Samantha put her hair in a low ponytail as she skipped downstairs to start her shift.
"Lucas!" she went over to where her father was talking to Lorelai and put her hands on her hips, "I want to man the register today."
"You want to do what?"
"I want to press the buttons that open the thingy with the bills inside," she simplified it down for him, making her mom chuckle.
"I know what you meant," Luke rolled his eyes. "Are you sure you're ready?"
"Yes, I'm ready--" she started before cutting herself off. "Wait, do I have to talk to Taylor?"
"Not for a couple of hours," Luke shrugged. "He normally comes in around twelve."
"Ah yes," Samantha nodded, "after scaring away all the children."
"Oh no," Lorelai cut in. "He scares the children after noon, before twelve he bosses around all the senior citizens."
Samantha laughed before catching sight of a certain manchild entering the diner. "Oh, Kirk!" she called out to him. "I got the star-shaped cookie cutter for your french toast."
"Yes!" Kirk threw his arms above his head, making the blond laugh. "Victory lap!" he yelled before running over to the 12-year-old, picking her up, and running around the diner.
"They make an odd pair," Lorelai observed as she watched them sprint past Taylor, the market owner going after them and waving his hands in the air.
"Yeah," Luke nodded. "They do."
~:~
"Hey Sookie," Samantha called from where she was cutting up strawberries in the chef's kitchen. "Where are the sponge cake cups?"
"Check the drawer to the left," Sookie said as she came in behind her.
"Aha!" Samantha grinned as she got them out. "Now I just have to make the marinade."
"You're getting a lot better at cooking," Sookie complimented as she rolled her sleeves up to help her, Jackson also joining them in the kitchen. "When we started you couldn't even hold a knife."
"Hey!" Samantha yelled offended, "I held the knife, I just dropped it right after I picked it up."
Sookie and Jackson laughed before the doorbell rang. "I'll get it," Sookie said as she went to answer before calling over her shoulder, "Jackson, help Samantha with the strawberries."
"You heard her," the Gilmore girl pointed to the ingredients. "1/4 cup of sugar Jackie."
"You're so bossy," Jackson grumbled as he mixed the marinade.
"What are you talking about?" Sookie questioned, obviously talking to someone, making Samantha and Jackson give each other a confused glance. "It'll be like a big slumber party!"
"Sookie, what's going on?" Jackson asked as his girlfriend walked into the kitchen followed by the twin terrors, making Samantha grip her knife harder.
"Samantha," Lorelai furrowed her eyebrows. "What are you doing here?"
"What are you doing here?" Samantha repeated, making Lorelai roll her eyes.
"I asked you first."
"Answer the question."
"Answer mine."
"Making strawberry shortcakes," the 12-year-old pointed her knife at the sponge cakes before turning back to her mother and sister. She waved her knife between them, making them jump back slightly, "Your turn."
"We have termites," Rory blurted out before her mother could stop her.
"Rory!"
"Oh," Samantha frowned slightly. "Well, I guess I'll have to make more strawberry shortcakes then."
~:~
Samantha ran a hand through her hair as she walked to Sookie's kitchen. However, when she overheard her and Lorelai talking about the house, she decided to listen.
"So how did the bank go?" Sookie asked Lorelai.
"Huh?" Lorelai put a hand to her ear, pretending to listen, "oh they're still laughing at me for asking for a loan."
"Oh, that's just mean," Sookie shook her head as she got the eggs out. Samantha felt her anger at her mother melt slightly, hearing how defeated she sounded behind all the quippy remarks.
"Yeah, I'm thinking of opening a lemonade stand to raise money," Lorelai joked. "You think I can raise $17,000 with a lemonade stand?"
"Dream big, Lorelai," Sookie nodded along before Samantha decided to make herself known.
"Good morning," the youngest Gilmore grinned as she went over to the fridge. "Sookie do you have bacon?"
"Yes," the chef handed her a packet, giving her a kiss on the cheek, before pulling a pan out of the cabinet. "Are you making breakfast again?"
"You make breakfast?" Rory asked as she came into the dining room, taking the words out of her mother's mouth.
"Sookie taught me," Samantha pointed her pan at the red-haired woman.
"Hey," Jackson walked into the kitchen, an offended look on his face. "I helped, too!"
"Ladies, ladies," Samantha held her hands out. "Let's all calm down. You both are beautiful."
Lorelai, Rory, and Sookie chuckled at the unamused expression on Jackson's face as Samantha started to fry the bacon. Samantha glanced at her mother but when she saw the woman was already staring at her she turned away. The Gilmore girl bit her lip in concentration as she tried to come up with a plan to help her. She certainly couldn't ask her grandparents, Lorelai would literally kill her. But maybe she could scrounge up some money herself? She had to do something. Even if she wasn't too pleased with the Lorelai's right now she certainly didn't want them living in a house that was about to fall down. She'd just have to figure something out on her own.
~:~
Imagine Samantha's surprise when she found out Rory was the one to tell her grandmother about the termites instead of her. She held her father's flashlight for him as Luke checked under Lorelai's house for bugs. It had hit her last night that the answer to at least attempting to solve Lorelai's problem was her dad. It's possible that it took quite a bit of convicing on both sides to get his help. Things were still a tad rocky between the two because of the whole you-didn't-tell-me-we-had-a-daughter-for-ten-years thing.
"How does it look?" Samantha asked, not seeing that Lorelai had come outside.
"Like there's termites," Luke responded, making her whack his arm.
"We knew that you turd! What new information did you learn?"
"That for once Kirk was right," Luke sighed. "She needs a loan."
"Well what do we do then," Samantha paced, gesticulating wildly. "We need to help. We can't just let their freaking house fall down."
"I'm fine with lending her the money but we both know she won't take it," Luke adjusted his baseball cap.
"You're right," Samantha shook her head before she got an idea. "Oh, what about if you say that you and some guys can work on the house and she pays you in installments," she pointed at Luke exciedly, "but then you're like you can just make out the check to me though and then you pay for the loan but she doesn't know you paid for the loan and everyone wins!"
"She's not gonna buy that either," Luke stated, making Samantha groan.
"This is impossible!"
"What's impossible?" Lorelai asked, pretending not to have listened to the conversation as she came down the steps, though she was looking at Samantha with a lot softer expression than she ususally does.
"Uh..." Samantha and Luke exchanged a knowing glance. "How solving pollution is impossible?"
"You know," the Gilmore girl continued as she waved her hand around, "because of global warming and everything."
"Ah," Lorelai nodded as she took a step closer to her daughter, the blond not even noticing she was slowly inching toward her until she felt someone pull her forward. Samantha let out a squeal when she was suddenly tugged into a suffocating embrace.
"W-what are you doing?" the 12-year-old stuttered as her mother continued to squeeze the life out of her.
"Nothing," Lorelai grinned as she felt Samantha slowly reciprocate the embrace. "I just felt like hugging you."
"You heard us didn't you?" Luke asked, putting the dots together.
"What?" Lorelai questioned, her voice high-pitched. "O-of course not--"
"She definitely heard us," Samantha cringed as she pulled away from the hug, now extremely embarrassed, as she grabbed her dad's keys. "I'm waiting in the car."
~:~
Samantha poked her head around the Lorelai's house, making sure her path was clear before slowly sneaking up to the front door. She pulled her toboggan down as she approached the steps, hoping to god that Babette and Morry were asleep. Once she was on the porch, the girl started to tiptoe over to the door only for the floor to fall out from beneath her. Samantha let out a scream as she got stuck between the porch and the earth. From her waist up the girl was on the porch and the rest of her was below ground. She wanted to run into a brick wall when Lorelai came out of the house, staring at her open-mouthed.
"Samantha!" she hurried over and pulled the girl up. "What are you doing?"
"I uh-" Samantha waved her hand around trying to come up with something to say, not realizing the envelope of money was still in her hand, "I came to visit you?"
"What's that?" Lorelai nodded toward the envelope.
"This?" Samantha questioned, her voice high-pitched as she took a step backward and put it behind her back, "This is nothing."
"Really," Lorelai snatched it from her hand, causing the girl's jaw to go slack. "Because it seems like it's something."
"Lorelai, seriously, don't open that--and she opened it," the Gilmore girl cut herself off when Lorelai opened the envelope and took the money out.
"17000 dollars?" she asked. "Where'd you get this type of money kid?"
"Here and there," Samantha shrugged before attempting to run for it, only for Lorelai to yank her right back in front of her.
"Explain please," Lorelai crossed her arms, keeping her hand clenched around Samantha's jacket so she couldn't get away.
"Ugh this is embarrassing," Samantha mumbled. "I asked Lucy and Archie to help me pay for your loan and I was sort of going to slip it under your doorstep so you didn't know it was me."
"Samantha," Lorelai breathed, her eyes glossed over as she looked at her daughter who was refusing to make eye contact. "Honey look at me please."
"Look," Samantha took a step back, which caused Lorelai to immediately take on forward. "We can forget about this and you can keep the money to pay for your loan. No harm no foul."
"This is so sweet of you," Lorelai held the envelope to her chest before putting it in the girl's hands. "But I already accepted your grandmother's offer to pay for the loan."
"Oh, you did?" Samantha asked, a weight now lifted off her shoulders. "Well, that's amazing! I guess I can go then."
Samantha turned around and started walking away only for the breath to get knocked out of her when she was crashed into from behind. She looked over her shoulder, furrowing her eyebrows when she saw Lorelai clinging to her.
"What are you doing?"
"You are such an awesome kid," Lorelai sniffled, deeply touched by her daughter's gesture. "I'm so proud of you."
"Are you crying?" Samantha peeked over at her mom and sure enough, there were tears streaming down her face, though they were a stark contrast to the wholesome smile dancing across the older woman's lips. The blond had to look away when she saw something in her eyes that Lorelai only had when she looked at Rory. The pure love, warmth, and adoration painted across her eyes made Samantha utterly terrified. Lorelai was not supposed to look at her like that. She was supposed to look at her sister like that, the one she kept, not her. Definitely not her. This was all wrong. She needed to leave.
"Well," Samantha slipped out of her mother's grasp, "I'm glad everything's worked out." When Lorelai stepped toward her again, the 12-year-old nearly jumped off the porch. "So I'm gonna go. Bye!" And then she ran away.