Rory woke up and noticed her phone was blinking. She had a text message from her Mom telling her to call the instant she woke up. Frantically, she hit speed dial one and anxiously waited for her Mom to pick up.

"Hello?"

"Mom! Are you okay? What's wrong?"

"When can you come home?"

Rory exhaled, "Mom! You're freaking me out. I have my classes today and then I have Friday night dinner. Can you please just tell me, now! I need to be able to focus on my classes and driving to Hartford."

"Honey, I have news that's not phone news," Lorelai sighed. "Are you free for lunch? I'll come to you."

Mentally going through her day, Rory closed her eyes, "Yeah, I'm free from one to two-thirty."

"Great," Lorelai smiled. "I'll meet you at your dorm at one."

"Okay, see you then." Rory nodded, "Mom, everything's okay, right?"

"Everything is better than good, Kid."

A few hours later when Rory returned to her room she was surprised to see her Mom waiting for her. "You're here!"

"Why do you sound surprised? We have plans, no?" Lorelai asked, confused.

Rory unlocked the door and motioned for her Mother to precede her, "Yeah, we have plans. You're just not known for being prompt. So I'm surprised to see you and with what smells like food from Luke's! What's going on?"

Lorelai could no longer contain her goofy smile, "Sit down, Sweets. Mommy had a big day yesterday. It started with a doctor's appointment."

"YOU went to a doctor?"

"Yes, I went to the doctor. And surprise, surprise, I'm pregnant," Lorelai tried to be lighthearted, but in truth telling Rory was her biggest fear in all of this. Luke had offered to come with her, in fact he drove her and was waiting at a pub, because she genuinely didn't know how Rory would take this."

"You're what?" Rory's face was blank, Lorelai couldn't read it.

Taking a deep breath, Lorelai powered on, "I hadn't been feeling right for a few weeks. I shrugged it off as symptoms of a bad breakup. I wasn't eating properly, so I was nauseous, I was so tired all the time, but I wasn't sleeping well. I thought I had an answer for everything. But Sookie kept hounding me. She noticed that I didn't eat much the last few days and told me that if I didn't make a doctor's appointment for myself that she would make one for me. So when I saw Dr. Sanders she told me that I'm about six weeks pregnant so don't even ask who the Dad is, as you know six weeks ago I was in a happily committed relationship with Luke."

Rory sat in silence taking it all in. Lorelai took a sip of her water and then placed a hand on Rory's shoulder. "Are you okay, Kid?"

"Me? Are YOU okay? I know this breakup has been incredibly hard on you. Have you thought about how you are going to tell Luke? Wait, you are very calm and happy. Did you tell Luke? Was he as great as I assume he would be?"

Lorelai smiled brightly, "Okay so don't hate me. But I was really scared about how Luke would take it and my actual biggest fear was that he would do and say all the right things just because he's a good guy and not because he really wanted to be with me."

"Ooookay, so what did you do?"

"I told Sookie. I got her to find out if Luke still loved me."

Rory shook her head, "You're kidding. Hellen Keller could tell you that Luke still loved you."

"Thanks, Babe. But being through the emotional ringer and having the pregnancy hormones coursing through me and then the actual shock of finding out that I'm pregnant, well it messed with my head. I just needed to know that Luke wanted ME. I wanted to make sure that IF he proposed it wasn't just because he felt it was the right thing to do because I was having his baby."

"Oh Mom," Rory smiled sympathetically. "That man would have married you years ago. But wait! Are you getting married? What happened when you told him?"

Luke was reading a book that Jess had left in the apartment. He knew that The Gilmore girls would be talking for a while and he was nursing his tea and trying to focus on the words he was reading.

Suddenly he felt a small vibration and electronic music started coming from his pocket. He grabbed the cell phone Lorelai had given him and answered it.

"Hello?" He tried to be quiet since he hated cell phones in restaurants.

"I told her," Lorelai said as a way of greeting him. "She's over the moon. Can you come to her room? She wants to talk about it all, but you know we're keeping it hush hush for now."

Luke smiled, left more than enough money on the table to cover his bill and a generous tip, then headed out the door, "I'm on my way."

The girls were already eating the food Luke had brought when there was a knock at the door.

"Luke?" Rory called out.

"Yeah!"

"It's opened, come in!"

Luke walked in shaking his head, "Rory, come on. You're in a dorm, anyone can walk by, PLEASE lock your door."

"Oh Luke, you're such a Dad," Rory smiled brightly as she rushed to hug him.

Luke locked eyes with Lorelai over Rory's head when he returned the hug. Lorelai had tears in her eyes and a goofy grin.

"I've been trying to hammer into both you and your Mother's heads to lock your doors."

Rory pulled from the embrace, "That's because you've been my Dad for years. Mom is just finally making it official."

The three of them sat on Rory's couch, Luke smiled at the food from his diner covering the book-shaped coffee table. He reached for his turkey sandwich, "You know I feel really bad about how this all went down. When I thought about marrying your Mom I had always planned to talk to you first," he said to Rory.

"Me?"

"Well, Lorelai doesn't seem like the type who wants you to ask her parents' permission or to ask her Father for her hand. But whether she wanted it or not, I wanted to talk to you. The two of you are a family and I would not want to do anything to alter that if you weren't comfortable with it."

"Should we tell him now that when you were ten you asked me to marry him because he made the best food and we needed a man around the house?" Lorelai teased.

Luke looked at Rory, rolling his eyes about Lorelai.

"Of course when she was sixteen she told me I couldn't date you because I would ruin everything for her. So who knows if she's happy for us."

"Eat your fries and be quiet. Otherwise you'll have to wait in the car," Luke couldn't get the whole sentence without a small chuckle. "I'm trying to be serious here. I love you both and Rory, I mean it when I say that I wanted you to be a part of this. But things kind of happened quickly and out of order."

"The story of my life," Lorelai grinned.

Rory, who was sitting between Luke and Lorelai turned to focus on Luke, "I know that you have loved, cared for and protected us since the moment we became friends. Yes, when I was starting Chilton I told Mom not to date you when she mentioned how cute she thought you were -"

"HEY!" Lorelai shrieked. "Girl Code!"

"Cute how?" Luke teased.

Rory ignored them both and went on, "But honestly Luke, when Mom told me the two of you were dating I think my heart grew. It felt so right. And I could hear ten-year-old me in my mind giddy that you would finally be my Dad. And to know that you guys are going to have a kid! It's really exciting. Honestly, I couldn't be happier. You have to know how bad and guilty I felt when you broke up. I told Dad to stay away from Mom. I jumped in and lied to you when you asked Mom about her hangover the night she was there for Chris cause his Dad died. And then you and Chris fought about me at the wedding."

Both Lorelai and Luke were looking at her in shock.

"Oh Kid," Lorelai sighed and put her food down, "None of this was your fault. Luke and I are adults, so are Chris and your Grandmother. All the people that contributed to this breakup are adults and most of all Luke and I are and we can only blame ourselves. We should have talked. Luke should have been honest about his insecurities regarding Chris and I should have never kept anything from him."

Luke nodded, "She's right. I was the asshole that left her at the wedding. I should have talked to her that night." His eyes locked with Lorelai's, "I should have taken you out of that place and drove you right where you belong, in Stars Hollow, in my arms."

Both Lorelai and Rory looked at him with hearts in their eyes.

"So we should start planning the wedding," Rory said softly. "Wait, there's going to be a wedding right? I didn't see a ring."

"Well I just told him I'm pregnant last night. We haven't talked much about specifics."

"Of course there will be a wedding!" Luke insisted. "The sooner the better. I never want you two, or anyone else to doubt my commitment to all three of you."

"Yay, ring shopping!" Lorelai sang.

"Nope! I've taken care of that," Luke smiled. He handed Lorelai his car keys, "Go to the truck, there's a small box in the glove compartment."

"You're making me get my own ring?" She gasped.

"I want to talk to Rory."

"Fine! But this really isn't romantic."

"You'll live," he snarked as she left the room.

Luke waited a few seconds to make sure Lorelai didn't burst back in and turned to Rory holding a ring box.

"What's this?" Rory asked.

"The ring I want to give your Mom."

"So what's in the car?"

"A Cheerio in a ring box!"

The two burst out laughing.

"I wanted you to see it first and tell me if you think she'll like it. It was my Mom's."

Rory took the box from Luke, opened it and gasped, "Oh wow, it's perfect." The ring was white gold with a two carat cushion cut diamond with two emerald cut sapphires on either side of the diamond. It was timelessly stunning. Subtle with just enough flash to make Lorelai smile.

"I'm going to take her to the place we had our first date and then ask her tonight." Luke said quickly, knowing Lorelai would burst in the room any second.

"That's amazing. I'll let you two have most of tomorrow to yourselves, I'll come home mid to late afternoon. We can start planning the wedding then," Rory was staring at the ring the entire time she spoke.

The door burst open and Lorelai huffed, "You're pretty funny there Danes!"

Luke somehow managed to grab the box from Rory without Lorelai seeing. He slipped it into his pocket. "Sorry, was that NOT the ring?"

"You know, I would marry you with a Cheerio ring, but could you get one that will at least fit my finger! Ooooh maybe a Ring Pop," she shook her head and threw a pillow at him. "If you wanted alone time with Rory, you could have found a less cruel way to get rid of me."

"You're right," Luke rose and kissed her, "I'm sorry. But good news, Rory will be coming home tomorrow afternoon and staying the rest of the weekend."

Lorelai tilted her head, "Sure you can't bail on Friday night dinner and just come home now?"

Rory shook her head, "No way. After the fight Grandma and I had last time? She'll hunt me down if I'm not there and smiling this week. Go! Enjoy time alone, god knows you two wasted enough time apart. I'll see you tomorrow."

Not at all hiding her disappointment Lorelai shrugged, "Okay. But not a WORD about this to them. Do you understand? We're only telling you, Sookie, Mia and Liz, about the baby until I'm at least three months along. And there is no way I want Mom to know anything about this right now, don't even tell her Luke and I are back together. Actually, maybe you can let that slip so she knows her plan didn't work."

"Okay Mom, I'll do a happy dance about it too. But I really should get to my next class."

Rory hugged them both and thanked them for the extra food they brought. She promised to keep quiet and not even tell Paris about the baby and to bring tacos home with her tomorrow.