When Lorelai rejoined the group at the table it appeared that her absence went unnoticed as the group was chatting and laughing. But Luke leaned in to her and whispered, "Are you okay."

She turned and smiled at him. He could see the redness in her eyes so instinctively he touched her cheek. "I'm sorry, I know."

"Look at them all lovey-dovey and whispery," Claudia teased.

"Don't get jealous," Danny smiled. Then he stood up and kissed Claudia on the cheek while heading to get more food at the kitchen island.

"I'm not jealous," Claudia insisted. "But that doesn't mean you should stop kissing me."

"Oh god!" Charlie moaned.

"I'm happy for Luke," Claudia smiled. "He hasn't introduced us to many of his girlfriends, but even when he did he never seemed this happy."

"Stop embarrassing him," Maisy scolded. "Maybe if you didn't talk like this he would come around more."

"You know your cars can drive to Stars Hollow," Luke growled. "I run a business all by myself. If you want to see me so badly why can't you come to me?"

"Can we Mom," Zoey asked excitedly. "Lorelai's Inn has horses!"

"Of course, Honey." Claudia smiled at Luke, "If he wants us to come to him, we will. I can't wait to catch up with Miss Patty." She batted her eyes.

There was a loud knock at the door and then it opened, "Hello?" a voice called from the door. "You guys better have saved us some pizza!"

"Leo," Zoey yelled as she ran towards the door.

Buddy leaned over to Lorelai, "You'll love Leo, he and Luke were inseparable as kids. The twins are a year younger than Luke, but I swear the two of them seemed more like brothers than Leo and Sam most of the time. Leo only finished Law School to make Maisy happy. His heart was always with Sniffy's. Don't get me wrong, Sam is a great kid, my favourite most of the time. But Leo, he's the salt of the Earth, a stand up guy, always putting himself last. He's the type of guy that you want to do everything for because he never wants anything and finds his joy in making others happy."

"Wow, he really does sound like Luke," Lorelai smiled.

The family had all gotten up from the table to greet Leo and Maggie. Maisy watched as Claudia hugged her brother and then sister-in-law, she smiled as Charlie hugged Maggie and then his face lit up when Leo whispered something to his nephew.

"Come on," Buddy smiled at Lorelai. "Come meet my boy."

When Buddy and Lorelai joined the group they smiled seeing Luke and Leo in a warm hug.

"So this is the woman that was finally able to capture the whale. Lorelai, I've heard nothing but good things," Leo smiled at her with her arms around Luke's shoulders.

"Well that can't be true," Lorelai joked as she shook Leo's hand.

"I like her already," Leo laughed. He then released Luke and turned to one of the most gorgeous women Lorelai had ever seen. "This is my wife, Maggie."

"Hi" the ladies said in unison as they shook hands.

Maggie had a very similar build to Lorelai. But Lorelai noticed that Maggie had a much larger chest, her porcelain skin was dusted with light freckles, her eyes were chocolate brown and her hair was a gorgeous flow of red curls, reminding Lorelai of Kate Winslet in Titanic.

"We thought this guy and Clooney would be the last bachelors on the planet," Maggie smirked as she hugged Luke.

"Okay, I'll level with you," Lorelai shook her head. "I'm only with Luke because Clooney turned me down."

The room erupted into laughter.

"Please tell me there's coffee! I'm going to need caffeine to keep up with this one," Maggie smiled.

"I just put on a fresh pot," Claudia called from the kitchen. "Are you hungry?"

"No, we ate at the restaurant. But we brought pastries so bring the coffee and stuff over here and we can eat in the living room. I need a couch," Maggie flopped onto the couch as she spoke.

When the group all settled into the living room again Zoey had returned to the room in her pyjamas and with wet hair holding a brush. "Mom, can you braid my hair so it's wavy tomorrow?"

"Sweetie, I'm getting some things ready. Gimme a minute."

"But it's already drying!"

Lorelai piped up, "I can do it."

Zoey turned to Lorelai with a huge smile, "Really?"

"Sure," Lorelai smiled. Zoey moved an ottoman in front of Lorelai, who was perched on the couch. She handed Lorelai the brush and sat in front of her.

"Do you want one big braid or a few smaller ones?"

"Center part and two braids, please."

Luke leaned back into the corner of the couch, his arms resting along the back and arm of the couch. He was chatting with Leo about the restaurant business and sports. Without thinking, one of his hands found its way to glide up and down Lorelai's back as she braided Zoey's hair. Maggie and Claudia brought a big plate of various flakey treats and one pot of coffee and one with hot water and tea bags.

"Okay Charlie, Zoey, up to bed," Danny motioned towards the stairs.

Charlie stood, hugged his grandparents and waved to everyone else. "Good night," he called to the room. Everyone wished him goodnight in almost perfect unison.

Zoey made sure to hug everyone. When she got to Lorelai she smiled, "Thanks for doing my hair."

"No problem, that's what friends are for."

"Aunts," Zoey corrected as she leaned in to hug Lorelai. "You're going to be my Aunt."

Lorelai just smiled when Zoey pulled away and then hugged Luke.

The group talked and laughed into the night, Lorelai loved being with this type of family. It was like what she'd seen on TV, people teasing each other, telling old stories and laughing. It was ten thirty when Luke finally stretched and sighed, "Okay, this is waaay past my bedtime. I'm going to turn in."

"I thought with a woman like this on your arm you would be up all hours," Leo teased.

"Nah, he just takes me to bed with him," Loreali sassed as she stood up and offered her hand to Luke.

Luke took her hand and stood beside her, grinning like a cat who caught the canary to Leo.

Once in their room behind the closed door Luke sighed, "Are you sure you're alright? We can make up an excuse so that we can leave first thing in the morning."

Lorelai shook her head, "I'm fine I swear. I just had a small freak out before. Your family is great, I love them."

"Yeah," Luke sat on the bed. "I would imagine Zoey would have my head if I took you away so soon. You're great with her. It makes me realize even more that I should never have kept you from -"

"Let's not talk about that now, okay?" She gathered a few things and made her way to the door leading to the bathroom. "I'm going to take a quick shower. Do you want to get in there first?"

"No, you go ahead. I'll unpack and then shower when you're done."

"Okay," she said softly before slipping into the washroom and closing the door.

Just under an hour later Luke emerged freshly showered with his classic sweatpants and slightly ripped t-shirt sleepwear. His hair was slicked back and face cleanly shaven. He tried not to look too long at Lorelai, resting under the comforter, propped up on a few pillows, and her legs bent so her magazine could rest on her thighs. Luke sat on the bed and grabbed a book from the nightstand.

"I can turn out the lights, if you want to sleep," Lorelai said softly.

"It's okay. I want to finish this book Jess suggested before he gets here tomorrow."

They both read quietly for a while, then Luke closed his book. "Okay, I'm turning off my light and going to try to sleep."

"Okay, night Hon," she answered as she leaned over and kissed him. When she pulled away she realized what she did and her eyes went wide. "Oh my god, I'm so sorry."

He smiled, "It's okay."

"I just - it just felt -"

"It's fine," he cupped her cheek. "Really, we're okay."

"I don't know that I am," Lorelai said while pressing her cheek into his palm. "I hate that I ruined us. It's all my fault."

"No it's not and we both know it. Stop beating yourself up. You wouldn't have gone to him if I didn't push you away. Right? Let's not even talk about it again until we're home. Then if you want to talk things through, we will. Okay?"

"Okay." She moved away to put her magazine down and turn off her lamp.

They lay in the bed back to back, making sure not to touch. Neither of them were able to get a very restful sleep.

XoXoXoXoXoXo

Lorelai woke up to a soft knock at the door. Her eyes opened and she couldn't remember where she was, but then when she realized that she was alone in the bed wondered where Luke was. There was another knock and the door opened slowly, "Lorelai? Are you awake?" Luke asked as he crept into the room. He had a tray with some warmed pastries and a large cup of coffee.

Lorelai sat up and switched on the lamp. "What time is it?"

"It's almost ten. We've started cooking down there and Zoey has been bugging me to wake you up for a while. But I know that you had a restless night, so I wanted to let you sleep as much as possible." He placed the tray on her lap. "I'll get out of your way, so you can eat this and get changed. I'll see you down there soon?"

"Yeah," Lorelai nodded. "Of course. Sorry I slept in so long. I'll get dressed now and be down in a minute."

"Great," Luke headed for the door.

"Oh hey," Lorelai called. "Are Sam and Lisa here?"

"Not yet, they're aiming to be here around noon."

"What about Jess?"

"Same thing," Luke answered. "They all should be here around lunchtime. So I gotta get downstairs, Maisy has me on lunch duty while the rest of them are working on dinner."

"And Jess knows about," Lorelai motioned between them.

Luke nodded, "Yeah I talked to him, he knows what's going on."

"Good. Okay." Lorelai smiled. But when Luke left the room, closing the door behind him she rushed into the bathroom and began to cry. She let herself cry for two minutes, remembering the dream she had just woken from, a dream where this was her house, hers and Luke's. She dreamt that they were a happily married couple with kids hosting a family dinner. After the two minutes, turned the sink on as cold as it would get and washed her puffy face,

It was noon on the dot when the doorbell rang and then the door swung open. A well dressed, carbon copy of Leo walked in with his arms full of gifts. Behind him was a short, svelte woman with dark eyes and black, pin straight hair that flowed down her back to almost her waist. The woman, Lisa, was also carrying gifts.

"Look at this," Leo shook his head. "Always angling to be everyone's favourite. Thanksgiving isn't a gift-type holiday!"

"We thought if we brought everyone's Christmas gifts now you would forgive us for going on vacation from December twenty-third to January fourth," Lisa smiled.

"We're not going to see you at Christmas," Zoey pouted.

"Sorry Zo," Sam said sincerely. "But you know Lisa and I haven't been on a Honeymoon yet! If I don't take her soon she's going to go without me!"

There was a round of hugs and the couple was introduced to Lorelai. Just as they were about to disperse there was a knock at the door. Sam opened it and smiled, "Jess! Come on in. It's so good to see you."

"Thanks, good to see you too." Jess walked in with a duffle bag over his shoulder. He had a bouquet of flowers that he handed to Claudia. "Thanks for having me."

While the group greeted Jess, Luke wrapped his arm around Lorelai to silently remind Jess about their conversation.

Lorelai leaned in so her lips were almost touching his ear, "I think just the fact that I'm here will remind him not to say anything."

"You want me to move my arm," he whispered back.

"It's fine, I'm just saying that you don't have to over sell it."

"Are you mad at me," Luke asked, his voice full of concern.

"Hey, Uncle Luke," Jess smirked as he held his hand out.

Luke released Lorelai and pulled Jess into a hug, "How ya doing? The article you sent on Truncheon was really impressive."

Jess nodded and shrugged. "Things are good. I've been ghostwriting a bit and I'm starting another book of my own. Is my Mom here yet?"

"No, your Mom's not coming, TJ and Doula are sick. A new book, that's great."

"Yeah," Lorelai smiled. "The first one was so good."

"You read it," Jess asked with a touch of venom in his voice.

Taken aback, Lorelai shrugged, "Yeah, Rory loaned me her copy after she raved about it."

Jess bobbed his head, "That's cool. Glad you liked it." He then moved to get past them and whispered in Lorelai's ear, "Don't you dare hurt him again!"

All the colour drained from Lorelai's face.

Luke looked at her quizzically, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah. I'm fine."

"Yeah," he checked.

She was able to plaster on a smile, "Yeah. Don't you need to check on the -"

"Crap," Luke spun and bolted towards the kitchen. He had three lasagnas in the oven to feed everyone lunch.