SUMMARY: "Does this story involve coffee?"   Spoilers for "Afterboom."

DISCLAIMER: These characters belong to Amy Sherman-Palladino, who will be my absolute favorite TV writer ever if she does what I think she's going to do.  Even though she put us through the JESSdrama. ::eye roll::

THANKS: My LJ peeps, for encouraging me.

***

"You know what?" Lorelai asked as soon as Rory answered her phone.

"Considering that you seem to be in the middle of a conversation and I just picked up the phone, no, I don't know what," Rory answered.

Angling her jeep onto the highway, Lorelai said, "I should have gotten coffee to go."

"Are you in a fight with Luke?" Rory guessed.

Lorelai shook her head.  "Luke?" she echoed blankly.  "Why would I -- Oh.  Coffee."

"Right," Rory said.

"To go."  Lorelai took a moment to glare at the shiny black BMW that refused to let her into the middle lane.  "Jerk."  She really wanted to drive fast.  Preferably with loud music, but that sort of needed to wait until she was no longer trying to have a cellphone conversation with her daughter.

"Okay, Mom?" Rory said, amused and concerned at the same time.  "I'm going to need you to come up with a sentence.  Possibly an entire paragraph.  Because right now--"

"Jason," Lorelai interrupted, her inflection clearly signaling her irritation.

"Ah."

"No, not 'ah.'"

"Not 'ah?'" Rory repeated, surprised.  "You're not in a fight with Jason?"

"No, indeed," Lorelai said, warming to the theme.  "I am not in a fight with Jason.  In fact, I am no longer dating Jason.  Do you want to know why I'm not longer dating Jason?"  Lorelai didn't bother to wait for an answer.  "I'm no longer dating Jason because he's Mr. Businessman Guy all of a sudden!"

Rory sounded honestly puzzled.  "Hasn't he always been Mr. Businessman Guy?"

"Not like this, he hasn't!" Lorelai very nearly shouted back.  "Sure, he talked on the cellphone all the time, even at 4 in the morning because, you know, in other parts of the world people were conducting business then.  But he wasn't Mr. Unfeeling Businessman Guy bringing all kinds of lawsuits!"

"Lawsuits?"

"I know!" Lorelai exclaimed, flipping her blinker on with quite a bit of energy.  "Can you believe it?"

"Mom," Rory said soothingly.  "What did Jason do?"

"He's suing my father."

"Jason's suing Grandpa?"

"Yes," Lorelai confirmed, ignoring the tremor in her voice.  She flung her free hand in the air irritably.  "And now my windshield is dirty."  The jeep slid toward the shoulder, and Lorelai grabbed the steering wheel.  She really hated the part of talking while driving that meant she couldn't bring her entire body into the conversation.  Especially when she was upset.  It was somehow cathartic to make angry gestures, but that sort of got in the way of driving the car.

"Mom," Rory said.

The wipers weren't doing a damned thing, and the highway was still blurry.  Lorelai blinked a few times to clear her vision.  She was not crying.  "So he calls me and asks me to breakfast so he can tell me that he's suing my father!"

"That's..." Rory paused.  "Not good."

Nodding vigorously, Lorelai agreed, "I know!  And he just sat there, expecting me to be okay with it.  I can't be okay with it.  I mean, Richard drives me insane, and I still can't believe he trashed Jason to all their Businessman Guy friends, but -- I can't be with someone who's suing my family!"

"I am 100 percent behind that, mom," Rory answered quietly.

"But none of that matters," Lorelai decided.  It would be so much easier if it didn't matter.

"It doesn't?" Rory sounded skeptical.

"No.  You know what matters?"

"World peace?"

"Coffee," Lorelai answered.

"I was close," Rory pointed out.  "So what you're saying is that you were so upset that you walked out of an establishment that serves coffee without a cup in your hand?"

Lorelai frowned.  When Rory put it like that, it sounded much worse than it was.  "I'm just saying that it was stupid of me not to get coffee.  The least the guy-I-was-formerly-dating-but-now-am-no-longer-dating-because-he's-SUING-MY-FAMILY could do is buy me a cup of coffee!"

"Maybe you shouldn't be driving right now," Rory suggested.  "What with the lack of coffee and the bad windshield wipers."

"I am not upset!" Lorelai insisted.  She wasn't.  Really.  Her mother was living in a hotel, her father was ruining Jason's reputation, and Jason was suing her family.  Why should she be upset about any of that?

"I could come home today," Rory offered.  "I'd be quietly supportive."

"You'd be locked in your room studying," Lorelai countered.  She managed a smile, and even if Rory couldn't see it, she knew her daughter could hear it in her voice.  She took the Stars Hollow exit and eased the jeep into town.

"Also known as quietly supportive."

"You're a great kid, you know that?" Lorelai asked.  Just talking to Rory for five minutes calmed her down.  She edged up to the curb outside Luke's and flipped off the jeep.  "Stay at school.  Study like the A student you are."

"What will you do?" Rory asked.

Fair question, and one Lorelai didn't particularly want to consider.  She and Jason were supposed to catch the new Jennifer Garner movie.  Well, she and Jason were supposed to go to the movies, and Lorelai had made the unilateral decision that they'd be seeing the new Jennifer Garner movie, mostly because she wanted to see the look on Jason's face when she told him her choice.

Somehow, a romantic comedy didn't seem like the best idea for the afternoon.  Maybe something more like a weepy.  Some tragic love story.  Preferably where the guy died after doing something really heroic.

"I've got plenty to keep me busy," Lorelai lied, pushing the door to Luke's open.

"Mom."

"Really," Lorelai answered, catching Luke's gaze as she crossed to the counter.   "I'm caffeine-deprived, which means I'll entertain myself by harassing Luke for a good, oh, half hour or so."

Luke rolled his eyes and placed a steaming cup of coffee in front of her.

"And then, who knows?" Lorelai continued.  "I could turn cartwheels on the square.  Maybe spend the afternoon sketching Taylor's toupee.  Of course, that would require me having some sort of artistic talent or my sketch of his toupee would just look like a big angry black blob in the middle of the paper.  You know, like that time I sketched the gazebo at sunset and accidentally turned it into what looked like a fire-engine red teepee."

"Mom," Rory said again, but this time she was laughing.

Lorelai took a large sip of her coffee and swallowed it, savoring the bitter burn.  Then she sat up straight on her stool and frowned at Luke.  "What's wrong with you?"

"With me?" Rory asked.

"No, not you.  Luke."

Luke frowned back.  "What are you talking about?"

Raising her eyebrows, Lorelai waggled the phone against her ear.  "Uh, gee, I don't know, Luke.  Maybe the cellphone I'm holding?  In your diner?  In blatant disregard of the posted signs?"

"Whatever," Luke said with a dismissive wave.

Lorelai sat there, temporarily shocked into silence.  "Whatever?" she managed after a minute.  Was this PodLuke?  Had everyone gone completely insane?  Her mother in a hotel, her ex-boyfriend suing her family, and Luke being all... unLuke.

She tucked the phone between her cheek and her shoulder and pinched her arm.  Hard.  "Ouch!"

"Mom?"

"Damn."

"What?" Rory asked.

"I'm not asleep."

"Okay," Rory answered tentatively.

"Rory, something is very wrong with Luke," Lorelai told her daughter, very nearly reaching over to see if she could pull off his mask.  But she figured on the off chance it was Luke, she'd better not tug on the face of the guy who kept her in coffee.

"Nothing is wrong with me," Luke growled, rounding the end of the counter with a plate in each hand.

"What's wrong with Luke?" Rory asked.

"I pointed to the cellphone in my hand," Lorelai answered, swiveling on her stool to track his progress as he placed breakfast in front of Miss Patty, "and he said 'Whatever.'"

Rory sounded properly horrified.  "Luke said 'Whatever?'"

"I know!" Lorelai answered.  "And all I got for pinching myself is a giant welt on my arm.  This isn't some freakish nightmare populated by PodLukes."

"Lorelai," Luke groaned.  "You're wearing my patience."

"Mom," Rory decided.  "Something's wrong with Luke."

"I know!" Lorelai answered, eying PodLuke suspiciously.

"Well, go find out what it is," Rory ordered.  "And call me if you want me to come home."

"I will," Lorelai promised, her attention still focused on Luke.  "Love you."

As he passed by Lorelai, Luke leaned in close and said, "Hi, Rory."

"Mom," Rory said, sounding truly shocked.  "There's something very wrong with him."

Lorelai narrowed her eyes.  "I know.  I'll call you later.  Bye, Rory."

"Bye."

Flipping her phone closed, Lorelai slid off the stool.  "Okay," she decided.  "You're coming with me."

Busy at the kitchen pass-through, Luke didn't bother to turn around.  "No, I'm not."

"Yes," Lorelai countered, tucking her phone into her purse.  "You are."

"I know work is a familiar concept to you," Luke began, "so I'm not sure why--"

"Caesar!" Lorelai called, grinning when Luke's cook peered around the edge of the door at her.  "Luke's gonna take a little break."

"No Luke isn't," Luke called, mimicking her tone.

Caesar raised his eyebrows and shrugged.  "Fine with me.  It's a little slow right now, Luke."

Luke had an order pad in one hand and a pencil in the other, but Lorelai caught his arm with hers.  "C'mon, Luke.  Take ten minutes."

"And do what?" he asked, his tone acerbic.

"Take a walk around the square?" Lorelai offered, reaching for her coffee cup.

"Oh, no, you don't," Luke admonished, snatching her mug from the countertop.  He tossed down the pad and pencil, and Lorelai knew capitulation when she saw it.

"Luuuuuuuke," she whined.  "C'mon!  I need my caffeine."

With one of his long-suffering sighs, Luke leaned over the counter, snagged a to-go cup, and deftly poured her coffee into it.  "Happy?" he asked, handing it over.

She grinned.  "That was kind of sexy, Luke."

"Lorelai."

"Nothing sexier than a man who knows how to pour coffee," she continued.  "Perhaps you should be my manslave, hovering my house, waiting to pour coffee whenever the coffee-whim hits."

"Coffee-whim?" Luke repeated sarcastically.

Lorelai ignored him.  "When I try that at home, I end up with coffee all over my counter."

Luke snorted.  "There should be a lock on your kitchen, you know that?"

"I actually do know that," Lorelai answered, grabbing his arm once more.  "Let's go"

"You're not going to let this go, are you?" he demanded, but it was token resistance at this point.  Purely for the benefit of the townspeople, Lorelai figured.

"The subject or your arm?"

"Either one."

She beamed up at him.  "Nope."

"Let's go," he said.  "Caesar, I'll be back in five minutes."

"Caesar," Lorelai hollered.  "He'll be back in fifteen minutes."

Without argument, Luke allowed her to tug him out the door, across the street, and out onto the green.  "Where are we going?" he asked irritably.

"For a stroll."

"I don't stroll."

"You're strolling right now," Lorelai pointed out.  "Just think of it as exercise."

"It can't possibly be exercise if you're participating in it," Luke shot back.  "Was there a reason you dragged me out of my diner for a stroll in the middle of the morning rush?"

"Luke," she scoffed, "there were five people in there Including me.  I think Caesar can handle it."

He glanced down at her then, his brow furrowed.  "Is something wrong with you?" he asked, in that gruffly concerned tone of his.

She wasn't ready to talk about it.  Not with him.  Possibly not ever.  Instead, Lorelai rolled her eyes.  "You really don't go for the delicate conversation starter, do you?"

"Do you?" he parried.

Frowning, she considered the question.  "Not very often, no."

"So?"

"So," she shrugged, "that's part of my charm."

"Oh, really," Luke grumbled, still watching her pretty closely.  His blue eyes were so damn earnest, so damn perceptive, especially when they studied her like this.  It made her uncomfortable, the thought that he could see through her bluster.  It was one thing when she broke down and cried all over him, but it was quite another when she was doing her best to project Happy Sunny Lorelai and he saw right through it with those damn eyes of his.

She tried her brightest smile, but it didn't feel right.  "Your charm, on the other hand, consists mostly of gruff admonitions, manly flannels, and the occasional rant."

He just looked at her, not responding to her comments.  That wasn't the way they usually operated; he was supposed to understand that she didn't want to talk about it and argue good-naturedly with her until she regained her normal level of perkiness.  Instead, he walked beside her, quietly supportive, and it was completely disconcerting.

"I really am sorry about your divorce, Luke," she said quietly, because maybe it was easier to talk about his problems.

Luke gave her a baffled look.  "You are," he said, skepticism in his tone.

She thought she should probably be offended.  "Of course I am."

"Okay."

"Aren't you sorry about your divorce?" she asked, honestly curious.  Granted, she wasn't the biggest Nicole-fan, but she and Luke had been together for a while, and they'd gotten married, so it must've been serious.  Lorelai ignored the stab of... whatever unnamed emotion she felt whenever she let herself think about Luke being married.  She was good at ignoring inconvenient emotions.

It took him a few moments to answer.  "I'm sorry we got married like that in the first place.  It was a stupid thing to do."

Lorelai nodded, the edge of her mouth quirking upwards despite her best efforts to control it.  "They should pass a constitutional amendment about that."  Then she clapped her hand over her mouth and stopped dead, tugging him to a halt beside her.  "Oh, Luke, I'm sorry."

He flashed a tight smile, his hands stuffed into his jeans pockets.  "Don't worry about it."

"No, really," she insisted, laying a hand on his forearm.  "I shouldn't joke about it."

He gave her an inscrutable look.  "You joke about everything.  It's part of your charm."

She watched him for a moment, a slow smile stealing across her face.  "My charm?" she asked, batting her eyelashes coquettishly.

Luke groaned.  "Lorelai."

"Why, Mr. Danes, I do declare!" she said in her best Scarlet O'Hara voice.  If only she had a good lace hanky to wave around.

"Would you stop it?"

She gave him an irrepressible grin and nodded.  "Sure."

He rolled his eyes again.  "You're impossible.  I need to get back to work."

Her temporary good mood fled, but she tried to cover.  "Yes, you do, because I'm done--"  She paused to chug the rest of her coffee-- "with this now, and you, my manslave, need to make me a fresh pot."

Slowly, Luke followed her back across the square.  "Lorelai--"

"Don't try that 'I just ran out of coffee beans' excuse with me, either," she babbled, desperately avoiding any other Serious Topics.  "I demand coffee."

"Is something wrong with you?" Luke asked, and the undercurrent of worry in his words shattered Lorelai's composure.

"No," she said, her chin trembling.  She pressed two fingers to her lips and shook her head silently.  Damn, she thought.  Damn, damn, damn.  Way to keep it together, Lorelai.

Luke stopped their progress this time, his warm palm landing carefully on her shoulder.  "Lorelai?"

"Weird day," she managed, her tone just a little bit watery.  "Weird couple of days, actually."  She waved a hand around in the air, stepping out of his grasp.  "I'm sorry.  I've already cried all over you once this year, which is probably more than my quota."

He looked helpless, like he wasn't sure whether to hug her or run away.  With a bashful shrug, he asked, "Anything I can do?"

She smiled at him, swallowing back her misery.  "No," she told him, swiping at the stray tear on her cheek.  "It's enough that you asked."

Luke risked a small grin.  "That hasn't really been my experience with crying women."

Lorelai chuckled.  "I'm not crying."

"Right," Luke nodded.  "Sure, okay."

"It's just that--"   She stopped herself, trying to keep the words from tumbling out.  She'd never been particularly good at that.  "My mother left my father."  His expression shifted, softened, and she made herself look away from him.  "I think.  She's--"  Lorelai sniffled.  "She's living in a hotel."

"Lorelai," Luke said on a sigh.  "I'm sorry."

She shook her head.  "No, it's not--"  Why the hell did she have to cry like this?  Lorelai angrily swiped the tears from her cheeks and took a couple deep breaths.  "I really didn't plan to fall apart.  I'm sorry."

"Don't apologize," Luke ordered, sounding like his normal, irritable self.  It made her smile.

"It's just--"  She shrugged, lacking the words to express it.  "Sudden," she decided.  "It's unexpected.  And they're not talking about it, which just makes it weirder.  Like I'm not supposed to notice that they're all silent and uncomfortable, and that my mother left after our stupid dinner to go back to her hotel," Lorelai paused, inhaled, tried to bring it back under control.  "Not that life in the Gilmore household was ever really The Cosby Show."  She flashed a grin.  "Which makes sense, considering we're not black, nor am I one of five children.  Hey, did you know in the pilot, there were only four kids?  They added Sondra in later."

Luke looked like someone had whacked him with a two-by-four.  "What?"

"Please tell me you watched The Cosby Show.  You did own a TV in the 80s, right?"

"Lorelai--"

"I can't talk about it," she confessed quietly.  Not her parents, definitely not Jason.  And certainly she shouldn't be talking about it with Luke, who'd just gotten divorced.

Tentatively, Luke reached out and laid a hand on her shoulder again.  "Okay," he said, and he really sounded like he meant it.  Like he would listen if she wanted to talk, or let her babble if she needed to.  Lorelai blinked back more of those annoying tears.

His hand felt really, really good, and the thing Lorelai needed most was a hug.  Or coffee.  She deliberated for a moment, but he wasn't a demonstrative person and they were in the middle of the town square.  So she straightened her spine and said, "I believe my manslave was supposed to be making me coffee."

His fingers squeezed her shoulder gently as he withdrew his hand.  "I don't suppose there's any way I can get you to stop calling me that," he commented in his long-suffering voice.

"Nope," she answered, grinning.  "Unless you can come up with something better.  Like--"

"Please," he interrupted.  "Don't try to think of others."

"Sparkles?" Lorelai suggested.

"Oh, God," Luke groaned.  "I'll cut you off."

With a hand to her heart, Lorelai gave an exaggerated gasp.  "You wouldn't!"

"Take a shot.  Call me Sparkles," he suggested, grimacing a little over the pet name.

"Hey," she said, brightening as the idea occurred to her.  "Can I interest you in some really high-quality, forties-era weepies?"

Luke blinked.  "Dare I ask what a 'weepy' is?"

"Oh, my poor, ignorant boy," Lorelai answered, tucking her arm through his and heading toward the diner.  "You have much to learn from the Film Gods."

"Oh, no," Luke commented to no one in particular.  "You're going to make me watch whatever crazy movies you and your daughter consider 'classics,' aren't you?  Movies with debonair guys like Cary Grant who slouch around in suits and look elegant and make the rest of us mere mortals look boring because we're not bantering non-stop and running a newspaper!"

"Wow," Lorelai said, amused.  "I didn't realize you liked His Girl Friday that much."

"I didn't like it," Luke insisted.

"Oh, come on.  Rosalind Russell was so cool in that movie."

"Kind of," Luke grumbled.

"They were both incredibly cool," Lorelai insisted, leaning into him as they walked.

"I'm not watching more forties-era fairy tales," Luke warned, but he didn't sound like he meant it.

"Let me rephrase: Can I interest you in some really good beer?"

She thought she might've imagined Luke's arm pressing softly against her.  "Always," he answered.  "As long as you never tell anyone ever what kind of hideously stupid girly movie you force me to watch."

"I can't even tell Rory?  My own daughter?"

"Especially not Rory," Luke answered vehemently.  "She is, in many ways, just like her mother."

Lorelai grinned at him.  "You're right.  I bet I could get her to call you Sparkles."

"I'd ban you by proxy," Luke answered with a small grin.

Impulsively, Lorelai leaned up and pressed a kiss to his cheek.  "You're sweet," she told him, pleased by the slightly dazed look on his face.  "When are you free tonight?"

Luke blinked.  "Tonight?" he asked, stumbling a little over the word.

"Movies?" Lorelai prompted.  "Girly movies and beer?"

"You really know how to sell a guy on an evening with you," Luke remarked dryly.  "Let me double check with Lane, make sure she's coming in."

"Okay," Lorelai said, ignoring the tingly feeling in her stomach.  "Call me and let me know."

"You're not coming in for more coffee?" Luke asked, reaching for the door of the diner.  He paused on the step, looking down at her.

Lorelai tilted her head slightly.  "No," she decided.  "I'm okay.  Just--"

"I know," Luke interrupted her with a grin.  "I'll bring you coffee tonight."

Lorelai adopted her best sultry voice and said, "You really are my manslave, aren't you?"

He was still smiling when he said, "You have no idea.  I'll see you later, Lorelai."

Lorelai stared at the door as it closed in front of her.  Had he just...?

She forced herself to turn away, to start walking.  She had a million and a half things to do today at the Inn.  She would not worry about tonight with Luke.  It was just Luke.  It was just a movie.  It was --

Oh, hell.

Fumbling in her purse, Lorelai grabbed her cellphone and hit speed-dial one.

"Hey, Mom," Rory answered cheerfully.

"Hey, sweetie.  Listen, maybe you should come home today after all.  If it's not too much trouble."

"Of course not," Rory answered.

"Oh, good," Lorelai said, letting out her breath in a relieved sigh.  "I have kind of an odd story to tell you."

"Does this story involve coffee?"

Lorelai smiled.  "As a matter of fact, it does."

THE END

Comments

Okay, I thought I wanted you to be concentrating your energy on writing XMM fic, but then I read this, and it's so sweet, and it really captures Lorelai's voice, and..... Yay!

Posted by: claire on June 22, 2004 10:54 AM

Loved it, I so am not mad at you for less x-men stuff either cause I love this.

Posted by: Snooboostoo on September 15, 2004 12:50 PM