By bedtime, Shelby was still over at her mom's so Luke went to bed, thinking the call would come in the middle of the night. But when it was his alarm clock that woke him from his sleep and not the phone, he thought it was all a dream. He looked over at the bed beside him to find it empty.
Jumping out of bed, Luke checked the bathroom, finding it empty. He checked under the beds, looked around the apartment, checked out in the hall and downstairs. Shelby was nowhere to be found. Luke ended up calling Rachel. It rang a few times before she answered, groggily.
"Hello?"
"Is Shelby still over there?" he asked anxiously.
There wasn't an answer at first. All that could be heard from her end was the bed moving. "Sorry, I'm still waking up. Now what were you saying?"
"Did Shelby sleep the whole night at your place?" He was even more anxious than he was before.
A yawn escaped before Rachel answered. "Yeah, she did..." It dawned on her, fully awake now.
Neither one said anything for a minute as it sunk in. Shelby made it through one entire night at her mom's. Surprise slowly turned to proudness for both parents as Luke couldn't help smile. She did it. Shelby did it.
Luke heard Rachel choke out a sob, but it sounded happy. "You okay?"
"Yeah," she told him. "I'm just so relieved to know our daughter slept over here with me."
"Do you know if...? Did Shelby wake up at all during the night?"
Rachel paused for a moment to remember. She panicked. "I don't recall. I hope I didn't sleep right through her cries." He heard her grab the walkie talkie and the static from it.
"What are you doing?"
"Checking to make sure the walkie talkie still works and the volume is up enough," she explained. "Seems to be." Luke heard the bed creak. "I'm gonna check on her."
Luke sat down on the edge of the desk. He still couldn't get over his little girl had made it through the night.
"Good morning, peanut," he heard Rachel say and heard Shelby's bed creak, guessing she probably sat down. "Did you sleep all right?" Luke could also hear Billy in the background, singing one of the later songs on the CD, so Shelby must have been awake for a while. He had gotten her used to his sleep schedule. Suddenly, his heart sank when he heard Rachel say, "No? How come?" There was a long pause before Rachel asked, "did you have any bad dreams? Yeah? Did you try to wake me? I don't remember hearing anything. How come?"
Luke never thought a heart could skip more than one beat in under a minute.
Rachel returned her attention to him, "Luke?"
"Yeah, still here."
There was a pause, including a door being closed before she answered. "I'm worried. Shelby hasn't said a word since we went to bed last night and even before then, she hardly spoke at all, except maybe one or two words. Just now, all she did was nod or shake her head and shrug."
He held his face in his free hand, rubbing at his eyes. He hoped what happened yesterday didn't reverse everything they had worked so hard for. Luke sighed under his breath. "Well, don't force her to talk. Just give her some time. Should I pick her up from school?"
"Well, let's see if Shelby wants to come home yet or not and I'll let you know."
Luke ran the same hand through his hair, placing it on his side afterwards. "Yeah, okay. I'll talk to you later." He quickly remembered. "Do you have everything? Did Shelby take her backpack with her?"
"Yeah, I made sure she had everything she needed for school."
"Okay. Well then, I'll let you go. Tell Shelby I love her and to have a good day at school."
"I will. Bye." Both of them hung up.
Luke stared at the phone in his hand, regretting all over again as the event replayed in his mind. Why did he have to lose his temper on her? Luke felt like a great big, mean jerk.
Shelby ended up choosing not to come home after school. In fact, she ended up staying through until Wednesday. She would have stayed longer, but Thanksgiving was that week and Rachel had given her a choice: either come with her to her family's Thanksgiving dinner or go home and spend it with her dad and cousin. To their surprise, Shelby chose to come home. Guess, even though she was afraid of him, she was even more afraid of her grandfather.
Lorelai stopped by the diner for lunch and coffee on Tuesday and told Luke about running into Rachel and Shelby that morning. "As soon as she saw me, she ran right over to me and gave me a hug."
Luke smiled at that. "She likes ya," he shrugged.
"It was a little concerning, actually."
The smile quickly dropped into a frown. "What do you mean?"
"I noticed Shelby wasn't letting go, and was squeezing more than she normally does," she explained. "When I got down to her level, I saw she was crying and grabbed onto my neck. I kept trying to ask what was wrong, but she wouldn't tell me and Rachel didn't have a clue, either."
Luke stared at a rag he had sitting on the counter, playing with it in one hand as he picked it up and dropped it again. "Shelby hasn't been home since Sunday."
"Oh..." Lorelai gave him an apologetic look. "That had to be scary for her, having her favorite person in the world yell at her like that."
Yeah." Luke just kept staring at the rag. "At least something good came out of it."
"How do you figure?"
He told her about Shelby making it through the night, and at that point, two nights. This was not how they were hoping, but at least it did. It turned out, though, Shelby wasn't sleeping through the night, however. She just said nothing to her mom. She was waking up the next morning, wet. Tuesday night, Rachel started setting two alarms, one to go off in the middle of the night when Shelby usually woke up, so she could go check on her. Sure enough, Shelby would be awake and crying, too. Rachel told him Shelby let her hug her, but she hadn't grabbed onto her like Lorelai.
Wednesday evening, to his surprise, Rachel dropped Shelby off, which she explained about Shelby choosing to come home.
Luke tried to kneel to Shelby's level to talk to her, but the kid took off for upstairs, clutching her stuffed animals in her arms.
"I told her I'd pick her up Friday when I returned," Rachel said as he stood back up.
"Great. Sounds good," he forced a smile. In reality, Luke was hoping he could convince Shelby to stay. Three days without seeing his little girl was rough on the guy. The month she spent with Rachel was stressful in of itself.
Rachel ordered a coffee to go before heading back out to her Jeep SUV for the long drive to Providence.
Luke finished out the evening before finally closing down around nine. Once he was all finished, he headed upstairs where Shelby was playing her Nintendo 64, already in her pajamas and curled upright on the end of the couch. Walking over, Luke sat close by. "Hey, kiddo. You winning?" He couldn't help notice her body tense up when he sat down.
Shelby continued playing in the middle of a battle at the moment. So he kept quiet and watched. Even at her age, Luke couldn't help notice how much strategy Shelby used while playing, not just picking random attacks like the boys did, but actually thinking before choosing. He figured having a mentor who got her into the video games probably helped with that.
Once she finished the battle, Luke told her she could continue playing while he showered and got ready for bed. Afterwards, he told her to finish the battle she was in the middle of and then turn it off. Shelby did just that before saving her game and stood up to go turn off the console, going to brush her teeth and use the bathroom.
As Luke was pushing back the covers of his bed, he couldn't help notice Shelby was trying to climb into bed with Jess.
Jess questioned, "What are you doing?"
Shelby stood up onto her knees and whispered something to him. Whatever it was, caused the boy to jerk his head, back.
"I don't think so, Scout. I am not sharing the bed with some little kid." With Luke in the room, Jess was back to his tough, cool self. When he told her that, Shelby then gave him a push. "Hey! What was that for?"
She answered by trying to shove her entire upper body against him.
"Shell, knock it off," Luke scolded the little girl, trying to sound as gentle as possible. He didn't want to scare her any more than he already has, but Luke also did not want to get too lenient with her either.
Shelby stopped but sat there, staring at the bed.
"What's wrong, kiddo?" When she wouldn't answer, he told her to tell Jess if she didn't want to tell him.
After a minute, Shelby leaned over and whispered something to Jess.
Jess stared at her. "Where am I supposed to sleep?"
Shelby pointed over at both her dad's bed and over at the couch.
"So you're kicking me out of your bed? I'm hurt," Jess teased, but it caused her to give him a guilty look.
"Jess," Luke told him before turning his attention to Shelby. "Shell, are you sure?"
She nodded at the bed.
Taking a breath in, he told Jess to strip the bed while he went over to the dresser and pulled out Shelby's bedsheets. Once Jess striped it, Luke remade the bed, including the mattress protector, letting Jess know to tuck his sheets into the couch between it and him.
Luke explained to Jess, they're see about getting one of those pull-out beds to keep under Shelby's during the day, as he tucked the sheets around the corner of the mattress. He was having Shelby help, taking one end. They spread out her comforter, last.
While Luke was grabbing Shelby's pillow from his bed, Shelby was putting her CD in the radio, pressing play. Jess objected at first. Luke started to step in, but he was slowly learning his kid may have Jess wrapped around her finger by this point because he let her play her music and just headed back to the couch without another word.
With the bed remade, Shelby climbed in under the comforter and laid down.
Luke sat on the edge of her bed. He leaned forward, each hand on either side of Shelby, catching her tense up again. "Kiddo, I just want you to know, from the bottom of my heart, how sorry I am for raising my voice to you. I didn't mean to scare you, and I feel terrible about what happened."
Shelby was lying on her side, curled in a ball while holding both stuffed animals as she stared at nothing. He watched her for a moment. When it seemed like she wasn't even going to look at him, much less say anything, Luke lifted himself to hover over her and gave her a quick kiss on the side of her forehead.
"Love you, kiddo." He then stood up and went to turn out the lights before getting into his own bed.
Thankfully, despite being in her own bed, Shelby was able to sleep through the night. Though she woke up long enough to use the bathroom. It was a relief she felt safe and comfortable sleeping at home, still.
The next morning, Luke and Shelby were the first ones up and got dressed.
Luke made breakfast for the two of them, downstairs so they wouldn't wake Jess, along with the morning customers.
Afterwards, they headed back upstairs to brush their teeth. Once they were set for the day, Luke turned on the parade for Shelby, making sure the sound was low but loud enough Shelby could hear. He sat and watched, not having seen the parade since he was a kid. While watching, Luke recalled curled up on the couch as a little boy with his mom and sister as they watched together. It sure changed a lot since he last seen the parade that ran through the streets of New York City. Since his own mom passed away, it been too hard for him to watch as he grew older. In fact, Luke felt the urge to stand up and go start on the turkey.
Just as he was about to stand, Shelby suddenly bolted around the coffee table, hiding on the other side.
Confused, Luke asked, "What's wrong, Shell?" He looked over at the TV to see the clown guy from the McDonald's commercials waving as the camera switched to different angles. She remained in hiding until Ronald McDonald passed by and leaned her upper body on the coffee table to continue watching. If Luke had to take a guess, the kid had a fear of clowns.
Not wanting to push her about it, Luke told her he was going to go downstairs and start on the feast. "I could use my little assistant," he told her.
Shelby continued to watch the parade, leaning over her arms.
Luke let her be and headed downstairs to start cooking the turkey he had prepared the day before.
As they have every year, Lorelai and Rory dropped by, bearing flowers, which Luke and Lorelai had the exact same argument they have every year about what he was going to do with flowers when he didn't own a vase. In the end, Rory put an end to it and Luke just tossed the flowers on the counter.
Luke headed upstairs to let Shelby know they were there, telling her to turn off the video game she was now playing when she finished the battle.
Eventually, she came down and made a beeline for Lorelai. For the rest of the time she was there, Shelby clung to her side and sat close to her as they ate. Rory ended up leaving before dessert to head for Dean's, to have dinner with his family. Lorelai stayed for another half an hour, not wanting to miss out on the pie Luke baked.
"You want some pie, sweetheart?" Lorelai asked for Luke as they finished eating.
"Don't worry, kiddo," he assured Shelby, sitting across from her. "I made sure to make apple pie, too."
"Shelby doesn't like pumpkin, I take it?" Lorelai guessed.
Luke wiped the corners of his mouth on his napkin. "Shelby's allergic to pumpkin, along with other things in the squash category," he explained, "including zucchini and cucumber."
She nodded. "So that's why she never wants pickles on her cheeseburger."
"Yep. Shelby loves apple, though. Right, Shell?" he smiled over at her.
Shelby didn't respond. She just stared at her plate, slowly working on what she had left of her green bean casserole.
The smile quickly vanished.
Luke stole a look over at Lorelai, who gave him a reassuring smile that told him this will pass. She and Rory had moments like this where they didn't speak to the other, and it always blew over and brought them even closer. He couldn't help wonder if that was even possible as close as the mother and daughter were. From what the guy could tell, how much closer can two individuals get? But Lorelai assured him it was possible.
Honestly, it was something Luke wondered about his and his daughter's relationship. They had already become so close in the past year, and the kid opened doors to things Luke never thought would open in his life and he couldn't help be curious what other doors would cross his life's path in the future, being a father.
Once it was time for Lorelai to leave, Shelby became even more clingy.
"Sweetheart, what's wrong? Why don't you want me to leave?" she asked, kneeled at her level.
Shelby didn't make eye contact. Just stared at nothing, biting down on her lip.
"I have to go check in at the inn, make sure Michel hasn't scared anyone away," Lorelai told her, trying to add some lightheartedness to the situation to at least get a smile.
Shelby's chest started moving in and out as her eyes watered. Lorelai told her, gently, to take deep breaths, but she couldn't get the kid to talk, not even a whisper. She tried holding her, and even went upstairs, kicking Jess out so they would be alone to help ease Shelby's anxiety. Nothing. Shelby just clung to the young woman. She even tried to encourage her to write her feelings down on paper. Shelby wouldn't even do that, not even draw them, either. All the kid would, or could do, was cry.
After a while, Lorelai came back downstairs.
Luke, who was a nervous wreck about the whole situation, perked up like a dog who was being offered a treat, eager and hoping for a resolve.
"I offered if Shelby would like to spend the rest of her holiday break at our house and she nodded yes," she explained.
His heart dropped. "Yeah, okay. That's fine," he said. "I mean, Rachel said she was going to pick her up tomorrow when she got back from her parents', but if that's what Shelby wants to do."
Lorelai was holding Shelby in her arms. She turned her attention to the kid. "Is it still what you want to do, sweetheart? Or do you want to go back to your mom's?"
Shelby nodded while Lorelai was finishing her question.
"You want to come to our house?"
She nodded once more from her shoulder.
"I'll let Rachel know when she gets here tomorrow," Luke said. He headed upstairs to pack some clothes and other things Shelby will need, including her stuffed animals, and knowing his kid, her Nintendo 64. When he returned downstairs, Luke overheard Lorelai telling her, she would have to come to the inn with her, over the weekend since Rory had plans to spend with Dean and Lane, and homework. It seemed like Shelby didn't mind. "Are you sure you don't mind? I don't want Shelby intruding on anything you had planned, or feel like you're obligated."
"Really, Luke, it's fine," she assured him. "Shelby won't be intruding on anything, I promise. Whatever it takes to help her move past what happened last weekend, I'm good with. Maybe by the end of the break, she'll be up for talking again. Who knows, maybe Rory will be able to get it out of her. She was the only successful one to find out why she was mad at her mom."
"True," he said, remembering when Rory had blurted out. It seemed like the older kids were having more luck with Shelby than they were, at times. He wasn't sure what kind of power Rory, or even Jess, had. Luke was just thankful they had it.
Lorelai didn't have to carry the duffel bag all the way to her house. Luke offered to give them a lift, closing the diner in the meantime. While he was gone, Caesar and the other guy cleaned up which Luke gave them the rest of the day, off, once he got back, and worked the evening shift by himself since there weren't that many customers.
The whole time, Shelby remained on his mind.