Disclaimer: I don't own Gilmore Girls. And I borrowed my story title and chapter titles from a Keith Urban song.
Summary: 6.22, picks up after Luke and Lorelai's big fight. She walks away, but doesn't get too far.
A/N: Sorry for the long wait, I've got tons of excuses, but nothing I'll bore you with. But I really am sorry that it took me so long to get this chapter up.
A/N: Thanks sooo much to my lovely beta, gilmore77, for the extra help with this chapter. Seriously, girl, you rock, and this chapter is all the better for it.
Chapter 8: It's Just Who We Are
"She can't keep doing this," Luke said to Lorelai as he turned the phone on again, and started furiously punching the buttons. "We've got to figure this out, and we've got to do it now. I can't keep playing these games with her." Lorelai said nothing, only nodded her head and rubbed his back soothingly. After a second, he set the phone back down. "It's not even ringing, I think she unplugged the phone."
"Oh Luke," Lorelai wasn't quite sure what to say, but she knew she needed to say something. "Maybe, um, she only has a cordless phone, and the battery died. Or maybe the plug was loose or something, and it just fell out. Or…"
He gave her a slight smile, knowing that she was only trying to make him feel better.
"No, maybe she just didn't want to hear what I had to say," he said in defeat.
Suddenly the phone rang, causing both Luke and Lorelai to slightly jump in their seats. Luke quickly grabbed it, and answered before it could ring a second time.
"Hello." It had to be Anna, he just knew it. The phone had just disconnected a minute ago. Maybe Lorelai was right, maybe she didn't do it on purpose, maybe something had just happened to her phone. He waited, trying to calm himself. He still wanted to straighten things out with Anna about Lorelai, but he figured yelling at her again wouldn't help him.
"Hey, Luke, can I talk to Mom?"
It wasn't Anna. Luke's face fell a little, and Lorelai shot him a puzzled look as he handed her the phone.
"It's Rory," he explained.
"Hey, hon," she said into the phone, giving Luke a sympathetic smile. He simply shrugged his shoulders toward her.
"So, how did the appointment go?"
"Well, you might not believe this one, so brace yourself, but the doc says I'm pregnant."
"Hahaha," Rory replied dryly. "I already knew that one. I just wanted to see how it went. Everything's ok?"
"Oh, it's all good. Actually, better than good. The doc did help me out big time with one thing."
"Ooh, really? What?"
"He helped me beat Luke in the battle over coffee!" She threw her arms in the air to emphasize her victory, even though Rory couldn't see her through the phone; Luke just rolled his eyes at her.
"Luke's letting you have coffee?" Rory asked in disbelief.
Paul Anka, who had been sleeping on the couch, wandered into the kitchen and sat by the back door, staring at the pair sitting at the table. Lorelai, distracted by her conversation with Rory, didn't notice the dog, but Luke did.
"Hey, I'm gonna…" he said quietly to Lorelai as he stood up and grabbed the dog's leash. She nodded at him distractedly, still talking away to Rory about all things baby related.
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The phone rang just moments after she hung up with Rory. She held her breath for a moment, wondering if it was possible that Anna had called back. She thought for a moment that maybe she should get Luke to answer it, in case it was Anna. She wasn't about to hide from the woman, but she'd had a long day and didn't want to end up yelling at April's mother as Luke had. As the phone rang again, she remembered that Luke was out walking Paul Anka. Sighing heavily, she resigned herself to answering the phone.
"Hello?"
"Lorelai, it's Anna."
"Oh, um, hang on just a second, I'll get Luke—" Lorelai stood up and was heading for the door when Anna cut her off.
"No, it's fine. Look. I'll have to drop April off Thursday night, and she'll need a ride to and from school on Friday. I get back on Monday, and I can pick her up then. Is all of that going to be okay?"
"Um, yeah, sure." Surprised by Anna's sudden change of heart, and the fact that she was actually volunteering these details to herself and not demanding to talk to Luke, Lorelai stopped halfway to the door. "Are you sure you don't want to talk to Luke. He's just walking Paul Anka. Paul Anka the dog, not the singer. Because that would be weird if the real Paul Anka was here. That would be kind of cool too and—" she was a bit nervous to be talking to Anna, and couldn't stop herself from babbling. Thankfully, Anna interrupted her before she could really get going.
"It's fine. April's got your address." Anna tried to keep her tone even, as she was still a bit uncomfortable with the whole thing, but knew that she'd have to get used to the situation. "I'm assuming that it's still ok if she stays there."
"Yeah," Lorelai was struggling to figure out what to say. She definitely didn't want to somehow mess this up, but didn't want to start babbling again. "Yeah, um, it's perfectly fine. We'd love to have her."
"Ok. Bye." Anna promptly hung up, leaving Lorelai stunned and a bit confused by the whole conversation.
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April stood there listening to her mother's end of the conversation, and when Anna finally hung up, the young girl suddenly threw her arms around her.
"Thanks, Mom. Really." She squeezed her mom briefly before pulling away. "Ok, I'm going to go read now."
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Lorelai stood stock still for a moment, staring out at nothing; but as she was setting the phone on the table, Luke walked into the house with Paul Anka. Still going over the conversation, she glanced up at him with a blank face, receiving a puzzling look in return.
"So, um, Anna just called back." Lorelai said, blinking repeatedly and focusing her gaze on Luke.
"Why didn't you come get me?"
"I was going to, I told her I was going to get you. But she didn't give me time to."
"So, what did she say? Should I call her back?"
"She's dropping April off here tomorrow night, and she'll pick her up some time on Monday."
"Really? That's great." His face lit up into a huge smile, but it was then shadowed over by a look of confusion. "What did you say to her? I mean, how'd you get her to change her mind?"
"I didn't do anything," Lorelai said. "She just started talking, saying we'll need to get April to school and back on Friday. Maybe she couldn't get anyone else to take April for the weekend or something…"
"I don't know. It's kind of weird, but I'm not gonna question it." He pulled her up from the chair and wrapped her in a hug. She suddenly pulled back, with a look of almost horror on her face.
"Oh no. Oh no, no, no, no. Oh, what are we going to do?" She was pacing now.
"What?! What's wrong? This is a good thing."
"No, well, yeah, but no. It's just. Friday night dinner."
"Oh," his face now mirrored hers. "No. Um…"
"Yeah. You had to be all, 'let's tell your parents about the baby right away,' and you made me call them earlier." She pointed her finger at him accusingly. "Now they're expecting to see both of us at dinner this week, and there's no way we can get out of it now."
"I know. I thought it was a good idea at the time." He lifted his cap nervously, raking his hands through his hair before re-adjusting the hat on his head.
"What are we going to do with April while we're at dinner?" Lorelai asked.
"She'll just have to go with us," Luke said, heading over to sit on the couch.
"You're serious? Really? You want to subject your poor, innocent, sweet, wonderful daughter to the horror of Ava and Adolph?" She sat next to him on the couch shaking her head at him as she placed her hand on his knee. "No offense, babe, but you've got to be crazy! Luke, you've met my parents. They're pretentious, condescending, and one visit with them and April might never want to come near us again."
"Look, you're overreacting."
"Not really. You know how they are, Luke."
"Lorelai."
"Luke, seriously, April shouldn't have to deal with them. Especially since you want us to tell them that I'm pregnant. They're going to freak out, and April shouldn't have to be there for that. Hell, I don't even want to be there for that. Can't we just tell them over the phone. Or send them a postcard. Or a singing telegram!"
"Lorelai," he said rolling his eyes at her. "Look, we're going to tell them at dinner, and it'll be fine. Relax." He reached for her hand and held it between his. "April can just come to dinner with us, and I'm sure your parents will be polite to her…or at least polite enough." They were quiet for a moment, when Luke suddenly realized something. "We've gotta tell April about the baby. How are we supposed to tell April about the baby?" He gave her a pleading look, as if she had all of the answers.
Lorelai smiled at his use of the word 'we'. Just a week ago, any time he referred to any kind of situation dealing with April, she had been thoroughly excluded. Things definitely were changing, and she was happy to know that she had finally cleared things up with Luke about the whole April situation. Now, here was her chance, but she still hesitated slightly before sharing her thoughts.
"Well, hmm…" she brushed a stray piece of hair out of her face and exhaled deeply. "If we're going to tell my parents at dinner Friday night, and April will be at that dinner, we should probably tell her some time before. I mean, I don't want her to feel shanghaied by the news, you know."
"Oh… yeah… your parents. Well, maybe we could wait. To tell them, I mean."
"Wait to tell my parents?"
"Well, yeah, I mean, you didn't really want to tell them right away anyways, and I kind of forced you into it. And… well…" he sighed and looked down. "Maybe we should just keep this news to ourselves, you know, just for a little while."
"Wait, so now we're not telling my parents? That doesn't get April out of dinner, Luke. I already called and told my mom that you were joining us this week. And just two minutes ago you suggested that we just take April with us."
"Well, yeah, we'll still all go to dinner."
"But just not tell my parents about the baby?"
"No. Well, yeah. But I mean… ya know, hold off on telling April too."
"Luke," she frowned, chewing nervously on her bottom lip. She didn't want to push him, her involvement with April still being so new and all, but she couldn't ignore the sudden sinking feeling in her gut. She paused, taking a deep breath and holding it. "Why don't you want to tell April?"
"I just think it'd be better to wait, that's all," he said, not looking at her.
"Luke. Luke, look at me," she softly requested. She waited until he lifted his gaze to hers, and spoke in a low tone. "When I first told you that I wanted to put off telling my parents about this baby, you wouldn't even hear of it. You said that waiting will do no good; they're going to find out eventually. April is going to find out eventually."
"Let's just wait," Luke said.
"How long? A week? A month?" Her voice went up as she jumped from the couch. "Do we just wait until April comes to visit one day and wants to know why I've suddenly got a huge lump of a stomach? She's 13, she'll figure it out! God Luke! This isn't something we should be hiding! You were happy about this! Why do you want to hide it? We were happy about this!"
to be continued...
A/N: So...your thoughts? Good? Bad? Crappy? Let me know!