YAY! Ducky is back in action! Accompanied by none other than her laptop and her brain! It is so great to be writing again! It is such a great way to express myself! And now with that mushy line out of the way, i present you with the sequel to "Coming or Going?". The first part is just an introduction but i have embedded some flashbacks here and there. Mostly here though. Ok, so this takes place 3 months after the first story ended. I am deeply sorry to all of you who were saying to yourselves: "maybe Ducky had them get married, or have ten more kids, and live happily ever after!" but happy ending are really not that fun to write unless they are going to go down hill, in which case they are not endings; they are happy middles. And i am sorry to all of you who are disappointed at this point, but take heart; my story goes up and down hill. I mean what kind of writer would I be if I just gave you a very boring story? A very bad one, that's what kind.
I must inform you that I have just had two finals today, which I failed if you were wondering. I have two tomorrow and you guys reading and then reviewing makes me happy. So! On with the story!
Disclaimer: I have inherited nothing since the last story so back off!
A/N: Italics are flashbacks.
Chapter 1: The Life of a Life
It had been a few months now since Luke had returned. It had been odd for him to have a son at first. He had never gotten to see that first laugh, that first smile, that first grasping of someone's hand. He had come into Jakes life at a point where Jake had already done so many things, but yet nothing at all. He still couldn't walk, talk, draw, or make his first "mud pie" and try to feed it to both Mommy and Daddy.
Life had always been funny like this. The lives of Lorelai Gilmore and Luke Danes were outside the laws of life. Life had always been fair to both of them but only to the extent at which they deserved.
Lorelai had been raised in a horrible household but in return, life had given her a chance and the courage to leave it. She had gotten pregnant at such a young age that she had to give up the future she had planned for herself. In return for that sacrifice, life had given her Rory. Life had also decided that because of the difficulties Lorelai would face as a single mother with nothing but a suitcase full of clothes, that life would land her in the wonderful town of Stars Hallow. It would then put her through many relationships that she would never last in. As a reward; life gave her Luke—her shoulder to cry on. Along with that came with her more intimate relationship with him. And eventually, to even the scale, life took him away. But it left her with an angel. A gift more valuable than tears or precious memories; life gave her Jake. Jake had been her reason to keep going, but yet this gift still did not heal the pain from Luke's absence. The next move was the one to keep the scale equal; life gave her Luke back. Life didn't know if she was ready for him back, or if she even deserved him, but it had given her the opportunity. She had taken that opportunity and thrown it away. She then was faced with the same offer and again turned it down. The third time she not only rejected it but had renounced it and pushed it so far that only a miracle could save the happy ending. Sookie. Sookie had intervened and become that miracle. Sookie had always been the one to show up when needed and she never let her best friend down. She saved Luke and Lorelai's opportunity to be together. Sookie had shoved it in life's face and told it to reconsider. She had convinced life to show Luke the truth within himself and within Lorelai's heart.
Luke had started life out in a different side of the scale. Luke had been born into a family where nothing you did was a disappointment, wrong yes, but he was always taught to learn from those experiences. He had lived a happy life until his mother had died. Life had decided to test to see what Luke was made of. He was obviously made of something more than just flesh and bone because he kept going. And then when his sister got pregnant. Luke and his father were the ones to pick up the slack and to help Liz along in life, until she moved out of course. -1 on the scale of life and dropping fast. His father. His father was the next to go. Luke had lost his mother at an early age and then Liz about 7 years later, but he had never thought his father, the one person he could always count on to be there, would leave him. He had left one early February morning. The cancer had come back and was now past the stage that it could be stopped from spreading. -2. Life then looked back and saw that Luke was in need of some positive numbers now. It saw the perfect opportunity. Life was what pushed Lorelai to walk into the diner that morning, nothing else. And along with Lorelai came Rory. The score is 0:0. Somehow life had managed to screw up somewhere along the lines and let Luke slip. Luke had gotten himself involved with a lawyer and while life wasn't looking, Luke had managed to marry this lawyer. And then in the process of trying to fix Luke's life, life had managed to break Luke's heart. Luke's scale had managed to go down a notch or two in this process. After being thrown so many obstacles, so many blockades, and so many red lights, life decided to throw in a green light too. Lorelai. That was his destination and all of this was just a test, something trying to slow him down. When he finally reached his destination, he approached cautiously. Never had he been so wary of life, the controller of all things fair and unfair. Now if only he could cheat this system and win that million bucks from the slot machine. No such luck. Life got bored and decided to throw a little rubble on the road. If only Luke had been awake while driving that car that we call life. If only he had been aware of what was coming. If only he could have cheated that system. Well you all know the story; Luke left, and then returned home to find himself unwanted. -1. As told above, Sookie intervened, and saved the day, and the scale of life.
If only they could now cheat the system like Luke always planned. If only if would go as planned. But no. we all know that for life to stay fair, we must keep the good in check with none other than the bad.
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Luke woke up feeling a slight breeze run along his back. He looked up towards the window to see Lorelai just standing there looking out at the moon.
"Hey, what's wrong?" he asked sleepily as he sat up and shielded his eyes from the blinding light of the moon.
"What?" Lorelai asked. She had obviously just been concentrating on some thought of hers.
"I was just wondering what's wrong." He said as he smiled. Lorelai didn't know why he was smiling, but Luke knew it was because he was looking into Lorelai's face. Ever since he had come back some three and a half months ago, he would smile whenever he was around her. He could always feel illuminating happiness resonating throughout any room that she was in. She was what kept him going.
"Oh, nothing, I was just thinking." She said simply. "I couldn't sleep." She added seeing the confusion on Luke's face. Until now, she had always been able to sleep when Luke was there, but now she was different. Luke had noticed it the first night he slept at her house. He had woken up to find himself in the same situation he was in now.
He glanced at the clock. 1:37. it was not normal for her to be up before 6:30 in the morning so this behavior was odd to him. She had never done this before when they were together.
"Come back to bed." He pleaded more than commanded while he patted the vacant spot next to him.
"Ok." Lorelai said with a seductive smile on her face as she slowly walked over to the bed. Jake's crib had been moved to Rory's room temporarily.
Rory was not around as often now and only stayed a couple nights each month. She had now been single for the past two months after being in a relationship for 6 months. Rory had started spending more time with her friends now. Because of this, Jake had been able to sleep in Rory's room for now while a nursery was being added across the hallway from Luke and Lorelai's room.
"Luke, do you remember the day that you gave me that flannel shirt and that baseball cap for Jake?" Lorelai asked as she covered herself with the blankets.
"Yah. Why?" he asked. Had that been what she was thinking about?
"Oh, nothing. I was just thinking about the past few months." She said again staring at the window. Boy was that moon fascinating! Luke thought.
"Luke, why don't you come and meet your son?" Lorelai asked.
"Ah…sure." Luke answered uncomfortably.
"Come on. It'll be fun." Lorelai joked as she steered Luke towards the bassinet. Luke didn't have much time to react so just went with it. What was going to happen? Would Luke pick him up and drop him right away? What if I crush him? Luke thought.
"So, here we have the little baby that you have spawned!" Lorelai said excitedly as she picked Jake up.
"Do you want to hold him?" Lorelai asked. She saw the nervousness in Luke's face. "Hey, are you ok?" she asked Luke sincerely. When Jake started to wiggle around in her arms she shifted him so he had his head looking over her shoulder.
"Ah…yah. It's just, I have had a son for a few months now," he started.
"Four." Lorelai added.
"Ok. Well I have had a son for four months, not to mention when you were pregnant, but I didn't even know about it. It is just a little strange. Why didn't you tell me again?" he asked. There was no harshness or any hint of accusing her in his voice. He just wanted to know.
"Luke, please not this again. I could not get in touch with you. I didn't think you would come racing back either." She started. When Luke opened his mouth to speak she interrupted him, "Luke, I am sorry. I wasn't thinking. I just had Christopher flashbacks and I instinctively thought that you might do that too. I am sorry. I know I should have told you. You are NOT Christopher. I get that now. So please, can we just try and make it through the rest of the day and we will talk more about this tonight?" she pleaded.
"Yah. Sure." Luke said giving into Lorelai. He then pulled into a hug along with Jake of course.
"So I ask you again, do you want to hold your son?" Lorelai said after she broke away from Luke's embrace.
"Yes." Luke answered. Lorelai smiled and then carefully placed Jake into Luke's arm. Luke looked down at his son and immediately felt a connection. Jake then smiled up at Luke as they both stared into each others' eyes. Luke's face broke out into a huge smile. He looked up at Lorelai who had been watching the interaction. She smiled at Luke.
"Oh so cute!" she teased.
"He may be cute but I am not." Luke stated.
"Oh! Is lukey to shy to outwardly admit that he thinks his son is cute? And that he himself is cute might I add?" Lorelai said seductively. Luke then gave her a quick glare.
"I did not say that!" he argued.
"Fine! I will drop the cute thing! But the sexy thing is going no where mister!" she said smiling.
"When did the sexy thing come into the picture?" Luke asked playing along with Lorelai's games.
"Well, I believe it was when my night in shining plaid flannel walked through the door. I should probably get him out of the house before you see him shouldn't I?" Lorelai teased again. Luke then went back to watching Jake play with Luke's thumb.
"How much have I missed?" Luke asked not taking his eyes of the tiny baby he was cradling in his arms.
"Not much. Well except for his birth, which I am sure you hand is thankful for." Lorelai joked.
"Lorelai." Luke said in a husky but pleading voice.
"Luke, you haven't missed much. His birth as mentioned before, his first smile, maybe a couple of shots here and there, his first cold, not fun by the way, and some whining. There is so much more left in his life Luke." she said as she rubbed his upper arm trying to comfort him. "He still hasn't learned to crawl, walk, talk, he hasn't learned how to use the bathroom, which you are teaching him by the way!" she said pointing her finger at him. She smiled at him. "There is also his first day of school, his first baseball game," Luke smiled at this thought, "his first cup of coffee." she added. Luke's smile disappeared.
"He is not going to kill himself like you do! That is your choice but he is not, I repeat NOT becoming a junkie like you!" he lectured.
"Oh, that's what you think. I will have him on that stuff so fast that you won't even know what hit you!" she said back. She had on her smug 'and you can't do anything about it!' face.
"Oh! You are hopeless! There is no point in trying to reason with you is there?" he asked as a smile spread across his face. God he loved this. He wasn't even back a week and yet he was still back in the heaven he had left behind.
"No, there isn't. Now I am going to make some coffee." she said. She gave him a quick peck on he lips, gave Jake a little tickle and then walked off into the kitchen. Jake just smiled.
"What are we going to do with your mother?" Luke asked Jake. Jake just giggled. Luke knew that his son didn't understand a word he was saying but he felt as if he did. Luke decided to follow Lorelai into the kitchen.
"So what is his full name?" Luke asked as he walked into the kitchen.
"What? Oh, Jake. Uh his official name is Jacob William Danes, but we call him Jake. It is a lot less blackmail sounding." Lorelai added.
"What?" Luke asked, confused at what the hell she was talking about.
"Ah! The bible Luke, the bible! Even I know the story!" Lorelai said hoping Luke would realize what she was talking about. Nope. "Jacob and Esau or whatever his name was, were brothers. Jacob blackmailed Esau into giving away his inheritance. That's the short version. For the full fledged one, you will have to go to church or ask Rory." Lorelai summarized as she poured the water into the coffee maker.
"Rory?" Luke asked confused.
"When Rory was little she stumbled across a bible and started to read it. She read it over and over to me." She said dramatically.
"She read it to you?" Luke asked.
"Luke! It's Rory! I mean why would I read a bible to Rory?" she added. Didn't he know her enough?
"I don't know would you?" Luke asked. This time it was to tease Lorelai. He could tell the questions were starting to bug her.
"Ah! You are annoying!" Lorelai sighed. Luke just chuckled. That was a first. Luke was annoying Lorelai. That had never truly happened before.
"So his middle name is William," Luke started.
"After your father." Lorelai interrupted.
"And his last name is," Luke continued but was again interrupted by Lorelai.
"Danes. His last name is Danes." Luke didn't know what to say. Why? She hadn't done that with Rory. Rory had stayed a Gilmore, but yet Lorelai had given Jake Luke's last name? This didn't make sense, unless of course she had still loved him at the time.
"Danes." Luke said astonished still at the fact.
"Yep. After you. Well obviously, I mean who else would the 'Danes' be from? Maybe Santa clause, or the Easter bunny oh wait, Easter hasn't gone by yet, or maybe--" she was cut off my Luke's lips crashing into hers. He some how managed to kiss her while holding the baby without breaking him in two.
"When did you get so good at that?" Lorelai asked after breaking the kiss. She traced her finger around her lips. Her eyes remained closed. She didn't want this moment to end, but like all moments, it did.
"Oh, you know, just some girl on the street." Luke joked.
"Oh, well don't I feel loved! So where did you go?" Lorelai asked Luke.
"What?" Luke asked not understanding Lorelai's question.
"I mean when you left. A year ago. Where exactly did you go?" Lorelai asked again. It hit her hard having to admit that it had been a year since he had left. Oh how time flies! She thought.
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