Part 1
I know, I know. We've seen a thousand and one post finale fics for season 5 already and it's only been a week. But I had to give it a go! Mine is more than one part, though, so this is just the beginning. I really don't feel great about this part. I feel like I've read too many fics about this and heard too many ideas and they all kind of blended together and none of it seems original anymore. So bare with me with this part! Heh. Enjoy.
Disclaimer: None of the characters are mine.
"Luke, will you marry me?"
"What?" he asked in a whisper.
"Marry me," she repeated, her voice soft. She couldn't believe what she was doing. Well, that wasn't true. She could. She could totally believe it because in just twenty seconds she had realized that she wanted to marry Luke and she was going to take it into her own hands. But she couldn't believe that she was the one saying the words, after all those years of commitment issues, the words were coming out of her mouth.
"What?" Luke repeated as well, with more of an emphasis on the 'what,' his voice a little louder than the whisper his first 'what' had come out in. "Lorelai, what… why are you doing this?"
"Because I want to marry you," she stated with more confidence than he'd ever heard her have.
"Where is this coming from?" he asked, sitting down on the chair across from her.
"Are you saying no?" she asked with a slight frown.
"No. I mean yes. I mean no. I—I'm not saying anything," he clarified. "But where the hell did this come from? Two seconds ago you were sitting there upset about Rory and then suddenly…"
"I know. I know, but God, Luke," she said. "You're the only one I can trust. You're always there for me, no matter what. You would do anything for me or for Rory, and I know that. I'm sitting here listening to you talk about how you're going to help me. I went to my parents for help, and you know that's not something I do often, and they stab me in the back. But you tell me you're going to help me, and that I trust. Completely. You make up some, granted a little unrealistic, plans about how to get Rory back into Yale. Not just a plan for how I'm going to get Rory back to Yale, but how we're going to get Rory back to Yale. You assure me that you're not going to let this happen because this has always been her dream. You're her father, Luke. Maybe not biologically and maybe not legally or officially, but hell you're the one that's always been there for her. And I just don't think it's possible to love you anymore than I do at this moment, and that's where this is coming from."
He stared at her for a moment, as if he couldn't believe this was happening. All those years he thought a moment like this would only be something of his imagination. For all those years he thought that just kissing her would be something left to his imagination. And now she was here, proposing to him, telling him he was the only one that she could trust and that… did she just tell him that she loved him?
"Did you just, did you…?"
She smiled at him, a genuine smile for the first time all night, knowing exactly what in her speech caught him off guard. "Yeah. I do. I love you, Luke. And I'm sorry it took almost a year for me to say it."
He took her hand and squeezed it lightly. "I love you too," he replied softly. Their eyes locked for a moment and she smiled at him slightly.
"So…"
"So?" he repeated with confusion.
"I asked you a question."
"Oh. That. Lorelai, we can't… it… it can't happen like this."
"What?"
"You're upset, you've had a tough week. Things with Rory are confusing right now. You don't need to have the stress of this on you, too."
"This isn't stressful."
"I want to marry you," he explained suddenly. She looked up at him, confusion written all over her face along with a hint of hope. "And I will. Mark my words. I will marry you. But you deserve to have this done right, with you know… a thousand yellow daisies," he said quietly.
"I don't need a thousand yellow daisies!" she explained. "Don't do that to yourself, Luke, I don't need that stuff. I don't need anything. I don't even need a ring. I just need you."
He took her hands in his and looked her in the eyes. "You have me, Lorelai. No matter what, you have me. I'm always here for you," he added, and he noticed her eyes tear up. "And I'm not saying no to your proposal, technically. I'm just… saying no to the timing. Just give it a little while. Let everyone calm down, let everything settle and then tell me how you're feeling. If you still want this, say the word. If not, we'll drop it for now."
"I'm going to want it," she assured him, tears starting to surface. Everything had just been too much. Rory dropping out of Yale, Rory and Logan and the yacht, her parents going behind her back and turning on her, Luke being the absolute angel that he always was, the overwhelming realization that she wanted to spend the rest of her life with him, finally telling him she loved him and him saying it back, and now the fact that she was slightly disappointed about him not give a resounding "yes!" but the excitement that she felt knowing it could still happen soon was making her happy. She couldn't help it suddenly, and the tears just started falling slowly down her cheeks—sad tears, angry tears, happy tears, everything hit her all at once.
"Shh," she heard Luke sooth her, pulling her up off her chair and right to him. "Everything's going to be okay."
She nodded into his chest. "I hope so."
"It will," he promised her. "Everything will work out, everything will be okay. I'll make sure of it. I'm here."
She nodded again and kept her head on his chest. "See? That right there. That's why I want to marry you."
"Lorelai, please. Just let yourself have time to think about what you're asking me. I don't want you to regret it later."
He put his hand on the back of her head, the other hand lightly stroking her back. She nodded. "Okay. I'd never regret it. But fine, I'll let it sink in."
"Good. Thank you." She laughed a little, marveling at how he just had to turn her down and he was thanking her. That's how much more important she was to him than himself. "Now, you want to go upstairs? Your place? What do you want to do? Name it and we'll do it." She sniffled and pulled away from him, looking up at him with a smile.
"I don't care, I just want to be with you."
He nodded and gave her back one last rub before giving her shoulder a squeeze. "You got it."
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"I can't believe how big she's getting already," she said to Sookie, peering at her new sleeping daughter.
"I know," Sookie replied. "She's growing like a little weed."
Lorelai smiled and took one last glance at the baby before she and Sookie walked out of the nursery to the living room.
"Where's Jackson today?" Lorelai asked.
"Oh, he took Davy for some quality father-son time. He's really worried about him being jealous of the baby."
Lorelai smiled. "One thing I never had the chance to do when growing up or ever had to deal with with my kid."
Sookie smiled. "Yet anyway."
Lorelai looked at her. "What?"
"I mean, you might have more kids still, right?" Sookie asked.
"Yes, but I highly doubt Rory will be jealous of a baby at her age."
"Well, if you have more than one, then they might be jealous of each other," Sookie reminded her.
"Oh, yeah, right," Lorelai agreed.
"I'm sorry, did I freak you out?" Sookie asked with concern. "I shouldn't have said that. Pretend I never said it!"
"No, Sookie, you didn't freak me out. I just…" she took a deep breath. "I proposed to Luke."
"What!" Sookie squealed. "Are you engaged? You proposed?"
She smiled. "Yes, I proposed, and no, I'm not engaged."
Sookie frowned. "Oh no. He said no? There's no way he said no! Did you two break up again?"
Lorelai laughed. "He said no to the timing, and no, we didn't break up, he's been amazing lately."
"No to the timing?" Sookie asked.
"I proposed right after Rory moved in with my parents. You know that whole story already." Sookie nodded. "I came back to the diner and I was upset and then Luke just started going on and on about how we were going to get Rory back into Yale and how he wasn't going to let this happen and it just hit me suddenly. 'What the hell are you waiting for, Lorelai, this is the man who's always been there for you and who will always be there for you and who loves your daughter as if she was his own, and she might as well be his own anyway. He's never going to hurt you, he's always going to be on your side, he will always be the one that you can trust, the one who makes everything okay' and I just asked him to marry me."
"Just like that?"
"Just like that."
"Wow," Sookie said. "So what happened?"
"He told me that it couldn't happen like this, when I was upset. He said to wait a while until things calm down, to take time to realize what I was asking him, and then let him know if I still want it."
"Do you still want it?"
"It's been less than a day, Sookie."
"That's enough time to change your mind!" she protested.
"Yes, I still want it," she said quietly. "More than ever. How long do you think I have to wait before I can tell him that I still want it? What if he doesn't want it? What if he was trying to say no?" she asked suddenly.
"Lorelai, there is no way in the world he would ever just say no because he didn't want to marry you."
"I mean, of course he wondered what the hell I was thinking. I walked in there and was all upset about Rory and the next thing he knows I'm asking him to marry me."
Sookie sighed happily. "I can't believe you asked him!"
Lorelai smiled slightly, her panic wearing off. "I can't really believe it either."
"Well, he knows you're in the same place as him already anyhow, right?" Sookie asked. "I mean, it's not like this marriage thing came out of nowhere."
"Right," Lorelai said, and suddenly she was remembering the conversation with Sookie after she and Luke first kissed. Did he know? "Then again…"
"Oh no," Sookie said. "He knows, right?"
"I think he knows. I don't know. He had this freak out at the inn the other day that… I don't know, I felt like... Maybe it's just me."
"He freaked out at the inn?"
"He was there to fix some things, that handyman of ours has got to go, he never calls us back, and he saw this gift basket that Mike Armstrong sent me."
"Mike Armstrong sent you a gift basket?"
"Yeah. And Luke flipped out on me because he didn't know I met with Mike Armstrong. I thought he did, he was the one who told me to take the meeting, but I guess I never really did talk to him about the actual meeting after the fact. He kept asking me if I was going to take the job and where their offices are and about the travel involved. He was freaking out."
"Well, Lorelai, hello."
"Hello? Hello what?"
"He doesn't want to lose you! He doesn't want you to be far away all the time."
"But I'm not going to sell the inn and take the job."
"Well, sure, but do you think that Luke knows that if you haven't talked to him about the meetings and he sees a gift basket from Mike Armstrong?"
"He thinks I'd leave him for this job? He thinks I'd take a job that separated us all the time? Like my parents when I was growing up? I wouldn't do that."
"Just talk to him."
She sighed. "I just want him to say yes."
"Yes to your proposal?"
"Yes. I just want him to say yes and… you know, say yes," she said.
Sookie chuckled. "He will."
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Rory's car was in the driveway when she got home.
She sighed and took a deep breath before going inside. She had thought about turning around and leaving and coming back later when Rory was gone, but she knew she shouldn't have to tiptoe around Rory. Rory was the one who should have to tiptoe around her.
When she opened the door, Rory was on the other side.
"Oh!" she exclaimed, startled. "Mom. Hi."
"Rory," Lorelai said, her voice devoid of emotion.
"I just, uh, came to get some stuff," Rory said, indicating the box in her arms. "I'm on my way now. Sorry."
"Don't be sorry," she said. "It's your stuff," she said with a shrug.
"Right. Uh, okay, uh, then… I'll see you," she said, hurrying towards the door. She turned back to look at Lorelai and opened her mouth, then shut it abruptly and hurried out the door.
Lorelai shook her head and sighed. When had things become such a mess?
Her daughter wasn't talking to her. She had nothing to say to her daughter. Rory had stood there, and she had had nothing to say to her. Nothing. Not a word.
She wasn't talking to her parents. Again.
She had proposed to Luke and he hadn't said yes. Yet.
She needed Luke. That was all she knew.
The phone rang then. "Hello?" she said, snatching it up.
"Lorelai, it's your mother." Oh, great, she thought, the day just keeps getting better and better. She thought about hanging up, but she decided to be bigger than that this time.
"What can I do for you?"
"Lorelai, I know you're upset."
"Really? What tipped you off?"
"Would you just come over and talk to your father and me?"
"Why? What good does that do? I talk to you, I tell you what I need, what I need help with. For once, I told you and Dad that I needed your help. In case you haven't noticed, I don't do that often, Mom. And I did it. And what happened? You disregarded it. What the hell good does talking to you do?"
"Lorelai, we need to let Rory make this choice. It's her choice to make and we have to respect that," Richard's voice chimed in.
"Dad?" she asked.
"I'm on the office extension," he told her.
"Oh."
"This is her choice, Lorelai," he repeated, "We have to respect her choice."
"I like your thinking," she said sarcastically. "Her choice, huh? She's twenty. I'm thirty-six. You can let Rory make the choice to drop out of school when she's clearly not thinking straight because she's upset, but you can't let me, who's thirty-six, make a choice about who I want to date and respect that?"
"You just won't drop this thing with Luke, will you?" Emily asked.
"I wonder why, Mom. I have to go."
"Lorelai, just wait."
"Please, just make sure Rory is okay. I have to go." She hung up and grabbed her keys, heading out of the house, not knowing where she was going until she got there.
Straight to Luke.
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She went to the diner for dinner. Well, actually she got there way before dinner, but she hung around talking to Luke until she decided it was a reasonable time to eat.
As always, he gave her extra French fries, and a piece of pie on the house.
When she was done she pulled out her wallet. She hadn't tried this game in a while. She'd pretty much given up on paying him for food after their reconciliation.
"How much?"
"What?"
"How much for dinner?"
He looked at her as if she had suddenly grown a second head. "Since when do you pay me for dinner?"
"Well, I haven't paid in a long time, so…"
"Knock it off," he told her. She waved a twenty at him.
"More?"
"Lorelai. Cut it out. You're not paying."
"This is your business, Luke."
"We've used this argument before. Why are you suddenly bringing up the 'you have a desire to pay me' issue?"
"Because I realized how long it's been since I actually paid for a meal!"
"Lorelai, I can't take your money, okay?"
"Why not?" she asked with a look in her eye that told him something she thought was clever was coming. "It's not like we're married."
She hadn't said it harsh. She hadn't said it out of spite. She hadn't said it to make a point, and he knew it. She had said it playfully and teasingly, and he understood what that meant.
He knew that even though almost a day had passed, she still hadn't changed her mind. That she hadn't decided it was an unapproachable subject anymore. That she hadn't wished she had never said it and prayed it the topic wouldn't come up again to save her embarrassment. In fact, for Lorelai to joke about it, he knew she was far from regretting it. To use it as a source of humor meant that she was completely comfortable with the idea.
He shook his head, refused her money again and gave her coffee to shut her up.
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She spent the night with Luke, of course. Just like always. She woke up to find his side of the bed empty, as she often did, and got up and got dressed. She went down to the diner for breakfast, as always. She took her time ordering, which frustrated Luke, as always.
She went to work, as always, and Michel whined, as always. Michel informed her that her mother called, and she nodded and threw the message in the trash. For a moment she thought maybe she should call her mother back. What if something had happened to Rory?
Then she knew that was just what her mother wanted her to think. She knew that her mother knew that she would worry about Rory and she'd get her on the phone that way. She was smarter than that, so she threw the message in the trash and went on about her day.
She hated that her parents had that kind of power over her now. That they knew what was going on with Rory and she didn't. That she had to go through them, had to call them, if she was concerned about Rory.
But she figured that if anything truly important had happened, her mother would have called more than once, two hours earlier.
She decided to up her mood by bothering Michel. She sure missed having Sookie around all day at times like this.
"Lorelai, phone for you," Michel said.
"Who is it?" she asked in a whisper, afraid it was her mother. Or maybe her father. Who knew.
"Mr. Armstrong."
"Oh," Lorelai frowned and took the phone. "Hello?"
"Lorelai? It's Mike Armstrong."
"Oh, hi Mike," she said. "What can I do for you?"
"Well, I was hoping I could get an answer out of you about that offer."
She took a deep breath and looked around the room. Michel, arguing with a guest in the lobby. The kitchen, where normally Sookie would be cooking away. The inn she had built from scratch.
The front porch where Luke had kissed her for the first time.
"Oh, right," she told him. "I meant to call you sooner, Mike, but things have been crazy and—"
"Don't apologize, Lorelai, we understand. Things like this take time."
"Yes, they do. And I don't think I've had enough of it yet."
"I'm sorry, what's that?"
"I'm sorry, Mike, no. I'm not interested."
She put the phone back in its cradle a moment later. Michel looked at her.
"What?" she asked him. He suddenly gave her a hug. "Whoa, whoa, what's this?"
"Thank you for not selling the inn," he stated calmly, pulling away from her and brushing his suit off.
"Why would I?" she asked. "I'm perfectly happy right here."
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That night Lorelai had been thinking about her decision to turn Mike Armstrong down.
She knew she loved her inn. She knew she loved Michel, grumpy and irritable as he may be. She knew she loved having Sookie right there to gossip with and talk to anytime during the day. She knew she loved her life. She knew she loved Luke and she knew she loved having him so close by whenever she needed him. What on Earth would she do if she was about to break down while on the other side of the country? Not go running to Luke. And then there was Rory. Though they weren't exactly seeing much of each other now, she didn't want to be millions of miles away from her daughter, either.
She was perfectly happy and she knew it.
Only one little thing was left to tackle. Besides the whole Rory issue, that was.
She sat on Luke's bed, dressed in his flannel shirt, watching him walk out of the bathroom and to the bed.
"Luke?"
"What?"
"You know my proposal was sincere," she told him. "Right?"
"Lorelai, I—"
"You need to know this," she told him. "I need you to know this. It had nothing to do with Rory or my parents or me being upset. I just had a realization at that moment and I asked you. Maybe it wasn't the best moment to have an epiphany, but what can you do. I promise, it was sincere."
"I know," he said.
"Do you? Do you understand that the last thing I would ever do just because I was upset would be to propose if I didn't mean it? That would only cause me more stress."
"Lorelai, I know. I know it was sincere," he said, "and you have no idea how badly I wanted to answer."
"So why didn't you?"
"Because things with Rory… I mean, think about it. You can't just call her up and tell her you're engaged. You should be able to share it with her."
She shook her head. "It doesn't matter."
"I should have proposed," he added. "You should have had a special proposal."
"I did," she told him, looking at him with confidence. "Me asking you was huge for me. That alone made this proposal special."
"But…"
"Look. I don't need a special proposal. You know why? Because you're special enough. You've done a million special things for me. You built me a chuppah. You brought me an ice rink. You've already fulfilled your quota of special things."
"But those weren't—"
"I'm not letting you propose. I proposed already. Our proposal is a done deal. I just need an answer," she told him seriously.
"Lorelai…"
"You told me to tell you if and when I was sure I still wanted this. I am. I'm sure. I want this. Okay? So I'm telling you. Not once in the past two days have I thought it was a mistake to ask you. All I've felt is a desire for you to say yes. That's all. I want this, and I'm sure of it. So, now it's my turn to tell you that when you're ready, you tell me your answer. We're just waiting on your answer now."
He looked at her, noticing the sincerity and determination in her eyes, surprised at how forceful and determined she was being. Then again, she's always been determined when she really wants something. He paused, realizing what he had just thought. She wanted it. She really and truly wanted it for no other reason than because she had just realized she wanted it. He nodded. "Okay, I'll let you know."
She nodded and smiled at him warmly before she flopped down on the bed, pulling the blankets over her. He followed suit and climbed under the blankets, pulling her close to him. She smiled and sighed contentedly. "Thank you, Luke. I love you."
He wanted to tell her yes. He wanted to just whisper it in her ear right then. He almost did. Instead, he told her that he loved her too.
She wouldn't let him propose, but he maybe he could still surprise her. Maybe he could have a little fun with his answer.
The next morning he got up before Lorelai, as always, and got ready for work. Before slipping out of the apartment he glanced at her to make sure she was still sleeping. When he was sure she was, he walked over to his dresser drawer and pulled out the small black velvet box that had been there for years. He took it and gently set it on his pillow, hoping that she wouldn't knock it off the bed and never find it.
Then he went down to the diner to open up.
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To Be Continued…
I just wanted to say I'm sorry if any parts of my story become similar to parts of anyone else's. Like I said before, I've read so many it's hard for me to remember what's my idea and what's been planted in my head by someone else. Plus, I think a lot of us are on the same path idea wise with these lol. Thanks for reading!