A/N: It was hot today. Well, humid, and so it was impossible to write. I dragged this chapter out of my soul, you guys. I hope you like it. I loved it. Ive had this event and order of events planned for a while and was just waiting for it to happen. The idea I had that inspired this story and got me started has yet to happen, but it should soon. REVIEW PLEASE!!!

PS: Enjoy.

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Chapter Eight: We cry, laugh, and cry some more

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For the next two weeks, Luke and Lorelai kept a low profile with their relationship. They didn't hide it but they didn't make it completely public. When in the diner, they kissed lightly, but only when they hoped no one was watching. They held hands when walking down the street together and laughed together when people gaped at them.

When they went to dinner for their second date, the couple kept up an awkward silence. After twenty minutes, Lorelai spoke up, saying that she hated it at the restaurant. Luke offered to take her to the diner instead and she agreed readily.

Neither of them spoke of the fact that they hadn't slept together yet. Sex was a big thing to them and the reason they hadn't spoken of it was partly due to the fact that they were frightened of fully and completely crossing that line. All of Stars Hollow assumed they had, seeing how both adults were extremely attractive and because everyone knew they were in love (though they wouldn't admit it quite yet). The residents of the small town often said that if they looked like Luke and Lorelai, they wouldn't be able to keep their hands off of each other.

Meanwhile, Rory stayed out of the gossiping Stars Hollow eyes. Dean didn't approach her after their fight, which relieved Rory a great deal. She stayed at Lane's apartment for a while, where she told her best friend what had happened between Dean and her, and received news that Lindsey was pregnant.

Rory didn't know how to react to this info. She felt torn between despair and relief.

Friday night dinner was awkward: Lorelai and Rory didn't know how to act around the apparently separated Gilmores; the Gilmores somehow knew that something was on both Lorelais' minds.

On the Thursday eleven days after the test run, Lorelai awoke to a very frantic Rory, who was violently shaking her mother.

"Mom. Mom! You have to wake up! MOM!!!"

"What, Rory?" Lorelai asked warily. She was still half asleep, even though Rory's voice was beyond worried.

"Mom! Get up!" Rory grabbed her mother's arm and pulled the woman up.

"Rory! What the hell are you doing?" Lorelai was pretty much awake now and sitting up. Her hair was tousled and her expression was one of great annoyance.

"Mom..." Rory sat down on the bed, staring into Lorelai's eyes. She looked frightened, even terrified. "M-mom...I th-think I might...be...I might be pregnant." Rory's body shook visibly as she watched Lorelai pale.

"What...?"

"Mommy..."

Rory launched herself into Lorelai's arms, tears flowing. Lorelai barely forced herself to hold her child because her limbs had gone numb.

"I'm sorry, Mom. God, I'm sorry. You don't hate me do you?"

Rory looked up pleadingly into Lorelai's eyes. Lorelai's head snapped downward to look into her daughter's blue eyes.

"No, Rory! I could never hate you! Do you understand?"

Rory nodded mutely.

"Rory... How do you know? Are you certain?"

"I...I haven't had my period for six weeks. I'm three weeks late. What else could be an explanation?"

"I...Rory, you have to get up and go to Doose's market. You have to buy a pregnancy test. I-if it's positive, you have to make an appointment with a doctor. Do you understand, Rory?"

Rory looked down, but Lorelai forced her chin up so that blue eyes met blue eyes. Rory nodded slowly, tears still spilling down her cheeks.

"So get up. Come on, honey."

Lorelai managed to find the strength in her heart to pull herself and Rory up and then led Rory to the stairs.

"Go, Rory."

"But, Mom..." Rory stopped on the stairs to look up at her mother. "I can't buy it. People will get curious if they see me buying a pregnancy test."

Lorelai hesitated before answering and then made a rash decision.

"Tell whoever asks that you're buying it for me. Okay?"

"But, mom... It'll totally ruin your and Luke's reputation! Now everyone will be certain that you slept together,"

"I gotta do this for you, Hon. Luke will understand. Speaking of Luke, I'm going to go to the diner. I'll walk with you to the square. Hurry, Rory."

The Gilmore girls dressed quickly and walked together towards the town square. Rory headed into Doose's market and Lorelai rushed into Luke's.

When she walked in, Luke was putting three plates in front of a couple. Lorelai ran to him, wrapping her arms around him. He was surprised but still held her.

Tears flooded her eyes. They wet Luke's flannel and she stifled her sobs in his chest.

"Luke..." she choked out.

"Lorelai, what's wrong?" Luke asked, attempting to look at her face.

"I...can we talk?" Before waiting for an answer, Lorelai pulled him into the storage room, shutting the door behind her.

"It's Rory!" Lorelai sobbed and threw herself into Luke's arms again.

"What? What about Rory?" Luke squeezed her and tried to comfort her by rubbing her back.

"She-She... I can't tell you! She'd hate me forever! But it's horrible Luke! God, when she told me, my heart stopped!" She pulled away and looked up into his eyes. "I wanted to die! How could I raise her to make such a mistake? I thought I had been doing okay, so that she wouldn't make any mistakes like I did!" She leaned her head into his neck and stayed there, speaking no more.

"Lorelai, you have to tell me what she did."

Lorelai shook her head.

"Please, Lorelai. It's obviously something horrible if it made you react like this. I want to make sure she's okay. Lorelai, you know...you know she's like...like a daughter to me."

Lorelai looked up at him when he said this, her eyes big and clear.

"Really?"

"I love that kid, Lorelai."

Why was he admitting this? He shouldn't be; it was so embarrassing.

"You love Rory?"

"You know I do."

He squeezed her tighter, showing his support.

"I don't want to see you like this."

Her eyes glistened, as if she was going to start crying again.

How could she not have realized it before? Here Luke was, holding her while she cried like a baby, comforting her, even though he had no idea what was wrong. He had always taken care of her. Always. He had always cared for Rory too. He cried at her graduation and supported her when she was down. He always gave her this fatherly look like he would always be there for her. He was there for her more than Christopher, her birth father, ever was. Lorelai finally realized, while looking into Luke's eyes, that she was in love. I'm in love with Luke... she thought.

As Luke gave her a concerned look (he thought she was going to cry again), she smiled a huge grin and pulled his face down to hers. She kissed him passionately which surprised Luke even further.

"I love you, Luke Danes," she whispered into his ear after they pulled apart. She pulled away and gazed into his now very, very confused eyes.

"What?" he asked quietly, not fully believing he had just heard what he thought he had heard.

"I love you, Luke Danes," she announced proudly.

She kissed him again, and he responded hungrily.

"I love you, Lorelai," he said quietly and she smiled her dazzling smile at him.

"I had hoped so."

They kissed again, but were interrupted by Lorelai's cell phone. She ignored it for a moment, partly forgetting why she had been bawling moments before. It continued to vibrate between the couple until Luke pulled away.

"That is not having a good effect on me."

Lorelai giggled.

"Dirty."

"Answer the damn phone."

"In here?"

"Do it!"

"If you stop holding me, I will."

Luke let go of her and she pulled out the phone, which had stopped ringing.

"Look what you did," she commented dryly.

"Look what I did?"

He took a step forward and she giggled again, steeping back.

She lifted the phone to her ear to listen to the voice message, and the smile that had captivated her lips disappeared.

"No. No, no, no. Shit!" she cursed, hanging up the phone and turning to leave.

"Where are you going?" Luke asked, confused.

"I have to go!" Lorelai called back to him as she dashed from the room.

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Lorelai ran outside to find Rory sobbing in front of Doose's market. Lorelai sat down next to her daughter and squeezed the child, who looked so small to her at the moment.

"Let me see, Rory."

Rory handed her the test and Lorelai gazed at it, despair filling her.

"Oh, God."

"I'm so sorry, Mom."

The Gilmores held each other for a long moment until Lorelai stood, her expression defiant.

"Let's go, Rory. We have to call the doctor."

Lorelai pulled Rory to her feet and they went into Luke's diner. Lorelai made Rory stand next to the curtain hiding his stairs and then went to Luke who gazed at her questioningly.

"We need to use your phone. Your apartment phone."

"Uh...sure."

Lorelai and Rory headed up to his apartment. They made an appointment for six in the morning the next day and then headed down the stairs into the diner.

Rory left to go to the house for the day and Lorelai led Luke upstairs, where she broke down into tears again. Luke led her to the couch and they sat down together, Lorelai leaning into him.

"What, Lorelai?"

"Rory's pregnant, Luke!" she sobbed.

"What?"

Rage filled his mind and he had the sudden urge to kill whoever did this to Rory.

"At the test run, I asked Rory to go home to get cd's for our guests. After we kissed, I went home to tell Rory what happened and found her and Dean together. Well, they came out of Rory's room when I got there, and I just knew that they did what I thought they did. Rory told me today that she thought she was pregnant and I had her take a pregnancy test and it was positive, Luke! She had a doctor's appointment tomorrow to make sure that she is..."

Lorelai felt Luke tense.

"I'm going to kill that boy," Luke said, his voice full of barely restrained anger.

"No, Luke. It's just as much Rory's fault as it is Dean's."

For the next hour, Luke held Lorelai while she cried over her current predicament. He kissed her and told her he loved her and would support her and Rory no matter what.

Lorelai went home to Rory, where they watched movies about happy little kids and their simple lives. The entire day Michel left angry messages about how the Inn was opening in a little over a week and that she needed to be there at least some of the time.

The next day, Rory went to the doctor's office for her appointment and made Lorelai stay at home. Rory didn't want Lorelai freaking out on the doctor just in case it was positive.

When an hour had passed after Rory had left, Lorelai got dressed and went to Luke's. He gave her coffee without their banter, and when Lorelai pulled Luke down to whisper that she loved him in his ear, the entire diner 'awwwed' at them.

Lorelai was walking down the street back to the house when Rory called her.

"Hello?"

"Mom?"

"What's the verdict, Hon?"

"I...I'm not pregnant." Rory's voice was mostly relieved but had a hint of sadness in it.

Lorelai forced herself not to cheer into the phone and instead said, "It's for the best, Rory."

"I know."

"Hurry home."

"Don't you want to know why it was a false positive?"

"The only thin I want to know is that it is a false positive. I'll see you later."

"Bye, Mom."

Lorelai hung up the phone and then threw her arms in the air.

"YES!!!"

She was standing in front of her house, and instead of running back to Luke's, she ran to her car and drove there. She ran inside and jumped into Luke's arms, laughing gaily.

"She's not!" she giggled.

Lorelai tugged Luke towards the stairs, yelling, "Luke's going on his break!" to Caesar.

"But I already went on my break," Luke said quickly as Lorelai pulled him up the stairs.

"You're going on another."

She slammed the door behind hem and kissed Luke fervently. They held each other closely when the kiss ended, both catching their breath.

"I was so glad, Luke. I wanted to scream. So I did. I am the happiest woman in the world right now."

They kissed again.

"Are you?" Luke asked mischievously.

"That I am, Mr. Danes."

They continued to kiss and Lorelai started tugging him towards his bed.

"Are you sure you want to do this, Lorelai?" he asked cautiously.

"I said I was the happiest woman in the world. The only way for me to become the happiest woman in the universe is to do this."

They began pulling each others clothing off and then fell onto the bed. Their kisses becoming more hot blooded every second.

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They lay in Luke's bed afterwards, holding each other.

"God, that was amazing," Lorelai commented breathlessly.

"You can say that again."

"God, that was amazing."

"It definitely was."

"We should do this again sometime."

"Dirty."

"That it was."

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Can't wait for next chapter can you? It'll be a good one, I promise!