Lorelai snuck out of the inn for the day without saying anything to anyone, not even Sookie. She couldn't tell anyone before she told Rory. While she was gathering her things from her office, Lorelai's cell phone buzzed, and her caller ID told her it was a call from Chilton. Everything stopped and she flipped the phone open immediately, hoping and praying that her child was safe. At the same moment. Luke walked into her office, and the fear in her eyes struck a chord somewhere in his heart that he didn't know was possible. He crossed the room in an instant, his eyes begging for answers to the questions in hers.

"Rory's school," she mouthed, and after a moment, far too long of a moment, she let out a sigh of relief, hanging up the phone. "They're letting them out early, too much snow. It was an automated phone call… We never got one of those from Stars Hollow High, they just let the kids go and Rory would walk home… Scared me a little."

"Let's go get her."

"You want to drive in this?" She said, gesturing to the fat, fluffy flakes that were falling just outside her window.

"After the scare you just gave me, I'd like to make sure she gets home safe myself."

"Sorry. Scared me too."

"I know it did," he told her, squeezing her still-gloved left hand. "You all set here?"

"Yeah, let's go." She said, not releasing his hand as they walked out of the inn. "I should probably bring the jeep home first. I don't want it to get stuck here in the snow."

"Call Rory, too. Make sure she doesn't get on the bus."

"Oh, yeah, that'd be bad."

"Alright, so I'll see you at home then." He said, not making a move.

"Yeah," She said, also not moving.

"Cars… we need cars to drive," he said, his focus obviously elsewhere. Smiling, Lorelai rolled forward onto her tiptoes to kiss him.

"Luke?"

"Yeah."

"We're getting married," she reminded him, smiling.

"Yeah, we are." He smiled back at her.

"Luke. Married..You and me...Luke-table-for-one-Danes and Lorelai-I'm-sorry-can-I-get-an-industrial-forklift-for-my-emotional-baggage-Gilmore are getting married."

"Does that, uh… are you… scared? Because we could take a minute to-"

"No."

"Good," he smiled at her.

"So… what do we do now?"

"Let's go get Rory."

"I don't want to get in the car without you," She pouted.

Luke ran his thumb over her gloved ring finger, pausing as he felt the stone jut out against the yarn. "You have the rest of your life to annoy me in the car," he told her softly. "We've just got to get the Jeep home."

"You're going to have to wear one too, you know."

"What?" He asked her, confused.

"A ring. You'll get one too. That's how this whole thing works."

"Yeah, I will."

"You've never been much of a jewelry-wearing kind of guy."

"Yeah, well, I think this is a pretty good exception." He told her, smiling before he kissed her cheek, which was rosy from the cold.

"The best exception I can think of."

"Get in you car before we get frostbite, crazy lady."

Lorelai finally heeded his advice, smiling the whole way to her car and following Luke out of the parking lot and back to their home. Their home. Of course, it was their home before they'd been engaged, but now it was their forever-home. It wasn't the home she invited her boyfriend into, it was the home she shared with her fiance, and soon, her husband. She stepped out of the Jeep, still smiling.

"If I had known I could make you this happy with a ring, I would've proposed a long time ago." He teased as she climbed into the truck.

"You can't possibly have thought that it wouldn't make me happy. And you wouldn't have proposed any sooner."

"What makes you so sure I wouldn't do it sooner?"

"Because that's not who you are, Luke. You think things through, you make calculations, you think, you measure. You don't dive in headfirst, you're the definition of 'slow and steady wins the race.'"

"There was nothing calculated about falling in love with you, Lorelai Gilmore. It's always been you. From the first moment I met you, it's always been you. I dove in headfirst, although I can't pretend it was through any choice of my own."

"Luke… If Dean hadn't ever hurt Rory… do you think you ever would've asked me out? If we hadn't kissed that day in the hospital?"

"Would you have broken it off with Max?"

"What?"

"If Dean hadn't laid a hand on her… if he hadn't kept that from you," Luke said, his jaw tightening due to his anger at that situation, which still frustrated him when he thought about it. "Would you still have married him?"

"I never loved him. I loved that he seemed to love me and Rory, and God, I wanted to love him, but I never did… but I still might have married him. And I hate that that's true… That's not the kind of woman I am. I don't just get married because I want to wear a pretty dress and because I'm a woman of a certain age. That's not me. I might have married him, but it never would've lasted."

"It would've just about killed me, but I would've stayed away if you'd married Max. I want you happy, Lorelai. More than I want to be your husband and Rory's stepfather, I want to be the man who makes the two of you happy. I would've stepped back, filled your coffee cups, and made sure you were happy."

Lorelai felt her heart break because she knew he was telling the truth. He would've stayed silent about his feelings for her for the rest of his life if it kept her happy. "That kills me," she told him, no longer smiling. "Thinking about that… Thinking about a life without you in it… I could never be truly happy that way. I could make do, and be happy enough, but nothing could make me happy the way that you do." She told him, her voice breaking.

"Hey, hey," he said softly, reaching for her hand. "You've got me, okay? I'm right here, and I'm not going anywhere. That's kind of what I was trying to tell you with the ring," he joked, and she chuckled a little through her tears. "You're not supposed to be upset today. Today's a good day. Today's the first day that I get to call you my fiance."

"You said husband earlier… You called yourself my husband… I really, really liked that." She told him, smiling again, although there were unshed tears still settled in the corners of her eyes.

"I really, really like that too," he told her softly, squeezing her hand.