"Thank you, Mia." Lorelai replied as she grabbed her purse. "I won't be gone long."

"Take your time, dear." Mia smiled. "Rory and I will get along just fine."

Lorelai kissed her daughter good bye and left the Independence Inn. As she parked in front of the diner, she stared into the large window, and could see Luke wiping down the counter. She took a deep breath as she stepped out of her jeep and walked towards the door. The sound of the door hitting the bell above it, caught Luke's complete attention.

"Hey." Lorelai greeted.

Luke threw done his rag and came out from behind the counter. "Hey." he gently replied. "How are you?"

"I'm fine." Lorelai replied. "You?" she asked.

"Oh, I.. I'm, I'm fine." Luke stammered.

"Good." Lorelai confirmed.

"Yeah." Luke added quickly. "So..." he paused. "Want to sit down?" He offered Lorelai a seat.

"Sure." Lorelai set down at the table and Luke set down across from her. "I know this must be very strange for you."

Luke nodded his head. "Yeah, it is." he spoke with a soft dry voice. "You look the same."

"So do you."

"You're staying here, in Stars Hollow, I mean?" Luke asked as he folded his hands on the table.

Lorelai exhaled deeply. "Yes." she answered shortly. "We just moved into an apartment on Cedar Street."

"Nice area." Luke replied.

"It seems to be."

Finally, Luke's patience got the best of him. "Lorelai, why?" he asked as his face became set to stone.

She studied his face for a moment. "I had to." She replied after several moments.

"No, you didn't." Luke answered calmly. "You never had to leave by yourself."

Lorelai's heart began to thump. "Luke, you wanted different things than I did." She said sympathetically. "The way you talked that night, the things you said, I didn't know if I could ... I didn't want to make you go any farther than you already had."

"I thought you didn't want to be with me."

"I did. I just didn't know when I could commit to you. I didn't know what was going to happen when we got to California. I didn't know if you and I were going to get married or start a family. I just didn't know." She ranted.

Luke remained calmer than Lorelai. "So you ran away."

Lorelai sat in silence. She had always been ashamed of the way she had left Luke, but facing him here and now was almost too much to bare. "Yes." she said with a sniffle. "I ran away."

"I woke up a few hours later. I had no idea what happened to you. I spent days driving around, fearing that you had been hurt or kidnaped or worse."

"I'm sorry."

"You're sorry?" Luke repeated. "It's been eight years! You never even called! You never wrote a letter! You never sent any type of information letting me know you was alive and well. Do you know how that felt?" Luke put his hand to his chest. "I was sick over you for months."

Streams of tears came pouring down Lorelai's face. "Luke, I'm so sorry."

"Is she mine, Lorelai?" Luke asked directly as his eyes began to tear up as well. Lorelai stared blankly at Luke. "Is she?" He demanded.

"I don't know." Lorelai mumbled.

Luke let out a huge breath of air and leaned back in his seat. "How can you not know?" He asked in a hard voice, as if he was mocking her.

"I was raped, Luke!" Lorelai shot back. "I had sex with you and I was raped days after! How am I supposed to know whose daughter she is?"

Luke leaned forward and rubbed his head. "You should have called me the moment you found out."

"I didn't know if she was yours."

Luke was silent for a moment. "You still should have called me."

They both set there staring distantly at the empty space in front of them. Lorelai dried away at her eyes and calmed herself down.

"All these years, I've wondered who her father is." Lorelai replied. "I've tried to look for signs that would tell me that she belonged to you, but there was always that thought in the back of my mind that she belonged to Chris. Sometimes, I figured it would just be better to not even know, than to find out she wasn't yours." Lorelai's breathing became heavy. "I'm sorry I never called you, Luke. I was such a coward. I was so childish. I wasn't ready for a relationship. I wasn't ready to start a life with someone. When I found out I was pregnant with Rory, that changed everything. Suddenly, I was a mother. I had to become an adult and take responsibility for things. It just always seemed easier to never call."

"We have to do a DNA test." Luke replied as he reached over and took Lorelai's hand.

"I want her to be yours." Lorelai's voice broke as another set of tears came parading down her flushed cheeks.

"So do I." Luke agreed.