Friday Night Dinners were better with Lorelai there. Obviously. The tightness that appeared in Juliet's chest and stomach whenever she neared the Gilmore mansion eased somewhat with the knowledge that she wouldn't be going into the belly of the beast alone. It was almost like before Lorelai had left, except they both got to go home and decompress after their mother's verbal attacks, instead of simply hiding upstairs while Juliet cried into Lorelai's shoulder.

Just as the salads were taken away and the main course brought out, Emily put her fork down and looked at each of them in turn. "Girls, I'm afraid I have some bad news. Claudia died."

Lorelai frowned. "Who?"

"Claudia," Emily repeated. "Your cousin Claudia."

Lorelai glanced over at Juliet, silently asking if she had any idea who this mysterious cousin was. Juliet just shrugged in response.

"Claudia!" Emily threw her hands up in frustration when Lorelai still stared blankly at her, then applied to her youngest daughter. "Juliet, you remember Claudia, don't you?"

"I don't. I didn't think we had any cousins," Juliet shook her head. "I mean, Dad's an only child, and –"

She was cut off when Lorelai kicked her shin under the table, warning her to shut up, to not mention Hopie in front of their mother. Juliet clamped her mouth shut, shooting Lorelai a grateful look. She didn't want to deal with the way her mother's mood soured whenever her younger sister was brought up.

Something had happened between the Allerton girls in the last fifteen years, and neither Lorelai nor Juliet knew what. All they knew was that one year, Aunt Hopie was absent from the Gilmore's Christmas party, and hadn't come to another one since, and that Emily didn't want to talk about her or hear her name.

Emily didn't seem to be aware of the near-mention of her sister, and explained. "Claudia isn't your first cousin. She's your father's grandmother's sister's girl. So to you, that would make her –"

"Nothing?" Lorelai asked, raising her eyebrows.

Emily pursed her lips. "Regardless, the funeral's on Thursday. I thought we'd all go together."

"Ooh, whoa. Two problems," Lorelai said, holding up a hand. "One, impossible to get away from the inn Thursday. Two, I've never met this woman."

"You most certainly have," Emily argued.

Lorelai glanced over at Juliet. "When?"

Emily seemed to come up short. "Several times."

"I'll take one," Lorelai replied, buttering a roll.

Emily hesitated for a moment. "We went to her house in Groton to see the first moon landing. She'd just gotten a new Philco."

Lorelai frowned, shaking her head. "I have no memory of this whatsoever."

Emily turned to her youngest. "Juliet, you remember, don't you?"

"Uh, no," Juliet said with a laugh. "I wasn't born yet. And it makes sense that Lor doesn't remember either, long-term memories don't form until around two or three."

Emily rolled her eyes the way she always did when Juliet brought up psychology statistics. "Well, are you going, Juliet?"

Juliet shook her head apologetically, taking a sip of wine. "I'm on call on Thursday."

Emily perked up a little. "So you might not have to go in at all?"

"That's always a possibility," Juliet began, glancing around the table. "But pretty rare. I don't think it'd go over well if I left in the middle of the eulogy."

"Fine," Emily sighed. "Lorelai, I assume you won't be there either."

Lorelai shook her head. "Not this time."

"I don't think Claudia's planning to die a second time," Emily quipped, pursing her lips again.

Lorelai rolled her eyes, sighing. "Mom, I couldn't go if I wanted to."

"Fine," Emily said again. She looked up from her plate forlornly. "It's too bad, really. Lawrence Furman was going to be there."

Juliet resisted the urge to glare at her mother, exchanging a look of commiseration with Lorelai instead.

Lorelai must've been a used car salesman in another life because she had somehow managed to talk her younger sister into coming with her to the Chilton bake sale on Monday.

Truthfully, it hadn't taken more than a 'pretty please', but it wasn't as though spending the afternoon with her sister and niece was some huge sacrifice. She didn't have to work that day, Sookie's baking was a draw in itself, and Juliet was the World's Greatest Aunt. She even had the mug in her apartment to prove it.

Sookie straightened one last tablecloth and walked around to the front of her display with a proud smile. "Okay – we've got our French fantasies, American treats, and our Italian taste sensations."

"Oh my God," Juliet exclaimed, her mouth open in wonder.

"Amazing," Rory marveled.

"Incredible," Lorelai agreed, shaking her head.

Their admiration of Sookie's handiwork was interrupted as a handsome man slowly walked up to their table, smiling warmly at Lorelai and Rory in greeting. Juliet could tell immediately that this was the Hot English Teacher that Lorelai had told her about, not exaggerating one bit about his resemblance to Patrick Dempsey. Unconsciously, Juliet smoothed a hand over her hair, rolling her eyes internally at her own silliness.

"Very Henry the Eighth," he commented.

Lorelai smiled wryly. "Well, we're not into subtle."

He laughed. God, he had a nice laugh. "Good to see you, Lorelai."

"Good to see you, Mr. Medina," Lorelai replied. Right, that was his name.

"Max," Mr. Medina corrected, flashing her a charming smile.

"Max," Lorelai amended, smiling and nodding politely. But Mr. Medina - Max - seemed to mistake it for a 'come hither' smile, and his eyes lit up. Lorelai noticed, and avoided his gaze. "Um, this is Sookie, the chef at the inn where I work. Sookie, Mr. Medi – sorry, Max."

Sookie offered him one of her dimpled smiles and wiped the frosting from her hand, holding it out for him to shake. "Hello."

"Hello," he replied, shaking her hand.

"And this is my sister," Lorelai said, smiling proudly at Juliet.

Max's eyebrows lifted in interest, his eyes flicking between the two sisters. It was as though he'd come to the grocery store ready to buy Bounty paper towels, but then realized the generic brand was five dollars cheaper, and now had to decide which one he wanted.

"Your sister?" He repeated.

Juliet held out a hand, hoping it wasn't sweaty. "Hi, I'm Juliet."

He clasped her hand in both of his, shaking it. "Juliet. That's a lovely name. But, what's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other word would smell as sweet."

At that moment, Juliet wished her parents had given her any other name.

"What play's that from?" she asked in mock wonder.

Max laughed, finally dropping her hand. "I suppose you've heard Romeo and Juliet quoted a time or two before?"

"Just a time or two," Juliet nodded, ducking her head and avoiding his eyes too.

It wasn't like she didn't find him attractive, because she definitely did. It was that Juliet knew the look he was giving her all too well. She was aware, more than anyone, of the effect her older sister had on men. And it wasn't as though Juliet thought of herself as ugly or anything, it was just that whenever she was with Lorelai – which was most of the time – she faded into the background.

But often, the men who Lorelai attracted weren't excited about getting involved with a single mother. And sometimes, if they turned their head forty-five degrees to the right and saw she had a kid-free sister who was only slightly shorter and slightly less striking, they happily settled for Juliet.

"So, Juliet, what do you do for a living?" Max asked, tilting his head so he was once again making eye contact with her.

"I'm a psychiatrist," she said, looking back at Lorelai in confusion.

Flirting with your student's aunt is probably way less controversial than her mom, Juliet rationalized. She pushed a lock of hair behind her ear, grateful that she'd had the foresight to wear it loose and brushed out instead of the messy buns or braids she wore to work. Juliet knew her long auburn hair was her best feature, and when it was down like this, she could almost hold a candle to her older sister.

Max Medina smiled charmingly. "I bet that's interesting. I teach a literary criticism class in Stamford, and we're learning about psychoanalysis right now."

Despite resolving not to get sucked in by this man's aura of hair gel and tweed, Juliet felt herself loosening up the way she always did when someone wanted to discuss psychology. "That sounds fun. Freud, mostly?"

"Some Freud," he confirmed, giving her another easy smile. "But mostly Lacan."

"Ah, Lack-an," Juliet joked, smiling at her wordplay.

Max laughed harder than the joke probably deserved, and Lorelai smirked at her, raising her eyebrows teasingly. Juliet elbowed her in the ribs.

"That's great!" he chuckled. "Lack-an. I'm gonna share that one with my students."

"Yeah," Juliet agreed, smiling at Max with a nod. "It's a good mnemonic device."

"Indeed," Max nodded, giving her a half-smile. They were all silent for a moment, and Mr. Medina looked Juliet up and down again before he took a deep breath, his eyes resting on her face. "Perhaps we could discuss our mutual friend Jacques over dinner sometime, Juliet?"

No, Juliet's head was screaming. No, no, no, no, no.

Never mind how cute he was. Juliet had had enough of being the human equivalent of a participation trophy. She glanced over at Lorelai and Sookie helplessly, but Sookie was covering her mouth to keep from squealing at Max's charm, and Lorelai just smiled encouragingly.

Juliet turned back to the man in question. "Wouldn't that be weird? I mean, you're Rory's teacher. Wouldn't it be nepotism or something if you went out with her aunt?"

He shook his head, smiling. "One of my colleagues recently married the uncle of a student, and the headmaster was fine with it."

Her face must have looked panicked, because Max hastened to add, "Not that I'm thinking about marriage right now, but I'm saying it would be fine, if we were to date."

"I don't know," Juliet cast a wary glance in Lorelai's direction, unsure how to phrase her unique relationship with her niece to this man. "Um, I'm a bit more. . . involved, than a lot of aunts and uncles are."

"Yeah, Rory has two mommies," Lorelai quipped, flashing a smile as she wrapped an arm around Juliet's shoulders.

"That doesn't sound incestuous at all," Juliet said uncomfortably.

Lorelai shrugged wryly. "Well, we were talking about Freud."

Juliet huffed out a laugh, shaking her head.

"Look," Max began, pulling out a scrap of paper from his pocket and writing on it quickly, using the table as a hard surface. He folded the paper and handed it to Juliet. "Here's my number. No pressure, just take it and give me a call if you're interested."

Juliet nodded, accepting the paper. "I will. Take this, I mean. I – I'll take the paper – definitely."

Lorelai gave her a knowing smile at the way she was stumbling over her sentences.

"Alright," he nodded once more, decisively, then turned to leave. "Goodbye, Lorelai Gilmore."

"Bye, Max," Lorelai said kindly.

Max looked Juliet right in the eye and nodded at her with another tantalizing smile. "Goodbye, dear saint."

Juliet knew enough about the play she was named after to know what to say next. She shook her head, smiling involuntarily. "Goodbye, good pilgrim."

He gave them all one last dazzling smile and walked away. Lorelai turned to her with a smirk, making the same exaggerated kissing noise Juliet had used when teasing her sister about Luke. Juliet just rolled her eyes.

"I'm not going out with him," she insisted, feeling her cheeks flame up.

Sookie looked like someone had just kicked her dog, or, knowing Sookie, her oven. "Juliet, why not? It's like he came out of a romance novel just for you!"

"Yeah," Lorelai teased, squeezing her arm. "Like in Outlander!"

Juliet's brow furrowed, and she turned to Lorelai. "That's not what happens in Outlander."

"Yeah," Sookie agreed. "Claire goes to Jamie's world, not the other way around."

"Oooh, Lorelai Gilmore got a pop culture reference wrong!" Juliet sang, elbowing her sister playfully.

"Whatever," Lorelai huffed, rolling her eyes.

"I just don't get why you won't go out with him!" Lorelai was saying as she, Juliet, and Sookie sat at the counter at Luke's. "I mean, you saw him, right? We don't need to get your eyes checked?"

"I saw him," Juliet said with a nod.

"And he looked good, " Sookie pointed out, poking Juliet suggestively. "Come on, Juliet, he's perfect for you! He's sexy, he's smart, he's funny, and he laughed at your Lacan joke. Most people don't even get your Lacan joke."

"All true," Juliet acquiesced with a shrug. "But I'm still not going out with him."

"Why not?" Lorelai asked again. "I saw you checking him out at the bake sale, so it's not like you aren't attracted to him. And he clearly likes you!"

Juliet shook her head quickly. "No, he doesn't."

Lorelai rolled her eyes. "Jules, it's been a while for me, but even I know that when a guy gives you his phone number and tells you he'd like to get dinner sometime, that means he's interested!"

"He was interested in you, Lor. But dating me won't put his job at risk the way that dating you would. I'm a consolation prize."

Lorelai scoffed at that. "That's stupid. We don't even look that much alike."

"Yes, we do," Juliet argued. "Ask Luke! He thought I was you the other day, didn't you, Luke?"

Luke glared at Juliet as he came out of the kitchen with their food, obviously hoping she would keep that tidbit of information to herself. "It was from a distance, and it was dark out."

"But we do look alike, don't we?" Juliet prodded, gesturing between the two of them.

"Of course you do, you're sisters," he said brusquely, a look of confusion replacing his trademark scowl. "What's this about?"

"Juliet thinks some guy is only into her because he can't have me," Lorelai told him, her tone showing exactly what she thought about that logic.

"That's dumb," Luke replied. He glanced at Juliet. "You know that's dumb, right?"

"That's what I said!" Lorelai agreed, slapping her palm on the counter and smiling delightedly at him. Luke fought a smile for a moment before allowing one to slip out. Juliet's eyes flicked between the two of them as they maintained eye contact for a moment too long, prompting Sookie and Juliet to exchange a knowing smirk over Lorelai's head.

But the spell was quickly broken by the sound of a fork clattering, and Lorelai glanced down at her plate quickly as Luke went back into the kitchen, both of their cheeks a bright pink.

"Pin," Lorelai reminded Juliet under her breath before she could say anything. Juliet mimed zipping her lips shut, hoping her sister would extend the same courtesy to her and drop the topic of boys entirely.

Sookie didn't want to drop it. "Are you waffling because he's Rory's teacher? Is that it?"

"Maybe a little," Juliet shrugged, dipping a fry into some mustard. "But it wouldn't be that weird, would it? I mean, Rory doesn't live with me, and he even said that Chilton teachers have dated aunts and uncles before."

"Of course it wouldn't be weird!" Sookie agreed eagerly. "It wouldn't be weird, right Lorelai?"

Lorelai smiled reassuringly at Juliet. "I'm sure she'd be fine with it. Look, we'll tell her, get her opinion, and if she's even the tiniest bit weirded out, don't call him. No harm done."

"You guys haven't told Rory yet?" Sookie asked, looking between the two of them in disbelief. She made a face. "Oops."

"Not 'oops'," Juliet disagreed. "I'm not even sure I want to date him."

Sookie and Lorelai exchanged a knowing smile.

"Yes you are," Sookie said smugly.

Juliet opened her mouth to protest, because no , she wasn't sure if she wanted to date Max Medina, Lord Byron reincarnate, but she was saved by the bell. Or rather, by her niece running into the diner breathlessly, putting a hand on Lorelai's arm.

"Mom, you better come," Rory said, looking distressed about something.

Lorelai had her hands on Rory's shoulders immediately, her face a mask of concern. "Honey, what's wrong?"

"It's Cinnamon," Rory said.

Lorelai immediately tossed a few bills on the counter, and grabbed both her coat and Juliet's, holding it open for her sister to put on. "Come on, Jules. Babette and Morey are gonna need a shrink."

A good Grief Counselor, even one who is technically a Psychiatrist, should never laugh at a person's pain. Even after they hear a story about a geriatric cat's corpse sliding across a freshly waxed floor and into a lamp. Juliet had kept her face neutral and sympathetic, not even needing to bite the inside of her cheek to keep from laughing.

A few hours later, as she meandered through the impromptu wake that was taking place at Babette and Morey's, she felt a pleasant ache in her chest at how different this gathering was from the stuffy, stilted funeral for her cousin happening right then in Hartford.

Juliet loved her sister's town. Duh. She wouldn't be there nearly every moment she wasn't working if she didn't. She loved that every person she introduced herself to followed up with a: "Lorelai's sister, right?". She loved that a town full of people had given up their Thursday evening to mourn a cat out of affection, not obligation. She even loved that Kirk had approached her as soon as he walked in the door to show her a rash he'd developed on the back of his neck from the dyes in his new Doose's Market apron.

Okay, that one was a little weird, Juliet allowed as she glanced around the crowded room for Lorelai. As warm and fuzzy as this wake was making her feel, right then she just wanted to sit somewhere quiet with her sister and not talk to anyone.

Her eyes landed on Luke, who was sitting in a corner by himself nursing a beer. Perfect. Considering the fact Lorelai fondly referred to him as "monosyllabic man", Juliet assumed she wouldn't be forced to make small talk with him. Besides, if Lorelai was as smitten with him as she appeared to be, it was probably a good idea for Juliet to make sure he wasn't a serial killer or something.

"Hey," she greeted, raising her eyebrows as she walked up to him.

Luke nodded in reply. "Hey."

Juliet gestured to the chair beside him. "Can I sit?"

"I won't stop you," he said with a shrug.

Rolling her eyes at his lack of enthusiasm, Juliet sat down. The two of them were quiet for a while, watching the action but making no move to join the rest of the party or start a conversation.

Luke cleared his throat after a minute or two. "I'm gonna get another beer. Do you want one? Or. . . can you have beer?"

How old did this guy think she was?

"I can have beer," Juliet laughed. "But I'm still technically on call, so I shouldn't."

"Soda?" She nodded, and he stood up. "I'll be back."

Juliet smiled to herself, pleasantly surprised that Luke was unbothered enough by her company to not leave as soon as he could think of an excuse. Honestly, she was surprised that she'd been able to sit in comfortable silence for this long with someone she'd known for less than a month.

Luke returned, a beer in one hand and a ginger ale in the other, and handed her the soda as he sat down beside her again.

"Lorelai talks about you a lot," he offered, breaking their silence for the second time.

"Mostly good, I hope?"

Luke snorted, a small smile appearing on his face. "Yeah. She thinks the sun shines out of your ass."

Juliet laughed at his blunt phrasing but was secretly delighted that her sister bragged about her so much. "Well, it does."

Luke snorted again, taking a sip of his beer. Glancing over at her, he asked hesitantly, "Does, um, does she ever mention, um. . ." he trailed off, seeming to lose his nerve, "me delaying her inevitable caffeine overdose?"

Telling Luke that Lorelai talked about him all the time felt like a betrayal of trust, so Juliet just smiled knowingly at him and decided to take his comment at face value. "You know, there's a lot of research out there now that says coffee is actually good for you."

"Not you too," he groaned, glaring at her. "You don't even drink the stuff!"

"It is!" she insisted. "It has a ton of antioxidants, it prevents cancer –"

Luke shook his head, looking like the Pope probably had when Galileo told him about Heliocentrism. Juliet half expected him to stick his fingers in his ears like a little kid. "You're making this up, where are you getting this?"

"I'm not!" Juliet exclaimed, an amused laugh bubbling in her throat. "I have a copy of the study it's from in my apartment. I'll bring it to you next time I'm here."

He eyed her warily. "Good. You do that."

Juliet shook her head, smiling. Lorelai was right, bugging this guy was fun.

Lorelai stood in the kitchen with Babette as the two of them did the dishes in companionable silence.

"I guess eventually you have to move on," Babette was saying. "Figure out what your life is going to be when you're not busy taking care of somebody else."

Lorelai frowned as she pondered Babette's words. She hadn't even been three years old when Juliet came into the world, sweet and sensitive and far too trusting of their parents' opinion of her. Her entire childhood had been devoted to preserving as much of the kindness that was so central to her sister's nature. And just as Juliet grew old enough to be a peer instead of someone to protect, Rory had come along. Forget what her life would look like, who was she if she wasn't taking care of somebody else?

Thankfully, Babette needed some reassurance right then as she fretted about Morey leaving her now that Cinnamon was gone. "I saw on Oprah a few weeks ago. She had on couples who lost a child. Most of the marriages went belly-up for the pain of it all. Even though they loved each other."

Lorelai shook her head, placing a hand on Babette's knee. "Babette, that is not gonna happen to you."

"I never thought a man would ever even want me," Babette confessed, a sad smile on her face.

"I know the feeling," Lorelai sympathized.

Babette scoffed. "Oh, please, with that ass? Gimme a break."

"I mean want me for more than my ass. Me – for me, the whole package. Annoying neuroses and all," Lorelai said with a rueful smile.

"You'll find him," Babette assured her, squeezing her arm.

Lorelai smiled back, her eyes immediately seeking out the candidate who sprang to mind. He sat on the rim of the party, talking to Juliet as they both gestured wildly with their hands. Knowing the two of them, their conversation was probably some angry Marxist echo chamber. God, she really should've introduced them sooner.

Mistaking who she was looking at, Babette smiled at her. "You're lucky. You'll have someone whether you find a man or not. 'Cradle to grave', that's what my mother always told us growing up."

"Yeah," Lorelai agreed, moving her eyes over to Juliet. "Cradle to grave."

Noticing Lorelai staring, Juliet waved, a befuddled smile on her face. Lorelai returned the wave, smiling affectionately at her baby sister. Juliet gestured to Luke with her eyebrows and gave Lorelai a thumbs-up, signaling that she approved of her choice. Lorelai's smile melted into an exasperated frown.

Shut up! She mouthed, dragging her finger across her throat.

Juliet just smiled wider, taking sick delight in torturing her sister. Shaking her head, Lorelai flipped her off.

Notes:

Thank you to callmecey for proofreading this chapter, and for letting me bounce ideas off of you!
The thing that Juliet says about coffee being good for you is actually true, if slightly anachronistic (the earliest study I found was from the mid-2010s), but whatever. Time isn't real in Stars Hollow.
Also, for anyone who doesn't know who Jacques Lacan is, he was a French psychoanalyst who came up with this concept called Lack (hence, Lack-an), which is the idea that we're never truly fulfilled in our lives and are constantly seeking out entertainment to fill the void (cheery, right?)
Let me know what you think of this chapter!