Chapter Three: Dream Weaver

Lorelai bounced into the kitchen at the inn after Luke's with a bright smile plastered on her face. Sookie noticed how happy she seemed to be, and assumed it was because she and Luke were finally back together.

"Aww, look at you, so happy about Luke!" Sookie cooed. Lorelai gave her a look.

"How do you know what I'm happy about?"

"Well, you are Luke are finally back together, and you're ecstatic!"

Lorelai smirked. "No, that's not the main reason I'm so smiley. I've decided something."

"Uh oh. What?" Sookie asked apprehensively.

"No, nothing bad. It's just….I finally had to tell someone, so I called Rory this morning…but I've wanted this for a long time…"

"What, honey?"

She grinned and leaned in to Sookie's ear. "I want to marry Luke." Sookie's face broke out into a grin nearly matching Lorelai's and she squealed.

"Oh! That's great, Lorelai! Has he asked you? Ooh, are you gonna ask him, and be a modern woman? When do you want to have the wedding? Can I help plan it?" Sookie cheered, jumping up and down.

"Wait, Sookie!" When her friend calmed down, she continued. "I don't know if this is what Luke wants. He might not want to get married at all."

"What do you mean, Lorelai? Why wouldn't he?"

"Well, his first marriage didn't go so well, and I don't know if it's too soon for a second one. I also don't know if he wants to commit to me. Or he might not think I'm ready. But I don't want to ask h ism directly, or pressure him, or anything like that. So I've decided that I'm going to give him subtle clues. Like a game, sort of. I'll mention a wedding movie, or talk about your wedding or something…just to see how he reacts. Maybe he'll see that I want it or something."

"I hope that works, Lorelai. I'm so happy for you! This is the first time you've truly wanted to be married!"

"I know." Lorelai smiled.

As soon as she was done at the inn, Lorelai rushed to the movie store and rented three movies: So I Married an Axe Murderer, My Best Friend's Wedding, and A Wedding Story. Luke had to notice the theme, she thought. At her house she set up all of the junk food and ordered a pizza and a salad, but that took no time at all. She was anxious for him to come; for some reason she was more excited about the wedding thing than anything before. Eager to produce more plans, she sat down and made a list of tactics.

First I need a cool name with a cool acronym. She decided.

Operation Make him Guess Was her first option. The letters spelled out OMG, but she didn't like it enough.

Operation Stealthily make him Propose Or Run off with Kirk? Well, the acronym was interesting, but the latter part of the phrase was just wrong.

I'll just go with Operation Make him Guess for now she concluded as the doorbell rang. Startled, she jumped up to answer it.

"Luke!" She exclaimed excitedly as she flung open the door, only to be disappointed when it was Freddy the Pizza boy. "Oh, hey Freddy." She handed him the money and took the salad and pizza from him, shutting the door exasperatedly. Checking the clock, she realized that Luke was half an hour later than he told her he would be. She sighed, and decided that she would get started on one of the movies without him.

Halfway through the movie, Luke still hadn't shown, and she was getting antsy even thinking of the mere subject of a wedding, so she stopped the movie and called his cell phone. He didn't answer, and it went straight to voice mail so she didn't even bother to leave a message and called the diner instead. Lane answered.

"Lukes"

"Hi, Lane. It's Lorelai. Is Luke there?"

"No, actually he's not. He told me about an hour ago that he was going to the bank."

"Ok. Thanks. Can you tell him to call when he gets in?" She had a feeling he had forgotten about their date that morning.

"Of course. Bye."

She hung up and suddenly felt disappointed and tired. Lying back down on the couch, she rested her eyes for just a minute, but couldn't escape her sleep.

Lorelai was wearing a beautiful, long, white dress and standing next to Luke in the bright summer sun. They were both facing a priest, and she realized she was at her wedding. She looked at Luke in a tux and sighed happily. Tears of joy streamed down her face, but her attention was suddenly drawn to the priest when she realized he was talking to her.

"I do!" She said automatically without hesitation or prompting. The priest did not look taken aback at all, but instead turned to Luke, whose eyes had been staring foreword the whole time.

"And do you?" Asked the priest sternly. Luke looked straight at the man, and then looked down at the rice-covered ground for a long moment. Lorelai realized that she and the whole audience were holding their breath, waiting for his answer. Finally, he looked at Lorelai, gulped, then turned to the priest and opened his mouth…

And Lorelai woke up, sweating slightly, to the sound of the telephone ringing. Grumbling at the horrible interruption, she grabbed the phone.

"Hello?" She asked, annoyed.

"Hey Lorelai." It was Luke definitely, and she her mood sunk a little lower when she remembered that he stood her up. "You called me earlier?"

"Yeah… I did." She frowned. "Luke, didn't you remember about tonight?"

He heard the hurt in her voice, and suddenly remembered that morning's movie date. "Oh, jeeze, I completely forgot! I'm so sorry, Lorelai. I had a bank meeting, and that lasted for ever, and when I got back I was so tired and Lane told me you called…"

"It's okay, Luke." She sighed sadly.

"I didn't leave you waiting, did I?"

"Well, no, not really. I started watching My Best Friend's Wedding, but fell asleep." No way she was going to tell him her dream, even though his lack of response at the wedding was plaguing her mind.

"I'm really sorry. How about we reschedule for tomorrow?"

"That sounds good."

"So I'll see you tomorrow morning?"

"You bet."

"Goodnight, Lorelai."

"Night, Luke. I love you-" but she spoke the last of her sentence to the dial tone. He had hung up. They had already told each other that they were in love, but she liked to hear it confirmed every now and then…especially after a dream like the one she just had.

She was torn between being angry that the phone call interrupted her dream so she wouldn't know Luke's answer, and being glad that it did because she was afraid of what his answer would be.

Still a little sad that Luke had basically stood her up, she trudged up to bed and had another fitful dream.

"Lorelai, you look so beautiful" Her mother sniffed proudly, wiping her eye with a tissue.

Lorelai turned to her mom and the two shared one of their few, cherished, mother-daughter moments. Rory walked over to her and gave her a huge hug.

"I'm so happy, Mom. You deserve this." By now, Lorelai was crying, and she stuck the tiara on her forehead while gazing at herself in the mirror.

"I'm happy too, Rory. God, I thought this would never happen!"

"You're not nervous, are you?" Rory asked with trepidation. The whole town had been looking at her warily, afraid that she would run just like she had last time.

"Not at all." She answered truthfully. "I'm ready to be married!" She smiled, and then they stood in line, ready to step outside when the organ started.

They stood in line for several minutes, impatient, until finally Rory shrugged and assumed that the organ player was off drunk again (this had happened at the rehearsal a few days ago) She stepped out of sight. Then Emily was next, Sookie went, Mia soon after, Liz after that, and finally Lorelai and Richard stepped out into the bright sun. At first they couldn't see anything because of the abundance of light, but Lorelai's tears were clogging her eyes anyway. The both of them heard whispers around the guests, but thought nothing of it. When they got closer to where the Minister stood, Richard stopped suddenly, and Lorelai wiped the happy tears out of her eyes to see why. Then she understood why there was no music and why there were whispers.

Luke was gone. He was not standing at the alter at all. Every one else was in the right place, but there was an empty space next to her. Tears began to fall again, this time not out of happiness. "W-where is he?" She asked anybody, searching for an answer. She turned to Rory "Where's Luke?" Rory gave her a pitiful look, and Lorelai couldn't stand it. "Wh-what happened to Luke?" She asked the crowd, near hysterical, and all they could do was shrug and look sorry for her. Miss Patty came up to her and hugged her tightly, tears in her eyes.

"He didn't show, sweetie." She whispered in Lorelai's ear. And Lorelai collapsed right there, in the middle of the isle, in her billowing wedding dress.

She woke up suddenly, having had a much worse dream than before. It took her a moment to realize that there were tears in her eyes, and she swiped them away angrily. It was just a stupid dream. It was all in her mind. Her brain had subconsciously realized that Luke stood her up for a date, and placed that in a wedding context. She sat up and hugged her knees to her chest, wishing that Luke were sleeping next to her.

Fitfully, she tried to go back to bed, but did not get any sleep at all.