** Luke and Lorelai – Season 8 **

Genre: Drama
Pairings: Lorelai/Luke
Rating: T
Disclaimer: Lorelai, Luke, April and Paul Anka and all other recognizable "Gilmore Girls" characters belong to Amy Sherman-Palladino, Dorothy Parker Drank Here Productions, and the WB. There is no profit from the copyrighted characters or infringement intended.

So imagine there was another season of Gilmore Girls, we would have all eagerly tuned in to see what happened after Luke and Lorelai's kiss. Would the writers have given us what we wanted or left us dangling on the proverbial silly string?

Lorelai felt absolutely empty.

Rory had been out on the Obama campaign trail for over two months and while she and Luke had exchanged a passionate kiss at the farewell party he'd thrown for Rory, his old habits had crept in and they were back to their coy game of relational wait and see.

Slowly, she began to realize that she'd arrived at another dead end with Luke. All those years of shameless flirting, that had finally led to the stirrings of a relationship were for naught.

She stared at herself in the mirror and frowned. Signs of aging were creeping in. She spotted the beginnings of crows feet around her eyes and her first gray hair. Depressed at first, these geriatric signals were like a wakeup call, especially when she realized that Rory was probably gone for good and that, for the first time in her life, she was truly all alone.

She went into the living room and grabbed the latest issue of Cosmo from the coffee table and Paul Anka jumped up on the couch and nestled his shaggy head onto her lap. She tried to read an article about Kate Hudson, but the loneliness crept back in and she threw the magazine aside, petting Paul Anka, grateful for his company. He let out a little canine whimper and stared into her eyes. He could always tell when Lorelai was feeling down.

She walked into the kitchen and grabbed a Sookie Cookie. Sookie had recently come up with the idea to start marketing her own line of cookies and she was starting out by selling little tins of them at the inn's gift shop and using Lorelai and Michel as her taste testers to perfect her line of flavors. Sookie's cookies always made her feel better, at least for a while. This one, a key lime sugar cookie, was particularly good she noted as she bit into the mouthwatering treat.

The phone rang and Lorelai joyously went to retrieve it, glad to have the chance to hear the sound of another human voice, just as long as it wasn't Emily.

"Hello?"

"Hi Lorelai, it's Luke, I have something I need to talk you about, do you mind if I come over?"

"Well, uh – okay!" Lorelai stammered. Why was Luke trying to pull her in again? She knew it was going to lead to nowhere as she hung up the phone.

About fifteen minutes later, Paul Anka ran to the door, barking and barking, to herald Luke's arrival.

As Lorelai opened the door, she was stunned to see Luke standing there with a bouquet of yellow daisies and April standing there next to him.

"Go ahead, Dad," April urged him.

"Sweetheart, just a moment, let's wait until Lorelai asks us in."

"Oh, sure," Lorelai interjected as she ushered them in.

As Luke and Lorelai took their places on the couch, April proceeded to take over the room.

"I told my dad I didn't like him being alone and when he admitted he didn't marry you because of me, I told him he was being a butt head and insisted we get over here immediately. Lorelai will you please just marry my father and get this over with? I don't want him to be a lonely, eighty year old bachelor blaming me for his predicament in his old age."

"Honey, that's sweet," Lorelai responded, "a bit overwhelming and unexpected, but sweet. Why don't I put on a pot of coffee and get us some Sookie Cookies and we can talk about this a little bit more. Luke, you want to help me in the kitchen? April, you're welcome to stay out here and play with Paul Anka and your father and I will join you in a minute."

"Sookie cookies?"

"Oh yeah, Sookie Cookies, they're the best, hon. One bite and you'll see."

"Well, Luke, that was definitely a Hallmark moment," Lorelai commented as she started preparing the coffee.

Luke stood there and beamed at Lorelai waiting for yet another quick, but loving quip to fall from her lips, proud that his daughter, his flesh and blood, possessed tenacity and maturity beyond her years, unfortunately he was shockingly disappointed.

"Luke, I can't marry you just because I meet the 'April stamp of approval.' I'm glad she's smart enough to know what you did was very stupid, but now you bringing her over here and having her propose to me on your behalf, makes your proposal seem conditional."

"What are you talking about?" Luke responded, giving her his famous baffled expression.

"I mean that if we had started getting serious again and she had decided she didn't want us to be together, you probably wouldn't have given marriage a second thought. No Luke, I think you thought you were doing a good thing, coming over to propose to me to please April, but you got it all wrong, babe. Your first reason for asking me to marry you should have been to please me and you've put me in the uncomfortable position of breaking that little girl's heart."

"Don't worry, we'll just leave."

"Well, here," she replied giving him a tin of the sugar lime cookies,"take these with you; she won't be sad for long as soon as she's had a few of these."

After she heard the door close, she wandered back into the living room with cup of coffee in hand and settled back onto the sofa and started reading her Kate Hudson article again. About half way through the article, her mind started wandering. For some strange reason, she was having thoughts about Rory turning down Logan's proposal. At the time she had been fiercely proud that Rory had chosen the path of independence, she was, after all, a Gilmore girl. But now she thought about the consequences, had Rory chosen to accept Logan's proposal she would have been amply provided for and assured of all the comforts she wanted for the rest of her life. Instead, she would now have to endure several years of struggling that could have been avoided had she decided to become Mrs. Huntzberger.

Lorelai tried to stop herself from having these thoughts, it went against her very grain to depend on a man, but she herself was growing weary of her own endless struggles. Why couldn't she finally have someone well-to-do to help take care of her? She had paid her dues many times over, leaving home at 17 and raising a baby on her own, starting her own business, and making sure she did what it took for daughter to get a world class education.

She went into the bathroom to get ready for bed, plucking the gray hair from her head and contemplated making a botox appointment to rid herself of her crows feet and also calling her mother in the morning to put out feelers with the DAR ladies for anyone who had a rich, eligible son. Sure, she knew it would subject her to her mother's "See I told you so" smugness, but at the same time, she also knew that if Rory came to her with a similar request and she had the means to help her that she would.

As she settled into bed for the night, Paul Anka ran upstairs and plopped himself on the bed to join her, wagging his tail. He could always tell when Lorelai was happy.