A/N: Well, here's chapter two. The story has a lot of views but no reviews so I'm not sure if it sucks and y'all are too nice to tell me or just nobody wants to review. I'm enjoying writing it so I guess that's what really matters, but really feedback good or bad would be greatly appreciated! As you know, I own nothing.

Going to the diner before work every morning became my new ritual over the next few months. I'd go in and get my cup of coffee and sometimes even get breakfast when I had the time. Over those few months I told myself I kept going back for the unbelievably good coffee, but I think I really went back to see Luke. Every day there was a new sort of banter. One day he would tell me that I was a caffeine junkie and that I'd have a heart attack by the time I reach thirty, the next day he's telling me red meat can kill me, and the next day he rants about my incessant talking and pop culture references. Even though all of his ranting digs were about me, it was nice to have someone who can think as quickly as I can and can spitfire right back at me. That probably has a lot to do with why I went back for lunch and dinner as well.

Over time Luke started to come out of his grumpy shell. Even though I hate to brag, I think that was a little bit of my doing. One unbelievably hot morning in June, the window in the potting shed wouldn't open and it was like an oven in there. The maintenance man was too busy to get it open for me that day, so as I was waiting for my dinner and coffee at the counter, I was thumbing through the yellow pages looking for a handyman to come unstick the window. When Luke asked why I was looking for a handyman I told him and he offered to come fix my window. After I ate, he left the diner in the capable hands of his new employee Cesar and grabbed his toolbox and followed me back to the Inn. He got the window unstick and he wouldn't even let me pay him for it. From then on, whenever I needed little things done, whether my door lock was broken, the breaks in my Jeep were making a funny noise, or when I needed someone to set up the new stereo speakers, Luke always offered to help.

I had known him about six months when I realized he was becoming (or had already become) my best friend. I told him things about my day when I would go get food, no matter how stupid these things were. He even opened up more too. He would tell me about how much he hated Taylor, and how he wished that "stupid Kirk kid" would stop coming into the diner and asking for a job. We had a nice rhythm going. We even shared a few moments (or what I thought were moments), like when I helped him paint the diner and we found one of his father's old orders scrawled along one of the walls. I thought he was going to kiss me that night but he didn't and I got so flustered I left and went home. I finally pieced together a few weeks later the real reason he never made a move.

I was working out in the town square at one of Taylor's latest projects to raise money for the bridge. We were supposed to get people to pledge money, and for every flower we planted that much money would get donated to the bridge fund (one of Taylor's dumber ideas). He left Kirk in charge of watering the planted flowers and instead of watering the flowers, the sprayer got out of control and Kirk watered me. I stalked to the diner in a huff to ask Luke if he had any towels. He told me there were towels upstairs and T-shirts in his top dresser drawer if I wanted something dry to put on. I went up and dried off and then started sorting through his T-shirts to find one I liked. At the bottom of the drawer there was a woman's tank top and hoodie. I decided to wear those instead of one of his shirts. I walked back down into the diner and thanked him for the change of clothes and he completely flipped out on me. He told me I had no right to wear what I had on and that I needed to go change into something else immediately. He was fuming mad and I had no choice but to go back up and change. I picked out one of his T-shirts and folded the other things back up and put them back in the drawer. Luke came up a few minutes later and apologized for his outburst. That was when we had our first real heart to heart talk. He told me about his long-time girlfriend Rachel. He told me they dated all through high school and she was his first love, but she had always loved the thought of getting out of Stars Hollow and traveling the world. Luke was sure she was all talk and not truly serious. She worked as a photographer for the Stars Hollow Gazette and they lived together in a small apartment. He was even considering buying a ring. Everything was going well until he came back from working in his father's store one day to empty drawers and a note on the table that said she had to get out and see the world. That tank top and hoodie were left behind in the closet. Luke even alluded to the fact that she left right around the time his father passed away and the whole time was the darkest spot in his whole life so far.

After this conversation, the entire dynamic of our friendship changed. We were no longer casual friends. He didn't just pour my coffee and fix my broken windows and I didn't just gripe to him about my stupid co-worker Michel and rely on him to pour my coffee. We were sharing important and painful details of our lives. We were the kind of friends that could "talk" about things. Nothing changed in our day-to-day routine but there was a sort of unspoken bond after that conversation that would be there for the rest of our lives.

The first day in seven months I missed going to Luke's was the anniversary of my daughter's birth and death. I commemorate it every year by driving up to Hartford to the family burial plots and visiting her. Then I stay home and eat ice cream and watch movies. I don't go to work, I don't associate with other people, I don't do anything. I woke up that morning from a vivid reoccurring dream. I'm holding my healthy baby daughter in my arms and suddenly her breathing stops and her face goes blue and the doctors are yanking her away from me. I always wake up crying from this dream. I was sitting in my bed and letting the cathartic tears flow when I heard a knock on my door. I knew it was probably Sookie bringing me breakfast because she knows I don't take care of myself properly on this day. I shuffle to the door and open it, never expecting to see Luke on the other side.

He's standing there with a to-go cup of coffee and a small bag that looks just big enough for a Danish. "Lorelai, what's wrong? Are you sick or hurt? You didn't come by the diner today and that's the first day in seven or eight months that you haven't come in. We didn't have a fight or anything so I wanted to check on you. I brought you coffee and a cherry Danish." For some reason, Luke's generosity and kindness make me weep more. I hear him put the cup and bag on the counter and then I feel him gently leading me back to the bed. We sit down and he lets me sob into his shoulder and he whispers to me that everything is going to be all right. When I'm finally able to calm myself down enough I tell him, "No, it's never going to be all right." I become hyper-aware of the fact his arm is around me and I'm leaning heavily on him, so I sit straight up rather quickly. "Do you wanna tell me what's got you so upset?" I take a deep breath. The only people I have told about my daughter aside from my parents and Christopher and his family was Sookie and Mia. Sharing this with Luke would mean that I trust him enough to let him inside of me where things are broken.

I nodded my head yes to him and then reached under the bed and pulled out the box. "Well Luke, you know I'm only twenty one. I'm really young to be out on my own and working at an Inn. I ran away from home at sixteen. Home was not the home I would have chosen for myself. My parents are rich, really rich. They come from a society where a young girl is supposed to wear ridiculous party dresses and be in cotillions and join stupid societies, and know the correct use for a million different types of forks. I always felt suffocated there." Luke watched me as I started to tell my story. I could see how he was trying to put the pieces together and figure out how smothering rich society could lead to my uncontrollable sobbing. "You see I always felt suffocated but that wasn't exactly the reason I left." I opened the box and pushed it towards Luke, and motioned for him to look through the box. He pulled each item out and laid them on the bed and I tried to keep my composure. "These are all baby items." Luke stated. "Yes, they are. I got pregnant very close to my fifteenth birthday. I was dating a boy named Christopher Hayden that I had known all my life. We liked to get into trouble together. We'd sneak out of my house and steal liquor from my parents' cabinet and even have sex out on the balcony of my bedroom. I was fourteen, almost fifteen years old and I had no idea what I was doing. I didn't even actually admit to myself that I was pregnant until I was fifteen and five months along, far enough along that I couldn't wear a bikini to the beach that summer because I was showing. Telling my parents I was pregnant was the hardest thing I ever had to do. They were shocked and horrified. Chris' parents wanted me to have an abortion. Their solution was that we get married when I turned sixteen and we would both finish high school, after high school Chris would go work at my father's company and I would be a stay at home mother and join the DAR and be exactly like my mother. I didn't want any of that."

I could see Luke's wheels still spinning. I knew he was trying to figure out what happened to the baby and how I ended up in Stars Hollow. "In the end, we didn't have to worry about any of that. I was eight months pregnant when I got really sick. It started off feeling like flu symptoms but it got worse. I had to go to the hospital. The doctors determined that it was something called Fifth Disease, which wasn't harmful to me, just caused my joints to swell and made me feel like I had the worst flu of my life. This Fifths Disease though is something called a parvovirus which can attack a fetus and cause a miscarriage. They ran a full workup on the baby and found out that she was already dead inside of me because of the virus." I looked up at Luke, which was a terrible mistake. The look of anguish on his face was enough to send me into another crying fit. He held me again until I was composed enough to continue the story.

"Because I was eight months pregnant, they couldn't remove the baby surgically like they do in most miscarriages that happen early on in pregnancy, so I had to deliver my baby, knowing she was already dead. They had to wait until I was over the Fifths disease and then they induced labor and I gave birth to my daughter, and today is the anniversary of that day. Labor is hard, it's painful and it's one of the hardest things a woman has to endure in her life. I will never be able to find the words to describe how hard it is to give birth to a baby knowing it's already dead and you will never get to share your life with it. There are just no words for that." I had to stop and breathe a few times before telling Luke the next part. "They cleaned her up and they let me hold her for awhile. I talked to her like she was alive. I told her she was beautiful and I told her that I loved her. Eventually the doctor came and took her away from me and told me she was sorry for my loss. We didn't have any sort of service for her, but she's buried at my family's burial plots in Hartford. "

Luke just sat there next to me. I was afraid that I had dumped too much on him, that he would finally see how crazy and broken I really am and bolt the other direction. It's true that we weren't in a relationship, but I didn't want to lose my friend Luke over this. He didn't say anything for a long time but finally asked me. "Did Christopher get to hold her when you were in the hospital? What did his parents say to you after all of this?" I laughed a bitter laugh. "Chris didn't even come to the hospital. He never saw his daughter. My parents called him when they were inducing me but he said it was better that he not come if the baby was already dead. His parents were relieved, their son was no longer tied to a "mistake" and he could go to Princeton and become a hotshot businessman like they always wanted. He came and visited me once a few months after this all happened. He told me he was sorry but it was just 'too hard'. I kicked him out of my house and haven't seen him since. "

Luke looked like fire was going to shoot from his eyes. "What a jackass that guy is. He didn't come because it was 'too hard'? Did he even think about you at all?" I shook my head no. "He's selfish. His parents were no better. My parent's at least tried to understand what I was going through. Whenever I would pass my father in the house for a few weeks afterwards he would stop and hug me, which is a strange and rare thing for him. My mother didn't really change much except for when I started having the nightmares. She slept in my room for two whole weeks after the incident while I was having nightmares that would relive the whole thing. I would wake up screaming and crying. She would never speak to me about them but she slept in a chair in my room and she would hold me until I stopped screaming. That was probably the kindest thing my mother ever did for me. After I stopped exhibiting outward signs of hysteria though that kindness stopped from both parents and they went on with life as usual and expected me to do the same. They talked about my coming out party and my graduation and which colleges I might want to attend."

Luke stared at me in disbelief that they would actually try to carry on with life as normal after something like that. He didn't say anything though so I did what I do best and continued talking. "After Chris' visit and my mother's pushing that evening at dinner to start writing my college entrance essays, I knew I had to leave. I couldn't stay in a world where everyone was pretending that this horrible thing never happened. So I ran. My parents went to some charity event that night after dinner. While they were gone I packed a suitcase and hopped on a bus and rode it until it reached the end of the line and the end of the line was Stars Hollow. I got off the bus and went to the Independence in where I was only planning to stay the night, but Mia mentioned something about needing maids so I applied for the job. She introduced me to Sookie's family who let me stay with them for two whole years, I moved into the potting shed when Sookie went away to culinary school."

Luke's expression was completely unreadable. I couldn't tell if he was mad or sad or scared or upset. "You're upset because this is the anniversary of your baby's birth and death. This is what some may call, your dark day?" I nodded at him, a somber look still on my face. "What do you normally do on your dark day? I go fishing and snap at people on the anniversary of my dad's death." I look up at Luke and realize he has just shared a very raw part of himself with me. "I go to my daughter's grave and then I hole up here and eat ice cream and watch movies and cry a lot." It's not until this moment that I realize Luke is patting my hand and that he is staring at me. He isn't looking at me with pity, but he is giving me a very intense stare. I don't know what compels me to do it but I hear myself asking, "Would you want to come with me, to the cemetery I mean? I'm always a little concerned about driving up there on this day since my head isn't exactly in the right place." I see Luke gulp and his Adam's apple bobs up and down. "Of course I'll come with you. The truck is parked right out front. Are you ready to go now or do you want me to step out while you get ready?" I look down at my grungy jeans and t-shirt and realize it's not getting much better than this today anyway. "No, I'm ready, we can go." I grab the coffee cup on the way out to his truck because I'll need a caffeine fix to get through this. Luke opens the passenger side door for me before going over and getting in the driver's side. He pulls out of the Inn parking lot and tells me I can play anything I want on the radio. I turn the dial to a random rock station and stare out the window. I give Luke directions to the cemetery and when we get there I direct him towards the plot. We stopped at a flower shop on the way and I got some roses to put on the grave. Luke got a single daisy and told me he felt strange not coming with anything since it was her birthday and all.

I walked the familiar path to the grave and Luke followed behind me. He wasn't too close that it felt uncomfortable but he wasn't too far behind in case I needed him. Something about him knowing the exact distance to follow me at made my heart flutter. We arrived at the gravesite and I ran my fingers over the name on the stone: "Lorelai Leigh Gilmore". I placed the roses on top of the stone and sunk to my knees in the grass. I felt Luke brush past me and drop the daisy on the stone and then he put a hand on my shoulder. I turned around to address him. "I usually talk to her, is that okay? I don't want to weird you out." Luke just squeezed my shoulder. "This day is about you and your daughter, just act like I'm not here." He then took his hand from my shoulder and took a few steps back.

"Hey baby girl. Gosh you would have been seven today, you would be in the first grade. I honestly don't know where the time goes. I hope you know I think about you every day. I know I only come to visit once a year but I did bring your flowers, seven roses for a beautiful seven-year-old girl. This year you have another special flower, it's from Luke." I motion for Luke to come back over with me. "Luke don't get to weirded out by this because I talk to her like she's actually here with us." Luke just nods at me. "This is Luke baby girl. He makes really good coffee and the best food. I know you would have liked him. He brought you a flower because he said everybody deserves to get birthday presents." I start crying again and Luke kneels down in the grass and puts his arm around my shoulders. Something about having him here makes this all seem easier and I calm down quicker than I usually do. "I love you baby girl. Now I'm going to go home and celebrate with ice cream and movies like I always do. Just remember you're beautiful and mommy loves you." I run my fingers over the name again and kiss the stone. I stand up and face Luke. "I'm ready to go now. Thank you so much for bringing me." I reach out and hug Luke. He's stiff at first and I know it's because he's stunned by my hug but he eventually loosens up and hugs back. I'm just pulling back when I feel the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. I start to turn around to see why I'm getting the sudden creepy feeling but before I can see what's behind me I hear someone say "Lorelai?" I don't need to finish turning around to know that voice belongs to my mother, Emily Gilmore.

A/N: Dun Dun Dun, Emily Alert! So this is a sad and sappy story. Sorry it's so… out there, I have to write what comes into my head. Reviews pretty please, they're my coffee!