A/N: I love that you folks all love my take on William so much. I wasn't sure when I started but I think I have a good handle on what he would've been like now :) Thanks for all the lovely feedback, people. Now, on we go...
(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)
Chapter 9
It was only a matter of time before her parents showed up. Lorelai wished she could live in a make-believe bubble where it was just as easy as staying put at the Danes house and never having to face Emily and Richard again, but that was an impossible dream. Besides, as great as Luke was, as kind as his father was, it might be pretty strange to insert herself into their lives, in place of Liz or something. Yes, that would just be weird.
Still, she could've liked this life, Lorelai thought, sitting on the porch seat, watching the world go by a while. A quaint little town where all the neighbours knew each other and actually cared, little Mom and Pop stores, a gazebo in the town square. It was all so cute, so simple, so normal. Lorelai kind of loved it.
"Ah, Lorelai," said William as he came across her. "I just spoke to your father again. Given that you're still not feeling so well, I suggested it might be better if you stayed here another night and then headed home tomorrow. He agreed that would be just fine."
"Oh. Okay. Thank you, Mr Danes," she said politely. "So long as I'm not being any trouble."
"Of course not," he assured her. "Now, I'm actually on my way out, I have some things I need to see to, but Luke is inside if you need anything."
"Thank you, again." Lorelai smiled. "I really appreciate it."
He smiled back at her, nodded his head and then went towards his car.
As he drove away, Lorelai raised her hand in a wave and was glad to see him wave back. Mr Danes really was the nicest guy. It wasn't tough to see where Luke got it from. It was funny to think that for a while there Lorelai had thought her situation was very similar to that of Liz Danes. She had at least a little piece of understanding when it came to why Luke's sister had bolted, after all, she had done something similar herself, or at least tried to. Now she was spending time here at this house, Lorelai had to wonder what it was Liz was running from. Maybe that wasn't it at all, maybe she was running towards something instead.
"Jimmy Mariano must be quite the catch," she said out loud to herself.
"Why would you say that?" asked Luke from the doorway. "Sorry," he apologised immediately that he realised he had startled her.
"I'm fine," Lorelai promised, before the frown returned to her face, "which is funny because your dad seemed to think I was feeling sick again."
She cast a look in Luke's direction and he immediately glanced away, hands going right up to his head and adjusting his hat. Yep, there was no doubt that he had something to do with that confusion, though Lorelai was curious to find out what had driven the honest and upstanding Luke Danes to subterfuge.
"Come on," she urged him. "Are you gonna spill it or do I have to tip you over?"
"I might have suggested you could use another day's rest or without drama or something," said Luke, gesturing randomly with one arm now. "I didn't think you'd want to go home yet."
"You thought right," said Lorelai, smiling when he finally met her eyes. "Honestly? I could use never having to go home again. Not that I have a clue where I'm going instead but... well, here is good, for tonight at least," she said, looking out across the yard again. "It's so peaceful here, but the nice kind of peaceful, you know? At home, you can have silence for hours if you want, but it's the stony, lonely, awful kind. Here it's the kind of peace and quiet that comes with birds singing and neighbours chatting and... it's just nice," she said with a contented sigh, leaning back in her seat.
"I guess it is," Luke agreed, nodding his head, finding it hard to tear his eyes away from her. "It's nice to see you smiling so much."
"Yeah, well. Enjoy it while it lasts," she told him, hardly letting go of the expression even then. "Thanks for telling your little white lie to your dad. I appreciate the extra ounce of freedom."
"No problem. So, what you said about Jimmy?" Luke prompted then, still curious about what he heard when he first stepped out the door.
"Oh, that was nothing," said Lorelai, waving it away already. "I was just thinking about your sister. She ran, I ran, but it's not the same. I figure since there's really nothing here to run from, she must've been running to him, you know? So, he's gotta be some guy, right?"
"Yeah, he's some guy alright," Luke agreed, rolling his eyes. "He's half the reason Liz is the way she is."
"Really? Because from the way you told it before, her wild child phase started a while before she even met the famous Jimmy."
Luke sighed, shook his head and came over to sit down my Lorelai.
"I don't know. I'm not sure Liz was ever anything but a wild child. Mom died when she was so young and dad... he does his best and he's great, but with Liz... I don't know. I think she just needed a mom."
"And the next thing you know, she's going to be a mom," said Lorelai knowingly. "She's probably as terrified about that as I am," she said, one hand resting on her rounded belly.
Luke looked away then. The reality of Lorelai's situation kept on catching him unawares, even though it ought to be plain as day, given the size of her. Sure, she wasn't exactly huge, but then she did have three months left to go in her pregnancy. Liz was down to less than two, and was probably getting real big by now. Still, with Lorelai, just talking about everyday things, it was easy to forget somehow that she was pregnant, and with another man's child too. Not that Luke wanted her to be carrying his kid, because that would be insane, but...
"You okay?" she asked when silence had reigned too long. "Luke?"
Her hand on his arm startled him from deep and muddled thought. He turned to look at her but had no idea what to say.
"You hungry?" he asked eventually, knowing at least that ought to be safe ground.
"How long have you known me now?" she replied with wide eyes. "Three months maybe? By now you should have figured out that Lorelai Gilmore is pretty much always hungry."
"Then come inside, Lorelai Gilmore," he urged her, getting up and reaching for her hand to assist her in doing the same, "and tell me what you want me to make for lunch. Anything you want."
"Anything I want?" she checked. "Hmm... do you have ice-cream?"
It hadn't been a plan when he went out today. Quite honestly, Lorelai and her situation had been on his agenda but not in this way. He simply wanted to find out from a couple of local sources if anything was known about the Gilmores of Hartford. He never kept up with gossip and rumour, that just wasn't William Danes' way, but he heard certain things in the store sometimes, it was unavoidable.
Checking in with Miss Patty and others, he came to find that nobody knew a thing about the Gilmores, and actually, he took that as a good sign. They might not be famous as far away as Stars Hollow, but at least they were not infamous either.
Laughter greeted William's ears as he opened up the front door and headed into the house. Not just Lorelai's voice was to be heard, but Lucas' too. The TV was on, and the youngsters were at either end of the couch, Lorelai with her feet up on the cushions and Lucas just lounging at the far end. They both appeared to be eating ice-cream.
"Did I miss lunch?" he asked, getting their attention very suddenly.
"Mr Danes," said Lorelai, looking as if she had just been caught doing something far worse than indulging in ice-cream and putting her feet on the furniture.
"Hey, Dad" said Luke, appearing equally guilty somehow. "We were just-"
"Watching television and enjoying your dessert," he finished for him. "I'm almost jealous to be left out, but it's fine," he assured them. "I actually ate whilst I was out, and now I'm going upstairs for a while. So, you two can carry on with your show and your food."
He was smiling the whole time, apparently not at all bothered by what they were doing. Lorelai wondered why she thought he would care anyway. They were only eating ice-cream and watching I Love Lucy re-runs. She had been caught by her own parents doing much worse before now. The most she could be accused of right now was having her feet up on the couch, and she had removed her shoes before doing so.
"Why do you look like you just got caught having sex or something?" she asked Luke as he turned increasingly white.
"I don't," he protested anyway, putting his bowl down quickly on the table.
He put it on a coaster, Lorelai noted.
"Please tell me you're not afraid of your dad. He's so cool."
"I'm not afraid of him, I just... he's my father. I have respect for him," Luke explained.
"Which is also cool," said Lorelai, nodding her head, "but you don't have to go all weird every time he comes into a room just because I'm here. Unless it's not just because I'm here."
"It's partly because you're here," Luke admitted. "Not that I want you to be anywhere else, and it's not your fault. It's just not... things had been weird since Liz left, and now you're here and I keep expecting Dad to be different, to judge, I guess. He's not really that guy but I wasn't so sure he was going to be this flexible and easy about having you stay here."
"Well, he is," said Lorelai, staring into the remains of her melting ice-cream. "I'm really grateful that he is. I mean, you've been a great friend to me these past couple of months. Kind of the only friend I've had actually, since this whole pregnant thing happened. Now your dad is being so helpful and decent. I can't even tell you..."
As it turned out, when she tried, she really couldn't tell him all that it meant to her. Lorelai was even surprised to find her eyes filling with tears and her voice completely abandoning her. It was crazy. She wasn't usually so overly emotional, and she told Luke as much just as soon as she could manage it.
"It's the hormones, I guess," she said, trying to clear her throat. "Everything just makes me feel so up and down."
"Hey, it's okay," Luke assured her, taking the bowl from her hands to put with his on the table and moving up closer on the couch. "It's fine. You can be up or down, whatever you want," he told her, perhaps the most weirdly comforting thing Lorelai had heard in a long time, but at least it made her laugh.
"Oh my God, I'm so stupid!" Lorelai exclaimed, wiping at her face with both hands. "And now I look like a panda," she said, completely sure that her make-up had run and pooled around her eyes by now.
"You look fine," Luke assured her. "Better than fine, you're..."
He stopped short of saying 'beautiful' when her eyes met his and the world, as well as his voice, just completely went away. This was insane. Luke was pretty sure he was certifiably crazy, but if he could have just kissed her, right in that moment, he would have, but he couldn't and he didn't. As if their lives weren't complicated enough already.
"I'll get you some tissues," he said, practically leaping from the couch and heading for the stairs.
Lorelai let out a long breath and wiped her face with her hands one more time. It was so weird. In any other circumstances, she was pretty sure she knew exactly what would have just happened, and it would not have involved Luke moving further away from her, that was for certain. Of course, things were not different, they were exactly as they always had been since before she even met Luke. Lorelai was pregnant, with Christopher's child, and nothing was going to change that. The last thing she needed was to fall for Luke Danes, and yet...
The phone ringing in the hall snapped her out of that train of thought just in time. Lorelai expected either Luke or William to come down and answer it, but nobody did. Getting up from the couch, she moved over to the corner table and reached her hand towards the receiver. She waited one more ring and then picked it up.
"Danes residence, this is Lorelai speaking," she said politely.
"Lorelai?" said the voice on the other end of the line. "Oh, Luke's girlfriend! Hey, it's Liz. We talked on the phone that one time."
"Yeah, I guess we did," said Lorelai. "Hi, Liz. Er, wait one second I'll yell to your brother... or your father... which one did you want?"
"Oh, neither one actually if I can avoid it," she said, huffing out a sigh. "Families, you know?"
"Yeah, I know," Lorelai agreed. "Um, then you want me to give them a message or something?" she tried, sure there must be some reason why Liz had called.
"I guess, but... You know, what? Actually, no. Just tell 'em I'll see 'em real soon, okay?"
"Okay," Lorelai replied, "but you could tell them yourself really. Luke is right... here."
The last word became disjointed when she realised that Liz had already hurriedly said her goodbyes and hung up in the interim, just as Luke came back down the stairs, a box of tissues between his hands.
"Who was that?" he asked as he hit the bottom step.
"That was Liz. She said to let you know that she would see you real soon," explained Lorelai. "Thank you," she said then, taking the tissues from Luke's hands since he now seemed incapable of actually handing them over herself.
"You're welcome," he replied like a reflex. "That was Liz? And that was all she said?" he double-checked.
"Pretty much." Lorelai nodded. "I asked if I should yell for you guys, she said no, asked me to pass on the message that you'll see her soon. End of conversation," she recapped, peering into the mirror on the wall and trying to right the wrongs of her make-up - she was fighting a losing battle. "Okay, this isn't working. I'm bathroom-bound to mend the damage," she said, heading for the stairs, past a still apparently dumb-founded Luke. "Hey, you're okay, right?" she checked before she was too far away.
"Sure, yeah," Luke assured her, though he was sure he didn't exactly look it still.
He wanted to see Liz and know for sure she was okay, but at the same time, he couldn't understand why she had said they would see her soon. He wasn't sure if that meant she was coming home for good, if she had left Jimmy or if she was bringing him with her, or what. Luke wasn't even sure he wanted to know. It was just something to know she was probably okay.
Of course, if Liz did come home and need her room back, that would leave Lorelai without. Not that she was supposed to be staying forever, probably not more than for tonight. Luke wasn't sure why he hated so much that she had to leave so soon, or maybe he did know exactly and that was the larger problem. Maybe in time things would get simpler, Luke would like to think so, but with his little sister and his good friend both due to give birth in the next few months, he really doubted it somehow.
To Be Continued...
