Sunday afternoons were her favourite. Mia always let her off early so that she and Rory could spend them in town, perusing the bookstore or hanging out at the park and having a picnic consisting of cheap candy and Little Debbie cakes. Six days of the week, Lorelai worked until she was bone tired and collapsed on her little twin bed in the potting shed at the back of the Independence. Mia had told her many times before that she would be more than happy to let Lorelai have another day off, but Lorelai wasn't about to let anyone think she was a charity case. She worked for everything she got and Mia had given her so much when Lorelai showed up at the Independence a year prior that she felt the only way to repay her was to be her most dedicated employee.

"Momma, paper," Rory said, pointing the magazine stand across the street. The toddler pulled on her mother's free hand to get her to move. Lorelai rolled her eyes with a small smirk on her face. Most two year olds wanted pop up books, but no, Rory wanted her mother to read the Stars Hollow Gazette to her every night.

"We'll stop by after we go to Doose's, baby, I promise," Lorelai said, pulling her daughter away from the street and heading up the crosswalk towards the town's market.

"Hey, doll," Babette greeted the girls as the stepped up onto the sidewalk. The Town Gossips had their faces pressed against the glass of William's Hardware. Lorelai noticed that for the first time since she had gotten to Stars Hollow, the "Out of Business" sign on the door was taken down. Lorelai could set her watch by the lack of change in this small town; she was almost jostled by the new development.

"What's going on here?" Lorelai asked, peeking in beside them. She hadn't really taken the time to look inside of it before, as she wasn't all that keen on wrenches and hammers nor would an abandoned store help her with either of those in any case. She saw that despite the sign on top of the building still saying "William's Hardware", the inside had a disconnected stove and a bunch of mismatched tables sitting in the middle of the room.

"The prodigal son returned," Miss Patty said. "He came back last week, started moving things all around in there. Taylor's throwing an absolute fit."

"When isn't he throwing a fit?" Babette said. "If that stick were any farther up that man's tuchus we could roast him over a fire."

"Wait, the son?" Lorelai asked.

"Oh, you haven't heard of him?" Miss Patty asked. "If I were twenty years younger."

"No salavating in front of the kid, Miss Patty," Lorelai said. "I think I have heard of him. Luke, right?"

"Yeah, that's the one," Babette said. "He took off right after his dad's funeral and no one's seen him since. Shame, too. He's such a nice boy. Nice butt, too."

"Ewh," Rory said, making a face.

"Ewh is right, Rory," Lorelai said, patting her daughter's head. "Where has he been?"

"Nobody knows, he's barely said anything to anyone. Except to tell Taylor to stick it where the sun don't shine," Miss Patty explained.

"I heard he followed that girlfriend of his to Egypt," Babette said.

"Rachel? Not likely," Miss Patty said. "She broke up with him right after they graduated. I heard he spent the year traveling, Jack Kerouac style."

"So what's he doing back?"

"We thought he was going to open the store back up, but it doesn't look like it," Babette said.

"It never had a kitchen in it before," Miss Patty said. "That's all new. Or at least new to the building."

The three women turned abruptly at the sound of screeching tires. Lorelai's heart stopped completely when she realized Rory was no longer by her side. She stood rooted to the spot, scanning the cars stopped in the middle of the crosswalk. Her breathing returned when she spotted her daughter being carried back to her. The young man holding her was tall, with piercing eyes and stubble that looked more accidental than stylish. He grabbed up the baseball cap that had fallen off in the rescue and placed it back onto his head backwards. Rory clung to the stranger's flannel shirt, tears streaming down her face.

"She yours?" The man said, stepping up onto the sidewalk. Without thinking, Lorelai pulled him into a crushing hug, thanking him profusely. "Take that as a yes."

Lorelai pulled back, taking Rory with her. "I looked away for a second." Miss Patty and Babette fussed over the little girl as well.

"That's all it takes," He said.

"I wanted paper," Rory said, using her chubby fists to wipe tears away. Lorelai shushed her, kissing her forehead. Lorelai shifted Rory to her hip, sticking her hand out to the man.

"I'm Lorelai, this is Rory," She introduced. The man shook her hand with his large, calloused one but didn't respond with his name.

"This is Luke Danes," Miss Patty said for him. "We were just telling Lorelai about you."

"That's never a good thing," Luke said, shoving his hands in his pockets.

"Nothing bad, dear," She said with a smile. "Just wondering what on earth is going on in that store of yours."

"Not a store anymore," Luke said. "Thought it was time for a change."

"It's not?" Babette asked. "Whatcha gonna do with it then?"

"It's gonna be a diner," Luke said. "Should be open by the end of the month."

"Really?" Babette said. "We do need some good eats around here."

"How's your coffee?" Lorelai asked. "I love Fran to death but Weston's coffee is subpar at best."

"My coffee's decent," Luke said.

"Then you'll be seeing quite a bit of me."

Despite the "Closed" sign on the door, Lorelai let herself into the not quite finished diner. She had passed the building a few times, but this time, everything looked mostly in place.

"Tomorrow's opening day," the surly owner said, his back turned as he adjusted the coffee machines on his back counter. "Come back then."

"I just thought I'd stop in and see how things were going," Lorelai said, tucking the newspaper that had brought her to this side of town in the first place up under her arm and sat down at a bar stool.

"They're going," Luke said, glancing up at her for a moment but going back to scribbling notes down. "What'd you need?"

"I don't need anything, jeez, paranoid," Lorelai said. "You saved my daughter, can't I just say hi?"

"You said hi," Luke said. "So bye, Rory's mom."

"You remember her name but not mine?" Lorelai asked.

"She's a cute kid," Luke shrugged.

"You so don't seem like the kind of guy who says 'cute'," Lorelai said. Luke glared up at her. "We have the same name, it's not that hard to remember."

"You said your name was Lorelai," Luke said, going back to his coffee machines. He poured some grounds into the top of one, starting his first batch.

"So you did remember," Lorelai said with a smug smile.

"Never said I didn't."

"Rory is short for Lorelai," She explained.

"You named her after yourself?" He asked, looking back at her over his shoulder.

"Ever heard of King Henry the eighth?" Lorelai defended.

"Fair enough," Luke nodded.

"I'm named after my grandmother. Why shouldn't my kid be named after me? I did all the work," Lorelai said.

"I said fair enough," Luke said. "You don't have to give me the whole life story."

"So opening tomorrow, huh?"

"Anyone ever tell you talk way too much?" Luke asked.

"Constantly," Lorelai said, unfolding the paper onto the counter.

"What part of closed don't you understand?" Luke asked, leaning firmly with his palms on the counter.

"The part between C and D," Lorelai said without looking up from the newspaper. "Rory likes me to read this to her at night. I thought I'd grab it for her before I pick her up from daycare so we don't have another incident. When's your birthday?"

"I'm not telling you my birthday," Luke said, pushing away from the counter.

"Come on, Luke," Lorelai said. "Tell me."

"No."

"Tell me, tell me, tell me, tell me, tell me, tell me, tell me, tell me, tell me, tell-,"

"Christ," Luke said, throwing his hands up. "November 4th, happy?"

"Scorpio, that makes sooo much sense, you're a total Scorpio," Lorelai said, unfazed by his outburst.

"Of course you believe in that crap," Luke said, rolling his eyes.

"Gimme," Lorelai said, leaning over to grab the pen from Luke's shirt pocket.

"You're like a child."

"Technically I am one," Lorelai said, scribbling something down on the paper.

"A child?"

"Yeah, until two weeks from now," Lorelai said. "Then I'll be eighteen. But it's not like you're magically an adult just because you turn eighteen, you're still a teenager, just a teenager who can vote and smoke."

"It never stops," Luke said, almost to himself.

Lorelai tore the small section from the paper that she had written on, handing it to Luke proudly. He took it begrudgingly, looking down at the loopy, girly handwriting over the Scorpio Horoscope.

"'You will meet an annoying woman. Give her coffee and she'll go away'," Luke read out loud, suppressing a small smirk. He set the horoscope back on the counter and grabbed a to go cup from the stack under the coffee machine. He poured her a cup and slid it over to her. "Let's see if it's bullshit or not."

Lorelai grinned widely, taking a sip from the cup. "Way better than Weston's. How much do I owe you?"

"You're my first customer," Luke said, leaning back against the back counter with his arms crossed. "It's on the house."

"You're officially my favourite person, Lucas Danes," Lorelai said, blowing an over exaggerated kiss at him as she got up to leave. Despite himself, Luke felt his stomach tighten. He pushed that feeling down, watching the young mother walk out of his diner and down the sidewalk. When he was sure she was long gone, he snatched the horoscope back up and slid it into his back pocket. He told himself he would throw it away later, but it never did make it to the trash can.