Disclaimer: Amy and Daniel Palladino, along with the rest of the WB, own Gilmore Girls. I'm just borrowing the characters. "Every Planet We Reach Is Dead" is own by the Gorillaz.
A/N: Considering Rory is so not my favorite character, I seem to write her all the time. Oh well. Another story about her. The Gorillaz song inspired this story. It's an awesome, depressing song. Yeah, I'm just cool like that.
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Her feet ached. Her back ached. Her head ached. It was faster for her to name body parts that weren't currently aching. Working for the newspaper had never been so tedious before now. She walked down the hallway to her apartment. Their apartment. His apartment?
No, she reminded herself, I am not going there not right now. It's only a year.
She unlocked the door and braced herself for another night of Law and Order reruns and sleeplessness. So she was plenty surprised to find Finn, Colin, and Stephanie in her (their/his) apartment. Colin was down to his boxers and Stephanie was perched on the side of the pool table in just her bra and a skirt. Finn, however, was fully clothed. Each had a drink in hand (or, at least, close to hand). Finn had a cigar in his mouth and was bent over the pool table staring intently at the balls as he prepared to take his next shot. If she hadn't been so shocked, she would have laughed at the absurdity of it all. It seemed as though they were playing Strip Pool.
Finn took his shot, then stood back up triumphantly. He smirked at Colin, showing that the cigar was in between his clamped teeth. "Corner pocket, sunshine."
Colin rolled his eyes. "Big deal."
"Oh, it is a big deal, McCray. Soon, we'll get to see you in all your WASP-y glory." Stephanie snickered at the image and took another drink out of her glass.
"We still have the rest of the game to play. I'm going to dominate this time," Colin declared.
Finn took his cigar out of his mouth and blew the smoke at Colin. "You keep telling yourself that, sweetheart." He set his cigar down on the ashtray by his left hand.
Colin looked up then, right at Rory. He took a slow drink from the brandy snifter he was carrying, never breaking eye contact with her. "What do you think, Gilmore? You want me down to my socks in your apartment?"
The other two turned to her with slightly predatory grins. "Slow news day?" Stephanie asked in a sugary-sweet voice.
"What are you doing here?" Rory finally asked.
"Better question, love, is what are you doing here?" Finn countered.
She physically had to stop herself from sputtering her reply. "I live here!"
Stephanie raised an impeccably plucked eyebrow. "You do? How odd. Because I'm here more than you." As if she could read Rory's mind, she began to answer the questions racing through her head. "You usually don't get back from work until midnight or one. It's eleven-thirty now, pretty early for you. You come back, watch TV, then leave the house around nine or ten the next day. That's almost sixteen hours you leave the house unattended."
"Suffice to say, I do believe we're here more than you," Colin wrapped up in his own smug way.
"How is that possible?"
Finn smirked again. "You never asked for the key back you gave us to throw Logan that surprise party."
"So you've practically been living at my apartment for the past month and a half?" Rory set down her stuff and began to stalk towards the trio.
"Your apartment? So you hold the deeds now? You pay rent?" Colin's words stopped her in her tracks. "You're just a squatter in his apartment."
Rory held back her tears as she felt her insecurities come closer to the surface. What was she doing here? Why was she waiting for him as he was gallivanting around London?
"Look, Rory, this isn't you," Stephanie began. "I've only known you for a year. But I know you enough to know that you aren't a workaholic, emo girl. Just because your boyfriend's gone doesn't mean you automatically become a hermit with no social life. The three of us like you well enough. Except for Colin, but he's so narcissistic that he's incapable of looking up from the fountain long enough to notice anyone else."
"So this is an intervention," Rory concluded angrily.
Finn threw his head back and laughed. His loud boisterous laugh echoed throughout the apartment. "Darling girl, we're not hypocritical enough to stage any kind of intervention. We have more faults than you can shake an earthquake at."
"We just miss you, okay? We miss your smile and your snark and your warmth and your grace. Even Colin does, though his pride prevents him from actually saying those words aloud," Stephanie finished.
The tears Rory was holding back spilled over for the first time since Logan left. She started to walk towards them, but her legs buckled and she found herself unable to hold her own weight. Finn grabbed her up in his arms before she hit the floor and wrapped her up against his chest. She inhaled his scent, the signature scent that was him: liquor, cigar smoke, and aftershave.
Then the tears turned into sobs. She gasped for air as she stained his shirt with her salty tears. She wrapped her arms around him and held on as tightly as she could. Her eyes fell shut.
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The next time her eyes opened, she felt serene. It was still dark outside, but she couldn't look outside. She felt as though a weight had been lifted off her shoulders. She finally let go of the grief. She felt safe. Then she realized where she was.
She was in her bed. Her legs were tangled up with at least five others. Her head was on Finn's chest and one arm was draped lazily over his lower torso. Both of his arms were wrapped tightly around her tiny frame. Stephanie was pressed up against her back. The girl's shallow breathing tickled her neck. Colin was spooning with Stephanie, and one leg was swung over the two girls.
Rory was starting to panic when she realized that somehow, that was what she needed. She needed to be held. She needed to feel safe, to have someone there for her. To stop the aching and hold her as she cried her heart out. And she got three.
She needed to feel loved. And now she did.
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Lyrics, if you care:
I lost my leg like I lost my way
So no loose sounds
Nothing to see me down
How are we going to work this out?
Dreams aren't bad, I had turned back
I love the gun
But God only knows it's
Getting hard to see the sun coming through
I love you...
But what are we going to do?
Picture on the dreamer
I'll take you deeper
Down to the sleepy glow
Time is a low..
Don't you know?
What are we going to do?
When you go back
All the second selfless days
You're in love with him
I want to see you again
I love you...
But what are we going to do?