At the Diner Lane:

I was carefully creeping around the tables, glancing to Luke from time to time. Always afraid that he could have another outburst. I had to be really carefully not to disturb him by doing anything wrong. I guess that would have been my sentence of death.

Luke was miserable. He was in a terrible mood. I mean he never used to be the nice, kindly man who has a good word for everybody. He used to be grumpy and rude, sometimes even impolite. And I think most of the tourists thought twice before returning to this Diner again. The rest of us, I mean the people living in Stars Hollow, was immune against his moods. Luke was Luke and no matter how frustrating his behaviors sometimes was, his food tasted great.

But that day he was more than just a little moody.. he was dangerous. He screamed at Cesar and even yelled at me, which he doesn't do very often.. well, never because I'm the best little waitress in town. He burnt the food and the coffee tasted awful and when a customer made the mistake to notice this, he was thrown out with a kick in the butt.

You didn't need to be a psychic to know it was because of his break-up with Lorelai. The whole town suffered with them and not only because Luke had this incredible bad mood. Luke and Lorelai had been the prettiest couple in Stars Hollow, everybody loved them. Especially cause we'd been able to watch them grow nearer and nearer together over the years. Seeing them finally bound together in love was great. Just watching them had seemed to cheer everyone up. And now? Now everything was broken. I heard that Patty was already developing a plan how to get them back together. I don't think that's going to work. I heard Taylor muttering that he had told them from the very beginning that this relationship would go wrong. Andrew smacked him into the side for that.

I guess all they wanted was having the old Luke back.. preferably with Lorelai at his side. Lorelai was one of the most popular peoples in this town and everybody loved her. She seemed to be the Queen of Stars Hollow cause she just fitted in here. But now she was gone, had disappeared from the surface. She stopped going to the Diner, which I can totally understand, she stopped shopping and she even missed her beloved town meetings. Some said that she had moved away which was ridiculous because she still had the Dragonfly. Others assumed that Luke had might killed her and hid her somewhere in his apartment. Their strongest argument was that the smell coming from his flat was really disturbing.

And that was true. But I knew why it smelt that bad. One day he had sent me upstairs to get his toolbox and I saw it myself. He had stopped washing the dirty dishes and they made a ugly heap in his sink. I saw a lot of filthy clothes lying on the floor so I think he stopped washing them too. But I guess worst was that he had even stopped showering himself what he used to do everyday, or so I heard.

Suddenly I heard loud yelling and saw how Luke stared at Kirk, his eyes red and full of anger. I hissed because I saw how he lost control… again.

He pointed at the young trembling man. "You"!

Kirk shook his head, his eyes full of fear. "Me? But.. but.. I.. I didn't do anything wrong.. I was very quiet.. just as Lane told me and.. and.. please don't kill me", he stuttered.

I rushed to his side. Not that I liked Kirk that much but I don't think he deserved to die such a terrible death.

"Luke! Calm down. Kirk didn't do anything wrong", I assured him and hoped that he would be able to cool down his tempter.

"But he did! He swallowed way too loud.. I could hear him from here behind the counter. He wants to annoy me.. I know it. He did it one purpose!" Luke yelled, totally losing his mind.

Kirk jumped up. "Alright.. alright. You don't have to kick me out. I'll go myself", he said and rushed to the door. Before he went out he looked at Luke and feeling save he said. "You're completely off your rocker Luke". And gone he was scared that the furious Diner owner could chase him.

I watched all this and sighed. I saw that the customers were afraid to move, they just kept on starring at him. And I realized that if Luke didn't want to lose all of his quests he had to do something. Well, right now he was panting and snorting like a wild bull and I thought that it was me to change this situation.

" Luke you have to calm down again. You've gone too far, you can't kick out your customers because they swallow too loud", I said and I thought that this was a good start.

"Well, you see.. I can!" He answered and turned his back to me.

I sighed again. I don't know why I did what I did and what came over me but well.. I just wanted to help. "Luke? Go back to her.. she misses you and you miss her. Talk with her and everything is going to be alright", I said softly.

Damn me..

At Lane's apartment a few days later. Rory:

"So.. you really told him that everything is going to be okay"? I asked, not quite believing it. Lane was the bravest girl in the world that I knew.. or very stupid.

But well, she is my best friend so I guess she was being brave.

"Yeah I did.. see how good that worked out. I'm lucky that I'm still alive. But now I need a new job", she said.

I nodded and grinned sadly. This whole mess was really frustrating. The last week had been terrible. I've never seen my mother this bad, crying herself to sleep every night, not eating, not drinking.. not even coffee. Seeing her like this broke my heart. I didn't know what to say to make her feel better, I didn't know how to make it alright. All I could do was to sit by her side and watch her suffer. She even locked herself in her room once. She didn't answer to my calling at first and I was really scared. This was until I told her that I would call the police to break open the damn door if she didn't answer me. After that she said that she was fine and that I should go back to Yale. I didn't believe her.

At that point I really wanted to hate Luke for what he did to my Mom and I wanted to hate my Mom for what she did to him. Because listening to Lane I had realized that he felt as miserable as my mother and maybe even worse.

"Where's your Mom right now"? The question brought me back into reality. Yeah.. these days of her suffering had been bad but now it was even worse.

I sighed. "At the Dragonfly of course. She works like a lunatic, she's bad, she's even worse than bad but she refuses to let anyone see that. I mean.. everyone CAN see that she's hurting but she acts like nothing had happened. She acts like everything is just fine".

But it's was not fine. "And now she wants to show me how strong she is, how perfectly she can handle this whole situation. She once told me that crying is good when you're lovesick but she thinks that it's enough to cry for a few days and after that everything is going to be alright.. But it's not. She pretends like it but she lies", I whispered and saying out loud was causing me pain.

I looked down and Lane placed her hand on my shoulder. "It's going to be alright. I'm sure Luke will come back, I mean he loves your mother and he loves you. He has loved the Gilmore Girls for years. I do not think that this changed all of sudden", she said.

"Do you really think so"? I asked.

She looked at me unsure what to answer. But I guess she saw that I was a mess too and she forced herself to smile. "Of course I do".

I knew she was lying.

Writer:

And so the days passed by. Luke, trying to keep the last customers that had survived his outbursts, decided to get a grip and act as normal as possible. The burgers were not longer burned, the coffee tasted again but still…it was not the same and everything he made had a bitter taste of hurt and pain in it. Everyone knew that this was not old usual Luke talking to hem. This was a extremely sad, hurt Luke who tried his best to keep control by working harder than ever.

Lorelai appeared again. She wore a faked smile on her lips while she shopped in Doosye's. She came to the town meetings but she had no fun to annoy Taylor or to throw fries at someone. She acted normal but her pale face and the rings around her eyes told a different story. The Dragonfly was going well and the quests who didn't know the Lorelai from the past were contented. But the streets were quieter now that her laughing had subsided. The days were gray and people in Stars Hollow longed to hear a funny story coming from her mouth but her lips were sealed. Without their Queen Stars Hollow was as boring and as usual as any other small town in America. The Diner lost customers, it was not longer special, the food tasted like it tasted in every damn Restaurant. Tourists stayed away.

At that point Taylor decided to call a town meeting to solve these problems. In other words to get Luke and Lorelai back together as friends, as lovers, as whatever.

Luke stormed out after no more than two seconds of his speech. Lorelai followed quickly. Outside they quickly met each others eyes, seeing the pain in both of them. They even opened their mouths to say something, anything but then Kirk ran out falling to his knees begging them to forgive each others. After that both of them ran away in different directions.

This whole situation destroyed more than just Luke and Lorelai. Every time Lorelai lied at Rory when she told her she was doing fine, she broke another bit of her daughter's heart and the great relationship they once had shared. And every time Luke told Rory that he would talk to her mother but that he needed more time, he stole another bit of Rory's trust in him.

And everyone had just one single question. What would happen next? Would this mess destroy whole Stars Hollow or would destiny find it's own way to change the situation….?