A/N: Glad some folks are getting a kick out of this. Thanks for the reviews :)

(For disclaimer, etc. - see Part 1)

Part 3 of 3

Luke turned away fast and Lorelai spun around to see Lane standing in Rory's bedroom doorway, staring in shock. She was more than a little surprised herself, and not just by the sight of her daughter's BFF.

"I'm sorry, I was waiting for Rory," Lane said fast. "I'll just go back into her room and I won't come back out, I promise."

Before Lorelai could find words to say anything at all in response, the poor girl was gone and loud music emanated from Rory's room. If it had been any other band, she might just have left Lane to her own devices a while longer, so she could figure out what the hell just almost happened with Luke, but it was The Cure.

"I know that you're not exactly a music buff," she said, turning to glance at the poor bewildered man standing awkwardly by her stove, "but that sound you're hearing is Robert Smith and it means a full-on teenage girl crisis is happening."

She knew he would get it. Luke was kind of great like that. He put up with a lot of Lorelai's crap over the years and she knew it, but when it came to Rory, he was even more indulgent. Sure, this was actually Lane instead, but still, a teen girl crisis was a teen girl crisis, and if Lorelai said she had to deal, she believed Luke would be understanding of that. As always, he did not let her down.

"You go," he encouraged her, gesturing towards Rory's room. "I should probably be heading out anyway," he added, shaking his head as he moved to go by her.

Lorelai all but threw herself, none too gracefully, into his path, immediately wondering what she had been thinking when she found herself practically pressed up against his chest for the second time in five minutes.

"Don't go," she urged him. "I mean, we were making coffee and tea and... just don't leave yet, please?"

The truth was, she didn't really know what she was asking him to stay for, but if he left, whatever had been happening before Lane put in an appearance might just be lost into the ether like it never occurred at all. All Lorelai really knew for sure was that she did not want that to happen. She needed a chance to process, to discuss, maybe just to pick up where they left off, but Luke had to want that too or it simply didn't work. The problem was, no matter how well she knew Luke, Lorelai was never good at being able to tell what he was thinking.

"Sure," he said after a while. "You go help with the crisis, I'll finish up the tea and coffee," he offered, nodding his head.

"Okay then." Lorelai sighed with more relief than she expected to feel, finally tearing herself away and heading for Rory's room.

Inside, she found Lane lying on the bed in the dark, music blaring yet. Flipping on the lights and turning off the music, Lorelai made sure to close the door behind her before she got deep into teen girl drama.

"I'm sorry," said Lane immediately, sitting up on the edge of the bed. "I don't know exactly what I interrupted, but it was clearly something. When did you start seeing Luke?" she checked then.

"I'm not seeing Luke," Lorelai insisted, shaking her head. "That was just... Doesn't matter," she said then, sitting down beside Lane. "What's going on?"

After establishing that Rory was stuck in Hartford with the grandparents and wouldn't be coming back tonight, Lorelai stepped into the breach as Lane's gal pal, willing to listen to whatever problem she was having and give any good advice she could conjure.

It wasn't too tough, as it turned out. An embarrassing incident involving touching a boy's hair seemed huge when you were seventeen, but in the grand scheme of things, most people bounced back. As Lorelai was quick to point out, she made worse errors of judgement in her own high school career.

"Everybody screws up, Lane. That's what happens," she told her kindly. "It's what you do with the screw-ups, it's how you handle the experience, that's what you should judge yourself by. I have a great life and an amazing kid. I took a detour, but I ended up some place good."

It seemed to make her feel better, which was great, but Lorelai wasn't just trying to be nice. She absolutely meant what she said, that her life had turned out in a way she never could've expected, but that she really had no regrets at all. With Rory and their home and her job at the inn and everything, what else could she possibly ask for?

It was strange when Lorelai posed that question in her own mind that her eyes wandered to the door and she seriously considered the man waiting for her on the other side.

"So, you and Luke, huh?" said Lane with a look. "I mean, I always figured someday that was going to happen but-"

"Uh, hold on a second," Lorelai jumped in, shaking her head. "You always figured what now?"

"You and Luke," Lane repeated, staring at her like she was the one being weird. "It's been pretty obvious for a while that you guys are close and, well, I know he's not actually Rory's dad or anything, but he always acts like he wouldn't mind if he were, and the two of you, you're always extra flirty with him and he's so starry eyed sometimes when he looks at you."

Lorelai felt her eyes get so wide she was sure they were going to come out of her head any second and roll right across the floor. Everything Lane was saying was just... well, she was going to say it made no sense, but honestly, the more she replayed it in her mind, the more she had trouble denying a single point.

It wasn't as if it hadn't occurred to her before, tonight even, actually. Given that moment in the kitchen... and then the other moment when she asked him to stay... and the way it had felt when he had caught her and saved her from falling in the snow...

"Oh," she said to herself, staring at the door once again, thinking about the guy on the other side again too. "Um, so, I don't... Me and Luke?" she said aloud, shaking her head. "How did I not see this coming?" she asked Lane desperately.

"I'm not really the advice giver in this situation," the poor girl said hopelessly. "But hey, if you need me to leave..."

"Of course not, no way," Lorelai insisted, her hand on Lane's arm. "You need someplace to crash and it can absolutely be here," she promised, turning to look at her properly as a thought occurred. "Your mom knows where you are, right?"

"I called before the phones went out," Lane nodded.

"That's good. So, you can stay. It's fine, but I need to..." she trailed off, getting to her feet and gesturing back towards the kitchen. "Yeah, I do need to..." she repeated, no more certain what the end of that sentence was the second time than she had the first time she tried to complete it.

Putting the music back on as she stepped out into the kitchen, Lorelai closed the bedroom door behind her with a click. It got Luke's attention away from what appeared to be general rummaging in the fridge.

"Hi," he said as he looked at her then.

"Hey," she replied, clasping her hands behind her back. "Crisis averted, at least for now. Lane's going to sleep over."

"Right." Luke nodded, unsure what else he was supposed to say, truth be told. "I was just looking for milk," he explained, hiking his thumb at the fridge, before stuffing both hands deep in his pockets. "You don't have any."

"Oh, right. I don't mind black coffee, but your tea... I don't think we have lemon either."

"Don't worry about it," he assured her, hating how awkward she seemed, knowing it had nothing to do with milk and lemon at all.

This night had certainly gone nothing like Luke had thought it might. When he first invited Lorelai into the diner for a late coffee, he hadn't really expected anything. He figured she would drink coffee while he cleaned up, then she would head home and he would go to bed and have another of those dreams that were never going to come true. He never could've predicted this moment. He wasn't sure if he liked that he even found himself in it, given how pained she looked about the whole situation.

"I know you asked me to stay, but if you changed your mind-"

"I didn't," Lorelai cut in fast, moving a couple of steps further into the kitchen, though the table still stood between them yet. "Luke, tonight has been... I mean, first the snow, and then the hanging out with you, it's been... weirdly magical," she admitted, smiling so bright she almost blinded him. "If this was a date, it'd be way up there in my top ten, let me tell you."

Luke knew he was smiling like a dope at that particular piece of news, but he couldn't help it. Of course, the problem was the if. If it had been a date, which it absolutely was not.

Lorelai was clearly looking for a way to let him down easy, to tell him what a great friend he was, but she never looked at him that way. Luke wasn't sure he could take that. Not now, not after waiting so long for any tiny ray of hope. He opened his mouth to insist he really was leaving this time, but before he got the chance, Lorelai had rounded the table and was standing real close again.

"Don't freak out, okay?" she told him. "I just need to check something."

Before he could hardly get a breath in, never mind process what was about to happen, Luke felt Lorelai's hands at his face and then she was pulling him closer and his lips were meeting hers in a kiss way too long in the making. Not so dumb as to let an opportunity slip by, Luke kissed her back, arms wrapping around the body and drawing her to him, holding her close for as long as she would allow.

They parted very suddenly, both breathless and her more than a little stunned apparently.

"Okay, wow," said Lorelai, staring at him. "How did we not try that before?"

"Trust me, the thought had crossed my mind," he admitted, smirking just a little. "I just kinda figured I'd get my face slapped for trying, so..." he trailed off, unsure what else he could say.

It helped that Lorelai looked as overwhelmed as he was feeling. It helped even more when suddenly she pushed forward again, initiating another kiss that went on and on. Luke's back hit the refrigerator with an audible clang and Lorelai slipped from his arms, turning to stare at Rory's bedroom door.

"Not good, not good," she muttered to herself.

She couldn't have known how much that hurt Luke, though the way she grabbed his hand in the next moment and practically dragged him into the living room didn't seem like the actions of a woman who regretted what she was just doing. They arrived in the space between the couch and the coffee table, him practically running into her back when she came to such a sudden stop.

"I'm sorry," she said, face-palming with her free hand as she turned toward him. "I don't... I don't really know what I'm doing here," she said, hand falling away and allowing her to meet his gaze.

Lorelai almost wished she hadn't looked, and at the same time, she was so glad she had. He really wanted her. Luke Danes wanted her, Lorelai Gilmore, and truth be told, she really kind of wanted him back. On some level, she thought she always knew that, and yet, there was this surprise element that was making it all just a little too much to handle.

"My daughter is stuck in a snowstorm in the next town and I'm... I'm making out with a man, in our house. I don't do this, Luke. I just don't."

If she cried, it was going to kill him, Luke was well aware of that. Whenever anything upset either of the Gilmore girls, he could hardly stand it, but if he were a reason for Lorelai to burst into tears tonight, after all that had happened, he was never going to forgive himself.

"If you need me to leave, I'll leave," he told her, his hands gently at her shoulders. "I'll admit, I don't wanna go, but for you, I will. If that's what you want," he promised. "Is that what you want?"

He didn't know whether to be glad she was having such a tough time making a choice or not. In the end, he was pretty sure she was going to agree that he should go and Luke wasn't entirely sure how he was going to handle it when she did.

"Honest answer?" she said then, shaking her head slightly. "I don't want you to go, but I think, maybe, it might be the smart decision if you did," she told him, even though she looked as if she wished she didn't have to. "I'm sorry, Luke. It's not that I don't... It's just, this is Rory's home too, and Lane is right down the hall, and I... I don't do this. I can't do this. Not now, not even... not even for you."

"Hey, it's okay," he promised her, finding it easier to say that than he thought he might. "I understand, so I'll go," he said, leaning in and planting a kiss on her forehead.

His hands slipped from her shoulders then and he walked to the door without looking back. Luke was halfway into his coat and gloves when Lorelai appeared at his side.

"You know, you are the most incredible man, Luke Danes."

"Could you not do that?" he urged her, looking pained.

Lorelai frowned. "Compliment you?" she checked.

"Compliment me, with that look on your face, when we just agreed I should leave," he explained.

She hadn't known he could make her blush like that, but Lorelai felt the heat rise quickly in her cheeks and had to look away for a moment. Luke didn't talk to her like that, not usually. Of course, they didn't usually make out in her kitchen either. It had been a very strange night.

He opened the door to go then, stepping out onto the porch. She followed, standing in the doorway and looking out over the white-covered scene, a few flakes still falling even then.

"So," said Luke, turning to face her. "Goodnight, Lorelai."

"Goodnight, Luke," she told him, smiling yet. "And thank you, again, for a great night."

"Thank you, for the same," he said, looking for all the world like he would love to kiss her again and yet not daring to.

Lorelai knew exactly how he felt.

"I'll see you tomorrow," he said instead, raising one hand in a brief wave goodbye before walking away into the dark.

Lorelai watched until he was out of sight, then turned her attention to the last few falling flakes of snow.

"Definitely my present," she said to herself, smiling widely, knowing now more than ever that she was right to believe it.

The End