Hook, Line and Sinker

Takes place during Lorelai Out of Water

He had to be a masochist. That was the only explanation for it. Why else would he be wading in an icy Connecticut stream at six in the morning? It certainly wasn't because of an overwhelming desire to commune with nature. Luke reeled in, feeling no pleasure at the tug at the end of his line. He caught the shimmering trout in his hand and carefully removed the hook before dropping it into the mesh basket that he had tethered to a branch that hung out over the water. Methodically, he attached another ball of bright green Power Bait to his hook and cast out into the stream again. He tightened his line and let his mind drift as his line dragged. She thought she could learn to fish from a book. She thought that he wouldn't know that she wanted to learn to fish for a guy. It had to be a guy. Some guy who obviously didn't know Lorelai Gilmore very well. Yet. Obviously someone she wanted to get to know well enough that she would agree to get up at the crack of dawn and go fishing, of all things. And he was the sucker that was gonna help her.

He may be a masochist, but he wasn't an idiot. It didn't take a genius to figure it out. But what was this masochistic idiot doing instead of staying warm in his bed on his morning off? He was standing knee deep in freezing water, catching fish to put in a baby pool so that he could teach the girl he wanted to fish for another guy. Pathetic, that's what it is, he thought as he shook his head at himself. He reeled in his line and recast, trying to focus on what he was doing rather than what he was feeling. Stupid, he thought with a snort. He was feeling pretty pathetic and really stupid right now.

He had been struck with the stupid stick the first time she blew into his diner begging for coffee. He just got stupider the more he got to know her. Got to know what a strong, intelligent, determined and loving woman she was under that brilliant exterior. Once he got to see her with Rory and their friends and neighbors, and got to know her as a friend. Over the years, there had been more than a few times when he had hoped for something more. More than a few instances when he saw that light in her bright blue eyes that told him that maybe she would consider him. But more than anything, there were times when he knew that it wasn't right, that no matter how much he wanted it, there was something in Lorelai that held her back, kept him at arm's length, kept them friends but definitely not lovers. And he had been stupid enough to heed that. He had been the idiot who stood behind the counter and watched the town fill to overflowing with bright yellow daisies. He was the dumbass parked on the bench with a bevy of tiny ballerinas as she danced cheek to cheek with her fiancée. He was the moron who plated a consolation donut for her and listened to her cry when the jerk who had abandoned her and Rory so long ago did the exact same thing all over again.

Of course, things had changed in the past couple of years. Just last year, he had been flying high. Her engagement to Max was a thing of the past, and their friendship had grown closer, deeper, and more essential to their mutual happiness. They came to rely on each other. But even though she said that they were friends, Lorelai never managed to mention the men in her life to him. Luke didn't know if that was because she sensed that he wouldn't want to hear it, or if she felt some other reason to hide it. Of course, he heard it all. First there was the teacher, and then the teacher was gone. Then the teacher was back, and they were engaged. Then they weren't. Then she ended up dating Doogie Howser. That set him off a bit, but it turned out to be just a one time thing. And then there was Christopher. Luke didn't know if Lorelai thought that her on again off again flings with the father of her child were a state secret, but he was pretty sure she'd be shocked by how much information made its way back to him. But they were friends, right? he thought with a smirk as he reeled in, checked his bait and recast. Friends would tell friends these things. Not the gory details, maybe, but at least that there was someone in their life. But Lorelai never did. Luke could only take that to mean that she didn't consider him only her friend or it could simply mean that they weren't the good friends that he had thought they were.

And then, just as things were going so well, just as they were getting closer, there was the fight. There's nothing quite like having the girl you secretly love scream 'Go to hell!' at you to put a bit of a damper on any hopes you may have had. Even after they had made up, it had taken a long time for them to get back onto a comfortable footing with each other. After that, where they were now as friends was nowhere as close as they had been just a year ago. There was a caution there. An awareness of how much they had hurt each other, and the ease of doing so. There were words unspoken, mainly concerning Rory and Jess' relationship, which was the cause of the fight to begin with, and a wound too raw, too sensitive for them to touch. Of course, Jess was dating Rory now, and that added a new wrinkle. As much as he loathed the little punk's snarky commentary, Luke has a grudging admiration for his nephew. He came to town, he saw Rory, he decided that he wanted her, and he set about to get the girl. While he may not agree with the methods Jess had used to get the job done, he couldn't argue with his success. And Lorelai, well she didn't approve of the match. As much as Luke liked to tell himself that it was because of Jess' crappy attitude and smart mouth, there was a little part of him that thought maybe it might be a little bit in part because Lorelai didn't think that the Danes/Mariano men were quite good enough for a Gilmore girl.

He felt the telltale pull on his line and reeled in apathetically, feeling and odd sympathy for the struggling fish as he unhooked it and added it to the basket. "Sorry," he muttered to the fish before he reached for another ball of bait and forced it onto the hook with fingers stiff with cold. When was the last time you went out on a date? A year, two years ago? Jess' question reverberated in his head. His nephew's words hit a little too close to home. Jess was right. Driving Joanna Cooper home didn't count. Even if she had made it clear that she was open to an offer. Even she had reinforced that belief with a kiss on the cheek that hit a little closer to his mouth and lasted a little longer than mere friendliness dictated. But, the fact of the matter was, he wasn't interested in Joanna. He hadn't been interested in anyone other than Lorelai for longer than he cared to admit. And yet, here it was slapping him the face again. Luke wondered idly how many punches he'd have to take before he went down for the count.

He thought about that woman who had come into the diner the day before. The lawyer. Taylor's lawyer. She was attractive, in that quietly understated kind of way. Classy, he thought with a small nod. Pretty, but not the kind of pretty that drew a man in, enveloped him completely and drew the air from his lungs. Lorelai had cornered the market on that. As Luke felt another tug, he reeled in, his mind a million miles away. I'm tired of taking the hits. I'm tired of waiting, hoping. I'm tired of cleaning up the messes that other guys leave behind. I want more. I want to be able to breathe again, he thought as he automatically removed the hook from the trout's gaping mouth. He dropped it into the mesh basket and watched as its gills expanded, filling its lungs with air. "Breathe," Luke murmured softly.

XXXX

He unloaded the inflatable pool and tossed it into the front yard. Without knocking on the door, Luke walked around to the side of the porch, opened the door to the crawl space and pulled out the garden hose that he had coiled up and stored there just months before. He hooked it to the spigot and dragged the hose through the snow, dropping the end of it into the bright blue pool. While it was filling, he carried a 5 gallon bucket holding the fish he had caught earlier over to the pond. He then unloaded two folding camp chairs and set them up next to the makeshift fishing hole. As Luke reached through the open window and honked the horn before taking two poles and two tackle boxes from the bed of the truck and calling, "Let's go!" he was fueled by something else. It was a mixture of a little anger, more than a little hurt, and a very perverse need to make her fess up to him. To make her tell him face to face, once and for all, that there was someone else in the picture.

Lorelai emerged from the house wearing every possible form of fishing gear known to man and struck a pose for him on the porch. Looking at her, he had to laugh, and then told her that she looked ridiculous. In typical Lorelai fashion, she insisted that she looked adorable and proceeded to rhapsodize about the joys of a sport that allowed one to buy a new outfit. When she said she was ready to go, Luke took more than a little pleasure in pricking her ego by telling her that she wasn't ready for the big leagues yet, and pointed out the baby pool he had set up. Her pout was worth the price of admission, both for its allure and for the secret victory of having taken Lorelai Gilmore down a peg. He dumped the trout he had caught earlier into the makeshift pond and then rolled his eyes as she proceeded to name each one of the fish. Not wanting to be sucked in by her charm, Luke kept it all business, explaining the rod and reel to her and giving precise instruction on how to cast. As she tried it herself, he tried to force himself not to be impressed by her quick mind and her ability to grasp the strange instructions. After one minor misfire, she managed to get the cork covered hook into the pond. Lorelai was giddy with victory, prodding him to chare in her excitement, but he resisted. Instead, he picked up the second rod and reel and cast easily into the pond. She babbled for a moment marveling at the amount of equipment that fishing required, and he answered tersely that most people don't provide their own lake.

Finally, he took a deep breath and said, "So, tell me why you're doing this."

Lorelai frowned and answered, "Because you told me to."

Luke shook his head and said, "I mean, tell me why you're learning to fish."

Lorelai shifted uncomfortably and said vaguely, "Oh. I told you, some of my friends are going."

Luke pounced. "What friends? Sookie?" he asked quickly.

"What?" Lorelai asked, bewildered by the speed with which he had replied.

"Is Sookie going fishing?" he pressed, unwilling to let up until she caved.

"Well…" she hedged nervously.

Moving in for the kill, Luke pulled out the big guns. "Or Rory. Did Rory suddenly get the overwhelming urge to dig for worms and stand in the middle of a lake at five a.m.?" he asked snidely.

"Yes?" Lorelai answered hopefully, glancing up to see if he was buying what she was trying to sell. When she saw that he didn't buy it, she sighed and said, "Okay, fine, I met this guy."

"Ah," Luke answered with a nod, noting that the twisted pain in his gut didn't feel quite as good as he thought it would. Happy now, Mr. Masochist? he admonished himself as he realized that this was it. This was the time to give it up. It was finally time to let it go and realize that he had no chance with her.

"And, uh, he's kind of an outdoorsy guy," she explained.

"Oh, just your type," he managed to say in a tone that seemed light and joking, even though his heart was in his throat.

Lorelai had the grace to laugh at herself and said, "No, not exactly, but he's nice and, uh, he was talking about fishing, and I think I said something like, 'Oh, hey, that sounds great', and so he invited me and here I am."

"I got it," he said shortly.

Lorelai winced a little and said softly, "Sorry I didn't tell you."

Luke finally turned to look at her and asked, "Why didn't you tell me?"

Lorelai shrugged and answered, "I don't know. I just felt stupid getting rooked into the thing in the first place." She paused and glanced over at him uneasily as she said, "And then, plus, you don't wanna hear about my personal life," in a self deprecating tone.

Luke nodded, trying to figure out how to proceed now that the boundaries have been so clearly drawn for him. He cleared his throat slightly and asked, "So this'll be your first date or…"

"Second," Lorelai quickly corrected, hoping to move past this phase of the conversation as swiftly as possible.

"Second date," Luke murmured as he absorbed the information. As she babbled on about the coffee tasting place the mystery fishing guy had taken her to, he realized that this was it. This was all that they would ever be. Friends. Only friends. Friends who don't tell each other about their personal lives. He made the correct noises, asked the right questions, and somehow managed to offer the use of his tackle for her date with another man. Sucker, the little voice inside of his head taunted. No, we're friends, he told the voice. This is what friends do when they are just friends, only friends.

His thoughts were interrupted when Lorelai asked, "Hey Luke?"

"Yeah," he answered.

"Can you do me one more favor?" she asked cautiously.

Le shrugged and said, "Sure."

Lorelai nodded to the baby pool and said, "Put a cork on your hook."

Luke nodded as he set his pole down and said again, "Sure."

XXXX

Luke was delivering an order to a table near the window when he spotted Taylor standing on the sidewalk speaking to the attorney that had been in the diner a couple of days ago. He paused and watched them for a moment, Jess' taunting words floating through his head and mingling with the sound of Lorelai's voice saying, 'I met this guy.' Before he could talk himself out of it, he moved to the door, calling to Jess to refill the customer's coffee mug and ignoring his nephew's questions as he hurried down the steps of the diner. Luke called out to her, and when she stopped, he realized that he had absolutely no idea what to say to her. He began to babble nervously about crosswalks and disbarment, and then dug himself a little deeper with some drivel about the price of a cup of coffee. When he finally got a grip on himself, he prefaced his rambling dinner invitation with an, 'Oh what the hell' and was stunned when the attractive redhead smiled and accepted. He backed away slowly, muttering about business cards and crosswalks again as he promised to call to make that dinner thing happen.

Luke went on about his day feeling a little lighter. By the time Sunday evening came, he had almost convinced himself that it was all for the best. It was done. He was going to move on. He and Lorelai would remain friends, just friends, and that was good. She was a good friend to have, and he knew that he should be happy with that. By the time the dinner rush had cleared, he was actually feeling pretty smug. He planned to call Nicole Leahy first thing Monday morning and set things in motion, and hopefully he could have it all. I can have someone in my life, it doesn't have to be Lorelai as long as Lorelai is still in my life, he reasoned. Friends. Everybody has friends. Dating a woman and having a woman for a friend didn't have to be mutually exclusive, people do it all the time. He could have them both, he told himself.

The bells jingled as he was shutting down the kitchen, and he called, "Sorry, we're closed."

"The coffee pot is still on," Lorelai called back to him.

Luke walked out of the kitchen, wiping his hands on a towel, and said, "That doesn't mean it's for you to have."

Lorelai laughed and asked, "Please, who else would it be for?"

Luke bristled a little at her dismissive tone and asked sarcastically, "How'd the fishing go?"

"Ugh, I am never getting up that early again, but it was okay. Good," she said with a nod, but clearly unwilling to share the details of her date with him. She placed a Doose's bag on the counter and said, "Please, Luke. We were out at home, so I ran to the market, but I could really use a cup of coffee right now," she said in a pleading tone. She smiled at him flirtatiously and said, "You know it's my life's blood, I can't survive another moment without your fabulous coffee."

Luke turned away from that smile that always drew him in and said in a snarky tone, "Sorry, but I only offer one flavor here."

"The best flavor in the world," she countered as he reached for the pot. "There's nothing I love more than your coffee, except maybe Rory, and they run a close first and second," she said with a nod.

Luke placed a to-go cup in front of her and watched as she took that first sip. Lorelai cradled the cup in both hands, moaning as the hot liquid coursed down her throat and then said, "That's a really good cup of coffee," in a tone strikingly similar to the one Nicole had used days before.

Luke nodded and said only, "I have to close up."

Lorelai smiled as she took the grocery bag from the counter and turned toward the door. "Thanks, Luke. I need to get home to Jayne."

He couldn't resist, he fell for it every time. "Jayne?" he asked in a bewildered voice.

"Jayne Mansfield," she called over her shoulder. Lorelai opened the door and turned back to him with a brilliant smile as she said proudly, "Caught one. She's in our bathtub right now."

Luke just shook his head and muttered, "Aw geez," as comprehension set in.

Lorelai toasted him with her to-go cup and said, "I owe it all to you, my friend. Thanks, Luke."

And then she was gone, hurrying down the steps, home to Rory. And Jayne Mansfield, the fish he taught her to catch with another man. As Luke stood at the end of the counter, he draped his hand over the cash register, rubbing his thumb over his forefinger as he watched her until she disappeared. Finally, he turned back to the coffee maker and flipped the switches to turn the machine off. With a satisfied smirk, he realized that he had forgotten to mention his up coming date to Lorelai. Well, she doesn't want to know about my personal life, he told himself as he walked to the door, flipped the sign and turned the lock with a decisive flick of his wrist.