Lorelai turned under Luke's touch. She could smell the coffee now, really smell it. The flannel that she had just been dreaming about seemed to have returned to her as she stirred.
Luke wasn't sure if he should freeze or hide at that point. He had finally gotten there to her but his words had left him the moment he had entered the room, he blamed the flowers. He never had been terribly comfortable with flowers. "Damn flowers." The thought was irrelevant at this point. He was already trapped. Another creak from that door and she was sure to wake up, he didn't know how to handle that quite yet. He didn't know how to handle any of this quite yet. Come to think of it, it still wasn't a complete definite that she wasn't getting married in the first place. Though the outburst from Max earlier that day might have served as a pretty big clue.
She had stirred again, turning away from him. While the feeling of the flannel still lingered on her cheek she placed her hand to meet it, only to find her skin. Shutting her eyes tightly she tried to return to her sleeping state, only to give in to the blurry image of the wall before her.
Luke, seeing this, had little choice at this point. "Freeze it is."
Lorelai, still half asleep, turned away from the pink flower that had been there to meet her first glance. To find the reason that she resorted to sleeping in the first place, Luke, looking down at her. Thinking that she had returned to her dream, only in a more intriguing position, she attempted speach.
"I thought you had gone away." She smiled sleepily at him and took his hand that had been lingering near her shoulder.
Luke was a little overwhelmed by the comment and pushed it aside as her thinking that she was Max, probably still half asleep. He responded to her with his silence, hoping that she might fall back to unconsciousness so he could leave and hope that she wouldn't remember that he had come.
"What's the matter? …You weren't so distant a minute ago." She giggled. The grogginess was beginning to clear from her mind but she pushed it aside as just falling into a deeper sleep.
Luke's eyes widened at this, "Shehad been awake. Oh god. How could he ever live this one down now?" It was pretty certain to him that Lorelai would never let him live this down, leaving Stars Hallow to find her. Heck, he would mock it if some other poor sap had attempted it. But he was here now and something told him it was too late for hiding. Though the covers that Lorelai resided under looked like a pretty good spot to him.
Max on the other hand had made great strides in getting near his destination in a timely matter, all traffic aside. He had already driven past a sign advertising the "Cheshire Cat" about a mile or so back. It was only a matter of time until he was to get his fiancé back.
Nothing could ruin it for him now. All that was in the way was the road ahead, and by the looks of it, it wasn't going to be a long one.
But yet again, when was he ever meant to be right.
Rory had eaten about as much of the pot roast that she could muster at this point and was half-heartedly listening to one of the residence sitting across from her who was talking about a book that she had published a number of years ago. That was supposedly perfect reading for their young guest. The book sounded nice but she was mostly thinking about her mother's situation that was probably occurring upstairs.
Her thoughts continued to run down it's track but was abruptly stopped by more questions about the books that she had liked to read and several other equally general inquiries. But before she could begin to answer the ones that stuck out to Rory most, her attention was averted to the water logged man standing in the hallway.
This of course was more of a train wreck than she could have imagined.
Luke had gone into overdrive freeze mode as Lorelai laced his hand with hers and rolled over to face him better.
"Mhnm…"
Lorelai was beginning to drift back to sleep as she kept hold of his hand.
Luke, being thoroughly dazed by this, began to weight the possibilities of what exactly her meaning was. She seamed so relaxed, not at all the reaction he had braced himself for. Sure she had already made her usual pattern with her first comment but it seemed like the mocking wasn't quite happening. "Could it be that she hadn't been just then dreaming of Max?" He didn't know what tortured him more at this point. His curiosity for what her meaning was. Or what exactly she had been dreaming about. All very perplexing, but apparently none of his questions were going to be answered by just standing there.
"Luke…" Lorelai felt so out of it…running away from a wedding without any regular consumptions of coffee would do that. "Stupid B&B and their tea…" The thought seemed odd to her, for being in the middle of a dream. She had forgotten the first half but she felt Luke's flannel sleeve brushing gently against her fingertips. Convincing her that she was still in the middle of her evening bliss.
Luke felt Lorelai's grip tighten on his hand. Hearing his name come from her, in her some what sleeping state, had brought him some definite comfort that his coming might have been one of the best ideas he had since bringing the ice to Rory's birthday party .
But then again, Lorelai was still on the bed, assumingly dreaming about him in some way, and considering her earlier comment it had a pretty good chance of being in his favor. Things were still unclear and all he could do right now was stand there and hold her hand. In fear that she might wake up and find that his assumption might not have been what she had meant.
Luckily, he would get more time than Max had meant for him to find out.
"Mr. Medina?" Rory stood gaping.
"Oh, well hello Rory. Where's your mother?"
Max tried to keep his voice collected and in his usual speaking pattern, but the "too the point" approach gave him away to his student.
"What are you doing here?"
Rory excused herself from the table while smiling at it's concerned guests, trying to reassure them that ever thing was fine and preceded to walk towards her teacher, and former would-be step father.
"This isn't exactly the best time Mr. Medina." Rory steered Max into one of the vacant corridors, trying to get out of earshot of the other's.
"Best time Rory? I have no idea what's going on. Your mother and I are supposed to be getting married, what is a good time?" Max didn't look like he was in the mood to hear that his ex fiancé might at that moment, be in the arms of another man, so Rory decided to try and stall. All she needed was a plan, keeping forever in mind that if she ever turned out as a liar or and accomplice in crime it was all her mother's fault, she preceded to come up with one.
"Would you come over this way Mr. Medina?"
"Um, sure." Max kept in his own mind that he wasn't in a position to refuse her, considering he didn't know the were abouts of Lorelai, and the lady with the bell at the desk didn't seem to feel like giving him any answers because he was soaking wet, which B&B'ers didn't allow in their rooms. He was supposedly supposed to wait until either Lorelai or Rory had come to fetch him so he could gain access to Lorelai because all the other rooms had currently been taken up.
Lorelai wasn't seeming to get any farther in the dream that she seemed to be having. Still trying to maintain a sleep like state all that she seemed to be able to get out of it was the feeling of Luke's hand in hers. Not that it wasn't nice, because it really was, it just seemed like that her psyche could be just a little bit nicer to her. While trying to turn farther towards the bed side opposite of Luke, she attempted to make herself more comfortable only to feel Luke's hand tug her back slightly. Bringing her back to reality.
She wasn't dreaming.
He was actually there.
She was still in the bed of the Cheshire Cat.
As all of these thoughts ran through her head on her own little train track which usually ran the complete opposite direction at this point, she turned to see him, really see him. The grogginess and blur had disappeared, leaving her with a dazed expression. "Luke?"
"He'd been caught. She was awake. He wasn't hiding. That window formed by their hands had officially disappeared. His chance was gone." Luke now being fully panicked looked down at his feet only to find that his hand was still fitting in hers. He had expected it to be dropped by now. Maybe hope was still a possibility.
"Yes?" And the monosyllables of it all strikes again. He chastised himself for not trying to explain his presence before she jumps all over him…dirty.
Lorelai wasn't sure if she should come up to her feet now and kiss him or pull him down with her and kiss him, or there was that other option. Speaking. Which he might respond better to. Weighing her options with the little response time she had she picked the third one, why did he have to answer with so little any way. "It's Luke, of course it would be short."
"Why are you here?" She didn't know what expression to use to get the point that she wanted across, thought it might be helpful if she had an exact point to begin with. So she went for the smile.
After a pause between each other's responses they both found themselves fashioning the same shy smiles, while still trying to avert their eyes from their hands that still remained linked.
Luke sat down on the bed to try making their hands seem less awkward more understandable. "I heard that you left. I thought that I would come to make sure that you were all right."
"The longest answer yet." Lorelai thought while motioning to sit up. She met Luke's gaze while she tried to level her body with his. Bringing Luke's hand to her knee while leaning into him, grateful for his concern.
"My hero."
She tried bringing out a laugh that might put him at more of an ease but it didn't come.
"So are you alright?"
Luke's hand situated itself better to fit Lorelai's causing him to brush up against her leg.
She could feel herself being filled with his concern, softening her expression while she leaned her side neared to his shoulder. Taking in the feel of his shirt yet again on her cheek and the smell of coffee strengthen. Causing her to relax more than she had been since the day he had come to her with the chuppah.
"I'm better." It wouldn't be fair for her to insinuate any further that he might be able to do more to help her. She had only just gotten up and seen him. It wouldn't be fair to ask any more from him, than the presence he had already supplied.
It wouldn't be fair…
The thought seemed to have occurred differently to Luke though. With out much time since her response he found that he had pulled her closer to him, enveloping her, trying to see more genuine smiles than he thought to have been getting. It wasn't fair that her running away for her own just reasons was bringing her pain. Little did he know that he was only deepening it by pulling her closer to the person she thought she couldn't have.
-TBC-
Spoiler for Never Meant chapter 7: Lucky number seven eh? Max begins to feel like he's being lead into a Wonderland all his own in the corridors of the Cheshire Cat while Luke and Lorelai try and figure out why exactly the other is there. So stay tuned k?
A/N: My longest chapter I've ever officially written. It's taken me a few hours to sort it out and now I have to proof read this thing. "Ugh." So please feel free to tell me what you think.
I wasn't quite sure if her party had occurred quite yet. I apologize if it hadn't.
If I don't catch all of grammar errors, I'm sorry to say that they're like Jess, please tell me, but I'm not sure if I'll ever get around to fixing them.
RORY: Maybe, like, you could limit the reports to just significant sightings. If you see him a hundred yards away, disappearing around a corner, I really don't need to know that. If he comes up to you and spits in your face, report that.
LORELAI: Permission to spit back?
Also, one or two last notes: Special thanks to Luke's Girl and Copperboom107 for talking me through this incredibly long chapter. I might have slept if she hadn't. And I suppose I shouldn't forget this either …DISCLAIMED!