Chapter 1: You Need It, We Need You

It was late at night when Rory Gilmore entered Number 37, Maple Street. The young journalist wiped at her eyes, trying to clear the last vestiges of her crying and tears. She had spent that afternoon and most of the evening wandering around the town of Stars Hollow, Connecticut in a fog. She knew she would have to face her parents sooner or later, and especially her mother, whom she had already told about her pregnancy.

As she came out of the foyer, Rory heard the voices of her mother and stepfather from the kitchen.

"I tried everything! My whole life I tried to prevent her from becoming me. And then she said... No..."

"There is nothing you could have done, Lorelai..." Luke comforted Rory's crying mother.

"I would have done anything! I would have turned back time if I could!" Lorelai seemed almost crazed in her intensity.

Rory gasped, backing away from the closed kitchen door. Her mother was deeply upset, as she suspected she would be. She had not exactly waited to find out her mother's reaction beyond the shock; Rory had run from the gazebo soon after saying those two little words. Well, really, there had been four words:

Mom?

Yeah?

... I'm pregnant.

Rory now ran again, up the stairs to her room. Thank goodness most of her things were still packed in boxes on the floor. Maybe late tonight, after her mom and Luke had gone to sleep, she could shuttle everything out to her car, one at a time and just go. The few things she had unpacked, she now threw into a suitcase retrieved from her closet. Pausing, she now looked down at her stomach, still not round or showing any signs of pregnancy yet, but that she still knew carried a baby within.

"It's better this way, little one."

To speed up the process, Rory decided to begin shuttling her stuff down as her parents stayed in the kitchen commiserating. The scheme worked, for at least the first four or five boxes. On Box #6, however, Rory snuck down the stairs to find Luke and Lorelai waiting at the bottom.

"And what do you think you are doing, young lady?" her stepfather asked.

Rory was careful in shaping her answer, trying to give her reasoning within it. "You and Mom just got married, Luke. I don't want to ruin that. I don't want the baby to ruin that."

Lorelai put a hand to her mouth and began to hysterically sob at the implications of what her daughter was saying: history was repeating itself. Rory was running away, just as she, Lorelai, had done more than 30 years before.

"You can turn right around and put that box upstairs, Rory. And get any of the others I know you've already put in your car."

Rory stood silently.

"So you are running away, then? Really? You're going to go wander off on your own and have some baby in the middle of nowhere?"

She was caught; she knew it, but that didn't stop Rory from trying to make them understand. "Luke..."

"Look, we have been through way too much together: you, and me, and your mom. OK? Look, I know this is not a perfect situation, and you've been struggling in your career, and... we've kept things like that from each other. You've kept things from me; you've kept things from your mom, and - I'll admit it - we've kept some things from you..."

"I believe that is the proper definition for secrets! Thanks for the obvious!" Rory said snidely, frustrated. Where on Earth was he going with this?

"Look, I am not... unhappy, OK? I am not... unsatisfied! Yes, I am unhappy about the timing of this baby. And Lord knows I'm unhappy with this guy who impregnated my daughter; I'm still searching the market for a good rope and a really sturdy tree! But this right here..." and he gestured around the room, between him, Rory and Lorelai "... is all I will ever need. I never thought in my wildest dreams that we could become a family; that I would be allowed take care of you and your mom. But we did. And I can. And, young lady, if you think that everything would be better if you just walked out that door, hear this: There is no one - other than your mother - who will be more here for you than me! I will never abandon you! I will never think of abandoning you! Or your baby! I will do whatever it takes to provide for my family! I'll do extra shifts at the diner. I'll... I'll come to the Gazette and deliver papers. I'll even work for your mom at the Inn if it means I can better take care of you!"

Rory shook her head. "You don't have to do that..."

"It's no big deal; I need some variety anyhow..."

"I don't need you to do that. Luke, you and Mom don't need me. I don't need to be an aggravation..."

"Yes, you do need to be an aggravation! And we need you! I need you! Goddamn it, Rory! We have been through so much! I mean... the three of us danced around each other year after year - well, it was mostly your mom and I doing the dancing, but still. I had to watch... every night... as you and Lorelai left the diner and had to go back to that godforsaken potting shed, still hungry and still cold and still poor, and there was nothing more I could do about it! I had to watch you get your heart broken by that Dean... then there was... Tristan. My own nephew, for fuck's sake; that whole bit with Jess! I wanted to kill every last one of them! I would have, too - with my bare hands! I had to watch you drop out of Yale and it was awful, but still... we made it through all of that. I have only ever lived for taking care of you and your mom; making sure that you were safe! I didn't spend 17 years of my life feeding you and Lorelai just to watch you walk off and starve to death while taking care of an infant! You can't leave... I mean... you just can't leave!"

Luke nearly fell over as Rory barreled into him. She burst into tears, burying her face into his shoulder. Swallowing the lump in his throat, Luke fiercely hugged her back.

"Do... do you really mean this? Or is this some sick joke we'll just laugh ourselves sick about later?" Rory sniffled.

"If it's a joke, it's on me, I guess! Because the words just keep coming out!... And I seem to mean them. Possibly more than I've ever meant anything. The truth is, Rory, your mom and I can't imagine this little house without you in it!"

Rory smiled through her tears. "It is little for the three of us, no question..."

"Not too little," Luke assured her. "For three. Or four." He pulled her back so he could look her in the face before tentatively reaching out a hand. Understanding, Rory nodded her permission, watching as her stepfather placed his hand where her baby bump would be.

"You'll... you'll be here for me?" Rory whimpered.

Luke smiled. "Every step of the way. We promise."

A/N: Luke's speech is, of course, partially borrowed from his speech in the kitchen to Lorelai. I repurposed it as I was curious to see what he would say to Rory.