Disclaimer: I do not own Gilmore Girls.
Netflix has helped to restore my love of this TV show. So this is my very first fic in the GG-verse. This is just another what-if story. I know this has been done before but I wanted to try my hand about the whole what-if Luke actually told Lorelai the reason that Rachel left. So behold, this fic was born.
Lorelai rushed around her room trying to get ready for her date with Max. Of course she had told him repeatedly to be late. But knowing him and his need for punctuality he would probably be early. When she said 7, it never meant 7. It meant 7:15 or sometimes even 7:30. Yet Max was always on time, it was annoying but it was just who he was and she was happy with him.
Whenever she was with him they always had a fun time. Their dates were always great, sometimes even spectacular. And the sex, the sex was wonderful. She would notice herself daydreaming about him at the Inn. Daydreaming about him always put a smile on her face. Even Sookie seemed to notice the happy mood that Max put her in. She even chose to comment on the happy mood, which helped to cure her of the ennui she apparently contracted from Michel.
Although she was happy with him, she wasn't completely sure if she loved him. He was an all-around great guy and she could see herself loving him one day in the future. Besides it wasn't like he loved her or if he did then he hadn't told her. That was all fine though, right now they were in a great spot. Dating and happy.
Lorelai stepped back from her vanity and groaned when the doorbell rang. Max. He was annoyingly on time just as she predicted. She snatched her shoes up from her bed and walked out of her room. As she was walking out of her room, the doorbell rang again.
"You're annoyingly on time again," Lorelai called out as she began to walk down the stairs and put on her shoes at the same time. "Ugh," she groaned when she realized that putting on shoes and walking down stairs at the same time was not a good idea. "Okay stairs then shoes, stairs then shoes."
At the bottom of the staircase, Lorelai slipped on her shoes. She then walked to the front door taking a moment to pause and look in the small mirror in the hallway to fix her hair before opening up the door. To her surprise it wasn't Max who was on the opposite side of the door, it was Luke dressed in his usual flannel.
"Oh hi," Lorelai greeted, the surprise evident in her voice.
"Hey," Luke replied. His eyes roamed up and down her body as he quickly took in her outfit. "You're all dressed up."
Lorelai quickly looked down at her outfit, her date outfit with Max. "Oh, I'm going out." She didn't need to say who, Luke already knew about Max. He could put the pieces together.
"Oh sorry. I forgot my toolbox so I just thought I'd come pick it up," Luke replied. It was a flimsy excuse. Well not so flimsy since his toolbox was here. But after his talk with Rachel, he decided to take her advice. Maybe Rachel was on to something.
Lorelai nodded. "Oh yeah. It's right over here," she said as she led him to the spot on the ground where the toolbox sat. "Rory and I couldn't lift it or we would've brought it to you and then we got used to having it here, so we named it Bert and we'd say Goodnight Bert and it'd say Goodnight girls and we spend too much time home alone," she quickly stopped talking when she noticed he was babbling. Why was she babbling?
Luke bent down and picked the toolbox up. "Well, thanks for taking care of it."
Lorelai smiled. "Our pleasure."
Luke sat the toolbox down on the hall table. It was now or never, he needed to tell Lorelai the reason that Rachel left. "So Rachel left."
"What!" Lorelai exclaimed, clearly shocked. She thought that Rachel was sticking around, at least that's what it seemed like to her. Luke did seem like he was going to give her a chance.
"Last night," Luke explained. "She left. For good." He had to add that last little part in to show that her leaving was serious this time, she wasn't going to come back.
"Oh no, Luke I'm so sorry. What happened?" Lorelai asked out of genuine concern for her friend.
"Ah," Luke sighed. "It's hard to explain."
"I can't believe it. I thought she was really in it for the long haul this time," Lorelai replied. And she really did. She wasn't completely comfortable with the idea for some reason that she couldn't explain but it would make Luke happy so she was happy for him.
"Yeah well," Luke shrugged his shoulders. "She had her reasons."
"Really? What?" Lorelai questioned curiously. She leaned against the table that the toolbox was placed on.
"It's...well..." Luke sighed again. He now wasn't sure if he should tell her Besides she was all dressed up and probably about to go out with that guy that she was with at the town meeting recently. Then again if he didn't tell her now, he might not ever have the chance. "I shouldn't bother you with this. You're about to go out."
"No Luke, I want to know. I don't have enough fingers to count the times that you have been there for me and Rory, but I probably could count on one hand the times that I did anything for you," Lorelai replied. It was true, she did a few things for Luke but never much. He never really seemed like he needed help. She did help him more recently with the Rachel situation though but now that looked like a total bust. "So what's going on?"
"She left because there's another girl," Luke admitted in a hurry.
"Another girl?" Lorelai asked. "You mean, are you dating someone else?" she asked but quickly shook that from her head. Luke wasn't seeing anyone. "Or is the other girl for Rachel? I thought she was interested in you, not another girl."
Luke shook his head. "I'm not dating anyone and the other girl is not for Rachel." He let out a breath, it was now or never. "The other girl is you."
Lorelai took a step back, "Me?" she asked blinking her eyes. "The other girl is me? What does that even mean? She left because of me? I didn't do anything, did I? I'm so, so sorry if I did."
When Rachel pointed out that Luke was spending a lot of time at Lorelai's house recently, she simply pointed out that he was fixing things. He was Mr. Fix It after all. But that's all, he was just fixing things. Nothing else. Or at least not what she was trying to imply. Or what Lorelai thought she was trying to imply.
Luke shook his head again. "No you didn't do anything."
"Well if I didn't do anything then why did she leave? You said it was because of me," Lorelai quickly pointed out.
Luke took a deep breath and prepared to take the plunge. "Lorelai there's something I need to tell you."
Lorelai suddenly felt nervous, maybe it had to do with the way that Luke was now looking at her. "What is it?" she asked, her voice shaky.
"Rachel left because she thought that I had...well have feelings for you," Luke admitted.
Lorelai's breath caught in her throat. He couldn't possibly have feelings for her. They were friends. They saw each other every day. But they were friends, nothing more. Although everyone else did seem to think that Luke had feelings for her. That couldn't possibly be true though. Right? Yet she did find herself asking.
"Well do you?" Lorelai asked. She continued on to clarify her question. "Do you have feelings for me?"
"Look," Luke said. "I know that you're seeing that guy now and you're probably about to go out with him but Rachel told me not to wait too late to tell you. So here I am."
"Tell me what?" Lorelai asked, her voice just above a whisper. Her heart was pounding wildly in her chest. She found herself hoping that Max didn't show up for at least a few more minutes so she could continue talking with Luke.
"Rachel pointed it out to me but I think it's something that I have known for a long time. She thought we were more than friends. I tried to tell her that wasn't true but she saw through that. To be honest, I have thought about you in a more than just friends kind of way. I do have those kind of feelings for you. There were times before when I thought something was going to happen but it never did."
Lorelai stood speechless as Luke ranted on about why Rachel left, why she was the reason behind it, and apparently the fact that the entire town was right and that he did have feelings for her. She was conflicted to say the least. Here she was about to go out on date with her current boyfriend while her friend/coffee supplier confessed his feelings for her. This was too much.
"And I know you're about to go out with that guy but I needed to say this. I do have feelings for you, I have for a while. Since the moment you walked into my diner. I don't know how you feel but I wanted to take Rachel's advice and tell you," Luke ended his rant. "Can you just at least give this some thought?"
"Oh Luke," Lorelai sighed, completely floored by the news.
Just as Luke was going to say something else there was a knock on the door. Lorelai peered around Luke to see Max entering through the cracked door. He mentioned something about how he actually managed to be late this time like Lorelai asked. He noticed the palpable tension in the air that seemed to surround Lorelai and Luke.
Lorelai quickly stuffed everything that Luke had just told her into the back of her mind as she introduced the two fellows. It was awkward. Luke was suddenly defensive claiming he saw Lorelai all the time, which she knew the reason behind it was because he just confessed her had feelings for her. Lorelai promised that she would talk to him soon, she needed time to process everything that just happened. Max said that it would probably be tomorrow since they would be back late. Lorelai promised again that she would definitely talk to him. She had to. It would be sometime soon. After Luke left, Lorelai mentioned she needed to get her purse before they left for their date. At this point, she really didn't want to go but canceling would only raise suspicion.
Suspicion that Max apparently already felt since he said he thought there was something going on between her and Luke. There wasn't anything going on between them, at least not until tonight. A few seconds ago really. All because he picked up something. He was good. That led to a discussion of what happened during the time that they were apart. She admitted that she didn't remain inactive.
"So you did date Luke?" Max questioned following her around the living room.
Lorelai groaned, he was bringing up Luke again. "No, I did not date Luke."
"You can tell me," Max replied, he could take it if she did date him. She was with him now.
"I did not date Luke," Lorelai assured him. Again.
"There was a vibe," Max pointed out.
Was there a vibe? Lorelai thought. She definitely felt something when Luke confessed his feelings for her. But she wouldn't admit that. "There was no vibe. What is with the questioning? You won't tell me who you dated."
Max shrugged his shoulders. "There's no one you know."
"Okay, well, did you date like casual nothing type dating or did you date like get down, soul train kind of a dating?" Lorelai asked. If he was going to keep up with the question, she was going to give him a taste of her own medicine.
"Well, I wouldn't have phrased it that way, but to be honest, it was the latter," Max admitted.
"Good, good. Okay. Well, I like your honesty. Because I mean you could've lied and left that part out to spare my feelings which would've been unnecessary," Lorelai replied, she was annoyed at this point. "So thank you, that was good. I slept with Rory's dad," she blurted out.
"Let's change the subject."
"On my parents' balcony."
"I want to change the subject."
Lorelai planted her hands on her hips. "Okay, well you started it."
"I did not mean for this to become a who slept with whom contest."
"Well, how did it get that way?" Lorelai asked softly.
"I don't know." Max admitted with a sigh. "Why do we do this? Why do we let it get weird between us just when it's getting good again?"
Lorelai shrugged her shoulders as she looked down at the ground. "I don't know."
"I don't like it."
"I don't either."
"And I'm sick of it," Max said.
Lorelai looked up to meet his eyes. "Well, so am I."
"We can't keep getting this close just to have something completely derail us again. And frankly there's only one thing I can think of that could solve it," Max responded.
"Break up," Lorelai replied logically. It made the most sense. It's what she and Max did, there were an on-again, off-again relationship. Plus this could give her time to think about Luke and his confession.
"Ugh," Max groaned clearly showing disinterest in the idea.
"Well, I'm not interested in a murder-suicide kind of thing," Lorelai replied.
"We should get married," Max said calmly.
Lorelai stood staring at him completely speechless. First Luke confesses her feelings for her and she was woman enough to admit that she did find him attractive and she had wondered what it would be like to kiss him. Then her boyfriend proposes to her. It was not the ideal way, and was probably a joke. But man she was on a roll tonight. They both had stellar timing.
She finally found words. "Give me a clue as to whether you're kidding or not."
Max shook his head and took a step closer to her. "I am not kidding."
Lorelai nodded, "Good clue."
"What do you say?"
Lorelai shook her head. "Nothing. Max, you did not just propose to me."
"Yes I did."
"No. A proposal had to be something more than the desperate desire to end a bickering match."
"It was more than that," Max reassured her. It was definitely more than that, at least to him.
Lorelai shook her head. "No, it has to be planned. It should be magical. There should be music playing and romantic lighting and a subtle buildup to the popping of the big question. There should be a thousand yellow daisies and candles and a horse and I don't know what the horse is doing there unless you're riding it, which seems a little over the top, but it should be more than this."
That was a dream proposal. Probably a little over the top because a thousand yellow daisies was impractical, right? But still the idea sounded good. But with Max? Maybe not so much. Besides right now, she was way too focused on Luke. More than she should be at a moment like this.
Max nodded, "You're right."
"I am right," Lorelai replied.
"I'm sorry."
Lorelai shrugged her shoulders. "It's okay." It wasn't completely okay. It was just too much, way too much. But she could let him feel like it was okay. At least for now.
"Can we start over?" Max asked to which Lorelai found herself nodding yes too. She wasn't sure why she said they could start over. Really she should just say no, stay home, and mull over just what her life was turning out to be right now. Two guys vying for her attention.
"Ready to go?" Max asked.
Lorelai nodded again. Again she should have said no and stayed home. But after this entire conversation with Max saying no might cause more problems. Besides she could think over what Luke said on her date with Max. Maybe going out with Max would give her some more clarity on just what she wanted. Maybe. So she allowed Max to guide her to the front door.
"Bye, bye Bert," Lorelai whispered softly with thoughts of Luke on her mind as Max escorted her out of the house and to his awaiting car.
Review please? Let me know if I should continue.
