…To stay here.

TITLE: …To stay here.

AUTHOR: Anika Very appreciated!

CATEGORY: Luke/Lorelai

SPOILERS/TIMELINE: Continuation (sort of, I start in the episode) of 4.11 (In the Glamour and the Clangour). Now 4th season AU!

RATING: PG-13, I guess.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: This is the last part, after all! I know the title is now a little longer but I didn't think I could make it another part so I had to put the words together : ) I already have new ideas for fics but I wanted to finish this one first. So look out for more stories from me in the future! I apologize that this chapter took so long but I was caught up with my final exams but now I am letting German homework be German homework and write! So please at least tell me what you thought!

'Get a grip on yourself!' Lorelai's inner voice yelled but it didn't get too far. All she could do was cry, cry and cry even more. Luke's arms around her, her lack of money and the consequences that would have, her love life or her life in general produced even more tears.

"I'm sorry…" she managed to babble. Her head was leaning against his shoulder and a little part of her realized she got it all wet.

"It's ok." Luke whispered. He decided this was the moment.

"What has happened, Lorelai?" For a moment she didn't react. Then, he sobbing subsided a little and she lifted her head. It broke Luke's heart to see her tear-streaked face, her red puffy eyes, her lips turned down as if the waterfall would start again any minute. She looked absolutely vulnerable. She stared at him.

"I couldn't pay the workers." She told him in a whiny voice.

"What?" Luke still didn't quite understand.

"My money- it's gone. I don't have any more money. Zero. I don't know how to pay." The tears were back.

"Why didn't you tell me about your problems? I could have given you some."

"No, Luke. With all this- us… I…" as if it was a defence mechanism, the tears came streaming.

Nicole stopped in front of the diner. She saw Luke and she saw Lorelai; in a fierce embrace. Her anger rose, as well as the pain. Luke had lied to her all the time. She couldn't stop herself anymore and stormed in…

Luke was almost as devasted as Lorelai. It was no problem for him to give her the money but apparently it was not done with that. 'What does she want?' he thought. Even thought Lorelai had always been some sort of mystery to him, this now was a whole question mark to him. 'Us', she had said. Was there something as an 'us'? Suddenly there was the strong wish to kiss her again. He pushed her a bit from him and only then he noticed how wet his shirt actually was. He leaned forward almost automatically and Lorelai did the same. When their faces were only inches away from each other, the diner door was opened loudly and Nicole stormed in.

"I knew it!" she yelled with a high-pitched voice. Lorelai and Luke turned to her, startled.

"Nicole…" Luke tried to find the right words to explain the scene but he couldn't think of anything, not even the truth.

Nicole pointed to Lorelai, her eyes were angry.

"I knew it! You always told me 'No, Nicole we're just friends', pah!" Nicole said in a mocking voice. Then her finger pointed at Luke.

"And you! Not only did you tell me she was just a friend for you, you bought a house with me!"

"Nicole…" Luke started again but this time she interrupted me.

"Don't you dare say anything to me! I will throw out your stuff, all of it. You can pick it up the street tomorrow morning! I will send you the divorce papers!" she screamed and stormed out again.

Silence followed. Neither Luke nor Lorelai said anything nor made any other noise. Then Luke couldn't hold it anymore; he started laughing. Lorelai was as startled as she had been only minutes ago, when Nicole had stormed in.

"What's the matter?" she asked him but he kept on laughing. It almost scared Lorelai because she had never seen him laugh so crazily.

"This is ridiculous!" he said in between laughs, his voice sounding extremely weird to Lorelai's ears.

"What is?" she still wasn't sure what he was laughing and talking about.

"This… this us, or not us or whatever mingled with Nicole and us and all!" Luke made quite odd looking things with his hands while he said this, it almost made Lorelai laugh, too but since she still didn't know what Luke meant with all this she just stared at him. Eventually, he regained some composure, he cleared his throat and decided now was the moment.

"But she was right all along. If I had known it myself this clearly…" he waited a moment to see if he had Lorelai's full attention which he had. She looked at him and his heart broke because there were still so many unshed tears in them and so much pain, it seemed.

"I couldn't move away from here, in with her because of you. That's the whole thing, she was right. I'm such an idiot." Luke realized.

"Sometimes feelings show sooner or in our case later. At least in mine." She admitted rather shyly and had to smile a little. Luke couldn't but smile, too.

"I will have to apologize to Nicole. Through the window apparently, but I will have to pick up my stuff from the street anyway."

"Need any help?" Lorelai asked. They were already leaning in.

"I guess… not. It wasn't that much over there anywhere."

Finally they kissed. Neither broke it, neither felt bad, no one stormed in, no one dropped anything: they could just act on their feelings. Eventually they had to stop for air and as Luke admired Lorelai's face he remembered the question that had started this whole thing. Even though now he was much clearer on what her answer would be.

"Why did you not want me to move in with Nicole?" He smiled. He knew the answer but he wanted to hear it finally.

"Because I need you to stay here."

They smiled at each other and kissed again.

END!

Finally, it's done! So, I hope you liked it a bit and PLEASE leave a tiny little review! I have some ideas for future fics and I am working on one idea right now. So look out for more rather soon but before write me a review!

Written by Anika