A/N: I'm soo sorry that it took me so long to update. I'm in the middle of finals, but I'll be done next week and then the next chapter will be up by the weekend.
Thanks so much for your sweet reviews. I thought that a lot of you had forgotten about Rory. :)
Disclaimer: see chapter 1
Chapter 13 - the fightLorelai had moved closer to Luke when they were done eating and Luke had put his arm around her shoulder.
Rory smiled when she saw how comfortable they had become with each other. She had always hoped that someday her mother would accept her feelings for Luke and see what every other person in town had seen between the two of them for years.
Later that evening….
By the end of the movie Lorelai had fallen asleep. She was lying on the couch next to Luke with her head on a pillow, she had put on Luke's legs. Rory took the movie out of the VCR and put it back on the shelf with the rest of their movie collection. She turned back to the couch and again had to smile at the scene in front of her.
"I can't believe she fell a sleep during such a great mocking-movie."
"Yeah, well, I guess it's been a little too much action for her today."
Luke tried to get up without waking Lorelai. "I guess I should get going."
"You don't have to leave because of me, Luke, really!"
"Are you sure? 'Cause I don't mind."
"Yeah, I'm sure." Rory said cleaning up the mess on the couch table. "Why don't you get her upstairs and I'll clean up down here. I'm not really tired. I'm still on European time."
"Allright, if you really don't mind."
"No, go ahead."
Luke gently touched Lorelai's face. "Hey, sleepyhead, time to get to bed."
Lorelai frowned but didn't move. "Can't move, to tired."
Luke sighed and pulled her on his lap. She mumbled something into his neck and then put her arms around his neck. He put his arms securely around her and got up, making his way to the stairs.
"Luke?"
"Yeah?" he said, turning around to face Rory.
"I'm glad you guys finally came to your senses." Rory said smiling at him.
"Me, too," he said smiling back at her. "Night, Rory."
"Night, Luke." Rory said walking into the kitchen while Luke made his way up the stairs with the sleeping Lorelai in his arms.
He walked through the already open door into Lorelai's bedroom and gently put her down on her side of the bed. He was glad that Lorelai had changed into some pyjama pants and long sleeve shirt earlier, which spared him from changing her clothes. Changing her clothes probably would have meant for her to wake up and then he would have to deal with a cranky Lorelai, which wasn't his all time favourite thing to do.
Luke undressed but left his boxers on and climbed into bed next to Lorelai, pulling the covers over both of them. Lorelai immediately moved closer to him and put her head on his chest. Luke put on arm around her and rested the other one on hers.
He softly kissed the top of her head. "I love you."
"I love you, too," she said and placed a gentle kiss on his soft chest.
"Hey I thought you were a sleep."
"I was until now." She replied in a sleepy voice. "Did you carry me up here?"
"Yep."
"Mhmm, why didn't you wake me? I could've walked you know."
"I tried," Luke said in a chuckle. "You said you were too tired to walk and fell back asleep right away."
"Sorry." Lorelai said smiling up at him.
"It's ok," Luke bend down for a kiss. "I don't mind. I like having you in my arms."
Lorelai gave him another kiss. "I like being in your arms, but I enjoy it much more when I'm awake and in your arms, like I am right now."
"I love you."
"I love you, too, babe. So do you have to open the diner, tomorrow?"
"No, Ceasar is opening up."
Lorelai smiled. "Sweet. Night, Luke."
"You ok?"
Lorelai know exactly what he was talking about.
"I'm feeling much better about the situation than I was a couple of weeks ago but I'm still hurt. It's just gonna take a while."
Luke kissed the top of her head. "I know, just checkin'. You know I'm always there for you."
"I know, hon, and that's just one more reason for me to love you."
"I love you, too. 'Night, hon." Luke leaned down for another sweet kiss.
"Night." Lorelai loved the fact that he was calling her hon, not that much in public, but he was slowly getting used to showing his affection for her in public.
Lorelai gently kissed his chest again and then put her head back on it falling asleep within a few minutes.
Luke smiled and soon followed her into dreamland.
The next morning….
The smell of bacon and fresh coffee made it's way into Rory's room and woke her up. She smiled and slowly crawled out of her bed putting her robe on.
Luke turned around and smiled at her. "Hey! I was wondering which one of you would wake up first at the smell of coffee and breakfast."
Rory sat down and took the cup of coffee Luke was holding out to her.
"Yeah, it's doesn't happen very often that I get woken up by the smell of breakfast in our kitchen. At least not freshly made," she said smiling back at him still a little sleepy.
"It should be done in a couple of minutes."
Rory took a sip of her coffee and smiled. "God, how I missed your coffee."
"Well there's always gotta be something that you can only get a home," Luke said sitting down on the other side of the table. "So, I guess you and your mom made up, huh?"
"I thought she would tell you." Rory said looking down at the table.
"I was with her when she found the letter and she talked to me about what had happened, but she didn't tell anyone else."
Rory nodded. "I really hurt her, didn't I?"
Luke nodded. "But, your mom's a really strong woman, you know. She's been through a lot more."
"I never meant to hurt her feelings. I'm so sorry about what happened."
Luke smiled at her sympathetically. "She knows, and you don't have to explain yourself to me, Rory. But, you know, if there's anything you wanna talk about, I'm always there for you."
Rory smiled at him. "I know, and thanks. For everything. For being there for me and for mom, for taking care of her the way you do."
Luke looked down on the table. "It's ok, I'm glad to be there for you guys. You mean a lot to me. Both of you."
"Ahh my two favorite people in the world." Lorelai said walking into the kitchen. "I thought I smelled breakfast."
Luke and Rory grinned at each other. "What's with the grinning? Did you guys plan something?"
"No, it's just funny how well Luke seems to know us." Rory said smiling at her mom.
"Did you sleep well?" Lorelai said kissing her daughter on the forehead.
"Yep, it's good to be in my own bed again."
"Good."
Lorelai walked over to Luke and put her arms around his waist. "Good morning."
"Morning," Luke said encircling her with his arms. Lorelai stood on her tiptoes and kissed him softly.
"Hey, kid in the room." Rory said and made a disgusted face.
"You're not a kid anymore. So live with it or just don't look." Lorelai said smirking at her daughter.
Luke put their breakfast on the plates he had sat out earlier and the three of them enjoyed their little family breakfast together.
The following weekend…
Rory and Lorelai were sitting in the living room together, each of them reading a book. Luke had gone to the diner for a couple of hours and promised to come back earlier and bring dinner with him. Lorelai glanced at Rory who was sitting in the armchair. Rory noticed her mom looking at her and smiled at her.
"How's the book, sweetie?"
"It's good," Rory said and focused back on her book. A few moments later, she noticed that Lorelai was still looking at her. "Mom?"
"Sorry sweets, just staring into space." Lorelai lied and went back to her book. She wanted to talk to Rory about her feelings now that a couple of days had passed, but she didn't want to force her to anything.
Now it was Rory who was still looking at her mom. "Mom, is there something you wanna talk about?"
"Well if you're asking like that?"
Rory sighed, "What is it, Mom?"
"Come here and sit down with Mommy for a sec," Lorelai said and patted the couch next to her.
Rory put her book her down and sat down across from her mom, putting her legs up just like Lorelai did.
"Allright, I'm all ears." Rory said a little agitated, she had a feeling about what Lorelai wanted to talk to her about.
"Don't be like that," Lorelai said in a more serious tone, "I didn't even say anything yet."
"Mom."
Lorelai sighed. She knew this wasn't going to be easy. "I just wanted to know how you're feeling, now that you've been back from Europe a couple of days."
"I'm feeling good. No more jet lag, happy to be back at Yale in a couple of days. Is that all? I wanted to start packing today." Rory said getting up from the couch.
Lorelai stopped her with a hand on her knee. "Is this how's it gonna be between us from now on? I thought you were gonna come talk to me if there's something that's bothering you?"
"Well, there's nothing to talk about." Rory answered in an aggravated tone.
"Have you talked to Dean?"
"No."
"Are you going to?"
"NO. Would you please drop it? I said I didn't wanna talk about it." Rory yelled at her mom and stormed off into her room, slamming the door shut behind her.
"Great, just great." Lorelai was about to follow Rory to her room when the phone started to ring. Lorelai looked around for the phone and finally found it under the couch pillow.
"Hello."
"Hey, it's me." A familiar voice said on the other end of the line.
"Oh, hey. What's up?"
Luke thought that her voice didn't sound as chipper as usual. "Is everything allright, Lorelai?"
Lorelai sighed and sat back down on the couch. "Not really. I just had a fight with Rory."
"Oh, that doesn't sound too good."
"Yeah, I was trying to talk to her again and … I don't know… it just turned out wrong. She yelled at me, stormed off into her room and slammed the door behind her."
"Give her some time to cool off and then talk to her again."
Lorelai sighed again. "You always make it sound so easy."
"Don't worry. You'll work it out."
Lorelai took a deep breath, trying to free her mind from her recent fight with her daughter. "Hey was there a reason you called?"
"Not really. I just wanted to say hi."
Lorelai smiled. She still couldn't believe how sweet Luke was around her. "Hi."
"Hi." He said smiling. "Uhm, so you still want me to come over?"
"Yeah, sure. We don't have anything to eat here."
"Do you ever?"
"Good point. And besides I don't want to spend the last couple of days fighting with Rory, before she has to go back to Yale."
"Allright. I'll be with you in about an hour. Sound allright?"
"Perfect. Bye, Luke."
"Bye, Lorelai."
Lorelai put the phone down and switch the TV on, hoping to keep her mind from wandering back to the fight with Rory."
About an hour later, Luke walked into the house. He came into the living room where Lorelai was still watching TV.
Lorelai turned around when she heard him opening the front door. "Hey."
"Hey. Whatcha doin?"
"Not much, just watching some TV and waiting for you to bring food." She smiled at him.
Luke immediately noticed the sadness in her smile. He sat down beside her and pulled her to his side.
"You okay?" He said looking straight into her eyes, noticing the redness in them. "Have you been crying, Lorelai?"
Lorelai only answered him with an even sadder smile. A single tear made it's way down her cheek. Luke gently brushed it away with his thumb and cupped her face with his palm. "Hey, don't cry."
Lorelai sobbed into his shoulder. "I don't know what to do, Luke. I really just wanted to talk to her about her feelings. I didn't want to offend her or anything."
"I know, I know. Shh, it's okay." Luke tried to calm her down as best as he could. "It's not easy for either one of you at the moment. You just gotta give it some time. If she doesn't want to talk about it now, you just have to be patient for a little longer. I'm sure she'll come and talk to you about everything soon. She probably doesn't know what to think of all this herself. It's totally different to be back in Stars Hollow, where everyone knows her and she's gotta be afraid that people will find out about what's happened eventually and talk behind her back. Maybe going back to Yale will give her some more time to think about it. You know look at it from a different perspective and figure it out herself. I know you don't like to hear this, Lorelai, but she's not a little kid anymore and there are things that's gotta figure out herself. The only thing we can do for her is be there for her and wait 'till she wants to talk about it. Okay?"
Lorelai took a deep breath and wiped away the tears on her cheeks. "Okay." She leaned forward a gave look a gentle kiss on the lips. "Thanks, Luke. I don't know what I'd do without you."
"It's ok, I'm here for you."
"I love you."
"I love you, too." Luke stroke another tear out of her face and smiled at her. "How about you get Rory and we'll have a nice and peaceful dinner together and enjoy the last couple of days before she has to go back to Yale?"
Lorelai nodded and went to Rory's room to get her.
Lorelai softly knocked on Rory's door. "Honey, can I come in?"
Luke was setting out the food on the couch table when he heard Lorelai yell for him.
"Luke."
Luke ran over to Lorelai who was standing in the doorway to Rory's room.
"She's not here," she said in a frantic voice.
"Did you hear her leave?"
"No I didn't. I was in the living room the whole time, I would've seen her leave." Lorelai walked into Rory's room, looking for a note or a hint where she might have gone to. Then she saw the open window. "Luke…"
Luke walked over to where Lorelai was standing and saw that the window was open.
"She must have gotten out through the window."
Lorelai sank down on Rory's bed. Luke saw the paleness in her face and went to get the phone. Still in the living room, he dialled Sookie's phone number.
"Hey Sookie. It's Luke. Is Rory with you?… No, we don't know where she is. Can you come over here? I need you stay with Lorelai…. Okay, bye."
Luke walked back into Rory's room. Lorelai was still sitting on Rory's bed, staring at the open window. She looked over to Luke when he sat down beside her.
"Lorelai do you know Lane's number?"
"Speed-dial 6." She said in a monotone voice.
Luke held her close to his body. "Hi Mrs. Kim. It's Luke Danes, is Lane there? Can I please talk to her… no it's an emergency…." Luke heard Mrs. Kim yell for Lane. "Hi Lane. Is Rory with you?" Luke was hoping that her best friend might know Rory was. "Do you know where she could be? … Yeah that would be great, thanks. Bye."
"Lane is gonna help looking for her and I'm going to take Jackson with me and see where she is."
Lorelai just nodded, not able to respond.
A few minutes later, they heard Sookie calling for them from the hallway. "In Rory's room." Luke said.
Sookie went into Rory's room. She'd never seen Lorelai like this before. Sookie sat down on the other side of Lorelai putting an arm around her shoulder. "Go, Jackson is waiting for you outside. He's got a cell phone, so you guys can call us when you got her."
Luke nodded and kissed Lorelai on the forehead. "Bye."
Lorelai turned around, "Luke?"
Luke turned back to her, "yeah?"
"Just bring her back."
"I will. Bye." Luke waved goodbye and walked outside to see Jackson.
A/N2: I know there could have been more of LL action in this chapter, but I gotta keep some action in the storyline. Hope you guys can forgive me. The next chapters will be LL focused again. The next chapter will be up in a week, as long as you keep reviewing, so I know people are still reading my stuff. Keep the reviews coming!!