Disclaimer: Gilmore Girls is owned by Amy Sherman-Palladino, Warner Bros., and all those other rich, smart people.

Spoilers: Slight spoilers for season 5 (only small mentions).

A/N: Going one month at a time...

This story isn't necessarily about only Lorelai's pregnancy. It's about Luke's relationship with the people around him a few years in the future, so events from R&R are already behind them all.

XXX

"Well that went strangely well," Lorelai said from the passenger side of the four-door car Luke had made her get the year before ("It's much safer than your old Jeep," he had said). The three were nearing Stars Hollow, though it was extremely late, since Emily and Richard (more Emily than Richard) had wanted to talk everything baby for two hours after they had told them.

"I think this is all going great," Rory announced from the backseat. "The town is happy, the family is happy...we're like a great big Christmas tree."

"Christmas tree?" Lorelai laughed.

"Well, yeah, I mean, Christmas trees are happy..."

"Not the one in that Charlie Brown Christmas movie."

"Well, it got happy at the end. I don't know, it's near the holiday, it was what I thought of."

"Fine, whatever. We're a Christmas tree."

Luke finally let out the guffaw he had been holding in during their conversation as he entered their town. He wondered if the two knew how odd they sounded sometimes. Rory just huffed and crossed her arms over her chest.

"I think this is the best Christmas present I could've gotten," Luke stated.

"Aw, Luke, that's so sweet. I think the years with us have been turning you soft. What happened to the ranting burger-man I fell in love with?"

Ignoring her, Luke drove by his diner and mentally began a checklist of things to warn Cesar and Lane about, like how he'd be taking more time off, and that Lorelai should be eating better than burgers and fries, and that under no circumstances should they let her convince them to give her regular coffee.

As they entered the house, Rory kissed her mother on the cheek. "Alright, I'm gonna call Greg, and then I'm gonna go to sleep."

"Tell lover-boy we say hi," Lorelai smirked.

"Goodnight," Rory said, exasperated.

Luke followed his wife up to their bedroom. She collapsed on the bed the moment they entered. "This past week has gone really...well."

"Yeah, well, when somebody's pregnant, people are happy." Luke sat beside her and began removing his shoes.

"Yeah, but only if you're over the age of twenty. Believe me."

She sighed loudly and scooted over so she was lying on her side of the bed. Luke glanced over at her and noticed her eyes were closed.

"You're gonna sleep in that dress?" He changed his shirt.

"Uh...no energy to change."

Where were his pajama bottoms? "Well, you should." He finished putting his clothes away and stood in front of her, hands on his hips.

"Fine, fine. But I'm making no promises about what I change into. I don't feel like being sexy tonight." Lorelai heaved herself off the bed and started rummaging through her drawers for some pajamas.

Luke set his alarm. "You're always sexy to me." Hey, it was the truth.

Lorelai looked over at him and gave him that look; the one that made Luke feel all warm and fuzzy inside. It was a look that he knew nobody else could get from her, and knowing it was all his made him extremely happy.

He pulled the covers over himself. Lorelai joined him, snuggling close until he had no choice but to move so her head was in the crook of his arm. He turned the light off, wanting to just enjoy this peaceful moment of closeness with the woman he'd loved for as long as he could remember.

"Christmas is in three days," she whispered.

"I know."

They were silent again. Luke felt himself drifting to sleep. Then-

"Oh my God, I just realized that I'm going to be so fat by Rory's graduation. I mean, I'll be like, six months along by then."

"You'll be beautiful. Besides, it's her graduation."

"Yeah, but what if she wants a whole bunch of pictures? And then if she has to make some sort of speech, and she wants me to stand up, and people will be like, 'Hey, that big balloon thing doesn't look like her mom'? Or-"

Luke rolled his eyes. "Lorelai, it's late. Just go to sleep."

She finally quieted down. "I love you."

"Love you too, balloon-ey."

That got him a disbelieving intake of breath and a hard swat on the shoulder. Totally worth it.

XXX

"You have no idea how happy I am that you're the one holding my hair while I puke instead of a Spanish-speaking maid who doesn't understand why I'm constantly sick. Merry Christmas to me."

Luke rubbed Lorelai's back as they exited the bathroom and headed downstairs, which had turned from their normal living room into some sort of Santa's workshop- post Christmas- in the matter of twenty minutes.

"Your parents made a foreign maid watch you throw up?" Luke had to admit he was a bit squeamish himself when it came to sick people, but since it was partially his fault she was losing all contents of her stomach at random times during the day, he got over the fear quickly.

"Yeah. The whole thing was just such a great experience." They reached Rory, who was skimming through a book she had received. "The end product of it all was worth it, I guess." Lorelai plopped down beside her daughter and leaned her head back, closing her eyes.

Rory looked at her. "You guess?" She took a moment to consider. "I'll let it go this time, since you're nauseous. By the way, all the vomiting? Totally turns me off to wanting to have kids."

Lorelai pat Rory on the head. "Good girl."

Luke began picking up the wrapping paper that had been thrown carelessly around the room while the gifts had been opened. He placed the watch Lorelai had gotten him on an end table. He glanced at the Christmas tree. Had it moved during the rush of chaos?

"You know what's weird?"

Luke sighed inaudibly. Whenever Lorelai began a sentence with that, it usually didn't end well.

"What?" Rory asked.

"A year from now, there's going to be a baby in the house. I mean, there will be baby presents all over the floor. We'll have to go back to pretending Santa is real-"

"You mean he isn't?" Rory said, mock-serious.

"-and Luke will have to dress up like him and get up on the roof, and we'll have to find reindeer and a sleigh, and then he's gonna have to go down the chimney-"

"I'm not going down a chimney," Luke glared at her as he stuffed the colored paper into a garbage bag.

"Fine. Ruin the illusion for your child. We'll just have a boring Christmas every year, without Santa. All the other kids will mock our child on the playground." Lorelai pouted momentarily, then noticed the CD she had gotten from Rory on the coffee table and picked that up, the conversation forgotten. Luke marveled at how she could jump from one thing to another without getting a headache. Just watching her gave him one. He didn't mind that much, though.

The phone rang suddenly, breaking the easy silence that had fallen on the family. Luke reached it first.

"Hello?" He wondered who'd be calling this early on Christmas morning.

"Uh, hey, Luke, it's Christopher. Just calling to say Merry Christmas." The man on the other end sounded a bit timid, which made Luke happy for some reason.

"Well, Merry Christmas," Luke replied kindly. He had learned the hard way that he shouldn't take having the Gilmore girls in his life for advantage, and surprisingly, Chris had been the one to show him that. When Rory's father had stopped in Stars Hollow for a visit, saying there were some issues with Sherry and that it may not work out between them, Luke had found him to pose quite a threat to the calm that had finally settled. In the end, he and Lorelai had found that Chris was just another obstacle for them to hurdle over, and they did, although not too gracefully.

But looking now at where he was, Luke realized something. He was the one who was spending Christmas in this house, and would be spending all holidays to come here. He was the one who Rory went to with troubles, though she still did speak to and see her father on occasion. He was the one married and having a baby with Lorelai. And at that moment, Luke knew he'd never want to be anywhere else. He now understood why Christopher had wanted this so badly. Lucky for him, things had ended up working with Sherry, and they were married and living in Boston.

"You wanna talk to the girls?" Luke asked, not sounding protective at all.

"Uh, yeah, that'd be great."

So Luke spent the time the two women were on the phone cleaning up the mess that had accumulated around the decorated tree. When Lorelai hung up, she looked outside the window at the snow-covered street.

"I wanna take a walk in the snow," she proclaimed. "Before we head over to my parents for the dinner thing. Who's coming with me?"

Rory turned to Luke. "I'll go. How 'bout you?"

"Yeah, sure."

And with that they all bundled up and braved the cold temperatures outside, enjoying the company they kept with each other.

XXX

He heard her before she had appeared in front of him. The diner was in a mid-morning lull; the breakfast rush had come and gone quickly since work and school was starting up again. A chair had squeaked from around her area, so naturally Luke assumed it was her. He didn't even look up from the piece of paper he was using to count up money.

"Fill 'er up." Lorelai held out a coffee cup, the one she had decided was her own personal mug a year ago. She had even written her name on the bottom in permanent ink.

"Alright," Luke shrugged and grabbed the decaf pot, hoping she wouldn't notice.

"Uh, hon, you do realize that's decaf?" Why do I bother?

"No it isn't," Luke lied as he poured the coffee into her cup. It was sad, what he was reduced to doing to get her to drink right.

"Luke. Dear, sweet, wonderful Luke. Why did you just pour decaf in my coffee cup?"

"It's not decaf!" he insisted a bit too loudly.

Kirk looked into the cup, as he was sitting at the seat beside them at the counter. "Yup, that's decaf. I even saw it written on the pot he poured it with."

Glaring, Luke sighed. "Don't butt in, Kirk." He turned back to Lorelai, who was looking at him expectantly. "Look, I don't want you drinking regular! Our child could become deformed, or turn into you and Rory-" his wife glared, and he backtracked. "-not that you and Rory are bad examples, I just mean addiction-wise. So please, don't take a chance. Just drink the decaf," he pleaded.

Considering her options, Lorelai looked from the coffee she was holding to her husband. She finally let out a large breath, and began talking to her abdomen. "I'm only doing this for you, you know. You better love me a hell of a lot."

Satisfied, Luke smirked. "Thank you."

"You," she said coldly. "Good luck getting along with me sans regular coffee!"

Lorelai stormed back over to her seat, pouting in that cute way Luke had always loved. His musings of the way she pouted were interrupted, however, when Taylor Doose entered rather loudly.

"Ah, Luke. Thought I'd find you here."

"Where else would you find me, Taylor? I own and run this diner. It's called 'Luke's Diner', thus where you can find me." Taylor always made him grumpy.

"Well, you might've been home with your wife. Doing whatever...expecting parents do." Taylor shrugged.

"Yeah, like lie and deny their spouse what makes them tick each day!" Lorelai interjected from her table.

"Don't you have an Inn to run?" Luke shot back, then noticed what Taylor was holding. "Taylor...," he began angrily.

"What?" he asked innocently. "Oh, these?" He faked surprise at the colored sheets of paper that he was grasping. "Oh, yes, well, now that you've seen them, I thought we could put them up in the diner."

"No," Luke said firmly.

"Oh come on, Luke. I thought fatherhood would soften you up some."

"Please. It's made him meaner!" Lorelai glared at him some more.

"It's for the festival that's coming up," Taylor pleaded.

This made Luke stop. "Another damn festival?" he asked in horror. "What is it this time, the Stuff-Leftover-From-All-The-Other-Festivals festival?" He heard Lorelai snort with laughter.

Taylor seemed to take no offence. "No, it's the Snowball Festival, Luke."

"And what the hell is the Snowball Festival, Taylor?"

"It's a new idea the committee for festivals thought up. Everything will be centered around snow. Snowmen contests, snow cones, organized snowball fights, sleigh rides-"

"You stole that idea from me! I did it first! At the Independence Inn!" Lorelai gasped, as if this were the worst thing in the world.

Taylor ignored her. "It'll be a wonderful time. I just wanted to see if you'd consider putting a sign up in your window, since this is a new thing and we want people to take notice."

"Oh, they'll notice all right. If you put one sign up over at Miss Patty's now, it'll be all over town by dinner."

"Is that a no?" Luke couldn't believe Taylor had to ask.

"Go find somewhere else to advertise your latest crazy idea, Taylor."

Huffing, Taylor left. Lorelai was now standing by the end of the counter, her eyes large. Luke looked at her and sighed. "What?"

"I like the sound of this festival," she said honestly. "You know how much I love snow."

"Yeah, I noticed once or twice." He felt bitter, but couldn't helping cracking a small smile at the thought of taking a sleigh ride with Lorelai.

XXX

The phone was ringing.

The phone seemed to always be ringing, Luke had figured out early on in his relationship with Lorelai. It was either the Inn, or Rory, or Emily, or Sookie, or some other random person who had the need to call the Gilmore home. Not only was it always ringing, but it rang at really bad times. And he guessed that once the baby came, the phone would ring off the hook.

Lorelai was at the Dragonfly, Cesar was watching the diner, and Luke was about to take a shower. He really wanted this shower, because though he'd never admit it, showers always relaxed him. But Lorelai had told him specifically before she left to pick up the phone if it rang, even if the house was on fire and it was either pick up the phone and die or get out and live, just in case it was her OB/GYN's office calling to set their appointment. The fact that it was a doctor made Luke even more shifty. He knew he'd have to get over his hospital fears before the kid was born, but he was still in that 12-step program stage where you have to admit you have the problem. The way he figured, he had about seven months to prepare.

"Hello?" Luke asked, now annoyed and worrying, because he had left the water running.

"Yes, this is Doctor Grace's office calling to set up an appointment for Lorelai Danes? Is she there?" a female voice questioned.

"Uh, no, she's at work right now, but this is Luke Danes, her husband..."

"Oh, alright, well, tell your wife that Dr. Grace will be ready and waiting for her Saturday at 5 p.m." She was disturbingly cheerful. "And Mr. Danes, congratulations." Dial tone.

Luke hung up the phone and wrote down the information on a scrap piece of paper. He wondered momentarily why Saturday was yelling at him that there was something he had to do that day that he didn't want to.

Oh, the Snowball Festival. Great.

He looked again at what he had just written. Well, this will be something new and different.

XXX

Saturday had come all too quickly for Luke. He found himself parking the car in the parking lot of Dr. Grace's office with Lorelai in the passenger seat at 4:45. He kept gripping the steering wheel.

"Hey, are you okay?" Lorelai put a hand on his shoulder. "Don't worry, they won't be examining your uterus today." She grinned.

Luke took the keys out of the ignition. "Yeah, I know. I really shouldn't be like this, I mean, you're the one they're going to be poking and prodding. It's just...the whole hospital thing."

"Think of it like this," Lorelai started. "First off, you're not in a hospital, you're at a woman's doctors office. Secondly, there isn't going to be any gross carnage or people with sharp objects sticking out of their bodies." Luke recoiled at this. "And third, this is your child too, and if you don't come in with me, I may just tell him or her when they grow up that you're not their real father."

He knew she was joking (well, hoped she was), and felt a bit better. He jumped out of the car and rushed to Lorelai's side to help her out, and began leading her in, holding her hand.

"Ah, save the chivalry for when I can't get up by myself."

Twenty minutes later, the couple was sitting in an extremely sterile-looking white room with machines all over the place. Lorelai sat on the examining table, poking the different instruments.

"Don't do that," Luke said when he noticed what she was doing.

"What?" She asked innocently.

"You don't know where that stuff's...been."

"You're such a worrywart. Loosen up, dad."

Flushing slightly, Luke decided to steer the topic towards something that would take his mind off where he was. "So, the festival is tonight."

Lorelai mock-gasped. "Did Luke Danes just mention a festival on purpose?"

"Well, you wanted to go to this one. So by the time we get back, it'll be in full swing. We could stop by."

"I'm just amazed that you're even talking normally about a festival. This baby thing really has screwed with your mind." She thought about it. "We could just take a quick sleigh ride. Oh! I could show off my sonogram picture."

Before Luke could reply, the doctor entered.

XXX

"Can you believe our baby is that small? So much for surpassing Rory in the height department one day, huh?" Lorelai could joke all she wanted about the picture of the peanut-looking fetus, but Luke knew she couldn't take her eyes from it.

The doctor had only asked some routine questions, then did the sonogram. Luke had been fascinated by the machinery, which let him take the first look at his child. His child. He was beginning to really like being able to say that.

"Wow, Stars Hollow went all-out on the lighting this time," Lorelai commented as they pulled into the center of the town, which was lit by thousands of lights that were all over the place, giving off a white glow. Luke parked in front of the diner, and he and Lorelai exited the car. He noticed that she was still carrying the picture.

"There you guys are!" Luke looked over at whoever had just shouted to them and spotted Sookie and Jackson, pushing Davey in a stroller. The small boy was licking a snow cone.

Sookie rushed forward and she and Lorelai began squealing over the sonogram picture. Luke really didn't understand; it took you at least five minutes to find the kid again.

Jackson stood off a bit. Luke walked over to him, and the their wives.

"So, you're having a baby. Excited?" Jackson shoved his hands in his jacket pockets.

Luke glanced at Davey, and couldn't help but wonder if he'd be doing the exact same thing Jackson was with his child a few years from now. The idea didn't seem so bad. "Yeah. It's just...amazing."

Jackson nodded. "I know the feeling. Kids are hard work, but it's all worth it. Now that Lorelai is pregnant, Sookie is talking about having another baby."

Surprised slightly, Luke drew his attention back to the rapidly-talking women. "Wow. Isn't that what you wanted, though?"

"Yeah." Luke noticed the dreamy sound in the other man's voice. "Here's a word of advice, Luke, from one father to another," Jackson began, becoming serious. "First of all, let her yell at you. The hormones do crazy things to women, and if they get the mood out of their system, they'll be much easier to deal with. Second, never answer if she asks if she's fat. If you have no choice, then good luck to you, buddy." Luke's eyes were growing wider. "Third, don't baby her unless she wants to be, because otherwise you'll be sleeping on the couch."

"Did you get all this wisdom from when Sookie had Davey?" Luke was trying to process all of what Jackson had just warned him about.

"Basically."

Lorelai and Sookie joined them. "We better get him home," Sookie commented about Davey, who was falling asleep. "Call me," she instructed Lorelai, who nodded as the two left.

The couple began walking through the festival, greeting and waving at several people they passed. Luke put an arm around Lorelai's waist. "Ooooh, Taylor really did organize a snowball fight."

He looked to what she was talking about, and saw Taylor giving directions to teenagers who seemed ready to pelt him with the snowballs they had already made.

"Maybe this'll become another annual thing. Won't that be fun?" Lorelai's eyes sparkled as she teased her husband.

He grunted. "Oh yeah, great, just what I need: another day where I'll have to close down early and lose business."

"You know, I never really got to do this stuff with Rory when she was little and appreciated everything. We didn't start going to festivals until we bought the house, and by then she was older and didn't care as much about the magic of it all." Lorelai sighed, and turned her head so she was looking at Luke. "Thank you for giving me a second chance to do this stuff."

Luke shrugged. "Thank you for giving me a chance at all to do this stuff with you. I don't think there's anyone else in the world I would rather have a kid with."

Grinning, Lorelai kissed him. "You are so earning big points for saying that."

XXX