Chapter Two

By the time Lorelai got back to Stars Hollow she was too physically and emotionally drained to take her daughter's advice immediately and talk to Luke. Lorelai knew Rory was right, she had desperately overreacted but Lorelai also figured they both needed time to process all of the details. She didn't expect Luke to walk out on her, she knew he was better than that, but she had also never seen Luke look so helpless. With a sigh Lorelai pulls into her driveway and shuts off the engine, she would talk to him tomorrow, but tonight she just wanted to crawl into bed and not think about any of it. Crawling into bed alone Lorelai can't help but succumb to the tears that she has been fighting all day, she feels like she's sixteen again and that's a feeling she hates more than anything. Eventually though Lorelai falls into a restless sleep filled with baby cries and loneliness.

"Lorelai, wake up."

"Mmm...." Lorelai mumbles, not completely awake or aware of her surroundings as she rolls over onto her stomach with the pillow pulled over her head.

"I have coffee," Luke's words filter through the pillow to Lorelai's ears. Lorelai sits up quickly immediately perked by the word, but as soon as she is in the full upright position and sees Luke the previous days events come flooding back. "I can't drink coffee," Lorelai responds quietly, pulling her knees to her chest, unsure of what exactly to say to Luke.

"It's decaf," Luke assures in a tone that makes it obvious that he has no idea what to say to Lorelai either. "I brought breakfast too, but I left it downstairs." Luke sits tentatively on Lorelai's bed and taking a deep breath he apologizes, "I'm sorry for the way I reacted yesterday. I wasn't thinking..."

"I overreacted, you under-reacted, we're both sorry," Lorelai sighs and then adds, "and we're having a baby."

Luke nods, his eyes taking on a deer in the headlights look as he mumbles, "yeah, a baby." Quickly Luke shakes his head and then states, "I don't want you to think that I'm not happy about it, I'm still just in that state of shock."

Lorelai nods, "I know."

Luke moves closer to Lorelai and pulls her into his arms, "I want to make sure you know something though."

"What?"

"I'm not Christopher," Luke states, "I'm not going anywhere, I want to be involved in every aspect of this baby's life."

"You will be," Lorelai nods her promise.

"There's something else I want you to know." Luke takes a deep breath, "I don't think we should rush our relationship and get married."

"Okay."

"I rushed into a relationship with Nicole and look where I ended up."

"Okay."

"It's not that I don't see us one day getting married but..."

"Luke!" Lorelai exclaims, not wanting to listen to Luke's out of characteristic rambling, "I said okay. So you said something about breakfast?"

"Downstairs," Luke nods. "But I can't stay, I have to pick up a shipment."

Lorelai pouts, "you don't want to have breakfast with me?"

"I can't," Luke kisses her gently. "I thought we could have a nice celebratory dinner tonight, invite Rory and Sookie and Jackson if you want to tell them. I know you have Friday dinner with your parents but maybe you could reschedule?

"I already told Rory. And yeah, I'll call my parents."

"I figured you had," Luke responds, "how'd she take it?"

"She's excited, I think."

"Good," Luke kisses Lorelai, "I'll call you when I get reservations. Bye."

"Lorelai, you look amazing," Sookie comments when Lorelai pulls open the door to let her and Jackson in, that evening.

Lorelai smiles brightly at her best friend, "thank you, you look great too Sook. I'm not completely ready yet, give me a couple minutes and we can go."

Lorelai is just patting her hair into place when Sookie appears in her bedroom, "I'm ready, we can go." Lorelai responds.

"So what's going on?" Sookie asks.

"We're meeting Luke for dinner in Hartford," Lorelai responds, "double date."

"That's what you say but something else is going on, I can tell." Sookie responds suspiciously.

"It's just dinner Sookie."

"A dinner with a hidden agenda," Sookie states before quickly grabbing Lorelai's left hand.

"Luke and I aren't engaged Sookie."

Sookie stares suspiciously at Lorelai, "something's going on with you, I can tell. And this dinner is more than just a dinner."

"Do you have a reservation?" The matre d' of the restaurant Luke had chosen questions.

Lorelai nods, "Danes."

"Luke, party of seven?"

"I think it is supposed to be party of five."

"Aha!" Sookie exclaims, "it is more than a double date."

"When Mr. Dances called he clearly stated seven, I took the reservation myself, mam."

Lorelai glances at Sookie as they are lead to their table, "something is going on, but I have no idea what."

"Maybe he's proposing," Sookie muses once the three are seated at the table.

Lorelai shakes her head, "definitely not. We had a discussion about it today, about how we don't want to rush our relationship."

"True, it isn't very Luke, if he were going to propose he wouldn't do it in front of an audience."

Rory arrives then, hugs Lorelai and then Sookie, "what requires an audience? Is Kirk doing another one man show?"

"God I hope not," Lorelai replies. "Sookie was just under the impression that Luke was going to propose tonight."

"I thought we were just celebrating?" Rory asks.

"Celebrating?" Sookie's eyes narrow and Rory shoots her mother an apologetic glance.

"Sook..." Lorelai is cut off by the arrival of two more members of their party.

"Sorry we're late," Emily Gilmore apologizes.

"Yes," Richard adds, "Emily was sure we had been here before, but it was not the restaurant we thought it was."

"Mom, Dad, what are you doing here?" Lorelai asks quickly.

"Luke invited us, he felt bad for making you cancel on our weekly dinner," Emily responds.

"Sorry I'm..."

"You," Lorelai points her finger at Luke, the sight of her parents well before she was ready to tell them about her pregnancy was too much for her already raging pregnancy hormones to handle. "We need to talk."

Once they have both stepped into the frigid air outside of the restaurant for privacy Luke states, "I changed my mind."

"Well, I hope that it's about wanting to be a part of this baby's life because I swear to God Luke I could kill you for inviting my parents."

"No, I changed my mind about not wanting to marry you. Well, no actually I lied, I wanted to talk to you parents first, I know that sounds lame but it was more for self-preservation than anything else so then I went to the bank and picked this up," as Luke babbles he holds out a ring case with a solitaire diamond ring. "It was my mother's and it's been in safety deposit since she died until I found someone I wanted to give it to," falling to one knee despite the snow Luke asks, "Lorelai will you marry me."

Lorelai stares at Luke, his babbling alone had sent her into shock and that on top of the proposal had left Lorelai Gilmore completely and utterly speechless. For about thirty seconds, pulling Luke up off of his knees she asks, "Luke have you completely lost your mind?"