Chapter 11: The Family Business

Four years later. December 1992. On the house at Number 37 Maple Street, Luke Danes awoke to find his beautiful wife of three years staring down at him.

"Morning, sleepyhead."

Luke raised himself up and gave her a kiss. "Where's Rory?"

"She's right here," that very same Rory mumbled into her pillow, where she was nestled between her parents in their large bed.

Luke began to tickle his 8-year-old daughter. "Lorelai Leigh Gilmore, why aren't you in your room?" he playfully demanded.

"Daddy! Stop! Because I... I... I wanted to sleep with you and Mommy!" She gasped for air between each shriek and giggle.

"Fair enough," Luke smirked. "Come on, up, up, up! Your mom needs to get to the Inn and we are going to the diner!"

After the Gilmore girls' return to Stars Hollow, Lorelai got her old position back at the Inn almost immediately. But they did not return to the potting shed. Instead, she and Rory moved into the loft above Luke's diner. For the next year, Luke and Lorelai dated while living together. Then, when the couple got married, Luke purchased a house for his girls on Maple Street, which they moved into after the honeymoon.

Now heading out the door, Luke kissed his wife goodbye. "Have a good day, honey." As she pulled out of the drive in her Jeep Wrangler, Luke got into his truck.

"I call shotgun!" Rory dove in next to him.

Luke laughed. "Ready to go, princess?"

Rory smiled, clipping a name tag that read RORY GILMORE, CASHIER onto her diner uniform. Luke had had it custom-made. "Ready."

Father and daughter drove to the diner and opened up shop. The first customers came in almost immediately, eager to eat and to pay Rory, who now worked the cash register like a pro. Luke also noticed that some slightly older boys were particular eager to sit at the counter and watch her. Some names were thrown out: Jess, Dean, Tristan. In your dreams, you little punks, Luke thought, his father bear instincts kicking in. Any one of you touch her, I'll string you up the nearest tree!

But Rory appeared not to notice the attention, which made her father sigh in relief. She didn't need no man! "That's my girl," he smiled.

And she was. Rory really was.

A/N: And that's all, folks! Leave reviews to let me know what you thought!