Disclaimer: I own nothing related to Gilmore Girls. All the credit to Amy Sherman-Palladino and her team for creating these characters and the previous story-lines I'm simply continuing from where they left off.

Summary: This is the introduction, where my story jumps off from. Rory followed Barack Obama on his campaign trail, earning her stripes as a reporter. Come with me on this journey and we'll see together where she ends up... :)

7 months.

7 months, 1 week, 3 days.

She had never gone this long without at least visiting home. Europe had been three months, and she had practically made out with her sock drawer when she returned.

"7 months, 1 week, and 3 days- somewhere in there you'd think you would have learned how to pack," Maureen grinned at her disorganized roommate.

"I did pack! But I forgot about all the presents I bought and here we are, back at square one. Is there coffee?"

"Like I would dare talk to you before 8am without coffee in hand!"

Rory's face glowed as she sipped what her roommate didn't know was her third cup of the morning. Crappy coffee was still coffee, and after 7 months, 1 week, and 3 days on the road not even 2 cups were enough to kick her into morning-mode.

Barack Obama's campaign had taken off. Super Tuesday was 2 months away and adrenaline was high for everyone from staffers to reporters. Over time the press following the senator had grown from just small papers and online blogs like her own to include the bigger names and with them, vastly improved coffee. Maureen had come in with the first bump in Obama's numbers and she and Rory had quickly bonded over caffeine, chili fries, The Bangles, and their crazy families. The oldest of four, Maureen's dad did contract law while her mother painted and home-schooled the kids. She understood missing home. It also didn't hurt that Maureen had walked on the bus in heels, skinny jeans, and a shirt from the first tour of The Smiths. It was friendship at first sight.

It had taken Rory no time at all to get comfortable with Maureen. The ginger from New Jersey won her over with easy smiles and a seemingly unending stream of facts about historical political campaigns, the senator, and celebrity gossip. Rory taught her the ropes of this particular campaign and Maureen brought Rory out of her books and Power of Myth shell. It hadn't been intentional, but lacking the push of Finn, Colin, and… the rest of the LDB, Rory had drifted away from larger social gatherings. Maureen was having none of that. Getting through a campaign in her mind required talent, creativity, endurance, and large amounts of tequila.

The first night out was awkward. The rest of the press corps had stopped inviting her out after the 4th or 5th "no, thank you." Rory knew it was on her to extend the olive branch and thankfully had just the trick.

"Have any of you ever seen someone reenact The Passion of the Christ?"

She had never been as good as Finn, but that didn't stop her colleagues from breaking down in laughter and welcoming her as they had tried to do from the beginning. Rory fit in. She was in. Three tequila shots and a best friend pact and secret handshake later, her return to the land of the living was complete, her month and a half of punishing herself over.

Punishing herself? Rory mused on that particular point. She never consciously decided to stay away from nights out with the press corps or movie nights or repetitive speech drinking games. At first it was just necessity, because she wanted to catch up with those who had been there from the start, work hard, and succeed. She worked her ass off to do just that. After two weeks she was in a routine, but still kept away from real friendship and, well, anything that might be considered "fun." How could she justify having fun after the way he had looked at her at her graduation? The pain she had inflicted by not being ready to be Mrs. Huntz… well. Yes. That.

Woah. Not going there. Cannot go there. Better to throw herself into work and routine. Wake up. Shower. Coffee. Crappy hotel breakfast. Speeches, bus rides, new spin on the same story. Texting Lane and Paris. Calling her mom. Twice a week phone calls with her Dad. Once a week phone calls with the grandparents. Feel guilty. Feel hurt. Coffee. Lather, rinse, repeat.

Maureen broke her out of that funk. She got to hear the Logan story once, tipsily, and knew never to ask again. She had her fair share of heartbreak stories and baggage to carry, and the two reached an understanding- their campaign and room were to be a "No Boys Allowed" clubhouse. Maureen added "smile, laugh" to Rory's routine, between the texting and phone calls and after the guilt.

None of the hurt disappeared, but it faded and was pushed away into a mental "Logan box," and life got better.

"Hey there Space Cadet, coming back to earth any time soon?"

Rory chuckled and noticed that her roommate had donated a now full-to-the-brim tote bag to her presents cause.

"I couldn't send you on that plane to Stars Hollow for Christmas and let you leave your gifts behind! I know enough about Luke now to know he'd die without his fancy jam." Maureen packed the last present on top and reached for a model rocket she assumed was for Kirk. Some day she would have to visit Rory, if only to mess with the crazies.

"Tote bags. I have quite an impressive Sephora collection- how do I not own tote bags?" Rory shut her eyes briefly, grinning at the memory, and let nostalgia and homesickness wash over her. She glanced up just in time to see Maureen packing the model rocket Logan had… well. At least she hadn't had to pack it. She knew her mom had put it at the bottom of her suitcase before sending her off, thinking at least one thing should go with her since the physical Logan box was gathering dust next to Jess and Dean's in their closet back home. She hadn't touched it since she unpacked.

"Copper boom?" Maureen stared at her roommate in concern, looking from the rocket back to Rory back to the rocket. She had assumed it was for Kirk, but he did not inspire this level of intense staring in anyone but his psychiatrist. Or maybe Lulu. Man she did not want to think about Kirk having sex.

Rory shook her head, clearing her thoughts of anything but plane tickets and home. Homeward bound. She could tell her mother everything once she was home. The hurt, the exhilaration, the successes and the failures, the homesickness, her inability to think about him at all because if she thought about it a little she thought about it too much and then she couldn't think about anything else… right. Everything.

Glancing out her hotel window, she saw snow had frosted the ground.

The first snow of the year.

Snow.

Christmas.

Time to go home.

"Copper boom!"