So here it is, however long after the ficathon fics were supposed to be posted – the conclusion to 'Just Duck-y (Or, A Devil of a Time)'

Don't forget to check the end for the prompt so you can all see how this crazy, crazy story came about. Hopefully I did the prompt justice.

And, as always, thanks to everyone for reviews, and to llano for the beta help.

Chapter 6: He shoots, he scores…

A few hours later, Lorelai was still puttering around the lobby, flipping through any and all brochures she could find, sneaking as many of the complimentary hard candies from the bowls scattered around as she could.

Needless to say, her resolve was weakening. Candy would only stave off her hunger for so much longer, and the bar just off the lobby was also looking pretty tempting. A martini or four would probably really, really help make her feel better about the whole mess…

But Luke had taken her purse. She toyed momentarily with just running up a tab at the bar and charging it to – what room had Luke said? 603? But she wasn't sure how well that would go over if it was the airline covering the room.

She lasted precisely another twelve minutes before convincing herself that going up to collect her purse would not induce the coming of the four horsemen. It was only Luke. She could just go up there, ask for her purse, come right back down, have her martinis, and then get her own room far far away from him. Sure she could.

Another minute or two later, she found herself six floors up, facing the small bronze '603' on the door. Shaking her hair out a bit and smoothing her shirt, Lorelai did her best to portray an air of confidence.

Never mind that her hand trembled as she lifted it to knock.

Luke answered almost immediately, pulling the door open just wide enough to frame his body in the doorway. He said nothing, regarding her coolly.

Lorelai forced herself to take a deep breath. Lifting her nose haughtily in the air, she requested in cool, even tones, "Can I have my wallet please?"

Studying her for a moment, Luke eventually pushed the door open without a word, indicating with a slight nod of his head that she was free to enter if she wished.

Lorelai balked at his suggestion; there was no way she was giving in now. She needed her wallet, that was all. Then she was home free and could get her own room of her own accord. "You can just get it for me," she responded tersely, her feet still planted firmly in the hallway.

"Or you can come in and tell me what the hell is wrong with you," Luke challenged.

Lorelai pressed her lips together in a valiant show of restraint, restricting herself to, "I'm fine."

"So you're actually a closet Devils fan and are pissed they lost?" Luke casually brought one arm up to rest above his head on the doorframe of the bathroom, lifting an eyebrow in her direction as she did.

Luke's rather blasé, yet taunting, demeanor was not lost on Lorelai. Once again, she found herself seething over his utter non-reaction to the fact that he was the one to kiss her. He was the one making her even crazier than she would have otherwise been. "I'm fine," she declared through her clenched teeth. "I just want my purse."

The single patronizing "Lorelai…" that followed was all it took for her to snap. It was the last straw, and she lost it.

"What's wrong with me?" she shrieked. "What about you?" she cried, giving Luke a forceful shove as punctuation.

"What about me?" was Luke's retort as he disputed Lorelai's insinuations, "I'm not the one acting insane all day."

Now, yes, Lorelai knew that there was no way Luke wouldn't have taken notice of her odd behavior over the course of the past twenty-four hours. But, in her mind, it was absolutely no excuse for him to be in complete and utter denial over the fact that he, too, had had a major bout of temporary insanity the night before. Which was certainly not an insignificant factor in her own insanity. "Well, you were last night!" she accused viciously in return, practically yelling right in his face.

One would have thought that such an outburst would have drawn Luke into a full-on shouting match, à la the great 'Go to Hell/Right Back Atcha' of '02. But no, Luke just stood there in front of Lorelai, looking ever so smug. He went so far as to make it quite clear that it was still her move when he folded his arms in front of his chest, lifting his eyebrows knowingly to goad her on.

And as much as she knew that manipulating her was exactly what he was doing, Lorelai fell for the bait, exploding "You kissed me! You kissed me Luke," she repeated, her voice fading into a tortured whimper, "Out of nowhere."

Luke, still appearing annoyingly triumphant, simply unfolded his arms nonchalantly, taunting her further.

Which put an end to the defeated tone Lorelai's voice had just taken on. The rage was back in full force. "You can't just do that!" She shouted, shoving him once again. Then came the rambling rant that, rather unsuccessfully, attempted to convey this gist of every thought that she'd had over the past day: "And Mrs. Whatshername at the game said – and, well, Nicole, hi – and the bathroom at the place – and you wonder why I'm acting…"

The rant ended there, for before Lorelai could even grasp what was happening, Luke was lunging at her in an encore of the night before. He spun her slightly, his hands gripping her upper arms roughly as he pressed his lips, warm and insistent, to hers.

Lorelai's eyes flew wide open as she pushed him away with a yelp, "Luke, stop!" Her heart in her throat, she leapt backwards from him, protesting in vain, "You can't…"

The protests were just that – in vain – because of Luke's initial deft maneuver when he'd left the door wide open. In her repeated shoving motions, Lorelai had inadvertently entered ever so slightly into the small foyer of the room. And when Luke had moved to kiss her, he'd expertly turned her just enough such that when she did recoil away from him, she was essentially backing herself into the room, backing herself into the proverbial and literal corner. Even as she continued her stream of protests, "Luke, don't…" she was cursing herself for allowing herself to end up in the room.

But Luke paid no mind to her plaintive pleas, and just closed the door behind him. Lorelai's heart pounded, adrenaline racing through her veins, as she took in his smug smirk and it registered in her mind that he was closing in on her once more. He was going to kiss her again, and she was powerless to stop him.

And she almost didn't want to.

Before she knew it, his hands had encircled her waist and she was being pulled into a searing kiss. She fought him on it as best she could, but Lorelai soon found the third time to be a charm, and reluctantly allowed herself to give in to Luke. Her arms wrapped around his neck of their own accord as she yielded to his lips, his hands…

"God, stop!" she cried, the sudden feel of Luke's tongue against hers all the wake up call that she needed to remind her that she absolutely could not be doing what she was letting herself do. The fact that she was finally willing to admit to herself that she really did want it mattered not at all. With another forceful "Stop!" as she recognized that Luke was reaching for her yet again, she clambered up and over the bed – the only bed, she realized absently. He'd gotten them a room with only one bed? – to get away from him.

But Luke was nothing if not persistent, and simply strolled to meet her on the other side of the bed. She jumped back up across the bed, seeing a chance to make a break for the door and save the last shred of sanity and dignity she had left. Unfortunately, halfway through her strategic move, Luke grabbed her hand, throwing her off balance and sending her tumbling down on the comforter.

Lorelai froze on the bed as Luke, still clutching her hand in his, eased himself down to sit next to her. Gone was the determined bravado from only seconds before; he simply sat silently, staring at her with the woefully apologetic expression of a lost puppy.

It just made her heart break a little and want him all the more. "Luke…" Lorelai whispered softly, absolutely torn. "Don't," she pleaded, not knowing how much longer her resolve would hold, "We can't, you're with…" Her protest faded out as Luke dropped her hand, his gaze shifting down to the bed spread.

After a moment, he looked back up at her, solemn and even-toned. "Is she the only thing stopping you?"

"What?" Lorelai choked out, not liking where she thought a question like that might lead.

"This. Here," Luke repeated in a stilted clarification. "Is Nicole all that's stopping you?"

"No, Luke," Lorelai spat out immediately, more an admonition than an answer to his question. She'd gotten in far too much trouble whenever she'd come anywhere near Christopher and Sherry's relationship the year before; she refused, no matter how much the end situation might appear to favor her, no matter how much she might think she wants the outcome, to let herself get in the middle of another couple's issues. She would not let Luke blow his thing with Nicole for… for whatever it was he was proposing to do with her. "Don't put me in the middle of this," she warned harshly, inching away from him.

With a befuddled expression, Luke looked at her curiously, "Middle of what?"

Lorelai shook her head vehemently. "You can't put me in that position," she lectured. "I have nothing to do with you and her. I am not gonna be the woman who…"

And then Luke cut her off with the absolute last thing she expected to hear, "I'm not with Nicole anymore."

Silence hung in the air.

"What?" Lorelai finally breathed, wondering if she could have possibly heard correctly, her mind already racing over what that could mean.

"I ended things with Nicole," Luke repeated slowly.

Lorelai didn't want to let herself believe that there was actually nothing standing in the way with Luke. It was too easy. Too good to be true was a cliché for a reason. "But…" she stammered.

"I told you," Luke interrupted. "When you stayed the night of the fire, that you were a…" He paused, obviously searching for the correct word. "…thing…" he finished awkwardly, "with us. That she didn't like the idea of you being around."

She heard the words, but Lorelai couldn't, for the life of her, figure out how on earth her crashing at Luke's the night her Inn burned down should have had anything to do with the dissolution of his relationship with Nicole. Nicole never would have even known she was there, a fact she was quick to point out to Luke, "But she never…"

"Jess told her you stayed," Luke cut her off, anticipating her dispute. "She wasn't exactly thrilled. And when we went skiing," he continued, "and stayed at the Inn, she thought things were… off."

Lorelai eyed him questioningly. Off? And that was somehow her fault?

"When you came in," Luke elaborated. "Less thrilled," he said with a sarcastic groan. "Yeah, we still went skiing, it was fine." His hand gestures became more and more animated as his frustration over the memory grew. "But then she brings up a bigger trip. She wants to get away from Connecticut completely, and you, I think," he added, "go on a cruise or something, to Vancouver or Alaska." He trailed off with a sigh, regarding Lorelai with a pointed glare. "And all I can think is what the hell would I be doing with her on a cruise?"

"Cruising?" Lorelai quipped lamely, her voice shaky under the weight of his implications.

"Well, I don't want to go on a cruise," Luke declared, "I didn't want to be cruising with her. Not with her," he affirmed. "Not considering… you know, everything."

Everything… Did that mean what she thought it did, Lorelai wondered, not daring to believe that it did.

Taking a deep breath, Luke leveled with her. "She was justified in not wanting you around me," he admitted sheepishly.

It totally meant what she thought it did. "Luke…" His name fell from her lips in a rush of air. All that torture, all the squeamishness and headaches and insanity over the fact that he was still with Nicole – it had all been unnecessary. Even as overwhelmed as she was at that moment, Lorelai knew that she still would have flipped out over that random woman's insinuations, not to mention Luke's kisses, but still… It could have saved them both a fair bit of grief if she'd only had to grapple with her own newfound feelings and not the issue of Nicole as well. "Why didn't you tell me?" she asked softly, gently laying her hand on his shoulder.

Luke angled away from her touch, offering only a knowing glare. "Would you have come?" he inquired frankly, "Here? Like this?"

Lorelai's mouth opened as she instinctively moved to defend herself. But she just didn't have the words. Would she have come? Would she have trekked all the way across the country to stay in the same room as Luke had she known that he was single again? Or would that minor, but oh-so-crucial tweak to her understanding of his relationship status put him and the trip squarely in the 'situation Lorelai is definitely not comfortable with' category? Her subconscious knowing that it would be treading on dangerous ground simply not allowing for such a trip? Hell, would she have barged in on him the night of the fire if he hadn't been securely wrapped up in his relationship with Nicole?

Would she have come, indeed…

Probably not, Lorelai realized with dismay, her shoulders slumping. Maybe she herself hadn't known of the feelings lurking just beneath the surface, but her subconscious would have known enough to cause her to be a big, fat, cowardly chicken. Maybe that's how it had always been with Luke, and she was only now coming to grips with the many, many missed opportunities there might have been over the years. And though she didn't necessarily have him even now, the thought that, had she known about the break-up ahead of time, her ridiculous avoidance tactics probably would have caused her to miss this chance as well. The thought saddened her for some reason, and she wondered absent-mindedly what had been wrong with her for so long.

She was finally drawn out of her stupor by what sounded oddly like an apology coming from Luke. "I didn't know what to do," he explained, stumbling awkwardly over the words. "This thing. Us, ending it with her." He sighed, running a hand through his hair as his gaze darted nervously about the room. "I don't know how to go about this, I'm not good at it. The trip, and yesterday… It just happened," he shrugged, focusing once again on Lorelai, "I just went with it."

Lorelai stared at him blankly, still trying to digest that fact that, apparently, not only had Luke been thinking of her… as something… even when he was with Nicole, but that he'd also called off that relationship and jumped at the chance to take this stupid hockey trip for her, even when he hadn't had a clue as to how she might have felt about him. It was a lot to take in, especially given the fact that she hadn't even necessarily completely sorted out what it was that she was feeling for him.

But apparently taking her silence and hesitation as a signal that, despite Nicole no longer being an issue, Lorelai wasn't on the same page as him, the hope slowly faded from Luke's face. She could see his jaw tightening as he pushed himself up off the bed, muttering, "I can get another room."

Seized with dread, Lorelai knew she had to act quickly. Two seconds ago, she may not have known exactly what she wanted, but that trepidation she felt as Luke stood to leave told her all she needed to know. It was now or never. Now or never, now or never. Pulling herself to her knees and stretching across the bed, she managed to catch Luke's wrist. "No," she whispered, clutching his hand in both of hers.

It was Luke's turn to freeze; he stiffened in front of her, a stunned expression washing over his face. His only movement was to unsteadily sit back down as he stammered a single questioning "You…?"

"Just go with it," she directed softly, the confidence she felt betrayed by a slight waver in her voice as she inched along on her knees to get closer to him. Reaching him, she dropped his hand, instead tenderly cradling his face. "Just go with it," she repeated, leaning into him, "Again."

And unlike the rough, rushed manner that had typified their first three kisses, this, the fourth, and the first initiated by Lorelai, was sweet, and soft, and sensual, and everything the others hadn't been as both Luke and Lorelai tried to convey without words just what the new development in their relationship meant to them.

Finally Lorelai pulled away breathlessly, and looked Luke directly in the eyes. "I lied that night," she panted, her breathing ragged. "You kissed me. With the alarm clocks."

If Luke had any recollection of the conversation to which she was referring, he made no such indication. Instead he tangled his fingers in her hair, and moved his lips to her neck.

But Lorelai pushed him away; though she couldn't put her finger on why, she felt the urgent need to come clean about her abrupt end to their conversation that night. "My dream," she admitted, "It did go further. You kissed me."

Luke still said nothing, rather a hint of a recognition flashed over his face as he grinned and pulled her in to him again. Hands wandering and tongues dancing, the two of them moved in unspoken synchronization as Lorelai shifted her weight off her knees, leaning back and uncurling on the bed as Luke lay beside her, propped up on one elbow.

When they parted again, Luke, stroking her hair as it fanned out on the pillow, showed on last bit of hesitation, cautiously asking, "So this is…"

"Good," Lorelai finished, confirming, to both herself and Luke with a feeble giggle and a watery smile, that she most definitely wanted this. Luke reciprocated with a smile of his own as he leaned in for another kiss.

When he gently – finally – slipped off her jacket, her shirt, her bra, her pants, Lorelai sucked in a sharp breath at every delicate touch… The skin-to-skin – hands-to-skin, lips-to-skin, tongue-to-skin – contact was so much more, so much better than she ever could have imagined in her lusty fantasies of the arena bathroom. And with Luke finally sinking tenderly into her, inch by agonizingly wonderful inch, and back out, and back in again, there was only one fleeting thought in Lorelai's mind before she gave herself over to the flood of sensations: Why, oh why, had they never done this before?

Once their breathing finally began to slow, and Luke had stilled within her, he hovered above her with his forehead pressed to hers. Lorelai, regaining coherence and finally beginning to sort out what the last hour had brought, found herself utterly overwhelmed. Utterly and completely.

He knew her. He knew her. In every way possible that so many others she'd been with hadn't.

The teasing torture as she writhed beneath him, his fingers coaxing her oh-so close, only to have him pull his hand away over and over? That was him and his daily threats of withholding coffee. His ever-present grumbling about her poor eating habits was replaced by primal grunts of frustration when she'd slid her hand into his boxers to repay him. And the fevered nipping he'd done at her shoulders, surely leaving plenty of marks, once he'd finally tired of her teasing? Just another take on his ranting – an annoyed-Luke-explosion. Those tender, sweet kisses that made appearances more than once were the knowledge that, without fail, he'd always be there, whether it be to change a water bottle or fix a wayward railing, or to drive her to the hospital for her father or offer Mimi a reassuring donut truce, on the house.

He knew her.

And as her eyes had begun to flutter closed, the waves of pleasure threatening and already lapping at her toes, when he'd beseeched her to keep them open, trained on him as she came crashing down around him – it was merely another one of their 'looks,' those non-verbal conversations they'd always seemed to have over the – jeez, how long was it now? Almost seven? – seven years they'd known each other.

Only now was Lorelai coming to realize the full meaning of those looks.

And of course, she had to smirk as Luke resituated himself behind her, he'd probably have something to say about the many coffee-gasmic moans he'd been subjected to over the years now that he'd been a witness to – and cause of – the real version.

He knew her.

And she could only hope that he felt she knew him just as well. For, as she realized with an almost unnerving sense of calm and resolve, there was no way she could ever let herself be with someone again who didn't know her like that. All of the sudden, such an idea was rendered practically incomprehensible; the Maxes and Alexes of the world, who, up until barely more than a week or so ago, had themselves consumed a fair bit of her brain space, no longer more than tiny blips exiting the edge of the radar screen. Even Christopher knew her only as some version of his idealistic sixteen-year-old fantasy. He didn't know her. Not like Luke. Not like this…

Lorelai was just barely beginning to contemplate the weighty implications of such thoughts when she felt the softest brush of lips on her shoulder, and a gravelly voice in her ear, "What?"

Not really knowing what she was thinking, never mind how to verbalize those thoughts, Lorelai paused, considering her words carefully before replying. "I am thinking…" she eventually drew out slowly before turning over to face Luke. "…that…" As she took a deep breath, her gaze fixated somewhere in the vicinity of Luke's shoulder rather than his eyes. "…if this is how hockey games end, then I, um…" She stumbled over the words, anxiousness and trepidation combining with the rapidly spreading bashful grin as she spit out the remainder of her reply. "…want to see if my dad can get us tickets for the next game too." Trying to stifle the involuntary, giddy giggles that accompanied her post-sex-with-Luke high, Lorelai finished hurriedly, a faint blush coloring her cheeks as her eyes darted shyly back and forth from Luke's face to anywhere but Luke's face.

She did muster up the courage to look him in the eye just in time to catch the cautious hint of a smile breaking out on his face as his eyebrows arched up hopefully. "Yeah?" he asked, his voice cracking ever-so slightly.

Luke's demeanor and reaction, equally as uncertain and awkward as hers had been, would have made Lorelai's heart melt for him right then and there had she not already been completely smitten and melt-y from the moment he'd made his bumbling admission that the whole trip had actually been intended – however 'knee-jerk-reaction' the intent was – to be the beginning of something between them. She smiled, offering a muted confirmation of, "Mmm-hmm," as she leaned in to kiss him softly.

But far too soon for Lorelai's liking, Luke eased back away from her, breaking the kiss. "Uh," he stammered, "You know that'll be the last game before summer."

"Right," Lorelai acknowledged with a wary nod. "Well," she offered hesitantly, unsure if she wanted to know what sort of repercussions her words would have on where they would go from here, "and Rory and I leave soon anyway."

Luke nodded gravely, taking in Lorelai's statement.

The fear that their relationship, as it were, was somehow slipping away before they even really had it gripped Lorelai. That Luke was resigning himself to this being it. "Well, there's more games at some point, right?" she reasoned anxiously. Her voice practically jumped an octave as she rambled on with the hockey metaphor, trying to give Luke any excuse to not back out just yet. "Next winter? We could…"

She was cut off by Luke pressing his thumb gently to her lips. "Lorelai," he said, demanding her focus. "We can go to more hockey games. I will buy you season tickets if you really want them. Devils, Bruins, both New Yorks, even the AHL team in Hartford if that's what you want," he offered with a teasing smile, "You can go to a game every day if you want, I'm sure."

The mini-panic attack that had surfaced in response to the presumption that Luke was pulling away from her was quickly replaced by a mini-panic attack and a stricken expression at the thought that Luke had somehow misinterpreted and believed that she actually wanted to go to all those hockey games – she didn't.

Thankfully, Lorelai hadn't been wrong in her realization that Luke knew her; he quickly assuaged her hockey-centric fears with an addendum to his offer: "But I know you don't."

"I really don't," Lorelai admitted, breathing a sigh of relief. "I have zero clue as to what happened in that game," she chuckled, dragging the tip of her finger over his chest aimlessly. "Or," she added softly, once again dropping her head bashfully, "with us."

She could feel Luke's sharp intake of air beneath her hand as he began his reply, "You…" But he obviously didn't know how to define their new 'us' either; after only the one word, his voice faded away into the silence of the room.

"I want it, Luke," Lorelai blurted out, knowing that honesty would be the only way to rid her stomach of the nervous flutterings that had taken hold. "This," she clarified resolutely her eyes wide with sincerity as she met his gaze once more. "I really do."

"This being…" Luke drew out hesitantly, searching for further clarification of Lorelai's vague semantics.

Which did nothing to alleviate the butterfly action in her stomach. It was as if he was trying to mess with her head and torture her. "This being not just this?" she ventured timidly at first, then rushing immediately to elaborate, "More than this? I mean, we're…"

It wasn't Luke's thumb that silenced her this time, but rather his lips. Not unlike their first kiss back at the game, he caught her off guard, leaning into her insistently. But unlike that very first kiss, Lorelai knew immediately what this one meant. There were essentially two possibilities given their situation, and as is turned out, she did know him. She knew him enough to know that his hands brushing ever-so-gently up her arms, his tongue playfully tangling with hers… This was no 'Thanks for a good time, it was great while it lasted, but let's call it a day, stop by the diner like always for coffee'-kiss.

He wanted it too. This was Luke saying he was 'all in.'

And Lorelai couldn't have been happier. Smiling into the kiss, she giggled, pulling away to tease, "I take it you concur?"

Luke smiled in return, reaching over and delicately smoothing Lorelai's hair along the side of her face. "You bet," he assured her, thought his next action betrayed his solemn tone. Rolling away from her and running his hands through his own hair as he stretched out beside her, exclaiming in mock exasperation, "But come on! No hockey? You're not even going to ask about game 7?"

Lorelai gasped, her jaw dropping in feigned shock. "I'm just a way for you to get more stupid tickets from my dad, aren't I," she accused jokingly. "Dirty!" Luke just rolled his eyes, eliciting a smirk from Lorelai. "I suppose I could make an exception," she laughed. "Besides," she added, flashing him a devilish grin as she crawled over to him, "I think this will make for a pretty sad relationship if we don't keep up with some of the hockeying."

Brow furrowed, Luke sputtered a mildly confused, "But you just…" His words trailed off as Lorelai wiggled her eyebrows mischievously before lowering her lips to within millimeters of his.

"Tonsil hockey, silly."

The End

Written for: dayzy27

Prompt: Dana Scully: "Well, it seems to me that the best relationships – the ones that last – are frequently the ones that are rooted in friendship. You know, one day you look at the person and you see something more than you did the night before. Like a switch has been flicked somewhere. And the person who was just a friend is... suddenly the only person you can ever imagine yourself with." (From 'X-Files,' Episode 6-07, "The Rain King")

Could have: Lorelai waking up on the wrong side of the bed (i.e. grumpy/irritable – but it can be taken literally too).

Shouldn't have: Anything set east of the Mississippi River. So no Stars Hollow, Hartford, East Coast...