A/N I hope you are still enjoying this story, I'll assume that you are and continue to allow it to be told. Thank you to all who read and reviewed. FYI, for those of you who have not read the Divine Comedy, the 3rd level contains gluttony and the ninth level is for traitors.

I own nothing

Ch 26 Divine Comedy

Lorelai and Luke returned to her house and as Luke drove up Rory came running out of the house, "Let me see, let me see Mom!"

Lorelai excitedly held out her hand and Rory looked at the diamond ring that Luke had given Lorelai. "Oh, it's so beautiful!" Rory and Lorelai hugged and then Rory hugged Luke and said, "Congratulations! I'm so happy for you!"

Just then Babette came out on her porch and said, "Hey, sugah, whatcha got there?" Lorelai walked over to her and held out her left hand, "Oh mah Gawd! Maurey! Ya gatta come see this! Lorelai and Luke are gettin' married!" Babette started to run back into her house and then she came back out, "Who knows 'bout this?" Lorelai just shook her head. "No one? I got the scoop on Eastside? Maurey I'm gonna tell Tillie! See ya later doll!"

With that Babette ran off to tell the whole town. "Well, that's taken care of," Lorelai whispered.

"Mom, you've really lost your voice? What happened?" Rory was looking at the two.

Lorelai looked pointedly at Luke who turned seven different shades of red and he said, "Loud band last night," Lorelai snorted.

"So are you two up to see the house Jess and I found?" Luke was ignoring Lorelai's reaction and tried to change the subject.

"Sure, I'd love to see the house, but I don't understand how a band being loud would make mom lose her voice?"

Lorelai whispered to Rory, "Hon, let it go, my voice is already coming back, I just used it too much last night."

"But I don't underst," Rory looked at Luke who was now turning even more shades of red and said, "Maybe it's better if I don't understand huh?"

"Yeah, I'm thinkin' that would be good," Lorelai chuckled. "Let's go see the house, OK?"

"Good call," Luke replied. "Why don't you go change into the outfit you want to wear today and we'll run over there?" Before he had gone to the inn last night, Luke had stopped at her house and brought Lorelai some clothes to wear today, but he knew they weren't what she would have picked out. Lorelai just smiled at him and ran into the house.

"So, how was New Years with Mrs. Kim?" Luke asked.

"Very quiet, I'm not sure I would do that again. So tell me about the house? Is it big enough for all of us?"

"Yep, I'm thinking it'll be big enough for more of us if that happens and it should hold any extended family as well. It's got a lot of room for us to grow and I really hope you two like it."

"Wow, you and mom really talking having more kids?"

"Yeah, is that OK with you?"

"Well, as long as I don't have diaper duty, I'm good." Rory laughed.

Luke laughed too, "I'll keep that in mind." Then Lorelai came running down the stairs and grabbed Luke's arm, "I think someone's in a hurry," he laughed.

Lorelai and Rory and Luke got into the Jeep and drove the short distance to the house. They walked around the outside and Lorelai and Rory were like two kids discovering all sorts of things, it had a large wrap-around porch, all the things Luke said as well as a large garage, Lorelai turned to him, "Luke, this would be great for a workshop for you, so you could do woodworking!"

"'Cause God knows why you would put a car in a garage, right?" Luke asked to no one in particular.

"Look Mom, there's a stable too! We could have horses like you always wanted!" Rory went in the direction of the stable and Lorelai and Luke stayed behind for a second.

"Well, what do you think? Should we do a walk through tomorrow? The house has been on the market for a while so the owners are already moved. If you like it we could own it by the end of the week."

Lorelai was shocked, "Really? Why has it been on the market for so long?"

"Well, the price is out of most folks range, or if they can afford it they want to live closer to Hartford. But I think it's a good investment, I like the idea of maybe starting a homestead here, where our children and grandchildren can visit and have a home forever. What do you think?"

Lorelai starts to tear up and hugs Luke, "I think that sounds wonderful. You said there are ten acres, could we go walking in them?"

"You bet, let's get Rory and do some exploring, eh?" Luke put his arm around Lorelai and led her to the stables.

They found Rory and went walking on a path through the woods. The fresh snowfall made everything shimmer in the sun and the crisp air supported the feeling that anything was possible. Lorelai couldn't believe that so much could happen in just four short months. They'd been walking for about fifteen minutes and they came across a run down house that looked familiar to Lorelai.

"Luke," she whispered, "why does this place look familiar?"

"Well, it belongs to the Weston's I think it used to be a boarding house or something. I think it was called the Horseshoe, or Horsefly,"

"Dragonfly." Lorelai whispered in reverential tones, "This is the old Dragonfly? I've seen pictures of it in its prime; it was the most beautiful inn I ever saw. How sad that it's in such disrepair. Wait, Weston's like Fran?"

"Yep, her family has owned it for generations, Fran is the last one, never married, no children. I don't know what'll happen to her bakery when she's gone either."

Rory looked horrified, "Is there something wrong with Fran?"

"No, just saying that she's the last of her family, no one to carry on the name when she's gone." Luke had slipped somewhere else while he was telling the story and Lorelai could tell he was thinking about his own dad.

"Well, if we get married quickly we might make sure to bring some more Danes' bloodline into the world so it won't die off." Lorelai smiled evilly up at Luke.

Luke kissed her forehead and smiled back at her, "Jess is already carrying on the bloodline, so we've all the time in the world to plan our wedding and start having children."

"So when do you want to get married?" Rory asked the couple.

Simultaneously they answered, "May or June," "Tomorrow."

"Whoa, I'm thinking there is a bit of difference in those answers." Rory said, "How about where would you like to get married?" Thinking that might be a better place to start.

Lorelai said, "We really hadn't talked about that, do you have someplace in mind, babe?"

Luke blushed and looked at Lorelai, "Well, is there any way we could get married by the lake?"

"At the inn?" Lorelai was stunned, "Luke I never knew you were so sentimental. That does sort of answer when for us too."

"Well, it was where we first kissed and where you said you would marry me," Luke took Lorelai's hands in his as he leaned in to kiss her. "You said that the where gives us the when, what do you mean?"

"Well, we have to see what weekends are open at the inn to tell when we could get married. I can skip over there this afternoon and get the open dates, then we could meet at the diner to pick the best one, OK?"

"Yep, it sounds great."

"Getting married at the place you shared your first kiss that is so romantic!" Rory gushed, "Now comes the big question, when are you telling Grandma and Grandpa?"

Luke looked at Lorelai and said, "We need to tell them soon, Emily will have my head if she isn't told soon. Your dad already knows I was going to ask you, but I doubt he told your mom."

"My dad what?" Lorelai shrieked and immediately regretted it. She tried to continue but could only mouth her question, "How is it that my dad knows we're getting married but I just found out last night?"

Rory decided this would be a good time to scout around the Dragonfly a bit.

"It's good manners to ask for the father's blessing on the union and I knew Emily wouldn't give it, but I was pretty sure your dad would, so when I went to talk to him after Thanksgiving one of the things I went for was to ask for his blessing and let him know my intentions."

Lorelai looked at him like she wanted to throttle him and she leaned very close to whisper in his ear, "Many people would say that you are an old fashioned, proper kind of man, although after last night I could let them know how wrong they are. But I like keeping my secret." She smiled at him.

Luke blushed very red and whispered in Lorelai's ear, "Just because I want to make sure my fiancée is very happy doesn't mean that my father's values have left me. If we have a daughter I would expect her boyfriend to ask me for her hand just like I expect Rory's to ask you. It's the right thing to do."

Lorelai giggled wickedly, "Dirty, and you made your fiancée very, very happy last night. I like the different Luke's I have, my coffee provider is very brash and gruff and my friend Luke is always there for me and my sexy fiancé Luke is beyond anything I ever imagined. You love me with more depth and passion then I ever thought was humanly possible. Lucky me."

Luke kissed her deeply, hugged her to him and whispered, "Lucky me too. You're beyond everything I imagined. Right now I think we had better go back to the house or Rory is going to be scarred for life and I know you wouldn't want that, right?"

"Are you staying over tonight? We've had so little time together, I was hoping to spend a little quality time with you before everything starts getting crazy."

"Sure, I have early deliveries but I'm gonna to have to get used to not living above the diner when they occur anyway. That means I have to be in bed by 8 p.m. though."

"Well, I guess we've got to get used to that too, since we'll all be living together sometime in the next year, right?"

"Lorelai, I promise that we'll have our wedding before Thanksgiving, OK? Promise."

"Babe, if I'm not married to you by Thanksgiving, I'm not really sure you'll have to worry about marrying anybody, understand?" Lorelai was semi-joking.

Luke gathered her close and said, "If I let you get away I deserve anything that happens to me. I swear I'm not really an idiot, and if I start to act like one I expect you to tell me so, OK?" He leaned in for a quick peck right as Rory was coming around the building.

"Mom, they even had a small guest cottage in the back like the house you and Luke are looking at. Didn't anyone want people to stay with them?"

Lorelai laughed and whispered, "Rory, the building behind here is probably the honeymoon cottage and the guest house we saw at the other house was probably the stable-hand's or the gardener's cottage. These buildings were built maybe a hundred and fifty years ago."

"Wow, that's amazing! Won't there be a lot of maintenance on the place?"

"Well, that's why they've had a hard time selling it as well, since I can do a lot myself it wasn't a bad point for me." Luke told her.

They headed back off to town and Lorelai found out that the only free weekend after May first was August 19th or the 20th if they wanted to get married on Sunday.

"Luke I don't want to wait that long to get married, why don't we look at something in March or April?"

Lorelai and Luke were sitting in the diner on Sunday of that week. They told her parents at Friday night dinner and Emily was predictably upset but Richard was overjoyed. Emily was pleased that they were waiting to get married until the proper season for that, but she really wished that Lorelai would reconsider Christopher, although she didn't use those exact words, "Well, Lorelai if you must get married at least make sure that you won't do something you'll regret later." Luke held her hand tightly so she wouldn't throttle Emily and they retreated as soon as possible.

"Lorelai, you're in school at that time, I would like to give you a really nice honeymoon, not a night at a Motel 6 and back home to work the next day. August 19th will give us a week where we can have peace, if not quiet," Luke leered at her and Lorelai actually blushed.

"Well, I just don't understand why you now are moved into the pretty new house and I have to wait seven months to move in with you. Those are seven months that we could be making a baby, and if we don't conceive before January of next year we'll have to wait because I can't leave a baby less than six months old to take my high school graduate to Europe and Rory wouldn't forgive me if I don't take her. OK, she would forgive me, but I wouldn't."

"Trust me that everything will work out fine. We'll do what needs to be done, OK? Now go book the 19th." Luke kissed her and sent her out the door.

They had moved his meager possessions over to the house yesterday, leaving the bed and the kitchen table for his office. This morning they had gone furniture shopping and Luke was certain they were descending into Dante's third circle of Hell and nothing was going to save him. Then they got to the bedroom furniture to buy a set for Rory, a set for Jess, the Guest house and their bedroom. Lorelai leaned next to him and whispered in his ear, "We need to make sure the bed we buy is sturdy and not too large that you could get away from me in the night."

That made Luke's day; that one statement made all the hours before and after worthwhile. He smiled as he thought about them testing out their new furniture. He was so damn happy he couldn't contain himself, the diner was empty as he thought about his future and wiped the counter top, wearing the biggest damn smile on his face. He had the woman he loved, a wonderful step-daughter-to–be, his nephew was doing good in school and would be at Stars Hollow in a week or so, yep, life was good!

The bells over the door jingled and he heard a voice ask, "Hey, how's it goin'?"

He went from Paradise to the ninth level of Hell in less than two seconds. The only line of Dante's that he remembered from Freshman Lit was 'Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.' Crap.