A/N: Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry. Sorry again for the slow update. I am beginning to think that updates will end up being about once a week (hopefully), usually on weekends, as long as I'm not overloaded with homework. My soccer practices and homework end up limiting my writing time during the week, and have so far made it really hard to get any writing done. The last couple of weeks I have just been jam-packed with stuff to do, lots of homework and one weekend I went to the Homecoming Dance at my school, so that took up what would have been my writing time that weekend. Thank you to all of the readers, and especially the reviewers!

kerfuzzie- Thanks for the support! You'll see what happens soon!

Disneygrl2- Thank you so much for all of the encouragement! Depending on how this story goes, I will probably do several stories where I follow the season's timeline with some events but not others. Or at least ones where I take part of an episode and change something that happened and go on from there. I have several ideas besides this story, which hopefully with all turn out into full-fledged stories when I start to write them.

glo1196 -Thanks! I am also an avid L/L junkie and love watching them, just not the serious fights. I think there are several ways they could've done Season 7 better, with basically the same ideas-just no marriage to Christopher. I can understand having her date him, but I didn't like that they had her marry him.

The Mrs. Ventimiglia- Thanks! I know pretty much the story arc and where I'm taking it, I have several ideas up my sleeve which I'll have to see how they all fit in. : )

Disclaimer: Don't own them. If I did, we'd be watching a happy 8th season right now, in a universe where Lorelai and Chris never married and Lorelai and Luke live happily ever after.

There's one line in here that is almost exactly the same as a line from episode 5.02 'A Messenger, Nothing More', and there is another that closely relates to a line from 'Run Away, Little Boy' 2.09. If anyone can tell me which two lines they are, you win brownie points: )

Main point though, I don't own it.

Chapter 3: Discussions, Decisions, and Departures

The next morning Lorelai was up and dressed by 8:00am due to the unfortunate fact that she had a meeting at the inn earlier than she would've liked. She said goodbye to Rory on her way out the door, wishing her luck on her various tests for that day, got into her jeep, and drove to the inn.

Once she got there, she locked herself in her office to be buried under paperwork, but her thoughts kept circling back to her situation with Luke for what seemed like the millionth time in the past 48 hours.

Man, their kiss was amazing. And it was only one kiss. She couldn't remember ever having been so infatuated from just one kiss before. She definitely had chemistry with Luke; their everyday banter proved that. Not to mention he was very easy on the eyes. And his eyes…wow. Lorelai was just about to continue on with her analysis of Luke's wonderful anatomy, when someone knocked on the door, interrupting her train of thought.

"Come in," Lorelai said.

"Sookie wants to talk to you in the kitchen. And while I'm here I would like to ask why I am being sent delivering messages like a messenger pigeon, it's not in my job description. If I'm going to go back and forth playing go-between for you two, then I want a reward. The pigeons got a reward for delivering messages, so why am I not getting a reward? I am better than a pigeon, no?" Michel complained.

"At least pigeons don't complain as much." Lorelai muttered under her breath.

"Michel, do you want a bread crumb, because that's what the pigeons usually get for carrying letters back and forth." Lorelai said with a smirk on her face.

"No, I want a raise, or even better to not have to talk to those insipid people from the construction group that is staying here. They are disgusting, and rude, and they always seem to be sweaty even when they've just taken a shower," Michel ranted.

"You know who I hear is just delightful to talk to, Michel? The unemployment agency. So unless you want to discuss your next career move with them, I suggest that you get out of my office and start manning the front desk. Politely." Lorelai emphasized as Michel walked out of the room, sulking.

Lorelai stood up from her swivel chair, stretched, and walked out of her office towards the kitchen.

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He needed to think. Or the quiet. Yes, that's it; he needed the quiet. Or to just get away from her- well, the absence of her, really. It was driving him crazy that she hadn't come in to the diner, and it had only been two days since the kiss. If they didn't make up for a while (because he refused to think that they would never make up), then how was he going to keep his diner open? He had been so distracted in the past 48 hours that he had probably dropped more things than he had in all the time the diner had been open. He just couldn't focus. Every time he heard the bell above the door ring, he looked up to see if it was her, even though he knew it wasn't. The bell always seemed to have a special sort of ring whenever she came in, and he always knew without having to look that the crazy coffee addict was the one opening his door.

Luke's problem solving method was always time consuming, and involved him thinking things through while mulling over possible answers. He was the type of guy who needed to process things before doing something important, and was almost never spontaneous.

So, like usual, his answer to being distanced from Lorelai lately was to go fishing. He decided that he'd leave early the next morning, and stay for a couple days. Hopefully it would be just enough to clear his head and think of an excuse, explanation, or at least some sort of plan to get Lorelai back into his life.

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The door of the kitchen swung open as Lorelai walked through it, looking around for her kooky friend. Sookie was dancing around the room, giving out instructions as she moved from place to place, almost creating several fire hazards and knocking over just about everything near her. Typical Sookie.

"Hey Sookie, you wanted to talk to me about something?" Lorelai asked.

"How does this taste?" Sookie asked, shoving a spoonful of liquid into Lorelai's mouth. "Too sweet, too salty? I can't figure out what it's missing!" Sookie exclaimed frantically.

"Sookie, honey, calm down. I think it needs to be a bit sweeter, but you should ask Bob, considering he's like second-in-command. By the way, sometimes people like to know what's being shoved into their mouth before it actually is put into their mouth," Lorelai said as she tried to sooth her friend's frenzied movements. "Didn't you have something to talk to me about?" Lorelai questioned.

"Oh, yeah." Sookie said, remembering the reason that Lorelai was in the kitchen in the first place. "Is everything okay with you sweetie?"

"I'm fine. Why wouldn't I be?"

"You've just seemed a little down the past couple of days, pretty distracted too."

"I haven't been distracted," Lorelai tried to deny, unconvincingly.

"Yes, hon, you have. And you must not have got a lot of sleep last night either; did you fall asleep at your desk on top of the stapler? You have the word 'Swingline' printed across your face." Sookie said, trying not to laugh, extremely amused by her friend's ability to fall asleep anywhere.

"I do?" Lorelai asked, as she looked around the room for a mirror with a confused expression on her face. "Why didn't Michel say anything?"

"He probably thought it would be funny to see how long it took you to notice it." Sookie explained. "But my point is, sweetie, that something's bothering you. Can't you tell me what it is?" Sookie asked.

Lorelai sighed, defeated, and conceded to Sookie's questioning. "I kissed Luke. Or he kissed me. Either way, we kissed."

"Oh, my god!" Sookie squealed. "This is so wonderful, I can't believe it. You two kids, always dancing around each other, and now finally you're-"

"Sookie," Lorelai said, cutting off her giddy friend to correct her, with a regretful expression on her face, "We're not together."

"Ahhhhh, why not?" Sookie asked in disbelief and disappointment.

"I ran away." Lorelai stated.

"Okay, I want details!" Sookie said, with a confused expression on her face. "Why did you run away?"

"I was scared, and confused, and…overwhelmed." Lorelai explained. "It all started with painting Luke's diner. He doesn't like painting, can you imagine?" Lorelai asked in disbelief, and then continued on with her story. "But I managed to convince him to paint as long as I'd help him. So, we were there painting, and he was telling me about how he kept all the stuff on the walls from when his father owned the place. Luke found a spot on the wall where his father had written down an order for the hardware store a long time ago, and we were sitting behind the counter looking at it, when Taylor shows up. Something about getting before and after pictures of Luke's. But once they left, Luke and I were kneeling ridiculously close to each other. And, we kissed. I was overwhelmed, and so I stuttered out something stunningly intelligent I'm sure, and ran out the door." Lorelai finished her story with.

"Lorelai, honey, you should go talk to him. After hearing about what happened, no wonder I heard from Patty that Luke's been preoccupied and moody lately. Tell him how you feel."

"What if I tell him how I feel and he doesn't feel the same way? Then what'll happen to our friendship?" Lorelai said, distressed.

"Honey, Luke has pined after you for years. He cares about you so much. Pretty much the whole town can see it, sweetie. Just look the guy in the eye, it's right there. It's always been right there, if you'd just look for it."

"Okay." Lorelai sighed. "Thanks for the girl talk hon, but I need to catch up on some paperwork that I missed while Swingline was attached to my face," She said with a small smile. "I'll keep you updated."

"Good. And don't worry about it." Sookie said while Lorelai disappeared out of sight, the kitchen door swinging in her wake.

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Luke walked around his apartment, packing up everything he'd need for his trip. He wouldn't go for too long; probably just a couple of days, so he wouldn't need to pack a ton of things.

Luke looked around the room, trying to see if he'd missed anything. He walked over to his bedside table, picked up his watch, and then stood there silent for a moment, contemplating whether to bring the picture. It was a picture of Lorelai, Rory, and him; all standing around one of the big Christmas trees that were always put up around the beginning of December every year. It was just another part of this crazy town's spirit.

He remembered that day well; Lorelai had looked stunning like always, but perhaps it was the added excitement of the first snow of the official Christmas season that made her practically glow with happiness. They had been talking about Christmas traditions, Luke as usual arguing about the wasteful nature of the town's decorations, when Sookie had happened to walk by with her camera, and snapped the shot. It seemed to add to the life of the photo that neither of the three of them in the picture had actually known that it was being taken. Lorelai was explaining something with excitement, Rory chiming in with her opinions, and Luke watching them both with an amused and happy look on his face.

He was definitely going to take that picture with him.

Luke finished packing up his stuff over the next few hours, and then took it out to his truck to pack up so he'd be ready to leave the next morning. He then went downstairs and finished up the couple of cleaning tasks he had left to do, glancing up at the door every 3 minutes or so, as if waiting for someone to come in. Knock it off, Luke scolded himself as he looked up for what must have been the 10th time. Yeah, I definitely need a vacation.

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