One

Summary: They don't realize that their lives are intricately linked, but after a fight they are forced to see each other with a whole new perspective

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Transcripts taken from Gilmore Girls Episode 4.4

A/N: Singing a Blondie song in my head as I write this chapter: One way or another, I'm gonna find ya, I'm gonna getcha getcha getcha getcha….

Thanks to the amazing Grizzly for betaing! Without her this story would still be an idea and nothing more

Prologue:

The stupid tickets for the Yankees game rubbed it in that he was alone again and had failed once again to keep a steady relationship with a woman.

That seemed to be his destiny. The women he dated never stayed for too long since he couldn't feel the same way about them as they felt about him and of course that didn't go unnoticed. Not by Rachel and not by Nicole.

The woman he wanted though, wanted so much that he would marry her in a flash without ever regretting it, never looked at him twice. He was her friend, her shoulder to cry on and the guy who fed her, nothing more and nothing less. He had never grown used to burying his feelings for her, but she didn't seem to notice.

Now he was even her personal answering machine, while she ran around and worked like crazy to build her own Inn. She had handed out his phone number and now everyone was calling him leaving messages for her. He wouldn't mind at all doing this if she were his wife, or girlfriend at least. But being only her friend, he had to complain about it even if only to not tip anyone off about his feelings for her.

Here she comes, he thought when she entered the diner and sat down on her chair by the counter. She even had her own chair.

"Hey, Luke. What's going on?" she asked and smiled happily at him. He decided to get his rant out of the way, so that his anger would be more believable.

"Oh, well. . .Tom called. The banister on the stairs has to be replaced. It'll be 4,000. Tamsin Cordally called. He needs a deposit on the quartersawn oak. It'll be 4,000. Julio the landscaper called. I have no idea what he said, but it's going to be 4,000. Vicki from Vicki's Horse Supply called. She thinks Pepper and Gunsmoke would suit your needs, but Gunsmoke snores, so the stables can't be too close to the guests' bedrooms. Rory's looking for her black Converse, and, oh, one last thing - I'm not taking messages for you anymore!" he barked at her, with an ironic undertone at the beginning of his rant. However she didn't seem to mind at all. If anything it just amused her, he could see it in her eyes.

"Sorry," she apologized, but without really meaning it, because she knew he wasn't really angry.

"What did you do, have business cards printed up?" he asked in annoyance.

"People just know I'm here a lot," she grinned. He went on about a missed call from his meat guy and she promised to tell people to stop calling her at the diner, which he knew she wouldn't, because in the next second she asked for a package delivery.

They were interrupted by Ed, who had come to pick up the cards for the Yankees game Luke had offered him and that made him really angry. It annoyed him that he would be alone again, with no one as a distraction from the woman he really wanted but would never have.

Of course Lorelai noticed his bad mood and called him on it, inviting him to a movie night at her house to make him feel better. And of course it worked. Luke caught himself wishing this was a date, but at the same time knew that it wasn't.

When Luke finally arrived for the movie night Lorelai was excited. It was nothing new for them to be spending time together, but they had never done anything that could be considered as a date- if he weren't married and she were to like him as more than a friend, which she didn't, she reassured herself.

"Ah, man bearing bags of food. Come in," she greeted him happily.

"I went a little overboard here," he replied as he followed her into the living-room, where he spotted the food she had ordered from Al's and started to complain about it. For the umpteenth time she explained the concept of leftovers to him and fetched them some beers, before she could finally explain the movie night rules to him.

"You can't squish during the movie because it's distracting. That's rule number one," she started and had to hide her smile when she saw Luke's confused face.

"There's rules?" he asked and made it clear that he once again thought she was crazy.

"Oh, yeah, especially for a true classic like Casablanca. It's not like we're watching a there's-nothing-else-on movie or a guilty pleasure like Hardbodies. Oh, my God. Have you seen Hardbodies?" she became sidetracked.

"I don't think so," he shook his head while he opened the containers with the burgers.

"Three middle-aged guys rent a beach house and they hire this young local stud to introduce them to cute girls, a.k.a. Hardbodies," she explained and looked at him expectantly.

"Let's see that," he shrugged.

"No, Luke, we're seeing "Casablanca"," she disagreed.

"Then let's see that," he shrugged again and really didn't care what movie they watched.

"Okay, the rest of the rules - no talking during the movie. No exceptions during a true classic. And minimize distraction. You know, no shifting around a lot, no phone calls, nothing. No going to the bathroom. If you go, you miss the movie 'cause we're not pausing the movie. That's the only way to get the flow of the thing, okay?" she asked.

"Fair enough," he agreed reluctantly.

"Okay. Here we go," she finally said and pushed the play-button to start the movie.

"What's that?" Luke asked after a second and pointed with his chin in the direction of the screen.

"Okay, um. . .A, um, no talking during the movie, and B, don't tell me you've never seen the FBI warning before?" Lorelai said shocked and amused at the same time. This was unbelievable!

"It's new to me."

"Oh, my God. You're beyond monk. You're uber-monk," she laughed, amused by this typical Luke ignorance.

"Just start it up. I won't talk again," he said and crossed his arms over his chest.

"Okay, just one more warning," she started with a teasing undertone in her voice, "when they showed the first motion picture over a hundred years ago, it featured a train rushing toward the camera, and, um, people were so sure the train was going to burst off the screen and crush them that they ran away in terror. Now, Luke, the train is not going to leave the screen," she informed him, just to tease him.

"Hit the button," Luke said sternly and she giggled and started the movie again.

They watched the movie in relative silence until Rory called, only disturbed once when Luke complained about her staring at him, watching him watch the movie. They bickered back and forth until the phone rang and Rory complained about her bad date.

Without even thinking about it for a second Lorelai told Luke what was wrong with Rory and her date. It didn't occur to her that he wouldn't be interested or that Rory would be embarrassed that he knew about her date. She just knew that Luke wanted to know and she was sure that it was just as normal for Rory to tell Luke things like that. Rory only said thanks when Lorelai called her back to tell her about Luke's idea about how to change sides of the table without making it too obvious that she was uncomfortable.

"I wouldn't trade places with her for the world," Luke said when she hung up the phone again.

"Really? You wouldn't want to go out with a boy named Trevor? You might want to wait and see his picture," she teased him.

"I mean dating. It's a horror," he explained.

"It's the only cure for the singleness thing, barring ordering a spouse off the internet," Lorelai replied.

"I missed nothing by not dating," Luke said and Lorelai looked surprised.

"Not true," she said.

"If I had dated a lot, I'd still be single. I'd just have spent a lot of bad nights at Tony Roma's," he disagreed.

"Yeah, but dating is how you get to know your potential partner. It's the only way," Lorelai said sounding just a tad sad, which didn't go unnoticed by Luke.

"There's the gut. I can tell if I'm comfortable with someone within seconds of meeting them. I feel it here. I felt it with Rachel. I felt it with Nicole. I was immediately relaxed," he said and relaxed against the back of the couch, making it obvious without saying it that he was really comfortable with Lorelai as well.

"You've got the gut thing," she nodded and noticed how relaxed he looked.

"Well, it's just knowing that someone will let you be. That's a gut thing," he said and fast forwarded the movie, which made her protest. However the rules hadn't been abided by tonight anyway so she got up and went into the kitchen. When the phone rang Luke didn't even think about it and just answered it, flinching when Emily Gilmore was on the other end. After another round of bickering, he sat down on the couch and watched Lorelai talk to her mother, waiting until they could continue the movie.

They started Hardbodies after Casablanca, but Luke fell asleep in the middle of the film. His head was resting against the back of the couch at a weird angle so Lorelai re-adjusted his position and covered him with a pink blanket.

She looked down at him, overcome by a sudden tenderness. Seeing this tall, burly man asleep on her couch touched her. He looked so peaceful while he lay there and she couldn't resist and touched his cheek with her hand, stroking over his stubble and brushing a strand of hair from his forehead before she pulled her hand away.

She crouched down next to the couch and stared at him. She couldn't bring herself to avert her eyes. She always knew that she felt a connection with him and cared about him, but it had never been more obvious to her than right at this moment. She stroked his cheek again and touched his lips with her thumb, smiling when he sighed in contentment.

Suddenly he opened his eyes and looked at her. Their eyes met in an instant and she couldn't look away. Her hand was still caressing his cheek and their faces were not more than an inch apart. They both felt the intense connection they shared and it felt like their hearts were beating in the same rhythm, their eyes communicating without words.

As she leaned in to kiss him, Lorelai suddenly felt scared of the intense feelings that seemed to flood her without a warning. She had never felt something like this before.

Luke's eyes were wide in anticipation. He had waited so long for this moment and tried to wake up faster. He pinched his own thigh to make sure he wasn't dreaming. She hadn't even kissed him yet and he already felt ecstatic, exhilarated, exited… he wasn't sure if a word existed for what he was feeling. He had never felt something like this before, not with Rachel and not with Nicole. Nicole! his brain suddenly screamed, he was still married!

Lorelai could see the sudden panic in his eyes and the blue turned a shade lighter. She couldn't think of anything else that would justify this feeling than that he didn't want to kiss her. What was she doing? She was molesting one of her best friends while he was sleeping.

With a gasp Lorelai pulled back, shocked by her own actions. What had come over her that she wanted to kiss Luke? Had she lost her mind? She couldn't be that sexually frustrated, otherwise she wouldn't have refused Digger's multiple invitations.

Jason was sending her flowers every day and she wouldn't go out on a date with him and Luke was just sleeping on her couch and she wanted to jump him. What was wrong with her? She was so angry at herself that she wanted to slap herself.

Lorelai's gasp was like a cold shower for Luke and he saw her pulling back before anger clouded her eyes. Why was she angry at him now?

"God, Lorelai," he yelled suddenly. He was angry at her for teasing him like this. Why was she doing this? Did she think that was funny? Couldn't she see that he had feelings for her? For years now she pretended to be oblivious to his feelings for. She was teasing him and flirting with him, but in the end she always dated other guys; that Max guy, the fisherman Alex, that stupid kid from her business-class and not to forget Christopher. Christopher, the name alone made his stomach clench painfully.

Lorelai's defense mechanism kicked in immediately and she yelled back at him "What?"

"What the hell are you doing?" he asked and got off the couch.

"I am not doing anything. What are you talking about?" she wanted to know and placed her hands on her hips. She couldn't let him hurt her now.

"What I am talking about? I wake up and you are nearly kissing me! I am married for god's sake," he said, also to remind himself again.

"Yeah, and what a great marriage it is!" she snorted and ignored his comment about the kiss.

"What?" he asked loudly.

"Getting married while you're drunk and as soon as you're sober again you're getting a divorce? That is not a marriage! You are not married! You are getting divorced!" she replied louder with every word.

"What do you know about marriage? If I remember correctly you bolted two days before the ceremony. So don't you dare to judge me or my marriage," he yelled.

"It wouldn't have worked with Max and me. I protected us both from making a big mistake!" she yelled back.

"Yeah, you're the right person talking about protection," he snorted angrily.

"What is that supposed to mean?" She was furious now. How dare he pass judgment on her because she hadn't married Max?

"I'm just saying that getting pregnant at sixteen doesn't say much about your knowledge about protection!" The moment the words left his mouth he knew that this was a low blow, but he couldn't stop himself. She had hurt him and now he had to hurt her, he couldn't help himself.

Lorelai felt like he had slapped her. She stared at him and couldn't believe that one of her best friends thought so little of her that he would throw the pregnancy in her face.

"Get out of my house," she hissed and closed her eyes for a second to hide the hurt reflected there. However Luke was too furious to notice anything. The hurt of her continued rejection ran too deep and he just had to get out of there.

"Gladly!" he said in a dangerously low voice, stomped out of the house and slammed the door shut behind him.

Lorelai couldn't believe what had just happened. Pain spread through her chest and made her gasp for air. They weren't a couple, had never been one and yet this was more painful than any breakup she'd had to endure in her life. It felt like he had taken a part of her with him, had ripped it right out of her and left her behind without looking back.

Why did Luke think so badly of her? Luke, of all people…

She couldn't understand what had just happened, so she trudged up the stairs and not even bothering to switch off the TV. She lay down on her bed but couldn't even cry. It hurt too badly to cry and she had to concentrate on breathing. After a while she fell into a deep sleep, the hurt draining all of her energy away.

Like a badly injured person she needed to sleep, only sleep.

However hurt wasn't the only thing Luke had left behind.

TBC