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So much revival news lately that helped inspire me to finally finish up this chapter while also distracting from this story.


"I want to set a wedding date."

Lorelai fell silent, waiting for Luke to answer and then trying to gauge his reaction before he said anything. She did manage to breath a sigh of relief after finally mentioning to Luke what had plagued her mind recently. The more she thought about it, the worse that she felt that she kind of left him hanging the night before with the mentioning of them needing to talk but giving him no clues as to what they needed to talk about. She had only assured him that it was nothing bad. And it wasn't. Right now, in a hospital room with a sleeping April behind them recovering from her surgery would not have topped her list of optimal places to have this conversation but it looked like this would have to be the spot. That is if Luke ever responded to her latest statement.

Luke was silent as well, trying to process what Lorelai had just told him. He wasn't sure why it was such a shock to him because if he real thought about it, he should have expected this conversation to come along sooner or later. This was definitely something that they needed to discuss. But his mind went in a different direction since the night before when Lorelai mentioned that there was something that she needed to talk with him about. He supposed that the stress of the day's events that weighed down on him was the reason for his lack of a response. Or, better yet, his lack of an emotional and understandable response.

"Oh?"

"Oh?" Lorelai immediately repeated. Her brow arched at his tone that seemed to be devoid of any emotion giving her no clues as to what he was thinking. "Any more insight than oh?"

Luke blew out a breath. "I wasn't really expecting this conversation tonight."

"You asked!" Lorelai winced when she realized that she almost shouted the last part. She lowered her voice as not to disturb April. "I know I wanted to have this conversation because I think it's about time we discussed this again and you know that there was something that we needed to talk about. After what happened today, I wasn't going to bring it up. I might have waited until tomorrow but I'm glad you asked."

Luke's response came a few minutes after Lorelai's but it was just a repeat of what Lorelai said earlier. "You want to set a wedding date?"

Lorelai nodded her head slowly. "Yes, that's what I just said." She leaned forward slightly and put a comforting hand on his knee. "I know that a lot happened today and I know you're stressed but we dealt with everything that was thrown our way. And now I think we need to deal with this, talk about setting a date. Our future."

"I know," Luke agreed. And he did. Not that she mentioned it, this conversation popping up now made a lot of sense. "What brought this on now?"

"Besides you asking?" Lorelai quipped.

"Lorelai."

She relented, giving him a smile as she leaned back into her chair. "It's always been in the back of my mind. I mean with my mother dropping her not-so-subtle hints about it, it's hard for me not to think about it. But there were other things that we had to deal with so I didn't want to bring it up then. Then the other night when April asked me when we were going to get married, it just came back to me and brought all these other questions that made me wonder why we're still waiting, why there's no progress."

Luke took in the information. Ever since Lorelai mentioned that April brought it up, he had thought about it a little as well. But at the time, he was more focused on April and adjusting to her now staying with them for a couple of weeks at a time. He was learning how to balance everything and they now seemed to fall into a pretty good rhythm.

"What other questions?" He finally asked.

Before Lorelai had a chance to delve into all of the questions she had in mind about their future plans together, there was a knock at the door followed by a nurse telling her that visiting hours were now officially over and she would need to leave as soon as possible. Lorelai gave the nurse a smile and promised that she would leave soon before she turned back around to face Luke.

"They just have the best timing, don't they?"

"Absolutely," Luke deadpanned.

Lorelai gathered her purse and her coat, standing up as she did so. "And I guess this conversation will have to wait just a little bit longer. Again."

Luke nodded his head, agreeing that they would talk. "We will finish this tomorrow," he told her definitely. He moved to stand up alongside her and because of the expression she wore, he placed his hands on her shoulders and stroked them up and down her arms, and added on, "We will talk about this."

"I know babe." She leaned into him, wrapping her arms around his waist and nuzzling her head against her neck for just a few minutes before the nurse stopped back by and announced again that she really did need to leave now. She chuckled as she pulled away from Luke, "Okay, I really have to go before she comes back with security and throws me out of here."

"The men with the butterfly nets would come for you first."

She lightly brushed her lips against his and smiled when he pressed against her requesting just a little bit more. She gave in, mindful enough so she wouldn't have to be told to leave a third time. "I'll call you in the morning," she said when they parted. "Check in, see if there's anything that you or April need before I drop by."

Luke was going to mention that she didn't have to do that, didn't have to bring anything by, but he knew that would be a useless endeavor. She was going to help in whatever way she could and he thankful for everything she had already done today. Instead he nodded and repeated his words from just minutes earlier that they would talk more tomorrow, when they would have more time and she wouldn't be kicked out of the hospital room for staying past visiting hours. They shared one last, this time short, kiss before she was out the door and chattering away with one of the nurses about when exactly visiting hours were so she would know exactly when she needed to stop by the following morning.


Lorelai closed her eyes and leaned her head back against the bath pillow she had positioned just right for optimal relaxation during a bubble bath. When she bought it on a shopping venture with Luke, he deemed it a frivolous purchase, just another thing that she didn't need but said was needed and ended up spending money on. But on days like today, with Michel yammering on endlessly and accusing guests of stealing bathrobes and Sookie accidentally hurting one of her kitchen helpers, the bath pillow was definitely not frivolous and an absolute necessity for trying to relax. That and the heaping mount of birthday cake scented bubble bath she poured into the bathtub.

Her day had started out fine. She dropped by the hospital with plenty of magazines, both girly and science, to keep April entertained until she recovered and was released from the hospital. Of course, she also brought along April's school books, as requested by the young girl herself, so she didn't fall behind in any of her classes. There were also a few other items thrown into the bag of stuff she brought April that would help keep her from being bored in the hospital. She even stuck around for awhile, promising Luke that it would be fine if he left to go home and shower because she and April needed some girl time.

When she finally managed to get Luke to head home for at least a few minutes to shower, Lorelai broke out the nail polish and started to give her a colorful manicure. She was touched when April apologized for her words from the night before, making it clear that she really didn't mean what she said and that she knew that they were only trying to help. She hugged April, assuring her that she knew that she didn't mean what she said and that Luke understood that as well. Things became a little awkward after that since Anna stopped by to check in on her daughter and Lorelai wondered when things would not be awkward between them. Not that she expected to be close friends with her.

Luke came back not long after he initially left and it was then that Lorelai received a phone call from Michel informing her that even if it was her day off from the Inn, that he still needed her to be there as he was having difficulty with certain guests. Since Luke was going to spend the day with April at the hospital anyways, she decided to put in time at the Inn even if it meant listening to Michel's complaints about certain guests and then dealing with those certain guests herself only to find out that Michel was being dramatic. With that weighing on her mind as well as the impending talk with Luke that they agreed would happen tonight, the stress began to build up and request that she take a bubble bath to relax as soon as she could. Plus it was a nice distraction until Luke got home tonight.

She was just contemplating which scent of bath salts would go with her bubble bath when she heard Luke calling out for her. She called back letting him know where she was and that he was free to join her in the bath if he so desired. When she heard him approaching and figured that he was within hearing range, she started to ramble on about her day and the reasons that led her to taking a bubble bath as soon as she got home, before she even had the chance to have dinner no less.

"Sounds like a long day," Luke commented, entering the bathroom he leaned against the wall closest to the bathtub.

"The longest," Lorelai sighed. She moved her hand through the bubbles, rippling the water underneath. "How is April? I was going to call and check in this afternoon but it slipped my mind."

"Good, good, she's doing great," Luke replied. "Today the doctor only wanted her to eat soft foods so it's been ice cream all day. She's happy."

Lorelai couldn't help the surprised look that came across her face. "And you didn't have an aneurysm?"

"I slipped in a little frozen yogurt, break up the ice cream cycle," Luke answered. "Anna brought her soup when she came up there, she promised to make her eat that instead of ice cream for dinner tonight."

"There we go, there's the Luke I know." She moved, draping her arm across the ledge of the bathtub and propping her head up on her arm. "Are you going back to the hospital to stay with April tonight or is Anna going to stay up there?"

When Luke moved to sit down on the ledge of the bath tub, she pretended to be offended and tried to cover herself with the bubbles that remained before she laughed and then relaxed back into her original position while Luke spoke to her. "Anna wanted to stay with her tonight. I figured that worked out because I could be home tonight and we could talk."

Lorelai smiled at him. "That works for me." She swirled the bubbles in the tub around, gathering them over herself as her smile curved into a wanton expression. "Before that though and since it's not a bathroom conversation, do you want to join me?"

Luke chuckled. "What is a bathroom conversation?"

"You didn't answer my question."

He moved closer to her, smiling as he did so. He brought his hand to the side of her face, cupping it gently before closing the space between them and moving his lips overs hers in a fierce kiss. When he felt her bring her hands up to his shirt tugging him closer while she gave back as good as she got, he pulled back. Of course he wanted to continue this but the rational side of him, damn that part, told him that this could wait. At least until after the conversation they were set to have, the one that he had thought about today while April rested and the one that he was ready to discuss.

He had a smirk on his face while she pouted. "Later."

"Tease," she accused, sinking back down into her rapidly dissolving bubbles. "I'm here covered in bubbles and yet you refuse me."

"And you have no idea how hard it it."

A megawatt grin spread across her face, "Wow, dirty! Extremely dirty."

"Jeez," Luke groaned.

"You started it." Her bath water was steadily turning cold and with the very sparse bubbles, it was no longer relaxing. "Hand me a towel?"

Luke did as requested, grabbing the table she had set out and passing it to her as she stood up from her relaxed position. She quickly wrapped herself up in the towel, claiming that if he was going to refuse her, he wasn't going to get a chance to peek at the goods. Luke offered his arm as leverage so she didn't slip on the tiled floor. While she moved past him him and into their bedroom where she started to hunt around for clothes, he announced that he was going downstairs to whip them up something for dinner. Before he left the room to head downstairs, she informed him that there was plenty of food in the fridge so he was off the hook for preparing them dinner.

Minutes later, Lorelai headed downstairs dressed in a pair of sweatpants and a tank top with a hoodie placed on top. She entered the kitchen to find a bouquet of flowers lying down in the middle of the table. She smiled. It was an arrangement of colorful daisies. Her favorite. She picked them up and brought them up to her face.

"What are these?"

Luke turned around to see what she was talking about. "Oh. I just wanted to thank you for helping out yesterday and this morning. So I bought you flowers."

"They're lovely," Lorelai complimented. She moved towards him and placed a kiss on his cheek. "Thank you."

"You're welcome."

While Lorelai set about finding a vase for her flowers, Luke began to remove the covered dishes from the refrigerator even though he had no idea where they came from. They were definitely not in there the night before. Each dish had a small, brightly colored note attached to the top with very specific instructions attached to the top.

"I thought when you said there was plenty of food in here, you were referring to leftovers or the take-out you ordered, not this," Luke said, holding up a tupperware container with a bright orange sticky note attached to the top.

"When I told Sookie about April this morning, she set her mind on making dishes for us to help out. I told her it wasn't necessary at all but once she has a whisk in her hand, you can't tell her no." She gave a shrug of her shoulders. "Besides who am I to refuse free food?"

"She knows that April isn't here to eat the food and that I do know how to cook, right?"

"Of course she knows that babe," Lorelai replied. "But just in case you weren't home tonight, she wanted to make sure I would be fed."

Luke opened up a couple of containers and started to read the directions. "This is enough food for a couple of days."

"I tried to tell her no." Lorelai grabbed a vase down from the cabinet close to the sink and started to fill it up with water before she dropped the flowers in. "But she wanted to help out in a way and her way of helping out always involves food. She's a great friend."

Luke had to agree. Though he didn't quite agree with the town meddling in his business of April being in the hospital. While no one had stopped by, he had received phone calls from a few townies who wanted to check in on April and also chat about everything under the sun while trying to make actual plans to come by the hospital. He refused them though, saying that April needed her rest and she wouldn't get that rest with that many visitors.

Lorelai tried her best to follow the directions left by Sookie while she helped Luke prepare a few of the dishes that Sookie had sent over. Their dinner was an assortment of food, ranging from the magic risotto to some sort of chicken dish that Sookie wanted to try out and requested in-depth reviews on as soon as possible. They chatted throughout dinner, Luke filling her in on a little more news about April and how she did apologize to him as well for insisting that he wasn't a good dad. The topic of marriage and setting a date was on the back burner for the moment.

After dinner and once the kitchen was cleaned, the two adults moved to the living room. Lorelai curled up next to Luke on the couch, the tv was playing in the background but neither one of them were really paying attention to the show that was on. Instead they were both in their own heads, wrapped up in their own thoughts.

Luke looked down when he felt movement by his side, he noticed Lorelai toying with her engagement ring. He took her left hand in his, his thumb rubbed across the band. "You know that we're getting married. I want to marry you," he said in his best reassuring tone.

"I know that hon and I'm not worried about it eventually happening," Lorelai stressed. "I just..." she trailed off as she pushed up from the couch and began to pace back and forth around the living room. "I just don't know what we're waiting for anymore. I mean I'm not saying that we have to run to the courthouse tomorrow and get married, I just don't know what's holding us back now."

"Well I don't think you can get married in the courthouse on Sunday," Luke replied earning him a look from Lorelai that made him wish that he didn't say anything. "Sorry."

"I'm not upset," Lorelai clarified. "I mean, not at you, not over that."

Luke looked up at her. "When you told me that April asked you about the wedding, I remember you saying you were fine that we didn't have plans yet."

"I remember what I said." She blew out a breath and plopped down unceremoniously on the chair across from the couch. "I know that we're going to get married, I just don't want to feel like it's never going to happen. I hated feeling like that and I don't want to go back."

"We're not going to go back."

"But we're not going back and at this point, we're not going forward. We're stuck. Right in the middle," Lorelai replied. "And not the middle that I envisioned for us. I know we've dealt with a lot over the past few months but things are settling down now. Personally, I think it's time we start planning for our future."

Luke remained silent, nodding along as she spoke so she knew that he was listening and trying to process everything that she was saying as fast as he could. They had roadblocks up, preventing them from moving forward though he couldn't come up with why they weren't moving forward. Postponement number one came from wanting to make things right from Rory, postponement number two came from the stunning news that he was a father and needing the time to clear his mind because everything was piling up, and this time...this time wasn't a postponement. Not really anyways. More of a subject that had been pushed aside and despite their improving communication skills had remained in a box of their future plans.

Lorelai moved back to the couch, feeling like the ball in a ping-pong game with all her back and forth movement. She placed her hand on his shoulder and smiled when he turned towards her. "I'm ready Luke. I really am. I've been ready. I want to start the next phase of my life with you. I want a future with you, a wedding," she blinked when a few tears threatened to fall. "A kid or two. I want all of that with you. Don't you?"

"Two kids?" Luke asked.

Lorelai couldn't help the chuckle that burst forth from her lips caused by the look on his face, a mixture of wonderment, confusion, and happiness. "Well maybe just one, we'll see how we do with the first one. If that one works out, then we'll talk about another one."

He used the pad of his thumb to brush away a tear on her cheek. His voice was soft as he spoke. "I want all of that with you too Lorelai."

"But..."

"But?" Luke questioned, the confusion evident on his face.

"I just sensed there was going to be a but at the end of that sentence."

Luke shook his head. "No. Not unless there needs to be one."

"What about April?" Lorelai asked. "I know before you were worried about her, you had to consider her, and fitting her into our lives."

"I was a little blindsided last night when you mentioned it but I had some time to think today. Which was a good way to get my mind of being in a hospital room," Luke pointed out to which Lorelai nodded, knowing his aversion to hospitals. "I know what I said before but having April staying here and being able to spend time with her changes that, I know how she fits into our lives. You've been helpful with her and she likes it here. I don't have those same concerns anymore."

"You have handled everything well that's been thrown your way recently."

"I had your help."

"Which is why you handled it well," Lorelai teased. "If we're both on the same page then what are we waiting for?"

Luke shrugged his shoulders and gave a shake of his head. "I don't know."

A smile grew on her face that quickly turned into a laugh. "So we both don't know why we're still waiting, if there's no reason to wait, but we're still waiting?"

Luke took a moment before replying as he tried to decipher her sentence. "I think so."

She took his hand in hers, intertwining their fingers. "Our future then?"

"Kids would be good," Luke answered.

"They would," she grinned. "And while we're both not getting younger in that aspect, I think we should discuss actually getting married first. Preferably, I would want kids to come after we're married."

"Kids can come after," Luke agreed. "I don't know what I was waiting on before but I'm ready now. I don't want to wait anymore. I'm ready for all of that with you Lorelai."

"Moving forward? Setting a date?"

"Do you have a date in mind?"

"Not at all," Lorelai said with a shake of her head and a laugh. "But we're doing this now? Actually going to plan a wedding, no postponements?"

"I don't know much about wedding planning," Luke answered. He smiled now too. "We should set a date."

"I'll check my date book in the morning." She had a grin on her face as she leaned back to lay down on the couch, pulling Luke back with her. "Because right now we have the house to ourselves and there was something started earlier that needs to be finished."

Luke moved against her, his weight pressing her down into the couch before he brought his lips down to hers more than happy to now fulfill his promise of 'later'.


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