A month after his birthday, William was admitted to the hospital. Luke filled out paperwork and spoke to doctors while Lorelai sat in the lobby with Jess and Rory. She had called Richard from a pay phone when the emergency room doctors made it clear that William would not be discharged any time soon. Richard had immediately agreed to pick up the kids and keep them overnight. The moment Richard left with Jess and Rory, Lorelai found a nurse who was able to give her directions to William's room.

When she located William's room, Lorelai stopped in the doorway to watch Luke and William for a minute. William had been connected to various monitors, but appeared to be sleeping peacefully. Luke, on the other hand, seemed tense. He was standing near the window with his back to Lorelai. Seeing the rigid set of Luke's shoulders, Lorelai knew the doctors hadn't given him good news.

She took a deep breath and crossed the room to wrap her arms around his waist, resting her cheek between his shoulder blades and pressing her body close to his. Luke covered Lorelai's hands with his own and, with a shuddering breath, told her, "They don't think he'll ever go home again. They think this is the beginning of the end."

"Oh, babe. I'm so sorry."

"We knew it was coming," he reminded her gruffly.

"That doesn't make it okay. That doesn't mean you have to be okay."

"Yes. It does," Luke growled through clenched teeth. He turned in her arms and hugged her tightly. Relaxing his hold on her, he softened his voice and asked, "Did everything go okay with your dad and the kids?"

"Yeah. Dad said he and mom are happy to keep the kids tonight. We just need to let them know tomorrow if we need them to keep the kids longer."

"Are you okay with Jess and Rory staying with your parents?"

"I guess. Desperate times call for desperate measures and all that."

"If you don't want Jess and Rory to stay with your parents, we could call Mia or Buddy and Maisy. We could probably even call Sookie."

"I know, but if they stay with my parents, then at least we'll all be in Hartford. We can deal with the rest of it later."

"Okay." He kissed her forehead before pulling her against his chest and burying his face in her hair.

"How can I help you, Luke?"

"Stay."

"I'm not going anywhere."

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For several weeks Luke and Lorelai practically lived at the hospital. When they weren't at the hospital, they were at Richard and Emily's house spending time with Jess and Rory or trying to catch a few hours of sleep in Lorelai's old bedroom. They relied heavily on their friends and family to keep the other areas of their lives running smoothly, so they could spend as much time as possible with William.

Almost everyone they knew had stepped up to help them in their time of need. Mia was helping Richard and Emily with the kids. Buddy had taken over running the hardware store. Maisy was running errands and taking care of things at the house. Sookie was providing meals. The only person who wasn't doing anything to help was Liz.

When William was first admitted to the hospital, Luke had called Liz every day to give her an update and ask her to come visit before it was too late. Eventually, he got tired of her rejections and turned over the daily updates to Lorelai.

One afternoon, Lorelai returned to William's hospital room after calling Liz to find William sleeping and Luke sitting in the hard plastic chair next to his bed. Luke looked up when he heard Lorelai enter the room. "How did it go? Did you have any luck?"

"Um, no and I don't think I ever will," Lorelai answered as she pulled up a chair next to Luke's and sat down.

"She won't even think about it?"

"No," she stated matter-of-factly. Placing a hand on Luke's thigh, Lorelai added, "And it gets worse. Her phone's been disconnected."

"What?"

"I'm sorry, Luke. She's gone again."

"That doesn't make any sense. Why would she just disappear?"

"I don't know."

"I thought her visit for Dad's birthday went well. Didn't it? She stayed for two days."

"I know," Lorelai sympathized while stroking Luke's thigh.

"Why couldn't she at least stick around long enough to say goodbye?"

"Maybe she didn't think she could handle seeing him this way or maybe she thought she'd already said goodbye."

"I guess," Luke agreed uncertainly.

"Do you want me to have my dad track her down again?"

"Yes," he replied instantly. A second later, he groaned, buried his face in his hands, and mumbled, "No."

"Are you sure?"

"I'm sure. She knows what's going on and if she wanted to be here, she'd be here."

"Okay."

"We've got enough going on right now. I can't worry about her anymore."

"Luke," Lorelai started to protest, but was cut off by Luke.

"No, Lorelai, I'm done."

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In early November, William's health was deteriorating more rapidly. Luke began keeping an almost constant vigil at his father's bedside while Lorelai continued to go back and forth between the hospital and her parents' house. Every morning she would have breakfast with Jess and Rory before heading to the hospital where she would sit with Luke until she had to leave to have dinner with the kids.

One morning, just before Thanksgiving, Lorelai didn't arrive at the hospital at her usual time. By the time she entered William's hospital room, Luke had noticed she was late and become concerned. He rushed to meet her at the door and pulled her into a tight hug, asking questions at a rapid-fire rate. "Where have you been? Are you okay? Is something wrong with the kids?"

"Whoa!" exclaimed Lorelai, shocked by Luke's outburst. "We're all fine. Are you okay?"

"I was fine until you didn't show up on time. You're really late. You had me worried."

Shrugging, Lorelai broke away from Luke and said, "I had a doctor's appointment."

"Are you sick? I knew you were doing too much trying to pick up my slack with the kids. Why didn't you tell me you were sick?" rambled Luke, his breath growing shallow as he started to panic.

"I'm not sick, Luke. You need to calm down. You're starting to spin out."

"You're not sick?"

Taking her usual seat next to William's bed, Lorelai calmly repeated, "I'm not sick."

"Then why did you have to see a doctor this morning?"

"I think you should sit down."

"Just tell me what's going on, Lorelai."

"After you sit down," she insisted, patting the seat of the chair next to her. Luke stomped over to his chair and sat down on the edge of his seat, prompting Lorelai to roll her eyes. "Real mature."

"Yes, I'm a child. Just tell me what the doctor said. I'm going crazy."

"We may have three children, but you're not one of them."

"That's funny, but we only have two kids. Stop stalling." Lorelai raised one eyebrow and stared at Luke until his eyes went wide with realization, then she burst into laughter. "You're, we, when?" he stammered.

Still giggling, Lorelai nodded. "I had my suspicions, so I went to the doctor to confirm."

"When's the baby due?"

"The doctor thinks I'm about six to eight weeks pregnant, so sometime in June, but wants to do an ultrasound to confirm."

Luke's worry returned instantly. "Why didn't you have the ultrasound at your appointment?"

"Because I wanted you to be there."

"So, nothing's wrong?"

"Nope."

The tension immediately left Luke's body and he collapsed against the back of his chair. "Good. That's really good," he sighed.

"It gets better," Lorelai announced with barely concealed glee. "I managed to get an ultrasound appointment for the exact time that Mia will be here to sit with your dad."

"We get to see the baby today?" A wide smile spread across Luke's face when Lorelai nodded. Before Lorelai knew what was happening, Luke had pulled her out of her chair and into his lap. Her squeal of surprise was cut short by Luke pressing his lips to hers and kissing her senseless.

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Stunned silence filled the space between Luke and Lorelai as they rode the elevator on their way back to William's hospital room after their ultrasound appointment. It wasn't until they stepped off the elevator that Luke finally spoke. "That was…" he began.

"Unexpected," Lorelai finished for him.

"I was going to say amazing. I've never heard a baby's heartbeat before."

"Liz never let you hear Jess' heartbeat?"

"No. Most of the time she pretended she wasn't pregnant."

"I can understand that."

Sensing Lorelai's unease, Luke grabbed her hand and pulled her out of the main walkway, spinning her into his arms. "This time won't be like it was with Rory."

When Lorelai remained silent, Luke pulled back to study her face for some clue as to what she was thinking. She seemed to be waging an inner war. Instead of meeting Luke's gaze, she was staring intently at a spot on his chest and nervously chewing on her lower lip. Suddenly, she looked up at him with a defiant gleam in her eyes. "You're not upset?" she challenged, feigning confidence that she didn't feel.

Stunned, Luke stuttered, "W-w-why would I be upset?"

"Maybe because we weren't even planning to have one baby right now and in seven months we'll have two?"

"I was a little shocked when you first told me that you're pregnant and even more shocked to find out that you're pregnant with twins, but I'm not upset. These babies are the best news we've had in a long time."

"You're sure?"

"I'm sure," Luke reassured her, running his hands up and down her back in soft, soothing strokes. "This isn't like before, Lorelai. We're not teenagers, we're not single, and we actually have some experience with babies now."

Groaning, Lorelai dropped her head against Luke's chest. "How are we going to manage two babies?"

Luke kissed her hair. "We did the whole two babies at one time thing before with Jess and Rory," he reminded her.

Lorelai turned her face to rest her cheek over his heart. "We didn't already have two kids back then."

"I'm not worried. We have the most responsible and best behaved kids in the world."

"They are pretty great," agreed Lorelai, allowing herself to relax against Luke.

Chuckling, Luke tightened his hold on her. "I promise we'll be okay." He waited until he felt Lorelai nod, then asked, "Feel better?"

"For now. You might have to remind me when the hormones get bad."

"I can do that."

For several minutes, Lorelai rested against Luke, just letting him hold her. When she pulled away, Luke was relieved to see she was smiling. His relief turned to confusion when she said, "Hey, Luke, guess what."

"What?"

"I'm pregnant."

Luke's face broke into a wide grin as he combed his fingers through Lorelai's hair and pulled her mouth to his.

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After the ultrasound appointment, it took Lorelai a week to convince Luke to willingly leave William's bedside again. William's health had continued to worsen and Luke was becoming increasingly reluctant to spend more than a couple of minutes at a time away from his father, not even to shower. Eventually, Lorelai told him he smelled and kicked him out of the hospital. Luke only agreed to spend the day at her parents' house showering and sleeping after Lorelai promised to sit with William.

As soon as she had shoved Luke out the door, Lorelai sat down in his usual chair and pulled a magazine out of her purse. She was flipping through the pages, searching for an article to read, when William started to moan. Setting the magazine aside, Lorelai rested a comforting hand on William's shoulder. "Take it easy," she cautioned.

"Lorelai?"

"I'm here."

"Where's Luke?"

"At my parents' house getting some sleep and, hopefully, taking a shower."

William laughed weakly. "Good. He was starting to stink."

"That's what I said."

"Good. That's good. You'll take good care of him."

"Oh, William, don't talk like that."

"Just listen, Lorelai. Luke won't listen, so you have to. I'm dying." Lorelai mumbled an incoherent objection, but William continued talking over her protests. "Don't argue. I'm dying. Probably sooner, rather than later. I need you to promise that you'll take care of Luke, don't let him pull away. The darkness will eat him alive, if you let it."

"I promise."

"And I know I don't have to ask, but I'm going to anyway. Promise that you'll take care of the kids."

"I promise."

"Promise me one last thing?"

"Anything."

"Make sure the new babies know that I love them."

Lorelai had leaned close to William in order to hear his soft-spoken requests, but his nonchalant declaration that he knew about her pregnancy caused her to fall back into her chair. "Luke told you about the babies?"

"He talks when he thinks I'm sleeping."

"Oh."

"He mentioned that you were worried he would be upset and that you couldn't handle two new babies."

"Yeah," Lorelai admitted, her voice filled with shame.

"You shouldn't worry. The two of you can handle anything."

"It's just a lot right now, you know?"

"I know, but these babies will give the two of you, especially Luke, something to focus on other than my death."

"William…"

"Don't. Luke lost himself for a long time after we lost his mom. He's going to need you and Jess and Rory and the babies, so that he doesn't lose himself this time. Don't let him lose himself."

Swallowing hard, Lorelai nodded. "I won't."

"Good. I'm glad that's settled, but I'm tired now."

"You should get some sleep. I'll be right here when you wake up," Lorelai told William, only to realize that he had already fallen asleep.

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On November 30, 1989, exactly one week after Thanksgiving and two days after William's final talk with Lorelai, William passed away in his sleep. During his final moments he was surrounded by everybody he loved and who loved him. Except Liz, who never showed up at the hospital or even bothered to call.

While packing up the personal items that had accumulated at the hospital and the Gilmore house, Luke complained about his sister's absence. However, on the drive back to Stars Hollow, he lapsed into silence. Lorelai decided that in the immediate aftermath of William's death it was best to let Luke cope in whatever way he wanted. She figured there would be plenty of time after the funeral to keep her promise to William.

With a lot of help from Emily and Mia, Lorelai was able to plan William's funeral for the first week of December. They tried to include Luke in the planning, but most of the time he seemed to linger in a grief induced stupor.

On the day of the funeral, Luke managed to come out of his stupor long enough to dress in the clothes that Lorelai laid out for him and stand stoically with his family at the graveside service. After the funeral, he retreated to the bedroom instead of attending the small reception that was being held at the house. That was the moment when Lorelai realized just how far Luke could fall in the darkness that William had described and that she might need some help pulling him back out.