Quiet. It was quiet, too quiet. Lorelai Gilmore had just returned home after yet another long day at her parents'. As the days following his release from the hospital turned into weeks, she became more and more confident that her father had weathered the worst of the assault on his health. Seeing her dad, twice now in just a few short years, so pale and so very, very small in a hospital bed had taken its toll on her. Running her business and helping her father made her tired, but since she was newly single, with no obligations at home, Lorelai felt buoyant...not happy, but not unhappy either--rather like a giant weight had been lifted off her shoulders.

And just like that, ole' Jiminy Cricket popped up on her shoulder and whispered that surely, a certain diner owner was definitely part of her feeling this way. But Lorelai quickly quashed that thought, sadness washing over her. 'Oh no you don't, Miss Lorelai,' the Jiminy on her shoulder chimed in, i''you buttered your bread. Now sleep in it!'/i'

Disgusted with both Jiminy and herself, Lorelai tossed her coat onto the couch and sank down into it. It was true: Luke had been such a godsend at the hospital, helping Emily Gilmore of all people, while Lorelai's own husband was nowhere to be found. And now there were consequences for everything that she'd done since she'd run off to have not-even-great-sex with Christopher back almost a year before...

Yes, it was strange to have quiet in her home again. Lorelai looked around her noiseless home; even Paul Anka was silent. His baleful gaze seemed to mock her from his perch on his new doggy bed. She stared at Paul Anka, and lost the contest. Pathetic, she decided, losing a stare-down with a hyperactive and neurotic dog.

And it was still quiet; even Jiminy had exited.

Lorelai was familiar with noise; Lorelai was comfortable with noise. Noise had always filled her life, especially during the good times. Joyous noises, sad noises, it didn't matter to her: noise meant life going on around her. Noise meant not being alone. Her heart and soul were so finely attuned to noise, that she could actually hear even the snow falling in a world where everyone else heard only silence. It was safe for even Paul Anka to conclude that in Lorelai's world, the absence of noise was generally not good.

The beauty of noise was that it came in so many forms: everyday noises and special noises (dirty!) and obnoxious noises that hurt the ears...and then there was that special silence that was almost a noise unto itself: that special silence that she rarely heard. That silence that now filled her universe. In fact, it seemed to Lorelai at that very moment that no louder silence had ever existed in this world.

Well, something had to be done about that! She sighed in frustration, causing Paul Anka to give up watching her and turn his head to study his front right paw.

Yes, this was definitely the kind of silence that begged for interruption. Just like several weeks ago, when she awoke after a restless night to face the discomfort of a silent morning. But then Luke called her, so early in the morning, exuberant and doing the Luke-equivalent of a babble. His excitement at winning partial custody was palpable. He was back to being the Luke she...

Coffee. That was what she needed. The good kind, with a dose of the clamor and the clangor of the town to break the quiet.

Up popped Jiminy Cricket again. No way could she venture to the diner, he reminded her.

But Luke loved the letter she wrote, and it did get the job done...and he had been the one to approach her for it--he could have, after all, Lorelai rationalized, have his lawyer make the request...

'Well,' said Jiminy,i'When your heart is in your dream, no request is too extreme.'/i

"I wonder," Lorelai said aloud just to break the noise, "what Luke would think if he read my original letter."

Lorelai wandered upstairs into her bedroom, and reaching down between the mattress and the box spring, pulled out the original yellow legal pad she'd used to compose Luke's custody reference.

'Hey,' she realized, 'I don't have to hi--keep this here anymore!'

She sank down into the pillows and took a deep breath.

'To whom it may concern,' she silently read to herself.

Crickets. Way too quiet.

Lorelai cleared her throat.

"To whom it may concern," she read aloud in a stentorian tone. "In the nearly 10 years that I have known Luke Danes, I have come to know him as an honest and decent man. He's also one of the most kind and caring persons I have ever met."

Tears were welling in Lorelai's eyes, just as they had while she was writing the letter.

"I'm a single mother, and I raised my daughter by myself, because my kid's dad was simply not interested in being a part of her life. He only recently (after she was almost done with high school) came back into her life. But in spite of that, once Luke Danes became my friend in this town, I never really felt alone."

'Except for now,' she thought, before continuing.

But Jiminy Cricket was back. 'No need to be so blue, doll,' he squeaked. 'A gal I once knew said to always let your conscience be your guide. Think about it, doll. Ya really alone?'

Well, Luke had said he would go back to being the guy who pours her coffee...

She returned her attention to the letter.

"Luke and I have had our ups and downs over the years, but through it all, his relationship with my daughter, Rory, has never changed. He's always been there for her no matter what. He was there to celebrate her birthdays. He made sure she had cake and balloons, and even brought ice when no one else remembered. He was there cheering her on at her high school graduation, even when her father was too busy to attend. In fact, Luke has been a sort of father figure in my daughter's life. He was also instrumental in helping his nephew, Jess Mariano, when Jess's parents were unable to cope with him. His love and guidance, though tough, enabled Jess to make it to adulthood and become a published author. However, with his own daughter, Luke wasn't given the opportunity to be there for her first 12 years, but he should be given that opportunity now. Once Luke Danes is in your life, he is in your life forever."

'Was that really true?' she wondered. Luke Danes had been in her body, her life, her soul, was he really there forever?

'Let your conscience be your guide! Let your conscience be your guide!' squeaked Jiminy, switching shoulders.

Lorelai shrugged Jiminy off her shoulder and continued. "Luke has shown himself to be an outstanding father, focused on that aspect of his being. I know from personal experience that he will set aside all personal happiness in order to focus on the welfare of his child. I also know from personal experience what an amazing gift that is, to be the object of his focus, and not to allow him access to his daughter would be to seriously deprive her of all this man has to offer, and he offers so much."

'It's a good thing I took some of that out of the final copy,' Lorelai thought.

'A fine conscience I turned out to be!' Jiminy continued.

"Shut up..." Lorelai was now seriously irritated.

"Luke Danes and his daughter should not be deprived of a parent-child relationship. As a mother, I have only briefly suffered through a separation from my kid. I cannot imagine what it would be like to have that happen forever. It would be an injustice to deny his daughter the experience of having Luke as a father. Thank you for your time. Sincerely, Lorelai Gilmore."

Suddenly, Lorelai remembered all the food Luke had brought the family when her father was in the hospital. "His daughter won't ever starve," she giggled, addressing Paul Anka. "And the coffee Sookie brought over that time she bribed me to babysit sure was delicious!" She exchanged her special "come over here, boy" signal with Paul Anka, and he obliged. As she ruffled through his fur, she added, "I should really show him what I wanted to write..."

The damn cricket piped up again. 'Let your conscience be your guide! Let your conscience be your guide!'

Paul Anka chose that moment to bark in agreement.