A/N: I once again want to thank all of you who are reading and reviewing this story. And special thanks to David for his help with this story!

Chapter 6 – A sign

Even though Lorelai told herself she didn't want to rush anything, she didn't want to waste anymore time with Luke. She put on her coat but when she opened the door, she saw it was raining. From what she remembered the weather was beautiful all day long, but now the rain was pouring down the sky. As if that wasn't enough, she heard a thunder far away. She took this as a sign. Maybe it was wrong after all. Maybe it was already too late. She shook her head while she threw her coat on the couch and climbed the stairs once again. But when she entered her bedroom she saw the shoe box still on her bed. With a small smile she opened the box and took the boots out. She kicked her sneakers off, and put on the boots. They felt horrible and when she looked in the mirror she couldn't remember why she ever thought they were cute. But when she heard another thunder clap and heard how hard the rain hit against her window, she realized that's the thing about rubber boots - they look awful but come in very handy.

Back downstairs she put on her coat and grabbed her purse. She didn't bother to lock the door behind her as she ran towards her jeep. She put the keys into the ignition, but the car wouldn't start. It was as if everything was working against her, but she didn't let it bother her anymore. She was too determined to talk to Luke so she got out of the car and ran all the way to the diner, with the boots splashing in the rain.

Lorelai reached for the key above the diner door, and was happy to find it there. She entered the diner with the bells ringing above her head. The place was empty, but she heard voices upstairs so she knew Luke was still awake. She climbed the stairs and knocked on his apartment door.

-xxxxxx-

Luke looked at April. "Just a sec. I believe there's someone at the door."

"How, the diner is closed isn't it? Plus, it's storming outside. They would be crazy to go out in this weather."

He nodded, thinking that maybe he heard wrong. But when he heard another knock, he knew it had to be Lorelai. She was the only one who knew where he hid the key, and she'd be the only one crazy enough to go out in this weather. He opened the door and saw Lorelai standing on the other side. She was completely soaked. He took in her appearance and had to smile when he saw the yellow boots on her feet.

"You have to be crazy to go out in this weather."

He stepped aside to let her in. Then he closed the door behind her and went to find her a towel and some dry clothes.

Lorelai shivered as she entered the apartment. She looked around and saw that the place still looked the same, except from the young girl sitting on his couch. "Hey April."

"Hey Lorelai."

An uncomfortable silence followed, but was soon broken by Luke. He put a dry towel around Lorelai. "Here, I hope that'll warm you up a little. You can always take a shower though. I put some clean clothes in the bathroom."

"Thanks." She looked at him gratefully. "I didn't realize April was here. Maybe I should come back another time."

"Are you crazy? You're not going out in this weather again."

She nodded. "Thanks."

He gave her a smile. "Why don't you put on the dry clothes and then you can officially meet April."

"I've already met her. I even helped to throw her a birthday party, remember?"

"I do. But that was different."

She nodded. "Thanks."

Then she walked into the bathroom. She decided to take a quick shower and came out wearing one of Luke's flannel shirts and a pair of sweat pants about 15 minutes later. She stood silently for a moment, as she watched Luke and April watching TV together. With a smile she announced her presence. "Feels much better. Thanks for loaning me some clothes."

"My shirts look much better on you than they do on me anyway."

April had to laugh at that.

Luke patted on the couch, indicating for Lorelai to sit down next to them.

"What are you watching?"

"We're watching 'Never Been Kissed'," April told Lorelai.

"Oh, I love that movie!"

"It's almost over. This is the part where Josie is telling everybody that's she's not a 17 year old high school student, but a 25 year old reporter."

"I love the part after this."

"Me too."

Luke looked at the girls, not knowing what was coming next. "Why are we watching this if you've already seen the movie?"

April laughed at this. "Because no matter how many times you watch this movie, it stays exciting. But I guess you wouldn't understand."

"He never does. Rory and I watch movies over and over again all the time. I don't even remember how many times I've seen Willy Wonka."

"Oh, that's one of my favorites. My mom bought it for me when I was four years old. I've seen it a thousand times at least!"

"Me too." Lorelai smiled at how much she already seemed to have in common with April. She anxiously watched Luke, hoping he wouldn't mind that April seemed to like her so much. But the look on his face was only proud. That made her feel more at ease.

"Oh, now the clock is set at five minutes."

They looked at Josie standing on the pitcher's mound surrounded by thousands of people, all waiting for Sam to show up. Silently the seconds ticked away as the clock went to zero.

"I can't believe the guy is so stupid not to show up." Luke stated. "I know she hurt him, but isn't it obvious how right she is for him?"

Lorelai smiled as suddenly everybody started to cheer on the TV and they saw how Sam was running on the field and kissed Josie for the very first time in her life. "Looks like he made it after all." She looked at Luke and hoped he understood how she could somehow relate to Josie.

"Yeah." He nodded. When the movie was over Luke took out the DVD.

"Hey April, how about you go to bed, and Lorelai and I go downstairs to talk? Are you okay with that or are you afraid to be by yourself because of the thunderstorm?"

"I haven't been scared of thunderstorms since I was five Luke. After that I found out where they come from and I actually think they're cool. I'm a big girl, plus, you're right downstairs if I need anything. Take all the time you need."

"Good." He kissed his daughter on her forehead. "Goodnight April."

"Goodnight dad. Goodnight Lorelai."

"Goodnight kid." She smiled at Luke when she heard April call him dad. She walked downstairs and sat down at one of the stools, while Luke started making coffee. "When did that happen?"

"When did what happen?"

"When did she started calling you dad?"

"The first time she called me her dad was when I was chaperoning her school trip, as in 'that's my dad'. But wasn't until about a month ago when she accidentally called me dad for the first time. She said she was sorry and didn't mean to say it, but I told her I liked it and now she calls me dad all the time."

"It sounds good." Lorelai smiled at him.

"Yeah it does." He smiled back. They stared at each other in silence for a few minutes. When the coffee was ready Luke filled a cup and placed it in front of Lorelai. Then he took a seat next to her. "I'm glad you came here, although you could have waited until tomorrow. I'm sure the weather would have cleared up by then."

"I couldn't wait anymore. First I thought the weather was a sign. That I wasn't supposed to come here. But then I went upstairs to my room and saw the shoe box on my bed and I realized it was exactly what was supposed to happen."

"Good thing I brought them over then."

"Definitely." She smiled slightly. "I've thought about what you've said, and I think I was afraid to forgive you at first, but now I know that I'm ready. I forgive you Luke, for everything. And I think that one day, I might even be able to forgive myself."

He took her hand in his. "We've both made mistakes. And we have to learn to live with them."

She nodded. "We do. I know that we have a lot to work out, but I believe we can."

"Me too. I'm sorry for everything I did to you Lorelai. For the way I hurt you all those months. I'd do anything to take it back."

"Me too. But we can't. I guess we have to learn from the mistakes we made. Rory says that we're both too independent and that it wouldn't have worked out if we'd rushed into marriage."

"But I'm ready to marry you now. I'll drive to Maryland with you tomorrow if you still want me to."

She shook her head. "No, I don't."

"Oh." He sounded sad.

Looking directly into his eyes she said "I tried on my wedding dress this evening. And for the first time I was able to look past it, past the feeling of wearing it and really see it. And the more I looked at it, the more things I started to see that were wrong."

"But it's perfect. You look beautiful in that dress."

"No. I thought it was perfect. I thought I planned the perfect wedding in one day, but I was wrong Luke. I've never been more wrong in my life. I've thought about what I want. I want to plan every detail with you. It's our wedding and I want it to be exactly the way we want it to be. Not just me. I want to get marry at a place we both pick. I want to eat the wedding cake we both think tastes the best. I want to decide every little detail with you, and our daughters. That's all I really want Luke."

"What about Sookie?"

"She might be a little hurt that I want to plan the wedding with you instead of with her. But as the BFOTB she'll understand. Plus, she is the one that's supposed to help me find the perfect dress. And this time you won't be allowed to see it until the wedding. You were right, it is bad luck if the groom sees the dress before the wedding."

Luke smiled and reached into his pocket. He took out the ring he put in there when he went to Lorelai earlier that day. He liked how it felt in his hands. Without saying anything he stood up, and pulled Lorelai with him. He made sure she was standing in front of him when he kneeled down on one knee.

"What are you doing?"

"Will you just shut up." Luke smiled as he took her left hand in his. He looked her directly in the eyes as he said "Marry me Lorelai."

She broke the gaze and looked away as her eyes filled with tears. "We can't rush into this again Luke. We did that last time and look how that turned out."

He stood up and took her hands in his. "I don't want us to rush into anything. I just want to know that you still want to marry me. I want this ring back on your finger where it belongs. I know that we have a lot to work out, and we will. I just need to know that you'll still have me. That you're willing to spend the rest of your life with me, because I want to spend the rest of my life with you. All of it."

She pulled her hands away from him, as she sat down on one of the stools. "We have to talk about this Luke."

"I know. I just thought you still want us, because you came here tonight. Plus, we were just talking about how we want our wedding to be. How is there ever going to be a wedding if we're not engaged?"

"I want us Luke. I want us to get married. I just need to talk first. I need to know for sure that when I get back into this, that you don't want out again."

"I don't. I want to be with you Lorelai."

"You've said that before. We've said it before."

"I know. But a lot changed. We know what we did wrong now, we know where our problems are so all we have to do is solve them."

"You make it sound like it's easy. It's not Luke. We make promises to each other over and over again, but we never seem to keep any. I can't do that anymore."

"I understand. I know now how much I hurt you Lorelai. I understand that you can't trust me. But I want to work it out. I want us to be honest with each other."

She nodded. "Me too. But it's not as simple as we thought it was. I think we've proved that by now."

"I know, and you're right. But I want to work this out. And I know that we both have to learn a lot of things. But I know that we can do it."

"We have to tell each other everything. It's not going to work if we don't do that."

"I want to tell you everything."

"Good. I want to tell you everything too."

He smiled. "We're going to work this out. I know we will."

"So we talked about being honest with each other. And I know it won't be easy, but I guess it's something we just need to learn. But Luke, there's so much else. What about April?"

"You were right when you said that we have to find a way to fit her in our life. We have to get her a room at our house so she can stay over whenever she wants. She comes to the diner a few days a week, but we haven't worked out a schedule. We can if you want to."

"I don't worry about fitting April in our life. It's Anna I'm worried about. She doesn't want her near me, Luke. And she has every right to say that."

"No she hasn't. You and I are getting married. You're going to be my wife and April's step mom. And it doesn't matter that we're not married yet, because we are getting married. Anna has to learn that she's not April's only parent anymore. She doesn't get to decide who she wants April to be with and who not. I have something to say about that too. And I've known you for 10 years. We've been together for 2 years and we're going to get married. I trust you more than anyone else in this world and more than everything I trust you with my daughter. And when I drop April of at Anna's tomorrow, I'm going to tell her that. And if she wants to play hard, I'll take her to court or something."

Lorelai smiled. "She really means a lot to you."

"She does. And so do you Lorelai."

"You mean a lot to me too."

Luke smiled and kneeled down in front of Lorelai once again. "Will you marry me, Lorelai Gilmore?"

She nodded as her eyes filled with tears once again. "More than anything."

He slipped the ring on her finger and then stood up so he could kiss her. He captured her lips with his as he pressed his body against hers. And when their lips connected he knew. The past didn't matter anymore. They both made mistakes and by realizing what they did wrong, they learned to forgive each other and to learn from it. And they both knew that things wouldn't always be easy in the future, but they learned that no matter what, they belonged together and they could work it all out.

"Yes!"

Luke and Lorelai pulled apart when they heard April's voice. They turned to face the girl. "What are you doing out of bed?" Luke was the first to speak.

"I was wondering what was taking you so long. I was afraid that you were going to fight again and I just wanted to make sure that you didn't."

Lorelai smiled. "I'm done fighting with your dad."

"Good."

"Come on, let's all go upstairs."

The three of them went upstairs where April sat down on Luke's bed.

"So you guys worked it out? The engagement is back on?"

Luke nodded. "Yeah."

"YES!"

She yelled even louder than the first time. "I knew that you were right for each other. And I knew you could work it out if you just tried to understand the other. I knew it! I'm so glad I found the boots in the bottom of your closet. And I'm glad I went to Lane because that video helped, right? I'm just so happy you are okay!"

Lorelai smiled. "I'm glad you're searching through your dad's stuff. Although you better be careful, he doesn't like it when you do that."

"Tell me about it. He yelled at me when I first did it, but it all turned out okay. So I think he forgave me." She looked at her father.

"For now. But April, you have to learn that you can't go through my stuff. If you want to know something you just have to come to me and ask."

"Yeah right. You nearly killed everybody who asked you about Lorelai."

He shook his head. "Let's make a deal okay. From now on you just ask if you want to know something. Then, if I think there's something I want you to see, I'll show it to you myself."

April nodded. "Okay."

"Good. And now I think it's time for you to go to bed. Do you mind if Lorelai stays here tonight, because it's still storming outside."

"Of course not, although she does have rain boots."

They all smiled. "Yeah I do. And I'm glad I had them today because they came in very handy. But honestly, they're not as pretty as I thought they were so I don't plan on wearing them too often." She turned to look at Luke. "Don't say I told you so, because I know, okay? You were right back then."

"I wasn't planning on saying that. Because for once in my life, I'm happy that you were stubborn back then and convinced me to order those boots. Because honestly, I don't know where we'd be right now if I didn't have them."

All Lorelai could do was kiss him. "I love you Luke."

"I love you too."

And all April did was smile.

The End!