Two months later
Lorelai and Sookie did open the inn on time, but the occasion was a far less happy one than they had been expecting. Richard was going to give a big speech, and he had been working on it for months. He was so proud of Lorelai—in the speech that Emily had found in his desk drawer while cleaning out his study, he had said as much, also expressing his excitement at being a grandfather again, and how happy he was that both of his girls, Lorelai and Rory, had found people that made them as happy as he had ever hoped they would be.
Lorelai read the speech at the grand opening in her father's stead. With that sadness done with, the inn went fully operational that day, and The Laurel was already booked up for the next six months.
For much of which it would fall to Sookie to take on more of a managerial role. Particularly in light of the toll such deep-seated grief took on her body, Lorelai was really and truly confined to bed rest, doctor's orders. She'd been allowed to attend the inn opening, but other than that she'd be watching in a similar fashion to how Sookie was sidelined during her second pregnancy, and Luke had to take over in the kitchen at The Dragonfly.
Rory was mostly back to herself. Her and Logan had hired a nanny to take care of Lori while they were at work, but she relished the time she got to spend with her daughter in the evenings, and on the more and more frequent occasions when Rory would work from home. Logan was still going to London, just once a month now, but he still wasn't totally used to the time difference.
Lori was finally sleeping through the night most nights, so they were able to get more rest. Rory still woke with a start any time the phone rang or Lori cried at odd hours. She was convinced it would be bad news, like it was last time she answered her phone thinking nothing of a phone call in the middle of the work day and was told her grandfather had died.
So when the phone rang early in the morning, but still dark enough to be considered night, Logan answered it. He stepped into the bathroom so as not to disturb Rory who had heard the noise without registering precisely what it was, stiffened at it, and willed herself back to sleep. He came back into their room after ending the call. He sat on the bed gingerly, gently shaking Rory awake.
"Rory…" he called softly.
She groaned, resenting the intrusion on her sleep. "Is it Lori?" she asked, her tongue thick with sleep and her voice muffled by her pillow.
Logan shook his head. "No, she's still asleep. Luke just called. You want to go meet your step-brothers?"
Rory sat up.
Logan was smiling. They needed this good news.
"They're early," she breathed.
"I know, but Luke says they're fine, Lorelai is fine. Everyone is healthy. You should go."
Rory got out of bed and started hastily putting on clothes. "What about Lori?"
"I got her. I'll take her in the morning over to the hospital before I go to work and we can switch."
Rory planted a kiss on Logan's cheek. "I love you."
When Rory got to the hospital, she had to do some convincing to get a nurse to let her into her mother's room. They didn't believe that Rory was kin by way of being Lorelai's daughter, namely because Lorelai had just had two babies that were much younger than Rory. When she was finally let into the room, Lorelai was propped up in bed, holding one of her sons. Luke held the other one, standing at her side. Emily was in an armchair on Luke's side of the room.
"Oh, sweetie, you could have come later," Lorelai said to Rory when she walked in.
"Are you kidding? I had to meet these guys!" She sat on her mother's bed. Lorelai transferred the son she was holding to Rory. "What's his name?"
"Well he's the older one, and we said the first boy would be named after Luke's dad. So this is William, he's got his brother by two minutes."
Rory smiled into her brother's tiny little face. "Oh I miss Lori at this age," she said remembering it like it was yesterday when she was holding her daughter for the first time. She gave William back to Lorelai. Rory stood next to Luke. "And who's this?"
Luke was smiling so wide. He wouldn't take his eyes off his son. "This is—"
"Richard," Emily said, coming to stand next to Rory and Luke. Rory was stunned. She looked at Lorelai, then at Luke. She sat in the chair her grandmother had just vacated. She couldn't stop the inevitable flow of tears, though these were happier than those of late. "Oh," Rory said, smiling even through her show of emotion. "He so would have loved to meet them. But I think he already has."
Luke took the opportunity while Lorelai was sleeping and the boys were back in the nursery to take a walk. He hated hospitals, stemming from when his father was in one dying. He'd never quite gotten over it, the dim oppression that abounded in the ugly facilities, the choking air that he was afraid to breathe. But maybe, after today, with his sons being born, he'd start to slowly get over that fear. There was at least one happy reason to associate with such places.
He found a liquor store in a tiny strip of stores two blocks from the hospital. It was next to a veterinarian's office and a small law practice. He bought a bottle of wine from the 2011 vintage, a French Cabernet Sauvignon that would age well. He planned to drink it with Will and Richie, as they were calling them for short, when they turned twenty-one. His father had done the same for him, although he never made it to Luke's twenty-first birthday. He found the bottle of wine while cleaning out his dad's office after he died. He drank it with Lorelai the night they got engaged, instead. He was about to head back to the hospital, when he noticed the name on the sign outside the attorney's office. Leahy & Associates. It was familiar, and he decided, in his rare, overtly good mood, to go say hello.
Luke went into the walk-up office. There was one secretary, and not much else going on. He was shown right into the managing partner's office.
Nicole Leahy was just ending a phone call. She looked up at her visitor. "Luke," she said, stunned. "What are you doing here?"
He smiled, which caused Nicole, his girlfriend and wife from many years ago, to wrinkle her brow. Luke Danes was not known as a particularly happy individual.
She sat at her desk. Luke took the chair in front of it.
"Are you here because you got busted for a DUI?" she asked skeptically, eyeing the brown paper bag in Luke's hand.
Luke looked at her quizzically, then put two and two together. "What? Oh, no. The wine's for…a long time from now. I just had twins. Well, my wife did. Lorelai. And I bought this bottle for them to drink when they turn twenty-one, and I look up and turns out I'm at the liquor store next to your law practice. Congratulations, by the way. I know you always wanted to open your own firm."
"I think congratulations are in order for you, Luke. But thank you. It's not much, but I'm happy, the hours are better."
There was a bit of an awkward pause. "I actually do need a lawyer, though." Luke had been thinking in the weeks leading up to his sons' birth and in light of Richard's recent passing, about his own mortality. Not in a pessimistic, doom and gloom kind of way. But he wanted to make sure procedures were in place, should something happen to him and Lorelai, so that their children would be taken care of. "And, I had been meaning to call you. Despite everything that happened between us, you were a good lawyer to me. For me. Anyway, like I said, we just had our kids, and I don't have a will. I know, it's stupid, I should have one, but I don't and I feel like that's something I should have now, as a dad. And I also want to start a trust, or whatever it's called, for the boys."
Nicole rolled up her sleeves and got out a yellow legal pad. She took notes. "I think that's a good call. I, um, can take some of your information now, but I don't really have time to draw up the documents this week. Would you mind coming back another time, with your wife, so we can talk about how to structure the passing along of your property and all that?"
Luke stood, feeling bad for just barging into Nicole's office. "Yeah. Yes. Of course. I'm sorry, I just saw your name, and I remembered about the will and—"
"It's okay, Luke. I'm glad you stopped by. You look happy. Nervous as hell to be a father, but happy."
Luke nodded, turning the bottle of wine in his hands. "I am. So, so happy."
Nicole stood, seeing Luke out. "Good. You deserve to be happy. I don't think I would have ever been able to make you this happy."
Luke fumbled for something to say. "Are you happy?"
Nicole smiled. "I am. Not in the ways I thought I would be, back when we were together. I'm not married, I don't have kids. But I'm happy."
Luke nodded. "If this is too hard, I can find a different lawyer, I just thought—"
"It's okay, Luke. I know how much you hate lawyers to begin with, you should have someone you trust doing this. If you trust me."
"I do," he said. The bitterness that he had held on to for so long after Nicole had cheated on him and they ended their ill-fated marriage, before everything had worked out with Lorelai, suddenly seemed to dissolve, and he hadn't even known he was harboring it.
She handed him a packet of questions that he and Lorelai should think about their answers to before coming in to draft their wills. "I'll see you soon, okay?"
"Yeah. See you soon."
Luke returned to the hospital. Lorelai was awake and nursing William. "Hey," she called to her husband when he walked in the room. "Whatcha got there?"
Luke set the papers down on the side table along with the wine. "A plan for their future," he said, sitting down next to Lorelai and taking William from her while she switched babies and tried to nurse Richie, who was a little fussier about it.
"Okay," she said, a little confused, but too distracted to care right now. "You'll tell me later?"
"Yeah," Luke said. "There's plenty of time."
