The next day Lorelai was woken up by Jess climbing into their bed.

"Hey sweetie," she smiled at him pulling him close so that he lay down right in front of her, "Are you ok?" She asked him softly as Luke was still asleep.

Jess nodded his head and cuddled into Lorelai, "I love you sweetie, with all my heart." Lorelai told him kissing his head.

"Love you too mummy." Jess responded with his head against her chest.

"Were you ok last night without me and daddy?" She asked him.

"Yeah," he replied, "I like grandma."

"Good, I'm glad." Lorelai smiled and placed a kiss on his head.

"Is daddy sleeping?"

"Yeah he is. He is so lazy isn't he?" Lorelai asked causing Jess to giggle.

"He's lazy and smelly!" Jess said through of fit of giggles, smelly being the next biggest insult he knows.

Lorelai pretended to gasp then turned slightly and did an over dramatic sniff, "Yeah you're right, he is a bit smelly." She laughed with Jess this time.

"What's so funny?" Luke asked, being awoken by the giggles. This caused Jess to laugh even harder. "What?" Luke asked.

"Nothing babe." Lorelai said giving him a kiss.

"Daddy's..." Jess said then had to stop because he was laughing too hard. He tried again, "daddy's sme..." he broke into a fit of giggles again. Third time was the charm he got out, "daddys smelly and lazy!" Before he broke into his laughter.

"What?" Luke asked him laughing himself. He leaned over Lorelai and started tickling Jess, "what did you say mister?" He asked.

"Oi, smelly boy, if you can be bothered, I'm being squished here." Lorelai grinned.

Luke rolled back over bringing Jess with him. He gave him a really tight hug, "Oh no," he said, "I'm getting my smell all over you." He laughed.

"Mummy save me!" Jess shrieked.

"I've got you." Lorelai said grabbing Jess and lifting him away, "you're safe now." She said.

Rory came in at this stage, "Why is Jess laughing?" She asked climbing onto the bed next to Luke.

"Quick Rory, get away!" Jess shrieked, "Daddy is smelly!" He started laughing again.

"No he isn't!" Rory said defensively.

"Thankyou Rory." Luke smiled at her giving her a hug, "right, I'm going to make breakfast, and only people who say I'm not smelly can have some." He said with a smirk.

"Me!" Rory said excited.

"Yep you." He said getting out of bed bringing her with him, "anyone else?" He asked.

"What we failed to mention was that you smelt good. Very good in fact, right Jess? That's what we meant by smelly." She said.

"No!" Jess laughed, "me meant smelly smelly." He said.

"Not helping Jess," Lorelai laughed, "we want breakfast cooked by daddy not cooked by me."

"Oh, whoops."

"Yeah, whoops."

"Come on." Luke said.

"You'll make us breakfast?" Lorelai asked following him out with Jess.

"Yeah I'll make you breakfast."

Lorelai sat at the table with Jess and Rory as Luke cooked.

"Now who's lazy?" Luke asked Lorelai as she sat there.

Jess started laughing again, "daddys lazy!" He said.

"I'm cooking you breakfast!" Luke said, "your mother is being lazy! Just sitting there."

"No." Jess shook his head.

"Yeah Luke, no." Lorelai said in agreement.

"I like daddys breakfast." Rory said.

"Thankyou." Luke smiled at her.

"Suck up." Lorelai said light heartedly, giving her a kiss on the cheek.

The next day at work Lorelai walked into the kitchen in her break to talk to Sookie.

"You and Luke ok?" Sookie asked her.

"Yeah we're good." She smiled.

"Was Jess ok?"

"Yeah, mainly. So, how was your date then? Any good?" She changed the subject.

"Yeah it was good. We are meeting up tomorrow night actually."

"Good. So you like him?" She smiled at her.

"Yeah I like him." She blushed, "did I tell you? Until Luke talked about Rory and used She he was trying to figure out who was the girl and who was the boy!"

"With Jess and Rory?"

"Yeah."

Lorelai laughed, "I guess that could go either way in theory."

"I never thought of it either until he told me after you left." Sookie giggled with her.

Luke's dark day came and the whole family had the day off from where they were suppose to be. When Lorelai woke up slightly earlier than normal Luke was lying awake next to her.

"Hey." She said softly startling him slightly.

"Hey." He whispered back and pulled her close to him kissing the top of her head when she lay right next to him.

"You alright?" She asked. He didn't respond, just kissed her head again.

"5 years." He said after several moments of silence. It was now Lorelais turn to kiss his head.

"That's half a decade." He said, "he shouldn't be dead, it's not fair," tears started rolling down his face and Lorelai sat up so that it was her hugging him instead of him hugging her, "he should be here now, playing with Rory and Jess, waiting the arrival of Theodore, meeting my beautiful wife, helping Liz out he could always do a better job than me, it's not fair he wasn't old, he wasn't that old."

"I know baby, I know." Lorelai said hugging him close as he cried, "it's not fair not at all."

"What's wrong with daddy?" Came Rorys little voice from the door way.

'The one day she wakes up early' Lorelai thought.

"Today is the anniversary of his dads death, sweetie, that means it's been five years since he died." She explained gently as Luke tried to hide his face in her side and she ran her fingers through his hair.

Rory nodded and walked around the bed until she stood next to Luke, "I'm sorry about your daddy, daddy." She said gently looking at his back.

Luke took a deep breath and held it before blowing it out and rubbing his face clear with his sleeve he turned around and picked Rory up and gave her a big hug.

"Thankyou Princess," he kissed the top of her head, "you know I love you right?" He asked her and she nodded into his chest, "I love you too daddy." She replied.

"You always remember that, ok? No matter what happens, me and your mother love you so much. We will always love you, you remember that, ok?" He asked her and she nodded, "Good girl." He said kissing the top of her head.

Jess came in and climbed up next to Lorelai.

"You too mister," Luke said, "always always remember that me and your mum love you so much, no matter what happens, ok?"

"Ok." Jess smiled at him.

"Good lad." Luke reached over and ran a hand through his hair, "who wants to go get some breakfast?"

"I'll bring them down, do you want a minute?" Lorelai asked him gently.

"Yeah, thanks." He gave her a small smile and a kiss on the forehead.

"Come on." Lorelai said leading Jess and Rory from the room.

"But what about daddy?" Rory asked on the way out looking back.

"He'll be down in a minute." Lorelai assured her.

She brought them down to the kitchen and sat them down in seats next to each other. She the knelt down in front of them, "now, daddy is going to be really sad today because 5 years ago his daddy died. Later on we are going to go visit his mummy and daddy's graves, your other grandma and grandpa. You have to be extra nice to daddy today, ok?" She raised an eyebrow and was met with two nods, "Good," She said, "now who wants some juice?"

When Luke came in Jess spoke up, "daddy?" He asked.

"Yes son?"

"Do you want a hug?" He asked shyly looking down.

"I would love one." Luke smiled at him and went over and picked him up. Jess wrapped his arms around Luke's neck and Luke wrapped his arms around his back, "Thankyou, sweet boy." He said.

"Your welcome daddy."

Luke then went over to start making breakfast, after he had returned Jess to his seat. Lorelai went to stand next to him, "You ok?" She asked him.

"I don't want them to see me cry." Luke said softly to her.

"Luke.. it's ok to cry." She reminded him.

"I know, but I don't want them to see me cry. I don't mind you I just don't want them to see that."

"It's ok to show weakness in front of them." Lorelai squeezes his hand, "I know they've seen me cry."

"I just don't want to." He said.

"Ok." She replied seeing it was upsetting him, "ok, they won't."

"Thankyou." He said squeezing her hand, "you know what I said earlier on goes for you too."

"What?"

"I will always love you, no matter what."

"I know." She assured him, "and from all three, no four, of us, it goes for you too."

They didn't leave the house until after lunch time, they drove the short distance to the cemetery and Luke stood in front of the graves and lay down the flowers they had brought. Lorelai stood a few feet back, holding one of both of Jess and Rory's hands. Everyone stood in silence for about 15 minutes and then they left.

When they got home Luke went to lie down for a bit. After an hour Lorelai had sure the kids where occupied and wouldn't do anything and went upstairs.

She entered their bedroom and saw him lying on the bed staring at the ceiling, "Hey." She said entering the room.

"Hey." He replied.

"Do you want to talk?" She asked sitting next to him. When he didn't respond she asked, "do you want me to go away?"

"No, stay." He said reaching a hand back for hers, she placed her hand in his, "stay." He said.

"Ok." She replied kissing his hand which he then dropped back to his side. She started running her hand through his hair.

After a while he spoke, "at first it's really hard, you miss them, you have to come to terms with the fact you'll never see them again, it's really hard. Over time you come to terms with it, you accept that it happened but the missing them, that doesn't go away. It gets stronger, the more time you spend apart the stronger you miss. Right now anyway, 5 years is really getting to me. But at the start you couldn't go a minute without thinking of them, you just can't do it, you find yourself lying awake at night just thinking about them. I've gone whole days without thinking about them now, it's terrible, I'm terrible. I remember the first day, just over two years ago actually, our life was crazy but that's no excuse. I thought about them the next day when I saw an old friend of my dads in the street and I realised the day before my dad hadn't crossed my mind once. Of course that thought occupied me for a while so I thought about them all the time but that faded and it happened again, until eventually it was normal to miss days. I thought maybe I didn't miss them as much anymore, I felt terrible but I thought maybe I just didn't. I realised I just got used to it, I got used to missing them, it wasn't something I had to think about anymore, old news. I still miss them more than I did anyway. Even if I'm a terrible person, I still miss them more than I did."

"Luke.." Lorelai said, "you are not a terrible person. You've been through so much. It's ok not to think of them everyday, they are still in your heart, you still love them. You still miss them more than anything in the world. Don't beat yourself up over this. You are the best person I know." She leaned down and kissed the hair she had been stroking, "they would be so proud of you. You are such an amazing person. You started this family, you took in Jess, you got us this house, you were so kind to me, you saved me and you saved Rory and now you are giving me another baby. You work so hard at the diner, you built a business, a pretty damn good one at that and you were so young yourself. They would be so proud."

"You think so?" He asked, a lot of vulnerability in his voice.

"I know so my love." She assured him, "you are the best person I know and you love your parents so much, you've done nothing wrong there."

"It just hurts." He said softly.

"I know."

"I'm going to phone Liz now." He said sitting up.

"Ok, I'll bring the kids upstairs then, give you some privacy and some quite."

"Thankyou." He smiled at her and they both went downstairs.

Time past and in the middle of night in the second week on December Lorelai shook Luke awake, "it's happening!" She said excitedly.

"The baby?" He asked still half asleep.

"No! Not the baby, it's December, snow!"

"You woke me up for snow again?" He asked with a grown.

"The first snow of the season," She said getting out of bed, "it's a magical thing and if you don't hurry up and get out of bed we are going to miss it."

"I'm not going outside, it's freezing."

"I know it's about to snow, come on."

"No, it's just snow, if it snows we will see it on the ground tomorrow."

"No, we have to watch the first snow as it falls, please Luke it's a tradition, then tomorrow we can all go for our walk in the first snow of the season."

"The things I do for you." He grumbled getting out of bed and shivering. He pulled on his coat on the way out the door and handed Lorelai hers.

They stood outside for 2 minutes and 40 seconds, Luke was watching his watch and then snow flakes started to fall.

"Happy?" Luke asked.

"Very." Lorelai grinned.

"Can we go back inside now?"

"I want to enjoy my present for just a bit longer."

"I'm going inside, don't freeze to death." Luke said walking back to the house and Lorelai looked up into the sky.

The next morning Lorelai led the first snow of the season walk. Once they got to the square they sat down and Rory and Jess started playing in the snow.

Lorelai lay down in it and started making a snow angel, "copy me." She told Rory and Jess, "you'll make a snow angel." She stopped and stood up inside it, "not bad." She said, "luke would go like to make one?" She asked.

"Not a chance."

"Rory, Jess, let's see what you've got." She said prompting them to stand up, "stand up inside where the snow is squished and I'll fit you out so you don't ruin it." She said.

Once they where all up they stood back and admired their angels, "I've got to say, you too make very cute little snow angels." She said looking at the two smaller angels next to her own.

A few minutes later Luke got a stick and wrote their names above each of their snow angels.

"What does it say?" Rory asked.

"That says Lorelai, and that one Jess, and that one Rory." He said pointing them out with a stick.

"Daddy?"

"Yesie?" He copied her questioning tone

"How many letters are there?"

"Umm 27, I think, Hey Lorelai?" He yelled out catching her attention, "how many letters in the alphabet, 27 right?"

"Let me check." She said and started singing the alphabet song and counting on her fingers, "I got 26, let me try again." She repeated the process slower, "no definitely got 26."

"Ok, thanks."

"There are 26 letters in the alphabet." Luke told Rory.

"Could you teach them to me?" She asked.

"Sure," he smiled at her, "I'll teach you to say them first, then to write them and then I'll teach you how to spell your name, how about that?" He asked her.

"Cool!" She grinned, "can we start now?"

"Ok, come sit on this bench with me."

"Now the alphabet, with its 26 letters, is arranged in a particular order, alphabetical order, so I'm going to teach you it that way, ok?" She nodded, "there is even a song that goes with it," he said, "I'll sing that first, just to give you a taster."

" g, h i j k, lmnop, q r s, t u v, w x y and z now I know my abcs, next time won't you sing with me." He sang softly to her, "now some would argue that the now I know my abcs next time won't you sing with me is not an important part to the alphabet learning experience but I beg to differ." He smiled at her, "you sing it with me this time ok?"

"Ok." She said a deep look of concentration in her face.

"A" He said slowly and she repeated.

"B" the process went on all the way to.

"And z."

"Now for the important part, now I know my abcs, next time won't you sing with me."

"Again." She said.

"Ok."

"A"

...

"K"

"What's going on here?" Lorelai asked coming over to the bench.

"I am learning the alphabet letters." Rory said proudly.

"Are you?" Lorelai asked.

"Yep, Daddy is teaching me the song."

"Can I learn too?" Jess asked.

"Of course you can." Luke told him, "Lorelai you know the song, why don't you give a demonstration."

Lorelai sang the alphabet song including the line at the end.

"What did I tell you Rory, a very important line at the end there."

"Oh yes." Lorelai agreed, "a very important part of the learning of the alphabet in fact."

They went home and by the end of the day Rory and Jess could both sing the whole song. Rory was just singing it on loop.

"Come here." Luke said to Rory and Jess as he sat at the kitchen table, "I'll show you what they all look like." He then wrote out the alphabet in lower case and pointed to each one and said what they were.

That night as they were getting their story read to them they both were pointing out the letters on the page.

"That's a d."

"Yes it is."

"That's a s."

"Uh huh."

"That's a b."

"Yep."

"That's a y."

"Let's just read the story."

"That's a g."

"It is, but let's not point out letters, let's read the story and then go to be ok?"

The next morning at breakfast Rory asked Luke if he would teach them how to write the letters after once again singing the alphabet song.

"It's not the weekend any more sweetie, you have to go to nursery today and I have to go to work." He reminded her, "but later on when we come home we can do it." He promised her.

At lunch time, the time Lorelai normally came by the diner door opened and Luke looked up to see if it was her, when he looked up the rolled his eyes as Kirk walked towards the counter.

"Hello Luke." Kirk said in his weird voice.

"Hi Kirk, what can I get you?" He asked.

"I was wondering if I could have some information."

"What information?" Luke regretted asking almost as soon as he did, he should have just answered no and gone on with his day.

"I was wondering if you knew Lorelai, the girl who comes in here a lot."

"My wife?"

"Yeah." Kirk confirmed, "anyway, she has been a bit fatter recently and I've been wanting to start dating so I thought now would be the time to ask, while her standards might be lower, do you think she would be interested?"

Luke rolled his eyes, "she hasn't been fat, she's been pregnant with my baby." Luke told him.

"Oh well, the question still stands."

"No kirk, she would not be interested in dating you as she is married to me."

"Drats." Kirk said.

"Drats indeed, now can I get you any food?"

He placed his order and Lorelai came in and sat at the counter a few places down from Kirk. Luke walked over to her behind the counter and leaned over and whispered.

"Kirk just asked me if I thought you might be interested in going on a date with him because he wants to start dating and now that you are getting fat he thinks his chances would be higher."

Lorelai laughed, "he said that?" She asked nodding towards Kirk who was looking straight ahead of himself.

"Yeah."

"What did you say?"

"That you are pregnant with my baby, not fat and that as you were married to me you probably wouldn't be interested dating him."

"Ha! That boy sure is strange."

"You can say that again, you know he wants a job here, keeps asking."

"And you keep saying no?"

"I am not putting him in charge of other people's food, or a cooker."

"Good call. Now talking about people's food.."

"I'll get you yours now." He rolled his eyes.

"Thanks doll, you're the best!"

Later that evening Luke sat at the table with Rory, as she drew out letters. Jess, who it turned out was left handed, had got bored long ago. Underneath the alphabet Luke had written out where a series of much larger messier copies.

"You are doing good." Luke praises her as she stuck her tongue out in concentration as she filled her third page, "how about this," he offered, "I show you how to write your name and we call it even for the day."

"Ok." She nodded excitedly.

"Ok so we start with an r." He said she sat and thought for a second then launched forwards towards the page and carefully wrote out a shaky r. "Yeah just like that, next is an o." This one took her a little longer to remember and she ran her finger a long one of the alphabets she had written before arriving at o, "o" she said writing it down. "Good, another r." She drew out another r, "and lastly a y." She wrote out a y after a moments hesitation. "And that says Rory, do you want to go show mummy?"

"Yeah!" Rory said jumping down from where she sat bringing the page with her she ran into the living room, "Mummy! Mummy! I wrote Rory!" She thrust the page forward towards Lorelai who took it off her, "you did! Well done baby!" She gave Rory a hug, "you did really well. Why don't we stick this up on the fridge with your drawings?" She asked and Rory nodded enthusiastically.

The next afternoon when Lorelai picked Rory and Jess up from nursery the lady who brought them out chuckled, "that's one determined little girl you've got there, all day she kept sneaking off to the drawing station, no matter how many games were being played, she kept writing out the alphabet and her name."

"Did you?" Lorelai asked Rory who nodded.

"It's fun! I'm getting really good, I want to show daddy."

"Ok sweetie." Lorelai chuckled too, "you'll be reading soon enough if you keep up like this." She said.

"Really?" Rory asked excitedly.

"Calm down, you are only three." Lorelai let her know.

"I think I need to count higher too, I can only go to 10 but you are 19 and that's a number and I don't know it so it must be higher."

"You are a very smart little girl, you know that."

"Eleven." Jess said.

"Eleven?" Lorelai asked him.

"Comes after 10, then there's twelve."

"That's right you smart boy, how high do you know?"

"Fifty nine." He answered.

"How?" She asked a bit shocked.

He shrugged, "what comes after 59?" He asked.

"Sixty."

"I know up to sixty nine now." He said skipping along in front of her.

"Do you?"

"Yeah." He said and then counted up to 69.

"Seventy." Lorelai said and he kept going, "eighty." He kept going "ninety." She said.

"99," He finished and looked confused, "is that all of them, we ran out."

"No, we go to 100 next, that' and then 1 hundred and 1." He kept going "109." He hesitated.

"1 1 0 how do you say it."

"A hundred and 10, you get count again and put a hundred in front of everything you say but how do you know all this? You are three!"

He shrugged, "I've heard people count stuff before."

"Right." Lorelai said.

Later that night Luke and Lorelai finished putting the kids to bed.

"She's somehow mastered the alphabet. You can say any letter and she can write it, upper and lower case. She wants me to teach her how to read." Luke said as they sat down.

"Jess can count."

"I know?"

"No jess can really count, Rory guessed their were numbers above 10 because I'm 19 and she doesn't know that number. I thought that was genius. Then Jess announces he knows what they are, he could go to 59 or so,etching but he didn't know the next one all I had to do was tell him 60 and he was off to 69. He can count."

"What? How can he do that? When did he learn to do that?"

"I have no idea. Once he got to 99 he said he ran out and got confused until I told him 100 i then he got confused about how to say 1 1 0. But he knew it was going to be 1 1 0."

"How could he know that, did you ever teach him, highest I've ever gone with him is ten, from that book."

"Yeah me too. That's all Rory knew. He said he has heard people count things."

"He has heard people count things?"

"Apparently."

"And he understands that?"

"Apparently."

"Wow." Luke said, "how did we end up with such genius children?"

"I have no idea."