Lorelai Gilmore Danes didn't expect to have empty nest syndrome hit her quite like this.
She'd spent much of her adult life – even long before she was technically an adult – tethered to Rory's side and not regretting a second of it. Then Rory was grown up and off exploring the world, and she was settled down with Luke in their unconventional but happily domestic manner. Rory was in DC living out her dream, and then she was technically in NYC but more often everywhere else: Los Angeles, Seattle, Phoenix, New Orleans, Australia, sometimes Europe. Lorelai missed her, but she was never lonely or at a loss to impart semi-parental wisdom: April resided in their house at least one weekend a month and half of the summer, and it turned out that Luke couldn't handle all of those teenage girl crises all by himself. There were bad boyfriends and semi-decent boyfriends and impromptu boat thefts and there was that incident with a goat that led to Miss Patty's dance studio being set on fire (and okay, Kirk was mostly responsible for that one, but it was the closer to a very interesting summer, so it all ran together in Lorelai's head) and by the end of it Lorelai was thankful that Rory had saved most of her drama for her college years.
Lane and Liz and Sookie needed their help with their expanding broods (exactly what kind of fertility agents were in the Stars Hollow water supply in 2007, anyway?) more than either Luke or Lorelai had anticipated during those years, and by the time it was all over Lorelai was more than happy to take a breath and enjoy life with just her and her man. She hadn't missed the conventional life they didn't have, and if she let her thoughts stray from time to time about the things she had wanted a long time ago, she still knew she'd choose the good things in her life now over the year of misery and confusion that her former obsessions had led her to.
Then Rory got pregnant and moved home, moving both her and Luke into a new stage of life they hadn't quite been anticipating: newlyweds as well as grandparents. Jess and April and Logan became staples of their home life as their grandson brought new joys and terrors into the fold, and Lorelai was reminded how much she had missed Rory these past ten years.
Now Rory and her toddler son were settled into the Queens neighborhood Rory had planned on making her home two years ago. She had a day job editing newsletters and press releases for an academic publishing house and was several months into a relationship with Logan, who had his own apartment in Manhattan. Things seemed to be going well, and the main reason whey hadn't moved in together yet seemed to revolve around whose household would take prominence.
Lorelai knew that there was a good chance she'd probably have to make another adjustment in the near future: being the mother of a daughter happily settled into married life. Maybe things would change and maybe they wouldn't: for her, marriage had merely solidified and strengthened the bond she already had with the man she had long ago chosen to spend her life with, and maybe it would be the same for her daughter. Her life was still full and rich and wonderful in a lot of ways: she still spoke to Rory every day and saw her at least once a month. Jess and April still visited frequently – far more frequently than they had before the marriage and baby had brought them closer together – but not nearly as often as when Rory had lived in Stars Hollow. She still ran the Dragonfly (which now had two locations!) and came home to Luke and Paul Anka just like she had done for the past eleven years.
Still, she couldn't help thinking of how much she had treasured having Rory and her son living above the diner for the past two years, and was a little lonelier now that things had changed again.
As usual, Luke sensed the changes in her mood over the past couple of weeks and had responded the best way he knew how: through actions instead of words.
One Monday Lorelai returned from work sensing new and wonderful smells coming into the kitchen, but her husband was momentarily nowhere to be found.
She stepped over to the refrigerator and opened the door gingerly.
Luke had moved her junk food to the bottom of the fridge, and placed the more sensible items on the top shelf.
Taking up space in the middle were her three favorite kinds of cheesecake: strawberry, caramel apple, and – of course – coffee.
Lorelai spun around as Luke let himself into the kitchen. He nonchalantly crossed over to the fridge and reached around her to remove some ground beef from the freezer.
"When did you have time to make all these cakes?" she asked him.
"I had some free time this afternoon," he replied as he retrieved a pan from the oven drawer and turned on the stove's knobs to begin preparing dinner. "Plus, I figured you've been feeling kind of down lately and –" He shrugged. "It's not a big deal."
Lorelai crossed over to the stove in two steps and embraced him from behind. "You know you're the best husband, ever, right?"
Luke chuckled. "Glad you think so."
Lorelai hugged him tighter and felt that same wondrous wave of gratitude coat her insides that she'd felt as a constant presence for most of her life with him.
No matter what other changes life had in store, she had Luke – and his frequent selfless gestures, as well as the rest of him – as something she could always count on.
"I do," she told him. "I really do."