DISCLAIMER: I own neither the show nor the characters of the Gilmore Girls. Just the messed up way in which I am portraying them.

Luke unlocked the storeroom door and stepped back. He moved quite far backwards in fact, until he was backed up into Lorelai who was up against the front door to the shop. She placed her hands on the back of his shoulders and peered over his shoulder as they awaited the mood that would emerge from the storeroom.

Jess and Rory came out immediately, with stern looks on their faces. Neither teen could decipherer exactly how much trouble they were in, but it seemed the adults were none too happy about their hijinks.

"Well?" came Rory's voice, sounding very much annoyed and very much impatient.

"So, you two made up?" Lorelai began.

"So not the point. You two have a ton of explaining to do."

Lorelai looked at the clock on the wall and shrugged her shoulders. "Actually, we were going to go out tonight, so could this possibly wait?"

Jess began to laugh, probably harder than he had ever laughed in his life. Rory joined in, and soon the too were in a complete fit of amusement, doubling over, with Rory hanging onto Jess as they continued. Out of confusion, Lorelai joined in with them, hoping this was their way of telling them they were happy about their plan. Luke looked on at the adults laughing, not getting a good feeling from this at all.

"Oh, you guys aren't going anywhere. For a long time, I might add," Jess managed, motioning for them to sit down on a couch by Rory and himself. Lorelai and Luke shared a glance before moving begrudgingly over to couch and plopping down.

"So, I will ask one more time. Care to explain that little stunt? Lorelai? Luke?" Rory asked looking directly at the two as she questioned them.

"Mom, we were just trying to help! You were so miserable, and Jess was insufferable, we figured it was the only way to make this better!"

"And Luke, the whole bit about telling me that Lorelai had fainted. . . I don't think I've ever been so scared in my whole life!" Rory ignored her daughter's explanation and turned her rant to Luke.

"Mom, that was my idea—this whole thing was my idea. Luke was a reluctant participant, he did it to help me out, to get you two talking, I swear!" she did her best to shield Luke from any blame; it had been her doing after all.

"Lore, you don't have to," he said in a low tone, whispering in her ear.

"When did you two get so chummy anyhow?" Jess asked as he lifted himself up with his forearms to sit up on the counter area. Rory looked from the two to Jess, wondering if Lorelai had finally taken some of her advice. She noticed the way the two seemed to speak through mere looks, the subtle touching they were doing. . .

"We had some time to kill, while you two were locked in there," Luke offered.

"Does this have anything do to with me finding her on top of you on the floor?"

"What?" Rory asked, now looking at her daughter in shock.

"Mom, it's not how he makes it sound," Lorelai sighed, wanting to choke Jess.

"Well, someone explain this to me, please!" Rory requested, looking from the two on the couch to Jess. Jess shrugged, not really clear on the events surrounding the occurrence, but realizing there was a new stage to his nephew's relationship with Lorelai.

"Mom, nothing is going on. The incident Jess is referring to involved loss of balance, misjudging of strength, and some spilled soda. We've just been hanging out and planning this for the last couple of days. We were going to go out, for the first time tonight. That's all." She looked to Luke as if to confer on the validity of the explanation. He responded with a half smile until Jess began to speak again.

"Like I said, that's not going to happen," Jess piped in. "Luke is grounded."

Luke looked at Jess in disbelief. He'd never been grounded a day in his life. Well, he had been theoretically, but his mother was either not around enough to too high to notice if he adhered to his punishments or not. He couldn't be serious; Jess was the most live and let live guy in the world.

"Grounded?"

"Yep."

"Grounded."

"Again, yes."

Luke continued to stare at his uncle, as if waiting for the punch line. "For what?"

Jess held Luke's stare, not backing down. "You locked me into the store room."

"So?"

"So? What if there had been some sort of emergency?"

"I would have let you out."

"Didn't you guys make up?" Lorelai broke in.

"That's not the point, Lore," Rory reminded her.

"It IS the point, Mom. We were trying to help you guys out and now we're being punished for it?" She ended her angry outburst by throwing herself back against the couch, and crossing her arms over her chest in defiance.

Rory thought for a moment that Lorelai did have a point. She had been miserable and evaded all efforts Lorelai had made to get her to talk to Jess on her own. Jess was too stubborn to have made the first move as well; they made quite a pair that way. She bit her lip, and turned to Jess as she motioned for him to join her in the storeroom.

"Are you crazy? I'm not going back in there with these two out here," he said, turning to throw Luke a glare.

"Fine, then just come over here," she said, pulling him over into the stacks.

"Don't tell me you're going to condone this behavior," he pleaded.

"Well, they were trying to do something good here. Besides, it's their first date." Rory smiled, causing Jess' defenses to crack. But just a little.

"Luke can't go out on a date, he's grounded," he held his position.

Rory thought for a moment, then moved closer to Jess. She walked two fingers up his chest until she reached the collar of his shirt, which she traced lightly as she smiled up at him sweetly.

"No," he answered before she said a word.

"You don't even know what I am going to say!"

"I feel the safest answer currently is no," he informed her.

She glanced at her watch and back to him, shrugging her shoulders. "I was just thinking, it's still sort of early. You could come over tonight, and Lorelai could stay here to keep Luke company for a while, to make sure he stayed out of trouble of course," she continued, "That would give us some uninterrupted alone time."

He looked at her as if he wasn't sure whether he should kiss her or commit her. Of course the thought of kissing her led to the thought of throwing her over his shoulder and carrying her off for that alone time at her house. . .

"I hate you," he finally said, glaring at her.

She squealed in happiness and hugged him. "I'm doing this under protest, let's go," he told her before she dragged him back out and relayed their plans to Luke and Lorelai. They were soon out the door, almost running towards the Gilmore house.

Lorelai looked at the clock and shook her head. She took Luke's shirtsleeve and pulled on it to get his attention.

"What?"

"Well, I'm just wondering how much of her mind my mother has lost," she explained.

"What?" he said, looking to where her gaze was set, on the clock. It read ten after midnight. "Oh."

"Are they serious?"

"Well, I think something might be clouding their better judgment," he snickered.

"It's after midnight. She said it was still early, and it's after midnight on a school night. Am I supposed to go home at all?"

"I'd give it an hour or so, but yeah, I'm guessing she just doesn't realize what time it is."

"An hour, huh?"

"To be safe," he nodded, pulling her closer to him. She moved to him effortlessly, smiling as she felt the warmth of him enveloping her once again.

"Do you want to come upstairs?" he asked in that low tone he had that made her shiver.

"Luke," she whispered, moving her fingertips down his arms lightly.

"Yeah?"

"As much as it kills me to say this, and just so you know, I would literally rather go throw myself in front of a bus, but seeing how there are no buses running this time of night, well, not in Stars Hollow at least," she lost all track of her original point, but he silenced her with a light kiss. She moved closer to him, wanting more of the kisses, then like someone turned a light on in her brain she remembered her point.

"Luke," she started again, in her same urgent tone.

"You aren't going to ramble again are you? Cause I have effective ways to silence you," he laughed softly.

"No, I just, can we slow this down?"

He pulled away from her slightly, causing her great unhappiness at the loss of contact. He took her hand in his and he simply nodded, pulling her up the stairs behind him. She followed, wondering what was going through his mind, and sat down on the couch. He sat on the opposite end and leaned down to take her foot in his hands and started massaging it. A look of appreciation swept over her face.

"Where did you learn to do that?"

"Ah, I have lots of skills in my arsenal," he said rather mysteriously, earning a look of surprise mixed with approval from her lovely face.

"You know, if you keep doing that, I'll fall asleep."

"I'll wake you up. Or we can talk," he offered, and she nodded, sitting up a little straighter so she had a chance of staying awake through the wonderfully relaxing massage he was performing.

"So, what are you going to tell Tristan?" he ventured. He could immediately feel her tense up, and he hoped she had an answer he wanted to hear.

"Um, well, what do you want me to tell him?"

"Look, I like you. I feel like that's pretty obvious at this point, but if you aren't sure about this, and you're going to date both of us, I just want you to be honest about it."

Lorelai frowned, surprised by his candor and his response. "I see. So, are you dating anyone else?"

"No, there's no one else I'm interested in."

His words made her heart soar, but at the same time her own reaction made her realize how he must be feeling with her dating both of them. She wondered if Tristan would even care, knowing he wasn't letting a perfectly good weekend go to waste.

"I did like Tristan, a lot, I thought. But I think maybe I was confusing attraction with feelings, you know what I mean?"

Luke nodded, still not liking to hear about her attraction to Tristan. He hoped she was getting to a point soon.

"But to be honest," she continued, trying to phrase this gently, "Technically I'm still a little confused I guess. I don't want to string either of you along, but I'm dating him and I want to date you as well."

His ministrations stopped at this point, his hand resting lightly on her foot. She waited for his verbal response; she guessed it wasn't what he wanted to hear.

"So, you want to date both of us?" he clarified.

She nodded, "Just for a little while. To sort out things in my head, to be sure."

Luke nodded, not really showing much emotion. They continued to talk, easing back into more normal conversation that didn't include Tristan or dating for the remainder of the buffer hour they were allowing Jess and Rory, until finally she stood up to leave.

"I'll walk you," he said, grabbing his jacket.

"Whoa, wait a second, you're grounded," she said teasingly, putting her hand to his chest to stop him in his tracks.

"So?"

"So, I can't have you get in more trouble on my account. I've done enough," she giggled.

"True. But no one will know. It's past one, and I can't have you walking home at night alone. I'd never forgive myself if someone kidnapped you."

She smiled, and nodded in final consent. They walked along, and he took her hand as they walked in the cool of the night air. It would be Halloween soon, and he began to wonder how she was going to split up her time between the two guys. He wanted to be the one to take her to the town activities—as much as he thought they were pointless and sure that everyone in attendance needed to be on multiple forms of medication. They got to her porch, seeing all the lights in the house were off, save for the porch light. She dug out her key and smiled at him.

"Can I kiss you?" he asked, now a little unsure of what to do with the state of their would be relationship.

She gave him a shy smile, and nodded. "Please," she breathed, moving closer to him. He laced a hand into her long dark hair, moving his lips gently against hers at first, and ran his tongue along her lip when she responded by pulling him closer against her torso. He wrapped his other arm around her back, holding her gently to him. By the time they pulled apart, she felt more than a little dizzy. She looked into his eyes with her own that felt like they'd been fogged over.

"See you tomorrow?"

"Yeah."

"Goodnight," she affirmed, as she opened the door and disappeared inside. The house was quiet and she moved to the living room window, where she watched Luke disappear into the night as he made his way back to the apartment. She made her way to bed, wondering what kind of a mess she'd gotten herself into, and how she was supposed to tell Tristan she was dating both of them.

AN: Hmm. So, I'm working on the triangle becoming a pair now. I hear all the 'Get rid of Tristan!' pleas, trust me, there's even a voice in my own head saying that. . . and of course, more Lit action in the next installment. Thanks again, always, for the reviews!