A/N: This story was written for Toofaraway for the 2007 LL Ficathon. The prompt was:

Things I'd like to see:

-Something original

-April and Lorelai having more than a "Lukes daughter/Lukes fiancée (or girlfriend, whatever)" relationship
Things I don't want to see:

-Christopher and Lorelai together any more than absolutely necessary

-Luke and the swim coach or any other woman

Also thank you to my beta SmileyGGFan (Lauren)!

-----------

She was 41-years-old and still unmarried, hoping she finally found the perfect man. Being married once and having it not work out made her a little hesitant, but she had known him for years before they started dating. They had hit some bumps in the road and were even broken up for almost a year, but knowing that they couldn't stay away from each other, they kept on trying. Lorelai trusted him and gave him and them one last chance.

When you find someone ok with the fact that you have a twenty-five year old married daughter, who was born when you were only sixteen, then you know you have to do what you can to keep him.

Before they could really get back together, they had to talk about where they went wrong the last time. First of all, communication. After that phone call from Christopher, they had a talk about communication, but then April showed up and all hell broke loose. This time they knew that if this was going to work, then they had to truly not keep secrets. She remembered that conversation so clearly.

"We can't hide things from each other," Luke started, exactly as he had started over a year earlier.

"You said that last time," Lorelai spoke back.

"Yes, but now I know the consequences of my actions. I can't bear losing you, again. I just don't think I could handle it. I promise that I won't keep any more secrets from you," Luke responded confidently. Lorelai was beaming inside and out. He proved he really cared for her, not just as a girlfriend, but as a friend, too.

"And I won't keep anymore secrets from you. My life is an open book that you are reading every minute of every day. But each day the book gets longer so you will never be able to stop reading," she spoke metaphorically.

The memory made her smile. She loved using metaphoric phrases when talking to him. Especially, if they have a reference to a movie he hasn't seen and then she has to add it to the list of movies she needs to show him. That list just kept on growing.

A few of the movies that were once on the list were no longer there. This elimination of movies, such as Funny Face, was all Christopher's fault. This movie along with others triggered memories of her ex-husband who she just wanted to forget. She didn't even want to remember that he is the father of her child.

Christopher. Another topic Luke and Lorelai had to discus. When Chris was brought up, Lorelai lacked enthusiasm, but even she agreed that it had to be discussed.

"Lorelai, that night you gave me the ultimatum…" Luke started.

"Luke…" Lorelai interrupted.

"Lorelai just let me finish. We want to fix everything that went wrong, and that night was very wrong."

"Dirty!" Lorelai exclaimed. Luke laughed knowing this was a typical Lorelai response.

"Anyway," he emphasized, "that night. Why did you go to Christopher? And I want the whole truth."

"I promise to give the whole truth and nothing but the truth," Lorelai paused, sighed, and then stated her explanation, "Honestly, I'm not exactly sure why. My mind was in frenzy, partly because I couldn't believe you said 'no,' and partly because I couldn't believe I had just walked away from you. I arrived at my house and it looked dark and lonely and right then I didn't wasn't to be alone. So I drove to the first person's house that would let me in, no questions asked. Since I had just seen Chris, he was just on my mind. And I knew if I went to anyone else they would want to know what was going on, and I wasn't ready to talk. Why I did what I did when I was there is still unclear, but I knew that it happened and I had to tell you about it or else there could be serious consequences. And even though there ended up being serious consequences anyway, if I hadn't told you, it could have been worse, and we may not have gotten to where we are today."

"Lorelai," he paused, not exactly sure of what he was about to say, "Thank you for being honest with me. I am glad you told me about Chris and I agree that there could have been much more severe consequences. I'm just happy we're here right now discussing everything and on the road to another chance."

At that moment, she was smiling so big that Luke couldn't resist smiling back. She stared into his eyes and once again saw the man that she had fallen in love with.

"You know what?" Lorelai started, "those orphans were right. It's from ear to ear that really matters."

Luke laughed, really laughed, and not just chuckled for once. "I guess they are right."

"Yes! Score one for Danes in the Danes vs. Movies case! I knew that Annie would trigger a memory," Lorelai cheered.

"Yeah, yeah. You know I wasn't a completely deprived child. I did see some movies," Luke said as he rolled his eyes.

Their small movie argument continued until they felt like it was old times where they were just friends. But Lorelai knew the final step to becoming more than friends again. April. She knew there was no way around it nor did she want there to be, and now she is glad that she brought it up.

"Luke, you got your question. Now I can get mine," Lorelai started, "April. I need to know what my role will be in her life."

"You will be allowed to see April anytime you want. I will tell you when she's coming so you can stop by or stay a while if you want. Not so you can come by after," Luke answered.

Lorelai smiled at his response, "Just what I wanted to hear."

"Yeah well, I thought a lot about you and us while we were apart, and I realized all the ways we went wrong," Luke spoke gently causing a tear to escape from Lorelai's eyes.

" You thought about me, even when we weren't together. You are the perfect man." And with that being said, they looked into each other's eyes, leaned in, and shared their first kiss after their break-up.

After about two months of dating, Luke invited April over to formally meet Lorelai again. They went out to dinner in Woodbury at a restaurant called Nico's, because he knew both Lorelai's and April's favorite kind of food was Italian. That night was great, for not only Lorelai and April's relationship, but also Lorelai and Luke's relationship.

Now whenever April came to the diner, Lorelai would come by and stay if she could. April loved being with Lorelai, but this did not take away from her relationship with her dad, like he originally feared.

So then there was April 25th, which was a very special day in Lorelai and April's relationship. Lorelai, Rory, and April were going to have a true Stars Hollow girls' day out. Lorelai called April and invited her over and promised her that they would show her the real Stars Hollow.

Lorelai and Rory had planned the whole day out. Starting with shopping at the mall, which is not actually in Stars Hollow, but everyone knows that the perfect day includes shopping. After their morning at the mall and a giant buffet at the food court, Gilmore style, they were going to give April the real tour of Stars Hollow and show her all the places that Luke had never taken her. After, April would pick which place she wanted to stay at, and they would do whatever activity was going on there.

-----------

The bubble gum lip-gloss sitting on the bathroom counter seemed like the right choice for that day. It made Lorelai feel younger. It was already 8 am, but it was sill dark outside. About five minutes later, as she reached the bottom of the stairs, she heard some thunder and then the rain pounding on the windows.

"Crap," Lorelai said to herself, "I should have checked the weather more carefully." So she turned on the TV to see if the storm would pass quickly.

"It seems like we have a huge storm hitting the tri-state area. We're predicting the storm to go away late in the afternoon," the channel 8 weatherman stated. Lorelai was now very frustrated. She had to cancel half of the activities they had planned for the day. April couldn't take the Stars Hollow driving tour before the walking tour. Lorelai had to think of something else, and fast, but her mind was blank.

The doorbell rang and Lorelai jumped up. Her deep train of thought had been interrupted. Though she still had no solution to the problem, she went to the door hoping it wasn't April.