Child Support

A/N: Drawn from selected events of the second half of season six. No Pod Lorelai. Luke is still an indecisive jerk. Let's see how that combination works out.

For every review, an anvil lands on Christopher.

CS 1 We have to tell each other everything.

"Rory's back," announced Lorelai as she entered the diner.

"What?" asked Luke, still distracted from his crazy day.

"She's back. She's back at home, she's back at school, she got a job, and she did it all on her own." She beamed with pride and happiness.

Lorelai blew through the diner, chattering a mile a minute, packing doughnuts.

"She's at Lane's picking up her things, and then we're going to pull a major all-nighter. We need burgers, fries, onion rings, and anything else you can think of. Oh! I'm going to go next door and pick up some ice cream at Taylor's."

On her way out the door, she added, "She's back! We can set the date. We can get married now because Rory's back. Don't skimp on the fries. We don't want to lose her again."

Luke twisted his cleaning cloth as he watched Lorelai chat and giggle with the Betsy Ross-dressed server in Taylor's shop as she ordered her ice cream. That scene felt as unreal to him as the interchange with April had that afternoon. Lorelai will understand this, he thought. I'll ask her.

When his fiancée dashed in again, he had no more chance to speak than when she had been in five minutes earlier.

"Ice cream, doughnuts, check. We are going to watch loud bad movies all night and mock them to bits!"

She looked at Luke, who was still dumbfounded. "You'll get those burgers going? I've got to go back in case she thinks about bolting." She dropped one more peck on Luke's lips, then dashed out the door before he could respond.

Luke sighed. The grill needed to be turned on again, which meant it needed to be cleaned again. It was going to be a late night.

"Shit!" he exclaimed as he burned his fingers on the grill. "Get a grip, Danes," he rebuked himself as he tried to focus on the cooking and not the maelstrom in his head.

He dropped a full basket of fries into the not-quite-hot-enough oil. His hands automatically reached for the lettuce, tomato and pickle garnishes, then slammed the refrigerator door shut, bringing only the cheese he knew the girls would eat.

Rory had been gone since May; it was now almost Thanksgiving. Six months Lorelai had wandered Stars Hollow like a zombie and now that he needed to talk to her, she couldn't sit still long enough for him to complete a sentence.

Completely inattentive to the cooking, he intuitively flipped the burgers and stared off into space, not noticing the overly-pink, yet partially charred burgers. He pressed them somewhat flatter with his spatula, leaving one twice as thick as the other. He slapped the cheese on the meat as the deep fry machine beeped.

Hooking the basket on the drain rack, Luke plated the burgers into take-away containers, then poured the still-dripping fries into another one. He closed the lid on the unsalted greasy mess.

Turning the grill and the fryer off, he put the containers in bags and headed for the Crap Shack on foot.

He fisted the food bags until the paper threatened to tear into shreds. How could he be a father and not know it? How could Anna be selfish enough to not tell him she was pregnant? To not tell him he was a father for twelve years? What kind of person does that sort of thing?

He trudged up the steps, as distracted as ever. When he opened the door, the blaring TV and stereo, chatter and Lorelai's laughter gave him a comforting feeling even as the noise overwhelmed him. He was looking forward to basking in this wonderful family moment.

The girls didn't disappoint. Once they realized he was in the room, Lorelai assaulted him with hugs and kisses, while Rory, who was on the telephone, gave him a wave and a giant grin.

"God, this feels good," he said into her ear as he squeezed her, trying to push his worries out of his brain. "I'm glad Rory's home."

He relaxed into her embrace, overjoyed to have both Lorelais back, but especially Lorelai Victoria. She had been emotionally checked out the whole time Rory was away. He pulled her out onto the porch and kissed her properly. Then he kissed her improperly, which she enjoyed even more.

"Welcome home," he said when they broke for air and made an attempt to stay below an X rating.

He ran his fingers through her hair, then sighed. "I've got to go back and clean the grill. I'll be back soon."

Rory had grabbed the diner bags and set the food out on the table when Lorelai came back inside.

"Look at you, all dreamy-eyed and blushing," she said to her mother. "Have you been doing naughty things outside?"

"Nothing Miss Patty wouldn't approve of," replied Lorelai.

"In other words, the Doose Morality Patrol will be putting you in the pokey?"

"Nah, we're going on the run. Gonna drive off Niagara Falls a la Thelma and Louise."

"Who's Thelma? Luke?"

"Luke's J.D., silly. With a butt like that, who else could he be?"

"Ew. Let's eat."

They bit into their burgers, immediately spitting out what they'd eaten.

"What's Luke upset about?" queried Rory. "Luke only cooks this badly when something is seriously wrong."

"Nothing," said Lorelai. "We had a fight about the bedroom furniture, but made up. I don't know why the burgers taste so bad."

"OK, then I guess we'll eat the onion rings and fries." Rory flipped the box open and popped one in her mouth. "Yuck! No salt! These are disgusting! And no onion rings."

Rory contemplated Luke's cooking and her mother's apparent indifference. The whole town knew that Luke's food was inedible when he was upset or worried about something.

"Weird," said Lorelai, shoving the containers back into the bag. She reached for the Twizzlers.

Their diner disaster meal was quickly forgotten when the pizza arrived.

Rory moved to the leather chair and bounced on it. "This feels great. Is this the only thing of Luke's that you moved in?"

Lorelai's eyes darted to the chair, then around the room, looking for a subject change. "He did move his grandmother's bedroom set in," she said, trying to sidestep the issue.

"But he moved that in as a surprise for you. A gift you called 'creepy' and rejected."

"You saw it. It WAS creepy." Lorelai shuddered at the thought of those cherubs watching them.

Rory smiled. "Jess and I used to sit on this chair and …"

"Don't want to hear it!" cried Lorelai as she stuffed a Twizzler in Rory's mouth. "You're sugar-deprived if you've been living with Emily. Eat up."

"Mom, still. You haven't let Luke move anything into the house except his clothes and his favorite chair."

Darty eyes played an encore. "That's not his chair. That's a new chair."

"It looks almost exactly like Luke's chair! Why would you go out and buy a new chair when Luke has the exact same thing already?"

Fresh from the Balalaika Battle with Emily, Rory still had plenty of backbone. Things were not right in Lorelai-world. Something weird was going on.

"You've been engaged for six months, Mom. You let Luke pay for the whole remodel, but the only thing of his that you let him have here are his clothes."

"His spatula is here. And Bert." Lorelai pulled her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them.

Rory sat quietly, playing with the bowl of peanut M&Ms. "Why are you keeping him away? Are you going to break up with him?"

"No! We're happy. We're getting married!"

"Tell me about the wedding plans."

"We haven't exactly started planning yet." Darty eyes booked a longer engagement.

Sighing, Rory knew she needed to let this go for the moment. Everything was too much. She couldn't handle another fight at the moment.

The screaming match with Emily right in the middle of the balalaika tea still irked her. At least she moved out and eliminated that problem. What in the world was her grandmother thinking when she tried to ground her? Then calling Richard "your father." Now Rory had a better understanding of what Lorelai had gone through.

Seeing Jess again. How dare he tell her "This isn't you." He had no idea who she was now, how much she'd grown. The DAR was important dammit!

Logan. He was not handling his father's mandated trip to Omaha well, and he'd behaved like a jerk to Jess. She couldn't stand to even be around Logan at the moment.

Now she was home, her sanctuary. Her safe place. A remodeled, redecorated home. One with hardly a sign that Luke was living with them and a Lorelai who was deep in denial about the whole situation.

Rory scanned the photos on the mantel. "Nice photos. There's my favorite picture of us, that painting of that weird girl, even Sookie and Jackson."

"Do you like this one?" asked Lorelai as she bounced up and pulled a newer picture of Rory and Lorelai off the mantel. "Remember we took it not long after you moved to Yale?"

"It's nice, Mom. Where's a picture of Luke?"

"I haven't found a frame yet."

"Show me the picture. Do you have an engagement picture yet?"

When simple denial failed, Lorelai added distraction. "Pop in a new movie, and no talking during the movie. Have you forgotten the rules already?"

Rory rolled her eyes, selected another movie and started playing.

Lorelai's face puckered at the opening scenes of Runaway Bride. In Rory's mind, instead of the name Maggie, she substituted Lorelai.

Feeling better, Luke trotted back to the diner and made quick work of cleaning the already cooled grill and deep fryer. Arriving back home, he was determined to pull Lorelai aside and tell her about April.

He opened the door, pleasantly surprised that the noise was considerably reduced. He greeted the girls for the second time that evening. That's when he noticed the chill in the air. Superficially they looked happy, but Rory's eyebrows were stitched together in problem-solving mode and Lorelai looked more like the zombie Lorelai from yesterday than the happy mother of the prodigal daughter.

This was definitely not the time to start a new discussion.

"I'm gonna go shower and collapse in bed. I'm beat." He ruffled Lorelai's hair, dropped a kiss on the top of her head and went upstairs.

He walked through the darkened bedroom straight to the shower and enjoyed the new shower head and roomy shower space. He wearily took his sweats and T-shirt from the hook in the bathroom, pulled them on and collapsed into the bed.

The first thing that hurt was his butt when he fell a good half foot farther than expected. "Dammit!" he cursed as he remembered his grandmother's bed that he hadn't yet removed from the room. Determined to make the best of it, he lay back and tried to sleep.

The next morning he made his way painfully down the stairs, having felt every one of the many lumps and sags in the ancient bed.

Lorelai and Rory were cuddled together on the new sofa, pillows strewn everywhere. Luke smiled, ran his fingers through Lorelai's hair, then went to the kitchen to start Lorelai's coffee.

A few minutes later, a sleepy Lorelai shuffled up behind him and wrapped her arms around him. "Morning," she said sleepily, kissing his back as she leaned against him.

"That bed really sucks," he declared. "Not only is it ugly and weird, but I think I hurt my back sleeping on it."

Lorelai shivered. "It's just creepy," she agreed as she massaged his back, eliciting a painful groan from Luke.

"You guys are going shopping today, right?" he asked. "Why don't you preselect a bed or two and we can decide together later?"

She smiled up at him. "As long as later means later today, OK. Rory and I want to go on her birthday trip to Atlantic City tomorrow."

"Ah, um, OK, I guess. We can order it tonight and I'll get the old furniture out of here while you're gone."

"This is officially my favorite room in the house," declared Rory. "A bathroom with two sinks, that's luxury."

"I know! I have two sinks. I can brush my teeth in my first sink and spit into my second sink."

"Luke probably doesn't like that very much. Which sink is his?" Rory looked around the sink area.

"Ah, Luke doesn't care which sink he uses."

Rory peered into Lorelai's sink as she brushed her hair out. "I'm sure he'll care when both sinks are filled with your hair. Are you going bald?" She held up a disgusting clump of Lorelai's hair that. "This is so gross."

Lorelai began furiously brushing her hair and looking at the brush to see how much was coming out. She petulantly cleaned the brush and both sinks, dropping the hair into the toilet.

Turning to the corner cabinet, she opened the door with a flounce. "Look, here's where Luke keeps his stuff. Who are you anyway, Barney the Dinosaur? Sharing is Caring? Luke can take care of himself."

"Mom, I'm always on your side, you know that. I also know that Luke loves you so much that he'll let you walk all over his heart until it breaks."

"Luke is fine," insisted Lorelai. "Let's go to the diner and you'll see for yourself."

Lorelai and Luke began speaking simultaneously as he poured the girls' coffee.

"I've got good news," he said, pleased with his work.

"Luke, I need you to approve this list."

He looked at the paper she thrust under his nose. "List of what?"

"Just look. You'll figure it out."

He scowled at her. Guessing games weren't his forte; even less now that he was wrestling with the April situation. He's just agreed to pay for his half of the cost of raising April, and knew he needed to talk to Lorelai about it, but here she was, about to leave on her trip, and giving him a list. He shook his head to clear it and held the list up again.

"Bono. Johnny Depp. Brad Pitt. What the hell is this list, Lorelai?"

"My freebie list." She smirked at him, and received a patented Danes blank look in return.

"It's a list of guys that if I meet them in Atlantic City, I can hook up with them, and you promise not to get mad."

"By hook up, you mean sleep with them?"

"Yep. In the truest biblical sense. Banging, boom-boom, batter-dipping the…" She was stopped by Luke's open palm in front of her face.

Luke finished reading the list. "David Bowie, Kelsey Grammer. Wait. Kelsey Grammer?"

Rory piped up with a giggle. "Don't ask, Luke. Count yourself lucky she didn't put Oompa-Loompas on the list."

He put on a mock disapproving look, said, "No way am I gonna approve this. You can just write all these guys and tell them no way, no how." He turned to go back to work when Lorelai grabbed the back of his belt and pulled hard.

"Ow! What are you doing? You are never going to get my permission for this insanity."

"Luke."

"No."

"Luke, will you listen?"

He sighed, adjusting his pants after the near-wedgie she had given him. "What?" fully anticipating a litany of Kelsey Grammer's wonderful attributes. Or worse, a song.

"You had good news. What's up?"

"Ah." His face immediately softened as he remembered. Putting the coffee pot on the table, he straightened up to his full height and puffed out his chest proudly.

"Well, the new bedroom furniture's on its way and my grandmother's bedroom set is out of the house. I sold it. Made a nice bit of money, too."

"Who'd you sell it to?" asked Rory.

"Kirk," smirked Luke. He picked up the coffee pot and turned yet again, but pivoted on his toe, turning back to Rory as he remembered something.

"Say, um, Rory, you, uh, you know stuff, right?" he asked haltingly. Lorelai giggled.

"Yale has advanced placement classes in 'stuff,'" she teased.

Luke rolled his eyes, but pressed on. "How much does it cost to raise a kid these days?"

Rory smiled sweetly at Luke. "We did a series on youth pregnancy last year and I actually do know something about that stuff. Are you talking about a baby born today?" She turned to Lorelai. "Is there something you've forgotten to tell me, Mom?"

Lorelai made big googly eyes at Luke. "Luke, honey, are you trying to tell me that you're pregnant?"

"Aw, geez." He turned back to Rory. "Nah, if a kid were, say, twelve, how much did it cost to raise that kid so far?"

Rory pondered a moment. "Well, I guess you'd have to plan on maybe $40 thousand for the whole time."

Luke processed it for a moment, then said "Thanks. I was just kinda wondering. When are you guys leaving?" His stomach was turning sour, knowing they needed to talk, but there just wasn't enough time. Before he reached the sanctuary of his counter, Sookie burst through the door.

"Wedding planning can begin!" she cried. "The BFOTB has arrived!"

While Lorelai, Rory and Sookie chattered excitedly about the wedding, Luke kept working. The rhythm of order – cook – serve – clean gave him comfort. When they began talking about specifics, he joined them, only to be rudely rejected by Sookie. Lorelai didn't defend him, and he finally retreated, grumbling about wanting to be part of the planning. He felt only slightly better when Rory tried to get the two older women to include him, but that also failed.

On their way out the door, Luke ran over to Rory and Lorelai, handing them some money, saying, "Here's some of the money Kirk gave me. Place a few bets for me, OK?" A hug for Rory and a sweet kiss for his fiancée and the Gilmore Girls were on their way to Atlantic City.

We have to tell each other everything.

Some couples know it's important to talk about the major things in their life before making the decision.

Major financial expenditures. Buying a house. Having or not having kids. Cutting a rebellious daughter out of their life. Bringing a dog into their life. Mulling a job offer that would take one partner away from home. A kid saying "You're my father." Hearing from an old boyfriend. Visiting an old girlfriend to find out the truth about paternity.

Some couples never figure that out.

Luke Danes wrote and mailed a check for $20,000 to Anna Nardini.

Lorelai Gilmore called Christopher and made a lunch date to hear his news.

Luke had just finished talking with Anna, letting her know that he wanted a relationship with April as well as contributing child support. He felt uncomfortable even saying that, and Anna wasn't at all helpful; she kept trying to convince him that they didn't want his help.

He finally called Lorelai at the inn, determined to tell her about the situation, but the French putz rudely told him that she wasn't there, and her cell went directly to voicemail. He decided to wait until later to tell her, and went back to work.

Kirk had returned for the third time after he helped Luke find April's internet page, and offered another set of internet services for hire, which got weirder each time he approached Luke.

What had started out as a simple website for Luke's, which Luke had refused because everyone who needed to know where Luke's was, already knew where Luke's was. Kirk's idea had become a multi-media extravaganza involving dancing pork chops, cold bananas and Kirk's latest video series curiously titled "Night Terrors, or Why I Love Luke Danes." For a small additional price, Kirk assured him, he could also add a black market online gambling interface, intended to skim money off the seedy side of Stars Hollow.

Rory drove through Stars Hollow to pick up her mother for their lunch with Christopher. She was determined to be there whenever she could to make sure Lorelai stayed happy. Happiness meant Luke.

Christopher had a way of blowing in and dropping little messes like Mr. Hanky, then blowing back out, leaving a devastated Lorelai behind. Even though Lorelai assured her that Christopher only had good news, Rory knew from experience that Christopher's 'good' was usually only good from his own perspective.

The other great side to this lunch was a chance to stop dwelling on her last argument with Logan. It wasn't just about his jealous treatment of Jess. He had accused her of slacking when all she was doing was reminding him that he had life handed to him on a platinum platter. He didn't understand how hard it was for her, and how impossible life with Emily was.

His father pushing him into becoming a mini-Mitchum was nothing compared to the real troubles in her life. She was on probation, dammit! She was a felon! She had Emily telling her what to wear, what to say, what to do, who to marry, and not to have sex. Now she was out of Yale and life was hard. The only reply Logan had to any of these big problems was that she should change it. Rory snorted. That was the kind of answer only a silver-spoon trust fund baby could give.

That's why Stars Hollow was better. None of those problems existed. Only her mother and her usual relationship problems. Those she could fix. Lorelai listened to her. She would do what she said. After all, she was her mother's brilliant daughter, could do no wrong. She loved her. Stars Hollow loved her.

"So in short, I'm filthy rich!" crowed Christopher, his face lit up with his most engaging smile. "Gigi's all taken care of, as I explained, and now I want to take care of you! Tell me your heart's desire. I'll buy it for you!"

Rory noticed that Christopher was as usual focused on Lorelai, even though he'd made it clear that he intended to take care of both of them. She sipped her iced tea cautiously as she took a sidelong glance at her mother. What she saw surprised her.

Lorelai was calm. She wasn't giggling like she normally did when Christopher turned his charm on full force. She watched him speak, responded to confirm and clarify, but she wasn't taken in.

Rory was pleased with herself. The coaching she'd given her mother over the past days had clearly had an impact. She smiled a true Emily smile; self-satisfied as only a Gilmore can be.

"I'm fine," said Lorelai, with a calm demeanor. She was fine. Christopher had no impact on her. She had totally missed Rory's coaching because she didn't need it. Luke was it for her. Christopher had nothing she wanted.

Christopher was giddy about the money. He felt free. Lorelai felt free as well. She fingered her beloved engagement ring that Christopher hadn't noticed yet, being so full of his Daddy Warbucks persona. She had Luke. She had her Rory back. She had a wildly successful business. If the money made Christopher happy, she wished him all the best with it.

Rory squinted as Christopher continued to try to persuade them to take money. Well, mostly he tried to persuade Lorelai, as usual.

"Back taxes, Dad? You owe back taxes?"

"Not much. Just a couple of years. Plus a little from my California days."

"You know what, kiddo, let me do something for you guys. Let's go on a shopping trip. Name the city, we'll go and buy out the stores. Heck, we'll buy the stores if you want!" He flared a modest pleasing smile into a full-blown puppy dog beg.

Turning to Lorelai, he added, "Wouldn't you like to have a pair of Jimmy Choos? Or maybe a hundred pair?"

Lorelai grinned. "Whaddya think, Rory? A few hundred pair of Jimmy Choos? We'd need to rent an apartment just to store them."

"I'll buy you a house. A Choo house." Yap, yap, the puppy was overjoyed at the way this discussion was going.

"Gesundheit," giggled Lorelai, while Rory rolled her eyes.

"OK, where shall we go? New York? Paris? London? How about a week in each city?"

"Christopher …" began Lorelai.

"First class tickets. Airport lounges, private check-in, the top hotels."

"Dad."

"Look, Christopher, I love how you are excited and I really appreciate the offer, but I'm fine."

"You're too unmaterialistic, Lorelai. You know, I've always thought that." Christopher's smile started to crack.

"One hundred thousand dollars," said Rory quietly.

"You got it, kiddo. What's it for? Trip around the world? Porsche Carrera?"

"Child support," she replied without emotion.

"Rory, what are you talking about?" asked Lorelai.

Rory shrugged. "I got thinking about Luke's question, and when I went back to the paper, I did the research. It cost $100,000 to raise a kid back in 1984."

Lorelai's gasp turned heads. "Rory. I don't want that. We never needed it." Her pride refused to let her admit to Christopher that child support would have solved many problems while Rory grew up, most importantly buying a house and Chilton.

Christopher's eyes shifted nervously as the truth broke into his conscience. Fortunately, his attachment to the truth was tenuous at best and only lasted a few seconds, then was replaced by a sheepish smile.

"It's yours if you want it, Lorelai. You know I always meant to do that. Afterwards we'll go shopping."

The mood changed from playful how-to-spend-the-inheritance dreams to awkward. Rory knew it was time to cut the meeting short.

"Dad, how about if we talk it over and get back to you? This is a lot to take in all at once," proposed Rory.

"You won't forget about the shoes?"

"We won't forget."

"Or a castle. If you want a castle, I can take care of that, too."

"We'll talk about a castle. I promise."

"Good, let's eat." He grinned again. "I'm paying!"

Lorelai and Rory were driving back in Rory's Prius from their second meeting with Christopher. Rory had asked for, and Christopher readily agreed to pay for Yale. He additionally insisted on making a large sum of money over to her bank account so she would have living and incidental expenses for the rest of her time at Yale.

"Coffee and pie at Luke's?" suggested Rory.

"You bet, beautiful."

Lorelai remembered the mail she had gotten from the mailman as they walked out the door that morning. She flipped through the stack as they walked toward the diner, but gulped when she saw Christopher's name and address on the envelope.

"He didn't say anything about this today," she breathed, as Rory looked over her shoulder.

"Oh, my, I can't believe he did that," said Rory. "Fifty thousand dollars. Wow."

"I don't want this." Lorelai's hand shook. "What will Luke say?"

"You need to tell him, Mom. You two need to discuss what to do about this."

Lorelai stopped outside the diner and turned her worried face to her daughter.

"I haven't told him about the meetings with your dad yet," she said. "I don't know how he's gonna react."

"Mom, what happened to your promise to discuss everything?"

"We do," she insisted.

"Uh, no you don't. You went to see Dad twice and didn't tell Luke. If you do 'discuss everything,' then this won't be a problem. Take him aside now, give him the background and you can have the big discussion later."

"Sounds like a plan," Lorelai said doubtfully. A million excuses to not do it queued up in her mind.

"Then do it," urged Rory.

Without answering, Lorelai took a shuddering breath. "Let's go."

They entered the diner and took a table not far from the door. Caesar came to them, saying, "He's upstairs if you need him."

"First pie and coffee, then we'll deal with my hunky hunky fiancé later. Thanks, Caesar."

The girls were enjoying their coffee when a young girl entered the diner, looking like she was on a mission. She spoke briefly with Caesar, who was busy plating the pie, and he brought the girl over to Lorelai as he served them.

"Hey Lorelai, can you help this girl out?" asked Caesar. "She says she needs to talk to Luke."

Lorelai looked at the twelve year old. "Hi honey, what's up?"

"You know Luke Danes?" asked April, her mind focused on remembering her message for Luke.

Lorelai waggled the fingers of her left hand. "He's my fiancé, honey. We're getting married."

"Wow," said April. "That's a pretty ring. Congratulations."

"You need to talk to him?" April nodded. "I'll go get him. Why don't you have a seat here and talk to my daughter Rory?"

Rory began talking to April as Lorelai sauntered up the stairs. She was looking forward to seeing Luke with this little girl. He was always so funny around kids. She hoped he wouldn't rant too much, because she seemed very nice.

"Kiss, kiss, kiss, kiss, kiss, kiss, kiss, kiss, kiss, kiss, kiss!" she chanted as she closed the door to the apartment.

Luke pulled the shirt off the hanger and put the hanger back in the closet. "Hey. I was just changing my shirt. Kirk," he offered as the complete explanation.

Lorelai nodded. No words were needed for Kirk. She put her hands on Luke's chest and pushed him into the closet. "Let's do seven minutes in heaven," she said huskily.

Luke let her have her way until she reached out to close the door.

"Lorelai," he said as he nibbled on her neck, "As much as I'd like to continue, Caesar's alone downstairs. I gotta go to work."

She began caressing his ears, dropping kisses in all his favorite spots.

"Aw, hell," Luke mumbled. "I'll make it up to him later." He pulled her into the closet and closed the door.

After a few more minutes, Lorelai called, "Time's up! Let's go out and face the rest of the crowd. I'm gonna tell everyone you frenched me." She wiggled her butt as they exited the closet.

"You're nuts."

"That's just one of the reasons you love me," she said, straightening her clothes. "Now, let's get you looking all respectable again. You've got a lady waiting downstairs to talk to you."

Luke looked confused. "Who's downstairs?"

"I don't know, she just said she had to speak to you."

"Geez, it's probably some stupid thing Taylor has set up. I hate it when he does that."

They walked downstairs, Lorelai tugging playfully on his ball cap as he preceded her.

She rammed hard into Luke's back when he came to a complete standstill on the other side of the curtain.

"Ow, my nose!" she cried, rubbing the place where her face met his shoulder blade.

She walked around to Luke's front and pushed his jaw closed. "What's wrong?"

Lorelai looked at Rory, who was giving Luke a new Rory face. This wasn't Rory Pouty Eyes, trying to wangle another piece of pie. This was Rory Death Face, and she was prepared to kick Luke's ass all over town.

Luke grabbed Lorelai's wrist. "Uh, Lorelai, we gotta talk." He pulled her back behind the curtain.

"That kid, uh, she's uh …" He stopped, looked down at the floor, pressing his cap tighter on his head. No way out, gotta go through it, he thought. One deep breath and he looked at her face. Her beautiful, confused, worried face. "She's my daughter."

"What?!" she screeched, garnering the attention of several people in the diner.

"I'll explain everything. Let's go out and see what she wants." He looked at her face, which seemed to be getting paler by the moment.

Stepping forward, he noticed that Lorelai stayed behind the curtain. He took her hands in his, his thumbs tenderly rubbing the backs of her hands. "Lorelai, can you please do this for me? I'm sorry. I should have told you sooner."

She nodded slowly, still in shock, still silent, which chilled him to the bones. He took her by the hand and walked her over to Rory and April.

Rory's face frightened him, but he pushed forward. "You two got acquainted?" She nodded coldly, crossing her arms. Both he and Lorelai had made a promise to tell each other everything, but it seemed a lot more like they shared a vow of silence.

Keeping a firm grip on Lorelai's hand, he introduced April to her. Lorelai's conversation flowed, although not as easily as before she went upstairs.

April cut the discussion short, saying, "Luke, here's the copy of my report that you forgot. I just wanted to stop by and let you know that Mom says I can come to the diner tomorrow for a while. Is that OK?"

"No school?" he asked, fisting the report in his right hand, while his left still held tightly to Lorelai's.

"We have the whole week off," she said matter-of-factly.

He looked at Lorelai again, then said, "Yeah, I guess. Sounds good." At that, April left, saying goodbye to the adults.

Rory, Lorelai and Luke stood silent, in a noiseless Mexican standoff. The ringing of the bells shook Lorelai out of her shock. She turned unfocused eyes on Luke. She willed herself to speak. "When did you …?"

"On the sixteenth." His shame burned in his chest.

"The sixteenth? That was weeks ago!"

"Yeah."

"We promised to tell each other everything," she said softly, wresting her hand from his. An urge to run nearly overwhelmed her.

"Yeah. I'm sorry."

Lorelai looked around the diner, thankfully devoid of the most gossipy townspeople. It was strange, she thought, how her bones could suddenly become like Jello. She decided that, no matter what, she was not going to collapse in the diner. She was not going to make a scene. She was not going to stay here any longer.

Her voice shook as she spoke again. "We have to talk."

Luke looked at her, a flash of hope breaking through his shame. "Anytime, anyplace."

"Not here. Not now." Her hands began to visibly tremble. As Luke reached out to her, she stepped back, moving closer to Rory. Luke dropped his hands impotently.

"Tonight when you come home, OK? We'll talk then, OK?"

"OK. Tonight. Whenever you want. Call me if you need me earlier, promise?"

A cold chuckle escaped her. "Promise? Bad word, Luke, bad word."

With that, she and Rory escaped.