A/N: Chapter two, after what, a year? Another one shot- this is a series of unlinked one shots that are just pretty java junkie moments that I imagined could be prettier. I hope you enjoy.

Chapter 2- Haunted Leg

Loralei trudged into Luke's at about noon. Yes, trudged was the best way to put it. She was not looking forward to this lunch with her mother, nothing good could come of this. Yet she had agreed, for reasons that even she didn't know, to meet "Emily" for lunch. At Luke's. Luke's, of all places, it had to be Luke's. She didn't know why this fact bothered her so much, but it definitely did. Maybe it was the fact that the two of them were just getting back on good terms, and she was sure that Emily would have nothing nice to say about Luke or his establishment and that would just put Luke in a bad mood.

"And we all know that if Luke ain't happy, ain't nobody happy," Loralei inwardly cursed her fortune.

Maybe it was that. Maybe it was that fact that it was her mother. Or maybe…maybe it was because of this feeling she'd been having. Somehow, the combination of her reconciling with Luke and her "loss" of Christopher due much in part to his…being Christopher had brought on this gnawing in the pit of her stomach whenever she set foot in the diner. Maybe it was because he was a man and her luck with men had not been the greatest in the past year or so.

Or maybe it had always been there and was just that much stronger now that they were friends again.

Loralei quickly pushed all man thought out of her head as she took her place at the table and braced herself for the lunch to come, and whatever it was Emily had in store for her.

(Time passes, spoons fly)

Things were going well. Awkward, but well. That is, until the a-bomb was dropped:

"I talked to Christopher." Emily stated as if it was a natural as a DAR function

"What?" Loralei recoiled. Whatever she thought her mother had thought so urgent that she wanted to have lunch with her in her town, it wasn't that.

"I called him last week, we talked for a very long time, and I have to tell you, he is not in love with that woman."

Loralei sat there, in front of her mother and her pretentious Cobb salad, still reeling from the burn of betrayal and the left over sting of heartache, barely stammering out her end of a very terse conversation.

She sat processing and talking at the same time, all the while thinking what all this meant. Chris wanted to be with them, or at least that's what he had told Emily when she called. Chris didn't want to be with them really, she reasoned. He just had decided he wanted to settle down, and had thought "Hey there's a pre-made family with the father slot open, sounds good." And then Sherry's strip had turned pink and he had run. He didn't really want to be with them, he just wanted a family. And the chance to experience one from the beginning, well that was just too good to pass up.

What the two Gilmore women did not realize was that someone else was listening in on their conversation that day in the diner. And it wasn't one of the usual eavesdroppers. Mr. Backwards Baseball Cap himself was learning a lot from the dispute currently taking place between Loralei and her coddled egg of a mother. She was with Chris when they were fighting? Chris's ex got pregnant? And he left all that behind a second time? Luke was incredulous. In the brief contact he had had with Chris, he didn't take him for an idiot. Anyone who could make half of a kid like Rory had to have some kind of brains in his head.

"But actions speak louder than words," Luke thought. This punk was the biggest idiot he had ever heard of. And as he watched the argument between the Gilmores heat up, he couldn't help but feel sorry for Loralei. Sure, he was jealous that she had been with Chris, but they had both screwed up. He kicked himself for never making a move. He was scared and hadn't, so she did. She "made a move." Only not with him. And she got hurt. And that killed him even more than seeing her with someone else.

"And now her mother has to come back and rub her face in it," Luke inwardly cursed Emily and Chris and …anyone that would hurt Loralei and Rory that way they had. He had had enough of them being stomped on.

And finally, so had Loralei. She finally broke, and raised her voice, making a move to leave.

"Do not get involved in this, I mean it. Butt out! Don't call Christopher and talk about me or us, just stay out of it!"

Emily seemed to be in disbelief that anyone would do something as disrespectful as walk out on a luncheon with her.

"Where are you going?"

Luke secretly smirked at Loralei standing up for herself. For the millionth time, he thought.

" I have to get back to the inn."

" Do not walk out on me."

" Mom, I am not gonna discuss this with you now or ever. I would love for you to respect that but I know you, so give Christopher my love. "

"A family life doesn't just happen, Lorelai. You have to work for it. You have to fight for it. Lorelai, come back here!"

Emily didn't make a move to run after Loralei after she left. Mistake number ten thousand, thought Luke. She moved to get her wallet and pay the bill but Luke walked up and stopped her.

"First time's on the house, Mrs. Gilmore," he said, pretending he hadn't just heard auditory proof of what kind of a person she really was.

"Well thank you, very much, Luke," Emily pasted on a sickening smile of gratitude. "It was a very nice lunch."

God, she is a spectacular bull-shitter, isn't she? Luke was in disbelief of this woman's ability to plaster on an expression and seem believable.

"Yes it seemed to be," Luke dished it back. He wanted to get her out of there, he had work to do, but something she said kept grating at him. You have to work for it. You have to fight for it. And suddenly, in what would have been a moment of clarity, if Luke believed in that sort of thing, he knew what he had to do. I need to be there. That's where he had always been before. There. For her. Regardless of feelings, if she needed him, he was there. She needed someone now, possibly more than ever. He made the mistake of not being there after the accident, he was too wrapped up in his own stuff. He felt how it was without her in his life at all. And he had no desire to ever feel that way again. So what was stopping him?

With resolution, he threw down the towel he was wiping down a nearby table with and yelled to Caesar that he'd be back in ten minutes. Emily was just getting up to leave, but he beat her to the door. She looked at him in confusion and he gave her one good parting shot.

"Stop hurting her."

And with that he was off, leaving Emily wide-eyed and incredulous in his tracks. He walked to the Independence Inn, blew past Michel, and headed to where she was sure to be, the kitchen. Sookie wasn't back yet, but there was sure to be coffee. And in times like these, she thought that was all she needed. Through the swinging doors he passed, a knight in shining flannel. He worked his way past the lunch staff to the coffee maker, where he saw her, fumbling with the pot (empty, he noticed) and the buttons on the machine, close to tears. He walked up behind her.

"Need some help?" A question that could encompass a whole myriad of things.

She whirled around in just a position to look him square in the eye. "Luke?' she gasped, not really a question, she knew damn well who he was. Just disbelief. And there's that feeling again.

"Need some help?" He asked again as he took the coffee pot handle from her grasp, brushing her fingers. She let out a shaky breath, which could have been nerves, tension, or…other. And after regaining her voice, some words tumbled out.

"I just, I, Sookie's not here, and… I wanted some coffee, cause I didn't get to finish mine at your place, and I just really want some, but the damn machine has this whole sexist machismo thing going on and wont operate for me and I just really…" she got too overwhelmed and couldn't finish the sentence. He understood completely, placed the coffee pot on the counter, took her hand, and led her outside.

As soon as they reached the porch, she started to get nervous. The gnawing only increased.

"Luke?"

He looked her square in the eyes and quelled her fears. "I just thought the kitchen in the middle of the lunch hour was not the best place for a meltdown."

"Who says I'm having a meltdown?" She retorted.

He gave her the look, which she never remembered sending chills down her spine before. "Please Loralei. When I become deaf and blind, I'll let you know. But I saw what happened back there at the diner."

"Oh God, am I that transparent?"

"You're not transparent, I just know."

That hit her harder than he intended. It was true, she realized. "God, Luke, I'm sorry. I don't want you to think that I'm this crazy nut bag that you have to chase down and calm down every time something little goes wrong."

"You know I could never think that. And I don't mind. And this wasn't just something…was it." The last part was more a statement than a question, he knew the answer.

But his sweet response softened her face and she cracked open just a little.

"Luke, I just, I put something into this one, you know. And Rory…she got her hopes up too, and then he just…went. Because that's what he does. He's Chris, I should have never expected anything less."

"He was really it for you, wasn't he?" Way to be blunt Danes.

His question practically knocked the wind out of her. It was so blatant, so raw, and after her thoughts in the diner, she so knew the answer.

"No."

"No?"

"No. Luke the more I thought about it, I know he's not it for me. I though he was at one point, but not now. I'm just such a wreck now because of Emily and her…crap."

Luke Danes then did something he never ever ever did. He went out on a limb. "Then what is it, who is it?"

And if there was any air left in her lungs, it was gone. Because standing there with Luke, blue eyes to blue eyes, the feeling growing ever greater in the pit of her stomach, she couldn't answer him. "I don't…know," she shakily answered, never once breaking eye contact.

And farther and farther out onto the limb, praying that it didn't break, after six years of build-up, Luke finally made his move. He removed his hand from hers, having forgotten that they were even linked. Moving his hand to the back of her head, he lowered his face until they were so close that they could feel each others heartbeat and their eyes were completely level and locked. She knew what was coming. And she wasn't about to stop it. After what seemed like hours to both of them, Luke moved in and did it. The limb he was out on didn't break, she kissed him back, and that was all that mattered to him just them. When they finally had to pull away, she kept her eyes locked on his and told him exactly what he wanted to hear:

"That's it."