A Father's Love

Chapter 26

    Over the next few weeks, Rachel seemed to be true to her word on trying her best to be willing and reasonable on the same page as Luke. There was a bit of a struggle and it didn't mean there wasn't an argument now and then, but the two tried to remember to keep discussions at a minimal and out of earshot of Shelby. Which speaking of, Luke did notice Shelby was constantly looking over whenever the two were talking. Even if it was a harmless tease towards her dad, she was quick to jump in and protect him. It wasn't like Shelby didn't know the difference because Lorelai and Rory still picked on the guy and Shelby quietly giggled right along.

There were still a few mistakes here and there that Luke pointed out. The Saturday of Shelby's third t-ball game, Rachel took her for the rest of the afternoon to spend some quality time. As long as Rachel had Shelby home at a reasonable hour and didn't give her a lot of sugar or did not push Shelby into doing something she didn't want to do, Luke was fine with whatever the two did during their time. That particular Saturday evening, he was a little disappointed.

Shelby came rushing into the diner all excited and holding a brand new video game for her Nintendo 64, coming around the counter to show him.

"Kiddo, you know we talked about this," he reminded her. "Unless it's your birthday or Christmas, you have to earn the money for a video game."

Her head dropped in discouragement. "I sorry," she whispered softly.

Rachel came over shortly after Shelby. She had heard Luke remind Shelby of their rule. "It's not Shelby's fault, Luke," she told him. "We stopped by this electronic store and I let Shelby look at the games."

"Did she ask for a game?"

"No, we were just looking. It was actually not even eye level to her. I saw it." Rachel then explained what the game was and how it played. It was a game that combined both Shelby's favorite cartoon and hobby, and one of Rachel's favorite hobbies, photography. So she figured it could be fun to play together, and for Rachel to help teach Shelby about the art of taking pictures.

Shelby was just excited it was another Pokemon game and liked getting everyone involved with things she liked. She even tried getting Jess to play with her on the game she had picked out when Luke finally took her to get her Nintendo 64. It was basically a 3D version of her Gameboy game, minus the reading and walking around, but had mini games included.

Jess watched a few times. Pokemon was just too "kiddie" for his taste and suggested the next game she pick be a shooting or fighting game or something more mature. Luke automatically said no to games directed towards those a lot older than Shelby, even though she was starting to get into stuff like that since she got the super-soaker for her birthday and started playing war with the twins. In fact, he even caught Shelby making a gun out of Legos and using it to shoot pretend "bad guys". Luke wasn't sure about letting Shelby play with pretend guns and asked Lorelai for her opinion.

"Well, as long as Shelby has the concept of knowing what's pretend and what's real, I don't see a problem with her wanting to shoot pretend bad guys," she had told him.

Rachel was nervous about the issue, too. With Shelby being such a sweetheart, Lorelai reassured both of them she didn't think they needed to worry too much. Besides, Ethan and Alan's parents had rules with the toys guns, including not to shoot each other in the face and not up close either. Their father was once in the army so they taught their kids the reality of guns and that it was all in good fun as long as it was pretend with toy Nerf guns. The twins had even let Shelby have one of theirs since the boys had so many. Though, now there were several ammo darts stuck to the ceiling of the apartment, waiting until the suction cups released. One finally came unstuck and fell right into Jess' food, which he looked straight at his cousin.