1One Less Mistake

Summary: What if Lorelai hadn't gotten pregnant until she was 20? What if she had agreed to marry Christopher when she did? AU.

Pairings: Rory/Dean, Lor/Luke/Chris

Disclaimer: All of these characters belong to Amy Sherman-Palladino and the WB

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"Are you ready for this?" Dean asked.

"No," Rory replied. "It makes me feel sick just thinking about it. But I have to do it. I need to get my grades up, and I need to stop stressing myself, and it'll actually make me sick if I don't do this."

"Do you want me to come with you?"

"Can you talk to Luke? So I can be with her alone?"

"Okay."

"Kiss for luck, please." He laughed and kissed her. "Mmmm, another one." He laughed and unbuckled her seatbelt for her. She kissed him again, and tried to get on top of him.

"Not going to work," he laughed again.

"Making out with you?"

"Well, first of all, the steering wheel will get in the way."

"True."

"And second, it's avoidance. And as much as I enjoy this, you have to do what you came here for."

"Fine. You're a sucky boyfriend." He laughed again. "Why are you laughing so much today?"

"Well, two reasons. The first one is you seem happier than you have."

"True."

"And the second one is that Jess and Lindsay finally set a date for the wedding."

"Oh."

"It's in a month."

"Soon."

"Very Jess-like. Not giving his poor fiancee any time to plan her dream wedding. But anyways. I was wondering if you'd like to come."

"What good is a boyfriend if he won't invite you to weddings?"

"So that's a yes?"

"Of course. And I'm going to get this over with."

"Okay. Let's go."

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"Luke, give me coffee!"

"You've had five cups already."

"Yes, but what good is having a boyfriend who owns a diner if he won't give me coffee."

"And I repeat, you've had five cups already, which means I've given you five cups."

"Hey! Can I have a danish?"

"Sure. Here," he threw it on a plate and gave it to here, and went off to serve his other customers.

"Hey, Luke!" She called five seconds later.

"What?"

"A danish is nothing without coffee. Sad danish. Lonely danish."

"Fine. But I swear, this is your last cup. Junkie."

"Angel. You've got wings, baby," she said, and rocked forward to kiss him gently on the lips. Someone cleared their throat behind them, and Luke pulled back to bring the person coffee, when he froze. Lorelai turned to see what he was looking at. Rory was standing there with a stricken expression, Dean was beside her with his arm around her protectively, attempting to stand in between her and the world. "Rory," she breathed.

"I...I don't know why I even came. I thought, maybe, we could talk. But I guess that was a stupid idea."

"Rory, baby. No, stay. Talk."

"But I can't anymore. Every day, Dad sits around, waiting for you to come home. Praying that tomorrow might be different than today. Topher hasn't forgiven you. He's too close to Dad to forgive you when you're the cause of Dad's pain. And I thought that we could patch things up. See if maybe you felt bad. If you were sad, and you still loved him. But you don't. And right now, he's more my family than you."

"You hate me for falling out of love with your father?" Lorelai asked, horrorstruck.

"No. But I have to choose. You don't need me. Bye, Mom," Rory said, reaching her hand up to entwine with Dean's and lead him out of the diner.

"Dean!" Luke called. Dean took a breath, whispered something to Rory, pulled his hand free and walked back.

"What?"

"Do you think you can try to talk to her? For my sake?"

"Why? You have Lorelai, she has you, and the two of you don't need her. You're asking me to try to get her to abandon Christopher. He needs her. I've talked to him. He's a great guy. And he's dying inside. He needs Topher. He needs Rory. And he even needs me a little bit. Luke, I'm sorry. You've always been like a father to me. But, right now, I'm going to be there for your girlfriend's estranged husband. I'm sorry." Luke could only stare as the man he had always believed to be like a son to him walked off to be a son to his archrival in the hand of the woman he believed to be the love of his life.