Apples and bananas
Lorelai stared at the silver phone in her hand for a few minutes before flipping it open and dialing Rory's cell number. It rang a few times before she picked up.
"Hey you!" Came Rory's voice over the line.
"It's a girl." Lorelai announced, jumping right in the conversation.
"A girl, we need a girl!" Rory said excitedly.
"Why do we need a girl?" Lorelai asked, grateful to be able to avoid the 'other' subject for a moment.
"I don't know... aren't there enough guys walking around out there as it is?" Rory replied, making Lorelai smile.
"Good point." She agreed.
"So, is everyone OK?" Rory asked.
"Yeah, baby's fine, still un-named, and Sookie's resting." Lorelai said. "Fourteen hours of labor can make you kinda tired."
"I bet." Rory replied. They were both silent for a moment before she continued. "And how 'bout you?"
"What about me? I'm fine." Lorelai said, too fast.
"You know what I mean, the fruit issue." Rory pressed on.
"Oh, that..." Lorelai sighed. Nothing got passed her daughter.
"So... any news?" Rory continued when Lorelai didn't say anything more.
"Another apple and two bananas." Lorelai confessed.
"Oh." Rory replied, not sure what else to say.
"Yeah." Lorelai agreed.
"So... have you talked to Luke?" Rory asked.
"God, no." Lorelai replied. "Can you imagine? He'd totally freak out."
"He might not." Rory countered. "Anyway, you have to talk to him."
"Not yet." Lorelai said. "I mean, he'll think I'm crazy."
"He already knows you're crazy." Rory pointed out.
"Ha ha, very funny." Lorelai said, sitting down in a plastic hospital chair. "And anyway, what would I say? 'Hey, I think I'm pregnant, because I ate some fruit'?"
"OK, that does sound a little weird." Rory admitted. "Then what are you going to do?"
"I'm just gonna wait a few weeks, see what happens, and if I have to I'll take a home test." Lorelai said rationally.
"OK." Rory agreed. "And then you'll tell him?"
"If it's positive, I will tell him." Lorelai promised.
"Good girl." Rory said.
"So, I gotta go. I'm heading home now." Lorelai said. "I thought we could have a combined baby shower/welcome home party for Sookie and the baby on Sunday, you free?"
"Sure, I've got some homework but it can wait." Rory agreed. "So I'll see you Friday for dinner?"
"Not like I have a lot to say in the matter." Lorelai agreed, a little grumpily.
"Bye, mom."
"Bye, kid."
Lorelai sat staring at the box on the table, as if her looking at it would make it turn out the way she wanted. Sighing, she leaned back on the couch and looked at her watch. Only twenty minutes until Rory would be home.
It had been two weeks since the 'fruit incident' in the hospital, two weeks of apples and a nauseating feeling in the pit of her stomach whenever the subject of coffee came up. So, when her 'friend' hadn't arrived that Monday, Lorelai had finally gone out and gotten a pregnancy test, which she had hidden in her underwear drawer so Luke wouldn't see it. She hadn't managed to get herself to take it yet, though. She needed moral support, so she was waiting for Rory to get home for the weekend, she had Friday off. Luke was at the diner the whole day, so they wouldn't have to worry about him.
"Mom?" Rory's voice was followed by the front door slamming shut.
"Living room!" Lorelai yelled back, and Rory appeared in the doorway.
"Did you get it?" She asked, out of breath. Lorelai waved the box in the air. "Well, what are you waiting for?"
"Come with me?" Lorelai pleaded, pouting.
"I have absolutely no desire to watch you pee on a stick, but I will wait with you when you're done." Rory replied, and Lorelai settled for that, getting up and making her way to the bathroom.
"How long do we have to wait?" Rory asked as Lorelai came out of the bathroom a few minutes later.
"Three minutes." Lorelai replied, checking the box.
"OK." Rory nodded, and they both went into the kitchen, where Lorelai placed the test on the sink and stared at it. "You know, it won't be done any faster that way." Rory noted, and Lorelai glared at her.
"Thank you for your support." She said sarcastically.
"I'm only saying." Rory defended herself, sitting down at the kitchen table. Lorelai followed her lead.
"So, distract me." She ordered, looking at Rory expectantly.
"Paris made a girl cry yesterday." Rory told her.
"Why?" Lorelai asked.
"I don't know, I think she just got in her way." Rory shrugged.
"That Paris needs therapy." Lorelai shook her head.
"She's already getting therapy." Rory replied.
"Then she needs to find a new shrink, cause this one is obviously not working."
"I've told her that too." Rory agreed.
"So, what else is new at Yale?" Lorelai wondered, and Rory started to tell her about what had happened since they had last seen each other.
"... so, then Finn tries to get this girl to give him her number, but luckily she has more than two brain cells and obviously turns him down. Sometimes I almost feel sorry for him." Rory finished telling Lorelai about her night out with Logan and his friends the previous weekend.
"I do not understand how that boy has not died from alcohol poisoning yet, if he's drunk every weekend." Lorelai said in a slightly amazed voice.
"I know, it's almost impressive." Rory agreed, and Lorelai nodded. "Hey, you know what?" Rory suddenly said, and Lorelai shook her head. "It's been three minutes."
"God, I had almost forgotten." Lorelai said, groaning a little. "Do I have to?"
"No, but it won't go away even if you don't." Rory reasoned, and Lorelai surrendered, going over to the sink and picking up the test.
"Crap!" She said quietly, dropping the test into the sink.
Rory quickly got to her feet and enveloped her mother in a hug.
"It'll be OK." She tried to comfort as a few tears rolled down Lorelai's cheeks.
"Thanks." Lorelai said a few minutes later, pulling back.
"You OK?" Rory asked, concern in her voice.
"I will be." Lorelai replied, sitting back down at the table, staring out the window. "How am I going to tell him?"
"Well, a simple 'Hey, Luke, I'm pregnant' might do the trick." Rory tried to joke.
"You're funny." Lorelai replied dryly.
"Just trying to lighten the mood." Rory replied.
"But really, how am I going to tell him?" Lorelai repeated. "I mean, we haven't talked about this. We haven't even talked about it in the 'hey, wanna have kids someday?' kinda way, and definitely not in the 'wanna have a kid in eight months' kinda way. At least not since we started dating."
"He'll be fine, mom." Rory tried, but Lorelai only shook her head.
"He'll completely freak out." She said. "I mean, we are talking about Luke 'I hate kids, they're always messy and have sticky hands'. He'll panic."
"Kinda like you are now?" Rory suggested carefully.
"I am not panicking." Lorelai defended herself, and Rory raised an eyebrow at her. "OK, I'm panicking, but I'm not panicking about the situation, I'm panicking about Luke panicking about the situation."
"OK, you lost me somewhere around the second 'panicking'." Rory said, earning a slap on the arm from her mother. "You just have to tell him, get it over with. He will be happy about this, mom, I really believe that."
Lorelai looked up at Rory, fear obvious in her eyes.
"What if he won't want it? What if he thinks I did this on purpose, to trap him, and he leaves?" She had tears in her eyes now, and Rory's heart went out to her mother.
"He won't." She promised, squeezing Lorelai's hand. "This isn't Dad we're talking about, it's Luke. The Luke who has fixed everything around this place twice. The Luke who made you a Santa Burger and me a coffee cake for my birthday. The Luke who brought me mashed potatoes when I had the chicken pox. The Luke who bid on your basket just because you asked him. The Luke who has been waiting for you for eight years. He won't leave." She emphasized the three last words, and when she finished, Lorelai nodded.
"I know, I know all this." She agreed. "It's just, this voice inside my head keeps telling me that I don't deserve this, that I'm not supposed to get the guy and the happy ending. It's kinda hard to tune out."
"Well, you're gonna have to, cause we're going to Luke's right now." Rory replied, pulling Lorelai up from the table.
"What? No!" Lorelai shook her head vigorously.
"You have to tell him at some point, why not just get it over with?" Rory tried.
"But I don't want to." Lorelai whined.
"You have to." Rory countered. "Or do you want him to figure it out by himself in three or four months?"
"Maybe he won't notice?" Lorelai suggested hopefully. Rory only stared at her, eyebrows raised. "Fine, I'll tell him." Lorelai surrendered.
"Good, let's go." Rory dragged Lorelai towards the front door.
"Why do I have to do it right now?" Lorelai asked.
"Because if you don't you'll chicken out." Rory reasoned.
"True." Lorelai agreed.
"So, let's go then."
"Fine." Lorelai let herself be led out of the house.
"Coffee?" Luke asked as Lorelai and Rory sat down at the counter at the diner.
"I'll have a cup." Rory replied. "Mom?" She looked at Lorelai expectantly.
"I think I'll pass, actually." Lorelai said.
"You feeling OK?" Luke asked, frowning.
"Yeah, I'm fine." Lorelai assured him.
"I don't think you've ever turned down a cup of coffee before." Luke noted, filling the cup for Rory.
"Just not in the mood right now." Lorelai replied, feeling her stomach flip uncomfortably as the smell of the coffee hit her nostrils. "Actually, could I maybe talk to you? Upstairs?"
"Sure." Luke agreed, looking at her wondering. "Ceasar, take over for a little while, OK?"
"Sure, boss." Ceasar yelled from the kitchen.
Luke led the way upstairs and opened the door to the apartment for Lorelai. She walked in and stopped in the middle of the room, turning to face him. He closed the door behind him and took a step towards her, his hands deep in his pockets.
"So...?" He started.
"Right..." Lorelai looked down at her feet, tracing a pattern on the floor with her right foot.
"Is something wrong?" Luke asked when she didn't continued.
"Oh, no, everything's fine." Lorelai hurriedly said. "Or, I don't know, I mean, I think everything's fine, I don't know what you think, you know? Maybe you won't, but at least..."
"Lorelai!" He cut her off. "You're babbling."
"Sorry." She apologized, wrapping her arms around herself as if it could protect her from what he might say. "Just nervous."
"About what?" He asked, reaching out and running a hand down her arm. The gesture sent goose bumps over Lorelai's entire body.
"Remember the night we went to that dinner, with the Durham Group?" She started, and he nodded. "Well, you know how, when we got home, we sorta got a little carried away and we didn't use, you know?"
"I don't know... what are you..."
"I'm pregnant." She blurted out.
He just looked at her for what felt like an eternity. Lorelai wanted to sink through the floor, jump out the window, anything to get away from his gaze that seemed to see through her.
"You're..."
"Pregnant, yeah." She bit her lip, preparing for whatever was about to happen. Would he run screaming from the room? Would he yell at her? Instead, he took a couple of steps towards her, closing the last distance between them, and put his arms around her, pulling her as close as he possibly could.
It took her a moment to understand what was happening, but when she did, she snuck her arms up around his neck and leaned into the embrace, snuggling into the crook of his neck.
"I love you." He whispered in her ear, and she felt tears rise in her eyes. Everything would be OK.
"I love you too."