Ok, so we're going to do a little time-travelling/jumping around here. Please don't be mad at me and I hope it's not too confusing. Please enjoy my attempts to fill in the blanks. By the way, based on the fact that Luke's star sign is Scorpio, I've decided his birthday is November sixteenth.

One morning in late January, Lorelai stood in Liz's living room holding Doula, cooing at the newborn as she yawned and waved a tiny fist in the air. "You are so sweet, and pink. You're the perfect example of what a baby should be." She told the day old infant.

Liz smiled as she watched the two of them, remembering back to the night her son was born; Lorelai had done the exact same thing at the hospital, only this time around she wasn't pregnant herself.

"You're so good, so quiet. You are going to make your mommy and daddy and big brother very happy if you stay like this."

"If she's anything like her big brother the quiet will only last a week. Max."

"Oh, I know, but still, right now – perfect baby."

Rory caught Jess' eye as hers grew wider with panic and she motioned to the woman, gently swaying in the middle of the room. She wants one! Do something! Please! She tried to communicate to him.

"Lorelai do you mind if I try something?" he asked, standing up and reaching for his sister. In the months before her birth he had volunteered a few more times to take care of Davey, even managing to rope Rory in on a few occasions, and had managed to regain the confidence he'd had with the baby during his first day of life.

"Oh, um, yeah, sure. Bye Doula, bye-bye." She gave a little wave as Jess settled the baby in his arms and looked up triumphantly.

"I think I do actually have a gift for this." He commented as she lay nestled against his chest, breathing evenly, and looking as calm as can be.

"Well can you stick to practising your skills on the babies already here please?" Liz requested, earning a discreet eye-roll from her son. "I'm far too young to be a grandmother and your sister is by no means prepared to be an aunt, seeing as she already has her tiny hands full trying to master daughter and sister."

"Can do," he replied, bouncing a little to keep Doula happy, before he realised that all eyes were on him. Even Lane had that scary 'he's going to be such a good father' look on her face. "TJ, why don't you take her," he suggested, holding the baby out to his step-father.

"Come here Princess. There's my little girl, hey!" Jess sat back in his seat and Rory shot him a grateful look.

"What is with all of you guys?" Lorelai demanded as Liz took Doula back later in the week. "You keep taking the babies away from me and looking at each other as if I'm going to rush out and buy one of everything at babyGap. Which is ridiculous; there are two of them, so I would have to get two of everything," catching the look on Liz's face she continued in a rush "That is, if I were that crazy person, but I'm not. I am not!" She insisted.

"I never said you were."

"Your face did."

"I apologize for my face, but all I'm doing is trying to make sure my kid is fed. You can have her back in a sec,"

"Well, that's alright then, but what about the rest of the time?"

"You don't get it, do you?"

"Get what?"

"Sookie has a baby, I have a very new baby, and the last time I had one of these, you also had one on the way. And, I guess it's my fault, coz I freaked Luke out months ago with a stupid joke, but... From what I can tell, Rory's having the same thoughts as him."

"You told a stupid joke," Lorelai repeated slowly, trying to understand, "and Rory's freaking along the same line of thought as... Oh my God! Why would you- How could... Why?"

"I didn't mean to! I completely forgot about it until a few days ago,"

"I don't want to have a baby! I'm still trying to fix the last one I screwed up, although she seems to be doing most of the work there. But I don't want... Oh God! When did this happen?"

"About a month before Jess' birthday,"

"Oh man, I remember that. He was so weird around me but he wouldn't say why. Oh, this sucks!"

"I didn't mean anything by it, I was just talking and it came out. But you should have seen his face,"

"It was a good one, huh?"

"Oh, definitely,"

"Well, I'm glad you enjoyed that, but now I have to go talk to him and fix it."

"Lorelai I'm sorry. Can I help at all?"

"No, no, I don't think so. It'd probably be a good idea to continue keeping the babies away from me though, I guess. Hopefully if he sees me with them less he'll stop thinking I want one."

"You know what also might help?"

"What?"

"Not saying 'I want one!'"

"I didn't! Did I?"

"You kinda did, yeah."

"How do these things happen?"

"You see a cute baby and even if you know it's a bad idea, a part of your brain just decides that it'd be a great one. And then your mouth takes over. Don't worry about it; no one else was around when you said that, just me and Doula. Talk to Luke; make sure he knows what's going on. Or, not going on."

"Oh boy, I've got a lot to explain. Guess I'd better start thinking up a way to bring this up in conversation, huh?"

"How about just opening with, 'hey Luke, just so you know, I am in no rush to have another baby so you can stop looking like you have a lemon stuffed into every orifice.'"

"That's what that face is!"

"Should I apologise again?" Liz checked, looking a little guilty.

"No, its fine. I should go now though, start practicing my explanations."

"Good luck."

"They're just so cute!" Lorelai gushed, lifting her purse and slipping the strap onto her shoulder.

"Maybe keep that one to yourself until you have him calmed down, ok?"

"Good idea." Lorelai nodded and walked towards the door. "It just figures, I'm possibly the worst mother in the world, and my boyfriend is terrified I want to have his babies, while all I can think is; how could I possibly consider screwing up another innocent child when I still owe a about million billion apologies to my first kid?"

"First of all, you are not Joan Crawford. So you made mistakes, it happens. And second, I'm pretty sure a million billion is a little excessive."

"So, just a thousand then?"

"Maybe just try not to do anything horrible until you pull out the big guns, and mortify Rory at her twenty-first."

"That's a good idea, I guess."

"Now go, talk that silly brother of mine off of that ledge I led him out onto."

"Ah, geez, can't Future-Lorelai take this one?"

"'Fraid not."

"Fine!" taking a deep breath, Lorelai walked out the front door and Liz looked down at Doula.

"Mommy needs to learn to keep her mouth shut, doesn't she?" she asked. Doula just looked up at her, "Yeah, I do."

Lorelai walked into the diner and immediately located Luke, before walking over and grabbing a hold of his elbow. "Can I talk to you, please?" she asked, crossing the room to the kitchen with him.

"Ah, I'm kind of busy, can it wait?"

"Probably, but I want the face to go away."

"What face?"

"Your face,"

"You want my face to go away?" Luke asked, confused as Lorelai followed.

"No, not your face, the face you make when I say 'talk' or your sister or Sookie come up in conversation." Luke handed some plates to Lorelai, rather than telling her to leave the kitchen.

"I don't make a face."

"Yes you do. You're making it right now."

"I'm- ok, you wanna talk, we'll talk." He decided, taking the last order from her hand and placing it on a table. "Caesar I'll be back in a minute." He called out before heading up the stairs. "So what do we need to discuss to fix my face?" he asked after shutting the door.

"I don't want to have a baby." Lorelai announced and Luke stood stunned, his jaw hanging open. "I was over at Liz's and I was holding Doula, and I don't remember doing this, but apparently I said I want one." She explained in a rush. "That's what she told me anyway. She also said you were thinking that I would want one sometime soon, but I don't."

"You... don't want to have a baby?" He repeated, not sure he'd heard correctly.

"Absolutely not anytime in the near or possibly even distant future. So, can you stop making the lemon face now?"

"Wha- what's the lemon face?"

"It's... you look like your sucking a lemon and you also have a couple extras shoved into places that lemons shouldn't go, and you're really uncomfortable."

"I think I would be really uncomfortable." Luke remarked. "I'll stop, or, at least try to stop, seeing as I didn't realise I was doing it in the first place."

"Thank you."

"How's that?" he asked after a moment of trying to change his facial expression.

"I think there might still be some juice somewhere, maybe on a damaged bit of skin or something, but its better."

"I'm glad. So," he paused for a moment, "you said 'not in the near future.'"

"What?"

"Before. You said not in the near future, which would mean, one day...?"

"Well, I haven't actually thought about it, like sat down and had a long serious talk with my self."

"But if you were to do that?"

"Maybe... someday, a long way off," she replied slowly, watching his reaction. "There's a slight chance that I might consider the possibility of thinking..."

"Someday?" Luke repeated.

"Possibly," Lorelai nodded.

"Well alright then."

"Ok." She nodded again.

"Can I get back to work now?"

"Yes! Yeah, sure, sorry, I forgot."

"Don't worry about it. I'll keep working on a non-citrus related face."

"I'd appreciate that." Lorelai smiled and stood to follow him back down the stairs.

Rory had been studying while she was supposed to be working again, and so Luke had sent her home. But she left two of her books behind, which just went to show how many she was trying to absorb information from at one time. He picked up the study aides and carried them up to the apartment to leave on her bed until she returned or he chose to go out. It was my fault anyway, he reminded himself. It was supposed to be her day off. He'd asked her to fill in because Jess had called and said he was helping out with some stuff at home. Crossing the apartment to his room, Luke grabbed a shoebox from the floor and settled himself on the end of his bed.

He wasn't in the habit of keeping birthday or Christmas cards, but he had held on to the ones that he'd received most recently. Pushing the lid off the box Luke looked through the cards absently. There was a joke about the many, many candles on his cake, a nice, simple 'thanks for being my big brother', a couple of other silly joke cards from friends and then, he came to what was possibly his favourite card of all the ones he'd ever received in his life, (including when he was ten years old and found a crisp twenty in a card from his uncle.)

He wasn't really one for making a fuss over birthdays, (as the card that Jess gave him said, it was becoming more and more of a fire hazard to celebrate each year.) But Liz had, as usual wanted to throw a party, and seeing as it had been a pretty good year, Luke didn't put up too much of a fight. The night of the dinner – somehow he'd managed to talk his sister down from the hoopla she originally had planned – everyone had been eager to hand over their gifts, but Rory had stayed back, waited until everyone was done and their attention was occupied elsewhere, before handing over the plain envelope.

"What's this?" Luke had asked, turning it over in his hands.

"It's your birthday, this is my pathetic attempt at a present," Rory explained.

"You didn't have to do that,"

"It's the rule. You get older, you get a gift. Just, open it later ok?"

"I will. Thank you Rory."

"Please don't make a big deal out of it. You're a grown man, act your age."

"So, no bursting into tears at how touching and thoughtful-"

"I'm gonna go get some punch. You want anything?"

"I'm good."

"Ok, well, I need to get away from you, because you're a very strange person, but, happy birthday." She looked as if she were about to move away but then changed her mind and gave Luke a quick hug before moving to the next room.

Arriving home later that night, Luke had all but forgotten about the envelope in his pocket. Sitting on the couch with a cup of tea, he carefully opened it. Rory's card was a plain white one with a small water-colour picture of a sailboat on the front, Luke opened it up and set about reading the birthday message Rory had prepared.

I would have liked to have been able to go out and find an amazing gift for your birthday, but I've been told (and have also noticed for myself) that you're not the easiest person to shop for. This amazing gift that I could never think of and therefore didn't see when I was frantically searching the mall up until yesterday was supposed to be able to express an important message for me, but, as you will have noticed by now, it doesn't exist, so, I guess that means, I'll just have to say it. Or, write it.

Up until last year, I didn't know how it felt to live somewhere for longer than eight months, at best, to have a secure home. We moved around a lot, and didn't really put down roots anywhere, and I know that I didn't help the situation – mom's struggle to take care of a kid so... interesting as me - and her decision to ask for help didn't sit well with me either, as I'm sure you remember. But I've come to the conclusion that it was the best thing she could have done, for both of us. Because it meant that I got to meet you.

There is so much that I want to thank you for Luke, you have no idea. But I'm not really sure I could ever find words adequate to cover everything. I just hope you know how grateful I am for everything. I mean, no one else has ever threatened to shove a man's head through a wall for me.

You may never be truly aware of how appreciative I am for all you've done. For Mom too, because I should tell you I can't remember a time in all my childhood that she was as happy as she is now, here with you. Thank you Luke, enjoy your birthday!

Love,

Rory.

The next day when he'd seen her, she'd tried to avoid talking to him, as if she actually believed he would cry or say something embarrassing, but he managed to catch her alone in the kitchen for a moment and gave her a small smile.

"Thank you for saying all that."

"Yeah, well..." she shrugged and ducked out of the room.

And that was all; they didn't bring it up again. But he liked to have the card close by, liked knowing what she really thought of him, even if she would most likely never say it out loud.

Luke put the card back into its envelope and closed the lid on the box, sliding it under his bed, before getting up and returning to cleaning up downstairs.

In the days leading up to Christmas, while Chilton was on break, Lorelai had been busy at the inn with all the guests who wanted to enjoy the classic Connecticut inn weather. Coming in to the apartment one afternoon she found Rory on the couch, surrounded by books and an assortment of pens and highlighters. "Ok, I wanna know what's going on here," she decided, as Rory reached for a large coffee cup obviously 'borrowed' from Luke's.

"What's going on where?" Rory replied, putting the drink down and flipping the page of one of her books before scribbling something on the notepad in her lap.

"Here, in the Twilight Zone that is my living room. See, my kid is seventeen, she's supposed to be on break from school for a shocking ten days – I know, how can they bare to close the place for that long, right? – but, she doesn't seem to be acting like all the other kids."

"Prancing around in the veritable winter wonderland, making snowmen and snow angels, acting as if school will never return?" Rory returned, setting one book aside and picking up another from the floor.

"Exactly, you want to explain that one?"

"Not right this second. I've got a couple more chapters to get through and then Jess is going to come over and quiz me."

"Will he be able to tell me what's happening in terms I'll understand?"

"Not if he wants to continue walking right."

"Ok, well, in that case, I guess I'll just get out of here, let you continue your freakish revision and I'll bring you back some dinner later, ok?"

"Sounds great," Rory nodded and reached for a yellow highlighter, as Lorelai moved towards her room to change and then headed out of the apartment again.

A few days later Rory walked out of her room, carrying a small stack of papers and stood beside the couch where Lorelai was flipping though the channels.

"There is officially nothing on that isn't a Christmas movie." Lorelai announced, switching it off.

"It's a Wonderful Life?"

"A classic, I'll grant you, I mean, it's Jimmy Stewart, but I'm just not in the mood."

"Well can I talk to you about something then? Seeing as the TV is unable to hold your interest."

"Yeah, sure, that's a good idea. What's up?"

"Here," Rory held out the papers and Lorelai continued to look at her confused.

"What's this?"

"Just read," Rory instructed, and Lorelai skimmed through a couple before looking up again.

"Ok, you're going to have to help me out here, what's going on?"

"The reason I've been... abnormal lately, studying and making notes and reading everything I can get my hands on instead of acting like all the other kids in town, is because... I want... I want to go to college."

"Wow, college?"

"I think. I mean, it's only recent and there's no guarantees that I could actually do it, but I'm giving it a shot and Jess and Tristan have been helping me, and I've only got a few more months to try and make this work and then applications will have to go in and it's out of my hands. I just thought... I thought you should know so you don't freak out about me not having a snowball fight or scheming to get you married by Martin Luther King Day or something."

"You want to go to college?" Lorelai repeated after a few moments.

"I knew you would think it was stupid. That's why I didn't want to say anything, but you were all concerned that I wasn't acting like a kid – which, by the way I kind of haven't done in years, so I don't see why now-"

"I don't think it's stupid!" Lorelai yelled out and Rory stopped, halfway across the room. "I think it's amazing! Rory, if you want to go to college then I... I'm not sure how we would make that work, but I fully support it, and, I mean, there's financial aid and, if we try hard enough, I bet we could scrape together something to get you a little closer. I'll probably have to talk to my parents, which is going to totally suck, but I do not think this is stupid." She added.

"You don't?"

"Of course not!"

"Well... Good. That's good then."

"Yeah," Rory grabbed the remote, turned the TV back on and as she settled into a seat, flicked through the channels before returning to "It's A Wonderful Life."

Sitting on the couch in Luke's apartment, Lorelai took the bowl of popcorn he held out and settled back into her seat. "Remind me why we're watching this again?" he requested, sitting beside her.

"Because it's a great movie!"

"But we've seen it before. Together, actually."

"Yeah, fifteen years ago! Luke, St. Elmo's Fire is a classic!"

"Uh huh. I may have heard that somewhere."

"Wait a minute you didn't like this movie did you?"

"Now she remembers." He said as if speaking to someone else.

"I can't believe you don't like this movie! Andrew McCarthy was at the high point of his career, and Rob Lowe, pretending to play the saxophone was incredibly hot."

"Yeah, I seem to remember this exact conversation taking place between you, Sookie and my sister. Didn't like it then, I doubt I'll like it now. But you want to watch it, so put it on, it's fine."

"No. It's no fun unless you're into it too." Luke gave her a look as he reached for his drink. "Ok, fine. It's less fun. Don't worry, I'll watch it later at home."

"If you're sure,"

"Yeah. I wanted to tell you something, actually. I have very important news about Rory."

"What's up?"

"Well you know how she's been crazy academic girl lately, rivalling even Jess?"

"I've noticed."

"I found out why that was the other day, and it's very exciting."

"Are you going to make me guess?"

"No, sorry, just trying to build some suspense here."

"Consider it built."

"Ok, well, the reason is that she's decided she wants to go to college."

"She does? Really?" he asked, taken aback.

"Yes, and it may be a difficult goal to achieve, but she wants it and she's going to do everything she can to make it happen. And, I just think it's so great, considering, before she moved here, she rarely even wanted to go to school. Don't you think it's great?"

"No, I do, yeah. I'm really glad she's got some sort of plans," Luke replied.

"But?" Lorelai pressed.

"But this is all very new and sudden isn't it?"

"So what?"

"Well, so, Jess has been working towards Harvard since... I think it was first grade, but it could have been kindergarten, I'm not really sure."

"What does this have to do with Rory?"

"He's been heading towards this, preparing for it all this time and-"

"And now Rory's muscling in on his dream, right?"

"I didn't say that!"

"But you were thinking it!"

"I just mean – how did we get into a fight about this? This is a good thing, we shouldn't be arguing."

"Ugh, I know. I was happy and I wanted you to be happy too, but I guess you weren't as excited about the news as I was expecting and I took it personally, which was stupid."

"But I was happy, am. It's great news."

"I know. I'm just... there are too many people at the inn, I'm not used to it being so busy there. And Mia was here last year, which was nice too, even if it was still incredibly awkward. For me and just about everyone, me and you especially. So really I should be a lot calmer right now, I don't really know what it is."

"It's Liz."

"What do you mean? Liz and I are getting along fine. Good, even, some days."

"You get along pretty well most of the time, but then something will set her off, and I don't know about the rest of you, but I don't think that baby of hers could be born too soon at all. Any second would be good."

"You really think that my current weirdness is because of Liz?"

"She accounts for almost all of my weirdness," Luke nodded and Lorelai grabbed a handful of popcorn, thinking about it for a moment.

"You may be right about that. Well, she's only got about a month left, so everything should be alright soon enough and hopefully I won't yell at you irrationally."

"That would be nice." Luke replied, picking up the remote and starting the movie.

"What are-"

"We're watching the movie. You wanted to watch it, and I'm willing to, so just go along with it."

"Ok." Lorelai grinned and sat back to watch.