You’re wiping down the counter when Lorelai comes through the door, ignoring the ‘closed’ sign like she always does. Looking up, you start to say a greeting…right before you see the look on her face.

She sits down at a stool in front of the counter. “Can I get some coffee?”

You know this isn’t an evasion of whatever issue cropped up at her parent’s house because she promised to come to tell you everything after dinner as you’d watched her get ready earlier in the evening. She just needs the time and as much as it pains you to wait, you give it to her.

“Luke?” she says softly after sipping on her coffee for a few minutes.

You stop and look at her to see her staring uncertainly at you as she twirls her finger along the rim of her cup.

“Yeah?”

“Do you…do you still think that Rory deserves a prince?”

Confused, you work your way around the counter to sit at a stool next to her so that her knees are in between your thighs. “What?”

“The night…the night of that double date with Dean, you insisted that she deserved a prince. Do you still think that way?”

“Of course I do, Lorelai,” you insist. “What is this about?” What did your parents say to you this time?

She sniffs a bit, bring a hand up to wipe at her eyes, which you gently grab so that you can wipe the stray tears yourself.

“Lorelai…”

But this time, she interrupts you, talking a mile a minute. “She's gone out with Dean and Jess and now this…Logan, who is really just a rich spoiled kid who plays on daddy’s money. When is it her turn to find her prince? When does she get to make that choice without any interference? Because she’s got it, boy does she have pressure on her to make the right choice in a man. My parents thinks he’s perfect with his perfect clothes and car and the ability to get married in some…rich snooty country club at Martha’s-freaking-Vineyard or something. And my dad…he’s helping my mom make up songs about the lapels on Logan’s jacket…and now I’m wondering if his little idea about my contacting this hotel guy was a way to make me more successful and not for me, but for him and his image. He sensed that I was reluctant about it and is hoping that he can hook my daughter up with someone successful and connected. Maybe, this is my fault…maybe she actually does want this…and if that’s true what right do I have to…”

“Okay, stop.” you can’t take it anymore, the tears and the rambling. You pull her to you and she rests her head comfortably in the crook of your neck. Kissing the top of her head, you whisper, “I think Rory is a smart girl, despite the fact that I don’t know much about this Logan kid. Is he baseball bat material?”

She chuckles and you feel stray tears on your throat. “Yeah,” she rasps. “Mind if I borrow it?”

“You are a successful person, Lorelai. I told you that if you wanted to do this…networking thing, you should, but only if you want to. You have to let yourself live, too, you know.”

You can feel her lips against your neck at this, but her body is still tense; she has more she needs to get out.

You’re right; she backs away, but only enough to look you in the face. “I’m worried, Luke. My parents are behind this relationship one-hundred-percent and she knows that I don’t like him. Rory adores her grandparents. Their opinion means a lot to her.”

“You are her mother, Lorelai. First and foremost. She may…value her grandparent’s opinions, but you are her friend and her confidant. Maybe she needs a snotty rich kid for while, you know? After going out with a delinquent…”

“Don’t forget the married man.”

“Yeah, him too.” You hadn’t quite wanted to bring that one up and you’re glad she did, though she did include him in her earlier list. “She’s growing up; branching out and experiencing new things. I also compared her to Pippi Longstocking that night, remember?”

She isn’t quite ready to turn the mood light. “He did some things at my parents house. He took something, though he later put it back. The thing that gets me the most is that Rory stood and let him do it. I’m afraid that he may have an even worse influence on her later.”

“You can’t protect her from everything, you know.”

“I can damn well try,” she retorts back. “And that wasn’t even a good evasion of my said fear.”

You sigh. “You really want my opinion on this?”

She looks at you as though you told her that you were leaving her to go marry Taylor. “Uh, hello, did I not just ask for your opinion?”

You shrug. “You said that you want her to make the choice to find her prince. You and I may know that he isn’t, but maybe she needs to find that out for herself. Maybe she will change him and not the other way around.”

When you look at her face again you are surprised to see that she is looking at you with a gaze full of awe. Wrapping her arms around your neck, she hugs you tightly. There is something else, you can sense it, but you can tell that she has no plans to tell you right now.

As you wrap your arms around her, you hear, “You’re right.”

She freezes in your arms immediately, realizing what she just said. She jumps back.

“No way.”

You really like it when you get to lighten the mood and the fact that you’d just won a certain bet made a few days ago on a whim makes it even better. “But you said it.”

“There is no way that I’m doing it, Luke.”

“The deal was made,” you counter.

“You’re really going to make me give up coffee for 12 hours because I conceded you’re right?”

“You agreed and it’s only twelve hours. You’ll spend most of that time asleep.”

“But Luke, I didn’t actually think that I’d ever have reason to say that you were right about something!”

“Well you did,” you say calmly, taking her coffee cup from the counter and putting it back into the kitchen.

She concedes, though plopping down in the stool she’d previously occupied like a five-year-old shows her hatred of the new plan. “You’re mean.”

You lean your arms on the counter, placing your face close to hers. “I know.”

“So we’ll keep an eye Rory? Make sure that Logan isn’t going to get her into trouble?”

“Absolutely.”

“Gonna help me forget about the ‘No-Coffee-For-Twelve-Hours-Rule-Because-You’re-Mean’ right?”

“I’m sure you have suggestions on how to do just that.”

It doesn’t surprise you when she actually does give you a list of ….well, things that shouldn’t be made into a list anywhere other than your bedroom and you simply stare at her until she stops, slapping herself on the forehead and hopping off of her stool. “Why am I even talking about it?”

You walk around the counter, tugging on her hand and pulling her towards your apartment. “That’s a good question. I’m always wondering why you’re still talking in general.”

She slaps you on the arm, simultaneously tugging on your hand so you have to stop your ascent up the stairs. “Luke?”

You turn and look at her.

With a smile, she brings your hand to your cheek and leans in close. “Thanks for being my prince.”

You roll your eyes. “I’m hardly a prince.”

“We’ve had this conversation, Luke,” she says, her voice taking on a sing-song quality as she starts pushing you up the stairs. “But if you want, tomorrow, I will find a different adjective. We can even keep using ‘Lancelot’ if you want.”

“I don’t want.”

She ignores you and has even now maneuvered herself so she is the one tugging you to the apartment. “Ooh, how about ‘Flannel-protector’? It even sounds like a super-hero!”

“The talking, Lorelai, really…”

She sobers suddenly, as you both make it to your apartment. Sitting herself on the end of your bed, looks at you.

“Hey, Luke, does it ever bother you?”

“Does what bother me?”

“Me. Taking care of me, my daughter, putting up with my endless babbling…I’m annoying and I obviously use sex as an avoidance thing…”

Right there, you have to stop her. “What the hell are you talking about?”

She smiles weakly at you. “There’s one more thing my mother sort of…implied that I wasn’t going to mention but with our little sharing thing going on…”

“Tell me.”

“When I was trying to…explain about Rory and Logan at the Wedding-From-Hell, she said, and I quote: “’I’d never thought of you as a prude.’”

You close your eyes. “So this is your comment about using…”

“Sex?” she grins.

“Yes. As an avoidance? Lorelai, you don’t do that.”

“Um, Luke…”

You interrupt her. “You told me what she said, didn’t you? It bothered you so much that you told me about it when you could have easily continued on with the-“

“Sex?”

You shoot her a look before continuing. “Trust me. I know not to push you to tell me something you don’t want to tell me.”

“It’s not that I didn’t want to tell you. I just didn’t want you to waste the pretty baseball bat on my mother.”

You laugh and kiss her. When you pull away, you can see that she’s exhausted. “Come on. We’re going to sleep.”

Later, she’s wrapped in your arms, under the covers. It had taken ten minutes to get her to stop trying to sneak down for coffee, but when you let her babble on about potential ‘superhero names’ before falling asleep, you’d succeeded.

As you drift off, you remember the baseball bat sitting safely by the door.

End