Lorelai was on the phone with Rory as she shopped at Doose's.

"When you say it like that, it doesn't make sense that no one has caught on about the dark day," Rory said. "From what we know, Luke's parents were beloved members of the town. You would think someone would remember when they passed away, if not the exact date they should know approximately when, someone should have guessed it was about his Dad's death."

"Yup, I think we're all a little dumb at this moment. How you and I never even noticed that Luke had a dark day and how the town knew but they were all oblivious."

"Well, at least some good came out of the dark day," Rory said in a more cheerful voice.

"What's that?" Lorelai asked as she rounded the corner heading to the produce section.

"Luke opened up to you. It sounds like you guys got a lot closer last night."

Lorelai laughed, "Well there was a considerable amount of alcohol involved."

"Doesn't matter," Rory insisted. "We've seen Luke drunk before, that hadn't opened him up."

"True," Lorelai agreed, dropping some carrots and celery into her basket. Her shopping was a little different now that Luke was over more often. She dropped in a few more things as Rory updated her on what was new in her life. When Lorelai's eyes fell to the large stack of beautiful red apples she smiled and placed four in a bag and carried on.

XoXoXoXoXo

A few nights later, when all the party guests had either left or fallen asleep, Lorelai sauntered out to the garage. As she got closer she heard him sanding and humming. The radio she had out there was softly playing a country song which made her smile.

"Hey you," she tried not to scare him but was unsuccessful.

He dropped the piece of sandpaper and spun around. "Geez!"

She giggled, "Sorry, I didn't know how to avoid scaring you."

He waved her off, "It's okay, I was deep in thought." He wiped his hands on a cloth and began towards her.

She met him halfway and placed her hands on his chest, "I'm surprised you're still awake."

"Me?" He nodded his head towards the house, "It sounded like quite the party. I thought you all passed out at this point."

"Oh many of them have," she grinned. "But I had incentive to stay awake." She was smiling up at him.

"What's that?" He smiled, looking into her glassy eyes and brushing a strand of her hair from her face.

"Every so often I peeked out here to see if the light was still on. And I would get more and more excited the later it got knowing my man was still out here."

"You're drunk," he said in a way that told her he didn't want to take advantage of her.

"So?"

"So I'm not a frat boy from an after school special. I'm not going to take advantage of the fact that the hot girl is drunk and flirty." He touched her cheek. She leaned into his hand and stumbled slightly. "See?" he shook his head as he grabbed her arms to steady her.

"Do you think it's not what I want? Do you think I would say no if I was sober?" She challenged him.

"No," he sighed. "It just doesn't feel right."

"So to get what I want I either need to get you drunk or myself sober?"

He nodded, "That about sums it up."

She leaned forward and kissed him. She could feel his resolve melting and the bulge in his pants hardening. She moaned softly, knowing how crazy it made him. "Take me to your place. You can make me coffee, I can help you clean up." Her lips were by his ear, whispering, kissing and doing their work of breaking his willpower.

"Are you sure about this?" He sighed, "We have your parents' wedding tomorrow."

Her response was tracing her tongue around the shell of his ear, down his throat and to the collar of his t-shirt.

"If you keep that up, I'm not going to make it home."

Her hands were on his belt, "That's fine. Take me for a ride in your boat," she breathed into his ear.

"You're crazy," he chuckled.

When he didn't move she unhooked her belt and then looked up to smile at him. "That's why you love me."

He took her face in his hands, stilling her motions and forcing her to make eye contact, "I do. I love you so much, Lorelai."

"I do love you too," she whispered with tears in her eyes.

A little while later they stood at her front door, her smiling up at him, him with a macho smirk trying to tame her hair.

"Are you going to dance with me tomorrow?" She asked.

"Is that what the kids are calling it these days," he teased.

"Our love story started with a dance at a wedding," she smiled.

"Oh that wasn't the start, but I get what you're saying. Yeah, I'm going to dance with you tomorrow."

She got on her tiptoes and kissed him, "Good. I like dancing with you."

"Don't forget to take some aspirin and drink lots of water."

"I will. See you at ten-thirty."

"I'll be here. With coffee," he kissed her, opened her door and gently pushed her in. She looked back at him petulantly, so he patted her butt and nodded towards the stairs.

XoXoXoXoXo

January 11th, 2005

It had been three weeks, four days and six-teen hours since Luke left. Lorelai had finally mastered the fake smile enough that people were actually thinking she was moving on. She had fallen into a nice routine with morning coffee at Weston's, lunch at her desk (provided by Sookie) and nights filled with a copious amount of movies.

When she was among people she was almost back to her bright and cheery self, sometimes to the point where she had convinced herself she was better. But all it took was seeing someone holding a Luke's take out cup, or to spot the green truck somewhere and her heart broke all over again.

It was just about the time when she would raid the kitchen to decide her lunch option when a wave of dizziness hit her. She placed her hand on her desk and settled herself back into the chair.

"Lorelai, you need to help," Michel said as he popped his head in her doorway. "These people say their bill is wrong and they insist on speaking to you."

"Sure, just give me one second."

"Are you okay?" Michel asked, "You look pale."

"Wow, genuine concern from you, I must look horrible," Lorelai mustered a small smile while getting up and going to the front desk. Her smile widened when she saw who was waiting for her, "MIA!" She shrieked as she grabbed the woman into a hug. "What are you doing here?"

"Are you kidding me?" Mia gushed, "The sweet girl who showed up at my Inn when she was a teen, who went from maid to manager has opened her own Inn and you think I'm not coming by to see it?"

"Let's go see Sookie," Lorelai suddenly felt much better and headed to the kitchen with her arm around Mia.

Mia was pointing out all the things she loved, the small details, the layout, the colours and everything else. When they reached the kitchen they saw Sookie frantically whipping something up and cheerily instructing the staff around her.

"Sook?" Lorelai called, "I have someone who wants to give their compliments to the chef."

"Ooooh I love that, one sec. Manny, come take over stirring this" Sookie turned to face Lorelai and then screamed, 'MIA!" She knocked two bowls of fruit over as she ran towards Mia and into her arms. "What are you doing here?"

"You know, I must say that I am surprised that you two didn't expect me to show up and see this place for myself," Mia said as she squeezed Sookie.

The three women giggled and chatted as they toured the entire Dragonfly grounds. From the stables to the rooms, even the storage area in the basement. Mia inspected every inch and raved about them all. Lorelai called Rory and let her know about the surprise guest. Rory agreed to skip a party and come to Stars Hollow for dinner. For once in a long time Lorelai was truly happy.