Luke sighed, "Two customers…"

"Luke, I'm so sorry."

"Don't be sorry, Lorelai… sorry doesn't help."

"What do you want me to do?" Lorelai asked as she repositioned Rory on her hip.

"I don't know…" Luke buried his head into his hands and stared down at the ground. "If I don't make this diner work, we're ruined. We've quit our job at Doose's, but we couldn't live off that income for much longer anyway…"

"Luke, this will work… give it more time. We can pass out flyer's tomorrow… we could offer some specials to attract more business… we could make menus." Lorelai smiled. "Come on, don't let this get you down."

"We made ten dollars today." Luke replied. "Ten dollars doesn't even cover how much it cost to make my food card."

"Well, tomorrow we'll shoot for twenty."

"Do you have to be so optimistic all the time?"

"If I weren't, I'd be dead by now." Lorelai leaned down and kissed Luke gently. "I'm taking Rory to bed. I'll see you in a few…"

Luke glanced up at the beautiful baby in Lorelai's arms. "Goodnight, Rory." Luke smiled.

"Night, night!" Rory sweetly answered.

Luke stood from the porch step and took a deep breath. It was harder to be an adult and manage everything on your own than he had ever given his parents credit for. Luke had always admired his father, and loved him very much, he only wished he could be half the man William was. Determined to not let himself, Lorelai, or Rory down, Luke began to plan out his new sales strategy. He would take Lorelai's advice and start with flyers.

The next morning, Luke stood outside his diner handing out flyers and greeting potential customers.

"Hey, how yah doing?" Luke smiled. "Come try out breakfast menu. This week only, waffles are one dollar, add two slices of bacon for fifty cents. Like our breakfast? Come back for lunch."

"Oh, my God." Sookie said in amazement as she watched from inside the diner. "I've not seen Luke this social high school."

Lorelai smiled. "Kind of nice, isn't it?"

"Well, he's being fake friendly…" Sookie noted. "But yeah, it's nice."

"I hope it works. He's practically giving the food away since he's lowered the prices so much."

"True…" Sookie shook her head. "People may not like it when he boosts them up later."

"Well, he's hoping they'll like our food and service so well, they won't mind paying extra after this first week."

Before long, Luke had moved indoors and was helping Sookie in the kitchen. Lorelai was constantly handing out plates and taking down orders. The diner was nearly full by 10:00 am.

"This is incredible!" Sookie rejoiced as she continued to stir more batter. "I bet we've served fifty customers already…"

"I hope it stays busy like this all day." Luke replied while frying the bacon.

"Well, we'll have to start serving lunch soon."

"11:00?" Luke asked.

"11:00 sounds perfect."

Lorelai returned to the kitchen. "Wow…. People are really happy out there. They're talking amongst themselves about how clean the diner is, how good the food tastes, and how good looking the waitress is…" Lorelai smirked.

Luke quickly turned around. "Who said that?"

"Oh, just these old women… I think they're sisters… here in town for some bargain shopping."

"Oh…" Luke calmly turned back around.

"And these really hot guys from Hartford Community College told me they'd be in town all weekend. Wanted to know if I was interested in maybe hanging out…"

Luke dropped his spatula and jerked back around with a look of anger and jealousy all over his face.

"I'm kidding…" Lorelai replied as she grabbed another plate of food. "They actually go to Hartford Technical College." She took back off to the tables.

Sookie laughed. "Relax, Luke… Lorelai's only got eyes for you. She just likes to see that green side of you show every now and then."

"It's not Lorelai I'm worried about…" Luke replied. "It's jerks like that out there…" Luke pointed to the two guys in which Lorelai was referring.

"Sweetie, they're not Lorelai's type. "

"Lorelai isn't their type either." Luke added. "All she'd have to do is mention her year and a half old baby, and they'd run for the hills."

Sookie gasped and turned around. "Luke, that's a horrible thing to say!"

"What?"

"You make it sound like Rory is a shackle on Lorelai."

"That's not what I meant it all!" Luke defended. "I'm just saying, most guys aren't interested in women who already have children."

"Well, apparently you're very interested."

"Of course… but I'm not most guys." Luke lightly boasted. "Besides, I'd love Lorelai if she had no children, or ten children. It wouldn't matter to me."

Sookie let a smile cross her face. "I guess as long as you feel that way, then what you said isn't that bad."

"Lorelai feels the same, right?"

Luke's out of the blue question kind of caught Sookie off guard. "Uh, yeah… yeah… Lorelai would love you no matter what." Sookie replied.

"I mean, she's the only girl I've ever cared this much about you know. I can only assume she really cares a lot about me. I mean she's living with me for God's sake." Luke continued on with the conversation with his back turned to Sookie as he persisted to cook. "Honestly, what other guy has ever had this much of an affect on Lorelai?"

"Christopher..." Sookie replied blankly staring ahead.

Luke laughed lightly. "Christopher…? That weasel can't hold a light to me."

"Luke…" Sookie barely said above a whisper. "Christopher is here."

Luke turned and saw Chris about enter into the diner. With a mighty stare of anger and resentment Luke left the kitchen. He zoomed past Lorelai, who was coming back for another order. Lorelai nearly dropped her plates as Luke rushed past.

As Chris opened the door to the diner, Luke was standing directly in the door way.

"No." Luke said calmly.

"Excuse me?" Chris asked.

"No. You're not welcome here." Luke firmly stated. "Leave."

"I'm not here to see you." Chris replied.

"You can't see Lorelai."

"Oh, well, good news, not her to see her either." Chris took a step forward.

Luke shoved him back outside the diner. "You sure as hell aren't getting near Rory."

"Back off, Luke!" Chris roared.

Suddenly, everyone's attention was focused on Luke and Chris. Lorelai hurried over to Rory's play pen and scooped her up into her arms.

"I'll back off, when you leave." Luke stepped outside the door towards Chris.

Lorelai handed Rory to Sookie and quickly headed towards the boys. "Hey! Knock it off! Both of you!"

"He started it!" Chris replied, not taking his eyes off Luke.

"What do you want Chris?" Lorelai asked.

"I want to see my daughter." Chris said, slowly moving his eyes to Lorelai.

"Why?"

Chris snarled. "What do you mean, why? She's mine, I want to see her. I have a right."

"The hell you do…" Luke grunted through his teeth.

"I don't think it's a good idea, right now." Lorelai replied stepping in front of Luke and slowly pushing him back inside the diner.

"You can't keep me from seeing her, Lorelai. She's just as much mine as she is yours… and she's nothing to you Luke… remember that."

Lorelai let out an annoyed sigh. "Chris, just go away… alright… if you want to see Rory we'll work something out later, but for now just go away."

Chris slowly shook his head. "Alright… I'll be back." Chris took off down the street.

"You're not serious?" Luke asked. "You're going to let him around Rory?"

"He's her father… I can't legally keep him from it."

"He doesn't want to love her, or spend time with her, or a be a father to her… he just wants to get back at you and cause problems!"

"You think I don't know that!" Lorelai asked in a very high whisper. "I know he's scum… I know he's selfish and heartless prick… I'd rather have Rory raised by wolves than by Christopher, but like it or not, she's his blood."

"Blood doesn't mean anything, Lorelai. You of all people should know that." Luke turned and walked back into the diner.