A/N: The outpouring of love is wonderful, keep it up and yes, I do take pleasure in leaving little cliff-hangers at the end of each chapter. It must be the little devil in me, muah ha ha.

Where we left off: Christopher picked up the purse to look through it and his eyes fell upon the pregnancy test.

Chapter 6 – So Everyone Knows Except Luke?

Christopher's anger dissolved into dejection and he slumped into his chair glancing from the pregnancy test box, which he had good sense to keep hidden in the purse, to the room where Lorelai had disappeared to. "Rory, is your mother seeing anyone?"

Rory was stunned by her father's abrupt change of attitudes and she was flustered by the question. She had told her mom that she wouldn't tell her dad about Luke, but she didn't want to lie so directly to him either. "Yeah, she's been seeing someone for awhile."

"So it's serious? Does he love her?" Christopher questioned.

Rory thought of the outburst that had just happened and answered truthfully, "Yeah, he loves her a lot and he's good for her."

Rory saw Christopher's face deflate, he pulled the keys out of the purse and wordlessly headed out of the diner. Rory stared at the purse thinking of how her mother had overreacted at the Inn when she had tried to get some chapstick from it and how she had clutched it even after taking off her jacket at the diner. Now she wondered what could be inside of it to cause her father to react so strangely.

Rory opened the top slowly, as if frightened of what she was going to find. But it was there, sitting on top, a pregnancy test. Rory repeated the actions of her father, she stared at the box and then back to where her mom was. Finally, she realized that the box was unopened, that her mom didn't know the outcome for sure and that she was probably telling Luke right now. She tried to imagine the conversation and knew that she had to get the test to her.

Glancing around the diner she saw that, in the absence of her father, she was the center of attention and that the room was unusually silent. Eyeing Babette she asked her to watched Georgia for a second and then headed toward the curtained off stairs hoping to find Luke and Lorelai.

Lorelai had continued to try to explain to Luke that Christopher was and will always be in her life in some way. Luke didn't want to hear those words, he didn't like that Christopher could come and go and neither Luke nor anyone else had any control over it.

"I know he will, but, it's just hard. It's hard to see him wreak havoc in your lives ... our lives and not be able to do anything about it." Luke confessed his helplessness.

"And ...," Lorelai prompted.

"And ... and I feel like an outsider whenever he's here. Take tonight for example, do you know how much it hurts me that you didn't tell him about us. And since he doesn't know he thinks I'm just this town's waiter and he treats me like crap and then I return the sentiment." Luke knew that he needed to tell Lorelai how he felt, but he hated opening up, letting anyone, even her, into his soul. Finally, he looked at her, "Lorelai, Christopher knows that he has a connection with you, something that no one can ever take away or replace and he uses that to get to you. Can you even see it, see the way he uses you?"

Lorelai thought for a moment, "Yes, I see it, but I usually only see it after he has left. I guess I'm a lot like Rory, I want him to stick around and I get my hopes up that every time he comes back that he's changed."

"That's what scares me Lorelai, that someday he will come back and he'll have changed and you'll drop everything and everyone and take him back and then I'll just be that outsider again." Luke couldn't look at Lorelai any longer. He stood, he longed to be active, to move about doing mundane tasks so he didn't have to think about these problems.

Lorelai heard Luke express his fears and was stunned that he was so insecure in their relationship, but thought back through the years. She really did become Christopher centered when he was in town, everything else was put on hold including her friendship with Luke. She knew that she had to reassure him, "Luke, that is not going to happen. Don't you know that I love you, I know it's taken us a long time to get here, but doesn't that make our relationship that much more solid, it means that we've stuck together, at least in friendship, through so many good and bad times. Christopher and I haven't seemed to make it through anything together, besides conception." Lorelai was silent, she didn't know what else to say, how else to reassure him and then she remembered, "Luke, I am all in ... more than you'll ever know."

A noise to her left caused Lorelai to turn and she saw Rory carefully poke her head around the curtain. Rory saw that both were fully clothed and stepped past the curtain. Feebly she held out the purse to her mother. Lorelai stared at it, bewildered by why Rory would be bringing it to her.

When her mother didn't reach out to take the purse Rory spoke, "I thought you might need it."

Still Lorelai looked at her daughter with confusion, so Rory continued, "Dad had to get the keys to the Jeep out of it."

Lorelai simply started at Rory, but finally words came out of her mouth, "And you, do you know what is in there?" Lorelai asked as she gestured to the purse.

"Yeah, I do."

"Well, then," Lorelai spoke exasperatedly, "I guess the only one who doesn't know is Luke, the only person who should know."

Finally, Lorelai took the purse from Rory's hand, "Where's your father?"

"I think he went outside, to the Jeep," Rory guessed.

"Thank you for bringing me this, I think we will want it, if you could go back and watch Georgia I'd appreciate it." Lorelai said to Rory trying to keep from sounding like she blamed Rory for discovering her secret. After Rory left, Lorelai turned to Luke. "Look this is not how this was supposed to happen." Then to herself she mumbled, "This whole day has not gone as it should have." She looked at Luke's face, he was totally unaware and baffled by the conversation she had just had with Rory.

Lorelai took action, "Luke, believe me this is not how I wanted to tell you, but maybe it will work out. Please take the purse." She thrust it at him. "Now, I'm going to go talk with Christopher and I'm going to set him straight about us. I'm sorry I didn't do it sooner. You are going to look in the purse and think for a few minutes about what you find in there. Then I will come back and talk to you about it. At least this way you have a few minutes to yourself." Still confusion was evident on his face, "I know you are completely clueless right now, but that will change in a minute. Trust me." She turned to leave, but stopped and came back to Luke, she kissed him lightly on the mouth and then whispered, "I love you."

Luke, bewildered, didn't respond and then she was gone. He stared at the purse as if knowing that whatever he was going to find was going to change his life forever, but dreading the fact that he didn't know if it would be a good change or a bad one. Biting the bullet he opened the purse and saw what was inside.

TBC