Title: The Right Moment

Series: Gilmore Girls

Author: hotaru anne

Email: started: 2005 May 25

Date accomplished: 2005 May 25

Genre of fiction: drama/character point of view

Major characters: Lorelai Gilmore, Luke Danes

Summary: Lorelai feels betrayed after her encounter with her parents and seeing Rory. She returns to Stars Hollow and realizes something important about Luke.

Note: This is my first Gilmore Girls fic! In fact, this is my first fanfic I've written in two years so I'm a bit rusty in my style here, so please be patient. I bring up some past episodes as well as some of Lorelai's voiced concerns in this fic as well…a bit of a lame title considering I didn't know how to title this one…

Timeline set on: Set during episode 5.22 "A House is not a Home"

Rating: PG for…well, there's not explicit stuff, no swearing…it's all good.

Disclaimer: The characters nor the show belongs to me. Mention of a Clarisse and Kevin are mine since I don't think there's ever been mention of those people by Lorelai as well as her childhood memories since I don't think anything like that ever happened to her. Not that I know of…

Feeling betrayed has got to be the strangest thing in the world. Betrayed and abandoned. Wait, scratch that, feeling betrayed downright sucks.

Oh, sure, I've felt betrayed before. Like when I was eight and I broke my Mom's favourite porcelain vase, the one with those women in flowing dresses and standing in strange and awkward positions that make you wonder if they're humanly possible. I told the maid not to tell my Mom but when the time came and my Mom was asking what happened to the vase, she cracked and pointed to me as the culprit without a second's notice. Gee, thanks. Or that time when I was twelve, my "friend" Clarisse told everyone that I liked this boy named Kevin. I wasn't even sure if I liked the guy and she blabbed it to everyone anyways! So yeah, I've been betrayed.

But not like this.

Sure, I've had my share of arguments with my folks, especially when it involved my love life. Like when I was dating Jason, my Dad's former partner in the business, and my father went and took everything from him when it wasn't necessary. And then there's the more recent situation when my parents invited Chris to their wedding reception just to throw in some serious damage to my relationship with Luke. They're meddlesome, no doubt about it. But I came to them for help when I needed it and they told me they would help me about Rory's decision. Did I only dream of that conversation? Have I only imagined it? Have I become like what's his name—John! John Nash!—from A Beautiful Mind going schizophrenic and imagining stuff? No, I was there. They said they'd help. It was like a binding agreement and they changed the rules on me! And behind my back! What kind of business is that? The really hurtful part about all of this is the unsaid fact that had it been me and not Rory dropping out of Yale, they would have dragged me kicking and screaming back to Yale, regardless of my own opinion. I couldn't take it. I had to leave.

God knows how I managed to get to my car afterwards and drive my way back to Stars Hollow without losing all consciousness and swerving into a ditch where no one will find me until several days later thanks to some routine patrol. The drive took forever, like everything was going all slow-motion on me. I thought these things only happened in movies. Oh my God, my life has become like one of those movies! Only I was hoping that someone like Patricia Connelly would star as me and not…well, me.

My thoughts drifted to Rory as I drove back home, straight home. My best friend, my good and loving daughter. Seeing her unpack her things at the pool house before I left—it broke my heart completely. She's stronger than this. I did not raise her to be a quitter, I did not raise her to accept what everyone else says about her and let those opinions dictate her entire life. Or did I? I remember the conversation I had a few years ago with Mom about the nature of my relationship with Rory. "We are best friends first," I had told her, "and mother and daughter second." And Mom said something about how she was raised to be a role model as a mother. Thinking back, I realized what a lousy role model I've been. I mean, I had Rory when I was sixteen! I didn't go to some Ivy League university. I haven't married, I never could find the right moment to say what I need to say and end up screwing up everything. But Rory was a good girl—and then she changed. Started hanging around the upper elite group that I could never stand around for more than a second or two, strangely becoming more dependent in her relationships, taking in the opinion of one man (an absolute jerk…if I ever come across him on the street, he shall feel my wrath) and committing theft. My Rory, my own Rory, arrested? Maybe I should have been more of a mother to her and less of a best friend. I should have been more firm with her. Then none of this would have ever happened. Aside from my own parents, I felt pretty betrayed by her as well. We had a plan. She enrolled to Chilton High. I participated in some events there as well. I swallowed whatever pride I had and actually went to my parents for assistance to pay for the tuition there. I kept Rory in line, focused on the goal—all to be thrown away at the flick of a wrist. All the work, the time, effect and brain cells, wasted. She pulled out me and broke the contract, just like my parents. And it hurt more than what my parents did.

I realized that I had pulled up at Luke's diner rather than driving back to my house. After all that's happened this past week, coffee was something I desperately needed. Only I didn't feel like drinking coffee. I felt so drained and beaten down and disheartened that I didn't feel like having a cup…I looked at the window and saw Luke inside, cleaning up the tables like always. He appeared better than he was when I last saw him, going all crazy on me about a house and kids and…hmm, I can't seem to remember the rest. He was pretty freaked. But there he was now.

I killed the engine of my jeep and walked to the door of the diner. I could hear Taylor going all psycho-Hitler on the bikers and yelling, "You're late! You're late! You're all late!" I shook my head; some things just never change, I guess.

I walked into the diner and Luke turned away from the table and towards me. I sighed heavily, feeling a small measure of relief that I was here now. I could tell that he could tell how burned out I was. It's like a sixth sense with him. He just knows…I always wondered if he had some secretly hidden superpower that he wasn't telling me.

"Rory dropped out of Yale," I explained. I'm surprised that it even came out at all, sounding calm and normal when deep inside it sounded weird and hollow. My daughter dropped out of Yale. I never thought it would ever happen to her. I never thought I would ever say that she did such a thing. "She dropped out of Yale and moved in with my parents whom I came to ask for help and they stabbed me in the back. Everything we've worked for, all these years…her whole future. She was supposed to have more than me. She was supposed to have everything." All of my thoughts, all of my emotions were brimming out and I fought the tears; I still couldn't believe it! "We had a plan." We had a plan—and she pulled out.

Luke started talking about how we were going to solve the problem and how he can help. Good old Luke. Good, sweet, caring, loving Luke. All these years, despite the grumpiness and the endless banter, he's always been supportive and helpful. Like the time when Sookie and I had this big argument and Luke encouraged me to take the risk and move ahead to open my own inn. Then there was the time when I had a total meltdown in the park and he just held me there. And then that time that he reassured me that the inn would be great and would work out fine (amidst pouring me a cup of coffee). When the Dragonfly was featured in a travel magazine, he was so supportive and happy for me. He's been there, all of this time.

All this time.

Everything around me is changing and there is Luke, still thinking of a crazy way to fix the entire situation. Watching him go on and on, so charged up and intense about the whole thing made me realize how he concerned, caring and loving he really is. In the process, he made me realize how much I really, truly cared about him as well. I couldn't help but smile to myself about it. Life without Luke would be…I couldn't even imagine.

And then I knew.

Luke stopped talking in the meantime and looked straight at me. "What?"

I took a deep breath in. "Luke…will you marry me?"

I could see his defensively embarrassed expression turn into confusion and surprise. He even appeared to relax a bit. "What?"

I knew for the first time in my life that I said what I needed to say at the right moment.

END