Stepping in, he quickly looked around. No sign of April.
Increasingly frantic, he repeated "April!" The fingers of fear gripping his chest grew colder and tighter. Oh God. How could she disappear from the diner? Great. Now Anna would never let April come over again. Where could she be?
After the night when the entire town had seemingly been staring at his interactions with his young daughter, Luke had started to send April upstairs whenever she needed to use the facilities. He shuddered to think of her fate should either Babette or Ms. Patty corner his girl in the public ladies' downstairs. So going upstairs seemed a whole lot safer.
He surveyed the apartment. April's homework was on the counter; she'd definitely been up here. He moved towards the bedroom area and noticed that the bathroom door was closed. A stripe of light at the bottom of the door indicated that the room was occupied.
Ah.
Ah!
No more need to panic.
Luke took a deep breath, walked toward the bathroom, and gently knocked on the door. "April?" he inquired in a more reasonable tone, his panic voice slowly ebbing away.
"Uh…yes?"
He sighed with relief. He must really be starting to become a parent, because the feelings of anger collided with the feelings of relief--he remembered this sensation oh-so-well from the days when Jess lived with him. He'd talk to April later about answering him when he first called for her.
Jeez, he sure hated disciplining her. But, that was part of the parenting deal.
"You OK?" he asked, his voice no longer betraying any vestiges of panic.
"Yes."
Luke sighed and turned his attention to the apartment. He spent a few minutes tidying up his increasingly no-longer-used home. Lorelai's vibrant smile caught his eye over by the bed; he smiled fondly as he looked over at her photo on the nightstand. He wondered if April had noticed it. Panic returned to thump loudly in his chest. Jeez, he really did need to talk to both April and Anna about his…state…but the time never seemed right. And what if Anna went all crazy and decided she didn't want him to see April if he had another woman in his life?
"Luke?" April called out, interrupting Luke's panic session. "You there?"
"Yeah."
"Can you call my mom?"
April's request perplexed him. "Uh sure." He walked over to the counter and scrambled for the piece of paper which had Anna's store number written on it. He'd have to remember to program it into his cell phone sometime, he figured.
"She at the store?" Luke asked.
"Yes."
He quickly dialed, waiting for her to answer.
The call cycled to the store's voice mail.
"Call my mom?" April requested one more time.
Maybe he'd messed up. He tried again.
Voice mail again. How the hell did Anna run a business without answering her phone, he wondered.
"Uh, April? She's not answering."
"Call my mom, please, Luke?"
Luke sighed. "She's not answering, I'll try again."
Just as he hit redial, Lane's perturbed voice floated up the stairs. "Luke! Luke! Need help down here."
"Be right back, April," Luke assured the girl in the bathroom, as he returned downstairs. April's "Can you call my mom?" echoed in his ears.
As soon as he got downstairs, he saw why Lane had called for him. The diner had suddenly been deluged with a busload of tourists. Good for business, just not good for Luke at the moment.
"I've got everything under control here, Luke," Lane informed him, "but over there…"
Luke followed the nod of her head and headed into the kitchen area to help the kitchen staff.
-------
A half-hour later, Luke, with a jolt of guilt, suddenly remembered April's request. With things under control, he was able to take a moment to grab his cell and try Anna's number again. He surreptitiously dialed, feeling somewhat hypocritical violating his own cell phone restrictions, but this was his daughter…
Damn. Still no answer at the other end. He wondered why April was so insistent on speaking to Anna. Had he done something, said something wrong? He tried redialing. Maybe she didn't like him? Did one of the townspeople say something to her?
"Luke!" Lorelai's cheerful voice interrupted him. He glanced up to see a whirlwind of dark hair and riotous color swoop towards him.
God. What if Lorelai wanted to know whom he was calling? Luke's finger stabbed at the phone key, in mid-dial.
Before he could react, Lorelai had made her way across the diner and was leaning into him, surrounding him in a delicate cloud of her fragrance. Across the counter, her lips met his in a quick kiss. Even as he cancelled the call, Lorelai launched into her usual chatter, sharing some sort of details of the day with him.
Luke felt guilty, but he needed to call Anna. His daughter needed him to call Anna.
"Uh, can you hold it for a second," he asked, pointing to the diner phone. It was probably safer to call from there.
Lorelai interrupted her chatter and smiling, pointed at the coffee pot.
"Just a sec," Luke mouthed back at her, turning his back to make his call.
"Busy day?" she mouthed back, acknowledging the crowded state of the diner. She watched as Luke dialed the diner phone several times, each time hanging up in apparent frustration.
Lorelai decided to head upstairs, since the diner was so crowded and Luke was busy. At least she could review her schedule in peace upstairs. Ever since the day that she inadvertently discovered that Luke had a daughter, she had only entered the diner in trepidation. Luke had not yet introduced her to his daughter, nor did she know anything (other than the name) of the girl's mother. With his apparent attempt to compartmentalize his (and by extension) their lives, she was constantly worried that she would inadvertently run into the child or the mother.
As she disappeared behind the curtain, she caught Luke's attention. His eyes widened as he realized where she was headed, but there was nothing he could do, for Anna had finally picked up the phone--the phone he was now physically tethered to.
"Nardini," Anna's voice rang out over the line.
"Uh uh…"
"Nardini," Anna said again, this time with a slight degree of impatience.
"Uh, it's Luke."
"Oh. Luke. Luke! Is April OK?" Anna asked, business-like.
"Uh…"
"What did you do? Is she all right? You didn't lose her, did you? She made it to the diner, right?"
"Nothing. Yes. Anna, wait a second. Nothing's wrong. At least, I don't think anything's wrong. It's just that April's upstairs and she insists on talking to you, not me."
"Well put her on, then."
"Uh, well, she's locked herself in the bathroom. Listen, let me go upstairs and call you back from there."
"How long has she been in there?" Anna wanted to know.
"Uh, a while, not long…" Luke guiltily supplied, not wanting to let Anna know that he had been sidetracked by the busy rush of the unanticipated bus arrival.
------
As Lorelai reached the top of the stairs, she thought it strange that the apartment door was ajar; Luke usually was very picky about keeping it closed. She entered the apartment, and plopping her portfolio down on the kitchen table, walked over to the couch.
"Luke?" she heard a female voice call out.
Lorelai jumped, startled by the voice in the quiet apartment.
"Luke?"
The voice sounded young. Ah, April, Lorelai thought.
"April?" she asked.
"Yeah."
"So, not Luke, it's me, Lorelai, the not-strangler lady…"
"Where's Luke?" April asked, her voice muffled behind the door. "He was supposed to call my mom…a long time ago…"
"He's downstairs…things are pretty hectic…he's on the phone."
"He's supposed to call my mom."
"I'm sure he is, April. Luke is anything if not conscientious. Is there something I can help you with? Well, maybe not Chemistry, or whatever science you're taking, you're out of luck in the homework department…"
"My mom. Just call my mom."
"K, let me check with him. You're OK, right? Not hurt or anything? I don't think he keeps band-aids in there…" Lorelai added as she turned to leave the apartment.
Luke was really in for an experience, she thought. A pre-teen daughter, precocious, soon to hit the teen years…boys…
Twelve years old. Almost thirteen. And suddenly, Lorelai smacked her fist against her forehead. No wonder April wanted her mom. It all made sense.
"April?"
"Yes."
"Can I ask you something?"
"Yes."
"Um, well keep in mind, I'm a girl, and I have a daughter and umm…well…look, I think I know what might be going on. And in case I'm right," Lorelai looked in her purse, fumbling, "I'm going to just leave my purse outside the door. The bathroom door. And there's stuff in there. Stuff you can use. Well, I assume you, being the science whiz you are, know all about this stuff, so..." Lorelai exhaled. "You still with me?"
"Yes. Is Luke calling my mom?"
"Uh yes. I saw him on the phone. Anyways, I'm going to leave my whole purse right there. There. It's there. And I'm going to go downstairs and you take your time and just leave my purse here when you're done, or you can bring it down and pretend I'm a purse-forgetting loser...Luke's used to that…OK?"
"OK."
"Going now…going downstairs…"
Lorelai exhaled again, and opening the apartment door, started her way downstairs. Luke…was going to be mortified. His little girl was no longer a little girl. As she approached the curtain, a woman's voice rose above the murmurs of the diner crowd.
"Luke! Where is she?" Lorelai heard the voice ask.
As Lorelai emerged from behind the curtain, she almost collided with a woman, and Luke. A very attractive woman, with Luke right behind her.
Luke froze, as did Lorelai, as Anna tried to continue past Lorelai.
Lorelai took a deep breath. "Luke, everything's under control upstairs…" Lorelai explained, as she placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder. "Your daughter's fine."
"Who. Are. You?" Anna crisply asked.
It's now or never, Lorelai thought, as she squeezed Luke's shoulder, then extended her hand to the woman. "You must be April's…"
"Anna," Luke spoke up. "Hold on. April's OK?" he asked Lorelai.
Lorelai nodded.
"Anna," Luke continued, "let's all go upstairs. I'd like you to meet my fiancée…"
"Whoa there, Burger-Boy…" Lorelai interrupted with a smile. "Girls only upstairs. C'mon Anna…I'm Lorelai. April's waiting."
And she turned and gave a perplexed Luke a hug and a kiss.