Trials and Departures
Thursday came faster and slower than they expected all at the same time. Before they knew it the day was upon them and Lorelai was standing in Luke's apartment straightening his tie. "Would you just hold still and stop fidgeting?" She demanded, pulling on the piece of blue silk that encircled her fiancé's neck. "I really don't want to accidentally choke you." She explained giving the fabric one more tug and smoothing it down against his chest. He wore a dark navy suit with a light grey shirt and blue silk tie that matched his eyes. She had read somewhere that blue inspired trust and she wasn't taking any chances.
She herself was wearing blue, a sleeveless sheath dress the same color as her cerulean eyes that hugged her curves and hit just below her knee. She also had a white ¾ length cardigan sweater in case the mediation room was chilly. Around her neck she wore the pendant and earrings set that Liz had made while Luke had been helping at the renfaire the previous year. On her feet she wore strappy high heeled sandals that boosted her up to nearly eye level with Luke. Picking up her clutch and checking her make up in the mirror once more, she turned to Luke and smiled. "Ready go?"
Sam just took a deep breath and opened the door, "Ready as I'll ever be, let's go." Lorelai followed him down to the truck for their drive to the Hartford municipal courthouse.
"Good morning," Charlie called to them jovially, "You two look very nice. I take it this was your doing?" He directed the question to Lorelai.
"Yessir, I had to make sure that he looked the part of trust worthy father." Lorelai beamed, "I was going for Clark Kent without the glasses or spandex costume.
"I think you may have succeeded." Charlie praised her before turning to Luke, "How are you feeling Mr. Danes?"
"Nervous, anxious, excited," Sam shrugged, "Unpack your adjectives and you'll probably hit more of my emotions now."
"Sounds about normal." Charlie nodded, "Let's go see if we can't get this pesky custody dispute settled." With that he led the couple into the mediation room.
A few minutes after they took their seats, Charlie nearest the chair that was seated at the end of the table, Lorelai sat on the other end, and Luke was in the middle, Anna and her lawyer came in and took their seats across from Luke's team.
"Good morning Luke," The lawyer smiled smugly.
"Nicole," Sam nodded, "When did you get into family law?"
"Oh my firm handles all sorts of cases," Nicole waved her hand dismissively, "When Anna came in I thought I could lend a hand."
"Don't you think that this is a conflict of interest?" Sam challenged her.
"I don't see why," Nicole shrugged, "Oh is it that I'm your ex-wife?"
"That would be it." Sam retorted.
"I think we should let the judge be the, well judge, of that." Nicole smirked as the judge, an older man around the age of the elder Gilmores walked in. "Do you have a problem with me be counsel opposite my ex-husband?" She purred at the older man.
"So long as you can be professional," The judge responded taking his seat. His impeccable suit could be seen underneath his judicial robes; his white hair and wizened grey blue eyes called to mind thoughts of amicable old wizards from days of old. "Let's see what we have here," He sighed, opening the manila folder before him. "Danes versus Nardini concerning the custody arrangements over the minor child April Nardini." He read aloud. "So Mr. Danes, you are suing for custody of your daughter?"
"That's right your honor, I spent the first 12 years of April's life having no input in her life or knowledge of her existence." Sam nodded, "I just want a chance to have a say in my daughter's life, I also want to have her birth certificate amended to list me as her father."
"I can understand that, why is it that you are before me now instead of working this out between you and Miss Nardini?" The judge questioned him.
"I have tried to talk to Anna several times regarding this subject but we have reached an impasse." Sam explained, "We both want what is best for our daughter but are unable to reach an agreement between just ourselves."
"I see," The judge nodded before turning to Anna, "Miss Nardini, do you have an objection to your daughter seeing her father?"
"No, I have an objection with him telling me how to raise my daughter." Anna informed the court, "Not to mention his blatant disregard to my request that he keep his girlfriend…"
"Fiancée," Sam corrected.
"Mr. Danes you'll have your chance again in a moment." The judge assured him.
"My apologies."
"Now Miss Nardini, you were saying?" The judge prompted her.
"I specifically asked him to not involve his girlfriend in my daughter's life, and the first chance he got, he let her throw a party for April." Anna continued.
At this point, Nicole spoke up, "Not to mention that Mr. Danes has always been known to dislike children." Lorelai let out a derisive snort that was ignored by the other adults, "He's been known on multiple occasions to make comments about not having the patience for children or their, as he puts it, 'jam hands.' The fact that he is fighting for custody of his daughter after not having contact with her for over 12 years is laughable and is likely his girlfriend's influence."
"There will be no speculation tolerated in regards to either participants' motivation, Miss Leahy." The judge warned her.
"Sorry, your Honor."
"Now Mr. Danes, do you or your counsel have a rebuttal?" The judge asked him.
"I just wanted to point out a few errors in their arguments. First of all, Lorelai is my fiancée, not my girlfriend, and as such she should be allowed to meet my child. As for the lack of contact until April was 12, like I said before, I didn't know she existed until then, Anna never even mentioned that she was pregnant." Sam explained, "I do admit that I've voiced disinterest in kids before, but other people's kids are different than my kids. Lorelai and I had discussed having kids before April came along and we hope to have some after we marry. My perspective on kids was already changing by the time she came along."
"Thank you, Mr. Danes." The judge nodded, "Now I hear that there were some character references?"
"Yes your honor," Charlie spoke up, "We felt that Luke's absence in his daughter's life might reflect negatively on him, so we asked a people to submit character references on his behalf."
"Very well, you may proceed." The judge allowed.
Sam squeezed Lorelai's hand as she smiled nervously at him and cleared her throat. "I suppose I'm the one to start this off." She started, "My name is Lorelai Gilmore, and as was mentioned before, I am Luke's fiancée. Now, I know that may make it seem like I view him with rose colored glasses, and maybe I do, but I'm not going to speak of our current situation. Instead I wanted to tell you about what he was like before we got together. I have known Luke Danes for about 10 years now, and somehow he infiltrated all areas of my life. When I first moved to town, I had nothing but myself and my daughter. You see, I'm a single mother, I got pregnant young and my daughter's father skipped town. He had very little contact with her over the years even though the door was wide open to him. However Rory never went without a positive male role model in her life after we met Luke. When she was about 11, I finally had saved up enough money to buy us a house. Granted it wasn't in the best of shape, but that soon became a non-issue. Around the same time I met Luke Danes, and while I may have annoyed him at first, we quickly became amicable with each other, then friends, then best friends, and you know the rest. Over the years Luke has done many things for us, and specifically for Rory that is usually considered to be things a father would normally do. He's fixed up our home many times over, keeping it from falling down around our ears. He built the shelves that are in my daughter's room as well as the desk that sits beneath her window.
"It wasn't just our physical needs that he's met, but emotional as well. When Rory was 12, her caterpillar died, he came to the funeral at her request, even brought food along so that we'd have something to eat during the wake. When Rory got the chicken pox, he was at the house every day with a steaming vat of mashed potatoes because that is all she would eat. He's threatened every boyfriend she's ever had, including his own nephew, out of love for my little girl. I can only imagine how much more he would do for his own little girl, given the chance. He has always been there for us, and always will be; once Luke Danes is in your life, he's always in your life."
"Thank you, Miss Gilmore," The judge nodded at her, his face not giving away any reaction to what she just said, "I hear there were more?"
"Yes your honor," Charlie nodded before sliding three envelopes toward the wizened justice who opened the letters and read them aloud.
The first letter was from Jess, much as Charlie had explained to the couple before, he admitted to not being the easiest kid to live with. He went on to explain the many times he had failed them, but that they, and especially Luke, never gave up on him. He credited Luke with the man he became and said that there were very few people who had a positive influence in his life and Luke was one of those people.
The second letter was from Lane, she detailed the interactions she'd seen between Luke and the Gilmore girls over the years. She even mentioned the kindness that Luke had shown her throughout her life as well. She echoed Lorelai's sentiment that Luke had been a father figure to not only Rory but to herself since her father had passed away some years ago and that April would be very lucky to have Luke as a more permanent fixture in her life.
The last letter was from Rory. She spoke of the multiple ways that Luke had stepped up with Christopher hadn't, she went on to talk about how his influence on Jess had even indirectly got her to go back to Yale where she was a journalism major. "There has always been some confusion when it comes to the words 'Father' and 'Dad,'" She had written, "The former is simply a biological term, meaning the male counterpart that contributed to your creation. The latter however is so much more, a Dad is someone who makes you the one food you will eat when you are sick, even at 2 in the morning. A Dad looks out for you, defends you, and threatens your boyfriends out of love for you. A Dad attends a funeral for a bug and brings food to soothe the pain of a 12 year old's loss. A Dad threatens to drag you to school when you drop out and sit with you to ensure you attend all your classes when you are stuck in a spiral of bad decisions. A Dad is someone who will go above and beyond the call of duty to ensure their child is happy, healthy and loved. I've been lucky to have a Dad like Luke in my life, even if it wasn't his official or legal title in my life. I've always wished he could have been both my Father and my Dad, but alas I was not that lucky; April however is lucky enough to have Luke as both her Father and her Dad. It would be unjust to deny her access to her father or vice versa. Please do the right thing for all involved and grant Luke the access he needs, and deserves, to his daughter."
"Jeez," Sam blushed, hearing Rory's letter read out loud.
"We do have on more testimony, your Honor." Charlie informed the judge before turning to one of the interns and whispering to them before sending them on their way. "April Nardini reached out to me the other day and asked if she could speak on her own behalf."
"Absolutely not!" Anna shouted.
"Miss Nardini, please restrain yourself." The judge responded evenly, "Now the girl is 13, is that correct?" Both parents nodded, "In that case, send her in. She is old enough to understand these proceedings and have a say. Besides I'd wager a guess that a girl who is intelligent enough to do a professional-level DNA test to prove paternity knows her own mind and what is best for her."
The door creaked open and April preceded the intern into the courtroom. "Good afternoon, Miss Nardini." The old judge smiled warmly at the girl who took a seat directly opposite of him.
"Good afternoon, you honor." She met his steady and intelligent gaze with one of her own.
"Do you understand why we are all here today?"
"Yes sir." April nodded, "My parents are seeking a custody arrangement, or rather my father is requesting formal partial custody of me as my mother has seemed hesitant as of late to allow me to spend time with him or his fiancée by extension."
"You put her up to this." Anna accused Luke.
"I did nothing of the sort." Sam countered, "She came here of her own free will, I never asked her to come here today. In fact I told her to leave it to me and you to sort out."
The judge simply shot one more warning look at Anna and Luke before returning his eyes to April, "Please continue Miss Nardini."
"I don't know why my mom kept me from my dad for so long," April explained, "She never spoke of him to me, never even hinted at his identity. I overheard her talking with some of her girlfriends once and the topic of my father came up, she admitted that there were three possible men who could have been my father. I had my science fair coming up and I thought that finding my father would be a unique idea. I found out the names of the possible subjects and began to collect data and DNA. As luck would have it, Luke was my father. I know I took him by surprise at the beginning, but he was so good with me. He would give me little jobs around the diner to do when I visited so I wouldn't be bored, he helped me with my homework when he could. He even tried to throw me a birthday party, it would have been a complete disaster if he hadn't gotten over his pride and asked Lorelai to help out. As it was, calling her was a good idea because as soon as she showed up, the rest of the night was, for lack of a better term, awesome!"
The judge chuckled as April's teenaged enthusiasm broke through the professional tone she'd carried prior. "Is there anything else you wish to share?"
"Yes," April nodded, "I want to be able to see my dad more, and I want to get to know Lorelai; she is going to be my step-mother after all. It's not that I don't love my mom, I do, but I love my dad too and want to be able to see him more often. As it stands, my grandmother is ill and my mom is wanting to move us to New Mexico to care for Grandma. I don't want to go, I'm going to be staring high school in the fall, and I want to be able to finish school with my friends. I have friends whose parents are divorced and they have to stay within a certain distance of each other so that the children can continue to attend school, no matter whose home they are in. I'm just hoping that something like that can be arranged. I'm sure my grandmother can travel up to Connecticut just as well as we can travel to New Mexico, and being able to stay here, I wouldn't have to wait for every other holiday to see my father. I trust you will make the right decision."
"Thank you, Miss Nardini," The judge nodded to the girl, "You have given me a lot to think about. Let's break for an hour to get lunch and when we return I will render my verdict."
The group rose to leave, Anna went over to her daughter to demand to know how she got to the courthouse. April informed her that Rory had given her a lift, this caused Anna to stare daggers at Lorelai. Lorelai ignored her, but was glad to find Rory, Lane, and Jess sitting in the hallway just outside the mediation room.
"We figured it would be best to come down just in case they wanted some clarification on the letters." The young woman shrugged.
"Aww Sweets," Lorelai pulled her daughter into her arms, "You are too good to us. You know you had Luke beaming and practically tearing up when you called him your dad in your letter."
Rory simply blushed as Lorelai focused in on Jess, "And you, who knew you were so good with words. I know the verbal thing tends to come and go with you, but wow."
"Well he is an author." Sam chuckled, "Thank you, all of you for your kind words. Do you want to join us for lunch?"
"No, I should be getting back to school." Rory admitted. "April should probably be getting back too."
"I brought the two of them here." Jess informed them.
"Where's your car?" Lorelai asked, looking at her daughter.
"Back at school," She shrugged, "Jess was already heading in this direction so it just made more sense for him to pick me and April up on his way through."
"I should be getting back to the diner." Lane added, jerking a thumb toward the exit.
"Yeah, thanks again." Luke smiled at the girl.
"No prob, boss." She graced him with a wide smile before turning on her heel and heading out the door.
"Well, I suppose we should let you get going." Lorelai shrugged, "Say hello to Logan for me."
Rory shifted uncomfortably before agreeing with a, "Yeah, sure," Lorelai made a mental note to probe about that later as she hugged her daughter. Luke gave Jess a manly hug before seeing April approach. After a few more words were exchanged along with promises to call with the results of the mediation, the younger group left for their respective schools and work while the couple set off to find something to tide them through the rest of the day until dinner.
An hour later, the group reconvened in the mediation room and awaited the court's judgement. The judge entered quietly, robes billowing out from his frame, before he took his place at the head of the table. "I think I've kept you in suspense long enough." He started, looking between the two parties. "I have reached the decision that custody of the minor, April Sophia Nardini, will be split 50/50. I see no reason to restrict her from having equal access to both her parents. She will henceforth spend alternating weeks with her mother and father. Miss Nardini, if you do indeed need to go to New Mexico to care for your mother instead of bringing her here, April will stay with her father rather than be uprooted from her school and friends."
Anna looked as if she was going to protest but quickly shut her mouth at the stern look the judge gave her, "Furthermore, April's birth certificate will be amended to include Lucas William Danes as her father. The minor child will also be given the option of changing her last name if she sees fit. Does anyone have any questions regarding these rulings?"
"Just one, your honor." Sam spoke up, "My fiancée and I are looking to get married soon, we will do our best to not hold the wedding on one of my off weeks but if we haven't any other choice, would I be allowed to have April during that time frame?"
"Yes, as well as alternating holidays. For example, you will have April for Thanksgiving and Miss Nardini will have the child for Christmas. Next year you will switch so that Miss Nardini can celebrate Thanksgiving with April and the child will have Christmas with you. Anything else?" When none of the adults spoke up, he hit his gavel on the table and stood, "I will file my ruling with the court this afternoon, and the new custody arrangement will start tomorrow evening. Mr. Danes, since Miss Nardini has had April consistently for the past few weeks, you will go first. Your custody will switch every Friday at 5pm. Oh and one more thing, Miss Nardini, you are not to interfere with your daughter's relationship with her father and soon-to-be stepmother. If you do, you will be held in contempt, do I make myself clear?"
"Yes, your honor." Anna responded, defeated as Nicole led her from the court room.
"Well done," Charlie shook Sam and Lorelai's hands. "I bet you two have some phone calls to make and celebrating to do, so I will let you go."
"When should I expect a bill for your services?" Sam asked.
"Didn't they tell you?" Charlie looked between Lorelai and Luke, "When Richard set this up he paid all your legal fees up front. Said it was part one of your wedding gift."
"He did what?" Sam and Lorelai asked in unison.
"He paid all your fees, so all you have to do is worry about your daughters and your wife from here on out." Charlie shook Sam's hand one more time. "Congratulations."
"Thank you again," Sam nodded and led Lorelai out of the courthouse. A few phone calls later and the news had been spread to all their family and friends.
The next afternoon, April came sweeping into the diner, backpack on her shoulders, helmet swinging from one hand and a duffel bag in the other, "Dad!" She cried out.
Sam ducked out from the kitchen, "Hey Sweetie, how was school?"
"Forget school!" She beamed, but then corrected herself at his concerned look, "Okay so maybe don't forget school. I'm so happy we were able to get this worked out. I can't believe I get a whole week with you now!"
The bells above the door rang out again as the Gilmore girls came crashing in, hugging both April and Luke. Jess entered a few minutes later and leaned against the side of the door, a smirk on his face as he watched the scene. Sam noticed him and waved him over to a table where he sat the rest of their group. Within minutes each of them had food and drinks in front of them eating and chatting the way a family does.
Sam sat back and enjoyed the view of the family before him, he only hoped that when he leaped that Luke would be pleased with the results. He knew the leap was near, he had already started to feel the pull of the space-time continuum. His suspicions were only confirmed when he heard the whisper of the imaging chamber door. Al stood just behind Lorelai to his right, "Well Sam, looks like you did it." He smiled at the scene as well, "And not too soon, Luke is just about out of his mind, he wants to get back home."
Sam smiled at Al's comment as Lorelai leaned over, "Good work, Angel Boy," She whispered and kissed him on the cheek. Almost as if she triggered it, Sam felt the familiar charge coursing through is body as his vision began to warp and shimmer. He felt the familiar tug at his center as he was transported from the quiet diner and into a new body.
"Just who do you think you are, talking to Miss Ella like that?" A large muscular man demanded before cocking his hand back and delivering a sharp blow to Sam's jaw, leaving him sprawling on the floor of a dirty tavern.
"Oh boy…" Sam sighed, he hated when leaps started like that.