Chapter Text
“You are hilarious!” Lorelai bellowed over the sound of 18 blaring alarm clocks. She looked around her bedroom, past the faint hazy glow, at the scene that surrounded her.
Two years into their marriage, and he was still full of surprises.
She clambered out of bed and one by one began turning off the devices. The ringing soon gave way to a persistent sound her in her ear, a steady beeping.
She caught sight of herself in the mirror and flattened down her hair before heading downstairs, calling out to him as she went.
“Okay, see, last night, when I said to you, ‘Tomorrow, no matter what, make sure I get up at seven,’ what I actually meant was, ‘Tomorrow, no matter what, make sure I have the option of getting up at seven in case when seven comes, I actually wanna get up,’ which – as it happened – I didn’t. Therefore, you’re currently responsible for the great alarm clock slaughter of 2002.”
Luke looked up from where he was preparing a plate of food as she went past him to get her coffee.
“No survivors?” he asked.
“The one shaped like a bunny escaped with a mild decapitation.” She sniffed the coffee grounds. “This is decaf.”
“What are you talking about?”
“You switched my coffee again,” she accused him, before starting her search – a new tradition since they discovered she was pregnant that was starting to wear thin. Luke followed her around, spouting off a weak defense as she went.
“I’m a busy man. I don’t have time to sneak around switching your coffee. I have a diner to run, I have shipments to order, I have things to flip and fry. Will you stop that?” She grinned, knowing she had narrowed in on the stash. She opened a cupboard and found a bag of the good stuff.
“Ha, haha, hahaha! Under the sink, very clever, but not clever enough, Bucko!”
Luke sighed, defeated. “Okay, fine, you know what? I give up.”
“Woohoo!”
“Go one day without coffee,” he challenged.
“That’s not giving up.”
“I’ll put a toy in your cereal.”
She gasped, “Dirty!”
Luke rolled his eyes and grabbed her breakfast plate, handing it to her.
“Fine, here, you win.”
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. Now you’re up, you’re fed, I’m leaving,” he said as he began to move about the kitchen, collecting his keys and wallet.
“Oh, hey, we need Q-Tips,” she reminded him.
“I’ll alert the media,” he droned.
“See, that’s better with the accent.”
“The reference is enough, you’ll learn that one day.” He came to stand in front of her. “I’ll be home early, anything besides the Q-Tips?”
“Um, cotton balls, world peace, Connie Chung’s original face back,” she listed. He eyed her amusedly as she spoke, and cut her off with a kiss. By far, this was her favourite way to be shut up.
“Goodbye crazy lady,” he mumbled against her lips. He leaned down and gave her stomach an affectionate stroke. “Goodbye Sid and Nancy.”
“Leopold and Loeb,” she corrected.
“What?”
“I changed my mind, don’t tell Rory.”
He sighed, attempted one more time, “Decaf.”
“Never.”
“They’ll both have two heads,” he argued feebly.
“More to love!”
She knew she won when that silly little smile graced his lips. He shook his head at her lovingly and leaned in for one more kiss, lingering for a second before heading out. Lorelai watched him go, feeling that goofy but all-too-familiar grin taking over as she was once again touched by how much he cared.
Her life was finally getting good. She had it, the whole package. The husband, home, job, daughter and two babies on the way. She figured if her penance having it all was occasionally smiling like a big dork, she could live with that.
XXXX
The room was completely quiet, save for the beeping and sound of machines that Lorelai was hooked up to. Luke stood back, leaning against the wall by the door. Sookie held Rory’s hand as they took the two seats next to the bed. The elder Gilmores had come and gone, paid for the private room that they were now situated in. Others from town had called, but were advised to wait a few days, not wanting to overwhelm the hospital staff, or cause any undue stress for the patient.
Luke saw it happen. He was standing in his diner and caught Lorelai’s eye as she stepped out into the street.
They had barely spoken since Jess and Rory’s car accident and the awful fight that ensued. Luke was incredibly hurt by the things she said, especially her assertion that he didn’t care about Rory. He loved that girl like she was his own, and any suggestion otherwise was beyond offensive.
Lorelai had apologized, but he wasn’t ready to forgive. She needed to understand that she couldn’t just jerk him around. She couldn’t say whatever she wanted and not face any consequences. He wasn’t punishing her, per se, but he was creating distance. He thought it was necessary after everything that happened. Wounds like that took time to heal, and he didn’t know if they would ever be friends again the way they were. Their trust was breached that night. That’s not something he could just shrug off.
So he stepped away from her. He wouldn’t ignore her or treat her badly, but he wasn’t going to favour her anymore. If she wanted to come and eat, he would serve her. He’d make the coffee she loved, the pancakes she would smother in syrup, the burgers that would clog every last artery in her heart. He would still be there for Rory, because despite what Lorelai said, he loved Rory. But other than that, he was out. The Luke Danes who fell to his knees at the sight of Lorelai Gilmore was gone. In his place, a man who knew his worth, who wasn’t going to be treated like that by anyone, least of all, her.
The summer passed, two months going by, and they remained in that place. Rory was off in Washington, and so Lorelai hadn’t been into the diner much at all. She grabbed coffee twice, both times when things were so busy that he wouldn’t have time to make conversation. He figured that was strategic on her part. He didn’t care. He made himself not care. Part of this distance was making sure he wouldn’t care again.
But then, with just two weeks left of the summer, the accident happened.
Luke didn’t know if Lorelai was coming into the diner, but she was headed in his direction when she stepped off the curb. He saw her because he always saw her, whether he wanted to or not. He barely had time to register his annoyance at that fact when the sound of squealing tires and a car horn blared in the street, followed by an awful thump. The patrons of the diner were immediately sent into a frenzy, screaming, gasping in horror.
Luke was out the door and running into the street before he made the decision to act.
The sight of Lorelai laying on the pavement with a pool of blood forming under her head was jarring, to say the least. He lunged for her, pushing past the driver of the car and dropping painfully to his knees, unaware of the scrapes and bruises he was giving himself. In the distance he heard a voice, someone on the phone with 911. All he could see was Lorelai.
He looked her over, called her name. He hesitated to move her, instead carefully pushing her hair aside so he could check for a pulse. It was there, strong. Her chest was rising and falling with unlaboured breaths. These were the things that kept him from completely losing his shit.
He knelt there with Lorelai, talking to her, begging her to open her eyes, until the ambulance arrived and he was pushed aside by a paramedic. It was only moments later when the ambulance doors shut and, sirens blaring, they drove her away.
“We need to call Rory.” The voice seemed far away. “Luke.” He blinked to focus, found Patty standing next to him. “Luke, dear, we need to call Rory,” she repeated. He nodded blankly, and the older woman put a comforting hand on his arm. “She’ll be okay, but for now, we need to call Rory. Do you know how to get in touch with her?”
He shook his head.
“Does Jess?”
“I don’t… I don’t know,” he croaked, finding his voice.
Patty gave his arm a squeeze. “I’ll call Sookie. She’ll know.”
He nodded. “Yeah. Right. Sookie,” he droned.
“Honey, go upstairs and clean yourself up,” Patty advised. His brow furrowed, and for the first time he looked down. His left knee was soaked in blood from sitting too close to Lorelai, it coated his hands, seeped into the sleeve of his shirt.
“Geez,” he muttered, tried to wipe his hands on his shirt, but it didn’t do much good.
“Jess!” Patty called, catching sight of the younger man standing at the door of the diner. He came over to the pair. “Get him upstairs,” she instructed. Jess, always quick with a snipe, bit back whatever was on the tip of his tongue as he took in the sight of his uncle, pale and dazed.
Luke let himself be led back.
His focus returned under the shower spray. He cleaned up quickly and put on fresh clothes.
“Did anyone call? Sookie? Rory?” Luke asked Jess as he got himself put back together.
“Sookie said she called Rory; she’s on her way back,” Jess told him. Luke nodded and grabbed his wallet and keys.
“Did anyone call her parents?”
“How should I know?” Jess asked. Luke rolled his eyes.
“Thought Sookie might have said something, is all.”
“If she calls back I’ll be sure to ask, and also find out what she’s making for dinner and when her next dental appointment is.” Jess, back to being Jess. Luke shook his head, choosing not to engage. He didn’t have time.
“I’m going to the hospital. I’ll be late,” he told him as he headed for the door. The solid wood slammed shut before he could hear Jess’s response.
That was nine hours earlier. Since arriving at the hospital, Luke had learned more about Lorelai’s condition.
Her bodily injuries were mostly superficial, just some bumps and bruises. The main issue was her head injury, the one that had left a pool of blood beneath her. There was certainly a concussion, but doctors were mostly concerned about swelling in the brain. That’s what prompted them to put her under sedation until the swelling subsided, not wanting to risk making it worse.
The words ‘medically induced coma’ struck fear in everyone who had assembled, but the doctors assured them it was the best course of treatment, just for a few days. Once her condition improved, they would wake her up.
Luke didn’t feel particularly reassured, but it was better than the alternative.
“Luke, you should sit,” Sookie suggested, taking note of his seemingly permanent home by the door.
“I’m good.”
“You’ve been on your feet for hours.” He just shook his head. “Stubborn,” she mumbled to herself. She looked over at Rory. “Hey Sweetie, you want to come with me to get something to eat?”
Rory frowned, looked down at her mother’s prone figure. “I should stay here.”
“She’ll be okay without you for fifteen minutes, Hon,” Sookie assured her. Rory seemed unconvinced. “Come on. It’ll do you good to move around a bit.”
“I don’t know…”
“Sookie’s right, Rory,” Luke chimed in. “Your mom wouldn’t want you just sitting here all night. Go get something to eat.”
“You’ll stay with her?” Rory asked.
“I’m not going anywhere,” he assured her. She looked back at Lorelai and her shoulders sunk a little as she conceded.
“I am pretty hungry.”
Sookie stood and held a hand out to her friend’s little girl. “Come on. Let’s see what they try to pass off as ‘food’ in the cafeteria.”
Luke watched the women pass, the door quietly closing behind them. Then it was just the two of them.
He took a few tentative steps toward the bed, taking the seat Rory had just vacated.
“Geez, Lorelai,” he said, more to himself than her. “Nobody ever taught you to look both ways before you cross the street?”
He looked her over. Despite the bandage wrapped around her head and the paleness of her bare face, she looked beautiful, peaceful.
“The doctors said you might be able to hear us if we talk to you. I guess I should watch what I say. You’ll probably use it to blackmail me or something.” He shook his head, huffed a laugh at himself. “This is probably the first time you’ve ever been silent and I can’t even enjoy it.”
He felt compelled to speak, to say something about their recent distance, the fight, the forgiveness he still wasn’t sure was in his heart. The words didn’t come though. He wasn’t sure if they would.
He reached out and rested his hand on hers, giving it a little squeeze.
“I’m here, Lorelai,” he whispered. He scanned her face. Her eyes seemed to bounce behind their lids, and he wondered what she was dreaming of.
Whatever it was, he hoped it was happy. He wanted her to have happy dreams.
XXXX
“Leopold and Loeb were murderers. We’re not naming our twins after murderers,” Luke called out as he entered the house. Lorelai was sitting on the living room couch watching the Food Network. She laughed at his proclamation.
“How did you find out?”
“I asked Andrew.” He kicked off his shoes and came into the living room, dropping onto the couch next to her. “Besides, we’re having a boy and a girl, so which name was she gonna get saddled with?”
“Loeb could be unisex,” Lorelai hedged.
“In what world?”
“The one up here,” she said, tapping on her head.
“Oh, that one.”
“Don’t worry, Doll. It’s early days. I’m sure I’ll change my mind a hundred times over the next five months.”
“At least you’re self aware,” he deadpanned. “Did you eat?”
“I had some tater tots and a Pop-Tart.”
He groaned. “I thought we agreed to take it easy on the preservatives while you’re pregnant.”
“I think what we agreed was that you were going to cook me dinner every night, but you were closing and I was hungry,” she argued.
“You could have come to the diner,” he suggested.
“It’s so far away, the kitchen is right over there.”
He sighed. “Fine. Can I at least try to get a vegetable into you now?”
“First of all, dirty. Second, that depends on what you mean by ‘vegetable’ and whether it’s code for ‘ice cream’.”
“You’re impossible,” he grumbled.
She shot him a grin. “Yes I am, and you love me because of that.”
“I love you in spite of that,” he corrected.
“Same outcome, who am I to question the process?” she pondered aloud. Luke attempted to shoot her a glare, but she saw the softness behind his eyes. That look always made her melt.
“Okay,” she said softly. “I’ll consent to a salad, as long as you use that fruity dressing and fill it up with apples.”
“You and apples,” he said to himself. He leaned in and pecked a quick kiss to her lips before getting up from the couch. “Comin’ right up.”
Lorelai smiled watching him go. He was so sweet these days. Ever since they found out she was pregnant he doted on her. Not that he didn’t dote on her before, but he had reached a new level of doting over the past few months. Sure, some of it was annoying, like the coffee policing. But most of the time he just took care of her, made sure she ate well and took her prenatal vitamins. At night he would massage her shoulders and feet, even though she wasn’t particularly achy. She let him do it because it made him feel like he was helping. Luke always wanted to help.
After dinner, the pair spooned on the couch together. Luke’s back was to the rear of the sofa and Lorelai was tucked in front of him as West Side Story played on the television. Luke’s hand found its home on her belly, a recent gesture that she had come to find particularly endearing.
“Maria and Tony,” Lorelai said quietly.
“Doesn’t Tony die at the end?”
“So?”
“So I don’t want to name my son after somebody who dies at the end,” Luke whispered back.
“But all the best love stories have someone die at the end,” she argued.
“Then maybe our twins don’t need to be named after characters from a love story.”
She gasped, “Oh, Jenny and Oliver,” she said in a breath. “That would be so sweet, like from Love Story.”
“Jenny dies at the end of Love Story,” Luke reminded her. Lorelai frowned.
“You’re making this more difficult than it needs to be,” she groused.
“Here’s an idea, why don’t we just come up with a list of some names we both like and pick from that, rather than trying to come up with some kind of famous duo,” Luke suggested.
“That’s so boring.”
“Normal. I think the word you’re going for is normal.”
“Normal is boring,” she sulked.
“Normal can be nice,” he countered. His hold tightened around her and he pulled her in closer. His lips found her neck, just below her ear. “This is our normal.”
Lorelai sighed, angling her head to give him more room to work.
“You make a salient point.” She pushed her ass back into his crotch as his hand coursed down to her hip, pulling her back and aiding in the connection as he kissed her neck.
Another beautiful side effect of her pregnancy was that she and Luke had become increasingly sensual in their lovemaking. His hands coursed over her body, as if feeling her figure for the first time, every time. As she gave herself over to him and felt him surging inside of her, it felt like the kind of connection that romance novelists write about. It was something Lorelai had long ago cast off as outlandish and unrealistic, maybe even a little saccharine. In actuality, it was beautiful.
She sighed as Luke grinded into her ass, his hand slipping beneath the hem of her shirt and moving upward to cup her lace-clad breast. His lips continued to paint kisses across the skin exposed by the broad boat-neck collar of her shirt, and she silently praised herself for choosing an outfit that was so easy to work around.
Her eyes fluttered shut, and she rested her hand on top of his, over her shirt, holding his warm palm against her breast as they moved together, as if penetration was occurring. But this was just the prelude. The real show had yet to begin.
“Luke,” Lorelai whispered, feeling herself begin to tingle with anticipation. She wanted him. She craved the feeling of him, and now the barriers were not teasing, but tormenting.
She turned her head as best she could and Luke adjusted so he could kiss her lips. It started softly, but quickly grew in intensity as Lorelai shifted onto her back with Luke hovering over her, on his side. He pulled the cup of her bra down releasing her breast to his touch. She moaned into his mouth as he claimed her nipple – more sensitive than ever – between a finger and thumb, gently pinching and releasing as it became hard in his hand.
Something else was hard, Lorelai noticed. She could feel him against her hip, straining in his jeans. She reached down and found the shape of him, cupping her hand around him and stroking. A small grunt emanated from the back of his throat and his mouth opened, allowing her tongue inside to duel with his.
The teasing went on for moments longer. He swapped from one breast to the next, and then moved lower, skillfully unbuttoning her jeans with one hand, drawing the zipper down, and slipping his hand inside her panties, which had started to become damp with her own juices.
Less adept at undoing buttons with her non-dominant hand, Lorelai slid the zipper down on Luke’s jeans, and reached inside. She found his erection through the hole in his boxers and pulled it out so she could pay proper attention to her favourite appendage.
Luke groaned and their making out intensified as they manually pleasured one another. He found her clit and began to rub circles round it with a damp middle finger, making her hips writhe with barely contained lust.
They held out until they couldn’t anymore. Then, it was a flurry of activity as their clothes hit the floor.
Luke came to sit in the middle of the sofa and Lorelai straddled him. He held his erection steady as she lowered herself onto him, their mutual moans of satisfaction drowning out the musical that still played on the television.
Lorelai was ready to go the moment she took him in. She began to bounce in his lap, starting fast and gaining speed as she relished the feeling of him inside of her.
Luke watched her, his lips parted and harsh breaths falling from them as she fucked him thoroughly. Pregnancy didn’t slow her down one bit – if anything, it made her more needy, more receptive to his ministrations. It made her want him in a way she never had before.
He felt amazing inside of her. Not too small or too big, he fit her like two connecting pieces of a puzzle, hitting all her walls, stopping just shy of her cervix, snug and fulfilling. Never had either experienced such a perfect fit.
Luke grasped her waist as he helped her ride him. He pushed up each time she landed, making their skin connect audibly in a way that was satisfying to them both. Their eyes locked and she shot him a sexy smile, then landed on him fully, beginning a horizontal movement that dragged her clit over his pubic bone, pleasuring her beyond measure as his cock remained deep inside.
Lorelai knew she was going to finish. The friction against her clit was too good to slow or stop, so instead she doubled down. She grasped his shoulders and leaned back a bit, trusting his grip on her waist to keep her steady as she closed her eyes and focused entirely on getting herself there.
“Yes,” she moaned as she felt the first sparks of her orgasm begin. She dug in, her knees deep in the cushions as she ground hard.
“Ung, Lorelai,” Luke grunted. She cracked her eyes open and found him watching her. The intensity of his blue gaze accompanied her next surge of arousal, pushing it further. She loved when he watched her. It made her feel sexy and wanton, like she was on display for him. His eyes flicked downward, taking in her flushed chest, breasts, and down to where he was completely encompassed by her. He pushed up as she grinded into him, which was the final move needed to send her into that incredible abyss.
She cried out and her hips moved furiously as she fucked him, drawing everything she could out of this moment of ecstasy. Her eyes clamped shut and her mouth opened in a silent scream of pure satisfaction as she came long and hard, squeezing him relentlessly.
Luke bucked into her, allowing her release to pull his from him. Lorelai caught the tail end, opening her eyes just soon enough to see him drop his head back against the couch as he thrust upward in one long, last stroke that emptied him completely.
Spent, Lorelai pitched forward, draping her arms over the back of the couch and resting her head in the crook of his neck, as he looked blankly up at the ceiling. They breathed hard from the exertion of their lovemaking, each taking several moments to come back down to earth.
Luke gave her ass a playful pat, making her chuckle against his throat. She lifted her head to look at him.
“See, when we have kids, we won’t be able to do stuff like this,” she told him, still a little breathless. He grinned.
“Guess we better get it out of our system now,” he said. Lorelai giggled.
“Well then, let’s make it count.” She kissed him again firmly, signalling her plans for round two.
XXXX
It was after midnight when Luke made it home. Jess was fast asleep, snoring loudly in his corner of the apartment.
He was wiped; mentally and physically exhausted. He filled up a glass of water and headed for bed, stripping to his boxers and slipping between the sheets, too tired to don his pajamas.
When he closed his eyes, he saw her laying in that hospital bed hooked up to machines. It was a hard image to escape, and no matter how tired he was, it wasn’t going away.
He opened his eyes and looked up at the ceiling, not really seeing anything in the dark. All he could think of was Lorelai, and the fact that before all this happened, they were barely on speaking terms. It bothered him more than he cared to admit. The doctors were optimistic that she would be okay in time, but he knew it could have just as easily gone a different way. Was he prepared to lose her without making up with her?
The words she spewed at him that night had been on a constant loop for months.
“If you hadn’t brought him here, none of this would’ve happened.”
“You had an obligation to this town and to me and to Rory.”
“Go to Hell!”
He squeezed his eyes shut, hoping her voice would leave his head, only to be assaulted by the image of her in that damn hospital bed again. He growled audibly and shot up out of bed, heading for the bathroom.
He didn’t even turn on the light, he just twisted the shower nozzle to high heat and shucked his boxers, getting in before the spray had a chance to warm. In the blackness, the water drenched him, going from cool to hot in a minute, his skin aching from the sudden change in temperature. He dropped his head against the tile, which amplified the sound of his own breathing.
“She’ll be okay,” he said to himself, his voice deep and ragged with exhaustion.
What if she’s not?
He huffed a heavy sigh at the voice in his head – his conscience, he assumed, reminding him that he’d let this fight go on for months. Months.
“She’ll be okay,” he repeated more firmly. He took a deep breath and let it out. “She’s okay.”
He pushed off the tile and stood tall, letting the hot spray soothe his aching muscles. He stretched his neck from side to side as he thought about those words she said, the words he’d used to justify keeping her at a distance.
She didn’t mean them. Didn’t make them hurt any less, but it should offer some solace that she didn’t mean them. Forgiveness was a tricky thing when it came to matters like this, because she wasn’t just someone, she was the one. She was the one person who could get under his skin like that. Her opinion mattered. For months, they’d been getting closer, it seemed. She was there for him when he needed a bigger place, and when his uncle died. She helped run his diner and plan the funeral. She stood next to him at the gravesite when nobody else bothered to come.
Lorelai hurting him, Lorelai hating him, that was a deeper cut than anyone else would be able to muster. He could let it go if it came from someone else. From Lorelai, it felt like a fresh cut every time he remembered those angry words spewed at him in the street.
But she had apologized. A lot. She’d apologized both in person and via Garfield stationary. If nothing else, he knew that she was sorry. Was it enough? He didn’t know.
The only thing he knew for sure was that he wasn’t ready to lose her. If he had to forgive her to ensure he never did, then he would figure out a way to do that.