"Dinner was good, Dad." April said as she cleared her plate, rinsing it and putting it in the dishwasher.
"Yeah, thanks Luke," Rory said as she stood up, although Jess followed and took her plate away, whispering something in her ear as he moved towards the sink with their dishes.
"So mom, I read a study the other day that said a 20 minute walk after dinner increases the lung development of a fetus by 35%." Rory said, as if it were a normal introduction to any discussion.
"Have you been hanging out with Paris?" Lorelai asked skeptically.
"No, I read it too," supplemented April. "And I think it would be good to walk some of dinner off, don't you, Rory?"
"Definitely. Plus, I missed our snow walk this year. Please, mommy? Please please please?"
"Okay, but you'll both have to help me get out of this chair." Lorelai acquiesced, reaching out her hands for her daughters to help her up.
"Dad, you'll come too?" April asked.
"Oh, I don't know, kid. I was gonna stay behind and clean up-"
"Dad," April whined. "I'm only here for the weekend. The kitchen can wait, can't it?" She pouted. Damn, he could never resist the pout. "I'm coming." He resigned himself. Jess smirked as he followed his uncle out of the kitchen, clapping a hand on his back as he pulled his old leather jacket over his shoulders.
"This isn't the route we take for our snow walk." Lorelai noted as they started walking towards the town square, Luke's hand in hers.
"Well, there's no snow on the ground. I thought we'd take a different route.
"What's Patty's studio all lit up for? There's not a town meeting tonight, is there?" Lorelai asked, looking at Luke.
"Not that I know of." Luke responded, shaking his head and shrugging his shoulders, equally confused as she was.
"Let's go look," Lorelai said, tugging on Luke's arm.
"Hey, that's still attached. I'd like to keep it that way." He grumbled as he picked up his pace to follow her.
Lorelai peeked inside, and Luke naturally followed suit. While their eyes were still adjusting to the light they heard a bellowed "Surprise!" from the collective townspeople.
"What is all this?" Lorelai asked as she stepped inside, Luke trailing close behind her.
"It's your baby shower!" Rory exclaimed excitedly as she led her mother further into Ms. Patty's Dance studio.
"I knew you had ulterior motives for coming home this weekend!" Lorelai exclaimed triumphantly.
"Yes, yes, you were right all along." Jess teased.
"We figured you'd forgive us for a few white lies along the way." April added, smiling.
"And I thought you might not want to be the only guy here," Jess whispered to Luke, not wanting to offend April or Rory, who'd both worked hard to pull this all off.
"Thank you, Jess. For being here and for all of this."
"April, Rory and Sookie did most of the work here." Jess said, trying to shift himself out of the spotlight for the event.
"Still, thanks."
"Anytime, Uncle Luke." Jess smirked.
"Well, what are you waiting for?" April asked Lorelai.
"Let's eat!" Rory started, leading her mother towards the food.
"We just ate dinner." Luke reminded them.
"And when has that ever mattered before?" Lorelai countered, only for Luke to roll his eyes as a weak rebuttal. "Eating for two!" She called over shoulder in response as she shoveled mac and cheese bites and mini crostinis, surely Sookie's handiwork, onto a plate.
"Oh, well, Dad, if you don't want to eat, there's onesie decorating over there, Oh, and guess the baby food at the next table. Don't worry, none of them are gross. We made Jess test them first."
Luke gave out a chuckle at that, and turned to look at Jess, who shrugged, but didn't deny his part.
"Oh, and over there, there's-"
"April." Luke said, cutting her off gently. "This all looks amazing. Thank you. I can handle it from here. Go have fun," he smiled, giving his daughter a kiss on the cheek before sending her off to fool around with Rory and Lorelai.
"So, I say you can probably sneak out after an hour and a half and nobody'll notice. Maybe even earlier if people realize Ms. Patty brought out the punch." Jess ventured, looking out at the crowd of people gathered to celebrate his uncle's unborn son.
"Nah, I think I'll probably stick around. Rory and April worked really hard, and, you know, Lorelai-"
"You want to stay just to watch her have fun," Jess accused teasingly.
"Laugh if you want, but I suspect your good old Uncle Luke isn't the only reason you made this trip down here for the weekend." Luke said, sneaking a glance in Rory's direction out of the corner of his eye as Jess did the same.
"Yeah, maybe not." Jess admitted, looking down at his shoes.
"Tread lightly." Luke warned seriously, trying to make eye contact with him.
"Not sure I'm able to tread at all. I love Rory, but I can't lose her friendship. She was really good for me when I was here. She is really good for me, end of sentence."
"All of that 'losing her friendship' bullshit is what kept me and Lorelai apart for years." Luke cautioned his nephew.
"You're sending me mixed signals, here." Jess observed.
"I'm saying, tread lightly, but don't just tread water. Move carefully, but don't waste time. Learn a lesson or two from your old Uncle Luke."
"I will keep that in mind." Jess nodded solemnly, looking his uncle in the eye.
"Good." Luke said, returning the eye contact and nodding.
As predicted, an hour and a half later, most of the crowd had considerably imbibed in Ms. Patty's punch. Luke had remained sober, and could see from a distance that Lorelai was waning in energy.
"Hey, you ready to go?" he whispered in her ear, coming up behind her.
"Oh, no, we can't go yet. There's still so many people here," Lorelai expressed her concern.
"Yes, and they're all drunk off their ass or on their way there."
"Huh." Lorelai noticed for the first time, looking around. "Oh, Rory got into the punch. That's gonna hurt in the morning."
"How do you know she wasn't just drinking beer?"
"She's dancing spazzy. She doesn't drink enough beer to get that drunk."
"I'll go talk to Jess, make sure she gets home safe. Find April for me?"
"Okay babe, meet you back here in a few."
"You sober?" Luke asked his nephew, who was sitting at a table.
"Well, I've had a few beers, so I probably shouldn't be operating heavy machinery, but I can manage myself. Why?"
"Make sure Rory gets home safe. As in, you bring her home and get her into her bed, and then you go back to the diner and get into your bed, and there is no more than one person in any one bed at any one given point in time. Clear?"
"You think I'd take advantage of her when she's like this?" Jess asked, a little offended, but knowing Luke was acting out of his protective streak for Rory and not out of any distrust in him.
"Are we clear?" Luke asked again.
"Crystal." Jess answered before Luke walked back to the door to walk Lorelai and April home.