Ok I totally forgot to do a disclaimer! Oops anyway this is the property of genius writer Amy-Sherman Palladino so the only thing that's mine is the story plot!

A/N: Next chapter up by Sunday 10 September. Please review to let me know if there are people reading it. Also some ideas as to what is going to happen with Luke and Lorelai, and Lorelai and Chris now! Do you want some Rory/Dean in the story too?

CHAPTER 15 – Swings and Things

That evening Lorelai got home around 5pm, she had got off as early as she could so that she could spend some time with Rory and Chris, she hadn't spent a lot of time with either of them since they both returned. When she got in Chris was doing some work on his computer in the living room and Rory was in her room reading.

"Honey I'm home!" Lorelai shouted half jokingly.

"Hey" Chris said.

"Hey mom" Rory said walking out of her room as she watched her Mom collapse on the sofa.

"You want some coffee?" Chris asked always knowing that it was always one of the best options when she was in this mood.

"Oooh yes please" she said excitedly suddenly having a surge of energy.

"Okay, you too Rory?"

"No I'll just have some herbal tea" Rory said seriously.

"What?" Lorelai said as she shot her daughter a 'What the hell' look.

"I'm kidding" Rory said as she put hers hands up surrendering.

"Don't scare Mommy like that" Lorelai said pouting.

"Sorry"

"You should be, I just used up some energy units having to turn my head and give you the death stare"

"Oh the shame I feel" Rory said sarcastically.

A short while later Lorelai, Rory and Chris were all sitting in the living room drinking coffee, Rory had just told her Mom about Dean coming round to talk, she had been quiet for a few moments before she spoke.

"Oh ... okay ... where are you going?"

"Probably just go for a walk"

"Well... Call me if you need help, we can even make up a signal if you want, like page SOS or something"

"As much as I know that we need a signal for me to escape Dean's clutches I think I can manage" Rory said sarcastically.

They all sat and pretended to watch television for a while, Rory was thinking about her 'meeting' with Dean and what he would say when he saw her, Lorelai was thinking about what would happen between Dean and Rory, and Chris was thinking of both Rory and Lorelai.

6.10pm

The doorbell rang, Rory had been sitting nervously in her room for the past twenty minutes waiting for Dean to arrive and as soon as she heard the doorbell she ran to the door before either her Mom or Dad got there before her.

"Hi" Dean said as she opened the door.

"Hi" she said nervously.

"Um you wanna come in?" she said thinking of something to say.

"Is you're dad there?"

"Yes?" she said questioningly.

"I'm fine here" Dean said.

"Hi Dean" Lorelai said as she walked past the front door as she headed from the kitchen to the living room.

"Hi Lorelai" he said nervously trying not to make eye contact.

"Thanks for the flowers and don't worry about the face, it made my mugging story a lot more believable" she said trying to ease the tension a bit, knowing he felt bad. They both looked at her strangely when she mentioned the mugging.

"Emily" Lorelai said grinning wickedly as they both understood instantly that it had just been one of Lorelai's elaborate stories used specifically to wind her Mom up.

"Okay so we're gonna go" Rory said grabbing her jacket.

"Well call me if you're going to be late. And it better be from the scene of the crime you just witnessed or the hospital because you're there after saving someone's life after a terrible accident" she said uneasily, making sure that if they were late they better have a very good reason.

"I won't be late"

"Good to know, see you later"

"Oh and Dean?"

"Yeah?" he asked nervously turning back to her.

"I'm not sure what exactly you've heard but I can tell you that there is no deadly plague present in this house so you don't have to stand a metre away from the door" Lorelai said raising an eyebrow at him before smiling genuinely at him.

"Um... okay thanks" he said as he grinned back.

Lorelai watched them walk down the steps before she sighed and walk back inside the house.

Luke was working in the diner, it was pretty busy but both Lane and Caesar were working so it wasn't too bad. He had only asked Lane to work because he knew that she needed the money badly, she had even asked him if she could take home some day old bread yesterday because the guys had eaten everything else. Tonight had been pretty quiet regarding the town gossips, Babette, Taylor and Miss Patty hadn't been in since the morning and Kirk had left early to go out with Lulu, he liked it that way. 'I spoke too soon' he thought a few minutes later when he saw Sookie enter the diner, knowing she was bound to question him about Lorelai.

"Hey" Sookie said cheerily as she sat down on a stool in front of the computer to which he grunted in reply.

"What do you want?"

"Omelette and coffee thanks" she said as she watched him scribble on his pad. He was looking scruffier than usual, he hadn't shaved in days and apparently hadn't slept as she noticed the small bags under his eyes.

"How are you?" Sookie asked in concern.

"Fine" he grumbled as he poured her coffee.

"Luke, you and Lorelai will make up and be friends again soon, we all know you will"

"It was an accident Sookie, I meant to hit Dean not her, I would never..." he said gruffly as he trailed off at the end.

"Hon, she knows it was ... but it wasn't that part which she was annoyed about ya know?"

"What do you mean?" he said lifting his head to look at her for the first time.

"She was just upset about Nicole"

"What the hell does Nicole have to do with any of this?" he said still in a state of confusion.

"Um – a lot!"

"How?"

"Your – sleepover - with - Nicole" Sookie said slowly as if he had trouble understanding English.

"What the hell are you talking about?" he said this time his tone with some anger and a degree of urgency in it.

"Well Lorelai came to talk to you after the fight to tell you everything was fine and she knew that it was an accident and she saw Nicole come down from your apartment looking slightly dishevelled and she somehow led her to believe that you two had just... well you know"

"WHAT?!" Luke said loudly as everyone in the diner turned round and looked at him, suddenly everything started to make sense to him.

"I said Lorelai came..."

"I heard you but that's crazy!" Luke said as he interrupted her.

"You – didn't – sleep – with – Nicole?" Sookie said in realisation.

"Hell no!"

"I had a few beers, and I had fallen asleep in here and Nicole came by to drop off some of my stuff that I had forgotten, she got me some water and helped me get up to my apartment..." he said drifting off as everything started to make sense. 'Poor Luke' Sookie thought as she watched him.

"You need to talk to her Luke" Sookie said after a few minutes of silence. How could she have believed he slept with her when he was so obviously crazy about Lorelai? She thought.

"I know"

"So go!!!"

"Now?"

"No next week, of course now!" Sookie said as she walked behind the counter and already started to make herself at home. He usually would have argued with her but he knew that this wasn't the time to give her the rant about his sacred space behind HIS counter.

Lorelai and Chris went outside to sit on the porch for a while, pretending to be waiting for pizza but truthfully they were looking for Rory. They sat down on the porch swing, she leaned against him and curled her legs up under herself as his arm lay loosely around the back of the swing.

"So how's Georgia?"

"She's good. It's so strange, I didn't realise how fast they grow up even at that age"

"Like you wouldn't believe, I used to wish I could keep Rory in a box"

"You tried didn't you?" he said laughing.

"Yes but she didn't take to it and social services were getting involved... apparently it's against the law" she said as he laughed. They sat in comfortable silence for a few minutes.

"I wonder where Rory is" Chris asked curiously.

"Probably half way to Vegas"

"Well now my mind's at ease"

"Aww look at you being the protective dad, you just need a shotgun or something and you would totally be the 'psycho dad package', but work on that evil glare a bit. Have you seen 'Meet the parents'? Man that dad is scary!"

"I'll try and do that" he said sarcastically.

"Well if you need any help I can lend you the movie"

"I need to make up for all the times when I didn't play the psychotic overprotective father" he said quietly.

"Listen Chris, Rory is glad you're here ... and so am I"

"Plus you just cant seem to buy pillows this comfortable these days" she said snuggling into his shoulder as he moved his arm from the back of the swing and put it around her as they sat there for a few minutes just thinking.

"Lorelai" he whispered.

"Yeah?" she said as she lifted her head to look at him. She remembered the last time they had been in this position with each other, the infamous eve of Sookie's wedding. He stared at her intently as he moved his face closer to her, she stared back as she saw what he was doing, not quite sure whether she wanted him to kiss her or not. Their lips met as he kissed her softly and waited for her to respond, she turned her head more towards his and kissed him back on the lips softly. He moved his hand behind her neck as he pulled her closer to him and kissed her hard on the lips.

Luke walked to Lorelai's slowly as he wrote in his head what he was planning to say to her, he still couldn't believe that she had thought that he had cheated on her. He was getting strangely excited as he walked as he thought about seeing her and being able to talk to her again, hoping that once she knew the truth they could get back to the way they were. He started to slow down as he got nearer to her house, he stopped when he saw movement on the porch. He narrowed his eyes as he looked through the darkness as he tried to make out the figures, he wouldn't have been able to see them at all if it hadn't been for the porch light being on.

A lump formed in his throat as he saw the all too familiar scene of Chris and Lorelai kissing, except this time she didn't seem to be close to pulling away. He watched them for a few seconds as Chris pulled her into him, he swung around quickly and walked away angrily down the street with his head hung, watching the road as he walked back to the diner.

"Luke?"

"What?" he snapped before he turned around and saw who had been talking.

"Sorry – I thought you were someone else"

"Are you okay?" Rory asked concerned.

"No"

"Why, what's wrong? Is mom okay?" Rory said getting worried as she looked up the street in the direction of her house.

"She's perfectly fine" he said snidely.

"Well what's happened?"

"I gotta go" he said as he started to turn and walk away when he noticed Dean for the first time beside Rory. He glared at him before he continued to walk quickly down the street.

Chris and Lorelai heard voices as they turned and saw Rory and Dean coming up the street. Lorelai jumped up off the swing quickly and wiped her mouth as they walked up the driveway, they had been talking so hadn't seen what had been happening on the porch swing just a few seconds ago.

"Hey" both Lorelai and Chris said together with guilty looks on their faces.

"Hi" both Rory and Dean replied.

"You kids have fun?"

"Yea, Dean knows this great bar where they give you two shots for the price of one so we played some drinking games with some truckers who stopped in – really nice guys" Rory said sarcastically.

"No we didn't. We didn't go to any bars" Dean said nervously before he glanced at Chris who was laughing at him.

"Dammit, I was hoping to get the name of the bar off you" Lorelai said grinning.

"You wanna come in Dean, remember there is NO PLAGUE"

"No I should get going, but thanks" he said.

"Okay well see you then" Lorelai said as her and Chris walked back into the house. Rory entered a few minutes later after saying goodnight to Dean. Chris went upstairs to the bathroom when the phone started ringing, Lorelai answered.

"Hello"

"Lorelai?"

"Sookie?"

"What happened?"

"With..." Lorelai said smiling funnily at Rory.

"With Luke"

"Umm Sookie hon have you been drinking?"

"Didn't you just see Luke?"

"No, why?" she asked confused as to what all this was about. Her and Luke had barely spoken since the break up.

"He told me he was going over to your place to tell you" she said quickly as Lorelai struggled to understand her high pitch screeches.

"Sookie, calm down, tell me what?" she said very confused.

"LUKE DIDN'T SLEEP WITH NICOLE!"

"What?"

"He thought you broke it off 'cos of the fight with Dean, Nicole called round that morning to leave some stuff of his off and he had been drinking a lot obviously upset about you and she got him some water and brought him up to his apartment to sleep it off and she left. They aren't back together!" Sookie said excitedly before she gasped for breath.

"Oh my god" Lorelai said putting her hand over her mouth.

"He was supposed to be going over there to talk"

"I gotta go Sook – I'll talk to you tomorrow" Lorelai said quickly as she hung up.

Lorelai heard Chris coming downstairs and shot a look at Rory and shook her head motioning to the staircase as she put a finger to her lips – Rory understood.

"Who was that?"

"Um just Sookie"

"Ya know what guys – I'm pretty tired, I think I'm gonna go to bed" Lorelai said as she faked a yawn.

"Me too" Rory said as she also faked a yawn.

"Okay" Chris said slowly.

"Mom can I sleep in your bed tonight?"

"Sure hon"

They both walked over and kissed Chris on the cheek and said goodnight before they walked upstairs, they were going as fast as they could up the stairs without it looking suspicious to Chris – they had a lot to talk about! Chris stood at the foot of the stairs looking at them strangely as he wondered what was going on.

"What did Sookie say?" Rory asked as she shut the door to the bedroom.

"Okay – but you might wanna sit down" she said patting the bed beside where she sat which Rory occupied.

"Okay – now go!"

"Well you know when I said that Nicole had been coming down from Luke's apartment and that they... ya know"

"Yes Mom" Rory said as she rolled her eyes.

"Well I kinda jumped to the wrong conclusions a bit – she had only been dropping some stuff off" Lorelai said as she frowned.

"Mom!"

"I know!!"

"How could you just assume? I thought she had actually told you"

"She insinuated it!"

"Well what did he say when he was here?"

"He wasn't here! God what's with everyone thinking he was here?"

"Well when I was walking home he was coming from our house so I just assumed"

"You saw Luke? We have been in here for at least two minutes and you didn't think to mention this sooner?" Lorelai almost shouted.

"I just did"

"So what did he say?"

"Well he didn't stop to talk really, he didn't even notice me at first but he was really pissed about something". When she heard that Lorelai put her hands over her face and could feel her eyes start to well up with tears as she thought of all the trouble that she had caused and even worst, she suspected Luke had caught her kissing Christopher ... again.