Handle With Care

Lorelai sat cross-legged on the couch, staring down into her longneck beer, waiting for Luke to show up. She couldn't remember the last time she'd drank a Corona, but she had stopped by Doose's on her way home and it was all that he'd had so she'd bought a six pack and come home. She had known she didn't have any beer in the house, and figured that they'd probably need some to get everything they needed to say out. She knew she would at least.

She took a sip and sat the bottle down on the table and wiped her hands on her pants. She had just stood up to go to the bathroom when she heard a faint knock at the door. She figured it was Luke, and upon opening the door she discovered she was right. She ushered him in and excused herself to go to the bathroom but told him to get a beer out of the fridge, and she'd be back in a second.

He took a seat on the couch after grabbing a beer out of the fridge. He couldn't remember the last time he'd had a Corona, nor could he remember Lorelai ever drinking Corona for as long as he'd known her. She'd always been a Heineken kind of woman, and if not a Heineken she'd drank Bud Light, or whatever he'd had in his fridge…but never Corona.

He looked up when he heard her feet shuffle on the floorboards. She was staring at her sock-clad feet and fiddling with the drawstring on the sweatpants she'd changed into. He moved over to one side of the couch and she crossed the room and sat down opposite him against the arm of the couch.

Awkward silence ensued.

I have no idea how to start. I don't know what to say. How do I tell him what happened and how sorry I am for shutting him out without it sounding completely and totally stupid? Beer. Beer will help.

She reached across and picked up her beer and took another sip. She licked a stray drop off her lips and then traced the label with her finger.

She looked up and her eyes were full of tears threatening to spill over.

No. I'm not going to fucking cry…yet.

Her eyes drifted towards the ceiling and he could tell she was collecting herself, and trying to keep her tears from spilling down her cheeks before she could talk. He took the incentive and spoke first, uncertain of what to say but talking none the less.

"Lorelai, I…"

"No, wait. Let me talk first. I'm ready now." She paused and glanced down at her beer, took a sip, and then put it on the table and clasped her hands in her lap. "Luke I'm sorry. I've never had something go this wrong in my life and had someone to turn to when it happened. I didn't know what to do. I got scared. I was hurting and all I wanted to do was cry, and know why, and probably hit something hard. Have a real M'Lynn moment and just hit something until it felt as bad as I did. I've lost things before, but never something I wanted as bad as I wanted this…that baby. I've never lost something that was such a part of me, lost as in I could never get it back no matter how hard I tried. I just, I shut down. I shut down and I shut everyone out because I didn't think anyone could make me feel any better or relate to me. I was wrong. I was so fucking wrong I couldn't take looking at myself and I know I was just a complete and total asshole by blocking you of all people out." She breathed out and took a long sip of beer. Her entire little monologue she'd just so…oddly…delivered had taken her a good ten minutes to get out and Luke was now staring at her. Intently and almost frighteningly.

"Lorelai. I didn't come for an apology. Maybe I did, and God I believe you when you say you're sorry. But I want you to know there's nothing in this world that could happen to you that you couldn't talk to me about. ESPECIALLY this, God, this has been just as hard on me as it was on you. That baby was just as much mine as it was yours, and that may sound like an asshole thing to say but it's true. I was hurting emotionally just as much as you were, the only thing you had on me was that you had the physical pain and I just had the emotional hurt. I felt like that got ignored, and maybe it did and for good reason because I don't blame you for needing you time. I expected it. But God. Do you know how much it hurt to hear about how you hadn't left the house in a couple days, or to hear from Sookie how awful things had been at work and how bad you looked and being berated by people because they thought we'd broken up again? It was terrible. I know it sounds really selfish for me to just be talking about me right now, but I don't know what else to say. We are supposed to be a team Lorelai, a team. That's two people, not just one. We've managed to survive so much crap in the time we've been together that's been no fault of our own and it's made us stronger as people and stronger together. This is just one more thing that we've got to buckle down and get through together, okay? I want to be here, if you're hurting I want to try to make it better and if I can't I just want to hold you while you cry or while you're hurting or angry or confused or whatever it may be. I want to be here Lorelai. I want to be with you. I need you."

I think that's the most I've ever heard him say at once at a non ranting speed. Lorelai thought, a small smile playing at the corner of her lips.

"I need you too. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to shut you out. I shut down and when I did I didn't think. That's my biggest character flaw. I'm sorry." She said, looking down at her now almost empty beer and finishing off the last of it before looking back up at him. He reached out and took one of her hands in his, and looked down at how well they fit together, his large tanned and callused and hers smaller pale and refined like a lady's hands. He looked back up at her.

"Let's try and get past this. We can do it. Let's keep going." He said, rubbing the back of her hand with his thumb.

The tears that had been threatening to fall down her cheeks for the past half hour finally poured down her pale cheeks and made wet spots on her sweatpants. She raised her eyes back up to his and smiled.

"Okay." She whispered. He immediately enveloped her in a hug. And like so many other times in their relationship, that was all she needed. They sat there, locked in that embrace as close as they could to each other for what seemed like forever. They only realized the time when Lorelai's stomach gave a distinct rumble as they lay on the couch, her face buried into his chest. She giggled and it vibrated against his chest and stomach.

"Lets get some food in you."

"Coffee?" she asked, her big blue eyes pleading.

"Of course." He replied kissing the tip of her nose. He stood up and pulled her up with him.

"I need to change and take a shower before we go anywhere. Can you wait here?" she asked.

"I'm not going anywhere." He replied, sitting back down and picking up the remote control.

Lorelai looked at herself in the mirror closely for the first time in two weeks. She desperately needed a hair cut, and her faint tan was now completely gone. Ugh, I look like a ghost. I dunno how Rory pulls it off. She fluffed her hair and went downstairs, feeling brand new…well improved if not brand new.

Luke smiled as she came down the stairs. That was the Lorelai he knew and loved. Her eyes shone and she was wearing his favorite jeans. His heart sank a little when he realized why she was and could wear them again, but he smiled anyway. They'd probably both still hurt for a while, but the worst was over and the best was yet to come.

A/N:

Okay, I know you're all thinking…"What? No makeup sex? I'm disappointed!". I felt like in this chapter, and I apologize for it being short by the way, that sex would be the easy way out and that if the situation was in real life that a couple that had just gone through a miscarriage wouldn't jump right back in the sack. Who knows when I'll have them get into the smuttiness again, it probably wont be too terribly long but I guess you'll just have to keep reading and reviewing to find out now wont you? Also, I took the opportunity to explore the sensitive side of Luke that I don't think gets shown enough on the show ever. I think he's got a very sensitive side and that shows in some of the things he's said to Lorelai. It may seem out of character, but I don't care. It's my story and I'll write sensitive Luke how I want to.

I'm so proud of myself for getting two chapters out in a week, shows I have nothing better to do.

ONLY A WEEK TIL THE PREMIERE! AHHHH! So excited.