least you're here, that's good. What did Rory say when you saw her? Was she excited?"
"I haven't seen her yet. Well, I saw her, but she didn't see me."
"I'm not following."
"I saw her when I got off the bus. She was leaving Luke's with a boy; he looks a lot like Luke at that age,"
"That's Jess, his nephew."
"Right, that's what I thought. Anyway, I saw them and I just bolted."
"You bolted?"
"I wasn't ready to see her yet. I mean, I spoke to her a few hours ago and told her I had to work in the morning, so she has no idea that I'm coming. I planned on surprising her, but then I saw her, and I just thought, 'you're an idiot. This won't be a good surprise, she'll hate it.' So then I just ran and ended up here, and that's it."
"I think you're wrong." Sookie replied, shaking her head. "I think that she'll be glad to see you. You've been getting on pretty well lately, haven't you?"
"Over the phone, when we're separated by a few state lines, sure. That could all be undone now we're back in the same town, though."
"No. It'll be alright. You'll see. At the party tonight, everyone will be having such a good time, you'll completely forget about the awkwardness."
"You got a crystal ball in the back of the fridge there?" Lorelai asked, causing Sookie to laugh.
"This is just so exciting!" the chef gushed, throwing her hands up. "Finally Jackson will stop thinking I made you up. I mean, Rory helped a little, but I'm pretty sure he kind of thinks I conjured her from nothing. You'll prove that theory wrong though."
"Glad I can be of service. So, I'm wondering if you've got any cheap rooms going for the weekend. I didn't organize anything, even though I spoke to my boss a fortnight ago. I guess I thought if anything other than that were concrete then I would chicken out."
"You can stay with us!"
"But I thought you didn't have the room. Isn't that why-"
"Well, we don't; not for a long term stay. But if you don't mind a fold-out sofa we should be able to fit you." Sookie moved to retrieve her purse and pulled out a set of keys, before removing one. "Here,"
"Thanks Sookie. This is so great." Lorelai held the small piece of metal in her hand and glanced at the clock before turning back to her friend. "Do you think she'd be back from her walk by now?"
"Maybe. But do you really want to go to the diner? I mean, Luke-"
"Will probably be just about anywhere that I choose to speak to Rory. I can't just wait till tonight she deserves to know I'm here, before I show up at her party. Besides, we're mature adults, I'm sure everything will be fine."
"Uh huh." Sookie nodded and Lorelai walked out of the kitchen, still dragging her suitcase along.
Standing across the street from the diner, Lorelai watched Luke moving around inside his diner. His diner. She'd stopped at Sookie's to drop of her suitcase and then continued back to the centre of town. It was completely amazing that he'd actually done it, started up his own business. From what she'd been told and what she could see, Luke had really done well for himself.
"Here goes nothing," Lorelai decided, starting to make her way across the street. By the time she stood at the door, Luke was gone, somewhere in the back. Taking a deep breathe, she looked around at the interior. If I had a dollar for every time I sat at that counter, while Luke worked with his dad, I'd be as rich as my mother. Everything looked the same, except for the tables that now filled the floor where there had once been shelving units filled with hammers, nails, nuts and bolts. The walls were the same color they had been the last time she was there, only faded, and Luke had even left all of his father's signage up on the walls.
"I wasn't expecting to see you here." Lorelai turned around at the sound of Luke's voice and chewed her lip. She'd done it now, walked right into the lion's den with nothing prepared; no speech, no apology, she had nothing. "Rory's out with Jess." He added when she didn't say anything. "They're hanging out for a few hours before the party tonight. We're having a party at Liz's house and some kids from Jess' school are coming, and-"
"You should take a breath."
"What?"
"Breathe." Lorelai repeated. "It really wouldn't do to have the guy my daughter has come to depend on drop dead from lack of oxygen. Especially not on her birthday."
"Ok." Luke did as he was told and they continued to stand in the middle of the diner, staring at one another. "You… look, um, good."
"You were always a terrible liar. But thank you for trying." She smiled, tucking a piece of hair behind her ear. "So, Rory's out?"
"With Jess, yeah, they went to see a movie, and they were going to stop in at the bookstore on the way home. I'm not sure what time, I mean, they didn't say when…"
"Maybe I'll take a walk, see what's changed? Can you tell her that- No. I want to tell her I'm here myself. Or, show her I guess. I'll go to the bookstore. Stars Hollow Books, right? Where Andrew-"
"He owns it now. Took the place over a few years ago,"
"Wow. That's great. He did always love working there."
"Yeah,"
"Ok… Well, I'll just, I'll go now." Nodding to herself, Lorelai quickly turned away and walked out the door, back onto the street. Taking a series of deep breaths, she held a hand over her heart. It was racing, in a way that it hadn't done in years.
"Get that piece of junk away from me! I mean it, Jess, don't even show it to me." Rory cried out, jumping away from Jess as he held a book out towards her. He had a very disturbing obsession with the painful Earnest Hemingway.
"Come on, Rory. Just one page, that all I'm asking for here. Read one page and I'll never make you look at anything he's ever written again. You'll be begging to borrow all of my books."
"Hey! It's my birthday and that means that if I don't want to do something, you can't make me. You got that?"
"Ok, fine. Today, I will let the subject rest. But tomorrow, you won't have any excuses and therefore will not be able to stop me from showing these wonderful pieces of literature to you."
"Oh, trust me buddy, I'll be able to think up a thousand reasons. Oh no, I think I just went blind! How awful, now I'll never be able to read anything written by the wonderful Earnest. How ever will I survive?" Rory asked, throwing her head back and affecting an awful Southern accent.
"I'll look into finding you some brail tomorrow." Jess replied easily. "Don't worry. You won't miss out."
"That is just- Mom?" Rory froze halfway along one of the aisles as she caught sight of her mother walking through the door of the bookstore. "How did you… What are you doing here?" she asked, once Lorelai stood in front of her.
"You didn't really think I was going to miss my baby girl's sweet sixteen, did you?" Lorelai asked, reaching out to hug Rory. For a moment the younger girl didn't respond, but then she slowly returned the embrace. "I probably should have told you I was coming, so you wouldn't look at me like that, but hey, hindsight."
"I can't believe you're actually here, did you… Have you been to the diner?"
"Oh, well. Yeah,"
"And?"
"Let's just say, not my finest hour. But I don't want to talk about that, tell me, how's your birthday going? And are you ever going to introduce me to your handsome friend here?"
Rory turned to look at Jess, still holding A Call to Arms, as the tips of his ears turned pink. If she weren't in such a huge state of shock she would have enjoyed poking fun at him for that. But as the situation stood, she could barely think coherently. "Um, sure, Mom, this is Jess, Jess, my mom, Lorelai."
"Hi, it's nice to meet the creator of the Lorelai method, at last."
"The Lorelai method?" Lorelai cocked her head to the side, confused.
"You know, how you could get any guy to-"
"We don't need to discuss that right now, Jess." Rory told him, jabbing him in the ribs with her elbow. "Mom just had a long trip. How about we go and… Well, I don't know. We probably shouldn't go to the diner."
"How much do you know?" Lorelai asked, as Jess took a few steps away to put back the books he was holding.
"Not a whole lot, just that whenever you've come up in conversation, things have gotten very tense. So, I'm thinking, you actually being physically involved in the conversation probably would be about a thousand times worse."
"That sounds pretty accurate. Ok, well, do you want to go to Sookie's? I'm staying there while I'm in town and she gave me her key, so it would probably be a good idea for me to be there to let her in when she gets home."
"Sure. Are you coming, or…?" Rory turned back to Jess, but he wasn't where she had seen him last. Instead, he stood almost on the other side of the store. "Jess!"
"Yeah?" he returned to Rory's side and she breathed a small sigh of relief. Strangely she felt more comfortable with him than her own mother. That wasn't a very soothing thought.
"We're going to Sookie's for a while. Did you want to come?"
"I should probably get home and see if there's anything I can do to help with the party."
"Oh, the party. I completely forgot. Did you want me to-"
"No, it's ok. You guys hang out, catch up. I'll see you there around seven-thirty."
"Alright, thanks for today. It was fun."
"Well, it's your birthday. We can't have you being bored and doing things you don't want to do, can we?"
"We certainly can't. I guess we'll see you later."
"Bye. It was nice to meet you." He added to Lorelai before walking away. Rory left the store with Lorelai right behind her.
"So, you haven't told me anything about this boy. What's going on there?"
"Nothing." Rory retorted. She suddenly felt so insecure in her mother's presence that she went straight to her old standby – keeping herself within a fortress that no one could penetrate, keeping herself safe from any type of intrusion, including her mother's attempts at conversation. "We work together, that's it."
"Oh, ok. If you say so."
Luke didn't even bother calling out to Caesar. As soon as Lorelai was out the door, he turned and raced up the stairs to the sanctuary of his apartment. Dropping onto the couch, he let his head fall into his shaking hands as he thought over what had just happened.
She was back. She had been standing right in front of him for the first time in over ten years. The first time in over a long, torturous decade.
"She's here…" he whispered. "Lorelai is here. In Stars Hollow."
Talking to her for a few minutes at a time over the phone was one thing. It had taken some getting used to, but then, so had living with a teenage girl. Plus, if things got too hard, he could just hand the phone to Rory and return to the storeroom to get his heart rate under control.
But seeing her for real, standing in the middle of his diner was something else entirely.
He knew exactly what she was dong too. In her mind she was removing the tables, putting back the shelves, and filling them with the hardware that his father had sold years ago. That was how it had looked the last time she stood in that position. She'd never seen it this way before.
"I can't believe she came."
After about an hour Rory claimed she needed to go and help Liz with stuff for the party. Lorelai was left sitting alone at Sookie's, until Jackson returned. That was uncomfortable, seeing as they'd never met before, but she managed to explain who she was before he pulled out some pesticide. They made a few attempts at small talk before Sookie arrived and diffused the discomfort.
The three of them ready for the party, and then returned to the inn to pick up the food Sookie had prepared, before heading over to Liz's house.
"I'm telling you Sookie, it was awful! You've never seen something so awkward." Lorelai explained as she, Sookie and Jackson approached the house. Handing a platter to her husband who was already weighed down with a lot of other food, Sookie opened the door and they walked inside. Sookie began to lead the way through to the kitchen but she and Lorelai both froze about three feet into the room. "Until now…" she muttered.
In the corner of the room, Emily Gilmore sat in a stuffed armchair, being drawn into a conversation by… Is that Miss Patty? Richard stood in front of the fireplace; he appeared to be inspecting the structure.
"How did they-"
"Oh my God! Why are they here?"
"What's the matter?" Jackson asked, looking between the two women and then at the couple who had their attention. "Who are they?"
Lorelai hurriedly glanced around, and quickly located a table nearby that she deposited the food onto, before backing up and moving towards the door. She didn't get far, however, as Luke came in while she was trying to get out.
"Whoa! What's going on, where are you going?" he asked, his hands on her shoulders to steady her.
"I… Um, it-" she couldn't formulate any thoughts, and he was looking at her, not at the other people in the room. Since she couldn't find the words to explain, she just shook her head.
"Lorelai?" freezing in her attempt to push passed Luke, Lorelai waited to see if the voice that called to her would continue, or if she had just imagined it. "Lorelai Gilmore, look at me this instant!"
There was no mistaking the voice of Emily Gilmore.
Luke's hands dropped away and she turned around in an excruciatingly slow circle to finally come face to face with her mother. The two women blinked at one another for a few moments, as Richard stood off to the side, staring at his daughter. Every person had gone utterly silent, and all eyes were glued to them.
"You-"
"I'm sorry everyone, I don't know what's keeping Sookie with the food," Liz began as she entered the room. "She must have gotten held up at- Oh."
"I have the food!" Sookie cried out, handing some things to Liz. She and Jackson carried the rest to the kitchen. The entire room seemed to have taken a collective breathe once Liz walked in, and now everyone had returned to their conversations. Only Luke, Lorelai, Richard and Emily remained still, continuing to look one another over.
"Maybe it would be best if you guys took a few minutes to talk outside?" Luke suggested and Emily nodded.
"Yes. I think that would be wise." She started for the door, her husband following silently. Lorelai turned to Luke, fixing him with a pleading look.
"Can you…?"
He didn't want to be there, not for this. But no matter what had happened in the past, there was still a part of him that was drawn to this woman, felt a desire to help her, so he nodded. "Sure." They both moved out onto the porch, where Emily stood, with her arms crossed over her chest and Richard sat on the porch swing.
"You're looking well," he observed, and Lorelai looked down at herself, smoothing her top.
"Thank you Daddy. You both… It's really nice to see you guys."
"Is that so?" Emily asked, studying her daughter coldly. "You aren't wishing you had some sort of time machine so that you can go back and choose not to come here tonight? Or maybe an invisibility cloak would be better, that way you could watch all of us, and avoid contact with anyone."
"Well, I guess, if you want me to be honest… Yeah. I've kind of been thinking that all day. Because this has been a really difficult day, but I know that I can't hide forever, so, I guess this was as good a time as any."
"You do, do you? You think that now is a good time? This works for you, after you took our grand daughter away from us, then sent her to live here, with that man-" she pointed at Luke in a not-so-kind way, "fourteen years later. Well I'm so glad you're happy with the timing!"
"Mom, please,"
"Yes, Emily. Please. Don't be this way."
"What are you talking about? 'Don't be this way'? You know just as well as I do that she deserves to hear the things we have to say. She hasn't had any contact with us in such a long time; she hasn't allowed us to even know that she was still alive! I have every right to be this way. I'm amazed that you aren't. And I'm looking at Luke and I can see that even he has something to say about this. But I'm sure he won't, because apparently it isn't the time."
"I think…" Lorelai scratched the back of her head, squeezing her eyes shut. "Maybe I'll just go."
"No." Luke finally spoke and the other three looked at him. "You are not going to just leave again; Rory is expecting you, and she should get to see her mother on her birthday. Now I know that this situation is extremely uncomfortable for everyone. Myself included. And I fully encourage a long discussion, maybe even some yelling if you feel the need for it. But not now, now we will all go back inside, celebrate your daughter's birthday," he said to Lorelai, "And tomorrow you can scream at each other as much as you like. But not now, you got that?"
"You can not speak to-"
"I agree, that's an excellent idea, Luke." Richard cut off his wife, and put an arm around her shoulders, leading her back inside as Luke took a deep breathe. He'd never spoken to anyone like that, besides Taylor. But it actually felt really good.
Lorelai walked inside without a word and he squeezed the bridge of his nose.
"Hey Luke, how's the party going?" Tristan asked as he ascended the steps with three girls.
"Oh, well… It's a party in Stars Hollow, so it's… eventful. But you should go in. I'm Sure Jess and Rory are looking forward to seeing you."
"Rory… Is this the cousin?" Louise asked and Paris rolled her eyes.
"No. She's not the cousin," Tristan explained as he ushered the three to the door. "She's just a friend of the family. There is no cousin." He added, just in case she asked if every person she met was 'the cousin'.
Jess handed a drink to Babette and quickly made his way across the room to where they stood. "I am so glad you guys are here. Things just got very intense."
"Yeah, what's up with Luke? He looked really stressed. And I mean, more than just Rory-making-inappropriate-comments-stressed."
"Rory's mom is here,"
"Oh, wow."
"And her grand parents."
"God damn! I wish I'd gotten here earlier. We missed the show."
"That is not helpful. This is really bad, I don't know what we're supposed to do here." The girls headed further into the room to find drinks and mingle while Tristan looked around.
"Well, where is everybody?" He asked, he didn't see the Gilmores anywhere, and even though he didn't really know who he was looking for when it came to Lorelai, no one really stood out. He'd already met just about everyone that was there.
"Mr. Gilmore is out the back, Mrs. Gilmore went upstairs and Lorelai last I saw was headed for the kitchen." Jess explained as Rory slipped into his room.
"Right, well, Richard always liked me, so I'll go see if he feels like sharing anything. You check if they 'need any help' in the kitchen, and we'll figure out what to about Emily after she's calmed down a bit," Tristan instructed.
"Ah, sure. I'll get right on that." Jess nodded, he made a move to follow Tristan into the kitchen, but changed his direction at the last second, walking into his room instead. "So, how do you think your party's going?" he asked, walking over to the window as Rory lay on his bed.
"Well, from what I can tell, every person here that I share a name with is really pissed with everyone else that shares that name. But, considering I don't really even remember the last birthday party I had, this is still probably the best one ever,"
"That's… really depressing actually."
"I know. Don't think about it, I try not to."
"Do you know what's going on with them?"
"No. I guess it's just the usual, 'you can't expect to walk back into our lives after all this time without repercussions' shtick. Luke's making them stay, I heard that much, but otherwise, I have no idea. Why, you got any more info?"
"Not yet, but Tristan's on it."
"Ahh, Tristan's here. This night just got a whole lot better."
"Yeah, he also brought some of the-"
"Oh God! How did I forget the girls from your school were coming?" Rory asked, covering her face before running her fingers through her hair.
"Well, you're family sort of had a major showdown, so, I think that would make a lot of other things escape your attention."
"What are you guys doing in here?" Lane asked, coming in and shutting the door. "I really don't think those girls are enjoying themselves, Tristan's disappeared, and everyone is waiting for you Rory. They were looking restless, so Sookie said it's time to bring out the cake."
"Cake, right. The only good part about these stupid things," Rory muttered, standing up. "Ok, let's get this over with." She opened the door and walked out, before Lane and finally Jess.
"There's just no way that I can turn my mind off when I know that you're here. You turn me on so much." Rory was saying in his mind. "I don't want to fight it anymore Jess." Jess shook his head, forcing himself to look away from his bed. He wouldn't be sleeping tonight.
"There she is!" Liz announced, moving towards Rory and putting a plastic tiara on her head. "Ok, everybody ready?" she asked, flicking off the lights. "We're all set, Sook. Hit it guys."
As the entire room began to sing, Sookie walked through the kitchen door, carrying a cake, followed by Lorelai. Emily was drawn down the stairs by the all the noise and she stood on the bottom step, watching as Rory actually smiled and leaned forward to blow out her candles. Someone handed her a knife and she sliced into the cake, reaching the bottom easily.
"Oh!" Miss Patty exclaimed. "You know what that means!"
Rory rolled her eyes and shook her head. Who thought up that stupid tradition? She wondered, glancing around. Of course he's the closest. There was the smallest flutter in her stomach as she realized that due to that ridiculous birthday cake rule, she had to kiss Jess.
It was quick, just a tiny peck on the lips, but then they were all cheering and Sookie was cutting pieces of cake to hand out to everyone, and Rory lost track of Jess as they were both swept up into different circles.
God that was difficult. I don't know if I really achieved what I wanted. This whole chapter was supposed to be, like cringworthy, or something. I don't know if they worked out quite right. I'm going to try and have more confrontations in the next chapter. Try. What do you think?