AN: I screwed up the dates in the begining, I know that, but I think I had it right during Sookie's pregnancy. Which means, if my math was correct, then I forced Rory, Jess and Tristan, as well as all those other students trapped in the Chilton cafeteria during those lunchtime scenes, to stay in school through their summer vacation. I apologise to them, as it's been quite awhile since I was a student, and I live in a different country (our schools are in session almost all the way through their summer vacation.) Anyway, enjow.

"She always cried the loudest when you put her down." Lorelai added and Luke shook his head. "She did! I swear, it never mattered who else was holding her, they put her down or handed her off to someone else – near silence. You did it and Rory screamed bloody murder."

"I don't remember that at all."

"Well you should. You were her favourite." He laughed at the idea and Lorelai looked over at the VCR to check the time. "I should probably go, I do believe this is what got me into trouble last week," she observed, "Although, come to think of it, isn't it supposed to be the parent that gets mad at the kid for staying out all night?"

"You don't have to go." Luke told her. "You could stay longer, if you want."

"If I don't go now, Rory will rake me over hot coals. As will half the town, I'm sure, because I'm being such a bad influence."

"Rory's studying with Jess. She's probably on her way home now, and when she gets there she'll just assume you've gone to bed."

"Will I appear in the morning in this scenario?"

"I think that's when she's going to decide to call the editor of the Stars Hollow Gazette with a story about alien abductions."

"Oh, that could make this little town very famous."

"Taylor will finally get the exposure he's always dreamed of, scientists come examine Kirk; everybody wins."

"And to think it could all start with us." Lorelai mused, a grin forming. "Ok, you've convinced me. But if we're... accidently falling asleep here again, can I at least get a blanket this time?"

"I think I can do better than that." Luke replied, taking her hand.

"I need coffee to continue this." Jess decided throwing down his book. "You want one?" he asked, getting up from the couch.

"Definitely," Rory replied, dropping hers as well.

"Be right back," he leaned down to kiss her before leaving the room. Rory waited a moment before leaning down and pulling her bag from the floor. Bringing out a booklet she stared at the cover for a few seconds.

A part of her wanted to look, and learn about what was inside, but there was another part equally as reluctant.

Finally the eager side won out and she flipped through a few pages before settling on one, covered in a list.

There are so many options, she thought, her eyes going up and down the page a few times. How is anyone supposed to make these decisions?

"Mom went shopping before she left," Jess called out, still in the other room. "You want some Mallomars and Pop tarts?"

"Sure," Rory replied, slamming the booklet shut and pushing it back into her bag.

"What are you doing?" he asked, coming back in and placing the coffees and food down in front of Rory.

"Nothing, just, going over my notes. I thought I had extra stuff from History," she added, as an explanation for why her bag was so close by, "but I guess Tristan must've stolen it."

"You weren't just reading something?"

"Other than notes..?"

"Because, you know, if you're writing a novel, and that's what you were looking at you have to show it to me. I showed you mine, you have to show me yours; it's only fair."

"I'm not writing a... No. If you must know, I was writing a letter. To you,"

"Oh, it's not a Dear John letter is it?"

"Well, yeah. I mean, I just don't think I can be in this if you're going to up and leave for Harvard in two years."

"Did you go out for Drama Club?" Jess asked, smirking. "Because you should; your acting is going to waste just being used on me and clueless parents."

"But seriously, what's so special about it? Isn't the whole point of college to get as far away from your crazy over-bearing parents as possible?"

"For some people it's that, others like having any old excuse to party while I hear some even enjoy the educational aspects."

"So why Harvard then? I mean, there are far better party schools out there, Texas, Alabama..."

"Exactly how far away from home do you expect me to go after I read this letter?"

"I'm just making sure you know your options. I mean this town is nuttier than a jar of peanut butter so it would make sense that you'd want to run like hell."

"You forget, I actually enjoy living here." Jess replied, "But I don't know, it's just always been Harvard."

"Well what about Oxford?"

"Oxford?" he couldn't even try to stop himself from laughing at that.

"Yeah, I bet you could get in, they'd love you. But, if it's a question of you going to an Ivy there's always Cornell. Or Penn. I think Penn is as far from here as you can get while remaining at an Ivy League."

"I don't know. I've just wanted Harvard for as long as I can remember, I don't even really know why it started."

"It does look like a good school," Rory conceded. "I can definitely see you there, even without the thousand photos."

"Well, what about you? Have you given any thoughts to-"

"No."

"No?"

"No. No thoughts. There's never been any point. I've only just scraped through with a passing grade each year, until this one."

"Yeah, but that was because you were trying to show you didn't care, and you didn't need school. You've given up on that idea now though, so why not give up on pretending you couldn't get into a good college if you tried? Maybe not Harvard, or Yale but what about Stanford? It's a good school too. Or Berkley you could fall in with a very interesting crowd out in California."

"Too much sun," Rory shook her head. "No. I think, for now, I'll just concentrate on graduating while actually putting in effort. At the very least the Chilton diploma should put smiles on everyone's faces."

"I guess that will have to do." Jess agreed a little disappointed he couldn't change her mind.

"In order to do that, I'll have to keep studying I think." Rory replied, reaching for her book again.

"Don't underestimate the importance of a good night's rest."

"Why, Mr. Mariano, are you trying to corrupt my scholastic good-girl routine?" Rory asked, batting her eyelids and going for a look of pure innocence.

"Well of course not. That would be very bad."

"I won't tell if you are," Rory told him, throwing her book aside and pulling him in for a kiss.

"Ok, now I really, really have to be getting home." Lorelai decided later that night, sitting up, holding a sheet against her body and pulling her hair back from her face.

"But what about the alien abduction story?" Luke reminded her, looking up at her from his pillows. "Taylor getting his fame,"

"I'm sure we can still make that work, somehow. But if I don't go now then Caesar will show up soon, open the diner, the kids will most likely be down there, along with everyone else in town, and then we would have some 'splanin' to do."

"Only if you walked in wearing no pants," Luke replied. "But I have coffee up here so you would have no reason to go down there and do that.

"When did you get coffee up here?" Lorelai asked, amazed.

"A little while after Rory moved out. She insisted. Although I'm not sure why, she lived here for months and going downstairs to get it wasn't a problem then."

"She's some kind of genius, that daughter of mine."

"I think I'd have to agree with you on that. She has her moments."

"You're trying to distract me!" Lorelai realised, swatting at Luke as he attempted to pull her back down to bed.

"How am I doing so far?"

"Well it almost worked, but I'm serious, Luke. I can't stay."

"Well ok, but, I just... you know I didn't have that planned or anything, right?"

"You didn't? So the mood lighting and the music, that's just a permanent fixture up here, is it?"

"I just mean, when you came over, I wasn't even thinking-"

"Not even a little bit? That hurts."

"I'm serious, Lorelai!"

"No, ok, I know. It wasn't a plan, it just happened. We were very much together once, so it makes sense this happened, right?"

"Yeah, right,"

"What's wrong?"

"Well, I'm just wondering what we're supposed to do now."

"Traditionally, if I were able to stay, since this is your home, I think you're supposed to make me coffee, maybe something to eat and-"

"Are we going to be reduced to sneaking around now like a couple of teenagers?"

"That could be fun, couldn't it?"

"Maybe, but I'd rather not find out."

"Ok, well, just this once then, I promise, I'll go home and we'll act normal. But after that, I won't make you act like you're sixteen."

"I'd appreciate that." She leaned down and kissed him, but before she could pull back and stand up, Luke grabbed hold of her hand, keeping her with him.

"Luke..."

"No."

"I have things I need to do."

"No." He closed his eyes, pretending to fall asleep.

"Looks like the aliens really did stop by Stars Hollow," Lorelai muttered, settling back under the covers. "I'm so going to be grounded when I get home."

Tiptoeing across the living room floor the next morning, Rory jumped nearly a foot into the air when the front door opened behind her. I could have stayed an extra five minutes, she thought, and avoided the first ever break and enter attempt in Stars Hollow's history. She spun around to confront the intruder and furrowed her brow as she watched her mother trying – unsuccessfully - to sneak in.

"Where have you been?" Rory demanded. "I've been up all night, worried sick-"

"When did you really get in?" Lorelai countered, putting her shoes and purse down.

"About thirty seconds ago."

"So I guess we're both grounded."

"Or we could just call it even, forget this ever happened?"

"Sounds good to me, I'm guessing you haven't had a chance to make any coffee yet?"

"What, Luke didn't have even one cup to spare? What's he gonna do when all those pesky customers come in today, desperate for a caffeine boost?"

"Ok, I'll make my own." She started to make her way towards the kitchen and Rory continued to her room, returning a few minutes later as the smell of coffee filled the apartment. "Doesn't Jess ever have any supervision over there? I mean, I know he's the perfect angel child, and everybody trusts him with their lives, but how is it you two are constantly able to arrange these sleepovers?"

"Liz and TJ are at that fair in Worchester till tomorrow night, Babette was supposed to look in on him during the night, but she called in a panic, around eight o'clock, it seems their new kitten, Peaches went missing, but before we could get out the door she yelled out that Peaches had been found, hiding in the couch cushions. Guess she forgot about her neighbourly duties after that. And we didn't plan this, we were studying and-"

"And you fell asleep, yeah; I think I know how that one goes."

"Well, what about you? Reminiscing about babies again?"

"Yeah, yeah, that sounds very much like what we were doing. So, I was thinking of going over to see Sookie. You want to come with me after we get something to eat?"

"Bruce didn't come back again did she?"

"No, Bruce has moved on to help some other woman birth her baby. It'll just be the Bellvilles."

"Ok, yeah, sounds good. I'll just go change."

"Meet you back here in ten." Lorelai replied and they split up, each moving off to prepare for the day.

Lorelai put her coffee down and looked at Sookie, sitting on the other side of the kitchen table. Rory was in the living room watching the baby, but still staying a safe distance away from him. Lorelai had been poking at one of the muffins she'd brought over from the diner for the last few minutes as they chatted about little things, but she couldn't anymore.

"Sookie I need to tell you something, but I need you to not freak out, ok?" she announced, abandoning the food.

"What is it? I've become one of those disgusting mothers with spit-up on everything and bad hair and constant pillow-face, haven't I? I don't believe this, my son is nine days old. How did this happen so fast?"

"Way to not freak out Sook. No, actually what I wanted to say doesn't have anything to do with you. Well, I mean, it does a little I guess, because you're my best friend, but also it doesn't because you weren't there."

"Wasn't where? Did I miss something important? I'm so sorry, we're just still adjusting with Davey and-"

"You weren't in Luke's apartment last night when we had sex." Lorelai explained, cutting her off. "Were you? Because if you were, I should probably apologise to you, maybe we should take some time, a little distance..."

"You... And he..? You did? Last night?" Sookie managed to get out between gasping for breathe and small squeals.

"Shh! Yes we did."

"Really? Because I am very tired right now, with the baby and I'm in a delicate place, so you should know that if this is a joke, I would probably take it very badly."

"I'm completely serious. This is not a joke. I just wanted to tell you because, well we've all been friends for so long – except for that dark bad time when I was stupid – and I just really wanted to talk to someone."

"Well? How was it?" Lorelai grinned and raised an eyebrow a little. "As good as back when...?"

"Better!"

"Ah! I am so happy for you!" Sookie giggled and Lorelai joined in, picking up her coffee again.

The next night Rory lay in her room at Luke's apartment, after a particularly long, busy afternoon, too tired to drag herself all the way back to her mom's.

Too tired even, to sleep, it seemed.

She'd been staring up at the ceiling for twenty minutes before deciding to read, but couldn't keep her mind focused on the page and then had returned to the easiest staring contest ever. Although, it was difficult to tell if she was beating the painted plaster, so she gave up on that too.

Her bag from the other night lay on the floor and after a few more minutes she sat up, turned on the light and reached for it, searching for the book that she'd been giving a quick look at while at Jess' house.

The Harvard brochure she'd obtained from the guidance councillor's office was still filled with the same information, and it didn't seem like it would be any easier to distinguish one course and the next. The amazing teachers were still listed with their amazing credentials and the amazing classes they were teaching.

It didn't take long for her conversation with Jess to re-enter her mind and she threw the booklet down. She'd said that college hadn't entered her mind, but the truth was, since that talk with her grandfather, she hadn't been able to stop thinking that maybe, just on the slightest chance that she studied like mad, kept her grades up and passed all her exams, she could actually get somewhere in regards to school.

The apartment was totally silent, as it was the middle of the night and everyone but her was probably sleeping soundly. Pushing back the covers, Rory padded out into the living room, where Luke had a small computer area set up. It had been put there long before she came along, for Jess when he was staying over and needed to work on something for school.

Opening a search engine, she typed in Cambridge Massachusetts and located the Wikipedia page. Sitting back in the chair, she scrolled down, looking for education and then prepared to read about the alternatives that were available to those not destined for Harvard but wanting to stick close by.

See? Rory's being good now! She's thinking, even if she's not sharing the thoughts, but we'll get there. Review!