Chapter 2: Eleven Years Later

It was a quiet winter's night in Stars Hollow. Luke Danes was busy closing up his diner, flipping the chairs upside down. Meanwhile, his girlfriend of many years, Lorelai Gilmore, entered the eatery; Luke had given her a spare key long ago. She made a beeline for behind the counter, noticing the stacks of papers and books.

"Wow, what's all this?" she marveled.

"What?"

"Dictionary, thesaurus, Mathematical Principles of... Natural Philosophy... Awww, you got a letter from April!" There, that explained it!

"I was two hours into deciphering it, and then I got your call," Luke chuckled.

"Hello, Peter!" Lorelai chirped.

"Father: British or Latin. She used the word 'ontological' three times; she used it the last time too, and I looked it up and then I forgot it again and then you called."

"Well, that's what you get for spawning an MIT-going genius!"

"Yeah, well, Rory's smart - she speaks like she doesn't need subtitles!" Luke huffed.

"She grew up with me. She learned all her language skills via The Breakfast Club," Lorelai grabbed herself a mug. "Hey, how old is this coffee?"

"Ollllllddddd," Luke drew out, hoping she'd put it down. He should have known better. Lorelai could drink any coffee, old or right out of the Keurig.

"Oh well," she took a sip anyway. "Hey, Luke?" she prodded even as she reached under a glass stand for a doughnut.

"What are you doing?"

"Eating sprinkles."

"Wait... uh, never mind," Luke waved her away. Lorelai had eaten unhealthy foods and survived this long; he figured she had nothing to worry about.

"Uh, did I tell you? Michelle's husband, Frederick, wants a baby."

"Frederick? The guy who came in and ordered three pancakes on three separate plates? The town oughta pitch in and buy another pig. I can't watch this anymore..." Luke threw the doughnut away even as his girlfriend laughed at his dry humor.

"Hey Luke... did you ever want a kid?"

Luke looked up from where he was diving into his paperwork. He shrugged, thrown by the question. "I have a kid."

"No, I mean a fresh kid."

"What the hell is a fresh kid?" Kids were humans, not pieces of fruit!

"A kid that's fresh. A kid... with me," Lorelai made explicit. "We never did have a serious conversation about it, I don't think. That one night at the Twickam house, but since then..."

"Well..." Luke picked up, trying to wade into this as delicately as he could. "I figured if you wanted another kid, you would... say something."

Lorelai gawked, putting down the sugar she had been pouring into a coffee filter. "I figured if you wanted another kid, you'd say something!"

"I brought it up once!"

"When?"

"Five, six years ago!"

"I don't remember!"

"We were at that Little League game! There was that kid playing right field, and he walked off in the middle of the inning to use the bathroom, and I turned to you and I said, 'That's the kid.'" Luke pointed into thin air for emphasis.

Lorelai stared at him.

"That's the kid?..."

"Yes!"

"'That's the kid' is your way of saying you want to have a kid?"

"In so many words!" Luke affirmed almost proudly.

"No. 'That's the kid' is not you saying you want to have a kid! 'That's the kid' is you acknowledging that that's the kid who's standing there about whom you just said 'That's the kid'!" She made this distinction at the speed of a tongue twister.

"I thought you knew what I was getting at!"

"Impossible, because I don't speak 'Huh?'" Lorelai mocked.

"Well... that's what I thought, and... you didn't pursue it, so..."

"It was up to me to pursue it?" Lorelai questioned.

"No... sorry..." The couple lapsed into a momentary silence.

"Well, how do you feel about it now?" Lorelai tried again.

"What?"

She sighed, amused at his lack of attentional skills. "Do you still want a kid?"

"Oh, well, I mean... isn't it... too late?"

"I don't know," Lorelai shrugged honestly.

"Look, forget it. I have kids. I have April, and... I've always considered... Rory to be a little bit mine." He said this last part almost sheepishly, as if he was embarrassed. Lorelai didn't know why. On the contrary, she found it quite adorable; Luke claiming her daughter as partially his. Luke was never a warm and fuzzy person to begin with, so his flashes of sentimentality were always an endearing thing to behold.

"Yeah, but she was so much fun to raise!" Lorelai stressed, recalling the years that Luke would feed her and Rory before they began their day; she at work, Rory at school. "Don't you want to have that kind of fun?"

"I have plenty of fun! Look at all the chairs I get to put on tables!" Luke deflected dryly.

"You don't want to toss a ball around with your son?" Lorelai could imagine herself and Luke having a little boy. She'd always secretly wanted Rory to have a little brother.

"There's Jess," Luke offered up.

"I said toss a ball with, not at," she volleyed back.

"I'm fine."

"You'll never get to see your own kid's graduation..."

"I went to Rory's graduation," Luke pointed out, becoming more confident in his paternal influence on Rory's life.

"It's not the same," Lorelai shook her head sadly.

"I know it's not the same," and Luke's voice was unusually tender, consoling.

"I just don't want you to miss out on anything..."

"Yeah, well, nobody gets to have everything they want in life. All in all? I think I did pretty good," Luke smiled at her genuinely. The love of his life was finally with him. He had a brilliant biological daughter, and another daughter he had adopted in all but deed. What more could he want?

Lorelai gave him the sweetest stare imaginable. "Can you at least think about it?" she whispered.

Luke breathed through his nose as he pondered. "All right. I'll think about it."


Little did the couple know that someone had been watching them, while she was home from business in London. Rory Gilmore now hurried up the street, away from the Diner, past the Gazebo... she had to make it home before her mother and pretty-much-stepfather did. As she sped-walked back towards Number 37, Maple Street, she pulled out her iPhone and dialed a familiar number.

"Hello?"

"Hi, April, it's me, Rory," Rory told her pretty-much-stepsister. "Listen, I know you're busy with your last semester at MIT, but I have big news."

"Oooh, did Berkeley discover a new particle for the Periodic Table again?"

"Uh... no..." Rory frowned. Even after a decade, some of April's quirks could still throw her for a loop. She sometimes wondered if April wasn't just her multiplied by... well, by way too much. She was very nerdy, Luke's daughter, but sweet. "My mom and your dad are talking about having a baby!"

"Good. You know how hard it is to get cheap porn on the Internet?"

"April, this is serious! And... just Ewww. Gross. This is our parents we're talking about! Now, my mom really wants one, and your dad... is thinking about it."

"You're surprised by that? The last time my dad had a kid, it was a complete accident and he didn't know about me for twelve years."

"That wasn't your fault..."

"How do you feel about this?" April transitioned way too sharply.

"Uh... I really think they should go for it."

There was a brief silence on the other end of the line. "So, the big hurdle is convincing Dad to pull the trigger."

"Dirty," Rory muttered under her breath.

"What does that mean?"

"Nothing!"

"I'll go work my magic and research adoption, surrogacy possibilities."

"OK, call me back."


Later that night, Rory was sequestered in her childhood bedroom. She called April via FaceTime.

"What have you got?"

"Adoption looks very promising, lots of orphanages across Connecticut. Actually, Dad and Lorelai could still conceive naturally, but they would have to move fast. According to some averages, your mom has approximately 5-7 years left before she hits menopause."

"I did not need to know that," Rory winced.

"Did you know surrogacy is a booming industry in the Northeast? And IVF has built up quite a market too..."

At the mention of this last route, Rory broke into a scheming smile. "Put the natural conception on the back burner, for now. As for surrogacy... I think I know a gal who can help with that."