A/N: So, another chapter is up. Thanks again LorelaiAkaCoffeeAddict for proofreading, you're doing a great job helping me, as always!
I hope you like this chapter. I know it took me a while to write it, but I hope the waiting was worth it all. Just let me know ;)

Chapter 23 And finally it's there…

A few weeks passed by with nothing happening. Lorelai listened to the orders the doctor had given her, and Luke watched her close, making sure she obeyed to those orders. The more time passed, the crankier Lorelai got with her new housing arrangements. No matter how busy she had been the weeks before, she wished she could go back to that. Doing nothing was just not her. Of course, once in a while spending a day on the couch, watching tv, reading a book or something like that was nice, especially if you could spent a day like that with your daughter or your husband. But most of the time she was alone. Of course, Luke tried to be with her as much as possible, but he knew he needed to take a few days or weeks off after the baby was born, rather than before.

It was the fifth week, and ever since the day Luke had taken Lorelai to the hospital, no contraction has been felt. Lorelai was allowed to go out again, but working still wasn't allowed. She spent most her time with Luke at the diner. She couldn't sit on the chairs in the diner all day, so she went upstairs to his apartment. Some of the time, when things were slow at the diner, he joined her.
They talked about baby names, which they still hadn't really agreed on, even so close to the birth. That they didn't know the sex of the baby yet, made it even more difficult, because they now needed two names. Luke picked up a few books from the bookstore, they searched the internet, and they found names they liked, but it was hard to find one, they both like.

Lorelai was completely ready for the baby to get born now, and told the baby that several times a day. With 39 weeks of pregnancy, she couldn't wait for the baby to come out. Of course it still scared her, but the thought of the baby staying inside her much longer scared her even more. Luke felt the same thing. He was anxious to meet his child. He couldn't wait to see if he was getting a son or a daughter, and to hold the baby in his arms for the first time. His fear made place for joy. So they were both ready, except for the name. But they believed that they would find one in time.

February 17 came and it was only one week till Lorelai's due date. It was early in the morning, and Luke was busy serving customers breakfast when he saw his wife walking in. He smiled at her, and she smiled back. She dragged herself to the counter and he helped her onto one of the stools. Before walking to the other side of the counter he kissed her. "Good morning."

"Good morning."

"How do you feel today?" He walked around the counter and poured her a cup of decaf. She could only have two a day, and to make sure she got only two, there was no coffee at the house, so the only one she could get, was at the diner. Of course, she could go to any other store in town to get herself some, but he knew he had to trust her.

"Good actually, although I would like for this kid to finally come out."

"But it's still a week till your due date."

"Well, now it doesn't matter anymore. The past few weeks the baby grew a lot, and Dr. Elder told us that he or she now has an average size. Besides, one week at this point doesn't really make a difference."

"But you do know that it can be another three weeks before the baby comes, right?"

She sighed. "Yeah. I just hope your kid decides that it's ready long before that."

"So now suddenly it's my kid?" He couldn't wait for an answer because Caesar handed him a few plates he had to take to a table. Back behind the counter he could listen to her reply.

"Yeah, that's the way it goes. In every normal circumstance it will be our kid, but as soon as it will give us a hard time or decides to break some rules, it will be your kid."

"Lorelai." He rolled his eyes.

"Well, you're the one who put me in this position. If you hadn't slept with me, I wouldn't have gotten pregnant, and I wouldn't be walking around with this huge belly."

"Like you didn't enjoyed it."

"Oh I did." She smiled when she remember the night they both think this baby was conceived.

"So, what are you trying to say than?"

"Nothing really. Never mind…. Hey, can you give me some pancakes? I'm really hungry."

"Sure, he turned around and gave the order to Caesar, who had just finished another order Luke could serve.

After Lorelai finished her pancakes she went upstairs to lay down for a bit. Her back started to hurt from the stools at the counter, without support for her back.

Luke wished he could go up with her but the morning rush was still going on and Lane had a day off so he couldn't leave Caesar alone.

Time went by fast and it was around ten o' clock when the diner was almost empty. There were only a few people for late breakfast and two others for some coffee and pie. But nothing Caesar couldn't handle by himself for a while. Luke went upstairs to check on Lorelai. He found her lying on the couch, the tv on, but her eyes closed. He smiled when he watched her for a while, and turned around to walk away, very careful not to wake her. Just as he was about to close the door behind him, he heard Lorelai's voice. "Luke?"

He walked back inside, closing the door behind him from the inside. He kneeled down in front of her, kissing her forehead. "Hey, how are you doing?"

"Okay really. My back still hurts a little though. Why were you leaving?"

"I thought you were asleep."

"I was before, but not when you came in. I just hadn't opened my eyes yet."

Luke smiled. "So, what are you going to do today?"

"No plans. Thinking about staying here all day."

"You're so tired?"

"Not that bad. A lot better than this morning, it's just more fun to be here knowing you're downstairs and to be able to see you anytime I want than to go home and be alone all day long."

"I wish I could go home with you."

"We covered that before haven't we?" She smiled "You're just working mister, I'm supposed to do the hard work. I get some time of from work because I have to carry this baby inside me for 9 months. If you do it the next time, you can have a few days off yourself."

Luke didn't know if he had to smile at the comment or roll his eyes so he kept his expression blank. Honestly he loved those silly comments. Of course it annoyed him some of the time, but she was the only person that could make him laugh. And even though he mostly commented her crazy remarks, he loved them and missed them if she wasn't making them."

"What are you thinking?" She looked at him questioningly.

"Nothing really."

"I bet your thinking how glad you are that a woman is supposed to carry a child and not a man. Otherwise you would be the fat one, having morning sickness for months and the swollen ankles and the weird cravings."

"Lorelai." He sighed. "You know I would if I could."

"No you wouldn't, but that's okay. Are things slow downstairs?" She decided to change the subject.

"Yeah, two couples for late breakfast and one couple for coffee and pie."

"Oh, I want that too."

"Oatmeal? I'll go downstairs and get you some." He stood up and walked away, inwardly smiling.

"No, coffee and pie."

"Oh…" He turned around and pretended to be disappointed.

"Oh come on you big baby. I thought one baby in our family would be enough."

"Well, since that baby won't come out yet, I can be the baby right?"

She started to laugh hysterically. "What?" He asked, not understanding how his remark could be that funny.

"Oh come on Luke, you should have seen your face." She had trouble getting the words out.

Luke started to laugh now too. "Okay, it was funny."

"Ouch…" Lorelai laughed.

"What's wrong, your laughing muscles hurt you?" Luke laughed.

"No, it feels more like a contraction." She laughed even harder.

"A contraction, well that's funny." He laughed but stopped. "What?"

"I'm having a contraction."

"Why is that funny?" He was completely serious now.

"Uhm…" Her laughing faded as well. "I honestly have no idea cause it hurts."

"I have to take you to the hospital."

"Oh come on Luke. It's just one contraction. And at this point in the pregnancy there is also something as false labor. We have to wait and see if the contractions will get stronger and more frequently before we drive all the way to the hospital."

"Are you sure?"

"Positive." She saw the worried look on his face. "It was more fun when you pretended to be a baby. Come on Luke relax, everything will be fine."

"But I'm going to be a father. For real this time."

"If we're lucky yes, but it could also be another 3 weeks."

"Oh…"

"Hey Luke?"

"Yeah…"

"We said we would find this baby a name before it's born, so if we want to keep the promise, we have to make a decision soon."

"But it's a hard one to make. The child will have the name for the rest of it's live."

"Yeah, but if we make the decision right after the baby is born, it might end up with a weird name because of the anesthesia."

"You're talking about naming Rory after you?"

"Yeah. I mean, if we get a son it wouldn't be so hard because we can always name him after you, but if we get a daughter and we name her after me I would have two daughters with the same name, that would be weird."

"Yeah it would. Maybe we should think of a name now than."

"That's what I'm saying. So, what do you think?"

"About what?"

"About Luke."

"What about me?"

"No, the name Luke, for a son."

"I'm not naming my son after me Lorelai. I know you mean it well, but no, that won't happen."

"Okay, relax, it was just a suggestion." She thought for a while…. "How about William?"

"What?" He looked at her to see if she was serious.

"Why not name our son after your father. I know how much he means to you, so our son should be very proud to have his grandfathers name."

"He would have been very proud, my father."

"So, if we get a son, his name will be William?"

"Yeah, I like that." He smiled, but his smile faded soon.

"What's wrong?"

"How about your father?"

"We can always tell my mother that we made a deal, name our son after your father and our daughter after her."

"You're not serious are you?"

"What, about naming our daughter after my mother? Of course not! I mean, the relationship between me and my mother is a lot better lately, but I would never name my, I mean our daughter after her. To much has happened for that."

"But what about your father?"

"I don't know. I really don't."

"We can always name give him Richard as his second name…"

"Yeah, we could…" She sighed.

"Let's talk about girls names first."

"Uhm… we already ruled out Emily, but there are so many other names left…"

"Yeah, that's been the problem for months now. All the names I like, you don't like, and everything you like I don't like, so that keeps being the problem."

"I know… but you pick crazy names like Rain…"

"What's so crazy about that? I still like that name."

"Well, I don't. So that's not what we're calling our daughter."

"I like the name Hailey."

"Hailey?"

"Yeah… don't you like it?"

"Mmm… I do… Hailey Danes… It has a nice sound to it, and it sounds great with Rory as well, Rory and Hailey, our two daughters."

They kept discussing some more baby names and an hour later they agreed on the combination of names for both a boy and a girl.

"I wonder why it took us so long to agree, I mean, it wasn't that bad was it?"

"No, not really. I like the names we picked out."

"Me too."

Luke saw Lorelai's pained expression and he had noticed that the contractions were coming more frequent and became more serious.

"Do you think it's time to go to the hospital yet?"

"Yeah, I think so…"

Luke helped her off the couch and together they walked downstairs and into the kitchen.

"Caesar?"

He turned around. "Yes boss?"

"We have to go. You can leave the diner opened if you can manage, but if the place gets to crowded you can close up."

"Okay, sure boss."

They made a few more arrangements about the coming days, and after that they left together. They drove by the house to pick up Lorelai's bag and the baby seat. During their drive to the hospital, Lorelai called to inform her daughter of her current condition. Rory was the only person they called. Luke mentioned her parents, but Lorelai remembered the last time she went into labor, with her mother insisting to come into the delivery room and she was lucky enough that the nurse understood Lorelai, and told Emily to wait in the waiting area.

This time all Lorelai needed was Luke, and he was already there. They could call everyone else as soon as the baby was born, instead of before. Besides, they had no idea how long the labor would take. Lorelai was a little more experienced than Luke, but they say with a second child everything is different, besides, that was over 20 years ago.

The contractions were getting stronger and Lorelai started complaining that Luke had to drive a little faster, which of course he did not. The fact that she was having pain made him nervous though. The conversation with Rory had taken her attention of the contractions, but Luke was paying attention on the road so all Lorelai could do was stare out the window and become more conscious of the pain she was having.

"Luke come on, hurry up a little…"

"I'm going as fast as I'm allowed, I won't go any faster." He tried to ignore the pained expression on his wife's face as he watched her.

"But Luke." She wined.

"Please, we'll be there within 10 minutes. Just hold on for a while okay?"

"That's easy for you to say. Next time you're so gonna be the one carrying the child and going through labor."

He tried hard not to laugh, but wasn't doing a great job.

"Luke, this is not funny. Come on, everybody is passing us."

"Then everybody is speeding. We have to make sure we both get to the hospital in one piece, instead of being brought into the Emergency Room by an ambulance."

She knew he was right but she didn't want to be rational at the moment. All she wanted to do was hold her baby and the contractions to be over. This morning she wanted to go into labor, now all she wanted was to be out.

10 Minutes later, as promised, Luke parked the car. A little less rushed than the last time they were there. They walked inside together, holding hands. Occasionally they had to stop because Lorelai had a contraction. It didn't take too long before Lorelai was admitted to the OB ward. And not that long after that Dr. Elder came in to do some check-ups.

Lorelai was already dilated 6 centimeters and the baby was in the right position to go trough normal labor. There were no signs that there would be any complications. Someone from anesthesia came in not much later to give Lorelai an epidural. After the epidural started to work, Lorelai started to complain less, and Luke felt a lot better already. He was nervous though, not really knowing what he had to expect. Of course he heard stories about baby birth before, but he never had been a part of one. And being there watching the woman he loved in pain, and knowing that there wasn't much he could do other than to hold her hand, was making him feel so useless.

Dr. Elder noticed this though, and explained to Luke what he could expect. He wasn't sure if he felt better after that, but now he knew what to expect, of before when he didn't. He had not much time to worry because Lorelai's labor was progressing quickly. Before they realized it, Dr. Elder told her that she was fully dilated and they were taking her to the delivery room…

About 20 minutes after Lorelai was brought to the deliver room, so she could finally hold their baby in her arms. Lorelai cried when they placed the baby on her stomach, and Luke had to wipe away tears from his own eyes when he watched his child. He had no idea how it would feel when he could finally see his child, but it was better than he could have ever imagined. He leaned forward to kiss Lorelai. She looked exhausted, but so happy.

They looked at the baby and waited till it started to cry. They all held their breaths and after a few seconds the baby started to scream. Luke looked at Lorelai again who was smiling through her tears.

"So dad, do you want to cut the umbilical cord?"

"What?" Luke looked at the doctor.

"The cord, do you want to cut it?"

"Uhm…" He hesitated a little when the doctor handed him the scissors.

He looked at Lorelai who nodded her head. "Do it, you'll regret it later if you won't."

So Luke took the scissors and cut the cord. The nurse took a picture and had already made a few right after the baby was born."

They took the baby away for a while so they could clean and dress it, and Lorelai had to go through afterbirth.

Half an hour later, the happy new family was finally left alone. Lorelai held the baby and Luke sat on the edge of the bed, his left arm around Lorelai and his hand on top of hers.

"I can't believe I'm a father now."

"Better believe it mister. This baby here is all yours."

"We better call Rory now."

"Yeah, we should… hey Luke?"

"Mmm…"

"I love you."

"I love you too." And you, he kissed the baby's forehead.

He picked up the phone and dialed the numbers so he could get an overseas call. Dr. Elder had showed them how to do it before she left them alone. The phone rang a few times before Rory picked up with a sleepy voice. "Hello?"

"Hey babe."

"Mom, how are you, is the baby born?"

"Yes it sure is."

"And?"

"Well, it's really cute, it has little dark hairs and dark blue eyes, and ten little fingers and ten little toes…."

"Mom!"

"It's a boy."

"I have a baby brother. Oh my god, I have a baby brother."

Lorelai could hear her daughter jumping up and down and had to call her a few times before she got her attention back. "Rory"

"Okay, I'm back now. What's his name?"

"His name is William Lucas, but we call him Lucan." Lorelai smiled when she pronounced the name of her son and thought about how earlier Luke had said that no way he would name his son after him, but came around when they ran into this name.

"Lucan, I like that. So how is he doing?"

"He's sleeping now. He really looks like Luke, but I see a little of you as a baby in him as well. He's so cute. And Luke, I've never seen him so proud."

"I bet. And what did grandma say?"

"What, you don't think I would call grandma before I call you right?"

"That makes sense."

"Oh.. you were sleeping when I called you, weren't you.."

"Yeah, I was, but that's okay. I wanted you to call me ever since you called me earlier this evening. Oh mom, how are you doing?"

"Honestly I'm exhausted, but when I look at the little kid in my arms it's all worth it. I just…"

"What?"

"I really miss you right now."

"I miss you to mom. I wish I was there with you right now. Knowing that I have a little baby brother and that I have to wait for months to see him, that's really hard you know."

"Yeah, I know… but hey, we're making lots of pictures and I'll make sure you'll get some in your mailbox tomorrow." Lorelai tried to lighten the mood again.

"That would be really cool. Hey, since you're exhausted and I'm having a class within a few hours, I think we should both get some sleep."

"Yeah, I think some sleep would be nice. I call you again tomorrow okay?"

"Okay, I love you mom."

"I love you to babe."

Lorelai hung up the phone and Luke took it over. "Here let me phone your parents. I can tell them you are asleep."

"Really?"

He replied by dialing the number.

"Gilmore residence."

"Hello, this is Luke Danes, is Mrs. Gilmore around?"

A minute or two later he heard Emily's voice. "Luke?"

"Hello Emily."

"Is everything alright?"

"Actually, it couldn't be better. I'm calling to tell you that you have a grandson."

A big smile appeared on Emily's face. "A grandson."

"Yeah, he was born about 45 minutes ago and he's perfectly healthy."

"Congratulations Luke. Is Lorelai around?"

"She's sleeping right now." He glanced at Lorelai who tried hard not to make any sound.

"Oh, okay. Can we come over to see him tonight?"

"As both Lorelai and the baby are sleeping, it will be better if you come visit tomorrow. It was a really exhausting day and Lorelai could use the sleep."

"I see. Well, we'll see you tomorrow then."

"Emily?"

"Yes Luke?"

"His name is William Lucas, but we call him Lucan."

"That's a pretty name, once again congratulations and say hi to Lorelai from me when she wakes up."

"I will. See you tomorrow Emily."

"Yes. See you tomorrow." With that Emily hung up. Luke couldn't help thinking that somehow Emily sounded disappointed. He didn't really know why, but he hoped it wasn't because he had told her she wasn't allowed to visit anymore tonight.

"Your mother says hello and congratulations. She wanted to come tonight, but I found it better for us to get some rest, and let him meet his crazy family tomorrow."

"Good thinking." She looked at the baby again. "Can you believe he was inside me for nine months?"

"No, not really." It was the truth, if he hadn't seen it with his own eyes he would have never believed it. The baby was really small, but still looked too big to fit in Lorelai's stomach.

"Oh, I still have to call Sookie." She wanted to hand the baby over to Luke, who looked very uncomfortable all of a sudden.

"Come on, take him. He won't bite you."

"I know that. It's just, he's so small, what if I crush him."

"You won't crush him. Here, take him, you'll be just fine."

A little insecure Luke took his son from Lorelai. As soon as he held the baby in his arms the insecurity left and was replaced by pride. The kid he was holding in his arms was his son. His son. He smiled and knew that he couldn't stop smiling for the next few days.

After Lorelai had hung up the phone they settled comfortable in the bed.

"It was a good day." Luke stated.

"Yes it was a good day."

A/N: Okay, I had a really hard time making up the sex of the baby and picking a name. Some of you told me it had to be a boy and others of you told me it had to be a girl. Not really helping ;) The further I came in the story, the more I started to doubt, but in the end I decided to go with the original plan and let the baby be a boy. So, for all of you who wanted it to be a girl, I know the show is called Gilmore Girls, but since they already have Rory I thought it would be nice that they would have a boy, so now it is the Gilmore Girls, and the Danes Boys :P