Author's Note:

Special thanks to Taryn (hollywoodgirl2005 on YouTube, hollywoodgirl05 on twitter) for proofreading this and giving me lots of helpful suggestions to strengthen my sentences and my writing in general. :D

I tried to be accurate to the show as much as possible. This story takes place immediately after 7x08 "Introducing Lorelai Planetarium" aired. That episode aired on Tuesday November 21, 2006. Luke is supposed to be a Scorpio so November 22nd being his birthday would work – I'm pretty sure we never found out his actual birthday on the show. Everything that happened in the show up to and including 7x08 "Introducing Lorelai Planetarium" is canon for this story. But from now on, all the events are slightly different, as should be obvious… ;)

Also this is my first fic ever so please give me helpful suggestions to make it better and also just PLEASE REVIEW! It would mean the world to me. ;) I'd love to know what you think. Also any directions you'd like the story to take, suggestions, ideas – let me know in your reviews. I'd prefer if you logged in to review but if you must leave an anonymous review that is much better than nothing! Thank you. :D

Chapter 1: Luke's Birthday

After a long night of staying with April in the hospital, Luke returned to his apartment. It was 10:00am. Anna had come to pick her up about an hour ago. Her operation had gone very smoothly, and she had been her usual happy and talkative self this morning, despite being on medication for the pain. April actually seemed excited to have first-hand knowledge of what surgery was like, and Luke suspected she'd brag about her experience when she went back to school, and maybe even base her next science fair project around it. Luke smiled to himself as he thought about April, thinking with pride of how smart she was and how relieved he was that she was okay. Now he knew what it was like to worry about your child, to truly worry about them. He hated the feeling.

Luke yawned. He had napped intermittently while at April's bedside, but ultimately felt like he'd been up all night. The diner was closed "for an emergency" according to the sign that Lane had kindly made per Luke's request. Luke was too tired to work today and, instead of making Lane and Caesar run the whole diner, he decided to just close for a day. Luke just wanted to go to sleep.

He took off his coat and baseball cap and started to take off his shoes when he glanced at the calendar on his wall. Suddenly he felt really depressed. It was the 22nd of November – his birthday. He had forgotten his own birthday, which in and of itself was depressing. But to make him feel even more pathetic and alone, Luke came to the realization that no one would be remembering his birthday this year. Luke was sure of this fact, because the only person who usually remembered was Lorelai, and she was… married to Christopher now. Married.

Wow, Luke thought. He'd been trying to convince himself that she viewed sleeping with Christopher as a mistake, but who was he kidding? She loved Christopher enough to marry him! He should have realized she didn't regret it when he'd overheard the rumor that they were dating around the time that the town stunk of rotten pickles… But still… Luke thought. He at least thought she'd need a bit more time to get over him. God knows he did… Luke couldn't really imagine ever getting over Lorelai. That thought was way too depressing so he turned his thoughts to focus on the following date on the calendar. Thursday the 23rd. Thanksgiving. He'd just work the diner, he had no one to spend it with. At least he could feed people breakfast and maybe Kirk and Lulu or Babette and Morey would come in again this year since neither couple liked cooking themselves. Hopefully. Wait a minute, Luke shuddered to himself. How pathetic am I that I'm actually hoping Kirk comes into the diner? Realizing how ridiculous it was to want Kirk in his diner, Luke reconsidered accepting the invitation his very pregnant sister had extended to him. Sure the food probably wouldn't be edible at Liz and TJ's house and he knew she'd only invited him out of pity, but still… maybe? He was too tired to decide what he wanted to do tomorrow. He decided to go to sleep and make up his mind when he woke up.

Around 4:00pm the phone rang, waking Luke up. The phone in his apartment was the same number as the one in the diner. He'd never bothered to change it because this way he wouldn't miss his home calls when he was busy working all-hours in the diner or, in this rare case, he wouldn't miss his work calls when he was at home. He answered, expecting it to be a to-go order. He didn't get many of those but a few regular customers preferred to pick up his food to eat at their homes.

"Hello, Luke's Diner, sorry but we're closed today." He waited for the most-likely disappointed customer's response.

"Hi…" a familiar voice replied, wavering a bit with uncertainty. "I was just calling to wish you a happy birthday! I had hoped now would be a slow time in the diner, the pre-dinner lull… but you're closed? Why?"

"Jess?" Luke asked incredulously. He knew it was Jess' voice but he was shocked that his nephew had remembered his birthday. Not only that, but he had taken into consideration what time to call. It was so nice of him, and Luke's heart warmed at the thought.

"Yeah Luke, it's me. Is everything okay? You never close the diner unless something's wrong."

Luke sighed. "Everything's fine now. But well, I was in the hospital all last night so I needed to catch up on my sleep today."

"Geez Luke. I'm sorry, did I wake you? And what happened, were you hurt or something?" Jess sounded very concerned and a bit guilty.

"No," Luke reassured him, "you didn't wake me up." Luke didn't know why he was lying. "And no I'm not hurt or anything. April had appendicitis; I had to take her to the hospital. She had an operation to, you know, remove her appendix."

"Oh!" Jess was a bit taken aback by the news. "Wow. Well I'm glad you knew to take her to the hospital."

"Actually I didn't," Luke admitted, his voice dropping to such a low volume that it became hard for Jess to hear. Luke continued to mumble, "I had to call Lorelai, she was the one who knew it was probably her appendix. I'm the idiot who thought she was just sick." There were a few seconds of silence. "You know as well as anyone, Jess, that I'm terrible at this whole parenting thing."

"Luke," Jess tried to disagree, but Luke cut him off.

"No Jess, I am! When you were with me I had no clue what to do with you! I didn't even know what you were doing or where you were most of the time... And then you ran away from me!" Luke took a breath for a second, willing his voice not to crack. "And then last night, April yelled at me that I suck as a dad, right after I told her that she couldn't go to her friend's party. It turns out she was right," Luke's voice faltered and cracked a little, betraying him. "She laid there for over an hour clutching her side in pain and I didn't even think of appendicitis!" Luke wanted to cry but of course stopped himself, catching his breath.

"Oh, Luke…" Jess's heart broke for his uncle. He never realized that he'd made Luke feel like a failure at parenting. "You were a great guardian when I lived with you; you cared, you tried your best, you…" Jess's voice was now faltering, so he paused. "Luke, you loved me. Loved me in a way that Liz never did." Jess's voice was determined and steady now. "And you love April. I can tell just how much from this phone call alone. You knew exactly what to do – you called Lorelai. That's what a responsible parent would do, call for help... even if it means calling the person you've been trying to avoid because she broke your heart and is dating someone else now! You didn't consider your own feelings, you just put April first. You're a great dad, and I'm sure April knows it. She was in pain and feverish when she yelled that hurtful thing at you! You know she didn't mean it. You saved her life, Luke. From what you've told me, she's a very smart kid. She knows that she owes her life to you, Luke."

A tear escaped from Luke's eye and left a streak on his face. He swallowed so he could try to speak with a straight voice. "Wow." He paused for a second. "Thank you so much, Jess. That was…" he tried to think of the right words to say. "That was the nicest birthday call I've ever gotten, that's for sure."

Jess and Luke were silent for a minute, but they felt like somehow they could hear each other smiling over the phone. Luke broke the silence. "Oh. By the way, Lorelai and Rory's dad got married. Just thought you might want to be updated."

Jess's smile faded. "Oh that really sucks Luke. I'm sorry."

Luke didn't want to linger on the subject. "So, I'm sure you're really busy writing that second 'short novel' of yours, or reading other potential books that may or may not get published depending on your opinion of them, or something. Truncheon is a full-time job for you, right?" Luke could have sworn he could hear Jess smirk.

"Yeah, I guess I better get back to my work."

"Bye, Jess."

"Bye… oh but Luke?"

"Yes?"

"Please take Liz up on her offer to have Thanksgiving with her. She told me she invited you. She invited me too, but I already had plans. I'll be eating with Matt's family… but that's no excuse for you to spend the holiday alone, or working, or whatever."

"Okay, Jess." Luke smiled. "I'll go eat with your mom and TJ, just for you."