As she walked back from the diner, her mind was racing. We aren't going to survive this? I'm not going to survive this. Why did I have to actually love him? If I didn't love him then this would have been so much easier…well…not really…I don't even know what to do with myself next. Is he going to want to talk to me? Do I want to try if he wants to try?

FLASHY

She closed the door after getting over the initial shock of him being here. The shock of him being here, kissing her again. God, I love him. I love him. He didn't even have to say anything to me, and that was totally fine…I missed this so much.

"I missed you. I've never really missed somebody before." he says, finally breaking for air.

"Well, I hear that you haven't had much company aside from Kirk since you have decided to char everything that you cook."

"That and the fact that anybody that comes into the diner usually has some sort of annoying habit that makes me kick them out."

"You haven't kicked me out once."

"Yeah, well I love you."

She leans in to kiss him, meeting his lips with hers softly, not as demanding as their first exchange. Breathless at the meaning behind the delicate caress she leans her forehead against his. Finally…why do I feel like this every time I'm with him. All I can think is…finally. Finally someone that I could see myself being with the rest of my life.

"Luke…?"

"I know, we need to talk…."

She pulls him by the arm to sit on the couch in her living room. Once there, not wanting to break contact after being apart for this time, she puts her hand in his, a question in her eyes.

"What made you come?"

"Please don't freak out, but your mom came by the diner tonight…I was going to come and talk to you anyways, but she just made me realize that I wanted to do it as soon as possible."

Annoyed, but not completely angry, she asks, "What did she say to you?"

"That she couldn't control it, but you chose me."

"Well, I'm glad that she finally got that through her head."

"Did you?"

"What?"

"Choose me?"

"Luke, it wasn't me…it was some strange fate that brought me to you. Ever since we got together, there has been no need to choose. I've just known that you were it." Let's see if that little confession makes him run or not.

"Lorelai, I love you, you know that don't you?"

"Yes, I do…"

"I'm sorry for everything that happened…I should have let you explain, and I should have known that your mother was behind this whole Christopher thing from the start."

"I don't think that you have fully experienced the complete and utter terror of Emily Gilmore yet, Luke"

"Well, I'm sure that in our many years I will finally get to see the entire wrath."

"Our many years?"

"Yes, our many years…"

I hope he means what I think that he means with that, because I really don't feel like going anywhere from this point on. I don't want to leave his side for anything. If we can get through something like Emily and Christopher, we can get through anything.

END FLASHY

Wasn't I naïve? We could get through anything, yeah, until someone found out that they had a twelve year old daughter and didn't want their future wife to have any part of it.

She continued walking, hugging herself in the cooler spring night. Subconsciously, she was walking slowly, waiting for Luke to follow her, and come running out of the diner screaming that he loved her and wanted to marry her first thing tomorrow morning, no matter what. It seemed to take her so much longer to get back home.

When she reaches the front porch, Rory is still sitting on the porch, awaiting her mother's arrival.

"Will you sit with me for a minute?"

"Rory…I really just want-" I have a headache and I want to go to bed.

"I know, I just…I was thinking…and I don't want to wait. I don't understand this…I mean, I do, but I don't get why it has to come down to you breaking it off completely."

Plopping herself down in frustration, she turns and faces her daughter with a huff, "Rory, I don't need you to understand this, because it's not you. It isn't your life."

"Dammit Mom!" she nearly screams, standing up and pacing.

Shocked by her outburst, she replies in a voice louder than necessary, "Rory!"

"No…I have always somehow understood all of your stupid little breakups over the years, and your inability to commit. I understood why you left Max, even if I didn't get it at the time, but this isn't about that anymore. I just don't get it! I know that you're hurt, and I know that Luke has been less than perfect lately, but he loves you, and you love him." she pauses, taking a few breathes. "I'm not saying that this is enough, but you have NEVER said that to a man before! EVER! This is LUKE, Mom, and the minute he starts to make you feel uncomfortable, you start making excuses, and turn into someone that I don't even know. And now, you're running away from it? If it was you, you would have at least been at the diner right now screaming at him. The things that you care about you don't take the easy way out of, and you LOVE Luke. I don't understand this."

"You don't have to understand it Rory!" she yells back.

"Do you?"

"Do I what?"

"Do you understand why you did what you just did?"

This causes her to falter. She looks up at her daughter, not believing that they were having this fight. This is the easy way out of this. Luke won't have to deal with it anymore. I…she's right. When have I ever taken the easy way out?

Finally, her head sinks down, and her shoulders begin to shake. Sobs envelop her body, and for a few moments, all she can bear to do is cry.

After a few minutes, sitting down opposite her daughter, she looks up for a moment to allow a strangled "No…but I had to do it."

"If it doesn't make sense to you, then don't you think it's a mistake? You need to at least talk to him about it, like really talk to him about it."

"Rory, I can't face him right now. Not after what I told him, and not after giving that ring back."

"You know as well as I do, that Luke is in his apartment right now, trying to figure out why you gave him that ring back, he is as confused as you are, so you need to talk to him. You never do things easy mom, and I love you for it. So… make this hard."

As she sits there, wiping the tears from her cheeks, she realizes that Rory is right. She has always confronted people about things, she has surpassed the odds and chosen the path less traveled. I have to do this. I have to talk to him. If I really love him that much, then I would talk to him about this, I wouldn't just give him the ring back and ditch him. Not Luke…he's…Luke.

Without another word, she stands up, ready to face him. What if he doesn't want me back. What if I can't do this?

"He loves you. He will always love you and need you."

No, I shouldn't do this right now…I can't do this right now.

"Tomorrow, Rory. I need to think about this, and if Luke loves me this much, then he'll be there waiting."

She walks back into the house leaving Rory behind on the porch.

Walking up to her bedroom again, she stops at the doorway, looking around at what they did to the house. He knew that I wanted to be here. He wanted to be here too. He wanted this, so why did he forget about it?

Exhausted, she lays down in bed, falling asleep almost instantly, not knowing that a certain flannel clad diner owner had made his way to the house, and was now talking to her daughter downstairs.

A few hours later she wakes to voices below her window, which was cracked because of the warming spring air. Who is that? Rory? Who is she talking to? After looking at the time, she gets up, trying to hear what is going on. She puts an ear to the open window to listen to the conversation on her porch.

"Luke, it isn't hopeless…you two are so in love with each other that I think it is worse than when you weren't together!" Rory says with a quick laugh in his direction.

"What do you mean?"

"When you guys weren't together, like a long time before you weren't together we saw how you were with each other. Sookie and I were constantly telling mom that she needed to open her eyes and realize that you were right there. And now… you're both too blind to realize that you love each other so much that you won't be able to be without each other…it's stupid."

Lorelai hears Luke let out a small laugh at Rory's comment.

"What?"

"What you said, I got that a lot too…"

What? "What?"

"Jess…Rachel…Liz…you name the person and you've got somebody that told me that I was helplessly in love with your mother before we were together."

How did I not know this? Rachel? I could see Jess and Liz saying something to him, but his girlfriend?

"Well, I'm glad that you had someone telling you that all along… I just don't know why it still took you guys so long."

"Your mother and I are two very stubborn people Rory, and we have both had an interesting track record with our relationships. It was easier to watch her from afar because then it wasn't really getting my heart involved and I could be there for her whenever she needed it."

"And now?"

"Now…I don't know."

"Do you love her, Luke?" Please say yes.

"How could I not love her, it's….Lorelai."

"Then why…"

"I don't know what happened. She was so upset about the two of you and what was going on that we didn't set a wedding date. Then out of nowhere I find out that I have April, and you and your mom finally come to your senses about each other. I couldn't spring that on her. I put it off too long."

"Yeah, you probably did, but what about after that Luke, what happened after that? She knew and she wanted to be supportive. I don't get why you wouldn't let her!"

"Rory, your mother is an amazing woman, but I know that she would have freaked out if all the sudden she found out that she was going to have to play stepmom to another kid after finally getting you out of the house."

"Regardless of that, she would have been playing mom soon enough anyways." she says quietly, not really knowing what Luke's reaction to her mother's news was.

"I wish I would have known…"

"Yeah, so do I, but mom has to do things in her own time, you know that."

There was a few minutes of complete silence as they both contemplated the situation.

Why is it so quiet? What's happening?

"Rory, I wanted it so bad…your mom probably doesn't think so because of my previous rantings on children, but I wanted it. Until April came along, I knew that your mom was the one that I wanted to be the mother of any child that I was going to have."

Why did I wait to tell him? If I would have told him, maybe things would have been different. In the very least he could have helped me get through what was happening.

"Luke, my mom has always talked about getting her middle…her perfect picture. I'm positive that you are the one that is supposed to give that to her. I'm glad that you're the one who is going to give that to her."

"Well…"

"Luke, you just have to give it time. You'll get to be her middle, I'm sure of it."

"Yeah…Should I…?" he says, and then Lorelai imagines that he is gesturing in the general direction of the house, and waits for Rory's response as to what he should be doing.

"No…not yet. She'll come to you eventually."

"Yeah, well, I worry about eventually. That's what got me in trouble this time."

"Luke, go home and sleep. It will be okay."

He doesn't say anything else, but she hears his footsteps on the porch as he starts to walk back to the diner. She watches him walk away, allowing her memories to get the best of her, and doesn't notice that Rory has taken up residence at her door frame.

FLASHY

Did he just ask me out? I said that I would go to the movies with Luke on Sunday…as a date? Am I dating Luke? Do I want to be dating Luke?

After standing with her mouth opened in surprise for a good thirty seconds, she calms herself down my sitting on the porch steps. Her eyes drift to where he is walking away from her house.

He can waltz. Luke can waltz. That was awesome, and while it was weird for a few seconds at the beginning because of the fact that I thought he didn't know how to dance, it ended up being so…so…right.

Watching him walk away gives her the chance to replay the wedding in her head. She thinks of the way his hand grasped hers, the feel of his firm shoulder beneath her hand, how she could smile and laugh at him with ease, and how right it really did feel.

He walked me home and he asked me to a movie…could I…

Her thoughts are interrupted when she notices that he has turned in his walk back to glance back at her house. He smiles and waves in her general direction, as she sits and wonders if she could really date him.

Luke…he can waltz…he loves my daughter…he probably loves me…he's Luke…and I think that I'm dating him. And I think that I'm totally okay with that.

With this, she smiles and walks in the house, immediately venturing up to her room to change. She takes the wreath out of her hair and throws it onto her dresser, assuring herself that she'll find a place for it in the morning. As she sits down on the bed to take off her shoes, she notices the sure beginning of a blister on her foot.

She smiles. Well worth it.

END FLASHY

The last time I watched him walk away from this house was so much more simple. It was the beginning of our relationship, and I had no clue as to what was going to happen. Now look at me…

"Mom?"

"I see you had a visitor." she says, turning towards her daughter.

"He wanted to talk to you, but I told him that you needed time and he needed time."

"Yeah, I heard."

Her eyes open a bit wider realizing that Lorelai had heard it all. "It's okay Rory, you can talk to Luke all you want. I can't…" she pauses, trying to formulate ideas in her head. "I just can't believe how right you guys were all those years. To know that he was dealing with the same thing. And…the stuff about a family…I didn't really think about Luke in the situation, I just automatically thought that it was my issue and not our issue. I didn't tell him because I thought that it would save him some freak out and some hardship. I did a real good job, cause I ended up hurting him anyways."

"Mom, I'm not the one that needs to hear all of this, am I?"

Lorelai stands up from where she was watching him walk away. Walking over to Rory, she waits silently for a sign that tells her to go talk to him. As she looks into the eyes of her daughter, Rory pulls something out from behind her back. A small velvet box.

Before Lorelai can ask, Rory interjects, "You obviously didn't hear the whole conversation. He said that you are the only person that should have it and he's not going to let you give it back to him."

That's the sign that I need. I have to see him now. I want this to be fixed…I hope that this can be fixed.

She grabs the box from Rory and quickly walks down the stairs. Rory watches as her mother almost jogs to Luke's, smiling because she knows that it will all work out.

Yet another chapter done. I hope that you like the next one, cause I think that is going to be good… I know that I've been making all this kinda sad… but I thought that it would be good. Seeing as I'm in a really bad mood since the finale, I might let my frustration out in my fics, so I apologize in advance. Anyone else upset? Anyways… thank you for reading!