The $10 goes to "Mrs. Scott Patterson" and"the unnamed"who guessed last chapter's quote correctly. It was from the NBC dramedy "Ed". The show ran for four wonderful seasons and can currently be found in reruns on TBS at 11CT. It may never be released on DVD because last time I checked the major corporations producing the show were prohibiting NBC to do so. Sucks huh?

Welcome back to my story. Sorry it took so long to update. Hope it was all worth the wait:)

The beginning of this chapter is for "SciikRo" who had a great suggestion and I just had to use it!

"Hey Lorelai? We're all done here." Sookie said packing up a few things she had scattered around the diner.

When Lorelai didn't answer her Sookie quickly stopped and placed a hand on her arm.

"Hey, you okay?" Sookie asked tilting her head down to meet Lorelai's gaze.

Lorelai quickly snapped out of her stupor and looked up at her.

"Yeah…I'm just fine."

Just then Sookie noticed something she hadn't seen before.

"Is that…a hickie?" She pointed to the red spot between Lorelai's shoulder and neck.

Lorelai quickly placed her hand over it and made her way into the kitchen.

"It is!" She heard Sookie following and quickly began cleaning up things in the kitchen as a diversion.

"No, it's…it's…Okay it's a hickie but can we not talk about it right now?"

"Oh, we are going to talk about it. You go upstairs to get a moment of 'peace' and you come down with a massive love bite. You can't expect me to ignore that!"

Lorelai dropped the spatula she had in her hand and turned around to face Sookie.

"Luke and I…"

Sookie was positively giddy with excitement and anxious for more, she burst open unable to handle the anticipation.

"You and Luke! I knew it! Eventually it was going to happen. I'm just so happy! What about Alex? Does he know? Did you dump him? Are you still going to see him while you date Luke? Please say no because Luke does not deserve that…"

Lorelai grabbed Sookie's shoulders in attempt to prevent her from going any further.

"Listen. I'm not sure what's going on between Luke and I right now. It's just…We've kissed, made out…twice…but things are so hectic with the inn, and he's still technically with Nicole so…I don't know what's going on. But when I do, I promise I will fill you in on the entire situation. Got it?"

Sookie smiled broadly and nodded her head.

"Good. Now let's find these people some places to sleep!"

Lorelai began to leave the kitchen when she heard Sookie call her name.

"Lorelai?"

She turned to face her.

"Yeah?"

"This could be something really great…you know?"

Lorelai nodded.

"Yeah, I know."

Later that night when the Haddlestats showed up at her door, she mentally kicked herself for being such a great talker.

She had to figure out some place to stay. Everyone in town that was willing to put up guests had absolutely no room left and a night on the streets seemed to be the one and only option. That was until she talked to Rory and explained the situation. Rory came up with the genius idea to spend the night at Luke's place. But the idea was far from genius. It was suicide.

But when she thought about it rationally, it was either Luke's or the street. She never understood the hobo fashion, so Luke's was the only solution.

"Throw your keys down!" Lorelai pleaded yelling up to him.

"I most certainly will not!" The white and wild haired women replied.

"No, not you Mrs. Celletzki, Luke."

"I'm coming down." Finally Luke disappeared and left her waiting in the streets.

"My inn caught fire…"

Mrs. Celletzki just stared, she now understood why Rory was so afraid of her when she was younger.

"Hurry Luke."

When he opened the door he found himself completely apprehensive. Forget when he opened the door more like when he saw her outside. And now, she was spending the night at his place? This night couldn't get any crazier.

As he opened the door to let her in, they both took a moment to check out each other's attire. Clad in sweats and casual shirts they were still extremely attracted to one another. Funny…that physical attraction, manifesting itself in ways no one could ever understand.

"Thank you so much, Luke. I'm not the kind of person who can sleep on the streets. Hell, the Hilton's don't even have good enough accommodations for me. If it doesn't have a Jacuzzi I'm out!" She wiped her palms on her pants trying to figure out when they got that sweaty.

"Let's go up."

She nodded and they made there way to the apartment.

"So, what happened that you don't have a place to sleep?"

He opened the door and they both stepped into the well lit apartment.

"The Haddlestats showed up. They said they were going home but they thought that a sleepover sounded fun. Crazy psycho people."

"Don't you have a couch?"

She shook her head. He obviously didn't want her to be there.

"Frank Jr. took it."

"Ah…"

They both just stood in the room for a moment. Arms crossed, feet shuffling, eyes wandering.

"So, you can have the bed…"

"No, Luke…I don't need to have it."

"But you should."

"I'll be just fine on the couch."

"Forget it you're taking the bed."

"All right if you insist."

She ran over to the bed and began jumping on it.

"Hey! Hey! Don't do that you'll break it!"

"No, I wont…My parents use to tell me that all of the time. Not once was a bed broken." Her hair was flowing all around her and Luke had to fight to suppress his adoring smile.

"C'mon Lorelai…Get down." He waved his arms toward the ground but she just continued to jump. She truly was a defiant child at heart.

"Join me Luke! We can have a pillow fight! Wow! I feel like I'm in a Babysitter's Club book or something."

She pulled her legs out so that she fell onto the mattress on her butt.

"I have to remember that two minutes of exercise could be fatal." She placed her hand over her heart as she tried to catch her breath. Luke just shook his head and went to the kitchen to begin making tea.

"Do you want some tea? It'll relax you."

"Normally I would totally say no, but after today, tea sounds perfect." She made her way into the kitchen and sat down at the table.

As Luke made the tea, Lorelai contemplated their situation. She hadn't really thought the entire thing through, and truthfully, she really didn't want to. Thinking about what was going on between them meant she had to admit to herself that she was undeniably attracted to him. But she could help but to ponder that attraction.

She watched him as he poured the water into the deep blue mugs, his large hand grasping the handle, his muscles flexing in his forearm as he did so. He was definitely sexy. The half smile, the strong jaw, the body alone could make any girl melt into a puddle on a winter's day. How she didn't notice this before was beyond her.

But now that she did, she had a hard time thinking about anything else.

"Lorelai?"

Crap. He had caught her staring. Stupid hormones!

"Sorry, just thinking." He handed her the mug and she accepted it graciously.

He looked at her neck then quickly moved his gaze to the floor. She had noticed and placed a hand over the red welt.

"Sorry about that." He said before taking a sip of his tea.

"No big deal." She replied sipping hers as well.

"No, really…I bet someone noticed…"

She shrugged her shoulders.

"Only Sookie. I went home and put on a turtle neck as soon as I left the diner."

He chuckled.

"It's not funny." She replied shifting in her chair.

"Oh, c'mon. It is a little bit."

She shook her head.

As he leaned against the kitchen counter shifting the mug between his hands, smiling into the lip, he took a soft sip of his tea.

"Luke…This thing…what is it?" Lorelai gestured between them.

"I don't know Lorelai…Shouldn't I be the one asking that question?"

"What do you mean?"

"Never mind."

"Don't never mind me Butch Danes, tell me what you're thinking!"

She heard him sigh before he stood up straight and looked her directly in the eye.

"I'm thinking that if I stay in the same room with you for one more minute I might do something….that could lead to….something….that we'll both regret."

"What? What would we regret Luke? What would happen?"

He stared at her; his gaze unwavering.

"I would touch you. And that would lead to more touching which would lead us to somewhere that we're both not ready to go."

She walked toward him and took the mug out of his hands.

"I'm ready."

He protested.

"No you're not…You just want a way to make everything feel better. You just want to feel good for just a moment. Lorelai…This friendship is suppose to last forever, we can't just change everything now."

"I don't care."

"You will later."

"No I wont."

With that she walked up to him and began to unbuckle his belt. She had successfully done so and was beginning to tug on his zipper when she felt his hands trying to push her away. She looked up into his face and saw the same fear and uncertainty she had felt last night and for a brief moment earlier that day. She leaned in and kissed him softly on the lips before pulling slightly away. He had his eyes closed when she looked at him and she knew that he was starting to give in.

"Luke, I need you. Not just for tonight. Forever."

He opened his eyes. She noticed how shocked he had been at her revelation and it only caused her to smile.

"You…you need me?" Luke gulped down a breath as he felt her fingertips on the edge of his boxers.

She nodded.

"Uh huh. I need you and I want you."

He closed his eyes and gasped as her hand reached inside the fabric to touch skin.

"And from what I can tell you feel the same way." Lorelai grinned mischievously.

"I can't even begin to tell you how much." His voice was husky and broke through the words like he was stepping on pieces of glass.

"Then show me."

So he did.

TBC….

A/N: I apologize for my lack of updating. I'm about to start college in the next few weeks and I work quite a bit therefore I haven't had much time for writing. I promise that I wont wait a week this time. As a matter of fact I have tomorrow off so hopefully I'll be able to write and post it then!

Let me know how you felt about this chapter. I didn't quite know where to go with them from the last chapter. I hate long fights. I'm bad at writing arguments. I just wanted to make them more confused than angry at their situation.

Another quote! See if you can guess where this one is from:

The only consequence of all this will be, that whenever I open a nice Bordeaux, there will be the distant, distasteful memory of a nutcase who tried to kill me because I allowed her to kiss me on the cheek under false pretenses. I can live with it.

Thanks for reading!

Rusty