A/N Thanks for sticking with the story, here is the rest of the last chapter, it was too long for one. Thanks for reading and reviewing.

I own nothing

Ch 30 A Priceless Pardon

The next morning Lorelai wakes up to the lovely feeling of being on the brink and she focuses on fingers and kisses on her body, she moans with delight and rides it out. As she is coming down the gentle touches and mouth on her body starts up again and she is waiting for him to join her, but when she reaches for him she realizes that he is still clothed and last night comes rushing back to her. Taking Luke's hands off her she says, "No, Luke," and sits up, pulling the flannel around her. "I need coffee before we start and we aren't leaving here until we get whatever this is settled. Damn I need coffee."

Luke gets up and pours her a cup, afraid to say a word.

Lorelai drinks half the cup and looks at him, "OK, I get the Neanderthal part of last night, something happened that was too much for you to deal with, and so you shut down. I wasn't really happy about being used, but if you let me know what happened I might be able to process it. But bringing me to orgasm as if you're a sex toy is just as bad as what occurred last night."

"Lorelai, I'm so sorry, I can't tell you how sorry I am. Please forgive me." Luke couldn't even look Lorelai in the eye and he again hung his head. "I'll do anything to make this up to you, anything you want. You want me to go to festivals for the rest of our lives you got it, you want chocolate chip pancakes without complaint just ask, please, tell me what I can do to erase this horrible mistake. Please."

"OK, let's start with what happened when you left last night?"

"Well, I went to Miss Patty's and Rachel was still there, a little worse for wear. I asked her if she had," Luke chokes a bit, "aborted my child and she said no."

"Luke, I heard her and so did everyone else." Luke held up his hand and Lorelai stopped.

"It wasn't mine. About three months after dad died Rachel got an assignment from a scientific magazine to photograph some animal and their mating pattern for a month in the rainforest of Belize. She was going with a writer named Sandy Chapman, me being a naïve idiot, I thought Sandy was another woman, turns out he was married and they waited a whole week before starting their affair. She returned to Stars Hollow for another six weeks and then left for good for the first time."

"Sandy didn't want the baby, and she couldn't see herself in the role of mother, apparently she could see herself in the role of adulteress, just not mommy."

Luke started to laugh, a dry, forced laugh, "Here's the kicker, she said you weren't any better than she was. Last night she showed me a couple of pictures she took at the Firelight Festival and showed me how you were cheating on me yourself."

Lorelai yelled, "What!"

Luke calmed her down, "It was a picture of us after your parent's dinner. She didn't recognize me in the corporate uniform so she thought you had picked up some guy and were flaunting him in my territory. Last night when I realized that you were standing naked in front of me that little bit of misinformation had become this huge doubt and somehow you and Rachel got twisted up in my mind and a whisper that she was right played into my being incredibly selfish."

"Jeeze! What the hell did I ever do to this woman?"

"Apparently you agreed to marry me, does that hold true today?" Luke didn't want to ask that last question, but he had to know how badly he screwed up. "How can I make this up to you? Please Lorelai, tell me."

Lorelai sighed, "Luke, I don't want to say this, but there is nothing that you or I can do to undo your act last night. What's the cliché? You can't unring a bell? It happened, I'm not pleased, but I realize that you weren't you at the time."

"Lorelai, I need to do something to stop feeling this horrible. Please let me do something, anything that might help."

"Hon, what we have together is so amazing, that to not seek to pleasure each other as well as ourselves will feel horrible, out of balance. But there is something I want that you can give me."

"Lorelai, if you wanted the moon I'd find a way to give it to you. Anything you want."

"Well, George, I don't want you to lasso the moon, but I want you to marry me."

Luke gathered her in his arms for the first time since before dinner last night and held her tight. "Lorelai I'm going to marry you. I'm so happy you still want to marry me."

"Wait, babe, I want to marry you March 24th. That weekend at the Inn is open and it's the week of Spring Break so no Motel 6 and home. A full nine days for a honeymoon and we can go anywhere you want as long as we don't go out of the room."

"Lorelai, that's about eight weeks away. Why do you want to get married so soon?"

"Well to quote When Harry Met Sally, 'because when you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible.' If we wait until August that means there are going to be nights we spend apart because both of us will have teenagers we have to be responsible for and not living in the same house will mean sleeping in two different beds. I want to have kids with you and if we wait until August there are five months we will miss. Besides that, you said, whatever I want and I want this." Lorelai kissed him deeply.

Luke responded and led her to the bed. "Lorelai, would you let me make love to you?"

"Dear God yes!" She laughed throatily.

Luke took his time, murmuring words of repentance and love with every kiss, bringing Lorelai to the brink but waiting until he was also on his way to send them both over. Afterwards they lay together Luke holding Lorelai in his arms. "March 24th huh?"

"Hee hee, yep." Lorelai is feeling a hundred percent better sense they regained their balance.

"Now I would like you do to something for me, please?"

"Uh, huh, what?"

"If there is any way that you could use someone else to help plan the wedding would you please do it?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I know Sookie will probably do the food,"

"And cake,"

"And cake, but I know you, are you going to look for your dress or make it?"

Lorelai looked at him, "What if I say I'm going to make it?"

"Then I'd ask that you use a pattern maker and seamstress to help you put it together, still your design, just less stress and you're still taking classes at the business college. Please?"

"I'll think about it, do you have any other suggestions?"

"Not at the moment, I think I'm just so damn happy that you're able to forgive me, no matter what Rachel said."

"OK, what the hell did that mean?"

"Rachel said that someday I'd really screw up and you wouldn't forgive me. Last night I thought I had done it, an unforgivable act. To treat what we have so callously, as if it didn't matter, I didn't know how I was ever going to make it up to you, and I guess I won't, huh? But you do forgive me?"

"Oh, Luke, absolutely I forgive you, I was so upset earlier when I thought you had hid this information and I felt so bad when I realize that you had no clue, so, we both have things to be forgiven for."

"I hate to take this into the real world, but we need to get up and moving, Jess is coming in today and it might be nice for us to be there."

"Yep, and I have to let my mother know that we are moving the wedding up."

"You know she'll think I got you pregnant already." Luke looked at Lorelai concerned, "This won't make her like me more."

Lorelai laughed, "Yeah, but since it's so soon it might keep the reigning Lorelai from attending, so she should love you."

"Who?"

"My grandmother, Lorelai Beatrix Gilmore, Gran to me, Trix to everyone except my mom, who has to call her Mom Gilmore, not even my dad calls her Mom, he calls her Trix."

"Your mother doesn't like her?"

"Makes your relationship with my mom look like a love affair."

"Wow."

"Yep, so we may be able to sell it on that note alone. Or, it will give Gran one more thing to criticize my mother on, which case it will be fun to watch." Lorelai kissed his cheek as she picked up her clothes from last night and got dressed.

Lorelai and Luke went back up to the main house, it was only seven o'clock and Lorelai looked at Luke, "We've been up for at least an hour, right?"

"Yes."

Lorelai smacked him on his arm, "Ouch! What was that for?" Luke rubbed his arm.

"I got up at six o'clock on a Sunday!"

"I take it that isn't something you're going to want to do on a regular basis?" Luke laughed.

"You are so making chocolate chip pancakes mister!" Lorelai laughed and went up stairs to shower and change.

As she went up Luke whispered, "With pleasure, every day of my life."

About an hour later Rory got up to the sounds of Lorelai teasing Luke. "Some days I feel like I live in a psych ward filled with bipolar patients. So what is the manic phase of this day?" She asked as she gathered a cup of coffee.

"We're getting married." Lorelai giggled.

"Hey Morse, even the telegraph is slow sometimes, got that memo, what's new?"

"We're getting married March 24th." Lorelai let this sink in and it took three seconds for Rory to respond.

"Are you pregnant?"

"Aw, jeeze! See everyone will think that!"

"I don't care, I got my wedding day fair and square, I don't care what people think. When we don't have a baby seven months later, they'll figure it out."

Suddenly Rory's coffee kicked in, "Oh, My, God! We have so much to do! How can you just sit here calmly and not be freaking out?"

"Because quite frankly if we show up in jeans and are married by a justice of the peace I don't care, as long as we're married." Lorelai was just happy to know she had a wedding date that actually felt like a wedding date.

Luke was going to wait for Jess and Rory was going to study at the new house. Lorelai had her suspicions about why she was waiting at the house, but she felt like focusing on happy times today. She headed in to the Inn to tell Sookie about the new wedding date, "Hey Sookie, have you come up with any ideas about the cake yet?"

"Well, a few preliminary sketches, but we have what seven months?"

"Try eight weeks."

"What! What happened?"

"We moved the wedding date up to March 24th."

"Why? Oh, Lorelai! Your pregnant!"

"No, Sookie, I just want to get married and August is too far away. Luke finally agreed to get married on the week I go on Spring Break, that's all."

"Oh, Lorelai, I'm so happy for you! Oh, did Luke tell you what happened after you left? He came to see Rachel and apparently they got into a screaming match in the middle of Patty's dance studio." Sookie dropped her voice and got even more excited, "Rachel left this morning, she dropped off an envelope for you though. It's on your desk."

Lorelai grabbed a bottle of water and went into her office. There on her desk was a large manila envelope with a note attached.

The note read, "Lorelai, I found this roll of film in the bottom of my case this morning, I hadn't developed it or I wouldn't have worried about Luke. The camera sees things the human eye tends to miss. The amount of devotion you have for each other is evident in this picture. Keep it in view and never let this go. Tell Luke I hope he'll forgive me someday. Thanks for the hospitality and sorry for the hostility, Rachel

Inside was an eight by ten of Lorelai and Luke at the table in the dinning room the day he asked her about her cutting down on coffee. The love for each other and devotion they had was hard to miss. Lorelai was speechless and she decided that she would keep the picture in her office for a bit until Luke got some distance from his pain. It was a beautiful picture and a good reminder of what she didn't want to lose.