A/N: I'm back! Hope you didn't miss me too much ;)

(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)

Chapter 5

"Okay, I know what the rumour mill is like in this town, so I really need to hear this from you," said Lorelai, rushing out to meet Luke the moment he stepped out of his truck. "Yesterday, did Jess yell at Taylor in defence of my daughter?"

"Okay, first, good morning," he told her, even as his back hit the truck door. "And second, not that I don't like you being so close, but..."

"Oh, right, sorry." Lorelai shook her head and backed up a step. "And good morning, Luke," she added with a smile, leaning in again just long enough to plant a quick kiss on his lips.

It made him smile like a fool and almost forget what she had asked him in the first place, but only almost.

"Uh, yeah, so Jess did have kind of a confrontation with Taylor," he admitted, his hand on the back of his neck as he tried not to squirm. "The idiot - that's Taylor - was doing his big ice-cream store opening. For some reason, he had decided that Rory was going to be his - get this - Ice-Cream Queen. You know, kind of like a Prom queen or a Carnival queen or something fruity like that? Anyway, apparently, he was telling this crowd of kids how the queen was supposed to be there, but she just couldn't be bothered to show up. I swear, if I had heard any of this, I would've ripped the guy limb from limb myself. You know that I would have."

"And you would not have been alone, mister," Lorelai said crossly, her hands on her hips and her eyes flashing with anger. "God, that Doosey is such a-"

"Yes, he is," Luke agreed, before she even got to the colourful language, "and from what I heard, that's pretty much what Jess told him. Now, I did take issue with his using that kind of language in front of kids, but that aside, I have to say I was so proud of him. I admit, I only caught the tail-end of the speech, but rumour has it, it was a doozy. He really laid into the guy for making Rory into the villain, and went on to list everything she ever did for this town, all of her good points, which we all know takes quite a while."

"I can't argue with that." Lorelai smiled widely. "And Jess did that?"

"Jess did that." Luke nodded his agreement. "I'm guessing Babette filled you in? I do remember seeing her around at the time."

"She did. I also had a call from Miss Patty. Between the two of them, they were pitching Jess as some God-like hybrid of Shakespeare and Brad Pitt... which now that I think about it would actually be kind of creepy."

The way she put it was pure Lorelai, as was the very strange and creeped out look on her face. Of course, Luke never loved her more than in moments like that. Maybe he should have been focused solely on Rory and Jess, but when she looked at him then and asked him what was making him smile like that, he just had to tell her the truth.

"I was just thinking... we should go out. On a date. Tonight. I mean, if you want to."

It might have been better if he hadn't hedged a little at the end there, but Luke couldn't help it. He could be decisive, sometimes, but with Lorelai he was still just a little wary of breaking this seemingly fragile thing they were starting. True as it was that the real start, for him at least, had been some years ago when they first met, them actually trying to be a real couple was still so new.

"Um, a date? Tonight?" Lorelai looked momentarily bowled over, but she righted herself pretty fast. "Sure, that sounds great."

"Really? Okay, so good. Tonight, we'll go on a date."

"Our first date."

"Our first date," he echoed, wondering why he suddenly felt so nervous, given it was his idea.

Before he could get any further in making arrangements with Lorelai or worrying about what they might be, Rory came bounding down the porch steps, equal parts happy and agitated, as far as Luke could tell. He figured that was pretty normal for a young woman about to head off to college for the first time.

It was still more than a little amazing to him that little Rory Gilmore was old enough for something like that. Though he had been there to see her graduate high school, and knew, of course, that she was almost nineteen years old, it was so easy to look at her and still see the eleven-year-old child he met some years before. To him, she had changed in every way and in no ways at all.

"Hey, Luke?" Lorelai was waving her hand in front of his face when he finally refocused his eyes. "You okay?"

"Me? Sure," he told her fast.

"Okay, cool, then we need to start loading up the truck..."

Shaking himself into action, he nodded his head and agreed with her. "Right, sure. Point me at the boxes, we'll get started."

Jess was using the lull in customers to catch up on a little reading. He had done the responsible adult thing when Luke headed off early to help the Gilmore girls load up the truck with Rory's things to take to Yale. He had dealt with the latter part of the breakfast rush almost single-handedly, and now, finally, he could sit down and relax for a few minutes.

He just had a couple of chapters left to read, so long as the bell over the damn door didn't ring. Of course, because his luck always seemed to work that way, barely two paragraphs in, there was that ringing sound and he had to put the book down. He was surprised to find it was actually Luke arriving back already.

"Huh."

"You're still in charge, I'll be upstairs," was all his uncle said, as he all-but raced through the curtain and up the stairs.

Jess frowned, looked from the mostly empty diner to the curtain and back, and made a quick decision. Sticking his head into the kitchen, he yelled for Caesar to cover for a minute, then gave chase after Luke. Something weird was going on and Jess wanted to know what, most especially if it had anything at all to do with Rory.

Pretty much crashing into the apartment upstairs, he found his uncle flipping through a book of all things and frowned even harder than before.

"What are you doing up here?" Luke asked, barely looking up from his search.

"That was going to be my question," Jess countered. "Is something wrong?"

"No. Yes. Not really." Luke shook his head and actually growled, starting again from the front of what Jess now realised was some kind of address book.

Before he could ask any more, his uncle seemed to find what he was looking for, picking up the phone to make a call. A second later, he put the receiver back down and looked over at Jess.

"Could you get back to the diner please? I need to make a call."

"A private call, to someone you just looked up in your little black book?" Jess checked. "Does Lorelai know about this?"

"Don't be a wiseass." Luke rolled his eyes. "I am not calling a woman, at least, not in the way you think. Not that it's any of your business, but I am calling an old friend of your grandparents, who happens to run a restaurant, that I am hoping to take Lorelai to tonight."

At that, Jess smiled. "First date."

"First date," Luke echoed, looking as happy as he was nervous. "With Lorelai. Geez, what am I doing?"

He seemed to be talking more to himself than to Jess, which meant he didn't really need to give an answer. Still, he kind of wanted to help if he could, figuring his uncle would always do the same for him. In fact, he most definitely had, many times.

"What you're doing is going on your first real date with a woman you have been in love with for years and who obviously feels the same about you. If it's scary, so what? You're Luke frickin' Danes. You've got this."

It was worth the whole pep talk for the expression it put on Luke's face. He looked so shocked, but when that subsided, he actually smiled.

"You're alright, kid," he told him then, "but right now, if you could be watching over my diner..."

"I'm gone," Jess put up one hand in a brief wave and then ran right back down the stairs.

When he got there, Caesar was struggling with three newly-filled tables and Jess knew he was not going to finish his book any time soon. It didn't matter so much, he supposed. He could get to it later and, honestly, it had been worth taking the time to go see what was going on with Luke.

No matter what anybody else thought, he was happy for his uncle, and even for Lorelai. He just wasn't going to go telling the world about it. If they wondered why he kept on smiling so much, they could just keep on guessing, as far as he was concerned.

"I can't believe that's everything," said Rory, stepping back and admiring her half of the bedroom. "I'm moved in."

"You're moved in," Lorelai echoed, shaking her head. "Wow. We were way more organised than I ever thought we could be, you know, for two people on two days' notice."

"Four people." Rory cast a look her way. "Come on, Mom. We did a great job between us, but do you really think any of this would have gone even half so smoothly if not for Jess and Luke?"

There was no denying she had a point on that one. Not that Lorelai would ever try to deny that Luke always did his best by Rory, because he absolutely did. Jess had maybe been slightly more of a surprise, but it was as if he had some kind of epiphany over the summer. Which reminded Lorelai of something else that she supposed she ought to share.

"So, here's a thing about Jess..."

"No, Mom, please, not now. You were doing so well, getting along with him and everything, and you said you were going to try, not least because of Luke-"

"Hey, hey, hey, I was not going to say anything negative!" Lorelai insisted, trying to look indignant about the accusation, though she was sure it didn't quite come off.

After all, she had been pretty down on Mariano from the very beginning. There were good reasons for that, no question, but still. Even when she had promised to cut him all kinds of slack, back when Rory was dating him, she still couldn't resist a jibe every once in a while. This time, however, things were different.

"So, you wanna hear some good and positive news about your ex-turned-friend or what?" she asked, her arms folded across her chest as she stared down at Rory, perched on the bed.

"Okay," she replied, nodding her head. "What's the news?"

Lorelai huffed out a sigh, giving up on even being slightly insulted anymore as she sat down beside her kid. Then she told Rory about Taylor and the whole ice-cream queen thing. How totally bizarre and unfair it was for Doosey to have done such a thing without even asking Rory or Lorelai about it, and how absolutely amazing Jess had been in defending the honour of his former love.

"Wow." Rory's eyes were wide when the story was done. "Okay, first of all, Taylor is so off my Christmas card list after that. Seriously, I am mad about that."

"And rightfully so." Lorelai nodded firmly.

"But Jess... I mean, I don't know why I'm surprised exactly. It's not as if I don't know he cares about me, and hey, I'm pretty sure yelling at Taylor must be genetic or something, because Luke sure does it often enough."

"And how!"

"Still, I know how much he would hate being the centre of attention like that. Making a big deal about a town event, out in public that way? It's so not Jess."

Lorelai stared at Rory a moment, a smile coming to her lips that she couldn't seem to control. "Maybe he's changed. I mean, you said he had. You told me he seemed different since the whole breaking up and running away to LA thing."

"He is different," Rory agreed. "I mean, not in a bad way. He's still all the things that I... He's the guy I liked and dated and still want in my life, but he's also kind of learned to open up a little maybe? Not a lot, obviously, or he would've told me about this whole Taylor thing himself, but a little. He is talking more, to me and to Luke. I just don't think he felt like he could before. His mom left him with a lot of issues."

"A thing he and I have in common." Lorelai rolled her eyes. "But seriously, he gets major points for standing up for my girl, that much I will say."

Pulling Rory into a hug, Lorelai squeezed her daughter tight and was glad to feel her hug back just as hard. It was going to be so weird for Lorelai to leave soon and not take her baby girl with her. This was it, the end of their living together in any real and significant way, because for the next four years, Rory would mostly be at Yale. She would be living away from home, away from Lorelai. More than twenty miles between them every day, every night. God, that thought hurt.

"Mom?" Rory squeaked then. "I can't breathe so well."

"You sure you really need to do that?" she asked, resisting the urge to squeeze even tighter and instead making herself let go. "Sorry, kid."

"Don't ever be sorry for how much you love me," Rory told her, swallowing hard right after. "So, I guess you need to go."

"I guess I do," Lorelai nodded her agreement.

"Big first date with Luke tonight."

"Yup, that's tonight."

"Nervous?"

"No. Yes. Kind of. God, me and Luke? Who even saw this coming?"

"I think mostly everyone ever," Rory told her with a smirk. "Come on, Mom, when you think about it, hasn't it been obvious for a while that you two were just made for each other?"

"I don't know. I mean, maybe."

She was right. Rory almost always was and Lorelai couldn't deny that she was far from the first person to suggest this whole dating Luke thing could work out very well for her. Sookie had been dropping hints for a long time. Michel had even mentioned it before, not to mention Emily. Babette made the occasional remark and so did Miss Patty. Max was always weirdly jealous of Luke too.

"Geez, it's like everybody knew before I did," she said out loud, "or maybe..."

"Maybe you were just too afraid to admit how you felt before now?" Rory suggested.

Lorelai smiled across at her. "See, those are the kind of smarts that got you into this Ivy League place."

They hugged each other tightly one more time and then Rory walked out with Lorelai to the building entrance. There they stood, facing each other, neither sure what to say next. Goodbye was too final, but anything else just seemed silly.

"So..." she began, but had nothing to follow up with.

"So..." echoed Rory. "I hope you have a really great time on your date, and I want to hear all about it tomorrow. Well, not necessarily all about it, but you know what I mean."

She made a face in trying to explain and Lorelai bit her lip, trying not to laugh. She understood exactly what she meant. No daughter needed to hear too many details of her mother's dating. When the guy she was about to start dating had been such a father figure in Rory's life, it was particularly understandable.

"I'll call you in the morning, I promise." Lorelai smiled. "You have a good first night, okay? Make nice with the room-mates, but stand your ground in any dorm meetings - don't always be so nice that they walk all over you."

"I promise." Rory smiled back. "So, bye, Mom."

"See you later, kid." She reached out for one more hug and made it the tightest one yet, though it was probably also the briefest, because she knew she really did have to go.

It felt wrong to just walk out, like she was leaving a part of herself behind, but Lorelai was determined. Her daughter was now an adult in her own right, a Yalee, a fully capable young woman, and if she did need anything, she was smart enough to know all she had to do was call.

Clearing her throat and taking a deep breath, Lorelai brushed away one stray tear and headed right to Luke's truck.

"First date with Luke," she reminded herself, the very thought drawing a smile from her lips. "Focus on that," she told herself, as she fought to put the truck in gear, then headed back to the Hollow.

To Be Continued...