Four

Checkups and Surprises

Two months had passed since Lorelai received her positive pregnancy test results. At that time, she was four weeks along, and now she was eight weeks and growing more every day. She was still overjoyed, often pausing her daily routines at the inn just to pat her stomach or stare at it while saying, "Hi, baby." Although she had been pregnant before, everything felt so new. Every movement was special and longed for.

Today, though, was an extra special day. This would be the first time that Luke and Lorelai would see their growing baby via an ultrasound. They were currently in the waiting room, awaiting their turn to see the doctor. Luke was reading a magazine for fathers (he was constantly saying that since he missed these days with April, he needed to research), and Lorelai was just sitting there complacently running her hands over her stomach. She still couldn't believe it- after three years, she was finally pregnant. Every day it felt more real, yet more like a dream all the same. It was her dream that had finally come true.

"Lorelai Gilmore Danes? We're ready for you, and your husband if he wants to come along,"

Lorelai and Luke linked hands again and walked to the examination room together. The room itself was blank, but there were some posters about pregnancy that Lorelai was very interested in and reading intently.

"Look at that, there is a poster about which food the baby is each week! Very fitting for me. It looks like, this week we are a…." Lorelai trailed off, her eyes darting around the poster, trying to find the right spot. "…raspberry,"

"It freaks me out to see and think of my baby that way," Luke said. "Stop it,"

"I just thought it was funny!"

Just as they were in the middle of this silly and needless debate, the doctor entered. "Hello again, Lorelai and Luke! I see you're here for a baby related appointment, which means you're finally expecting! Congratulations to you both!"

"Thank you so much," Lorelai said. "The medication definitely helped us. In fact, it probably made all the difference," she gushed. She did not want to be too mushy, but really did love the doctor for what she had done and how she had helped them. Without her, they probably wouldn't be in this place and spot in their life and fertility journey. They were, at last, that much closer to where they wanted to be in their lives.

"It's what I do. Let's go on with the appointment. I'll help you up onto the table,"

Lorelai did as she was told and lied back on the table. The doctor set up her machines. Calmly and carefully, she lifted Lorelai's shirt and glided the ultrasound wand over her exposed stomach. After a minute or so, she settled on one area and smiled.

"Look at the screen," she guided. "See that small dot? That's your baby!"

"Oh my god," Lorelai said. "I've forgotten how amazing this whole process is. I really didn't appreciate it enough the first time,"

"Well, you were young," Luke piped up. He always wondered what the pregnancy with Rory had been like, but Lorelai did not mention it often and regarded it as a sore subject, part of her past she would rather not focus on. Of course, she loved Rory, but often regretted having her so young and the way she regarded the process. Luke wanted to be sensitive to her feelings and not pry into her past more than she shared or was comfortable bringing up, so he did not talk about or mention it often. He did not want to start a fight between them. They had had enough disagreements over the years.

"Age really does make a difference," Lorelai mused. She remembered the ultrasounds with Rory and just wanting to get them over with, instead of being amazed and amused by the miracle they showed her. They felt more like an inconvenience.

After a few more minutes of making sure everything was okay, the doctor let them hear the heartbeat. As the sound played loudly over the speakers in the room, Lorelai could not help but shed a tear at it.

"Our baby has a heartbeat…" she said incredulously. "I cannot believe it," She obviously knew that it was routine (and worrisome for them to not), but she was amazed and felt blessed and thankful that they had made it this far. It was just one more step, one more "check" in their journey that they could cross off.

"Me either," Luke squeezed Lorelai's hand. They shared a quiet kiss.

"Oh, wait," the doctor paused. "There's nothing wrong, everything is fine, but I do see something I didn't before. Hold on a minute, it looks like there could be more than one baby here"

Lorelai was almost in tears. Although the doctor had said nothing was wrong, she was still worried. She had worked so hard for this pregnancy and the last thing she wanted was a hiccup, even a good one. "What, what?" she asked.

"Um, Lorelai, Luke, you guys are having twins. There was another baby hiding behind the one I pointed out to you a bit ago. I noticed the heart rate was a bit high for just one, and I was not sure, but that confirms it. There are two babies in there. This is very, very common with medically assisted conception. It is due to rapid production of hormones and cells., plus sheer luck. Many conceive more than just two- I've heard cases of four and even more, the most being eight. Don't worry, though. I checked. There are only two," the doctor chuckled awkwardly.

"Oh my god," the couple said in unison, their jaws nearly hitting the floor. They thought the one baby was the biggest possible blessing, now they were having two. They knew it would be crazy, but also had a lot of confidence in themselves as well. "That's…crazy. We can't believe it,"

"Congratulations again! I will snap some pictures for you and you can pick them up at the front desk on your way out of the office,"

Once the doctor was done, she told them goodbye and wished them well in their journey going further.

Once they had left the office and were alone in the parking lot with only a few other cars around, Lorelai could not help but let out a small anxious (but happy) scream. She was not just having one baby, but two! Two to snuggle and take care of, two to comfort in the middle of the night, two to put through college. She felt like the happiest and luckiest woman, wife, and soon to be mother for the second time, alive. It was like the universe just knew what she wanted and needed, and she felt so blessed to be under these new circumstances.

"Lorelai, can you believe this? We are having twins! It's certainly not what I thought I would hear today, and I do not know if it's what I want,"

"I know, isn't it great?"

"Not exactly, do you realize how stressful this will be? We are getting older and I am not sure we are ready for and able to deal with this! We hardly have any help, we both have jobs…"

"I'm sure Rory will help us!" Lorelai offered.

"She is two hours away; do you really expect the girl to drive back so often?" Luke shot back. "She has her own life. You say you want her in a stable career and then you say she will help us with the kids. Make up your mind, Lorelai, which do you want more? They are our kids and our responsibilities, always,"

"You are right in saying that it will be a lot to take in, but realize how thankful we should be! We have worked so hard to get to this point and I know deep in my heart, in my soul, that we deserve the happiness and love of two babies. Remember all the times you were upset at yet another negative? All the nights of me crying on you because I wanted nothing more than to have a baby around the house again? That has happened and now I'm even doubly lucky! Those times are all behind us now, we have made it! We are having babies! Luke, please realize that some people cannot even get this far! We were them once," Lorelai was now in hysterics as she explained all of this to her husband. She could not believe that he was not happy, she figured he would love the news,

It was a tense ride home as the couple tried to make sense of what they had just been told, but eventually Luke spoke up. "You know what, we can do this. It's not going to be easy by any stretch, but we're in this together and we can handle it. It's what we do," Luke leaned over, placed a small kiss on Lorelai's lips, and then they drove the rest of the way home, talking and dreaming of the future.