A few days later Lorelai was giddy with excitement as they drove from the airport to her parents home. It was just before 6 in the evening so they were going to stay for dinner before going back home.
Lorelai was giggling to herself as she read the information packet she had picked up from Martha's Vineyard on their way out.
"You know you are suppose to read that when you arrive, not when you leave, right?" Luke asked her.
"This stuff is hilarious." She replied.
"How its about the island isn't it?"
"They have this history and fun fact section at the back, here.." she started reading out loud, "and what I really want to ask you," she finished and started laughing again, "do you think there is a connection between the shape of lighthouses, ferries, spermaceti, and gay head."
Luke chuckled too, "I'm going to refrain from answering that." He said.
"Just saying it seems a bit too much of a coincidence to me." Lorelai continued to laugh.
Luke put his hand on her leg and smiled at her, "ok crazy lady."
"I can't believe they just put all of this in their information packets. Surely they know that that is what everyone will think of straight away."
"No it's what you thought of straight away." Luke corrected her as he pulled up on the street of her parents.
"Ohhhhhh, we are nearly there!" Lorelai said with excitement.
"You excited?" Luke asked sarcastically.
"Very funny, I know you're excited too." She accused him.
Luke smiled, "yeah I am." He said and pulled up. lorelai jumped out of the car and ran to the door, Luke only just reached the door when it was opened by the maid and Lorelai flew in past the woman who looked shocked.
"Lorelai." Luke sighed then turned to the maid, "sorry about her, she's just excited." He smiled at her and she let him in and took his coat and he walked into the living room to join the others. Lorelai was sitting on the coach with Rory and Jess on either side of her both basically on her knee. He smiled at the sight and went over to sit next to her.
"Dada!" Rory shouted when Luke sat next to her and she launched herself at him like she had done to her mother a minute ago.
Luke daughter her in his arms and hugged him tight.
"Miss me?" He asked her and she nodded into his shoulder and then turned around and plopped herself down in his knee and took hold of his hand with both of hers.
Luke smiled at her and turned to his wife who had Jess in her lap. With his spare hand that Rory wasn't holding he stroked the side of Jess' head, which still held his old cap, which had been replaced by a blue one Lorelai had given to him. "Hi, Jess." He said.
"Hi dada," Jess said, smiling from Lorelai's lap, "we go home?" He asked.
Luke laughed, "not yet, we are going to have dinner and then we'll go home."
"How was you're trip?" Emily asked from the opposite sofa.
"It was great Mum, we had such a great time," she smiled over at Luke, "it's so beautiful there."
"I know," Emily said.
"We get you and dad a bottle of wine from the Vineyard," Lorelai said, "it's in the car, we'll get it before we leave, where is dad anyway?"
"He's just in his study, he got a call he had to take, he should be out soon." Emily explained as she fixed them a drink.
At the dinner table Lorelai sat next to Rory and did everything she could with her food to make Rory laugh.
"Lorelai," Emily sighed again, "will you stop playing with her food, you aren't teaching her any manners behaving like that."
"Sorry Mum." Lorelai said again but it was clear to everyone in the room she didn't really mean it. She did however start feeding Rory properly, a fact Rory wasn't too pleased about but she got over it when Lorelai smiled at her.
Very soon Lorelai obviously got bored at behaving so made faces at Jess from across the table, causing him to erupt in laughter.
"Lorelai..." both Emily and Luke said, causing Lorelai to laugh.
"I'm sorry, I'll stop." She said and continued to smile as she winked at Jess and he laughed again. Luke looked at her and she held her hands up, "Hey don't look at me, I didn't do anything, he is being crazy all on his own."
"I wonder who he takes after." Luke asked dryly as he smirked at Lorelai.
Lorelai pretended to take him seriously, "I know it's a real mystery." This time she winked at Luke causing him to smiled and duck his head slightly and then focus back on Jess.
Later that night as Luke emerged from Jess' bedroom and Lorelai Rory's Luke grinned at her and went over to her and picked her up bridal style. Lorelai squealed slightly and Luke whispered "shhhh." And then kissed her briefly and carried her into their room.
"What are you doing?" She asked him.
"Carrying my wife to our bed." He replied.
"Oh, and what do you plan to do with your wife once you get her to the bed?" Lorelai asked as she grinned at him.
"I dunno," he grinned back and then dropped her down on the bed and leaned over her, "I'll let my wife decide." He whispered and Lorelai pulled him down closer to her and kissed him.
On the last night before they went back to work Luke lay in bed relaxed, with his arm behind his head, watching Lorelai get ready for bed.
"I will never, under any circumstances, no matter how short a dress you put on, go back to Al's Pancake World ever, ever again." He said as his eyes followed her around.
"Aw, you didn't like your manicotti?" Lorelai asked as she got into bed already knowing the answer.
"That was not manicotti, it was square and flat and blue." Luke countered turning off the light.
"Yeah. Manicotti's rarely blue."
The next morning Lorelai came downstairs dressed for work to see Rory and Jess eating breakfast and Luke sitting at the table. She then saw that coffee had been made and smiled.
"Ohhhh, you made me coffee, you really do love me." She said as she half ran towards the coffee and poured herself a cup. Luke watched her and did his best to conceal his smirk.
She nearly drank it but when it came towards her face she accused, "this is decaf."
"What are you talking about?" Luke asked her trying to keep his cover.
"You switched my coffee." She accused as she searched the kitchen for the regular coffee.
"I'm a busy man. I don't have time to sneak around switching your coffee. I have a inner to run, I have shipments to order, I have things to flip and fry. Will you stop that?" Luke knew he had lost, as he followed her around the kitchen. They had now gotten the attention of Jess who had finished his food and was just watching them. Rory however was still very much concentrated on her food.
Lorelai finds the bag under the sink and sings with joy, "ha, haha, hahaha! Under the sink, very clever, but not clever enough, bucko."
"Ok, fine you know what? I give up." Luke sat back down at the table next to Jess who was laughing at how jolly Lorelai was being.
"Woo hoo!" Lorelai cheered.
"Go one day without coffee." Like requested.
"That's not giving up." Lorelai pointed out.
"I'll put a toy in your cereal." Luke offered.
"Dirty." Lorelai countered.
"Geez, Lorelai!" Luke said looking at Rory and Jess.
Lorelai laughed, "chill." Then went over and kissed him.
"I've got to go, goodbye crazy lady." He said standing up and picking up Jess with him, "Come on Jess, you're with me today." He said kissing Lorelai good bye on the lips and Rory on the head. Lorelai then kissed Jess' head and they were off.
"So Rory, you ready to go back to the Inn today." Lorelai sat next to her with her coffee and a pop tart when Rory didn't respond Lorelai looked at her and said, "I don't know what daddy was thinking, that is not what you are wearing." Rory then looked down at her clothes and after a second of thought looked up at her mother and nodded in agreement.
Once breakfast had been eaten and Rory had been changed, Lorelai and Rory casually made their way over to the Inn as they were a little bit early.
When they entered in the chatting away Mia rushed over to them, "thank god, Lorelai, you look presentable."
Lorelai was confused, "I think Ive missed something here, Mia?"
"Oh, no dear, I'm sorry that's not what I meant. I'm sorry, I've just fired the guy who runs the front desk, found out he was stealing from us, anyway I don't have anyone to cover, I'm desperate and I saw you and you are dressed appropriately. Please it's only for one day, I'll pay you the higher rate."
"I've got Rory." Lorelai said.
"That's ok, it's only one day. You are great with the guests, I've seen that. I don't have anyone else." Mia pleaded with her.
"Ok, what do you need me to do?" Lorelai said.
"Oh thankyou." Mia led her behind the desk and showed her how to check people in and out, and how to make reservations, "you'll do fine, I promise, if you need any help I'll be in my office and I will try and come out every now and then to see how you are doing, I've just got a really busy day."
Mia left and Lorelai settled in behind the desk. She felt slightly awkward there and very out of place. On the floor beside her she set Rory up with some toys to play with and some baby books. She was currently quietly babbling away to herself as she pretended to read one of the books to herself. Lorelai smiled down at her and then saw that a guest was making his way towards her. She took a deep breath and prepared to greet the customer.
Later that evening after her shift was over Lorelai rushed over to the diner to meet Luke with a sleeping Rory in her arms.
"Hey!" She grinned as she greeted him with a kiss she then looked around, "where's Jess?" She asked.
"Upstairs, he's asleep so I put him to bed in the old bed up there, I just checked on him."
"Ok, can you spare a few minutes, come upstairs with me, I want to tell you something." Lorelai said still visibly happy.
Luke looked around and saw that it wasn't too busy and that he did have enough help for now, "ok, I'll just finish what I was doing when you got here and let josh know il leg upstairs, I'll meet you up there in a second." He said turning back to the plates he had set on the counter when he saw her enter.
She walked up the stairs and saw Jess asleep on the bed and smiled. She sat on the side of the bed and gently ran her hand through his hair, she then lay Rory down next to him and made sure they were both settled in. Luke walked up behind her without her noticing and sat down beside her causing her to jump slightly.
"Sorry." Luke whispered and he gently kissed her cheek.
"It's ok." She responded then turned to look at him and smiled a huge grin.
"What's got you so happy?" He smiled back at her unable to stop himself.
Lorelai stood up and dragged Luke away from the bed so they could speak without fear of waking up Jess and Rory.
"Today Mia put me on the front desk and she said I did such a good job she is considering putting me up there more often." Lorelai told him.
"Lorelai, that's great! Well done!" He hugged her, "why did she put you on the desk though, just to try you out?"
"No the guy who normally does it during the day got fired, he was stealing from them or something, I don't really know, but she was desperate and apparently I look presentable so she put me on. You should have seen the look on some of the other maids faces. They all hate me and most of them have been there for so much longer than me." Lorelai said with pride.
"You look presentable? I'm glad." Luke joked with her, "but seriously, Lorelai, this is amazing. I am so proud of you. If you get a couple shifts at the front desk, you never know Mia might just promote you. You are really making your way up."
"Let's not get a head of ourselves here," Lorelai said slightly self conscious, "I'm still a maid, I did one shift. It is harder to work the desk with Rory though."
"In a few month they will be two, either way when they are two we have already talked about putting them into the local nursery school during the day. It will be good for them anyway." Luke pointed out.
"Yeah..." Lorelai said looking over at the bed.
"I'm going to pretend that that was convincing," Luke said, "at least for now." He added.
"Do you want some food?" He asked her, changing the subject.
"Yeah, bring it up here, I don't want to leave them up here alone. Bring your food too and theirs we can eat up here together." Lorelai told him.
"Sure." Luke kissed her and then left back downstairs. He returned about 15 minutes later with food for all of them, "should we wake them?" He nodded towards the bed.
"Yeah," Lorelai said, "they won't sleep later on if we don't and they need to eat anyway." She went over and sat next to Jess and woke him up gently as Luke did the same with Rory. Rory was a lot easier to wake up. Once she was alert the mention of dinner was enough to make her forget that she was just asleep. Jess however was never pleased to be woken up and could take nearly an hour to get out of a huff about it. Today seemed to be no different as he clung to Lorelai who carried him towards the table with a pout on his face.
"Come on, Jess, it's dinner time, you can't sleep all day." Lorelai pointed out as she put him down in a chair, he then gave her a look and she picked him back up and set him on her lap. "You can go back to sleep tonight, ok? In fact I enforce it, but for now let's eat dinner ok?"
Jess nodded and reached for his food and Lorelai reached for hers around him. "That's a good boy." She praised him before taking a bite out of her burger.
For a whole week Lorelai worked the desk in the morning while Mia interviewed people for the job, then in the afternoons Lorelai went back o being a maid and the best interview for the job got a trail run in the afternoon. The only problem was that Mia couldn't find anyone that she liked enough to be the face that for the most part represented her Inn.
"Here's a crazy idea," Mia said as she sat in her office with Lorelai and Jess over a week after she had started doing the interviews, "why don't I promote you, I can easily hire a new maid. Your way to good to be a maid anyway, your great at the job, I can trust you."
"But Mia, I'm only 18, I don't even have a high school diploma, I'm hardly promotion material." Lorelai replied, shocked that Mia would even mention such a thing.
"But you're great at it, Lorelai. The Inn could really use a person like you. I'm serious I am making you an offer. Here, if you were to take it you would get weekends off, Saturday and Sunday, I have a girl who does those days, and before you suggest she will only do those days, take the weekend off, talk about it will Luke, tell me on Monday, ok? And Lorelai I'm not joking around here, I would be lucky to have you." Mia said to her sincerely.
Lorelai was beyond shocked and nodded, "Thankyou." She managed to get out.
Mia laughed slightly, "now go home, I'll see you on Monday."
Lorelai stood up deep in thought and walked towards the door.
"And don't forget your son." Mia added.
"Jess, right, yes." She said and turned back and saw Jess asleep on the chair next to her she picked him up gently, "I'm sorry, Jessie, I almost forgot you." She whispered into his hair and then kissed his cheek and waved goodbye to Mia and went home to meet Luke and Rory so they could get ready for dinner with her parents.
When she got home she was disappointed that Luke wasn't already there, but she was a bit earlier than normal. She didn't really know what to do with herself, it's not like she could entertain herself with Jess, he was asleep, although she did think she would have to wake him up soon but it would probably be better to leave him for now. She finally decided to have a shower, which she needed to have before she left anyway. So she set Jess down in her bed and went to have a quick shower. When she returned with wet hair he was still asleep and she heard the door slam close so she leaped with joy and ran down stairs, "Luke!" She said excited when she saw him then saw the look on his face, "what's wrong?" She asked.
"Oh nothing really, just a terrible day." He said, with a sigh, setting Rory on her feet so she could run to her mother for a hug.
"Anything in particular?" Lorelai asked walking towards him and rubbing his shoulder.
Luke hesitated, "Yeah actually, this guy came in, the worst kinda customer, picky loud annoying, you can never do anything right kinda guy. And that, while irritating is ok, I usually get one or two of them a day but this one. He didn't just have a go at me, the diner was busy it was lunch time, Rory was being fussy, she was tired and needed a nap, most reasonably human beings understand that, she's not even two years old. So I had her in my arms when I took their order, i was just taking their order, and this guy has a go at me about her and when I tell him to watch it he starts having a go at her, my not even two year old daughter. She gets upset and I had to kick out my first customer today." He explained.
"That's terrible, he had a problem with Rory? She's ok isn't she?" Lorelai rubbed Rory's back.
"Yeah she's fine after I kicked the guy out I took her upstairs and got her settled it just put me in a bad mood." Luke explained. He then stood up, "I'm going to have a shower, I see you've already had yours, is Jess asleep? We might want to think about waking him up." Luke suggested.
"Yeah you're right," lorelai said looking at the time, "I put him in our bed." She said as she followed Luke up the stairs and he went into the bathroom and her and Rory into their bedroom. She woke Jess up and let him get used to it while she dried her hair.
Once her hair was dry Luke came into the room, "you were all excited when I got home, was it just you'd had to much coffee or was it something?" He asked her.
"It was something." Lorelai grinned.
"I'm sorry." Luke apologised.
"What for?"
"Well you've had a good day and you wanted to tell me and I come and ruin it with my rubbish day."
"Don't be an idiot, I want to hear about your day, good or bad, and there is no way you couldn't not tell me about something like that."
"So What was it? You're good day?"
"Mia offered me a promotion." She grinned.
"A promotion? To the desk?" Luke asked, just as shocked as Lorelai had been.
Lorelai nodded and Luke pulled her towards him into a hug, "Lorelai! That's amazing! Well done!"
"Well I haven't taken it yet, but yeah it's really amazing."
"You haven't taken it? Why not?"
"Well at first it was a huge shock, I mean I'm not qualified and I'm 18 years old. I just didn't expect it or think that i deserved it so she told me to take the weekend off, talk to you and let her know on Monday."
"You do deserve it." Luke said, "you work so hard, you have since day 1, and you've been doing the job all week and I know I'm slightly biased What with being married to you and all that but you've been doing an amazing job as far as I can tell."
"You know it would come with Saturday and Sunday off every week." Lorelai pointed out.
"That's good, give you more time to spend with the kids." Luke pointed out and Lorelai looked over to the bed where they were playing with each other.
"Yeah," she smiled over at them, "we need to get them into some sort of day nursery though, we can't keep bringing them to work with us, it's just not practical."
"We can look into it this weekend, I mean you do have the whole weekend off and I'm definitely off tomorrow and I can see what I can do for Sunday."
"Ok, I'm going to miss them being at work with us." Lorelai said with a sad look.
"So will I," Luke assured her, "but it's time."
"Yeah." She said and then continued to get ready to leave.
On the way there she spent most of her time engaging Jess and Rory in conversation so that neither of them would fall asleep on the way there because she knew her mother did not look kindly on them turning up asleep or grumpy because they have just been woken up. She also convinced Luke not to say anything about her promotion to her parents until next week, when it had been finalised, and especially not to say anything about looking for a nursery because she knew her mother and she would be all over that with terrible suggestions and try and get too involved. Luke agreed with the nursery point but he did think that Lorelai should tell them about the promotion and made her promise to tell them next week.
All through dinner Lorelai was visibly very happy and despite his bad day this rubbed off on Luke too. About half way through the main course Emily put her fork down and turned to Lorelai, "what is it, you've been giddy since you got here."
"It's nothing Mum, just you know I'm in a good mood." Lorelai tried to pass it off but unfortunately for her she was still smiling when she said this.
Emily pursed her lips and continued to eat. A few more minutes had passed when she gasped and dropped her fork, "You're pregnant!" She accused.
"No!" Lorelai said quickly.
"Well then what is it?" Emily asked again.
"Nothing, really Mum, just drop it." Lorelai said, finding it slightly easier not to smile.
Emily narrowed her eyes in Lorelai's direction then turned to Luke who ducked his head slightly, "Fine." She said in a voice that showed that she was not happy.
On the way home Luke said the Lorelai, "you should have just told her the truth you know."
"Not until it actually happens." Lorelai insisted.
"She thinks you're pregnant." Luke pointed out.
"Well I'm not." Lorelai pointed out back.
Luke paused and then asked, almost shyly, "Do you ever want to have more kids?"
Lorelai turned to look at him but he continued to look at the road, "Yeah," she said softly, "but not yet."
Luke glanced over to her and smiled, "when?"
"Well when we do we probably want to get a bigger house, we would have to decide how many we want before changing house because we can't just move house every time we want a kid. I also want to be a bit older you know, and Jess and Rory are still really little. So I don't know really."
"Wanna plan it?" Luke asked her.
"What our life?" Lorelai asked.
"Yeah."
"Ok then." Lorelai said then gasped, "can we please please please have a son called Lucas."
"No."
"Why not?"
"Just no."
"But Rory is called Lorelai."
"Good for her."
Lorelai huffed for a minute then said, "Fine, for now anyway. When would you like to have another kid?"
"Not sure, in a few years I think, like you said we would need a bigger house, which would require more money, and we've still got two babies really a third just seems excessive."
"Excessive?"
"Yes."
"How many?"
"Kids?"
"Yeah how many more kids would you like?"
Luke paused, "you go first."
"Come on Luke, just say what you think, I will have no problem telling you no." Lorelai grinned at him and touched his arm.
"2." He said.
"Yeah ok." Lorelai responded.
"Yeah ok?" He questioned with a raised eyebrow.
"I mean 2 sounds great." Lorelai said, "although slightly impractical for 6 people to get somewhere in a 5 seater car."
After a brief pause Lorelai said, "we could have a boy and a girl."
"I'm not sure we get to decide that." Luke pointed out and Lorelai waved her hand dismissively.
"Any name suggestions?"
"Ever since my mum died when I was a kid I've wanted to have a daughter named Catherine."
"Catherine's nice, I like it, ok what about the boy, if we called him Lucas we could call him Lucas and then it wouldn't be confusing because you would be Luke like Rory is Rory."
"No. My parents called me Lucas their whole life, so do Buddy and Maizy. I didn't like it so I made my friends call me Luke."
"Is that all I am to you?" Lorelai asked with fake dramatics, "a friend who can only call you Luke?"
Luke chuckled slightly, "no you are the love of my life and my wife, who can only call me Luke."
Lorelai giggled, "that rhymed."
"Catherine and Rory, would be named after people, namely me and your mother. Jess isn't name after anyone is he?"
"No, no one in the family is called Jess, knowing Liz she probably named him after some weirdo, but no one Important. His middle name is Lucas though. Ha! We can't use Lucas it's already taken!" Luke said with joy.
"Fine, if we have another son we might not call him Lucas, and that's all you are getting right now." Lorelai said then added, "4 years."
"4 years?" Luke asked.
"That's when I want to have another baby, in 4 years time. We will be settled by then and older and Jess and Rory will be nearly 6." Lorelai explained.
"Ok," Luke grinned and took her hand in his briefly squeezing it, "4 years." He repeated.
