Okay, okay, one more for today. Although I am not sure about if this will help you... And I can already tell you that there are just two more chapters waiting for you. This story has 13 chapters. So review, for chapter 10 also, please. Maybe , if you're nice, I'll give you ch 12 and 13 faster then... No, that's stupid and was just a joke, I will update tomorrow I think with the last two chapters!

But reviews would be nice though!

Chapter 11:

I've become so numb without a soul my spirit sleeping somewhere cold until you find it there and lead it back home

She had thrown up breakfast. She had thrown up lunch. Just like every day. She was out of the hospital but there was no difference. Not in her eating. Not in her behavior. She had been out of there for one week and... nothing.

She refused to leave the house. She lay on the couch or in bed the whole day. She still threw up. He knew that if that didn´t change he would have to bring her back to the hospital, because she kept getting weaker and weaker.

"Lorelai, I´m going to make dinner. Do you want anything special?" he asked. She only shook her head.

He had decided to make burgers and fries that day. He knew that it was too greasy and that it wasn´t good for her stomach. But it was her favorite food and she was used to it. Had been used to it.

She ate some fries without asking for ketchup and took a few bites of the burger before she got sick again. He rushed her to the bathroom. It was a daily routine. Three times a day after each meal he would carry her into the bathroom, hold her while she threw up, give her a glass of water to rinse her mouth, clean her up and change her if necessary.

And this evening was not different.

But he was not willing to give her up.

He had her bath ready after dinner, like every evening. The bathroom smelled like the peach-bubbles and the vanilla-scented candles.

He undressed her slowly, careful not to hurt her before he put her in the bathtub.

But he had decided to make this evening different.

He undressed himself and she looked at him. Took his body in. Looked down shyly when he looked into her eyes.

He got in behind her. Pulled her against him when she tried to scoot away. She was stiff and felt uncomfortable.

His left hand rested on her stomach while he started to to stroke up and down her arm with his right one. He played with her fingers, stroked up her arm, glided his fingers over her shoulder and collar-bone. Then the whole way back. Slowly he felt her relax.

She put her left hand on his and laced her fingers through his. She sighed.

"We look like four-hundred-year old people,all wrinkled, let´s get out of here!" he whispered into her ear after another half hour of silence and stroking.

He toweled himself dry and wrapped the towel around his hips before he pulled her up and held her bathrobe open for her. He had bought it after she had moved in with him. It was pink.

He held her in his arms for some moments longer than necessary, after he lifted her out of the tub.

On a normal night he would have creamed her skin with her favorite lotion, dressed her in her pajamas, and put her in bed.

But he had decided to make this evening different.

She was surprised when he lifted her up without dressing her. He carried her into the bedroom and untied the robe, then placed her naked on the bed. She looked scared and intimidated. He only smiled and rolled her onto her stomach. He left her for a moment and came back with the lotion. When it touched her body she shivered because it was cold.

Then he started to massage the lotion into her skin. He massaged her back, massaged all the knots out of her muscles. Sometimes she winced, sometimes she moaned, but she tried to stay still.

He started at her shoulders and slowly his hands worked their way down. He did not stop when he reached her lower back. For some seconds she stiffened again, but relaxed when she noticed that his touch stayed innocent, only massaging her body to relax her.

It tickled when he reached her knee.

It felt heavenly when he gave her a foot-massage. First left, then right.

He took her hands in his and massaged them. Then up her arms and back to her shoulders.

Then he took the bandana away from her head. The stiffness was back.

He closed his eyes for a moment, but was actually relieved when he saw that her hair had started growing again. It was still short and he could see the skin underneath. But it was there.

His father had died without hair.

He glided his hands over the short hair before he added pressure, without lotion this time.

He stopped when he heard her sniffling. He leaned forward and placed a kiss on her cheek before he went back to what he had been doing before.

When he was finished he placed the bandana back on her head, then took her panties and bra and started to dress her.

Not in her pajamas. In jeans and a T-shirt.

"Luke, what are you doing?" she asked for the first time.

"Sssh, just wait!" he said and picked her up.

"No, Luke no! I don´t want to go outside!" she tried to argue when he walked with her still in his arms. He didn´t react, just walked around the house and to the beach.

It was already dark, they were alone and the only thing they could hear were the waves. He sat down in the sand, put her in his lap, and buried his nose in her shoulder. She took his right hand, the one he was not using to steady himself, and drew lazy circles on the back of his hand. They did not speak.

It took some time but after an hour she was asleep. Lulled to sleep by the sounds of the waves.

After he had placed her back on the bed, in the bedroom, he called Rory. He had promised her that he would call her every second day. And he kept his promise. They talked about Lorelai, of course. But sometimes also about Richard and Emily, about Logan, and Yale. About when Luke would bring her back home. If he would bring her home.

"It´s just...I don´t know what to do anymore! I just don´t. There is no improvement, not one. She gets weaker every day. Maybe it was the wrong decision to take her out of the hospital. Maybe the doctor was right and it was just a crazy and dangerous idea." Luke said and sounded as desperate as he felt.

"No, no...she is not. She is doing what I tell her, she is bearing my touch and sometimes I think I just torture her by making her do all those things, Rory. Maybe we just ... maybe we should just let her go..." he had to stop because the tears began to fall on both sides. He listened how she sobbed. She heard how he wiped his tears away. But then they heard something different.

"Luke?" Lorelai whispered and slid down next to him. She had no idea how she had made the way out of the bedroom and into the kitchen by herself. It had taken forever and she had to walk along the furniture for support, but she had heard that he sounded desperate while he was talking to someone when she had woken up. She wanted to know who he was talking to. What he was saying. She had heard every word on her way.

Luke looked up and was speechless. Then she held out her hand and he handed her the phone. She touched his cheek with the fingers of her other hand to wipe away the remaining tears.

"Rory?" she said shakily after more than ten months.

TBC