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-4-

Joyce looked on in horror at Lorelai as the other woman sat opposite placing more and more on her plate, "My god, you're not seriously going to eat all that are you?"

"Yeah," frowned Lorelai looking up. "I take it you're not use to seeing anyone eat so much?"

"On the contrary, on occasions, I've had to feed my daughter and her friends. Xander alone could probably eat a whole side of beef."

"Xander. Is he your daughter's boyfriend?"

"No. Although at one time I did think they might get together, well hoped anyway!" sighed Joyce. "He's a nice young man. You know the type every mother hopes her daughter will meet..." she trailed off.

"Not my type then," laughed Lorelai.

"Well I should hope not because you're a married woman," chuckled Joyce. "And anyway I don't think you would like to meet his fiancée, Anya, if she felt threatened."

"Probably not!" smiled Lorelai. They were silent for a few minutes while they ate until Lorelai felt the need to fill the silence, "So tell me something about yourself?"

Joyce mused over the question while she finished chewing some bacon and swallowing it. "Well let's see, I'll be forty two in September. As I said, I have one daughter, Buffy. I married Hank, Buffy's father straight out of college, Berkley to be precise, from where I graduated with honours in Art History. I divorced him in 1999, the same year Buffy and I moved to Sunnydale from LA, mainly because it had the only school willing to take her after some trouble she got into at Hemery. Hmm what else? Oh I travel quite a bit buying artwork for my gallery, well I did up until I was diagnosed with a brain tumour..." she trailed off.

"Oh so pretty vanilla, at least until you met me," smirked Lorelai.

"Well maybe mostly, I did the whole housewife thing while I was married," Joyce smiled good-naturedly before a twinkle came into her eyes, "But I did have sex on the hood of a police car with Mr Giles, my daughter's high school librarian... twice."

Lorelai mirrored the other woman's mischief, "I dated one of Rory's teachers for about eight months before hightailing it out of town with Rory a week before we were to marry." Joyce looked a little shocked. "I know it was bad... very bad, we reconciled later. I don't think he will ever really forgive me! But we were talking the last time I spoke to him. I'm still not sure why I ran, it just seemed like there was something missing, I don't know!" she trailed off.

"Or maybe it was something extra he has that deep down you realised you didn't need or want!" mused Joyce as the mischief returned.

Lorelai sat looking across at the other woman, a confused frown in place until her eyes went wide, "Oh my god! And I thought Miss Patty was bad!"

"Miss Patty?" queried Joyce smirking at the other woman's reaction.

"She's a friend. She runs a dance studio in Stars Hollow. She'll go after anything in pants. You'll like her," explained Lorelai wondering again what people would say when they found out about her marriage!

Joyce arched her eyebrow, "Are you suggesting we stay together?"

"I didn't mean that exactly... I mean we must have felt more than a little something for each other to get a judge to marry us after only knowing each other for a few hours," Lorelai pointed out. "But whatever happens, I think I'd like to get to know the person I married and stay friends with her at least."

"Yes, I think I'd like that," replied Joyce smiling a little shyly.

"So if you don't mind me asking! What was the trouble that caused your daughter's expulsion from school?"

"She was accused of burning down the gym..." 'Which she did.'

"God and I thought Rory had frustrated me by sleeping with her married ex-boyfriend," exclaimed Lorelai. "What happened?"

"Nothing to do with the law. There was the possibility that it could have been faulty wiring, so the school just asked her to leave, fearing that if the investigation did find the school at fault they would be sued!" explained Joyce taking a sip of coffee. "Your daughter slept with a married man, I hope her mother doesn't do that," she smiled trying to lighten the mood a little.

"Well of course I do, I mean I slept with a married person last night," Lorelai laughed off Joyce's frown before sobering. "No, it's a real mess. She and Dean broke up over two years ago over another boy, she was friendly with, although I know there wasn't anything going on between her and Jess at the time. Anyway, Dean got engaged to someone else, they married just before Christmas last year... I knew they were still attracted to each other but never thought Rory would give into those feelings... Anyway, Rory was home for the weekend and I come in the front door and he's just coming out of her bedroom... We had a huge row... I so didn't want my baby's first time to be with a married man... I didn't want her to be that kind of girl..." Lorelai started to cry.

Joyce felt her heart go out to Lorelai, thinking back to the fight she had with Buffy that sent her daughter running off for a summer. Rising quickly she went around to Lorelai and drew her into an awkward hug, letting the younger woman cry into her top.

Later, neither could figure out who began it but one moment Lorelai was crying into Joyce's chest, the next they were kissing and pulling at each others clothing!

* * * * *

Lorelai lay facing Joyce under the covers, "So here we are again!" she said with a little awkward smile.

"Yes, again... So do you want to try this relationship? Because if we do stay together, we are going to have to make some very hard decisions, not just how our two families are going to react, although for myself, the only one whose opinion I care about is Buffy's. No, we will have to decide if you will move west and we live in Sunnydale or I move east and live in Stars Hollow?"

"Well Rory's the only family whose opinion matters to me, I have been a disappointment to my parents since I got pregnant, so why change their opinions of me now," Lorelai smiled a little sadly, as she absently caressed Joyce's upper arm. "As for moving... It would be really hard for me to give up my Inn, we only just opened it. I'd be letting a lot of people down, including my best friend, Sookie, who's also my business partner..." she trailed off looking away.

Joyce reached out and lifted Lorelai's chin to look into her eyes. "Well I could open a gallery in Stars Hollow I guess, and I suppose if I sold my house, I could pay the rent on an apartment for Buffy to live near the university. She doesn't like living in the dorms and has been dropping hints that she would like to share a place with a couple of friends," she mused, knowing that even if her daughter wanted to transfer to another college, she could not.

"Really?" asked Lorelai, "You'd uproot your life to try and make our relationship work?" her eyes going teary.

Joyce leaned in and kissed the other woman on the lips, "I've done it before, when I married Hank," she said pulling back.

"Okay, we'll try. So do you wanna go out for dinner somewhere?"

Joyce smirked as she moved in closer, cupping Lorelai's breast. "Actually I think I'd like to right here," she murmured before pressing her lips to the other woman's and beginning to trail kisses down towards her wife's breast.

To be continued...