"Lorelai is pregnant!" Patty shouted to the whole town. "Lorelai is pregnant with Luke's baby!"
Shit.
Chapter 7
As soon as Patty left the diner, screaming to everyone that I was pregnant with Luke's child, Luke came running back behind the curtain, and ran into me. Trying to regain my balance, I said, "We need to talk."
"I'd say so."
Silently, we walked up the stairs and into his apartment. After sitting on the couch and listening to each other breathe for a few minutes, I finally decided it was better sooner than later.
"We have a problem."
"I'd say so," he said again. I silently wondered if he knew how to say anything else.
"What should we do?"
"Well, we have two options. We can either tell them it's Chris's, or let them think it's mine."
"I'd love to let them think it's yours, and I'm so touched that you'd do that for me, but, I can't do that to Chris. He deserves to know. And besides, Rory knows it's Chris's, so she'd be upset if I didn't tell him." I was in rambling/ranting mode. "and he'll be around for Rory still, too. So, what happens when he comes home and sees this little kid, and thinks it's yours, but it's actually his? That would be totally awkward. Not so much for him as for me and you and Rory. And, does that mean we'd have to lie to it, too? I mean, we can't exactly tell it Chris is its father, but have everyone else think that you're the father. We'd have to tell it that you're the father. I can't lie to my kid, Luke."
"Lorelai, slow down! Just breathe!"
"I'm sorry. This is just so hard."
"I understand. I get what you're saying. Have you told Christopher yet?"
"No."
"I think you should do that."
"I think I should, too."
"Have you told your parents yet?"
"No!"
"Lorelai…"
"Let's take this one step at a time. I'll tell Chris, and get this whole mess straightened out, and then I'll worry about telling my parents."
"Ok." We sat in silence for a few moments longer, trying to get the whole conversation past us. This was something neither of us saw coming, or wanted to deal with. "Do you want something to eat?"
"Sure. Waffles?"
"Ok. Chocolate chips?"
"Of course." We walked down the stairs, hand in hand, ready to face the diner together. Before crossing the threshold from the storage room to the diner, I said, "If anyone says anything, like congratulations on the baby or something like that, just ignore them. Pretend you know nothing about it. I mean, don't say you know nothing about it, just don't confirm anything that would make them think it's yours."
"Got it. Shall we?"
"We shall."
I got home at around 11 that morning. I had called Sookie and told her I needed the day off, because I wasn't feeling well. Truly, I needed to talk to Chris, and I knew I would need some time to do it. We were about to have a pretty interesting conversation.
"Hello?" I heard Chris' groggy voice answer. I had just remembered the time difference from here to California, and felt terrible. There was no backing out now, though. I tucked my legs underneath me on the couch and began.
"Hey, Christopher."
"Oh, Lorelai, what do you want?" he said, still clearly upset about that night a few weeks ago.
"Look, Chris, I need you to put what I said behind you and listen up. I have some news that you're not going to like, so you need to stop being 2 and listen."
He took a deep breath, and gave a sigh/groan. "Fine."
There was no point in delaying it. "I'm pregnant."
"You're what?"
"You heard me. I'm pregnant."
"Oh, ok. Um… congratulations?" He obviously had no idea what to do in this situation. It had been quite awhile since the last time we went through this.
"I don't think this calls for a congratulations, Chris. We're in trouble. Well, I take that back. We're not in trouble."
"What do you mean?"
"I'm with Luke now, Chris. I told him about the baby, and he's fine with it, but I'm with him now, so I'm not going to let you screw it up." I knew I wasn't sounding particularly nice, but I wanted to make it obvious that I wasn't looking for him to come back into our lives.
"But, this is my kid, Lor. I have to be its dad. This is the perfect opportunity for us to get back together. I mean, I've been looking for this chance for forever. I'm ready to be a dad. I was actually going to propose to you when I came to visit, but your answer was obvious after what you said. Lor, please, give me another chance!"
"No! Chris, I love Luke, and he loved me, too. You're out of the picture. Besides Rory and this baby, you're out of the picture. That's it. I'm with Luke now, and that's it."
It was quiet for a few minutes.
"Have you told your parents yet?" he said, almost so quiet, that I couldn't hear him.
"No. I wanted to tell you first."
"Can I at least come and tell them with you?"
"Fine. But you have to be here for the next Friday night dinner. That's when I was going to do it."
"Thank you. I'll be there."
"Bye, Chris."
"Bye Lorelai. I love you."
I hung up the phone, and pretended I didn't hear what he had just said. This was going to be a long, long week.
Ok, ok, I know, it's short again, but it's longer than last! The last one was something like 958, and this one is 1,045, so it's improvement! At least, I think so. Don't forget to push that beautiful little review button and type a few words! Oh, and by the way, thanks a bunch to those of you who wished me well! I am well now, and I think it's all because of your reviews. And a certain hug wink. Ok, well, on to the best part of the whole fic…
Random Question: Why is it called a Doctors' Practice?