Chapter 3: We're Partners Now
The first half of the drive passed in silence. Lorelai kept her eyes resolutely on the road, even as her eyes progressively began to fill with tears. Glancing over at her from the shotgun seat, Luke knew she could not keep up such a steely facade for long. And indeed, the dams eventually opened up, Lorelai bursting into tears and letting forth wracking sobs. Luke made her pull over, and he took over the duties of driving. Pulling back onto the highway, he set a coarse for the one place on Earth where he felt safe, and where Lorelai would have to go; she had nowhere else.
"Where... where are we going?" she sniffled.
"We're going home. My home. Stars Hollow," Luke got out.
"Where's that?"
"About 30, 40 minutes from Hartford."
"No," Lorelai's gaze was hard. "Don't stop driving. I want us out of this area; I want us out of this state!"
Luke sighed. "Lorelai... I can only imagine what you must be feeling. I would be hurt beyond repair and angry too, if my parents threw me out. But, my place is the only option left."
Lorelai grew quiet. "You don't have to do that," she mumbled. "I could..."
"Raise a baby alone? In this country the way it is today? Sure. You just keep telling yourself that."
"I could so raise it alone!" Lorelai cried, offended and outraged.
"No one is saying that you couldn't. I'm certainly not! I admire your pluck, but reality has a really cruel way of stifling ambition. Besides, it's my baby too!"
"Our baby," Lorelai corrected softly. "It's our baby."
Our baby. That phrasing actually made it sound all the more real. In a matter of months, Luke was going to be a parent, alongside a girl he hardly even knew! The thought made him chuckle.
"What's so funny?"
"Isn't it strange that I know your... body, know you are carrying my offspring... but I don't even know what your favorite color is?"
Lorelai side-eyed him for a moment, wondering if he was serious. "Blue. What's yours?"
"Brown. Like coffee."
"Coffee?" Lorelai suddenly squealed, gripping his arm. "I LOVE coffee! I could drink it all day, every day, but of course, my parents wouldn't let me!"
Luke laughed. "Well, I'll make you a mug once we get home. How does that sound?"
Lorelai smiled. "You know, Butch..."
"Luke," Luke smiled. "It's Luke. When I hear Butch, I immediately have flashbacks to my time on the baseball mound."
She laughed. "OK... Luke... I think this could be the start of a beautiful... relationship..." The nature of said relationship, however, was left ambiguous.
Luke had barely stepped out of the Nissan parked just in front of his parents' hardware store, when his mother accosted him.
"Thank God!" Katerine Danes cried, hugging him close. "Where have you been? Your father said these men took you!..." She peered around him to see Lorelai standing there awkwardly. "Who is she?"
"Lorelai Gilmore. Mom... you remember that New Years' Eve party I took Liz to?" And Luke was off, telling his mother about meeting Lorelai and sleeping with her; how her father had sent out private investigators to hunt for him and bring him back; the forced DNA test; and finally Lorelai's abandonment.
"It's my baby, Mom!" Luke stopped, correcting himself. "It's Lorelai's and my baby. We know what we did was wrong, but please... she has nowhere else to go."
Katherine approached Lorelai. The young girl tensed.
"How old are you, child?"
Lorelai flushed. "I'll be 16 in the next several weeks."
Luke's face fell. Oh God... He was 19.
Katherine looked upon Lorelai with sympathy. "You're welcome among us. Stay here as long as you like."
Luke took Lorelai up to his room in the apartment above the hardware store. Finding some baggy pajamas of his, he let her borrow them and change in his bathroom just beyond. When she was in there a while, he knocked on the door tentatively. "You done yet?"
"Just a minute." Her sweet voice had a very strange effect on Luke's pajama bottoms; they tightened. At last, Lorelai stepped out. Even with no make-up on and her hair frizzy, she looked... beautiful.
Luke stopped himself from staring and cleared his throat. "No spare couches, unfortunately. We'll have to share... my bed..." Luke and Lorelai climbed into bed together. All was quiet for a moment, boy and girl lying flat on their backs and staring at the ceiling. Luke finally reached across Lorelai to turn off the beside lamp.
"Well, good night..." He was cut off as Lorelai suddenly propped herself up on her arms and kissed his lips. Upon breaking apart a moment later, Luke stared.
"What was that for?"
"For being so kind. Our baby's going to be lucky to have a sweet daddy like you."
Luke gave her a kiss in return. It quickly got more heated, culminating in Lorelai pushing Luke onto his back and straddling him boldly.
"Condom?" Luke croaked out, even as his libido strained in protest and Lorelai planted kisses along his jaw.
"Little too late for that, wouldn't you agree? Not like I can get pregnant again when I already am," Lorelai murmured.
There was no refuting that kind of logic. Tossing aside her sleep shirt while undoing Luke's pajama bottoms, Lorelai settled on top of him. Pretty soon, the pair were making slow, sensual love. Their sweaty limbs caressed each other in an almost feathery fashion... The couple kissed deeply, yet tenderly...
Lorelai awoke a few hours later, alone in the large bed. She felt for her lover next to her, but she sensed only the lingering presence of his body heat. He wasn't there.
"Luke?" Sitting up, her eyes fell on him looking out the window, the moonlight casting an ethereal glow on his bare back. Smiling softly, Lorelai rose, draping herself in one of Luke's bathrobes. She leaned against the wall just behind him, her expression somewhere between amused and tender.
"Why didn't you wake me?"
Luke glanced back to her. "You looked so peaceful. Besides, the baby... you need your rest. Get some sleep, Lorelai."
"Come back to bed," she begged him playfully.
"I will in a minute."
So Lorelai left him by the window, staring up pensively at the moon.
