Disclaimer: I do not own nor do I have any association with the Gilmore Girls or any of its characters. Dreaming about them is a totally different thing...
Chapter 22- A Picture Perfect Family
Present Day
Luke groaned as the alarm clock went off. His fist came crashing down on the fuzzy blue thing purring at him, putting it out of it's misery of being another of Lorelai Danes's fads. He felt oddly comfortable last night, but he couldn't remember why. He opened his eyes to see Lorelai was laying very close to him. She was on her side facing him and her arm was unconsciously draped across his lower half. He smiled. Oh yeah. That's why.
He would have loved to stay in that bed with Lorelai all day, but he had to get to work. He removed her arm and got out of bed. He took a quick shower and got ready. He was nearly done dressing when Lorelai stirred in her sleep and then woke up.
"Hey," he greeted softly.
"Hey," she greeted back sleepily. "What time is it?"
"Four fifty." Lorelai groaned and pulled the bed sheets over her head. "Sorry. Did I wake you?"
"No," Lorelai's muffled voice replied.
"I'll be outta here in a minute. Go back to sleep."
She pulled the covers down. "I'll try."
"You want me to make a pot of coffee before I leave?"
"You don't have to."
"What time are you going to work?"
"You're really helping with the sleeping thing."
Luke threw his hands up in mock surrender. "Sorry. Just asking."
Lorelai sighed. "I'm not really feeling well so I don't think I'm going to go in today."
"Not feeling well? Are you ok? Do you want me to call the doctor?"
"No," she said quickly. "You don't have to do that. It's probably just a cold."
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah." Luke nodded and picked up the phone. "Luke, I said I was fine. What are you…"
Luke held up his hand to silence her. "Caesar, it's Luke. Did I wake you up? Ok good. Hey I'm not gonna be able to come in today. Yeah. Lorelai's sick and I wanna make sure she's ok. Ok. Ok. Thanks. I'll talk to you later. Alright. Bye."
"What did you just do? Pick that phone up and call Caesar back. Tell him you're going to work."
"Lorelai, you're sick. No one's going to be here to take care of you and I can't just leave you here alone. If I go to work, Sookie's gonna come over to take care of you. Then you're going to have to explain to her why your husband isn't at home taking care of you." Lorelai let out a sigh, realizing he was right. "Good. I'm gonna go downstairs and make you breakfast."
Lorelai pulled the sheets closer to her body as Luke left the room. Well, that plan just backfired.
1985
Luke headed to his locker in the locker room with a towel around his waist and one draped across his shoulders. He always waited for the other players to shower and leave before showering himself. He was surprised to see Kevin was still there. He was sitting on the bench in front of his locker, staring at a piece of paper.
"Whatcha got there?" Luke asked.
Kevin looked up at Luke as he put the letter in his pocket. "None of your business," he replied.
"I was just asking. No need to bite my head off." Luke opened his locker and started to dress. "I thought you left already."
"I didn't."
Luke opened his locker and started to get dressed. "You ok?"
"I'm fine."
Luke pulled on his pants and his shirt. "You were a little off out there today."
"I'm fine."
"You seemed…"
"I said I'm fine," Kevin snapped.
"Jeez, I'm sorry. I was just concerned."
"Well, don't be."
"Fine. I'll see you later." Luke gathered his things and headed for the door.
Kevin sighed and called out to his friend. "Luke, wait." Luke faced his friend. "I'm sorry."
"What's going on Kev?" Kevin didn't reply. "Kev, it's me. You know you can tell me anything."
Kevin stood up and grabbed his stuff. "It's none of your business Luke. So back off."
Luke grabbed Kevin's arm as he tried to leave. "What the hell is wrong with you? You've been acting like a jerk lately."
"If I'm such a jerk, why are you still hanging out with me?"
"Because you're my best friend. This is what friends do Kevin. They're concerned about their friends and try to help."
"Well don't." Kevin shook Luke's grip off. "Like I said. It's none of your business. Why don't you go take care of your girlfriend and her kid?" With that, Kevin left a confused and angry Luke behind in the locker room.
Present Day
Lorelai was sitting up in the bed flipping through the channels in search for something interesting on when Luke walked in. "Hey, how you feeling?" he asked.
"Better," Lorelai replied as she turned off the TV. "The soup was great," she added, pointing to the empty bowl on the food tray beside her.
"Thanks. I brought you some ginger ale for your stomach." He held out the glass to her.
"Oh, thanks."
"You're welcome. I was thinking of checking on the diner. I wanted to make sure you're gonna be ok by yourself."
"I'm a big girl Luke. I think I'll be fine."
"Alright. So I'm gonna go. I''ll be back in a while."
"How long's a while?"
"An hour, two tops."
"Ok, I'll see you when you get back then."
"Yeah. Drink that ginger ale. It'll settle your stomach."
"I will. And thank you."
Luke nodded and left the room, taking the empty food tray with him. When she was sure he was gone, Lorelai hopped out of bed and changed. She only had an hour before Luke came back and she didn't want him to come home to an empty house. Before running out of the house, Lorelai drank her ginger ale. After all, she did promise Luke she would.
1984
Luke waited in the dining room at the Independence Inn for Lorelai. She had to work tonight so they were having dinner at the inn.
"Lucas," Mia called.
Luke turned around to see Mia walking into the dining room carrying Rory. "Hey Mia," Luke greeted with a smile. He stood and gave Mia a kiss on the cheek. He smiled at the baby in her arms. "I see you brought someone with you."
"This little girl has been dying to see you all day." Mia handed Luke Rory. Rory immediately started to giggle.
"Hey there princess. I missed you today. Did you miss me too? Huh? Yes you did. Yeah."
Mia smiled as she watched Luke interact with his girlfriend's daughter. "You're really taking to her aren't you?"
"Of course. How could you not love a face like this? She's my little princess. Aren't you princess?"
"You keep calling her princess and spoiling her like you do, she's going to grow up thinking she is a princess. She's going to have you wrapped around her little finger."
"Not Rory. This one's going to know her boundaries. She's going to be a good girl."
"So you plan on being in her life for a long time?"
"I plan on being there every step of the way."
Just then, Lorelai walked into the dining room. "Sorry I'm late," she said. "Turn down service took a little longer than I thought. Hey babe." She kissed Luke, then Rory on the top of the head.
"Hey. And don't apologize. I haven't been here long."
"Now you three look like a picture perfect family," Mia remarked with a bright smile. Luke and Lorelai looked at each other, then back at Mia. She didn't give them a chance to say anything. She just spoke up again. "Well, I better get back to work. I'll take the little one with me and you two can enjoy your dinner." Mia took Rory from Luke and went back to the front desk.
The couple sat down. "When did we become the picture perfect family?" Luke joked.
"Today I guess," Lorelai laughed. "I hope you plan to put a ring on this finger mister." Luke's expression turned serious and Lorelai regretted what she said. "Oh no, Luke. I was joking. I didn't mean…I'm not telling you to…Oh God. This is going bad."
Luke laughed. "It's ok. I know you were kidding. Hey, what are you doing on May third?"
"Jeez Luke, I don't know. I'll have to check if I planned to do something in three months."
"Well I don't know. There's no need to be sarcastic. You might have had some family party planned or something." Lorelai just stared at her boyfriend. "Ok," he laughed. "My mistake."
"What's so special about May third?"
"Well, it's, um, prom."
"Prom?"
"Yeah. I usually don't go to these things, but I thought…I don't know. It's my senior year and maybe you'd wanna go…with me."
A smile spread across Lorelai's face. "You're asking me to prom?"
"You make fun of me and we'll spend that night sitting on my couch watching a really boring movie eating stale popcorn."
"I'm not making fun of you."
"Good. So…is that a yes?"
"It's a yes."
"Good. Ah jeez."
"What?"
"I just realized I'm gonna have to get a tux now."
Lorelai laughed. "There's no pleasing you is there Luke Danes?"
Present Day
Lorelai hurried out the house and glanced at her watch as she headed down the street. She had less then half an hour now. To some that seemed like enough time, but they probably weren't lying to their husbands about being sick. She moved fast and took the alternate route to where she needed to be. Partially because she was pressed for time and partially because she didn't want anyone to see her. There didn't seem to be anyone else there. Good, she thought to herself. Now I won't have to deal with them tomorrow. She made her way across the lawn. She froze when she saw a familiar figure, crouching down. Slowly, she made her way over.
"Hey," she said softly.
Luke turned his head and looked up at Lorelai. "Hi," he replied in the same manner.
"I thought you were at the diner."
"I thought you were sick."
Lorelai looked away and nodded. "When did you change?"
"When I went to the diner."
"So you really did go to the diner." Luke nodded. "Guess we had the same idea."
"Yeah." Luke stood up and stepped back so he stood beside his wife. "I didn't want people mobbing me tomorrow, so I thought…"
"Me too." Lorelai took a deep breath and tried to hold back the tears. "I can't believe it's been a year already."
"Neither can I." They stood in silence for a few more minutes.
"Luke," Lorelai called softly, her voice strained.
"Yeah?"
"I want to go home now."
Luke nodded and put his arm around her as he led her back to his truck. He took one last look over his shoulder at the tombstone that marked his misery.
Lorelai walked into the master bedroom to find Luke sitting on the edge of the bed while he spoke on the phone.
"Yeah," Luke said into the phone. "Yeah. I just don't want her driving this late. Especially if she thinks something's wrong. She'll be a demon on the road. Everything's fine. Yes I'm sure. So it's ok if they spend the night there? Even Jess? Lock the liquor cabinet then. And hide anything valuable you wouldn't notice him carrying out. And lock him in his room. Yeah…sure…a joke. Well I have to get going now. Thanks again Richard. I will. Ok. Good bye."
Luke put down the phone and looked up at Lorelai. "The kids are going to spend the night at your parents' house," he said.
"I figured that," Lorelai said. "Hey Luke, I'm really sorry about lying to you about being sick."
"Don't worry about it."
"Don't do that Luke. Don't act like I didn't do something wrong."
"Lorelai, you wanted your privacy. Besides, I wasn't exactly very truthful either."
"You stayed home to take care of me and I wasn't even sick."
"Let's not argue ok? Not…not tonight."
Lorelai nodded. "I'm getting kinda tired anyway."
"Oh. Ok." Luke stood up and got ready to leave the room. "I'll go sleep in the guestroom since Jess isn't here."
"No. You take the bed. I lied to you. You deserve the bed for everything you've done for me."
"Lorelai…"
"Please Luke. I feel really bad. Just take this room and I'll sleep in Rory's room."
Luke sighed. "Alright. I'll take this room."
"Ok. Um, good night."
"Night."
Two hours later, when the house was dark and silent, Lorelai crept out of Rory's room and made her way upstairs as quietly as she could. She stopped at the door down the hall from the one she and Luke shared. The same room Jess had been yelled at for going near. Lorelai took a deep breath and opened the door. She could feel her heart break when she stepped inside. The pain of their loss still stung. She looked around at her surroundings and her heart broke a little more. She didn't know she had started to cry until a tear hit her hand. She ran out of the door and closed the door behind her. She leaned against it as she cried. She wiped the tears away and headed down the hall to her and Luke's room.
Inside the room, Luke had finally gotten to sleep after an hour and a half of painful memories running through his mind. He had been jolted out of that peaceful sleep when he heard a consistent knock at the door. He pulled himself out of bed and opened the door.
"Lorelai?" he asked sleepily. He was still half asleep so it took him a while before he realized Lorelai was cry. "Lorelai? What's wrong?"
"I need you Luke," she cried as she threw her arms around him.
Luke held her as she cried. "It's gonna be ok Lorelai."
After a minute of holding each other, Lorelai pulled away and looked up at her husband. Suddenly, surprising both Luke and herself, she gently grabbed his face and kissed his softly and passionately on the lips.
"I need to be with my husband tonight," she said almost in a whisper.
Luke just nodded and let her into the room. He was about to close the door when he noticed the light under a certain door across the hall. Now he knew what Lorelai was crying about. Why she had come to him. It was the same thing that kept him up for so many nights. It was the same reason he slept in the room on the very opposite side of the hall. The reason he had lied to Lorelai and why she lied to him. There was one last thing that passed through Luke's mind before he closed the door to be with his wife. It was the words he had been staring at earlier:
Peace to Our Little Boy
Daniel Vincent Danes
2001-2004
Next time on "The Broken Road": We'll be backtracking in the next chapter. It follows the life and the unfortunate death of Daniel "Danny" Danes. You'll find out about "the accident", why it was so devastating to the couple, and why things are the way they are between Luke and Lorelai. I warn you right now. It's going to be a very sad chapter so get some tissue ready.
A/N: I made a lot of changes from the original version of the chapter. So, I'll put those up on my site when I get the chance. I don't really have a lot to say. With an ending like that, it just doesn't seem right to have a witty comment. So all I ask is that you review. Thank you and God Bless.
