The next morning, both Rory and Lorelai were doing schoolwork, while Juliet thumbed through the latest issue of Psychology Today. The companionable silence that had settled over the kitchen table was broken by the phone ringing.

"Not it!" Lorelai and Rory exclaimed at the same time, putting their fingers to their noses.

"I got it," Juliet sighed, getting up. "Hello?"

Her father's voice came through the phone. "Juliet? Is that you? This is your father."

"Yeah, Dad, it's Juliet," she confirmed, glancing over at Lorelai, who gave her a confused shrug.

"What are you doing at Lorelai's house? Or did I mix up your home numbers?"

"No, this is her house. I'm just hanging out here."

"Ah, I see. That's nice that the two of you are still so close," he said politely.

"Yeah," she agreed. At least one of you thinks so.

"Is Rory there? I'd like to talk to her about something."

Juliet's eyebrows went up. "Uh, yeah, she's right here. One sec."

"Of course."

Juliet walked back into the kitchen, holding the phone out.

Me? Lorelai mouthed, pointing to her chest. Juliet shook her head, handing the phone to her niece.

"Thanks," Rory accepted the phone with a smile. "Hello? Hey, Grandpa."

There was a pause as she walked into the living room. Lorelai glanced over at Juliet, her brow furrowed.

"Does he call here a lot?" Juliet asked her.

Lorelai shook her head. "No, never. If he needs something from me he has Mom call."

"Me too," Juliet said, watching Rory laugh at something Richard said. "Weird."

"Yeah, weird," Lorelai agreed, looking in the same direction as she was. "She looks. . . relaxed."

Juliet smiled wistfully. "Yeah. Can you remember ever being relaxed when talking to Dad?"

Lorelai shook her head again with a bitter chuckle. "No, never."

The sisters watched Rory talk to their father for a few more minutes, each hurriedly going back to reading when she hung up the phone and came back to the kitchen.

Lorelai smiled at her daughter. "So, you talked to Grandpa?"

Rory opened the refrigerator, grabbing three bottles of water. "Yep."

"Anything wrong?" Lorelai asked.

Rory handed each of them a water bottle. "No. He just found this book we were talking about."

"Oh," Lorelai glanced over at Juliet. "And he just called to tell you?"

"Yeah," Rory confirmed, shrugging. "He knew that I was looking for it, so. . ."

"What book?" Juliet asked.

"Sanditon by Jane Austen?"

Lorelai nodded in understanding. "Oh, that one."

"Yeah."

"Oh, hey," Lorelai tapped Rory's arm excitedly. "You know what I was thinking?"

Rory smiled. "That Madonna and Sean Penn should get remarried?"

Lorelai smiled, rolling her eyes. "Besides that. I was thinking that your golfing expedition should totally count as a dinner."

Rory frowned. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, I think I can get us out of dinner at the grandparents' on Friday," Lorelai said excitedly, turning to Juliet for her approval. "Maybe the three of us could grab a movie. You don't technically have to go at all, right Jules?"

Juliet shook her head as she took a sip of water. "Not technically, but I don't want Mom to get mad at me if I can avoid it."

Lorelai rolled her eyes. "Mom's always mad, we can handle that."

"You can, I can't," Juliet reminded her, thinking of how her mother's disapproval used to make her physically sick.

"Besides," Rory added. "I have to get the book from Grandpa anyway. Let's just go."

Lorelai drew back a little, exchanging a look with Juliet. "You really want to go?"

"I do," Rory said, nodding.

"Okay, fine," Lorelai agreed, clearly not fine. "Is that my sweater?"

Rory's brow furrowed. "What?"

"You're wearing my sweater."

Rory glanced down at the offending garment. "So?"

"No, it's okay," Lorelai said with a small smile. "It's just, I thought I asked you to at least ask, you know, before you borrow my stuff."

"I'm sorry."

"It's okay," Lorelai said, clearly not okay. "It's just not too much for a simple 'Can I borrow it, Mom?' is it?"

"Lor –" Juliet began, pleading for her sister to let this go.

Lorelai was not about to let this go. "You know, it's my favorite sweater too."

"Okay!" Juliet announced, standing up. "Lor, let's take a walk. Rory, want us to pick anything up for you while we're out?"

Rory shook her head, looking confused. "No, thanks. Coffee, I guess, if you stop at Luke's."

"Great. Coffee," Juliet nodded, pulling Lorelai up from her chair and toward the back door. "We'll be back!"

As they walked out on the front porch, Lorelai wrestled her arm free from her sister's grip. "What the hell, Jules?"

"Come on, we're walking until you're cooled off enough to talk about what's really bothering you," Juliet told her, grabbing Lorelai's hand again and pulling her along as they left the porch.

"What's really bothering me is that Rory keeps stealing my stuff!" Lorelai exclaimed defensively.

"Which she already apologized for," Juliet reminded her gently, but her patience was wearing thin.

"But she –! I know," Lorelai grumbled, scuffing her shoes in the dirt.

They walked in silence for a few minutes, each lost in thought. As they got closer to the town square, whatever frustration Lorelai was feeling toward her had cooled, and she looped her arm through Juliet's.

"Sorry I yelled," she said quietly.

"It's okay," Juliet said, leaning her head against her sister's shoulder briefly. "Sorry I manhandled you."

Lorelai laughed. "It's okay. Friends again?"

"Friends again."

"Oh, hey," Lorelai said, pointing as she waved at someone across the street. "There's Sookie."

"Hey, Sweetie," Sookie smiled as she crossed the street to meet them. She wrapped Juliet up in a tight hug, squeezing tightly. "Juliet! I feel like I haven't seen you in forever!"

"It has been a while," Juliet confirmed, squeezing back. "How's stuff for the wedding?"

"My stupid produce guy won't give me his stupid strawberries, so now I can't make the stupid strawberry shortcake!" Sookie exclaimed, her lip already quivering.

Juliet put a hand on her shoulder. "That sucks, I'm sorry."

Sookie shook her head, taking a deep breath. "I'm fine, I'm fine. Talk to me about something that isn't strawberries."

"I blew up at Rory for wearing one of my sweaters," Lorelai offered.

"Ew, that's no fun," Sookie said, making a face. "Not that I don't understand. If somebody breathes too hard on my paring knife, I'm like a crazy spider monkey!"

Juliet gave her sister a pointed look. "Come on, we both know you're not mad about the sweater."

Lorelai sighed. "You're right. It's about the golfing thing, and the liking it thing. She had fun. Just like our mother said she would."

"Yeah, that's got to hurt," Sookie said with a nod.

"But wouldn't you rather she be able to have fun with him?" Juliet prodded. "Instead of running and hiding in her room whenever she hears his footsteps like we did growing up? Just because we don't have a great relationship with them doesn't mean she shouldn't, right?"

"I guess," Lorelai allowed.

Sookie snorted. "Sounds like you're jealous."

Lorelai scoffed. "Oh, I'm not jealous."

"I'm jealous," Juliet admitted, smiling ruefully.

"You are?"

"Of course you are!" Sookie said, patting Juliet's arm. "You're jealous 'cause they like Rory better than both of you combined."

"Oh, thank you for the hug," Lorelai said sarcastically.

"She's right," Juliet agreed. "Rory's got, like, all the stuff they liked about both of us and none of the stuff that bugs them, you know?"

"Okay, fine, I'm jealous! But it's not just that," Lorelai sighed again. "It's that I left that life, you know? The club, our parents. I ran from it as soon as I could. We both did."

"Well, I'm still adjacent to it," Juliet countered, tilting her head. "My 'running' was more of a leisurely stroll."

"Still. It just – it never occurred to me that she might want it. It occurred to our mother though," Lorelai shook her head, clearing it. "God, I hate that she was right."

"You don't know that she – ooh! Oh my God!" Sookie, like a dog who'd just seen a squirrel, took off running across the street, causing a man to nearly fall off his bicycle avoiding her.

The sisters followed her after quickly looking both ways, coming up to the fruit stand where Sookie stood piling strawberries in a small basket.

"Look at you!" she exclaimed, looking like she was about to kiss the strawberries. "You're beautiful!"

Lorelai sighed. "I have to be more adult about this. I mean, if the country club life is what she wants, more power to her, right? You know, little white gloves and coming-out parties. That makes some girls happy, right?"

Juliet snorted. "Ones who think colonialism is a good thing, yeah."

"Or if they're on Prozac," Sookie added distractedly.

"I just never thought that I'd raised that kind of kid, you know?" Lorelai shook her head. "I mean, not that there's anything wrong with that kind of kid."

"Yes there is," Juliet argued. "We grew up with those kinds of kids. They're the ones who don't bother to learn the maid's name, or get C's at Yale and still go on to be president!"

"But that's not Rory, is it? I never thought it was."

"No, it's not," Juliet put a hand on her sister's shoulder. "There's a long way to go between having a panic attack every time she sees her grandparents, and joining the DAR with Mom, right?"

"I guess you're right," Lorelai nodded, then turned to Sookie. "Are we obsessing too much? We can talk about something else if you want."

Sookie said nothing, too focused on the strawberries to pay her any mind.

Lorelai waved a hand in front of her face. "Do we have to put on our matching strawberry costumes to get your full attention?"

"No, I'm sorry," Sookie said, then looked between the two of them incredulously. "You guys have matching strawberry costumes?"

A man walked by and noticed the attention that Sookie was giving to "someone else's strawberries", causing the two of them to get into a screaming match. The sisters watched Sookie chase Strawberry Man through the streets (and cause another near accident), and Juliet glanced over at Lorelai briefly.

"Is that the stupid produce guy?"

Lorelai nodded. "Jackson."

"Should we go after them?"

"Probably not," Lorelai said, shaking her head.

Juliet looked at her sister carefully. "Do you feel ready to head home?"

"Yeah," Lorelai said, putting an arm around Juliet's shoulders. "But if Rory's dressed like Jackie O when we get there, I'm staging an intervention."

"Oh, I'm with you there," Juliet agreed.

"Sorry I'm late," Juliet apologized when her mother answered the door at 7:03. "I left all my charting until the end of my shift."

"You and your sister are quite a pair," Emily commented, giving Juliet her obligatory cheek kiss. "You arrive late, and she brings us used dessert. Lorelai's having white wine, do you want white wine, Juliet?"

"Yeah, that sounds good, thanks," Juliet said, nodding as she sat on the couch beside her sister.

"We were just talking about how Rory completely charmed your father at the club," Emily said with a smile at her granddaughter.

Juliet smiled. "I heard."

"Yeah, it sounds like they had a lot of fun," Lorelai said with a tight smile of her own.

"Very interesting the way things turn out, isn't it?" Emily baited her oldest, smirking triumphantly.

Juliet bit the inside of her cheek to keep from saying anything, and she felt Lorelai loop an arm through hers, both offering and asking for support.

As their mother handed both of them their wine glasses, Richard came into the living room, still on cloud nine.

"Oh, you're here! Lorelai, Juliet," he greeted pleasantly.

"Dad," Lorelai nodded.

"Hi, Dad," Juliet said with a small wave.

Their father rubbed his hands together excitedly. "Rory, I have a surprise. Not only did I find that copy of Sanditon we discussed, but I also found all three volumes of Austen's Juvenilia as well."

Rory's eyes widened as she leaned forward in her chair. "You're kidding!"

"They're in my office if you'd like to see them," Richard confirmed, smiling elatedly.

Rory sprang up from her chair. "Oh my God, I totally would!"

"I'd like to take a look at those myself," Emily said, putting her drink down.

As their parents left the room with Rory, Juliet frowned and put her wine glass down on the coffee table, snuggling into Lorelai's shoulder.

She felt Lorelai sigh as she rested her head on top of hers. "Remember when we were kids, and Dad would read us Pride and Prejudice? And how we'd always say that I was Lizzy, and you were Jane?"

Juliet smiled fondly at the memory. "Yeah, why?"

"I think we might actually be Kitty and Mary. At least in this house."

Juliet nodded, silently agreeing. "As long as neither of us is Mr. Collins."

Notes:

When I was writing Juliet into this episode, her stopping the sweater/your boobs are bigger than mine conversation was my main goal. That scene is one that always bothered me whenever I rewatch this episode because I feel like it sets up a lot of the themes of body shaming/idolization of thinness that this show is full of.

Also! If you've read Pride and Prejudice (which, highly recommend, it's such a great book), something that happens a lot in the story is that Mr. Bennett shuts himself in his study and reads, and only Lizzy is allowed to disturb him in there. I was planning to really hammer home the parallels between Lorelai/Juliet and Lizzy/Jane, but then I realized how similar Rory and Richard's relationship is to Lizzy and Mr. Bennett's, so I threw that in there :)

Thanks for reading, and let me know what you think!