Chapter 10

"Hello?" I answered the phone groggily, at 2 in the morning.

"Oh my god, I'm so sorry, Lor. I keep forgetting the time difference from here to there."

"It's okay, Chris. I wasn't really sleeping anyway. Trying to, sure, but I wasn't sleeping," I said, sitting up. I definitely wasn't going to sleep anymore.

"Ok."

"So, what did you need?"

"Oh, right. Tomorrow is four months, right?"

"Right…?"

"Are you going to find out what it is?"

"Yeah, I think so. You never know, though. I'm known to change my mind quite often."

"Well, do you want me to come with you to your appointment? I can be there in a couple days after I clear a few things up at work."

"No, Chris, it's okay. The appointment is tomorrow, anyway. Luke is coming with me. He's actually looking forward to it. It's kinda cute."

"But-"

"No, really, don't worry about it. Luke will be there for me, and Rory might come, too. I promise to call you right afterwards and let you know how it goes."

"Ok. Thank you. And don't worry about what time it is when you call me. I'll be there no matter what time it is. I'll even answer it on the first ring."

"Promise?"

"I promise, really, I do." Something in his voice made me know he was telling the truth.

"All right, thanks Chris. I'm gonna try to get some sleep now. Goodnight."

"Night, Lor."

I hung up the phone, and laid my head back down on the pillow next to Luke. He snaked his arm around my stomach and held me protectively. I kissed his shoulder, and finally fell asleep.

I was actually really proud of Christopher. He was finally starting to be responsible. Sure, he wasn't around for the pregnancy, but he lived thousands of miles away, so he couldn't help it. He called every chance he got, which still wasn't much, but it was more than before. He was doing his best, and that's all I could hope for.

Luke woke me up at 8 the next morning, like I had asked him to. It was at that moment that I regretted ever asking him to do such a cruel and unusual thing.

"Off with your head," I said, as I swung a pillow in his direction.

"Come on, Lorelai. Your appointment is in an hour, and you've got to shower and eat yet. Now, get up. I promised you I'd give you coffee this morning, and I did. You just have to come downstairs to get it."

"You are an evil, evil man."

"Hey, you haven't had coffee in four months, and you're calling me evil, the man who has so graciously agreed to make it for you?"

"First of all, you didn't agree graciously. It took a bit more begging than I would've preferred to keep my dignity. Second, is it decaf?"

"No."

"Yes! I love you!" I stood up, and threw my arms around his neck.

"But before, you said I was an evil, evil man."

I kissed him, and smiled. "Well, we all have our weaknesses."

I went downstairs, took a sip of my coffee, and quickly remembered my recent disdain for it, ever since this stupid pregnancy. I grudgingly ate the rest of my breakfast as I drank tea, much to Luke's satisfaction.

I trudged up the stairs to take my shower. I was about to step in, when I heard Luke's footsteps outside of the bathroom.

"Oh, Luke!" I said, in the most sing song voice I could manage, over the sound of the running water.

"Yeah?"

"Join me?"

Let's just say the morning from then on went much better than the start of it. And, we had a pretty good reason to be a few minutes late for the appointment…

When we finally did arrive, we went into the exam room straight away. It didn't take long for that gross, cold, blue gel stuff to end up on my stomach, and an amazing picture of my baby to appear on the screen.

"Lorelai, it's beautiful," Luke said, staring at the screen.

"Aw, Luke, you old softy."

"Geez…"

We sat there together in silence for a few more minutes when the doctor finally asked, "Would you like to know the sex of your baby?"

"Yes!" I said, right away.

"Well, it looks like you have a-"

"Wait! No! I don't want to know."

"Okay…" She closed the chart that held the answer and almost began wiping the gross junk off when-

"Hold it! I want to know."

"You're positive?"

"Don't ask her that, she'll change her mind again!" Luke said, frantically.

"Ok. It's a girl."

"A girl! Oh, Luke, it's another girl!"

"Yeah, I heard," he said, with a huge grin on his face.

"Do you two have any ideas for names?" Doctor Howser asked.

"Actually, I haven't really thought about it that much. I don't know. Hm… Rory's already taken the name-your-kid-after-yourself bit. I guess we've got some thinking to do."

"Well, you're all set for today. You can set up another appointment on your way out." She finally wiped the goo off of me, and I began to get dressed.

"This is so exciting, Luke. Rory's going to have a little sister. She's going to be so happy."

"She may be happy, but I don't think it's humanly possible for anyone to be happier than you right now," Luke said, through a laugh.

"That's true." I smiled brightly at him as he pulled me into a hug, and kissed my forehead.

We drove home, and Luke began making me some lunch. I was abnormally starved, even after eating a huge breakfast that morning.

"I need to call Chris," I told him, as he flipped my burger over and turned to face me.

"You don't have to if you don't want to."

"I don't know why, but I kind of really want to." Luke just glared at me. "I know he doesn't seem like a great guy to you, but deep down, he really is."

Luke's expression softened. "If you say so." He went back to flipping my burger, as I skipped into the living room to grab the phone to call Christopher. I skipped back into the kitchen, and sat back down at the table, and dialed his number with a huge smile on my face.

After what seemed like 25 rings, I heard, "Hi, you've reached Christopher Hayden. Please leave your name, number, and a brief message, and I'll get back to you as soon as I can. Thanks."

I hung up the phone, and looked sadly at the table. I couldn't believe he had done this. He promised me. He promised! It was typical Christopher. I don't know why I was surprised. I thought he really was turning around. Oh, how quickly he had changed my mind.

Luke set my burger down in front of me. "Ya know, all of a sudden, I'm not so hungry anymore." I looked up at him sadly.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine."

"What's wrong?" He sat in the chair next to me, and put an arm around my shoulders for comfort. No one would ever know how thankful I was for my Luke.

"It's just, Christopher promised he'd be there to answer my call after the appointment today, but I just called, and it went to his voice mail. I can't believe I actually believed him."

Luke could tell I was hurting. "You never know, maybe he had a good reason."

"You're defending him?"

"No, I can just tell you're upset, and it seemed like it would make you feel better."

"Thanks, Luke." I wrapped my arms around his neck, and kissed him softly. He pulled me onto his lap, and kissed me right back.

He pulled away, and rested his forehead against mine. "I love you."

"I love you, too."

He kissed me again, before saying, "Now, go tell Rory."

"Okay. Thanks again, Luke."

"Anytime."

I picked up the phone again, and dialed Rory's cell number. It was about 3 o'clock, so I knew she would probably be out of school by then.

"Rory!"

"Mom! Did you find out what it is?"

"Yes…"

"And?" she asked, excitedly.

"Well…."

"Come on, Mom! Out with it!"

"It's a girl!"

"Oh my god, YAY!" she screamed. We talked and talked 'til she walked through the front door. Then, we hung up our phones and talked some more, thoughts of Christopher far behind us.

Tbc.

I think I really like this chapter. I didn't think Luke was getting enough "air time" for a Java junkie script as this, and it was leading people to believe that this was going to be a Lorelai and Christopher fic. SO not the case! The L's all the way! Ok, well, let me know what you think! R&R!

Random Question: Who's getting sick of the random questions?