Rachel and Luke had slipped into a routine, much like the one they had been in when they had been dating. He’d come down to work in the diner and she’d turn his apartment into a black room for a few hours in the early morning before coming down to help with the breakfast rush. Today, however, she was running late because of the amount of pictures she had taken at the Firelight Festival so she caught him doing inventory between the breakfast and lunch rushes.
“Hey Luke?” Rachel called as she wandered down from the apartment with a pile of photographs she had taken.
“Yeah?” he asked, distracted by the inventory he was doing.
“Do you know what this place used to be?” she handed him a photo of a run down building. He cast a glance at it, squinting at it slightly.
“Obviously a building.”
“Thank you,” she replied with a roll of her eyes. “What kind of building?” “No idea. Ask Patty or Lorelai, they’ll know,” he said as he went back to the shelves in front of him. He sighed, he had a growing feeling that his meat guy was going to have to go. Again.
“Oh yeah, that’s the old Dragonfly Inn,” Lorelai said as she took the picture from Rachel. “I had forgotten about that place.”
“It’s kind of behind the mill,” she said, taking a seat beside her. “You go over the little footbridge with the mean duck family living underneath it.”
“Yes, the Armbrusters,” she said with a smile, remembering a chance encounter with them once.
“Do you want to see it?”
“What?”
“The inn. I’m gonna head out that way in a little while.”
“I’d love to,” she said. “But I’m not exactly all-terrain rated these days,” she said with a smile that Rachel returned.
“I understand. Not much longer?”
“About 6 weeks, give or take,” she admitted.
“Exciting!” Rachel said as she jumped up and gathered the photos. “I should get back to work,” she said as she headed off to put the photos away before joining Luke in waiting on the lunch rush. Lorelai returned the smile, but didn’t really mean it. She was too scared to really be excited. With Rory, she knew how things would go. She knew she’d be fighting her mother for control, fighting about Nannies and maids who wanted to mother her baby for her. And this time? No one but herself to fall back on. No nannies or maids to pick up the slack when she was too bone weary to drag herself out of bed at 3 am to deal with a tiny, helpless person.
She stared into her almost empty cup of coffee and nearly finished lunch as she considered how scared she actually was. No one had really asked so she had never brought it up, but she was almost more afraid of failing this time than she had been with Rory. Lorelai drained the rest of the coffee, left some cash on the table and slowly made her way out of the diner and to the jeep, intent on heading home but, half way there, she changed her mind and headed to the Inn. Sookie was being a strict enforcer of maternity leave, but she needed reassurance without questioning and Sookie would give that too her, no matter what.
***
“Hey,” she said as she wandered into the kitchen. “Are you busy?”
“What are you doing here?” Sookie demanded as she rushed over to her.
“I need some reassurance,” she said. Sookie wasn’t really sure what to make out of this.
“Ok,” she said as she left her sous-chef in charge of the kitchen and led Lorelai out the back door in the kitchen to the yard. “About what Sweetie?” she asked they wandered over to a bench with no guess around.
“About everything, Sookie. About what I’m doing, about Rory about the Inn. . . I just. . . I was talking to Rachel. . . “ she trailed off, trying to figure out exactly what she was asking.
“So, Rachel said something?” Sookie asked, grasping for straws.
“No. Yes. Yes, but she didn’t mean too. She found this old inn, the Dragonfly?” Sookie nodded, she knew of it. “And she invited me to go out with her to see it and, I’m not exactly in any condition to go traipsing around the back country.”
“Yeah, I’m gonna second that,” she said with a small smile as she waived her hand at a small bug.
“And when I pointed that out, she asked about my due date and ended the conversation with exciting!”
“Well. . . It is! . . .Isn’t it?” Sookie asked, when Lorelai’s mood seemed to fall even further.
“It should be, it is,” she said, trying to smile. “But, I don’t know,” she finally said, throwing her hands in the air. “I want to be excited about this baby but all I feel is scared.”
“It’s going to be fine. You’ve done this once before,” Sookie reminded her with a smile.
“Yeah, but I had my mother and her staff and the nannies she insisted on hiring and when I left there, Mia was always there to help, to make sure we were both okay and now. . . It’s me and this little person and Rory who’s 2 years away from going to college. What the hell am I doing having a baby, alone, when Rory’s almost in college? Who does something like this?” she asked, nearly in tears. “Who the hell has their second baby almost 20 years after the first?”
“You do,” Sookie assured her. “You are going to do this and everything is going to be fine. Everyone is going to love this baby!” Sookie said as she caught Lorelai’s eyes. “You are going to be turning people away who want to baby sit and offer advice and hand-me down clothes and toys and furniture! And Rory is going to fall in love with Sparky,” she said as they both smiled at the nick name that had inadvertently stuck. “And so are you and you’re gonna wonder what you ever did before Sparky came along.”
“What if I mess up?”
“Do it before they can remember. At least, that was my mothers advice,” she offered with a smile and shrug. Lorelai couldn’t help but laugh at the advice too. “Why all this now, Honey?” she asked. “You seemed so sure the whole time.” Lorelai shrugged and shook her head.
“I don’t know.” The pair fell into silence for a long moment as they stared out over the grounds. “Thank you,” she said.
“That’s what I’m here for,” Sookie reminded her. “No more bottled up anything!” she insisted. “Even if it’s 2 am and you’re freaking out about. . . I don’t know, something I know nothing about, you call me and we’ll deal with it. Ok?”
“Ok,” she agreed, feeling somewhat calmer about the situation. “6 weeks,” she said.
“6 weeks,” Sookie echoed.
“We still don’t have a name,” she complained. “Everything else, thanks to mom and dad, yes, but no name.
“You parents really bought everything?” Sookie asked, not really believing that Lorelai would accept that.
“My mom kept everything she bought when Rory was a baby and, as an added bonus, everything turns into something else,” she said with a shrug. “And it’s all really nice. There‘s also everything from that baby shower,” she said glancing over at Sookie. Sookie had really out done herself with the shower, inviting close friends only, they had shacked up at Sookie’s house for the afternoon with more food than they knew what to do with.
“Emily on that list yet?”
“Middle name. Only if we’re desperate,” Lorelai agreed. “Hey any others to share?”
“Well,” Sookie considered for a moment. “Lorelai IV?”
“Rory ruled that out,” she said.
“Okay. Hey! Why not pick a name based on a feature. Like, Sky if Sparky’s eyes are really blue!”
“Yeah, I’m more likely just to keep calling it Sparky. Thanks for playing though,” she assured Sookie, patting her on the knee, her mood was considerably better now.
***
Feeling better about things, Lorelai returned to the lobby of the Inn with the general plan of checking to see if there was any mail for her before heading back home. Unfortunately, her plan was thrown off when Rory and Emily walked up to her. Lorelai had forgotten that Rory was showing Emily around town today. This chance meeting of course gave Emily the chance to throw out a few more zingers in Lorelai’s direction, since apparently, a dinner once a week as well as a phone call wasn’t enough for her mother. So, Lorelai stood her ground as her mother threw off one passive aggressive insult after another about the pregnancy and her job before Rory finally managed to distract her away. When she finally did get away from them, she high tailed it to her office and immediately picked up the phone.
“Hello?”
“Hey Chris,” she said. After meeting up with her mother and Rory, she needed a sympathetic ear.
“Hey Lor!” he said happily. “How are you?”
“Good,” she said.
“Baby’s fine?”
“Everyone’s good and on schedule,” she informed him. “Did you manage to get the time off?” she asked, playing with the phone cord.
“I’ll be there the 10th of June and I can stick around until the 26th,” he said. “Only a few more weeks,” he added.
“Yep, 6 more weeks,” she added again. This seemed to be her refrain of the day.
“I’m gonna rent a car when I get in,” he told her. “So we won’t have to deal with cabs.” “Good,” she said, trying to stay upbeat. All she really wanted to do was cry to him about how she didn’t want to do this alone again.
“Hey, you okay?” he asked, finally picking up on the fact that all was not right in Who-vile.
“I’m tired,” she said. “And nervous. And Emily is here.”
“In town?”
“At the Inn. Rory is showing her around. I just ran into them.”
“Wow. How was that?”
“Reminded me of why I like to keep Stars Hollow and Hartford separate,” she said, a real smile forming. She heard him laugh on the other end of the line before there was another voice in the back ground, calling to him.
“Hey, I hate to run, but I gotta go, business lunch for work. I’m giving some friends a lift and I had to stop home and change, you caught me just in time,” he told her.
“It’s 2 in the afternoon,” she pointed out.
“It‘s 11 here,” he reminded her of the time change.
“Right,” she said. He could tell she was a little embarrassed to have forgotten the time change. An awkward silence fell over them.
“Other than Emily being there, how’s the inn?”
“Ok, I assume. Mia demanded maternity leave and Sookie is enforcing it.” He laughed and she frowned that he took pleasure in this.
“When I show up, I’m at your beck and call,” he told her. “Better?”
“I guess.”
“Don’t worry about a thing, Lor. I’ll call you and Rory later.”
“Okay.”
“Oh, Lor? Julian, Jake, Nathan and Alexander. Or Starub.”
“Seriously?”
“Yes!” he said. After a moment of silence, he relented. “Starub, no. Micah?”
“You’re really gunning for a boy, aren’t you?“ she asked him.
“You and Rory haven’t even considered Boy names, have you?“ he asked back. He was pretty sure he could hear the blush on her face from there.
“I’ll get back to you on Micah,” she said, changing the subject while adding the five names to the mental list in her head. She had left the paper list at home.
“See ya,” he said.
“Bye,” she said when they finally hung up. Great, now she wished she was heading off to have a cocktail.
***
“Who was that?” Janice, one of his colleagues, asked after Chris had hung up.
“Lorelai,” he answered without hesitation. He liked Janice and was hoping it would turn into something. He figured Lorelai was right and he had to stop lying about his ex-girl friend who’d had his baby at 16 and was having his second. Janice didn’t answer back right away.
“You’re kid’s mother?” she asked.
“My kids’ mother. We’re having a baby in June,” he said. “We’re not together anymore,” he said when he came out of his bedroom, a fresh shirt on. “I stopped by to see them, her and Rory, the end of August and I thought I was ready to settle down. I wasn’t and here we are,” he said as he tied his tie while keeping half an eye on her.
“I don’t get it. . .” she said. She had seen pictures of the brunette he kept on his desk and figured maybe it was his sister. Or a girlfriend.
“We had Rory at 16,” he admitted to her. “Not the best plan, but there she is. Her parents thought we should get married and she disagreed. I went to college and dropped out soon after and she lived at home with Rory for a year before packing her up and settling in Stars Hollow. She’s been there ever since and I’ve been trying to get things together ever since.” He felt a little odd about telling her this, he had never really told any woman he was with, or potentially with, about his past. “I thought I had things together last fall. I had an internet company that was small, but was stable and the longer I stayed with them the less I wanted to leave.”
“So, why did you?”
“I panicked,” he admitted. “Rory was getting used to me being there all the time and Lorelai was getting ready to give up coveted drawer space, which is a huge deal, believe me, and I panicked. All I saw was I was going to be tied down and I was going to have to be accountable and give up my bike, because if you’re going to be a family man . . .”
“You can’t have a motorcycle,” Janice finished for him as she came to sit beside him on the sofa.
“Things went to hell after that. The company went under, I lost contact. When I got things under control again, my parents called. They were back in Connecticut and wanted to see me so I stopped by to see Lor and Rory and . . ."
“She was pregnant.”
“5 months. We discussed the issue. . . Okay, she yelled and I listened. . . And she was right. Time to grow up and face the music.”
“That girl on your desk, not your sister?”
“Not my sister.”
“Or a girl friend?”
“That’s Rory. Smartest kid you’ll ever meet,” he gushed to her as he led her out of his apartment. “She goes to one of the top prep schools in the country and she has her sights set on Harvard.”
“Wow,” was all she could say. This was a new side of Christopher Hayden and she was pretty sure she liked it.
“Yes really,” Lorelai said as she slipped hers on and opened the door.
“You want to walk all the way to Luke’s.”
“It’s not that far, and we do it all the time,” she said, not understanding what the problem was.
“You’re not usually nearly 2 weeks away from your due date either,” Rory protested.
“All the more reason why we should walk,” Lorelai pointed out.
“Fine, let’s go,” Rory said as she held the front door open. The morning was warm and Lorelai was glad that May was nearly over. May had been unusually cool and rainy and no good for spending time out side which was unfortunate when walking anywhere took ages. Today was no exception. The time it took to walk to Luke’s rivaled the time it took them to get there after the annual dance marathons.
“How have you not had that kid yet?” Luke asked as Lorelai and Rory sat at one of the tables by the window.
“Because Sparky knows what’s good for it,” Lorelai said firmly as she waited for Luke to take their order.
“Dad won’t be in town for another 10 days,” Rory supplied.
“Coffee will be out in a bit. Pancakes?”
“Yes!” Rory said, ordering for both of them. “Did you sleep at all last night?” she asked after Luke had left the table.
“There were 20 minute periods, yes,” she admitted with a yawn.
“You need to wake up. Bright eyed and bushy-tailed is the way to be!” Rory said in an overly cheerful voice.
“Can’t. Tired, uncomfortable, swollen,” she said, gesturing to her ankles.
“Play a game? 1, 2, 3 ?” Rory offered, feeling pretty confident that this would do the trick.
“Me first!” Lorelai said, perking up.
“And one!” Rory said as the first guy walked by.
“Pass.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m not Anna Nicole Smith. Next,” she said, feeling no need to deal with the elderly crowd.
“Two,” Rory said, really getting into this.
“Mmmm . . Pass. I’m not Mary Kay LeTourneau,” she tacked on after Rory’s obligatory ‘why?’.
“Okay. . .” she said, doubting a better catch. Luke came over soon after, joining them in staring out the window. Rory interrupted her observations by asking if Luke counted as number three, Before Lorelai could even consider the idea, Luke had ruled himself out.
“I’m not playing,” he said simply.
“Well of course not,” Lorelai said, stunned that the would even suggest such a thing. “It’s still my turn.”
“Okay, last chance,” Rory said when they saw another guy walking across the street.
“Why am I looking?” Luke asked, more for himself than anything else.
“Because it’s like a train wreck.” Lorelai confirmed. “Awwww, no!” Lorelai moaned when they saw that number 3 was Kirk.
“Daddy!” Rory called joyfully.
“Not Kirk!” Lorelai pleaded.
“Maybe he’ll buy us a pony!” Rory teased, a large smile on her face as she leaned over the table and rubbed Lorelai‘s belly.
“I wanna go back to the old guy,” Lorelai whined as she battled Rory‘s hand away. Luke snickered and left the table to greet Kirk at the door.
“Congratulations man,” he said, slapping Kirk on the shoulder. Kirk thanked him, confused but was soon driven off by Lorelai and Rory’s giggling at his presence.
“Mom, quick! He’s leaving!”
“Oh no Kirk come back I loooooooooooove you!” Lorelai called out. “Drat.” she said sarcastically. Rory giggled. “Hey, if you don’t mind me asking, what ever happened with you and Dean? Are you guys still broken up?” She knew that they hadn’t really been talking, but she was pretty sure the avoiding had been scaled down.
“Pretty sure,” she said, playing with the coffee that Luke had just brought over. “I keep trying to talk to him about it, but he won’t listen.”
“And, um, what did you decide?”
“I think I love him,” she admitted, playing with the condiments on the table. “But, I think maybe you were right.”
“About?”
“If he’s not ready to listen to me or give me the time I need, maybe he’s not worth it,” she shrugged a little.
“Rory. . . You don’t need to go from one extreme to another. It’s okay to want to try and make it work, just make sure you’re doing it for the right reasons.” Rory considered this a little longer. “I mean, make sure you’re not just cutting him out of your life out of spite, or you’re cutting him out because it’s what he did to you.”
“I know,” she said as she drank her coffee. “What time are you and Sookie heading out?” she asked, changing the subject.
“Subtle,” Lorelai commented as breakfast arrived. “In the afternoon. As much as I hate to admit it, mommy needs a nap before hitting the mall these days.”
“I can’t believe you haven’t gotten everything yet. What could you possibly need? Especially after Grandma and Grandpa bought all that stuff.”
“See, while your grandmother, bless her, thinks big, she tends to forget the minor things, like a car seat, because she has people to do that for her.” Rory cocked an eye brow at her.
“Seriously? No car seat?”
“No, not seriously. Or don’t you remember tripping over it?” Lorelai asked who promptly hid her face in the large coffee mug.
“Then what?” she finally asked.
“No idea. This is all Sookie’s idea. I’m just along for the ride.”
“Hmmm . . .” was all Rory could manage and Lorelai looked at her, long and hard.
“You know something,” she said finally.
“I know nothing!” Rory insisted, throwing her hands up in defence. “She’s taking you to Hartford to go shopping, that’s all I know. Are you okay?” she asked as she watched Lorelai grimace and shift around in her seat again.
“Yeah, sore back, hard chair. . . You do the math.”
“Gotcha,” she said as they went back to eating and trying to figure out what Sookie had planned.
“You’re back again?” Luke asked when Rory wandered into the diner in the evening.
“Mom’s in Hartford with Sookie, Lane is doing something with her mom . . . I’m out of options.”
“I feel special now,“ he commented. Rory smiled and tried to back peddle but he stopped her. “No home work?” he asked as he poured her a cup of coffee.
“Nope. Final projects are all mostly finished, nothing but studying for exams and I definitely need a break,” she said as she accepted the coffee. “Plus, there are not even pop tarts in the house right now and since I had to go out and buy food,” she held up a bag from Doose’s. “I might as well eat while I’m out.”
“Smart,” he said, leaning on the counter. The dinner rush was over and only a few stragglers were left so he was free to chat with Rory.
“That’s why I pay to go to school,” she said with a smile. “What does the chef recommend tonight?” she asked.
“Really?”
“Change is good!” Rory insisted.
“The salads are really good tonight,” he started. Rory just gave him a look. “Had to try,” he admitted. “Turkey burger? A turkey on white? Ham and cheese on rye?”
“Cheese burger with swiss?, chilli fries,” she answered him finally. Luke rolled his eyes before placing the order.
“I thought change was good.”
“I changed the cheese,” she said in her own defense.
“Careful there wild thing. . . “ he told her with a small smile.
“Hey Luke?”
“What?”
“Where’s Rachel?” Rory asked. “I haven’t seen her around in a while.”
“Uh. . . She left,” he said after a moments hesitation.
“Why? She got another assignment?”
“Yeah,” he lied. “Off to some where exotic already.” Rory studied him for a moment but didn’t push the issue. Luke was her provider while Lorelai was away and she felt no need to put her food supply in danger. “Food’ll be out in a minute.”
“Thanks,” she said as she pulled a book out of her bag and started to read.
“Eat,” she heard through the fog a few minutes later. She picked her book up off the counter, but didn’t stop reading until Luke plucked it from her hands.
“Hey!” she said, rather annoyed.
“Dinner, then book,” he told her as he took the book mark from the counter beside her, marked her place and stuck it on the counter behind him.
“Yes dad,” she joked as she started to eat. The two carried on a light conversation as Rory had dinner. Her plans for the summer were discussed as were his plans to go camping for a week in August. “Give us some warning?” she asked. “So we can stock up accordingly?”
“No problem,” he said. As he cleared her plates, her cell phone went off.
“Mom?” Rory asked into her cell phone.
“Outside!” Luke called.
“Oh my God! Really? Yeah, yeah I’ll call him . . .Yeah, I’ll get it. . . I’ll find a way there. What? Yeah, I have the keys to the jeep. Yeah, I’ll call you when I know. Yeah. Yeah, bye Sookie,” she said as she hung up the phone to see Luke staring at her.
“You are your mothers daughter. That sign is there for a reason,” he said, pointing to the no cell phones sign.
“That was Sookie, mom’s in labour,” she said as she sat glued to her stool. “I need to get there. No, I need to call my dad and stop at home and then go there.” Luke stopped his rant before he could really get into it.
“Come on,” he told her. “Cesar! Close up!” he called as he came around the counter and led her out of the diner. “You start calling, I’ll drive.”
“Home first,” she said, already dialling Chris’ number, letting Luke guide her by the arm so she didn’t have to stop walking. Or worry about walking into anything.
*****
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**Fanfiction stats**
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**The 4400 - 1
**Andromeda - 3
**Dead Like Me - 1
**ER - 2
**Enterprise - 9
**Gilmore Girls - 8
**Harry Potter - 17
**Voyager - 3
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Total: 44 stories in 8 fandoms
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