A/N: Hopefully this one will make up for the length of the last one....

Coming Clean

Lorelai woke up the next morning, her hair a mess and the mascara and other makeup she'd been wearing the night before was now all over her sheets, pillows, the crazy quilt, and whatever else was left on her face was running in streaks down her face. She pushed her hair out of her eyes and pulled the quilt off her legs. She stood up and looked down, seeing that she'd slept in everything but her shoes from the day before. Her mussed suit from working at the inn was in disarray and missing a button, which she would later locate under her sheets. Her necklace was twisted and she had one sock on and one sock off. The only other time she'd looked this rough was after she'd found out she was pregnant with Rory when she was 16.

Rory.

She hadn't even thought about the implications this would have on her. Shit.

She pulled off her clothes on the way to the bathroom and started the shower on full blast at a temperature some would deem just south of boiling. She looked at herself in the mirror and then averted her eyes. She couldn't even make herself look herself in the eyes…how was she going to look at him? She peeled the shower curtain back and let the water pound on her tense muscles. She rubbed her shoulders and instantly wished it was his hands on her body…not her own. She dropped her arms to her sides and located her shampoo in the corner and proceeded to do all things shower related. She stood there a few minutes longer after she was done and let the water pound away the last of her tension in her shoulders. She stepped out of the shower and had barely wrapped a towel around herself when she heard the phone ring. She stepped into the hall and walked down the stairs to standby the answering machine so she could screen the call, she didn't want to talk to him just yet.

"Lorelai? It's Sookie! It's 10:30…on a THURSDAY! Where are you? Call me back if you're not coming in, we're not that busy…I think Michel can handle it and all so just call me back and let me know you're not…you know…dead or anything…call me back! Soon! BYE!" Her voice filtered through the machine. Lorelai could have picked it up but she had hesitated and just let her leave a message. She sighed and wrapped the towel around herself tighter before she picked up the phone.

"Hey Sook. Yes I'm alive…I promise…Sookie…Sookie…Sookie…Hi! Okay. Yeah I'm alive. I just had a…rough night. No no, he had nothing to do with it. Yes I promise. I know I need to talk to him…I know Sookie. I called him last night. Yes I'm telling the truth…we just have things to talk about. I promise I'll fill you in on all of it when I can okay? I'm not going to be in tomorrow either...yesSook. I'm going to talk to him. I promise.Ok. I'll see youMonday morning. Go reorganize Michel's pens for me. 'atta babe." Lorelai said, smiling for the first time since the prior afternoon. Sookie, scatterbrained and accident prone as she is, never failed to make her smile.

She stared at the end button on the phone, and after a few minutes of internal freaking out, she grabbed her metaphorical balls and dialed his number. It rang twice before someone answered.

"Luke's," the female voice chirped.

"Hey Lane, it's Lorelai." She replied, almost relieved he hadn't answered the phone.

"Hey! Aren't you supposed to be at work?" Lane asked.

"It's a slow day and I woke up late, but thanks for the 3rd degree mom." Lorelai said, only half joking. She loved Lane, but she wasn't going to be able to take much of her this morning. "Is Luke there?...Thanks." She held her breath as Lane put her hand over the receiver and yelled for Luke.

"Hello?" He said into the phone, not knowing it was her but secretly wishing it would be.

"Hey, it's me." She said softly, trying to keep her composure.

"Hey." He said, his voice significantly softening.

"I got your message last night. I would have come by, but I didn't want to start Patty and Babette talking again. When are you free to talk?" She asked, her voice breaking slightly.

"I understand." He was secretly crushed because she wouldn't be coming in, but as long as he got to see her he didn't really mind.

"Would you mind coming here in a couple hours to talk? I'd just be easier not having to worry about anyone dropping by unexpectedly." She said, he could sense the hesitation in her voice and that she was scared about whatever she had to talk about.

"That's fine. I can be at your house around 1. It's been slow today, and I don't think it will wreck anyone's world if I leave for a little while."

"Thanks Luke. I really appreciate it."

"Why would I say no?" He asked, and the other end of the line went silent. "Lorelai? You there?"

"Yeah, I'm here." He heard her sniffle.

"Are you okay?" He asked, scared for her answer.

"I will be. I'm gonna go, I'm standing here in a towel…so I need to get dressed. I'll see you at one."

"Okay, see you then."

"Oh, Luke?"

"I know, bring food."

She smiled, and laughed a little. "Thanks…I'll see you at one."

"I'll see you at 1."

"Bye."

"Bye."

Lorelai hung up the phone, and pulled the phone to her chest. She smiled faintly, but when the memory of exactly what she had to talk to him about came slamming back like a Mac Truck out of control. She gathered up her towel in her hands and shuffled upstairs. After two uncomfortable phone calls almost an hour had passed and it was approaching noon. She had a little over an hour before Luke came, and he might get the wrong idea of what she wanted to talk about if she came to the door in a towel. She went back upstairs for the perfect outfit to spill the beans to him in, if there were such a thing.

Luke spent the hour after hanging up the phone with Lorelai trying to appear outwardly calm. He screwed up six out of fourteen orders and dropped an entire pot of coffee on the floor and almost broke his neck slipping on said coffee. He cursed profusely under his breath as he cleaned it up and when he put the coffee soaked towel on the counter he glanced at the clock and saw it was 12:57.

"Shit. Caesar! I'm leaving! Can you put that last burger order I gave you in a box for me?" He called back into the kitchen. A minute or so later Caesar slid a box towards him and he filled a large to-go cup with coffee, capped it off and put everything in a bag before slipping out the door and heading over to Lorelai's house.

I really hope she's okay…I think she is…she sounded…no she didn't sound okay. Shit shit shit. Maybe she wants to forget about what happened and try again. Optimism will get you no where Danes. Fuck. Maybe she wants out for good…but then again I thought we were done for good. Shit. I don't know why she's being so damn mysterious...but then again she's also Lorelai so this is nothing new. Deep breath Danes, deep breath.

Luke paused outside her front door, wondering if he should let himself in like he used to, or knock. He hesitated with his hand on the doorknob and then taking his hand off of it like it had just been burnt. He knocked and inspected his palm for the red mark that he stupidly thought would be there. He was still closely inspecting his palm when she opened the door. He looked up and immediately knew something wasn't right.

Lorelai took his expression to mean that her time spent getting ready to try to pretend nothing was wrong. She was wearing loose red sweatpants and an "I Heart NY" t-shirt. Her feet were bare and her toenails a fresh shade of red. Her hair was pulled back into a messy half pony-tail half bun type thing and her makeup was minimal and did little to hide the bags under her eyes and the redness that was still present in her eyes.

Her eyes were the first thing he noticed. Not only were they red and slightly swollen, they lacked the luster they had had in them the last time he saw her. The formerly vibrant blue that had always been described as piercing or amazingly blue, was now a muted, clouded over almost steely blue gray. She stepped back from the door and let him in. He crossed the threshold for the first time in almost two weeks, and stood awkwardly in the foyer.

They stood there, staring at each other for a second.

"I brought you food." Luke said lamely trying to break the uncomfortable silence that hung so thick in the air that he was sure you could swim in it. She smiled and took it from him as he handed it to her.

That was something else. Her smile. It used to go from ear to ear, now it was merely a ghost of the smile that it once was. It was fleeting and tiny, and he wasn't even sure if it could be considered a smile.

She walked into the living room and sat on the sofa and motioned for him to sit next to her. He perched uncomfortably on the end of the couch and watched her eat for a few minutes.

"So…" he started, unsure if he was to instigate the conversation or to let her. She held up a finger and finished off her burger, took a swig of coffee and then turned to face him, drawing her long legs up under her and holding the coffee in both hands. She stared down into the cup, watching the foam swirl in the cup and she lightly drummed her fingers on the outside. She looked up at him, lip trembling slightly and he could see tears forming in her eyes. He scooted closer to her and put his hand on her knee.

"Look, Lorelai. Whatever you've got to say…just say it. Please? I can't take you sitting here looking at me like you did something awful and I'm going to kill you or something when you tell me. Just say it." He said.

"I'm trying…it's just…it's just…" she stammered.

"It's just what, Lorelai?" he asked. Squeezing her knee slightly. She stared down at his hand, and he moved it quickly. She looked back up and caught his eyes.

"Okay. Just…don't say anything until I'm done okay? It's taken me since yesterday to figure out what I'm going to say…and if you say anything it's just going to throw me off." Luke nodded and she continued.

"Luke, In the past two weeks I've never been more miserable in my life. I sat around thinking about you, and wanting to call you but I couldn't let myself. I sat up in that room and cried for days, because I ended the most amazing thing that's ever happened to me, and you know why? I got scared. You called it and it happened. The last thing I ever wanted to do was hurt you, and I'm kicking myself every day for doing just that." She said, completely not on topic of what she was going to say, but she felt like she had to say that too. He opened his mouth and she reached out and put a finger over his lips.

"Listening only, remember?" He nodded and she took a breath and continued.

"I had no intention of calling you and talking to you about anything any time soon because I couldn't make myself admit that I was wrong, even though I knew it in my heart that I was. And then last night something happened. Not an epiphany, God, I wish it'd been an epiphany because that would have been so much easier to tell you that. Okay, deep breath Lorelai. Here's the thing, you remember Rory right? Of course you remember Rory, how could you not remember Rory, she was here this weekend and you've known her since she was…knee high to a pigs eye. I don't know.. Anyway. Rory has nothing to do with this. GOD why is this so hard?" she rambled.

"Lorelai. Just say it. It can't be that bad." Luke said, replacing his hand on her knee where it had been earlier. She got up and paced across the room.

"Okay…um. God. Okay." She said pacing back and forth. "Here's the thing. Luke. You're Luke. You're my Luke. Well, not my Luke at the moment, but…you know. Anyway. Okay, just say it Lorelai. God. Okay. Luke, you're Luke. I think I need a prop for this." She said, hurrying upstairs leaving a very confused, and a very nervous Luke sitting on the couch. She came back down a few minutes later with something in her hand and she sat down on the arm of the couch on the opposite end of Luke. She took a deep breath, looked down at her hands, and then back up, extending her left hand which clutched some sort of stick from what he could tell. He reached out and took it and turned it over in his hand where he could see a small square on the odd shaped white stick that was very obviously pink.

"Lorelai…I don't understand. What is this?" He said, knowing full well what it was but wanting to hear the words from her mouth instead of from a stick.

"I'm pregnant." She said quietly. He sat the stick on the couch and stared at it in silence for a good five minutes, with each minute passing making Lorelai more and more uncomfortable.

"Listen Luke, I know I just freaked you out more than you've ever been freaked out in your life. Know that this in no way means we have to get back together. I mean, I wouldn't object to that but I'm not telling you we have to. You can do this as much or as little as you want. You can't be any worse than Christopher in this department. And hey, if you want to run you can run, I've done this before and I can do it again. But you've got the diner so you can't run, so if you can't deal with it you don't have to. I can leave and move somewhere else or just not come to the diner anymore or whatever you want to do. I just, you need to know. I couldn't not tell you. But I understand if you need to think, or want to go, or just want to forget I told you. I'm just…I'm sorry. Stupid fertile me getting knocked up for the second time out of wedlock. It's all my fault. I'm just super-fertile and there's nothing I can change about that, just something I was born with I guess. God…Luke? You haven't said anything for a solid five minutes…what are you thinking?" she said taking a breath for the first time since she'd started talking. Hell, it felt like she hadn't taken a breath since he'd come in the door.

She looked down at him where he was still staring at the stick on the couch. The fact that he hadn't said anything was freaking her out more than the fact that she was pregnant again was.

Luke was stunned. That was the only word he could think of to describe how he felt in that very minute. He didn't know if he should stand up, and walk out the door and not look back or kiss her. A tiny part of him wanted to do the first part because he was scared out of his mind. He cleared his throat.

Lorelai braced herself for the worst.

"I…Okay. You're pregnant." He repeated

"Yeah." She said quietly.

"You're sure," he said.

"Positive." She replied, her heart dropping with every word he said.

"Okay." He said, looking from her to the stick, and back to her again…and then back to the stick. The tears she'd held in for as long as they'd been talking, which at this point had been no more than a half hour, including his extensive pauses, started to flow freely down her face.

"I'm sorry" she said quietly and got up and left the room.

He sat on the couch, trying to process everything she'd just said. It took him a minute to realize she'd left. He looked through the doorway and saw her sitting with her back to him.

"Fuck." He said, mentally kicking himself. She was a mess, not to say that he wasn't a mess inside, trying to figure out what to do and say to her, but he was being an insensitive ass just sitting there and not saying anything. He stood up and brushed his hands off, leaving the pregnancy test on the couch where he'd sat it earlier. He walked into the kitchen and stood behind her.

"Lorelai." He said, putting his hand on her shoulder. She turned around, tears flowing freely down her face. Any and all makeup she'd been wearing was now running completely down her face. Her previously slightly bloodshot eyes were now completely bloodshot and tear ridden, and her blue eyes were even more muted than before.

"No, I get it. You don't even have to say anything. I gave you a choice, and you chose the option I didn't want you to take but hey, what am I gonna do? It's not your fault I'm super fertile." She said, a flash of anger showing in her eyes.

"Lorelai." He said again calmly.

"What." She snapped.

"You never let me say anything. I didn't say I wanted to run, now did I?" He asked patiently.

"No…" she said.

"Okay. Take a deep breath okay?" He said, pulling a chair up to sit across from her, and holding both of her hands in his.

"This is the last thing I thought I'd find out today. I came over here expecting to talk about getting back together, and I find out I'm going to be a father. I'm just a little bit shell shocked." He said. She turned away, biting her lower lip. "Hey," he said, reaching up and turning her back to face him and then returning his hand to hers. "I never said I wasn't happy about this. I'm just surprised. You're the love of my life, and now you're having my baby. I'm out of this world." She smiled at that, and he squeezed her hands. "If you want me to marry you right now and do this right I will. I'll do anything you want. Just say the word."

"Luke. I don't want you to marry me just because I'm pregnant. I don't want you to feel like you have to do anything." She said.

"Lorelai, I'd never do that. I'm not Christopher. I'm not going to force marriage on you if you don't want it, and I'm not going to run screaming in the other direction either. I'm going to do whatever you want. If you want to be back together and just see how things go and if we get married, great. If not, then I'll always be around as a father to this baby. Understand me?" Luke said, lacing his fingers with hers and squeezing her hands.

"Let's do that. The first one," Lorelai said smiling. Her real smile had broken free of the worry and passed through the barricade that had been holding it back. She was beaming, and her eyes were beginning to shine again. Luke stood up and pulled her to her feet, pulling her close to him. She threw her arms around his neck and hugged him tight, burying her face in his shoulder. She pulled back leaving wet spots on his blue flannel.

"Hey, what's wrong?" He asked.

"Nothing. Happy tears, I promise." She said staring back into his eyes.

Shit, do I kiss her? He thought to himself.

Shit, do I kiss him? She thought.

At the same time the two of them came to a consensus and leaned forward. He caught her lips with his and it was like the first kiss they ever had, soft but electric. They pulled back after a second, and then leaned in again. This time His hands went to her waist and her fingers tangled in his hair as he pulled her even closer to her. The kiss depended as she probed at his lower lip with her tongue, and he opened his mouth allowing her access. His hands slid up her side and rested on her ribcage as her hands explored his chest. She pulled back far enough for them to rest against each other, nose to nose before whispering "God I missed you."

"I missed you too" he replied breathlessly.

"We're having a baby" she said, with a smile and a quick peck on the lips.

"We are." He said, returning the peck and running his hands down her back.

"I love you" she whispered, putting her head on his shoulder.

"I love you too, I never stopped." Luke said. He felt her start crying against his shoulder again, and held her while she cried.