Where we last left off, Batman (Lorelai) still hadn't talked to Robin (Luke) about the kiss they shared in the Bat Cave (the Shower).

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Ch. 16: Super Bowl Sunday Bloody Sunday

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"I don't even like football," Lorelai whined as she threw a bag of chips in her basket.

"It's a house warming party. The football is secondary." Rory tossed in the salsa. "And we don't actually have to watch it, you know."

They continued down the snack aisle, picking up a few more things along the way. "But if we're not actually watching the game, what are we going to do? Talk to Jay? Talk to Luke? Oh boy, why don't I just shave my tongue with a razor blade because that'll be just as much fun."

Rory shook her head. "I still can't believe you haven't talked to him."

Lorelai tossed a bag of marshmallows in the general direction of her daughter's head. "I've talked to him."

Rory caught the marshmallows and put them in the basket. "You've exchanged words. But you haven't talked about the thing since the thing happened, and that was three weeks ago."

Lorelai procrastinated on answering by intensely scrutinizing the many flavors of ice cream. When she finally settled on a flavor, Rory was still giving her a stern look. "Stop it, you look like my mother."

"I'm just saying that once upon a time, someone gave me some sage advice about kissing another guy, and while it's not the same exact situation, I think the bottom line still applies. You need to make up your mind. And you need to talk to him, no matter what you decide."

Lorelai stalked to the checkout counter and dropped her basket on the conveyor belt. "Fine. I'll do it tonight."

"I'm gonna hold you to that."

Rory was still giving her the stern look. Lorelai got a sinking feeling in her stomach as she knew tonight would indeed be the night.

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Lorelai didn't know much about football, but she did know that there were only four quarters, and that three had already gone by. Which meant she only had one quarter left to stop holing up in the corner of Jay's living room and talk to Luke. Or else the disapproving looks Rory had been shooting her all night would only get worse.

One of the teams did something good, because all the men in the small crowd, plus Jay and Sookie, stood up and cheered. Kirk, after noticing everyone else was doing this, mimicked them.

"I sure love football," he explained to Lorelai when he sat back down.

"Yeah. It's great," she answered, her eyes darting over to the other couch, where Luke was sitting. Jay was sitting cross-legged on the floor in front of him. At least she wasn't in his lap.

How could she talk to him when there were twelve other people in the room and Jay was between his legs, so to speak. Lorelai spared another glance over at Rory.

Rory caught her glance, and in return furrowed her brow, silently telling her, 'Go talk to him.'

Lorelai widened her eyes in a silent response. 'How?' She made a slight nod in Jay's direction. 'His girlfriend is right there.'

Rory pursed her lips and folded her arms. 'Nice try.'

Lorelai pouted. 'What else?'

Rory gave her a really smug smile. 'How's this?'

Rory turned her head in Luke's direction. "Hey, Luke, my soda's getting a little warm. Can you get me a cup of ice?"

"Yeah, sure." Luke reached over the side of the couch to the cooler and flipped it open. He looked back up at Rory. "Uh, never mind. We're out."

Rory gave him a slight pout. "That's okay. I'll just drink it warm."

Luke stood up. "I'll get you some more."

Rory smiled. "Thanks." As Luke headed to the kitchen, she gave Lorelai another look, one that said, 'Now you have no excuse.'

Lorelai stuck her tongue out at her daughter, because everyone else was busy watching the game and wouldn't notice. But Rory was right, so she stood up. "Hey, Kirk, I'm going to get something to drink. You want anything?"

"Pina colada, and make sure it has one of those little umbrellas. Please."

"Got it. One beer."

Lorelai picked up her glass and went into the kitchen. Lucky for her, Jay's new house had the kind of kitchen that was closed off from the living room, and as she pushed open the kitchen door, she saw Luke digging through the freezer.

"Hey. I think you're officially the Town Iceman now."

Luke closed the freezer. "Did you come just to make little jokes, 'cause if so, I'm gonna bring Rory her ice before it melts."

Lorelai tried to steady herself. "No. I need to talk to you."

Luke put the ice bowl down. "Okay."

The tone in his voice was confusing her. It wasn't harsh, it wasn't friendly. It was just neutral. And Luke was never neutral.

Her mouth, like it tended to do, began talking before her brain could think of the best thing to say. "I've been trying to think of what to say to you, and you'd think that after more than three weeks, I could come up with something good, but here I am, and here you are, and all I can think of is…"

"Is what?" Luke asked, after a few seconds had passed.

"That's it. I can't think of anything." She shifted her weight around on her feet, picked at the hem of her shirt, then looked up at Luke. "What about you?"

"What about me."

"You want to say anything? Maybe if you go first, I can think of something."

"I don't know. I'm actually speechless over the fact that you're speechless."

Lorelai made herself smile. "Guess it's not a good time to tell you I quit coffee and only eat rice cakes. Might blow your mind."

"You already did that," Luke muttered, more to himself. But Lorelai heard it, and it made her stomach do a little flip.

"I just…it's just that…," Lorelai was having trouble getting started. She took her eyes off the bowl of ice and looked directly at him. At Luke, her friend for what seemed like ever, the guy who never learned to properly shave, the guy who kept her fed and in coffee, and she suddenly saw him. She saw herself with him, years from now, and it wasn't an idyllic painting of picket fences and babies in strollers, but a simple, generic picture. The two of them, curled up in bed while snow fell outside the window, watching a bad movie, groaning at it and throwing popcorn at the T.V. Luke was for the long haul.

Lorelai steeled herself. "You're my Mack truck."

Luke did that thing he did when he was utterly confused; lifting up his cap, running his hand through his hair, putting the cap back on, and frowning. "I know that sometimes, hell, most of the time, you say things just to hear yourself talk, but I've really got no clue on that one."

"Every other guy I've dated has just been like, a cab."

Luke shot her another confused look.

"A taxi cab," she clarified. "You know, you get in, you ride around a little, but you know that at some point, you gotta get out. A cab is short term. Temporary. But you, you're not a cab."

"Uh, thanks?"

Damn Luke. Did she have to explain every aspect of the metaphor to him? "You're my Mack truck. You're the tractor trailer, who'll be there for the long haul, five hundred thousand miles and still going strong." She took a step closer to him. "Do you understand?"

Luke's hand was on her waist. It was the first time he'd touched her since the shower, nearly a month earlier. It was scary how much just a small, chaste touch from him made her crazy.

"Lorelai," Luke said, and she really wished that for once this evening, she could figure out what the hell he was thinking. "Your timing is terrible," he finally said, and took his hand off her.

Again, he headed for the door. Again, Lorelai stopped him. "That's it?"

"That's it," he confirmed.

"No, I'm sorry, but that can't be it."

Finally, Luke was breaking out of his neutral mode. Unfortunately, it looked like he was getting angry. Ranty. Normally, Ranty Luke amused Lorelai, but not when the rant was directed at her.

"Accept it, Lorelai. You had plenty of time, you took too long, and so, that's it."

Lorelai gathered up all the courage she had, and while she normally had tons of the stuff, she must have left most of it in her other purse. "But, I thought that you and I…that we. I mean, it's been building up forever."

Luke was now in full rant mode. "You thought that suddenly, because you want it, then it was going to happen? The whole damn world revolves around you, right? Lorelai wants something, so she gets it. It doesn't matter how many people she walks over to get her way."

"That's not true or fair. I didn't know how you felt. I didn't even know how I felt."

"Until it was too late."

Luke took a few steps to the door.

"But it's not too late," Lorelai protested.

Luke didn't answer, he just opened the door and walked out. Lorelai collected herself, picked up her drink, and followed him, trying to look like her heart hadn't been broken.

She took her place next to Kirk, and attempted to distract herself with the guys in tight pants on T.V.

Kirk looked at her. "Where's my drink?"

Lorelai stuffed her own drink in his hand. Kirk shrugged and accepted it. Lorelai turned her gaze from the T.V. to Rory, who'd been intently looking at her since her return. Rory had a questioning look on her face; Lorelai returned a look that said she'd tell her all about it later.

Neither Gilmore noticed the look on Jay's face.

*end ch. 16*

Stay tuned! Same Bat-time, same Bat-channel!

P.S. For all who keep requesting faster updates, I appreciate the eagerness but I feel it's only fair to tell you that it's not going to help. Writing fanfic is fairly low on my priorities at the moment. But good news for you is that I'm almost done with the next chapter, so it won't be too much of a wait. And it won't be as much of a downer.

P.P.S. That "mack truck" metaphor, while I'd like to say it hit me in a beautiful moment of creativity, was actually inspired while watching MST3K, episode "Diabolik," when the slutty girl distracts a truck driver so her thief/spy/boyfriend, Diabolik himself, steals the truck. And he sneaks around in his little black skin tight spy suit like a ballet dancer on crack. So now you know my dirty little secret!