383A/N: Finally the first chapter of the sequel! This story starts 10 weeks after where it doesn't make any sense ended. The subject stays about the same. It's about Luke and Lorelai and their family. Therefore called 'The whole package.' Thanks to all of you who reviewed the epilogue and every other chapter of it doesn't make any sense. I hope you will love this story as much as you did that one! And thanks to LorelaiAkaCoffeeAddict for proofreading.
Chapter 1 Lost time
Lorelai walked into the diner after a long day at the Inn. Sookie had called in sick that morning so she had to find a replacement. Manny was on vacation and Luke couldn't leave the diner because he had the same problem. Lane had a gig in San Francisco and was gone for a week and Caesar called in sick as well. He needed Jake to keep the place running so it was impossible to leave. It took her 3 hours to find someone to replace Sookie. If that wasn't enough already, Michel kept bugging her all day and Lucan was fuzzy because he was teething. She had a lot of paperwork waiting for her, but couldn't get to doing it. Since it had to get out before 9 the following morning, she had just enough time to grab some dinner and drop Lucan off before going back to get the paperwork done.
"Luke." She called when the bell jingled above her head.
"Take a seat I'll be with you soon." He said as he walked past her with a few plates in his hands.
Lorelai walked to the counter and sat down, the stroller next to her.
"Hey." Luke said, leaning in over the counter to kiss her almost 5 minutes later.
"Hey." She replied tiredly.
"Long day?"
"Yep, and it's not over yet."
"How come?" He turned around to pour her a cup of coffee.
"I have some paperwork that needs to be done before tomorrow and didn't get to doing it today. Sookie called in sick, Manny's on vacation; you were too busy yourself so it took me over 3 hours to find someone to replace her. Michel was Michel and Lucan is teething. I have just enough time for some dinner and then I'm leaving your son with you to go back to the Inn for the paperwork."
"Not that I don't want to look after Lucan, but why don't you take the paperwork home?"
"I get distracted easier at home, at the Inn I'll lock myself in my office and hopefully by midnight it's all done."
"So, dinner then, huh?"
"Please."
"The usual?"
"Do you have to ask?"
"Guess not." Luke smiled and turned around to turn in the order.
When Lorelai still wasn't home around eleven Luke started to worry. He tried calling her at the Inn, but all he got was the night manager. "Hey this is Luke, is Lorelai there?"
"I haven't seen her in a while. I thought she went home already."
"She's not here."
"I would look for her, but she told me specifically not to disturb her, and the last time I did…"
"Yeah yeah, I remember."
"I'll tell her you called if I see her."
"Yeah thanks." Luke ended the call and tried calling Lorelai's cell. All he got was the voicemail. He left her a message, put the phone on the table and sat down on the couch. After 10 more minutes he got worried again so he went upstairs, got Lucan out of his bed and put him in the car seat. He arrived at the Inn only a few minutes later and saw Lorelai's car still in the parking lot. Inside the night manager told him he still hadn't seen Lorelai. "Thanks." Luke said as he walked towards Lorelai's office.
When he opened the door he saw her sleeping on her desk. He smiled as he put Lucan and the car seat on the floor and walked towards his wife. Carefully he placed a kiss on her forehead and shook her arm. "Lorelai, wake up."
"Uh… let me sleep."
"Come on, you have to go home."
"Huh." Slowly she opened her eyes, oblivious to where she was. "Where am I?"
"The Inn. You fell asleep doing paperwork."
"Oh no, I have to get this done. I just closed my eyes for 2 seconds because they were so tired,
I must have fallen asleep. I can't come, I have to stay here, I have to get this done."
"No you don't."
"Luke I have too." She started digging through her papers.
He took her hand in his to stop her. "There's another day tomorrow. If you'll do it now, there's a big change you start making mistakes and have to do it all over again tomorrow. Just take it home with you so you can work silently at home tomorrow. I'm taking Lucan with me to the diner so you can work in peace."
"But it's due before nine tomorrow."
"To bad, your accountant has to wait a little longer. You can call him first thing tomorrow but right now we're taking you to bed."
"But…."
"No buts. I'm taking you home. You'll see that the paperwork will go much better when you're not so tired tomorrow. Right now you have to sleep."
She smiled slightly. That would be nice."
Lorelai put all her papers in a briefcase when Luke went to get her coat. After helping her in the coat, he picked up Lucan's car seat and walked outside, saying goodbye to the night manager. "Do you mind if we leave the truck here? I don't feel like driving."
"Sure. I can pick it up tomorrow."
"Thanks."
Luke walked to the backseat of Lorelai's car to put the car seat in. Lorelai walked to the passenger side and sat down. For the first time that day she felt relaxed, and she was glad that Luke came to find her. The last few weeks had been crazy. She went back to work the day after they came back from London. Luke told her to stay home and get some rest because of the jetlag, but she figured they could use her help. The entire summer stayed the same. Busy for both her and Luke. Even with the extra help it was hard to get all the work done in time, that's why she was far behind on her paperwork. Her accountant needed it first thing in the morning.
Lost in her thoughts Lorelai didn't realize how Luke sat down next to her and started driving. She also didn't realize that Luke parked the car on their driveway a few minutes later. He had to shake her out of her thoughts before she realized they were home. She stepped out of the car without saying anything. They walked upstairs immediately, Lorelai into their bedroom to change and Luke into Lucan's bedroom to get him back to bed. Fortunately he was still asleep.
He found Lorelai already in bed a few minutes later. "Hey."
She looked up. "Hey."
"You look tired. Try to get some sleep. I'll be right back. Just have to brush my teeth."
She nodded and when Luke came back after brushing his teeth, she was already asleep.
-xxxx-
Lorelai woke up the same time Luke did the following morning. "Hey go back to sleep." He kissed her forehead.
"But I have too much work to do. I can still get this done before nine if I start now."
"You're exhausted, go back to sleep. Just sleep for another few hours and start the paperwork at a decent hour."
"Then why are you awake?"
"You know I have to, but you don't. I'm going to open the diner and come by here around the time Lucan usually wakes up with breakfast. Jake can handle the diner alone for a little while. Okay?"
She nodded and turned around, snuggling into her pillow. Before Luke had the change to leave the room, she was asleep again. He smiled as he left the room to check up on Lucan. He was still asleep.
After taking a shower and getting dressed he went downstairs to eat some breakfast. After that he walked towards the diner since his truck was still at the Inn. They took Lorelai's car home last night. At the diner the light from the answering machine was flickering. He pressed the button to listen to the message. "Hey Luke, this is Rory. I guess I just missed you. Anyway, I wanted to ask if this thing is still happening. Just give me a call early tomorrow. Well not too early because then I'd be still sleeping. I have my first class at 8.30 so call a little before that."
Checking his watch he saw it was almost 5.30, to early to call Rory so he started preparing the diner for the day.
Luke walked back into the house at 6.45. Jake came in around 6.30 and it looked like the diner would stay calm for a while. Jake promised to call if there were any changes, but also promised Luke he could handle it for a while.
Lorelai was still asleep when he walked into their bedroom. He decided to let her sleep and to give Lucan a bath first. Walking into his son's room, he saw the little boy wide awake. He started smiling immediately when he saw his father. "Hey buddy, you're awake already?"
Lucan reached out his arms pointing for his father to pick him up. "In a second okay? I'm going to get your bath ready first." He gave the baby a toy and walked into the bathroom to fill the bathtub and carried it back into Lucan's room. He took clean clothes, a diaper and a towel out of his dresser and put it on the changing table. Then he took the baby out of his bed and laid him on the changing table. "Let's get you out of these clothes huh." Lucan smiled in response.
Luke undressed his son and carried him into the bath. The baby enjoyed the feeling of the water on his skin as Luke enjoyed watching his son. He kept the baby extra long in the water before taking him out to dress him. They went downstairs together and Luke put his son in the playpen while he went into the kitchen to prepare the porridge in a bottle. Lucan was eating permanent food now twice a day. Some fruit around 10.30 a.m. and for dinner he ate vegetables and potatoes. When they started giving him this kind of food, Lorelai told Luke they could easily buy it in the grocery store, he however didn't want to hear about it, he wanted to cook the food himself. He cooked food at the diner and put it in little jars so that when Lorelai had Lucan during the day, she didn't have to go through any trouble.
While Luke was feeding the baby, Lorelai woke up. When she heard Luke's voice downstairs she walked downstairs before taking a shower. She smiled when she saw her two men. Lucan was drinking eagerly while Luke was talking to their son. He was always telling him stories, and she loved watching them when Luke didn't know she was. She sat down on the stairs and enjoyed the view, her paperwork totally forgotten.
When the bottle was empty, Luke put it on the table. He lifted Lucan to his chest and the little boy immediately saw his mom and started laughing. Lorelai put her finger on her lips trying to tell the baby he had to be quiet, but Luke turned around to see what his son was seeing. "Hey." He smiled when he saw his wife.
"Hey." Lorelai stood up and sat down next to Luke.
"How long have you been up?"
"Not so long." But her smile gave her away.
"So you were watching us again?"
"You know how much I love watching you."
He just shook his head. "You slept well after I left?"
"Yeah, I feel much better now."
"Good. Well Lucan's all done so I guess we're going to the diner now. There's breakfast for you in the kitchen."
"That's great, thanks."
He handed her the baby so he could get his jacket and the stroller. Lorelai pulled her son up and kissed his nose. "You're going with your daddy today okay? I'm sure you like it because you really like your daddy. Mommy's going to stay here and finish her work and when she's done, she'll come to the diner to see you okay?"
The baby smiled in response. "I'm sure he loves it, but he wants you to take it easy." Luke was standing next to her.
"I will, okay. Now go to your daddy." She kissed Lucan once more before handing him to Luke. "There you go."
"Thanks." He placed Lucan in the stroller, then took Lorelai's hands in his and pulled her off the couch into his arms. He put his arms around her waist as he kissed her. "I mean it okay, take it easy. Just call Michel that you won't come in today. Then after you're done with your work, maybe you can do something fun for yourself, go shopping or something."
"I don't have time for that. Besides that paperwork there are enough other things that need to be done. And I really need to check up on the Inn."
"Lorelai." Luke sighed.
"What do you want to do, cut the phone line and lock me inside the house?"
"That might be a great idea."
"But then I wouldn't be able to go shopping."
"You could have a movie marathon."
"No fun by myself."
"You could call Rory."
"Nah, she has school and Warren. They just started this week so she can't take an afternoon off. And I'm sure she wants to show Warren all around New Haven when she has the time and introduce him to all her friends."
"She probably did that already by now."
"Maybe, but she spent weeks here, I'm sure she wants some time for herself. So that leaves me to going to work."
"You could always go see Sookie, see how she's doing. Michel can handle the inn, together with Claire."
"Luke, don't you have to leave?"
"I do, I just want to make sure that you're okay. You were really tired the last few days. It's just work, and I know you think you can't be missing; the Inn is fine without you for a day. I think you should take it easy."
"I'll think about it okay?"
"Fine. I'm out of here then." He kissed her once go and then let her go. "See you later."
"Bye."
-xxxxx-
Lorelai finished her paperwork a little before 10. Luke was right last night when he told her that she would be able to focus more, once she wasn't as tired. She'd called her accountant and he promised to pick up the papers in a little while at the diner so she could go over there for a cup of coffee. She put on her jacket and headed outside. Since it was a beautiful day she decided to walk. The town was busy as always. Miss Patty and Babette were sharing the latest gossip on a street corner, Taylor was yelling at some school boys, Kirk was working as a window washer and Grant was singing a song while playing his guitar, close to the diner. With a big smile Lorelai past everybody, saying hello as she did.
When she entered the diner, Luke looked up with a smile. "Hey."
She walked towards the counter and leaned forward to kiss Luke. Then she walked to the playpen where Lucan was playing. She smiled at her son, but decided not to interrupt him. After watching him for a few minutes, she went back to the counter and asked for a cup of coffee.
With a sigh Luke turned around and poured her a cup.
"Thanks hon, you're the best."
"Yeah yeah, I know."
"You're a little full of yourself aren't you?"
"Look who's talking."
She just stuck out her tongue.
"Did you finish the paperwork?"
"Yep, the accountant will pick it up here within a few minutes."
"I see. And what are you going to do with the rest of your day?"
"Checking up on the inn, yell at Michel for a little while, you know, the usual."
"I thought we decided on you staying home today?"
"Don't remember such a thing. You must have been dreaming."
"Lorelai, you have to take it easy. You've been working hard ever since we came home from London. You didn't even stay home one day to get over that jetlag. It's time you start taking it easy. I thought you hired Claire so we could spend some more time together, but that didn't happen. We didn't even go to the cabin before Rory started school."
"I told you I'd think about it. And I've decided to go anyway. I know we never got to going to the cabin, and I'm really sorry, but I wasn't the only one that was busy. With the pressure of the paperwork gone, maybe I can take the day off tomorrow, but since you have to cover for Caesar and Lane, that won't really work."
"That I can't have a day off doesn't mean you can't. I want you to take some time to yourself, just relax in and a while."
"I know, but I figured it'd be nicer to spend that time together, you know? But if it makes you feel better, I'm not going to the Inn for long. I want to check up on Sookie and after that I'll come here to help you and Jake."
"You don't have to do that."
She raised her hand to silence him, although it wasn't the gesture that kept him from saying something, but the fact that the accountant just walked in.
After the accountant left, Lorelai said goodbye to Luke and went to the Inn. "Where have you been?" Michel asked with his annoying French accent the moment she walked into the lobby.
"I worked at home this morning Michel. I told you that. Is everything okay around here?"
"No, everything falls apart when you are not around."
"Right. How's Sookie's replacement doing today?"
"Don't know. Sookie sent him home when she came in this morning."
"Sookie's here?"
"Didn't I just say that?"
"Whatever." She turned around and walked into the kitchen where she saw her friend cutting some vegetables. "What are you doing here?"
"What does it look like?"
"I thought you were sick."
"Oh, that was just yesterday. I feel much better now and I hated that someone else was running my kitchen."
"Are you really sure you feel good because I don't want to get sued because people got sick from your food."
"Hey." Sookie looked up upset.
"Okay okay I get it, you're fine. I'm glad. Hey, I'm in my office, call me if you need anything okay?"
"Okay. Bye sweetie."
In her office Lorelai decided to give her mother a call. That's the only thing she got to doing regularly after coming back from London. She tried calling at least twice a week and went to Friday night dinner every two weeks. This was one of the weeks they didn't have to go. Emily protested at this deal at first, but she knew how busy Lorelai was. Plus, Rory and Warren were still going every week, and usually took Lucan with them. This was meant to give Luke and Lorelai some time alone, but that didn't happen so far.
Emily picked up herself after the third ring. "Hello."
"Hey mom. How are you doing?"
"Fine. How are you?"
"Busy. But the summer is almost over so I hope the fall will be less busy."
"Is Rory bringing Lucan to Friday night dinner tomorrow?"
"I'm not sure, I haven't talked to her yet, but I will ask when I do okay?"
"That would be nice."
"He's trying to turn around now. It won't be long before he will."
"He's growing up so fast."
"I know. But that's nice. He teaches himself new things every day, and that's great to see. If I wasn't so busy I could sit down all day, just watching him."
"You should then. You have to take some time for yourself and your son. You've been very busy lately."
"I know, that's what Luke told me. But taking off a day when he's working, just isn't that much fun."
"Even if you can spend the time with your son? Or your daughter? She really missed you this summer."
"She told you that?"
"Yes she did. She came here Monday after school to tell me how things were going. Warren had to go to some introduction meeting and she had some time left. She thought about going to see you, but when she called you, you told her how busy you were."
"She didn't ask if I wanted to hang out. I could have."
"She didn't want to disturb you Lorelai. You know how she is. Anyway, she came here instead and told me how much she missed you. She thought that after spending a school year away from you, you would hang out together during the summer."
"But I thought that she wanted to spend the summer with Warren. I didn't want to force myself on her, and since the Inn was busy anyway, I thought that was a good excuse."
"You girls should talk more often."
"Look who's talking." Lorelai smiled.
"I know that we haven't talked for a very long time, but I think we're doing okay now, right?"
"We are. I'm glad we realized that it's nice to talk once in a while. I really like our conversations mom."
"I'm glad. Now I have to go take my medicine and see what your father is doing. Make sure I see that grandson of mine at dinner tomorrow night."
"Will do. Bye mom."
"Bye Lorelai."
After laying down the phone, Lorelai thought about her mother's words. She assumed Rory wanted to spent all her time with Warren, and never even thought that wouldn't be true. Because she didn't want to feel sad she made sure she kept herself busy at work. Luke had been worried about her but because she felt like nothing could change the situation, she decided to ignore it.
She felt stupid now for throwing herself into all the work. Truth was they didn't need her all the time. They could have done perfectly fine without her. She gave both Claire and Michel more days off than necessary, and she didn't take any herself. It wasn't like she didn't spent any time with Rory. They went shopping twice, maybe three times, once with Warren, and they had one movie night when Luke had taken Warren to a ballgame. And Rory helped out at the inn once or twice a week, but even then they didn't get to hang out together, except for some talking while working.
She put her jacket on and walked to the kitchen. "Sookie, I'm heading out of here. I'm taking tomorrow off so I won't be here again until Monday. Michel and Claire should be fine together, and if not, just give me a call okay?"
"Okay. Have a great time sweetie."
"You too hon. I'm glad you're feeling better. I'm sorry for doubting that and your cooking skills."
"Don't worry about it. Now go."
She said goodbye to Michel who complained as expected, and to Claire who promised that things would go perfectly fine. Lorelai was glad that she hired her, and knew that after the good summer, she'd be able to keep her for a while.
-xxxxx-
Luke looked up when he saw Lorelai walk in, a confused look on his face. "Hey, you're back early."
"Can we talk upstairs?"
"Uh…sure." He turned around to Jake. "I'm going upstairs for a while. Call me if you need anything."
Then he followed Lorelai who was heading upstairs already.
"What's wrong?" He asked, when he closed the door of the apartment behind him.
"I'm an idiot."
"What?"
"I'm an idiot. The inn was busy but they could have done without me. I know I have the most amazing staff and that the inn runs fine when I'm not around. I spent the whole summer there, thinking that Rory wanted to spend all her time with Warren before going back to school, and I didn't want to be home alone, hanging in front of the TV while you were working and she was having fun."
"That's stupid. She wanted to spend time with you. Of course she wanted to hang out with Warren and her friends, but she wanted you too Lorelai. She called me several times asking me if I could talk you into taking some time off. She didn't want to make you feel guilty because of saying no, so she never asked herself and therefore helped you out at the inn. Hoping you got through all the work faster so the two of you could hang out. Why didn't you tell me about this before? The summer is over, now it's too late to change anything."
"I know." She sat down on the couch, holding her head in her hands.
He sat down next to her and put an arm around her. "Hey. It's okay. There still are the weekends. I know that now school has started she won't be able to come home every weekend, but I'm sure that she tries to be here as much as possible, you can go shopping or have movie nights, I'll keep Warren busy, and I'm sure he starts making his own friends now he started school."
"But what about us? We could have spent some time together as well. I know you gave Caesar some time off after we came back, but once he was back you had enough people to take some time off."
"What's done is done. All we can do now is make sure it won't happen again."
Lorelai looked up. "I have the rest of the day off, so I guess I'm taking Lucan home with me and call Rory by the time she's off."
Luke looked at his watch. "It's 12.30. Her last class for today ended at 12.00 so you can call her now."
"How do you know?"
"I talked to her this morning. We've been planning this thing for a few days now."
"What kind of thing?"
"You'll see. Just make sure that you take tomorrow off as well."
"I already did, same goes for the weekend. I told Sookie I won't be in again until Monday."
"Good. You're going home now?"
"Not before you tell me what we're going to do."
"I'm not telling you. Just go home and call Rory."
"But" She saw his look so decided not to finish the sentence. "Okay. Is Lucan in here?" She stood up to look in the crib.
"Yeah, he's asleep, you can leave him here."
"I'd really like to take him home. I want to spend time with him as well."
"Sure. Nothing can wake him up anyway."
"Wonder where he got that." Lorelai said with a big smile
"Hey, keep that up and I tell Jake to cancel your lunch."
"When did you give him the order."
"Right before you came in. I was planning on bringing it to you."
"Oh… so I messed up a plan?"
"This is much better. Now you go get Lucan, then I'll put your lunch in a take-out bag."
Lorelai walked into the house 15 minutes later, Lucan was still asleep, as expected. She decided to leave him in the stroller. She picked up the phone to call Rory. She dialed the number while she was walking towards the couch and Rory picked up by the time she sat down.
"Mom?"
"Yes it's me."
"Why are you home? It's not even 1 o clock."
"I decided to take the afternoon off. I've been working a lot lately, and I thought it was time to slow down."
"It is. It really is."
"Rory, I'm sorry." Lorelai reached to the table to get her lunch out of the take-out bag.
"For what?" Curious, because she didn't think her mother did something wrong.
"For not spending time with you this summer. For working all the time."
"Oh mom, it's okay. I understand that you were busy. It really doesn't matter."
"But it does. I've been keeping myself busy so I didn't have to spent time with you."
"I don't understand."
"I thought you wanted to spend the summer with Warren, and with your friends. I didn't want you to feel obligated to hang out with me so I worked instead. Plus, you never asked so I figured you liked the way things were going."
"Oh mom, I didn't want you to feel guilty so I never asked you if you wanted to hang out with me."
"We're stupid, the both of us. And now the summer is gone. You're back at Yale and you have homework again, and that internship coming up soon. You won't have the time to hang out anymore." She sounded sad.
"There's always the weekends right?"
"The ones I don't have to work. We're stupid, the both of us."
"How about hanging out now? I have not that much homework so it can wait until after dinner. We can go shopping if you want?"
"How about just hanging out and have a movie marathon. You can pick?"
"Sounds perfect. I'll be there in about 30 minutes okay?"
"See you then." Lorelai hung up with a smile. She picked up her lunch and started eating. By the time she was done, Lucan woke up. She picked him out of his stroller and went upstairs to get a blanket. Back downstairs she put the blanket on the floor and laid down, Lucan next to her. Until Rory came she played with her son.
Rory smiled when she walked into the house, and found her mother and brother on the floor, playing with a rattle. Lorelai was talking to the baby, and he was smiling. Without making any noise if not to disturb her mother, she walked to the desk to get a photo camera. Quietly she walked a little towards her mother, but not to far otherwise she would know Rory was there. She used the camera's zoom function to get the perfect picture. It wasn't until the flash went off, Lorelai noticed her daughter.
Lorelai sat up. "Hey, you scared me."
"Sorry. But you'll forgive me when you see the picture." Rory walked towards her mother and handed her the camera. She used the digital so Lorelai could see the picture immediately.
"Wow, that's a great picture. Thanks!"
"You're welcome. So you forgive me?"
"Only once. Next time…"
Rory leaned into hug her mother. "I missed you."
"I missed you too. From now on we're going to tell each other exactly how we feel without assuming how the other feels, okay?"
"Deal."
"I messed up what was supposed to be an amazing summer, because we were finally together."
"Nothing we can do about that anymore. Let's forget about that and think about what to do next. I've been thinking about those movies and I was thinking that first we can watch Willie Wonka, for good old time, then we can watch When Harry met Sally and I've thought about a few other movies we've seen at least a hundred times already."
"Sounds good to me." Lorelai jumped up to get the movies while Rory gave her brother a kiss and handed him the rattle he had dropped again.
Luke walked into the house around 7.30. He decided to close the diner early and called Caesar to make sure he was coming back in tomorrow, like he promised earlier that day. Luke was happy to find out he was and told Caesar that he and Jake were on their own until Monday. He smiled when he saw Lorelai and Rory on the couch, mocking some movie. Lucan was in Rory's lap, watching the TV screen as well. This is what he'd imagined the summer to be, unfortunately it didn't turn out that way. But he had a feeling that from now on things would change, starting this weekend.