Disclaimer: All characters belong to Amy Sherman Palladino and the WB, I don't own any of them
Chapter 2
Lorelai took a look at her alarm. "1:25". She couldn't get any sleep. Not with all this stuff going through her mind. There were so many things she didn't know how to deal with. Her parents being separated; Jason not leaving her alone; and now Rory. And then there was Luke. Her friend Luke, who now was becoming more than just a friend. She didn't know if this whole dating thing would screw up their friendship, she wouldn't know how to live without him as friend. But on the other hand she knew that she had had feelings for him for quite a while, only now she was willing to slowly admit it to herself. After so many years. The whole town had seen it come, why didn't they. That was the least she wanted to worry about now.
Rory. That's what she had to deal with right now. She didn't know how. No matter how much she thought about it, she couldn't find a solution, heck not even a reason for why Rory did something like this. She said she loved Dean and Dean loved her. But she couldn't just screw up a marriage. A marriage that was so new. A long time ago she had dumped him, rejected him and picked Jess over Dean. And now this. Lorelai had always thought that she had raised Rory to do better than this. To do better than herself. To not do the same mistakes she had done.
'This is ridiculous. I don't know what to do. What is wrong with that kid?'
Lorelai thought about Luke. Maybe she could take his offer to give her some company, but then it was so late. 'Have I ever worried about this before? Why now?'
Luke opened the door to his room at the Inn on the third knock. "What the …"
He stopped as soon as he saw Lorelai standing there in her puppy pj's. She looked very tired and the circles under eyes seemed even darker.
"Lorelai?"
"I'm sorry, Luke. I woke you up didn't I? God of course I did. I mean who's not asleep at this time of the night, right? I'll just go back to my room and let you go back to sleep. I'm sorry, Luke."
She turned around to leave but was stopped by Luke's hand on hers. Luke stepped back and she walked past him into his room.
"Can I get you something? Some water?"
Lorelai shook her head. "No thanks, I'm fine. I just couldn't be alone anymore. I mean I was trying to get some sleep, but I couldn't cause there's so much stuff in my head that I just can't figure out. And I tried to figure it out and the only thing all the thinking did was giving me a really bad headache. And then I remembered your offer, you know the giving me some company thing and…"
"Lorelai." Luke stepped in front of her and looked into her eyes that were softly lit by the little moonlight that shone into the room. "It's okay. You can stay here. Why don't you take the bed and I'll just sleep over there in the armchair. Unless you wanna talk, then we'll just sit and talk."
"I can't, not yet."
"That's okay, don't worry. Then you just try to get some rest." He walked her over to the bed and pulled the sheets up around her shoulders. He sat down on the bed next to her and gently stroked her arm.
"How's your arm?" Luke so wanted to kill this Jason guy.
"Ok. Just a little sore."
"Allright, well try to get some sleep." Luke smiled at her and got up.
"Luke?"
"Mhhm?"
"Could you, uh…"
He walked back to stand beside her. "What?"
"Could you, uh, sleep in here with me and just hold me. I don't wanna be alone right now." Lorelai gave him a sad smile.
Luke simply nodded. He walked around the bed and climbed in with her. He lay down behind her one arm under her head, the other one tightly tugged around her stomach.
"Thanks." She said softly almost inaudible.
He softly kissed the top of her head. "No problem." He whispered into her ear.
'So this is how this feels like' they both thought.'
Soon, they fell asleep in each other's arm. The first time in a very long time Lorelai actually felt safe and secure with a guy, comfortable to let down her guards she had built up also a long time ago. But with Luke she didn't need anything to protect her, she just felt safe.