I originally posted this story about 3 or 4 years ago. It wasn't until recently that I not only found a somewhat renewed inspiration, but I've actually had time to work on the story. I planned on just updating, but after reviewing the previous chapters, I realized how...bad it was. I decided to completely remove the story and repost it. I figured if those who have already read it decided to come back, they wouldn't have remembered a thing that happened anyway.

It's the same plot and events, just crappy writing made a little less crappy :)

I'm also doing the same with my other story Things Yoo Make Me Do, it's just going to take a while to go through the entire story, but it shouldn't be too long before it is reposted.

This story is post season 6. The "present" parts of the story are around a year after the season six finale while the flashbacks...well that's kinda self-explanatory I guess haha. It's slightly AU at times, and that T rating is a strong one for language and some violence

Enjoy!

Chapter 1: A Separate Peace

She took a deep breath, letting her eyes gradually flutter open as they adjusted to the light that was flooding into the room. She smiled as she felt her back snuggled against the large, warm body that was sleeping behind her. His arm draped across her waist; his finger tips softly touched the bare skin under her shirt. She gently laid her hand across his and set her head in the crook of his arm, pleased with her new position. She could feel him taking small, steady breaths on her back and the hot air hitting her neck. Slowly, she turned her head towards his, watching his content face as he slept soundly. She had found his expression being like this more and more over the past few months.

Turning back around, she looked across the bed; all the way across the bed. Bit by bit, a grin appeared on her face. Suddenly, she felt a rush of air as their two bodies separated, and then watched his large hands grasp at the sheets on the bed as he yelled in a sharp whisper, "Oh God!" He made his way safely back onto the bed, as much as he could, and let out a deep, exasperated sigh from behind her.

"Luke?" she asked, hesitantly but amused at the same time.

"Yeah?" he responded, irritated.

"You awake?"

"Seeing that I just answered your prior question, I probably am." The sarcasm was apparent in his voice.

Biting her lip and closing her eyes, she said softly, "I'm so sorry."

"Every, single, night," he said simply.

"Not every nigh-"

"Every, single night," Luke countered with emphasis.

"I don't know what's wrong with me," she answered honestly. "Maybe we're evolving."

The statement brought upon a snort from Luke. "What are we evolving into; birds? Instead of migrating south, we migrate to the edge of the bed?"

"Maybe it's a sign," she tried again, seeing that her former suggestion made no sense whatsoever.

"Yeah, a sign telling us that we need to sleep in two totally different beds."

"No one's that conservative," she said, rolling her eyes.

"I'm just saying that you need to control your nightly movements."

"Of course. In my state of REM, I'll control everything that I'm doing. That's what I call a piece of cake. Better yet, a piece of chocolate cake, because it's much more satisfying."

Luke groaned, knowing that this conversation, not unlike all of their other conversations on this topic, was getting him nowhere. "Just don't move, okay?" he said quietly, trying to figure out a way to maneuver himself back onto the bed without it being a hospital bed after he hit the floor.

"What?" Lorelai asked, turning towards Luke, putting all of her weight on him while doing so, and…

Thud!

That's exactly sound he made once his body made contact with the floor. A loud, solid, thud.

"Oh my God, Luke!" Lorelai lay on her stomach across the width of the bed, positioning herself to face him. She tried not to laugh. She at least wanted to make sure he was alright before she mocked him.

"Dammit, dammit, dammit!" he moaned, getting louder after each one.

"Luke, sweetie, you okay?" She pulled herself closer to the edge of the bed to get a better look at him. She didn't mean to knock him over the edge. She truly didn't hear what he said. Too bad she forgot what position she had put him in; she could've saved him a whole lot of pain.

"Does it look like I'm okay?" he asked, taking his hands off of his face now that the pain was starting to leave.

"Well, you're dammits could be dammits of joy?"

Luke stared at her for a few seconds before saying, "I wouldn't be so happy if I were you."

"What, you gonna hurt me?" she asked mockingly.

"Just in case you haven't noticed, I am bigger than you."

"Oh, trust me, I've noticed," she responded, giving him a quick, 'I've seen you with your clothes off' wink.

"Geez," His head hit the floor, staring up at the ceiling.

"Besides," she continued, "I'm superior to you anyways."

"Oh, really?" Luke sat up again, turning so he was now facing her.

"Yeah, I mean, look at me in a warm, comfy, elevated bed, and you're down there on the cold, stinky, dirty floor."

"And you think that makes you superior?"

"Yes, as a matter of fact I do."

Luke sighed, stretching out his arm toward her.

"What?" she asked.

"Help me up," he said impatiently, as if his gesture was the most obvious thing in the world.

Lorelai looked at his hand and chuckled, saying, "Do you really think I'm that stupid?"

"Do you really think I'm that playful?" he countered.

"Got a point there," she said softly, reaching out to take his hand. And, against his own word, in one swift motion, he pulled her off of the bed and on top of him, earning a scream from Lorelai.

She calmed down a bit, her heart rate slowed, and she rested her forehead against his, saying, "Well, isn't that ironic. I could've sworn you said that you weren't that playful."

Luke smiled in response, taking a stray piece of hair and pushing it behind her ear. "Guess I misjudged myself," he said nonchalantly.

"Yes, that explains everything," she said, playing along. She kissed him once...twice, before stating, "You know, I'm still superior." She looked down at herself. "I'm still not touching the floor." And Luke being Luke, stubborn and full of pride—much like Lorelai—, changed that swiftly, flipping them over so that he was on top of her.

He settled himself between her legs, his right hand gently stroking her cheek. Luke leaned down, their lips touched, instantly making contact. He slowly kissed her, savoring the moment they were spending together. Lorelai deepened the kiss and let out a small moan in the process.

Luke moved from her lips and planted a small trail of kisses down her jaw line to her neck. She ran her fingers through his hair and wrapped her right leg around his waist. "You know what," she said in a breathy voice, "you can be superior for the rest of our lives for all I care."

Luke kissed her on the cheek and brought his lips to her ear, saying, "I like the sound of that: the rest of our lives."

Luke moved to the bottom of her ear, giving her the smallest bite that sent the most unbelievable feeling down her spine. Suddenly there was a feeling in her stomach that she always tried to avoid at all cost. A feeling that she never welcomed, and if she didn't do anything about it quick, it could get ugly. "Luke?" she asked.

Silence.

"Luke?" Lorelai asked again. His only response was of him sliding the spaghetti strap of her shirt off of her shoulder, replacing the bare area with his lips.

Knowing that he wasn't going to respond to her anytime soon, she continued on. He had to hear her voice sooner or later. "Okay, um." Lorelai had to get her head clear first. The patterns his tongue was making on her skin really wasn't helping her stop him. "Look, as much as I would love to continue what we've started, I kinda need to get some food in my stomach to survive so I won't, you know, die of starvation."

Luke stopped and buried his head in her neck, letting out a small groan. "Why do you always have to ruin my fun?" he asked her seriously.

"Because," she teased, "it makes my fun to ruin yours."

"Well that's a comforting thing to know," he deadpanned. Luke sat up onto his knees, while Lorelai sat up also, her legs on both sides of him. She gave him a small pout, apologizing, and he rolled his eyes, his way of saying she was forgiven. He reached over and pulled her strap back on her shoulder, and outstretched his hands to pull both of them back on their feet.

Lorelai slid her hands up his chest and around his neck, giving him a quick kiss on the lips. "I promise," she said. "I absolutely promise to make this up to you tonight." He watched a sly grin form on her face.

"I'm gonna hold you to that."

"Trust me, I won't disappoint," she said, kissing him once again.

"So what do you want for breakfast?" he asked, even though he already knew the answer.

"Mmmh, the go-to I guess."

"Okay," he said, starting to pull her towards the doorway.

"Umm, you go ahead. I'll be down there in a minute." He nodded in understanding.

Lorelai watched him disappear into the hallway and listened to his footsteps until they reached the bottom of the stairs. She walked into the bathroom and closed the door, locking it behind her.

She placed both hands on each side of the sink, closed her eyes, and let her head hang down. She stood like that for a while, but, after a few deep breaths, she lifted her head, opened her eyes, and stared at herself in the mirror.

Lorelai liked herself better this way. She looked happier, healthier, vibrant-er.

The past year had been quite eventful for her and Luke, and it could all be summed up in just one word: Christopher.

Her mind drifted back to about 11 months ago when she slept with Christopher. She was stupid. That entire night had been complete chaos. From Christopher being at Friday Night Dinner, to her spilling her heart out to that psychologist, it wasn't that surprising that she ended up giving her fiancé an ultimatum the same night. What was surprising is that she found herself standing outside of Christopher's door.

Her thoughts then fast forwarded to his last visit to the Crapshack, but before she had any time to replay the visit in her head, the smell of bacon and eggs seeped through the cracks of the door and filled her nostrils, saving her from the nightmares she knew she would have if she thought about that night ever again.

Lorelai looked at herself again and smiled. The past year had been hell, but the results weren't all that bad. In fact, it was the only thing that she could've hoped for.

As Lorelai made it to the bottom of the stairs, she turned the corner and headed towards the kitchen and found Luke standing over the stove flipping a pancake. She watched him, memorized by the way he flipped the pancake with such ease. She had insisted on him teaching her how to cook…better, but his only response was always, "If I'm supposed to die today, I want it to be naturally; not because you burned down the house with me still inside."

Luke looked up at the sound of her sigh and smiled. "Hey."

"Back at cha."

Luke pointed his head in the direction of the refrigerator. "Hey, uh, will you get me the sausage out of the fridge? I forgot to get it earlier."

Lorelai nodded and started making her way to the other side of the kitchen. "Thank God I have a man that can cook," she said dramatically, running her hand across his back as she made her way to the fridge. After placing the package on the counter, she took a seat in front of the cup of coffee Luke had already made for her. "God has spared me, you know," she said, staring at the back of his head.

"Why you say that?" he asked turning around to meet her eyes.

"Well, for starters I have you," she said with of shrug of her shoulder.

"Of course," Luke said dryly and turned back around. Lorelai chuckled.

"And, as much as I can remember, all of my serious boyfriends could cook."

Luke furrowed his brow as he listed them all in his head. "Max?" he asked.

"Could cook."

"Alex?"

"Could cook."

"Jason?"

"He didn't cook often, but he knew people who did." A few seconds went by, but he didn't call out anymore names. It didn't surprise her that he didn't mention Christopher. If Luke didn't have to say his name for the rest of his life, he would be perfectly fine. He would probably say 'that kid from your business class', or even Roon before he would say 'Chris'. She was saddened by the fact that she made him this way. She was the one who caused him to act this way.

His last visit came back to her. Her eyes drifted over to where it took place, in front of the stairs. Lorelai closed her eyes quickly before the scene could start. All she wanted was peace, just to make the nightmares and visions go away, but when she opened them, there she was and there he was…

"Chris, please don't do this." She ran her hand across her forehead, trying to rub away the headache she knew was coming.

"Don't do what, Lor? I'm just trying to help you."

Her hand immediately fell as she stared at him in disbelief. "Trying to help me? Trying to help-" She stopped herself short. She heard her voice rising as the anger built up inside of her. She took a few seconds to calm herself down before saying, "Bull, Chris. That's all that ever comes out of your mouth these days; complete bullshit."

He narrowed his eyes at her. "How can you say that? How can you stand there and say that?" He was starting to raise his voice. "As much as I've been there for you; after all that I've done for you-"

She cut him off. "All you've done for me is made my life just as chaotic and worthless as yours for the past six months."

"Hey, if your life has been worthless for the past six months, it wasn't because of me. You made a choice."

"Yes, I did make a choice. I made a choice to keep you out of my life for good, so that's what I'm doing; I'm keeping you out of my life. Now I'm asking you to please go."

"No."

"Go!"

"I'm not going anywhere," he stated with finality in his voice.

Lorelai stood there silently, contemplating her next move. "Well, if you're not going, I am." She started making her way to the door when Chris took a hold of her wrist,-

Lorelai jumped slightly as the phone rang, snapping her out of her trance. "I'll get it," she declared when she saw Luke going towards the phone.

"Hello?" she answered.

"Good morning Lorelai. This is your mother."

"Yep. Naturally it would be her," she muttered. If Lorelai Gilmore was ever 'saved by the bell', the holder of the bell ringing usually wasn't to her liking. Exhibit A: Emily Gilmore.

"Excuse me?" Emily asked, not making sense of her daughter's incoherent mumbling.

"Nothing mother. You called?"

"Yes, I need to ask you something. Tomorrow…"

Emily's voice faded out as Lorelai watched Luke put pancakes, eggs, four sausages, and four pieces of bacon on her plate. Lorelai cleared her throat and raised an eyebrow at him. Luke looked up and then back to the plate after seeing her expression. He gave an exasperated sigh as he went back to the counter and placed another piece of bacon on her plate. He held out the plate for her inspection, giving her a look that said 'You happy?' She smiled in approval and winked at him as he placed her plate on the table. "Crazy, crazy lady," he mumbled.

"…so I was wondering if you were available? Lorelai? Lorelai, are you listening to me?"

"Oh, uh, yes mom, I'm listening," she stuttered after hearing Emily's voice.

"What did I just say?"

Lorelai rolled her eyes. She could just see her mother, arms crossed, nose in the air. "You know what, it just suddenly slipped my mind. Why don't you tell me again?"

Emily started off sternly. "Well, as I said before, I was wondering if you were available tomorrow morning."

Lorelai debated it in her mind. Should she say yes, should she say no? Of course she wasn't busy tomorrow morning; it was Sunday. But this was her mother she was talking to. "No. I'm not busy."

"Well good. I'll see you here at 8:15 for church in the morning."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! What did you say?" She had to be mistaken.

"To make a long story short, Lily Vancouver-"

"Who?"

"You know Lilly Vancouver. Her daughter is Jane Vancouver."

Lorelai was drawing a blank.

Emily sighed. "The little girl's hair you cut off in 1st grade."

Lorelai smiled as Jane flooded back into her memory. "Oh, her mother."

Emily heard her daughter giggle on the other end. "How you managed to get the teacher's scissors I still don't know."

"Well," Lorelai shrugged, "she had it coming."

"You had no right to do what you did to that poor little girl."

"She took my crayons!" Lorelai countered.

"For the last time Lorelai, they weren't your crayons; they were the class' crayons!" Emily retorted.

"They were on my desk," she replied rather calmly with a pout.

Luke sat at the table with a confused expression on his face. 'When did they start talking about crayons?'

Emily was silent on the other end. She decided to drop the subject and continue on with what her phone call was about in the first place. "As I was saying, Lilly called me the other day and invited us to go to church with them tomorrow. Apparently there's going to be some motivational speaker there."

"And 'us' being?"

"You, me, your father, and Rory."

"So Rory's going?" she asked hopefully.

"No, she's not going to be able to make it." She heard Lorelai groan in the background. "Do you have to do everything with Rory?"

"When it comes to mocking, yeah."

"You certainly will not be mocking anyone in a church, Lorelai. Show some respect."

"Fine, fine." She glanced over to Luke who was calmly eating his breakfast. "Well, can I bring Luke instead?"

At the sound of his name, Luke's head shot up. Lorelai watched him as he vigorously shook his head from side to side, mouthing the word 'no' to her over and over again. He had no idea what she was talking about, and yet he didn't want to go, all because Emily Gilmore was involved.

"No," Emily said calmly with coldness in her voice.

Lorelai could practically hear her snarling on the other end. "Does it really matter, mom? Rory isn't going to be there, Luke can just take her place."

"She invited Rory, Lorelai, not Luke. It's final. You already told me you were free tomorrow, so I'll see you at 8:15."

"Why 8:15, Mom? I mean. I haven't been to church in a while, but I'm pretty sure it doesn't start until around ten or eleven o'clock."

"We have to go to Sunday School," she said dreadfully. Emily didn't want to go just as much as Lorelai didn't.

"What?" she asked in disbelief.

"Lily invited us to Sunday School and Church. It would be rude for us not to attend."

"You know what else would be rude?"

"I don't, but I'm pretty sure I don't want to. Please, Lorelai, just show up at our house at 8:15."

Lorelai groaned into the receiver. "Fine, I'll be there."

"Thank you. Goodbye, Lorelai. Have a nice day."

Lorelai immediately hung up the phone without saying bye. "Sure, you say that now." She tossed the phone on the kitchen table and sat back down in her chair. She looked up at Luke who was sitting across from her. "I'm going to church tomorrow," she said dreadfully.

"I heard."

She put some eggs on her fork and took a bite. "It's cold."

Luke pointed towards the microwave with his fork as he chewed his last bite of pancake. She got up and put her plate in the microwave, pressing start. She thought of tomorrow's event, still trying to figure out how she got roped into attending church. She asked for peace and what did she get? Four hours with her mother. But wasn't church a place where people went for peace, to get away from life and focus on something else; focus on the one person or thing that could help them? She sighed as she sat down again, hotter food in front of her. Maybe church wouldn't be too bad. Maybe tomorrow would be her peace.

I still couldn't make that ending any less cheesy haha Hopefully updates won't come three years at a time this time around :)

Review, let me know if it's worth it to continue!