The Third Option – What if "all in" and "all out" aren't the only options? A story about love & parenthood, and all the baggage that comes along with it. AU and of course JavaJunkie; why else bother?

A/N: My first AU story. I've read a few fics that deal with what would've happened if Lorelai had married Christopher when she was pregnant. This deals with Luke's "what if". Still Lorelai's POV.


"Rory! Your chariot arrives m'lady!" Lorelai called to Rory from outside the Independence Inn.

Rory emerged from the Inn and came barreling down the walkway to meet the school bus, her backpack bouncing back & forth with each step.

"Off for another day of making the other 3rd graders feel completely inadequate?" Lorelai said, giving Rory a hug.

Rory rolled her eyes.

"You might want to hold off on giving Mrs. Johnson any more grammar lessons, though. At least for today," Lorelai cautioned her. "They might kick you out of school, and then I'd have to homeschool you and you wouldn't learn anything except for Bangles lyrics and lines from Brat Pack movies, and nothing whatsoever that will help get you into Harvard."

"I don't think they can kick me out, it's public school." Rory replied. "Besides she totally messed up 'I-T-S' vs. 'I-T-apostrophe-S'."

"Just call you Little Man Gilmore."

"Bye Mom," Rory said, giving her a hug and boarding the bus.

Lorelai waved to her as the bus pulled away, then headed back into the Inn. She made her way into the kitchen and grabbed a cookie off a nearby tray as she scanned the room. She spotted a pot of coffee left unattended on a counter and started to pour herself a cup.

"Lorelai," said a stern voice behind her.

Lorelai stopped pouring and turned to face an older gentleman in a chef's outfit. A guilty look crossed her face.

"David, just a little…"

"Does this look like a soup kitchen?" he demanded.

"Well, it's a kitchen…and Sookie mentioned something about gazpacho…" Lorelai said playfully.

"If you can't stop helping yourself to food in here, I'm going to have to talk to Mia about having it deducted from your pay."

"David, I swear I was just going to have a tiny sip of coffee…"

"That is Jamaica Blue Mountain coffee that costs $50 a pound."

Lorelai's eyes widened. "$50 a pound? David, I got better coffee from the vending machine at the truckstop. You're going to have Mia going broke on mediocre coffee while buying it from Starbucks would probably serve just as well at half the price. Better, even. Hey, is Sookie here yet? Last night she said something about blintzes..."

"Lorelai, much as you hate hearing it, you are not in charge here and neither is Sookie. Now I suggest you go find Mia, she was looking for you a little while ago."

"Aww, come on David, just a muffin? I didn't have time for breakfast this morning, I overslept. I was up late paying tribute to River Phoenix. My Own Private Idaho, The Mosquito Coast…he was a genius cut off in his youth."

"And this is supposed to make me feel sorry for you?" David asked.

Lorelai decided to change tactics. "Come on, I can't resist those chocolate chip muffins, they're the best I've ever tasted, and that's really saying something. My mother once fired her cook because he gave her a muffin with only 3 chocolate chips in it. Now that is a woman who knows her muffins, and she taught me everything I know. And if you give me one, well who knows, I may just happen to discover that we have a free room here the weekend of your wedding anniversary…" Lorelai gave him a flirtatious smile.

David grudgingly handed her a muffin.

Lorelai left the kitchen, munching on her muffin, and went out into the lobby, where she found Mia behind the check-in desk, going over the next day's reservations.

"Hey Mia," Lorelai greeted her boss. "I heard you were looking for me?"

"We're overbooked," Mia informed her.

"What? That's impossible."

"See for yourself," Mia insisted. "December 18th, 19th and 20th, we're over capacity."

Lorelai examined the reservation book closely. "Mia, I don't know how this happened," she insisted. "But I do know things have been getting confused here lately. Between Audra and me taking reservations during the day, and Sue's been doing some too lately when Audra and I have been too busy, and Tobin's been taking them at night, I swear I've never seen so many Post-Its in my life. We're single-handedly keeping 3M in business."

"Exactly my point," Mia informed her. "Lorelai, you've been helping out with some event planning recently. Have you been enjoying it?"

"Are you kidding me? After living through sixteen years of Emily Gilmore's events, the worst bridezilla you can throw at me is still a walk in the park."

Mia smiled. "Lorelai, I'd like to put you on event planning full-time."

"But who's going work the desk?" Lorelai wondered.

"I'm going to hire someone new. We've got too many people splitting their time in five different directions, we need someone dedicated to the desk. What do you think? If you'd prefer, you can have that job and I'll hire someone for event planning."

Lorelai pondered for a moment. "I think I'll stick with event planning. It's a lot of fun spending other people's money and watching crazy family feuds that I'm not involved in for a change."

"Good," Mia replied. "Because we have a couple coming here shortly who are interested in having their wedding here. I'm going to have you meet with them. They will want a tour of the facilities, an explanation of the services we offer, and an idea of the costs involved. You've sat in on these before, are you comfortable with this?"

"More comfortable than a velour jogging suit," Lorelai assured her.

"Audra will be available if anything comes up that you're unsure of. You'll do fine. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to call the newspaper about a help-wanted ad."


A short time later, the lobby door opened and a young couple walked in. The woman was carrying a baby.

Lorelai greeted them. "Welcome to the Independence Inn, can I help you?" she asked.

"Yes, we have an appointment, we're interested in having our wedding here," the woman replied.

"Well you've come to the right place. I'm Lorelai, I'll be showing you around," Lorelai said, extending her hand to the woman.

As they shook hands, Lorelai observed the visitors. The bride-to-be was a tall, glamorous brunette, not entirely unlike Lorelai herself in appearance and age. Upon closer viewing, the baby appeared to be more than a year of age – a toddler, really.

Lorelai had been involved in enough weddings at the Inn to know that most grooms were bored with these proceedings, but it was unusual for them to be quite so disgruntled the moment they arrived. This groom, however, definitely looked more than bored already. He hung back from the conversation, hands in his pockets, gazing around the room, clearly wishing he was anywhere but there. He was dressed in jeans, a flannel shirt and a backwards baseball cap.

"I'm Anna Nardini," the bride replied. "This is April," she said, indicating the baby, "and this is my fiancé, Luke Danes."

Lorelai extended her hand to Luke. As she moved closer to him she happened to look up into his face, and caught her breath momentarily. This man had the bluest eyes she had ever seen.

Lorelai let go of his hand, took a breath and began. "OK, well I just need to ask you a few questions to get started, and then we'll take a tour. Let's start out with the basics: when is the big date?"

"June 11th," Anna replied.

"And do you plan to have the ceremony at a church, or would you want to do it here?"

They replied simultaneously, but with opposite answers.

"Church," said Anna.

"Here," said Luke.

"Undecided," Lorelai said, not missing a beat while she made notes on her clipboard. "Now can I assume from this little one's presence here," Lorelai tickled April under the chin, "that you will be having children at the wedding?"

They both nodded.

"And approximately how many guests do you plan to have?"

"About 250," Anna replied.

Lorelai couldn't help noticing Luke's eyes widen upon hearing this figure.

"OK, so I'll just take a few minutes to show you around, please feel free to ask any questions that might come to mind," Lorelai said, leading them into the dining room.

"Actually, I do have a question," Anna said. "I need a spot to change a diaper," she said, indicating April.

"Well, you could do it on one of the tables here if you wanted to violate about 53 health codes. Or you could go in there," Lorelai said, indicating the bathroom.

"Thanks," said Anna as she disappeared into the bathroom

Luke looked around the room uncomfortably, hands still in his pockets.

"We'll try to keep it short," Lorelai assured him.

"What?"

"The tour. It's usually pretty painful for the groom having to listen to reams of information on coordinating bridesmaid dresses with napkins, and where the bride can go to touch up her makeup, and what Julia Roberts wore at her wedding."

"I won't be listening," Luke said abruptly.

Lorelai was taken aback, and a bit insulted at this blatant expression of disinterest, but did her best to be polite and salvage the conversation. "Ah, smart man, letting the bride make all the decisions."

"Yeah, only reason I'm here is so she can delude herself into thinking we did this together. Me, I don't see why we can't just get a Justice of the Peace and do it in the living room."

"Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Rhett Butler."

"What?" Luke asked.

"Sorry, just a little joke," Lorelai apologized. "Actually I'd say about 80 of the grooms who come through here say pretty much the same thing. But you know, Miss Manners says the whole problem with marriage today is that couples don't go through rigorous enough engagement periods. It's supposed to be a trial by fire. She even provides a list of things to fight about. I can dig you up a copy if you'd like."

"That won't be necessary," Luke assured her as Anna reappeared, this time leading April by the hand.

"She's tired of being held," Anna explained. "She was squirming so much I was afraid I'd drop her."

April was tugging at Anna's hand, anxious to explore the dining room. Anna turned to go with her, and Lorelai followed their lead, walking further into the dining room.

"So this is our dining area, I think it's just about right for your 250 guests. Some smaller weddings get swallowed up in here, but 200-250 usually works really well. The band can set up over here," Lorelai indicated the far side of the room, "and the head table can go there."

April chose that moment to break away from Anna's grasp and run across the room. Anna ran after her, picked her up and came back over to where Lorelai and Luke were. April continued to try to squirm out of Anna's arms as if her life depended on it.

"Sorry," Anna apologized as she put April down again. "She's an incredibly curious little girl. They had to do an extra round of babyproofing at her daycare, just for her."

"She climbs, too," Luke interjected, pointing to April, who had once again broken away from Anna and had climbed onto a chair next to one of the dining tables, and then onto the table itself.

Luke hastened over to retrieve her before she was able to pick up a glass of water and decide whether she wanted to try drinking out of it like a big girl, or see what happened when it was thrown on the floor.

Luke brought her back over to Lorelai and Anna. "I'm going to take her outside," he said, extending his hand for Anna to give him April's coat. "This is obviously pointless."

"We can reschedule if you'd like," Lorelai offered.

"Like when she's eighteen?" Anna joked. "No, it's OK. We've both seen the place now, I can go over the details with him later."

Luke put April's coat on her and departed outside.

Anna sighed, turned and smiled at Lorelai. "Ah, that's better. I feel about 700 pounds lighter. I can actually have a grownup conversation without interruption."

Lorelai laughed. "Oh, I remember those days. You can't let them out of your sight for a moment or they'll pick up stones, or eat dog poop, or completely rip apart your favorite teddy bear."

Anna chuckled in return. "April's thing is climbing. I have a grand piano that's pushed up against the back of the couch. She uses the couch as a step to climb up onto the top of the piano."

Lorelai laughed.

"So you have kids?" Anna asked her.

"Just one. She's nine," Lorelai replied.

Anna's eyes widened. "You don't look nearly old enough…" she began.

"I'm not," Lorelai interjected. "And I'll tell you, it was quite memorable being fitted for a retainer right after my prenatal exam. I also remember being pretty mad that none of the maternity stores carried Madonna lace tops," Lorelai replied.

Anna laughed. "Where's her father? I mean, are you…you know…married?"

"No, I'm not ready for that institution yet," Lorelai joked. "Her dad is…well…he's here & there."

"I'm sorry," Anna said. "That must be hard."

"Rory makes it easy," Lorelai replied. Then, returning to the matter at hand she continued, "Now, I'll just show you our private dressing area for bridal parties, we'll go up and see the guest quarters, and then we can go out back in case you want to do an outdoor wedding."

tbc