Luke Danes

Lorelai opened the album and the third page, between the page of his mother's photos and the page with Liz' photos, was filled with pictures of Luke. She turned to him, pointed to the page, and handed him the album. "You are so busted. You skipped your page. On purpose, no less. Oh, are you going to get it now, buddy."

Rory giggled. "Look at your hair! Luke, this is too funny. I'm resisting the urge to laugh until my sides hurt…"

"See, I knew this was coming, and that's why I decided to conveniently avoid any stories regarding this page," Luke insisted.

Lorelai pointed to a picture of Luke in a hockey uniform that must have been taken when Luke was still in grade school. "You just played every sport, didn't you? You did baseball and hockey, but how about some of the lesser known sports that get no love at all? Curling? How about chess?"

"I didn't play curling. Or chess, which was then considered a sport at Stars Hollow elementary school," Luke offered. "And I don't see what the big deal is about you looking at my page. You know what I look like!"

Rory sighed. "It's the principle of it, Luke. You spilled the beans on everyone else, time to give us your story."

"You know all about me," Luke protested.

Lorelai sighed. "Just tell us already. Tell us about this picture of you… and Bootsy. Tell us the deal with that beef you two have going dating back to when you were in diapers."

"Do I really have to tell this story again?"

"Yes," Rory replied. "You're a good storyteller, and plus, I've only heard Bootsy's side of things. Please?"

Luke consented. "Fine. I'll tell you the story. We were in first grade, and Bootsy swears that he was innocent, but he made the mistake of ruining my clay handprint."

"Ooh, this sounds like it got intense," Lorelai mused.

"He really did ruin my handprint," Luke insisted. "No matter how much he denies it, you will both know it's true."

As Luke stood in line to make his Mother's Day clay hand print, Bootsy tapped Luke on the shoulder. Luke turned around to find Bootsy acting completely normal. "Why did you just tap me?" Luke asked.

"I didn't, now shut up and make your stupid hand print!" Bootsy replied.

"No, you shut up!" Luke replied.

Bootsy laughed. "Yeah, that's going to make me really scared. You're such a baby."

"Stupid head," Luke replied. "I can beat you up, you know."

"No you can't! I'll beat you up first!" Bootsy shot back, crossing his arms.

"We can't beat each other up in here! We're just going to have to sit on the bench in the hallway until we stop. We have to beat each other up after school," Luke replied, trying to think rationally.

Bootsy shook his head. "Nah. You're not worth my time."

Luke sat at the table to paint his clay hand print, and as the teacher turned to get more paint, Bootsy reached across and drew a black stripe across Luke's hand print. Luke was stunned. "Bootsy!" he shouted.

"Boys, boys, what's wrong here?" Luke's teacher asked.

"Mrs. Michaels, Luke's mad because he messed up his hand print and I didn't. He's pretending I did it," Bootsy replied.

"I am tired of you two fighting. Luke, sit over here, please," Mrs. Michaels replied.

Luke grumbled as he picked up his now black hand print and sat next to the teacher.

Lorelai pouted. "Poor Luke! You were the kid that got picked on until you fought back, and when you finally fought back, you got in trouble. That must have been a terrible, terrible experience! Are you still haunted by this?"

"It wasn't that big of a deal, but basically, Bootsy and I haven't gotten along since then. I hold nothing against him, but I get annoyed when he says he didn't do anything, because, let's face it, we all did something stupid as kids… but we admit to it as adults. He's in denial," Luke continued, his speech slowly becoming a rant.

"I see how it is now," Lorelai replied. "So you were an athletic kid. You liked Star Trek and Star Wars. And other than that, I don't know much about you as a kid."

Luke sighed. "There's really not much else to know."

"I think there are lots of things you could tell us, Luke," Rory insisted. She gave him a small smile as he turned to face her. "Sorry, I had to side with Mom this time, I haven't been sticking up for her since I got here. Fair is fair."

"That's okay, Rory, he understands," Lorelai teased. She pointed to a picture of Luke when he was four or five. "That's a cute picture of you. Look at you and your missing tooth."

"Yeah, Liz actually knocked two of my baby teeth out before they should have been knocked out," Luke recalled. "I was sitting on the front porch and Liz was playing soccer with my dad. I decided I wanted to play, and by some freak accident I ended up getting kicked in the face. I don't even remember how I got kicked. I just did."

Rory smiled. "I can picture that happening. And freak accidents are the best because they make the best stories."

"And you had a dog? How come I never knew this?" Lorelai gasped.

Luke leaned over, looking at the picture Lorelai pointed out. He was sitting in the grass in front of his house, petting a beagle who sat to his right, panting. "That was my dog. Well, it was the family dog, but he actually liked me. His name was Sampson and he was a good dog. I liked him a lot. And one day, I was walking home from school, I was about nine or ten. It was right after my mom passed away. Liz was staying over Crazy Carrie's house that night, so she walked home earlier. Anyway, I was walking home from school, and Sampson had gotten out. He ran into the street when he saw me, and then a truck ran over him."

Lorelai's eyes widened. "Oh, Luke, that's terrible! Your mom had just passed away, then you witnessed your dog get run over?"

He nodded. "And I was really beat up about it, too. And I promised myself I'd never get another dog, so nothing bad would happen to it. I was too afraid, I guess. But as I got older, and opened the diner, a dog was out of the question anyway."

Lorelai grinned. "Until Paul Anka," she said, motioning to the sleeping dog who sat at the edge of the staircase.

"Until Paul Anka," Luke said with a sigh.

Rory smiled. "Okay, now we need another Luke story. You've got dozens, I can tell. I want to hear a really good story."

"Like what?" Luke asked.

Rory thought for a moment. "This is harder than I thought. How about… the story of… when you… uh… Mom, do you have a story you want to hear more about?"

Lorelai grinned. "Why, yes, I just might. I'm thinking that we should hear the story of when Luke met our little Rory?"

"That's not a childhood Luke story," Rory replied.

"Still, I want to hear him tell it," Lorelai insisted. "Come on, Luke."

"Okay," Luke consented. "It wasn't long after I met you, Lorelai, it was probably two or three days after that. You two came into the diner."

As Luke took Kirk's order, he heard the bells ring on the door again. He turned to look at who it was. There was Lorelai, and the girl that had to be her daughter. Luke knew they'd be coming back, but he didn't know when. Lorelai found a table and seated herself there while Luke took Kirk's order. When Luke was finished, he walked over to Lorelai.

"Welcome back," he said with a smile. "What can I get for you two?"

Rory looked at Lorelai. "You've been in here before, you know what's good. You can order for me."

Lorelai grinned. "Two cheeseburgers, extra cheese, and an order of chili fries, extra chili. I'll have a coffee, Rory will have a root beer. This is my daughter Rory, by the way."

Luke smiled. "Mia told me about you. Nice to meet you."

"It's nice to meet you too. Are you Luke, or are you Duke? Mom says you're Duke, but the sign says 'Luke's'. Which is it?" Rory questioned.

Luke sighed. "Luke," he replied.

"Okay, got it, thanks. Told you, Mom," Rory said.

Lorelai shook her head. "He's lying to you, Rory. He told me his name was Duke!"

Luke walked away, allowing the girls time to debate before he brought them their order.

Rory laughed. "You were so insistent that his name was Duke," she teased.

"With a coffee withdrawal, everything's blurry and everyone's words sound slurred. How was I supposed to know?" Lorelai said, trying to defend herself.

"But he corrected you about six million times and you still called him Duke, that's where the problem lies," Rory insisted.

Lorelai rolled her eyes. "No, he corrected me once. When he corrected me, I apologized profusely and called him 'Luke'."

Rory shook her head. "I think you made that one up. Or you must have had a dream about it, because it definitely didn't happen in real life."

Luke agreed. "I agree with you, it's true. You called me 'Duke' to annoy me."

"Well, my evil master plan must have worked, then!" Lorelai said.