A/N: Aw, you're still here! I'm flattered, and flattery will get you anywhere with me, my friends (DIRTY!). Thanks for keepin' on!

Chapter 3: Tales of Hearts and War

February 11th, 2002

Lorelai wandered in to her parents' kitchen after her mother's outburst at Christopher. She didn't quite understand what Emily's problem was, but Lorelai could almost guarantee it would go back to the age old, 'you got pregnant at 16' drama. It seemed like almost every fight went back to that. Pushing the door open, Emily stood at the counter and poured herself a drink.

"You wanna tell me what's going on here?" Lorelai asked, not willing to beat around the bush.

"How can you let that horrible woman take Rory like that?" Whoa, Mom is really worked up about this.

"Okay Mom, calm down. It's only one night."

"That's how it starts. She's just getting her claws into her."

"Her claws?" Interesting image…

"We'll never see Rory again if that woman has her way." I think Mom finally flipped her lid.

"Mom, hold it. Rory is my daughter, you know. I have some control over this."

"She's not getting Rory on weekends, you can't let that happen."

"What is this about Mom? Why are you so flipped out?"

"Lorelai, are you blind or just that humiliated?"

"Humiliated?" Why the hell would I be humiliated?

"Christopher gets his life together with that woman."

"So, that's good." What's your point, Mom?

"It should've been you!" Hello, definitely not what I was expecting.

"What?"

"Don't play dumb, Lorelai. You know it too, and deep down I know you're heartbroken."

"I'm not heartbroken."

"Well, I am."

"Huh?"

"I always had the picture in my mind of the three of you together. After all these years and after all the bad things that happened, Rory with both her parents. And now that Christopher's got his life together, it's with her and not you."

"Mom, the timing was never right for us."

"That's because you dawdled time away. You could've had that affect on him. You could've been the person to help him get his life together, but you made no effort!"

"Oh, so now this comes down to something I didn't do? Don't put that on me Mother!"

"What other explanation is there? He's always been crazy about you but you've always kept him at arms length. You keep everyone at arm's length."

"That's not true!"

"It is true! Your destiny was to be with Christopher and now it's too late!"

"Then it wasn't our destiny!"

"So you're saying that you don't have feelings for him Lorelai, that all of this is just fine with you?"

"That's not important."

"It's not?"

"No. What's important is that Christopher is doing well and he's happy and we should be happy for him."

"You're impossible. I need to lie down. Tell Christopher – tell him whatever you like, I don't care." With a huff, Emily stormed out of the kitchen, leaving Lorelai stunned.

"Lorelai, have you gotten a heart yet?" Miss Patty asked, holding out the small, heart-filled box in her hand.

Welcome to the annual Stars Hollow Valentine's Day game. Every woman in town was given a fabric heart that was to be pinned to their clothing. If a man asked a woman a question (any question) and she answered him directly, the man got to take her heart away and wear it on his clothing. The man with the most hearts at the end of the night won a gift certificate for a dinner for two, usually picking a girl whose heart he had to dine with him. The man with the least amount of hearts got a rose and a kiss from Miss Patty. That was more of a treat for Patty than anyone. Men with no hearts (no pun intended) were excluded from the competition. Which meant Luke had never been involved in the lunacy. Al had won last year. He posed questions subtly, so that the woman almost had no choice but to answer. That's who Lorelai lost her heart to last year (also no pun intended). Lorelai used to think the whole scenario was fun, like regression to junior high. She could go the entire day without answering questions, which made Michel stark raving mad and Luke rant. This year, however, she was not in the mood for games. This was her year to be miserable, after all.

"I think I want to sit this year out, Patty."

"Oh Lorelai honey, you can't do that. It's tradition. Rory already has hers on." The game had also been a personal one between Lorelai and Rory. The liked to see how long they could hold out before losing their hearts. Lorelai usually won because Rory could easily be tricked.

Patty took out a cloth pink heart and wrote Lorelai's name in loopy cursive with a Sharpie. That was another thing; everyone knew whose hearts the men had managed to snag. Lorelai sighed as a sign of defeat and allowed Patty to pin the heart on her shirt. Luke rolled his eyes as if to say, 'I can't believe you get roped into doing this every year,' and refilled her mug.

"Luke, you better hurry and ask this pretty girl a question or you will never win her heart," Patty said with a wink. It was the age-old play on the town's opinion of Luke's feelings toward her. Lorelai was never convinced that Luke 'had a thing' for her and was always a little uncomfortable when people like Patty, or Babette, or even Sookie made jokes about it. She could almost guarantee that Luke felt the same way.

"Jeez," Luke muttered, turning has back to Patty's eyes that always seemed to be undressing him. Very creepy. Patty gave Luke's rear the once-over, and then raised an eyebrow to Lorelai, clicking her tongue and shaking her head. Luke was probably blushing.

"That woman really unnerves me," Luke mumbled to Lorelai after Patty made her way to another table.

"She thinks you have a nice ass," Lorelai commented.

"Jeez, you're kidding."

"Babette would say otherwise, but she likes her men ass-less. Just look at Morey."

"Can we stop talking about asses?"

"Why, does it make you uncomfortable?" Lorelai realized that she has just answered Luke's question. Well, that was an easy way to get rid of her heart. "Well, Luke Danes, you just made it very easy for me to get out of the heart game."

"What?"

"I just answered your question."

"Terrific. This game is idiotic."

"Oh Lucas, if you reject the heart I am holding in my hands, I would just DIE!" Lorelai said, imitating Scarlett O'Hara in all her hoop-skirted glory. Luke rolled his eyes again.

"I don't want the damn heart."

"I don't want the damn heart either, but someone has to wear it."

"I'm not going to wear it."

"I'm taking it off now," Lorelai took off the pin and held it out to Luke. "See, it's has my pretty name on it and the pink will look good with your skin tone."

"Why don't you just throw it in the trash?"

"Then I wouldn't be playing the game."

"But, you said you didn't want to play this year."

"Well, it suddenly became fun because you don't want to wear my heart that you rightfully won."

"Can't we just forget that this ever happened and you can put the heart back on and lose it to someone else?"

"That is not the point, Luke. I lost, you won, and you have to wear it."

"But, you didn't even want the heart to begin with."

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"You are just trying to irritate and confuse me so I will give up and take the stupid heart from you."

"Is it working?" She asked.

"No."

"Luuuuke." Now it was time to give him her best Bambi eyes and flutter the lashes. Couldn't hurt to stick out her lip.

"No, and stop looking at me like that."

"Makes you want to give up and take the heart, doesn't it?"

"No, I just hate when you give me that look."

"It usually works," she whined.

"I am not about to be a part of this town's lunacy. Pick another guy! Give it to Kirk; he would probably love to have your heart. He might even take you on that date if he wins."

"You are no fun."

"And I have never been mistaken for being fun," Luke responded, walking over to a couple who had just sat down. Lorelai had been distracted long enough by the heart banter that she didn't even notice her mood shift. Luke had cheered her up at bit and Lorelai had never been able to pinpoint why he was always able to. Some people, no matter what mood Lorelai was in, would have that effect on her. It used to be Christopher and his smile that did her in and made any anger she harbored against him melt away. That didn't happen so much anymore, especially now after their fight.

Luke went back behind the counter to fix more coffee, his back to her. Lorelai noticed how his flannel was loosely hanging on his back. Inspiration hit, and she hoped Luke's sixth sense wouldn't kick in as she began to crawl onto the counter. She placed her knees on the table top, as gracefully as any woman in a skirt could. She opened up the safety pin and held it out in front of her until she was merely inches away from Luke's shirt. Very carefully, she attached the pin and closed it. Miraculously, Luke still did not notice that anything was amiss. Also, she managed to find her way back to the stool without toppling over. Lorelai sat very still, picking up her mug and pressing her lips to the ceramic. Luke took the pot and walked over to a table for refills. How in the world did I get away with that? Luke must be off his game. Might be kinda fun to see how long it will take him to notice the heart there. Rory saw what she was doing and caught Lorelai's attention. She put a finger to her lips and walked over to her daughter and Dean. Dean already had Rory's heart pinned proudly to her shirt.

"I think it was a tie this year," Rory said as Lorelai gathered up her coat and purse.

"Yeah, except that your guy actually wants to wear your heart." Did she just inadvertently refer to Luke as 'her guy?' Very weird indeed. Her statement was kind of ironic in itself. It truly reflected her love life right now. She felt as if she handed her heart over to someone, they would reject it, much like Luke had just done a few minutes before. Granted, he rejected her cloth heart, but Lorelai still saw it as a symbol in her own thoughts. Before, she thought that perhaps the Christopher revelation would open new doors for her. Maybe she could finally have a true relationship with a man without feeling guilty that she had just ruined the perfect family image that she had in her head. But now, she had reservations. In its own way, the cloth heart resembled her own hurt heart and she didn't want to force it on anyone. It was better to stay emotionally guarded than to keep getting rejected time and time again. But wasn't I responsible for most of the rejecting?

A/N: Well...well...what do you think? That's all I'm going to post for tonight (or I should say, all I'm going to post in the wee hours of the morning). I have fragments of each remaining chapter done, but they aren't ready to share with you yet. So sorry. In case you were wondering, the heart game was something that happened when I was in high school, so I decided to include it in my story because I remember it being fun. I would love your reviews, feedback, criticism, jokes, funny antedotes, or even just a short note to say hey. Can you tell that I am desparate for attention today? I hope to have more posted soon. Hope it was to your liking!