A/N: Here is the second chapter. Thanks to all of you who reviewed the first chapter of the sequel! I highly appreciate your comments and I love to hear how you feel about my work. Thanks to LorelaiAkaCoffeeAddict for proofreading. I don't have the time to email you right now because I'm going hiking and have to be back in my room in an hour, and have to stop by the supermarket first, but I wanted to post the chapter before I left. This chapter takes place the day after the one in chapter 1 and you'll find out about Luke's plan. I hope you all like this chapter as much as the first one and of course, don't forget to let me know!
Chapter 2 Family and alone time
Lorelai woke up early, not knowing what to expect of the day. She had tried hard to get Luke to tell her what they were going to do, but he wouldn't give in. Even when she woke him at three in the morning, hoping that he would be so sleepy that he gave the answer without thinking. She turned to her side and saw Luke still asleep. She lifted her body up a little so she could look at his alarm clock. 6.30 a.m. Normally Luke would have been long gone to open the diner. She moved a little closer to him and planted a kiss on his cheek. When he didn't respond she moved her lips towards his and kissed him there, letting her lips linger. After a few seconds he started to respond, without opening his eyes. Lorelai smiled through the kiss as he did, and slowly opened her mouth. After a minute or so she pulled away and Luke slowly opened his eyes.
"Good morning."
"Morning." She kissed his lips lightly.
"Nice way to wake up. What time is it?"
"6.30. Why aren't you up yet?"
"Because Caesar is opening the diner."
"But he's sick."
"He starts working again today. I have the weekend off, just like you."
"So, you tell me where we're going then?"
"No. It's a surprise. You'll see."
"But Luke."
"No buts. Go back to sleep, it's still early. I'll take care of Lucan."
"But I don't want to sleep anymore."
"I've never heard you say that before." He smiled.
"Come on Luke, tell me."
"No." He turned the covers away from him and got out of bed.
"Where are you going?"
"To check up on our son."
"He's not awake yet."
"How do you know?"
"Because he's not making any noise. When he's awake he starts making noises or you hear him play with his rattle. Trust me, our little boy is still asleep. Get back in here."
"But..."
"Trust me. He'll let us know when he's awake. If you go in there now all you do is wake him up and then he'll be cranky, and that he's enough these days with the teething."
"Fine." He got back into the bed and Lorelai scooted close to him immediately, laying her chin on his shoulder.
"This is much better." She kissed him. "You know how much I love waking up next to you?"
"I love waking up next to you, too."
"But you always do that. When I wake up, on the other hand, you're always gone."
"You could wake up when I do."
"In the middle of the night, when it's still dark, even in the summer?"
"It's not dark when I wake up at 4.45 in the summer. But you wouldn't know that since
you're always sleeping at that time."
"I am not always asleep at that time. I get up with you sometimes to take a shower and then go back to bed when you leave. Not often, but still." She kissed him again.
"I like it when you do that. You should do it more often."
"Mhmm..." She thought it over for a while before replying. "I would if you'd wake up an hour later."
"If I'd wake up an hour later I would definitely not have the time to do so."
"We have some time now. Lucan won't be up for half an hour or so, and even if he does, he's
fine with his rattle and his babbling for a while." She looked at him seductively.
He kissed her, then sat up pulling her up with him.
-xxxxx-
Two hours later they were all showered and had breakfast. Lorelai was sitting on the couch, playing with Lucan and Luke was cleaning up the kitchen. "Hey, Luke?" Lorelai yelled.
"No." He yelled back.
"No fun." She pouted and even though Luke couldn't see it, he knew.
"Stop that. It's not helping."
"How did you know?"
"Oh come on." He had to smile to himself.
"Stop that." She knew him just as well as he knew her.
Luke appeared from the kitchen. "What do you want to do this morning?"
"Don't you have plans?"
"I do, but they don't start this early. Rory will be here at 1.30 to pick up Lucan, then we'll leave. And don't say, 'Where are we going?' because I'm not going to tell you."
"Oh…." She looked sad.
Luke looked at his wife, not understanding her reaction. "Why are you sad?" He sat down
next to her.
"I thought we would be spending today as a family." Quickly she added. "Not that I don't like spending time with my husband because I do, it's just, after the summer I thought we could spend some time together, all of us."
"And we will. The weekend isn't over after today, there are two more days and there will definitely be family time. Today will be just about us though, at least from 1.30 on. We can spend some time together, the three of us, until then."
"I'd like that." She looked happy. "Can we go for a walk? It's a beautiful day so maybe we can walk to the lake, give our boy some fresh air?"
"Sure, sounds good. Let me finish cleaning up the kitchen and then we can go. You can get ready so we can leave when I'm done."
She nodded and put Lucan in the playpen, before walking upstairs to get some shoes. Luke had to wait 5 minutes and had Lucan in the stroller already by the time she came back downstairs. "Sorry, couldn't find the right shoes."
"You have like 50 pairs."
"Yeah, that's why it's hard to find the perfect shoes, Luke."
He shook his head and decided not to get into it. "You ready now?"
"Perfectly ready."
"Good, so are we."
They didn't need jackets so they could just go outside. They walked in silence, enjoying being together, and the fresh air after spending the whole summer inside. When they reached the lake Lorelai sat down in the grass, watching the water. Luke smiled at her, then took Lucan out of the stroller and sat down next to her, the baby in his lap.
"It's beautiful out here. I've lived in this town for over 20 years and I never realized how beautiful it is around here." Lorelai glanced at Luke.
"It is. It's often very quiet at this particular spot. I used to go fishing here or swimming or just came here to be alone and think. Just sitting here, watching the water."
Lorelai smiled. "We should do this more often."
"Yeah we should." They sat in silence, watching the water. Lucan was quiet, chewing on his small thumb as he watched the water with his parent, occasionally looking up to glance at his parents. Both Luke and Lorelai noticed this and smiled, watching their son and the water,
enjoying their private time. They stayed like that for almost an hour.
"I think we should go home now. Give Lucan his fruit and we still have to pack."
"Pack? Where are we going?"
"You'll see."
"We're going to your cabin aren't we?" She looked in his eyes, knowing that he couldn't lie to her.
He nodded. "Yes, we're going to the cabin. We're going together today, Rory will take care of Lucan so they can go to Friday night dinner and we can have some private time. They will meet us, together with Warren, at the cabin tomorrow morning, around 11 o 'clock."
"How long have you been planning this?"
"Rory told me last week how much she missed you this summer and that it was too late to spend time together, so we planned this. Since it's only her first week she has a lot of free time and it seemed like the only weekend we could arrange this, so we did."
She hugged him then, holding him tight, almost crushing Lucan in between. "Thank you."
"Relax." He pulled back. "You're crushing our son."
She looked into Luke's lap where the small boy was watching her. She lifted him up and kissed his nose. "Sorry, buddy." The baby smiled. "Let's go home. We have a lot of packing to do."
"One bag and I get to pick which bag you're taking."
"Not fair."
"It's only for one weekend."
"We'll fight about this when we get home." She stood up and put Lucan on her hip.
"Put him in the stroller."
"Nah, I prefer holding him. He's been in that stroller enough this summer, I'd just like to hold him close for a while."
Luke put one arm around her shoulder, pulling her close to him, using his other hand to push the stroller forward, and the three of them together walked home.
-xxxxx-
"Luke." Lorelai yelled downstairs. She was trying to pack but had trouble deciding what to take with her. She knew what she wanted to take but there was no way that it would fit in the bag Luke had given her earlier.
"You're not getting a bigger bag Lorelai." Luke yelled from downstairs.
"But."
"No buts. We're going for only a weekend so you don't need many clothes. Just get something to wear tomorrow and something to wear on Sunday. That's two pants, two shirts and two sets of underwear. The bag I gave you is even too big for that."
"I need more than that."
"No you don't."
"But."
He stood up, annoyed by the fact that she was fighting him about this for the past hour. He had packed his own stuff and Lucan's, in less than 10 minutes. He fed Lucan and made lunch for himself and Lorelai, which was getting cold downstairs. "If you don't come down soon you're lunch is gonna be cold."
"But I don't know what to take."
"That's because you have too many clothes. You're closet is full with things you never wear so I don't understand why you don't take them out."
"Not this again. Just help me, okay?"
"Fine." He gave her a small push so she would step away from the closet. Then he took two pairs of jeans, two sweaters, two shirts and a pajama. "There you go."
"But I don't want those."
He threw the stuff on the bed. "You know what? Do it yourself. I'm downstairs eating lunch. Rory will be here in half an hour. If you're not ready I'm going without you." With that he
turned around and walked back downstairs.
Lorelai watched him walk away and knew it was no use to say something so she turned back to her closet.
Rory walked into the house at exactly 1.30. Luke was sitting on the couch flipping channels.
"Hey Luke."
He looked up. "Hey Rory."
"Where's mom?"
"Upstairs, packing. She's been there for two hours now, her lunch is cold in the kitchen and she is yelling downstairs every 5 minutes if I can help her. I've been up there but she doesn't like what I picked so now I'm here."
"I'll help her."
"Thanks." He smiled gratefully.
Rory walked upstairs and found her mother in her bedroom, sitting on the bed, staring at the closet. "Need some help?"
"Please. I asked Luke but he doesn't want to help me anymore."
"So I've heard." Rory smiled and walked towards the closet. 5 minutes later Lorelai's bag was packed. It was filled completely and they had trouble closing it, but Lorelai liked what was in
it.
"Thanks hon."
"No problem. So he told you the plans for the weekend?"
"Yeah he did. I know I told you this yesterday, but I'm so sorry for what happened this summer."
"I know mom, and its okay. We can't change it, but let's at least enjoy this weekend together okay?"
"Okay. But are you sure you don't want to come with us now? I mean, you'd only be there for a day and a half or so."
"I'm sure. We have to go to Friday night dinner and the drive is too long to go after that. And this way you can spend some time alone with Luke, without a baby around that asks for attention all the time."
"He doesn't do that. I don't know what I would have done if he was a kid that needed attention 24 hours a day, but he's not."
"I know. But I figured you could use some alone time. We'll be there around 11 tomorrow morning and we won't leave until Sunday after dinner."
Lorelai smiled. "You sure?"
"Positive. Now let's get downstairs and see if Luke's still willing to make us some lunch and then you can leave."
"Sounds like a plan."
Half an hour later they were all ready to go. "So, Lucan's food is in the kitchen. We prepared everything so all you have to do is heat it up. His diapers and clothes are upstairs in his room and the bathtub is in the bathroom upstairs. You can fill it with water, using your elbow to check if it's not to hot and carry it to his room, or just move the standard into the bathroom if it's too heavy to lift. If you do that make sure you have his bathrobe with you so he won't get cold if you carry him from the bathroom to his room to dress him. Make sure you give him a bath before you feed him otherwise it will all come out again. If there are any problems, you can call Sookie. There's no phone in the cabin and it's most likely my cell won't work either. There's also a few numbers on the fridge. His pediatrician, 911, and the emergency number where you can reach us. You call the number and get a rancher. You give him a message and tell him the address of the cabin so he can bring us the message. He'll get it to us as soon as possible and call you back. And…"
"Mom stop. Please. You've told me about the numbers at least 10 times in the past half hour and I know how to take care of my little brother. I watched him over 20 times during the summer. I know how to heat up a bottle or his food and I know how and when to give him a bath. And I definitely know the alarm number. Don't worry. Lucan's going to be fine, I'm going to be fine. We are both going to be fine. We'll see you tomorrow at 11 o clock. Okay?"
Lorelai sighed. "Okay."
"Now hand me the baby."
Lorelai was holding the baby tight to her chest not wanting to let him go.
"Mom, it's only for one night."
Lorelai looked down at her son. "You're going to be alright aren't you? You're not going to hold this against me for the rest of your life are you? I really love you. I really do, and I'm going to see you again tomorrow."
Luke put a hand on her shoulder. "He's going to be fine. He loves Rory and he loves spending time with her, and she's with him. We have to go now, otherwise we'll be jammed in traffic in a few hours."
Lorelai nodded, then lifted the baby a little higher and kissed him. "I'm going to miss you, honey." Then she handed the baby to Luke who kissed him as well before handing him to Rory.
"There you go. Bye buddy. Be nice for Rory okay?"
"I will." Rory said in a baby voice as she waved Lucan's hand up and down. "Bye mommy, bye daddy."
Lorelai kissed Rory's cheek. "Bye hon."
"Bye mom." And then they left.
-xxxxx-
"Are you sure they are going to be okay?"
Luke looked at his wife. They were on the road for half an hour and this was already the third time she asked. He felt annoyed when she asked him the same question again but when he looked in her eyes, he saw concern. "Yes, they will be fine. Don't worry okay? Rory will take good care of him, and it's only for the night."
"I know but…"
"He is not going to hold this against you for the rest of your life, or his life, Lorelai. He won't even remember it because he's too small."
"But it's just like it was with my parents."
"What?" He turned to look at her again before turning his attention back to the road.
"My parents left without me so many times. They left me with a random person to take care
of me. You know how that turned out."
He shook his head. "First of all, Rory is not a random person, she's his big sister. Second, everything turned out just fine. You and your mother are doing great right now."
"Yes, after fighting for over thirty years, Luke. I don't want that with him, I love him."
"You're nothing like your mother Lorelai, and you will never be. She loved you even though she wanted different things for you than you wanted. It took her a long time to understand that those things weren't what you wanted and now things are fine. You and Lucan will never have a relationship like that because you don't want stuff like that for him. And it's only for one night, it's not like we're doing this every weekend."
"But it's the first time we leave him alone since he's born. He's so little, I don't want him to be all independent yet."
"He's not. He's being spoiled by his big sister. As far as he notices where he is, he's going to have a great time. Even at your parents' house."
She smiled at that. "Thanks."
He took her hand in his and squeezed it. "You don't have to say that."
"But somehow you always know how to make me feel better."
"That's why you married me, right?"
"I guess. That among other things."
"Something tells me this conversation could go on forever."
"It could, unless you stop right there so I can get a cup of coffee."
"No way. Plus I like this, you know?"
She raised her eyebrows. "Really? You like to talk about feelings?"
"Not that, just spending time together. Rory's not the only one who missed you during the summer."
"I missed you too, Luke." She squeezed his knee. "And we're going to make up for the lost time. So how long until we get to your cabin?"
"We're just got on the road. It will take a few hours to get there."
"Then I definitely need coffee."
"Sorry, but we passed the place. Guess you missed that change."
"But this is America, honey. You can buy coffee everywhere."
-xxxxx-
"So this is it." They had parked the truck a few minutes ago and where walking through the woods.
"Not yet. But we're almost there."
"I think I could like it out here. Although there is no civilization at all."
"I warned you about that. But you said you didn't need any."
"I don't. I will be fine. Plus, we're only staying for the weekend."
"Turn right."
They turned right and walked down the hill. It didn't take long before Lorelai saw the lake.
"Wow. I thought that the lake in Stars Hallow was beautiful this morning but this is…."
"Pretty amazing, huh?" Luke added after she kept silent for a few seconds.
"Yeah." She walked towards the lake. "This is beautiful, Luke. I can't believe you never took me here before."
"Come on, this way." They walked close to the lake and it didn't take long before Lorelai saw the cabin.
"So this is your famous cabin."
"Yeah well…"
"It looks great Luke."
"Thanks." They stepped on the porch and Luke put their stuff down before fishing the keys out of his pocket. He opened the door and they stepped inside. They entered a big living room, slash kitchen space. Lorelai put her stuff down on the floor and looked around while Luke went to open all the curtains.
"How come everything is in such a good shape if it's been so long since you've been here?"
"I've been paying a guy named Randy to fix everything around here once a year. I called him
a few weeks ago and asked him to take a look, fix what was needed, do some painting and clean up the whole space, just in case we'd use it."
"He did a great job. We need him at our house, too."
"So you like it?"
"What I've seen so far. Show me the rest."
"Okay. Follow me."
"This is the master bedroom." He opened the first door on his left. There was a big wooden bed with matching bed side tables on both sides. There were no covers on the bed. The curtains were flowery. There was also a small desk which surprisingly matched the bed, and so did the chair.
"Wow. Where did your parents find furniture like that? This bed is beautiful." Lorelai took a few steps forward and let herself fall down on the bed.
"My dad made it." Luke was still standing in the door opening.
"Really?" Lorelai sat up. "Wow. Now I can see where you learned it from. This is really amazing, Luke."
"Come on, I'll show you the rest."
They walked into the next room. "This room was from Liz. My dad made all the furniture himself. Well, like all the furniture in here for that matter." The room had a single bed. The room wasn't big, but good enough for vacation. There was also a small desk that matched the bed. The next room was Luke's and was about the same as Liz's except for the furniture that looked completely different. There was also a small bathroom. Even though there was no electricity in the cabin, there was running water, but since there was no electricity there wasn't a boiler to heat up the water.
"You tell me that now?" Lorelai looked at her husband in shock.
"I've told you that there was no electricity in here, what did you expect?"
"I wasn't thinking I guess."
"As you might have seen there's a barbecue in the kitchen that we can move outside. It works on gas and we can use it to boil water and to cook. I brought everything we need; it's in the back of the truck. So I'm going up there to get everything and you can unpack our stuff, okay?"
"Sure." She watched how Luke walked away and just when he was about to leave the cabin she called his name. "Luke?"
"Yeah?" He turned around.
She walked closer to him and put her arms around his waist. "I love it here." She smiled and leaned in to kiss him.
He pulled away after a few seconds. "I better get the stuff from the truck. I'll be right back."
She kissed him again before she let him go and turned around to unpack everything.
-xxxxx-
Rory was standing in front of her grandparents' house. It was almost 7 o clock. Warren was standing next to her, carrying Lucan's car seat. "You ready?"
"Yeah." He'd been coming to Friday night dinners every week since he arrived in America, and he really liked Rory's grandparents. Rory had told him many stories about them while she was in London, and he was glad he finally got to meet them.
"Hello Warren, Rory." Emily opened the door herself.
"Hey Grandma." Rory kissed Emily's cheek and stepped inside.
"Hello Emily." Warren followed.
"I see you brought my grandson. That's a nice surprise."
Rory smiled, knowing that her grandmother had called her mother a day earlier, asking her to make sure Lucan came to Friday night dinner as well. "It sure is grandma."
"Your grandfather is in the living room. I'm going into the kitchen to see how far Paula is with dinner."
"Okay."
Rory and Warren walked into the living room, where Richard was reading a newspaper. "Hey Grandpa."
"Rory." Richard looked up happily. "Hello Warren. How are you doing?"
"Very well sir."
"Sit down. Let me get you something to drink." Richard stood up.
"Soda for me grandpa."
"Fine. And what would you like Warren?"
"Do you have beer?"
"I think we do." Richard was used to having beer in the house since Luke and Lorelai got
married. And Warren preferred beer over something else as well.
Rory took Lucan out of the car seat and sat down on the couch, while Richard walked away to get the drinks. Warren sat down next to her. "Have I told you how much I like your grandparents?"
"A few times, yes."
"They are really nice."
"They really like you, too." Rory wondered sometimes what her grandparents would have thought of Warren if she had taken him home a few years before, but then shook the thoughts
away, happy that they approved of him.
"Dinner will be ready in 15 minutes." Emily walked into the room and sat down. "Can I hold my grandson now?"
"Sure grandma." Rory handed her the baby.
Lucan looked at his grandmother with his big blue eyes. He looked serious, not really sure yet
if he liked his new situation. "He looks bigger. Don't you think he looks bigger?"
"You've seen him last week grandma. I'm sure he didn't grow within a week."
"I don't know. He definitely looks bigger, and heavier."
"Maybe. He loves eating."
"He's just like your mother. He looks like Luke, but when it comes to eating, he's just like your mother."
"Don't tell Luke that, he still has hope."
"I won't." Emily smiled.
"He's getting teeth now."
"Already? He's growing up so fast." She opened Lucan's mouth to see the little white spot. "I
see."
Lucan looked confused now. He decided that he didn't like this and started crying.
"What did you do with my grandson Emily?" Richard walked inside with the drinks.
"Nothing. I was just looking at his teeth and he just started crying."
Rory stood up and picked her brother again. "Don't worry about it grandma, he's been cranky all week." Lucan stopped crying the second Rory held him.
"Well, looks like he really likes you."
"And I really like him too." She kissed his forehead, and then turned to Warren. "Tell Grandpa how your first week at Yale was."
"Yes tell me Warren. How do you like Yale?"
"I like it a lot so far. I haven't had many classes yet, mostly introduction, but the building is amazing. I can see why Rory picked this particular school when she had the chance to choose.
I'm sure you're very proud she's going to the same school you attended."
Richard smiled proudly. "It was her decision to make, but I'm glad she picked Yale. She's an excellent student."
"I can't believe this is my final year already. Time goes by so fast."
"It sure does."
"Dinner is ready." Paula walked in the living room.
"Thanks Paula. Come on; let's go to the dining room." And with that, they all stood up.
-xxxxx-
After dinner Luke and Lorelai were sitting on the porch, watching how the sun reflected on the lake. They hadn't talked for a few minutes, just enjoying the view. Of course Lorelai had to break the silence after a while.
"I can't believe you never took me here before."
He looked at her. "I wanted to, you know."
"Why didn't you?"
He shrugged his shoulders. "It just never happened until now."
"I'm glad it happened. We have to come here more often."
"Would you like that?"
"Yeah. Maybe a weekend once a month or so. Just to spend time with our family, to get away
from the craziness of the town and the rush of our work."
"Sounds good." He smiled at her. "That's what we did when Liz and I were little. We went
here once a month, sometimes even more often."
"It's great. We can continue the tradition with our family. Lucan will love it here. When he's
older you can teach him how to fish because we both know I can't teach him that. He can play
in the forest and swim in the lake. And we can sit here and watch him."
He pulled her closer and she rested her head on his shoulder. "And our daughter can pick flowers and I can teach her how to make a garland."
"Our daughter, huh? We never talked about this since we came back from London."
"We were too busy to talk about it. But I really want it you know."
"Now?"
"I don't know. What do you think?"
"Well, we're both busy and Lucan is still little. Maybe it's better to wait a while."
"Maybe." She sighed.
"What's wrong?"
"Nothing." Her voice gave her away.
"Tell me."
"It's just, we're both getting older. I know that our lives are very busy right now, but
sometimes I feel like if we don't do it now, we never will."
"We've got time."
"Not much Luke. We're getting older and the risks will get higher."
"I don't want to take any risks. Maybe we have to forget about it completely." He looked at her.
"What? I don't want to forget about it."
"But you said that there are risks. I don't want to take any risks and since we have a perfect healthy family now, maybe we should forget about it."
She turned away. "Fine, let's forget about it." She stood up and walked away. Luke stood up immediately as well; ready to follow her. "Luke, stop." She turned around knowingly. "I need to be alone for a while."
"But I want to talk about this."
"We will, but I have to think about this first. Don't worry, we're not fighting, I just have to be
alone for a few minutes, okay?"
"Fine." He watched her walk away and sat back down.
Fifteen minutes later Lorelai came back. Luke was still sitting on the porch, staring at the
water. He looked up immediately when he heard Lorelai approach. He couldn't read the
expression on her face. "Hey."
"Hey." Her voice was flat and didn't give her feelings away. "Sorry about that."
"It's okay. I understand. Look, I didn't mean it like that. If you want to have this conversation now we can, but I don't want to fight about it. I just want us to think about all our options before we make a decision."
"I already told you that we aren't fighting Luke. I know we have to think about everything before we make a decision. I just thought that in London we already made it, apparently now you're having second thoughts."
"No, not really at least. It's just… I've been thinking about the risks over the summer. I know we're getting older and that the changes will be… I would love to have another kid Lorelai, I really do, but I don't want to lose you because of that."
"Who says you will lose me if we get another kid? I don't understand." She looked at him, confused.
"Please sit down." She did. "A few weeks ago you were working late at the Inn. Rory was there and Warren was in her room on the internet. She was watching this show about the risks of pregnancy in older woman. There was a woman who had the same age as you and she died when she gave birth. The baby survived so the father had to take care of a new born and dealing with the loss of his wife. And he wasn't doing well Lorelai, he wasn't. The kid was two years old now, and the man was a mess. It got me thinking."
"I'm not old Luke. I can't believe you're saying that I'm old."
"I'm not saying that. I'm just…" He looked frustrated. She always had come up with a joke to get herself out of a situation.
Lorelai knew the look and sighed. "So things go wrong sometimes. That was one woman Luke, thousands of women give birth every day and sometimes there are complications, but most of the time there aren't. People get healthy babies every day and live happily ever after."
"But what if something happens. I don't want to lose you Lorelai."
"I don't want to lose you either. Things can always go wrong Luke. We can get in a car crash and die together, or one of us dies and the other stays behind. But we shouldn't think about things that could happen, that would drive both you and me crazy. We're very much alive now and we can't live while we're afraid. Sometimes you have to take risks. Like you do every time you get in the car. And things go right a million times, but there's always the chance that something goes wrong. Can't we drive a car anymore because of that? What do we have to do then? Drive a bike? you could get hit by a car. Walk? Same thing. Stay home? You can fall down the stairs and break your neck. Stay downstairs because of that? It's impossible Luke."
"Okay I get it, but there's a difference between driving a car and having a baby."
"Maybe there is. Look, I've been thinking. We don't have to have another kid if you don't want to. I have two healthy kids and I'm happy. It would be nice to get a third, but I'd still be happy if we should decide against it. But I don't think that fear is the way to make this decision."
"Then what is?"
"Do you want another kid Luke? Don't think about the risks or anything, just answer my question."
He closed his eyes and opened them again. "Yes."
"Do you want that kid now?"
"Yes. But…"
"No, don't. If it's something we both want, then why can't we just do it?"
"Because it's not only you and me we have to think about. I want to make this decision, but I
want to make it rationally."
"Then why don't we make an appointment with doctor Elder and ask for advice? She can tell us the risks and the chances we have, and then we can make the decision. But remember that Lucan was born only a few months ago and nothing went wrong there."
"Did you forget about getting premature contractions? Everything turned out fine, but I was afraid."
"So was I, but there's no use to think about what could have happened. Nothing happened. We have a beautiful healthy son and that's all that matters."
"Fine."
"Fine?"
"Let's see doctor Elder sometime next week, and then we can make a decision. Alright?"
"Sounds good." Luke looked at Lorelai and knew she wasn't completely satisfied with this decision. "Are we okay?"
"I told you that we weren't fighting Luke. This is just a normal conversation about a subject
that affects both of us."
"But you're not happy with the outcome."
"What do you want me to say Luke? I seriously don't know. You can't expect me to be
completely happy with it, but I'm okay with it."
"I doubt that."
"Look, of course I wanted you to say that you were ready for another kid now, but I understand your concerns and I respect that. Just tell me things like this without me having to bring them up. You told me you've seen these weeks ago, so you must have had it on your mind for that long. You have to tell me things like that Luke. You can't keep it from me until I ask about it. This isn't fair for the both of us."
"I'm sorry."
"That's what you always say. I'm not mad, but I just want you to promise me that you tell me when there's something on your mind. We can avoid a lot of problems when we do that, like the whole Rory situation. You and Rory both feel like you have to protect me and therefore don't mention things. I don't want you walking around with whatever it is; I just want you to tell me so we can talk about it."
"But in London I promised you that I would let you decide when you were ready for this."
"Don't you see? Now I am ready you start telling me you're having second thoughts. Don't you realize that hurts? If we talked about this before, it would have been okay. We could have gone to Dr. Elder and asked her the questions you have, so we could have made a decision when I was ready."
"I really want another child. I just want to know if it's responsible."
"I know that. Don't you see that isn't my point? We already solved that, all I asked was if you won't keep things from me anymore. Tell me what's on your mind. I know that I'm just the same, but I'm trying really hard to work on it, to tell you when something's on my mind. I know I fail sometimes, but I'm trying, and I want you to do the same. This will only work if we talk Luke."
"What this?"
"Us."
He looked at her with a shocked expression, even afraid.
"Don't give me that look. We're doing great; I'm just saying that if we want to continue to be great, we have to talk. If we both keep things from each other, if we don't communicate, we'll grow apart at some point. I don't know when, but it will happen. Look around us to every failed marriage, communication is the biggest problem."
"What are you talking about?"
"I watch TV too sometimes, Luke. I don't want to scare you; I just want us to be okay. I married you because I want to spend the rest of my life with you. And I just want to make sure that we both make sure that happens. That's all."
He smiled. "So we have to communicate more, huh?"
"Yes, that was my point."
"Good. I can do that."
"Promise?"
"Promise." He kissed her to reassure her. "I love you and I want to spend the rest of my life with you too."
"Good."
"But you have to promise me something too."
"Sure, what?"
"Don't walk away when I say something you don't like, even if it's to organize your thoughts. I respect that you need that sometimes, but I want to be able to talk things over while discussing it, not waiting for you to return because you walked away."
"I know that was wrong, and I'm sorry. I guess that's something I need to work on."
"Yeah, I guess so."
She kissed him again, and then she stood up and pulled him up with her.
"Where are we going?"
"We're alone, without our kids. We can do whatever we want so I thought that we communicated enough for now and do something else married couples do occasionally." She smiled seductive.
"And what do you have in mind?"
She whispered something in his ear.
"Sounds like a plan." And with that, they both went inside.