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Luke was stirred from his half-sleep by a gentle voice he recognized to be Lorelai’s. Rubbing his eyes to adjust to the soft light of one of the bedside lamps, he smiled when he saw his wife, clad in only one of his old flannel shirts, holding the tiniest of the Gilmores to her chest while they both looked out the window.
“Is that a birdy?” Lorelai asked the baby who in turn nodded her head and waved her little arm around. “That’s right, it’s a bird!” Lorelai cheered in return. “Can you say hi to the birdy pretty girl? Can you? Can you say Mimi?” Lorelai continued, not expecting any real answer from her 10 month-old granddaughter but continuing her work towards “Mimi” being among the baby’s first words once she figured out how to talk.
“Lorelai?” Luke called for her.
“Sorry hun, did I wake you?” She asked, sitting on her side of the bed facing him with the baby girl securely on her lap.
“I was only half asleep anyway, is everything okay?” Luke asked, sitting up against the headboard, being hit with the mid-April night air on his bare upper half.
“Yeah, everything’s fine. I checked in on her when I went to get a glass of water and found her awake in the crib. She reached for me with her little hands and you know I can’t resist these tiny little jam hands!” Lorelai gushed, kissing one of the baby’s hands and making said baby giggle in return.
“You are never going to let me live that one down, are you?” He asked in feigned exasperation.
“You know me well.” She winked before quickly returning her attention to her granddaughter. “Grandpa is a silly silly man isn’t he?” Lorelai cooed at the baby. The little girl in turn laughed and clapped her hands. Both adults felt their hearts melt.
“She’s too cute when she laughs, I can’t take offense.” Luke smiled, not only at the baby’s cuteness but also at being called “Grandpa”, a privilege he hadn’t expected but that Lorelai and Rory insisted that he have anyway due to serving as more of a grandfather figure than both Christopher and Mitchum, the latter of the two having made no acknowledgement of the child besides a signature on some paperwork “protecting” the Huntzbergers.
“Who knew my mother was right all those years ago?” For all her many faults, Emily Gilmore’s prediction that Rory and Logan would have absolutely darling children had proved spot on. The newest Gilmore, another Lorelai, had the same blue eyes of her predecessors, rosy cheeks, Lorelai’s nose, and a mop of light brown curly hair they weren’t sure which side had come from. She had a mostly sunny disposition if a bit clingy at times, and a fixation with banging the diner’s saltshakers against the table for amusement. She attempted to stand on her own, something she’d been trying to figure out for the past week, and Lorelai held her hands as the baby attempted to find some footing. Baby Lorelai promptly let herself fall on the mattress after standing for maybe 2 seconds and giggled.
“Good job honey!” Lorelai cheered and brought the baby back into her lap so she could kiss her cheek.
“Once she figures out how to walk we are doomed.” Luke said, thinking of some extra baby proofing he could do both in their house as well as in Rory’s apartment. Hearing his voice, the little girl started to reach her arms towards him.
“Do you want to go to grandpa?” Lorelai asked. The baby cheered in confirmation.
“Lorelai I’m naked.”
Lorelai nodded appreciatively, looking him over and remembering the recent events that had led to his nudity two hours prior. “Yeah you are doll face.” She smirked.
“Lorelai!” He rolled his eyes. The baby cheered at the sound of banter.
“Soooo? The bedding is covering your whole lower half and it’s not like she cares or will remember any of this.” Lorelai argued.
“Alright, hand her over.” Luke conceded. Lorelai got up and moved to sit next to her husband, placing the baby in his waiting arms in the process. “Hey Lila!” Luke cooed in what they had since dubbed the “Lila-voice”, a spin-off of the super proud voice but with even more sweetness embedded. “How’s that new tooth coming along?” He asked as Lila settled in his arms, happily resting her head against his chest.
“I think it’s almost fully erupted but she’s still chomping on that teething ring, impeccable work ethic really, will not leave a job half finished.” Lorelai replied for Lila, pulling said teething ring from the breast pocket of the stolen flannel she’d been wearing and handing it to the baby to chew on.
“Your grandma is a crazy lady.” He told Lila who was still settled against him and seemingly drowsier. For whatever reason Luke had been the quickest person at getting her to sleep since she’d been born.
“I thought you liked me this way!” Lorelai protested.
Luke stared at her. She was turning 50 in a little under two weeks and some signs of her age were clearly visible. More important than any of those were the new, if still very faint, smile lines that had begun to settle since the day Lila was born, funnily enough on the day that would have been their wedding day the first time they’d been engaged. Lorelai had some insane theory about how it was all fate that they didn’t get married then because the date of June 3rd was already reserved by some higher power to be Lila’s birthday and he told her she was crazy then too. Crazy but so, so happy since that June 3rd almost a year prior, so happy that he could swear she glowed and all he could do was stare at her in awe. And whenever staring wasn’t enough, he’d go in for a kiss, making them look like love drunk newlyweds a year and a half into their marriage. He reached his hand out for her cheek to bring her closer to him and she promptly leaned over to share a mostly saccharine kiss, due to the little girl trapped between them. A little girl who started protesting at the loss of attention, waving her teething ring around and whimpering.
They reluctantly broke apart and sighed. “Well, you gave attention to another girl and now she wants to breakup with you.” Lorelai joked. “C’mere sweet girl!” She cooed as Luke handed Lila back to her namesake. “You are fine, Mimi is here.” She said against her granddaughter’s curls.
Luke took the opportunity to put his pajamas back on, retrieving his t-shirt from the floor next to his side of the bed and pulling it over his head. “How come I’m Grandpa but you get to be Mimi?”
“Because, husband of mine, I am far, far too young to be a grandmother yet.” She explained as if it were the most obvious answer in the world. Luke looked around the room trying to locate his sweats, Lorelai pointed to the end of the bed where said item was and turned her attention back to Lila. “You think so too, right my love?” She cooed at the baby. Luke swung his legs off the side of the bed and grabbed the discarded sweats by one of the pantlegs, redressing in a flash and settling back into bed. Lorelai was still cooing at the little girl and had begun to rock her gently in an attempt to lull the baby back into sleepy territory. Luke watched the scene, still amazed by how natural it felt to see Lorelai with Lila. Due to grandmother and granddaughter having some key resemblances it was hard to shake the thought that it could have been them with that child they never got around to having, but even when that thought entered their minds it failed to bring about too much regret. Having a child together would have been wonderful but, at least so far, having a little granddaughter around nearly every day was proving to be its own brand of wonderful, sweet and amazing and neither one of them would trade it for the world. If being honest Luke might even admit to wanting to babysit more often.
“Penny for your thoughts?” Lorelai shook him from his reverie. That happy glow on her face was back.
“We got very lucky didn’t we?”
Lorelai smiled sweetly, running a hand through baby curls. “We hit the jackpot.”
“With all our girls.” Luke added.
“And depending on how charitable I’m feeling, with Jess too.” Lorelai conceded. After years of holding on to the grudge she had for teenaged Jess, the final threads of that distrust finally fell away when Jess helped Rory get her book published and offered her a significant level of support during an emotionally charged pregnancy. As a matter of fact, the reason why they had Lila with them that night was Rory being away with Jess in New York promoting her book over the weekend.
“Do you want to sleep with us tonight Lila?” Luke asked, seeing two sets of blue eyes becoming tired.
“Ooooh Rory will be mad we didn’t make her sleep by herself and self soothe or whatever!” Lorelai cheered through a yawn and carefully laid Lila in the space between them.
“We are bad.” Luke replied, folding the pajama top Lorelai had been wearing earlier in the night to serve as a makeshift pillow for the baby. The two of them laid on their sides facing each other and adjusting the covers to make sure Lila was cozy besides her pink footie pajamas with cupcakes printed on them. Lorelai had once described a newborn Lila as “the pinkest, sweetest, most amazing little person on the planet” and ten months on it all remained true.
Once settled, Lorelai reached over to turn off her bedside lamp, leaving the room with just the minimal light coming from the windows. Lorelai extended her pinky for Lila to hold while Luke brushed some of the baby’s curls away from her tiny face, tucking them behind her ear. In the near darkness they smiled at each other.
“Is our middle going to be us spoiling this kid rotten?” Lorelai asked.
“If we don’t get another grandkid to split the attention with her, then yeah I think so.” Luke replied and the two were silent for a few seconds.
“Hun?”
“Yeah?”
“I can’t wait.” Lorelai beamed. Luke leaned over and gave her a quick goodnight kiss. “I love you…” He said in earnest. “…Grandma.” He added smirking. Lorelai let it slide for the most part, settling for lightly pinching his upper arm with her free hand.
“Goodnight doll.”
The room fell silent for a couple minutes until Luke heard a familiar humming.
“Are you humming Manic Monday again?”
“Shhh! She always sleeps better with some Bangles lulling her to sleep, it’s my genes.” Lorelai whispered between the first verse and the chorus.
“You exhaust me.” Luke replied lovingly before closing his eyes and allowing himself to be lulled to sleep along with the baby.