Lucky Number Four

A/N: AHH! tackles readers THANK YOU SOOO MUCH! Seriously, I never expected to get so many reviews with one chapter! I love you all sooo much! Seriously, reviews do make me write faster!

Also, thank you to my GREAT beta. Seriously, I don't know what I would do without her. She fixes my grammar and adds some ambiance, and she even told me that Martha's Vineyard is a real place, which I totally didn't know. Again, THANK YOU! tackles her too

As promised, here's installment number two! Enjoy and please review!

Chapter Two: A Dream of the Wedding Variety

Five minutes after Lorelai had vanished through the diner door, Luke still stood in the exact place he had been when she left. He stared at the door in silence, a look of complete shock and confusion covered his face. What the hell was that? Did she think that she could just use him for her stupid games and showing up her parents without a thought to what he might feel about that? But even as the anger swelled, he knew it couldn't be true. Lorelai wouldn't use him like that… Would she?

Lorelai was a very affectionate person. She rarely hesitated to hug her friends or kiss them on them goodbye on the cheek. Perhaps this show of affection was just that she was truly grateful for his acceptance of the invitation. That had to be it. In all of the seven years they had known each other, she had never once indicated that her affection with him was anything more than friendly or grateful. Right? No, of course it was right. It had to be.

He flipped the dishtowel down off of his shoulder and began scrubbing the countertops intensely. His eyes were still glued, however, to the door in front of him. Lorelai Gilmore was a very confusing woman.

Lorelai paused when she was just past the diner's windows. Where the hell had that come from? Did she like Luke? Could the crazy townies be right?

But she let out a nervous laugh and shook her head. No, she thought, ending the argument with herself abruptly. It was just a friendly gesture. Wasn't it?

Right. A friendly gesture. She kissed her friends on the cheek all the time. There was nothing to read into.

Then again, with Luke… with Luke it had been different. She had always held back with him. With him she always had to restrain herself, even when she really wish she didn't have to, she only knew it would stir rumors within the town. But was that all?

They were both very guarded individuals. And while she felt completely comfortable in his presence, there was always a – wall – there. Well, not really a wall. It was more of a fence that they were sitting on and neither one of them wanted to hop off because they might fall or tear something. But there was something there. And she was never quite sure of his reaction when she touched him.

She shook her head, dark curls falling into her face. As she neared her house she saw Rory's silhouette in the living room. Shaking her head she mentally cursed the girl for running out and leaving her alone with Luke to do such a stupid thing. She needed her help, desperately.

As soon as Lorelai had stepped into the house, Rory pounced, her eyes dancing. "So, how'd it go?"

"How did what go?" Lorelai asked, genuinely confused.

"With Luke… in the diner…" Rory explained. But Lorelai was silent. Rory crossed her arms. "What happened?"

Lorelai walked past her daughter into the kitchen. She stood in front of the open fridge, still silent. She wasn't really hungry, but she needed a distraction.

Rory followed her. "Mom, did something happen?" Lorelai still didn't say anything. "Did you guys have a fight?" Still nothing. "Okay mom, you have to give me something! Really, this Marcel Marceau act is a little scary."

"No, everything's fine," said Lorelai, closing the fridge. "I'm just tired, long day and all. I'm going to head up to bed, okay? Don't stay up too late."

"Mom…" Rory didn't want to push Lorelai. She didn't want to scare her away, but she couldn't understand why she shut down every time she and Luke were put together in some sort of crisis.

Lorelai found herself sprawled out across her bed. Her room was too hot. Why didn't the air conditioner work properly? She'd have to have Luke fix it in the morning before they left. Unless she forgot, which was quite likely to happen. She made a mental note as she yawned and stared at the ceiling. After awhile, she drifted off to sleep.

She smiled at the groom, and he gazed back at her. The wedding was so beautiful: flowers everywhere, lilies, daffodils, and roses. They were everywhere, yet the amount wasn't over the top. She smiled when she thought of how he tried to act so macho manly by holding off for so long on conceding to the whole floral motif. She always knew he would cave for her, though. As she stood there, a cool breeze lofted through, moving her perfectly done curls ever so slightly. The setting sun gave the whole area a beautiful glow, giving her a warm, fuzzy feeling from the top of the tiara perched on her head to the heel of the white Choos covering her feet.

But who was the bride? She hadn't noticed one walking up the aisle. Would she hurry up already? What was taking so long? She wanted to hit the buffet and bar already…

The funny thing was, the minister had started speaking, anyway. But even stranger than that, he was addressing his speech to her. "Do you take this man to be your lawfully wedded husband, to have and to hold, through sickness and health, as long as you both shall live?"

She gazed at the minister in bewilderment, but then, when she felt a pair of hands squeeze hers; she turned to face the man in front of her once more. His gaze was captivating, and she could do nothing but stare back at him in the same love and adoration that shone through his eyes.

But then, the strangest thing of all had happened; she then heard herself say, "I do."

Lorelai let out a grunt and shot straight up in her bed. She looked over at the fuzzy clock, which read 3:42 a.m. The details of the dream were quickly fading, but she held onto enough of it to know she needed a professional analysis. That meant Rory.

Lorelai haphazardly threw off the covers, jammed her feet into her feet into a pair of furry Hello Kitty slippers, and ran out of her room and down the stairs. Her mind was racing. She considered sliding down the railing in order to save time so she would remember the dream. But then, remembering her last little accident on the railing, resulting from a similar situation, Lorelai quickly decided against it, for fear that she would fall and hurt something.

Lorelai crashed into her daughter's room and fell onto her bed. "Rory, sweetie, wake up. Mommy needs help."

Rory rolled away from her mother and closed her eyes tightly. "The blue ones with the sparkles. Now go back to bed," she said as she unconsciously swatted another hand at her mother.

"The blue ones, really? I would have picked black. Weird… But no, I had a dream." She poked Rory in the middle of her back. Rory exhaled loudly and sat up to face Lorelai.

"Mom. I'll talk to you in the morning; I am trying to sleep here. It's a cool thing, a beautiful thing. Go try it. Sleep is good."

"Rory, please," Lorelai pleaded.

Rory heard her mother's tone and knew she was serious. "Okay, fine… tell me what happened," she acquiesced.

"Okay," began Lorelai. She shifted her position on the bed. "Well, I was at a wedding. And it was so beautiful, with so many flowers and it was at the Inn… perfect time of day, the sun was setting…" Rory glared at her mother. "Anyways, I'm smiling at the groom and he's smiling at me, and I'm thinking, 'okay, where is the bride?' because I just don't see one. So then I realize, 'Hey, this is a funny place to be watching a wedding from,' because I am really close to the groom. Then the minister does his little spiel and I realize he's talking to me. And then all of a sudden, I'm like possessed and I say I do. So now I see that the bride is in fact me, and the groom --" The thought hit her very suddenly and with all the force of a certain green truck, "-- well, the groom was Luke!"

Rory took a moment to process before she answered. "Well," she began matter-of-factly, "you're probably just nervous about the wedding coming up, and you don't know if you and Luke will be able to pull it off, hence the confusion about the bride. But you're pretty sure you can handle it, given the confident 'I do'."

"You really think that's it?" asked Lorelai expectantly. This was an explanation she could live with. Unlike the last time when Rory had said –

"Either that or you're in love with Luke." Rory grinned and Lorelai threw a pillow at her.

"Bed, child. And in the morning, we shall venture to the bookstore to get you a book on dream interpretation so you can stop telling me I have the hots for Luke."

"Only because you know it's true," teased Rory. Lorelai rolled her eyes and Rory grinned again. "Good night, mommy dearest." She kissed her mother on the forehead and lay back down.

"Good night, bad seed." Lorelai told her daughter, only half-sarcastically before she walked out of Rory's room and up the stairs.

Once she had gotten there and comfortable under the covers, she found it hard to fall back to sleep. Could Rory possibly have a point? She hadn't mentioned her other Luke dreams to Rory. She had been having a lot of them lately, including some that were not so child-friendly. Actually there were in fact a few that could potentially have some NC-17 ratings…

Lorelai opened her eyes and stared at the ceiling, listening to the fuzzy clock on her bedside table tick off the seconds, until she finally fell asleep.

When Lorelai woke up the next morning, she purposely took a long time in getting dressed so she wouldn't have time to stop by Luke's for breakfast. She didn't think she could look at him with a straight face after last night's dream wedding.

Instead, she waited until she got the inn for her morning caffeine fix. When she arrived at the Inn, Michel ignored her presence in his usual fashion, and she continued on to the kitchen.

"Hey Sookie," she said to her friend as she walked through the door. "Is there coffee?"

"This is an inn, we always have coffee," replied Sookie, handing her a cup. "So, find a date for that wedding of yours yet?"

"Yep," she said quickly. After taking a long, slow sip of her coffee, Lorelai let out a breath and confessed, "Luke's going with me."

Sookie grinned mischievously. "Luke, huh?"

"Yeah, so?" Lorelai set her purse on the counter and drank her coffee.

"Oh, nothing…" Sookie trailed off and busied herself at the stove.

"Sookie…" Lorelai said, following her.

Sookie turned around to face her friend. "You asked Luke to go with you?" Lorelai nodded. "Okay then."

"You're not making any sense!" Lorelai put down her cup and crossed her arms.

"I am," Sookie protested. "Out of all the people you could have asked, you picked Luke."

"Yes, I did," Lorelai said shortly. "Because he is one of my best friends and has always proven to be there in the past."

"Friends like Clinton and Lewinski, huh?" Sookie smirked.

Lorelai rolled her eyes. "Why are you making such a big deal out of this?" She just couldn't believe the chain of events from one simple invitation. It was true; she and Luke were just friends. Why could no one understand that? Despite what Harry said to Sally, men and woman can be friends without the sex part getting in the way! Even though they couldn't stick to that, Luke and Lorelai had proven it through almost seven years of friendship. "And what do you mean, 'anyone I could have asked'? Who else could I have asked?"

Sookie shrugged. "What about Christopher? He's crazy about you, and he'd be glad to go with you. Besides, he's used to that sort of function."

"He's out of town," replied Lorelai confidently. "Business trip," she added quickly, giving Sookie substantial proof.

"What about Alex?"

Lorelai opened her mouth, and then closed it again. Why hadn't she asked Alex? True, it had been a while since they'd last hooked up, but he would be glad to go with her too. "He isn't--I don't…he--" she stumbled. "Just because," she finished lamely.

"Uh huh." Sookie turned back around to her cooking.

This only served to fluster Lorelai more. "I do not have to explain myself to you," she said firmly. She took her coffee cup and stomped out of the kitchen with a huff and marched into her office.

She locked the door behind her and took the phone off of the hook. She needed a moment to collect her thoughts without interruption. She sat down and took a long drink of her coffee. What difference did it make whether she took Luke or anyone else to the stupid wedding?

But the difference was Emily already knew Luke. And Lorelai already told her that she didn't have feelings for Luke. How would that look to her mother, her dating a man she said she didn't like that way? She exhaled loudly. But she didn't care what her mother thought, she reasoned. Lorelai just wished everyone would stop prying into her personal relationships, especially when it came to Luke. Why couldn't people just listen to her when she said that their relationship was strictly platonic?

Lorelai picked up the phone and dialed. It was going to be a long day.

"Rory!" Lorelai shrieked, sliding into the living room wearing a bright red bathrobe. "Packing crisis!"

Rory sighed but put down the book she was reading. "What is it this time?"

"Shoes! Blue or black?" Lorelai held up the heels in question. "And seriously honey, haven't you read Wuthering Heights at least eight times?"

Rory rolled her eyes, "Do not judge my reading habits… And the blue ones."

"Blue, really? I would have picked black." Lorelai tossed the black heels over her shoulder where they landed with a clatter. She paused. "Whoa, deja vu."

"What?

"Remember the other night when I woke you up to tell you about my dream and you gave me that--" she paused to emphasize her sarcasm, "wonderful analysis?" Rory nodded. "Well when I told you I needed help, you said the blue ones. And I said that I would have picked black," Lorelai explained.

"Oh, yeah. Maybe we're psychic!"

"Cool! I could put you in a turban, rename you Selma, and exploit you. Fun!"

"Selma? And why don't I get to exploit you?"

"I'm the mother. And all great psychics are named Selma. Have I thought you nothing about movies, child?"

"Hmm, maybe the apple does fall a little far from the tree." Deciding their quirky banter was over, Rory went back to her book and Lorelai returned upstairs.

Only about 20 minutes later, luckily without any further fashion incidents, Lorelai finished packing her bag and hauled it downstairs. Of course, her version of hauling it was setting it on the top stair and pushing it so it fell down the rest of the way. She kicked it off of the stairs and into the living room where Rory was still sitting on the couch. She screeched her daughter's name again.

Rory jumped and Lorelai cackled. "Jeez! What is it this time!"

"Nothing, I just wanted to see you jump." Lorelai cackled through a broad grin.

"So are you heading out?" Lorelai nodded.

Rory got up off of the couch and Lorelai caught her in a hug. She released her slightly and held her daughter at arm's length. "Now remember, there's leftover take out in the fridge and money in the gnome if China and Italy and America don't cut it for you. If you get lonely, go stay with Lane or something, and throw at least one wild party. Got it?"

Rory nodded. "Let's see," she counted off on her fingers. "Take out, money, Lane, wild party. Got it."

"Hey, I'm not kidding about that last one," Lorelai said seriously, although her eyes lit up and said differently. "Invite the thugs."

"I'll put that on the list."

Lorelai's grin slowly faded into serious-mommy-mode-face. "Be careful, okay?" Lorelai trusted her daughter with all of her being. She really did. It was just that sometimes…she knew that sometimes she did have to be the parent. And Jess seriously needed one. She knew that nothing would probably happen while she was away, but she liked to be on the safe side.

"Nothing's going to happen, mom," Rory replied in an equally daughter-serious-tone. She knew her mother trusted her. It was Jess she had to be careful of. Rory slapped her shoulder lightly, "Now go on; get out of here." She smirked. "Have a good time, but stay away from the booze. I don't think Luke is number seven."

Lorelai scowled. "When I get back, remind me to cancel ABC Family. Too many silly movies for you." She pulled Rory close and kissed her on the top of the head. "Well, I'm off. I'll back sometime Sunday, so you've got the house until then. I love you, and don't do anything I wouldn't do."

"That's not very restricting then, is it?" Rory teased. "Bye."

"Bye sweets." Lorelai kissed her daughter on the cheek then picked up her bag and walked out to her car, struggling under the weight.

A/N: Okay, so I lied. No wedding. But there was a dream wedding. Does that count? Next update in twenty reviews (that's whatever there is now plus twenty, you cheaters) or in one week, whichever comes first.

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