Disclaimer: ASP and the WB

Dedicated to: As always to lilienprinzessin, who has to put up with my never ending flow of ideas and still finds the time to offer great advice.

Author's note: Thank you sooooo much for your reviews! You made me smile all day. I hope you'll like the new chapter and don't forget to review ;)

Kings and Knights

Emily watched silently as her breath came out of her mouths in frosty clouds. She knew that her condition hadn't improved over the last hours. Breathing was becoming increasingly painful and even though she had little knowledge about medicine she knew that that wasn't a good thing.

She was sure that Lorelai suspected something, but she wasn't going to worry her even more.

"Mom?" Lorelai asked sleepily.

Emily smiled despite her situation. Over the last hours she and her daughter had talked more than they had in the past ten years.

"Yes, dear?"

"We are going to be found, aren't we? I mean, they are searching for us, right?" Lorelai had asked her mother the same question again and again during the last hour, but she needed to hear it again.

"Yes, Lorelai, I am very sure that while we are talking here, your father and Luke are searching for us." It was like a mantra Emily kept repeating over and over again.

Lorelai put her hand on her mothers'. "You are not going to die, are you?"

"What makes you think that?" Emily asked – surprised by the sudden question of her daughter.

"Mum, come on, I am not stupid." Lorelai answered – though she wasn't even sure why she was asking her mother this question.

"No, Lorelai, I do not plan on dying here." Emily replied firmly and hoped that she had sounded convincing.

"That's a good thing, because dad would kill me if you did." Lorelai chuckled softly.

"He would do no such thing, Lorelai! I was the one driving the car against a tree."

"Well, I don't think he'd care, because I would have been the one, who'd let his precious wife die."

Lorelai hoped to get a reply from her mother, but Emily simply smiled.

"Uhm mum, about me and Luke…." Lorelai hesitated for a second. Why was she doing this? Why did she feel the urge to tell her mother about hers and Luke's relationship now?

"Yes?" Emily said while looking at her daughter.

"Do you still want to know about it?" Lorelai prayed that this wasn't her daughter intuition kicking in, telling her that this might be the last chance she'd get to talk to her mother.

Emily simply nodded and waited for her daughter to continue.

"Jackson?"

Jackson was trying to focus on driving, and he really didn't have the nerve to answer one of Kirk's questions. Kirk had been supposed to drive with Morey, but even the calm and relaxed Morey had threatened to strangle Kirk before they had even taken off, so Jackson had offered to take him. Not that he had done it voluntarily, but Sookie had more or less threatened to end their marriage, if he delayed the departure of the search teams any longer.

"Yes Kirk?" Jackson replied grumpily.

"What if they are dead?"

Jackson wished he could have answered the question with a definite "They are not", but he couldn't. He had asked himself the same question already, and the truth was that he didn't know what they were supposed to do then.

"I don't know Kirk, but I am sure they are fine. Frozen stiff maybe, but not dead."

Kirk thought about it for a second. "I really don't want to be the one who finds them, Jackson."

"I am sure you won't be. From the way I see it there's only one road that would have been logical for them to take, and that's the road Luke and Richard have taken."

Luke and Richard had driven in silence during the last ten minutes, both men lost in their own thoughts. Although they had taken Richard's Mercedes, because it was a four wheel drive and had the better tires, it was Luke who was driving it.

Richard had admitted that he wasn't the best driver on snow and the last thing they needed was them having an accident as well. After some hesitation Luke had agreed to drive the car.

"We have to find them!" Luke said out of the blue.

Richard tore his eyes away from the road to look at his future son in law.

"Yes we do."

"No, I mean we really have to find them, because there are a lot of things I have to say to Lorelai, and she needs to hear them…. all of them." Luke didn't know where all this was coming from. Over the past hours he had been able to keep his fears and feelings of guilt to himself and now, suddenly he felt the urge to share all of this with a man, who didn't even like him. Richard had kept silent, sensing that Luke wasn't finished yet.

"I screwed up you know? This is time it was me, who screwed up. Now listen to that, I am ranting like Lorelai." Luke sighed heavily. He felt embarrassed. He should have stayed quiet. He was surprised to hear Richard sighing as well.

"Well, Luke, that would make two of us."

"What do you mean?" Luke had taken his eyes off the road briefly to look at the elder man beside him.

"Let's just say my chances to win the husband of the year award are very slim this year."

"I am sure my story is going to beat yours."

Luke wasn't sure whether he was trying to comfort Lorelai's father or wallowing in his own guilt.

Richard was smiling at Luke. "Well, let's do it this way. We both tell our stories and afterwards decide who is the worst husband or husband to be, and the loser will pay the winner a beer…. or Scotch, in my case."

"This is ridiculous. I hope you know that. We should be focused on finding Lorelai and your wife." Luke said while he was scanning the road for any signs of Emily's car.

"We can do both, Luke. Now, tell your story." Richard answered - his eyes being glued to the road as well.

"Hello? Sookie?" Rory stormed into her mother's house and was glad when Sookie instantly appeared in the door and pulled her into a hug.

"Rory, you're here!"

Rory was looking from Sookie to Ms. Patty, Babette and Lulu, who were all sitting on the couch or the nearby chairs.

"Any news from mum? What happened? Where's Luke?" she asked frantically.

"Woah, slow down, honey. Sit down and we'll tell you everything we know."

Sookie led Rory to the couch, where Ms. Patty and Babette proceeded to crash her with their hugs.

"Ugh, air…. Help," she mumbled.

AsRory was finally able to free herself from Ms. Patty and Babette she listened with increasing worry as Sookie told her everything about her mother's and grandmother's disappearance and how Luke and her grandfather and all the others were now trying to find them.

"They will find them, right?" Rory asked and couldn't help the tears welling up in her eyes.

"Of course they will, doll. You know your mum, she's a fighter! And that Emily, someone who drinks that much rum can't be taken down by something like an accident," Babette explained in her unique way and Rory was desperate to believe her.

"…. so to sum up my story: I have a daughter, whom I didn't even know about, whom I didn't tell Lorelai about and as if I hadn't been a great enough jerk, I also postponed our wedding." Luke finished his tale.

"Well son, you sure know how to screw up." Richard said quietly.

Luke nodded and then turned to Richard. "Try to compete against that. What did you do?"

Richard sighed heavily. "I basically told my wife that I think her life is frivolous and meaningless and gave her the feeling that she is a complete failure as a mother."

"I didn't know you could be like that." Luke said with huge eyes.

With that both men fell silent again and resumedstaring at the road.

"And then Luke agreed to postpone the wedding, which makes me… not mad, but disappointed somehow."

Lorelai carefully looked at her mother and awaited her reaction. Never before had she opened up so much towards her mother and now she was afraid that it had been a great mistake. She knew that her mother hated Luke, and she blamed it on her concussion that she was trying to get some sympathy from her mother.

Emily was thinking hard about what to say. Even though she understood her daughter's heartache, she couldn't get over the fact that they were talking about Luke. A man she considered highly inappropriate for her daughter and whom she secretly was jealous of.

The awkward silence between Lorelai and her mother was suddenly broken by the sound of a distant car engine.

"Mom, there's a car coming! There's a car! Turn on the lights, they'll be able to see us better then!"

Emily quickly obeyed and hoped with every fibre of her being that their martyrdom was finally coming to an end.

Richard instantly spotted the faint light. "Luke, over there!"

Luke noticed it, too, and sped up. When they reached the car, their Mercedes came to a screeching halt and both men practically jumped out of it. Emily's car was heavily damaged, the front was minimized to half of its' original length and both men dreaded the sight they might find inside.

Richard instantly hurried to Emily's side as Luke ran over to Lorelai.

"Emily." Richard tried to hide the panic he was feeling as he looked at his extremely pale wife, after he had ripped open her door.

Emily smiled at him gently. "I am fine Richard, it looks worse than it is. You have to help Lorelai."

Richard looked over to where Luke was pressing Lorelai to him tightly.

"Don't worry love, Lorelai is being taken care of," he assured her.

Emily turned her head and for a moment took in the reunion of her daughter and Luke. She felt Richard's hand on her back and turned to him once more.

"Come on up Emily, we will bring you to the hospital."

Emily nodded and allowed Richard to help her out of the car. All the tension and worry of the past hours were leaving her as she watched how Luke was carefully guiding Lorelai to the car. He had his arm protectively draped over her shoulder to steady her.

As she felt all the stress of the past hours leaving her body, she also felt exhaustion taking over. Emily tried to hide the fact that breathing was becoming increasingly difficult for her again, but after three steps she had to give up.

Richard had his arm draped over his wife's back so that he could support her while walking to the car. When her legs started to give away under her body, he reacted quickly and was able to catch her, before Emily could hit the frozen ground.

"Emily!" Richard called frantically.

Luke, who had just helped Lorelai into the passenger seat, whirled around. He instantly realized what had happened and opened the door for his future father-in-law.

Richard scooped Emily up in his arms and hurried to the car.

"We'll have to hurry," he said helplessly as he gently put his wife into the car, and then got in at the other side.

"Don't worry, we'll be at the hospital in no time," Luke answered, trying to sound reassuring – but the truth was that he wasn't able to tell how long they'd need for the ride.

Lorelai was deeply worried, she had suspected that her mother was more seriously hurt than she had admitted, but she hadn't been able to help her. She looked into the rear mirror and saw how her father was gently holding his barely conscious wife, who was leaning against him. He was whispering reassuring things into her ear and now and then he kissed her head softly. Lorelai was able to see the tears in her father's eyes.

"Drive faster, Luke, please drive faster." Lorelai urged quietly.

Luke was just about to reply that he couldn't do that because of the snow and the ice, but when he too looked into the rear mirror, he put his foot down on the gas.

When they arrived at the hospital fifteen minutes later, Luke was afraid to get out of the car, because his legs were shaking badly. He had driven like a madman, and more than once had he thought he would lose control over the car. He hurried over to Lorelai's side to help her out of the car. Richard was already carrying Emily into the Emergency room, where he instantly caught the attention of a doctor.

"What happened?" The young doctor asked as he ordered two male nurses to get a stretcher.

"My wife and daughter were in a car accident," Richard explained as he put Emily on the stretcher, while Lorelai was helped into a wheel chair by Luke.

Both men watched helplessly as the two women they loved were being taken away. They continued to stand in the middle of the corridor for another five minutes, both lost in their thoughts. After some time Luke put his hand on Richard's shoulder, and both men went over to two chairs and allowed themselves to fall into them.

"They are going to be fine," Luke offered helplessly, but he only got a silent nod in return.

"Jesus!" Luke suddenly exclaimed as he jumped out of the chair. "We forgot to tell the others. I am going to call Rory." With that he hurried outside.

Richard was left sitting in the corridor alone. He was unable to get the images of his wife out of his head. What if she died? What if Lorelai, too was severely hurt? What would he do? He put his head into his hands and closed his eyes.

He opened them again when he suddenly heard a commotion around him. Looking around he saw doctors and nurses hurrying to the ward where Emily and Lorelai had just been brought into. He felt sick to the bone as everything inside of him clenched painfully. He got up to see what was going on, and ran right into Luke.

"What is going on?" Luke asked, worried by Richard's look.

When Richard didn't answer, but continued to hurry into the direction where the doctors had gone, Luke ran after him: "Richard, what the hell is wrong?"

Richard stopped in front of the doors, and looked inside: "Some sort of alarm went off in there….. I thought that…. maybe….. ," he wasn't able to finish the sentence.

That's it for today, but the new chapter will be up soon. Let me know what you think.