Disclaimer: I don't own them, I borrow them.
A/N: This very well could be the last chapter…let me know what you think. Please read and review, I need the input to decide this fictions fate, if it is done here, or if I go on…maybe I leave this one and start another a few years from now. I would love to hear what you thought of it as a whole and what you think about it living on. Thanks to all who have reviewed and all who will review I appreciate it! Miss Wallow.
Chapter 15: The more things change…
The town was still buzzing about the recent nuptials of two of it's most beloved residents when they returned from their honeymoon two weeks after their wedding. People had been talking about the wedding non-stop since they left. It was the most waited union everyone agreed, in Stars Hollow history, and a love story that would surly be told for a long time to come. There was just something romantic about their story. Loving each other in silence for years, becoming friends and then after much time and heart break for both they found their happily ever after in each other.
Luke could have done with going home and catching a shower before heading out into town, but Lorelai was insistent upon getting to the Diner to see her daughter and granddaughter right away.
Rory had spent the last two weeks in a love haze all her own, and adding in the newly found freedom of her own apartment she was finally starting to feel like an independent woman again rather than a child living at home again with her mother. Not to say she didn't miss her mother but, after being away for so long it wasn't easy to just go back to that kind of life. As she woke up and looked over at the man that lay sleeping in her bed, she reveled in the perks of independent living. As "cool" as her mom might be, having a boy in her bed in her childhood home, would have gone over like a lead balloon.
She lay looking at Marty as he slept and studied his every feature. She never would have thought that he would have such a body hidden under those clothes, nor would she have believed if you had told her a year ago, that she would be waking up with him in the morning.
"You're doing it again." He said to her eyes still closed to the morning light.
"What." Rory said.
"You are staring at me while I am sleeping." He said with a smile, but still not opening his eyes.
"Maybe." She said playfully.
"I can feel your eyes on me." He said wrapping an arm around her and rolling her onto his stomach; it was only then, that they were nose to nose in the morning light he opened his eyes to meet hers. "Good morning." He said, receiving his morning kiss.
"Good morning." She said going in for another.
They were about to get carried away when a little gurgling giggle came from across the room. They both laughed, she may not have her mother to keep her from any monkey business, but her daughter was doing a fine job.
"Go back to sleep Ellie." Rory called playfully.
Ellie responded by clapping.
"I don't think you are going to convince her." Marty said allowing Rory to sit up in bed and look over at her daughter. Ellie pulled herself up to the crib rail and babbled to them.
"You ever think that she is saying something to us, we just can't understand what it is?" Marty said.
"I think that is…change my diaper, in Ellie." Rory said walking over and retrieving her daughter. As she laid her on the changing table Marty stood behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist. This wasn't the thought he had of them when he first met Rory naked in the halls of their Yale dormitory, in all the visions he had, it was the two of them alone, but this vision though different from the one he had first pondered was perfect all the same.
Luke and Lorelai had arrived at the diner only moments before the trio made their way down the stairs and as they came through the curtain behind the counter, it was a surprise to all.
"Mom." Rory said rushing to her mother and giving her a hug. "I wasn't expecting you back until later this afternoon."
"Well the thanks to the pit stop Nazi over here…" She said gesturing to her husband. "We made good time."
It was at that moment that both Luke and Lorelai's stares settled on Marty who was standing holding Ellie behind her.
"Marty, good to see you again." Lorelai said with- holding any judgment.
Luke looked at his watch before he spoke.
"A little early to just be getting here, isn't it Marty." He said in a nice, yet threatening tone.
"Well…uhh…" Marty stammered remembering the talk they had had the night of the wedding.
"Rory…" Luke said questioning his step-daughter.
"What, he stayed over." Rory said copping a what's your point attitude.
"I see." Luke said taking a deep breath and exhaling through his nose.
"Luke, come on." Lorelai said putting and arm around him and stroking his back in attempt to calm him.
"I thought we had an agreement." Luke said looking directly at Marty.
"Yes, sir, we did, I told you I wouldn't hurt her, and I haven't." Marty said trying to not show his fear.
"Uh-huh." Luke said not amused.
"He stayed over…I don't see the problem." Rory said annoyed.
"The problem is, he and I had a deal." Luke said standing.
"Sir, I would never break my word to you, but…"
"Luke, relax, I mean…we know she…well…" Lorelai took Ellie from Marty. "Behold your granddaughter." Lorelai said trying to make the point of her daughters lack of innocence without just coming out and saying it.
As Lorelai held Ellie out in front of him she reached out her arms for him to take her. He forgot his anger for a moment and allowed the baby to come to him. She giggled and put her little slobber soaked hands on his cheeks and playfully patted them.
"Hey baby girl, did you miss your papa." Luke said letting his frustrations slip away in the presence of the child.
"Papa!" Ellie mocked and giggled.
"Did she just?" Rory said looking at her mother.
"Say papa?" Lorelai finished.
"Papa." Elli squealed again.
Luke couldn't believe his ears, and frankly neither could anyone else.
"That's right…papa… I'm grandma." Lorelai said as her granddaughter just stared at her not amused. "No fair, you get the easy name."
"Ellie…mama." Rory said pointing to herself and holding her hands out for her to come to her.
Ellie laid her head on Luke's shoulder as if to say no way to her mother.
"Ellie go see mommy." Luke said trying to hand her off.
"Papa!" Ellie shouted in disagreement.
"I think she wants her papa." Marty said trying to sneak in brownie points with Luke.
"You aren't off the hook just yet." Luke said.
"Luke, you gave her that apartment, you can't lord it over her now." Lorelai said.
Luke knew that when it came to Rory, Lorelai would always have the final say and if she didn't have a problem with Marty staying over, he had to put aside his newly honed fatherly protectiveness and allow for the coop.
"Have you had breakfast yet?" Luke asked.
"No sir." Marty answered for them.
"Sit down, I'll make some pancakes." Luke said handing Ellie to Lorelai and walking back towards the kitchen.
"Close one." Lorelai said as they sat down at a table.
"I know what is with him?" Rory asked still a bit annoyed that Marty had met with attack.
"He is just still feeling out his new job titles." Lorelai said. "I think, we have nailed down what his husbandly duties entail…garbage…make me happy, fix things, make me happy, cook, make me happy…"
"Ok, I think we get it."
"But I don't think that he is sure of how to handle being your step-dad." Lorelai said.
"Why does anything have to change, he has always been like a dad, he has done fine, really hasn't lost it on me yet…" Rory said.
"I will work on him. I have many ways to persuade him."
"Mom!" Rory said pointing at Marty.
"What? If he is sleeping with you he can hear this conversation…"
"Mom!"
"What…honey, we know you have sex it's okay, the cats out of the bag, we call her Ellie, honey meet your daughter." Lorelai said joking with her daughter. "Just be warned Marty, what ever you do…I will know…either she will tell me or I will use my many proven ways to get her to talk." Lorelai said winking at Marty and making him a little uncomfortable. Lorelai loved messing with him, it was too easy.
The bell rang above the door and Sookie rushed in.
"Ahhhh…I heard you were back early, why are you back early is everything all right, where's Luke, what happened, oh my God, you didn't leave him did you…what were you thinking, you just got married,…" Sookie babbled a mile a minute.
"Sookie, relax…he is in the kitchen, we just made good time."
"Oh since when have you made good time anywhere, you take like a million pit stops."
"Ah…and my million versus his none, makes for a quick trip." Lorelai said.
"I am not going to stop at every road side tourist trap and buy useless crap that I will wonder why I have in a couple of days." Luke said as he walked up to the table with the pancakes.
"That crap is not useless." Lorelai argued.
"What pray tell are you going to do with your new collection of shot glasses with dumb phrases like Virgina is for lovers on them?"
"You wait, when I die that is what everyone will be fighting over." Lorelai said.
"There will be no fighting." Rory said. "Have dibs."
"Still, I don't understand you two." Luke said sitting down.
"And if you wish to remain sane, pray you never will." Lorelai said kissing his cheek.
"So how was the trip?" Marty asked fearing being silent, but also knowing that piping up could get him in trouble. Thankfully it seemed that Lorelai had one this round of the argument and they began to tell them all about the honey moon.
Later that night, after spending the rest of the day running errands and playing with Ellie, Luke and Lorelai returned home to face the mountains of boxes that now inhabited the living room of the formerly Gilmore house. Lorelai couldn't help but smile when they returned to see that someone had re-painted the mail box to read Danes in black letters it was a pleasant reminder that this was now their home. The stacks of Luke's stuff through out the house…were a bigger reminder to that fact.
"Seriously honey, I thought I knew the answer to this but now I am not sure…are you sure you aren't a woman?" Lorelai said wading through the boxes that filled their living room.
"What!" He called a bit annoyed at his wife for interrupting his work unpacking.
"Nothing." Lorelai said.
"You know what the most annoying thing in the world is?" Luke said impatiently.
"Jessica Simpson on helium?" She guessed.
"No, someone talking to you, when they are too far away for you to hear them and then, when you ask what they said…they say…nothing." He said.
"It really was nothing, and I don't care to repeat it." She said sticking her tongue out at him playfully.
"Come here you." He said pulling her through the mounds of boxes over to his lap.
"Luke seriously where did you keep all this stuff in that tiny apartment?" Lorelai asked astonished.
"Away, everything had a place it was never so compact as it is now, it will find a place." He said.
Lorelai looked around the living room and noticed something missing in the small chair under the window.
"Where is the clown pillow Luke?"
"What clown pillow?" He replied innocently.
"The one that normally sits in that chair." She said pointing to it's home.
"I don't know, maybe one of the movers packed it and sent it over to Rory's." He said.
"I haven't seen it over there, have you?" Lorelai asked.
"Well, no…"Luke said.
"Come on Luke where is it? Did you do something with it?" She askd.
"I put it in the attic." He finally admitted.
"You what?" Lorelai asked shocked.
"I put it in the attic."
"Why?"
"Because it gave me the creeps."
"A pillow gave you the creeps?"
"A pillow with a clown on it yes, it gave me the creeps." He said.
"Are you telling me that you, Luke Danes, tough as nails…are afraid of clowns?"
"I am not afraid of them…I just don't like them."
"How can you not like clowns, that is like not liking Santa."
"Frankly, I could do with out him too."
"Oh my God, how can you not like Santa…I love Santa!"
"They are all creepy, any guy that puts on a suit and acts all happy to lure kids in…."
"Ok, Luke you have always been a little ba-humbug…but jeez this is…"
"I know, you can't tell anyone."
"Tell them what?" She said with a smile.
"That I am afraid of clowns." He muttered under his breath.
She cracked up laughing and knocked over some boxes.
"It isn't funny Lorelai."
"Yes, it is." She said laughing even harder.
"Lorelai stop it." Luke said.
Lorelai composed her self again and looked at Luke who didn't seem at all amused.
"Okay, I won't tell anyone."
"That is your first promise as my wife, so you better keep it." Luke warned.
"I will." She said with a chuckle.
"Lorelai…" He called as she bolted up the stairs.
"What…" She called back to him as she fell up the stairs in laughter.
"Don't make me come up there…" Luke said.
"I really think you should…" She called in her best get naked voice.
Luke couldn't resist the call as he followed her up the stairs forgetting for a moment the large amounts of unpacking still left to do.
Laying in bed that night as she was about to fall asleep Lorelai looked around the darkened room. Luke had fallen asleep shortly after round three, but she was still wide awake. So many things had changed so quickly over the last year, so many things that would never be the same. Rory moved back in had a baby and had now moved back out, she had married Luke and was now starting a new chapter in her crazy life with him, so many things had changed but, Lorelai had never been so happy or excited. She couldn't sleep, slowly and quietly she crawled out of bed trying hard to not wake Luke.
"Where are you going." He mumbled half asleep as he felt her weight leave the bed.
"Shhh…I can't sleep, go back to bed." She said quietly and stood in the dark in silence for a moment until she heard his faint snore. Then she crept out of their room and down the stairs.
She meandered in and out of the boxes for a while, looking at Luke's things, all the things that had meant something to him in his life, all the things that once lived in that apartment across town that held so many memories for him and for their relationship. It was his fathers office, then his apartment, he lived with Jess there, he had not lived with Nicole there, it was the first place they had made love, and now her daughter was making her own memories there with her own daughter. She walked into the kitchen and stood in the doorway of Rory's room, it looked much as it had when she still lived there, she hadn't taken everything when she left. The books were still on the shelf, and some of Ellie's baby clothes lay on the dresser. Lorelai loved her new life, but couldn't help but be a little home sick for her old one. It had always been the two of them, the unsinkable Gilmore girls, and now, Rory was gone, and Lorelai was not even a Gilmore anymore. Sure Rory had just moved across town, and they still saw each other every day but it was a different kind of life for them now.
Across town Rory lay awake in the light from the town square. Marty lay next to her sleeping not a care in the world as she snuck from bed. She walked over to the crib where her daughter slept and looked in on her as she did most nights. She stood there watching her daughter sleep and wondered if it was possible to have the kind of relationship with her daughter, which she had with her mother. Theirs was not a typical kind of relationship, and the chances of that kind of bond between the two of them seemed unlikely. Ellie would grow up differently than Rory did, for most of her life, Rory didn't see her grand parents and Ellie saw hers every day. Rory didn't have her father present as Ellie wouldn't, but Rory hoped that Marty would be the one to fill that void for her much like Luke had for Rory. Now, Lorelai was married to the man that Rory had always looked to when she needed a male influence. Their lives were different forever, she wondered if Lorelai felt the days when it was just the two of them slipping away like she did. That was when she saw the light from her cell phone on the table. Quickly and quietly she walked over to the table and picked it up, it was her mother.
"Hello." She whispered.
"Rory, it's me, I am down stairs, come let me in." Lorelai said.
Rory closed her phone and gingerly walked out the front door and down the stairs. Lorelai stood outside the diner door dancing in the cold of the night. As Rory opened the door she rushed inside.
"Geez, could you please move a little slower." Lorelai said as she entered and went straight for the coffee maker.
"Sorry. Mom what are you doing?"
"Coffee." Lorelai said picking pouring the grounds into the coffee maker.
"No, I mean here, what are you doing here." Rory asked.
"Couldn't sleep." Lorelai said still shaking.
"So, you thought…coffee, from Luke's, when you actually can have Luke's coffee in your own home?" Rory said.
"I just wanted to see, if you were awake, thought we might be able to have a pow-wow." Lorelai said in her usual hurried tone.
"It is two a.m." Rory said.
"Since when has that been a problem." Lorelai said.
"I dunno since…"
"Since everything changed." Lorelai finished.
"Well mom." Rory said.
"See Rory, we can't let this happen." Lorelai said. "We can just let it all go just because some things have changed doesn't mean we have to let everything change, I don't want to lose that, our stuff, it's not right, I won't allow it."
"Well me either, but don't you think your husband might wonder where you are?"
"I left him a note if he wakes up…"Lorelai said.
"Mom…"
"I know hon, I know I am married now, I have to grow up and be responsible, but I have lived 37 years, raised a kid, bought a house, started a business and thus far have avoided the having to grow up and be responsible trap, why is it that now that I have a ring on my finger everything has to change."
"You getting married isn't the only thing that has changed." Rory said sympathetic. "I have a kid. One who is starting to talk…and wants to walk…and I am terrified is never going to have the kind of relationship with me that I have with you."
"Oh hon, she will, we can make sure of that."
"I miss us." Rory said accepting a hot cup of coffee from her mother. Lorelai came around the counter and sat on the stool beside her.
"Me too." Lorelai said.
"So what do we do." Rory asked.
"What we always have, see that is the thing…we stopped doing what we always did because there was more than just you and me. Who says we can't just tweak what we do and include Luke, Ellie and Marty."
"Would I be an awful mother I said I don't want include Ellie, or Marty or Luke. I miss movie night, I miss grab bag night at Al's, I miss Sephora days, and eating tons of miss matched food until one of us gives up and we both wanted to die."
"Yeah those were good times." Lorelai said.
"Are they done?"
"I dunno, maybe." Lorelai said.
"I was afraid of that."
"I mean, maybe they are over but…I don't know…who is to say that, teaching Ellie to walk and talk, and me getting to know Marty and starting new traditions with all of them won't be as fun."
"Yeah, I can't believe she said papa." Rory said.
"I know Luke couldn't stop talking about it all day, he was like did you hear her, and going on and on, he has a real soft spot for that girl."
"What was my first word?" Rory asked.
"I wish I could tell you it was something original like book, or something, but I still remember you looked right at me and you said mama and you had me all over again. Man kid, I fall in love with you over again every day. It is the coolest thing." Lorelai said.
"I know what you mean…I mean I really do, there are days where I am like, I couldn't love Ellie more and then, I do…" Rory said with a smile.
"So…we haven't talked about the boy." Lorelai said taking a pie out from under the glass and grabbing two forks.
"Luke is going to kill us you know."
"Nah…we are married now, all of this…" She said gesturing around the room. "Is half mine." Lorelai said with a smile.
"That's right isn't it…well…after the dance we came back here to look at the place…" Rory started to tell her mother.
They were still in the diner talking in their pajamas when the sun came up and Luke arrived to open the diner. He just smiled at them and laughed, he was glad to see they were back, it had seemed to him for a while, neither one of them knew how to get back there. He went put on a fresh pot of coffee and went back and made breakfast. Soon Marty came down with Ellie and the five of them sat and had breakfast together talking and laughing. Luke warned Marty of what he was getting into, as Ellie babbled on and on about nothing. "Much like her mother and grandmother do." Luke said.
As Lorelai walked back to her house after breakfast she was happy in the realization that maybe things never would be the same, but that was okay, because now, things were better than they had ever been before. And as Rory lay down in her bed with Marty and Ellie between them, she was happy knowing that maybe things would change forever more, but some changes, even those you cannot predict, or plan…were the best kind.