'Lorelai don't be ridiculous.' Emily said exasperatedly.
'Mum, it's just not practical.' Lorelai said as she stroked Rory's head. It was eleven o'clock at night and she was still trapped at her parent's house.
'Of course it's practical, I mean look at poor Rory. She's practically asleep standing up.'
Lorelai looked down at Rory and picked her four year old daughter up when she saw that she was almost asleep against her leg. 'Well of course she's tired, her bed time is eight. News flash mum, it's like eleven. That's three hours extra that she's been up. Frankly I'm surprised she's not out already.' Lorelai tried to look at Rory's face but it was buried in Lorelai's neck. Looking at her mother she let out a slow, annoyed breath. 'She's asleep isn't she?' Lorelai asked.
Emily walked around lorelai and spied over her shoulder that Rory was, in fact, asleep in Lorelai's arms. 'She is.' Emily proclaimed smugly. 'Now how practical is it?' she smiled as she saw Lorelai give in, defeated.
'Fine, I'll need to give her a bath. Guest room still?' Lorelai shifted Rory and headed towards the stairs. That's it, finalised, her and Rory would be staying here tonight. That would be exactly her luck, the first time she comes to her parents house since she ran away and her mother convinces her to stay the night. Well not so much Emily convincing her as Rory deciding to fall asleep and seal the deal.
'No, during the renovations we got rid of the tub. We didn't see a need for it anymore. We still have the nursery set up though, her baby bath might still be in there if that's any help.'
'Mum, look at her.' Lorelai lifted Rory slightly, gaining a groan of protest from her slumbering daughter. 'There is no way in hell that she's gonna fit in that tiny thing. She out grew it when she was like one. Jeez, we'll just have to go in the shower.' Lorelai set off up the stairs, heading for her old bedroom that had an en-suite bathroom. As she laid Rory down on her old bed the little girl stirred and Lorelai just left her to wake up, knowing it'd be easier to shower if Rory was awake. Lorelai began to strip Rory of all her clothes and eventually the little girl was laid in the middle of the bed, waking up.
'Mummy?' Rory asked as she woke up and looked around, startled when she didn't see her mum who was in the bathroom, getting the water to the right temperature.
'Hey little miss.' Lorelai smiled down at Rory as the girl tried to climb under the covers and away from the cold air.
'Mummy it's cold.' Rory still tried to get under the covers.
'I know babe but we need to get in the shower quickly, c'mere.' Lorelai peeled back the covers and lifted Rory up and the girl sleepily laid her head on her mums shoulder. When they got into the bathroom Lorelai sat Rory on the toilet seat lid and started stripping off, picking Rory up again once she was done.
Backing into the shower so she hit the water first and could quickly get herself and Rory out if she had underestimated the temperature. When she had determined that the water was just right she fully went into the cubical and put Rory under the warm spray. The girl immediately woke up and squeezed Lorelai closer in shock. 'It's alright, gorgeous.' Lorelai assured. 'It'll be over soon just gotta rinse off before bed.' Rory nodded and pushed off Lorelai to get down.
Once standing up Rory started playing with the water spray and laughing like a maniac. Lorelai smiled and grabbed the shampoo off of the shelf and lathered Rory's hair up until it was standing on end. After rinsing Rory's hair she started to wash her own. As she did she stretched out and her back cracked, it felt good. This action however showed off one of her big secrets.
'Mummy, what's that?' Rory asked as she pointed to the mark on Lorelai's hip bone.
'That's mummy's big secret.' Lorelai replied ominously.
'Yeah, but what IS it?' Rory pressed.
'it's something called a tattoo and you're never, ever allowed to get one.' Lorelai poked Rory in the tummy every time she said a word and watched as Rory's little body shook and wobbled on the slippery wet floor.
Looking up at her mum's hip again from where she had been looking at the floor her face took on a confused look. 'What does it say?' she inquired as she touched it.
'It says Lorelai Leigh Gilmore 4:03 November 1986' Lorelai smiled as she watched Rory trace it with her fingers. 'It's my special little part of you.'
'So it's me?' Rory inquired. 'Hey mummy?'
'Yeah girlie?' Lorelai smiled and ran her hand through Rory's fine hair.
'I thought that I was a piece of YOU?' Rory looked confused.
'You are but I have a piece of you too.'
'Okay.' Rory smiled in satisfaction.
'You can't tell grandma or grandpa about this though, okay baby girl?'
'Yeah mummy.' Rory smiled and they finished up their shower and crawled into bed together, Lorelai in her old pyjamas that were too big and just perfectly comfortable and Rory in one of Lorelai's old shirts from before she was pregnant. It was huge on Rory but too small on Lorelai.
'Ror, you still awake?' Lorelai asked in a whisper.
'Yeah.' Rory replied as she burrowed deeper under the covers and closer to Lorelai.
'When you wake up, if I'm not awake can you promise me to stay in this room and play with the dolls or something, don't let grandma or grandpa take you out of the room okay?' Lorelai made Rory promise. She still didn't trust her parents as far as she could throw them.
'Yes mummy, I promise.'
After that they both fell asleep, hugging each other all night.
The next morning Rory woke up and stretched out carefully because she could feel her mum's arms around her and she didn't want to wake her.
Climbing out of the big bed Rory padded over to the mantle that held all of the dolls. It was high up, very high up, too high up. Deciding against it she climbed onto the desk chair and grabbed a book off of the desk and started drawing with some pens that were in a pencil case. The book she had grabbed was full of writing but it was old so she didn't think it mattered.
Over all the old writing she drew pictures of her mummy and her and her daddy. They were playing in the park.
After a couple of minutes of drawing she got bored and tore out her favourite drawing, by now she had coloured in on all of the pages. With her drawing in hand she walked over to the bed and jumped on it, purposely trying to wake her mum up. She wanted to play.
Watching as Lorelai started to stir she smiled and dived onto her mum's torso, jarring her mum awake.
'Jeez babe, calm down for a minute, mummy's still waking up.' Lorelai rubbed her eyes and smiled when a colourful picture came into view. 'You draw me a picture while you were waiting?'
'Yeah. Do you like it?' Lorelai sat up, pulling Rory onto her lap and staring at the picture, now with clear eyes and saw that it was over something. 'What did you draw this on?' Lorelai inquired as she flipped the page over a couple of times, trying to make out the writing.
Rory hopped off the bed and ran over to the desk, coming back with the book she had used and handed it to Lorelai. Turning the book over from its back cover to the front cover lorelai saw that it had a pram on the front cover. Oh no! Rory did NOT, did she? Opening the cover Lorelai saw that, yes, in fact she did. 'No, no, no! C'mon. Rory do you know what this is? Do you know what you've done?' Lorelai basically yelled as she flipped through the pages.
'No. I'm sorry mummy.' Rory had tears welling up in her eyes as she looked at her mum's angry expression. She'd never seen her mum this angry.
'Rory! You've just ruined my memories!' Lorelai actually yelled this time.
'I...I'm so...so...sorry.' Rory stuttered as tears fell down her face.
'Yeah, well it's too late now. Shit Rory!' Wow, Lorelai had never, ever sworn around Rory, let alone at her.
Lorelai got up and stormed out of her room, pregnancy diary in hand. Stamping down the stairs she ignored her parent's stares and burst into the kitchen, heading straight for the coffee maker. Standing in the corner of the room she could hear a slight ruckus outside the door and hoped her parents didn't come in here. Deciding to go take another shower, on her own, she walked out of the kitchen, heading for the stairs when Rory came bounding down the stairs, tear stains on her cheeks and new tears still making their way down her cheeks. 'Mummy.' Rory said, trying to grab at her mum's legs.
'Rory, not now. I need some thinking space, alright kid?' Lorelai said, avoiding Rory's grabbing hands.
'No. Mummy.' Rory cried loudly as she threw herself at her mum's feet and lay down on the ground, crying and kicking. 'I'm sorry.' She cried into the ground sadly. 'Mummy come back here!' she yelled loudly up the stairs at her mum's retreating form.
Lorelai didn't even look back. At this Rory ran up the stairs as fast as her little legs would take her and grabbed onto Lorelai's legs at the platform. Lorelai gently pulled Rory's arms from around her legs and walked off as her daughter sat down in a huff in the middle of the stair case. She looked like a three year old. Lorelai thought that Rory was over the tantrum phase already.
As she stood in the shower, complete silence around her she thought about just how irate she was at her daughter. As if Rory was so stupid that she would colour in something so special. This was the only thing she had left behind when they left together. Since the day she took the test she had kept that diary, every thought, every feeling, every experience throughout her pregnancy was kept in that diary and Rory had just gone and made it impossible to read. For god's sake, that was everything. Lorelai continued to fume through her shower, spending the first half just soaking and then the second half doing shower things like brushing her teeth and using body wash.
As she was wiping the soapy flannel over her stomach she caught sight of her Rory tattoo. Remembering back to the shower last night she considered that maybe, just maybe Rory hadn't understood what that book meant. After all she couldn't read her own name on Lorelai's hip. There were definite resemblances between the two. The writing was one, Rory could read and write her own name but it was always messy block letters or tracing Lorelai's hand writing. After Rory turned three and started developing an interest in reading and writing Lorelai had changed her hand writing from loopy cursive to regular writing, making it easier for Rory to read and understand. In that diary it had all been in her classic cursive, obviously Rory couldn't read anything and just thought it was some type of old pictures.
Stepping out of the shower Lorelai towel dried her damp hair and got dressed, promptly marching back down the stairs to the landing where Rory was still sitting, crying. Leaning down Lorelai lifted her daughter up and putting her on her her hip, hugging her close and leaning against the corner as she slid down, her daughter coming to rest on her lap. 'I'm so, so sorry for yelling at you baby.' Lorelai apologised.
'No I'm sorry mummy.' Rory replied into her mum's neck.
Little did they know that both Richard and Emily were watching the scene with curious eyes.
Later that day Lorelai and Rory caught the bus back to Stars Hollow and made their way through town and up to the massive mansion that resided at six peach street. Opening the door, Lorelai watched as Rory charged off down the hallway and into the back room. As expected screams of joy soon followed. Lorelai tiredly walked down the hallway and tossed her handbag into her bedroom as she passed the doorway.
Entering the room she smiled tiredly at the scene before her. Rory was screaming in happiness and everybody else was just sitting happily.
'Poppy! No!' Rory screamed loudly through laughter. 'Daddy! Help!' she yelled as she kicked and screamed, trying to get away.
'Sorry baby, bit busy right now.' He replied as he held a bottle to a baby's mouth.
'How was he?' Lorelai asked, finally entering the room.
'He was fine, good, missed his mum though.' Luke said as he handed his one and only son over to his wife.
'Didn't miss this muchkin's tormenting though.' Will said as he continued to tickle Rory all over.
'Of course he did, didn't ya Liam?' Lorelai asked her tired son as his eyes closed. She let out a chuckle. 'Apparently he's indifferent.'
Lorelai quickly walked down the hallway and into her room, placing her almost year old son in his crib and riding herself of her jacket. Someone had messed with the thermometer. It was hot in here.
Walking back into the back room she sat on her husbands lap and smiled when she felt him carefully massage her shoulders. 'How is it?' he asked as he brushed his fingers lightly over an inked patch of skin.
'Fine.' She replied after a minute.
'Good' he said as he traced the cursive letters on his wife's shoulder blade. William John Gilmore-Danes 5:10 June 1990 was printed on her body, forever.
'I like it. Apparently Ror likes hers too.' Lorelai laughed and leaned into him.
'Good.' Luke said with a smile as he watched his dad play with his step daughter or as he and she saw it, her dad. Rory had never learnt anything different and he wasn't about to tell her that she wasn't his. She was like a tattoo, imprinted on him forever, kind of like memories were tattoos. Always there. Forever.