Disclaimer: I do not own nor do I have any association with the Gilmore Girls or any of its characters. Dreaming about them is a totally different thing...
Chapter 16- Kiss-less on Christmas
"Tell me again," Luke said as he helped packed Rory's baby bag. "Why does your family celebrate Christmas this early?"
"My dad's business has him traveling a lot and it usually keeps him away from home on Christmas and New Years," Lorelai replied.
"And what business is he in? The mafia?"
"Close. Insurance."
"So, scarier than the mafia."
"Exactly."
"Are you sure you don't want me to drive you?"
"I don't want to make you drive to Hartford, then to Stars Hollow, back to Hartford, and then back to Stars Hollow."
"I don't mind."
"I know and I appreciate the offer, but really, it's fine. Don't worry about it Luke. My dad's sending a driver to pick me up."
Luke shrugged as he put the last of Rory's bottles in the bag and zipped it up. "What time will you be home?"
"I don't know. I'm not planning to stay very long though."
"Call me when you get home?"
"Of course."
"Ok. Well, I guess I'm gonna head on home then." He walked over to Rory and kissed her forehead. "Bye-bye princess." He turned around to face Lorelai again. "I'll talk to you later."
"Ok. Bye Luke."
"Bye Lorelai." He gave her a kiss on the cheek before leaving.
He always kissed her on the cheek. Since their first date, it was always a kiss on the cheek- not the lips. She had asked him why once and he said he wanted their first kiss to be special. It had to be at the right time in the right place at the right moment. Lorelai began to wonder when that time would come. She put Rory in her car seat, grabbed the baby bag, and headed to the inn to meet up with her driver.
Half an hour later, she stood in front of the home she had run away from nearly two months ago. When the door opened, she was greeted by the new maid. She wasn't too shocked the Gilmores had a new maid. They never did last more than a month.
"Hi, you don't know me, but I'm Mr. and Mrs. Gilmore's daughter Lorelai," Lorelai said. "They're expecting me."
"Of course. They're in the livingroom," the maid said. "May I take your coat?"
"Sure." Lorelai took her coat off and handed it to the maid. "Thank you." Lorelai headed to the livingroom with the car seat. She took a deep breath before clearing her throat to make her presence known.
Richard was the first to look up. His eyes lit up and he practically jumped out of his seat. "Lorelai," he smiled as he made his way over to his daughter and granddaughter. He immediately hugged Lorelai. "I'm so glad you came."
"Of course I came," Lorelai said, forcing a smile. It wasn't very easy to smile with her mother glaring at her. "It's Christmas."
"Indeed it is." Richard looked down at Rory in the car seat. "My God, she's gotten big!"
"Yeah. Would you like to hold her dad?"
"May I?" Lorelai nodded and took Rory out of her car seat, handing the baby to her father. "Oh my. Hello there little one. Remember me? I'm your grandpa."
Lorelai turned to Emily. They were going to have to speak eventually. "Hi Mom."
"Lorelai," Emily said.
"Merry Ch…"
"Richard, let me see our granddaughter." Emily stood up and walked over to Richard before Lorelai could even finish her sentence.
"Christmas." Lorelai sighed. "This is going to be a long night."
Luke groaned as he was suddenly awakened by the sound of his phone ringing. He reached over and picked up the receiver. "Hello?" he asked sleepily into the phone.
"Hey," Lorelai greeted.
Luke immediately sat up and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. "Oh hey."
"Did I wake you up?"
"No, no. it's only…" Luke glanced over at his clock. "Twelve thirteen? Ah jeez."
Lorelai laughed. "I woke you up. I'll just talk to you later."
"No. I wanna hear about your party." Luke sank back into his bed.
"There's not much to tell. Dad talked to his associates the whole time and Mom ignored me. I would have come home earlier, but Dad wouldn't let me leave."
"Sounds like fun."
"Oh, oodles." It was quiet on both ends of the phone. "You're sleeping."
"No I'm not."
"I can hear you snore."
"I don't snore."
"What's that sound then?"
"The voices in your head."
"I'm hanging up on you."
"Good. Then I can go back to sleep."
Lorelai laughed. "I'll see you tomorrow. Night Luke."
"Night Lorelai."
Christmas Eve
Lorelai stood on the doorstep of the Danes residence. She was nervous about meeting Luke's family. Liz had told her once that Luke was the golden boy of the family. Unlike his cousins, he barely got into trouble and had been helping his father for years. Would they like her? Would they think she was good enough for Luke? What would they think about her job? Her living arrangements? If they didn't like her, she had no chance with him. Lorelai's thoughts were interrupted when Rory began to stir in her sleep. She looked down at the bundled up little girl in the stroller. What about Rory? What would they think about her? Given Liz had a baby too, but she and Jimmy were getting married. Chris hadn't even tried to see Rory since Lorelai packed their things and left for Stars Hollow. What was Luke's family going to think now?
After what seemed like an eternity, the door opened and Luke stood on the other side in a red sweater an d khakis. "Hey," he smiled. "Merry Christmas." He kissed her cheek as she pushed the stroller into the house.
"Merry Christmas to you too. You look nice. Is that a new sweater?"
"Yup."
"It looks nice on you."
"Thank you. You look beautiful as usual." Luke took Rory out of the stroller. "Well hello there princess. Wow. Now that is a nice dress you got on there."
"My dad bought it for her for Christmas. So where do I put the gifts? Under the tree right?"
"You brought gifts?"
"It's Christmas. You can't invite me and expect me not to bring gifts."
"You didn't need to bring gifts. I mean…you know…it's just…kinda…"
A smile crept across Lorelai's face when she realize what Luke was doing. "You're stalling."
"What? No! No. I'm…I'm not stalling. I…no. I'm not."
"We've been on the foyer for three minutes."
Luke let out a sigh. "We'll go in there, but you have to promise me you won't go running and screaming out of the room."
"Why would I do that?"
"Trust me. After meeting my family, it'll be the least you want to do." Luke took Lorelai's hand with his free one and led them to the living room. Lorelai only recognized Liz, Kevin, Kirk, and Sarah. "Hey everyone, can I get your attention?" Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked at Luke. "Everyone, I'd like you all to meet my girlfriend Lorelai Gilmore."
Lorelai's smile grew a little wider. She and Luke had been dating for a while now, but they never referred to each other as 'boyfriend' and 'girlfriend.' She liked the way it sounded.
"That's Uncle Louis." When Louis mumbled something to himself, Luke just pretended not to hear him. "And this is…" Luke was cut off by his father.
"William Danes," William said as he walked up to Lorelai and shook her hand. "I'm Luke's father."
"Mr. Danes, it's a pleasure to finally meet you," Lorelai smiled.
"Oh the pleasure's all mine. And please, call me William. You look beautiful tonight. Luke, doesn't she look beautiful?"
"She always does," Luke remarked, making Lorelai blush.
William looked at the baby in Luke's arms. "And who would this be?"
"This," Lorelai smiled as she tucked a stray hair behind Rory's ear, "is Rory, my daughter."
"May I?" William looked to Lorelai for approval to hold Rory. Lorelai nodded and he took Rory from Luke, "My God, she is the cutest little girl I've ever seen."
"Lorelai, these are my grandparents," Luke introduced, "Alex and Lena Dounas and Lucas and Grace Danes. I was named after both these fine gentlemen, Lucas Alexander."
"It's nice to meet you all," Lorelai smiled.
"My grandson has great taste," Grandpa Lucas smiled. "You look like an angel and your daughter is absolutely adorable."
"You are the most beautiful young woman Luke ever brought home," Grandpa Alex said in his thick Greek accent.
Grandpa Alex then said something to Grandma Lena in Greek and Grandpa Lucas translated it to Grandma Grace in Italian. They all smiled and started nodding.
It had certainly been a crazy night. William and Louis were at each other's throats as usual about something simple as usual. Kirk almost knocked over the tree trying to plug in the lights. Kevin accidentally spilled some of the white sauce for the pasta that was for dinner into Luke's lap, it was funny- probably more so because it looked like he had done something dirty- to see, but Luke wasn't laughing. After dinner, everyone gathered in the living room to open gifts. Luke gave Rory a teddy bear. "Rory's" gift to Luke was a framed Christmas portrait of her.
"This is for you," Lorelai said handing Luke her gift to him. "I know it's not much…"
"It's a new baseball cap," Luke smiled as he looked into the bag. "Thanks." When he took the hat out, something fell into his lap. He unwrapped the little box and stared at the contents.
The night Lorelai had Rory, when she had drifted off for a few minutes, Luke was trying to get comfortable when he felt something in his pocket. He pulled the bubble container out of his pocket that contained a novelty ring he won playing one of the claw machines earlier when he was bored of just sitting around the hospital. It was a simple silver ring with five fake baby blue diamonds embedded into it. He decided to leave it for Lorelai as a congratulations gift. He scribbled a note saying "To Lorelai. Congratulations on the baby. From Luke" and stuffed it into the container. He then dropped it into her purse in the closet. Luke had forgotten about the ring until this moment. He stared at the silver novelty ring with fake baby blue diamonds embedded into it as it dangled from the dog tag chain.
"Thank you," Luke said softly. "I love it." He put it on and handed Lorelai her gift.
Lorelai opened the box to find it filled with wrapping tissue. In the middle of the wrapping tissue sat a square black, velvet box. When she opened it, her breath was taken away. It was a gold, heart shaped locket on a gold chain. Lorelai held it up.
"Oh Luke, it's beautiful," she smiled. "This is…oh my God. It must have cost you a fortune."
"It doesn't matter."
"It did cost a lot. Luke, no." She held the locket out to him. She loved the gift, but she didn't want Luke spending so much money on her.
"Do you like it?"
"Yeah but…"
"Then it's yours. It doesn't matter how much it cost." She stared at him with pleading eyes, but he closed Lorelai's palm around the locket and gently pushed it back to her. "It's ok." She smiled and put the locket on. He helped her up to her feet and took her by the hands. "Ok, come on. I have one more gift for you."
"Oh no. No more gifts mister. You already spent way too much on me."
"Would you quit whining and just come with me?" he laughed as he pulled her to the archway.
Lorelai stared at Luke. She didn't know why he made her get up to give her the last gift. " What are we doing?"
"I'm giving you your last gift."
"Ok…where is it?"
"Look up."
Lorelai looked up to see mistletoe hanging above their heads. She looked at Luke to see a smirk across his face. He put his hands on her face and pulled her in for a kiss. It was soft, slow, and the most amazing thing Lorelai had ever felt. It was so simple, but very passionate. Her arms instinctively wrapped around his neck and pulled him closer to deepen the kiss. When they finally pulled apart, he rested his forehead against hers and smiled. It was a merry Christmas indeed.
Next time on "The Broken Road": Since this chapter was entirely in 1984, the next will be in the present day- Rory's guest arrives, which wreaks all kinds of havoc.
A/N: Sorry it took so long for me to update. There was a family emergency and I had to fly out to Las Vegas immediately to help out my uncle. I didn't have time to save the fic to disk and bring it along because it was so sudden. I'm sorry, but hey, I'm making it up with revealing the guest- although, most of you probably already know who it is.
