AN: A mini-chapter addition to the last chapter.


Chapter 117

June 1st, 2006

"What's going on with you?" Rory asked her mother, having just used her to vent about Logan having just left for London seven hours ago and how she was feeling down.

"Oh. With me?" Lorelai said avoidantly. "Oh, well, things with me - things with me are good," she added, her tone sounding anything but good.

"Convincing," Rory said, noticing the sadness in her voice.

"Things with me… friends are good. Things with me….the inn is good. Things with me… not so good," Lorelai listed.

"What's up?," Rory asked.

"Look I don't want to talk about this, but I want to tell you. I have to tell, but I'm barely holding it together as it is. So if I tell, will you promise not to make me discuss it?" Lorelai insisted.

"What?" Rory asked.

"Luke and I split up," Lorelai confessed.

"What do you mean, like you got into a fight?" Rory asked, not quite following.

"No, we had a breakup, a real-life parting of the hearts," Lorelai said, her look speaking of desperation.

"Why? What happened?" Rory couldn't help herself.

"Rory, you promised!" Lorelai begged.

"No, I didn't," she argued.

"Well it was implied. Please," Lorelai continued to plead.

"Mom!" Rory objected.

"I don't want to talk about it," she replied.

"But you have to explain," Rory demanded.

"No, not right now, okay?" Lorelai begged, doing what she so often did in cases where it just hurt too much. It was so similar with Max, it was like that with Luke the first time around too.


January 23rd, 2022

"What do you mean if he's coming home?" Rory asked, after a stretch of silence, taking in her mother's words concerning Luke. The seniors and the other teacher had headed off, thankfully, giving them their privacy.

"It's not definite… maybe it's not an if but rather a when… or maybe it's not...I don't know…," Lorelai said, evasively.

"Explain!" Rory demanded, tiptoeing around her mother a lot less than she would back in 2006.

"We were just at the hospital cafeteria the other day… I was getting some coffee and he was getting us pasta or something… and there was just this moment. Some guy with a big tray full of meals was walking past me and I guess didn't notice him and I was about to crash into him," Lorelai began to explain. "Luke tried to stop that from happening and I guess he grabbed me to stop me, it was perfectly innocent… and I just flinched. I flinched like I'd been just held at gunpoint or something just cut into my skin… I dropped all the coffe, ruined by jeans... my shoes, Luke's hospital slippers... My mind just flashed back to that night when he trashed the kitchen… I was still shaking minutes later," Lorelai explained, fighting her tears by looking up. She really hadn't planned on crying at Chilton dining hall, a car would have surely been the better choice in this case. She blew some air upwards onto her eyes, and managed to keep the tears away by breathing rapidly.

"Oh wow..," Rory exhaled.

"And it wasn't even me telling him that I need space, or that I don't feel safe around him…," Lorelai blabbered. "...which I guess is kind of true," she added. "But that's not what marriage is about, is it? It's in sickness and in health, right?" she added.

"So Luke suggested he not come home?" Rory reflected, sensing already that Lorelai was going through a major guilt trip along with various conflicting feelings.

"Yeah - he said he's willing to give me space, all the space and time that I need. That he doesn't want to be there if he has to see me so afraid all the time. And the thing that's wrong with him, it's not something they can cure. He's going to live with it and keep it under wraps essentailly. It can just come up again if he's not careful or his metabolism starts working slower which it does with old age anyways… So it's about me flinching, being scared of my husband, about him not trusting himself," Lorelai continued, adding a lengthy explanation on how Luke was never really one for couples therapy and neither was she, and the less than successful experiences she'd had with her former therapists. She sounded hopeless, like she didn't know what the solution could even be. "So all I can hope is that with time…," Lorelai exhaled deeply. There were also issues concerning Luke's relationship with Em but those remained in the background for now.

"Well, I'm here for whatever you need, okay?" Rory assured her, not really knowing how to solve a situation like that. She almost was willing to suggest that they had enough space in the house if she needed a safe place to stay, but knew better than to offer it, knowing Lorelai really didn't want to move nor did she herself really want to live with her mother again unless it was an emergency. Besides, Lorelai had been back in her house, and the house didn't seem to be the issue. Still, Rory worried about her.

"I know," Lorelai sighed.

"You should've seen Shira's forehead tough - so tight you could just bounce quarters off of it," Rory said after a few mouthfuls, needing to lighten the mood. The diversion was well appreciated. Lorelai had needed to tell her, but she hadn't needed to go into the depths of it. She wasn't ready for it.