Title: Hindsight
Author: Karleen
Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with Warner Brothers, Amy Sherman-Palladino, Dorothy Parker Drank Here Productions and Hofflund/Polone. This was just written for fun.

Chapter Three: Home Is Where Your Heart Lied, Literally

They went to the doctor twice every week, to see how his eyes were doing. He was told that his sensory was improving but Luke could still not see. His eyes suffered a terrible blow but the doctor reassured that things will eventually get back to normal, he just had to be patient. It took a while before Liz told Luke about the arrangement, well minus the a little detail, Lorelai. She just told him that she'd found someone reliable.

"I don't need anyone looking after me!" he yelled.

"For the time being you do." she said in a calm voice.

"I don't know why you keep pressing the issue. You can leave me there. I can take care of myself."

"How are you going to do that when you can't even see a thing?"

"I've lived there long enough to know my way around."

"I can't just leave you alone."

"I am alone now." said in a bitter tone

"I know but..." .

"Fine."

After days of disagreement, he'd succumbed to the arrangement. Liz persisted to a point where he didn't feel like arguing with her anymore.

- - - - -

"Hey Lor!" Chris said as he stepped in her office.

"What are you doing here? It's still early."

"I know, but aren't we having our lunch date since you've been so busy?" he asked.

"Oh." she was so distracted that she forgot. "I .. uh.. I'm sorry I can't today, I'm just swamped with work." It wasn't a stretch out of the truth, she did have a lot of work to do. She also had a lot in her mind.

"Not even for ten minutes?" he pleaded.

"Five." she forced a smile on her face.

- - - - -

"Ok so here we are at your old place." she said as TJ helped Luke up the stairs and led him to sit on his bed. His apartment looked exactly the same, dark and disheveled. "We're leaving tonight so is there any last minute things you want us to get you?"

"No" he responded as he leaned back on his pillow and took a deep breath. He knew agreeing to this was going to drive him insane and not knowing who's going to monitor his movements was bugged him. "Who's coming to check up on me? You just managed to skip that part." he mumbled.

He heard her sigh as she sat next to him.

"You didn't hire Kirk, did you?"

"No. Now that would've been funny." she joked.

"Patty?"

"No."

"Then who is it? The least you can do for me is tell me who's going to be checking up on me." Then a daunting realization came over him, he wasn't a dunce after all. "Tell me you didn't talk to Lorelai" he said as she placed her hand on his arm.

"I had no other choice!" she said and he drew his arms away from her.

"She knows about this?" he questioned angrily as he pointed to his bandage.

"Yes." she said pointedly. "I was not going to leave you with someone like Kirk to take care of you, or anyone in this town for that matter. I knew you didn't want any gossip mongrels looking after you. Anna was out of the question since you haven't had contact ...

"I haven't had contact with Lorelai either."

"I knew you two broke up but I also know that you still care about each other."

"That was a long time ago, it's different now."

"She still cares Luke. That's why she'd agreed to do this after she saw..."

"When?"

"When, what?"

"When did she, when did you talk to her?"

"A month ago. I went to the Dragonfly and asked her to look after you. Just check in from time to time."

"You shouldn't have done that. You didn't have the right to do that to either of us!" he knew he was defeated. She was going to be there to see how he's doing until Liz and TJ come back from the faire.

- - - - -

She left the Dragonfly early and asked Sookie to pack her a dinner for two. She parked her Jeep in front of her house and walked toward the diner for what seemed like the first in a long time. She felt her heart race as she neared the door as if it was the last door she was going to open. The sound of the key clicked loudly as she entered the dark apartment, his apartment. He was asleep on his bed as she walked in soundlessly. She took in a breath and felt herself quiver as this scent brought back all the memories she pushed away.

- - - - -

He shifted in his sleep and whimpered from time to time. She sat on his couch but knew that she couldn't just go next to him and startle him.

It was a quarter to midnight and Luke had woken up. He lifted his head from the pillow and sat up from his sleeping position. He heard her breathing steadily and figured that she was asleep. He got up to go to the bathroom but had forgotten that he wasn't at Liz's anymore. He walked right into one of his dining room chairs which caused it to fall over and create a loud thud which immediately woke Lorelai up.

"Shit!" he said as he padded his way back up to stand.

"Luke are you ok?" It had been a long time since he'd heard her voice and he didn't want to admit to have missed it.

"I'm fine." he said as he tried to walk back to his bed but stumbled on his luggage. "Damnit!"

"Did you want to go to the bathroom?" she asked as she slowly neared him.

"I said I'm fine." he didn't move this time.

"I'm here to help you. Whatever you need." she said softly as she tried to help him up but instead he brushed off her hand.

"I can do this myself." he walked back to where his bed was and stumbled through again.

- - - - -

Paul anka was usually a friendly dog. He'd let Babbette, Miss Patty and even Kirk pet him when they approached him but he was different around Christopher. He didn't go near him at all. When he would pick Lorelai up to go out, Paul anka would often disappear into the garage and would only come out when Lorelai reassured him that he was no longer in the house. He was a fickle dog, rightly so since he'd hadn't had a decent burger since Luke had been around, or so that's what Lorelai thought a while back.

Chris parked his car next to her jeep. He rang the bell a couple of times but there was no answer. He tried to call her again but he didn't get a response from that either. Paul anka rushed to the window and started to bark at him loud enough to wake Babbette up.

"Who's there?" she opened her window and snuck her sleepy head out to see what the ruckus was about.

"It's just me, Babbette. You know how Paul anka hasn't grown to liking me yet."

"Oh don't we know it." she said under her breath.

"Do you know where Lorelai is?"

"She's probably asleep, suga'." she paused. "and we're trying to do the same here."

"Sorry for the noise." he said. "I guess I'm just gonna go home." as soon as he was out of sight from Paul anka, the barking seized.

- - - - -

The sun pried through the gray drapes. She'd slept on the bed that Jess used to sleep on and Luke was still deep in his slumber on his bed. Her phone began to ring and she rushed to her purse before it becomes loud enough to wake Luke up.

"Hello?" she answered in a hushed tone.

"Lor, are you ok?" immediately, more like a reflex, she rose from her seat and walked towards the hallway.

"Chris..." she said and closed the door behind her.

"Yeah, where are you?"

"I'm at... home." not wanting to explain.

"That dog of yours needs to be trained more."

"What are you talking about?"

"It started barking at me when it saw me."

"He, Chris, he's a boy." she defended.

"Why didn't you open the door last night?

"I was just really tired." and that goes for many ways. She was tired and exhausted about anything related to Christopher, she was tired of pretending to be happy when she's really not. "You can't just randomly expect me to open my door every time you show up. I have to get ready to go to work."

"So I'll see you tonight then?"

"No, not tonight, I'm busy."

"We haven't gone out in a while Lor. What's going on?"

"I have to go Chris." she hung up, went back inside, and saw that Luke was awake.

She went straight to his fridge and got out the plate of lamb chops, and vegetable gratin and placed it in the microwave. "I'll put it on your right night stand so it'll be easier for you to access it."

He didn't say anything in response.

She placed his cell phone on his hand. "Call if you need anything. I'll be back at seven."

You don't have to put up a fight
You don't have to always be right
Let me take some of the punches
For you tonight

Listen to me now
I need to let you know
You don't have to go it alone

And it's you when I look in the mirror
And it's you when I don't pick up the phone

U2- Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own