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CHAPTER 17: Third Time's a Charm
Lorelai sat in her car for a few minutes as she dried her eyes, she hadn't even thought about saying 'I love you' to Luke, it had just come out but it didn't feel wrong. She knew then that she needed to tell Chris, even if Luke and her weren't together it wasn't right to Christopher to lead him on like this when her heart was someone else's. She started the car and drove to Sookie's, she was probably worried after the phone call the previous night.
She knocked on the door for about a minute before a sleepy Sookie opened the door.
"Hi hon" Sookie said as she opened the door and welcomed Lorelai in.
"You look... great" she said as she looked at Lorelai's tear streaked face.
"Matches how I feel"
"What happened?"
"Well Luke saw me kissing Chris when he came over last night, then this morning Chris proposed"
"Wow!"
"Oh that's not all! I just called to see Luke, it's completely over and I hate that it is... Sookie... I think I love him" she said as she started crying again as she sat down at the kitchen table as Sookie gave her as tissue.
"Aw hon, you'll work it out, you just need to tell him how you feel" Sookie said as she hugged Lorelai.
"I did"
"You told him you loved him?" Sookie said surprised, she had never known Lorelai to say those three words to any guy first... or at all.
"Ouch"
"So what did you tell Chris?"
"I pretty much did a Linford Christie and ran outta there"
"Oh"
"Yeah, so I should be getting back" she said wiping her eyes with a tissue and standing up.
"You want a cup of coffee first?"
"Nah that's okay"
"WOW – Things are rough then!"
"I'll always feel something for Chris, I mean I've known him for so long and we have sooo much history, but Luke... he's just... well Luke" Lorelai said as she sat in a daze, she couldn't even describe everything that Luke was to her.
"I know, you're doing the right thing. You and Luke will work it out"
"Maybe" she said doubtfully as she walked towards the door.
"Call me later"
"Okay, bye" she said as she walked down the driveway.
Lorelai reached home a while later to find Chris lying on the couch watching the news and Rory was still in bed asleep.
"Hey" he said standing up from the couch as she came in.
"Hi Chris"
"Everything okay with Sookie?"
"Yeah she's great. Listen Chris we have to talk"
"Ah"
"Yeah"
"You wanna cup of coffee?" he said trying to postpone the talk for a bit.
"No thanks"
"So serious talk then"
"Sit down Chris" she said as she walked over to the sofa and motioned for him to sit down too.
"We can't get married."
"Why not? It's right for us, I know it is Lor!" he said in an almost desperate voice.
"Yea well Billy-Bob and Angelina thought they were right and look how that turned out"
"C'mon Lor"
"Chris we can't! We couldn't when you proposed a few years back, we couldn't when we were sixteen and we can't now"
"Why?"
"Because Chris... I'm not in love with you" she said as her eyes started to well up again.
"What about last night?"
"It was us Chris, we kissed and I will always feel something with you because I love you, I do but I'm not IN love with you and I know that which is why this would never work out, for the same reason it didn't work out with you and Sherry"
"You love Luke don't you?" he said quietly as she watched him stare intently at one spot on the kitchen table.
"Yes" she said after a few moments of silence. He sat there for a minute looking at the floor avoiding her gaze.
"I'm sorry" she said finally.
"So am I" he said looking at her.
"I'm gonna go take a shower" he said getting up and heading upstairs as Lorelai sat watching him as he walked upstairs.
5pm that evening...
Lorelai arrived home that evening to an empty house, Rory was out and Christopher had left that morning, they had said their awkward goodbye's and he left. It was probably the first time in her life that she was able to watch Christopher leave without having a feeling of 'Did I do the right thing' in her stomach.
Rory arrived home a short while later, they were due at the grandparents for dinner that evening, she had been over at Lane's telling her everything that had happened with Dean.
"Mom?" Rory shouted.
"Hey sweets" Lorelai said coming down the stairs.
"So how are you?"
"I'm... okay"
"You sort stuff out with Luke yet?"
"So what happened with Dean last night, we never really talked" Lorelai said changing the subject as Rory rolled her eyes at her mom's obvious dodge.
"We just talked. He and Lindsay are getting a divorce"
"And..."
"And I dunno what else"
"So you two aren't together?"
"No mom, we just have our own stuff to deal with right now and I'm going back to Yale soon anyway so..."
"Dammit I hoped you had forgotten about that"
"Funnily enough I hadn't"
"Anyway we should get going – Wow feels like we haven't been to Friday night dinners in like forever"
"Yea it has been a while"
"Maybe you should take Emily away to Europe again. Free me from this hell."
"Yes maybe" Rory said as they both walked out the front door.
7.05pm – The Gilmore residence
"Your late" Emily stated as she opened the door.
"Lovely to see you too Mom, we're fine, how are you?" Lorelai said sarcastically.
"Hi Rory" Emily said as she smiled at her and walked back into the house as they followed her into the lounge, Lorelai making a face the whole way there.
"Hey Grandpa" Rory said walking over to hug him.
"Hello Rory"
"Hi Dad" Lorelai said as she gave him a small wave, they weren't really 'huggers'.
"Hello Lorelai – can I get you a drink"
"White wine please" Lorelai said smiling.
About twenty minutes later they were all sitting down eating dinner after Emily had insisted on showing them all the pictures she took in Europe, 'Was there any film left over there?' Lorelai thought when she finally got sitting down to dinner.
"So how is the Inn Lorelai? Emily asked.
"Still standing, although it was close after the fire"
"What fire?"
"Sookie accidentally set the curtain on fire but luckily we have very capable kitchen staff and Fred was able to stop it, the curtain was ruined though, poor baby." Lorelai said with a pout.
"Well maybe you just get some of those fire extinguishers around in case"
"Got it covered Mom"
"So when do you go back to Yale Rory?" Richard asked curiously.
They ate dinner slowly that night, they were continually being slammed with questions which made it tough to eat at the same time as talking, Lorelai had tried it but Emily being Emily had soon put a stop to that. They both left around 10.30pm that night and headed back to Stars Hollow, Emily was also not spending the night there, although things did seem better between them both it was obviously not back to normal. They had managed to avoid the subject of separation and Luke that evening, both parties knew that if one was mentioned then so would the other be therefore the safest option was not to speak of either.
"Phew" Lorelai said as she took off her jacket back at their house.
"Yeah that was a long one"
"I think they were trying to make up for all the weeks we weren't there" Lorelai groaned.
"Probably – I'm gonna go to bed now"
"It's sooo early Rory, stay up, we've hardly spent any time together"
"I promise we will but I'm gonna fall asleep soon" she said yawning.
"Okay then but we have to do a lot of stuff together before you go back to Yale"
"Night Mom"
"Night Narcoleptic Girl"
Lorelai sat down and started to flick through the channels but got bored after a while when there was nothing on and decided to take a walk, she knew she should have been tired but strangely she wasn't. She put on her jacket and walked outside.
About half an hour later she was walking through the town square, it was so quiet at this time of night as she looked around the town, she really loved this town, 'I can't imagine living somewhere else' she thought smiling. She saw the light in Luke's on, usually she would have run for coffee but not this time, she couldn't go in there and pretend everything was fine and normal, at least not yet.
Luke wiped the counter down as he finished closing up for the night, it had been a very long day for him since Lorelai had left. He had heard Patty and Babette talking earlier and knew that Christopher had left town, though for how long? He thought. He walked over to the door to lock up when he saw a familiar figure walking around outside, he stared out at her as she sat on the bench across the street.
"Here" a familiar voice said as Lorelai looked up at Luke as he held out a coffee cup.
"Thanks" she said genuinely still staring at him wondering what he was thinking about what had happened earlier.
"Why are you out so late?" he asked wondering if perhaps she had been coming to see him again.
"I just felt like a walk"
"Oh okay"
"You're up late too" She said trying to keep the conversation going, she didn't feel like the normal banter they usually had going and she could tell he didn't either.
"Yeah well I didn't think there was much point in going to bed" he said softly and he sat down beside her.
"Why not?"
"I have reasons" he said looking away from her.
"Right... yeah" she said hurt by his comment.
"Well I should go, thanks for the coffee" she said smiling as she got up and walked up the street as Luke sat and watched her leave, wanting to call out to her but he just didn't and then she was out of sight.
Lorelai got back to the house about ten minutes later, she knew things weren't going to be the same with Luke now, normally she would have tried harder but she knew that she had hurt him and a small part of her knew that she didn't deserve him after how she had treated him. She changed her clothes into a white tank top and track bottoms and went down to the kitchen to get some more coffee before bed. She sat down at the table and drank her coffee, she usually gulped it down but tonight she just sat and sipped it slowly. After what seems like hours but had only actually been twenty minutes she got up and put her cup in the sink and was walking to go back upstairs when she glanced out the glass in the back door.
"JESUS CHRIST ON THE CROSS!!" she said loudly her eyes widening when she saw the figure outside. She flung the door open quickly with both a confused and surprised frown on her face.
"What does a heart attack feel like 'cos I think I just had one!" she said loudly.
"Sorry"
"Well if I was dead on the floor from a heart of attack you would have been"
"Can we talk?" Luke asked. He had spent the past half hour walking to her house, after the third turn back he had finally got there, 'Now what will I do?' he thought as he looked at her.
'Didn't we just do that?' she thought but still she agreed and welcomed him in. They stood for what seemed like forever in awkward silence as they waited for each other to talk. 'I have never heard her quiet for this long' he thought as he waited for her to say something.
"So... usually when you wanna talk you would have to... I dunno talk" she said genuinely.
"I gotta go – Sorry about the scare" he said walking out through the back door.
"Luke c'mon" she shouted after him but he just walked on, 'Guess that's it then' she said as her eyes started to well up and she shut the door.
"Dammit" she said out loud as she leaned her head back against the door. She went upstairs, turned off the light and got into bed, wishing that Luke was there with her like he had been before.
Luke walked down the street, 'Damn why can't I just talk to her?' he thought to himself as he made his way back to the diner. He hated not seeing her and not being able to talk to her, the days at the diner were longer than ever now just knowing that she wasn't going to be in, even if she was just there to annoy him – he still missed her.
A while later Lorelai had managed to doze off to sleep finally, trying her hardest to keep Luke out of her mind. She suddenly heard a noise as something hit her window, she groaned and rolled back over choosing to ignore it.
'Bang'
'Bang'
'Bang'
"For the love of God" Lorelai said grumpily as she stumbled out of bed and over to the window to look out. She saw Luke bending over outside picking up more stones off the ground to throw at her window. She grabbed her jacket which was slung over a chair and put it on as she put on her trainers and made her way downstairs and out the front door.
"You not run out of rocks yet?"
"It took you long enough" he said gruffly as he looked her up and down and grinned inwardly at how funny she looked, but still beautiful as always.
"Well I'm not really used to men skulking about my house and throwing my rocks at my windows"
"I wasn't skulking"
"Okay whatever you were doing my gentleman caller, you wanna come in?" she asked as she started to shiver.
"Yeah" he said walking in behind her.
"Listen Luke, I'm sorry for what happened I dunno what else to say, it all got so messed up and I know it did and I wish that it hadn't more than anything and we could just go back to the way it was before" she said first before giving him the chance to talk, she didn't want him to leave without saying anything like earlier or without her getting the chance to say anything.
"Before when?"
"What do you mean?"
"Before like when we were friends or... more than that?"
"I miss you Luke and not just as my coffee provider but my best friend and my boyfriend, not that I don't still miss your coffee 'cos I really do! I ... saw Nicole and she said she had left you in bed and that she had told you to take the day off so I assumed that you two were back together and I was so confused about the night before when you just left after what happened I thought you just had enough. And then Chris showed up and I thought you were with Nicole and..." Luke pressed his lips up against Lorelai's, interrupting the babble, she put her arms around his waist tightly as she pulled him closer to her. He had one hand on the back of her neck and the other on the small of her back. She teased his bottom lip with her tongue before he opened his mouth and she moaned softly as their tongues touched and he moved his hands down to her butt and pushed her gently up against the cupboards. After about a minute they pulled back as they both tried to catch their breath.
She put her head on his chest and hugged him tightly as she smiled into him, he put his arms around her and kissed her hair as he grinned down at her, they both felt so right. They stood there for a few minutes before she pulled back and looked deep into his eyes, they were bluer than she had ever really noticed.
"I love you Luke" she said as she softly kissed him on the lips.
"You don't have to say anything, I just really wanted you to know" she said as she leaned against his chest again. He took her head in his hands and kissed her deeply on the lips, 'God that feels so good' they both thought simultaneously.
"Lorelai, I love you too... more than you know" he said huskily as he pulled back and leant his head against hers, she smiled widely and he grinned back at her as he watched her eyes light up.