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"It's true," the doctor said, returning to the small examining room where Luke and Lorelai were tucked, hands clasped together tightly. "You're pregnant."
Lorelai nodded, and dropped Luke's hands. "I knew it," she said softly, allowing her hands to rest on her stomach. "I knew it."
Luke laid one hand over both of hers, and wrapped his other arm around her shoulders. "Is there anything in particular we should be doing, doctor?" he asked, all business-like.
"You've been doing pretty well already. I'd say get some pre-natal vitamins from any pharmacy, and you'll be fine. Just remember to stay away from smoke and alcohol, and schedule a follow-up with the receptionist."
Lorelai swallowed, and nodded, and smiled at the doctor. "Thank you," she said.
"Of course." The doctor smiled a tight smile and left the room. Luke watched him go, and then turned to his girlfriend.
"Are you okay?" he asked, seconds before she broke down, her hands over her mouth and her eyes full of tears. "Oh, Lorelai," he sighed, trying to wrap her in his arms.
She moved her arms away from herself, pushing his arms back to his sides. "Just take me home, okay?" she asked, dropping from the table and starting for the door.
"Okay," Luke said, following her.
"Uh, Liz?"
"Luke?" Lorelai heard the tinny voice on the other end of the line.
"Yeah. Listen, is Jess doing anything these days?"
Lorelai couldn't make out Liz's response, but Luke suddenly looked pained. "Oh, really. All that?" Luke raised his eyebrows at Lorelai. "Well, listen, do you want us to take him off your hands for a while? Me and Lorelai." Luke sighed. "My girlfriend, Liz. Of twelve years. She's been at the last five Thanksgivings you've come to. Yeah, her!"
Lorelai smiled, and stood from her seat at Luke's kitchen table to refill her coffee cup. She leaned against his counter and watched as he finished his conversation.
"Yeah, the sooner the better. No, not for that long. Well, if it really works out, you can ship the rest of his stuff out here. Yeah, this is the real deal. Okay, hold on, I've got some times around here somewhere." Luke moved the mouthpiece away from his mouth and said to Lorelai, "Where did I put that bus schedule?"
Lorelai glanced around, and then walked swiftly towards Luke's desk and picked up the bus schedule. "Here it is," she said, walking back over and handing it to him.
"Thanks," he said, smiling, before turning his attention back to his sister. "Yeah, there's one leaving there at ten. No, it gets to Hartford at twelve and then switches buses to come here. No, I think Jess can handle it. Well, he's sixteen, isn't he? I think he can do it, Liz. No, I don't think I could meet him in Hartford. No, I really don't. Well, I work. So does she. No, I promise you she works. Why wouldn't she? Liz. Liz! I'll meet Jess at the Stars Hollow bus stop tomorrow at twelve-thirty, okay? Make sure he's on it." With that, Luke hung up the phone. He pointed at it, and looked at Lorelai.
"That woman really gets on my nerves."
"Even worse than me?" Lorelai asked, wrapping her arms around his neck.
"Yes, amazingly," he said, leaning towards her. "I don't know how."
There was a knock on the apartment door, and the couple sprang apart.
"That's Rory," Lorelai said, not moving.
"Yep," Luke said, also not moving.
"We should get that."
"Yep."
Lorelai grinned, extricated herself form Luke, and walked to the door.
"Everything's the same," Rory said, walking into the room. "Except the daisies are gone."
"Daisies?" Lorelai asked.
"Yeah. Max...um, proposed to you with a thousand yellow daisies." Rory blushed as she watched Lorelai and Luke exchange glances. "It drove Kirk insane."
"Um, Max?" Lorelai asked.
"Yeah. He's my Lit teacher at Chilton. And, um, Chilton is the private school I go to in Hartford. And Grandma and Grandpa pay for it."
Lorelai snorted. "That's rich. I asked my parents for money?"
Rory nodded. "It was really hard for you. But now we have a semi-good relationship with them. We have dinner together every Friday."
Lorelai's eyes widened, and she shook her head. "Wow. That's insane." She turned to the meal she and Luke had made earlier, sitting on the counter. "Dinner?" she asked, pointing to it.
Rory nodded. "I'm starved."
The three settled at the kitchen table and began to eat.
"Lorelai. Lorelai." Luke ran out of the truck behind Lorelai, only to get the door to her house slammed in his face. He sighed and settled his hands on both sides of the door. "Lorelai," he called. "I'm sorry."
"Go away!" she yelled.
"Lorelai, I was just trying to make it better!"
"Yeah? Well you're making it worse!" With her last word, she threw something at the door, and it bounced off the glass with a thud.
"Lorelai! All I did was ask you to marry me!"
"Don't repeat it, stupid! God!" Lorelai's voice got fainter as she walked away, and then her figure reappeared in the glass in the door. "Just leave me alone, okay?" she asked softly.
Luke sighed. "Okay," he said, just as softly.
"I'll call you," he heard as he headed off.
Rory was nervous. Very nervous.
She was sitting at the bus stop with new-and-improved Luke, her other universe Mom's boyfriend of twelve years. They were waiting for Luke's nephew, who she'd never heard of. She knew Luke had a sister, but she didn't know he had a nephew. She wondered if the nephew were an other universe thing, but she didn't think so. Why would Rory's death or non-death affect Luke's nephew, who was her age?
Rory and this Jess person were supposed to pretend to date, to go along with the story Luke had told Miss Patty. Except, Jess didn't know this story. And Rory didn't think she could act.
And so, she was nervous. Very nervous.
"Here he comes," Luke said, almost under his breath, and in one move, both of them stood at the same time. The bus pulled up almost directly in front of them, and four or five people wandered off. The last person to get off was a boy about Rory's age, with short fluffy hair that stood straight up on his head, a large green army duffel bag, and an expression of distaste. "Jess," Luke greeted his nephew.
"Luke," Jess nodded in response, and then turned to Rory.
"I'm Rory," she said, only kind of stuttering. At first she reached out a hand for him to shake, but Luke, with his eye on the town, shook his head, and so Rory wrapped Jess in a hug, and finished with a kiss on his cheek.
Jess raised his eyebrows at Luke as Rory let him go, but Luke just said, "Let's go," and led the two teenagers to the diner. Jess tried to look around when they entered the diner, and drop his bag, but Rory just grabbed his hand and led him upstairs, to the apartment and out of sight.
"Okay, what the hell is going on?" Jess asked as they entered the apartment, dropping his bag finally and turning to face Rory.
"Well...it's really weird. I don't really know, actually. But the thing is, we need to pretend to be boyfriend and girlfriend."
"Why?" Jess asked.
Rory sighed. "It's really weird and long and complicated. The gist of it is, in order to keep the town gossips from exploding with information, we need to pretend to be boyfriend and girlfriend. Oh, and around everyone but my mom and Luke, I'm Leigh."
"Your mom? Who's your mom?"
"Luke's girlfriend."
Jess raised his eyebrows. "I didn't know Lorelai had a daughter."
"She doesn't. Not really. Not in this life."
Jess finally dropped Rory's hand, and wandered over to the kitchen table and sat down. He stared blankly at the floor and muttered, "I've wandered through the looking glass."
Rory looked down at her hand, the one Jess had been holding seconds before. She hadn't even realized they were holding hands until he'd let go, and now her hand felt cold and alone. She looked back at Jess and smiled. This wasn't her world, so Dean be damned. He could date Lindsay Lister all he wanted. She was going to date Jess.
Behold, Lit-ness. Good? Bad? Let me know, and I'll keep going.
Lorelai's pregnancy will be explained, I promise.