A/N: This is my Season 7 "fix" or redo if you will. Everything that happened up until the season 6 finale still happened. I take it from there. I always felt that it was so sweet when they introduced Buddy & Maisy but hated that they were never mentioned again. So I used them in my story. I was watching The West Wing as I wrote this so if you're a fan of that show you will appreciate some of the character names. If you haven't, it will not effect your reading experience at all.
This was going to be a short story, but I can't seem to wrap it up, soooo it's not so short.
I want to again, thank everyone that has read and reviewed my other stories. I know I'm awful about responding, but I read everything and your kindness and support means the world to me. I hope you enjoy this one!
PS I suck at coming up with titles, so this one is pretty random because it was just going to take place over Thanksgiving, but I couldn't stop writing.

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Being Thankful

Luke hated lying to people that he liked, he really hated lying to Buddy and Maisy. They had invited him for Thanksgiving not wanting to take no for an answer. He finally gave in only to realize that they assumed Lorelai would be coming with him, because he hadn't told them about the breakup. He was debating if he called Maisy back and explained about the breakup, hoping that it would get him out of having to go at all. But then he thought of the fact that Maisy would want him to come even more if she knew he was alone. So now he was trapped, either go and tell them about the breakup which would end in a pity party, or bail on them at the last minute having to deal with the disappointment and guilt filled phone calls.

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Lorelai was home actively not answering her phone. Sookie had said a few things about her dating Christopher as a rebound and it was affecting her. She was avoiding his calls and trying to sort out how she really felt about him and their situation. She knew the morning she woke up with him that she had made a horrible mistake. Hell, she knew on her drive to his place that it was. But she had convinced herself that she was going just to talk to someone who didn't love Luke. Someone who wouldn't try to tell her all of Luke's good qualities. She wanted to vent and to have someone tell her she was right. In fact once she was there and saw Chris she knew she shouldn't be there. But he said all the things she wanted to hear, he stroked her ego in just the right way, and he poured the drinks. So many drinks. She wished she could erase that night, make it a dream and not what really happened. At the time, she wanted to hurt Luke, but now that she had, she wished that she was dead because knowing how hurt Luke was …. It was unbearable.

There was a knock on Lorelai's door snapping her out of her thoughts on loop.

"Coming," she called. She opened the door and her jaw dropped. Quickly recovering, she exhaled and tried to smile, "Hi Luke."

"Hey," he nodded. He looked towards Babette's house, seeing the woman herself peeking out the window. "Could I come in for a minute?"

She stepped as and motioned for him to come in. Her heart quickened the instant he crossed the threshold, she closed the door behind him. "Can I get you something to drink," she offered.

"No, thanks. Could we talk?" He made his way to the couch, trying to not let anything show on his face. It appeared that all of the things they bought together when they renovated the house were gone. Lamps, pillows, art, even some furniture were either missing or replaced. It broke his heart a little more that not only did she sleep with that putz but now she was erasing him from her life all together. He tried to fight that feeling despite the fact that the last night he was in this house with her on a couch, they couldn't keep their hands off of each other and now they were at opposite ends as if sitting near each other would cause them physical harm.

"You wanted to talk." she asked quietly.

"I'm going to ask you something," he started.

"Okay?"

He stood up and began to pace, "I know I don't have a right to ask you for anything. And I'm fully expecting you to say no, so don't think you'll be surprising me when you do. I just got myself in a bit of a situation and it might just be easier if I could just -" He stopped talking and rubbed his hands over his face as he continued to pace.

"Luke, just take a breath and ask me."

He smiled at her, took a deep breath and began, "Maisy called me to invite me to Thanksgiving dinner. I told her no because I like to do the dinner at the diner for the regulars who don't have anywhere else to go. I thought that was the end of it, but Buddy called me saying that this was the first year in a long time that all of their kids would be joining them and since Liz and I grew up with them like family, they all really want to see me. When I finally gave in, I realized I hadn't told them about our breakup."

"Oh."

"Yeah, so he said that he was thrilled that he was going to see us and I just agreed. Now listen, I can tell them that you couldn't make it at the last minute. I didn't want to go there with them knowing that we broke up because they'll just want to talk about it the entire weekend."

Lorelai smirked, her eyes taking in his haggard face, "But it would really be easier if I came with you for the weekend, pretended to be your fiancée and save you the awkward conversations."

Luke shrugged, "Yeah."

"I'll do it, if that's what you really want. But don't you think that could be just as awkward?"

"Maybe a little?"

"Well, as you said, we're broken up. I'm going to have to put on the ring again. We're going to have to act like we're a couple, hugging, kissing, touching. Then wherever we sleep I'm assuming there will only be one bed."

"Yeah. Well -"

"And then just how much do you want me to lie? We're saying that we're still engaged. People are going to ask about wedding plans. Do THEY know about April? Because they're bound to ask me questions about her that I'm ill equipped to answer. Are we going to make up lies? Or are we going to tell them the truth about everything and I'll just act like I'm okay with how you treated me this past year?"

Luke fell into an armchair with a big sigh, "Yeah, you're right. I deserved that."

Now Lorelai rubbed her face and exhaled, "I wasn't even trying to start a fight, it started as an honest question and snowballed. I'm sorry. I guess there's still a lot of pain here between us."

"You know if I could go back I would do it so differently," his voice was soft and genuine. It melted her heart.

She looked at him as tears began to pool in her eyes, "Me too."

"I still love you. I know you slept with him. HIM of all people. But I can't help it, Lorelai. I'm going to love you until the day I die."

Lorelai shook her head gently, the tears now running down her cheeks. "Luke -"

"This was a bad idea," Luke stood up. "I'm sorry I asked you this. It's stupid. I'll just cancel the dinner and have my regular Thanksgiving at the diner. I'm sorry, I shouldn't have come." He was making his way out of the room.

"Luke, STOP!" Lorelai got to her feet.

He stood with his back to her, "Just let me go."

She made her way to him, not touching him but he could feel her.

"I can't let you go. I walked away that night and it's the biggest mistake I ever made. Don't walk away now."

"Lorelai -"

"I'll go with you. Rory and my parents are travelling over the holiday. I was going to be at the Inn. I know that I hurt you. Let me do this for you."

Luke turned to look at her, "You don't have to."

"I know I don't," she smiled weakly. She gently placed her hand on his chest, "I want to. I have no doubt you would do it for me."

He let out a small chuckle, "I can't imagine you thinking it would be a good idea for me to have a holiday dinner with your family. But yeah, if you asked me to, I would."

"Details please."

"Their daughter, Claudia, is hosting this year. She lives in Emmersville which is about a three hour drive from here. We can leave here around ten so we'll arrive between one and two, depending on how many stops we make. I believe there's a stand that sells the nuts that you and Rory like."

"Yeah?" Her hand was still on his chest, neither of them wanting to move.

"Yeah. So we'll get to the house Wednesday afternoon, say hi to everyone and get settled in. They're going to make us stay with them. I already suggested a hotel and Maisy said she's going to slap me when she sees me. We'll probably be tired and have a calm night in, or I could take you to a movie, then Thursday morning I would get up and start cooking with them. The kitchen, living and dining room is open concept so everyone spends the day watching football or the parade, just hanging out and cooking. Friday some go shopping and others hang around the house

I think they said Liz, TJ, Doula and Jess are coming on Thursday. I guess I'll have to tell them about this plan."

"So your secret is going to rely on TJ keeping quiet," Lorelai laughed.

"I actually asked Liz not to tell him about the break up. He would try to comfort me and that was something I really wasn't ready for."

Lorelai laughed. "I really am sorry that I hurt you," she said sincerely.

"I'm really sorry that I hurt you too."

"I know," she began to remove her hand from his chest.

Luke placed his hand on hers to keep it on his chest, "I started it. You never would have - you know. I pushed you away. I'm sorry."

Lorelai closed her eyes, willing the tears away. But they wouldn't listen and ran down her face. She began to speak quietly with her eyes still closed. "Okay. You're sorry. I'm sorry, let's stop apologizing cause it just seems to make me cry."

His warm hand wiped the tears from her face, "Okay. I'm going to go and let them know we're coming. You're sure you want to do this? I do have the diner as an excuse not to go."

"No, you should go. They're your family and you actually like them. It will be cool for me to see that type of situation."

They both laughed as he finally took a step back. "I should get back, if we're doing this I'm going to give Caesar the rest of today and tomorrow off."

"I'm going to go start packing, any special requests?"

Luke shook his head while still smiling, "You don't want me picking your clothes."

"That's true. But what should I pack for Thanksgiving dinner? Do they dress up a bit more? Should I bring a long dress or is what I wear to Friday night dinners more the vibe?"

Luke shrugged, "Idunno. Let me call Claudia and see what she says. For me, I wear darker washed jeans and a sweater to Thanksgiving dinner as opposed to jeans and a cleaner flannel."

"Thank you Giorgio Armani. Yes, please call her and ask about the dress code."

"I'll call you later. What I can tell you is, pack casual clothes for the rest of the weekend. We're a fairly casual bunch." He was at the front door. "Thanks for doing this."

"You're welcome," she said sincerely. Then her face lit up, "Oh! I hope TJ brings his Etch-a-Sketch!"

Luke just shook his head as he made his way down the porch steps. He walked down the driveway and turned when he reached the end to see if she was still watching him. When he saw she was, he gave her his classic half wave and she nodded in response.