Hey everyone, sorry it took me over a week to post the last chapter, I was away in Spain! Anyway I hope y'all all liking it, thanks everyone who has reviewed, you don't know how good it feels to see people like my writing! So please keep reviewing so I know there are people still reading it. Feel free to email me at , I have just made a Luke/Lorelai music video which I could send to anyone who would like to see it. The next chapter will be posted within a few days! Enjoy : ).

CHAPTER 8: The End of the Affair?

Lorelai walked into her house to find Chris, anxious to know what was going on with him, it was weird him just showing up because he knew Rory was away. The last few days had been great with him but there was something different about the way he acted with her, she didn't quite know what it was. She walked into the living room to where he was standing, he was looking at a picture of her and Rory that had been sitting on the window sill, it had been taken years ago at one of the town festivals.

"So what's up Chris?" she asked frowning as she walked towards him, she glanced out the window and saw Luke doing something in his truck.

"I don't know how to say this Lorelai, after everything I have put both you and Rory through ... I've had a really good time staying the past few days" he said to her, almost in a desperate voice and looked at her, she looked confused, she obviously didn't know what he was trying to tell her.

"Chris you may as well be speaking Chinese here, what are you trying to say?" she asked raising her eyebrow, she had no idea why he was here and he didn't seem to be making things any clearer for her.

They were both standing beside the window, less than a meter away from each other. Suddenly Chris stepped forward and pulled Lorelai towards him by the waist and he kissed her hard on the lips. It took her a few seconds before she pulled back and looked at him, with a confusing frown on her face.

"What the hell was that Chris?" she asked loudly, confused and also a bit annoyed. She heard a loud noise as she turned to look out the window at Luke's truck tearing down the street. 'O God, did he see that?' she wondered.

"Look Lor, I know that I'm the last person that should be asking you this, and it's totally out of the blue... I've regretted everyday that I walked out on you after Sookie's wedding, I just didn't want to lose another daughter and not see her grow up you know? I love you Lorelai, you're the only one for me, I know that now... I'm asking is for you to give me another shot to have a family with you and Rory" he said in a desperate voice, before she interrupted him.

"God Chris" she said loudly as she sat down on the sofa and covered her eyes. "Why now Chris? You left me and Rory again to make a new family with someone else, you can't really be asking me for this right now?" she said as she got louder, 'This is unbelievable' she thought.

"Did you not feel it in the kiss Lor, I know we still have something there!" he said sitting down beside her on the sofa not letting his eyes leave her for a second.

"Chris, I think that will always be there, I will always love you but not in the same way as before, I moved on" she said, she was gentler now, she felt sorry for Chris because she did know that he loved her, she could see it in his eyes.

"It would be different this time, I really want this. To have a proper family with you Lor" he said holding her arm and looking at her with those puppy eyes that just went straight to her heart, he would always be able to do that to her.

"Chris you have a family, Sherry and Georgia are you're family, Rory and I are a family. I can't do this again Chris, I moved on from 'us' and it was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do" Lorelai said as she could feel the tears in her eyes welling up.

Is it Luke?" he asked looking at the floor not wanting to show the hurt in his eyes, he had so many regrets, he had lost her for good and he knew it. He saw something in Lorelai he hadn't seen in her before, she was different with Luke than she had been with anyone else and it scared him.

"I'm not sure" she said honestly, she felt stuff for Luke she had never felt before, was it love?

"But he makes you happy?" Chris asked, not really wanting to hear the answer.

"Yea he does" she said giving him a small smile. She needed to speak to him, she had a really bad feeling in her stomach that he had seen Chris kissing her. 'Damn Chris really did have perfect timing!'

"Okay, well I don't think I can say anything else to change your mind, but I really do want you to be happy Lorelai" he said quietly as he turned his gaze to her and away from the floor.

"I know you do Chris" she said as she patted his hand.

They sat for a few moments in silence, neither knowing what to say to each other, Chris broke the awkward silence, "Ok well I should get going then" he said as he slowly got up from the sofa, he felt like he had just been punched in the stomach, 'This must have been what she felt like at Sookie's wedding – except worse' he thought.

"Chris, look at the time, you can't drive back now – I won't let you! God knows what kind of psychos are out at this time of night" she said sternly but still with a small smile she said as she walked upstairs and came down a few minutes later with blankets.

A while later they both went to bed. Lorelai lay awake for a while, worrying about Luke and what he had seen, she didn't want it to have wrecked everything between them. She picked up the phone and dialled his number...

"Hello" came a gruff reply.

"Hey" she said.

"What do you want Lorelai?" he said snappily.

"Well what's with the attitude?"

"Like you don't know exactly what I'm annoyed about"

"Yea I do, Chris kissed me, he wants to get back together and be a family with me and Rory" she said quickly, holding her breath waiting for his reply.

"Good for him. Congratulations. Is that it?"

"Luke would you wait, I wasn't finished, I told him it was over and I had moved on"

"Was that before or after the kiss I saw, that you didn't seem to back away from"

"Luke I just told you he kissed me, it's not my fault I look so kissable in this new dress" she said attempting a joke to lighten the mood.

"Yea well I hope you're happy together, I gotta go, bye" he said as he hung up the phone leaving Lorelai surprised, confused and annoyed that all this had happened. Why hadn't he even given her a chance? She thought angrily as she slammed the phone down on the bedside table. Every time they seemed to be getting somewhere something happened to throw them off track, both times it had been because of Chris.

The next morning Lorelai woke up early, she hadn't slept much the night before and really wanted to get things sorted with Luke before they got out of control. She put on her dressing gown and walked down the stairs to see Chris packing up.

"Going so early?"

"Yea well I thought it was for the best, don't you?" he said awkwardly.

"Okay well have a safe trip... and Chris?

"Yea?" he said looking back at her from the door.

"I know it's not the same but I'm always going to love and care about you, we have a special bond ya know, and I hope we can still be pals?"

"Sure – and I hope Luke makes you happy, I'll be on the road back here if he doesn't" he said smiling slightly.

"Yea well hopefully there is still an 'us' but thanks" she said as she walked to the door to watch Christopher leave. She finally felt as if she had gotten closure after everything that had happened at the wedding, it was definitely the end of an era for them both though.

Chris knew that Luke knew everything that had happened between them the night before, or not happened as the case may be. He had gone up to use the bathroom and heard Lorelai on the phone to him, it didn't seem to have gone too well. He felt bad that he had messed it up for them for no reason, she didn't feel the same and he had to deal with that. As he was driving through Stars Hollow he saw Luke's and decided that maybe if he told Luke that nothing had happened between them that maybe he could fix things a bit, he had done a lot of wrong things in the past regarding Lorelai and he wanted to be able to fix something.

Luke had been pouring coffee when he saw Chris enter the diner, he gritted his teeth as he frowned and stared at him sternly, 'This guy has a damn nerve' Luke thought. Chris walked up to the counter to Luke, not sure exactly what to say but he thought he should at least say something.

"One coffee thanks" Chris said. Luke grabbed a coffee mug and poured him a coffee, not taking his eyes off him for a second and slamming the mug down in front of him.

"That's $1" he said through gritted teeth.

"Look man, I just wanted to say sorry about last night, it's over with us now, she assured me of that and I just want her to be happy and if that's with you then I'm gonna have to deal with that" he said and sighed as he looked into his coffee.

"Well she was happy until you came back" he said snappily, he really just wanted to punch Chris right now but he decided against it, he always managed to mess things up with them. He didn't care how bad he was feeling, he knew that Chris would always manage to drive a wedge between him and Lorelai and he hated that he had that power.

"Okay well I just wanted to tell you, she did nothing wrong so just give her a break...she deserves to be treated right after everything that's happened in the past" he said remembering all the stuff that she went through, how she had brought up Rory alone with barely any help from him, her broken engagement, when he had left her at Sookie's wedding, and even all the hassle she's been through with her parents.

"Don't you dare tell me how to treat her, I'll treat her a lot better than you ever have" he said bitterly, his voice increasing in volume with every word. Luckily there were only a few in the diner at this stage and most were from out of town anyway. Chris picked up his coffee, left money on the counter and left the diner quickly without saying anything back to Luke, he didn't know what he could say, he hadn't exactly treated Lorelai the best throughout the years.

At lunch time later that day Lorelai entered the diner, she was on her lunch break from the Inn and wanted to get things sorted with Luke, she was in a bad mood because she had been thinking about it all day, Luke too had been a lot grumpier than usual that morning.

"Caesar where's Luke?" Lorelai shouted.

"He just ran upstairs for a sec"

"Thanks" Lorelai said as she walked across the diner and made her way up the stairs to see Luke. She walked into his apartment to find him looking into the closet wearing a pair of jeans and no shirt. She stood for a second to admire his physique before coughing to get his attention as she saw him jump slightly before he turned round to see her. He grabbed a t-shirt from the closet and pulled it over his head before saying.

"What is it now?" he said in annoyance he said as he attempted to walk past her before she stepped in front of him.

"Luke, slow down, would you just listen to me?"

"I don't wanna hear it right now, I'm busy" he said gruffly fixing his shirt being careful not to look at her, he knew he was being stubborn but the whole 'Chris' thing really got to him.

"I can see how you're wardrobe is such a time filler for you, the eternal question, which flannel will I wear today" she said sarcastically trying in vain to get him to talk to her.

"Yea well I'm goin' back down now" he said as he put on a flannel shirt and adjusted the collar, carefully making sure that he avoided eye contact with her.

"Why are you being such a jerk? I told you that Chris kissed me, which I stopped and I told him it was over, why won't you just accept that?" she shouted angrily.

"Lorelai I need to get down to the diner" he said walking away from her.

"So you're not even gonna talk about this"

"No I'm busy"

"You know what Luke, take all the damn time you need because we both know this wasn't my fault, Chris and I have more history between us than you know, but I chose you... I must have been high or something because I can't think why right now" she shouted as she walked quickly past him and slammed the door behind her. She walked out of the diner, "Jeez did he have to be such a drama queen?" they both muttered. Lorelai went downstairs and quickly left the diner.

Luke was left standing there, surprised that Lorelai was annoyed at him, 'What the hell should she be annoyed about?' he said, he knew that he hadn't been fair with her but its not like this is just any guy they were fighting about, he was always there! When he had first went to kiss her she had jumped back a bit but when it was Chris she hadn't, what was that about?' he thought angrily. He walked down to the diner just in time to see Lorelai speed past in her jeep.

Two weeks later Lorelai entered the diner for the first time since their argument, she knew she was being stubborn but so was he, he had made no effort to contact her in two weeks. Sookie had asked to meet her for breakfast in Luke's because Jackson had Davie for the morning and she wanted to get out of the house for a while before she went to the Inn. It hadn't taken long for Sookie to persuade Lorelai to go, she knew about everything that had happened with Luke, she did feel for Luke but she agreed with Lorelai that he was being childish about it. Sookie wanted to get Lorelai to go into Luke's to give them a push into sorting out their little lover's tiff, she had been in a mood for the past couple of weeks and her and Michel couldn't handle it anymore.

"Hey hon" Sookie said brightly to Lorelai as she walked over to the table beside the table.

"Hi" Lorelai said, glancing around not seeing Luke around.

"It's okay he just went into the kitchen" Sookie said as she watched Lorelai look for Luke.

"I wasn't looking for him, I wanted to see if... Babette was here... I um saw a sale on garden gnomes that I thought she'd like" Lorelai said not looking Sookie in the eye, obviously lying, Sookie raised her eyebrow at Lorelai, they both knew exactly what Lorelai had been doing.

"Fine I was looking for Luke okay?" she said rolling her eyes and looking back down at her hands. It annoyed her that he hadn't even tried to get in touch with her, she thought they had something good starting... obviously not.

"Oh here he comes hon" Sookie said as she saw Luke heading towards them, Lorelai had her back to him but he was staring at her the whole way over, Lorelai didn't turn around to look at him.

"What do you want?" he asked taking out his pen and notepad and looking at Sookie.

"Umm... Eggs, toast and coffee – and maybe add just a little of the cinnamon to the..." she stopped as she saw Luke glaring at her, he hated when she tried to give him tips on how to cook.

"And you?" he said as he looked at Lorelai, they locked eyes for a second before they both turned and looked away, Luke at his pad and Lorelai at her hands as she fiddled with her fork. Sookie rolled her eyes as she saw their interaction.

"Jack omelette with bacon on the side and coffee" she said still fiddling with her fork.

"Ok" he said as he walked away towards the counter. 'How had it turned out this way? They had been going great... now they were like strangers. 'Why can't I just let this go?' he thought as he walked back to the counter. As he sorted out orders and poured coffee to the customers he caught a few glances of Lorelai but quickly looked away when he saw Sookie noticed his stare.

"So when do you think you two will get over this" Sookie asked with caution, it was a touchy subject.

"I dunno, whenever he bothers to care maybe" Lorelai said sharply.

"Lorelai, Luke has always loved you, he just got insecure about Chris"

"Maybe love is a bit strong" Lorelai said with doubt, he hadn't been in love with her had he?

"Are you kidding? It's always been there between you two, you just never saw it before, I saw how happy he was when he found out that the wedding was off, he was practically jumping" she said giggling.

"Yea well it's not like we're going anywhere now anyway so let's drop this" she said taking a long sip of her coffee as she glanced up as she saw Luke walking past her with some cups for a couple at the next table.

"Oook then, next topic"

Less than ten minutes later he carried the plates over to Lorelai and Sookie and gave them their food, refilling both their cups before turning and going back to the counter. They were both careful to avoid eye contact with each other as much as possible. About fifteen minutes later Lorelai's cell phone started ringing, she grabbed it out of her bag and stood up, "Be right back, don't wanna give Luke the satisfaction of telling me to get out. Apparently only lawyers have the right to talk on cell phones in here" she said as she got up and walked outside. Luke had been two tables away from her and heard exactly what she had said, it stung him when he heard it, wondering why he just hadn't swallowed his pride when she had told him what happened and not let it get this far.

Lorelai stepped outside and answered her phone.

"Mom?" said a distant voice.

"Rory, aw hon it's so good to speak to you, how's everything?" Lorelai said instantly cheering up.

"How is everything at home first-I really miss it!" Rory said

"Same old, Kirk got a new dog which he called Kirk the second, the cat must have been the first... remember that? Um Davie is getting really big, I'm actually having breakfast with Sookie right now. I think that's it, same old Stars Hollow – there's a festival on this weekend. Which of course I am going to"

"Wow, you'd think Kirk would learn about naming pets after himself. I'm in Germany at the minute, it's great, I found a really great book store with all these old books that are so hard to get, I'm talking about trying to find a needle in ten thousand haystacks" she said in an excited voice.

"Well whatever floats your boat hon, just stay away from any people wearing a swastika, don't listen to them if they ask you to join their group" Lorelai said smiling, she liked hearing Rory happy.

"I'll make a mental note. Grandma is in a better mood as well, she and Grandpa talked last night, it wasn't long but at least it was something right?"

"Yea that's great" Lorelai said genuinely happy that her parents were at least trying to communicate in some way... which was more than she could say for her and Luke.

"So how are things with Grandma, you running for the razor blades yet? Don't worry it's nothing to be ashamed of, I wouldn't have lasted this long"

"Actually we are getting along fine, I talked to her a bit about Dean and she can see why I need the time away" Rory said, not knowing what her mom's response to that would be.

"You talked to Emily about Dean?" Lorelai said slowly, shocked by Rory's calmness.

"Well not all of it, just a bit"

"Oh okay makes more sense now, well I'm glad you are having a good time sweets" Lorelai said, she missed Rory so much, she loved when she called.

"Yea well I gotta go, we're going to an art museum, grandma says it's one of the best in Europe"

"Have fun!" Lorelai said sarcastically, the idea of going to one of those places bored her, she had been dragged along when she was a kid and it was one of the most boring periods of her life!

"Love you mom, I'll call in a few days, bye" Rory said.

"Love you too hon, bye" Lorelai said before they both hung up. She was so glad that Rory hadn't asked about her and Luke, she didn't really know what to tell her because she didn't know herself. She knew that Rory would tell her to stop being stubborn and make up with him like she had before when they fought, but this time it was different. They would make up eventually but whether things would progress from there she didn't know, did she even want them to? Maybe it was better that they just stayed friends after all.