"Your father?" Lorelai asked a little confused. Was this girl confused? She must be mistaken, she couldn't possibly be...

Just then, Luke ran out from the back room, but he stopped when he saw Lorelai talking to April. Lorelai looked up at him. It was there. The truth. Right there in his eyes. She looked into them, and there it was. The fear and apologetic look in the depths of his blue eyes confirmed it all.

"My biological father. Not really sure what to call him, it's kind of new. Not the biological part, that was years ago. I wonder if brown rice would work too? Brown might be more decorative, or it might backfire. People might think there're bugs in the salt. I should put some brown rice in one of the shakers and use it as a control group against the other ones."

Lorelai looked at Luke. Fear in her own eyes. As well as absolute, complete shock. She stood there, unable to believe what she was hearing. How? How could it be? How could he have a daughter? How could he have a daughter and not tell her?

"I thought you couldn't get away..." he said.

"I got away." she barely managed to say. It took a great deal to regain her speech.

"She said she wasn't a strangler." April said.

"Uh, you want to go outside and-"

"Uh-huh." she cut him off and walked outside.

"April, I'll be right back, okay?"

"Okay." April said and nodded.

Luke walked outside to find Lorelai with her arms crossed and staring out at the town square.

"So she's -"

"Yeah." Luke cut in.

"Wow." was all she could say.

"I know."

"That's -"

"My daughter." he cut in again.

"I don't believe it."

"I still have trouble believing it."

"You have a -"

"Yeah."

"Right. And what is she, twelve?"

"Yeah. Twelve."

"Twelve years. Twelve years! This is for sure?"

"It's for sure."

"When'd you find out?"

"I just found out."

"Just? When just? She's in there filling salt shakers! It doesn't feel that new to me!"

"Two months ago."

Two months! He's known for two months! she screamed in anger and shock inside her head.

"Two months! That's a hell of a long time to go without telling me!" she said angrily.

"I know, I should have told you."

"She's cute." she said, looking away.

"Lorelai, I'm sorry I didn't tell you. I'm sorry. It's all just a blur of stuff happening. I mean, she just came into the diner two months ago, no warning, talking about a science fair and how I may be her father and she pulled my hair out and DNA tested it, and then I wanted to forget the whole thing but I went to the fair and found out the truth. And we were at the park and she wanted to come here. And I called you today, wanting a moment to talk about it, but you were busy and so I put it off again and here we are."

"Here we are."

"It's stupid. I'm stupid."

"Look, I need to digest this, and you have to get back inside, so, uh, I'm just going to go someplace where I can digest this and we will just talk more later, okay?" she said. She needed to get away. Tears were welling in her eyes, threatening to spill over. She didn't want to cry. Not now, not in front of Luke.

"Sure. Whenever you want."

"Okay." she said, glancing back at the diner.

"I'm sorry."

Lorelai nodded, wrapped her coat tightly around her, and walked away. Luke watched her go, feeling bad and angry at himself for not telling her sooner. She was his fiance and she had a right to know. He walked back into the diner, knowing April was waiting for him.

oOoOo

It was now about two months later. She still wasn't over the shock. And her heart was filled with constant pain. The pain and fear that she would never marry Luke. The pain of not yet having had met April properly. It seemed that Luke wasn't ready for her to meet her yet. And that hurt.

She understood that he wanted to get to know her first. But it seemed like the whole town knew her already. Lane had said she would play board games with her all the time. Why had Luke let everyone else get to know her before his own fiance did? She was going to be her stepmother after all. She needed to develop a relationship with her before that happened. And she wanted April to like her. But that wasn't possible if she wasn't capable of knowing her.

She was finally ready. After all her many failed relationships, she was finally ready to settle down. To have the whole package. But would she get that package? That was the question that had sat floating in the front of her mind for the past two months. No matter how hard she tried to erase it, it wouldn't go away.

She hated that she did that. She hated that she was questioning Luke on their relationship. But it seemed that the more he was around April, the less he was around her. They used to spend a lot of time together. Now, it was different. April comes between seven and eight. She is to avoid the diner until then. Then she'd sometimes come in for a cup of coffee, but would then leave. And she'd go home, climb in bed, and feel Luke climb in next to her hours later.

Was it just her? Was she just so upset and worried about what would happen to them that it just seemed like things had changed, when maybe they actually hadn't? She didn't want to screw this up. Luke was the one, and she knew it. He'd always been the one. She had just been too blind to see that. It took her eight years to live up to the feelings she had buried deep inside her.

But, she couldn't do this. She wasn't old, but she wasn't that young either. She wanted to get married and have kids. But if she were going to have kids like Luke wanted, she couldn't exactly wait that long to do it. The older you get, the more dangerous it gets to have a baby. But did Luke even want kids anymore now that he has a daughter?

So many questions she had. And she wouldn't dare ask them to Luke. She had to act like everything was fine. She would get up in the morning and plaster a fake smile on her face for the day and then the thoughts would come back to her when she arrived home. She couldn't go on day after day having the same horrible thoughts. It was slowly eating her up. And if she didn't put a stop to it, she would eventually break down.

Her and Luke hadn't had a serious discussion in a long time. They needed to talk about so many things. When would he be ready for the wedding? How was April going to fit into all of this? Would he get joint custody? Would she be living with them? And then they had to re-plan the whole wedding. Seeing as the only thing left from the first attempt was her dress.

She decided she would just forget about it. She'd let some time pass and see what happened.

oOoOo

Two more months. That's how much time she had let pass by. Today, she was very upset. She was trying her hardest to hide it, but she felt terrible inside. It took a great deal of strength not to cry.

Sookie had been watching her closely. She had never seen her best friend this quiet before. But she knew the reason behind that. She watched Lorelai run about the Inn, doing work that wasn't hers. She saw her doing everything she could to keep herself busy. She had even skipped lunch. Lorelai never skips a meal.

She knew she should talk to her. Try to comfort her. She knew that she was only doing all of this so as not to have a break down in front of everyone. But today of all days, it was expected for her to act like this. Sookie left the confines of her kitchen and went to find her. She found her in room nine making the bed and tidying up. She walked over to her, took the bedsheets from her and placed them on the bed, and sat her down.

"Lorelai, maybe you should go home." she told her gently.

"Why?"

Sookie could hear the pain she was trying hard to hide in her voice. It hurt to see her like this. She looked at her sadly. She knew that she couldn't take this pain away. Nobody could. Not even Rory.

"We both know why Lorelai. Honey, you can't keep doing this to yourself. It's not like you to be this way. I've never seen you this way."

Lorelai sat there, letting the words Sookie just told her sink in.

"You're right.." she said.

"What?"

"You're right. I can't keep doing this to myself."

"No, you can't. Now just go home and rel-"

"I have to end it.." Lorelai said softly and sadly.

"What? End what?" Sookie asked confused.

"I have to go." she said and got up from the bed and walked out of the room.

o

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oOo

oO

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A/N: Here it is! My third fic! A lot more dramatic and sad, but I needed to write it. I really hope you like it. I would love to thank my beta Lynn for helping me out! If it weren't for her help and opinion, I might not have posted this fic. So everyone be sure to appreciate her! Please review! I love them! They are what keep me going, as well as just about every author on here. lol