They were lucky enough to find a house on the first day of looking. It was on the edge of Stars Hollow and had six bedrooms, two and a half bathrooms, a spacious kitchen, a screened-in porch and a large living room. They had enough rooms for Luke and Lorelai, Rory, Jess, the new baby, two guest rooms and a sewing room for Lorelai. After much talking with Rory Lorelai decided to sell the Crap Shack. The for sale sign had only been in the yard for two days when someone asked about it. ------------------------------
Lorelai was resting on the couch staring around at the packed boxes that covered the living room. Everyone had been packing because they wanted to move this weekend. Luke and Lorelai wanted to be in their new house before their daughter was born. The baby was due in two weeks. She'd only been allowed to put clothes in boxes and nothing else. A knock on the door caused her to jump. It was February 6th and very cold outside. Opening the door she was greeted by a young woman carrying a sleeping infant.
"Um, hi, my name is Abbey Miles and I saw you're selling your house?"
"Yes, come on in."
"The realtor called and said she couldn't make it today but that you'd be able to show me around."
"Of course I can. Let's start with the living room," Lorelai suggested. So the tour began.
"You have a beautiful home, Lorelai."
"Thank you, how old is your baby?" Lorelai wondered.
"Elizabeth is nine months old. I work in Hartford but wanted to move to a small town for Libby's sake."
"I can understand that. I moved here from Hartford with my daughter when she was just a bit older then Libby. It's been 16 years since we moved to Stars Hollow. We moved into this house when Rory was 10." She could see Abbey doing the math in her head.
"I was 16 when I had her. She's 17 now." Blushing Abbey ducked her head.
"Sorry," she mumbled.
"It's okay, don't worry about it. So what do you think?"
"I'd love to live in this house."
"Okay, let me talk to my boyfriend and the realtor and we'll get back to you."
"Sounds good to me. It was nice meeting you Lorelai."
"It was nice meeting you to. I hope to see you around town. What exactly is it that you do?"
"I'm a cook at a hotel. I don't have a lot of experience but it pays the bills. I just turned 21 and Libby's dad decided about a month ago that he didn't want to be a daddy and split. I wish I could work here in Stars Hollow so I don't have to travel so much. That plus daycare will add up fast." Realizing she was rambling the young mother stopped and blushed. "I'm sorry to just blert out my life story like that. You don't care about all that."
"Actually we're a lot alike. We both had our children young and the guys who got us pregnant turned out to be deadbeat dads."
"But…" the young woman broke off as she glanced down at Lorelai's large stomach. Understanding dawned and Lorelai rushed to explain.
"Oh, no, Rory's dad isn't the daddy to this little one. Well her biological dad isn't anyway. Luke, he runs the diner in town is my boyfriend and the father of this baby and he's also Rory's dad in all the ways that count."
"Oh, I see." An idea struck Lorelai.
"My best friend Sookie Bellville and I own the Dragonfly Inn. She's the head chef and I know she could use another chef to help her out. Let me talk to her and see what she says. If she's okay with it I'll call you and you can come in for an interview."
"Thank you so much," Abbey cried amazed at the kindness of this woman. Just then the baby began to cry. "It's time to feed her, I should get going."
"Good bye, Abbey. We'll talk soon." Nodding the young woman waved as she left the house trying to calm her hungry baby as she did. ---------------------
"She sounds perfect," Rory commented. They were all at the diner having dinner.
"I agree with Rory, what do you think Lorelai?" Luke asked.
"I do to. It was like looking in a mirror in a lot of ways."
"I can imagine. So it's settled, we'll call the realtor tomorrow and tell her to accept Abbey's offer," Luke said. The others nodded as they continued to eat their dinner thinking about all the changes that were happening in their lives. ----------------------------
Groaning in exhaustion Lorelai collapsed on to her and Luke's bed. They had finally finished moving everything into the new house and Abbey was scheduled to start her first day as an assistent chef. Sookie was thrilled because it meant she could spend more time with Davey and Martha. They'd also talked about letting her bring Libby to work and keep her in a playpen in Lorelai's office like she'd done with Rory.
"Tired, babe?"
"Mmm hmm, but happy."
"Me, to," Luke agreed with a yawn as he climbed into bed. Wincing as the baby kicked her hard in the ribbs, Lorelai glanced at the clock, 11:30.
"Let's go to bed," she murmured. Nodding Luke placed a kiss on her stomach before moving up and kissing her softly on the lips.
"Good night, Lorelai."
"Night, Luke." -----------------------
A sharp pain woke Lorelai a few hours later. Breathing through it she looked at the clock. It read 2:45 A.M. She decided to wait to wake Luke until she knew how far apart the contractions were. Five minutes later another one hit. This time she felt the need to go to the bathroom so she pushed herself from bed and made her way to her and Luke's master bathroom. The moment she was sitting on the toilet she felt a pop and a lot of fluid gushing out of her.
"Oh, my," she gasped as she realized her water had just broken. Standing from the toilet she made her way back into their bedroom.
"Luke?" she called. No response. "Luke, honey?" she tried again. Luke mumbled and tried to pull the pillow over his head. "Wake up, Luke, my water just broke." Hearing those words Luke sat up quickly rubbing the sleep from his eyes.
"Your water broke? What are we waiting for? We have to get you to the hospital." As he was speaking he was rushing around the room gathering up the clothes he'd worn the day before and pulling them on. Grabbing a pair of sweatpants and one of his flanel shirts he tossed them at Lorelai.
"Relax, babe, we've got some time." Taking a deep breath Luke smiled at her as he tried to calm down.
"I'll go wake the kids," he said heading out the door and down the hall. Five minutes later they were all in the car heading for the hospital ready to meet the baby girl.
TBC?
A/n, please read and review.