AN: Is there anything better than a "five things" fic? I think not. Besides, you can't prove these didn't happen…right?
Bellis perennis
Honestly, Lorelai was not a little girl who spent a lot of her time planning out her wedding. She didn't spend time arranging her Barbies in ceremonies. It just wasn't her thing. And once Rory arrived, well, that pretty much put the end to the whole "veiled and virginal in white" part. Life was more focused on dirty diapers and spit-up. And that, of course, was all when she was just 17.
But, probably, if she had ever spared a real minute or two to think about what her dream wedding would be like (the perfect one where all your friends and family stare at you with eyes of wonder and adoration as you are the most beautiful woman in the world) that dream probably contained her gracefully floating down the aisle. She probably wasn't waddling in this dream wedding. But there's really no other word for what a woman eight months pregnant does when she tries to float gracefully. She waddles instead.
The summer of reconciliation with Luke had been luxurious and delirious. There had been long days of sun on Luke's boat, going up and down the East coast, eating lobsters and laying quietly in each other's arms. And then there was one lazy day when too many Coronas and the sound of the ocean led to one thing and another and then, eventually, to an early April wedding and the waddle.
It's another girl, which was an actual surprise, and they can't settle on a name yet. The day the stick came back with a plus sign Lorelai had felt nauseated, unprepared, and dizzy. That night, Luke said nothing would make him happier than marrying Lorelai the very next morning and starting construction of a hand-made cradle. She'd wept with unexpected relief and then insisted there was no need for a shotgun wedding at 16 or now. She wanted time to plan.
And so, here she was, a perfectly planned wedding at just the right time for everyone, all in fewer than nine months. Her dress is a dusty rose color and she's wearing a crown of flowers, just like she did on her first real date with Luke. He's standing, steady and true, under the chuppah he made with his own two hands (just like the cradle at home).
As she prepares to walk down the aisle, clutching her bouquet, she feels her daughter kick madly with what can only be joy. And it's then that the baby's name comes to her. She pats her stomach reassuringly and whispers, "Oh, Daisy-girl, I know the feeling."
all you need's a strong heart/and a nerve of steel
"Don't you see? Vegas is so clichéd that it's moved past the cliché and reverted into sincere!" Lorelai enthused as Rory fussed with her veil.
"Mom, we're here, OK? Ya don't need to sell us on it, we're all here. Michel can't wait to see Bette Midler, Sookie and Jackson are excited to have a weekend with no kids, T.J. and Liz are going to have a blast at Camelot, Grandma is spending thousands at the shops and Grandpa is meeting some old classmates for some kind of poker tournament. We're here, it's great. Now, stand still."
"I just don't want anyone to think that … I'm not sincere."
Rory waited for the laugh or the quip to follow but when one wasn't forthcoming, she took her attention off securing her mother's veil/tiara combo and met her eyes instead. "Oh, Mom! No one thinks that, I promise."
"But in fifteen minutes I am marching down the aisle to have Elvis marry me in the Little Chapel o' Love! I mean, come on, how is that sincere?!"
Her mother's face pulled down in a frown and Rory took a step back, lacing their hands together. "Mom. Look at me. You drug us all here, thousands of miles from home, to have the Elvis wedding of your dreams. Everyone who could make it is here and everyone else is at home, waiting to throw you a party. And everyone knows you're sincere and this is real. Do you know why?"
"Does it involve Elvis?"
"Because, in exchange for Elvis marrying you, you're spending your honeymoon out in the wilderness in Maine. You and your soon-to-be husband are, you know, compromising and growing and letting each other be who you are and happy. That's why we're all here. That's why we know it's sincere. Because it's you and Luke, Mom. Because this is it." She squeezed her mother's hands and smiled.
And then her mother breathed a sigh of relief and there was laughter and even a smile. "Maine. Now there's insincere for ya. I mean, Stephen King …"
Twenty-five minutes later, Elvis is done officiating the most sincere Vegas wedding in recent memory and Rory can see happiness rolling off her mother in waves. She stares across the short aisle at Jess, who has fixed a sleepy-eyed gaze of promise on her. "Viva Las Vegas, indeed!" Rory thinks as she watches her mother kiss the groom.
snips and snails
By the time Lorelai and Luke get around to saying the vows and having the ceremony, Will is almost four years old. He runs off right before the vows with the ring pillow but, naturally, the rings have been secured in Jess's front coat pocket. Still, it takes Rory almost ten minutes to catch her brother. And once Will is off, Davey and Martha and Claire aren't far behind, so Sookie takes off after them, and then Zach turns for just a second, so Kwan and Steve are pushing each other and in short order, chaos reigns.
When Luke goes over to soothe his son, who is squirming madly in his sister's arms, Lorelai rushes off to look for Davey who's taken to a tree and sometime in there, someone makes it to the food line and by the time they get all the children settled and sorted, people have begun to mill around and chat.
An hour later, it occurs to most people, Lorelai included, that the reception seems to have started without the wedding, but she can't really complain because Will is sitting her lap very calmly while Emily feeds him applesauce. Besides, people are dancing now, and everyone looks like they're having a great time. Luke is talking to Richard about some fishing trip they have planned for later in the summer and Rory is helping Lane manage feeding Steve and Kwan.
Later, as the evening is winding down and her son is sleeping peacefully on her shoulder, Lorelai feels Luke kiss the top of her head. "Hand the baby over to Rory. She's headed home and I want to have a dance with my non-bride before the day is over."
Will is so exhausted from his day that he doesn't even stir when Lorelai places him in Rory's arms. She lets Luke lead her into a measured waltz. He never misses a step as he says, "We really should head down to the courthouse and sign the papers, you know. Especially now that we've had the actual wedding."
She smiles at her not-quite husband coyly. "Aw, let's think about that tomorrow. Don't ruin a girl's non-wedding, once-in-a-lifetime day with serious thoughts and plans!"
And it is Luke's slow smile, and thinking of Will's sleepy embrace, that reminds Lorelai that every day is a once in a lifetime day, and somehow, they keep getting better.
Halona Idiwan'a
Of course, they don't get married on the Reservation itself, because that would be disrespectful, but it's still fun to tell Emily that they're requiring everyone to be in traditional Zuni dress.
It had started out almost as teasing, Let's get married in New Mexico, on vacation! But then it sounded so radically different from anything she'd ever imagined or planned that it began to seem less funny and more fated. From that moment, it all unfolded almost faultlessly.
April is there, beaming with glee at her father's presence in her adopted home. She glows in the New Mexico sunshine and it is clear that the wide-open desert spaces compliment her endless curiosity. Obama's campaign is making week-long stop-over in the Gallup area, doing town meetings and information gathering among the local Native Americans, so Rory is there. She's thriving too, seeing the country through an eager reporter's eye, letting the world open in front of her and writing about it. Jess hops a Greyhound bus, saying New Mexico did amazing things for D.H. Lawrence and Willa Cather, so who's he to argue? Lorelai is sure Emily and Richard won't be making the journey, but Emily sniffs that she's heard the desert air is good for complexions, there's some pottery she simply must buy and, after all, she isn't missing this wedding.
So there they all are: the people that mean the most to Lorelai and Luke, gathered in a tight circle out in a clear New Mexico morning. Lorelai's voice never wavers, because Luke is wearing that awful bracelet that April bought him and that reminds Lorelai of the kind of man Luke Danes is, the kind that keeps wordless promises when they mean the most.
The day after the ceremony, April and her best friend Ellie, a Zuni girl, take them on a tour of the Pueblo, giving them an in-depth and breathless description of not just the sights but the history of the Zuni people.
"This is what our people call Halona Idiwan'a," Ellie had told them upon reaching the village. "It is the Middle Place of the Earth, where we first settled thousand of years ago, after many years of wandering."
Lorelai grasped her husband's hand and understood.
June 3rd
They get married two years to the day after their first wedding date.
Lorelai won't hear talk about how it's bad luck or a terrible omen.
"It's just correcting a little hiccup in the universe," she explains to Luke when he frowns with disapproval. "It'll actually be good luck, stars realigning, all that jazz. It's our chance to reclaim the day, so we don't shuffle around it and hang our heads about it."
"If you're sure …"
She is.
It's a beautiful summer day, just like she planned, and everyone is there, just like she planned, and she tells Luke all about how he and Rory were constants that guided her life for more years than she can count, just like she planned.
And he kisses her and whispers he'd sew a thousand tarps together to see her smile, and that's not what she planned, it is better.
It's June 3rd: her name is Lorelai Danes, everyone is clapping, there are tears in her eyes, and it's all just exactly like she planned.
Section notes: "Bellis perennis" is the binomial name of a common daisy, Lorelai's favorite flower. "All you need's a strong heart/and a nerve of steel" is a lyric from the song Viva Las Vegas! "Snips and snails," obviously, is from the nursery rhyme about little boys. The rest is explained in story.