Luke, still upset at Lorelai, brought the drinks to the table and asked for their order. Lorelai tried to plead silently with Luke, but he refused to look at her.
"I'll have a burger and fries, and a refill," Rory began.
"But you haven't even touched this cup of coffee yet," Luke protested.
"Ahh, but by the time my food comes I will definitely need a refill," Rory explained.
Lorelai refused to order until Luke looked at her, so there was silence for a time. Christopher, confused by Lorelai's silence bypassed her and ordered for himself and Georgia. "Anything else?" Luke asked purposefully not addressing Lorelai.
Lorelai gave in, "I'll have a burger and fries too."
"And coffee, you forgot to add coffee. Or do you just expect me to remember the usual orders of all of my customers?" Luke spoke roughly to Lorelai.
Lorelai knew that she shouldn't order coffee, she figured that if she really was pregnant she'd have to cut back on her caffeine intake by at least half. "No, Luke, no coffee tonight."
Lorelai's answer caused Luke to look at her despite his resolve not to. He didn't know when Lorelai had ever not had coffee at the diner. Rory looked quizzically at her mother too, wondering what was wrong. Christopher didn't notice Lorelai's lack of interest in coffee, he was unaware of her obsession with the drink. Innocently, he broke the silence, "Coffee sounds good, why don't you bring me a cup."
Luke's focus turned to Christopher and he tried to forget about Lorelai's unusual behavior. "And a cup for the kid too? I figure that you must have started Rory drinking it about this kid's age. Oh, wait, you weren't around when Rory was two, my mistake."
Christopher couldn't believe how insolent Luke was being. Quickly he stood up from the table so that he was standing face to face with Luke, silently challenging him to say something more. Lorelai rose, planning to step in between the two men. Christopher looked over at her, "I've got this under control." He focused on Luke again, "What's your problem, man? I bring my family here to eat and get nothing but lip from you."
That statement pushed Luke over the edge, "Your family, did I hear that correctly."
"Yeah, in case you didn't know, Rory is my daughter. Lorelai and I go way back," Christopher bragged.
"Oh, I know that 'biologically' Rory is your daughter, but I just think it's interesting that they've lived in this town for over eight years, I see both of them daily, and yet I've only seen you a handful of times." Having made his point, and in front of a diner full of Stars Hollow townsfolk to boot, Luke backed down and headed for the apartment staircase where he could be alone.
Christopher raised his fist as Luke turned and would have hit the impertinent man had he not glanced at his daughters' faces first. Rory's face was white, aghast by the scene that had just played out in front of her and Georgia was on the verge of tears, scared for the loud voices talking angrily around her. Then he glanced at Lorelai, she was not looking at him, but instead her eyes had followed Luke as he walked away.
Lorelai ignored Christopher and followed Luke, not knowing if she were angry with him for his outburst or loved him the more for it. But she knew that she had to make sure he was okay.
Lorelai saw Luke immediately, he was sitting on the stairs just looking at his hands. She walked over and sat down next to him. Luke spoke, "I'm sorry, I just can't control my temper around that guy. I see what a great thing he had and he just tossed it away, took it for granted. And he keeps coming back like he thinks that he can reclaim it anytime he wants to." Then he turned to look at Lorelai, "I don't understand why you let him sweep into your lives and cause chaos for a few days or a week and then watch him leave like you knew he was going to do all along."
Lorelai understood Luke's feelings, but she simply replied, "He's Rory's dad. I can't just shut him out of my life. As much as he hasn't been there for her ..."
"Or for you," Luke added.
"... or for me, he is and will always be her dad and I can't take that from her. Believe me, I see how excited she gets when he comes to town and I see how crushed she is when he leaves, but at least for a few days she gets to have a dad, her dad." Lorelai tried to explain the hold that Christopher had over them both, but knew that it was deeper than what she was willing to tell Luke. She knew that she had shared so much of her life with Christopher, that he had been her first and only love, until now.
Christopher was confused as he watched Lorelai following Luke without saying even one word to him. He felt hot and claustrophobic in the diner as he realized that all of the eyes in the room were on him. He turned his focus to Rory, "I have to go out to the Jeep for a minute, watch Georgia for me, okay?"
Rory nodded as her father reach into Lorelai's purse for the Jeep keys. When he couldn't find them immediately, he picked up the purse to look through it and his eyes fell upon the pregnancy test.
TBC