A/N – This is a snippet I cut from Battle of the Christmases (and tweaked just a little). It fits into Christmas 2017 when Luke remembers the day baby Richard was born. I had it all written out and then decided it deviated too much from the point of that story, but I still wanted to share it. You don't need to read Battle of the Christmases to enjoy this, but I certainly won't stop you if you want to :-)

A Tale of Two Fathers

Rory smiled at her now sleeping son, taking the time to remember it all. She was holding a part of herself in her arms, and her mother and stepfather were by her side as they had been for most of her life, even if they weren't a couple for the first decade. She swallowed the lump in her throat. Stupid hormones.

"Hey mom, can you give me a moment with Luke. I want to talk to him about something before Grandma gets here."

"Oh. Uh sure," Lorelai was clearly curious and a little hurt as she left the room. "I should probably get another cup of coffee anyway."

Rory chuckled. "It's not bad" she said when the door closed. Luke was standing at the foot of the hospital bed, hands in his back pockets, looking very uncomfortable. He nodded back, but stayed silent.

"I didn't tell you this little guy's full name…"

"Oh man," Luke groaned and dropped his head to stare at the floor.

Rory ignored him and spoke to baby Richard, "I'm going to tell you the first story you'll ever hear. It starts with a little girl, her mother, and coffee. If you're at all like your grandmother, you'll learn that all the best stories involve coffee.

"Now, this little girl was a very lucky little girl. Her mother loved her so much, that when she was just a year old, they left home for a wonderful town called Stars Hollow. This place was magical and full love. The mother told the little girl's father where they'd be, but the father did not come with them. He went to other towns and while he would call a few times a year, he never visited them. To protect her daughter, the mother made excuses for the father for many years, and the little girl grew up believing them. While she was happy, loved, and always had a roof over her head and food to eat, the little girl always hoped that her father would return and be a family with them.

"One day, the mother stopped at a diner for coffee," Rory's thumb stroked Richard's soft cheek and she looked up at Luke. "In this diner, she met a grumpy man. At first glance, this man seemed mean and scary, but everyone who really knew him knew that he had been hurt in the past, and was hiding behind a disguise. The mother saw through his grumpy disguise and teased him relentlessly. He pretended to be angry, but he actually started to feel something else. She eventually got him to give her coffee with the promise that the annoying woman would go away."

Luke's head jerked up she gave him a knowing look. She knew about the horoscope the day after Lorelai found out about it. Rory looked down at her son again and continued her story.

"The mother loved his coffee so much, that she brought the little girl to meet him. From that day on, the grumpy diner man was always there for them. When the porch rail broke, brought his tool box over and fixed it. When their car wouldn't start, he would bring his tool box again and fix that too. When they were hungry, but couldn't afford food, he would feed them. When the little girl wanted to learn how to ride bike, he helped to teach her. When she fell off the bike, he gave her a hello kitty band aid and some ice cream. When her pet caterpillar died, he went to the funeral and gave her a hug. When she was sick, he made her mashed potatoes. When she had a bad day at school, he would give her pie to cheer her up. When it was her birthday, he always remembered. When she did well in school, he was proud.

"Eventually, the little girl grew up. She came to understand that the stories her mother told her about her father were not real. She knew that while he might love her on some level, he would never be there for her in the way a father should be. She had missed him over the years of her childhood, but she wondered why it didn't feel like she was missing a father. She realized it was because she always had one. It was the grumpy diner man.

"Many years later, the girl had a son. She wanted nothing more than for him to grow up to be a healthy, strong, and loving young man full of happiness and capable of being there for others. She wished to bestow her son with names of great men in her life in the hopes the he would follow their footsteps. She chose Richard, for her maternal grandfather, who was tough, wise, and successful; and Lucas, for the grumpy diner man who was strong, loving, and dependable. But, she couldn't give her son the grumpy diner man's name, because it would make the grumpy diner man grumpy. So she went with William, for the paternal grandfather she never met, but raised the best father a girl could ask for."

Rory kissed baby Richard on the cheek and looked up at Luke again. His hand was quickly wiping away some tears that spilled from his eyes.

"Luke, you old softie," she smiled at him.

"Yeah," he finally said in a soft, gravelly voice returning her smile, "I know."

A/N #2 – As I said at the end of "Battle of the Christmases," sorry, not sorry about the unoriginal baby name! If Rory did have a son and was going to potentially raise him as a single mom (I'm assuming that's the route ASP would go), I feel strongly that she would want to honor the memory of her grandfather. He was the one male blood relative that she was able to truly bond with, who was proud of her, and loved her, and showed that by being around as soon as he was invited back into her life. I wouldn't put it past her to try and honor Luke too, but in a way that wouldn't embarrass him too much. William seemed the most fitting for that.