Notes:
More lines of dialogue were taken from the Pilot episode :)
Juliet dressed for dinner after her shift was over the next night, pinning her long hair into a braided chignon. She zipped herself into a pale pink dress and took a deep breath as she grabbed her coat, purse, and the overnight bag she was bringing to Lorelai's house that weekend.
"It won't be as bad tonight," she reminded herself, "Lor and Rory will be there."
She repeated this mantra over and over on the drive to her parents' home, envying her sister's longer commute from Stars Hollow. The twelve minutes between Juliet's apartment and the Gilmore mansion never seemed like enough time to prepare.
She pulled up to the driveway, noting the absence of Lorelai's Jeep, and sat in her car for a minute. Part of her wanted to wait for Lorelai and Rory to pull up before she got out, but her mother would likely see it as a slight if the three of them came in together. Taking one more steadying breath, she made her way to the front door and rang the doorbell.
Emily opened the door, her face falling a little when she saw that it was Juliet at the door and not Rory (and Lorelai).
"Hello, Juliet. You're early," her mother commented, smiling politely at her and pressing a brief kiss to her cheek.
"Oh, my attending let us out early," Juliet explained, taking off her coat.
"How nice," Emily said, then reared back as she took in her daughter's appearance. "My God, Juliet, I thought you were topless. That dress is nearly the same color as your skin!"
"Oh, well, I'm not," Juliet said with a forced chuckle, because she couldn't think of another response.
"Hmm. Well, your father's in the living room. Rory and your sister haven't arrived yet," Emily told her, leading the way to the living room.
Juliet looked down at her front. Was her dress really that similar to her skin tone?
"Richard, Juliet's here!"
Her father looked up from his paper. "Hello, Juliet. How's work?"
"Good! Lots of interesting patients. A lady with dementia tried to strangle me today."
"Good Lord!" Richard exclaimed, putting his paper down in shock.
"Juliet! That is not an appropriate topic for dinner!" Emily chastised.
"Sorry," Juliet ducked her head, sitting on the sofa. "How about you, Dad? How's your work?"
"Mm, no strangulations for me, but I was tempted a few times," he said drily, turning a page in his newspaper. Juliet laughed, while Emily shot her husband a look of exasperation.
They were interrupted by the ringing of the doorbell, and Juliet immediately relaxed as her mother stood to answer it. The reinforcements had arrived.
She overheard voices in the foyer but wasn't able to make out any actual words. After a moment, Emily returned, her hands on Rory's shoulders, presenting her to the living room.
"Richard, Juliet, look who's here."
"Hey, smarty-pants! Congratulations!" Juliet stood up, opening her arms to hug her niece.
"Hi, Auntie Jules," Rory visibly relaxed as she hugged Juliet, then smiled cordially at Richard as she pulled away. "Hi, Grandpa."
"Rory. You're tall."
Rory glanced at her aunt, as though asking for confirmation on this observation. "I guess."
"What's your height?"
"Five-seven?"
"That's tall. She's tall," he announced to the room. "Is she as tall as you, Juliet?"
Juliet smiled at Rory. "Pretty close. I've still got about an inch on her."
"Hi, Dad. Hey, Jules," Lorelai came in, giving Juliet a one-armed hug.
"Lorelai, your daughter's tall," Richard informed her.
"Oh I know, it's freakish. We're thinking of having her studied at M.I.T.," Lorelai said, as Juliet wrapped an arm around her waist. They shared a smile when their father went back to reading his paper.
Emily came up to them with a tray of drinks. "Champagne, anyone?"
"Sure. Thanks, Mom," Juliet said as she took a glass.
"That's fancy," Lorelai commented, grabbing a glass with her free hand.
"Well, it's not every day that I have all three of my girls here for dinner on a day the banks are open."
Lorelai and Juliet shared another glance at the pointed comment but refrained from saying anything.
Their mother continued. "A toast - to Rory entering Chilton and an exciting new phase in her life."
"Here, here," their father kept his eyes on his paper.
"Well, let's sit everyone," Emily said, gesturing to the couches and sitting down. "This is just wonderful. An education is the most important thing in the world, next to family."
"And pie!" Lorelai joked, her arm still around Juliet's shoulders. The room was silent except for Juliet's pity laugh, with a half-hearted chuckle from Rory following a second later.
After another minute of awkward silence, Lorelai pushed her sister forward, sitting her on the couch so that she acted as a barrier between Lorelai and Emily, and grabbed her hand, squeezing it once before letting go.
As they walked into the dining room after dinner was announced, Juliet whispered in Lorelai's ear,
"Do I look like I'm naked in this dress?"
Lorelai looked at her, furrowing her brow. "No! You look like Liesl Von Trapp!"
"Okay, good! That's what I was going for, but Mom said –"
Lorelai cut her off. "You look cute, Jules. Cute and clothed."
An extra chair had been added to the dinner table beside the one Lorelai usually sat in. Rory sat down at Juliet's usual place, while Lorelai and Juliet sat next to each other. Emily frowned at her daughters, clearly having intended for the sisters to sit across from one another, but said nothing.
"Auntie Jules, how's work?" Rory asked, breaking the silence that had once again settled over the table.
"Not boring, that's for sure! Today, actually –" At her mother's warning look, Juliet abruptly cut herself off. "I'll, uh, I'll tell you later."
Emily changed the subject. "Rory, how do you like the lamb?"
Rory smiled at her grandmother. "It's good."
"Too dry?" Emily asked, and Juliet shared a smirk with Lorelai at their mother's blatant favoritism.
"No, it's perfect."
"Potatoes could use a little salt, though," Lorelai said facetiously, and Juliet kicked her under the table.
"Excuse me?"
"So, Grandpa, how's the insurance biz?" Thank God for Rory.
"Oh, people die, we pay. People crash cars, we pay. People lose a foot, we pay," Richard said, spearing a piece of lamb.
Juliet nearly made a comment about how people paid insurance companies before they died, crashed cars, and lost feet, while still having to pay insanely high deductibles, but she held back. This was not the time or place to discuss the socioeconomic disparities of the American healthcare system.
"Well, at least you have your new slogan," Lorelai quipped, smiling awkwardly.
Their father rolled his eyes. "And, how are things at the motel?"
"The inn? They're great."
"You got promoted last month, right, Lor?"
"Yeah! Executive manager. I get my own nameplate now," Lorelai did a little shimmy in her seat.
"Oh, that's wonderful," Emily said with a polite smile.
"Speaking of which," Richard announced, "Christopher called."
Juliet resisted the urge to roll her eyes.
"Speaking of which? How is that a 'speaking of which'?"
"What did he say, Dad?" Juliet asked.
"He's doing very well in California. His Internet start-up goes public next month. This could mean big things for him," Richard said, turning to Rory. "Very talented man, your father."
"She knows," Lorelai said defensively, reaching blindly for Juliet's hand and squeezing it almost to the point of pain.
"He always was a smart one, that boy," their father continued. "You must take after him."
"Dad!"
Lorelai dropped her hand, standing up. "Speaking of which, I'm gonna get a Coke. Or a knife."
Juliet whirled on her father. "Why would you say that?"
"Christopher is a smart boy."
"He's a smart grown man, Dad," she reminded him. Feeling her self-control starting to slip, she stood up, forcing calmness back into her tone. "I'm gonna go check on Lor."
Her mother stood up too. "I'll come with you."
"Mom –"
"Or, I can go alone, and you can stay and keep Rory and your father company," Juliet sighed, following her mother into the kitchen, where Lorelai was vigorously scrubbing a pan. "Lorelai, come back to the table."
"Give her a minute, Mom."
Emily shot Juliet a glare, looking between her daughters. "Is this what it's going to be like every Friday night? The two of you come over here and gang up on me?"
"How are you being ganged up on? Were you at that table just now?" Lorelai asked incredulously.
"Yes, I was, and I think you took what your father said the wrong way."
"The wrong way? What was open to interpretation?"
"In my professional opinion, Mom, there was no 'right way' to take it," Juliet said, kicking herself for weaponizing her job title before the words were even out of her mouth.
As predicted, it didn't go over well. "I have no interest in your 'professional opinion' right now, young lady!"
"Why would Dad bring up Christopher?" Lorelai asked. "Was that really necessary?"
"He likes Christopher!"
"Why? He's a jackass," Juliet spat.
Her mother's jaw dropped at her language. "Juliet! That's an awful thing to say!"
"Well, it's not like he's here to get his feelings hurt, is he?" God, Jules, can you start acting like you have a Psychology degree anytime soon? This is how we tell patients not to behave.
"Perhaps if your sister had married him, he would be!"
"Not this again, Mom," Lorelai sighed.
"When you get pregnant, you get married. A child needs a mother and a father."
"Do you think that Christopher would have his own company right now if we'd gotten married? Do you think he would be anything at all?"
"Yes, I do," Emily insisted. "Your father would have put him in the insurance business and you'd be living a lovely life right now."
"He didn't want to be in the insurance business and I am living a lovely life right now!"
"That's right, far away from us."
"Oh, here we go," Lorelai rolled her eyes.
"You took that girl and completely shut us out of your life."
"Not completely!" Lorelai insisted, pointing to Juliet and realizing belatedly that that was the wrong thing to say.
Emily laughed bitterly. "Oh yes, how could I have forgotten? The clandestine meetings you two had for six months before Juliet would tell us where you were! And that you were working as a maid! With all your brains and talent. Your sister is a doctor, Lorelai, while you're still in the exact same place you were at seventeen!"
Juliet glowered at her mother. "Don't compare me to Lorelai, Mom."
"Then stop inserting yourself where you're not needed, Juliet!" Emily shrieked, then turned back to Lorelai. "Just imagine where you and Rory would have been if you'd accepted a little help!"
"Hey, I accepted help!"
"Oh that's right, you were willing to take your fourteen-year-old sister's allowance when you ran away from home, but too proud to accept anything from your own parents!"
"Well, I wasn't too proud to come here to you two begging for money for my kid's school, was I?"
"No, you certainly weren't. But you're too proud to let her know where you got it from, aren't you?" Lorelai said nothing, glancing over at Juliet in embarrassment. "Well, fine, you have your precious pride and I have my weekly dinners. And now you get to see your sister more often, Juliet. Isn't that nice? We all win."
Emily turned on her heel and left the kitchen, the door swinging behind her. Juliet watched her leave, then looked over at Lorelai, who was blinking rapidly at the ceiling. Wordlessly, she walked over and wrapped her arms around her sister. After a moment, Lorelai's shoulders slumped, and she buried her face in Juliet's shoulder.
"I hate her sometimes," she whispered in a choked voice.
"Yeah, me too."
The younger Gilmores stood on the front steps after dinner, the cool night air a welcome reprieve from the stuffiness of the dining room. Lorelai looked like a washcloth that had been wrung out, and Juliet felt the same way. Putting on a small smile, Lorelai turned to Rory.
"Honey, can you go warm up the car? Auntie Jules and I need a minute."
Rory opened her mouth, looking like she was about to protest, but accepted the keys from her mother anyway. Once Rory's back was turned, Lorelai leaned her head on Juliet's shoulder, sighing.
"Do I look shorter? Because I feel shorter."
"It's hard to tell with the heels," Juliet said, resting her head on top of her sister's. Lorelai huffed a weak laugh, making Juliet smile at the small victory.
"Want Rory to ride with me? Give you a few minutes where you don't have to be nice to anybody?"
She felt Lorelai nod after a moment. "If she's okay with it. I don't want her to think I'm freezing her out or something."
"Okay."
After another minute, Lorelai lifted her head up and gave Juliet's arm a squeeze as they made their way over to Lorelai's Jeep.
"Hey, Rory, want to practice driving my car?" Juliet asked, sticking her head inside the window. "We barely got to talk at dinner."
Rory's eyes flicked between the two of them warily. When Lorelai smiled reassuringly at her, she unbuckled her seatbelt and got out of the passenger's seat.
"Thanks," she said, accepting the keys from Juliet. Then turning to her mother, she asked, "How about we stop for coffee? Auntie Jules has never been to Luke's."
Lorelai turned to her incredulously. "What? How have you never been to Luke's?"
"Hi, I don't drink coffee, remember?"
"He doesn't just have coffee!" Rory insisted. "There's burgers, and fries, and pie! And he has tea too, right?"
"Oh yeah," Lorelai snickered. "He'll do a little happy dance when you order it, Jules. He won't be able to believe we're related!"
"We'll meet you there," Rory said with a good-natured roll of her eyes. She looped her arm through Juliet's, and they walked to her Honda.
As Rory turned the key into the ignition, Juliet broke the comfortable silence between them.
"So, your mom says you don't want to go to Chilton?"
Rory glanced over at her aunt with a sigh. "She told you?"
"She tells me pretty much everything," she said apologetically, smiling fondly at how her niece was driving exactly the speed limit. "But I bet if you asked her to keep something from me she would."
"Yeah, I know," Rory only briefly took her eyes from the road to look at Juliet sheepishly. "Did she tell you why?"
"Something about a boy?" She took Rory's blush as confirmation. "You know, you guys will still see each other even if you don't go to the same school. Your town is smaller than the hospital I work at."
"It's not that small."
"It's hyperbole," at her niece's eye roll, she continued, "Do you want to know why I think you really don't want to go?"
"Why, Auntie Freud?"
Juliet laughed, shaking her head. "I think you're a little scared to switch schools."
"What? I'm not scared! Why would I be scared?"
"You've been in school with the same kids since you were five, Rory. And you've never liked change very much."
Rory frowned, focusing intently on her hands' position on the wheel.
"And, I mean, Chilton will be a lot harder than your old school."
"That's why I wanted to go there! I'm so bored at Stars Hollow High!"
Juliet gave her a look, raising her eyebrows.
"Don't you think you'll still be bored if you stay?"
Rory pursed her lips. "I guess."
"I get it, you know. Not wanting to try something new. When I went to med school after college instead of marrying some rich guy, I was so scared. I don't like not knowing what's gonna happen."
"Why'd you do it?"
"Because I knew what would happen if I didn't change anything," she shrugged, "and doing that was scarier than not knowing."
Rory rolled her eyes again, but she was smiling. "I hate your Psychology degree."
Juliet huffed out a laugh, and Rory turned the volume up on the radio, signaling she was done talking for now. The rest of the ride passed in companionable silence, except for The Cranberries playing over the speakers. Before too long, Rory parked in the town square behind Lorelai's Jeep, and handed Juliet the car keys as they got out.
Lorelai was waiting for them outside of her car, and looped an arm through each of theirs as she walked.
"So, nice dinner at the grandparents' house," Rory commented.
"Oh yeah, her dishes have never been cleaner."
"You two seemed to have a nice talk with Grandma."
Lorelai cringed. "How much did you hear?"
"Not much. You know, snippets."
The sisters exchanged a look, and Lorelai turned back to Rory, raising an eyebrow. "Snippets?"
"Little snippets."
Juliet scratched her nose sheepishly. "Did you hear me call your dad a . . .?"
"Yeah."
Lorelai smiled wryly. "So you heard everything?"
"Pretty much, yeah."
"Well, the best laid plans," Lorelai opened the door for them as she walked into the diner, sitting at the nearest table with three seats.
Rory sat down across from her mother. "I think it was really brave of you to ask them for money."
Lorelai sighed, taking off her coat. "Oh, I so do not want to talk about it."
"How many meals is it gonna take till we're off the hook?"
Juliet turned to Rory. "Off the hook? Now that I'm used to having you guys there, I'm not going to another one of those dinners alone again!"
"Aw, my poor, defenseless, baby sister!" Lorelai clasped Juliet's hand dramatically. Then, her eyes widened and she turned to Rory with a smile. "Wait, does that mean. . . ?"
Rory smiled, glancing over at Juliet. "Well, my shrink and I talked it over, so. . ."
"Oh, honey, you won't be sorry," Lorelai said, squeezing Juliet's hand in thanks. Her jaw dropped as a man came to their table with an order pad, and her grip on Juliet's hand slackened.
"Wow. You look nice. Really. . .nice," she stuttered.
The man blushed, ducking his head. "Yeah, I had a meeting earlier at the bank. They like collars."
Lorelai laughed, staring dumbly at him. Juliet furrowed her brow and glanced over at Rory, who rolled her eyes with a smirk, suggesting to her aunt that the vibe between Lorelai and Man in Blue Shirt was not a new one.
"You look nice too," he said, trying and failing to hide a smile.
"I had a flagellation to go to," Lorelai quipped. There she is.
Blue Shirt Guy glanced down, then looked at Juliet as though noticing her for the first time. "Who the hell are you?"
"Luke!" Lorelai admonished, the spell between them evidently broken. "That's my sister."
"Right," he said, nodding as his eyes widened in recognition. "You mentioned you had one of those."
Juliet smiled warmly and held out a hand. "I'm Juliet."
He accepted her hand, shaking it. "Luke."
"I figured," she said, gesturing between him and Lorelai. "Nice to, um, put a face to the name."
"Yeah, you too," Luke blushed again, clearly pleased to learn that Lorelai had mentioned him to her sister. "What'll you have?"
"Coffee. In a vat," Lorelai said.
"I'll have coffee also," said Rory. "And chili fries."
"That's quite a refined palette you've got there," he pointed to Juliet. "I'm assuming you want coffee too?"
"Oh, no thanks. Do you have tea?"
He raised an eyebrow. "You adopted or something?"
"Just recessive genes, I guess," she said evasively. Lorelai squeezed her hand reassuringly.
Luke nodded, sensing there was more to the story but not prying. "Is peppermint okay?"
"That's great, thanks," she smiled quickly at him as he walked away, then turned to her sister with a teasing smirk and raised eyebrows. "He's cute, Lor!"
"Shut up," Lorelai said through clenched teeth, her face turning bright red.
Juliet made an exaggerated kissy noise in response, and Lorelai pinched her forearm. Hard.
"Ow!"
Lorelai made a show of turning to Rory, who was fighting to keep a straight face. "So, tell us about the guy."
"You know what's really special about our relationship? The total understanding about the need for one's privacy. I mean, you really understand boundaries."
"Tell us about the guy!" Lorelai insisted.
"Make it stop, Auntie Jules," Rory pleaded.
"Is he dreamy?"
"How about we talk about a different guy, Lor?"
"Jules!" Lorelai whispered urgently as the guy in question came to their table bearing gifts.
"Coffee. . .fries. . . tea. Tea. I think you might be my new best friend," he said to Juliet sarcastically.
"Told you so!" Lorelai chortled, pointing a finger in her face.
"I'll make you a bracelet tomorrow," Juliet deadpanned. After Luke left with a roll of his eyes, Juliet whispered to Lorelai, "With beads that spell out 'Favorite brother-in-law'."
"I'm going to dump this on your head," Lorelai threatened, holding up her mug of coffee.
"You wouldn't waste it!" Rory giggled.
"I guess you're right," Lorelai sighed, then smiled evilly again. "Tell me about the guy!"
"How about Auntie Jules tells us what Grandma wouldn't let her talk about at dinner?"
"Ooh, yes! Gross hospital story!"
"Okay, so: My Brush With Death," Juliet began, straightening in her chair as she launched into a highly dramatized retelling of her story.
Notes:
Here's the beginning of Season 1! I used the show's script pretty heavily here, and I'm not sure how I feel about it. I think I changed it enough that it doesn't feel like you're just watching the show, but let me know if it's too much! Also, fun fact: I used to work in a nursing home, so I have a lot of experience with dementia patients getting violent lol.
Thanks for reading, and let me know what you think! I love reading the comments people leave on my stories! I also realized that when I'm reading fanfiction, I often don't comment/leave kudos even when I really like a story, so I'm trying to do that more often too.