Disclaimer: As always, I own absolutely nothing.

A/N: I just can't stay away from the Gilmore-verse, no matter how hard I try. This is going to be a multi-parter, but it won't be superlong like my other pieces. Enjoy and review.

Summary: Maybe fate doesn't exist and there is no destiny, but Rory's not quite ready to believe that. Everything up to Episode 4x04 (Chicken or Beef) happened. After that, their world becomes mine. Heh.

Chasing Fate

Rory could feel her face twitching and contorting as her neutral expression turned into a sad frown. Dean and Lindsay looked so happy together as they held onto each other tightly, posing gleefully for photographs. Rory shifted positions fretfully, her tangled emotions not allowing her to remain still.

Do we ignore fate?

What was fate anyway? Was everything really predetermined? Was there really the one person you were supposed to be with forever? It seemed almost ridiculous, to think that there was fate, or some fate-like force, messing with her head and making her make the choices she did.

Giving up Dean, had that been fate? Was that what she was meant to do? Because right now, at this very moment, it seemed like fate was fighting against her. There was Dean, and he was married. Married! And happy. With someone who wasn't her. And where was she? Watching his happiness from the camouflage of a tree.

If this was fate's master plan, then Rory had to question its leadership abilities.

But maybe Luke was right. Maybe there was no fate. Maybe every decision she had made, she had done of her own volition. Maybe she screwed up, picked the wrong guy, and had no choice but to pay the penalty for her poor taste in men.

Nothing had ever gone the way she thought it would. She never planned to meet Dean. Before him, going to Harvard had been the extent of her fate. That was what she was meant to do. Then she met him, and almost gave up Chilton to stay near him. Then, though, things went ridiculously awry. She fell in love with him. That wasn't supposed to happen. He was her first boyfriend. You weren't supposed to fall in love with your first boyfriend. She didn't think past college very often, but that didn't mean that she wasn't perfectly aware that it could've been her marrying Dean.

It could've been her. Rory sniffed a little and batted that idea back and forth in her cluttered head. It could be her throwing her life away at the age of nineteen. She shuddered at the thought of throwing everything away for suburban married life. It wasn't her. It wasn't meant to be her.

So what was she meant to do? Whom was she meant to be with? Did she just sit back and let fate take her on its bumpy ride? It wasn't working so well for her mother, who still hadn't found love. At the same time though, Luke didn't believe in fate and he was still all alone.

Maybe the problem was in just sitting around and waiting. Maybe people weren't meant to drum their fingers on countertops in anticipation of the day the perfect person would walk into your life.

Or maybe the perfect person already walked into your life, and then grabbed his leather jacket and took a bus back out of it. Rory cursed herself for letting her mind wander back to Jess, though she seemed perpetually unable to stop it from doing so.

She looked up at the happy couple and their wedding guest, who were making their way to the town square, and closer to her safe haven. Rory backed away quietly, before turning around and breaking into a run in an attempt to get as far away from this idyllic scene as possible.

Rory ran to the nearest familiar structure--the diner-- and hurried inside. She closed the door behind her and took a few deep, gasping breaths to compose herself.

"Rory." Luke said, looking up from the counter. There were no customers in the diner, as most of the town was at Dean's wedding. "Are you OK?"

Rory nodded, still trying to catch her breath. She took a few steps forward and collapsed into a chair. She placed her chin in her hand and stared blankly ahead of her as she processed watching Dean's wedding, and then her terrified and confused run away from the town square.

Luke walked over to the table Rory had claimed for herself and placed a coffee cup in front of her. He moved back behind the counter and retrieved the coffee pot. He poured the steaming liquid into Rory's cup, setting the pot down next to her. He walked back to his original position and picked up his rag, continuing to clean the counter.

Rory took the coffee cup in her hands and drank slowly, noticing that her hands were shaking visibly. "Hey Luke?"

"Yeah?" Luke said, surprised she was speaking to him.

"You really don't believe in fate?" Rory asked, setting the coffee cup down and placing her hands under the table. She could feel her legs shaking under the table as well.

Luke sighed and said, "No. I just…I don't think stuff happens around you. I think people need to make stuff happen." He shrugged and went back to intently cleaning the counter.

"No fate involved whatsoever?" Rory demanded, clasping her hands together underneath the table in an attempt to stop her shaking.

Luke dropped his rag and seemed to think seriously about the question. It always amazed Rory how much more serious and accommodating he could be when her mother wasn't around.

"I don't know. Completely predestined lives? It doesn't sit with me. Maybe there is one purpose in your life though, and it's just up to you how you get there. I don't know." He finished, not looking Rory in the eye. This entire conversation made him extremely uncomfortable.

"So you've got to go after what you want." Rory said, reaching for her coffee cup with a steadier hand.

"Yeah, sure." Luke said. "I've gotta run upstairs for a minute." He walked over to the steps, clearly desperate to be rid of this conversation.

"You owe me!" Rory's pleading voice caught him off-guard and he stumbled back around. "What?"

"You asked me not to go to Dean's wedding, and I did. No questions asked, just accepting that you had your reasons because I've known you for a long time and you looked serious." Rory said, standing.

"Yeah…" Luke said, confused.

"Look at me. Do I look serious?" Rory asked, gesturing to her mirthless face.

Luke nodded. "Yeah." He said, still confused.

"That's because I am. I'm going to ask you to do something, and I need you to do

it…no questions asked."

Luke nodded, now concerned by the desperate tone in Rory's voice. "Sure, Rory.

What?"

"Where's Jess?" Rory asked quietly.

Luke's eyes widened. Of all the questions Rory could've asked, that was not the

one he expected to hear come from her mouth.

"Rory…" Luke started, taking off his baseball cap and rubbing his head.

"No questions asked!" Rory exclaimed, growing more upset by the moment.

"It's not that…" Luke started. He sighed, deflating. "I don't know."

"Oh." Rory said quietly, looking down at the floor. "OK. I don't know what I was thinking anyway. It was just a stupid whim thing. It doesn't matter. Forget it." She turned towards the diner door as she continued her disappointed babbling.

"Rory!" Luke said. He still hadn't moved from his position at the foot of stairs, not sure if closing the gap between himself and the young woman would be a good idea.

"Yeah?" Rory asked, turning around. She tucked her hair behind her ears uncomfortably, confused briefly by the length until she remembered hacking it all off in an attempt to start over.

"I can find out." Luke said. Seeing the hope flicker in Rory's eyes, he quickly amended his statement, "I can try…to find out."

Rory smiled and nodded sadly. "Thanks." She said quietly. She put a hand on the diner door to leave, then said, "Oh, and Luke?"

"Don't worry." Luke said with a small nod. "I won't mention it to your mother."