Author's Note: Thank you for the kind reviews. I still don't own Gilmore Girls or this lovely song by Michelle Branch. Happy reading!

You Get Me by Michelle Branch...

You get me

When nobody understands

You come and take the chance, baby

You get me

You look inside my wild mind

Never knowing what you'll find

And still you want me all the time

Yeah, you do

Yeah, you get me

Emily arrived bright and early Monday morning to pick up Rory and depart for Europe. Only Emily Gilmore was capable of putting together a "proper" trip to Europe in less than 24 hours. Rory had packed quickly and she was looking forward to leaving the country and escaping the problems she left behind in Stars Hollow. She had a lot of thinking to do. Emily for her part had a lot of thinking to do as well. She couldn't wait to get to Europe to flee her problems with Richard. Many of their friends had begun to hear rumors of their separation and Emily didn't want to deal with their inquisitive looks and speculative conversations. If the Gilmores were good at anything it was running from their problems and that was exactly what Rory and Emily were doing.

Lorelai helped Rory carry her suitcases to the car, sad to see her daughter go, but partly relieved she wouldn't be in town for a while. "You have everything right?" Lorelai asked. "Shorts, pajamas, toothbrush, funky pluggy-in thingy that makes the hair dryer work?"

Rory nodded to each and every item Lorelai had listed on her checklist. "I have everything Mom."

"Okay," Lorelai said. "Have fun. Don't let Grandma drive you too crazy and e-mail me every once in a while okay?"

"Okay, I will," Rory said hugging Lorelai good-bye. "Thanks for understanding this Mom," she whispered so Emily wouldn't hear.

"Anytime kid," she said kissing her forehead.

Lorelai broke away from Rory and approached Emily. "Okay I've set the ground rules for Rory but I wanted to remind you that even though pot is legal is Amsterdam 'just say no' and also, no whoring," Lorelai joked.

"You're very amusing Lorelai," Emily replied dryly. "Really you should take your act on the road while we're away."

"Thank you," Lorelai played along, "maybe I will." There was an awkward pause. Emily and Lorelai weren't on the best of terms since the test run of the Dragonfly, but Emily was leaving the country with Rory and amends must be made.

"Okay, well you two crazy kids have fun," Lorelai said to both Rory and Emily. "Call me every now and then."

"Goodbye Lorelai," Emily said rather coldly. "We'll see you in June."

"Bye Mom," Rory said as she waved and got into the car.

"Bye," Lorelai replied watching the car pull out of the driveway. Lorelai turned and started up the steps.

She thought about how fast the weekend had past and how much had happened. The test run of the inn opening was a resounding success, she had definitively ended her relationship with Jason, her parents admitted they were separated, Rory had slept with Dean, Rory and Emily had left town and, possibly most pertinent to Lorelai's life, Luke had kissed her. She got tired just thinking about all that had happened. She was silently grateful that the Dragonfly didn't officially open until later in the week. It gave her time to digest recent events.

Lorelai opened the door and took in the quiet. The house had been pretty quiet for almost an entire year with Rory being at Yale. At first she had to get used to the silence. She smiled remembering how she invited Luke over for movie night. She was grateful for the company, even though she had proceeded to break every movie night rule. She remembered how he fell asleep on her couch and she covered him with a blanket.

Luke. Lorelai hadn't seen Luke since yesterday morning. She felt guilty for not telling Rory about Luke, but part of her wanted desperately to keep this to herself for fear it was too perfect. For fear it could be ruined. So she hadn't told Rory what had happened with him. Rory had apologized for discouraging their relationship, but Lorelai didn't go into details about Luke and how they had kissed. They had done quite bit of kissing actually. She fondly remembered how she went to see Luke after her horrible night with Rory. She was able to talk to him and then they seemed to slip into a comfortable make out session. She needed him desperately and it just happened to take a passionate turn. Whatever it was it was comforting. Lorelai almost blushed thinking about the feel of Luke's lips on hers, the sensation of his hands on her waist, her hips, her...That was it. "Enough thinking," Lorelai thought to herself. She told Rory they needed to stop running from scary feelings. They needed to confront their emotions head on and Lorelai wanted to start with Luke.

Luke was making a fresh pot of coffee when he heard the familiar jungle of the bell over the door. He didn't bother to turn around. The diner wasn't extremely crowded and the jungle of the bell wasn't any more urgent than usual. He continued to go about his business of making the coffee when he felt the sensation of eyes staring at him. He felt like someone was boring a hole through his shirt with their stare. There was only one person who could make him feel that way and he only hoped that it was her. Luke turned around and saw her perched on a stool at the counter. Her face was resting in the palm of her hand. Her perfectly shaped arm propped on the counter. She was giving him a look. It was a look he couldn't quite figure out. It was similar to the flirty doe-eyed look she gave him when she was trying to butter him up, but in some ways it seemed more urgent, more sincere.

"Hi there," Lorelai said with her beauty queen smile. Luke couldn't help but grin like a five-year-old when she gave him that smile.

"Hi," he said. "Coffee?"

"Always," she replied. She knew they had decided to keep whatever was going on between them a secret. Lorelai wasn't sure they had defined their status, but whatever it was it was so much better than being just friends.

Luke pulled out the coffeepot and placed a mug in front of Lorelai. He filled it to the brim and gently slid the mug back to her. He watched her drink the first sip and he wondered how things had gone with Rory when Lorelai finally went back home. He wanted to ask but, much like their new relationship, it wasn't something that was meant for public consumption. Instead he just watched her.

"So how are things?" he asked generally.

"They're okay," she replied honestly. Things weren't great like they should have been, but they weren't completely falling apart either. "Rory decided to go to Europe with my Mom for a few weeks."

"Wow, really?" Luke replied placing the coffeepot back on the warmer. "Well hopefully she'll have a good time."

"Yeah, I hope so too. She has some things to work out," Lorelai replied knowingly.

"Right," Luke agreed glancing to see if anyone was within earshot.

"So, since Rory is gonna be gone for a few weeks I was thinking I might get pretty lonely," Lorelai said quietly leaning both her arms on the counter.

"Yeah, it might get pretty lonely," Luke affably concurred. He also leaned on the counter giving furtive glances around the diner to be sure no one was getting suspicious.

"Right," Lorelai smiled. "So just this morning I had this memory of when Rory went to Yale. The thought of a movie night alone was awful and I'm thinking with her gone again, the next movie night might be just as bad," Lorelai hinted.

"Well, you know, I if I remember correctly you still own me a movie," Luke said lightly.

Lorelai feigned a surprised look and smiled. "I do, don't I? Well it would be very rude of me not to hold up my end of the bargain," she flirted.

"So how does tonight sound?" he persisted.

"Perfect, but where are we gonna go?" Lorelai asked quietly. "Going to Andrew's might blow our cover."

"Right," Luke said pondering her question. "We could go to Litchfield. They have a theatre there."

"Litchfield?" Lorelai asked slightly surprised.

"Well, it's closer than Hartford," Luke reasoned.

"If you're okay with it then I'm okay with it," Lorelai said.

Before he knew what he was doing Luke leaned his hand across the counter and gently brushed his fingers over Lorelai's. "I'm fine with it, trust me," Luke replied convincingly.

"Okay, Litchfield it is," Lorelai replied looking at Luke's hand covering her own. She realized just how good their hands looked together. She then quickly realized that Luke was holding her hand in public. The same realization hit Luke at the same time and they both backed off the counter pulling their hand away from each other. The commotion of their swift movements actually attracted more attention than their actual handholding. Kirk gave them an inquisitive look from his table across the way.

"Bug," Lorelai said. Kirk gave her a look that showed his displeasure at the thought of a bug on the diner counter.

"No," was all Luke managed to spit out.

"No?" Lorelai questioned. She thought it was a convincing lie.

"No, not a bug, it was, it was pepper," Luke said brushing his hand across the counter nonchalantly. "My diner doesn't have bugs. No bugs, lots of pepper though."

"Right," Lorelai agreed. "Right, bugs-ha-ha," she laughed forcefully.

"I obviously need glasses," she said standing up and grabbing her purse. "In fact I'm gonna go look into that right now. Glasses I mean because it was pepper. It was pepper, not bugs, or bug because there was only one or none at all and I'm gonna go," she finished backing away from the counter and finally reaching the door.

"Luke thanks for the coffee. I'll see you," she thought better of finishing the sentence the way she had intended. "I'll see you when I get back from the eye doctor. You know I'll be the pepper inspector around here in these parts from now on. I gotta go," she finally finished slamming her elbow into the door handle.

"Ouch," she said holder her elbow on the way out. She passed the large window in front of Luke's and waved as she walked away rubbing her arm.

"I know she's your friend Luke, but she just gets weirder and weirder," Kirk said to Luke.

Luke shook his head and grinned half because of Lorelai's guilty behavior and half because Kirk, the epitome of weird, found Lorelai odd. "If she's weird then what does that make me for wanting to date her?" Luke thought to himself. In actuality he didn't really care because he was out on a real date with Lorelai later that night.

TBC