Disclaimer: It's a good thing they're not mine, because if this had happened after the second episode it wouldn't have left us with much of a show.

Author's Note: I apologize for the long wait before bringing you the final piece of this story. I got sucked into post-finale angst, but this was a nice break from the sadness. Thanks again to Bridges and Lula Bo for the fantabulous beta skills. I hope you all like this final part.


Epilogue – Six days later

A few days had passed since Luke had shown up on Lorelai's doorstep with dinner and a movie and had left with a kiss and plans to make her dinner. Unfortunately, Caesar had asked for the weekend off, so they'd had to put off their dinner until early the following week. It was a bit of a relief; as eager as Luke was to have a second chance for a first date with Lorelai, he wanted to give her a little time to get used to the idea before they dove back in again.

Because as much as she seemed happy about being together, there was still a little nervousness, a little hesitation. It was similar enough to her post-horrible-date behavior to set off alarm bells. On the other hand, they were good friends starting to date and of course there would be a little awkwardness. Even he'd been having a trouble shifting gears and thinking of Lorelai as the woman he was dating.

Like the way that she'd give him little touches on his arm when they were talking or grab his hand to get his attention. She'd made it seem so natural that he'd started to wonder if she'd been doing that ever since he had known her and was only noticing it now, or if it was something new. Whatever it was, he had definitely noticed it now, and every time he felt the warmth of her fingers on his or slight pressure of her hand on his arm through his flannel, he'd felt a little jolt of optimism that soothed his uneasiness.

Then sometimes he just thought they were both trying too hard: those moments when they were comfortably teasing each other, just as they'd always done, until one or the other of them would suddenly seem to realize that the casual flirting had now taken on a whole new meaning. After awkward stretches of staring and a few stumbling attempts to maintain the banter, the moments of comfort would have passed and they would be right back into awkward pre-second-first-date mode.

So, for the last few days, he'd vacillated between real concern about what her behavior meant and chastising himself for worrying too much. But most of the time he'd just tried to enjoy the fact that she'd been at the diner, sometimes with Rory and sometimes alone. And that when she'd stayed late after closing one night, he'd been able to kiss her good night before she'd slipped out the door to head home.

On the day of their dinner, she showed up mid-afternoon for a coffee fix, lingering over it for a couple of refills. She gave him easy, animated smiles, and since the diner was fairly quiet, she regaled him with stories of the goings-on at the inn.

When Miss Patty came up to the register to pay her bill, she said, "Well, it's nice you two have gotten over your fight and are getting along so well these days." She glanced pointedly at both of them and Luke watched as Lorelai averted her eyes and her cheeks flushed pink.

Lorelai stammered, "We…we weren't fighting. We were-"

Patty cut her off, "Honey, you call it what you like, but we all know that if you don't stop in here at least once a day then all is not right in the world."

"I was just busy at the inn."

"If you say so, dear. I'm just glad to see the two of you looking so friendly again." Before either of them could respond, Patty continued, "Well, I've got to get back to the studio. The little ballerinas are going to be showing up any minute."

Luke saw Lorelai watching as Patty exited, then turning around as the bell signaled the door closing behind her. Lorelai's brow wrinkled and she looked at him with the beginnings of a frown. "Luke, could I talk to you for a minute? In the back or something?"

"Sure," he said, hiding the concern he felt about the worried look on her face. Lorelai slipped off her stool and he led the way back to the storeroom. Once inside, he turned to face her just as she eased the door closed.

They stood and stared at each other for a brief moment before she looked down, seemingly studying her latest manicure carefully. She finally let out a sigh and looked back up at him, asking nervously, "Do they know?" He gave her a blank look and she clarified, "Does the town…do they know that we're…whatever we're doing?"

"I don't think so," he said slowly. "I haven't said anything."

"Well, neither have I, except when I talked to Rory about it, but Patty sure seemed to be hinting." Lorelai went back to examining her fingernails for a moment. Still looking down, she said softly, "I don't think I want them to know." She lifted her head. "I mean, at least not yet."

He nodded, trying not to read too much into her words.

"I just think that they'll make a big deal about it and try to make us king and queen of the pumpkin festival or something."

Luke had to smile at the thought, because the town really was that ridiculous, though he couldn't help but be uneasy about her reluctance to tell people about their relationship. It fed the uncertainty that he'd been carrying around with him for the last several days. At the same time though, he worried about overreacting and pushing her too quickly, so he buried his fears and said gently, "Lorelai, it's okay."

"Yeah?" she asked, giving a small, relieved smile.

"You really think I want the town to know all about my personal life?"

"No, I guess not. So, that's settled then?"

"I guess so."

"And we're good?" she asked, reaching to hold his fingers lightly in hers.

"We're good," he said, very conscious of the warmth of her fingertips. He slipped his hand more firmly around hers, running his thumb across the back of her hand.

Lorelai glanced around the room and then back at Luke, with a mischievous grin, "You know, as long as we're alone…" She leaned in and kissed him soundly, palming his face with her free hand. She pulled back, still smiling. "You've been holding out on me."

"What?"

"We had a couple of really nice kisses at my house, made plans for another date-like activity, and yet since then I've gotten almost no action, buster."

"Action?" he asked, dumbfounded. She nodded, and he sputtered. "I've been…I was trying…"

"I know…but don't."

"Don't?" he asked, understanding taming his astonishment.

"Right," she confirmed, resting her hand heavily on his chest and sliding it up toward his shoulder.

"So, what you're trying to say…" Luke lifted the hand that wasn't wrapped around her fingers up to the back of her head, "is that you want some action?"

She laughed. "I think you've got the right idea." She mumbled the last words against his lips, as she leaned the full length of her body into him.

The sensation of having Lorelai's lips, breasts and hips pressed into him, of having her arm tighten around him made him temporarily forget where he was. Before he knew it, he had her pushed up against the back of the door as he returned her kisses insistently.

He moved to trail kisses down her neck and heard her whisper, "Now that's more like it."

The words brought him back to the present and reminded him where they were. He blinked a few times and finally got out, "I've got to, uh, get back to the diner."

He could see her setting up for a big pout, the corners of her mouth turning down just so, but then she sighed and said, "Well, I guess tonight we'll just have to pick up where we left off." She turned to leave, then stopped with her hand on the door handle. "Okay?"

"Sounds good," he answered, wondering for a moment how they'd gotten from talking about her concerns to full-on making out in what seemed like seconds.


Later, when Lorelai arrived for dinner, she was dressed casually but he could see the little hints that told him she'd put some effort into her appearance. She wore jewelry and make up, as well as a hint of perfume. Her hair was styled differently than it had been earlier in the day, and she'd changed into a sweater that settled around her curves perfectly. Though he liked to think that none of that mattered to him, he was pleased to see the care that she'd taken. Even the fact that she arrived within a couple of minutes of the time they'd arranged made him feel that she cared about the impression she made.

He had himself debated what to wear, finally trading his flannel for a dark green shirt and changing into his newest pair of jeans. After a moment of staring once she walked in, he realized he must look like a foolish teenager, just standing there, so he smiled and said, "Hey."

"Hey." They stared at each other for a minute and he wondered if she was having the same mental debate he was – whether they were at the kissing-hello stage yet.

She clarified the situation by grabbing his hand and leaning in to give him a quick peck on the cheek. Then she pulled back, smiling. "It smells great in here. Almost like you're cooking real food."

"Real food?" he asked, eyebrows raised.

"You know. Not burgers."

"Ah. Well, you have burgers all the time."

"You know," she started, "you've got real food, the table's set so nicely – and, are those wine glasses?" She tipped her head slightly to the side and quirked her mouth into a grin. "One might think that you were trying to impress me."

"Really? Well, is it working?"

"I don't know," she teased. "There's a noticeable lack of candles."

He laughed, continuing the joke. "I didn't want to go over the top."

Her expression softened. "It's perfect. And seriously, what are you cooking? It really smells fabulous."

"Lasagna, garlic bread, roasted asparagus, salad," he said, ticking them off in his head as he spoke, "and cheesecake for dessert." He saw her eyes light up with the mention of dessert, so he added, "with raspberries and chocolate sauce."

"Yep, definitely impressed."

Dinner passed fairly quickly and though not completely smoothly, they were at least more comfortable in their awkwardness. They acknowledged the little lulls, the occasional times that they didn't quite know what to say next and at the same time didn't know how to be together without conversation. Between the two of them, there seemed to be a determination to get their fledgling relationship through the night in one piece.

And in the comfortable moments, the ones that came more and more frequently as the night went on, she confided her fears about Rory growing closer to her grandparents and Luke confessed that he worried all the time about his sister – where she was and what she was doing. These were things they'd vaguely known about each other, but speaking the words out loud sealed something between them.

In between dinner and dessert, while she cleared the table and he got their cheesecake ready, she started babbling. It wasn't the first time it had happened that night, and he wasn't even sure what she was talking about, but he just stopped what he was doing, took a step closer to her and kissed her. He could sense her surprise, could tell that she'd expected more of a lead-up to the first real kiss of the night. "Just didn't want you to go off about dessert toppings or something," he whispered between kisses. She just chuckled and wrapped her arms around his neck. When he pulled her more tightly against him, he wondered at how simple it suddenly was, when everything up to this point had been so full of tension.

After a few moments, she pulled back abruptly and fixed him with an amused grin, "Hey, are you trying to distract me from dessert?"

He smirked. "I should know better than that, huh?"

"Definitely. Although," she said, playing with the buttons on his shirt, "that was some first rate distraction technique you had going there."

"Yeah?" he asked. "Good to know." He finished cutting their slices of cheesecake – a thin one for him with just raspberries and a thicker one for her with both chocolate sauce and raspberries. After pouring her coffee and his tea, he led them over to the couch.

They ate their dessert in relative silence after Lorelai complimented his choice and then proceeded to try to convince him that the experience was not complete without chocolate sauce.

A bit of the tension had returned to the air, not so much built on uncertainty, but on anticipation. He didn't think it was presumptuous to assume that something was going to happen tonight, especially given the hints Lorelai had thrown at him earlier and the way that she'd been casually reaching out to touch him all night.

In fact, once he finished his cheesecake and placed his plate on the coffee table, he found it difficult not to think about kissing her.

She wasn't making it any easier, what with the way that she very slowly pulled the fork out of her mouth with each bite. By the time she started dragging her fork through the chocolate sauce and licking it off with her tongue, he knew that she was doing it on purpose.

"You done?" he asked, as she ran the last raspberry through the chocolate and popped it into her mouth.

"Why so impatient?" she asked innocently.

"I've just never seen someone take quite that long to eat one piece of cheesecake."

"I'm just savoring the deliciousness. I can't help that you took such a teeny, tiny piece." She gave up on the fork and ran her finger through the chocolate, her eyes locked on his as she sucked the sauce slowly off her finger.

She didn't look at all surprised when he yanked the plate out of her hand, in spite of her indignant, "Hey!"

"What? You're done," he said, looking at her virtually empty plate.

"There's still more chocolate," she protested.

Shaking his head in disbelief, he swept up the rest of the chocolate on his finger, and held it out to her, almost daring her to lick it off. Her eyes widened in surprise, but then her lips turned up into an amused grin as she leaned forward and finished off the last of the sauce, her tongue taking considerably longer than necessary to wipe his finger clean.

Then she leaned back and favored him with a self-satisfied smile. He looked at her for only the briefest of moments before pulling her to him and capturing her lips in a fierce kiss. And based on the way she smiled against his skin, that had been her plan all along.

From that point on, he just let himself fall into the inevitable. She seduced him as much with her bubbling laughter as with her eager lips, and he reciprocated as much with flirtatious banter as with his insistent touches.

When Lorelai had pulled him up from the couch and pushed him toward his bed, he found out that he'd been right about her appreciation of the fine art of pleasure. And that she did, in fact, make his knees weak.

But before it really got started, before he slid inside her and let them both go, he needed her to know that this was more than all that, that whatever this was meant something more to him than carefree sex. So he whispered her name, and when she met his eyes, he tried to let them speak his feelings as best he could.

When she looked back at him, he could see her fear. But she held his gaze.


Just as she'd had trouble picturing Luke on a date, Lorelai had also had no idea what to expect from him as a lover. She'd been surprised to find him flirtatious and, dare she say, playful. It had been completely unexpected. She'd been able to relax and play along, all the more eagerly for it having been awhile since she'd had sex. After struggling to define their relationship, the role had felt familiar. In this, they'd simply been a man and a woman, and she'd always had a pretty good touch with men.

But just when she'd thought she'd had him all figured out, just when he'd been about to push his way inside her, he'd stopped and brushed her hair from her face, whispering her name in a voice thick with desire and tenderness. She'd opened her eyes to find an expression on his face so adoring it had made her breath catch, made her stomach flutter with excitement, and made her fingertips prickle with fear. It was all she could do to keep her eyes on his.

Afterwards, he slipped the covers up over them and pulled her back against his chest, planting a few kisses on her shoulder and brushing his thumb back and forth across her belly. The lack of direct eye contact tempered the intensity of the moment and let her skittish mind catch up with the pounding of her heart. The strength she could feel in the arms wrapped around her waist comforted her, made her feel like she could overcome the fears and the uncertainties about what they would become.

She felt his lips tickle her ear as he breathed, "You're amazing."

"Back atcha, buddy," she said, tracing random patterns on his arm. She could feel his chest moving in and out as his breathing slowed. "This entire night has been amazing."

"Yeah?" His voice was light, but she could hear the touch of little-boy ego that needed stroking.

She answered with all sincerity. "Yeah. That was a fabulous dinner." Then she added, in a teasing voice, "Especially dessert."

His response was more confident now, "Dessert, huh?"

"Yeah. Who knew you were such a multi-talented cook?"

"I'm glad you enjoyed it."

"Oh, I did." She could feel him chuckle as she settled back against him. It would be so easy to close her eyes and let his breathing soothe her to sleep, to take comfort in the warmth of his body. She was surprised to find that she wanted that – wanted to fall asleep and wake up beside this man. But staying out all night wasn't something she allowed herself to do.

She shifted slightly in an effort to stay awake, and he brushed his hand down her arm to relax her. After a few more moments of restless indecision, she turned to lie on her back so that she could look up at him. "I should go."

"You don't have to," he said, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear.

"I can't stay here…Rory's at home."

He nodded. She saw a flicker of disappointment, but he hid it well. "Just stay for a few more minutes. I can take you home."

It frightened her a bit how tempted she was, but a few minutes could become several minutes, which could too easily become the whole night. She wasn't sure she was ready to break that rule yet; dating someone Rory knew so well was enough of a violation already.

"Well, I drove here, so I have my car," she answered, "and if I stay here much longer I'm going to fall asleep." She gave him a kiss and slid out from under the covers.

As she shuffled around gathering up her clothes and getting dressed, she could hear him stepping out of bed and pulling on his boxers and t-shirt. She turned to see him running his hand across the back of his head nervously and looking at her with an unreadable expression.

"Let me walk you down," he said as he reached for her elbow, trying to pull her closer.

"You don't have to," she insisted. "I'm parked right outside and you're not dressed." She leaned in to kiss him, then pulled back, her voice soft and sincere, "Thank you again for dinner…everything."

"Anytime." His voice was soft, but she could see worry in his eyes, could see how reluctant he was to let her go without knowing something more about where they stood.

She started to slip away toward the door, but then hesitated and turned back. She brushed her fingers along his forearm, and she could feel him shiver. "Luke?"

"Yeah?"

She paused. "I do wish I could stay, but…" her voice trailed off quietly.

"Rory," he finished.

She nodded. Rory had always been a convenient excuse, the way that she kept herself from getting too close to the men she dated, the way that she kept her relationships fun and easy, without the co-mingling of lives and stuff that would follow if she were to start staying over. She'd always been just a little relieved to be able to leave before things got too complicated. Looking in Luke's eyes now though, she wondered if he could read all that, if he knew all that about her. And for just a moment, she wished she didn't have the built in excuse.

"See, I have these rules. These dating rules, and-"

"I get it, Lorelai."

"Really?"

He nodded. "Really." She could still see a sliver of doubt, a question remaining in his eyes.

She glanced at the door, tempted to take him at his word that he was okay with this. But Luke deserved - this relationship deserved - a bigger step; so instead, she took a deep breath, and spoke slowly, "The thing is, I'm beginning to think that Rory and I might need to revisit the rules."

"Revisit?" he asked uncertainly.

"Yeah," she said, nodding. "This might be a special case." She stumbled a bit over the words, "We might need to allow for some exceptions."

"A special case?" he confirmed. "This is a special case?" His voice was casual, but she knew the question was very real.

She nodded and gave him a shy smile. "Yeah. Special case."

He smiled then, a real smile. "Good," he said softly, his voice relieved. "That's very good."

Grinning back at him, she answered, "Yes it is," then stood up on her toes to give him another kiss before falling back on her heels again. "Goodnight, Luke," she said, brushing her knuckles across his cheek.

"Goodnight, Lorelai," he answered, with a gentle squeeze of her elbow, before she turned shyly, pulling the door closed behind her as she walked out the door.

Fin