Disclaimer: I don't own any of them (though Scott Patterson would be a
nice addition to my home)
A/N: I know perfectly well this scenario will never be written into the show. The exact reason I wrote it here.
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Out of Nowhere
Chapter 1 – Unexpected
Surveying the kitchen in the apartment she was sharing Lane was disappointed to find the groceries she had gotten the week before were nearly gone. "Hey guys, when are we going to be able to do some more food shopping?"
Brian responded from where he was sitting on the couch "I've looked at our finances and we're running kind of low. I've asked for some extra shifts but my boss is not big on overtime. What about you, Zach?"
"Dude, I'm tapped. Ever since Al found out one of my roommates works for Luke, he's been giving me short hours." They all nodded at that, everyone knew Al, of Al's House of Pancakes, saw Luke as his biggest competitor.
"Well, I guess I could ask Luke for some extra shifts, but he's been a little off for the last few days, so I don't know if he'll agree." Looking at the clock and realizing it was almost closing time for the diner Lane decided to go talk to Luke now. "Listen guys, I'm going to head over to Luke's and ask him. I should be back in a little while."
As she came up to the dark diner, she realized Luke must have closed earlier. She debated whether or not to use the key he'd given her and decided that since the light was on upstairs he probably wouldn't mind talking to her
As she walked up the stairs to his apartment she could hear stuff being tossed around and what sounded like cursing coming from inside.
"Luke, are you there?" she called out while knocking on the door. She heard a crash and curse and it occurred to her that coming up here might not have been a good idea. Lane started to turn and go. She stopped however when Luke suddenly opened the door.
"Lane?" Luke had been more than a little startled when he heard someone knock on his door and even more so when he recognized Lane's voice. "What are you doing here this late? Is everything okay? Are you hurt?" Listening to the questions rushing out of his mouth, Luke was a little surprised to find he was this worried about Lane but she wasn't normally the type to go to strange men's homes so late at night and that had him concerned.
"Oh, I'm fine Luke really. Listen it sounds like I came at a bad time. Bad timing is normal for me. I should really get that checked out. Why don't I just go? Bye!" Lane was rambling on and on and was horrified that she couldn't seem to make herself stop. Finally cutting herself off she turned to go and let out a little shriek when her arm was grabbed.
Luke was really starting to think something was wrong what with the rambling and the nervousness. Add in the fact that it was late at night, and he was really getting concerned something had happened to her, what if one of those guys she lived with suddenly got it into his head she was fair game! He grabbed her arm and turned her around to face him. "Lane did something happen? Did one of those guys you live with try something? I swear to God I'll kill him! Which one was it?"
By now Lane was truly regretting coming over, she had no idea what had gotten him so worked up and was a little uncertain how to talk him down. "Luke, nothing happened I swear! I just wanted to talk to you about something but it can wait."
"Nothing happened? Are you sure?" "No, absolutely nothing has happened to me!" Luke, calming down, realized he had been jumping to conclusions and judging by the look on Lane's face she was obviously thinking his mind had jumped somewhere, like off the tracks and into Crazyworld. He also realized he was holding onto her arm still and dropped it as fast as he could.
"I'm sorry, Lane. I've, uh, been having kind of a rough night, I didn't mean to scare you like that."
"Oh, you didn't scare me, really!" She noticed Luke had calmed down considerably. Now that she was able to think clearly and without him looking like some sort of avenging angel she realized something startling.
Luke wasn't wearing his normal flannel shirt. Nor was he wearing his normal jeans. He was wearing his normal backwards cap, however. But the cut off sweat pants and tank top were new to her. Definitely new. She couldn't say she had ever seen his legs before or his shoulders or that much of his chest really. She knew she was staring and at his body no less but was having a hard time making herself stop.
She usually tried to cut off any thoughts she might have about adult men knowing that it was probably pointless fantasy anyway. But every once in a while she would notice a handsome man and wonder what it would be like to be with someone like that. Ever since she had found out about Paris dating the professor the thoughts had become rampant. In her more honest moments she could admit to herself that when she fantasized it was usually about men around Luke's age, and in her completely honest moments she could admit that she had in fact fantasized about Luke. Not so surprising since he was the only single man she was ever really around.
Lane realized with a start that she had been staring at Luke for a minute or two now and he seemed to be getting a little uncomfortable with her scrutiny. She hoped he hadn't noticed her giving him the once over.
Meanwhile, Luke had noticed what Lane was looking at and he was more than a little uncomfortable with the fact that her eyes seemed to have landed permanently at waist level. The way she was staring he wondered if at some point he had lost the cut offs. He was interested to note that she seemed to be having trouble looking him in the face and then instantly criticized himself for thinking any sort of indecent thought about Lane. She was making it difficult though, no woman had looked at him like that since he and Nicole had started dating. Thinking about Nicole reminded him of what he had been doing before Lane showed up.
"Sorry I'm not dressed, I was rearranging some furniture around and thinking about some stuff and well it's late but if you want to talk we can or tomorrow would be fine." The fact that her eyes had shifted back to his face hadn't really given him any relief since he could now see her face and could notice that her breathing was a little unsteady. Luke decided he was probably turning into a perverted old man thinking about a kid like that and that he really need to get her away from him.
"Lane, you should probably go. I'm not the best company right now."
Lane was surprised by the abrupt change in conversation. She really focused on his face and was worried to find he looked like he'd been through the wringer. Instantly, concern for him pushed past all of her other thoughts.
"Luke, is something wrong?" She asked knowing he probably wouldn't answer.
Hearing the concern in her voice, he looked down at her and noticed, not for the first time, how nice she always looked. Thoughts like that aren't going to help anything, Luke finally responded, "I'm alright, I just need to finish some stuff before work tomorrow. Why don't you go on home and we'll talk when you come in?"
"Luke, I'm a little worried about you. You haven't been yourself in a few days and now you're moving furniture around in here? I thought you had moved in with your wife. I realize you probably want to talk to someone else about this but I'm not leaving until you tell me what's wrong. I mean, you've been really good to me since I had to move out of my house please let me return the favor."
Luke moved closer to her, stopping within reach of her. "You don't owe me anything. I've known you since you were a kid, hell you still are a kid. I'll always want to look out for you. And my problems aren't something I should discuss with you."
Knowing he was about to ask her to go and truly wanting to help him, she decided to be a little more daring. She took one of his hands and held it between both of hers. The sudden move had the desired effect and got Luke's attention.
"I want to help. I'm not a little kid anymore. Maybe I haven't been through as much as you have but if it's about relationship problems then I can definitely relate."
Luke wanted to take his hand back, he didn't feel comfortable having what amounted to intimate contact with Lane, but he didn't want to hurt her feelings, it had obviously taken some effort on her part to reach out and touch him. Thinking about her hesitation he wondered why people were always so leery of touching him. He didn't think he was that unapproachable, sure he didn't have the friendliest personality but he didn't think he was scary by any means. Suddenly her hesitation reminded him of how Nicole had always avoided touching him outside of the bedroom and he felt the anger building up again. She certainly hadn't seemed to mind touching Sockman on the way upstairs to their bedroom.
"I appreciate your wanting to help, but it's not appropriate. Just do me a favor and remember the next time you're in a relationship with a guy and you want to break it off, don't do it by sleeping with someone else." With that Luke removed his hand from between hers and moved back farther into his apartment toward the kitchen. Lane followed determinedly behind him intent on getting some answers.
"Is that what happened?"
"Let it go, Lane."
"Luke, if Nicole cheated on you then she's obviously a moron! How could she do that to you?"
"That's what I wanted to know. Thanks for the moron bit, though." Luke couldn't help but chuckle when he saw how angry she seemed to be on his behalf. He did like knowing she was worried about him. Lane's worrying didn't seem to be the same as Lorelai's worrying. Lorelai did care about him but he could always tell it unnerved a bit whenever he wasn't the steady rock he was supposed to be for her. Lane though, just looked genuinely concerned and he could appreciate the difference even if he didn't like the fact that he was comparing Lane to Lorelai. He decided to try and convince her he was alright, he really needed some space from her before she noticed something strange was going on with him. "Look, things were strained between Nicole and I, we both let it last to long. That's all there was to it, now I don't want to talk about this anymore."
Lane nodded her head willing to let him be for the moment. She knew it was going to take some drastic action to get him to open up to her so she decided to wait and let him calm down a bit before she tried talking about it.
"Lane, you never did answer my question about why you're here so late."
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A/N: I know perfectly well this scenario will never be written into the show. The exact reason I wrote it here.
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Out of Nowhere
Chapter 1 – Unexpected
Surveying the kitchen in the apartment she was sharing Lane was disappointed to find the groceries she had gotten the week before were nearly gone. "Hey guys, when are we going to be able to do some more food shopping?"
Brian responded from where he was sitting on the couch "I've looked at our finances and we're running kind of low. I've asked for some extra shifts but my boss is not big on overtime. What about you, Zach?"
"Dude, I'm tapped. Ever since Al found out one of my roommates works for Luke, he's been giving me short hours." They all nodded at that, everyone knew Al, of Al's House of Pancakes, saw Luke as his biggest competitor.
"Well, I guess I could ask Luke for some extra shifts, but he's been a little off for the last few days, so I don't know if he'll agree." Looking at the clock and realizing it was almost closing time for the diner Lane decided to go talk to Luke now. "Listen guys, I'm going to head over to Luke's and ask him. I should be back in a little while."
As she came up to the dark diner, she realized Luke must have closed earlier. She debated whether or not to use the key he'd given her and decided that since the light was on upstairs he probably wouldn't mind talking to her
As she walked up the stairs to his apartment she could hear stuff being tossed around and what sounded like cursing coming from inside.
"Luke, are you there?" she called out while knocking on the door. She heard a crash and curse and it occurred to her that coming up here might not have been a good idea. Lane started to turn and go. She stopped however when Luke suddenly opened the door.
"Lane?" Luke had been more than a little startled when he heard someone knock on his door and even more so when he recognized Lane's voice. "What are you doing here this late? Is everything okay? Are you hurt?" Listening to the questions rushing out of his mouth, Luke was a little surprised to find he was this worried about Lane but she wasn't normally the type to go to strange men's homes so late at night and that had him concerned.
"Oh, I'm fine Luke really. Listen it sounds like I came at a bad time. Bad timing is normal for me. I should really get that checked out. Why don't I just go? Bye!" Lane was rambling on and on and was horrified that she couldn't seem to make herself stop. Finally cutting herself off she turned to go and let out a little shriek when her arm was grabbed.
Luke was really starting to think something was wrong what with the rambling and the nervousness. Add in the fact that it was late at night, and he was really getting concerned something had happened to her, what if one of those guys she lived with suddenly got it into his head she was fair game! He grabbed her arm and turned her around to face him. "Lane did something happen? Did one of those guys you live with try something? I swear to God I'll kill him! Which one was it?"
By now Lane was truly regretting coming over, she had no idea what had gotten him so worked up and was a little uncertain how to talk him down. "Luke, nothing happened I swear! I just wanted to talk to you about something but it can wait."
"Nothing happened? Are you sure?" "No, absolutely nothing has happened to me!" Luke, calming down, realized he had been jumping to conclusions and judging by the look on Lane's face she was obviously thinking his mind had jumped somewhere, like off the tracks and into Crazyworld. He also realized he was holding onto her arm still and dropped it as fast as he could.
"I'm sorry, Lane. I've, uh, been having kind of a rough night, I didn't mean to scare you like that."
"Oh, you didn't scare me, really!" She noticed Luke had calmed down considerably. Now that she was able to think clearly and without him looking like some sort of avenging angel she realized something startling.
Luke wasn't wearing his normal flannel shirt. Nor was he wearing his normal jeans. He was wearing his normal backwards cap, however. But the cut off sweat pants and tank top were new to her. Definitely new. She couldn't say she had ever seen his legs before or his shoulders or that much of his chest really. She knew she was staring and at his body no less but was having a hard time making herself stop.
She usually tried to cut off any thoughts she might have about adult men knowing that it was probably pointless fantasy anyway. But every once in a while she would notice a handsome man and wonder what it would be like to be with someone like that. Ever since she had found out about Paris dating the professor the thoughts had become rampant. In her more honest moments she could admit to herself that when she fantasized it was usually about men around Luke's age, and in her completely honest moments she could admit that she had in fact fantasized about Luke. Not so surprising since he was the only single man she was ever really around.
Lane realized with a start that she had been staring at Luke for a minute or two now and he seemed to be getting a little uncomfortable with her scrutiny. She hoped he hadn't noticed her giving him the once over.
Meanwhile, Luke had noticed what Lane was looking at and he was more than a little uncomfortable with the fact that her eyes seemed to have landed permanently at waist level. The way she was staring he wondered if at some point he had lost the cut offs. He was interested to note that she seemed to be having trouble looking him in the face and then instantly criticized himself for thinking any sort of indecent thought about Lane. She was making it difficult though, no woman had looked at him like that since he and Nicole had started dating. Thinking about Nicole reminded him of what he had been doing before Lane showed up.
"Sorry I'm not dressed, I was rearranging some furniture around and thinking about some stuff and well it's late but if you want to talk we can or tomorrow would be fine." The fact that her eyes had shifted back to his face hadn't really given him any relief since he could now see her face and could notice that her breathing was a little unsteady. Luke decided he was probably turning into a perverted old man thinking about a kid like that and that he really need to get her away from him.
"Lane, you should probably go. I'm not the best company right now."
Lane was surprised by the abrupt change in conversation. She really focused on his face and was worried to find he looked like he'd been through the wringer. Instantly, concern for him pushed past all of her other thoughts.
"Luke, is something wrong?" She asked knowing he probably wouldn't answer.
Hearing the concern in her voice, he looked down at her and noticed, not for the first time, how nice she always looked. Thoughts like that aren't going to help anything, Luke finally responded, "I'm alright, I just need to finish some stuff before work tomorrow. Why don't you go on home and we'll talk when you come in?"
"Luke, I'm a little worried about you. You haven't been yourself in a few days and now you're moving furniture around in here? I thought you had moved in with your wife. I realize you probably want to talk to someone else about this but I'm not leaving until you tell me what's wrong. I mean, you've been really good to me since I had to move out of my house please let me return the favor."
Luke moved closer to her, stopping within reach of her. "You don't owe me anything. I've known you since you were a kid, hell you still are a kid. I'll always want to look out for you. And my problems aren't something I should discuss with you."
Knowing he was about to ask her to go and truly wanting to help him, she decided to be a little more daring. She took one of his hands and held it between both of hers. The sudden move had the desired effect and got Luke's attention.
"I want to help. I'm not a little kid anymore. Maybe I haven't been through as much as you have but if it's about relationship problems then I can definitely relate."
Luke wanted to take his hand back, he didn't feel comfortable having what amounted to intimate contact with Lane, but he didn't want to hurt her feelings, it had obviously taken some effort on her part to reach out and touch him. Thinking about her hesitation he wondered why people were always so leery of touching him. He didn't think he was that unapproachable, sure he didn't have the friendliest personality but he didn't think he was scary by any means. Suddenly her hesitation reminded him of how Nicole had always avoided touching him outside of the bedroom and he felt the anger building up again. She certainly hadn't seemed to mind touching Sockman on the way upstairs to their bedroom.
"I appreciate your wanting to help, but it's not appropriate. Just do me a favor and remember the next time you're in a relationship with a guy and you want to break it off, don't do it by sleeping with someone else." With that Luke removed his hand from between hers and moved back farther into his apartment toward the kitchen. Lane followed determinedly behind him intent on getting some answers.
"Is that what happened?"
"Let it go, Lane."
"Luke, if Nicole cheated on you then she's obviously a moron! How could she do that to you?"
"That's what I wanted to know. Thanks for the moron bit, though." Luke couldn't help but chuckle when he saw how angry she seemed to be on his behalf. He did like knowing she was worried about him. Lane's worrying didn't seem to be the same as Lorelai's worrying. Lorelai did care about him but he could always tell it unnerved a bit whenever he wasn't the steady rock he was supposed to be for her. Lane though, just looked genuinely concerned and he could appreciate the difference even if he didn't like the fact that he was comparing Lane to Lorelai. He decided to try and convince her he was alright, he really needed some space from her before she noticed something strange was going on with him. "Look, things were strained between Nicole and I, we both let it last to long. That's all there was to it, now I don't want to talk about this anymore."
Lane nodded her head willing to let him be for the moment. She knew it was going to take some drastic action to get him to open up to her so she decided to wait and let him calm down a bit before she tried talking about it.
"Lane, you never did answer my question about why you're here so late."
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