I think the only part I like about this is Luke's dad.

The relentless pounding on the door jolted him awake, and Luke Danes wondered how he could have fallen asleep when the sun was glaring directly into his window, practically eye-level. Then he glanced down at the book on his desk, and the reason became clear – calculus. He'd been trying to get his homework out of the way so he could spend the rest of the weekend helping his dad in the store, seeing as his sister couldn't do much more than administrative duties for the time being.

The knocking continued and Luke pushed his chair back, rubbing his eyes as he stumbled through the small house switching on a couple of lights as twilight descended. "I'm coming, I'm coming." He called out, reaching the front room and squinting at the foggy shape of the person on the other side of the glass.

"Lorelai?" he asked quietly, seeing his friend in tears on the front steps. "What's the matter? Are you ok?" he looked her over, but couldn't see anything physically wrong. And then a thought occurred. "Is the baby...?"

With a whimper Lorelai threw herself into Luke's arms and continued to cry into his shoulder. Somehow he managed to get her to the kitchen, then with great difficulty – she didn't seen to want to let go of him - into a chair, before handing her a glass of water which she accepted with shaking hands.

"You gotta tell me what's going on here I don't know how else I can help." He explained as she fought to catch her breathe before losing out to the hiccups. "Just... say something so I know that everything's ok."

"He's… gone..." she finally whispered and Luke had to strain his ears to understand.

"He... who? Who's gone?"

"Chris. He's gone."

"He's not gone." Luke replied without thinking. He couldn't think about the possibility that what she'd said was true. "You're having a baby together, he can't be gone. You must-"

"I went over to his house earlier to see him. Things have been weird since that freak show dinner and I wanted to talk about it, try and sort everything out. But when I got to his room..."

"Maybe he's just gone out of town for a couple of days," Luke suggested, hoping to hell that this jackass hadn't abandoned his friend in her time of need. "He had to go and there wasn't time to call you,"

"It all looked the same, mostly. Only a few things were missing. Just the things he really cares about. It wouldn't be obvious to anyone else, but he's gone. He's gone, I know it."

Sitting across the table from Lorelai, Luke felt his entire body fill with rage at the news that Christopher had done a runner. The two of them had never really gotten on very well in the year or so that they'd been 'friends', but this just... if it weren't for the fact that he had a very emotional pregnant friend to deal with he probably would have been able to run from one end of the country to the other until he tracked down the coward who did this and ripped his head off.

"I just, I know this is a lot to deal with, being pregnant, and agreeing to that stupid... Oh, God, I can't believe I agreed to let my mother organize that ceremony. It's only been a month, but if anyone can organize an unwanted civil ceremony in that time Emily Gilmore can do it."

"I wouldn't put it past her." Luke agreed and Lorelai sniffled.

"I'm not stupid, I know it's a lot, but he was so much happier about it than I was. Of all the people I would expect to run out on this wedding and baby deal, he was... Well he wasn't number one on the list."

"Who was?"

"Well... probably me, if it were possible to run away from my self, at least until the thing's out of me, just so I can continue drinking my coffee and eating whatever the hell that I want and I don't have to go through the torture that I hear labour is. But it's not, and I accepted that and I was dealing. But now…"

"You'll deal with this too, ok? You'll get through it we'll all be here for you. I promise you'll get through it."

"You know I think you may be the greatest friend anyone could have," Lorelai observed, reaching across the table to put her hand over Luke's. He'd managed to unclench his fists by now and felt less like he was going to bolt out the door.

"Well, you make it pretty easy. Some of the time anyway,"

"How am I going to do this? This baby needs a dad, I'm pretty sure that's why it takes two people to make a baby, because they're supposed to have two parents. I can't do-"

"I just told you that we'll be here for you – me, Sookie, your- Ok, maybe my parents, and yours can be the ones to pick up the bill. You're gonna be fine, both of you. Just trust me on that."

"Well, if you're absolutely certain..."

"I am." Luke nodded emphatically just as the back door opened and his mother came in carrying an armful of grocery bags. Luke jumped up from his seat and took them from her as she struggled through the door.

"Oh, thank you Luke." Anne said to her son as the load was removed and she was able to move freely. "Hi Lorelai, how's- Honey, have you been crying?"

"Oh, I'm fine. Just..."

"Hormones, Mom, that's all."

"Are you sure? Is there anything I can do?"

"I don't think so, unless you want to fill in for me for the next couple of months?"

"Sorry, but if I were to do that for you, I'd probably have to do the same thing for Liz, and I highly doubt I could manage to carry two of those things at a time."

"That's ok, thanks anyway. I should probably be going."

"Don't rush off on my account."

"No, no, I'm not. I have a few things I have to do this afternoon, that's all. But I'll see you later. Thanks for the talk Luke."

"Sure, anytime." Lorelai smiled at him as she reached the door.

Lorelai sat on her bed, tears streaming down her face, and glanced around her room. The doll house her parents had given to her – still in the original glass – a few years earlier, stood in the corner of the room, and her coming out dress, the one she'd been wearing when the idea that she could possibly be pregnant and not just late (because she'd never been late before, not ever.) had first occurred to her, still hung on the inside of her wardrobe door. Why it hadn't been taken away at anytime in the last five weeks she couldn't say. (Had it really been such a short time since she'd nervously shown the pregnancy test to Sookie to check if they were seeing the same thing?)

Memories of the many cotillion practices that Lorelai had attended over the course of her life – usually with Christopher right by her side, snickering about how silly everyone but her looked in those dresses – filled her mind and she jumped off the bed, pulling the dress down roughly, the hanger clattering to the ground in the process.

"That bastard!" she screeched, throwing the dress across the room. "How could he do this?" she demanded, not anticipating an answer.

The talk with Luke had helped: he was usually pretty good at talking her down from the crazy places her emotions could take her. But still, knowing that Chris was gone and that he hadn't even tried to tell her what he was thinking, she just felt so cheated and that she had every right to be pissed with him for as long as she chose.

Swiping at a fresh batch of tears, and cursing the ridiculous rollercoaster of emotions that this pregnancy was putting her through, Lorelai gasped and pressed a hand to her abdomen as she felt the tiniest flutter.

Swallowing back any further tears she smiled, and lifted her shirt to get just a little closer to the baby.

"We'll be fine," she promised, keeping her index and middle finger against the spot where she felt the odd sensation. "We don't need him; we're going to be just fine."

Later that evening in Stars Hollow, Luke was in his father's hardware store, bashing his way around the store room as he prepared orders to be picked up in the morning.

"Lucas, what the hell are you doing in here?" William Danes demanded, poking his head through the door.

"Nothin'. I'm just working."

"You've never worked this noisily your entire life, what's going on?"

"I told you, it's nothing."

"Like hell. I know there's a lot going on at the moment, what with your sister and Lorelai and everything, but-"

"I don't want to talk about it, ok?"

"You don't want to talk about it?" William repeated.

"No. I don't."

"Well that's just too damn bad! Come here," he grabbed his son's shirt sleeve and began pulling him towards the stairs that led to his office. "Lizzie we'll be right back," he called over his shoulder, pushing Luke up the stairs.

Luke practically fell through the door, and landed in a heap on one of the chairs, set up around a small table that William usually ate his lunch at when he didn't have time to come home during the day.

"Now, you tell me what the hell's going on with you."

"I told you I don't-"

"Yeah, I know. You don't wanna talk, but I'm not giving you a choice here, so, come on, out with it. Your mother already told me that Lorelai was in tears this afternoon when she got home you, want to start with that?"

Luke was silent for a moment, glaring at the table top as he picked at the peeling surface. "I just don't think it's fair."

"What's not fair?"

"Everything! Lorelai, Liz, they're smart and they could have done just about anything, but instead, they'll be stuck at home, raising these babies. Jimmy's a total flake, and he'll probably be no help at all and Chris…"

"You're probably right about Jimmy, but you and Chris are friends aren't you?"

"We were, sort of,"

"What do you mean were? Did you have a falling out over all this?"

"Not exactly,"

"Well what then?"

"He left."

"He left?"

"Yep. He's gone. That's what Lorelai was crying about. She went to his place and he wasn't there. He didn't leave a note or anything, but she's sure that he's gone and he's not coming back."

Mister Danes didn't say anything for a while, but Luke had a pretty good idea of what he was thinking; those two girls had picked a real pair of winners in Christopher Hayden and Jimmy Mariano. Jimmy hadn't left Liz outright, but for the moment he too was gone, apparently off trying to find a well-paying job with which he could support his impending family.

Now with Chris… It was all just a mess.

"Well, what do her parents have to say about it?"

"I don't know if they even know yet, she didn't mention them really. I'm more concerned about her and the baby at the moment than Mister and Mrs. Gilmore."

"That's fair enough. You'll let her know that we're here for her, whatever she needs, won't you?"

"I already kind of did."

"Good. That's good. The last thing she needs is to be left at the mercy of her parents. Without the father around, they might try putting pressure on her when it comes closer to the baby being born. She's going to need you and Sookie a lot in the coming months."

"I'm not going anywhere," Luke replied defensively.

"I know that. And I'm glad that you have a good head on your shoulders. At least we got it right with one of you,"

"Dad, Liz isn't-"

"I know she's a good girl, I'm just mouthing off."

"Can I get back to work now?" Luke asked after a while.

"As long as you stop making such a racket; it sounded like there were a band of horses in there with you."

"Sure, I'll keep it down." Luke nodded and headed back down the stairs to finish off his last few jobs for the night.

Picking up the phone, he listened for a while to the dial tone, before finally punching in the number and waiting for someone to answer.

"Hello?" the woman that answered sounded anxious, almost terrified.

"Mom, I-"

"Christopher! Where are you? I'll send someone right away to come get you. I'll talk to your father and make sure he goes easy on you, just tell me where-"

"Mom, you can't send anyone to come get me. I'm not coming back."

"What do you mean you're not coming back? Of course you are! You've got your senior year coming up, and college, and Lorelai's-"

"Lorelai and I… That's not going to happen mom. And college isn't either. I'm sorry about this, but I can't do it. And I can't come home. I just wanted you to know that I'm ok."

"You can't come home? What is that supposed to mean? You and Lorelai have been together for two years Christopher! She is pregnant with your child; of course you're coming home."

Chris pulled the phone away from his ear and took a deep breath "You're not listening to me." He told her, "I can't be a husband or a father. Anyone else would do a better job than me, but I am definitely the wrong guy for that. Lorelai will be fine without me, I'm sure of it."

"I don't understand what you're telling me. This is your child, isn't it?"

"Yes."

"Then you have to be here, you have to be the one to help raise it. Emily and I already saw to the preparations for the ceremony, your father and Richard have everything planned for you once you go to work for them, it's all done. And there is a baby on the way that you need to be here for. You can't just run away."

Chris took the phone away from his ear and stared at it as he took another breathe. His mother was repeating herself again, still harping on about college and the wedding. He couldn't listen anymore, so he replaced the receiver and leaned against the wall of the phone booth.

If she knew that he was still in town and had spent the night sleeping on a bench she would probably kill him.

Which was why he was glad that his bus would be leaving in a few minutes.

He knew he was being cowardly, running like this without explaining anything. That phone call might as well not have happened, for all the listening that his mother did. The same would have happened if he'd called Emily Gilmore though, and he imagined Lorelai probably wouldn't feel like letting him speak too much had he called her either.

But as much as he knew Lorelai would hate him for this, and their child, when it was old enough to understand what he had done, he had to go. He wasn't ready for this responsibility. Lorelai had to know that. She'd even said herself that she wasn't so sure she could do it without their friends and family. Never once had she said she needed him, not in those exact words, just that she was glad for the support that she had. Which, he told himself now, didn't exactly include him. Because although he'd agreed to what his parents and her parents had planned out for them at that disastrous dinner last month, he'd still been scared out of his wits at the thought of bringing a baby home and taking care of it.

Running was the easiest way out that he could think of, since Lorelai had already informed the entire dinner party in a very forceful tone that she was going to have the baby, and she would be keeping it. Chris remembered that his father had suggested abortion, and Emily had abruptly informed him that wasn't an option. At least that was one thing Lorelai and her mother could agree on. Right after those words had come out of the older woman's mouth, Lorelai was down the stairs and yelling at the four adults assembled in the sitting room that she didn't need them to tell her how things were going to go, because she already had a plan.

In the end her plan had been brushed aside in favour of her father's – the-get-married-and-have-the-boy-work-in-my-company-plan.

But in the weeks that followed, it became clearer that the plan that had been laid out wouldn't work. Not really. Sure, it sounded good in theory, but he wasn't husband material, his mom had gotten one thing right that night – he was just a baby, he wasn't ready for this. Stepping out of the phone booth and pulling his ticket out of his pocket to check the details, Chris took one last look around before climbing aboard the waiting bus that would take him away from his home.

Maybe it would take a while for people to agree with him, but he was sure that no matter what else happened that child would definitely be better off without him around.

Woops. Almost wrote Jess at the end there, with the getting on the bus bit. Guess I've seen him do that too many times and it was just a reflex.