Title: The Unknown Family

Summary: Richard and Emily's car broke down just outside of Stars Hollow. They couldn't get it fixed until the next day, so they decided to stay with their daughter and granddaughter, only to find a big surprise. Set in season 1, Pilot episode. After Rory got into Chilton, but before Lorelai asked for money from the Gilmore's. There are LL in it, but it's not focused on them. AU

Disclaimer: Not mine.

Chapter 3

After looking through the pictures, Emily headed upstairs. When she arrived upstairs and into Lorelai's bedroom, she saw that Lorelai was changing the sheets.

"You don't have to do that." Emily said, startling her in doing so.

"Mom. What are you doing here?" she asked, continuing to place new sheets on the bed.

"I didn't have much to do downstairs so I thought I'd come see what you're doing." she replied. "You don't have to do that."

"It's ok." she shrugged. "Besides, if I didn't, Luke would have. He's keen on cleanliness."

Emily smiled. She entered deeper into the room. She walked slowly towards the dresser and saw a picture of Luke and Lorelai standing in front of a bonfire. Their backs were to the camera, but Emily could tell that Lorelai and Luke were smiling. Luke had wrapped his arms around her and Lorelai's head rested on his shoulder. The picture seemed like it was taken recently. At least a year ago or less.

"Luke seems like a very respectable man." Emily commented, her eyes still on the picture.

"He is." Lorelai smiled, putting in new covers for the pillow.

"It appears that he's been in your life for quite sometime." she continued.

"He has." she cleared her throat. "He was the first person I met when I arrived here."

Emily turned at looked at her daughter. "Oh?"

"Yeah." Lorelai smiled at the memory. "When I arrived in Stars Hollow, Luke was closing up the hardware store that his father owns. The bus stop was only a few feet away. When he was about to head home, he saw me with Rory. He saw that I was fumbling a bit, trying to get all my bags with me, while I calmed Rory down. She was sleeping and suddenly she started crying. Then he came over and offered his help. I accepted. After I calmed Rory down, she went back to sleep. Then Luke and I talked and I asked him if there was a motel that I could stay. He told me the inn was the closest and he gave me a ride there."

"That was very generous of him." Emily said quietly.

"It was." she said equally quiet. After fluffing the pillows, Lorelai was finished. She turned to her mother. "Mom, I'm sorry."

"For what?"

"For not telling you about this. About Luke and Jess."

"Why didn't you?"

"Because…I was afraid you'd blow up at me." she said honestly. "I didn't know how you'd take to the fact that I adopted another kid and being with his uncle."

"Luke's Jess' uncle?" she asked surprised. She had thought that Luke would be Jess' father.

"Yeah." Lorelai said. "Luke's sister, Liz, got pregnant around the same time I did. And once the he was born, the father ran away. A month after that, Liz did too. She left Jess with Luke and his dad, William. And they've been raising Jess ever since."

"That's horrible."

"I know. When Rory and I met Jess, Rory was immediately attached to him. Right then I knew she would never have to worry about being alone. She has a friend already."

"That must have been nice."

"Yeah, it was." she smiled recalling all those times when Rory and Jess were still in diapers. The two would always pick up a book and try to read. Event hen they loved to read.

"How did you and Rory ever manage to keep this from us? You two never mention Jess or Luke before."

"Well I told Rory not to mention anything about Jess nor Luke." Lorelai said, sounding ashamed for keeping her family a secret. "Whenever we visited you, i told Rory not to mention anything from Stars Hollow, and if you ever ask about her dad, I told her to tell you nothing about it, since you'd be asking about Christopher and not Luke. And we didn't see that often anyways, so the we didn't have to act out all the time."

Emily nodded,m feeling hurt that her daughter had kept such a thing. Trying to change the subject, "Did Jess' mom ever come back for him? Or to at least visit him?"

"Yeah." she nodded, recalling the time as well. "When Jess was four, Liz came back. We were already a constant part of the boys' lives. Practically everyday Rory and Jess would hang out. Either they'd be with me at the inn, or at the hardware store with Luke and Will." she smiled. Then it faded. "And then Liz came back. She said she was married. And that she and her husband wanted to start a family. So instead of having to go through the process of getting pregnant and giving birth, she decided to take Jess and finally become a mom."

Lorelai now spoke sadly recalling the events, which Emily noticed. "She told us she had a job and a place to live in New York with her husband. She also said that her husband was a loving and caring guy who loves kids. Jess protested. As much as he wanted to be with his mother, he didn't like the idea of having to leave his friends and family. He didn't like the idea of having to leave Rory. But Liz was very persistent, and we couldn't do anything about it since Liz is Jess' mom." inhaling sharply, trying to subside her tears. "Jess left that summer. We all took it pretty bad. But no one took it the hardest than Rory. She wasn't herself. She didn't want to play. She didn't eat much, and picking up a book just pained her. Everything wasn't the same without Jess."

Emily was quiet for a moment, watching as her daughter try to swipe a few tears that escaped. She sat down next to Lorelai on the bed. "I would hate to imaging such a thing."

"Me too." Lorelai squeaked. Finally finding her voice, "Well anyways. Two months after Liz took Jess, Liz called and told us that she was getting a divorce and she was sending Jess back. We were all quite surprised to hear their marriage end since Liz talked about her husband with much adoration. But we were happy Jess was coming back." she finally smiled. "When Jess came back that day, he immediately hugged Rory. Then he hugged me and called me mommy." her smile would never leave. "That was the first time he's ever called me that." she remembered the happiness that washed over her when Jess had called her that. It was the same feeling she got when she had Rory.

"He's never called you mom before that?" Emily wondered.

"No. he knew that I wasn't his mother."

"When did Rory start calling Luke dad?"

"Ever since she could talk." she said. "The first words Rory said were mama. Followed by dada to Luke. And ever since she called him dad. Even when we tried to make her stop she wouldn't. So we just left it at that."

"How did she react when she found out Luke isn't her biological father?"

"She was heartbroken." Lorelai said sadly, remembering the day. "She didn't talk to us for a week. She only confined in Jess. But then when she calmed down, she apologized to us and we apologized to her. Then asked, in the smallest voice I've ever heard her speak in, that if she could still call Luke daddy. We told her she could and she was ecstatic."

"It seems that Luke loves Rory."

"Luke adores Rory."

"I'm sure he does." Emily smiled. "So, did Liz ever come back after that fiasco."

"Kind of. She made contact with us again right about when Jess was six. She called us and told us she was fine and she was considering visiting. We were so afraid that she might take Jess form us again. We wanted to make sure that didn't happen. So we thought up of the idea for Luke and I to adopt him." she explained. "The process took a while. But after seeing Liz's background and Jess's father's background, it was easy for us to get custody of Jess. In the process, we thought it would also be best for Luke to adopt Rory as well."

"Luke adopted Rory?" Emily asked in suspired. "How come we didn't know of this?"

"We never really told you." Lorelai said sheepishly. "It was a bit of a harder process with Rory than it was with Jess. They had to track down Chris and try to get his side on it, but it was difficult. Although the fact that Chris has never been a part of Rory's life growing up made it easy for the judge to give Luke custody."

"I would assume Chris was off somewhere gallivanting in California." Emily huffed, knowing Christopher he was.

"That's what we expected too." Lorelai said. "So anyways, that's how our family came to be."

"And you and Luke?" she asked. "The two of you are together?"

"Yes."

"When was the wedding?"

"Excuse me?" it was now Lorelai's turn to be surprised.

"The wedding? I would assume you and Luke are married since you have two kids."

"We're not married."

"Please tell me you aren't following on Susan Surrandon where you are together with kids but not married."

"Luke and I aren't married mom. We've only been together for two years." she spat out, feeling a blush coming upon her form the suggestion.

"Two years? How can that be?" she asked incredulously. "You've known the man for sixteen years and you've only been with him for two years?"

"Well we were very stupid." Lorelai answered. "I admit I liked him when I first met him. But I figured he'd never like me since I had a kid and that would be too much responsibilities to him and I didn't think he'd want to be tied down. And then throughout the years, I just try and hide the fact in the back of my mind since all my focus were on Rory and Jess. Until finally, Luke asked me out and that was that. They moved in with me and Rory six months after we started going out. Event though we were both legal guardians to the kids, Rory and I lived here while Jess and Luke lived In the apartment above the diner. though It wasn't much of a move anyway, since Jess practically lives with us. His room was already built from the start and Luke stayed over almost every night."

"Waiting fourteen years to be together." Emily muttered. "You're right. You two are stupid."

Lorelai chuckled and agreed. After a moment, she turned quiet. "So are we good?"

"I beg your pardon?" she turned to her confused.

"Are we good?" Lorelai repeated. "I mean, I know this wasn't exactly what you expected when you came over. Me having a boyfriend who is now my daughter's legal father. And me having a son with my boyfriend. And we didn't tell you about it. I'm sorry again for that."

"Lorelai it's alright. Your apology has been accepted."

"Thanks mom." Lorelai smiled softly.

Emily smiled as well. "We better go downstairs."

"Yeah." Lorelai agreed.

Quietly, the two stood up from the bed and walked out towards the door.

"I have a question." Emily said.

"What?"

"Does Luke have something else other than flannel?"

Lorelai just laughed at the question.

Ignoring her daughter's reaction, "I do hope he doesn't wear flannel to your wedding."

When they arrived downstairs, they found Richard and Jess engaged In a heated discussion. The two were seated at the kitchen table discussing about a book or an author. While Rory helped Luke cook the lasagna, also putting in her two cents in the conversation.

"What's going on here?" Lorelai asked with an amused grin on her face.

"Thank god." Luke sighed with relief. He was stirring the sauce over the stove. "They've been at it forever."

"Aw, hun, you should be used to this by now." Lorelai said sympathetically, giving him a kiss.

"God help me." he mumbled, then focused back on stirring.

"Grandma, grandpa, do you guys want to see pictures?"

"Oh that's a good idea Rory." Lorelai said. "Why don't you take you grandparents in the living room and show them our family albums."

"What do you guys say?" Rory asked her grandparents.

"Oh I wouldn't want to miss up on picture time." Richard said.

"Yes. We would love that Rory."

"Ok." Rory hopped off her chair and dashed to her room. After retrieving her scrapbooks, she went into the living room where she found her grandparents, and surprisingly Jess, seated on the couch and chair. He claimed that Lorelai made him and he didn't want her telling lies about him to them.

"So how is it going so far?" Luke asked Lorelai, who was still in the kitchen, watching him cook.

"It's going well." Lorelai smiled sincerely. "My mom and I talked and I think we're on the same page now."

"Yeah." he smiled. "That's good." he scooped her up into a hug and gave her a lingering kiss.

"I love you." she whispered when they pulled back, though their foreheads were still attached.

"I love you too." he said equally quiet. Lorelai smiled brightly and kissed him again, this time longer than the last.

Back in the living room, Rory was gushing about the pictures and the story behind them.

"Oh, this was when we went to the lake. Remember Jess?" Rory asked her brother as they looked through the picture. One picture they were looking at was one when Rory and Jess were ten and they were in a boat with Luke.

"Yeah, that was good."

"This seems like a wonderful boat." Richard commented. "Where did you get such a beauty."

"Actually, dad, I mean, Luke built that."

"He did?" the two looked at her in surprise.

"Yeah, he and grandpa Will started building it together. But after grandpa Will died, dad continued to build the boat until it was finished. I mean Luke." Rory tried to hide her sadness through a smile, it was easy since she was staring at the picture which brought back the memories. "Anyways, this was after the boat was finished and we wanted to take it out for a test drive. So we went up to the lake where our cabin is located and we stayed there for the weekend."

Rory had had many slip ups when it came to calling Luke by his first name or dad. Sometimes she would stumble on the name. Or she would be too excited and forget and call Luke dad. Emily and Richard noticed this. Though Jess was thoroughly annoyed. He didn't see a reason as to why Rory had to cover up by calling Luke by his first name. But he didn't say anything. All he knows is he sure as hell wont stop calling his parents mom and dad just for the elder Gilmore's sake.

"Oh Jess look, our first day in high school. Remember our freshmen year?" then to her grandparents. "It was really scary having to go from being in middle school, then to high school."

"How was it scary?" Jess asked. "We knew where it was. We've been to the school before. We practically know all the teachers and where they live. Plus all our classmates we already know from elementary school."

"But still. It was high school." Rory argued.

"Where do you go to school Rory?" Emily asked, looking at the picture.

"Well technically, Jess and I are still in Stars Hollow High. But come next week, we'll be in Chilton." she said proudly.

"Chilton." Emily and Richard looked at each other amazed. "My, that's a very wonderful school."

"It is." Rory smiled. "It's been a dream of ours for a long time."

"But Chilton is such an expensive school." Richard said. "How are your parents able to pay for a place?"

"Well dad, I mean Luke, made a savings account for the two of us when we were kids. For occasions like this. And Grandpa Will also made one. So combing the money from both accounts, plus a little money from the investments they made, and the fund that dad's grandfather, I mean Luke's grandfather, had made for him, it was enough to pay fro Chilton, plus college. For the both of us and more."

Emily looked at Richard, then at Rory. "You know Rory, you don't have to stop calling Luke dad just for our account." she said softly. "You may call him anything you please. It's fine with us."

"Are you sure?" Rory asked tentatively. "I mean you guys aren't really used to this."

"No, but you are. And this is your home and your family. We don't want to change any of it."

Rory smiled. "Thanks grandma." Emily and Richard smiled softly, and even though he wont admit it, Jess smiled as well. "Oh look, it's Sandy and Danny!" Rory squealed, pouting to the picture with their two hamsters.

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