A/N: This is my submission for the Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda Season 2 challenge. I will admit that this has been a lot more difficult for me than I anticipated. My episode is Back in the Saddle Again, which is a fairly Luke-less episode. In some ways that's great, because I can make him do whatever I want, and I love making Luke do whatever I want! There are no pesky love interests to kill off, but the episode itself doesn't really give me much to play with, so this story will draw a great deal from things that happened in previous episodes to get them to this point. I have struggled with it so much, that all I have written is this teaser, which has been rewritten countless times. I decided that I just needed to pick a direction and go with it. So bear with me while I dangle it as a carrot to motivate myself. I am just putting it out there. Hopefully I'll be able to chase it down.

Guns A Blazin'

Luke hovered behind the counter, coffee pot at hand, as Lorelai systematically demolished the jack cheese omelet that she had brow-beaten out of him earlier. He watched Rory and Dean stand up and shoulder their backpacks, and he knew his time had come. As they made their way to the door, Luke saw Lorelai rummaging through her purse for her wallet. "Showtime," he muttered as he poured some coffee into a to-go cup, pushing the lid on as he crossed the room in a four long strides.

Lorelai looked up in surprise and said, "How did you know?"

"Sixth sense," he answered as she reached out to accept the cup.

"Wow, do you see dead people too?"

"Yes. Jimmy Hoffa says 'Hi' and that you look good in that color," Luke said dryly.

Lorelai beamed up at him and said, "That Jimmy, such a sweet guy."

Luke shrugged. "That's what all the mob guys said."

"You going back to the four slice French toast tomorrow?"

"You bet," Luke answered with a nod.

"My very special omelet was great," she said with a grin. She waved her wallet at him. "Check, please."

"It's on me," Luke said gruffly.

"It is?"

Luke shrugged again and said, "You and Rory helped me out a lot in the past couple of weeks."

Lorelai stared up at him, her face filled with concern as she said, "I haven't seen you around much. You okay?"

Luke nodded and said, "I'm fine. I've just had a lot of stuff to sort through."

Lorelai wrinkled her nose and asked sympathetically, "Louie stuff?"

"Some, and some other stuff," Luke answered cryptically. He tapped his fingertips on the table top, leaning toward her slightly. "Hey listen, would you like to have dinner tonight?" he asked in a rush.

"Dinner? Well, I planned on it," Lorelai answered with a grin as she nodded to the plates that littered the table. She shoved her wallet back into her purse and gestured to the table as she said, "I hear the price is right."

"No, I mean, have dinner with me, not have me make you dinner. Although, I could make you dinner, but we'd have to eat it upstairs and Jess is always upstairs, which would kind of defeats the purpose," Luke rambled nervously.

"Eat dinner with you? Is it Thanksgiving already?" Lorelai asked with a confused frown.

"Nevermind," Luke grumbled as he started to turn away.

"Hey, hang on!" Lorelai said as she grabbed his arm to keep him from walking away. "Give me a second, here. It's not every day that you ask me to have dinner with you. What's up?" she asked, tightening her grip on him.

"Nothing's up. I just wanted to talk to you about some stuff, and I thought that we could do it someplace that was, uh, not here," Luke said in an exasperated tone.

"Okay, yeah, sure, I like dinner. Where?" she asked as she scanned his face, searching for a clue as to what was going on with him.

"Um, Silvanos?" he offered tentatively.

Lorelai's eyebrows shot up as she said, "Silvanos? Wow, fancy. Sure, I'm in." She stood up, still clutching his arm as she asked, "What time?"

"I'll swing by your place at about six-thirty?" Luke said questioningly.

"Six-thirty," Lorelai repeated with a nod. "It's a date," she said as she released his arm and started for the door. Luke watched her go, wondering if she realized that it actually was a date.

The bells jingled as she opened the door and then paused with her hand on the handle. As if reading his mind, Lorelai turned back to Luke with a confused frown and asked, "Is it?"

"Yes," he answered simply.

"Oh," Lorelai said as her eyes widened. She opened her mouth to speak, but instead gaped at him like a fish gasping for air. Lorelai blinked, and shook her head slightly to clear it. "Uh, okay, um, I'll see you at six-thirty," she said, and then quickly fled.

****

Luke spent the rest of the morning replaying their conversation over and over again in his head. He broke it down, rehashing every word, analyzing every inflection, and pondering each expression on her face. He moved through the lunch rush on auto-pilot, delivering the wrong plates to the wrong tables, refilling iced tea with iced water, dropping utensils, two plates and a mug. By the time the diner had cleared out, it was also clear to him that he hadn't been clear with her. He thought he had been; asking her to have dinner with him specifically, but Lorelai definitely hadn't caught on. He kept thinking about the stunned look on her face when he confirmed that his invitation to dinner was indeed a date. He couldn't help dwelling on the speed with which she had made her exit.

He felt his heart clench as he realized that, all of the build up, all of the reasoning that had prompted him to take this step was all in his head. He realized that Lorelai hadn't been spending her days thinking about picnic baskets, bagel hockey and wishing she was 'the little missus' that he'd be bringing home to that stupid apartment. It finally occurred to him that he was the one doing all of the thinking. He was the one focused on how comforting her presence was; her hand through his arm, her body warm and steady as she stood by him at Louie's funeral. He was the one who knew how happy he was to have her there at his side.

"Trapped like a rat," Luke murmured as he carried an armload of dirty dishes into the kitchen.

"What's that boss?" Caesar asked distractedly as he cleaned off the prep area.

Luke stopped, the plates in his hands shifting precariously at the knowledge that if he knew Lorelai as well as he thought he did; she wouldn't back out now even if she wanted to, just out of sheer stubbornness. "Uh, I said, I'll be right back," Luke said as he dumped the dishes into a tub to be rinsed and run through the dishwasher. "I'll get those when I get back," he called over his shoulder, and left the diner before he could change his mind.

Five minutes later, he walked into the Independence Inn to find Lorelai speaking to Michel and an older woman with an accent, whom Luke assumed was one of the surly Frenchman's relatives. Michel and his friend bid Lorelai adieu, and Luke stepped aside as they swept through the lobby to the front door, cooing affectionate insults to one another. He walked over to the desk apprehensively. "Hey," he said quietly.

Lorelai's head jerked up, and she dropped the papers she had been reading, one of the sheets drifting to the floor unnoticed. "Oh, hey," she said, clearly flustered by his sudden appearance.

Luke hesitated momentarily as he glanced around the deserted lobby, wringing his hands nervously. "I just wanted, I mean, I realized that I didn't," he stammered at first. When Lorelai blinked expectantly, he rushed on, "I thought I was being clear, but I guess I wasn't, and then I thought maybe I should give you a chance to get out of it."

When Lorelai said nothing, he felt a flicker of hope as he stepped closer to the desk, placing his palms flat against the surface as he leaned in. "I've been thinking a lot this past week," he said in a low voice. "You and I, we've always had this… something," he said as he lifted his hands to gesture futilely between them.

"Luke," Lorelai whispered as she lowered her eyes and a faint blush rose in her cheeks.

Luke took the blooming color in her cheeks and his whispered name as a confirmation. Emboldened, he said quietly but firmly, "I'm in love with you, Lorelai. I have been for years." When her eyes flashed to his, he shrugged and said simply, "I don't want to hide it anymore. I don't want to ignore it. I just want to be with you."

Lorelai swallowed the lump that rose in her throat as she ducked her head, averting her face as it flamed. "I don't know how to respond to that," she confessed softly.

Luke licked his lips nervously and then caught the bottom one between his teeth as he watched her carefully. "You don't have to say anything right now. I just, I decided well, I wanted to put it out there. It's time," he said as he shrugged slightly.

When she didn't move a muscle, he took a deep breath to steady himself. "Tell you what, I'll swing by your place at about six-thirty, if you decide that you're okay with this, we'll go. If not, um, just give me a call, or don't answer the door or something. I'll get the hint either way," he said with a brisk nod, and then turned to leave without waiting for her confirmation.

Lorelai looked up at the front door closed behind him and pressed her fingertips to her cheeks, absorbing the heat from her flushed skin as she tried to absorb the words he had just said to her.