Disclaimer: all of the characters belong to Amy Sherman Palladino and the WB
Rating: PG- 13 with some stronger words but nothing to bad.
AN: Thanks again for the sweet reviews! You don't know what a good feeling it is to get such sweet feedback to your stories! I'm sorry I wasn't able to update any sooner. School is really keeping me busy.
So here's the next chapter…
Chapter 7Lorelai stopped abruptly causing Luke, who was walking right behind her, to bump into her.
"Hey, what's going on?"
Luke saw her staring at something and, following her view, he saw the red light blinking on the answering machine.
"Oh."
Lorelai still didn't move.
"Don't you wanna know who it is?"
He put a hand on her shoulder to reassure her. Lorelai didn't say anything. She sat down in the chair that was standing right next to the bureau in the hallway, where the answering machine was. After a couple of seconds of what seemed like gathering her strength, she shakily pushed the play button on the answering machine.
It was the long awaited message from her daughter, the message she had been waiting for almost a week. But the person didn't sound like her little daughter anymore. She sounded like an adult.
"Hi. Uh. I just wanted to tell you that grandma and I will be travelling around Europe for a while. We're, uh, thinking about a month or something like that. Don't worry about us, Emily and I are fine. I'll call again sometime. Sorry I won't be there for the opening of the Dragonfly Inn, good luck with it. Bye."
That's all Rory had left on the machine, nothing about Dean or the fight with her mom or 'how are you mom' or a 'sorry mom', nothing like that at all.
Lorelai just sat there, she couldn't move. She felt like someone hat hit her with a baseball bat or something like that. How could she sound so cold. Her daughter who has always been the sweetest and most loving person she had ever know left such a cold message to her mom who loved her more than live itself.
"Lorelai?"
No answer.
"Lorelai?"
Still no answer. Luke knelt down next to her gently putting his hand on her knee.
After a few more moments Lorelai finally looked at him. There was so much pain in her eyes. They weren't the same ones he had fallen in love with so many years ago. All the events of the last couple of weeks had made her look ten years older.
Luke gently touched her hand and looked directly into her eyes. Lorelai's lip started to quiver and she started sobbing. Throwing her arms around his neck, she sobbed into his shoulder uncontrollably.
All the pain and sadness that had stocked up inside of her, finally made it's way out. She had cried on his shoulder before but never as hard as this. Luke put an arm around her shoulder and with the other on situated under her knees he lifted her out of the chair and into his arms. She had lost quite some weight over the last couple of days and her could feel her ribs. She hugged him even tighter while he walked over to the couch in the living room and sat down with her on his lap. Luke soothingly stroke over back and she finally started to calm down a little.
"Lorelai, talk to me, come on. I know it's hard but you can't let this stuff eat you away from the inside. You know I'm here for you. I'll always be there for you and I'm gonna help you as much as I can but in order to do this you gotta talk about your feelings."
Lorelai looked into his eyes. She couldn't believe how sweet he was and he was right she needed to talk about it so she did.
"How can she do this, Luke?" Lorelai got up from his lap and started pacing around the room. "I mean after all we've been through together."
Lorelai became louder with each word. Luke knew that she had to let her feelings out. He knew she was hurt but he also knew that she was angry about what Rory and Dean had done.
"God, she's so god damn stupid. Sleeping with her ex-boyfriend who's married, cheating on his wife with him. And then trying to talk herself out if it?! God I don't believe this. She's telling me she's not a kid anymore, but she sure as hell acts like a kid, saying that it's Lindsay's fault that Dean had cheated on his wife and that it's not his fault or Rory's! God that's so immature. If she screws up like that, she's gotta stand up for it. Am I right?"
Lorelai didn't even wait for Luke's answer and kept pacing around the room, waving her hands around to support her statements.
"Of course, I'm right. When you screw up you gotta stand up for it. And now… now she's running away from her problems.
Yeah, 'cause that's really mature, huh?
And what about my mom and dad? Are they out of their minds. After so many years of marriage, are they just gonna forget about the many happy times they had and throw it all away. They always told me what the right thing to do is and they always told me to give Chris another chance, hell a million chances, but what about them? Not once crappy chance to make up to talk about it? I don't believe this.
And then - there's Jason! Let's not forget about Jason! Is he out of his mind, too? Who does he think he is? Like I would crawl back to him and forget about everything he has done to my family. Hell, there's even a chance that it's his fault that my parents are fighting all the time. And he thinks I'll take him back and act like nothing has happened?! Gee has the whole world gone wild or what?
And then I get this message from my daughter basically saying that it's my fault that she screwed up with Dean and that she hate's me and that I've been a horrible mother."
She stopped right in front of him.
"Let me tell you. I did everything for her. I put myself in the second spot. She always came first. I always thought about her first. I did everything so she didn't have to grow up in a home without love. I even crept back to my parents so she could go to an Ivy League school and have better chances than her mom had.
And oh yeah don't let me forget once again my parents are still involved because now they're paying for her college education, too. I hate going to those dinners. It creeps me out having to go to this house I ran away from, nineteen years ago in order to escape from all that and hoping I'd never have to return to it unless I truly wanted to. And now she storms out, telling me that she hate's me and that it's all my fault?! She's out of her mind."
Luke had just been sitting there listening to her yelling out her anger. Lorelai was panting when she stopped, trying to catch her breath.
"God that felt good." She said after a few moments.
Luke got up and pulled her into an embrace.
"Feeling better now?"
"A lot." She said into his shoulder.
"Luke?"
"Yeah?"
"Can we go for a walk?"
"Sure."
They put on their jackets and walked out into the cool summer evening. Their arms around each other they walked in silence for a while.
"Huh. This place seems to be magnetic or something," Lorelai said.
Without noticing they had ended up at the bridge again.
"Yeah, seems so."
They walked to the middle of the bridge and sat down their feet tangling over the water. Lorelai leaned her head on Luke's shoulder and Luke put his arm around her, trying to protect her from the cool summer air.
"Luke?"
"Yeah?"
"I'm sorry about what happened back there."
Luke gently pulled her closer to him. "Don't be. You had to get that stuff out."
He looked down into her eyes and once again Lorelai was amazed about how much love they showed.
"You know, I was really getting worried about you. That stuff was tortoring you from the inside. I'm glad you led it out. You weren't yourself over the last couple of days. Which is totally understandable, but it scared me a little."
"I'm sorry, Luke." Lorelai gently kissed his lips.
"No. Don't be sorry. I'm glad you let me be a part of that. That really means a lot to me. It shows me that you really trust me."
Lorelai smiled at him. "I've always trusted you, Luke. You know that."
"Yeah, I know. But you trusted me as your friend, not as your boyfriend and best friend. There was always a little barrier between us, I'm glad it's not anymore."
"Me, too." A single tear ran down her cheek. "I love you, Luke."
Luke smiled at her and brushed the tear away. "I love you, too, Lorelai."
Lorelai sighed and rested her head back on his shoulder.
"I'm just scared it's not gonna be the same with Rory and me, when she gets back. I don't think we'll be this close again."
Luke gently kissed the top of her head. "I know you're scared. You just gotta give it time. You'll see, you'll be close again. It just needs some time."
"I hope you're right."
They sat on the bridge for a little while, watching the reflection of the moon in the lake, until Lorelai yawned slightly.
"Come on let's get you back home."
"Yeah, I'm getting kinda tired."
Luke helped her up and they walked back to Lorelai's house.
Lorelai felt Luke's discomfort when they had reached the door. Although they had been together for about two weeks and he had spent a lot of nights at her place he still felt uncomfortable because he didn't want to stay without her actually wanting him to.
Lorelai smiled at him. "Luke, I don't want you to go. You wanna stay here overnight?"
Luke smiled back at her. "Sure, I'd love to. I mean not that, you know…"
"I know don't worry."
Although Luke had spent many nights at her place nothing had ever happened. They knew that this relationship was something very special and they wanted it to be something special when it finally happened.
They walked inside and Lorelai got into the kitchen to get some water for her and Luke and then returned back into the living room.
"Hey Luke, you know the actually opening of the inn is next week and I was wondering if you would like to celebrate with us?"
"Yeah, I'd love to. I'm really excited for you guys. Thanks for asking me."
Lorelai hugged him tightly. "I couldn't think of anyone else I'd like to celebrate this day with."
Luke smiled and gently kissed her on the lips. "That's nice to hear, thanks."
"Your welcome." Lorelai said and kissed him back.
What she didn't tell Luke that she had made some arrangements with Sookie for some private time for the two of them.
To be continued….
Please review. I'll try to update as soon as my school schedule allows me to.