AN: This is a one/shot of how could have been Lorelai and Luke's encounter after 7.08 but before 7.10. Big thanks to Katie for being my beta in this story :D hope you all like it, and reviwes are very much appreciated :P
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Flying High.
"Looking at you
And you are looking at me
And we both know what we want
Hmmm, so close to giving in."
Jem, Flying High.
Lorelai stepped into the diner like it was something she has always been doing, although she hasn't really set foot in that place since May 9th. Yet it still felt natural, like she had never stopped going there in the first place. She spotted Luke behind the counter, her stomach drooped and suddenly she felt nervous.
Two nights ago, when he came running to her after learning that April was sick and having no idea of what to do, she didn't have the time to really look at him, to really see him. Luke was so frantic that he almost wasn't able to put a proper sentence together, and she just wanted to know about April's condition at the time, so she just had put all the remaining feelings and everything else in the back of her mind.
But now, looking at him behind the counter with his red flannel, her favorite for so many reasons, it all came back and hit her with the force of a really big truck.
"Hey," was all Luke said when he turned around and found her staring at him. He had heard the bell ring but it was late and he was sure the customer was Kirk, he really wasn't expecting Lorelai to drop by tonight.
"Hum, hi. How are you, are you okay?" She really wanted to know if he was. She had never seen Luke so worried as he was the other night before, he had his share of worrying about Rory in her teens and even after that, like when she had run away from home and ended up in the Gilmore mansion, but now, it was with his real daughter, and she was worried for him.
"Oh yeah, everything is fine now, with me and April…" He didn't know what to do with himself right at that point. Lorelai was there, and she was genuinely worried about him… and April. It seemed like those really crappy movies she made him see when they were together.
The thing that tore us apart is what will bring us together.
"Good, good. I was worried cause you didn't call to say if she was fine, or if you were fine and… well, I was just worried."
"Sorry, about that, about not calling, she left the hospital yesterday and I was with her up until lunch today while Anna had some things to take care of, I just lost track of time. I was gonna call you after I had closed up but I thought it would be late so…" He decided to stop talking here, because if was possible, Luke Danes was babbling.
"You know you could have called, I would want to know about you."
And then they looked straight into each other's eyes. His beautiful indigo blue and her light blue eyes were intently staring at each other, and nothing else mattered. The diner was deserted, it was late and there was some town event going on in the outside world.
Lorelai head was spinning, two minutes on the same room with Luke was all she needed to feel this way, like her world was meaningful and she had all the possible reasons to live. She was just standing there, and for some strange reason she remembered Anna Scott speech on Nothing Hill: "After all... I'm just a girl, standing in front of a boy, asking him to love her." And for some reason unknown to her, it was all she was able to think in that moment.
Luke was just looking at her eyes; they were so blue, so meaningful, and so full of life. He really loved her eyes, it was a part of her that he was always able to decipher. A part of her that was always on his side, it didn't matter if she was happy or sad, her eyes completely gave her away to him. He was lost in that trance and never wanted to get out of it.
The sudden ring of his phone startles them both and Lorelai mentally cursed the person who dares to call on such a time. Luke just let go of his rag and went over the phone to pick it up.
"Luke's… Oh hey, is everything okay? No, if you need to… it's totally fine… just bring her by tomorrow… anytime you want… all right then… bye Anna." Lorelai unconsciously flinched at the mention of Anna's name, she just hoped that Luke hadn't seen it. He put the phone back to its place and looked at her. "You okay?"
"Yeah, fine…" Damn him for seeing her so well. "So, I was just here to see if things were okay and settled with you," she paused for a moment. "I'll just be going now…" And she made a motion to the door with her hands, totally uncomfortable after his phone call.
"Oh, you don't want any coffee? There's still a pot left and there's no one else coming tonight. Maybe you could just finish it for me." He gave her one of his best grins in order of her to stay, which she returned with a wide smile spread across her face.
"Well, you don't want a good coffee to go to waste, huh?" She took a seat across from him on the stools, the very one she used to sit every single day for almost ten years.
The thought of Christopher passed her mind, but she was just drinking coffee. It was nothing much.
It was normal, a little awkward right after she entered the establishment, but not anymore… it was something they had done many times before, whether they were together or not, whether they were fighting or not. This was her safe place, the place she used to run to so many times after fighting with Rory, Emily, her dad, Sookie… all she needed at that time was a cup of his coffee and the world was good again.
Luke got her mug, the one she had claimed as her mug after a few times she had gone to the diner when they were still getting to know each other and she was still calling him 'Duke,' and filled it with the coffee she had once made a song about, saying how great it was and how she could not spend her life without. He wondered how she was holding up with her withdrawal from it.
Lorelai led the mug up to her mouth and just inhaled the sweet scent of the hot liquid, enjoying the moment of reconciliation with Luke's coffee after almost six months without it. After a few seconds she took a sip of it and smile.
"Oh man, how could I spend all this time without this?" Luke smiled at her remark, and at how she just answered what he was afraid to ask. "Seriously Luke, if it's possible it's even better then I remembered, did you add something besides nutmeg?"
"No… unless it counts that this one that I gave you is decaffeinated?"
"Luke Danes you didn't!"
Lorelai looked horrified by his comment and Luke was almost on the verge of laughter. "You are so not funny! How can you even joke with something like that?"
And then, they were both laughing. He was laughing because of his joke, the joke he has used so many times before and she fell for every single time. She was laughing because of his laugh, his contagious laugh that he shared with the world only ever so often, but she had listen to it many times before.
"So, how's Rory?" He couldn't have picked a worst subject.
"Rory is… mad." The things her daughter had said to her were starting to make sense in her head now, all the stuff about it being to soon, about it not being the right time, maybe her daughter was right. "She didn't take very well, the me, eloping with, uh, Chris, thing." It was weird talking to Luke about that, and she really didn't want to talk about it now.
"Oh, uh, maybe she's just mad cause she didn't get the chance to be your bridesmaid." He gave her a weak smile.
"Maybe so…" And with that she felt the need to change the subject, to get out of the spot light. "But other than that she's really good, a little freaked out, but good. It's her last year at Yale."
"Yeah it is. It seems like it was yesterday you were leaving me with a mattress in my truck and I had no idea of what to do with it." He said it with a smirk on his face, like there couldn't be a better time than that one.
"Oh yeah, I really had no idea we had to take out the old mattress before we got there!" She half smiled, thinking of how grown up her little girl was. "And she's still dating Logan even now that he's in London, so I think that part of her life will last."
He started laughing again, it was easy to talk to her and he knew she felt the same. It almost seemed like nothing had changed.
Once the laughter subsided, they were just staring at each other again. Luke had that hint of a smile in his lips, the one she liked the most. Lorelai didn't know why, but that hint of a smile was so innocent, so boyish, so Luke, it was even more beautiful then the real smiles he had saved before just for her.
She was beautiful, she was still the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. He's drawn to her, as simple as that. He tried to go on with his life, is not like he would be pinning for her for ever. He dated April's coach, well, they went out to dinner and the woman couldn't wait until they got out of the restaurant to try and have her way with him.
But all the time she was with Chris in Paris, something happened or someone passed by and she would automatically think of Luke. Maybe it was the way the person walked, or the baseball cap she saw a kid wearing one day, or even the hamburgers Chris insisted on them having. Somehow everything in that trip remembered her of him, and even so she went through with the wedding.
It was painful to see her come back of her trip married to him, to Chris nonetheless. Maybe if it was Max, or the other guy she dated a few months before him, maybe would be less painful; but deep down he knew it wouldn't. It hurt like hell when she told him she would be marring Max, and the only reason this time around was worst it was because he had her once, and could never have it back.
Their eyes were locked until the bell on the door jingled, taking them both from their gazes. Luke looked up and saw him, at his diner.
"Hey Chris," Lorelai was unease again, why was he here? She said she would be back in a minute, she was just going to see if April was okay. Why did he have to go to the diner looking for her?
"Hey Lor, Luke." He just nodded his head towards Luke, who did the same. "You were taking a long time to come back to the festival, so I was worried you had gone home without me." Chris was trying his best not to be, or look, jealous, but it was hard to keep your composure when your wife was talking to her ex fiancé that she hasn't talked to for about six months.
"Hum… no, I was just getting a cup of coffee actually." She looked up at Luke and smile, it was a weak smile, an 'I'm sorry' smile, and he got it. He just wished he wasn't standing two feet away from the guy that got his girl, even though she really wasn't his girl anymore. "We're going now, I'm glad to know everything is okay, Luke." Lorelai got up from the stool and gathered her purse to pay for the coffee.
"Don't. First time is on the house, Mimi was it?" He gave her a little smile, the same smile he gave her that day when she came crying to him because of Christopher. He knew it was hard, but if he had to have Lorelai in his life this way, married to Christopher, if this was the only way he would be able to get her in his life, he would make it work.
She got the hint and just played with him. "I was thinking of changing it, maybe Anna Scott you know? Mimi is way too slutty." She hoped he wouldn't remember her reference from the million of times they saw that movie together. Or maybe she did. She wasn't sure of that yet.
"I was thinking about William Thacker for me, it seems appropriate huh?" He wasn't going to show her he got it, her husband was right there, he wasn't that guy. But it was Lorelai, and he didn't know how to control himself around her.
They just smiled at each other.
She made her way towards the door and didn't look back; Chris followed her and closed it with a little more force than he intended to. She didn't think much about the names game, he didn't think it was a real big deal, he got her, Lorelai and Luke were friends, there wasn't anything to worry about.
Maybe this was the way it was supposed to be, she was supposed to be with Chris and he was supposed to be the guy who gives her coffee. Maybe this was the best idea for both of them, maybe they really weren't meant to be.
Even though, Lorelai still didn't believe in those words he said at the market, they hadn't sounded real coming from him, cold and unemotional, and it was like he had been forcing himself to believe in it. And after tonight, after seeing him, after seeing that they still had that 'thing' between them, that 'thing' that they couldn't figure out what it was, she just forgot his words. All of that was forgotten because she knew now that he hadn't meant them.
It was love what they had, real love. A love that had no beginning nor ending, a love that just is.