A/N: I'm back! ...and determined to finish this story if you'll hang in there with me! Thank you again for for reading, the wonderful reviews, and enjoying this little AU journey with me.
Rory and Lorelai lay sprawled out on their living room floor, arms crossed over their full bellies. Two pillowcases overfilled with candy and discarded wrappers covered the already cluttered coffee table, spilling out onto the floor.
That afternoon started how most did–Lorelai picked up Rory from school and promptly brought her to the Inn where she worked on homework and munched on a Sookie-approved snack. Today, it was a bowl of freshly-made caramel covered popcorn. Lorelai, donning a long black wig and equally alluring long black dress she'd picked up from the thrift store for a couple bucks earlier that week, went into party-planning mode. The Independence Inn threw an annual Halloween Party that was renowned by any town's standards. Dancing, themed decor galore, and a wide display of sugary treats were mainstays. This was Lorelai's first year in charge of the event, and she didn't want to disappoint.
In all of the excitement of the day however, she hadn't had a chance to stop by the diner. She was planning on surprising Luke at lunchtime with a belted trench-coat tied over her slinky dress, but Mia had pulled her aside on her way out with a pressing question about that evening's entertainment. After assuring Mia that everything was indeed on schedule and no she had not hired Kirk to DJ despite his multiple offers to barter for the job. One quick glance of the clock behind the desk and she quickly realized a diner visit was just not in the cards.
With a pout, she hid in the pantry at lunchtime to make a call over there instead, pulling the long phone cord through the swinging door and taking a seat on a step-stool. She inspected her blood-red manicure as she waited for the call to connect.
"Luke's," he barked into the phone. A cacophony of sounds filled the background: kids screaming, plates crashing, cutlery clanging.
"Luke? It's me."
Luke cradled the phone on one shoulder and squinted his eyes at the low voice on the other walked to the other end of the counter to wipe down a sticky mess on the surface and grimaced at the state of his overrun diner. "Who? Look buddy we don't take orders over the phone today so you're gonna have to come in here like the rest of these loons if you wanna eat something."
"Luke! It's me!"
Luke dropped the cloth on the counter and turned around, holding his hand to his other ear to block out the noise from the raucous crowd. All day long, the diner rush hadn't let up. It started that morning with an early bird crowd triple the normal size. Taylor had run a special on orange-frosting topped cider donuts that morning at Doose's, and had delightfully reminded the town patrons to stop by Luke's Diner afterwards (and not to forget to tell the proprietor that Taylor sent them) to pick up a discounted cup of coffee.
After hashing it out with Taylor in the middle of the sidewalk (by threatening to topple over the pumpkin shaped donut display and waving a frying pan at his head) Luke had stalked back to the diner to serve regularly priced coffee and sling breakfast for the growing crowd. By lunchtime, the schoolchildren and their parents started to drop in. Luke had spent the rest of the afternoon mopping apple juice off of the vinyl floor no less than half a dozen times, and swerving out of the way while children running rampant around the crowded tables as their parents fueled up on burgers for a sugar-filled evening ahead.
Lorelai pulled the phone away from her ear at the sound of a loud crash on the other end of the line, followed by several grunts from Like himself. "Luke, are you ok?"
He'd promptly launched into a world class rant about the state of his diner, the layer of stickiness that seemed to follow kids wherever they went, and how he was covered in so many different substances he couldn't even remember what color flannel he'd donned that morning. His voice was dripping with disgust, but before Lorelai could get a word in, another loud noise interrupted him and he ended the call in a frustrated huff and a thin promise to call her back later.
Not one to have her mood soured on one of her favorite holidays of the year, at precisely the moment her shift ended, Lorelai headed into the kitchen to pilfer a sneaky handful of some of Sookie's prepared concoctions for the evening. She chatted with her for a bit and then gathered Rory into Mia's office to ready themselves for the party. Armed with a game plan, they danced to a playlist curated by Lorelai and munched on more themed desserts than they could count from Sookie's elaborate display in the main dining room.
"You really outdid yourself my dear," Mia sidled up to her at the party and they both looked on at the lively crowd. Lorelai sipped sparingly on a cup of punch that Miss Patty had sent over and smiled over the rim, "It was a team effort."
Mia bit into a confectionary and shook her head, "Now's not the time to be humble, you and Sookie are quite the dynamic duo."
Inwardly Lorelai was beaming, it had seemed like just yesterday she was a tall gangly thing, marching into the Inn with determination–and a baby in her arms. She hadn't a clue about hospitality at the time, but she had quickly found her footing, and with Mia's unwavering affection and assistance, had quickly climbed the ranks.
"You could have invited Lucas," She glanced around the costume-clad guests, "However this is may not be his crowd per se."
Lorelai folded her arms across her chest, "Yeah it's not really his thing. Rory has slotted in a 15 minute intermission at the diner to refuel and regroup later though. However he may have closed the diner down and moved far far away by then."
Mia grimaced, "I heard about the frying pan incident with Taylor earlier."
Lorelai stared gape-mouthed, "Frying pan?"
Mia touched her arm, "Lucas has always been more bark than bite. Oh the stories I could tell you about that boy…the only one who could really ever talk him out of those surly moods was Alexandra. She loved the holidays too, every one of them. For Halloween she used to spend weeks working on the children's little costumes. Oh, she'd even paint Luke's face! Of course William couldn't be bothered much with the holidays, but he always indulged her." Mia shook her head softly at the memory, "He's been through a lot, Lucas."
Lorelai felt a wave of guilt. She had spent days on the phone and in person cajoling Luke into joining the two of them on their Halloween adventures. She figured eventually she would be able to wear him down. If not teasing him with a mental preview of her outfit, then certainly by annoying him enough. However she hadn't thought for a second that maybe the holidays were simply too hard for Luke after the loss of his parents. Luke had seldom spoke about them to her. A few anecdotes about his father had slipped out now and then, but his mother remained a clouded mystery.
She looked at the doorway, decorated with spooky fake cobwebs and skulls. And although it was completely irrational, she still wished he would walk through that door, smirk fixed to his face and all.
"Mia, hi!" Rory rushed over with a caramel apple covered in M&M's in one hand, and hugged Mia hello. She then turned to her mother and pointed to an imaginary watch.
"Ok missy," Lorelai gave her daughter a salute and then turned to Mia, "The party is going to wind down by 10, and I've got the cleaning crew lined up to transform the dining room back to regularly-scheduled programming."
Rory tugged at her mother's sleeve impatiently, "Mom, we're running 8 minutes behind schedule! We're going to miss out on all the good candy at Miss Patty's. I promised Lane I would save extra Reese's cups for her."
Leaving the party a massive success, the girls made a marathon trick-or-treat loop around the town, collecting as much loot as they could along the way. They loaded up on Reese's at Miss Patty's, skipped around the town square arm-in-arm, and playfully fought over scarce packages of sour candy. According to her schedule, Rory had allotted 15 minutes at the end of the evening to drop by Luke's. However the weight of their candy, and overall exhaustion from their sugar high had them nixing that plan and heading home to collapse on the couch instead.
"I'm never eating candy again." Lorelai lolled her head to the side at fixed a glare at Rory, "You should have taken that package of Red Vines away from me at Mrs. Slutsky's."
"No way, I'd never hear the end of it. Like the time at the movies when I got the last package and you spent the entire 90 minutes being passive aggressive about it."
Lorelai groaned, "Candy bad. Sugar bad. Red Vines, bad."
From her perch on the couch, Rory hung her head over the edge to look down at her mother. She really did look like she was in pain. She wondered, not for the first time that evening, if she should call Luke.
"Mom, are you sure you're ok? You don't want me to call Lu–"
"No."
"But–"
"Rory, I'm fine," Lorelai grit her teeth at the end of that statement and rolled onto her other side, clutching her stomach in the process, "Can you just grab me some more water please?"
Rory looked at her mother skeptically as she stepped over her and precariously tip-toed around the scattered candy on her way to the kitchen. She filled a glass from the tap and looked longingly at the phone on her way back into the living room.
A knock at the door soon broke through the silence in the living room. Lorelai whined, it was muffled due to the fact her face was buried in a throw pillow, "Ahoy, who goes there?"
Realizing her mother probably had more than a few pirate phrases in her until she gave up and started straight up badgering their unnamed guest, she tip-toed over the scattered candy to get to the front door.
The short double knock in rapid succession on the windowed front door gave him away. Rory opened the door widely and greeted him with a relieved smile as he followed her inside. Despite his very long day and overall tired demeanor, he couldn't help but perk up at the sight of the little girl in pigtail braids. She stood there in the foyer, looking up at him like a white knight, "Luke!" She wound her arms around him and impulsively gave him a quick hug, "I promise we were going to come by just like I said, but mom wasn't feeling good, and my arms were hurting from carrying all of our candy."
She led him into the living room that looked like a broken-into candy factory.
However not even Luke's presence had her mother getting up off of the floor. She whimpered and lifted her head just enough to utter the word "Hi," before crawling back in fetal position.
His amused expression quickly turned to concern at the sight of his beautiful girlfriend curled up on the living room floor, eyes screwed shut and long black wig mussed, covering part of her face. He looked over at Rory who shrugged her shoulders, but wore a look of concern.
"Hey Rory, can you go grab a warm washcloth?"
Once she exited the living room, Luke knelt down on the floor and gently brushed the long hair out of Lorelai's face, "Hey," he whispered, "What hurts?"
Lorelai buried her face further into the cushion and made some unintelligible sounds, "Everything," She mumbled.
Rory marched back into the living room and handed Luke the towel, he folded it in half and set it over Lorelai's forehead. He used his other hand to soothe her back softly.
Rory worried her lip, "Is she going to be ok?"
Luke nodded, "I think she just overdid it. She needs lots of rest and fluids." He looked at Rory, "I heard your costumes were a hit though."
"Really?" Rory beamed, and self-consciously smoothed one of her pigtail braids, "It was Mom's idea."
"You two were the talk of the town," Luke confirmed.
Luke looked down at Lorelai's pained expression, and then shifted his eyes over at Rory who was stifling a yawn. "Why don't you go on to bed, I'll take care of things out here." She looked between her mother and Luke, and shot him a small grateful smile before disappearing down the short hallway to her bedroom.
As gently as possible, Luke lifted Lorelai off the ground with only the barest of grunts. She instinctively wrapped her arms around his neck and burrowed her face into his chest with a sigh. Candy crunched under his boots as he walked through the living room balancing her in his arms. He climbed the stairs and carefully unwrapped her arms from his neck as he laid he down on the bed, only then realizing she was still sporting her costume from earlier.
Lorelai blinked her kohl-lined eyes open, looked up at him and pouted, a hint of dark red lipstick still staining her lips. She unceremoniously pulled the long black wig off her head and let it drop to the floor. "Don't look at me like this," She covered her face with her hands and turned away from him.
"Lorelai," he smoothed his hand down her hip, attempting to soothe her. "Let me help you."
She swung her legs off of the bed then, extending both arms to find her balance. Luke shot up off the bed and steadied her at her waist. She shrugged him off of her and stalked off towards the bathroom.
He followed a few steps behind her, a puzzled look on his face. He was still wrapping his mind around her sudden shift in emotion when the door closed in his face. Luke leaned his forehead against the door to the sound of water running from the tap.
Minutes later, the door was gently pulled ajar, causing Luke to take a step back. She stood in front of the mirror, head tilted downwards, eyes closed. She was beautifully bare-faced, wrapped in a fluffy towel, but a pained expression flitted across her soft features.
Luke stepped over the dress that she'd left in a heap on the bathroom floor. A look of concern grew on his face at her paler-than-normal complexion. At the sound of his footsteps, she turned her head slowly to meet his eyes and opened her mouth to speak, but then quickly covered her mouth. She barely made it to the toilet before emptying the contents of her stomach. On instinct, Luke stepped into action-mode, holding her hair away from her face and soothed her back in long gentle strokes.
Slowly, he helped her to stand on wobbly legs. With one arm wrapped around her waist, he grabbed a fresh washcloth and ran it under the tap. He carefully dabbed her face clean, and she leaned against his shoulder as she wordlessly brushed her teeth and gurgled some mouthwash. He held a fresh glass of water to her lips. She made a face, but took few hesitant sips.
Back in her bedroom, she lazily slipped a nightgown over her head, tossed her towel aside, and all but collapsed on top of her bed. Luke tucked the sheets around her and leaned down to kiss her flushed cheek.
"Stay," She whispered, grasping his wrist as he shifted on the bed, "Just for a little while," she murmured, her head nuzzling the soft pillow.
Luke looked around at her dimly lit bedroom. Clothes spilled out of the dresser drawers and piled up on the floor, makeup littered her vanity in the corner of the room. It hit him all at once that he hadn't really spent much time up here since they had started dating. He shucked his jeans and flannel, and slipped underneath the covers to join her.
The few times they had been alone together were spent holed up in Luke's apartment or parked in his truck. There was a clandestine twenty minutes in the storeroom of the diner after closing. but they'd yet to spend the night at her place. He sensed Lorelai was ready to change that, given her firm grip on him. It may not have been in the manner he had previously expected, but taking care of Lorelai was something he took pride in, in more ways than one.
"Luke," She whispered, her voice slightly hoarse. Lorelai shifted closer so that their heads shared a single pillow. She opened her eyes just enough to make out the outline of his jaw. "Remind me never to eat candy again."
He snorted, "That'll be the day."
"I mean it," She whined, "Me and sugar, we're through."
"Shh," He whispered, "Try to get some sleep now, you need it."
She cuddled against his chest, shifted, and tried to get comfortable. After a few minutes of silence she spoke up again, "Are you asleep?"
"Mhm?" He murmured.
"Luke?"
"Yeah?"
She took a deep breath and tucked her head under his chin. Thankful for the veil of darkness, she whispered, "I'm sorry."
She felt his arm instantly tighten around her waist, "What're there to be sorry about?"
"I should have realized. I didn't…I didn't realize how hard today might be for you—I mean I know it's all fun and games for us but…"
"Lorelai…"
"I was thinking about me, about me and Rory and how much we wanted you to be apart of all of our little traditions. I thought maybe you were in a bad mood because of the crowds, and the sugar–God the sugar. And I know Taylor gets to you—I know. But I didn't realize there could have been another reason, a more important one. So I guess what I'm saying is…I'm sorry. I'll be better at this. Not pushing you I mean..."
He attempted to cut in again, "Lorel—"
"I know, I know you're not much of a talker. I guess that's more my thing. But I want you feel like you can talk to me about anything. That you can trust me. Lean on me. You're so strong Luke, but you don't have to always be like that with me. You don't need to be strong enough for the both of us. I can handle things too."
He pressed a soft kiss to her lips. Because he wanted to. Because she was looking up at him so earnestly. Because…because it was a sure-fire way to interrupt the trail of chatter.
"Lorelai, y'know you don't have to be so strong all the time too." he sighed.
The day had been a long one, to say the least. All morning long he'd run on auto-pilot, bussing plates, refilling coffee, flipping omelets. Anything he could do to kill time. They'd made plans the night before, she came by the diner after closing time to cajole him into handing over anything leftover in the coffee pot, and to give it one more shot in tempting him into joining her and Rory the next evening.
After a steady stream of banter back and forth he acquiesced into her coffee demands, but held firm on the anti-holiday agenda. She gave him a look, of course, one that said that this conversation was not over. He figured she'd give it another shot at lunch the next day, something in her eyes told him so.
For his part, Luke had spent the morning on semi-permanent clean-up duty. He kept waiting for the crowd to die down, to catch his breath, to simply take 5 minutes to himself…that moment unfortunately never came. On one hand though, he supposed the chaos was better than being completely left alone to his inner thoughts. Because while he would never directly admit it to himself, today was hard in more ways than one.
The holidays were his mother's thing. There was nothing Alexandra Danes loved more than celebrating. Maybe pie. But she'd always find a way to weave in her favorite dessert into any special event anyhow. For Halloween, she would deck the kids out in costumes of their choice, take them around the neighborhood for their treats, and end the night back at home in the den, sorting through their loot and passing off the unwanted candy to their father who promptly made it disappear. Even on Luke's birthday, since it was so close to Thanksgiving, she'd bake a layered pie and cake combination that would make any naysayer want to dig in. And there wasn't a house more lit up around the neighborhood during Christmastime than the Danes'.
"Well you know, holidays in general aren't really my favorite," He guided a hand through Lorelai's curls, soothing both himself and her, as he spoke softly, "Halloween…uh I can't really remember the last time I really celebrated that one. Probably when I was around Rory's age. My uh, my mother, she used to make a big deal out of 'em. I remember the whole house would smell like candied apples for weeks."
"Really?" Lorelai, still tucked against his chest, smiled to herself. She could just envision the scowl on Tiny Luke's face in that sickeningly sweet-smelling kitchen.
"You think you can dig out that recipe for next year?"
He smiled softly, pressed a kiss to her hairline, "I thought you were swearing off sugar."
"That's a whole 364 days from now, who knows how many times I will have changed my mind by then." She yawned at the end of her sentence, and Luke shook his head in defeat.
"If you and sugar find your way back to each other by next year, I'll make you her candy apples."
"She sounded like an amazing mother," She whispered.
"She was," Luke whispered, "And so are you."
When Lorelai woke up the next morning, she discovered she was, sadly, alone. She shivered, it seemed overnight, cool autumn weather had truly arrived in Connecticut. One night asleep in Luke's arms had her absolutely craving the warmth only he could provide. Still feeling the affects from her sickness the night before, Lorelai pouted through her morning routine. Using the bannister to slowly make her way downstairs, she instantly noted how tidy the living room was. All of the spilled-over candy was picked up and placed in bowls (she counted six) on the kitchen counter, the throw pillows had been neatly returned to the sofa, and fresh coffee was waiting for her in the machine. She couldn't help the smile that bloomed across her features as she read the note left for her in Luke's typical quick scrawl, telling her that a proper breakfast would be waiting for the girls when they arrived at the diner later that morning.
"Rory?" She peeked her head into her daughter's room, fully-dressed, nose buried in a book and lounging on her window seat, "Let's go to Luke's!"