The next morning, Logan arrived at the hospital earlier than Luke and Lorelai. He went straight to the ICU area and waited outside until visiting hours started.

When he stepped in Rory's room, he purposely avoided looking at the bed until he calmed himself down and prepared for the sight. Rory still looked the same. He sighed and slowly stepped up to her bed.

"Hey Rory," He whispered as he took her left hand. He remained silent as he examined her more closely.

"Look, I don't know if you can hear me, but you need to wake up soon. Our son needs you, you mother and Luke need you… and I need you."

He sighed heavily and let go of her hand then stepped away. "I have to go away for a little while but I'll be back." He muttered although he doubted Rory could hear him. And even if she could, she couldn't respond.


Logan was already out of the hospital and on his way to the train station by the time Lorelai and Luke arrived. He texted Lorelai to let her know he already visited Rory.

Emily had called Lorelai early that morning to tell her that she didn't want to visit Rory today. This upset Lorelai which led to a small argument. Emily said she couldn't bear to see Rory like that again.

"Well, what do you think it's like for me?" Lorelai asked furiously. "That's my baby girl."

"I know it's harder for you Lorelai… look I just need a day to rest. Is that allowed?" Emily replied. She sounded annoyed.

"Fine." Was all Lorelai said before she hung up.

After she and Luke visited Rory that morning and left the ICU area, Lorelai found the nearest bench and flopped down onto it.

"I wish my dad was here." She said suddenly. There was a sudden ache in her heart and this was one of those days where she deeply missed her father's presence. Having another family member with her while Rory was in this condition would be comforting, she thought.

Luke wrapped an arm around her and rubbed her shoulder. He didn't know what to say. You could only say "It will be okay" so many times before those words really started to lose their meaning.

"I don't even remember the last time I told Rory I loved her, what if she dies and she didn't know how much I love her? I didn't get to tell Dad and he probably thinks I hated him." Lorelai sputtered.

"He knew you loved him, trust me." Luke said, remembering his last conversation with Richard Gilmore.


It was Fall of 2015. Luke and Lorelai were at dinner at the Gilmore house. They no longer had Friday night dinners, but they came to dinner about once a month. After dessert, Richard asked Luke if he could speak to him in the study.

"Oh uh sure," Luke glanced at Lorelai nervously.

Lorelai shrugged. She had no idea what her father wanted from Luke. She silently wished him luck.

Luke got up and followed Richard into the study. Richard shut the door behind them and urged Luke to sit across from him.

"Would you like a cigar, Luke? They're Romeo y Julietas."

"Oh no thanks… I'm not really a cigar kind of guy." Luke said awkwardly. He fidgeted in his seat.

Richard put the box of cigars away without removing any of them. He took a deep breath. "So, you and Lorelai have been in a steady relationship for… what? Eight years now?"

Luke nodded. "Over eight years now."

"Any plans for marriage? I know Emily's asked Lorelai this but I'm asking you since the man usually proposes."

Luke frowned as he remembered Lorelai proposing the first time around. Did Richard and Emily not know about that?

"Uh no actually, we're happy the way we are."

"Hmm." Richard murmured as he looked away from Luke for a second. "And I assume you won't have any children of your own?"

"No." Luke answered quickly. That ship had sailed a many years ago. There was the miscarriage in 2009 that no one but Lorelai, himself and Rory knew about. After that, they decided to not try again.

"A pity," Richard said softly.

Luke cleared his throat. "Well, we're happy if that's what you're worried about. We don't need to be married and we don't need kids to be happy."

"I can tell you make Lorelai happy. When she was married to Christopher, something about her was off… maybe marriage just isn't for her." Richard said.

Luke didn't reply. He didn't like to think about Lorelai's brief marriage to Christopher.

"And how's April?" Richard asked, bringing Luke out of his thoughts.

"She's great." Luke was surprised Richard had remembered April's name. He had only met her a handful of times over the years.

"Did you just want to know if Lorelai and I were planning on getting married or having kids?" Luke asked a little hesitantly.

Richard stared at him for a few seconds before replaying, "I just like to see that Lorelai and Rory are happy… yes, I wanted to know if it was a joint decision, not getting married. Sometimes it seems like Lorelai hides her feelings… I know she doesn't tell Emily or me everything and I just wanted to hear about it from you."

Luke nodded slowly. He didn't want to mention the miscarriage. Lorelai wanted to keep it to themselves and Rory. And Rory only knew about it because she was in town when it happened. "Well I love Lorelai and Rory and I'm happy with Lorelai… I wouldn't leave her because she doesn't want to have kids or get married. Those were joint decisions. Lorelai can be stubborn, but we've come a long way from where we were when the engagement was broken."

Richard smiled softly. "I know how Lorelai can be… but she clearly loves you and I respect your joint decisions. Emily seems to be more disapproving of you two living together for all these years without being married, but I'm fine with it. I hope Lorelai can see that. I don't want her to resent us over what happened over thirty years ago when we wanted her to marry Christopher."

Luke frowned and shook his head. "I think she knows that you have let that go and you did see that she was unhappy married to him. She disagrees with you about a lot of things… I do too." He pressed his lips together. "But I know she still loves you." He didn't know if it was out of line for him to say this, to speak for Lorelai. But he could see that she still loved her parents although their relationship was far from perfect.

Richard smiled again and whispered "Thank you." He patted Luke on the back as they exited the room.


Lorelai turned and smiled at Luke. She believed him. She also remembered when Richard had talked to Luke at dinner that night. He hadn't told her every detail of their conversation but she knew what they had discussed. She figured that Richard had already put Luke on the family actuarial life table at that point.

"You always know what to say to make me feel better." She leaned her head on his shoulder. She still wished she could have told both Richard and Rory she loved them, but she knew she needed to focus on the fact that Rory was still with them and she had a new grandson to take care of.

"We better go pick up the rest of the baby supplies so everything is ready for Owen tomorrow." She said.

"Yep," Luke rubbed her shoulder one more time before he rose and held out a hand to her.

She smiled softly and took his hand. They walked out of the hospital hand in hand.


Owen slept on the car ride home the next afternoon. He didn't even wake when Lorelai lifted him out of the car seat.

"You're going to be an easy baby, aren't you, bubby?" Lorelai cooed.

"Don't jinx it." Luke said. He was nervous as he had never spent a night with a newborn and Lorelai hadn't in over thirty two years.

Lorelai didn't respond as she stepped past Luke and headed for the house. Luke rushed ahead to open the door for her. He was carrying the diaper bag.

As soon as Lorelai sat down on the couch, Owen whimpered and opened his eyes.

"Aww, it's okay, you're home now. You're safe." Lorelai whispered to him.

"Do you uh think he wants a bottle?" Luke asked.

"Maybe," Lorelai shifted Owen in her arms. He was wailing now.

"I'll go make one." Luke headed to the kitchen.

"Are you sure hon? You've never made one before."

"I can handle it." Luke assured her. They were starting with a liquid formula as recommend by the NICU nurses.

Luke returned a few minutes later with a bottle. Lorelai trusted him and didn't ask if he prepared it right. He sat next to her and passed it to her. She held the bottle to Owen's mouth and he sucked it right away.

Lorelai smiled at him and Luke also looked down at him. They silently watched Owen for a couple minutes until he stopped sucking.

"Now what?" Luke asked.

"He needs to be burped. Why don't you try? You've burped Doula, right?"

Luke bit his lip. "That was over ten years ago and she was a lot bigger."

"Well the last time I was with a baby was a few years ago too. You should know how to handle him, Luke. We're in this together. We're his temporary caregivers and we both need to be comfortable with him, and make him feel safe." Lorelai needed to know that he was one hundred percent okay with this responsibility and that he could handle everything. They had agreed to split up the days of the week, she would stay at home Sundays, Mondays and Tuesdays and he would on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, then they would both be home on Saturday.

"Right," Luke said softly. He held out his arms and Lorelai passed Owen to him.

She directed him, "Put him against your shoulder, and make sure to support his head. Now pat his back."

Luke did what she said and Owen let out a couple little burps.

"There, that wasn't hard, was it?"

"I guess not." Luke pulled Owen away from his shoulder and frowned when he felt something wet on his flannel shirt.

"Oops I forgot to give you a burp cloth." Lorelai tried not to laugh.

Luke grimaced and gently passed Owen back to her. "I'm gonna go change my shirt."

Lorelai giggled. "Okay, we'll be here."

Luke returned a few minutes later wearing his old olive green T-shirt which he usually wore to bed.

"Hey, can you hold him while I phone Michel and let him know I'll be coming back to work on Wednesday?" It was a Monday.

"Sure." Luke responded as he sat down. He took Owen from her and she left the room and headed into the kitchen.

When Lorelai hung up the phone ten minutes later, she heard Luke talking to Owen.

"I hope you know you don't have to be scared. Your mom can't be with you now but we're here and we'll do our best to make sure you're happy." He was talking in a low voice, but Lorelai could still hear him from the kitchen.

As she walked into the room, she tried not to let her facial expression show that she had heard him. Luke could tell right away, however.

"You heard me." He turned red.

"It was sweet, hon." Lorelai sat next to him again and reached out to caress his cheek.

"He doesn't understand though… I just thought he looked… I don't know, concerned."

Lorelai smiled, "Really?"

Luke just shrugged.

They sat there and watched Owen for a bit until Luke noticed his diaper needed to be changed.

"I'll handle the first poopy diaper, Grandpa, since you took the first burping without a burp cloth." Lorelai held out her arms and Luke placed Owen in them.

Luke gave her a grateful smile. She left the room with Owen. Luke sighed and slouched in his seat, leaning his head back.


Later that night, they got Owen settled down and put him in the bassinet in their bedroom. The three of them slept for about an hour and a half before Owen work up crying.

This woke both Luke and Lorelai although Luke was usually a heavy sleeper.

"You've got work tomorrow; I'll take care of him." Lorelai patted Luke's shoulder.

Luke gave her a small smile and lied back down.

Lorelai got up four times that night. Luke woke up each time Owen cried, so he didn't get much sleep either. They were both exhausted and Luke slept through his alarm. It automatically shut off; both of them were oblivious to it.

Luke woke a half hour later and gasped when he saw the time.

"Damn it." He muttered under his breath. He got out of bed as quickly as possible, his joints protesting.

When he came back after showering, Lorelai and Owen weren't in the bedroom. He found them downstairs in the kitchen. Lorelai was feeding Owen.

Lorelai gasped when she saw him. "I thought you were already gone. Did the alarm not go off?"

"I think we just didn't hear it… we didn't wake up." Luke shook his head. "Man, I feel exhausted."

Lorelai gave him a sad smile, "I feel you. Well, if the diner gets to be too much, you can always take a break and put Caesar in charge for a little while."

"I'll be fine." Luke said quickly. He put a bagel in the toaster.

"Uh hon?"

"Hmm?" Luke wasn't paying attention. He was trying to imagine what was happening at the diner right now. He figured Caesar opened for him and he trusted him but he still worried it would be chaos when he got there.

"You're gonna eat a bagel? I thought you hated bagels? Even multigrain ones,"

"Ah damn, you're right. I wasn't thinking, I just wanted something fast." Luke groaned.

Lorelai gave him a sympathetic smile. The last time she remembered seeing him this frantic was when April had her first date. She was in New Mexico and he hated that he couldn't meet the young man his daughter was going out with. In his mind, no one was good enough for April or Rory.

Luke filled the kettle with water and turned it on. He grabbed a banana and peeled it quickly then took a bite.

When the bagel popped up, he offered it to Lorelai who scrunched her nose. She thought multigrain bagels were disgusting. He had been trying to get her to eat them for years although he though all kinds of bagels were unhealthy. He sighed and threw it in the trash.

Once Luke had eaten his plain oatmeal and drank his tea, he offered to take Owen while Lorelai made her breakfast.

"I can skip breakfast. You have to get to the diner." Lorelai objected.

"You have to eat, even if you only eat crap."

Lorelai stuck her tongue out at him and went to the freezer and took out an unopened box of Eggos. She put two in the toaster and turned on the coffee maker while she waited.

When Lorelai finished eating, she took Owen from Luke. He said a quick goodbye to both of them and rushed out the door.

Lorelai stepped in Rory's room and lied down on her bed. She cradled Owen close and kissed the top of his head.

"I love you, baby boy." She whispered to him, feeling the need to say it.


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