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As Lorelai came to a stop at the bottom of the staircase, she gave the living room a quick once-over. And then a twice-over. Then, just for good measure, her eyes scanned over the living room again for anything that might normally be her personal taste mingled with Luke's but that would get a sneer of disapproval from her mother and anything that could easily be stored in the hall closet for the night. Not that she was hiding everything in her house, just hiding some of the normal clutter that came from a very lived-in house. Even though he knew the way Emily could be sometimes, Luke declared the idea as ridiculous because this was their home and they shouldn't have to hide anything from anyone in their own house. Lorelai carefully reminded him that this was her mother who found faults with everything so the less she had to talk about, the less being the home décor, the easier their first meeting with April would go. Still he claimed the idea as ridiculous.

Satisfied that there weren't nearly as many unmatched and whimsical throw pillows thrown about and magazines that her mother regularly referred to as trashy, Lorelai stepped off the bottom step of the staircase and made her way into the kitchen. Dinner already smelled amazing and she was certain that her parents were going to love the dishes that Luke was busy prepared even if they were weary about his cooking skills out of the realm of the diner. Which Luke also worried about over the course of the past few days which led to Lorelai assuring him that all of his food was amazing, even the vegetables that she claimed not to like. She walked up behind him while he was busy at the stove and wound her arms around his waist. She snuggled up to him for a few seconds then dropped a kiss onto the soft, worn flannel that stretched over his shoulder.

"Cleared everything out of the house?" Luke asked, turning his head just enough to look at her over his shoulder.

"Ha-ha," Lorelai deadpanned. She unwound her arms from around his waist and stepped to the side though the space was limited with the addition of a small, extra table to accommodate everyone for dinner. "I didn't clear everything out, just let a few things go on vacation to the hall closet for the night. You know my parents, it's easier this way. Things can go smoother when they meet April."

"Whatever you think will help," Luke replied though, again, he thought the hiding of certain things was ridiculous and unnecessary.

She pressed her hip into the counter and watched his precise movements as he chopped up some fresh herbs. "Everything going okay in here?"

Luke nodded in response. "Everything is good. Dinner is coming along just great."

"Well it smells amazing," Lorelai complimented with a bright smile as she leaned forward and pressed a kiss to his cheek. "This might be a one-time only thing and spectacularly bad idea but thank you."

"We agreed on the idea," he reminded her.

"But it was my idea first."

"So if anything goes wrong tonight, the blame is on you?"

"Not what I was saying."

He grinned at the almost offended look on her face. "Kidding." His hand went to her hip and drew her closer to him. He pressed a soft kiss to her lips before going back to his cooking. "I'm sure it won't be that bad. You said it yourself, you're getting along with your parents better."

"As weird as that may be," Lorelai replied. This wasn't the worst idea she ever had but with her parents she was always waiting for the other shoe to drop and knew how quickly things could go sour. "And they're meeting April tonight, which they wanted to do, so I'm sure they'll be on their best behavior. She's a spectacular kid, they'll be impressed."

He couldn't help but smile at that. "That she is."

"But the whole idea of hosting dinner in our house..."

"Our house is fine," Luke gently interrupted her. "There's nothing wrong with it."

"Yes it is," Lorelai agreed, though she could admit that their kitchen was a little small for hosting dinner with their kids and her parents. She noted the absence of a curly haired girl at the kitchen table. "Where did April go?"

Luke used his head to gesture in the direction of April's room. "She had some homework that she wanted to get done before the weekend."

"Of course." She squeezed past him and the added table and headed to the refrigerator to check if there were any last minute things they needed before dinner tonight. Instead she was met with the sight of one of her favorite desserts."You made cheesecake for tonight?" she asked, the surprise evident in her tone. While they did have dessert after dinner some nights when Luke cooked at home, it wasn't every time, and some nights it was just her wanting dessert which would end up being leftover pie from the diner.

"Your parents always serve dessert after dinner, I figured it wouldn't hurt to whip something up," Luke replied like the answer should have been obvious. "I made it earlier this morning. I'll serve it with coffee after dinner."

"You are the perfect man," Lorelai gushed in a higher voice than usual then moved to stand back by his side. "Although I would also suggest that we could keep the cheesecake for ourselves and tonight once this whole debacle is over, we can feed it to each other in bed."

"Which really would be me feeding it to you."

"I would never say no to that."

"The cheesecake is for after dinner," Luke said. His tone was final but somewhat betrayed when he mentioned that while the dessert was for after dinner, it would be up to them to decide what to do if they should be any leftover and he would gladly feed it to her in bed.

She smiled at him. "Good to know."

Her reply was quickly followed by the sound of the front door opening and the sound of Rory's voice announcing that she was home. Lorelai called back to let her daughter know that they were in the kitchen. When Rory appeared in the kitchen, announcing that Paul Anka was sitting on the table again which she disapproved of, Lorelai walked away from Luke's side and wrapped her daughter up in a tight hug declaring that it had been far too long since they saw each other even if it was just last Friday. She also went for the dramatics and announced it had been far too long since they last spoke even though their last phone call was just earlier this morning.

"Hey Luke," Rory greeted her soon-to-be stepfather as soon as her mom stopped hugging her and she could breathe again. "Dinner smells great."

"Thanks Rory."

Rory looked away from Luke then to her mom who was now sitting down at the kitchen table, or one of the kitchen tables since another one had been added since the last time she was home. "Two tables?" she questioned, taking the seat opposite of her mom.

"Well this table is only big enough for four and we needed more room for the night so Luke brought home a table from the diner," Lorelai informed her daughter.

"So now the diner is missing a table?" Rory asked.

"Just for a few hours," Luke jumped in at that moment. "We needed the extra place settings."

"Even if it means barely no space in the kitchen now which is definitely something I can already hear your grandmother complaining about," Lorelai said as she looked at her daughter. "How this house is too small for everyone and we'll need extra space eventually."

"I still want to know how you managed to convince grandma and grandpa to come over here for dinner," Rory confessed. "Grandma just doesn't give up her dinners that easily. I remember very elaborate lies you tried to concoct to get out of dinner. How did you even do it?"

Lorelai gave a shrug of her shoulders and answered honestly. "I have no idea. Just a lot of talking to her on the phone, suggesting my idea, trying to convince her that it was great and if they follow through with it then they could meet April. It took a lot of work, left me exhausted but I eventually wore her down. Your grandmother is a very stubborn woman."

"She takes after her daughter that way," Rory quipped to which Lorelai acted offended. At the mention of April, she noticed that the younger girl was not in the kitchen with them. "Speaking of April, where is she at?"

"Her room," Lorelai answered. Noticing the look that Rory gave her, she quickly tacked on, "I mean your room." It was Luke's turn to give her a look that was similar to Rory's. "I mean her room that was your room but while she's here, I call it her room but it will always be your room too." With both of them now looking at her mixed with her own slight confusion, she began to grow frustrated. "What I'm saying is, is that she is in that room right off the kitchen."

Rory bit back a laugh, "I knew what you meant Mom. I was just trying to mess with you. And it looks like it worked."

Though she did find it weird when her mother instinctively referred to the room as April's room, it made sense and she was more than happy to share her room with her younger, soon-to-be step-sister, especially seeing as she didn't spend as much time at home these days. Still the weirdness remained that it was no longer just her room. Knowing that her mom said April added her own personal touch to the room, she wanted to sneak a peek into the room to see exactly what changed.

"You should be nice to your mommy, you only have one," Lorelai commented. "Besides you're the stubborn one."

"Nuh-uh," Rory said, disagreeing with her mother.

"Yeah-uh."

"Nuh-uh."

Luke interrupted just as Lorelai was about to speak again. "Don't. With you two this could go on forever."

"Fine," Lorelai sighed. "Besides, I need to be caught up on all the latest happenings with you that haven't been discussed over the phone. Or things that have been discussed over the phone that I might need a refresher on. How's school, Logan, experienced a Paris freak-out yet? Update me on everything before your grandparents get here and you tell them whatever they want to know."

While Rory did as requested and started to update her mother on everything going on in her life, choosing to start with Logan and how their relationship was going with him still out of the country, Luke continued cooking in the background as he listened to Rory's latest updates as well. Though he mainly chose to remain silent, he did add a few comments in here and there while he prepared their dinner. Choosing to keep the menu to something that was favorable to most, he went with lemon-garlic herb rubbed chicken breasts with brown rice and asparagus. Simple yet proving that he can definitely cook more than just diner food which apparently seemed to be a concern of Emily's when Lorelai was trying to convince them that dinner at their house on Friday wouldn't be that big of a deal.

With his own experiences at the Elder Gilmore house, especially the first couple of times he went for dinner over there, he was a little nervous over how they were going to treat April. Though since April was younger and she was a pretty impressive kid, in his opinion and Lorelai's, he didn't see the night going too terribly. Plus they had the advantage of being in their own home which was naturally a more relaxing environment than the Elder Gilmore house.


A little later that night after a wardrobe change by Luke and an averted fashion crisis for April thanks to Lorelai and Rory, they were set for the Elder Gilmores' arrival. Luke remained in the kitchen putting the finishing touches on dinner while Lorelai and Rory gave April the run-down on her parents, telling her that there was nothing to worry about but to be prepared for a myriad of questions since they were trying to get to know her. But if she were too uncomfortable with a question then she didn't have to answer though Lorelai didn't think that would be the case since her parents seemed genuine about truly wanting to get to know April and being in her life.

When the doorbell rang, Lorelai had the urge to shout 'come in' since she did that with some other visitors but since this was her parents, she got up from the couch where she sat with April and Rory and made her way to the front door all the while being accompanied by Paul Anka. When she opened the door for her parents, he backed away and sat down next to her, watching as two new people joined them.

"Hey Mom, Dad," Lorelai greeted as they stepped across the threshold and into the house. "Can I take your coats?"

"Hello Lorelai," Richard greeted followed by a greeting from Emily as they both took off their coats and handed them to Lorelai.

Lorelai hung their coats up on the coat rack before guiding them to the living room and calling out to tell Luke that her parents were know here and he should join them in the living room for a moment. She earned a look of disapproval from her mother for yelling in the house and almost right into her ear but she apologized for the noise before making a face behind her mother's back. Luke quickly joined them greeting Richard and Emily before moving to stand beside April in order to introduce her.

"Richard, Emily," Luke said after being told that the Mr. and Mrs. wasn't necessary. "This is my daughter, April. April these are Lorelai's parents, Mr. and Mrs. Gilmore."

April was the first one to speak. "Nice to meet you Mr. and Mrs. Gilmore."

"It's very nice to finally meet you as well, we've heard many great things about you April," Emily replied. "You may call me Emily."

"And you may call me Richard," Richard replied before repeating his wife's sentiments about how nice it was to meet her.

While Rory and April took their places back on the couch, Richard opted for the armchair across from the couch, and though it took a moment of decision, Emily decided to join the girls on the couch, sitting down beside Rory which left April on Rory's other side. Luke announced that he was going to go check in on dinner since it should only be a few more minutes and since there was no other seating available, at least one that wasn't the coffee table or the chair at the desk, Lorelai decided to keep standing.

"Are you just going to stand there?" Emily asked when she noticed that Lorelai hadn't moved.

"Where would you like me to sit?" Lorelai questioned. "Not too much seating in here at the moment."

"Hm maybe you should rethink that, get another chair in here or something. That way you'll have plenty of space when you have company," Emily suggested.

"As soon as the living room expands, I'll get right on that Mom," Lorelai replied. "While we're waiting on dinner, anyone need a drink?"

The group quickly listed off their drink orders and Lorelai disappeared into the kitchen to fulfill their requests. Once she was gone, Paul Anka wandered into the living room and debated about where he was going to sit before finally choosing to lay down on the floor next to the couch. Emily looked down at the dog at her feet and quickly shifted away from him so no dog hair would get on her shoes before she turned her focus back to April.

"So April, how's school going?" Emily asked.

"School's great," April answered. "I only went back a couple of days ago because of my surgery and Dad was worried that I would work too much but I managed to finish all my work and I even think I aced my math test today."

"That's great, I'm sure you did fine," Emily replied even though it wasn't the most pressing matter. "You had surgery recently?"

April nodded her head in response. "It wasn't anything too major, I had to have my appendix out but I feel a lot better. I just have to take it easy and not go to my swim team practice for a little while."

Emily locked eyes with her daughter when she re-entered the room and began to distribute their drinks. "I wasn't aware that you had surgery April but I'm glad you're feeling better. You seem to have recovered well."

When April replied that she was feeling a lot better though her dad was still a little worried about her, Lorelai silently cursed herself when she knew that there was something that she didn't tell her mom. She just thought it was the fact that she and Luke had started planning for their wedding. She didn't even think to mention that April had surgery recently to her parents. And know her mother was going to think that she was keeping things from her. Which in a way she did, just not on purpose.

Lorelai cleared her throat effectively halting the conversation for now. "Now that you have your drinks, don't put them down just yet because Luke just told me that dinner is ready so we can head into the kitchen."

With that, she swiftly turned onto her heel and headed into the kitchen without waiting to check if anyone was following her. Everyone followed soon after but not without comments from both Richard and Emily about how small and crowded the kitchen was with the additional table that Lorelai in turn insisted was needed to have them over for dinner. She managed to dodge a couple more comments on the size of the kitchen and the mismatched tables while helping Luke serve everyone once they were all seated.

"Dinner looks great Luke," Richard complimented.

"Thank you Richard," Luke replied. "I know for a fact that it's a meal Lorelai likes, figured it would be a good one to try tonight."

"I should definitely try to come home more when Luke is cooking," Rory interjected as she was already digging into her meal. "While I do love take-out, there's only so much of it and cafeteria food I can take."

Luke gave a nod of his head at her words. "I'll take that as a compliment."

"You should," Lorelai advised, "She's choosing your food over take-out, doesn't happen often."

"This is really good," Emily complimented, a few bites missing from her plate. She took a sip of her drink before focusing again on April who sat at the additional table with Rory. "So April, we've heard a little about you from your father and Lorelai but tell us something else. What do you like to do? What are you interested in? You mentioned a swim team earlier?"

More than happy to talk about her interests, April began to wax lyrical about her schooling and how she was enjoying the eight grade so far. Rory jumped in the conversation as well asking April what her favorite subject was in school and though their favorites differed, English for Rory and Science for April, they still shared a similar love of learning that they could bond over. Richard and Emily both appeared to be fascinated over her love of science, asking different questions on why it was her favorite and if she had already thought of any future careers in science and the steps it would take to get there. That came mainly from Richard just because he couldn't help but ask.

After almost exhausting her opinions on school, the attention was diverted just a tiny bit away from April when Rory started to catch up her grandparents on the recent goings-on in her life. Though April didn't play stranger and remain silent to that conversation since she wanted to know a little about Yale and her room's former and sometimes still occupant/soon to be older step-sister. They hadn't been able to spend much time together but Rory promised that they would try to spend some time together as soon as they both had free time.

Conversation freely flowed throughout dinner and both Lorelai and Luke's worries were alleviated in the slightest bit when none of the Elder Gilmore's comments towards April were in any way biting or the least bit condescending. As Emily had stated before, they did truly want to get to know her. Though Luke wasn't big on the talk of April possibly switching schools and going to Chilton once she got into high school since April really didn't seem big on the idea herself. But with Lorelai's help, that topic was quickly dismissed when she started to feed Paul Anka from her plate, which of course drew the attention of Emily who scolded her daughter for feeding the dog food that was meant for people and for feeding him from the same fork she ate with.

"Okay, I don't think dinner went that bad," Lorelai spoke in a low voice as she helped Luke clear the plates from the table once everyone had finished eating and headed into the living room where they decided to serve dessert and coffee in just a few minutes.

"No, it didn't," Luke agreed, taking plates that Lorelai held out and setting them down in the sink. "It wasn't bad at all."

"My parents were on better behavior than usual tonight," Lorelai commented. "I mean aside from a few comments from my mom but those were directed at me, which is what usually happens anyway."

"They did seem pretty impressed with April."

Lorelai smiled, "Well you have a pretty impressive daughter."

"I do," Luke agreed. "Help me with dessert?"

"Of course babe."

Back in the living room, the other four had taken up the same seats as before. Even Paul Anka decided that his resting place would once again be next to none other than Emily. Rory had laughed when he noticed Paul Anka nudging her grandma's hand a few attempts in an attempt to be petted which Emily simply refused to do and tried to put some distance between herself and the dog. He eventually gave up and curled up at her feet once again.

"I mean the real reason I get to do so many events is because everyone on my team pretty much stinks," April claimed as she continued to fill in Richard and Emily on bits of her life that now involved her swim team.

"I'm sure that's not true. I'm sure you're a great swimmer," Richard refuted.

"It's true." April gave a shrug of her shoulders. "I'm fine with it. I like swimming, I like being on the team. And I can always improve."

"That's a good attitude to have," Richard replied. "And when you're older and applying to colleges, it's good to have activities outside of school."

"Well at least you made a sports team. I'm not athletic at all," Rory decided to speak up at that time.

"Can you swim?" April asked.

Rory nodded her head. "I can keep afloat."

"That is the first step," April replied.

"A good one," Rory agreed.

Emily was distracted from the conversation by the dog at her feet. He had started to move, pulling something out from underneath the couch that with the angle that he was at, hit the back of her heels every time he moved. She shuffled her feet out the way and watched as he pulled out a few magazines out from underneath the couch. The covers of the magazines were all facing up and by the glossy print and pictures, she made them out to be bridal magazines. Curiosity got that best of her. That and not wanting the dog to rip up the magazines all across the living room as she figured he would do. She reached down and retrieved the magazines.

While the others went on to talk about a rock polisher, something that April obviously wanted by cool she claimed they were, she started to flip through the magazines. Her curiosity was heightened even more when she noticed that a few pages of one of the magazines was dog-eared and littered with post-it notes that had wedding ideas scribbled on them in her daughter's handwriting. She noted a few dates that all had question marks by them and wondered what they meant though she really knew that they could only mean one thing. But the last she heard, her daughter and Luke weren't busy planning anything for their wedding.

Just a few moments after she picked up the magazines, Lorelai appeared in the living room bearing coffee. She was quick to notice that her mother had found the magazines she tried to stash away. They were a last minute stash away brought to her attention by Rory because, ironically, she didn't want her mother to find them before she had a chance to tell her that she had officially started wedding planning. Well her, Luke, Rory, Sookie, and April had officially started planning. She had meant to bring it up at dinner but between April and Rory dominating most of the conversation with her parents, there just wasn't the time. Lorelai quickly passed out cups of coffee to her father and Rory from the tray she held in her hand and announced there was cream and sugar available if needed.

Being able to read the look in her mother's eyes and not wanting to cause an unnecessary scene, Lorelai asked her mother if they could speak outside for just a moment. When Emily pointed out that it was cold outside and they could have the conversation here, Lorelai insisted that they would just wear their coats and they would have coffee to warm them up once they came inside because their conversation would not take long at all. Before Luke could make it in with the cheesecake, the mother and daughter pair were in their coats and out the front door to the porch.

"Why on Earth did you insist we speak outside?" Emily asked as soon as Lorelai shut the front door behind her.

"Less chances that voices will carry inside so this is just between me and you," Lorelai answered. She came to a stop in front of her mother. "Well me, you, Babette's gnomes, and maybe Babette because she likes anything that she can gossip about."

"I'm not sure what we even need to talk about."

"Come on Mom, you know." When her mother still pretended not to know, though the look in her eyes said differently, she continued on. "About those magazines..."

"It seems clear to me. You decided to start planning your wedding and you also decided to hide it from me."

"I wasn't hiding it from you," Lorelai insisted.

"Right, because I do remember reading that the latest way to store your magazines is to shove them underneath the couch. Oh how silly of me to forget," Emily replied sternly. "Then you didn't bother to tell your father and I about April having surgery, you're just going right back to shutting us out of your lives."

Crossing her arms over her chest, she stared down at the ground. "It's not like that, I swear Mom."

"Then tell me what it is like Lorelai."

Lorelai blew out a breath and moved away from her mother. She braced her arms on the porch railing and leaned against it, staring out into the yard. "Because I'm not always sure how to tell you things Mom." She paused. "I know we've talked before and you were there for me when I really needed someone but I still don't always know how to tell you things."

Emily crossed the porch and stood behind her daughter. "What do you mean by that?"

"It means that as soon as I did share this with you, you would have tried to take over all the planning," Lorelai said when she turned around to face her mother. "You've made it clear several times that you already have certain plans for me and all you really needed was the go-ahead. You even tried to plan all of Sookie's wedding."

"I see the problem now, you don't want my help at all."

She shook her head, "That's not what I'm saying at all."

"Certainly sounds like it."

"Well it's not," Lorelai repeated. "Your plans did sound great, they really did. But for Luke and me, it's a little too much. Plus your plans are strictly for a winter wedding and Luke and I hadn't planned for that at all. Your plans just wouldn't work."

"What are you planning?" Emily asked.

Lorelai gave a slight shrug of her shoulders, "I don't know. I mean we have talked more about a Spring/Summer wedding, maybe more Summer because that gives us enough time to planned without being rushed but it's also kind of soon so our engagement doesn't stretch on forever."

"A summer wedding isn't what I had in mind for you but I suppose it could be nice," Emily tried to go along with her daughter. "Did you have any other plans?"

"We were thinking maybe the inn, it's a beautiful spot," Lorelai smiled at the idea. "Or the town square."

"The town square? Really Lorelai? And your reception hall will be the diner?"

Lorelai rolled her eyes. "It's just an option Mom, and yes, the town square could be beautiful."

"I suppose it could be. It does have that lovely gazebo," Emily replied as if she was actually pondering the idea.

"Yeah," Lorelai agreed. "Look I wasn't trying to keep you out of the planning. I was going to tell you that Luke and I had decided to move forward with plans, things have just been crazy lately. I wasn't keeping this from you. I had planned to tell you."

Emily was silent for far too long for Lorelai's liking. But when she spoke again, Lorelai let out a sigh of relief. "I believe you Lorelai."

Lorelai gave a quick nod of her head, "Good. Thank you. In fact, I was going to ask you to help with the planning."

"You were?" Emily asked, she couldn't even mask the surprise in her voice.

"Yeah Mom." When she saw that her mother was going to respond, "But you do have to remember that this is my wedding. Mine and Luke's. You can't take over. Feel free to lay any ideas on the table, but this is about me and Luke, he's helping with the planning too."

"He wants to help with the planning?"

"As a matter of fact he does. He made that very clear to me since he was pushed out of the planning the first time around," Lorelai answered. "So that means that I don't want you to try and force us into something that you want or that you envisioned for me. None of that is really Luke and he needs some say in the wedding. Do we have a deal?"

Emily fell quiet again and as soon as Lorelai was going to head back inside, she spoke up. "We have a deal."

A small smile crossed Lorelai's face. "Good."

"On one condition though."

"You cannot make a condition on my deal."

"Says who?"

"Says who?" Lorelai parroted. "Says the universe. I had a deal. You can't make a condition on that. I already had my own conditions, you cannot add more on top of that."

"You said deal, not condition."

Lorelai closed her eyes, ran her hands down her face and groaned. "Fine," she said as she opened her eyes. "What's your condition?"

"I was in contact with my realtor recently. That house I showed you is still available, though I'm not sure for how much longer because there is another couple that might be interested. I would like for you and Luke to consider letting your father and I buy you that house as a wedding present," Emily replied.

"We already have a house," Lorelai pointed out. "We're standing on the porch right now."

"I know that Lorelai. But this house is far too small if you and Luke want to expand your family. It's already too small now, what if Rory wanted to stay the night while April was over, you don't have places for both of them. I'm sure this house was fine for you and Rory but you're getting married, Luke has April, and if you want another kid, you need more space."

"Okay," Lorelai responded as soon as her mother stopped talking. "I'm not promising anything because I love this house. But I will talk with Luke about this again."

"You will?"

"Yes," Lorelai answered. "Now can we get back inside because Luke has cheesecake with dessert and he promised to serve it with coffee and he makes the best coffee. So are we done here?"

"You're the one that we insisted we come out here in the first place," Emily pointed out.

"Then it should be my decision when we head back inside and I say we head back inside now. I'm freezing my ass off out here."

Emily let out an exasperated sigh. "Language Lorelai."

She side-stepped by her mother and headed towards the door, "Fine, I'm freezing my tookus off, is that better?"

"Just head inside Lorelai."

Inside, Lorelai and Emily joined the rest of the family for a much warmer atmosphere. Luke, who had been talking to Richard when they first walked in, excused himself and made his way over to Lorelai as Emily took a seat back on the couch. He placed his hand on her arm and gently guided her just out of view of everyone else.

"Everything okay?" he asked.

"Everything's fine babe, no worries," Lorelai assured him. "My mom and I just needed to talk about something, decided not around everyone else might be better. She agreed to help plan the wedding."

"How many people are planning our wedding now?"

She laughed at that. "When word gets out, the whole town might jump on the wedding planning committee."

"Jeez," Luke murmured.

"It'll be fine hon," Lorelai promised. She leaned in and pressed a soft kiss to his lips. "Now I need some coffee."

"Let's get back in there."


After cheesecake and coffee and plenty of conversation that even dipped a little into wedding planning which was really just tossing around a few dates to see which one fit them as a couple, the Friday Night dinner ended much later than usual. While Lorelai and Luke were showing the Gilmores out, Rory and April headed back to their room so Rory could check out the space that was now also April's.

"She's a lovely girl," Emily complimented as Richard helped her into her coat. "You should be very proud Luke."

"I am very proud," Luke admitted. "Thank you Emily."

"Emily's right," Richard joined in the conversation. "April is a smart young lady."

"That she is," Lorelai agreed. She was a step behind her parents as they started to head out the door. "We'll see you next Friday for dinner."

"Which we'll be at our house," Emily reminded her. "This was nice but we'll continue dinners at our house."

"Wouldn't have expected any less," Lorelai replied. She smiled as Paul Anka walked up beside her. "Mom, aren't you going to say goodbye to your new friend? I think he's going to miss you."

"He got dog hair all over my skirt. Now it's going to get in your father's car," Emily said. "Remember what we talked about Lorelai."

"I remember."

Goodbyes were exchanged once more before the Elder Gilmores were finally out the door and headed to their car. Luke shut the door behind them and went to find Lorelai since she was gone from his side as soon as her parents exited the house. It didn't take him long to follow the giggles that emanated from the room off the kitchen. He poked his head in the door to find all three of his girls sitting on the bed.

"Movie night?" Lorelai suggested. "I don't think it's too late for at least one classic."

"I would if I could but I think I should really head back to New Haven," Rory said reluctantly. "It's getting late and I'm getting tired."

"Are you sure?" Lorelai asked. "I can make up the couch for you, that way you can spend the night here and you don't have to head home right now."

"I'm sure. I don't think I could survive a night on that couch," Rory replied. "We'll reschedule a movie night though."

"Okay," Lorelai accepted the answer. Rory decided to leave at that time, stopping to give her mother a kiss on the cheek before she left and promised to be back soon for wedding planning when her mother needed her. "What about you April, you up for movie night?"

The young girl stretched and then yawned. "I'm not sure if I could make it through a movie. It was a long day at school."

"And you do need your rest," Luke chimed in from the doorway. "You're still recovering."

"We'll have movie night next time I come to visit," April suggested.

"Sounds good," Lorelai got up from the bed. "Goodnight kid."

She left the room as Luke stepped in to say goodnight to April. She headed into the living room and tidied up the few things that were out of place. Though it wasn't much as they did a good job of cleaning up right after dessert. It was just a few seconds later that she was joined by Luke. She smiled when she felt his arms wrap around her from behind.

"What about you?" She asked. "Movie night?"

"I was thinking more along the lines of going to bed."

She turned around in his arms and covered his lips with hers. "Go get the rest of the cheesecake and I'll meet you up there."

"Happy to do it."

"Dirty."


Paul Anka just wants to be friends with Emily and things went down without too many dramatics.

As always reviews are appreciated.