Keg Parties and the Titanic
A/N: So, I pumped out three chapters in like a week and a half. I'm so proud of myself. The pace might slow down a little bit with my updating soon, just because this part of the story didn't end up going the way I'd mapped out for it to go…when I wrote it it kinda took a different direction, so now I have to deal with what I added to it as well as the rest of the story line I had in mind. Keep the feedback coming! It's my life source!
Lorelai and Luke shared another panicked look before plastering on the fake smiles and Lorelai squeezed Rory one more time for good measure.
"Um, just inside. Put it in the living room, straight in the door and to the left." Rory called to Logan. He gave Lorelai a hug around the present and shook Luke's hand in a hello before entering the house.
"It's okay that I brought him right? We're going to stay at the inn, we stopped there on the way in so I hope it's all okay. He just really wanted to see the town again and see the house and stuff." Rory said, apologetically.
"Oh it's fine. You guys can stay here if you want, and you know your room at the Inn is comped if you still want to stay there." Lorelai said sliding an arm around Rory's waist.
"Thanks mom. We just thought it would be…weird…to stay here together." Rory said as they went into the house with Luke tagging along behind.
"I'm sure you guys are exhausted. Coffee?" Lorelai asked going into the kitchen.
"Yeah, that'd be great." Rory called to Lorelai who'd gone into the kitchen.
"Make it two." Logan added.
"I'm going to go help her." Luke said, following Lorelai into the kitchen.
Luke turned the corner and almost slammed into Lorelai.
"Shit! SHIT! What are we gonna do!" she whispered harshly.
"I thought you told her already. Why didn't you tell her?" Luke asked, pulling her across the kitchen near the door and out of earshot of Logan and Rory.
"I was distracted with the whole 'I just had a miscarriage' thing. I didn't even realize I hadn't told her until she showed up. And to make matters worse she's got him here with her and that's just an awkward talk to have with him around." Lorelai ranted.
"Hey, we'll figure it out. We'll figure some way for you to get her alone and tell her, because I'm assuming you want to tell her, and I'll talk to Logan…I think I can figure out something to talk to pretty boy about for a few minutes." Luke said, rubbing her shoulders and down her arms.
"Hey, we like Logan now, remember? And okay. Maybe we could take them over to see the house and I could tell her there?" Lorelai suggested.
"Sounds good. Lets get this coffee in them and then we'll go over there." Luke said, pulling out cups for them and a water bottle for himself.
Small pleasantries exchanged later, and Lorelai and Rory were chatting on the couch while Luke and Logan talked by the fireplace.
"Hey, would you guys want to go see the house? Tom and the guys have gotten a lot done on it and we should be able to move into it in about two weeks." Lorelai said, standing up.
"Sure! I can't wait to see it. I can't even remember what the inside of it looks like. It's been forever since I went in, since the museum closed." Rory said, standing up and going to get her and Logan's coat.
"It's really different now." Luke piped up from where he was still standing by the fireplace.
"Wait, what about your gift! Open it! Open it!" Rory chirped. Lorelai's heart dropped a little.
"Well you guys don't want to get to the Inn too late, we can open it when we get back or in the morning?" Luke suggested, knowing that Lorelai did NOT want to open the gift, and that Rory would have enough sense to take it with her when they left for the night.
"Sounds good. Let's do that." Lorelai said a little too quickly. Rory gave her a weird look, but she ushered her out the door. She and Logan piled back into her car and Luke and Lorelai got in the truck.
"I don't know how I'm going to do this. I mean there's no way to sugar coat it." Lorelai said, leaning her head against the window. Luke put his hand on her thigh and squeezed.
"Maybe this is something you just don't have to sugar coat. You just have to tell her. If we could tell her together I would be with you in a heart beat, but since pretty…I mean Logan…is here someone has to keep him occupied." Luke said.
"I know." Lorelai said, putting her hand over his and squeezing. "I know."
It took them minutes to get to the house, and they pulled in behind Rory and Logan.
"Wow, this place is impressive." Logan said, getting ready to get out of the car.
"Wait til you see the inside. It's great." Rory said, turning to face him. "Well from what I remember."
"I'm sure it is. Hey are you gonna…" Logan started.
"I don't know. Something's up with mom. Maybe you and Luke can talk somewhere about…I don't know…sports? And I can get her away and figure out what's up and maybe…" she said slowly. Logan nodded and they got out of the car. He slid his hand in hers and they waited on the porch for Luke to unlock the door.
"God, this place looks amazing!" Rory said, taking in the foyer area.
"We had all the flooring redone, the last tenants kinda let their kids run wild. The door off that way leads to what will be an office, and then over here is the dining room." Luke said, showing them around the bottom floor. Tom and the guys had gotten most of the house done. All that was left for the guys to do was redo the attic rooms and landscape the backyard.
The kitchen had been entirely redone. They'd discovered problems in the fixtures that remained and pretty much everything had been out of date, so they'd overhauled it. The floors had been redone in hardwood to match the rest of the house. The walls had been painted a terracotta red color, and all of the cabinets had been replaced with new maple cabinets and drawers with nickel-plated pulls. There was a new island in the middle of the kitchen with a dark granite top that matched the counters. The backsplash had been replaced with new tiles and had been regrouted. The fridge had been replaced with a new fridge with a fake front that matched the cabinets. It was beautiful. Lorelai hadn't seen it since they'd ripped everything out of it and was floored.
"God. It's beautiful." She whispered, hugging Luke. They walked through the rest of the downstairs and then quickly through the upstairs since it was getting late. They pointed out the room that was going to be "Rory's" for when she was home, and the one that was to be the guest room. Luke reached for the door knob for the nursery but withdrew his hand and told them that room wasn't quite done yet and they shouldn't open the door.
"Wet paint and new flooring, they just finished up here today. Then there's a big room upstairs that's split in two by the staircase. We're thinking one side is going to be a sewing room and the other side will be another guest room." Luke said, gesturing towards the staircase.
"Hey, why don't you take Logan outside and show him the deck? It's pretty and all but I wanna talk to my kid a little bit without the menfolk around, you know, gossip and girly stuff." Lorelai said waving her hand around.
"Sounds good. Logan?" Luke said, gesturing downstairs. Logan followed Luke and Lorelai and Rory stood in the hallway until Lorelai heard the backdoor click shut.
"Let's go in here." Lorelai said, reaching for the nursery door knob.
"But Luke said…" Rory started.
"I know, but I wanna talk in here. It should be dry by now and it's new carpet, not new hardwood so the floors aren't wet." Lorelai said pushing the door open. Just seeing the room made her heart hurt. The walls had been painted the yellow Lorelai had picked out and the stripes had been painted the lighter yellow that she assumed Luke had picked out. She took a seat in the middle of the room and patted the floor next to her. "Sit."
"Okay…" Rory said, a little hesitantly and sat down next to her. "Mom, what's up, you're acting weird."
"Well…no. You tell me. You're up to something." Lorelai said. "You've been kind of quiet all night."
"No mom, really, you go first, my stuff can wait. It's nothing." Rory said
"No you go."
"No you."
"Rory. Just tell me." Lorelai said, putting a hand on Rory's knee, adding to the begging for her to go first.
"Well, uh, the party we went to tonight wasn't just full of old biddies. We didn't even go to a dinner party." Rory said, slowly.
"Where'd you go? Keg party?" Lorelai asked
"Yes mom, I'm almost 21 and I'm still going to keg parties." Rory said, rolling her eyes. "It was a Life and Death Brigade thing, but we left early and Logan took me to dinner at Genivieve's."
"Oooh, ritzy."
"Yep, and it was this amazing dinner with all this food and amazing dessert."
"Mmm cake."
"Mom."
"Right. Sorry. Continue."
"Anyway, he took me to dinner and over a glass of wine he asked me to marry him."
Lorelai felt like her heart had stopped for the second time that night. She blinked a couple times before opening her mouth, and nothing came out. She'd been expecting this kind of. They'd been dating for a year and a half now and had gotten an apartment together the previous summer…so it shouldn't come as such a shock. But it did.
"Mom? Say something."
"Sorry, I'm a little shocked."
"I know. I'm sorry. We wanted to tell you and Luke together, but I thought it'd be better if I told you. I said yes, by the way."
"I figured as much. So where's the ring?" Lorelai asked, feigning excitement. She should be excited for her daughter, really she should be, but she just couldn't muster it for some reason. Maybe it was because her news was such a downer, but she couldn't put her finger on why she wasn't over the moon that her baby was getting married.
Rory fished around in her purse for a second and slipped the ring on and held it out to Lorelai. It was quite possibly the biggest ring she'd ever seen in her life.
"Holy shit. So that's what sunk the Titanic." Lorelai said, grabbing Rory's hand.
"3.5 carats, platinum band, Tiffany's setting. I about peed everywhere when I saw it. It was in the little blue box and everything." Rory said.
"I probably would have. Congratulations baby." Lorelai said wrapping her daughter in a hug. "Is Logan telling Luke?" she asked.
"I don't know, I don't think so. I figured I'd tell him later, or you could tell him."
"I think it'd mean more coming from you."
"Okay, I'll tell him later. But now you have to spill about why you're so…I dunno…off." Rory said, taking her hand back from her mom who was still examining the big-honking rock on Rory's hand.
"Um…I don't know how to say this." Lorelai said, suddenly very self aware and scared to tell her.
"Mom, it's me. You can tell me anything. Is something up between you and Luke?" She asked, suddenly sounding concerned.
"No. Nothing's up with me and Luke. The thing is…" Lorelai hesitated. There's only one way to tell her and I guess I should just spit it out she thought. "The thing is…I'm not pregnant anymore." She looked down at her hands and fought the tears that were threatening to spill down her cheeks.
Rory looked stunned, she sat there in silence for a minute. "So you mean…wait. I don't understand. Did you…" She gestured wildly, trying to figure out how to finish that sentence.
"No, God Rory. I couldn't do that. You're sitting in front of me aren't you?"
"I still don't understand. What happened? You're healthy, everything was going fine, right?"
"It was just one of those things. Nobody can give me a concrete reason. The doctors said it was a risk I ran at my age and that it could have been stress or any other of a bunch of factors. Nobody could give me answers. It's okay, I'm okay…or will be. I should have told you earlier."
"Wait, how long ago did this happen mom?" Rory asked, still trying to piece together what her mom was saying. She came into the house that night with a present, all excited because she was engaged and about to see her pregnant mother and Luke.
"Two weeks. I was going to call you, but I didn't know how to tell you. And I was so wrapped up in trying to get over it myself and was in pain and just wanted to go to bed and never wake up again. I hadn't even spoken to Luke until yesterday after I fell apart in the hospital. Sookie's got great timing."
"Oh mom." Rory said, scooting closer and throwing her arms around Lorelai. Lorelai wiped at the tears that had started to run down her cheeks. "I wish you'd told me. I feel like such an asshole for telling you about tonight now."
"No, don't. It's a big night for you, this is just one of those things that happen sometimes. The doctors said it wouldn't effect anything later on down the road…if at some point the decision is made to try again…not that we really tried in the first place."
"Is there anything I can do?" Rory asked, running her hand through her mom's hair.
"Just being here is good." Lorelai said, straightening up and wiping her eyes. She went into the adjoining bathroom and checked her makeup in the mirror before coming back into the room. "This was going to be the nursery." She said quietly.
"Here, let's get out of here. I'll take the present with me, don't worry about that. And I'll tell Logan later. God mom, I'm so sorry." Rory said wrapping her arms around Lorelai again and hugging her tightly.
"It's okay. We've got something to celebrate tonight. I think there's some wine at the house, if you guys want to come back and…" Lorelai said, squeezing Rory right back.
"We'll celebrate tomorrow. Right now I think we're all pretty wiped out. We'll go back to the house and get the gift. Wanna do breakfast with us tomorrow at the Inn?" Rory asked.
"Sure. Let's go get the boys." Lorelai said, opening the door and going down the stairs with Rory, their arms around each other.
Lorelai opened the backdoor and stepped onto the deck.
"We're thinking about putting in a pool, not positive on that one yet. I'll be talking to the pool guys this week probably. They said they can get it installed in under a week if the weather conditions are right. There's a Jacuzzi on order for us that we're having installed here on the deck. We extended the deck 8 feet from what it was, and they just finished refinishing all of it two days ago." Luke said as the two girls walked out onto the porch. Lorelai slipped her arms around Luke's middle from behind as Rory did the same to Logan a few feet away.
"Hi." She breathed into his ear and she squeezed him a little.
"It's getting late, we should head back." Rory said. "We're gonna pit stop by mom's so I can grab some stuff out of my room and then we'll hit the inn and go to sleep."
They all nodded and walked out to the cars.
"Hey, Luke? You think we can walk back to the house together? I haven't gotten to talk to you without mom yapping in my ear for a while." Rory said, smiling at Luke.
"Sure." Luke said, a little taken aback. He walked over to the truck with Lorelai and handed her the keys. "I know you suck at the stick…maybe you should switch with Logan."
"Luke I'll be fine. Just give me the keys."
"Did you tell her?"
"Yeah, I did."
"Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm okay. We'll talk about it at home after they leave okay?" Lorelai said, getting a little agitated.
"Okay, we'll talk about it at home." Luke said handing her the keys. She pulled out of the driveway and Logan followed her home in the car. They had been home maybe ten minutes when Luke and Rory showed up, Luke's arm around her shoulders smiling like a proud father. When he got inside he shook Logan's hand and Rory went to gather the "things" from her room.
"Breakfast tomorrow. Don't forget." Rory said as she scooped up the present and headed for the door with Logan in tow. She handed off the stuff to him and hugged Lorelai bye, lingering in the hug longer than she normally would have.
"You're a lot stronger than me." She whispered in her ear. "I love you."
"I love you too kid." Lorelai said squeezing her tightly. "Goodnight Logan, see you in the morning."
And with that she closed the door behind them and leaned against it. Luke looked at her, concern filling his eyes. He held out his arms to her and she crossed the few steps to him and let him wrap her in his strong arms.
"My baby's getting married." She said, sniffling a little.
"I know, she told me. That ring is pretty impressive." Luke said, smoothing a hand through her hair. He ran his hands down her back and rubbed small circles on the small of her back, swaying slightly.
"We should get to sleep. I told Rory we'd have breakfast with her and Logan tomorrow morning. If you've got to work it's fine. I can go by myself. And we're supposed to go see Sookie when she gets home. I'm going to need sleep if I have to hold a baby tomorrow." Lorelai mumbled into his shoulder.
Luke kissed her forehead and took her by the hand and led her upstairs. She stripped down to her bra and underwear and slid under the covers. He pulled off his shirt, shoes, socks, and pants and climbed in with her in just his boxers. She slid up next to him and buried her face in his neck. In a matter of minutes she was asleep.
Luke was starting to go crazy. He hadn't even kissed her since before the whole thing happened, he didn't want anything else, just to kiss her. But he would be damned if he rushed her. He'd let her take the lead and let him know when she was ready. He sighed and closed his eyes, letting himself be lulled to sleep by her rhythmic breathing.