A/N: Wow, I didn’t know Max was so disliked by you all haha. I am following some of the storyline of Season 1 and that’s the main reason I brought Max in, because things with him at the point that this story starts were still a little unresolved. I felt that if Lorelai hadn’t gone to Max in the episode The Breakup, Part 2 that he would’ve eventually made his way back to her, sooner or later. I know that in my story he probably appears a little sooner than he would have in the actual season, but I took some artistic license.

By the way, I’ve got a poll going that I’d love for you all to take! Link is at the top of my profile page . Thanks: )

Thanks to: glo1196, gilmoreintraining, CantGetEnoughOfLuke, and empresskrista for the reviews last chapter!

Also, thanks to anyone who has put this story on their alerts for your patience!

Sorry everyone for the long time between updates. I’d completely explain it, but I bet you’d rather just get to the story. Needless to say, I’ve learned that I need to write several chapters of a story before I start posting. So, without further ado….

Disclaimer: Nope, didn’t get them for Christmas…….perhaps my birthday???

Previously in Choices:

“Coming!” Lorelai shouted to the unknown shadow as she paused the movie and shuffled her way over to her front door.

The door opened, and on the other side was the last person she expected to see.

“Max?!”

“Lorelai.” Max Medina stood before her, looking like he had just come from work.

Lorelai stood there staring, flabbergasted, jaw dropped, until she realized that she hadn’t responded to his greeting.

“Uhh, hi. Wha-, what are you doing here?” She stammered.

“Can we talk?” Max seemed extremely calm, which she found a bit weird seeing as she was anxious over why he was here.

“Uhh, sure, come on in,” She replied.

Lorelai stepped back and allowed Max to walk through the door; he looked around at the house he hadn’t been in for quite a while, taking in the subtle differences. A moved chair, a shifted picture.

“Do you want something to drink? We have water, or, well, water.”

“Sure, water would be great.”

Lorelai moved through the archway into her kitchen to retrieve the water, leaving Max in the living room. She took her time filling the glass so that she could have a moment alone to comprehend the fact that Max, whom she hadn’t seen in weeks, was standing in her living room.

The last time she had seen him, she had been upset that he thought they needed to take time apart, and had spent several days afterward moping and moody, but had completely forgotten about him in light of the situation with Luke. And now he wanted to talk. Oh, boy. This couldn’t be good.

“Here you go,” Lorelai said as she walked back out into the living room and handed Max a glass.

“Thanks.”

There was a slight pause as he took a sip, and Lorelai shifted nervously in her seat.

“So, you want to talk,” Lorelai said, her tone a bit awkward and uncertain.

“Yeah, I do,” Max said, and scooted forward on the couch to lean towards Lorelai. “I’ve been thinking about us a lot lately, and I still haven’t come up with a solution. I miss you though, and obviously staying away from each other isn’t going to work.”

“Max, I-”

“No, wait, let me finish,” Max interrupted her, placing his hand atop one of hers. “I just really, really wanted to see you, and I think that if we talk things out we can come up with an answer.”

“Max….” Lorelai said hesitantly, drawing her hands out from underneath his.

“We can work this out. Just give it a chance.”

“I’m sorry, but I can’t.”

“Why not? We’re great together, you can’t deny that. We can make this work, I know we can.”

“We were great together, but…I’ve moved on. I’m sorry.” Lorelai said as she looked away for a second, and then glanced back up at him.

“Are you absolutely sure?” Max asked, staring intensely at her.

“I’m sure,” Lorelai said softly, meeting his eyes to show that she certain of her decision.

“Ok,” Max sighed heavily. “I just…I need to go.”

“Ok,” Lorelai said softly as she walked him to the door. He started walking out, hesitated, and turned back.

“Just, one more thing,” Max said and glanced at her with a question in his eyes. “Is there someone else?”

Lorelai dropped her eyes from his, lowering them to focus on a scuff on the tip of her shoes below her.

Her head battled out over how to answer this particular question; her desire to tell the truth battling with the wish that she wouldn’t have to hurt him any more than she had already.

So she gave a half-answer (although it was true).

“Kind of.”

“Kind of?” Max asked with a confused glance at her. Lorelai said with a sigh of frustration, as she side-stepped fully explaining the exact amount of thought and sleepless nights that had gone into that particular complication.

“Yeah, well, it usually is huh?” He stated with a hint of bitterness.

“Goodbye, Lorelai Gilmore,” Max murmured as he shuffled out the door, and perhaps out of her life, for the last time.

“Bye.” Lorelai whispered softly towards his retreating back.

As she turned back into her house and made to close the door, a flash of something blue caught her eye. She turned back around and saw the back of a certain hurt, baseball-cap, flannel-wearing man.

“Luke?” Lorelai said in amazement. He was back?

“Luke!” She shouted towards him, but he was too far away by then to hear her. He was back!

Lorelai took off running down the street in her sweats and bunny slippers as she tried to catch up with him, not caring who would see her.

“Luke, stop!”

It was clear this time he had hear her, as his posture stiffened and he picked up his pace a bit, walk rapidly back in the direction he had come.

“Why should I?!” He yelled over his shoulder at her.

“Why are you so mad at me?” She questioned him with a hint of exasperation in her voice as she started catching up with him, her determination making up for the unhelpfulness of her shoes.

“Perhaps Mr. Scholar will be able to explain this one to you,” Luke sneered.

“What are you talking about?!” Lorelai said breathlessly as she finally caught up with him and pulled on his arm roughly to get him to face her.

“Ask Sookie, or Babette, or Patty, or, hell, I’m sure even Rory knows by now. Ask any damn person in this town and I’m sure they’ll all be able to tell you what a fool that Luke Danes was; actually thinking he had a chance.” The look on Luke’s face was one of anger and anguish.

“Luke,” she said gently, with a look of compassion on her face that made him stop struggling against her captivity of his arms, “you’re not a fool. And if you’d stop yelling at me for a second and listen, maybe you’d hear what I’m trying to tell you.”

“Okay,” Luke didn’t say anything, just sighed, fully meeting her eyes for the first time since the conversation (well, argument, really) began several minutes ago.

“Luke, Max was here trying to get back together with me. I turned him away.” She paused, hesitating, and then decided to be brave and continue. “He asked me if there was someone else.”

“What did you tell him?”

“The truth. That there was someone else, but it was complicated.”

Luke paused in thought for a moment, letting her answer sink in, then asked a question, looking like he was bracing himself for the answer. “Who?”

Lorelai took a deep breath, let it out, and took the plunge into the unknown.

“You.”

She was met with a couple seconds of silence, and you’d have been able to hear a pin drop as she looked at Luke’s stunned face; all the while, her thoughts racing in different directions. What if he rejects me? What if he doesn’t?! What if he tells me I’m crazy, and that I need to see a psychiatrist? What if-

“Me?”

“Yeah. You,” Lorelai said, and shrugged uncomfortably, shifting from one foot to the other, waiting for a reaction. She looked into his face, hoping she could decipher the emotions playing across them.

Only a couple of seconds had passed, yet to her it felt like an eternity.

He took the few steps across the small space that was separating them, and placed a hand gently on her hip. Her heartbeat started to pick up speed a like train starting up.

Their gazes locked, and Luke searched hers for the permission to continue, finding it their in her beautiful, warm blue eyes.

His head bent, and slowly he lowered his lips to hers as both their eyes fluttered shut. This kiss had none of the urgency of their first one weeks ago, yet it had just as much passion. Both pairs of lips softly caressed the other as the two people immersed themselves in feelings of pleasure until the desperate need for oxygen broke them apart. Their foreheads rested on each other’s as they both gasped for breath.

“Wow,” Luke pushed out on a breath of air.

“You could say that again,” Lorelai happily agreed, a huge smile rapidly spreading across her face.

“Wow.”

Luke indulged her with a grin of his own, equally matching in happiness.

This was definitely worth waiting for, thought Lorelai.

Thanks for reading!