2010

Diner, Lorelai walks quickly through the door and walks behind the counter, where Luke is standing, and grabs his arm.

"Hey, what are you doing, I have customers" Luke said while looking at Lorelai in a what the hell are you doing kind of way

"Caesar your in charged" Lorelai had a determined yet excited look on her face

"What has gotten into you Lorelai" Luke said as Lorelai pulled him into the storage room and quickly closed the door behind her

"Lorelai what are you up to" Just as Luke was saying that Lorelai was taking his hand and placing it on her stomach

"Just hold on a second, trust me you'll understand in a minute" Lorelai sounded very excited

"I don't understand what are we…" Luke looks down at Lorelai's stomach and then back up at Lorelai "Did I just feel it"

"Yeah it kicked" She looked at him with a very wide smile

" How did you know the baby was going to so that"

"Well it kicked about half an hour ago and I remembered with Rory how when she kicked for the first time she did it shortly after that so I thought maybe that it happen again and I guess I was right. I wanted you to experience it with me and I thought I had a really good chance so I rushed down here."

"Thanks for sharing it with me" Luke said as he pulled Lorelai closer by wrapping his arms around her waist.

"Your welcome, I wouldn't have wanted to share it with anyone else" Lorelai welcomed the embrace by leaning her head against his chest and relaxing into him.

"So where are you off to now?"

"Well I have to go pick up Laurie from pre-school and then I have to go back home and finish getting ready for my meeting with a client at the inn"

"Are you almost done with that, it's all you have worked on for weeks"

"Yeah I am almost done, shouldn't take me long"

"So you're going straight home after you get Laurie?"

"Yeah, when are you coming home?"

"About six"

"Alright hurry home"

"I will"

"What time is it?"

"Ten to twelve"

"Shoot I have to go or I'll be late picking up Laurie"

"I'll walk you out" Luke opened the door while guiding Lorelai out the door and keeping his hand on the small of her back

"I'll see you later" Lorelai and Luke shared a quick kiss

"Bye"

"Bye"

Luke watched Lorelai as she walked out the door of the diner and crossed the street as she headed into the Town Square on her way to pick up Rory. He watched her two reasons. One because he wanted to make sure nothing happened to her and two because even after The two of them being married for a year and a half and expanding their family he still couldn't believe that she was really all his. He remembered the conversation that the shared at dinner when she returned to Stars Hollow three years ago. The woman he had dinner with that night was not his Lorelai, after what she told him about the way things had been going for her and all the problems she dealt with, he honestly didn't know if she would ever be the same woman he had fallen for all those years ago. Once Lorelai had moved back to Stars Hollow she was her old self again and that made him so happy but he will never forget the conversation that he had with Lorelai that evening.

2008

"I'm sorry I'm late my cab driver took a wrong turn and then I had this huge argument with him about how the fair was wrong and I shouldn't have to pay for his mistake, and it was just ugh!" Lorelai said as she was sitting down across from Luke at their table.

"You know I could have picked you up"

"Oh well I had a late meeting at the Inn and then I had to drop Laurie off at Sookies and I didn't want you to have to go through all that commotion so getting a cab just seemed the best possible course of action"

"Why didn't you just use your jeep?"

" Oh I got rid of that thing when I adopted Laurie"

"So why didn't you just use your new car"

"I don't have a car"

"You don't?"

"No, I don't need a car in New York"

"You live in New York"

"That's where my apartment is, I used to travel all the time when I first started there but when I adopted Laurie I put an end to all that, but I do occasionally go on a business trip."

"Wow, I would have never of guessed New York City, Jess still lives there you know, he's doing really well for himself, Graduated from high school and collage, even has a job"

"I know"

"How do you know?"

"Well Jess works down the street from my apartment building"

"He does?"

"Yes actually Jess and I talk quite often, he's even watched Laurie for me when I had to go out of town one weekend and couldn't bring Laurie with me, it's so cute, Laurie calls him Uncle Jess"

"You and Jess are actually civil to each other"

"More than civil, we are actually quite close"

"How did this happen?"

"Well I ran into him about a year after I left, I had just decided I wanted to adopt a kid, when I ran into him in a coffee shop, neither one of us had anywhere to be so we sat down and talked a while, it turned into a weekly thing and now I don't hate his guts and he doesn't hate mine"

"I can't believe he never mentioned that to me, I talk to him all the time"

"Yeah that's partly my fault"

"How is it your fault"

"I asked him not to tell you that he and I were in contact"

"Why?"

"Because I knew you would try and get me to come home and I wasn't ready for that" They suddenly shared a long weird silence where both just stared at each other with expressions that couldn't be read. Luke reached for his glass of water and then asked

"How's Rory?"

"What?"

"Well I haven't talked to Rory in about two and a half years and I don't think anybody in town has kept in touch with her, everyone's ding to know how she's doing?"

"Wish I could tell you?"

"What do you mean?"

"I haven't talked to Rory I about so I don't know six seven months"

"What!"

"Yeah"

"Why so long?"

"Rory and I aren't on the best of terms right now haven't been in years"

"What happened?'

"Remember Logan?"

"Kid she was making out with in the back room at the wedding… yeah I do?"

"Well they started dating shortly after that night, and then became exclusive shortly after that. Logan brought Rory to his parent's house for dinner and they insulted her, basically called her trash. To make up for it Logan's dad offered her an internship, which she took. After two weeks he gave her an evaluation and told her she didn't have what it takes to be a journalist"

"Wow she must have been devastated"

"That's not the good part"

"It's not what happened next"

"Well the night he gave her his evaluation was the same night as Logan's sister's engagement party which Rory went to but instead of going to the party and getting drunk like a normal person would do she and Logan stole a boat"

"Rory stole a boat!"

"Yeah she did"

"So that's why you don't talk/"

"No that's not why"

"Then why what happen to make things so rocky between you too"

"Well Rory took what Logan's dad said so personally she doubted her abilities and she came up with the conclusion that she wasn't going to be a journalist because some idiot told her she couldn't and she decided she was going to drop put of Yale."

"Rory dropped out of Yale!"

"Yeah and she moved in with my parents who I went to for help because I thought that they would back me up and stop this from happening but instead they just did what they wanted and didn't care about my feelings on the situation."

"So you two just stopped talking"

"Basically, I get a call once, maybe twice a year from her, they don't last long, ten minutes at the most, last thing I heard from her was that her and Logan were still together, I have no idea if she still has a record or if she ever went back to school, when her wedding is, or what state she lives in. All I know is that she is still alive."

"So that's why Rory left?"

"Yes it is, that's why I didn't come back"

"Why you didn't come back?"

"When I originally left it was only meant to last two three months but then everything happened with Rory and my parents and there was nothing to come home to so I stayed in New York."

" I guess I understand now why Jess never asked about Rory, It wasn't because he already knew about her"

"Yeah he did, he wanted to try and talk to her but when he went to the pool house it was empty, he tried to find her but he couldn't track her down, after a while he gave up."

"He would do anything for Rory"

"Yes he would, he really loves her, I can't believe I'm saying this because I never thought I would but if Jess and Rory ended up together I would be very happy."

"You think it will"

"Anything can happen, but honestly I have no idea, Love and Relationships haven't been a good department in Rory and mine's life, well at least mine"

"What is it non existing?"

Lorelai starts to laugh "I haven't been on a date in almost four years"

"That long"

"I just didn't see the point, I gave up on finding the whole package a long time ago, It's just not in the cards for me, that's part of the reason I adopted Laurie I just knew that I didn't want to be alone and I saw this thing on TV about all these kids that nobody wanted, I decided that I would give someone a home. She gave me something to live for."

"You not like your job?"

"It's just a job, nothing special, pays great, really great but it's stressful and tiring and not at all what I thought it would be."

"Why don't you just move back here"

"Maybe someday I will, but right now, I just, don't know if I could, it would be weird, I don't know how to explain it."

" I'm sorry things aren't what you imagined"

"Well I'm sure you're in the same boat as I am"

"I guess you could say that"

Later that night Luke had brought Lorelai home from the restaurant and Luke was walking Lorelai to the door.

"Thanks again for having dinner with me, it was great to catch up and talk to someone who didn't want to know last months profits or when does spongebob come on?"

"Glad that I could be of service"

"You know all afternoon you were all Laurie could talk about"

"Really?"

"Yeah, she likes you, a lot"

"Yeah well I like her too, she's a great little girl, reminds me of someone I know"

"Well all I'm saying is that the girl adores you"

"Yeah well you know if you need me too I could look after her while your working at the inn"

"I was just going to bring her with me like I usually do"

"Yeah but if things get to hectic and you can have her there I ca help you out really it would be no trouble at all, you would actually be doing me a favor give me a chance to get away from Kirk."

" Well I will keep that in mind"

Lorelai goes to open her front door and Luke starts to walk away but then turns around

"Why didn't you tell me"

"Tell you what?"

"That you were leaving?"

Lorelai walked over to Luke and looked him straight in the eye

"Because I was scared"

"Scared of what"

"Scared that you would have come after me and scared that you wouldn't have"

"What?"

"I needed to go I needed to leave and do something new, the timing was right when I left. I left because I couldn't stand the looks the town was giving me, I couldn't stand my mothers calls every single day and I couldn't look at you, it hurt to much, so my plan was to go and fix myself I guess but when everything happened with Rory I stayed away. "

"I still don't understand why you were scared"

" I knew if you went after me I would have to go because I needed to but my worst fear was that you wouldn't and you didn't care that I had left and I think that it would have hurt more than having to tell you I was leaving so I took the easy way out and told nobody, I'm sorry I wanted to I tried but I just couldn't, I hope that you can forgive me but I won't blame you if you didn't"

"Lorelai I could never not forgive you, I understand, and if I was you I probably would have done the same thing so don't worry about it"

"Okay well I better go, I have a really early morning tomorrow and Laurie requires a lot of energy"

"As does her mom"

"Very funny, anyway thanks it was really nice talking to you again, I was afraid if I came back here you wouldn't want to even look at me so tonight meant a lot"

"It did to me too, and bring Laurie by tomorrow if you get a chance, she's a great kid and I'd love to see her again"

"Will do, Goodnight Luke"

"Night Lorelai"

And with that Luke went to his truck and Lorelai went inside her house. Lorelai walked upstairs and went into her suitcase and pulled out a box of stuff, it wasn't a big box but it was something she took with her everywhere she went. Lorelai opened it and rummaged through some of its contents until she found what she was looking for. The note and check that Luke sent her years ago. "I don't want to stop believing" Outside Luke sat in his truck and opened his wallet and pulled out the horoscope Lorelai gave him many, many years ago. Both sat there for a few minutes wondering why something they both wanted had gone so wrong and what they could do to fix it.