Lawyers and 'Loompas

The meeting had gone well; Charles Jameson, the lawyer that Mr. Gilmore had suggested, was confident that the case would go their way. He was impressed upon hearing how Luke had found out about April, and about the DNA test. "That's some amazing little girl you got yourself." The lawyer had commented jovially. After going over some of the finer details of the case and explaining the process, the attorney shook both their hands and led them back toward the front of the office.

The next day Luke found himself once again behind the diner's counter as Lane zipped through the dining area, taking orders and delivering food. Caesar had he grill well in hand, and for the moment it looked like everyone was taken care of. He figured he should do something a little more productive than holding up the back wall so he ducked into the kitchen to start washing the accumulating dishes. He heard the faint tinkle of the bells over the door as they rang out.

A moment later a young voice could be calling out, "Dad? Are you down here somewhere?" Sam stuck his head out the kitchen door to find a young teen with long dark brown hair and glasses standing in the diner looking about before Lane walked by and nodded toward where Sam stood.

"Dad!" The girl smiled seeing him, "I'm so glad you're here! I've missed seeing you, weird as that seems since I didn't even know you existed for the first 12 years of my life."

"I've missed you too, April." Sam smiled at the girl, "And please don't take offence at this, but what are you doing here? Does your mom know you're here?"

April immediately looked remorseful. It was clear she knew she'd been caught. "That's kind of the thing, I know Mom's been keeping me away from you. I think it's really stupid that she is so upset about me meeting Lorelai. I mean who could hate Lorelai?"

"Good question." Sam nodded before allowing the girl to continue.

"And in answer to your other question," April took a deep breath, "No, Mom doesn't know I'm here. Last I saw her, she was pacing around the living room ranting about process servers, ungrateful men, and lawyers. I can only assume that was your doing."

"I really don't want to put you in the middle of this." Sam shook his head.

"I kinda am in the middle of all this in every sense of the word." April shrugged, "I mean it is about my custody, isn't it?"

"Yes," Sam sighed, "I don't want to say anything further about it, though. I don't want you feeling like I'm making you choose between me and your mother."

"Jeez Dad," April rolled her eyes in true teenaged fashion, "I would never think that!"

"Good," Sam nodded, "I should probably get you back to your mom's before she realizes you're missing."

"Too late." A voice came from behind them, Sam looked up to see an angry looking dark haired woman. "Just who do you think you are Lucas Danes?" She demanded.

"Why don't we take this conversation upstairs," Sam suggested tersely.

"Fine," Anna relented.

"April you stay here," Luke instructed his daughter before calling to Caesar over his shoulder to bring the girl a chocolate milkshake and a plate of fries.

The adults were quiet while they made their way behind the curtain and up the stairs. As soon as the door to Luke's apartment closed, Anna rounded on him.

"First I find out that you are trying to take my daughter away from me, now I find her in your diner! You have no right!" She shouted at him, steam pouring out of her ears. "This is all Lorelai's idea isn't it?"

"Leave Lorelai out of this." Sam retorted, "She had nothing to do with my decision; I came to it all on my own. The only thing she did was offer to have her father recommend a lawyer. Okay, yes she went with me to the consultation, as moral support only, she sat silently. Not that there was any reason for her to, she could have added her input and it would have been welcome. She is my fiancée, after all."

"And like I told her," Anna spit the last word, "Engaged is not married, she should have no say or influence in my daughter's life."

"April is my daughter, too!" Sam's voice took a dangerous note, "I have every right to have a say in who our, yes our, daughter knows and doesn't know in my life. Lorelai is going to be her step-mother soon, and as such has just as much of a reason to know her as I do."

"Well maybe April shouldn't be around you anymore!" Anna huffed.

"NO!" They heard the muffled cry of the 13 year old from behind the door. April had followed her parents up the stairs shortly after Caesar had delivered her food and milkshake, in takeout containers, and had been sitting outside her father's apartment listening in on their conversation.

Sam sighed and walked over to the door, pulling it open, only to have April fall in after losing her balance. "I thought I told you to wait downstairs."

April stood and dusted herself off before meeting the eyes of both her parents. "My life is at stake here. I think I have a right to have a say in what is to happen to me." She spoke with a resolute voice, "Mom, I like Lorelai, but I love you. Lorelai is great and she is going to be Dad's wife, that's assuming they ever reset the date and get the wedding planned." She sent a pointed look to her father, silently communicating that she knew that he had postponed the event because of her, "I want to get to know her. I already met her daughter Rory, but aside from my birthday party and Jess' open house, I haven't really had a chance to get to know Lorelai or Rory. They are both really fun and really smart, you should be happy that Dad is bringing such great people into my life."

Her parents were dumfounded at her passionate input. "One more thing, I want to be at the trial, or mediation, or whatever."

"No, absolutely not." Anna shook her head. "There will be no trial or mediation or whatever. You and I are moving to New Mexico, and that's the end of it."

"Anna, be reasonable." Sam tried to talk sense into the woman.

"I think I have been reasonable enough!" Anna shouted, "I didn't tell you about April for a reason, you hate kids. You were always railing about noise and jam hands."

"Yeah, when I was 26 and still having to bail my sister out of jams." Sam admitted, some of Luke's residual memories floating over, "I wasn't ready to have a kid back then, it's true, but that doesn't mean I wouldn't have stepped up for my own kid. You know how much family means to me, I know we weren't together that long but even you knew that if my sister needed my help, I dropped everything to help her and Jess."

"Whatever." Anna huffed, "April, grab you things, we're leaving."

With that Anna turned on her heel and headed out the door as April whispered a soft "sorry," to her dad as she followed her mom out of the apartment. Sam blew out a breath he didn't realize he'd been holding as he hoped that he wouldn't do anything to screw this up. After another deep breath, he reached for the small cell phone that he'd found in the apartment and pressed the "2" button hoping that at some point someone had set up his speed dial thankful that he'd leapt into "the future" before. He knew Project Quantum Leap had started in 1999, but since he had jumped as far as 2014, not to mention Al's rapidly aging state, he could only assume that the project was still running at least 15years after it had originally started.

Turning his focus back to the simple flip phone in his hand he found that his first guess has proven correct, someone had indeed set up Lorelai's number in the cell phone. As the call was placed, "Walk Like an Egyptian" played as the ring back tone causing Sam to roll his eyes in a very Luke-like fashion.

"Hello?" Lorelai's voice answered.

"Hey, it's me." Sam said.

"Well hello there 'Me,' I always wondered what I would sound like with a masculine voice, now I know." She quipped.

"Haha," Sam replied drolly, "I was actually calling for a reason."

"I figured it wasn't just to say hello considering I know this time of day is usually your busy time of the day." Lorelai's smile could be felt over the line, "What's up, Angel Boy?"

"Anna and April were just here." Sam informed her before explaining everything that had occurred since April showed up earlier that afternoon.

"She really said that?" Lorelai sounded shocked, "I knew she was mad, but I didn't think she would actually want to deny you access to your daughter, even if she did move to the other side of the country. Don't worry, I've studied custody issues a few times over the years just to know what my rights and Christopher's rights were when it came to Rory. Now that Anna's been served, she can be held in contempt of court if she just up and leaves. I don't think she would want April to see her get arrested."

"Yeah, probably not." Sam agreed. "Well thanks for being a sounding board, I'd better get back down there before Caesar decides to add chilled bananas to the menu again." It's amazing what drifts over sometimes, he thought to himself.

"No problem," Lorelai assured him, "I'm happy to help. Are you going to bring dinner home tonight?"

"Yeah, I'll be there around eight, Caesar is closing tonight." Sam informed her, "I figure we could have a quick strategy meeting then relax with a movie… that isn't Charlie and the Chocolate Factory."

"But the Oompa Loompas!" Lorelai mock protested.

"I think we can go a night without your harem of little people." He chuckled, "I'll see you at eight."

"Okay, see you then." She responded, "Don't worry we'll figure this out." With that she disconnected the call.