For disclaimer, please see chapter one. Thanks!
A/N: Thank you for all of the reviews! Thank you to the many of you who pointed out that Luke doesn't call Lorelai "Lor", Chris does. I will not have him call her that any more. I hope that you enjoy chapter two of 'Expecting' and please review!
Expecting
Chapter Two: Making Changes
July 24
Lorelai let out a sleepy sigh as she lounged on the sofa, feet propped up. A few months before, she and Luke had decided that it would be best for she and the baby if she started taking at least one day off of work every week before she took of on maternity leave, and she had decided that it was a good idea. As she enjoyed her time off, she had been periodically nodding off. She felt her husband's hand on hers and she smiled as she cracked open her eyes.
"Hey" She greeted sleepily and he smiled, leaning down and kissing her forehead.
"Hey." He replied. "Get up; I have a surprise for you." He said. She raised an eye brow and sat up slowly, holding out her hand for him to help her up.
"What kinda surprise?" She asked with a giggle. He held out a box.
"Why don't you check and see?" He asked. She took the box and tore off the wrapping paper quickly. When she opened it, she saw a beautiful maternity knee length cocktail dress. She knew that the ruby red color would look fabulous with her hair, which excited her because she hadn't thought about anything looking "fabulous" for the last seven months. She smiled widely.
"I love it! It's too bad I don't have any where to where it to." She said sounding disappointed. Luke smiled again and dangled his keys in the air.
"You most certainly do. We're going to dinner, go get your purse." She squealed excitedly and did so. A few minutes later, they were in Luke's pick up truck and on the way to Lorelai's favorite restaurant. After they arrived, they took a seat and their ordered. Lorelai looked around the room at all the other couples looking disgruntled.
"I wanna have wine!" She complained. "It's good, and I like it, and it's what grown ups do when they go to dinner! Why can't I have wine?" She looked down at her stomach with a scowl. "Oh that's right. You're not 21 yet. Nice try, little one." She laughed and her husband did as well, reaching across the table and taking her hand. The food soon arrived and Luke dug in. Lorelai's face, however, turned pale quickly. She looked up at Luke.
"I'll be…" She stopped talking, covering her mouth and making a dash for the ladies room. She came back a minute later looking tired. "You." She pointed at the food angrily. "The baby's not a big fan of pasta, apparently." She sounded sad. "I have to get something else." She waved for the waiter and he came over, taking her food and a new order. When her new food came, it went over much better, and she was able to enjoy it without any other ladies room trips.
After they finished eating and their food was taken, Luke glanced over at the band and dance floor, offering his hand to his wife. She smiled, and took it, letting herself be lead across the room amid the other couples swaying back and forth to the music. When they stopped walking, Lorelai slipped her arms around Luke's neck, his slipping around her waist. She went to lie her head down on her chest and stopped short. She looked down and saw to her displeasure that her stomach was causing her to not be able to draw near to her husband at all.
Try as she might, she couldn't help but begin to giggle. She changed her position a few times, but had no luck getting any closer. Luke began to laugh as well as they continued to try and dance. When suddenly the baby started kicking, causing Luke to gasp and jump back in surprise, the couple burst out laughing loudly.
The other couples around them, who had been happily slow dancing to the quiet music, stopped and cast less than pleased glances toward the couple, which only fueled their laughter more. They quickly hurried off the dance floor. The laughed all the way home where they collapsed together on the sofa.
"Well, at least the baby has a sense of humor." Luke said with a laugh and Lorelai nodded. She looked down at the floor for a moment then looked back up at him seriously.
"I hate calling her 'the baby'. I want to name her." She said. Luke nodded slowly.
"I feel the same way. But where do we start?" Lorelai's eyes lit up and she walked into the kitchen, grabbing two pieces of paper and two pens. "Ok, what we're going to do," She started, taking a seat again, "We're both going to write down the 10 names that we like the most. Then, we'll switch lists and rate each other's names from 1 to 10, 1 is you hate it, 10 is you love it. Ok? Go!" She tossed his paper and pen to him as she started quickly. He laughed and took it.
"Leave it to my wife to turn even this into a game." He muttered as he began and she elbowed him playfully. "Does it have to be girls' names?" He asked. She looked at him with a raised eye brow.
"Well, judging that we're having a girl…yes." He laughed and continued writing. After twenty minutes, they were both done and switched lists, rating the names carefully. Then, they put both lists onto the table to compare. First, they looked at Lorelai's list with Luke's ratings scribbled next to them:
Haylie- 7
Jade - 6
Ashley - 4
Kaitlin - 5
Anna -4
Madelyn - 10
Sophia - 8
Chloe - 8
Megan - 9
Brooke - 7
They then turned to Luke's list, which in turn had Lorelai's ratings written next to the names.
Katherine - 9
Mya - 4
Elizabeth - 8
Ava - 10
Nicole - 9
Michelle - 10
Paige - 8
Noelle - 7
Shannon -7
Morgan -5
"Well…" Luke said quietly, scanning over the lists one last time. "Seems that our favorite names are Madelyn, Michelle and Ava with tens, and Megan, Katherine and Nicole with nines."
"We should choose from the tens, since those were our top ones." Lorelai said, and Luke nodded in agreement. "What's your favorite?" She asked. He thought for a moment.
"I like Madelyn." He said finally. She nodded.
"I like Ava personally, but I love Madelyn so much too…" She trailed off. Suddenly, her eyes lit up. "What if we used both?" She wondered.
"What do you mean?" Asked Luke. "Like, one for the first name and one for the middle?" She nodded.
"Ava Madelyn or Madelyn Ava." She said. "I like Madelyn Ava." Luke nodded and smiled widely.
"Me too." He said. "So…it's Madelyn Ava then…unless Rory doesn't like it." He said and she nodded.
"Yeah." She answered with a smile and he leaned over for a kiss. After calling Rory, and being over joyed to hear that she loved the name as well, Lorelai and Luke sat in silence on the sofa with Lorelai sitting in front of her husband, both of their arms around her stomach. Finally, Lorelai broke the silence, looking up at Luke.
"I wonder if she'll look like Rory?" She asked quietly. Luke smiled and kissed her forehead.
"I hope so, because Rory looks just like her mom…and her mom is gorgeous." Lorelai smiled up at Luke and she tipped her head upwards for another kiss. After enjoying one another's company for awhile longer, Luke looked down at his wife, whose eye lids were drooping.
"Let's go to bed." He told her. "We've had a long day." She nodded in agreement and allowed him to help her up. With that, they started up the stairs and got into bed. It took longer than Lorelai liked to get comfortable enough to fall asleep, but once she did, she was in a deep sleep for the entire night.
(July 25)
The next day, Lorelai found herself sitting in the kitchen at the Dragonfly watching her best friend hurry around. She rested her hands on her stomach and shifted uncomfortably every few seconds. Lately, she had been having more and more trouble getting comfortable. Her newly swollen ankles, incredibly sore back, and other aches and pains had been irritating at first, but now they were down right annoying. Sookie glanced up from the food she was making with an apologetic look.
"I remember that." She said, referring to Lorelai not being comfortable. "When I was pregnant with mine, near the end I was miserable." Lorelai lifted an eye brow and moaned.
"I can't believe I still have two months of this to deal with!" She complained, shifting again for what seemed like the billionth time. "I had forgotten about all of these things. I was pregnant with Rory so long ago. Now it's all coming back to me." She laughed. "I don't want to be pregnant any more, but I don't really want to have a new born around the house either." She looked down. "And strangely enough…I want nothing more than this baby. I love her so much." She laughed again. "Talk about schizophrenic." Sookie walked over after taking off her gloves and put her left arm around Lorelai's shoulders, her right hand resting on her best friend's stomach.
"I know." She said. "I felt the same way some times. But it's going to be so OK. Pregnancy is hard sometimes, this you obviously know. Having a new born at home is hard too. But at the same time, you'll love it, and you'll love your new daughter more than life itself, and it will all be worth it." She smiled with watery eyes as a tear made its way down Lorelai's cheek. She quickly wiped it away.
"Yeah. Thanks Sookie." She said, hugging her before standing. "I'll leave you to your work now. Michel's probably having a cow by this time any way." They laughed and Lorelai walked back out into the lobby where she was indeed met by an angry Michel.
"Where have you been?" He asked, his accent thick as ever. "I have been taking care of the phone calls, taking care of the guests at the desk, taking care of the complaints, taking care of…"
"Ok Michel, I get it. You were busy." She cut him off. His hands flew to his hips.
"Yes I was." He said snippily. "I understand that you're off in mommy land" He motioned at her stomach, "but you still have to be in Lorelai land too! It's not fair to any of us if you check out!" Lorelai frowned. She wanted to snip back at him, but had a bad feeling that he was right. She just nodded and walked to the desk where the phone was again ringing. While she talked to a customer over the line, she tried her best to hide the fact that she was crying, wondering once again how she would handle this change.
A/N: I hope that you all liked this chapter! Please review! New chapter some time soon!