OS Her Bit

A/N: Set during the timeframe of episode 5.06, Norman Mailer, I'm Pregnant!

Her smile reached megawatt levels as she watched Luke working on her oven. Wanting to share the joy, Lorelai pressed the speed dial for Rory's cell. "So how are you? Do you want a laugh?"

"Oh, laughing would be good." Rory stared at the NY Times article that she didn't get the opportunity to write because she'd been traveling with her grandmother rather than looking for an internship.

"Luke did the funniest bit before, I thought you would so be – "

"Would you stop?" Luke growled. "I did not do a bit."

"What are you talking about? The bit! It was a riot."

"It wasn't a bit! I banged my head on the stove and it hurt like hell."

"No, no, you said it funnier before. Do it again!"

"I told you, I never did it in the first place. You did it, it's your bit."

"How could it be my bit when it's your head in the oven?"

"Exactly. My head, my conk, no bit."

Lorelai glowed as she watched Luke and encouraged Rory as she settled into her second year at Yale. As she had done countless times before, she talked Rory off the ledge of over-planning and worry that she wasn't doing enough to be successful in journalism later. Regret over Dean colored Rory's ability to focus on her school work, and she felt already behind so far that she wouldn't be able to catch up.

"Ow! Geez! What the – Dawh!"

"Rory, he did it! He did the bit! Luke, do it again. Do it louder for Rory."

"Hey, Mom?"

"Yeah?"

"You sound happy."

"I am, kid." She flipped the phone shut, still shining her smile on a mildly exasperated Luke.

"What?" he asked, unable to maintain his exasperation for long when she looked at him that way.

"Hey, Luke" she said, reaching for a lock of her hair to twirl.

"Yeah?" He pulled his head out of the oven, having heard that tone of voice that said 'I got more to say.'

"Thanks for fixing my oven." She smiled crookedly at him, her upper lip pulled back a little, reminding him of a bunny.

He hefted his pliers and grunted, "It's not fixed yet. I can't get this damn flange back in place."

"The damn flange isn't behaving?"

He flashed a look at her. "No, I think it's stuck."

"Why is it stuck? Did you try banging on it?"

He peered into the oven again. "It could be that it's coated with some gunk, like something exploded in there."

"Oh," she said noncommittally.

He rested his forehead on his hand. That 'oh' meant she knew something. "Lorelai, what exploded inside the oven?" Eyebrow raised, he looked at her reprovingly.

She shrugged cutely, eliminating any possibility of him getting annoyed.

"Rory and I tried to make baked potatoes, but they must have been bad or something, because they kinda got really large all of a sudden."

"All of a sudden?"

"Like really, really fast. You know, like those gadget guys you like to watch on TV who are always blowing things up."

"You didn't use a fork to poke holes in them first?"

"Who knew that was a thing? I didn't know that was a thing."

He cleared his throat to prevent a laugh from coming out. "Ah, huh. I can't decide what's more amazing - that you didn't poke the holes or that you were gonna eat a healthy food like baked potatoes."

She giggled. "Poke the holes. That's a little dirty. And we were going to load them up with butter, bacon, cheese and chili so we wouldn't have to, you know, ..."

"Actually taste the potato?"

"Yup!" She exclaimed as she clapped her hands.

Sighing, he reached into the oven cavity and pounded on the flange with his pliers. To his surprise, it came loose and he could slide it back where it belonged.

Sitting back, he smiled and said. "Done. Your oven is fixed."

"Yay!" She said. "Let's celebrate with coff-tea."

"Coff-tea? Sounds disgusting."

"Actually it's not. I make coffee, and I make tea. Then I pour the tea in one cup and the coffee in another." She stood up to put the kettle on and flip the switch on the already prepared coffeemaker. "Then I hand you the cup of tea and I take the delicious, delicious coffee and we sip. I pretend that you're drinking coffee, like I think you should, and you pretend that I'm drinking tea like you think I should, and there we have it. The perfect relationship."

"You mean a shared delusion."

"Yep. Fantasizing we both have what we want. It's kept many a relationship happy."

He smiled broadly while simultaneously grunting disagreement. Lorelai grinned, loving that he was so bad at pretending to be annoyed at her humorous situations. When the kettle chirped (her new kettle that had a little whistle that sounded like a bird chirping), she turned off the heat, poured the water into the cup and added Luke's tea bag.

Luke closed the oven door and began sorting his tools in place. When finished, he rested his arms on his knees and looked at Lorelai staring at him.

"What?"

"Hey Luke," she said cautiously, drawing out the words a little.

"What?" He responded with the same tone and cadence.

"I have a bit," she confessed, shifting her feet back and forth, inspecting her toes.

"I know, the coff-tea bit." He turned toward Bert, ready to put the tools away.

She moved down to the floor, sliding her legs under his bent legs and snuggling up as close as possible to him.

"Nope. I have another bit." She lay her forearms across his shoulders.

"Oh yeah?" he asked.

She took a deep breath, and in that moment he knew that whatever was coming wasn't a bit at all.

Uncertainty flashed momentarily over her face, but was quickly replaced with the joy she had knowing that she wanted to say this and knew that it was the perfect moment.

"I love you." Ecstatic at getting it out without tripping over her tongue, or running, or making a joke, she lunged for him and kissed him hard, pushing him backwards until she lay on top of him on the floor.

"You love me?" He looked up at the ceiling, saw remnants of food stuck there and made a mental note to clean and paint it.

"Yes! I love you, Luke! I. Love. You." She poked it into his chest as she spoke.

"You love me. And ouch." Still focused on the ceiling, the words began to sink in, and a gloriously happy smile spread across his face, couldn't be held back, and a delighted laugh rumbled out of his chest.

Lorelai laughed back, her body bouncing up and down as his abdomen and chest rose and fell with his laughter.

They were still laughing as his lips met hers; still laughing as they realized the sweetness an 'I love you' added to what had become everyday kisses.

Lorelai loved Luke. She loved telling Luke she loved him. She loved the shine in his eyes as she battered him with 'I love yous' interspersed with kisses all over his face.

She laughed as he kissed her too, running his hands under her light blue shirt, relishing the softness of her skin, drinking in her scent. In her insecure moments, she feared she would never be able to tell him she loved him, like it had been with Max. She worried that she'd never be able to say it. But today, as she talked to Rory and watched him fix her oven, she had no fear. It would have been harder to not say it than it was to tell him.

One last kiss, then she sat up, straddling his legs, both of them breathing hard from laughter and love.

"Now I'm gonna show you how much I love you," she growled, reaching for his belt buckle.

Luke dropped his hands to his sides. "Show me?"

"Grrr-raow! You bet, tiger." Finally she pulled the leather out of the buckle. "Hah! Got it!"

"No!" He pushed up, then began spider-crawling backwards, shoving her away from him as he scooted.

Lorelai landed awkwardly on her butt. "No?" she repeated, uncomprehending. "But you like the sex, Siegfried. Time to tame your tigress."

"The oven's fixed!" he blurted, still frozen in the corner of the room.

"Luke, honey, I know the oven's fixed. Let me show you how grateful I am." She reached for him again, but fell flat as he jumped to his feet.

She pouted. "Luke! I may have to sink my claws into you," she purred warningly.

"Show you! I have to show you!" He lifted her to her feet as if she weighed nothing. Lorelai whimpered her dissatisfaction.

He turned her toward the stove. "The oven's fixed!"

"I remember that tree." The sex kitten was replaced by a rather annoyed and confused mother cat, wondering if a quick slap of paw to face might bring him back to reality.

Putting his hands on her hips, he guided her to the back door. "I got your keys unstuck. Installed a new lock. Made extra copies of the keys. Sent Rory her key, along with brownies and those twizzler things you like."

She nodded, humoring the crazy man. "Is this a bit?"

"A bit?" He looked at her empty hands, then shook his head. "Not a bit. My drill bits are still in the toolbox."

She repressed a 'dirty!' at that moment, mainly because he was dragging her out of the kitchen, itemizing things as he went.

"Water bottle. Garbage disposal. Squeaky hinge. Banister rail." His free hand pointed at every item as he catalogued it.

"Sofa. Forget the sofa. It can't be made more comfortable. You're just gonna have to get a new one."

"But you..." Before she could discuss the sofa further, he'd moved on.

"Outlet that didn't work. TV stand broken. Loose floorboard." His litany continued, pushing open the front door.

"Loose glass in door. Front door lock. Weatherstripping."

Out on the porch, he pulled her to the side, his chest puffing up with pride at his cleverness. "Look at the porch light."

"You fixed it!"

"Yes, and I hung a couple of moth balls so the moths won't gather."

"Well thank you," she said sweetly. "That was very nice of you."

He looked oddly at her, as if she weren't comprehending. He surged on. "Porch rail, porch rail, porch rail. Floor boards there, there, there and over there."

Still holding tightly to her hand, he guided her down the steps and crossed the yard at a speedy pace, listing even more. "Grass, fertilizer, snow, pothole, weeds."

Panting a little, he stopped in front of the chuppah. "Chuppah," he gasped. After a moment, he stood up straight and asked, "Do you see?"

Mystified by the tour of her house and worried about Luke's sanity, she tried to comfort him. "I see the beautiful chuppah you made for me, Luke. My finest treasure."

"Do you see?"

She stamped her foot. "See what, Luke?! What do you want me to see?"

"Do you see how much I love you?"

"You love me?" Lorelai's happiness booted confusion out the door. "Why didn't you just say so?" She slammed her body back into his, wrapping her arms around his waist as she bounced up and down.

Luke reared his head backwards hoping to prevent a jaw injury. "Because words are meaningless without actions! I have to show you, or it's not real."

She stroked the man's arm soothingly. "Luke, sometimes the words can stand by themselves. Sometimes they NEED to be said. Actions aren't enough."

He exhaled, then carefully said, "I love you."

"Good job, sweetie. That's all it takes sometimes, my action man."

"Geez. Do you have to call me that?"

Sighing, she leaned into him, kissing his chest. Petting Gilbert, she added, "You did all of these repairs because you love me?"

"Yeah," he nodded. "Well, most of them. Some of them I did so you wouldn't accidentally kill yourselves. Those were for me. A dead Lorelai is of no use to anyone, and I'm thinking I'd kinda like to keep you around for a while."

"You want to keep me around for a while?" she grinned at him.

"Well, sure," he growled. "Siegfried needs his tigress."

Then she pounced.

A/N: As she talked to Rory and encouraged Luke while he fixed the oven, Lorelai was ecstatically happy. I felt this was a perfect time to tell Luke she loved him, and when she was ready to tell him, she would run to him and full-body slam him with her love.

Some people need to hear the words to believe it, others need to see the actions. Luke is an action guy and Lorelai is a words girl, like the stereotype of men and women.

There was once a couple who were at home for the weekend. He spent the whole of Saturday in the living room, deep cleaning and polishing the intricately carved wooden furniture. When finished, he walked into the kitchen to his wife, waved his arm, said, "See how much I love you?" then went to clean up.

The minute I saw the chuppah for the first time, I knew Luke was that guy.