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Thursdays were typically busy days at the diner and the inn. This week, Lorelai took the early morning shift at the inn getting off around 4pm, while Luke worked through the dinner shift at the diner, closing after the local middle school baseball team celebrated their win with burgers and milkshakes. The only bright side to his day was that his beautiful girlfriend had stopped by for dinner a couple hours earlier and was currently upstairs in his apartment. Their schedules had been a little off sync lately, but both had tomorrow morning off and he insisted that she stay and they could spend the night and morning together.
After closing the diner, Luke flipped the light switch off and finally trudged up the stairs to his apartment. He opened the door and greeted Lorelai who was comfortably sitting on the couch flipping through channels on the TV with a Cosmo lying open on her lap. He walked over to the desk table, took off his hat, and placed it on the table as he ran his hand through his hair.
“Sorry,” he apologized, “a kid spilled his milkshake all over the table and I had to spray it down twice to get rid of the stickiness. Are you hungry?” He asked her as he made his way back over to the couch.
“I need to tell you something,” Lorelai said as Luke tiredly plopped down next to her on the couch. His hand closest to her immediately coming to rest on her knee. Lorelai turned off the TV with a click on the remote.
“Is this about Al’s blue manicotti? Because I told you months ago that I was never ever going to eat that or at that establishment again. If you are in the mood for international cuisine, tell me and I’ll make it for you. But Al’s is off the table.”
“Even if I wear that sweater you like?” Lorelai innocently asked.
“The one with the…” Luke trailed off and gestured with his hand the deep scooping neckline of said sweater.
“That’s the one,” Lorelai confirmed. Luke thought for a second and heavily sighed. “Ha! I knew I had the power!”
“I’ll make you regularly colored manicotti from scratch,” Luke countered.
“And hurt Al’s feelings? I don’t think so. Anyway, that’s not what I wanted to talk about.”
“Oh, what another town festival coming up? I swear Taylor needs a hobby,” Luke got up and began to rant as he paced. “There is some sort of town event every week.”
“Um no. Hey, Luke? Can you just-uh-with that?” She gestured for him to stop the pacing and ranting he was getting ready to go off into.
“What?” He stopped.
“Nothing, there’s just something kind of serious that I think I need to tell you?” She told him, her voice quiet and a little unsure. She tapped the couch cushion next to her indicating for him to sit down.
Luke took a deep breath, bracing himself the worst and sat back down next to her. His mind immediately travelled to Christopher. Was he back? Oh no, she is leaving him, isn’t she? He has been sneaking around trying to buy a house to have a future with this woman and he has probably blown it again. “Um, ok,” he cautiously said.
“Do you remember the night of the magazine party?” Lorelai asked him.
“How could I forget?” He laughed.
“Haha,” she nervously laughed, “so you remember how things-- we sort of got a little out of hand?” She vaguely asked.
“What?”
“At the party, we had a lot to drink, nothing to eat, and when we got back things got out of hand,” she alluded.
Luke’s brow furrowed, “The drinking?” he guessed, not following what Lorelai was getting at.
“No, Luke.”
“We had a lot of cocktails and we kept missing the food trays. Then we drove around in the limo where you kept playing that same song over and over again. What’s lef-”
“I think I might be pregnant!” Lorelai blurted out, losing her patience.
“What?” he asked, not sure if he heard clearly.
“We came home that night and we didn’t use any condoms,” she explained.
“Um, what about the um pill uh, I mean your birth control?” he awkwardly asked.
“Remember, I’m in the middle of switching over to another one. We are supposed to use back up for at least a month,” she reminded.
He vaguely remembered her talking about this, but that wasn’t exactly something his mind would have wandered to in the heat of the moment. “So, you’re pregnant?”
“No!” she quickly said. “I mean I don’t know yet. It’s too soon, but there’ve been some signs that I might be.”
“Ok.”
Silence fell upon them.
“What signs?”
“What are you thinking?” They both asked at the same time causing them to nervously laugh.
“I’ll go first,” Lorelai suggested and Luke nodded. She hesitated and started, “last week at the hospital when Sookie had baby Martha, I had a huge craving for an apple. And you know me, when have I ever asked for or wanted an apple?”
“Never,” he answered her immediately as if it required no thought from him.
“Yes, except for when I was pregnant with Rory,” she informed him.
Luke nodded as he processed the information he was just given, “apples, huh?” He got up and started to pace again.
“I ate barrels and barrels of them,” she said, standing up to join him.
“Anything else?” She shook her head. “So just the apples?” She nodded. “Ok. So, what do we do now? Take a test or something?” he paused and asked.
“The doctor said I can’t take a test until next week. It won’t be accurate until then,” she told him.
“Doctor? You saw a doctor?”
“No, at the hospital with Sookie, I saw a doctor in the hallway and I asked. He said I should wait at least two weeks,” she asked.
“Ok, then next week,” he said calmly, much to Lorelai’s surprised.
“Next week. Um, how does this make you feel?” She asked.
He let out of breath as he placed his hands on his waist. “Ah, I don’t know. I’m still processing.”
“Oh, ok,” she decided not to push any further. The last time she pushed, they broke up and she had no desire to go through that again with the potential addition of a baby thrown into the mix now. They had just gotten back together six weeks ago. And honestly, she didn’t know if her heart could take it again.
“You’ll let me know?” she asked, hoping she sounded supportive instead of the tad disappointment she was feeling. She knew telling Luke could have led to a potential freak out on his end resulting in possibly scaring him away with a lone baseball cap left in the dust. Processing Luke caught her slightly off guard.
“Yeah.” Luke started to pace again. “I mean this is big.”
“Yes, it is,” she agreed, folding her arms.
“It’s a kid. A baby.”
“Well, it ain’t a puppy. Although you can argue that is same level work in the beginning. I mean the training, the attention, the feedings. I’ve never had a puppy, but I have had a kid. I can’t imagine a puppy is any easier,” Lorelai nervously added.
“I have to provide for it. Save up money so it can grow up and go to college. I mean Rory goes to Yale. What is Yale gonna cost in 20 years?” He worked his way up to another rant.
“Whoa, I don’t even know if I am pregnant,” Lorelai went over to him, placing a hand on his arm and reminded him.
“Yeah, but if not now, you will be eventually, right? We are going to have a family. So, I should be thinking about these things. I mean I got the living situation part thought out. When we move into the Twickham house what are the two of us going to do there alone? I mean obviously Rory comes too. I need to-”
Lorelai’s eye widened. “WHOA! Luke Hun, I need you to slow down. The Twickham house?”
“I put in an offer on the Twickham house,” he revealed.
“You what? When?” she asked shocked.
“Well, I made a deal with Taylor.”
“You made a deal with Taylor?” she repeated him. Now it was her turn to process.
“Yeah, that I help with the museum and I get the house,” he told her.
“A house. Luke, a house is huge!”
“I know. I just wanted to make sure everything went through before I told you. Kirk has been trying to steal the house from under me. Did you know he has a quarter of million dollars in cash?”
“Kirk’s a Rockefeller? Who knew!”
“We should have! He has 5800 jobs and still lives with his mother!”
“No, he is couch surfing through Stars Hollow because someone suggested he break out on his own,” she pointedly reminded him.
“How was I supposed to know he was going to leave his mother’s without a plan?”
“It’s Kirk, you should have known.”
“You’re right,” he agreed.
“Well, what happened?” Lorelai asked, wondering if Kirk’s attempt to steal their house was successful.
“Taylor insisted we see the town elders. Actually, the day Sookie had the baby we met with the town elders in a sauna and they decided that I get the house. All that’s left to do is sign.”
“How could you get a house without telling me, Luke?” Lorelai asked.
“It was going to be a surprise. I was in the process of planning something. I had the ring. The house was next--” he stopped after realizing he shared too much.
“A ring? There’s a ring?” Lorelai excitedly asked.
“Please forget I said anything. Please,” he pleaded with her.
“No, I don’t want to forget about it. You’ve really thought about this?”
He nodded, “well, yeah. I mean we are in a relationship. I love you. It’s the next natural step unless you don’t want to. Do you want to? I know we got back together recently, but I want us to move forward. That is if you want to too.”
Lorelai smiled, “I love you too. Yes. I want,”
“Good,” Luke returned her smile.
“Yeah?”
“Yup.”
“Please don’t do that!” she playfully tapped him.
“Do what?”
“I mean any other address or life changing decisions, please include me in. I want to be involved. We should be doing this together. We should be planning our life, our future together.”
“I will! I’m sorry! I won’t! I will. We will.”
“Good,” she leaned in and placed a soft kiss on his lips. Luke pulled her into a hug.
“So kids?” Lorelai looked up at him and asked, still in his embrace.
He smiled and said, “Kids would be good.”
-X-
END