Title: The day the world went away

Author: Jessica

Rating: G

Category: General/Romance, POV, AU

Paring: Lorelai/Luke, Luke/other

Spoiler: None.

Distribution: Sure, wherever just let me know where.

Disclaimer: I don't own them...None of them...

Summary: Lorelai took the job and left Stars Hollow now Luke has to handle life without her.

Authors note: I said "The Hero dies in this one" was just one part and I kind of meant it at the

time but I had so much 'fun' writing it so I had to continue...So here it comes...

Remember...Lorelai left for Europe and the whole thing with Rory never happened...

English is not my first language, so spelling/grammar mistakes may occur.

Title comes from a song by Nine Inch Nails


You had vowed once that you would never be taken down by a woman.

But what you wouldn't admit was that you had already broken that promise a long time ago when she first entered your life.

The walls around your heart had come down with a loud bang but you refused to see that.

She would not be the reason for your own fall.

And now when you stood there in your diner watching as the first customers came to get their daily fix of junk food you

refused to admit that you had been taken down.

You were stronger than that.

She would not be the death of you.

So you brushed the pain in your heart aside and you went about your day as nothing had happened.

But everything had.

The questions that you knew would come didn't.

They sat at your counter, ate your food and they never once commented at Lorelai leaving.

They didn't say anything when you burned their food and made the coffee so strong that you hardly where able to get it down.

But you saw the way they looked at you.

Like they had known what would eventually happen between you and Lorelai.

And you hated them for that.

A part of you wished that you had taken their worries more seriously.

But then again you had never once taken anything they had to say seriously.

They were all crazy after all and you were the only sane person in the whole town.

But now you were not that sure.

They had seen it coming from miles away and you had shut your eyes for it.

You had been such a fool.

Even Emily knew it.

They had all known it would eventually come to this but like a fool you had refused to listen.

You had been in love and you refused to listen to what they had to say.

Now you wished you had.

All you had to do now was pick up the pieces of your life and continue.

You had done it before, a million times before, at least that was like it seemed sometimes.

You had become the master of controlling that beating heart of yours.

You had become the master of mending wounds that ran deep.

So you would survive even now when she was gone.

But for the first time you didn't know if you really wanted to.

And that part scared you.

It devoured parts of you and drank the last remaining pieces of sanity you clung to.

So every day became a battle for control of your being.

And as days became weeks and weeks became months you slowly but surely found your way back to you again.

But the harsh truth was the part of you, the old part, was long gone and what was left was a person

stripped down and naked for the entire world to see.

Your eyes bore witness of the pain that ate at your soul and you hated the fact that you were weak.

But most of all you hated the fact that you couldn't drive her out of your heart.

It was like she was permanently branded into your heart and there was no way to get her out.

It was a painful thing to live with.

But you refused to go down with a fight.

So you fought every memory of her.

You boxed up her things and put it in the back of your closet.

You did everything you could to try to forget her.

But it was not easy.

Rory came by a month after her mother had left for Europe.

And the facade that you had built and maintained during the endless days and nights since she left came down with

a loud bang when Rory Gilmore entered your diner.

A part of you wanted her out of your life, claming you wanted to remove every part of Lorelai from your life.

But you couldn't do that.

So you gave her coffee and cooked her dinner.

You didn't ask about her mother and she didn't say.

But you could see a sorrow in her eyes, far behind that smile that she carried around.

She wanted to say something but she knew that there was nothing she could say.

It wasn't in her hands after all.

You gave her a hug and made her promise to come again as soon as she could.

She was the only piece of Lorelai you had left now.

So you drank her presence like it was water.

Then she was off to go back to her life and you went back to yours.

Nicole walked back into your life on a gray afternoon in the middle of September.

Her hair was longer than you remembered.

You hadn't talked to her since your marriage had ended with your signature on a piece of paper.

She ordered coffee and asked how you were doing.

You lied and said you were doing fine.

She had always had a way of calming you down.

She drank her coffee and watched as you went about your day.

At the end of your day you found her still sitting there, at your counter, clutching another cup of coffee.

You wondered what she wanted but a part of you didn't care.

So you found yourself asking her out for dinner and you smiled as she answered yes.

That night was the beginning of something new in your life.

She came by every day now and ate lunch at the counter.

You found yourself looking forward to every encounter.

No promises were given and you liked it that way.

You had had too many lies to last a lifetime.

So you clung to the precious moments that you had with her.

She became your center, the one thing you clung to.

It was a weakness and you knew with.

But you needed something, something real, and she was the closest thing.

You found yourself smiling again.

When you kissed her on your third date you compared her to Lorelai and a part of you hated yourself for that.

Your relationship moved from friends to lovers sooner than you had expected.

You called it sex and she called it make love.

She wanted to hold your hand when you were walking down the street.

You didn't want to be that close.

A part of you used her in an attempt to wash away the feel of another.

The other part wanted things to be different this time around.

You wanted to love her; you needed to love her.

So when she whispered those three little words one night two months into your relationship, you

whispered them right back.

And it felt good.

Even though, a part of you was lying.

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