A/N: Sorry about the long wait on this one. My muse was on a desert island, watching Fargo until it exploded. (So, I watched the Office tonight. Sue me.) I need to thank Filo for her patience, her beta-work, and for her willingness to brainstorm when I could think of no words to put into a certain spot. Thanks to everyone who's been reading!

It wasn't like she needed Rory to keep her on track. She really didn't. She had done fine all afternoon. But when it came time for Rory to leave for the emergency meeting for the Franklin, something faltered and Lorelai could no longer concentrate. She sighed. It had faltered at the town meeting, technically.

She rolled her eyes. This was her chance to do well. She had exactly twenty four hours until the final. Twenty four hours to prove that she was ready to ace those finals. Twenty four hours to prove that she was ready to open her own inn.

That was crazy. It was way too much pressure if she thought about it like that. Lorelai knew if she put that kind of pressure on herself she would get way too stressed out. Sure, these finals were important, but they didn't stand in the way of the rest of her life.

At least, she hoped they didn't.

iQuit being overdramatic. It's just finals. They will not make or break your career. Shut up, focus, and pull yourself together./i

Lorelai cringed. The internal struggle she was having with herself brought her back fourteen years to her last testing experience. She sat in the potting shed of the inn with her books spread out on the floor while Rory slept in the crib. This test was going to be make or break. Her GED would give her more opportunities, and more money as a result. Mia had graciously given her money to take a preparatory class and to buy study materials… she couldn't handle the thought of disappointing her.

That feeling was one of the worst feelings in the world. She had already disappointed her parents, and while she was sure that Mia would be supportive regardless, something deep inside her irrationally feared disappointing Mia too. If she disappointed Mia, she would disappoint herself. And that wasn't something she could take.

She knew she was in a better situation now, but somehow the anxiety of finals was still affecting her. Lorelai knew that failing exams wasn't going to prevent her from providing for Rory. She was able to do that before she started taking courses at the college. Taking a deep breath, she started filing through her flash cards again. Without really reading them, she haphazardly placed them in two piles. As the piles began to merge together, she focused in on the two sections. She wasn't sure which was the 'right' pile and which was the 'wrong' pile.

Frustrated, she threw the cards on the table and grabbed her books. She picked up her purse and sat it on the top of the stack, slamming the door shut on her way out. Lorelai wasn't sure what possessed her to carry her books out with her in the first place, but the more she thought about it, the more she realized that her books had practically become appendages.

The thought of burning the books came to mind. Her rational side rescued her from starting a Stars Hollow forest fire, however, and told her to keep walking. She walked to the gazebo and debated sitting down when she saw Luke's across the way.

She crossed the street and opened the door, letting it slam just like the door to the Crap Shack.

"We're closed!" Luke barked from the kitchen, poking his head out to see who had entered. When he saw it was Lorelai, he dropped the dishtowel he was using and walked around the counter. "Sorry. I thought you were Kirk or Taylor."

"Why do I do this to myself?" she blurted out, slamming her books onto the table and slumping down into a chair, trying her hardest not to let her guard down in front of Luke.

"Do what to yourself?" he asked, pulling up a chair.

She shook her head, turning to face the window. She could feel the tears of stress, frustration, and nervousness welling up, and she wasn't in the mood to let them show. It wasn't like Luke hadn't seen her cry before. But for some reason, this particular time, Lorelai would give anything to avoid the embarrassment of crying in front of him. After all, they were just barely finding their way back to being 'normal' Luke and Lorelai. The attempted apology in the diner was a step in the right direction, but things were still slightly different.

After a few moments of silence, Luke moved his chair closer. "Are you okay?"

Lorelai took a deep breath. She opened her mouth as if to say something, but stopped. She wasn't sure if she could articulate what she was feeling to begin with, let alone doing so in front of Luke. Lorelai looked up at Luke. Their eyes met for a moment, and she quickly glanced out the window to avoid staring into them. If she looked for too long, she would end up melting into a pile of goo. And that was the last thing she needed. But even in that brief moment when their eyes met, she noticed a look in his eyes that made her feel a little more at ease. Finally, she started to share her thoughts. "I put way too much pressure on myself. I mean, this isn't something that I absolutely need to do so I can survive, right? It's just a bunch of stupid tests that I'm getting myself all worked up about. The worst that can happen is that I fail these finals, I don't graduate, and I take the classes again. Lather, rinse, repeat as needed, you know?"

"What makes you think you're going to fail?"

Lorelai sighed. She shook her head, turning to look at Luke once again. "I'm being irrational. It's stupid to even worry about, you know? I guess all through business school my mantra was 'this is for the inn', you know? This is something I'm doing on my own, only for me, no one's making me do this. But somehow that turned into thinking about how much Harvard is going to cost in a few years, and how I plan to pay for that. And opening my own inn could really… oh, God, Sookie!"

Luke's eyebrows furrowed. "Sookie? What about Sookie?"

"This isn't just my dream. This is Sookie's dream, too. I have the dreams of a lot of people in my hands, Luke! Oh, crap, this is worse than I thought," she admitted, trying to subtly wipe a tear that had escaped.

He dragged his chair even closer to her. "It's not worse than you thought."

"Yes it is," she croaked, still trying to hide the effects of her anxiety. She took a deep breath and stood up from the chair. Lorelai said nothing as she paced by the counter. This was imuch/i worse than she thought. The fact that her grades on these exams determined a good chunk of her future had never really hit her until that moment. A shiver surged down her spine and she stopped, leaning against the counter and crossing her arms. She knew that she had already revealed too much to pretend that she was fine.

She cringed. She wasn't sure if it was appropriate to share all of that, considering the state of their friendship. But she was feeling a little better getting it off of her chest, so she collected her thoughts and glanced at Luke. She caught another glimpse at that comforting look in his eyes, and again continued, trying to ignore the fact that she may not have completely patched things up with Luke. "It's not just my dreams I'm controlling here. If it was just me, I think I'd be much more relaxed about this. Sure, I complained about studying and stuff, but I know I want this more than anything. I'd figure it out for myself. But now that it involves Rory and Sookie…"

He walked over to the counter and stood in front of her. "Lorelai," he said, gently placing his right hand on her shoulder to get her attention.

She straightened up, trying not to show that she could feel the heat from his hand through her shirt. iCool it/i, she told herself, doing her best to keep her composure. The new feelings that she was having for Luke were making the entire situation more difficult. "I hate disappointing people, Luke," Lorelai said, her voice cracking as she spoke. "I can't imagine disappointing Sookie and Rory and everyone else because I didn't study hard enough, or I froze when the test was in front of me."

Luke moved to her left and leaned against the counter. "I doubt you'll disappoint anyone."

She looked at him and smiled, sniffling and brushing another escaped tear from her cheek. "Thanks. That makes me feel better."

"You don't look like you feel better."

Lorelai knew she could try to hide her frustration and her nerves, but she also knew that Luke could see right through it. She shrugged. "I'm fine."

"This isn't about the finals, is it?"

"What do you mean?"

He turned to face her. "You wouldn't get this bent out of shape about disappointing other people. I can see you being nervous. Sure, you want to make them proud. But normally you'd take pressure like this and turn that around and use it to motivate you. This whole thing isn't about finals and pressure and other people. Something's bothering you."

"I'm fine, really."

"People who are fine don't walk into my diner throwing books around and rambling on and on about disappointing people. Disappointing people isn't something you're normally so focused on."

Lorelai broke eye contact and looked down at the floor. "It's just—"

"What?"

She cleared her throat. "I guess as things progressed in my life I saw myself graduating from business school, getting a degree, and opening my own inn. That's how I had it planned. My blinders have been on for years to make sure things go as planned."

"How do finals change that?" Luke asked, confused.

"I guess I got to thinking about how these tests really mean something, you know? I never thought about what would happen if I didn't pass them."

"What's the worst that can happen? You take the classes again? It's what, two classes?"

She nodded. "That's just the thing, though. It's deviating from the plan. I have this plan, and I want it to work out. As long as I can remember, I've gone by my master plan. I started making this plan the moment I found out I was pregnant. Sure, I made revisions and added some things to the plan. But when the plan is altered on terms I'm not comfortable with—"

"So you're basically worried about disappointing yourself?"

"Well, it sounds stupid when you say it like that," she said, giving him a gentle and playful shove with her left hand as she wiped her eyes with her right.

Luke shook his head. "It's not stupid. Irrational? Absolutely. Stupid? No," he said, wrapping his arm around her shoulders.

Lorelai sniffled, leaning against him. She certainly felt stupid. She took a deep breath, giving in to Luke's kind gesture and wrapping her arms around him. For a moment, she thought about letting go, but she stayed there, taking in the feeling of Luke gently rubbing her back in an attempt to calm her down. He didn't think her freak out was stupid. She was standing in the diner, crying and hugging Luke, all over finals.

Suddenly she didn't feel so stupid. The hug wasn't new; he had hugged her before. But the feeling she got when she hugged him had intensified. She had overlooked the fact that even though his arms were so strong, he hugged with a certain kind of gentleness. It was protective, but not smothering, and comforting but not… she could think of no other way to describe it, other than it was so Luke. And that made her feel safe. How could she have overlooked this before? Maybe the realization had something to do with the way things went at the town meeting. It had been awhile since she had a feeling like that when it involved Luke.

Or maybe it hadn't really been that long. The more she blabbed on about the plan, the more she realized that Luke seemed to fit into her plan somehow. Her plan didn't explicitly state what his role was, but he wasn't written out of it, either. And there was really no way of excluding him from the plan. Especially during times like this. She realized how long she had been hugging him, and stopped letting her mind wander so much. Reluctantly, she pulled back.

"It's not stupid? Really? You're going to think the rest of the explanation is stupid."

"Try me."

She sighed. "I just remember the last time I studied this hard, and how nervous I was. I got major flashbacks at the kitchen table tonight, remembering how I studied to get my GED. It was one of those things, you know? It would bring in a lot more money for Rory, and we could be more comfortable and independent. And then I ended up thinking deeper about this degree and I think that's when I realized that this wasn't just me putting pressure on myself for my own benefit. And Rory and Sookie got involved in my thoughts and I panicked."

"I get that it's a big step. But you're nuts, and you never get all worked up over crap like this. Plus you've done nothing but whine about how much you've studied for days."

She cringed. "I was really that bad, huh?"

"If I didn't know how much you wanted to do well, I'd have pulled a Montag and burned the damn books you felt the need to carry wherever the hell you went."

"A iFahrenheit 451/i reference? You're really going out of your way to make me feel better."

"You feel better?"

"Yeah, I do," she said with a smile.

"Good."

Lorelai looked at Luke. There were a thousand thoughts running through her head. She wanted to thank him, or at least say something, but she was frozen there, just staring at him in awe of how he outdid himself yet again by simply being there when he was needed. What could she do next? Part of her had the urge to wrap her arms around him again, but she stuffed her hands in her pockets. The image of the white envelope with tickets to the graduation ceremony sitting in her purse kept presenting itself in her mind, and she could no longer ignore it. Walking over to her purse, she pulled out the envelope.

She tapped the envelope in her palm, working up a speech in her head. Each time she tried to open her mouth, she stopped herself, realizing that she had already made a fool of herself. Finally, she decided to let it go. The worst part was over.

"So, uh, there's this thing that they're doing for us at the college. It's like… I guess you can call it a graduation ceremony. Caps and gowns, "Pomp and Circumstance", pictures and diplomas, you know, that stuff. And I have an extra ticket, and I was wondering if… you know, you might want to…"

"You're inviting me to the ceremony?"

She nodded and pulled the ticket out of the envelope. "Yes. I mean, if you want to come to the ceremony. You don't have to or anything. I just…"

"I'll go."

"Really?"

He nodded. "Yeah, I'll go."

"I don't want to make you go to something you don't want to go to…"

He took the ticket from her hand, held it up in the air, and stuck it in his back pocket, as a gesture of acceptance.

Lorelai nervously folded the envelope as he looked at her. She could feel her cheeks getting hot. Her heart started pounding even harder than it was before, and the thoughts in her head were becoming more and more scattered. The stress headache between her eyes was returning, and she tried to keep her cool as she felt her composure slowly deteriorating. It was a cocktail of emotions that she never thought she would experience. With that and the feelings she got when she hugged Luke, she knew she would walk into finals with an emotional hangover.

She pondered what to say for a moment. It wasn't like anything had really changed between them. Before she knew it, the envelope was torn into four pieces. She looked down at the torn paper in her hands and held it up, laughing and shaking her head. Lorelai dropped the pieces of the envelope on the counter.

"Thanks," she finally said, breaking the silence. "For going to the ceremony, for helping me realize that my stressing out isn't entirely stupid. You know, for… everything that you've done lately."

He nodded. "It's no big deal."

"Well, to me it is. If you hadn't talked me down, I think I'd be repeatedly banging my head against the books while repeating 'why did I do this to myself?' over and over again. So you uh, saved me from a giant, swollen, egg shaped bruise on my head. For that, I will be forever grateful."

He chuckled. "That kind of stuff is not usually worth getting potential brain damage over."

She smiled. It was rare to hear him laugh like that. She liked the sound of his laugh. It was one of those little things she noticed on occasion, like the scar on his thumb. Lorelai turned to face Luke, and he gave her a smile back. She took a deep breath. Seeing him smile and hearing him laugh at the same time was even less common.

He was so laid back about her meltdown. That's what she loved about him. To her, something could be the biggest problem in the world, and he always seemed to make it better. Damn him and his willingness to listen. It was making her more confused. iSure, Gilmore. Have another cocktail, why don't you? Just be glad you didn't drive here, or you'd have to say the alphabet backwards when the cops pulled you over./i

Lorelai took a deep breath. All of the confusing emotions welled to the surface as she leaned in towards him. Before she knew it, her lips were dangerously close to his, and neither one of them was pulling back. She quickly turned her head, gave him a peck on the cheek, just shy of his lips, and stepped away.

"So, uh, thanks for, you know, averting my crisis," Lorelai said, gathering her books. She walked over to the counter to gather the discarded pieces of the ticket envelope, reaching out and brushing Luke's hand as she collected them. Jerking her hand back, she shoved the torn envelope in her pocket. She walked over to the table and grabbed her purse.

He cleared his throat and rubbed the back of his neck. "Yeah. No problem."

"I have to… get going. Lots of work to do. Make sure that my breakfast is extra… cheesy tomorrow." She squeezed her eyes shut, shuddering at the embarrassment she felt, wishing that she could take the events of the past few minutes back.

Lorelai turned around and exited the diner, muttering under her breath. She shook her head. How could she have acted like that? A few days ago, she was absolutely furious with Luke, and now she was perfectly willing to ikiss/i him? iAlmost kiss/i, she reminded herself. i It was an almost kiss. Your lips just barely touched his./i

She groaned. Almost kiss or actual kiss, there was now another dynamic to her relationship with Luke. Every time they had a moment similar to that, it took her weeks to rationalize how he fit in her life. But this time things were different. Each moment they had before this was just that, a moment. There were usually some confusing feelings, but she always moved on. But this time, there was a kiss. The classification of the kiss was still up for debate, but there was a kiss involved.

Damn Luke and his willingness to listen. Now she would get nothing done.