A/N: This is the last part of my somewhat three parter, the very short one. After hearing a few people bring up the friday night dinner I thought about making it a bigger part of this chapter but wasn't able to find the time so I ended up leaving it the same, hope it's enough. Let me know what you all think and please enjoy!

This Friday night dinner was a disaster. Christopher had agreed that since he was still staying with them that he would join them at dinner like Emily had asked him to and promised not to tell them anything about Luke since she told him they weren't ready to tell her parents yet, a promise he did keep luckily. One night with her parents and Christopher's parents, what could go wrong? For starters his parents started belittling Rory and dug into her for getting pregnant at sixteen and destroying Christophers life, then her father kicked them out which she took as a good thing. That was until she talked to him afterwards and learned it was strictly for the sake of the Gilmore name that he defended her. She tried to take a break away from everyone on the balcony in her old room but Christopher came up and offered her some booze. She declined and asked him if they could skip dinner and go home, he said that would be fine and the three of them left heading back to the house. When they got inside Luke looked over at them from the couch, he had been watching the baseball game while he waited for them to get home.

"Hey, you're back early." Luke said sitting up some. "How'd it go?" He asked. Lorelai didn't say a word, she walked past the living room and went straight upstairs to her room.

"Not good." Christopher replied. "Any amount of time spent with my parents can be defined as a traumatic experience."

Luke stood up and hurried upstairs to Lorelai's room, when he walked in the door he noticed her sitting on the end of her bed with her face in her palms. He walked over and sat next to her on the bed, placing his hand on her back and rubbing it gently. "Lorelai, what happened?"

Lorelai pulled her hands away from her face and sniffled. "Christopher's parents kept going on and on about how I messed up his chance of getting into college and having a good life when I got pregnant with Rory. And then my dad jumps in to defend me, and I think wow, I can't believe he is actually standing up for me." She sniffled again. "But he wasn't really standing up for me, he only cared that the Gilmore name was being tarnished."

"I'm so sorry, I can't believe they acted like that."

"I can, I don't know why I thought things would be different now. It has been sixteen years but I still felt like a teenager sitting in that room with them, they always have a way of making me feel so small."

"Lorelai, whatever they are making you feel about yourself, you are not. You are so strong and you have done such an amazing job raising Rory, if they can't see that they're the ones who need to work on their lives."

Lorelai turned her head and looked over at Luke. "Thank you." She raised a hand up and wiped her eyes. "God, I must look like a mess."

Luke shook his head. "Not a chance."

Lorelai stared at Luke a moment then stood up. "I'm gonna go wash my face."

"Okay." Luke said then she walked out of the room. A minute later he heard a knock on the door frame, he looked over and saw Rory walking into the room. "Hi, Rory."

"Hey, where's mom at?"

"Bathroom." Luke said. Rory stood there not saying a word, he looked at her expression and he could tell something was bothering her. "Rory, are you okay? I heard about everything that happened."

"Kind of, that Friday Night dinner will definitely be one for the books." She said as she walked over and sat on the bed next to him, Lorelai walked down the hallway and heard them talking so she stopped just shy of the doorway.

"You know that they don't have anything against you as a person, right?"

"That's what my grandma said too, but it's hard not to think that after everything they said."

"Those kind of people are just different than us, they need everything to look perfect in their lives, and a baby at sixteen doesn't look good to all their friends." Luke explained. "But if they were like your mom or me, or hell even the crazy people in this town, and they got to know you, they couldn't imagine a world without you in it."

Rory smiled then leaned over and gave Luke a hug. "Thank you, Luke."

Lorelai waited for Rory to pull away then she walked into her room. "Hey, kid."

"I'll go downstairs while you two talk." Luke said, standing up. "Hopefully Chris hasn't changed the baseball game to hockey again yet."

"If he has you can get in a very manly slap fight." Lorelai suggested, Luke smiled at the both of them then left to room and went downstairs.

"How are they doing?" Christopher asked Luke as he took a seat next to him on the couch.

"They'll be fine, they are strong."

Christopher smiled weakly. "I feel bad about leaving tomorrow."

"You stayed a week already, I think Rory is pretty happy about that. Besides, you have to get home and start looking for a job."

"Thanks for not telling them about that yet, I promise I'll tell them tomorrow before I leave. And I won't screw it up this time, I'm going to get my life together and be there for Rory."

"I know you will, she is definitely the kind of person you want in your life."

"Thank you for being there for her, the both of them." He paused. "I admit I felt pretty jealous seeing you with them at first, but now I'm just glad they have someone who will always protect them."

Luke smiled, he reached onto the coffee table grabbing the television remote and held it up to Christopher. "I guess since it is your last night here, you can put on the hockey game."

The next morning Lorelai woke up to the smell of fresh coffee and breakfast, she found her way downstairs to the kitchen and saw Rory sitting at the dining table, smiling as Luke and Christopher stood by the stove cooking pancakes.

"You have to flip it already." Luke told Christopher.

"It's not ready yet, if I flip it now it won't cook evenly."

"You are gonna burn it."

"I will not burn it." Christopher said then finally flipped it over.

Luke looked down at the black sided pancake. "That looks burnt to me."

"It is the first pancake, you always throw out the first pancake."

Rory chimed in. "That's true."

"I never do." Luke said.

"Really?"

"I own a diner, if I threw out the first pancake every time I made them I'd be out of business by now."

Luke turned to Christopher and took the spatula out of his hands. "Why don't you go fill the cups with juice and I'll cook the rest of them."

"You are sticking me with juice duty?"

"Well I don't think you could burn the juice."

Lorelai cleared her throat and they finally noticed her standing there. "Morning."

"Morning." They both said.

"Are you boys fighting again?"

"It will still be a minute till the pancakes are done, unless you are in the mood for a crispy one." Luke said as Lorelai took a seat at the dining table.

"You have the home advantage, you know how quickly the burner gets hot." Christopher said, grabbing the orange juice out of the fridge.

"He sure does!" Lorelai joked.

"I told you when to flip it, and you used that same excuse the other night when you let the gravy boil over onto the stove." Luke said as he set the pancakes onto a platter.

"I think I'll miss this most when dad leaves, it is quite the show." Rory said with a smile.

Luke carried the platter of pancakes, bacon, sausage and hash browns over to the table and set it down in the middle, Christopher set everyone's cups at their seats then the both of them sat down with the girls. They all ate and before they starting cleaning up Christopher spook.

"I wanted to tell you both something before I leave." Christopher said getting both the girls attention, Luke excused himself figuring that he would want to tell them on his own. "My business that I have been talking about didn't really pick up, I was an idiot for thinking it could, the whole thing was a bit of a gamble."

"Dad, I'm so sorry." Rory said.

"Thank you, but it's my fault. I wanted you to know that I'm going to get a really job, I've been calling around and I already have a few interviews. Not any place I would have seen myself working but they all pay good and they have constant schedules."

"Doesn't sound like something you will be fit for." Lorelai joked.

Christopher smiled. "Yeah, but I'm gonna make it work. And I'll visit more, anytime I get the chance. I'll make sure I have hotel reservations set up so I'm not camping out on your couch every time."

"Well I happen to know of an inn you could get a great discount at."

"And Rory, I'm gonna get a new cellphone. A permanent one so you can call me every week and let me know how everything is going with school and that boyfriend of yours, who I'm still not too happy about."

Rory smiled. "I'd like that."

Christopher stood up from his chair. "I should get going."

"We'll walk you out." Lorelai said as her and Rory stood up. The three of them walked to the living room and Christopher picked up his bag, Luke got up off the couch and walked over to him.

"It was nice finally meeting you." Luke said.

"You too." Christopher said and held out his hand, Luke shook it. "Take care of the girls."

"You know I will." Luke said then Christopher and the girls walked outside to his motorcycle.

"That's a great guy you got there, Lor." Christopher said, giving her a quick hug. "I'm glad you found someone to look out for the both of you."

"It's was nice seeing you, make sure it doesn't take another sixteen years to come around again." Lorelai joked.

Rory gave him a hug. "Bye, dad. Thanks for coming here."

"It will be hard to keep me away now that I've been here."

"Good." Rory said pulling away from the hug.

Christopher hoped on his bike and put his helmet on. "Bye girls." He said then started up his bike and drove away.

Lorelai put her arm around Rory as they watched him drive off. "You sad to see him leave?"

"Yeah, a little. But I think this is the first time I'm not worried he won't call or show up when I need him too."

Lorelai smiled at her daughter then hugged her tightly and they walked back into the house. After they got breakfast cleaned up April and Anna showed up from their visit, they spent most of the time at the house chatting and even played a few board games till they went to the diner for lunch.

"You're painting the whole place?" April asked as they finished up their sandwiches.

"That's the plan." Luke said.

"Isn't that going to take you a really long time?"

"Luckily he has two fabulous helpers." Lorelai said gesturing to her and Rory.

"But even with three people it will take hours, you have to take down stuff and tape all the frames. And are you covering the tables or moving them out of the way?"

"Wow, you know a lot about painting." Luke said surprised.

"I helped mom paint my room a few weeks ago, we could help."

"Honey, you have your play date with Missy tonight." Anna said.

"I'm not supposed to be there till five, we could stay a little longer and help them get set up."

"April, you and your mom probably have stuff to do before you go."

"We don't, I got all my homework done before we came." April turned to Anna. "Can we please stay and help? Just for a little while."

Anna looked over at Luke. "If you don't mind."

"We could use the extra hands, and it sounds like you two know more about the set up then we do."

"Yes!" April said hopping down from her stool. "I'll start taking stuff down, I'm gonna need an empty table near the shelves." She said going over to a table with a few people sitting at it. "Can you guy's get up and bring your food to a different table, I need to use this one." She said shooing them all away from the table.

"Kicking customers out of their seats, I can see the family resemblance." Lorelai said, bumping her elbow into Luke.

"I hope it's okay she wanted to stay longer." Anna said. "I know you had plans for just the three of you."

"Oh, no problem. We see enough of each other already, and we love hanging out with the both of you." Lorelai said.

"And it looks like she is going to be a hard worker." Luke said looking over at her as she stood up on a chair grabbing things off the shelve and setting them on the empty table.

"What does this mean?" April asked holding up a photo with a dancing pork chop. "I lost my head over a good chop, you should too." She read.

"It was something my dad, your grandpa had hanging in the kitchen at my old house." Luke explained.

"Why didn't you tell me that when I was teasing you for it?" Lorelai asked.

"Would it have stopped you?"

"Yes, it might have."

"Is anyone gonna get up and start working?' April asked.

"I guess that is our cue to get working." Rory said and they all stood up. Luke got out some empty boxes and Rory starting helping April take stuff down while Anna put everything they set on the table into boxes. Luke and Lorelai got out the tape and starting putting borders around all the frames and windows, everyone trying their best not to get in the way of customers, and not succeeding most of the time. After a few hours they had everything they could do while it was still open done, Luke walked behind the counter and the four girls sat down on stools.

"That was exhausting, I don't want to paint anymore." Lorelai said, plopping her head down onto the counter.

"I'll give you brownies for helping." Luke said and Lorelai sat back up straight.

"Brownies?" She asked.

"I told Caesar to have a fresh batch ready when we got done."

"I'm ready to paint, get these costumes out of here." Lorelai said then Luke went into the kitchen and came back out with a pan full of freshly baked brownies. She reached out to grab one out and he slapped her hand away. "Hey."

"Wait till I get plates." He said, grabbing four smalls plates from behind the counter. He set a brownie on each of them and gave everyone a plate.

Rory took a bite. "Totally worth all the work."

"Definitely." April said as she took another bite. "Dad, can I have a few extra's to bring to Missy's?"

"Sure." Luke said and grabbed a bag, placing a few in and handing it over to her.

"Thank you."

"Any chance I can talk any of you into drinking milk with those?"

"Two percent or skim?" Lorelai asked.

"They taste the same."

"That means you are trying to give us skim, so no."

Anna looked over at Lorelai. "Does he try and switch your food out for healthy substitutes?"

"He tries, I can always tell."

"He used to switch out the beef in his tacos for ground turkey all the time."

"You knew I did that?" Luke asked.

"Yes, but honestly I liked it better that way and didn't want to admit it."

"Did you do that when you made us tacos the other night?" Rory asked.

"No." Luke said, clearly lying.

"You did!" Lorelai said offended. "Oh, the trust, Luke. How are we going to make it if you're constantly trying to keep me healthy?"

"You'll be happy when you don't die at sixty."

Anna smiled as she finished up the last bite of her brownie and stood up. "We should get going."

"Yeah, Missy is really particular about us getting there on time. One time when were seven minutes late because I forgot math notes I had to hear about it the whole time I was there."

"She doesn't sound like that nice of a girl." Lorelai said.

"She isn't, but she has every episode of Bill Nye the Science Guy on DVD."

Anna chuckled. "And you have been friends since you were babies."

"Yeah, that too." April said and hopped down from her chair.

Luke walked around the counter and over to them. "I had fun seeing you again and thank you both for helping us setup for painting, you made it a lot easier on us."

"It was fun, I can't wait to see it in a few weeks all painted."

"A few weeks?" Luke asked, looking at Anna.

"Oh, sorry." Anna said. "I was gonna tell you that while April is on break from school we are going out to New Mexico to visit my mom."

"You get to go on a trip?" Lorelai said to April and she nodded. "Lucky."

"I'm really excited, everytime I go I find the best rocks for my collection."

Anna chimed in. "And I come home with a backache after carrying around a suitcase full of them."

"And grandma knows I have trouble sleeping away from home so she sets up my room with glow in the dark stars and makes me hot cocoa every night."

"Lucky again." Lorelai joked.

"Well, I'll miss seeing you while you're gone." Luke told April.

"I'll miss you too, but I'll call you every day."

Luke smiled. "I'm looking forward to it."

"Bye, dad." April said, giving him a hug.

"Bye sweetie." He said, rustling her hair as they pulled away. He stepped over to Anna and gave her a quick hug. "Tell your mom I said hello."

Anna smiled. "I will, her reply to you might include some profanity though."

"It wouldn't be your mother if it didn't."

"Bye, Luke." Anna said then the five of them finished saying their goodbyes before the both of them left.

Luke walked behind the counter and looked over at Lorelai and Rory. "How about you both head home and get some rest while I handle the dinner rush, I can give you a call once everyone is cleared out and we can get started on the painting."

"Sounds good to me." Lorelai said as Rory and her stood up from their stool. "But you are forgetting the part where you have two delicious cheeseburgers waiting for us when we get here."

"And extra fries." Rory said.

"And onion rings." Lorelai said, walking towards the door.

"And milkshakes." Rory said, following Lorelai.

"I think it would be cheaper if I hired painters instead." Luke said, Lorelai smiled at him before they left the diner.

Three hours into painting they had managed to get most of the shelves and one side of the diner done, Luke and Lorelai were both about three beers in when Rory cut them off not wanting to see any sloppy painting. The girls were working on the last of the shelves next to the hallway and Luke was working on the wall next to them. Rory was up on a chair getting the higher shelves and Lorelai sat on the floor getting the ones below her. Rory dipped her paintbrush in the cup of paint she was holding and moved it towards the shelve but she hadn't wiped enough paint off and a blob fell off before she reached it, landing on Lorelai's arm.

"Hey!" Lorelai said, glancing at the paint on her arm then up towards Rory. "You painted me!"

"It was an accident!" Rory defended then Lorelai dipped her brush into the pal then slung it towards Rory, hitting her on the neck with paint. "Hey!" She said, wiping her neck.

"Lorelai, really?" Luke asked, looking over at the both of them.

Lorelai grinned. "It was an accident."

"Ha." Rory said, letting her jaw drop. Rory looked in her almost empty paint cup then stepped down from her chair and walked over to the paint bucket Luke was using and dipped her brush in, she flipped her wrist and the paint flew off her brush hitting Lorelai on the cheek.

Lorelai dipped her paintbrush in bucket and stood up. "Oh, now this is war."

"Girls, don't do this." Luke warned. "Just say sorry and let it go so we can get back to painting the diner."

As soon as he was done talking Lorelai flung the paint at Rory, they quickly got into a paint throwing war. Luke asked them both to stop several times and they kept going, flinging paint back and forth, hitting each other every time. Lorelai lifted a soaked brush and shot it at Rory, she shifted, avoiding it which made it fly behind her and hit Luke on the side of the face. "Oops." Lorelai said, looking over at him.

Rory looked behind her at a painted Luke. "Ohh, you hit Luke." She turned back Lorelai. "You are gonna be in so much trouble."

"You are the one who ducked!"

Luke looked at the both of them, not saying a word. He took a deep breathe before bending down and cupping a handful of paint, he stood up and shot it all at both of them. "There, now we are even."

Lorelai smiled looking at the amount of paint that covered the both of them, his handful being more than the full amount of what they had done before he threw it. She reached over and grabbed the paint cup that was still in Rory's hand and filled it full before splashing it at him. "No one is ever even in a paint war." She said then Luke stared at her, clothes now full of paint. He reached down picking up his paint bucket and walked towards her. "Okay, Okay. We are even." She said, moving backwards away from him.

"You are never even in a paint war." He copied her words, still walking towards her.

"I was kidding about that, you can be even." He didn't stop. "We're even." She said bumping into the table behind her with nowhere left to go.

Luke stood in front of her and lifting the pal above her head, pouring out what was left inside. "Now, we are even."

Lorelai reached on top of her head where her bandana was and touched the small amount that had came out before looking at Luke. "There was barely anything in it!"

"I had already used most of it when Rory started throwing it at you, and my handful was basically the last of it."

"I was worried you were going to make me look like those people at the kids choice awards."

Luke leaned toward her and set the empty paint can on the table behind her, her breath hitched at how close he had gotten then he moved back. "I'm not that cruel."

She smiled then reached up to his neck, wiping the paint away with her thumb. "Not as cruel as me anyways, I would have done it."

Luke stared at her. "I don't think you could have done it either."

Rory glanced over at them and cleared her throat, they both looked back at her. "Are we going to get back to painting, it's getting kind of late."

Lorelai stepped past Luke awkwardly and back towards her spot. "Yeah, we should probably do that."

The clock ticked one o'clock in the morning as Luke, Lorelai and Rory sat on the floor of the diner, all glancing around the room at the freshly painted walls.

Lorelai leaned back on her elbows and let out a breath. "Man, that was a lot of work."

"I know, I didn't expect it to take that long." Rory said.

Luke chimed in. "It wouldn't have if we didn't have to redo the parts you threw paint at."

"You did most the damage with your handfuls of paint." Lorelai told him.

"It was one handful, and I got most of it on you two."

"Either way, it's a good thing we got so much paint."

Luke smiled, taking a sip of his beer and gazing around the room. "It does look nice though."

"It does at that."

Luke noticed a bit of different colors on his shelf and leaned forward to look at it before glancing back at both of them. "Did you two paint your initials on the bottom of my shelf?"

Lorelai grinned. "How do you know we did it?"

"What other LG and RG was in here helping me paint?"

Rory elbowed Lorelai. "I told you we should have wrote the letters backwards."

Luke shook his head and smiled at them. "I guess if I'm going to have anyone's initials on the diner I would want it to be those." He said, earning a smile from both girls.

"Should we clean up so we can get home and get some sleep?" Rory asked.

"We definitely need it after all that work." Lorelai said sitting up, Luke stood up quickly and gave them both a hand getting off the floor.

At home that night Lorelai tossed and turned in her bed, she thought after everything they did at the diner she would have zonked the second her head hit the pillow. However this had not been the case because she had already been home an hour and was still awake. She slide over from the middle of the bed to the left side, the side she had been sleeping on the last week while Luke was staying in her room. She glanced over at his side of the bed, his former side of the bed that is, and couldn't help but to feel like something was missing. She had never in her life shared a bed with a man and now it seemed almost impossible to not be sleeping beside him. She decided having some warm pop tarts might help so she climbed off her bed and started to head downstairs, when she got to the staircase she saw the light of the television flinching in the living room and assumed Luke might have fallen asleep with in on. When she got halfway down the stairs she saw Luke on the couch, propped up on his elbow watching television.

Luke heard her hit the last stair and glanced over. "Sorry, the tv didn't wake you, did it?"

"No, I couldn't even hear it upstairs."

"What are you doing up then?" Luke asked, sitting up on the couch and leaving one leg bent against the back cushions and putting the other on the floor.

"Just having some trouble sleeping, what are you still doing up?"

"Same." Luke said, they both looked at each other knowing the real reason neither of them could fall asleep. "You wanna watch some television? The stuff on is horrible but it's better than sitting in the dark, staring at the ceiling."

"Sure." Lorelai said and walked over to the couch, before he had time to move to give her more room she sat next to his leg and laid her back against him. Luke set his arm on the back of the couch and Lorelai sank her head onto his shoulder. They didn't mind the closeness between them, in fact it was relaxing to feel each other's heart rates beating through their chests. They both were immediately relaxed and while they tried to stay awake during the infomercial to see if you could get a second George Foreman grill for free if you called now they weren't able to, they both drifted into a comfortable sleep. Rory stepped out of her room to use the bathroom and walked into the living room when she noticed the television on, she looked over at the couch and saw Lorelai wrapped up in his arms, both fast asleep. She wondered if these two were ever going to get a hint that they belonged together, or if they would remain in denial for the rest of their lives. She reached down on the coffee table and grabbed the television remote, clicking it off before leaving the room.