In the Half-Light of Morning

Lorelai woke in the half-light of dawn curled up in the center of her bed, her head on Luke's abdomen. She looked up and found him still asleep, one hand thrown over his forehead, the other cupped around her own shoulder. She dropped a light kiss on his side and eased herself away from him slowly so as not to wake him. She sat up, covering him with the blanket, drawing it up around herself as she pulled her knees to her chest and folded her arms across them. She watched him sleep a moment, feeling that warm, familiar tightening in her chest; she allowed her gaze to wander towards the window. She watched the light changing.

She was still sitting so when Luke opened his eyes. Her hair fell over her shoulders and the expression on her face was distant. He reached out and put his hand flat on the small of her back.

"Hey," he said.

She tipped her head to look at him, resting her cheek against her arm. "Hey."

"What're you doing?"

"Baking cookies," she said, her expression thoughtful.

Luke raised himself up on his elbows. "Everything okay?" he asked, his brows furrowed with worry.

"Better than that," she told him, closing her eyes and smiling.

"Then what the hell are you doing all the way over there?"

She stretched out beside him, settling into the curve of his arm. She kissed him, softly at first, slowly, with deliberation, tapping her fingers slowly down his chest, his stomach, over his shoulders and his arms, trailing kisses across his cheek to his ear. "Good morning," she whispered, and pulled his arms around her. When he attempted to speak, she shushed him, guiding his mouth to hers, drawing him to her. As before, they ended together and held each other, waiting for their breathing to slow.

They lie in silence awhile, his cheek against her forehead. She hooked her leg up over his hip and circled patterns on his back with her fingers.

"This is good," he said, at length.

"Hear, hear," she said. Suddenly she pushed him back, drawing herself up to a sitting position, dramatically pulling the sheet up with her as she went, covering herself. Her hair fell around her face and she took a breath.

"Having a Gwyneth moment?" he yawned, stretching.

She narrowed her eyes. "I have something to show you. We have to get up."

"I think I've seen everything there is to see," he said, but he allowed her to haul him out of bed, stole peeks at her as she hastily threw on clothes. He followed suit, sliding into his jeans and tee shirt.

Lorelai walked past the dresser and picked up his baseball hat from where she had left it the night before. She took it in both hands and with great ceremony placed it back on his head. "Perfect," she said.

Luke found that when he moved to kiss her now she responded with total acquiescence: as he put his arms around her to bring her closer, there was no stumbling, no hesitancy, nothing but fluid acceptance as she reached for him too. She surprised herself with how much she gave him, how when she tilted her head away to breathe, there was nothing else she was holding back. He looked at her upturned face and couldn't help but smile.

"What?"

"You know, I'd always thought that with the amount of coffee you drink, you'd taste bitter in some way," he said. "You don't taste bitter at all."

"You've thought about the way I taste?"

"Among other things, yes."

Giggling, she asked what those other things might be.

"Use your imagination," he said dryly.

"Believe me buddy, after last night I don't have to. So, how do I taste?"

He kissed her again, reaching for words to phrase it justly.

"Soft," he said, "and warm, and a little bit like, I don't know, like lavender and honeysuckle."

Lorelai grinned. "I do keep a bag of potpourri behind my liver for just that effect." She circled her arms around his neck. "You're pretty corny," she said. "Must be all the making of the loooove wearing you down. Let me see here," she said, kissing him again. "You taste like sage," she said, "and clover, and cream." She punctuated each with a brief kiss. "But you're distracting me: I really do have something to show you."

She took his hand and led him down the stairs towards Rory's room. They stopped just in the doorway. She turned to him expectantly. "What do you think?"

He looked at her, baffled. "I think we're in Rory's room and that that makes me very uncomfortable."

Lorelai rolled her eyes. "Imagine all the furniture's gone, the bed, everything. How would you do it over?"

"You want me to give you interior design tips? Lorelai, that's not really my area."

"But, Thom! I'm so disappointed!" she whined. Off his look, she said, "God, Queer Eye? Do you never watch TV? Never mind—what kind of furniture would you put in here?"

"You're going to redo Rory's room while she's away? I don't understand—"

"No, it's for her. She hasn't been in here since—"

"And now I'm even more uncomfortable," Luke said, throwing his hands up in front of him and starting to back out towards the kitchen.

Lorelai grabbed his elbow and tugged. "Focus, Luke. Shelves, desk, bed."

He shifted his weight from side to side, glancing around the room. "I guess shelves bracketed to the wall, pairs of 'em, going along one side, maybe a pull-out desk? I could do a new headboard," he said. "There's way too much furniture in this room for such a small space—you've got a chair, two dressers, two desks, the shelves, the bed—could condense a lot of it and still keep some shelf space for her stuff."

"See? That's what I'm looking for."

Luke lowered himself to sit down on his haunches, looked up at the room from the floor. "It could work. I could do it."

Lorelai kneeled beside him. "I'm going to do all the painting and the curtains, a new duvet cover, pick out some posters. She won't even recognize it."

"That's the point, right?"

"Right." Lorelai nudged him with her elbow. "Thanks."

"How long do we have?"

"About four weeks?"

"Ah, geez, Lorelai," he sighed. "I'm gonna have to work on it every second I'm not at work." He rose and helped her to her feet. "But for Rory, I guess I could do it."

Lorelai leaned up on her toes to kiss him. "You're the best."

"I should get going," he said. "I'll draw some stuff up this morning—you going to come by later?"

"Indubitably. Get whatever you're going to need, I'll write you a check."

"Nope."

"Luke."

"Nope."

"We'll negotiate."

She stopped him just as he had his hand on the doorknob of the back door. She called him from just outside Rory's door. "Hey, Luke?"

"Yeah?"

Lorelai hesitated, wetting her lips, tucking her hair behind her ears. She finally looked up at him, her hands on his hips. "I love you," she told him. "I just wanted to tell you that while we're both wearing pants, so it's clear."

He remained rooted to where he was. Lorelai saw him gather himself in, swallow thickly, rub his hand over his mouth. "I read the book, and everything, but the whole talking about… emotions… thing still—"

"Makes you uncomfortable?" she supplied.

"It's hard," he said. "And don't even say it. I meant difficult."

"I know," she said, chastened. "I wasn't going to say it."

"You were thinking it," he replied. "When you said that, last night—"

"I wish I had said it better," she sighed.

"You said it perfect. Now, stop interrupting." He took a breath. "My whole life, I never wanted to hear anyone say that more than I wanted to hear you say it. That's the truth."

"Oh, Luke—"

"And I don't, you know, talk about that stuff, and I don't know—if maybe I had said it earlier—but that doesn't matter, 'cause this is happening now. And last night, it was—it was easy," he said. He raised his eyes to meet her gaze. "It was easy," he said again, shrugging. "So: I love you."

Lorelai felt her throat tightened. She bit her lip and walked toward him, her arms extended. She threw them about him, hugging him as tightly as she could. "You are just too good," she told him. "You sure you're human?"

"I know I'm in trouble if you're the one asking me that," he said. He kissed her and pulled away. "I really have to go."

She dropped her arms and stepped back. "Wait!"

"Lorelai—"

"I have to show you something."

"Again?"

She grabbed his wrist and tugged him towards the answering machine in the entryway. "Don't get mad," she said, her finger hovering over the play button.

"That's never a good start," Luke said.

The voice on the machine was uncomfortably loud: "Lorelai. Jason. Please call me when you get this message."

Too uneasy to look, Lorelai only felt Luke tense up beside her. She pushed the forward button.

"Lorelai. Jason. Give me a call."

Luke's hands balled into fists.

"Lorelai. Jason again. Call me."

She pushed stop. "There are six more just like it," she said.

"Since when?"

"The day before yesterday." She crossed her arms over her chest. "That's an impressive shade of purple you're turning there."

"This is not the kind of thing you can't tell me, Lorelai—"

"I know."

"I mean, I'm—we're in this all the way now, but you've got to let me be—"

"I know."

"What the hell is he doing, calling here? What the hell are you doing, keeping this to yourself?"

"I know. But I'm telling you now," she said. "Calm down!"

"I'm not gonna calm down, clearly the guy is unstable—what if he had come here—what if he tried to hurt you? Didja ever think of that?"

"Luke. Calm down," she said again. "Jason's—he's annoying, but I don't think he would ever hurt me."

"He's clearly capable of—"

"Of attempting to wear me down," Lorelai said. "It's not a big deal. I just wanted you to know."

Luke stopped. "Is that what you were thinking about upstairs, before? Whether or not to tell me?"

"I didn't want you to go off half-cocked, pistols blazing like some crazed boyfriend; clearly that was just ridiculous. What? What's with the look?"

He was grinning. "You called me your boyfriend. That's so—"

"Doooon't even say it," she said. "I beg you."

"You did."

"I reserve the right, as the woman in the relationship, to do so. You are the man. Words like 'cute' are my domain." She put her arms around him. "Please. Don't let this get to you. He'll let it go eventually."

"If he calls again—"

"I will tell you," she said. "Promise."

"I do not go off half-cocked," he said.

Lorelai giggled. "No, you go off—"

"Don't you say it. Crap. I'm going to be late."

"Wait."

"You got something else to show me?" he asked warily.

She raised her hands and began fiddling with the buttons on his shirt. "I was just wondering, what with last night and this morning and everything, if maybe we wanted to fly over the radar?"

His eyes widened slightly. "You wanna share this with the town?"

She scoffed. "I'm not suggesting we do it in the middle of the diner in broad daylight, or anything—"

"But it would be okay if we did it broad darkness," he drawled.

"—but," she continued, lifting one eyebrow in response, "I could just casually tell Miss Patty that we're, you know."

"That we're what?"

"A couple," she said, dropping her voice. "And then Patty—"

"Will get the whole phone tree in motion, I get it," he said. He sighed. "Can it wait until after the town meeting tomorrow? I don't wanna go in there and have everybody be looking at me and talking about me—it's just—"

Lorelai smirked. "Totally my idea of a good time." She kissed him. "Fine by me."

"And now, I really gotta go," he said, kissing her again.

She dropped her arms. He was halfway to the door when she called out.

"Wait!"

He turned to see her hugging herself, delighted.

"I was just messing with you that time," she told him. She leaned forward, placing her hands on her knees, puckering her lips. "I love you," she cooed, her voice high and sugary.

Luke grinned in spite of himself. "And this is my life now," he said, opening the door.

Lorelai was already halfway to the stairs. "Get used to it, buddy!"

She heard him, though she wasn't sure she was meant to, as he replied, "Planning on it."