Disclaimer: I am in no way associated with Warner Brothers or Dorothy Parker Drank Here or anyone else attached in any way with Gilmore Girls.

Chapter 10 – Fitting the Pieces Back Together

Luke cleared his throat and said, "Hold on a minute Rory, I have something that I need to clear up before anyone says anything else."

Luke turned back to look intensely at Lorelai while still holding her wrists softly in his hands and asked calmly, "Lorelai, are you with Christopher now?"

Puzzled by the question but still bristling from her anger charged confession, Lorelai replied curtly, "No, of course not."

"Do you want to be with Christopher?"

Lorelai's expression could only be described as totally bewildered as she adamantly replied, "NO! Absolutely not. Never."

"Do you want to be with me?"

A buzzing was beginning in her ears as she responded softly, "Yes."

"Then I don't care. What happened that night with Christopher doesn't matter to me." Luke pronounced.

"What?" Her head was spinning now.

Luke bore deeply into her eyes and repeated more slowly with emphasis on each word, "What happened does not matter to me."

Lorelai stared at Luke totally confused. Oddly he no longer looked like himself. The whole room seemed to be filling with a dirty yellow haze and the buzzing in her ears was so loud now that she could barely hear anything else. She wanted to ask him something but the room was spinning and it was getting so dark. She suddenly felt so heavy that she just couldn't stand up any more.

Luke had been focusing so intensely on what he was saying to Lorelai that he hadn't realized that she was fainting until her eyes began to cloud over. This jolted him into action. Quickly he leaped up and caught her in his arms before she had sunk to the floor. He then laid her gently on the hay bales.

Rory's angle of vision was behind her mother and couldn't see her face, so she was totally surprised when Luke suddenly jumped up and caught a collapsing Lorelai. As Luke laid Lorelai on the hay, Rory got a good look at her mother. Lorelai's face was totally white, even her lips. Her eyes were closed and she looked dead. Rory felt panicky.

Luke's left arm was under Lorelai's knees holding her legs above her heart as he lay her gently down and stroked her cheek. He turned his head to talk to Rory and was momentarily worried that he might have to catch another Gilmore girl before she collapsed. Luckily the color began to return to Rory's face before that happened.

"Is there any water on there?" Luke asked Rory as he cocked his head toward the serving cart.

Rory was staring at Lorelai and it took her a second longer than normal to respond. "Uh, there's hot for tea and ice water." Rory turned to look on the cart and then added, "Oh, there's also some orange juice."

"Wet a napkin with the ice water and give it to me."

Rory quickly did as asked.

The color was already returning to her face and Lorelai was beginning to regain consciousness. Luke wiped her face with the cloth and then placed it on the back of her neck. The shock of the ice cold cloth made Lorelai's eyes fluttered open. She looked around a little confused before she focused on Luke.

He spoke to her softly, "Lorelai, you are alright. You just fainted. Lay still and rest."

Lorelai focused on Luke and replied, "I'm okay. I just got a little dizzy."

Luke chuckled before he said, "Dizzy my eye, you passed out cold!"

She pulled herself up so that she was sitting up.

Luke turned to Rory and asked, "Can you give me that orange juice?"

Rory handed the glass of juice to him. Luke put the orange juice to Lorelai's lips and commanded, "Drink." She did as instructed though she really didn't like orange juice.

When she had finished the juice, Luke kissed her on her forehead and got up. He then looked at her sternly while pointing a finger for emphasis and ordered her to, "Stay!"

"Ooh, so forceful! You're such a man!"

Luke smiled shyly and headed over to the cart filled with food. "Geez," he thought, "how many people did Sookie think she was feeding out here?" Then he looked over at Lorelai and Rory now sitting together and realized that maybe Sookie knew what she was doing.

Luke pushed the cart up so it was in front of the girls and pulled out its leaves to form a round dining table. He started taking the covers off of the various dishes to identify them.

"Ladies," he announced, "it looks like we have angel hair pasta with fried scallops in a…" Luke lifted the dish to his nose and smelled, "curry sauce. Fried fish and chips, possibly an andouille and potato soup, definitely French onion soup, a baked goat cheese gnocchi, uh, a seafood or maybe just crab salad sandwich, a chicken focaccia sandwich, fried shrimp salad with Vidalia onion and remoulade dressing, carpaccio and artichoke salad, spaghetti Bolognese, almond chocolate truffles, and chocolate walnut brownies. Wow, that's quite a selection. What do you want to start with first?"

After a short discussion, the girls decided to share all of the dishes equally. Everyone should just pick up a utensil and start digging in; which they did with gusto.

Luke picked up a single dish, put it on his lap and began eating. Lorelai looked over at him suspiciously and said, "Hey what are you bogarting there?"

Luke showed her the dish and said, "It's a mixed lettuce, onion, tomato, and blue cheese salad with a balsamic vinegar dressing. I figured it was for me since neither one of you would ever put anything green in your mouths voluntarily."

"Your right," Lorelai replied then pointed to herself, "I would never touch that but I'm no longer in control of these things, am I?" Now pointing to her stomach, "IT seems to want it, so pass it over." She then crinkled her face in mock anger and stated, "This baby is so yours!"

Luke smiled broadly and happily passed over the salad to Lorelai thinking, "If I had only known that this was the way to get her to eat something green, I would have gotten her pregnant years ago!"

Almost all of the food had been consumed and the three of them were lying back against the wall feeling overly stuffed. Luke was especially miserable since he normally only ate a small salad or half of sandwich for lunch but Lorelai had insisted that he try everything on the cart. It was way too much food!

There were still two brownies left of the half dozen that Sookie had sent. Lorelai was considering whether to eat them now or wait ten minutes. She felt really full but those brownies were calling her name. Then she looked down at her stomach and shrieked, "I am getting so-o-o fat!"

Suspecting that this was a theme that would be a common place occurrence in their lives for the next few months, Luke responded cautiously, "You are not getting fat. If anything you are too thin. That temporary tiny distention to which you are pointing is simply the undigested remains of this gluttonous orgy in which you just participated."

Both girls responded with a chorus of "Dirty!"

Rolling his eyes in fake annoyance, Luke was secretly glad that this topic had not led to a hysterical Lorelai lamenting about how fat she looked because of the pregnancy. He knew that was coming but at least not today.

Actually, Luke was a bit concern because Lorelai looked anything but fat; she looked too thin. He suspected that she had lost maybe ten pounds since that night. Not even her mid section showed any sign of the pregnancy (he had a chance to really observe it last night) and the rest of her looked a little gaunt.

He suspected that she hadn't eaten enough because of him and their whole situation. That was bad. Lorelai, with her bizarre metabolism, really needed to eat, especially with the baby. This was something he was determined to remedy.

Lorelai was silent for a minute and then she blurted out, "No, I think that bulge is the baby. I think that I'm already starting to show."

"It's too soon for you to be showing, isn't it? I mean you're not that far along are you? You just realized that you're pregnant, right? You didn't know before … I mean, you would have told me."

Realizing that this was a sensitive subject for him, Lorelai wanted to reassure him. "No you're right, it's too soon. I'm not exactly sure, but I figure that I'm maybe five or six weeks along. I probably should have realized it sooner but, you know, I wasn't thinking too clear. I just took the test a couple of days before we came back."

Feeling relieved that she hadn't tried to keep the pregnancy from him, he wanted more information. "So you haven't seen the doctor yet?"

"Not yet, but I called for an appointment today. I am going on Tuesday at two."

"I want to go with you."

Lorelai was taken back. Luke hated hospitals and doctors and anything medical. "You do? You do know what they do at these appointments don't you?"

"Yes, but I'm not the one that will be getting stuck with needles or probed." he teased. Then more seriously, "I just want to hear what the doctor has to say. Plus, we are in this together, all the way. You're not alone."

Lorelai smiled at him sweetly but there was a bit of mischief in her eyes. "So we're in this together, huh? I guess you can have the morning sickness and I'll take the cravings. Got a deal?"

He gave her a smirked and pulled her closer to him. He placed a gentle kiss on her lips and then gave her a long hug.

As he held her, he started thinking and trying to figure when she might have gotten pregnant and without realizing he spoke aloud, "So it probably happened after I came back from the trip with April..."

Rory got up suddenly. She was feeling a little uncomfortable where this conversation was heading and sensing that she was a third wheel, she declared that she needed to leave.

That was the truth. She had to go to her job at the Stamford Gazette. The paper had been really great and had let her take the month off but she had told them she would be back today. Since she was scheduled to work the three to midnight shift and it was already after 1:30, she needed to get going. It is a 45 minute drive and she still had to change.

Rory gave her mom a big hug, kissed her on the check, and whispered, "See I told you it would work out." Then Rory surprised Luke by giving him a hug and whispering, 'Hang in there, she does love you."

As Rory was leaving, a thought occurred to her and she turned around to face both Luke and Lorelai. "I know you didn't want to talk anymore about this, but both of you need to know what happened with Dad that night."

Turning toward her mother, Rory continued, "All he did is take care of you, Mom, nothing else. You were really upset and he tried to calm you down. At some point he gave you some brandy but that turned out to be a really bad idea. It caused you do an exorcist."

"I guess you were really a mess. He had to put you in the shower to clean you up. It had gotten in your hair, clothes, and everything. Afterwards, he went to get some clean dry clothes for you to wear but you fell asleep before you had a chance to put them on. That's all that happened. Dad swore to me. In fact he was really upset that I or anyone would think that he would or could take advantage of you like that."

With that, Rory left.

Luke had truly meant what he said to Lorelai, that what happened that night with Christopher didn't matter. He didn't like to think about it but he knew that it was his actions that had caused Lorelai's breakdown. He held himself responsible, not her.

Of course, he felt totally different about Christopher. For a guy to sink so low as to use a women in Lorelai's condition was reprehensible. According to Luke, Christopher deserved to die.

Luke had been fantasizing various scenarios for Christopher's very painful and timely demise. His favorite method would involve simply ripping his head off of his body. Of course, that might make things awkward around Rory so he thought that he might just beat him to a bloody pulp.

Now, with the information that Rory provided, Luke had to reassess his opinion of Christopher (a little, at least). It appears that the guy had acted honorably, more honorably that he had acted that night. Chris had comforted her; Luke had just let her walk away.

Lorelai kept thinking about what Rory had said. It rang true. She sort of remembered the brandy but she definitely remembered a part of the reenactment of the exorcist. Regarding the cleanup, she had a vague memory of being in the shower with Christopher. She was naked but he was wearing clothes. So she hadn't, they hadn't.

She felt like a major weight was lifted off of her. She had been feeling so guilty about what she thought had happened with Christopher, that it was disturbing her sleep. She hadn't been honest with Luke about her nightmare, the same type of nightmare that had been plaguing her sleep in one form or another for weeks.

It was always the same theme. Luke would finally want her but then he would see her with Christopher and walk away. Last night she dreamt that Christopher was lying on top of her in bed and though she kept trying to push him off she couldn't. Then the door opened and Luke was standing in the doorway. He had come for her and wanted her but Christopher wouldn't get off and let her go. Luke finally had gotten frustrated and just walked away. It ended with her screaming and fighting to get away from Christopher and go to Luke but it was too late.

Luke realized that they both had been sitting there quiet ever since Rory had left. Obviously Rory's little revelation had them both thinking. Luke figured that he better say something.

"Lorelai, I want you to know what I said earlier wasn't exactly accurate. I did mean it when I said that it didn't matter what happened between you and Christopher that night. Whatever happened wasn't your fault."

"However, I did and do blame myself. You wouldn't have ever gone to him if it hadn't been for me. I didn't listen to you and you felt that I didn't want you. I will admit that I don't like that the only person you felt you could go to for support was Christopher but I am glad that he there for you."

Now it was Lorelai's turn. She had all these thoughts in her head and she wanted to be very clear how she expressed them.

"Luke, you and I are in a bad pattern. Every time there is a problem or something bad happens we push away from each other. Rory once told me that you and I are like turtles. I laughed at her but I think she's right. We do both pull into our protective shells."

"We both are accustomed to dealing with our problems without anyone to help. In fact, we both push away any help offered until we have no choice. That type of behavior is not good for a relationship and it dooms any marriage to failure."

Luke looked at her with fear in his eyes. He knew what she said was the truth but he didn't want to hear it and he didn't like where it appeared to be leading.

When Lorelai continued, her voice was quivering, "I just don't know if we can break this pattern." She patted her stomach and said, "Now with this little one, there is so much more at risk. I don't know where we go from here."

Luke shook his head as if to clear away his fears and doubt. What she said might have been true before but not any longer. He knew that. This last month had changed him, changed them both but especially him.

He had always envisioned his role in this relationship as Lorelai's support. His was to take care of everything; to fix things. That was wrong. It made their relationship unbalanced and not a true partnership.

But he had learned from his mistakes. He was ready and he knew that she was ready. Lorelai was just afraid to trust. He understood that but he was determined to prove to her that she could trust him, trust them. He didn't know how but he knew he had to break through this wall she had erected.

Luke moved to kneel in front of Lorelai and said, "Look, don't give up on us. I know that I messed up but I can learn from my mistakes and I have. No more secrets and no more partitions. Let me prove that to you, please?"

Lorelai looked back at him. He was so sincere and she loved him so much but she was so afraid to actually believe in the dream again. If she let herself she believe that they could really make it work this time and another obstacle got in their path, she wasn't sure she could survive this time. Wasn't it better to just not risk it?

But what was the alternative, to live the rest of her life without him? Well, not entirely without him because he would always be around for the baby. Is this what she wanted, to only be with Luke when he came to visit the baby?

No that was stupid. She wanted Luke; she wanted a "them". Lorelai answered Luke with a shy smile.

"So it's yes? We are back on?" Luke asked tentatively.

Lorelai replied equally tentative, "Yes, we're back on. We are officially dating again."

It wasn't exactly what Luke hoped for but it was good enough for now. He had hoped that the engagement would be back on and they could finally plan the wedding but she wasn't ready for that step yet.

He was. He had taken her ring out of his safe this morning and put it on a chain around his neck. He was planning on wearing it all the time just waiting for the right opportunity to slip it back on her finger. He had faith that the opportunity would present itself soon.

"So, do you have any plans for tonight? I mean it is Friday and you usually have dinner with you parents."

"Richard and Emily are in Europe. They won't be back for another month. Rory is working tonight so no, I don't have anything planned."

"Come out to dinner with April and me. We have this little celebration scheduled and we both want you to join us, please?"

Lorelai was hesitant. "Are you sure? I mean won't Anna get upset? And, if it's a celebration, shouldn't it just be you and April?"

Luke sat back next to Lorelai as he explained, "April asked specifically if you could be there. And don't worry about Anna's reaction. Things have changed a little since, uh, before. I finally did what I should have done at the very beginning and worked out a formal custody agreement with Anna. We had lawyers and everything so it's all set and legal."

"April and I even had a second DNA test so that it is now legally recognized that I'm her father and she's my daughter. Anna and I now share custody, though of course, April will continue to live with her mother. This custody agreement just sets boundaries."

"Actually, the custody agreement was just finalized yesterday. That's what the celebration is about tonight. April and I are celebrating that we are "legal" father and daughter. Please come with us? We are going to Snuffy's and you know Maisy and Buddy will yell at me if I don't bring you. You don't want April to hear her father be yelled at, do you?"

"No," she smiled, "that would be bad."

"Good, so you'll come. April and I will pick you up around six. Please don't be late. I promised Anna to get April back home by nine." he pleaded.

Luke arrived at the Nardini house at six o'clock sharp. Anna answered the door and looked Luke over appreciatively. "He sure dresses better than when we were dating. "she thought.

Luke was dressed in a dark silver and grey stripped shirt with an open collar and charcoal grey slacks. He had brought his leather jacket but left it in the truck.

She smiled as she said, "Hey Luke, don't you look good for your big date!"

"Thanks. How have you been?"

"I'm good. Take a seat, won't you. April isn't quite ready yet. You know how we women are. Can I get you something to drink, tea or water?"

"No thanks, I'm good."

Luke was fidgeting. He felt that he should brooch the subject of Lorelai coming to dinner with them but didn't know exactly how to bring it up. He figured that it would be better if Anna knew up front.

Anna was amused as she watched him. He seemed nervous. She liked that he was nervous around her, but she wasn't sure why. It wasn't that she was interested in him anymore, plus he was involved with that Lorelai woman.

Anna knew that Luke's relationship with Lorelai was a little rocky right now. Not that Luke had shared anything with either of the Nardini girls. April had heard some gossip around Stars Hollow when she was visiting and had shared the information with Anna. Actually all April knew is Lorelai is on an indefinite vacation but Anna understood what that implied. She felt a sense of satisfaction that April had not gotten really attached to Lorelai.

Anna spoke, "Luke, calm down. I'm sure April will just be a minute longer."

"Sure. It's just that we still have to go pick up Lorelai before we go to dinner and I don't want to be late bringing April home tonight."

"Oh, so Lorelai is going with you?" Anna said carefully. Evidently April's information was behind the times and Lorelai was back. Anna was trying to figure out how she felt about this latest development but right now she was just wary.

"Yes." Luke replied thinking well, she knows.

Just at that moment April appeared. Luke stood up when she walked in and smiled approvingly. "You look really nice, April, very grownup."

"Oh Luke!" She said blushing. Then she looked around and said, "Lorelai's not with you?" April wanted to make sure her mother knew that Lorelai was coming with them but hadn't figured out a way to tell her. Her mom was always a little weird about Lorelai.

"No we're going to get her now. I told her that we would pick her up at six which means there's a 50/50 possibility that she'll be ready when we get to her house at six thirty."

April giggled and then went over to her mom for a hug and kiss goodbye. Anna said, "Home by nine!"

April looked at her mother and responded, "Ten?"

Anna laughed and compromised, "Okay, nine thirty. Have a good time you two."

They left to go pickup Lorelai.

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­

Lorelai had just hung up the phone with Rory for the sixth time this evening. It was extremely inconsiderate of her daughter to be working while she was undergoing a fashion crisis. She needed Rory here to help her pick out the perfect outfit and Rory was off in some dungeon of a stupid newspaper! (Well, it wasn't exactly a dungeon but some place called the Tombs, which generated the image in her head of Rory chained in a dungeon.) Anyway, this "Tombs" got lousy cell reception hence the need for multiple calls.

At least they had finally selected an outfit. It was very important to choose an outfit that makes the right statement. Since this is the first time that she would be with April and Luke alone, she wanted to look a little sexy (for Luke) but not really sexy (13 year olds were highly susceptible to embarrassment by the overt appearance of sexy in a parental figure) and fashionable (Anna does own a trendy boutique).

She and Rory finally had finally decided on her new Guava (pink) deep V-neck silk blend top with smocking and embroidered details with her new white wide waistband slide pocket pants paired with the gold bejeweled strappy sandals. She left her hair loose and curly. She took a look at her reflection in the mirror and was satisfied.

It was now 6:25 and she was finally ready. She knew when Luke told her 6:00 he really meant he would arrive at 6:15 to find her almost ready. She would still be searching for an elusive earring or shoe and still have to change purses (assuming she had found the right one for the evening) and locate her keys. That meant that they would be leaving at 6:30.

She really had intended to ready at 6:15 but for some reason she was stricken with a late round of morning sickness. But at least she was ready before 6:30 which meant he was late. Luke was never late. She didn't know what to do with herself while she waited for him. In all the history of their dating, she had never waited for him.

Unfortunately, waiting made her a little restive.

By the time that she heard the knock on the door she managed to work herself from restive to jumpy to worried to shaky and finally full out nervous. She was ready to lay into Luke for keeping her waiting when she opened the door.

What she saw on the other side caused her mood to immediately swing a 180 degrees and Lorelai broke out laughing hysterically.

(Tbc)

A/N – Sorry, I am getting addicted to these cliffhangers but this is just a little one.

Hey, it's really your fault. When I use cliffhangers, I get more feedback and reviews. Those motive me to write and right now I need a little motivation because I'm getting tired (I have written a lot of words in the last couple of weeks.)

It boils down to the fact that you're rewarding me for by bad behavior (he he). If you keep rewarding me, I'll keep writing (at least to finish this story).

Debbie