luke’s sitting on their couch, rory tucked against his side watching tv when he hears his girlfriend. the word still sounds funny to him. luke danes has a girlfriend. a real girlfriend. a girlfriend who he is trying to figure a way to propose to. a girlfriend that he is head over heels in love with. a girlfriend with a daughter, a daughter who calls him ‘daddy’. a daughter that luke loves as if she was his OWN. he’s sitting on their couch, rory tucked against his side watching tv. “lorelai?”
THE IDEA THAT SOMEONE JUST WANTS TO HELP IS A STARTLING CONCEPT, sure, there’s mia —– but otherwise it’s a pretty foreign concept. her parents wanting to help had always translated to ‘well lorelai time to control your life!’, so that didn’t really count. the other maids at the inn hate her, she’s a big enough person to admit that she SUCKS at her job ( but she’s determined to get better ), so she finds little help with them. this is her first real venture out of the security of the inn, and all her walls are up. the last few times she’s needed something, mia’s gone herself. this time, though, the owner of the independence inn convinced lorelai to come along. then she just —– left her here. and lorelai doesn’t expect help —– why would anyone want to approach the seventeen year old mom with a confused look on her face? that would be helpful! if there’s one thing she’s learned in her life, it’s that people aren’t helpful unless they can get something out of it. she’s still not convinced mia’s the exception. that’s why, when statue boy actually says something, she sits in silence for several seconds, incredulity spreading across her face.
“you want to HELP?” any witty response is out the window, she’s too surprised for that —– but she’s not about to turn him down. not with mia wandering around outside somewhere ( lorelai suspects it’s all some big plot to push her toward independence ) “uh, okay, well you can start with letting me know if any of this stuff is actually edible,” eyes flick back to the selection of varied mush, “because i don’t know where my parents were getting food and all that but,” she holds up one of the small jars, “i really doubt it was this. theirs was probably some —– ridiculous imported shit that costs more to get here than i could make in an entire year,” that’s the downside to leaving home. she knows how to change her daughter’s diaper, but that’s about it. her parents let the maid do just about everything else ( because that’s part of her job, her mother always insisted ). so all of this is new —– and it’s scary, but she’s going to figure it out. any help she can find along the way is just abonus.
STARS HOLLOW HAS ALWAYS BEEN A PLACE WILLING TO LEND a hand to those in need. luke’s mother had died a few years back and the entire town made sure that his family was settled and taken care of. lately, the town’s focus had been on liz and her son before they darted out of town a week ago. now stars hollow is waiting to pick up their new project. just from the way the confused woman looked when luke questioned her, he guessed that she didn’t want to be the town’s project.
“it’s a hollow thing,” he states before walking towards her. he happens to catch the time on the clock taylor just had installed. “don’t move! i’ll be right back.” before he knew what he was doing, luke was out the door and runs across the street. he throws open the door of his father’s hardware store and finds the owner, telling him that something came up and he can’t be at work. the elder danes rolls his eyes but dismisses his son. luke quickly thanks him before running back over, finding the girl in the same position that he left her in.
“now,” he states as he takes a seat next to her. “jess, my sister’s kid, seems to like it. he’s more a mashed peas baby, though.”
ACTUALLY COMING INTO TOWN WAS ALWAYS A LITTLE SCARY. she didn’t do it often —- she ate at the inn, she slept at the inn, she worked at the inn, she interacted with her coworkers ( whether they liked her or not ). one thing the inn didn’t seem to have, however, were baby supplies —- and it turned out those were pretty important. she’d only been here a few months, and while everyone in stars hollow seemed nice enough, the reactions she’d received in hartford for having a kid were enough to make lorelai want to keep to herself while she got settled in. the fact that mia was nice enough to come into town with her was like a godsend ( which, as it turned out, was something she’d actually called mia like a THOUSAND times since moving here ). generally, lorelai tried not to care what people thought of her, people would think what they wanted to regardless of anything you did to try and stop them, but the idea of the peering eyes of people who were mostly strangers while the seventeen year old walked around the small market with an infant had been a little nerve wracking. the fact that lorelai gilmore had so rarely set foot in a grocery store in her life and probably looked like an idiot traipsing around with no clue what she was doing was only the icing on the cake.her list was short ( more out of necessity than anything, because she was POOR now ) only essentials —– mostly things for rory: diapers, baby food, not a whole lot else —- but that didn’t mean finding the things she needed was easy. especially since mia had wanted to take rory for a walk through the town square, leaving the teenager to fend for herself ( because she was too damn stubborn to ask for anymore help, thank you very much ). brow furrowed as she sat, obsessively reading labels in an attempt to figure out what the hell she was supposed to be doing. how was anyone supposed to figure this out? out of pure spite, angry with herself for even thinking it, lorelai found herself shoving the idea that she might’ve taken her parent’s help for granted to the back of her mind ( because she couldn’t even THINK about going back —– that wasn’t an option ). attention shifted briefly to a boy close to her age just standing there. eyebrows raised as she turned back to the dilemma at hand, speaking as she continued to debate between mashed peas and pureed pears (neither sounded particularly appealing ).
“are you a statue? or were you trying to get by? you should’ve just SAID something. unless you’re a statue, then i GUESS you probably can’t,”
HE’S HEARD ALL ABOUT THE NEW MAID at the independence inn. the entire town has heard about the young woman with an infant that mia took in, but no one has truly seen her since her eventful move to the small town. luke had guessed she stayed pretty well hidden at the inn, everything a person would need would be there. well, except the things essential for such a small child. luke was suppose to be at his father’s hardware store five minutes ago, but he spotted her walking to the market and couldn’t help but follow her.
she’s beautiful, he thinks to himself, not registering that he might be scaring the young woman as he stands at the beginning of the aisle. he raises an eyebrow upon hearing the teen speak. she has a sort of spice to her, no matter how awkward and out of place she looks.
“you look like you needed some help. my sister just had a kid, thought you could use a hand.”
