Copyright: I own nothing but the socks on my feet.
Sitting on the corner of her worktable, Lorelai nursed a beer and stared with empty eyes at her garage. She had told Sookie that this was going to be her 'alone' space, which was appropriate enough since she seemed to be spending a ridiculous amount of time sitting alone in it. Once upon a time, her garage had been just a garage. It was a place where she didn't park her car and stored the small mountain of junk that was not quite useful enough or important enough to be counted among the junk that was inside her house.
And yet now, Lorelai's garage seemed to be the most important thing in her world. It was brightly coloured and glittery with flowers and stencils... and a disco ball... and yet somehow, despite hours and hours of effort, she could not erase the feeling that it was missing something.
Like macaroni without the cheese.
Larry and Curly without Moe.
A cup without coffee.
Her garage, which had never contained a boat before or remotely needed a boat before, now seemed fundamentally wrong without one.
"No," Lorelai murmured to herself. "I am not this pathetic."
With determination that she didn't feel, she set her beer down and picked up her bottle of gold glitter. There had to be someone else she could do to erase every possible scrap of manly, flannel-bearing memory from her new sacred space.
She was so deep in thought about potential glitter places, that she did not hear the truck door slam or the crunch of gravel on her walk. Lorelai didn't notice Luke until she walked right into him as he strided purposefully into the garage.
"Jesus Luke!" she cried, as gold glitter went flying everywhere. "Are you trying to give me a heart attack?"
"No, sorry... I just..." Luke brushed absently at the glitter that was stubbornly sticking to his flannel shirt.
"What do you want?" Lorelai asked, retreating to the far corner of the garage on the pretense of looking for a broom. "I found a pair of your socks in the living room. If you want, you can sneak in and grab them. I'll pretend not to notice."
"Emily came to the diner," Luke said in a rush and then winced as soon as the words left his mouth. It had not been what he was trying to say. It had not been even close.
It did however get Lorelai's attention, "Emily? My mother, EMILY? Oh God, I refuse to speak to her and she goes to you! Just when I think she's reached a new low, Emily just keeps on digging!"
"Lorelai-..."
"So what? You're here because you want to put out a restraining order?" Lorelai said, her fury rising with each breath. "Well don't worry, you won't need one by the time I'm-..."
Luke grabbed Lorelai by the shoulders to prevent her from barrelling past him. "I don't think matricide is in order and it is not why I came here."
"But she did this!" Lorelai cried, the anger threatening to give way to tears. "Emily did exactly what she always does, takes the best things in my life and destroys them! She-..."
"It was me, Lorelai," Luke said hoarsely. "If there is anyone to blame here, it's me."
"But she..."
Luke shook his head, cutting her off. "I thought I had it all figured out. I knew exactly what I was going to say to you if we ever made it to that first date. I even had the gall to ask you if you were scared, when I was the one who was terrified."
Lorelai felt herself soften against him as she looked into his face, "But you were 'all in'..."
"Yea," he said. "Funny thing they don't tell you about that is that there is no scarier place to be than 'all in'. I never had anything like it. I never believed I could have anything like it, anything like you."
Lorelai stepped closer, reaching up to touch is roughly stubbled cheek. "I'm 'all in', Luke. I don't think I've ever been this-..."
"I know," Luke said. "If I hadn't been so sure... if I hadn't been waiting for the other shoe to drop... I would've seen that-..."
"I love you."
"Yea," Luke said, a weak smile threatening to spread across his face. "I would've seen... well, that."
Lorelai laughed. A moment before she hadn't been sure if she would ever feel happy again and now the joy bubbling up inside her couldn't be contained. She flung her arms around his neck and Luke crushed her to him.
"Can we end the madness now?" Lorelai asked into his shoulder. "Please, I can't take another breakfast at the horrible peppy place and I'm all out of glitter."
Luke chuckled into her neck, "I'll buy you more glitter."
"I don't want glitter," she murmured. "I want a boat."
"There is no way I'm working on my Dad's boat inside the Barbie funhouse."
"Hey now!" Lorelai said, pulling away in mock indignation. "We could make the boat at home. We'll trim the windows in duct tape and put some tool hang-y things in the..."
But Luke wasn't listening. He was doing what he had been longing to do for days now. Taking Lorelai's face between his calloused hands, he drew her to him and Lorelai was falling into him the way one falls into a warm bath. He said something against her lips before he kissed them. It might have been "please shut up" or "crazy lady", but Lorelai could've sworn it was "I love you."
It wasn't really important though. There would be time for all that later.