Luke's Daughters

Chapter Four

Rory

"Okay, just two more boxes," I panted. "Then we're done."

"Already?" Mom didn't sound much better than me. "I could do this all day."

"Why don't we do this more often?" Sookie asked sarcastically.

I couldn't blame either of them. After having to wake up at the butt-crack of dawn - that's what my mom called 6 o'clock on a Saturday -, driving to New Haven, packing everything in my old apartment into boxes, loading the boxes onto Luke's truck, driving back to Stars Hollow and carrying all the boxes into our house, I was pretty beat, too.

"Thank you both so much for doing this. I really appreciate it," I told them earnestly as we finally sat down on the couch and the chair in the living room.

"No problem, kiddo," Mom said with a tired smile.

"Anytime, pumpkin," Sookie agreed. "Just maybe you could ask Luke to help next time. We would've probably been done twice as fast with him here. Where is he, by the way?"

"He's meeting Anna," Mom explained.

"Oh right, April's mom." Of course, Mom had told Sookie all about the newest addition to our family and Sookie was already very excited to meet the famous April. "How do you think that's going?"

"I don't know," Mom said honestly. "I mean, she let April come see Luke and take the paternity test and everything. So it shouldn't come as a surprise to her that Luke wants to get to know his daughter or that April wants to get to know him and his family. Also April is fifteen years old, she's not a little kid anymore. I want to believe that Anna's a genuinely nice person who loves her daughter and did what she did with the best intentions in mind. But you never know."

"Don't worry, Mom. I have a feeling that everything will work out," I told her.

"I really hope so, kiddo."

"How are Jackson and the kids', Sookie?" I asked. "I haven't seen them in so long."

"They're great, Jackson took them to the park today. I'm not sure who of us will be more tired tonight, the three of them can be quite a handful," Sookie laughed. "You can come over anytime, I'm sure they'd love to see you, too. Davey is in his last year of kindergarten and Martha just started nursery school. Maddie still mostly accompanies me to the Inn while I work."

"Where she spends a lot of quality time with her Auntie Lorelai, being spoiled completely and utterly rotten." Mom grinned. "I love the little princess. She's just a little cutie pie."

"Yeah, she is," Sookie smiled dreamily. "And compared to her older siblings very low maintenance, thank the Lord."

"That sounds great. And if you ever need a babysitter, just holler. I don't start work until next month, so I have a lot of time to kill."

"I'll definitely take you up on that." Sookie grinned. "Thank you, pumpkin."

"But not during her quality time with Auntie Lorelai." Mom glared at me.

"Of course not," Sookie and I assured her.

"Then I'm on board."

"Anyway, let's go get something to eat, shall we. I'm starving. Food's on me," I offered and the two women nodded approvingly but made no move to stand up. "Or we'll order in?"

"Now you're talking," Mom said reaching for the telephone.

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Luke

I arrived at the café Anna and I had agreed on early and looked for a table to sit down on. A waitress came over and I ordered a tea for myself. I was nervous and couldn't really sit still on my chair. A small part of me wished that I'd taken Lorelai up on her offer to accompany me today, but a bigger part of me knew that this was something I had to do alone. Lorelai understood that but had told me that she'd still keep her cellphone on at all times, should I need her. Rory had seconded that immediately. God, I was so glad to call those two my family.