Family Portrait.
19 year old Luke Danes had just finished his very last shift at his fathers hardware store for the summer and was off to see his two favorite girls. Luke had know 17 year old Lorelai Gilmore and 1 year old Rory Gilmore now for about six months and already he found them irresistible. They seemed to constantly be on his mind, even though Rory was not his child he felt a fatherly connection to her. The first day that he met Lorelai he knew that she would be it for him.
It had been a long, cold winters day and all Luke wanted to do was get home and have a warm shower, climb into bed and sleep for the rest of the night, however about a block from his house that all went downhill. Just out the front of number four woodberry lane he heard it, a howling like some sort of disabled dog had gotten loose and caught itself on a rose thorn or something. Looking behind him he found the source. It was a baby. Said baby's mother or possibly sister was struggling, she didn't look incapable of parenting this baby but she was definitely incapable of holding the baby and lugging along two full shopping bags from Dooses Market.
The baby began to flail it's arms around, still making the screeching noise, Luke was worried from the moment he saw her struggle but he got overly worried about the young mother when he saw the baby smack her in the nose. It was as if everything went in slow motion, the baby slipped and the groceries fell. All of the mothers attempts at grabbing both were futile and Luke knew then that she needed help. He lunged in her direction, grabbing for the most precious piece of cargo, the baby.
As soon as he had a hold of the baby time sped up again. Eggs broke, flour went everywhere and the crying became worse.
In all of this the mother was just staring at the Luke, trying to decide obviously whether to scream and grab the baby to run or thank him. Luke only debated what to do for a second until he honed in on the crying again and some sort of odd instinct came over him. He lay the baby's head on his shoulder and shushed her, slowly rocking. His eyes not leaving the beautiful blue ones of the utterly amazed mother.
After a minute the crying developed into whimpers and he handed the baby that with recent closer inspection, Luke deciphered was a girl, back to her mother.
"thank you, thank you, thank you." Cried the mother as she rocked and clung to her baby. "How could I ever repay you?"
Luke felt like using a witty comeback that his sister taught him like, 'no thanks necessary m'am.' Or, 'it's all in a days work' but he simply went with. "no problems, I'm Luke Danes." And held out his hand.
The mother looked kind of flustered as her hands were full but she didn't want to seem rude. Luke pulled his hand back and just smiled at her, indicating that he understood. She looked him right in the eyes and replied, "Lorelai Gilmore, nice to meet you, and this is my daughter Rory." She patted the whimpering baby on the back and kept smiling.
"Hey, so you look like you were having a little trouble there, wanna hand. 'coz I got one spare?" Luke simply smiled at Lorelai, thinking what a beautiful name it was.
"Umm…. Sure, if you don't mind, I mean she wasn't this big last time I did a food shop, sad thing is I can't imagine not taking her with me. I mean she's just gotta help with the beer selection, what would she think if I just up and dumped any random brand in front of her." As she finished her sentence a huge smile overtook her face and Luke noticed how it lit up her eyes.
"So what do you want me to take?" Luke asked as he looked at her and then the bags.
"okay, I don't usually do this 'coz I'm not one of those weird 'give ya kid to anyone' type of people but could you take Rory, just for a little while, my arms are REALLY tired." He noticed how she put emphasis on the word 'really' like he wasn't already sold when he saw how gorgeous Rory was. "I mean I've been carrying all this stuff for like fifteen minutes now."
"Sure" Luke replied as he reached for the baby. Once she was in Luke's arms Roy began to look around at the slightly different surroundings and then new person holding her. Smiling, Luke began to swing her about and make silly faces at her, Rory didn't seem to mind as she smiled right back and began to laugh.
When Lorelai had all of the bags hoisted in her arms and had disposed of the broken eggs the were on the way. Luke noticed how interested in the world Rory seemed to be so he flipped her around and held her legs in front of her, slightly bent up with her back against his chest, it looked like she was sitting on an invisible chair. The way that he was holding Rory made Lorelai obviously nervous and Luke noticed this, so, still keeping her in the same position, he moved her slightly so one of his arms was under her legs and the other was securely wrapped around her stomach. Looking more at ease Lorelai led Luke, still holding Rory all the way back to the Independence Inn, talking animatedly with him along the way.
As they arrived at the Inn Lorelai began to look a little nervous and Luke definitely noticed. He realized what the problem must have been when they headed into the back garden of the inn and across the large grasses oval, towards the potting shed.
Luke had heard from Mia, one of his mothers old friends that he kept in contact with, that she had hired a new maid that was living in the potting shed. The problem was that, the way Mia described it, this girl shouldn't be ashamed of living here, it sounded like she was doing very well for herself.
As they neared the door Lorelai pulled out a set of keys and unlocked and opened the door, from the outside it looked like a dump but inside, she had made it a work or art. The walls were a pale yellow colour and one corner that housed an old crib was decorated just the way you'd imagine a nursery to be decorated. In another corner there was an old footed tub surrounded by a curtain, obviously to ensure privacy but that was nothing compared to the corner where the bed was situated. In that corner there was an old double bed, that Luke recognized as one from the Inn before Mia did the renovations, a bed side table, a dresser and a small T.V. not only was it the most furnished area of the room but it was special because it looked loved. Lorelai had obviously gotten bored whilst off work because there was a mural painted on the wall in nail polish. In the mural there was little facts about their family, as far as he could tell anyways. There was a date from about six months ago, a time, the name 'Lorelai Leigh Gilmore' and a tiny handprint. There was also a couple stick figures , one of a baby and one of a woman or girl.
Looking down Luke noticed that Rory was chewing on her fist and assumed that she was hungry. From his experience with his nephew, Jess, the fist chewing meant that Rory must be on solids. This was a relief to him, it would have been extremely awkward if a perfect stranger just started breast feeding in front of him.
Strolling right over to Lorelai he shifted Rory again so she was leaning on his chest and being held up by only one arm, leaving one arm free just to tap Lorelai on the shoulder. "Hey, I think Rory's hungry. Do you want me to finish putting those away for you?" Luke asked indicating towards the groceries.
Lorelai spun around, grinning from ear to ear when she saw Rory smiling up at Luke and took her. Reaching into a draw and then into one of the higher cupboards Lorelai produced a baby spoon and some apple sauce. "Yeah, thanks." She replied, strolling over towards a highchair and buckling Rory in.
Luke watched disgusted as he watched Lorelai pop open the jar of mashed up, sugary apples. 'She isn't seriously going to feed that to Rory is she?'
Luke's answer came as soon as she had a spoon full. He watched as she shoveled the mounted spoon into Rory's mouth and he truly did try and hold his tongue but it was no use, he just couldn't.
"What are you doing?" Luke asked with slight force.
Lorelai spun around in her seat to look at him with a confused look on her face as she answered, "umm…. Feeding Rory. Why?"
"Feeding her THAT?" Luke asked, looking disgusted.
"yeah, it's what was on special this week."
"You just bought what was on special to feed your child. So you've been feeding her that stuff since Thursday? That stuff has no nutritional value Lorelai, it's meant to be a treat not something to feed her as a regular meal." Luke ended his sentence and looked at Lorelai. He immediately felt bad as he looked at her face. She was upset. He had already upset her.
"Well I couldn't afford to buy enough of anything else to last until my next pay." By this Point Lorelai had put down the jar and the spoon and looked at him. He could see that she thought that he thought that she was a failure. It was etched all over her face.
"okay, well how about I go grab a couple of things and I'll make you some food for her that you can freeze and reheat whenever needed?" Luke supplied.
"Umm… sure. Thanks I guess."
Luke nodded and grabbed his coat, speed walking back to his house where he grabbed the blender, pumpkin, potato, carrot, pots and pans, and all sorts of other vegetables that he could use.
When he returned Lorelai and Rory were lying on the bed, playing with a little rag doll, obviously hand made.
Luke walked over to the bed and looked down on them, smiling. He ushered Lorelai over to the kitchen area and put Rory in her high chair.
First Luke showed Lorelai how to boil all of the vegetables to the right level of softness and then he showed her how much salt she could put in with them and then he showed her how to use the blender. After making and dispatching the food Lorelai chose a pumpkin and cauliflower mix to try on Rory. At first Rory's face scrunched up but soon smoothed out and a smile graced her face, signifying that she liked it. Lorelai jumped up cheering and crashed into Luke's arms. She soon realized that she was hugging, essentially a perfect stranger and jumped back, still smiling. From then on, whenever Lorelai had a problem she would go to Luke or whenever Rory was really fussy she would go to Luke. He became her go to guy and quickly a part of their little family.
Luke arrived at the potting shed and knocked on the door. Lorelai soon opened it and dragged Luke inside to where Rory was on the floor. Luke smiled down at her and instinctively went to pick her up but Lorelai stopped him and told him to watch.
Luke watched in amazement as Rory used the edge of the closest chair to pull herself up and toddle over to him. Just as she reached him she tripped on one of the blocks that he had bought her for her first birthday two months ago. Luke smiled and tickled Rory's stomach and torso, causing her to emit an ear splitting squeal of joy. Luke and Lorelai laughed as they watched Rory grin and continue to giggle along with them .
Just as Luke was lowering Rory to the ground his wallet slipped out of his jacket pocket and fell open to the main section where photos could be held. Luke knew very well that there was only one photo in there and possibly would only ever be one photo in there. With this in mind he quickly reached down and tried to grab it but Lorelai scooped it up much quicker than him.
Staring down at his wallet for a second Lorelai developed a smile on her face and then looked up at Luke with the same dazzling grin that he loved and asked, "Where'd you get this?"
The photo was one of Rory, Lorelai and Luke down by the pond behind the Independence Inn. They were playing and no one noticed that Mia had snuck out and taken a picture of them and no one knew until Mia approached Luke one day and handed him a miniature version of it. She said that it was for him and him only.
"Umm… Mia took it one day and just gave me one. I can take it out if you want, I can understand you not wanting me to have a photo of you and Rory in my wallet." Luke replied shyly. He lifted his head and continued, "I really do love it though."
Lorelai just smiled and handed him his wallet back. "it's okay. Every man should have a family portrait in their wallet."
Luke smiled and looked down on Rory, "Yeah. Family" Luke said before looking back up at Lorelai's face. She wore the most gorgeous smile known to man kind as far as he was concerned and every part of him was buzzing at the mere knowledge of her happiness.
As if on cue Rory grabbed onto Luke's pants leg and pulled herself to her feet. Looking up at him she smiled and looked at Lorelai before calling out, "Dada."
Luke swore his face could have split in half from the smile on his face and he turned it on Lorelai to see her reaction before frowning at her confused look and asking, "What?"
Lorelai's face straightened out and she replied calmly yet still a little confusedly, "it's just odd. I mean it took months of me coaching her to say Mama before she did it but I've never said the word Dada before in any way. Certainly not in relation to you. I don't know how she knew."
Rory just smiled up at them and they smiled back. It was odd that she said it but It seemed right. After all. They were a family, and they did have a Family Portrait.