Disclaimer: This story follows the TV series!

Chapter 2

As the cruise continued, Luke and Nicole tried to ignore it like it hadn't happened and participated in the activities instead. Snorkeling was fun and interesting. In fact, Luke felt Shelby would enjoy it and wished he had brought a waterproof camera. But of course, reality chased after them and caught up as the cruise came to an end and they were on land once again.

The drive home was mostly in silence except for when they had to say something. They even booked separate hotel rooms whenever they stopped some place for the night.

Towards the end of the trip home, Nicole was the one who finally addressed it.

"So, we're married." It was weird hearing the statement out loud. Luke was still trying to pretend like it hadn't happened, but hearing it said out loud that they were indeed married? Aren't people supposed to make these kinds of mistakes right out of high school? Or in their twenties?

He let out a long breath. "Yeah, guess so." How was Luke supposed to explain this to Shelby? She knew there would be a chance he would propose, but not actually get married. How was she going to take this, especially when they were about to work on her relationship with Rachel? Sure she loved Nicole, but… Shelby would have liked to have been there to see her dad get married. Luke would have liked for his little buddy to have been there. In fact… No, that's stupid. Pretty sure that wasn't the norm. Though, since when did Luke care about what was normal?

"It's not that I don't care about you," Nicole continued. She was looking elsewhere, probably trying to make sense of it all. He was. "It's just… This wasn't how I wanted it," she admitted.

Luke was staring ahead, glad he was driving. He tried to steal a glance out of the corner of his eye. It wasn't easy, to say the least. "No, I understand," he managed to reply. "With Shelby's mother back and having to go see her old therapist to try and fix their relationship, it's probably not the best time for her dad to get married."

Nicole finally stole a look over at him. "Though, I do love Shelby very much. I wouldn't want to get between her and her mother, either."

"So, what should we do?" Luke forced himself to steal a glance from the corner of his eye.

She shrugged. "I'll probably head back to New York."

"Yeah, and I'll head back to Stars Hollow." And that they did.

Luke stopped through New York to drop Nicole off, offering to help carry in her stuff before heading home, pulling in late. He locked the door to the diner behind him and headed straight for upstairs, flipping on the light as he walked in the door to the apartment.

One of the first things he did was check on Gexie. Even though Luke had closed down the diner during the trip, he had requested for either John or Caesar to come in and feed Gexie every few days.

The little gecko was over on the cool side of the tank, getting a drink of water from her bowl. Luke decided to drop in a few crickets and reached in to grab the water dish since the water was almost gone. Since he's been gone a couple weeks, Luke made a note to clean out the tank the next day.

With Gexie taken care of, Luke walked across the room to his side, heading towards the bathroom to shower. It was already late but since he wasn't really that tired yet, Luke took notice of the pile of stuff on the kitchen table he hadn't gotten to. Most of it was all of the papers Shelby had brought home, the last day of school.

Heading over, he sat down and began going through everything. Some of it, Luke put into a pile to keep. He had a box in the closet where he kept a lot of the artwork and best tests Shelby had made or taken, for old time's sake. Then the other stuff like all the random worksheets and most of the quizzes, Luke threw away into the trash can he had placed beside his chair.

Now and then, he would chuckle reading what Shelby had written. On some of the reading worksheets where she had to write answers to questions from a paragraph or short story, questioning why a character did what they did. Oh, yeah, this was his kid alright. Though, they were funny, the worksheets still went into the trash. It was great for a quick laugh and all, but Luke knew he couldn't keep all of them. Not when the kid still had ten more years worth of school assignments left.

Time passed as Luke continued looking and reading through all of the papers and artwork, keeping not only his favorites but what Shelby had said was what she was most proud of, as he drank some tea he had made. Eventually, he came across a report that had instantly grabbed his attention. It was one of Shelby's reports written a few months ago at the beginning of the calendar year while her class was learning about history's "heroes".

We have been learning about heroes. My hero is actually my dad. He's always there for me and makes me feel better when I am sad. He can make me laugh a lot! He takes me camping and he lets me help in the diner.

Luke smiled at the words Shelby had written about him.

But my dad isn't my only hero and I want to talk about him too.

That part was what pulled his interest in.

My other hero is my cousin Jess. He helps me with my homework and to talk too. He told me his life sucked when he was a kid so he wants to make sure mine doesn't suck even if that means doing stuff he doesn't want to do. Like when I ask him to play Nintendo with me. It's funny because I think he really does like it. He just won't say so. Luke chuckled to himself. Jess is always looking out for me like my dad does. He taught me how to fight and protect myself in case they can't because they won't always be there. Jess says I can do anything I want to and not to let anybody tell me I can't. I told him the same but he always gets real quiet when I do. I don't make Jess talk if he doesn't want to because I don't like when people make me talk sometimes. Sometimes we just sit there and don't say anything and listen to the birds or the lake. That's one of my favorite times because sometimes just being with my big brother is good. That's what I call Jess and he calls me his baby sister. We don't have any brothers or sisters but we act like we are brother and sister. We fight and annoy each other sometimes. But we really do love each other and will do anything for each other. I had a friend called a mentor. Her name was Bailey. She said there was a family out there for me and she was right. I'm glad to have my dad and big brother around.

Luke flipped the page the report was written on, over. The other two pages stapled to the report were just a report web that Shelby had to write out the main ideas, and her rough draft that had a lot of red ink and comments written on by Mr. Harris, of spelling and word choice mistakes. Her writing has improved a lot this school year. Most of the credit was due to Mr. Harris working with each student, individually, not wanting any one of them falling behind. Shelby worked hard, too. Between her hard work, Mr. Harris, and Luke, and especially, Jess, it seemed like second grade had turned out to be her best year, yet, so far. Hopefully, third grade will be even better.

Flipping back to the report, he couldn't help read through it a second time. Reading this after having to kick Jess out, made his heart crumble to pieces. Luke dropped the personal hero report on the table and dropped his face into his hands, rubbing it along them, now feeling more like a failure than ever. He tried to remember what Lorelai had said.

Luke gave him a chance. He gave Jess a roof over his head, free meals, a place to sleep. A job. He was even willing to give him a raise. Luke wasn't even charging him rent even after Jess turned eighteen. He gave the guy space to come and go as he pleased. Jess made his own decisions. Those were his choices. But it didn't matter because it still felt like it was Luke's fault. That he was the one who let Jess fall through. Luke was only trying to help his nephew but instead pushed him away and into the arms of a man who ditched out the night his son was born. If only Luke had been honest with him. He believed in his nephew so much. Luke knew Jess was smart enough to pass high school, to go onto college. It was amazing how much Jess read in just one week. Luke knew he could do so much more if only Jess put forth the effort.

The few times a year, Luke had gone up to New York, to visit his sister and Jess, played in his mind. The actual gold stars the kid would get back in kindergarten and how happy he would be. It made Luke wish he had visited a lot more, and not been so socially awkward around children, especially his own nephew. Maybe then, Jess would have been more willing to finish high school and go on to college. Guilt set in even more, thinking how much more Luke wanted to make sure things would be different with his own kid when he couldn't even help his nephew.

Luke snapped out of his thoughts and stood up to rinse his cup out in the kitchen sink, leaving the cup there for now. He then decided to turn off the lights and call it a night since it was very late and he had to be up super early for the next week's delivery.

As he laid there, staring up at the dark ceiling, Shelby's report still lingered on his mind until he could no longer hold his eyelids open.

A couple weeks passed before Nicole called and they were able to discuss their final decision. It was probably best to divorce. They had rushed into a marriage without even much of a thought. Plus, Nicole never wanted an eloped marriage. Like Luke wanting his daughter there, she too wanted her parents and close friends there. Not to mention, neither one had even said they loved each other yet. It was a stupid mistake that they rushed into while not being clear headed.

Luke hadn't even felt inclined to share with anyone what had happened, too embarrassed of the shame. A few days after returning home, Sookie and Jackson had stopped by the diner for lunch and asked how the trip was. Luke couldn't get away any more faster the way he bolted without hardly a word.

When he was finally able to call and check in with Shelby, she too asked how his trip was and if he did end up proposing. All Luke managed to get out was, that it was good, that they saw a few shows, and went snorkeling, making sure to point out how much she would have liked snorkeling, telling Shelby about all of the fish they saw. Eventually, he knew he had to tell her something. All Luke told her, though, that he did end up asking Nicole to marry him.

"Really?" The tone in her voice and hearing how hopeful she sounded did not help matters much.

"Hold on," he stopped her before Shelby could jump for joy. "Before you start sharing, I want to talk to you about this. Okay?"

"So, don' tell anybody yet?"

"No, not yet. There is stuff I need to explain first and I don't really want to do this over the phone. I'd rather we talk in person. Okay?"

"Okay, Dad." The kid sounded so excited. It was going to be hard to break the news he and Nicole had already gotten married and were planning on getting divorced. Part of him hoped all of the excitement she was having over there, in Florida, would make Shelby forget all about it. The tough part about this whole mess was not having his little buddy there with him and having to spend nights alone. Since they were getting divorced, he and Nicole hadn't spent any time together, and all of the adults who Luke had as friends were all out of town. So, the poor guy was all alone.

During the first week of July, Rachel had stopped by the diner, having returned from her own trip. She thought Shelby would have been back by then because of her birthday.

"No, usually, they return, mid July, during the second week," Luke explained.

"Even though they had Shelby with them?" she questioned.

Luke had his ledger open in front of him, on the counter, going over the diner's finances for the last week. "They asked and made sure it was okay, and I made sure Shelby understood it would be for most of the summer. She was hesitant but she had missed her friends last summer and since she had already said she'd go, despite the reason, she still kept her promise." He returned to his work when Rachel hadn't said anything else.

She stared at the floor until she asked, "Has Shelby been calling you?"

He nodded. "Almost every night. Why?"

Rachel dropped her gaze onto the floor once more, holding onto her upper arms.

It was then Luke understood. "She hasn't called you."

She gave a slight shrug. "I don't blame her. I know things aren't that great between us right now." Her voice trailed off for a moment. "It's just…"

"What?"

"Nothing." Rachel shook her head.

Luke just returned his attention to his ledger, his pencil in hand. With so much on his mind at the moment, he wasn't about to insist on whatever Rachel was trying to say if she didn't want to tell him. A glint caught his eye and he stole a quick glance at her hand. There, on her ring finger, was a bright, gold ring. Luke quickly moved his gaze back towards his ledger before Rachel noticed he saw it.

Rachel decided to turn around and leave. "You'll let me know when she's home?"

"Yeah, yeah. Of course," he nodded, trying to play it cool he hadn't noticed the ring. She doesn't seem to suspect anything.

"Thanks, Luke." With that said, Rachel turned and left the diner. Luke watched as she made her way down the sidewalk while staring down in front of her. So, looks like Luke wasn't the only one who got hitched this summer. This must have been the reason for Rachel wanting to introduce Shelby to Roger. Did Rebecca know about this? Or, did Rachel keep this from the rest of her family? She never was the big, extravagant type, never even wanting to do birthday parties, much less a wedding. So, yeah, it made sense Rachel would run off and elope. But, still. The family still has a right to know.

Luke remained open on the Fourth of July, mostly getting a few tourists passing through, as most of the town were down at the lake for their annual town BBQ. He didn't even hear from Shelby until the next day, who filled him in on the fun day she had, had. The boys' grandparents threw a BBQ/pool party of their own since they had an inground pool.

"I never spent all day in the pool before," she told her dad, as if that was the most amazing thing she had ever done. "I had a hot dog and barbecued chicken, potato salad, and chips, and corn on the cob, and for desser', chocolate min' ice cream."

"Wow, that sounds like a lot of food." Luke was impressed the kid was able to eat all that. Shelby also told him about them going to a ballpark just to see the fireworks and getting to sit on the pitcher's mound. On a blanket, of course.

Of course, Luke called his little buddy again, the very next day so he could be able to wish her a happy birthday. After talking to Rachel, Luke had curiously asked Shelby about not calling her mother. She had gotten quiet until Shelby admitted she was nervous to call her mom. She did point out, why couldn't her mother call her like Luke did?

"That's a good point, kiddo." Luke planned on asking Rachel about that, but he hadn't seen her come by since she returned from her trip.

Finally, at long last, the day arrived when Shelby came home.

Luke was taking a customer's order when the family's minivan pulled up in front of the diner. As soon as Cheryl opened the side door, Shelby jumped out and dashed inside which Luke set his notepad down, on the table he was standing at, so he could scoop his little buddy up.

Was it him or has Shelby grown in the last month and a half?

Shelby squeezed her dad's neck as much as she could as Luke did the same.

"I have missed you so much, kiddo," he told her.

"I missed you too, Daddy."

Over a minute went by before Luke had to put Shelby down upon her request. Ron brought in her suitcase and backpack, along with her laundry bag, Luke had gotten her to put her dirty clothes in, instead of having to mix them in with her clean ones. She then hugged each of them, including the boys, thanking them for letting her spend the summer with their family and for everything else, especially Disney World. Cheryl also gave Luke, back Shelby's bank card. Since he rarely traveled, Luke actually ended up with a phone call from his bank that there was a purchase made in Florida while he was clear across the country, and had to approve it.

Exhausted from the plane trip and having to wake up early to catch said plane, Shelby took a nap for the next few hours. She was so tired, she ended up collapsing onto Jess' bunk without removing her shoes. That's when Luke realized she had grown a little over the summer. Shelby had mentioned while she was gone, they had to replace her shoes as they were starting to hurt her toes.

As she laid there, sleeping peacefully, Luke couldn't help stand there, watching her. His daughter was indeed growing up right before his very eyes and he couldn't help get choked up at the thought. Before he knew it, Luke would be walking her down the aisle and giving her away to the right guy. Though, he hoped Shelby would make better choices, he did not want that day to come anymore faster than it seems to be.

Shelby ended up sleeping until around four in the afternoon while Luke was up there working on financial stuff for the diner. She emerged, coming over to where he sat at the kitchen table, rubbing her eye with her fist. Coming around to his side, she grabbed onto his upper arm he was leaning on, hugging it to her and rested her chin.

Luke kissed her forehead that was visible in the space above her hat's plastic adjuster strip. "Hey, kiddo. Glad to have you home." He smiled at her.

She looked up at him with just her eyes. "I'm glad to be home," she also smiled. "Want to see everything I got at Disney World?"

"Sure."

Shelby hurried over to where her suitcase was still packed and unzipped it open. First, she pulled out a stuffed animal of Goofy, bringing him over. "I got a new 'tuffed animal."

"Goofy, huh?" Luke smiled, proud to know one of her cartoon characters well.

"I met him, too," she said. "We took a picture with him."

He nodded, "Cool."

Shelby set Goofy on the table and hurried back to bring out more that she had gotten there. The kid ended up filling her arms with more than one thing, bringing them over to set on the table beside Goofy. One was a Disney travel mug.

Holding up the travel mug towards him, she said, "This is what I got for Lor-lai. I wasn't sure what to get for her."

Luke took the travel mug to look it over, turning the mug around. It had a lot of the original Disney characters like Mickey and Minnie Mouse, Pluto, Donald, and Goofy. "I'm sure she'll like it." He set it on the table in front of him.

"And I got Rory these pens." She handed him a package of pens with a different Disney character on each pen. "You know, for when she goes to college so that will be one thing she won' have to buy."

He took the pens from her to look those over. "That's very nice of you, Shell." Luke already knew Shelby wasn't looking forward to when Rory would leave for college and won't be around as much. It was sweet of the kid to still want to help out with her school supplies needs.

"Oh, yeah," Shelby hurried back to her suitcase and dug around until she pulled something out, quickly hiding it behind her back. "I got you something too."

"You didn't have to get me anything," Luke assured her. "Not when I have you"

"I know but I wanted to." She returned to where she had been standing at the table and pulled the gift from behind her back. "Here." In her hand was a black baseball cap. "When I saw it, I thought of you, Dad."

Luke took it. "Another hat, huh?" He looked at the character that was on the front. The dwarf from Snow White and the Seven Dwarves who always looked mad was glaring back at him with his arms tightly folded. Above the character, it read, Grumpy.

Luke stared up at his daughter, confused. "This made you think of me?"

With a big smile on her face, she nodded. "Yep. Because you're both grumpy but deep down, you both care." It had been a long since he seen the movie so Luke wasn't sure if he remembered the character well, but what he did remember, the guy was pretty grumpy. Luke didn't think he was grumpy as the character always seemed to be.

"I want you to wear it, too," she added. "At least for a little bit. Please?" Shelby gave him a puppy dog look. How could he say no to that face?

"Okay, kiddo." Adjusting the back of the hat and bending the bill, Luke removed his blue one and placed his new hat on his head. Backwards, of course. While adjusting the hat, he noticed it had Grumpy's name above the hole. Only for his kid would he let that slide. "How do I look?"

Shelby held a thumb's up towards him. "Great." With that taken care of, she returned to showing everything she got for everyone. Unable to buy for everyone Shelby had planned on, on the count of Disney World's gift shop being expensive, she was only able to buy for only a select few.

"I got Mom something, too." She held a photo album upright on her lap that said, Disney World 2003 on the cover, along with Mickey and his friends. "I figured she could have another place to put her photos in," she shrugged. "I got Nicole something, too." She reached over and picked up what looked like a cup wrapped in paper.

His shoulders dropped at the mention of Nicole, reminding him, he still had to tell Shelby.

"I asked her when I went to spend the night at her apar'ment what Disney character she liked," she was saying as Shelby unwrapped the paper from it. "She said she was always fond of Tinkerbell so I got her a cup in the shape of Tinkerbell's head."

Luke had to force a smile. "That looks great," he said.

"I hope she likes it." She was now looking the cup over.

"I'm sure she would." Luke couldn't help go silent. He watched her for a moment before taking in a deep breath, letting it out. "Shell, we should probably talk."

Shelby looked up from the cup. "About getting married?"

A tightness crossed his chest.

She must have figured something was wrong because Shelby asked, "Something happened?"

Luke leaned forward, wiping a hand down his face. Letting out another breath of air, he searched around the table, trying to meet her eyes. He had to tell her.

Forcing himself to look the kid in the eye, Luke forced the words out. "Shell, Nicole and I…"

Her face suddenly dropped and a different kind of puppy dog look appeared. "The wedding is off, isn' it."

Luke swallowed back a lump. "The wedding already happened." Now the sad, puppy dog look switched to a puzzled look. "W-we… We got married on the ship."

"Oh."

Luke wasn't sure what to make of that response. "It just sort of happened. We weren't thinking straight. Remember when I told you, how adults drink too much they become what's called being drunk?"

She nodded. "You drank too much so you got married?"

He let out a third breath of air. "Yeah."

"You can do that? Get married that quick?"

"Apparently, the ship's captain is allowed to marry people," he shrugged.

"I thought a reverend could only marry people," she said, still confused.

"I guess ship captains can do it, now."

"So when is Nicole moving in with us?"

Luke had to look away. "Nicole won't be moving in with us," he told her, poking at his hand he held.

Her eyes grew at that. "We have to move?"

He shook his head.

The horrified look changed back to the puzzled one.

Taking yet another deep breath in and letting it out, Luke prepared himself to tell Shelby. It wasn't easy considering he and her mom had broken up not long after they had gotten back together, too.

"We're… Nicole and I…" Luke watched her for a moment. "We didn't mean to rush into a marriage without first being prepared. Neither one of us are ready for a commitment like this. So, we're…getting divorced."

"But Nicole will still be around…" This time, he caught her swallow. "Right?"

He hesitated before slowly shaking his head. "No, kiddo."

Shelby continued to stare at him. "Y-you…" Her voice was breaking. "You're breaking up?"

"I warned you this might happen, Shell. Dating isn't always guaranteed," he tried to remind her. Like that would even make this any better.

"But… You were thinking of proposing," she pointed out.

"I know I was, kiddo. But I didn't mean for it to turn out like this. I didn't want to rush Nicole into something like this."

Shelby wasn't letting up. "Can't you guys give it a try? You do like each other."

Luke had to shake his head. "We've already talked about this, Shell. We thought long and hard, and weighed the options. We feel this is for the best. The further we put this off, the harder it'll be, and with your mom being back, Nicole felt she'd be in the way of the two of you trying to work things out."

"She won' be in the way," she tried to insist.

Luke couldn't help smile at the kid's sweetness. The smile couldn't stay long. "It's for the best, kiddo. I'm really sorry."

"But why can't you try it? Things happen for a reason."

"Shell, this kind of stuff is complicated."

Shelby just stared at him. After a moment, she quickly hurried over where her shoes were, shoving her feet into them before heading for the door.

"Where are you going?" he asked.

"Out," she replied, sounding like her cousin.

"You know I need more than that," Luke reminded her.

"I want to ride my scooter around," was all she said.

Letting her go, Luke reminded her to check in, in an hour. He then dropped his head, letting out one last breath of air once she was gone.