Author's Note: Since we're already way off in AU land, I've changed the date of Luke's father's death and scooted it earlier in November. "Pushkin" made it clear that it was November 30, but I wanted it earlier for reasons.

Chapter 4: The Parting of the Ways

The kitchen table was covered in paper with various to-do lists scribbled out on some, partially filled out applications and forms on others. Lorelai stared down at the entire mess of it, then blindly reached for one of the papers to take care of it first. I need a filing system, she absently thought as she read through the paper detailing what she needed to do to form a LLC. The purchase of the Dragonfly property had happened so fast that the money for the down payment had come out of her personal savings - the leftovers from the $75,000 check her father had given her in the spring and Yale had penalized her over. So as soon as the LLC paperwork was filed, a bank account was needed so she, Sookie, and Michel could pool their resources.

Everything she had learned in her business classes swirled in her mind: accounting, corporate structures, ethics, human resources. She pressed her fingers to her temples and willed away the brewing headache.

The practical lessons had come the evening before, when Luke had sat her and Sookie down at one of the tables in the diner and told them in no-nonsense terms what he had done to start the diner and the one thing he didn't do. It was a near duplicate of the talk he had given her nearly two years earlier, but it was all new to Sookie.

"I didn't have much to lose because I sold my parents' house to get the money to start the diner. My dad used his own cash to acquire this building and start the hardware store. But he did that before he married my mom," he told them. "But you two do have a lot to lose. You've got your houses and kids to support. So form a corporation or one of those LLCs so if something happens, all that stuff is safe."

His voice swirled in her head as she read through the requirements she printed out from the Internet at the library. The name was easy since they decided on it two years earlier and … damn it, she needed to check and see if it was still available. Of course Rory had taken the only computer in the household with her when she went to college. She needed a laptop. She couldn't afford a laptop. It was a business expense, she told herself as she reached for the phone and called Sookie. Laptop and internet service. Yippee.

"Hey," Lorelai said, "do you have a laptop?"

"Not since it fell off the counter when I was looking up recipes on the Food Network website."

"No other computer?"

"Jackson still keeps his books by hand. He goes to the library for the rest."

"Yeah, Luke's the same way. Thanks." Lorelai ended the call and tapped the phone to her forehead. Her father had a laptop, but she wasn't about to go asking him to borrow it. She could borrow Rory's, but Rory would steal it back after 10 days or so. With a sigh, Lorelai started shuffling through the papers for an empty file folder. Time for the library again. In the morning, though. She flicked a longing glance at the living room. She would get things ready for tomorrow, then turn her mind off by watching TV. It was time to start reconciling herself to the fact that this was the final season of Friends.

The phone rang as she scribbled out a list of stuff she needed to research. With the time of night, it had to be Rory. She answered, tucking it under her chin. "How's my favorite offspring that isn't a garden gnome?"

The laughter on the other end of the line was warm and familiar. "I've always loved how you answer the phone, Lorelai."

The pen dropped to the table as Lorelai pushed herself up to pace. "Mia?"

They hadn't talked since Rory's graduation day, when Mia had called to congratulate her. There was a silk scarf somewhere in the house from Vienna earmarked for her, and Lorelai walked into the living room to start looking for it as they chatted about Mia's life in California and Rory's first weeks in Yale.

Lorelai picked up a sweatshirt crumpled behind the couch and frowned at it. She shook it out, did the sniff test, grimaced. One of Dean's old sweatshirts. Right, needed to find some way to return it or just toss it in Rory's Dean box. "Say, Mia, I just wanted to let you know …"

"I've found a buyer for the inn."

"… I'm dating Luke."

Mia laughed as Lorelai dropped the sweatshirt in shock.

"Well, that certainly is big news! And I already knew it," Mia crowed.

"What?" Lorelai asked as she heard the kitchen door open and close.

"You and Rory weren't the only one to send me postcards from Europe. I got a few from Lucas as well, and the postmarks just happened to coincide with yours," Mia said, amusement coming down the line. "I put two and two together fairly quickly, and a very long email from Miss Patty told me the rest. Are you happy?"

Lorelai turned toward the kitchen, where Luke emerged with a styrofoam container in hand and an annoyed expression. He gestured toward the paper-covered kitchen table, arching an eyebrow. She covered the speaker and mouthed "Mia." The annoyance quickly dropped. He nodded, pointed at the container, then retreated back into the kitchen. She couldn't stop the soft smile, even though Mia couldn't see it. "Yeah," she said, walking back into the kitchen. She squinted at the table. They could totally eat there still. She could see small patches of wood.

"Then that's good. I always thought the two of you would work well together."

"So … you found a buyer for the inn?" Lorelai asked casually.

Luke's head snapped up from where he was unboxing the food he brought with him from the diner.

"Yes, and I'm flying out there to oversee the final sale. It'll be a quick trip, just in and out. John did such a good job with the fire when I couldn't make it out, but I want to be there for the end. You understand, don't you?"

"Yeah." Lorelai leaned over, stealing a French fry off one of the plates. She presumed it was her plate since the other one was covered with far too many vegetables for her liking. She leaned against the counter. "So, when are you arriving?"

"Wednesday at 2. I was wondering if you could pick me up from the airport?"

"Of course. I'll pick you up." Luke gestured at himself, then at the phone, and Lorelai corrected herself. "We'll both pick you up."

"I'll email you the details. What's your email address now?"

Nothing at nada dot com. "I still check the Independence email every day, you can send it there." Lorelai finished the call and pressed the phone between her breasts as she stared blindly into the distance.

"You OK?"

"Had to happen sometime." So many changes, Lorelai thought a bit sadly as she accepted her plate and led them into the living room to eat.

Two days later, they were in the Apple Store that had opened in West Hartford a couple years earlier. Lorelai stood at a flat table of blonde wood, trying to decide between the two lines of laptops the company offered while trying to talk Luke into getting one of his own.

"I don't need a computer," he muttered as she played with a shiny white iBook. It was a newer model than Rory's and had dropped the candy colors and handle that Lorelai had loved.

"If the past couple of days have proven anything to me, you need a computer. The rest of the world will be the Jetsons, and you'll be there with your trusty hammer and chisel, carving hieroglyphics of burgers and fries into the wall."

"No, you need a computer. It makes good business sense. I run a local diner, not an inn that needs to talk with folks all over the world." Luke studied the specs and the price of a Powerbook. He tapped the display that contained the specs and the price. "And if I get a computer, I certainly wouldn't spend this much on it."

"PC guy, huh?" Lorelai's gaze flitted between iBook and Powerbook, mentally tabulating the differences between the machines.

"Just not a computer guy."

"Which size?" Lorelai pointed to a couple different machines.

"Bigger." Luke nodded at a 14-inch iBook. "Not that big," he added, indicating the 17-inch Powerbook.

"This one?" Lorelai tapped the first computer he pointed out. They were all starting to blur together in her mind, and it had been worse when they were in Best Buy earlier that day. "Ugh. Maybe I should give up and buy a PC."

"Those things break in six months, and you've got to put all that anti-virus crap on it. Andrew's power button stopped working after he had his for only four months. Besides, the ratings are crap. You're paying more, but this thing will last a lot longer."

Lorelai smirked. Despite his protests, Luke had spent the time since she announced she was getting a laptop researching them. He had even left his trusty Consumer Reports on the coffee table for her to look at. "By the way, Rory wanted to know if you had an email address. After I stopped laughing at her, she came to her senses and said she'd send smoke signals."

"Why'd she want to know that?"

"She said she wanted to check in with you on that new Harry Potter book."

They left the Apple Store with two iBooks and a bag of accounting software.

"I thought you weren't a computer guy," Lorelai teased as Luke stowed their packages in the back of the Jeep, covering them with a blanket he tossed back there so no one would get any ideas while they were inside the airport picking up Mia.

"Times change," he shrugged. "I can do my books on the computer too, and they're starting to put the tax forms online. A whole hell of a lot easier than filling them out by hand and mailing them in."

"You could have just borrowed mine," she said as she walked around to the driver's side of the Jeep and restraining herself from pointing out that he totally just got a computer because somehow Rory's doe eyes had worked on him from a distance. She would save that ammo for later.

He leveled a flat stare at her as he climbed in the passenger side. "Once you put those pink glittery stickers on there I saw you eying in that Sanrio store, I won't even go near your computer."

Lorelai stared at the clock on the dashboard. They needed to be on their way to the airport. They would pick up Mia, then were planning to meet Rory in Stars Hollow for an early dinner. Mia's flight was scheduled to land in about 30 minutes, giving them enough time to get to Bradley and park in the short-term lot. But turning the car key at that moment seemed about as insurmountable as climbing Mount Everest. The tacos she had for lunch threatened to make a violent return.

"It's OK."

She looked across the car at Luke. "What?"

"You're nervous." He nodded to her fingers, twitching on the steering wheel.

She stared blindly at the center of the wheel. "I let Mia down," she admitted.

"You did not let her down," he insisted.

"The inn caught fire under my watch. Wire, smire, it's gone." With a sigh, Lorelai finally cranked the Jeep.

"She was looking to sell as is," Luke said as Lorelai backed out of the spot and headed for the mall exit. "She's not mad at you, Lorelai."

"No." But I'm mad at me, she thought and didn't talk the rest of the way to the airport. She ignored the worried looks he shot in her direction the entire time.

Luke normally didn't do the whole airport pickup thing. It was less of a lack of willingness to do it and more to do with the lack of people in his life to pick up at airports. It was odd to stand there with nothing to do but wait. People around them had signs, a few had flowers. One nervous man was pacing back and forth, patting his pocket every so often. Engagement ring, he thought, and wondered if that would be him one day. He looked down at Lorelai.

She was shifting from foot to foot, still lost in her own worries, and that just ratcheted up his own stress levels. Nervous Lorelai babbled about any and everything under the sun. He knew how to handle nervous Lorelai. But this was terrified Lorelai, who was silent in a way that made Luke want to shake her until she began spitting out random facts about celebrities he didn't care about and talk circles around him until he had a headache.

This was Mia, and he knew in his very bones that she wouldn't blame Lorelai at all for the fire.

The closing of the Independence Inn was something they rarely talked about during the Europe trip, and she had been close-mouthed about it before then. Luke knew it had a lot to do with the botched stay she organized for the town to try to revitalize the inn, when he had invited Nicole along with him. She didn't know nothing had come of that night because of Lorelai's well-intentioned turndown that had turned 17 shades of awkward. He had tried. For Nicole's sake, and possibly his own sanity, he had tried. But when he looked down and saw Lorelai's face superimposed over Nicole's, there was no way in hell he could go through with sex. It should had ended that night, their farce of a relationship. All of that had to be linked together in her mind. It most certainly was in his.

Mia was all smiles as she came through security, giving each of them a lingering hug. She held onto Lorelai, whispering something in her ear that made her visibly relax. Then, it was like someone had flipped a switch, and Lorelai had her arm hooked through Mia's as she chatted about Rory and the town, leaving him to deal with the luggage.

It gave Luke a chance to breathe a sigh of relief.

He took the wheel on the drive back so Lorelai and Mia could keep talking. Lorelai insisted that Mia take the front seat.

"I've never ridden in the back seat of my own car before," she said excitedly as she hopped in the back and they began the drive through rush hour traffic back to Stars Hollow.

"Stop kicking my seat," Luke hissed.

"Then what's the point of sitting back here then?"

"Scoot over behind Mia."

Lorelai ignored him, and Mia chuckled.

Rory met them at Silvano's, and the first part of dinner was spent talking about the classes Rory finally settled on before Mia turned her focus to the sale.

"UConn is purchasing it as a place to take faculty and staff for training sessions," she told them. "They wanted a place about an hour from campus, and this fit the bill. I didn't want to sell it to a hospitality chain, because that would put the Dragonfly at risk of failure almost before you get it off the ground. They will be taking most of the furnishings, but with some exceptions that you and I will go over, Lorelai."

"They toured the property last week and sent John a list of what they planned to change, which is all standard. They're planning to gut the inside and pretty much start from the ground up." Mia lowered her fork, giving both Lorelai and Rory a sobering look. "They also told me they plan to tear down the potter's shed."

Both girls went still. Rory stared at her plate, blinking hard while Lorelai fiddled with her wine glass.

"It was to be expected," Mia said gently.

"I know," Lorelai finally said, and she changed the subject.

Rory returned to Yale, Luke went back to the diner, and Lorelai drove Mia to the Crap Shack, where she was to stay in Rory's room. Her body clock still three hours behind, Mia was alert even as Lorelai felt the last of her energy drain away. But when Mia asked to see Lorelai's plans for the Dragonfly, she couldn't refuse her. She spent the next hour going over the paperwork with Mia as she unboxed the new laptop. She pulled out the sparkly Hello Kitty sticker she bought while Luke had been paying for his own laptop and proudly affixed it to the back of the machine. She pulled out the fat binder with the ideas she collected over the years and Sookie's sketches for the kitchen. She told Mia about how she and Sookie had reached out to Michel a few days earlier, inviting him to join them at the Dragonfly. She talked Sookie's ideas to do catering and party planning on the side until the baby was born and after she recovered from childbirth

Mia weighed in with her own advice before reaching in her purse for an envelope. "Here," she said, handing it over.

"What's this?"

"It's my investment in the Dragonfly. Twenty percent of the sale from the Independence once it goes through. For now, this is coming from my savings."

Lorelai peeked in the envelope, her jaw dropping at the amount written on the check. "Mia, you can't do this!"

"I've already done it. This should go considerably toward getting your renovations done and not have to dip into your own savings quite so much." Mia rubbed Lorelai's knee. "You and Sookie are like daughters to me. This is your dream, and I fully support it. I was always going to gift you something, and it's fitting that part of the proceeds from the Independence goes to its biggest champions. I also want you to have your pick of what's left at the inn. I've outlined that in the bill of sale to UConn. You have until next Wednesday to select what you want to keep and remove it from the premises, then turn your keys over to the real estate agent. I know it's tempting to take everything, but you need to put your own stamp on things."

Lorelai stared at the envelope, the urge to tear it in half so strong that she set it on the table before she could do so. This was too much. Orchestrating the sale of the Independence so it wouldn't infringe with the Dragonfly. Their pick of what remained at the inn. Now this. She and Mia had argued long ago about the gifts that Mia sometimes gave her and Rory, and Lorelai would always remember the suspicious bonus she received right as she was making the final push to buy the Crap Shack.

This isn't just for me, she reminded herself. It was also for Sookie and Michel. They would cheerfully murder her in her sleep if she didn't accept the investment. "I don't feel so bad buying Sadie now," she finally said a with a bright smile.

"The laptop?" Mia asked with a knowing smile. "Good. You need an email address. And a website."

"Yeah." Lorelai scribbled "website" on a scrap of paper. She had done basic maintenance on the Independence's website, but she had never built one from the ground up. Maybe Andrew had a book on that. She added "Mia repayment plan" to the list as well.

"You should consider some additional investors," Mia continued. "It'll be good for the community and for the three of you."

"Jackson's already working with Sookie to plan to food supplies. He's talking about building a bigger greenhouse."

"That's good. There's a lot of people who would be willing to invest in a new community property. Miss Patty, Taylor …"

"Hah, good one." Lorelai started to tell Mia about the whole diner window fiasco, but her next words quickly derailed that train.

"Or your parents."

"Cold day in hell," Lorelai immediately replied.

"Or I'm quite sure Lucas would …"

"Even colder day in hell. So cold the Arctic just froze twice over despite global warming."

"Lorelai," Mia said with a mixture of fondness and exasperation as Lorelai frantically shook her head.

"He's …" She twisted her hands in her lap, the words escaping her. "I can't, Mia."

"You have your reasons," Mia said after a moment.

Lorelai's gaze settled on the mantle, where a picture her, Luke, and Rory from Europe had recently joined the collection. It was one her father had taken using Rory's camera in Rome. "Hey, Mia. About Luke. Why didn't I ever meet him before seven years ago?"

"Before you moved into the house?"

"Yeah. The way you talked about him, you've known him since he was a kid."

Mia stared down at her lap for a moment, then reached out to take Lorelai's hand. "A lot of this isn't my story, and I'm not Miss Patty. But, I'll tell you what I'm comfortable saying." She squeezed her hand hard. "Not long after you and Rory came to Stars Hollow, his father Bill was diagnosed with lung cancer. Chain smoker until the day he died."

"Luke hates smokers," Lorelai replied, easily recalling at least six different rants he had about smoking, exposure to secondhand smoke, and everything related to both.

"When you see a loved one's lungs literally being eaten away by cancer, it's hard not to be affected by it. Bill fought it for three years, but the odds for survival were always low."

"Oh." Her heart ached, and she thought of her father and his heart.

"Lucas spent the entirety of those last few years caring for his father. He dropped out of college to do so. He inherited the hardware store, but that was right as the Wal-Mart was opening in Woodbridge, followed by a Home Depot."

Lorelai remembered taking 5-year-old Rory to the opening of that Wal-Mart, bedazzled by the sheer amount of things that she couldn't afford but could at least look at. A pang of guilt twisted her stomach, and Mia didn't have to elaborate. While she and Rory were oohing over cheap toys and books, the hardware store was being driven out of existence by its very presence.

"He managed to keep it open another 18 months, but his heart was never really into it. He finally closed it and let it sit empty while he considered his options. There wasn't much for him to live off of, and not enough for him to go back to school. What little he was bringing in was going to Liz to help with Jess. It was like this for three years. He was … lost. And that part's not my story to tell."

Lorelai nodded and wondered if Mia thought if it was weird to pause the story long enough to sprint to the diner and give Luke a hug.

"Then he opened the diner in '94. You were saving for the house then and didn't venture out much at all except to take Rory to school and that ill-fated attempt to offer her dance lessons. You didn't shop at Doose's or Andrew's because those were luxuries you couldn't afford. Then you bought the house when Rory was 11, and you know the rest."

Lorelai lay in bed that night, turning Mia's words over in her head. Luke was so reticent when it came to discussing his past that each new fact that came her way seemed like a shock. There was the order scribbled on the wall behind the counter. The mere fact that Liz and Jess existed. What little he'd told her about how his father had founded the hardware store, and something about that didn't jive either. At the time, he told her that his father had built the business with his own two hands, but the existence of the nearly century-old window in the diner made it clear that the building had been part of the land his dad purchased. She shrugged it off for the moment.

Everyone in Stars Hollow knew her past. Lorelai Gilmore was the child of old money who had brought her toddler daughter to town the moment she turned 18 to escape her parents' control and build a better life for Rory. Her adulthood had played out before curious eyes: her progression from maid to manager of the Independence Inn. Her purchase of the Crap Shack. Her engagement to Max. And Luke had been there, weaving throughout the last seven years first as the man she loved to antagonized, then as one of her best friends, now just the man she loved.

Lorelai turned onto her side and stared at the empty space next to her. She had forgotten how to sleep alone. It was the first time since leaving for Europe she had stayed in a bedroom by herself. Either Luke or Rory or both had shared sleeping spaces with her. The last time they tried sleeping alone, the night they got back from Europe, had also been a dismal failure.

She snatched his pillow and curled herself around it, closing her eyes and trying to sleep. Her Hello Kitty alarm clock ticked away the seconds, and she breathed in the traces of his scent. With a groan, she rolled onto her back and reached for the portable phone.

Luke answered on the first ring.

"Can't sleep either, huh, Rip Van Winkle?"

"No." He sounded just as cross as she felt. "And I thought the whole point of the story was that he slept for decades?"

Lorelai absently waved a hand in the air. "We're big kids. We should know how to sleep in our big kid beds by ourselves. Though I still wanna be a Toys 'R' Us kid." She fiddled with the edge of the quilt, noted it was starting to look pretty worn. She needed to repair it. "So, whatcha wearing?"

"Lorelai," Luke said in half-exasperation, half-laughter, and she smiled.

"Mia wants to give us money for the inn," she told him.

"I'm not surprised. She gave me money for the diner."

"Really?"

"Yeah, she and two other friends of my parents: Maisie and Buddy. I worked in their restaurant while I was getting the diner off the ground."

"Really?" she repeated, any desire to sleep gone.

"Yeah, I should take you there sometime. I don't get out there very often, but they call about once a week. They covered the gap between what I got for the house and what I actually needed to get off the ground. They kept me from having to take out a loan from the bank. That's why I live above it. I didn't want to pay rent some place when I could be paying them back."

"How long did it take to pay him back?" Because there was no question that he had. It was Luke. Just like there would be no question that she would pay Mia back, no matter how long it took.

"Three years? Maybe four? I made the last payment around the time you finally stopped calling me Duke."

She smirked. Good old days. "Was it hard for you to accept the money?"

"I tore up the check three times before accepting it."

Only three, she wanted to quip. Lorelai thought about Mia's suggestion, about taking on additional investors for the Dragonfly. Was this where she'd gotten the idea from, investing in the diner? It wasn't a bad idea, but … she caught her lower lip between her teeth. She never stopped to think about how much money Luke could possibly have, but it was clear he had recovered from the initial financial setback starting the diner had cost. He paid for the soda shoppe building in cash, she remembered. He offered to front the money for repairs to her foundation after termites decided it made a nummy snack. But it was one thing taking money from a mentor or her parents. But it was another thing entirely to take money from him, and she simply couldn't bring herself to do it.

"Did you fall asleep?"

"No, just thinking."

"Ah, that explains the smoke I see out the window."

Lorelai blew a raspberry at the phone. "Is it bad that we've only been together two months and we can't seem to spend a night apart?"

"We didn't exactly take the traditional route."

She grinned. They had leaped over the "getting to know you" dating portion of their relationship, but they had known each other for seven years. What else could dinner and a movie tell them that they didn't already know about each other? She thought of his past. Well, quite a bit. They did manage a few dates while in Europe, usually spending the evening together while Rory did her own thing.

"Maybe we should do the whole dinner and a movie thing," Lorelai suggested. "You know, see what all the cool kids are talking about."

"I'm OK with that."

"Really?"

"I've resigned myself to knowing there's a copious amount of TV and movies in my future."

"Good man. I think I'll keep you."

"Try to sleep," Luke urged.

"You too. I don't have to be up in four hours."

"Don't remind me," he groaned and ended the call.

Lorelai stared at the ceiling for another five minutes, gave up, and turned on the bedside lamp. She ventured downstairs to see what books Rory had left in the living room and stumbled across a copy of Little Women on the coffee table underneath an old People magazine. She trudged upstairs and settled into bed with it, flipping it open to the beginning. She last read it in high school shortly before getting pregnant and had thought it hilarious that anyone had a decent relationship with their mother. Her adolesence was less Little Women and more Lord of the Flies.

She was halfway through the second chapter in when her bedroom door creaked open. She didn't even bother to look up. "Want me to read to you?"

Luke slipped beneath the covers and scooted to her side, snuggling into her. "We've gotta to do something about this," he muttered.

"Tomorrow," Lorelai murmured, her body relaxing and quickly growing sleepy now that he was next to her.

"Wassat?" He nuzzled her shoulder and squinted at the book.

"Little Women."

"Oh, think Rory left it for me."

"Really?"

"Wanted to know what I thought about it. Said even Jess read it. Disguised it with a cover from a Dickens book so I couldn't see."

She laughed and set the book aside. Lorelai pressed a kiss to the top of his head. "We'll read it together tomorrow."

"'Kay." Luke was asleep seconds before she finally slept.

The next morning, Lorelai drove Mia to UConn to meet with the lawyers to go over the final sale of the Independence.

"You didn't want to see it one more time?" Lorelai asked Mia as they headed for the Interstate.

"I want to remember it the way it was," Mia said. "Vibrant. Full of life. Full of you, Rory, Michel, and Sookie."

Lorelai turned over all the keys to the property except her personal set, and she agreed to meet the real estate agent the following week to hand off those. They met Sookie and Michel for lunch in Hartford, where her friends were equally astonished by Mia's gift. Sookie sobbed as she thanked Mia, accidentally upsetting her table setting in the process. She also managed to take out the table behind her. The entire table.

Lorelai fought traffic all the way to Bradley, where she parked and walked with Mia through the airport up to the security point.

"Well, I'll have to take it from here," Mia said, embracing Lorelai. "Now that you've finally settled on an email name, you'll have to send me pictures of the progress on the Dragonfly. I want to visit again when it opens."

"I'll let you know." Lorelai was rather proud of the coffeejunkie68 handle she selected for her personal email.

"And you're cashing that check as soon as you get the LLC sorted?"

"That should be next week. I'll go put it in my safe deposit box. I needed to drop the passports off anyhow."

"Good." Mia gave her one more hug. "Lorelai?"

"Yes?"

Mia gave her a long, searching look. "I think you should know. Bill died on November 11, 1989."

Lorelai frowned. "OK?"

"Something to keep in mind." Mia kissed Lorelai's cheek and headed for the closest TSA agent.

Luke left the Crap Shack before dawn, heading back to the diner feeling at least somewhat rested. A cycle of REM sleep had creeped in there somewhere, and it was far better than staying at the apartment in a fruitless attempt to sleep.

His pillow would probably never recover.

This was ridiculous, he scolded himself repeatedly as he showered, changed into work clothes, and started through the morning rituals that were so well-honed that he barely focused on them. He was nearly 38, for Christ's sake. He could most certainly sleep by himself like any normal adult. There was no rational reason behind his inability to sleep alone anymore. He was an adult in an adult relationship, and they would behave like adults, that meant spending the night alone from time to time. So there.

Luke slammed the lid on the tomatoes he just prepped with such force that it bounced off the container, went flying across the room, and landed in the fry vat.

Well, great.

Lorelai and Mia stopped by on their way out to UConn, and the annoyance he hoarded through the morning briefly got shoved aside as he handed out hugs and go cups of coffee. There was something in Lorelai's eyes that made him worry about her, even though she had gone through the motions. Her smiles were plentiful, her quips had made his head spin. But he knew her well enough to see the stress she was trying to mask, and he was helpless to do anything about it. He suspected accepting the money from Mia bothered her a lot, and he understood. Thankfully, Kirk just happened to open his mouth the moment the door closed behind them, and he relished in getting a chance to vent.

Hours later, Luke saw the Jeep pass outside the diner and reached for Lorelai's favorite mug. He headed back in the kitchen to give Caesar a break and prepare her usual lunch, even though he figured she had already eaten. When had that ever stopped Lorelai? When he walked out 10 minutes later with her food, her stool remained vacant and the mug of coffee untouched.

He waited another 20 minutes, tossed the fries and coffee, and boxed the burger. He stashed it in the fridge and worked through the rest of the afternoon, tapping into all his self control in an effort not to snap his head toward the door every time the bells jangled.

Lane came in after her final class for the day, which gave Luke the chance to escape. She had done such a good job over the summer that they had worked out a way for her to stay on while juggling her classes. She was happy, and her mother was satisfied. He waved Caesar off and checked in with the new evening cook. Denise had come well-recommended via Maisie and Buddy, working her way through culinary school. Had the Independence still been open, she could easily be one of Sookie's sous chefs. He was convinced Sookie would try to hire her away from him once she got to the point where she needed a new staff.

"So, I was looking through the fridge, and do you mind if I used up that chicken that's about to expire?" Denise asked in her light Southern drawl. "I've been tinkering with a recipe for chicken fried chicken with a cream gravy and wanted to give it a try. If you're OK with it, that is. Lane's volunteered to taste test it, along with a friend of hers. Rory, I think?"

"Sure," he said and knew Lorelai would love it. "Save a couple portions of it back in the fridge with that other go box, would ya?"

"Thanks!"

Luke checked the house, then the Dragonfly construction site. He drummed his fingers on the steering wheel while studying the old building, then did a U-turn. He drove back through town in the direction he'd seen the Jeep go in earlier, turning down the road that led to the Independence Inn.

He hadn't been there since the night of the botched turndown, and he wasn't surprised to see the Jeep parked out front. The lockbox the real estate agent had put on the door was removed and set aside, and he figured Lorelai still had her keys. He walked through the empty lobby and dining room, his footsteps echoing through the mostly empty rooms. A lot of the furniture from the first floor had been put into storage when the inn closed, but the rooms he checked upstairs remained intact. Deterring any potential vandalism, Luke thought and made a mental note to ask Coop if they were doing any extra patrols of the property.

The exploration of the upper floors was merely to satisfy his own curiosity. He already knew where Lorelai was.

The door to the potter's shed stood open, the tiny space once stuffed with tools turned into a surprisingly livable little home. The toilet and shower were curtained off, and a small hotplate and an old microwave sat on an old banquet table. The double mattress was opposite the door, and the walls were covered with child's drawings that were no higher than knee-level. Abstract squiggles and curlicues filled in the spaces between the drawings, making the space uniquely Gilmore. Next to the door, lines were penciled into the wall showing Rory's height at different ages. One line marked the height of Colonel Clucker. The two tallest lines indicated Lorelai's height: in heels and barefoot. Luke grinned at that one.

There was no evidence that Jackson's cousin had once lived here for a few weeks, and he was glad about that for Lorelai and Rory's sake.

She lay on the bed, pillow clasped to her stomach as she stared at the fading sunlight streaming across the ceiling. She turned her head toward him, watching as he inspected the various parts of the shed. He could pick easily a dozen small things that needed repair, and part of him hardly believed that Lorelai and Rory lived here for a decade. But what was the point of ranting about it? It was all going to be torn down soon.

Lorelai scooted over as Luke's inspection finally reached the bed, and he laid down next to her.

"I've never been in here. Not with it like this."

"No? No, I suppose you haven't. I didn't start coming in the diner until after Rory and I moved," Lorelai sighed. "I was kind of hoping whoever bought it would keep it. Make a shrine, you know? Prayers and offerings of Mallomars and Red Vines accepted."

She scooted in closer to him. "I used to lay here and dream of the future for me and Rory. A house. College for her. Maybe one day Chris would actually want both of us and not just me. Or maybe someone else would. I had lots of crazy dreams."

His heart ached for her, and he wished with every fiber of his being that he could rewrite time so he was standing there the moment she got off that bus with tiny Rory and shelter them from the world. "They came true though, didn't they?"

"Yeah." Lorelai smiled, and he smiled back. "How did you say good-bye to the house you grew up in?"

Luke shrugged. "It was just a house. The people were gone."

"But the memories weren't gone."

"Suppose not."

"Did you cry?"

"Shut up," he muttered.

Lorelai sat up, eyes twinkling with mischief. "You so cried."

"I did not," Luke insisted and suddenly found the wall very interesting.

"You're lying. I can tell when you're lying." Lorelai gave him a flirty grin. "You know what I've never done in here?"

Luke suspected what she was thinking, but he was too slow to stop her from rolling on top of him and kissing him. He was helpless to do anything but kiss her back, cradling her head in his hands as if she was as fragile as a thin sheet of ice with the water beating furiously below. When her hands reached for his belt buckle, he quickly covered them before she could follow through.

"We shouldn't," he said hoarsely, his blood trying to overrule every other rational thought.

She pouted. "Why not?"

"This is …" The words failed him, and he gestured to the shrine of Rory's childhood that surrounded him.

"In other words, you don't want to sleep with me where I spent years sleeping with Rory." Lorelai laughed and rolled off him, and he breathed a sigh of relief. "Fine. This will remain a sacred space."

Luke sat up before she could get anymore ideas. "You could probably have this stuff donated."

"Yeah, I think I'd like that." Lorelai did as well, leaning against his shoulder. He slipped an arm around her back, and they watched through the open door as the sun dipped toward the horizon. She stared at the height chart on the wall for a long time. "Do you have Bert with you?"

"In the back of the truck."

"Got a saw?"

They gathered in the front lobby of the Independence Inn the day before Lorelai was to turn over the keys. She nearly asked Rory to come down from Yale, but she knew it needed to be the three of them: her, Sookie, and Michel. OK, the three of them plus Luke, Tom, and a couple of Tom's men, who all agreed to haul what they chose out the U-Haul they rented for the day. She considered the height chart she had Luke cut out of the potter's shed to be Rory's keepsake from the inn.

"It's so weird in here saying good-bye," Sookie sniffed, absently rubbing her abdomen.

"How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard," Michel said absently.

Lorelai and Sookie gaped at Michel. "Did you seriously just quote Winnie-the-Pooh?" Lorelai asked.

"A.A. Milne was a brilliant writer," Michel sniffed. "One hasn't experienced life until he has imagined himself as Eeyore for a day."

"Just tell me what pieces you want, and I'll haul them out," Luke told them. "I'll go lower the ramp on the U-Haul." He squeezed Lorelai's shoulder on his way out, and the urge to burst into tears lessened slightly. Those would come later.

For now, she faced her team. "I think we should each pick just one big thing. Mia's right. It's tempting to wipe the place clean, but we need to put our own stamp on the Dragonfly. The branded toiletries they won't need, so those are going to be donated to charity. Same thing for the linens. The university wants to bring in their own."

"I'm going through all the utensils in the kitchen. There's stuff I want to get new anyhow, but there's a few things in there I want to keep," Sookie said.

"OK, any of the furniture?" Lorelai asked.

"The dining room sideboard," Sookie immediately said. "I love that piece."

"That's a good one. Michel?"

"The armoire in room 3. A piece like that shouldn't be abandoned to a university," he sniffed.

"Right. Armoire."

"And what are you taking?" Sookie asked.

Lorelai walked to the front desk, smoothing a hand over it. "What do you think?"

Sookie grinned. "Perfect."

When everything they wanted was packed into the U-Haul, Lorelai stood alone in the lobby. She slowly turned, taking it all in. She could still see herself and Michel at the front desk, Rory helping out from time to time. She remembered her almost daily squabbles with Drella over her music and wondered if she would be open to playing the Dragonfly from time to time. She could hear Sookie's excited squeals from the kitchen and see tiny Rory sitting on the stairs, watching as parties went on in the dining room. She saw herself as an 18-year-old carrying her daughter in the front door, asking for a job and being given a home.

Independence. What an ironic name. It was more than just an inn.

"Mom?"

Lorelai turned to see Rory hovering by the front door. She walked over and leaned against her, and Lorelai wrapped an arm around her waist. "Saying goodbye, kid?"

"Yeah. I already went out to the potter's shed. What happened to the wall?"

"I happened."

Rory chuckled. "Figured."

Lorelai wasn't sure how long they stood holding each other and admiring their first real home, but soon enough the front door darkened again. "Hey, we've got everything in the truck," Luke said. "You two ready to go?"

Lorelai took one breath. Then another. "Yeah. Go on ahead." She ushered Rory toward the door ahead of her.

"What're you doing, Mom?"

"Just turning out the lights."

Rory eyed her a bit strangely for a moment, then she grinned.

"What?" Luke asked her.

"I'll enlighten you outside," Rory said, leading the way.

Lorelai filed all her memories away. She brushed away a tear and gave the room a tremulous smile. Then, channeling her inner Mary Richards, she flicked off the lights and walked out the door for the last time.