Lorelai POV

"Can we talk upstairs for a minute?" I said quietly, and Luke nodded. We headed upstairs and I handed over the piece of paper in my hand, "I have that list for you. It's mostly little things but they mattered a lot to her, especially when she was younger."

He took the sheet from me and scanned it, "Did he ever do anything with her?"

"Turn it over."

He looked horrified, and didn't turn over the page, "How did you remember everything here?"

I sucked in a deep breath, "She started keeping a list when she was 6. Every time he let her down or messed up, it got written down. The ones with ticks are ones that I managed to do with her instead but that's only a handful in comparison to everything on that list. And none of that's counting everything that happened before she turned six. I've rewritten it all out as I found the list in the bin a few days after you punched him."

He slowly turned over the sheet of A4 paper and skimmed over what else was there. He looked sad, probably as he spotted things like 'daddy-daughter school dance' and 'Father's Day school lunch'. He looked up at me, "I wish I had done more than punching him."

"Yeah, and I wish I had stopped this years ago. What on earth was I thinking, letting him let her down so much?"

"Like you said, you wanted her to have a father. But he doesn't deserve that privilege," He closed his eyes and shook his head, and when he opened them, he said, "I want to tell her about us. Tonight."

I looked up at him with surprise; I had expected it to be my idea to tell her, but he beat me to it. I had been thinking about it but I had been too nervous to actually tell him that. I took a mouthful of coffee, before nodding, "I'd like that. But what made you..."

He interrupted me, "I am in love with you, and I love her. I want her to know about us, and I want her to have a male figure in her life that isn't going to repeatedly break her heart."

I wrapped my arms around his neck, and kissed him softly, "I love you too. Come over at 8 and we'll tell her. And bring food."

The doorbell rang 10 minutes early, surprising me. I beat Rory to the door and greeted Luke, "What food have you got?"

He rolled his eyes and handed over the bag. I opened it and was annoyed that nothing was labelled so I couldn't tell. He smirked at my disgruntled face, finding it amusing. Of course.

"Oh hey Luke, what are you doing here?" Rory questioned, confused.

"Me and Luke need to talk to you about something," I said carefully, stepping back and gesturing for Luke to come in.

"It's 'Luke and I', Mom, not 'me and Luke'," She corrected, and I rolled my eyes. I handed her the bag of food, which luckily distracted her. She headed into the kitchen, which allowed me to give Luke a sneaky kiss.

I shut the front door and led Luke into the kitchen, nerves bubbling up into my stomach. Rory was unpacking the food and not really paying attention.

"What did you want to talk to me about? Am I spending too much time at the diner? Or getting in the way?"

"Me and Luke are dating."

The words fell out of my mouth – I didn't mean to just blurt it out, but I could tell that Rory was about to start spiralling and it was the quickest way to get her to stop and focus. I wouldn't recommend it, but it does the job.

"Oh..." She looked between me and Luke, unsure of herself.

I sat her down at the table, me and Luke joining her, and I started explaining, "It's not a bad thing, honey, it's a good thing. He's going to be around a lot more and you might hear people gossiping about us, but this isn't a bad thing, for you or for me."

She was quiet for a moment, "You've never introduced me to people you've dated before now."

"I didn't want it to affect you negatively if it didn't work, but since Luke is already in your life, it's a bit harder to keep it from you. But I think this is going to last longer than most of my other relationships – they usually run the moment they realise you're more of a priority than they are."

Rory laughed, remembering the last few guys, and then she frowned again. Luke sat forward a little, looking directly at her, and said, "Rory, I never thought I was a kid person, but then I met you and your mom. I care about you so much and I have done from the beginning – it's why it's taken so long for your mom and me to get together, because we both care about you and didn't want you to get hurt in the crossfire."

I could see her mind going a mile a minute, trying to figure out how she felt about this. She opened her mouth a few times to say something but stopped before a sound came out. Eventually, she spoke, "I've known that you liked each other for about about a year because I heard a bunch of people betting on when it would happen. I liked the idea because Luke has been there for both of us more than Dad ever was, but I was also scared that I'd lose Luke if things went wrong. How long have you been dating?"

I smiled, "Since Luke punched your father, so about a month and a half. Honey, are you okay with this?"

Rory nodded, "That means Sookie won the bet. And I'm okay with it, I'm just a little worried."

Luke and I agreed with her, that this whole situation was good but a little worrying, and then we finally started eating. We ate quietly with Rory still digesting the information, and Luke keeping a very close eye on her, like he was concerned. She might not be as chatty as me, but she is usually rather chatty and barely said a word.

After we ate, we found a film that Luke hadn't seen and watched it together like a family; me and Luke on the sofa with his arm around me and my head on his shoulder, and Rory sat on the floor against our legs. She had perked up a bit and was adding her own comments as we watched, making me chuckle because of how much she sounded like me. While I would have expected it to annoy him like it does when I do that, he even chuckled at what she was saying a few times, more entertained by her comments than he was the film.

He was acting like a dad, obsessed with everything their child does. And even though I already knew I loved him, it cemented his place in our family for me, and made me hope for more family nights like this.

AN: This chapter is one of my favourites so far and I'm really enjoying this story. I hope you're enjoying reading it as much as I am enjoying writing it, and let me know what you thought.