A/N: BecauseI knew that Previously Anonymous was writing a Halloween story, (which is posted and completely adorable – if you haven't already read it, go do it now!), I wondered what sort of Halloween tale I could conjure up, and this is the only idea that came to me. As usual, I use any excuse to nudge Lorelai and Luke together again. Hope this is like getting a full-size candy bar in your treat basket!

What Woeful Witches Wish

"What do you say?"

"Thank you!" the gaggle of children chorused.

One little girl, obviously the Rory – or maybe the Paris – of the group, felt the need to embellish. "Thank you for the Halloween candy!" she said, her voice warbling up and down the words as if they were a song.

"No big display this year, Lorelai?" The dad shepherding this group of trick-or-treaters made the comment as they began to walk away.

"No, not this year," Lorelai replied, so tired of saying the same thing over and over.

"Too bad," he threw back over his shoulder. "We always loved seeing what you were going to do to top the year before." He waved and followed the kids to Babette's house, ducking to miss the low-hanging bats the Dells had hung from their trees.

Everyone who had stopped by her house tonight had said a variation of the same thing. They missed the wild and crazy Halloween display normally lighting up the Crap Shack this time of year.

Lorelai wondered if they all missed the wild and crazy Lorelai that used to be around, too. God knows she did.

She re-positioned the pointed black hat on her head. Personally, she felt she'd pulled off a minor miracle by hauling a chair to the yard and buying candy. If anything, she deserved bonus points for putting on a costume of sorts. To be honest, even those small efforts had exhausted her. There was no energy left to placate disappointed neighbors. If they wanted a display to gawk at, they needed to pick up the slack.

"Trick'r'treat!"

Lorelai jumped in her seat, startled by the greeting. "Deidre! Hi! You snuck up on me."

The six-year-old from two doors down twirled in excitement. "Look, Lorelai! I'm a witch, just like you!"

"You are!" With a now-rare, genuine smile on her face, Lorelai bent closer to the energetic little girl. "So tell me, dearie, are you a good witch or a bad witch?" She made her voice thin and cackling.

"I'm a bad witch!" Diedre cried out happily.

"You are?" Lorelai was surprised. As far as she could tell, Deidre was one of the sweetest children in town. "Why are you a bad witch?"

Deidre leaned against Lorelai's knees, delighted to impart her knowledge. "Because bad witches have flying monkeys," she confided. "It must be a lot more fun to be bad!"

Lorelai laughed at the innocent insight. "You might be on to something there. Here, have some candy." She pointed to the filled cauldron at her side. "Take an extra one," she encouraged, when the little girl only picked out a small Snickers bar.

"No, Mommy says only take one."

"You know that bad witches would take at least two," Lorelai whispered, no longer caring if she was a good influence or not.

Deidre grinned, snuck a fast look at her mother, who was patiently waiting at the street, and quickly snatched up a Reese's cup as well.

"Thanks, Lorelai!" She went flying off to the next house.

"We bad witches have to stick together!" she called after her.

Bad witch. The careless words seemed to echo through her head, stinging her with their truth. It was funny how sometimes the most innocuous thing could make her heart hurt and rev up the guilt all over again.

Luckily, she hadn't bothered with extensive makeup this Halloween, so she could scrub the tears from her eyes with no ill effects. It was dark enough that no one could tell, so why not cry if she felt like it?

Last year she'd bought pounds of sausages to pull out of Luke, but the weather was too cold to put her plan into play when the holiday finally arrived. Instead Luke had grilled them with peppers and onions, and they'd eaten them in front of the fireplace after all of the spooks and goblins had gone home.

The bittersweet memory made a few more tears trickle down her cheeks, but this time she wiped them away almost angrily. She'd always wondered what had prompted Luke's abrupt agreement to go along with her over-the-top Halloween scheme. Was it because he felt sorry for her, after witnessing the pitiful treatment she'd received at Rory's birthday party? Or was it because he already felt guilty?

She'd never learned exactly when he'd found out about April. He'd never told her straight out, and she'd never had the courage to pry. Was he already lying to her in October? Was that what had fueled his curiously generous offer to be her sausage-stuffed patient?

She heard another group of small monsters heading her way, so she quickly pasted on a smile before dispensing treats into their plastic pumpkins and pillowcases. Once they'd headed off to find more bounty, she leaned back in the chair, staring up at the stars. She leaned back so far that her hat toppled off. She let it rest in the grass, not caring if she looked the part anymore.

Last year, she reflected. Last year she had Luke, but not Rory. This year she had Rory, but no Luke. She studied the stars, wondering if there was indeed some grand scheme, some cosmic balance sheet that was set to only allow her a certain level of happiness and no more. If so, then she'd got it right, hadn't she? Because obviously Rory was the main thing. She'd signed up for the mom gig for life. Sure, having that one special person to grow old with was a nice concept, but her daughter was forever. Thinking she could maybe have both was her own foolish mistake.

Sadness descended on her, so engulfing that it threatened to smother her, so she sat up abruptly, not wanting to dig any deeper into her tortured memories. She searched instead for upbeat thoughts. After all, she had Rory and she had her house. She had her business. She had friends. She even had her parents, if that counted towards the good. She guessed she even had Christopher, if she wanted him.

Ha, wouldn't that serve Luke right? she thought rather smugly.

It would serve you right, her inner Jiminy Cricket pointed out soberly.

The truth smacked her psyche again and she moaned, burying her head in her hands.

"Hi. Um…Happy Halloween?"

"Happy Halloween!" Lorelai chirped immediately, springing up. She was desperate that no one see the despair that still insisted on following her around. "Here, have some…" She finally calmed enough to glance over at her taller than normal trick-or-treater. "…April?!"

"Thanks, but I have enough April already," the girl replied with a grin.

"I…you probably…I bet you do," Lorelai floundered for some sort of a reply. She felt as if sausages were ready to burst out of her chest. She was every bit as stunned as the first time she'd laid eyes on Luke's daughter.

April looked around the yard curiously, then stooped to retrieve Lorelai's hat. "I haven't done a real survey, but witches seem exceptionally popular this year," she observed, handing the black hat over to her.

"Yes. Yes, I agree. I've had several here tonight. You can't beat a classic costume." Still flustered, Lorelai tried to look closer at her visitor, but between the lack of light and her shattered nerves, she couldn't make out anything of what April was wearing. "What are you dressed up as?" she asked, sticking the hat back on her head.

"I'm just me," April said, shrugging. "I have a pretty strict self-imposed rule about big kids trick or treating. I just wanted to sort of look around the town. You know, see what a Stars Hollow Halloween was like."

"Sure. Right. Absolutely," she prattled, wishing she knew what to say to her unexpected guest. "Um, do you want to sit down?" she offered, since April was showing no signs of leaving. She pushed the chair a little bit towards her.

"Yeah, thanks." April plopped down nonchalantly. This visit with her father's ex didn't seem to be freaking her out at all.

"Be right back. Just gonna grab another chair." While she retrieved a second lawn chair from the front porch, Lorelai coached herself to breathe deeply and calmly. She couldn't force her hands to stop shaking when she opened it, though, and hesitantly placed it next to April's.

"Nice night, huh?" she said, and then winced at her inane comment.

"Yeah. There's nothing worse than having to hide your cool Halloween costume under your winter coat."

That made her smile. "Hmm, sounds like you speak from experience."

"I had the best Carmen Sandiego costume, and nobody even got to see it!"

Lorelai chuckled. "My sympathies."

"Then there was another time when I was a grizzly bear, but that year it was so hot that I had to take off my head halfway around the block."

Lorelai laughed again. "October truly is the cruelest month."

"Isn't that supposed to be April?"

"Oh, um, yeah, but you know – poetic license," Lorelai mumbled, floundering once again.

There was a small spell of silence, as they waited for more trick-or-treaters to come, or for Lorelai's cheeks to stop flaming after her thoughtless comment, whichever came first.

"I haven't seen you much lately." April's sudden observation came from out of the blue.

"You didn't see me much even when you should have been seeing me," Lorelai sputtered out, still too unnerved to edit herself. Instantly she slapped a hand over her mouth. "I mean –"

"I've wondered," April continued on, apparently unfazed. "Was that my mother's idea?"

For a few more moments Lorelai panicked, not sure what to say. Then she decided that she'd just talk to April the same way she would to Rory. After all, what would it matter now, if she said something Anna didn't like?

"It was your mother's decree. But Luke –" She closed her eyes for just a second. "Luke went along with it."

"So, both of them."

"Yeah. It took both of them to make it stick."

April crossed her arms over her chest and looked thoughtfully out towards the street. "I guess I'm right, then. I've been thinking for a while now that I need to apologize to you."

"Apologize? What for?"

"For messing up you and my dad."

"Oh…Oh, April. Honey, no." Lorelai turned quickly and put both of her hands on April's arm. "That is not true. What happened between us is our problem, not yours. It was not your fault in any way, shape, or form. No one blames you about what happened."

"But if I hadn't shown up –"

"No," Lorelai said firmly, still patting her arm as soothingly as possible. "I've had oodles of time to think about this. Believe me, I've dissected what happened from every direction, and I've come to the same conclusion every time. Your dad and I already had problems between us, long, long before we knew about you. But we were stupid. We always thought we had more time to deal with them, or maybe we thought that if we kept ignoring them they'd just magically disappear. All I know is that one day, we finally ran out of time to fix any of it."

"Because of me," April said ominously.

"No," Lorelai insisted authoritatively. "Whatever blew up next was going to be the end of us. It was just chance that you came looking for your dad at the same time."

"But still, it was me."

"April, honey, listen to me. Here's just a partial list of all the things Luke and I never talked about." Lorelai grabbed a quick breath of air and just let her thoughts go, ticking each non-conversation off on her fingers. "Rory. Jess. Money. My parents. Anything about his family – especially his sister. The diner. The Dragonfly, except for very briefly, the money he loaned me to get it finished. Rory's father – except to fight about him. How we were going to split expenses. Where we were going to keep the coupons."

Her lips quivered so hard that she had to stop talking. Who knew that the silly coupons would be another thing to break her? She regrouped and continued bravely, counting on fingers she'd already used once.

"Kids – or plants. His grief about losing his father. We never talked about his mother, not once. His old girlfriends. His marriage –"

"Wait!" April jumped up, looking incredulous. "My dad – was married?"

"Yes?" Lorelai sort-of admitted, cringing at her unintentional reveal.

"Holy cow. Really?" April sat back down, perched on the edge of the seat.

"Um, yeah."

"I can't even – my head…" April spun a finger around the top of her head, while shaking it in disbelief.

Lorelai scoffed. "You should have seen my reaction, the night he told me."

"Wow," April muttered, still shaken. "Does my mom know?"

"You think I'd know that? And if you want more info about it, make Luke tell you. It's his past, not mine."

"Yeah, OK." April looked dissatisfied, but she nodded.

Lorelai sighed. "What you need to understand is that we had a ton of stuff hovering over us, threatening to crash down on our heads at any minute, and we…did nothing about it. We didn't try to talk about it, we didn't try to compromise. We just crossed our fingers and hoped that being 'in love' was enough. Basically, we kept on living separate lives, even though we said that we wanted to join those lives together. A strong breeze would have been enough to break us apart."

"And instead you got a hurricane. Hurricane April."

"Not true." Lorelai moved her hand to April's and gave it a comforting squeeze. "Do you think for one minute that your dad is sorry you came into his life?"

April seemed to consider the question very seriously. "No," she finally said, after doing the calculations.

"That's right. He's thrilled to be your dad. You know that's true. I know that's true. You were very brave to come and find him."

"I guess." April looked about the yard again, and then slowly stood up. "I should probably be heading back to the diner. I just felt like I should say something to you about...Well, everything."

Lorelai stood up too, and after a slight hesitation, leaned over and hugged her. "If you want to talk about the hard stuff, then you're already a huge step ahead of where Luke and I were. Or still are, for that matter."

"Thanks for letting me stick around." April took a few steps, but then turned around. "I know this is probably weird, and not something I should butt into, but is there anything you want me to say to Dad? I mean, any kind of message you want me to give him?"

Lorelai didn't miss the almost-hopeful spark in the girl's eyes, or the way her own heart leaped at the idea of somehow connecting with Luke again. She bit her lips to contain the dozen quips that instantly sprang to mind, most of them not appropriate for a thirteen-year-old girl to hear. At last her eyes fell on the cauldron of candy at her feet.

She dove into it and came out with a PayDay bar in her hand. "Here. Just give him this," she decided, passing it to April.

"Why?" Logical April asked.

"Because for some unfathomable reason, it's Luke's favorite candy. Not that he eats much of it anyway, but it's still what he reaches for, if he has a choice. I can't stand them. But yet, look what I bought this year." Lorelai reached for the ginormous Target bag resting behind the chairs, full of extra Halloween candy, and opened it for April to peer inside. "Why did I do that?"

"Wow. Uh, how many bags of those did you buy?"

"Seven," Lorelai said with disgust. "I bought the store out. Too bad, rest of Connecticut. No PayDays for you!"

"Huh. Interesting," April observed.

"Insane," Lorelai muttered, throwing the shopping bag down.

April tucked the candy bar into her pocket. "Would you mind if I took one too?"

"Help yourself," Lorelai sighed. She watched as April picked out another PayDay bar. "Wait. You like them, too?"

"Yeah." April grinned. "I guess there's something to genetics after all."

Lorelai studied April. Truthfully, she'd never seen any of Luke in her, but maybe it was there, just lurking under the surface. "You know what? Take a bag of them. Take two! Help me get rid of them."

"I will accept that offer. Thanks," April said happily, fitting the bags under her arm.

"Come back when you want more."

April laughed as she took several steps towards the street. "Maybe by Christmas."

Lorelai watched as she began to walk away and panic overwhelmed her. "April! Wait! Wait!" She ran to catch up with her, her breath hitching in her chest. "What will you say to your dad? About tonight? About – about me?" She rubbed her hands up and down her arms because of fear and doubt, not because of the cool fall air.

April picked up on Lorelai's anxiety. "I think I'll say that I hung out with a witch tonight. A beautiful, thoughtful witch, who's probably every bit as sad as she is pretty."

Lorelai sighed, satisfied with that almost-poetic description. "If you could maybe work 'repentant' in there too, I'd be grateful."

"I do better in math and science than in English…but yeah, I think I can handle a little tweak like that."

All at once, Lorelai thought about the Parent Trap spark she'd recognized in April's eyes a little earlier, as well as the way her own hopes had flared at the idea of anything to do with Luke, and she tried to manage expectations for both of them. "I know nothing is going to change where we are – not really. Truthfully, what I really want to know – the only thing that really matters – is whether or not he still hates me. If I knew he was past the hate, I think I'd feel so much better."

"I'm sure he doesn't hate you!" April refuted, looking perturbed.

That naïve comment had the power to change Lorelai back into the mom, the adult in the room. She remembered she was talking to a barely-teenaged girl, not to her own grown daughter, not to a friend. Despite April's adult-like speech and insights, she was still closer to childhood than maturity. Of course Luke wouldn't have shared the terrible details of the break-up with her. Of course she didn't know the truth of what Lorelai had done. Naturally she still believed in fairy tale endings.

"If he doesn't, he should," she mumbled sadly.

"Huh?"

"Oh, April." Lorelai took in a major gulp of air and let reality reset her thoughts. "Someday, I should go and talk to Luke about this. It's my responsibility to start that discussion, and maybe someday I'll have the courage to do that. If you want, tell him you stopped by here, and I gave you some candy, but there's no need to go into anything else. Some kind words from you aren't going to make any difference between us, except to irritate your dad and make him even madder at me. Just let it be, OK?"

"But I could –"

"No, you can't." Lorelai stepped closer and gave her a second hug. "I love that you want to, though. I'm so glad you came to see me tonight and that we had a chance to talk." She gave her one last squeeze and moved away. "I think I want to be you when I grow up!" she proclaimed. She tried hard to grin boldly, but she knew it was a long way from her best effort.

April looked disappointed. "But you see, I like symmetry. And if I was the thing that made you guys break up, it seems like I should be able to –"

"No." Lorelai's voice was extra-firm. "The break up's on my shoulders, April. I was the one who stuck the knife into the relationship and made sure it was dead."

A moment passed, and then, inexplicably, Lorelai started to giggle. She tried to stifle them but couldn't.

"That's funny?" April asked, sounding affronted.

"No, no it's not." Way too hard to explain how sometimes laughing was the only thing that kept the tears away. "You said 'symmetry' and that made me remember the time when one of your dad's old girlfriends tried to force him to compliment my eyes, and the only thing he could think to say was that they were symmetrical."

"Man, he doesn't have any game at all, does he?"

…I'm all in, Luke had told her, the horoscope in his hand, with the sweetest, most resolute look on his face…

She cleared her throat, once again battling tears. "Every now and then, he did OK," she said softly.

"Was this girlfriend the one he married?"

"No, this was someone else."

"There was someone else?" April's eyes bugged out.

"Crap. Spilled the beans again," Lorelai sighed.

"Well, I think Dad and I need to eat some PayDays and have a long talk," April stated, beginning to walk away.

"Just don't tell him where you heard it, please!"

"I won't! Happy Halloween!" April called back to her.

"You too!"

Slowly, Lorelai returned to the chair and eased herself down on it, emotionally wrung out. She searched in her witch's cauldron for anything that wasn't a PayDay, hoping that the sugar hit would give her enough energy to pick up the candy and the chairs and drag them to the house, because she was pretty sure that no more trick-or-treaters were going to visit tonight.

She looked again to the stars as she threw a handful of M&Ms in her mouth. She realized that maybe the cosmic balance sheet she'd been pondering earlier needed to be edited a little bit. As crazy as it seemed, April had essentially added herself into the final tally.

"Lions and tiger and bears, oh my," Lorelai whispered, and made the most sincere wish on the brightest star she could find in the Halloween sky.

Maybe the Great Pumpkin would see fit to grant it…or maybe a house would fall on her instead. If Luke's daughter wanted to come call on her, absolutely anything might happen next.

End of the Chapter Author's Note: (Because by now it should be obvious that I am completely addicted to talking to all of you. Seriously, I may need help. Is there a 12-step program? Asking for a friend…) This was supposed to be a one-shot. Short, sweet, hopeful, DONE! Bam. But…I really, really want to sit in on that conversation Luke and April are going to have, don't you? So I guess there will be one more chapter. Maybe two. Three, at the very most! Happy Halloween!