Yours and Mine

Christmas was coming up soon. The first snowfall came and everything continued to fly by. There were little things that started to change around the Gilmore house: the new "nursery" was now emptied of all of the junk that was in there before and a plan was made for the room, Lorelai was now showing a little bit, and she and Luke were working on their schedules to make sure that they'd have plenty of time at home to spend with each other and also with the baby when he or she came. It felt like ages till May at the moment, but with the way time was flying, Lorelai knew that five months was going to go by in the blink of an eye.

Day by day, the little changes to Lorelai's figure started to add up, and she was noticeably pregnant. With every little change, she asked Luke the question, "How do I look?" which he always answered honestly. To him, no matter what, she was always beautiful. This became a daily part of their routine, before they headed to wherever they needed to go for the day.

At eighteen weeks, Lorelai and Luke had their gender-revealing ultrasound. They waited with anticipation until Doctor Perry said, with great confidence, "Congratulations, it's a girl."

A little girl, Lorelai thought. She was so certain it was a boy, partially because she had hoped it was a boy. She could've imagined Luke taking a son fishing. But a daughter could be taken fishing just as easily, and that daughter could learn about the diner or the inn, and she was going to be beautiful and loved. Knowing it was a girl just made it more concrete: they had their little baby, a little daughter, and she couldn't wait to meet her. Luke was excited it was a little girl—the girls in his life (Lorelai, April, his sister, and Rory) already meant so much to him, and he couldn't wait to add this one to the mix.

"Baby Danes is now officially Baby Girl Danes!" Lorelai told Sookie, excited now that she knew what they were having. Now Luke was ready for them to decorate the nursery, paint the walls, get the crib… all the things they had been putting off until that very moment.

Sookie grinned. "Aw, you and Luke with your three girls!" It was the perfect blended family, Lorelai realized: three daughters and the two of them. Rory and April did look eerily similar, close enough that they could appear like biological siblings (Rory looked more like her technical "stepsister" than she did her half sister, GiGi, which was a little odd). Their baby girl would fit right in... she would complete the picture. "Have you two thought of a name?"

"A little, yeah." It was what they had done their entire car ride back from the doctor's office, discussed names. There were names tossed out, family names—Lorelai and Emily were both shot down. Three Lorelais in one family line, living in the same house, would be far too many), as was soon Elizabeth from Luke's side—but they did feel a particular attachment to the name of his mother: Camille. Of course, Camille Danes had already been on this planet once, and so they decided that Camille would be their little girl's middle name. The first name was still up for discussion.

The day went on, both Luke and Lorelai over the moon sharing the news of their little girl with anyone who asked. Luke smiled so much that Taylor was a bit concerned that the grumpy man had suffered a stroke or something of the like. But it was nothing like that. His daughter was coming back from New Mexico soon, Rory was planning on coming home for a few days, and he now had another daughter that would meet him in May. Nothing could've made him happier.

When Lorelai got back from the Dragonfly, she immediately grabbed one of the cookbooks that Luke now kept in the kitchen cabinet. Since Luke had moved in, her kitchen was no longer bare: the boxes of food had almost all been replaced with ingredients, the fridge included more than bottled beverages, and there were significantly more cooking tools. Of course she had to call Sookie to know what a few of them were, but she was determined she was going to use a few of them, and cook something simple. She grabbed Luke's apron off of the hook by the kitchen door, tied it over her little stomach, and started to take the ingredients listed in the book out of the cabinets.

A car pulled up into the driveway. Lorelai didn't notice, she was far too busy rolling out her dough (which was tougher than Sookie made it look, she realized) and cutting it out into circles (using the only thing that resembled a cookie cutter in her kitchen: a sandwich crust-cutter). The door of the car opened and shut, and a suitcase rolled up the driveway. Lorelai was too focused on her work to notice until the doorknob turned.

The house smelled delicious. The smell of freshly baked sugar cookies filled your nose as soon as you walked in the door. The young woman standing in the doorway almost wondered if she had walked into the wrong house. There are now two people that live here, she thought for a moment, imagining maybe the house smelled this nice because of something Luke made… no, the diner never even smelled quite like this. There was only one reasonable explanation. "Sookie? Sookie, is mom home?" The young woman called, removing her hat and starting to unbutton her coat. Her suitcase was wheeled in in front of her and she proceeded to shut the door with her shoe. There was no answer. She started towards the kitchen only to find Lorelai: her face speckled with flour, white handprints smeared on the apron, her curls tied back, baby bump framed by the apron strings. "Mom?"

Lorelai looked up from her work to see Rory standing in the doorway. "Rory!" She squealed, throwing her rolling pin down with a thud and charging towards her daughter. She wrapped the young woman in a hug, holding on tight, hoping not to let go anytime soon. "You came home early, why didn't you tell me you were coming home early?" Lorelai had missed her daughter so much. The weekly phone calls and relatively regular emails were not enough.

Rory pulled back from the hug as soon as Lorelai let her. All around the kitchen were stacks of sugar cookies, and there was a cookie sheet on the eye of the stove, still covered in cookies. The little bit of dough on the counter was already cut into circles, the table floured. Oh, what a sight. "Mom, you're…"

"Really pregnant, yeah." Lorelai joked.

"Baking." Rory corrected her.

Lorelai picked up the rolling pin and took the cookies off of the pan, letting them cool on the counter. "Luke had no desserts at the diner—nothing seasonable at least. So I found this recipe for sugar cookies—like the ones we buy and decorate every Christmas, only these are homemade—for him to sell at the diner. You know, something little from the two of us to the citizens of Stars Hollow."

Rory picked one up off the counter, taking a bite. Much to her surprise, they were really good (considering Lorelai hated cooking and they lived off of takeout Rory's entire childhood, learning that her mother could actually make good food was a wonderful surprise). "I'm sure everyone will love them."

"Oh! And April is coming into town tomorrow, I'm picking her up from the airport… you two could maybe decorate the cookies? It'll be an updated family tradition. I know we used to do that, just the two of us, and last Christmas GiGi came and did the same… I just want this to be special, you know?"

Wow, what a whirlwind year, Rory realized. To think that last Christmas she spent with her half-sister, father and mother—who were, at the time, married—and now she was spending it with Luke, Luke's daughter, her pregnant mother… times had changed. "What about grandma and grandpa? Will they be joining us for Christmas?"

Lorelai rolled her eyes. "If hell freezes over."

"Why? What happened?" Rory hadn't seen her grandparents since June. She missed them—she often forgot to call, but she tried when she remembered. She sent occasional post cards so that they could stay updated with where she was, but she hadn't spoken to them since summer ended.

Lorelai knew she was going to have a hard time explaining to Rory that, once again, she and her parents weren't speaking. "Your grandparents got very upset with Luke when we told them about the baby. They made comments about April, and marriage, and then started reminding me that I've been here before and that—I just don't want to bring another girl into that environment."

"Girl?" Rory repeated. "I—I have a sister?" Lorelai nodded. "Wow, you and Luke and a little girl—"

Lorelai skirted back around the table, giving her daughter one more hug. "And our girl's wonderful big sisters." She kissed her daughter on the forehead. "I've missed you, kid."

"It's good to be back." Rory responded, before helping her mother put the next batch of cookies in the oven.

Lorelai and Rory went to the airport to pick up April, just as Luke had planned. The two girls got along quite well, just talking about what it was exactly each of them were doing—Rory talked about being on the road as a reporter, April talked about what she was reading and the college tours she was planning on taking. Compared to the two in the back, Lorelai felt ridiculously stupid. A third brainy child in her life and she may go batty. No one can take over the "family businesses" if they're all doctors, lawyers, or reporters, Lorelai thought, trying not to laugh.

When Luke got off work, he came through the kitchen door to find Lorelai, Rory, and April sitting at the kitchen table, piping icing onto cookies and throwing sprinkles on them as well. "We're making Christmas cookies to sell at the diner." Lorelai explained as he leaned over her shoulder, giving her a kiss on the cheek. "Just something little we can do to help you out, hon." He smiled. He proceeded to go to each of the girls at the table and give them a hug as well (awkward as they were, Rory noted, they displayed that he really did love everyone in that room).

"Where would I be without my girls?" He commented, sitting at the fourth chair at the table.

It was still baffling to Rory. This was Luke, after all. Luke who hated the concept of marriage. Luke, the disgruntled man who never seemed to truly commit to anyone wholeheartedly, who was too afraid of rejection to pursue someone that he liked. Luke who hated children. Luke who hated… well, just about everything. Yet here he was: sitting at a table with his teenage daughter, her, and her mother. And then there was also her mother: the woman who could never be tied down, the woman who made spontaneous decisions, the woman who made her daughter her entire world and left no room for anyone else to enter, the woman who put her career and child before anything else, who made impulsive decision, and was living on a latte and a prayer. There was a single bag of decaf coffee in the pantry, and all the mugs were clean. There were groceries in the fridge. Her mother cooked. They were the perfect family, whether they were related by blood or not. If only grandma could see us now…

That night, after Lorelai and Luke went upstairs, and April had fallen asleep on the trundle in the room she and Rory shared, the younger Gilmore grabbed her coat and jumped in her car. It was late, sure. But this was a drive she had to take, and it couldn't wait until the morning. Light flurries filled the sky as she drove for what felt like the first time in a long time. She knew this route like the back of her hand: it was supposed to take thirty minutes, but she could get there in twenty if she tried (and she was trying). She pulled effortlessly into the roundabout driveway, put the car in park, and started rapping on the door. It took a few minutes before the old woman in the silky robe answered the door. "Rory, it's the middle of the night!" The woman barked, still pleased to see her granddaughter. It had been far too long. "Come in, you'll catch your death…"

"I'm going to stay out here." Rory said, stuffing her hands into her coat pockets.

Emily was taken aback. "Well what brings you out to Hartford at this hour?"

Rory caught her breath and said what she had been telling herself in the car her entire drive up. "I know you're mad at mom." Good start, Rory told herself, hoping she could make it through the rest of it. Emily rolled her eyes. "But you're mad at mom for something that isn't her fault—it's no one's fault. Mom and Luke are happy, they are so happy, and it kills me that you can't be happy for them. She's not the same as she was when I was born—and you can blame me all you want for mom not doing all those things you had planned for her to do, but she can't change that, and given the chance I'm not sure she would. You can't blame mom for having me, and keeping me, and you can't blame her for being happy now." Tears welled in Rory's eyes. "Do you resent me?"

"Why, no, I—" Emily came towards the young woman, trying to offer her a hug.

The hug was rejected. "Because in turning mom away, you taught me that it was my fault. That I was the reason she wasted all her potential, that I was the reason you two didn't get along, that I was the reason mom was never happy when she talked about her mom. It took sixteen years for me to learn that that wasn't the case—I spent sixteen years asking myself why my mom didn't resent me the way you did!"

"I—I—" Emily was speechless.

Rory continued. "Now she's with Luke, and you should see how happy she is. Even when she married Christopher—" Rory didn't call him dad in this situation, because he hadn't behaved very fatherly to her since the divorce. "—what you and grandpa swore up and down was best for her, she wasn't this happy. Their past doesn't matter, what matters is here and now, and everything they have planned for the future. Their baby is going to be so loved, by them and by me and by his daughter—no, my sister, April. Luke was always there, and he'll always be there. And if you can't be happy for them, fine, but I just hope that you don't wait sixteen years to be a part of your other granddaughter's life."

Rory's words cut Emily down to the core. There was nothing in the world that she loved more than Rory, there was no arguing that. Her life had a different purpose when Rory was in it. To think that her granddaughter, someone who truly lit up her life, believed that she resented her… it was difficult for her to take in. Rory always kept her temper under control, and Emily had only seen her upset a few times. She had never heard her truly scream, much less in absolute hysterics, sobbing uncontrollably. There were parts of the story Rory didn't know, parts of the story she couldn't tell her. Parts of the story that had nothing to do with Luke or Luke's daughter or really even Lorelai. And Luke, well… she didn't like Luke, and she didn't think she ever would. She thought Lorelai could do better… but to hear Rory call his daughter her sister, well that meant something. All she could do was mutter the three little words that resonated with her the most. "My other granddaughter?"

"Before you decide you don't like your daughter's family…" Rory started off the porch, backing up with this last little bit of advice. "…remember you're her family too. Goodbye, grandma."

Author's Note: wow, a whirlwind ending. What will happen next? Please review, if you're reading this. Honestly hearing back from you guys makes my day, and I'd love to know where you think this story is heading. Review please!