Disclaimer: Believe me, if I could own these characters, especially Dean, I would.

Chapter 8

-- Back at the House --

"Mom," called Rory as she pushed open the front door and entered the house. She'd seen Lorelai's car out in the drive, so she figured that her mother had cut her visit at Luke's a little shorter than usual. "Mom?"

Lorelai appeared in the doorway to the kitchen. "I'm right here," she said, wiping her hands on a dish towel.

Rory frowned and followed Lorelai back into the kitchen. "What are you doing?" she asked, eyeing the pots on the stove with the turned on burners underneath them. "Are you cooking?" she asked in mock aghast.

Lorelai rolled her eyes at Rory's shock. "Haha, funny. Just remember that the next time you go hungry." She watched Rory set up the bowl of fruit in the center of the kitchen table, a smile tugging at her lips. "Luke did this. I invited April over for dinner weeks ago, to get a better feel of my future stepdaughter. You know, I want to be the cool stepmom. Not at all like Cinderella's. I bet Luke would withhold my coffee if I made his daughter clean the chimney."

"So if Luke would've withheld your coffee, I wouldn't have had to clean the chimney?" Rory joked. She finished setting up the fruit bowl and looked up at Lorelai for the first time. "What?" she asked, seeing the smile on her mother's face.

"Like mother, like daughter," Lorelai said.

"What, the coffee? Mom, you should know by now that I am addicted to coffee because of you," Rory replied, heading to her room. "You know, when you and Luke have kids, I bet he'll keep that good stuff away from you. He won't want another coffee-addicted, mini Lorelai running around this house."

"What makes you say that?" Lorelai asked. She appeared in the doorway to Rory's room and leaned against the frame. "You turned out great, Kid. You're smart, beautiful, and independent. Stubborn as hell, too," she said it with a smile.

Rory rolled her eyes. "Thanks mom."

"Besides, I wasn't talking about the coffee. I was talking about the fruit."

"The fruit?"

"Yeah," Lorelai said, walking into the room and sitting on the bed. "I used to crave apples when I was pregnant with you. There was the occasional grapefruit, too."

"Really?" Rory asked, sitting on the other side of the bed and leaning against the headboard.

"Yup. Of course there was still the pizza and ice cream," she smiled over at Rory and leaned back to lay next to her.

Silence fell around them. It was deafening, and seemed to last forever. There was just some sort of comfort they both held in the other's presence, like the world would be okay, as long as Rory had her mom there to back her up. She enjoyed the silence, but the events from earlier that day, when she'd confronted Clara, seemed to settle in on her in the quiet. She then realized that she hadn't told Lorelai about the proposal.

"Mom, I have to tell you something," Rory said.

"Shh," Lorelai replied.

"What?" Rory asked, glancing over to see Lorelai's eyes squeezed shut. "What are you doing?"

"Trying to communicate with Luke. He went to pick April up in Woodbridge, and we're out of napkins."

Rory rolled her eyes and turned her gaze back to the ceiling. "Logan proposed to me."

"I know. Babette came over earlier to congratulate me on the handsome fella my daughter was getting hitched to."

"This town sucks. People can't keep anything to themselves," Rory groused.

"That's exactly why I moved here."

"You moved here because people can't keep things to themselves?"

"Yep. I saw Luke and just wanted those hands to wander all over my…"

"Mom!" Rory pulled a pillow over her head in disgust as Lorelai laughed.

There was a long pause before Lorelai asked, "Have you told him about the baby yet?"

Thinking her mother was referring to Dean, Rory shook her head. "No, I went to his apartment to tell him, but he was having an argument with his girlfriend, and I kind of left without telling him."

"Wait a minute! He proposed to you after you saw him with his new girlfriend? What the hell? Some slut dumps him and he decides to move it right back to you?"

"What are you talking about?" Rory asked, confused.

Lorelai was just as confused. "What am I talking about? Logan, who else?"

Rory shook her head. "Logan's not the father, Dean is," she said quietly.

AN: Okay, sorry that this chapter was so short. It's only really some 'filler' until I finish with the next chapter. Hey, it was either this or nothing, right? Read&Review!