A/N: Just a little bit about different people's views on the Luke/Lorelai wedding-date-setting postponement.


Them not setting a date had been sort of an unspoken agreement.

They had spent the summer basking in the glow of being engaged. Even after three months, he got this uplifting feeling in his heart every time she introduced him to someone as her fiancée.

He knew she wasn't ready, and waiting was okay with him. He'd waited nine years, after all. What were a couple more months?

He also knew that Lorelai did want to talk to Rory. And he knew Rory felt the same way. She had come to the diner and asked about her mother.

But he wasn't going to meddle. He was going to try his hardest to stay out of the middle. Because if he ended up there, nothing would be solved. No, he just had to sit on the sidelines and watch Lorelai sulk. He saw the look on her face every time she spotted something that reminded her of her daughter, every time she past the long-closed door of Rory's room, every time she ended a sentence halfway through because the last few words had been about her best friend, and it broke his heart.

He wanted Rory there too. She was like a daughter to him. And he knew that even if Lorelai had said she was ready to set a date that she wouldn't have been. He knew that when she pictured her wedding day, she pictured Rory right there with her.

Sookie was more vocal about the situation. Part of her was telling her to be a good friend and wait patiently. But another part was telling her that Lorelai was looking for an excuse to put off her wedding. Because as she had told her friend before, she had priors. And she didn't want to see Lorelai push someone else away.

So Sookie asked Lorelai and Rory to be her children's godparents. And Lorelai had accepted gladly, just as Sookie knew she would. She had tried to tell herself that she was doing this because she wanted them to be Davy and Martha's godparents. She wanted them as officially part of her family. But deep down, she knew she was doing this to push them together. She wanted Lorelai to set a date already. It had been three months, and she was getting worried.

Rory was worried also. Nearly every minute of every day was spent thinking about her mother, about where she was at the moment. Rory spent her time wondering if her mother was picking out colors, or trying on dresses, or sampling cakes. She was upset just thinking about it. Rory had always pictured herself having a part in planning her mother's wedding.

She hadn't told the grandparents. Last time they'd found out from someone other than Lorelai, it hadn't been pretty. She'd told Rory the whole story in detail, beginning to end, soup to nuts.

That was back when they shared everything with each other.

The thought of telling Richard and Emily had crossed her mind more than once. But the only motive she had to tell them would be to get back at her mother. And as much as she felt like she wanted to hurt Lorelai, the fact that she could never get the words out showed herself that still cared for her mom.

Rory had tried. At the baptism, she tried to take the first step to rebuild the connection they'd had. She'd offered up her cell phone number, insuring her mother could reach her, whenever, wherever.

But she'd turned it down. And as much as Rory didn't want to admit it, she was hurt. She wanted to make things right with her mother, but she didn't know how. Rory knew she'd disappointed Lorelai, and didn't have the heart to face her once she'd become a failure.

So she ran.

Apparently she was more like her mother than she thought.

Lorelai, however, had realized her daughter's similarities to herself on many more than one occasion. There were the eyes, the junk food cravings, the addiction to coffee, the love of movies, the taste in music. The list went on and on. But she knew she'd passed some not-so-great things on to Rory as well. And a tendency to run was definitely one of them.

She had been upset when she discovered Luke had told Rory about their engagement. She'd had pictures in her head of Rory and herself shrieking in excitement, jumping up and down. But now she pictured the shocked, saddened look that must have crossed Rory's face as she sat in the empty diner.

Wedding planning was too hard. She'd tried. She figured it'd be a good way to get her mind off of Rory. That's what she always did when she needed to hide a problem: work. But this time it backfired. Every time she looked at a dress, or tried to pick out colors, or decide on the music all she could think was I wonder what Rory would think of this…

And that made everything worse.

She was terrified that Luke would be upset. She'd played different scenarios in her head of how her telling him she wanted to put off setting a date would make him react. It scared her that she could never come up with even one in which he wasn't angry.

She'd expected questions and yelling, frustration and disappointment. But all she got was one word.

"Okay."

And it hit her. He really loved her. Sure, he'd never said it, but he'd shown it. What had he said last year back at the inn's test run? Something about letting his actions speak because that was the romantic way. He had been right.

Most guys would've been worried if their fiancés told them they didn't want to set a wedding date. They would've assumed she'd been having second thoughts.

Luke didn't. He knew her better than she knew herself, and he knew that Rory being at the wedding meant a lot to her, and he was prepared to make sacrifices to have that happen.

'Okay' was just one word, but it spoke volumes.

They were willing to wait, no matter how long it took.

Because that's what you do when you're in love.


The End

Sort of odd, but just a piece I've been working on for a while and wanted to get out of my system.

Reviews are always appreciated.