Many thanks for the reviews! I love that you guys like it so far :)

Props to llano for the beta again.

Chapter 3: Second Period

Lorelai awoke again a few hours later, only to find that Luke was no longer next to her, but already up and dressed. Much to her dismay, he informed her that the morning had dawned uncharacteristically rainy for Southern California, which put a damper on the plans Lorelai had made to drag Luke around DisneyLand before heading to the game that night.

She also found that her nocturnal confrontation with the wall had left her with a lingering headache and a rather tender bump that didn't feel so hot when she was fighting to de-tangle her hair in the shower.

The ad-hoc stand-in for the amusement park outing was a trip to a local mall, where Lorelai could indulge in her consumerist fancies and Luke would grin and bear it in return for subjecting Lorelai to hockey later that night.

In the end, Lorelai ended up suffering just as much as Luke in the mall – her less-than-overflowing bank accounts in combination with the dull pounding in her head left her listless and apathetic, not in the mood to do much shopping. When even the promise of lunch in the ostentatious food court failed to pique her interest, Luke steered her back to their hotel room, making a quick stop in the hotel gift shop for Advil and a deck of cards.

Much to her surprise, the afternoon spent with Luke just lounging around their hotel room playing cards, watching random TV, talking, and ordering room service proved to be more enjoyable than most in recent memory. Plus, the Advil and another round of ice for her head seemed to have done the trick such that by the time they were to head out for the game, she was nearly back to 100.

In fact, her penchant for shopping was back with a vengeance once they had made it Arrowhead Pond for the game – the minute she caught a glimpse of the official Mighty Duck memorabilia store in the arena, she was off and running with an excited cry, "Ooh, I need souvenirs!"

Luke groaned, and managed to grip the back of Lorelai's jacket before she got too far away from him. "Not in here, go to the cheap place outside after the game."

"No, I need to wear something during the game!" Lorelai whined. "Look at us, we're the only ones in normal clothes," she pointed out with a pout.

"And I'm staying that way," Luke asserted. Lorelai's bottom lip just got shoved out further.

With a sigh, Luke released her from his grip. "Fine, you do what you want."

So with a gleeful squeal, Lorelai immersed herself in the crowd of shoppers. Luke, of course, opted to remain on the concourse, preferring not to get lost in the sea of gaudy merchandise in the store.

Lorelai eventually found him poking his nose into the main arena watching the pre-game warm-up. She tapped his shoulder to get his attention.

For almost half a second, she could have described Luke's expression as probably relieved to see her and thus not have to stand there anymore. But she was pretty sure the broad, mischievous grin on her face tipped him off to something, for immediately following that relief came a skeptical expression and a very suspicious, "What did you do?"

"Nothing!" she cried, feigning innocence, but quickly lapsing back into her impish smile.

Luke raised an eyebrow, "What?"

Taking a deep breath and bracing herself, Lorelai began a pre-emptive explanation as she reached into the bag she now held, "It's just a hat, you're wearing a hat anyway."

With that, she produced from the bag, with a flourish and a "Ta-da," a Mighty Ducks baseball cap, which she promptly traded for the blue one Luke was already sporting.

Luke didn't even get a chance to protest before the switch was done, "Why do I bother…."

"And look, we match!" Lorelai proclaimed, whipping a duplicate hat from the bag and placing it – backwards, of course – on her own head.

"Super…" Luke rolled his eyes. He followed that up with a slight narrowing of his eyes as he caught the tiniest of winces flash across Lorelai's face as she readjusted her cap. "How's the head?" he inquired, concerned.

Lorelai shrugged, not particularly thrilled at having been reminded of her oh-so graceful wrong-side-of-the-bed awakening. "Ok, I gue..."

She didn't even get to finish, for the concern on Luke's part was quickly replaced by a rather accusing tone as he pointed to a second bag in Lorelai's hand, "What the hell is that?"

"Only the official mascot of my new favorite team," Lorelai grinned broadly, yanking the plush stuffed Duck mascot out of the flimsy plastic bag and displaying it proudly for Luke's appraisal.

"Of course," Luke waved off the toy with a slightly exasperated edge to his voice. Glancing up at the clock in the arena, he turned and once again set off to find their seats.

Dashing after him, Lorelai was not to be deterred. Shoving the stuffed animal in front of Luke, she began her formal introduction, "Luke, meet Doug."

"Doug?" Luke inquired, giving Lorelai a curious sidelong glance.

"Yet another dreamy movie hockey guy," she swooned jokingly. "Second only to Emilio's Gordon, of course."

It was an explanation, which, for Luke, who was obviously not up to snuff on his 'dreamy movie hockey guys,' begged the question, "What hockey movie has a Doug?"

"Only the best hockey movie ever!" Lorelai paused dramatically before solemnly announcing, "The Cutting Edge."

Luke scoffed immediately, "That's not a hockey movie. Two tiny clips of a hockey game will never make a chick flick a hockey movie."

Lorelai's eyes went wide with amusement, "You've seen it!" She cried. "You watch chick flicks! You probably have a copy at home, wedged in between Sleepless in Seattle and Message in a Bottle, don't you?"

Luke just rolled his eyes as Lorelai kept giggling over the thought of Luke studiously timing the amount of hockey in an otherwise 'chick flick.'

She managed to amuse herself with that visual as they walked past a few more sections in search of their seats. A few moments later, however, another thought hit her, "Ooh! Speaking of hockey movies that you probably don't consider hockey movies, I still have never showed my mother Happy Gilmore. I always forget!"

Luke opened his mouth, but hesitated before finally saying, "Ok, call me stupid, and I'll probably regret asking, but why do you feel the need to show your mother that movie?"

Lorelai smirked, but Luke cut in as she was poised to reply.

"Yes, I realize it's your last name, but you also share that with, I don't know, Gary Gilmore, and I don't see you making that your claim to fame," Luke pointed out in anticipation of Lorelai's reasoning.

"Oh man, you totally should have seen Emily during that whole Gary Gilmore thing," Lorelai snickered at the memory. "She was horrified that someone might think we were related or something. Same thing with the movie. I totally want to see her reaction to Adam Sandler in all his low-brow comedy glory sporting the Gilmore name. I think Rory and I actually made a bet when we first saw it," Lorelai paused, her brow furrowed as she tried to recall the terms. "I say she'd demand we change our name then and there, but Rory thinks she'd just have the movie removed from all the video rental places in North America. It could go either way, really…"

Luke didn't reply to the Happy Gilmore babble, but after passing a few more sections of the arena, he turned to Lorelai, offering something he thought she might appreciate, "You know there was a really good hockey player named Doug Gilmour."

"No way!" Lorelai cried gleefully, "I'm a genius! Aren't I Doug?" she posed the question to her new fluffy friend. "A psychic genius. Who knew," she mused with exaggerated wonder.

"It was spelled different," Luke shrugged bashfully, seeming quite pleased with the reaction his tidbit of knowledge had elicited. "But yeah, played until a couple years ago, I think. Mostly with Toronto," he added haltingly in an effort to… well, to say something.

"Look at you all hockey geek," Lorelai laughed, making a show of pinching Luke's cheek. Or at least trying to, as he quickly swatted her hand away. And with mock hurt, she sulked, offended, "Harsh… And here I thought I was the most important Gilmore in your life."

She'd just been joking. A playful jab in the middle of the fun of a good old hockey game. She wasn't prepared for the seriousness of his response, or the intensity of his gaze as he stopped walking and confirmed quietly, "You are."

Lorelai couldn't stop the pink flush she was sure was creeping up her cheeks under the weight of Luke's piercing stare. Where that had come from, she wasn't sure. And why he'd felt the need to clarify that she, one of four Gilmores he'd probably ever come across in his life, if you included her parents at Rory's party a few years back, was the most important. It was just a joke…

She didn't get a chance to ponder much longer. An inadvertent shove from behind as other fans rushed to take their seats jostled them both enough to break the eye-contact and get them moving again. In the process, Luke cleared his throat and added, "And Rory."

Lorelai suspected the mention of Rory was supposed to alleviate some of the – weirdness was the only way she could put it – that had accompanied his previous statement. Not that it did… Fighting the blush that still threatened, she stumbled over her next words, pointing out the first thing that came to mind, "Um, hey, is it me, or have we been here before? Where the hell are we going?"

Coming to a halt, Luke pulled his ticket from his pocket, scrutinizing the seat number on it as well as the section signs displayed around them. "I have no idea, the seat number on here don't look like the rest of the sections. Hang on, I'll ask."

He found an usher a few yards away, and returned to Lorelai a few moments later.

"So?" she inquired.

Crossing his arms in front of him, Luke set his jaw, a hint of exasperation visible in his actions. "When you failed to mention the game was in California," he explained sternly, "You also failed to mention the seat were in some corporate box somewhere."

Lorelai's mouth fell open in surprise, any lingering unease over the 'Gilmore comment' fading rapidly. "Really?"

"Yes," Luke confirmed with a groan, "So now were probably stuck with a bunch of business guys like your father." He gave her a less than warm and fuzzy glare as punctuation.

"Goody," Lorelai replied, a sour expression gracing her features that indicated she was none too happy about her father's omission of the seating arrangement information either. "Sorry about that…" she said, apologizing to Luke. "But hey," she then pointed out, recalling one thing from a few trips to corporate boxes for events over the course of her childhood. "Don't you get free booze in those things? And we're not driving…" She added in a sing-song voice.

Having gone through the obligatory introductions and tossing around of Richard Gilmore's name with the other occupants of the box, Luke and Lorelai settled into their seats in the luxury suite – the front row of course, so Lorelai could put her feet up, and because no one else in the suite looked to be much interested in actually watching the game anyway, never mind from the front row. Either way, they didn't actually have much time to spare once they sat down. Almost immediately after they arrived, players returned to the ice, lining up for the national anthem.

Much to Lorelai's dismay, after the Star-Spangled Banner, the referees signaled for the starting players to get in position for the opening face-off. "Hey, where's the Canadian anthem?" she complained.

"The teams are from California and New Jersey," Luke deadpanned in response.

"So?"

Luke tore his eyes from the action, which had just started down on the ice, to clarify incredulously, "They play the Canadian anthem when there is a Canadian team."

Lorelai frowned, stating simply, "Sad."

"Why?" Luke asked.

"Well," Lorelai explained, "I don't feel like I'm getting the whole hockey experience without some Canadian-ness." With a disappointed shake of her head, she lamented, "It's not a good way to start my relationship with hockey."

At the implication of her words, Luke turned to Lorelai, genuinely surprised, "This is the only game you've ever been to? How is that possible? You're from Connecticut."

"Yes, Connecticut, not Canada," Lorelai remarked snidely. "Therefore, yes," she smirked, speaking without thinking, "I am still a hockey virgin. By bringing me here, you realize, you are taking my hockey virginity." She fluttered her eyelashes coyly, instructing, "Be gentle…"

And there it was again. The oddly intense look from Luke, only this time Lorelai had brought it upon herself. And the same blush that had colored her cheeks earlier was darkening the edges of Luke's ears as well.

The awkward moment persisted until Luke cleared his throat roughly, stiltedly informing Lorelai of something: "Uh, you know there is hockey outside of Canada…"

"Really?" Lorelai gasped in jest, just glad to have been relieved of the task of somehow getting herself out of the awkward hole she'd dug with her last comment. First making a show of glancing around her Californian surroundings, she shot back wryly at Luke, "Thanks for the newsflash."

"I mean at home," Luke rephrased. "In Stars Hollow. Probably at Chilton. Probably wherever you went to school–"

"Loomis," Lorelai cut in.

Nodding in acknowledgement, Luke continued, "They have hockey. And there was an NHL team in Hartford."

"Really?" That Lorelai hadn't known, reinforcing her point way back at the beginning of the Ducks/Devils/California extravaganza that was their trip.

"Until a few years ago – the Whalers," Luke recalled. "I used to go see games in high school."

A soft smile crossed Lorelai's face at the mental picture of a younger Luke, "Your hockey pha…"

Unfortunately, she was rudely cut off by Luke and sixty-thousand other people suddenly leaping to their feet and cheering, not to mention buzzers, horns, and strains of Queen's 'We Will Rock You.' "Oh, oh," she stammered, tensing in surprise. Inching to the edge of her seat and craning her neck to try and see the ice surface, she tugged on the bottom of Luke's shirt, "What'd I miss?"

"The Ducks scored," Luke shouted over the din, still clapping loudly with a broad grin.

"And yay?" Lorelai countered tentatively, somewhat taken aback by Luke's involvement in the celebration. Luke getting exuberant like that over anything other than squelching one of Taylor's evil plans was definitely new.

Luke gestured to the rest of the arena with a nod as he sat back down, "Unless you want a pack of a few thousand angry fans after you."

"Yay!" Lorelai echoed belatedly, eliciting a few stares for her odd timing. But despite the 'yay,' she felt the need to clarify something with Luke. "But we're from closer to Jersey…" she pointed out in confusion, "Shouldn't we cheer for them?"

Switching immediately to the same timbre of voice he used whenever he heard her cell phone ring in the diner, Luke lectured her harshly, "A.) No, it's the Devils, and if you were ever a fan of any other team in the Northeast, which I was, you hate the Devils. And B.)," he continued with less of an edge, humoring her, "Even if it wasn't the Devils, I think you'd hurt Doug's feelings." He gestured to the toy, which Lorelai had carefully positioned on the seat next to her so that he too could watch the game.

"Right!" Lorelai gasped, tickled that Luke had, for once, gone along willingly with her rather insane habit of personifying anything and everything she came across. "Sorry Doug," she apologized in contrition. Another round of cheers distracted her not long after. "Ooh, more scoring?" she asked Luke, peering out at the action on the ice.

Luke shook his head, his level of excitement definitely not up to where it had been for the first goal. "Fight," he corrected.

"Oh, my, yes," Lorelai cringed, suddenly catching a glimpse of the two combatants – one of which already being rather bloody – on the large screen at center ice. "I guess it is a fight isn't it? Such violence in the hockeying!"

Luke rolled his eyes with a soft snort of amusement, "Hockey is not a verb."

"Says you," was Lorelai's snide retort before she asked, "And this fighting is a good thing apparently?"

"Extra entertainment value I guess," Luke surmised. "It's not exactly prime hockey country here, these people probably just come for the beer and the fights."

Lorelai's eyes went wide with exaggerated disbelief. "Seriously?" she exclaimed. "I should totally sell tickets to Friday night dinners if people want to see fighting. Damn," she scowled, "I could have been piling up cash for three years now." With a forceful poke to Luke's bicep, she instructed, "Remind me to broker a deal with Ticketmaster when we get home."

His attention already back on the game, Luke nodded his offhand agreement, "Will do."

Once the first intermission rolled around, Lorelai was beginning to whine about being hungry. Rather than face the daunting lines at concession stands between periods for the junk she really wanted, he'd sent her to the food spread at the back of the suite to tide her over until she got her beloved nacho disgustingness. Ever the party pooper, in Lorelai's mind, he refused to join her lest he have to mingle with the business-types. He just sat there flipping through the game program he'd gotten on the way in, examining stats – which apparently meant who had scored how many goals when. Not exactly entertaining as far as she was concerned. She'd already gotten everything she could out of the program, perusing the pictures of all the pretty, pretty hockeying guys. Until Luke had pulled his usual bubble-bursting routine and pointed out their dates of birth and that the bulk of the team – especially the 'pretty' players with faces not yet marred by years of NHL time – was a good five to ten years younger than her. It was then that she'd shut up about the hockey players and taken to whining at him about the food.

Lorelai wasn't overly upset at being relegated to the free food, however. She had no idea what the hell the first thing she picked up was – something with cheese was as far as she got in her investigation before she stuffed one of the hors d'oeuvres into her mouth. "Mmm, wow, these are really good," she moaned at no one in particular. Cheesy goodness… Her curiosity piqued, she turned to the woman nearest her, the wife of one of the fifty-ish year-old insurance guys running around the suite, and asked, "Excuse me, do you know what these are?"

"Goodness no," the woman chuckled, taking a sip from her glass of wine, "Too many calories for me to even bother knowing what's in them."

Lorelai gave a good-natured shrug and reached for another whatever-it-was, "Eh, more for me."

The woman grinned wickedly, lifting a pinky off her glass to gesture in Luke's direction, "Of course," she nudged Lorelai, speaking in low, gossipy tones, "I suppose if I had one of those to help me work it off at night I might be able to eat like that and still look like you."

Lorelai, however, was still focused on the cheesy things and the equally tempting bacon-y things on the next platter. "One of what?" she inquired absent-mindedly as she struggled to balance her napkinful of snacks.

"How is he?" The woman raised her eyebrows in a knowing smirk, "You two look like you get good share of calorie-burning in."

Still not catching on, Lorelai uttered an innocent, "What?" as she stuffed another hors d'oeuvre in her mouth. As she chewed, she followed her companion's salacious gaze over to… Luke. "Oh!" Lorelai exclaimed, nearly choking on her food as she finally zeroed in on the insinuation. "No. No, no, no, no, no," she protested immediately, "Luke and I, we're not…" The woman appeared smug and not at all convinced as Lorelai babbled on hurriedly, "We're just friends," she insisted. "He's…" He's… What was he? What was Luke? Words failing her, Lorelai was forced to resort back to another simple, straightforward "No." Gesturing awkwardly down her body, she attempted to dodge any further bullets by offering an alternative explanation for her slim figure, "I was just lucky with the whole metabolism thing."

"Well, then you must have someone even better waiting for you at home," came the next innuendo-laced accusation.

"Uh, no…" Lorelai stammered, uncomfortable with both the line of questioning and the place her own mind was going as a result of the original question.

"Honey, what's wrong with you then?" The woman tittered with astonishment. And in a low voice, she hissed somewhat drunkenly in Lorelai's direction, "I'd be on my back faster than you're downing those things if I had him around."

Lorelai cringed at the visual; the woman was Miss Patty all over again, minus few dress sizes. She protested once more, though somewhat less convincingly than in the first round, "It's not like that…"

With a sidelong glance shot in the direction of her husband, the woman continued in hushed tones as her gaze darted again in Luke's direction, "Do you mind if I give him a try then? Look what I'm normally stuck with."

Lorelai had the unfortunate timing of having just place another bite of food in her mouth, The original purpose had just been to give her something to do besides dwell on the thought of 'burning calories' with Luke. She just ended up choking down the whole mouthful once again at the woman's proposition. "No, you can't…" Her instincts had her protest immediately – get your cougar claws away from my…

My nothing, Lorelai realized with unexpected, not to mention unwarranted, disappointment. She had no claim over Luke's nocturnal activities, as they were, with this woman, with Nicole – she shuddered inwardly at both those thoughts – or with anyone else. But still… "He…" she began again haltingly. "He has a girlfriend," she eventually spit out, sure that her face must have been a deep shade of crimson by that point given the utter absurdity and discomfort quotient of the topic at hand.

And while Lorelai had naively presumed that the mention of Luke having a significant other would finally put the most awkward conversation ever to rest, it just earned her an even more impressed leer. "Oh does he?" The woman inquired in an appreciative tone. "And she's all alone back East, I presume? I see," she proclaimed knowingly, "I see. Out of town together for a 'hockey' game. Sure you are. At least that explains you looking like you know nothing about this insipid sport." She gave Lorelai a companionable wink and a nudge with her elbow, continuing, "Don't worry sweetie, we're all west-coasters here, your secret's safe. You two have fun while you can. Hell," she pointed out, "The restrooms here are almost passable for a liaison, if you know what I mean." With another awkward wink in Lorelai's direction, she set down her now-empty wineglass. "I'll just have to go amuse myself with one of the team's extra players in the stands." And with a wave, she was off, "Ta-ta!"

Utterly shell-shocked, Lorelai couldn't even muster up the effort to watch incredulously as the woman disappeared. Blindsided was the understatement of the decade. Had she just been told, by some stranger, mind you, to drag Luke – Luke! – into the bathroom not ten feet away and jump him?

The fleeting images that subconsciously flashed through her mind of doing just that and the utter impropriety of even thinking like along those lines in terms of Luke rattled her even more than the woman's words.

Forgoing her collection of greasy delicacies, she fumbled her way over to the bar's array of alcohol. She grabbed the closest thing to her, and, allowing herself a glance at Luke, still sitting there flipping through the program, unaware of the maelstrom in her head, popped the top off the bottle.

Her hand shaking visibly, and staring blankly across the arena, she downed half the beer in one gulp.

To be continued…