So Far -- Lorelai sends Christopher to the Dragonfly to spend the night. The next morning she tells him about Rory quitting Yale, and the Huntzbergers.

Chapter Three

I Said It All Wrong

Even though Saturday was her day off, Lorelai spent the rest of the morning catching up on payroll, talking to a few salesmen, calling suppliers and vendors, and walking around the property, something she enjoyed doing but rarely had time for during the week. And then she got the phone call from Christopher.

It was a little past one when Lorelai went into the diner. Less than half the tables were occupied, the lunch rush was ending.

"Hey!" Luke called out when he saw her. "Want some . . . ?"

Before he could finish his question, Lorelai went past him straight to the stairs leading up to his apartment. From the look she gave him, he knew something was terribly wrong.

"Caesar, I'm going upstairs for a few minutes."

Then Luke followed her up to the apartment.

"Hey, what's the matter?"

"I got a call from Christopher a little while ago. He went to see Rory."

"So, what happened?"

"Apparently, he now thinks Rory quitting Yale isn't such a bad idea."

"What? Are you sure?"

"Quite sure. He said that after talking to Rory, he now better understands her reluctance to continue studying journalism, and thinks that maybe her taking some time off isn't so bad after all."

"What a jerk! Doesn't ANYBODY understand how she's jeopardizing her future?"

"Obviously not, except for you and me -- and Sookie. At least she agrees with us."

Luke shook his head in disbelief.

"And then he handed the phone to Rory."

"And?"

"He told her about us getting married."

"How did she take it?"

"I'll let you be the judge. As I recall it, the conversation went something like – 'Dad told me you asked Luke to marry you I think that's really great I'm happy for you guys Gotta go See ya.' "

"She said that? 'Gotta go. See ya' ?"

"Not in those exact words, but she might as well have."

"So, nothing from your mother. I mean, I'm sure she knows, right?"

"Probably. But now that Christopher is back to being their number one son, why bother? They have Rory, and Christopher has Rory, and I don't! That's what they wanted anyway."

Luke was speechless, he had no idea what to say to make things better. A small tear trickled down Lorelai's cheek and she was biting her lower lip. There was more, he could tell.

"What else?"

"Nothing, there's nothing else."

"Come on, Lorelai, there's something you're not telling me. What is it?"

"You don't want to hear it."

"I want to hear it, so tell me."

"I – I was thinking about . . . Max."

"Max!"

"And Dean."

Luke was thoroughly confused.

"What about – Max and Dean?"

"I was just remembering back when Max first asked me to marry him. I'm sure you remember all the daisies."

"I remember." Luke wasn't happy with the way this was starting off.

"Well, at the same time, Rory and Dean had just made up, and everything was going so great! And then after you ranted on about where Max and I were going to live, and where we were going to do our banking, and the kids and everything, I called him from my parents' house and that's when I said yes, and Rory and I were laughing and squealing and, God, we were so happy! But now things couldn't be worse. Rory and I aren't talking, Emily and Richard have their claws in her. Nothing's going like it's supposed to. It's all I can do to keep from crying every time I think about it, and I'm so miserable and . . . ."

Suddenly Lorelai realize what she had said, and saw hurt in Luke's eyes.

"Oh God, Luke! I didn't mean it like that, I swear I didn't! I said it all wrong."

"It's okay," Luke said but Lorelai could hear the pain in his voice.

"No, Luke, It ISN'T okay. It was a horrible thing to say!"

Lorelai put her hands on both sides of his face so he would have to look her straight in the eyes.

"I love you, Luke! And I want to marry you, and I want to have your kids, and I want us to grow old together, and I want us to die together. But I miss Rory so much! I want us to be together, and I want us to be happy. I want us to be a family!"

Luke put his arms around her and pulled her to him in a loving embrace.

"So do I," he said softly. "So do I."

After a few minutes, Lorelai backed away so they could look at each other.

"I'll tell you what," he said. "After we get this mess straightened out, we'll go away somewhere, just the three of us – Canada, Florida, California, anywhere you want."

Lorelai sniffed, "That'd be great, that'd be really great."

Lorelai wiped away the last remaining tear on her cheek.

"Since we're talking about going away, do you think you could get away from the diner for the rest of the day? I'd really like it if we could just go somewhere, away from here, away from everything and everybody for a while."

"Sure. No problem. Caesar can handle it. Give me a half hour and we'll go. You want to stay up here?"

"Yeah, maybe I'll lie down while I'm waiting."

"I'll be back before you know it."

When Luke came back upstairs forty-five minutes later, Lorelai was asleep. He quietly took a shower, shaved and got dressed before he woke her up.

"How long was I asleep?"

"About an hour. We had one more small rush. Are you okay?"

"I've got a headache. Any aspirin up here?"

"In the medicine cabinet. Want me to get 'em for you?"

"No, I'll get them. I want to wash my face anyway."

When Lorelai came out of the bathroom Luke was sitting at the table drinking a glass of orange juice.

"I'm ready when you are," she told him.

"Before we go, you should know that I talked to Taylor, about the house."

"What did you tell him?"

"I told him I still wanted it."

Lorelai didn't answer.

"Now, I know how you feel about me buying it without asking you, but like you said, we aren't getting married tomorrow. Maybe after you've had time to think about it, you might change your mind. And if you don't, I'm pretty sure I know someone who'll take it off my hands."

Lorelai put out one hand to pull him up so they could go.

"Before we get started to wherever we're going, why don't we stop by your new house?"

"You want to?"

"Sure, why not? I'd like to take look at it."

"But you've already seen it."

"Yes, but I've always thought of it as old man Twickham's house, and then as the museum. I never even considered it as someplace I might want to live one day. I'd like to look at it again, just to see what kind of potential it has, like I did with the old Dragonfly."

Luke didn't say anything, but Lorelai knew he was pleased.

To Be Continued