Author's Note: Thanks again for the reviews. This is a two chapters for
the price of one kind of day so I hope you enjoy. The L/L interaction is a
little sparse, but I promise I will make up for it later. After Tuesday's
episode I am kind of on a JJ high!
***
The alarm beckoned Luke from his slumber at 4:30 a.m. on Monday morning. He sighed and slapped the alarm on the bedside table. He never used to need an alarm. He used to have his internal clock set to wake him at 4:25 a.m. every morning. It was only within the last week that he couldn't seem to wake himself up. He realized that he was probably having trouble waking up because he was having trouble sleeping. Ever since he had put the breaks on his relationship with Lorelai his mind seemed to race on warp speed all day and all night. He sat up in bed and glanced at the clock. 4:31 a.m. The first minute of another day he would spend thinking about Lorelai. He forced himself up and out of bed and got ready for another day the diner. It was another day when Lorelai would probably avoid him, and the diner, like Bubonic plague.
Luke has been pleasantly surprised when Lorelai had come to the diner on Saturday, even if she had brought reinforcements in the form of Emily. He had strange feeling that Emily was sizing him up the entire time she was there. Her questions especially threw him. Why did he get Lorelai pie? Why was he heating it up? Why did he get her ice cream when she hadn't asked? To Luke all these questions were kind of like, 'why is the sky blue?' Because it just is. It always had been it always will be. Lorelai will always like cherry pie, heated with ice cream.
He was secretly hoping that this morning might be the day that Lorelai decided to come to the diner alone. As he got the diner ready to open he could almost see her now sitting at the counter giving him a hard time about something. He could almost picture him throwing her out for using her cell phone or for coming behind the counter as she so frequently did. He could almost picture it, yet it was just a specter in his mind of how things used to be. Luke pulled the stools off the counter and sighed. Had he made a mistake after all?
Hours later Luke looked up as the bell above the door jingled. He smiled when he saw a familiar face come through the door.
"Hey Luke," she said.
"Rory," Luke said, "it's good to see you. So you're back from Yale for the summer?"
"Yep, I just got home yesterday," she said sitting in her mother's favorite stool. "I can't believe a whole year has gone by."
"Well that's great. It'll be nice to have to see you around more often this summer," Luke said genuinely. "What can I get you?" "I'll have pancakes, a side of bacon and a jelly donut," Rory smiled.
"I see the time away from your mother has not changed your appetite," Luke said wryly.
"Nope," Rory smiled.
"Speaking of your mom" Luke ventured, "is she joining you this morning?"
Rory was a little surprised Luke didn't dance around the topic of her mom a little more. Lorelai had filled her in on most of what happened between her and Luke. Of course in usual Lorelai fashion, Rory got the feeling there was something her mom wasn't telling her. She mentioned that Luke had seen her kiss Jason, that she had run after him to make things right and that they decided to just be friends until they figured things out. Rory accepted the explanation, but she knew full well her mom was holding something back. That was evident by the fact that she hadn't gone to Luke's for a solid week until Emily had forced her there on Saturday.
"No," Rory finally replied. "Sorry Luke. I think she has a lot of Dragonfly stuff going on," Rory said hesitantly making an excuse for Lorelai.
It was subtle, but Rory saw Luke's face fall slightly. He had obviously hoped that Lorelai would be coming in. Rory felt awful having to be the one to crush his hopes.
"It's okay, I know she's been busy with the inn lately," Luke said shaking off the feeling of disappointment that was creeping up inside him. "So, how is everything with you? Was your first year of college what you thought it would be?"
"Pretty much," Rory responded. "It was a lot of work and living with Paris was interesting to say the least, but it was fun."
"That's great. Well we're glad to have to back around here. Your food will be right out," Luke said walking into the back. Once he had the cleared Rory's view Luke took a deep breath and recomposed himself. He didn't know when he would ever see Lorelai alone again and it was all his fault. ***
Lorelai sat in the kitchen of the Dragonfly and sipped her coffee. She would never tell Sookie but her coffee just didn't have that certain something that Luke's did. She wasn't sure if it was the taste or the person pouring it that made the difference. Lately she had come to think it had more to do with the latter.
Lorelai had finally set foot in Luke's again, albeit with her mother in tow. Lorelai had the nagging suspicion that Emily had chosen Luke's as part of her information-gather mission. Lorelai knew she had shared too much when she mentioned her relationship with Luke in front of her mother. It worried her that she had taken such an interest. Even though Emily had forced her to go into Luke's a small part of her truly wanted to. When she wasn't thinking about the inn Lorelai had thought about nothing but Luke for the last week. While he was right that she had just broken up with Jason, Lorelai knew in her heart that she was over him. She knew that she was never really in love with him and that made the break-up all the easier. The Dragonfly had opened and although it was a lot of work it was manageable and things had been going well. There was still the lingering problem of her parent's marriage, but it wasn't her problem, it was theirs.
That really only left two problems--Luke's divorce and Lorelai's hesitancy to commit to a full-blown relationship. Luke's divorce and horrible marriage were something that Lorelai couldn't help, but she had thought about her feelings on committing to Luke. It all boiled down to the fact that they were scared. They were scared of hurting each other. Lorelai had failed at so many relationships because of her fear. It was almost as if she couldn't wrap her mind around the fact that someone could love her so unconditionally when she hadn't really done anything to deserve it. She always thought it was a product of her upbringing. Her parents loved her, but they rarely said it aloud. In fact, the few times they did it was because she had done something worthy of their love like gotten all A's. Lorelai mulled this over for a moment and then thought, "Paging Dr. Phil!"
In terms of relationships Lorelai always thought of Luke as an oak tree. It was an odd analogy but he always seemed to be there shielding her from the wind and rain, shadowing her from too much sun and, while growing, never really outwardly changing enough to notice. Lorelai always thought of herself as the baby bird too afraid to fly out of the nest or wander far from the tree. The tree -- Luke -- was her security, her safety zone. When this thought dawned on her Lorelai suddenly realized how unafraid she actually was. She always thought of Luke as being there for her. Over the past week he was the one person she wanted to go to talk about the inn, her parents, hell, even her relationship with him. Luke was not only her best friend, but her confidant and her match.
Lorelai knew she couldn't help Luke work through his issues with his divorce, but she could tell him that she would wait for him to sort things out no matter how long it took. She put down her coffee mug and grabbed her keys. Lorelai told Sookie she was going to Luke's and sped out of the Dragonfly driveway as fast as she could. *** Lorelai hopped out of her Jeep and ran into the diner. It was late afternoon and there were few people in the diner.
"Luke," Lorelai yelled. "Luke?"
"Oh, hey Lorelai," Lane smiled as she emerged from the kitchen. "Luke isn't here."
"Hi Lane," Lorelai replied breathless. "Is he upstairs?"
"No, he went out," Lane replied delivering an order. "I think he said something about getting more hamburger."
Lorelai's face fell. "Oh," she replied. "Did he happen to mention when he was coming back?"
"No, sorry," Lane said. "He shouldn't be gone long though if you want to wait." "No, that's okay," Lorelai replied losing her nerve.
"Do you want me to tell him you stopped by?" Lane asked.
"Yeah, tell him," Lorelai thought, "tell him—ya know what? Never mind. I'll see him when he gets back." Lorelai changed her mind. It would have to wait. She was beginning to understand how Luke must have felt all those years with missed opportunities and lost chances to tell her how he felt and she didn't like it one bit.
Lorelai walked back to her Jeep and pulled out her cell phone to call Rory when she noticed she had a voice mail. 'How did I miss a call?' she wondered. She quickly dialed the number and punched in her code.
"You have one new voicemail message," the voice said.
"Yeah, yeah," Lorelai said willing the voice to speed it up.
"Lorelai," Jason's voice said. "It's Jason. I know that we haven't seen each other since I came to the inn and I'm still not exactly sure what happened there," he rambled. "Look I'm going out of town for a few days and I wanted to talk to you before I left. I definitely got the feeling that you weren't so interested in us getting back together," he laughed bitterly. "But, I'd still like to talk to you and clear some things up so give me call. Bye." Lorelai hit the end button on her phone and threw it into her purse. She didn't want to talk to Jason right now. She knew she had to explain herself. She hadn't seen him since she abruptly ran away from him at the inn, but Jason wasn't who she needed to see right now, it was Luke. ***
TBC
The alarm beckoned Luke from his slumber at 4:30 a.m. on Monday morning. He sighed and slapped the alarm on the bedside table. He never used to need an alarm. He used to have his internal clock set to wake him at 4:25 a.m. every morning. It was only within the last week that he couldn't seem to wake himself up. He realized that he was probably having trouble waking up because he was having trouble sleeping. Ever since he had put the breaks on his relationship with Lorelai his mind seemed to race on warp speed all day and all night. He sat up in bed and glanced at the clock. 4:31 a.m. The first minute of another day he would spend thinking about Lorelai. He forced himself up and out of bed and got ready for another day the diner. It was another day when Lorelai would probably avoid him, and the diner, like Bubonic plague.
Luke has been pleasantly surprised when Lorelai had come to the diner on Saturday, even if she had brought reinforcements in the form of Emily. He had strange feeling that Emily was sizing him up the entire time she was there. Her questions especially threw him. Why did he get Lorelai pie? Why was he heating it up? Why did he get her ice cream when she hadn't asked? To Luke all these questions were kind of like, 'why is the sky blue?' Because it just is. It always had been it always will be. Lorelai will always like cherry pie, heated with ice cream.
He was secretly hoping that this morning might be the day that Lorelai decided to come to the diner alone. As he got the diner ready to open he could almost see her now sitting at the counter giving him a hard time about something. He could almost picture him throwing her out for using her cell phone or for coming behind the counter as she so frequently did. He could almost picture it, yet it was just a specter in his mind of how things used to be. Luke pulled the stools off the counter and sighed. Had he made a mistake after all?
Hours later Luke looked up as the bell above the door jingled. He smiled when he saw a familiar face come through the door.
"Hey Luke," she said.
"Rory," Luke said, "it's good to see you. So you're back from Yale for the summer?"
"Yep, I just got home yesterday," she said sitting in her mother's favorite stool. "I can't believe a whole year has gone by."
"Well that's great. It'll be nice to have to see you around more often this summer," Luke said genuinely. "What can I get you?" "I'll have pancakes, a side of bacon and a jelly donut," Rory smiled.
"I see the time away from your mother has not changed your appetite," Luke said wryly.
"Nope," Rory smiled.
"Speaking of your mom" Luke ventured, "is she joining you this morning?"
Rory was a little surprised Luke didn't dance around the topic of her mom a little more. Lorelai had filled her in on most of what happened between her and Luke. Of course in usual Lorelai fashion, Rory got the feeling there was something her mom wasn't telling her. She mentioned that Luke had seen her kiss Jason, that she had run after him to make things right and that they decided to just be friends until they figured things out. Rory accepted the explanation, but she knew full well her mom was holding something back. That was evident by the fact that she hadn't gone to Luke's for a solid week until Emily had forced her there on Saturday.
"No," Rory finally replied. "Sorry Luke. I think she has a lot of Dragonfly stuff going on," Rory said hesitantly making an excuse for Lorelai.
It was subtle, but Rory saw Luke's face fall slightly. He had obviously hoped that Lorelai would be coming in. Rory felt awful having to be the one to crush his hopes.
"It's okay, I know she's been busy with the inn lately," Luke said shaking off the feeling of disappointment that was creeping up inside him. "So, how is everything with you? Was your first year of college what you thought it would be?"
"Pretty much," Rory responded. "It was a lot of work and living with Paris was interesting to say the least, but it was fun."
"That's great. Well we're glad to have to back around here. Your food will be right out," Luke said walking into the back. Once he had the cleared Rory's view Luke took a deep breath and recomposed himself. He didn't know when he would ever see Lorelai alone again and it was all his fault. ***
Lorelai sat in the kitchen of the Dragonfly and sipped her coffee. She would never tell Sookie but her coffee just didn't have that certain something that Luke's did. She wasn't sure if it was the taste or the person pouring it that made the difference. Lately she had come to think it had more to do with the latter.
Lorelai had finally set foot in Luke's again, albeit with her mother in tow. Lorelai had the nagging suspicion that Emily had chosen Luke's as part of her information-gather mission. Lorelai knew she had shared too much when she mentioned her relationship with Luke in front of her mother. It worried her that she had taken such an interest. Even though Emily had forced her to go into Luke's a small part of her truly wanted to. When she wasn't thinking about the inn Lorelai had thought about nothing but Luke for the last week. While he was right that she had just broken up with Jason, Lorelai knew in her heart that she was over him. She knew that she was never really in love with him and that made the break-up all the easier. The Dragonfly had opened and although it was a lot of work it was manageable and things had been going well. There was still the lingering problem of her parent's marriage, but it wasn't her problem, it was theirs.
That really only left two problems--Luke's divorce and Lorelai's hesitancy to commit to a full-blown relationship. Luke's divorce and horrible marriage were something that Lorelai couldn't help, but she had thought about her feelings on committing to Luke. It all boiled down to the fact that they were scared. They were scared of hurting each other. Lorelai had failed at so many relationships because of her fear. It was almost as if she couldn't wrap her mind around the fact that someone could love her so unconditionally when she hadn't really done anything to deserve it. She always thought it was a product of her upbringing. Her parents loved her, but they rarely said it aloud. In fact, the few times they did it was because she had done something worthy of their love like gotten all A's. Lorelai mulled this over for a moment and then thought, "Paging Dr. Phil!"
In terms of relationships Lorelai always thought of Luke as an oak tree. It was an odd analogy but he always seemed to be there shielding her from the wind and rain, shadowing her from too much sun and, while growing, never really outwardly changing enough to notice. Lorelai always thought of herself as the baby bird too afraid to fly out of the nest or wander far from the tree. The tree -- Luke -- was her security, her safety zone. When this thought dawned on her Lorelai suddenly realized how unafraid she actually was. She always thought of Luke as being there for her. Over the past week he was the one person she wanted to go to talk about the inn, her parents, hell, even her relationship with him. Luke was not only her best friend, but her confidant and her match.
Lorelai knew she couldn't help Luke work through his issues with his divorce, but she could tell him that she would wait for him to sort things out no matter how long it took. She put down her coffee mug and grabbed her keys. Lorelai told Sookie she was going to Luke's and sped out of the Dragonfly driveway as fast as she could. *** Lorelai hopped out of her Jeep and ran into the diner. It was late afternoon and there were few people in the diner.
"Luke," Lorelai yelled. "Luke?"
"Oh, hey Lorelai," Lane smiled as she emerged from the kitchen. "Luke isn't here."
"Hi Lane," Lorelai replied breathless. "Is he upstairs?"
"No, he went out," Lane replied delivering an order. "I think he said something about getting more hamburger."
Lorelai's face fell. "Oh," she replied. "Did he happen to mention when he was coming back?"
"No, sorry," Lane said. "He shouldn't be gone long though if you want to wait." "No, that's okay," Lorelai replied losing her nerve.
"Do you want me to tell him you stopped by?" Lane asked.
"Yeah, tell him," Lorelai thought, "tell him—ya know what? Never mind. I'll see him when he gets back." Lorelai changed her mind. It would have to wait. She was beginning to understand how Luke must have felt all those years with missed opportunities and lost chances to tell her how he felt and she didn't like it one bit.
Lorelai walked back to her Jeep and pulled out her cell phone to call Rory when she noticed she had a voice mail. 'How did I miss a call?' she wondered. She quickly dialed the number and punched in her code.
"You have one new voicemail message," the voice said.
"Yeah, yeah," Lorelai said willing the voice to speed it up.
"Lorelai," Jason's voice said. "It's Jason. I know that we haven't seen each other since I came to the inn and I'm still not exactly sure what happened there," he rambled. "Look I'm going out of town for a few days and I wanted to talk to you before I left. I definitely got the feeling that you weren't so interested in us getting back together," he laughed bitterly. "But, I'd still like to talk to you and clear some things up so give me call. Bye." Lorelai hit the end button on her phone and threw it into her purse. She didn't want to talk to Jason right now. She knew she had to explain herself. She hadn't seen him since she abruptly ran away from him at the inn, but Jason wasn't who she needed to see right now, it was Luke. ***
TBC