Disclaimer: I don't own any part of Gilmore Girls. Except now I finally have all of the seasons on DVD and have gotten two of my friends hooked, one being my roommate so that's all we watch now. :o) Go me!
A/N: It's winter and Texas is finally getting some winter temperatures. It actually snowed a little! Mostly ice, but a wee bit of snow. How cool is that?
Something Wonderful
Lorelai trudged into the diner, pushing the door closed with her foot as she headed towards her favorite table. Sitting down, she held her head in her hands as she waited for the throbbing in her head to subside.
"Still not feeling better?" Luke said, setting down a cup of coffee, a bowl of soup, and a glass of orange juice in front of her.
"I swear this cold is feeding off of itself. That's how it's growing stronger despite everything I'm doing to take care of it!"
"Everything you're doing to take care of it?"
"Yes, everything I'm doing to take care of it. I've been eating your chicken soup-"
"But not the carrots."
"Carrots are gross. I've been eating your soup. I've been drinking these huge glasses of orange juice you've been giving me-"
"They're 8 ounce glasses Lorelai. Your coffee cup is twice that size. And I fresh squeeze it every morning."
"And I've been taking Dayquil too."
"DayQuil doesn't cure it, rest does. And that is the one thing you haven't been doing."
"Who has time to rest Luke? My day consists of coming here, picking the carrots out of my soup, and working until 9. We're short staffed at the inn right now and I can't away. And everything just feels off when I'm sick. That's what I hate. I don't feel quite like myself."
"Lorelai, I promise that this cold will never go away until you take some time off. Sookie will tell you the same thing. Heck, if you go in like that, Sookie will demand that you go home."
"I know. That's why I avoid her by staying in my office all day catching up on paperwork."
"Lorelai, you need rest."
"Ok, I'll run and stop by the Inn, grab some paperwork and do it at home. That way I'm not out and about but I'm still getting work done."
"Nope. I have a better idea. How about I call Sookie for you and you just go home, crank up the fire, and sit in front of the T.V. all day? I'll bring you lunch."
"Well, that does sound better than going to the Inn and having Michel follow me around with a can of disinfectant all day."
"See, I have good ideas occasionally. I'll see you later?"
"Sure thing. And who knows, I might even eat the carrots this time."
"I doubt it," Luke said, bending down to kiss her forehead. "I'll bring you lunch around noon."
"Thanks babe," Lorelai said, finishing up her coffee. She stood up to leave and grabbed her coat.
"Wait Lorelai!" Lorelai turned as she put on her coat and gloves.
"You didn't drink your orange juice," Luke said, grinning wickedly.
"I didn't finish my soup either," Lorelai said, throwing on her scarf and walking out the door. Luke shook his head and cleared her table.
Lorelai smiled despite herself as she walked home. She felt terrible but seeing Luke always lifted her spirits. Pulling her coat closer around her, she coughed as she continued walking along the town square.
She sighed as she finally reached home, grateful for the greeting she would receive from Paul Anka when she arrived. It would be nice to have someone to snuggle up with as she bummed around today. She paused on the front steps, feeling like there was something she should be waiting for, something for her to expect. Shrugging the feeling off, she continued into the house and smiled as Paul Anka came bounding up to greet her. As quickly as she could manage, she went upstairs to take some medicine and to change into her warmest pajamas. Coming back down, she put in Elf, lit a fire in the fireplace, sat down and quickly fell asleep with Paul Anka by her side.
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She woke up to the sound of Luke grumbling in the kitchen. He was either on the phone or talking to himself so naturally she strained to hear what he was saying.
"I don't care if people are ordering it or not," Luke paused. "No Caesar, You cannot serve food in my diner that I haven't put on the menu. My diner, my menu. You can't just change it because I've left for a few hours. No, Caesar. No! No, Caes- put Lane on. Caesar just put Lane on. I know she's there, you can't tell me she's not there. If I'm not there and there are still happy paying customers being served I can pretty much bet on the fact that she's there because that means you haven't burned down the place yet! Just put Lane on the phone. Put Lane on the phone. Tell her to put the plates down, that I said Kirk can wait for his peanut butter sandwich. Okay, I'll wait." Lorelai smiled to herself. She loved Rant Luke. Getting up to join him in the kitchen, she heard him start to talk again. "Lane? Good, now please don't let him talk to the customers. If they don't talk to him, he won't tell him to order things not on the menu. Alright, thanks a lot." Luke hung up the phone with a sigh. Lorelai snuck up behind him, pulling hum into a hug.
"Hey there sleepyhead," Luke said, leaning back to kiss her on the cheek.
"Caesar trying to serve frozen bananas again?"
"Among other things."
"So, not to sound ungrateful or unhappy to see you, which believe me, I am definitely not either of those things, but why aren't you at work?"
"I came to make you lunch. I said I would at the diner this morning."
'Yeah, I'm a little out of it right now; I took like 3 NyQuil when I got home."
"You're supposed to take those at night. They have DayQuil for the day. I thought you said that you were taking DayQuil."
"I am. Well, I was. When one is in a coffee and DayQuil induced daze, one tends to get the two mixed up."
"One's green and one's orange."
"But the daze!"
"Two different colors."
"Ok! I grabbed the first pills I saw and after I took them, I realized that I took the green pills instead of the orange."
"Uh huh. So I gather you're still tired."
"Yep."
"Well can you stay awake long enough to eat your burger?"
"You're asking me to choose between food and sleep?"
"Yep," Luke replied, handing her a glass of orange juice.
Lorelai sighed and accepted the glass. "Food, then sleep," she said, wrapping her arms around Luke and pressing her face into his chest. Putting his arms around her, he kissed her forehead and led her to the table.
"Ok, eat. Then you get to sleep." Lorelai smiled as she sat down and started eating as Luke cleaned up the mess in the kitchen.
"So what's for dessert?" Lorelai said as she finished her burger.
"That glass of orange juice you never touched?"
"Mean."
"Oh, keeping you from getting scurvy is mean?"
"Hey man, if I want scurvy, that's my prerogative."
"Good luck with that one," Luke said, clearing the empty plate in front of her.
"Luke, thank you for doing this for me."
"Hey, you're my girlfriend. I get to do stuff like this for you." Lorelai smiled at Luke's words, got up and walked to the couch.
'So another movie?"
"Yeah, I'm thinking Edward Scissorhands. I'll watch all the funny parts but fall asleep before the sad stuff. It's perfect. So, I have one more favor to ask you."
"Shoot."
"Stay with me, for just a little while? I'm getting cheated tonight because you have an early delivery and I'm still sick," Lorelai said, pouting a little. Luke nodded and poked at the fire a bit, reviving it, and sat down with his girlfriend, pulling the blanket up so she wouldn't be cold. They sat in silence for a while until Luke got worried about the fact that Lorelai was silent. He looked down and saw that she had fallen asleep again.
Smiling, he gently reclaimed his arm and pulled the blankets up more making sure she was comfortable before getting up. Turning down the gas in the fireplace, his face fell as he saw what was going on outside out of the corner of his eye. It was snowing. The first snow of the year, and Lorelai was sick and sleeping right through it.
Luke sighed as he sat down in front of the window and stared at the snowfall. Making up his mind, he grabbed his coat and gloves and walked out the door.
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Lorelai woke up and frowned when she saw that it was dark outside. Getting up to find Luke, she was suddenly aware of her surroundings and stopped in her tracks. There were snowflakes everywhere. There were snowflakes large and small, hanging from the ceiling with white ribbons; snowflakes were taped on walls, on picture frames and on the television. Tiny white twinkle lights that weren't twinkling covered every surface that wasn't covered with snowflakes. She stared turning slowly, now noticing what else was in the room. The fire was roaring and two huge mugs of hot chocolate were sitting on the table by the couch, steaming hot with giant marshmallows floating in them. The song "Let it Snow" was playing softly on the stereo and as it ended, "A Marshmallow World" started up, his mellow baritone filling the room. "Luke," she whispered, automatically knowing who was responsible for turning her living room into a scene right out of a movie.
"Yes?" The voice came from behind her. She whirled around, wanting to get to him as quickly as she could. As she reached him, her cold took hold of her and all her energy was gone. She felt herself getting lightheaded and dizzy as she wrapped her arms around Luke, using him to hold her up.
"What is all this?"
"Look outside." Lorelai obeyed, gathering her strength and walking over to the window.
"It snowed," she said under her breath, not really understanding.
"It snowed. The first snow of the season. But I wasn't about to wake you up when you were sick so you could go walk around outside and get even sicker."
"You made me my first snow of the season."
"Yeah."
"Luke."
"And I found an old snow globe when I was in my apartment. I think it was my mom's and I thought you should have it because you're sick and it kind of fits with the theme." As Luke explained, Lorelai walked back over to her boyfriend to look at the snow globe that he was shaking. It was small, but not tiny. Pine trees surrounded a cozy looking house as snow fell gently on the ground around it.
"Luke, it's beautiful." Luke just grinned as Lorelai stared into the globe.
"Hot chocolate is getting cold," Luke said, reminding Lorelai of the beverage waiting for her. She smiled and grabbed her mug as Luke hurried into the kitchen.
'Luke? Where did you go?"
"I'm just going to finish cooking dinner. I'll bring our plates in there. Just give me 5 seconds."
"1-2-3-"
"Lorelai…"
"I love you?"
"Thank you." Luke made their plates and brought them out to Lorelai. Sitting down next to her, they silently started to eat.
"So Luke?"
"Yeah?"
"Thank you so much, but where did this come from?"
"Well the lights came from the twinkle light store, the-"
"You know what I mean!"
"When you fell asleep during Edward Scissorhands it started to snow. I knew you would be disappointed if you missed it so I decided to make it snow inside. I know you hate it when your sick and I thought you missing the first snow might make it work. So I brought the snow to you. This way it's less cold, and you won't get sicker."
"Thank you Luke," she said, staring up at him. He smiled back at her, put his arms around her and kissed her on the forehead. He reached for the remote and restarted Edward Scissorhands. After a few minutes they were both asleep and the snow started to fall again outside.
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Okay guys, I hope you liked it. I needed a little more winter fluff with all this crazy weather down here. Reviews are always welcome, and who knows, I might just throw in a frozen banana (or how about a cup of hot chocolate) to everyone who reviews. :o) If only, right?