Moments Like These

Genre: Romance/Humor/Drama

Summary: A future fic that explores Luke and Lorelai's married life and having their first child together as a couple. Also goes into Rory's college life and Lorelai and Rory dealing with separation. Also includes some Jess, Emily and Richard.

Pairing: L/L and a little R/?. Mostly L/L though.


-Important Information- *MUST READ*

- No episodes following "Dead Uncles and Vegetables" happened in this story.
- Takes place in 2004
- Luke and Lorelai are married.
- Rory is in her first year at Harvard
- Luke is 37 years old
- Lorelai is 35 years old
- Jess is in his first year at Connecticut State College and is doing well

P.S - The beginning sucks lol, but it gets so much better in the middle and at the end so please read the whole thing! :)

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Moments Like These


Luke Danes walked into the large white house he shared with Lorelai, looking exhausted. After removing his green jacket, he made his way into the living room to watch some television. After flipping through the channels for a little while and finding nothing, he decided to skip this activity and go see if Lorelai was upstairs. He wandered into their bedroom and saw nothing. Sighing, he walked slowly down the stairs to make some dinner.

An hour later, Luke had set the chicken dinner out on the table along with two small, but cute, pink candles. It wasn't often that Luke was home before Lorelai, so he decided to surprise her with a romantic place setting in a dim atmosphere. He had one candle lit when the doorbell rang. He walked into the living room, opened it, and saw Lorelai standing there.

"Hey, Luke." She kissed him on the cheek and walked inside.

Luke laughed. "Why did you ring the bell?"

She stopped walking and glanced at him nervously. "Um, you know my keys? The ones that say 'keys I haven't lost yet' on them?"

He gave her an odd look. "Uh, yeah."

"Well, I might have lost them." She bit her lip and smiled.

"You might have?" He asked, confused.

Lorelai sighed. "Okay, I did lose them."

"Oh, no Lorelai, not again." He groaned and followed Lorelai into the living room.

Lorelai nodded. "Yes, again. But, this time it seriously wasn't my fault." Lorelai insisted while sitting next to Luke on the couch.

A small smile appeared on Luke's face. "Oh, no?"

"No. See, I was in Doose's buying some food and I was about to pay for my-"

"You were buying food?" Luke interrupted.

She scoffed. "Hey, mister, I do go shopping once in a while and sometimes I'll even cook the food I buy."

He rolled his eyes. "What, exactly, did you buy?"

She squirmed for a moment before replying. "None of your business. Anyway, I was on the check-out line and I get to the front. So, you know, I pay for everything and give the bagboy my check and walk out to the car. Everything's all good, you know, I'm putting the bags in the back when, alas, I realize I didn't buy any Mallomars."

Luke laughed a little and held up his hand. "Wait a minute, I thought you said you were buying real food?"

Lorelai pretended to look astonished. "I was, but who can resist a big, juicy box of Mallomars?"

"Juicy?"

"Anyway, I shut the door to the car not realizing that I had also left the
keys, that pertain to both the house and car, in the door." She explained.

"Ah."

"Yes. So, I ran back into the store-"

"You ran?" He asked. "You?"

She hit him playfully on the shoulder and laughed. "Hey, I run only when an urgent emergency arises."

He shook his head and smiled. "So, it was an urgent Mallomar emergency?"

"Of course. Anyway, I ran back into the store and purchased my Mallomars."

"As oppose to just stealing them." He observed.

"So, I get back to my car and put the Mallomars safely in the backseat and drove home with, and I have no idea why, my spare set of car keys that do not contain my house keys." She let out a breath and leaned her head against Luke's shoulder, exhausted from the long story she had just re-lived.

Luke wrapped his arm around her and kissed the top of her head. "So, what happened to the keys you left in the door?"

She sat up. "I don't know, they must've blown away or something."

Luke chuckled. "Blown away? I don't think keys can really be carried by wind, especially when they're stuck in a door."

"Hey, I said I didn't know. All I know is that they're gone." Lorelai smiled warmly as her and Luke stood up to stretch.

She breathed in and paused. "Hey, what smells so good?"

"Um, my feet?" He suggested.

She glanced down at his torn socks. "Uh, no, you're feet are what you need wash with some creamy coconut 'Bath and Body Works' foot soap later on or I'll be forced to leave you because of their reeking odor. Now, what smells so good?" She laughed lightly and followed Luke into the kitchen.

"I made dinner." He stated and pointed to the table that had only one candle lit. "Sorry, I didn't light both of them yet."

She gazed happily at the darkened room that had only one candle blazing before glancing back at Luke.

Luke smiled when he saw her face "You like?"

Lorelai nodded. "I like very much."

Lorelai walked over to him and wrapped her arms around his strong back. Luke eagerly returned the embrace and pressed her body into the warmth of his soft flannel. Lorelai nuzzled her face into his neck, lightly kissing the silky skin.

She lifted her head back up and stroked the sides of his face with her fingers. "Ah, I see your the one who's been using all my Dove soap."

Luke's eyes widened. "What?"

"No wonder I never have any, you've been wasting it on your face." She smiled and hugged him again. "So, do you prefer the pink or the white? Because lately, I've been kinda torn between the two."

"Sit down and eat." He said firmly.

"Oooh, but their selling this new kind that's pink, but also has these white moisturizing stripes, just in case you really can't choose."

Luke pointed to the chicken on her plate. "Look, it's getting cold."

"Okay, okay." She sat down, but immediately looked back up to Luke, smiling. "I know you used it, I can tell. And besides that, I'm also psychic. I'm just like Miss. Cleo. Well, except for the fact that I actually am psychic and she's just scamming people for money."

"I did not use your soap nor are you psychic." Luke smiled and sat down at the table, reaching for a match that was laying on the table cloth. He lit the candle and pushed in his chair.

Lorelai took a bite of her chicken and smiled. "Wow, this is really good."

"Well, I'm trying to get you off your strictly burgers and fries diet." He replied while moving his chair closer to Lorelai.

"If you cook like this every night you may just become successful in your evil plan." Lorelai grinned and took his hand in hers. "Thank-you so much."

Luke looked up from his plate. "For what?"

She looked around the room. "For what? For this, for dinner, for everything." She leaned in and placed a gentle kiss on his cheek. "You're the best and I love you so much."

Luke blushed lightly as she kept kissing his soft cheek.

"I love you, too." Luke whispered in her ear.

He brought his arms up around her and gently rubbed her back. A few minutes later, they resumed their eating and began chatting about what they should do the following weekend, which was their six-month anniversary.

The next day, which was Saturday, at seven o'clock in the morning, the telephone rang a few times. Stumbling down the stairs, Lorelai managed to make it into the living room safely. On her way to the kitchen, she bumped into the wall and almost fell down. After regaining her composure, she answered the ringing phone.

"Hello?" Lorelai grumbled into the receiver.

"Hey, Mom." Rory answered.

Lorelai's sleepy expression turned joyful. "Rory!"

"Mom!" Rory mocked her mother.

Lorelai sat down in a chair with the phone and scoffed. "You're not making fun of your mother, are you?"

"Of course not." Rory laughed. "Did I wake you?"

Lorelai groaned into the phone. "Yes, but since you are my only daughter that happens to be, like, a zillion hours away from me at some smelly, old college drinking booze with twenty-year-olds and clubbing with Reese Witherspoon, I will have to somehow find a way to forgive you." Lorelai grinned, obviously happy that Rory called.

"Looks like somebody overdosed on their coffee last night." Rory laughed into the phone.

Lorelai laughed also and got up to make some coffee. After a few seconds, she let out a deep sigh. "Rory, we miss you so much, please come home this weekend and visit? Please, please, please?"

Rory smiled weakly into the phone and mournfully shook her head. "I miss you guys too, but I can't make it this weekend."

Lorelai nodded. "I understand. Big party at the frat house tonight. Planning on staying the night?"

Rory laughed. "Sorry, I'm not going to a party, but I do have tons of homework and a paper due next Friday and considering I only have two completed sentences done, it's gonna take up most of my time."

Lorelai continued. "Okay, now if the guys want you to stay through Monday you better bring an extra shirt. College guys don't go for that 'I'm wearing the same shirt from yesterday' thing. I would plan ahead in order to avoid potential embarrassment." Lorelai said while pouring herself another cup of coffee.

"What would I do without all of your helpful advice?" Rory joked.

Lorelai nodded. "You would get kicked out of Harvard and never be invited to a frat party again because I made you what you are today."

"And I thank you for that." Rory replied. "So, how are you and Luke?"

"He opened the peanut butter jar for me yesterday." Lorelai stated while making herself a bowl of cereal.

Rory laughed. "So, does that mean things are going good or are you just randomly stating your incapability of opening things?"

Lorelai's smile beamed as she sat back down at the table. She looked behind her to see if Luke was there and when she was sure that he wasn't, she turned her attention back to the phone.

Lorelai spoke in a gentle tone. "Oh, Rory, things are just so great. I've really never been this happy before in my life. Well, besides the day you were born. Ah, yes, I remember that day. I was in excruciating pain for over three, long hours, plugged up to a bunch of machines that shot numbing liquid into my veins. That was truly the best day of my life."

"And you describe it so beautifully, too." Rory said sarcastically. "Remember to tell Luke hi for me, okay?" A split second later, Rory gasped. "Mom! Oh my God, I'm gonna be late for my English class. I gotta go. I'll talk to you tomorrow!"

"Okay, bye sweets. Love you." Lorelai said sadly and hung up the phone. She stirred her coffee around in a ceramic, blue "Luke's" mug that she took from the diner a few days earlier. When Luke wandered into the kitchen, she looked up at him with a sad, pouty face.

"Rory can't make it this weekend." She stated. Luke kissed her gently before sitting down beside her.

He sighed in disappointment. "It's okay, we'll see her soon. Maybe we could-" He stopped and glanced down at his wife's coffee. "Lorelai, isn't that a cup from the diner?" He asked suspiciously.

She looked at it and smiled innocently. "No, the God's brought it to me."

"Lorelai." He said firmly.

"Okay, okay. I took it. But, mind you, we barely have any decent coffee cups in this house. I was a desperate woman in need of cups." She insisted and proceeded to drink her coffee.

"Lorelai, no house in all of Connecticut has as many coffee cups in it as ours does. Try again." He said dryly.

"Um, I had an aneurysm?" She suggested sweetly.

"I don't think so." Luke smiled and got up to get some of the cereal.

Lorelai got up and followed him to the counter. She tapped him on the back. "I know! I had a stroke. A bad one. The kind that makes you do wild and crazy things like steal cups from the diner."

He shook his head. "Nice try, but that cup is going back on Monday." Luke concluded and sat down again with his cereal.

"Fine, you win." Lorelai sighed. "Hey, if I dig a big hole in the yard and bury the cup and you never, ever find it, can I keep it?"

"Nope." Luke smiled and reached for the newspaper.

"Mean. Ugh, what happened to all those advantages of marrying the owner of a diner?" Lorelai whined and sat down again.

"What advantages?" He asked, amused, as he read the paper.

"You know, all those great advantages that nobody else has. Like, being able to take the cool cups without it being considered a felony." She said and grabbed the newspaper away from Luke. She laughed and started reading it nonchalantly.

Luke sighed. "You really think you're cute, don't you?"

"No, I'm sure of it. Now, what sections do you want?" She asked.

"Business and sports." He replied and grabbed the sections away from her. "Thank-you."

"You're very grumpy this morning." She smiled and picked at the remains of her cereal.

"No, I'm very grumpy all the time." He grinned and kissed her sweetly on the lips.

"Sorry, I forgot." She laughed through the kiss and began to read her sections of the newspaper.

A few hours later, Luke and Lorelai walked out the door in order to pick Jess up from school (Connecticut State). Once they were in the car for about ten minutes, Lorelai made a face and sat thoughtfully.

She turned to Luke and tapped his shoulder. "Hey, Luke?" She asked.

"Yeah?" He glanced at her warmly before turning his attention back to the road.

"Why does Jess have a week off?"

Luke cleared his throat and paused. "Um, I think it's just some sort of break their on. All I know is that Jess asked to stay at our house for the week and you said it would be fine." He stopped at a red light and turned to her. "It is fine, isn't it?"

"Oh, yeah, it's fine. I just think it's...I don't know, a little weird considering he doesn't like me all that much." She said and bit into a half-melted Hershey bar she had in her pocket.

Luke smiled. "Yeah, and we all know how much you like him, too. Listen, he's changed a lot over the last couple of years and I really think you two should try to start over. Now, I'm not asking you to bake him a welcome home cake and kiss him good night, but a little change in your attitude toward him would be really helpful."

Lorelai thought for a second before nodding her head. "You're right, I'm sorry. I'll try. I can't promise anything great will come of this, but I will try only because I love you so much it makes me nauseous."

Luke laughed and nodded appreciatively. "Thanks." He said and when they reached a stop sign, he leaned over and kissed her.

To be continued...