Chapter Twelve: Luke

Luke raised his eyebrow as he heard both Lorelai and Jess come in.

          What are these two up to now?

          “So, coffee can be made into lots of things.  You can make cakes, the ever-so-popular drink; it is also considered a great snack in some parts of the world…” Lorelai yammered on as Jess sighed and sank onto a stool.

          “Lorelai, I am quite aware of all the things you’ve said about coffee since we left your house until my present state now, which is ridiculously, overwhelmingly, tiredly sighing and occupying this stool, thinking of how many precious minutes you have just taken away from my life.”

          “Give me my coffee, please.  The kind that Luke over there makes.  Not yours.”

          What?  Jess makes the exact same coffee as I do.

          “Jess, do you put anything else in the pot other than what I told you to put in there?” Luke asked suspiciously.

          Jess rolled his eyes.  He went behind the counter and grabbed a mug.

          “Yes, Luke, I actually put a bit of lead in there to poison Lorelai because I have a secret murderous plan to get rid of her.”

          Luke’s eyes widened.

          Lorelai’s hand flew to her chest as she gasped.

          “Oh, my God, people.” Jess slammed the mug against the counter in his exasperation.

          Well, it’s not OUR fault that he’s so convincing…

          Luke grabbed the big trash bags behind the kitchen and went back out.

          “Jess, throw these out.”

          “What?  It’s your turn!  I just threw them out yesterday!”

          Damn this stupid rotation plan… and Jess for remembering it.

          Luke grunted and marched out the door with the trash bags.

          He went around the corner and threw the dumpster lid upwards and smashed the bags inside.

          Gross.

          “LUKE!”

          AH, CRAP!

          He whizzed around and almost smacked Rory on the head.

          “Rory!  What the hell are you doing sneaking up on people?!”

          “Sorry.  It’s just that… mom… and Jess… then Dean… when…”

          Oh.

          “Oh.  Yeah.  I saw what happened this morning.  Are you alright?  Jess is a jerk, which is no fault of mine or passed down by our side.  Probably that damned Hot Dog King’s Jerk-Genes.”

          Combine that with Liz’s temper… wow.  Jess was probably a childhood prodigy…

          “I’m fine.  I was just curious why he went to our house…”

          “I don’t know either.  Probably had some dumb plan to set it on fire or something.  Go ask him if you want.”

          Rory coughed.

          Oh, man.  What’s wrong now?  Jeez, in the old days, you talk to someone and you didn’t have to hide in bushes or sneak up on people.  You just look them in the eye and blather away.  The Gilmores are twisting the communication ways to this obscure thing where log books and commandos are involved…

          “Rory…”

          She looked at him with those damned puppy dog eyes of hers.

          That’s not going to work this time.  It’s messy and they have to talk it out.

          That’s it Luke.  A nice pat on the back for being a good adult.

          He puffed his chest and looked Rory straight in the eye.

          “You have to sort this thing out, Rory.  It’s getting messier and messier.  And everybody’s getting confused.  Especially me.”

          Rory nodded and straightened up more and more with each word Luke uttered.

          “You’re right.”

          “I know I am.”

          “I’m going inside.”

          “I’ll come with you.”

          “I appreciate that.”

          They started walking to the Diner.  Luke sneaked a glance at Rory.  She had her brave-conquer-this face.

          Good.

          They reached the door and paused to give Rory time to collect herself.

          She breathed in heavily and let it out.

          “Take your time.  Although I still want my phalanges working by the time we get inside.”

          “Okay.  I’m ready.”

          Luke nodded and opened the door. 

          He entered and moved out of the way to let her in.

          Jess looked up when the bell jingled and they made eye contact.

          This is good.  Okay.  Eye contact is good.  Houston, is this good?

          *kssshhhhh* Roger that, Apollo. Out. *kssshhhhh*

          “Rory?” Luke asked expectantly, “Would you like to come inside the Diner?”

          Rory looked at him, distracted, and nodded, “Why, yes I would, Luke.”

          She took at giant step forward, held her breath…

          There was a collective pause.  It was like Neil Armstrong’s moment on the moon.

          One small step for man.  A giant leap for mankind.

          Then she spun on her heel and bolted the other way like a bullet.

          What the--?  HEY!  I SAID GIANT LEAP, RORY! 

          Luke sighed.

          Like I said, the Gilmores twist the communication idea into a whole new thing where it only makes sense to them.

          Taylor smacked his gavel against his dumb little podium.

          Ugh.  Another stupid town meeting. 

          I hate this.

          Luke rolled his eyes as Taylor started with the usual yapping about the town and how he was God about all else.

          “Now, with all that aside, I would like to address the most serious issue of Hoodlumism.”

          Oh, God.  He’s resulted to making up his own words…

          Wait a minute… hoodlum…

          The room buzzed with curiosity.  Luke’s ears perked up.

          This better not be heading where I think it’s headed… or I’ll shove that gavel up his a—

          “—s we all know, there have been new developments to the safety of the town.  There has been the occasional vandalism, a particular incident in front of my Market, and I’m not very happy, people.  It’s Hoodlumism, and it has to stop.”

          He looked directly at Jess, who was looking very creepy at that moment with his little Jim Carey-Cable Guy smirk.

          Goddamn it, Taylor.

          Luke stood up and said, “What the hell are you saying, Taylor?  If this was a personal issue, you could have approached me, or Jess.  You didn’t have to open it up in a public discussion hall!”

          “I am Town-PeaceKeeper and it is my duty to keep the peace!  Sit down, Luke.”

          Then the attack started.

          Babbette’s voice suddenly came out of nowhere.

          “He kidnapped Pier Pont!”

          More and more voices rose, slamming Jess.

          “He stole my beer!”

          “I found cigarette butts in my azaleas last night!”

          “My car has, ‘Loser’ spray-painted on it!” 

          Luke growled, “Well, you’re a loser to begin with!”

          He turned to Jess, who was lazily taking in the scene, unmoving.

          “Aren’t you going to stand up for yourself?”

          Jess just looked at him with emptiness in his eyes.  He was about to answer when…

          “Who are all of you to judge?!” a small voice asked aloud from somewhere in the middle.

          “Who said that?”

          Everyone gasped to see little Rory Gilmore stand up, her face flushed with anger.  This wasn’t the Rory Gilmore of Stars Hollow…

          “What do you think it would feel like if your dad left you and your mom doesn’t even want you in the house?  Huh?  And that’s not the only thing…”

          The town hall was silent as Rory waited.  She took a big breath and opened her mouth to speak some more.

          As she talked, Luke sat down and looked sideways at Jess. 

          His composure was easy, but his fists were clenched tight.

          Luke’s mouth turned up as he noticed another thing.  He leaned close and whispered, “Jess, you’re blushing.”

          “Shut up.”

          The town wordlessly paid attention as Rory went on.

          She’s defending him.

          Luke smiled warmly at her.

          Who would’ve thunk it? The town ‘princess’ defending the big bad hoodlum, I guess she has sorted out what she’s feeling.

          He looked closely at Rory and saw the tiny beads of sweat that had formed on her forehead trickle down past her panicked eyes.

          Or maybe she’s just inherited her mothers’ stupidity.

          He turned his head to find Lorelai and gauge her reaction when he saw one face that did not seem so entranced with Rory’s little soap-box moment.

          The weather today will be fine and sunny, except for some parts of the building – namely, Dean – where thunderstorms, tornadoes and earthquakes seem unstoppable….

          Looking at Deans face- which was contorted with fury and resentment- he let out a low whistle under his breath as he sighed.

Gee whiz, Rory… I sure hope you know what you’re doing…