Luke blinked and turned to follow Marie's eyes. There standing in the doorway was none other than Amy. She looked frazzled but good. She actually reminded him of Emily Gilmore the way she was dressed, this thought made him chuckle to himself. "Um...I want it to be a surprise." He waved the waitress off with his hand as he stood and headed towards the woman.

Feeling eyes upon her, Amy let her own wonder over the other customers of the café until they came to rest upon the man approaching her. A small smile actually turned the corners of her mouth up. She wasn't the least bit surprised to see him. It was this fact that caused her to meet him halfway. "Can I join you?" She motioned with her head towards the table where the waitress was still standing. An eyebrow raised in question.

Blinking, he turned back to the table and sat then motioned for her to join him. He just noticed that obvious presence of her two children but didn't mention. "You don't seem very surprised to see me." It was the first thing that he could think of to say.

Smiling ,she sat down and accepted a cup of tea from the waitress. She was known here. "Mm." She set the cup down and leaned back on the chair. "Why would I be? I didn't expect any less from you once you found out who I was. The only thing I'm surprised about is the amount of time it took you to actually find me, if that is, indeed, the reason why you're here in DC."

"Why else would I be in this godforsaken city!" Luke snapped a little louder than he meant and gave an apologetic smile to those who turned to look at them. "Sorry." He mumbled to his companion sitting across from him.

Amy chuckled and shook her head. "No need to apologize to me. I was married to a Congressman, remember? I'm used to unwanted attention."She eyed him a moment. He looked older than he should. Older than she remembered. She pulled her gaze away from him and caught the attention of the waitress. "Please add this to my tab." Her attention went back to the man sitting across from her. "Lets go for a walk." She stood up and weaved through the tables and breathed in the fresh air once they reached the outside. She knew he was right behind her. "You have questions, yes?"

Luke followed the woman who was so familiar and yet a stranger. He brought himself into step beside her as they walked down one of the paved paths that lead through the park by the water. "Yes. I have questions." This was clearly an invitation for him to ask whatever he wanted. He maneuvered them both to a bench and sat down. He was silent for several minutes trying to gather his thoughts. "Why did you leave?" This was the one question that he truly needed to know the answer to.

She glanced down at her hands then smiled sadly at him. "I didn't leave because of you, Luke. I really did love you and had all intentions of making good on my proposal but...things just got complicated." Amy shook her head knowing how lame that sounded.

He looked over at her then turned his attention back to the water. "I don't understand, Lor...Amy. You said that you loved me but not enough to fight for our relationship when things got complicated?" Luke couldn't keep the hurt out of his voice. "So instead you packed up your bags and left? You started a new life. Hell, you even took on a new identity. You forgot about all of us so easily. And you're going to sit there and tell me it wasn't my fault? Why else would you have felt the need to do all of that?"

Amy sighed. She'd have to tell him the truth, that much was clear. "I left because I was afraid of what was happening. Everything was falling apart, or at least I felt it was." She glanced over at him and let herself drink in his appearance. She couldn't help but notice the similarities between him and her youngest child. It would be apparent in a few short years just who Emily's biological father really was. She let her gaze shift to a passing jogger. "I left because of a lot of things, Luke. My relationship with Rory...didn't exist anymore. The day that I looked at her and saw a complete stranger was the beginning, I guess. It hurt so much to know that she choose my parents over me..." She shrugged.

"So you left because of...because of Rory?" Luke let the disbelief show on his face and color his voice.

"Yes and No. It's part of the reason why I left. She was my kid and...It's hard to explain. I guess you could say that it was the icing on the cake." She gave him a sad smile. "Luke..." She hesitated. "I was pregnant when I left." She said quietly and let him soak in the news.

"Preg...You were pregnant?" He felt his eyes go wide in surprise. Slowly, the pieces seemed to snap together. "Pregnant with my baby?" He whispered. "I was going to be a father?" Luke felt the ache pierce his heart. She took away his child. If possible, his eyes widened further. "Emily..." He flashed back to the first time he met the little girl. "She's my daughter." He choked out.

Amy found herself nodding. "Emily is your biological child, yes. But Daniel was her father, Luke. Legally, he was her father." She added, softly.

He snorted, angerly. "He was her father only because you didn't even give me a chance, Lorelai! You took that from me!" Luke looked horrified.

"It was my choice, Luke Danes!" She snapped, angry that he called her Lorelai while they were in public. All she needed was to have a reporter passing by at the right moment and BOOM, scandal time. "It was my body. My child. My life was falling apart. Rory hated me, Luke. HATED me! Her own mother! I had to get out of there before I was consumed by my pain. It was the only way that my child would have a happy life. I did it for Emily. I did it so she could have her mother all there. Call me selfish but I would be damned if I was going to lose another child to the Gilmores. Because that is exactly what would have happened." She turned her cold eyes to him. "I would have had a nervous breakdown, my parents would have found out about the child and then they would have taken her right out from under me...us. Their lawyers would have made you out to be an unfit parent and I would have been considered emotionally unsound and unable to raise a child. Dangerous even. I did what was best for us all. I never planned on falling in love and I certainly never planned on getting married. I just needed time to collect myself and get my head on straight." She sighed, knowing that he'd never fully, if at all, understand her reasons for leaving. "I couldn't lose another child, Luke. That baby was my lifeline. Take that away and I would have no longer existed. Lorelai Gilmore would have given up and let the darkness nipping at her heals consume her." She stared, unblinking, at the Potomac.

"But you are Lorelai Gilmore and the Lorelai I knew and loved would have never given up. She was the most stubborn person I'd ever met." Luke let a small smile turn the corners of his lips up.

Amy snorted, softly. "When I came here, I was a mess. I had no money and knew absolutely no one. I felt like I was sixteen again. When I applied for the job of secretary for Congressman Sinclair, I knew there was a very slim chance that the name Gilmore would be recognized. I couldn't let that happen. So I became Amy Russell from Winthrop, Washington. After that it was easy to add to the story when asked about my life." She fell silent again.

Luke sighed and shook his head. This was all so very complicated and he needed to change the subject just until everything settled in his brain. "Rory asks about you whenever I see her, always wanting to know if you've contacted me. She misses you."

"I'm surprised that she even remembers me." Came the whisper. "We fought about her a lot, didn't we?" Amy glanced over at him then down at her feet.

"Ya, I guess we did. I couldn't understand why you, all but legally, disowned her. And you never wanted to talk about it." Luke shifted on the bench until he was facing her. "So why did you?" He was pressing his luck and he knew it.

"She wasn't my daughter anymore." Was Amy's simple reply. "I didn't raise her to act like a spoiled rich kid which was exactly how she was acting. She became everything I had so fiercely rebelled against as a teenager. Like I said before...it hurt. It hurt to know that she would just push aside everything I had taught her just so she could have a free ride in life. Back then, I guess I could never admit that. But I've had awhile to think about it and I know that that is the truth."

"She married. Did you know that?." Luke added to the conversation after a few moments of silence.

"Mm, I know." Seeing his surprised look, Amy continued. "Daniel was a very influential and powerful man. Once he found out who I really was...and that I had another child...he did everything in his power to keep me updated on her life. He, like you, didn't understand the situation but that didn't stop him from trying to help fix it."

Luke reached over and placed his hand on hers. "He sounded like a good man." He quietly told her.

"He was." She cleared her throught and blinked back the tears that had formed in her eyes. Taking a deep, shaky breath, she continued. "Rory Gilmore became Rory Gilmore-Huntzberger five years ago. She never returned to Yale nor did she complete her education. Instead she choose to become a housewife. Staying home while her husband supported her and any children they may have." Amy snorted but continued. "She has one child, a boy named Teegan, and one on the way. As of six months ago she's been engaged in a divorce proceeding and a custody battle. She found her loving husband in their bed doing the wild thing with their live-in nanny. She filed for divorce the very next day. Did I leave anything out?"

Blinking, Luke frowned. "How...?"

"Like I said, my husband was a very powerful man. Private investigators didn't even put a dent in our bank account and several are still on the payroll. I still get weekly reports on her." Amy smiled, sadly. "Pretty bad that the investigators have more of a relationship with my own daughter than I do." Her voice was bitter.

Luke sighed and looked down at his hands. "Then why don't you do something about that? Things have changed and so have people." Came his soft reply. "You might be surprised."

"I wish it was that easy, Luke. I really do." Now it was Amy's turn to look at her hands. "Ethan's grandparents would have a field day if they ever found out about this. They've wanted custody of him ever since Daniel died but he made sure that that would never happen. Ethan's mother, Victoria, was from a very old Texas family. They didn't think Daniel was good enough for their eldest child but they married anyways. After Victoria died, they tried to take Ethan away. It really put a bee in their bonnet when he married me and adopted Emily. The final straw was when I adopted Ethan. They declared all out war against our family. Ever since then, they've been waiting for me to screw up so they can swoop in and rescue their beloved grandson, whom they haven't seen since he was a baby. So I can't just go make things better with Rory, I can't risk losing my son."

"That's...complicated. They would really take him away from the only parent he has left? The only mother that he's ever known?" Luke was wishing that he had never left his quiet little town. "How do you do it?" He whispered in quiet awe.

She turned to him with a smirk on her lips. "I'm used to it, Luke. You didn't think that I was still that small town girl, didya?" Amy raised an eyebrow in question and bumped her shoulder into his.

"Nah. I don't think you ever were a small town girl."Luke bumped his shoulder back into hers. "So...what now?" It was a simple question.

Amy smiled. "Well...I think it would be alright for you to get to know Emily and after that...After that we'll take one day at a time. Maybe sometime in the future I'll be able to fix things with Rory without worrying about losing Ethan."

"That sounds...more than I had hoped for." Luke turned his gaze back to the water which was sparkling from the sun. The past was now in the past. And the future never looked so bright.