Disclaimer: Sadly, I don't own anything. The characters belong to the creative genius, Amy Sherman-Palladino and all of the brands/products/stores/movies etc. probably belong to people equally creative.
Chapter 1: A Look into the Lives of the Gilmore Girls
Her pillow still smelled like him. She clutched it close to her chest and breathed in the intoxicating aroma of Camel Frosts, weed and beer. Although the details of the previous night were a bit fuzzy, she could still feel the warmth of his body against hers. It was nights like these that made her feel alive.
She turned over to face the bed next to her. It was already made, as usual. Lexi's side of the room was always pristine. In fact, it looked like she lived in a Pottery Barn. Hannah on the other hand, found a sense of security in the fact that her dirty laundry was strewn about. "Organized chaos" she liked to call it.
"Oh my God! Stop the presses! Hannah Montana is still alive!" Lorelai exclaimed dramatically.
Although Lorelai was older, her frequent use of pop culture references never subsided. She stood leaning in the doorway and pushed back her slightly graying hair behind her ear. She then crossed her arms and exhaled loudly through her nose, just as she always did when one of her daughters disappointed her.
"Busy night, huh?" Lorelai said playfully.
"Mom, do you really think I want to talk to you right now?"
Annoyed, Hannah buried herself under the covers. Lorelai was best friends with Rory, so it shocked her to have a daughter that pushed her to her limits. What hurt most was that she knew in Hannah's eyes, she was Emily Gilmore.
"Alright, alright, you don't have to talk to me, its cool… there is coffee downstairs, it will help with the hangover and open a window, it reeks in here."
Opening the window was the last thing Hannah wanted to do. The smell of her room was the most glorious smell she could fathom.
xxx
As Lorelai wandered back into the kitchen she thought about her relationship with her daughter. If someone were to clone 16-year-old Lorelai, the result would be Hannah. They had the same dark wavy hair, the same blue eyes and the same "no one understands me" attitude. Lorelai wondered how it was possible that they were so similar yet they could hardly carry on a conversation.
"Mom, you have to do something about her," Lexi pleaded, in between bites of her Golden Grahams. If Hannah was a clone of Lorelai, then Lexi was a clone of Rory. Her light brown hair was tied back neatly in a ponytail and she wore an oversized red sweater to hide the fact that she had a shape.
"Babe, there is nothing I can do" Lorelai responded, slightly defeated.
"But this is the 3rd time this week that I've been sex-iled"
"Well, she's preparing you for college, I'm sure people at Harvard have lots of sex, it's a good stress release"
"Ew mom, please don't talk about sex" Even though Lexi was 15, just a year younger than her sister, she was still very innocent and naïve, which was part of her charm.
"Sorry, sorry… you were the one who brought it up."
"Seriously, I hate sleeping in Rory's room its creepy… like a giant time capsule or something" The room really was like a time capsule. Rory returned home for a while when she was getting her masters in journalism and when she left, no one had bothered to disrupt its natural state. She still had the box of cornstarch on her dresser and a plethora of books under her bed. As a child, Lexi often stunk into the room when Rory was away and tried to read them.
"Have you talked to your sister lately? I haven't heard from her in a while." Lorelai asked as she poured herself a mug of coffee
"She's really busy, I heard that she got a promotion… where's dad?"
"Wait, Rory got a promotion and didn't tell me?"
"Well, she actually didn't tell me either. Lorie called me last night and said something… but I wouldn't take her word for it, she is 6".
Lorie, short for Lorelai Olivia Gilmore, was the 4th Lorelai. She was never afraid to speak her mind, just like her grandmother and she was wise beyond her years, much like her mother but when it came to looks, she painfully resembled her father. She had long flowing curly blonde hair. Between her looks and her wit, everyone knew that she was going to have boys lined up just to grace her presence.
Luke came into the kitchen just as Lorelai rested her head on the table, "Are you ok?" he asked his wife "You like kind of…dead".
"She's just upset because 2 of her 3 daughters are not talking to her," Lexi answered for her mother.
Lorelai lifted her head just enough to shoot a very pained look at Luke.
"Uh… Lexi why don't you go over to Sookie's and catch up with Davey and Martha?" he asked awkwardly as he went over to comfort his wife.
"Why is it that I'm always the one who has to leave? I'm the good daughter."
"Alexis, just… go. Please?"
"Alright," Lexi sighed. She put her bowl in the sink and left through the back door.
"Now… what's the matter?" Luke asked as he pulled Lorelai into his chest
"She doesn't tell us anything. She comes home at god knows what hour. And I don't know about this boy…"
"There's a boy? What boy?"
"I don't know the boy she has sex with 3 times a week"
"Urgh geeze, Lorelai…"
"Luke! She didn't even tell me that she had a boyfriend… maybe he's not her boyfriend; maybe she's sleeping around? I don't know! She doesn't talk! Rory and I talked about everything. Lexi and I talk about everything. What did I do differently?"
"This isn't your fault" Luke tried to reassure her. "Sometimes kids… they just are difficult… look at Jess. He turned out ok. You are a good mother. We are good parents. This is just…a phase".
"What if its not?" Lorelai mused, almost in a whisper.
"It is."
"Luke…" Lorelai pressed. She knew that he did take the problems with his daughter seriously to avoid getting on her bad side.
"We are not fighting about this again." Luke got up from the table and started to put on his olive green fishing jacket. "I have to go back to the diner to check on Cesar but I'll be back in an hour, we can enjoy our weekend."
He kissed his wife on the forehead before he left the house as he did every morning. As he walked out onto the front porch he paused for a moment and wondered if his wife's right. What if it wasn't a phase?
xxx
It had become a Saturday morning routine that Lorie would make her mom pancakes while she finished editing for the Sunday issue. Lorie would pull a stool up to the island in the kitchen and very precisely measure out the ingredients and pour them into a giant hot pink mixing bowl. "If I'm going to cook for you mommy, I want to look good doing it!" she said matter-of-factly a month ago in William Sonoma. Little did Rory know that the 36-dollar mixing bowl was the best investment she had ever made.
Supervising this endeavor was perhaps the most handsome man that Rory had ever dated. His deeply soulful brown eyes still made her heart melt, just as they did when she was a teenager. What made him even more attractive now was how well he took care of Lorie. Rory smiled as she looked back at the two. Lorie's hair was tied back in a curly blonde mess and she had flour all over face and her Hello Kitty pajamas. She giggled as he lightly blew the powder off of her cheeks.
Just as Rory started to settle back into her work, the phone rang.
"Mom! Hi!"
"Rory? What's that noise?" Lorelai could hear a whirring noise in the background.
"Lorie is making smoothies with Jess," Rory explained
"My grandbaby is drinking fruit?"
"Well, Jess likes to eat healthy"
"Blenders are for making milkshakes"
"You can't see me but, I'm rolling my eyes!"
"Urgh, not you too…"
"Hannah Montana giving you a hard time?"
"What happened to us?" Lorelai pondered, concerned.
"She's a teenager, she doesn't mean it," Rory said trying to console her mother.
"No I mean you and me."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean… you got a promotion and didn't tell me. My favorite daughter doesn't call in a week!"
"I didn't get a promotion mom, I've just been really busy with work and Jess is working on his 3rd book things are just kind of crazy here" Rory explained.
"So…" Lorelai began to question rather deviously, like a high school girl craving for the latest gossip, "you and Jess are spending a lot of time together?"
"Actually…" Rory paused for a moment and walked into the bedroom. She lowered her voice so that Lorie couldn't hear. "We were talking last night about him moving in here!"
"Aw, babe that's great!"
"I just don't want Lorie getting too attached… what if things don't work out?"
"Well, I think it's a little late for that. He turned my baby into a sous-chef"
"I don't want her to get hurt again"
"And by her you mean you, right?" Lorelai joked.
"As much as I would love to continue to get mocked by you, I really have to go, I have a deadline"
"Denial…they say that's the first step"
"Goodbye mom…" Rory said in a singsong voice as she made her way back to the couch.
"I'm glad that you are making progress," Lorelai continued to tease.
"I love you!"
"I always worried that you would need to spend thousands of dollars on therapy but I'm glad to see that you might be able to avoid it"
"Tell Luke that I'm sorry I left him alone to deal with you!"
"And tell Jess that if he hurts one of my babies again then I'm going to kick him where the sun don't shine!"
Rory smirked as she hung up the phone. She walked over to the kitchen and began munching on a crisp piece of bacon. The scent of it filled the entire apartment.
"Did I hear my name?" Jess asked playfully. He snatched the bacon out of her hand and kissed her lightly on the lips.
"Hey, you better watch it" Rory warned him, "Look at what happened to Narcissus…"
"What happened to Narcissus?" Lorie asked.
"He broke into a thousand tiny pieces," Rory explained.
"I hope that doesn't happen to you Jess, you haven't taught me how to make lasagna yet"
"Oh, is that all I'm good for… teaching you how to cook?"
"Well, mommy can't do it"
The two adults smiled and exchanged glances. "She's got you there dodger," Rory remarked.
"Was it your mother?" Jess continued to pry, not because he was nosy but because he genuinely cared about what was going on in the lives of the Gilmore girls. If Lorelai was important to Rory, then she was important to him as well.
"Yeah she sounded kinda upset," Rory explained.
"Grandma called! I needed to tell her about my play at school!" Lorie's voice was dripping with excitement.
"You can call her back after breakfast," Rory ordered.
"But, I can make her feel better!" Lorie climbed down from the stool and almost ran to pick up the phone.
"Lorie, put down the phone," Jess patted the seat of her chair "Come sit down and enjoy all this food you just made"
"Ok…" Lorie sighed with disappointment, "But after breakfast, you promise I can call grandma?"
"Yes" Rory reassured her daughter.
While Jess brought the food to the table and poured everyone glasses of freshly squeezed orange juice, the girls continued their conversation.
"Why is she sad?" Lorie's concern for others was very endearing.
"Hannah isn't following her rules"
"I always follow the rules" the young girl replied proudly.
Rory and Jess exchanged glances again.
"I never want to make you upset mommy," It was moments like these that made Rory's heart melt.
"Why thank you, Lorie," She replied, "I don't want to make you upset either".
The three began to eat their breakfast and discuss their plans for the upcoming week. Rory appreciated her daughter's and Jess' hard work, but she couldn't get her mothers words out of her head. "Are we growing apart?" Rory thought to herself, "Its only natural to grow away from your mother… Right?"
Author's Note: Please let me know what you think. This is my first fan fiction ever and I would really appreciate the feedback. Also, if you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask. Depending on the direction of the story, I might have to change the rating to M. Also, just to clarify, my story takes place about 16 years after the end of the show. I am not changing any of the details of the past so if you notice any discrepancies PLEASE feel free to point them out. It drives me crazy when I find them in other stories.