Disclaimer: I don't own anything you recognize. Aaron and Emma are mine, though they may not appear in this chapter.
A/N: I know, I know, it's been forever. I'm sorry! Hopefully you're still with me and still enjoying!
Rory sighed. She was so bored! She had stopped driving into work every day to please Jess, but she was still writing articles and sending them in by e-mail. Since she was now seven months she was sure Jess was going to make her stop that soon too, but she might continue and just keep it a secret from him. It wasn't like writing was that stressful! She had finished most of her pending articles though and it was only eleven in the morning. She hated just sitting!
She picked up the phone and dialed the inn's number. "Dragonfly Inn."
"Hey Mom, what are you doing?" Rory asked.
"Nothing much," Lorelai answered. "What's up?"
"I've finished with most of the articles I'm supposed to be writing and if I look at a computer screen anymore my eyes are going to cross!" Rory told her mom. "I was wondering if you wanted to go shopping with me."
"Shopping?" Lorelai questioned. "What could you possibly need?"
"I need to buy some things for the baby still, especially a rocking chair!" Rory exclaimed. "Jess keeps telling me we'll go, but we haven't, so I've just decided to go buy one without him."
Lorelai's eyes widened. She couldn't let her daughter go and buy a rocking chair. Luke would kill her. "Why don't we wait a little while on that?"
Rory wrinkled her forehead. She was sounding just like Jess. "If we wait much longer the baby is going to born and the poor thing won't have a rocking chair."
"Why don't we do it this weekend?" Lorelai suggested. "You know Emma will be angry if we leave her out of such a trip."
"Mom," Rory groaned. "I love Emma and all, but I want some time with just us, especially if we're buying something for my baby."
Lorelai quickly searched for another excuse. "Well, I'm a little busy right now, so maybe we could go tomorrow."
"You just told me not two minutes ago that you weren't busy!" Rory exclaimed.
"Did I say that?" Lorelai inquired, knowing she did.
Rory became suspicious. "What's up with you? Why don't you want to go shopping with me?"
Lorelai bit her lip. She couldn't tell her daughter the real reason. "We'll go, but let me call you back in a few minutes to make sure. I have to talk to Sookie and Michel to make sure they didn't want me to do anything."
"Mom, you're the boss," Rory reminded her. "You don't really have to do anything you don't want to."
"Sookie is my partner," Lorelai said firmly. "Let me just check with her and I'll call you back."
Before Rory could argue, Lorelai had hung up. Rory groaned again. More sitting.
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"Luke, we've got a problem," Lorelai said when he picked up the diner's phone.
"What's wrong!" Luke asked, panic evident.
"Nobody's hurt, it's not that kind of problem," Lorelai said when she realized what he might've though she meant.
Luke sighed in relief. "Jeez, Lorelai, don't scare me like that!"
"Sorry, Hon," Lorelai apologized.
"What's the problem?" Luke asked, while filling coffee cups at the counter and handing Ceaser orders.
"Rory wants me to go shopping with her," Lorelai told him.
"How is that a problem?" Luke wondered. "I'll pick up the kids from school if that's what you're worried about. I'm not sure that it's a good idea for her to be walking around a store for very long though."
Lorelai rolled her eyes. "She wants to go shopping for the baby. About the only thing she doesn't have since the baby shower last week is a rocking chair and that's what she wants to get."
Luke's attention snapped completely to the phone. "You aren't going to let her, are you?"
"I don't want to, but I have no viable excuse as to why I can't," Lorelai lamented. "Don't you have that rocking chair finished yet?"
"Almost," Luke admitted. "I was going to put a second coat of paint on it though."
"I think you'd better skip that and take the rocking chair over there now," Lorelai advised him. "I can only hold her off for so long. I can insist we eat something before we go, but that's all I can do."
Luke nodded. "Alright, but I am going to put a second coat of paint on that rocking chair at some point."
"I don't care what you do as long as you get it over there before we leave!" Lorelai exclaimed and then hung up.
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"Rory, I'm really hungry," Lorelai complained.
"Mom, we can eat something on the way to the mall," Rory reasoned. "You can't wait that long?"
"I really can't," Lorelai lied. She couldn't help but think that she was lucky she was a Gilmore girl and could eat at any time. She really wasn't hungry at all, but could eat if she had to and right now she had to!
"Well, I'm not really sure what we have in the house that doesn't involve using the stove," Rory admitted. "Jess has been doing all the shopping on his way home."
Lorelai put her hand over her heart. "Oh, you've disgraced everything I've ever taught you!"
Rory rolled her eyes. "Stop being so dramatic. If you want something to eat go into the kitchen and see what we have. But be quick about it, we don't have all day here."
Rory sighed as her mom walked into the kitchen. She knew all Gilmore girls were bottomless pits, but did her mom really have to eat right this minute? Rory would feel so much more confident when they had the baby's room all ready and everything was put in its place. Then she could focus on the panic she was feeling about the actual delivery.
She heard a truck rolling up her driveway and when she heard the motor turn off she—with great effort—got up off the couch. Looking out her window, she recognized Luke's truck and in the next second noticed what he was taking out of the bed.
"Mom!" Rory called.
Lorelai came into the living room with a sandwich as leisurely as she could possibly manage. She hoped her daughter wasn't calling her to make her hurry, but when she noticed Rory was at the window and not the couch, Lorelai smiled. Luke must be here.
Lorelai came over and as soon as Rory noticed her mother beside her she asked, "What is he doing?"
"It looks like he's taking something out of the bed of his truck," Lorelai said.
"Is it a rocking chair?" Rory wondered rhetorically. When Luke got closer, Rory gasped. "It is a rocking chair. Open the door for him!"
Lorelai tried hard not to laugh as she walked over to the door with her sandwich. She decided she didn't really need the food for cover anymore so she sat it down on the table, resolving to pick it up later. Luke had just knocked so she opened the door and let him carry in the rocking chair.
"Where did you buy this rocking chair?" Rory questioned. She had made it over to the door by this time. "It's beautiful."
Lorelai laughed. "Rory, do you actually think Luke would go shopping?"
Rory smiled. Her mom did have a really valid point there. "So…the rocking chair?"
"I made it," Luke said, looking anywhere but at Rory. Embarrassment was creeping up in his cheeks.
"You made me a rocking chair?" Rory breathed. "That's amazing."
Luke shrugged. "I need to put a second coat of paint on it. I also wanted to paint some things on there that matched the wallpaper, but I was going to have to find some stencils for that. I'm not an artist."
Rory was still staring at the chair. "I beg to differ. But you don't need to do anything, it's completely perfect. I can't believe you did this!"
"Why can't you believe it?" Luke asked.
"Well, I mean, I knew you'd do something," Rory admitted. "You made stuff for Aaron and Emma before they were born, but it was just cutesy stuff. Nothing as elaborate as a rocking chair!"
"I don't make 'cutesy' things," Luke said.
Rory bit her lip to hold in a smile and Lorelai laughed.
"I made you a rocking chair because you're my daughter," Luke told her. "Not to mention I didn't get to make anything for you when you were a baby. All I got to do for you when you were little was make you mashed potatoes when you were sick. This way you can have something I made for you, and my grandchild can have something too."
Rory smiled at Luke and hugged him. "I loved the mashed potatoes, but I love this even more! Thank you. I love you, Dad."
"I know," Luke said. "I love you too."
As he walked upstairs to put the rocking chair in the baby's room, Rory hugged her mom. "I'm so glad you had to eat that sandwich."
Lorelai chuckled. "I thought you might be."
I may have mentioned that Luke was making Rory a rocking chair before, but if I didn't, now you know. Also, I think it's plausible that Luke would make something for her. He could totally make a rocking chair and Luke would do anything for those two Gilmore girls. Anyway, if you're still with me I'd really appreciate it if you would leave me a review so I know. Thanks so much for reading!