Chapter 2

Lorelai opened her eyes early the next morning. It took her a minute or two to become fully awake and remember the events of the previous day, but once she did and her gaze focused on Luke still fast asleep, sprawled out on the bed beside her, a smile appeared on her lips. She watched him sleeping so peacefully and laughed inwardly. This was often how they woke up. She was on the very edge of the bed with most of the covers tangled up around her and Luke was sprawled out over the remaining three quarters, with hardly any covers at all. She wondered how many times they would wake up like that in the future. She hoped it was every morning for the rest of her life.

She thought back to their love making the night before and closed her eyes for a minute. She was no stranger to sex, and sex with Luke had been fantastic right from the beginning. Then after they broke up and got back together and she knew that she loved him, she thought that nothing could top their love making, but last night was like nothing she had ever experienced before. Last night, she gave him her body, her mind and the every core of her soul and she had no words to describe how she felt when she was making love to Luke. They had truly become one entity and she knew that she was his for the rest of her life.

She lay quietly for a while thinking of how much she loved him and how she, with the lack of commitment skills that she had demonstrated all of her life, was so totally committed to Luke. She knew that she had only committed to one person in her life before Luke and that was Rory. Since the day Rory was born, she had come first and Lorelai was second.

Now with Luke, she knew that Lorelai came third and she was thrilled by it. She was also afraid of it and excited about it and worried about it and many other things but she knew she could not deny it, so she vowed not to run from it, like she had tried to run from Max, and she vowed that she would not try to sabotage it because she had done that before too, when she didn't feel worthy of the love she was receiving. She vowed to accept it and enjoy it and be happy. She deserved to be happy. She really did.

She knew that she had a lot of emotional baggage she would have to work through to do this, to really be happy, but as she lay there watching Luke sleep she was determined to do it. She knew that years of her parents telling her that she wasn't good enough and criticizing everything she did and every decision that she made had had a profound effect on her, but she had broken free once for Rory and she would do it again for Luke.

She knew she gave the appearance of being very sure of herself, but she worked very hard to give off that appearance when really she wasn't sure of herself at all. Underneath she wasn't sure of anything. She doubted herself all the time but she did her best to hide it. She knew that she could accomplish things if she put her mind to it. After all she had raised Rory all by herself, she had found them a place to live when she had to, she had worked her way up from a maid at the Independence Inn, she had gotten Rory into Chilton when she needed to and she would get Rory back and be happy with Luke and Rory if it was the last thing she did.

She thought about Rory and all that had happened to get them to where they were now. It all started with this internship that she had gotten from Mitchum Huntzberger. No she was wrong, it had all started when she had met Logan Huntzberger. She thought about what she knew about Logan. She had first met him at her parents wedding vow renewal, when she had walked in on the two of them. She shrugged her shoulders, she couldn't really fault him for that, he was a young man in the prime of his life, of course he was going to make out with a beautiful woman like Rory if he got the chance. Rory should have used better judgment though, it was, after all, her Grandparents and her family.

Anyway, he was suitably embarrassed and was very polite. She had seen him again when they went shopping and he was at a café with another girl, and although she didn't understand it, Rory did and said that they had agreed to see other people. She said that Logan had told her that he wasn't a commitment guy, but yet when pushed he agreed to a monogamous relationship with Rory.

And then Rory had gone to dinner with his family and they were awful to her and Mitchum Huntzberger had offered her the internship to smooth things over. She knew the internship was a bad thing and yet there was nothing she could do about it. She had met Logan again at her parents house when Logan had stolen her Mother's antique sewing box.

She had not been impressed with him that night and even less impressed with her parents. And then Mitchum had crushed Rory's spirit with his review. How dare he? He knew nothing about Rory. He probably had never even seen any of her articles. Her published articles. She had had many things published in the Yale paper and before that in the Chilton paper.

She was still in school, for God's sake, she was still learning. Sure she had had a little trouble when she first started at the Yale paper, but she had triumphed over that. She had learned to put more of herself into her writing. Mitchum Huntzburger had no idea how determined she was, or how hard she was willing to work, or how much she wanted to be a journalist. He had his own agenda and he didn't care who he hurt to get what he wanted. And what he wanted was a wife for his son who did not work or have any outside interests, just as his family had told Rory when she went to dinner.

And then they had stolen the yacht. Listening to Logan's friends in the police station, Logan got into a lot of trouble with the law and now he was involving Rory. She couldn't help thinking that this wasn't Rory. It wasn't the Rory she knew, but then maybe Rory was changing. Maybe she didn't know Rory like she thought she knew Rory. She shook her head. This was Rory she was talking about. She did know Rory, she knew Rory inside and out, and she knew that this wasn't Rory and it wouldn't make her happy.

Lorelai slowly and carefully untangled herself from the bed covers and got up quietly, so as not to wake Luke. She went to the bathroom and when she got back she got a piece of paper and a pen and sat down at the table. She was going to make a list of all the things she could do to help Rory and to get her back with Luke and herself.

The first thing she wrote down was 'Lorelai talk to Rory', then she sat back and contemplated how she was going to accomplish that. She wanted to really talk to her and find out what she was feeling and what the reasons were behind it. To get Rory to open up to her like that she would have to do something drastic, considering the way things were between them right now. She sat up suddenly when an idea came to her and she thought for a minute formulating the plan in her head and then she smiled and nodded. She crumpled up the paper in front of her and turned to get another one.

She had been concentrating so hard she hadn't heard Luke get out of bed and come up behind her, but when she turned in her chair, he took hold of her arms and pulled her up into a soft embrace. His lips came down on hers and instantly Lorelai's arms went around his neck and she pulled him as close to her as she could. Their kiss lasted several minutes and when they finally needed to come up for air, Lorelai hugged him and whispered "Good Morning," into his ear.

"Good Morning," Luke whispered back, nuzzling her ear, and holding her tight. They stayed in each other's arms for several minutes, comfortable with the arrangement and happy to be where they were, but finally Luke pulled back and looked into her eyes. "Why didn't you wake me up?"

Lorelai shrugged her shoulders. "I had some thinking to do."

"Are you okay?" He asked brushing a strand of hair off of her face.

"I am now." She said hugging him tight again. "I'll always be okay when I am in your arms."

"That's not what I meant." Luke hugged her tight again also. "But I like that answer."

"Yeah, I know, I'm okay." Lorelai said quietly and unconvincingly.

"We'll figure this out." Luke pulled back and looked into her eyes again. "We'll get her back."

"I know, it's just so hard." Lorelai broke eye contact and looked at the floor. "I just love her so much and it hurts, it hurts a lot."

Luke wrapped her up in his arms again. "I know it does. I love her too you know."

"I know you do." This time Lorelai pulled back and looked into Luke's eyes. "I don't think I could do this without you. You don't know how much I need you right now."

"Well you've got me and we are going to do this together." Luke pulled her over to the bed and sat down pulling Lorelai down beside him. He put his arm around her shoulders. "What are we going to do? Do you have any ideas?"

"I do." She smiled a little bit. "I just thought of it before you woke up." Lorelai proceeded to tell Luke her plan and eventually they moved over to the table and wrote some things down on a piece of paper.

After over an hour of planning and formulating their idea, Luke looked at Lorelai and smiled. "This brilliant, you are brilliant. I don't see how it could fail."

"It could." Lorelai didn't want to get her hopes up. She wasn't sure she could pull it off but she was going to give it everything she had. "Will you come with me?" She rushed on before Luke had a chance to answer. "I know it means going to some big cities and I know you don't like them but I …"

Luke put his finger up to her lips to stop her. "Of course I'll go with you. Just try and leave me here. There's no way I'm not going."

"Thank you." Lorelai got up and went and sat on his lap. "Thank you." She said again as her lips reached his and his hands came up and became entwined in her hair. "I should get going." She said with reluctance after a few minutes. "We have a lot to do."

"Yes, we do." Luke said, giving her a couple of quick kisses and they both stood up and began to get ready to go.

"I'll miss you." Lorelai said half an hour later, down in the diner. She had just kissed Luke goodbye and was on her way out the door.

Luke said came around the counter and caught up to her for a last peck on the lips. "I'll miss you too."

Okay that's chapter two, please send me a review. Chapter 3 will be done soon.