Chapter Five

A.N. I'm so sorry if you guys didn't understand the end of this chapter, my brain has the habit of filling the blanks in because I know what the blanks are so that's not fair to you...So I promise that the first scene in this chapter will explain fully why Lorelai was crying.

"Town meeting over," Luke announces as he watches Lorelai disappear out of the dance studio. And with his words Luke follows Lorelai's path out of the dance studio and catches up to her in no time at the Gazebo. "Hey."

Lorelai quickly wipes at her wet cheeks, "hey."

"What's going on?" Luke questions.

"I just got, you know, overwhelmed and these stupid hormones..."

"Don't lie to me," Luke requests, "I saw you crying in the kitchen last night. Something's going on and I want to know what it is."

Luke's words bring a fresh round of tears, "I'm not ready for this Luke. I'm not ready for any of this. I...I like the way my life is. I like us dating, and things at the inn are crazy but good. And a baby...Luke it's a lot of work, decades of work. And there's diapers, and crying and spit-up, and no sleep. And what if having a baby and getting married to soon ruins out relationship? And I've never lived with a man before."

Luke places his hands on Lorelai's cheeks and with his thumb he gently brushes the tears away, "what are you saying, Lorelai? What do you want to do?"

Lorelai buries her head in Luke's shoulder and her words come out muffled, "I want to get married, and I want to have a baby. I just need time to adjust so that I can be happy about all of this. I think I'm just going to go home and give myself time to adjust."

"So, he was cute," Stephanie glances behind her at Jess' retreating back.

Rory shrugs, "he's an ex-boyfriend, a huge mistake." With her comment Rory glances at an oddly silent Logan.

He catches Rory's eyes and gives her a typical Logan grin. "I figured there were other boyfriends."

"He seems like a bad boy," Stephanie has obviously found her topic of the evening.

Stephanie's comment causes Colin much interest, "yes, Rory, was Jess a very bad, bad, boy?"

Rory shifts, uncomfortable with the topic, "knock it off." Logan orders, "I'm sure Rory doesn't want to talk about her past boyfriend with you two, considering I don't know about them."

"There's just Dean and Jess," Rory sighs, why hadn't she told Logan about Jess, Logan knew all about Dean but Jess had just never come up in conversation.

"Well we all have our exes," Stephanie states. "Well except for Logan."

"For the love of God!" Colin exclaims, "can't everyone just loosen up? We're in the city that never sleeps, I have my dad's office keys, can't we just have a good time?"

"Luke's," Luke answer the phone over the sound of the busy breakfast crowd.

"Is this Luke?" The voice on the other line is familiar to Luke but he can't place it.

"Yes, this is Luke."

"Luke, this is Emily Gilmore."

"Oh, Emily, hello. What can I do for you?"

"I was wondering if you've seen Lorelai? I've called her repeatedly but she's not answering her phones. I wanted to ask her if there was anything thing she's not eating, so I can be prepared our Friday dinner, is she there?"

"Actually, she's not. She-uh-said she needed some time to be by herself. She's probably just not answering her phone."

Emily pauses for a minute and then tentatively asks, "Luke, I'd like to have lunch with you, if that's possible?"

"Sure, that's fine. Do you want me to meet you somewhere?"

With a sigh Lorelai shoves off of the couch when the knocking at the front door doesn't stop, she'd been hoping that whoever it was would give up and go away. As she pulls open the front door she states, "whoever you are you better have a good reason for not..."

Lorelai chokes at the sight of Jess on her front door step, "hey."

Lorelai is two physically and emotionally worn out to come up with a sarcastic greeting, "uh, hey. What are you doing here?"

"I ran into Rory in New York, she told me about you and Luke getting married, so uh, congratulations."

"Rory was in New York?" Lorelai asks.

"With her boyfriend."

"I...I have to sit down." Lorelai responds, "come in, stay out of my fridge."

"Are you okay?" Jess questions.

"I'm, yeah, I'm fine. Did Rory mention, while she was in New York with her boyfriend, that Luke and I are having a baby too?"

"No, she didn't. Congratulations again." Jess shifts uncomfortably. "Do you have any idea where he is? He's not at the diner and they said he was probably here."

"He's not at the diner?" Lorelai shakes her head, "no, he's not here, sorry."

"It's cool. If you see him, could you let him know I'm in town and I'd like to crash at his place?"

"Sure," Lorelai nods to shocked to even realize that she was being nice to Jess of all people. "I'll let him know."

"Luke, I'm glad you could make it." Emily greets when Luke walks into the restaurant Emily had chosen for lunch.

"Of course," Luke nods and the two take a seat at the table.

"I want you to know that I think the way you are handling this whole situation is great. You're a good man, Luke."

"Thank you."

"I must admit Richard and I had our reservations about your relationship with our daughter, but you've really proved yourself. Coming to us and letting us know you intended to propose to Lorelai...we'll, we appreciate it."

"I just didn't want to start my marriage to Lorelai off on the wrong foot with you guys."

"I want to be up-front with you," Emily states. "My calling you had an ulterior motive."

"I figured." Luke nods.

"Richard and I missed out on a great deal of Rory's life because of mistakes we made, I don't want that to happen again. It pains me to think of just how little of a part we had in Rory's life and I want it to be different for this new baby. I would like us to have a normal family. I would love for you to come to Friday night dinners."

"I would have to talk it over with Lorelai."

"I just," Emily stops and turns away attempting to compose herself, "I just don't want to miss out on being a grandparent again."

"I understand that, Emily, I really do. It's just for right now I might have to hold off talking to Lorelai about she's..."

"Is everything all right?"

"She's taking some time to herself," Luke responds. "She needs time to figure things out."

"Are you still planning on getting married?"

"Yes...I think." Luke responds, "she's just really confused, it's a lot of changes to her life very quickly."

"You can't give her to much time," Emily warns. "If you give her enough time Lorelai can talk herself out of everything good in her life."

"I know."

"Just be careful Luke."

"Hey," Luke is surprised to find Lorelai sitting in his apartment when he gets back from lunch with Emily.

"Hey," Lorelai's tone is distant.

"Is everything okay?" Luke asks.

"Um, just some stuff with Rory. We'll work it out later. So have you had a stress-free afternoon?"

"Actually," Luke sighs, "I had lunch with your mother."

Lorelai quickly moves to her feet, "excuse me. You what?"

"She called earlier today, she just wanted to talk."

"I can't believe her!" Lorelai exclaims, "what did she say? Never mind, I don't care whatever she said just forget it."

"She was actually making sense, she invited me to Friday night dinners. She wants us to be part of a real family, so I was thinking of maybe going."

"No," Lorelai holds up her hand. "I don't know what it is that she wants, but just forget about it. She's trying to find a way to manipulate you."

"How is going to dinner once a week a manipulation?" Luke demands.

"Trust me, I know my mother much better than you do." Lorelai responds, "Emily Gilmore always has an ulterior motive."

"Did you ever think that maybe you just overreact to everything she does?"

"Did you ever think that you don't know anything about her, or what it was like growing up with her?" Lorelai snaps. "I'm going."

"Lorelai, come on. Can't we just talk about this rationally?"

"No, I'm not feeling very rational, I'm sorry that happens when pretend to know anything about my relationship with my mother." Lorelai is halfway out the door before she calls back, "by the way, Jess is in town and looking for a place to crash."

"So you doing okay?" Rory asks as she and Lorelai sit down for a snack break in the middle of their so-far unsuccessful shopping trip.

"I'm fine."

"You don't sound fine," Rory comments, "is everything okay?"

"Yeah," Lorelai nods. "Just a lot going on."

"I bet," Rory nods.

"So, what did you do this weekend?" Lorelai questions, praying that her daughter would confess all.

Rory glances away and Lorelai immediately knows that she's not going to get the truth, "you know. Studying and stuff."

"Define stuff."

"You know, hanging out."

Lorelai nods, "cool. I just realized I should cut out trip short, I have things I need to take care of at the inn."

Rory looks mildly relieved, "okay. I'll see you at dinner on Friday."

"I'm not sure I'm going," Lorelai responds.

"Okay," Rory clears her throat, "well, I'll catch you later."

"Sure."

"Hey, I thought you were shopping with Rory today?" Sookie asks when Lorelai walks into the kitchen.

"Cut it short, what's going on here?"

"Actually it's kind of good you did," Sookie responds, "Taylor is terrorizing Michel about something..."

Lorelai frowns but continues out of the kitchen to find Michel and Taylor heatedly arguing in the dining room, "what's going on Taylor?"

"I was just trying to inform Michel that article fourteen of..."

"Taylor! Stop!" Lorelai exclaims, "dammit, just stop." Lorelai places a shaky hand on the chair nearest to her, "you're not town selectman anymore. You can't just barge in here whenever you feel like it and..." Without another word Lorelai collapses to the floor.