AN: That cliffhanger was sooo much worse than last years'! I want Season 6 to start immediately, but since it won't, I will resort to fan fiction. I've been out of the fic world for a while now so I have a lot of reading to catch up on and I have 3 in progress fics one of which I think I'm going to put on hold. Anyway, here's my next story. Please read and review.

Disclaimer: Amy owns 'em

Spoilers: everything up to 5.22 A House is Not a Home

Ships: Rory/Logan, Luke/Lorelai

Summary: Lorelai-centric with a Rory subplot starting in the diner after Lorelai proposed.

Luke stared at Lorelai not knowing whether or not to take her seriously. He thought about the years it took for him to finally have Lorelai as his own; the boyfriends that she went through and his own marriage to Nicole. He remembered Paul, that young kid Lorelai dated when he thought that Lorelai would date anyone but him. Then Luke thought about the opening of the Inn, the night that he finally was able to confess the feelings he had for years. Now she was sitting in front of him in a mind state that he'd seen before, but never like this. Lorelai was falling apart and she just asked him to marry her.

Lorelai looked back at Luke; she could tell that he was dumbfounded by what she just asked him. Throughout the past 9 years they had been friends and he was always the person that Lorelai went to. After losing Rory, Luke was all she had. Sookie and Jackson had two kids to worry about and Lorelai lost the one that she had. Luke was the wall for her to lean against through everything. Every word that he said about kidnapping Rory and forcing her to go to Yale…every word said that he cared about her and loved her so unconditionally that he would do anything for her. Luke already was more of a father to Rory than Christopher ever was…he was everything she needed.

"Are you going to answer?" she finally broke the silence.

"yes."

"Yes, you're going to answer?"

"Yes, I'll marry you."

Lorelai slowly stood up and Luke pulled her closer, for the first time in a few days she felt completely content. She looked straight into Luke's eyes as he pulled her even closer and they shared a slow, passionate kiss. Lorelai pulled away and asked, "since I asked, do I still get the ring?"

Luke smiled, he was happy to see that Lorelai still had her sense of humor even when her world was disintegrating. He simply shook his head in agreement and made a mental note to look for a ring…then another one to talk to Taylor again about the Twickham house – that would be the perfect surprise. He looked again over at Lorelai who had tears falling from her eyes. There was nothing he could do to get Rory back in Yale even though he said that he had all of the answers.

Lorelai knew that Luke had none of the answers, but he made everything sound so easy. He made her feel like she could get her baby back – that Rory was still her baby. Lorelai hugged Luke because his embrace was the only thing that made her forget everything and she listened as he whispered "I love you" in her ear. She tried to respond, but words wouldn't form through the tears; Luke held her tighter in hopes of stopping the tears.

Luke escorted his fiancé up the stairs and she crawled into the bed and cried. Luke held Lorelai until she fell asleep then watched her finally at peace. He didn't know what he was going to do, but there had to be some way to help her; there had to be something he could do. He fell asleep in the midst of his thoughts.

Lorelai dreamed about life being so much better. She thought about the Inn and how she was going to continue getting free stuff until she had to turn down the offer to see the Dragonfly. Then she saw Rory as a little girl again; Rory was perfect until the mistake with Dean. They'd never fought like this before; everything was always so easily resolved.

Rory was in her new house…her grandparents' pool house. It was the first time she was on her own, no Paris annoying her all the time and no Lorelai. She had her own little place and she didn't have to do anything for herself…there were maids for that. The maids were going to take some getting used to. It was all going to take some getting used to. Her thoughts were interrupted by a phone call.

"Hey, you."

"Hey, Ace, how are you?"

"I'm alright," she responded.

"You don't sound it – what's going on?"

"I moved into my grandparents' pool house."

"So you have your own place now?" Logan asked suggestively.

"I guess you could say that," Rory flirted back.

The two continued to talk a little and Rory started to miss Lorelai. She knew that things weren't going to be the same anymore. She didn't know when she was even going to get to see the mother that had been her best friend throughout her life.

The next morning, Lorelai woke up and Luke was already downstairs in the diner. She needed to go home and shower and get things done before heading to work at 2; Michel was taking care of everything until then. Lorelai realized that she was going to have to tell her parents…and Rory about the engagement. Her parents weren't going to be very happy, but at that point, Lorelai didn't care. They stabbed her in the back, after not being there throughout the majority of her life, she thought that for once she saw eye to eye with them. She didn't know what happened that caused them to change their minds and take Rory's side. There was no ring yet, Emily would have something to say about that. She would probably just use it as something else against Luke, but Lorelai didn't care anymore.

She went to work and immediately and went to the kitchen to tell Sookie forgetting that Sookie wouldn't be there. Lorelai took her cell phone out of her pocket and called her best friend…she only wanted to tell her the good news, the bad news would wait.

"I'm engaged."

"Congratulations!" Sookie yelled, "and now that the baby's born, I can drink with you to celebrate."

Lorelai laughed and told Sookie that she had to get back to work and that she would talk to her again soon. The day dragged on and Lorelai tried her hardest to keep a smile for all of the patrons. Even Michel commented on Lorelai being down and offered to help her, it was the kindest that the French man had been. No one in Stars Hollow could find out where Rory was, word traveled too fast. Lorelai didn't want anyone to feel bad for her – she wanted to live her own life. She didn't want the engagement low key, but after everything that happened she was going to wait a day before telling Ms. Patty and having the entire town find out.

That night Lorelai got in the jeep and drove the familiar route to the house she grew up in. When she'd left the night before she thought it would be a long time until she came back again. She knocked quietly at the door and almost immediately the shaken young woman answered and took her coat.

"Mr. and Mrs. Gilmore are in Mr. Gilmore's office, or would you like to see Ms. Gilmore?"

"I'll go on my own, Davida, thank you."

The young woman quickly walked away and got back to work on whatever she was doing. Lorelai walked slowly towards her father's study – the same room she'd locked herself in a week earlier when Emily read that magazine article. This was worse than that article – it was going to be harder to get out. But Lorelai knew that Luke was the only thing in her life that was keeping her happy. Before knocking on the door, Lorelai thought about who she wanted to tell first – her parents or Rory? She decided on her parents then maybe Rory could feel even a portion of the pain that Lorelai felt.

Knock…knock

Richard stood up and opened the door in shock that his daughter was standing there. She walked in slowly and stood in front of both of her parents who were looking at her as though she was a stranger. Lorelai could tell what both of them were thinking, but neither would say – they wanted to know why she was there.

"I know you weren't expecting me, but I had to come tell you now. As of last night Luke and I are engaged to be married. I don't want to hear what you have to say about Luke, I just want you to know. You don't have to be happy for me, but I am happy about this and plan to live my life how I wish to."

"If you wish to throw it away on that diner owner, then go ahead, don't come to up for money when he can't support you," Emily responded coldly.

"When Max and I were engaged you got upset that I didn't tell you, this time I wanted you to be the first to know. I'm sorry I've disappointed you however many times, I lost count, I just wish you could be happy for me."

"We are happy for you, Lorelai," Richard started, "but we know that you could do so much better. If you had gone to college…"

"I am doing better than people who do go to college. What does it matter anyway? I'm the screw up in the family, we all know that. We knew that the second I got pregnant."

"Not now, Lorelai," Emily said.

"What, mom? My life is falling apart and I found one thing that's keeping me whole and it's something you don't approve of. I am happy with Luke, he loves me, Mom, don't you understand that?"

"How is your life falling apart? Is this our fault again because everything's our fault."

"My daughter is living in the pool house because I wanted her to have something better than the life I led instead she's going to follow in my footsteps. She's not going to get pregnant instead she's going to drop out of school and steal yachts."

"She's a confused young girl."

"So was I, mom, and you were never there for me. Christopher was my back bone; he made me feel loved more than you ever did. That's where Rory came from – she was born out of the only love I ever felt. But then I realized Christopher wasn't everything I wanted – I was never as happy with him as I am with Luke. Whether or not you choose to come to my wedding is up to you, I have to go."

"Rory is going to go back to school when she's ready."

"You just like that she's everything that I never was – up until recently she's been the perfect child, not a single mistake. Unlike me, she goes to you…she's your perfect little granddaughter who can do no wrong and her boyfriend's perfect too no matter what he's done."

"You just hate that she's falling into the world that you ran away from."

"Yes, mom, that's exactly it," Lorelai said not meaning a single word.

She couldn't take anymore of this arguing, so Lorelai grabbed her coat and walked to the back door of the house. She took a step out and looked into the pool house where she saw that familiar blonde boy with her daughter. The two were laughing, perhaps drunk; Lorelai didn't want to intrude so she was going to wait to tell Rory about the engagement.

The trip back to Stars Hollow was a long one; Lorelai had to fight the tears that would blur her vision while driving. She drove past her own house when she got to Stars Hollow and went straight to the diner. Luke could tell that she just came from her parents' and without a word he poured her a cup of coffee. They sat in complete silence until Lorelai said that she wanted to go home and turned Luke down when he offered to join her. Lorelai wanted to be alone.

First thing the next morning, the phone rang. Lorelai answered and heard a familiar voice on the other end.

"Why didn't you tell me when you told grandma and grandpa?" the pain was evident in the girl's voice.