Disclaimer: I do not own Gilmore Girls. I do own this fic.

Kudos to Amy Sherman-Palladino and Five for Fighting

Chapter 11—Something About You

Baby there's something about you that / I can hold on to / I'm going to hold on to that / I never thought I would win / I never thought much about that. / (It's been a long time coming.) / I never stopped to begin / Thinking about the process. / (It's been a long time coming.)

"Coffee, coffee, coffee, coffee, coffee!" chattered Lorelai as she ran up to the small booth where Luke was selling the hot beverage to the other freezing citizens of Stars Hollow. Taylor, in all his wisdom, had decided that for New Year's there should be yet another winter carnival, which everyone at the town meeting (but Luke) had agreed was a marvelous idea but were now freezing and miserable.

"You sure you need it?" he asked. "You look pretty wired already."

"N-no, it's s-s-so c-cold!" she said, stuttering for emphasis.

"You need rehab."

"No, I need biscotti!" Lorelai teased him as she walked away.

"You gotta pay for that," he called after her.

She smiled sweetly and came back to the booth. Instead of giving him the money, however, Lorelai leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek. "And there's plenty more where that came from, big boy," she flirted and left to find Rory.

"Ooh, where did you get that?" Rory asked as Lorelai joined her and Lane.

"Luke's selling it," she told her only daughter.

"I might have to get some in a minute." Rory stamped her feet and shrugged deep inside her heavy coat. "What was Taylor thinking?"

"The sad thing is that all of the 'entertainment' that he got for this had to cancel," Lane informed the Gilmore girls. "The band has bronchitis, the parents of Miss Patty's dance students protested because of the cold, and the magician got caught in a snowstorm back in New Hampshire."

"Aw, there was going to be a magician?" asked Lorelai. "No fair."

"So if there's no entertainment," Rory asked, "What are we doing here?"

"Counting down to midnight," Lane said.

"That's in, like, 3 hours."

"Welcome home, Rory," Lane laughed.

"Okay, the boys are at your mom's," Zack announced as he and Brian showed up, "and she's already got them ready for bed, and we can pick them up any time tomorrow morning."

"Thank God," Lane said as her husband wrapped his arms around her. She buried herself close to his chest and wrapped his coat around her as well. "Oh, so much warmer," she sighed.

"Mrs. Kim is taking care of Steve and Kwan?" Rory asked. "Don't you want them to celebrate the New Year with everyone?"

"Rory, they're three," Lane explained. "And while I would love nothing more than disregard everything my mother says about raising my kids, I would much rather relinquish them to her tonight then have to deal with them tomorrow after being up all night long."

"Ah, welcome to the wonderful world of parenting," Lorelai said.

Rory leaned past Lane and Zack, and asked, "Brian, you okay?"

"No," he moaned. He was rubbing his shoulder and grimacing in pain.

"Oh, don't mind him," Zack said. "Kwan just totally beat his ass."

"I think he pulled my arm out of socket," Brian whined.

"Dude, he's just a kid," Zack told him. "Just ignore him."

"He's out to get me. Both of them."

"Oh, I've missed this," Rory said with a laugh.

"It has been too long, Rory," Lane agreed. Her smile faded and she whispered, "Is he here yet?"

Rory looked down the street toward Luke's Diner. There was a light on in the upstairs apartment. "Yeah," she said.

"Who?" asked Brian.

"Jess," Zack told him.

"Who's Jess?"

"Rory's ex-boyfriend. Pay attention."

"You mean the guy she stole the yacht with?"

"No, dude, the other dude, Luke's nephew."

"Luke has a nephew?"

"Dude, do you live in your own world?" Zach asked. "You need to spend more time with real people than on the internet."

"Hey, just because I like fanfiction doesn't mean that I don't live in the real world."

"Dude, don't tell people that."

"Oh, I really missed this," Rory said.

"Hey, I'm going to go hang out with Luke," Lorelai told her daughter. She paused and asked, "Are you going to be okay? I mean, if you-know-who shows up?"

"I miss Harry Potter," Brian lamented.

"Well, maybe you can write a fanfic later," Zack comforted him.

"Yeah," Rory said, raising her chin in the air, "I'll be fine. I've got Lane and I've got Zack. He wouldn't dare mess with me tonight." She paused, and then added with a roll of her eyes, "And I've got Brian, too."

"Okay," Lorelai said. She left the four friends and walked back to Luke's booth.

"I'm not selling you another cup," he said when he saw her.

"I know," she said. Lorelai reached for a new Styrofoam cup and helped herself.

"Lorelai, what did I just say?"

"That you weren't going to sell me another cup?" she said, taking a sip. "Ah, nothing tastes better than free coffee."

"Why do I put up with you?" he asked.

"Because you love me," she pouted and took another sip.

Luke almost smiled but didn't say anything and kept serving the other customers. Lorelai came behind the booth and sat down on one of the two stools behind the booth.

"So, how is he?" she asked.

"Jess? He's fine," Luke said, "Well, I guess he's fine."

"What happened? What did you find out?"

"He's, uh, apparently working on a second novel, and his friends down at that publishing house want him to take some time off to finish it."

"What about the girlfriend? Is he really torn up about that?"

"I can't tell," Luke said, "You know how Jess is. Keeps his personal life to himself. I'm surprised he even told me what he did."

"Sounds like he was just trying to be honest with you."

"Yeah," Luke paused. He swallowed and said, "He's, uh, going to work at the diner."

"What?" asked Lorelai.

"Yeah, he asked if he could work at the diner full time. You know, so he can have some sort of income while he writes this thing."

"Right, right," Lorelai said. "Wow, so weird, huh?"

"What?"

"Having Jess live here again. Hey, have you told Taylor? Because if you haven't, I so want to be there when you do. Can you imagine the look on his face?"

"I'm more concerned about Rory's reaction," Luke admitted.

"She'll be fine," Lorelai said. "She's a big girl. Rory can take care of herself."

"You really believe that?"

"I'm trying to."

"I guess it helps that she doesn't live here anymore," Luke mused. "I mean, she goes back to Boston Sunday night, right? So she won't have to put up with him if they

start bugging each other."

"Yeah," Lorelai said sadly, "Although I kinda wished we could all just go back in time when the kids were in high school and making out on the couch."

"Never thought I'd hear you say that," Luke said, raising an eyebrow in surprise.

"Yeah, well, this whole week has made me very nostalgic."

Lorelai sat in silence while Luke continued to serve coffee. In a few minutes, April arrived with more thermoses of freshly brewed java. "Here you go, Dad," she said, setting them on the table.

"Thanks, April," he said, "Hey, do you mind if I take off for awhile?"

"You want me to watch the booth?"

"Yeah, that would be great if you could."

"Sure, no problem," April sat down on the other stool.

"Thanks," Luke said. "Lorelai, would you—" He motioned her to follow him, and she did. They walked away from the square, which was still crowded even though there was nothing to do. Kirk had gotten up in the gazebo and was attempting to serenade the crowd with karaoke. Lorelai was tempted to drag Luke over there so that they could spend their time mocking Kirk, but she sensed that he wanted to talk about something important.

When they were a safe distance away from the square, safe in the sense that they would not be overheard, Luke turned and faced her.

"Look," he began, "I'm not sure if I should say anything to you about this, and I want you to know that if you don't feel good about it, I'm willing to accept that. I just—

I've been thinking a lot lately, and I—oh, boy, I just have to say something, and I know this might not be the most romantic place, or the best time—I was going to wait until midnight, you know when all the fireworks would be going off—that is, if Taylor still plans on shooting off the fireworks—"

"Whoa, whoa, Luke, slow down," Lorelai said. "I think that's the most you have ever said to me at once." She paused, looked him straight in the eye and asked, "Luke, did you have coffee?"

Luke sighed and dropped to his knees on the cold ground.

"Luke, what are you—"

"Lorelai Victoria Gilmore," he said, "Will you marry me?"