Chapter 1 (Prologue)

„Hey everyone, it’s me, Lorelai. You’re probably wondering what is happening right now. Well, let me tell you.
I heard that you all read about the story of my life. Of how I first came to Stars Hollow, found work and a home and most important how I met Luke and fell in love with him.
But let me tell you, so much has happened since then. I’m 28 now and so much has changed in the last eight years. And you know what, I’m so happy to tell you all of it.

Okay… remember how the story ended eight years ago? With me living in my new house, finally talking again. My life was pretty normal from then on.
I went to work every day. Luke and I went on dates and I just enjoyed my new life.

After a few weeks Luke pretty much lived with me. He came over every night and brought me dinner. We usually watched a movie and Luke slept over almost every night. It was so weird for me at first to have a guy sleeping next to me every night and the first few nights I had the urge to run to the inn and curl up in my old bed in the shed but then Luke turned around in his sleep and put his arm around me, pulling me closer. And every time he did that I totally relaxed.

Mia shocked me around half a year later. She told me that, with her new grandchild, she didn’t want to work so much anymore and she offered me the job as the manager of the independence inn. When I got home that night I was so unbelievably happy that I spontaneously asked Luke to move in with me for real.

You should have seen his face… the poor guy was totally shocked. We discussed it a lot that night but in the end he agreed. The next night we celebrated together wit Mia and Sookie. That was probably around the time Sookie and I started to dream about opening our own inn. We knew that we weren’t ready for it back then but at least we had a dream. Living with Luke completely surprised me. I thought it would be totally weird but it was just so normal. It felt right. It felt even more like home. And Luke was so different at home than outside or at the diner. At the diner he was the gruff man in flannel but at home he was the perfect boyfriend. Loving and caring.
We lived together like that for around 3 years. The town’s people were nagging us about when we would get married. One day around two years later they even had a town meeting to vote if Luke and I should get married. I swear, I was at a loss of words that night and that’s a thing that had never happened since I started talking again. I usually thing the crazy antics of the town’s people are funny but that night I thought they were nuts! But while I couldn’t move or talk at all Luke completely lost it. He was ranting on and on about how it is his and my decision when and if we do what in our relationship and they should just butt out. I really thought he would hit one of them. He was so angry. But I think me saying absolutely nothing at the meeting freaked him out even more. When we were lying in bed that night he pulled me closer and softly started talking about how I shouldn’t feel pressured by the town. That he is not expecting anything from me. That we’d figure out our relationship in our own time. That I just shouldn’t worry about anything that happened. But I think what surprised him the most was when I said “You know babe, I expect you to propose some day”. I still remember is surprised face like it was yesterday and how it turned into a smile after he processed the news.

But what I didn’t know was that he’d propose so soon. Just a few weeks after that meeting I got a call from Mia. She said that she is at the inn and she needed to talk to me about something. It was already late so I had to change into some normal clothes again and walked over to the inn. But what I saw when I got there took my breath away. First I saw just one long-stemmed rose on the ground in front of me but when I picked it up I saw some more which were leading me the way to the back of the inn. And there he was. Sitting on the porch steps of the back porch. In his hand another single red rose. The porch lights gave him a kind of a mystical glow. He got up when he saw me walking up to him with all the roses in my hand. When I reached him on the top step of the porch he took the roses out of my hands and put them on the floor. I was so nervous. My heart was beating so fast. He took my hands in his and looked into my eyes. “Lorelai, you said you expected me to propose some day and I thought today should be the day”, he had said and then continued with: “This is the place where we first kissed almost three years ago. We’ve been through so much since then and there’ll be a lot more coming but we worked through it so far and I’m sure we will work through everything else that is crossing our way.” By then I had tears in my eyes. He was right. He was so right. I had to choke down a sob when he dropped down on one knee.

“Lorelai, I love you so much. Will you marry me?” I looked down in to his hopeful eyes and all I could do was nod. It took him a moment to realize that I had actually said yes to his proposal but then he shot me brightest smile. I pulled him up to me and wrapped my arm around his neck, putting my head on his shoulder to cry my happy tears. I felt his hands moving soothingly over my back until he cupped my face in them and kissed me like never before. When I opened my eyes after the kiss I saw him reaching into his jean pocket and at the next moment I was flashed with an absolutely beautiful engagement ring. It had a princess cut diamond and two smaller blue diamonds on each side. Luke carefully slipped in on my finger and I smiled at him. Before we could do anything else I heard a loud squeal and when Luke and I turned to the inn we saw Sookie and Mia watching us from the window.

What Luke and I didn’t know is that we forgot something important that night. I found out about it three months later at our wedding when I peed on a stick and it turned pink. I had a major flashback to everything that had happened and I freaked. I locked myself into our bedroom and crawled under the covers of our bed. Soon after that Mia and Sookie where knocking at the bedroom door so they could help me getting ready but I didn’t answer and didn’t open the door… I just lay in bed totally scared and crying. Thinking about everything that had happened last time the stick had turned pink. They knocked on my door for almost an hour, talking to me, begging me to open the door. After an hour another voice suddenly appeared. It was Luke’s. Hearing his voice in front of the door made me cry even harder. Believe me; you’ve no idea how scared I was. I didn’t even hear Luke breaking the lock at our bedroom door and coming inside. I first realized that he was in the bedroom when he sat down on the bed next to me and pushed a strand of hair out of my face. He looked so gorgeous in his tux but I didn’t notice it at that moment. I only noticed his worried expression. “Lorelai, what’s going on”, he had asked but I didn’t say a word. “Please, talk to me.” Silence. No one said anything. The only things heard were my sobs. Luke looked into my eyes and asked in a serious voice:
“Is it the wedding? Do you not want to get married yet?” That question made me realize for the first time how all this must look to him. “I do. I do wanna get married”, I whispered in a raspy voice. Luke noticeably relaxed at my words but still looked so worried. I sat up and threw myself at him, crying at his shoulder. I mumbled “she’s gonna take it away again, she’s gonna take it away again, Luke” over and over again. Luke’s hands were gently moving up and down my back and into my hair. “Shhh… Lorelai. Who is gonna take what from you?” I didn’t say anything at first. I realized that I was about to tell Luke that he was going to be a father. Without letting go of Luke I took the pregnancy test out of my pocket and showed it to Luke. “The baby, Luke, she is gonna take the baby away from me again.” Luke didn’t say anything at first but after a few minutes of processing I felt his arm tightening around me.

“She is not gonna take the baby away from you again, Lorelai. Because this is our baby which means I’m here this time. I’m here and I’m gonna protect you and it. She’d have to kill me first before she’s be able to get to you or the baby.” And Luke’s words made me relax. I slowly stopped crying and after some time went limb in his arms. He cupped my face in his hands and looked into my eyes. “You okay now?” he asked and I just nodded. He smiled at me and gave me a soft kiss while one of his hands slowly caressed my stomach. “You wanna get married now?” he asked after we broke the kiss and I nodded again.

So, Luke left the bedroom and sent Mia and Sookie back up. After I told them what had happened we started to get ready for the wedding.
It was just a small wedding. It took place in the town square and no one except some town’s people and Mia and Sookie were there. When I walked down the isle I noticed for the first time how handsome Luke really looked in that tux and I smiled. We didn’t go on a honeymoon because we thought we better use the time to get ready for the baby but we each took one week off from work for a little alone time.

Yeah… our life was pretty hectic some times, huh? Oh wait, I think I hear Luke coming home.
“Lorelai?”
“Yap, there he is… Hey, hon.”
“Have you been home for long”
“Nope, are you gonna make dinner or did you bring something?”
“I thought I’d make lasagna.”
“yummy!”
“Okay, he went into the kitchen. So, let me continue my story…”
“Who are you talking to, Lorelai?”
“Oh, just to everybody out there”
“Huh?”
“Just cook dinner, babe”
“So, continuing my story now before he interrupts me again… So, after our wedding we used all the time to prepare for the baby. All the doctors’ visits were pretty amazing. I mean, I didn’t really do it the first time. Oooh, and you should’ve seen Luke’s face when the doctor told us that we are going to have a boy. He looked so proud. But then there was the whole name discussion… boy, was it hard to find a name. My first suggestion was Lucas Benjamin Danes but Luke immediately shot that idea down saying he didn’t want his son to be named after him. I thought it would’ve been cute to have Luke junior in the house. But Luke agreed that Benjamin is a nice middle name so at least that we had. A middle name for our baby. And then one day when I was carrying my huge 8 month pregnant belly around town I suddenly stopped at the sight of the diner. I had THE idea. Running into the diner… oh, let me correct myself… waddling into the diner I announced to Luke that I wanted to name our son William. Luke told me that he liked the name but that I shouldn’t name him William just because it had been his father’s name. But when I told him that I was doing it because I really liked the name and that it’d I really want to name him after someone we loved. And even is I never knew Luke’s dad I still loved him somehow. So our baby got his name. William Benjamin Danes. Nice name, huh?

And little William joined us in January. Exactly half a year after our wedding. You have no idea how amazing Luke was during the birth and the hours and days after that. During the birth I didn’t realize much. All my energy went into pressing this thing out of me. Jeez, he sure was a big baby. But Luke has been there during the whole thing, holding my hand, supporting my back when I had to push and whispering calming things into my ear. However, as soon as I was in my room and had calmed down from the birth I started to panic. Last time I had a baby it was taken away from me after the birth and not having Will in my room freaked me out. I pushed the nurse button like crazy until a nurse finally came in. I yelled at her to bring me my baby and poor Luke had to go with her to make sure nothing was gonna happen. I don’t know what he told the nurse but they let me keep him in my room the whole time. I was so afraid that someone would take him away that I didn’t sleep. I thought that if I’d fall asleep he’d be gone when I wake up. After some time Luke could finally convince me to sleep by promising me to be there until I wake up again and to watch Will the whole time. When I woke up a few hours later I was so relieved to see that Will was still there. Asleep in his father’s arms. And, boy, was that a cute picture. Luke and a little baby… You can believe me when I tell you that you have never seen something more beautiful that Luke with a baby. From that point on I started to relax a little more and I started to totally enjoy being a mother when we were able to take will home.

And what can I say… Will is now three and a half years old and such a cutie. He’s totally like his daddy. We laughed so hard when his first word was a “jeez”. It was so hilarious because every time he would see Luke from then on he would greet him with a “jeez”. But well, like I said before, he is now three and a half years old and you know what? I’m pregnant again. Isn’t that great? I’m six months pregnant and this time it is going to be a girl. Yay, I finally get a girl to dress up and stuff… Her name is gonna be June Elizabeth Danes. Pretty, huh?

And I think that’s it… I think I have told you everything important that had happened in the last 8 years. And I think it proves again that Luke is right. He always tells me I talk too much. I just could’ve told you “Luke and I are married for four years now. We have a son William who is 3 and a half years old and I am pregnant again with a girl.” But where would’ve been the fun in that, huh?

Anyways… I’m starting to smell Luke’s lasagna now and baby and I are really hungry. I’m gonna go now. And I hope you’ll watch the next episode of “The Danes’ crazy life”!