A.N.: OK, this is a little reflective piece. The way I would like things to turn out. I guess having time off brings back my inspiration, hence this was done pretty easily. I hope you enjoy reading it. Let me know, what you think. I love reviews of any kind. Thanks for reading, Janine
Disclaimer: I swear to God, nothing's my own, besides that little precious imagination…
Putting stuff in a box
While Lorelai was taking down some of the old pictures above the fire place to wrap them and put them in a box, it suddenly hit her.
She was moving out.
She was moving out of the house that had been her home for all of these years. The house, which had seen so many happy moments over these last years, the house that was part of so many memories. She couldn't believe it. She was actually leaving it. She was moving out. She was down in her living room, putting all her stuff in boxes and soon she would pass on the key to some stranger whom she had sold the house and she would never enter it again, at least not as its inhabitant. Lorelai Gilmore was leaving behind her home. She was selling the house that had protected her from rain, wind and cold, well in case of the latter it had done so whenever no window was broken or when Luke wasn't too drunk to fix it. No matter, this house had giving her comfort; it had been the safe haven for her and Rory. Damn it, this was the place where Rory had grown up and now she was leaving it. She was about to sell her daughter's home.
As a matter of fact, Rory's room had been the first one she had cleared out. It had been a mere practicality. It had been the room with the least stuff in it and Luke had been nagging her about getting started, so she had to start somewhere to shut him up and pretend she wasn't going to put the work off until she was barely going to make it, just to have to put in a few night shifts in order to still make it with a reasonable delay. And it had worked. He had stopped the nagging. At least the nagging about her moving chores.
She had cleared out Rory's room. The reality of that hit her and she had to put down the pictures and went into Rory's room as if she needed to make sure she wasn't just imagining things. But the nothing that greeted her, was more ensuring than she needed. The spot where her daughters single bed had been was now empty, no book shells covered the wall, the Yale signs had been taken down from the wall and the little clothes that had been left were safely stored in one of the boxes in the garage. The only thing left in the room was a big brown stain on the carpet, right where Rory's dresser had been.
How did that ever get there, Lorelai wondered and then remembered that one awful night, Rory had had the flue and had thrown up right there, which had caused her to move the dresser onto that exact spot first thing in the morning. Lorelai had never been good with stains, so why even bother in the first place.
There was nothing left of her daughter.
Lorelai sighed and suppressed a wave of sadness which was threatening to flow over her. Just for a quick moment she allowed it to come over her and then she pushed it away. Enough time had passed and somehow Lorelai had learned to live with the situation. It wasn't up to her to change it. Rory had decided to turn to Richard and Emily instead of her and she had to accept it. It had been Rory's choice and now it was Rory's choice to turn around and face her mother again. Lorelai knew she would turn around again. She would come back and try to solve things between them. It just needed time. Time to find out, that a mother sometimes was in the right.
It was a lesson every mother and daughter had to learn. Mother could give advice, but they couldn't control. And daughters couldn't always be right and they had to find out when they weren't.
However, Lorelai had started wondering whether things would have gone differently, if her and Rory never had drifted apart. Things would have been different for sure. She would probably not have decided to move out so freely. She probably wouldn't have wanted to leave the house, which was the home she shared with Rory. She wouldn't have considered selling it. She wouldn't have put her thing in boxes to leave the place that meant so much to her.
These bricks and the wood held so many memories. Movie nights, heartbreaks, Lane's surprise visits, millions of complaints, even more of Kirk's occupations, kisses, rarely bread, socks in the oven, different boyfriends, emotional blow-ups and fights, crazy parties and even more crazy guests, Rory's first sex, Lorelai walking in on Rory's first sex…
Okay, maybe some of these weren't specifically happy memories, but they were memories nevertheless and they were part of her life and should not be taken away from her. After all, all these little things had made her become the woman she was now.
Yeah, things would have gone differently if Rory and she had been on speaking terms. But they weren't. They weren't. That was the way it was. In fact, Rory didn't even know Lorelai was moving out. She hadn't told her. She hadn't seen her and she hadn't called her. God damn it- she hadn't even told her precious daughter that she was deserting her childhood home.
Luke had tried to persuade her to do so, but she just had been to damn stubborn.
Luke, had was the best in all of this. He was her pillar, the one person she could hold on to, the one who wouldn't desert her. At the thought of him a soft smile appeared on her lips. Luke was the best of it. The best in her life at the moment. He was strong and he held her up. He held her when she cried about Rory and he held her when she cried after he had accepted her proposal. He was there for the good and the bad. He was going to be her husband in a few days and that was the way it was supposed to be.
No, things had to go this way. Even if she wished Rory and her were what they had been before, she had never had the chance the find out just how important Luke was to her, how he was the single person in the world she could trust. And she never would have had the chance to propose.
No, this was the way it was supposed to be.
They were supposed to get married, start their life together and maybe their own family.
She was supposed to leave her single-mom status behind, take a jump and become his wife for the good and the bad. And she was supposed to leave this house; leave this house so they could move into their own. Move into the beautiful house, that was still called the "Twickham House", but would be renamed "The Dane's" after a while. The house he had bought for them.
This house had been hers, but the new one would be theirs.
It was right that way. She left an old home she loved for a new home she would love even more. She was starting a new episode of her life, hopefully the last one apart from maybe the nursing home episode, and she was starting new memories. With Luke.
With these thoughts clouding her mind Lorelai moved back into the living room to put away the last pictures. One of Rory caught her eye. One of Rory while she was still in kindergarten. Hesitating for a moment, Lorelai wrapped it and put it on top of the others. Everything was right the way it was, but one thing. She couldn't sell the house without Rory knowing. It wasn't the right thing to do. She would wait. Wait until her and Rory could discuss it. Rory had a say in things and maybe she would want it. For her family. Actually Lorelai loved the thought of Rory raising her kids in this house. You never knew. She would not sell it, at least for now.
Nodding to herself, happy with her decision, she moved in search for the phone.
She had to call Luke.
Maybe he wanted to come over for one last time.
Create another unforgettable memory.
Babette would probably enjoy it. After all, the curtains had already been taken down.