(Hartford Hospital)

"Lorelai?" Luke spoke softly.

Lorelai's eyes slowly opened and came into focus. Excitement filled her, was this real?

"Luke!" She exclaimed."Oh my God!"

This instantly woke up Rory. "You're really here!" Rory cheered.

"Calm down." Luke smiled. "You're going to wake the whole hospital."

"Who gives a damn about the hospital?" Lorelai replied. "I thought you were gone." She flung her arms around him.

"I'm not going anywhere." Luke answered holding Lorelai closely.

"What happened?" Rory asked.

"I don't know." Luke began. "I lost track of both you at the book store, and before long I found myself walking the streets trying to find you. I called Joe's house a dozen times and no one answered. Luckily, I stopped by the police station and well..."

"Oh it's so good to see you." Lorelai hugged him again.

"It's good to see you too." Luke looked over at Rory who was laying in the hospital bed. "I bet you're tired of hospitals." he teased.

"Yes..." Rory agreed. "We had this conversation earlier."

"Well, hopefully this will be the last time for a while." Luke focused on Lorelai. "Want to get some coffee?"

"With you?" Lorelai asked playfully.

"Yes, with me." Luke played along.

"Oh yeah." Lorelai replied.

Rory smiled as Luke and Lorelai walked out of the door. Finally she felt that Lorelai had found the one.

(Joe's apartment)

"They have the whole damn city out there looking for me." Matthew ranted.

"Calm down. They're not going to search for you here." Joe replied.

"Joe... My ass is on the line here!"

"Well, you should have thought about that before you started all of this." Joe scoffed.

"Oh, yeah, here we go again with the advice giving..." Matthew replied smartalecky.

"Like you ever take my advice." Joe shot back.

"Ever since we were kids, you'd say 'Matt you shouldn't of done this... or Matt you shouldn't have done that.' But no once did you make an attempt to stop something from happening... yeah, always there to criticize, never there to prevent." Matthew poured himself another drink.

"You do foolish things, Matthew." Joe replied cooly. "You're lucky you've made it as far as you have, living the life you do."

"Look, Joe you've got to help me." Matthew replied in a more sympathetic manner. "You work with the cops... you know you can get me out of this."

"And how many times would this make?" Joe asked.

"The last. I swear it." Matthew said he eyes focusing on his brother. "Just this last time... help me out of this. I'll go straight after this... I promise."

"What you did to that girl..." Joe began. "And then that young boy..."

"I know..." Matthew's voice began to weaken. "I lost it for a while. I just didn't realize how much I was hurting them."

"Just give the police the wrong information... Give me an extra hour or two to get away. I'll leave for good this time, honest." Matthew begged.

Joe let out a heavy sigh. "Tell you what, we'll go down to the hospital and I'll convince the police that you're no longer within the city limits. They'll let down their guard and then you can plan your escape from there."

"Why at the hospital?" Matthew asked curiously.

"They've already searched it head to toe. They'll never think to start another search from there. I'll sneak you in, but you're on your own after that."

"Yeah..." Matthew shook his head. "That's a good idea, Joe." Matthew smiled. "Must run in the family, huh?" he grinned.

"Grab your coat." Joe replied, not smiling.

(Hartford Hospital)

"You know for a machine that takes quarters, this thing does alright." Luke commented.

"Mm.. You should buy one and put it in the diner." Lorelai suggested. "That way, you can sleep like an extra hour of the mornings, because the first hour of people only want coffee anyway, right? I mean that's why they drink the coffee cause it's like 5 am and they need energy."

"I don't think so." Luke smiled. "Good thinking though."

They continued to walk until they reached a table. They sat down and silence filled the air for a few seconds.

"Lorelai..." he began... "Today... I realized how much I cared about you. When I couldn't find you or Rory I thought that the absolute worst had happened. I didn't see how I could go on without you two." he paused. Lorelai's eyes began to water as she awaited the next sentence. "I could lose a lot of things, Lorelai... money, business, even some close friends, but if I lost you... I'd never recover from that. Never."

Lorelai smiled though she was crying. "My biggest fear today was that I'd never see you again. That I would never get to tell you how much..." she stopped.

"You care about me?" Luke replied.

Lorelai shook her head. "No..." she paused. "How much I love you."

Luke's heart warmed and his body tingled. He felt a rush of excitement and happiness flow through his veins. He leaned over and kissed Lorelai passionately.

"My god." he said pulling back. "You have no idea how long I've wanted to do that."

"Well, well, well... Looks like the knight has returned to save the maiden."

Lorelai and Luke's head turned simultaneously. Luke quickly jumped up from the table.