Disclaimer: Nothing is legally mine. Sucks, doesn't it?

A/N: Nothing new to report, other than the fact that this chapter does have a little more substance… and not that naked LL fooling around time doesn't have substance… but this is plot thickening substance here, and with naked LL in the bathtub so you're not missing out on anything.

I tackled one more of the little tiny matters left unresolved in the season finale (hence the point of this entire saga), so hopefully I did an okay job with it and it will lead us to better things in the following chapters… oh and thanks for reading to my babbling nonsense.

Ch 4: Hiding Out in a Tub

Almost four hours later, they found themselves in a familiar place. Already within the past hours, they had attempted to take one bath, but Lorelai's playfulness and Luke's willingness got in the way of any actual bathing (in the most traditional sense, of course); they had eaten the six pancakes, with strawberries and whip cream, that Luke had made (four and a half for her, one for him, and the remaining half ended up on the floor somehow); they had watched one episode of Saved By The Bell… then spent twelve minutes discussing that its sole purpose for being on in the middle of the day was, as Lorelai put it, to keep the unemployed from committing suicide out of sheer boredom and find solace in Screech's lovable quirkiness; and all throughout the morning's events Lorelai had drank a total of seven cups of coffee, much to Luke's protest, but he couldn't refuse her anything on the morning after their engagement (not that he ever could refuse her of anything on any other relatively normal day, but at least this was a dignified excuse.)

But the familiar place they found themselves in once again was the bathtub. And this time they were actually bathing. Well, to some extent.

The bathtub was practically overflowing with bubbles and the room smelled like tangerines and grapefruit, softly lit by the light sneaking in through the small window. Along the counter sat four candles that were more than halfway gone, which added to the glow that Lorelai was going on about.

Luke had his legs stretched out in the tub, his back curved against the slope of it. Lorelai sat crossed-legged on top of his knees and faced him as she worked on creating a bubble beard on Luke's face.

"So when did you go to the mall?" Lorelai asked in disbelief. She furrowed her brows, both in confusion and concentration.

Luke rolled his eyes. "If you don't drop it, I won't buy them for you again."

Lorelai put her hands up in mock surrender. "Okay, okay… It's just a very sweet gesture, Luke. That's all…" Lorelai paused, which suggested to him that she was done… but she wasn't. "I mean, I just can't believe you went to Victoria's Secret to get my favorite candles! Well, I can see the allure of that store for you, obviously… but I just thought that your hatred of chain stores and malls could withstand sexy lingerie models." Lorelai shook her head in mock disappointment, still focusing on covering Luke's left cheek with foam.

Luke rolled her eyes and ignored the accusation though. "Yeah, well, I thought you'd like having them here. You do have, like, almost twenty of them at home."

"True…" she said interrupting.

"But if this is what I'm gonna have to go through next time I buy you something girly or pink or fruity smelling…"

"No, no! I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I swear, I love it. And I love you. And I will never again annoy you for doing such a sweet thing…" Lorelai had not realized that she had said she loved him, and smiled in the afterthought of it; she did love the fact that she didn't even have to think about whether or not it was appropriate to say it. She could say it whenever she wanted to, now. "Well, I won't intentionally try to annoy you…" she said with a smirk.

"Yeah, yeah," Luke said smiling at Lorelai's little declaration. She had said it many times, but every time he couldn't help but produce a smile.

"Don't smile! You'll ruin it and I'm almost done," Lorelai said while smoothing the bubbles along his jaw line that had shifted. "Okay, finished," she said triumphantly.

Lorelai scooted down his legs, away from him, to lean against the opposite wall of the tub. She now sat in between his feet.

"Well, how does it look?"

Lorelai examined him, her eyes narrow for a moment. She gave him a small nod as she said frankly, "kind of like Santa Claus."

"Oh, exactly the look I was going for," Luke said sarcastically.

She laughed, her lips curving into a crooked smile. She said seductively, "but you are much… much hotter than Santa."

"Okay new topic. I'm starting to get creepy images here."

"Yeah, okay… still dirty, though," Lorelai said, leaning forward to brush off the already messy bubbles. When she brushed her fingers near his lips, Luke caught her wrist and lingeringly kissed her palm.

She sat back and smiled at him affectionately. Her head titled against the brass faucet, her legs stretched out between his. Luke held her feet in his hands and rubbed circles around her ankle. His face had on the same enamored smile Lorelai's wore.

And then out of nowhere, Luke sat up and asked quickly: "You don't want four in four do you?"

Lorelai's eyes shot open and she shifted so that she was sitting up more, too. "What? No. Wait, do you?" she sputtered out.

"No… I mean, unless you want that," Luke said quietly. He looked down for a moment before he continued shyly, "But I just always thought maybe one, maybe two…"

Lorelai relaxed slowly at this, her eyes still wide (but now with excitement rather than shock). She spoke softly and smiled at him, "My thoughts exactly." Oh thank God. Yeah, I didn't think he could possibly want four in four… especially after that oh-so-subtle rant of his when Jackson had mentioned the idea a while ago… One or two does sound kind of perfect, Lorelai thought.

She was still surprised at herself though. This was now her second baby talk—not circumlocution or talk with subtext, but an actual and real discussion of them two and a potential child—with Luke in the past 24 hours, and she anticipated what would come of it all. She was shocked when she thought suddenly that only a few days ago she was relieved as hell that she wasn't pregnant, thinking that Luke would run if he knew… Oh shit. And the pang that came of that little forgotten detail hit her like big yellow school bus.

Her body stiffened slightly, and she broke her gaze with him. She leaned her head flat on the edge of the tub and looked up at the ceiling. She knew she had to tell him. She hadn't planned on it—well she knew she had to eventually, she had just got caught up in everything that it had sort of slipped her mind. She felt like an idiot… a royal bitch, really. She knew it was his right to know; she knew she had to be honest.

Lorelai brought her head off the edge of the tub and eyed Luke, his head was in the same position she had just had hers at the opposite end of the tub. Lorelai placed her hands on his, which rested on her knees, and she fully pulled herself up to look at him more seriously.

Luke brought his head up to look at her. She looks… weird, he thought. Luke smiled reassuringly at her and spoke gently, "What's up?"

Okay, its fine. The worst thing that will happen is he'll get a little mad… right? Maybe he won't be mad… no, I'm sure he'll get kind of mad. Of course he won't run, though; he said he wanted it. He said he wants "one, maybe two". He bought a house for the kids and me. (We should probably talk about that at some point, and she made a mental note of it.) It will be fine… I just have to be gentle about it all, introduce it in a delicate way, be sensitive… Lorelai had been silent for a while, and this worried Luke.

He grabbed her hands that sat in her lap under the bubbles. "Lorelai, just tell me."

And then she had lost her control of all delicacy, sensitivity, and eloquence. She didn't shout, but was forceful. "I thought I was pregnant!" She said it all so quickly that the words ran together fluidly.

Immediately after the split second it had taken her to realize that she had just delivered the news in the worst way possible, Lorelai covered her face with her hands, leaving Luke's limp in her lap. Oh yeah, great way to deliver the news, Lorelai… very sensitive and fragile… she thought, shaking her head ever so slightly in her hands.

Luke's eyes were wide and he was having a little trouble breathing. He wasn't sure if it was a involuntary act of the body or if he was supposed to send his own signal to the brain to breath. She thought—wait, what… how? Luke shook his head at this thought, Well if you didn't know how, Luke, she wouldn't be telling you this in the first place! … No um, okay. Pregnant? Pregnant with—mine? But Luke corrected himself at this thought, Of course yours you idiot, what do you think she is? A vicious trollop or something? Luke had been spending so much time with her the he inwardly mocked himself for knowing the name of her favorite color lipstick. Okay, stay calm… what did she say? She thought she was? So… does that mean she's not…? The questions running through his head were making him dizzy.

Lorelai, who still had her face in her hands, was growing even more nervous at Luke's silence. After several excruciatingly long minutes, she slowly spread her fingers and peeked through to glance at him. She could still feel his hands limp in her lap, and his face (if it was possible) somehow mirrored his hands: his jaw hung a bit loosely, his eyes were wide and distant.

"Luke…?" she asked quietly, slowly taking her hands off of her face and placing them on her thighs, carefully avoiding his if she could for a moment.

"Yeah," he said softly, snapping out of the shock induced trance he had just been in.

"You um—you heard me, right?"

"Yeah," he said in the same tone, still just as incredulous.

Okay, Lorelai, time to bring out the sensitivity while begging for forgiveness and understanding… "So you heard how I so, so, so, sooo inconsiderately shouted at you that I thought I was pregnant," she stated again.

Luke stared straight in front of him. His gaze bore a hole in her chest, just above her breasts. "Yeah, I'm—" Luke's breath caught in his throat, suddenly realizing how damn dry his mouth had become in the past minutes. He swallowed before continuing, "I'm just processing."

"Okay," she said quietly, sitting back to allow him time to 'process' it all.

After a minute or so of silence, Lorelai simply could not take it and said his name once more to get him to speak.

"What—how, when?" he said, finally meeting her gaze.

"Well, if you don't know how I doubt we'd be in this situation in the first place," she said sarcastically.

"Lorelai…" Luke said warningly, ignoring the irony that he himself had just made that same sarcastic remark in his head moments before.

Lorelai sighed deeply, and looked down as she began her ramble, "Well, I was in the hospital, when Sookie went into labor, and it hit me that for the entire day I had been craving apples. So then that freaked me out because, well you know that's not me. I mean Rory said maybe I had just felt this subconscious urge to better comply with the government's recommendations for fruit and vegetable intake, which is just propaganda is you ask me…

"But anyways, I knew it had to be something more… I just had this feeling, plus with the apples, it just made me crazy. But that was also the day after the party, with the drinking and the limo and the fun later that night when we got home—on the table and the bed and um—anyways, that morning I woke up and realized we hadn't exactly, well, had everything covered and that made me just think about the possibility even more.

"And then I asked a doctor I found and they said you couldn't tell from just a test after just two days, and of course I fought him on it… I mean he says there's no high-powered machine but they're putting pig vessels in human's for Christ's sake! But I had a feeling he'd call security if I pushed it any further so I stopped and he said that the apple craving might be a sign. So then I spent a few hours completely at a loss for all sanity… I mean, I was stupid Luke! Really, really stupid. I thought you'd be gone and I didn't tell you so it just made me freak more…" Lorelai's voice had risen severely somewhere in the middle of her long, long rant. She realized this and took a deep breath, letting all remaining anxiety out as best as she could. Lorelai decided it was best if she just wrap it all up, for her sake and Luke's, judging by the very lost look on his face by the massive amount of information she had just spewed out.

She sighed, her voice sounded drained of energy when she spoke: "but then I got… well I just—I realized I wasn't." Lorelai took a deep breath when she ended, her face almost saddened by her last statement.

Luke's face had made several expressions during her little speech: shock, confusion, amusement, disappointment, hope… He wasn't fully angry, per se. He couldn't be, after all, or else he'd simply by a hypocrite. You didn't tell her about the house for so long. Not that a house is the same as a baby… Well, kind of. It's a big life-altering thing. And both of us are really, really necessary for both ideas to work… No, you're not mad, Luke assured himself. But he still was incredulous.

He took a deep breath. "So… no?" he asked, still wanting to make sure.

She shook her head. "No, Luke." Lorelai confirmed almost in an annoyed tone. She knew she shouldn't be annoyed but she couldn't help it, she was impatient. And Luke was making no attempt to react in any way other than silence and shock. I knowww it's a lot to take in, but common! I took it in and I would have been the inflated balloon for nine months!

"Are you mad, Luke? Is that why you're not talking?" Lorelai asked, exasperated.

Luke's hands, which were previously vegging out on Lorelai's lap, slowly moved up her thighs and stopped when he reached her hands. He seemed to be able to construct actual thoughts and was now able to send notions to his brain to produce real actions! He gave her a gentle squeeze, "I'm not mad, Lorelai," he spoke quietly then paused. Luke took a deep breath before continuing, "I'm just a little… I donno. I guess I just feel left out that you didn't tell me. I would have been there, you shouldn't have had to go through that alone, really I—"

"Luke it wasn't a big deal, I was only thinking it was a possibility for, like, less than a whole day."

Luke shook his head and closed his eyes shortly before focusing back on her. "Lorelai, it is a big deal, don't say it wasn't… You need to tell me these things. And I know I have no right saying anything because, well look at what I just did… I spent the past few weeks sneaking around to buy a house for us without even filling you in on it," Luke shook his head again out of sheer disappointment in himself. Lorelai grabbed his hand in reassurance, taking in every word he was saying. He continued, squeezing her hand as he did so, "But we need to tell each other stuff like this because even though it might not seem big to us at the moment—it probably it, Lorelai. If it affects the both of us, if it is life altering in any damn way, we've got to tell each other. We have got to be there for each other and be honest or else well… we just have to be honest from now on," he stated wistfully.

Lorelai's eyes were rimmed with tears. She didn't let any drop though. She simply whispered, "You're right…"

Luke soothed the top of her hand with his thumb as he gave her a soft smile. After a moment he continued again, speaking as calmly as possible, "And I really would have liked to be there for you… even if it was just a scare. You shouldn't have had to deal with that alone. And just—you should have told me…" his voice faded.

"…Yeah, I know," she said sadly.

"…Why didn't you?"

Lorelai broke his gaze for the first time since she had spoken earlier, "I just thought you would have run or something," her voice was small. She looked up at him again, and smiled sheepishly, "Stupid, huh?"

Luke ran his other hand over her forearm, breaking through the water as he slid it up and along her shoulder. "No, definitely not stupid. I guess I probably came off that way before… I'm not always the most patient guy when it comes to kids. But it's probably just because they aren't my own," Luke smiled reassuringly at her, then asked, "You know now I would never leave us, right? No matter what—and that I want kids—I mean, you know that all, right?" He was almost pleading with her.

Lorelai just gazed at the man in front of her with such awe she could squeeze him until he popped. So, she tried to… she wrapped her armed around his neck and leaned fully into him, running her fingers through the hair on the back of his head. Luke pulled her in as close as possible by sliding her up his legs, which she still sat on, and into his lap. He wrapped his arms securely around her torso ran his palms up and down her back, occasionally dropping kisses on her bare shoulders.

"I know, Luke, I know all of it… I'm still so sorry though. I'm so, so, so sorry." she whispered as she rested her chin on his shoulder.

"I know you are…" Luke whispered back into her hair.

"But can you ever acc—"

"Apology accepted. Don't worry."

Lorelai pulled back and kissed him softly before she turned in his arms and leaned back into his chest. Luke wrapped his arms around her midsection just below her breasts.

"You're too amazing, ya know that?" she said, tilting her head up to him.

Luke smiled cheekily, "Yeah, I did, actually."

"Oh, I see becoming engaged to me has turned you into Mr. Modesty."

"Yes well you'd make anyone boastful." He said jokingly.

Lorelai thought for a second before she responded in a skeptic tone, "I don't know whether to take that as a compliment or be very offended by it…"

"Take the compliment," Luke said pointedly encouragingly, "I hate to do this, but you do know I had to go downstairs at some point today, right?"

"Yeah, yeah, I heard you say that earlier…" she sighed fervently, "I guess we can't just hide up here and have crazy, wild sex all day while the people who work for us slave for hours and hours to actually run our own businesses…" She sat up and twisted around on his legs. She gave him a big, fat pout and whined, "So… it's that time now isn't it?"

"Well it was actually that time about an hour ago… so yeah I should probably go down there before Caesar turns on everyone with a frying pan."

"Yeah Kirk can have that affect on people if left alone with them for too long," she said laughing. She looked down at her hands, "We should probably get out… my hands are starting to look like a 97 year old woman's…"

Luke laughed and stepped out of the tub, dripping suds all over the olive green mat on the floor. Lorelai remained sitting cross-legged in the tub and pulled out the water stopper. She watched Luke as he buffed himself dry with his towel and then tie it tightly around his waist.

Luke turned to grab her fuzzy pink Hello Kitty robe that she kept hung on the back of his door and held it open for her. Lorelai stepped out of the tub and slid her hands through the sleeves, turning to face him. She took his face in her hands and kissed him slowly and teasingly as he tied the belt around her waist. He's such a multitasker, Lorelai thought as Luke soothingly slid his tongue along her bottom lip. He finished his bow, then pulled back to look at her.

"You're all set," he whispered, a little flustered still from the kiss.

"Thanks, hun," Lorelai said smiling, slightly blushing. She just loved the fact that every time Luke touched her, especially in a slow or lingering way, it still made her stomach flutter a bit.

Lorelai smiled lazily at him before she walked out the door, pinching his butt in the process, and fell backwards onto the bed. "Get dressed already so you can go down there, let everyone know we didn't elope or something, save Kirk from a mental breakdown because of Luke withdrawal, and save Caesar from Kirk… and then get that cute butt of yours back up here. And I mean fast, mister. Speed Racer style."

Luke was looking in his closet now, standing in his boxers. He pulled out a pair of jeans and slipped them on. "Yeah, I'm sure Taylor and Kirk are having fits right about now. And I bet someone at the Stars Hollow Gazette has already written an article about thegreat Luke and Lorelai disappearance of 2005."

"Yup. Michel's probably gone berserk, resulting in every member of my staff quitting. Oh and of course Patty and Babbette have been glued to their seats, tainting the whole diner with gossip about us… at least for the past 5 hours or so."

"And why is it that we live here again?"

Lorelai stared up at the ceiling. "Because it's our town. It's Stars Hollow. It's got its quirks but that's what makes it so perfect… crazy festivals, crazy traditions, just plain crazies in general…" Lorelai said dreamily.

A moment of silence passed: Luke still shuffling around and locating items of clothing, Lorelai on her back and twisting pieces of hair around on her finger.

"Crap!" Lorelai shot out, sitting upright on the bed with her hands planted behind her.

Luke turned around immediately to face her, "What's wrong!"

"The town, the people, the gossips, the crazies! They can't find out yet—It'll get to Rory!" Lorelai said hastily.

Luke walked over to Lorelai and got down in front of her, bouncing on his toes between her legs. He placed his hands on her thighs and she sat up further until she was level with him.

"Well I can keep a secret if you can," he said confidently.

"I can do that… I don't want to but I guess I can for a few days. But what if they see—"

"Just take it off, I don't care," he said soothingly, genuinely wanting her to be comfortable about it all, even if it did mean taking off the ring.

"Nope, no way, mister. I am not taking this off," she said forcefully and waved her left hand in front of his face, "Not an option."

Luke smiled lopsidedly (secretly very, very happy with her response), and took her hand in his. "Okay," he said with a nod. "We'll just hide it then," he said gently, twisting the ring around her finger so that the diamond was concealed underneath. "This way, no one can tell but you still get to keep it on."

Lorelai relaxed immediately. She loved how sweet he was with her, how sensitive and considerate he was. Her face broke out in a toothy smile when she thought of how wonderful it was of him to so easily understand her need to keep it on (which actually surprised her a little).

"I'm marrying a genius! That's perfect!" she said excitedly and then kissed him fully on the lips, placing a hand on his bare chest.

Lorelai pulled away slightly, however, and mumbled against his lips, "Now go," before kissing him forcefully once more. After a moment though, she forced herself to push him away and lean back again onto the bed. She didn't want him to go, but she needed him to leave so he could come back.

Luke groaned and pushed himself up. He pulled out a plain gray shirt from the drawers of his dresser and grabbed a light green flannel, then continued to button it up. He walked to the edge of the bed and looked down at Lorelai. Somehow the bow he had tied earlier had come undone and now haphazardly revealed a thick line of skin down the center of her body.

He placed his hand flat on her stomach. "I promise I won't be longer than an hour. Just gotta check and make sure someone didn't burn the place down or something."

Lorelai smiled up at him, "Oh they didn't, we would know. We would have heard little girly screams coming from downstairs."

Luke rolled his eyes and patted her stomach softly, "Kirk does hate fire…"

Lorelai laughed. "Now get out! Go, go, go. I want you back here in exactly one hour! Oh and bring me food, please! Coffee, too. Oh and pie. And don't forget the fries. And if you have any room left, some strawberry ice cream would be good. And did I say coffee already?"

Luke rolled his eyes and turned his back to her. He walked towards the door as he said, "Why am I not more shocked at your eating habits?"

"Because you've been feeding me for nine years, of course. Love ya." Lorelai said as she rolled over onto her stomach.

"Love you," Luke said, his heart melting ever so slightly, You've really got it bad, man, he thought. Imagine when you're actually married… but this thought just made his heart melt even more.

Luke walked down the stairs to the diner, smiling his Lorelai smile: teeth showing, small dimples formed, lips full and stretched. He knew no matter what he was about to have to deal with in there, she was still waiting for him upstairs. And that thought only let the smile spread across his face even more. Only 1 hour… just 60 minutes, that's it, he thought as he pulled back the green flannel curtain to face the crazies that inevitably were going to pounce the moment they saw him…

TBC…

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