Father's Day

Finally got the fourth part up! This one was harder because it's really, really hard to write Luke as a father with nothing to go off of, lol. I hope it works and seems believable. And after this I must go back to writing papers for school. There's some writing I don't enjoy. ;) Oh, btw, I meant to say in part 1, I know I changed a little bit about Luke's dad and the boat. In 5.10 he says that it hasn't been touched since his dad died, but I wanted it to be for his mom, so I changed that a little. ;)

Disclaimer: Still not mine, would you have guessed?

2014

Lorelai sighed and looked at the mess in the kitchen.

There was a reason she always let Luke cook. And apparently their children should learn about this reason, too. Especially because she probably cooked just about as well as the four and six year-olds and she had no clue how to fix the messes they had prepared.

"Mommy, more eggs!" four year-old Ava instructed.

"Okay, whoa, how many eggs have you guys already put into the batter?"

Ava shrugged and six year-old William answered for her. "Six?"

"I think that's more than enough."

Ava frowned at the bowl in front of her and then shrugged again, going back to stirring it.

Oh man. She'd really gotten herself into a mess-- literally-- this time.

"What do we do now?" William asked with confusion.

"I think we make the pancakes," Lorelai told them.

"How?" William asked.

Lorelai laughed. "You've really got the wrong parent helping you out, here, kids."

"But we can't tell Daddy!" Ava said in a whisper.

"I know, I know," Lorelai said. "Hand me the bowl, I'll attempt to make the pancakes. But I refuse to take any responsibility if they come out tasting funny."

William and Ava followed her over to the stove where she attempted to turn the batter into pancakes. Finding out that she wasn't completely helpless when it came to cooking, she managed to make the pancakes without burning them. However, she was seriously afraid for how the batter had been prepared. Six eggs seemed like a little much, not to mention how carelessly they had measured the flour.

Oh well. That was the point of Father's Day, wasn't it? To have inedible food prepared for you by your children? She remembered the Mother's Days that Rory had prepared some seriously funny looking food for her. However, her Mother's Days with Luke around she had always gotten some amazing breakfasts. She'd have to make it up to Luke later. She smiled to herself, thinking of just how she could do that.

"Can we wake Daddy up?" William asked. "He's still asleep!"

Lorelai nodded. "Uh, sure. I think the pancakes are done. Why don't you go upstairs and give him the things you made for him and tell him how much you love him, then come down here and he can eat his delicious breakfast," she told them, her mind already trying to figure out how she could get Luke out of eating the food but not letting the kids know, "and then later Rory will come over and we'll all go out to lunch."

"Rory's coming?" William asked happily.

Ava clapped her hands in excitement. "Yay, Rory!"

"Yep, Rory's coming," Lorelai told them, piling the pancakes onto a plate. Note to self, she thought, from now on go to breakfast with Rory, then Luke won't get stuck with food that isn't edible.

"Daddy doesn't let us wake you up on Mother's Day," William stated.

"Well, that's because Daddy's smart. Mommy, not so much."

"I made him pictures," Ava said, scurrying over to the kitchen table and holding up a pile of paper.

"He'll love them," Lorelai told her, taking the plate with pancakes to the table and placing them in the center, then dropping a kiss on Ava's head.

"Let's go wake him up!" William said impatiently, grabbing the gift his class had made and wrapped in homemade paper they also made in class. Lorelai ran a hand through his hair and placed a kiss on his head as well.

"Go for it," she told them, and they immediately grabbed their gifts and scurried up the stairs to their parents' bedroom.

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She followed them upstairs and watched as William and Ava looked at each other, suddenly unsure about going into the bedroom and waking Luke up. They finally worked up their courage and bounded through the door and jumped on the bed.

Lorelai never thought that there would be a world in which Luke was the last one asleep in their household. William and Ava had apparently both taken his early riser quality. Normally, Luke would be up with them in the mornings as Lorelai was most definitely not the early riser they all were, but whenever he had a morning off on a weekend she would make sure to get up and take care of the kids so he could sleep a little later, which he would subconsciously take advantage of even though he would never admit it.

She winced as Ava landed right on him and William bounced around on the bed. His eyes popped open and she could tell that he knew she was behind encouraging them to do this, even being awake only for mere seconds. She bit her lip to keep from laughing and leaned against the doorway to watch the scene.

"Happy Father's Day!" William said, still bouncing around on the bed. "I got you something!" he added, waving the package at Luke.

"Me too, me too!" Ava exclaimed, holding out her pile of pictures she had drawn and forcing Luke to take them. Luke rubbed his eyes and then took the pictures from Ava, examining each of the three closely.

"You drew these?"

She nodded shyly. "Yeah."

"They're beautiful," Luke told her, and she looked down, blushing. He brushed a strand of dark hair out of her face—the Lorelai and Rory hair, he noted, Ava was going to look just like them—and kissed her on the forehead. "Thank you."

"You're welcome," she said quietly and she grinned and fell back on the bed, nestling herself next to Luke, letting her head rest on the abandoned pillow that belonged to Lorelai.

Next, Luke took the package from William and carefully unwrapped it, trying not to ruin the homemade wrapping paper. Inside was a picture frame painted purple and green, macaroni painted colors glued along the edges. Inside the frame was a picture of William on the school playground.

"We made it at school," he told Luke proudly. "Our teacher took the pictures and we made the frames!"

Luke smiled. "It's wonderful. It's a work of art."

William grinned. "Really?"

"Really," Luke told his son who happily shifted his position on the bed so that he could gaze at the picture frame himself. "Thank you. I love it."

William smiled again. "You're welcome. I love you Daddy."

"I love you too," Luke told him, kissing him on the head. "And I love you too," he told Ava, who smiled happily and rested her head on Luke's chest. A moment later a door slammed downstairs and William and Ava jumped up.

"Rory?" William asked no one in particular, looking for confirmation.

"Hello?" Rory's voice called. William and Ava sprung into action, jumping off the bed and running towards the door to go greet their older sister.

"Rory's here," William told Lorelai as he passed by her.

"I know, I hear," Lorelai said with a laugh, "tell her I'll be down in a minute," she told him, running a hand through his hair as he passed by. "And be careful on the stairs!" she called after them both.

She heard William and Ava happily greet Rory and could hear Rory talking to them as she stepped into the bedroom, looking at Luke.

He looked back at her. "You're going to pay for that."

"For what?" she asked innocently.

"The bruise I'm going to have on my stomach from Ava jumping on top of me."

Lorelai laughed. "Sorry. Next time I'll tell them to be gentle."

He rolled his eyes. "Just wait for Mother's Day. I'm sure they'd love to repeat the performance with you."

She laughed and settled down on the bed next to him. "I'll make it up to you," she told him softly, leaning down to drop kisses on his jaw. "I promise," she added with a glint in her eye.

He rolled his eyes and pulled her down to him. "I love you too, you know," he said.

"Hey, Father's Day here, I'm supposed to tell you that I love you."

"Well, I wouldn't even be a father without you, so I'm allowed to tell you."

She grinned. "Works for me," she told him. "Especially after all that work I did so that you could become a father. Twice."

He laughed and shook his head. "I appreciate it."

"You better," she joked. "You know I've spent twenty-seven months out of my life pregnant? That's over two complete years."

"DADDY!" Ava's voice called. "YOU HAVE TO COME HAVE BREAKFAST!"

Luke looked at Lorelai.

"Don't eat it," she told him with a laugh.

"Do I have a choice? How do I get out of it?"

She laughed. "I don't know. I'll distract them and you pretend you ate the pancakes."

"They can't be that bad."

"Think about it, Luke. They made the batter and I was the one helping them."

He winced. "Maybe you're right."

"I'll make that up to you later, too," she told him with a wink.

"I'll be looking forward to it."

She giggled. "You better be." She kissed him quickly. "I better go down there and see what they're doing to Rory. Happy Father's Day," she added before slipping out of the room.

Lorelai went downstairs and kissed Rory on the cheek. "Hey there."

She smiled. "Hey. Edible pancakes on the table," she added in a whisper.

Lorelai frowned. "What?"

Rory chuckled. "William told me last night on the phone that they were going to make pancakes today for Luke and that you were helping. So today I stopped by the diner on the way here and picked up some Caesar pancakes. Though not as fluffy as Luke's, they are edible. I switched them before the kids came down."

"You're a lifesaver, Babe," Lorelai said, kissing Rory on the head.

"Oh, I know," she teased.

After a breakfast that didn't kill Luke (and Lorelai, Rory, William and Ava also joined in eating since the pancakes were so good-- William and Ava were proud of themselves, having no clue they hadn't really made the pancakes), lunch later that day with all of them where Ava spilled her milk--twice, and a night of William and Ava entertaining Rory with various games they had invented, Father's Day came to an end as Rory headed home.

She gave Luke a hug and a kiss on the cheek before leaving. "Happy Father's Day," she told him. Ever since the year she had given him the box of her childhood Father's Day gifts, she had made a point of celebrating with him, even if it was only a phone call, especially after William and Ava had arrived and Father's Day was a big deal to them. She, of course, also celebrated with her father as well, but normally just sent him a card and gave him a phone call on the morning of Father's Day. Sometimes she felt a little guilty that that was all she did with him and she came over for Father's Day with Luke, but she shrugged it off. Her father was further away, her father had Gigi. She usually made plans to go see him sometime around Father's Day, but she never made it on the actual day.

Lorelai went upstairs to take a shower while Luke got William and Ava ready for bed. William had gone to his room to change into his pajamas while Luke helped Ava get ready for bed. William appeared in the doorway of Ava's room in his pajamas and rubbing his eyes.

"What's up?" Luke asked him.

"Nothing," he said.

"Daddy," Ava said, "tell me a story."

"A story?" Luke frowned.

"Yeah. Mommy tells us stories all the time," William added, coming into the room and settling on Ava's bed.

"Well, Mommy has quite an imagination in that head of hers, her stories are most likely better than anything I'll tell you."

"She told us about your wedding," William told him.

"Oh. Real stories," Luke realized, pulling the blankets down on Ava's bed so that she could settle under them. He pulled them over her and she settled down under the blankets, glancing at William who was sitting at the end of her bed.

"And she told us about your first date."

Luke frowned at this. "Which was?"

William laughed. "You should know."

"Dancing," Ava told him.

"Oh." He frowned again. "Yeah, I guess that was our first date."

"Why did you marry Mommy?" Ava added.

"Why did I... well, that's a tricky one."

"Yeah, why did you?" William asked.

"Because I love her."

"But you love us, too," William pointed out.

"Yes, but that's different. I'm your father."

"You love Rory," he added.

"I'm her stepfather."

"So why do you love Mommy?" Ava changed her question.

"Because."

"Because?" Ava asked with a frown.

"I can't explain it," Luke told them. He thought about it for a minute, then began to speak again. "When I was little, my mother used to tell me how much she loved my father," he told them, "and that I would never understand it until I experienced it one day myself. I think the same thing goes for both of you."

"Well I'm not getting married, ever!" William said, making a face of disgust.

Luke laughed. "Sure, okay. Whatever you want."

"Girls are weird," he added.

"Hey!" Ava said with a pout, reaching behind her to grab a pillow.

"Cut it out," Luke said, stopping Ava from throwing her pillow at William.

"But why do you love her?" Ava insisted, putting the pillow down.

"You really want an answer to this question, don't you?" he asked with a chuckle. Ava nodded and he sighed. "I just do. I love her because she's got this special personality… this little spark, because she's caring, because she's a great mother, because she's smart and amazing and determined and has been extremely successful with her life even though it hasn't been easy. She can do anything she puts her mind to. Everyone could learn a thing or two from her. And she's just... amazing."

"You already said that," William told him with a giggle.

"Well," he said, "she is. Just like both of you, okay?" he kissed Ava on the head and got up off her bed, then kissed William on the head as well. "Happy now?"

Ava nodded sleepily and rolled over onto her side and William nodded in agreement. He hopped off Ava's bed and headed to the door. "Night Daddy," he told Luke, heading out the door. "Night Mommy!" he added. Luke spun around and saw Lorelai standing in the doorway.

"Night Babe," she told William, stopping him to kiss him on the head. She came into Ava's room and kissed her as well and told her goodnight before turning off her light.

"How long were you standing there?" Luke asked, following her out of the room.

"Long enough," she said with a smirk.

"How long is 'long enough,' exactly?"

She laughed. "Give it up, I heard everything you said."

"Great," he mumbled. She chuckled.

"Oh, it's not that bad, I kinda had an idea that you feel that way about me."

"Well, still." She stopped him and smiled.

"So, Father's Day. You know you're an amazing father."

He shrugged. "Well, it's not hard to do with two great kids and an amazing stepdaughter."

"Well, they all adore you. You're their hero."

He scoffed. "Am not."

"Are too," she said. "And you're my hero too, you know."

"That I figured," he joked. She laughed and put her arms around his neck.

"Hey, so after all that talk about me in there, I think I definitely have to make up those things I was supposed to make up to you from this morning as well as thank you for your kind words."

He rolled his eyes. "You really are something, you know that?"

She laughed. "I've heard."

"Come on," she said, pulling him towards their bedroom with her arms still looped around his neck. "Let me show you just how amazing I am," she teased.

"I'm pretty sure I already know," he said softly. She grinned at him.

"Thank you for being an amazing father," she said. "Happy Father's Day."

"Well, then, thank you for the kids I'm a father to."

"No problem."

"That's not what you were saying when you were in labor."

She laughed. "My amazingness," she reminded him, tugging him to the bedroom. "Let's go."

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The End

Okay, so verdicts on that? lol. It's so hard to write Luke as a father, ahh. I think this series is done, unless I suddenly get hit one day with a great idea for another Luke Father's Day. :)

And I know, I know, William is hardly an original name for L/L's son, huh? lol. But I went original with Ava! Just picked it at random. I'm so used to reading their son as William that it's hard to use anything else now, haha.