Ok, I told you I would update today and I'm keeping my promise.

I'm making this final authors note right now, cause I know that probably no-one will read it over the last chapter.

It was hard writing this story and those of you who read my LJ know that I kind of went crazy, because it was in my head and it made me sad and so I basically wrote the whole story down in not more than a week, just to get this sad stuff out of my head. I knew the end when I wrote the first chapter, but I just needed to write it down.

I've never got so many reviews for a story and I just love it. I want to appologize to those I made cry and when I remember the reviews correctly there were a lot of people.

I wanna say thanks again to my great beta who corrected this as fast as I wrote it and sometimes had to deal with 4 chapters a day. And she still reviewed everyone of them again, here!

Thanks for the help with the medical stuff and terms to Laura!

Last note to rottie: Au, that hurt! A story needs cliffhangers and you have no right to pinch me, cause this was your first review. Now read the end and then decide if you 'll pinch me again for a story! Then come back here and read the last part of my comment for you!

Last part of the commennt for rottie: See, I win, you lose! Hahaha!

AAAAh, and one more thing: I think it's really nice that I get reviews from guys who are not logged in, but please leave a name, this "none" thing is driving me crazy!

Last thing: The story is based on the song " Bring me to life" by Evanescence. All rights belong to them. Also the words at the beginning of each chapter and I'm not talking about the "chapter XY" part!

Chapter 12

All this time I can't believe I couldn't see, kept in the dark but you were there in front of me

They had talked for hours. They had cried and laughed. There had been reproaches and forgiveness. Sadness and happiness. Luke had witnessed it all, sitting next to her on the kitchen-floor. She had ended up in his lap when the floor had become too cold. Dawn had arrived when they finally went to bed.

It had been the turning point. She had reassured him the next day that he shouldn´t give up on her. That he should stay by her side. That she needed him.

She had told him that she loved him a week later.

Their routine stayed, but she participated. She walked around the house.She ate. She talked to him.

It took her four more days until she was finally able to keep down the food. They had celebrated it with eating pizza, with extra cheese the next day.

He didn´t need to bring her back to the hospital.

Over the next six months they stayed in that house. She refused to go back to Stars Hollow until she was looking nearly normal again.

When she felt better she actually started to enjoy the time they had in the beach house.

They took long walks on the beach.Sat there and watched the sunset.Argued over her first cup of coffee.Bantered over the food.

And when she started to trick him and tease him again, he knew for sure that she was feeling better.

It wa a beautiful six months, but not easy ones.

From time to time, she would still be quiet and pensive, wrapped up in her own thoughts. She still needed time alone. She still started to cry sometimes and then cling to him while he reassured her that he would never leave her.

"I need more time! I told you that."

"I'm afraid of this 'more time' stuff. I'm afraid it'll take forty years and that's not good."

"Lorelai."

"We'll miss our middle. I want a middle. And the town is dividing us up. I need that to stop."

"Don't."

" Luke. I am all in. I'm all in. Please trust me. Let me show you what a great girlfriend I can be. But I can't wait. We can't wait. I need to know what you're thinking right now."

"Fine. You want to know what I'm thinking right now? That I can't be in this relationship. It's too much."

An evening, two months after the call, she had deepened the goodnight kiss they shared every night since she had spoken to Rory.

They had made love that night for the first time after a year and neither one of them had been aware of how much they had missed each other, until their bodies were joined again.

Afterwards she had told him for the first time why she had left him. It was like a dam broke and all the words finally spilled. She had told him about her fears, about the time in LA and her time in San Francisco. About all the therapies and what she had felt. About her loneliness and when she had given up.

And when he had told her about what he had felt when she had left him, it had been her turn to hold him and reassure him that she would never leave him again. Willingly.

They had brought it all out in the open that night, and it helped them both.

She had lost her insecurities concerning her body towards him and had stopped wearing the bandana in the house afterwards.

It was like they were falling in love all over again.

When her hair grew and she gained weight, she started to leave the house more often during the day. Not only at night.

They went swimming when it was hot and fooled around on the beach.

They went shopping for clothes and she even got him to join her in the lingerie store, when she had decided that she needed new dessous for him.

They tested all the restaurants and junk food places in the area and after the six months she knew every pizza or fast-food delivery guy by name.

There were still the check-ups at the hospital but they became less frequent after some time and she was relaxing more and more.

Luke had cooked for the nurses as a thank you and they were all stunned how different Lorelai really was. For them it was like a new person. Only Luke knew she was just being her old self again.

Nearly every day they talked to Rory or Richard and Emily. Sometimes Sookie. It had been hard for Lorelai at first because every time she had to explain what had happened. Had to listen to how sorry they were. And had to tell them why she had left.

And then finally, after six months, she had decided that she was ready to go back home. Home to Stars Hollow. Luke couldn´t have been happier.

They took a last walk on the beach; went a last time to the hospital to say goodbye.

When they heard the announcement of their flight at the airport Luke got overwhelmed by his emotions and hugged her so hard she had problems breathing.

"I...I ...I just didn´t think that I would be able to take you back home sometimes," he admitted.

"But now you can. Let´s go home, babe!" she smiled and kissed him, then they entered the plane.

"Hey, do you remember the first time we met?"

"What?"

" I'm just trying to remember the first time we met. It must have been at Luke's, right?"

"It was at Luke's, it was at lunch, it was a very busy day, the place was packed, and this person..."

" Ooh, is it me? Is it me?"

" This person comes tearing into the place in a caffeine frenzy."

"Ooh, it's me. "

"I was with a customer. She interrupts me, wild-eyed, begging for coffee, so I tell her to wait her turn. Then she starts following me around, talking a mile a minute, saying God knows what. So finally I turn to her, and I tell her she's being annoying -- sit down, shut up, I'll get to her when I get to her."

"Y'know, I bet she took that very well, 'cause she sounds just delightful."

" She asked me what my birthday was. I wouldn't tell her. She wouldn't stop talking. I gave in. I told her my birthday. Then she opened up the newspaper to the horoscope page, wrote something down, tore it out, handed it to me."

" God, seriously. You wrote the menu, didn't you?"

" So I'm looking at this piece of paper in my hand, and under "Scorpio," she had written, 'you will meet an annoying woman today. Give her coffee and she'll go away.' I gave her coffee."

" But she didn't go away."

"She told me to hold on to that horoscope, put it in my wallet, and carry it around with me one day it would bring me luck."

Only Rory, April, Emily and Richard and Sookie knew that they were coming home that day. And only these people waited at the airport.

Lorelai ran to Rory the moment she saw her and Lorelai was surprised when her mother hugged her and started crying. It was a very emotional meeting at the airport and when Rory hugged Luke and thanked him over and over for bringing back her mother, only April's presence kept him from breaking down. The weight on his shoulders was suddenly gone. He felt that as Lorelai slid her arm around his waist and pulled him close when they walked out of the airport; he mirrored her actions.

He had brought her back home. And back to life.

TBC