Summary: JJ. She let herself fall for him, even though he was with someone else.

Disclaimer: Don't own a thing.

flirtswithdisaster: Yes, you have mentioned that you love this story, and I'm very grateful. You've given me countless reviews and that's what keeps me updating. Thanks a bunch!

Because She Cares

Chapter Six: The Pure Thought of You

"I-I-I was heading... downstairs to - to get some warm milk for Davey..."

Luke automatically goes into uncomfortable-shifting mode, while his eyes are permanently fixed on his shoes. Lorelai quickly picks up the key, while trying her best to cover her swollen lips, as she too, stares in another direction. They can't say anything. What could they say? Luke manages to look over at Lorelai, and see's the same startled and embarrassed expression on her face. It all happened so fast, they need to process everything.

-

He kissed her. She kissed him back. And they were just about to have sex. If Sookie hadn't have seen them, they would have. They know they would have. Whether it was right or not, could have been debated. But at that moment, Sookie was the only thing stopping them.

-

They suddenly feel a sense of shyness overcome them. Luke's having trouble looking in the direction of Lorelai. And she's having trouble looking at him. Too concerned about each other, it takes them a while to realize that Sookie is still standing before them. Naturally, there was no chance of Luke speaking. So, it was nonverbally decided that Lorelai would take this one. After nervously tucking her hair behind her ears and stalling as long as possible, Lorelai is the first to speak.

"We were... well - I was... just walking Luke to his uh - room."

"You were... walking him t- to - to his room... okay." A nervous Sookie repeats.

"Mhm."

"So, I'll just uh - go check on Jackson - er, um... I mean Davey..." As soon as Sookie walks in her room and shuts the door, she's running through it again. Her chubby arms are pulling Lorelai into an enormous hug. She's jumping up and down on the verge of hyperventilating, and before he can object, she's running over to Luke. "You did it! You hunk of burning love! You finally got her!" Luke has an embarrassed smile on his face as Sookie goes through her moment of 'freak-out'. She pulls back and stares at the two of them, oblivious to their nervous state.

Sookie smiles as she starts walking backwards into her room, "You know what? That was rude of me. Interrupting 'ya like that. I'll leave you kids alone." She winks at Luke, "You go tiger." Naturally, Luke does nothing but roll his eyes.

Sookie is now out of sight, and Lorelai remains against the door, looking up at Luke. It takes him a while, but he eventually walks a little closer, and takes in her beauty. I kissed her. I kissed Lorelai Gilmore. Her lips twitch into a small smile as her eyes are sparkling and locked in a gaze. She never imagined butterflies to appear in her stomach at the sight of Luke approaching her, but she likes it.

He is inches away from her and she can't help but move closer. And when his hands are suddenly on her arms, her whole body tingles. She is fiddling with the bottom of her shirt, when she speaks through a nervous breath, "So Sookie... she's - she's probably shaken Jackson awake by now."

"The town will know... by tomorrow morning..."

"Yeah..." she inches closer.

"Maybe even... before then..." He struggles to speak at the feel of her light breath on his face.

"Maybe." Her eyes are fluttering shut. When feeling his lips on hers is a necessity, she rests her hand on the nape of his neck, lightly pulling him down, he's the perfect height. She smiles at the fact that this is completely okay. She's allowed to feel weak around Luke. She's allowed to be close to Luke. She's allowed to kiss Luke. Because they both want it.

His lips are on hers, and it feels better than the first kiss. Neither of them ever desiring more from any other moment than this. It takes all of her will power to pull away and break the kiss. She softly caresses his cheek, and looks up at him with a sigh. She doesn't need to say anything, they both know that doing this... here... was not the right place or time.

She looks down at the key in her hand, whispering, "Well... I need to be up early tomorrow." He just nods. She places the key in his hand, and looks up at him, "Goodnight, Luke."

He kisses her lightly on the forehead, "Goodnight."

He watches as she walks down the hall to her room. She looks back at him before opening the door, and smiles. He does the same.

She walks into the dimly-lit room, and leans her back against the door, grinning uncontrollably, experiencing that all-too-familiar, giddy feeling. She feels the urge to squeal in delight - jump up and down - announce to the world that she kissed Luke Danes. Instead, she rushes to her daughters bedside, lightly shaking her awake.

"Rory. Rory, Mommy has big news."

"Mmm..."

"Huge News. Incredible News. On-the-verge-of-filling-in-Oprah news."

"Good... tell me in the morning."

"No! I can't wait that long. I need to tell somebody now!"

"Go talk to your curling iron..."

Completely ignoring her daughter's response, Lorelai takes a seat next to Rory on the bed, "Should I tell you or do you want to guess?"

"I want to sleep."

"Okay, I'll just tell you." She takes a breath to emphasize the matter. "I kissed Luke."

Rory's eyes shoot open, "Wha-"

"Well, he kissed me. And then I kissed him. I'd say we both had our share of participating."

"Oh, my God! What!"

"Luke ki-"

"No, I heard you I just - Oh, my God, it's about time!"

"I know... can you believe it!"

Rory looks at her mom and can't help but notice the huge grin on her face. Rory smiles at this, she hadn't seen her mom this happy in a long time. Without hesitation she pulls her into a big hug, sharing the same goofy grin. A night of endless 'girl talk' was soon to emerge.

The morning arrives, and the only thing motivating an exhausted Lorelai to get up, is him. They were leaving their room when Lorelai and Rory saw Luke heading towards to the stairs. They intentionally spoke so that he could hear them. Watching Luke blush was always fun, "Oh, look, Rory... what a handsome fellow..."

"Oh, mother, I must agree."

"I believe he was the man I spoke of earlier..."

Luke stopped and turned around with an annoyed look on his face."Ah - jeez... you didn't spend the whole night talking about me, did you?"

"No." Rory replied innocently.

"Not the whole night." Lorelai added.

"Yeah... I'm sure..." He tried to seem aggravated, but at the sight of Lorelai, he couldn't stop from smiling. For the first time in his life, he was fully confident and happy. He cared for this woman so much and he was sure she felt the same way. He and Lorelai hadn't really talked yet, but he had a feeling. A gut feeling. 'This' was going to work.

When he looked at her and saw her smiling, everything felt surreal. He had dreamed of being with Lorelai Gilmore for the past eight years. He watched her date. He watched her be rejected. He watched her wallow. He watched her meet someone else. Luke watched from the sidelines as she made it through life, hoping and wishing she would see him as more than a friend. And now, she finally has.

She shines him a small smile, he doesn't hesitate in winking.

The three of them walked down the stairs into the dining room, where they unsurprisingly, found everyone whispering and clearly gossiping. There were no questions needed to be asked. Luke and Lorelai knew the town was talking about them. Why else would everyone immediately stop whispering and begin to nervously eat their food at the sight of them?

Exactly.

In all honesty, Lorelai didn't expect Sookie to keep what she saw a secret. She did hope that her and Luke had some time to talk about things before the whole town knew, but she supposed she would just have to deal with it. She could tell Luke was annoyed though. He was growing tense, and trying his best to ignore Babette and Patty's seductive winking. She tried to hold in a giggle when he muttered under his breath,

"Crazy people. The whole town should be medicated and thrown into a nuthouse."

"Okay, well I better go check on a few things. Just take a seat with Rory, I'll send someone out to give you some breakfast."

"Fine."

"Rory, keep an eye on him. Make sure Miss Patty doesn't pinch his ass."

"Lorelai, sweety, why would you ever accuse me of doing such a thing? He has 'someone else' to do that now..." This only made Luke groan with humiliation, "Okay, you really need to stop that."

"I think I'm making him uncomfortable."

Lorelai smiled with a sigh as she headed towards the kitchen, but it faded just as quickly. She paused before pushing the door open when she spotted a clearly unhappy, Richard and Emily Gilmore. No, when she looked more carefully, she noticed they were more than unhappy. With a heavy roll of her eyes, she pushed the door open with disgust. She expected her mother to follow her into the kitchen. She was right.

"Lorelai Gilmore!"

"Dear God, save me..."

"Is this your idea of a successful test-run! Are you proud of yourself!"

"Well, actually I was very pleased with how things turned out."

"The whole damn town was out there talking about you and that lumberjack!"

"Okay, first of all-"

"What on earth would posses you to do something like that! With him!"

"You know his name, Mom! It's Luke! And I like him! God... I swear it's like talking to a-"

"Honestly, Lorelai, I can't fathom what goes on in that head of yours!"

"Mom! We just kissed!"

"Yes, well from what I heard it was a little more than a kiss!"

"Mom-"

"You're a grown woman, Lorelai! You should know by now what kind of behavior should be displayed in public and what should not!"

"Mom, it was no big deal... people are just blowing it out of proportion!"

"Well, your father and I have no desire to witness this 'blown out of proportion' event any longer. We're leaving now... I hope you've had your fun."

"It's been a blast!" A good, sarcastic parting note.

TBC

Author's Note: You probably already noticed, but Richard and Emily aren't separated. So, it's a little different than the season four finale. They may drive Lorelai crazy, but I hated seeing them separated. Although, I must admit, it was very funny seeing Emily climb out a window.

Alright, well, I'll try and post the next chapter sooner. Please leave a review. :)