A/N: Hello hello everyone! This is a story I started working on probably about a year after Gilmore Girls went off the air. I published the first 2 chapters on another site and got generally favorable reviews, so I've decided to bring it back here and (hopefully) finish it. Probably will be 5 chapters by the end for 5 different items which Rory specifically mentions in 7x01.

Enjoy! x

"This is Luke's?" Rory asked skeptically, holding up a ruffled camouflage mini-skirt.

"No, this is mine, but I wore it with Luke when we went to see Jarhead. I was trying to look kind of Army and something about the combination of the movie and the hot dogs at the Waterbury Cineplex made me sick in the parking lot and Luke held my hair and it was nice… and now I gotta get rid of it."

Early season 5 - just a few months post Written in the Stars

Luke knocked on the front door twice before sighing loudly and opening it. "Lorelai!" he called as he walked towards the stairs.

"Oh hey babe, you're early!" her voice filtered down.

"Not early, you're just not ready on time," he called back, climbing the stairs. "As usual," he muttered.

"Yes, but you should know by now to factor in an extra 15 to 30 minutes for me to finish looking gorgeous. And, since you KNEW our date was at 6:30 and that I'm always late, your getting here at 6:30 was downright foolish."

Luke reached the doorway to her bedroom and leaned against it as she continued to yell from the closet.

"I mean, come on Luke, you have been on enough dates with me by now, buddy. You can't blame me because you refuse to learn. It's like if you ate my cooking one time and then you were violently ill for three days. Yeah, that's my fault because I can't cook but if you ate it AGAIN? Voluntarily? Come ON, dude. Fool me once, shame on… someone. Fool you… twice? Or, wait, I don't actually know how that goes. Is it fool-?"

"It's 'Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me,'" he responded wryly.

Her head popped out of the closet suddenly. "Oh, hi, I didn't know you were in here!"

"Yes, the yelling tipped me off to that," he said.

"Well, you're in luck because I am juuuust… about… ready," she grunted, having immersed herself in the closet once again.

"Would asking what you're doing actually lead to a logical answer?" Luke asked.

"Um… yes."

"So?"

"What?"

"So what are you doing?" Luke asked, exasperated.

"Oh. Well I haven't worn this skirt in awhile and it's a little… tight," she responded.

"Sounds fine to me," he grinned.

Lorelai finally emerged completely from the closet with a laugh. "What do you think?" she asked, spinning around in a circle.

Luke looked her up and down, taking in the camouflage miniskirt, pink heels, and light pink t-shirt. "Um, I think you look great," he said, closing the distance between them. He put his hands on her hips and continued, "but I did not realize that 'the Army has your soldier'." He gestured at the words across her chest.

"Oh, that. Yeah, um, honestly I got this shirt at the flea market when Rory was about… 12?"

"Because the Army had your soldier then?" Luke asked, rubbing one of her arms affectionately.

"Oh no. God no, I don't really do that whole public-pained-love-let-me-tell-you-how-much-I-miss -my-man thing. I got the shirt because all of these creepy single dads always hit on me at Rory's school things and I thought the shirt would deflect them." She turned away and began gathering things to put in her purse.

"How did that work out?"

"Actually, it backfired terribly. I'm ready, by the way, let's go," she said as she headed out the door and back down the stairs. "It turns out the only thing hotter than a single mom is a lonely Army wife who just might be vulnerable enough for a one-night tryst with a single dad. Go figure."

Luke opened the front door for her as he replied, "You DO realize that that shirt is going to make people think I am the single dad and THIS is the tryst?" They continued across the lawn to his truck. "And then they're going to see us at a movie about the Army and think we're both insanely terrible people because your soldier is off fighting for our freedom while we go on a clandestine date to see a movie about soldiers fighting for our freedom?"

Lorelai, having just sat down in the passenger seat, smiled at him. "You have officially been Gilmore-ed, Lucas Danes."

"Gilmore-ed?" he questioned as he walked around the front of the truck and climbed into the driver's seat.

"Yes, but the GOOD Gilmore-ed, not the kind Richard and Emily do. You have been Lorelai Gilmore-ed."

"How is that?" he asked, backing down the driveway.

"Because not only are you paying attention to what other people think of you, you are also creating imaginary scenarios in your head about things that probably won't happen," Lorelai explained matter-of-factly as she jabbed at the buttons on his radio.

"Stop doing that," he said impatiently.

"I want music, and your radio is crazy," she whined.

"It's not crazy, it's just a little temperamental," he said, pressing several buttons with his right hand while driving with his left.

"Um, yeah no. A child is temperamental. I'm temperamental when I'm hungry. THIS thing is beyond temperamental. This is Tom Cruise during that interview with Matt Lauer. This is Mike Tyson with an ear in his mouth. This is- oh," she trailed off as the sound filtered through.

"You're ridiculous," Luke said.

"A little." Lorelai slipped her hand into his free right one and they drove on in silence for a few minutes.

"I don't mind being Lorelai Gilmore-ed," Luke said suddenly, stroking her hand with his thumb. "As long as it's because I've been around you too long, it's ok in my book."

Lorelai stared at him in surprise. "Hon," she said simply. He raised their joined hands and kissed hers gently. Then he turned his eyes back to the road and cleared his throat loudly.

"So are you excited about this movie?"

"Um, Luke I need to leave," Lorelai whispered urgently.

"What?" He turned to look at her, a piece of popcorn halfway to his mouth.

"I feel sick, I need to leave like, now."

"Oh. Ok, yeah, let's go," he whispered back. He stood up and led the way out of the theater as Jarhead played on behind them. "Do you need to go to the bathroom?" Luke asked as they emerged into the lobby.

"Uhh… no. I mean, yes, I need to puke, but I don't want to puke in a public bathroom," she explained as she made a beeline for the exit.

They barely made it to some bushes near the theater before Lorelai started vomiting. Luke, having dealt with a drunken Liz many times in high school, knew that the best thing to do in this situation was to hold back her hair. He grabbed most of it with one hand in a makeshift ponytail and stroked her back with the other. "It's ok, you're fine," he muttered.

"Luke, no offense," she gasped after several minutes, "but this is that last thing in the world I want you to see or do with me."

"It's fine," he said, tentatively letting her hair down and helping her up. "I don't mind."

"You don't mind watching me throw up four hot dogs into a bush?" she asked incredulously. "Which, yeah, by the way, three hot dogs wasn't enough, I just HAD to have a fourth. Good move, Lorelai."

"I don't mind watching you throw up," Luke repeated, stroking her cheek. "Are you ok?"

"I guess," she said ruefully. "But I would really like to go home now."

"Ok. Go ahead to the car, I'll be right there."

Lorelai nodded. Luke walked back into the theater and returned a few minutes later with an empty popcorn tub. He passed it to Lorelai as he started the ignition. "This is for if you need to get sick again," he explained.

"Thanks," she responded sadly.

"What's wrong?" he asked with concern.

"I'm mad I puked," she said, raising her eyes to him. "And I'm mad you were there."

"Lorelai, I don't care that you puked," he said in confusion, stroking her shoulder.

"Yeah, but I do!" she yelped, throwing her hands up in exasperation. "I've been running around like a crazy person at the inn and you work all the time too. We sleep at different times, we work at different times, we have like TWO shared interests, one of which is movies that involve guns. Tonight could have been perfect, but no. Instead my gross eating habits ruined our date! And I really did want to see that movie, Luke," she finished, hanging her head.

"Lorelai," he said calmly. "It's ok. We will come back and see this movie again without the hot dogs. You didn't ruin our date, ok?" He tilted her chin up with one hand and, seeing that she was still upset, he asked, "Do you think you'll be sick again?"

"No, I feel fine now that I pumped my own stomach," she said, rubbing her belly.

"Then why don't you spend the night with me, at the diner? Caesar is taking the day off tomorrow and Lane's not coming in until noon. I think the citizens of Star's Hollow can go one day without Luke's breakfast, don't you?"

She smiled widely. "As long as I am not included in that group of citizens," she said, fiddling with the buttons on his shirt.

"Of course not. You get breakfast every day," he said, leaning towards her.

"Thank you, Luke."

He smiled. "This is usually the point where I would kiss you," he whispered conspiratorially in her ear, "but you just threw up and I have limits."

"Oh, so romantic," she said, slapping his chest playfully. "Let's go before I change my mind about spending the night with you."

Luke laughed at her empty threat and steered the truck out of the parking lot.