A/N: Sorrysorrysorrysorry for being so late with the update (and sorry for the bad rhyme…), but my internet is still stuck on "snail-slow", so I've been sitting on this one for a while just waiting for someone to fix the problem. Doesn't look like it's gonna happen anytime soon, so I don't have much choice. It took me a long time just to get the document uploaded, so well… Couldn't resist putting a little Rocky in this one, I just held a presentation that involved Rocky, so sue me if you don't like it. Enjoy!

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 if I'm losing money over it…).

13. Rocky Do-Over

"Seriously Luke, no one can make coffee like you." Lorelai said dreamily as she sipped from the cup she had been given.

"Yeah Luke, you're like the king of coffee." Rory teased.

"Don't feed her insanity!" Luke gruffed.

"Why Luke, you are so ungrateful." Lorelai continued. "We give you compliments and you gruff them away like that. You need to step up and embrace your awesomeness."

"'Embrace your awesomeness'?" Jess asked curiously. "That's weird, even for you Lorelai."

"Well, I saw a movie."

"Why did I even ask…"

"Oh! Now that we're here, there's something we must must must do!" Lorelai said, bouncing in her seat.

"And what what what is that?" Rory asked in the same tone, teasing her mother.

"Rocky!"

"What?" Jess asked.

"Not you, you're junior."

"Mom, I've already done the Rocky run."

Lorelai looked horrorstruck, staring at her daughter for what seemed like minutes.

"What is this… Rocky?" Richard ventured.

"Only an absolute must if you're in Philadelphia."

"Yes Lorelai, that much we gathered." her mother replied. "Would you mind elaborating on that?"

"Man, I can't even get this in one sentence. Loinfruit, help mommy out."

Rory laughed, doubting that her mom would be unable to fit the whole explanation in one sentence. It was more if she'd get it out in one breath.

"See, there's this movie character called Rocky Balboa, and in the movies he's this Philadelphia boxer, and in every movie…"

"There are more than one?" Richard asked.

"There are six, dad." Lorelai answered and groaned.

"Anyway, in each movie there's this training montage, and in every movie, except for Rocky IV, he's running up the stairs to the Philadelphia Museum of Art. It's a movie classic, and people visiting Philly tend to do the same."

"All this for a movie character?" Emily asked, surprised.

"He's even got a statue, right by the stairs." Jess filled in.

"Honey, I still can't believe you did this without me!" Lorelai exclaimed, having recovered from the shock.

"Yeah, well, I couldn't pass up the chance, there was almost no one else there, which means no one could see how stupid I look when I run…" Rory began.

"She did it in the middle of the night." Jess chipped in.

"It was not the middle of the night, it was just… dark."

"You're not supposed to do it in the dark, the point of doing the Rocky is to do it in daylight, I call do-over on your behalf, and I also second it, and Luke, if you don't third it, so help me God I'm gonna put Kirk on your tail."

"I third." Luke answered quickly, not wanting any more of Kirk than he already had.

Kirk's night terrors weren't completely over, so every now and again, Luke would find him sleeping in the garage (how he got in there was still a mystery), because allegedly, that garage was Kirks panicroom.

"And sold!" Lorelai concluded. "We are off to do the Rocky run."

"I'm taking the camera, this could be classic." Jess sniggered.

"You put one finger on that camera and you're gonna regret it more than mom when she's trying to re-enact Tonya Harding on the ice." Rory threatened him mischievously.

"I keep learning new and slightly disturbing things about your mom, and I don't even want to hurl on the inside."

"I heard that junior, and for that you're going to go first."

Jess groaned, earning him a chuckle from Rory, along with something along the lines of "the joy of the Gilmore super-hearing".

"Okey kids, off we go. Come on, let's be Rocky, one and all."

"Lorelai, you cannot possibly think your father and I will participate in this stunt!"

Emily's loud protesting had them at a temporary stop at the base of the steps. Lorelai had dragged them from the apartment, and since she had insisted they would go on foot and that she would lead the way, of course they got lost. It had taken Jess three blocks to convince her that he would get them there before nightfall.

"Oh mother, of course you're coming along, this is a once in a lifetime experience."

"One I'd rather not be part of, I've had enough to last me my remaining life."

"You're such a chicken, mom…"

"I am not!" Emily protested indignantly.

"Are too!"

"Lorelai, you are acting like you are five. Now, I am not running up these stupid steps, and neither is your father."

"I'm not?" Richard asked.

"You most certainly are not. You could get a heart attack. And you shouldn't do this either, Lorelai. Think of the baby."

"And just last week she was on me like a cheetah about how I need to excercise…" Richard muttered to Luke, smiling.

"Richard!"

"Okey, so dad can be the designated watcher. Note to self, dirty. But you, mom, you have no legitimate excuse. And as for baby here… Well, excercise is good for it, and it's probably the only excercise it will ever get."

"I still think you should not."

"And I think you're trying to snake your way out of this."

"Shoes." her mother said simply. "You can't possibly think I will run in these shoes."

"Like mine are any better."

"You are too young to know better."

"Oh, really? And you are what? Old?" Lorelai teased.

Emily seemed to take offense to this, and contemplated for a long while before she said:

"Fine. How do you do this thing?"

"Grandma is doing the Rocky run?" Rory whispered to Jess. "Now I kinda regret I didn't let you take the camera."

"Who said I didn't?" Jess whispered back.

"Because I…" Rory began, only to see Jess fish out the camera from the pocket inside the jacket. "You..! I should've guessed."

"Yeah, well, you wouldn't let me do anything fun in the Hollow…"

"I will so regret this… again."

Lorelai was in the midst of a very elaborate explanation of how to do the Rocky in a correct manner.

"And don't forget that when you're at the top of the stairs, you're supposed to put your hands in the air and jump around. And if I see you walk up those stairs I call do-over until you run."

"You will be the death of me, Lorelai."

"I'd say I live for it, but that would actually be a lie. So hon, Rocky junior, you ready?"

"As soon as Richard gets the hang of the camera." Jess answered.

"Mom, this will be the highpoint of this day. Grandma doing the Rocky run. I think that's a highpoint even for you."

"I have a gift, haven't I?"

Rory smiled, looking over her shoulder at Jess, who was still explaining the digital camera to Richard. The two men smiled conspiringly at each other, before Jess joined the others.

"Why do I have a bad feeling about this?" Rory asked him curiously.

"Beats me." he answered, kissing her on the forehead. "So, race you?"

"Like I would ever keep up with you."

"Only one way to find out."

"You ready over there?" Lorelai asked them, not waiting for an answer. "Okey, ready… set… go!"

The five of them set off, Jess taking the lead, followed by Luke. Lorelai followed them as best she could, while Rory kept pace with Emily.

"Goodness, what is this? Slow torture?" Emily huffed when they were halfway up.

"It's supposed to be fun, grandma."

"Well, it looks like those three have fun."

Her grandmother pointed upwards, where they could see Lorelai, Luke and Jess jump up and down, perfectly mimicking Rocky.

"You can have fun too, grandma." Rory smiled. "Come on, or they'll probably punish us with another lap."

They made their way up, and the sight of Emily jumping up and down was completely priceless. Lorelai broke down in fits of laughter, and Rory and Jess made a fairly successful attempt at hiding their laughter in huffs of exhaustion.

When they came down, Richard was sitting on a bench, smiling widely.

"Get any good pictures?" Jess asked him.

"You'll know when you see, young man. I want a copy." Richard answered him. "Very interesting camera, by the way. Emily, we should get one."

"If you promise me I don't have to do anything like that ever again." Emily told him.

"You looked splendid, dear."

"Yeah mom, you did the Rocky better than Rocky."

"Lorelai…" Emily said warningly.

"What? I was just saying…"

The rest of the day went by fairly good. Chris called Jess and asked him to come over to Truncheon for some alleged crisis, and of course Rory tagged along, and wherever Rory went, Lorelai went, in which case Luke didn't have much choice, and as for Emily and Richard, they followed out of curiousity. When they entered Truncheon, Chris jumped out from behind the counter, and Matt snuck out from behind them to close the door.

"Oh, man!" Chris exclaimed disappointedly.

"Where's the fire?" Jess asked calmly.

"Dude, you were supposed to be alone, not bring an entire posse!"

"Chris, man, did you forgot to take your meds today?"

Behind Jess, Emily flinched at the sound of 'meds', not understanding that Jess was joking.

"Yeah, because you are so sane…" Matt teased.

"Hey, if it wasn't for me, he would've caved in, and there would be a stupid bar somewhere named Cedar Bar Redux."

"Love the vote of confidence there, Jess."

"I'm only saying…"

"So what's with the crowd?" Chris asked.

"Oh, it's an intervention." Lorelai said happily. "Plus I got my mom to do the Rocky."

"Right…" Chris and Matt said, unsure of what to make of the statement.

"Well, I take it you remember Rory, and if you're really good, you'll remember my uncle Luke from when we had the open house. That insane woman is Rory's mom Lorelai, and this," Jess said, and turned to Emily and Richard. "This is Rory's grandparents, Emily and Richard."

"You wanna hear a real funny thing?" Lorelai asked, giggling to herself.

"Lorelai…" Luke tried.

"No, but it's funny, I swear!"

"You will not tell them the fruit joke."

"How did you..? I was not about to tell them the fruit joke, which by the way rocks."

"Yes you were.

"Was not!"

"Judging from your respons, yeah, you were." Luke concluded.

Lorelai proceeded to pout, trying to get Luke to soften, but he only gave her his patented "No with a built-in bark"-look. When this didn't work, she again turned her attention to Chris and Matt.

"Why are we here? What the crisis? Does it involve coffee?"

Matt and Chris were unable to answer, this whirlwind of a woman in fron of them had them completely blank. Jess smirked before stepping in to their rescue.

"I sort of caught Chris at a bad time when I came to Philly, and for that he was gonna bust my balls." he explained, noticing how Emily pursed her lips at his language. "They probably figured that I would be alone, or with Rory. In any case they thought they'd be able to take me down. Didn't figure I'd have a clan to back me up."

"You have strange friends, Jess…" Luke commented.

"Take them home to Stars Hollow and they'd fit right it." Jess retorted with a playful smile.

"Yeah, we could arrange playdates with Kirk." Rory joked.

"Did anyone say Kirk?" Matt asked, his curiousity piqued.

"No Matt, Captain Kirk has not stepped out of the land of television and settled in Stars Hollow." Jess told him with a sigh.

"Oh, he's a Trekkie, just like you Luke." Lorelai smiled.

"I am not a Trekkie!" Luke mumbled, looking embarrased.

"Yeah, nice try, I squared that with Mia, you're the pride of the Federation, buddy."

"Seriously, man? You're a Trekkie?" Matt asked Luke.

Luke squirmed, but it was too late. Matt got hold of him, and not five minutes later they were deeply involved in a discussion on whether Picard was a better captain that Kirk and which series kicked ass.

"That is so creepy it's almost cute." Lorelai whispered to Rory and nodded towards Luke and Matt.

The girls had been left alone while Jess and Chris gave Emily and Richard the grand tour, minus the upstairs apartment.

"To think he's tried to deny it for so long. He really needs to embrace his inner Trekkie."

"So hon, all's good between you and Rocky boy?"

"It's good." Rory confirmed, smilingly.

"So..?"

Rory looked at her mother with a questioning expression.

"Oh, loinfruit, you really need to be home more. I want details! Was it a Streetcar kind of reunion with him being all Stanley Kowalski yelling "Stella!", or in your case "Rory!", but anyway, tell me!"

"No, he was very un-Stanley-ish. No yelling, though there were raised voices. I sat in the bathtub…"

"Please tell me you really didn't get stuck there?"

"Mom, I said I was sitting in the bathtub, not that I was trapped in it."

"And?"

"We talked."

"And?"

"That's about it, I guess."

"And?"

"And what, mom? We talked, nothing more. No one ran away, nothing out of the ordinary happened, although I rambled something about the engagement ring taunting me, which is true, but that's another story."

"That is… so not you."

"What, rambling? Hello, you are my mother, I learned from the best."

"No, no, I mean you and Jess just talking."

"Mom, how old am I?"

"Is that a trick question?"

"Not unless you want it to be."

"You're 24, honey, what's the significance?"

"Just that. I'm 24, not 16. Same goes for Jess."

"I'm sure some form of epiphany's supposed to kick in now, but I'm drawing a blank. It's Luke's fault. I didn't have my morning coffee-fix." Lorelai said and shrugged.

"Nevermind mom, it will come to you when you're all recharged again."

"You think if I drink enough coffee it will speed up baby here, so I could bypass the whole deal of carrying it around for 9 months?"

"Hard to say, though I would strongly advice against trying. Grandma and Luke will be on your tail like a couple of guard dogs."

The girls spotted Emily and Richard with Jess and Chris behind a couple of shelves. They looked from Emily to Luke, still deep in discussion with Matt.

"Can you imagine?" Lorelai whispered. "Grandma and Luke fighting on the same side."

"You better hope 9 months go past fast." Rory responded with a laugh.

A/N: Okey, so I got some last minute inspiration and threw in the Trekkie-stuff. Luke being all excited over Star Trek (and believe me, I know how that sounds, I'm engage to a Trekkie...) is just too good of an idea to waste. So, hope you liked it, review and rock my seriously depleated happy-inbox!