Luke woke up and rolled over onto his back. Something was wrong. His chest ached, his shoulders and neck too and his lower back was pulsating with a low dull pain. But he couldn't help but smile. He lay awake for a few moments, interlocked his hands behind his head and stared up at the ceiling. Never in a million years did he think he would be waking up, naked, in Lorelai Gilmores's bed. He had to admit he had thought of it before, wondered what it would be like and now that he was here he couldn't help but feel like something was wrong, something was missing.

Of course he knew what it was. The fact that she was not lying beside him was one major difference between this reality and his oft fantasy version of this. He chuckled but immediately regretted it as the laugh turned into a coughing fit. He sat up and threw his legs out of the bed. He gripped the edge of the mattress as he tried to regain control of his lungs but the cough had taken over and he just had to ride it out, each spasm causing more and more pain to shoot across his back and his chest.

"Luke?" her call came from downstairs but he couldn't control his voice to call out to her to tell her everything was ok. He heard her footsteps approaching hurriedly up the stairs and she paused only long enough to knock lightly on the door before pushing it open and coming to kneel before him. "Hey, hey now. relax…"

She put a hand on his shoulder and rubbed it down his arm. She had a glass of water in her other hand and passed it to him but he waited for the coughs to subside before risking taking a drink in case he did a spit take all over her. Eventually he regained control of his lungs, he took a few deep breaths and then sipped the water she had handed him.

"You ok?" He nodded, not trusting himself to talk yet. "Take your inhaler."

He cast her a look of annoyance but took the inhaler from the bedside table and took two puffs.

"Happy?"

She nodded and smiled. Her hand had come down his arm and she was holding his wrist. He suddenly became very aware of how naked he was and shifted his legs then pulled the duvet over himself a bit more.

"Oh…Sorry, I'll just…yeah" she stood up and backed away from him then quickly turned and walked away, closing the bedroom door behind her.

Luke dry washed his face with both hands then stood up and dropped the duvet to the floor, only for her to knock on the door again and push it open without waiting for him to call her in.

"Hey, your shorts and tee are washed and dried, I folded them-"

"Hey, wait!" He dove for the duvet again but it had dropped to the floor so he grabbed a pillow instead and used it to cover his modesty.

"Oh!" She dropped his clothes on the floor and covered her face with both hands. "I didn't see, I didn't see!"

"Get out!"

"Sorry!" She backed away but walked into the chest of drawers, then tried again and hit the door slamming it closed behind her. She tried to open it with her eyes screwed shut but her hand fumbled for the door knob and she kept missing it.

"Lorelai…" but she ignored him and continued to try and escape the room without opening her eyes. "Lorelai, stop before you hurt yourself." He walked over to her and put a hand on her shoulder to halt her frantic gestations. Then holding the pillow against his front securely he reached behind her and opened the door.

"Thanks." She tried to back away from the room again, still without opening her eyes and walked into the chest of drawers again, then tried another direction and banged her shoulder into his chest, making him grunt in pain.

"Open your eyes," he said and he gripped her elbow to stop her from moving away. "Before you hurt yourself, or worse… me."

She smiled and lowered her hands from her face then opened one eye to get her surroundings. She was standing really close to him, her shoulder brushing his chest. She opened her other eye and smiled shyly.

"Sorry."

"It's ok."

"I'll eh," she couldn't help it. Her eyes dropped from his face, down his chest to the pillow he was holding securely against himself. "Yeah, I'll just leave." She turned on her heel and walked away and he closed the door behind her then leaned back on it, not realising she was doing the same on the other side.

Luke showered and dressed then carried his sneakers with him down to the kitchen where he found her standing against the sink sipping coffee. She smiled wanly at him as he approached and offered him a tea.

"Tea? Do you even have any?"

"Yeah, somewhere, it's been here for a while though and I'm pretty sure it came over on the mayflower with the British."

"I'll pass."

"How are you feeling this morning?"

"Ok." He didn't want to tell her his back was aching, his shoulders pulsating, his neck was twisted and his lungs felt like he was breaking through a deep diving snorkel and every breath took tremendous effort. She nodded as if she could hear his thoughts and knew his dismissal of her question was a front.

"So what's on the agenda for this fine Sunday?" She opened the fridge and offered him a carton of orange juice.

"Get to work on the diner." He nodded and took the glass of juice she poured for him. "I have a contractor arriving in an hour and a skip in about 30 minutes."

"On a Sunday?"

"Yeah, it took some finagling."

"I bet."

"So yeah, I better get down there." He put the empty glass on the table and sat down to put on his sneakers. He slipped them on without tying them then stood and brushed down his clothes.

"Oh here, in case you need it." She brushed past him and went to the key holder by the front door. She searched through various bunches of keys then found what she was looking for and passed it to him. "Spare key."

"Oh, well I don't think I'll need it."

"Luke, we've already had this conversation. I'm not letting you sleep in that diner, or that apartment until it's been cleared up. You're lungs are bad enough without sleeping there."

"Ok, thanks." His grip on the keys tightened and he smiled then hurried out the door and closed it behind him.

By lunch time Luke was fit to collapse. His chest was aching worse than he thought possible. He was wearing a filter mask over his mouth and nose and was working with the contractors to clear out the burned rubble from the diner. Another group of contractors were pulling down the ceiling from the kitchen. He had given full instructions on what he wanted and he even pulled the sidewall of the counter where his father had written the order out. He put it in the large safe in the apartment then got back to sifting through his belongings to see what was useable.

When Lorelai came by with a large tray of coffee and sandwiches from the Inn she called out to the workers in the diner to "come get it" and he smiled as he approached. He had pulled his mask down off his face and the clothes he was wearing were filthy again.

"Thanks for this, you didn't need to. You've already done so much."

"I've always wanted to shout that at a group of working men."

"Come get it?"

She waggled his eyebrows at him then passed him a cup. "For you."

"I don't drink coffee."

"It's tea. Lemon tea to help with your asthma. Apparently the bitter taste helps to open up your airways."

"Oh!" He was surprised that she had gone to this trouble as he took the cup and gingerly sipped it. "Whoa, that is bitter."

"How's it goin in there?"

"Slowly. But making progress."

"I see your clothes are holding up well."

He looked down at himself and the state of his clothes and shrugged. "They are going to get a hell of a lot worse before they get better."

"You need new clothes."

"I don't have time to go shopping."

"Let me!" she yelled out, garnering attention from the group of contractors that were eating sandwiches next to them. "Oh Luke let me go shopping for you."

"No, its fine. I'll call up Jakes store later and put an order in."

"Jakes? The fishing tackle shop?"

"They have clothes too."

"Luke!" She swatted his arm and he wasn't sure if the look of annoyance on her face was real or mocking.

"What! It's temporary until I have time to go shopping."

"I have time. Let me. What are you a 38 long in the pants? XL tops neck about 17 inches?"

"Eh yeah, actually, how did you know?"

"I secretly measured you in your sleep last night." He had lifted the cup to take a sip when she spoke and the cup hovered against his lips. "So I'll go shopping now and drop some stuff back to the house, no point in bringing them here."

"Okay, but just the bare essentials. Jeans, tops, a shirt or two."

"You usually go commando?" she said.

"Not on purpose no." He sipped his cup and looked away from her smile. "Oh and take this." He handed her his wallet. "Credit card is in there, somewhere."

"Yay!" She clapped her hands and smiled widely then without waiting for him to change her mind she raced off and left him watching after her.

For the rest of the day Luke kept sifting through his belongings, making two piles of stuff he could keep and stuff he needed to toss out. Unfortunately the tossing pile was 90% of his belongings with only a few utensils and keepsakes making it into the keep pile. And even then he thought it was only because he wasn't ready to part with them, rather than their actual usefulness. And all the while he wondered what she was doing. What she was buying him and what would be greeting him when he got back to her place later.

The contracting crew clocked out at about 6 but he stayed on a while longer to finish up but as the dust became too much and he fell into his third coughing fit in an hour he decided to call it quits. He turned off the construction lights and tossed his face mask into the bin then climbed into his truck and made his way back to Lorelai's house. He had the keys in his pocket and as he approached the porch he wondered if he should use them or knock. Her jeep was parked in the drive and he could hear music playing from inside. It seemed rude to just barge in but he wasn't sure if she would hear him knocking so he took the keys out of his pocket and made as much noise as he could to announce his arrival.

She was playing some fast rock music he didn't recognise and dancing around her kitchen, using a wooden spoon as a makeshift microphone. Her hips swayed from side to side in time with the music and he found himself leaning against the archway watching her with a smile. She continued to dance and sing only noticing him when the song ended and she twirled around for her final flair.

"Oh! You're home. I mean, back, you're back." She tossed the spoon over her shoulder into the sink and brushed her hair down and tucked it behind her ears. "How did it go?"

"It was good. Got a lot done."

"How long do you think it will be before you can open up again?"

"Shouldn't be too long. Maybe a week or two."

"Anything salvageable?"

"Nothing much." He bowed his head and she wanted to reach out and comfort him but from the look she caught on his face before he looked away she thought he was up to here with sympathetic pats on the shoulder and understanding looks.

"I left your things up in your room."

"Oh, ok. Thanks." He straightened up off the wall. "I guess I'll go take a shower and change."

"You hungry? I'll get dinner ready." She said making him stop in his tracks and turn back to face her with an eyebrow arched. "I didn't mean cook…I meant order." She clarified and he smiled crookedly.

"No, let me, it's the least I can do."

"Luke its fine. You go, go shower, change, I'll arrange dinner." She ushered him up the stairs and took the phone off the cradle then fell back onto the couch.

He could hear her talking to Mike from the Chinese takeout on main street and smiled at the argument she was having with him over her choice.

In the room he found a few shopping bags on the bed and went over to inspect her purchases before turning on the shower, almost dreading what he was going to find. From the first bag he pulled out a pair of navy jeans. He turned them around in his hands and found them to be normal, with no designer stitches or patches. He checked the bag again and found another pair of soft blue denim jeans and a pack of plan black cotton tee-shirts. The next bag had a red and blue check flannel shirt and a plan blue cotton one. A third bag had a pair of heavy duty cargo pants and a olive green long sleeve cotton top he knew she had bought for him to wear while working at the diner. And the final bag had a couple of multipacks of socks and a mixture of boxers and briefs. He smiled at her purchases and wondered how long she deliberated over the boxers and briefs question before stepping into the shower.

Every part of his body ached. Muscles screamed in pain every time he moved his arms and his back seemed to creak and wail with every movement he made. He dried off and dressed in the soft blue jeans and the red and blue check shirt and wondered how she got them so perfectly fitting. He knew when he went shopping, which was hardly ever, he always took ages to select the right size. With a soft laugh and a shake of his head he pulled on a pair of socks and went down to the living room. She was lying across the couch, remote in one hand, phone in the other. She was talking to someone, he didn't know who, and rather than bustling in he stepped into the kitchen and poured himself a glass of water then added ice from the freezer.

Without needing to check, he got her a refill of coffee and then walked back to the living room. She smiled and mouthed "Thank you" as he placed the coffee before her and started to move her legs aside to make room for him but he silently waved her off and sat on the floor in front of the couch. The TV had been muted so he sat there trying not to listen to her call. He thumbed his way through the TV guide as she talked.

"No, its fine, we're just waiting for Chinese food to arrive, which should be any minute…" she laughed at something the person on the other side said and threw her head back against the couch. "Okay, maybe tomorrow, I'll see. Okay, thanks, see ya."

She hung up the phone and tossed it onto the table. "That was Sookie. She wanted us to come round for dinner."

"Oh."

"But I told her we had Chinese food coming."0

"Ok."

"How are you feeling?"

"Ok."

"Great, now that the chatty part of the evening has concluded, let's get to the main feature!" she grabbed the remote and pressed play. Luke tried to concentrate on the credits but she kept talking. "So the clothes fit ok?"

"Yeah! Perfectly actually."

"And I trust everything was to your taste?" she asked, clearly fishing for information on the boxers or briefs debate she had had with herself that morning.

"Yeah, its fine. Thank you."

"Great. I'd hate to think I bought you something that you don't normally wear."

"No, its fine." He knew what she was doing but he was enjoying keeping her in the dark too much to let her off the hook.

Before she could dig for more information the doorbell rang. Luke made to get up to answer it but the pain in his back flared up forcing him back down.

"I'll get it, don't move." She jumped off the couch and collected the food from the delivery boy then deposited it onto the table beside him. She hurried into the kitchen to grab plates and a couple of beers then joined him on the floor. "So, tonight's movie-"

"Do you watch a movie every night?"

"Yeah." She replied quickly as if she anticipated the question. "Tonight we're watching an Alfred Hitchcock classic called Rope." He nodded as she spoke about the movie as if he understood the references she brought up and the anecdotes she used to sell the movie to him but he couldn't have cared if they sat there watching static of a broken TV channel. He just wanted to switch off. He took the plate of food she offered him, sipped his beer and just tried to relax.

She chatted idly throughout the movie and he didn't even have the energy to tell her to be quiet. He was sure she knew her talking was annoying him and it was as if she was trying to see how far she could push him but tonight, tonight she could push him forever and he wasn't going to fight. He didn't have it in him. When they ate all the food she cleared away the boxes, swatting his hands away to stop him from helping. Then when she returned she sat on the couch with her legs on the floor beside where he was sitting. As the closing credits came up on the screen Luke let out a sigh.

"It wasn't that bad was it?" she swatted his shoulder making him wince. "Oh sorry… you're neck still sore?"

"A bit."

"I have a muscle cream for that if you want it."

"Yeah, that'd be great." She went into the kitchen and rummaged through the first aid box until she found what she was looking for then hurried back to his side started to unscrew the cap. He held out her hand for the tube but she pulled it back out of his reach "Luke you can barely move your arms, how are you going to rub this across your shoulders?"

He acquiesced to her point and dropped his hands onto his lap. She pulled on the collar of his shirt but it wasn't enough.

"Take it off."

"Huh?"

"Take it off Luke, you've had that new shirt on for an hour, you really want to get this muscle cream all over it? You know you only have one other shirt."

"Okay, okay!" He unbuttoned his shirt and pulled it down off his shoulders but left it around his back just below his shoulder blades.

"What are you some sort of puritan? Take it off Luke!" She squeezed out a dollop of the cream onto her fingers and rubbed her hands together until he pulled the shirt off and bundled it up on his lap. "Better."

She spread the cream across the top of his shoulders and rubbed it in in small circles with her thumbs. He lowered his chin to his chest to give her more access to the top of his shoulders and his neck. She repositioned herself on the couch behind him, folded her legs beneath herself and pushed him forward a little to reach lower on his back.

"How is that? Feel better?"

"Mmm Hmm."

He tried to think of her as a doctor or a nurse, her fingers merely probing his back in a medical fashion but that didn't help, all of a sudden he couldn't get the image of her in a nurse's uniform out of his mind. He shifted on the floor as her fingers gripped his shoulders tighter, her thumbs working magic on the knot of muscles that had spasmed there a few days ago.

"Wow Luke, you are ridiculously tight here. You must be in agony."

"It's not so bad."

"Yeah right." With one hand on his shoulder to hold him in place she let the other trail down the centre of his back to another knot at the bottom of his ribs. "What have you been sleeping on?"

"My bed!"

"Which I presume is a pile of rocks."

"I fell asleep in the armchair the other night."

"Oh, that'll do it. Can't fall asleep in an armchair and expect to brush it off the next morning any more, old man."

"Less of the old man."

She chuckled with him but his laugh soon turned into a cough. She stopped rubbing his back, leaned forward and put her legs down either side of him. She rested one hand on his shoulder and the other flat against his back as he rode out the coughing spasm that turned his face red. "It's ok, relax…" she said softly as she patted his back and helped regain his composure. Finally when his coughing stopped he leaned back into the couch and panted to catch his breath. Only then realising what position they were sitting, with him on the floor and her on the couch, her legs either side of him and he nestled back against her.

"Thanks." He said as she scrambled to his feet and stood before her.

"You ok?" She stood up with him. "Maybe you should go to the doctors again and get a cough bottle?"

"Yeah, maybe I will tomorrow. But right now…"

"Bed."

"Yeah, it's getting late." She slipped her hands into the back pockets of her jeans and rocked back and forth on her feet. He held his shirt in his hands in a crumpled mess.

"So, yeah, thanks. G'night." He all but turned and bolted up the stairs leaving her smiling wistfully in her living room. Luke stripped and fell into bed and before he could spend any time contemplating the evening he had just spent he fell asleep.

Lorelai cleared up their mess form the living room and washed the dishes in the sink. It was only the second night he had stayed here and already she was so comfortable with him around. He was an easy house guest. Quiet, undemanding and she couldn't help but admit that he made her feel safe. But there was something amiss. He wasn't like himself. He was almost sheepish around her. He avoided looking at her, his usual monosyllabic responses seemed more monosyllabic than normal. He wasn't getting angry with her, he wasn't bickering or fighting like he usually would. The dance of words they usually took part in was now a sombre waltz than the usual, almost sensual cha-cha-cha.

She knew he was going through a tough time. His diner meant everything to him. He was trying to put on a front and stay strong but not having his own place to go home to, his own space and a place to get away from prying questions and looks meant he was trapped in this façade of "everything being ok" when in reality she knew he must want to scream.

She thought about how she could make him feel better, but realised this was exactly why he was feeling trapped. He needed to work this out on his own without her watching him and she decided she would give him all the space he needed. She locked up, turned off the lights and went to bed.

A/N: Just in case its not wholly obvious, I have no idea about construction or repair to structures. Don't cringe at how I make Luke handle it :)