Chapter 21

Luke knew that he needed to work on his temper. And he needed to learn not to storm off whenever things got bad. In his relationship history, whenever things got hard, he generally just ended the relationship. He personally didn't title himself a commitaphobe. But when things got difficult or serious he usually closed up.

Like any person, he hated complicated things. But his relationship with Lorelai was the definition of complicated. They wanted to get married, and they had a baby on the way. The two biggest commitments in existence, you didn't just do them lightly. But, Luke had far too long of a track record when it came to avoiding things or quitting when it got tough. When it came to whom he dated anyway. He didn't quit on Jess until there was nothing left for him to do. He never gave up on the diner. But, he wasn't in love with either of those situations. He was in love with Lorelai.

In a roundabout way he had confronted the problem at hand. He had made it clear how he felt about his fiancée being in contact with her ex. Christopher had always been a problem. He had broken them up before. Sure, Luke is the one who decided to break up with Lorelai, refusing to believe that she was honestly dedicated to him.

But despite what Christopher and Emily had done to get them to split up, Luke knew that it was he who really made them break-up. If he had any of the confidence Lorelai had, they would never have broken up after the vow renewal. He was an insecure man, as much as he hated to admit it.

He wanted to believe he'd done the right thing by telling Lorelai how he felt about Christopher being in contact with her. But yelling at her had been the worst way to express it. Doing it in front of company had definitely been the wrong way to do it. "Another thing to add to the list of things that was wrong with me," he thought. Not only insecure, but volatile as well.

He also liked to brood. Generally when he had seen other people feel sorry for themselves, he'd either told them to knock it off, or he'd tried to convince them that things could get better. He knew he was a hypocrite. He hated people who acted all, "woe is me" all the time. But he did it a lot too. He wondered why Lorelai tolerated it. Love?

Lorelai walked into his apartment while he was stewing. She'd been right about him once again. He did like to sit and stew and be mad, sometimes for no reason. She was carrying a covered tray. She'd brought him something to eat.

"Once we're married," she told him. "You're not going to be able to run any to your club house any more. Going to have to join a rotisserie baseball league, with the rest of the men. "

"When we're married huh?" he asked. "Gee, when's that gonna be?"

"Well," Lorelai said, she was as vulnerable as he was at the moment.

"We got Rory back, so now what's the hold up?" he asked. He didn't mean to take pot shots or act even more sorry for himself. But he was doing what he did best, avoiding things.

"After the baby is born," Lorelai finally answered. "You can't blame me for waiting till I have my figure back can you?"

"You look fine to me," Luke told her. Not trying to flatter her or be sweet, he was just being honest. He didn't care what her body looked like.

"Don't you want to wait until you have the whole Anna thing settled before tying the knot?" Lorelai asked him. She didn't want to bring that woman up, but she felt she had to.

"Why does she matter?" Luke asked. He wasn't being very receptive that night. He was still stewing.

"Her child might be yours," Lorelai said. "If she is, don't you want her there?"

"I don't know," Luke said.

"You're conflicted," Lorelai stated. "They say you shouldn't get married or make any life altering decision when stressed, conflicted, or mourning."

"Are you saying you don't want to get married?" Luke asked, still not looking up at her.

"Of course I want to get married," Lorelai said sitting down. "I love you."

"Then lets get married already," Luke growled, unintentionally kicking the footrest.

"How can I marry someone who won't even look at me?" Lorelai asked. That made it really hard for Luke to look at her then. He was being silly. Yes he had a right to be upset, but he shouldn't be treating her like he was. He looked up at her, and told her how he was feeling, calmly that time.

"I'm never gonna be okay with Christopher being in your life."

"I'm always going to have Christopher in my life," Lorelai told him.

"Yeah," Luke conceded. He could hate it as much as he wanted, but he knew she was right.

"He is Rory's father. I can't change that," Lorelai stated. If only she could. He wished he were Rory's father. He'd certainly been more of one to her than Christopher had. "Today was the first day I heard Christopher's voice in a year and I would have told you," Lorelai said honestly. Luke tried to believe her. She wouldn't lie about this. But he hated Christopher so much that his insecurities made it hard to believe that Christopher wasn't trying to steal his girl.

"We can't hide things from each other," Luke said to her.

"I know," Lorelai agreed.

"I'm not going to like when Christopher calls, but we have to tell each other everything."

"Agreed."

"That's the only way this is going to work."

"If I hadn't been there when Anna showed up," Lorelai asked Luke. "Would you have told me immediately about April?"

"Yeah," Luke said. But then he realized he might not have. Not immediately any way. He didn't always keep people up to date quickly. He often waited too long. He waited until he was absolutely ready to tell people, which was often too late. He usually took a long time to be comfortable with things. His pining for Lorelai before he finally shared his feelings proved that.

"So, speaking of your clubhouse," Lorelai said. "When do you want to move in to my place?"

"Haven't I already?" Luke asked.

"Uh," Lorelai said looking around the room, seeing how much of his stuff was in there. "No."

"I stay nights," Luke argued. "I cook meals."

"Yeah but most of your clothes and personal stuff is here," Lorelai stated. "And you keep borrowing my tooth brush," she said disgusted. "That's gotta stop," she joked.

"Yeah you're right," Luke conceded again. Lorelai was far better at winning arguments than he was.

"So, you want to move in?" Lorelai asked him again.

"Until a few minutes ago I thought I already was living in your house." Luke stated.

"Dude, come on," Lorelai argued. "If a stranger walked into my house, he'd know in a second that only girls lived there."

"What?" Luke said, feeling she was absurd. "The walls aren't pink or anything."

"Are you saying you enjoy the Hello Kitty and Spice Girl memorabilia?" Lorelai asked.

"I hardly notice it," Luke said. "I'm used to your junk."

"Hey!" Lorelai said in mock offensiveness. "Coming from the guy with a singing, "Be Happy" mounted bass?"

"A singing bass whose batteries have mysteriously disappeared," Luke argued to a guilty looking Lorelai at the words. "Can't imagine where they went off to."

"Battery therapy," Lorelai cutely replied. " They needed someone to talk to after being abused and used for such a tasteless reason." She laughed at her own joke.

"Is your Betty Boop vase in that therapy session too?" Luke joked.

"She's in therapy from the constant mocking she's had to endure," Lorelai continued their bit. They both laughed. And soon, Lorelai was in Luke's lap, they were in a loving embrace, and all the problems they'd been dealing with had been forgotten.

The next morning Luke and Lorelai woke up in Luke's apartment.

"Whoops," Lorelai said. "We forgot to go home."

"Who's going to scold us?" Luke asked.

Just at that moment, Lorelai got a call on her cell phone from Rory.

"Been out late young lady?" her daughter joked in mock disapproval.

"Sorry…." Lorelai said pretending to be guilty.

"When you get home missy, you gots some splanning to doo!" Rory said in her best Ricky Ricardo voice.

"Bshhhiiizzzz bshhizzzz, sorry I'm going through a tunnel!" Lorelai pretended, as Luke started to romance her. "Gotta go!" She yelled into the phone that Luke was trying to get out of her hand.

The phone got disconnected. Rory just shook her head and laughed.

*Sorry I haven't updated in 2 days. I was really tired. It is my goal to write daily. I will keep it up. Again, I appreciate you reading, and I like the reviews.