CHAPTER 18- THE BREAKDOWN

DISCLAIMER: see first chapter

AN: Allrighty! I finally had some time to type up the next chapter. I wrote two and a half chapters during my trip but I didn't have much time to type them up so far, because I got a summer job just a couple of days ago, which has been keeping me really busy and I was just too tired to get anything done when I got home in the evening. Anyway, I typed this one up, and it's a little longer then the previous chapters, but I had a lot to say. I'm really trying to get my own style flowing and I hope I'm succeeding in doing so. So tell me what you think, I'm always looking forward to your opinions.

Btw: I changed the last couple of lines of the last chapter so you might wanna go back and read it, I wasn't really happy with the ending. But it's really just the last couple of lines.

ENJOY!

Chapter 18 - The Breakdown

"Lorelai, stop." Luke ran after her and finally caught up with her at the end of the driveway.

"Stop." He said getting a hold of her arm.

Lorelai struggled to get out of his grip, but Luke didn't let go of her.

"Luke get me go," she said tears running down her face in thick streams. "I'm not good enough for you. Please let go!" Again she tried to get out of his grip.

"Lorelai stop it! Look at me."

"Please, Luke." She didn't have enough strength to struggle his grip any longer.

"Look at me," he said in a much softer voice, at which Lorelai finally looked into his eyes.

"Do you really think I would have waited for you for eight years, if I thought you weren't good enough for me? Do you think I would have watched you get together and break up with all those jerks if I didn't love you? I don't care about your parents, Lorelai. I don't care about how rich they are, or what they think of me, all I care about is what you think of me. As long as you accept me the way I am and as long as I know that you love me, that's all I care about."

"I do love you." She told him, tears still running down her cheeks. "I really do."

"Then what the hell is you problem, Lorelai?"

All of a sudden Lorelai realized that he was absolutely right. She shouldn't care about what her parents thought of her or Luke. All that really mattered was their feelings for each other and she knew, she had never felt about any other man in her life the way she was feeling about Luke. When realization hit her, she fell into his arms and sobbed into his chest. "I'm so sorry, Luke. I'm so sorry."

Lorelai's knees gave up under her body and she sank down to the ground pulling Luke with her, who immediately pulled her into his lap to keep her of the cool ground, but even more to hold her as close as possible.

"Shh, it's okay." He softly ran his hands over her back while she was sobbing into his chest, curled up against his body. After a while Lorelai's sobs had subsided a little and she started to shiver. She was only wearing a thin coat over her outfit and since it was the middle of November it was getting very cold at night.

When Luke felt her shiver against his body he simply lifted her small figure up into his arms and carried her towards the house. The door was already unlocked, because he had already brought in the groceries earlier and had then come outside again to wait for her on the front porch. He pushed the door open and walked inside, kicking it shut behind them. With Lorelai in his arms he walked upstairs into the bathroom. Lorelai was still crying softly against his chest, but had calmed down since he had pulled her into his arms. She had her arms tightly around his neck, her face buried in his shoulder. When Luke was about to put her down, she softly whispered a "not yet," into his neck. Luke kissed her forehead and sat down on the closed toilet seat, holding her close to his body, whispering a soft "okay," into her hair.

Neither of them cared that they were still wearing their coats and neither of them said anything for what seemed like an eternity.

When Luke finally felt Lorelai's arms loosen around his neck and her tears had stopped, he stood up and let her slide down to her feet. Her turned towards the bathtub, turned on the water and added some bubble bath, not letting go of her hand during the whole process. He moved closer to Lorelai and gently slipped her coat off of her shoulders, keeping his eyes fixed on hers, signaling her to trust him. He proceeded to undress her until she was standing in front of him, dressed only in her underwear. Once again he turned towards the bathtub and turned the water off. He moved to take his coat off afterwards. After he had undone the first button he felt her hands on his. He looked into her eyes and saw nothing but a reflection of his feelings for her shimmering in her eyes.

Just as gently and caring as he had undressed her, Lorelai was now slowly undressing him. At this very moment, neither of them had any sexual intentions; it was just another way of showing each other, how much they cared about the other person. When Luke was standing in front of her, dressed only in his boxers Lorelai stopped and leaned forward, kissing him slow and sensually, once again showing him how strong her feelings for him were. After pulling away from him, she stepped out of her underwear and got into the bathtub, leaving enough room for him to slip in behind her. Before getting into the bathtub himself, Luke lit up a few candles, she had always stored in the bathroom cabinet and positioned them on the windowsill and on the bathroom counter. After turning off the light in the bathroom, he slipped into the tub behind her and immediately pulled her towards his body, placing his arms securely around her midsection. Lorelai leaned comfortably back into his, resting her own hands atop of his. Luke was lightly caressing her forearm and felt her body relax against his.

Once again for a few moments, they simply enjoyed each other's presence. Luke felt her relax more with each minute and knew that she was about to fall asleep. He leaned forward a little and whispered into her ear "Let's go to bed, honey. It's getting late."

Lorelai just nodded her agreement and scooted forward in the tub so he was able to get out.

Luke wrapped a towel around his waist and then helped her getting out of the tub as well. He wrapped a towel around her body and led her towards the bedroom. He got her favorite pair of pajamas out of the dresser, opposite the bed, put it on the bed for her to change and then went back into the bathroom to blow out the candles and drain the water in the tub, giving Lorelai a little time to change.

Lorelai was already tugged in under the covers when he came back into the bedroom. He quickly changed into his own nightwear and then climbed into bed next to her. Lorelai immediately cuddled up to his body, while he securely put his arm around her.

He gently kissed the top of her head, before kissing her lips when she looked up at him.

"Are you doing ok?" He asked her in a slightly concerned tone.

Lorelai looked away from him for a short moment. When she looked back into his eyes, tears were glistening in her own, threatening to spill over. "Not now… but I will be."

Luke nodded and kissed her forehead. It killed him having to see her like this, knowing that there wasn't anything he could do to help her, except to be at her side.

"Luke?" Lorelai gently squeezed his side to get his attention.

"Yeah?" He said looking down at her.

"I'm sorry."

"Sorry about what, honey?"

"You know, my little freak out earlier."

"Hey, it's allright."

"No it's not. I shouldn't…"

Luke cut her off. "Lorelai, it's fine. Really."

"You sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure." He said kissing her softly in order to support his statement.

"You know that I love you, right?" she asked him, propping herself up resting her arms on his chest.

"Of course I do. I love you, too."

"Good." She moved up a bit to have better access to kiss him. Luke moved his arms around her body and pulled her on top of his, deepening the kiss. After a few minutes of slow and sensual kisses, Lorelai gave him another short kiss on the lips and caressed his cheek. "Goodnight, babe."

Luke returned the gesture and kissed her softly. "Night."

Lorelai rested her head on his chest and pulled the blankets up around their bodies. "Are you gonna be here when I wake up?" she murmured into his chest already half asleep.

"Yeah, I asked Caesar to open up tomorrow."

"Good," she said almost inaudible. "I like waking up with you."

"Me, too." Luke felt her body relax against his and knew that she had already fallen asleep.

Luke was lying awake for another couple of minutes thinking about the events of the past few hours. He had know Lorelai for almost a decade now and he was truly amazed by what she had accomplished in her life so far. She had come to this town with Rory as a baby, having almost no money and no place to stay. She talked Mia into giving her a job as a maid, although she didn't have any working experience, and a room to stay in. Her whole life, she has been working like crazy, saving every cent she could spare in order to provide a good life with good education for her daughter, even if it had meant that she had to go to her parents to ask them for money for Rory's education. She had worked herself up to being the executive manager of the Independence Inn and now she even owned her own Inn with her best friend, Sookie. And on top of that, he couldn't think of one person in the whole town, who didn't like her and who didn't admire her as much as he did for what she had achieved. She was such an extraordinary person and Luke just couldn't believe that her parents didn't see all of this or didn't want to see it, because their daughter wasn't leading the life, they had wanted her to live. Luke couldn't believe that her parents were taking the risk of losing their only daughter, rather than accepting the life she led and that she was happy with the most, instead of trying to change her.

What he knew, though, was the fact, that even if he couldn't replace her family, he would be her family, and Rory's of course, giving her all the support and love that she needed. He would always be there for Lorelai and Rory. He knew that there has never been a woman in his life that he loved as much and cared for as much and he could only hope that she was feeling the same way about him. Although he was fairly sure that she was feeling the same way about him, which would make him the happiest man alive.

Luke pulled Lorelai even closer to his body, entwining his legs with hers. He leaned down and ever so softly kissed her forehead, to which he felt her smile against his chest. He was pretty sure that she had the same feelings for him, as he had for, and soon he was drifting off to sleep as well.

The next morning…

While Lorelai was still sound asleep, Luke carefully untangled his body from hers, took some clothes out of the dresser and quietly left the room, careful not to wake her up.

About twenty minutes later he came back into the bedroom, now carrying a tray with a cup of coffee, a glass of orange juice for himself, a stack of pancakes and a single red rose that he had gotten from the local flower shop.

He put the tray down on his side of the bed and knelt down in front of her still sleeping figure. He leaned forward and softly placed a kiss on her lips. "Good morning, sleepyhead, time to get up."

Lorelai slightly stirred and then slowly opened her eyes, getting used to the morning sunlight, shining through the bedroom curtains.

When she had opened her eyes, Luke held rose up in front of her, which he had hidden behind his back.

Lorelai smiled at his gesture. "Is that for me?"

"No, it's for my other girlfriend," he said teasingly. "Of course it's for you. You know that you're the only person I've ever gotten flowers for."

Lorelai pulled him down by his shirt and gently kissed him. "I know babe, and that's one of the reasons I love you so much."

"Yeah what are the other reasons?"

"I'll tell you later, first I need food."

"Look behind ya," he said grinning at her.

"Ohh, breakfast in bed! You're the sweetest guy ever! Care to join me?" she asked making some room for him.

"Yeah, why not," he said shrugging and climbed into bed next to her.

Lorelai faked a shocked expression and held her hand over her chest. "Who are you and what have you done to my boyfriend? Luke Danes eating pancakes? I should mark that in my calendar."

Luke rolled his eyes at her. "Don't act so shocked. You know I eat that stuff sometimes, I just don't inhale it like you do. I wouldn't cook it every single day if I hated it."

Lorelai took the tray and carefully placed it on her legs. "I know, babe, I know. I just like teasing you about it."

"Yeah, yeah, I know." Luke said. He took a piece of pancake with the fork and fed it to her.

"Mhmm, I love your pancakes," she said still chewing.

"Really? Didn't notice it all those years."

"Yeah, but you have to see it this way, I still love your food after all those years."

"Thanks, although I don't know if that's really a compliment."

"No, I mean it as a compliment. But actually I think I have to thank you. And I mean, not just for the food, for everything you've done for me and Rory. I don't know what we'd have done without you through all those years." Tears were starting to well up in her eyes again.

"I'm sure you would have done it." He said pulling her into his arms, after putting the tray aside.

"I don't know, Luke. It would have been a lot harder without you."

"Still, I'm sure you would have made it."

"Still, thank you for everything you've done for us."

"You're welcome," he said brushing away a few tears that had spilled over the brim of her eyes.

"Hey, don't you have to go to work?" Luke asked her taking a look at the alarm clock on the bedside table.

"Nope, I don't. Today's my day off, didn't I tell you?"

"No I don't think so."

"Huh, I thought I did. Well, I'm all yours today."

"Really?" He said pulling her into his lap.

"Really. But actually I wanted to talk to you about something."

"Uhuh." Luke mumbled while brushing her hair off of her shoulder, starting to kiss the spot between her neck and shoulder.

Lorelai took in a sharp breath. "Uh, Luke. Wait…"

Luke kept kissing her neck, making it basically impossible for Lorelai to form any coherent thought.

"Luke I'm serious," she said pushing him away from her.

"Sorry, I thought you like it when I do that." He replied a little offended. He sat up straight leaning against the headboard of the bed, Lorelai still sitting on his legs, facing him.

"I do," she told him, placing a hand on his chest, playing with the top button of his flannel shirt. "I really do, but there's something I wanted to talk to you about."

Luke placed his hand on her back, gently rubbing his thumb over her spine. "Okay, what is it?"

"What are we gonna do on Thanksgiving?"

"What do you mean? Aren't we gonna do the same we do every…" He suddenly stopped. "Oh," he said when realization hit him.

"Yeah," Lorelai sadly agreed looking down at his shirt. "Lane isn't really talking to her mom, so we won't go to the Kim's Thanksgiving, Sookie and Jackson are having both of their families over. I'm definitely not going to my parent's house and your not cooking at the diner, so I have nowhere to go."

Luke gently put a hand over her cheek, to make her look at him. "Sweetie, the reason I'm not cooking at the diner is so I can spend Thanksgiving with you. And didn't you forget about someone else?"

"Who do you mean?"

Luke looked at her surprised. "Rory? Also know as your daughter?"

"No, I didn't forget about her, but she still has a deal with my parents, which means that she still has to go to their house for Thanksgiving, even if I won't go there. Which is ok, 'cause they can't get enough of her. They're just not so fond of me."

"Then I'll make us dinner here."

"But it's not gonna be the same without Rory."

"I know honey. But she's not gonna be able to spend every single holiday with you in the future, there might be other days where she can't come home because she has to be somewhere else, you know? After all she's not a little kid anymore."

"But I don't want her to get all grown up." She said pouting.

"But that's the way it is with kids. They grow up and leave the nest."

Lorelai sighed. "Can't we go somewhere? Away from all of this?"

"Like where?"

"I don't know. How about your cabin?"

"I don't know," he said frowning. "It's really cold up there this time of the year."

"So? We'll keep each other warm," she said raising her eyebrows at him with a small smirk on her lips.

"You know. Actually I got a call from Liz, like two days ago."

"And…?"

"Well, she asked me if we wanted to come up to Maine to visit them over Thanksgiving."

"Really?" she looked at him surprised.

"Yeah, but I told her you probably didn't want to go."

"What? Why?" she looked at him confused.

"Because, Jess is gonna be there, too."

"Oh right."

"But, I mean, it's your choice. We can do whatever you want."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, I don't really care where I spend Thanksgiving," he told her, "As long as I am with you, I really don't care."

"Aww, that's soo sweet," she placed a soft kiss on his lips."

"Well what do you say?"

TBC...

Sooo... what do you think? Good? Bad? Allright? Let me know! Reviews are always welcome.

AN2: I'm trying to type up the next chapter as soon as I can. It's already on paper I just need to type it up. I guess I will update in a week or so, depending on how busy work is gonna keep me.