Disclaimer: Chapter 1

Chapter 4: Changes Happening All Around

February 1984

Luke and Will sat at the table waiting for the arrival of Katelyn and Lorelai. Once the two women returned, they sat and talked everything out.

"Will, Kate...I'm really sorry that this happened."

"Lorelai, don't beat yourself up over it. It's life; things happen," Will assured her. "And we do not hate you like you keep on thinking."

"I have it all worked out, I swear," Lorelai told them. "I planned on moving here after I graduated to get away from Hartford but that's happening sooner than planned. I'm going to find a job then a place to live. Luke is still going to school, I'm forcing him to go but I'm going to drop out so I can take care of the baby during the day..."

"Nonsense," Will interrupted. "You are not dropping out of school. And you do not need to find a place to live. You can live here. He's already got you pregnant and I think you will have learned from this experience...I know you two won't live in abstinence after the baby is born but I trust that you will be sure everything is protected so you and Luke can stay in the same room and the spare bedroom will be the nursery."

Luke and Lorelai sat there stunned. "You're being serious, Will?"

"Of course. I trust the two of you."

"Okay...but one problem if I stay in school...where exactly is the baby going to go?"

"I'll watch it," Katelyn offered. "It wouldn't be a problem at all."

Both Luke and Lorelai agreed to the arrangement and were thankful the Danes were accepting and understanding. Lorelai blew out a breath. "Understanding parents down, uptight controlling parents next."

"I'll go with you," Luke offered.

"No. I need to do it myself. You already know that they have no idea about us or Stars Hollow. If we tell them together...Emily will blow a gasket and Richard will tell us that we are to get married. That's how it works in Hartford. Then Emily will chime in when I tell them that we're too young to get married and a whole new fight will start. I've been handling them for fifteen years, I'll do it again."

"You say it like it's so easy," Kate mused.

Lorelai shrugged her shoulders. "At this point...it's basically a normal conversation between us. Really, it's no big deal.

Next night, Gilmore Mansion

Lorelai decided to not go to Stars Hollow as she normally would. She decided that she would tell them at dinner that she was pregnant. Of course it didn't really work out in her favor.

Dinner was served by the maid and as she began eating, Lorelai placed her fork down. "It smells like bleach."

"Lorelai don't be ridiculous. It does not smell like bleach," Emily ridiculed. Silence overtook the table and Emily decided now would be the time to address Lorelai over her dress. "I went to the seamstress..."

"Good for you."

Ignoring Lorelai, she continued. "She wrote the measurements down correctly, so it is you that is the problem. You have a new membership card to the gym. Use it. You are to fit into that dress in two weeks, young lady."

Lorelai rolled her eyes and knew that now would be when all hell broke loose. "It still won't fit."

"If you work out like I am suggesting that it will!"

"First, you're not suggesting. You are instructing. Second, it still won't fit because I gained weight from a baby."

Emily scoffed. "That's impossible. You're not even with a boy right now."

"Actually, I am. And I'm having a baby in a few months."

Richard's head poked up from his newspaper. "This is not a funny joke, Lorelai. We do not appreciate your sick sense of humor just because you do not want to have a coming out."

"Whatever, don't believe me."

"Who is he," Emily began, digging for information.

"I'm not telling you because knowing you two you will force us to get married since that's the right thing to do in Hartford society. Well guess what, it's not happening. And Dad will get him a job at the firm, but he already has a job." Then, not wanting to hear any of the disapproving comments they had to say, Lorelai got up from the table and ran up to her room.

Stars Hollow

The family of four were just finishing up their dinner when the phone rang. Being the closest to the phone, Liz answered. "Hello?"

"Hey, Liz. It's Lorelai. Can you put one of your parents on?"

"Hang on a sec. I'll go get one of them." Liz placed the phone down and entered the kitchen. "Hey, um Lorelai is on the phone and she asked if she could talk to either one of you. She sounded upset."

"I'll go," Kate offered. She walked to the phone and picked it up. "Lorelai?"

"Hey, Kate. Um...that arrangement we have...when...do you think we could start it up?"

"Whenever you're ready, Sweetie."

"Can we start tomorrow? I just...I can't live here. I told them and they started with the scolding and stuff so I walked away. I'm in my room all the way upstairs and I can hear them in the dining room discussing what I'm going to do."

"Of course. Don't get so worked up over it. Luke and I will be over tomorrow afternoon to help you, okay?"

"Okay. Thanks."

Gilmore Mansion

Lorelai went around her room packing away what she would take with her the next day. With four duffel bags on her bed, Lorelai went through her closet and dresser packing away everything she could fit into two of the four bags. Then, she moved on to other possessions. With the fourth bag, she filled it with what she could from her bathroom. Not knowing if Emily would come in later that night to scold her some more, Lorelai stored the bags in her closet along with her school bag. Which, hours later when she heard a loud knock on the door, she decided was a good move.

"Lorelai!" Emily shouted when she entered the room.

"What?"

"Your father and I have talked it over. You will have this baby and once it is born, you will go back to school and a nanny will raise this baby. That is your only option."

Knowing she wouldn't be there tomorrow night, Lorelai just shrugged her shoulders letting Emily think she won. "Fine." And with that, Emily left the room with a smug smile on her face.

Stars Hollow

"Luke, that was Lorelai earlier. She asked if we could start the arrangement tomorrow. Her parents weren't as understanding, which we all expected. So I need you to go upstairs and get your room in order and make room for her things. I told her we would be there tomorrow afternoon to pick her up."

"Okay." Luke got up to do what his mother said but before leaving completely, he said, "was she alright?"

"She sounded upset, but she'll be fine for the night. Knowing her, her bags are probably already packed."

The next day, Lorelai kept her eyes on the window from the balcony of her bedroom. She smiled when she saw Katelyn's car pulling up to the driveway. Grabbing her bags, Lorelai ran down the stairs and quickly wrote a note to her parents and then headed out the door.

Once in the car, Lorelai looked at Katelyn. "Thank you. Honestly you saved me. A while after we got off the phone Emily came into my bedroom to tell me that once the baby is born I would go back to school and a nanny would raise my child. I was raised by nannies and let me tell you that they don't even pay any attention to the kid."

"It's not a problem. Will went to the school this morning to enroll you. He said whenever you're ready you can start."

Lorelai nodded her head. "Okay. I'll probably start day after tomorrow, if that's okay."

"Of course it's okay." The rest of the ride to Stars Hollow was spent talking about little things such as plans during her pregnancy and Katelyn warning Luke that he better treat Lorelai right.

When they arrived in Stars Hollow, Luke grabbed Lorelai's bags and helped her up to what is now called their bedroom. "Well look at this," Lorelai cooed. "You made room for me and cleaned your room up. Did Kate make you do it?" Luke rolled his eyes then slowly nodded. "That's okay; we'll give you the credit for it."

Later that night, around ten o'clock, Luke and Lorelai sat on their bed discussing all the changes in their life.

"If someone were to tell me two months ago that I would be moving out of Hartford and to a new town and pregnant, I would have called them crazy. Everything is changing so fast."

Luke nodded his head in agreement. "I never thought that a change like this would happen while I was so young. But, like my parents said, that's life."

"Last night after I called your mom my parents were still downstairs talking. I could hear every word. They said I couldn't handle being a mother and still go to school. Now they included college in that, but...I just want you to know that we can handle it. Even with the help of your parents, we can still do this. Promise we'll stay together? Because boy am I screwed if we break up."

"We're staying together."

"I don't want to get married. At least...not now. Hell, maybe you don't even want to be married at all."

"We'll get married when the time is right. Right now is the wrong time. We're too young and we're still wrapping our minds around the fact that in a few months, we are going to have a baby."

I wanted to post this last night but the website wouldn't load for me. But it's here now and the living arrangement...well I wanted Luke and Lorelai to be around each other everyday not just when she could make it so they could go through her pregnancy together along with Luke's parents. And as I said, Will and Katelyn are trusting them enough to be extra safe after Lorelai has the baby to be in the same bed.