The maid opened the door to the Gilmore Mansion for Lorelai, Charlotte and Rory to come in for Friday Night Dinner.

"Hi." Lorelai smiled.

"Good evening. May I take your coats?" The maid replied politely.

"Oh, sure, thanks!" Lorelai said taking off her coat and giving it to her, followed by Charlotte and Rory.

"That's the most absurd thing I've ever heard!" They heard Emily's voice coming from the living room.

"Your mother's in the living room." The maid said.

"So last chance to run, huh?" Lorelai joked.

"Excuse me?"

"Just ignore her." Rory rolled her eyes and then they went through to the living room to find that Emily was talking on the phone with her back to them.

"Of course I said it. Well, I can't imagine who would take jackbooted as a compliment. I will not apologise. Every time she went to the pantry, I thought she was marching on Poland. Oh, I see, because I want things a certain way, I'm unreasonable?" Emily asked.

Lorelai poured herself a glass of wine, clinking the glasses together as she did.

"Shh!" Charlotte said.

"Why, that is the most absurd...I want to see this document. Fax it to me immediately." Emily said.

"Fax it to me immediately?" Lorelai repeated.

"She's part of the electronic age." Charlotte said.

"Tomorrow morning is completely unacceptable. It's unacceptable because I'm paying you three hundred dollars an hour. So turn that little near-luxury car around, go back to your office, and fax me that libellous scrap of paper." Emily demanded.

"Ask him if he can pick up some ice cream, too." Lorelai joked.

"Well, tell your wife to tape your daughter's recital." Emily snapped, hanging up. "Unbelievable!" She exclaimed. She then turned round to see Lorelai, Charlotte and Rory sitting on the couch.

"Hi Mom." Lorelai smiled.

"Hi Grandma!" Charlotte grinned.

"When did you three get here?" Emily asked.

"Sometime between the second absurd and the third unbelievable." Lorelai joked.

"I apologise. That call caught me off guard." Emily sighed.

"Is everything alright, Grandma?" Rory asked.

"Everything's fine." She said going to pour herself a drink.

"Are you sure?" Lorelai asked.

"I'm sure."

"You look peeved."

"I'm not peeved."

"Well, you look peeved." Lorelai smirked.

"Kindly stop making me say the word peeved!" Emily said.

"Mom, spill! What's wrong?" She asked.

"That was our lawyer calling to inform me that one of our former maids is suing for wrongful termination." Emily told them.

"Oh." Lorelai said.

"You might at least act surprised."

"It's not the first time, is it?"

"It most certainly is!" Emily exclaimed.

"Really?"

"Yes, Lorelai, really!"

"Well then, I'm surprised." Lorelai nodded.

"It's beyond surprising, it's outrageous!"

"What did Grandpa say?" Rory asked.

"Your Grandfather's still in London helping his mother close down her house. Of course he'd be gone when this happens." She muttered.

"I think he planned it that way." Lorelai joked.

"Which maid was it?" Charlotte asked.

"Gerta, the one from Hamburg, Germany." Emily said.

"Which one was she?" Lorelai asked.

"You remember, she was the one you made all those Hamburg/hamburger jokes to." Rory told her.

"God, I beat that dead horse." Lorelai grinned.

"With glee." Charlotte smirked.

"She was the clomper." Emily told them.

"The clomper?" Rory asked.

"She'd be upstairs making the beds and it would sound like a Munich beer hall rally." Emily said.

"That's why you fired her?" Lorelai asked.

"Yes."

"Because she made noise when she walked?"

"Yes."

"Was she a good maid otherwise?"

"What?"

"Besides the clomping, was she polite, on time, made sure the little fork went on the outside?" Lorelai asked.

"Have you been listening to me? She was not performing her duties as I wished them to be performed. Everything else is beside the point." Emily said.

"Well, I guess it's always something, isn't it?" Lorelai commented.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Emily asked narrowing her eyes.

"It means you always seem to find the one thing about a maid that negates all of her good qualities. I mean, at a certain point, isn't it just easier to let a couple things slide?" Lorelai said.

"I see. So it's my fault?"

"I didn't say that."

"No Lorelai, you did. For years, I've been listening to you and your father and everyone else go on and on about how demanding I am, how I have to have things a certain way. Well, guess what? I pay to have them that way. I pay more than anyone else pays their maids and when things are not the way I want, that means I'm not getting what I paid for. Why is that so hard to understand?" Emily exclaimed annoyed.

"It isn't hard to understand, it's just..." Lorelai tried.

"If you pay for first class and the airline sticks you in coach, people expect you to be upset. No one calls you demanding or unreasonable. And yet here is this woman whom I pay more than she can get anywhere else in Hartford, whose severance package could finance a summer cruise down the Rhine, dragging me into court saying that I was unfair. Why? Because having paid for one thing, I'm not content with something else? That makes me unfair? Well then, so be it! Let someone else pay first class and ride in steerage, not me." Emily said.

"Excuse me, Mrs. Gilmore, dinner's ready." The maid said entering the room.

"Thank you, Brooke, we'll be right there." Emily said.

Brooke walked away and Lorelai, Charlotte and Rory started to get up to go through to the dining room.

"Wait, do you hear that?" Emily stopped them.

"Hear what?" Charlotte asked.

"Exactly." Emily smiled before getting up and heading into the dining room.

******************************

Lorelai was in the kitchen at the inn with Michel the following day watching Sookie and Jackson arguing like they usually would. Soon it came to an end though.

"And it always ends with a hug." Lorelai smiled.

"Hmm." Michel said.

"Ok, what do you need?" Lorelai asked.

"The new insurance policies you ordered." He said handing them to her.

"Good. Now the inspector's supposed to be coming by to check the place out tomorrow, so you're going to have to show him around." Lorelai said.

"What?" Michel whined.

"You're covering for me, remember?" Lorelai said.

"Oh yes, that's right. Tomorrow the two of you go back to school." Michel said dryly.

"It's not school, it's a one-day course at the learning centre." She said.

"How to run an inn." Sookie nodded joining in on their conversation.

"Yes, amazing you've been able to fake it so long." Michel said sarcastically.

"Alright grumpy, is there anything else?" Lorelai asked rolling her eyes.

"Yes. That hoodlum boyfriend of your daughter sat down taking up one of the armchairs." Michel told her.

"Jess?" Lorelai asked surprised. "Why is he here?"

"He didn't say. Just wanted to talk to you." Michel shrugged.

"Oh ok." Lorelai said still confused. She headed through to the reception area and spotted Jess in one of the armchairs reading. "Jess?" She said going up to him.

"Hey." Jess said getting up, stuffing his book into his back pocket.

"Is everything ok? Charlotte's ok right?" She asked.

"Yeah she's fine." Jess nodded.

"Ok, so...?" Lorelai said not really knowing why Jess was there. He never usually came to the inn.

"I just thought maybe we should talk after what happened this week..." Jess said awkwardly.

"Oh..uh..well..." Lorelai said.

"Charlotte and I have talked, Charlotte and Luke have talked, you and Charlotte have talked but we haven't. I just wanted to tell you that you don't need to worry. This wasn't just a spur of the moment thing. I love Charlotte. I want to be with her for the rest of my life." Jess said.

"I always worry." She told him.

"About me?" Jess asked.

Lorelai sighed. "No, not you specifically. Just in general. Look, Charlotte and Rory are my life. I'm their mom. I'm always going to worry about them. That's what moms do." She told him.

"Fair enough." Jess said.

"I know we started off on the wrong foot, you and me. But I've gotten to know you since there. I do trust you, Jess, but this is just going to take me some time to get my head round. This is different to finding out my daughter has a boyfriend. This is different to finding out she had her first kiss or that she's really fallen for a boy. This is just...different." Lorelai said.

"I get that." Jess said. "I should go. I'm sorry I bothered you while you were working." He said going to walk away.

"Hey Jess?" Lorelai said.

"Yeah?"

"Thanks for coming to talk to me." She smiled at him.

"Thanks for listening." Jess said, giving her a small smile before leaving the inn.

******************************

Charlotte and Rory were in the living room when Lorelai walked through the front door with three takeout bags. "Dinner!" She said.

"Over here." Rory said.

"We are so in luck. It was international grab bag night at Al's!" She grinned.

"Cool! Did you peek?" Charlotte asked.

"And ruin the whole point of the mystery dinner? I think not. Pick." She told them.

"That one." Rory pointed to a bag which Lorelai gave her and then gave the other one to Charlotte.

"Ok. I love this! It's food and a game all in one. Now we open them at the same time." Lorelai grinned.

"We know the rules." Charlotte said.

"And do not jump the gun." Lorelai warned.

"There's a lot of pressure associated with international grab bag night." Rory said.

"Well I am your mother, it is my responsibility to give you structure. Now, on three, one, two, three!" She exclaimed and they all opened their bags and smelt their food.

"Hm, Moroccan." Rory said.

"You always say Moroccan." Charlotte laughed.

"And sooner or later, I will be right. What's yours?" She asked.

"Indian I think." Charlotte said.

"Mine's Pan-Asian, with a hint of English Colonial, and a few South African influences." Lorelai grinned.

"Way to hedge your bet. Kitchen?" Rory said.

"Just let me check the machine." Lorelai said walking over to the phone.

"Ok." Rory said walking into the kitchen with Charlotte.

Lorelai joined them after a moment with the phone. "Oh, no!" She said.

"What?" Rory asked.

"No, no, no, no, no!" She said dialling a number.

"I think mom's having a breakdown." Charlotte joked.

"Hello?" Emily answered.

"No." Lorelai said.

"Who is this?" She asked.

"I am not giving a deposition."

"Of course you are, don't be ridiculous!" Emily said.

"Please leave me out of this!" Lorelai begged.

"I see. So you're just going to let this lead-footed chambermaid drag your mother into a public forum and humiliate her, is that it? Is that what I'm hearing?" Emily snapped.

"Mom..."

"Her lawyer knows we asked for this deposition. How do you think it's going to look when you refuse to testify for your own mother?" Emily demanded.

"Like it's none of my business!" Lorelai said.

"Oh, and I'm sure the twelve rocket scientists they assemble as a jury of my peers will see it that way." Emily said.

"Honestly, Mom, I doubt they'll be able to find twelve people in the state of Connecticut who haven't been fired by you." She said.

"I can't believe my own daughter won't come to my defence."

"I'm not going to lie for you." Lorelai said.

"I just want you to tell them how I treat my maids." Emily said.

"I'm not going to lie for you." Lorelai repeated.

"All you have to do is tell them I treat the help fairly!"

"I'm not going to lie for you."

"Lorelai, there is something called family loyalty. It means when someone is in trouble, you help them, as I have helped you several times over the years. The very least you could do in return is spend half an hour saying something kind about your mother!" Emily exclaimed annoyed.

"Fine." Lorelai relented, sighing.

"Thank you. Your devotion is touching." Emily said sarcastically, hanging up.

"I have to give a deposition." Lorelai told her daughters.

"Fun." Charlotte joked.

"I don't think this is Moroccan, or at least not recently." Rory grimaced as she ate her food.

"Want some of mine?" Lorelai asked showing her food to her.

"Nope." Charlotte said.

"Yikes!" Lorelai said actually seeing her food for the first time. "Luke's?" She asked them.

"Let's go." Rory said getting up and heading for the door.

Charlotte was about to follow when Lorelai stopped her. "So your boyfriend came to see me at the inn today..." She said.

"Jess came to the inn?" Charlotte asked surprised.

"Do you have any other boyfriends?" Lorelai joked.

Charlotte rolled her eyes. "Why was he at the inn?"

"He wanted to talk to me. About what happened this week." Lorelai told her.

"Oh geez!" Charlotte exclaimed embarrassed. "Why?"

"Because he said everyone else had talked and that just left him and me." She said.

"Were you mean?" Charlotte asked worried.

"When am I ever mean?" Lorelai asked but Charlotte just raised her eyebrows at him. "Ok fine. But I wasn't mean."

"Really?" Charlotte asked.

"Really. Look, he just came to tell me that I didn't need to be worried and that it wasn't just a spur of the moment thing, that it meant something. And that he loved you and wanted to spend his life with you." Lorelai said.

"He really told you all that?" Charlotte asked surprised but couldn't help but smile.

"Yep. And I told him I would always worry about you and Rory. That's what moms do." Lorelai said.

"You can trust Jess. I do." She said.

"I know. I do trust, Jess. Granted it's taken me some time but I do like Jess. I believe he loves you and cares about you. But as I told him, this is a huge thing for me to get my head round. It'll just take some time, that's all." Lorelai said.

Charlotte nodded. "Ok."

"But I appreciated him coming to talk to me." Lorelai smiled.

"I didn't know he was going to." Charlotte admitted.

"Really?"

"He said nothing to me."

"Well I guess he did really mean it then." Lorelai said. "Anyway, Luke's?" She said.

"Absolutely!" Charlotte smiled.

"Come on then. Let's go catch up with your sister." She smiled and they headed out of the door.

******************************

The following evening, the three of them were on their way back to Luke's yet again for dinner.

"This is silly. I know how to answer a question!" Lorelai exclaimed.

"This is your first deposition. Grandma's lawyers just want you to be prepared." Rory said.

"Sample questions, great. It's bad enough I have to give a deposition, now I have to study for it?" She said.

"Shall we begin?" Rory asked.

"Go ahead."

"Please describe how your mother runs her household." Rory said.

"Ok. Well, do you remember the rowing scene in Ben Hur?" Lorelai asked.

"Mom..." Rory sighed.

"I'm sorry, did that reference date me? Should I have gone with the "Express Yourself" video?" She asked.

"Shall we stop?" Rory asked.

"Sorry, ask me another." Lorelai said.

"Would you say your mother is an easy woman to get along with?" Charlotte asked looking over Rory's shoulder.

"No. Next." Lorelai said.

"You're not taking this seriously!" Rory exclaimed.

"I am taking this seriously." Lorelai said.

"Yeah do you really want her to lie?" Charlotte quipped.

"Fine, but you can't say that." Rory said.

"So you do want me to lie." Lorelai said.

"No, you don't have to lie. It's all about how you present the truth. For example, you could have said that she is a perfectionist." Rory said.

"Uh huh. And do you promise to visit Mommy in jail?"

"Yes I do." Rory said.

"Ok, then. My mother is a perfectionist." She said.

"Very good." Rory grinned.

They reach the diner just as Luke walked out. "Oh, hey! Where you going?" She asked.

"Oh, well, I'm going to Doose's because we are out of food." Luke told them.

"How can you be out of food?" Lorelai asked.

"Well, it starts with the words, "Hey Jess, you do the ordering this week, ok?" and it ends with me selling Kirk a lettuce sandwich." Luke said.

"We've eaten those." Charlotte grinned.

"I'm going to go pick up some stuff to hold us over until tomorrow." Luke said.

"Well, get some burgers." Lorelai told him.

"And tater tots!" Charlotte grinned.

"And pickles." Lorelai said.

"Ok, hold on a sec." He said getting out his order pad. " Ok burgers, tater tots, pickles. You want cheese on the burger?" He asked.

"Cheddar." Rory said.

"And swiss!" Charlotte said.

"Dessert?" He asked.

"Do we have to decide right now?" Lorelai asked.

"I would seriously advise it." Luke said.

"Pie." Lorelai decided.

"Cherry." Rory nodded.

"And apple!" Charlotte said.

"And whipped cream. And dental floss. And paper towels. And People magazine!" Lorelai exclaimed but stopped when she saw Luke giving her a look. "We're really hungry." She grinned.

"I'll be right back." He said walking off to Dooses'.

"I'll come with you." Lorelai said rushing after him.

******************************

Rory and Charlotte walked into the diner and found Jess behind the counter. "So I hear you got the ordering wrong." Charlotte smirked.

"Yup. And Luke will not let it go." Jess commented.

"Oh yeah, he's going to hold it over you for weeks yet!" Charlotte grinned.

"Something to look forward to." Jess said dryly. "So you're back for dinner again?"

"Well I heard there was a cute boy working here so I thought I'd check it out." She joked.

"Huh. I'll let Luke know." He smirked.

"Eww!" Charlotte exclaimed. "Jess!"

"You started it." Jess chuckled.

"Ok, sister present here. Can you leave the cute stuff until you're alone?" Rory said.

"Sorry." Charlotte said.

"Yeah sorry." Jess smirked. "You two want coffee?"

"You know us well." Rory smiled.

"Yup." Jess said giving them some coffee.

"So how come you got the ordering wrong?" Charlotte asked.

"I was distracted. I've been working on something." He said.

"Working on what?"

"Some music." He said.

"Have you been writing a song?" Charlotte asked excitedly.

"Maybe." He said.

"Can I hear it?" She grinned.

"Nope."

"Why?" She whined.

"It's not ready yet." Jess said.

"Well when will it be ready?" Charlotte pouted.

"Soon." He said.

"God you're getting more like Luke every day." Charlotte said.

Just then Luke and Lorelai returned and Luke went off to the kitchen to make their food.

******************************

The following Friday came and Lorelai, Charlotte and Rory walk up to the porch of the Gilmore Mansion.

"I still can't believe it. I can't believe I got sucked in like that!" Rory said.

"Urgh, that Francie is pure evil so she'll probably wind up president." Lorelai said.