I am the teller of tales, the spinner of stories **Version 6**.

Title: Da Capo Al Fine: Season 2
Author: Cassie Valentine
Fandom: Gilmore Girls
Paring: Metnions of Lorelai/Max
Feedback: Yes please
*****

“They think I’m a loner!” Rory lamented when she found her mother at the desk of the Independence Inn when she got home from school. Life at Chilton had been relatively calm since the Debutante Ball and Rory had fallen into a pleasant routine until her guidance councillor had tapped her on the shoulder at lunch. Things had quickly gone downhill after that.

“Who does?” she asked, half distracted, as she tried to figure out the new systems Michel had come up with while she had been gone.

“Chilton.” Lorelai stopped what she was doing and frowned. Rory quickly spilled out the details of her conversation with her guidance councillor and the issues she had raised on behalf of Headmaster Charleston.

“Seriously?” she asked. Rory nodded.

“Where’s Charlie?” Rory asked out of the blue, finally realising that her sister was no where to be seen.

“In my office,” she pulled out a small monitor from under the desk. “I’ll go talk to the Headmaster. This isn’t fair! A loner. . . Just because you don’t live in Hartford,” she said shaking her head before pulling out the phone book to find Chilton’s number.
***
“A secret society! How exciting!” Lorelai exclaimed in a loud whisper as they found a table at Luke’s. The trio was coming in for dinner after a long day spent working and socialising.

“You don’t have to whisper about it. It’s openly talked about, just openly denied as well,” Rory pointed out.

“Chilton just keeps getting more interesting,” she remarked as she flagged Luke down.

“How was work?” Luke asked. Rory and Lorelai glanced at each other for a moment. Luke never asked about work unless he was prompted.

“Michel went power mad while I was out,” she said as she accepted the coffee cup from him. Her first day back from maternity leave had been a little less than smooth and she was looking forward to Luke‘s coffee. “This is decaf,” she said after she smelled it, more than a little disappointed.

“No it’s not,” he said. “See, brown top.” Luke pointed confidently to the brown top of the pot.

“Decaf. Take it back,” she said, pushing the cup towards Luke. They stared each other down for a moment.

“You can’t fool the nose,” Rory pointed out. Luke rolled his eyes before he stalked off to the counter.

“This?” he asked, offering the other, supposedly decaf, pot of coffee and a clean mug in the other. Lorelai wafted the smell towards her and inhaled deeply.

“Fill it up,” Lorelai said with a satisfied smile, pointing to the fresh cup in his hand.

“Jess!” Luke bellowed. “Orange is decaf!” The girls snickered as Luke fell into a classic rant and Jess just sort of stared at him.
***
“Come on, come on,” she muttered to Charlie as she wrestled her carrier out of the car. She was already running late for this insipid meeting that she really didn’t want to go to, but, it was to help get Rory into Harvard so she would put up with it. “You better start freaking out no later than 20 minutes into this meeting. You are my scape goat, don’t make me regret bringing you along,” she continued to rant to Charlie as she rushed towards the school. “Hi, sorry to interrupt,” Lorelai said as she finally wandered into the Booster Club meeting, Charlie cooing away in her carrier.

“It’s alright. Can we help you?” One of the women asked as everyone else at the table turned to look at the new comer.

“Uh, yes, actually. . . This is the Booster Club, isn’t it?”

“It is.”

“I’m Lorelai Gilmore, sorry I’m late,” she said as she came over and took a seat, placing Charlie on the floor next to her.

“And who’s that little beauty?”

“Oh, that would be Charlie. I guess she’s here to boost too,” she said with a small smile. After the ladies had finished demanding the she pass the baby around and they had filled her in on what she had missed, the meeting proceeded quite smoothly. Lorelai quickly offered the Inn up as a good place for a fundraiser dinner and the ladies jumped at the chance. As they each wandered their separate ways during the break in the meeting, Ava came over and informed her that they’d be the models in the fashion show.

“By the way, welcome to the Boosters. We’re thrilled have you,” she said with a large smile before focusing her attention on Charlie for another moment.

“Oh, thanks. That’s great.”
***
The fashion show had gone off mostly without a hitch. After Lorelai had phoned Luke in a panic to come and fix the runway, things had gone smoothly. Fortunately, Charlie had stayed awake through the preparations but had slept right through the fashion show itself.

“What happened to the swarms of people wanting to baby sit for me?” she asked Sookie as she put the carrier on the table by the wall in the kitchen. Sookie shrugged as she took a moment to greet the baby. “Are you sure I can leave her here?”

“Oh yes,” Sookie said with a smile. “Everything is pretty much done, I can just sit back and supervise if I have to.”

“You can never just sit back and supervise,” Lorelai pointed out. Sookie giggled a little as she finally tore herself away from the baby and went back to cooking. Lorelai sighed for a moment before she high tailed it out of the kitchen and got back to work.

The fashion show itself turned out to be not as bad as Lorelai expected it to be and had gone incredibly smoothly and fast, but she was still very, very glad when it was all over and done with. She could have done without the comments from her mother or seeing Anna chatting up Luke from afar. That thing she didn’t have for Luke reared its head slightly before she had a chance to repress it again.
***
“Lucy, we’re home!” Lorelai called out as she lugged Charlie and a few other bags into the house.

“In here,” Rory called from the couch in the living room. Lorelai dropped the bags by the door before she headed into the living room and put Charlie’s carrier down beside the couch and quickly flopped down onto it. “Long day?”

“My mother. And several women who all think like she does,” she said as she sat down, still clutching her purse.

“You’re holding that purse very tightly,” Rory pointed out with a smile. Lorelai sighed a she handed it over.

“I’m too tired to fight with you about this. Be nice,” she said as Rory quickly dug out the pictures.

“You look like Nancy Reagan,” Rory concluded with a giggle.

“Oh, now how is that nice?” Lorelai asked. Rory shrugged and Lorelai heaved a sigh before she liberated Charlie and headed up to bed, the baby in tow. She threw Rory a warning about the kidnapping as she went. “And tell them that if they wake up your sister, they have to take her too.”

“Excuse me?”

“I got a call today from Francie,” Lorelai explained as Rory followed her upstairs.

“What?”

“Yes, she said that she and her friends were gonna come in while you’re sleeping, wake you up, kidnap you and take you out to breakfast in your pyjamas.”

“Why would they do that?” she asked as Lorelai handed the baby.

“Apparently it’s fun,” she supplied as she took off her heels and dug out a diaper and a pair of sleepers for the baby.

“Well, that doesn’t sound fun,” Rory said as she handed the baby back.

“She told me to leave a key under the mat and some money on the coffee table,” Lorelai replied as she quickly changed the baby for bed.

“And you said yes to this insanity? I can’t believe that you are going to let a group of strange girls come traipsing in here and take away your eldest child, your first, precious, baby girl, off to God knows where in the middle of the night.”

“Again, if they wake Charlie up, they have to take her too. Also? If it’s some place with doughnuts, bring me one, ok?” she asked with a smile as she handed Rory the baby while she pulled out her own pyjamas to change into.

“Fine,” Rory said with a resigned sigh as she swayed a little with the baby. She watched as Lorelai came out of the bathroom, took Charlie back and pulled out the modeling pictures again. Rory turned to leave, but quickly returned to snatch them away from her, plucking them quickly from her mothers hands. “Christmas cards!” she said gleefully as she ran down stairs.

“More like your grandmother every day!” she called after Rory as she settled on the bed with Charlie to nurse her to sleep.
***
“What the hell!” Lorelai complained as Charlie started to scream after the ringing phone woke her up. “Hello?” she asked as she picked up the phone and balanced it between her ear and shoulder as she picked up Charlie to try and soothe her back to sleep. “What? What about Rory?” she asked, trying to hear the conversation through the static and Charlie crying. “Yes, okay, I’ll be right there,” she said, hanging up the phone and putting a still crying Charlie back into her crib so she could throw on a pair of jeans. She grabbed her purse and quickly grabbed Charlie and a blanket before dashing downstairs. Charlie was bundled into the car seat and Lorelai quickly dashed them into the car and off to Hartford.
***
“What happened? The reception on the phone sucked and all I heard was ‘Rory’ and ‘Chilton’ and ‘get down here.’ Who’s butt to I have to kick?” she asked as she made sure Charlie was still snuggled in her blanket. It had been too much of a hassle to drag the carrier in with her, so she had just carried the baby. If her little cowboy outfit hadn’t garnered attention Rory’s first day, the 4 month old she was carrying certainly did.

“We didn’t go to breakfast,” Rory said bitterly. “We came here. They broke into the Headmaster’s office as the big initiation.” Lorelai rolled her eyes and Rory soon spilled out the rest of the story. Her mother quickly seized the opportunity to make fun of the fact that all she was doing was ringing a bell. Rory rolled her eyes and eventually had to simply take off to the car in order to get Lorelai to give it up.

“So, what happens now?’ she asked as they drove back to Stars Hollow.

“What do you mean?”

“Are we free of our forced participation in Chilton life?” she asked hopefully.

“One can dream,” Rory offered with a yawn as she rested her head against the window, watching the scenery whiz past.

“Remember the three hour rule,” Lorelai prompted when she saw that Rory was starting to fall asleep.

“Stop for coffee then,” she said with a yawn.

“Can do,” she said as she started to look for a place. “We should probably stop for the 6 am feeing too,” she said when Charlie started to wake up.

“Let’s just live a little and have breakfast somewhere other than Luke’s.”

“You really are a bad girl. Are your toe nails still painted red?” Lorelai asked with a smile as she found a little place and they pulled in.

*****

Part 7**Part 9