Where We Left Off

Luke lay next to Lorelai in bed, hardly believing his luck. There she was, sleeping peacefully in his arms, as though this was how it had always been. He absolutely adored her and how well she took to him asking her out again. She didn't even hesitate, it was just like nothing had ever happened.

Of course, things had happened. For starters, now Luke wasn't the only divorcee among them. Lorelai wasn't the only one with a child. They both had successful businesses that were important to Stars Hollow; they were both respected (though only one of them was truly liked more than needed) members of the community. This time they truly wanted the same thing: to stop wasting time and just start being together.

He couldn't stop thinking about how lucky he was. For too long he had kicked himself about the April situation. For too long he beat himself up about the fact that he lied, that he hadn't told her everything as it happened though she could've helped, that he drove her into Christopher's arms. But in the end, none of that changed a thing: Luke and Lorelai were destined to be together, and nothing was going to stop that.

But there was something strangely different this time: Rory was gone. It wasn't like when Rory was at Yale, or when she lived with her grandmother. She had a job, she was a real adult. Luke didn't want to mention that to Lorelai—Rory would always be her little girl, no matter how old she was or what she did—because he feared that she'd use it as a chance to mention how old she was. Usually he'd just scoff at her saying something about her age or anything else, it didn't matter to him and it wasn't as big of a deal as she made it out to be. Being 38 with a 22-year-old daughter who was traveling the country reporting on a presidential candidate? He didn't know anyone else who could say that; only Lorelai and Rory.

Lorelai rolled over and nuzzled her head on Luke's chest. He pulled her closer and brushed her hair back behind her ear, placing a soft kiss on her forehead before dozing off to sleep.

This time it just felt right.

After a week or so of seeing each other once again, the two of them had begun to have a routine. Every morning at six fifteen, Luke would get up and start getting ready for the day. He didn't have a whole lot to prepare—he had to get dressed and all, but not enough to warrant waking up quite as early as he did—but Lorelai would either beg for him to come back to bed or grumble about him cutting on the lights as he got ready. The diner opened at seven, and between either the diner noise (if she was upstairs) or the desire for coffee (if she was at her home) would get her out of bed, dressed, and presentable by eight o'clock. Her order was ready less than ten minutes later, unless she insisted on striking up playful banter with Luke (she always did) in which case it took almost 30 minutes. Then she'd go to work, and he wouldn't see her again until noon or so when she came to pick up lunch, and then he met her at the house around seven. Usually he'd cook her dinner (which she almost always enjoyed) and they'd waste away the rest of their waking day enjoying each other's company in more ways than one. This routine worked for them quite nicely.

There was no pressure now. Lorelai nor Luke knew why, but it was so much simpler for them to be together now. Perhaps it was all timing before—perhaps they could chock up their called-off engagement to poor timing and bad circumstances. This time there was no "April situation" other than that she came every other weekend, Lorelai knew where Rory was (and she wrote regularly, too, so that they could keep tabs on her as well), the Dragonfly was well-established, Christopher wasn't a looming threat, and there was no need for secrets or lies. Luke thought if I had proposed at a time like this, we'd be married by now. Then he'd remember that he didn't do any of the proposing to begin with and his thoughts quickly shifted.

Things could've been so different if everything had worked out the first time. They'd be married, he would have been at Rory's Yale graduation, he wouldn't have missed out on anything. Lorelai never would've married Rory's no-good father, or even thought about it. He would've taken her on a nice honeymoon; the two of them would've been the talk of the town as soon as they came back, which he would've hated and Lorelai would've loved. Who knew, maybe Rory would've gotten used to having a stepfather, and April would've enjoyed having a stepmother. Maybe they would've had some little ones running around that were perfectly theirs, making them one big blended Nardini-Gilmore-Danes family. Ah, that was the dream.

Why couldn't it be that way? Luke wondered. Everything that went wrong last time was completely avoidable this time, and for the most part avoided altogether. Lorelai and April had met; Christopher was cleanly out of the picture. The antagonists were gone now. They could move on and things would be so much better than they were.

But this time he wanted to do it right. There wouldn't be any backward glances. There wouldn't be any room for doubt. This time he wasn't leaving anything up to chance, and he wasn't waiting for the right moment anymore. There was never going to be an exact right moment—life wasn't made like that. Luke had to make that right moment now.

"Lorelai." He whispered, moving his mouth towards her ear. She stirred a little. He repeated himself. "Lorelai, are you awake?" She let out a grumble and nestled her head a little closer to his neck. "Run away with me."

That got her attention. She sat up a little and looked up at him. "What?"

"We should get married. Soon." He suggested firmly. "We can drive to Atlantic City or something—just a simple ceremony, nice and private. What do you think?"

She sighed. "I think I'm tired and we should talk about this when we've both had coffee. Or at least when I have." She let out a little chuckle but saw the seriousness on his face. "Why so sudden, hon? Is everything okay?" The stern-ness didn't lighten up, he was so deep in thought.

"We can't risk it not working out—not again." He said, having a little difficulty with the words. "I want us to build a life together, have our own family, and I'm done waiting. I don't want something to happen and this—us—not." He grabbed her hand and gave it a gentle squeeze.

Mr. No-Ultimatums certainly changed his tune, Lorelai thought, though she didn't dare to say it. Instead she sat up on the bed and cut on the side lamp. Luke winced at the change in brightness. "You're serious?" He nodded. "Luke, we have a wonderful life right here. I can't have Rory miss my second wedding, especially not one as important as this—"

"So that's a yes?"

"I want to have a family with you, but it's not that simple right now. I can't get married if Rory's not there. When Rory's back in town we can set a date, but when she's on the road like this…" She saw the disappointment on his face. "But when we have kids, my god, they're gonna be some good looking kids." She let out a little laugh, trying to lighten the mood. Lorelai remembered that kids were a part of their original plan before everything went downhill. She hoped he hadn't changed his tune since he found out he already had one.

After a few moments of sitting in silence, Luke collected his thoughts and spoke with a little false confidence. "Let's have a baby."

Lorelai let out an audible laugh. "What?" His tune didn't change. "For a second there it sounded like Luke Danes asked me to have his children." He didn't correct himself and she began a little nervous laughter. "I mean, buddy, when I say when we have kids it's a hypothetical when, not a hey, how about we do it right now type of when—"

"I don't want a 'hypothetical when'." He explained as calmly as he could. "At this point, I have no idea when hypothetical is. What if Rory doesn't decide when she's coming home? What if we miss our chance to get married and still have time for a family of our own? I don't want to wait to spend the rest of my life with you, I know what I want. It doesn't have to include a wedding dress and a huge party. It can be as simple as spending our lives together, committed without all the frills, loving the best and craziest blended family there ever was."

She didn't have to ask if he had thought about this, she could tell he had. And if she was being honest, so had she. Spending her life with him was a dream come true; he was perfect and at long last she realized they were perfect together. And the thought of the two of them having kids had been in her head since that dream about the alarm clocks and twins that she had had years ago. It wasn't the most conventional of means to start a life together—having kids and then getting married—but she never was one for conventionalism. But the idea worried her. "…it may not work, you know." She said, her voice hardly above a whisper. "Even if we try, we may not—I mean, hon, I'm not as young as I was when I had Rory—" She waited for Luke to give a snide remark, one that was probably well deserved. It never came. "—I'm almost forty, Luke. It's not easy when you get up to my age… I just don't want you getting your hopes too high."

"But we can try?" He asked, just seeking clarification. His eyes twinkled. She nodded and he went in for a kiss. Lorelai turned so that he caught her cheek instead.

"Not tonight." She cut off the light, rolled back over in bed and pulled up the covers. They both went to bed with giddy smiles that they knew weren't going anywhere anytime soon.

Author's Note: So this is the first installment of my first Gilmore Girls story, and my first story in a very long time. It's taken me ages to fix the formatting, so that you to the first reviewer, Bubbles, for alerting me to the formatting troubles. I think it has been fixed, so please review and let me know what you think!