A/N – I'm guessing on the timing of this episode, but I think it would be late Sept./early Oct. Let's say early Oct. since Episode 6 starts out with FND and Halloween candy is mentioned.
Peek-a-BOO!
Lorelai walked into the kitchen feeling pretty down in the dumps. It was Sunday evening and she was just getting back from dinner at Luke's. Rory had been home for the weekend to do some laundry and hang out, but with Dean's wedding and Taylor's ice cream truck threatening the inn she didn't get to spend as much time with her daughter as she had hoped. Now the weekend was over and her baby was already on the way back to Yale. Rory's birthday was later this week too; the first one away from home. She'd have to call her daughter instead of waking her up in person to tell the ever popular birthing story.
Lorelai sighed and grabbed her pint of Rocky Road ice cream from the freezer. She was heading to the living room when something in Rory's room caught her eye. A chuckled escaped her lips as she saw the Chilton uniform laid out on the bed. Well, Rory found her little joke. She flopped down on the couch and flipped through the channels trying to find something that could distract her for a bit. She paused on some countdown about 90's music videos, the screen showing a clip of Britney Spears' "Baby One More Time," and a light bulb went off in her head.
Halloween was just around the corner and she had been trying to think of a sexy outfit to wear to Miss Patty's party. It must be fate – seeing the Chilton uniform and then just happening to come across Britney's schoolgirl video. She put the ice cream down on the coffee table and raced up to her room. She changed into a red lacy bra, the one reserved for special dates, and found a white button up shirt she hardly ever wore. Instead of buttoning it, she tied it so that her stomach and part of the bra were visible. She ran down the stairs and pulled on the skirt from Rory's bed after shedding her jeans. It was a little snug, but she could work with it. Of course it would need to be shortened to meet her standards. She let the skirt unbuttoned and folded the waist over itself a few times to get a feel for the right length. Overall this was a good start. A very good start.
She was admiring herself in the mirror above Rory's dresser when someone knocked at the front door. She froze. They knocked louder the second time and she heard a muffled voice.
"Lorelai, I know you're in there! I can hear the TV!"
Oh God. What the hell is Luke doing here?
"You left your jacket at the diner," he said a little louder.
She couldn't quite bring herself to respond and started to panic. She didn't know why but she couldn't let Luke see her like this.
"Come on, Lorelai!" he yelled again, impatience starting to creep into his voice. "You know what -" he trailed off abruptly. "I knew it! You have to lock your doors!"
Shit.
She could feel her eyes bugging out of her head like a cartoon while she looked around the room quickly trying to determine a good hiding spot. She settled on the armoire and started pushing Rory's left over clothes to the side. He must have been in the living room because the TV went silent.
"Lorelai?" She heard the panic is his voice as he thundered up the stairs. There was a stab of guilt in her stomach that she promptly ignored and she climbed into the open space she created. He was already running back downstairs.
"Lorelai, where are you? Are you okay?" desperation was evident in his voice at this point "Lorelai! I saw the ice cream in the living room and I see your jeans on the floor in Rory's room." From the loudness of his voice, she figured he was in the kitchen now. "I don't know what's going on, but I'm pretty sure you're in this house. Please just let me know you're okay!" he shouted.
She took a deep breath and in a shaky voice replied, "I'm okay, Luke. Just leave my jacket on the table or something."
She heard him breathe a sigh of relief and could picture his shoulders sagging as well.
"What's going on? Why are you hiding from me?" he pushed.
"Uh, no reason," she managed to squeak out as she squeezed her eyes shut and prayed he would just leave. No such luck.
She heard just two heavy footsteps, clearly he'd been creeping towards her, and the next thing she knew the door was open.
"What are you -" he started yelling at her. His face turned bright red as he took in the sight before him and he lamely finished his question, "uh, what are you wearing?"
Since the damage was done she stepped demurely back into the room and pushed past him with her head held high.
"I had a costume idea for Miss Patty's Halloween party and I had most of the pieces so I wanted to try it out. I didn't expect you to show up and barge into my house. Since when do you come in uninvited?" she responded pointedly.
"Uh, sorry," he muttered. "Here," he shoved the jacket in her hand and turned to leave.
Her face softened as she took in his demeanor.
"Hey! Where are you going?"
"Umm, back to the diner," he stated without turning back around to look at her.
"Well you can't leave now!"
He turned around at that. "What do you mean I can't leave?" he growled.
That confused her because she wasn't expecting him to be angry. At least not yet. She hadn't really pushed his buttons. He was difficult to read at the moment, his face was still a little pink and he was clearly frustrated with her, but his eyes betrayed him. There was no anger there, so she pushed on.
"Well now that you've seen my idea I could use a second opinion. What do you think?" she said coyly with a twirl that flared her skirt. He couldn't look away and his eyebrows practically rose off his face as he caught a tantalizing view of her upper thighs. A whole new rush of red took over his face.
"Uh, you look, uh, fine," he stammered and started to leave again.
She smiled to herself and decided to see just how far she could push him.
"Hey!" she shouted again. This time she went after him and grabbed his arm. "I look fine, not good? "
"Sure, you look good," he mumbled, still trying to get out of her house.
"Good not great? Not fabulous? Not super cute with a touch of sexy?" she flirted while striking some poses that subtly accentuated her chest. "Ha! Thirteen different shades of red!" she said triumphantly pointing to his face. She knew she looked good and his blush confirmed everything she needed to know about her outfit.
He schooled the features of his face enough to send a glare her way. "Bye, Lorelai," he groused and flounced out the door to head back to the safety of his diner.
With her costume decided she spent the rest of the evening enjoying her ice cream and digging through her closet to put the finishing touches on her outfit.
Lorelai and Sookie giggled as they walked into the diner for lunch.
Sookie put on a somewhat serious face, "With little Davy here," she pointed to her stomach, "Jackson's been so overprotective lately. I just needed to get out of the house."
"Aw, he just loves you Sook, the both of you," she smiled back, "but I am glad to have you all to myself today! I think we both need a little break from catering and Dragonfly business. We deserve to have some fun. Speaking of fun, are you and Jackson going to make it to Miss Patty's Halloween party this weekend?"
"I'm hoping we can. I don't know how long we'll be able to stay, but it's so much fun to see everyone dressed up. I heard that Kirk is going to go as the captain from that pirate movie everyone's been raving about. He hasn't even seen it!"
"Kirk as Captain Jack Sparrow?" Lorelai had an amused look on her face then sobered a bit. "Actually, he might be able to pull that off. He's got just the right amount of gangly-ness." She broke out in laughter, "Nah, he'd never get the sexy swagger part down. Have you convinced Jackson to dress up?"
"No," Sookie pouted. "But I do have a plan. If I can get him to just keep his work clothes on, I can hand him a pail to carry around."
"Wait," Lorelai interrupted, "you're just going to have him be a farmer? That's so lame, that's like a doctor dressing up a doctor, or a fireman being a fireman. Where's the creativity?"
"That's where I come in. I found a cow costume for pregnant women. It's so comfortable and then we have a theme. He won't even know about it until it's too late."
"Oh my God, Sookie, that's perfect!"
"How about you, are you bringing anyone?"
"No, I'll be flying solo this year. But with Rory out of the house, I can dress as slutty as I want! And I have great idea for a costume."
Luke was stopping by the table to drop off a cup of coffee and turned around to flee the scene as Lorelai's last words left her mouth, the scowl on his face indicating he didn't like what he heard.
"Right, Luke?" she called before he could get away.
"Huh?" he grunted with a cringe. Sookie determined that he must have been hoping against all odds that playing dumb would get him out of whatever situation this was turning into.
"I have a pretty great Halloween costume, right?" she looked up at him with a mischievous smile.
"Uh, sure," he said while swiftly turning around and high tailing it to hide in the kitchen.
"What was that all about?" Sookie asked. "Does he even know what you have planned?"
"Well, he caught an exclusive sneak peek." Lorelai leaned in, shifting into story telling mode and relaying the whole incident.
"Wow," Sookie said shaking her head. "You know one of these days you're going to push him too far. He's going to snap and I swear to God you'll go Bull Durham on the closest table."
"Oh, stop it, Sookie. He's clearly not into me like everyone seems to think he is. He married someone else for crying out loud!"
"Lorelai, sweetie, he's had to watch you go from one guy to another. And patiently he waited. I'm sure it got to the point where he thought you'd never notice him. I know you refuse to hear it, but for once just open your eyes before it really is too late. You're single, he's getting divorced. Now could be your chance. You just have to see it."
Lorelai's phone started ringing mid eye roll. She glanced at the screen before answering.
"Hey beautiful daughter of mine!" she chirped, giving her lunch date an apologetic look. Sookie waved her hand in understanding and took a sip of the water Caesar just delivered to the table.
"Wow, right to the chase. Where's the love? Don't make me call your grandmother and have her explain basic phone etiquette to you."
"Haha. You're so funny." Lorelai rolled her eyes at what was sure to be a silly joke from Rory. "So what's going on, what favor do you need?"
Lorelai's back straightened and she scoffed with a look of horror on her face. "You're in college now Missy! You should be handling things like this on your own. It's your fault we're still going to dinners with them in the first place! Besides, I've got plans too. Miss Patty's party, but I'm going to suck it up and be late to the fun so I don't have to deal with trying to cancel on your grandmother."
Her shoulders slumped in defeat as she listened to her daughter plead. "Fine, but you owe me!" she hung up the phone and turned to Sookie, dread all over her face.
"Oh honey, what's wrong?"
"There's a Halloween party at Yale, and for the first time since Rory's been there she wants to be a social butterfly, which is great, but that means she can't make it to Friday night dinner and apparently she's too busy to call her grandmother to tell her so now I have to." She took a deep breath before pushing on. "I better get this over with. It could get ugly so I'm going to take this one outside. I promise to keep it as short as possible and then after I drown my sorrows in a vat of coffee we can get right back to our fun relaxing girl's day."
"Sure, sweetie. Good luck!"
Lorelai grabbed her coat and stepped outside the dinner, phone in hand. Sookie watched her pace a few rounds before dialing and taking up an argumentative stance to prepare for the onslaught Emily would surely bring. With Lorelai fully distracted, Sookie decided to make her move. She got up from the table and approached the kitchen.
"Psssst!" she hissed at Luke, trying to get his attention. "Hey! Luke!"
"Sookie, I'm only gonna say this once. Get the hell out of my kitchen!"
Sookie stood her ground and plowed on, determined to get something off her chest.
"Luke this is important. We both know you have feelings for Lorelai and I just wanted to tell you that you really need to make a move."
"I…uh," Luke faltered, clearly thrown off by the accusation.
"Don't try and deny it. We both know you want to be with her," Sookie paused and shot him a meaningful look. He dropped his gaze and stared at floor in silence, like a child being scolded. She waited a beat before continuing on.
"She's single right now, and I know you're on the way to being single again too. You should take a chance. I think she's there with you. Do you know how many conversations we had about Nicole? I lost count after the first week. She had only ever met the lady once at that time, Luke. Once, and she had something to say about her on a regular basis. She was jealous. I haven't gotten her to admit it yet, but I know it. If you really want her, you have to make the first move. Oh, I know, you could go to Miss Patty's party with her!"
"Sookie, I -"
She cut him off again. "I have to get back. It looks like her call is ending. Just think about it, okay? You two could be so great."
With that, she hustled back to their table, ready to be a supportive shoulder for her best friend.
It was the night of the party and Lorelai was putting on some accessories to push her costume over the top. She wore the same base outfit Luke had caught her in a few weeks ago, but black knee high socks with classic chunky 90's heels and a tight fitted black cardigan completed the ensemble. Her hair was in pigtails and she broke out the fuzzy hair accents that she typically reserved for her ice skating escapades. She went with a smokey eye and was applying a light pink strawberry flavored gloss. There was no time to waste; she had to make a stop at the diner before the party in one last stitch effort to get Luke to go with her. All her attempts this week had failed, but she was hoping her costume would give her an edge this time.
The bells chimed her arrival and she gleefully sang out to Luke, "Oh Mr. Danes!"
"I'll be out in a minute," he called from the back.
There was no one else in the diner so she removed her coat and carried on the conversation. "Do you know what tonight is?" she yelled back.
"Uh, Friday night?" he called again, still out of sight.
"Luke! Come on! You know its Miss Patty's part tonight. As you know, I've been planning my costume for weeks, and it looks good, if I do say so myself," she gestured to herself even though no one was there to see it and then sat down on a stool at the end of the counter towards the curtain, placing her coat on the seat next to her.
"Plus, Rory had a party at Yale and she made me call my mom to get her out of Friday night dinner. As it turned out Emily is having some kind of candy battle with the neighbors. Apparently there was talk that someone with loud tennis balls was going to be handing out full-sized candy bars and that's a problem for some reason. So, of course, that means she ended up cancelling on me to do some last minute preparations. I'm sure I'll hear all about it next week, but that means I got to hand out candy to all the trick-or-treaters tonight. There was this little girl, she was so cute, she was -"
He cut her off, "Is there a point to this story?"
She scoffed, "Fine, don't hear about the cute little news reporter that looked just like Rory when she was eight. The point is that I get to go to the Halloween party on time now. You have to come and celebrate with me! I hear Kirk is trying to go as a Johnny Depp character and you've got to see that!"
"Give it a rest, Lorelai. You know I don't go to town events."
"But Luke, this is a really special occasion. Did you not hear that my mother cancelled dinner?"
"Yes, I have ears and you're yelling so loudly I'm pretty sure the whole town heard."
At that she hopped off her stool and started towards the back.
"Well, if you weren't hiding in the back I wouldn't have to talk so loudly"
Luke came around the corner abruptly and bumped into her, knocking her off balance. She was about to make some wisecrack about not having eyes to go with his ears, but lost her train of thought completely when he steadied her. She was pressed against his chest with his strong arms around her. She looked up at him and was met with his warm blue eyes.
"Well, I'm out here now. Will that get you to shut up?" He let her go and smirked at her.
She caught herself getting lost in his eyes and shook her head a bit to get back to reality. In doing so she saw his choice of clothes.
"Luke?" she looked him over again before continuing, "What are you wearing?"
He blushed a bit then straightened his shoulders and guided her over to the counter.
"I heard that someone was going to Miss Patty's party alone."
"Uh, that doesn't answer my question even a little."
"You've been at me to go with you all week," he replied loudly. He was definitely on edge, bordering rant mode when he stopped, took in a deep breath, and hung his head for a second before pushing on in a more gentle tone. "I was thinking maybe we could go together."
He paused and looked at her. She realized her mouth was open so she closed it. Before she could respond, he continued on again.
"I knew your…plans for the evening," he said gesturing to her outfit, "and I still had one of my track tops and my letterman jacket, so I thought I could be a jock for one night," switching to gesture to his own costume. The top was a tank top and it was on the tight side, but in just the right way. She could see his toned chest through the red material and his matching red and white letterman jacket accentuated his shoulders.
"Wow," she breathed, staring at his chest. She got her bearings and realized she needed to act quickly to hide the fact that he was literally making her speechless. "My my my, Butch! Where's the rest of your outfit?" she said in her southern belle accent.
"No."
"Oh come on now, Butch. If I do recall, there were some tiny shorts involved!"
"No," he said again, giving her a real glare.
She was about to keep pressing, but saw that he was missing another crucial part of his look.
"Something else is missing too," she replied, dropping the shorts topic for now and waving a finger in the air to indicate she was looking at the top of his head.
"Yeah, I um, actually," He gestured for her to sit down on a stool and reached under the counter. "I have this red hat. It goes pretty well with the jacket and I tried to be happy with it before, but it didn't really work out. I, uh, I prefer to wear my blue hat." He set both of them down in front of her, his hands resting on the edge of the counter as he leaned toward her with his head down. "Do you think maybe I could wear the blue hat tonight?" He looked up at her then, his warm blue gaze filled with hope.
She took a moment to process what was happening. Clearly the red hat was part of the track get-up, but she also got the feeling this wasn't really about the costume. It felt like he wanted to know if he had a chance to be something more with her. She was dizzy from all the questions swirling in her head.
She glanced up at Luke, the hope on his face fading away as the seconds passed by. He was adorable. She thought again about how good he looked, not just now, but all the time. She thought about how amazing he had been to her and Rory over the years. Even though he was grumpy and hated the town, he was always there to help. And then the most shocking realization of them all – she had been jealous of Nicole. She remembered the pit in her stomach when she caught the beginning of his first date with her. He had let Nicole use her cell phone in the diner and that had stung. Lorelai only knew the woman's name at that point and already hated her.
Suddenly, Lorelai felt like she'd been hit with a ton of bricks. How had she not seen it before? She knew the answer to that. She was avoiding it. Of course her first instinct was to blame Rory, but really, she had been scared. Scared because being with Luke meant being with Luke. Everyone would know and there would be so much pressure. And the consequences of a failed relationship could be devastating.
She picked up the red hat, turning it over in her hands as she observed it. It looked pretty new, and not nearly as worn as the blue hat. Perhaps it was a his special track hat in high school or something because she didn't remember him ever wearing it in the diner before. He had been wearing the blue hat, which was a present from her, every day for almost 3 years now. She looked up to see Luke had dropped his face so she spoke up.
"The red hat goes better with your costume -"
Luke interrupted her before she had the chance to finish.
"Great," he grumbled and snatched the hat from her hands. He placed it on his head, turned away from her, and started to retreat to the back of the diner again. "I just need -"
She cut him off this time as she leapt from her seat and reached over the counter to grab his arm before he could get away.
"Hey! You didn't let me finish!" she reprimanded. "The red hat goes better with your costume, BUT I really don't think I like you with the red hat. Or any other color hat for that matter." She let go of his arm and walked around the counter, pushed the red cap from his head, and replaced it with the blue one. She took a step back and eyed his costume again. "Yeah, you should definitely wear the blue hat."
He paused and stared for a few seconds, his jaw flexing. Maybe he wasn't trying to ask what she thought. She felt a blush creeping over her cheeks and started to back pedal.
"I mean, if you like the blue hat, wear the blue hat." She shrugged and started backing away to the safety of the other side of the counter. Just as she was about to grab her coat and run out of the diner, Luke lunged at her, grabbing her wrists and pulling her back to him.
"Lorelai, do you mean it?" he asked, his hands moving to hold her upper arms.
"Huh?"
"You know what I mean. You know I wasn't really asking which hat to wear."
"Well, no, not officially."
"Not officially? Oh, come on. When have I ever cared about my hat matching what I'm wearing?"
"Well, your wardrobe is a bit of a head scratcher."
His face fell and he dropped his arms. She immediately missed his touch and sighed, deciding to come clean.
"I figured it was about more than just the hat."
His head snapped up, "And you think I should wear the blue one?"
She sighed again before standing up straight and looking him directly in the eye.
"Yes."
A slow smile spread across his face. He took a step closer to her and brought a hand to her waist, pulling her to him. His other arm wrapped around her back as he lowered lips to hers and kissed her soundly. She felt his arm move up and his hand caressed her upper neck. Her heart skipped a beat and then she melted into him. Before she knew it, he had let go of her and took a small step back. She stared into space, processing what just happened. When she brought her gaze to his face, he seemed to be gauging her reaction.
She went back in, using one hand to hold his face in place. When their lips met their arms wrapped around each other again. She pressed herself against him before breaking the kiss and putting a small amount of distance between them.
Without missing a beat, Luke reached for her waist again, pulling her in. Her arms went to his shoulders and suddenly he had pressed her against the side of the pastry case. He gripped her hips as he drank her in. His lips left hers and went to her neck. She couldn't help the moan that escaped and when he hummed his approval she got weak in her knees and clung to him like her life depended on it. He pressed into her, kissing her mouth once again. Finally, he stepped back and cleared his throat. Her head was spinning and she was having a hard time breathing.
"That was, unexpected," she managed to mumble, mostly talking to herself.
"Lorelai, relax," he took a step back and rubbed the back of his neck. "I'm fine if you want to just forget this ever happened, really."
She felt her jaw drop.
"I don't want to forget this! That was, without a doubt, a great kiss."
"Yeah?" he replied. She saw a smile tugging at his lips.
"If one of us had been a frog, it would have had some seriously impressive consequences."
"Okay," he said slightly nodding his head.
"So, what do you think?" she asked.
"I think I'm really released you feel that way," he replied in a low, gravelly voice. She smiled brightly and reached for his hands, moving away from the pastry case that had been providing her with some much needed support.
"So you concur?"
"Dear God, yes," he smiled back at her and held her close. He played with the hair in one of her pigtails. "So, are you free for dinner some night this week?"
"Dear God, yes," she parroted back to him. "But just to be clear, you are my date for Miss Patty's party tonight, right?"
He rolled his eyes at her and guided her back to the customer side of the counter.
"Come on," he sighed and grabbed her coat, helping her to put it on. "Let's get this over with."
He was pulling her to the door by her wrist when she stopped and forced him to drop her arm.
"So what do we say?" she asked.
Luke looked at her like she had three heads, "Say?"
"To people, to the town. Do we tell them we're dating?" Luke chuckled and it caught her off guard.
"Lorelai, have you seen yourself tonight, or ever?" She furrowed her brow and cocked her head, unsure of how to take that comment. "Do you really think I'm going to be able to keep my hands to myself? I'm not one for public displays of affection, but after that kiss I don't know how long I'll be able to hold out."
Her brow relaxed and she smiled again.
"Good. I think we both know I don't always have the best self-control."
She reached into her coat pocket and pulled out her cell phone, curious to see his reaction, even though the diner was closed. She dialed Rory's number and held the phone to her ear. He raised an eyebrow, but remained silent, picking up her free hand in his as he sat on the corner of a table. Realization washed across his face when she started to leave a voicemail for Rory. There was no way Lorelai would ever live it down if Rory was the last to know about what was happening with Luke. When she finished, a victorious smile on her face, he stood and she looked up at him.
"Are you ready for this?"
He raised a hand and caressed her check, kissed her sweetly, and gazed into her eyes.
"Yes." he replied firmly.
A blinding smile lit her face. She couldn't remember the last time she'd felt this happy. With his hand in hers, she pulled him towards the door, ready to give Hello magazine an exclusive peek at her new beau.