A/N Thanks for all who are reading this and reviewing. It always helps to know what you're thinking.

I own nothing

Ch 10 Balls

Friday afternoon Lorelai had called Rory to let her know that she was running late and could Rory stop by with a dress for her for dinner. They were going to try and make it through the Gilmore's for dinner. Luke had talked to cook to let him know exactly what would be acceptable for dinner down to removing scented candles from the living room and dinning room. But Friday at the Inn was overwhelming.

There was a huge convention of Civil War Reenactors who were checking out on Friday and a wedding checking in. Somehow the Reenactors didn't get the memo that they were to be out by noon so the rooms could be cleaned for the wedding party that was coming in at four. The Reenactors had their big bash Thursday night and Friday morning half of them were still under the table.

So Lorelai had spent the day calming down the wedding party and offering them drinks and free hors d'oeuvres until the rooms were cleaned. She made Michel check all the Reenactors out since the smell of them was making her nauseous.

Just about the time Rory was supposed to bring her dress that man Jack something from New York who had the Hartford meetings came up to her. She plastered her 'I'm really happy to see you and how soon are you leaving' smile on her face and turned to greet him.

"Jack, I hear you're getting your reprieve today. I hope you had a pleasant stay this time?"

Jack had been watching her and he still had no idea how she could be married to that yokel. He smiled back at her a bit more genuinely and nodded.

"It was almost everything I was hoping for."

Lorelai was a bit preoccupied or she would have watched out how she answered his last comment. However she was concentrating on getting out of there so her mother wouldn't have one more thing to criticize her for and she missed the opening.

"Almost, huh? Well what would have made your stay perfect?"

Lorelai smiled up at him and then she was surprised to see him so close. He lifted her hand and held onto it as he looked into her eyes.

"If you had dinner with me. I've been thinking about you since the last time I was here. I know that I was married at the time but I hoped you were still free. Silly of me to not expect you to settle for some man, but really Lorelai, I could show you the world. What can that lumberjack give you?"

Jack had leaned into her and Lorelai was backing up as far as she could go. She reclaimed her hand and slowly wrapped her arms around her body closing herself off from him. She nervously tucked a strand of hair behind her ear as she desperately tried to think of something to say.

Luke had come striding into the lobby of the inn carrying Lorelai's dress and makeup case Rory had put together. He had already changed into the navy blue summer suit that Lorelai liked so much. He was a bit irked that Lorelai was running so late. She knew that her mother took it as a personal affront whenever they were late.

He stopped short as he saw that jerk in the suit standing in front of Lorelai grab her hand. He saw her reaction and started to get his ire up. He calmed down when he realized that this is Lorelai's business and she got hit on repeatedly. Taking a deep breath he quietly walked over just in time to hear this jerk proposition his wife. He saw Lorelai react and before she could say anything Luke interrupted.

"Lorelai, I'm sorry to interrupt, but we only have half an hour before we have to leave for your parents and you know how your mother gets when we're late. I'm sorry for taking my wife away Jack wasn't it? But we have a standing appointment with her parents each Friday and my life is much easier if the mother-in-law is happy. You understand don't you?"

Luke smiled at him with the steel smile Lorelai had seen him use with Headmaster Charleston. It never reached his eyes. Jack looked over to see not the lumberjack of the previous day, but a business man who looked vaguely familiar.

"Of course, I didn't mean to keep her. You look awfully familiar, I know we met yesterday, but haven't I seen you somewhere before?"

Jack was sure he'd seen this man and he got an uneasy feeling with that thought. Luke figured the guy probably had some dealings with B-D but he wasn't going to help out.

"I don't remember meeting you before. Sorry." Turning to Lorelai he held out her dress and bag.

"Lorelai, we need to get moving. Are you changing in one of the rooms?"

Lorelai wasn't sure that Luke wasn't angry with her and she wanted to talk to him about this. She nodded in answer to his question and then reached for his hand.

"I'm in 102 Luke. Do you want to go with me?"

Luke saw she was concerned, but he still wanted to deal with this idiot. He shook his head and smiled genuinely at her.

"You know we do better with you getting dressed alone. I'll be having some male bonding time with Jack here so hurry back. OK?"

Lorelai nodded at him and took her clothes to her room. Luke watched her walk away while Jack was considering scooting out the back. Luke turned back to him smiling again without it reaching his eyes.

"So, Jack. Where is it you work actually?"

Luke had a feeling if Jack thought he knew him, he might work for him.

"I work for Clark in New York. I'm in acquisitions."

Jack was starting to wonder if he was going to get out alive. Luke nodded his head slowly. Clark wasn't part of B-D but he'd met with the owner a couple of times when they'd been buying out the last two companies. Clark had been the one to unearth the information on Williams being a bad investment who then told his advisors.

"So, Chuck Owens still own Clark?" Luke asked casually.

Jack visibly balked. If this guy knew Chuck, there was a good possibility that he'd lose his job for trying to pick up his wife. Jack was unable to form any words but he nodded slowly. Luke smiled at Jack and then leaned in and lowered his voice.

"Let me give you some friendly advice Jack. If I were to ask my wife if you propositioned her and then called Chuck to give him that answer, I'm going to guess that you'd be looking for a new job by morning. So do yourself a favor and don't ever make a pass at my wife again. Got it?"

Jack nodded and started to back away from Luke. Luke turned and strode purposefully towards room 102. He knocked on the door and Lorelai answered from inside.

"Who is it?"

Luke smiled and said, "Your husband."

Lorelai slowly opened the door and let him in. He could tell she'd been crying and he took her into his arms and rocked her.

"I'm so sorry Luke, I didn't realize that he was trying to pick me up, I was so focused on getting to dinner I didn't even listen to the first part of what he was saying. I should have realized that he wanted to go out, I use to see it clearly. Now with so much to lose I missed the signs. I'm so sorry."

Lorelai was crying again and Luke was soothing her.

"Aw baby, don't worry it wasn't your fault, I know that your business relies on you being welcoming and open to all the guests, this idiot just took it a little too far. He won't try it again I promise."

Lorelai was sniffling and got a concerned look on her face.

"Why didja hit him?"

Luke laughed and shook his head.

"No, he works for a guy I know who is also concerned with morality of his employees and I'm sure he wants to keep a good business relationship going with me so if I tell him about this guy he'd fire him or move him to the west coast."

Lorelai snuggled into Luke's embrace and he felt her relax in his arms.

Downstairs in the lobby Jack cautiously approached Tobin who had taken over for Michel for the night.

"Hey, I just saw the husband of Lorelai Gilmore and he looked really familiar. Do you know who he is?"

Tobin didn't look up when he replied, "Danes."

Jack was confused. "I'm sorry what?"

Tobin looked at this guy one of many who had tried to get information about Lorelai out of him. He was very protective of his employer so he sighed and looked at Jack.

"Her name is Lorelai Danes, not Gilmore. It hasn't been Gilmore for five months."

Tobin closed the registry and walked away from Jack. Jack thought back to what Lorelai called that man and he thought it was an 'L' name. Something L Danes. Oh, shit! Lucas Danes? The owner of B-D Corporation? Surely not. Man if he called Chuck, Jack's ass was grass.

He called to Tobin, "Could you get my bill ready, I'm leaving this evening."

Tobin actually smiled at him. "It'll be my pleasure sir."

Luke had calmed Lorelai down and she was getting ready. He looked at the time and knew she wasn't going to make it. He sighed and called Jess at the house.

"Yeah?"

"Nice way to answer the phone Jess. Especially with the chance it was going to be Emily." Luke shook his head wondering why everyone made this so difficult.

He could feel Jess grin on the other end of the phone.

"I'm so sorry Uncle Luke, I'll work on my manners and make sure I properly answer the phone the next time."

Luke snorted, "Yeah, stop chafing my ass and listen up nephew. I need you and Rory to take the truck to Hartford and Lorelai and I will meet you there shortly. She's not finished getting ready yet and we're going to be late. If you and Rory get there on time at least Emily won't have such a hissy fit."

"Yeah, sure thing Luke. Is Lorelai feeling ok?" They'd all become very protective of her health since they found out it could affect the baby.

"She had a run in with one of the guests who threw her a bit. It took a while to get her calmed down but we're good now. Do not share that info with Emily. I'll call and let them know we're running late but that you two will be there. And Jess, thanks."

Luke was really grateful that Jess was living with them. He'd stepped up to the plate and Luke could really count on him.

"Sure Luke, just don't take too long, Emily looks at me like a piece of prime roast that she can't wait to share with her friends."

Luke chuckled, "Yeah, the problem is you have Buech blood in your veins and she wants to show that off to society. We'll get there as soon as possible."

Luke hung up and started to call Emily. The maid answered and he asked for his mother-in-law. He could hear her in the background as the maid forgot to ask who was calling.

"Oh for heaven's sake, God forbid I actually know who is calling me before I talk to them. Hello, this is Emily Gilmore."

"Good evening Emily, it's Luke. I wanted to let you know that Lorelai and I will be a bit late but the kids are on their way and should be on time."

"Oh, Luke, thank you for calling. Is Lorelai feeling well?" Emily was concerned since Lorelai had such a rough go of the pregnancy.

"She's having a bit of a mood swing that just put us behind. She's feeling better and I think we'll make dinner without any problem but I think we're going to miss drinks."

Luke waited to see which side of the pendulum Emily was going to land on. Fortunately she seemed more concerned for Lorelai's health.

"Well thank God it's just mood swings; has she been able to put any weight back on?"

Luke realized that they hadn't talked to the elder Gilmore's since last Friday and he cringed as he was going to have to tell them about Wednesday's excitement.

"Oh, God, Emily, I'm so sorry for not calling you this week. We've had a bit of an eventful time around here. Lorelai went to the doctor's on Tuesday and she did gain a pound, but she got dehydrated on Wednesday and fainted so we rushed her to emergency and they released her the same day or we would have called."

Luke waited for the inevitable and it came but not as hard as he expected. Emily paused before she spoke and when she did it was tinged with irritation.

"I'm so glad that nothing serious had happened Luke. But you're right, I'd like to be kept informed about what's going on with my daughter. I should be happy that I learned this information only two days later. If it'd been up to Lorelai I probably wouldn't have heard about it at all. Thank you for letting us know Luke. We'll look forward to seeing you and your wife here shortly."

Emily hung up with out further discussion and Luke cringed as he hoped that the worst would blow over before they got to the house. At that moment Lorelai walked out of the bathroom wearing the dress that Rory had picked out.

Luke grinned at her as he noticed the dress was a bit tight across her breasts. He walked over and ran his hand across the front of her dress gently teasing the bottom of her breasts. Lorelai gasped and looked up into his eyes, dark with want.

"You're not wearing this dress after tonight. At least until after the baby is born," Luke growled.

Lorelai looked at the front and realized that it was snugger than before. She smiled widely too.

"My clothes are starting to not fit! That means I'll be showing soon!"

Luke kissed her gently and nodded. He felt wonderful, the baby would be growing and Lorelai was doing much better.

When they arrived at the mansion they received a huge surprise. There in the middle of the living room floor was Lorelai's old cotillion dress in all it's cotton ball glory.

"What the hell is that doing out?!"

Lorelai hadn't even said hello and Luke could feel this was going to escalate. Rory ran up to her mother and started to talk her down. Luke was amazed that she could do this to her as Lorelai could do it to him. Maybe it was in the Gilmore genes.

"Mom, Grandma said that there is a Debutant Ball at the beginning of October and we were talking about your cotillions and Grandma brought out your dress to show us."

Lorelai was looking at Emily warily as her mother was dreamily fingering the cotton puff.

"This was my favorite dress of yours, I'm so sorry you couldn't wear it to that last ball."

"Yeah, they didn't want pregnant Debs giving the horse trading a bad name." Lorelai snorted.

"Now Lorelai, you enjoyed some of those parties; you and Christopher made a handsome couple."

Emily slipped on that one and tried to cover her tracks. Lorelai started to move towards her mother when Luke grabbed her hand and held her tightly against his side.

"Of course he never grew up so it was a good thing you never got married. You and Luke are perfect for each other."

Emily smiled brightly at both of them. Just then Leisle came in to announce dinner.

The rest of dinner was quiet and polite. Richard asked Luke how business was and Emily asked Lorelai how her health was and both asked Rory and Jess if they were looking forward to going back to school in two weeks.

Lorelai fought to keep her dinner down. It was pasta primavera with a garden salad and rolls for everyone else. It suited the baby's taste very well; Luke had given strict instructions on how to prepare it. The dinner wasn't the problem. The problem was that she knew her mother was talking Rory into attending the debutant ball and she knew what that entailed. Finally she couldn't remain polite any more.

"Do you realize that Christopher will be asked to present his daughter at the ball mother?" Lorelai exploded.

Emily was taken aback and Richard frowned.

"Emily, is this correct? Will Christopher be called upon to present his daughter?" Richard knew that it would place Luke in an awkward position if it was true.

"Well Richard, it is customary for the father of the debutant to present her, but I'm sure Luke would make a wonderful stand in."

Emily smiled at Luke who was choking on his pasta. Luke looked desperately at Rory and then at Lorelai. He was caught between wanting to scream 'NO' and wanting to please his step-daughter. Emily had found a way to parade him in front of all her friends and he was unable to come up with a way out of it. Lorelai though had no such problem.

"Mother, you knew at the time Luke and I got married that he didn't want to be lead like some show pony in front of your society friends, the very people who said his father wasn't good enough. While I don't want to ask Christopher to do this, if Rory wants to attend cotillion I think we need to ask him first. Then if he bails then we can discuss who will present her at a different time. Even Dad could do it, he did a great job presenting me the three times I actually went."

Emily frowned. "Fine, ask Christopher if he wants to present Rory, but if he doesn't then would Luke even consider it?"

"No, mother. You know that Luke isn't comfortable with this sort of event and yet you put him into a position that he would be.."

Luke covered Lorelai's hand with his own and spoke up, "Lorelai, while I believe that Christopher should present Rory for this thing I would be happy to step up to help out if he's a no show. If it's important to Rory then I know it's important to me."

Luke smiled gently at Lorelai who saw once again how he sacrificed for his family. She knew that having people find out he was a Buech would be very uncomfortable for him, yet he was willing to put this aside to help Rory out.

Emily looked as though she was the cat that ate the canary. Dinner quickly wrapped up and Lorelai and Luke were driving home as the kids took Luke's truck. In the truck Rory was trying to read some of the rules of the debutant ball. She had gotten to step four when she gasped and Jess looked at her sideways.

"Ok, you can't do that and remain silent. What's the catch?"

Rory's hand was shaking as she read from the booklet. "All debutants will be escorted by a proper gentleman of suitable age. He will be dressed in black tails, white cummerbunds and white gloves. They will engage in the second dance of the evening. Where am I going to get some guy to escort me to this thing? It's bad enough that the Chilton guys hardly look at me, now I have to get some guy who I've never dated to make a fool out of himself in front of all those people."

Rory let her head drop into her hands and sighed. Jess cleared his throat not wanting to mention that the reason all those guys had stayed clear of Rory was that he'd threatened each one of them with bodily harm if they so much as approached her. He smiled to himself that the New York school system did teach him a thing or two, at least about how to intimidate your opponent.

"Well, if you can't dig someone up I could be your escort. I mean I think I'm of a suitable age and if Luke can suck it up for you, so can I."

Jess was actually looking forward to holding Rory in his arms at the dance. Rory however only saw doom and destruction if that happened. She didn't want to completely turn Jess down, but at the same time she wasn't sure she wanted to spend five minutes in Jess' arms if she wasn't going to be able to do it regularly.

"Uh, thththanks Jess. I'll let you know soon. I'd love you to do that, but I know how Luke reacted that time you just comforted me. Let's turn over a few rocks before we make that decision, ok?"

Jess clenched his jaw and nodded quickly. Rory had been around Luke long enough to know that Jess was not just upset, he was pissed. She couldn't risk losing him now by starting a relationship with him, but she longed to console him. She sighed and looked out the window at the trees passing by.

Lorelai was having her own thoughts on the ride home. How could she ask Luke to do this? Her mother never thought ahead, she always just looked right in front of her. She wanted Rory to be presented, never thinking about the problems that brought to the surface. Suddenly she gasped and Luke nearly rolled the Cherokee.

"Lorelai are you all right!?!" Luke was franticly trying to pull the car over and Lorelai felt really bad for scaring him.

"Oh, babe, I'm sorry. I just realized that in addition to her father presenting her Rory has to dance with a boy of her own age and she hasn't had a date since she broke up with Dean. I'm not sure what we're going to do."

Luke put his head on the steering wheel and sighed deeply.

"Lorelai please don't ever do that again. I thought there was something wrong with the baby. If I have to get a mail clerk from New York to help out. Rory will have a young man to escort her to this dog and pony show. You know I'll do anything for her."

Lorelai reached over and stroked his cheek. She leaned in and gently kissed him. He quickly deepened the kiss and when they broke apart breathless he kept his forehead against hers. Lorelai sighed.

"Do you know how much I love you for saying that? The fact you love her as much as I do amazes me and makes me happy that we're going to raise this little one together. I'm really sorry mom got you into this and I'm pretty sure Rory's just doing this for her. So thank you for being willing to expose yourself to all of Hartford society."

"You're welcome and dirty." Lorelai giggled as Luke straightened up and put the jeep back into drive.

"Now I want to get home and take that dress off you. Then after cleaning it's heading to the back of the closet." Luke leered at her as he pulled back out onto the road.