I have to point out that this chapter is unbetaed. I gave in though to a certain person who begged me to finally update. I will exchange it with the betaed version as soon as I get it. Thanks for your patience and thanks for reading and the reviews. I hope you joined me on my trip to the dark side while waiting. I guess I will go to this dirty place again sooned than I thought....

Chapter 6: One

Luke sat on his couch, his arms crossed in front of his chest and his feet planted firmly on the ground in front of him. He clenched and unclenched his toes in his boots, feeling the surface of the shoe beneath his feet while he stared at the phone that was sitting on the table over in the kitchen area of his apartment.

Once again he wasn't sure what to do and the nagging voice in his head wasn't helping him. He always tried to make his decisions alone and he hated being pushed and so he tried not to listen but that was easier said than done.

He couldn't forget how his eyes on her face. Thinking about it made him shudder, because it was so strange and creepy at the same time. After she had left he had hurried to the mirror to check his own eyes and had found them staring back at him, maybe slightly darker than usually.

It took him nearly two hours until he had come to the same conclusion as the unnerving voice in his head: He needed to talk to her again and as fast as possible. He got up and walked to the table where the phone was and picked it up. He started to dial her number and then stopped because her voice was right: He needed to talk to her in person to see that he hadn't just imagined it. So he placed the phone back on the table, grabbed his wallet and his keys and was out the door a second later.

"I'm so excited! This is like a movie," the Lorelai voice in his head said gleefully while he drove to Lorelai's house and he could feel her bounce up and down in his brain.

"You realize that if this works out I will finally get rid of you," he replied loudly, not even caring that if someone saw him he would think he was talking to himself.

"Either way I win. If I stay here I will have some more fun, if I go back it will be fine as well," the voice replied.

"You think this is fun? I recall you being just as desperate to leave as me," he shot back.

"Yeah, but that was before I knew that you looooove me," she replied in a sing-sang voice and he groaned. "Don't deny it buddy, I could feel it," she said before he could say something.

"I can't believe this! Should have known better than to let myself react that way," he muttered under his breath and hoped she wouldn't hear him.

"Of course I heard you, don't forget that I can hear your thoughts. And see your dreams and fantasies… pretty graphic last night, by the way," she giggled and Luke gritted his teeth.

~*~

When Lorelai came down the stairs she found Luke pacing in the living room. She had heard that someone had entered her house, which was no surprise because the door was always unlocked. However she wasn't scared because she had known that it was Luke, she had felt it.

She stopped on the landing and looked at him, waiting for him to stop his pacing and explain himself, or at least to look at her.

When he stopped his back was turned to her and when he turned around and looked at her she knew that he knew.

"Do you hear me?" he asked without any explanation and crossed his arms protectively in front of his chest.

"Loud and clear," she nodded and didn't move.

"I don't mean… it's… god, I know that you're not deaf, Lorelai," he started, wanted to make her understand, but was too afraid to spell it out. He gesticulated wildly while he tried to explain and his agitation would have amused her if the situation wasn't so serious for both of them.

"Luke," she finally interrupted him, "I hear you," she said and this time he understood that she was talking about the Luke in her head and not about the one who was standing in her living-room.

"Oh god," he said and sat down slowly on the couch behind him. It was good that she had the same problem and he wasn't the only crazy one, right? At the same time he couldn't help but blush at the thought that she had made the same experiences with his voice than he had with hers. Had he really seen her dreams and experienced her feelings? He, the real Luke had always wanted to be that close to her so they could share their lives. Now a part of him was but he couldn't be happy about it.

When Lorelai saw him burry his face in his hands for a second she finally moved, walked down the remaining steps and sat down beside him.

"Guess we're in the same boat then," she said when he looked up at her.

"I don't want to be in that boat! I want out… of that boat," he replied firmly but looked helpless.

"I can't say that I am happy about this situation. Little Luke here," she said and tapped her forehead with two fingers "can be pretty annoying sometimes".

Luke snorted. "You have no idea what it is like to have your voice in your head. It's driving me nuts and crazy as you are you even like it," he replied and she actually had to smile at his choice of words. She had no idea why that part of her liked being in Luke's head, but she knew there must be a reason for it and she desperately wanted to know it.

"So what are we going to do?" she asked him when he just kept looking at her.

"How do I know? You're the one who started this craziness!" he replied.

"I started it? How did I start it?" she asked defensively.

"You were the one who tried to kiss me and if I am not mistaken this whole thing started after that," he said.

"Oh come on, this is getting old, we've been around that tree and I am not willing to go there again. And we don't even know that that's when it happened. It could have been before while we were watching the movie or afterwards when you yelled at me," she replied and mirrored his position by crossing her arms in front of her chest.

He took a deep breath to calm himself and to not yell at the annoying voice in his head who was celebrating Lorelai's words at the moment and said then "Alright so what are we going to do?".

"Well," she started and drew out the word, "little Luke and me came to a conclusion right before you broke into my house. We think that maybe we two should re-enact the evening in order to see if we can find the moment when that happened and so we can get our … whatever it is back," she said and looked at him expectantly.

"Ok, I agree on one condition," Luke nodded.

"And that is?"

"Stop calling it "Little Luke" it's freaking me out!" he grumbled.

"That's what he keeps telling me... oh and: Dirty!" she giggled.

"God, make this work," he muttered and then said louder "So how will we do this?"

"I think the evening started when you came over with food and complained that I had already ordered food, which I couldn't eat the next day because your alter ego up here was refusing, by the way," she became side tracked for a second and then got back on topic. "So I guess tonight I will call Al and order Chinese food and you will bring the same stuff you brought that night. We watch the same movie, pretend Rory calls, because I don't actually want to make her call because I really don't want to explain this situation to her, and then you fall asleep on the couch and I bring you a blanket," she finished her plan.

"Will you make your mother call, because I talked to her as well that night," Luke asked.

"Are you nuts? She would send the guys with the strait jackets right over," she snorted.

"Ok so we eat burgers, watch a movie we have already seen, fake several phone calls and then I fall asleep and when I wake up this whole mess will hopefully be solved," he summarized and drummed his hands nervously on his knees, not really knowing what to do now. Finally he stood up, stretched his legs and pointed to the door.

"I guess I should go. See you tonight," he said and gave her an awkward half wave before he left.

"Don't forget the food," she yelled after him and heard the door close. She smiled brightly and felt giddy without really knowing why.

"This is no date," the Luke voice grumped, but she just shrugged and hurried upstairs to see what she could wear that night, which made the little Luke in her head groan in annoyance.

~*~

When Luke arrived for the re-enactment of the movie night Lorelai had just got dressed. She had needed a lot of time to decide on her black V-neck shirt and her favorite jeans. She wasn't sure how this evening would turn out. It could be simply a nice night with a friend, it could be incredibly awkward or they could fight again. Therefore she needed something sexy but not slutty, something casual but not too random. The Luke voice didn't help much, because he was just grumbling and groaning in annoyance- as usual. Would Luke be like this in a relationship?

"I see you remembered the food. Come in," she greeted him.

"Of course. And I've got a question," he said as he followed her into the living-room, where he the food she had ordered from Al's was already on the table.

"Yeah?" she asked and turned around to face him.

"Do we have to do everything the same way? I mean say the same things and wear the same clothes? I couldn't remember what I wore that day so I just grabbed a shirt. However you are not wearing what you wore that evening. Same colors, but different shirt," he observed.

"You remember what I wore?" she asked surprised.

"I, uh, the Lorelai voice does," he said. Liar, the voice scolded him.

"Ok… and for your questions: I don't know but I can't remember everything I said that night so I guess we just re-enact the things we do remember. Shall we start?" she asked.

"Sure, you started by explaining the movie rules and then we watched that black and white movie".

"Casablanca Luke. It's a classic and I am hurt that you can't even remember the name of the movie," she pouted and sat down beside him on the couch.

"Oh and we had beer," he suddenly remembered, got up and walked into the kitchen to get them. When he got back Lorelai started once again with her explanation of the movie night rules, which he knew by heart by now, also because the voice in his head knew them by heart.

"You can't squish during the movie because it's distracting. That's rule number one,"Lorelai started. "Also no talking during the movie. No exceptions during a true classic. And minimize distraction. You know, no shifting around a lot, no phone calls, nothing. No going to the bathroom. If you go, you miss the movie 'cause we're not pausing the movie. That's the only way to get the flow of the thing, okay?" she asked.

"Yeah, because that's working," he snorted and Lorelai had to smile at his annoyance.

"Okay. Here we go," she finally said and pushed the play-button to start the movie "Casablanca which they would watch for the second time now.

"Oh, I remember something I said!," Luke suddenly exclaimed."I asked: 'What's that?' and then you said…." Luke prodded and gave watched her expectantly.

"Uhm…Okay,. . .A, um, no talking during the movie, and B, don't tell me you've never seen the FBI warning before?" Lorelai said or basically just repeat6ed what the Luke voice in her head was telling her, because obviously he could remember.

"It's new to me," Luke went on and didn't let her catch on the fact that he also was only repeating was the voice in his head was telling him. It was like watching a movie of the night from Lorelai's perspective.

"Oh, my God. You're beyond monk. You're uber-monk," she laughed and started to really like this game. She liked how comfortable they had been that night and seeing it again in her head from Luke's perspective, seeing the way he secretly had focused on her eyes -ok sometimes on her legs or her breasts as well, but mainly on her eyes- made her stomach tighten with anticipation.

"Just start it up. I won't talk again," he said and had to smile.

"Okay, just one more warning," she started with the same teasing undertone in her voice which it had had that other night, "when they showed the first motion picture over a hundred years ago, it featured a train rushing toward the camera, and, um, people were so sure the train was going to burst off the screen and crush them that they ran away in terror. Now, Luke, the train is not going to leave the screen," she informed him, just to tease him again.

"Hit the button," Luke grinned back and for a moment their eyes locked. This game they were playing was fun. It was funny to repeat exactly what they had said that night, pretending to feel what they felt that night. The voices in their heads made it possible and at the same time they were playing to get rid of them, which was ironic.

They turned their attention reluctantly back to the movie watched it in relative silence noth so engaged in the silent talks with the voices in their heads that they forgot that Rory had called the other night only disturbed once again Lorelai started staring at him however for totally different reasons this time. She didn't care how he would react to certain scenes, she just liked watching him and was glad that they were able to be in the same room together without fighting.

"We talked about dating," she suddenly said, remembering the talk they had had.

"I remember. I said that I don't like it," he admitted and rolled his eyes because the the Lorelai voice was starting another round of "Because you looooove me" singing.

"You said: It's a horror," she nodded, "and I said that it's the only cure for the singleness thing, barring ordering a spouse off the internet."

"I missed nothing by not dating," Luke repeated his own words from that night, but with slightly less conviction. He knew now that he missed dating a certain brunette with blue eyes. "If I had dated a lot, I'd still be single. I'd just have spent a lot of bad nights at Tony Roma's," he went on and asked himself if he would really be single if he had dated Lorelai. Would they have broken up by now if he would have asked her out in the past?

"Yeah, but dating is the only way to find a partner," Lorelai said and knew by now that it just wasn't true. The right partner could also be right in front of your eyes for years and you just couldn't see him.

"There's the gut. I can tell if I'm comfortable with someone within seconds of meeting them. I feel it here. I felt it with Rachel. I felt it with Nicole. I was immediately relaxed," he said and had to smile a little when the voice in his head added 'You feel it with me. You're comfortable with me and I am comfortable with you. Just look at me !'

"You've got the gut thing," the real Lorelai said and smiled back at him, simply because she liked his smile.

"Well, it's just knowing that someone will let you be. That's a gut thing," he insisted and fast forwarded the movie, which made her protest.

"I did the same thing at the original movie night!" Luke insisted and raised his eyebrows when he saw her pout.

"Yeah and you got the same reaction now," she grinned and made Luke laugh.

As on the original movie night they started Hardbodies after Casablanca, but this time Luke didn't fall asleep in the middle of the film.

'Why don't you just kiss me?' the voice in his head asked Luke during the second movie, knowing that he kept glancing at her lips.

'Yeah and then she slaps me and our friendship is shot to hell,' he replied with his thoughts.

'Is that what you're scared of? That I will reject you?'

'It's not like she ever gave me any sign that she sees me as more than a friend,' he replied and looked at the real Lorelai once again, who by now had noticed his staring.

"Now you are staring at me, Mister," she pointed out with a smile and he shrugged.

"Guess we're even now," he grinned back.

'Oh my god you're flirting with me,' she told the Luke in her head in giddy excitement.

'Yeah and you better say something before the poor guy loses his nerve again,' real Luke's grumpy alter ego replied. For once though she found herself unable to come up with something to say and so she gave him just another, slightly timid, smile before she looked back at the screen, pretending to watch the movie while in reality she kept watching Luke glancing at her.

Luke was too excited to fall asleep during the movie and the giddy feeling in his gut was still there but at one point, near the end of the movie Lorelai insisted that he had to pretend to sleep at least so they could re-enact the rest of the night. Both were dreading the re-enactment of the fight, because neither wanted to repeat the horrible things they had said, but they didn't have a choice.

Luke knew she was right and in order to get his old life and his own voice back he lay down on the couch, rested his head on the back of the couch and once again Lorelai covered him with the pink blanket.

She looked down at him and was overcome by the same tenderness. She knew that he was only faking to sleep, but seeing this tall, burly man lying on her couch touched her. He looked so peaceful while he lay there and she didn't even think about the re-enactment when she touched his cheek with her hand, stroking over his stubble and brushing a strand of hair from his forehead before she pulled her hand away.

She crouched down next to the couch and stared at him. She couldn't bring herself to avert her eyes. She felt a stronger connection with him than ever before, she graved being close to him in a way that she wasn't familiar with.

'God Lorelai, you love me, then do something to make me see,' the Luke voice told her and for a second she froze, shocked that the voice was suing the word "love" so bluntly. Was she really in love with Luke? She knew she was falling for him, but was that love? She looked at him and she stroked his cheek again and touched his lips with her thumb, knowing that this time he was awake and he would remember. She couldn't lie anymore about what she had done that night, she couldn't deny anymore that she had caressed his face and touched his lips. Yes, she was in love and now they both knew it, her and the voice.

When he opened his eyes and looked at her their eyes met he realized that she had her own eyes again, but before he could really think about it her face got closer to his, drawn to each other like magnets they both couldn't stop this time. Their lips met while she was still clutching the edge of the blanket in one hand and caressing his face with the other. They both had to close their eyes and her hands flew to his cheeks, and she felt his fingers glide into her hair before something shifted, changed, exploded and a flood of recent memories hit them both.

"Who the heck would wake me at such an ungodly hour? MUST KILL HIM!"

"Lorelai! Stop this right now! I have seen your body now from your breasts to your toes and I certainly don't need to feel your… Just stop it!"

"I'm so sorry," the Lorelai voice sobbed in his head and it hurt him to hear her cry. "Stop crying, it's ok. That's life," he told her and shrugged as he took a deep breath to compose himself before he entered the diner.

"Stop looking at my memories," she replied, because she didn't want to talk about it. She knew that her mother loved her, but she couldn't understand why the opinion of others was always more important than she was. "Then stop thinking about it, it's not like I have a choice", the Luke voice replied."This is personal and even if you see it you should at least keep your mouth shut and not comment on it," she replied angrily.

"Can we talk?"

"Whoa!"

"Wow, I mean, oh my god. Luke I don't know….I ever… I didn't know,"

Their eyes opened and they both gasped, their lips still touching briefly. They stared at each other in realization, knowing that now everything was out in the open, every feeling, every memory, and every dream. Their eyes closed simultaneously and their lips pressed against each other, their mouths opened while he pulled her tightly against him. Their tongues dueled passionately, nearly violently but the need they felt didn't lessen. She lay on top of him, and he could feel her breasts pressed against his chest, hear her soft moans, and smell the scent of her skin.

She couldn't think anymore, didn't even want to think because his kisses were too delicious and too arousing. She felt his stubble under her fingertips while she stroked his cheek, felt his tongue glide over hers and his hand on her butt. 'God, Luke has his hand on my butt,' was the first thing she could think and again she gasped, broke the kiss.

"Your voice is gone," she told him her own voice husky.

"I know, but I am here and you can listen to my voice anytime you want," he told her in the sexy Luke voice, a voice she heard for the first time, a voice that made her shiver.

"God, I love that voice!" she admitted before she brought her lips to his again, nibbled on his bottom lip and started moving against his thigh.

'Lorelai is humping my leg,' Luke thought in his own voice and kissed her deeper, more passionately if that was even possible. He slipped one hand under her shirt caressing her back with his hand while the other was still playing with her hair.

"Upstairs?" she whispered against his lips and moved her head, nibbled on the soft skin behind his ear, tugged on his earlobe with her teeth.

"Upstairs," he agreed and sat up, held her in his arms and grabbed her thighs before he slowly stood up. Lorelai could feel him through his jeans and started moving her hips again, however this time not against his thigh.

Luke had to hold onto all of the self control he had left in order to not drop her and maneuver them up the stairs and into her bedroom. Personally he wouldn't have minded taking her on the couch, the floor or the stairs. However they both knew that their first time shouldn't be like this. The first time that their bodies would become what their souls already had been for a long time: One.

The end