Disclaimer: Much of this dialogue is from the episode Forgiveness and Stuff, so I dont' own much of it, or GG in general.
And Stuff
Lorelai walked out the double doors and found Rory sitting with Luke. Rory jumped up and ran to her, nearly frantic with worry and the need to do something, anything, to take her mind off the situation with Richard. After calming the girl down she sent her on a coffee hunt, waiting for her to be out of sight before sighing and plopping down next to Luke.
"Oh man," she sighed, sinking into the chair.
"You're very brave for her," he told her, attempting to ease the tension he could feel emanating from the woman.
"Yeah, well it's my turn. God this sucks," Lorelai said. Her pounding headache was worsening, and she knew it wouldn't get better until she knew how her father was going to be. Luke felt obligated to cheer her up, but wasn't sure how. Having lost his own father, he knew it wouldn't help just to say 'Everything will be fine', because he knew better then anyone that this often wasn't the case. He began to ramble, trying to fill her head with happy thoughts to replace those which were plaguing her currently.
"Hey come on, you gotta think positive here - bright side, good thoughts. Rainbows, unicorns, clowns, little cute...furry - ok I'm out." Lorelai fought back a grin, feeling it wouldn't be appropriate given the situation.
"Thank God," she joked. She was about to continue when the double doors swung open and her mother came out.
"Alright, we've secured him the room but the pillows are completely unacceptable. I'm gonna see if I can find him some down ones and some slippers. I'll be right back." Emily ran off, leaving Lorelai slightly perturbed, wondering why she had to be so insensitive given the situation.
"We'll be right here," she said after Emily's retreating form. A gurney rolled past them as she returned her gaze to Luke, to find him with his head back and hand covering his mouth, "Jeez are you ok?" she asked, automatically worried about the sickly looking for of her strong, stoic friend.
"Yeah, I'm just not big on hospitals you know the smell, people being wheeled by with tubes sticking out of them, you know, drainage, fluids, gaping holes –"
"Ok, listen, why don't you go home?" she asked. She didn't want to force him to stick around if it was going to make him sick, although, the thought of sitting her by herself wasn't much more attractive an option.
"You want me to go?" Luke asked, suddenly feeling hurt that she wouldn't want him by her side at this time.
"You don't look so good," she rationalized, realizing that she may have hurt his feelings.
"Thanks," he said, knowing what she meant, but choosing to continue with the banter to further divert her attention from her father's situation. She backtracked as best she could.
"That's not what I meant," she said defensively, "You know you always look good." She immediately regretted allowing this to slip out, not knowing how Luke would take it.
"Yeah?" he asked, the cockiness in his tone apparent. He grinned.
"I mean you always look healthy," she said, trying to erase her statement.
"Ok," he continued to prod. He was thoroughly enjoying making her as uncomfortable as possible.
"But you don't look so healthy now. Now you look..."
"Unhealthy," he said, finishing her sentence that she was stumbling over.
"Yes," she readily agreed. He couldn't bring himself to let her off the hook.
"Okay..." he continued to pick at her, knowing her was wearing her down.
"Oh what?" she broke, "So I said you look good. We're not in 5th grade. 'You look good', big deal," she leaned forward, resting her elbows on her knees and looking away from Luke to stop the blush from rising on her cheeks. She could feel his eyes on her, making the hairs on her neck stand on end, "Stop staring at me." She couldn't help but want to laugh at the situation. She thanked her lucky stars when another patient was wheeled by them. Luke put his head back and covered his mouth again, sickened by the sight. She laughed.
"Ah, jeez," he said, in his patented Luke grumble. She smiled and pointed at him.
"See that's what you get for being cocky," she felt proud that she had managed to turn the situation around, but was still embarrassed having allowed herself to be broken down like that.
A moment after the patient had passed, Luke raised his head, grinning at Lorelai.
"I guess I don't look healthy anymore," he said. She rolled her eyes.
"Are you seriously still thinking about that?" she asked, wishing that he would either drop it or do something with it. It wasn't often she put any kind of feelings out there for him to see, so if he wasn't going to take the opportunity, she would prefer her just shut up.
"What can I say. I didn't know you thought I was so good lookin'," he said, not wanting to end their banter. She laughed lightly and decided to start fighting back.
"Yeah. Sure you are. Makes me wonder what other aspects about you make you so… available," she said, grinning when she saw a look of amusement and surprise come over his features. He wasn't entirely sure how to respond, but knew he wasn't willing to let her win this one.
"Maybe I'm just too much for them to handle," he responded. He leaned slightly toward her as he said it, attempting to make her uncomfortable, whilst flirting, as they tended to do while bantering.
"Whatever you say, doll," she picked, leaning closer to him, preparing to continue the banter in full force.
"Well, it's not like you've got a guy on each arm, either. What are they running from?" He asked. His voice had dropped from their usual bantering tone to a more private one. She wasn't sure how to answer, or how to react to this different side of Luke.
"Maybe they're just jealous that my heart is already taken," she responds, allowing him to ponder the meaning behind that. He bit the inside of his lip, feeling their banter fully turn into something else. Something more serious.
"Coffee?" he asked, trying to backtrack away from where they both knew they were heading. She shrugged and smiled at him.
"Something like that" she said. Just as he was trying to formulate a response, Emily ran back up to them, three pillows in her arms.
"Come, Lorelai. We need to set up the room for your father. It can't look like just any other room when he is moved there," she said. Lorelai gave Luke an apologetic look before following her mother back through the double doors and down the hallway.
Luke sat back in his chair, trying to decide what Lorelai was trying to say before her mother interrupted them. Although the conversation had started jokingly, he hadn't expected it to get so serious. His thoughts were interrupted as another patient was rolled by him, and a wave of nausea shot up from his stomach to his throat, momentarily distracting him from the questions in his mind.
A day had passed since the events at the hospital. Luke was in the process of closing up the diner when he heard the bell above the door ring. He looked over and smiled lightly, seeing Lorelai walk in.
"Hello," she said cheerfully.
"Hey, how's your dad?" he asked, choosing to remain on neutral ground.
"Better, though he says that life is not life unless it includes a steak," she said with a grin. He returned in. She looked outside and saw townspeople scurrying about, "How come you're not out with everybody?"
"I had some things to do," he said, looking for an excuse not to be dragged out into the ridiculous 'group freak outs' of Stars Hollow. Lorelai put up a bag in from of him.
"Right, anyways, this is for you," she said, handing him the bag. He raised an eyebrow as he took hold of it.
"What's it for?" she shrugged
"Just thank you, Christmas, whatever," she responded. He continued to look at her confusedly.
"Christmas isn't for two weeks," he argued. She rolled her eyes.
"Do we really have to do this again?" he laughed lightly and opened the bag, pulling out a blue baseball cap. "I just thought, you know, God forbid something happens to that one, you might need a spare. Here," she took hold of the hand and put it on his head forwards. Doing a double take, "Does that look wrong!" she pulled it off and put it on his backwards, as he laughed about her response to it. "There!" she grinned, happy about how good he looked in it. Her attention was diverted from his blue eyes by activity outside, "Oh hey turn out the lights," she said, going to the window. Luke rolled his eyes.
"For what? It's not the real procession, it's just the rehearsal," he said, not wanting anything to take her attention away from him at that moment.
"So? It's pretty," she said, looking out at the bustling people.
"And why do they need to rehearse it? It's the same thing every year," he continued to complain, walking to the lights anyways.
"Come on Luke, please?" She whined. He turned out the light and walked to the window to join her, standing closer then he normally would have, "It's hard to imagine living somewhere else isn't it?" she asked, breathily. She looked out at the lights with a hint of a smile on her lips.
"Thanks for the hat," he said, looking out at the lights, breathing in her scent.
"You're welcome. Looks good on you," she said with a smile.
"Good how?" he asked, picking on her. She grinned and turned to him, catching him by surprise.
"Good," she said softly. His grin subsided as she stepped closer to him.
"Healthy?" he asked lightly, his voice catching in his throat slightly. She grinned lightly and pulled away from the window, motioning for him to follow her. She walked toward the stairs. "What are you doing?" he asked, not sure if he was reading the situation right. She looked back at him mischievously and ran up the stairs. He followed her up, confusedly and hopefully.
Once they were in his apartment he closed the door behind him and turn to her, finding her standing much closer to him then he thought she was.
"What are you doing?" he asked again, not knowing what else to say given the situation. She just grinned and reached, up, grabbing the hat off of his head.
"You look good," she said, dragging out the word good. He swallowed hard as she stepped to him. She kissed him lightly on the lips, drawing back rather quickly.
"What was that for?" he asked in a whisper. She shrugged.
"A thank you," she said smiling. He nodded, deciding just to allow her to lead the situation, as he wasn't aware of what she would deem acceptable or not.
"You're welcome," he responded. She laughed and reached up, circling her arms around his neck, pulling him to her. He unconsciously put his arms around her waist. "What are we doing here, Lorelai?" he asked softly, not daring to remove his arms. She smiled up at him.
"I've just realized in the past two days how lucky I am to have you around," she said softly. He was about to respond when she cut him off, "don't say anything, just listen." He closed his mouth and continued to hold her tightly to him, reveling in the sound of her voice, "You dropped everything for me yesterday. You stayed there to support me, and you always have. I'm just realizing now how much that means to me. To have you there. It just felt really nice to know that I had you," she said softly. He smiled lightly.
"You always have had me," he said softly. She smiled widely and nodded.
"I know," she said. She looked deeply into his eyes, saying a million more things wordlessly. Slowly she pulled him to her, allowing his lips to descend onto hers in a warm, sweet kiss. A moment later he pulled away. "You've got me, too," she whispered. He grinned.
"I know," he said softly. She laughed at this and pulled away, grabbing his hand and pulling him over to the couch.
They spent much of the evening just kissing and touching and getting to know this new facet of each other. When it became late Lorelai went home, but left him with a sweet, promising kiss that they could both feel as they fell asleep, awaiting their next days together.
Just a little fluffiness. I had this idea last night, and while it isn't my best writing, I thought it would be cute, because we all know they should have gotten together in season one... and stayed together!