Chapter 1: Coming Home

I'm coming home, coming home tell the world I'm coming home. Let the rain wash away all the pain of yesterday. I know my kingdom awaits and they've forgiven my mistakes. I'm coming home, coming home tell the world I'm coming.

Lorelai waited eagerly at the steps as she saw her daughter's car pulling up the driveway.

"How long were you standing there? How cruel you make Paul Anka stand out in the snow with you." Rory greeted her mother with sarcastic smile.

"I wasn't standing out here that long. I used my motherly telepathy-um-lethic powers to sense when you would come up the driveway. Plus, Paul Anka is not the shivering one here. If you would remember, Paul Anka is a dog, and is teasing me with all that hair of his. I mean, seriously. So. Much. Hair. " Half-walking, half-dancing over to her daughter, she opened her arms to give her a hug.

"Telepathic." The younger Gilmore breathed into her mother's embrace.

"What?" Pulling away slightly to look at her daughter's face for the first time in a while.

"Te-le-pa-thic. You said it wrong. And you should be happy that you don't have as much hair as Paul Anka. I don't think that style would suit you very well mother. I mean that in the best possible way." Rory enunciated the last few words in a chipper tone, then turned to start grabbing her bags from the car.

"I can't believe you didn't let me pick you up. Who knows, some random stranger could've up and decided today, 'Hey I feel like kidnapping that girl over there who has tons of books, which means she's smart and has her mother's looks.'" Lorelai rambled as she waddled closer to the car to help Rory.

Struggling to pick up the largest of the bags, Rory decided to just drag it out. "I hardly think that having a lot of books has anything to do with looking like my mother. But since I'm not sitting in large van being driven by a scary bearded man; let's celebrate." The bag thudded noisily onto the ground and once she settled she slung more bags over her shoulder before heading to the house.

Coming up behind Rory she grabbed the last of the bags and shut the door behind her. "Why does your kidnapper have to have a beard? Can't he just be a sociopath who looks completely normal like the ones on the tv shows that no one suspects until the end because he accidentally left evidence of his presence? Like a toothbrush or something. Those kinds of kidnappers are always better looking." She smiled and trotted up next to her daughter.

"Please tell me you haven't been watching scheduled television. That will ruin the whole 'pretend-we-are-living-in-a-different-time, so don't-watch-anything-that-came-out-after-1992-at-home effect.'" She pulled at her heavy luggage up one step at a time.

"Well, your dad installed that new tv in the couch room. He didn't want it back. So I did some exploring. You know, expanding my horizons." She opened the door for Rory, and let her in first. "Come Paul Anka!" The dog came running into the house with them.

It was late now, and Rory had successfully unpacked whatever she would need for this winter. She could have stayed in her new apartment in the city, but she had been gone for so long since the campaign. Rory actually had been given a job offer when the campaign was over. The Times had recognized her work, and now that they knew she had professional experience, her resume looked much better. But she had time to think it over. And she took it happily.

She laid on her bed and stared up at the ceiling. Maybe she would walk around Stars Hallow tomorrow. Or maybe she would just hide out in the bookstore and see if that sorting job was still up for grabs. A knock at the door pulled her away from her thoughts. Sticking her head in, Lorelai asked if she could come in.

"Yeah, sure." Rory slid off the bed and started to look through one of the boxes on the ground.

"You can see that though I didn't change much about your room, I had some stuff put in boxes. Luke insisted that I organized them all. Unfortunately I'm no Martha Stewart, so I kind of just left the boxes in here just in case." She motioned to all of the packed things that hadn't made it to the garage.

As Rory sorted through many of her old books, something silver caught her eye. Pushing everything aside, she reached in and pulled it out. She stared at it for a long time and stood in - well - something between shock, sadness, and an anger all in one. When her mom noticed her silence, she quickly chimed in.

"Everything okay hon?" She walk closer to her daughter to get a better look at her face and what was in her hands.

Slowly Rory lifted the rocket just high enough for her mom to see. The rocket he gave her.

"Oh." Lorelai shifted her weight to her left foot. "I meant to put that in the garage. I'm sorry. I can do it now if you -"

"No. It's fine. I think I'll just take care of it myself." She set it lightly on the desk, and looked at it for a moment before turning to face her mom.

"Hey, I know you probably don't want to talk about it, but if you ever need to, come find me. And it's been a while, so, I mean, don't be afraid, okay?" She stared directly at her daughter to make sure that she was actually listening and not just hearing.

"Yeah, okay. But I'm kind of tired right now, so can we just talk about it tomorrow?" Slowly she walked back to her bed and stood at the side of it when she looked at her mom.

"Sure. We can talk tomorrow. But if you don't want to, I completely understand. So..."

"So..."

"Goodnight my sweet daughter." And with that she walked away.

When she heard footsteps ascend on the stairs, Rory climbed back into bed. Again she found herself staring at the ceiling. But this time her thoughts weren't as happy. She hadn't thought about him in a while. It seemed like it had been forever since she even thought about him.

*Flashback - First Person Perspective

He was talking about his graduation, and tripping, and regretfully grabbing someone's robe, but in all honesty, I wasn't really listening. I had something else on my mind at the moment. So when he finished, I jumped right into it.

"I'm sorry. I can't." And by the look of his face, I knew that he knew what I was talking about. When he just curled his lips and rocked without a response, I tried to continue. "I love you. You know I love you." I took in a breath and kept talking. "I love the idea of being married to you-" pause and a breath, "but there are just a lot of things right now in my life that are undecided, and that used to scare me, but now I - I kind of like the idea that it's all kind of wide open. And if I married you, it just wouldn't be."

He shrugged. "So what? I go to San Francisco and you just stay in the East and we see each other occasionally?"

I tried to reason with him. "Well, we can try long distance." When I saw he wasn't convinced, I added, "we've done it before." He just looked at me. I couldn't tell what he was feeling.

"You really think that's gonna work?" He was still fighting me.

"I think it would be hard but-" I didn't know what else to say.

He sighed and clicked his tongue. "I don't want to do that Rory. I don't want to go backwards. If we can't take the next step-" He didn't say anymore, but I knew what he wanted to say.

"What?" I asked what I already knew the answer to. I just hoped that I was wrong.

"I mean..." He sighed again. He knew what he wanted to say. He just didn't want to.

"Does it have to be all or nothing?" I begged in my mind that he would budge. But he didn't.

"Yeah, it does." How could this be happening? It was supposed to be a happy day. Even the damn birds were chirping.

"Well, we could at least try." I was holding on by a thread.

He shook his head. "What's the point?" It was too late. I had lost him.

"So..."

"So..." I thought to myself 'Please! Change your mind!'

I did the only thing I could think of doing. I hated that I was doing it, but there was no way I was going to keep it. I reached into the sleeve of my gown, and pulled out the little blue box. I saw him watching me. Shaking his head. I held it out in front of him to make sure he knew what was happening. For a second he just looked at it. Then he looked at me. To make sure I knew what was happening. Back and forth he looked between me and the box.

After his last look at me, he sighed, grabbed the ring, and said, "Goodbye Rory." And he was gone. Walking away from me with his hands stuffed deep into his pockets. All in just what seemed to be a second. I mean, just the way he said it.

"Goodbye Rory." It wasn't the regular goodbye-as-in-for-now. It was the have-a-good-life-goodbye-forever.

I stood there. Alone. Three years. Three years with Logan Huntzberger and it truly did end with a bang. More like a crash. Straight into a brick wall.

I had lost him.

And I didn't think that I could ever get him back.

Disclaimer: I do not ownGilmore girls, any of the characters, or the dialogue from the flashback.

A/N: I just finished watching all seven seasons (finally) and I kind of hated the ending, but had to love it. I mean, has it really been seven years since it finished? So hard to believe. I know that 1/3 of it was a flashback, but just bear with me. This is my first piece.

*Special thanks to abcfamily for playing GG reruns (in order) every weekday at 11 am like clockwork. It got me hooked every time I had a school break. And since I couldn't wait any longer this summer I just looked it up online and started from the beginning.