So, here we are again. I can't promise an episode once a week. I have a solid plan for this story, but the muses are being stubourn.
Heathrow airport was huge, much bigger than the air port they had landed at in main land Europe at the start of their adventure. Lorelai and Rory had stopped just inside the doors to stop and marvel at the large building and all the people rushing around. Eventually they had wandered over to the right desk and checked in. They tried to keep the eye rolling to a minimum as security demanded to search through their large backpacks and the pair tried, though Lorelai failed, to not curse as they tried to not only pack all their dirty clothes back in, but arrange them so that they kept the breakable souvenirs protected and the paper ones from crumpling.
"Oh my God," Lorelai grumbled as they finally got their bags checked. "We are never travelling like this again."
"Deal," Rory said as she and her mother collapsed into the uncomfortable chairs until their boarding was called. The pair slouched in their chairs, talking quietly while trying to get comfortable and stay awake at the same time.
Eventually their flight was called and they filled in to the line of other passengers, their boarding passes and pass ports held tightly in their hands. As they took their seats on the plane, they began discussing what they were going to do first. They battled briefly over the shower until Lorelai reminded Rory that she was going to unpack as soon as she got home.
"Okay," Lorelai said once the plane was finally at cruising altitude. "We need a plan for beating the jet lag." Rory looked up from undoing her boot laces. "We have one week to reconnect with Charlie and remind her that she does belong to us before we ship you off to Yale."
"When are we getting her back?" Rory asked, going back to her laces. She smiled a little as she saw her mother quickly bend over and start undoing her laces as well.
"Uhhhhhhhh . . ." Lorelai muttered as she battled with the double knots that she had tied in her laces. Rory toed her boots off, curled up on her seat and managed to track down a stewardess and ask for a couple of blankets and pillows as her mother continued to battle with her boots. "Mom and dad are in Martha's Vineyard until Thursday," Lorelai said as she finally straightened up and curled up in her seat as well. "So, after Friday night dinner I suppose. My mother sounded very relaxed the last time we called, so I'm assuming that she and my father hired that nanny she isn't going to tell me about." Rory couldn't help but giggle as she helped her mother get her blanket open and spread out.
"How different do you think she'll be?" Rory asked. Lorelai knew that Rory was worried about her relationship with Charlie changing. After being away most of the summer and then knowing that she was going to be away most of the year at Yale was putting a little extra pressure on Rory to make a lasting impression on the toddler.
Lorelai shrugged. "She'll be a little taller, probably have more to say. I wouldn't be surprised if she's clingy for a few days, worried we're going to leave her somewhere again." She shrugged again as she yawned a little and rearranged her pillow so she was more comfortable. Rory stayed quiet and considered this for a moment.
"This was a good trip," she finally said with a smile as she too snuggled down for the long flight back to New York.
"A very good trip," Lorelai agreed with a yawn. Like she had done every night they had been in the hostels, Lorelai stayed awake until Rory had drifted off.
Summer at the Vineyard was turning out better than Emily ever could have hoped. With a nanny to watch Charlie and an abundance of social activities to show her off at, Emily was pleased beyond belief. However, after sitting by and watching Emily's performance Richard finally put his foot down and dismissed the nanny for their last week in the Vineyard. Emily had, of course, argued that this was a bad idea, but when Richard began naming all the things they used to do with Lorelai, and all the things they had always hoped to do with Rory, she had finally given in.
"Now, aren't you glad I suggested this?" Richard as he and Emily strolled along slowly behind Charlie as the 26 month old hurried ahead of them, running in and out of the surf.
"Yes Richard, I'm glad you suggested this," Emily replied with a smile as she strung an arm around Richard's waist. She frowned a little as she felt something fuzzy against her arm. "What on earth?" she asked as she pulled Charlotte, Charlie's spider, out of Richard's back pocket. She examined it for a moment before she held it up to Richard. He stared at it for a moment before he shrugged, smiled sheepishly and took it back from her, tucking it into his back pocket once again.
"Emily! Richard!" the pair heard behind them all of a sudden. Charlie heard it too and paused in her explorations of the beach. She stared at the new couple who were approaching for a moment before she hurried back over to her grandparents.
"Shira!" Emily greeted the woman with false warmness as Richard bent to pick up the toddler and offer her Charlotte. "We haven't seen you all summer," she said as Shira Huntzberger and her husband, Mitchum, finally met up with the pair.
"Oh, I know," Shira said as she and Emily greeted each other. "Logan and his friends ended up leaving for their yachting adventure later than expected, so that threw our whole schedule off. We're staying an extra two weeks to make up for lost time."
"Well, lucky you," Emily replied. "We, on the other hand, got to spend all summer with a very special guest," she said, straightening the hem of Charlie's sundress. While she knew that it was rather impractical to dress the toddler in a white eyelet dress, she couldn't resist.
"Well, isn't she just the prettiest little thing!" Shira said as she took Charlie in. A summer of playing in the ocean and on the beach had left Charlie tanned with sun bleached hair and with the white sundress and bright blue eyes, she looked every inch the poster child for a summer spent in Martha's Vineyard. "Lorelai's youngest?"
"Yes, Charlotte," Emily gushed, arranging the sundress one last time before Richard and Mitchum headed off down the beach a little to discuss their own matters. "Lorelai and Rory are on their first tour of Europe, so we've had her all summer and it has been just wonderful. You know, you read in all the brochures about how Martha's Vineyard is a real family attraction, but you never really realise how true that is until you have a little one running under foot again." Shira nodded politely and the pair fell into an easy conversation about who had been to what social event, who had had the best table and who had worn the best outfit. As the ladies conversation drew to a close, so did the one between the men and, eventually the couples continued on their way. Emily and Richard spent a little time discussing what had been talked about before they went back to supervising the hunt for the perfect seashell collection.
While the plane ride home from Heathrow was fine, the pair slept most of the way, the van ride back to Stars Hollow was a nightmare. Lorelai and Rory both spent the entire time biting their tongues to hold back jokes about how even Luke drove faster than this guy.
Of course, as soon as Babette ran out of the house and started going on and on about itineraries and how they were late, Rory instantly wished she were back on that shuttle van.
Fortunately, Lorelai soon concocted a little white lie, prompted Rory to play her part in it and Babette was soon headed back home so the girls could fall into bed. On the plus side, they now had hot cocoa sitting, ready, on the counter.
As predicted, Rory immediately went to unpack her grungy bag, not wanting to clothes to get any grosser than they already were and Lorelai followed her daughter into her room, collapsing face down on the bed as she took a moment to remember that no, pillows didn't have to smell like feet. Nor did beds have to feel like boards that were barely wide enough for a person. The pair discussed how they were to avoid jet leg once again as Rory greeted her closet full of clothes and eventually, Lorelai prided herself from Rory's bed and headed upstairs to her own bed.
"Close the door," Rory called after her as she wandered over to her sock drawer. She fingered the knobs as Lorelai sent her a little look as she pulled the door closed behind her. "Hello boys . . ." Rory greeted her sock drawer as she finally pulled the drawer open.
Satisfied that Rory was happy, Lorelai couldn't help be shake her head as a ghost of a smile appeared on her face. She kicked some of the packing aftermath out of the way as she trudged up the stairs to her beloved shower and her even more beloved bed.
"Ugh," was all she could say as she made a face and took in the disaster that still awaited her. She'd had high hopes that the magic cleaning elves would show up, but they hadn't. The bed was still a mess of Charlie's things while hers were either still in the closet, hanging out of her drawers or scattered around the room. The boxes full of no longer needed baby stuff were still packed up in a corner of the already over crowded room.
She had been already to get rid of them not long after she had packed them up, but then Sookie had announced she was pregnant, and then the inn had caught fire and, well, needless to say they were still here.
With a heavy sigh, Lorelai kicked some of the debris out of her way before she began scooping, with large armfuls, Charlie's things from her bed and dumping them into her crib. When that was done, she grabbed one of her remaining t-shirts and a pair of sweat pants before she began debating the long walk to the shower instead of simply changing and falling into bed.
Being the girl that she was, the shower won out and she slowly dragged herself down the hallway.
Lorelai rested her head against the cupboard door in the kitchen as she tried to resign herself to the fact that there was no coffee in the house. She needed the coffee to stay more than 3 steps ahead of the jet lag that was threatening to grab a hold of her.
"There's no coffee," Lorelai blurted out as soon as she saw Rory appear in the doorway of her room.
"Well good morning to you too, mother. Why yes, I do feel ok today," Rory remarked, somewhat sarcastically as she leaned against her door frame, arms crossed over her chest. Lorelai turned to send her eldest a glare before she began to tear through the kitchen, looking for coffee in all her usual hiding places.
"There has to be coffee," Lorelai continued, still mostly ignoring Rory. "Without the coffee, there is no standing or writing and without the standing or writing, there will be to sorting or labelling of the souvenirs we brought home."
"I'm gonna take a shower," Rory said, ignoring Lorelai like she was ignoring her. Lorelai stopped what she was doing and turned to stare at Rory as she rummaged through her drawers for something clean to wear. "And then I'm going to start labelling while you take a shower." Rory listened as her mother grumbled something about taking a shower the night before. "Fine, don't shower then," she said as she finally came out of her room and stood in front of Lorelai. "Why don't you start in on the mess that I know is building up in your room," she suggested with a smile before she brushed past her mother and headed for the stairs.
Lorelai pouted and crossed her arms over her chest as she watched her daughter breeze past her and out of the kitchen. When she was done boring a hole into Rory, she turned her gaze to her empty coffee cup and stared mournfully into it for a moment before she heaved a sigh and followed through on Rory's suggestion of cleaning up her room. Lorelai placed the mug on the counter with a little more force than was necessary before she slowly trudged up the stairs.
Later in the morning, Rory found herself wandering around the living room, cue cards and a Sharpie in her hand, as she labelled the souvenirs she had spread out around the room. She paused in her writing as she turned to watch her mother come down the stairs, freshly showered, and arguing with some European consulate about the fact that yes, they were home, yes, they were find and yes, Babette had over reacted.
"Ok, Belgium is done, Lisbon is calling me back, Berlin has no idea what I'm talking about and Paris is pissed," Lorelai summarised for Rory as she hung up the phone and made a note on her list about how the consulate calling was going. The pair finally moved away from discussing consulates and onto organising the rest of the souvenirs. The next problem the pair ran into was how to get said gifts out of the house to their recipients once they realised they had no tote bags to use.
"Oh yeah," Lorelai remarked sarcastically as she came back down stairs, lugging her enormous back pack behind her while Rory returned from her room, dragging hers behind her as well. "This isn't going to be embarrassing at all."
"Well, do you have a better idea?" Rory asked as she began to pack things into her bag. Lorelai couldn't help but sigh as she made a last ditch effort to come up with something other than their packs to use. Eventually she gave in to the fact that there was no other option and she began to fill her pack as well.
As the girls wandered slowly towards town, their large hiking back packs strapped on tightly, they were pleased to see that Starts Hollow hadn't changed at all while they were gone. Small groups of tourists were still milling through town, pausing every now and then to consult a map or read one of the many plaques that detail some historical event.
They side stepped a few groups of kids who were playing some type of game and batted casually at the small bugs that were still flying around.
"Ah Main street," Lorelai said with a happy little sigh as the town center finally came into view. Rory couldn't help but return the happy sigh, taking a deep breath and enjoying the familiar smells.
"Hey, the soda shop is open," Lorelai remarked as they came to a stop in front of the new building.
"Oh cool," Rory agreed as she started to take in all the clear glass jars of candy that lined the counter and sat just behind the large picture window. Lorelai nudged Rory and soon their attention was focused on Luke who was currently arguing with Taylor over something. The pair moved away from the window to stand at the door way so they could hear better. Lorelai and Rory shared a smile when they realised that Luke was yelling about the fact that Taylor had put a giant window in the wall of the diner while he had been off on his cruise with Nicole.
"What do you think, biscotti moment?" Lorelai asked after a moment, seeing as how the argument between Luke and Taylor showed no signs of tapering off. Rory agreed and the pair both quickly slipped off their back backs and Rory watched eagerly as Lorelai dug through her pack to find the non-descript white paper bag that held the much prized biscotti. The pair soon each had a piece and were happily munching away until Lorelai realised what she had been trying to remember since they had been in Spain. "Oh my God!" she exclaimed, her eyes growing wide as she continued to watch Luke and Taylor.
"Hm. . . What?" Rory asked absently. When her mother didn't answer, she finally tore her attention away from the antics in the soda shop to face Lorelai. "What's the matter?" she asked when she finally saw the look on Lorelai's face.
"Luke," she answered simply, gesturing at Luke while her hand holding the biscotti fell limply to her side.
"Yeah, he's finally lost it," Rory snickered as she turned her attention back to the fight and her biscotti again. She was more than a little pleased to see that Luke was now rushing around the shop, shoving his hands into the wooden barrels of candy and throwing the handfuls around the shop while Taylor chased after him.
"No, we forgot Luke," Lorelai repeated as she turned to look at Rory. Rory turned to look at her mother, offering a confused glance and asking what they had forgotten Luke. Lorelai sent Rory a look, her eyes growing slightly wider as she willed Rory to figure things out.
"Oh, we forgot to bring him back a gift!" Rory exclaimed, the hand that was holding her biscotti fell to her side. "Oh no!" The girls turned their attention back to the scene that was still unfolding in the soda shop before they began to complain that they hadn't been able to find anything good enough for Luke. Lorelai took a quick moment to lament the fact that she hadn't gotten the matador's outfit from Spain that she had liked.
Lorelai and Rory grew silent for a moment as they tried to decide what to do. When Lorelai finally opened her mouth, all Rory could do was stare at her for a moment.
"Pick up what?" she asked when she heard that Lorelai's plan was to buy something in Stars Hollow and tell the diner owner it was from Denmark. "This is Stars Hollow. Everything you buy here has a Hello Kitty stamped on the bottom," she pointed out as she turned her attention back to her biscotti. Lorelai glared at Rory slightly when she heard the tinge of amusement that was in her voice.
"Well, we have to get him something," she said firmly. "We cannot go into Luke's empty handed," Lorelai decided as she opened the biscotti bag and tossed her piece back in. The small grin fell off of Rory's face when she realised that she was going to have to make due with the biscotti in her hand since they weren't going to get to Luke's to eat any time soon. "Come on," Lorelai said as she rolled the bag closed and shoved it in her pack. She quickly slung the back pack up onto her shoulders and started to walk towards Sookie's house.
"Hungry!" Rory complained as she too grabbed her bag and quickly followed after her mother. Lorelai ignored Rory's complaints as she headed towards her best friends house. She missed both Sookie and Jackson and was dying to know how Sookie's pregnancy was going.
"Sookie!" Lorelai called out loudly and brightly as she and Rory strode up the path to the front door. Sookie quickly jumped out of the swing that was on the front porch and rushed down to meet the pair. As she asked a million questions, Jackson came out to greet them as well. As Sookie continued to as questions at a rate that didn't allow for an answer, he quickly propelled his wife, and the Gilmore's, into the house.
When they got into the living room, Lorelai quickly dropped her back pack to the ground and greeted Sookie properly, taking a moment to introduce herself to the baby before she tried to convince Rory to come over. The women soon took pleasure in mocking both Jackson and Rory's attitude towards the pregnancy before Rory and Jackson banded together.
With a shake of their heads, the women left the two to their buttons and the illusion that it was 1954 in favour of heading out to the shed to discuss the sec of the baby as well as to admire everything Sookie had already bought.
The pair quickly entered the sea of blue that was the shed and took up seats in the arm chair and the rocker. They discussed life in Stars Hollow for a while before Lorelai shifted the conversation towards Luke.
"I guess he went on that cruise, huh?" Lorelai asked as she fidgeted with the fleece blanket she had pulled onto her lap.
"Yup," Sookie replied casually as she started to rock the arm chair a little. A coy smile was playing on her lips because she was pretty sure that Lorelai was digging for information that pertained to things other than cruise Luke took.
"That's good," Lorelai said as she started to rock too, trying to sound casual. "That's good that he went. He needed a vacation. He works hard, that one," she rambled. "Always cooking, making the coffee, taking the orders," she trailed off, not really sure where she was going with this conversation or why she had started it in the first place. Lorelai stopped rocking abruptly when Sookie mentioned that she was pretty sure something had happened on the cruise. Lorelai's hands clutched the corner of the fleece blanket a little tighter as Sookie told her about how she and Jackson had asked him about the cruise and he had done anything and everything to get away from them.
"Huh," Lorelai said after a moment as she considered what Sookie had said. A comfortable silence fell over the pair for a moment as Lorelai began to rock again. Sookie moved her gaze away from the blanket she was refolding to look at Lorelai for a moment. Her friend was obviously deep in thought over something. She dropped her gaze back to the blanket when Lorelai finally looked up. "So. . . Are you gonna name him Lorelai?" she asked with a smile.
"Absolutely," Sookie assured her with a smile. "That wouldn't be confusing at all," she added with a dismissive wave of her hand. The pair chuckled for a moment before Lorelai tossed the blanket on her lap back where she had found it before she stood up and started to wander a little deeper into the shed. The pair stayed silent for a moment until Lorelai asked if Sookie and Jackson would be willing to keep an eye on Charlie while she got Rory settled at Yale. The chef agreed without hesitation before asking her when they were going to pick her up.
"She and my parents are on their way home from the Vineyard today, so we'll rescue her tomorrow at Friday night diner," Lorelai replied as she fingered some of the little outfits that were hanging on the wall. "I can hardly wait to have her home again, Rory too. I love the fact that I spent the summer, just me and Rory before she goes to Yale, but. . . " she trailed off as she offered a wistful sigh.
"You miss your baby," Sookie filled in, a soft smile on her face as she twisted to look at Lorelai. She watched as a ghost of a smile appeared on Lorelai's face before she moved on to inspect something else.
"I miss my baby," she replied, her back still to Sookie as she began leafing through a pile of receiving blankets. "We had to stop calling them after a couple of weeks," Lorelai explained. "I mean, we sent post cards on a regular basis and emailed when ever we could, but it was just getting to hard to hang up on her because she was crying her little heart out." Lorelai finally turned to face Sookie again. "The last time we called, she knew about 40 words and was trying to string them all together to convince us to come home."
"Poor Charlie," Sookie said sympathetically as she watched Lorelai wandered through the maze of furniture until she was back at the front of the shed again. Lorelai agreed with a sigh as she finally sat herself back down again. She made a crack about how this would make a good chapter in the tell all book Charlie would write in the future before she remembered the boxes of baby stuff in her room. She quickly offered them to Sookie, who thanked her, but said she was pretty sure the baby wouldn't need any dressed.
"Ha, ha," Lorelai offered sarcastically before she explained that it was just things like bedding, toys, bottles. . . Things that could be used by either a boy or a girl. Sookie chuckled a little before she told Lorelai that she'd think about it. Lorelai nodded in satisfaction as they fell into silence again for a moment, each enjoying the quiet of the afternoon and the warm summer breeze that was blowing lightly through the air.
Eventually, Sookie and Lorelai pulled themselves out of the garage and headed back into the house where Sookie pulled a jar of jam out of Jackson's cupboard and she couldn't help but laugh as both she and Lorelai tried to remember how to spell 'Fruit De La Terre' properly.
"You took French in high school," Lorelai had said immediately with a large smile on her face and Sookie quickly fired back that Lorelai had just come back from France. "Like that's an excuse," Lorelai muttered as she finally got the label written. They pair dissolved into giggles again before Rory came into the room and discovered their plan. All the teenager could do was shake her head at the pair of them as Lorelai told her to keep her mouth shut as she grabbed the jar and headed off to find her pack.
"He's gonna know," Rory said quickly after they had said their good byes to Sookie and Jackson and started on their rounds again.
"He is not," Lorelai insisted as she stared at the label. Rory continued on about how Luke was a bright guy and was going to know. Lorelai countered that Luke would only know the jam was from Jackson's pantry if Rory told him. As they continued down the street towards the town square, Rory could only shake her head as Lorelai spilled out a story about Sochelle and her burning desire to make designer jam.
"I'm gonna get all the credit," Lorelai warned Rory as they broke off from each other.
"As it should be," Rory assured her as she headed towards Lane's house while Lorelai headed towards the diner. They called out to each other a few more times before Rory disappeared into the Kim house and Lorelai disappeared into the diner.
Lorelai smiled at the familiarity of the busy diner as she sauntered up to the counter. She slid her pack off and tucked it under the counter before she slid onto a stool. Luke immediately greeted her with a coffee mug that he quickly filled before they pair started to discuss her trip to Europe.
Eventually, Lorelai presented Luke with the jar of jam and started to spin him the story she had made up about Sochelle the orphan who lived with the nuns in France. She got about halfway through her story before she saw the look of mild amusement on his face and finally caved and told him the truth about where she had gotten the jam from.
"How did you know?" she asked him, a desperate, disappointed tone in her voice. He couldn't help but smile at her.
"Just a wild guess," he said slowly, trying to control the grin on his face. He listened with mild amusement as she explained how they had tried to find him something, but hadn't been able to find anything good enough. He shrugged and assured her that there were no hard feelings since he hadn't gotten her anything either.
Lorelai's face lit up when she heard this and immediately started to ask him about his cruise with Nicole. She frowned a little as he started to avoid her questions and give her vague answers. Eventually, he began to look for a way out of the conversation, finding his refuge in the kitchen.
"Uh, I'm gonna go check on your food," he said quickly, pointing a thumb over his shoulder as he finally made it into the kitchen.
"Okay," she said, more than a little confused at his avoidance of the cruise subject. She sat back on her stool for a moment before she leaned forward again. "I didn't order anything . . . Yet," she called out to him as she tried to catch sight of Luke. "Hmm," was all she could say as she sat back on the stool and turned her attention back to her coffee. She shook her head as she tried to puzzle out what Luke was going to bring her or if he was going to realise that she hadn't actually ordered anything.
After convincing Mrs. Kim that the "I do not want to know the sex of my baby" button was about Sookie and Jackson's baby, Lane and Rory escaped up to her room where Lane filled Rory in on what had been going on in town while she was gone. When she had been caught up on most of the gossip, Rory began to tell Lane all about Europe and the things she and her mother had seen and done.
Eventually Rory said her good byes and headed off to join her mother at Luke's. She greeted Kirk on her way past Taylor's market and did a double take when she saw the poster Kirk had just finished putting up on the window. She stared, open mouthed, at the large picture of herself and the writing that proclaimed her to be Stars Hollow's Ice Cream Queen. She furrowed her brow as she quickly pulled the poster down and stalked towards the ice cream shop as Kirk yelled at her about taking down the poster.
Rory found Taylor quickly and her attempts to calmly talk to him about his assumptions quickly turned into an argument while left Rory feeling like the bad guy. She did want to help Taylor out, but she didn't have time. She and Lorelai had the whole week planned out and he hadn't asked if she'd be the Ice Cream Queen, he had just assumed that she'd do it. Rory heaved a sigh as Taylor blew her off and sauntered away to tend to something else in the store. She turned towards the window in the wall and was some what relieved to see her mother on the other side. They locked eyes and Lorelai offered a small smile and a wave. She frowned when she saw the irritated look on Rory's face and she quickly stood up, mouthing 'what's wrong?' as she held up her hands. Rory quickly turned the posted the right way around and held it up for Lorelai to see.
She was more than a little pleased to see the shocked look on her mother's face before she dropped her head forward and gave it a bit of a shake.
Lorelai laid in bed that night, making lists in her head and on paper. After Rory's discovery that she had written the date of her college orientation down wrong, their plans had been dramatically altered. They no longer had a week to get ready, they now had a day to gather all the supplies Rory needed for her dorm and just a short sliver of evening to remind Charlie that she belonged with Lorelai and Rory, not Emily and Richard.
Lorelai yawned and gave up on her lists after a while since her Tylenol PM's were beginning to kick in. She had taken them with the hope of being able to establish a regular sleeping pattern as soon as possible. With one last look at the ever growing list she had tossed onto her night stand, Lorelai finally turned out the bed side lamp and snuggled down under the covers.
Rory was also making lists, though hers were all on paper. She had many more than her mother, as she had separate lists for things she needed to pick up as well as what books, DVD's and CD's she was going to bring with her. She also had a list for the miscellaneous stuff she had to pick up on her travels.
"I can't believe I wrote the date down wrong," she muttered again as she scanned over the letter from Yale one last time. She was now paranoid that she was going to forgot something or misread a critical piece of information.
Assuring herself that she could read the letter again several more times in the morning, Rory finally turned off her bedside lamp and slid down between the covers.
"We are never going to get it all," Rory complained as she and her mother collapsed onto a bench in the town square. The both dropped their numerous bags to the ground and Rory watched, some what mournfully, as a few of them toppled over and threatened to spill their contents on the ground.
As Lorelai began to assure Rory that they were going to get everything they needed, Rory allowed her mind to wander for a moment and take in the day they were missing. The weather was perfect and the typical New England humidity that usually settled over the area in late August wasn't present. The sun was shining, the birds were chirping and there wasn't a cloud in the sky, perfect lake weather as far as Rory was concerned.
"Maybe we should skip Friday night dinner," Lorelai said all of a sudden. This snapped Rory back to reality and she began to remind Lorelai that she had to go, this was why she got to go to Yale. At the end of her little speech, she announced that Lorelai wasn't obligated to go. After a moment of gloating about this fact, Lorelai laid out a new plan.
Rory would go to dinner, she'd eat really fast then pack up Charlie and head home. Once the pair returned home, the three of them would finish up what ever was left to do.
"Come on," Lorelai said quickly, gathering up her bags before she stood. Rory groaned, but quickly gathered her bags as well and followed her mother. "We'll drop this stuff off and you can shower and change while I lug the car seat into your car. You go deal with dinner and bring Charlie home while I get everything, ok?" Rory gave a small sure as they trudged home as quickly as they could.
"I need to borrow your truck. Coffee please," Lorelai said quickly as she slid onto a stool at the counter of the diner. She had been running around for what felt like hours since Rory had left for Hartford and as she was driving back from the mattress store, she realised that she had absolutely no way of getting said mattress back to Stars Hollow, let along New Haven.
"And why do you need to borrow my truck?" Luke asked casually as he poured her a cup of coffee and set it in front of her. "Burger?"
"A fast one. And fries," she said as she took a sip of coffee. "I need to lug Rory's mattress home and I need something to drag all her crap to Yale in." She sighed as Luke asked her why she hadn't gotten that U-Hall she had been talking about. Lorelai quickly filled him in on the fact that Rory had written he date down wrong. They didn't have a week to get ready, Rory had to be at school on Saturday. "So, I don't have time to have the mattress delivered here, or to rent that truck or figure out how to drive it, so, I need to borrow your truck tonight and tomorrow," she told him. Luke began to avoid answering her so Lorelai quickly began pouting at Luke and when he didn't instantly give in, she started to beg him and finally moved on to guilting him because, after all, what would happen to Rory if they were late to her orientation or if they missed it?
"Fine," he said with a sigh. "I'll bring it over later."
"Great," she said with a smile. He shook his head and leaned on the counter a little. "So, cheese burger?" she prompted.
"Oh, right," he said as he quickly pushed away from the counter and headed to the kitchen. Lorelai couldn't help but shake her head as she watched him hurry off. She glanced around the diner and after noticing how empty everything was, she considered bringing up the topic of his cruise with Nicole. As a smile grew on her face and she opened her mouth to speak, she reconsidered when she realised that this would be the kind of thing that Luke would with hold his truck over. With a resigned sigh, she kicked her bags a little further under the counter before she pulled her crumpled list out of her purse so she could take stock of what she was now in possession of as well as what she still needed to pick up.
"Where's Rory?" Luke asked as he and Lorelai continued to lug boxes and garbage bags full of Rory's things outside. Lorelai rolled her eyes and quickly began to fill Luke in on the arrangement that she and Rory had made in order to get everything they needed to do done. He shook his head as Lorelai came to the end of her tale about Rory being in Hartford for diner and to rescue Charlie.
As they finished lugging the bags and boxes out of the house and started to load them into the back of Luke's pick up truck, the conversation began to dwindle. Finally, as a last ditch effort to keep the conversation going and to try and get a straight answer out of Luke, she brought up the subject of the cruise again.
"Did something happen with you and Nicole?" she finally asked, a smile on her face. He hesitated for the briefest second before he started to re-arrange the boxes again.
"I don't know," he answered after a long pause. Lorelai, slightly taken aback by his answer, stopped arranging the boxes and simply stopped to look at him.
"How can you not know?" she asked him. "You were on the same boat as her, right? Might I even assume that the two of you shared the same room on said boat? The same bed?" she quizzed him. Luke assured her that all of this was fact.
"She just, I dunno," he said with a sigh and shrug. "I think you and Rory were right, I think she was expecting me to propose or something," he finally said as he too stopped moving bags and boxes around. Lorelai watched as she jumped out of the back of the truck. "Things were fine on the boat at first, but as time went on, and things came to an end, she seemed to be getting more and more. . . "
"Sea sick?" Lorelai supplied as she leaned against the truck.
"Distant," Luke finally filled in. The grin fell off of Lorelai's face when she saw the sad look that had come over Luke's. "I thought things were going well, I thought we were having a good time and every time I asked her what was wrong, she kept saying nothing was wrong." Lorelai opened her mouth to reply, but Luke forged ahead. "I'm not a very smart man, but I'm smart enough to know when something's wrong. Why wouldn't she just tell me? Why do all women lie about nothing being wrong when something is obviously wrong and then get mad at us when we can't read their minds?" he ranted as he angrily stalked off to grab the last few bags and throw them into the truck. Lorelai cringed a little at the rough treatment of Rory's things, but was glad she had decided to pack the breakables in boxes and the large plastic bins.
"Luke," Lorelai said soothingly, putting a hand on his arm to stop him. "You need to talk to her," she said, forcing him to stop and look at her. "You need to sit down with her and the two of you need to decide if you're in the same place in this relationship or not."
"And she'll answer me?" he asked. Lorelai chuckled and assured him that she would, that she might even been impressed that he was the one taking the steps to try and fix the tension in the relationship. "Hmm, I guess," he agreed after a moment. The pair fell into a comfortable silence for a moment before there was a rustling in the trees. The pair turned, Luke stepping slightly in front of Lorelai, and watched as Kirk wandered out of the brush.
"Bad wind," he muttered as he walked by in the sky diving gear Lorelai had previously tried to talk him out of. "Bad, bad wind," he muttered, dragging his parachute along behind him. The pair both watched as Kirk slowly walked by, muttering to himself about Taylor and the wind before they both started to chuckle. As they finally began to calm down, Lorelai's cell phone began to ring.
"I have to go," she told Luke quickly after she and Rory had hung up. "My mother is holding my kids hostage and I have to go and rescue them," she explained as she dug her keys out of her bag. Luke assured her that he'd finish up the last remaining details before heading home and Lorelai thanked him one last time for the use of his truck. She assured him, once again, that she could indeed drive the stick and that everything would be fine. Luke rolled his eyes at this, but Lorelai simply flashed a large smile before she jogged across the yard and jumped into her jeep.
Lorelai had to keep herself from speeding on the way to Hartford. At first, she was simply excited to see Charlie after a long summer apart, but as she ran into a bit of traffic and had to slow down, her mind began to wander back to what Luke had told her. She wondered a little if it was her fault, hers and Rory's, for teasing him about the cruise saying commitment, but he hadn't said anything and she knew that if he felt that way, Luke would have let her have an ear full.
As traffic ground to a halt, she began to wonder why he had spent so much time avoiding people and ducking their questions about his time on the cruise. If Luke had gone and gotten engaged on the cruise, she could maybe see him doing something like that. Maybe Nicole would ask him to keep it a secret until she could get a hold of her parents, but if they were still dating and possibly breaking up?
"It doesn't make any sense," Lorelai muttered to herself as traffic started to move again. "But when has that man ever made any sense?" With a final sigh, Lorelai flipped on the radio and tried to push all thoughts of Luke and Nicole out of her mind.
Rory allowed her eyes to slowly crawl around the opulently decorated den as her grandmother prattled on and on about the rules and regulations of ball room dancing. Like the rest of the house, the den was decorated in light rose, cream and tan with an occasional touch of gold to accent things. Eventually, her eyes came to rest on her sister who was dividing her attention between the dancers and the toy in front of her. Just as she was starting to think about sliding down onto the floor to play with Charlie, her attention was drawn to the door of the room
"Hey!" Lorelai said brightly as she slipped into the den. "Hey baby!" she said, a little softer as she crouched down to greet Charlie. The little girl looked up from her toy and immediately her face broke into a smile. She picked herself up off the ground and threw herself into her mothers arms as quickly as possible, burying her head in the crook of Lorelai's neck.
"Mom, hi!" Rory said, as she perked up immediately, pulling herself out of the slouch she had fallen into. Unlike the rest of her girls, Emily was not happy to see Lorelai. Her mouth fell into a tight line as she glared at her daughter.
"Hi mom," Lorelai said as she finally stood up, Charlie still in her arms.
"What are you doing here?" Emily demanded as she sat a little closer to the edge of the couch. Lorelai quickly plastered a smile on her face, shifted Charlie a little higher up on her hip and told Emily that she had been in the neighbourhood and had wondered what was going on at the Gilmore house. Rory quickly filled in the details and when Lorelai tried to invite herself in on the fun, Emily jumped up and began making excuses about why she couldn't. As she started to realised that Lorelai's wasn't going to go away, she sent Rory off to find a cup of tea. As soon as the door closed behind the teenager, Emily started in on Lorelai, about how she was here to kidnap the girls and take them home. Lorelai gritted her teeth and dug her heels in, countering that this was their last night as a family, their last night before Rory went off to college, but Emily didn't care.
"And you've had Charlie all summer!" Lorelai continued. "Why are you keeping them from me?"
"If Rory wants to leave, she can leave," Emily replied calmly with a shrug. "She's not a four year old." Lorelai shook her head at her mother.
"And what about Charlie? Are you going to keep her here until she can ask to go home?" she fired back. "Tonight is my last night with Rory, it's out last night together!" she yelled, rubbing Charlie's back as the toddler started to get agitated. "I have less than 12 hours to remind Charlie that she belongs to me and Rory, not you and dad!"
"I know that!" Emily insisted as she came slightly closer to Lorelai. "That's why I was so surprised you didn't want to spend the evening with them," Emily said, regaining her composure as she watched Lorelai flounder a little.
"I did want to!" she yelled at her mother before Emily countered that she should have come. "I couldn't!" Lorelai cried, sounding nearly desperate.
"You wouldn't!" Emily countered, crossing her arms over her chest as she turned slightly away from Lorelai and Charlie.
"Arg! I swear to God!" Lorelai complained as she buried her face in her free hand for a moment. A heavy silence, broken only by the clock in the room fell over the trio as they all calmed down. Finally, Lorelai dropped her hand and raised her head before dropping a kiss on the top of Charlie's head as she looked around the room. "Where's dad?" she asked when she realized he wasn't there.
"Oh, he went to bed hours ago," Emily said with a dismissive wave of her hand as she looked every where but at Lorelai. She thought about this for a moment.
"He went to bed?" Lorelai asked, a small smile tugging at her lips. She had no idea why she found this funny, but she did. She tried not to snicker as Emily said that it was getting late, but she sound found that she was failing miserably. Eventually, she found herself laughing hysterically at absolutely nothing. Rory came in not long after and Lorelai's feeble attempts at explaining what was going on only succeeded in confusing Emily further and dragging Rory into the hysterics.
"As soon as you're both done. . . " Emily said sarcastically with an eye roll as she relieved her cup of tea from her granddaughter. She took a cautious sip of the hot liquid before she carefully made her way to a chair and took a seat.
"So, tomorrow," Rory said softly. She, her mother and Charlie had taken up court on the couch while Emily had stayed in the chair. The 4 of them seemed to be spending the night watching ballroom dancing and now that she had someone to mock with, Rory decided that it wasn't so bad. Lorelai let her head casually roll to the side to look at her eldest.
"Yeah, tomorrow," she replied as she let her hand drag lazily up and down Charlie's back. The toddler had fallen asleep on Lorelai somewhere between the '87 and '88 championships.
"It's a big day," was all Rory could say as she rolled her head back towards the TV. She didn't trust herself to look at her mother right now. She was tired, her nerves were frayed and the last thing she wanted to do was burst into tears, she couldn't handle that right now.
"It's a really big day," Lorelai agreed as she kept her glance on Rory. She was having a hard time believing that Rory was old enough for college.
"I just hope it's everything I've been imagining it to be," Rory said with a wistful sigh as she sucked some biscotti out of her teeth.
"Yeah," she said casually, finally turning her attention back to the TV. "I just hope you actually get there." Rory glanced at her mother slightly, just to see if she was actually kidding or not before she nudged Lorelai and they both glanced over at Emily who was slumped over in her chair, sound asleep. The pair shared a smile and a quiet chuckle before they turned back to the TV. "You know," Lorelai said after a moment. "If Sofia could just die during a fox trot, that would be perfect." Rory and Lorelai shared a snicker over this but made no moves to get up from the couch, having finally molded the pillows to fit them perfectly. The pair heaved a small sigh at the same time, both knowing that when they did finally get up off that couch, they'd have to go home and go to bed and that would mean that tomorrow was here.
"Biscotti?" Rory asked, pulling the last two pieces out of the bag and offering Lorelai her pick. Lorelai agreed enthusiastically and accepted a piece, frowning slightly when she saw that it was only a half piece. She quickly remarked that it was broken before she looked in the bag to see if there were any others that weren't broken. She was slightly disappointed to see that there weren't.
"I know, I like 'em that way," Rory quipped quietly. She smiled as she and her mother tried to fit their pieces together briefly before they gave up and started to eat. Lorelai quickly cast one more glance over at Rory before she shifted down on the couch and Rory did the same, allowing the pair to snuggle just a little closer as they went back to mocking the ballroom dancers that were still gliding around the floor on the television screen.