19.05.2007, 13:48
So, danke für die reviews, ich dachte ich probier das nächste kapitel auch mal an euch aus 
Chapter 8: The house-elf
*Thud* it made and Lorelai bolted up in bed. She was sure that this had been the front-door being kicked open or pushed open. Either way somebody was now in her house, without knocking, at 4.56 in the morning.
She felt the panic rising in her chest and she was torn between the urge to hide under the covers or to grab something heavy and knock out whoever was downstairs. ‘And who now comes upstairs’, she though, when she heard the heavy steps on the stairs. She only hoped he hadn’t killed Rory yet. There surely hadn’t been enough time to rape her, but to attack her in her sleep that only needed a few seconds.
When the steps came nearer and nearer she jumped out of bed and ran to her dresser. She knew that somewhere in there must be an old badminton-racket and that could be useful now.
She took the racket, and hid behind her door, which opened just a few seconds later. She waited until the intruder made his first steps into the room before she took a deep breath and attacked him with the racket. She hit him on the head with it as hard as she could several times and he yelped in surprise, but not in pain. Whatever he had held in his hands dropped to the floor and he turned around and grabbed her hands, then took the racked from her.
With a furious scream she jumped him and kicked him and slapped him as if her life depended on it, which it did. At least she thought so.
“Jeez, would you stop that”, the aggressor suddenly yelled at her and that voice sounded somehow familiar. She knew her murderer. She didn’t stop though and the man made his way to the switch and turned on the light.
She was gripping a red flannel with her hands and his baseball-cap was hanging halfway off his head.
“Luke?” she asked in surprise and glided off his back.
“You stupid idiot, what are you doing here in the middle of the night scaring me half to death?” she asked then and slapped him again.
“I was bringing my stuff over”, he told her and adjusted his cap.
“At five o’ clock in the morning?” she asked him, still upset and out of breath.
“I didn’t want the gossip queens see me moving”, he explained.
“God, I could have killed you”, she sighed and took a deep breath.
“With that thing? The only thing that would have happened is that the net would have ripped. Maybe you should keep a baseball bat up here and not an old badminton-racket. I think a real murderer would have laughed so hard that he would have stopped his attack”, he told her and pointed to the racket on the floor.
“Well, that was my plan actually”, she told him and crossed her arms in front of her chest.
“What are you doing?” came suddenly Rory’s sleepy voice and then she walked in, her eyes barely open.
“Luke is moving in”, Lorelai said.
“At 5 am?” Rory asked.
“I didn’t want Babette or Patty see me moving”, he explained again.
“Why is our old badminton-racket lying on the floor?” Rory questioned further.
“Your mother thought I was a burglar and wanted to knock me out with it”.
“This is too much information to take in at this time. I’m going to bed, but I want the full story later”, Rory yawned and trudged back down the stairs and into her room.
“Good idea. I’m going back to bed also”, Lorelai said and sat down on her bed.
“Well it would go faster if you would help me carry the stuff in, because I have to open the diner in half an hour”, he said and kicked the first box he had brought in further into the room.
“At five am? I think maybe I hit you right on the head that you would actually think I would help you moving at five AM!”, she emphasised.
“Lorelai, come on”, Luke sighed.
“No way”, she shot back and lay down on her bed and put the comforter over her.
“But if we move my stuff in at another time the gossip queens will know it in no time”, he complained.
“They will know it either way, so you will better get used to the thought that they will be bugging you for the next week”.
“Next month”, he groaned.
“Next six months of hearing about it, but then it’ll die down”, she said and closed her eyes.
“Good night Luke”, she muttered.
“Good night”, he sighed and left the house defeated.
~*~
The next day after lunch Lorelai and Rory walked through town to shop for some groceries and on their way home they passed Miss Patty’s.
“Hello dolls”, Miss Patty greeted them and blew out some smoke of her cigarette while she leaned against the open door of her dance-studio.
“Hi Patty”, they greeted her back and wanted to walk past her, but no such luck.
“Well, well, Lorelai you naughty girl, what am I hearing? Luke moved in with you? When is the due date?” she asked.
“Huh? Which due date?” Lorelai asked back.
“The due date when this little tot will come out and conquer the world”, Patty smiled and pointed to Lorelai’s stomach.
“I am not pregnant Patty”, Lorelai told her and rolled her eyes.
“Oh well I thought that is why Luke is moving in, to help with the baby”, Patty said and sounded disappointed.
“Sorry, Patty, but all that is in here are a burger and fries along with litres of coffee and that’s it”, Lorelai clarified.
“Ah, it’s a shame. But maybe when you two love-birds will live together it will happen. I am sure the frequency of the act will play a role as well”, she winked at Lorelai.
“Patty could you please not comment on my love-life while my daughter is standing next to me”, Lorelai said and decided that it would be pointless to tell Patty that she and Luke weren’t even a couple, but two friends forced to live together and to get married eventually.
“Ah speaking of Rory and love-life”, Patty said and turned to Rory, what caused Lorelai to look confused. “I think I found a job for your male friend”, Patty told Rory.
“What male friend?”, Lorelai wanted to know, raised her eyebrows and looked at her daughter.
“They need a stock boy at the supermarket. I already talked to Taylor Doose about him. You just send him around tomorrow”, Patty informed Rory.
“Okay, thanks”; Rory nodded. With all the thoughts about Luke moving in and her mother and Luke getting married she had completely forgot to tell her mother about Dean and somehow she didn’t wanted to tell her.
“What male friend?” Lorelai asked again.
“Oh he’s very cute. You have good taste”, Patty smiled and blew out some more smoke and Rory took the opportunity to hurry down the street, but Lorelai followed her, with the shopping bags still in her hands.
“Oh you’re gonna have to walk faster than that. You’re gonna have to turn into friggin’ Flo Jo to get away from me”, she yelled after Rory, who had finally reached the house. Lorelai entered after her and dropped the bags on the floor and then went to Rory’s room.
“This was about a boy, of course! I can’t believe I didn’t see that. All this talk about money. You got a thing going with a guy and you don’t want to leave school”, Lorelai said.
“I’m going to bed”, Rory just said.
“God, I’m so dense. That should have been my first though, after all you’re me”, Lorelai went on.
“I’m not you”, Rory protested.
“So who is he?” Lorelai wanted to know.
“There’s no guy”, Rory lied.
“Dark hair, romantic eyes, looks a little dangerous?”
“This conversation is over, I’m going to bed”, Rory said again.
“You can’t go to bed. It’s two in the afternoon and Luke will be over at five with his stuff and you have to help carry the boxes”, Lorelai said.
“Luke would never let me carry any boxes”, Rory told her.
“True..mmh.. but he would let me carry boxes”, Lorelai muttered.
“So, he really will be sleeping in your bed? With you in it as well?” Rory asked and hoped that this would distract her mother enough to drop the Dean topic.
“So tell me about the guy”, Lorelai said instead of an answer and tried to get away from the Luke-will-be-sleeping-in-one-bed-with-me topic.
“Mom”, Rory sighed.
“Is he dreamy?” Lorelai questioned further and sat down on Rory’s bed.
“Oh that’s so Nick at Night”, Rory rolled her eyes.
“Well, I’m gonna find out anyway”, Lorelai shrugged.
“Really? How?”
“I’ll spy”, she said and grinned, happy that the focus was off of her again.
~*~
Luke stopped by shortly after five in the evening and his truck was full of boxes.
“Oh boy, did you buy stuff just to make me carry it in? You could never have stored all of that in your little apartment above the diner”, Lorelai sighed when she saw all the boxes.
“That’s exactly what I did. I even filled boxes with stones, just for the fun of seeing you carry them in”, he replied sarcastically. Together they brought all the stuff into the house and Luke was surprised when he found that Lorelai even had made room for his stuff.
He put his kitchen utensils in the kitchen, packed his books in the shelves and hung up his clothes on his side in her closet.
They were finished after nine and both took a quick shower afterwards before Luke cooked them all dinner and they watched a film together with Rory.
When Rory went to bed at eleven Luke and Lorelai decided it would be time to face the situation and went up to the bedroom- their bedroom now.
“Uhm.. I’m gonna”, Luke said and pointed to the bathroom.
“Yeah sure”, Lorelai shrugged and the tension was so thick one could cut it with a knife. Luke took out his sweatpants and a T-shirt with him into the bathroom and closed the door. When the lock clicked Lorelai went into frenzy: She had no idea what would be appropriate for her to wear. She opened her closet and went through all her sleeping clothes: Flimsy nightgowns, silky underwear, tight t-shirts, shorts with stupid prints and thick pullovers for cold winter-nights. She heard Luke brushing his teeth and knew that he would be out soon, so she grabbed the first things that she got into her hands, ripped off her clothes, threw her bra away and put on the clothes she held in hands.
She had just pulled down the shirt when the door clicked again and Luke stepped out of the bathroom, stopped dead in his tracks when he saw her.
“Why are you wearing that?” he asked confused when he saw her pink power-puff-girls sweatpants and her woollen turtle-neck pullover.
“I won’t rape you or attack you, I thought we established that this morning”, he grinned and made Lorelai feel even more stupid than she already did.
“I have no more clean pyjamas, all in the laundry”, she stuttered, looking for an explanation.
“Then take one of my shirts”, he shrugged, opened his side of the closet and took a grey t-shirt out.
“Unbelievable that you have closets full of stuff but not one clean shirt to sleep in. You better do laundry tomorrow, because I won’t do your laundry, just so you know”, he said and handed her the shirt.
“You won’t? So what’s the point of you moving in here then? I thought we would have our personal house-elf now”, she said and went into the bathroom, but didn’t close the door completely, so she could still hear him.
“House-elf?” he asked and raised his eyebrows, although she couldn’t see him.
“Next movie night will be a Harry Potter marathon”, she replied while she brushed her teeth. Luke only shook his head and got in on his side of the bed and took the book he had placed on the nightstand earlier.
“Don’t you look adorable in between the hello-kitty sheets?” she giggled when she came out of the bathroom. He only groaned, but kept reading.
“What is this?” she asked when she got in on her side of the bed.
“A book”, he informed her.
“Oh really? Who would have thought?” she replied and turned the book cover towards her so she could read the title ‘The history of baseball’ it said.
“Huh, whenever I will have trouble sleeping I will borrow this. A few lines and I’m out”, she said. When he didn’t reply she turned over on her side, with her back towards him, closed her eyes and was asleep within a few minutes.
Luke on his side of the bed tossed and turned after he had switched off the light. The sheets smelled different, the sounds were different, the mattress felt different and the fact that Lorelai was lying a few centimetres away didn’t help him either.
He opened his eyes and stifled a groan when he saw that it was already one o’clock in the morning. He turned on his back and stared into the darkness when he felt Lorelai shift on her side. Suddenly he felt her touch his left arm. She lay her head on his upper arm, slung her arms around the rest and sighed in contentment.
He had to smile when he saw her hugging his arm like a teddy bear and watched her for a few minutes before his eyes also drifted shut.
TBC
Chapter 8: The house-elf
*Thud* it made and Lorelai bolted up in bed. She was sure that this had been the front-door being kicked open or pushed open. Either way somebody was now in her house, without knocking, at 4.56 in the morning.
She felt the panic rising in her chest and she was torn between the urge to hide under the covers or to grab something heavy and knock out whoever was downstairs. ‘And who now comes upstairs’, she though, when she heard the heavy steps on the stairs. She only hoped he hadn’t killed Rory yet. There surely hadn’t been enough time to rape her, but to attack her in her sleep that only needed a few seconds.
When the steps came nearer and nearer she jumped out of bed and ran to her dresser. She knew that somewhere in there must be an old badminton-racket and that could be useful now.
She took the racket, and hid behind her door, which opened just a few seconds later. She waited until the intruder made his first steps into the room before she took a deep breath and attacked him with the racket. She hit him on the head with it as hard as she could several times and he yelped in surprise, but not in pain. Whatever he had held in his hands dropped to the floor and he turned around and grabbed her hands, then took the racked from her.
With a furious scream she jumped him and kicked him and slapped him as if her life depended on it, which it did. At least she thought so.
“Jeez, would you stop that”, the aggressor suddenly yelled at her and that voice sounded somehow familiar. She knew her murderer. She didn’t stop though and the man made his way to the switch and turned on the light.
She was gripping a red flannel with her hands and his baseball-cap was hanging halfway off his head.
“Luke?” she asked in surprise and glided off his back.
“You stupid idiot, what are you doing here in the middle of the night scaring me half to death?” she asked then and slapped him again.
“I was bringing my stuff over”, he told her and adjusted his cap.
“At five o’ clock in the morning?” she asked him, still upset and out of breath.
“I didn’t want the gossip queens see me moving”, he explained.
“God, I could have killed you”, she sighed and took a deep breath.
“With that thing? The only thing that would have happened is that the net would have ripped. Maybe you should keep a baseball bat up here and not an old badminton-racket. I think a real murderer would have laughed so hard that he would have stopped his attack”, he told her and pointed to the racket on the floor.
“Well, that was my plan actually”, she told him and crossed her arms in front of her chest.
“What are you doing?” came suddenly Rory’s sleepy voice and then she walked in, her eyes barely open.
“Luke is moving in”, Lorelai said.
“At 5 am?” Rory asked.
“I didn’t want Babette or Patty see me moving”, he explained again.
“Why is our old badminton-racket lying on the floor?” Rory questioned further.
“Your mother thought I was a burglar and wanted to knock me out with it”.
“This is too much information to take in at this time. I’m going to bed, but I want the full story later”, Rory yawned and trudged back down the stairs and into her room.
“Good idea. I’m going back to bed also”, Lorelai said and sat down on her bed.
“Well it would go faster if you would help me carry the stuff in, because I have to open the diner in half an hour”, he said and kicked the first box he had brought in further into the room.
“At five am? I think maybe I hit you right on the head that you would actually think I would help you moving at five AM!”, she emphasised.
“Lorelai, come on”, Luke sighed.
“No way”, she shot back and lay down on her bed and put the comforter over her.
“But if we move my stuff in at another time the gossip queens will know it in no time”, he complained.
“They will know it either way, so you will better get used to the thought that they will be bugging you for the next week”.
“Next month”, he groaned.
“Next six months of hearing about it, but then it’ll die down”, she said and closed her eyes.
“Good night Luke”, she muttered.
“Good night”, he sighed and left the house defeated.
~*~
The next day after lunch Lorelai and Rory walked through town to shop for some groceries and on their way home they passed Miss Patty’s.
“Hello dolls”, Miss Patty greeted them and blew out some smoke of her cigarette while she leaned against the open door of her dance-studio.
“Hi Patty”, they greeted her back and wanted to walk past her, but no such luck.
“Well, well, Lorelai you naughty girl, what am I hearing? Luke moved in with you? When is the due date?” she asked.
“Huh? Which due date?” Lorelai asked back.
“The due date when this little tot will come out and conquer the world”, Patty smiled and pointed to Lorelai’s stomach.
“I am not pregnant Patty”, Lorelai told her and rolled her eyes.
“Oh well I thought that is why Luke is moving in, to help with the baby”, Patty said and sounded disappointed.
“Sorry, Patty, but all that is in here are a burger and fries along with litres of coffee and that’s it”, Lorelai clarified.
“Ah, it’s a shame. But maybe when you two love-birds will live together it will happen. I am sure the frequency of the act will play a role as well”, she winked at Lorelai.
“Patty could you please not comment on my love-life while my daughter is standing next to me”, Lorelai said and decided that it would be pointless to tell Patty that she and Luke weren’t even a couple, but two friends forced to live together and to get married eventually.
“Ah speaking of Rory and love-life”, Patty said and turned to Rory, what caused Lorelai to look confused. “I think I found a job for your male friend”, Patty told Rory.
“What male friend?”, Lorelai wanted to know, raised her eyebrows and looked at her daughter.
“They need a stock boy at the supermarket. I already talked to Taylor Doose about him. You just send him around tomorrow”, Patty informed Rory.
“Okay, thanks”; Rory nodded. With all the thoughts about Luke moving in and her mother and Luke getting married she had completely forgot to tell her mother about Dean and somehow she didn’t wanted to tell her.
“What male friend?” Lorelai asked again.
“Oh he’s very cute. You have good taste”, Patty smiled and blew out some more smoke and Rory took the opportunity to hurry down the street, but Lorelai followed her, with the shopping bags still in her hands.
“Oh you’re gonna have to walk faster than that. You’re gonna have to turn into friggin’ Flo Jo to get away from me”, she yelled after Rory, who had finally reached the house. Lorelai entered after her and dropped the bags on the floor and then went to Rory’s room.
“This was about a boy, of course! I can’t believe I didn’t see that. All this talk about money. You got a thing going with a guy and you don’t want to leave school”, Lorelai said.
“I’m going to bed”, Rory just said.
“God, I’m so dense. That should have been my first though, after all you’re me”, Lorelai went on.
“I’m not you”, Rory protested.
“So who is he?” Lorelai wanted to know.
“There’s no guy”, Rory lied.
“Dark hair, romantic eyes, looks a little dangerous?”
“This conversation is over, I’m going to bed”, Rory said again.
“You can’t go to bed. It’s two in the afternoon and Luke will be over at five with his stuff and you have to help carry the boxes”, Lorelai said.
“Luke would never let me carry any boxes”, Rory told her.
“True..mmh.. but he would let me carry boxes”, Lorelai muttered.
“So, he really will be sleeping in your bed? With you in it as well?” Rory asked and hoped that this would distract her mother enough to drop the Dean topic.
“So tell me about the guy”, Lorelai said instead of an answer and tried to get away from the Luke-will-be-sleeping-in-one-bed-with-me topic.
“Mom”, Rory sighed.
“Is he dreamy?” Lorelai questioned further and sat down on Rory’s bed.
“Oh that’s so Nick at Night”, Rory rolled her eyes.
“Well, I’m gonna find out anyway”, Lorelai shrugged.
“Really? How?”
“I’ll spy”, she said and grinned, happy that the focus was off of her again.
~*~
Luke stopped by shortly after five in the evening and his truck was full of boxes.
“Oh boy, did you buy stuff just to make me carry it in? You could never have stored all of that in your little apartment above the diner”, Lorelai sighed when she saw all the boxes.
“That’s exactly what I did. I even filled boxes with stones, just for the fun of seeing you carry them in”, he replied sarcastically. Together they brought all the stuff into the house and Luke was surprised when he found that Lorelai even had made room for his stuff.
He put his kitchen utensils in the kitchen, packed his books in the shelves and hung up his clothes on his side in her closet.
They were finished after nine and both took a quick shower afterwards before Luke cooked them all dinner and they watched a film together with Rory.
When Rory went to bed at eleven Luke and Lorelai decided it would be time to face the situation and went up to the bedroom- their bedroom now.
“Uhm.. I’m gonna”, Luke said and pointed to the bathroom.
“Yeah sure”, Lorelai shrugged and the tension was so thick one could cut it with a knife. Luke took out his sweatpants and a T-shirt with him into the bathroom and closed the door. When the lock clicked Lorelai went into frenzy: She had no idea what would be appropriate for her to wear. She opened her closet and went through all her sleeping clothes: Flimsy nightgowns, silky underwear, tight t-shirts, shorts with stupid prints and thick pullovers for cold winter-nights. She heard Luke brushing his teeth and knew that he would be out soon, so she grabbed the first things that she got into her hands, ripped off her clothes, threw her bra away and put on the clothes she held in hands.
She had just pulled down the shirt when the door clicked again and Luke stepped out of the bathroom, stopped dead in his tracks when he saw her.
“Why are you wearing that?” he asked confused when he saw her pink power-puff-girls sweatpants and her woollen turtle-neck pullover.
“I won’t rape you or attack you, I thought we established that this morning”, he grinned and made Lorelai feel even more stupid than she already did.
“I have no more clean pyjamas, all in the laundry”, she stuttered, looking for an explanation.
“Then take one of my shirts”, he shrugged, opened his side of the closet and took a grey t-shirt out.
“Unbelievable that you have closets full of stuff but not one clean shirt to sleep in. You better do laundry tomorrow, because I won’t do your laundry, just so you know”, he said and handed her the shirt.
“You won’t? So what’s the point of you moving in here then? I thought we would have our personal house-elf now”, she said and went into the bathroom, but didn’t close the door completely, so she could still hear him.
“House-elf?” he asked and raised his eyebrows, although she couldn’t see him.
“Next movie night will be a Harry Potter marathon”, she replied while she brushed her teeth. Luke only shook his head and got in on his side of the bed and took the book he had placed on the nightstand earlier.
“Don’t you look adorable in between the hello-kitty sheets?” she giggled when she came out of the bathroom. He only groaned, but kept reading.
“What is this?” she asked when she got in on her side of the bed.
“A book”, he informed her.
“Oh really? Who would have thought?” she replied and turned the book cover towards her so she could read the title ‘The history of baseball’ it said.
“Huh, whenever I will have trouble sleeping I will borrow this. A few lines and I’m out”, she said. When he didn’t reply she turned over on her side, with her back towards him, closed her eyes and was asleep within a few minutes.
Luke on his side of the bed tossed and turned after he had switched off the light. The sheets smelled different, the sounds were different, the mattress felt different and the fact that Lorelai was lying a few centimetres away didn’t help him either.
He opened his eyes and stifled a groan when he saw that it was already one o’clock in the morning. He turned on his back and stared into the darkness when he felt Lorelai shift on her side. Suddenly he felt her touch his left arm. She lay her head on his upper arm, slung her arms around the rest and sighed in contentment.
He had to smile when he saw her hugging his arm like a teddy bear and watched her for a few minutes before his eyes also drifted shut.
TBC