Lorelai quickly hung up the phone.
"Hello?" The voice repeated.
"Who was that?" Luke asked demandingly.
"I don't know."
"Liz, don't play games with me here, who was it?" Luke asked again.
"Honest, Luke, I don't know." Liz replied.
"Was it Lorelai?" Liz shrugged. "Jesus." Luke huffed. "Give me the phone." Liz handed the phone to Luke. Luke dialed Lorelai's number quickly.
Lorelai answered the phone. "How could you?" she roared.
"Lorelai." Luke said.
"How could you do that to her!" Lorelai screeched. "Is this some sick way of getting revenge on me ?"
"What? Of course not, Lorelai, please, just let me explain."
Lorelai's breathing slowed down. "You have five minutes. And it better be the best explanation ever given."
"I'm so sorry for not coming over this evening, my sister Liz, you remember Liz?"
"Yes." Lorelai answered shortly.
"She unexpectedly called and I had to go to the airport and pick her and Jess up and I didn't have time to call you and I was gonna call you when I got home but I got stuck in traffic and we just now got back and you called and she answered the phone. And I'm so sorry, I'll come over right now."
"No." Lorelai replied quickly. "Rory has already went to bed."
"Lorelai, please, I can't have her thinking I did this on purpose." Luke pleaded. "Please."
Lorelai sighed. "Luke, I swear to God, if you hurt her again..."
"I would never." Luke replied.
"Fine. Come on over." Lorelai hung up the phone.
Relief covered Luke's body, he turned his attention to Liz. "Stay here." he stated. "I'll be back later."
"Okay." Liz answered casually. "Where should Jess and I sleep?"
"Just take the bed." Luke replied. "I'll sleep on the couch tonight."
"Oh, Luke, we couldn't let you do that."
"Liz, sleep where ever the hell you want. I don't care." Luke answered as he grabbed his jacket and headed out the door.
Lorelai crept into her daughter's room. Rory was sitting quietly on the foot of her bed gazing through one of the photo albums. Lorelai gently sat down on the bed beside her.
"That's your 5th birthday." Lorelai noted, pointing at a picture.
"Yeah." Rory replied softly. "You couldn't find a clown that year, so you dressed up as one."
Lorelai smiled. "I still wonder why I didn't further pursue the clown career. I was a natural."
"You were pretty good." Rory added.
"Luke called." Lorelai replied. Rory didn't say anything. "He didn't mean to miss out on tonight. Some things happened that he had no control over and he's really sorry."
"Oh." Rory answered with no certain kind of emotion.
"He's coming over now though. He wants to apologize to you in person."
"It's almost my bedtime." Rory replied as she closed the photo album.
"Well, I think you could spare an extra ten minutes of beauty sleep, just for tonight."
Rory crawled up to the head of her bed and dug herself under the covers. "Will you read me a story?"
Lorelai gently sighed. "Rory, sweetie, I know your feelings are hurt right now."
"I'm in a big bad wolf mood tonight." Rory continued.
"You can't let this stop you from getting close to him."
Rory turned over on her side. "I don't need a daddy." She muttered. "All I need is you."
"Rory..." Lorelai whispered. "Just one more chance. Everyone deserves a second chance."
Suddenly, there was a loud knock at the door. Lorelai stood up from Rory's bed and walked into the living room. She opened the door and Luke stepped in.
"Hey." he said.
"Hey." Lorelai repeated.
He looked around the apartment. "Where's Rory?"
"In her room." Lorelai answered. "Look, Luke, I'm sorry you came all the way over here, but she's not really up for seeing you right now."
Luke's face saddened. "Can I still see her?"
"Sure." Lorelai replied. "Just don't have your hopes too high."
Luke stepped into Rory's room. "Hey, Rory." he greeted.
She turned and saw him, then quickly turned her back over. He walked over closer to her bed.
"I'm really, really sorry that I'm late." Luke began. "My sister needed me this evening. I had pick up her and her son from the airport." Rory was silent. "I know it's kind of late tonight, but we can get together tomorrow if you still want to. I know I want to. I feel horrible for not spending time with you tonight. I hope you'll let me make it up to you."
Rory turned over and faced Luke. For the first time, he took a good long look at her. How beautiful she was, how small, and how precious. His heart began to swell. Lorelai walked into the room and sat down on the bed.
"My bedtime is in five more minutes." Rory replied. "But my mom said I could stay up a little longer tonight if I wanted to."
A gigantic smile came onto Luke's face. "She did? Well, that's very nice of her." He added. He glanced over at Lorelai.
"I had a lot of things I wanted to show you." Rory set up from her bed. "But, I guess they'll have to wait till tomorrow."
Luke kneeled down beside Rory's bed. "We'll clear the whole day tomorrow just to do whatever you want."
Lorelai cleared her throat. "You know, Rory, I don't think I can read you a bedtime story tonight." She began. "I've got a lot of housework I need to catch up on." She exchanged a look with Luke.
"That's okay." Luke said, catching on. "I'd love to read you a bed time story."
Rory's eyes brightened. "I'll pick one out." She jumped from her bed and ran over to her book shelf. She handed Luke the book.
"Cinderella." Luke read. "I've heard a lot about this."
Lorelai smiled. "Well, I'd better get to work."
Luke pulled up a chair beside Rory's bed, as Lorelai was walking out of the room she turned and looked back at Luke. "Thank you." he mouthed with his lips as he opened the book.
"Your welcome." she mouthed back.