RR 14 Rory Returns

A/N: I think I win the sappy award this week. You have been warned. Feel free to mock to your heart's content in the reviews.

"Will you look at that? Your mother has obviously invited a handyman over. He parked his wreck of a truck in her driveway. She should fire him. That sort of behavior is unconscionable. I'd never keep a maid who behaved so badly," Emily ranted.

Rory uselessly pressed the keys on her cell phone. The battery had died before she picked up her bags from the carousel at the airport, but this had no bearing on her willingness to keep trying. She was, after all, someone who never gave up, not even in the face of physics.

"What, Grandma?" she asked at length. She was tired and had enough of her grandmother after being in close quarters with her for the entire return flight. It turned out that Business Class passengers were just as annoying as Coach Class, and Emily had been even more so when she discovered that their return flight didn't have First Class at all.

"That handyman's truck! Can't he park on the street like other workers?"

Rory saw only Luke's truck, parked in its dedicated place in the Crap Shack driveway, next to Rory's Prius hybrid. She drew a breath before responding.

"Grandma, that's Luke's truck. He parks it there all the time. That's his spot."

"Oh, Rory, I'm so sorry." She put her hand benevolently on Rory's forearm. Whispering, she added, "Is Luke having financial problems? We could lend him some money, that is, of course, if Lorelai approves." She sat primly, pleased with herself for being so understanding about Lorelai's relationship with the poor diner man. Rory had lectured her about her mother's relationship during their trip, but clearly nothing had stuck.

Rory giggled. "Grandma, Luke loves that truck even more than Mom loves her Jeep. I guess you'd call it a vintage truck. It was his father's. It kinda reminds me of Grandpa's collector cars, except Luke knows how to fix things and he likes to drive it."

"So he doesn't have any other cars? Neither does your mother? What do they do when their cars need work?"

"They take care of each other, or Sookie or Jackson help out. It's called being neighborly," she patiently guided her grandmother deeper into their small, friendly Stars Hollow world.

"Hm," was all Emily said as the driver opened the door for her, then came around and opened Rory's door as well. She couldn't imagine asking her neighbors for the time of day, much less a ride to the car dealer. "Let's get your bags inside. I am so looking forward to getting home and having a nice shower."

"Let's see if Mom and Luke are home!" Rory pepped up a little at the thought of her own bed, and hurried to the front door.

Flinging the door open, she called out a "Hello! Anyone home? The wandering stranger has returned!"

Luke's voice from the kitchen guided her and he gave her a big bear hug, lifting her off the floor. "Good to see you, kid," he said affectionately.

"I am SO glad to be home!" she replied, teasingly pushing his cap askew as he let her down to the floor.

Emily civilly observed this interchange. "Hello, Luke," she said.

"Emily! Hi!" said Luke uncomfortably. He tugged his cap back into place and yanked on the bottom of his familiar green coat, feeling better now that his everyday clothing was at least straight and worn properly. "Did you have a good trip?" he asked as he remembered his manners.

"The return flight was a disaster. The flight crew didn't know their jobs at all," she replied, "but the trip itself was wonderful. I'm so glad Rory could join me. I'll remember it the rest of my life."

"Um, wow, that's great," he said. "I mean, not the flight, but everything else. And that was the most important part anyway, wasn't it?"

"Where's Mom?" asked Rory as she placed her cell phone in the charger next to the telephone in the hallway.

"She's on her way, I think. Something at the inn held her up. I'm just putting away the groceries." He reached into the paper bag, pulled out a box of Pop-Tarts and tossed them to her. "You must be hungry."

"I am. You bought me junk food, Luke? Cool. Mom must be really getting to you," she smiled.

"Give and take, Rory, that's what relationships are about. One of these days I'll get her to eat my minestrone soup."

Luke bent down to put the dishwashing soap under the sink. Frowning, he looked at the packages of Mallomars in the under sink cabinet. He removed them and put them in the upper cabinet with all the other cookies.

"Fat chance," Rory replied. "I had minestrone in Rome. It was not pleasant." She wrinkled her nose at the memory. "I'm going to go say hello to my clothes."

"Good luck with getting Lorelai to eat vegetables. She refused them even as a kid." Emily nodded, understanding Luke's problem. He mirrored her nod, glad to have a point of commonality between them.

"Can I get you anything, Emily? Water? Tea? Pop-Tart?"

She smiled at his joke, but shook her head in answer. "Luke, Richard and I would like for you to come to our family dinners on Friday nights."

"Yeah, that's kind of you, but there's no way I can come every week. That's a really busy night for the diner and my employees need some Fridays off as much as I do." He emptied the next bag, putting the last fresh vegetables into the fridge.

"But it's tradition!" Emily was frankly surprised at Luke's direct refusal. "A family tradition. It's a must."

"From what I understand, Emily," he said, choosing his words carefully but directly, "it's more of a contract than a tradition. A contract that no longer involves Lorelai." He snapped the empty bag loudly as he folded it, looking at her with his implacable diner owner face that he saved for the customers who were asking for the impossible.

Emily, completely taken aback, used her equally implacable DAR president expression as they looked at each other in a standoff.

The standoff was broken before either party came to verbal blows when Lorelai blew into the house.

"Who organized this party?" she called as she dropped her purse unceremoniously on the floor, some of the detritus falling out of her purse and into Luke's second pair of work boots, which he had foolishly placed in the spot on the shoe mat where they belonged. It wouldn't be the first time something was in his boots when he hurriedly dressed for work in near-darkness, trying to not wake the family.

Having spent the past 45 minutes refereeing a battle between Michel and a couple checking out of the inn who felt that their room should be comped because of the noisy 'damn birds' singing outside their window at six a.m., Lorelai was tired and out of patience.

When she assessed the showdown in the kitchen, her first thought was Luke would look really nice in a sheriff's hat and badge. Maybe leather chaps, too.

Her second thought was I am not dealing with this right now.

Shaking her head to clear it of her Sheriff Luke fantasies, she sized Emily up as she said hello. That was definitely 'seriously displeased' Emily.

"Hi Mom," she said appeasingly, reaching out to hug her.

"No! I smell like plane!" Emily stepped back to avoid the unprecedented potential hug.

Lorelai gave Luke a questioning stare. His resentful-puppy look said, 'Seriously? You left me here all alone with Emily?' so she merely patted his arm and went to Rory's room.

"Is there anyone in here who will hug me?"

"Mom!" cried Rory. "Where's my pink sweater with the beaded neck? I was saying hello to my clothes, but the sweater was gone, with only a ransom note in its place. I want my sweater back now!"

Rory hugged her sweater-kidnapping mother anyway as she launched into a long list of things she'd needed to say to her during the six weeks she'd traveled with her grandmother.

Emily and Luke heard their girls' conversation as it rose to warp speed and highest power, the words flowing faster than either of them could follow.

"Looks like everything is back to normal now," commented Emily, choosing to behave as if an undeclared truce were in effect.

"Oh yeah," agreed Luke, accepting the truce with equally few words. "We'll be getting a fine for violating the noise ordinances before dinner's over tonight," he joked.

Emily smiled weakly then made her way to Rory's room.

"Lorelai, I'm leaving. We'll see you on Friday night, I hope?" She put in the polite hopefulness on purpose to get in a dig at Luke. Squatting in front of a lower cabinet, he was studiously avoiding her as he organized the paper bags in order of, well, no order whatsoever as long as he kept moving them, a technique he'd practiced for years at the diner using the guest checks.

"Goodbye, Luke, I hope we'll see you in Hartford soon as well," her voice more docile than her mood.

"I imagine you will," he said noncommittally. "Glad that you're home and that you had a good trip."

"How kind of you, thanks," she said, "Such a nice traditional expression."

They matched skeptically-arched eyebrows before she left.

Luke abandoned the paper bags to their fate as he prepared to return to the diner. Stopping by Rory's room, where Lorelai and Rory were still talking a mile a minute, he interrupted them, saying, "I'm going back to work, you guys have fun."

Lorelai stood up and kissed him goodbye. "You'll bring food when you come home tonight?" she asked.

"Sure," he replied, inspecting his shoes as he remembered his discussion with Emily. "We need to talk for a few minutes tonight, OK? Nothing big, I just wanna align on something."

"You're sure it's nothing big?" she asked. "I can come by or something."

"Nah, we got it," he said, squeezing her arm tenderly. He smiled at Rory. "Glad you're home, Rory."

The sound of Luke taking the steps two at a time had barely faded before Lorelai dragged Rory back into the kitchen. "C'mon, I'll show you where I hide the good junk food from Luke," she said.

"Mom, I'm pretty sure Luke knows you eat junk food and is used to the idea. He even bought Pop-Tarts today."

"I know, it's just for fun. I hide it in a silly place and he has something to complain about. It's a game we play."

"Does Luke know about this game?"

"Well not yet, but he'll figure it out." Lorelai bent down under the sink. "Hey! Someone ate my Mallomars! I bet it was Luke."

"Right, Mom. I'll put in a video while you figure out when Luke ate the Red Vines."

Shocked at the thought, Lorelai dashed to the coupon drawer and looked inside. "Whew! He hasn't found those yet."

After Rory had her moment with a clip from A Room with a View, they settled easily into their movie rhythm. Chatter that didn't break any of the rules, Red Vines, Mallomars and Lorelai's precious cache of M&Ms which were stored under the sofa brought Rory's junk food level back in balance after six weeks of gourmet food with Emily.

Rory snuggled into her mother's lap on top of a small pillow as the jet lag began to kick in. "The paella in Spain was really good."

"Which of Emily's friends were you visiting?"

"Shira Huntzberger. She was in Valencia with her kids. They brought in a chef to teach Valencian cooking and paella is the national dish. We had a taste-off between Honor's and Logan's versions, and Logan's won. It was pretty funny. At one point Honor stuffed a shrimp down Logan's shirt and he screeched like a little girl."

"Little kids can be like that," said Lorelai as she caressed Rory's hair.

"Oh, they're not little. Logan's a couple of years older than I am and Honor's two years older than him. Logan's at Yale." Rory stretched and turned like a kitten settling in for a nap. "He's a bit of an ass, but he's funny."

"Is he cute?" her mother asked carefully. Rory hadn't mentioned Jess at all since returning home.

"Hmm? Yeah, I guess. He kinda reminds me of Tristan. Blond, smart aleck. Wonder what happened to Tristan," she mused before dropping off into slumber land.

Lorelai lay back into the sofa, not wanting to wake Rory until she had to.

Now she did have something to talk to Luke about, wondering what it was he wanted to discuss with her. Rory hadn't said a word about Jess since her return, nor was she anxious to go looking for him. Now there was this Logan guy; who knows what might have happened there.

She tried to push her misgivings away, but six weeks alone with Emily could warp a person for life. Rory wasn't immune to the trappings of wealth, and by her own description, Emily had guided Rory from luxury hotel to luxury hotel with the occasional stops at mansions of Emily's well-connected friends.

In Paris they'd stayed at Hotel George V until Emily's friend had returned to her upscale apartment near Luxembourg Gardens. Ever the snob, Emily visited rather than stayed with her sister Hope, who lived in an outlying suburb. Rory had loved all three locations, and was completely enthusiastic over Hope's ability to find the tiniest restaurants at which the three of them spent long evenings laughing and flirting with everyone in the restaurant.

Luxury, friends, fun. Rory had actually enjoyed her time with Emily. This scenario was repeated in every major city they visited. Lorelai repressed the thought that had things been different, if she'd managed to reconcile with her parents earlier, this might have been a trip the ladies would have taken together.

Instead of wishes of European luxury, Lorelai knew she had something immensely better – Luke. She was finally on the way to the whole package that she'd wanted ever since she spent long lonely evenings in the potting shed.

It was an added bonus to realize that her relationship with Emily was also getting better. In spite of the tiny spat with her on the day after the trial run, Lorelai and her mother were communicating better than ever; it even seemed that she was accepting Luke. It was too soon to believe that everything was fixed there, but it wasn't too soon to hope for continued improvement.

She picked up the phone and speed-dialed the diner.

"Luke's!" sounded the familiar voice.

"Hi," she said softly. "I've got a sleeping daughter in my lap."

"Yeah? You guys had a good time?" He matched his tone to hers, feeling his heart rate slow and a smile spread across his face. "I'm glad. You're always more content when she's around."

"Man, I gotta get a shovel for all the schmoop you're leaving behind," she giggled quietly. "Question – do you know where Jess is?"

"Hmm. I think he said he was going to Truncheon for a day or so. He ought to be back today or tomorrow." He shifted uncomfortably as the thought of his nephew's relationship with Rory became real again. "Is something up?"

"No, uh, well, I don't think so. She'll probably want to see him when she wakes up, I guess."

"What's wrong? Did she say something? Did something happen?"

"No, no it's just, … a feeling. Mothers get that way, Luke. It must be completely irrational. Not that I'm ever irrational. Completely Rational Lorelai, that's me."

"Uh-huh. Completely Rational Lorelai. They oughta write a song about that."

"I'll work on it. Maybe a dance too, like the Macarena. Everyone will be doing the Lorelai." She nodded her head confidently. "You're on time for coming home?"

"Yep, see you then," he chuckled as he hung up, wondering what sort of dance show he was going to see that evening.

Sighing, Lorelai ran her fingers through Rory's hair, glad to have her home, but a small piece of her feared something unknown.

"Hi Luke! G'night Luke!" Rory rocketed off the front porch, her overstuffed messenger bag slapping against her hip. Luke stepped back to keep from being run over in the darkness as he returned from the diner.

Shaking his head, he moved up the stairs, tired from a long and annoying day with Taylor and Kirk being more like Taylor and Kirk than usual. Taylor was drumming up witnesses for a dispute after a fender bender between Gypsy and Andrew, and Kirk kept talking about his tick costume that wasn't ready yet, wondering if Lorelai could take over the sewing from his mother. Luke refused both of them, finally throwing them out when it became too much for him.

Setting Lorelai's dinner down, he bent over wearily to unlace his boots and place them on the carpet, but noticed plastic sticking out of his second pair of boots. Pulling out a half-eaten single-serve package of Oreos, he sighed, dropped them back into Lorelai's purse and made his way to the living room.

There was a giant pout attached to a beautiful woman standing in the middle of the room. Luke looked at it, wondering idly if she would trip over her bottom lip if she tried to move.

Before her lip could fall any farther, she was surrounded by muscular arms with Luke's lips kissing her temples, trailing them further down her cheek. She dropped her head backwards; her pout turned into a smile as she provided access to her neck, humming as he found that spot where he could feel her heartbeat.

He leaned back, smoothing her hair as he assessed her emotional state. She'd moved from pouting to smiling slightly. He counted down the seconds until she would utter her first words, enjoying this last peaceful moment.

"Twelve hours, Luke! She didn't even stay twelve hours with her mommy. Jess is back. He called about an hour ago."

"I know. It sucks. He also stopped by the diner."

"Part of that time she was sleeping. I couldn't even talk to her then."

"Hey, you told me watching her sleep is one of your favorite moments, right? All's right with the world when Rory is sleeping peacefully. And I know sleeping has never stopped you from talking to someone."

Luke had noticed Lorelai looking at him once in the middle of the night. He'd woken without her knowledge and felt her feather-light touch on his hair and her intimate whispers talking about hopes and dreams about their future. He'd kept his eyes closed, curious to hear more.

"Hey, you old chuppah-carving, horoscope-keeping softy. I love you, you know? I know I told you a little while ago, but I really love you. You are officially my favorite reason for insomnia."

"Geez, what a sap I've become for a guy. I'm just as sappy for you as I am for Rory, and that's pretty sappy. I feel like a maple tree at sugaring time. If we were a movie, you'd mock me right now. Heck, I'd mock me right now."

She leaned over him and kissed him on the cheek. "I know you don't like jam hands, but I hope you can handle a little sap-sticky cheeks. Good night, diner prince."

The next morning during breakfast, he subtly rubbed that spot on his cheek, saying, "Hmm. Feels a little sticky. How did I get syrup on my cheek?"

He came back from his memories when Lorelai poked him in the tummy.

"Is that for me?" she asked, tugging on the bag.

"Here. Eat. I'm going to change my shirt."

He headed to the laundry room while Lorelai pulled a Styrofoam container of french fries out of the paper bag. Following him to the laundry room, she continued talking about Rory.

"So she's telling me about all of the friends of Emily's they'd seen. I mean talk about the snob tour, they must have seen people in almost every major city."

Luke pulled a gray T-shirt off the top of the stack of clean laundry. Lorelai shook her head NO, still eating and talking.

"And every friend just happened to have an eligible male of Rory's age at the dinner, or the party, or the beach blanket bingo."

"Bingo?" he asked, knowing there would be no response. The second shirt was also rejected as Lorelai wiped her french fry fingers on a napkin, then handed Luke a dark blue Henley. She pushed herself up on the dryer, moved the rest of the clothes to the side and pressed a foot against Luke's now-naked chest.

He grabbed the foot, massaging the arch with his thumb. "Hello, Kitty!" he said mischievously, looking at the image woven into the sock. Lorelai merely lifted her other foot to his chest as well.

Luke looked puzzled. "A … turtle?"

Lorelai nodded sagely. "A Ninja Turtle." She took careful aim, then threw the empty french fry container over Luke's shoulder into the garbage, crying "Score! Victory dance!" then thrusting her arms in the air shaking her body. Luke stifled a laugh.

He smirked at the mismatched socks, then pulled the Henley over his head. He reached into the dryer, finding several pair of their sweats. Plopping them into Lorelai's now empty arms, they began to fold them. Once he found a pair of his sweats, he stepped out of his work jeans and into the sweats.

Pulling the wet laundry out of the washer, he said curtly, "Lift," indicating that Lorelai should move her legs away from the dryer door.

Tossing the wet laundry in, he closed the door and reached past her to start the dryer, at which point she glommed onto his body, her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist.

"She's a sophomore in college, Lorelai, you can't expect her to stay attached to you at the hip, you know," he said as his hands found purchase at her waist.

"Yes, I can. Nothing should ever change."

"Uh, no. Everything always changes, you can't do anything about it. Just when the caterpillar, uh, thought the world was over, it became a butterfly." Luke glided one hand sideways in a peaceful, Zen-like motion, pleased that he'd been able to remember a commercial he'd seen on TV.

"Nice one, Oprah," Lorelai smirked.

Luke nipped her nose in revenge. "Rory wants to travel the world, go to dangerous places, be Christiane Amanpour. Are you going to follow her around when she's in say, Bosnia?"

"You bet! Say, isn't there a war going on there?" she asked. "Maybe I could carry her bags or something. You wanna come along and be the cameraman?"

"One of us ought to stay here and earn a living. I don't think we can all three live off a reporter's salary." Luke tilted his head at Lorelai. "You know, there are no Pop-Tarts in Bosnia." His lips touched her fleetingly, then reconnected, his desire rising.

"I think maybe Britney Spears was there. Or was it Taylor Swift?" Lorelai ran her fingers lightly over the shells of Luke's ears. A shiver ran down his spine as he pressed closer into her body.

"What?" he asked; his blood supply had taken a sharp turn south as he nuzzled her neck.

"Emily," she said.

Luke broke off all canoodling. "OK, we're done here." He pulled her off the dryer and headed to the living room, stopping for a beer and a bottle of water on the way.

"Why did you bring up Emily?" he groused. "I had a plan."

"I know about you and your 'plans,' Luke," she giggled as she pressed her body against his. "You know I like your plans, but I want to know what was going on in the kitchen this morning when I arrived."

"Aw, man, I had a good plan tonight. Let's talk about Emily tomorrow." He ran his hand over the curve of her butt, appropriately labeled 'Juicy.' "Nice reading material."

Lorelai leaned back to take a good look at Luke's backside. "What should I have printed on your sweats? We need to memorialize that handsome butt of yours."

"No printing anything on my butt." He ensconced his handsome butt safely onto the sofa, pulled his legs up with his back against one arm. Lorelai took the same position against the other arm of the sofa. She smiled as she tickled the bottom of Luke's feet with her toes.

"Sweet Cheeks."

"No." He pointed his bottle of beer threateningly at her. "Absolutely not."

She pushed on his feet, trying to straighten her legs and make his bend. "Cutie Booty."

He glared at her, locking his knees to prevent her moving further. He was going to win this game of footsie.

"Eye Candy."

He face palmed as he pushed back on her feet, easily collapsing her effort. She squeaked out a sad little 'Meep!' at her defeat.

"Stud Muffin. My favorite."

Trying to get her to change the subject, he blurted "Emily invited me to Friday Night Dinner!" Luke may have won the footsie battle, but Lorelai won the war, as usual.

"There's my little stud muffin," she said jubilantly. "So what's wrong with coming to a Friday Night Dinner once in a while?"

"Oh-ho-ho, she didn't say once in a while. She insists that I come every week. You know I can't do that! All of my employees are young and unattached. It's hard enough to get any of them to work on a Friday, much less every Friday."

She reached over to the coffee table, took her glasses and put them on, sliding them halfway down her nose so she could look at Luke reprovingly over the tops of the lenses. "While you are practically in your grave and have no life whatsoever. C'mon, with you there, maybe Adolph and Eva will take it easier on me."

Luke flopped his head to the side and rolled his eyes. "You know that's not what I mean. We can go some other time, maybe an afternoon or some evening when it's quiet at the diner, like Monday or Tuesday." He leaned forward. "You don't even have to go at all anymore, remember?"

"But Rory's there," said Lorelai. "I don't see enough of her as it is. And you hardly get to see her at all."

He quirked his mouth at that one. It was true; he'd kept up his relationship with Rory either through Lorelai or on those few occasions when Rory came into the diner.

"You know," he said, "I think we need a new plan. I ran over to Maisy and Buddy's this afternoon to help move some stuff around in the kitchen and talked to Maisy for a while afterwards. They raised three kids. Two went to college; they're all married and happy. Maisy said this is what normal kids go through. College and work takes them away from the parents. The parents have to adjust."

Lorelai was in no mood to adjust. "We aren't talking about normal kids! We're talking about Rory and Jess. Normal is the last word I'd use to describe either of them." She was in the mood to adjust her position on the sofa, so she crawled on top of his now-prone form and lay her head on his chest, starting to get a little sleepy. "You make a good pillow."

Luke wrapped his arms around her, softly massaging her back. "Just because they are extraordinary doesn't mean they don't have normal problems. They fight, they have boyfriends and girlfriends, they get mad at us. Look how hard you said it was for Rory to figure out how to study at college? She had perfect study habits in high school, but she has really struggled in college."

"Hmm, and Jess, too," she acknowledged. "You did everything to help him, but he still dropped out. Look at him now, though. He's got a job. He even talks to me in a language other than slacker."

"See? Change. They're succeeding; we just have to keep up. Butterflies." He fluttered his fingers in front of her eyes, mimicking a butterfly. She smacked his hand playfully.

Once Lorelai accepted the idea of adapting her schedule, she fired ideas out like a machine gun. They debated back and forth and developed a plan that would have satisfied even Rory's anal organizational skills.

Once a quarter or so, they'd visit Jess together in Philadelphia. At least once a month, Lorelai would go to Yale for some mother-daughter time, and another time a month, Luke would join them. Instead of Lorelai going to every Friday Night Dinner, she'd go twice a month, once with Luke. Also twice a month, they would invite Emily and Richard to Stars Hollow to the Dragonfly or the Crap Shack, Rory optional.

"Almost perfect," said Luke. "I'm only missing one thing."

"Last time I looked, you had everything a man needs," she purred.

"Ha ha," he said mirthlessly. "We've made all the dates, but I don't have a date with my girlfriend. Gotta have one of those, at least once a week."

"Well, give me her phone number. I'll call her and schedule it for you," she teased, drawing circles on his dark blue shirt with her finger, unbuttoning the few buttons at the neck.

"OK, you do that. I've been telling her that you and I are just friends, so don't spoil it for me, got it?"

He yelped in pain when her finger circles turned into a pinch.

"Are you finally done with the administrative work? Let's get back to my plan," she said, tugging him up off the sofa and toward the stairs.

"Your plan? I thought we were working my plan tonight."

"Honey, my plan is your plan. Great minds think alike."

A/N: Having spent some of my life being bi-continental, it's funny how important some things like junk food can be. While M&Ms are readily available, Pop-Tarts and Mallomars have been high-priced luxury international food in Europe, when they could be found at all. I figured Rory would go for the Pop-Tarts as soon as possible after returning home.

'Meep' is a hug for DSLeo and Maisy is because I keep thinking about Fishbag's lovely story. Also Maisy is the best parental figure either of them have. Luke in chaps is a shout-out to Deepfriedcake with thoughts of Jmaka.

I'm not making light of Bosnia. I am making light of Luke and Lorelai's attention to world affairs.