Luke could sense Lorelai's tension and was worried about her. She had watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade with Rory and Jess, attempted to help Luke prepare their traditional holiday meal, and played cards with William, but her smile hadn't reached her eyes even once. The tension seemed to grow as she slipped into a simple black dress, braided Rory's hair, straightened Luke's necktie, and buttoned Jess' vest.

Once they were all dressed and groomed to Lorelai's satisfaction, they said goodbye to William and were on their way to Hartford twenty minutes ahead of schedule. As they got closer to the Gilmore residence, Luke realized Lorelai hadn't said a word since they had left the house and his worry increased.

"Lorelai?"

"Hmm."

"Are you okay?"

Lorelai's only response was a quick nod.

"I really need you to say something, Lorelai."

"You know that I love you, right?" she asked, her voice little more than a whisper.

"I know. I love you too."

"Promise me you'll remember that no matter what happens tonight."

"Lorelai, I'm sure it won't be that bad."

"Promise me. Please," she begged.

"I promise."

Lorelai lapsed back into silence for the rest of the drive.

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It was lucky they had left Stars Hollow early because it took Luke ten minutes to persuade Lorelai to get out of the car and another eight minutes to convince her to ring the doorbell. When Lorelai finally managed to work up the nerve to ring the doorbell, it was precisely six o'clock. The door was promptly answered by a maid who showed them into the sitting room.

Luke and Lorelai sat down on the couch after settling Jess and Rory on the floor between their feet. While they waited for Richard and Emily to join them, Luke did his best to keep Lorelai calm and the babies entertained themselves with a small stack of books that Lorelai had pulled from the diaper bag.

The arrival of Richard and Emily in the sitting room prompted Luke and Lorelai to stand. "Hello, Lorelai," Emily greeted her daughter coolly.

"Hi, Mom. Dad."

"Lorelai," Richard said with a nod. "And you must be Luke." He shook Luke's hand.

"Yes, sir. It's nice to meet you." He turned to Emily and extended his hand. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Mrs. Gilmore."

Emily eyed his hand skeptically, but didn't take it. "I'm sure it is," she replied with thinly veiled disgust. Luke let his hand drop awkwardly. Gesturing toward Rory, Emily asked, "Is that the child?"

"Yes," Lorelai answered, sitting down again and pulling Luke down next to her. "This is Rory and this is Jess." She ran her fingers through each child's hair as she introduced them.

"Don't they speak yet? They should know that it's proper to say hello when they are introduced to someone."

"Mom, they're only one year old," Lorelai explained. "Besides, it's almost impossible to get their attention away from their books."

Emily opened her mouth to respond, but Richard interjected, "It's admirable that they show such a fondness for books at such a young age."

"Thanks, Dad."

"You're welcome, Lorelai." He and Emily took their seats across from Luke and Lorelai. Richard attempted to make small talk with Luke about business, but quickly gave up when he realized Luke's interest in the subject did not extend beyond his father's hardware store. The group fell into an uncomfortable silence.

Soon, the maid entered the room and broke the silence. "Mrs. Gilmore, the Haydens have arrived."

"Thank you, Sara. Please show them in."

"Really, Mom," Lorelai hissed. "The Haydens are your other guests? Why would you invite them? Why didn't you tell me?"

"I invited the Haydens because Christopher should meet his daughter. He has the right to know her. And I didn't tell you because you didn't ask."

"You were in the courtroom when Christopher's parental rights were terminated. At his request! The judge specifically said that Christopher no longer had any right to see her. Why would you do this? He doesn't want her and I don't want him anywhere near her. I don't want any of the Haydens anywhere near her!"

At that moment, the Haydens entered the sitting room. Straub didn't allow time for greetings or introductions. Instead, he turned to Richard and addressed him directly, "I see your daughter is just as out of control as ever, Richard."

Sara quietly served everyone their drinks and left the room. "Please, let's try to keep it civil," Luke requested, his voice calm and steady.

Straub didn't pay any attention to Luke's request. "Tell me, Lorelai, what have you been doing with your life anyway, besides hating my family because you made a mistakes? I'm just curious."

"Why don't we all go into the dining room?" Emily asked, trying to act as the peacekeeper in front of her guests.

"Well, um, Straub, I work at an inn near Stars Hollow," Lorelai responded to Straub's question, ignoring her mother.

"Really?"

"Yes, really."

Christopher chose that moment to speak for the first time. "Dad, come on."

"Nice to see you found your calling," Straub condescended.

"Dinner's ready," Emily informed everyone.

"And is your life everything you hoped it would be?" Straub pressed Lorelai.

"Yes, it is."

"Because it seems to me you might not want to take such a haughty tone when you announce to the world that you work in a hotel."

"Well, there's nothing wrong with where I work."

Emily was becoming distressed. "Come on, Richard, lead us into the dining room. Now."

"If you were still in school and planning to attend a university as your parents had planned and as we planned in vain for Christopher, you might have aspired to something more than a blue-collar position.

Christopher warned, "Dad, don't do this."

"And I wouldn't give a damn about you derailing your own life, if you hadn't swept my son along with you."

Luke had been listening to Straub attack Lorelai and doing his best to let her handle it, but he couldn't sit quietly anymore. "That's enough! Lorelai is doing very well for herself and Rory. She got her GED and has a good job. She's raising her daughter without any help from your son, who couldn't even be bothered to meet Rory before terminating his parental rights. Christopher wimped out on his responsibilities. That's on him, not Lorelai. If your son's life isn't going the way you planned, that's his fault. Maybe you should spend more time figuring what's wrong with your son, rather than blaming all of his problems on Lorelai."

Straub's face turned an angry shade of red. "You're way out of line!"

"I'm out of line? You…" Luke stopped when he felt Lorelai's hand on his arm.

"Luke, please, take Rory and Jess out of the other room."

"Lorelai, I don't think I should leave."

"I can handle this, Luke."

Luke searched her eyes for any sign of unease, then kissed her cheek. "Okay." He left the room with Rory, Jess, and their books.

"I'm going to have to echo Luke's earlier call for civility," Richard stated sensibly. "A mutual mistake was made by these two."

Straub bellowed, "A mutual mistake, Richard? This whole evening is ridiculous. We're supposed to sit here like one big, happy family and pretend the damage that was done is over, gone? I don't care about how well that man says Lorelai is doing for herself or that girl."

"Hey!" Lorelai interjected.

Straub directed his next comments to Lorelai. "Our son was bound for Princeton. Every Hayden male attended Princeton, including myself, but it all stopped with Christopher. It's a humiliation we've had to live with every day, all because you seduced him into ruining his life." He turned back to Richard. "She had that baby, and she ended his future."

Richard grabbed Straub's arm. "You recant that, Straub!"

"You're spilling my drink."

"You owe my daughter an apology!" Richard roared as he stood up.

Straub got to his feet. "An apology? That is rich."

"How dare you? How dare you?" Richard screamed, grabbing hold of Straub's suit jacket. "How dare you come into my house and insult my daughter."

Emily shrieked, "Richard, what are you doing?"

"Let go of me!" Straub shouted. Christopher rushed to break Straub and Richard apart.

"Shame on you, Straub, for opening all of this up again!" Richard's voice shook with barely concealed rage.

"Get you purse, Francine. We're leaving."

Richard called after them, "You're not leaving. I'm kicking you out."

After the Haydens left, Richard stormed out of the room and Emily turned to face her daughter. "It didn't take you long to ruin what should have been a lovely evening," she sniped. "I'm going to check on dinner."

"Well, that went well," Lorelai muttered to the empty room. She decided to go look for Luke and the babies.

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With a little help from Sara, Lorelai found Luke and the babies in her old bedroom. Luke was sitting in the middle of the bed, leaning against the headboard. Jess and Rory were sitting next to Luke, listening to him read The Cat in the Hat. Lorelai watched them for a moment, then asked, "How did you find your way up here?"

"I asked the maid to help me find a quiet place where we could read. This is what she recommended." Luke passed the book to Rory.

Lorelai sat on the edge of the bed and looked around the room. "It's exactly the same."

"So, um, how did it go after I left?"

"More of the same. Christopher and his parents left. My mother blames me."

"Seriously?"

Lorelai nodded. "It was a lot of fun," she told him sarcastically.

"Sounds like it."

"I really don't want to stay for dinner. Do you mind if we leave?"

"I don't mind, but are you sure you don't want to stay?"

"I'm sure. I just want to find my dad really quick. Can you get the babies ready and meet me by the door?"

"Sure."

"Thank you. I'll only be a couple of minutes."

"Take your time."

Lorelai gave Luke a quick kiss and went to find Richard.

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Richard was in his study, but the door was open, so Lorelai knocked on the door jamb instead. "Dad? Dad, are you okay."

"I'm fine." Lorelai thought he sounded older than he had at the beginning of the evening.

"Okay. Well, look, thank you."

"Thank me? For what?"

"Well, for what you did in there. I'm just unbelievably touched and grateful for what you said to him. For defending me like that. I know it was hard for you because, well, but thank you."

"Why do you think I did it?"

"What?"

"Why do you think I did it?"

"I don't know. Um, out of protectiveness, I guess."

Richard scoffed, "You don't need to be protected, Lorelai. You've made it very clear that you can look after yourself and that you need nothing from anyone."

"That's not, um…"

"A member of my family was being attacked. The very Gilmore name was being attacked. I will not stand for that, not under any circumstances."

"Okay, well, it doesn't really matter why you did it."

"Yes, it does matter why I did it! It matters greatly!" Richard declared. "Lorelai, what are you going to take away from this? That everything that happened in the past is suddenly fine because I defended you?"

"No."

"That the hell you put your mother and me through over the past year is suddenly washed away? Well, it's not!"

"We've all been through hell, Dad."

"I had to tell my friends, my colleagues, that my only daughter, the brightest in her class, was pregnant and was leaving school."

"That must have been devastating."

"And then you ran away and you treat us as lepers. Your mother couldn't get out of bed for a month! Did you know that? Did you?"

"No."

"We did nothing to deserve that! Nothing to earn that!"

Lorelai was near tears. "I get it. I'm horrible. So why don't you disown me and adopt Christopher? You love him."

"Oh, don't be a martyr, Lorelai. Don't be naive. You think I love the boy who got my daughter pregnant? I wanted to kill him. I would have, too, with my bare hands! But there was a proper procedure to be followed in a situation like this."

"Marriage," Lorelai stated matter-of-factly. "Dad, Christopher couldn't even stick around long enough to meet his daughter. Do you think things would be different if we had gotten married?"

Richard slammed his fist on his desk. "Christopher," he shouted, "was willing to follow the procedure we laid out. You weren't."

"What about what I wanted? Dad, didn't that matter to you at all?"

"Sometimes, one has to sacrifice something in order to do what is right."

Lorelai was speechless. She opened and closed her mouth several times before she was able to speak again. "I feel indescribably sad for you right now, Dad."

"Well, save your emotions, Lorelai. I've had my fill of them tonight."

"So, um, we just end it here? Nothing resolved?"

"I'm tired."

"Okay," she turned to leave the room. "Okay."

Richard sighed heavily and called, "Lorelai."

Lorelai turned around slowly to face her father. "Yeah, Dad?"

"Despite everything, I'm proud of you." Richard stood up and walked around his desk.

"What?"

"I may not always agree with your decisions, but I'm proud of you for knowing what you want and finding a way to get it."

"You are?"

"Yes, Lorelai, I am." He crossed the room to stand in front of her and handed her a piece of paper she hadn't realized he was holding.

Lorelai gasped when she realized it was a one thousand dollar check. "What's this for?"

"It's just a little gift for getting your GED," he explained with a shrug. "Congratulations, Lorelai."

Throwing her arms around her father's neck, Lorelai whispered, "Thank you, daddy."

Richard was stunned and hesitated a moment before returning his daughter's embrace. "You're welcome, Lorelai."

Lorelai let go of Richard and took a step backwards. "I, um, I've decided it's best if I don't stay for dinner. Luke and I are just going to take the babies home. I hope you understand."

"I do. Luke seems like a nice man."

"He's the best," she confirmed, a soft smile gracing her face.

"I'm glad."

"Well, um, I should, um, go meet Luke. He's waiting."

"Goodbye, Lorelai"

"Bye, Daddy." Lorelai started to leave the room again, but turned back to say, "Can you tell Mom I said goodbye?"

"I'll handle your mother."

"Thank you."

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The ride back to Stars Hollow was just as silent as the ride to Hartford had been. When they pulled into the driveway, Luke grabbed Lorelai's hand to keep her from getting out of the truck. "Do you want to talk about what happened at your parents' house after we put Jess and Rory to bed?" Seeing her hesitate, he added, "I'll make coffee."

"No, thanks, I just want to go to bed. I'm exhausted."

"Do you want me to help get Rory to sleep?"

"No, I've got her."

"Okay."

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Sometime around midnight Lorelai grew tired of staring at the ceiling. She rolled out of bed, grabbed the baby monitor, and went to knock on Luke's bedroom door. The door was opened almost immediately and Lorelai determined that Luke had also been unable to fall sleep.

"What's wrong? Are you okay?"

"Can I sleep with you?"

"What? I don't think that's a good idea, Lorelai. You had a rough night and you're emotional. I don't want us to do anything you'll regret."

"Relax, Luke." She rolled her eyes. "I mean actually sleep. I just don't want to be alone tonight."

"Oh. Okay." He stepped aside to let her into the room and followed her to the bed. Lorelai stopped next to the bed and set the baby monitor on the bedside table. Once Luke was in bed, he lifted the sheets to allow Lorelai to crawl in next to him. He wrapped his arm around her and pulled her close. Lorelai laid her head on Luke's shoulder, rested her hand over his heart, and tucked her knee between his legs.

"Good night."

"Good night." He kissed the top of her head. "I love you."

"Love you too."