Yeah well what can I say? Friends, readers and fellow authors, welcome. I live in two worlds. One is a world of fanfiction. I've been a resident of stars Hollow, hunted down Nicole and Chris when they came in between Luke and Lorelai, fought for some happy endings, sailed on the happy JJ shipper ship, rode a sad train with Lorelai and Luke in all those break-up stories, and strolled down the path of happiness when they got back together. It's a rewarding world. My second one is the real GG world, full of disappointment and grief. It should have ended differently… you all know the speech, so I spare you .

But what I wanted to say is that I have a new story. A little summer something to cheer up this grey winter outside. Although this prologue might look like angst in some parts I assure you that it's not. Hopefully this will turn out to be a fluffy, romantic, funny and ridiculously sappy story. Enjoy and review ;)

Set between season 2 and three. Forget Christopher or any other partners that might play a role during that time. I did.

Chapter 1: Cooling off gone wrong

Lorelai glanced at her watch for the umpteenth time that day, hoping that it would finally be eight and she could go home. It was hard for her working that day because it was so hot.

"Freaking hot", she muttered and fanned herself with some papers while she looked through the reservation book.

"This is disgusting", Michel said and pointed to a drop of sweat which had dropped from her forehead onto the surface of the table.

"Michel I advise you not to mess with me today", she warned him and wiped the drop away.

"If you would have called someone to check on the air-conditioner, like I told you to, we wouldn't be in this possition", he went on anyway.

"I did! I did call Andre, but he is on vacation and the other guy.. what ever his name was will stop by tomorrow morning first thing. And now be quiet and leave me alone", she snapped at him and closed the book.

"If it still will be this hot tomorrow morning then don't expect me to come", Michel added and then went quickly into the direction of the backyard so Lorelai wouldn't get him.

"Gah", she said and closed the door of her office behind her. It wasn't better in here either. They had brought all fans they found into the guests rooms and so the rest of the hotel was incredibly warm. Everyone was complaining, not only Lorelai and especially the kitchen staff had every reason to. With all the boiling water, hot pots and pans and the constantly running oven it was like hell in there, especially because they weren't allowed to open windows and doors for a longer time- that would be a health code violation. Lorelai had told Sookie to stop cooking and make ice-cream instead, but Sookie being Sookie didn't accept that.

Lorelai sat down in er chair, took the small and handy fan she had brought and started it. While it was humming and buzzing she thought about what she could do once she got home. Rory was still in Washington, Luke was still inoring her apology letters and her house had no air-conditioner. Great. She hadn't slept for the last three nights because of the heat wave and she was already afraid of her exploding water bill because of all the cold baths she had taken to cool off.

With a sigh she decided to get at least her paper work done, a towel in her hand to start the dripping of sweat.

It was half past eight and it still hadn't cooled down when Lorelai finally left the Inn. She drove home in the overheated jeep, the wheel burning, the top and the windows open, but even that didn't help. The air was still sultry and warm and as soon as Lorelai slammed the front door shut behind her she basically ripped off her wet blouse and the drenched trousers and just left them lying on the ground where she had stepped out of them. What had she been thinking dressing in long jeans and s tight blouse this morning? Short skirts and tank tops - that was the only way to dress these days. Or don't wear any clothes at all, although that would really be inappropriate for the Inn.

She just wanted to grab something to drink when the phone rang and she groaned.

"Not now", she answered the phone and heard her daughter giggling on the other side of the line.

"Guess the heat-wave is up and running", Rory teased her.

"Don't mock mommy. It's horrible. I feel like I entered hell", Lorelai groaned and dapped her forehead with a tissue.

"Well, you better get used to it. That's what's waiting for you after your death", Rory said.

"Mean child. How's Washington? Still nice with bearable weather?" she asked.

"Yeah, although it could be 200 degrees outside and we wouldn't notice. We're barely ever leaving the buildings. It's all work and no fun, but at least we have air conditioners".

"Ah that sounds nice. I just hope this repair man guy will finally show up tomorrow at the inn, otherwise the guests will be two inches shorter by the time they leave because of all the water they sweated out".

"Gross! And why didn't you call Luke? I'm sure he would have looked at the air conditioner".

"He's still mad at me", Lorelai admitted and pouted.

"Still no response to your letters?"

"No, he is still ignoring me", Lorelai muttered.

"Maybe it wasn't a good idea to call him a stubborn idiot in one of the letters", Rory mentioned.

"It was the fifth letter and I was only speaking the truth", Lorelai defended herself.

"Yeah, but insulting him doesn't necessarily make him speaking to you again".

"I had hoped for some nice yelling or a rant, but even that didn't happen", Lorelai said and groaned when another drop of sweat ran over her cheek.

"Ok, I guess I better let you go. You're taking another ice bath?" Rory asked.

"Maybe, don't know yet. I guess our water bill will ruin me forever after this month".

"Then drink something cold", Rory offered.

"Just what I wanted to do when you called. I can't talk and move though- Too exhausting", Lorelai said.

"The go and get something. Bye mom. I miss you", Rory said.

"Bye honey. Miss you, too!", Lorelai replied and hung up.

Only in her underwear she walked into the kitchen, left the wet tissues on the desk and checked the fridge for something cold to drink, but couldn't find anything other than sour milk. She spit it into the sink, rinsed her mouth with some tap-water and threw the milk box into the trash. While she leaned against the counter she thought about what to do now. What choices did she have? Running herself a cold bath and making the bill even higher? Turning on the TV and soak the couch with her own sweat? Sitting outside in her underwear and hope for some cold breeze? Outisde, she thought and wrinkled her forehead. She had a new bikini and Stars Hollow had a small lake.. it was not that dark yet... Lorelai had made her decission. Why hadn't she thought of that earlier? Well she knew why, but she just wanted to cool off a bit so that wouldn't be a problem.

With reneweed energy, given to her by the mere thought of some cooling off, she walked upstairs, stripped off her underwear, got her bikini and put it on as well as some shorts and a top. She took her bag from her closet threw some towels, a brush, a book and some dry panties in and then she was downstairs and out of the house within seconds. She decided to walk to the lake, because the jeep was way to hot and she wished for a second that she had some air in her bike- tires and could ride her bike to the lake. But the bike didn't only need air but also some cleaning, lights and a new sattle... so that left walking.

It took her a good twenty minutes to get to the lake and she just let everything in her hands fall to the ground and started to take her clothes off. Then with less clothes she spread the biggest towel she had brought out on the ground and stuffed her clothes in her bag.

Warpping her hair up in a messy pony tail she walked to the edge of the lake and dipped one toe into the refreshing water. She used a tree to steady herself and then dipped her foot farther in, let the water play over her ankle, wiggled her toes a bit and sighed in contentment. After a minute she took her foot out and dipped the other one in, repeating the process.

She concentrated on the feeling of the cool water against her skin, felt it streaming in between her toes, tickling her ankle. It stood in contrast to the hard tree against which she was leaning with the plam of her hand. It was hard, rough and warm.

Somewhere behind her some wood cracked and she turned her head in the direction of the sound. She hoped that no one was coming. Although she enjoyed the company of her crazy neighbors in general she felt too hot and lazy to deal with any of them. They would talk to much, pose too many questions and want too many answers. The only person whom she wouldn't mind was Luke- and he was still not talking to her.

She had stopped counting how many letters she had written him. The first one only said "I'm sorry" for three pages. The second one had explained things, the third had begged him, the fourth had tried it with jokes, the fifth had been angry, the sixth had apologized for the fifth one and so it went. He had never replied though nor had he ever said a single word to her when they had met accidentaly somewhere in town. He would nod, acknowledged her presence, and then look the other way or just plain out ignore her.

She couldn't see anyone and so she turned her head back to the lake, watched how the sun set behind the trees at the other end of the lake while she dipped first one and then the other foot into the water.

After a while she went and grabbed one of the towels, dipped it into the water and wrung it out over her head, let the water run over her face and drip on her chest. She shuddered a bit, but enjoyed it and bent over to wet the towel one more time.

She had just reached the water with the towel when she heard a splash, followed by a yelp. She looked up and saw someone right in front of her. Lorelai could feel her pulse speed up as she dropped the towel into the water without realizing it. She yelled in surprise as well while she was still staring at the person in the water, without really seeing the face. It was more like the blurry outline of someone's upper body. Because the person didn't wear a bikini top she guessed that it must be a man- or a woman skinny dipping.

Her eyes adjusted to the intruder just milliseconds later and she finally realized who had had the same idea as herself.

However when she straightened up, so she could better yell at him for scaring her like that she let go of the tree. The slippery ground of the edge doing the rest and before she could do something she slipped and fell into the lake.

It was cold, it was wet and dark. It gave her some cooling off, undoubtedly, but at the same time a new panic rose within her that made her hot and sweaty, because she had no sense of orientation under the water and didn't know where top and where bottom were.

She plashed in the water, twisted, struggled and turned and was happy when she came back up and gasped for some air. She had found the right direction, she had found the light and the air.

She heard him chuckling- not really laughing out loud, because he rarely did that. She saw him backing up, going farther away from her, fearing that she would take revenge now that she had her head out of the water again. Maybe he thought she would dunk him or splash water in his face for scaring her like that, making her slip.

Just when she wanted to yell at him, to call him an idiot, tell him to not go away she went back under the water like someone had pulled at her feet. The panic was there again, rising and rising. She knew where the air was, she could see the light. She had one problem though: She didn't know how to get there because she, Lorelai Gilmore, couldn't swim.

Of course it was just one more thing she didn't talk about. Making everyone believe she was wonder woman didn't go well with the fact that she didn't know how to swim. Everyone just assumed she did, even Rory. Her parents had a pool and a huge pool house, so why would anyone think she couldn't swim?

Maybe if they had known that her mother never had time to teach her and maybe if they had known that none of her nannies had been able to swim, or had been too scared to teach her. If something had happened to Lorelai while in the pool her mother surely would have killed them and not just fired them.

She had been to pool parties as a teenager, even had one at her own house, but she only had been in a pool until the water reached her hip. Then she stopped going further or had an excuse. She played the same game at the beach, complained a bit about the cold water and went back out. She wasn't even sure if her parents knew that she couldn't swim. Rory didn't, Christopher didn't and even Sookie didn't, so why should her parents?

So here she was drowning in the Stars Hollow lake, because her former best friend and coffee provider Luke Danes has scared her. Maybe they would think he killed her. Everyone knew he was mad at her and no one knew about her inability. She didn't want Luke to go to prison. And she didn't want to die.

She started to struggle harder, struggled against the water which seemed to swallow her. She couldn't see the light anymore and she turned around, kicked the water, waved her arms in panic around. Oxygen was getting rare already, the fight taking it's toll. She opened her mouth to scream, but no sound came out. Instead water streamed in and she swallowed it, coughed and swallowed more.

She was getting desperate and she thought that she started crying. Never in her live, maybe except for the moment when Rory had called her from the hospital, had she felt such a terrifying panic. What would become of Rory if she would die now? What would be with the Inn? The way she died would just be another disappointment to her parents. She coughed again, tried to get the water out of her lungs, but only more came in. She squeezed her eyes shut, opened them again and found everything still black around her.

She felt her feet touching something. She had reached the ground- that was fast- she thought. The ground was hard, rough and warm. Warm? She pressed her feet to it again, stared in the direction of it, but couldn't see anything.

Then something cold wrapped tightly around her ankle, then around the other one. She kicked her legs, tried to find out what it was. Then she was pulled to the right and then in direction of her feet. She wasn't sure if there were animals or twiners in that lake, but she doubted it. Sure a frog here and there and maybe some fish, but an animal that big? No way! This was not Loch Ness.

When a cold arm wrapped around her waist and she felt herself being pulled against a hard body she sighed in relieve and swallowed another swing of water.

"Would you stop kicking?" she heard Luke yelling when he pulled her out and she gasped for air in response. He let go of her foot and pressed her against him, treating the water with his legs to keep them both up. She flung herself against him when she saw his face and clung to his shoulders. She coughed and spit out water over his shoulder.

"Lorelai let go of me", he told her, sounding agitated and maybe a bit scared. She just tightened her grip on him, afraid he would let her drown for real this time.

"Lorelai we will both go under the water. I will bring you out but you have to let go of me", he said insistently and grabbed her face between his hands, making her look into his eyes. She started to cough again, some water hitting him right in the face, but she loosened her hold. She felt that he turned her around so her back was against his chest and slung his arms around her middle. Like that he swam with her and brought her to the bay of the lake. It wasn't far, but the lake didn't slowly go deeper, it was deep right at the bay.

Luke shoved her up the edge and she lay on her stomach, wet, coughing and now also covered in sand and grass while her toes where still dipping into the cold water. She didn't even have the energy to roll onto her back. Luke pushed himself up and got out of the lake as well, immediately hurrying to her side. He turned her coughing and spitting form on her back and cradled her body against his.

"You... stupid... idiot!" she pressed out between coughs and gasps for air and tried to slap his chest.

"How is that my fault?" he asked defensively, but the softened when he looked down and saw her red and wet face. She was slowly calming down, her breathing getting steadier. "You're ok?" he asked and gave her arms a squeeze.

"Yeah", she nodded, the anger had vanished and embarrassment had taken its place. She wiped the water out of her eyes and her face and sat up slowly and moved to the ground when she realized in what position she was. She was lying sideways in Luke's lap, her shoulder pressed against his wet chest, her right thigh against his thighs and stomach. It was nice somehow, but embarrassing as well. She covered her eyes with her hands and sighed.

"You're sure?" Luke asked and tried to catch her eyes, but she lowered her head and didn't take her hands off.

"Yeah, I'm fine", she assured him and uncovered her eyes. "You just scared me", she said and gave him a fake smile, an attempt to make him believe that he had just surprised her and she could swim. Yet Luke could not be fooled.

"I didn't know you couldn't swim", he said and sounded surprised.

"Yeah, well..." she shrugged and stared on the ground again.

"Why don't you know how to swim?" he questioned and still looked surprised.

"Luke, it doesn't really matter, I..." she started to avoid his question. She just wanted to get out of this embarrassing situation, go home, hide in her hot house and forget this had ever happened. She might have to avoid Luke for a while, but hey, he hadn't been talking to her for weeks now, so a week more or less wouldn't matter anymore, right?

"Hey, you spit me right in the face. You owe me an answer", he said with a smile and actually made her laugh. It was followed by a coughing fit, but it eased the tension a bit.

"Always wanted to do that", she grinned when she stopped coughing, but then turned serious again. "I don't know. I guess nobody ever taught me", she shrugged when she answered his question.

"You have to learn it", he stated.

"I know. But how embarrassing is it to go to the public pool and learn how to swim with some seven year olds?" she huffed.

"I can teach you", Luke said after a second during which he seemed to think about it.

"What?" she gasped.

" I can teach you how to swim", he repeated.

"But Luke you have the diner and..." she started but again he interrupted her.

"Otherwise I will keep you on a leash in the diner for the rest your life so you can't go near a lake anymore", he threatened jokingly.

"Will you wear a lifeguard outfit like the guys on Baywatch?" she asked, accepting his offer with a smile. She took his hand when he helped her up, her mood changed now.

"Uhm... no", he grinned and shook his head. "You're going back home now?" he asked.

"Yeah. I am exhausted from my little adventure here", she said and gathered her things, realized that one towel was still in the lake, but she didn't care.

"It's better. And stay away from all waters that are deeper than your bathtub", Luke advised her.

"Oh believe me, I will", she agreed. When she slung her bag over her shoulder she realized for the first time that Luke was cap-less and wore only some shorts. Water was still dripping off his body and the reddish last sunbeams made him glistening in the light.

"Uh, I should go", she stuttered when she realized that she had been staring at him and walked off. She had just walked a few meters when she turned around.

"Hey Luke? " she called.

"Yah?"

"Thank you! You saved my life today", she told him sincerely.

"You're welcome", he just shrugged and rubbed his neck.

"You know that you're stuck with me now. You're my hero and swim instructor", she teased him and turned back around.

"God help me", he rolled his eyes and watched her walk away in her wet bikini, enjoying the look immensely. It wasn't bad at all when she walked away from him, he thought and went back in the lake to swim another round.

TBC