It Is A Small World After All

Sorry had to re-post the story.

Ok let's get this pesky thing out of the way first. Disclaimer: If I owned or in anyway was associated with Gilmore Girls, do you really think I would be posting a fanfic. People please figure these things out! However I do own the character of Becky Hayden!

Now I never really planned on writing this story out even though it's been hitting the walls in my head for a while now. So I'd like to thank helaluvE, TrueLiterati, and Britterina for the encouragement.

Now I know a lot of people hate A/Ns but READ THIS FIRST: Please forgive any mistakes I make with regard to timeline. I'm not from America so I am very behind in episodes. I know exactly what's going on in the recent ones but I won't know little details. Feel free to point out any mistakes. The story is set right before 'Let Me Hear Your Balalaikas Ringing Out'.

Rebecca Jessica Hayden stood outside the Gilmore residence, nervous as all hell. The doorbell was sending threatening vibes to her, if she could only … just… ring the damn… bell. She couldn't do it. After all she hadn't seen Lorelai in sixteen years. Sixteen years of globe trotting boredom full of business luncheons, translating sessions from hell and an overall deprivation of good old movie nights and veg outs. God she missed the Gilmores.

It was now or never. That blonde woman that Lorelai had mentioned was starting to take a keen interest in her. What was her name again, Bibby, Betty? And with the girls fighting, now was a perfect moment for family bonding.

So what if she hadn't told Lorelai she was coming to visit, what if they hadn't really spoken in a year or so? She had finally made enough money to come back to America and live out her dreams. What those dreams were she had yet to figure out? But she knew that the first step was seeing her old best friend and above all her niece. So here goes… operation ring doorbell…

Ding-dong.

Huh. Somehow she had expected Lorelai's doorbell to be one of those talking doorbells that they had talked about getting when they were kids. This was surprsingly normal for Lorelai.

She heard a lot of scrambling from inside… and something about Paul Anka. Maybe she had been listening to one of his records?! Rebecca really had missed Lorelai's ways.

"That better be my pizza because I nearly broke my toe getting over here. I tripped over half my shoes," Lorelai was about to start a fully fledged rant to the pizza delivery guy she had been expecting (she loved seeing the look of confusion on his face). Instead she opened the door and found…

"Becky", Lorelai stated dumbfoundedly.

Becky looked down, feeling another wave of butterflies doing backflips in her stomach. When she looked up she saw Lorelai clutching at her toe, with a look of utter shock. But that only lasted for a moment before she was enveloped in a big hug.

"Oh my God. What are you doing here? Come in. Come in. I would apologize about the mess but I don't think you've forgotten my cleaning habits."

Rebecca was relieved. Lorelai seemed happy to see her and that was all she had expected. She couldn't help but be nervous.

"Which as I recall are non-existent." Becky couldn't help but thrown in a good old witty retort, testing the water to see if her and Lorelai could still keep up with each other's banter.

"Precisely grasshopper. Not cleaning my room and pissing my mother off was the happy side effect of my orderly-challenged ways." Lorelai said with a glint in her eye.

Becky let out a laugh. There it was same old wit she was used to. She had a feeling being back in America was going to be perfect if she stuck around in Star's Hollow. She also enjoyed hearing Lorelai's old nickname for her, 'grasshopper', although she remembered she had taken to calling Rory that when she was little.

"So sit sit," Lorelai gestured to the couch. "Tell me everything. A year ago you were in Germany, now you're here. You didn't pull a Monica Lewinsky and have an affair with the German Ambassador did you? It was the scandal of a nation. They ran you out and called you a hussy."

Becky let out another laugh. "You didn't hear about it here?! I'm disappointed I was wearing an 'I heart USA' tshirt when they photographed me getting the paper in my panties while his wife was pulling up in the driveway."

Lorelai had missed Becky. Few people could keep up with Lorelai, and Becky had been her best friend ever since she could remember. It's just that what with working abroad for the last sixteen years they hadn't really kept in touch. There were some phonecalls and emails here and there that she was grateful for though. Lorelai grimaced inwardly at the prospect of having to tell Becky that she and Rory were fighting. Becky adored her niece and loved the idea of Lorelai and Lorelai Co. possibly more than the founding members did. This was going to crush her.

"No but seriously. Ok Cliff's notes version is this. I have worked my ass off for sixteen years and now that dad died I've got a lot of money saved up. I want to be here. I want to be with you guys. I need to drive down and see that idiot of a brother of mine. And I just want to do something that I WANT to do finally. Mom can't use the "Your father worked very hard to give you a good life' guilt card anymore. I did what they wanted me to do and I've paid my debt. Everything turned out fine but now I want to do what you did when you left New Haven."

"Only in your case it's leaving Germany"

"You say potato, I say potato."

Lorelai beamed. "Ok so it's settled. You're staying here."

"Oh it's ok Lor. I don't wanna impose. I mean Luke might not like it." Becky realised the mistake she had just made.

"How did you know Luke and I were living together[A/N: Ok this is one of those things I'm not entirely sure about. They were living together at that point right? I hadn't mentioned that a year ago. And why haven't you started ranting and raving about your precious little niece?" Lorelai gave her the best withering glare knowing full well that try as she might to teach her how to not succumb to a glare when they were kids, Becky gave in immediately when she sensed someone was upset with her.

"I," Becky started nervously and then let out a sigh. "I called her a couple of weeks ago."

Lorelai looked sad and Becky assumed it was because Lorelai didn't have that privilege anymore.

"She told me about your little … emm… tiff." Becky gave a hesitating smile while Lorelai let out a snort. "And that's part of the reason why I'm here. I never even imagined my two favourite Gilmores to be fighting, let alone for this long." Becky decided that if she was going to rip off the band-aid, might as well do it quick. "And over what, a school and a guy, a Huntzberger might I add? And yes I don't like her choice in men rigt now. She may have always been our little angel but this was just plain stupid on her part." Loreali was about to speak up but Becky cut her off, "And I know I sound like I'm being a bit too harsh but for crying out loud Lor, a Huntzberger?! The only thing lower than that family's IQ is my favourite kitten heels!"

"Honey I doubt she'd be dating him if he were dumb."

"Nevertheless Huntzbergers are always a no no in my book."

"You always did have a thing against them." Loreali semi-chuckled.

"Mitchum actually hit on me before I left. Bleh." At this she gave a shudder. "Mom would always sit with them and make me sit with her. And that woman, Shira would want me to put a hatchet in my eye."

Lorelai couldn't suppress a giggle at Becky's patented exaggerated humour. "It's funny you're siding against her when you heard her version of events."

"Yeah well this is a classic case of late rebellion. And the faster this is over with, the faster I can have the movie marathons I've been dying to have." Becky huffed.

"Oh well you know we could still have movie marathons…. But yeah they just aren't the same without Rory."

A moment of silence passed between them and Becky regretted getting so worked up about Rory's decision. After all who was she to judge? She was barely involved in their lives except for the couple of phone calls here and there. But they were still the only family that she ever truly called 'family'. Her father had pressured her into being the new son in the family after Christopher had disappointed him. Chris was just like a lab experiment gone wrong most of the time. He just made one dumb decision after the other. And her mother, well let's just say, that when Lorelai and Becky were kids they had long hour debates about which mother was really Hitler reincarnated.

"But hey I'm not liking this attitude missy." Lorelai jumped off the couch. "You're here! In Star's Hollow of all places. The least I can do is give you a cup of the famous java I always rant about."

"I don't think Luke appreciates being shared." Becky replied with a hint of a smirk.

"Ha ha. I meant the liquid Duchess."

"Oh my God. I can't believe you remembered that!"

"Do you think I could forget one of my greatest all time nicknames. It ranks way up there with Butch Danes."

"Huh?"

"Luke's surname is Danes."

"Oh."

"Yes sir the Queen and Duchess of Coffee are back in cahoots. Our mothers are going to love this." Lorelai got all excited at the potential havoc that could be wreaked. She beamed as she made her way to the door.

Becky followed her but couldn't help but mutter, "Yeah too bad the Princess isn't here" before closing the door.

Once they got to Luke's diner, Becky finally figured out why Lorelai and Rory always loved this place. It had a classic feel-good feel to it. And she had to hand it to Lorelai, she had good taste in men, although she had known that from before.

"Oh my God. This is heaven!!" Becky exclaimed.

"See what did I tell you? Do I know how to pick em or do I know how to pick em." Lorelai beamed.

Luke came out from inside the kitchen. "Lorelai, what are you doing behind the counter?"

"Getting Becky some coffee silly. Do you need to get your eyes checked?"

Luke bent his head to peck her on the lips before telling her to get to the right side of the counter.

"Luke I'd like you to meet Chris's sister, Becky Hayden. I've mentioned her before. She's the reason my phone bill went up so much last year that the phone company thought somebody had tapped me."

Becky couldn't hold back the chuckle while she had been drinking her coffee.

"She just came back from Germany. By the way I am very disappointed you didn't get me a souvenir."

"You didn't really give me a chance to give it to you."

"So you're telling me you're keeping Rudolph in the trunk."

"Rudoph?" Luke asked, although as soon as he let the word slip out, he mentally slapped himself. This was Lorelai after all.

"My German blonde man servant. You know for those nights when you have to go on deliveries." She grinned and wiggled her eyebrows.

"Oh he's coming next week," Becky offered.

Lorelai clapped her hands like a five year old, "Goody. Oh I've got a great idea. I'm gonna head on over to Doose's and get all essential junk food and we'll have a TV marathon. Grey's Anatomy is on tonight. I'm assuming you love Grey's Anatomy yet were behind in episodes over in Europe."

"I love you." Becky pounced up from her stool and enveloped Lorelai in a bear hug.

Lorelai laughed, "Ok so you stay here and finish your delicious elixir of life." While she had been saying that she took a sip from Becky's mug. "And I'll meet you back in the house… with coffee reinforcements." And with that she made a dramatic exit out of the diner.

Luke looked at Becky, waiting for the inevitable conversation.

Becky calmly took a sip from her mug. "So I'm guessing you didn't fill her in on the fact that you knew me. I mean you must have always assumed I was the same person. How many Rebecca Jessica Haydens can there be from Hartford?"

Luke shook his head. "I didn't think it was up to me to get involved. Besides Jess is always a sore topic with Lorelai. And I haven't seen or heard from you in twenty years. I wasn't about to say 'Hey Lor, yeah you know Chris's sister, the one who was your best friend for eighteen years before she had to get a job out of the country, yeah well for about a year she was my sister's best friend too.' What I don't get is why Lorelai didn't make the connection herself? I remember Liz saying you took Jess up to meet your niece, meaning Rory. Lorelai was obviously around."

"She probably forgot what the last name had been and didn't want to assume it was the same Jess. Jess came here when he was seventeen right? And Lorelai had only met him three times when he had just been born."

Luke looked over at Becky with a sad smile. He knew that even if she hadn't seen most of the people mentioned, she still cared about each and very single one. He hesitated for a minute, unsure of how sensitive the topic was

"I'm sorry I never told Jess about you while he was here but I didn't really know what good it would have done. He was already such an angry kid, telling him about one more of his mother's mistakes wouldn't have really helped."

Becky sense that Luke was uncomfortable. "Yeah I know Luke. And you can't really blame Liz."

"Oh yes I can. You were the one good constant in her life and she goes and blows it all to hell. Needless to say she won the 'Mother of the Year' award every year after that."

"You know it took all my will power not to blurt out to Rory the whole story while she gushed about him on the phone. I was so proud when I heard they got together. I felt like a fairy godmother."

Luke chuckled. "Yeah well, I don't know how Lorelai would have taken that."

Suddenly Becky stopped smiling and a serious look came over her face. "How's he doing?"

Luke knew that this was the question she had been dying to ask since she walked into the diner. "He's doing pretty good actually. He's in Philadelphia. Something about New York being too expensive. Although I think the real reason is he wanted to get as far away as possible from that rat hole he had been living in. He spent a summer with Jimmy after his senior year by the way."

Becky looked worried, "What? Why?"

"Oh you know Jimmy and his talent for appearing and disappearing. Seriously he should join the circus."

"He was here?" Becky sounded angry.

"Yeah but that's not entirely why Jess went to California. Things were going downhill. He wasn't graduating. He doesn't talk about that time a lot but from what I gather he was ashamed of disappointing Rory. No matter what Lorelai might say, that kid loved Rory, more than he ever lets on. But he had a habit of running away from his problems, although I gotta say lately he sounds a lot better on the phone. More mature I guess."

"You talk to him a lot?" Becky gave him an appreciative smile. Even from the little she had known Luke, she had always trusted him.

"A phone call here and there. Maybe a bit more than you and the girls got goin on," he said with a smirk.

A beat of silence passed between them. Becky was contemplating all the loose ends she wanted to tie up, Jess possibly being one of them, but for that she'd need to talk to Liz. Before she had a chance to ask Luke about his sister, he spoke up, "He might be coming to town soon."

Becky was very surprised at this bit of information, "You mean Jess? From the little I gathered, he's not very fond of this town and it's not fond of him."

"Yeah well that's what I don't get either. But like I said he's changed. Besides he said he wanted to show me something. He asked if Rory was going to be here and I gave him a brief on the situation."

"He probably wanted to avoid her."

"Yeha I guess."

"So when's he planning on visiting?"

"He called last week so in about three days or so…. You want tto try and talk to him?"

"Yeah, I'd like that. What do you think?"

Luke gave her agenuine smile. "I think it's a good idea."

Becky returned the smile. "Good. Now all I have to do is track down Liz. God knows how I'll do that…"

"Actually that's not as difficult as you might think. She lives here now."

"You're serious? I thought Liz hated small-town life."

"Yeah well she changed her mind." Luke rolled his eyes at this.

Becky knew what the siblings' relationship was like and grinned. "I'm sure you're loving every second of it."

"I never thought I'd miss Jess so much."

Becky laughed. After that comment she was convinced she wanted to talk to Jess properly. It just felt right. He was probably going to be mad as hell and she couldn't blame him but the opportunity had presented itself so perfectly that it was like a sign.

"You better get going. Lorelai's gonna be wondering why it took you so long to drink one cup of coffee." Luke handed her the coffee she was meant to take back with her to the house.

"I'll just tell her that it was so good I had five more." She grinned mischievously.

"Yeah you might have a problem convincing her on that one. Not to mention you'd get me in trouble."

"Why?"

"Didn't Lorelai ever tell you I wasn't such a big fan of her coffee addiction."

"Oh that's right," Becky answered with a laugh, "Well I'll just think of something else to tell her." She got up off the stool, "Thanks Luke… for everything. I'll keep you posted with what I'm planning to do. Right now, item one is getting both me and Lorelai updated on EVERYTHING. No secrets." With that, she started heading for the door, but Luke stopped her right before she opened it.

"Hey Becky. It's nice having you in Star's Hollow." Luke shifted his feet nervously. "I know we didn't know each other for every long but Liz and Lorelai always had great things to say about you... Who knows maybe you can fix this whole thing with Lorelai and Rory. God knows I don't know how to."

Becky gave him a small smile and understood why Lorelai would be in love with Luke. He really was the definition of home-town friendliness, although from what she'd heard he'd never admit to it, "Thanks Luke. It's nice to be here too." And with that she left, leaving Luke to contemplate what a small town Star's Hollow really was.

Ok there you have it, love it or hate it. I don't mind people telling me it's crap, I just want to know what people think. Now about the link between Jess and Becky, don't worry it's not a soap opera so she's not his long-lost mother or something like that. Actually there are a few hints in the story. I don't know if people will guess the link. So come on, everybody's got an opinion on everything, so press the pretty purple button.