"You two are never coming shopping with me again," Rory said over her shoulder as she walked through the aisles of office supplies.
Lorelai looped an arm through Juliet's, giggling mercilessly. "Aw, we'll be good, kid! I promise!"
Juliet looked at her sister, raising a skeptical eyebrow, then back over at Rory. "I'll be good."
"That seems more likely," Rory agreed.
"Mean!" Lorelai exclaimed in mock outrage.
Juliet stuck her tongue out in response, and Lorelai flicked her in the forehead, sticking her tongue out too.
"I need pens too," Juliet said, grabbing a basket of her own and following her niece down the aisle. "People at work keep borrowing mine and forgetting to give them back."
"Want me to beat them up for you?" Lorelai offered.
"Yeah, that'd be helpful," Juliet deadpanned, smirking.
"I mean," Lorelai continued, "what does it say about this country that all of our medical professionals are pen thieves?"
Juliet rolled her eyes as Lorelai put a hand to her heart, looking like she was about to break into a rendition of "Ya Got Trouble".
Rory tsked, shaking her head. "What's next? People stop eating apple pie and watching baseball?"
"We don't watch baseball," Juliet reminded her.
"Yeah, but we eat enough pie to make up for it!" Lorelai countered as she tossed a pack of multicolored pens into Juliet's basket, pouting when she put them back. "What, do your writing utensils need to be depressing too?"
Juliet grabbed a pack of dark blue pens and placed them in her basket. "I don't work in peds."
"I hope you're not insinuating that these pens, and by extension, your beloved big sister, are childish," Lorelai warned, even though there was a twinkle in her eye.
"Hey, you said it, not me," Juliet replied, holding her hands up in surrender.
God as my witness, I will never work a night shift again, Juliet thought as she tried fruitlessly to sleep before she had to be at work in two hours. Even the combination of blackout curtains and the Hello Kitty sleep mask Lorelai had given her for her twenty-fifth birthday wasn't enough to block out the afternoon light.
Just as she was about to throw in the towel and primp a little extra for work that night, there was a knock on her apartment door. She sat up, furrowing her brow in confusion as she mentally ran through the reasons why her landlord would be at her door.
The knocking became more insistent, and she threw aside her comforter and sleep mask as she walked to the door.
"I'm coming!" she called, frantically running her fingers through her hair to smooth her bedhead. She jerked her head back in surprise when she opened the door and saw her niece on the other side. "Rory."
"Hey, Auntie Jules," Rory said, smiling sheepishly. After a moment, her eyes widened. "Oh my God, you were sleeping! Mom said you were working tonight, and it completely slipped my mind. I can't believe I woke you up, I'm so sorry!"
"Honey, it's okay. I was trying to sleep, but having very little luck. You didn't wake me up, I promise," Juliet said, smiling reassuringly as she closed the door. "You know you have a key, though, right?"
Rory ducked her head, her cheeks reddening. "That slipped my mind too."
Juliet tilted her head, a small smile on her face. "A lot going on?"
"Yeah," Rory confirmed, nodding shakily.
"I'm assuming this isn't just a social call?" Juliet asked, and Rory shook her head. "Anything I can help with? Or do you want to talk to your mom first?"
"I got a D on a paper," Rory confessed quietly, her lip beginning to quiver. "A D! I've never gotten a D before. And I was on the bus home, and I just kept thinking about how I couldn't face my mom. I mean, she's going to these dinners every week when she doesn't get along with Grandma and Grandpa just so I can go to this school, and now I'm completely squandering my time there!"
Juliet held up a hand in an attempt to stop Rory's spiral in its tracks. "Let's make one thing clear. Unless you're skipping class and not turning in homework, which I doubt you are, you're not 'squandering' your time at Chilton, kay?"
"But –"
Juliet shook her head to cut her niece off, leading Rory to the couch with an arm around her shoulders. "This feels like a couch conversation."
Pulling her hair into a knot at the base of her neck, she joined Rory on the couch and placed a sympathetic hand on her knee. "Okay. Did you, or did you not, give this paper your best shot?"
"I did," Rory allowed, picking at a piece of lint on her skirt. "That's the worst part! I did my best, and it wasn't good enough!"
"This was for your English class?"
Rory nodded.
Juliet wrinkled her nose. "I always hated English."
Rory gestured wildly with her hands. "But I don't hate English! I'm good at English! I've always been good at English!"
"Well, I wasn't," Juliet confessed. "It's so subjective. It felt like I had to re-learn how to write every time I got a new teacher."
She paused for a moment, gauging Rory's reaction. "That might be all this is, you know. You might just need to learn what this teacher wants in a paper, okay?"
"Okay," Rory sighed, hugging herself. She was quiet for a moment, worrying her lip between her teeth. "I still got a D."
Juliet nodded. "You did. But it's still early in the semester. There's plenty of time for you to catch up. What's next?"
"I have a test on Friday," Rory said, hesitantly meeting her aunt's eyes.
"Okay, good! Have your mom help you study for it," Juliet said, patting Rory's arm with a smile. "She's the only reason I passed half my classes in middle school."
"What, you don't want to help me?" Rory teased, slowly returning to her normal self.
"Trust me, you do not want my help in English, History, or any other humanities class," Juliet laughed self-deprecatingly. "Call me if you get a D in Biology."
Rory looked slightly horrified. "I'm not getting another D!"
Juliet laughed, wrapping her arms around her niece.
The next night, after trying to sleep during the day without success yet again, Juliet rubbed her tired eyes. She briefly wondered if her body was desperate enough for caffeine to allow her to drink coffee without throwing up, but decided against it and grabbed a fresh teabag instead.
She felt her pager buzz in her pocket and pulled it out, her frown lifting when she saw she'd gotten a message from Lorelai.
Hot English teacher!
Juliet's brow furrowed, and she shook her head as though Lorelai could see her.
What?
Rory's English teacher! Hot!
Right. Lorelai had mentioned there was a parent-teacher meeting tonight, but that information had gotten lost somewhere in Juliet's sleep-deprived brain. Her pager buzzed again with another message.
He can't make coffee, so he's perfect for you!
Smiling as she rolled her eyes, she typed a response.
What kind of hot?
Patrick Dempsey hot. I told him I'd set you guys up if he paid me $1000.
Juliet huffed out a laugh.
Deal. As long as we split it 50/50.
Juliet's smile faded as she put her pager away. She knew Lorelai had been kidding about the Patrick Dempsey lookalike being perfect for her, but it seemed like everyone wanted to set her up these days. Despite her earlier protests, her mother had given Lawrence Furman her number, and he'd been leaving increasingly stalkery messages on her answering machine. He was one of those men who her mother would be absolutely disgusted by if it weren't for his pedigree, which made Juliet even more repulsed by him. At least he hadn't stopped by her office yet.
Despite her rapidly approaching thirtieth birthday, Juliet wasn't in any rush to find a man and get married. Her work schedule was demanding, and most nights she didn't have the energy to make herself pretty and leave her apartment after a twelve-hour shift.
She told herself that she'd start putting herself out there more once her residency was over and she had more free time, but until then, Patrick Dempsey would have to wait.
Just after one in the morning, as Juliet was taking her lunch break, her cell phone rang. She glanced at the caller ID, frowning in confusion when she saw Lorelai's name on the screen.
"Lor?" she said as she answered the phone. "It's late, why are you still up?"
"I can't get her to go to bed!" came her sister's frantic reply. "She's all freaked out about this D and driving herself crazy studying for her test on Friday! Talk to her, Jules! Give her one of your Dr. Phil 'sleeping makes you smarter' lectures, because me telling her it makes her pretty isn't working!"
Juliet squeezed her eyes shut, realizing that the pep talk she'd given her niece the day before (or was it two days ago? She lost all sense of time when she worked nights) hadn't been as effective as she'd hoped.
She sighed. "Give her the phone."
"Thank you," Lorelai exhaled in relief.
Juliet heard some shuffling and muffled dialogue, and then a crackle of static.
"Rory can't talk to you right now, she has to study," Lorelai recited sarcastically, and Juliet could hear her sister's eye roll through the phone.
"Okay, well, tell her about this study they did at Stanford that found . . ." Juliet trailed off, rubbing her eyes in frustration. "Oh God, I can't remember. I've gotten like, no sleep this week."
Lorelai tsked sympathetically. "Night shifts are the worst. I remember when I was night manager, I slept like, six hours on a good day. Want me to hang up so you can nap in the on-call room real quick?"
"No, I only have like 10 minutes left on my break. A nap would just make me groggier," Juliet said as she glanced at her watch. She frowned, playing with the tag on her teabag. "Is she okay?"
She heard muffled footsteps as Lorelai presumably moved to somewhere Rory couldn't hear her.
"I don't know, Jules," Lorelai whispered. "I'm worried about her. This feels different from her normal studying haze. She's killing herself over one bad grade, and I kinda think it's my fault."
"Why would it be your fault?"
Lorelai exhaled sharply, hesitating. "It's just. . . I can't remember, you know, a time when we weren't talking about her going to Harvard. It was just a given, that's what we were working for. Everything went in that direction. And I'm forgetting where all that started."
"I forget too," Juliet confessed, frowning down at her tea.
"I mean, you and I were gonna go to Harvard together. We were gonna get an apartment in Boston and hang out at the bar from Cheers every night," Lorelai recalled.
Juliet smiled to herself, remembering the countless nights during their childhood when the sisters would lay in Lorelai's bed, whispering about all the things they would do together once they got out of their parents' house.
"And eat nothing but cream pie and clam chowder," Juliet laughed.
"And lobster rolls! Don't forget about the lobster rolls!" Lorelai chimed in, laughing. Juliet heard her take a deep breath, and she sobered. "But, maybe all this time I was thinking – we were thinking – that the Harvard dream was all for Rory when really it wasn't. Do you think she thinks we'll be disappointed if she doesn't get there?"
Juliet thought for a moment, chewing on the inside of her cheek. "She did say something when we talked the other day about how she felt bad about you having to go to Friday Night Dinner, and that the D makes her ungrateful, or something? I tried to talk her out of it, but I guess it didn't completely work."
"Oh shit, she didn't tell me she felt like that," Lorelai groaned. She took a deep breath, forcing cheer into her voice. "Okay, time for pep talk number two. Let's see if I can get her to sleep for at least a few hours tonight."
Juliet laughed in sympathy. "Good luck. Tell her memories are consolidated in the brain during sleep."
"I will. Thanks, Jules," Lorelai said, her voice warm with affection.
"Anytime," she replied, and hung up.
By Friday, Juliet could count on one hand the hours of sleep she'd gotten this week and knew she probably wouldn't have much more luck today.
God, she was not looking forward to dealing with her mother tonight. Juliet could already hear the comments Emily would make about the dark circles under her eyes, and she was too sleep-deprived to bite her tongue at her mother's little digs the way she usually did.
She took a long, hot shower, washing away the smell of disinfectant that always clung to her when she left work, and emerged smelling of roses. Feeling slightly more human, she changed into a clean shirt and sweatpants and released her long hair from its clip, brushing it out before braiding it back again.
Hearing the click of a key in the front door, Juliet turned around and poked her head out of the bathroom, smiling in bewilderment when she saw two heads of dark hair in her living room.
"Hey!" Lorelai crowed, waving. "We're here to kidnap you, wanna get ice cream?"
Juliet turned out the bathroom light as she walked out, hugging them both quickly. "It's like nine in the morning! Isn't that a little early for ice cream?"
"Oh ho ho," Lorelai chortled with a shake of her head, clasping Juliet's hands. "It's never too early for ice cream, my young Padawan!"
Juliet rolled her eyes with a small smile. She had just gotten off work, so it was pretty much nine at night. She could go for some ice cream. "Let me change and grab my coat."
"Yes!" Lorelai cried, pumping a fist in the air. "Go, go! And bring your stuff for this weekend!"
"Yes, ma'am," Juliet said with a mock salute as she walked to her bedroom. Realizing something, she whirled around to face her niece. "Shouldn't you be at school? You have that test today, right?"
Rory smiled ruefully, ducking her head. "They, uh, they sent me home afterward."
Lorelai smiled, wrapping an arm around her daughter and squeezing tight. "Someone had a little meltdown after English class today."
Juliet's eyes widened in shock, looking at Rory for confirmation.
"Paris is the worst," Rory grumbled, still staring at her shoes. "She made some crack about how I should just go back to 'Hicksville' before I embarrass myself anymore at Chilton, and I just – I just lost it."
"That's understandable," Juliet said with a sympathetic frown. "I bet all those little digs from her just built up after a while, huh?"
"And the fact that you've barely slept this week probably didn't help," Lorelai added, smoothing her daughter's hair back sympathetically.
"Whatever," Rory said, shaking her head. "I feel good about the test, and now that it's over I can relax a little."
"Damn right!" Lorelai agreed, giving Rory's arm an encouraging rub. "Get your stuff, Jules! Ice cream waits for no woman!"
Shaking her head, Juliet turned once again to get the dress she planned to wear at dinner that night and pack some clothes for that weekend.
The three of them piled into Lorelai's Jeep, and Juliet felt her eyes sliding shut as Lorelai pulled out of her apartment complex's parking lot, finally relaxed enough to feel sleepy for the first time that week.
Her eyes popped open as the car gave a sudden jolt, and a giant deer pranced away from the Jeep and into the woods beside the road. She glanced over at her sister incredulously, who was staring out the windshield in shock.
"Did you just hit a deer?" Juliet cried.
Lorelai shook her head, her mouth wide open. "No, he hit me!"
"Do you think he's okay?" Rory asked, her eyes wide with Disney princess-esque concern.
"Oh, he seemed fine!" Lorelai scoffed, taking her foot off the brakes. "Look at how smugly he pranced away just now! He probably did it on purpose!"
"Oh yeah," Juliet quipped. "He was just lying in wait for some poor, unsuspecting Jeep to drive by so he could ram into it and traumatize three damsels in distress."
"Exactly!" Lorelai exclaimed, patting her arm in satisfaction.
Later, the three of them carried their ice cream cones into Lorelai's house, licking away any possible drippage as Lorelai kicked the door shut behind her.
"Okay," Lorelai announced to them both, tossing her used ice cream napkin into the trash can. "I need to get back to work. Will you guys be okay here without me?"
Rory and Juliet exchanged a smirk. Apparently, they would both be ten years old forever in Lorelai's eyes.
"I think we'll live," Juliet deadpanned.
Lorelai rolled her eyes as she picked up her keys and purse again. "Take a nap anyway. Both of you."
"We will," Rory promised, waving goodbye to her mother. As the door closed behind Lorelai, and they heard the tell-tale sounds of the Jeep starting up, Rory turned to her aunt. "I am gonna take a nap."
Juliet pointed to the stairs. "Yeah, I think I will too."
Rory nodded, giving her a smile as she turned on her heel to go to her room. Juliet reached down for her bag and walked halfway to the stairs when the phone began to ring.
"Want me to get it?" Juliet called, turning around and walking closer to the machine.
"That's okay, the machine can get it!" Rory answered from her room.
Lorelai's pre-recorded voice came over the speaker. "It's us, we're not here. We have a life, get over it."
Juliet smiled fondly at her sister's quippy recording and turned back around. But a man's voice came over the speaker, and she couldn't help lingering by the machine to listen.
"Hi, this is a message for Rory. It's Max Medina calling."
Oh, Juliet realized. That's the Patrick Dempsey lookalike.
"I just wanted to say that I talked to Headmaster Charleston or, 'il duce' as he's more affectionately known at the Gilmore household, and he's agreed to let this little outburst in class today slide without punishment. I explained to him that Miss Geller's behavior towards you was not a one-time occurrence, and should be penalized as well if he was planning to punish you. However, next time something like this happens, please feel free to come to me for help. Don't lose heart, Rory. You have as much right to be here as anyone else. And if your mother is listening, Lorelai, it was a pleasure encountering you. I hope it happens again. Anyways, see you in class. Bye."
He has a nice voice, she allowed, smiling to herself. And he seems like a genuinely nice person.
She shook her head as she finally walked up the stairs. Max Medina was clearly interested in Lorelai, so her sister had been wrong about this guy being Juliet's soulmate or something. Juliet refused to be anyone's second choice. No matter how much they looked like Patrick Dempsey.
Notes:
So here he is! Maaaax Medina. I'm never really sure about how I feel about him. I definitely don't hate him, I honestly don't hate any of Lorelai's love interests (I just strongly dislike Christopher), but Max always felt a little too charming, if that makes sense? Let me know what you think, both about Max Medina and the chapter!
Also! I'm looking for someone to help me proofread/make story suggestions (is that what a beta does? I'm not sure). If you're interested, let me know, and I'd be happy to do the same for you!
Thanks for reading!