Author's note: I have recently been re-watching GG from beginning to end and I just got to the ep "I'm OK, You're OK" and there were several things that bugged me about it. First of all, why is Lorelai continually not telling Luke how she feels about him pushing her aside and how is he not noticing that she's not herself? He used to be so intuitive when it came to sensing something was off with her. Second, why was he knocking on the door, when numerous times earlier in the season, he was just letting himself in? Also, what was the deal with the whole duffel bag thing when in season 4, he'd told Lorelai that he had luggage as he'd just gone on a cruise? Then I had another thought, what if Lorelai had lied to Sookie when she asked her if she was pregnant, because she hadn't told Luke yet? For all you April haters out there, I apologize. I actually liked April. I thought she was a very cool character, I just couldn't stand the way Luke handled the situation and the way Lorelai just put up with it. I also had another idea. (I have way too many thoughts in my overcrowded head.) What was Luke doing between the time he was making s'mores for Rory and the time he showed up at the house and what if he got a wake-up call that made him see that he was on the verge of losing Lorelai? I also wondered what Emily's "Oh my God" was about when she walked into Lorelai's bedroom. With all that in mind, I decided I was going to take my first stab at writing a GG story to fill in the blanks and attempt to correct the mess of the remainder of season 6. I've written fan fiction before, just not GG, so if it sucks, don't hesitate to tell me. I can take it.

Disclaimer: Gilmore Girls is the property of Amy Sherman-Palladino and The WB. This work is intended strictly for entertainment purposes and no copyright infringement is intended.

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Lorelai Gilmore emptied the contents of her stomach for the third time that morning and sank against the toilet. She reached up toward the counter and stared in disbelief at the test she'd just taken. There was no doubt about it. She wasn't just late. She was pregnant. She'd suspected it for a couple of weeks now since she hadn't had a period in March, but she just hadn't gotten up the nerve to take the test, afraid of the results. It was weird. She's wanted this for so long, ever since Luke's "What about the kids?" outburst. That was when she realized that he wanted to have kids with her and how she herself wanted him to be the father of her children since he'd always been a father figure to Rory. Now she wasn't so sure that he still wanted that anymore since April had come into his life. She placed her hand lightly over her stomach thinking about everything. She had longed to be the one to give Luke his first child, but that wasn't possible now. Some woman she knew nothing about had beaten her to the punch. She's never met Anna and hated her for robbing her of that. She knew she was being irrational. After all, she'd had a kid with someone else long before she ever met him. She knew she should be happy that she was carrying Luke's baby, but she couldn't shake the nagging feeling that he wouldn't be happy about it. She knew in her heart that he'd be an excellent father, but she wondered if this would be just one more thing to push him over the edge.

She felt tears stinging her eyes when she thought about how and when she was going to tell Luke. She dreaded his reaction with the way he'd been pushing her aside lately. A few months ago, she'd had no doubt about how he'd take the news. He would have been thrilled beyond belief, but since April came into his life and they'd postponed the wedding, she was afraid of what he'd do. Would he push her even further away? Would he bolt? No, she thought, even worse, he'd insist on getting married right away even though he clearly wasn't ready for marriage. His actions the past few months had proven that. He hadn't even moved in yet. She has a brand new huge bedroom that she was sleeping in alone more often than not. Thinking about this, she made her decision. She'd wait a while to tell him. She wanted to marry him more than anything, but she wanted him to want to marry her because he was ready start their life together, not just because he's gotten her pregnant. She'd turned Christopher down many times when she was young because she's known that the only reason he asked was that he thought he had to marry her because of Rory. She didn't want to put that pressure on Luke when she knew he was already under a lot of stress trying to learn how to be a real father to April. She only wished that he'd let her in enough to help. She hated seeing him struggling.

It's my own fault that he's keeping me out of April's life. I kept him out of the situation with Rory when he wanted to help. Maybe this is his way of paying me back for shutting him out. She regretted the thought immediately. She knew Luke wasn't that petty but she kept asking herself why he didn't want her to get to know his daughter the way she'd let him get to know Rory. Of all the guys she'd dated over the years, he was the only one she'd ever really let that close to her kid, other than Max, but that couldn't be helped since he'd been her teacher. The funny thing was that it was Luke that had made her realize that she didn't love Max enough to marry him that day he'd brought the chuppah to her house and they'd had that conversation about marriage. Now here they were years later, engaged, yet they'd stopped talking about marriage.

Lorelai pulled herself up off the bathroom floor, walked toward the bathroom door and heard him on the phone talking to someone. From the sound of the conversation she figured it must be April. She sighed as she realized that whatever they were talking about that made him sound so happy right now was just one more thing that she wouldn't get to share with him. She stepped into the shower and turned the water on when she suddenly remembered that pregnancy test on the counter. She picked it up and shoved it as far down in the trash can as it would go and buried it under some other stuff so he wouldn't find it. She got back in the shower and enjoyed a brief moment of just letting the warm water beat down on her and wishing it could wash away all her fears. She reached for her shampoo and started lathering up her hair. It was then that she noticed the creepy spider lurking in the corner of the shower and let out an ear-piercing scream. She grabbed the soap dish and trapped the spider beneath it as she hastily reached for her robe and ran out of the bathroom to find Luke still on the phone.

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After Lorelai and Rory left the diner, Luke went upstairs and started flipping through the mail that he hadn't yet gotten to. When he saw the invitation, he beamed with pride in his only nephew. He picked up the phone and dialed his number. After two rings, he heard a familiar voice answer.

"Hello? " Jess answered.

"Hey," Luke replied. I just got your invite. This is very cool. I'm so proud of you."

"It's no big deal. I just thought after everything that you've done for me that you might like to know that I didn't turn out to be a total screw-up after all."

"It is a big deal and for the record, I never thought you were a total screw-up."

"Oh, Please! When you found out I wasn't going to graduate from high school, you looked at me like I was the biggest loser in the world."

"That's not true. The truth is I felt like I was the biggest loser in the world because I failed you."

"You didn't fail me. I failed you and myself, but I've finally started to get my life together. A lot of that is because of your influence."

"I appreciate that, Jess. I just can't believe you did it. I mainly just called to tell you that I'm proud of you and let you know that we'll be there to help you celebrate."

"Great! I can't wait to see you and Lorelai."

"Um, " Luke hesitated. "It's not going to be me and Lorelai. It's going to be me and April."

"Are things ok between you and Lorelai?"

"Yeah, they're fine," He assured Jess, though not entirely sure of this himself. "It's just that April's got a field trip with her math team in Philly and I'm chaperoning the thing."

"And Lorelai is ok with you just taking off?"

"Of course she is. In fact, she's actually encouraging it. She knows how important it is to me to be a bigger part of April's life."

"So, she gets along with April then?"

"Well, they haven't really spent that much time together.

"Why not? Doesn't she want to get to know your kid?"

"I'm still trying to get to know April myself."

"So what? Why can't you get to know her together? I mean, in just two short months, Lorelai is going to be your wife and April's stepmother. I think it would be nice if they got to know each other before the wedding."

"Actually, I've been meaning to talk to you about that. We've postponed the wedding."

"Oh. So, when's the new date?"

Luke was silent for a moment.

"Uncle Luke?" Jess said. "Are you still there?"

"Yeah, I'm here."

"Ok, you're still there. So, are you going to answer my question? If I'm going to be your best man, I kinda need to know when the wedding's gonna be."

"I'll let you know when we set a new date."

"So, the wedding's cancelled then?"

"No!" Luke snapped getting irritated with Jess and his questions. "The wedding is not cancelled. Lorelai and I are still engaged. The wedding's just been postponed."

"No, Luke. It's been cancelled. See, when you postpone something, you set a new date. You don't put it off indefinitely. Don't you want to marry Lorelai?"

"How can you even ask me that? Of course I still want to marry her."

"Then, why haven't you set a new date yet?"

"We're just waiting for things to calm down a little. This whole thing with April kind of threw me for a loop."

"And that's got what to do with your engagement to Lorelai?"

"Are you kidding me? This changes everything."

"Only if you let it"

"Funny, that's what your mom said when I told her about this."

"I never thought I'd say this, but Mom's right. This April thing is just a speed bump, not a roadblock."

"You don't know what you're talking about. You don't know what it's like suddenly finding out you've got a twelve year old id you knew nothing about."

"No, but I know you and how you are in relationships. Remind me when you get here next week to give you those books back."

"What the hell are you talking about? What books?"

"I'm talking about those cornball books on love that you gave e a couple of years ago. You clearly need a refresher course because you don't seem to have learned from them."

"Yes I have. Lorelai and I wouldn't be together right now if hadn't learned something from them."

"Ok. So, how does she feel about postponing the wedding?"

"It was her suggestion. She's fine with it. She knows that I need some time to process everything and that I'm trying to get to know my daughter." Luke cringed as he thought back to their conversation that night in Martha's Vineyard. She was so upset that night about having had to cancel June third stuff.

"Right," Jess said, his voice dripping with skepticism. "She probably only suggested it because she thought that's what you wanted."

"Has the thought ever crossed your mind that maybe she wanted to postpone the wedding because she's not ready to get married? I mean, she did bolt on her ex-fiancé right before the wedding."

"You know what? Forget what I said about giving you those books next week."

"Thank you," Luke said thinking he'd won. "I know what I'm doing. I don't need them."

"Yes, you do and you need them now. That's why I'm not going to wait until next week. I'm going to FedEx them to you as soon as we get off the phone. You need to reread them ASAP or you're going to lose Lorelai just like I lost Rory."

"You're crazy! I'm not going to lose Lorelai the way you lost Rory. You lost Rory because you kept her out of the most important parts of your life."

"That's exactly my point, Luke. You're keeping Lorelai away from your kid and that's a pretty important part of your life. Do you honestly think that she's going to just wait around and be happy with being your fiancée forever?"

"What are you saying? You think that Lorelai doesn't want to marry me at all? For God's sake, she's the one who proposed to me."

"What I'm saying is that 'fiancée' is supposed to a temporary title. It's supposed to lead to 'wife.' If you don't do something about that soon, she'll be gone before you even realize it's happened. The worst thing about it is that she'll never tell you how she's feeling because she'll be afraid of putting too much pressure on you, especially considering the last time she pushed you, you dumped her."

Luke pondered what Jess had just said, realizing that he was right. He was too wrapped up in his own little world to realize that he was hurting the person he loved the most. "So, what do you suggest I do?"

"For starters, talk to your fiancée. Suggest a new wedding date to her, or go back to the original one. It doesn't really matter. Just do something to let her know that you're serious about marrying her."

"This would be the time to let my actions speak, like the book said, huh?"

Jess chuckled at his uncle's cluelessness. "Yeah, that'd be a good start. You know, it's too late for me to fix what I screwed up with Rory, but it's not too late for you and Lorelai. After all those years of pining for her, you've finally got her, but if you want to keep you're going to have to do something major."

"I was not pining."

"Oh, Please! You were pining for Lorelai when you were married to Nicole. That's why you were never committed to really moving in with her or building a life with her. Everyone could see it except you. Even Nicole saw it. Why do you think she cheated?"

"Are you saying that it's my fault that my wife cheated? That I deserved that?"

"No, I'm not saying that and I'm not saying that what she did was right, but maybe she was looking for something that you couldn't give her. "

"Maybe it's time I moved the rest of my stuff over to her place. That'd be a major thing that would show her I'm serious, right?"

"Wait a minute! You still haven't moved in with her? The remodeling has been done for months. This is your screw-up with Nicole all over again. You're even dumber than I thought."

"I'm dumb because I haven't moved in yet? Do you have nay idea how much money I spent on the remodeling?"

"Big whoop! You spent all that money to make that place big enough for the two of you to share but it kinda loses the point if you don't share it and you keep on doing the 'your place or mine' bit. Let me again remind you, that that's where you screwed up with Nicole."

"Would you stop bringing up Nicole? That is in the past and has nothing to do with my situation with Lorelai. Besides, I don't even know if Lorelai still wants me to move in anymore. She got all bent out of shape over the fact that I didn't want to go luggage shopping for this trip."

"Of course, she did. She's thinking that you're eventually gonna' need luggage for your honeymoon, which apparently has been cancelled. She's probably thinking that shopping for luggage will get you guys talking about your future plans again."

"This is a big thing and it could affect my visitation with April if Anna finds out I'm living with my fiancée."

"Why are you letting Anna call all the shots here? She did that for years by never telling you that you had a kid. You're her father and you've got rights, rights that Anna deprived you of for twelve years. Why aren't you fighting for them? April came looking for you. That must mean that she was missing something that Anna wasn't giving her. Whether you're living with Lorelai shouldn't matter. She's your kid, too. It's way past time that you stood up for yourself. It's not like you to just lie back and take it."

"You're right," Luke agreed. "What have I been so afraid of? She's my kid too. I guess I've been thinking that if I ask for too much too soon, Anna will just stop my visits with April altogether."

"If it comes to that, that's what custody lawyers were invented for."

"No. I don't want to get lawyers involved and drag April through all that. I just want to be able to be there for my kid."

"I'm just saying that if Anna is going to be uncooperative about you spending time with April that may be the next step to guarantee your rights are protected. If it comes down to it, family courts love it when fathers fight for their rights. Take it from someone whose dad never gave a crap whether I was dead or alive, it's a good thing that you want to be a part of April's life. I'm sure Rory would feel the same way considering her dad wasn't much better."

"You don't think that I'm just like Jimmy and Christopher? I mean, I missed out on the first twelve years of April's life. Doesn't that make me a deadbeat dad too?"

"No. You didn't know you even had a kid, but as soon as you did, you made an effort to be involved in her life. My dad and Rory's dad both knew they had kids and chose not to give a crap about it."

"I guess," Luke replied, but still not sure.

"Trust me. Listen, I need to get going, but think about what I said about everything and for crying out loud, make things right with Lorelai."

"I will. Thanks, Kid."

Luke hung up the phone and sat down thinking about everything that Jess had said. Staring at his closet with most of his clothes still in it, he realized that he'd been right. He and Lorelai were in a committed relationship. It was time to show her that he was still all in. He stood up and started yanking stuff out of the closet preparing to transport it over to Lorelai's house. Correction, our house, he thought. That was the plan all along. As he finished emptying his closet, it occurred to him that he has another way of showing Lorelai that he was serious.

Luke walked over to the safe, opened it and pulled out the ring box that had been sitting in there for months. He opened the box and stared the wedding bands that he'd ordered back in October before they'd even set a wedding date. He'd been so excited about marrying the woman he loved, he acted a little impulsively at the time, but he'd never shown them to her. He meant to, but the time was never right. She'd been upset after Rory's birthday party, then they'd had that huge fight about Christopher calling, then he'd found out about April and the rings had sat in the safe forgotten until now. He took his ring out of the box and slid it on his finger. He knew it was supposed to be some kind of bad luck to wear your wedding ring before you were actually married, but he just wanted to see how it felt. He'd never worn one when he was married to Nicole. He looked down at his left hand and thought he could get used to seeing that ring sitting there. He made a fist and released it, thinking he could definitely get used to the feel of it. He took it off, put it back in the box and picked up its mate, trying to imagine it on Lorelai's finger right next to her perfect engagement ring, a symbol that she belonged to him. He smiled. He was starting to like the thought. He put her ring back in the box and slipped the box in his pocket.

He closed the safe and locked it, then walked over to the bed where he'd dumped the clothes from the closet. He took a look around the place and realized that he'd need some boxes to pack up the rest of his stuff, but for now, moving his clothing and a few persona l items would have to be enough until he could really take the time to pack up the rest of the place. Lorelai would get what he was trying to say with the gesture. He hoped.

TBC