Ellie in Stars Hollowland

Chapter 1 – Introducing Eleanor Bourke

A/N: Hello! I’m back, with more fan fic. This one, I am extremely excited about. It’s set season 4/season 5ish – and Luke and Lorelai are NOT together… yet. I haven’t quite decided whether Luke is with Nicole yet (it’s not vital to the storyline so far), and Lorelai is definitely not with Jason (nobhead). This is a brand new chapter story… so get excited! Fun times ahead girls (and boys), fun times ahead! Anyway, get reading, and enjoy… don’t forget to let me know what you think on your way out.

Disclaimer: I don’t own Gilmore Girls. Surely if I did, the writing would be a lot less witty… and a lot more dirty. But meh, you win some, you lose some. I do, however own Eleanor Bourke, and she forever shall be MINE!

She walked down the highway, her shoes making a soft noise as they hit the asphalt. A few cars sped past her in the early morning, but she didn’t really expect many. Her guitar slung around her back, she quickened her pace as she approached a sign. It read: Stars Hollow 5 miles. Not long to go.

Lorelai sat quietly at the counter in the diner. Luke was busy dealing with the breakfast rush, so there wasn’t time to annoy him. She silently cradled her cup of coffee, moving it around in her hands and occasionally taking a sip. Soon enough the crowd died down a little, and as Lorelai tried to signal to Luke for a refill, the bell above the door jingled and a new customer entered. Frustrated with Luke’s blatant ignoring of her, Lorelai huffed and turned her head in passing to see who entered the door. Expecting to see a regular townie at this time of day, she stopped for a minute when she didn’t recognise the girl that came in. She looked about 18 or 19 and wore layered white and pink tank-tops under a black shirt, torn jeans and ugg-boots. She was carrying a bag on her shoulder, and had a guitar slung around her back. She looked around a little before making her way to the counter and sitting down next to Lorelai.

“Hey,” she said with a friendly smile.

“Hey,” Lorelai replied, a little surprised that she was being talked to. Ceaser approached the girl and asked her what she wanted.

“Diet coke please,” she replied before turning to Lorelai.

“I’m Ellie. Eleanor Bourke,” she said, her green eyes smiling and her curly brown hair falling over one shoulder.

“Lorelai Gilmore,” Lorelai replied. “Where are you from? I don’t recognise the accent.”

“Oh, Australia,” Ellie said, accepting the coke Ceaser gave her with a ‘thanks’. “I just got here.”

“Was your flight okay?” Lorelai asked.

“Yeah, it wasn’t too bad. The walk was a little tedious though.”

“Walk?” Lorelai enquired, confused.

“I walked here from the airport,” Ellie replied nonchalantly, taking a sip of her coke.

“The nearest airport is Hartford,” Lorelai said. Ellie nodded. “You walked here from Hartford!”

“You have no idea how comfortable these shoes are,” Ellie said, gesturing to her beige ugg-boots. “I can walk for days in these things.”

“You walked here from Hartford!” Lorelai proclaim, still disbelieving. Ellie chuckled.

“Yeah! It was good.”

“Where are you staying?” Lorelai asked.

“Hmm,” Ellie replied thoughtfully, “I hadn’t figured that part out yet.”

“Well as it happens, I own the Dragonfly Inn, which is just on the edge of town. You should come stay there, we have a few free rooms,” Lorelai offered.

“Thanks for the offer, but I blew all my money on the airfare to get here. I’d been saving up forever, and now its time to… start over,” Ellie said, taking another sip of her drink.

Starting over, hmm? I wonder what she’s running from? And why come here, to Stars Hollow, so far away from home? I mean, everyone that’s ‘starting over’ is running from something, right? I knew I was. Maybe I should help her out, find out what’s going on, Lorelai thought.“Oh. Well, hey, you seem like a nice kid, how about you stay in one of our rooms for nothing until you can get yourself a job to pay for it,” Lorelai suggested. Lorelai felt she could relate to this girls situation, wanting to get away and start a new life. After all the help Mia had given her when Lorelai arrived in town, she didn’t want to let down another girl that remind her of herself – except of course, without a baby.

“That sounds great, but I don’t want you to loose business over me, that’s just stupid.”

“We won’t be loosing any business, trust me. And it will make me feel better to know you’re sleeping in a bed and not the gutters,” Lorelai said. Ellie laughed and pushed her drink around on the table.

“Well… okay, thanks,” Ellie accepted.

“No problems,” Lorelai replied. At that moment, Luke came back to the counter and Lorelai immediately jumped on the opportunity.

“Ooo! Luke! I’ve been gesturing to you for ages! Refill please,” she said, pushing her coffee cup towards him. He took the pot and poured some for her.

“I was trying to avoid you,” he said, looking up from the cup to her, momentarily.

“I noticed,” Lorelai replied.

“Just drink your coffee and go to work,” Luke said, pushing the topped-up mug back across the counter to Lorelai.

“Thanks again for doing this Lorelai. You really didn’t have to put yourself out so much,” Ellie said as she put down her guitar in the room Lorelai had showed her to at the Dragonfly Inn.

“It’s no problem,” Lorelai said nonchalantly, waving a hand, “what sort of person would I be to not help out a girl with no place to go?”

Ellie smiled gratefully, “Thanks.”

“Okay you can stop thanking me now,” Lorelai laughed, “15 times on the way here was enough.”

“Okay,” Ellie replied softly, sitting down on the bed. “I think I’ll just… get some rest, then out on the town to find myself a job… that walk sorta took a bit out of me.” She took off her ugg-boots and lay back on the bed, shutting her eyes.

“Sleep well,” Lorelai said with a slight smile, and even before she shut the door, Ellie was fast asleep. That kid sure does look tired. I hope she’s alright. I hope it’s nothing too heavy that’s causing her to run. She seems nice enough too. Sorta reminds me of Rory. Lorelai frowned slightly as she thought of her only daughter, so far away at Yale.Lorelai set off downstairs to work pondering why this new girl had suddenly shown up in Stars Hollow.

Ellie strolled the Stars Hollow streets, looking for a place to park herself. She was about to set up camp in the square, when she noticed the diner she had been in that morning across the street. There seemed to be a flow of people around it, so she crossed the street. She stopped a few metres down the street from the door, and put down her guitar case, taking the guitar out. After a few brief intro chords, she started away on her breadwinner.

There is
Something exciting about leaving everything behind
There is something
Deep and pulling leaving everything behind
Something about having everything
You think you’ll ever need
Sitting in the seat next to you

Luke was bringing a customer their order at one of the tables, when he heard music. His head snapped up, looking to where the sound was coming from. It only took a moment until he pinpointed the source of his annoyance. Standing outside was a girl singing and playing guitar. Luke took a deep angry breath and clenched his fist before dumping the plate on the customer’s table and storming outside.

And I watch
Another white dash
Another white dash
Another white dash
Fly beside us…

“Hey! Hey!” Luke said, cutting Ellie off mid-song. “You can’t do that here.”

“Sorry?” Ellie replied, turning to Luke.

“You can’t do that here.”

“Can’t do what?”

“Can’t play that… thing! That’s what! You can’t play outside my diner without my permission,” Luke ranted, waving his arms about dramatically, as he often did.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t realise you owned the footpath,” Ellie said, slightly indignantly.

Lorelai walked down the street towards Luke’s for lunch when she spotted Luke, obviously mid-rant, flailing his arms about dramatically at Ellie. She quickly ran towards them.

“You can’t play outside my establishment -”

“Luke! Luke! Woah, woah, don’t kill her! Don’t hurt her!” Lorelai said, protectively running in between them and holding her arms up defensively.

“She’s playing music outside my diner,” Luke said in a huff.

“Pretty music for the pretty customers Luke,” Lorelai said sweetly.

“Get her off my sidewalk,” Luke said, crossing his arms.

“Yeah, I’m sure the council agrees that it’s your 'sidewalk'!” Ellie retaliated.

“Hey, hey! Break it up,” Lorelai said, maintaining a neutral position between them. Don’t force her away now… not while I still don’t know why she’s here in the first place.

“Why do you care if I kick her out?” Luke asked, a hint of rant still in his voice.

“Ellie is staying at the Inn for a while until she can get herself a place to live,” Lorelai explained.

“For free?” Luke said, his forehead scrunched up, arms still crossed.

“Yes, for free,” Lorelai said quickly, starting to slowly guide Luke back towards the diner door.

“You’re letting her stay at the Inn for free?” Luke said disbelievingly as Lorelai pushed him towards the door.

“Yes, until she can get herself a job. What part of that did you not understand?” Lorelai said, pushing him up the few steps.

“I… well… stop playing outside my diner!” Luke said as Lorelai gave him one final push through the door and closed it behind him. She turned around to Ellie with a sigh.

“Sorry about that, he tends to… rant,” Lorelai explained.

“I better be moving on anyway,” Ellie said, picking up her guitar case.

“What, what do you mean, moving on?” Lorelai asked quickly, walking back over to Ellie.

“Maybe Woodbury will be better suited to me-”

“No, no!” Lorelai protested, “Don’t get put off by Luke. He’s just the town grouch. He can be nice though too, trust me.”

“I dunno…”

“Stay. You’ll be fine here, I swear. And it will save you walking all the way to Woodbury. That’s a long walk,” Lorelai argued. A small smile broke out on Ellie face.

“Okay, I guess you’re right,” she replied, “I’ll stay.” Lorelai smiled broadly.

“Great. Great,” she said. “You wanna come in and get some lunch?” she asked, gesturing towards the diner.

“I have a feeling he wouldn’t want to serve me… and besides, I’ve already eaten,” she lied.

“Mkay,” Lorelai replied. “See ya.”

“Yeah, bye,” Ellie said, heading over to the gazebo steps to continue playing.

A/N: Thanks for reading! Today Ellie was singing ‘Another White Dash’ by Butterfly Boucher. Please review on your way out and let me know if I should continue this story.