Everyone but Luke was assembled in the TV room. Zoey had charmed them all to watch the parade as opposed to pre-game football stuff. They all were chatting and pointing out balloons they liked. Zoey was sitting practically in Lorelai's lap, she was enamoured with the spunky woman who knew all of her favourite shows and music. Jess shook his head and went to the kitchen to help his Uncle.

Luke pulled the foil off the lasagnas and placed one back into the oven under the broiler.

"Do you really think this is a good idea," Jess asked as he leaned against the counter near the oven.

"Putting it under the broiler?"

"The con you're pulling with Lorelai. You know there's this really honourable guy in my life that taught me that lying is never the answer. Is this a ploy to win her back?"

Luke sighed and shook his head. "You of all people know how much I hate talking about feelings and relationships. As much as I love these people they can be yentas on the level of Miss Patty and Babette. If I didn't bring her I still wouldn't have told them about the breakup. If they knew before I got here there would have been at least two single women for me to meet. I just couldn't deal with it all. I wanted to have fun."

"So you're sharing a bed with your ex? That's fun?"

"Please, only you and your Mom knew. She hadn't even told TJ yet because I didn't want to deal with whatever he would do to console me. Just gimme these few days and I'll owe you one."

Jess scoffed, "First of all, I already owe you like fifty thousand, so don't worry about that. I'm seriously worried about you. I know you still love her, I don't want to see you hurt all over again. But if this is what you want, I'll go along with it. Can I make one suggestion though?"

"Sure." Luke said as he switched the lasagnas, placing a different one under the broiler.

"Find a time to actually talk to her. Apologize for the crap you did and let her apologize, I mean she better."
"She already has, a number of times."

"Okay, good. But Luke, seriously, after this weekend -"

Luke glanced over to the crowd, making sure no one else was paying any attention to them. "Listen to me. We talked before we came here. I hurt her too, remember? We both apologized and admitted that we never stopped caring about each other despite the pain that was caused on both sides. I would really appreciate it if you wouldn't make this weekend harder on either of us."

Jess nodded, "Okay. Yeah, I'm sorry. I wasn't trying to make it harder. I was just worried you were making it harder on yourself. I'll shut up now."

Minutes later, Luke pulled the last lasagna out of the oven and called the gang to come and dig in.

After lunch was enjoyed and cleared away the gang broke up into smaller groups. Maisy and Buddy took Jess, Charlie and Zoey for some bonding time.

Luke, Leo, Maggie and Claudia were hard at work in the kitchen. Danny, Sam, Lisa and Lorelai were on the couches with the football game on the big TV.

After about twenty minutes Sam came over to Luke and pointed at a sleeping Lorelai on the couch.

"Stud's still got it," Sam teased. "You must have worn your girl out quietly last night."

Luke shook his head, "Shut up." He laughed as he made his way to Lorelai's side. He crouched down beside her and gently shook her, "Lorelai? Why don't you head upstairs and have a proper nap," his voice was soft and his breath warm against her cheek.

She stirred, "Luke?"

"Yeah," he answered quietly. "Your snoring is bugging everyone."

"I do NOT snore," she answered quietly as she stretched. She swung her legs off the couch and he rubbed them before using them to push himself back into a standing position. He offered her his hand, helping her to her feet.

"Thanks," she whispered to him. "Sorry everyone," she addressed the room. "I think I need to grab a cat nap before dinner."

They all waved as she headed up the stairs to the room she was sharing with Luke. When she got to the door she heard the electronic song that Rory had set up as her ringtone. She rushed to it, flipping it open, "Hello?"

"Happy Turkey Day," Rory's voice rang through.

Lorelai smiled and sat on the bed, "Hey Sweets! Happy Turkey Day to you too. So where are you?"

Rory giggled, "Logan took me to Istanbul."

"You're in Turkey for Thanksgiving! That's awesome."

"Yeah, well I initially thought this was a romantic weekend but it turns out half of his friends showed up. I think this was a big group plan and then he realized that maybe he should invite me. They all came on a plane together a few days ago. So what I thought was a spontaneous, sweet getaway feels a little different now."

"Well sure, but the important thing is he did take you, right?"

"I guess. Anyway, how's it going with you? Feeling better today?"

"His family is so amazing but Jess is here and already warned me not to hurt Luke again."

"Jess is really protective. The last time we spoke he told me how dumb he felt for giving Luke a hard time. He said that Luke was the only person in his life that didn't act like him being a failure was a foregone conclusion. Did you know that Luke offered to pay for Jess to go to college?"

"No, I didn't know. But I'm not at all surprised," Lorelai says wistfully.

Rory could hear the love in her Mom's voice. "Are you sure you're okay? I feel like this weekend could make things hard on you."

Lorelai sighed as she flopped onto the bed. "How much time do you have?"

"For you? All the time you need," Rory answered genuinely.

"I love you. And if you really have time maybe you could analyze the dream I had last night."

"Lay it on me."

Lorelai sat up, with her legs crossed, "Well Luke and I were here in this lovely house. But -"

"It was your house and you were hosting Thanksgiving?"

Lorelai gasped, "How did you know?"

"We've met once or twice," Rory deadpanned.

"Kid, it was one of those dreams that I didn't know it was a dream at the time but it hurt like hell when I realized it was. You were here, talking to Jess about books. Liz, TJ and Doula were playing by the fireplace. Even Mom and Dad were here and happy. Dad was talking to Luke about politics and Grandma was holding one of the twins."

"Twins?"

"Yeah," Lorelai smiled. "Luke and I were married and had twins."

"Oh Mom"

"It's okay. It was just a dream." She took in a shuddering breath, "Just a dream that I hope I have every night."

Rory sighed, "Can I ask you something?"

"You can ask me anything."

"He said he still loves you. You still love him. He's taking you to meet his family and you're dreaming of having his babies."

"That's not a question."

"Why aren't you two back together?"

Lorelai opened her mouth to answer but began to cry. She didn't notice the soft knock on the door or that the door opened slightly. She sobbed for a few minutes causing Luke to stop dead in his tracks.

"Don't you think I want it? Of course I wish we were back together. Hell even if I couldn't admit it, clearly my subconscious won't let me forget. I'm dreaming that he's my husband and we have twins. I'm laying in bed with him, back to back because we both know that if we weren't back to back it would be too hard not to reach out and touch the other. If I didn't have my back to him last night I would have crawled into his arms and begged him to hold me. I don't know how I'm going to get through this weekend. He keeps putting his arm around me, we kiss and it's all supposed to be for show but it feels so real, so right. When you and I get home, I need you to get me really drunk. I need to try to kill some brain cells so maybe I'll forget."

Rory laughed, "Or maybe -"

"Yeah I know," Lorelai sighed while wiping the tears from her face. "You're going to say I should talk to him and tell him all of this. You're going to say that he wants to get back together just as much as I do so what's stopping us."

"And what would your answer be," Roy shot back.

"My answer would be that we've been with his family for over a day and no one, not a single person has brought up Luke's long lost daughter. No one has mentioned her to him, no one has asked me about her. There's still something weird going on with this whole April situation, he won't let me in. Even now. Until I know why, I can't let my heart hope. You of all people know how hard that was for me. Why won't he let me in with this? He's always said he thought I was a good Mom but he doesn't want me in his daughter's life! I can't get sucked back into wanting to be his wife when he doesn't want me in his daughter's life, it will never work!"

"Please talk to him, please. Like now! If this is true. If he told them all to not talk about April around you, then get into a cab, go home and be done with him. But there could be another answer. Please. Talk to him."

Lorelai took a deep breath and sighed, "Okay, I promise. I'll talk to him. I just gotta find the right time. But I will do it."

"Good. I love you, Mom."

"I love you too, Kid. Thanks for checking in." She closed her eyes as she snapped her phone shut.

There was a knock at the door and Luke stuck his head in, "Can I come in?"

Plastering on a smile Lorelai nodded, "Of course! Come on in."

Luke entered the room hesitantly and closed the door behind him. "Claudia sent me up to nap with you. We got up really early today and she wants me to be able to stay up late tonight."

"That's sweet of her."

"Yeah, she sent me up a few minutes ago. I knocked and you didn't answer. When I stuck my head in -"

"You heard?"

"I didn't mean to eavesdrop, I just heard you crying. I wanted to help, but I didn't know if you'd want me to, then I heard you talking to Rory. I froze. I'm sorry."

She fidgeted with a thread on the bedspread, "How much did you hear?"

"Enough."

"Maybe I should go home," She suggested softly. "I think this is harder on us than we anticipated."

"I'm sorry I put you through this," he was looking at her, hoping she would look up. "I never should have asked you to do this. It was so selfish of me."

Still looking down, she shook her head, "It's okay. I could have said no."

He stuck his hands in his pocket and looked at his feet, "I wanted you here. I wanted you on my arm again. It was incredibly selfish, you don't have to let me off the hook. But I do want you to know something … I haven't told them about April. I don't know how. It still feels like a failure to have a child that I didn't raise."

Her head snapped up and she saw the pain etched in his face. "It's not your fault. This is why I wished you talked to me about it. Please take it from someone who had the door opened to her child's father since before the first ultrasound, you can't be there if you don't know about it! How can you support someone that you don't know exists?" She got up off the bed and stood in front of him. Now he couldn't make eye contact, still looking at his feet. She put her hands on his chest, "Luke, you're not the bad guy here, Anna is. You're not Chris. You're nothing like him. He's sending another daughter off to live with her mother. You practically adopted Lane, Rory and Jess. They all know that they can count on you and you've never let any of them down. Look how protective of you Jess is. He's ready to scratch my eyes out for hurting you. Lane and Zack asked you to be the Godfather to their twins! I really don't know what Anna was thinking because anybody who knows you for more than five seconds knows that you would make an amazing father. I wanted to have ten babies with you!"

Luke finally looked up into her eyes, "You did?"

She nodded.

"We'd only need nine for a baseball team," he smirked.

"They're bound to have some of my genes, so you'll want at least one alternate."

"Fair enough," he whispered. "Can I kiss you now?"

"Yes, please," she begged. Her hands on his chest gripped his shirt, pulling him closer, "And don't stop."

His lips met with hers, softly at first but when she parted her lips, he groaned, deepened the kiss and wrapped his arms around her tightly. Her hands left his shirt to slide up his neck, knocking off his hat, her fingers tangling in her hair. Their tongues circled each other, both of them smiling at the familiar taste and feel. Only when the need for oxygen could no longer be ignored did he tear his lips from hers. He kissed up her jaw, to the spot behind her ear that he knew drove her crazy. In return she pushed herself into him, moulding her soft breasts to his hard chest, swaying her hips across his pelvis.

"Oh god, I want to put a baby in you right now," he growled into her ear. "You're not giving me that ring back." He began walking her backwards towards the bed. "I'm going to marry you and we're having babies. And dear god are we going to practice making babies every night and every day. Say it, tell me."

Lorelai exhaled to catch her breath, the back of her legs hit the bed and she slunk down, clinging to his shoulders to keep him close as she lay down, "I'm going to marry you," she smiled when their eyes met. Her body was covered by his, "I would marry you tomorrow."

Luke leaned up and pulled the shirts up over his head, tossing them on the ground. He then looked at her and said, "Take your shirt off or I'm ripping it from your body."

"You wouldn't," she teased.

"You really wanna test me, Gilmore?" With that he grabbed the hem of her shirt and pulled it roughly over her head. His eyes widened when he saw her white lace bra, it was one of his favourites. "Oh man, we are going to be so loud, they're never going to let me live this down," he laughed.

Suddenly there was a knock on the door, "Luke?" Jess called. "Sorry to bug you. They need you to move your car so Danny can get out."

Lorelai began to laugh, "At least now we have to stop. Your family doesn't have to know how loud you are during sex," she whispered as Luke grabbed his shirts from the floor.

There was another knock at the door, "Luke?" Jess asked.

Without thinking Luke swung the door open, "Yeah," he barked. "I'm coming!"

Jess' eyes got big, his eyebrows shot up and he smirked, "Hey Auntie Lorelai."

Lorelai grabbed a pillow and covered her chest, "You told me not to hurt him. So I was kissing and making up instead," she smiled.

Jess chuckled, "Wow, this is my doing? I guess you owe me one, Uncle Luke."

"Luke, just Luke," he barked at his nephew. He grabbed Jess' arm as he rushed down the hall, "And eyes off my fiancée!"

Jess stopped walking for a moment, forcing Luke to halt as well, "She's your fiancée again, right? Was that reconciliation sex?"

Luke scowled, "Clearly, there was no sex at all. So just shut up."

"Luke, seriously. Did you two talk? Are you two -"

"Yeah. We talked, it's all good now."
The two men went down the stairs, both smiling.