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 24 –Wedding Day Part I

Thursday morning Lorelai wakes before Luke, which is highly unusual. But today is highly unusual, today she will become Mrs. Luke Danes. "Eww, that is so 50'ish." she thinks, "I don't think I want to be called that, maybe Mrs. Lorelai Danes or Mrs. Lorelai Gilmore-Danes or Ms. Lorelai Gilmore-Danes. Yeah, I like that better or maybe just plain Lorelai Gilmore-Danes."

Quietly getting up, Lorelai heads for the bathroom and tries not to disturb Luke. It's not even 6:30 in the morning and he is still asleep. There were no early deliveries this morning and Caesar opened the diner.

And after all, this is their wedding day.

When Lorelai returns, she slips carefully back into bed so not to wake Luke. He has rolled over on his side so that now she can see his face. She loves looking at his face while he's sleeping. As she stares at his strong, whisker-stubble jaw and his full, soft lips, it takes all of her resistance to keep from kissing him awake. Of course if she wakes him up then she can gaze into his clear blue eyes framed by those luscious lashes.

It's so unfair that he has such long thick lashes. She spends a fortune on mascara and her lashes never look as good as his. She even loves those tiny laugh lines next to his eyes. Why do lines give a man's face character and make a woman's face look old and tired?

Suddenly in a raspy voice, Luke blurts out "Stop that!" Then his eyes flutter open. "You're staring at me. I can feel it."

"But you're so pretty to look at."

"I am not pretty."

"Yes you are. You are too pretty, in a totally rugged and masculine way."

"And you're crazy." He leans over to give her a morning kiss. With a twinkle in his eyes, Luke asks "So what wakes you up so early?"

"Oh, I've got a busy day today."

"Oh yeah? Doing anything special?"

"I am thinking of maybe finally tackling my sock drawer today. You know, arrange it by season and color. Then maybe I'll organize my thread box and all my patterns. If I really feel energetic, I'll venture on to consolidate all my scrap fabric to see if I can finally make that quilt."

"Well, that should keep you busy for the day."

Now with a twinkle in her eyes, Lorelai adds, "Oh, I was also thinking about getting married this morning."

With a straight face, Luke asks, "To anyone I know?"

"Uh, I haven't decided. I just thought that I might find someone on the way to the court house. You know, from one of those corners where you can pick up day laborers?"

Luke affectionately slaps her knee before he gets up and remarks, "Well, as long as you have a plan."

Luke heads into the bathroom and starts the shower. He comes out again to get his clothes and heads back to take his shower. He is just about to step in when an arm reaches out from behind the shower curtain and drags him inside.

Surprised but pleased, Luke comments, "Whoa, I didn't know we were showering in tandem today."

"Hey Mister, this is your last is your last chance to have any illicit sex. After this it's all legitimate and sanctioned."

Raising his eyebrows, Luke smiles teasingly, "Only when I'm with you."

With mock petulance, Lorelai pushes him out of the way and attempts to exit the shower. Luke grabs her quickly and pulls her to him for deep and sensuous kiss.

"So where do you think you're going?" he asks as his breathe dances across her ear.

"To find someone that appreciates me."

With a deep and husky tone, Luke replies, "I appreciate you, all of you." Kissing her lips, he adds, "I appreciate your lips..." Moving to kiss her ear, "…and your ear, and your neck, and your shoulder…" Using both his hands and mouth, Luke begins to pay homage to the various parts that he appreciates.

Lorelai joins in the game. She begins to kiss and run her fingers lightly over the parts of his body that she most admires. "I appreciate you neck, oh, and your shoulder, and your, oh yes, ah, your back…" As Luke caresses her breasts, her breathe begins hitch, "God, that feels good!"

As their passion heats up, Luke suddenly shuts off the water. He moves his hands under Lorelai's butt and lifts her up so she can wrap her legs around his waist. As he carries her out of the shower, Lorelai exclaims, "Ooh, you're such a caveman!"

Luke growls back, "Too dangerous, you and the babies are too important to me to risk it. Besides, I don't want the headlines in the Stars Hollow Gazette tomorrow to read 'Horrendous Shower Accident' followed by a picture of you and me sprawled naked on the shower floor."

On the way to the bed, Luke accidentally steps on a hair from Paul Anka's tail causing the pooch to let out with a yelp and scurry away. Startled, Luke looses his balance and begins to fall. Luckily he is successful in his attempt to steer their landing onto the bed.

Lorelai begins laughing hysterically while Luke is at first concern that she's okay before he too, catches her hysteria. As their laughter subsides, Lorelai cracks, "Was my big strong caveman brought down by the hair of a dog?"

Leaning over to kiss her lightly, Luke rebuffs Lorelai's teasing with, "Don't mock, I could make a comment about your weight!"

"Ah-h-h, you wouldn't dare!"

Luke raises his eyebrows as he gives Lorelai the "Oh, wouldn't I" look.

"You would dare to insinuate that I am fat, the mother of unborn twins?"

Pulling her up towards the head of the bed, Luke responds, "I never said you are fat. In fact, I think you're just right, but…" He begins to place tiny kisses on her waist, alternating between her right side and her left, each time moving closer and closer to her belly button. In between his kisses, he speaks, "…you have (kiss) to admit (kiss) that you (kiss) have put (kiss) on some (kiss) pounds (kiss) along here (kiss)." Then he begins to trail kisses up in a line from her bellybutton to just between her breasts. Caressing her left breast gently in his hand, he adds, "And you have definitely added weight here." Taking her into his mouth, he begins to suck and tease until the nipple is hard and erect. "This one is definitely fuller and more luscious." Moving to caress and suck on her right breast, he adds, "And so is this one. They're both absolutely voluptuous."

Lorelai pushes him over to lie on his back and tells him, "I guess I better check to see if you have anything that might have become fatter." She begins to trace her tongue over his nipples until they are as hard as hers. Then she trails kisses down the center of his chest until she reaches his bellybutton. "Nothing here seems to be any bigger." Continuing down his abdomen with tiny kisses until she reaches his cock, "Ah-hah," she exclaims, "it seems that Ernie has grown." Taking him into her mouth, she uses her tongue and teeth to tease him while her fingers massage and caress his balls.

Luke begins to run his of his left hand through her hair as the other slides down her back to massage the checks of her ass. Then slowly he moves his hand between her legs. As the fire within both of them heats up, his fingers enter her.

After a few minutes of mutual pleasure, Lorelai lifts her head and grins at Luke. She rises up and moves to straddle Luke. Taking him in her hands, she slowly guides him into her.

"Am I too heavy for you?" she asks with a glint in her eyes.

"God, no!" Luke growls back as his hands roam over her body and his hips begin thrusting to the rhythm that she set.

With hips gyrating to the primordial pulse, heat builds in both. Hands roam freely over each of their bodies, stimulating and caressing. Passion builds within both of them until almost simultaneous they reached their peaks and collapse into each other's arms in pleasurable exhaustion.

Rory arrives Thursday morning at the paper shortly before 6:00 AM. Since Sunday she has been working extra hours each day so that she can take tomorrow, Saturday, and Sunday off.

Lorelai is under the impression that Rory is scheduled to work at the paper all day tomorrow which is why she allowed herself to be conned into accompanying Emily to the DAR ceremony in New York. In reality, Rory will be working tomorrow but it will have nothing to do with the paper. She will be supervising wedding preparations.

The first step in the preparations will begin this evening. It is Michele and Sookie's job to make certain that Lorelai leaves the Inn no later than 6:00 PM. Around 6:30 PM, a crew is arriving to set up a huge tent to encompass the entire wedding/reception area. The tent is just temporary to protect the wedding decorations and is scheduled to be removed Saturday afternoon prior to the service. Air conditioning units and fans have been rented along with work lights and misting machines which will be installed within the tent to create the optimum environment to keep the decorations fresh for the service.

Rory's day tomorrow will begin at sunrise (around 5:30 AM) when Tom's crew will begin installing of the deck. The deck should be in place by 7:30 AM at which time that crew will begin positioning the archways. Another crew is due to arrive by 8:00 AM to begin installing the carpet and the Plexiglas. Also at 8:00 AM, the special effects team is scheduled to start sprinkling the area with the artificial snow.

All of these tasks must be completed no later than 4:00 PM when the first wave of townies is scheduled to begin decorating. Various teams will be working in shifts all night to complete that task.

Emily will take over the supervision at the Dragonfly on Saturday morning around 7:00 AM to finish overseeing the decorating. Hopefully all will be to her satisfaction before 10:00 when she has scheduled the first rehearsal of the servers. She wants everything perfect by 2:00 PM so she can leave to prepare for the wedding.

No, it's not tomorrow that worries Rory. She knows she can handle whatever crisis comes up during the preparations. It's Saturday, the day that she has to reveal the plans to Lorelai, which is beginning to scare the crap out of her.Throughout this whole process, Rory kept assuring everyone that she will be able to deliver Lorelai to the wedding. Her attitude was so confident that she convinced everyone including herself. Now as the day draws close, her insecurities are building.

Rory is anticipating Lorelai's first reaction will be shock, followed closely by annoyance and possibly anger. Lorelai will probably rant and rave for an half an hour or so until she gets it out of her system. At that point, Rory hopes her mother will begin to listen to reason.

Rory intends to explain how this is a gift of love from the town (de-emphasizing Emily's role in the plans). She wants Lorelai to understand the sadness and pain felt by the whole town when they heard of the breakup. She needs her mother to empathize with their feelings of guilt and remorse because they believe that they should have helped her more or at least talked to Luke before their whole relationship crumbled. Lorelai needs to understand how the town embraced the couple as their own modern day Stars Hollow lovers and desperately want them to have a happy ending.

Rory has put together an album of all of the candid pictures that Kirk shot of the town working on this wedding. She is hoping the pictures showing how the entire town worked so hard on this project in one form or another will move Lorelai.

Getting Luke to agree to the wedding has always been problematic. He hates town festivals to begin with and no matter how much he wants to marry Lorelai, he will undoubtedly refuse to be pushed by Taylor and party. Taylor came up with the original plan to handle Luke. It was Kirk who explained it to Rory.

It was Taylor's idea is to organize a posse to ambush Luke. He was planning to get Jackson, T.J., Andrew, Coop, Ed, Bootsie, and possibly Kirk to capture Luke and tie him to a chair until he agrees to participate. Taylor intended to use any means available to convince Luke. (Kirk confided to Rory that he is currently bidding for a cattle prod on eBay and that Taylor already has a Taser.) Then, Kirk added, if Luke continues to refuse to get ready, Miss Patty volunteered to personally give him a sponge bath, a shave, and dress him herself.

Rory immediately put a stop to that plan. She forced Taylor to give her his Taser and threatened to tell Kirk's mother if he actually buys the cattle prod. She pointed out to both of them that the wedding requires Luke to actually be alive for the service and that their plan has a very real possibility of killing him. (Rory is pretty sure that Luke will die of humiliation from a Miss Patty's sponge bath). They reluctantly agreed.

Of course then Rory had to come up with an alternate plan, which she did. She decided that Luke's family should break the news to him. So Liz, Jess, and April will be the ones to tell Luke. Rory, knowing Luke as well as she does, is pretty sure that he won't blow up with April and a pregnant Liz around and he'll listen to reason from Jess.

Luke is fixing breakfast when he notices that Lorelai is in Rory's room with the computer printing stuff off.

"What are you doing?" he asks as he pokes his head in.

"Looking up Connecticut weddings."

His face breaks out in a big cheesy grin, "Really? Find anything useful?"

"Lots" she answers back with an equally cheesy smile.

"Okay, you can tell me about it over breakfast. Your pancakes are getting cold."

Lorelai carries the stack of papers that she printed out to the table and exclaims with glee, "You made me chocolate chip, banana, and blueberry pancakes!"

"Well, when I asked you what you wanted, you first told me chocolate chip, then banana, then chocolate chip again, then blueberry. So I figured you really wanted all three. It looks disgusting enough that you will probably love it."

Lorelai drowns her pancakes in syrup and takes a bite. "Mmm, I think I've discovered a pancake sensation, a new special for the diner! We'll call them Lorelai cakes!"

'Hmm, I don't think so."

"What? I'm crushed. You won't add my epicurean delight to the menu?"

"You'll survive."

"You are spoiling my opportunity to be immortalized in infamy like the Earl of Sandwich. Though it was his servant that first placed meat between two pieces of bread, it was the Earl that inspired the concept so his name will always be attached to it. You may have created the Lorelai cakes but I was your inspiration."

Luke raises his hands in a sign of surrender and replies "Fine, they are officially dubbed the Lorelai cakes."

"And you'll add them to the menu at Luke's?"

"No."

"Luke!"

"No, because no one else in the world, with the possible exception of Rory, would ever eat such a disgusting pancake. We can still call it the Lorelai cake if you like. Whenever you want it, you can ask me to make you Lorelai cakes and I'll know what you want."

Feigning disappointment, Lorelai proceeds to dig into her breakfast until she notices what Luke is eating. "Hey, you're eating pancakes also! You never eat pancakes. How come?"

"I sometimes eat pancakes. And it's not pancakes; it is a pancake, one plain pancake." Smiling salaciously, Luke continues, "I feel the need for extra energy today."

"Admit it Mister, I am rubbing off on you. As we grow old together we're going start looking and acting alike. Pretty soon you'll be eating junk food and I'll start wearing flannel with a backwards baseball cap."

"God help us!"

After finishing her pancakes, Lorelai grabs the stack of papers that she printed off and starts, "Okay, first we need a license."

Luke gives her is "Duh" look but says nothing.

Giving him a dirty look, Lorelai continues, "Normally we could go to the Town Clerk to get a license but, of course, here in Stars Hollow that means Taylor. If we go to Taylor, the whole town will know in like 5 minutes. Besides, Taylor is bound to do something that really annoys you and then you'll threaten him and well, he'll never give us a license. So our best bet is to go to Bureau of Vital Records in Hartford. We need picture ID's, so our driver's licenses will work, our Social Security cards, and you need your divorce decree. Oh, and $30.00 for the fee."

Frustrated, Luke responds, "This is going to take all day, isn't it?"

Lorelai gets up to go get her day planner, "Probably, after all, this is government bureaucracy at its finest."

Luke watches her as she opens up her planner to see the list of tasks under today's date and asks her, "So after we get the license, how long do we have to wait or can we get married right away?"

"No wait time. We can get married right as soon as we find someone to perform the ceremony, like a Justice of the Peace or Pastor. I printed off a listing of the JP's in the area."

Suddenly Lorelai's expression turns into one of alarm, "Oh no!"

"What?"

"Do you know what today is?"

Luke looks at her mystified, "Thursday?"

"Yes, but the date? Do you know the date?'

"July something, uh, July the 13th, I think. Why?"

"So, we can't get married today, it's bad luck!"

Totally mystified, Luke asks, "What? What are you talking about?"

"We can't get married today because it's the 13th. That's bad luck."

"Thursday, the 13th is not bad luck."

"Yes it is; the number 13 is unlucky. Besides, Friday the 13th is definitely an unlucky date and our first anniversary will be on Friday, the 13th. And every 7 years, well almost every 7 years, because I have to factor in leap year, but for arguments sake, let me say ever 7 years it will be on Friday the 13th."

"Lorelai that's just a silly superstition, an irrational belief that future events are influenced by a number or a day of the week. You don't really believe in that?"

"Oh yes I do. Did you not see Apollo 13? Everything went wrong on that mission."

"I did see it and everyone came back alive."

"But they didn't make it to the moon. I really want our marriage to make it to the moon."

Luke face softened as he acquiesced, "Okay, okay we'll not get married until tomorrow. Does your phobia prevent us from getting the license today?"

"No, I think that's okay. Oh damn, we can't get married until tomorrow evening. I have to spend the whole day in New York with my mother. She's going to be mad enough that I elope. I can't miss her big DAR award luncheon, too."

"You'll be too tired tomorrow night and I don't want to fit our wedding in after your day in New York." Luke gets up, paces a moment and then continues, "Okay, here's the plan. We go get the license today, pick a Justice of the Peace from that list you printed off, and set up a time for Saturday morning. We just postpone the wedding until Saturday." Luke cringes a little after saying the word 'postpone' since that brings up such bad memories. Feeling guilty, he wraps his arms around her and adds, "If that's what you want, I mean. I'm ready to get married anytime you want."

Lorelai responds by wrapping her arms around him and says, "I know and Saturday will be good. In fact, it's better because Rory isn't scheduled to work Saturday so she won't miss any work."

"But you haven't told Rory about this yet, right?"

Now it is her turn to give him the "duh" look. "When have I had a chance to talk with her? We just decided last night. She already left for work before I got up. Besides, I thought it would be more fun to make it a surprise. You know, just call her to come met us when we finally were ready to have the ceremony. It will be so worth it to see the look on her face."

Luke squeezes her a little tighter as he says "Sometimes you are just like a little kid. So I gather that you still don't want to tell her even about Saturday?"

Excited, Lorelai adds, "No, I mean yes. I mean, I still want to surprise her but now on Saturday. It will be fun. She'll love it. She loves surprises, we both do…" Lorelai affectionately hits him on the arm and winks awkwardly, "I mean when they are good surprises like this."

Smiling lovingly, Luke replies, "Sure, what ever you want."

"Hey, you know April is coming to visit you on Saturday. Why don't you bring her to the wedding too. We can both have our daughters there and…" pressing her hands gently on her belly, "with these two we can make it a real family event."

"Yeah? Do you think she'll want to come?"

Lorelai smiles, "Of course she'll want to see her father get married."

"I guess I can ask her."

"But don't tell her about the wedding. Keep it a secret."

Frowning, "I'm not so sure that April gets as much pleasure from these types of surprises as you and Rory but okay, I won't tell her. I still think you're crazy." Then Luke's face gets even more serious, "How about your parents? I really think we should tell them. Even though they aren't my favorite people and I'm not theirs, it seems kind of mean."

"No!"

"Lorelai think about how your parents will feel, how would you feel if Rory eloped? They'll be hurt and they will never let us forget that."

Beginning to become slightly distressed, Lorelai pleads, "No, I don't want them there. I don't want any negative vibes. They have made it clear that they don't respect me or us."

Luke attempts to bargain, "Look, I know they didn't handle the news of the pregnancy very well but they were shocked. Last time we saw them they weren't so bad. A little weird with that clothes thing but you know it was civil. Lorelai, they are who they are but they do love you. This just seems unnecessarily cruel. How about we give them like a 15 minute notice before hand. It can be their choice if they want to come or not. What can they do to screw it up in 15 minutes?"

Definitely agitated, Lorelai responds, "Have you met my mother? In 15 minutes I'm sure she can locate a Vera Wang wedding dress for me, an Armani tux for you, and turn our wedding into a circus." Closing her eyes, Lorelai lays her head on his shoulder and continues, "I just don't want to be reminded of what a disappointment I am. They won't see it a happy event, just something to get over with. My father will see it as a tidy solution to an embarrassing problem. My mother will be personally insulted that we chose such a simple and private service. I don't want to have to defend it or hear anything negative. I just want to be happy, okay?"

Luke hugs her tighter while rocking back and forth, "Okay, we won't tell them. I won't let anyone or anything ruin this, I promise. We will have a nice simple wedding with just our kids, whatever you want."

"Sorry, I didn't mean to freak out. I'm okay. I know Mom and Dad will be upset but I don't want them there. We can make it up to them. We'll let Mom plan our vow renewal. That will give her an entire year to rent the Taj Mahal."

With a pained look on his face, Luke asks, "Do we have to show up for that?"

Smiling innocently, Lorelai assures him, "No-o-o-o, I doubt they'll even miss us. Come on let's go get the license. You do have $30 on you, don't you?"

Feigning shock, Luke asks, "I'm paying for this? I thought you were paying."

It's only 10:30 AM Friday morning and Rory has already negotiated a truce between Tom's crew and the carpet layers, dealt with Sookie's first melt-down, and talked Michele into dropping his law suit against the snow blowers who covered Pau-Pau and Chin-Chin with artificial snow (accidentally, they claim). She is exhausted and it's still the morning.

When her cell begins to ring, Rory figures that it's her grandmother calling again to check on the progress. Emily has called twice already. She called the first time just before she picked up Lorelai (Emily rented a limousine for their trip) and she called the second time when they stopped for a 'comfort break'.

Unfortunately when Rory checks the caller ID on her phone, she finds that she is wrong. It's not Emily, it's her dad. Rory hasn't heard from him for a couple of weeks; not since before Lorelai had her talk with him. It didn't surprise her that Chris would lay low after the talk, but for him to resurface today must be some sort of cosmic joke or is it? Suddenly she has a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. What if he knows about the wedding?

A sense of guilt flows over Rory as she realizes how unfair she thoughts are. After all Christopher has been nothing but supportive of her mother. This is probably just a coincidence. He would never try to stop the wedding even if he does know about it.

Rory takes a deep breath and answers the phone, "Hey Dad!"

"Hey Kid, it's been a while. How's it going?"

"Busy. I've been working a lot of hours."

"I know and I don't want to bother you, but I am kind of hoping that we might have dinner together tonight. I happen to know that you aren't expected at your grandparents so I thought that maybe we could have our own Friday night dinner together."

"Wow, huh, isn't this kind of out of the blue? How do you know that I am not going to Grandma and Grandpa's?"

"Well, actually I spoke with your grandmother this morning and she told me."

That sinking feeling in her stomach has suddenly become a cold hard lead ball. "You spoke to Grandma? Why?'

A little taken back by his daughter's tone, Christopher responds, "Rory, I talk to your grandparents all the time. Look that's not important. I was just hoping for a nice private dinner with my daughter."

Suddenly Rory feels like she fallen into some sort of Twilight Zone episode where the same maneuver is repeated over and over with minor variations but producing the same outcome. She panics that her father once again conspiring with her grandmother! It's a potential nightmare and she must prevent it.

Obviously she needs to figure out what her dad is up to but no way does she intend to let him anywhere near the Dragonfly Inn or any place else in Stars Hollow this weekend. She suggests they met at a restaurant located halfway between Stars Hollow and Hartford. Christopher agrees and they set a date for 7:00 PM tonight.

Rory makes a note to herself to run back home to pick up a change of clothes before her mother returns. She doesn't want to explain to Lorelai that she's meeting Christopher for dinner tonight. She doesn't want to even mention Christopher's name to Lorelai.

The rest of the day unfolds pretty much as she expected. She refereed a few more squabbles but nothing major. Sookie had another total melt down when she found both of the wedding cakes missing but it turned out that they were moved into the refrigerated truck for safekeeping. Michele pouted for an hour when Rory forced him to take his Chows home after Pau-Pau bites a hole in one of the hoses being used to spray on the snow. Basically everything went as expected and so far all the preparations are on schedule.

At little after 7:00 PM Rory is walking into the restaurant to meet Christopher. He is already seated and waiting for her. After joining him and ordering, they engaged in a round of general discussion for a few minutes before Rory finally reaches her threshold for benign chatter and asks, "So Dad, what are you up to?"

Taken back a bit by her tone and question, Christopher replies, "What do you mean? I just want to spend some time with my daughter."

"Come on Dad, you have never asked me out for dinner before. There has got to be a reason. What are you and Grandma planning?"

"Huh? What are you talking about? I'm not planning anything with your Grandmother. Why would you think that? I just wanted to see you and I thought dinner would be nice."

"What did you and Grandma talk about this morning?"

Dumbfounded by Rory's acquisition, Christopher asks, "Rory, where is this coming from? I simply returned your grandmother's call. She called and left a message last night and I called her back this morning. There was no planning involved. Planning for what? What is this all about?"

"What did Grandma want?"

"Rory, it wasn't anything. She just wanted to me to understand that Lorelai and Luke are together and that everyone is happy about it." Suddenly things started to click in his head. "Rory, are you going to ask me to stay away from your mother also?"

Rory looks directly in Christopher's eyes and replies, "Yes."

"Okay kid, what's going on? Why are you and Emily so concern that I'm going to contact Lorelai suddenly? Aren't things going well with Luke?"

"Just the opposite, Luke and Mom are finally happy again. I just don't want you to mess things up."

"Rory, that's not fair. Their trouble had nothing to do with me."

"Not this time."

Christopher starts to defend himself but then abruptly stops. "Okay, I suppose I deserve that but tonight has nothing to do with your mom. This is about you and me. I know we've never been as close as we should have been and it's my fault. I can't change the past but I am trying to do better."

"So this unexpected dinner is really just a father/daughter bonding exercise?"

"Not just that. Look a few weeks ago, your mom and I had a talk or rather she talked to me. Maybe she told you about it?"

"Yeah, she gave me the Cliffs Notes version."

Christopher smiles as he continues, "She would. Anyway, she made a lot of sense and I really heard her this time. She put a mirror up to my face and I wasn't please with the reflection. I need to find a way to fit into your life."

"Dad, you are in my life."

"No, I'm more like a visiting uncle than your father and that's my fault. I want to change that. Look , I'm taking GiGi on a little trip to Europe at the end of the summer. I am hoping that you might be willing to join us."

"Europe?"

"Yeah, GiGi is very into Winnie the Pooh these days. I am taking her on the Pooh County tour in East Sussex, England. Then I'll take her over to Paris for a couple of days so she can spend some time with her mother."

"You're taking her to see Sherry?"

"Yeah well, GiGi is starting to ask about her mother and since Sherry won't come here, I thought that I should take her to see her mom."

"That's good Dad. That's a good thing to do."

"It's what your mother did for you and me. Lorelai's my parenting role model. Without her efforts, you and I might not have had any type of relationship. I didn't make much of an effort. Anyway, I thought if you wanted to come with us, it would be a chance for you, GiGi, and me to spend some real time together.."

Laughing, Rory states, "Gee Dad you want to take me to see all the Enchanted Places from Winnie the Pooh? I'm touched."

"Well, you won't have to hang with GiGi and me the whole time. You can always shop or visit the Palace or…" Christopher smiled knowingly, "maybe there's a friend that you can visit with. What'd say?"

Confused, Rory asks, "Why?"

"Huh?"

"Dad, why do you want me to go with you?"

"Because you're my daughter and I want to spend time with you. I realized as I was planning this trip for GiGi that I never did anything like this for you. I never took you anywhere. Yeah, I know, you're mom took you places but I never did. That was my fault. I never even took you to the zoo or a circus or even to a movie."

"Dad, I…"

"Look, I know you didn't have a deprived life. You're mom was there and she made sure that you had a great childhood. I'm sure she took you to the zoo and the circus and I know she took you to a movie, lots of movies but I didn't. I missed that. I never got to see you look at your first elephant or laugh at clown."

"Rory, this is selfish of me but I just want to spend some time with my daughters, both of my daughters. I want us to feel like a family even if it's just for a few days. I know I don't deserve it but you and GiGi do. Please, come with us?"

Rory's emotions are spinning. This is last thing that she expected to hear from Christopher. Of course as always, his actions were the result of outside prompting (her mother) but he seems sincere in his desire to have her go with him. Or maybe he just needs her to take care of GiGi for him.

She hates that she is so cynical of Christopher's motives but she knows that his fatherly concern always seemed to have an ulterior motive behind it. Usually he was trying to impress Lorelai. Of course, there was that period where he was trying to impress Sherry. She learned to live with the realization that she was always an after thought for him.

"Dad, you don't have to do this. I'm fine with our relationship as it is."

"Yeah, I do. You may be fine with the relationship but I'm not. I want you to have good memories of me. I don't expect you to spend all of the time with GiGi and me, especially since you'll want to be with Logan but hopefully we can find the time to do some father/daughter bonding. Please, just think about, okay?"

"I don't know, Dad but I'll think about it. I'm not sure with work and everything if I can take off. Let me get back to you next week, okay?"

"Sure Kid, whenever."

Saturday morning Luke walks into the bedroom to find Lorelai still asleep in bed. He had gotten up early to open the diner and work until Caesar arrived to take over. Before he left this morning he reset the alarm for 7:30 hoping to get Lorelai up and moving. It's now after nearly 8:30 AM. He needs to get her and Rory up, dressed and fed so that they can leave, pick up April, and make it to the Justice of the Peace by 10:00.

Sitting down on the edge of the bed next to Lorelai, he smiles at her and then raises his hand to swats her on the behind. "Get up!"

Lorelai jolts up mumbling, "Wha...ouch, that hurt!"

Luke stands up as he repeats, "Get up! We're going to be late."

"What time is it?"

"8:27"

"Huh, you were supposed to wake me at 7:30."

"I set the alarm."

Lorelai stares at him as if he spoke a foreign language.

Just then the bathroom door opens and out comes Rory, showered and dressed in her bathrobe, smiling at him, "Morning Luke!"

Luke turns an inquisitive eye towards Lorelai, who is grinning like a Cheshire cat. She explains, "I woke up when you left. I've already showered and washed my hair. I guess I fell back asleep while Rory was using the bathroom."

While the girls finish dressing, Luke heads downstairs to fix breakfast. After a few minutes, Rory walks into the kitchen holding two different dresses and asks, "Which do you think I should wear Luke?"

Luke looks at each dress and responds, "Both look nice to me, but I'm probably not the one you should ask. Your mother is the fashion expert."

Mischievously Rory continues, "Yeah, but which one do you think is most appropriate?"

Grinning, Luke answers, "I'm not giving you any hints where we're going. Anything you want to know, you have to get it from Lorelai."

"Damn!" Rory storms back to her room disappointed.

Lorelai comes downstairs in her robe. Luke looks over attire and asks, "That's what you're wearing?"

"You should talk, Mr. Backwards Baseball cap and Flannel."

"I'm going upstairs now to shower and change while you eat. It only takes me 10 minutes to dress and that includes shaving."

"Well, I'm all ready except for my dress. I didn't want to get it dirty."

Just then a fully dressed Rory appears and sits saying, "So when are you going to tell me about this surprise?"

Luke sets down her breakfast and turns to Lorelai, "She's your daughter. I'm going upstairs to get ready."

After they finish eating, Rory turns to look at Lorelai with her best pout face. "I can't believe you won't tell me. You wake me up at the crack of dawn and force me to get dressed up but you won't tell me where we're going or what we're doing. This is not fun, Mom. Are you sure this isn't going to take long? We have an appointment at the salon for facials and mani/pedi's at 2:00 this afternoon. We will be back in time, right?"

Smiling big, Lorelai reassures Rory that they will be back in plenty of time and heads upstairs to finish dressing. Rory takes the opportunity to call her grandmother who is overseeing the final preparations at the Dragonfly.

Rory assures Emily that even though Lorelai is dragging her off this morning on an errand they will be back in time to go to the spa. The idea of taking Lorelai to a spa for the pre-wedding preparations seemed like the perfect idea. She and Emily had decided that the best time to tell Lorelai about the wedding tonight would be when she is relaxed and serene. Nothing relaxes Lorelai more than being pampered.

Twenty-five minutes later, Luke is sitting on their bed waiting for Lorelai who still hasn't put on her dress. Currently she is in the closet searching for a pair of shoes.

Luke impatiently asks, "I don't understand how the shoes can be missing? You just bought them yesterday. Where did you put them?"

From deep inside the closet, Lorelai's voice responds, "Here in the closet."

"Then they are in there. They can't walk away by themselves."

Lorelai pops out into the dressing area, begins searching the floor on her hands and knees as she responds, "Gnomes".

"What?"

"Shoe gnomes, they are always hiding my shoes."

Smirking, Luke asks, "Shoe gnomes? So shoe gnomes hid your shoes and it has nothing to do with the fact that you take your shoes off all over the house and just leave them."

"You know, you're not helping."

"I was trying to help but you kicked me out of the closet and told me to go away."

"Well, now I want your help."

"I'm not crawling on the floor and getting my suit all dusty."

Standing up, an exasperated Lorelai responds, "Then you're going to have to marry me barefoot."

"I found three pairs of white sandals in your closet. Why can't you wear one of those?"

Looking at Luke like he is an idiot, Lorelai explains, "Because I didn't buy them to go with my new dress."

"Grrrr!" Luke growls and gets off of the bed asking, "Where were you that last time you were wearing the shoes?"

Waving her hand around the bedroom, "Somewhere in here, but I swear I put them away."

"Uh-huh." Luke replied as he looks under the bed and pulls out a pair of new white sandals and holds them up in the air. "Are these the ones you were looking for?"

Grinning sheepishly, Lorelai takes the shoes and answers, "Those damn gnomes."

She heads back into the closet and a moment later comes out in her wedding dress. It's a white crinkled cotton gauze dress with spaghetti straps. It has a drop waist with a bow and eyelet detail down the front and on the skirt hem.

A look of love and appreciation comes over Luke's face as he takes in the vision of his soon-to-be bride. "You look beautiful!" he tells her and then leans in to give her a gentle kiss.

"Thank you, sir. You look rather spiffy yourself."

Luke leads her downstairs where Rory is sitting on the sofa reading. She looks up and remarks, "It's about time! What took you so long?"

"Your mother couldn't find her shoes."

"Gnomes?" asks Rory smiling. Then continuing, "Wow, you two look really nice. So tell me, where are we going?"

Putting her arm around her daughter, Lorelai answers, "To go pick up April." Turning to Luke, she asks, "You did remember to bring the uh, err, ticket, right?"

"Ticket?" confused Luke asks.

"Yes, the uh ticket we got Thursday" Lorelai responds knowingly.

Patting his breast pocket, "Oh, it's here. So let's go. April is waiting for us."

The trio head out the door and get into Rory's car.

(tbc)