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 23 -Operation Connubial Bliss Begins

It's Monday afternoon and Lane is a nervous wreck waiting for an opportunity to speak with April. The diner is extraordinarily busy and Lane finds no chance to talk with her alone. Lorelai shows up to eat with Luke and April about 5:30 as usual and she ends up staying the rest of the evening which further adds to Lane's dilemma.

By 7:00 PM, Lane is frantically trying to come up with a reason to pull April aside. She is wracking her brain for any excuse to talk privately with her but she can't think of anything. Finally, when it is almost time for Anna to pick April up, an opportunity presents itself.

Lane is watching Lorelai and April play cards while Luke is back in the kitchen yelling at Caesar over something. When Lorelai excuses herself to use the restroom, Lane finally has a few minutes alone with April.

She quickly explains about the surprise wedding and thankfully, April is smart enough to catch on to the scheme quickly. Lane's explanation is sort of convoluted. April understands the plot and it is she who first suggests that they not tell her mom.

In the time remaining before either Luke or Lorelai reappeared, Lane is able to lay out the story that Rory will give to Anna. April listens and gives it her nod of approval just before Lorelai returns. After that, April can't seem to keep from staring at Lorelai for the rest of the evening.

Lane watches as April leaves and thinks, "Wow that kid needs to work on her poker face. She never stopped grinning at Lorelai like a Cheshire cat."

The next morning Rory receives an email from April that first conveys her excitement about Saturday and secondly, confirms the details of the scheme. This concerns Rory since April specifically stated that Anna monitors both incoming and outgoing emails until she realizes that April had sent the email from a different address. Reading further down in message, April explains that she sometimes uses her best friend's computer to send and receive the more personal emails and that Rory should use this address to communicate any information about the wedding. "Way to go, kid', thinks Rory as a wave of nostalgia swept over her as she remembers the days of circumventing Mrs. Kim's strict rules.

Rory is amazed how smooth all of the wedding preparations are going. She doesn't want to begin to calculate the amount of money her grandparents are lavishing on this celebration. Obviously, if one is willing to spend unlimited funds, anything can be accomplished.

First of all, her grandmother rented Miss Patty's studio for the entire week and made her cancel all of her classes. The studio is now command central for Operation CB. Telephone and cable lines were secretly (well secret from Lorelai and Luke) installed and computers brought in to help manage the information flow. .

Cecily and Gregory moved their operations into Miss Patty's to monitor all the progress. They, along with professional florist, have been supervising the town volunteers in the creation of the floral blankets and strings of flowers that will be used to decorate the wedding area. Silver vases have been filled with flowers and candles to be used as the table arrangements for the dinner.

An additional power line was run to the studio, along with a backup generator, to support the seven refrigerators brought in to keep the multitude of white roses, white lilies, white Lisianthus, nearly white delphinium, Million Stars gypsophila (baby's breath), and snowy peonies fresh. (Jackson is storing the orchids in his green house,) Bolts of white and silver tulle line the walls awaiting transformation into bows and wreaths and will be draped around the garden.

Emily hired Tom to build walls of archways to line the sides of the garden. These archways will be covered in blankets of tulle and flowers, lit with stings of twinkle lights and adorned with snowflakes of crystal and silver. They also built new half walls to bank each side of the chuppa, giving it a more opulent appearance (because Emily thought it too small by itself). The chuppa and walls also will be blanketed with tulle, roses and twinkle light.

The platforms that Tom's men originally built have been increased in number. They are modular in design and will tie together to form a solid floor for the ceremony/reception area. They're scheduled to be installed early Friday morning (before 8:00 AM) so that a team of carpet layers can cover them in plush white carpeting. An area will be left uncarpeted on which a large solid piece of frosted Plexiglas will be laid to represent a frozen pond. The wedding party will stand on the pond during the nuptials and it will be the dance floor during the reception.

The food for the reception has been delivered and is currently being stored in a refrigerated truck that Emily hired. Additional chefs and waiters have been employed to supplement the Dragonfly staff. Food preparation will begin on Friday morning.

In fact all of the preparations will begin early Friday morning except for the cakes. Sookie has begun those already. With the entire staff at the Dragonfly in major prep mode, obviously they can't possibly service any guest. So Michele contacted all the people with reservations and persuaded them to either rebook for another weekend (with Emily paying for the new reservation) or relocate to another Inn this weekend (again with Emily paying).

Of course, none of the preparations can begin with Lorelai around. They needed a plan to keep her away from Dragonfly Inn. No one, including Sookie could come up with a scenario that would keep Lorelai away from the Dragonfly all day Friday. It was left up to Emily to arrange a pretense and of course, she pulled out her book on daughter manipulation 1.01 and came up with a plan.

Keeping Luke ignorant of the activities in Miss Patty's studio was a prime concern also. Luke's unobstructed view of the entrance to the studio is the problem. They all know that he will undoubtedly notice a sudden influx of adults coming and going all day. Knowing Luke, it's not a stretch to expect him to become curious enough to check it out.

To prevent this, the Townies came up with a plan to keep Luke distracted. Kirk is assigned the leadership of this task since he spends so much time in the diner already.

Kirk's plan is simply to keep Luke so busy that he has no time to notice anything. Kirk devises a schedule that all but eliminates any of the normal lulls during the day and keeps the diner steadily busy. People from the town who rarely eat at Luke's are suddenly coming in daily and ordering full meals.

The system is working most successfully with very few glitches. Whenever they do occur, Lane and Caesar are continually there to assist. They can always be counted on to produce some sort of minor emergency to distract Luke whenever the need arises.

The plan has been working well. Luke hasn't appeared to notice anything out of the ordinary so far except that the diner is having an unusually profitable week.

Emily's plan to keep Lorelai away on Friday requires the participation of Richard, Rory, and the ladies from the DAR. Luckily Lorelai knows almost nothing about the workings of the DAR.

Emily fabricated a story where she is to receive the Director's award from the National Council of the DAR. The award is to be presented to her on Friday in New York at a luncheon at the Hotel Plaza Athenee.

In reality there is no such award. Emily simply contacted a few (50 or 60) of her DAR friends in both the Hartford and the New York districts and solicited their help with her scheme. Last Friday night during dinner, she set her plan into motion. Emily announces during the salad that she is about to receive the DAR Director's Award.

Rory on cue responds with enthusiasm to congratulate Emily on such an honor."Grandma, that so cool, that's like the being selected to get the Academy Award in the DAR. Has anyone in the Hartford chapter or even in the Tri-County district ever received this award?" Rory asks according to the plan.

Emily responds, "Actually, no. This is quite an honor to be selected and recognized by the National organization. They are presenting the award to me at a luncheon in my honor in New York next Friday. I believe C-Span will be covering the event"

"Mom, that is really impressive! Congratulations."

"Thank you, Lorelai." Turning towards Richard, she adds, "Richard, I will contact your secretary to have her put this on your calendar."

Richard asks, "Oh, you want me to go?"

"Of course, the family of the recipient is invited. Naturally, I want you to be with me to share in this recognition."

Richard contemplates for a moment before he responds, "Next Friday? That's a problem; I have to be in Düsseldorf next Friday, could you possibly reschedule this luncheon?"

Emily's expressions were perfect. First she looks shocked; followed by frustration, then exasperation. "No Richard, it can't be rescheduled but never mind. I'm sure no one will notice that none of my family cares enough to attend." Then Emily's entire demeanor changes to one of pain and resignation.

Both Rory and Lorelai see the pain and betrayal that Emily feels and sympathizes. Even Luke feels sorry for her but has no idea what he can do. Richard appears to be oblivious to Emily's reaction to his bitter betrayal.

Rory with her forever soft heart, immediately responds, "Grandma, maybe I can get off on Friday to go with you. Oh, I know, I'll call in sick."

Still appearing to be sad but unwilling to allow her granddaughter to resort to such a fabrication, Emily rejects her help with "No Rory, I cannot allow you to do such a thing. Do not risk your professional reputation for me. I'm sure no one will notice that none of my family came with me."

Lorelai, long familiar with her mother's passive form of manipulation, knows exactly what Emily is attempting to do. She is using guilt to try to get her way. After 40 years, Richard is oblivious to the affects but unfortunately, it still moves Lorelai. Before she realizes what she's doing, Lorelai hears herself say, "Mom, I can go with you on Friday if you like."

Emily responds with almost childlike glee, "Oh Lorelai that will be wonderful! We can make a day of it. We'll leave early so we can arrive just as the stores are opening so we can do some shopping. The luncheon isn't until 1:00 PM. Afterwards, we can get a room so you can rest in the afternoon and then we can eat dinner in New York. With Richard in Düsseldorf and Rory working that evening, it would be silly to rush back here for Friday night dinner.

Lorelai suddenly feels queasy and it has nothing to do with the pregnancy. Somehow the luncheon with her mother has now turned into a full day event. She not exactly sure how that happened but also isn't really surprised that it did. This whole thing reeks of classic Emily.

Luke smiles at her and squeezes her hand under the table. He understands what a sacrifice she just made considering that she inadvertently volunteered to spend the day with her mother and the DAR.

Rory smiles sweetly too, but behind the smile she has reached a new level of understanding. Lorelai always spoke of her mother as the great manipulator but Rory had never been privilege to the full extent of her grandmother's duplicitous mind. When Emily had revealed the details of her plan to get Lorelai to agree to spend the day with her, Rory had been a bit weary that her mother would succumb to such an obvious ploy. Yet, even knowing exactly what Emily was doing, Rory watches her mother fall into the trap and feels herself compelled to join her. Oh, Emily is better at this that Rory ever appreciated and made a mental note to herself to be more wary around her grandmother in the future.

"Okay, here I go." thinks Rory as she gets out of her car in front of Anna's boutique. She is picking up April for the movie night and, of course, to ask Anna to give her permission for April to come Saturday.

It's Wednesday afternoon as Rory walks in to Anna's boutique. She spots Anna with a customer immediately but it takes her a little longer before she spies April in the back sneaking around the corner waving at her. After checking to see if Anna is looking, Rory waves back and motions for her to hide.

Rory is admiring some bags on display when Anna walks up to her, "These are great bags, aren't they? So retro."

"Oh yeah, I really like them. Uh hi, I'm Rory Gilmore, Lorelai's daughter. I'm here to pick up April."

Looking Rory over, Anna replies, "Oh, I see the resemblance now. You do look a lot like your mother. Look, April's in the back finishing up. I'll just go get her."

"Wait a moment, please. May I ask you something before April comes out?"

"Sure." Anna responds a bit defensively.

"I don't know how familiar you are with Stars Hollow but it's a bit obsessed with town festivals and community activities. Anyway, they have decided to throw my mom and Luke a surprise party this Saturday evening, sort of an engagement party. We would like to know if you will allow April to attend."

"Oh, I don't know. What time?"

"Well, the party itself will begin around 6:00 PM and it should be really fun. It's going to be pure PG with practically everyone in town bringing the whole family, kids and all. My mom's best friend, Sookie St. James, she's the chef at the Dragonfly Inn, is in charge of the food, so it will be wonderful. And there'll be music and dancing."

"Will there be any alcohol?"

"Yes but the distribution and consumption is always strictly monitored by our towns' selectman, Taylor Doose. Do you happen to know Taylor?"

"Yeah, I remember Taylor. As I recall he is sort of control freak."

"That's our Taylor, the poster child for the anal personality disorder. He doesn't allow any shenanigans at these town function so you can be confident that April will be safe. Besides, Luke will be watching out for her."

"What time will it be over?"

"Around ten."

"That's kind of late."

"I know but, if it is alright with you, April can spend the night at our house and I'll make sure that she gets back anytime you want on Sunday."

Still dubious of the idea, Anna responds, "I don't know if she will want to go. April doesn't really know the people in the town that well so she might not enjoy it."

"Well, she can bring a friend along if that will make you feel any better, and they both can spend the night."

April had already asked Rory if she could invite her best friend, Ashley which of course is okay. In fact, April and Ashley have already talked with Ashley's mom, who is pretty cool, by the way, and the whole thing is already approved. Ashley's mom is just waiting for Anna's call and knows exactly what to say to keep up the pretense.

"Well, it's really up to April."

On cue, April walks in saying, "What's up to me?"

"Oh honey, you have been invited to a party for Luke and Lorelai this Saturday evening. Some friends in their town are throwing it."

Turning to Rory, "Really? And they want me to come?"

Rory responds, "Of course, you're Luke's daughter. It's sort of a surprise engagement party and we all know that it will make Luke really happy to have you there. You can invite a friend to come with you and both of you can spend the night."

"Please Mom?"

Sighing, Anna agrees but only if Ashley is able to go also. She cautions April not to get too excited because Ashley's mom might not agree. She adds, "I want you and Ashley to stay together at all times and stay with Luke. Don't go running off by yourselves."

Anna turns back to Rory, "What time do you want the girls there?"

"Actually, any time that's convenient, the earlier the better. If you want, I can pick them up so you don't have to bother. In fact, if the girls want to, they can spend the whole day in Stars Hollow. We need all the help we can get to keep Luke occupied that day so he doesn't find out about the surprise."

Anna smiles slyly, "If I know Luke, he won't like a party, especially a surprise party. Are you sure that he will even go?"

Rory smiles back, "Oh, he'll go. My mom loves surprises and she loves parties. If Mom wants to go, Luke will go with her. He'll complain and we probably will have to listen to a couple of rants about the crazy town and loony citizens but he'll go."

After April and Rory leave, Anna thinks to herself that maybe having Luke around April is not such a bad thing after all. Anna had been planning to check if April could spend the night with Ashley anyway. She has a date for Saturday night and as per her long standing policy, April never meets her dates or if possible, doesn't even know they exist.

Besides, letting April attend this party might help ease the tension between her and Luke. He refuses to talk with her unless absolutely necessary and then he's so cold and business like.

Luke had evidently contacted his attorney after he discovered her little plan to move to California because his attorney wrote to her attorney and things got kind of ugly. Her attorney had called Anna in for a chat.

Basically her attorney had read her the riot act over her plans to move to California. That her attempt to circumvent the custody agreement along with her initial stance of not telling Luke about April in the first place will not set well with the judges. In fact, she risks loosing custody of April if Luke chooses to pursue the case.

That scared Anna. She never though the consequences would be that bad. She figured once she was out of Connecticut, they couldn't do anything against her. Apparently she was wrong. According to her attorney, California might have put her in jail for her little stunt.

Basically, her attorney had warned her to "play nice" with Luke and try not to antagonize him.

Lorelai is snuggling up against Luke's chest as they are both falling to sleep in the afterglow of post-coital bliss. Well Luke is but Lorelai is still awake and thinking.

"Luke? Luke, did you think April was acting kind of different tonight."

Luke responds with unintelligent mumbling.

"Lu-u-uke."

Startled back to full consciousness, Luke answers, "Wha…what? Are you all right?"

Rolling over to her side of the bed, Lorelai apologizes, "I'm sorry, you were asleep. It's nothing. Go back to sleep."

Scooting closer to her, Luke nuzzles her ear as he asks, "What'd you say about April?"

"I just thought that she was acting a little weird tonight. She kept staring at me and smiling. I think she knows."

"Knows what?"

"About the babies."

Luke places his hand protectively over the gentle rise of her stomach and says, "You always think everyone knows. You're just being paranoid."

"They do all know."

Smiling, Luke asks, "And you know this how?"

"It's the way they act around at me, I don't know, kind of like they're humoring me or something. Even you've commented that there is something weird going on in the town."

"Everyone in this town always acts weird, that doesn't mean that they know you're pregnant. Anyway, what does it matter, they'll know soon enough." Lightly rubbing her belly, he adds "These two aren't getting any smaller." Thinking for a moment, he adds, "You know, we really should tell April soon."

"I told you that she already knows."

Luke rises up on his elbow, "Then talking with her about it isn't a problem."

Lorelai sits up and stares at him, "Of course it's a problem. Once we open up that discussion, she's going to ask a lot questions and we have to know how to answer them."

"We answer them truthfully. You want me to tell her alone? After all she is my daughter."

With a voice sounding slightly hurt, Lorelai asks, "You don't want me there?"

Luke sits up and turns Lorelai so he can look her in the eye, "Of course, I want you there but I don't want you to feel uncomfortable. April's my daughter and my responsibility. You've already told your daughter." Luke thinks for a moment before he adds, "I don't know exactly what we should say to her but I guess we'll just say that we're going to have twins and they are due on January 16."

"Uh-huh, and then when she asks about us getting married?"

"I don't know, maybe she won't ask. It is kind of personal and we don't talk about personal stuff much."

"Luke, everyone is going to ask that. April's going to ask. Maybe not right away but eventually and you know Anna will ask."

"Anna better not ask. She just better keep her nose out of our business."

Startled by the amount of bitterness in the tone of Luke's response, Lorelai reacts, "Whoa that was a little caustic!"

Luke lays back down before he replies, "Sorry, I guess I'm just tired of worrying about Anna's reactions to everything and her constant presence in our lives. I try not to interfere in her daily life, I expect her to offer me the same courtesy."

"What if Anna uses this against you? Try's to raise the issue that you or at the least I shouldn't be around April?"

Luke looks up into Lorelai's eyes, "Look, that won't happen. I won't let it happen, okay?"

"But it would be simpler for you if we were married."

Luke is quiet for a moment and then responds, "What do you want me to say, Lorelai? Do you expect me to push you to get married because of Anna? I'm not going to do that. You said your not ready and I'm not going to try to force you into something your not ready for just to placate Anna or anyone one else. It's none of their damn business."

"But it would make your life easier, right?"

"I don't know how to answer that. I don't know, maybe. At least we wouldn't be having this conversation, so yeah it would be easier."

"And we wouldn't have had that wonderful evening with my parents."

Sighing, Luke responds, "So then they would have found something else to get upset about. It's inevitable."

"And you'd be happier."

"No."

"You don't want to get married anymore?"

Pulling Lorelai back down on the bed, Luke cradles her in the crook of his arm. "I didn't say that. You asked if I'd be happier and I said no because I am happy. I have what I want, I've got the woman that I love in my arms and she's carrying my babies." Pausing, he adds, "Of course I would be a little happier if you would finally decide on the layout of the new addition and we could get started, oh you know, before you give birth but otherwise, I'm good."

"But you still want to get married, don't you?"

"Yes, but it's not that important."

"You don't think marrying me is important?"

"Ah jeez Lorelai, that's not what I meant." Luke rolls his eyes as he mumbles, "I knew this conversation was filled with land mines but I plowed ahead anyway." Sighing before he continues, "What I mean is I don't need a bureaucratic ceremony to formulize my commitment to you. I don't need to repeat some ritualistic pledge in front of a bunch of yahoos. I only need you. If I haven't made it clear enough, then let me try again. I'm in all in, 100 percent committed. All that I have is yours. I will do anything for you. I love you and I only want to be able to share the rest of my life with you and our kids. If that means that we never get officially married, I can live with that."

"But you still want to get married?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"I don't know, because it's the customary thing to do when you find the woman that you want to spend the rest of your life with."

"So you just want to get married because it the customary thing to do."

Frustrated with the direction this conversation is going, Luke is loosing patience. "No, that's not what I mean. Jeez Lorelai, what do you want to hear me say?"

"I want to know why you're so sure that you want to marry me. What makes you think we can make it work? You couldn't make it work with Nicole."

"Nicole and I never had a marriage. We had a stupid ceremony on a drunken whim. The same type of stupid alcoholic judgment that makes a teenage boy believes that it's a good idea to set fire to his farts."

"You set fire to your farts?"

"I never said that. I've seen those stupid coming of age teen films."

Lorelai turns to look directly in his eyes and asks, "You tried to make it work with Nicole but it didn't. What makes you think we can make it?"

"I never loved Nicole. I liked her, we had a good time together, I guess I thought that's as good as it gets but I was wrong. Your face is the one I want to see each night before I go to sleep and each morning when I wake up. I look forward to seeing you everyday. I need you in my life and I never felt like I ever needed anyone before. I hope that you feel the same."

Lorelai takes her hand and gently caresses the stubble on his check. "You know I do."

Luke leans over and gently kisses her on the lips. Lorelai pulls back and smiles before she leans in for more passionate kiss. Luke rolls her up on top of him as he deepens the kiss. Lorelai s hands are roaming across his bare shoulders, scraping her nails across his flesh and sending shivers down his spine.

As he moves his lips to trail gentle kisses across her chin, he reaches that spot on her neck just below her ear. Lorelai gently moans and Luke tightly wraps his arms around her body pulling her even closer. Her tongue begins to trace the edge of his ear as his hands move to cup the curve of her ass.

As Luke's hands caress her back, Lorelai softly whispers in his ear, "Marry me."

Luke freezes in mid-caress and asks, "What did you say?"

"I said marry me."

Luke rolls them both on their sides and pulls back to look in Lorelai's eyes "Are you sure?"

"Yes."

Luke smiles and says, "You picked a hell of a time to tell me." Then with a more serious face and tone, "What made you change your mind?"

"You, us, and then something Rory said the other day brought everything into focus."

"What did she say?"

"She pointed out that we are already living like we are married."

A big cheesy grin spreads across Luke's face. Lorelai notices this grin and hits him in his chest as she says, "You planned this, didn't you?"

"Planned what?"

"You figured if you moved in and we lived like we were married, I'd come around to the idea."

"Not exactly planned, I just hoped that it would help rebuild your trust, that's all. I wasn't trying to manipulate you. Besides, I want to be here."

Luke leans in for a kiss but as Lorelai seeks to deepen it, he pulls back. He then sits up, slaps her on her fanny and gets out of bed Luke grabs the phone book and begins looking something up.

Confused and a little disappointed, Lorelai sits up and asks, "Hey, where'd you go?"

He grins at her as he says, "You just agreed to marry me. I'm not taking any chances, I want to see if there's a 24 hour wedding chapel in the area."

Lorelai throws a pillow at him as she laughs. "This is Stars Hollow, not Vegas." Looking at the clock, "It's 11:37 PM. We can't get married at 11:37 at night in Connecticut."

Dropping the phone book, Luke lies back down next to Lorelai and wraps his arms around her. "Okay, but first thing in the morning we're going to the courthouse."

"What if I want a big fancy wedding?"

"Too bad! You can plan one of those fancy vow renewal ceremonies for our one year anniversary. We'll do the formal attire thing then and you can even have your silly carousal. We'll take a picture on it with each of us holding one of the babies as they barf all over our fancy wedding clothes. It'll be fun."

Lorelai looks into his eyes, "So tomorrow morning, we get married."

Using his seductive voice, "Yeah, first thing, but that's over eight hours away. Whatever will we do to pass the time?"

Moving her body closer to his, Lorelai replies, "I have an idea."

(tbc)