Setting a date

Luke looked up at the jingle from the bell above the door, as he always did. Managing to hold back a groan at who had entered, he put on a polite smile.

"Mrs. Gilmore, this is a pleasant surprise." He said, hoping she didn't notice the hint of sarcasm in his voice. But she didn't even look at him as she walked through the diner.

"Upstairs." She said as she passed him, and when he made no motion of moving, she added. "NOW!"

Luke stood rooted to the spot for a moment, not understanding what the woman was up to. But when she pushed the curtain that separated the diner from the stairs that led to his apartment aside, he snapped out of the momentary daze.

"Hey!" He yelled after her, throwing the rag he'd been using to wipe off the counter down. "Where do you think you're going?"

But Emily had already disappeared from view, and he could hear her climbing the stairs, so he had no choice but to follow her. When he reached the bottom stair, he heard her open the door to the apartment, and cursed himself for leaving it unlocked. Taking the stairs two at a time, he soon reached the apartment door and followed her in.

"What the hell's going on here?" He asked, closing the door behind him to

keep the customers downstairs from hearing. Emily turned to face him when he entered.

"Nice place you've got here." She said in a dry voice.

"I'm glad you like it." Luke replied in a similar voice. "Now what do you want?"

"I wanted to talk to you." She said, as if it was the most natural thing in the world.

"Well, here I am, so talk!" Luke told her, crossing his arms in front of him.

"Sit down." She said, nodding at the table and chairs.

"I'd rather stand, thanks."

"Fine." She sat down and looked up at him. "Lorelai and I spent the day together last Thursday, did she tell you that?" She asked him.

"As a matter of fact, she did." Luke replied. More like she complained about it, he added in his mind, smiling. Spending time with her parents always got on Lorelai's nerves.

"Did she also happen to tell you what we did?" Emily continued.

"She drove you around to different places, the pharmacy, dry cleaners and stuff like that." Luke said, remembering how Lorelai had told him she had had to take her mother to three different pharmacies.

"That's right, she did." Emily confirmed. "And then we went to a realtor, did she mention that?"

Realtor? What realtor? Why hadn't she said they went to a realtor?

"Actually, no." Luke said. "It must have slipped her mind."

"Oh, I'm sure it didn't." Emily replied.

"OK, so you went to a realtor, so what?" Luke defended himself, not sure why he needed to.

"I'm sure Lorelai has told you that Richard and I have been looking at houses here in Stars Hollow." Emily said.

"Yes, she has." Luke responded, remembering how horrified Lorelai had been at the idea of her parents moving to the town.

"I'm also quite positive that Lorelai hated the idea of us moving here." Emily gave him a questioning look, but Luke's appearance gave away nothing. "However, we were not looking at a house for us." Seeing Luke's confused frown, she continued. "We were, in fact, looking for a house for Lorelai. You and Lorelai, to be more exact."

"You want to buy us a house?" Luke asked, wondering what the Gilmores were up to now.

"Yes, we do." Emily confirmed. "And we found a beautiful house, just outside of Stars Hollow, it's perfect for you."

"OK." Luke replied, not sure what else to say. "Well, did Lorelai like the house?"

"I have no idea, considering the fact that she started crying when I told her about it." Emily told him.

"What? Why would she start crying over that?" Luke asked a little confused.

"Because she doesn't think that it's going to happen." Emily replied.

"She doesn't think you guys really want to buy us a house?"

"No, she doesn't think you two are ever getting married." Emily corrected.

"What? Why would she think that?" Luke said, not really to Emily.

"Well, are you?" She asked.

"Of course we are, Lorelai knows that." Luke said, trying to understand why she would think something like that.

"When?" Emily requested to know.

"When what?" Luke wondered.

"When are you getting married? I know it's not June 3rd, so when?"

"We postponed the wedding, you know that." Luke said.

"Postponing means that you set another date, later than the original one." Emily reasoned. "Since you haven't done that, I guess you have just cancelled it."

"No, we haven't cancelled anything." Luke half yelled. "We are getting married."

"I'm not the one you need to convince." Emily said, standing up. "Just one more thing before I leave. My daughter is in pain. Even I can see that. I'm surprised it's escaped your attention."

Luke just stood there, watching her leave. What was she talking about, Lorelai

being in pain? She was fine. Sure, they had postponed the wedding, and not really talked about it since, but she wasn't... she knew they were getting married... didn't she?

Feeling the need to talk to her, to make sure everything was OK, Luke quickly dialled her number.

"Hey, you've reached the Gilmore house, we're not here right now, but leave a message." He heard Lorelai's voice over the line, and then a beep. He didn't leave a message, though, instead he hung up. Something was definitely not OK. In the nine years he'd known Lorelai, he had never once known her to not make a joke, or do something else odd, on her answering machine. Thinking hard, he tried to remember the last time she had made a joke, or teased him about his baseball cap, or nagged him about coffee. The only answer he could come up with was; not since before everything with April.

Was Emily right? He almost shuddered at the thought, but maybe she was. The more he thought about it, the more he realised that Lorelai hadn't been acting like herself in months. Did she really think that they weren't getting married? How could he have let it come to this? They should have just set a date right away, after deciding that June 3rd was too soon. No, after HE decided that June 3rd was too soon.

Hoping it wasn't too late, Luke hurried downstairs, told Ceasar to run the place for a while, and headed to the Dragonfly.

Lorelai was sorting through mail when the door to the Dragonfly literally slammed open. She looked up to see who was in such a hurry, and found herself face to face with a panting Luke.

"Hey." She said, smiling slightly. "Did you run here?" Luke just nodded and they stood there in silence for a moment, staring at each other. Then Luke put something down on the desk in front of Lorelai. "What's this?" She asked, looking down at a calender.

"Pick one." He said.

"Pick one what?" Lorelai asked, a confused look on her face.

"A date. For the wedding."