Disclaimer: Gilmore Girls, its characters and situations, are the 
intellectual property of Amy Sherman-Palladino, Dorothy Park Drank 
Here Productions, etc. This particular story belongs to me.

Archive statement: Mystic's archive, okay. Others, no. Please do not 
archive this story without my permission.

Summary: Lorelai's wedding day does not go as planned. Spoilers 
for "Love, Troubadours and Daisies." 

On The House
by Megan Reilly
eponine119@worldnet.att.net
August 7, 2001

It was going to be the wedding of the century, and Luke had no desire 
to attend.

The entire town, it seemed, had been drawn into the planning. The 
flower shop was cleaned out. Miss Patty, drawing on her theatrical 
expertise, made the dresses. Sookie St. James, the maid of honor, was 
doing the catering for the reception. And the whole damn thing filled 
the town square like another one of so many festivals.

"You coming, Luke?" Taylor Doese stopped in the doorway to ask 
breathlessly. Businesses were closing early for the late-afternoon 
affair. That, thought Luke, was a sign things had gotten out of hand.

"I'll be there," Luke said, raising a hand that ushered Taylor out 
the door. There was no one else in the diner, but if he looked out 
through the curtains, he could see the mad rush of activity just 
outside.

Luke knew he should go upstairs, change into some nicer clothes (or 
maybe just a clean flannel shirt), and go join the crowd. If he was 
any kind of friend at all, that's exactly what he would do.

The problem was, of course, that he didn't want to be Lorelai's 
friend. If he reached way down deep inside, he could admit -- if only 
to himself -- that he wanted to be the guy in the monkey suit out 
there today. 

He reached for the coffee pot and filled one of the oversized ceramic 
mugs clustered nearby. Luke took a deep breath, smelling the roasted 
grounds, and took a sip of the strong, scalding coffee.

"I saw that!" The teasing accusation came from the vicinity of the 
door.

Luke jumped, because he thought he was alone. When he raised his 
eyes, he almost choked on the coffee. "Would you look at that," he 
said softly.

Lorelai Gilmore, soon to be Medina, stood in his doorway, with the 
light streaming through the window behind her highlighting the shine 
in her hair, looking more beautiful than he'd ever seen her. Her eyes 
sparkled and she was smiling at him. Luke knew he was staring, but he 
couldn't look away. Lorelai knew it, and did a half-twirl in her long 
white wedding gown, her grin widening by the time she faced him again.

"I never was one for fancy dresses ..." she began.

"You look beautiful," Luke said swiftly.

"Thank you," Lorelai said sincerely, dropping her wide grin as she 
crossed the diner to straddle one of the stools at the counter.

"What are you doing?" Luke demanded. "Shouldn't you be out there?"

Lorelai glanced over her shoulder. "I lost control of this day a long 
time ago. My mother is out there, acting as drill sergeant. I 
couldn't take it anymore."

"Understandable," Luke agreed.

"And I caught you drinking coffee!" Lorelai's smile was back as she 
pointed a finger at him.

"Yeah, but not seven cups of it," Luke defended himself.

"Can I have some of that?" Lorelai asked.

Luke grimaced and rolled his eyes, but they both knew he was going to 
give it to her. He poured the coffee with a flourish and slid it 
across the counter to her, in anticipation of what he knew would 
happen next. Lorelai drank and then she sighed the most contented 
sigh he'd ever heard.

"Where's Rory?" Luke asked.

"Playing peacemaker, god bless her," Lorelai replied.

"And your, uh, the, um..."

"Max?" Lorelai nailed him with her gaze. "Probably off doing his own 
getting-ready coffee ritual." She continued to look at Luke, her 
expression growing serious. "You weren't coming to the wedding."

"No, I was just gonna go upstairs and..." Except he couldn't lie to 
her. "No," he admitted guiltily.

"Why not?"

Luke looked down into the cup he'd picked up again. "Damn good 
coffee," he said.

"Luke," Lorelai said.

"It's not my place."

"This is Stars Hollow, it will always be your place, Luke."

"What do you want me to say, Lorelai?" Luke bristled, feeling 
trapped. She was marrying someone else, some slick teacher from the 
city. In a few hours it would be done, she would be someone else's 
wife, and he wouldn't have this problem anymore. It was as good as 
done now, so it would be wrong for him to say anything about his 
feelings to her.

"I don't know, Luke!" Lorelai cried. "It's been weird with us ever 
since this thing with Max happened. If you think I'm making a 
mistake, then as my friend, I think you should tell me."

"Why would I think you're making a mistake?" Luke asked. Then he 
looked at her, sitting there with her hands wrapped around a cup of 
coffee while everyone else was out preparing for one of the most 
important days in her life, and he knew why she was there. "Unless 
you think you're making a mistake."

"Why would I think I'm making a mistake?" Lorelai asked, but her eyes 
went wide, and Luke knew he was right.

"You're the one sitting here drinking coffee," he pointed out. His 
stomach hurt, and not because he was unaccustomed to drinking java. 
He knew he was right, and she thought she was making a mistake, which 
meant she'd come here for him to talk her out of it. But how could he 
talk her out of it? It wouldn't be right.

"That's because I love coffee," Lorelai said. "And you make the most 
amazing coffee there is."

"Thanks for the compliment, but I think there's more to it than 
that," Luke pointed out, leaning against the counter.

"Like, if I love coffee so much, why don't I marry it?" Lorelai asked.

"Something like that, yeah," Luke replied.

"You know," Lorelai said, "Some people think you have feelings for 
me."

"That makes me a pretty bad guy to come to if you're looking for 
someone to talk you out of getting married," Luke said gently.

"I think it makes you the perfect guy," she said.

"Lorelai, I can't do this," Luke told her. "This is your day. It's 
your life. You're the one who needs to make the decision."

"I made the decision, months ago," Lorelai said. "I just don't know 
if it was the right one."

Luke stood on the other side of the counter, wishing he could help 
her, but there was no way that he could. So he picked up her empty 
coffee cup and refilled it. Lorelai shot him a grateful smile and 
drank it. The amount of coffee consumed by that woman astounded him.

They were still there in silence when the little bell over the door 
rang some time later. "There you are!" Rory said, exasperated. "I've 
been looking everywhere for you." She glanced at Luke. "Hi, Luke."

"Hi, Rory," Luke said.

"Look at you," Lorelai beamed at her daughter. "You're beautiful."

"I think the flowers were a bit much," Rory replied, indicating the 
tiny buds woven through her pinned-up hair.

"They're perfect," Lorelai smiled. "Did Emily kill anyone yet?"

"No, but Kirk got into it with Grandpa," Rory reported.

"And I missed it?" Lorelai said. She got up from her seat and put her 
arm around her daughter. Ready to leave. Luke's heart ached, but he 
was frozen, motionless and unable to act, because whatever he did 
would be the wrong thing. At the last second, Lorelai turned back to 
him and touched his hand. "Thank you, Luke," she said.

"On the house," he replied, even though he knew she meant the advice 
and not the coffee. He watched the women leave, and then sighed. The 
loneliness in the empty diner was something he could feel 
reverberating up at him from the tile floor. He knew he should go 
upstairs and put on some fresh clothes and go watch his dear friend 
get married.

But he poured himself another cup of joe and leaned against the back 
counter. From there, he could see the activity in the town square too 
clearly through the window, so he pulled the broom out of the corner 
and started sweeping up, his eyes fixed on the floor. After the 
broom, he moved on to the heavy duty cleaning supplies. 

Some time later, the door opened again. Luke looked up from where he 
was rearranging the back counter, and died a little inside when he 
saw Max Medina, looking like James Bond in his tuxedo. Luke wondered 
why Medina would be there, instead of at the reception. It crossed 
his mind that the other man had come to punch him out, but there was 
no reason -- Medina had Lorelai, after all.

"You're an honorable man," Medina said.

"Thanks, "Luke replied, still wondering what this was about. "So it's 
done," he said to fill the silence.

"It's done," Medina confirmed. He didn't say anything else, just 
stood there, prolonging the awkwardness.

Luke would be damned before he'd congratulate Max Medina, so he said 
the only thing he could. "You want some coffee?"

"That'd be great," Medina said, sitting down at the same stool 
Lorelai had taken earlier in the afternoon. He put his head down. He 
didn't look like a man who'd just been married. Luke would have been 
happier if he'd just been wed. He filled one of the huge mugs and put 
it on the counter.

When Max Medina picked it up, Luke noticed that he wore no ring. The 
observation sliced through him, followed immediately by the reasons 
he was sure he was wrong. Not all men wore wedding rings.

Medina looked up, meeting Luke's stare. "You didn't know," he said, 
surprised.

"Know what?" Luke said carefully.

"Lorelai called it off," Max Medina said.

"The wedding?" Luke asked incredulously, and Max nodded. "I'm sorry," 
Luke said.

The other man smiled a wry smile. "That's the thing. You have nothing 
to be sorry about." He sounded disappointed, and Luke realized Max 
had wanted to have a reason to punch his lights out, but couldn't 
bring himself to do it. He knew as well as Luke did that Lorelai made 
up her own mind. Luke glanced at the door, out at the planned 
festivities being broken down in the twilight. "Go on," Max said.

It took everything Luke had not to run.

Lorelai was still in her beautiful dress, sitting on a bench in the 
town square. She was crying. He sat down next to her. She looked at 
him and tried to wipe the tears away. "Why're you crying?" he asked.

"God, Luke, it was awful. Everyone looking at me like I was some 
flighty airhead who'd just changed her mind on a whim, or who did all 
this for a fun game," Lorelai said.

"No one thinks that," Luke told her.

"My mother thinks that," Lorelai said. "She fainted. She's been 
inconsolable. It...it was scary, Luke."

"Forget about everyone else. What about you?" he asked directly.

"I'm okay," Lorelai said, and started crying again. "I just couldn't 
do it," she said.

"I know," Luke said, wishing he could do something to make her feel 
better.

"And now Max hates me and my parents really hate me and Rory's mad at 
me..."

"They just want you to be happy," Luke said. Lorelai started sobbing, 
and he felt guilty that he'd made it worse. "Come on now, don't do 
that," he said.

"And I can't go home because my mother's there having a nervous 
breakdown and I can't even go have coffee because the guy I just 
jilted is in your diner!" Lorelai wailed.

"It's gonna be okay," Luke said, and pulled her head against his 
shoulder, stroking her hair. He hated to see her cry like this, and 
feel so helpless to stop it. He looked around, trying to see Rory, 
but she wasn't there. She was no doubt with her grandmother, like 
Lorelai said. So he held her and she cried.

"I'm sorry," she said a little bit later, raising her head and wiping 
her eyes. "God, I've said 'I'm sorry' a thousand times today, making 
it a million times in my life, and it still isn't enough."

"You've got nothing to apologize for," Luke said soothingly.

Lorelai looked at him like he was crazy. "You're too good to be 
true," she said, pointing her finger at him.

Luke raised his eyebrows and shrugged. "Me? I'm just sitting here." 
Lorelai laughed at that, a choking laugh-through-tears sort of 
sound. "That's more like it," he said.

"You're such a good friend," Lorelai said, then pushed herself up 
from the bench, leaving Luke to wonder just what the hell she meant 
by that. "Guess I'd better get home."

"Your mother will be fine. Everything will be fine," Luke promised.

"It won't be fine, but it'll work out," Lorelai said, and started 
determinedly across the square, like a soldier marching off to war. 
Luke watched her go, then headed back into the diner where Max Medina 
was staring morosely into his coffee cup to avoid seeing Lorelai with 
another man, just as Luke had done hours before.

Max got to his feet when he saw Luke. "How much do I owe you?" he 
asked.

"On the house," Luke said.

Max paused, like he was going to insist on paying, then put his 
wallet away. "She's a special lady," Max said.

"That she is," Luke agreed. Max nodded once again and left. After a 
moment, Luke went to the door and turned it so the "Closed" sign 
faced out, then locked up. 

End.

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