Author's note: Here is the next promised chapter. I want to offer an apology for not including the conversation with Anna in this. I have every intention of doing so, but the preceding conversation between L/L ended up being more detailed than I had intended once I started writing it. That, combined with the fact that I wanted to include Rory in this chapter since she hasn't been in the last few, would have made this installment too long if I'd included it. Rest assured, though, it will be the first thing in the next chapter. It's already started and if I stay motivated to keep writing long enough should be posted later this week. Thanks to all of you who stuck with me during my long absence and took the time to read and review.

Lanie

After completing their marriage license application, Luke and Lorelai rode in silence from Stars Hollow to Woodbridge, neither quite sure what to say. Both of them were nervous about how the upcoming conversation with Anna might go. Both dreading it but at the same time knowing that it had to be done if they were ever going to be able to move forward with their life together. Luke was driving, concentrating more of his energy than he needed to on the road while Lorelai chewed on her lower lip lost in thought.

When Lorelai finally broke the silence, it was with a typical a Lorelai Gilmore ramble," So, how do you wanna approach this? I mean, should we wait to see Anna's reaction when she sees us and take it from there or do you just want to start in on how unfair she's being? No, that would be too confrontational and might just make it worse. Maybe I should start things off by apologizing to her for my mother's behavior. Maybe that might make her more open to what we have to say. Or maybe since you're April's father, you should be the one to start the conversation. I mean you've known her a lot longer than I have and you'll be able to figure out what she'll do better than I will; Or how about this? We could just tag-team her and give her no choice but to listen. Or maybe she'll already be willing to listen. Now that she's had some time to think about it, maybe she realizes how ridiculous she was being by saying that you could only see April at the diner. I mean, April spent the whole weekend with us and came back home in one piece. That has to mean something, right, like we're not going to do anything to hurt her?"

"Do you actually need me for this conversation?"Luke questioned with a chuckle when his fiancée finally stopped to take a breath.

"I don't know. My thoughts are just going a million different directions at once and I think better if I say what I'm thinking out loud."

"You couldn't have applied that logic a few days ago when you were talking to your mother instead of me before we had a big screaming match in front of half the town," he quipped grateful that they were on their way to at least attempting to resolve their issues.

"Again, sorry," Lorelai said sheepishly. "I was a moron for not talking to you about it."

"You don't need to apologize again," Luke said. "I get that you were confused. Hell, I've been involved in this mess longer than you have and I'm still confused by it."

"That could've been avoided by you letting me in sooner," Lorelai pointed out.

"Yeah, I know, ok? I was an idiot not to include you in things with April from the start. Sorry."

"I guess my mother was right. We're both idiots."

"The whole town must think that we're completely crazy," Luke said with a shake of his head.

"Come on, it's Stars Hollow, a town so defined by its craziness it makes Rome, Wisconsin look like Mayberry. I'd say we're the normal ones."

"Rome, Wisconsin?"Luke queried wondering if this was yet another movie reference he didn't get.

"Hello? Picket Fences,you know, that weird-ass show that had a cow giving birth to a human baby and other equally crazy stuff."

"No, I don't know. I don't think I've ever seen it."

"You have led a sad, sheltered life, my friend," Lorelai said. "We so have to watch them together now. I have 'em all on tape."

"Imagine that," Luke said dryly, not a bit surprised by that, considering he'd seen the gargantuan size of her videotape collection and had been trying in vain to get her to pare it down since they'd begun the remodeling on the crap shack. At least in the new house they'd have more room for it since she insisted that every single tape was vital to her collection.

"So, any thoughts on how we're going to deal with Anna," Lorelai asked trying to guide the conversation back to more important matters.

"Why don't we just play it by ear," Luke suggested. "Like you said, we don't know how she's going to react to us just showing up, especially since she's under the mistaken impression that our relationship is falling apart."

"But it's not, right?"Lorelai asked apprehensively.

"How can you ask that after everything?" Luke asked impatiently. "I thought that we agreed back at the inn that as long as we tell each other everything, we'll be fine. That includes you coming to me first if you've got a problem with me rather than going to your mother." Luke had tried to make a joke of it earlier in their conversation just to keep the peace, but it was still bothering him that Lorelai had kept her true feelings hidden from him when they were supposed to be working toward building a real life together.

"Well, it's not like you've been exactly Mr. Over-share lately either. I mean, I had no idea that you were still feeling like you're not gonna be a good husband or father. Why didn't you tell me any of that?"

"You have enough stress on you with the new house stuff, the wedding plans, and all this crap with your parents, not to mention worrying about running the inn. While we're on the subject of the inn, you should fire that French asshole," He added still irritated over the way Michel had brushed him off as if he were nothing more than a fly buzzing around his head.

"I'm not firing Michel," Lorelai said. "He may be a little abrasive, but he's good at what he does and the guests love him."

"You should have heard the way he talked to me today and the way he talked about you. I don't see how your guests can love him as hostile as he is."

"That's the thing about Michel. His hostility entertains the guests because they think it's all one big joke. They don't really realize that he's being completely serious. Can we just forget about Michel and concentrate on us. You still haven't give me a real answer about why you've been keeping your feelings all bottled up. I need to be in on this stuff."

"Look, I already said I think you've got enough to worry about with all the stuff you're already dealing with. I don't want to be any more stressed out than you have to be while you're pregnant. I want you to take care of yourself."

"But if you're having a problem, I need to know about it. It's like I said when I first found out about April. I don't want you going into this all jumbled up," Lorelai said pausing for a moment, swallowing the lump in her throat as she tried to brace herself to continue. "Maybe there was some truth to what you said when we were arguing. Maybe it's too soon."

"No, Lorelai," Luke stated vehemently. "You have to know that I didn't mean that. I'm just still a little freaked out by all this new stuff, especially trying to be a good dad and not knowing what the hell I'm doing."

"I think you keep forgetting that we're in this together. Nobody has all the answers to parenthood. I mean, look at me. Rory's grown and I still screw up with her or do you not remember when we weren't speaking to each other for months?"

"Of course, I remember. You were going through hell when all that was going on, but you guys worked it out," Luke said with a sigh wishing that he could work things out with Rory as well. She was so pissed at him, he wasn't sure she'd ever speak to him again. "I totally blew it with Rory," he blurted out without meaning to.

"You'll work it out with her, just like I did."

"Easy for you to say when she's your kid, not mine," Luke spat out bitterly.

"So, this is about your jealously of Christopher again," Lorelai said sadly as she had hoped he'd have gotten over that by now.

"No, this doesn't have one damn thing to do with Christopher," Luke grumbled. "I'm just saying that it was easier for you to work things out with Rory because you're her mother. You guys couldn't stay mad at each other forever, but me? As much as I care about her, I'm not really anything to her but the guy who's sleeping with her mom."

"You know something? I've had it with this self-pitying attitude of yours. It's not like you. You're a lot more to Rory than that and you know it! You're the one who's always been there for her and looked after her, helped take care of her when she was sick..." Lorelai hung her head in dismay at the fact that Luke couldn't seem to see how important he was, not only to her, but to her daughter as well.

"Maybe that was true when she was little, but she doesn't need me anymore. She has her own father now," he said sadly as he recalled how Rory had deserted them at the country club in favor of the Haydens.

"You need to stop this. You have to stop letting Christopher get to you. Rory's relationship with Christopher has nothing to do with her relationship with you. He may be her father, but in her heart you're her dad. You always have been, even before we were a couple. That's not going to change just because the two of you had a fight. I kinda' don't get where this is coming from. I thought we'd worked all that out after your blow-up with her. I agreed that you weren't totally wrong in wanting to protect her, but that you went about it the wrong way. I also suggested a solution in order to make it up to her."

"Well, I think I'll feel a lot better when I can actually talk to Rory and try to work this out with her. That is if she'll even speak to me again."

"She will, Hon. You just need to give her a little time to cool off. She'll come around."

"Maybe I'll go up and see her on Wednesday while you're working. I did promise I'd help her get her stuff packed up to bring some of it home this weekend, so we don't have to do it all next weekend. I'll apologize to her."

"And Jess," Lorelai reminded him. "Don't forget Jess. You were out of line with him, too."

"Do you blame me? He was horrible to her before and I don't know that I can trust him with her again."

"He was just barely 18 then. You have to give him the benefit of the doubt, Luke. You even admitted when you went to see him in Philly that he's grown up a lot since then."

"Since when have you been a member of Jess' fan club? You were always the one who wanted him to stay away from Rory when she was a kid."

"I know, but I'm trying as hard as I can to be supportive of Rory's life choices. I don't want to turn into my mother, though she has been a lot more supportive lately. I guess that's why I felt more comfortable talking to her than I ever have before. She's finally accepted you and me being together and I don't want her going back to trying to split us up again."

"Well, it didn't work the first time. What makes you think it would work if she tried it again?" When Lorelai didn't answer, Luke began to get worried. "You're not that insecure about our future, are you?"

"No," Lorelai said hesitantly.

Luke immediately picked up on the uncertainty in her voice and with a furrowed brow stated deprecatingly "You don't sound entirely convinced of that."

Lorelai sighed. "You got me there," she reluctantly admitted. "But I wantto feel secure about our future, if that makes you feel any better."

"How is that supposed to make me feel any better? You just told me an hour ago that you believed in us, now you don't seem so sure."

"I dobelieve in us, it's me I'm not so sure about," she said as her mother's words from the night before about her purposely sabotaging her own relationships came back to haunt her. She couldn't help but wonder if that was what she was doing with Luke now. She had this amazing guy who would do anything to make her happy, who loved her daughter as if she were his own and yet she was complaining about his relationship with his daughter when other women would be none too thrilled to find out that the man they were about to marry had a kid with another woman, let alone spending time with the other woman's kid when they were having a family of their own. She wondered if she was crazy like her mother had always told her she was or if it was just pregnancy hormones making her nuts. Or maybe her mother was right. Maybe she was afraid of reaching out for real happiness, so terrified that it wouldn't last that it caused her to make sure it didn't because it was better than living with the fear of losing it all after finally finding it. Maybe she was just looking for trouble where there wasn't any. She recalled the day she'd initially made all the wedding plans and her resulting conversation with Rory about how she hadn't freaked out about Luke. Maybe she was having a delayed freak-out.

"What about you? You don't want to marry me anymore? You were just reminding me that you were the one who proposed in the first place."

"I know that and I do want to marry you, but it was very bluntly pointed out to me by my mother that just when I get close to having my happily-ever-after, I do something to screw it up."

"And this is the woman you've been trusting with your secrets," Luke said with a derisive snort.

"I told you why, Luke. I needed someone to talk to and I've never gotten along with her this well before. It's almost like, maybe someday, I can actually have a normal mother-daughter relationship with her. I…I don't know what I was thinking in trusting her not to try to interfere in our lives, I mean, as nice as she's been about everything lately, I still should have seen this coming. I should have known better. I mean, this is Emily Gilmore we're talking about. Now, we're left trying to figure out how to fix the mess she caused, if that's even possible."

"I think the mess was already there," Luke admitted. "You were right. I wasn't stepping up like I should've been. I've just been so afraid of stirring up trouble and Anna maybe cutting off my visitation altogether that I didn't want to dare asking for more."

"I just hope that we can work something out with her," Lorelai said anxiously, hoping that her big mouth hadn't ruined everything.

"Well, I guess we'll find out soon enough," Luke said as he pulled the Jeep up to the curb in front of Anna's house. "You ready for this," he asked taking her hand once he'd put the Jeep in park and turned off the engine.

Lorelai took a deep breath and released slowly before answering, "As ready as I'll ever be." She leaned over and kissed Luke lightly. "Kiss for luck," she said as she pulled back.

"A guy needs a little more luck than that," Luke said with a devilish grin.

"Maybe later, Stud," she said with a laugh. "I don't think it'd make too good an impression if Anna would happen to come out here and catch us making out in the car."

"Probably not," Luke agreed. He let out a deep sigh then said, "Come on, Crazy Lady, let's go get this over with." They both climbed out of the car and walked apprehensively toward the house where April spent most of her time, both nervous about what might happen once they got inside.

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Rory hadn't ceased activity since she'd stepped into the newsroom after her classes were over for the day. She'd been flitting non-stop from one desk to another as she waited anxiously for her staff to put the finishing touches on what was to be the final issue of the Yale Daily News of the school year. "Come on, People," she shouted growing ever more impatient as the minutes toward their deadline seemed to race by. "We're on a deadline! Don't you remember deadlines?"

"Rory, I don't know what your problem is," Paris piped up from her desk as she typed furiously. "But you seriously need to take a pill. I was never this uptight when Iwas the editor."

"Get real, Paris," Logan interjected as he entered the room. "Who are you trying to kid? When you were the editor, you were so uptight you made Prince Charles look like he'd overdosed on Prozac"

"I don't recall anyone asking you, Gimpy-boy," Paris fired back indicating the cane he was leaning on for support due to his recent accident.

"What the hell are you even doing here, Logan?"Rory snapped impatiently. "This newsroom is for people who are actually here to work!" With everything else that was going on in her life, the last thing she needed was another confrontation with her ex.

"Well, the last time I checked, I was still on the staff of this paper," he reminded her.

"You could've fooled me," Rory huffed.

"Come on, Ace. Can't you cut me a little slack? I mean, I was just in a horrific accident, which you very well know since you came to see me in the hospital."

"So, again I ask, what are you doing here?"

"Turning in my article," he said as he struggled to reach into the bag on his shoulder while still leaning on the cane for support.

"Here, let me," Rory said as she reached for the bag when she saw him fighting with it. "Where's it at?"

"Middle pocket," he answered. "Hey, Ace" he began reaching for her arm with his free hand.

"Don't," Rory said sharply as she pulled away from him. "And don't call me Ace," she added icily not wanting him to take her offer to help as a sign that she was ready to forgive and forget. She'd made it very plain that things were over between them. She wasn't about to change her mind now, especially since she was on the verge of something with Jess. She wasn't sure yet exactly what that something was yet, but she was ready to explore the possibilities.

"Oh right. It's Lorelai, isn't it," he said with a sneer as he recalled their last conversation in the newsroom.

"That's right," she said dismissively as she perused his efforts, having extracted his article from the bag. She frowned as she read. "This is it? This is your brilliant contribution to the paper?"

"I did the best I could with what you gave me to work with," he countered. "I tried to make the history club's fundraiser for the Antique Machinery Association Museum as interesting as I could."

"I thought that kind of thing would be right up your alley," Rory replied scathingly.

"Seriously? How would a museum that houses antique farming equipment be right up my alley?"

"There was a big party with a whole bunch of society hotshots there and probably a few drunken debutantes you could have had some fun with."

"I'm not interested in drunken debutantes. There's only one girl that I'm interested in," he said pleadingly as he hobbled closer to her.

"Sorry, I can't help you with that," Rory said turning her back on him and walking toward Paris' desk in order to put some distance between them. "Paris, how's your article coming?"

"Almost there," Paris answered without looking up still focusing on her work.

Logan, not willing to let it go, followed her. "How long are you going to hold this bridesmaid thing against me? I admitted that I made a mistake and I would do anything to make it up to you. Give me another chance. Come on, Ace." When Rory simply turned and glared at him, he backed away raising his unoccupied hand in surrender. "Sorry, Lorelai," he said sarcastically.

When Rory still remained silent, Paris ceased typing and decided to jump in. She fixed Logan with a frosty glare and said, "You know, you could have just emailed your article in. You didn't have to come in here with your pathetic cane, trying to wring sympathy out of Rory like one of those annoying little yappy dogs that looks up at you with its big, brown, sad eyes hoping that you'll put it out of its lonely misery and give it a home."

"That wasn't what I was doing and my eyes are blue, Paris."

"Look, Logan," Rory said finally breaking her silence toward him. "You've turned in your article and I'll make sure it gets published. There's really no need for you to exert yourself anymore than you already have." She took a deep breath before continuing. "You can't do anymore here that will make a difference," she said frostily, making it pointedly clear that she was talking about more than just the paper.