Sookie lifted her head off of Jackson's shoulder and wiped her eyes with
the corner of her sleeve.
"You, uh, going to be okay?" Jackson asked.
"I'll be fine." Sookie sniffed. " Poor Lorelai." She glanced over at the diner, thinking of all the possible ways to punish Luke for being such a jackass. So far her favourite one involved a long length of rope and a vegetable grater. Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid Luke. It's not like everyone didn't already know how he felt about Lorelai. Who the hell did he think he was fooling going back to- " NICOLE." Everyone's heads snapped around to look at where Sookie was pointing.
"What?"
"NICOLE! Nicole just came out of Luke's." Sookie exclaimed. Maybe things were looking up. Nicole didn't look too happy. Not that Sookie ever found enjoyment in other people's misery, but there are exceptions to every rule." She's carrying a bunch of stuff. OHMYGO- They must have broken it off and she's taking back all her stuff! Jackson!!!!" Sookie squealed and squeezed Jackson's arm tight.
"OW!"
"Sorry, I'm just happy." Sookie was fidgeting in her seat, easing up on Jackson's arm.
"But where's Luke?" Miss Patty was peering anxiously at the door to the diner as Nicole's car sped off.
"She's gone, she's gone. Luke choose Lorelai." Sookie had picked up Davey and was dancing with him around the table.
"Here he comes!" Miss Patty hissed, as though Luke would hear them if she spoke too loudly. They watched as he stepped slowly out of the diner, fishing around in his pockets for the keys. He locked the door and stepped back, looking up at the sign above the diner and nodded slowly. Luke climbed into the truck and sunk back, lifting his hat and running his hand through his hair. The truck grumbled a little as he turned the key, but eventually the engine turned over and Luke turned left around the corner, through a red light. Taylor cried out indignantly, but quieted up quickly at the glares from half the restaurant, mumbling something about a lack of respect and dignity.
****************************
Nicole rounded the corner and realized that her gas tank was almost empty. This was such a pain. She just wanted to get out of this town as fast as she could, but she pulled into Gypsy's right behind a silver sedan. Ducking out of the driver's side, she walked quickly over to the pump and snapped open the gas tank.
"Excuse me?"
"What!" Nicole snapped at the man who was standing behind her. He frowned and stepped back a little, and Nicole sighed. " Sorry about that. I've just had a really, really bad day."
"That's alright." Nicole noticed that he didn't look like the Stars Hollow type. He was big league, business man.
"Was there anything I could do for you?"
"Yeah, I was just going to surprise my girlfriend over at the baseball field, but I went there and everyone was gone." Nicole nodded her head.
"Yeah, there was a bit of an......incident. I think everyone cleared out afterwards."
"What happened?" Nicole shrugged.
"Oh you know, I caught my husband under a tree with another woman." The guy winced sympathetically.
"That's your bad day?"
"Yeah."
"That's pretty bad."
"You're telling me."
"Well, I don't want to bother you. Do you think you just could tell me where I might find Lorelai Gilmore?" Nicole gave an incredulous laugh.
"You're.....Lorelai's boyfriend." She smiled at him and shook her head. Jason nodded, and looked at her strangely. "...... Lorelai's boyfriend. Well, it's very nice to meet you. I'm Nicole Leahy."
"Nice to meet you. Jason Stiles." Jason shook her outstretched hand but still looked a little confused.
"Oh, you probably don't know who I am. I'm Luke Danes's wife. But not much longer." She added sharply. No, she wasn't mad at Luke. But hell, just try and stop her from being pissed at Lorelai. " And I'm not sure where Lorelai is right now. She ran off after I caught her under the tree with Luke. Well, looks like my tank's full. I don't suppose I'll be seeing you again at anytime soon. Good luck Jason. Keep the change." Nicole handed forty dollars to the gas attendant, climbed into her car and drove away. Jason blinked slowly as she drove off, then climbed back into his own car and drove out of Stars Hollow. He picked up his cell phone, hoping that wherever Lorelai was, it wasn't her living room right now. He breathed a sigh of relief as the message machine came on.
"Hey Lorelai, it's Jason. I couldn't find you, but I met someone named Nicole at the gas station. She said she found you under a tree with her husband. If this is all a misunderstanding, then give me a call and we'll laugh about it over dinner. If it's not, then don't. Bye." Shaking his head, he flipped his phone shut and tossed it into the glove compartment.
*********************
Luke pulled around the corner and could see Lorelai's house. He noticed that one of the front steps was slanted a little to the left. He'd have to come over and fix it up later. Wait, that wasn't what he was here for. He had more...important things to do. He hoped she would answer the door, knew he'd go in anyways even if she didn't. Luke pulled the truck up into the drive way and let it roll to a stop. He was about to climb out of the cab when he saw a lump on the chuppa. A Lorelai lump. He swallowed and turned the keys off in the ignition.
***********************
Lorelai was curled up on the floor of the chuppa, examining the terrible paint job on her toenails and thinking about Nicole. She hadn't meant to do anything slutty at all. She hadn't really MEANT to do anything. Never really thought of deliberately doing anything with Luke. It had just kind of .....happened. And in her defence, Luke hadn't really been complaining when they ended up holding hands. Then again neither had Lorelai. She was just starting into a good sigh when she heard wheels grinding up on the driveway. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Luke's truck and felt herself smile a little. She lifted up her head and turned to look at him. Luke was just sitting in the truck and looking at her. Lorelai waved to him and then beckoned to him to come on over. Luke nodded, undoing his seatbelt, and climbing out of the truck. He walked slowly across the leaves that were strewn across the lawn, not yet covered in snow, and Lorelai pulled herself up into a sitting position, leaning back on her palms. Luke crouched down next to the chuppa, crossing his arms.
"So...."
"So...." They looked at each other with raised eyebrows, but Lorelai was the first one to say anything to break the silence. " What took you and the elephant in the room so long to get here."
"We're not in a room."
"Thank you Mr. Literal. I was talking about the Nicolephant."
"Took the last and fastest ticket out of Stars Hollow."
"Sorry."
"Agh....." Luke shook his head. " Never would have worked out. I mean, you have to put work into a relationship, but it was getting a little......"
"Too labour intensive?" Luke nodded.
"So, you doing okay?" He put a hand gently on her shoulder and bent his head to look into her eyes. Lorelai looked up and nodded.
"About as good as anyone who's had their mistakes rubbed in their face and been called a slut."
"I'm sorry about that. There was not way she ever had the right to say anything like that. Don't even think about it ."
"I think everyone in the town was thinking about it today."
"Come on Lorelai. They know you. No one in this town believes Nicole."
"Maybe Bootsy."
"Bootsy's an idiot....And hey. At least you aren't the guy defacing the sanctity of his marriage." Luke rolled his eyes and shook his head.
"SO that's what we were doing." Lorelai laughed. Luke looked awkward and frowned.
"I don't know." Lorelai lifted up her hand and laid it down on Luke's arm. It took her a few tries to get out what she wanted to say.
"A-........Wh-........IF-......Luke, where are we? What are we Luke? If I'm not a slut, then what exactly am I?"
"You're...you're..I don't know. It's kinda like you're.....Like you're my hat." Luke tried aimlessly, gesturing vaguely as thought it would help to explain the thought he wanted to get out.
"That's either sweet or disturbing and gross." Lorelai frowned. Luke took his hat off and played with it nervously.
"Nicole called it my Lorelai hat."
"Your what?"
"She mentioned something about how it's the only hat I wear."
"So?"
"You bought me this hat." Luke said shyly, looking down at his hands. Lorelai grinned up at him.
"Your Lorelai hat?" Luke nodded. " So I'm your hat?"
"Yeah....I guess so." Luke rubbed the side of his face, looking a little confused. Lorelai looked up at him with the edges of her mouth twitching.
"What does that even mean." She giggled.
"Hell if I know." Luke shrugged, trying not to smile and failing. He grinned at her sheepishly as she laughed a little. She put her hand down on his arm and smiled, still laughing.
"Thanks Luke. You've really helped clear this up."
"I do what I can."
"Always do everything you can for me Luke. That's why I love you." Lorelai said grinning. Luke gave her a strange look, a little questioning and a little confused, mostly unbelieving. Lorelai heard the flock of awkward silence flap nearer, and looked away, but it flew in and nested anyways. They both looked away for a little while. " So....where are we?"
"Well....." Luke lifted his hat and ran his fingers through his hair, trying to think. " For me... it's just....You're here-You're always here." He explained.
"Whether you want me to be or not." Luke smiled and continued in a wandering kind of way.
"And I'm used to having you around. Used to the way you.....feel." Luke furrowed his brow, trying to figure if he had used the right word.
"Like your hat." Lorelai tapped the brim knowingly, and Luke nodded, smiling.
"Yeah...I guess so. I just- I'm so used to it that....I'm just not sure what IT is." Luke tried to explain what he was thinking about.
"Okay."
"You know what I'm trying to say."
"Exactly."
"You really know what it is I'm trying to say?" Luke frowned as Lorelai grunted and nodded her head.
"Honestly? You know? You understand what I'm trying to say to you?" Luke started to give her strange looks. She was grunting in response every time he said something. Then he nodded his head, and started to grin, glaring at her playfully. " You're mocking me aren't you."
"Maybe. Just a little." Lorelai pushed her index finger and her thumb tightly together, but as she looked at Luke with fake guilt she made the gap bigger. " Okay a lot. I'm just not used to you being the one with all the words coming out. It's like I suddenly hit the jackpot on the Luke Conversation Slot Machine after all these years and all of a sudden all these word started pouring out, and I didn't know what to do with all of them so I went into automatic mocking mode. It's my default."
"You're giving me a headache."
"You like it when I give you headaches."
"You are a headache."
"And yet I'm not giving myself to you. Hmmm...." Lorelai thought for a minute. " That was kind of a dirty thought. I really have to think before I talk."
"I think in this case it is too late to teach an old dog new tricks." Luke smirked.
"Did you just call me old...and a dog?" Lorelai raised her eyebrow.
"I think so." Luke was shaking his head unbelievingly, like he wasn't sure what he had been thinking.
"And you did that WHY?"
"I don't know." Luke frowned.
"Did we want to get back on topic before you dig yourself into an even bigger hole Mr. Danes."
"Please." Luke sighed thankfully.
"So....where do we go from here?"
"... I think...maybe we should wait. A lot has happened in the last little while. We'll give it a little time, figure it out somehow."
"That's a good idea. I'm a little more than confused right now."
"I'm still married. I don't think I should be married if....."
"I have to break up with Jason. I think we're still officially together."
"Officially?"
"And only officially." Lorelai insisted honestly. No more Jason of course. He hadn't really been a serious thing anyways...but what exactly did she have now instead......" SO. This should going to be pretty interesting." Lorelai furrowed her brows.
"Yeah, well, we should start a support group." Luke said sarcastically, standing up and tugging on his hat. Lorelai smiled at it. She stood up to say goodbye and looked at Luke standing there for a minute. He stared at the ground for a moment, then looked up at Lorelai and saw her staring at him. He flushed up a little, but Lorelai smiled at him and wrapped her arms around his chest. Luke awkwardly put his arms around her waist and heard her sigh as she relaxed against him.
"Good sigh, bad sigh?" He asked cautiously.
"Is this like good idea/bad idea from Animaniacs?"
"No."
"No fun. Okay. Good sigh then." Luke knew that he should get going, but didn't really want to let go. He put one hand overtop of the other on Lorelai's back and brought her a little closer..
"I should get going." He mumbled.
"One more minute please." Lorelai grinned and Luke gave a little laugh. Lorelai laid her head on his shoulder and looked up at him. " You're the best friend a girl could ask for. You know that?"
"I do what I can." Luke mumbled. Lorelai took a deep breathe and gave Luke a gentle squeeze. Luke carefully brought up one hand and gently stroked her hair absently. Lorelai sighed and pulled back reluctantly, keeping her hands on his waist as Luke dropped his into his pockets. He glanced away, then looked back at her.
"I'll see you-" He let his sentence hang in the air. The sun had started to set already.
"Soon. You've got the magic." Lorelai nodded.
"The coffee." Luke suggested, confused.
"Sure." Lorelai said lightly, giving him a teasing grin. Luke shook his head. He rubbed her shoulder gently.
"I'll see you soon Lorelai."
"Bye Luke." Lorelai sat back down in the middle of the chuppa and grinned, watching as he walked slowly towards the truck, climbing in and giving her a short wave before pulling away. This was good, definitely good. Not great...not yet. But definitely good.
"You, uh, going to be okay?" Jackson asked.
"I'll be fine." Sookie sniffed. " Poor Lorelai." She glanced over at the diner, thinking of all the possible ways to punish Luke for being such a jackass. So far her favourite one involved a long length of rope and a vegetable grater. Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid Luke. It's not like everyone didn't already know how he felt about Lorelai. Who the hell did he think he was fooling going back to- " NICOLE." Everyone's heads snapped around to look at where Sookie was pointing.
"What?"
"NICOLE! Nicole just came out of Luke's." Sookie exclaimed. Maybe things were looking up. Nicole didn't look too happy. Not that Sookie ever found enjoyment in other people's misery, but there are exceptions to every rule." She's carrying a bunch of stuff. OHMYGO- They must have broken it off and she's taking back all her stuff! Jackson!!!!" Sookie squealed and squeezed Jackson's arm tight.
"OW!"
"Sorry, I'm just happy." Sookie was fidgeting in her seat, easing up on Jackson's arm.
"But where's Luke?" Miss Patty was peering anxiously at the door to the diner as Nicole's car sped off.
"She's gone, she's gone. Luke choose Lorelai." Sookie had picked up Davey and was dancing with him around the table.
"Here he comes!" Miss Patty hissed, as though Luke would hear them if she spoke too loudly. They watched as he stepped slowly out of the diner, fishing around in his pockets for the keys. He locked the door and stepped back, looking up at the sign above the diner and nodded slowly. Luke climbed into the truck and sunk back, lifting his hat and running his hand through his hair. The truck grumbled a little as he turned the key, but eventually the engine turned over and Luke turned left around the corner, through a red light. Taylor cried out indignantly, but quieted up quickly at the glares from half the restaurant, mumbling something about a lack of respect and dignity.
****************************
Nicole rounded the corner and realized that her gas tank was almost empty. This was such a pain. She just wanted to get out of this town as fast as she could, but she pulled into Gypsy's right behind a silver sedan. Ducking out of the driver's side, she walked quickly over to the pump and snapped open the gas tank.
"Excuse me?"
"What!" Nicole snapped at the man who was standing behind her. He frowned and stepped back a little, and Nicole sighed. " Sorry about that. I've just had a really, really bad day."
"That's alright." Nicole noticed that he didn't look like the Stars Hollow type. He was big league, business man.
"Was there anything I could do for you?"
"Yeah, I was just going to surprise my girlfriend over at the baseball field, but I went there and everyone was gone." Nicole nodded her head.
"Yeah, there was a bit of an......incident. I think everyone cleared out afterwards."
"What happened?" Nicole shrugged.
"Oh you know, I caught my husband under a tree with another woman." The guy winced sympathetically.
"That's your bad day?"
"Yeah."
"That's pretty bad."
"You're telling me."
"Well, I don't want to bother you. Do you think you just could tell me where I might find Lorelai Gilmore?" Nicole gave an incredulous laugh.
"You're.....Lorelai's boyfriend." She smiled at him and shook her head. Jason nodded, and looked at her strangely. "...... Lorelai's boyfriend. Well, it's very nice to meet you. I'm Nicole Leahy."
"Nice to meet you. Jason Stiles." Jason shook her outstretched hand but still looked a little confused.
"Oh, you probably don't know who I am. I'm Luke Danes's wife. But not much longer." She added sharply. No, she wasn't mad at Luke. But hell, just try and stop her from being pissed at Lorelai. " And I'm not sure where Lorelai is right now. She ran off after I caught her under the tree with Luke. Well, looks like my tank's full. I don't suppose I'll be seeing you again at anytime soon. Good luck Jason. Keep the change." Nicole handed forty dollars to the gas attendant, climbed into her car and drove away. Jason blinked slowly as she drove off, then climbed back into his own car and drove out of Stars Hollow. He picked up his cell phone, hoping that wherever Lorelai was, it wasn't her living room right now. He breathed a sigh of relief as the message machine came on.
"Hey Lorelai, it's Jason. I couldn't find you, but I met someone named Nicole at the gas station. She said she found you under a tree with her husband. If this is all a misunderstanding, then give me a call and we'll laugh about it over dinner. If it's not, then don't. Bye." Shaking his head, he flipped his phone shut and tossed it into the glove compartment.
*********************
Luke pulled around the corner and could see Lorelai's house. He noticed that one of the front steps was slanted a little to the left. He'd have to come over and fix it up later. Wait, that wasn't what he was here for. He had more...important things to do. He hoped she would answer the door, knew he'd go in anyways even if she didn't. Luke pulled the truck up into the drive way and let it roll to a stop. He was about to climb out of the cab when he saw a lump on the chuppa. A Lorelai lump. He swallowed and turned the keys off in the ignition.
***********************
Lorelai was curled up on the floor of the chuppa, examining the terrible paint job on her toenails and thinking about Nicole. She hadn't meant to do anything slutty at all. She hadn't really MEANT to do anything. Never really thought of deliberately doing anything with Luke. It had just kind of .....happened. And in her defence, Luke hadn't really been complaining when they ended up holding hands. Then again neither had Lorelai. She was just starting into a good sigh when she heard wheels grinding up on the driveway. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Luke's truck and felt herself smile a little. She lifted up her head and turned to look at him. Luke was just sitting in the truck and looking at her. Lorelai waved to him and then beckoned to him to come on over. Luke nodded, undoing his seatbelt, and climbing out of the truck. He walked slowly across the leaves that were strewn across the lawn, not yet covered in snow, and Lorelai pulled herself up into a sitting position, leaning back on her palms. Luke crouched down next to the chuppa, crossing his arms.
"So...."
"So...." They looked at each other with raised eyebrows, but Lorelai was the first one to say anything to break the silence. " What took you and the elephant in the room so long to get here."
"We're not in a room."
"Thank you Mr. Literal. I was talking about the Nicolephant."
"Took the last and fastest ticket out of Stars Hollow."
"Sorry."
"Agh....." Luke shook his head. " Never would have worked out. I mean, you have to put work into a relationship, but it was getting a little......"
"Too labour intensive?" Luke nodded.
"So, you doing okay?" He put a hand gently on her shoulder and bent his head to look into her eyes. Lorelai looked up and nodded.
"About as good as anyone who's had their mistakes rubbed in their face and been called a slut."
"I'm sorry about that. There was not way she ever had the right to say anything like that. Don't even think about it ."
"I think everyone in the town was thinking about it today."
"Come on Lorelai. They know you. No one in this town believes Nicole."
"Maybe Bootsy."
"Bootsy's an idiot....And hey. At least you aren't the guy defacing the sanctity of his marriage." Luke rolled his eyes and shook his head.
"SO that's what we were doing." Lorelai laughed. Luke looked awkward and frowned.
"I don't know." Lorelai lifted up her hand and laid it down on Luke's arm. It took her a few tries to get out what she wanted to say.
"A-........Wh-........IF-......Luke, where are we? What are we Luke? If I'm not a slut, then what exactly am I?"
"You're...you're..I don't know. It's kinda like you're.....Like you're my hat." Luke tried aimlessly, gesturing vaguely as thought it would help to explain the thought he wanted to get out.
"That's either sweet or disturbing and gross." Lorelai frowned. Luke took his hat off and played with it nervously.
"Nicole called it my Lorelai hat."
"Your what?"
"She mentioned something about how it's the only hat I wear."
"So?"
"You bought me this hat." Luke said shyly, looking down at his hands. Lorelai grinned up at him.
"Your Lorelai hat?" Luke nodded. " So I'm your hat?"
"Yeah....I guess so." Luke rubbed the side of his face, looking a little confused. Lorelai looked up at him with the edges of her mouth twitching.
"What does that even mean." She giggled.
"Hell if I know." Luke shrugged, trying not to smile and failing. He grinned at her sheepishly as she laughed a little. She put her hand down on his arm and smiled, still laughing.
"Thanks Luke. You've really helped clear this up."
"I do what I can."
"Always do everything you can for me Luke. That's why I love you." Lorelai said grinning. Luke gave her a strange look, a little questioning and a little confused, mostly unbelieving. Lorelai heard the flock of awkward silence flap nearer, and looked away, but it flew in and nested anyways. They both looked away for a little while. " So....where are we?"
"Well....." Luke lifted his hat and ran his fingers through his hair, trying to think. " For me... it's just....You're here-You're always here." He explained.
"Whether you want me to be or not." Luke smiled and continued in a wandering kind of way.
"And I'm used to having you around. Used to the way you.....feel." Luke furrowed his brow, trying to figure if he had used the right word.
"Like your hat." Lorelai tapped the brim knowingly, and Luke nodded, smiling.
"Yeah...I guess so. I just- I'm so used to it that....I'm just not sure what IT is." Luke tried to explain what he was thinking about.
"Okay."
"You know what I'm trying to say."
"Exactly."
"You really know what it is I'm trying to say?" Luke frowned as Lorelai grunted and nodded her head.
"Honestly? You know? You understand what I'm trying to say to you?" Luke started to give her strange looks. She was grunting in response every time he said something. Then he nodded his head, and started to grin, glaring at her playfully. " You're mocking me aren't you."
"Maybe. Just a little." Lorelai pushed her index finger and her thumb tightly together, but as she looked at Luke with fake guilt she made the gap bigger. " Okay a lot. I'm just not used to you being the one with all the words coming out. It's like I suddenly hit the jackpot on the Luke Conversation Slot Machine after all these years and all of a sudden all these word started pouring out, and I didn't know what to do with all of them so I went into automatic mocking mode. It's my default."
"You're giving me a headache."
"You like it when I give you headaches."
"You are a headache."
"And yet I'm not giving myself to you. Hmmm...." Lorelai thought for a minute. " That was kind of a dirty thought. I really have to think before I talk."
"I think in this case it is too late to teach an old dog new tricks." Luke smirked.
"Did you just call me old...and a dog?" Lorelai raised her eyebrow.
"I think so." Luke was shaking his head unbelievingly, like he wasn't sure what he had been thinking.
"And you did that WHY?"
"I don't know." Luke frowned.
"Did we want to get back on topic before you dig yourself into an even bigger hole Mr. Danes."
"Please." Luke sighed thankfully.
"So....where do we go from here?"
"... I think...maybe we should wait. A lot has happened in the last little while. We'll give it a little time, figure it out somehow."
"That's a good idea. I'm a little more than confused right now."
"I'm still married. I don't think I should be married if....."
"I have to break up with Jason. I think we're still officially together."
"Officially?"
"And only officially." Lorelai insisted honestly. No more Jason of course. He hadn't really been a serious thing anyways...but what exactly did she have now instead......" SO. This should going to be pretty interesting." Lorelai furrowed her brows.
"Yeah, well, we should start a support group." Luke said sarcastically, standing up and tugging on his hat. Lorelai smiled at it. She stood up to say goodbye and looked at Luke standing there for a minute. He stared at the ground for a moment, then looked up at Lorelai and saw her staring at him. He flushed up a little, but Lorelai smiled at him and wrapped her arms around his chest. Luke awkwardly put his arms around her waist and heard her sigh as she relaxed against him.
"Good sigh, bad sigh?" He asked cautiously.
"Is this like good idea/bad idea from Animaniacs?"
"No."
"No fun. Okay. Good sigh then." Luke knew that he should get going, but didn't really want to let go. He put one hand overtop of the other on Lorelai's back and brought her a little closer..
"I should get going." He mumbled.
"One more minute please." Lorelai grinned and Luke gave a little laugh. Lorelai laid her head on his shoulder and looked up at him. " You're the best friend a girl could ask for. You know that?"
"I do what I can." Luke mumbled. Lorelai took a deep breathe and gave Luke a gentle squeeze. Luke carefully brought up one hand and gently stroked her hair absently. Lorelai sighed and pulled back reluctantly, keeping her hands on his waist as Luke dropped his into his pockets. He glanced away, then looked back at her.
"I'll see you-" He let his sentence hang in the air. The sun had started to set already.
"Soon. You've got the magic." Lorelai nodded.
"The coffee." Luke suggested, confused.
"Sure." Lorelai said lightly, giving him a teasing grin. Luke shook his head. He rubbed her shoulder gently.
"I'll see you soon Lorelai."
"Bye Luke." Lorelai sat back down in the middle of the chuppa and grinned, watching as he walked slowly towards the truck, climbing in and giving her a short wave before pulling away. This was good, definitely good. Not great...not yet. But definitely good.