"So," Dean said and sat down. "How's it going?"

"Okay, I guess," Rory replied looking up at the sky.

"College is okay?" He asked.

"Yup, you?" Rory wondered what he was doing here with her.

"Good.. so.. uh, you got back with Jess, huh?" Dean replied.

"What?" Rory turned to look at him.

"Jess?"

"Yeah, aren't you two back together or somethign?" Dean looked back at her.

"Uh... no," Rory replied, confused. "Why would you think that?"

'Cause I saw you in Boston.' "Umm.. I don't know. I just assumed when you two were on the bridge...," Dean started.

"We're... friends," Rory replied. 'Jess and me back together?' She hadn't even thought about it, not even when Jess had told her that he still.....

"Oh," Dean interrupted her thoughts. He stood up. "Well, nice to see you." He started to walk away.

"Hey!" Rory called out as she started to get back up. "Hey, Dean."

"Yeah?" He turned back around.

"We can still be friends, right?"

Dean smiled slightly. "I guess."

Rory's face fell. "Okay." 'Well, after how we broke up last year at the marathon...'

********************************

Jess sighed and put his book down again. 'That's not how I imagined my talking to Rory,' He thought.

He got up from the chair and grabbed his jacket.

********************************

"Well, then I'll.. uh.. see you around," Dean mumbled. "See you." He waved at her and started to walk down the porch steps.

Rory nodded slowly and waved back. "Bye..."

********************************

Jess stuffed his hands in his pockets and looked at his feet as he walked down the street to Rory's house.

As he approached the house, he saw a dark figure leaving the porch where he could see Rory sitting.

As Jess got nearer to the house, he could see by the dim light of the streetlamp that it was...

'Dean.'

********************************

"That was fun!" Lorelai said as Luke pushed her up the street to her house.

Luke grumbled. "Fun for you."

"HA! Got you to say the F-word! Hey, I know you were having fun when we were going down that really steep hill. I heard you whispering 'wheeee' under your breath," Lorelai turned her head to look at him.

"How could you possibly hear that with you screaming your head off?"

"I was not screaming! I was simply voicing my expression of joy," Lorelai pouted.

"So.. you were screaming," Luke replied.

"You're impossible," Lorelai said. "You're lucky I'm not really Elvira."

Luke looked at her with a confused look on his face. "I won't ask."

He pushed the wheelchair up to the porch steps. "Uh oh," Lorelai said. "I forgot that there's stairs everywhere.." She looked down at her casts. "Uh...."

"You could always sleep outside," Luke said.

"Mean," Lorelai pouted and crossed her arms. ".. I could set up a tent for you..."

"There's only one way to do this...," said Lorelai, with a glint in her eye. "One way that doesn't involve me?" Luke asked, dreading what was coming up next.

Lorelai looked at him. "Pleeeeassssssseeeeeee..."

Luke rolled his eyes. "I'm gonna sing the please song!" Lorelai said. "Please, please, spaghetti with lots of cheese......!"

"Okay, I'll do it!!!" Luke threw his hands in the air. "Just.. don't sing."

Lorelai beamed. "Okay! Uppsy-daisy!" She called out and reached her arms to him.

Luke frowned but reached down to pick her up. "OOOoh, Luke, your arms are soooooo strong.. you are sooooo strong," Lorelai said in a high pitched voice. She stroked his arm.

"Stop that," Luke said in a serious tone. 'Okay, concentrate on the steps, don't concentrate on the fact that your hand is on her butt...'

Lorelai giggled at his discomfort. "Aren't you happy I'm not like horizontally challenged? Like to the point where you need two seats on the airplane.. and you ask for two seats, and then the airplane lady's like, here are two seats, but they're not together?"

Luke looked at her. "You're weird."

"You know what's weird?" Lorelai said thoughtfully as Luke struggled to get the door open.

"What?"

"You know Marcie from Charlie Brown?"

"Yeah." Luke put her down on the sofa.

"Do you think she's a lesbian? Because, if she is, I wish she'd just come out and say it. Because I'm confused about it... is she or isn't she? I think she's in love with Peppermint Patty..," Lorelai rambled.

"You're starting to sound like their teacher," Luke grumbled.

Lorelai laughed. "Ohh.. Mwah, mwah, mwah..."

"Stop," He said.

"Mwah, mwah, mwah, mwah!"

"Okay, getting irritating," Luke stared at her with his hands on his hips.

"Mwah, mwah, mwah, mwah!!"

Luke sighed. "What?"

"I have to pee...," Lorelai said and looked at him with puppy-dog eyes. "Oh no....." Luke's eyes opened widely and he shook his head.

"PLeeeeeeeeeassssssseeeee!!!"

'Why, God, why??' Luke thought.

***********************************

Rory closed her eyes and tried to sleep. But the sounds of Lorelai and Luke flirting in the living room were distracting her. 'Mom's so lucky she knows who she wants..,' She thought sighing. Rory was just plain confused.

Tristan... Jess... when Jess had told her he still... no, he thought that he loved her.. She had been taken back. Sure, the word had come up a couple times while they were going out, but they had never really said it to each other.

When Dean and she had gone out, she had said that she loved Dean, but in fact, she hadn't. Rory had use the word loosely.. and She'd been careful not to say it while she and Jess were going out...

'Tristan.' She really didn't know about him.. He had gotten nicer, but deep inside, she felt like he wasn't the one for her. They were too different.. they had fun, but she didn't feel a connection when she was with him. And all this guilt that she felt for breaking Paris and Tristan up, she didn't think that she could handle all of it.

'So,' She thought. Rory rolled over and pulled the covers tightly around her. She groaned as she heard strains of the please song.

**********************************

"Hey," Lorelai said as Luke gently set her down on the sofa for the second time.

"Yeah?"

"Thanks..," Lorelai said.

"I'm traumatized, but you're welcome," Luke sighed.

"Okay, I was just peeing.. and plus you turned around ANYWAYS!" Lorelai said.

"Whatever, I'm still traumatized for life," Luke replied simply. "I gotta go back now. I have to wake up really early tomorrow."

Lorelai pouted. "Don't go yet..."

Luke sighed. "I have to..."

Lorelai patted the seat next to her. "Sit for a while."

Sighing, Luke gave in and sat down.

"Wow, you gave in pretty easily this time. Maybe we should try again..," Lorelai said, looking at her.

Luke rolled his eyes. "Okay, can I go now?"

"OOooh, you had that all planned out didn't you? You thought if you just gave in, then you could walk away!" Lorelai said, giving him an accusing glance. "OOOh, Lukey, that was smart, but you're not getting away that easily, buster..."

"Oh, please," Luke said and put his finger on her lips. "You're starting to sound like the teacher again."

"Mwah, mwah, mwah...," Lorelai started. She interrupted by Luke's lips brushing against hers.

***********************************

When Luke woke up, Lorelai's head was in his lap. Luke stretched his stiff arms. He groaned. 'Sleeping while sitting on a sofa is the worst...,' He thought and tried to move, but Lorelai was not waking up. 'But it's not so bad...,' He thought smiling down at Lorelai's sleeping form.

After a round of Godfather movies, Lorelai had fallen asleep. He, on the other hand, had spent an hour watching her sleep, before dozing off too.

It was rather nice waking up with her, even if he could no longer feel his legs.

***********************************

When Luke walked up to the diner at seven am, there was already a crowd of cantankerous diners awaiting on his doorstep.

"Sorry," He mumbled and looked for his keys. "Damn!" He said and hit himself on the forehead. "I left them at Lore-..."

He saw Patty and Babette smiling at him. "No, no, that's now what happened...," Luke started.

"I knew it!" Babette giggled.

Patty grinned at him. "You work fast, Luke.... very smooth. She's one day out of the hospital and already you two are.."

"No!" Luke yelled. But he knew that no matter how he tried to tell them that wasn't what happened, it would soon be all over town that Luke and Lorelai were getting married or having their 7th child by the end of the day.

***********************************

"Mom," Rory gently shook her mom awake.

Lorelai groaned and tried to roll over but her casts prevented her from doing so.

"Mom?" Rory attempted to wake her up again.

Lorelai hit Rory's hand away.

"MOM!! Brad Pitt just took off his pants and..!"

Lorelai bolted awake. "Where!?" She looked up to find Rory smiling smugly at her. "Mean," Lorelai said and pouted.

"Hi," Rory said.

"Oh, Rory..I totally forgot.. I wanted to talk to you about something...," Lorelai said.

"Okay," Rory looked puzzled.

"But first, I need coffee," Lorelai said and rubbed her temples.

"K, I'll make some," Rory said.

"From Luke's, please," Lorelai replied. 'Where is Luke anyways?' She didn't remember anything from the night before, except that she had watched a lot of Marlon Brando.

"Okay, I'll go pick up some," Rory said and grabbed her jacket.

************************************

"Rory, honey!"

Rory looked at Patty as she entered the diner. "Hi, Patty."

"Rory, were you home last night when your mom and Luke...."

"HI, RORY!" Luke suddenly called out and came from around the counter to rescue her from Patty. "What do you need?"

Rory looked at him, confused by his loud tone, and looked back at Patty. "My mom and Luke...?"

Patty smiled slyly. "Well, it turns out that they..."

"You want coffee?" Luke interrupted.

"Huh?" Rory looked at him. "Oh, yeah, two cups to go."

"To go??" Luke said. "Great! To go is great. Going is an awesome thing to do right now.."

Rory looked at him, perplexed. "Okay..."

Luke hurriedly handed her two cups and ushered her out of the diner. "Bye!" He waved and practically pushed her out onto the sidewalk.

Rory looked dazed as she stood on the sidewalk. Shrugging, she started to walk away when she saw a face in the window upstairs. 'Jess...'

***********************************

Jess tried to hide behind the curtains but he knew that Rory had seen him. 'Rory,' He had planned to say that night at Harvard. 'I know we're not really near each other ... but I want to try this out...'

He shook his head. 'Dean? Was Dean the other guy?'