Disclaimer: I still don't own them.

Chapter Ten: Luke Can't Say No to A Lorelai

It had been three days since little Ellie Gilmore was welcomed to the world and she was going home. Rory was released the day before but, it didn't matter because she refused to leave her daughter. After a couple of touchy first days Ellie had rallied and was ready for her first trip home.

"Okay, I think that was the last of her stuff." Lorelai said zipping up the guitar shaped diaper bag Lane had given Rory.

"All right…I think we are ready." Rory said picking Ellie up off of the bed and placing her in her car seat.

"Now, yeah make, sure you get the middle buckle it is tricky." Lorelai said.

"I know." Rory said.

"And make sure you put that little horseshoe pillow around her head so her head doesn't wobble."

"I know, mom, I have it under control."

"Sorry, I am sorry, I know, you have it, I am sorry."

"It is okay, but let me tell you, you were not this paranoid with me…her…you freak out if she sneezes, me I was lucky to get a tissue."

"That isn't true."

"Mom you woke her up three times last night because you thought she wasn't breathing, even though she is hooked to a monitor that would have told us if she wasn't."

"Ok, so maybe I am a little more paranoid about her than I was with you that doesn't mean anything. I still wub you…too." Lorelai said playfully pinching her daughters cheeks.

"Mom." Rory said getting annoyed.

"Uh-uh no way you aren't going to pull the I have a baby, I am not your baby anymore crap with me missy." Lorelai said kissing her daughter on the forehead.

"Are we ready to go?" Rory asked.

"Let's see…diaper bag, bag of hospital free stuff, your bag, my bag, baby…yeah I think we have it all."

"Are you ready Ellie? We are going home today." Rory cooed at her sleeping daughter.

"Look out world…here comes another Gilmore girl." Lorelai said as the door to the hospital room shut behind them.

……………………………………….

"All right, Luke is on his way over with the food." Lorelai said hanging up the phone.

"Great I am starving." Rory said adjusting Ellie on her lap.

"She seems to be too…"

"Yeah, here help me switch sides would you, it's starting to get sore on this side." Rory said handing her mother a fussy Ellie.

"Oh, now it's okay we should know better than to take food from a Lorelai huh…" Lorelai baby talked to her granddaughter.

Just as Rory undid the other side of her nursing bra Luke walked through the front door.

"Ah geez!" He said covering his eyes and turning around. "I'm so sorry Rory, I didn't know that you were uhhh…"

"It's okay Luke, you can turn around, she is covered." Lorelai said tucking a pink blanket over Rory and Ellie.

"This is why I still knock…you never know…I am knocking from now on, I don't care if you don't like it, I am…" Luke said still flustered.

"Oh honey, she is breast feeding, it wasn't like she was doing a poll dance in the living room…" Lorelai said hugging Lukes arm and pulling him into the kitchen.

"They're crazy El…but they love you." Rory said.

"We heard that." Lorelai called from the kitchen.

"Bring me food, I am starving."

Lorelai walked back in carrying two plates.

"Here you are." Lorelai said setting the plate in front of her.

"Fair warning Luke, I am going to bring her out." Rory said.

Luke covered his eyes as she pulled her daughter out from under the blanket and handed her off to Lorelai while she adjusted her shirt back down.

"Decent." Rory said when she was finished. "Here mom, I will take her and put her down, she can't fight sleep after she eats." Rory said.

"Ahh, she gets more like me every day." Lorelai said as Rory walked back to her room.

"How are they doing?"

"Rory has really taken to this mother thing much better than I did. I think maybe another couple days and I will leave them alone a for a night…you know anyplace I can stay?" Lorelai asked with a wicked grin.

"I might be able to find you a place." Luke said with a wink.

"The last couple of nights when she gets up at two, Rory has come into my room with her and after she feeds her we lay Ellie in the middle and sometime we sing to her, and other times she and I just look at her and talk about who she is going to be…it has been really nice, having a baby in the house…its started me thinking that maybe I…"

"Listen Lorelai I've been thinking and…"

Rory walked back into the room.

"She is so cute when she sleeps her little lips are still going like she has something to say…"

"Ahh a true Gilmore she is." Lorelai said sliding closer to Luke to make room for her on the couch.

"What is tonight's movie?" Luke asked the girls, trying to shake the nervous energy he still had running through his veins from the moments before.

"Ahh glad you asked it is a little known classic staring the one and only Molly Ringwald… I thought only appropriate considering…yes ladies and gentlemen, For Keeps, it taught me all I needed to know about being a mother."

"That's scary." Luke said.

The three watched the movie and at the end of the night when the movie was over and their dinners finished Rory got up with a yawn and went in to join her daughter in sleep.

"So…" Lorelai said when she was sure they were alone.

"So…" Luke said pulling her back to lay against his chest.

"What now?"

"Lorelai." He said stroking her hair back. "There has been something that I have been meaning to ask you since the night that Ellie was born."

"Oh yeah?" Lorelai said turning her head to see him better.

"Yeah, see uh…I was thinking, we have been together now for a while, what like…seven months."

"Oh how cute you keep track…"Lorelai said mocking him.

"But you know I mean, I think it is safe to say that this thing, you and me, it works…it's right…"

"I think…" Lorelai swallowed. "It would be safe to say that."

"So, I was thinking that…"

"Shhh…." Lorelai said sitting up.

"What, what did I say…"

" Nothing…shhh…Ellie is up…"

"How do you know that?"

"I am her grandma…I know…" Just then Ellie started crying.

"So…" Luke said.

"I'll be right back."

Luke was amazed. He had been trying to ask her something very important to all their lives for almost a week now and still he couldn't get a word in edge wise. Lorelai walked back and into Rory and the babies room emerged a while later with Ellie and a stack of diapers.

"Wha..what's going on…" Luke said.

"Poor Rory she hasn't gotten a real night sleep in about a week, so I told her that you and I would watch Ellie for the night at your place. Give her some quite, after a little fight and a lot of coaxing she gave in and laid in bed and I do believe she will remain there until the middle of tomorrow afternoon." Lorelai said.

"Wait, wait, why do we have to take her to my place, why can't we just watch her here?"

"Because if she wakes up so will Rory that is the rule of being a mom, you hear your child cry you can't ignore it and keep sleeping and that child of mine needs a night of sleep."

"But Ellie sleeps, all I see her do is sleep." Luke said.

"Ah yes, you only see her in the day light normally, this one is a night owl like her grandma, she is the most awake between two and four a.m."

"Where will she sleep I mean, I don't have the equipment at my house for her to sleep there."

"She will sleep in the bed with us."

"Oh…no, no way Lorelai, what if I rolled over her in the night or something."

"You won't you don't roll over me randomly in the middle of the night."

"But she is little, and I am big and it just spells trouble."

"She will be fine. Now take her for a second while I grab a couple of bottles Rory pumped this afternoon and we will be off."

"What..no…I'll get…" He couldn't object the next thing he knew Ellie was in his arms looking up at him.

"Support her neck." Lorelai advised as she walked into the kitchen to get the bottles.

"Hey she likes you." Lorelai said walking back into the living room.

"Would you just take her before she starts to cry or something."

"Oh…you are a bigger baby than she is, just hold her while I get the car seat would you."

Lorelai gathered Ellies things into her diaper bag, then took her from Luke and laid her in her fleece lined papoose and zipped her up and put her in the car seat.

"Okay I think that is everything, diapers, bottles, blankets, fresh clothes, binkeys, burp cloths, wipes, yeah I think that's it. You ready?"

"Lorelai I am not so sure about this." Luke said trying to make one more protest.

"Luke, honey, I love you, but you have to get past this I am scared of a seven pound bundle of flesh. She isn't going to hurt you, you aren't going to hurt her. Now would you please go start the car, I don't want her to get too cold on the way over."

"But,…"

"But nothing, if you are going to be dating her grandma, you are going to have to get used to playing grandpa…" Lorelai said her eyes immediately shifted from his as she said that. "Would you just go start the car." She said trying to cover her tracks.

Luke walked out with a smile, maybe now wasn't the best time to ask with all the excitement, but is was good to know that Lorelai was on the same page as he was.

Ellie cried all the way to the Diner and didn't stop until after Lorelai changed her, fed her and burped her. Once she was calm again Lorelai sat with her on the edge of Lukes bed waiting for him to come in from the shower.

He walked in still toweling dry his hair.

"Ahh, you look relaxed, I really want to take one now, would you watch her please, I will be two minutes, I promise." Lorelai said giving him her best sad eyes.

"I dunno Lore."

"She is a week old Luke and I am going to be three feet away. She is fed changed and burped, we are just waiting for those little eyes to close, which because after one week of life she has been spoiled to death, she only does when being held, so…" Lorelai said giving him her best pretty please eyes.

"Two minutes." Luke said putting out his arms to receive Ellie.

"Thank you, thank you." Lorelai said handing her over and kissing his cheek.

"You are getting so lucky later." She said with a wink.

"Not with the baby here." He objected.

She laughed as she walked into the bath room leaving a flustered Luke in her wake.

Lorelai of course took longer than her promised two minutes in the shower. Luke reminded her of her time limit at the six and ten minute time lapses, he gave up after what would have been the fifteen minute complaining, but she heard him coming and told him she would be just a couple more minutes.

A frustrated Luke sat down with Ellie who was still fighting sleep. He began to amuse himself by talking to her.

"You want to know something Ellie, if you want to be a real man killer when you get big, it doesn't matter what you wear, or what you look like, or even that you have your grandmas eyes, if you could just one time out of ten, be ready on time, or early, early would make him want to marry you."

Lorelai emerged from the bathroom where she had been listening to Luke talk to Ellie.

"What kind of lies are you telling her?" Lorelai said leaning over and kissing his forehead.

"The truth…about how to get a man."

"Oh really."

"Yeah, maybe she will grow up to not have quite as many interesting quirks as you and her mother have."

"Oh, I thought you liked my quirks."

"Oh I do…" He said trying to hand her Ellie.

"Uh..uh not yet Mr. interesting quirks."

"I just mean, that most people when they say they are going to be two minutes try to keep with in at least some semblance of the time frame."

"Two minutes is just an expression, for a quick time."

"Did you hear that Ellie twenty minutes is quick now." Luke said to the baby.

"Besides you like my quirks." She said taking Ellie from him and laying her on the bed and putting pillows around her.

"What are you doing?"

"Keeping her from rolling away, granted she can't even support her own head yet how she is gonna roll…"

"Why are you doing that?"

"Well…I just thought that I would remind you of some other quirk I have that you have always been quite fond of…"Lorelai said kissing his neck.

"Lorelai the baby is right there."

"She isn't watching and even if she was she doesn't know what she is seeing."

"I can't not with her…"

"Luke I haven't slept over for two weeks you are seriously telling me that because there is a baby in your house, you aren't going to take advantage of the situation?"

Luke thought about it for a second.

"You sure that she doesn't know?"

"Positive." She said with a grin.

Lorelai was in the bathroom freshening up after their romp when Ellie began to cry. Luke walked over to the door and called in to her.

"She is crying."

"I can hear, pick her up, and walk around with her I will be a second."

"Lore…"

"Luke, I will be there in a second." She said.

Luke walked over to the baby and looked down at her for a second; her face was red from tears. Reluctantly he scooped her up into his arms and began to walk around his apartment.

"The walking isn't working." Luke called.

"Try singing or humming something to her, something soothing." Lorelai called still in the bathroom.

Frustrated with the situation Luke sighed and tried to think if he knew any kids songs and came up with nothing.

"I don't, I don't know any kids songs." He called to her.

"Anything." Lorelai called over Ellies whales.

"You are lucky I love your grandma kid…" He said as he cleared his throat.

"I'm wasting away again in Maragritaville, looking for my lost shaker of salt…" He half sang and half spoke as he walked and rocked with the baby.

"Some people say that there's a woman to blame…but I know…it's my own…uh…da…darn fault." Luke sang not knowing if him saying damn would permanently stick with her.

Lorelai emerged from the bathroom.

"I blew out my flip flop, stepped on a pop-pop…burnt my heel had to cruise on back home…but there is booze in the blender…and so it will render…that frozen concoction to help me hang on…"

Lorelai came up behind Luke who hadn't yet noticed her presence.

"Jimmy Buffet? You chose to sing her Jimmy Buffet?" Lorelai mocked taking the now calm Ellie from him.

"It made her quit crying didn't it? And besides it is the only song I know all the words to."

"That is the saddest thing I have ever heard." Lorelai said.

The three laid down after that for the night, and miracle of miracles Ellie didn't wake up again until six a.m.

Luke had already woken up and went down stairs to open the Diner.

Lorelai fed her a bottle and gave her a bath, after she had Ellie all dressed she got herself ready and took her downstairs for breakfast.

She had barely sat the car seat down on the table when Babbette and Patty swarmed around her.

"Oh look at her tiny hands." Patty cooed.

"She has Rorys nose." Babbette added.

"Who's going to be a pretty ballerina? Who is..Ellie is…" Patty went on.

"She is just the sweetest little thing…such a good baby, is she a good baby Lorelai?" Babbette asked.

"She is a very good baby, she likes to be awake in the night a bit more than her mom would like, but she is a good baby." Lorelai said with a smile.

"Bless her heart. Where is Rory?" Patty wondered.

"She is at home sleeping, Luke and I kept her upstairs last night to give Rory a good nights sleep she hasn't really had one yet. She should be here soon, I called her before we came down, this little one is going to be ready to eat again her self soon." Lorelai said.

"Well, you tell her if she needs anyone to watch her, Patty and I'd be glad too." Babbette said.

"I will." Lorelai said as the women walked away.

It wasn't but a few moments later that Lane came in for her shift.

"Oh…there she is…" Lane said when she saw the baby seat on the table.

"Yep, that's her, I tried to fit Rory in there but it didn't work." Lorelai said.

"Can I hold her?" Lane asked excitedly.
"Of course you can, just be very careful about her neck." Lorelai said picking up Ellie and handing her to Lane.

"Hi…" Lane said in a very awkward baby voice. "I'm your aunt Lane remember me, I have come to see you a lot but you are always asleep, yes…you are so cute aren't you. Yes you are. Yes you are. Who is the cutest baby, you're the cutest baby…" Lane said making faces at a sleeping Ellie.

"I hate to interrupt such intelligent conversation, but there are customers waiting Lane." Luke said walking up to her.

"Boo, hiss…meany." Lorelai teased Luke.

"Hey I let her have slide for a couple minutes now, it is time to work." Luke said as Lane handed Ellie back to Lorelai.

"It's okay, he's right…bye Ellie, you sweet, sweet girl." Lane cooed as she walked away from the table.

Luke leaned close to Lorelai as if he were about to tell her some kind of secret.

"Do you think it is a good idea to pass her around like that to everyone?"

"Sure Luke why not?" Lorelai asked wondering where this paranoid line of questioning would lead.

"Well don't you think the more transfers from person to person, the higher the likelihood of her being dropped."

"You think that Babbette, Lane, or Miss Patty would drop her."

"Well, maybe not on purpose but accidents happen." Luke said.

"She will be fine Luke." Lorelai said as Rory walked through the door of the diner.

"There is mommy." Lorelai said waving Ellies hand at Rory.

"Hi honey." Rory said hurrying over to Ellie and taking her from Lorelai. "Mommy missed you." She said kissing her face.

"She was a perfect little angel and Luke sang her Maragritaville." Lorelai told her daughter.

"What? Do I want to know?"

"Probably not." Lorelia assumed.

"So she was good? She wasn't any trouble."

"My granddaughter could never be any trouble." Lorelai said to Ellie.

"Speaking of grandparents, what is the plan for tonight?"

"We need a plan now?"

"Well with Ellie and the time issue."

"What time issue?"

"I have found that it takes an average of twenty minutes to get her already to go, so we need to be ready to leave by six so she can be ready by six twenty and we can go." Rory said nonchalantly.

"Wow hon, you really have this figured out don't you."

"I just don't want to be the girl who had a baby and then is always late. I hate that."

"All right then, we are taking your car then?" Lorelai said.

"Uh, yeah she is not riding in that death trap you drive."

"It has been fine for you for eight years and now it is a death trap?" Lorelai scoffed.

"Mom." Rory said cuddling with Ellie.

"Okay, I am sorry, we take your car."

Ellie began to cry.

"I think she is hungry." Lorelai said.

"Yeah, I think you are right. Will you hand me her blanket." Rory said unbuttoning her shirt and getting ready to feed Ellie.

Luke rushed up to the table.

"You can't do that here." Luke said as Rory pulled the blanket over she and Ellie and began to feed her.

"Luke, she is hungry, you wouldn't let her just be hungry would you?"

"It isn't sanitary…"

"You're diner? Probably not…" Rory said with a smile.

Luke knew he was beat.

"Just keep that blanket there." Luke said in protest.

"Face it Luke, you can't say no to a Lorelai." Lorelai said as he walked away. "You have him wrapped around your finger."

"Me? You are the one sleeping with him."

"He has a soft spot for you too, I think you might have a better lock on him that I do." Lorelai said letting her gaze settle on Luke.

"You think?" Rory asked.

"I know. And…Ellie…well, she has him on the ropes for the whole I don't like baby things…she is about to convert him." Lorelai said with a laugh.

Luke looked over at the girls when he heard their laughter. Sometimes he couldn't believe that he was actually with Lorelai now. He had imagined it for so long and now, there she was looking over at him and blushing. And Rory he always felt so protective of her and now with Ellie, he never expected to look at a baby and think, I must protect this creature, but he did when he looked at her. He knew that he couldn't wait much longer…if he didn't ask Lorelai soon, he was going to burst, the thought of it made a smile cross his face.

"Lorelai Victoria Danes…I like the sound of that." He thought to himself.

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You love me, I love you…do me a favor and please review…or I will sing more Barney too. Ha ha ha.