When she opens the door to the apartment of the diner the next morning, she finally realizes she should stop guessing what position she's going to find him in every time she walks in. He's sitting on the edge of the bed, his black dress pants on, a white shirt over his shoulders but still unbuttoned, and there's no undershirt beneath it. His hair is still mussed as she remembers it from his drowsy state in the early morning and his face holds more than a five o'clock shadow's worth of hair.

Hearing a quiet gulp beside her, she remembers the presence of her daughter to her right. Rory's gaze is fixed on Luke, her mouth open, her eyes wide, her face paler if that's possible. Lorelai realizes that Rory hasn't really seen Luke since Liz's death, at least not the way she's seen Luke: miserable and tenacious.

"Hey," Lorelai says to her daughter, placing a hand on Rory's upper arm. "Why don't you head over without us? I'll see if I can't get Sloppy, the 8th dwarf, dressed and ready and meet you there?" Rory nods slowly, not removing her eyes from Luke, still in shock from how different he seems from the man she always knew as Luke Danes. Sure, he had always been the gruff, hermit-like guy, but Rory had always known deep down there was so much more. He had always been there for her and her mom. Calling him an 'old softy' had never been just a joke to her. "Rory?" Lorelai says softly.

"Okay," Rory finally responds, with a glance up at Lorelai. "You sure?" For a moment, Lorelai is confused and then realizes that Rory's asking if she'll be okay with Luke. She just gives her daughter a small tight-lipped smile.

"Go," Lorelai says softly. Rory nods and walks back down the stairs. Lorelai's eyes trail back to Luke, who is methodically running his black socks through his hands. She walks stiffly over to stand in front of him, her hands on her waist as she looks down at him. "Now I know the rumpled look is in, but I don't think you want to go all stylish to your sister's funeral."

He slowly lifts his face, his eyes settling on hers. She wonders for a moment if he can recall why he started getting dressed at all or if he's just lost in a fog right now. With a slight tap of her foot, she turns on her heel, walking over to his dresser and retrieving a white undershirt. Tossing it at him, she considers him for a moment. "Put on the shirt. I might be the only one there who will appreciate you walking in with your shirt open like that." She walks into the bathroom, hearing sounds of Luke shuffling around behind her.

"What are you doing?" she hears him ask gruffly.

"I'm going to shave you."

"Aw, Lorelai, I don't need you to." She walks out of the bathroom with a cup full of water, his razor and shaving cream in her hands.

"Yes you do." She sets the supplies on the floor by his feet.

"I'm not a little kid."

"Did you have to shave when you were a little kid? Cuz then you were one hairy kid."

"Lorelai…" he groans. She ignores his protestations and puts some shaving cream into her hands, kneeling in front of him and wiping it over his face.

"Just let me do this Luke or it's going to end up looking like the Texas Chainsaw Massacre went on on your face," she warns. He sighs and she knows he's given in. It had always been this easy to get him to do what she wanted. At least with the small things. When it came to the bigger things: April, marriage, that was another story.

"So I met with the lawyer yesterday," he says, changing the subject, another one of his signs that he's given in to what ever she's wanted. She smiles to herself, picking up the razor.

"Yeah, what did he say?"

"He said that it did not help that there's no actual Lorelai Danes." She takes a deep breath, focusing on her work, keeping her mind from traveling to less satisfying topics. "He said that I could file for custody alone but then so could Dawn and she would probably win being a woman."

"But you're his uncle."

"Yes, but she's a woman."

"But he spent more time with you and Liz wanted him with you."

"Yes, but she's a woman." She shakes her head.

"I never realized that sexism sometimes works out better for women," she mutters. She draws the razor away from his face, knowing he's going to chuckle in response and he does. They sit in silence for a moment, Lorelai finishing one side of his face and moving onto the other. "Did he say there was anything that would help your situation?" Noticing movement, she glances down to see his fingers making tense movements over his knee and she knows he's afraid to respond. He'll do it in his own time, she knows. So she goes back to shaving him.

"He said it would help if there actually was a Lorelai Danes," he finally says, startling her. She yanks her hand back and he yelps with the feel of the blades slicing into his cheek. "Ow!" His hand flies to the side of his face as a drop of red trickles down.

"Oh, Luke, I-! I'm sorry!" she exclaims, jumping up and tripping in her heels over to the dresser to grab a few tissues. Kneeling down she tries to pull his hand away from his face. "Here let me."

"You just tried to kill me!"

"It's a small cut, Whiner! And I'm trying to stop the bleeding so you don't have to wear a band-aid to the service." He shakes his head but moves his hand to allow her to press the tissues against his face.

"Because having my face unshaven would be so much worse than a giant band-aid," he mutters. She glares at him, keeping her hand pressed to his face.

In the silence she lets her gaze drift down to her feet. He watches her face, knowing she's thinking about what he said a moment before. It was a bad choice either way: losing Gabriel or telling her than he needs her to be with him to have Gabriel. In the end, he had chosen to do whatever it took to keep Gabriel.

"There, you're all better now," she says softly, pulling her hand away from his face. She stands, taking a deep breath.

"Lorelai…" She holds up a hand to let him know she wants to speak first and he lets her because, after all, he's the one who is asking more from her.

"When you say that. When you said what the lawyer said…" She shakes her head and walks towards the door and then glances back at him. "Luke, are you asking me to marry you?" He visibly swallows. She nods. "Put the shirt on and meet me downstairs." Without allowing him a chance to respond she walks out, not wanting to actually hear him ask her what she had once asked him in great hope for the future, a future that had shattered around them leaving them in gaping hole they might never crawl out of.

She waits for him out in front of the diner, pulling her coat tight around her as she tries to forget the conversation that just went on upstairs. How much more can he ask of her before she's given him everything she's got?

Within the next few minutes, he walks out of the diner, running a hand through his hair as he glances over at her. With a nod, they begin to walk towards the church. The silence that perpetuates between the two speaks volumes more than any actual words they could have said.

Arriving in front of the church, Lorelai moves to walk over to where Rory stands but Luke grabs her wrist pulling her back. She gives him a confused look, to which he responds with a nod at Dawn who is approaching them with Gabriel in her arms. Stopping in front of the two, she gives them a hard look. "I've been informed that you two have filed to get temporary custody," Dawn says simply, not even trying to hide the fact that she's not pleased. Lorelai glances up at Luke, confused about why Dawn seems to be insinuating that Lorelai had something to with it. But Luke's ashamed expression explains everything.

"I'll take him," Luke grunts, not wanting to actually respond to Dawn's statement. Dawn rolls her eyes but allows Luke to take Gabriel into his arms. Lorelai reaches over and helps adjust the blanket around the boy so that he's more comfortable. Luke moves his hand over to do the same. Their hands touch with a spark of electricity that is apparent to both of them. Lorelai's eyes fly open in response to the sensation, their eyes locking, searching to see if the other has noticed the remaining attraction. "I was going to tell you," he mutters to her. Her parted lips close, a cross expression on her face.

She whips her head up, stepping away from him, wanting to run off, wanting to leave him to try to get through this himself. How can he possibly think it's okay to make these decisions for her? She's still stuck on the idea that not more than five minutes ago the man she was once engaged to proposed to her out of sheer need for a signed certificate to allow him custody of his nephew. What could possibly be going through his mind? As she glances over at him, watching him adjust the blanket around Gabriel, all of his focus on the boy and it comes to her.

His mind is filled with a vast allotment of memories of Liz and his parents and possibly even the good times with her. These past few days have been nothing more than her pushing him from place to place as he tries to sort out the recollections in his mind. Reality is a mysterious thing to him. Nothing has been real except the moments that he has held the little boy in his arms. It's all that has mattered and he would do anything to keep that feeling forever. She knows that he hadn't even realized what this meant to her until he actually had to open his mouth and tell her.

"Don't think that this doesn't mean I won't be filing for custody. After all, we both know that there's no such person as Lorelai Danes. That boy needs a mother, he needs to be with family. In Amherst he'll have me and all of TJ's family. Who will he have here? The two of you and your illegitimate children?" Dawn asks spitefully, her lips twisting in a bitter manner. There's something about this woman, something kind, something good, that Lorelai can't quite put her finger on. She does know that Dawn isn't trying to keep Gabriel out of hatred for Liz or Luke but because she truly believes what she is saying. How could Lorelai not identify with Dawn? All she had ever wanted was what was best for Rory, even if irrational.

She notices Luke's face going red in response to Dawn's rant and grabs onto his upper arm. "Come on, this isn't the time or place of for this," she tells him and half-pulls him behind her into the church. Luke walks along behind her to their seats in the front pew next to Jess and, on the other side of them, Rory.

The ceremony is solemn but not quite as stiff as TJ's had been. Lorelai half-listens, half-watches Luke during the entire service. Luke seems out of it, distantly tracing a finger up and down Gabriel's arm as the preacher talks, and her heart goes out to him. Finally the preacher invites Luke up to give the eulogy. Without question, he hands his nephew over to Lorelai.

Without a second thought, she focuses completely on the small child in her arms. It's amazing to her that a week ago she hadn't even known of the existence of this boy, but within moments of holding him for the first time, she had fallen for him. Maybe it was his smile, so like Luke's, so warm and reserved. Maybe it was the way his eyes held her, making it seem as if he trusted her so completely, without question. To her, he was the most precious baby she had ever held other than her own and she knew that even if she never saw him again, she'd never forget him.

Recognizing Luke's voice in the background, she glances up at him, to catch the rest of his eulogy. "And I – I was trying to think of what to say about my sister that wouldn't make her seem to be nothing more than a woman who had never gotten it together until the last few months of her life. So I searched through some old papers I had and I found this." He reaches into the breast pocket of his suit jacket and unfolds a piece of paper. "It's an essay she wrote in uh… third grade I believe. Here it says the topic is to write about your hero. Most people I'm sure would write about their parents or someone famous or Albert Einstein or Jackie Robinson. I would have written about Lou Gerhig. But not Liz. She had to be different. And because I can think of nothing else to say, I'm going to read it. My brother. By Elizabeth Anne Danes. I should point out that I think she could have been a little more creative with the title." The attendees laugh, but Lorelai can see his joke is a way to stay focused, to keep himself from completely losing it.

"My brother is my hero because he's my brother. When my mom was sick, my brother was there for me. When I stayed home and my dad was at work, my brother would give up going to his baseball games to stay with me. He made me dinner. He makes some of the best chili out there and he keeps trying these great lasagna recipes. My brother he-" Luke pauses to swallow hard, a lump forming in his throat. From her short distance away, Lorelai can see the paper shaking from the tremor of his hands. "He's always there for me even – even" Luke wipes at his eyes with the back of his hand but Lorelai can see a tear trickling down. She can see him taking in huge gulps of air, anything to try to get through this. He opens his mouth to go on but no sound comes out. "Eve-" he tries again with no avail.

"Rory, here take the baby," Lorelai whispers, putting Gabriel in Rory's arms, not realizing that Rory really has no idea how to hold a child. Lorelai is instantly at Luke's side, wrapping a hand around his elbow. Her other hand reaches for the paper, to hold it still. "Would you like me to finish?" she offers, her lips just an inch from his ear. His only response is a slight nod. She pulls the paper and subsequently his hand closer to her, laying her head on his shoulder to comfort him as she finishes.

"He's always there for me even when I'm mean to him. He's there even when I get in trouble. He's there even when he could be doing other things. He's there even when no one else is. Underneath it all, my brother loves me, completely. That's why he's my hero. There's no one else like Luke Danes. I only wish he knew that," Lorelai finishes quietly. She can recall the first time she met Liz, when Liz had told Lorelai how much she looked up to her brother, how much he meant to her. They had both commiserated over the fact that Luke was always the one to pull them out of their crazy jams. She couldn't have made it all these years without him and she, like Liz, only wishes he knew that.

When she's done reading, she tries to pull Luke back to their seats but he just wraps his arms around her, crying softly into her shoulder. He's doing what Luke Danes has never done, letting go in public. Maybe that's all it took, just the idea of losing everything he's ever cared about that can make a man do things he never thought he could do. As she holds him close, she glances back over her shoulder at the small child in her daughter's arms. How can she force him to give up the one thing he's got left in the world because of her pride? Why can't she just let go and do this for him, because it's what he needs? After what she did to him, breaking his trust, being unfaithful to his love, he deserves this one small allowance from her.

He probably deserves much more. After all, he had done nothing to earn her act of infidelity.