Title: Spun

Rating: PG

Genre: LLR

Spoilers: A House Is Not A Home (season 5 finale)

Summary: following the events in Home…

Disclaimer: lalala… not mine… lalala… never were… lalala have no money…. lalala do not sue 

Chapter 18

Spun

The sun was high and bright in the sky and cast Star's Hollow in a wash of warmth. The snow was almost all gone now and bits of greenery were asserting themselves, continuing the circle of life.

Kirk was sweeping the gazebo. Miss Patty was standing at the dance studio door telling a group of small children a love story about a diner owner and an inn-keeper. Babette and Maury were stopped on the corner, talking to Andrew about a book order. Lulu's class was outside in the square and she was laughing and chasing a few of her pupils in some sort of a game.

Jackson was double parked outside Doose's market, unloading fresh produce while, across the square, Sookie sat on their front porch with Katy and Davy at her feet.

Through the window to Luke's Diner, the proprietor was wiping down the counter for the hundredth time that day. The only difference in this snapshot, as compared to one a few years earlier, was that he was smiling. He looked at the clock on the wall and tossed the rag aside, grabbed his keys and darted out the door, leaving the small echo of the jingle bell behind him.

With big strides, he walked across the square; flannel-clad shoulders squared against the last of winter's chill; ball-cap backwards, boots and jeans and fingerless gloves… He bounded up the front steps of his home and made his way inside.

He paused in the foyer and listened. Voices directed him to the kitchen where he found Rory and Logan, Paris and Doyle all in a heated debate about something Yale-related.

"Hey, where's your mom?" Luke startled the foursome at the doorway.

"Upstairs." Rory's voice sang. "Oh Luke, if you're headed that way, can you take this with you?" She handed him a steaming cup of coffee." Luke scowled at the cup then chanced a glance at Rory."

"Don't worry, it's still decaf." She offered with a grin.

"Thanks… you guys staying for dinner?" He offered. They all looked to one another and emphatically agreed. "Good 'cause I'm makin' jambalaya and dirty rice."

"Dirty!" said Rory, giggling like a kid.

Luke just rubbed his face and inwardly smiled at how much daughter was like mother and vice versa.

As he approached the top of the stairs he heard a flustered cry and hurried his pace to the nursery, as fast as he could manage with coffee in one hand.

"Lorelai?" As he opened the door wide, he finally saw what had happened. "Emily! Are you ok?"

"Your son urinated on me." She said flatly in her low voice.

"Sorry – he does that. Let me take him off your hands so you can clean yourself up a bit." Luke looked at her apologetically, sat the coffee down and replaced his mother-in-law at the changing table. "You peed on your grandma." He cooed at the smiley baby and when he was certain she was out of earshot he added, "that's my boy" and winked. "She just needs to get a little dirt under her nails now and again."

"Luke? You home?" Lorelai rounded the doorway with a baby in her arms. She came up beside her husband and kissed him sweetly.

"He peed on your mother." Luke deadpanned. Lorelai burst into laughter and rocked the baby in her arms.

"My little pro… Hey Luke, what would you think of taking a honeymoon with the babies and Rory and Logan?" She was still grinning ear to ear.

"When?"

"So you're open to it?" she pressed.

"Yah." He waggled his eyebrows back at her. "Sounds like a plan, maybe wait a few more months though. Until Lena and Liam are ok to fly."

"Can you take her? I have to pee." Lorelai handed off the baby to Luke and did a little pee pee dance.

"Make sure you use the master bathroom… unless you wanna pee on your mother too!" He chided after her. He placed Lena in her special cradle and soon followed with Liam. Luke rocked both cradles with his feet and admired these wonderful specimens.

"They're beautiful aren't they?" said Emily as she re-emerged, a wet water mark on her blouse.

"I can't believe it sometimes…" He couldn't tear away from the sight of the babies. "Everyday I can't wait to come home and watch them… see what they're gonna learn next and just get lost in them you know?" he finally made eye contact with Emily Gilmore and she smiled the kindest smile Luke had ever seen on the elder Gilmore's face.

"They really are spectacular."

"They've changed me forever. Lorelai and Rory… these two… I'll never be the same again."

"You know what Luke, I think I could say the same." She placed a hand to Luke's' shoulder and squeezed before leaving the room. He remained, transfixed by the gurgling, chubby faces before him; dark tufts of hair and crystal blue eyes on them both. At this point it was impossible to say if either looked more like mother or father but Luke was certain that the best of he and Lorelai had gone into the making.

(Dining Room)

Around the table conversation consumed the room. Doyle was offering a short recollection of an incident with the Whiffenpoofs, his first year on the daily paper. Paris watched her boyfriend speak, smiling until he mentioned something she was sure she knew more about. She jumped in with her two cents. Logan was shaking his head and disagreeing with something Paris had said and Rory was laughing, holding Logan's hand on top of the table.

At the opposite end, Richard and Emily spoke in hushed voices as Richard marveled at the bright young minds in their presence. Beside Rory sat Lorelai who was content, for a change, just to watch the conversation around her.

Rory turned her attention away from the now raging debate and whispered to her mom.

"Do you hear singing?"

Lorelai squinted her eyes and listened carefully, there was definitely something musical going on in the kitchen.

"I hear it… I'll be right back." Lorelai rose and with a toss of her long and curly hair, she disappeared into the kitchen.

Lena and Liam were sitting in their vibrating chairs on the chopping island and Luke was singing at them animatedly,

"Jambalaya, crawfish pie, and fillet gumbo… son of a gun we'll have big fun on the bayou…" The twins were grinning ear to ear at their father's silliness.

"You can sing!" Lorelai feigned a heart attack by clutching her chest. "And you sing well! Why Lucas Danes, what other tricks have you been keeping from me all these years?"

Luke grabbed the wooden spoon from the jambalaya and spun around. "Taste." He brought the spoon to her lips and she sampled.

"Mmmm… I married the perfect man." She winked.

Luke deposited the spoon back on the counter and grabbed Lorelai at the waist and danced her around the island, two-stepping as he sang his little ditty. "Dress in style and go hog wild, me oh my oh – son of a gun, we'll have big fun on the bayou."

And when his song was over, he pressed Lorelai against the counter and placed his lips loosely to hers.

"I can also play the guitar." He offered.

"You've been holding out." She raised an eyebrow.

"And I can answer the phone with two babies in my arms." He waggled.

"So can I." She one-upped.

"But can you do this?" Luke placed both palms on Lorelai's cheeks and stared at her for a moment before he kissed her with such passion and genuine emotion that the air caught in her throat. He stepped back.

"I think I can," she whispered and stepped up to him, hands traveling up his torso, over strong shoulders and around the back of is neck, coaxing him into her fervent kiss. With their mouths still mated she pressed "I love you" to him and his arms again scooped around her waist.

"A-hem… Mom?"

Luke and Lorelai both looked toward Rory at the kitchen door in unison.

With a wink and jerk of his head, Luke beckoned Rory closer. He stepped away from Lorelai, took Rory's hand and spun her around in a twirl and belted out one last "Goodbye Joe, me gotta go, me-oh-my-oh, me gotta go pole my pirogue down the bayou, my Yvonne, the sweetest one, me-oh-my-oh, son of a gun, gonna have big fun on the bayou!"

Laughter in the dining room spilled into their impromptu dance and Luke's song drifted around the table in the next room. The house was warm and full of sound and home-cooked scents and Lorelai couldn't help but laugh at how wonderful it all was.

The End.

I just wanted to briefly say a huge THANK YOU to everyone who has read and encouraged my writings. This is, ultimately, a sappy happily ever after fic, but that's exactly what I wanted to write… There's enough angst in the real world. While I certainly intend to keep writing about the Lovely Lorelai and the wonderful Luke, this particular thread is done. If I'm honest with myself, I'm a little sad to have it over with. Feedback is an integral part of fanfiction and you have all been a part of the crafting of this tale… thanks!

Feel free to contact me at maloax at yahoo dot com.. I'd be more than open to a challenge-fic… any takers?