Gilmore Girls: More in the Life

Chapter 24

       

Luke and Lorelai sat at their kitchen table, finishing dinner. Luke had been able to think of little else than having a baby with Lorelai. He knew he should mention this to his wife but he was afraid she would think he wasn't happy. And he was. Very happy.

Not wanting a repeat of when he tried to drop hints before, Luke decided a direct approach might be best. "Uh, Lorelai, I think we need to talk about something."

Lorelai had gotten up to start cleaning up but stopped once she heard Luke's tone of voice. "Okay, what's up?" She lowered herself back into the chair she had vacated.

"Uh, this isn't exactly, uh, easy for me to talk about. I just want you to know that I love you and that I am very happy with our marriage and our life. But I know that sometimes, the hope of something more is hard to ignore. You mentioned before that there was something you wanted but, me being me, I kinda shot it down and I don't know that you know—"

"Luke, stop. You're rambling."

Fearing he'd lose his nerve if he didn't get on with it, Luke let his desires tumble from his mouth. "Lorelai, I want to us to have a baby!"

Dumbfounded, Lorelai allowed the words to wash over her. She felt joy rise up deep inside. Smiling, she turned to Luke. "You want to reconsider surrogacy?"

"Well, not exactly—"

"You don't have to sleep with any of the women, Luke!"

Chuckling, Luke nodded. "I finally understand that. No, I don't want to use a surrogate. I want you to carry our baby."

"But—"

"Look, I know that you're not 16 anymore. But I can't help thinking that if we do this, I want our baby to a combination of you and me. I want to look at our son or daughter and try to pick out whose features he or she has. I want to see your eyes or smile. I want our child to have my sunny disposition. I know it may not be easy, but I want our child, not just a child."

Tears sprang into Lorelai's eyes. Whispering, she said, "I want that too."

Luke moved to Lorelai as she stood from her chair. The two embraced, holding each other for many long moments. When they leaned back, they saw their own joy mirrored back in the other's eyes.

*****

Logan made dinner reservations that evening for him and Rory. He had heard great things about Max Downtown in Hartford and wanted to try it. Rory loved food so she didn't care where they ate, as long as they ate.

Once seated at a table in the vibrant restaurant, the newly-reunited couple talked about the pregnancy and about Logan's breakup with Odette.

"Seven weeks, huh?" Logan grinned, looking across the table at Rory.

"Yeah, seven weeks. We are just at the beginning but from what I understand, the rest will fly by."

"I assume you want to live here or somewhat close to here."

Caught off guard, Rory leaned back. "I didn't think about that, to be honest. The last few days have been crazy. I've had a lot on my mind."

"Anything I can help with, Ace?"

"Well, now that you mention it, I have a few questions I was wanting to ask you. About Odette."

Logan nodded his head. "Shoot."

"You said before that you didn't love Odette like a husband should love his wife. Did you love her at all?"

Logan considered the question. "As a friend, perhaps. Prior to the engagement, I enjoyed spending time with her. We'd see movies or visit museums. See shows. Things that someone could easily do with a friend."

"What changed with the engagement?"

"Our families became obsessed with planning the wedding. Odette couldn't seem to talk about anything else. She did a lot of research for the perfect venue, caterer, florist, you name it. She talked all the options to death with me. I began staying late at work because I dreaded coming home. I jumped at any chance for business trips. It was terrible. It felt all wrong to me. I knew it didn't want to marry her but didn't know what to do."

"If I wouldn't have called and told you about the baby, would you have stayed with her?"

"Rory, I knew that I had to come clean with Odette before our wedding. I just didn't know how or when. I was afraid. I didn't want to hurt her but it was unavoidable. Your call about being pregnant not only forced me to make that decision but it also made me realize how empty my life was without you."

Rory knew there was another thing she needed to know before she would allow herself to move forward with a relationship with Logan. Whispering, Rory asked, "If we never ran into each other in Hamburg, would you have stayed with her?"

Logan didn't seem surprised. "Odette asked me this same question and I'll tell you what I told her: I don't know. Running into you definitely caused all the feelings I had for you to resurface. I don't regret it. Not for a second. You are who I am meant to be with, Rory. Not Odette."

Knowing it would have been easy for Logan to assert that he would not have gone through with the wedding if they hadn't bumped into each other in Hamburg, Rory saw that Logan was trying to be completely honest with her. And she respected that. It wasn't necessarily easy to hear his answer but wondering about the "what if's" wouldn't find her any happiness.

Instead, Rory smiled softly at Logan. "I had no idea I'd like her so much."

"That's because you always see the best in people. Even your baby daddy's fiancée." Logan winced. "That doesn't make me sound very good." Logan slowly brought his water glass to his lips.

With that, Rory laughed. "So, like any baby names?"