"You can't do that!" Lorelai shrieked in horror.

"Why not?"

"Because, that's against the rules."

"Since when are you a follower or rules?" Luke shot back.

"I always follow the rules!" she gasped in shock, putting her hands on her hips.

"Oh please. Last time you made me play Life with you and Rory you purposely landed on all of the 'Have a baby' squares just so you could add another person to your car so you could name it."

"I did not!" she protested.

"Please," he huffed.

"Well this time you're cheating," she said with a sigh, reaching across the table and the game board for Luke's Scrabble tiles from where she sat on the floor. "You have extra tiles over there, too, don't you?"

"I do not have extra tiles," he insisted, slapping her hand away. "And I was not cheating when I added an S onto the end of a word."

"That's your version of the story. And that's what you've got hoarded over there, isn't it?" she gasped. "All the S tiles!" she looked down at her own tiles in front of her on the coffee table. "You're so busted, Luke Danes. I don't have any S tiles."

He rolled his eyes. "This is why I put up such a fight about playing games with you," he mumbled as she reached across the board for his tiles again. He moved his tiles out of her reach and she crawled over, trying to grab them, and he quickly moved them behind him. She climbed over his lap, trying to reach the tiles, when she lost her balance and fell into him, toppling both of them over, causing the tiles to spill.

"See, now look," he sighed, trying, and failing, to keep a laugh in.

"I'm looking," she said, reaching for the tiles near them while still lying on top of him, "I'm looking right at all of the S tiles all over the floor."

He shook his head in amusement. "Lorelai, jeez."

She grinned at him and pushed herself up off him just as the door opened. "We're having a rematch later. Where there will be no cheating," she said, pointing at him sternly then brushing off her jeans.

He rolled his eyes and sat up, beginning to collect the scattered tiles as Lorelai noticed Rory and April.

"Hey, there you girls are."

"Here we are," Rory agreed. It was the night of April's date and Rory had picked April up from Woodbridge on her way home from school, since Anna had to work and Rory was coming home already, anyway. "And, uh," Rory studied Luke, picking up the Scrabble tiles. "What happened here?"

Lorelai opened her mouth to say something when Luke cut in. "Your Mom wanted to play Scrabble. Need I say more?"

Rory chuckled. "Enough said."

"Okay, so!" Lorelai said, clapping her hands together excitedly. "Two hours until Freddy's due here, right?" Lorelai asked April.

"Right," April confirmed. She played with the hem of her sweater. "I'm kind of nervous," she admitted.

"Oh, I know," Lorelai assured her. "That's normal. But you're going to have a blast, trust me."

April smiled, hopeful. "I hope so."

"So you brought your stuff," Lorelai noticed. "Let's see, we should probably start with your hair and then the make up."

"Make up?" Luke piped up, dropping the Scrabble tiles into the box. "No one ever said anything about make up."

Lorelai rolled her eyes. "Of course make up. It's a dance."

"But she doesn't need make up."

"Of course not," Lorelai agreed. "But it's just fun to put it on."

"But--"

"Luke, Hon, you've never been a teenage girl. Let us have this one."

"Fine," he muttered. "But not too much."

Lorelai shook her head and turned back to April. "Okay, let's go to Rory's room."

"I brought all my make up," Rory added, patting the bag she had over her shoulder.

"Cool," April said, studying the bag. "Is all of that make up? You have a lot of make up."

"I've been collecting since I was about your age," Rory told her.

"Can I wear lipstick?" April asked Lorelai and Rory as they headed to Rory's room.

Luke sighed. "I'll be… somewhere where there's no make up."

Lorelai turned to look at him and gave him a wink.

xxxxxx

"So, what do you say?" Rory asked, rifling through a make up bag as she and Lorelai put the finishing touches on April's make up. "Blush?"

"I don't think we should overdo it," Lorelai said, peering at April as she sat in front of Rory's mirror. "What do you think? Blush?" she asked April.

April shrugged. "Maybe a little. It is a big day."

Lorelai and Rory exchanged a smile. "Okay then, a touch of blush it is," Lorelai said, taking the blush from Rory and applying a bit to April. She then directed her to look at the mirror. "What do you think?"

April peered at herself. "I think it's good."

"Good!" Rory said, excitedly. "I think you look pretty."

"I second that," Lorelai said. "Not that you need the make up to look pretty."

"Very true," Rory agreed.

"Okay," Lorelai said to April. "Rory and I will go out and get our cameras ready," Lorelai teased, "and you can put your dress on and come out and model it for us and our cameras when you're done."

April nodded and giggled and Lorelai and Rory left the room, stepping into the kitchen. Lorelai grabbed her camera from the kitchen table. "I better make sure the batteries in this are charged," she realized. "I'd like to be able to take more than six pictures this time. Remember at your graduation?"

"Yes," Rory groaned.

"In fact, this time my goal is at least six good pictures."

"Most people would choose a number like five in this kind of situation."

"Dare to be different."

"So, things seem to be… good."

"What?" Lorelai asked, looking up from her camera at Rory, apparently not following her subject change.

"You and Luke, things seem to be good. After all, you guys were playing Scrabble when I came home, that seems to be a sign of things being good."

"Oh," Lorelai realized. "Yeah, they are. They're very good, especially considering."

"And things with April seem to be going well."

Lorelai nodded. "Very well."

"So, what does all this mean?" Rory prodded.

Lorelai let out a little sigh. "I'm not really sure, we're taking things one step at a time. But it's good so far, and the progress we've made is good. I mean, we haven't even broached the subject of marriage again, and we haven't… " Lorelai trailed off, "you know been together again or anything… but what we've accomplished so far has been good."

"You two are going to be okay," Rory decided.

Lorelai smiled at her. "I think so, too. Which is really unbelievable to me after all the crap we've gone through."

Rory shrugged. "Well, what do you expect? You're Luke and Lorelai."

"She says as if it's some universal truth."

"Well, it kind of is," Rory smirked. They were interrupted by the door to Rory's room opening and April emerging in her dress.

"Wow. You look pretty," Lorelai grinned.

"You look fabulous!" Rory added, clapping her hands together in excitement. "Freddy won't know what hit him."

April laughed nervously as she spun around so they could see the whole dress. "Thanks."

"Let's show you off to your father," Lorelai decided. "Luke!" she called, stepping out of the kitchen and yelling randomly towards the living room and the stairs, unsure of where, exactly, he was. "Luuuuke!" she repeated.

"What?" Luke's voice returned from somewhere within the house, where he was most likely hiding from all things girly.

"Come take a look at your daughter. She's all pretty," Lorelai teased, returning to her normal voice as Luke came down the stairs and gave April a smile, which April shyly returned. Luke came into the room a moment later and stopped when he saw April.

"Wow," he said with a smile, momentarily taken back by how different April looked when she was all dressed up. "You look… beautiful," Luke stated.

"Thanks," April said, blushing slightly.

"Hey, let's go make sure you've got everything in your purse," Rory said, guiding April into the living room. "You don't want to forget a necessity, it's a disaster, believe me."

"She looks like you," Lorelai told Luke suddenly, turning to him when April and Rory had disappeared. "When I was doing her make up, I kept seeing it. You don't notice with the glasses as much, it kind of hides her face. But she has your cheekbones and your nose. I noticed it at her birthday party, too, when I painted her face."

"Yeah," Luke agreed. "She does."

"No wonder she's so pretty, then," Lorelai said, nudging Luke in the side. "She is yours."

"Oh stop," he said, looking down and blushing slightly.

"And she blushes just like that, too."

Luke's response was interrupted by a knock at the door.

"That must be Freddy and his parents," Luke deduced. "Why do I suddenly feel the urge to forbid April from dating until she's Rory's age?"

"Ooh, camera time!" Lorelai said excitedly, ignoring Luke and grabbing her camera again before heading into the living room.

Later, after April and Freddy had left for the dance and Rory had left for home, Lorelai bounded into the kitchen where Luke was at the refrigerator getting a drink, with her digital camera in her hand.

"Look at this picture, Luke, it's adorable," she announced, thrusting the camera at him. "Freddy has his arm around her and everything." She squinted down at the picture again. "Aww, they're so cute together." Luke looked down at the picture for a few moments and then looked up at Lorelai again. "I think I've got at least six really, really good ones after all. What?" she asked when she noticed his gaze was intently focused on her. "Something wrong?"

"No," he said softly. "Everything's… right." He looked down at the picture again and then back up at Lorelai. "You're just… amazing. Here you are taking the time to send my kid off to a dance, making her feel like an eighth grade dance is the most important thing in the world, taking pictures of her and getting all excited about the best ones, and I just… I don't know why I deserve you. After how I handled this situation for so long and you just... you're just… I love you."

She grinned up at him. "She's your daughter, Luke. She's a part of you, therefore, she's important to me."

"I know. I just… thank you."

"Anytime, Babe," she said, giving him a soft kiss.

"I hope she has a good time."

Lorelai nodded. "Me too. I'm sure she will, though. If it's any indication by the look on Freddy's face," she pointed down at the camera, "he likes her, too."

"Not too much, I hope," Luke said with a frown, squinting at the picture as if that would tell him if Freddy had something inappropriate in mind.

"No, never too much. Just the right amount," Lorelai teased. Luke laughed and pulled her into his arms. She laughed as well and rested her head on his shoulder as he wrapped his arms around her, pulling her to him tightly.

"We're doing really well this time," he noted.

"Yeah," she said softly, her head still on his shoulder. "We really are." They were silent for a few moments before she pulled back and looked at him. "Rematch time!"

"No, no, wait..." Luke said suddenly as she tugged on his hand. "What do we do about tonight?"

"What?"

"Freddy's parents are dropping April off back here."

"Yes?"

"And she's staying over."

"Yes, and?" Lorelai prompted.

"So, how does that work?"

"Well, she comes in and goes to sleep here and will still be here in the morning."

"But where is she going to sleep?"

Lorelai shook her head. "Is this the first you've started thinking about this?"

"Well…"

"Way to plan ahead, Luke."

"Well have you already…"

"She's sleeping in Rory's room tonight. Rory's not here, so she can have the bed and everything. I changed the sheets this morning."

"Oh," Luke realized. "Okay. Good. Thanks." Lorelai nodded and tugged on his hand again. "Wait…"

"Now what?"

"What about me?"

"What about you?"

"I have to be here," Luke realized.

"Yes. And?"

"Where am I going to, uh…"

Lorelai rolled her eyes. "On the couch, Luke, of course," she said sarcastically and slapped him lightly on the arm. "Upstairs with me, silly."

"But we haven't…"

"Hey, believe it or not, we have spent a night or two sleeping in the same bed without having sex, remember?" Lorelai teased. "We'll be fine."

"Okay," he agreed and allowed her to pull him into the living room this time. "Hey, Lorelai?"

"Hmm?" she asked as she sat on the couch and started organizing the Scrabble tiles. "We don't really have to play, but I should clean these up."

"No, not that. I mean about the whole… sex thing."

She sat up, surprised, and stiffened, looking at him. "Oh. Well… what about it?"

"I just wonder… what we have to wait for, or… I'm not trying to pressure you into it or anything at all, not after everything. I just want to have some idea of what has to happen first…" he looked down, uncomfortable and clearly not liking the idea of having this conversation. "Until we're ready to…I just don't want to… I need to know when it's okay for…"

"Luke," she laughed a little, standing up from the couch and giving his hands a squeeze. "There's no specific reason or thing that we're waiting for before we have sex again, at least not for me. It just has to be right. We'll know."

He nodded. "Okay, right."

"So, Scrabble or not?"

He studied her for a minute. "Fine. But only if you don't cheat."

She gasped. "Me!"

"Oh, just sit down."

"Fine," she sat down on the floor next to the table and the game board. "First let me count the S's."

xxxxxx

Lorelai, already dressed in a t-shirt and sweatpants, had just finished turning down the bed when Luke walked into the bedroom, hesitantly, later that night.

"Hey," she smiled at him as she smoothed out the sheet. "April good?"

"Yeah, she's good," Luke said. "She won't stop talking about the fact that Freddy held her hand, though."

Lorelai chuckled. "That's sweet."

"Yeah, sure, but Freddy is a boy."

"Oh, Luke."

"Well? He is." Lorelai laughed again and fluffed her pillow. "I'm so glad she had a good time, though, her face just lights up when she talks about what they did tonight." Lorelai nodded, and Luke seemed to realize something. "Hey, Lorelai I don't have…" Lorelai cut him off by gesturing at the end of the bed, where she had placed a t-shirt of his and a pair of boxers. "Oh. Okay." He flashed her a thankful smile for knowing.

"Your toothbrush is still in the bathroom," she added quietly, "under the sink."

"Oh," he said again. "Good, okay." He wasn't sure if he was surprised that she hadn't thrown his toothbrush out or not. He looked down at the clothes on the bed and picked them up. "So I guess I should…" he gestured at the bathroom. "Change."

"Right, sure," Lorelai agreed, realizing that the situation was a little strange. They were together. They'd seen each other naked before. And yet, there was an unwritten rule that they couldn't change in front of each other.

"Is this weird, that I have to change in the bathroom?" he seemed to read her mind.

She laughed and crinkled up her nose a bit. "A little. But just look at it like this, if I see you with your clothes off after all this time, there's no telling what might happen, and April is here. So that's why you have to go change in the bathroom."

He laughed a little at that before going in the bathroom. Lorelai sat down on her side of the bed and waited for him to return, playing with the pillows and the hem of he sheet while she waited. When he returned, ready for bed as well, she watched him as he sat down on his side of the bed carefully.

"It's been a long time since I've spent the night here," he spoke the obvious.

"Yeah," she agreed as they laid down under the blankets, each of them lying on their right sides. "It has been. But it's right, this is our bed, you know?"

"Yeah," he realized, shutting off the light. "It is."

"I spent so many nights…" she sighed, realizing what she was admitting. But in the dark, facing away from him, it was easy to admit things. "I cried myself to sleep so many times during those months because it was supposed to be our bed and not just mine."

"I'm back now," he assured her in a soft whisper, letting a hand come to rest on her side, and she nodded, wondering what those implications meant. Would he be back, forever? Would it be completely their bed again, one day, and for the rest of their lives? But she knew now wasn't the time for those questions, so she simply nodded.

"When did you find out about April?" she asked softly, turning her head to look back at him over her shoulder. For the first time she could ask the question without resentment or bitterness or sadness. It was asked out of simple curiosity and with acceptance. "Was it before or after we'd finished remodeling?"

"Uh," he seemed a little thrown off by the question. "After. But before we finished the bedroom. Around the time that my grandmother's furniture was in here."

She laughed a little. "Oh, right, those lovely pieces of furniture." His grandmother's furniture seemed so long ago. "Then this means this is the first time we're really sleeping in this bed together where everything is okay. No secrets. No distance."

"Yeah I guess so," he realized. 'Almost a year later."

"About eleven months later," she agreed. "Is everything okay?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, we're supposed to talk, so I just thought I'd check in on how you're feeling about everything related to you and me."

He leaned down to kiss her behind her ear and she could feel him smile against her skin. "Yes. Everything is okay. Everything is better than okay."

She nodded. "Okay, just wanted to make sure everything was… working out for you, too. I feel like everything is falling into place for me, with April and getting past what I did that night and everything, and I wanted to make sure it was for you, too. After all, you see it all differently than I do."

"It is," he assured her, squeezing her side. "I already did the forgiving, and it's proved to be the right choice. And I feel really, really good about us."

He pulled her closer to him and dropped an arm around her waist just like he always used to when they fell asleep at night. "This okay?" he made sure his contact wasn't too much.

"Definitely okay," she agreed with a smile, turning her head back towards him to kiss him goodnight. "Night."

"Goodnight, Lorelai," he said, leaning down to kiss her beneath her ear once more.

Lorelai woke up the next morning to an empty bed. She groaned and looked at the clock and saw that it was just after ten-thirty. For a minute she forgot that Luke had spent the night and that April was downstairs, as she had been so used to waking up alone lately anyway. Then suddenly she realized, and wondered where he'd gotten to.

When she ventured downstairs, she found him, in the kitchen with April, where they were cooking breakfast. She observed them for a while, watching April laugh and concentrate on whatever she had in the bowl in front of her, watching Luke step closer to her to check on her progress, watching Luke smile at her and laugh when she'd say something.

It only seemed right that this father-daughter bonding was happening in there. In what was still officially her house, but should be theirs. This is where Luke should spend time with her daughter and teach her how to cook.

"Hey," Luke greeted her when he noticed her in the doorway, watching. "You're up."

"Yeah," she said with a yawn. "Morning. Morning, April. Sleep okay?"

April nodded. "Yep! Rory's bed is comfortable."

"Good, I'm glad," Lorelai said. She stepped closer to the counter to see what Luke and April were making. "Pancakes?" she asked.

"Banana pancakes," April told her. "They're my favorite. Do you like them?"

"I do," Lorelai told her. "I like just about any kind of pancake."

"Though if it's covered in chocolate, she likes it best," Luke noted.

She glared at him and turned to April. "Sweetie, did you call your mom yet this morning?"

"No," she realized. "Should I call her now?"

"If you think she'll be up. She'd probably like to hear from you and hear about last night. You can use the phone in the living room if you want."

April nodded and put her mixing spoon down in the bowl of pancake batter and brushed her hands off, hurrying into the living room.

"I'm hungry," Lorelai told Luke.

"Well, I'm making breakfast."

Lorelai went over to the bowl of batter April had left behind and started mixing it. "So apparently both our daughters can cook, then," Lorelai realized. "I think I'm the odd one out."

"Well, at least you'll always have someone around who can cook."

"Very true, my friend," she said, staring down at the batter she was mixing. "If I could cook, what would I really be doing to this?"

"Folding the batter," Luke said absently as he removed a pancake from the frying pan.

"Um, excuse me, what?" she asked, a blank expression on her face.

"Like this," he said, mimicking the movements she should be doing in the air for a moment before returning to the pancakes in the frying pan.

She stared at him for a moment before putting the spoon down. "See, I knew there was a reason why I don't cook."

Luke rolled his eyes and stepped behind her. "You could if you wanted to, and you can do this. It's simple." He handed her the spoon then took her hand and guided it in the motions to fold the batter. "See? It's easy."

"Hmm, yeah," she said, concentrating more on his body so close to hers. He stepped away and returned to the frying pan. When he turned back to her, he frowned.

"I said fold the batter, not taste it," he smirked.

"I didn't!"

"Oh yeah?" he asked, stepping closer to her. He wiped at the corner of her lip. "Your face disagrees with you."

She laughed, realizing she was caught. "Oops. Gone?"

"Almost," he said, leaning down to kiss her lips. "There."

"How very kind of you," she thanked him with a giggle.

April returned. "Did you get your mom on the phone?" Luke asked.

"Yep," April said. "She was glad I called. She said to tell you thanks, Lorelai. For helping me get ready last night."

"Oh, sure thing. It was my pleasure."

"And she said to tell you thanks for reminding me to call her," April added. "She knew, somehow."

"It's a mom thing," Lorelai explained and April shrugged.

"Ready for breakfast?" Luke asked them with a smile. "I think we've made enough pancakes to start eating."

"Yes, I'm starving," April agreed. Lorelai nodded her agreement and smiled as April sat down at the table and Luke brought her a plate of pancakes. Suddenly Luke was holding a plate out to her as well. She thanked him and carried her plate to the table, sitting down across from April.

"And just what are you having today, Mr. Healthful?"

"Regular pancakes, no bananas." April and Lorelai exchanged a look and rolled their eyes.

"He doesn't know what he's missing out on," April whispered and Lorelai laughed.

Lorelai had a feeling this threesome having breakfast in the morning was going to be a regular occurrence.

tbc...