8 – Finland, Minnesota
"So, where were you?" Lorelai asked later that afternoon.
They had spent the past couple of hours talking about the newest festival in Stars Hollow, the First Snow of the Year feast, initiated by Lorelai of course, Sookie's latest injury which had included a grater and a lot of cheese, Rory's last year at Yale, the Gilmore's unexpected change in behaviour, the happenings at the Dragonfly and basically everything else under the sun except what Lorelai really wanted to talk about.
"Here and there." Luke started. "I didn't stay long anywhere, I felt... I don't know, restless, I guess. I just knew that I had to keep moving, or everything would catch up with me and then I'd have no choice but to go back, and I wasn't ready to. Not then."
"And now? Why did you come back?" Lorelai wondered, tilting her head to the side.
"It was time." He explained. "I didn't know a few days ago that I was going back, but then I woke up in a shabby motel in Finland..."
"You were in Finland?" Lorelai cut him off, and he glared at her.
"Finland, Minnesota." He replied.
"Finland's in Minnesota? I always thought it was in Europe." Lorelai seemed to ponder this for a moment.
"Not Finland, the country, Finland the town." Luke corrected her, not as annoyed as he sounded. He had missed their little banters while he was gone... hell, he had missed them before he left, too. The last few months before the break-up they had been acting like they barely knew each other. It was nice to be able to just talk, about anything.
"Now, that is just wrong." Lorelai announced. "Isn't it hard enough to learn all those weird European country names, and now they have to go and name a town the same name? Wrong."
"Yeah, well, that's where I was." Luke retorted. "Now, can I get back to what i was saying?"
"Sure." Lorelai nodded encouragingly.
"So, there I was, in this crappy hotel called 'Hotel Holiday' or something similarly stupid, and I just realized..."
"What's in Finland, Minnesota, anyway?" Lorelai interrupted again. Luke just raised his eyebrows at her. "Sorry."
"So, I realized that Christmas was only a little more than a week away, and I have never spent Christmas anywhere but here." He said. "And I wanted to be with April on the holidays, so I just got in the car and drove all day yesterday."
"Did you see April yet?" Lorelai asked.
"No." Luke shook his head. "I just got back a minute or so before I saw you. I was about to go to Woodbridge, but then I realized she was in school anyway, so I'll go there later."
"Well, it's three thirty, she'll be home by now." Lorelai said, not looking up at him. She didn't want him to leave yet.
"Don't try to get rid off me, I'm not going anywhere until I know you two are OK." He replied.
"We're fine." Lorelai insisted, not knowing why really. She didn't want him to leave, and he didn't want to leave. Why was she pushing him?
"That's not what the doctor thinks, obviously." He nodded at the heart monitor.
"It's just a precaution, really." Lorelai said.
"OK, then I'm staying just as a precaution also." Luke concluded, crossing his arms in front of him as if daring her to argue.
"OK." She agreed, getting a slightly surprised look. They sat in silence for a moment before Lorelai spoke again. "Thank you." Luke frowned.
"For what?"
"For... everything. For taking me here, for staying with me, for... caring." She explained.
"As for taking you here, I kind of had to, seeing as how I did sort of cause this." Luke held up his hand as Lorelai was about to argue. "No, it's OK. And staying... I couldn't just leave, you should know that. And you will never have to worry about me not caring, no matter what happens. I will always care about you, all three of you." Lorelai smiled at how he included Rory in their little twisted 'family'.
"Still, thank you." She insisted, a serious look on her face.
"You're welcome." Luke replied, smiling a little.
"So, you're spending Christmas with April?" Lorelai asked, changing the subject.
"Hopefully." Luke nodded. "I mean, I don't know if they have any plans, but if not I'd like to at least see her."
"Then you should come to our house on Christmas Day." Lorelai suggested, and Luke frowned.
"Why?" He asked, hurriedly adding. "Not that I wouldn't like to."
"I'm having a big Christmas party at my house." Lorelai told him. "Well, me and Sookie, really, she's doing all the cooking."
"OK..." Luke still had a confused look on his face, so Lorelai continued.
"It's for all our family and friends, and April and Anna will be there." She explained.
"Why?" Luke asked, and it dawned on Lorelai that he didn't know about her and Rory's relationship with April and Anna.
"Sorry, I forgot." She said. "April hasn't said anything about it, because I made her promise not to, but we've been getting to know each other since you left."
"You have?" He asked, and she nodded. "And Anna is OK with it?"
"Actually, Anna and I have been getting to know each other too." Lorelai revealed.
"You have?"
"Why is that so hard to believe? I am a very likeable person." Lorelai sounded a little offended.
"I know, it's just... Anna was so against the whole you and April meeting thing before, I was just surprised is all." Luke saved.
"I guess we didn't really get along then, but everything's great now." Lorelai said. "After I found out about the baby, I decided to tell Anna, to let her make the decision to let April know or not, and she thought it was a good idea, so we've been hanging out a lot. April even has her own room at the Crap Shack."
"Her own room? But there are only two bedrooms." Luke said.
"I had an addition built." Lorelai told him. "I needed a room for this little guy, anyway, so I thought I might as well get another room done at the same time."
"Wow, a lot has changed." Luke said, more to himself than Lorelai.
"A lot can happen in five months."
xxxxx
"Hungry?" Lorelai asked a little later as Luke's stomach churned.
"I guess." Luke replied. "I haven't really had anything to eat since lunch."
"It's almost nine." Lorelai noted, looking at the clock.
"No, it can't be." Luke looked at the clock too. "Wow. We've been here for over five hours."
"Yeah. Time flies when you're having fun." Lorelai joked.
"I guess it does." Luke agreed, standing up. "I'm gonna get something from the cafeteria, want anything?"
"Actually, would you mind..."
"I am not getting you coffee!" Luke cut her off.
"So not what I was going to say." Lorelai replied offended. "For your information, mister, I haven't had a drop of coffee in over five months."
"Well, you shouldn't. It's bad for the baby." Luke said.
"It's also not the baby's favorite beverage." Lorelai added.
"How so?"
"Well, when I was pregnant with Rory, I had no problem with coffee. I didn't drink it that much, but I could have if I wanted to." Lorelai explained. "This time, I can't even stand the smell of coffee.It makes me sick. I threw out all the coffee in the house, causing Rory to have a mini-breakdown."
Luke chuckled a little at the image.
"So, what I was going to say before you so rudely interrupted me, was would you mind getting me an apple or something?" Lorelai said.
"An apple? Lorelai Gilmore wants an apple? Let me alert the media."
"Apples are my pregnancy food." Lorelai replied. "I ate them all the time when I was having Rory, and apparently, this kid likes apples too."
"OK. One apple, coming right up."
xxxxx
Luke found a pay phone on the way to the cafeteria and decided to call April. He always talked to her at eight, so she would probably be wondering why he hadn't called yet. He put some change in the money slot and dialled the by now familiar number.
"Hello?"
"Anna, hi." He said into the phone.
"Hey, Luke, what's going on? You're calling kinda late." Anna noticed.
"Yeah, sorry about that, I've been kinda tied up for a while." Luke apologized.
"No, it's OK." Anna replied.
"Is April still up?"
"Sure, let me get her for you." He listened as Anna called April, and a moment later his daughter's voice came over the line.
"Hello?"
"Hey, April, sorry to call so late." He apologized again.
"That's OK." April replied. "Gave me a chance to catch up on some homework."
"Like you're ever behind." Luke joked.
"Well, no, but I have some extra credit work that I wanted done before the weekend." April explained.
"Oh, I get it." Luke said, thinking how much like Rory April was in that sense. They both loved learning and school.
"So, what's up?" April asked.
"Well, I'm actually back in Stars Hollow." Luke revealed. "Or, at the moment, in Hartford, but I am back."
"You're home?" April's voice sounded unbelieving, and Luke cursed himself for staying away so long. Not only for April sake.
"Yeah, just got back this afternoon." He told her.
"Oh." He could hear the disappointment in her voice and hurried to continue.
"I was going to come and see you when you got out of school, but I ran into Lorelai." He explained.
"You did?" Luke could hear the guilt in her voice.
"I did." Luke confirmed. "Seems like you've been holding out on me."
"I'm sorry, I'm really really sorry. I wanted to tell you, I did, but Lorelai said she wanted you to hear it from her."
"I know, it's OK." Luke assured her. "I'm not mad or anything, she told me that she had made you promise not to tell me, so it's good that you didn't."
"Really?" April asked in a small voice.
"Really." Luke said. "Anyway, I ran into her and she had these, I think they call them false contractions, so I had to take her to the hospital, and I've been here ever since."
"She's in the hospital? Is she OK?" April asked in a worried voice.
"Who's in the hospital?" Luke heard Anna ask in the background.
"Lorelai." April replied with her hand covering the phone.
"Why? What happened? And how does Luke know?" Anna wondered.
"I don't know, let me ask him." April said before returning to the phone. "Sorry, mom heard me and got worried. She and Lorelai are friends now, you know."
"I know, Lorelai told me that too."
"So, is Lorelai OK?"
"She's fine, they're just keeping her overnight for observation." Luke decided to leave out the part about the baby's heart beat, he didn't want to worry April unnecessarily.
"OK, good." April replied. "So are you going to stay there with her?"
"Yeah, I thought I'd stick around." He tried to sound casual.
"O-K." He could tell April was smiling.
"I thought I'd come by tomorrow, do you get out from school at three?" He asked, changing the subject.
"Actually, we have a half-day tomorrow, and it's Friday, so I was gonna go straight to Stars Hollow from school." April told him. "Mom's visiting my Aunt in Chicago for a couple of days, so I'm staying with Lorelai since Rory'll be at Yale all weekend."
"OK, then how about I pick you up from school?" Luke suggested. "That way you won't have to take the bus."
"OK, that sounds good." April agreed. "They're letting us out at noon."
"I'll be there."
xxxxx
Luke returned to the room a couple of minutes later, only to find Lorelai fast asleep in the bed, her left hand resting on the swell of her stomach. Quietly, he closed the door behind him and sat down in the chair he had occupied the entire afternoon.
She still looked amazing. Even more so now, she seemed completely happy and at peace with herself and the world. Apparently what they said about pregnant women glowing was true.
Putting the apple he had brought for her on the bedside table, Luke leaned back in the chair and watched Lorelai sleep. Her breathing was deep and even, and he was pretty sure she'd be out for the rest of the night. Shifting in the chair, he tried to get comfortable for the night.
xxxxx
Lorelai slowly opened one eye to greet the annoying sun, then the other one. Damn whoever had forgotten to close the blinds the previous night. Lazily she stretched out in the bed and rubbed the sleep from her eyes. Hearing a light snore come from behind her, she rolled over to find Luke asleep in a hospital bed next to hers. A smile spread on her face. He had really stayed.
Feeling her stomach growl, she pressed the button next to her bed that called the nurse into the room. A couple of minutes later, a nurse Lorelai hadn't seen the night before came into the room. When she saw Luke asleep, she carefully closed the door behind her.
"So, he finally caved in?" She said quietly.
"What do you mean?" Lorelai asked in a whisper.
"Well, he was up all night, just sitting in that chair and watching you." The nurse replied. "He wouldn't even let me bring the bed in until after three in the morning. You're really lucky to have found a guy like that."
"Oh, no, we're not together." Lorelai hurriedly said. "Not anymore. He's just concerned about the baby."
"Oh, sorry, my mistake." The nurse replied, frowning. She could have sworn that those two were madly in love.
"So, I was just wondering if you could maybe bring me some breakfast?" Lorelai asked, and the nurse nodded.
"Sure, I'll get a tray for you, you were asleep when I made the rounds earlier." She said. "I can't promise it's any good, though, but I think you'll be released soon, so you can have a proper breakfast then."
"Thank you." Lorelai said and leaned back against the pillows as the nurse left. Checking her watch, she saw that it was a little after nine in the morning. She had slept for almost twelve hours. Looking over at Luke, who was still fast asleep, she felt tears rise in her eyes. How would she be able to just be his friend, after everything?
xxxxx
Luke stirred in the unfamiliar bed, opening his eyes to find an equally unfamiliar room. Not that that was something unusual in his lifeover the past fewmonths. Though this time, he didn't wake up alone.
"Goodmorning, Sleeping Beauty." Lorelai greeted him cheerfully. She was sitting up in the bed, eating a bowl of something unidentifiable.
"Morning." He replied, rubbing his eyes. "You been up long?"
"No." Lorelai shook her head. "Just about half an hour."
"What time is it?" Luke looked around the room, but there was no clock anywhere.
"Almost nine forty-five." Lorelai replied, gulping down the last of her food and putting the tray on the bedside table.
"You should have woken me up." Luke told her.
"Why? So you could watch me eat disgusting breakfast?" Lorelai raised an eyebrow at him. "Sorry, you'll just have to get your entertainment somewhere else."
"No, I just want to talk to the doctor and see if everything is OK." Luke replied, sitting up in the bed and getting rid of the blanket.
"Oh, sorry." Lorelai said, her heart melting a little at his concern. "I haven't seen the doctor yet, but we could ask the nurse if he could come check me out." She giggled a little at her own words. "In a strictly non sexual way, of course."
"I'll just go see if I can find him, I need to stretch my legs, anyway." Luke stood up, stretching his neck.
"Oh, OK. You do that. I'll be right here." Lorelai nodded.
Luke closed the door behind him and leaned against it for a moment. He just had to get out of that room. She had looked so beautiful, her hair still a little mussed from sleep, it had taken every fiber of his being to not walk over to her and kiss her senseless. Sighing, he walked down the hallway in search of the doctor. How he would be able to be just friends with her was a mystery to him. But he had to.
xxxxx
"Found him." Luke announced ten minutes later, walking back into Lorelai's room.
"Great!" She exclaimed. "Please tell me I can go home."
"Not so fast, missy." The doctor chuckled. "I want to do an ultrasound, just to check everything out. Not that I think there's anything to worry about."
"Fine." Lorelai surrendered.
"I'll send a nurse up to bring you down to the examination room in a couple of minutes, give you time to get your stuff ready. You can leave straight from there." The doctor said and left the room again.
"Help me, would you?" Lorelai said, holding her hands out for Luke to help her up in the bed. "Not as mobile as I used to be."
Luke walked over to the bed and helped her sit up. He then got her purse from the bedside table and the plastic bag the nurse had put her clothes in the previous night.
"Anything else?" He asked, and Lorelai scanned the room quickly.
"My toothbrush in the bathroom." She said, and he went to get it. When he returned, a male nurse was entering with a wheelchair.
"I'm here to bring you down for your ultrasound." He said, and Lorelai made a face.
"Do I have to sit in that? I hate wheelchairs." She complained.
"Sorry, hospital policy." The nurse smiled apologetically.
"Fine, whatever." Lorelai agreed, getting off the bed and sitting down in the wheelchair.
"Aren't we sunny today." The nurse joked, and Lorelai glared at him. "I'll just take you down now."
"Do you want me to wait in the car?" Luke asked, placing Lorelai's things in her lap. She frowned at him.
"Don't you want to come? We get to see the baby." She said.
"No, I do, I do, I just... wasn't sure if you'd want me there." He replied, shoving his hands deep in his pockets.
"Of course I want you there, this is your kid too." She told him.
"Are you sure?"
"I'm sure." She insisted. "Unless you don't want to come?"
"No, I do, I just wasn't sure..." Luke started, and realised they were in a loop. "Let's go."
xxxxx
"OK, Lorelai, why don't you climb onto the bed and I'll get everything ready." The doctor told Lorelai a little later, and she clumsily got onto the bed.
"What's that?" Luke asked in a hushed voice, and the doctor chuckled.
"That's a monitor, where you'll be able to see the baby." He explained, hooking the machine up. "You know the drill."
"I'm a master by now." Lorelai joked, pulling up the sheet to cover her lower body and then the hospital gown, exposing her stomach.
"This'll be a little cold." The doctor said, squirting a gel onto Lorelai's abdomen.
"You don't say?"
"Now, if you'll just sit on that chair over there, you'll both get a good view." The doctor pointed to a chair on the other side of Lorelai's bed, and Luke sat down on it.
"Just don't tell us if it's a boy or a girl, I want to be surprised." Lorelai told the doctor as he turned the monitor on.
"Sure. Now, let's see what we can find." He said, placing the ultrasound device onto Lorelai's stomach and moving it around a little bit. "There we are." He pointed to the screen. "There's the head, and the arms and legs."
"Wow. It's a lot bigger than last time." Lorelai said, her eyes not leaving the screen.
"Well, it has been a month and a half." The doctor noted. "That's one active baby." He continued as the fetus on the screen moved around.
"You're telling me? I'm the one who has to put up with the non-stop kicking." Lorelai joked, looking over at Luke, who was staring intently at the screen. "Hey, Luke? You OK?"
"What?" He looked over at her. "Oh, I just... it's..." He stopped, not able to find the right words. Lorelai only smiled.
"I know, it's amazing." She said, and he nodded.
"You haven't been to any of the ultrasounds before?" The doctor asked.
"No, I haven't, I've been..."
"Out of town." Lorelai cut him off. "Unfortunate timing." The doctor smiled understandingly.
"Well, let's listen to the little one's heart, and then you'll be free to go, hopefully." He said, and turned on a little switch on the side of the monitor. A rapid thumping immediately filled the room.
"Is is supposed to be that fast?" Luke asked concerned.
"That is actually perfectly normal." The doctor told him. "And there weren't any more irregularities during the night, so I think we can safely send you home."
"Yay!" Lorelai exclaimed. "Not that I don't appreciate your hospitality."
"I'm sure." The doctor chuckled, turning the machine off. "I printed a couple of pictures for you, I'll just get them while you get dressed."
"Thank you." Lorelai said, and waited until the doctor had left the room before turning to Luke, who was still sitting, staring at the now empty monitor. "You OK?"
"Yeah, I'm fine." He replied, turning his attention to her. "It's just a lot to take in at once, and I've already missed so much..."
"Don't think about that." Lorelai tried to calm him. "Think about what's still ahead. There's so much that you will be here for. His or her birth, the first step, first words, birthdays, first day in school, the list can go on and on."
"Thanks." He said. "For not shutting me out completely."
"I could never do that." Lorelai shook her head.
"I know, but still. Thank you."
"You're welcome."