This one isn't really a Charlie scene, but, it's cute. I also realize that it's Marty. I jump between the two for Rory.

'How lame is this?' Marty wondered as he headed towards Luke's Diner in Stars Hollow. 'Borrowing my girl friends car so I can ask her step father if I can marry her. Who the hell does something like this?' He swallowed hard as he realised that he was in front of the diner. He sat in the little Prius for another few minutes before he got out and strode into the diner. Several people said hello to him as he walked in. They remembered him as that nice boy Rory had been bringing home.

"Mr. Danes?" he asked when he got up to the counter.

"Hey Marty," Luke said before turning around to yell at Caesar about something. "What can I get you?"

"Can I talk to you for a moment?" he asked. Luke cocked an eye brow at him.

"I'd invite you upstairs, but Liam is sleeping." Marty noticed a well use used baby monitor clipped to Luke's belt. "Come on," he said as he led him into the store room. As the din of the diner died away, Marty realised how easy it would be for Luke, a much larger man then himself, to kill him or at least injure him without the rest of the diner knowing.

"Well, uh, as you know, I've been seeing Rory for quite some time now and with the two of us graduating from Yale I think now is a good time."

"A good time to what Marty?" Luke asked, crossing his arms over his chest and waiting. "I do have a diner to run."

"I want to marry Rory," he finally got out in a hurry. "I, I want your permission to marry Rory," he clarified and all Luke could do was drop his arms and get wide eyed.

"I'm not her father," he pointed out.

"She doesn't really talk about him," he explained, shoving his hands into his pockets. "She says you've always been there for her and her mom, even before you married her so, here I am. I want to marry your daughter. Please?" He was really starting to sweat now. Luke cast a critical eye over the boy, young man he corrected himself, in front of him.

"LUKE! LET'S GO!" Caesar yelled from the front.

"Yes Marty," he said finally as he left the store room. "If she'll have you, she's yours," he said. "Caesar, keep your shirt on!" he bellowed back and as Marty took a moment to breath a sigh of relief in the store room, he noticed that Luke Danes didn't look quite so imposing any more.

Charlie's about a year old.

"Hey," Luke said as Lorelai came into the Diner with Charlie.

"Hey," she said as she took a seat and let Charlie wander. They had come after Friday night diner and dropping Rory off at home to pack for her trip to Washington DC.

"What's wrong?" he asked her as he brought over a pot of coffee and a mug.

"Everything," she said as she accepted the coffee. "Chris showed up when Rory had her cast taken off and stuck around and, well, things happened and he said that he and Sherry were over and maybe we should try again. And things were fantastic for all of about 24 hours and then he's going back to her and Rory is leaving for the whole summer. . . " she said with a sigh as she shook her head.

"Why, if you don't mind, is he going back?" he asked as he headed to the counter. These conversations always went better when they weren't really looking at each other. He picked Charlie up just before she got to the counter.

"Sherry's called him at Sookie and Jackson's wedding." She hesitated. "She's pregnant and he doesn't want to miss it this time." Luke stayed quiet for a long moment as he formulated a response.

"I'm sorry," he said finally, keeping a level tone.

"Thanks," she said, playing with her coffee mug. Charlie, having grown tired of trying to play with Luke's cap decided to speak up.

"Mum," she said, pointing to Lorelai.

"That's mom," Luke confirmed with a small smile. Charlie smiled on her own, proud at having properly identified her mother.

"Go?" she asked and Luke complied, depositing some donuts to the table before sitting.

"Wallowing takes supplies," he volunteered quietly. "Why now?" he finally asked.

"Why now what?"

"Why is he going to take responsibility now? For this baby? Why not stay with you and Charlie and Rory?"

"Who knows," she said with a shrug. "Maybe because he knows Charlie doesn't really need him," she said, not looking at him as she gave Charlie some of the doughnut. Luke ignored the cakey death being passed to the almost toddler.

"Charlie does need him," he finally responded. "And so does Rory. They need their father in their lives and a phone call a week just doesn't really cut it." She tossed the half of the doughnut that Charlie hadn't taken back on the plate.

"I was so sure this time," she said, shifting the conversation to the left. "I was so sure we were ready. I mean, he had held the same job for almost a year and had been in a stable relationship for almost a year. . . He called Rory every Wednesday and when he couldn't, he sent her a lengthy email and left a message telling her that. He remembered to send them both Christmas presents and a little something on Valentine's Day . . . I was SO SURE," she said again.

"Look at it this way," Luke said. "At least you know he's going to be staying put in Boston. He's only a few hours away from them., hell, they could go spend weekends with him. These is still a bright side to this."

"I suppose," she said, picking at the doughnut again.

"Do you want anything else?" he asked. "Burger? Ice cream? You name it."

"A time machine," she said at once. "So I could go back and not agree to try again."

"I'll work on that," he said as he reached out to give her hand a squeeze.

"You do that. Maybe some fries?" she finally asked.

"You got it," he said as he handed Charlie to her and got up and headed for the back.

"Dada," Charlie said clearly as she pointed towards Luke's retreating back, glancing at Lorelai for confirmation. She quickly wiped her head around to see if Luke had noticed but he was still walking towards the kitchen.

"No, Luke," she corrected. Charlie's face fell a little as she puzzled this out. Charlie immediately asked the same question again and Lorelai gave her the same answer as she tried to figure out exactly how Charlie had connected the word dad to Luke. Luke hesitated in the kitchen for a moment, he had heard everything and he wasn't really sure what to do. When he heard Lorelai correct Charlie, he decided to let it go and he dropped some fries in the basket before lowering them into the oil. He peaked around the corner in time to see Charlie point in the direction of the kitchen and ask again and he quickly ducked back to watch the fries. He'd ignore this and let Lorelai get over the hurt while he tried to figure out what to do about Jess and Rory and his growing thing for her mother.

"You need to come home," Lorelai said as she called Rory.

"Why?"

"Other than the fact that I miss you? You need to help me deprogram your sister."

"Deprogram my sister," she said again, trying to figure out what was going on.

"Yes. She has gotten it in her pretty little head that Luke equals dad and I can't fix it."

"Really?" was all Rory could say as she closed the novel she had been reading. "When?"

"The first time? The Friday before you left for Washington."

"The first time?" Rory asked as she headed to her lap top. Maybe she could find something on the internet to help.

"Did I mention it was in the diner?"

"Wow. I miss everything," Rory said as she sat back in her chair to process this. "You mentioned that this occurred more than once?"

"Oh yeah. A couple of times as we walked past the diner. At least once at home when I mentioned him. . . Come home and help!" she begged as she watched the 14 month old toddle around the living room.

"I can't," she said. "I have 2 more weeks here."

"Rory!" she whined.

"Mom!" Rory responded.

"Charlie, come say hi to Rory," Lorelai called out to Charlie. She wandered over, falling a couple of times along the way.

"Hi Charlie!" Rory said with a smile.

"Hi," Charlie responded.

"I miss you," Rory said.

"I think she misses you too," Lorelai responded. Charlie had exhausted her vocabulary and had moved on to find something to play with.

"Good. See you guys in two weeks."

"See you in two weeks," Lorelai agreed as they hung up. She stared at the phone for a moment before tossing it on the couch beside her. "Charlie?" she called out. "Luke?" she asked.

"Dada!" she said as she moved from the toys to a book she found on the floor. Lorelai sighed and rubbed her forehead. She was never going to be able to set foot in Luke's until Charlie was 3.

"Hey, you seen Lorelai?" Luke asked Babette and Patty as he filled their coffee mugs.

"All the time," Babette said. "We introduced Charlie to my gnomes yesterday."

"I saw her in town the day before last," Patty said.

"So they're ok?" he asked.

"Of course they are!" Babette said. "Why you askin' sugah?"

"Just asking," he said as he headed off to tend to other customers.

"What are you doing?" Sookie asked when Lorelai came into the kitchen at the Inn.

"Reading. Coffee?"

"Reading what?" she asked as she handed her a cup.

"Hypnosis," she said calmly.

"Still haven't fixed that problem, have you?" Sookie asked.

"No," she said with a sigh. "I'm starving Sookie!" she complained. "I haven't been to Luke's in 4 weeks. If I eat anything else from Al's, I may fall over and die!"

"So dramatic," Sookie said with a smile as she pushed a plate of fruit in front of Lorelai. Lorelai sighed as she took a seat on a stool after taking the baby monitor off of her waist.

"How do you reason with a 1 year old?" she asked as she picked up a strawberry.

"Very poorly?"

"I have tried everything," she said emphatically. "For a week and a half I pointed to a picture of Chris every time she said dad. And then I stopped saying 'Luke', hoping that she would forget. I tried bribing rewarding her every time she pointed to Chris' picture and says dad. . . I'm out of ideas," she said.

"Does Luke know?"

"No, at least I hope not," she said.

"So you don't know for sure? Maybe you're just over reacting," she said rather dismissively.

"Maybe," she finally conceded. "This book isn't very interesting anyways," she said, taking another strawberry before grabbing her book and the monitor and heading back out to the desk.

Lorelai headed back to her office and sat heavily behind her desk. She turned the monitor off and cast a glance at Charlie who was still sleeping soundly in the small cot beside the desk.

She sighed and tossed her book on to one of the chairs in the room and started in on some of the paper work she had to do.

"I think I fixed it," Lorelai told Rory a week later.

"Really? She's cured?" Rory said with a smile as she tapped a pen on the pad of paper in front of her.

"Well, sort of," she said. "How mad do you think he'd be if 'Duke' made a come back?"

"Seriously?" Rory asked, dropping her pen when she heard that.

"I don't really know how it happened. Some where between 'dada' and 'No, it's Luke!' 'Duke' made an appearance."

"Well," Rory said as she thought about it for a moment. "Maybe it will be okay. Maybe he'll just accept it. I mean, baby's, sorry, toddlers, substitute letters and sounds all the time. Mom?" Rory asked after all she heard was some sighing.

"Can I quote you?"

"Sure. Go to Luke's mom, before he starts worrying."

"Why would he worry?"

"We go there every day. Don't you think he'd worry a little if we were gone without any notice for an extended period of time?"

"Possibly," Lorelai admitted. "Charlie, food at Luke's?"

"Duke!" Charlie said as she headed over to Lorelai. Rory snickered a little.

"Have fun," she said.

"See you in a week."

"See you in a week," Rory agreed, hanging up the phone and turning her attention back to her half finished letter to Jess. She didn't really know how she felt about him, especially after she saw him and kissed him, at Sookie's wedding. She sighed as she finally put pen to paper and forced herself to write to him.

"Where have you been?" Luke demanded when Lorelai and Charlie came into the diner later that evening.

"We decided to see the world?" she asked, trying to seem like he was the one flipping out.

"I haven't seen you in here in a month, since Rory left town! The only place I've seen you is when you're walking around town."

"Hey," she said as she put Charlie in the high chair. "We are popular people," she said as she sat herself down.

"Right," he said with a sigh. "You ordering?"

"Turkey on White for her."

"So just the meat and cheese?"

"Mmm . . . maybe some cucumber too," she said. "And apple juice?"

"And for you?"

"Burger. Extra cheese, side of fries and coffee."

"Comin' right up," he said as he headed to the kitchen. Lorelai watched him go and she sighed as she slumped into the chair.

"You are stressful!" she told Charlie as she gave her mom a look and pointed towards her bag. Lorelai complied and removed a couple of toys as Luke brought out the drinks.

"Thanks Luke," she said without really thinking.

"Duke!" Charlie chimed in. Lorelai cringed when she heard this.

"Lorelai!" Luke complained as he came back over to the table.

"I didn't do it on purpose!" she finally blurted out.

"What do you mean you didn't do it on purpose?" he asked. That had definitely not been what he had expected to hear. Lorelai sighed and hung her head for a moment. "Come on," he said, waiting for an explanation. She quickly spilled out the whole story without looking at him.

"So that's why we stayed away. I was really hoping avoidance would curb the habit and when that didn't work, I went back to correcting and some where along the way 'Duke' was born. I'm sorry," she said as she finally looked up at him.

"Luke," he said as he bent down to Charlie's level.

"Duke," she replied with a smile as she took a drink.

"Hmmm," was all he could say as he headed back to the kitchen. Lorelai breathed a sigh of relief and pulled her coffee cup towards her.

"Thank God you're so cute," she said to Charlie before she took a drink.

"I knew about the whole 'dada' thing," he whispered to her as he dropped off the food.

"Aah!" she said in disbelief. "And you let me freak out for an entire month about it?"

"I didn't know what you were doing. You freak out about lots of things."

"You could have said something. A little 'Oh, hey, I don't mind' would have been great."

"Oh, hey, I don't mind," he said.

"Go away ," she said as she shook her head. Luke chuckled as he wandered back to the counter.

Charlie's 4 in this one.

"What does this say?" Charlie asked as she pointed to something on Luke's menu.

"Large," Luke replied as he peaked at the word as he rushed past to deliver the plates he was carrying.

"What about this one?" she asked as he rushed back to the kitchen.

"Platter."

"You sell platters?" she asked as he filled some glasses.

"It's a double serving of fries," he said as he took the glasses to a table.

"Oh. What does this say?"

"What is this all about?" he asked as he stopped in front of her for a moment.

"I'm reading," she said with a smile.

"You're asking a long stream of questions while pointing to words." Charlie frowned.

"Fine," she said as she slammed the menu closed. "Peanut Butter and jam," she said with a sigh.

"Crusts?"

"No. And cut into little triangles."

"The work . . ." he smirked as he put a glass of milk in front of her before going to make the sandwich.

"You have got to teach her to read," Luke said when he got home later that evening.

"She's 4 Luke."

"And driving me up the wall. Of course she has your sense of timing so she only starts this during a rush," he pointed out as he headed to the kitchen.

Lorelai chuckled from her position on the couch. "I say again, she's 4."

"When did Rory learn to read?"

"At about 4. But she taught herself. As I cleaned rooms, she used the Closed Captioning on the TV. So, out of curiosity, do you have any suggestions as to how to teach her to read?"

"I don't know," he said as he came out from the kitchen, pan in hand. "You've done this once before."

"Ya, hi, did you just have a stroke and forget the little story about Closed Captioning I just told you?"

"What about those books? Those fake text books you can buy from Andrew?"

"Are you ready to devote hours to doing all the stupid activities in the books?"

"Ugh," he said as he went back into the kitchen, dropping the pan on the stove a little harder than normal.

"Just read more to her," she said. "Instead of telling her to save it for bed time."

"I'm not a big reader," he called to her as he slammed through the fridge.

"Well, she's like Rory, she's gonna be a reader and nothing in this universe can stop that from happening."

"Why doesn't she harass you about things like this when you're busy?"

"Because I give her a running play by play about everything that I'm doing and when we're in my office, I ready any piece of paper in there that she puts in front of me."

"You make sure she gets a hold of things like budget forms, don't you?"

"Depending on how busy I am? Yes, yes I do," she answered with a bit of a smile as she finally pulled herself up off the couch and headed to the kitchen.

"Hey Babe, whatca doin'?" she asked as she peaked into Rory and Charlie's room.

"Is this a good book?" Charlie asked as she held up one of Rory's.

"The Fountain Head? No, put it down and walk away until your about 20. I thought you were still working on Bearenstein Bears?"

"I want something new," she said as she put the book back and closed the dresser drawer.

"Library tomorrow?" she asked.

"Okay," she said as she looked up at the books on Rory's shelf. "What about that one?" she asked. "It has my name on it!" she said as she pointed to it. Lorelai came into the room and scanned the titles.

"Charlotte's Web," she said fondly. "Rory named you after reading that book."

"Really?"

"Yep," she said as she took it down off the shelf. "This was the first chapter book I ever bought your sister and I have replaced it . . . probably ever 2 years since then."

"I wanna read it," she said, looking up at Lorelai.

"A lot of words," she said as she sat down on Rory's bed. Charlie climbed up next to her.

"Please?" she asked.

"Chapter 1, Before Breakfast," Lorelai said as she scooted back on the bed and Charlie smiled as she scrambled up to join her. "'Where's Papa going with that axe?' said Fern to her mother as they were setting the table for breakfast." Lorelai read as Charlie settled against her side. Luke paused in his cooking to listen for a moment and he smiled as her voice began to change as she read each character.

"Dinner," Luke said after a while, interrupting the reading. Two sets of identical blue eyes turned to look at him.

"5 more minutes?" Charlie asked.

"Okay," he said as he went and adjusted the temperature on the stove and came back into the bed room and sat in the chair in Rory's room. "Keep going," he said as he got comfortable. Lorelai grinned at him before finding her place again.

"No-no-no!" said the goose. 'It's the old pail trick, Wilbur. Don't fall for it, don't fall for it! He's trying to lure you back into captivity-ivity. He's appealing to your stomach." Lorelai read and Luke couldn't help but grin as he listened to her go on. "Ok, end of chapter and I'm hungry, let's go."

"When do we get to Charlotte?" she asked as she crawled off the bed and headed to the kitchen.

"End of the next chapter I believe," she said as she left the book on the dresser and followed Charlie out.

"I think I'm going to have to buy another copy of that book," she said as she dropped onto the couch beside Luke.

"Really into it?"

"New favourite book," she confirmed. He chuckled as he put an arm around her.

"We're going to be reading a lot of Charlotte's Web, aren't we?"

"I would imagine so."

"That's fine," he said. "I think Rory read it to me once," he said with a sly smile.

Lorelai couldn't help but smile in return

"Again?" Luke asked as Charlie held the battered book out to him.

"Please?" she asked. "No one but us and Kirk," she said as she pushed the book towards him. Luke watched her for a moment before he sighed, grabbed the book from her and headed towards the table in the back. Charlie smiled as she quickly slid off of the stool and ran after him, quickly climbing up into his lap. "Start here," she said as she flipped to chapter five. Luke sighed.

'The night seemed long. Wilbur's stomach was empty and his mind was full,' he read. "What are you doing?" he asked when she started to follow along with her finger.

"Keep going," was all she said, her finger hesitating under the last word he had stopped under.

"Have you got this memorized yet?"

"No. Keep reading Luke!"

"You read it," he said patiently. She hesitated and looked up at him. "Go on," he nodded.

"And when your stom. . . ach, stomach, is empty and your mind is full, it's always hard to sleep," she said slowly. "Hey!" she said excitedly.

"Now all you have to do is start reading something else," he said with a smile. "Keep going," he nudged her as he sat back and listened for a change.