Disclaimer: I own nothing at all, except a fantastic car that is built like a tank.

Author Notes: Sorry it took so long, life was in my way. I hope everyone enjoys this chapter. I was going to do long drawn-out notes that thank everyone, but I will do that next time. Thanks for everyone's feedback and keep it coming.

Chapter 6: I Just Think if We Keep Our Hearts Together

Lorelai laid in bed staring at her new ceiling, a sleeping Luke next to her, unable to sleep because her mind was moving at a million miles a minute. Her mind was desperately trying to think of a way to fix Rory and their relationship. Short of faking her death a la Jake Bauer she could see no possible way of getting Rory to talk to her unless she wanted to. She knew that the motivating factor in all this mess was hurt on both sides. Rory was hurt because she thought Lorelai didn't understand and thought that Lorelai had shut her out of her life. Lorelai was hurt because all they had worked for, for so long, was tossed aside like it was last week's vegetables, with no thought or reason behind it. The only disappointment Lorelai felt was not toward Rory, but rather to herself for failing to teach her daughter to fight for her dreams. Lorelai rolled over toward Luke, trying to get comfortable enough to sleep. She looked up at Luke and once again realized the man had the patience of a saint. She knew that he was waiting for her to talk to him about what was going on between her and Rory, but he didn't pressure her. Today, after her Meltdown at the Inn, he just brought her home, drew her a bath, and made her dinner. After they had eaten, he just held her while they watched inane television before going to sleep.

Lorelai got out of bed slowly, trying not to wake Luke. She softly went downstairs, Paul Anka following her, thinking that some tea and infomercials would put her to sleep. As she went to sit on the couch, she caught sight of the letter Sookie had dropped off earlier. Apparently her mother had given it to Sookie after she left, saying it was from her father. Lorelai picked it up, recalling the concerned and compassionate look on her mother's face as she left the inn today. It would appear that she and Emily have finally reached a turning point in their lives. Lorelai made a mental note to call her mother tomorrow and thank her for lunch, the apology, and perhaps make an apology of her own. She took the letter and curled up at the end of the couch and began to read the letter from her father.

Dear Lorelai,

Since you agreed to meet your mother for lunch and as she was planning to apologize to you for the bad manner in which she treated Luke and for our turn-about in the Rory situation, I decided to take a chance and write this as an apology of my own. As head of the Gilmore family, I automatically thought I knew the best way to deal with the situation with Rory. She came to me in tears that she was confused and lost and just needed time to think, time that she said you were unwilling to give her. I let her sway me with her emotions and then take advantage of the situation at hand. The situation should have been dealt with in the manner you described and I ignored your thoughts. I am truly sorry for how things turned out and for how I handled the whole mess. I do hope that you can forgive me.

I would also like to use this time to congratulate you on your engagement to Luke. I know that I did not believe that he was good for you, but after hearing you talk about him and see his concern not only for you but for Rory as well, I have realized that you were right. He is a good, kind man who will take care of you and your daughter in any problem that would come up. I know that you and I have not always seen eye to eye in any situation, but as your father I would like to walk my daughter down the aisle. I am also sure that your mother would like to be involved in the planning, but that choice is up to you. Please let your mother and I know of your plans.

Finally, Luke had mentioned to your mother that you are not doing well. Don't hold his slip of tongue against him; he is just concerned about you. Considering the close relationship that you have with Rory, I can well imagine what you are going through. My dear girl, I am going to give you some advice that my mother once gave me at a difficult point in my life. "Do not dwell in the past; do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment."

I have been lucky to be surrounded by strong women in my life; my mother, your mother, Rory, and you. Lorelai, do not let this separation stop you from being the strong, vibrant, and independent woman that you are. You and Rory will make up and fix the relationship that you share; I have no fear of that. You just need to believe that for yourself. I am proud of you and all that you have accomplished. Rory, though she is lost now, is a strong, intelligent woman and will be okay.

Love, your father

Lorelai read through the letter twice, amazed that her father showed that much emotion and that he had that much faith in her. She sat, holding the letter in her hands, staring blankly into space, tossing her father's words around in her mind. Yes, her father did know her, more than he thought. She was putting her life on hold, unwilling to live unless all parts were there. She was dwelling in mistakes she made in the past and was afraid that she would make again in the future. She was not living in the today, and she should be.

Lorelai looked up, staring through the ceiling, seeing Luke in her mind's eye. The man has been so patient with her, allowing the wedding date to be postponed, comforting her all the time, not questioning her rapidly changed eating habits. She suddenly realized that he was scared that she would run away from all her problems like she always had in the past and he was trying to subtly prevent that.

"Lorelai?" came a worried, husky voice from the stairs.

"I'm on the couch."

"Hey, why aren't you sleeping?" asked Luke, crawling behind Lorelai as she moved to make room for him behind her.

"I couldn't sleep, so I came down to make some tea and learn about bow-flex, but I found this letter that Sookie dropped off," responded Lorelai, while snuggling into Luke's chest as he pulled her towards him. "It's from my father. He apologized to me, Luke, for the Rory situation, for how he treated you, for everything."

"At least he realized he was wrong about us," said Luke pulling her closer, glad that her family had apparently accepted them together and wouldn't interfere anymore.

"That's not all. He wrote some crazy advice that Gran gave him years ago. He said that it helped him through a tough time and that he hoped it would help me. He called me strong and independent, and that he was proud that I was like that. I don't think I have ever, ever heard him say he was proud of how I grew up. It's just amazing."

"What was the advice?"

"'Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment.' I think in other words, I am supposed to make lemonade of my lemons, play with the puppies life gives out, and make the best of the situation."

"How are you going to do that?" asked Luke, almost scared of the answer.

"I think December 15th is a good day. It usually snows around then, so we may even have snow! The best things happen in snow."

"What are you talking about?" asked Luke, not daring to hope that she was actually talking about setting a date.

"For our wedding, Coffee Man. It is just enough time to make it special, but not enough for my mother to make it into a society affair. I just want a small ceremony outside, with snow hopefully, and a reception at the inn, nothing glamorous or expensive."

"What about waiting for things to be right with Rory?"

"She can make her own decision to be there. I am not going to cut her out. I will keep trying to get her to talk to me, to think about going back to school, but I am sick of letting it consume me. It's like I let myself get as lost as she was, but the crazy thing is that I know what I want. Right now, I really want a cup of Luke's coffee, but in the future, I just want to be Mrs. Backwards Baseball Cap. If Rory wants to be there to see me get married, then that is fantastic, if she hates me that much that she doesn't want to be there, well the day won't be that fantastic, but I'll have you so it will be ok," said Lorelai to a stunned Luke, with a wink and a kiss at the coffee and baseball hat comment.

"It's too late for coffee. You can have some tomorrow. Come on, let's go back to bed," Luke responded after a full two minute pause.

"I want coffee now! Come on, I haven't had any in weeks. Please!"

"Tomorrow, I will make you two whole pots. Let's go," said Luke with a smile as he picked up a squealing Lorelai, excited at the thought of two pots of coffee.

"Welcome back, Crazy Lady," whispered Luke in her ear as they went up the stairs.

Lorelai just smiled and kissed him, mentally adding calling her father and thanking him on her to-do list for tomorrow.

Several Weeks Later

It was a week before Thanksgiving in Stars Hollow and Taylor was in his element. It was the holiday season and with that came festivals, food drives, charity events, and any other event that came to his mind. Planning was what Taylor did best and right now he was planning to have Luke put Thanksgiving decorations in his diner. Luke, however was just ignoring Taylor's pleas; he was just serving his customers and waiting for Lorelai to come in and tell him how lunch with her parents went. His patience was running out and he was about ready to kick Taylor out.

"Taylor! No! I am not decorating. I said I would put up ONE flier for your food drive and I allowed you to put lights on the side of the building that you are renting from me, but I will NOT decorate MY diner. Now LEAVE!"

"I just don't understand why you won't put up a turkey or two?" asked Taylor, still trying to persuade Luke to show some town spirit.

"Taylor, if you don't leave now, I will have batting practice with your head," said Luke glaring menacingly at Taylor.

"Fine, fine, if you have no town spirit, then that's fine. I don't want to see you at the Turkey Festival, Lucas," said Taylor as he rushed out, almost knocking into Lorelai. "Lorelai, I don't know why you are marrying him."

"Many reasons Taylor, many reasons," replied Lorelai with a wink and smile for Luke.

Luke grinned back at her while walking over to take her bags and walk her to the seat next to the register.

"It's almost five, I thought that you were going to be back much sooner. Does that mean that lunch went well?" asked Luke while pouring her a cup of coffee.

"Oh, coffee how I have missed you!" said Lorelai with a kiss for Luke before deeply drinking her coffee.

"Lorelai? Lunch? How'd it go?" asked Luke with a hint of impatience.

"It was okay. I finally convinced my mother that we want to be married here in the town square, that you won't be wearing a tux, and there will be NO fancy trimmings. She finally agreed that the dress I picked out was pretty and she didn't even mention her caterer, which means she is fine with Sookie catering. That in it took almost three hours and now I am exhausted."

"Did you guys talk about Rory?"

"We agreed that since she is just now starting to talk to them again after the whole rent agreement thing, that it probably wasn't best for me to come for Thanksgiving. I don't want her to feel like they are forcing us to come together and I don't want her to think I forced them. She isn't sending my letters back anymore, which is a step up from before, but no one knows if she is reading them. Mom said Rory hasn't mentioned the fact that I am getting married or has she said anything about going back to school. If she wants to acknowledge it, the ball is in her court I am not going to push it. Is that couch still upstairs?" said Lorelai stifling a yawn.

"Yeah, you wanna go lay down?"

"God, yes. I am glad that my parents and I are on better terms, but every time I talk to my mother about the wedding I just get a gnawing pain in my head. If I didn't want to marry you so much, I would just say screw it, let's live in sin," said Lorelai with a wink and a kiss for Luke.

"Just go upstairs, I'll bring you up a burger later," Luke said, while rolling his eyes at her words.

Luke watched her go up and sighed before heading to the kitchen to give Caesar his break, thinking about how Lorelai changed these last few weeks. He knew that she was still hurting because of Rory, but was glad to see that she was no longer giving up on living her life. She seemed happier these last few weeks, not breaking down as much, eating like she used too, and preparing for the wedding. She wrote a long letter to Rory; apologizing again for not telling her that they were engaged and explained to her that she wasn't disappointed in her, but more disappointed in herself that she didn't teach her daughter better on not giving up her dreams. Lorelai also told her the date that they were going to be married and her hopes that Rory would come to help plan and to be her maid of honor. She ended the letter by asking Rory not to give up because of what one person says to her, to prove him wrong by living the dream she long had for herself, and that no matter what she decided to do with her life, Lorelai would still love and be proud of her. She sent the letter a week after setting their wedding date and they still haven't heard from Rory. The thought that Lorelai would not have her daughter and best friend there on her wedding day made Luke sick, but he also realized that the only thing he could do was to be there for Lorelai through it all.

Luke finished Lorelai's burger and told Caesar and Lane to close tonight before heading up the stairs to his apartment. He noticed that she was still sleeping and decided that the burger could wait since she still wasn't sleeping very well. Luke put the burger in the fridge before pulling a book that Jess had given him to read. He didn't get more that three pages into it before he too fell asleep.

Jess drove his new car up to the diner, parking it right in front of the ice cream shop, smiling when he thinks of the fit Taylor will pitch when he opens in the morning and sees a car parked in his spot and then finds out that it belongs to Jess. He continued to chuckle to himself as he used the hidden diner key to open up the door and then headed up to the apartment above. Luke had told him that if he felt like coming for Thanksgiving that he could stay at the apartment, so Jess had no issues with throwing open the door and turning on the light. He had assumed that since Luke moved in with Lorelai that he wouldn't be there, so the scream that welcomed him stopped him in his tracks.

When Luke heard Lorelai scream he fell out of the chair that he was sitting in and sat up to see Jess standing, stunned at the door and Lorelai laughing at him on his couch.

"Jess, next time you come barging in can you do it a little quieter, so I don't have a heart attack and break my neck," grumbled Luke as he picked himself off the floor.

"Aww, babe, you okay? Hey, Jess. How are you doing? Reaping in the profits of your book?" asked Lorelai, while helping Luke off the floor, attempting to stifle her giggles.

"Umm, fine I guess. I didn't think you guys were here, I'll just go crash at my mom's," said Jess, not really wanted to interrupt them.

"No, don't worry about it. I was just taking a nap, Luke must have fallen asleep waiting for me to wake up. We'll just head home and bring the food. Are you going to have Thanksgiving with us?" asked Lorelai, while gathering up her stuff as Luke took the food containers out of the fridge.

"Yeah, if you are sure Rory isn't going to mind," replied Jess, not knowing the current situation. "Hey if I didn't mention it last time I talked to Uncle Luke, congratulations on the wedding."

"Thanks. Luke, I'm going to go grab some pie and meet you in the truck."

"Ok," said Luke, picking up the book that had fallen on the floor.

Jess turned to him, shocked at the look on pain and misery that had crossed Lorelai's face when he mentioned Rory.

"What's going on? What's wrong with Rory?" Jess asked his uncle.

"She isn't speaking to Lorelai right now. She quit school, stole a yacht, and refuses to have anything to do with her mother, because Lorelai told her she couldn't live at home if she wasn't in school," responded Luke, with a look a concern on his face. "She is doing much better than she was, but I am not sure what she will do if Rory doesn't come to the wedding. I am going to go take her home. I'll talk to you tomorrow. Glad you are going to be here for the holiday."

Jess watched his uncle head down the stairs. He only knew what his mother knew and told him the few times he called her. Liz told him that she hadn't seen Rory about town much, but that Lorelai had said everything was fine when questioned. As he made the bed Luke kept in a corner for him, he decided he would try and figure out what was going on with Rory, even if it meant heading to the mountain itself.

AN2: Next time we will see a conversation that I have had planned since chapter 2, Rory's thoughts on the wedding (they are really mean, so don't hold it against me), and what is in the package that Lorelai gave Rory for her birthday.