Luke and Lorelai's Room in the Dragonfly
Later that night, Lorelai and Luke are curled up in bed together. Lorelai is lying in the crook of Luke's arm, her left arm thrown over Luke's prone body. Her face nuzzles the curve of his neck. Luke's right arm lays almost right over Lorelai's left, his hand tracing circles on her bare left shoulder. His left hand lies lightly, almost protectively on Lorelai's hip. Both equally happy, enjoying the warmth of being wrapped up in each other's arms after all this time.
"Couldn't find a boombox?" Lorelai teases. Luke smiles slightly, turning his head slightly to kiss her forehead.
"Actually I have one, I just left my Peter Gabriel at our house," Luke replies. Lorelai glances up to find Luke looking back down at her, his eyes dancing. She shakes her head grinning. Luke moves his hand off of her shoulder to tip her chin up, lightly pressing his lips to hers. "You are letting me move back in, right?" Lorelai shrugs.
"I dunno, what's in it for me?" Lorelai asks, half-serious.
"Well to start, a whole lot more of this," he responds, raising an eyebrow suggestively, his hand goes back to tracing circles on her shoulder.
"Exercise?" Lorelai asks teasingly.
"Sexual exercise," Luke replies with a wink.
"Ah, I stand corrected." Lorelai lays her head back down on his shoulder. "You know, I hate exercise."
"Yes, but you need it." Lorelai looks up at him, pouting. "You can't eat crap for the rest of your life and expect it not to catch up with you."
"Will you still love me when I get fat?" Lorelai asks.
"How fat are we talking?" Lorelai wrinkles her nose thinking it over.
"I don't know, Kirstie Alley fat. Would you still love me?" Lorelai repeats the question. Luke grins.
"Lorelai, nothing you could do could make me love you less," Luke answers. Lorelai lays her head back down, pleased with his answer. Luke kisses her forehead again. They both settle back into their silent enjoyment of lying together. "Lorelai?" Luke asks softly, rubbing her arm to see if she's still awake.
"Yeah?" she answers without moving her head.
"I'm sorry," he says humbly. Lorelai smiles to herself. "I was stupid. I was crazy think that…" He sighs. She taps her left hand on his chest comfortingly, tipping her head up to lay a small kiss on his jawbone.
"It's okay. So you got a little green, it's okay. It happens," Lorelai tells him.
"I wasn't jealous, Lorelai. I was… I don't know…" He furrows his eyebrows, puzzled. Lorelai traces a pattern on his chest with her finger, waiting for the completion of his sentence.
"You don't like Christopher," Lorelai says knowingly. Luke chuckles.
"That is a fact." He shakes his head smiling.
"What?" Lorelai glances up at him, noticing a pause in his voice. Luke grimaces.
"I should probably tell you I got in a fight with Christopher," Luke says. Lorelai smirks.
"Like a we wouldn't want to meet in a dark alley kind of fight?" Luke shrugs again, squeezing her hip. "Luke, you know you could take Christopher, right?" Luke glances down at her.
"You think?" Lorelai nods.
"Oh yeah, definitely. When we were little I used to beat him up all the time. He'd go home with black eyes and tell his mom that Joe Connors did it," Lorelai says. She giggles. "Man, poor Joe, I wonder if he ever got ungrounded. And I wonder if he ever figured out why he was always grounded." Lorelai grins, watching Luke's eyes dance with wonder.
"Well I think I got the best of him too, if I remember correctly his lip was bleeding and swollen when he left the diner."
"The diner? What was Christopher doing in the diner?" Lorelai wonders.
"He came to talk to me. He wanted to inform me that nothing happened between the two of you," Luke says. Lorelai raises an eyebrow, her fingers pausing their movement on Luke's chest. "I told him I already knew that. I did. It was just… it all seemed so familiar. They way we are, the way it happened with Christopher. I just got… I don't know…"
"You wanted me to tell you I love you. You wanted me to tell you why I chose you and not Christopher, even back then, in the truck, in the snow. I chose you. And you thought it might have just been proximity that brought us together," Lorelai answers for him. Pushing herself up with her right hand so that she can look directly into Luke's eyes. "But the answer is that I love you and I never loved him, I never loved anyone else but you." Luke gazes into her eyes as if he can look deep inside her, past the blueness of her irises, and see what's really inside.
"I love you too," he says softly. Taking his hand off of her hip, Luke gently cradles the back of Lorelai's head, pulling her lips to his, letting his fingers weave through her dark locks. Lorelai reaches up, taking her hand off of his chest, running her fingers over the stubble of his cheek as she presses her lips harder to his. Slowly her tongue searches his bottom lip, running over it, teasing him until he opens his mouth. Luke's tongue invades Lorelai's mouth, their tongues gently massaging each other, his right hand moving down from her shoulder to her lower back, pressing her against him.
Breathless, Lorelai pulls back, her cheeks flushed. Her eyes still closed. Her head cloudy. "Lorelai, I want you to be able to open up to me," Luke says gently. Lorelai slowly opens her eyes letting them search his. She sits back, wrapping the blanket around her, still in the crook of his arm, his left hand back on her hip. Lorelai sets her hands on her knees.
"I'm sorry, I thought I just did," Lorelai responds lightly. Luke chuckles, tapping his hand on her hip. Then he grimaces, giving her an inquisitive look.
"I've told you before, I hate that you hold it all inside. This Christopher thing, my loathing of him, is not because you were once engaged to him or because you had a child with him. I hate what he did to you," Luke says softly and gently. Lorelai shrugs.
"It was a long time ago," she responds.
"It wasn't that long ago," Luke contends. Lorelai gives him a sad look. "When I found you that night, out on Chris's steps. You looked… broken… shattered." Lorelai looks away, not wanting to deal with this. "But when you looked at me. I've never seen a pretty girl look so tough."
"Yeah, I know, I've got the look," Lorelai quips softly, glancing over and winking at him. Luke nods.
"You've got that down. That strong, independent, woman of steel look," Luke tells her. Taking his hand off her hip, Luke reaches up and cups her face, then lets his fingers slide down her throat to her collarbone. "And I want you to know you don't have to be that person around me. You can tear down that wall."
"Thank you Ronnie Reagan," Lorelai teases. She smiles slightly, trying to dispel the tension she's feeling. But Luke can see right through her. Lorelai looks away.
"You've never gotten over it."
"What?" Lorelai asks. Luke gives her a knowing look. Lorelai stares back, pressing her lips together. Luke moves his hand from her collarbone to her arm and rubs her arm gently.
"You remember that when we fought and I touched your arms that you called me Christopher?" Lorelai nods. "You remember that when we fought you suggested that I hit you?" Lorelai nods again. "You're not in physical pain anymore. Your bruises are gone, but that's not to say they're not gone from here." He touches her head. "Or here." He touches her breast bone over her heart. "Please Lorelai, let me in." Lorelai takes a deep breath.
"I don't know what to say. I'm not scared of Christopher. But at that moment, when we were fighting, I remembered it all, I lived through it all again. Every time, I just feel it all again. The fear I felt. The pain and anguish. The feelings that have no words," Lorelai says slowly. She shrugs. "I'm sorry."
"Don't be, I love you."
"And love means never having to say you're sorry," Lorelai quips. Luke smiles. "I love you too."
"You're in pain and you don't even know it. But anytime you want to talk, anytime you're scared, or you feel those feelings, come to me. Know that you can always come to me," Luke tells Lorelai. Instead of responding, Lorelai cups his face in her hands and leans down to press her lips to his.
"You're too good to me," she whispers, kissing him softly again. Then she sits back up.
"You don't want to celebrate again?" Luke asks, arching his eyebrow suggestively, placing his hand back on her hip. Lorelai laughs.
"I do. I really do," she answers quickly.
"So?" Luke squeezes Lorelai's hip.
"Can we… is it okay if we…I want to check on the twins," Lorelai tells Luke nervously.
"Well why didn't you say so in the first place?" He grins, tapping her hip. "Get dressed, we'll go right over."