Chapter 10: Take Her

The diner was quiet. Lorelai and Rory had been gone only thirty minutes. Luke was trying to make himself useful and close up, when a group of men suddenly marched into the shop.

"We're closed..." Luke began to say.

"Are you Lucas Danes?" a deep voice asked. Luke looked up into the face of a police officer. Oh no...

"That's me," Luke replied in the affirmative.

"We have some information for you." Luke now took in the sight before him. Three police officers were in his diner, two of which held a fourth man in handcuffs. The prisoner had spiky hair, a handsome face, and wore a distinctive leather jacket. Luke felt a hunch stir in his gut.

"Christopher?"

The prisoner looked up. "Who wants to know?"

Hearing the answer made Luke's blood boil in rage. He found himself lunging for the man who was supposedly Rory's father, but the chief officer held him back.

"Stay back, sir!"

"You son of a bitch!" Luke screamed at Chris. "You tired to kill your own child, and damn near succeeded too! You've driven them away from the only happiness they've ever known! And for what? For money? You disgusting piece of filth! You should be down on bended knee and thanking every stinking God that Rory is your daughter! She's smart and funny and beautiful! If I could trade places with you, just to be her dad, I would do it in a heartbeat!"

Chris was silent throughout the whole diatribe. Finally, he spoke up. "I know you would."

Luke blinked in shock. "You wanna run that by me again, son?"

"He asked you a question, boy!" one of the officers drawled, slapping Chris upside the head.

"I know you would!" Chris repeated, a little louder this time. "Those men..."

"The ones you hired?" Luke demanded. Chris nodded.

"They were stalking Lore and Rory all week. Picked up that Rory would be here with you and that Lore would be out of town. They even staked out your place the night before. Bugged it and everything. They heard my daughter say she wanted you to adopt her."

How could I have been so stupid? Luke thought in utter shock. Was I just not paying attention?

"There's something else," Chris spoke up. "I didn't hire those men directly... my parents pressured me into it..."

Rory's grandparents are pulling the strings? Luke thought in disbelief. Nevertheless, he somehow could feel that what Chris was telling him was true. "But why?"

"They never wanted Rory. Tried to force Lorelai into getting an abortion after she learned she was pregnant. She refused. They thought she and the baby had ruined me and my life."

Luke was stunned. How could anyone not want Rory? "So you would just go along with whatever Mommy and Daddy told you? Even if it meant killing your own offspring?"

Chris broke down in tears. He started to cry so much, he began to sink towards the floor; the officers had to prop him up. "Give... give him the papers..."

The officers amazingly obeyed orders from their own prisoner, presenting Luke with a few pages of documents. Luke stared when he realized these were adoption papers - probably similar to the ones that Rory had apparently tracked down that day at the Stars Hollow Library.

"Take her," Chris sniffled. "I'm a dead man, anyway! She deserves a father like you..."

Luke stared at the broken soul before him. His jaw set. "Give me a pen." He fished his hand out until an officer presented one. Signing the papers without another thought, he then knelt so that he was eye-level with Chris. "Let him go."

"Mr. Danes..." the chief officer blinked.

"Let him go! He won't hurt Rory or Lorelai. Not anymore. I won't press charges against him either. Go after the grandparents for all their worth, though. As for you..." and he stared at Chris hard. "I'm only letting you run because I believe what you've said. Believe you can change. But if you ever try to hurt my daughter again..." and he felt a sense of giddiness referring to Rory as his daughter. "I will come for you. And we both know what's gonna happen next."

Chris whimpered and nodded. The officers then led him away, presumably to free him elsewhere. Luke immediately dove for the nearest phone and dialed Lorelai's number.

"Hello?"

"Lorelai? It's Luke. You're not gonna believe this..." And he told her everything that had just happened.

"And you told them to just let Chris go?" she gasped in disbelief.

"I had to go with my gut. You know him better than I do, Lorelai. Will he try anything else?"

Lorelai was quiet for a long moment. "No. Chris has always been a Mama's boy. Daddy's boy, too. Except for fucking me and some other things I goaded him to do in our youth, anything he has ever done has been because his parents ordered it of him."

"Lorelai..." and Luke gathered his courage. "I love you. And I love Rory. Oh God, do I love Rory! I signed the adoption papers, but if this isn't what you want, I will burn them right now and you can just keep on driving."

Silence. Then:

"I'm turning around. We were just about to leave Hartford."

Luke slammed down the receiver and cackled with glee. He literally began to dance around the diner. The 40 minutes seemed to pass agonizingly slowly. But at last, when Luke saw the headlights of the Jeep Wrangler pull, he couldn't stand it any longer. Running outside, he pulled Lorelai from the car before she had even fully gotten out of it and kissed her for all he was worth. He felt Lorelai melt against him and kiss him back.

When they broke apart, the couple looked down to see Rory staring at them with a big smile on her face.

"Come here, you," Luke grinned. And his daughter leapt into his arms. Having her back in his embrace again, at last, Luke let her nuzzle her face into his neck. He felt her little body shake with tears. "There, there... it's OK... Daddy's here... Daddy's got you. I promise: I will never let anything happen to you: Rory..."

A/N: Ending coming up! Keep reviewing! It means so much!