"Come on in guys."

"Hi, Jake," Lorelai shrugged out of her coat as she stepped into the hallway, one cold shoulder pointed behind her, towards Luke. "Hi Annie, Emma!" She stepped into the living room quickly, leaving the men behind.

Luke gave Jake a withering smile and handed him his own coat. Jake smiled knowingly and put the coats in the closet.

"Sookie's in the kitchen, we're going to join her," Annie hollered over her shoulder as she and Lorelai scurried off to the kitchen.

"Right," Jake drawled, leading Luke into the living room.

"Jackson," Luke acknowledged as he sat.

"Do ya'll want a beer?" Jake offered. Luke nodded, and Jackson chimed in agreement.

The steady buzz of chatter in the kitchen lowered a notch as Jake walked in. Three pairs of female eyes watched carefully until he was out of the room, and the buzz began again.

"Man, they are trashing you right now," Jake chuckled as he handed Luke his beer. Luke sighed and ran his fingers through his hair.

"I'll bet."

"What? What'd I miss?" Jackson sat upright, leaning in to get the gossip.

"Luke's in the dog house," Jake said.

"How? Why I am the last to know? When did you two even have time to talk? It's like you have a secret language or something," Jackson groused.

"Relax, Jacks, it was easy to tell as soon as they walked in. So what happened?"

+++++

"and I come in for some lunch on my break, expecting nothing more than a hi, how ya doing, here's your hamburger, kiss on the cheek sort of deal." Lorelai hopped onto the counter and absently popped a baby carrot into her mouth. "Oh, gross. I'm impulsively eating like him now. Quick, gimme the m'n'm's so I can wash this nastiness away."

"Here sweetie." Sookie handed her the bowl, then resumed rocking her still-unnamed son in her arms. Emma bounced happily in her play saucer as Annie finished making dinner.

"Thanks. So, right I go in for lunch, no big deal, and I get this horrible death glare from my darling boyfriend as he's darting back and forth between customers and what not. So I sit, confused, figuring, hey, it's a bad day, and I'll wait patiently for my coffee. I'll be nice."

"Naturally," Annie chimed in.

"Right, so"

+++++

"It's a hell of a day, I come back to the diner after wasting an entire day lazing around doing nothing to a huge mess. I didn't make a list of what to expect in the delivery for Tom because I didn't expect to be gone all day. He's never taken a delivery. So naturally everything goes wrong, we get half of what we need and twice of what we don't, I can't fill all the damn orders because we're out of hamburger buns, for crying out loud and there she is, bouncing in all happy andit was irritating."

"Uh oh," Jackson practically sang. Luke glared.

"So I tried to avoid causing any issues, because I was in no mood to really talk to her at that point because, irrational or not, it was her idea to stay home all day, so I sent Tom over to take her order so I could try to stay focused on working, heaven forbid"

+++++

"He sent Tom?"

"Yup."

"Why?"

"I don' t know! Hi, we just spent some fabulous day together and"

"Oh! Finally-everything?" Annie asked suggestively.

"No not everything-everything, but well lots of stuff,"

"Fine," Annie rolled her eyes and was smacked by an m'n'm in the head.

"Continue, hon," Sookie prompted.

"Right. So Tom sneaks on over looking utterly terrified."

"I love that he's afraid of you!"

"Not afraid, really. I think he and Rory talk."

"Really?"

"Yeah. She mentions it sometimes. I tease her about wanting to be so much like me she has to date a diner boy, but she insists she's not dating for months."

"Well, focusing on school is good," Sookie smiled.

"Yeah, but missing opportunities for the sake of missing them isn't," Annie added.

"True."

"Tom's kind of cute," Lorelai added.

"In that skinny, soccer-player sort of way," Annie said thoughtfully.

"Or in that jail-bait' kind of way," Sookie added.

"Please. He's twenty-one. And if Luke's going to send him my way instead of taking care of me like he should, I'm going to look, you know what I'm saying?" She raised an eyebrow and swallowed another hand full of candies.

"Oh Lorelai, you're a nut."

"Probably."

"So he sends Tom over"

+++++

"and apparently, Tom told her there was a mess in back, and I was busy, so instead of just sitting down and eating, thereby giving me a chance to calm down, she just saunters right back there as happy as ever to ask me what's wrong. What's wrong. Humph." Luke took a swig of beer and leaned back. "Everything's a mess! I hate mess."

"So it's your fault then," Jake pointed at him and took a drink of his own beer.

"I haven't finished the story yet."

"Yeah, but she was happy, you weren't, now no one's happy so it's got to be your fault."

"Shit."

++++

"So he jumped down my throat, growling and hissing about how he should never have stayed home, he knew it, and now this proves it and being irresponsible is ridiculous when you own your own place, yadda yadda yadda."

"He hissed?"

"What?"

"You said he hissed. Luke hisses? I can't see it."

"Oh, I can." Sookie nodded thoughtfully. "He gets all quiet and grouchy and he speaks through clenched teeth like thisssss." Sookie scrunched up her face, making Lorelai and Annie laugh.

"O.K. I'll conceded that Luke hisses."

"So we all agree then? My boyfriend hisses."

"Agreed," Annie and Sookie nodded.

"I just don't know." Lorelai slid off the counter.

"About what?" Annie finished basting the chicken and put it into the oven.

"About us. Me and Luke."

Whoa. It was one little fight, Lorelai."

"I know, but it's about not being on the same page with things about disagreeing about what's important in life. relaxing, spending time together, stuff like that."

"Lorelai, he was just annoyed. He's new to the whole spontaneity thing, and the problems he came back to just threw him off."

"Seriously, what if you had come back on Tuesday and half our guests couldn't get rooms? You'd be upset."

"True," Lorelai admitted hesitantly. "It was just a crappy time to get all freaked out. I was riding really high on the fun of it, and it felt completely ruined."

"Understandable. But Luke snapping on you doesn't necessarily mean he didn't have a good time," Annie reasoned.

"Besides, agreeing about everything in life is dull," Sookie added, munching on some veggies.

"Oh really? You and Jackson don't agree on things?"

"Please. If I was anything like Jackson the two of us would sit at home talking all night, holed up in our house for fear of getting into some sort of trouble or something. He's gone nut-so since baby's come around, worrying about everything. We made out our will and he about had a heart attack, refusing to let me drive anywhere without him."

"Remember the knives?" Lorelai grinned.

"The knives?"

"Jackson tried to make Sookie stop using knives when they first found out she was pregnant for fear of her hurting herself," Lorelai explained to Annie.

"A cook without knives, huh?"

"See. Crazy. But he loves me like crazy and I love him, and we work it out."

"Yeah." Lorelai looked peeked into the living room at Luke and the guys. "I worry about that, too."

"What?"

"I think I love him more than he loves me," Lorelai admitted. Saying the words out loud brought a new kind of ache to her already worried heart. Sure, the story about their fight was simple enough, but she couldn't fight the insecurity that came with what felt like a complete rejection of one of the best days she'd ever had with him; the best day she'd had with any man, bar none. It stung.

"No way," Sookie snorted. Lorelai raised an eyebrow. "Really. I know you love him, Lor, but" she thought for a moment. "It's right there, on his face, in his eyes you probably don't see it because, well, when you're around he's just like that. But if you tried to see it, if you could see it, you'd be blown away."

"I know exactly what she's talking about. Luke's face just softens and he gets this little smile and you know without turning around, Lorelai's walked in," Annie smiled warmly.

"Really?" Lorelai began to relax.

"Really. He had a bad day. It's turning into a bad couple of days. If you let it go it'd be worth it," Sookie advised.

"You are the happily married one," Lorelai quipped.

"Yeah you want to talk insecurities, try having a guy's baby and still be waiting for the ring," Annie grumbled. Lorelai smiled knowingly. "What?"

"Nothing."

"You know something." Annie narrowed her eyes and stared hard at Lorelai.

"Nothing!" Lorelai tried to maintain what she hoped was a look of innocence.

"Oh! I don't want to know. Don't say anything. Knowing you know something is good enough!" Annie danced around the kitchen, then stopped suddenly. "Maybe I do want to know."

"I really know little to nothing. Luke's like a vise with information."

"O.K. Good. Don't want to know. That's right," Annie nodded.

"They know we're talking about them," Sookie said, nodding towards the door. She hoisted herself up and stood with her baby.

"We should put them out of their misery," Annie said.

"I'll grab food, you guys grab babies." Lorelai snagged the tray of veggies and the bowl of m'n'm's.

"Here, I've got drinks," Annie grabbed some pops and they joined the men in the living room.

"Miss us?" Annie breezed in, expertly balancing Emma on her hip as she leaned over to give Jake a kiss.

"Of course," he smiled.

"Hey," Lorelai smiled shyly as she approached Luke.

"Hey," he replied sullenly, looking guilty. Lorelai stepped around the chair and plopped herself down onto his lap. Luke shifted to accommodate her, pleasantly surprised. She buried her face in the warmth between his neck and shoulder, planting a soft kiss on the base of his neck.

"I love you," she whispered, briefly hugging him with her entire body.

"Me too," the words rushed out with a breath he wasn't aware he was holding. "Lorelai I'm"

"Don't worry about it," she whispered, sparing him an apology as she lightly kissed his ear. Satisfied with the warm hug she received in return, she turned towards the group, raising her voice so she would be heard. "So. What are we naming this little precious little boy over here?"

******

"Did you find all of it?"

"Yes, Lorelai."

"Are you sure?" she hollered into the dark entrance to the attic above her.

"I'm the one who put them away last year. I know where they are." Luke pushed his way past the dust-covered boxes of abandoned junk to the mountain of boxes carefully decorated in reds and greens. Last February he had stopped by at Lorelai's request to fix a leaking sink in the bathroom. Once there, he'd found the Gilmore house in a colorful state of disarray: a dyingno, dead Christmas tree falling pitifully in the corner under the weight of hundreds of little ornaments, twinkle lights still blinking faithfully around the banisters (and on the floor) and other random Christmas decorations. Somehow he'd convinced them to pack it all away neatly, but he swore he still saw a stuffed Santa or two lurking underneath the furniture every now and again.

"Right, I remember." Lorelai reached up as Luke began lowering boxes of decorations down to her. "Wow. This is a lot better than the garbage bags we used to store this stuff in. I bet we won't even have to partake in the four-hour untangle the lights' tradition."

"Tradition, huh?" Luke lowered the last of the boxes and stepped down the stairs. Lorelai reached up and brushed some cobwebs from his hair and smiled.

"Well, I had to convince Rory it was a Christmas tradition or she'd whine until we went out and bought new lights. Once we made it a race to see who could open presents first. I won."

"How old was Rory?"

"Six."

"You're proud of beating a six year old?" Luke hoisted one of the boxes up and headed down the stairs.

"Hey, those six year olds have teeny little fingers, you know. She put up a tough fight." Lorelai placed the box next to the other six and grinned.

"So what now?" Luke brushed the dust from his shirt and hands.

"Now we wait. I'm not about to decorate for Christmas without my darling first born daughter here." Lorelai flopped dramatically onto the couch.

"So," Luke began hesitantly, slowly sitting himself next to her.

"What?" Lorelai sat up, concerned. She knew the look by now, the nervous I-don't-know-how-to-say-this' sort of look that consumed his face when he was worried.

"Rory's going to be all right with everything?" He looked up at her with wide, questioning eyes. She smiled widely, reaching out to brush the hair out of his eyes.

"Yes. I promise. She's excited to see Ella," Lorelai glanced over at the sleeping puppy, dwarfed by the enormous pillow she'd purchased a couple of weeks earlier.

"That's not"

"I know," she interrupted. "She's fine with you staying here. Good even."

"If you say so," he said skeptically.

"I do say so." She leaned over and kissed his nose. "We talked about it. We talk about everything. Don't worry so much." Luke grunted in response. Lorelai sighed and leaned back into him, looking over the mounds of Christmas decorations they'd extracted from the attic. "I don't think it's ever looked so organized before," she laughed.

"I believe that," Luke teased.

"So, tell me. What is a Luke Danes Christmas like?" Lorelai snuggled into his chest and felt him shrug.

"It's nothing special," he said nonchalantly.

"Come on, you know what I mean. What do you do, what are your traditions? How many boxes of Christmas crap do you have littering your attic?"

Luke shifted uncomfortably. "You know I'm not into that stuff," he grumbled. "It's bad enough Taylor gets on my case to decorate the damn diner."

Lorelai shifted to look him in the eye. "You mean to tell me you don't do anything for Christmas?"

"I work."

"Youwork."

"Yes, Lorelai. I work. People need to eat on holidays too, you know," he said defensively, shifting on the couch. In doing so, he almost knocked Lorelai onto the floor.

"Hey. Don't get grouchy. It's justwow. I don't know. I'm so used to total festivity and fun and traditions and all that Christmas-y goodness. Rory and I make every thing an event."

"I'm not surprised," Luke muttered.

"Don't mock. It's fun. When she gets here, we'll go pick out a tree."

"I get a tree," he offered sullenly.


"Well, see, you do something."

"I have a couple of ornaments my dad saved from when we were kids. I put em up."

Lorelai sat on her knees, her face filling with her smile. "So do you put big piles of presents under your tree?"

"There aren't usually presents."

"No presents?"

"No piles of them or anything. I used to send Jess money."

"No presents" Lorelai dramatically raised the back of her hand to her head. "Feelingfaint."

"Dramatic, much?"

"Come on, Luke, you have to admit wow. Well. Huh." Lorelai's brain took a moment to process the information. "I never really thought much about it, I guess," she said quietly.

"About what?"

"What it'd be like without Rory or my parents even. Huh." She rubbed her forehead. "Hey, I gave you a present last year."

"Yes you did."

"A shirt, right?"

"Uh huh."

"Did you put it under your tree?" She smiled.

"I don't remember," he lied. He had. It had sat under his tree until Christmas morning, and he'd made a point to open it importantly before he went downstairs to open up shop. She'd wrapped it in a ridiculously colorful paper with exactly six bows. Rachel had sent him something too, some little thing in the mail from wherever she was at that moment. He couldn't even remember what it was, but he could remember all six of those bows on his present from Lorelai.

"Well you're certainly not working this Christmas, mister." Lorelai climbed onto his lap and kissed his forehead. "We've got plans."

"We do, huh?" He hugged her tightly and she squeaked.

"Yup. I don't feel so bad about not asking what your plans were first now, though. Hey, she's waking up!" Lorelai hopped off the couch and over to the sleepy-eyed Ella. "Hi baby!"

"We need to take her out, then." Luke stood and handed Lorelai the leash from its hook in the front hall. She clipped it onto Ella's little collar and stood, outfitting herself for the outdoors.

"Let's walk to you place."

"Any reason? Don't forget the bag" Luke held the door open and Lorelai wrinkled her nose. "and you go first, don't let her just run ahead of you."

"Here. The bag is man work," Lorelai handed Luke the little black bag. Luke shook his head and took it.

"If taking care of the bag is man work, don't buy floral scented ones next time."

"Please. It masks the smell; the package said so. It could be worse, I could have bought the pink ones."

"Fine, I'll concede it could have been worse." Luke slowed down a bit and watched as Lorelai allowed herself to be tugged along by the small black dog. She'll probably want to buy Christmas presents for the dog too, he thought, grinning. Speaking of presents "So Lorelai, I was wondering"

"What?" She peaked over her shoulder, the fluffy purple snow hat she wore bouncing as she walked.

"Do you should Ihell." He stared at his shoes, and she slowed down to walk beside him. "I was going to get Rory a present."

"Oh," Lorelai said thoughtfully.

"For Christmas."

"Well, I assumed." Lorelai felt her stomach flutter nonsensically.

"So is that O.K.?" He glanced up at her, cheeks flushed with his embarrassment.

"I think it's definitely O.K.," she began, trying to keep from dancing in the street. My boyfriend likes my daughter, he's thinking about her and he likes her! Well, of course I knew that, before, but oh hell. My boyfriend likes my daughter! Concentrate on not grinning like an idiot. "Better than O.K. even."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah." She threaded her arm through his and leaned her head onto his shoulder, Ella tugging on her other arm. "You have to get Ella something too." He laughed. "You do. She's a part of this family too now, you know."

Family. He swallowed hard. It wasn't difficult to hear. It was different. Good different, he assured himself. "So why are we going to my place? Are you in need of a coffee fix?" he teased.

"Well, of course. But I thought we could pick up those ornaments you were talking aboutfor the tree we'll go get when Rory gets here this afternoon."

"Oh." His stomach flipped.

"I mean, if you're going to be over during Christmas and everything, you should have your Christmas stuff there too."

"Right. Yeah. Sure." He reached over and took the leash from Lorelai. Ella was riveted by one particular tree trunk and was being stubborn. "Ella," he warned, yanking her back. She glanced back at him and barked shortly. Lorelai laughed. "Great, another girl who doesn't listen and talks back," he joked, giving Lorelai a pointed look. She laughed harder.

"Yoo hoo!" a familiar cry came from across the street. Luke's face fell and he looked as if he'd swallowed something terrible. Lorelai smiled and took Ella's leash.

"Go. Run. Get your stuff, I'll meet you down here soon."

"You sure."

"I'm brave," Lorelai patted him on the back as Miss Patty waddled her way across the street.

"Patty," Luke nodded respectfully as he darted away.

"Hello handsome. Lorelai ,darling," she reached out and hugged her warmly.

"Good morning, Miss Patty."

"And a lovely morning it is, too. You two on a walk with your new little baby?" She bent down to pet the wriggling puppy.

"Yup," Lorelai rocked back and forth on her heels, knowing full well what the gossipmonger wanted to ask. Let her work for it.

"You left from your house, did you?"

"Yup. Luke helped me take out all the Christmas decorations this morning for when Rory gets back today."

"Rory's coming back, of course. It's a big house, though, plenty of room."

"I agree," Lorelai nodded vacantly, feigning clueless-ness. Miss Patty shifted, and Lorelai could practically hear the wheels in her head turn to a plan b'.

"So I was filling out my Christmas cards last night, and I really had no clue where to send Luke one," she said, attempting to be more direct.

"Well, he is always at the diner," Lorelai couldn't contain the grin as Miss Patty furrowed her brow.

"Well yes, but that's so impersonal. One should receive cards at one's home. Don't you agree?"

"Of course," Lorelai bent to untangle Ella, who had wrapped herself into a knot with her leash.

"So" Miss Patty prompted, losing patience. Lorelai laughed.

"Well since we've gotten Ella, Luke's been staying with us over at the house until she's housebroken, or at least can get through the nights better."

"I see," she replied, not really seeing anything at all. "So you two have moved in together?" she finally asked.

"Not exactly. Oh, here he comes! We have to get back to the house... it was great seeing you," Lorelai flashed a toothy smile and jogged over to Luke. Ella beat her to it and jumped onto his legs. He shifted the small box to his hip and bent down to pet her.

"That's it?"

"I said there were a couple."

"O.K. I think we're ready to head back anyway. Ella isn't really interested in walking much anyway," She tugged the leash from the puppies mouth and they headed back.

"You survived Miss Patty?"

"You owe me, coward."

"I'll take that over a conversation with Miss Patty any day."

"Fine. She wanted to know if we were officially living together. Everybody wants to know," she said.

"Everybody's nosy."

"Well, sure, but" Lorelai shrugged. "I told her not exactly'."

"Ah." Luke shifted the box in his arms again.

"Well, we aren't exactly right?"

"Sure. Right, I mean. Right."

"Lorelai shook her head. "We're nuts."

"Probably."

"Are we living together?" Lorelai asked, finally.

"Well I don't know. Should we be?"

"I don't know," Lorelai stared at her feet.

"I should be paying for stuff," Luke began.

"That's not important," she waved her hand.

"It is. You've got a daughter at an Ivy League school and I'm practically living off of you."

Lorelai snorted. "Please. I haven't bought food in four and a half months."

"Sure, but there are other bills I could help with if I if we lived together."

"It's not a good reason to live together. Officially I mean, we're not even sleeping together"

"You always come back to that," Luke shook his head and held open the door. Ella and Lorelai walked through.

"Well, usually it's a defining part I don't know." She took off her hat and shook out her hair. "It's all the defining' we're expected to do that muddles it up." She hung up her coat.

"Well, technically, by definition, we are sleeping together." Luke released Ella's leash and she ran to her food dish, looking up expectantly. "She eats as much as you."

"She's growing," Lorelai defended her puppy. She poured her a new bowl and stood up. Luke watched her as he leaned against the frame in the doorway, arms crossed. Lorelai sighed.

"Why don't we table this discussion for later, huh?" She wrapped her arms around his waist and kissed him soundly. Luke readjusted and kissed her back, cupping the entire side of her face with one hand, the tips of his fingers finding their way into her hair. She pressed her body against his in a way that had become as familiar as the smell of her hair. It was a signal, he knew by now, that they didn't necessarily have to stop after just a couple of kisses. His kisses became deeper in response.

"Couch?" she asked quickly, breaking away for a moment. He laughed, short and deep.

"We have to watch Ella."

"She'll be O.K.," Lorelai pouted, pushing him through the doorway of the kitchen. Luke grinned, shaking his head. "Come on," Lorelai pressed against him again, running her fingers through his hair, teasing the ends at his neck. "She's"

"chewing up your purse," Luke finished. Lorelai glanced over her shoulder.

"I'm torn. It's not my favorite purse."

"You can't let her get away with stuff, Lorelai." Luke made no move to step back, enjoying her inner struggle.

"Fine. Responsible it is." She sighed and stepped back. The phone beside them rang noisily. "Uggh. You get her, I'll get this. It could be Rory."

"Fine," Luke stepped past her as she answered the phone, swatting her backside as he did so.

"Brat." She tossed her hair to the side and picked up the receiver. "Hello?" Lorelai answered the phone, cheeks flushed, her grin wide and uncontrollable.

"Lorelai?" the familiar voice on the other line made her smile fall. Luke watched surreptitiously as her body language became guarded.

"Oh. Hello." Her voice was cool, and she was obviously unhappy. "I was just thinking of everything but you."

*****

Sorry for the loooooong hiatus there, peoples. Hopefully this will move a little smoother, though writing about Christmas in 90-degree weather is strange. Keep the info. and reviews coming! You all rock!