A/N: Hi! So, this thing called 'real life'" is being getting in my way a lot lately, troublesome thing. This ones Nicole because it gives me an excuse to add some Luke/Lorelai bits in too this one was suggested by Iscah Mckrea and Jarnac50! Hope you like it; sorry if some things are a little OOC I don't know and don't
wanna know Nicole very well! Enjoy!

Chapter 9: Nicole Leahy.

It was a completely normal day for Luke, business in the diner was good, Jess and Rory were back in Philadelphia (He'd made it clear to Jess that he wanted him to call as soon as they got back to let them know they got back okay, he ouldn't have a repeat of when he sent him back to New York to Liz and left him tones of messages with no reply for months) and Lorelai, his beautiful Wife, was sitting at the counter rambling about her day at the inn and what new arguments Michel and Sookie had gotten into, resulting in being settled by an arm wrestle (which Sookie won, as usual). There was nowhere else he wanted to be.

Then he got the call.

"Hello? Is this Luke Danes?" whoever was on the other line had said.

"Yes, can I help you?" He suddenly thought of Jess and Rory, they hadn't called yet and the call sounded official. Lorelai must of sensed it too because she stopped talking and looked up from her coffee, concern written all over her face.

"My name's Anna Milton, I'm a friend of Nicole, you know, you're ex… wife?"

"Yeah, is something wrong?" His concern dimmed slightly when he realized Jess and Rory were probably fine but then he noted the tremble in the woman's voice and went straight back to worry.

"Well, um, she's hurt. Very hurt, and her parents died in a car crash a few years ago and no one could locate any other family so she asked me to call you because she couldn't think of anyone else, we're at Sacred Heart Hospital. Do you think you can come down please? Soon? She really needs someone."

Luke thought for a minute and looked up at Lorelai. She had relaxed after getting the right idea that it wasn't about Jess and/or Rory. She was sipping her coffee happily.

"Um, I'll have to call you back, I'll call you in 5 minutes, okay?"

"Sure, just call me back on this number. Thanks, bye." Anna hung up before Luke could reply.

"So? What was that about?" Lorelai asked.

"Um, you remember Nicole?" He knew she would, he was just trying to delay asking, afraid of how she might react.

"Yeah, 'course I do. Why?" She looked puzzled but still chirpy.

"Well, she's hurt, badly, she's at a hospital um… Sacred Heart, and that was her friend, Anna, and she said they can't find any family and her parents are dead and Nicole asked her if she'd call me so I can come down for some reason, not quite sure why. I wanted to make sure you were okay with it before I went, so I told her I'd call her back," He explained in a rush. Lorelai just looked… worried?

"Sure it's okay with me. Why wouldn't it be?" Luke just shrugged in response.

"So, what happened? Is she okay?" Lorelai asked, she sounded genuinely concerned. He felt kind of stupid that he thought she'd be mad. She was an amazingly nice person; of course she'd be concerned.

"Oh, um, I didn't even ask," He felt kind of guilty now.

You should probably call Annie back," Lorelai reminded him.

"Oh, yeah, Anna,"

"What?"

"Its… Anna, not Annie," He corrected.

"Oh sorry, my bad," she smiled cheekily.

Luke smiled back and picked up the phone.

"Nicole Leahy had been attacked and severely injured by her ex boyfriend who she had broken up with the previous day. The tests also show signs of drug use. We concluded that this was not forced and was taken with alcohol a considerable time before the attack; her friends say this has been normal for her for a long time," Dr. M. Collins recited; it sounded like it had been memorized from a script but he still seemed nice. He continued on about her life style, Luke couldn't believe it. How could she go so downhill? She was doing great last time he saw her.

A few minutes later Dr. Collins came back after checking if she was awake and gave Luke permission to go in and see her.

"Hey, Luke, nice to see ya again," Her voice sounded gravely but still polite.

"Yeah, you too… not exactly in these circumstances but, still…" He tried to make a joke out of it but wasn't very good at it. He needed Lorelai here; she'd do a much better job than him.

They stood (or rather, he stood, she was propped up in her hospital bed) in awkward silence for a while, and then Nicole
spoke up.

"I miss you!" She blurted out then looked shocked as if she didn't expect it to come out, then that turned to embarrassment.

Luke stared at her in shock. Had she really just said that?

"Sorry, I don't think I heard you right. What did you say?" He tried to sound calm incase what she really said wasn't a big deal like… I miss… blue! Maybe she had repainted lately and missed having her walls blue… he knew it was a long shot.

"I. Miss. You." She said it slowly, like she was teaching a child to speak.

"You. Miss. Me?" Now he sounded like he was just learning to read and was attempting a Shakespearian novel.

"Yes! Please, my life has been crap without you! I need you back!" she sounded like she was begging. Luke couldn't quite get his head around what she was saying; they hadn't seen each other in at least 4 years! Why didn't she call before?

Nicole was pleading him with her eyes to say something. He was just starting to try and think of something to say when a miracle happened! His cell phone rang! He'd never been so happy to hear the annoying little ring tone, which Lorelai keeps insisting he changes, in his life!

"Oh, I um have to take this, I'll be back in a sec," He excused himself, ready to worship whoever was on the other
line. He looked down at the caller ID to see who would become his new God/Goddess.

Jess.

He'd never been so happy to see his nephew's name! (Partly because every time he saw it up until a few years ago he had assumed he needed bailing out of jail or money… or an alibi. Up until he truly started to believe he'd changed.)

"You are my new God! You want me to sacrifice virgins for you or will sheep do?" He said as soon as he pressed 'accept call', not waiting for Jess to even say 'hi'.

"Actually, I was thinking more along the lines of goats and dogs," Luke could hear the smirk in his voice. He laughed and tried to get the conversation off sacrifice and to something more… normal.

"So, you just saved me from most possibly the most horribly awkward, tricky conversation I have even had," He told
him.

"Really? What about and with who?" He asked, suddenly very interested. Luke smiled to himself at his nephew's child-like curiosity but it quickly vanished as he remembered what Nicole had just said.

"You remember Nicole?" He asked, hoping he'd say yes so he wouldn't have to explain.

"Of course," he said as if he never forgot anything and was very proud of himself which Luke knew for a fact was completely untrue because he forgot things constantly, it'd be a miracle if he did go a whole day without forgetting something. Once he'd come to stay in Stars Hollow in the apartment above the diner and he'd woke up the next morning
confused because he thought he was still in Philadelphia. Rory told Lorelai, who told Luke. Luke smiled again at the memory.

"Well," It went away again. "She's in the hospital, she got beat up and there's some stuff about drugs and alcohol and well… she said she misses me and she wants me to take her back," There was silence on the other end of the line. Luke assumed Jess was just thinking about it. He always went to Jess when he wanted a second opinion or if he wasn't sure about something or needed advice and Jess did the same with Luke.

"Well, your with Lorelai," Now he was just stating the obvious. He did that sometimes when he was trying to process something.

"Yes, I'm aware of that,"

"Well, you have to tell her," He replied, being vague, which again he sometimes did. He'd come up with something better in a minute or so; it was just Jess' way of filling the awkward silence until he thought of some proper advice. They both hated awkward silences.

"What, tell Lorelai that Nicole wants me back or tell Nicole I'm with Lorelai?" He tried to get Jess to clarify.

There was silence for a second before Jess spoke up. "Tell Nicole that your with Lorelai and, if you need to or you
think she deserves to know, then tell Lorelai Nicole wants you back but make sure you say straight after that you said 'no' to Nicole, don't give her chance to speak or she'll assume your considering going back to her," Wow, that was pretty good, he sometimes gets an outline of an idea straight away then adds to it in more detail later on, he was really good at this.

"Crap! I forgot, sorry! I'll do it in a minute! Yeah! Yes! Okay, chill, don't have a heart-attack!" He heard Jess shout to someone. Told you he always forgot something. "You're not considering going back to Nicole are you?" He said after a moment's consideration.

"Of course not!"

"Okay, okay, just checking," He said defensively. "Good. You and Lorelai belong together, not sure if I've ever told you this before but I'm glad you both finally realized how madly in love you both are,"

"Shut up," He said, he was smiling though and Jess could tell.

"Whatever, just stating the obvious, don't shoot the messenger!" Luke could hear him smirking too.

They talked for a while about Jess and Rory's trip back, Luke asked if everything went okay, Jess said yeah and that he
didn't have to ask that every time they went form Stars Hollow to Philadelphia or vise versa but Luke insisted he liked making sure, to which Jess had given up. He secretly appreciated the fact that Luke cared but he'd never tell him or
anyone else that.

After about half an hour Jess said he had to go, something work related about the thing he forgot to do that Luke didn't quite understand but nodded along to anyway (figuratively speaking obviously because Jess couldn't see him), Luke made Jess promise to get Rory to call Lorelai (Lorelai had asked him to, in case Jess called while Luke was out and not with her) and to call if he or Rory needed anything, Jess told Luke to call if he needed anymore help. They exchanged goodbyes and Luke realized he now had to go back to Nicole's room. He took Jess' advice and told her he was with Lorelai.

She took it pretty well.

She was discharged from hospital a week later. She told Luke she was scared to go back to her apartment alone, incase her ex showed up again, and asked if she could stay with him, to which he agreed to be nice. When he told Lorelai, she took it well at the start, he had taken Jess' advice and not given her time to talk in between 'Nicole said she wanted me
back' and 'but I said no'. But when he said 'She'll be staying in the apartment above the diner for a while,' she freaked.

"WHAT?" She had screamed at him. "How can you let the woman who wants to steal you stay above the apartment?"

"Well, its not like I'll be there. Plus, she knows I'm with you so she's not going to try." He spoke softly; if he raised his voice he might make it worse.

She calmed down slightly, "Okay, I guess, if she knows we're together and you'll be staying at the house anyway, it's not
as bad as it could be," Lorelai continued drinking her coffee.

Nicole came to the Diner the next day and Lorelai acted like she didn't know about her wanting her Husband, which Luke
thought was very graceful of her and made him, if possible, love her even more.

He left Nicole there for the night and when he came back in the morning to open up the diner she shouted down to him and asked him if she could come help her with something.

He went up and asked if she was okay to which she replied, "I'm fine, thanks," she sounded better. Luke stood awkwardly for a moment, not quite sure what to say so he settled for, "Okay, then why did you ask me to come up here?"

"Well, it's over a week since I told you how I feel so I was wondering if you've had enough time to think it over yet?" She asked calmly

"Nicole, I was never going to think it over. I'm with Lorelai, I'm happy. I'm sorry things didn't go according to plan for you but that's your problem. I'm sorry," They both went silent after that, but Nicole spoke up again.

"But, I can be so much better than her! She depends on you too much!"

"I like having someone depend on me!"

"She's too bubbly!"

"I think it's cute."

"She cheated on you!"

Luke stopped, "How did you know about that?"

"Christopher Hayden told me before his… unfortunate death," She stated plainly.

"She was upset, she thought we were over!" He was getting mad now.

Nicole jumped off the bed and came up to him until he was stood inches away, Luke tried not to flinch.

"She's not right for you, I am," She whispered in his ear.

Luke stormed out and left her.

The next week she stayed she was usually asleep when Luke came up so he tried to be quiet, she woke up screaming every night. When Luke spoke to her about it she said she was having nightmares about her ex (the sock guy) coming after her. She said it was like he was torturing her, even in her dreams! Luke told Lorelai and she bought some sleeping pills for her that she made sure were okay to have with the doctor-prescribed pills she already was taking, Luke didn't ask her to but that just shows how amazing she is.

I was two weeks after she was discharged from hospital and one week after she tried to get Luke back so she figured it was time to try again, maybe he'd had more time to think about it and realized she was the one for him, not Lorelai.

"Luke, please!" She was literally begging now, kneeling on the floor in front of him. She could tell that made him uncomfortable but she didn't care. She just wanted him back!

He refused again and just walked out the apartment again.

That night, she was so depressed; she realized there was no way Luke would take a worthless, pathetic child like her back. She couldn't sleep, didn't want to, so she wondered round out of idle curiosity. She searched through drawers of papers and found a box in the empty wardrobe full of what looked like random stuff to her. There were loads of newspaper articles, all written by someone named Rory Gilmore. She wondered if she was related to Lorelai, she vaguely recognized the name but gave up trying to remember and moved on. The was a few books, all by the same author, Jess
Mariano, that sounded familiar too, but, again, she had no idea where from. There was also a stack of photos in a pouch. Luke and Lorelai's wedding. There were pictures of Luke and Lorelai dancing, kissing, and cutting the cake. They looked so happy. She felt sort of guilty trying to ruin this for them both, not just Lorelai, she hadn't thought of it effecting Luke. There were also other people too. A young girl in her early 20s with big blue eyes, just like Lorelai's, and long dark brown hair, she was smiling, she had a beautiful smile. She was wearing a knee-length, Strapy sleeved, blue dress that matched her eyes. There was also a boy holding her hand. He was about the same age as her, early 20s, he had shortish black hair, kind of messy, but it seemed to suit him, he had a black suit with a white shirt and black tie on. His eyes were big and dark brown. They both looked familiar but she couldn't tell where she knew them from. They looked close to Luke, so she must have met them before all the drugs and alcohol destroyed her mind. This made her even sadder, they looked nice and she wished she could remember them and everyone else in the pictures, but she couldn't.

She put the box back in the wardrobe and closed it. She wondered into the kitchen next, there were still a few things that Luke hadn't bothered taking to Lorelai's with him. A few forks he must have not noticed, spoons, butter knives, cheese-grater, spatula, pots and pans and one huge butcher's knife. Nicole picked it up and fiddled with it as she thought back to how she was before she met Luke, how she was while she was with him and after she left him.

She sat there for about half an hour before looking back at the knife, as if she'd forgotten it was there. It suddenly looked very friendly.

She raised it to her wrist and decidedit was time to ended all her suffering…

A/N: Well? What do you think? Please review. Thanks to Jarnac50 for the suggestion of how to kill her,
hope it's okay! xx