Luke POV

"You hate Woodbridge."

I chuckled and turned around to face my ex. I wasn't overly surprised to see her given that we had been coming here for years for Rory's therapy, but since it had been over a decade since I had seen her last, I had no idea what to expect, "My daughter had an appointment and then we took a detour. How are you, Anna? I haven't seen you in years."

"I'm good," She said, the surprise evident on her face, "You have a kid?"

"Yeah," I turned around and pointed Rory out, who was reading the back of a book, "That's her."

Anna then looked confused, and I laughed, "If you're trying to do the math, she was 5 when I met her, which was shortly after we broke up. She is not mine biologically, I adopted her when I married her mom. And she's my world."

She briefly looked guilty, but she then smiled, "I'm happy for you. I've got to get going, but it was nice seeing you."

She turned and left without a word, leaving me a bit confused. But I brushed it off as Rory came up to me to start seeing how many books that she could get out of me today.

A few days later, Anna came by the diner, and she looked quite nervous.

"I messed up," She said before I could even ask, "When I broke up with you, I wasn't happy, and that was the right thing for us. But I really broke up with you because I was pregnant and I thought you were anti-kid."

I am so glad this place is empty, I thought, but I didn't interrupt Anna.

"Her name is April; she's 10 and she's so smart, and I always thought that it would be better for her to not have you in her life at all because you were anti-kid, but watching you talk about your daughter... I made a mistake."

She pulled out a photograph and handed it over to me. I looked at it, and while I felt nothing towards this kid, I was incredibly angry.

"You had no right to keep her from me. Yeah, I was anti-kid, and I still am. I don't like most children, but if I know them well or if I'm related to them..." I stopped and took a deep breath, trying to calm myself, "Give me your number. I need to talk to my wife and daughter, but I want to be in her life."

I tried to hand the photograph back, but she said, "Keep it; I have plenty and I put my number on the back."

She then walked out I pocketed the photo just as Rory, Jess, Tristan and Lane walked in, with Rory leaning heavily on Tristan. While Rory had been practically inseparable from the boys since her incident, Lane had only just joined the little friendship group.

Between the four, they had the pop-culture references down and they all seemed to get on very well. I immediately brought their drinks over since they always ordered the same thing, and Rory narrowed her eyes at me, picking up on the fact something was wrong. However, she returned to the conversation and left it alone for the moment.

When Lorelai got back from work, I dragged her upstairs, needing to talk to her now rather than later. But instead of words, I instead handed her the picture, unsure of what to say.

"You're going to need to give me a bit more than just a photo of a child," She said, confused.

"She's mine," I said, running a hand over my face, "So, you know I ran into my ex a few days ago? Well, she came in today and told me she kept the kid from me because she thought I didn't want kids and hadn't realised her mistake until I mentioned Rory to her."

"This couldn't be worse timing," She muttered, "Between Jess and Rory, I mean, they're both a mess, and... what's the plan?"

"I don't have one," I said, "I want to be in April's life – that's her name – and Anna gave me her number, but I don't have a plan apart from speaking to you and Rory. How do you think she'll take it?"

Lorelai looked down at the floor, "She's fragile right now and... I can't see it going badly but I can't see it going great, either."

"What if she thinks that I'm going to love her less because of this?" The question had been playing on my mind since Rory had come in. I knew I was never going to love her less; she was my kid and nothing could ever change that, but with everything that had happened to her, she might think otherwise.

"Then we'll prove that nothing has changed, at least when it comes to how you feel about her. Things are going to change, but we'll make it work," Lorelai promised, kissing me softly, "We'll tell Rory and Jess tonight."

We headed downstairs, and Lorelai walked over to the teens in the corner, "Lane, Tristan, you two might want to head home as we need to talk to Rory and Jess about something, and I don't think it can wait."

I spoke to Caesar and told him to cover and joined Lorelai as the group packed up. I felt a little nervous because I really didn't know how it was going to go. We made our way home once Tristan drove off and Lane had gone home herself, and I could feel Rory's eyes on me almost the whole way home.

Once they were in, we had them sat on the sofa with us sat on the coffee table.

"A few days ago, I bumped into an ex-girlfriend when me and Rory went to a bookstore. I don't know if you noticed, but anyway, her name is Anna," I was rambling a little, "She came to see me today, and told me something really big... She was pregnant when we broke up and she never told me."

I took the photograph out of my pocket and handed it to Rory, who also let Jess look.

"Her name is April and she's 10 years old."

Rory stayed silent, and I hoped it was because she was unsure of what to say rather than anything else, but Jess spoke, "Does that mean I need to leave?"

"Absolutely not," I assured him, "I haven't even met her, and you need this more than she does. You will be staying for as long as you would like, as long as you follow the rules. Even if your mom wants you home, you're welcome to stay."

He smiled, relieved, "Thanks, Luke."

"Rory?" Lorelai asked; Rory was looking at the picture, almost sadly, with her other hand almost idly playing with the necklace I gave to her on her 15th birthday, the one that belonged to my mother.

She looked up when Lorelai talked, almost snapping out of her thoughts, "What's the plan?"

I smiled at her, "We haven't got one yet. I wanted to talk to you first and figure out where we stand. I know I want to be involved in her life and I obviously want her to be a part of the family, but it's something that warrants a conversation."

"You and Mom have wanted another kid for years and even though it's not exactly the same, it wouldn't harm her to have three parents. And obviously, we both earn a sibling out of this, so that's pretty good..." Her words were the right ones but she didn't exactly sound happy. However, it was enough for us to launch into planning, trying to figure out how we were going to do this.

I couldn't sleep that night. My mind was whirring with what could have been and what we were going to do, and I ended up getting up so I wouldn't bother Lorelai, even though I knew she could sleep through most things, not counting our daughter's screams.

I sat down at the kitchen table with a glass of water when I heard it. Rory was crying, probably because of today. I got back up and knocked on her slightly open door before pushing it open. I caught her quickly wiping her eyes, and I inwardly sighed.

I walked over and sat on the edge of the bed, turning on her side lamp, "Do you want to talk about it?"

"I'm fine," She lied and I glared at her.

"You promised me, years ago, that you'd be honest with me. So, let's try that again," I said softly but sternly, and she sighed.

"You don't have to do this, you have..." She trailed off and looked down, unable to say the words. A real daughter.

I lifted her chin with my finger, forcing her to look at me, "You are my real daughter. Biology doesn't matter, you're my real daughter. And do you want to know something? You made me want to be a father, and then you made me a father. It doesn't matter that she was technically made before I even met you, I didn't know, and you came first."

Tears leaked out of her eyes, "But you haven't met her yet. You might feel differently once you meet her."

"I will feel differently about her, but I'm never going to feel different about you. Not like that. I promise."

AN: I didn't know whether I was going to include April - I don't have a problem with her like a lot of the fandom seems to because it wasn't really her fault that Luke dealt with the whole thing horribly, but I also don't care for her. So I'm including her but I'm not going to strictly adhere to her character on the show, either.