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 21 – Drawing Nearer

It's been over two weeks since the infamous Friday night dinner and Lorelai still has not spoken directly with her mother or father. Emily did call and leave several messages but Lorelai only called them back when she knew her parents were out of the house.

She can't avoid them forever but she is not ready to deal with them yet. The last two weeks had been fairly undramatic and she doesn't want anything to change that.

Lorelai finally completes all of the work at the Inn that was neglected while she and Rory hibernated in the mountains so Michel is taking next week off for a much needed vacation. It is much needed by both Michele and her. He is driving her crazy with his caustic comments and whining.

Rory's schedule at the paper is still hectic but they managed to find the time to squeeze in a five lunches and two movie nights together. Lorelai still misses her but no longer feels empty and lost because Rory is not around.

Luke and Jackson surprised Sookie and her with a treat yesterday, a relaxing afternoon at the spa. The girls enjoyed facials, manicures, pedicure, and massages. Sookie opted for herbal wrap while Lorelai indulged in a specially designed Mommy approved moisturizing body scrub. It felt good to spend girl time with Sookie.

The whole spa thing had been Jackson's idea. Davey played in his last T-ball game yesterday and Sookie had been banned from attending. Evidently Sookie had been a little too enthusiastic in her support and insulted the other team in their previous match up. Instead of telling Sookie that she couldn't come, Jackson arranged this spa appointment to keep her away.

Jackson mentioned the whole thing to Luke who immediately thought it would be good idea for Lorelai to join Sookie for the afternoon. He actually called the spa to make sure that their treatments were approved for expectant mothers.

Originally she thought this gift was such a sweet thing for him to do but now she is not so sure. At the end of their session, Lorelai tried to reach Luke to thank him for the wonderful day. He wasn't at the diner or at home and he didn't answer his cell. According to Lane, he left the diner for some appointment about three hours earlier but she expects him back soon.

That is the second time in the past week that Luke had been absent from the diner for several hours without an explanation. On Tuesday afternoon Lorelai called around 2:00 but Luke was out. He finally calls her back around 5:00. When she asks where he has been, he gives her a vague response that he had some errands. She hasn't thought too much about it until yesterday. Now she can't think about anything else.

He is keeping things from her again.

She thought about it all last night. All night long she dreams of more long lost children showing up or Luke with a secret family including a wife that looks alternatively like Rachel, then Nicole, and finally Anna.

She finally crawls out of bed at 11:30 this morning still exhausted and in a bad mood. Now she is tired, angry, and really, really hungry.

She knows that Luke is expecting her to come to the diner for breakfast but she is not going to go. She is too upset now to be pleasant around him and she has no intention of letting the town know. If she appears at the diner in less than a happy demeanor, everyone will be talking about it in less than 10 minutes. She is not going to prime the gossip pump with more information on her personal life than they already have.

The whole town seems to be watching every thing that she does these days. She is not being paranoid. She hears her name whispered in conversations and she is aware of the discussions that abruptly end when she appears. The town is watching her and Luke and making note of every nuance of their behavior. It is starting to really bug her.

So she can't go to Luke's and if she goes to Weston's, the whole town will again notice. Same goes if she eats at the Dragonfly. Even if she drives out of town, they will talk about it. Suddenly she feels like a prisoner in her own house.

That is why Lorelai now finds herself scavenging in her kitchen. She is looking for anything that looks good to eat. The refrigerator is full of stuff but everything in it requires cooking, there is no left over pizza or Chinese. She finally finds a partial box of Blueberry Pop-Tarts hidden in the back of a cabinet and eats two pieces. Unfortunately, they barely make a dent in her appetite and there aren't anymore.

Lorelai continues to forage as the phone rings. She doesn't answer because she knows it is Luke and she's not ready to talk to him. He leaves a message.

She knows that is childish to avoid him but she needs more time to figure out what she wants to say. For once she is not going to simply ignore a problem and hope it goes away. She is not going to just pack up and run away either, though the thought crosses her mind. This time she intends to confront him but she just not sure how to do this, hence the need for more time.

Eventually she assembles an epicurean disaster that fulfills her appetite and cravings. Besides the Pop-Tarts, she eats two pieces of toast with Vidalia Onion Jelly (someone had given her a jar as a gag gift), two hard boiled eggs (she made a mental note that 15 minutes is too long to boil eggs if your goal is soft boiled), an entire jar of pickled beets, and the last of the vanilla ice cream smothered in chocolate sauce. She is still eating when Luke shows up.

Luke takes one look at the assemblage of foods and asks, "What the hell are you eating?" Unfortunately, at the time, her mouth is full and all she can do is look back at him with an innocent gaze.

"I expected you at the diner by now. I was worried; you should have at least called."

She shrugs and swallows. Luke starts to clean up the mess she made and Lorelai finishes the last of the beets. Then she gets up and announces that she is going to take her shower and leaves the room.

"Okay, "Luke thinks, "that was different."

Luke finishes cleaning up and then calls the diner to tell them that he won't be back today. Originally he planned to work until 2:00 so that he and Lorelai could have some time together. Even though it is not yet 12:30, he senses that he better stay home now and figure out what's bugging Lorelai. Lane and Caesar both are working and they can handle the late afternoon crowd.

He heads upstairs and hears the shower running so he sits on the bed and waits. It's nearly 30 minutes before she comes out, fully dressed and looking like she is planning on going somewhere.

"Ahh!" she screams. "You scared me. I thought that you went back to the diner."

"Nope. Where're you going?"

"Out."

"Out where?"

"Oh, you know various errands."

"Errands on Sunday afternoon? What kind of errands?"

"Personal errands. I'm entitled to my personal errands just like you."

"Ah-hah!" he thinks, "Now we are getting to it." Luke walks over to stand in front of Lorelai and asks, "Lorelai, what's wrong?"

"What do you mean? I didn't say anything is wrong."

"No you didn't have to. The fact that you didn't come to the diner for breakfast and the sub-zero atmosphere I felt down in the kitchen told me, so spill."

"I don't want to talk about it yet."

Luke is tired. It has been a long week and Lorelai emotional swings are exhausting him. His patience is a little thin which explains why his voice is louder than he intended when he confronts her, "Oh no, Lorelai, you are not going to play that game again. We promised to tell each other everything so just say it."

"Oh, that's a good one from you." Lorelai spits back equally loud, "You mean I'm supposed to tell you everything but the same doesn't apply to you."

"What are you talking about?"

Waging an internal war with herself, Lorelai closes her eyes as she thinks. When she opens them again, she breaths deeply and asks, "Where were you yesterday and Tuesday?"

"What? You know where I was, where I always am, at the diner."

"All day? You never left the diner?"

"I may have gone out for an errand or …" Then it hits Luke. "Shit!" he thinks. He grabs Lorelai by the arm and leads her to the edge of the bed and says, "Sit."

Confused, Lorelai does as he asks. Luke then walks over to his closet and pulls out a large roll of papers and unrolls them as he brings them to Lorelai. He lays them out flat on the bed and tells her, "This is where I was Tuesday and yesterday."

Lorelai looks at the papers and recognizes them as blue prints. "What's this?"

"Our house."

"You want to build a house?"

"Not exactly. Where are we going to put the twins in this house? The only other bedroom is Rory's and we can't put them in there. Let's face it, this house is too small. So we have two options. We can find another house and buy it or …" he points to the blue print, "we can add on to this one."

Luke continues. "I went last Tuesday to talk with the architect and give him my ideas. He drew this up and I picked it up yesterday. I had planned to show it to you tonight. It was supposed to be a surprise."

Still feeling aggravated, Lorelai remarks, "So you decided we need to add on and you decided what it will look like. Did it ever occur to you that I might want to be a part of this decision?"

Irritated, Luke responds, "I didn't decide anything. I just thought that you might want to see what we can possibly do. This is only a preliminary draft so you can change any damn thing you want. Hell, you can have the whole thing redrawn. Or if you want to move to a new house, fine. That's probably a lot easier than adding on to this house, but I know the way you feel about this silly house. Hell, I love this house too. There's a lot my work, sweat, and memories in these walls also."

Somewhat appeased, Lorelai half-heartedly apologizes, "You were really at the architect? You should have talked with me first but it's kind of sweet. I'm sorry. I should have talked to you before I got so worked up."

"Lorelai, what did you think I was doing?"

Lorelai just looks down and doesn't respond.

A little louder and with a hint of impatience, Luke again asks, "What did you think I was doing?"

Finally Lorelai responds forcibly, "I didn't know, that was the problem. It left the whole question open for speculation. I imagined a lot of different things."

"Like what?"

Evasively, Lorelai respond, "Just stuff."

"Lorelai, for cripes sake, just tell me. What were you worried about?" Luke demands forcibly.

With her anger rising to the surface, Lorelai replies loudly, "Like maybe you found another long lost kid to hide from me or maybe you just got tired of all of this and decided to make it work with Anna!"

Now Luke is mad, "What the hell? Make what work with Anna? You are talking about April's mother, right? The woman that hid my kid from me for 12 years and just tried to run off with her to California so that I can't see her anymore, that woman?' Then Luke adds sarcastically, "Yeah, sure, she's the woman of my dreams!"

Yelling, Lorelai comes back with, "How the hell would I know, you never talk about Anna? How am I supposed to know if you're still yearning for her or not? You got her pregnant so there had to between you two! Maybe you decided to try to make it work with Anna for April's sake?"

Loudly, Luke tells her, "Damn it! Okay, you want to know? Well, here it is in a nutshell! I met Anna and she seemed like a nice woman. We dated and we had fun but there was no great love or passion between us. Yes, I slept with her but the pregnancy was an accident, actually it was some blasted cosmic miracle since Anna had been told that she could never get pregnant. The relationship ended before either of us knew about the pregnancy because there was no future for us together. I never really thought about her after it ended and probably would have never seen her again if it wasn't for April. Even if I wasn't in love with you, there would never be any romantic relationship between Anna and me."

"As for any more unknown children showing up, that will never happen. Trust me the thought did crossed my mind when I found out about April so I checked on every woman that I ever slept with. You and Anna are the only two women in the world that I have impregnated and you are the only woman that I want to spend the rest of my life with."

Luke squats down in front of Lorelai and asks, "What can I do to get you to trust me again? I am trying every thing that I can think of to prove that I will never keep anything from you again, at least not anything important. I might still try to surprise you with a present occasionally but probably not often. Lorelai, I've learned my lesson, please believe me. I never will be that stupid again. Please baby, just tell me what I can do?"

Calmly and looking straight ahead with no discernable expression, she replies, "You can tell me why you hid April from me."

"I've told you, I was just being stupid. I handle it stupidly."

"Gee Luke, you're telling me that one day you just woke up and thought 'How stupid can I be today? What can I do to really humiliate Lorelai?' Is that what you were thinking?"

Looking abashed, Luke tells her, "Of course not. I never intended humiliate you or for you to find out like that. I am so sorry. I just wasn't thinking clearly. I didn't know what to do. I was stupid."

"Yes, you were stupid but that's how you were thinking not what you were thinking. I need to know what was going through you're mind that made you not tell me about April. I really need to understand."

Luke stands up and begins pacing like he is trying to make a decision. Finally, he turns and talks to her, "Okay, but I don't think that after you hear this, it's going to help."

He takes a deep breath and starts, "When April pulled my hair for her science project, I thought she was crazy. No way could I be her father. I'm not sure why I went to the science fair, I guess I just needed to know for sure. When I realized that I am her father, it was like someone kicked me in the gut. I never felt anything like that before. I didn't know what to do. I tried talking to her but I didn't really know what to say. She seemed surprised that I had shown up and didn't really seem interested in talking with me. So I just left."

"On the way home, I decided just to forget about it. April didn't to want to know me and, well, she seemed to be doing fine without me. Obviously, Anna didn't want me to be around. So I figured, why butt into their lives and mess everything up in ours. My plan was to tell no one and just pretend it never happened."

"Unfortunately, I couldn't forget. When I was around people or by myself, I couldn't stop thinking about April. Finally I had to tell someone, so I told Liz. That helped."

Lorelai speaks for the first time since he started, "You told Liz but you couldn't tell me? Why?"

Luke closes his eyes as he tries to figure out how to explain. Finally, he figures the truth is the best answer. "Because if I told you, then it would be real. I couldn't pretend that April didn't exist. Once you learned about April then I would have to step up to the plate and do something. I kept telling myself that would just ruin everything. You and I were on track towards marriage and April didn't need me. It would just mess everything up."

Lorelai looks at him and asks, "Who or what changed your mind?"

Shaking his head, Luke continues, "It was like a series of things. First, when you told me that Christopher is paying for Yale. I realized that even if I didn't have any contact with April, I still have a financial obligation to help support her. I started trying to get in touch with Anna but it took a while. She was always at her store because of the holidays I guess and I didn't want to leave a message on their answering machine in case April heard it. It wasn't until January that I was able to catch her at her home alone."

Confused, Lorelai remarks, "You didn't talk to Anna until January? That couldn't have been long before I first saw April."

"It was just a couple of days before. When I talked to Anna, she agreed to let me help financially with April. I told her that I didn't intend to interfere in their lives and she was happy about that. Anna never thought that I would be any good for April"

"Before I left Anna's, she told me about April's website. I couldn't get it out of my mind, I had to see it. I don't know why. Anyway, I got Kirk to lend me his laptop and I pulled up her site. When I saw it, I don't know, something sort snapped in me. Next thing I know I am calling Anna and demanding to see April."

"Anna agreed and the next day April met me at a park. It was kind of a dumb idea because it was January and cold. I didn't really plan anything because I didn't know what she liked so we just sat on a park bench and talked. I guess it went okay because she asked to come to the diner the next day. That caught me off-guard. I said yes before I even thought about it."

Luke took hold of Lorelai's hand as he looked sincerely into her eyes, "I tried to tell you about that night, I really did. I just chickened out when I saw you walk down the steps in your wedding dress. You looked so perfect and I just couldn't ruin the moment. If I could only do it all over again, I swear I would tell you right away."

Lorelai just sat there and didn't make a sound. "Lorelai, please tell me what you are thinking."

"I don't know. It's a lot to process but I guess I kind of understand. I need to think about it more. I do know one thing for sure."

"What?"

"Grr," Lorelai exclaimed, "the more I know about Anna, the more I hate her."

Lorelai's remarks alerted Luke. He didn't want her to start another rant about Anna and get herself all worked up again. He already spent two days calming her down about Anna.

The first time was right after he told her about Anna's plan to take April to California. Lorelai was intent on giving Anna a verbal smack down by channeling Emily. It took him all night and half of the morning to get her to let go of the idea.

Then again the next afternoon when Lorelai told Rory and both of them got worked up. Luckily he walked in when Rory was talking to some guys named Colin and Finn. Evidently she was enlisting them in some plan that she and Lorelai had concocted to make Anna miserable. He had to threaten both boys before they agreed to back down and then he spent the rest of the evening reprimanding both Lorelai and Rory for being so childish.

He understands their feelings but he can't let them get involved. That will only exasperate the hard feelings Anna has against him and Lorelai. It will make things difficult for April. No, it's best to just keep Lorelai away from Anna. As long as Anna doesn't try anything else underhanded, he can manage to put up with her veiled accusations for April's sake.

In a quiet tone, Luke pleads, "Lorelai please, don't get worked up over Anna. It's not worth it. Please for April's sake, just let it go."

Lorelai sits still for a couple of seconds and then agrees, "Yeah, okay but she better not pull anything else."

Luke smiles, "I agree."

Lorelai reaches up and rubs her hand across his stubble and asks, "So how many bedrooms did you ask the architect add?"

Babette is sitting quietly next to her window when she hears loud voices coming from Lorelai's house. It sounds to her like Lorelai and Luke are fighting. Oh, this is not good news.

The town expects Babette to keep an eye and ear open around the house so that she can keep them informed on Lorelai and Luke. Up until now, things appeared to be going pretty well. They both are working a lot of hours but they still manage to spend a lot of time together. They are not going out a lot but seem to be more content to stay home together. If the nocturnal sounds Babette hears coming out of Lorelai's and Luke's bedroom most nights are any indication, their sex life is definitely back to normal.

Babette has noticed April eating dinner at the house with Luke and Lorelai almost once a week since Lorelai's return. ("Poor kid," reflects Babette, "I am glad her burn seems to have healed. That's a tough break.") Of course, the whole town knows that Lorelai always makes at least an appearance in the diner every time April is visiting. So the April issue is apparently worked out.

Though everything appears to be good with Lorelai and Luke, Babette sees no indication that the wedding is back on, at least not yet.

The other morning, she sees Lorelai sitting out on her front porch. This is the opportunity that Babette had been waiting for. She toddles over for a visit.

"Hi ya Sugar!" Babette greets Lorelai while walking up the steps on to the porch. Just as Babette reaches the top step, she is almost knocked over by Paul Anka who is running for his life from Apricot. Lorelai reaches out to steady her as Babette grabs hold of Lorelai's waist for support.

"Babette, are you okay?"

"Oh, I'm fine sweetie. Poor Paul Anka didn't mean to trip me." Babette turns to yell, "Morey, I'm over at Lorelai's."

A disembodied voice replies, "Okay babe."

"So Lorelai, how's it going? I hardly see you around anymore and when you are home, you and Luke keep to yourselves, if you know what I mean. How's that going, with Luke living here full time I mean, though the sex part seems to be great with you two?"

"Babette!"

"Oh honey, it's nothin' to be ashamed of. Remember it's summer time and your windows are open. Besides, I'd be worried about you two if you weren't getting' some. My god, you've got that big hunk of man around, it would be a waste not to use him. All I can say is thank God you weren't together when he was at his peak, because a seventeen year old Luke might have killed you, if you know what I mean. That man of yours has endurance."

"Note to self, buy an air conditioner for the bedroom," thinks Lorelai. She smiles innocently at Babette and changes the subject. "Oh Babette, I see you're gardening. You better get back before it get too hot."

"Oh honey, let me show you my prizes. You know, you should get Luke to dig you a garden out back. You have that big backyard and nothing planted there. You have room for a flower garden, a vegetable garden and you could even have an herb garden."

Lorelai shutters involuntarily at the thought. "Oh Babette, I'm not really much of a gardener. Everything I plant seems to die."

Begrudgingly Babette agrees, "That's true, Sugar. You planted those bulbs I gave you sideways so they never had a chance. I guess it's better if you stay away from gardening."

"Lorelai sweetie, take a look at my alliums. Aren't they pretty? My favorite is the purple but I think the blue and the pink are pretty too. You'd never know that they are a relative of the onion, would you?" "An onion, really?"

Lorelai bends over to sniff.

"What's your favorite flower, honey?"

"Oh you know I still love daisies."

"What do you think of these mums? Aren't they a pretty color? What's your favorite color?"

Lorelai thinks before she answers, "I like yellow because it's a happy color but I like blue also. I guess yellow and blue are kind of tied for my favorite, depending on the day and my mood. Why?"

"Oh, you know, just asking sweetie. Well, I better get back to my gardening. See ya."

A little confused by the abruptness, Lorelai tells her good bye and returns into her house.

As soon as Lorelai is gone, Babette rushes inside and calls Patty. "Patty hon, listen. I've got some news for you."

Babette proudly announces that she had discovered Lorelai's favorite colors. This information allows them to decide the wedding colors. Babette wants to go with soft, silky yellow and an icy blue whereas Patty's inclinations are for a vibrant yellow with an electric blue and, for spice, adding a little bodacious red and brazen purple to the mix. After squabbling over the color choices for fifteen minutes with Babette constantly reminding Patty that this is not her wedding but Lorelai's, they agree to disagree. They finally decide to submit the colors yellow and blue to the rest of the group of wedding planners and let the entire team vote on the actual color selections.

Then Babette shares with Patty that Lorelai's favorite flower is still the daisy. This news surprises Patty since she assumed that daisies would remind Lorelai of the Max fiasco. Obviously, that's not the case. Patty and Babette agree that daisies will be the central flower in the wedding.

Then Babette's voice takes on a conspiratorial tone, "Now Patty, sit down sugar 'cuz. I've some real information for you. Are you sitting down?"

"I thing your speculation is right. I'll bet you anything that Lorelai's pregnant. I accidentally on purposed tripped and had to catch a hold of Lorelai to keep from falling. I got a real good look at her waist line and it's definitely getting bigger. I don't think she's getting fat because the rest of her, except maybe her boobs, looks thin as a rail. I noticed that she rigged some sort of extension thing with elastic through her button hole to fasten her jeans. I think you're right doll, there's baby Danes growing in there."

That was last Friday and the rumor mill is now running 24 hours a day. Everyone is trying to catch a glimpse of Lorelai's stomach. Unfortunately, she always dresses in such a way to hide any view they hope to get. So no one is able to verify the rumor but that doesn't stop the town from believing that it is true.

With this new development, the core group of Stars Hollow wedding planners meets to discuss the implications. Obviously the date of the wedding will have to be sooner instead of later, the sooner the better.

Taylor, who is not at all happy with this latest news, asks Kirk get to look up an old town statute that he remembers so that he can charge Luke (and possibly Lorelai) for immoral behavior.

Amazingly, Kirk refuses. In fact he gets very emotional at the idea and threatens to stomp on Taylor's toes if he tries anything like that. Kirk is so upset that he breaks down mumbling something about challenging Taylor to a duel to protect Lorelai and Luke being his father.

It makes no sense to the group but touches their hearts with his sincerity. They all, sans Taylor, gather around Kirk to assure him that no charges will be filed.

Patty informs Taylor in a menacing tone that if he intends to charge Luke and Lorelai for procreating without a license, then he better be prepared to charge half of the town including some members of his own family. She offers to provide him a list.

Taylor begrudgingly agrees to back off and Kirk composes himself so the meeting can continue.

This new development brings the wedding dress into question. If Lorelai is already beginning to show, chances are that the dress she has will not fit. They will have to get her a new one. But how? No one could come up with a way to solve the wedding dress issue, so they decided to adjourn until Wednesday so they can mull over this latest problem. Sookie will be at the meeting on Wednesday and has promised to bring Rory with her. Hopefully those two will confirm the pregnancy and come up with an idea regarding the dress issue.

Before adjourning they all remind Babette to continue her vigil and report any new information as soon as possible. So that's why Babette is seated next to her window on Sunday listening to the voices coming from next door. When she first hears the yelling, she puts on her Sonic Sleuth Spy Toy Listening Device that she originally bought as birthday gift for Morey's nephew (the kid wants to be a spy). The device tunes in to sounds from over 300 feet away. Babette's conscience bothers her a little bit with such a blatant attempt at eavesdropping but this is an emergency.

She puts on her headphones just in time to hear Lorelai yell "Oh, that's a good one from you. You mean I'm supposed to tell you everything but the same doesn't apply to you." She listens to the whole conversation and doesn't put them down again until she hears Lorelai asks, "So how many bedrooms did you ask the architect add?"

"Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God!" thinks Babette, "twins, not just pregnant but twins! And what was all of that about Anna taking April to California?"

So much information, Babette could hardly contain herself. Babette is so excited that she can't wait to tell Patty. She starts to call her but decides that she needs to tell her in person. She wants to see Patty's face when she tells her about the twins.

Rory hasn't been to Friday night dinner for two weeks but it is not because she is avoiding grandparents. She has had to work both nights. She tried to find the time to visit them but between her work schedule and their social calendar, they haven't been able to find a time until today.

Her grandmother called her this morning and asked if she could join them for dinner tonight. Rory is scheduled to finish work at 6:00 so tonight will be good. This actually works out perfect since Rory knows that Luke is planning on taking the afternoon off so he and her mom can spend time together. She really didn't want to be the third wheel and didn't have any place to go except to hang out at the diner watching Lane work.

When she arrives at the grandparents, the atmosphere is warm and friendly. After her criticism of their behavior towards her mom and Luke, nothing more was said about it. The Friday night dinner conversation focused on Rory's job and the Gilmore's recent trip to Europe. Rory assumes that tonight's conversation will follow the same pattern. She is wrong.

From the moment that she walks in the door, Emily and Richard begin questioning her about Lorelai's pregnancy. They are sincerely concerned about her and the babies. Their genuine compassion breaks down Rory's defenses and before she realizes it, she spills the whole story beginning with April's arrival on the scene. She didn't mean it to happen but they are good at interrogation. They double teamed her and broke her like glass.

As soon as Rory realizes what she did, she is aghast. All this information at Emily's and Richard's disposal!

Just as Rory is about to read them the riot act, she recognizes something in her grandparents eyes that she has rarely seen. There is real sorrow and pain.

After a moment of silence, Richard finally speaks. "Rory, we had no idea of the all the difficulties that your mother and Luke went through. I know perhaps we have not always been fair in our assessment of Luke and possibly we have been less than supportive of your mother in her choices in life, but we do love her. She is our daughter, our only child."

"Luke is not who we envisioned for your mother, but if you are sure this is the man to make her happy, then what can we do to help? I know for a fact that Luke loves your mother and is willing to marry her. Your grandmother is convinced that Lorelai really wants to marry Luke but something is holding her back. If you know what that is and there is anything that we can do to remove this obstacle, please tell us."

"Your grandmother and I are at your disposal. Anything we can do to help, just let us know."

Rory stares at her grandparents as she makes one of the hardest decisions in her life.

(tbc)