December 24, 1996
Danes Home
1800 hours

"Remind me again why I have to get dressed up?" Jess complained, his suit jacket draped over his left arm as he entered the kitchen, still fumbling with the tie around his neck. After yet another unsuccessful attempt he tossed his jacket over the back of one of the chairs and flopped down on it.

"Because it's Christmas Eve, and we're going to church." Rory explained, exiting her bedroom before stepping in front of her adopted cousin to help him with his tie. "It's important to Luke, apparently it's an old Danes tradition to go to the Christmas Eve Candlelight service. Besides, it wouldn't kill ya to dress up once in a while. There, you're good to go." She smiled, running her hand down the silken material to make it lay flat against Jess' dress shirt.

"Thanks," Jess mumbled, loosening the tie a bit around his neck and unbuttoning the collar of his shirt. Just because I'm in military school doesn't mean I can't rebel a little at home. He thought to himself. "You look nice, by the way."

"You think?" Rory asked looking down at the black dress had a sparkling violet overlay which complemented her eyes. The dress had spaghetti straps and an empire waist below which lay and a straight skirt that brushed her knees. "It's not very Christmassy."

"Who says you have to wear red or green to be Christmassy?" Jess chuckled, "Aren't you going to be cold?"

"No," Rory shook her head before ducking into her room to emerge a minute later wearing a black sweater and a pair of black flats. "Thanks for reminding me."

"No problem," Jess nodded before grabbing his dark suit jacket from the back of his chair. "Now we just have to wait for Luke and your mom to finish up.

Almost as if summoned by his words, the adults entered the kitchen. Luke in a dark grey suit and Lorelai in a deep red dress that had sleeves that cut off just below her elbows, the dress skimmed over her body, barely concealing the baby bump, and flared at her hips. The skirt hit her just below her knees making the skirt sway seductively as she walked. She wore a low pair of black peep-toe heels that boosted her height to just above Luke's shoulder.

"Ready to go?" Luke asked, as the guys helped the ladies on with their coats before pulling their own coats on and headed into the cold for the short walk to the church. "Thanks for doing this, guys. I know none of us are particularly religious, but this was something my folks did every year, and I'd like to keep the tradition now that I've got a family to share it with."

"Oh Babe," Lorelai smiled up at her husband from where she walked arm in arm with him. "We are more than happy to do this with you. It's only an hour, and from what you told us, it may actually be enjoyable."

Luke smiled softly at his wife and placed a kiss on her temple as the family walked up the steps and into the small white building. The service wasn't to start for another 20 minutes and the sanctuary was already packed, they were lucky to find a row with enough room for all four of them to sit. After taking their seats and exchanging a few cordial greetings with the residents around them, their attention was drawn to the front of the room.

Miss Patty stood to the far right of the sanctuary her sequined red dress catching the light in the room. In front of her were two rows of children, most of whom were Rory's age or younger. She nodded to Maury and Andrew who started to play on their piano and violin respectively as the children began to sing What Child Is This? Slowly the congregation rose to their feet and joined in the song. A few hymns later, Reverend Skinner told them they could take their seats. After Mrs. Weston read a passage outlining the Christmas Story, the preacher spoke briefly on the reason behind the holiday and the importance of family. As he was speaking ushers slowly made their way down the aisles, handing out thin tapers that had been pushed through paper shields.

The pastor quickly explained the purpose of the candles being representations of God's light shining in the dark world before taking his own taper and lighting it from one of the candles on the altar. Someone turned out the light as the middle-aged man of the cloth made his way to the first row of residents, lighting a few of their candles before crossing the aisle and lighting their candles as well. Slowly, neighbor by neighbor, the room began to glow with the shared light from their candles as the children's choir under Miss Patty's direction began to sing Silent Night. Not long later, the lights were turned on, candles extinguished, and the community was invited to gather in the fellowship hall for refreshments.

By the time the Danes family arrived home, Rory was asleep and being carried in by Jess. She had been so tired walking home and had bumped into Jess more than a few times before he had eventually just swept her up in his arms and carried her the rest of the way home with her arms around her neck and her head nestled against his chest. Once they were through the door, Luke instructed Jess to just lay Rory down on her bed and Lorelai would be in shortly to get the girl ready for the night. He nodded quietly and followed the older man's instructions before heading up to his own room to exchange his suit and tie for a t-shirt and flannel pajama pants.

While Lorelai was helping Rory get changed, Luke quickly set the presents under the tree. While he knew that Rory didn't believe in Santa, he figured that he should get used to waiting to place the gifts until the night before because before too long there would be another child who might hold onto Santa for a while. Smiling to himself as he laid a thin rectangular package under the tree, he allowed himself to fantasize over his wife's reaction to the gift the next day.

"Alright, she's in her pajamas, tucked in, and sleeping soundly, do you need any help in here?" Lorelai asked, entering the living room.

"Nope, I got everything handled here," Luke smiled adoringly up at his wife before turning off the tree lights and getting up, "Why don't I put you to bed too."

"Sounds good, but only if I get my favorite Lukey Bear to sleep with." Lorelai teased, using a childish voice when she referred to Luke as a teddy bear.

"I think we can figure something out." Luke teased, lifting his wife into his arms and carrying her up the stairs. Once they were through the door of the bedroom, Lorelai insisted he wait for her while she took off her makeup and changed into her nightie. A few minutes later his wife emerged fresh faced but wearing a short, red silk nightie that had a slit nearly all the way up her left thigh and was edged in black lace.

"I hope this is what you meant when you said you wanted to put me to bed." Lorelai teased suggestively, walking slowly to her husband before climbing onto the bed and straddling his pajama clad legs.

"No, but I'm not complaining," Luke husked, pulling his wife too him as he kissed her, his hands exploring his wife's body as his mouth explored hers. As he ran his hands up her legs and slipped them under the slip of silk fabric, he was pleasantly surprised to find the short nightie was all she was wearing. Luke softly groaned with pleasure as Lorelai pressed her soft body closer to his which was growing ever more rigid. Eventually her hands found their way under his shirt as she slowly began to trail her fingers over ab muscles before dropping them lower to play with the waist band of his red and green plaid pajama pants.

Barely able to restrain himself, Luke growled and flipped them over so Lorelai was laying beneath him. He stared at her intently for a few moments before Lorelai let out a sultry giggle which sent shivers of pleasure down his spine. "You gonna kiss me or are you waiting to find some mistletoe?"

"I've got your mistletoe right here," Luke smiled at her roguishly, his eyes promising pleasurable things to come.

December 25, 1996
Luke and Lorelai's bedroom
0013 hours

"Wow," Lorelai smiled softly as she snuggled up to her husband's bare chest. "That was… incredible. If I weren't already pregnant, I would be after that."

"I was inspired." Luke grinned at his wife, as he pulled the blanket up over them.

"I could tell," Lorelai giggled, "The 'mistletoe' wasn't half-bad, either."

"Half-bad?" Luke challenged.

"It was wonderful, fabulous, the best I've ever…" Lorelai's words were cut off by her husband's kiss. "It was pretty great." She smiled.

"I'm glad, you enjoyed it, but we should probably get some sleep before the kids wake up." Luke kissed her nose, "You should probably find something to wear too, that tiny excuse of a nightgown you had on earlier is enough to wake a dead man but I doubt Rory would want to see you in it."

"I doubt she does either." Lorelai smiled, slipping from the bed to pull on an old blue and black flannel shirt of Luke's. She only fastened the middle three buttons, letting the bottom and top flair out to accentuate her curves. Lorelai chuckled when she saw her husband looking dumbly at her, halfway through pulling his pajama pants back on. "Here let me help." She smiled sweetly at him, slowly guiding the fabric the rest of the way up and taking her time with the ties around his waist 'accidently' grazing his more sensitive areas in the process.

Luke let out a guttural groan, "You are going to be the death of me, woman." He growled softly in her ear, before placing his hands on her bare waist and pulling her closer as his lips traced her jaw softly.

"That may be." She smiled as his lips met hers, "But what a way to go."

"As much as I would love an encore performance, you know Rory will be bursting through that door in less than six hours demanding that we open presents." Luke reminded her, "We should probably get to bed, to sleep this time."

"I hate it when you're right." Lorelai sighed, placing one more kiss on her husband's stubbly cheek before climbing into bed and curling up to him one more time to rest until the break of day. "Good night Luke."

"Good night Lorelai."

December 25, 1996
Danes Home
0849 hours

Luke enjoyed mornings like this, when he could wake up with his wife in his arms. He'd become especially fond of them recently when he noticed the slight change in his wife's body. Reveling in the many hours he'd spent gently running his hand over her bump in the weeks since it had appeared. That's my kid in there. He thought proudly. Luke had awoken some 30 minutes ago to a silent house, and like he did nearly any time he got a chance, he watched his wife sleeping. Even after being friends with her for nearly 7 years and together for nearly three of those, he couldn't get over how beautiful she was. For the life of him, he still could not understand why she chose him. It was at that moment his wife started to stir. "G'morning." Luke purred in his wife's ear as she slowly started to awaken

"'Morning." Lorelai responded sleepily, rolling over to face him. "What time is it?"

"About ten to nine." Luke pulled her closer to him so that her head now rested on his chest.

"That's weird." Lorelai murmured, waking up, "I would have expected them, or at least Rory to have come in by now. She usually has me up by seven to open presents."

"It is awfully quiet." Luke observed, then a moment later a thought occurred to him, "Wait, we have two teenagers in the house, isn't it odd that it's so quiet?"

"One teen, one pre-teen." Lorelai corrected, "But you're right, there ought to be some sign of life by now. I mean Rory zonked out on the way home from church last night and Jess went up right after putting her in her bed."

"Maybe they just wanted to let us sleep." Luke suggested.

"No, if there's one thing Danes Dames can't resist, it's presents." Lorelai sat up, fastening the rest of the buttons on the flannel shirt she was wearing before walking to her dresser and grabbing a pair of black leggings. "They're up to something and I intend to find out." She stated ducking into the bathroom.

Luke just chuckled and shook his head before getting up himself and getting dressed. Grabbing a clean pair of jeans and a red and green flannel, feeling festive on his first real family Christmas in a while, he quickly got dressed. By the time he was pulling on his socks, Lorelai reappeared in the bedroom, hair brushed and pulled up in a ponytail, and teeth brushed. She must not have felt like putting in her contacts that morning as she was wearing her thick framed glasses when she came out.

"You don't want to ever leave this room do you?" Luke teased, standing and pulling her into his arms, "You know what those glasses do to me."

"On the contrary, I want my gifts," Lorelai smiled up at him before placing a soft kiss on his lips. "Don't worry, I'll make sure to get on you about those late library returns later." She cooed, running her hands from his lower back, where they had naturally gone when he embraced her, down to pinch his ass.

"I can't wait." Luke husked in her ear, "Now let's go see what kind of trouble those kids of ours have gotten themselves into."

"If we must," Lorelai feigned disappointment before turning and flouncing out of the room and toward the stairs with her husband hot on her heels. "I smell coffee." She murmured.

"One cup, that's it." Luke didn't want to go through the same argument today, "And only because it's Christmas."

"I'll take it!" Lorelai beamed back at him before making her way down the stairs. Just before reaching the first landing, she called down the kids, "I know you both must be awake by now, if you're doing anything illegal, stop it before we get down there."

The only response she got was a girlish giggle from her daughter, and a slight chuckle from her husband's nephew. The two were sitting on opposite ends of the couch, still in their pajamas, and tossing a wrapped chocolate orange between each other. They had gotten their stockings down and each had a large cup of steaming liquid on the coffee table in front of them.

"That had better be the hot chocolate that was in your stocking, young lady." Luke warned, looking at the mugs.

"It might be," Rory smiled up at him, "Or perhaps I convinced my dear cousin to make me a mocha this morning."

"Rory…" Luke intoned.

"Daddy..." Rory copied the tone, adding her patented 'Rory eyes,' "It's Christmas, I think I should be entitled to one treat on this most holy of days."

"You are letting me have one cup of coffee," Lorelai pointed out, "It's just a mocha, and knowing Jess, it's probably mostly cocoa."

"Yes ma'am," Jess looked over his shoulder at the adults with a smirk before turning back to toss the chocolate orange to the girl across from him.

"Fine, just today, and just that cup." Luke gave in.

"Thank you Daddy!" Rory responded brightly before returning to her game of catch.

Luke just shook his head, knowing he was well on his way to being the biggest pushover ever that day. While his wife got settled in the living room with the kids, he quickly poured her a cup of coffee and made some tea for himself before joining the rest of the family for gifts.

All in all, everyone loved their gifts, and enjoyed the looks on each other's faces as their loved ones opened the gifts they had given them. A little later Luke made lunch while the kids got dressed in preparation for the Gilmore Elders' arrival. After lunch another smaller exchange of gifts with the grandparents happened, both children each receiving a first edition novel from Richard. Once the Gilmores left, the rest of the day was quieter, Rory and Jess went outside to play in the freshly fallen snow. Rory had inherited her mother's affinity to the cold white stuff, and Jess was just happy to be out of the warm, muggy, Texas weather for a while.

The rest of the day was passed like any other, eventually Rory and Jess got tired of being outside, or rather were told to come in after one too many snowballs were aimed at the misshapen head of one Marshall Kirkland Gleason who had been walking by repeatedly doing his "rounds" in the small community. Laughing they came in and retreated to their respective bathrooms with dry clothes to warm up and change.

As the sun began to set, Luke was struck again at how lucky he was, he had passed through the living room on his way to make dinner when he took in the scene. At some point in the day, he'd lit a fire I the small fireplace and had been keeping it stoked the whole day. Rory and Jess had taken the large afghan from the back of the couch and laid it in front of the hearth where they now laid, each reading their respective books, pausing occasionally to share a specific excerpt or observation with the other.

"They really do get along don't they?" Lorelai asked, breaking him from his reverie as he stood on the landing of the stairs. She'd been upstairs taking a nap as her pregnancy was slowly starting to wear her out.

"Yeah they do." Luke smiled back at her before pulling her into his arms and placing a soft kiss on his wife's forehead. "I think they're even closer now than when he lived here."

"I think it's the letters they've been sending back and forth," Lorelai observed, "I think it's nice that they're close. Sure beats constant fighting, doesn't it?"

"That's true," Luke agreed, "Liz and I were always at each other's throats, I'm sure my dad would have preferred it if we'd been more like these two, especially after Mom passed."

"You do know we can hear you." Jess commented, not looking up from his book.

"Yeah, quit talking about us like we're not here." Rory echoed, never breaking her focus on the page in front of her.

"Parents," Jess joked, "Jeeze, you'd think they'd know not to be so rude."

"No kidding," Rory agreed, "I think we shall have to teach them a lesson in etiquette before my little brother or sister get here."

"Alright," Luke chuckled, "Point taken. Jeeze." Smiling at the two kids he shook his head good-naturedly and headed into the kitchen to whip up some tomato soup and grilled cheese which had been requested after the snowball incident earlier that day.

"Hey at least we were only saying good things." Lorelai pointed out, taking a seat on the couch. "Why are you two all the way over there, on the ground I might add, when we have a nice big comfortable couch and a remarkably soft chair both perfect for reading on?"

"Wow, Auntie Lorelai," Jess teased, "Didn't anyone ever tell you the best way to enjoy classic literature…"

"Especially classic literature in first edition form," Rory added.

"…is to read it by fire light?" He smirked, "Generally it's better laying on a bearskin rug, but alas all we had was this old afghan."

"Perfectly placed afghan, I might add." Rory piped in, "Not so close that it runs the risk of catching itself, or us, on fire; but not so far away that we can't enjoy the warmth of the flames or perhaps toast marshmallows if we deem they are needed."

"A well thought out and executed plan." Lorelai complimented them, "I'll leave you to it then." She smiled before walking into the kitchen to see how her husband was coming along with dinner.

She smiled watching as Luke split his time stirring the homemade soup on the stove and flipping the sandwiches that he had cooking on an electric griddle that rested on the island. No matter how many times she'd watched him cooking for their family or just for them on the rare nights Rory stayed with the Kims, it never got old. She loved watching as the muscles on his back shifted and rolled with each precise movement. She flushed, realizing how it affected her. God, he's so sexy, she thought to herself, the things I want to do to him right now. Huh, I wonder if this is what Babette was talking about, she warned me that something like this might happen. What Lorelai didn't realize was that she'd been standing in the doorway to the kitchen with a stupid grin on her face for long enough that Luke took notice.

"Earth to Lorelai," He smiled, waving his hand in front of her face "You get hit with a stun gun or something?"

"No, just thinking," Lorelai smiled easily at him, "No need to send Doctor Crusher to evaluate me or anything, my silly Trekkie hubby. I was just thinking about something that Babette told me when we first announced the pregnancy."

"Do I even want to know?" Luke chuckled, "I take it there's a 'dirty' somehow involved in that conversation."

"Just a small one." Lorelai shrugged, taking a seat on one of the kitchen stools that were lined up on the other side of the island. "She said that when she was pregnant with Moira, once the morning sickness was finally over and her second trimester started, her hormones went crazy and she had a hard time keeping her hands to herself. And I quote, 'It's a damn good think I was traveling with Morey on his jazz club tour or else I can't imagine what trouble I might have gotten into while he was gone. Let me tell you, those clubs weren't the only thing happening back then.'"

"Oh, jeeze," Luke groaned, "I so didn't need to know that about my ex-girlfriend's parents."

"I forgot you and Moira used to date." Lorelai laughed.

"It didn't last long," He shrugged, "It was just for about a month in junior year, long enough to go to prom, but we decided a few weeks later we were better as friends."

"Very logical," Lorelai nodded, "Oh hey, I just got a great idea, isn't Moira dating that one detective from Hartford?"

"Who Chuck? Chip?" Luke tried to recall the name.

"Charlie." Lorelai supplied, "Seems like a nice enough guy. Why don't we invite them to join us at the New Year's Eve Party at the Independence Inn?

"Sure, I'll give Moira a call after dinner, see if they're available." Luke nodded before sticking his head in the hall and calling the kids in for dinner.

Minutes later, the family were seated around the table, enjoying one of their rare family meals together. Not that it lasted long, both Rory and Jess, eager to get back to their books practically inhaled their food and dashed back to the living room, but not before Jess snagged a bag of large toasting marshmallows from the pantry.

Later that night, Luke and Lorelai found Rory and Jess passed out in front of the fireplace, Rory resting her head on Jess' stomach, both of them with their books laid across their chests. The nearly empty bag of marshmallows lay not too far from Rory's knee near a couple of brass roasting sticks that Jess must have liberated from the garage at some point. Both sticks had evidence of having recently had the left over gooey pits charred off the end so as to make cleaning them easier.

"Think we should wake them?" Lorelai asked her husband quietly.

"Nah, they'll eventually wake up when they get stiff and head to bed themselves," Luke shook his head, "Now about what you were saying before about crazy hormones. Is there anything I can do to help you with that?"

"I can think of a few things," Lorelai responded coyly, running her hand down her husband's front and caressing his jean-clad thigh, "But first these have got to go."

"Upstairs." Luke growled in her ear. That was all the encouragement she needed, luckily the kids were too tired to be awoken by the joyful squeal that was emitted by the Danes wife.