A/N: I feel weird for doing this, but Anna and April won't exist in this story. I don't even like the weird Nicole and Luke relationship because of the legal stuff surrounding it due to Nicole being Taylor's attorny and all.

Lorelai had decided that it was time for Todd and Lane's band to finally move into the garage.

Now, Thea, Rory, and Lorelai were staring at the garage.

Rory started, "Well."

Lorelai replied, "I'd say three years."

Rory said, "I'd say more like four."

"What?" Lorelai said, "It has not been four years since we've stepped foot inside our own garage."

"It was when we got the jeep," Rory pointed out.

"And when I opened the door, I almost got hit by that bat and flew at you, which scared you," Thea added.

Rory nodded at Lorelai.

"Well, you stood by calmly like Dr. Dolittle chatting with the bat," Lorelai retorted at Rory.

"It was a bat, wasn't it?" asked Rory.

Lorelai added, "Wearing an OzzFest tee shirt, I believe."

"Will the man never be able to live that down?" asked Rory.

"No he will not," Thea said.

"Well, Joe Namath will forever be wearing pantyhose," Lorelai added.

Rory said, "True, very true."

Lorelai said, "So, uh, what do we do about the bat cave?"

Thea said, "Open the doors and hope that there's not a cauldron of inbred bats in there."

Rory asked, "Don't you mean a colony?"

"Sometimes a group of bats is called a cauldron," Thea said. "And it sounds cooler than a colony of bats."

Rory seemed to mull it over, "Yes, it does, actually."

"Well, we should get started on cleaning the garage," Thea said.

"Yeah, we did promise Lane that her band could rehearse here after all," Rory agreed.

"Yes, we did," Lorelai replied.

"And they'll probably need to actually get in there to do so," Rory added.

"So I guess we're going in," Lorelai said.

"I guess we are," Rory replied.

"All right," Lorelai said. "On three – one, two, three."

Rory and Lorelai opened the garage doors.

Rory screamed.

Thea looked at Rory, "What the hell was that?"

Rory pointed at some boxes, "Those are the boxes from our attic that Mom was supposed to give away two years ago."

Lorelai was confused, "What?"

Rory explained, "I spent three days boxing all the stuff in the attic and you were going to call a charity and get someone to pick 'em up."

Lorelai said, "I made an appointment, the guy didn't show."

Rory was confused, "He didn't?"

"No, I don't think," Lorelai said.

"Unbelievable," Rory replied, taking a box down.

"Look, I got bored after sitting there two hours, so I left a note saying the stuff was in the garage and he could leave a receipt, and I went to get some coffee," Lorelai explained, grabbing a random piece of junk.

"These guys aren't just allowed to go into someone's garage," Rory said.

"Well, the note said it was okay," Lorelai said.

Thea asked, "How would he have known that it was actually from you?"

"I wrote it on Powerpuff Girls stationery," Lorelai said. "Who'd he think was setting him up? Hello Kitty?"

Yeah, no wonder the guy didn't go into the garage. He probably thought it was a child that wrote it.

Rory looked at the boxes, "I can't believe how much junk we have."

"Hey, these are – these are souvenirs from our life's journey, girly girl," Lorelai said, grabbing a headless baby doll. "This is not junk. Okay, this is junk, and that over there is junk. All right, basically everything I'm looking at is, yeah, junk."

"We're pack rats," Rory said.

"We're Sanford and Son," Lorelai said, taking a ball. "Yuck, bye bye." She threw the ball into the air.

"Wait!" Rory said, catching the ball.

"What?" asked Lorelai.

"Hug-a-World!" Rory said, holding the Hug-a-World to her chest.

"What?" asked Lorelai.

"Hug-a-World, it's my Hug-a-World," Rory said.

"Yeah, it's yours because I never had one," Thea said.

Lorelai looked at the faded Hug-a-World, "Where's the world?"

"It's faded," Rory said.

"Oh, wait, I can see something," Lorelai said.

Rory said, "Canada."

"Canada, nice," Lorelai said. "Okay." She tried taking the Hug-a-World from Rory.

"What are you doing?" asked Rory.

Lorelai said, "I'm throwing it out."

Rory said, "You can't throw out Hug-a-World."

Lorelai said, "I'm not throwing out Hug-a-World, I'm throwing out Hug-a-Canada."

Rory explained, "I learned my seven continents on Hug-a-World, don't you remember? We used to squeeze it as tight as we could and then wherever our pinkies would end up, that's where we were going to go together when I grew up."

Lorelai said, "Yes, many a trip to Uzbekistan was planned that way."

Rory said, "We can clean him up and keep him, can't we?"

"Buy a new one because god knows what's infested in it," Thea said. "It might be infested with termites or something."

Lorelai told Rory, "Throw him outside and I'll see what I can do."

"Thank you," Rory said, throwing Hug-a-World onto the ground.

Lorelai asked, "If I clean up Hug-a-World, does that cancel out me not getting rid of the boxes?"

"I'll consider it a wash," Rory said.

Lorelai said, "How about if I chase it and bring it back?"

Rory asked, "What?"

Lorelai said, "Hug-a-World would like to see the world."

Thea pointed at Hug-a-World, "Look, it's moving."

Lorelai joked, "There's something living there besides Canadians."

"I hugged it, I hugged it really tight," Rory said, grossed out.

"Yes, you did," Lorelai replied.

Rory said, "I have to shower!" She ran away.

Lorelai called after her, "Hey, hey, hey, what about the rest of the garage? Rory! Hey, how 'bout if Lane's band rehearses in the kitchen? We don't use that either."

Thea ended up calling Sage, Aiden, Todd, and Jess to come help move things out of the garage. Jess had groaned over it because 'I don't do garage cleaning' but he went over to help because Thea was his friend and mostly to get away from Taylor's construction.

Todd didn't mind helping and thoroughly enjoyed looking through the boxes while 'no one' was looking – but Thea was definitely watching him every now and then. Thea had seen Todd look disgusted as he held up an old looking bra by the strap.

Later, Todd picked up an old duck stuffed animal, "It reminds me of the stuffy my sister had. I remember that when we were younger, she had this really awful prolonged sinus problem and so my mom took her to the doctor and he mentioned that it was probably caused by dust and asked if she had a lot of stuffed animals on her bed that could be causing it. It turned out that she did have this massive pile of stuffed animals on her bed because she felt bad that there were a few stuffed animals on her and all the others were just looking at her all sad-like. So, she went and just dropped this massive hoard of stuffed animals on her bed. We had to get rid of them and she wasn't that sad to see them go."

"Your family is so weird," Jess told him.

Todd shrugged, "I guess."

Eventually they managed to finally clear everything out of the garage and Jess decided to get food so they headed to the diner.

"Bring me back a burger," Rory called after them, before she went to call Lane to tell her the good news.

Construction was still going on for the Soda Shoppe when they got to the diner.

Thea was surprised to see Rachel sitting at the counter. 

Thea was even more surprised to see a two-year-old girl wearing a light blue puffy jacket and matching blue knit cap covering her brown curls, sitting right on Rachel's lap.

Rachel smiled at Thea, "Thea, hi." To the girl, she said, "Billie, say hi." The little girl buried her face in Rachel's arm instead. Rachel laughed, "She's not used to strangers. She hid from Luke and Libby."

"Oh, is Billie your daughter?" asked Thea. She grimaced because obviously Billie was Rachel's daughter.

"Yeah," Rachel replied. "She's also Luke's daughter too."

It felt like Thea's brain shut down at that. Luke's daughter too?

Liberty has a half-sister.

Even Jess looked surprised at that. "Oh, cool. I got a new cousin, I guess."

"So, Billie..." Aiden started.

"It's a nickname for Wilhelmina," Rachel replied.

Jess asked, "So, why wait this long before springing it on Luke?"

"Well, I know how Luke is about babies," Rachel said. "I didn't want to keep it hidden this long but since Billie is going to be three soon, she should get to have full memories of her dad, half-sister, and cousin. If I kept it silent any longer, it wouldn't be fair to you—" she directed that at Jess, "and to them. Luke would be upset over it and I think that now is the perfect time for them to meet the newest addition to their family so they can have the chance to see her grow up. I have bought us a home here in Stars Hollow and I know that she'll be attending school here so Luke, Libby, and Jess can go on over to visit her." She was beaming with pride. Apparently she had some things figured out.

Sage asked, "Where is Luke anyway?"

Luke came over to the counter, looking a bit disgruntled. He set a plate of fries down in front of Rachel and Billie. Rachel took a fry and blew it on a few times before handing it to her daughter so she can take a bite out of it.

Luke said, "So, custody?"

"Oh, I was thinking that for half a week, you, Libby, and Jess can spend mornings with Billie, while I look after the diner for you guys," Rachel said, blowing on another fry to give to Billie. "Once she gets a bit older, she can start sleeping over."

Luke seemed to mull that over, "If Libby and Jess want to."

"I don't know," Jess replied. "I don't do well with kids."

"Yeah, Clara definitely helped you realize that," Thea said, remembering how agitated Jess had gotten with Dean's younger sister.

"That's totally fine," Rachel told Jess. "I don't want to force you into having a big brother role with Billie."

"Cool," Jess said, taking off to go upstairs.

(He found Libby curled up into a ball on her bed and said, "Stop being a little bitch over finding out you have a two-year-old half-sister," and pelted her with sugar packets. Liberty flipped him off for that.)

Rachel stared after Jess and shrugged it off, before giving another fry to Billie. "So, with pre-school, they have afternoon classes, and I was thinking that you or Libby can drop her off after spending the morning with her."

Luke nodded, "Sounds good." It seemed like there was more that he wanted to say.

"We can work out the rest of the schedule later," Rachel said. "I think it's nap time for Billie." It looked like Billie was falling asleep mid-fry. "And I need to arrange some things at our new home."

"Okay," Luke said.

"Yeah," Rachel replied, looking sheepish as she shouldered a diaper bag and her now sleeping daughter.

Luke went to get the door for them.

Lane's band was moving things into the garage when Thea got back. At least Brian and another guy were painting the inside of the garage.

Rory came over and took the take-out back from Thea, "Finally. What took you so long?"

"Well Rachel came back and is here to stay," Thea said.

Rory was surprised, "Really?" She took a bite out of her hamburger.

"Yeah, and Luke and Rachel were discussing visitation rights over their two-year-old daughter, Billie," Thea said.

Rory started choking on her bite of hamburger and Lane had run over to perform the Heimlich on her, which helped.

"Sorry," Thea said, alarmed.

Lorelai came over, "What's going on? Is everything okay?"

"Oh, yeah, Thea surprised me by saying that Luke and Rachel have a daughter together," Rory replied.

Lorelai spoke slowly, "Luke and Rachel have a daughter?"

"Yeah," Thea replied. "She knows that Luke doesn't like babies, so she wanted 'til Billie was two before springing this on him. She already bought a house here and plans on raising Billie here so Luke, Libby, and Jess can get to know her."

"Well, better now instead of waiting for Billie to turn ten before springing this on him," Rory said.

Thea spotted Phoenix the cat slinking into the garage, "Yeah, I'd better—" She went to get the cat and scooped up the cat. She went to put Phoenix back in the house, but Dave followed after her. "Can I help you?"

"Okay, so I just want you to know that Lane and I had come to an agreement," Dave said as he started petting Phoenix, who seemed to enjoy the attention. "We thought the others were catching onto our relationship and we decided that I should talk down to her."

Thea was confused, "So you agreed to become a jerk to her?"

"I hate saying misogynistic things to her, but it'll throw them off track," Dave said. "And since Lane told me about how she helped drive away a guy that had strangled you and a mutual friend of yours away, I've decided that I like where I live and I like Lane and I'd rather not have you and your friends drive me away by writing letters to me, if you happen to overhear any misogynistic thing that I say to her without having any background information."

Thea nodded, "Okay. But maybe you shouldn't do that, because they seem like decent guys and if you say things like 'stop playing the drums like a girl' they might think that you're a dick and stand by Lane and agree to kick you out of the band. Who knows, they might even be okay with you dating her."

Dave seemed to think that over as he continued petting Phoenix, "You have a point. I need to talk to Lane about our plan and come up with something else."

"That may be a good idea," Thea said.

Lorelai had started seeing some guy named Alex and apparently she lied to him saying that she knew how to fish.

Luke would've taught her, but he was busy spending time with Billie and decided that bonding with his new daughter was more important. So he sent Liberty out to help because Liberty knew how to fish, so there was that.

When Thea asked about it, Liberty glared at her, so it must've gone a bit 'tit's up' for the two.

Apparently Lorelai was asking about Billie and Liberty wanted to drown Lorelai in the kiddie pool that Luke told Liberty to use to teach Lorelai how to fish.

Now, Lorelai had Thea sit in the bathroom watching that fish that Lorelai had caught and named Jayne Mansfield. Thea honestly wondered if Lorelai knew that Jayne Mansfield was also known to be a Playboy Playmate, considering that was the first thing that Jess thought of when Thea mentioned it. River the cat was standing on her back legs, staring down at Jayne who was swimming around in the bathtub.

It sounded like Rory came home from the Korean wedding, "I'm home!"

Lorelai called out, "Upstairs bathroom!"

Rory walked in, "Hey." She spotted the fish in the bathtub, "Oh, no."

"Isn't she cute?" asked Lorelai.

"What happened?" asked Rory.

"The cork fell off my hook and Jayne Mansfield over here bit," Lorelai said.

Rory looked at the fish, "Jayne Mansfield."

"Not the brightest fish in the pond, but she's awfully pretty," Lorelai said.

Rory said, "You caught a fish."

"Yes," replied Lorelai.

"And you brought it home," Rory added.

"Yes," Lorelai said.

Rory asked, "How are you gonna take a bath?"

"I don't know," Lorelai replied.

"How long is it gonna live?" asked Rory.

"Hard to say," Lorelai said.

Rory asked, "What are you gonna feed it?"

"See, this is why I don't fish," Lorelai pointed out.

Rory admitted, "She is kinda cute."

"And she has a great tail swish," Lorelai said.

Rory asked, "So, other than bringing home a pet, how was fishing?"

"Good," Lorelai said. "The lake was beautiful, snowy and sparkly, and right down the road from the Shahaela Lodge and Spa."

Rory said, "I knew that."

Lorelai said, "How could you already know that?"

"Alex told me when you guys left," Rory stated.

Lorelai said, "Two dates with this guy and you're already in cahoots with each other."

"Ah, what can I say?" Rory said, "I'm wily."

Lorelai said, "Uh-huh."

Rory asked, "So, are you going out with him again?

"Uh-huh," replied Lorelai.

Thea asked, "So, are you going camping next time?"

"Unh-unh," Lorelai replied.

"Yeah, you might end up getting eaten alive by mosquitos," Thea said.

Rory asked, "So do you think maybe we should try to rehabilitate her and send her back into the wild?"

"Unfortunately, I think she's already domesticated," Lorelai said. "Baths and scented candles."

Rory said, "We'll just have to keep her."

"Just toss her in the pond that's at the inn," Thea said.

Lorelai said, "Maybe we can train her to do tricks."

"Tomorrow," Rory said. To the fish, she said, "Night Jayne."

"Night Jayne," Lorelai said to the fish.