A/N – My very first attempt at writing Gilmore Girls fanfiction. Luke spends some quality time with his son. Takes place about six years after season 6. I started writing this before the episode where Liz told Luke she was pregnant, and I mistakenly assumed that she was Lorelai in the teaser. So Lorelai got pregnant towards the end of season 6. She and Luke got married almost a year after the twins were born.
Disclaimer: I own 5 seasons of Gilmore Girls on DVD, but not the show or the characters.
COOKING WITH DAD
By: Hopeful Writer
The bell rang as the door to the diner opened, and Luke looked up instinctively, unable to resist smiling at the two nearly identical boys that barreled in, leaping onto stools at the counter and beaming at him with toothy grins.
"You're gonna fall off if you keep jumping onto 'em like that," he warned, setting down the pad he normally took orders with and reaching across the counter to muss one dark head, then the other.
"You say that every time," the boy with blue eyes whined.
"And we never fall off," his brown-eyed brother agreed.
The bell rang again, and Lorelai entered, looking harried but beautiful to Luke. She sat down next to the boys and leaned across the counter to kiss her husband. "They leave me in the dust every time," she joked. "I'm getting old. I can barely keep up with my own sons."
The boys glanced at each other and smirked triumphantly. "We're faster than Mommy, we're faster than Mommy!" they sang, clapping their hands together.
"Now if only we could beat Jess," the blue-eyed one sighed.
"And Daddy," added the one with brown eyes, looking up at Luke with a challenge on his young face.
"But first, breakfast!" Lorelai declared, eliciting cheers from the boys.
"What'll it be?" Luke asked, picking up his order pad and pencil.
"Pie!"
"And French fries!"
"And lasagna!"
"And meatloaf!"
"All for breakfast?" Luke interrupted, fixing his wife with a glare for teaching their sons such poor eating habits.
"Maybe just pancakes," the blue-eyed brother decided.
"For me too."
"Make that three," Lorelai added, smiling. "With a side of bacon, please."
Luke rolled his eyes in disgust, as he always did when she ordered anything to eat (although he had successfully convinced her to eat vegetables about once a week since she had gotten pregnant with the twins). "Coffee?" he asked.
"Oh, honey, if you don't know the answer to that, what kind of marriage is this?"
As Luke poured her coffee, Lorelai addressed the boys. "Why don't you two go sit at a table while I talk to Daddy? We'll bring the food over when it's ready."
"Okay, Mommy." They scrambled off the stools (nearly toppling them over as they tried to make their short legs touch the ground) and sat at one of the tables closest to the window, staring outside and making faces at all the townspeople as they walked past.
"What is it?" Luke tried not to appear as worried as he felt, but something must have shown on his face because Lorelai laughed.
"It's nothing bad," she assured him. "Well, not for you at least. Will has to go for that follow-up dentist appointment today, and I need to take him, so it's kind of bad for me. I just need you to watch Ricky while I'm gone. Rory and Jess are taking April to that orientation at Yale today, and there is no way they're bringing even one of these twin terrors with them."
Luke glanced over at Will and Ricky, who were throwing sugar packets at each other. He loved both his sons, but he had a much easier relationship with Will than with Ricky. With Will, he could pull out a ball and they would have a catch, or they could watch a baseball game on TV and Luke would teach him about the sport. Ricky wasn't interested in sports. He was quieter, like Rory and April, preferring to read.
"Sure," he answered, shifting his gaze back to Lorelai. "I'll let Lane and Caesar handle things around here, and I'll come back for the dinner rush."
Lorelai took a big gulp of coffee. "Luke? Don't try to force him to watch baseball again, okay? He hates it."
Luke sighed. "I know."
"Just talk to him. You may find you have a lot more in common with him than you think." She flashed him a grin. "Come on. You bonded with Jess. I guarantee you this will be easier."
He smiled back, albeit weakly. "Sure," he said again, turning around in time to pick up the plates of pancakes. He handed a plate to Lorelai and took the other two to the twins' table. "Careful, guys, they're hot," he warned, setting them down and attracting the boys' attention. Lorelai sat next to Ricky, supervising while he painstakingly cut up his pancakes with the plastic knife Luke brought out for him. Across the table, Will didn't bother with his silverware.
Luke turned to take Babette and Morey's orders. When he came back to his family's table, he was horrified at the sight before him. "Lorelai!"
Lorelai looked up guiltily. "They just wanted to taste it," she protested instantly.
Luke pulled her coffee cup away. "That's it. Your coffee privileges have been revoked. You may drink this stuff, but there is no way I'm gonna let them drink it too." He turned to Will and Ricky, who wore identical smirks. "Don't ever let me catch you drinking this again," he ordered seriously. "Coffee is bad for you. It can kill you. Do you understand?"
"Mommy drinks it," Ricky argued. "And Rory drinks it."
"We want to drink it too," Will agreed. "We like it."
"Hah!" Lorelai exclaimed triumphantly. She wrenched her cup back from Luke and let Will have another sip. "They're five. They're old enough to decide what they want to eat and drink."
"So if they said they wanted gin martinis you'd say..." Luke prompted.
"Drink a lot of water with it so you don't get a hangover," Lorelai answered easily, flashing him her best "Don't-Mess-With-Me" smile. "Besides, Rory started drinking coffee when she was practically still in the womb, and she turned out fine."
Luke didn't want to back down. It was his responsibility to make sure Will and Ricky grew up properly. But Lorelai fixed him with her most fearsome glare, the kind that meant "listen to me or bad things will befall you," and he knew he was fighting a losing battle. He'd just have to hope that they outgrew this newfound addiction.
He glared back at Lorelai anyway, but he'd already given up the fight. "I love you," he muttered, leaning over to kiss her softly. "Don't break our kids and come an' get me before you leave. I gotta get a few things settled before I take off."
She smiled at him gently. "I will. Love you too."
Luke was filling out some invoices when he heard Lorelai screech, "Luke!" He couldn't help laughing to himself, although he fixed an annoyed expression on his face as he left the store room and met her at the counter.
"Yes?" he asked cuttingly.
She beamed at him, her blue eyes shining. "We should go. You coming home, or do you want me to leave Ricky here until you can get away?"
"No, I'm done." He ducked his head into the kitchen and called, "Caesar, I'm outta here! I'll be back before the dinner rush."
"Sure thing, boss," Caesar called back.
Will tugged on Luke's shirt. "Come on, Daddy. Me and Ricky wanna race you."
"Please?" Ricky chimed in, even though Luke knew he didn't really like racing. He had inherited his mother's dislike of exercise, but he tried to keep up with his brother in spite of it.
"Later, guys. You just ate," Lorelai reminded. "And I'm sure Daddy doesn't want to see the meal he so lovingly prepared in chunks on the sidewalk."
Ricky laughed appreciatively, but Will pouted. "I'm not that full," he whined. "I'm gonna run anyway." That stopped Ricky's laughter, and his eyes widened. Luke knew that if Will ran, Ricky would too.
"No, you're not," Luke replied sternly.
Will glared at him defiantly. "Yes, I am," he retorted.
"William..." Lorelai warned.
The use of his full name made Will reconsider, and he slouched, defeated. Ricky let out a nearly inaudible sigh of relief, but Luke heard it and tried not to frown. What could he and Ricky do together that they would both enjoy?
Lorelai ushered a protesting Will into her Jeep twenty minutes later, and Luke turned to Ricky, who was curled up on the couch in the living room, studying his father with huge blue eyes. His mother's eyes, Luke thought, and he found himself smiling just a little at how much both the twins looked like Lorelai.
Luke sat next to his son. "What do you want to do?" he asked awkwardly.
Ricky shrugged. He glanced quickly at the TV, then back to Luke with a sacrificing look on his face. "We could watch a baseball game," he suggested half-heartedly.
Luke's heart broke just a little. Ricky so obviously wanted to please him, even though he had absolutely no interest in baseball whatsoever. "We could," Luke agreed with a nod. He saw disappointment cloud Ricky's face in spite of the boy's best efforts to mask it. "Or we could do something else," Luke continued.
The disappointment was gone suddenly, replaced by something akin to hope. "Really?" Ricky asked eagerly. "Like what?"
Luke shrugged. "Whatever you want," he stated firmly. "You like to read, right? I could read you something."
Ricky blushed a little. "I already know how to read, Dad," he reminded. "Besides, you don't like my books."
Silently, Luke agreed with that. Ricky was currently making his way through the children's versions of all the Dickens' classics, most of which made Luke want to rip something. "Well, what else do you want to do? Anything you want," he repeated.
Ricky was quiet for a long time, his expression pensive. He glanced quickly at his father, then back down, then up again shyly. "Anything?" he asked meekly.
If Ricky had been Will, Luke knew he would regret this. But since Ricky was Ricky, Luke felt pretty safe in saying, "Anything."
"Can we..." He paused.
"Go on," Luke encouraged gently.
"Can we... can we make lunch?" Ricky blurted, shifting his eyes away from Luke. "For when Will and Mommy get home."
"Make lunch?" Of all the things Luke was expecting, that was not one of them. "You want to learn how to cook?" Ricky nodded sheepishly, and Luke felt his jaw drop slightly. "You want to learn how to cook."
"Is that okay?" Ricky asked tentatively.
For the first time, Luke saw that no matter how much Ricky looked like Lorelai, his personality was largely Luke. He couldn't stop the broad grin that stretched across his face. "Okay? Are you kidding? That's great!" He leaped to his feet and pulled Ricky up too. "What do you want to make?"
"Pizza!" Now that he knew his father approved of this decision, Ricky's confidence had returned.
"Pizza it is. Go wash your hands and meet me in the kitchen. I'll get out everything we need."
Ricky ran off, and Luke sat for a moment in silence, marveling at whatever God had given him a kid like this one, one who wanted to learn to cook, but didn't know how to ask. He made his way into the kitchen and began to pull out the ingredients to make the pizza, ingredients that were always, always present in the house. Lorelai had insisted upon it after trying Luke's homemade pizza for the first time, and it was one of a very select group of foods that she and Rory had actually learned to cook.
Ricky came to stand beside his father, beaming up at him with shining blue eyes. Immediately, however, Luke saw a problem – Ricky's head only reached the top of the counter. There was no way he'd be able to reach.
Luke chuckled just a little, pulling a kitchen chair over the where they were standing. "Here, buddy, stand on this," he instructed his little helper. Ricky clamored up eagerly. "Okay, you ready to get started? You washed your hands with soap?"
"Yes and yes!"
"Alright. Then the first thing we have to do is make the dough..."
Ricky was a natural in the kitchen. He attacked every small task with care and attention to detail, especially the rolling of the crust. He memorized every instruction, and he parroted them back with stunning accuracy as he performed them under Luke's supervision. He even, after tasting the sauce, correctly guessed what was missing from it.
Luke wouldn't let him set the oven or put the pizza in, so Ricky watched from a safe distance, his blue eyes wide with awe. As they cleaned up, Luke asked, "Why did you want to cook?"
Ricky, clearly taken aback by the question, shrugged. "I dunno," he mumbled. "You and Mommy make pizza all the time. And... and I saw you once, making it together, and you were laughing and having a lot of fun, and... I dunno. I wanted to try. To see if I could." He looked up at Luke sheepishly. "You like cooking. You cook for everybody in town, and everyone likes what you cook. They're happy. I wanna cook and make lots of people happy."
Luke ducked his head for a second so he could blink back the tears that blurred his vision. How had he ever thought he and Ricky had nothing in common? Ricky was him at five, shy and good-hearted and really pretty easy to please. He put the cheese back in the refrigerator and said, "Well, you did great for your first time."
"Really?" Ricky's voice came out higher-pitched and breathier than normal.
Luke smiled. "Yeah. You listened well, you asked all the right questions, you paid attention to what you were doing. You're a natural, Rick."
Ricky was red-faced, his eyes looking a little brighter than normal. "Does this mean I can cook with you again?" he asked bashfully.
"Absolutely. Anytime you want, as long as I'm not working. Maybe in a few years you'll be able to help me out in the diner, but while you're learning, it'd be best to do it at home. Fair enough?"
"More than fair enough!" Ricky bounced on his toes excitedly. Then he sobered and looked up at his father seriously. "Daddy?"
"Yeah?"
Ricky looked away again, blurting, "I'm sorry I don't like sports like you and Will do."
"Oh, Rick." Luke squatted so he was eye level with Ricky. "Not everybody likes sports. Look at your mom. She falls asleep at the mere mention of baseball. I still love her though, maybe even more because she doesn't pretend to be interested in something she doesn't like. She watches the big games with me and she tries every year to learn the rules, but we both know that she's only doing it because she loves me." He put a hand on his son's shoulder, forcing the small boy to look at him. "I don't ever want you to pretend to be someone you're not. If Will is watching a baseball game, and you want to spend time with him, go ahead and watch the game with him. But if you don't want to, you don't have to pretend that you like it. You don't have to be exactly the same as Will just because you're twins. You don't have to be like me or your mom. Just be yourself, okay? And we will love you no matter what you like."
"So if I'd rather watch the Discovery Channel than ESPN...?"
"Then you watch the Discovery Channel. Your mom and I will still love you, and we'll wonder, as we do with each of your sisters, how someone so smart with such a passion for learning could have come from the two of us."
Ricky nodded seriously, throwing his arms around his father. "Thanks, Daddy," he whispered into the broad shoulder that supported him.
"Anytime, buddy."
"Daddy?" Ricky pulled away and looked up at him, still serious.
"Yes?"
Ricky toed the ground sheepishly. "I didn't really like the coffee," he confessed.
Luke let out a breathy laugh. "Thank God," he blurted instinctively. "Coffee's really pretty bad for you. I hate that your mom and Rory and Jess all drink it, and I'm so glad you and April don't. Maybe you can convince your brother not to drink it either."
"I'll try," Ricky promised, smiling now.
"Come on," Luke said, rising from his kneeling position with a wince. "Let's go watch TV while the pizza cooks. We can watch the Discovery Channel if you want, but you have to promise to explain the stuff I don't know."
Ricky laughed. "Sure, Daddy."
Lorelai and Will banged into the house exactly two minutes before the pizza was set to come out of the oven, and Ricky fell off the couch and his father's lap, where he had been lounging as they watched a program about some type of birds that Luke had tuned out within ten minutes in spite of his best efforts to pay attention. "What smells so good?" Lorelai demanded, full of bubbly energy as usual. She gave an exaggerated sniff. "Could that be my favorite husband's homemade pizza?"
Luke greeted her with a chaste kiss. "Half right," he answered. "It is pizza, but I didn't really make it."
"DiGiorno?" Lorelai joked.
"Nope."
"Mmm, tofizza?"
"Nope." He put a finger up to her lips to ward off another guess. "Tell her, Rick."
"Daddy and I made it together!" he exclaimed, waiting anxiously for her reply.
Luke watched Lorelai's eyes and smiled an affirmative when they silently asked if that was true. She turned away from him and opened her arms to her son. "Ricky, that's great!" She hugged him tightly. "I can't wait to try it. It smells great."
The oven beeped, and Luke slipped into the kitchen to shut it and take the pizza out. It looked perfect, and it smelled delicious. He put it on top of the stove to cool and rejoined his family in the living room, where Will was telling Ricky all about his trip to the dentist in excruciating detail. "Hey, guys, go set the table while the pizza cools, okay?" he suggested, reaching out to stroke Ricky's dark head.
"Sure, Daddy," the chorused, running out of the room, yammering a mile a minute.
Lorelai sank into Luke's ready embrace. "I hate the dentist," she muttered into his shirt.
He kissed her head. "I'll take them next time," he promised. "How's he doing?"
"He's going to need braces."
"They can tell that already? He's still got baby teeth."
"The X-rays showed that his permanent teeth are going to come in crooked. It still a few years down the line, but he's going to need them." She sighed against him, burrowing closer. "Looks like you had fun with Ricky, though."
It was almost a question, and Luke smiled. "I did. And I think he had fun too this time. He's such a natural in the kitchen. He could tell the sauce was missing garlic. He actually knew it was garlic, Lorelai! It was incredible."
Lorelai pulled away a little to smile up at him. "That's great," she agreed. "I'm so glad you guys found something to do together." She sniffed the air again. "And now, let's eat because I'm starving and that really does smell delicious."
"You're starving?" Luke asked with a teasing lilt. "Are you feeling okay?"
"Shut up," she retorted.
"Clever."
She smacked his chest lightly, pulled him down for a quick but fierce kiss, then trotted into the kitchen where the twins were playing some game that only they knew the rules to. He watched the three of them from the doorway for a moment as Lorelai cut and distributed the pizza and poured drinks. He felt a tightness in his chest like he did from time to time when he thought about his life. How he got so lucky still baffled him, but he had long ago learned not to question it, just to enjoy it.
He pushed off the door frame and served himself some pizza, listening to Will sing praises about his brother's cooking ability. This was right, he knew. It was crazy and turbulent; it was full of lessons and lectures; it had its problems that didn't always have solutions. But it was also full of the most perfect moments, of laughter and gentle teasing and love. It was everything he had never dared to dream about. It was everything he had never realized he wanted until he almost had it. It was his life, and he was damned grateful for every minute of it.
THE END