A/N: Yes, it's here! Another chapter, and we're all dying to know what went down after last chapter's riveting ending. Did Emily pitch a fit and throw cutlery around? Did Richard suffer a heart attack? Who said what and when? And yet again, my apologies for holding out on you. I was out sick alsmost the entire last week, and my thesis is really getting at me (I'm supposed to have it ready in less than a month!). I'll try to get better at handling a lot of stuff at once. Until next time: Enjoy and review!
Disclaimer: I, the author of this story, do not own any of the characters from Gilmore Girls. That honor belongs to the wonderful Amy Sherman-Palladino. I am not making any money on this (in fact, I wouldn't be surprised it I'm losing money over it…).
7. Who first?
"That was…" Lorelai said in a beat voice, as the door behind them closed.
"Yeah…" Rory agree in the same tone.
"The silence was… memorable." Lorelai continued.
After the loud declarations from the girls, both Lorelai and Rory had expected pandemonium. Or at least something snide from Emily. None of that came. Lorelai and Rory stared at each other. Luke's eyes went from staring at Rorys left ringfinger to looking rather gleefully at Jess, who was anxiously watching Emily and Richard. Both were frozen in their positions, Emily watching Lorelai, or rather what was visible of Lorelai's stomach, while Richard was watching Rory, with an expression of shock and joy. Everything was absolutely quiet for what seemed like an eternity, but for Anna-Perenna the maid, who was standing in the kitchen preparing the dessert, the whole thing lasted about five seconds. After that, Emily and Richard returned to their meal, carrying on as if nothing had happened. Luke, unsure of what to do, followed their example after a moments hesitance, and Jess tuned in a second later. The only ones not recovering from the reactions (or lack thereof) were Lorelai and Rory. They broke out of the staring and began scanning Emily and Richard for any sign of joy, rage or contempt. Richard was looking a bit smug, briskly cutting what was left of the food into smaller pieces. Emily, on the other hand, was completely emotionless, and that worried Lorelai.
After minutes of just watching the rest of the dinnerparty, they continued eating, though still glancing up every now and then, as if to try and catch someone in the act of reacting to the news. Both came up blank. After dinner they both excused themselves, meeting up in the designated "emergency"-bathroom to discuss what to do. Rory wanted to try and bring it up again, citing shock as reason for the lack of reaction. Lorelai vetoed that, saying that it would be foolish to challenge fate. They went back, had dessert, and made up some excuse to leave as soon as coffee was over.
"So… Are we safe?" Jess asked, as they began walking toward the Jeep.
"From my parents? Oh, to be so naïve." Lorelai quipped.
"What?"
"Jess, we stumped them. You don't stump Emily and Richard Gilmore. They will pounce, and you can be sure it will be a vicious pounce."
They entered the Jeep, and Lorelai quickly backed out of the driveway and began the ride home. No one said a thing for almost the entire trip, and Lorelai felt uncomfortable. It had been the surrealest Friday night dinner to date. She was pregnant, Rory was engaged, and Emily and Richard had acted as if they had commented on the weather.
"Wow…" she said, mostly to herself.
"Yeah." Rory agreed from the backseat.
"Pregnant."
"Engaged."
"Blank." Jess commented, a bit confused.
"Hey, will we have to marry now?" Luke asked suddenly.
"Afraid so." Lorelai answered, sighing. "Otherwise I would never be able to wear that perfect dress I picked out for last time."
"Lorelai, it's not like you're going to be pregnant forever. Rory came out, I'm sure babies haven't changed that much since then." Luke muttered.
"By the time I get my body back, I'll be old, wrinkly and too weak to stand up straight."
"Wow, overreact much?" Jess jeered.
"Rory, honey, how much do you like your fiancé with his self-esteem intact?"
"You know, I've never seen him without it." Rory answered amused.
"So, what about you guys?" Luke asked. "You talked about when..?"
"We were kinda thinking of having a long engagement." Rory answered, feeling a bit embarrassed.
"What, like Audrey, and what's-his-name?" Lorelai interjected.
"Mom! His name was Maneche, at least in the movie, and no, not that long. Remind me not to watch French movies with you, you just mock them."
"Babe, first of all, yes, I mock movies, but so do you. Second, how will you get the 'long engagement'-idea past grandma, the uncrowned master of coercion?"
"We could always say that Rory wants to wait until you two get hitched, and then you can drag it out." Jess suggested with a grin.
"You got yourself a smart one." Lorelai smiled. "That could work if the planets are correctly aligned, the moon full, the glass half-empty and the maid satisfactory."
"I think it could work, and it wouldn't be a total lie."
"You want me and Luke to go first? For real?"
"Well, isn't that the way it's supposed to be? Mother's doing major things before their daughters. You managed to graduate before me, why not?"
"Technically, I married before you…"
"Dad doesn't count." Rory said resolutely.
"I second that." Luke concurred.
It was quiet for about a second.
"Can I battle you for it?" Lorelai asked, holding up her fist.
"Mom! I will not decide the order of our weddings by rock, paper, and scissors!"
"Not that it wouldn't be like you two…" Jess mused.
"You got that right..." Luke grumbled.
"Fine, if you don't want to battle about it, we'll just leave it be. And I don't want to hear a single word about a double wedding. I still have nightmares about the double-twin-wedding-horror of 2000. Besides, this isn't exactly the biggest of our problems."
"There are problems?" Luke and Jess asked in one voice.
"Where have you two been? Try to imagine the town when they find out that one Gilmore is engaged and the other one pregnant and thus more or less forced to marry?"
"I take offense to the 'forced'-thing." Luke argued. "But, you could use this against Taylor."
"Your evil thinking has rubbed off on him." Jess teased. "How long will I last?"
"Oh Jess, you caved in a long time ago, you just don't know it yet." Lorelai answered with a laugh.
They dropped off Luke at the diner, and continued home. They had barely stepped inside and gotten their coats off when Lorelai stopped dead and sniffed the air.
"My mother has called."
"Mom, you can't smell a call. I get it that you could smell that grandma had been in my dorm at Yale, but seriously, you can't smell a call." Rory argued.
Jess shook his head, going over to the phone.
"Hey, guys, you have messages."
"It's my mother." Lorelai said, as if it was obvious.
Rory glared at her, walking up to the phone, pressing the 'Messages'-button.
"Lorelai, please, why do you insist on recording those offensive machinemessages?" came Emily Gilmore's voice.
"Oh man, here comes the pounce…" Lorelai warned them.
"Anyway, I know you are driving home, and I simply wouldn't call you in the car, you could have gotten arrested." Emily's voice continued.
"No mom, that's what you do." Lorelai commented the message.
"This concerns both of you. Lorelai, you need to cut down on your work, and stop drinking such absurd amounts of coffee. I'm sure those partners of yours at the inn can take more responsibility, if not, then order them to. You are the manager. As for the unborn, I can get you an appointment with a friend of ours at Hartford Memorial, very talented, he went to Yale."
"Because that is absolutely the first thing I ask of all my doctors…"
"Now Rory.."
"No!" Rory exclaimed.
"Congratulations, the ring was fabulous. I think I can convince Randall to do the wedding, so I'm going to need you to contact me about when you want to have a meeting with him, he truly is a genius when it comes to…"
Rory hit the 'Messages'-button again, and the Crap Shack was quiet. She stood staring at the phone, as if Emily was hiding somewhere in it, and would pop out and continue talking about Randall the wedding planner.
"Rory, are you okey?" Jess asked her, carefully putting a hand on her shoulder.
She didn't quite hear him, she was still trying to wrap her mind around the fragment of the message that concerned her.
"She…" Rory began. "She's hijacking my…"
"Engagement?" Lorelai tried.
"No! My life!"
"Calm down babe, we'll call her and tell her it was all a joke and then you and Rocky jr here elope to Vegas."
"No!" Rory screamed.
Jess stepped up to her and hugged her.
"It's going to be okey, Rory. We'll have our long engagement."
"I'm sorry…" Rory whispered.
"It's okey."
"No, I mean, I'm sorry." Rory repeated, disentagling herself from Jess embrace.
Wide-eyed, both Jess and Lorelai saw how Rory took off the ring and put it beside the phone.
"I… She… I'm so sorry…" she said, tears in her eyes.
Then she walked over to the coatrack, took her coat and walked out.
Neither Lorelai, nor Jess followed. They knew she needed to be alone.
"She's probably down at the bridge. Or at Lane's." Lorelai said, trying to lighten the mood.
Jess didn't answer. He slowly reached for the ring, and disappeared into Rory's room, quietly closing the door.
"This is so not good…" Lorelai mumbled to herself.
She went over to Rory's bedroom door, and knocked on it.
"Jess? Jess, I know you're there. I'm gonna go over to Luke's, get us some real food and stuff, and then we'll go look for Rory and drag her home and we're gonna weld that ring back onto her finger, okey?"
There was only silence, so she took it as an affirmative silence and left.
She had a weird feeling all the way to Luke's, so by the time she sat down at the counter, Luke was already standing in front of her, looking questioningly at her.
"What is it?" he asked.
"Nothing…" she tried.
"Lorelai, I know that look, now tell me what's the matter."
"You want the good news or the bad news?"
"Bad news first."
"I think Rory broke off the engagement after my mother pounced via the phone."
"What?!" Luke exclaimed.
"Not that it wasn't like my mother, but Rory… She just snapped, in a sort of Rory-kind of way. She just took off the ring, and then left."
"How's Jess?"
"He went into Rory's room after she left, I think he needed to be alone."
"So what's the good news, although I doubt there are any by now."
"Umm… No one died?"
"Unbelievable…"Luke muttered, then turning towards the kitchen to yell: "Ceasar, cover for me!"
With that Luke exited the diner, and Lorelai was quick to follow.
"Where are we going?" she asked.
"I'm going to go talk to Jess, I suggest you look for Rory."
"Well, maybe she's home by now."
"Whatever you need to tell yourself to prevent a freak-out."
But when they came to the Crap Shack it was dark, and looked empty. Jess' car was gone, and there was no sign of anyone around. They entered, to find that the house indeed was empty. Lorelai tried calling Rory, who wouldn't pick up, while Luke had at least slightly better luck with Jess.
"Where are you? … Why? … She what?! … Listen, kid… Fine, Jess! No, you listen, and you listen good. What? Hello?"
"What did he say?" Lorelai asked.
"He hung up on me!" Luke grumbled, visibly upset.
"Is that bad?"
"It didn't used to be, but now I'm prepared to say that it is."
"Okey, so did he tell you what's going on?"
"He managed to choke out that Rory snuck away with his car, probably straight after you left, and no, I don't know how she got the keys. Anyway, he noticed the car was gone, called Rory, and she said in so many words that she was on her way to Philadelphia."
"And where was Jess?"
"Jess was in a cab on his way to the trainstation to go to Philadelphia too."
"Boy, do those two act fast. Must be the coffee." Lorelai mused in a low voice.
"I was about to try to get him to come back to Stars Hollow, so we could talk about it and resolve things, but that's when he hung up on me."
"Okey, so bright side, they're safe, and on their way to some kind of home. Dark side, they really need to talk, to my mother and to each other, because this… well, this is bad."
"You don't think you should talk to your mother?"
"I don't know. I just have the feeling that anything I say to her now would screw this up more."
She slouched down on the sofa, staring aimlessly on the ceiling.
"This is bad." she said after a while.
"I know."
"Do you know what this means for us, if it doesn't get fixed?"
"No, not really." Luke said hesitantly, sitting down on the sofa's armrest.
"It means we marry first."
Luke face shifted from expressionless to bordering on scared to determined.
"We have to fix this." he said resolutely.
On cue, the phone began ringing violently.
A/N: Man, am I good at cliffhangers. The ringing phone sure pops up in a lot of my stories, I need to get a new device of drama. :p Anyway, hope you liked it, and let me repeat: review!