Chapter One: Teaser (REVAMPED, and REWRITTEN as of 12/21/09)

FULL summary: Post partings. April and Anna have endured a horrific accident. Both are in serious, unstable conditions. Luke needs someone. With Liz and TJ making the rounds with the renaissance circuit he is left with no one. Lorelai, who in my alternate universe did NOT sleep with Christopher, is still extraordinarily emotionally unstable since the split. She, too, needs someone by her side. Can pain bring our favorite couple back together once and for all?

Title: Pain

Rating: PG-ish

Glitches: Chris? Who's that? Oh, no he's no in this. This is a no Chris zone. Always.

Disclaimer: I claim nothing, sadly.

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Luke sat in the uncomfortable hospital chair, looking down, eyes closed tight, replaying a conversation in his head. He couldn't believe it.

He was closing up the diner for the night, putting chairs on the tables, making sure everything was in it's place for the following morning. He'd become so robotic since Lorelai left him, he didn't have something to look forward to each day. Nothing, except his daughter April. She seemed to brighten the days which would otherwise seem dark and depressing.

Suddenly, the loud sound of the diner's landline ringing broke Luke from his thoughts.

"Hello?" He answered, unsure of who would be calling the diner at this hour. He checked his watch, it read 10:30.

"Is this Luke Danes?" A serious man with a deep tone asked him.

"Uh, yeah this is Luke Danes. Can I help you?"

"Mr. Danes, this is Dr. Shultz from Woodbridge Memorial Hospital, if I'm to be correct your daughter is April Nardini?"

"Yes, is something wrong?" Panic took Luke over, even though he hadn't known he'd been a father for long, the instincts kicked in full power, almost instantly. He knew something wasn't right.

"Unfortunately, Mr. Danes, April and her mother Anna were in a car accident earlier this evening. I can't release too much information over the phone, but—"

"No, that's fine. I'll be right there."

"Okay, Mr. Danes. I'll speak with you soon."

"Yeah," He quickly hung up the phone and ran upstairs for his keys and his jacket. In less than two minutes, he was in his truck en route to the hospital.

Nearly two hours had passed since that telephone conversation with the doctor, and since then he'd spoken with that same doctor on six different occasions. Every so often something new would come up. Anna had been in surgery for nearly an hour, they'd deduced that there was little they could do for April given her current state. All he could do now was wait. Thoughts whirled around Luke's jumbled head. The last three days had been a complete nightmare for him, one tragedy to the next. He'd lost his fiancée, and now faced losing his daughter and his former flame. He began to blame himself. There had to be something he could do to rectify everything. His thoughts drifted further, and further until they reached the same place they'd gone every other time he had an extended period of time by himself. Lorelai.

Despite all that was happening around him, to him, concerning him, he could not seem to pry his thoughts away from his lost love. He refused to come to terms with the fact that he no longer had the love of his life, the yin to his yang and every other cliché imaginable, Lorelai Gilmore. She was perfect for him, and he let it all slip away.

"Mr. Danes," a nurse called to him.

"Yes?" He looked up, shaking thoughts of Lorelai temporarily from his head.

"I'm afraid there's nothing else we can do tonight, you may want to go home and get some rest. We can call you if anything changes."

"Oh, alright. Thank you." The nurse gave him a polite smile and a sympathetic nod before turning on her heels and walking off.

Maybe, if I called her... He thought. No, no. She wouldn't take the call. Luke stood up, and pulled himself together. He knew instantly what he was doing. He walked to his truck, got in, and drove back to Stars Hollow. Back home.

--

Lorelai Gilmore hadn't been doing particularly well over the last three days. Leaving Luke was the hardest thing she'd ever had to do. Harder than living under Emily Gilmore's roof for seventeen years, even. At this point, she could barely move. She was barren of emotion, too. She couldn't laugh, or smile, or even cry anymore. She was too emotionally drained to cry, or whimper or speak. Rory, though worried about her, knew there was nothing she could do but wait it out. The time would come when Lorelai realized she needed to get up, and get moving. Everyone hoped that moment would come sooner rather than later.

As she lay on her couch, motionless, expressionless, she stared at the ceiling. She scarcely blinked in fear of her gaze dropping to something that reminded her of Luke. Everything reminded her of Luke. So, staring at the ceiling seemed to be her best bet.

Her thoughts, or lack thereof, were then interrupted by a loud, obnoxious banging on the door. For a moment she contemplated ignoring it, but she knew that would further evoke cries of worry from everyone around her. She got up slowly from the couch, lifting the mountain of blankets off of her and trudged to the door.

She opened the door and stared intently at the figure before her, "Hi." She whispered, barely audible.

"Hi," the familiar, deep voice echoed.

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That's a little more lengthy than the original first chapter. & I hope you enjoyed the rewrite!

Second chapter to come, ASAP!