Gilmore Girls: Another Year in the Life

[FALL] Chapter 5: A Gilmore-Danes Thanksgiving

For the rest of the day, Rory decided to spend most of her time writing articles to distract herself. As the sun was setting, she finally got up from her desk at the Gazette and locked the door behind her for the final time.

She walked home in the autumn twilight, but once she opened the door to Luke and Lorelai's, she was hit in the face with the most horrible stench. And besides that, there were a ton more fall decorations hanging in the entryway than when she had left the house that morning. A shocking amount, actually. Streamers, balloons, pumpkins, paper cornucopias, dried corn, and so on.

"Ugh!" She exclaimed, covering her nose. "What's that smell?"

"I said I was sorry, Luke." She heard her mother say from the kitchen.

"Those were the only brussel sprouts I could find on such short notice, so it looks like we're out of luck for tomorrow!" Luke shouted back.

Rory trotted into the kitchen to see Lorelai sitting at the table next to a horrifically burned casserole while Luke paced around the room.

"What's going on?" asked Rory.

"I burned his aunt Bessie's famous brussel sprouts," said Lorelai.

Rory looked at Luke quizzically. "You have an aunt Bessie?" She pointed at her mom. "You let her cook? Luke, we talked about this."

"It was my fault!" Lorelai cried out. "I said I was ready. He's been teaching me and I thought I could handle it!"

"What is so difficult about baking a damn casserole?" Luke fumed. "You put the brussel sprouts in a bowl, you add seasoning, you mix it up, then throw it in the oven."

Lorelai looked up at Rory sheepishly. "Yeahhh, see that's where I went wrong. The recipe said 350 degrees, but the writing was old, and smudged! I thought it said 450 degrees..."

"You incinerated my sprouts," said Luke. "She could have burned the whole house down! She's a menace to society."

Rory look concerned. She tugged on her mom's shirt sleeve. "Hey, can I talk to you for a minute in the living room?"

Lorelai nodded and they walked quickly into the other room together, leaving Luke to fume on his own for a while.

"What's up with Luke?" Rory asked. "He's been acting really strange lately. First, he and Jess have been spending more time together, and he even asked Jess to spend Thanksgiving with us, which is so unlike him. Then he's super upset that April is graduating college and moving away, and now he's letting you bake?"

"I know, I've been noticing weird stuff too," Lorelai said. "Just yesterday, he said he was thinking about getting another dog so that Paul Anka could have a friend and wouldn't be so lonely." Her eyes looked crazy. "Luke said this! The man who's never had a pet in his life and could barely accept living with one dog in the first place."

Rory thought for a moment, remembering something she had read about in a bunch of her baby books. "Oh my god. If I didn't know any better...I'd say Luke is nesting."

Lorelai gasped. "Ew! What do you mean?!"

"Think about it," Rory explained, "He suddenly wants to strengthen family bonds. He's inviting everyone over, spending more time with people he cares about, and he's anxious about losing contact with April." She gestured to all the decorations everywhere. "And just what the hell is all this?"

Lorelai looked around. "He said he got a really good deal at Party City," she said defensively.

"Luke has never wanted to decorate anything in his life!" Rory said. "You had to beg him to repaint the diner all those years ago, and Taylor is always asking him to put up fall decorations, but he never does."