THE THIRS SIGN

(okay, excuse me but I am going to throw GG on it's head for this chapter but I really wanted to write this, it is very, very relative to my life. It is like what happened to me when I was little just not this way.) R&R

It had been one of the best days for Rory, she was now 2 and a half and had just finished her first week of preschool. Next week would be a big gathering at her school and now she had to go tell her Daddy. As she looked around for her Mummy she saw her waiting with open arms and one hand filled with a Luke's to-go cup of coffee and the other empty ready to receive Rory's backpack, as per usual.

Rory boundeed down the stairs and tripped but was caught by Lorelai just as she started to fall. When she was safely in Lorelai's arms she just looked up at her mummy, still in shock till slowly a smile took her face and she started to laugh at the hilarity of the situation. Lorelai slowly lowered Rory to be standing on her feet and looked down at her daughters puppy dog eyes. She was always a gonner when Rory used her 'Rory eyes' as she caled them, Lorelai knew what she wanted, it was the same thing she wanted every day, to go to Lukes.

"Mummy please." Rory begged, dragging the words out to make her point about how much she wanted to go. Lorelai was quick to give in and nodded. They crossed the road holding hands, even though there was almost never any traffic Lorelai insisted that it still wasn't safe for Rory to be crossing on her own. When they were safely across the road Rory detached herself from Lorelai and set off running towards the diner. Lorelai let her go, knowing that the town would look out for her and that it was safe as long as there were no roads that needed crossing.

Rory turned the corner and ran up the steps and throught the open door. Kirk greeted her and explained to her that as part of his boy scout leader training he had to service the community so he would open the diner door to women all day. When Rory was finished listening to him she looked up, just in time to see Luke come out of the kitchen and scream, "Order up" at their newest waitress Tom.

Tom was a mid aged man that always said that, quote: "You gotta start somewhere".

Rory instantly set off in a sprint towards Luke, screaming "Daddy" as she went. When she reached Luke she latched herself onto his legs. Luke bent down pulled her off of his legs, set to scold her for coming back here and calling him that, Lorelai and him had been trying to get Rory to stop calling him that as Lorelai was sure it would all blow up if Chris came to visit again and heard her call Luke that.

"Rory, you can't be back here and you need to stop calling me Daddy. I am Luke. Okay?"

Rory looked up at him and gave him the 'Rory eyes' and retorted, "But you are my Daddy, daddy." Luke just looked at her and pointed the way out of the kitchen. Rory looked around her and giggled as she shuffled out of the kitchen, she knew she wasn't allowed behind the counter, let alone in the kitchen. Luke was too busy watching her smile that he didn't notice as she shuffled backwards right into Tom who was looking over an order with a frsh, steaming hot pot of coffee in his hand. The second Luke noticed it all seemed to go in slow motion he saw the pot leave Tom's hand as Rory backed righ into him and saw it bounce off of its metal bottom and splash boiling hot coffee all over Rory's chest and stomach.

Rory was in sheer shock and didn't notice Lorelai enter the diner. As Rory was behind the counter Lorelai couldn't see her coffee covered singlet and just thought that Luke had the horrified look on his face because Tom had broken one of his new coffee jugs. It wasn't until Luke ran to a still too shocked to scream Rory and scooped her up and ran to his apartment that Lorelai panicked.

When Lorelai entered Lukes apartmen hot on his heels she expected him to be sitting Rory down and pluck glass out of her clothes and not run to the shower and put her in fully clothed.

When Luke began to undress Rory she screamed out in pain. The act of removing the clothes that had been stuck to her melted skin had also removed the skin. The second Lorelai heard that scream she panicked and from there it was all a blur.

The next thing she knew Rory was lying on an ambulance gurney with cling wrap covering her stomach and arm and blood underneath. Rory looked up at Lorelai with her little face mostly covered in an oxygen mask and tears streaking her face. In the distance, over the sound of the sirens that were blaring on top of the ambulance Lorelai could hear the rumble of Lukes truck going way over it's usual speed. Lorelai knew he cared, she knew he loved them but she also knew that she had to tell someone else, she had to tell Rory's father. The second they arrived at the hospital Rory was taken into emergency and admitted through there, next she was taken up to the burns unit and treated by no other than the renoun Dr. Rebecca Sparkes.

The Dr. told Lorelai that she would have to wait outsie while they they did the initial scrub down to remove the dead skin as not to alow infection. Lorelai sat outside of the room and listened for roughly five minutes to the screams of pain emmited by her little girl until she couldn't take it any more and walked down the hall towards the front desk, near the door that lead outside. Just as Lorelai was approaching the desk she pulled out her cell phone and was readying herself to make this call but was stopped when she heard Luke at the desk, screaming.

"That's my daughter in there, c'mon ask me anything, I know her better than anyone. She is mine, you know what she calls me? She calls me Daddy. She wants me to be her Daddy and I want her to be my daughter, its not like I'm some kind of pedophile. I want to see my daughter."

Before they came into view she heard the nurse, Sarah say, "I'm sorry sir but we have down here that the father of Lorelai Leigh Gilmore is a Mr. Christopher Hayden. Now unless you can produce some evidence that you are this Mr. Hayden in the next thirty seconds I am sorry but I am going to have to get you escorted out. SECURITY!"

When Lorelai heard the word security hollered she broke out into a jog and ran to the desk and stood next to Luke, just as the first security guard grabbed Luke's hand she said, "no, wait, he's with me, I'm Lorelai Gilmore, Lorelai Gilmore's mother."

With that the security guard released Luke and Lorelai lead him outside, having to beg him not to run to Rory as they heard her scream, "DADDY" many times. It broke Lorelai's heart to hear her daughter like that but she knew there was nother\ing she could do but to leave it to the doctors.

Lorelai and Luke made their way outside and when they did and the warm breeze hit Lorelai's face there was nothing she could do to contain it any more, she fell into Luke's arms and cried. She leant on him crying for what felt like hours but was only minutes. She sank down to the ground as another round of sobs racked her body. When she looked up into Lukes eyes she was shocked to see him crying too, silently none the less but still crying.

When Luke saw her looking at him, he told her what had been guilting him this whole afternoon, "it's al my fault, I yelled at her about calling me Daddy and being in the kitchen and I wasn't watching around her when she was leaving, it's all my fault Lorelai, I burnt our daughter."

Lorelai looked up at Luke and more tears left her eyes. "no it's not, I should have been watching her, I shouldn't have let her run into the diner on her own."

Luke and Lorelai sat there, wollowing in self pitty until they were startled out of it by the shrill ringing of her cell phone. Lorelai wiped away her tears and answered it.

"Hello?"

"Hello, is this Miss Lorelai Gilmore?" Nurse Sarah asked.

"Yes, this is she. Is it Rory, can we see her?" Lorelai asked excitedly.

"No, miss we just called because the burns are much worse than you would expect from water and we need to take her into immediate surgery to grapht these burns."The nurse informed her.

"Um, okay, can we see her before she goes in?" Lorelai asked, upset again.

"miss I think it would be better if you didn't, sh has just calmed down and is sort of out of it." The line went silent for a little while before the nurse spoke again, "however she has been asking for her daddy would he like to speak to her?"

"Umm… yeah, sure if that's what she wants, put her on."

There was a ruffling sound and some white noise and then came the drowsy voice of Rory.

"Daddy?" Rory asked

"no baby it's mummy. Are you okay?" Lorelai asked, well aware that Rory was far from okay but she wanted to know how she felt.

"Mummy it hurts, I want Daddy." Lorelai could hear Rory crying and immediately passed the phone to Luke.

"Hey baby, how are you?" Luke asked.

"Daddy. I love you. Are you mad at me?" Rory asked with a shakey voice.

"Mad at you for what Baby?" Luke knew what but he wanted to hear her say it.

"For breaking your new coffee pot."

"No baby, you just go get better and when you wake up me and mummy will be there waiting for you okay."

"okay. Love you daddy."

"Love you too baby. See you soon." And with that the line went dead.

Luke and Lorelai just sat in silence for a couple of minutes until Lorelai broke the silence, "I need to call Christopher."

With that she grabbed her cell phone out of Lukes hand where it had been resting and walked away to call Chris. When the call was done Luke and Lorelai walked back in and were lead by nurse Sarah to the room Rory would be moved to when she got out and that is where they sat for the next two hours. Just waiting for their perfect little girl to be brought.

Three hours later Chris came running full speed down the hallway but stopped dead in his tracks Lorelai, who he thought was His Lorelai was asleep in this other man's lap. Chris marched right up to Luke and began to shout, "Where is she? I want to se my daughter. I want to see her NOW!"

Luke looked up at this man and lifted Lorelai from his lap and placed her in the seat next to him and covered her with his jacket. When he was done making her comfortable Luke strode meaningfully up to Chris and said what was on his mind, "Shut up you fool, you see these?..." Luke pointed to the dried up tear trails on Lorelai's cheeks . "She cried herself to sleep, she is exhausted and if you wake her and upset her, so help my god, I will make you sorry so take a seat and shut up."

Chris took one last look at Luke and went to sit next to Lorelai. When he saw her still asleep he went to pick her up but when he saw the look on Luke's face he quickly sat back down. Luke was just picking Lorelai up when he saw Rory's bed being wheeled towards her room. Luke went to work immediately waking Lorelai . when he finally roused her they walked into Rory's room. They all looked down upon Rory's sleeping figure no one felt as guilty as Luke and as a result of this he began to cry silent tears. Lorelai realised and began to comfort him. When Chris noticed he became enraged, 'why is she comforting him, he's an ass, he just wants sex out of her, this'll never work it's just an act.' Chris thought to himself but instead said, "c'mon, really Lor? This guy's just faking it, he only wants you to think he cares so he can get in your pants."

Luke and Lorelai both snapped around to look at Chris, anger on both of their faces. Luke was the first to snap, "I was there you idiot, I saw it happen and I took care of her and where were you? Ha? Probablyfooling around with some bimbo. She doesn't deserve you, she deserves the world." Luke was down to screaming by the end of it and would have been beatign the shit out of Chris if Lorelai hadn't stepped inbetween them at that moment.

"you two need to lower your voice, Rory doesn't need this right now, she is vaery f….." they were brought out of their reviens when they heard a little voice mumble

"Mummy?" it was Rory waking up. She had heard her parents voices and one she didn't know.

Lorelai ran to Rory's side and grabbed a hold of her hand. "hey Baby, how do you feel?"

"It hurts mummy. Wheres daddy?"

Chris and Luke went to ealk up to Rory at the same time but Chris spoke first, "I'm right here gorgeous, Daddy's here it'll all be okay now."

Rory looked at him, confused and Chris took it as the drugs they had her on confusing her. Chris reached a hand down and started to rub over her hyperfix and blanket covered stomach and thought that Rory was just happy to see him when she took in a sharp breath and began to have tears well in her eyes.

Rory started to sod and then screamed as Chris's hand rubbed over her stomach again, "DADDY! HELP!"

Luke ran to Rory's bed side and ripped Chris's hand away from Rory's stomach and pulled back the blanket and started to blow on the hyperfix covering her stomach, Rory's cries turned to sobs and soon she was calm again and staring at Luke lovingly.

"Daddy, who is he?" Rory asked as she looked at Chris.

Chris stepped forward and started talking to her confused as to why she didn't know him. "Honey I'm your daddy."

Rory shook her head and looked at Luke "No Daddy's my Daddy."

Chris looked from Luke to Rory and then finally to Lorelai and asked in desperation, "Why is she calling him Daddy?"

Lorelai ushered Chris out into the hall and began to explain it all while Luke rubbed Rory's small hand as he held it in his larger one.

Rory looked up at Luke with tears in her eyes and asked, "Can you come and lye down with me Daddy?"

Luke got up and carefully lifted Rory from the bed, careful to ind the two small burns on her arm and the large one all over her stomach as he climbed onto the bed and placed her in his lap. "Anything else Baby?" Luke asked, ready to do anything to get his angel feeling better.

"Can we read?"

"I don't think there is much to read here gorgeous."

"We could read that, couldn't we?" Rory asked with hopeful eyes as she looked at and pointed at the small brochure given to Lorelai on Burns victims that sat on the bedside table next to her.

"Sure you want me to read you that? It might scare you." Luke asked

"yeah, I'm sure.I won't get scared I have you." Rory said as she cuddled further into his arms.

"Okay then" Luke replied as he began to read.

OUTSIDE

Lorelai and Chris were well into their argument by now.

"But I was busy Lor, you said not to come back until I was ready to be a dad and so that'swhat I was doing and then you just call me up and say that our dauhters in the hospital because she was burnt. How do you expect me to react to that? Just be okay with it and not want to help and be here? And then she calls HIM Daddy, Lore that's my name to her, I shouldn't be the man she doesn't know, ii should be the one she cries for." Chris lashed out at Lorelai with all of his pent up resentment for her.

"Well that's your fault Chris, you abandoned me when I was pregnant, you were the one that said that you couldn't do it. And you know why she calls him Daddy? It's because he hd been there for everything, he is the one that calmed her down when she cried or carried her around all day because she wanted him to. He's the one that was HERE and never anywhere else. Another thing. HE REMEMBERS HER BIRTHDAYS!"

Chris took one last look at Lorelai and then retorted with, "Well if that's what she wants then Fine!". With that he stormed off down the hall and out of the double doors. She knew that he wasn't coming back and she truly didn't care, they didn't need him. They only needed Luke.

Lorelai wiped away her tears and walked back to the doorway that lead to her family just in time to hear Rory ask Luke something that she knew was coming the whole time….

"Daddy, will you come to 'me and my Daddy day' at kindergarten next week?" Rory asked this as she drifted off to sleep.

"Anthing for you my Angel. Anything." Luke kissed her head one more time and let her drift off in is arms.

As Lorelai watched from the doorway she couldn't help but smile at her ittle firl, she was determined, Lorelai knew Rory would ask Luke the second she read about it in the newsletter. Even after everything she still got to ask him. Lorelai felt that love agin, bubbling in her stomach and right to the surface. This was a sign that her daughter had her Daddy hooked. It was the third sign.