Author's Note: Oh my GOD guys, I'm so sorry this took so long. My life got hellaciously busy and I had no time, plus my poor little laptop is broken. But here's the 6th chapter...and I hope it doesn't disappoint you. I sat in rehearsal today and mapped out most of the rest of the story (atleast the next 10 or so chapters)...so hopefully they'll get written quickly and it wont take me like a MONTH to update again!

Well Here's The Thing

They got home at around 9:30, much to Lorelai's protests of wanting to stay longer. Luke knew she was just trying to avoid telling Rory. He didn't really know why, but she was. Luke stopped the truck in front of the house and went around to let her out of her side.

"Wait." She said, putting her hand on his. "I can't go in yet."

"Yes you can. It's Rory. She's going to be through the moon about it, you know that." Luke said squeezing her hand and going around to let her out of her car. She stepped out of the truck and wrapped her arms around him, burying her face in his chest. His arms slid around her waist and he rubbed small circles on the small of her back. He felt her hot tears on his shirt and pulled back and looked at her, concern clouding his eyes.

"Lorelai. What's the matter. This can't just be because of Rory." He said, wiping her cheeks with the pads of his thumbs.

"No, it is. I just…I don't want her to be ashamed of me. Or worse, think I'm going to love her any less." She said, the tears still running freely down her cheeks.

"Lorelai. It's Rory. She'd never be ashamed of you just because you're having a baby. And she's almost 21, she understands the whole little sibling thing even though she's never had one. She knows the deal Lorelai. Trust me." He said.

She looked up at him, wanting to believe him. She was just concerned because with Rory, you could assume some things because she was smart as hell, and acted so much older than her age. But this was one of those times she wasn't able to gage what her reaction was going to be.

"Let's just go inside. You don't have to call her right now. Let's go inside and I'll make you some tea and we'll watch TV for a few minutes and you can calm down and then we'll call her okay?" He asked, running his fingers through her hair. She nodded and let him lead her into the house.

He unlocked the door and she stepped through, shedding her coat at the door and then going upstairs to change into something more comfortable. If she had to talk to Rory, she was going to do it in something comfortable.

Luke went into the kitchen, and noticed he had a slight shake to his hand as he started her tea. He didn't want to let on to Lorelai that he was just as nervous, if not more, than she was for her to tell Rory. He steadied his hand and started the water on the stove for her tea, Chamomile, she needed to relax and that seemed to be the best. It was that or "Sleepy Time"…and the last thing that needed to happen when she was talking to Rory was for her to fall asleep and leave him to the talking. He heard her go into the living room a few minutes later and he finished off the tea and took it back into the living room where he found her sitting cross legged in some Strawberry Shortcake pajama pants and a white t-shirt. He handed her the tea and she scooted up next to him, letting herself just melt into his side.

Her hand fell across his leg a few minutes later, and he stroked her palm with his fingers as she finished her tea. She sighed and closed her eyes, he thought she'd fallen asleep when she sat up away from him.

"If I'm going to do this, I need to do it now. I think I'm ready." She said. He reached over on the end-table and handed her the phone.

She took the phone from him and stared at it in her lap.

Oh God. I'm about to call my only child, well that she knows of, and confess to her that I screwed up…again. That I had wild semi-protected sex with Luke…our coffee boy…and now I'm pregnant. I know she's Rory…she's going to be amazing about it…but what if she's not. If it was me finding out at 21 that I was about to have a little sibling I'd be confused, and angry, and then happy. God I hope she's happy.

Lorelai took a deep breath and dialed Rory's cell number. She picked up on the third ring.

"Hello?" a distracted sounding Rory asked.

"Hey baby." Lorelai said, trying to sound as normal as possible.

"Hey mom!" she said, suddenly perking up a little bit.

"You aren't busy are you?" she asked.

"Not really, just studying." Rory said, Lorelai heard her close a book and shift back on the bed. "What're you up to?"

"Just got back from Sniffy's with Luke." She said smiling, and relaxing a little. This might be easier than I thought.

Luke saw her relax a little, and smile. Maybe this wouldn't be awful for her after all. It was Rory.

"Aw, romantic. So what was the reason behind this little outing?" Rory asked.

Lorelai froze. Damn her for having such an observant kid. "Funny you should ask, I was actually calling to talk to you about something important." She said, trying to slow down her racing heart and trying not to throw up at the same time.

"Mom? What's wrong? Are you okay?" Rory asked, after Lorelai had been silent for a few minutes. Lorelai could tell she was worried.

"Oh, I'm fine. I'm just trying to figure out how to word this." Lorelai said, her eyes begging Luke for help.

"Just tell her." He whispered, taking her free hand and squeezing it. She shifted over so she could lean against him while she talked.

"Mom, you're starting to worry me. What's going on." Rory said after another silence.

"Okay, well, here's the thing…Luke and I are…" Lorelai stammered.

"Oh my God. He proposed didn't he?" Rory squealed.

"No, no. He didn't. Well he did, but that's a different story…sort of." Lorelai said.

"Mom, just say it. It's me." Rory said, starting to get a little impatient. Lorelai was bracing herself for it. She couldn't just come right out and say it.

"Well, you know when you were little you pretended that your teddy bear was your little sister, and you dressed it up in dresses and took it everywhere with us for like a year and a half because you couldn't leave her at home alone because that would be "kid a-bus?" Lorelai asked, hoping Rory would get the point.

"Yeah, but how does that have anything to with anything?" Rory asked.

It's late, sleep deprivation and Hemingway must be clouding her brain. Lorelai thought to herself. She looked at Luke and he squeezed her hand again.

"Let's just say that if you wanted to do the same thing now, in seven-ish months you wouldn't have to use a bear." Lorelai said quickly.

Rory was silent. She was absorbing what her mother had just said to her. It has slammed into her like an eighteen wheeler barreling down the road at 90 miles an hour.

"Rory?" Lorelai asked, her voice shaking.

"I'm here. Sorry. You did mean by that statement that you're pregnant right?" Rory asked, running her hand over her face and taking a swig of the coffee sitting on her nightstand. She still couldn't believe what was happening. She had wanted a sibling the entire time she was younger, and had never gotten one and she'd kinda given up on the thought of ever having one…and now here she was almost a Junior at Yale and she was getting that coveted little sibling.

"Yeah, I guess that was my round about way of saying it." Lorelai said, taking a breath finally, she still didn't know if Rory was okay with it or not. She'd yet to give an inclination one way or the other, and Lorelai was still on pins and needles waiting for her to even say something giving her the impression that she wasn't going to be okay with it.

"With a baby." Rory stammered.

"No, Rory with puppies. YES with a baby. What are you thinking babe? It's driving me crazy here." Lorelai said, fretting a little and gripping Luke's hand like it was life or death that she hold onto him.

"I'm just trying to figure out when I can get there to see you!" Rory squealed, and Lorelai audibly let out a breath.

"So you're okay with it all?" She asked, a couple tears running down her face as she beamed at Luke and bounced up and down a little on the couch.

"Mom. I'm over the moon. You just told me you're having a baby. WITH LUKE. Wait…it is with Luke right?" Rory said, catching herself.

"No, it's not with Luke." Lorelai said, grinning wickedly at Luke and letting in a long pause in which Rory said nothing. "God kid, you're so easy. YES it's with Luke."

"I'm coming home tomorrow. I have to see you." Rory said, squealing a little.

"No you're not. Stay until this weekend. We'll all still be here then. We can celebrate when you get here. But you're not lying? You really are okay with all of this?" Lorelai said, pulling the mom card.

"Yes mother. I'm gonna be a big sister!" Rory yelped to her empty dorm room. Lorelai laughed and wiped her eyes.

"You have no idea how nervous I was to tell you." Lorelai said.

"Mom. That's ridiculous. You know me." Rory retorted.

"I know, but it's like saying…whoops look at what I did after preaching to you about safe sex and making all those Trojan Man jokes." Lorelai said, covering her face with her hands.

"I said I was excited mom, that was not your cue to start to tell me about your sex life…that's something I could do without." Rory said scrunching her face into an "ew" face.

Luke took that statement as his cue to get up. He slid off the couch and went upstairs to change. He figured the Lorelais needed some time to talk amongst themselves. He slipped out of the suit he'd been wearing and into the pajamas he'd brought over the day before. He sat on the edge of the bed and flipped on the TV and randomly started browsing for something decent to watch. He found a basketball game that somewhat held his attention and slipped under the covers to watch until Lorelai got off the phone. He was glad she was so happy about the way Rory was reacting to it all. He knew that she would be fine with it. After all, he had told her that. But now seeing Lorelai really and truly happy about the baby, made him even more through the roof about the entire situation. He smiled as he watched Georgia cream Georgia Tech while he waited for Lorelai to come to bed. The game was almost over when he heard her come in. He rolled over and looked at the door, she was smiling but he could tell she'd been crying again. He reached out a hand and she crossed the room and crawled into bed with him.

She knew she looked like crap, but she didn't care, and she knew Luke didn't either. She wiped her eyes as she went up the stairs, not wanting him to know she had been crying again. After he'd left the room she and Rory got down to the nitty gritty. She'd poured everything that had happened in the past two weeks out to Rory, who listened and like always gave her better advice than she could get from any of her friends. It was the first time she'd told anyone that she'd been scared out of her mind when she saw the pink stick, even more scared than she had been when she'd found out she was pregnant with Rory. Back then she could blame it on being a child and not knowing better, but now she was fully grown and worried about what people would think. Rory was amazing, she was the best friend any girl could want and the best kid any parent would want. Lucky for Lorelai, she had her as both. She hoped that the relationship with this baby would be just as strong, and even more so because this kid would have a dad around.

Christopher.

She hadn't even thought about him, she supposed he'd find out eventually but she wasn't sure. This thought stopped her dead in her tracks. She wasn't sure if she could tell him, but she wasn't sure if she couldn't. It wouldn't be fair to him for her not to, and then for him to see her really pregnant or with a baby.

Then she caught herself. Why was she so worried about Christopher? He didn't matter anymore. After the fiasco at her parent's renewal service she hadn't spoken more than two words to him since the night she let him have it and severed all ties with him, other than Rory of course. She still couldn't believe that he was responsible for almost driving Luke out of her life. The two months they'd been apart during that time was the worst time of her life, and when they'd broken up the last time even though it was her doing it was almost as bad. She didn't care about Christopher anymore, in any way. She was Switzerland where he was concerned.

She started walking again and stood in the doorway watching Luke watch the game, he looked so comfortable.

And so sexy with his shirt off…she added to herself. He heard her shift her weight and looked over at the doorframe. She knew from the way he looked at her that he knew she'd been crying again. He held a hand to her and she crossed the room, and slipped under the covers and pressed herself against him, burying her face in his chest and breathing in the scent that was purely him.

He smells like the diner and ivory soap.

She smells like coffee and coconut.

They just lay there together, her head on his chest and his arms wrapped around her, as if he was trying to protect her and their unborn child from the evils of the world. She felt so safe, and he felt like he finally had a family again.

That was a new thought to Luke. He'd kind of adopted Lorelai and Rory as his family a long time ago, and he'd never really questioned that decision. After losing his family, well except for Liz, a long time ago it seemed natural to him. But the were never "really" his family…but now they would be. He was going to have his own family and have three people in it that would love him no matter what. That thought blew his mind.

Lorelai ran her hand over his arm and looked up at him, she could tell by the look in his eyes that he was lost in thought.

"Hey, what are you thinking about?" She asked, running her hand across his chest.

He looked down at her and kissed her forehead. "That for the first time since I was really young, I'm going to have a family again." He said after a minute of trying to figure out the right words, and how to say them without falling apart like he wanted to.

Lorelai bit her lip and a tear ran down her cheek and made a small puddle on his chest. She couldn't believe that she had found a man as perfect as him, and that it'd taken her so long to find him.

"We've always been your family Luke. Rory's never looked at Christopher like she looks at you, as a dad I mean. You're the one that's been there. We've always been like an old married couple. This baby just makes it official. You're never getting rid of us now." She said smiling at him. He leaned down and kissed her softly on the lips and then on both eyelids and the tip of her nose before tightening his embrace around her and letting himself drift off to sleep.