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 17 – Back
"Lorelai, it's your mother. Lorelai, Rory? For heaven's sake are you ever home? I hate these silly machines. Well, it seems that your father's company can barely survive without him for another day or some such nonsense so we have to come back early. We will arrive in Hartford on Wednesday so we will expect to see you both on Friday for dinner. See you then. Richard, tell the bellman not to forget the hanging… (click)"
Luke stops his seduction of Lorelai when he hears Emily's voice. Both Luke and Lorelai sit up and listen to the message.
Luke looks at Lorelai when it is over, "Your parents are out of town?"
"Uh-huh, they left over a month ago. They are supposed to be gone for another month."
"So do they know about, uh, what happened with us?"
"Yes."
Surprised, Luke looks at Lorelai as he asked, "You've been talking with your parents?"
With a look of incredulity Lorelai responds with a definitive, "No." Then as a means of explanation, she adds, "Rory".
"So-o-o, they probably hate me even more, right? Does that win or lose me points with you?"
Almost as if it is answering, Lorelai's stomach growls causing her to grin broadly, "I don't know but since we are apparently hungry, if you feed us I'll get you bonus points"
Luke leans over and gives Lorelai a quick kiss, "So, I suppose that before I pack or… ", he gives her a lascivious leer, "I'm fixing dinner."
It's Monday morning and Anna is running late. She calls out to April to say goodbye.
April comes out still sulking and there's an edge to her voice, "Bye."
"Now April, remember you are to stay in today, no one can come over, no computer and no phone."
"So if the house catches on fire, I can't call 911?"
"Don't be a smart aleck. You may use the phone for any emergency but no social calls. You're grounded but not imprisoned
April heads back to her room mumbling under breath "I don't see the difference."
It had been a busy morning in the store for Anna and she had made quite a few sales which is unusual for a Monday. This is good since it keeps her busy and she is nervous about the call she plans to make later today to the Mirkan School.
The Mirkan School is a private school for academically gifted girls located in the Santa Monica Mountains of California. They contacted April and Anna following the infamous science fair last November. Evidently, they monitor school science fairs looking for potential students of a certain caliber. April fits their criteria.
Apparently this school specializes in developing and educating girls who show an exceptionally high aptitude in science and math. The school has a special affiliation with Caltech and their mission is to promote females in the science and math fields.
They tested April and obviously liked the results because they offered her a partial scholarship to attend. April had been pretty excited until she realized the school is in California. She didn't want to attend a boarding school and she knew that there was no way her mother would move them to Santa Monica so she could attend as a day student. The idea of the school is forgotten, almost.
This school remained in the back of Anna's mind. She hadn't realized that someday it might come in handy.
The Mirkan School is known for the caliber of students that it produces and its graduates are sought out by some of the most prestigious schools in the nation. It's extremely challenging but Mirkan graduates are considered the most advanced for their ages in the science and math fields. It utilizes the unusual practice of a 270 day school year instead of the average 180 day that most American schools schedule. Their academic year followed a less traditional year round schedule of 90 days of instruction followed by 20 days of vacation. That schedule is suddenly very appealing to Anna.
All she has to do is relocate with April to California and put her in the Mirkan School. Then it will be difficult for Luke to have more than a casual relationship with April. Worse case scenario, April will spend half of her school vacations with him which will be only three times a year for ten days plus maybe weekly phone calls. It will be basically just Anna and April again.
Getting Anna into the school is only a part of the problem. SinceAnna intends to move with April to California, she had to figure out what to do with her boutique and find a job in Santa Monica to support them.
Of course she has already dealt with these problems. In her discussion with Eleanor Michaels they reached a mutually advantageous agreement. Eleanor will buy half an ownership of Anna's boutique and in return Anna will buy in as a partner with Eleanor's company, Michaels' Marketing which is located in Santa Monica. Eleanor's business has grown to the point that she needs help and Anna has all of the right qualifications and connections. Anna's friend Donna will run the boutique until the new partners can hire someone full time.
The latest problem that arose is April stubbornness about attending the camp. Sending her to that camp is a key element to Anna's scheme. It is the cover to explain why Anna and April are traveling to California without anyone suspecting that they are actually moving there permanently
Anna is confident that, given a little time, she can convince April to agree to camp. So really the only hurtle remaining after she gets April into the school is getting Luke to officially authorize Anna to take April to California. Of course he will think that it is only for the camp but if Anna words the permission letter right, he won't have any legal recourse to force them to return to Connecticut.
Babette, Patty and Taylor all show up at Sookie's house Monday evening. The town had been abuzz all day. Lorelai had appeared at the diner this morning wearing the ring. Neither Luke nor Lorelai would explain anything but obviously the engagement is back on.
Sookie, of course, knows the whole story. She had spent the first two hours this morning in "conference" with Lorelai in her private office at the Inn.
Lorelai is thankful that during the Inn's construction, she had ordered solid wood doors and had Tom insulate her office for sound. Twice during their "conference", Lorelai had unexpectedly opened the door and found Michel with his ear next to it. He claims that he was simply picking up dropped papers, but Lorelai knows it is killing Michel not to know what the girls are talking about.
Actually very little of the "conference" had to do with the Dragonfly. Most of it is filling Sookie in on what had happened since yesterday morning. Sookie praises her for finally setting Christopher straight and is relieved that Luke had apparently convinced Lorelai that he had no interest in Anna.
Sookie is still a bit concern that Lorelai is unwilling to discuss a wedding. Oddly, Lorelai is insisting the former engagement ring is now only a promise ring. Sookie doesn't really understand the concept of the promise since she thinks an engagement is a promise but since Luke seems to be making headway with Lorelai, she's not going to make waves.
When Lorelai announces that Luke is officially moving into the Crap Shack, Sookie squeals with joy. With Luke living there all of the time, he's bound to be able to convince Lorelai to finally marry him.
For some strange reason, Lorelai still insists that they aren't ready to be married. Sookie tried to talk some sense into Lorelai but she is stubborn and not willing to discuss it.
Naturally, Sookie doesn't dare to tell Babette, Patty and Taylor any of this. Also, Sookie doesn't correct their impression that the engagement is back on because she still doesn't get the whole "promise ring" concept. She does manage to convince them to postpone their surprise wedding.
After all, since the engagement is back on, almost everyone agrees that the couple will be planning their own wedding. Unfortunately, Taylor doesn't trust that Luke and Lorelai will ever do that. He insists that the group continues to plan a wedding but agrees to pick a different date.
The group has made a lot more headway in the plans than Sookie expected. They have collected over $7,000.00 from towns' people to pay for the decorations and help defer the cost of the food. They persuaded the contractor, Tom, to donate the use of two of his workers to build a temporary floor to put down in the square since Miss Patty insists the wedding must include salsa dancing and no one can properly salsa on grass.
The local ladies sewing and quilting circle agreed to make the two hundred slip covers for the folding chairs. The slip covers were Tillie's idea since she thought the mismatched folding chairs that Patty is donating are tacky. Instead of being offended, Miss Patty embraced the idea since she will get to keep the slip covers after the wedding.
Patty has many contacts and secured sources with cut rate prices for the tulle, candles, and the flowers. Babette promised that Morey and some of his musician friends will play at the ceremony. Though no one has said anything to Lane yet, it's a given by all that of course Hep Alien will play at the reception.
Sookie makes a suggestion that she has been thinking about for a while. Instead of the town square, Sookie thinks they should use the garden at the Dragonfly as the location. First of all, it will be easier to keep Luke and Lorelai away from the location while they are decorating. Secondly, the Dragonfly has a sentimental meaning for both Luke and Lorelai. Finally in the town square, it will be difficult to use the Chuppa. Sookie is adamant that the Chuppa that Luke made for Lorelai be central in the wedding.
The team agrees to the new location. They decide to meet at the Dragonfly tomorrow afternoon to take measurements so they can draw sketches of the layout. Sookie assures them that neither Lorelai nor Luke will be around after 1:30.
The next issue is wardrobe. Since everyone knows that Lorelai has her dress already so that's not a problem. Of course, Sookie has a concern that she can't tell them. Lorelai may not be able to fit into her dress because of the pregnancy. Sookie figures they will deal with that problem when the time comes.
Sookie suggests that it is time tell Rory about the plans. She assures them that Rory will be supportive of the idea of the surprise wedding plus they will need her in on the plans if for no other reason than she is the maid of honor and has to get a dress. Sookie volunteers to speak with her.
The group leaves Sookie's house that evening with the promise that they all will reconvene tomorrow at 1:30 outside of the Dragonfly.
Lorelai arrives at the diner a little after 12:30 on Tuesday. Luke suggested that she come by early so they can eat lunch before heading to the doctor's appointment. She goes upstairs to wait for him to bring up their food.
Looking through the closet, Lorelai is pleased to see that it is almost empty. The only items remaining are one pair of jeans covered with various hues of paint, some worn out tees and the blue flannel shirt she sleeps in. All of his photographs and most of his personal items are now in boxes in her, ah correction, their house. Luke's personal pots, pans, and cooking utensils are now in their kitchen. All that's left in the refrigerator is some bottled water, a half consumed carton of orange juice, a pitcher of tomato juice and some Hostess Ho Ho's (she forgot she left those here).
As she eats the Ho Ho's, she pours out a glass of tomato juice. She is becoming addicted to this stuff. She's now drinking about six glasses a day. Though she started to drink it just to keep the nausea at bay, now she really craves it.
Luke makes sure that there is always a fresh pitcher at home and now he put some in here. Sookie also made a pitcher of it for the Dragonfly. There is a fresh supply in the diner refrigerator too though it's no longer just for her. Caesar found it over the weekend and started selling it. Evidently, all of Stars Hallow residents are also craving fresh tomato juice. It's became a big seller.
The fresh tomato juice is so popular that Luke decided to buy one of those fancy juicers for the diner. Making enough tomato juice in a blender for the demand had become too time consuming. He picked it up this morning.
He loves his new juicer (boys and their toys). Luke has visions of introducing the diner clientele to healthier eating by selling various fresh vegetable juices in the diner. He hasn't gone that far yet, but it looks like the new juicer may pay for itself quickly with the tomato juice sales alone.
Lorelai is skeptical of the new juicer. She suspects that Luke will try to sneak other vegetables into her tomato juice like broccoli or cauliflower. She knows that he hid spinach in the lasagna that he made for dinner last night. She would have been mad at him for ruining the meal except apparently the baby really likes spinach in the lasagna. Lorelai ate over half of the casserole all by herself.
Luke comes upstairs with their lunches and sees her drinking the glass of tomato juice. "Stomach?" he asks.
"Just a little queasy." she lies. He would be intolerably smug if he knew that she actually liked the stuff. No way will she ever admit that to him.
Luke fights to keep from smiling. Lorelai didn't mention anything about the juice tasting weird. That's good. He had used his new juicer to include both broccoli and cauliflower in with the tomatoes when he made up that pitcher. If she had gotten upset, he would have claimed that he made it for himself and not for her.
He brought her what she wanted for lunch but the combination of foods she requested is making him a little queasy. Lorelai couldn't decide whether she felt like tuna salad or egg salad so she opted for both. Luke made her tuna salad and put it in a tomato and fixed her an egg salad sandwich on whole wheat. She also wanted chili cheese fries, a chocolate banana milk shake and blueberry pie.
Luke made a small tuna fish salad for himself and hoped that he wouldn't be too nauseas watching Lorelai eat her weird choices of food to eat his own
He won't admit it, but he is really excited about going to the doctor today. Well not exactly excited to go to the doctor per se but just to find out about the baby officially. He also intends to ask the doctor some questions and get all the information that he can about what he should do to make the pregnancy easier and healthier for Lorelai.
Lorelai had brought him a change of clothes, a clean pair of jeans and his blue cotton shirt. Not that he feels that he needs to impress the doctor but he doesn't want to smell like burgers and fries while setting in the waiting room. He plans to shower and change before they leave.
He knows that it had upset Lorelai when he chose to leave a backup set grooming supplies and a towel and wash cloth at the apartment. But it makes sense to keep some stuff here for situations just like today. He just wishes that Lorelai didn't see everything as some ominous indication that he isn't fully committed.
Luke is fussing at Lorelai to hurry up but of course she has not completed her primping. In frustration, he tells her he will leave in five minutes, with or without her which of course she totally ignores. Yeah, like he'll go to the OB/GYN without her.
Luke heads downstairs to check with Caesar while waiting for Lorelai. Miss Patty happens to be in the diner and notices that Luke is dressed up a little from his normal attire. Lucky for Luke, she is so thoroughly enjoying the unobstructed view of his ass (he has his shirt tucked in) that she fails to quiz him on where he is going. He and Lorelai had never discussed a cover story.
Luke is about to go back upstairs and yell at Lorelai again when the diner door opens and in walks Anna. She immediately heads toward the stairs to his apartment while explaining, "I need a minute of your time to go over some stuff for April."
Luke momentarily panics. He doesn't know what to do. Normally he would automatically take her upstairs to talk in private but Lorelai is there. Then he gets his head back on straight and thinks, "What the hell, anything she wants to say to me, she say in front of Lorelai." So he follows her.
As they are walking up the stairs, Luke asks, "Is April alright? Her burn is healing okay, isn't it?"
"She's good, Luke. The burn seems to be healing fine, no infection."
As they reach the door to the apartment, Luke asks, "So Anna, what's this about?"
Walking into the apartment, Anna responds, "I just need you to sign some papers. With the custody agreement, it seems I need your approval to take April to her camp session. It's no big thing."
"What camp?" Luke questions as he spots Lorelai coming out of the bathroom looking at him. He acknowledges Lorelai's presence by turning to her and saying, "Anna needed something for April. It seems April is going to camp or something this summer."
"Hey Anna!" Lorelai greets her politely while trying not to send nasty looks in her direction. She is pissed at Anna for the stunt she pulled Sunday when she refused to let Luke speak with April. Lorelai thought that was petty and mean and just plan wrong.
Luke's a little pissed at Anna also for Sunday. He is not in a very conciliatory mood towards her plus her little impromptu visit is delaying Luke's and Lorelai's departure for the doctor which is also pissing him off. Anna shouldn't have just showed up expecting him to be available for her, she should have called first.
Luke turns back towards Anna, "So what's this camp you're talking about? I didn't know that she is planning to go to any camp. This is the first I heard about it."
Anna is also a little pissed because Lorelai is here. This is not going the way she planned. She had planned just to surprise Luke with the papers and drag him off to a notary to get a quick signature. She had observed that he is always a little nervous around her and figures she could use that to get him to sign without any questions.
The only time that Luke had not been awkward around her was last Saturday at the Emergency Room. Anna noticed how much more self-assured and in control he appeared and she had caulked it up to Lorelai presence. That is another reason she doesn't like Lorelai around.
Lorelai moves to stand next to Luke in a subtle play to establish her claim on him in front of Anna. Something about Anna today is raising a warning signal. For some reason, she is sensing that Ann is trying to pull something over on Luke and Lorelai is feeling suddenly a bit protective. Or she could just be feeling jealous.
Anna, who is sensing that this is not the right time for her little ploy, tries to bow out of the situation graciously. "Oh were you two going somewhere? I didn't mean to intrude. I can come back another time and we can go over these."
Anna starts to leave but Lorelai is a little quicker. She reaches out and takes the papers that Anna is holding while saying, "Nonsense, why don't you just leave them here for Luke to go over. He can call you if he has any questions and then send them back with April tonight." Turning towards Luke, she remarks sweetly, "Tuesday is April's night to visit you, isn't it hon?"
Luke is enjoying this little interaction between Lorelai and Anna in a sort of perverse way. Lorelai is acting all protective and possessive of him. After all of the guys that he had been jealous of over the years, it is nice to feel the shoe on the other foot.
He had never really seen her act the least bit jealous of any women around him. Of course, there hadn't been a lot of women for her to be jealous of. She had actually started to become friends with Rachael which had made him uncomfortable. Of course, she acted a little hostile towards Nicole but it had never occurred to him that she might be jealous of Nicole. He always thought she just didn't like her.
Luke responds to Lorelai, "Yes it is. We should be back no later than 3:30, right? I suppose it would be easier if we just stopped by and picked up April on the way home." Turning to Anna, "That way you don't have to come back to drop her off. Then you can pick her up at say, 7:30? Or we can take her home if you'd like. I'll give the papers back to you then."
Anna, feeling that the situation is spinning out of her control tries to recover. "But they need to be notarized." Anna starts to grab them back from Lorelai but Lorelai has deftly started to put them into her purse.
Lorelai smiles coyly towards Anna as she says, "No problem." Then she turns toward Luke, "You can just have Kirk notarize them for you."
Anna realizing that she is in a no win situation tries to put on a pleasant face. She had forgotten that April usually comes to the diner on Tuesday. Things are not working out at all like she planned. With no other recourse, Anna replies, "That will be fine. I'll tell April to expect you around 3:30 and I'll pick her up at 7:30. You can give me the papers back then." Anna turns and leaves.
Luke and Lorelai follow right behind and head to the doctor's office.
Waiting in the doctor's office is every bit as excruciating as Luke had imagined. He is the only guy there and all of the women are in various stages of pregnancy. They range from looking sort of uncomfortable to down right miserable.
And oh the smell. He hoped that an OB's office would smell different but it still has that same antiseptic smell that he associates with pain and death. He expected it to smell of life not death.
They arrive a few minutes before 2:00 and Lorelai checks in. She holds his hand as they wait and talks a mile a minute about all the different cars they saw on the trip to the doctor's office.
He knows what she is doing. She's trying to keep his mind off of where they are by talking. She doesn't really know anything about cars but she knows he does. She is making the most outlandish statements just to insight a rant from him.
He loves her for it.
After about 10 minutes, they call Lorelai's name. She gets up and indicates that he is to wait. Part of him is grateful because he doesn't really want to watch as the doctor examines Lorelai but he also doesn't really relish staying in this waiting room with all of the pregnant women either.
After Lorelai's leaves, another woman comes in accompanied by her son who looks to Luke to be barely two if that old. The woman looks like she's going give birth any minute. As soon as the woman sits down, her little boy dumps over the diaper bag that she had been carrying and everything spills out.
Luke, being a gentleman, immediately starts to pick up everything for her. The woman laughs and thanks him explaining that she can't really bend down to pick up things very well. He smiles shyly as he wonders how she can possible take care of an active little boy in her condition.
The little boy is trying to help Luke pick up all of the items. He hands Luke a pacifier saying "binky". Luke has no idea what he means by "binky" but thanks the kid anyway.
After all the items are gathered back into the bag, Luke returns to his seat but the little boy is still fascinated with him. Now the kid is pulling the stuff back out of the bag again and giving to Luke to hold. Luke looks to the mother who laughs and says, "He's at that age when he likes to take things out of containers. You should feel honored. He usually only gives the stuff to me, he's kind of shy of strangers. He must really like you."
Luke is amused and secretly pleased. Kids have always been kind of afraid of him but he never really cared because he didn't really want anything to do with them. Even Davey and Martha, Sookie's kids who he had been around the most, took a long time before they seemed comfortable with him. He's wondering if actually knowing he is s father made him have a different aura or something that kids can sense.
Maybe their baby won't be afraid of him.
Finally the nurse comes out and calls, "Mr. Danes?"
He gets up and follows her. As he walking down the corridor, he's trying not to look around. There are several women walking around the hallway in those flimsy paper gowns and he doesn't want to embarrass them. Finally the nurse leads him to the last door (naturally) in the hallway. She opens it and Luke walks in to find Lorelai still getting dressed.
"Hey, everything okay?" he asks.
"So far so good. Have to wait for the tests to come back to be sure. The doctor should be in any minute to talk with us. You okay, you don't look so good?"
"I don't like doctor's offices any better than hospitals. Plus, there are all those women out there running around in those flimsy examination gowns and they all have them on backwards. None of them seem to be really shy, if you know what I mean. They should have a separate entrance for men."
"What do you mean they're wearing the gowns backwards?"
"You know, with the opening in the front. You're supposed to wear it with the opening in the back. Everyone knows that."
"Oh hon, you are so innocent. A woman's examination doesn't involve bending over and coughing you know." Waving her had downward from her neck she adds, "Everything that they want to check is on this side."
Luke blushes slightly and answers, "Well then, they need to make those gowns bigger because they aren't closing all of the way with some of the ladies and they don't seem to care."
"Babe, once a woman has a baby she looses all modesty about her body. She spends the first nine months being looked at, poked and prodded. Then when it's time to deliver, an entire gang of strangers are staring at her privates. Believe me, the last thing she cares about is modesty. She'll let anyone look at any part of her as long as they can help get that kid out."
Just then the doctor knocks and comes in. Luke is kind of happy that Lorelai's doctor is a female. He wouldn't have been comfortable with some good looking stud of a doctor seeing and touching Lorelai so intimately.
"Well, what's the verdict?" Lorelai inquires.
"You're definitely pregnant. Is this daddy?"
Luke holds out his hand, "Yes, Luke Danes. Luke."
Shaking his hand, she answers, "Nice to meet you. I'm Sarah McDowell. Call me Sarah, please sit down. Now I need you to fill out this questionnaire. Don't worry, it's standard procedure. It will just help with the screening process."
Luke asks, "Screening?"
"Yes, just a standard procedure that we use along with other non-evasive procedures to see if there is anything we need to look out for. If we find something, we can perform some other tests that are a little more invasive but highly accurate to determine if there is anything to be concerned about"
That makes Luke feel a little better since it seems just routine but he wonders about these other tests that she is talking about so he mentions one he knows, "Amniocentesis?"
"That's a possibility but it's much too soon to decide that. We don't perform those tests until around 16th or 17th week. Much too early since we calculate you are not quite 7 weeks along. I would like to schedule an ultrasound as soon as possible though. It will give us a more accurate way to determine the age of the fetus."
Lorelai asks, "But you said you heard a heartbeat, right?"
Sarah smiles, "Yes, which is a very good sign. We don't always hear the heart this early but…"
Both Lorelai's and Luke's faces fell as they were suddenly concern with the "but".
"…I need to prepare you. No, don't panic but I may have heard more than one heart, actually two separate hearts which means you could be carrying twins. It's a little difficult to be sure at this stage so the second heart may have been an echo. That's why we need the Ultrasound."
Sarah turns to Luke and explains to him, "The baby is less than an inch long at this stage and weights less than a 1/3 of an ounce. Hopefully the little bugger or buggers won't be shy during the Ultrasound and we can get a definitive answer."
Sarah gives the couple a little time to absorb the news. Luke gets out of his chair and moves to sit next to Lorelai on the examination table. He puts his arm around her as she grabs his other hand. They both look at each other sort of in shock for a moment. Then they both break out in big smiles as they simultaneously say essentially the same thing. Luke says, 'Your dream!" as Lorelai is saying, "My dream!"
Sarah gives them a few minutes to compose themselves. They had an unusual reaction to her news but obviously they are happy. Half of the time when she tells new parents that they are about to have twins, one or both of them pass out. This reaction is definitely better.
Sarah starts to hand Lorelai some brochures explaining what she should do and what she should avoid during the pregnancy but Luke takes them first. Lorelai gives him a dirty look before she explains to Sarah, "He's the cook in the family."
Sarah goes over the information while Luke, who actually did bring a pen from the diner this time, is taking notes. When she states that Lorelai needs to cut out coffee all together, Luke gives Lorelai one his patented "I told you so" looks to which she responds using her "Shut-up or you won't be getting any for a while" look.
When Sarah finishes she asks if they have any questions. Luke wants to know if Lorelai's morning sickness that last all day and sometimes into the night is normal. Sara assures him that it is. She does want to make sure that Lorelai is handling the sickness and when they tell her about the tomato juice, she laughs.
Sarah explains that she has heard some colleagues mention that they have patients that use tomato juice or other high acid content juices but it's rare. "Normally the morning sickness is due to over acidity in the stomach but obviously in your case, Lorelai, your stomach must be too alkaline. Hey, whatever works for you is good but keep me apprised of the situation."
This makes sense to Luke. He always knew that Lorelai had an abnormal stomach, now he has proof.
Next he mentions that Lorelai seems to tire more easily and need more sleep. Sarah isn't surprised since Lorelai is a little anemic but hopefully the prenatal vitamins along with the iron tablets she prescribed should correct the problem. Again, Sarah wants to be kept informed if the tiredness continues.
Luke makes a note to include more iron rich foods in her diet.
Lorelai hates this. She can just see Luke calculating ways to torture her with high iron food. She makes a mental note not to let him come to anymore doctor visits.
Luke starts to get sort of fidgety. The next question that he wants to ask is tricky. He really wishes that he could ask it without Lorelai hearing. He starts thinking that maybe he'll call the doctor himself so Lorelai doesn't hear.
Sarah sees his discomfort but misinterprets it. She starts explaining that they can continue to have sexual intercourse well into the third trimester as long as there are no problems with the pregnancy. She assures him that the baby or babies are well protected in the womb and will have no idea what Mom and Dad are doing.
She does warn that it is not uncommon for Mom to be less interested in sex during the first trimester due to the fatigue, nausea, breast tenderness, and the increased need to urinate. During the second trimester when the fatigue and nausea subside her desire for sex might even increase. During the third trimester, her sex drive will probably decrease because she is uncomfortable.
Luke would be thoroughly embarrassed talking about their sex life if he wasn't so ashamed of himself. He hadn't even thought about how the pregnancy might impact their sex life. He feels like such an ass for being so insensitive. All he had wanted to ask about were Lorelai's mood swings.
Lorelei is feeling really warm and sentimental right now. It really touches her that Luke is so involved in the pregnancy. She remembers last time, Christopher wouldn't talk about her pregnancy at all and made excuses to avoid her as she started getting bigger. He never even wanted to hear anything about the prenatal Rory.
When they finish with the doctor, they make an appointment for the Ultrasound on Thursday at 10:00 AM. When they leave the office, they head for the pharmacy to pick up the prenatal vitamins and iron tablets. Lorelai wants to get them here because if she buys them in Stars Hallow, the secret will be out. She's not ready for that.
They leave the pharmacy walking arm in arm, each are thinking their own thoughts.
Lorelai is still felling mostly warm and happy but there is a growing sense of fear that all this, a pregnancy with twins no less, might end up being too much for Luke to deal with. She's afraid that he might start withdrawing again just like he did after he found out about April. Just like Christopher did with Rory.
Luke is having totally mundane and practical thoughts. "First, I need to get a new vehicle. No way will my truck work toting a baby, or two babies around. I need something big enough for Lorelai, April, Rory, two babies, and myself. Plus, babies have a lot crap that you have to tote around. Maybe a minivan is not such a bad idea, maybe two, one for me and one for Lorelai."
Then he starts thinking about the house. "It's too bad that Lorelai wasn't ready to buy the Twickum house before. Now it's off of the market."
"Well they could just add on to her house. It needs at least one more bathroom (he almost walked in on Rory in the shower the other day). We need a least one more bedroom for the babies and I would like a room so that April can stay over. Rory's room will always be there for her so we need to add at least two more bedrooms, but three would probably be better. Actually, we really need two more bathrooms. Maybe Lorelai is ready to look for another house."
Luke glances at Lorelai as they head out to pick up April. He notices that she looks a little worried and he starts scolding himself. "Of course she scared, she has a human being, maybe two growing inside of her. Here I am going on about cars and houses when I should be thinking about her and what she's going through."
Lorelai looks at Luke and wonders what he's thinking about so seriously. "Is he sorry that he got himself into this mess with me? Now he's going to be saddled with three kids to worry about, he is having enough issues learning to deal with just one. Can he handle two more? Will he really want to handle two more or will he feel trapped? One day will he look at me and think 'I use to care about Lorelai back in the day but now I don't like the person she has become'? "
As their eyes make contact for just a moment, the same though enters each of their heads, "We need to really talk."
(tbc)