Stranger in the Distance
Chapter 4
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: I don't own anything, how could I, I'm broke!
A/N: Sorry it took me so long, I was procrastinating! Hope you enjoy it, and I believe I'll take the Beta-tester up on their offer, on the next chapter. I felt bad about waiting too long, and didn't want to make you wait longer!
Sitting in the waiting room of the hospital, Jess and Rory are waiting for Lorelai to come in. While waiting, they are playing the wonderful game of Quarters. (A/N: Quarters is, if you have never heard of it, a game where you flick a quarter at your opponents knuckles, causing them to bleed. Just a way to pass the time.) As Rory was flicking the quarter at Jess's knuckles, Lorelai walked in with her face all red and puffy from crying. Rory gets up and runs over to her mom.
"Mom, are you ok? He is going to be all right. I promise."
Lorelai looks at her daughter, and gives her a strange look. Between sniffles, she manages to ask, "Rory, honey, why are you in your pajamas?"
Rory laughs, and replies, "It's a long story, come on and sit down. I get you some coffee."
Rory helps her mom sit down, and she walks to the cafeteria to get her some coffee. As Rory is gone, it gives Lorelai and Jess a chance to talk.
"How was New York?" Lorelai asked, in a sincere manner.
"Umm, it, was… fine." Jess replied. He didn't understand why she was being so nice to him; she hated him.
"You really love her don't you?" Lorelai stated, looking at Jess. When he didn't say anything she added, "Don't worry, I'm not in mom-mode now, I won't beat the crap out of you if you say yes"
Jess thought for a moment, and, thankfully the doctor chose to come in now. ~Thank God! ~ Jess thought.
"Hello, um, Mrs. Danes." He said, looking at Lorelai.
"Umm.. I'm not.. We aren't… yeah, that's me." She replied.
Jess gave her a weird look, and she elbowed him in the stomach.
"And, who is this?" he added pointing to Jess.
"He is Luke's Nephew." Lorelai said before Jess could.
"Yes, I live with him and my Auntie Lorelai." Jess smiled, and gave Lorelai a hug.
Whispering into his ear, "Although I don't technically hate you anymore, I can still kick your ass back to New York." Causing Jess to let go of them embrace and take a step away from her. Rory decided to come in at this moment, and she saw Jess, her mom, and the doctor, talking.
"Yes, now Mr. Danes well-being- Now who is this?" He said, pointing towards Rory, obviously aggravated.
"Yeah, this is my daughter Rory." Lorelai states.
"Ah, so your Luke's daughter." The doctor said.
"What? I am? Wow." Lorelai pinched her hand, and Rory being bright, she said, "Yes I am! Is my father all right? We were suppose to go to the mall today on a father/daughter shopping spree for my birthday!"
Lorelai hugged her daughter and said quietly, "I think you're over doing it a bit, Ror."
"Yes, Ok, now, as with Mr. Danes Condition, he was hit with a strong force over the head, causing slight trauma to the cranial region." The doctor continued.
"Whoa, Doctor, can you slow down a little bit, and maybe dumbing it down for the children who don't understand?" Lorelai asked.
"Sure. He has a concussion. A high-grade one, actually. I'm hoping that it doesn't mean anything other than that, but we don't know at this point. We also had to stitch up his arm, he had an enormous gash around the shoulder area on his right arm. Oh, and the more important part of it all, because he fell into shock before getting medical treatment, we are afraid that he will be in a coma for no more than a few days. The worst possibility is he could have short-term or long-term memory loss."
Lorelai started crying again, and Rory had to help her stand up. She whispered into her mother's ear, "Mom, he is going to be ok! Please don't cry!"
"Rory, I'm just afraid that he won't remember me." She said, and started sobbing on her daughters shoulder. As Rory and Lorelai went to sit down in the chairs, Jess continued to stay and ask the doctor some questions.
"Doctor, how long will my uncle be in the hospital?"
The doctor sighed, and said, "Well, we don't know. Certainly over night, but, if he is lucky, he may be able to go home tomorrow."
"Well, are we aloud to see him?" Jess asked.
"Sure. He won't be conscious, but he may be able to hear you talking to him. You might even prevent memory-loss if you talk about familiar stuff." He looked over at Lorelai, and continued, "You have to be calm in there, she'll have to stop crying before she goes in there."
"Thank you." Jess said, and he walked back to Rory and Lorelai.
"We can go in and see him, on at a time, but you need to stop crying, Lorelai, or they won't let you in."
With that, Lorelai stopped crying abruptly, and said, "I can do that. Would you mind if I go last?"
Jess and Rory shook their heads, and Jess said, "I'll go first. I'll be back soon."
He walked over to the doctor, and she took him to Luke's room down the hall. After Jess was out of sight, Lorelai asked, "Rory, what happened?"
Rory took a deep breath, and said, " Well, Jess called me earlier this morning, at 5 AM. He told me to go to the gazebo, and we had a big thing about how I was still in my pj's and how I didn't have coffee, things like that. Well, I walked to the gazebo, and Jess told me to look at Luke's diner, so I did. I noticed the sign was upside-down, and he surprised me by walking up behind me, and telling me he was back. After we talked for a minute, I told him about Luke's sign. We went over there to see what the sign was doing upside- down, and I saw Luke on the floor of the diner with the glass from the door shattered around him, and he was bleeding. We put him in Jess's car, and drove him here."
Bewildered, Lorelai asked, "Why didn't you call sooner?"
"Well, I didn't want to worry you. You just got back on good terms with Luke, and I didn't want to ruin it."
Both Gilmore's started to cry, and they hugged each other tight.
Walking down the hallway, Jess was nervous about seeing his uncle so helpless. The doctor showed him the room, and he walked in. He sat down in the chair next to Luke's bed, and only saw one needle go into him. ~ At least it's only one needle instead of a bunch of tubes .~
After a minute of sitting there, he finally spoke.
"Hey Uncle Luke. It's me, Jess. I bet your wondering what I'm doing here, but me, Rory found you, and we brought you to the hospital. I came back. I want to come back, if that's all right with you. You'll probably need someone to talk care of you when you get to the dinner."
He looked at his uncle, still motionless in the bed.
"Yeah, I just wanted to let you know, that I'm happy that someone wanted to take me in, and be apart of my life. You gave me a chance, Uncle Luke, and Thanks for it. I promise I'll I try and not get myself into so much trouble when.. if.. You let me live with you again." A single tear was crawling down Jess's cheek.
"Well, I guess I'll get going Rory want's to see you."
Jess walked out of the room, and back to the waiting room. There he saw Rory and Lorelai submerged in a hug, and crying. Not wanting to break the Kodak moment, he coughed loudly. Rory noticed Jess standing there, and let go of her mother.
"Mom, Jess is back." Rory said to her mother.
Rory stood up, asked Jess how to get to Luke's room, and was on her way. Jess went to sit down next to Lorelai.
Rory slowly entered the room Luke was in. When she saw him, she gasped. She had never seen him so pale, so helpless, so, not Luke, in her whole life. After standing there for a few seconds, she went over to the chair. A dead silence filled the room, and Rory really didn't know what to say.
After a while of thinking, the words started to come to her.
"Hey Luke, it's Rory, Rory Gilmore. I really don't know what to say." She paused for a moment, and looked at Luke's face. It was so lost. As tears started to stream down her face, she started talking again.
"Yes, Um, I just want to let you know that I love you like a second father, because that's what you were. You were really the only daily father figure I've had since, well, forever. In addition, I'm glad you protect me. Like when you put Dean in a headlock. And, when you give me free coffee, although you know it's bad for me, you give it to me. So, I hope, you feel better soon, and don't forget me. That would hurt a lot, and I know you don't want to see me hurt."
By now, Rory was sobbing. She knew she wasn't suppose to, it was hard to stop. She eventually left the room to run back to her mom and Jess.
"So, where were we?" Lorelai asked, as soon as Rory had left the room.
Jess shuffled his feet, and asked, "What are you talking about?"
"Don't lie to me, you know exactly what. Now, tell me do you love my daughter?" Lorelai asked, her eyes wide open.
"What about you? Look at you, you drove a 45-minute drive in half an hour, with tears down your eyes… for Luke. Then, you said you were his wife. I know you are best friends, and all, but, you're not acting like it. Your acting like you truly love him."
Lorelai was wide-eyed. She didn't know how to respond to that. She knew he was right, but she wasn't about to tell him the truth. She didn't trust him. He broke her daughter.
"Jess, thank you. You saved his life when you found him. And, you saved him from a lot of gossip, when Kirk would have found him there later that morning."
"It wasn't me, Lorelai. It was Rory. She noticed the sign, and she noticed that he was lying there." Jess sighed when he said that. He felt guilty, still, when he didn't notice.
"Ah, but you were the one that called Rory to the center of town, where she saw Luke's sign and all of that. It was because of you." With that, she pulled him into a hug.
"Touché." Was all he said, and accepted the hug.
Rory walked back in, and saw her mother and friend in an embrace. One she never thought she would see. Of course, she thought about her mother Choking Jess, but that was about it. She sat down never to the two, and joined in on the hug. When the hug finally ended, Rory told her mother that she could go in now. Lorelai got up, and hurried past the waiting room, into the area Luke was in.
"What happened to her?" Jess asked Rory, hoping for an answer.
"What do you mean?"
"Have you seen the way she has acted today?"
Rory thought for a moment, and then said, "yeah, I think she just realized what the rest of the town already knew…"
"And, what would that be?" Jess asked.
"She is in love with him, and they should be together. Haven't you seen them together? Plus, they have been flirting nonstop for, like, forever."
Jess thought a moment. "Maybe that is why she wanted to go and see him last. We'll never know.. Well, not now, anyway."
~ Don't cry, don't cry, and don't cry. ~ Was all that went through Lorelai's head as she walked down the long corridor.
She found his room, took a deep breath and walked in. When she saw him there with all the tubes in him, she almost turned around and screamed. Instead, she forced herself over to the chair that Rory and Jess had sat in, just minutes before.
"Well, this is quite awkward, isn't it?" She asked the motionless person, lying next to her. Taking a deep breath, she started talking again.
"The ride down here was hard, I must say. But, I did it without my coffee, and I beat the world record in the time it took me to get here." She nervously laughs, and a tear comes down her face.
"What happened, Luke? You were… are... always so worried about how coffee is going to kill us, or red meat, and the next thing you know, you're sitting in a hospital bed. Why weren't you careful?" She grabs his hand in hers, and holds it tightly.
"You are going to get better, yes you will. You won't die, and you won't have memory loss. You can't. If you forgot Rory or me, I don't know what we would do. You would never be the same. The thing we have going on, would never be the same." More tears come as she continues.
"Do you know what I realized on my way down here? Do you? I was more worried about you, than I was Rory when she got hurt. Rory. My own daughter. And, then I realized what have the freaking town already knows. I love you. Yes, I, Lorelai Gilmore, love you, Luke Danes. I think I just realized that on my way here, after, what, umpteen years?" Lorelai starts crying heavily, and, while still holding Luke's hand, puts her head down on his bed to muffle her cries.
His eyes fluttered open, and all he could see was the while tile on the ceiling. Where the hell AM I? Was the first thing that popped into his head. ~ What a crazy dream that was, must have been the morphine…~ He jerked his head and a stinging pain shot from his back to his neck, causing him to wince. Slowly, he looked around the room. ~ Hospital. Bad. Why am I in the hospital? ~ He tried to bring his right hand to rub his eyes, but noticed that something was attached to it. He glanced over to his right, and found Lorelai asleep in the chair. Perplexed, he didn't know what to do. Tugging her arm, he called out softly.
"Hey, Sleeping Beauty."
Nothing.
Tugging her arm once more, and yelling a little louder, "Hey, Sleeping Beauty!"
Still Nothing.
Getting frustrated, he pulled her arm, and yelled, "HEY, SLEEPING BEAUTY!"
Now, he got his reply. Lorelai shot her head up, and Looked Luke in the eye. It took her a second to piece together what happened, but when she remembered, her eyes lit up and she hugged Luke.
"Luke! You're ok! I was so worried!"
"Yes, what happened?" He asked, hugging her back.
"Well, Jess met Rory this morning, to tell her he was coming back. She noticed your sign hanging upside down, and went to check it out. Rory saw you lying on the Diner floor, with glass all around you. They rushed you to the hospital, and here you are."
He thought for a second, and then finally asked, "Why are you here?" immediately after asking, he saw a pained expression overcome her face.
"I was worried."
"Oh."
The expression turned to an alarmed look when she asked, "Do you remember anything that happened while sleeping?"
He looked at her and said, "umm, I had a dream?"
"What was it about?"
Scratching his head, he said, "Well, I heard Jess say that he was going to change his way, and that he wanted to move back.."
"Ok, good start, Do you remember anything else?"
"Hmm... Yeah, Rory, I think it was, said that she loved me, and that I was a daily-father-figure to her."
A small smile came to Lorelai's lips when he said this. She took a deep breath, and asked one more time if he remembered anything from the 'dream'.
Slowly, he said, "I... heard... You say that… You... love me…"
Lorelai's expression stayed the same, and both just stared at each other for a moment.
He spoke again, and asked, "That wasn't a dream was it?"
Lorelai shook her head slowly. After a minute, Luke motioned her to get on the bed. Not comprehending it, she didn't understand.
"Get on the bed, Lorelai."
She took a deep breath and got on the bed. He positioned himself so that he looked down at her.
"Is it true?" He asked, not giving away anything through his eyes.
She yielded a second, and replied, "Yes. It's true."
"So, You love me?"
While nodding her head, she whispered "yes" into his ear.
Without even waiting, he bent down and kissed her. The electricity was visibly bouncing to and from each other's lips. After both regretfully ended the kiss from lack of air, they looked into each others eyes.
"Say it, Lorelai."
"I love you."
A smile crept across Luke's lips, and he said, "I love you, too. I have, for a while. I'm glad you finally saw it." He pulled her closer to him, and kissed her gently again.
"Should we tell Jess and Rory?" Lorelai questioned.
"Nah. Let up have some fun pretending!"
"Yay! I like pretending!"
"When would you like to tell the rest of Stars Hollow?"
"Ha. We can make it public the day that you can sucessfully deny me coffee!"
Lorelai laughed, and Luke smiled. He pulled her closer, and they laid together for a while just listening to each other breathe, and the feeling the other's skin, something they never did until now."
Chapter 4
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: I don't own anything, how could I, I'm broke!
A/N: Sorry it took me so long, I was procrastinating! Hope you enjoy it, and I believe I'll take the Beta-tester up on their offer, on the next chapter. I felt bad about waiting too long, and didn't want to make you wait longer!
Sitting in the waiting room of the hospital, Jess and Rory are waiting for Lorelai to come in. While waiting, they are playing the wonderful game of Quarters. (A/N: Quarters is, if you have never heard of it, a game where you flick a quarter at your opponents knuckles, causing them to bleed. Just a way to pass the time.) As Rory was flicking the quarter at Jess's knuckles, Lorelai walked in with her face all red and puffy from crying. Rory gets up and runs over to her mom.
"Mom, are you ok? He is going to be all right. I promise."
Lorelai looks at her daughter, and gives her a strange look. Between sniffles, she manages to ask, "Rory, honey, why are you in your pajamas?"
Rory laughs, and replies, "It's a long story, come on and sit down. I get you some coffee."
Rory helps her mom sit down, and she walks to the cafeteria to get her some coffee. As Rory is gone, it gives Lorelai and Jess a chance to talk.
"How was New York?" Lorelai asked, in a sincere manner.
"Umm, it, was… fine." Jess replied. He didn't understand why she was being so nice to him; she hated him.
"You really love her don't you?" Lorelai stated, looking at Jess. When he didn't say anything she added, "Don't worry, I'm not in mom-mode now, I won't beat the crap out of you if you say yes"
Jess thought for a moment, and, thankfully the doctor chose to come in now. ~Thank God! ~ Jess thought.
"Hello, um, Mrs. Danes." He said, looking at Lorelai.
"Umm.. I'm not.. We aren't… yeah, that's me." She replied.
Jess gave her a weird look, and she elbowed him in the stomach.
"And, who is this?" he added pointing to Jess.
"He is Luke's Nephew." Lorelai said before Jess could.
"Yes, I live with him and my Auntie Lorelai." Jess smiled, and gave Lorelai a hug.
Whispering into his ear, "Although I don't technically hate you anymore, I can still kick your ass back to New York." Causing Jess to let go of them embrace and take a step away from her. Rory decided to come in at this moment, and she saw Jess, her mom, and the doctor, talking.
"Yes, now Mr. Danes well-being- Now who is this?" He said, pointing towards Rory, obviously aggravated.
"Yeah, this is my daughter Rory." Lorelai states.
"Ah, so your Luke's daughter." The doctor said.
"What? I am? Wow." Lorelai pinched her hand, and Rory being bright, she said, "Yes I am! Is my father all right? We were suppose to go to the mall today on a father/daughter shopping spree for my birthday!"
Lorelai hugged her daughter and said quietly, "I think you're over doing it a bit, Ror."
"Yes, Ok, now, as with Mr. Danes Condition, he was hit with a strong force over the head, causing slight trauma to the cranial region." The doctor continued.
"Whoa, Doctor, can you slow down a little bit, and maybe dumbing it down for the children who don't understand?" Lorelai asked.
"Sure. He has a concussion. A high-grade one, actually. I'm hoping that it doesn't mean anything other than that, but we don't know at this point. We also had to stitch up his arm, he had an enormous gash around the shoulder area on his right arm. Oh, and the more important part of it all, because he fell into shock before getting medical treatment, we are afraid that he will be in a coma for no more than a few days. The worst possibility is he could have short-term or long-term memory loss."
Lorelai started crying again, and Rory had to help her stand up. She whispered into her mother's ear, "Mom, he is going to be ok! Please don't cry!"
"Rory, I'm just afraid that he won't remember me." She said, and started sobbing on her daughters shoulder. As Rory and Lorelai went to sit down in the chairs, Jess continued to stay and ask the doctor some questions.
"Doctor, how long will my uncle be in the hospital?"
The doctor sighed, and said, "Well, we don't know. Certainly over night, but, if he is lucky, he may be able to go home tomorrow."
"Well, are we aloud to see him?" Jess asked.
"Sure. He won't be conscious, but he may be able to hear you talking to him. You might even prevent memory-loss if you talk about familiar stuff." He looked over at Lorelai, and continued, "You have to be calm in there, she'll have to stop crying before she goes in there."
"Thank you." Jess said, and he walked back to Rory and Lorelai.
"We can go in and see him, on at a time, but you need to stop crying, Lorelai, or they won't let you in."
With that, Lorelai stopped crying abruptly, and said, "I can do that. Would you mind if I go last?"
Jess and Rory shook their heads, and Jess said, "I'll go first. I'll be back soon."
He walked over to the doctor, and she took him to Luke's room down the hall. After Jess was out of sight, Lorelai asked, "Rory, what happened?"
Rory took a deep breath, and said, " Well, Jess called me earlier this morning, at 5 AM. He told me to go to the gazebo, and we had a big thing about how I was still in my pj's and how I didn't have coffee, things like that. Well, I walked to the gazebo, and Jess told me to look at Luke's diner, so I did. I noticed the sign was upside-down, and he surprised me by walking up behind me, and telling me he was back. After we talked for a minute, I told him about Luke's sign. We went over there to see what the sign was doing upside- down, and I saw Luke on the floor of the diner with the glass from the door shattered around him, and he was bleeding. We put him in Jess's car, and drove him here."
Bewildered, Lorelai asked, "Why didn't you call sooner?"
"Well, I didn't want to worry you. You just got back on good terms with Luke, and I didn't want to ruin it."
Both Gilmore's started to cry, and they hugged each other tight.
Walking down the hallway, Jess was nervous about seeing his uncle so helpless. The doctor showed him the room, and he walked in. He sat down in the chair next to Luke's bed, and only saw one needle go into him. ~ At least it's only one needle instead of a bunch of tubes .~
After a minute of sitting there, he finally spoke.
"Hey Uncle Luke. It's me, Jess. I bet your wondering what I'm doing here, but me, Rory found you, and we brought you to the hospital. I came back. I want to come back, if that's all right with you. You'll probably need someone to talk care of you when you get to the dinner."
He looked at his uncle, still motionless in the bed.
"Yeah, I just wanted to let you know, that I'm happy that someone wanted to take me in, and be apart of my life. You gave me a chance, Uncle Luke, and Thanks for it. I promise I'll I try and not get myself into so much trouble when.. if.. You let me live with you again." A single tear was crawling down Jess's cheek.
"Well, I guess I'll get going Rory want's to see you."
Jess walked out of the room, and back to the waiting room. There he saw Rory and Lorelai submerged in a hug, and crying. Not wanting to break the Kodak moment, he coughed loudly. Rory noticed Jess standing there, and let go of her mother.
"Mom, Jess is back." Rory said to her mother.
Rory stood up, asked Jess how to get to Luke's room, and was on her way. Jess went to sit down next to Lorelai.
Rory slowly entered the room Luke was in. When she saw him, she gasped. She had never seen him so pale, so helpless, so, not Luke, in her whole life. After standing there for a few seconds, she went over to the chair. A dead silence filled the room, and Rory really didn't know what to say.
After a while of thinking, the words started to come to her.
"Hey Luke, it's Rory, Rory Gilmore. I really don't know what to say." She paused for a moment, and looked at Luke's face. It was so lost. As tears started to stream down her face, she started talking again.
"Yes, Um, I just want to let you know that I love you like a second father, because that's what you were. You were really the only daily father figure I've had since, well, forever. In addition, I'm glad you protect me. Like when you put Dean in a headlock. And, when you give me free coffee, although you know it's bad for me, you give it to me. So, I hope, you feel better soon, and don't forget me. That would hurt a lot, and I know you don't want to see me hurt."
By now, Rory was sobbing. She knew she wasn't suppose to, it was hard to stop. She eventually left the room to run back to her mom and Jess.
"So, where were we?" Lorelai asked, as soon as Rory had left the room.
Jess shuffled his feet, and asked, "What are you talking about?"
"Don't lie to me, you know exactly what. Now, tell me do you love my daughter?" Lorelai asked, her eyes wide open.
"What about you? Look at you, you drove a 45-minute drive in half an hour, with tears down your eyes… for Luke. Then, you said you were his wife. I know you are best friends, and all, but, you're not acting like it. Your acting like you truly love him."
Lorelai was wide-eyed. She didn't know how to respond to that. She knew he was right, but she wasn't about to tell him the truth. She didn't trust him. He broke her daughter.
"Jess, thank you. You saved his life when you found him. And, you saved him from a lot of gossip, when Kirk would have found him there later that morning."
"It wasn't me, Lorelai. It was Rory. She noticed the sign, and she noticed that he was lying there." Jess sighed when he said that. He felt guilty, still, when he didn't notice.
"Ah, but you were the one that called Rory to the center of town, where she saw Luke's sign and all of that. It was because of you." With that, she pulled him into a hug.
"Touché." Was all he said, and accepted the hug.
Rory walked back in, and saw her mother and friend in an embrace. One she never thought she would see. Of course, she thought about her mother Choking Jess, but that was about it. She sat down never to the two, and joined in on the hug. When the hug finally ended, Rory told her mother that she could go in now. Lorelai got up, and hurried past the waiting room, into the area Luke was in.
"What happened to her?" Jess asked Rory, hoping for an answer.
"What do you mean?"
"Have you seen the way she has acted today?"
Rory thought for a moment, and then said, "yeah, I think she just realized what the rest of the town already knew…"
"And, what would that be?" Jess asked.
"She is in love with him, and they should be together. Haven't you seen them together? Plus, they have been flirting nonstop for, like, forever."
Jess thought a moment. "Maybe that is why she wanted to go and see him last. We'll never know.. Well, not now, anyway."
~ Don't cry, don't cry, and don't cry. ~ Was all that went through Lorelai's head as she walked down the long corridor.
She found his room, took a deep breath and walked in. When she saw him there with all the tubes in him, she almost turned around and screamed. Instead, she forced herself over to the chair that Rory and Jess had sat in, just minutes before.
"Well, this is quite awkward, isn't it?" She asked the motionless person, lying next to her. Taking a deep breath, she started talking again.
"The ride down here was hard, I must say. But, I did it without my coffee, and I beat the world record in the time it took me to get here." She nervously laughs, and a tear comes down her face.
"What happened, Luke? You were… are... always so worried about how coffee is going to kill us, or red meat, and the next thing you know, you're sitting in a hospital bed. Why weren't you careful?" She grabs his hand in hers, and holds it tightly.
"You are going to get better, yes you will. You won't die, and you won't have memory loss. You can't. If you forgot Rory or me, I don't know what we would do. You would never be the same. The thing we have going on, would never be the same." More tears come as she continues.
"Do you know what I realized on my way down here? Do you? I was more worried about you, than I was Rory when she got hurt. Rory. My own daughter. And, then I realized what have the freaking town already knows. I love you. Yes, I, Lorelai Gilmore, love you, Luke Danes. I think I just realized that on my way here, after, what, umpteen years?" Lorelai starts crying heavily, and, while still holding Luke's hand, puts her head down on his bed to muffle her cries.
His eyes fluttered open, and all he could see was the while tile on the ceiling. Where the hell AM I? Was the first thing that popped into his head. ~ What a crazy dream that was, must have been the morphine…~ He jerked his head and a stinging pain shot from his back to his neck, causing him to wince. Slowly, he looked around the room. ~ Hospital. Bad. Why am I in the hospital? ~ He tried to bring his right hand to rub his eyes, but noticed that something was attached to it. He glanced over to his right, and found Lorelai asleep in the chair. Perplexed, he didn't know what to do. Tugging her arm, he called out softly.
"Hey, Sleeping Beauty."
Nothing.
Tugging her arm once more, and yelling a little louder, "Hey, Sleeping Beauty!"
Still Nothing.
Getting frustrated, he pulled her arm, and yelled, "HEY, SLEEPING BEAUTY!"
Now, he got his reply. Lorelai shot her head up, and Looked Luke in the eye. It took her a second to piece together what happened, but when she remembered, her eyes lit up and she hugged Luke.
"Luke! You're ok! I was so worried!"
"Yes, what happened?" He asked, hugging her back.
"Well, Jess met Rory this morning, to tell her he was coming back. She noticed your sign hanging upside down, and went to check it out. Rory saw you lying on the Diner floor, with glass all around you. They rushed you to the hospital, and here you are."
He thought for a second, and then finally asked, "Why are you here?" immediately after asking, he saw a pained expression overcome her face.
"I was worried."
"Oh."
The expression turned to an alarmed look when she asked, "Do you remember anything that happened while sleeping?"
He looked at her and said, "umm, I had a dream?"
"What was it about?"
Scratching his head, he said, "Well, I heard Jess say that he was going to change his way, and that he wanted to move back.."
"Ok, good start, Do you remember anything else?"
"Hmm... Yeah, Rory, I think it was, said that she loved me, and that I was a daily-father-figure to her."
A small smile came to Lorelai's lips when he said this. She took a deep breath, and asked one more time if he remembered anything from the 'dream'.
Slowly, he said, "I... heard... You say that… You... love me…"
Lorelai's expression stayed the same, and both just stared at each other for a moment.
He spoke again, and asked, "That wasn't a dream was it?"
Lorelai shook her head slowly. After a minute, Luke motioned her to get on the bed. Not comprehending it, she didn't understand.
"Get on the bed, Lorelai."
She took a deep breath and got on the bed. He positioned himself so that he looked down at her.
"Is it true?" He asked, not giving away anything through his eyes.
She yielded a second, and replied, "Yes. It's true."
"So, You love me?"
While nodding her head, she whispered "yes" into his ear.
Without even waiting, he bent down and kissed her. The electricity was visibly bouncing to and from each other's lips. After both regretfully ended the kiss from lack of air, they looked into each others eyes.
"Say it, Lorelai."
"I love you."
A smile crept across Luke's lips, and he said, "I love you, too. I have, for a while. I'm glad you finally saw it." He pulled her closer to him, and kissed her gently again.
"Should we tell Jess and Rory?" Lorelai questioned.
"Nah. Let up have some fun pretending!"
"Yay! I like pretending!"
"When would you like to tell the rest of Stars Hollow?"
"Ha. We can make it public the day that you can sucessfully deny me coffee!"
Lorelai laughed, and Luke smiled. He pulled her closer, and they laid together for a while just listening to each other breathe, and the feeling the other's skin, something they never did until now."
