A/N: Another chapter finally up. Follows last chapter. The following day when Rory and Warren come to the cabin.
Thanks to LorelaiAkaCoffeeAddict for proofreading and those wonderful words! And thanks to all of you who reviewed chapter 2, and I'm glad you're all liking the sequel! And I'm not going to tell you what's going to happen. I partially know, but I thought the same when I wrote it doesn't make any sense, and I ended up somewhere completely different. Anyway, have fun reading this chapter and let me know what you think!
Chapter 3 All about family
A little after eleven Rory still wasn't there and Lorelai started to get nervous. She loved spending a night alone with Luke but she missed her son, and her daughter.
"What's taking them so long?" She took her cell phone out of her pocket only to find out that there was no signal. "Damn, what if something happened, they can't reach us."
Luke had to smile inwardly at the stressing of his wife. "Relax, they are fine. It probably took them a little longer than expected, to get here."
"But we told them exactly what time they had to leave to be here in time."
"And maybe they ended up leaving a little late because Lucan needed a clean diaper or because Rory had trouble deciding which clothes she wanted to bring. As I recall correctly the same thing happened yesterday when I wanted to leave at 1.30 and we ended up leaving almost 45 minutes late. Or there's a guy with a trailer driving in front of them so they can't drive as fast as usual or…"
"Yeah yeah I get the idea. I hope you're right."
"Don't you know by now that he's always right?"
Lorelai turned around at the sudden extra voice and looked in the eyes of her daughter. "Rory." She smiled. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine mom. Perfectly fine. It's 10 past 11 so I thought we were perfectly in time. It was pretty busy on the road."
"I…"
"Don't say I told you so Luke." Lorelai stepped forward to take Lucan out of Warren's arms.
"Hey buddy; did you have a good time with your sister? Have you been a good boy at grandma's yesterday?"
"He's been great mom, although he didn't seem to like grandma that much."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, as long as he was sitting with me or Warren he was all happy and babbling, but when grandma put him in her lap he couldn't decide whether to cry or not, and when she started looking at his teeth he did. He only calmed down when I took him back."
"So he's not a big fan of grandma huh. Wonder where he got that from."
They all had to laugh, including Warren who heard a lot of stories about Lorelai and Emily.
"So, how about I give you the grand tour?"
"Please. I've been curious about this cabin for years now."
"I know how you're feeling hon, and I'm sure you'll love it, except from the fact that there's no warm water."
"What? She's joking isn't she?" Rory looked at Luke in shock.
"What is it with you girls? You're all the same. Of course there is no warm water since there is no electricity."
"What about gas?" Warren asked.
"No, only propane in a tank for the barbecue, but you can heat up water on there, as long as there's gas of course."
"I see. Did your parents buy this cabin Luke?"
"Yeah. The old owner had it for about two years before he decided to sell it. My parents did a lot with it, like digging a well so they could get running water, but it was too much work to get gas lines or electricity and they didn't really have the money. And since we only came here on the weekends or sometimes longer during summer vacation it was never really necessary."
'I guess we just have to get used to it, since Luke and I decided to come here once a month from now on."
"How about the winter, without gas and electricity?" Warren was very interested.
"There's a fire place and since the cabin isn't that big it's perfect to heat up the entire place."
"Sounds good. Now how about that tour?" Rory interrupted the guys, afraid they would go on for hours.
"Come on in." Lorelai opened the door and everybody followed her inside. They got the same tour Lorelai got the day before.
"Luke this place is really great."
"Well, you're always welcome to join us when we come here, if it works out with your school schedule and all."
"Sounds great." Rory smiled. "Sounds really great!"
-xxxxxx-
Lorelai and Rory were taking a walk, while Luke took Warren fishing. "It's really beautiful out here mom."
"Yeah. I can see why Luke likes it so much around here. Too bad he never took us here before, but that's going to change."
"Yeah." Rory smiled. "Hopefully Warren and I can come along more weekends. But tell me, how was your alone time?"
"Do you really want to know?"
"Mom!"
Lorelai smiled. "It was fine, really. The drive here was long, but we talked and that was really nice. Then he gave me the grand tour here and we had dinner and we talked more."
"Talked about what?" Rory noticed something in her mother's voice.
"About having another kid."
"And how did that go? You don't sound really happy."
"It was ok, but not the way I hoped. We talked about this in London, and he said that if I was
ready to have another kid, that he was with me. So last night I told him that it would be nice now, that we shouldn't wait too long because we're both getting older because and the risks get higher, and suddenly he says that maybe we shouldn't do it at all."
"Why?"
"Apparently he thinks that he's going to lose me if we have another kid. A few weeks ago you were watching some kind of TV show about risks with pregnancy in older woman and you let him watch too."
"I remember that one. Warren was on the internet in my room and there was nothing on so I kind of stopped zapping on that channel. Don't know why because it wasn't really interesting.
I'm sorry mom."
"It's okay. We talked about it and we decided that we're going to go see Dr. Elder and talk about the risks and chances before we make a decision. It's not what I was hoping for, but it's a good compromise."
"So he called you old?"
"Yeah. Can you believe that? I'm not old. I'm never going to be old."
"I hope you will mom. I hope you're getting very old."
"Not what I was talking about, but thanks."
Rory smiled and leaned in to hug her mother. When she pulled away she said, "I really missed this over the summer. The two of us talking."
"I know, me too. But let's not talk about that anymore. We can't change what happened but we can do something about the future, right?"
"Yeah."
"So tell me, how was your summer with Warren?"
"It was great. I showed him about every place in Connecticut and we went to New York too. Just hanging around, having fun after working hard for a year and with another year like that coming up. You know; summer vacation."
"Sounds good."
"It was good. I'm really glad he decided to come here. I never meant to fall in love with someone when I went to London, but I did. I don't think I can have a relationship with an ocean between us and I was really worried about that, but then he said he wanted to come to America with me and he applied to so many different schools just to be sure he got a spot somewhere. He was accepted in almost all of them and got to pick which one he preferred most, and he picked Yale because that's where I am. I told him that wasn't the right way to make a decision, but he said that it doesn't matter for him to which school he's going to, as long as it was in America. And this morning in the car he said that he made the right choice. He really likes Yale, even after one week."
"That's great hon, to tell you the truth I was terrified that you would meet a boy and that you wouldn't come home. And when you told me you met a boy; that really scared me."
"I could never have not come home mom. You know how much I missed you. No matter how much I loved being in London, I really wanted to go home and to be with you again."
"I'm glad. But what would you have done if Warren didn't have decided to come here, but stayed in England?"
"I don't know. But why think about that? He's here now and we have a whole year ahead of us, and we'll see what we're going to do after that. I don't want to think about that right now. I just want to enjoy having him here, and we'll see where we go from here."
"That's good." Lorelai stood up. "Come on, let's go see what our guys are up to."
"Sounds like a plan." Rory got up as well and followed her mother back to the cabin.
Luke and Warren were sitting at the lake side, close to the cabin, the stroller with Lucan in between them. Lorelai and Rory watched them from a distance. "Hey mom?"
"Yeah?"
"It would be nice if you and Luke decide to have another kid. I'd love to have another brother, or a sister."
"Yeah it would. Just don't tell him that we talked about this okay? This is between him and me and I don't want him to feel as if we discuss everything together."
"He already knows that mom, and I don't think he expects it any other way."
"You think?"
"I know."
"How about Warren?"
"What about him?"
"Does he know?"
"Partially I guess. But he didn't really see us together that much yet, not like it was before. But he'll figure it out soon enough. And he has to learn to live with it."
"Glad we agree. Come on, let's see if they caught anything."
Luke looked up when he heard footsteps. "Hey."
"Hey. How's it going?"
"Good. We caught some nice fish for dinner tonight." He pointed at the bucket where some fish were swimming circles.
"We can't eat those Luke. They are so cute, look at them swimming circles. They look really scared."
"Yeah Luke. And don't you think the bucket is way too small for those big fish? There's a big lake where they can swim freely. Why don't you put them back?"
"Because I figured you wanted to eat something tonight."
"Of course we do, but not those poor fish. I'd rather starve than eat those." Lorelai was shocked that Luke expected her to eat the fish.
"Yeah." Rory replied, equally shocked.
Luke looked at Warren and they both started to laugh. "I told you they'd react like that."
"You sure did."
"You set us up." Lorelai looked even more shocked now and faked anger. If you two want to bond together against us you can sleep outside on the porch tonight."
"If you don't want to sleep next to me, you sleep outside on the porch tonight. It's my cabin."
"I thought that ever since we got married everything was ours? Not yours or mine but ours?"
"Yeah it is but…"
"But what?"
"It was just a joke Lorelai. Come on, don't be mad."
Lorelai wasn't sure anymore if she should be mad or not. She knew that Luke was serious
when he said the words.
"Come on guys, don't fight. This is our weekend together. Even though you're planning on going here once a month I'm not sure if Warren and I can join you every time because of school. So, since we don't know when we'll have a weekend like this again, we better enjoy every single moment now, and fighting doesn't fit into that. I'm sure Luke didn't mean what he said and you know it mom. And Luke, it wasn't a very nice thing of you to say. The only thing that is still yours is the diner, like the Dragonfly is my moms, but that's just legal in case something goes wrong so you won't lose everything. I don't want to hear anything about this again and I want you to throw the poor fish back into the lake and then maybe we can go out for dinner tonight if there is a restaurant or something close here, although I doubt there is anything close here. Am I clear?"
Luke and Lorelai looked at each other and smiled. "Very clear hon. I'm sorry."
"Me too." Luke replied.
"Good."
Warren picked up the bucket and threw the fish back into the lake and they all watched how the fish swam away, since the water was very clear.
"What do you want to do now? It's too early to eat so we can do whatever you want."
"What did you do around here, besides fishing?"
"When I came here when I was little, Liz and I went swimming when the weather was nice. My dad was usually working on his furniture or fixing something in the cabin, and my mother was fishing, or cooking or looking for flowers."
"What else?"
"We went for long walks in the woods. Sometimes we left early in the morning, brought some food for lunch and stayed out all day. Walking, having a picnic. Just enjoying being together."
"But you don't like to picnic. You don't see the use of eating on the floor. You told me more than once."
"My mother loved it. My father always said what I said about picnics. Liz and I liked it and my father came because he liked spending the time with us. He loved the nature too and he liked the walking so he took the picnic for granted."
"Then what happened?"
"My mother died and we never picnicked again. I guess it reminds me of the picnics with my mother. Liz and I asked my dad about picnicking more than once after my mother died, but he kept saying that there is no use to eating on the floor so I guess I took that over from him."
"I didn't know that. I'm sorry Luke."
"Don't be. I should tell you stuff like this more often. It's just that I'm not really comfortable
talking about this."
"I know." Lorelai smiled and took his hand in hers. "How about we have one of those walks tomorrow? We can bring food for a picnic. But we don't have to if you don't want to. Like Rory said, we all have to enjoy this weekend and I don't want you to do anything you don't
like."
"I would love to." He squeezed her hand to reassure her that he was telling the truth.
"Good. So what do you say?" She turned to Warren and Rory.
"Sounds good, Mom."
"Yeah, sounds good, Lorelai."
"So then that's settled. How about now? What do you feel like doing?"
"Well, Luke said something about swimming? The water looks really nice and it's still warm so I think it could be nice."
"You so don't like swimming." Lorelai smiled at her daughter.
"I do sometimes."
"Okay fine, let's go swimming."
After half an hour both Rory and Lorelai had enough of the swimming and Lucan was getting fussy in his stroller, so it was a good time to get out of the water. Luke and Warren stayed in the water and decide to have a race.
Lorelai put a towel around her and took Lucan out of the stroller. She sat down on the dock and Rory sat down next to her. Luke and Warren swam away and screamed to Lorelai.
"The line of the dock is the finish line. You are the jury and have to say who won. Okay?"
"Sure." She screamed back. Lucan looked up at his mother, a questioned look on his face.
"Don't worry about it; you'll be just like that when you're all grown up since you're a boy too." Lucan smiled as if he knew what his mother was talking about. "Okay." She screamed. "You can start on three. One…. Two…. Three…"
Both Luke and Warren started swimming. They were going equally fast in the beginning but soon Warren passed Luke. "Come on Luke. You can beat that kid." Lorelai sheered.
"Go Warren. You can beat that old man."
"Hey." Lorelai turned to look at her daughter. "You do know that he's not that much older than me right? First he's calling me old and now you're starting too?"
"Sorry. I didn't meant it like that. But they are coming closer so we better watch." They turned their attention back to the men.
"Come on Luke, you can do it." Luke came closer to Warren who was getting tired from his fast start.
"Come on Warren, you're almost there."
When they finally passed the dock Warren beat Luke with a feet distance in between. They guys swam to the dock. "And?" Warren asked.
"Like you don't know." Luke said annoyed, but offered his hand. "Congratulations."
"Thanks."
"But I would have beaten you if we had a few feet more. You were really getting tired in the end."
"Well, I won anyway."
"Wanna go again? I bet I can beat you this time."
"Sure. I bet you won't."
"What are we going to bet for?"
"Guys. Don't do this. Let's not start betting, you will only start fighting."
"Stay out of it Lorelai."
Lorelai sighed and stood up. "Do whatever you want. I'm going to feed our son. You be your own jury. Come on Rory."
"Be happy to."
"You know how to turn on the barbecue so you can heat up a bottle?"
"Yep. No problem. You guys enjoy your racing, but I'm warning you, no fighting!"
"No fighting. I promise."
"Good."
Lorelai and Rory walked towards the cabin and Lorelai handed Rory her little brother. Then she walked inside to get a pan and filled it with water. She filled a bottle with water and formula and walked back outside, lightened the barbecue and put the pan on it, the bottle in the pan. Rory was watching Luke and Warren from a distance who where swimming hard, trying to win their race. Luke was before Warren now and they were close to the finish line.
"Looks like your guy is wining this one."
"I don't see any good coming out of this, because I'm sure that after this one they'll try again and they will be so close they start fighting about who's winning. Sometimes I'm really glad I'm a woman so I don't have to do things like that."
"Me too."
As Lorelai predicted Luke won and they wanted to do a best out of three.
Lorelai sat down next to Rory. "But it is nice around here. I can see why Luke's parents loved to take him and Liz here. I can see Luke and I taking our kids here for a long time. I sat here yesterday evening on the porch and I could see Lucan playing there on the grass with his ball and his little sister was picking flowers. I'm not sure if he'll ever have that little sister though."
"Oh mom, he probably will. Luke just freaked out because he's Luke, but I'm sure that once you talked to doctor Elder he changes his mind and then you can have that little daughter. And if you don't, you'll always have me."
"Yeah I will. I already have the most amazing daughter in the world, and I have that amazing boy you're holding there. Somehow it feels selfish that I want another one. What if Luke is right and something goes wrong? I have the perfect family now."
"But your dream mom. The one you had in London. You just want that to come true and I understand that."
"I know but still I…" She was interrupted when she heard the guys fighting.
"I was first. You were at least a feet behind me."
"No way, you were first. You were at least a meter behind me."
"Hell no."
"Uhuh."
Lorelai shook her head. "Told you this was going to happen. She stood up, walked to the
barbecue and took out the bottle. She shook the bottle and let some milk drip on her wrist.
"Perfect." She handed the bottle to Rory. "If you give this to this little baby, I'll take care of those two big babies of there."
Rory smiled. "Sure."
Lorelai stood up and walked to the dock. "What is this all about?"
The guys swam towards her. "I was first and he doesn't want to admit it." Luke said.
"No. I was first."
"Did you see who was first?" Luke grabbed the dock and pulled himself up, sitting down next to Lorelai.
"No I didn't see anything, and honestly I don't care either. Who cares who won? You are both good. You both won once and obviously this was so tight you were equal so you both won. Problem solved. You're acting like small children. Even Lucan acts more grown up than you two right now. I told you not to fight."
Luke looked a little ashamed. "She's right. You are very good."
"You too."
Luke stood up and leaned forward, extending his hand towards Warren which he gratefully took. Then Luke pulled him up on the dock. "Friends?"
"Friends."
"Good. That's what I wanted to hear. Let's get you dry. Rory's feeding Lucan and after that we can change and maybe go out for dinner?"
"Sounds good. We have to drive for a little while, but I know a few good places around here, if they are still here of course. It's been a while since I've been here."
"I'm sure we'll find something."
-xxxxxx-
They arrived back at the cabin around 9. They had dinner at a nice small restaurant in the closest town. The restaurant had been there for almost 40 years. Even though the daughter of the owners had taken it over it looked still the same and the food was just as good as Luke remembered it was.
Lorelai went inside to put Lucan to bed, while Luke and Warren walked into the forest to find some wood to make a camp fire. On the way back from the restaurant they had stopped at a store and bought some beer.
Rory followed Lorelai inside and watched how her mother took care of the baby. "I wish I could remember being this small. It's really hard to believe I ever was this small, but it would have been nice to remember what it was like you know?"
Lorelai looked up. "I still remember. It wasn't always easy but you were the most amazing baby and that really helped. Moments like this were the best. Right before I took you to bed. You were all fed and satisfied and I would change you in your pajamas and we would sit on my bed and I would read you a story or sing a song and it was just the two of us."
"Sounds great. Do you do it with him now?"
"Sometimes. But it's different now. Luke takes him to bed half the time, and often we haven't eaten yet when I take him to bed so we just put him to sleep and then go downstairs to eat."
"To bad. It sounds like he's missing something."
"Yeah he is. You're right you know. I should take some more time to do things like that. Even though he won't remember it, it will be nice to tell him one day that I did that for him. Just the look you're giving me when I tell you things like that is enough to know how much it means, no matter if you remember it or not."
"And you will always remember."
"Absolutely." Lorelai took of Lucan's dirty diaper and replaced it with a new one. Than she took of his t-shirt and replaced it with a clean one. "All set."
"Come on."
"Where are we going?"
"To yours and Luke's room."
Lorelai smiled, knowing exactly what her daughter was talking about. Since she didn't have a book, they sang a few lullabies. Lucan was getting sleepier while Lorelai and Rory sang together.
-xxxxxx-
Luke and Warren had a whole pile of wood laying in front of the cabin and started a small fire. They put some chairs around it and Luke handed Warren a beer. "I'm going to see what's taking the woman so long okay?"
"Sure. I'll keep an eye on the fire."
"It should be okay for a while. Put on some more wood if you think it's necessary."
"I will."
Luke walked inside and heard voices in the master bedroom. He walked towards the room slowly and glanced inside. Lorelai was sitting in the middle of the bed, her arm around Rory who was leaning against her side, and Lucan was in her lap, looking as if he was almost falling asleep. Both Lorelai and Rory were singing. He smiled at the sight in front of him and turned around, carefully not to make any sound. He walked back outside and sat down next to Warren, grabbing a beer from the cooler.
"What's taking them so long?"
"They'll be here soon. The baby is almost asleep."
Warren nodded. "Hey Luke?"
"Yeah?"
"I'm really sorry about earlier today, with the swimming."
"Don't mention it. We were both childish. I guess we just have to stay away from games like that and then we'll be just fine."
"Yeah. I agree."
"So, how was your first week at school?"
"A lot of introduction meetings. I met so many people I doubt that I'll remember a single name. But it seems really nice and I think I will really enjoy this."
"Good."
They talked for a while before Lorelai and Rory joined them, each getting themselves a beer as well. Lorelai sat down next to Luke and Rory next to Warren. They stared into the fire and talked, sipping their beer occasionally. The time passed fast and when Rory checked her watch it was 1.30 already. "Wow, it's really late. I think we should go to bed if we want to go hiking tomorrow."
Both Rory and Warren stood up, putting the empty beer bottles back into the cooler. "We'll be there soon. We can't use the bathroom all at the same time anyway."
Rory nodded. "Goodnight."
"Night."
Lorelai watched how her daughter and Warren walked inside the cabin, then turned to face Luke. "You have no idea how much this weekend means to me."
"I think I have a pretty good idea. You deserved it and it's going really well, besides from that little swim incident where I feel very responsible for."
"You should." She smiled. "I can't thank you enough for this Luke. I was just acting so stupid and even though this is only a weekend, I feel like it somehow makes up for the lost summer. It's kind of hard to think that every day could have been like that if I wasn't acting so stupid, but like I told Rory earlier, what's done is done, and we can only change the future. And this weekend was an amazing first step and it's really sad there's only one day left."
"But we'll come back here next month. And we can try to pick a weekend when Rory and Warren are able to join us. And they might not always, but than we still spend time as a family, completely away from the nosiness of the town and the rush of work."
"Yeah. You know, we really have to spend more time together. Rory asked me what it was like when she was a baby and I told her that every night before I put her to sleep, I changed her into her pajamas and took her on my bed and read her a story or sang her a few songs. Then she asked me if I did the same for Lucan and I had to say no. I not once did that. And I was thinking what kind of special things I've been doing with him and really I can't think of anything. It's like we just squeezed a kid into our lives and spend some time with him if we can, but since he's never asking for attention we just leave him playing in his stroller or his playpen and don't give him the attention he deserves. Not the way I used to with Rory. And that makes me feel really bad."
"But we're trying Lorelai. And we have moments with him. Like every day after breakfast you sit down on the couch with him and play with him. And I do the same when I'm the one taking him out of bed."
"But that's only one moment. Only a few minutes."
"But it are his minutes. And I saw you started the bed routine, too."
"You saw that?"
"I went inside to see what was taking you so long so I heard sounds coming from the bedroom and I saw you and Rory and Lucan on the bed. And you were singing."
"You so did not have to hear that."
"It wasn't that bad. It looked really nice actually. Even if it's just a few minutes, we should do that. Whoever takes him to bed spends a few minutes with him. Reading to him, singing to him. It sounds really nice."
"You want to sing?"
"I can you know. Just promise to keep it between you and me."
"You know I have to tell Rory right?"
"Yeah I do but make sure you let her know she keeps it to herself. I don't want the whole town to know I'm one of those fathers who sings his son to sleep."
"Why not, it's really cute?"
"Exactly."
Lorelai smiled and leaned forward to kiss him. "Let's get to bed huh? Tomorrow is going to be a long day. Our son was in bed at a normal time so he'll be up again early and we have to walk all day. But at least we'll be having a picnic."
"Yeah we will. I'm really sorry I didn't tell you before, Lorelai."
"I know. It would be nice to hear stories about you when you were little more often, but I know that it's hard for you to talk about it. Just tell me a few stories once in a while, okay? Whenever you feel like it."
"I promise."
"Good." Lorelai kissed him again, then stood up and took his hand in hers, leading him towards the cabin.