Tristan, Anna, Rory, and Lorelai were watching the Donna Reed show. "Hello?" They heard Dean's voice from the doorway.
"Do you come bearing pizza?" Lorelai yells.
"I'm not an idiot." Dean chuckles.
"Then get in here." Anna was hungry.
He came into the living room, "Hey."
"Hey." Rory smiles at him.
"Sit… you're missing it." Lorelai points at the spot by Rory.
"What are we watching?" He put the food down and took off his coat.
"The incomparable Donna Reed Show," Tristan informed him from the spot on the floor next to Anna.
"What's in there?" Rory points to the brown bag.
"Is it chicken wings?" Anna eyes the bag with glee.
"Oh no, it's a salad." He took a seat on the floor in front of Rory.
"Salad?" Rory asks.
"Yeah, it's a quaint dish sometimes used to precede large quantities of pizza." He put the bag on the side and handed a box to Lorelai before opening up the other box. The girls stared at him like they were offended he brought something healthy into the house. Tristan laughs at the looks they were giving. "It's for me." He thought the looks would go away if they knew they weren't expected to eat it.
"Clearly," Rory said. Anna got up to grab two slices of pizza for her and Tristan. She passed a slice to him and sat back down.
"So, who's Donna Reed." Dean pulls out his salad.
"What?" Rory gasps. He looked up to see he was getting the stares again.
"You don't know who Donna Reed is, the quintessential 50's mom with the perfect 50's family?" Lorelai had to wonder about his parents.
"Never without a smile and high heels," Rory looked down at him.
"With perfect makeup and wears a pretty dress even though she is spending the night in," Anna adds on.
"Sounds like you." Tristan looks at her over. She was wearing a velour sweatsuit, a high ponytail, and light make up.
"One can dream." She let out an exaggerated dreamy sigh.
"Hair that if you hit it with a hammer, the hammer would crack," Lorelai always commented on how her hair never moved.
"So it's a show?" Dean shrugs.
"It's a lifestyle," Rory told him.
"It's a religion." Lorelai swallows the pizza in her mouth to say.
"Donna Reed the goddess of housewives." Anna bows her head to pray.
"My favorite episode..." Rory picks a pepperoni off her pizza.
"Mm, mm...Tell me, tell me." Anna and Lorelai bounce in their seat.
"... Is when their son, Jeff, comes home from school and nothing happens." Rory smiles at them.
"Oh, that's a good one. One of my favorites is when Mary, the daughter, gets a part-time job and nothing happens." Lorelai ate the rest of her slice.
"Another classic," Rory throws her hands in the air.
"So what's this one about?" Dean nods to the TV.
"This one is my favorite. It is filled with intrigue. The husband, Alex, comes home late for dinner and he didn't call." Anna told him.
"Might as well kick the dog too," Rory shook her head.
"Oh no, not Coco," Anna put a hand over her heart.
"Oh, oh, look, she's making doughnuts." Lorelai points at the TV.
"...behind in the sugar department," Donna said to her son. Since they weren't watching, they had no idea what she was talking about.
"I guess I was thinking of something else, Mom." The boy responds to her.
"Not that my sugary attitude wouldn't make anyone an instant diabetic." Lorelai made up a line for Donna.
"Mother-daughter window washing, we should try that." Rory turns to her mom for the next scene.
"Yeah, right after mother-daughter shock treatments," She scoffs. "You know, Daughter, there's nothing more satisfying than washing windows… oh no!" Lorelai began her own dialogue.
"What? Did I miss a spot?" Rory made a high pitch voice for the daughter.
"No, I just had an impure thought about your father, Alex. Funny…. I don't know why I had it. It isn't the second Saturday of the month." Lorelai hums.
"Hey, I heard you had an impure thought about me." Anna made a deep voice for the husband that popped up in the window.
"I must now sublimate all my impure thoughts by going into the kitchen and making an endless string of perfect casseroles," Lorelai said for her as she walked back into the house.
"You're not even listening to the dialogue." Dean was curious as to what was happening in the show.
"Ours is better," Rory assured him.
"I don't know... it all seems kind of nice to me." He stuck a fork into his lettuce.
"What does?" Rory asks. Lorelai and Anna side-eye him, knowing that the couple might have their first fight in front of them.
"Well, you know, families hanging together. I mean, a wife cooking dinner for her husband. And look, she seems happy." He points at the screen.
"She's medicated." Lorelai points at the screen with her pizza.
"And acting from a script," Rory waves her hands at the TV.
"Written by a man," Lorelai glares.
"Well said, Sister Suffragette." Rory nods to her.
"What if she likes making doughnuts and dinner for her family and keeping things nice for them and," He stops talking when he sees the glares he was getting from his girlfriend and her mother. "Okay, I feel very unpopular right now."
"You know, dear, the first ten years we were married, I was upset when you came home late for dinner," Donna told her TV husband.
"And you're not anymore?" He asks.
"Nope, you are no longer late for dinner. You're just extremely early for breakfast." She smiles at him.
Lorelai and Rory looked over at Dean. "Hey, I'm not saying a word." He put his hands up.
"Anna, your mom, and sister are here," Luke shouted back to her.
"Alright, I'm taking my lunch break." She hangs up her apron and walks over to their table with Luke. She took a seat while he stood in front of the table.
"Hi, can you take a little constructive criticism?" Lorelai looks up at him.
"No." He took out his notepad and pencil.
"Okay, this place could use a makeover." She went on to tell him anyway. He hums like he was considering it. "Yeah, it just needs sprucing up. Like a coat of paint."
"I don't spruce." He shook his head.
"What do you mean you don't spruce?" She narrowed her eyes at him.
"What he means is he won't spruce, that's what he means." Taylor turned around on his stool at the counter to tell her.
"Taylor, do not start," Luke demands without looking back at him.
"I and the rest of the town beautification committee have been hounding him for years to freshen up the place, maybe a couple of nice zinnia pots out front, some yellow awnings, a peppy little cardboard pig announcing the specials, but he's a mule. He won't talk, he won't reason, he won't spruce. You might as well forget it, Lorelai. I'm forgetting it too." Taylor turned back to his food when he was done with his rant.
"Finally a Taylor Doose position I can get behind." Luke sighs.
"Faded paint is a bad reflection on the whole town." Taylor turns back around to tell Luke.
"Whatever happened to giving up?" Luke turns to look at him.
"Look, what you've done. I have already heard this argument this morning." Anna glares at her mother, who shrugs to say she didn't know.
"When standards slip, families flee and income the seedy crowd. You got trouble, my friends." Taylor made like the town was going to turn into Meteor City if Luke didn't decorate.
"Right here in River City!" Lorelai slammed her hand down on the table. Her daughters laugh at the perfect timing.
"This is not funny, Lorelai." Taylor scolds her.
"Does anyone want anything?" Luke wanted to take the order, so he could hide in the kitchen until Taylor left. The man sighs and turns back to his food when he realizes the stubborn man wasn't even listening.
"Uh, yes, I do. I want to know why you won't paint this place." She demands a real answer.
"Painting's a pain. I'd have to close the place for a day, which I can't afford or paint it in the middle of the night, which I don't want to do because I hate painting." He explained to her knowing that she wouldn't let it go.
"Okay, how about this? I'll help you. I love to paint." Lorelai smiles up at him.
"You do?" He looks down at her suspiciously. That she might say that, get him to buy the paint, and then never help him so he has to do it by himself.
"Yes, I do." She nods.
"You love it?" He couldn't imagine her painting.
"I want to marry it." She nodded with an odd level of confidence.
"You have strange passions." He said when he was convinced that she wasn't tricking him.
"She likes washing dishes too. She's multifaceted abnormal." Rory told him.
"Sometimes, she washes dishes that are already clean," Anna adds on.
"Ah, come on. We'll drink a couple of beers, we'll sing painting songs." Lorelai knew that she could make it fun.
"Painting songs?" He never heard of such a thing.
"Yeah, painting songs, like, uh, you know the song that goes, um…Grab your brush and grab your rollers, all you kids and all you...bowlers. We're going paintin' today! Say yes or there's another verse." She put on a weird country accent as she sang her made-up song.
"Well, I guess maybe...if I had help." He caves in.
"Really? Oh my God! That's wonderful! Hurrah!" Taylor turned around with a smile on.
"Taylor, it's not for you. It's for me." Luke sighs.
"I can't wait to tell the rest of the committee. They're not going to believe this." He walked out of the diner, excited to share the good news.
"I hate that he's pleased." He glares at the man's back.
"Ah, you'll drop a gum wrapper on the street in front of his store later," Lorelai told him how he could drive the OCD man crazy.
"Yeah, good idea," He nods. He took their regular order of burgers, fries, and coffee. He walks away while keeping his glares out the window at an excited Taylor telling people outside about him painting the place.
"So, you were oddly quiet last night?" Lorelai turns to her youngest.
"What do you mean?" She squinted at her. She played the voice-over game with them all night. By the end, even Tristan joined in.
"When Dean said that he thought it was nice to have a wife like Donna Reed. You didn't say anything. I thought you would be all over that." She told her.
"Oh well..." She shrugs.
"Do you agree with him?" Rory felt the need to have a talk with Dean about it and now she might need to have one with her sister too.
"No… Yes… sort of." She shrugs. When she saw them giving her the same looks they have Dean, she went on to explain. "Do I agree that women should be like Donna Reed? No, the pressure to always look perfect and be peppy would drive someone to kill. But, in the general idea of a housewife, if a woman wants to and she can afford to, then more power to her. It is not something I can see myself doing, but I'm not going to look down on the ones that do like they are submissive and clueless. Grandma's a housewife." She didn't need to add on how Emily Gilmore was a lot of things but she was not submissive or clueless.
Lorelai nodded her head, happy with that answer. She was worried that Tristan somehow made her give up on her dreams. Rory felt like she needed to have that talk with Dean even more now.
"Mmm…. Kick-ass wine," Lorelai sips the wine at her parent's dining table.
"How poetic," Emily sighs.
"It's got a nice smell: earthy, vibrant. I can taste the Italians' feet." She put the glass under Anna's nose, who was sitting next to her tonight. She nods her head that it did smell good.
"It's a Bordeaux. It's French." Richard corrected her.
"Ah. What's an Italian foot doing in a French wine?" Lorelai looks at him confused.
"So, when do you guys leave for Martha's Vineyard?" Rory asks.
"Ah, we're not going to Martha's Vineyard this year," Richard told her.
"Really? Why not?" She tilts her head.
"Our usual rental wasn't available when we inquired late." He shot a glare at his wife, who forgot to make the reservations.
"We should have just bought a place years ago like I wanted." She reminds her husband that this all could have been avoided if he did what she wanted.
"It wouldn't have been prudent." He hisses. Anna moved her eyes back and forth like she was at a tennis match.
"Now we have no place to go next week." Emily sighs.
"Well, you could always go somewhere else, couldn't you?" Rory didn't see what the big deal was.
"We always go to the Vineyard at this time of year." Richard took a sip of his wine.
"Well, you know, you could break the chain, Dad. Go to Paris." Lorelai thought it was kind of boring to do the same thing every year.
"Yes Paris," Rory smiles.
"Impressionism, poodles," Anna nods.
"Crème Brulee," Rory adds on.
"Oh, that's great!" Lorelai points at Rory mentioning the delicious food.
"Impossible!" Richard shook his head.
"Pourquoi?" She asks him.
"We only go to Europe in the fall," Emily explains.
"You know, Mom, I heard a rumor that Europe's still there in the spring." Lorelai turns to her.
"I heard that too." Rory nods.
"We know that it's there in the spring but we never go in the spring because we always go in the fall." Emily tried to get them to see the point. They already go in the fall, so there is no need to go in the spring.
"It's getting a little too Lewis Carroll for me." Lorelai sighs.
"Well, what is so interesting about Europe in the spring?" Richard asks.
"Spring Vegetables," She put down her fork to continue the odd conversation.
"You want us to go to Europe to eat a vegetable?" Emily never understood how her daughter's brain worked.
"No, Mom. I don't know. There are all kinds of stuff. There are festivals and, you know, Europe." She didn't know what the season had to do with anything. Traveling to Europe always seems like a good idea to her.
"In the fall," Emily adds on.
"What's so great about Europe in the fall?" Anna asks.
"That we always go in the fall." She told her.
"So it's a matter of tradition." Anna thought she got the point they were trying to make.
"It costs a fortune to travel first class to Europe. We only do it every two years." Richard tried to get them to see it wasn't when they wanted to go, but when they could go.
"In the fall," Emily adds on.
"It's just not in the budget this year." Richard took a sip of his wine.
"You don't have to fly first class," Lorelai told them. Emily and Richard looked at her stunned that she would say such a thing. "Cause there's always coach." She went on to explain their options. Richard looks horrified at the thought. "Or business class is slightly less. There are deals on the internet….. Hmm…Pass the potatoes." She looked at Rory when she saw the stares were getting worse.
"You got it." Rory hands them to her.
"So, Babette came by this morning," Rory told Anna.
She looked up from her book in shock that Rory was speaking to her and not reading her flashcards like she normally did on the bus when there was a test. "She did?"
"Yeah, Morey got a gig in New York tonight, so she asked if we babysit her new kitten," Rory explains.
"They got a new kitten?" Anna closes her book.
"Yeah, its name is Apricot. I said that we would." She told her.
"Oh sorry, I can't, I have a date with Tristan." Anna opens her book to begin reading.
"Are you lying?" Rory was suspicious of how she wasn't jumping to meet a new animal.
"What, no! We go on dates all the time." She closed her book again, not seeing why Rory was questioning her.
"Yeah, but you guys don't plan in advance. Normally, it is you want to go out tonight, yeah sure." She gave Tristan a low dopey voice and Anna a high pitch squeaky one. "I don't know how you can agree to such vague plans." If Dean asked her out like that, she would go crazy wondering what to wear, if she should bring money, if she should bring a book.
"Okay, I've been dreading them getting a new cat." She sighs.
"What? Why?" Rory was shocked. She thought Anna would be happy to hear that Babette got a new kitten.
"Babette goes on about how great my soul is because Cinnamon liked me right away. What if this new cat doesn't take to me right away or at all? What is Babette going to think of me?" Anna leans her head back as she whines.
"I don't think she would think any less of you." Rory shook her head.
"She's going to think that my souls turn dark or something." She went on.
"Okay crazy, how about this you can come over when she is not there and see if he likes you. That way there is no pressure." Rory offers.
"And if he doesn't like me?" She turned her head to look at her.
"Then make sure you have catnip in your pocket the first time you meet him in front of Babette." She shrugs.
"So, you came to my house tonight to avoid a cat?" Tristan put the two birdcages on his desk.
"I'm not avoiding Apricot, I'm just delaying." She sat down on the rolling chair in front of his desk.
"That's kind of the definition of avoiding but okay." He shrugs, taking a seat on his bed.
"My relationship with Babette lies in his tiny furry paws and it scares me." She looks at her duckling. Rory's biology class got chicks while hers got ducklings. "Do you think my duck is maybe a swan?"
"No!" He scoffs like she was ridiculous.
"How can you say that about Puddles?" She glares at him.
"I told you not to name her. You're going to have to give her back." When he saw her smiling holding her duck earlier today, he knew it was going to be painful a month from now.
"No, Mr. Rose said we could keep them if we wanted too." She reminds him.
"I thought your mother was cursed." He raises an eyebrow.
"I know, but I figure I could get the ducks at the Inn to accept her, and then I could visit her any time I want." She explains.
"So, we have done our homework, eaten, let the animals play outside and feed them, what do you want to do now?" He lies back on his bed and pats the spot next to him.
"I'm not doing that in front of the babies." She shook her head.
"They're not going to know the difference." He was going to go on when his cell phone rang. He answers it. "Hello… it's for you." He held it out to his girlfriend.
"Hello." Anna put the phone up to her ear.
"When are you coming home?" Rory asks.
"Why? Is everything alright?" She stood up from the chair.
"Yeah, I just need your help with a Donna Reed makeover." Rory went on to explain.
"What?" Anna was confused. Donna Reed had been a touchy subject for her lately.
"It's my apology to Dean. I argued with him earlier today. I thought about what he said and you said. It's not wrong for a wo… for anyone to take care of the people they love." She sighs in defeat.
"Are you sure about this Rory? I mean if he wants a housewife, then maybe it's better to end it now." She knew it was cruel to say but she thought it was dumb to continue a doomed relationship.
"No, I'm not breaking up with him over this. It's complicated, can you come?" She pleads.
"Okay, I'll come." They said their goodbyes and hung up. "Can you drive me to Stars Hollow? I have to help Rory with a makeover." She looks at Tristan.
"Sure, if I'm not going to get any." He got up and grabbed his keys. Anna rolls her eyes and grabs her duckling cage.
Anna and Tristan walk into Babette's house after dropping Puddles off in her room. "Rory," She calls.
"Hi, thank god you're here. I got to run. I have to get a few things. The kitten is already fed." She ran out of the house.
Anna walked over to the dining chair that had the orange dress that Rory wore to the last dance marathon drape over it."What the hell?" She held the dress up. On the table were the accessories for it like the white apron, orange headband, and the pearl set that Emily gave to Rory last Christmas along with some makeup.
"What is all this?" Tristan picks up the sheer customer apron.
"So, to make up for putting down housewives, she's going to become a housewife for the night." Anna thought it was an over the top apology, but she wasn't sure how bad the argument earlier today was. She let out a gasp when she felt something brush up against her leg. She looks down to see an orange kitten. "Oh my god," She stayed still as the kitten rub against her legs purring.
"Look at that, all that worrying for nothing." Tristan looks down at the small kitten.
"Shut up, don't ruin the magic moment." She bent down to pet Apricot. "My soul is still bright." "Okay..." Tristan stretches out the word.
"Animals can tell what kind of soul you have." She told him what Babette had told her. She sat on the ground to let the kitten crawl into her lap. Tristan notices a basket full of cat toys. He grabs the stick that had a feather on the end. He sat down in front of Anna and played with the cat. "Having to use toys to get her to like you, that's alright we can't all have bright souls that get animals to like them right away." She patted his knee in sympathy.
"You have issues." He rolls his eyes.
"I'm back, is everything alright?" Rory came in with bags of groceries in her hands.
"Your sister has issues!" Tristan yells.
"Everything is normal then." She went into the kitchen.
Anna got up and followed her. "What are you doing?" She watches her sister take out a bag of potatoes, a packet of steaks, a bag of green beans, a can of spray cheese, a Ritz cracker box, a box of Jell-o, and a container of cool whip.
"Making dinner for Dean," She answers.
"Does that mean I'm making dinner for Dean?" Anna points to herself.
"No, I'm going to make it but I need you to tell me what to do." She wanted to make the dinner herself to show Dean that she was sorry.
"Okay, well boiling the potato and making the jelly because they'll take the longest." She explains.
"Good luck," She waves to her sister, who was dressed up.
"Thanks for your help." Rory wouldn't have been able to make dinner without her.
Tristan and Anna walk over to his Porsche. "That was interesting." He leaned against his car.
"I know the next time you tell me sorry, I want you to make me dinner." Anna teases.
"If you want to get food poisoning," He shrugs.
"Yeah, I wouldn't want you to ruin your beautiful kitchen." Anna thought of the Dugray's kitchen that was a lot like her grandmas. She didn't know why these rich people had all these fancy cooking machines when they never used them. Where was the fun in that?
"I'll see you tomorrow." He leaned down to kiss her.
"Yes, you will. I love you." She winks.
"I love you too." He gave her a peck before getting in his car.
Anna walks into her house to hear screaming. "I got her. I got her."
"What the hell?" She walks into the kitchen to see a broken lamp on the floor and Luke holding a chick in his hands.
"Oh, hi babe, Stella got out and I called Luke to help me," Lorelai explains.
"Okay," She nods her head before going up to her room. "Hey, Puddles." She sat down in front of her desk. "It seems like all the Gilmore Girls had a strange night." She told the duck.
She sat on her bed to read a book. In the middle of the fourth chapter, she heard a meow making her look down to see that she forgot to take Apricot out of her sweater pocket. "Oh crap, I got to get you back. Rory is probably freaking out." She ran next door to find her mother and sister searching for the kitten.
"Apricot! Come, Kitty Kitty!" Rory and Lorelai were calling.
"I got her. I forgot she was in my pocket." She put the kitten down and put her hands in her gray uniform sweater pockets.
"Oh, thank god." She put a hand over her heart.
"I should have known after you brought that bird home in your pocket." Lorelai sighs.
"I was able to keep him for three weeks before you noticed." Anna points out. When she was twelve, she wasn't sure if the curse was her, her sister, her mother, or maybe the house. So, she bought a bird and kept him secretly in her room.
"Animal people are so odd." Lorelai let out another sigh.
Anna stares at the door after ringing the doorbell. "That's weird. Normally she answers it after the first ring."
"Yeah, it's creepy." Lorelai agrees.
"I think it's sweet, it means she's excited to see us." Rory defends her grandmother.
"Creepy." Lorelai rang the doorbell.
They stared at the door for a few minutes. "Maybe it's not working." Anna knocks on the door. A few minutes with no response, Lorelai joins her in knocking.
"Rory, Anna, Lorelai." Emily opens the door.
"Hey, we thought maybe the doorbell wasn't working." Lorelai points to the button.
"Come in." Emily waves as she walks back to the living room.
"We were ringing it and ringing it and nobody... I guess we'll just come in." She walks in and looks back at her daughters as she closes the door.
"Must be pretty exciting that she didn't start asking questions about our week?" Anna walks into the living room with her sister and mother at her heels.
Emily and Richard were standing over their phone, talking to a man on the speaker. "And that would be the same as what we were paying for our old place?" Emily asks.
"Exactly the same," The man on the phone said. The Star Hollow residents took a seat on the couch to watch whatever was going on.
"Except for the grounds fees," Richard said.
"Well, the grounds fees are higher." He agrees.
"But the grounds are larger, Richard," Emily told her husband. It was larger, so of course, it would be higher.
"I'm just trying to get all the information, Emily." He told his frantic wife. The girls took off their coats and hung them on the back of the couch.
"All the information is that this is our last chance to go to Martha's Vineyard for the season. That's all the information." She reminds him of what the goal was. This tradition must be very special to them, Anna thought.
"Emily, Richard." The man tried to get their attention.
"I realize the position we are in, but this is a business transaction." Richard pointed out this was his position of expertise.
"Oh, for heaven's sake," She threw her hands in the air. Lorelai pulls a bag of trail mix from her purse and opens it.
"Richard, Emily," The man tried again.
"As a business transaction, one in which money goes out and we receive certain goods and services," Richard explains to her slowly.
"And he's patronizing me, how lovely." Emily gave a sarcastic smile.
"Emily, Richard." The man spoke their names again. Lorelai offers some of the trail mixes to the girls, which they gladly took.
"I must treat this conversation with the same care and devotion to detail I would in any conversation that would be considered a business transaction. Kindly allow me to do so." Richard pleads with hers.
"Richard! Emily! Please!" The man that Anna assumed was their real estate agent screams.
"Goodness, you startled me." Emily put a hand over her heart.
"I'm sorry. I just wanted to say that I'm sure we could negotiate the grounds fee." The man offers.
"Well, that will be fine." Richard nods. He smiles at them. Lorelai gives him a thumb up.
"Good. I'll look into this right now and I'll get back to you." The man told them.
"Thank you, John." Emily smiled.
"Yes, we'll talk to you later," Richard had a smug smile on.
"Bye." The man hung up the phone.
"Careful, Richard, that canary you ate is going to spoil your dinner." Emily rolled her eyes at the smug look glued to his face as she sat down on the couch.
"What's going on?" Lorelai asks.
"Oh, your mother and I have just secured a place on Martha's Vineyard." He sat next to his wife on the couch.
"That's great!" Rory smiled.
"I thought you lost your old place," Lorelai said with half a mouth full of trail mix.
Emily was so happy about the news that her daughter's rude manners weren't bothering her. "We did. But this afternoon we found out that Arthur Roundtree had died."
"He'd been drinking," Richard said the news with glee.
"So, we got on the phone and snatched that place up." Emily snapped her fingers. Lorelai and her daughters share a horrifying look at how happy they were about the man dying.
"Oh, it's a fine piece of property," Richard told them.
"Much better than our usual place," Emily agrees.
"The both of you are going directly to hell, I hope you know that." Lorelai points at them.
"Well, at least we'll be well-rested." Richard laughs as he puts his glasses in his pocket.
"Well rested and warm," Anna commented.
"I am so thrilled about this." Emily hadn't been this excited since planning the first Friday dinner.
"I'm glad." Richard took a sip of his scotch.
"The three of you must come up for the weekend. It is so lovely." Emily looks over at them.
"Can we go for a weekend?" The girls turn to their mother.
"We'll see how much Valium Auntie Sookie can lend Mommy, Okay?" She pats their knees.
"The only drawback is that we had to rent the place furnished, and Arthur had dreadful taste. Remember the library, Richard?" Emily put a hand on her husband's shoulder.
"Pink and green, horrible, just horrible," He laughs with her.
"Well, he's dead now so he got his." Lorelai joins in on the teasing.
"Lorelai, you're being morbid." Emily put her hands on her lap with a disappointed face.
"I'm being morbid?" She put a hand on her chest.
"New subject please!" Rory peeped up like she always did when she saw a fight about to happen between her mother and grandmother.
"Joan and Melissa Rivers here think I'm being morbid." Lorelai turns to her daughters.
"Rory, what's new in your life?" Emily asked.
"Nothing: just school, homework," Rory shrugs.
"Aprons," Lorelai giggles.
"Do not go there." Rory gave her a look to drop it.
"What does she mean aprons?" Emily took a sip of her scotch.
"Mom is just teasing her." Anna wasn't sure how Emily would take the subject of Donna Reed being looked down on.
"About aprons," Emily didn't see where the joke was.
"Yeah," Lorelai nods.
"I don't understand," Emily narrowed her eyes.
"It's not important." She tried to get her mother to drop it.
"Then humor me." She insisted.
"Nothing, Rory was just dressed up in a cute apron the other day and so I was teasing her about it." She tried to be as vague as possible.
"Why did you get dressed up in an apron?" Richard asked Rory.
Rory looks at Lorelai not knowing how to explain it without insulting her grandmother or making it look like she was submitting to Dean. "Well. We've decided to give up on that pesky Harvard dream and focus on something more realistic. Mom, Dad, Rory's decided to become a maid, just like I was." Lorelai said the first explanation that came to mind.
"Is that funny? Did she think that was funny?" Emily looks at her husband in concern.
"What would have possessed you to say such a thing?" Richard looks at her daughter in horror.
"And in front of Rory and Anna," Emily didn't want her granddaughters getting silly ideas in their heads.
"I was kidding." Lorelai was slightly offended by how panicked they were.
"God, my heart stopped." Emily put a hand over it.
"Why don't you tell them about your birds? That seems like a safe subject." She turns to her daughters.
"Your birds?" Richard asks.
"Yeah, it's for school. We have to follow a chick or a duck through its entire growth process. I got a duck while Rory got a chicken. I named mine Puddles while mom named Rory's Stella." Anna explains to her grandparents.
"Everything has to be logged, eating habits, sleeping habits," Rory told them.
"Houdini habits." Lorelai looks at Rory.
"She got out," Rory explains that comment to her grandparents.
"Stella, not Puddles. Puddles is a perfectly behaved duck." Anna said with pride.
"That's because you're a helicopter parent." Rory rolled her eyes. Anna spent every moment at home hovering over the duck.
"Call it what you want, she never tried to run away from home." She shrugs.
"Stella ran far." Lorelai put an end to the weird argument of parenting styles for the birds.
"But she lived," Rory reassured them.
"She's a better bird for it. Lorelai nods.
"Thank God Luke found her." Rory would have had to borrow one of Miss. Patty chick and hope that no one noticed.
"Luke found her?" Emily has been wondering about her daughter's relationship with the man after seeing him show up at the hospital with her.
"What?" Lorelai asks.
"Rory said that Luke found her." Emily points out.
Lorelai looks over at her oldest, "Paying me back for the apron thing?"
"Sorry." She didn't think that it would be a big deal.
"Did the bird get loose at Luke's diner?" Emily thought the man might allow livestock into his place.
"No." She sighs, knowing where this was headed.
"No?" Emily said.
"The bird got loose at home." Lorelai ripped the band-aid off.
"Your home?" She wanted to be sure.
"Yes." She got up to make herself a drink.
"Ah." Emily let out as she watched her go.
"So, Grandpa, when's your next trip?" Rory tried to change the subject.
"Ah, Madrid, the twelfth," Richard told her.
"Wow." Anna let out.
"I think there's a nice addition of Cervantes in it for you two." He smiles at them.
"Gracias," Rory nods.
"What was Luke doing at your house?" Emily asks, not being able to wait for her to come back.
"Oh, look, there's no ice. I'll get some." Lorelai grabs the ice bucket and walks out of the room.
"I asked you a question." Emily follows her out.
"So what do guys have plans for Martha's Vineyard?" Anna asks. Richard told them of wine tasting, restaurants, and sightseeing. Rory gave a few ideas that she read about. Anna asks about the food.
Rory and Anna walked up to their mother when she was finished unloading the paint from Luke's truck. "Hey." They nodded to her.
"Oh, hey, you and you," She pokes their noses.
"Jeez… you think you got enough paint?" Rory asks. Anna shook her head, not wanting her mom to know that they saw her unloading and didn't come over to help.
Lorelai shrugs, "I know, I tried to tell him. So, dinner, any thoughts?"
"Let's have some." Anna agrees.
"How about Chinese," Lorelai offers.
"Sounds good," Rory nods
"Okay. I need to stop at the market and get some fruit." She wraps an arm around each of them to guide them towards the market.
"Why?" Rory asks. Their mom never was the one to suggest anything health.
"I think I'm getting scurvy." She said.
"Really?" Anna narrows her eyes, wondering how she knows that.
"Yeah, well that or a cold, but either way, I need some fruit." They were about to go into the place when a loud engine made them turn around.
"Damn motorcycles, they're scourges." Taylor came out to glare at the bike.
"Yeah," The girls nod.
"They're loud, they're dangerous. We should ban them from town." He grumbles.
"Maybe we should set up barricades and ban all unwelcome strangers from crossing the border." Lorelai picks up at orange.
"Well! Well, no we couldn't do that. That would be illegal." He was about to agree with that idea when he realized that wasn't possible.
"Darn laws." Anna picks up an orange of her own.
"Oh, I got to get away from that noise." Taylor goes inside the market.
"Kill me and bury me with that bike." Lorelai sighs as she stares at it.
"What is it? A Harley?" Rory asks.
"That is a 2000 Indian, 80 horsepower, 5-speed close-ratio Andrews transmission and I want to get one." Lorelai knew an odd amount of knowledge about it, considering she barely knew how to change the tire on her jeep.
"No." The girls shook their heads.
"Why not," She whines.
"You'd die." Rory didn't think her mother would even make it down the street on the bike.
"Yeah, and helmet hair," Anna put down the orange to pull on her mother's hair.
"Oh, that." She sighs, throwing the orange down.
The bike stops at the market. "Hey." He turns off his bike.
"Hi." Lorelai nods to him.
"Nice shirt. Take it off." He said, making them glared at him.
He takes off his helmet. "Christopher," Lorelai gasps at seeing her ex.
"Dad!" Rory runs to hug him.
"Come on." Lorelai grabs Anna's arm to drag her over to him.
"Hey!" She nods to the man.
"This is great! What are you doing here?" Rory asks.
"I'm here to see you two. And your mom, who's not saying anything about as loud as a person can." He smiles nervously as he realizes that maybe he should have called first.
"Hello." She forced a smile.
"A word, maybe there's a phrase in my future." He looks over at Anna and Lorelai. They didn't look thrilled to see him. He wasn't surprised. Anna used to be excited when she was a little girl, but after a few broken promises, he didn't expect a warm welcome. He was surprised that Rory was still excited to see him. He would be grateful for what he got. "Okay, why is that man staring at me?" He nodded to the older man standing in the doorway of the market.
"That's Taylor Doose. He owns the market. He knows all and sees all." Rory told him.
"So, what's with just showing up, Mr. Spontaneity Guy?" Lorelai asks what Anna had been wondering.
"Well, my folks are back in Connecticut so I'm here to see them, and on the way, I thought I'd stop by and surprise the Gilmore girls. Are you surprised?" He smiles.
"So you're here for your parents. We're just a convenient stop." Anna crossed her arms over her chest.
"Well… no… I wanted to see you too." Lorelai and Anna were similar in the way that he felt like he couldn't say anything right.
"It's just funny because when I ask about your schedule it's always hectic but when your parents are in town, it clears up." Anna glares at the man.
"Let's just be happy he's here," Rory begs her to not scare him away.
"Fine," She rolled her eyes.
He clears his throat and asks, "So where would somebody find someplace to stay around here?"
"Stay? You're staying?" Rory asks. Anna looks at him in surprise. She figured he would crash at his parent's manor like he always did. It was a place that they were never invited to.
"Thinking about it," He smiles at her.
"Stay with us!" She offers.
"Um, sweetie…" Lorelai wasn't comfortable with that.
"I don't think your mom…." Anna narrows her eyes as he puts the blame on her mother.
"No, it's not that, I'm still surprised." Lorelai didn't want to be the bad guy.
"Mom, please." Rory pleads.
Lorelai sighs before offering, "Why don't you stay with us for a couple of days?"
"Thanks, Lor. You won't even know I'm there." He smiles at Lorelai before turning to his daughters. "Hey, one of you wants to hop on?"
"No." Anna shook her head.
"Yeah," Rory walks over to the bike.
"Hop off." Lorelai orders making them turn in their tracks.
"Hop on." Chris hands Rory the helmet.
"Hop off," Lorelai repeats herself.
"Lorelai…" He looks at her.
She let out a sigh before saying, "Hop on."
Rory gets on the back of Christopher's motorcycle and they ride down the street. "Are you going to be okay?" Lorelai turns to her youngest.
"Are you?" She looks up at her mother.
"We'll see." She wraps her arm around her shoulders.
"Yes, we will." They walk into the market.
