The next morning everyone was happily enjoying Luke's 'made to order' breakfast. Maisy, Claudia, Sam, Charlie and Zoey each had a large stack of chocolate chip pancakes. Buddy, Danny and Jess all had scrambled eggs, bacon and toast. Leo, Maggie and Lisa were all enjoying omelettes and Lorelai had pancakes, eggs and bacon.

Jess was doing his best to be Luke's assistant, serving people and refilling drinks.

"So who's coming on the shopping trip," Maisy asked as she began to clear the table.

"I want to hit the outlet mall," Lisa said. "I want to grab some maternity clothes."

"I guess that means I'm going," Sam smiled. "She'll need someone to carry the bags."

"You know there's a Brookstone right across from the maternity store," Danny smiled.

"Perfect," Sam grinned.

"Can I stay home," Charlie asked.

"Of course," Claudia smiled.

"You don't want to come to Best Buy and Brookstone with me," Danny asked.

"Nah," Charlie shrugged. It's too crazy today."

"I'm happy to stay here with him," Buddy offered.

"So magnanimous of you," Maisy smiled.

"I'm sure you'll shop enough for the both of us darling," Buddy grinned before kissing Maisy's temple.

"Okay, Claud and I are taking our car, who else is driving so we can make a game plan," Danny asked.

"Luke and I brought my car, so even if he doesn't want to come I can drive," Lorelai offered.

Zoey perked up and asked, "Can I ride with Lorelai?"

"We don't know if Lorelai is going to the same place we're going," Claudia answered.

"Of course I am," Lorelai smiled. "It's no fun shopping alone, And if it's okay with your parents you're more than welcome to ride with me."

Zoey beamed,

"I guess, since Sam pointed out it's the gentlemanly thing to do, I'll be joining you and carrying your bags," Luke shrugged. "Jess, are you coming?"

"I can't, I gotta get back. We're having a Friendsgiving dinner at Truncheon."

"That's so cool," Lorelai nodded.

"There is an entire pumpkin pie that no one touched," Maisy told Jess. "I'll pack that up and some of the pastries for you and your friends."

"Thanks," Jess said genuinely. "I'm going to go grab my stuff and then I'll say goodbye before you all head out."

Hours later, Luke, Leo and Danny were chatting in the food court surrounded with bags at their feet in the extra chairs at their table.

"So is your wedding going to be anything like Lizzy's," Leo teased.

Luke laughed, "That was actually a great night for me. But NO. I still have nightmares of TJ in his tights."

"Does Lorelai get along with April," Danny asked. "Man, I can't imagine going from childless to the father of a teenage daughter overnight."

Luke exhaled, "Yeah, it's been intense to say the least. The little time Lorelai and April have spent together they seem to really hit it off. But like I said, I really handled this all wrong, keeping them apart. Thankfully now that I have legal rights, I can rectify this and - well, seeing Lorelai and Zoey."

"She really is a wonderful woman," Danny nodded.

"Yeah, Mom told me you would marry this one the first time she met her. I believe she said something like, 'I'll kill him if he lets this one go'. So you might want to hurry it along." Leo laughed.

"Trust me, man, it's my top priority. I'll be married by this time next year. Hell, I hope to have it done within the next six months."

Just then they heard the familiar sounds of the women in their lives laughing. Luke smiled when he saw Lorelai carrying an armload of bags, leading the other women through the food court.

"Did you leave anything for the other shoppers?" Luke chuckled.

"Not in my size," Lorelai retorted. She sat down beside him and kissed his cheek. "This isn't all for me. There's stuff for you, Rory and April here."

"You bought stuff for April," he asked with awe in his voice.

"Christmas is right around the corner, and she's going to be my daughter too," she grinned.

"I love you," he responded and the whole table suddenly got quiet.

Luke didn't notice that his entire family was watching their exchange, but Lorelai did. Without her eyes leaving his, she raised her eyebrows and said, "I love you too, now kiss me."

He leaned in and kissed her softly, his lips curling into a smile when she tried to deepen the kiss. He pulled away slightly, "Not in public," he scolded against her lips.

"You owe me a good one," she ordered.

"Yes Ma'am."

Lorelai jumped when her phone started to ring in her purse. She held it up to her ear and covered her other ear. "Hello? Hey Lane, yeah sorry. I'm at a mall, just speak up a bit. What? Oh no! Okay Sweetie, I'll tell Luke and we'll call you back."

"What's wrong?"

"Caesar hurt himself. Apparently the Banyan boys were in the diner giving Lane a hard time. They started a ketchup fight and when Lane tried to stop it they turned the ketchup on her. Caesar came to her rescue and after he got rid of them, he slipped and hurt his back. He can't -"

"We have to go back," Luke blurted. "How bad is it? He's had back issues before? Is he okay?"

Lorelai smiled at his concern. He always acted like he was annoyed with Caesar, but she knew he loved him like a little brother.

"Lane said he'll be okay, just needs a few days."

"Okay, I'll call Lane. I'll tell her to close the diner for the rest of today. We can head back to Stars Hollow, we'll get there tonight and I can open in the morning."

"You're leaving!" Zoey whined. "You said you would stay at least one more day."

"Sweetie, it's an emergency," Danny explained. "It's Luke's business. He can't keep it closed so he could play with you."

"Can you stay," Zoey looked at Lorelai with puppy dog eyes.

"Hey! Don't try to steal my girl," Luke growled. "I'm sorry Zoey. Caesar is one of my best friends and the only one I trust to cook when I'm not there. I gotta go check on him and then make sure people have a place to eat."

"How about if I promise to make him come back soon?" Lorelai offered.

"Oh! Can we go to Stars Hollow," Zoey asked Danny. I want to see the horses."

"We'll talk about it," Danny nodded.

Luke turned back to Lorelai, "Did you get all your shopping done?"

"If you want to head back, I'm done. Don't worry. Let's get back to the house, get our stuff and hit the road."

"I think we're all done," Maisy piped up. "Let's all go back to the house and send Luke and Lorelai off properly."

Zoey sulked, especially when they realized that Lorelai's bags took up too much room in the Jeep, so she had to ride with her parents.

Back at the house, Luke was done packing in five minutes, then he sat on the bed watching Lorelai run around gathering her things. In an attempt to not make it appear that he was rushing her, he called Caesar.

"I heard you got injured in a gang fight," Luke mocked by way of greeting him.

"Those Banyan boys are a menace, Boss. Their Mom apologized and offered to pay for the doctor's visit."

"Tell me you took her up on it," Luke smirked.

"Oh hell yeah," Caesar replied. "She's never going to learn to tame her kids if it never costs her anything. Look, I know Lane said it was bad, but if you're closing the rest of today anyway, I should be back up at it tomorrow. You can stay there. The painkillers will have kicked in by then."

"I'm giving you tomorrow off with pay. You always help me out when I decide to skip out or want time with my girl. And she's my girl again so I'm going to be needing you more often now."

"Hey, Congrats Boss. I know it was killing you," Caesar said genuinely. "But I'm going to call you tomorrow around lunch time. If you need me, you'll let me know. And you know what, Zack is a really quick learner. He's helped out a lot. You may want to see about getting him on the schedule regularly."

"Thanks, I'll talk to him. You take it easy tonight."

"I will, thanks Luke. I'll talk to you tomorrow."

After many hugs, promises to see each other again soon and Lorelai making a phone date with Zoey to watch The Princess Diaries at the same time, Luke finally threw the last bag in the Jeep and got in the driver's seat.

"You ready," he asked before putting the car into reverse.

"Take me home, Jeeves," she smiled.

Once the house was out of sight she sighed, "Wow, so that's what it's like to leave family that you want to stay with, I kinda miss them already."

Luke exhaled a small laugh, "You're better with your parents now. And you've left Rory at Yale."

"I guess," She shrugged. "It was a new experience for me. You know, I've seen family holidays on TV but mine were never like that. Waking up together, preparing the food and not having it catered, wearing comfortable clothes most of the time and talking about real life stuff. I love the feeling of not worrying about being 'proper' and just having fun together. I wish my parents could see that and maybe have fun."

Luke reached over and took her hand in his, "Well once we get married, we can host a family holiday and they'll be there."

She turned to see his smile as he watched the road.

"Of course I don't know where we would fit them all," Luke chuckled. "I guess they could stay at the Dragonfly. We'l just have to book the rooms way in advance. Rumour is my fiancée has a very successful business that is usually booked months ahead of time."

"Hey Luke, you're serious about us being back together, right? It wasn't just fun to be acting together there but now the reality -"

"I would drive you to a Church right now and marry you," he stated emphatically. "Why? Are you not sure?"

"Oh I am! But there's something I never had a chance to talk to you about before the break up."

"Okay? We've got time, let's talk."

"My parents bought us a house," she paused immediately to see his reaction.

"Us, you and me?" Was all he could say.

"Who else do you think I mean?"

"You and Rory, I guess. They bought us a house? Where?"

"We can stop by on our way home. I have a key."

"Ooookay," he sighed. "Sorry, I'm a little thrown."

Lorelai shifted in her seat so her body was facing Luke. "You have to understand. This is their way of telling us they accept us as a couple. They need you to know that they respect you by lavishing you with something expensive. They know that you're not one to accept gifts like this, and neither am I normally. But this house is perfect for us."
"Maybe we can buy it from your parents," Luke thought aloud.

"I said you would offer that. My Mom just said that she would put whatever money we gave them into a separate account and it would all come back to us when she died."

Luke snorted, "She has an answer for everything! Now I know where you get it from."

"Wow, we're not back together for a week yet and you're calling me names already?"

"So? Where is this place?"

Lorelai smiled, remembering the whole spiel she got about the house and how it wasn't technically in Stars Hollow. Of course once the house was in Richard's name he spoke to Taylor, made a donation and suddenly the property lines were shifted and the dream house is now officially in Stars Hollow.

"It's only five minutes further from the diner than my house, by car."

"Okay. That's all you're going to tell me?"

"It's got five bedrooms, four and a half bathrooms with a library, a sun porch. It's on three acres with a fishing hole, which I guess is a little pond, and it has stables for horses. But since I have Cletus and Desi at the Inn we can have that as a garage or work shed for you."

"Hmmm," Luke did his classic nod while mulling.

"You should have heard my Mom, it was crazy when I realized not only that she does know me pretty well, but that she respects me too. She said that my house is very nice, it's just too small for us. She said men need their own space and you wouldn't have that at my house. Also, she threw out the idea that if we wanted kids the house was really too small. Oh, and my Dad had all the plumbing updated, replaced the furnace, water heater and the roof, even though the realtor said the roof was in good shape. Dad wanted us to be able to move in and not worry about things like that for a good few years."

"Wow, this is a lot to process."

"It's good that I told you though, right?"

Luke nodded, "Yeah. We can't keep things from each other. That's how I fucked up the last time."

"Really?"

Luke sighed, "You don't have to wonder if I know what went wrong. Liz, Jess, Lane and even April have given me an earful on how I was so insistent that YOU tell me everything about Chris but that I kept Anna and April a secret. I've heard it all, I promise."

"So no more secrets? For real this time?"

Luke turned to make eye contact, "I promise."

"Good, so what were you talking about in the food court today?"

Luke knew that she thought she was trapping him, "Oh, that I want to marry you as soon as possible."

Lorelai broke into a huge smile, her cheeks blushing, "Yeah?"

"Yeah! How long will it take you to plan something?"

"I'll call the Reverend tomorrow," she smiled. Then she had a serious look on her face, "You know, if we're really going to tell each other everything I need to ask you something."

"Okay."

"Do you have a problem with the idea of us living together before we're married?"

He shifted slightly but before he could answer she continued.

"You just didn't after the house was renovated and I thought we renovated it so you could move in. And now you're saying that you want to get married immediately, I'm just wondering, because honestly, I don't want to spend another night away from you. We're back together and I want to be together. Not that I mind getting married sooner rather than later, I'm just hoping that it doesn't mean I won't get to fall asleep next to you until the wedding is over."

"I did feel a little weird, because it's Rory's house too and I didn't want to ever make her uncomfortable. And then when April appeared and Anna -"

"Okay, I get it. But now?"

"I'll start packing tonight," he replied. "Ready for our first pit stop?"

"I'm still good to keep driving, unless you need to stretch your legs. I know you want to get home fast. And I want to get there to show you our wedding present."