Chapter 2

Luke turned around and looked at me from his place in the doorway leading up to his apartment. He gave an annoyed sigh and walked over to the door, unlocked and opened it, and said "Do you know what time it is? I just finished cleaning everything up."

I pushed past him and let myself in, shutting the door behind me. "I know, I'm sorry it's so late, but I had to come over."

"You're much happier than you were earlier," he noticed.

"You're right, I am," I nodded with a grin.

"You're also in your pajamas," he said with a smirk.

I looked down and saw my ugly gray sweatpants and blue t shirt with the giant bleached out spot in the middle underneath my pick pea coat. I looked ridiculous and I didn't care. I looked back up at him, still with a smile on my face. "Whoops, oh well," I said without a worry.

He looked back at me, a little bit of concern on his face. "Have you finally officially lost it?"

"No! Actually, I've finally got it all together. I need to talk to you about something."

"All right," he said, still clearly concerned for my sanity.

"Can we go upstairs? This is sort of apartment talk, not diner talk."

"What's the difference between diner talk and apartment talk?"

"It's important. Really important. The rest of our lives important."

Luke's face turned serious as he relocked the door, closed the blinds, and motioned for me to go upstairs. I practically ran up the steps as he slowly trudged up behind me. "Come on slow poke! Don't make me break out my spurs!"

"I'm coming, keep your shorts on."

"Did you just use a Simpson's reference on me?" I said in shock.

"Don't be so surprised, I know things too." He finally arrived on the landing and opened the door, ushering me in. "Do you want something to drink?"

I bounced into the kitchen behind him, ready to burst with my idea but trying to reign in my excitement to keep from freaking him out. "Got any champagne? We'll want champagne to celebrate the night that we came to our senses."

"Beer's the best I can do," he said, grabbing two bottles from the top shelf of his fridge.

"Beer is perfect!"

He twisted the cap off of each bottle and handed me one. He set his bottle on the table, pulled out a chair, and motioned for me to take seat. "Yes, you're right, this is definitely sitting conversation," I said.

"Are you going to share this great idea you came up with in the hours since I saw you last?" he asked after he took his own seat.

Finding myself in need of a confidence boost, I took a long pull on my beer. Swallowing hard, I tried to find the right words for my pitch. I set my bottle down a good four feet in front of me, afraid I would knock it over with my shaking hands if I set it too close. When had I suddenly become so nervous? It's now or never, Gilmore, I thought to myself. "So earlier, we were talking about our mutual need for a family. How we're both not getting any younger and our windows for having any chance at a family are growing smaller and smaller."

"I remember. Go on," he folded his hands on the table and looked at me, his expression thoroughly confused.

I cleared my throat, just for something to do. "Well, I was thinking, and just hear me out before you have an aneurism." He continued to start at me. "I want kids, and you want kids, right?"

"Yes."

"We, you and I, that is, the two of us, could have kids together," I said as quickly as possible.

Crickets. I could hear a dog barking a few streets over.

"Did you hear me?" I asked, suddenly concerned that I had said it so quickly he couldn't understand me.

He leaned back in his chair and folded his arms across his chest. "Oh, I heard you, I'm just trying to decide who I can call this time of night to get you checked into the loony bin, because you really have officially lost it."

"No! I haven't! What is so crazy about this idea?"

"Seriously?" he questioned as he got to his feet.

I stood up too. "Yes, seriously! We both want kids. You admitted it in the diner earlier today. We are already friends. You have a steady job and a steady income and I will have a steady job and income once the inn is up and running. This might be a little vain, but I think I've got a pretty stellar reference for the mother position sitting at Yale right now if you want to give her a call."

"You do," he quickly agreed.

A little taken aback by his firm affirmation of my ability as a mother, I sat back down at the table and asked quietly, "so what's the problem?"

He stayed standing with his hand on his hips. "The problem is that neither of us is good at relationships."

"You're right, we both royally suck at romantic relationships. But that's why this is such a great idea. We are both really awesome at friendly relationships."

"So we would just stay friends?"

"Yes."

"But we would have a kid together."

"Yes."

"How is that going to work?"

"Luke, if I need to have that talk with you-"

"Lorelai," he cut me off. "You know that's not what I mean. I just mean, that, will complicate things."

I stood up and walked over to stand directly in front of him. I mirrored his stance and put my hands on my own hips. "Not if we don't let it. This could be really great."

He hung his head and sighed, standing in silence for a few moments. "Will you give me some time to think about it?" he asked, finally looking up at me.

I smiled, knowing I had pretty much already won. "Absolutely. Take as much time as you need. But not too much, remember those aging ovaries of mine?"

"Geez, Lorelai, I thought I told you not to say that," he said, picking up his beer again and downing almost all of it in one gulp.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I thought you just meant in the diner," I teased.

"Never. Never use the word," he struggled to get it out, and finally decided on "never use anatomical terms in my presence ever."

"Oh, okay, that's much clearer." I smiled at his nervousness. "Thanks for hearing me out, Luke. I'll leave you to your thinking." I leaned up and gave him a chaste kiss on the cheek that seemed to leave him rooted to the spot. I walked to the door, opened it, and turned to leave. "I'll see you tomorrow morning, for real this time."

He finally looked back up at me. "Yeah, see you tomorrow."

"Bye, Luke."

The walk home was a lot louder than the walk there, at least inside my head. On the way, all I could think about was getting to the diner in time. Now, I had so many things running through my head all at once, I almost felt dizzy. I hoped a good night's sleep would help clear things up.

The next morning, I woke up feeling so light and happy. I knew exactly what I wanted. I was feeling so sure about what happened the night before; I knew it was only a matter of time before Luke realized how great the idea was too. I got ready for work in record time so that I could make a pit stop at the diner. I parked the jeep right outside and walked in, taking my usual spot next to the cash register. It took a few minutes, but Luke finally came out of the kitchen to take my order.

"What can I get you?" he asked as he placed my blue mug in front of me again and filled it to the brim.

"Hmmm… This morning, I'm thinking pancakes, bacon, and sausage."

"You got it," he said, turning his back on me to go help another customer. He never looked up at me. In fact, he didn't look at me the entire time I was there. Suddenly I wasn't feeling so sure that he would say yes.

I stood up to pay my bill and he came to help me at the cash register. Once we had settled up, I said goodbye and turned to leave, becoming even more disappointed each moment he didn't mention anything. I put my hand on the door knob when he called for me to stop.

"I just wanted you to know that I'm still thinking about it," he said, finally looking up at me.

I smiled back at him, relieved to know he wasn't ignoring the situation. "Thanks. I'll see you later," I said, and strolled back to the car with a little more pep in my step.

The day at the Dragonfly-to-be went a lot better than the day before. Sookie convinced Jackson to stay home for the day so that she could devote more time to the inn, and I apologized for being so rude the day before. It wouldn't be our last spat by any means, but at least we were back on smooth ground for the time being.

Sookie and I went back to my house for lunch, where she scratched her cooking itch for the first time in months. "All I have time for at home is simple stuff. Every time I turn around, Davey is hungry again and I have to feed him or Jackson is hungry again and I have to shove some crackers and cheese at him. It's blasphemy! My kitchen I crying!" she lamented.

"It bet! It misses you. You'll get back to it eventually, once things calm down."

"I know. Thanks for letting me do this in the meantime," she said as she stirred something magnificent on my barely used stove.

"Seriously? You can use my kitchen to satisfy any cooking related urge any time, my friend," I said before taking a bite of one of her freshly made stuffed peppers.

"Way to throw a 'cooking related' in there to keep it clean," she giggled.

"Hey, there will be nothing dirty going on in this kitchen. Unless George Clooney comes over. Then there will be dirty things all over the house."

Sookie giggle again. "Speaking of which, how has your love life been? Still high and dry?"

I smirked to myself, then hoped she didn't notice. "Actually, there may be something happening soon, but it's sort of complicated."

"Oh really? With who? Complicated how?" she grilled me.

"I really can't say. I don't want to spoil anything." I really didn't. I knew if Luke found out I told anyone anything, he would back out in a second. Of course, he would have to back in first.

"Oh come on, you can't throw me a bone and then yank it right back. That's against the rules!"

"Sorry, Charlie. My lips are sealed."

"Fine. You'll keep me posted, though?"

"I promise. As soon as I can say anything, I will call you right away." She seemed satisfied with my answer as she spooned a heavenly red sauce over handmade pasta and baked chicken. "Where in the world did you find a pasta machine in this kitchen anyway?"

"I didn't! I brought it with me in my bag!" She pulled out a giant metal contraption from her tote bag to show me.

"You've been carrying that around with you all day?" She nodded, her grin stretching across her face. "That was one hell of an itch, Sook."

Later that evening, I was too tired to go to the diner for dinner, and I figured it would be better if Luke didn't feel like I was rushing him anyway. To my surprise, I heard a knock on my door around nine o'clock that evening.

"Figures. Of course I'm already in my ugly pajamas again." I got up to answer the door and found Luke huffing and puffing on the other side. "Luke? What are you doing here? Did you run?"

"No, I didn't run, I'm just frustrated. Don't you have any other clothes?" he asked as he pushed past me and closed the door, the same way I did the night before.

"It's laundry day," I said with a wave of my hand. "Is something wrong?"

He marched into the living room, sat down, and stood back up again. "Okay, Luke, I think you are the one who has lost it now."

"You never came back into the diner tonight. You said you would come back."

"I'm sorry, I just got really tired. It was a busy day at the inn so I just had leftovers."

"I was expecting you to come back in and when you didn't, I thought you'd changed your mind."

"I haven't changed my mind. If anything, I'm even more sure than I was last night."

"How can you be so sure I'll be good at this? I've already proven I can't hack it with Jess. Who's to say I won't screw up another kid?"

"You didn't screw up Jess, Luke. He came screwed up. He needed a lot more help than you could offer him in two years."

"But how do you know I won't screw up this time?"

"No one ever knows, Luke, but if you need proof, just look at Rory."

He looked at me like I was crazy. "Rory is not my kid. She's yours, and she turned out perfectly because of you. We know you'll be good at this, but I could be a hot mess."

"Luke, she may not be your kid, but you definitely had a hand in raising her. You brought ice to her birthday party after giving her balloons the day before, you helped her with many a home-ec project, you are the one who finally taught her to tie her shoes, you carried her inside the diner and tended to her scraped knees when she was learning to ride a bike, and you went to her caterpillar's funeral." He stared at me, still unsure. "Should I go on?"

"No."

"I said before that you could call Rory for a reference for me if you wanted to, but you could just as easily call her for your own reference."

He thought it over for a few silent moments. I could practically see the wheels turning in his head as he chewed his lip. "You're sure? You're absolutely sure?" he asked, with one hand on his hip and the other with his hat in his hand rubbing his head.

"One hundred and twenty percent positive."

After a few beats, he said, "Okay."

Not knowing what he meant, I took a few steps closer to him and said "Okay what?"

He stepped back once and said "Okay, I'll do it. I think we should do this."

The grin on my face was so big it almost hurt. "Really?! Oh Luke, you won't regret it!" I jumped up and down and threw myself at him, almost knocking him over. I wrapped my arms around his neck and gave him a big kiss on the cheek. In spite of himself, he smiled back at me.

"So, when are we supposed to start?" he asked when I finally peeled myself away.

"Well, I know you don't want me to use anatomical terms, but-"

"I think it's sort of necessary now."

"I won't be, uhm, fertile, until Sunday, at least according to the calendar. So maybe we should start Saturday just in case."

"Okay. Saturday. My place or yours?"

"I live next door to the biggest gossip in town, so we better make it your place."

"Okay."

"We can talk more about logistics and things then."

"Good, I'm feeling a little overwhelmed right now anyway."

"I can tell," I said as I followed him back to the front door.

"I'll see you tomorrow?" he asked as he replaced his hat on his head.

"Yes, I promise you will see me tomorrow." He gave a small wave goodbye and walked off into the night. I smiles to myself as I closed the door behind him. This was going to be the start of a really great thing.

TBC