Lorelai woke up the next morning with an instant migraine. At first she thought she had dreamt up the previous night's events.

After Luke had left, she and Rory spent the next hour catching up with Chris. He came bearing flashy gifts and tons of apologies for his tardiness. Lorelai had smiled through his humor and jokes, the light touches he not-so-subtly laid on her, and the puppy dog eyes he used when he asked if he could crash on her couch for the night.

"All for Rory, all for Rory," was the mantra she inwardly repeated to herself as she saw her daughter's eyes light up at his sudden re-appearance, giving him a huge hug and grinning ear to ear.

She dared to glance at her alarm clock, it read a quarter to 9, and she was never so grateful to have a Sunday off from the Inn. With a groan, she rolled out of bed and went to her closet to select an outfit for the day. She took a few dresses off of the hangers and tossed them back onto her bed to try on after her shower.

Lorelai crept down the stairs 45 minutes later, dressed in a fitted dark brown knit turtleneck dress. It had long sleeves and clung to her curves in all the right places. She had tamed her wild curls and clipped them back from her face, applied some natural makeup, clasped some simple gold hoops to her ears, and grabbed a pair of nude colored high heeled pumps, letting them dangle from her fingertips as she quietly tried to make it down the stairs.

She snuck a peek towards the couch and could see that Chris was still fast asleep. She sent up a silent prayer that she would have a little more time to herself to get over her frustration from the night before.

She cursed under her breath when she realized the coffee canister was empty, but plucked a donut from the stash that Luke had placed in the cupboard the evening before. Munching happily on her chocolate frosted donut, she looked over at Rory's bedroom door that was ajar, and pushed it open to check on her daughter.

Rory sat on the floor crosslegged still dressed in her pajamas printed with unicorns, she was staring intently at a card in one hand, and in her lap was a beautiful red leather bound book with elegant gold leaf on the cover. The sound of the door opening took Rory's attention off of the card, and she looked up at her mother, with tears in her eyes.

"Oh, babe, what's wrong?" Lorelai said as she rushed over.

Rory shook her head and swiped the heel of her hand against her cheek. Lorelai saw the remnants of the purple wrapping paper surrounding her daughter and knew she had opened Luke's gift to her. With Christopher's sudden appearance last night, Luke's other gift had completely slipped her mind until now.

Rory extended an arm towards her mom and handed her the card, picking up the book out of her lap and cradling it like a baby.

Lorelai gently plucked the card from her daughter's fingers and studied it closely.

Rory,

I'll admit I didn't know much about Alice in Wonderland before your mom told me about the theme to your birthday party this year. I'm more of a Huckleberry Finn or Robinson Crusoe man myself. But I know if a book means something to you, then it's more than worth getting to know it myself. I borrowed an old copy from the library that had stained pages and a sticky vinyl wrapped cover. The packaging sucked, but the book wasn't all that bad.

I think we all have a bit of Alice in us. Sometimes, usually when we're feeling bored or tired with our lives, we just want to get away for a bit. It can be something as big as an all out escape or as simple as a dream. For some, its rabbit holes and fancy gardens. Cakes and fizzy drinks that make you too small or too big.

For others, like me, it's the lake at the old cabin my great-grandfather built years ago. I'm a simple man, but I have dreams and they've led me well. Anything I've ever wanted, I've dreamt it first, but I've also put in the work. It's not just a cheesy saying, you really can do anything you put your mind too.

It doesn't hurt that you're also the smartest kid I know.

Wishing you a very happy 10th birthday.

I hope all of your dreams come true.

Your friend,

Luke

Lorelai felt her eyes burn with unshed tears and turned towards Rory who was looking at the book in her lap in shock.

"It's a first edition," Rory let out an awed chuckle and fingered the gold leaf on the slipcase, "Printed in 1866." She shook her head and spoke softly, "I can't believe... he found this for me?"

Lorelai sifted Luke's words through her mind, and looked at the scene in front of her. Those damn butterflies took flight in her stomach, she said the only thing she could muster in that moment. She fell into her light-hearted safety net, "Boy, he really commits to a theme, doesn't he?"

Rory looked up at her mom in disbelief, "And he read Alice. Luke went to the library, Mom. He read it and wrote me that amazing card that I am so putting it in my drawer for safe keeping. He built me a donut wall and a special reading nook. And this," She tapped the cover gently, "How do I thank him?"

"I'm trying to figure out that same thing kid," she murmured to herself.

Chris and Lorelai walked in stride towards the town square later that morning, Rory was a few steps ahead leading the way to the diner with an ever present grin.

"That's one cute kid we've got," he said, turning his head towards Lorelai's.

She smiled softly and nodded, looking ahead at the back of Rory's pig tails dancing against her shoulders with each skip she took, "That she is."

He gave her a sidelong glance and then reached a hand out to touch her forearm lightly,

"Hey, are we ok?"

Finally tearing her eyes off of her daughter when she watched her walk through the door of the diner, she turned towards Chris, shaking her head with a short laugh, "I don't know Chris, I mean, you said you were going to show up yesterday and while I guess technically you made good on that promise, you missed her party. I mean, it's not like you had to catch a flight or anything either, it was a drive. A short drive at that."

Chris withdrew his hand and crossed his arms, "I don't know what you want from me, Lor. I said I would be there, and I was there. I'm sorry I missed the party, but you saw Rory last night, she was so happy!"

"Where were you, Chris?" She asked cooly, fixing him with a steely glare.

He sighed in frustration, "What does it matter? I was there."

"Christopher," She tried again, "What were you doing that you couldn't be there on time?"

He hung his head in defeat and muttered, "My parents were throwing a thing and I couldn't get away. I'm staying with them and, you know, it would've been weird."

"Weird?!" She exclaimed incredulously, not bothering with the withering stares from townies on the sidewalk outside of the diner, "God, Chris. I don't even know what to say to that."

He cocked his head to the side and studied her face that was set with a frown, "'m sorry Lor, you're right. I should've gone ahead with my original plan for the evening, climbing down that trellis outside my bedroom window. Remember? You were a pro at scaling that thing back in the day."

She let out a small chuckle, "You're 26, I think leaving through the front door should be appropriate by now."

Satisfied that she wasn't fuming, he continued on, "I'll do better, I promise you that. I hate seeing you mad at me."

While she had successfully dropped the raging anger, Chris's constant placating was starting to wear on her, "Just…be there Chris. For Rory. She deserves that."

He nodded, "Now come on," he said, wrapping an arm around her shoulder and guiding her towards the door to the diner, "Let's get some of that famous coffee you won't shut up about"

Rory was seated at a table in the middle of the diner, a fork in her hand as she happily ate her blueberry pancakes. The bells chimed and she waved her parents over to the table, and they joined her.

"Ugh, no fair! How'd you get him to serve you so quickly? You got a head start on the mommy!" Lorelai said, sticking her bottom lip out.

Rory smiled through her full cheeks and shrugged, "Mike made them this morning."

From behind the counter, one of Luke's workers, Mike, spotted Lorelai and she gestured for 2 mugs of coffee. He quickly filled two of them to the brim and brought them over, "Hey Lorelai!"

"How're you doing, Mike? Hey, where's Luke this morning? Doesn't he usually work the Sunday morning shift?"

Mike set the mugs down in front of Lorelai and Chris and smiled apologetically, "Sorry, you just missed him. Said he had to run an errand. Can I get your usual?"

"You've got a usual? How small town of you." Chris said with an impressed nod.

Lorelai rolled her eyes playfully and ordered her jack omelet with bacon and sausage, Chris followed her lead and got the same thing.

"I wish Luke was here, mom. I wanted to thank him for the book."

Chris interjected, "How often do you guys come here?"

Rory polished off a few more bites of her pancakes and answered excitedly, "What's our longest streak mom? A couple weeks?"

Distracted by Luke's absence, Lorelai still managed to smile at her daughter, "Uh, I think so, Sweets."

"Dad, Luke's the greatest! I mean besides the diner, he's always doing cool stuff for us. He taught me how to bake a pie! He's fixed our roof, our porch rail, he made me a bench for my room where I can read and it's got these nice shelves underneath. He even got me the best birthday present! A first edition of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Isn't that awesome?"

Chris's eyes narrowed at Lorelai as Rory rattled on about how great Luke was. He noticed the blush that appeared on Lorelai's face at the mere mention of the guy. How her eyes were focused on the coffee in front of her, Luke's coffee. The coffee she claimed she just couldn't live without. Who was this guy? This guy who seemed to be such a fixture in her life. How could he have missed the signs? Had he really been gone that long? Had he completely missed his shot?

Back at the Crap Shack later that afternoon, Lorelai, Rory, and Chris were entrenched in a patented Gilmore movie marathon.

The phone rang, and Lorelai groaned but got up off of her comfy perch on the couch, yanking down her dress in the process as she skipped over to the phone to stop the incessant ringing, "Speak fast!"

"Lorelai?"

The voice on the other end of the line had Lorelai's spine stiffened and her migraine from this morning all of a sudden shot back to life, "Uh, Mom?"

"Yes, Lorelai it's your mother. Do you always answer the phone like you work at some sort of fast-food restaurant?"

"Considering it's a life goal of mine, yes. Just getting my practice in."

"Lorelai," her mother growled in frustration.

"Sorry, Mom. Let's start over," She cleared her throat dramatically and began again in her best British accent, "Hello, Lorelai Gilmore's residence, how can I help you?"

"Lorelai!"

"Yes?" She asked, drawing out the letters in the word as she fidgeted with the edge of a magazine.

"It's Rory's birthday weekend."

"Yes, Mom it is. Expect your personalized thank you card in the mail anyway now, I hope you like rainbow glitter."

"I'm calling to invite you and Rory to dinner tonight, that is, if you don't already have a prior engagement."

She felt her mother's frustration growing but couldn't help herself to get in a few jabs, "Hmm, no I try to schedule all of my engagements for weekdays."

"Tonight. I'm sure you're aware that dinner is still served promptly at 7 in this house."

"Mom," she started, "Tonight won't work."

"Whatever could be more important than celebrating your daughter's birthday with her grandparents, Lorelai?"

"You just invited us to dinner, if we didn't have a prior engagement. Which we do. An engag—plans, we have plans already. Sorry."

"Well, break them."

"Excuse me?"

"Whatever vague plans you have can certainly be postponed to another evening."

Lorelai rolled her eyes and looked over at Chris and Rory who were still on the couch watching a movie.

"Chris is here, mom. He's spending the day with Rory."

"Wonderful! Invite him to come along. Your father would absolutely adore seeing the three of you."

"Well—"

"Nonsense, Lorelai. We'll see the three of you tonight."

Annoyed at the glee behind her mother's voice but knowing there was no way she was going to crawl out of this one she reluctantly agreed.

Lorelai tapped her foot incessantly against the wood floor of the living room, she was leaning against the stairs, arms crossed.

With more than 45 minutes left until they made their way to the House of Horrors as she so lovingly referred to her childhood home, Lorelai was restless.

She had changed, coiffed her hair, and applied her makeup in record time. 22 minutes to be precise. And she had done some damn good work. Her dress was one she had originally purchased from the thrift store but had made some of her own minor adjustments.

Black, tight, and a hemline that stopped at her mid calf, the dress was nipped in at her waist.

While she waited for Chris and Rory to finish getting ready, it suddenly hit her that she'd only had three cups of Luke's coffee today. And absolutely zero sighting of the man himself. With a quick glance at her watch, she realized she certainly had enough time to right both of these wrongs with a few minutes to spare before she had to pack into Chris's car with her daughter later.

"Going on a coffee run!" She called out as she opened the front door, grabbing her black trench in one hand and her purse in the other as she trotted down the steps and made the quick trek to the diner.

He knew he couldn't avoid her forever.

Last night he had left Lorelai's house before he set his eyes on the deadbeat, and that was the right decision. There was no way he could share the same oxygen as that guy without giving him a piece of his mind.

He didn't want to upset the girls. At the end of the day, the guy was a no good low-life in Luke's eyes, but he was still Rory's father and as far as he was concerned, the guy who Lorelai was all but waiting for to grow up.

He thought getting a solid's night sleep would settle his anger down enough to at least a tolerable level, he figured he could get away with it seeing as though the whole town thought of him as gruff and grumbly anyways.

But when he looked out onto the town square that morning and saw the two of them, Lorelai and him, conversing like two old buddies, he couldn't take it. He slammed the coffee carafe back into the machine and announced to Mike he was running an errand, escaping out the back door just as the bells signaled Rory's arrival into the diner.

With the dinner rush about to pick up, Luke was back in the kitchen prepping for the onslaught of orders that were about to overwhelm the small team in just a short while. He was taking his anger out on the bowl of ground beef at the small workstation, folding in the seasoning harshly.

As soon as the bells rang, he groaned. He knew it was her. He always just knew. While he had done a decent job at avoiding her all day, he knew it was a matter of time when he'd have to give in, if only for his own selfish reasons of getting a glimpse of her. Luke set the glass bowl back in the refrigerator and stalked over to the sink to thoroughly wash his hands.

"Luke?" She called out, placing her purse down on the counter and taking a seat at the counter. Noticing how it was empty, she sighed happily, she'd hoped to get some face to face time with the proprietor.

Luke walked out of the kitchen moments later, wiping his hands on his old jeans and looking up to meet Lorelai's wide eyes with a darkened gaze of his own, "Hey," he managed to sputter out.

Taken aback by the killer black dress and her dark curls framing her beautiful face he all but choked out a simple question, "Uh, coffee?"

"You even have to ask?" She said with a flirty smile, catching onto his ogling and sending a flush of pleasure through her veins.

Luke all but tripped over his own two feet as he walked over to the coffee machine and filled a mug to the brim, sliding it across the counter, she smiled gratefully and chugged as much of the brew down as she could.

A few drops escaped her mouth and dribbled down her chin and she let out a laugh. As far as Luke was concerned her laugh was like music to his ears, and he matched it with a short chuckle of his own, leaning over to grab a few napkins out of the canister and holding them out to her.

She wiped away the droplets with a dainty touch, and shrugged a shoulder, gulping down the rest of it quickly and looking up at him through her lashes to silently ask for a refill.

He rolled his eyes, but blindly reached behind him for the coffee carafe and refilled her cup, arching his eyebrow as he slid it back to her.

"Missed you around these parts earlier."

Luke grabbed a rag and started to wipe down the already clean counter, "Yeah, I, uh, heard you guys all came in earlier. Sorry I missed you."

"No you're not," she said matter-of-factly, taking another long sip as she watched his fluid movements.

Luke glared at her, "You tellin' me what I do and don't miss now?"

"When it comes to who you miss and who you most certainly do not miss, yes. I am."

Not taking the bait, he continued to wipe down the counter, "You goin' on a date or something?"

All of a sudden feeling offended for his insinuation, she matched his glare, "Oh yeah I have a hot date with my super hot baby daddy later. Thought I'd stop here first though to get a little face to face time with the sexy diner owner first. See if he wanted to have a quickie in the store room before I go out on the town and all."

He didn't even let the fact that she referred to him as sexy sink in, Lorelai said crazy things all the time to him, some skirted the line of flirtation but all were laced in a joke. While definitely not a joke, she definitely wasn't anywhere near the line of seriousness.

"Well what am I supposed to think, huh? You come in here looking all," He gestured his hands to her outfit and her hair, "And he's looking all," He gestured his hands again, "What am I supposed to think?"

"You could've just said I look nice, Luke," her tone softening.

He sighed, "Of course you look nice! Nice doesn't even cover it. You look," He sighed and hung his head, his voice also softening, "You look beautiful, Lorelai."

Butterflies. Lots of them. They took off in flight and fluttered up from her head to her toes at his words. She distracted herself by finishing off the rest of her coffee.

"I'm going to Hartford, to my parents house for dinner."

Instantly feeling a pang of guilt, he lifted his head to look at her from underneath his impossibly long lashes, guilt flashed in his blue eyes, "I'm a jerk."

She shook her head, "I know you hate him, Luke."

"I dont—," He said forcefully, but upon another look at Lorelai's knowing gaze, he dropped the pretense, "Ok I hate him."

"Lu—"

"But he's Rory's dad. So I can't hate him."

"You can hate him a little if that helps?

He nodded, "Helps a little."

She cracked a smile.

"And y'know, I get the appeal," he mumbled.

She narrowed her eyes, "What appeal?"

"You and him."

"There is no me and him."

"But you'd like there to be, right?"

"Luke, where are you going with this?"

"He's Rory's father."

"Uh, yeah, I was kinda there when it happened. Why do you keep saying that?"

"I know you, ok."

"And what does that mean! God, Luke, have I ever once insinuated I wanted to be with Chris. Even once?"

Luke leaned over the counter, "It means…that you'd want to be with him. I mean if he got his shit together, if he stuck around, if he made good on his word for once. You'd give him another shot, wouldn't you?"

"That's a lot of if's!"

"Answer the question, Lorelai."

"Why does it matter, Luke?! Why are you asking me this?"

"Because!" He said, throwing the rag down in defeat, his voice lowering, "Because, you'd want to try, for Rory."

"I…I can't deal with this right now," she muttered. She pulled a few dollars out of her purse and tossed them down on the counter, "Talk to me when you're actually ready to hear me Luke, and not just tell me what you think I want."