A/N: Here is my humble attempt at a Post-Partings fic. It may start off a little angsty, but I doubt it will stay that way.

Walking Away

Chapter One: Luke in Six Months

He hadn't see her in six months, three weeks and four days. She walked away on a warm May night and hadn't been back in the diner since. Now, Thanksgiving was fast approaching, and he knew he wouldn't be spending it as he thought.

That night he had stayed at her house until dawn, but she didn't return. He would have stayed longer, but he had the diner to open, then April came by that night. Once he closed the diner, he went back again, but she wasn't there. Furthermore, Paul Anka was also gone, to where he had no idea.

One morning, he found a box of his stuff that had been at Lorelai's in front of the diner's door. Apparently, she was going to avoid him at all costs, he thought as he put the box unopened in his closet. All of Lorelai's things were exactly where she left them in his apartment. He figured if she wanted them, she could damn well come and get them.

Summer

The first month after she walked away he made attempts to call her, but he only received her voice mail. Rory had stopped in once to let him know she was all right, but she said nothing else and he had not asked. He went to town meetings hoping to see her, but she didn't appear. Occasionally, he'd hear Lane say her name, but then her voice would lower so he couldn't hear the rest. Sometimes the words 'Christopher' and 'Hartford' also were bandied around, but the look on Luke's face stopped all talk.

Once leaving Doose's, he saw her Jeep, but he couldn't see her. He only left the diner in case of emergencies, when he ran out of food or if he had plans with April. He did his best to hide what was going on form April, but she was perceptive.

"Hey, Luke, what happened to Lorelai? I haven't seen her since my birthday party."

"Well, we're not seeing each other anymore," he said, looking down at the ground to avoid looking her in the eyes.

"I'm sorry, I know you really liked her."

"Yeah, I did. So, uh, are you ready to hit the trash museum?"

"Luke, you don't have to entertain me if you just want to stay home."

"Hey, April, I know this father-daughter thing is still new for both of us, but there is no one else I'd rather be with. I'm not going to waste our time together moping because we already have so little."

"You know, we can have more. Just ask Mom if I can start spending weekends with you."

"Would you like that?"

"Sure. I like your town and the diner. Do you think I could work there?"

"Well, let's wait until you're a little older, but you have a job the minute you're ready. If you want, I'll ask her tonight when she picks you up. So ready to see some trash?"

"Yes, I'm considering doing something with trash and recycling for next year's science fair, and this will be the perfect research spot."

"You're already planning your science fair project? You just got out of school two weeks ago."

"I started working on last year's science fair project in May," she said, shaking her head. "It's a nasty business if you want to win."

"I can't complain too much because if you hadn't chosen that project, we never would have met," he said as the smile grew across his face. She was the only thing that made him smile these days.

"I'm glad, too, Luke. So are you ready to hit the road?"

"Let's see some trash."

July and August moved pretty much the same way. Luke and Anna worked out a custody arrangement, establishing his legal paternity as April's father and weekend visits. If he wasn't working, he was with April. He put up a set of doors in the apartment to separate Jess' bed with the rest of the apartment so April could have her space. Little by little the changes came.

At first it was the bedding, then the objects on the wall. Soon, there were books and clothes in the closet. The last touch was the aquarium and the gecko named Ralph, which Luke learned to feed and care for when April couldn't.

When he couldn't take skulking around his tiny apartment any longer, he offered to take April camping, which she happily accepted.

He didn't know what to expect, but April loved nature and gave Luke a whole new perspective into the outdoors and his daughter. She didn't mind sleeping in a tent or eating fresh caught fish or bathing in a lake. She was also collecting "specimens" for science experiments that she enjoyed telling Luke about even if he didn't always understand what she was talking about.

It took her less than a day to learn how to make a campfire, to find her own worms and to bait her own hook. At night, he would tell her stories about his family while she told him stories about her childhood.

By the end of the trip, she had started to call him Dad. Every time she did it, he fell a little more in love with her.

Fall

When April began school, Luke found himself with more time on his hands. She only came to the diner Wednesday afternoons and weekends. Once a month, he April and Anna would have a sit-down dinner together and talk about April's schedule and what she had going on.

Luke found himself enjoying these dinners since it let him know that Anna could see how much he and April had bonded, and their connection was completely different than the one Anna shared with her.

He found himself in a pretty nice groove when something happened he wasn't expecting. He met someone. A woman. A woman named Julie Jones who came into the diner lost on her way back to Hartford. She had lunch at the counter and attempted chitchat with Luke, who made his usual monosyllabic answers. Undeterred, she kept talking, and slowly, he found himself talking back, even giving her a smile or two.

The following weekend, she reappeared at the diner, saying she loved his French toast and coffee and had to come back for a second helping. He learned she was a nurse at Hartford Hospital, had been divorced for five years, enjoyed nature and driving in the country. Before she left, she took the initiative and asked him out to dinner, which he accepted.

He told himself it was just dinner, and he couldn't be rude to her. He didn't, however, expect to have a good time, and it threw him off when he did. She was pretty with dark hair and brown eyes. She worked long hours at her job, and found it funny he was scared of hospitals. Her childhood in a small town in Indiana wasn't much different from his, except she had only lost one parent. He surprised himself when he asked to take her out again. He was even more surprised she accepted.

Soon, Julie was a regular at the diner and at Luke's apartment. She found April to be "utterly charming," and the townies liked her even though she often heard them whisper around her. When she asked Luke, he explained they were most likely talking about his former fiancée, who had walked out on him four months earlier. She was sympathetic, but didn't ask anymore questions, which he appreciated.

Luke wasn't sure where things were going with Julie. She was nice and easy to be around. She liked his kid, baseball and fishing. They also found themselves to be extremely compatible in the bedroom. Lorelai, however, was still in the back of his thoughts. He still didn't understand why she had ran away and why she had walked away from everything they had.

As Thanksgiving approached, he allowed himself to mourn what should have been happening. He should have been preparing a feast for him, Lorelai, Rory and April at their home, with Lorelai requesting two different kinds of stuffing and yams with extra marshmallows. Instead, April and Anna planned to join him and Julie at the diner with the usual suspects. The night before he was up late working on desserts when the phone rang.

"Hello."

"Luke," he heard Lorelai's anguished voice on the line. "I need your help."

A/N 2: What did Lorelai do in those six months and why is she calling Luke? Find out in the next chapter.